Hate Watching with Dan and Tony
Hate Watching with Dan and Tony
Hate Watching Mayday: Flight Delayed
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A Top Gun homage is a dangerous game, and Mayday plays it on hard mode. We walk through Apple TV’s action comedy and try to figure out why it feels so watchable in the moment, yet so hard to love after the credits roll. The big issue is commitment: the movie wants 1987 Cold War stakes and modern punchline rhythm at the same time, and that split shows up everywhere from the dialogue to the action to the music choices.
We get specific about casting and character. Kenneth Branagh feels like he belongs in the world, while Ryan Reynolds reads as a present-day superstar visiting the past, which makes the period vibe wobble. We also talk about what makes classic 80s action work: consequences, grit, and characters who actually suffer when they get hurt. When injuries turn into quick jokes and the plot keeps telegraphing its next move, the tension never has room to build.
There are bright spots. The closet satellite phone sequence is genuinely funny and shows what the movie could have been if it kept that level of escalation and playfulness throughout. We also shout out moments where the visuals click, debate the final escape and asylum standoff, and then pivot to what we liked this week, including Parking Lot: The Movie and Chad Powers season two. Next up, we pick our next watch: Megan 2.0.
Subscribe, share the show with a movie-loving friend, and leave a review if our nitpicks make your watchlist more fun. What would you fix first: the casting, the tone, or the stakes?
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Scheduling Conflicts And Anniversaries
SPEAKER_02Uh Dan, I'm not gonna be here next Saturday. So we'll figure something else out. Yep. We're going to Santa Barbara. You can't do the show on your anniversary weekend? Well, technically our anniversary was Thursday. Um, but uh no, I can't do it. So it's not my problem. That's a good point. That's a good point.
SPEAKER_04I was gonna put when you did your your anime your 20-year anniversary post, I was like, well, I I hope to get this many pictures of us together uh on our 20th anniversary.
The Premise And May Day Reveal
SPEAKER_04Welcome. Hey, watch your Dan and Tony I mean! I'm Tony. On this show we watch a movie, then we critique the movie. Sometimes the movies are not the worst movies in the world, and there's actually things you could say positive things about them.
SPEAKER_02Some. There are also some negative things I can say.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
SPEAKER_02Uh, Tony. Yes. What is the movie? This, well, this is Apple TV's new smash hit. Um, it's by the guys that did Dungeons and Dragons, so I was like, we gotta.
SPEAKER_04Oh, those are the guys that did Dungeons and Dragons. I just completely re-watched Dungeons and Dragons from beginning to end. It's incredible. It's really, really, really good. It's not great.
SPEAKER_02Okay, wait. Nope, back up. Hold on. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_04It's really, really, really good.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_04And every it's very kind of similar to this movie, is that all the things are in the right places and that the stars are great, the lines are great, the jokes are good.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_04And you get to the end of it, and you're like, I really enjoyed that. But I but then I do not say that's one of the best movies. That's that is a genre-defining movie, and it's one of my one of my favorite movies. There because there's a lot of movies that are john, in my opinion, genre-defining movies that I that I love and will fight for. But that movie has like, I really enjoyed this movie.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_04And I really enjoyed it. I don't have anything negative. I have zero neg there's nothing negative about it. It's just there's not like that little transcendent sparkle in it for me.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, I will say that it's better than the movie we did today.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02As long as you agree with that, I think I can let that slide. Oh, yeah. Also, it didn't deserve to not make any money. You know what I mean? Dungeons and Dragons was disrespected.
SPEAKER_04They're making a second one. And it's Are they? I believe so. I believe they I believe they just said they're making a second one. All right. And it's a movie that they there should be a franchise, and the second one might be, you know, you might step it up a bunch. Um, but the world building's great, and just how they handled everything was every it was an incredibly smartly moved movie, and I believe this is a pretty smartly made movie, too.
The Ryan Reynolds Casting Problem
SPEAKER_02There was one huge mistake they made. By the way, I still didn't say this is um May Day, starring uh Kenneth Branach and uh Rain Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds. Whatever. Biggest star in the world. Okay. He's the mistake, by the way.
SPEAKER_04He's the mistake.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, I I okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, why don't you why don't you talk about casting and then I'll talk about casting? Oh, okay. So here's my thing. I I don't I don't dislike Ryan Reynolds. I don't think. I might. I'm honestly not sure at this point. But he's very Ryan Reynolds. You get Ryan Reynolds when you hire Ryan Reynolds. Right. And which is fine, I guess. But in a movie that's set in the what, the 80s? 1987. 1987. There's like a real vibe. He he feels too sarcastic for the era.
SPEAKER_04You mean he's literally the most contemporary person that exists?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, thank yes, yes, thank you. Yeah, and that to me is a mistake. Like Kenneth Brana is uh feels feels right. Pretty close. I think yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty close. That's good enough for me. Yeah. But Ryan Reynolds just feels like he's just a dude from now, just saying things about things that happened 40 years ago. And it's weird. Talk about it doesn't work for me. Talk about the haircut. Well, if you've seen Top Gun, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's that's my question. I I'm not I'm not a person that can analyze haircuts and and styles and all that. He felt like he was out of today. He did not feel like he was out of Top Gun.
SPEAKER_02A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_04I could be I could be wrong. You could say, oh no, that that haircut he could have had.
SPEAKER_02I guess maybe he could have. I I don't know, coulda, woulda, shoulda. But I'll tell you that in Top Gun they didn't. Okay, that's what I'm saying. He needed to have somebody in Top Gun's same haircut, maybe one of the fourth or fifth guys. Also, probably needed to have a mustache. Probably should have gone with the goose stash a little bit. Like obviously, Tom Cruise doesn't have a stash, but he's too pretty for a stash. I think that's really the main the main reason. And you know, you've got Goose, who's just a little bit goofier. And I just I Ryan Reynolds is conventionally attractive, but I don't find him mega superstar attractive, you know? I just don't. I don't know. So maybe a stash would have put him more in time with the line because people love stashes back in the day, you know? Yep. Um, he just never felt right to me in this movie, and that really held it back.
Top Gun Name Drops And Tone Clash
SPEAKER_02Um, and then the other thing is they do reference Top Gun a lot. And I understand the notion to talk about things you like as a as a writer to be like, I love Top Gun. Let's do an homage to Top Gun in this movie. But when the movie's so much, not so much, but definitely worse than Top Gun, and you keep talking about Top Gun, I really just want to turn this movie off and then turn on Top Gun.
SPEAKER_04That's a that you're right, that is a big danger.
SPEAKER_02It's a problem, yeah. Okay, here's what I'm gonna say. Yeah, you talk about casting now.
SPEAKER_04Tell me. I'm gonna say Kevin Hart and The Rock or Jack Black and Tilda Swinton.
SPEAKER_02The second one. I would love that.
SPEAKER_04This is the the the the movie the movie wants to be real, and it's like it's it's it wants to be real, but then it also wants the conceit of an 80s movie.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And when you're trying to do both of those things, tough they're they're they're just really far apart. And and in in a sense, uh Kenneth Brano is kind of in the real movie mostly. Mostly. And Ryan Reynolds is in the joke movie.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if he's capable of doing a real movie. I don't know. At least not anymore. Maybe he was when he was a little bit younger and had more drive. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04And if they're if you're gonna make the joke, and that's your whole thing with the Top Gun, is there's no one in the world that that is this comical, I love Top Gun, I'm quoting it, I love Bruce Springsteen that me put on cassette. That person doesn't exist. Sure, 100%. And if you're gonna play those characters, because they're play these, they're playing these sort of caricatures, you gotta go one step further. Yeah. Where it's it's truly live or die about that, or it it's it's either truly live or die, or you don't do it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I'm I'm okay if you do it. I'm all on board with it. Also, because then when the turn happens because it turns out America sucks, yeah. Um that that's even more impactful then, right? Like if this means so much to him and then he finds out that America sucks, like that can really affect your character. It in this, it just kind of makes him mad.
SPEAKER_04Well, and it doesn't, because we know that everything that happens is all part of that there is no there is no non-plan. There's a plan for sure where Ryan Reynolds' character, whose primary character, just most of the plans are just Kenneth Brown makes the plans, and then the all all the plans come to fruition very easily. Yeah. And you're like, huh?
SPEAKER_02How's that work? You know, well, that's life, Dan. I don't know if you've been living, but every time I make a plan, it goes flawless.
SPEAKER_04You know, when when when Mel Gibson is chained up in whatever that movie is, and they're punching him, I think. Are they doing punching him or something?
SPEAKER_02Okay, lethal weapon, number one, and number two, they're electrocuting it. They've got a freaking little electrocution thing. He's got rain water water coming down from a pipe, and they're zapping him. Ah it's incredible stuff.
