Best Boys
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Best Boys
TUBI Recommendations
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This week on Best Boys Podcast, Chris and Adam trade Tubi recommendations and go down a rabbit hole of underrated crime films, forgotten thrillers, and straight-to-video classics.
Both hosts brought three movies to the table, leading to a conversation about why Tubi might secretly be the best streaming service for movie obsessives right now.
Featuring:
• City of Industry
• Shattered
• Boarding Gate
• The Night of the Running Man
• The Last of the Finest
If you miss grimy 90s crime movies, character actors, neon-lit thrillers, and movies that feel like they were discovered in the back corner of a video store, this episode is for you.
Hello, and welcome back to the Best Boys Podcast. My name is Chris. I'm here with Adam. And today we are bringing you our tubi specials. We have tube recommendations. We each have three. We do not know what each other have chosen, so I'm very excited to hear what you've picked, Adam. Why do you go first? Let's jump in right away. So your first tubi recommendation. Let's go.
SPEAKER_02My first tubi is City of Industry, 1997, directed by John Irving. This is a movie that came out post-pulp fiction and I think sort of got lost in the sauce there, where there was a lot of crime or heist movies. It has Harvey Kaitel in it. So I think people confused it a lot with that. But now watching this more than 20 years later, it is just like a gritty, gritty crime film. So City of Industry is sort of like a neon noir that stars Harvey Kaitel, Stephen Dorse, and Timothy Hutton. Who's Timothy Hutton? He won the Academy Award for Ordinary People as the kid. You know him to see him. He's in beautiful worlds, he's in a lot of stuff. Maybe some TV.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha, gotcha. I think you know what you're talking about, you know.
SPEAKER_02But this is a classic thing. Retired thief, Harvey Kaitel. Comes out of retirement with his yo with his young brother for one last job. And it's set in and around the actual city of industry in Los Angeles about these like scumballs that go to rob uh a jewelry store in Palm Springs and it goes bad. And and this is nothing more than it sounds like, other than it's like like a muscular, accidentally shot uh slice of life of Los Angeles from this time. And and this is the thing, it's like this is again the thing is people have ever listened to before. No, I hate this is not digital. It's a shot on a film. Every shot is beautifully composed. And so I was sort of alluding to earlier, like at the time I was like, uh, this is mid. And now if someone made this, they'd be like, this is as good as heat. Or something aligned with that. I I've been on a big LA crime jag, so I tried to rewatch Den of Thieves this week, and that movie sucks. Oh yeah, I loved it. No, it's it's really bad. No good. So I think I think after watching a lot of movies like I think I love that movie, I thought it did too. But when you go to rewatch it, it's so like convoluted and silly. It's shot in Atlanta.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, yeah, you're right about that. The convo the cut there's a simplicity in these like 90s crime LA film noir styles. It's just a bit the story, it's not overcomplicated.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and so so like not to spoil too much, but like you really clearly know early on, like who the villains are, who screwed them over, and what the stakes are, and what you have to do, and there's not really other twists and turns that don't come in the first 20 minutes. And it's just like for me, it's like an easy watch. Like you're just like, this is what this is. This is not David Lynch, this is not a Netflix show. Yeah, just like like a good creepy 110 minutes.
SPEAKER_01And so City of Industries 97, right? Is that correct? So this is we're talking post pulp fiction, post-reservoir dogs.
