'80s Movie Montage
Breaking down our favorite decade of flicks. Hosted by Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke.
'80s Movie Montage
Lethal Weapon
In this episode, Anna and Derek debate whether walking in on someone having a bath is completely normal, if Martin Riggs is a precursor to Ethan Hunt, and much more during their discussion of Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon (1987).
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Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke are the co-hosts of ‘80s Movie Montage. The idea for the podcast came when they realized just how much they talk – a lot – when watching films from their favorite cinematic era. Their wedding theme was “a light nod to the ‘80s,” so there’s that, too. Both hail from the Midwest but have called Los Angeles home for several years now. Anna is a writer who received her B.A. in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago and M.A. in Film Studies from Chapman University. Her dark comedy short She Had It Coming was an Official Selection of 25 film festivals with several awards won for it among them. Derek is an attorney who also likes movies. It is a point of pride that most of their podcast episodes are longer than the movies they cover.
I'll also say that you're heavy into martial arts, Tai Chi and all that killer stuff. I suppose we have to register you as a lethal weapon.
SPEAKER_02:Hello and welcome to 80s Movie Montage. This is Derek.
SPEAKER_01:And this is Anna.
SPEAKER_02:And he said the thing. I mean... There are a lot of great one-liners in this movie. And by great, I mean some are terrible. But I'm a sucker for when they say, like, the thing in the movie.
SPEAKER_01:The title of the movie. That's the thing. That's the thing, yeah. Yeah, you do clock it immediately whenever the title of a movie is spoken in that movie.
SPEAKER_02:And, of course, that movie is 1987's Lethal Weapon. There have been a lot of 1987s.
SPEAKER_01:There have been a lot of 1987s lately. Not intentionally. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:But just kind of shook out that way.
SPEAKER_01:Although, so this is the penultimate episode of season five. Okay. And our finale will not be an 87 movie.
SPEAKER_02:God damn it. Sorry. Man.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:But yes, Lethal Weapon. So...
SPEAKER_02:What a ride. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh... I picked this one because I was saying to you, though, when we were watching it for the podcast, I was like, I think I saw the entire second half of the movie, but had only seen bits and pieces of the first half of the movie. Okay. And I knew that it had like a Christmas whatever to it. I'm sure we'll get into it, some of the crossover similarities to Die Hard.
SPEAKER_02:There's a lot. A surprising amount.
SPEAKER_01:I don't want to start this podcast by... saying, you know, oh, such and such movie is better than the other, but I do think I probably prefer Die Hard as a Christmas movie.
SPEAKER_02:I think, so my opinion is that the original, if I'm just comparing the original Die Hard versus the original Lethal Weapon, Die Hard is just far superior. But once you get into the sequels of Die Hard... So
SPEAKER_01:they go reverse trajectories?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like the Lethal Weapon movies become a little bit more self-aware of how ridiculous everything is with Joe Pesci's character.
SPEAKER_01:I've heard a lot of people say that they really die hard with a vengeance. That's the third one,
SPEAKER_02:right? Yeah, the third one is good, but one and three are really the only good ones. Then Lethal Weapon just gets more ridiculous, but it's like... But it's fun? Yeah. It's it's I think it tries to be a little bit more fun.
SPEAKER_01:I've only seen bits and pieces of anything else related to this franchise, probably when you were watching it. And
SPEAKER_02:I don't watch it that often. So it's like it was on and we're like, what is this?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's only the weapon scene with Joe Pesci in a car.
SPEAKER_02:That's that's probably two.
SPEAKER_01:There you go.
SPEAKER_02:Two is two is famous for the diplomatic immunity.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so we're going to cover the first one today, although I guess technically speaking, there is a window for doing the second one since the second one. It took us five years to get to this one, so we shall see in another five years because Lethal Weapon 2 is 89. Okay. Okay, let's start with our writers. Now, technically speaking, there's one credited writer, and I would say that he deserves sole credit, although the guy who's uncredited, quite a good screenwriter himself.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So, Shane Black.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that guy from Predator.
SPEAKER_01:That guy from Predator.
SPEAKER_02:And the guy that made The Predator, I think.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He is also, yeah, you're getting a touch ahead of me, but he is the writer for The Predator.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry.
SPEAKER_01:But that's okay. But no, what an interesting career this guy's had. Yeah. Yeah, it's I don't know how many times I've come across screenwriters who also have like notable acting roles in in a movie or two. I mean, probably Predator is the thing that people know him from. I think he's the first one of the guys to get killed. I think
SPEAKER_02:so. Like he's the one he's the guy with like the really bad jokes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So this was his first writing credit. Twenty two years old. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:that's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:He wrote this, I believe, while he was in college.
SPEAKER_02:It feels like it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I mean, I did like a little bit of digging because he is part of this interesting history of the way that scripts are written on spec and like the buying wars for these scripts that largely that is long, long gone away. Although recently I heard about some script that sold well. presumably for$3 million, but I'd have to do a deeper dive into that.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And he just happened, I guess, to know Joe Silver, who was the producer on this movie. Did they both go
SPEAKER_02:to UCLA or is there a UCLA connection
SPEAKER_01:there? I think there is a UCLA connection there. So, you know, a 22-year-old young'un with a serious connection in the industry. So there you go. Good for him. Good for him. I think the first draft of the script, or whatever he handed off, it certainly wasn't the first draft, came in at like 140 pages. Apparently, it also was much, much darker than even, and that's why this uncredited screenwriter came on board largely. Donner, we'll get to him in a second, the director of the film, didn't want it to be as dark as it originally was written. I
SPEAKER_02:like that they brighten up the movie that's largely about mental health and suicide.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and drugs and prostitution and all the good stuff. There is all
SPEAKER_02:that as
SPEAKER_01:well, yes. There's all that. Yeah. So Black, yeah, like I said, he's had an interesting trajectory specifically as a screenwriter. Some of his other credits include The Monster Squad. He also is a credited writer, I should say, on Lethal Weapon 2 and 3. So here we go. He wrote The Last Boy Scout. There was a huge bidding war for it, and ultimately it was bought for like$1.75 million, which was huge. I mean, that still would be huge today. Then he outdid himself and sold Last Action Hero, which he also wrote for$4 million. I
SPEAKER_02:think The Last Action Hero is actually like a fun meta-ish kind of movie. Last Boy Scout, they... They overpaid for that script.