SPEAKER_04Think about and I it's like I like the fight scenes in this movie. I think most of the part most of the time I wasn't really paying attention to them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because I didn't I didn't care, but they look good and they were really well staged.
SPEAKER_02They're very slick.
SPEAKER_04They're very slick, but it's like, well, yeah, but then you gotta have him hanging from those chains, and then the you know, like the the two of them have to be hanging from the chains when they're in you gotta if you want to have that that emotional resonance of a lethal weapon, you gotta you gotta go all the way. And it's like I think about Letha, you know, I you've seen it a million times. I've seen it a couple times. I have I've seen it a couple times, but I can I know that you can't see it, but Lethal Weapon posts are right there on my wall. Yeah, but I can imagine there's like these sort of sweeping camera shots that come up on Murton, you know, you kind of get right, don't they do that? They do they they they make them into heroes, right? They give them hero shots. There's no hero shots in this movie.
SPEAKER_02No, there's not. There's I mean, there's hardly any heroes in this movie, but yeah, I understand what you're saying.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, you you gotta build these guys up. You know, when it's like when he's hitting down on a guy's face, we gotta see a guy, you know. It's like Ryan Reynolds' character gets shot in a in the hand.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And he doesn't go through any pain. We don't, we don't, we don't live in that for one second.
SPEAKER_02No, he made they make a joke out of it. They make like which is fine. Like you can make a joke, but it also has to hurt him. Because I I love that I've never seen that moment before where somebody puts a hand in front of a bullet, it goes through his hand and still through the shoulder. That's a really funny setup to absolutely nothing in this movie.
SPEAKER_04Well, and you have to go one way or the other. It has to really be funny. Yeah. Where he reacts and like, fuck it, the my fuck power did the butt the buttons loses his mind. Or you know, or this crashing music comes in there, and he's like because they make the one joke.
SPEAKER_02He's like, I took a bullet for you, and Kenneth Brown is you didn't take a bullet, you took it with me, or something like that. There's a good line. That's that's the start. That's like the beginning of where the launching pad, and then we just drop it, and he flies a plane fine. Yeah, even though he's got a hole in his hand. Yes.
SPEAKER_04So, you know, you needed to either go all comedy or all action pathos. And it's like people have made the movies, you know. They made Hot Fuzz. They made Hot Fuzz for a reason.
SPEAKER_02Hot Fuzz is great, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And you watch Hot Fuzz and you're just like, you know, he's he's that guy, and then he's counterpointed versus the comedy. And you just you see the two, you know, it's like, okay, it's instead of doing one or the other, I'm gonna do both at the same time. And you're like, well, you you can't say, well, you know what we're gonna do, we're gonna just drive the car right down the middle so that no one cares.
SPEAKER_02Yep, a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_04And that and that that's like movies today. That's a little bit with Dungeons and Dragons, I think, is sure. It never got so extreme. Yeah. Right? Nobody ever re- you know, it's like Chris Pine, you know, even when he kind of breaks down as like, I need you guys, they all say, Okay, we're gonna go with you. He doesn't lose them.
SPEAKER_02100%. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And you gotta sometimes you gotta push it to that next sort of level to really drive home that it means something.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Right? I mean, his his daughter in this movie like leaves to go continue living in Russia, and you're just like, wait, how's that gonna work? I apparently easily. She has to she has to go with them. You know, that's the if this is the movie, because in the real world she's gonna die. Right, but sh they know who she is. Yeah, in this sort of fake middle world, you can kind of maybe do it, maybe.
SPEAKER_02Because it's interesting, right? The bad guys, bad guys, you know, KGB, what are they bad? Who knows? Um, they throw the picture of the daughter, yeah. And then he just eventually gets asylum to the US. So there's never really a resolution of like, well, we'll keep your daughter safe. He just escapes and they still have oh, hey, look at this photo of this girl, let's kill her. Um, so she's dead, right? She's definitely dead.
SPEAKER_04We watched uh a documentary this week where they in 2018 Putin sent assassins over here to where was it at? Some little town, and this guy's daughter was going to visit him, and he they poisoned both of them. They amazingly both survived, but they came over there with this nasty ass poison and put it on the door handle, and they both got poisoned, and they both got very lucky to survive. So that's what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02I don't think I would survive, by the way. No, I don't think I have the the intellect to be like, I'm being poisoned, I need to counteract said poison. Yeah, I would just go about my day and be like, boy, I don't feel great, and then I just die. I just slowly die throughout the day.
SPEAKER_04The other thing they should have done was they should have killed the killed the Russian.
SPEAKER_02Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Oh, yeah. He he dies helping the escape, 100%. Yeah. Unless you're setting up a sequel, which there is no sequel to this.
SPEAKER_04No, they were setting up a sequel, they're gonna drive around the US.
SPEAKER_02Right. Nobody cares about that. I don't care about that.
SPEAKER_04Diehard 2, right? He accidentally stumbles on another airport.
SPEAKER_02I do like diehard 2. I know people have problems with it. It's great. No, seriously. It's great. No, it's not. It's wonderful. All three diehards are great, but I mean you got snowmobiles and diehard too. That's great. It's fun stuff.
SPEAKER_04Um, the other thing is this movie telegraphs everything from like one quarter of a mile away. There's like one or two things that that were good, but there's a lot of telegraphing. A lot of everything, you know, everything.
SPEAKER_02Which is like it's streaming now, right? So that's what they I feel like that's what they want. Everyone talks about second screen viewing, and it feels real. It feels like that's a true story. You know what made a lot of money? These movies called Dune. You know what? Have not seen anything beyond Dune one. So I'm not the target audience for Dune. But they made lots of money. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. People love that Timeshi Shalamana.
SPEAKER_04This don't do that. That's not funny. It's that whole that whole saying it like you're Adam Sandler is just the dumbest thing ever. Adam Sandler? Yeah. Does he talk about Tim? Is he a big Tim fan? I was watching a Nikki Glazer. Sabatuoby. I was watching something and they made him say how he was saying. Adam Sandler. Yeah. Or in life.
SPEAKER_02Yes. The real Adam Sandler, not someone doing an Adam Sandler. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Well, I think someone was doing it, then they made Adam do it, or I can't even remember.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So no. His name is Timothy Chalamet. Just say it. Timothy Shalomethamie. Like that. You like that? That's what you want to hear? Adam Sandler. Wish we had Adam Sandler. What are you doing, Jenny? Why are you closing? That'd be a new one coming. It's closing the door that no one can see. Can't she? No.
SPEAKER_02Well, are we being too loud? Are we already being too loud? Do we cross the decibel threshold?
SPEAKER_04Are we being too loud? She's this was her answer to Are you being too loud?
unknownAh.
SPEAKER_04Which really just doesn't tell me if we're being too loud. See, I'm using the the door as a big fan, so I'm rocking it back and forth.
SPEAKER_02Is that you just with your right hand here, you just kind of waving it back and forth? Good for you. You gotta do what you gotta do to survive, you know? Yeah. We're we're living in hell. Okay, we better we better talk about this movie.
Opening Dogfight And Early Plot Setup
SPEAKER_02May Day. Oh well, yeah. Let's get back into it. May Day. Did I ever say the title?
SPEAKER_04I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Action comedy.
SPEAKER_042026, hour and 52 minutes. Boom. Here comes Ryan Reynolds. He's crashed in the snow. Damn it, he's hurt his leg. There's a man with a gun, he falls over, and we're like, okay, we've seen the trailer. We know what's happening. Yeah. Yeah. Um, he's bird hunting. Oh no, they're okay. So we we do like a uh kind of wasted thing where he's like uh they're flyers, and the one guy's they do it, we do a little fakey dog fight. His name is Assassin, which is like the worst payoff ever in the movies. Yeah, sure is so dumb. Yeah, um they they must have been so proud of this joke when they wrote this joke. Yeah, the assassin joke.
SPEAKER_02Do you think that joke sparked the whole movie? They were like, What if call sign ass ass in was a thing?
SPEAKER_04Yep, I think that's very possible. So one of the guys, Aileron, gets messed up, and so he bonks it with his plane and and saves the day, and and so he gets uh elected to go on a super secret mission.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I it's a lot of problems. Um Top Gun has been made. You know what I mean? Top Gun 2 has been made. Top Gun. So you even let's disregard Top Gun Maverick because that's too good. Like you're not gonna get that sort of budget for something like this, right? But a movie that was made 41, 42 years ago shouldn't probably look better than your movie today. I thought this movie looked great. I think everything after this initial sequence looks good. Okay, the planes are rough to me, but again, this Top Gun shoots real planes, they don't, you know, like full stop. These are not real planes, they're not doing anything. Um and I just I again I understand it's expensive, but then you have to be a little bit more creative in my mind, because Top Gun has been made, it is better than this sequence in every single way, and you're gonna continually remind me of that every time you bring up Top Gun the rest of the movie. I'm like, well, then your plane sequence shouldn't suck because you've seen Top Gun. Uh I mean it's just not great.
