#53 - Shakedown (1988)

[00:00:00] Hello, Properly Howard fans. Before we get to our coverage of Shakedown, our affiliates

[00:00:05] at the Lorehounds have created a website to follow our comings and goings this season.

[00:00:12] Here to talk about it for a couple minutes is David from the Lorehounds. I've got David

[00:00:16] from Lorehound fame with me this morning. David, tell me what's going on with the

[00:00:22] Lorehounds right now?

[00:00:24] We're a little busy catching up. We've been hanging in with Shogun, which has been a

[00:00:29] phenomenal series of television and we're getting ready for a bumper crop this

[00:00:37] summer with House of the Dragon, the Bear, Acolytes. There's something else I can't

[00:00:44] remember off the top of my head. So yeah, it's been good and we

[00:00:48] onboarded a new podcast for Fallout, one of our really super active Discord users,

[00:00:56] Aaron, who is also one of our moderators. He roped in a buddy of his Chase and

[00:01:01] they've been podcasting about Fallout. It's called Radioactive Ramblings. So

[00:01:05] that's really fun. Marilyn's been busy with Rings and Rituals with her and

[00:01:08] Dr. Sarah Brown. So yeah, we've got a fun little family rolling along here

[00:01:14] sponsoring a bunch of other podcasts and stuff.

[00:01:16] Yeah, well, I'm happy to be at least, I don't know, a cousin of the family.

[00:01:22] My cousin, hey!

[00:01:25] I wanted to ask you, now you did something very kind for properly, Howard. You

[00:01:31] created a Notion page for us. And I'm really impressed with it. You know,

[00:01:37] we're about the same age. There are old dads who know about technology and

[00:01:43] then there are people like me who issue technology wherever we can. But I was

[00:01:49] really impressed with this Notion page. Tell me a little bit about this and

[00:01:53] why you created it. Sure. For properly Howard, I didn't plan it because I'm

[00:02:03] just a genuine fanboy of properly Howard. I love that.

[00:02:08] Yeah, but you seemed especially excited about felonies and fugueses.

[00:02:13] Maybe more so than the other seasons of Properly Howard.

[00:02:17] I just I thought the title was great and it just made me think of all those

[00:02:21] really sort of good fellows, good fellows, either type of movies.

[00:02:25] And so I was listening to your draft. I was like, oh, well, I got to

[00:02:30] we got to write it. I got to write this down. I got to see where it goes.

[00:02:32] So I just started throwing it into Notion. And then I just out of that

[00:02:36] Yeah, built this little gallery where you can go to the page and this is

[00:02:41] available for everyone. You don't have to be a subscriber or anything.

[00:02:44] All right. So we'll put a link in the show notes of this particular episode.

[00:02:48] All right. So yeah, so you go to that page and at the very minimum,

[00:02:53] you'll be able to see which movies we're covering.

[00:02:56] Correct. Right.

[00:02:58] So which is which is something that Stephen, I have not been great.

[00:03:02] So I appreciate that.

[00:03:04] It's it's very helpful.

[00:03:06] And so I put them in order.

[00:03:08] So when you land on the page, you'll see them running in left to right order.

[00:03:12] You see a thumbnail of the I tried to find original movie posters for them.

[00:03:17] You know, you know, digital reproductions or people have scanned them.

[00:03:21] There is the log line so you can see what the movie's about.

[00:03:25] And then there's also tags for the year.

[00:03:29] Who picked the movie and then your categories for unlikely partners or

[00:03:35] right. How which category of the movie falls into according to our draft.

[00:03:40] Right. Yeah.

[00:03:41] So then if you click on the tile, it'll open up a little side page

[00:03:47] and you can see all that information.

[00:03:48] But then I also embedded links for IMDB and Letterbox.

[00:03:51] So people want to follow through a little bit more.

[00:03:54] Nice.

[00:03:55] And then I'm starting to record your properly Howard ratings over.

[00:04:02] So that's very good.

[00:04:04] So on point break, this also sounds so official.

[00:04:06] I'm so happy that you stepped into the void here.

[00:04:11] What I'm also doing is once the podcast drops, I will embed the podcast in there.

[00:04:17] But I've also embedded the trailers.

[00:04:20] So if you click through and you're curious, like, oh, do I really want to

[00:04:22] watch this film or whatever?

[00:04:24] You can then also see the trailer quite quickly.

[00:04:27] And then I've also added links.

[00:04:30] If if somebody's a Plex user, Plex is a online streaming kind of platform thing.

[00:04:35] And if they have trouble finding the original movie, there's a way to

[00:04:38] request Plex access to see the movie.

[00:04:41] Now, I wanted to ask you, David, since we're covering

[00:04:47] felonies and fugazies, what do you think is missing from this particular list

[00:04:54] that you would like to see on this list?

[00:04:57] I think something from the genre of the heavy duty mobster category.

[00:05:06] So a good fellow as a casino.

[00:05:09] Yeah, no, I think those are really good ones.

[00:05:12] I guess we didn't really do a hard hitting mafia kind of movie on this list.

[00:05:18] And I think that that that's absolutely an oversight.

[00:05:21] Thank you for mentioning that.

[00:05:22] I think that sometimes with this podcast, we try to go for hidden gems.

[00:05:29] Not always, you know, it's like, you know, I did go Pulp Fiction,

[00:05:34] which should be coming up for us.

[00:05:35] But Rocky, that that's a, you know, an epic.

[00:05:39] Right.

[00:05:39] But you wouldn't think of Rocky as a crime movie usually.

[00:05:44] So yeah, maybe we're airing on not too many of the deep cuts and not enough of

[00:05:49] the, you know, the the greatest hits.

[00:05:53] So OK, that's good.

[00:05:55] And which is your favorite of those kinds of movies?

[00:05:59] I think Goodfellas is just such a great historical overview of mafia.

[00:06:10] History in modern history.

[00:06:13] And it's got such compelling characters and it's got such a pacing.

[00:06:18] And then when you hit that final chapter of it and just the speed at which

[00:06:22] it's rolling forward, it's a movie that really carries me.

[00:06:25] And I can just think of the scenes and I smile or I'm like, wow.

[00:06:30] Yeah, it is absolutely one of these movies that you can watch 50 times.