SPEAKER_01:Unfortunately, neither film performed well. So that also kind of dampened the steam on like paying these screenwriters these like– I don't want to say obscene. I think screenwriters should get their due financially. But like paying them these huge sums of money. I'm not saying that those two films only were to blame for that kind of pivot away from– That kind of what? Pivot. Okay. Yeah, we just watched that episode. But anyway, some of his other credits include The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He did Iron Man 3. Okay. Not my favorite of the Iron Mans, but The Nice Guys, which, you know, I still haven't seen that movie and I've just heard amazing things about it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it is like an interesting movie. I had no idea. Like, I knew that he had... Written something like I knew that Shane Black had a career as a writer, but I didn't like looking through his filmography. I'm honestly surprised at some of the titles.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, he has solid writing credits. I mean, he is a legit screenwriter in Hollywood. And then to your point, when we first introduced him, he is the writer on The Predator. I think that before we would ever do Lethal Weapon 2, I would like to cover Monster Squad. That would be the film. That of his, again, that I would want to do.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So next Halloween, we're going to cover the Monster
SPEAKER_01:Squad. Potentially. Next Christmas. That might be like our soft launch into, although our soft launch this year was going to be Teen Wolf, but then we ended up doing Back to the Future 2. Yeah. So we'll see. So this uncredited writer, Jeffrey Boehm, he also, unfortunately, he's no longer with us, but he had an amazing career. Not the first time. that we have brought him up. So Donner brought him in to, you know, as they say, like punch up the script a little bit, bring a little bit more humor into it, cut it down, tweak some of the darker moments, which to your point again, it's like, well, there are a lot of dark moments in the film. So that's interesting what they cut out. Yes. Some of his credits include, I have mostly filmed for him, The Dead Zone, Inner Space. So we covered him. I think this was
SPEAKER_02:the-
SPEAKER_01:We certainly can. Who knows? Season six. We got a clean slate coming up. Okay. Sorry. We'll see. No, no, no. We first covered him for The Lost Boys, which we did with Courtney way back in the day. So go check that one out. Which, funny little connection here. Did you catch it in the film?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_01:When they are walking down the street, there is a movie theater marquee behind them.
SPEAKER_02:I did see that.
SPEAKER_01:Which is playing
SPEAKER_02:The
SPEAKER_01:Lost Boys.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, OK.
SPEAKER_01:Which I don't know if that's a nod to this guy.
SPEAKER_02:It's got to be
SPEAKER_01:like that. So he's kind of they could have filmed that scene anywhere.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And they chose to anyway. So he wrote that. And then we covered him again when we did Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Heidi. Nice. So go check that one out, too. So. Amazing writer. He also has writing credits. So I think he, in a more official capacity, because I think he's credited for these, he also has credits for Lethal Weapon 2 and 3. And then a show that you have said that you like, The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr.
SPEAKER_02:I do love that show. Yeah. It was great. Time travel, Western, steampunk-ish kind of thing. Maybe aliens, some supernatural. I don't know. I don't even know.
SPEAKER_01:So he wrote that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:All right, moving on to our director, a very familiar name, Richard Donner. We have covered him several times, and there is opportunity to cover him again, although we are largely, we've covered a lot of his big 80s hits. So started with a ton of TV work. When he was younger, he directed for the Loretta Young show, The Rifleman, a couple like Western series. So The Rifleman, Have Gun, Will Travel. He also directed on The Twilight Zone.
SPEAKER_02:Really? Okay. How many episodes? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Danger Island. And then he largely like pivots permanently into film because he has– He did what? Oh, my goodness. Are you going to bring that up every time I say that word? Maybe. Maybe. OK, so he in, I believe, 78. No, no, no, no, no. Because it precedes Superman. And that was 78, 76. Maybe he does the omen. I
SPEAKER_02:think that was the 76. That was 76. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So this guy, crazy range. I'm sure I have said that every single time we've brought him up. But yeah, his like first mega film hit was a horror film.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. I
SPEAKER_01:mean, it's really
SPEAKER_02:good. It is wild because that's obviously very dark. Superman, very wholesome. Goonies, very wholesome. First five minutes, guys getting blasted in the chest with a shotgun and lethal weapon.
SPEAKER_01:And the nudity. And the naked
SPEAKER_02:woman that jumps off
SPEAKER_01:a building. Yeah, we were laughing that it gives the Slumber Party Massacre a run for its money in terms of how quickly they introduced nudity into a film.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, in terms of how quickly, for sure. In terms of number of boobs, Slumber Party Massacre still has most
SPEAKER_01:things beat. For sure, for sure. I mean, that is an interesting point that you bring up about this oscillation. between like really wholesome fare and this darker work. Personally, well, with the exception of The Omen, which I just think is an excellent film horror aside, it's just a really good movie.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I love when Donner leans into kind of his wholesome work. I mean, I love Superman and I love Superman 2, the Donner cut. So obviously Goonie is one of my favorite films of all time. We covered Lady Hot. So I'm going kind of all over the place. But once we do get into his film work, so he does The Omen. Then in 78 is Superman. And then I'm sure we brought it up on previous episodes where we covered him. His, I thought, very disrespectful. Not on his part. He was treated very disrespectfully with being released from Superman 2.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Why? Why? I always forget why.
SPEAKER_01:Gosh. I mean, probably creative differences, I think, with him and the producers, and they really strong-armed. They... What are the... I don't want to speak out of turn about the producers. It's well-known. But in any case, I think that there was just butting of heads. And, I mean, the film had virtually been shot in its entirety. That's why you can put together a Richard Donner cut of the film. So... I feel badly that that... I mean, before he passed, which he passed in, I believe, 2021, he got to see his work acknowledged because the Donner Cut came out several years ago. So I can appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02:DC movies, like that whole universe, it... I can't think of many or any other movies where within kind of like the same franchise decades and decades apart, this happened more than once because there's the Snyder cut for Justice League.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But didn't– didn't that happen because he had to step away for personal reasons? I thought–
SPEAKER_02:Perhaps. That might be why.
SPEAKER_01:Again, I don't want to speak out of turn, but I think it was, I mean, yes, same in that there's like a cut of his version of the film, but I thought it was like a
SPEAKER_02:family reasons. If it's not related to like the content, then I retract my statement.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, no. I think it's a fair comparison. He also, last year we did Ladyhawk. He– one of the– was it the second, third maybe movie we did, The Goonies?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And if I may, I did intern at the Donners. Yeah. And he was away, so I never got to meet him in person, but he did call in one time and– I mean, I was just a nobody. I was a stupid little intern. And he was incredibly kind to me on the phone. He took a couple minutes to ask about where I was going to school and what I enjoyed doing. And he was just a lovely, lovely person. So I will always appreciate that. I'm
SPEAKER_02:glad you got the wholesome Donner.
SPEAKER_01:I got the wholesome Donner. And also, I got to see one-eyed Willie's head. It was like in a plexiglass box in his office, which was super cool. That was like one of the... Best moments of my life.
SPEAKER_02:He was like the most famous pirate of his
SPEAKER_01:time. He was, yes. That's awesome. So thanks for indulging me there. So he also– we've covered a lot of his movies because we did Ladyhawk. We did The Goonies. We also did Scrooge. Yeah. That was– I think all the way back at the end of season one. That was with Michelle. Go check that out. He also did– I had brought it up when I was like giving you the clue for the next movie we're going to do in the last episode. And yes, he did direct two, three, and four as well of The Lethal Weapon. So he directed all of them. Okay. The entire– which that's I think kind of rare for a director to do all of them. Yeah. Radio Flyer, Maverick. So he reteams with Mel Gibson, Conspiracy Theory. Aren't they all with Mel Gibson?