SPEAKER_04I had no emotions, you know. I was like, they do a thing. I'm like, I don't care.
SPEAKER_02I just watched Top Gun Maverick on the plane on Wednesday. So it's fresh in my mind how good those plane sequences are. And you're watching on a small screen. I'm watching on a teeny tiny airplane backseat, and my head is like two inches from it because I'm always so enthralled with these plane segments. It's incredible stuff.
SPEAKER_04So they so basically they play on a on a plate, they play on on nothing, and they they still play. 100%.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's tough. So it's just if you're gonna do a top gun homage, just get a little more clever because we're seeing a lot of plane that just isn't a plane. The takeoff is rough. You know, I it's just be smarter, just do it more clever because those movies have already been made and they're better than you. That's all. Hashtag be better. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so that's the whole thing. Uh, we we have dad sick in the hospital. It's uh that one guy from that one TV show.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you a TV show you remember him from? I he's always the the guy from uh the suburbia, is that what it's called?
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_02What's the Shia LaBeouf horror movie?
SPEAKER_04Oh, it could be Suburban, maybe? It could be Call Suburbia. Why can't I remember what that's called? Suburbia Suburbia was a a punk rock movie, but maybe they made it again as a different movie. I don't know how that all works.
SPEAKER_02No, I'm just Disturbia. That's what it is. Yeah, so that movie is great, by the way. Love that movie.
SPEAKER_04So dad's in the hospital. He I think he was on one of the hospital shows or one of the legal shows in the 80s.
SPEAKER_02Sounds like a legal show kind of guy to me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um dad is sick. He's out with the boys, and then here comes the boss. We're giving you a we're giving you a real thing, a real secret.
SPEAKER_02When they're out, when they're out with the boys, it's very top gun again, but it's just not grounded.
SPEAKER_04Well, the the thing your problem is, is first of all, you know, it's like you don't like to say this, but this this movie is very woke. I it's preachy.
SPEAKER_02Preachy. Which is the same thing.
SPEAKER_00It is the same sort of thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I just pre to me preachy is like you don't quite earn it, but you put it in there anyhow. Yeah. And that's that's where this movie kind of lives. Because like when they're when they're doing the anti-America stuff, it's like, yeah, we we get it, guys. We got it.
SPEAKER_04We got it. Um, yeah, because it's like he's got like a bald white guy, African American guy, and like an Asian guy, and then him. And you're like, as much as I love to think that the Navy Flyers in 1987 was this nice different cultures, it's like, you know, would it surprise me if the first real Navy flyer, you know, got a job in 2012? That that would make a lot more sense to me. Sure. You know, and it's like, you know, uh whatever. You you can you can talk about it, you you can do in your movie whatever you want, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_02You can, you're allowed. But them's the rules.
SPEAKER_04But the three guys that you have out there playing the guys are no ones, and they're not there's nothing special about them.
SPEAKER_02Amen to that.
SPEAKER_04You know, you have Anthony Edwards playing Goose. He's Anthony Edwards playing Goose. It's incredible.
SPEAKER_02You know Val Kilmer? I mean, come on. Are you kidding me? You got Val Kilmer at number three.
SPEAKER_04Wild stuff. It's wild stuff, yeah. Um, so he earned the big job. The big job is not a U-2, it's an SR-71 Blackbird. Oh, the Blackbird's. Great band.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_02Blackbird? SR-71. Great band. Oh. Fantastic. Or uh mid early 2000s pop punk band. So good. So good.
SPEAKER_04Um, this the the the the plane looks great. Uh it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_04He meets meets the guy who's who's doing the flying, he's just pushing the camera button, and his name is Sanders, and he's like, doesn't gonna have a family till he's a colonel, and he's like, so you're not gonna wait to be a to have a family till you're Colonel Sanders. Yeah. And you're like, um uh tough. You know, I mean the Top Gun guys, you know these I guess here here's your point, right? Yeah, yeah. Top Gun is a bunch of guys who are constantly measuring their dicks against everyone else that exists on the planet. 100%. And Ryan Reynolds' character's like, I'm taking care of my sick dad. I'm still finding a a way to save my co-pilots. You know, you're like if you're gonna make it all about Top Gun, you gotta you gotta make him he's never he never uh measures his dick against uh what's his name?
SPEAKER_03Kenneth Brana.
SPEAKER_04Kenneth Brana. Never. I mean, he tries to fight him once and then he loses, and then he's he's completely cowed. He he there's not another point.
SPEAKER_02A hundred percent. He is Kenneth Brana's bitch for the rest of the movie.
SPEAKER_04He's like, you're you're driving, and I'm I'm in the prison movie.
SPEAKER_02Kenneth Brana has dominated him, and uh that's all there is to it.
SPEAKER_04And and and we know that, and so we know in every situation, his character is the dominant character. Yeah, Ryan Reynolds' character is is he's he's the package.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yep, 100%, 100%. Also, on the same note on the on the dick measuring, making Ryan Reynolds so sympathetic with the dad and him saving his wingman or whatever, that's the opposite of Top Gun. Pete Maverick Mitchell, his whole growth is that he's a he's a selfish son of a bitch, and he has to grow into someone that helps as a team. That's the whole movie. The movie doesn't start with him being like, Well, actually, I'm a really great guy. I'm just like a fantastic guy, um, and I also save the world. So I'm great.
Preachy Themes And Missing Character Growth
SPEAKER_04His Ryan Reynolds' growth pattern is just realizing that the the Russians aren't every normal Russian isn't a scumbag.
SPEAKER_02His entire growth is to be like, wait, other cultures aren't bad? I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_04I and I mean if you're gonna do that, you have to make him a jingoistic asshole.
SPEAKER_02100%.
SPEAKER_04Yep. I mean, I in 1987, I was I was 22. We understood that the people in the Soviet Union Oh, Dan, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_02I was two.
SPEAKER_04We understood that they were under a a terrible government.
SPEAKER_02Sure. And then when You didn't you didn't all you didn't think they were all evil? That's not what we thought.
SPEAKER_04We didn't, you know, I mean, and I mean the the movie does make a good point about how you do have your biases. Sure. And you can be biased against people that is probably not correct. Yeah, yeah. But you know, we we understood since the 70s that you know what they wanted over there in Russia? They wanted they wanted American music and they wanted blue jeans. These are two things that they wanted, and those were two imports of freedom that we're like, well, it's one of those is a huge mistake.
SPEAKER_02Blue jeans? I hate jeans.
SPEAKER_04Whatever, I'm not talking to you. Well, as well, live in sweatpants or shorts.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, no, I know what you want to live in. You combine those two, Dan, sweatshorts, that's what I live in. They're incredible. Continue. I'm sorry. We've known this since the 70s.
SPEAKER_04And you know, I you understand, and I I it would be interesting that if you talk to like what real top gun people, if if they respected the other the Soviet pilots, because I bet you they respected the Soviet pilots.
SPEAKER_02You you kind of have to. If you don't respect them, then you underestimate them, and then you're shot at your your tail's on fire, as they say in the pilot world.
SPEAKER_04And they they know who they're working for, but they also understand that you know everybody lives with societal pressures. And yeah, and also Ryan Reynolds' character like acts like there aren't societal pressures on him.
SPEAKER_02Not in America, my friend. Land of the free.
SPEAKER_04Let's ask you about you, you know they're top gun. Yeah is is the brass, are they all a bunch of angels that that only are looking out for everything that they're no, they're almost all assholes.
SPEAKER_02That's like kind of their thing. Uh at least that's where they start. You know, everyone kind of ends up in a place where we're all like, we're working together, America.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, go America. I understand.
SPEAKER_02Because it is propaganda.
SPEAKER_04Spoiler alert. But the same thing is, is like the bosses are not just looking after the best interests of Maverick or whatever.
SPEAKER_02They have their shit. We are they are cogs in a wheel, my friend.
SPEAKER_04Yes, and and they and they are the thing about people that fly, and I'm pretty sure of this, is they only want to fly. And that was the other thing. They they set up that that yeah, that uh what's his name? Doesn't even want to fly. He just he wants to he wants to build, he wants to build airplanes. He wants to build airplanes, and his his dad was so into it he did it. And you're like, Right. This is your this is your little league story, right? This this is not the guy that's like Mr. Hoorah, everything America does is correct. It was like no what you know what it was, it was another thing where they were just punching him in the nuts and just being like, You are you are a beta male.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and he is, and he is.
SPEAKER_04I mean, they yeah, even on the mission, they beta male him, and they're like, Oh, you're sitting in the back.