SPEAKER_02It there's like I think two movies in my lifetime that really changed the way the industry was. One was pulp fiction, one was Blair Witch. Yeah, and like and like letting people know what they could do with nothing, and people didn't know whether it was real or not. But yeah, but post-pulp, it was all about like uh you know, these gangsters doing heist tough talk and macho stuff, and really there were so many bad ones, but I think now ultimately this is a good one. John Urban's an interesting director. He's kind of like he did Hamburger Hill and Raw deal with Schwarzenegger, and he's just like a very good technical director. Kaitel's doing a bit of Reservoir Dogs like parody almost, but like Steven Dorf is good, Hutton's good, Famkin Janssen's in it, Lucy Lou's in it. It's just like I don't know. It's a good one.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, yeah, City of Nishri, definitely check that out. That's on 2B. I gotta start off with my first movie. Uh I gotta read a description, okay? After a heist turns deadly, a retired thief hunts the psychopath who killed his brother and disappeared with the bag of money they stole together. Uh, this is directed by John Irvine. Uh it's uh starring Harvey Kaitel, Timothy Hutton, Steven Dorf, and Fabka Jansen. It's uh City of Industry, is uh my first movie that that I selected.
SPEAKER_02Are you serious? Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Two things, two things I gotta hit right away. So the post-pulp fiction thing, I was kind of like really like encaptivated by for a bit there, right? I was like, this is like, anyways, really great Harvey Kaitelboids, the smashing of the table where he's just going crazy after his brothers died, he can't find Steven Dorf. Who's giving me that performance? This these days no one. Gosling's not doing it, he's too cool, butler's too pretty. There's no one who's like down to get gritty in the post pulp fiction, like just this like grimy, unapologetic, very masculine performance, which I think is great. I really enjoyed it. Um, but yeah, I I just this is so funny. We I I just wanted to hear you talk about it.
SPEAKER_02That's very funny.
SPEAKER_01You know what I mean? But uh yeah, I mean, Adam, like Steven Dorf as the driver with the bleach blonde hair, the racing gloves, like the loud button-up shirt, and the wraparound glasses with like the orange see-through. It's like out of like uh like an early 90s like music video. It's so amazing. I was so into this.
SPEAKER_02No, and then and then like all the guys he keeps hiring to do his dirty work, like they're all amazingly cast in the costuming. I actually can't believe I'm like a bit stunned. I thought it was like hallucinating.
SPEAKER_01The one thing, the one thing you didn't step on or you didn't touch on was that the reveal uh minute 52 of Elliot Gould out of nowhere! Like hour into the movie, Elliot Gould shows up out of absolutely nowhere. I was like, oh man, this movie's great. But yeah, I was gonna do it right away. It had to give you like Soprano Sopranos vibe on the starting with like the driving, you know, along the freeways. And I was like, I was like, I feel familiar like that. But yeah, John and Reed's great, man. I love Rod Deal, and um Hamburger Hill is great too. So it's a really good war movie, it's a little different, it's just the one battle, right?
SPEAKER_02So, I mean, this I I I really appreciate you calling it the Kaitel performance because I just finished reading Abel Ferrara's memoir that's called Scene. And and Ferrara to me is such an interesting guy because obviously he was so influential with like the safties and he's like around Scorsese and knows all those guys, but I didn't quite realize quite a mesh he was. We should do just an Abel Ferrara episode because he's amazing. But but obviously, like bad lieutenant in Kaitel, which which really between that and pulp really brought me into Kaitel. Like he's such a dynamic performer, he's so interesting, he's so like uh masculine and like sensitive and like raw. Like I I would just watch anything he does. And and the the so the Ferrara book is definitely worth read just to go through like the amount of movies that both him, Willem Defoe, and Christopher Walken were in his movies a lot. Like he worked with those three guys, so I think that's an interesting thing to think about. And then the the other thing I always want to talk about is that Harvey Kaitel was supposed to play Sidney Pollock's role in Eyes Wide Shut.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and quit. I kind of remember that.
SPEAKER_02And quit because Kubrick made him do 30 takes of walkie into a door. He's like, Who the fuck is this guy? And then quit.
SPEAKER_01Legend. Absolute fucking legend. I love that. Oh man. Yeah. I mean, so good. So good. You can't, you know, it's just really uh.
SPEAKER_02I also loved how you're probably like, who's Timothy Hutton?