[00:06:36] Yeah.

[00:06:36] And there's so much to it.

[00:06:38] Yeah.

[00:06:38] Yeah.

[00:06:39] Can I ask you a quick question before we bounce out?

[00:06:43] What is the ending music for properly how?

[00:06:46] Because I honestly listen all the way through because I love that song.

[00:06:55] Great.

[00:06:55] It's a great song.

[00:06:56] It's a great song.

[00:06:58] It is the intro music to the film, the taking of Pelham one, two, three.

[00:07:04] The original, the original.

[00:07:07] And for me, it connotes a particular era in moviemaking.

[00:07:13] Yes.

[00:07:14] Great.

[00:07:14] And just that robust horn section, the percussiveness of the song.

[00:07:20] I just get pumped every single time I hear that song.

[00:07:23] I do too.

[00:07:24] Oh, like genuinely.

[00:07:25] Comes from a particular era of moviemaking that I think is

[00:07:31] passed us by.

[00:07:32] Absolutely.

[00:07:33] But it's a banger of a song.

[00:07:35] I'm so glad that you have.

[00:07:54] Welcome to Properly Howard, a podcast that reviews classic films and other

[00:07:58] pulp fiction.

[00:08:00] Today we take a look at the 1988 action crime thriller, Shakedown.

[00:08:05] Shakedown is part gritty cop story, part courtroom drama and part

[00:08:09] live action Looney Tunes cartoon.

[00:08:12] Peter Weller stars as a tenor sax playing lawyer with bad taste and ties

[00:08:17] who works alongside Sam Elliott, who plays a no nonsense cop with a history

[00:08:21] of involuntary dog slaughter.

[00:08:24] And he is not afraid to weaponize a roller coaster.

[00:08:28] With me to discuss this film as always is Dr. Anthony Ladon.

[00:08:33] Steve, does anyone sit at a bar like Sam Elliott?

[00:08:37] Nobody can.

[00:08:38] I mean, we all try, right?

[00:08:40] I mean, I think that's it's funny because there are those who have seen Sam

[00:08:43] Elliott in a movie sitting at a bar and there are those that don't.

[00:08:48] And that shows any time you go to a bar.

[00:08:52] Anyone that's sitting straight up or anyone that's just kind of just

[00:08:56] just looking like a regular, just an average Joe they've never seen

[00:09:01] because as soon as you see it, you're like, oh, that's what you got to do.

[00:09:03] I got to do a slight hunch.

[00:09:06] Cock the head just a little bit to the left.

[00:09:08] A rice, merc act as if you have a mustache.

[00:09:11] You know, I wipe away beer from a mustache.

[00:09:14] It's nonexistent.

[00:09:16] For those for those who do not know Sam Elliott, what is he Ben in?

[00:09:22] What would they know him from?

[00:09:24] Flannel.

[00:09:26] He's one of these actors where like everyone's seen him in a movie

[00:09:33] and he's always pretty memorable.

[00:09:35] But for some reason, he's not like a household name.

[00:09:40] He's one of these guys.

[00:09:41] Well, you know, he was the guy in The Big Lebowski.

[00:09:44] No, no, not Goodman, Bouchemi.

[00:09:48] He's the other. No, he's the other guy.

[00:09:50] So what what do you think is his most memorable role?

[00:09:58] That's a really interesting question, because I actually had a

[00:10:00] conversation with somebody about Sam Elliott and it's like,

[00:10:04] you know, what is his most memorable role?

[00:10:06] Like, what is what is he known for?

[00:10:09] I mean, like he's, you know, he's been in some some big,

[00:10:12] big films and he's had a real, you know,

[00:10:18] a prominent effect on a lot of those things.

[00:10:20] Like, you know, he's in Roadhouse, for example, you know, and

[00:10:23] Mask and Tombstone.

[00:10:28] He's the hippie boyfriend.

[00:10:31] He's he shares hippie boyfriend and Mask, right?

[00:10:34] Right. He's the he's in Tombstone.

[00:10:37] He's the older, deep, deep voice brother in Tombstone.

[00:10:42] Yeah.

[00:10:43] He's he's sort of this.

[00:10:46] You know, figure of wisdom and the big Lebowski.

[00:10:49] Oh, yeah, he's the narrator.

[00:10:51] And yeah, I mean, he's been in a lot of stuff for sure.

[00:10:57] He was famously in a really great episode of Parks and Rec.

[00:11:03] Right. Where he's the liberal equivalent to Ron.

[00:11:08] Ron Swanson, yeah.

[00:11:09] Yeah, he's sort of like the the yin to Swanson's yang.

[00:11:14] That was a great role for him, but he's not usually cast as the lead.

[00:11:18] Right? He's more of a unless it was the man who killed Hitler and then the big foot.

[00:11:23] Oh, I didn't see that one.

[00:11:26] All right. So he was a lead in that.

[00:11:27] Is that right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:29] Okay. So I think people know who we're talking about.

[00:11:32] So even in this film, he's kind of second banana, right?

[00:11:38] Yeah. And kind of surprisingly so because

[00:11:41] the cover of the film would have you believe that it's sort of a one A, one B, right?

[00:11:47] Yeah.

[00:11:49] With with Peter Weller.

[00:11:51] He is. I mean, he's he's the closest thing to the

[00:11:55] to the next biggest actor and screen time and everything.

[00:11:58] But it's it's interesting how maybe infrequently their their paths cross.

[00:12:04] Like a lot of the stuff they do is without each other.

[00:12:07] And then they're like,

[00:12:09] they're like, you know, they're like, you know, they're like, what happened to each other?

[00:12:12] And then when they do get together, it's it's usually.

[00:12:18] Pretty comically cartoonish.

[00:12:20] It's a mayhem.

[00:12:21] I was trying to describe this film.

[00:12:23] I was like, it's like an episode of LA law

[00:12:27] with a Jackie Chan movie peppered in at times.

[00:12:33] Yeah, it's it's an interesting one.

[00:12:35] I mean, it's it's a lot of genres.

[00:12:40] Yeah, right.

[00:12:40] So it's kind of fitting into our felonies and Fugazi's crime series here.

[00:12:46] But it really almost is a courtroom drama with right at times, for sure,

[00:12:54] with the movie Scarface.