SPEAKER_02You're like yep, 100%. And I mean it it's just it's weird, it doesn't help the the dichotomy between him and Kenneth Brannon when he lands, then you know what I mean? Like, because he's never the man. Pete Mitchell, Pete Maverick Mitchell is the man.
SPEAKER_01His name is Pete.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Pete. Pete callsign Maverick Mitchell. Oh, you would never use that Pete name again in your life. That's horrible. No, oh no, he doesn't. That's gross. Only only to the ladies. It's because you gotta be softer. You know, the lady's like a little something softer. Okay, so okay, so what were you saying about Pete Maverick Mitchell? I don't even remember. Oh, he's the man. Like, if you drop Maverick in this situation, this movie is totally different. Like, they they will be they are two alpha males going at it, and they have to learn to work together, which by the way, is what a body cop movie is. So in the in the train, he goes back and sits down. He's like, Wake up. Help me, help me. And he doesn't even wake him up, he just whispers, just nudge him. It's actually not that hard to wake somebody up.
SPEAKER_04I fell asleep on the couch in here. And Shannon comes and wakes me up. What what do I do? I sip both of them and I'm like, what's happening? What's happening? What's happening?
SPEAKER_02I act the same way. She will she'll just like tap me on the arm, and I'm like, what is going on? Are we on fire? I got it.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, not this guy. And the whole time he's faking that he's asleep anyway. So it doesn't even matter.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so weird. So weird.
SR-71 Mission And The Big Crash
SPEAKER_04Oh okay. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. So they're doing the mission. Um the I I love the SR71. I love the footage. It's beautiful. Yeah, yeah. I love this. Beautiful stuff. This is a plane I've loved since I was a kid. Seeing one flying around is gorgeous. You know, it's up in the stratosphere. Cloud cover, they got to come down. They take the picture, they go back up to cloud cover. Boom, they got an interceptor on them. The interceptor's coming. The dude is banking for a reason that he shouldn't be banking, and so the other guy can catch up.
SPEAKER_02Which is Yeah, I didn't understand.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it's so that uh what's his name can have fighter expertise that this idiot doesn't have, and so he deserves to die. That's that's the line that's the line that sets up his his death. Got it. Well, he's done something stupid, he hasn't listed with a guy that knows what the fuck he's talking about. He does something stupid, they get shot, and then we do a little more dog fighting, and then he's going too fast to bail out, he's lost an engine. He he slows down, then he does a you know, a nose up, and the other guy crashes into him as he's ejecting.
SPEAKER_02And then we can part of the movie.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, beautiful, great scene, great scene, brilliant. Didn't see that coming. Was like beautiful. Awesome stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04He's it's coming down with the parachute. Here comes the debris, big debris, you're not like this. Oh nuts, terrifying. Yeah. This was the one part of the movie that got your got your got your heart going.
SPEAKER_02Right. The only part of the movie that got my like got me going like, oh shit, oh shit. And then the next hour and a half, there's almost nothing. That's emotional. No. Yeah. Or or like edge of your seat. You never, I'm never really worried, or you know what I mean? Well, because they tell us what's going to happen, and then it happens.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, you're right. You're right about that. Um, and yeah, so then the the it eventually catches on fire, and then he falls into the trees. That's when he's injured.
SPEAKER_02That is nightmare fuel.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Great, beautiful.
SPEAKER_02I love it.
SPEAKER_04So he wakes up, he's in the cabin, he's tied up. We set up, we're trying to do misery. We can't really do misery. Yeah. Um, it's like, I don't trust you. I don't trust you. Well, but then he lays out the whole thing of why you have to trust him, and Ryan Randall's character is like, no, I'll still kill you. You're like Right.
SPEAKER_03It's like, Well, why?
SPEAKER_04Why? What are you gonna do? Did you do that? Yeah, you know, idiot. They try he tries to fight him, and and Branna just defeats him at every moment, and then he catches Branna on fire. Branna doesn't care, and Branna walks outside and puts his fist into the fire in the moment.
SPEAKER_02Where he just looks at it is a nice moment where he's just like, Well, I'm on fire.
SPEAKER_04I do like he does have a line where he's like, Oh, yes. He does one thing where he's like, Oh, I'm so I'm so glad you set me on fire to make this this fight worth having.
SPEAKER_02Right, yeah. Like the first moment where I'm like, okay, now we're having fun. That's a nice moment. It's a nice moment.
SPEAKER_04But then Rat Randall just runs out, steals a truck, the keys are in the thing. No, yeah, no KGB person would ever leave their keys in the car ever in a minute.
SPEAKER_02That is correct.
SPEAKER_04He drives and thinks he's getting away, but then he gets stopped by a moose, then he waits. I thought he was going back, but he's not going back. He finds a bar.
SPEAKER_02I I would I also thought he was gonna go back. I think I think that's funnier for him just to be like, all right, I don't understand what the hell's going on out here. I should go back.
SPEAKER_04I don't know where I'm going. I don't know that you know it's like he he's gotta go back. Like, but so the bar scene.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, the bad guys are coming after them. It's this black-haired guy that's uh KGB that hates glasnost, and if he can capture them, then he can end glasnost. Yeah, I don't know. Uh-huh. That's that's what's gonna happen. So he's at the Emrails is at the bar. He kind of can speak a few words of Russian, and he's like, give me a telephone, I want to call the consulate. Yeah. You're just like, is this guy a moron? Is there something wrong with that?
SPEAKER_02Seems like yes, because that's just a bad move all across the board. Everybody knows that.
SPEAKER_04It's insane. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. So Branaugh eventually comes. Oh, and then the guys decide to beat him up. It's like Yeah, well, he's American. I'd beat him up. So they decide to beat him up because he's American, which makes no sense that they're being American. They'd be they'd be saying, like, what are you doing? You know, they'd question him. Who are you? How did you get here? What is going on? Yeah. And then Brannock comes and just beats the hell out of them for like five minutes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, which is, you know, fun-ish. You know, it's fine. Um, again, the battles, the fight scenes are like very sleek, which I don't the 80s were very gritty, you know, and if you're making an homage to 80s movies, I think you should go a little grittier. There's like there's camera tricks that are definitely 2026, you know, like we go through broken glass straight through back into the fight, and there's there's just there's a lot of technique that we didn't have in the 80s, and I guess that's not bad, but it does take me out of the 80s element of it all.
SPEAKER_04Well, we pull up the the Dungeon of Dragons battle where they're they're in the alley, and then uh what's her name has to beat up the guards and and set them free.
SPEAKER_02And Chris Pine's just trying to get his We got him now! It's great, it's great. It's a great scene. It's a joke scene. Yes, yes, it is. It's a joke scene. So we love it. Yeah, this is not like a good fight scene. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I I mean it's enjoyable fighting.
SPEAKER_02It's fine. It's fine. It's a fine fight scene, but the the part that makes it enjoyable isn't the fight itself, it's all of it together. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04Like if they'd have done it in silence, it would not be it would not be it would have gained it would not be one that you you think back on and go like Exactly.
SPEAKER_02I watch this one all the time. 100%. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, because she has a bunch of lines in it.
SPEAKER_02He has a bunch of lines, she's talking about the axe and you know, getting the the some sort of linen seed oil or whatever.
SPEAKER_04And then it gets it, it gets it gets dropped in the fire.
SPEAKER_02Maybe it doesn't get it maybe it's character, it's fighting, it's comedy, it's everything. This scene, nothing. There's no character work, it's just a fight scene.
SPEAKER_04It's a fight between what the character the character that is going to win and the characters that are going to lose.
SPEAKER_02That's all it is. 100%. Maybe let Ryan Reynolds in the fight, and he's a bad fighter again. You know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Or they're or they're constantly going at him and he's trying to hide and run away, or sure.
SPEAKER_02You know, and Ken Kenneth has to intercept him over and over. He's you know, he's busy.
SPEAKER_04The one guy's going towards him and he's losing, and the guy. And that's why if can if if Ryan Reynolds' character wasn't hotshot top gun, if if here's a pitch. He's the guy that always sits in the backseat. He is he is not he is the beta pilot. He's the he is.
SPEAKER_02We call them Dan, we call them the sec the back seater, second seater.
SPEAKER_04Or he's he's a CIA guy. Make him a CIA.
SPEAKER_02He's a paper pusher.
SPEAKER_04He's a paper pusher, and he's back there to look at this and to make sure they get the right shots of the site. And then boom, he is he is in it, and he has the limited, and he doesn't know what the fuck is going on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a fish out of water. That's fine. But this is like a fish in the water, but just he's a bad swimmer. I don't get it. He's he's a secondary fish. He's a secondary. He is, you know. He's a beta fish. That's a real thing, right?