SPEAKER_00Well, I had to look up, I had to look up who Timothy Hutton was. I was like, oh yeah, this guy my brother's revolver. I know this guy. I was like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I can I would I could see ten movies like this a year or five movies like this year. Just like Stolen Bag of Money, Double Cross, some weird gang is involved. There's a there's a weird boss at the end who's Elliot Gould. Five.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I think we're wrapped on that. So those are our first movies lined up perfectly, which are City of Industry. Uh, my next movie, I got two. Which one do I lead with here? You know what? I gotta go with this one. I'm pretty excited about this. Um, The Knight of the Rudding Man. Have you heard of it? Do you know what this? Oh, baby. Let's do it. Uh, it's Mark L. Lester, is the director. He did Commando and Firestarter. Firestarter's um it's uh is that Drew Barrymore's first movie or second. Your second movie after E.T. Or maybe your first one, yeah. Uh starring Andrew McCarthy and Scott Glenn. Scott Glenn as the bad guy is absolutely exceptional. Um, so it's a Vegas cab driver stumbles upon a bag of money worth a cool million dollars. But once he skips town, the mafia sends a ruthless hitman to hunt them down. One of the best parts of this movie is when they reveal who the boss is of Scott Glenn, who they just established as this like crazy psychopath killer, and it's like a turnaround shot of someone standing like in the window, like looking out at Las Vegas, and it's Wayne Newton. And it's it's one of those things where like it broke me so hard. I was like, this is unbelievable. There's also a scene where Andrew McCarthy is with money, like in a hotel room, sitting like on the bed with the money spread out in front of him, and he's like laughing hysterically. And it's some of the worst acting I've ever seen in my life. If you told me that Andrew McCarthy had never been in a movie before this, I wouldn't believe you. Again, rated R like City of Industry. Uh City of Industry, by the way, was an hour and 37 minutes, and Night of the Running Man was an hour and 34 minutes. All the movies I selected were one hour and 30 some odd minutes. So have you seen Knight of the Running Man? And do you know anything about it?
SPEAKER_02I have no idea. It sounds amazing right up my alley. Need something to watch tonight, so I'll gonna throw it on.
SPEAKER_01There you go. Perfect. Alright, so what about your second one?
SPEAKER_02Um, my second one is called Shattered from 1991. This is a thriller starring Tom Berenger and Greta Scotty, amongst others. And it's uh it starts with this like elaborate car accident flashback after the car accident, Tom Berenger, who might be my MVP of this era. Like, I just went on a Tom Berenger kick. So he he wakes up disfigured and with amnesia, which is always a great thing in a movie. Yep. Um, and he he lives in this mansion, he can't remember anything. There's like a lot of flashbacks. Uh he he's an architect at San Francisco, which is also like a great night thing.
SPEAKER_01Isn't that Pacific Heights too? Someone's an architect of that movie.
SPEAKER_02Very close. Which I also watched it almost put on, but I don't think it was on to be is the only reason I didn't put it on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, I I don't want to give too much away because there are a lot of twists and turns in this one. But it's just right from like where he's disfigured at the immediate beginning, and it is totally fine a week later. Like I'm just watching now. He's like severely disfigured.
SPEAKER_01Um man, this has got a great cast too, Bob Hoskins.