[00:12:58] Right.

[00:12:59] Merch, you know, overlaid with the movie Scarface,

[00:13:03] overlaid with the movie Heat, overlaid with

[00:13:06] a bunch of Jackie Chan action sequences.

[00:13:10] Yeah, it's got a it's got some heavy saxophone

[00:13:15] when when the love story is coming in.

[00:13:19] Yeah, very well, yeah, I mean, it's it's a great everything every other.

[00:13:23] The sax is definitely there.

[00:13:24] So you get a little lethal weapon.

[00:13:27] Sure. Yeah, that's right.

[00:13:30] I mean, it's the movie the movie assumes you know a lot of things.

[00:13:38] Like the relationship between these two characters,

[00:13:41] like it just assumes you would just know that, you know,

[00:13:46] there's this lawyer who's really wants to be a tenor sax player.

[00:13:54] But, you know, he got into law because, you know,

[00:13:56] he was convinced that he wasn't really going to make a living

[00:13:59] playing tenor sax exclusively his family, his father and his family

[00:14:04] that he was a loser.

[00:14:06] Yeah, because it was you're never going to make any money playing tenor sax.

[00:14:10] But like he never he never feels quite himself

[00:14:13] like he does when he's playing tenor sax.

[00:14:15] He can play forever.

[00:14:17] That's what he wants to do.

[00:14:19] Yeah. But that's not that is not the New York he's living in.

[00:14:22] The New York he's living in is not going to reward him

[00:14:26] for playing the tenor sax.

[00:14:27] Now, and he doesn't play it at all in this movie,

[00:14:29] which really shows his how distance he is from his from his passion.

[00:14:34] And and then and then he just sort of knows

[00:14:39] Samuel Elliott's character

[00:14:42] and knows that he sleeps in a movie theater

[00:14:46] lives in a movie theater brush teeth

[00:14:50] in a movie theater with baking soda.

[00:14:53] I was going to ask you about that.

[00:14:54] So this guy, this is this is the the Elliott character named Richie.

[00:14:59] He's a cop and at least a pretty successful cop,

[00:15:05] at least because he's not wearing, you know, street blues.

[00:15:08] He's he's wearing blue jeans.

[00:15:10] It's very important to know that the blue.

[00:15:13] That's right, which by the way,

[00:15:15] this movie internationally is known as Blue Jean cop.

[00:15:18] I saw that.

[00:15:21] He's from Texas.

[00:15:23] So he's kind of an outsider to the force.

[00:15:26] And, you know, he goes and fishes in the East River on his off hours.

[00:15:32] I don't know where he's going to cook these fish

[00:15:35] because he lives in a movie theater.

[00:15:37] So right, you just throw that in there with the popcorn if you get a chance.

[00:15:44] Fish corn.

[00:15:46] That's right.

[00:15:49] You know, you invented popcorn shrimp, essentially

[00:15:52] do the fish come out of the East River already cooked?

[00:15:57] Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine what he's fishing for is edible and to begin with.

[00:16:02] So he he does what I will do

[00:16:04] and that is I will fall asleep during the action sequence.

[00:16:09] I don't know what it is about these movies that

[00:16:12] like you think it was like the lull, you know, when it's really quiet

[00:16:17] and pondering, I would fall asleep.

[00:16:19] Right.

[00:16:20] But it's usually like if there's four or five punches in a row, I'm out like a light.

[00:16:27] And I guess this guy is sleeping to an action sequence

[00:16:31] and one of the director's previous movies.

[00:16:34] So the exterminator, right?

[00:16:36] The exterminator.

[00:16:39] But he's sleeping through an action sequence.

[00:16:40] And I thought that I like that.

[00:16:42] That's that's me.

[00:16:43] That's exactly what I'm going to do in a movie theater.

[00:16:45] But he he seems to live there.

[00:16:48] At least at least temporarily.

[00:16:52] And I'm just assuming like he decided he wanted to be a cop

[00:16:57] in New York City for some reason.

[00:16:59] And, you know, maybe he didn't fit in in Texas.

[00:17:02] I don't know. For all I know,

[00:17:04] he was a bad cop in Texas and he thought I need to go to New York

[00:17:07] where everyone's a bad cop.

[00:17:10] Then he gets there and maybe rent is too high.

[00:17:13] Do you think?

[00:17:15] Then oh, when he's in New York, yeah, I mean,

[00:17:20] he gets the New York City.

[00:17:21] He gets the job as the corrupt police officer.

[00:17:26] The rent is just too high.

[00:17:28] Well, my understanding is that he's in a relationship

[00:17:31] and he's on the outs right now.

[00:17:34] That's as as Roland comes in and tells him, you know,

[00:17:39] I forget exactly names.

[00:17:40] It's so so said if you're willing to, you know, you can go back.

[00:17:44] You're willing to own up to and then he's what you get to look

[00:17:49] forward to because he's, you know, because Roland's engaged.

[00:17:53] And so Richie Marx is letting Roland know that, you know,

[00:17:56] this is this is his fate if he decides to get married.

[00:18:00] So I've got a little something I want to play you.

[00:18:02] I think you're going to like this a lot.

[00:18:07] Rain like yellow today.

[00:18:09] I don't know.

[00:18:12] Moving back to her apartment.

[00:18:15] She went to the bathroom.

[00:18:17] I sat on the couch.

[00:18:20] She had this great big damn dog.

[00:18:24] Dog had a ball.

[00:18:26] I threw it.

[00:18:29] Dog brought it back.

[00:18:31] I threw it again harder.

[00:18:35] Harder.

[00:18:36] I'll never forget the sound of that dog's paws

[00:18:39] on the newly wax floors.

[00:18:42] How am I supposed to know she left the window open?

[00:18:48] A dog fell 13 stories landed on top of a parked car.

[00:18:54] I went over leaned out the window, looked down, threw up and left.

[00:18:59] Left.

[00:19:03] Well, that I were telling her she was the one.

[00:19:05] It's an amazing it's an amazing sequence to really think about

[00:19:08] and depart for one.

[00:19:09] It's like it was their first date and he was going to tell her she was the one.

[00:19:12] So maybe maybe maybe he dodged a bullet, right?

[00:19:15] I mean, also she's pooping, right?