SPEAKER_02:Conspiracy theory is Maverick also has Danny Glover in for a brief moment. And you get, like, a little riff of the music from Lethal Weapon. Oh, yeah? And they look at each other like they recognize each other. Okay. It's very fun.
SPEAKER_01:And his last directing credit was 16 Blocks. Okay. So I think... Well, I don't know. Is it Lethal Weapon 2? Um... Superman 2? What year is that?
SPEAKER_02:What year is Superman 2? I do not know. Because his cut was like 2006.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to think. Okay, so technically speaking, Superman 2 is 1980. Yeah. That would be maybe a movie I would fudge. Because if he had stayed on, I understand that the Richard Donner cut is timed out much later. But... I don't know. I would cheat.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think I don't even consider it cheating because the rules are whatever we make them.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, technically it's 1980. Yeah. But in any case, we'll see. We'll see. So moving on.
SPEAKER_02:Tough decisions to make.
SPEAKER_01:Cinematography. Stephen Goldblatt. This is the first time. Oh, yeah. That's a vampire one, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. A couple of big names in it. He shot The Cotton Club. He also did– so he didn't stay on for the entire franchise, but he did shoot Lethal Weapon 2. We could do Joe vs. the Volcano. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think we
SPEAKER_01:can.
SPEAKER_02:It says 1990.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it is? Yeah. Oh, I always thought of that as an 80s movie.
SPEAKER_02:It feels like
SPEAKER_01:it. It feels like an 80s movie. So he is an Oscar-nominated DP. He has two noms under his belt. The first was for the– I have the Price of Tides. Prince of Tides. The Price of Tides? The Price of Tides. So he did that. The Pelican Brief. And then this one, I was like, huh, interesting. I would have to go. I don't know if I could go back to this movie, but he got a Best Cinematography nomination for. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:look, you're going to say Striptease, aren't you? I
SPEAKER_01:am not.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Because the way your reaction led me to believe it would be the most ridiculous possible result. That would
SPEAKER_01:have been. Maybe not the most ridiculous, but I am a little surprised he got a nom for Batman Forever. Wow. But I'm like– I mean, I've seen the movie. It's been ages. But I was like, huh, does it– maybe, possibly. And he also shot– he must have had a relationship with Schumacher because he also did Batman and Robin. He– to your point, he shot Striptease, Closer, the– has there been more than one film version of Rent?
UNKNOWN:No.
SPEAKER_01:Or was it just the one? I don't know. I think it's just the one. I think it's just the one. Yeah. So he did that, Julie and Julia, The Help and The Intern.
SPEAKER_02:And also Charlie Wilson's War, which is very underrated. Okay. And Philip Seymour Hoffman is incredible in that movie.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Good call out. Yeah. Music. Super interesting, the music we have here. What do
SPEAKER_02:we got? Anyone I've heard of?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So the first guy-
SPEAKER_02:Eric
SPEAKER_01:Clapton.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Wait, what?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And okay, so we all know who Eric Clapton is. Originally, he was part of the group Cream and then went out on his own. He's been around forever. And most people know him as like a musician, like a rock star kind of guy. I
SPEAKER_02:don't think of– I think of him as like– Either like part of a band or like a solo artist, but I don't think of him as like scoring or composing on films.
SPEAKER_01:Neither. I don't think of him that way either. And if you go to his IMDb, I mean, he has a number of credits. I don't know exactly what pulled him into... This film, although we have talked about Donner having kind of interesting musical tastes. Yeah. Oh, my God. He must
SPEAKER_02:love a saxophone.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. We brought up kind of the interesting taste he had for like Ladyhawk.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's true. So, yeah. So maybe he had, I don't know, a relationship. I have no idea. But Clapton is a credited composer for the entire franchise.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:For Lethal Weapon 2, 3, and 4. This next movie makes sense to me, actually. He is a credited composer on the movie Rush.
SPEAKER_02:Man, that was like, that was such a weirdly big deal. Like, I remember that when that movie came out, it was like.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like the most popular heroine story of all time?
SPEAKER_01:Well, okay. It has been ages since I've even thought about that movie. But if I'm remembering correctly, it's Jason Patrick and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Jennifer Jason Leigh,
SPEAKER_02:yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And aren't they undercover cops who fall victim to addiction as they are trying to like– I think–
SPEAKER_02:What if I told you this movie- Am I totally wrong? Was about two small town Texas cops go undercover to catch a major drug dealer and are sucked into the drug
SPEAKER_01:culture. Okay, so I was right.
SPEAKER_02:Compromising their assignment.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. You were exactly right. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Yeah. So I think it got a lot of attention because really good performances, although I don't know if they got nominations for it, but I just know that it was a really well acted film. And that kind of movie makes sense to me, that Eric Clapton would be, I don't know, Involved with it. And then you have a film like The Story of Us that he also– so yeah, he has some– and then Three Days in Auschwitz. So all over the board with his credits. Now, the person that is also credited as the composer for this film, somebody who I think has a much more traditional career in the entertainment industry as far as like– who you would think of as a film composer, Michael Kamen. Not the first time we've brought him up and not even the first time we've brought him up this season. Wow. Yeah. So I have almost, almost all films for him. He also is an Oscar nominated... composer and I'll get to that in a second but some of his credits include Venom which that would be just a funny I mean it's supposed to be a horror film but I think it'd be kind of a funny movie to do it's like it's like Jaws but with a snake
SPEAKER_02:yeah this is not the Venom with no this is not the Spider-Man Venom
SPEAKER_01:no sorry this is
SPEAKER_02:1981's
SPEAKER_01:Venom yeah thank you for clarifying very
SPEAKER_02:different
SPEAKER_01:yeah I've heard that it's like kind of insane but I would love to cover it at some point yeah he did the Dead Zone Brazil So I think probably the first time we brought him up was for Highlander. So go check that one out. He did Shanghai Surprise. Then just earlier this year, was it even our very first episode? Adventures in Babysitting. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:nice. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So go check that one out. Also, oh, this was the first time we covered him because here's the crossover. Here's the first crossover. He is the composer on Die Hard. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And you can hear it in this movie. You hear the similarities with whenever some impactful thing is about to happen, the music swells, almost the exact same way that you would hear it in Die Hard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And you clocked it before you knew. We were like, this sounds a lot like Die Hard.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. No, it does. Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:And he did stay with the franchise for a minute. So he is a credited composer on Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance. Okay. We could cover him for Roadhouse.
SPEAKER_02:Man, that movie is... I don't know which version of Roadhouse I would rather watch because I've seen them both at this point.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, you did watch the Jake Gyllenhaal one.
SPEAKER_02:It was pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I guess I'd go Swayze. you know, if I'm going to watch it again so we could cover it. But I don't think he rips anyone's throat out in the Gyllenhaal one.