SPEAKER_04He's he's a beta fish. Um, okay. Uh da da da da da. Uh uh okay. The moose. Oh, the uh the the the cassette in the uh the truck was um Bruce Springsteen.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, let's talk just real quickly, let's talk uh music, needle drops, yeah, as it were. Yeah. Some very enjoyable music in this film. Yes. Uh easy to do when you get to set it in the 80s, right? Because 80s was incredible music. And yet I none of it is as memorable as Top Gun, right? I don't, and I'm not saying you have to be as good as Top Gun, but you keep bringing up Top Gun, not you, the movie keeps bringing up Top Gun, but you don't have a danger zone. Well, they're you don't have that one song that's like, oh, this is our song. They're well, yeah. What they're doing is they're referencing memories, not making them. Right, right, and that's not as fun for me. No, we can do both.
SPEAKER_04No one's no one's watching this movie right now, and in 20 years being like, I need to make a movie that's an homage to made it.
SPEAKER_02100%. 100%. Yeah.
Cabin Capture Plus Bar Fight Problems
SPEAKER_04Okay. They go back to the cabin, they bandage him up, we find out that he's KGB, and then he's like, You're a monster. Um let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, please.
SPEAKER_04When you're when you're at 40,000 feet and you're dropping bombs on things and shooting people out of the air, you're a monster.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's bad.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02And a bit of a coward, you know what I mean? Dropping bombs from up there.
SPEAKER_04Um so he uh we we set up this whole thing where he's like, okay, maybe I'll go with you, but let me drink my drink real slowly while I decide.
SPEAKER_02Luckily, we bring that joke back at the end. So really good stuff.
SPEAKER_04Okay, luckily. Here comes the helicopter, the helicopter lands, the bad guy gets out.
SPEAKER_02Somehow the bad guy Is the helicopter landing in the middle of the woods? It didn't look like there was a big clearing where that helicopter came out.
SPEAKER_04It was a little bit of room in front of the house. That one overshot when he comes back with the truck, you can kind of see that there's some. No, no, no. You're right. That was that was the bar. I just thought he was going back to the place, and then I saw the neon. And I was like, why does he have neon on top of his cabin?
SPEAKER_02And then I realized I would love to have a big neon side of my cabin. Yeah, it would be cool.
SPEAKER_04Um, here comes the bad guy. Um, there's two glasses on the table, and the guy never realizes that that means he's got a lot of.
SPEAKER_02No, nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Definitely not.
SPEAKER_04The whole game of this scene is hiding the evidence while distracting this guy.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02And being not just leaving it out.
SPEAKER_04And what's his name? Is way too guilty the whole time, anyways. Which is like why is he playing guilty?
SPEAKER_02He should be well, because he's making illegal hooch, Dan. Ha ha ha, that's the joke.
SPEAKER_04So it turns out that he's not in the root cellar, he's in the hooch barrel, which okay.
SPEAKER_02I was like, it was a good joke. The joke and the shot when he opens it up, Ryan Reynolds, the face he's making is pretty good. Ryan Reynolds knows how to play things like this. Comedy. Yeah, yeah. Comedy without um emotion.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he's he knows he knows what the face to make is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uh the dude leaves. Okay, dude leaves. Yep. They leave in a little car, they drive the car out of the lake, the the car falls into the lake, you know, there go there goes the evidence. Nice. That was, you know, they can write really smart stuff like that. Yeah. Where in, you know, if they were then running or something, and you know, there was just there's no immediate, it was just like, eh, here I go, I drive here, I get out, and he's like, You should also get out. Then Ryan's Reynolds character slowly gets out as you start hearing cracking. And you're like, Yeah, you have to make him suffer. He has to get his feet, you know, he has to be like, uh struct.
SPEAKER_02You have to struggle to get out of this because you're too stupid to understand what's happening.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there has to be some struggle. Um, they're gonna go take the train. Oh, yeah, they're on the train. Oh, the KGB guy climbs a shows how tough he is to climb a tree and get a boot out of there, as opposed to making a subordinate do it, which is what you would always do.
SPEAKER_02A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_04I think they were like, if you're waiting for a ladder, and you're just like, Well no, send the guy. What do you mean? Um, you know, if you're gonna be the evil guy, you have to do something evil. Send one guy up the tree, have him fall and break his leg, and then be like the next guy, you go.
SPEAKER_02It is interesting they never do the class. Classic evil guy, like well, I can kill my own. You know, I it's it's a staple. It's a staple.
SPEAKER_04You either have to do a variation of it, yeah, and under you have to acknowledge it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's important. It's important. It's important for us to know who the bad guy is, okay? And what are they out doing on the tra okay? First of all, no one ever gives Ryan Reynolds a hat in this entire movie. What a disguise? No way. No way. I'm sorry. We know what Ryan Reynolds' hair looks like. We know what his face looks like. You can put a fucking hat on him.
SPEAKER_02You do not know that's the moneymaker, Dan. Don't you cover it, you son of a bitch.
SPEAKER_04And they're just, they're like people are two rows away, and they're like blah, blah, blah, blah, English. Blah, blah, blah, blah, English.
SPEAKER_02100%. No whispering. They don't care.
SPEAKER_04Um, boom, he goes to the bathroom. Oh, this is when we explained that he wanted to make planes, but he became a pilot.
SPEAKER_02Right. Don't care.
SPEAKER_04Don't care.
SPEAKER_02So I don't even understand it. I don't understand why that's I don't know. It's the beatification of American man. He never even builds a plane. Not that he should build an entire plane, but shouldn't that come in handy somewhere? If you're giving us this information, shouldn't he use that skill at some point?
SPEAKER_04I thought for sure they were gonna go get in a little bush plane and fly that somewhere, as opposed to the train.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. The train seems insane. It didn't. It's not a good idea at all.
SPEAKER_04Um, he goes to the bathroom, comes out. Somehow the entire Red Army has gotten on every train car.
SPEAKER_02As far as we know, it didn't eat the train didn't even stop. So these aren't new people, they just slowly migrated back. I don't know. I don't know. I'm gonna tell you how trades work, Tony. Please, because I've actually never done a train. Okay, tell me. You've never been on a train. Uh no. Not been on a bus, you know.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's kind of similar. You know, you it it goes up and down. You can get it, it gets crowded and then it gets uncrowded. You know, it's so it at the subway, so I guess it's similar, right?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04The distances are a little longer.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Yeah, yeah. Hogwarts and all.
SPEAKER_04Uh so they wake him up. He finally wakes him up, and then but he doesn't wake him up. He just grabs the guy's gun. So yeah, he doesn't wake him up. He tries to wake him up. No, wake up. But and they do it like twice or three times. You're just like, why are we doing this again? Why are we why are we playing this? Yeah. Um, this one guy's like staring at Ryan Reynolds, and then he pulls out a folder and looks at a folder and shows it that wow, that could be him. He's not wearing a hat. Or anything. Then we get this sort of weird chase down the train. Yeah. Then they eventually they jump off of the train.
SPEAKER_02Too many guns in a straight line for it to make much sense.
SPEAKER_04Very dangerous when it comes to guns.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, and they jump off the train.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. How many other people jumped off the train to follow them? Uh zero. What is weird though is that even after they jumped and they slid a while, bullets were still coming. So it almost felt like the train stopped, but I'm sure it didn't.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna tell you something. I would tell you something about trains, Tony.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah. They can stop. No, they can't. That can't be real. I'm gonna tell you something else about trains. Please. They can go backwards. Trains are amazing, man. Incredible. These this invention is crazy.
SPEAKER_04And I I would I would bet money that in 1987, they have some sort of radios on them.
SPEAKER_02No communication? Come on, guy. You're losing the thread here. Uh super weird. Yeah, yeah. Super weird that the train would just keep going when the escaped American convict is clearly there. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_04And if they're sending out whatchamacallits within like half an hour to people everywhere with a photo, that means it's game over. It's game over. It's a very high level. So they they need a place to stay the night. They just go to a random house. The random house takes them in, feeds them. There's like an evil-looking kid. These people do not question that they have an American in their house speaking English constantly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02A little weird.
SPEAKER_04You gotta say, this is my brother. He knows you know, you gotta play a game. You gotta say he doesn't speak, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, instead it's it's a patronizing lesson in hospitality and kindness or whatever. Because America, we wouldn't. I wouldn't open my door. I'll say it right now. If a stranger comes to my door, not opening it. You know, I'll peek through the hole and be like, I don't know you, I'm gonna walk away. Done.
SPEAKER_04We have little holes that are specifically there so that we don't have to deal with your bullshit on the other side.
SPEAKER_02Amen. Someone comes to the door, we we look at each other, we're like, okay, keep quiet, keep quiet. I'll see who it is. That's every time. I yeah, I don't know. Not me. Not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_04Um, guy in a truck gives him a ride, Ryan Reynolds gives him the watch. I guess that was the guy from the house, probably.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, it was like it was the dad or whatever, grandpa from the house.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and then you know, we get the line that would pay for that is a year's wage for him. How's he gonna hawk that? Is that is that easy in Russia to like this 1987? Stolen goods? I don't know. Sure. Okay. I could uh I I I could show you the uh the the flea markets in Belarus. Beautiful, good stuff. What was yeah, oh a lot of weird communist stuff, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Cool. I know.