[00:19:18] I mean, like she's got it.

[00:19:19] She's gone for a long time.

[00:19:20] I mean, she's they go in.

[00:19:22] She goes to the bathroom.

[00:19:24] He makes it very clear that's where she is.

[00:19:25] And then he's on the couch.

[00:19:27] She plays fetch twice.

[00:19:28] A dog going down 13 stories is, you know, I mean, takes it takes

[00:19:33] up a little bit and he gets up and grows up

[00:19:39] I would have loved it if at that point if he would still was just like

[00:19:42] in an alternate universe, he's like, you know what, dog be damned.

[00:19:45] I'm going to let her know she's the one even with little chunder and moustache.

[00:19:51] So I like to think of this from the woman's perspective.

[00:19:54] They meet at Shakespeare.

[00:19:56] She's telling a very different story, by the way.

[00:20:00] He meets him at Shakespeare in the park.

[00:20:04] He says he's a lawyer.

[00:20:06] Right.

[00:20:07] It's raining.

[00:20:08] I'm already up to a good start lying to her.

[00:20:11] For some reason, everyone loves lawyers in this town.

[00:20:14] So he goes back.

[00:20:17] They go back to her apartment.

[00:20:19] She goes into the bathroom for maybe it's a little while,

[00:20:24] but it's not going to seem as long to her, right?

[00:20:27] Sure.

[00:20:27] She's got to just get done what she needs to get done.

[00:20:31] She comes out.

[00:20:33] There's barf all over her floor.

[00:20:37] The lawyer's gone.

[00:20:39] The windows open and she looks down and sees her dog splattered on a car.

[00:20:46] All right, this is a pretty bad first date for her.

[00:20:49] And she said she probably wondered like, what did I do?

[00:20:51] Like what she's like, I thought I was the one.

[00:20:55] If only you would have verbalized it.

[00:21:00] What did they do wrong to deserve this kind of response?

[00:21:04] I thought he liked me.

[00:21:06] So good.

[00:21:08] So and I love it because this is like

[00:21:11] the stories being told in the midst of a lot of really interesting stuff.

[00:21:17] And there is.

[00:21:20] There is all kinds of activity going on.

[00:21:22] And again, I'm like, how do these guys know each other?

[00:21:32] I mean, because they just he picks them up at the movie theater

[00:21:34] just so like matter of fact, like, all right, well, it's time to get

[00:21:37] my my down on his luck cop friend around.

[00:21:40] And who knows?

[00:21:41] Maybe maybe we'll get in the shoot them up and on a motorcycle.

[00:21:47] So.

[00:21:48] So they're in a bar and I think that they're trying to trade

[00:21:52] stories about like how the world's a hard place. Right.

[00:21:55] Right. Yeah.

[00:21:56] One guy says, I wish I could play saxophone more.

[00:21:59] And the other one's like, I killed a dog.

[00:22:01] And it's like, all right.

[00:22:02] Well, I mean, we're peeling back some layers later in this movie.

[00:22:08] They're going to come face to face with the shocker from Spider-Man.

[00:22:13] He he literally shocks people to death.

[00:22:17] Like there's some horrible stuff going on in New York City.

[00:22:21] You know, New York's the cops are dirty.

[00:22:24] There's crack on every corner.

[00:22:27] Even you know, you can't even get a place to rent.

[00:22:29] You got to sleep in the movie theater.

[00:22:33] This guy is haunted by the dog that went out the window.

[00:22:39] Yeah. And the video of it is, it's like really the biggest regret

[00:22:41] is not telling her she was the one.

[00:22:45] See, I think the dog is up there higher for me.

[00:22:47] Like, like there's a woman I just met

[00:22:50] that I didn't get a chance to say I was really smitten with.

[00:22:53] But there's also a dog I just met that I killed.

[00:22:56] I love the detail about the barf.

[00:23:00] Yeah, the barf is great.

[00:23:02] I mean, the cadence of that story is you learn so much

[00:23:06] about this individual in that little story.

[00:23:09] And like this is the kind of scene that would be deleted

[00:23:12] in many other like action crime dramas.

[00:23:15] But this one, I'm like, forget it.

[00:23:17] You build the whole movie around this.

[00:23:20] I could watch those.

[00:23:22] If the movie was just Boilermakers with Elliot.

[00:23:26] And I mean, I'm in.

[00:23:32] So so you would think you would think that a lot of time

[00:23:37] talking about this one sequence in this movie

[00:23:39] and this movie is bonkers all the way around it.

[00:23:43] I want to ask you because I feel like

[00:23:46] I would have liked this movie if it had more Sam Elliot in it.

[00:23:52] But Peter Weller is pretty impressive in this movie.

[00:23:55] And I almost I want to ask you this question.

[00:23:59] Do you think that he's too good of an actor for this movie?

[00:24:03] Well, that's OK.

[00:24:04] So that's so Peter Weller is an interesting case, too.

[00:24:07] Right. So like we just talked about, you know, Sam Elliot

[00:24:10] and what, you know, what he would he brings.

[00:24:15] And, you know, maybe not often a leading man, but.

[00:24:21] But always adds a certain gravitas and a certain something.

[00:24:25] Right. And but then you got Peter Weller, who has

[00:24:29] kind of an odd little filmography himself.

[00:24:33] Right. I mean, he's.

[00:24:36] He's he's Buckaroo Banzai and.

[00:24:41] He he shows up in a lot of kind of odd.

[00:24:45] Odd flicks. Sometimes they tend to be a little bit more, you know,

[00:24:49] maybe he feels a more artsy at times, but then other times like

[00:24:54] kind of schlocky.

[00:24:55] So it's like he seems like he's he's a guy that like is often asked

[00:25:00] maybe to to elevate.

[00:25:04] Something that might otherwise be maybe not taken as seriously, perhaps

[00:25:10] you didn't get the same with Robocop.

[00:25:13] Well, Robocop is Robocop.

[00:25:15] What what the smartly they do with Robocop is like, you know,

[00:25:18] even though there was all this talk about like, oh, do we get sports

[00:25:20] and anger? Do we get somebody big like that?

[00:25:22] Taking kind of like Weller can do the everyday man kind of thing.

[00:25:27] Right. He can kind of be your average Joe, but still adding

[00:25:33] a sense of elegance to the performance.