SPEAKER_01:He also did License to Kill. He stayed with this entire franchise. So he was with it for... So he and Clapton get dual credit for the entire Lethal Weapon franchise.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So he gets his first... So even though we're covering scores that he did... his oscar nominations and this i said this a million times at this point for composers often there's crossover between score work that they do and song work that they do so his first nomination was best original song for robin hood prince of thieves i do remember um one of the previous episodes that where we mentioned him i think he had somewhat of a relationship with like professional collaboration with brian adams
SPEAKER_02:okay
SPEAKER_01:um because it was for a course there's
SPEAKER_02:only one fucking song
SPEAKER_01:there's only one fucking song that you would know from that movie
SPEAKER_02:or that anyone cares about. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think this is kind of interesting because it's like a weird crossover with Shane Black. He was the composer on both The Last Boy Scout and Last Action Hero.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. That's cool.
SPEAKER_01:I can't imagine that there would be like a connection there between them. It's just maybe a weird coincidence. I don't know. He also got a Best Original Song Oscar nom for Don Juan DeMarco.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:That Have You... I'm not going to sing it, but like the Have You Ever Really, Really Loved a Woman or whatever that movie... That song was. I'm going to be honest. I
SPEAKER_02:am not familiar with that
SPEAKER_01:song. Oh, I'm not singing it. So he also did– I remember this movie like as a teenager ripping my heart out, Circle of Friends. Oh. It's like about unrequited love. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Holland's Opus, 101 Dalmatians, Inventing the Abbots, What Dreams May Come. Then kind of an interesting– I'm going to use the word again, pivot. He was the composer on the first X-Men.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, interesting. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And then I mentioned when we first were introing him that I had almost all films for him, but he also was the composer on the miniseries Band of Brothers.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. I just have one minor thing to say about What Dreams May Come. It, in my mind, is the equivalent, and I love Robbie Williams, but that whole movie is like, what if we turned an Adele song into a movie? Because everything is so significant.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
UNKNOWN:It...
SPEAKER_01:I feel like if you really wanted to, okay, I'm not advocating anything, but if you wanted to have kind of a wacky afternoon. I do. Not totally sober.
SPEAKER_02:Wait, okay.
SPEAKER_01:I think you could do like a double hutter with what dreams may come in vanilla sky. Hmm.
SPEAKER_02:That would be, that'd be quite an afternoon. Yeah. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Feel like those two go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_02:It's a long afternoon.
SPEAKER_01:Long afternoon,
SPEAKER_02:yeah. It's a heavy afternoon. You might need some stuff to get you through it.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so moving on to film editing. Stuart Baird.
SPEAKER_02:So I just want to know, is Stuart the person that I can reach out to on why that one shot in the desert was held on for like 10 minutes?
SPEAKER_01:One shot? Yes, you're right. You see
SPEAKER_02:like the heat kind of like reflecting off the ground. You see that for-
SPEAKER_01:That whole fucking sequence.
SPEAKER_02:Why? Why?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, my God. How many shots do I need to see of the helicopter hovering over the car?
SPEAKER_02:There were more shots of that than Liam Neeson trying to hop a fence and taking three.
SPEAKER_01:And or the helicopter sweeping around the people in cars and kicking up dust. Look,
SPEAKER_02:we got this helicopter. Holy shit. We're getting our money's worth out of it. I
SPEAKER_01:fucking get it. I get it. Like, I know where we are. I don't need 15 minutes of.
SPEAKER_02:I remember thinking like, OK, there's like 36 minutes left of this movie, and half of that is this scene
SPEAKER_01:in the desert. It's just them setting up this stupid desert scene. Yeah. Good lord. I mean, sorry, Stuart. Maybe you were told, like, maybe you were told, like, yeah, we gotta get our money's worth out of this. I'm sure that was expensive.
SPEAKER_02:I bet Stuart's like, I didn't want to do it.
SPEAKER_01:Like, fuck you guys. This is too much. Yeah. So... Moving on. No, not moving on. No, not moving on. Just chatting. We haven't even covered it yet. So... I do have all films for him. He certainly had a long-time collaboration with Donner, although not exclusive to being his editor, but some of his early work. So he cut Tommy. He did cut The Omen. Okay. As well as Superman and Superman II, the Donner cut. He did Ladyhawks, so not the first time we have brought him up. He did Gorillas in the Mist, so again, not exclusive to Donner. He cut This is interesting to me. So he did come back for A Lethal Weapon 2. He also cut Die Hard 2. Oh, wow. So, yeah. Bringing up The Last Boy Scout yet again. He cut that film. He did Radio Fire, Demolition Man, Mavericks, another Downer film, The Legend of Zorro.
SPEAKER_02:Not a bad movie. It's kind of fun, right, with Banderas?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. I don't know if I've ever really sat down and watched the whole thing. He's perfect for the role. Yeah. Casino Royale.
SPEAKER_02:Really, it's probably the best of like the Daniel Craig Bond movies, I think.
SPEAKER_01:You would know that far better than I would.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, that was like a good, it's almost like a self-contained James Bond story from Casino Royale to No Time to Die, in which case it's weird because he found just enough time to die.
SPEAKER_01:Salt. Isn't this, he comes back for another James Bond movie, Skyfall? Yeah. Yeah. And Tomb Raider. Okay. Okay. We are at the stars of the film. Okay. So we are starting with, of course, Mel Gibson. I would think probably at this point in time, I mean, of course, he went on to have like a whole trajectory. I'm not going to dive too deeply into off screen, what have you. But I would say at this moment in time, he's probably the bigger of the two leads. Yeah. Between him and Danny Glover, although Glover just came off of the color purple. So he definitely had attention on him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I
SPEAKER_02:don't. Yeah, I don't know. Even like when I first saw it, if I just thought of them both as like. Kind of like blockbuster stars.
SPEAKER_01:Blockbuster stars. So among his, I mean, at this point, Mel Gibson was very, very well known. So in this film, he plays Martin Riggs, but he- He was
SPEAKER_02:very well known on screen, but much less well known with everything else.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. With all, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He's not my favorite person.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_01:But at the time- I'll just leave it at that, but-
SPEAKER_02:At the time, we're like, this guy is amazing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And then years pass on, and you're like, holy fuck, what is going on with this guy?
SPEAKER_01:And I think that he was a star largely because of his Mad Max character.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So up to that point, when was Beyond Thunderdome? Did that come after Lethal Weapon or before? Yeah. No, that
SPEAKER_02:was before. That was two years before.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So he had already done all the movies that he was going to do with Mad Max. So he had done Mad Max, Mad Max 2, The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. So he was very well known for that. Preceding Lethal Weapon, he did The Year of Living Dangerously. He did To Kill a Sunrise. Just like Danny Glover, they– You know, it's interesting. Of all these different franchises up to this point that we've talked about, I feel like you rarely see one where the two central leads come back for the entirety of the franchise, which went on for a minute. It was four films.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And the Donner. And the director as well comes back for all the films. So... I suppose they had a good time working together, or at least they liked making all the money they made together.
SPEAKER_02:One of those two things.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So he also, you know, he tried his hand at like comedy. He did Bird on a Wire, Air America. Then we're in the 90s now. I do have to admit he is great in Hamlet.
SPEAKER_02:What if I told you that he was cast for that role in part because Because of like the early, like almost suicide scene in Lethal Weapon.