SPEAKER_04I have my friend that I go to the flea market with, and every time a new one of these random flea market, oh, it's uh uh Armenia. Uh wherever Armenia is. Oh, okay. There's it's like this this guy that you know goes around Armenia and shows stuff, he goes to the flea market all the time. And you you know, you're like, that's cool. But I guess I just got another one, and it might have been Belarus or might have been one of the other places, and you're just like, I wonder if I could buy it. You know, I wonder if there's anything there that you know you'd be like, I'm gonna buy that. That's cool.
SPEAKER_03Probably is.
SPEAKER_04I'm sure if you're a watch dealer or a jewelry dealer, there'd be all sorts of stuff you'd want to buy. All right, yeah, all right. So uh the point is shut up. Noted. Um, back of the truck. Oh, they have to here
Train Escape And Disguise Logic Gaps
SPEAKER_04here we go. Another one of these scenes. So they gotta steal the satellite phone from this house. They use the they use a little radio to make the two guards go the wrong direction. They go inside, Ryan Reynolds tells a bunch of jokes, they find the satellite phone, and then the guy comes home with a prostitute, and so they hide in the closet.
SPEAKER_02And we have a great scene.
SPEAKER_04And then yes, this was a fun scene. And in a in a fun movie, this would have been a super fun scene.
SPEAKER_02This would have been it if this movie was this level of fun the whole time, yeah. Unbelievable. This would be a 10 out of 10 for me. Uh this scene's incredible. I had it's so funny, it's so good. Ryan Reynolds, worst part of it. Oh, wow. To me, because because Brandus doing all the the narrating, and we get uh, you know, there's a I don't need a play-by-play, and it it feels like he's not, yes, anding. And I know that's like a gross thing to say in like the real world for me.
SPEAKER_04Oh Tony Tony's like, you know those comedy rules that always work. Oh, I don't want to talk about those.
SPEAKER_02I don't want to talk about rules and regulations, but he just he's a negator, and in a scene like this, I want someone that is game to play because it's very funny. You're hiding in the closet, he brings a prostitute, she has to hide in the closet, he comes, sees all three. It's so good. Like the setup is so fun, and I just yeah, I don't know. I want him to be more game. It's funny when he hands him the wine, that's a great little moment.
SPEAKER_04Well, the woman opens the door and sees them, and and you're just like, if I was in that situation, I don't know what I'd do. Kenneth's broader guy, and that's the that's what that's the stuff that's in this. That's this is the Dungeons Dragon guys doing it. He says, burglars. Burglars. And you're like, there it is. You know, she understands what the situation is instantly. Ryan Reynolds looks like uh an American standing there if he was wearing a hat or something and didn't.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, one of those fun, like the hats that come down. You know, we get it. And that's the joke.
SPEAKER_04You're putting him in the funny hat as the joke. But maybe you can't. I have the feeling you can't put him in the hat.
SPEAKER_02He's not it's not allowed. I don't think cover this.
SPEAKER_04I don't think you're allowed to put him in the hat. I don't think you're allowed to cut the hair.
SPEAKER_02Anytime I'm in a movie, I'm like, can I get a hat? Because I don't want the camera to see all of this.
SPEAKER_04Well, and because the doesn't the light reflect off of it?
SPEAKER_02It sure does sometimes, yeah. And here too, because these this is going deeper and deeper every day for some reason. So you get hit and this bounces right into the camera. It's brutal.
SPEAKER_04Spotlights. Um, so then they get out of there. Uh let's see, men hot laney, family's home, new man, right hands in the bottle, boom, they call the the thing, and then they're like, uh, yeah, just come to the come to the embassy in Moscow, one of the one of the buildings, one of the world's most surveilled, watched buildings ever.
SPEAKER_02And just walk in the front door. You know, you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_04They know who you are, they have your picture. Yeah. And somehow, you know, you're gonna have the mission impossible to walk through that door. And I do I, for the life of me, do not understand the whole idea of if he gets into that embassy, then he can just walk out and get on a government plane and fly away. I don't know how any of that works.
SPEAKER_02It doesn't sound right. I I I buy that very little. I don't believe you can just leave the country. I really don't.
SPEAKER_04Then we we have this beautiful montage of them driving through Russia to uh see.
SPEAKER_02What if I you've never really seen it done like this. I I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_04They make they make a bunch of decisions that are so smart, but they're sort of hog tied by a bunch of other decisions. It feels it feels like there's you know, you're like, wow, I I like this. I want to see this, I want to see that movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Especially on this is right on the tail of one of the best scenes in the movie, which is the closet scene. So like it's you know, you're feeling like this could have been this could have been something.
SPEAKER_04Um, and then we decide to do Batman Year One for some reason. He's gotta go pick up his daughter to bring him, bring her with him. They go there, they knock on the door of the floor below, then they go upstairs, they get her, they they they turn on the gas, they set up the the firebomb on the opening the door, they axe, or or Leon the professional, whichever you want to choose. For sure. Yeah, they both did it. Um and then they go through the hole in the floor and then they blow up all the bad guys. And you're just like, I have seen this scene.
SPEAKER_02If you're gonna do this scene, you're you're gonna you know, you're you're you're fighting with the gods. It's it's the same idea as the top gun for me. Someone's already done it better, so you have to do something either either clever, like just put your own spin on it, or think of something else. You can't just do the same thing, not as good. I mean, you can, obviously, but I wouldn't. I wouldn't advise it.
SPEAKER_04If you go back and watch the Leon the Professional scene where he is hacking through the wall to get to the escape. Do you know that movie, Tony? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. He is hacking through the wall. He's got his plant. He, you know, it's like I haven't seen this movie in two, three, four, five years. I mean, I rewatched this movie. That's not as long as me. Oh, okay. No, I rewatched this movie because this movie is it's perfection. He wraps the plant in like a shirt or something to protect it, and drops the plant down there, sends her down there. He can't go, but we we see the missile. The missile just comes you know, then he he takes over the guy, puts on the mask, and he goes down that way. And the way it's edited, the way the sound designed, the way the shot designed, everything is perfect.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, that's a real movie, you know. We don't get those anymore. But but that's I still say this. You so we watched the Wrecking Crew. I haven't finished it. Tony's watched it.
SPEAKER_02How many times do you watch The Wrecking Crew now? I can't even count. A bunch. I also I just looked last night because I was trying to figure out what I wanted to watch after this to cleanse my palate, ended up watching uh Top Gun again. But uh I am one hour and 23 minutes into Wrecking Crew on Voodoo, and then I'm also like 24 minutes into it on Prime, because I guess I've started it two times in different places, so I gotta finish them both at some point.
SPEAKER_04And when you watch something that's crafted, you know, I say with the RRR movie, it's like when you watch something that's crafted perfectly, like there are multiple scenes in these movies, you're like, if if you want to move into the Pantheon, and that's I think that I think Dungeons the Dragons is very close to that in a bunch of ways.
SPEAKER_02I I agree. I it might be. I haven't watched it now in like a year, so that's not a great sign. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Exactly.
SPEAKER_02You haven't watched any how many times did you watch Top Gun in the last year? An embarrassing amount of time. I have Top Gun Maverick pretty much memorized, just so you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I quote it all the time to Naomi. She hates it. She's so sick of me.
SPEAKER_04And that, you know, I watched the uh the Spider-Man animated movies. That that second Spider-Man Anime movie is it might be my favorite film. It might be too emotional for me.
SPEAKER_02Oh it's not that's not a negative. I just for me to read like Top Gun Maverick, there's like a couple moments where you're like, oh goose, right? And it but there's never uh actual goose like top the original Top Gun, Goose Dies, I'm crying. Right? They just kind of nod to it in Maverick, and it's like, oh, that hurts. And then, you know, ice, and you're like sap, but it's never too emotional. He figured it out. He's like, you never want to go all the way dark. And if it's too emotional, I can't rewatch it all the time. It's it's it's too hard for me.
SPEAKER_04Um he talks to, you know, then we we do this whole thing where you know, I Russian cannot talk to, you know, the
Daughter Plot And Chekhovs Torturer
SPEAKER_04whatever. And turns out the daughter is a uh she's a she's a leftist, revolutionary sort of sort. Yeah. She's also a lesbian. It's like if my dad knew I was a lesbian, uh and then he goes in there to talk to dad, and that's like, of course I know she's a lesbian. Right, then we get this not an idiot. Well, and he's KGB. Right. Yeah. You know. I notice things. That's kind of what I did. That's what he's paid to do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um the other thing they do that was so crazy is they set him up as a torturer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Like, what? Don't use that.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Never use that. If you're gonna set him up as a torturer, he needs to torture somebody. It's like Chegov's gun, guys. If you give me torturer, I better see some torture at some point, or I'm gonna be mad.