[00:25:36] Like in Robocop, I mean, he has, you know, he's kind of this charming

[00:25:40] Auschuk's cop in a way in the beginning, like not like cheesily done,

[00:25:44] but he just like I find it in a movie where he's so

[00:25:49] like there's so little of him as a full human in it.

[00:25:53] He does a lot with those scenes, I think like he makes.

[00:25:57] I've always found Murphy to be very sympathetic and

[00:26:03] but not like impressed by that performance in that movie.

[00:26:06] I was because I I think I'm kind of a late to the Weller party.

[00:26:12] Mm hmm. I don't think I really appreciated him.

[00:26:16] But what he did with Robocop, which was otherwise.

[00:26:21] A pretty standard action movie, you know, with big action set pieces

[00:26:27] and outlandish scenes, the villains in the movie are over the top.

[00:26:34] And then you've got this really interesting subtle performance by Weller

[00:26:40] and I almost feel like that might be the same thing in this movie.

[00:26:45] Yeah, there's.

[00:26:47] I was actually pretty impressed.

[00:26:49] Yeah, because I've only seen this movie once.

[00:26:50] I think like close to when it first came out.

[00:26:52] And but it always stuck with me like a lot of the scenes stuck with me.

[00:26:56] So it was kind of a nice surprise to revisit it and realize,

[00:26:58] wow, the scenes that stuck with me.

[00:27:01] Were I was always surprised when they showed up

[00:27:03] because the movie doesn't present itself like this kind of movie

[00:27:07] that's going to have death by roller coaster.

[00:27:10] It doesn't, you know, we're Sam Elliott instead of going down the stairs.

[00:27:14] He jumps on like a light pole that then falls down onto a bus

[00:27:19] and then he jumps on to a motorcycle with a side card and knock them off.

[00:27:23] And at that same time, Peter Weller, who took the stairs

[00:27:30] shows up right there and gets on the back of the motor.

[00:27:34] Sam Elliott does not like the stairs.

[00:27:36] He does not. He doesn't mind going upstairs.

[00:27:40] He just doesn't ever want to go down a flight of stairs.

[00:27:43] Apparently he would rather take the storm drain

[00:27:49] and destroy property on the way down.

[00:27:52] Unbelievable, it was so it's such a.

[00:27:54] But that scene just like as it goes from like everything just seems

[00:27:57] like sort of like I'm kind of into it.

[00:27:59] I mean, there's there's definitely an interesting directing style

[00:28:01] that feels a little.

[00:28:04] It's hard to describe, like there's a it feels like a throwback in many ways.

[00:28:08] Like it does feel like if you told me this movie was made in the 70s,

[00:28:11] you know, and there's a certain grittiness to the direction style early on,

[00:28:15] especially the dynamic between, you know, the crack dealer and the police.

[00:28:21] And.

[00:28:23] And so I kind of like, oh, I'm kind of digging in for something here.

[00:28:27] And then and then it's like, oh, then there's this very odd bust

[00:28:32] of this underground, very high end crack den.

[00:28:39] Well, there's a lot of stuff going down in that.

[00:28:42] You need grenades, grenades to get in. Yeah.

[00:28:44] You know, yellow grenades.

[00:28:46] I like the I like the trope with, you know, the trunk opens

[00:28:52] and who's ever responsible for the weaponry says, do you see anything you like?

[00:28:57] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:28:59] Richie says Richie just looks at the array of possible weapons.

[00:29:07] He takes two grenades, two bright yellow grenades.

[00:29:10] Yeah, bright yellow grenades. Really interesting.

[00:29:12] All right. So that is in the same movie that has this scene.

[00:29:16] Of course not. I already said I wasn't there, but it's obvious what happened.

[00:29:20] No, I submit to you that it is not obvious what happened.

[00:29:23] It is not obvious, but it is fair to say that you assumed what happened.

[00:29:27] Because you were not there, Officer Varelli, and you did not see what happened.

[00:29:31] Right. I already said that. Right.

[00:29:32] And your assumption was, was that Patrick O'Leary in the middle of a narcotics arrest

[00:29:37] was shot by Michael Jones.

[00:29:39] But since you were not there, you could assume anything.

[00:29:42] You could assume as a matter of fact, it may be Patrick O'Leary shot himself.

[00:29:46] Or maybe you could assume because you were not there

[00:29:48] that Patrick O'Leary did not identify himself as a police officer

[00:29:52] because his badge was not out.

[00:29:54] And you could assume, Officer Varelli, that Patrick O'Leary pulled his gun out first

[00:29:58] and shot Michael Jones, planning to kill him and steal his money in his drugs.

[00:30:03] So do you assume that, Officer Varelli?

[00:30:05] Bullshit.

[00:30:06] Mr. Dalton, you will please approach the bench.

[00:30:09] So this is a courtroom drama.

[00:30:11] Yeah, there's actually several scenes that are actually kind of gripping.

[00:30:14] And it's actually like they're almost going for something

[00:30:19] that close to realism in the courtroom drama.

[00:30:22] It's like he's a pretty good courtroom lawyer

[00:30:26] and he's trying to submit evidence.

[00:30:28] And then, of course, but you know, he's bringing the evidence too late to the party.

[00:30:33] For some reason, the street crane that attaches itself to the taxi

[00:30:40] that, wow, that covers him over the courthouse

[00:30:43] and then drops him on the step of the courthouse.

[00:30:46] Like that's not over the top.

[00:30:48] But as soon as he goes in the courthouse, the judge is like,

[00:30:51] oh, we're not going to submit this.

[00:30:53] This is ridiculous.

[00:30:55] That's what that's OK.

[00:30:56] That's why I think this movie is pretty, pretty freaking amazing.

[00:30:58] Right? It it'll go from like I said, you know, it goes from the verdict

[00:31:03] to, you know, like super cop.

[00:31:05] And and then back to the verdict again.

[00:31:09] Like, you know, he goes, he wants to he there's this big tip about this evidence, right?

[00:31:13] There's this whole scene where Sam Elliott's character gets tipped off

[00:31:16] by like kind of a scared, you know, on the beat cop.

[00:31:20] Right. Yeah. And tells him, hey, no, there's evidence that can

[00:31:23] that can will show, you know, that, you know, the cop is dirty on the take or whatever.