SPEAKER_01:For real?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He's very good in it. He's very good in Hamlet. He does Forever Young, Maverick. Here we go. So then everything breaks wide open for him in 1995 when he like is, you know, I hate using the term auteur. I really hate auteur theory, although I understand it's... presence in a lot of films in film history but he is the auteur of Braveheart so he uh is the star of the film he wins best director for it and then the film went wins best pitcher
SPEAKER_02:so it's not bad
SPEAKER_01:yeah so that's probably the high mark of his career I'd say um Although he actually isn't done with his Oscar attention, but that is the last time he won. He goes on to do Ransom. You like that movie.
SPEAKER_02:No, I don't. You don't? No. I thought you did. I like Payback.
SPEAKER_01:Payback. Sorry, I get those mixed up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no. But I like Payback a lot. Yeah, Ransom is fine.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry. Sorry. That is how forgettable they are to me. So he does Ransom and Payback and Conspiracy Theory. He does The Patriot. I do like What Women Want. I do like that movie. He does that. And I actually also do like Signs.
SPEAKER_02:Swing Away.
SPEAKER_01:Swing Away. So he's really good in that. Somewhere in between– so– I don't have, because he didn't, he wasn't in this film, but he did get another Best Director nomination for Hacksaw Ridge. Oh, okay. Yeah. And then more recently, we kind of, this came on our radar randomly, but he's in the Santa, what do I even call it? Like, alternative storytelling of Santa called Fat Man.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's like a few of them now. This came out. Right at the beginning of the pandemic. So I don't know if that means it was more on people's radar or less. But yeah, I think Walter Goggins, Goggins, Goggins.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. Goggins.
SPEAKER_02:He's he's in it and he's like a hit man. And there's a great scene where Mel Gibson as Santa is like, you think you're the first.
SPEAKER_01:It's which is
SPEAKER_02:really good. It's it's a good. Yeah. It's a good story about someone trying to take down the Santa Claus operation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that is Mel Gibson. Okay. Moving on to Danny Glover. So he plays his partner, Roger Murtaugh. Just Murtaugh. Murtaugh?
SPEAKER_02:Just Murtaugh, yeah. Murtaugh? Pretty sure.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. I put too much emphasis on those last couple.
SPEAKER_02:I've never heard him called Murtaugh, but, you know, it's
SPEAKER_01:possible. Okay, my apologies. It's okay. So I'll just call him Raj. Yeah, just call him Raj. Everyone calls him Raj. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I gotta say, okay, wait, before we, just because it's on my mind, before we get into his filmography, so we, it's not something to joke about. We did joke about the opening scene and how like immediately it's like a naked woman. Oh, yeah. Kind of whatever. Yeah. His opening scene, equally disturbing. It was real weird. I don't want a family shame, but I don't know why. What family walks into somebody taking a bath to wish them a happy birthday? It was super weird. That was bizarre.
SPEAKER_02:It was really weird.
SPEAKER_01:That was even stranger than Fatal Attraction when they're all just sitting around in their underwear. Much, much. That takes it to another level. I was just like, what? Who does that? Anyway.
SPEAKER_02:They're just all fucking lucky he was just taking a bath.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, holy shit. That was like... People do that? Okay. But Danny Glover, lovely actor. Yeah. I can't say that I have met Danny Glover, but I have seen Danny Glover.
UNKNOWN:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I've seen him. So some of his credits, I think I had– yeah, all films for him. So preceding Lethal Weapon, he did Places in the Heart. He was in Witness. And as I mentioned a couple minutes ago, I think partly– he also– he's done a ton of stage acting. So he– He, I think, is one of those actors that splits his time between live performance and films and that sort of thing. But he gets his huge breakout role for The Color Purple. He does not play a great person in that film. And then also, as mentioned, he comes back for the entirety of the Lethal Weapon franchise. So he's part of 2, 3, and 4 as well. Which is crazy since I thought he was getting way too old for that shit. Yeah, he continues to just get too old, older. I'm too older for this shit. He is in Predator 2?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, when I first saw that, I really did not care for it at all, but it's grown on me.
SPEAKER_01:It is so wacky. It's kind of just like Lethal Weapon with a predator thrown in. Yeah. Like, it's also set in L.A. It's...
SPEAKER_02:It's where they first, I think... I think that was the first reference to there being like this shared universe with xenomorphs from aliens and the predators.
SPEAKER_01:Don't you see it in the ship?
SPEAKER_02:You see it in the ship towards the end when he is– like he's in their ship under Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He is in Grand Canyon, Angels in the Outfield, Beloved. I love him in the Royal Tenenbaums. He's so good in that. He is in the movie Saw. Yeah. He's done Horror, Dreamgirls, and Jumanji The Next Level.
SPEAKER_02:And kind of underrated movie with Dennis Quaid, Switchback.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I'm
SPEAKER_02:sorry. I didn't bring that up. No, no. It's off everyone's radar. But I saw it and I'm like, that was a decent movie. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Moving on to Mr. Joshua, played by Gary Busey.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Is this? Yeah, this is the I don't think it's going to be the last time because we have talked about this other film a lot about how we want to cover it. But this is the first time we've brought up Gary Busey. Is
SPEAKER_02:it really? Wow.
SPEAKER_01:In terms of like a film that actually had him in it. Yeah. He's kind of come up. Yeah. But he has had a very interesting career. I think that like, again, without. I don't know. I think he's had personal demons that he's contended with. He also had a legitimate head injury.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, from a motorcycle crash, I think, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. That definitely impacted not just his personal but his professional career. But some of his credits include the 1976 version of A Star Was Born. He is an Oscar-nominated actor. He was Buddy Holly. in The Buddy Holly Story. This is the film that we will cover him again in. I say that like with certainty, it's just a matter of when. Silver Bullet. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uncle Red. Yeah. So we will cover that at some point. He also is in Predator 2.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Yeah, he is. He's like a military science kind of dude, I think.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So he reteams with Danny Glover. Nice. Probably, I think regardless of generation... I think most people know him from Point Break.
SPEAKER_02:That's kind of like the first thing that comes to mind. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think whether you're a 20-year-old film fan or a 60-year-old film fan or anywhere in between, if you think of Gary Busey, you probably think Point Break is what I'm going to say. Yeah. And he's great in it. I mean, at this point, I think he– has become known for kind of erratic, kind of fly off the handle type behavior. And that plays in really well, I think, with Point Break. He's not completely off the rails, but he has his moments.
SPEAKER_02:There was certainly a time where I had trouble keeping him and Nick Nolte straight.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Where I'm like, Gary Busey is like the slightly more fun version of Nick Nolte, maybe.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, I could see that.
SPEAKER_02:But Nick Nolte in like whatever, like, The Hulk movie with, oh, geez, Banna?
SPEAKER_01:Eric Banna.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think Nick Nolte was in that, and he was crazy.
SPEAKER_01:He was crazy.
SPEAKER_02:It reminds me of, like, an extremely heightened version of Busey's character from Point Break.
SPEAKER_01:And back to Busey, also in The Firm, and Piranha 3DD.