SPEAKER_04And that could have been a very serious, dangerous breakdown point, but also 100%. You know, they were like, oh yeah, but we don't want to do that. Well, we can we can that's too hard. It's too serious. It's way too serious. You can name check it, but we're not gonna do it. Yeah, okay. Um, make sure I have a charge on my thing. Okay. Uh bop, bop, bub, bub, bup. They talk. It's May Day. Um she takes off, leaves a picture of her and a girlfriend.
SPEAKER_02They leave. That's a cute moment, by the way. I like that. She leaves a picture and it's like, don't worry about me. It's cute.
SPEAKER_04They make so many great transitions. They're transitions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And this is this very easy movie to watch. I absolutely think the only time I stopped is I got to like the third act, and I was like, I just don't want to finish the third. I I watched the third act this morning, and it's like, sure. I didn't want to go into it, I didn't want to go into a whole third act and sort of deal with that late. I wanted to get it nice in the morning where I could enjoy like a nice solid so I could analyze the third act. Sure. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Makes sense.
SPEAKER_04Um, so he calls the embassy and they're like, nope, your Russia guy's out. So you're like, well, Ryan Reynolds is gonna have to make a decision. Which makes sense to me, by the way. Yeah. And and you know what they don't do? They don't let him make the decision.
SPEAKER_02They don't, and it's uh it's too bad. It's really too bad.
Interrogation Twist And Red Square Chase
SPEAKER_04So Kenneth Branagh has called because he was listening. He calls the bad guys, the bad guys grab them, they bring him into the room, uh, they handcuff him to the table, they leave so that they can talk.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. No, definitely not.
SPEAKER_04Then they come back in and they're like, uh, either you one one or the other of them has to sign so that they can bring down Glasnos somehow with them signing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I'm not too worried about that part of it. And then they give Kenneth Branna a pit a pen, and so he stabs the bad guy in the neck. He's got a good line where he's like, one thing I learned in KGB, never give suspect a sharp object. And I was like, yeah, that's good. It's a good little line. Stabs him in the neck. Too long because he telegraphs telegraphs. You're right about that. It is a very long line to get to the base.
SPEAKER_04This this is the bit. You know, they teach me one thing in KGB school. He looks up, the guy says, What is that? Never give, never give a never give a prisoner. It's a punctuation.
SPEAKER_02It's a tilly. You're right, absolutely. It's a tag till after the thing is done. That is called a rewrite, which is very easy to do. Smart. And it's a good move, Dan. It's a very easy joke, joke bit.
SPEAKER_04Um, okay, confession, next call sign. Then we have a chase. They chase into Red Square. He is not killed by that. Yeah, I think I'd bleed out. I'm pretty sure. Um God, what was the there was something. Oh, it's like one of the British police shows we were watching, and they're they're the real ones? No. Uh whatever. Uh okay. And the guy gets cut in the leg, and it's the artery in the leg. Oh. And you're just you're just you're literally dead. You cannot apply pressure. You can't. There's no stopping it. He just bleeds out. He bleeds out the show, and it was very intense. Ugh. And that's the other thing. I think if you get the carotid or whatever. Yeah, the yeah, it's and it you know what I mean? Like it goes. It gauches. So we have a there they run through the red square, which is having the parade. It looked beautiful.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. Beautiful. It did look good. I don't know. Much better than the planes earlier.
SPEAKER_04I don't know if it was CGI or what. I don't know. I don't know how they did it.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it's I'm sure it's sort of it must be, but it so that and that's the difference, right? When I watched the planes in the beginning, I'm like, that's CGI. I know it's CGI. I'm watching it, I can tell. This, I was like, well, this looks good. They could be there. I have no idea. You don't that's what you want.
SPEAKER_04You wonder if they're shooting there. We know they're not shooting there, but they're doing it really well. And as opposed to like disclosure day with those those robot animals.
SPEAKER_02Oi, the fucking fox, man. Why does the fox look so bad? Can you not train a fox? This is a real question. Can we train foxes? Just put a real fox in there. I mean, think about the moose in this movie. That was not a real moose. No, but it did look good. I thought it was a real moose. Also, moose are terrifying, man. They're so big. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I think they're amongst the most dangerous animals in the world. They might be the most dangerous animal in the world.
SPEAKER_02Could really kick the shit out of you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Moose when moose want to kill you, they just like kill you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You die. Um. So they steal the big missile truck with a nuke on it, like, so that no one's gonna shoot at this.
SPEAKER_02And then they're gonna I do like the line. He said, what does he say? Probably or I I suspect they won't, or something like that. It's very funny. It's a good line.
SPEAKER_04And then they drive over the world and they drive to an airport, and then they steal an they steal an airplane at the airport. And then they fly away. Oh no, the bad guy. Okay. I'm gonna condense the whole end of the thing. Sure, yeah. They drive somehow, no one gets ahead of them, no one goes to the airport, no one does anything. There are no snipers in this world, you know, where the entire world's out to get you on Mayday trade. They steal an airplane, the bad guy jumps in, there's a big fight, and then he's about to beat Kenneth Brown, and then uh Ryan Reynolds has left the pilot seat and hits him with a carafe, and then they knock him out the the the door, which was really good looking. Fun shot. Fun shot when he's just tumbling down. Yeah. Fun shot. Very scary. And Ryan Reynolds is a good joke. He's like, I don't think that's gonna kill him. You're like, okay, I like that. That's good. Now we get to their their escape.
Airport Plane Theft And Carrier Standoff
SPEAKER_04So they they figure out that there's an aircraft carrier, they can go land on the aircraft carrier, they try to call the aircraft carrier, the aircraft carrier can't shoot them. The aircraft carrier is gonna shoot them down with their miniguns, but they're able To get the thing working and then he forces them to give Kenneth Branno asylum.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It was fine.
SPEAKER_02It's fine. I don't know a better way. Like, if I'm rewriting, I'm like, eh, it's fine. I can't think of like a better way right now, so it's fine. It's not great, but it's fine.
SPEAKER_04I got it. I got I got emotional. I was like, because he because he's standing up to his country. He's all like, you know, do you want me to I'll crash into you know he doesn't say I'll crash into the sea, but you know, he should have just said, you know, I I'll just I'll just down this thing and you know you guys can explain it and da da da da.
SPEAKER_02GFY.
SPEAKER_04And then after they say yes, he's has an and another fuel tank. So I was like, I did I like that.
SPEAKER_02I thought that was that was funny. That's the good thing about the movie.
SPEAKER_04Um and then we do a whole hearing about the asbestos, and he had stolen this file that they'd shown him so that his dad can get money for the asbestos death. Yeah. And then Kenneth Brannon eats at McDonald's, and they're like, uh, why don't you come with me and we'll have an adventure?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I think actually it would be a better movie. A road trip movie? I'd like to see the two of them. Where they discover stakes and then have to use their two, you know, well, you you'll have to give Ryan Reynolds a skill set. That's that's right.
SPEAKER_02Which is weird, we didn't do that in this entire movie. We didn't give him a skill set. He didn't have a skill set. What was his skill set? Did he ever he he could fly a plane? Not that great as far as I, but like fine, you know? And we used that at the end after the bad guy was dead. Sorta. You know, I feel like as I don't know, but I I would feel like a KGB dude could probably fly the plane.
SPEAKER_04I don't know. He I mean, he probably would would he probably learned how to do it.
SPEAKER_02That's I mean, also, how hard could it be? You know, it's just a plane. I get it. I've played flight simulator. I know how to do it.
SPEAKER_04If you played a lot of flight simulator, you could absolutely fly a plane.
SPEAKER_02See? Not well. Yeah. In my case, probably.
SPEAKER_04Because I've I've I think I've done it. Fly a plane? Yeah. There you go. You know, because they, you know, you're up in the plane and they're like, okay, you gotta keep this there, you've got to keep that there, you gotta keep that. This thing, this thing, you know, yeah, yeah, I guess. As long as you, you know, there's the the main movements, and if you just pay attention to the things and do them the right ways, you're fine. You're fine. Yeah. And then, oh, so the whole idea was his name was Assassin because he he fell in a hatch twice. So he went into a hatch twice, so his ass and his ass went in.
SPEAKER_02Ass in twice. Yeah. So good.
SPEAKER_04Then we have a little black and white footage after the credits that show it. Yeah. And I didn't realize that's what we were watching, and then when I kind of sort of saw part of it, I was like, yep, I'm not backing this up to watch to see if they executed this well. I I don't care. I would rather see them in the you know, in the RV making a couple of jokes. 100%. Yeah. That's what I agree with. That's what we fought for. We didn't fight for that.