[00:31:29] There's this whole thing, right?

[00:31:31] So finds out about it and he goes and Peter Weller goes to get it

[00:31:34] and the cops because they're all they're all against him,

[00:31:38] even if they're not necessarily on the take, which some clearly are.

[00:31:41] He's also defending what they see as a cop killer.

[00:31:44] Right. So so he's he's like, you know,

[00:31:47] he's public enemy number one in a police precinct.

[00:31:51] Yeah. So he tries to break in, they catch him.

[00:31:53] Well, so they then they torture him and play Russian roulette with his forehead.

[00:31:59] Right. And then they decide, OK, well, we're just going to we're just going to kill him.

[00:32:04] We're just going to kill him right here in the precinct until Samuel

[00:32:07] Elliott is told where he is by the guy who wants to kill him.

[00:32:13] He he busts in.

[00:32:15] He shoots the cops.

[00:32:17] Yeah. Then he jumps in a cab.

[00:32:19] Peter Weller jumps in a cab.

[00:32:22] The cab driver knows his constitution.

[00:32:26] He loves America, so he's going to get that.

[00:32:29] He's going to get a little wacky, wacky immigrant trope.

[00:32:33] He's going to get the lawyer to the court on time.

[00:32:35] There's a car chase that ends with a construction crane

[00:32:40] that lifts the cab over the crowd, drops it onto the courtroom steps.

[00:32:45] He runs in and the judge is like,

[00:32:49] no, we're not going to submit this into evidence.

[00:32:51] It's too late.

[00:32:51] Let's hear your closing arguments, counselor.

[00:32:54] That whole entire sequence that included a crane

[00:32:58] happened just happening to to to hit the windshield of a taxi.

[00:33:04] And then instead of being like, oops, this is a real problem,

[00:33:07] lifts him up over the police barricade so that he can now have

[00:33:12] some sort of safety by being on the courthouse steps,

[00:33:15] which I'm not. I don't know the law real well,

[00:33:18] but I didn't know that if a police officer has a gun to somebody

[00:33:23] after getting craned over a police barricade after a police chase,

[00:33:30] that a judge can say, you have, you know, you're in charge of the law

[00:33:34] on the streets, but on these courthouse steps, I am the law

[00:33:38] and then I'll have my wacky bailiff

[00:33:42] keep an eye on this massive team of crooked cops.

[00:33:46] And the other part of it is I'm like, well, he's not even on the steps.

[00:33:50] He's still like, you know, a good like block away.

[00:33:53] So I'm really sure.

[00:33:55] But I watched that scene over and over again

[00:33:57] and I was like, how and who was the crane guy working with?

[00:34:00] They're like, oh, no, that was an accident.

[00:34:02] I like to think that that was the cousin of the cab driver, maybe.

[00:34:05] Like, I mean, it's a crazy sequence.

[00:34:09] And it's this massively orchestrated

[00:34:14] sequence that at the end, like that starts from him getting the tip off

[00:34:19] about the the the tape to try to get the tape to stealing the tape

[00:34:25] to getting beat up and getting ready to be killed to getting crammed

[00:34:29] over a police barricade only to find out that like, well, that was for nothing.

[00:34:34] It's for nothing because that tape was submitted improperly into evidence.

[00:34:39] So this is the same movie, the same movie that just used a crane

[00:34:44] to get him to the court on time.

[00:34:46] That movie has the sensibility to say, no, there's there are rules.

[00:34:50] We're we're.

[00:34:52] And that's the and I think and I think what it is is this goes to show

[00:34:55] this movie is is is showing you, look, we have a judicial system.

[00:35:00] It may not be perfect, but it is set up by a set of rules.

[00:35:03] Right? It is set up by this set of rules.

[00:35:06] And then you try to follow these rules and then sometimes those rules

[00:35:09] get in the way of justice being served.

[00:35:11] But out there on the streets, it's mayhem out there on the streets.

[00:35:15] You know what they're you're looking for order.

[00:35:18] Well, well, good luck.

[00:35:19] Sometimes you need a serendipitous crane to get through life,

[00:35:24] but you can't plan for it.

[00:35:26] You can't adjust for it.

[00:35:27] You just have to react to it.

[00:35:29] So ultimately, this whole movie is is the two the two ways you can play

[00:35:35] Tenor Sax, right?

[00:35:37] You could play it note for note and you can be polished.

[00:35:40] You may not be the lead in a band, but you definitely will probably have

[00:35:45] a nice little backing role.

[00:35:46] However, if you want to really play Tenor Sax,

[00:35:50] you got to be willing to play jazz.

[00:35:52] You got to be willing to hit those off notes.

[00:35:54] You got to be willing to improvise.

[00:35:56] You got to be that's why what we see is we see,

[00:35:59] look, he wants to get into the insurance game because that's safer.

[00:36:03] That's Tenor Sax played note by note.

[00:36:06] This band is jazz, baby.

[00:36:08] And that's the world he needs to live in.

[00:36:12] Sam Elliott weaponizes a roller coaster.

[00:36:15] Right.

[00:36:15] As a guy with a knife comes at him and runs away.

[00:36:20] He decides he's going to immediately get on top of a roof.

[00:36:24] He's not going to chase him directly.

[00:36:27] He's going to get on top of a roof at Coney Island.

[00:36:29] He likes his heights, man.

[00:36:31] He likes his height and go up a roller coaster.

[00:36:35] Break the engine of the roller coaster so that the guy

[00:36:41] that the roller coaster flies off of the tracks.

[00:36:46] Is this film trying to tell me something about like the system being corrupt?

[00:36:52] Because at the end of the day, nothing really changes.

[00:36:55] Like like a couple of bad guys get blown up in a plane.

[00:36:59] Right.

[00:37:00] Yeah. And Sam Elliott almost causes 9-11.

[00:37:08] That's nuts, man.

[00:37:10] That ending sequence, if you were to watch the first 30 minutes of this movie,

[00:37:14] right? Yeah.

[00:37:15] And then you watch the last five minutes of this movie, you're like, what

[00:37:18] happened? How did we get here?

[00:37:23] It's crazy.

[00:37:24] First 30 minutes, we've got dirty cops.