SPEAKER_02:Is that really what it's called? Wow.
SPEAKER_01:It is. Wow. Yes. And he's done a lot more. I mean, he's fairly busy, but a lot of projects that I was not personally familiar with, but... In any case, moving on to the general. We're
SPEAKER_02:not talking about
SPEAKER_01:insurance. We're not talking about insurance. What's his full name? It's like Alistair or something like that. I don't
SPEAKER_02:know. Is it really? Wow.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. Anyway, we'll just call him the general. Mitchell Ryan is the actor who plays him. So he is Joshua's boss. He is the guy who... If I'm under, okay, I'm going to be really honest. I think I missed a lot with like, this seems to happen with these kinds of movies where it's a little convoluted. I feel sometimes the storyline, but from what I understood, he legitimately was part of the military. This all goes back to Vietnam.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So is Busey. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:So is Busey. So he though, like was part of the shadow company.
SPEAKER_02:Sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think, and I thought that the original goal was to prevent the transfer of drugs from Asia to America, but then they saw, like, how profitable it was, and so he started heading it up, I think, something like that. Like, he went from good to bad. Yeah, yeah. And drug dealing was the impetus for that. That sounds right. Okay. Yeah. Apologies for anybody who's a huge lethal weapon aficionado if I'm destroying the history, the— I mean,
SPEAKER_02:I'm not watching Lethal Weapon for the details. So
SPEAKER_01:I think that's how this all came to be. So Mitchell Ryan, like, I mean, so much work, both between TV and film. Some of his early work includes the TV series Dark Shadows, Chase, Executive Suite, Santa Barbara. He's done comedy. He was in Hot Shots Part II. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, wow. Yeah. I don't think I real it. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Blue Sky, Speechless, Judge Dredd, Halloween, The Curse of Michael Myers. Which one was that? That's fine. I don't know. And I feel like I have these out of order for some reason.
SPEAKER_02:I think maybe it's like five. Who knows?
SPEAKER_01:Liar Liar with Jim Carrey. He was, I think, Greg's dad in Dharma and Greg. Okay. I think because he plays like pretty straight laced, I think.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then just like a ton of TV work besides everything else that I've already mentioned. He's a very familiar face.
SPEAKER_02:I think he played Riker's Commander Riker from Star Trek The Next Generation. I think he played his dad in one episode.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, wow. So, yeah, very, very busy actor. As is Tom Atkins. So he plays Michael Hunsaker. Yeah. Yeah. So he is the father of the young woman who jumps off the building. He is war buddies, although they haven't kept in touch with Raj. Not in years. Not in years. And he had been reaching out to him because he wanted him to help find and save his daughter.
SPEAKER_02:And kill them.
SPEAKER_01:And kill them. He was so
SPEAKER_02:insistent, like, kill him, find him and kill him.
SPEAKER_01:Well, because he– I think he was saying that before Roger understood his own involvement with Shadow Company.
SPEAKER_02:Very much so.
SPEAKER_01:So like– and all these guys, they were all military. Yeah. So like he had a bank that provided a legitimate means of transferring the drugs and like the drug money. But then he wanted out and he was like going to turn witness on the general. But then they killed his daughter because they got wise to that I think.
SPEAKER_02:You really like– latched onto the details of Lethal Weapon. And I'm very impressed.
SPEAKER_01:Because otherwise it's just a blur to me.
SPEAKER_02:That's how it was for
SPEAKER_01:me. Just a blur. And so that's why I think he was like, kill them, kill them. And that's also why Raj was like, they didn't kill her because of what she was doing. They killed her because of what you were doing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly. That's when he was like, hey, get your hand out of that pocket.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that was shortly before he got shot through his fucking carton of eggnog.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So Tom Atkins, he's a trip. We can bring him up a lot. There are so many movies that we can still bring him up for, and I guarantee you one of them, if not... We're doing it next year, right? We can't... Okay, so there are two movies I want to do, but he headlines both movies, so I don't know if we can do both, because we just... You want to do
SPEAKER_02:Halloween 3, though.
SPEAKER_01:I do. I also really want to do Night of the Creeps, but we'll probably do Halloween 3 first. So among his work early on... I didn't realize that there was a TV series version of Serpico, but he was in it. Oh, wow. He... He always, it's so funny to me, well, at least in the two movies that I know him better from, The Fog and Season of the Witch, he has a aptitude for betting down much younger women. He
SPEAKER_02:is aware of the effect he has on women.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because in The Fog, it's Jamie Lee Curtis. And in Season of the Witch, I don't know the actress name, but it's the daughter of the guy who dies at the beginning of it. Yeah. Kind of odd, his effect on women. But he's also in Escape from New York, as mentioned in The Creeps, Bob Roberts. And then he was in the 2009 remake of My Bloody Valentine. Oh, okay. So he is definitely a well-known figure in horror. Yeah. Yeah. That mustache. That mustache. It's funny because, I mean, I guess there's a little bit of time lapse. Not a ton, though. He looks so much older in this movie than he does in Halloween 3.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if they, like, intentionally aged him, but he looks much older to me. His hair's, like, white.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that looks like it would have been intentional.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe. I don't know.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:OK, moving on to I just have a couple like they unfortunately they don't have. Well, the daughter is more to do than the wife, but the wife, Trish, more, more tall, more tall. What do you want me to say it? I
SPEAKER_02:want you to say it. I'm just going to say Trish. However, it makes
SPEAKER_01:sense. So Raj's wife, Trish. Played by Darlene Love. I think she's amazing. And I hate this stupid tropey joke of just like, oh, she's a terrible cook. She can't cook. It's like fucking make your own dinner then if you don't like the way she makes it. It's really aggravating.
SPEAKER_02:Indeed.
SPEAKER_01:I hate that tropey shit. So that's like the running joke with her. And she's arguably like a lovely woman and a lovely wife and a lovely mother. Not a great cook. Apparently, but anyway. So she doesn't have a huge filmography. She does return for the entirety of the franchise. So she's part of Lethal Weapon 2, 3, and 4. And then the other most notable credit that I have for her, although I'm trying to think of who she was in it. She's in the Christmas Chronicles Part 2. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:interesting. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And then lastly, we have Tracy Wolfe. So she plays Rianne. Their daughter, the eldest daughter, the elder daughter. They have three kids. So they have her, then a boy, then a girl. I just included Rianne because she has like the most substantial credit. So this was her first acting credit. Not surprised. She was just like a teenager. She also comes back for the entirety of this trilogy. Or I'm sorry, franchise more than trilogy. She also was in a film called She Said and a handful of TV appearances. Okay. Film synopsis.
SPEAKER_02:I'll give credit to one additional person who we've also brought up a few times, but Jackie Swanson played Amanda Hunsaker. Okay. And she is the woman that you see at the beginning of the movie. Right. Who is basically topless for most of her being on the scene. She jumps. She did that herself. They had a tarp. over like the bag that was painted just to blend in with the background. But she did that stunt herself. Good for her. And she was in Lethal Weapon and 24 episodes of Cheers.