SPEAKER_02I don't care about that. It would be better if we saw the setup for whatever would happen on this adventure. You know, they're jokey, jokey, jokey, and then they see something happen, and Kenneth Brandon's like, we need to intervene. You know, I don't know. Something.
SPEAKER_04There is something happening ahead. Right. Yeah, I don't know. It's true. I think that'd be fun. They're driving down the highway and then they narrate, they narrate and don't tell us what it is. So you there could be anything.
SPEAKER_02Could be anything. We haven't written the sequel yet, but yeah. Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Having in the moon somehow react to like the diehard, next diehard that they're gonna have to go through. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Tony. But we don't.
The Score Feels Too Modern
SPEAKER_04What do you have to say about the weird electronic music in the the final uh act of this movie?
SPEAKER_02So I right. So like I synth is big in the 80s, you know. She's not an 80 synth, though. That's what I'm saying. Like it's it's one, it's one step away from that. And I wasn't super alive in the 80s. I was I'm an 85 baby, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. I listened to a lot of Huey Lewis even today. I just this is not a music that I would associate with 1987, right? Seven. Well, I mean, if it sounded like 1980s or something, but it didn't. But it does. That's what I'm saying. Like, it's it doesn't it doesn't play to the vibes that you're telling me this movie is.
SPEAKER_04Well what was I telling you the one that Trent Reznor did the music to, the movie that I watched? Oh shoot, what was it?
SPEAKER_02Oh man, I watched something. It sounds very familiar.
SPEAKER_04Pretty brand new. And there would be scenes that were like not exciting scenes exactly, but he would they would just layer stuff on there that you were like, okay, I'm in the you know, the music is supposed to put you in the mood. A hundred percent. And this whole second screen Netflix thing, that's that's what the music in the third act felt like. It did not get me going towards where I wanted to go.
SPEAKER_02100%. Uh I mean he did Tron Ares. There was there was some good stuff in that. After the hunt, I'm just looking at his most recent ones, The Gorge. Oh, he did The Gorge? He composed for The Gorge? We did that. We did that. Franchise, Queer the Bear, Challengers, The Killer. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04He did Challengers?
SPEAKER_02Okay. Anything else to say about this movie, Tony?
Final Verdict And The Fix List
SPEAKER_02Um I it's not a bad movie, but I think I do think it could have been a better movie.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's all. It was fine. It's fine. It's fine.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's fine.
SPEAKER_02Um for an Apple team, it's fine. Oh, but I hate that. You know, make good stuff. Yeah. Make better. Just let's let's just do better. Let's why are we fine with mediocrity? You know what I mean? Oh, because most things are terrible. Okay. I mean, that's fair. If we're doing comparatively, sure. But why don't we just strive a little harder and make good things again?
SPEAKER_04Neither of us walked into this room thinking, I hate that other guy for making me watch this movie.
SPEAKER_02That's true. And that's a failure. That's true. That's a failure else. We we messed up our own show. Sorry, Dan.
SPEAKER_04We fucked up our show this week because we you know, it's like when Tony likes something that I hated, I'm just like, I I don't know if I can be friends with this guy anymore. I I have my doubts.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, I've never thought that about you, Dan.
SPEAKER_04There was one movie that I was just like, oh my god, what is what is happening? I had to reassess, you know, myself. And it wasn't your fault. That's fair. You have bad taste. I know that.
SPEAKER_02It's your fault for thinking it would be different, you idiot. I I'm the idiot for having having hopes that you could be be better.
SPEAKER_04Hashtag be better.
SPEAKER_02Not gonna happen. Me and me and this movie, not gonna be better.
What We Loved This Week
SPEAKER_02All right.
SPEAKER_04Now we talk about something we liked this week. I watched a bunch of things I liked this week. I don't remember what they all were because there was you know, like last week I didn't have a bunch of stuff I watched. This week neither of us had any. This week I feel like I had two or three things that you know we've been watching that I was like, ah, this is great. Uh the one the one I liked the most was we watched this documentary called Parking Lot the Movie.
SPEAKER_02No, it wasn't.
SPEAKER_04Yes, it was Parking Lot the Movie. Parking Lot the movie, I think it was about an hour, hour and 15 minutes. It was a documentary about like all these slacker guys that worked at this little parking lot in this college town.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sure is.
SPEAKER_04Um, it was it was just wonderful. You know, Shannon didn't like it as much as me because these were my people, and I was like, ah my sure. You know, when you have a movie on brethren, yes, she was like, these guys were a bunch of kind of assholes. I was like, you're right. You're absolutely right. She was not wrong. So uh parking a lot the the movie. Uh I guess there's just some lady that that likes documentaries. I think Todd gave this one the thumbs up and Shannon saw that. So we're like, yeah, okay. So a good documentary. Uh I'll I'll take it in. There were some good trailers. So were there some good trailers this week? No, maybe there weren't some good trailers. I don't know. That what should we call it? Movies out. The Hope is it called? Like it's a Korean monster movie. And oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Oh, sounds pretty good. Are there subtitles, Dan? Because then I'm not watching. Oh, Tony. Hope 2026. Yeah, you're right. That came out, made money. What what was the other movie? There's some other movie that made lots and lots of fastbenders in it. All right, maybe I'll watch it.
SPEAKER_04It's like a couple of there's like two US people that you that are not in the trailer, and you're like, well, they're not selling them in the trailer. They're like interesting. It's like some big movies, these big monsters come out, and you they have to fight them. And I'm like, I mean, that is fun. I love the big monsters.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, Tony, what do you like this week? Well, Dan, we waited a whole year. I don't actually know how long we waited. Chad Power season two came out. We watched it in one sitting. It's only six 28-minute episodes.
SPEAKER_04Six twenty-eight minute. Well, it took them like 14 minutes to shoot the stupid thing.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04Jesus. Could have tried a little bit.
SPEAKER_02It's delightful. Is it better than the first season? It is better than the first. I love the first season. No, no, I understand. But this is better than the first season. This is this, it's tighter, it's a little bit darker, and they it's it's great.
SPEAKER_04That show seemed like a show where they could figure it out even more where they're trying to get to.
SPEAKER_02100%. It's it's a tight six episodes.
SPEAKER_04And it's you know, the the the premise being so stupid. If you if you baked it harder, then you're like, oh, okay, there's more absurdity that you can kind of dig into in it, I would think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's it's wonderful. It's lovely. I I'm I'm a big, big, big, big fan.
SPEAKER_04Well, there you go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
Next Watch Pick Megan 2.0
SPEAKER_04Okay, we need a movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_04Most of the movies on my list here are are true horror movies, you know, and true Halloween y movies. This one, I love it. This one kind of is. So it's so it's our bridge. It's our bridge into it. The bridge is hit uh into Halloween. It's uh the the second in a in a in is a it's a sequel. That's what they call it.
SPEAKER_02Oh boy. I love this.
SPEAKER_04It's called Megan 2.0. Oh no. Which I guess was they made it as a science fiction movie and made everybody angry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it uh they switched genres for the second movie. We never saw Megan 2.0. So this is great. So if you see it. Yeah, we saw Megan. Megan's a treat. It's silly and and fun.
SPEAKER_04It is it's exactly what it is, right? It's one of those movies. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then everyone's like, this isn't even the same genre. I'm very excited. This is a great pick, dude.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's what I figured. I was like, you know, this is not too hot. You know, we could have done this in October, but we, you know, it's science fiction.
SPEAKER_02It's good. Yeah, I know. This is perfect.
Thumbs Up Subscribe And Goodbye
SPEAKER_04Ah, so if you like what we do, give us a thumbs up. So we were timeout. Thumbs up, subscribe or leave a comment. We're watching something. Like, we're watching all like these crazy people that, you know, on the internet on YouTube, and you know, that then would blow up or whatever. But they were like, you know, like this one guy called like the prophet of doom, and he was like this crazy guy that would sit in his chair and be like, Well, that is terrible. And eventually he like took a gun on a subway and ended his YouTube career. Okay. But you know, you're looking at it, you know, these videos are like 250, 200, 300. Shannon's like, uh huh, you guys don't even get that many. I'm like, thank you. Thank you, Shannon. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for pointing out that that is correct.
SPEAKER_04A ranting and raving crazy person gets more views than we do.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Yeah, I but that actually makes sense, you know. I was like, we could make our show that people might want to watch it, but we choose not to make it a way that people would want to watch it. Maybe. We could try. I don't know if they'd care. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna dissect every goddamn joke in your stupid movie and every problem with your stupid movie. That's right. And this for the future when they, you know, when they're studying all this stuff. Great. So I'll be back next week. Goodbye, everybody.