[00:37:30] We've got courtroom stuff.

[00:37:32] And then the last sequence, Sam Elliott is hanging on the landing gear

[00:37:37] of a private jet over the city of New York, shooting it while he's hanging on it.

[00:37:44] And they almost hit one of the World Trade Centers.

[00:37:47] But they narrowly averted and then he takes one of his golden grenades.

[00:37:51] He never leaves the house.

[00:37:52] He was parking the whole time.

[00:37:53] I guess so.

[00:37:56] I don't know if he keistered that grenade, but he throws that in there,

[00:38:00] jumps into the water and they land and explode.

[00:38:06] It's it's I don't know if this movie is so funny.

[00:38:10] Like I watched it and then I went back and I watched several scenes over and over

[00:38:15] and that one being one of them, the the dog story for sure.

[00:38:22] All right.

[00:38:23] But it never refers back.

[00:38:25] It's like he just like like Peter Weller is not like, wow, that was crazy.

[00:38:29] I can't believe that just happened to me.

[00:38:30] It's like, well, got to go to court and cheat on my fiance, I guess.

[00:38:35] So all right, most of the time with crime dramas.

[00:38:39] It'll be some commentary on like the cops have to become monsters

[00:38:45] to fight the monsters on the street.

[00:38:47] Or it's hey, cops, robbers, not that different at the end of the day.

[00:38:53] Or hey, these criminals have honor and maybe they even have more honor

[00:38:58] than the police officers or maybe it's like look how dark the system is.

[00:39:03] Look how how fundamentally corrupt this entire system is.

[00:39:08] Let's put a spotlight on this so we can see exactly how bad things are.

[00:39:14] This movie does none of that.

[00:39:16] What this movie does is no time for that.

[00:39:19] It plays with this idea of like a good cop amidst the sea of bad cops.

[00:39:23] But even then, the good cop from Texas, he's a pretty bad cop too.

[00:39:31] Like he steals the bad cop's Porsche.

[00:39:34] He steals the bad cop's Porsche.

[00:39:36] Just because he's got he's got a clean gun that he can threaten criminals with.

[00:39:42] Oh, yeah.

[00:39:42] And tell me he's going to throw him in the East River.

[00:39:45] File it under DSAF.

[00:39:48] The Society of Favor.

[00:39:50] The lawyer, the idealistic lawyer.

[00:39:54] He doesn't really take down the cops like this.

[00:39:59] Like all these cops are on the take.

[00:40:00] They're all corrupt.

[00:40:02] But that doesn't get exposed.

[00:40:03] It does not get exposed.

[00:40:06] This movie ends with a grenade and the grenade.

[00:40:10] The grenade blows up.

[00:40:12] The bright yellow grenade blows up this private jet and the movie's over.

[00:40:17] And where it ends is not like, hey, we took down this corrupt system.

[00:40:23] It's like, no, you get to be a public defender again.

[00:40:29] The big win is that his fiance miscarries.

[00:40:33] Right.

[00:40:34] That's like a huge win.

[00:40:35] All right, no, it's like a big that's a big scene.

[00:40:38] I know I'm going to play you something here.

[00:40:40] Like we're all going to sit there and be like, oh, good.

[00:40:43] People like him belong in jail.

[00:40:45] I can't believe he want him out.

[00:40:46] You know, honey, I don't necessarily want him out.

[00:40:49] I just don't want him in for something he didn't do.

[00:40:51] Who cares if he did it?

[00:40:52] If he didn't do this, he damn sure did something else.

[00:40:54] Who gives a fuck if he's innocent?

[00:40:56] Well, I do.

[00:40:57] I give a fuck.

[00:40:58] For Christ's sake, this man sells death to school kids.

[00:41:00] Hey, oh, hey, hey, sweetie.

[00:41:03] What's going on here?

[00:41:05] Come here.

[00:41:06] What's all this about?

[00:41:08] Huh?

[00:41:09] Is this some kind of panic that I'm going to take a left turn

[00:41:12] on your dad's offer about his law firm?

[00:41:14] I don't know, maybe.

[00:41:16] Yeah?

[00:41:17] I just don't understand your fascination with all this.

[00:41:21] Hey, it's all in your mind.

[00:41:24] I'll call about the apartment, I promise.

[00:41:26] I'll call tomorrow.

[00:41:27] All right?

[00:41:28] OK.

[00:41:30] And you love me, right?

[00:41:31] I love you.

[00:41:33] A lot.

[00:41:35] OK, so here's my thesis about this movie.

[00:41:38] This is not a movie about a corrupt system.

[00:41:40] It's not a movie about dirty cops.

[00:41:42] It's not even a courtroom drama really.

[00:41:45] This is like a lot of other 80s movies

[00:41:49] that are preoccupied

[00:41:52] with what money will do to the soul of a man,

[00:41:56] an otherwise good man.

[00:41:58] There's so many movies in the 80s where it's like

[00:42:00] this guy, he could be a good guy, but he's chasing the money.

[00:42:04] He's going to lose his soul chasing the money.

[00:42:06] He's otherwise idealistic.

[00:42:08] He likes Jimi Hendrix, right?

[00:42:11] So he made very clear as he makes his little homemade orange Julius.

[00:42:15] Yeah, he's not as racist as all of the other lawyers and cops and whatever.

[00:42:21] He likes a funky tie, man.

[00:42:23] He likes a funky tie, but a girl broke his heart.

[00:42:27] And after that, he's he's kind of lost his direction.

[00:42:31] And what he's done is he's latched himself

[00:42:34] on to a wealthy girl who has a wealthy father and he's going to get in on some kind

[00:42:42] of he's going to get on the American dream, the American dream.

[00:42:46] He's going to be a big partner at a law firm.

[00:42:51] He's going to chase money because his heart is broken.

[00:42:57] What ends up happening is that that girl,

[00:43:00] that old flame comes back into his life and he gets his bearings again.

[00:43:05] And he decides I don't need the money.

[00:43:07] I'm actually good at public defending.

[00:43:09] And that is what I'm going to do with my life.

[00:43:11] And that's sort of like the indicator at the end.

[00:43:14] It's like, oh, she was faking the pregnancy.

[00:43:17] Forget that.