SPEAKER_01:Huh. Yeah. I wonder who she was. Oh, was she Woody's wife or girlfriend? Is that who that is? Probably Kelly. Oh, okay. All
SPEAKER_02:right. So she was in like a few TV things, you know, a couple episodes of, well, one episode of Golden Girls. All of the cheers. But yeah, just giving her credit since it's a rough way to start a
SPEAKER_01:movie. Yeah, it is. It is. I was like, oh, this poor actress. Okay, here we go. Two. Wait a minute. That cannot be this. Hold on. Whoa. What's happening? I feel like I wrote something down wrong. Unless that is. What do you got? Hold on. Hold on. Are you talking about synopsis? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it. Oh, I did spell it wrong. Okay. Okay. Okay. Here we go. I don't know why I did not catch that myself. Two newly paired cops.
SPEAKER_02:What did you... Did you have nudely? I
SPEAKER_01:had nearly, and I was like, that doesn't make any sense. Okay. Two newly paired cops who are complete opposites.
SPEAKER_02:Totally.
SPEAKER_01:Must put aside their differences in order to catch a gang of drug smugglers.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm. That's...
SPEAKER_01:I feel like that could be about 200 different movies.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
UNKNOWN:That's...
SPEAKER_01:Which shows you how popular that trope is. Yeah. Yeah. They're complete opposites. They don't like working together, but they have to put those differences aside to solve the case.
SPEAKER_02:This one guy, kind of older, has a family. This other guy lives alone and wants to kill himself.
SPEAKER_01:How are they going to do it? Yeah, it's kind of hilarious because even as I was reading it, I was like, wow, this is the most generic. This is just like a synopsis for an entire genre of film. Yes. Like, yeah. No, that's excellent. It's not just for one movie. But yeah, I thought that that was very funny, but I guess it's accurate. So this is though okay look I'm not here to rag on this movie because I'm
SPEAKER_02:here to I'm here to listen if you are I
SPEAKER_01:don't really think they're that at odds as other pairings I've seen in movies
SPEAKER_02:yeah um I mean I feel like Gibson's character pretty quickly tries to like convince Glover like Murtaugh that he is not crazy and that he is not really suicidal but yeah no they both I
SPEAKER_01:mean he invites him over to dinner like a day after he meets him
SPEAKER_02:yeah so they're not they're not complete opposites not really
SPEAKER_01:yeah they seem to fairly get along throughout the course of the like like that's that's the thing that like I always thought was the big big conflict
SPEAKER_02:well like the casting was Of these two and the way that they work so well in this movie, I'm sure, is how it got to four movies.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because that's what that's what you want to see. Like you have fun watching Riggs and Murtaugh. It's so much fun that they even did like a weird It's Always Sunny episode where they like made their own version of it.
SPEAKER_01:Again, I'm not saying this to be contrary. I was like once I this was the first time I like start to finish, sat down and watch the movie.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I have to admit, I was like a little surprised that this was the film where they're like, we're going to make three more movies out of this.
SPEAKER_02:I'm telling you like two, two is in my opinion, a much better movie. Like three and four, I can't remember as much, but two, two was just like Joe Pesci makes two. Okay. So much more fun to watch.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, maybe we'll do it then.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe they're like, we did light things up a little
SPEAKER_01:bit. Are they always set at Christmas?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that I don't know. Okay. Yeah, I just know there's a lot of diplomatic immunity involved in two. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:That is a funny thing to me. I mean, like, look, I fully, hey, you love this movie? That's great. Love this movie. Like, I'm all for people loving movies. It doesn't, again, quite hit me as a Christmas movie, but then people get all fucking bent out of shape out of people saying Die Hard's a Christmas movie, so, you know, teach their own. It is funny.
SPEAKER_02:I think this is a Christmas. I mean, look, it happens around Christmas. So there you go. It's as much a Christmas movie as Die Hard is.
SPEAKER_01:It is. It's not a film where I'm like, oh, it's Christmas time. I'm going to throw it on. But they do bookend it really hard with like it opens with the Christmas, like on the opening credits, opens with a holiday music and closes with holiday music.
SPEAKER_02:It's hard. I mean, the Christmas movie where a guy is threatened to eat a bullet in multiple scenes. A little tougher.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I can appreciate that they tried to give him like a real backstory. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:with him and Victoria Lynn?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. For some
SPEAKER_02:reason, the name Victoria Lynn just cracks me up.
SPEAKER_01:Do they ever say why she died?
SPEAKER_02:Do you? Oh, my God. What if I told you that she was killed by someone who's involved in Lethal Weapon 2?
SPEAKER_01:Wow. But we don't know that yet. You don't know that yet,
SPEAKER_02:but yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And do they reference how she died at all in this film?
SPEAKER_02:I can't remember. I don't think so in this movie. Yeah. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:For some reason, I just found like the full name Victoria Lynn being uttered multiple times just made me laugh. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01:There are other certain things about the film that like were interesting to me. I mean, the relationship between... Well, the elder daughter... It's like she—okay, so I presume she was in high school, right? She wasn't older than a high schooler.
SPEAKER_02:No, she was in high school, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:She was in high school, but, you know, it's funny to me that even in, like, 87, you know, he tells Riggs—Briggs? Briggs? Riggs.
SPEAKER_02:Riggs.
SPEAKER_01:Riggs, right?
SPEAKER_02:That's
SPEAKER_01:Gibson's character. Yeah, okay. So he tells her—or tells him that she's grounded because she was smoking pot in the house, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, although his reason was that alcohol is legal, but weed is not. So I'm like, well.
SPEAKER_01:Well, he's a cop. Yeah. I get it. But she does seem to have a good relationship with her dad. Yeah. And then I don't know if, like, her having a crush on Riggs needed to be part of the movie. Yeah. It
SPEAKER_02:really didn't. It was weird.
SPEAKER_01:Thankfully, he did not act in a weird way about it. He did not reciprocate. He did not reciprocate. And I appreciate that. But
SPEAKER_02:he jokes about it, which I think is on point for the movie. He would do that just to get under Murtaugh's skin. I
SPEAKER_01:mean, this whole film, you know, I already said my piece about the runner about the wife's cooking. Yeah. Some things don't age well. I mean, and it was really, it felt almost like forced into the scene where I'm like, you didn't even have to say anything. Like when the house blows up and Raj is trying to pat down Riggs because his coat is on fire. Yeah. And he uses a slur. Yeah. And I'm like, that, Didn't need to be part of this film at all. Like that
SPEAKER_02:was just not present. You would have never missed
SPEAKER_01:it. It is so out of nowhere and it felt almost forced. I'm like, why was that even a line in this movie? Like very, very strange. Was that
SPEAKER_02:Shane black?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I
SPEAKER_01:don't
SPEAKER_02:know.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and then just, you know, like things that like, look of its time, it, Kind of just like made me cringe how often they're like, she's a hooker, hooker, hooker. Like they just kept using that term over and over again. But I get it. It was 87. So some things don't age great. But I mean, that aside, I guess I understand because like definitely at this point in the 80s, I think that as far as action movies are concerned. We were beginning to turn a little bit away from like the Stallones and the Schwarzeneggers in terms of these like huge guys who are almost like unstoppable to more realistic depictions like John McCain and Die Hard and like these two guys who are just kind of like, yes, they're cops and... Did you call him John McCain? What did I say? McClane. I thought you said McCain. I might have by accident, but like, but we know who we're talking about. And these guys, although, you know... You want to say your piece about how this movie, how they know they are the precursor to, in your opinion.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. No, thank you. I totally forgot about that. But watching like Riggs, Mel Gibson's character, he's basically like an early version of Ethan Hunt from the Mission Impossible franchise.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Both in like. it's kind of funny but also impressive like his running the way that he would like run full speed and then towards the end of the movie when he's like his arms are bound his wrists are bound and he's like hanging from a hook and he like catches some guy with his legs and disables him or kills him or whatever.