SPEAKER_02This is a Corbin Burnson. Like, this is a this is this is a mild spoiler, but Bob Hoskins plays a private detective/slash pet store owner. It's a real trashy ride. It's amazing. And the last thing I wanted to call out is this movie is directed by Wolfgang Peterson, who directed Das Boot, yeah. Troy, Das Boots.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm just looking at Never Eddie Story in the Line of Fire. Oh, that's so crazy. Because I've seen Outbreak, Poseidon, all these movies.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and so that's the thing. It's it's an earlier one of his, but it really is like it's so well shot, well made, kind of like a cheesy script, but really in the end, it's like again, just the thing I want like all this like A-less talent at the time. Um in a crappy script and a fun movie.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Yeah, well, I'm definitely gonna check this out. Alright, so for my third and final to be recommendation, uh, I selected the last of the finest, directed by John Mackenzie. Uh, he actually did the Long Goodbye starring Bob Hoskins. Um it's starring uh Brian Denehy, Joe Pantliano, Jeff Fahee, who's got about 200 acting credits, um, and uh Bill Paxton as well. Uh there's this one scene that locked me in right away. It's about 20 minutes in. Denehy gets tired of the music that's played at the party, and they all end up on the beach together, like four couples walking arm in arm, Santa Monica pier in the background. They start rough housing and then jump in the water fully clothed. That's incredible. At this point, I was kind of locked in. Uh, it was just like a fun kind of nonsense cop movie, uh, getting the bag of money. And yeah, I don't want to give too much away, I won't say much more. Uh, it's pretty simple, it's just like a crime kind of action thriller. Uh, all shot in LA on great locations, so I really enjoyed that. And uh, you know, shot pretty well. Um, and uh fairly decent script, and just Dead E's performance is just so over the top, kind of lives in the world to McVean, uh McVane, like The Simpsons.
SPEAKER_02I'm just I'm just looking at my photo, I was like, I might have seen this a long time ago, but I can't say for sure.
SPEAKER_01I had the same feeling when I actually watched it the first time, it felt very familiar. The average runtime of my three movies is one hour and thirty-nine minutes. All the movies take place in Los Angeles. The Night of the Running Man starts in Las Vegas and ends in Los Angeles, and all of the movies contain either a bag or a suitcase full of money, which are the main plot point.
SPEAKER_02I know I'm really impressed with your thematic run-through there.
SPEAKER_01Alright, Adam, what do you have for your third to be recommendation? Let's have it.
SPEAKER_02So, in typical me fashion, I had to have one pretentious one in here. This is called Boarding Gate from 19 or sorry, from 2007, a French movie directed by Olivia S. He has the most all over the place filmography of maybe any modern French director. He's so it's he sort of oscillates between this like high art and like corporate espionage, so it's like Cronerberg stuff, but like almost stuff from the 80s. So this is a movie where Azia Argento, like Dario Argento's daughter, and uh hooks up with Michael Madsen because he works at like a software company, but she has like a secret boyfriend, and they're like stealing microchips. Like the plot is so, so, so insane. Yeah, I couldn't even explain to you if I tried, especially trying to read French subtitles fast. But it it's it's this kind of like weird subgenre uh subgenre of French drama, like where it's like all the sex and smoking and food and politics wrapped in these like espionage stories. SAS made another film called Demon Lover, which is about a woman trying to steal a video game plan from an American company. It was almost like the same movie. He also like remade his own movie into an HBO show. Like, I don't know what's going on in the French film industry or how much money they have, but they did this guy has made so many movies. Um there's an incredible scene between Michael Madsen and Ajay Argento early on, and it's just like it's like long and languid, but like kind of fun and like violent. It's just such an unusual, unusual film. Um, Aaron Light, uh a guy I know from LA logged this on his um letterbox, and I had to watch it because he likes the weirdest, most specific things. So interesting. Definitely if you're into French crime cinema. I think there's also like a part where they go to Hong Kong for like the last like 40 minutes of the movie. It's like these international co-productions. And the last thing I want to say is that Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth appears at one point as a crime boss.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that is incredible. I absolutely love that. Yeah, Kim Gordon's a legend. Um, yeah. Cribe Thriller, sign me up. Fred's Crime Thriller, also sign me up. It sounds great. Uh, definitely gonna check this out. Uh, not really too familiar with many more movies than The Stranger, which I just watched and actually did really enjoy. But uh, yeah, this is on Tubi, so enough said.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for joining us. This has been the All Tubi recommendation special episode. Uh, Adam's movies were the first being City of Industry, the second was Shattered, and the third movie was Boarding Gate, all available on Tubi. My three movies were also City of Industry, Night of the Running Man, and The Last of the Finest. Adam, thank you. Thank you, Chris. And we're gonna go to the