SPEAKER_01:Another crossover. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:and then gets himself up off of that hook. That exact thing plays out in one of the Mission Impossible movies. So yeah, there was like these weird moments where I'm like, holy shit, how much did they like pull or were they inspired by? The
SPEAKER_01:actor that he or the character that he kills by like basically choking him out, I guess, with his legs.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:is the same actor in Die Hard who grabs the Snickers bar or whatever. He's
SPEAKER_02:waiting
SPEAKER_01:and he looks down. So that's a crossover. Also another crossover is the gun, I guess, that Riggs uses is the same gun that Bruce Willis has for most of the film. Okay, I didn't know that. Yeah, and I guess that is a real gun, but it's been since Retired. And in any case. Okay. So, yeah, there's interesting, which, look, almost nothing's original in Hollywood. So I can appreciate that at this time there's just kind of something in the air, which is why there seem to be similarities between Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. And also I could see why later on a franchise like Mission Impossible, you would see similarities to that. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, with like having this character who like does these things that because he's not like a Schwarzenegger or like crazy huge muscle, but it's like, oh, maybe I know you couldn't do that. But like it feels more believable or you get more into the story because you're like, oh, wow, that's cool that that guy did that. That seems like it's possible.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:it's probably not possible.
SPEAKER_01:The last thing I'll say is. Yeah. The final scene. Not the final, final scene. The fight? Yes, the climactic scene.
SPEAKER_02:The final fight with him and Mr. Joshua was so ridiculous for so many reasons, not the least of which, it's just Riggs and then the entire LAPD hanging out
SPEAKER_01:on the street. Watching, like a fucking, like, what are they called? The... Like a UFC fight? Yeah, yeah, UFC fight.
SPEAKER_02:And Murtaugh is just constantly telling people, no, no, just let him fight. So ridiculous. So I thought that was ridiculous enough until I read that that fight scene was originally filmed to be four minutes longer. Oh my goodness. But they're like, oh, we got to cut this for the pacing. I guess they decided to put all their eggs in the desert basket.
SPEAKER_01:I wonder how influential Donner was on the edit because... I'm sure that came down from him initially to have the longer version of it. When they first filmed it, yeah. Let's cut this thing up, man. Because how long is this movie as it stands? Lethal Weapon is... Well, okay, it's not two hours. It's an hour 49. It could have been easily, I think, under an hour 40. I
SPEAKER_02:didn't even notice any continuity mistakes in that final fight, but apparently there are some because of them shortening it. Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_01:It's in the dark. They're moving around. I wouldn't be able to catch it. I'd have to watch that scene multiple times probably to catch any continuity errors. Yeah. But it's so. And then at the end. Yeah. Where he lets him go. Yeah. And then, oh, he comes to and he grabs a gun. Die hard. Die hard. Yes. It is hilarious, the similarities. He
SPEAKER_02:was choking him out. And Danny Glover is just like, kill him.
SPEAKER_01:Break his neck. That was wild. Yes. I'm like, this seems not, not in like, oh, but then also there were some things where I'm like, oh my God, so timely. Like even today, like when little kids.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my
SPEAKER_01:God. We're talking about what they knew of cops.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. My mom says, my mom says cops shoot black people.
SPEAKER_01:Oh man. In 2024, the fact that like. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So it's. What's, what's interesting is that that. would be used as kind of like an offhand joke in that movie. It's still obviously based off of like a reality. Yeah. But now I wonder how that same joke would even play out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:People would feel a certain
SPEAKER_01:way. Don't think it'd be funny.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. People would get upset about it and I'd be like, well, they're still right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So...
SPEAKER_02:Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01:That is Lethal Weapon.
SPEAKER_02:That's how we're going to end every episode now. And so that's that movie we're talking
SPEAKER_01:about. That's that movie. I mean, as far as watching it again, I think if it's this time of year. Mm
SPEAKER_03:hmm.
SPEAKER_01:And you were sitting down and you were watching it. I'd be like, cool. And I would continue to do my thing, maybe be making dinner or something. I don't know. Based on the
SPEAKER_02:fact that we had to rent it and it's just not on
SPEAKER_01:the streaming service means probably not going to happen. Yeah, kind of strange. But is that a film that you would want to watch again? Or it sounds like you would want to watch two. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:I'm happy I saw the first one again because I haven't seen it in a really long time. But I do like the sequels more. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Fair enough. I'll have to watch them at some point. Call it action. I mean, well, OK, we've been bringing it up all along. Like, I'm curious how many people. OK, if I had to take a guess, I think more people think of Die Hard as a Christmas movie versus this movie. Oh, OK. Am I wrong?
SPEAKER_02:I don't think you are.
SPEAKER_01:Well, thank you. Thanks for the validation. But I would like to know what other people think. Yeah. So if you want to reach out to us, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As of now, we still have it. It's the same handle at all three, at 80s Montage Pod, and 80s is 80S. We're not up on Blue Sky yet? Not the podcast account. Got it. Okay. All right. Sneak peek, final episode of the season.
UNKNOWN:Hmm.
SPEAKER_02:I don't even...
SPEAKER_01:Another film that's kind of long overdue that we just have not covered yet. Really? Yeah. That could be a lot. Specifically for the season.
SPEAKER_02:Oh. Is it A Christmas Story? It
SPEAKER_01:is A Christmas Story! Holy shit, finally! Yes! So we are finally covering... I mean, of the Christmas movies... That were made in the 80s.
SPEAKER_02:We are going to talk about the one that will be on for 24 hours on TBS. They still do that, right? I think so.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think of all the films. And honestly, there are a handful. We've covered some of them. I think that this one and probably Christmas Vacation. I don't know why I keep pitting films against each other. But I feel like these are the two that are brought up the most. Hmm. I
SPEAKER_02:mean, this is like for our generation movies. in particular, I think a Christmas story is like, for me, it's like the Christmas movie that can be on in fucking, I blame TNT and TBS for this, but like you just have it on over and over again. I agree. It's a great movie. It's a great movie. Yeah. Sequel.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. You didn't get through it, but. Very excited to cover this one. And in the meantime, thank you to everybody for taking the time to listen to our podcast. With all the choices out there, we really appreciate it. And we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.