[00:43:18] I am absolutely going to go back to public defending.

[00:43:23] The corrupt system is going to remain corrupt, but at least this one

[00:43:27] honest lawyer in New York City gets to embrace the idealism of the law again.

[00:43:35] And I think you could say that about a lot of 80s movies.

[00:43:40] There's there's something about this

[00:43:43] this worry that we've lost the ideals of the 60s and 70s.

[00:43:49] And the 80s are all about money.

[00:43:51] It's all about materialism.

[00:43:53] Now, we need our hero to learn that at the end of the movie.

[00:43:58] Yeah, I mean, there is definitely that right?

[00:44:00] He returns back to from whence he came.

[00:44:03] And it's it's very bookended

[00:44:07] scene where he's he's back in in the trenches.

[00:44:12] Going to see another client and that is just opposed with the lavish

[00:44:18] dinner setting where I guess where they were going to be talking engagement

[00:44:22] stuff, I think is what it was.

[00:44:23] Right. And where she reveals either that either was a miscarriage or the pregnancy

[00:44:28] was a fake, but whatever the case is, she says the rabbit didn't die.

[00:44:34] And so either.

[00:44:35] But she announces that that I think she announced that she lost the baby.

[00:44:39] Right. Because I because I think both are like I think one is

[00:44:42] a lie, right? Because she just told him that she just told him that she was never

[00:44:45] pregnant in the first place.

[00:44:46] Because she even said she said I didn't want to lose you.

[00:44:49] Yeah. So she was she was she was going to trap.

[00:44:51] So then she tells the you know, she it's a rather than say that she tells

[00:44:54] everybody that they lost the baby.

[00:44:56] And then so he's looking around and he's like, well, dude, I'm out.

[00:44:58] And so like he basically gets up to make an announcement like during this whole

[00:45:00] thing. So from their perspective, she just announced that they lost the baby.

[00:45:04] He's like, yeah, I'm leaving you.

[00:45:08] I mean, that's that's a wild dinner party.

[00:45:13] That's like that's like getting that's like thinking you're on a roller coaster.

[00:45:17] And then it just launches off and kills you.

[00:45:20] But what do you think about my thesis that this is pretty typical to 80s movies?

[00:45:25] That it's like it has to have some kind of commentary on the financial state of the country?

[00:45:32] Well, I think yes.

[00:45:33] And I think you're absolutely right.

[00:45:34] And I think you you hit the nail on the head too when you specified

[00:45:38] a man losing his soul, right?

[00:45:41] A man because it is the female characters in this movie are not.

[00:45:47] They're not strong.

[00:45:48] They are not.

[00:45:50] I mean, they're OK.

[00:45:51] One of his old flame is the assistant DA.

[00:45:53] But they have this whole like argument out because like he hasn't he won't.

[00:45:58] He hasn't told his fiancee about wanting to leave her and all this stuff.

[00:46:02] And so basically she gives him some big lecture.

[00:46:06] That's like all about him.

[00:46:09] It's all about, hey, you have to do what you like.

[00:46:11] She doesn't even she's she's nothing really in this in this conversation.

[00:46:15] It's not about how she feels about how she's being treated.

[00:46:18] It's all about like him like he becomes the center point of even her life and

[00:46:23] him doing the right thing for him is really important.

[00:46:26] And then so we get the other painted picture of this fiancee who, you know,

[00:46:30] the the the mean OK, we find out she doesn't know who Jimi Hendrix is.

[00:46:34] So that's weird.

[00:46:35] And then and then she then she fakes a pregnancy.

[00:46:40] And then they have that that scene that you just played where like she's not wrong

[00:46:45] from like a moral standpoint, like she is with the guy that he's going to

[00:46:49] understand the idea of a public defender like one.

[00:46:52] Right, which is also a weird thing because you're going to you're going

[00:46:55] to marry him and you don't know what he does.

[00:46:58] But I mean, so like so her reaction to this was like it could have been

[00:47:01] like a real nice learning moment for the two of them, right?

[00:47:04] And where they can say, is this really are we are we compatible knowing that

[00:47:07] this is my job at least at this moment?

[00:47:10] And and you may see that this is I'm setting a, you know, a villainous

[00:47:15] person free based on the technicalities of law.

[00:47:19] And then it just sort of gives her one of these you're being hysterical moments.

[00:47:24] You know, are you just are you just or maybe you're just upset

[00:47:28] because you don't think that I'm going to take that job from your dad?

[00:47:31] Is that what this is really about?

[00:47:32] And then she and then she's written to just play right along with it.

[00:47:35] Well, maybe on that song in your mind, man.

[00:47:39] And that's all in your mind.

[00:47:40] And that's where well, but well, or like this is going back to what you're

[00:47:43] talking about with Weller, I think Weller can take

[00:47:46] material that might be a little questionable and just he's pretty

[00:47:49] earnest about the characters he plays and I think so is a little bit into it.

[00:47:53] And I think he's too good for this movie.

[00:47:55] I think he's I think it's actually a pretty legitimately great acting

[00:48:00] performance in this movie.

[00:48:01] Well, and so you say he's too good for this movie.

[00:48:04] I think I think it's a blessing because this is a movie that like if you don't

[00:48:11] have a Weller performance, well, first off, Sam Elliott also.

[00:48:14] I mean, Sam Elliott's not necessarily plain off type,

[00:48:18] but like if you had cast any other two people in this that were maybe like

[00:48:22] B grade or whatever, no one no one cares.

[00:48:25] You know what I mean?

[00:48:26] I think maybe we've already solved this.

[00:48:28] I think that early on we discovered that this is really like four different

[00:48:33] genres of movie put together.

[00:48:36] Right.

[00:48:37] I think that at least one of the movies

[00:48:39] that this filmmaker is trying to make is really helped by Peter Weller.

[00:48:46] Well, I think I could have watched all four of these movies, right?

[00:48:50] Because I think Peter Weller and sort of as

[00:48:53] like sort of a rag tag, you know, rock and roll type lawyer is interesting.

[00:49:01] I thought it was interesting.

[00:49:02] I actually liked his performance in the courtroom quite a bit.

[00:49:05] I found it to be authentic.

[00:49:07] I love it when he was like completely disheveled and still just nailing it.

[00:49:10] You know, I mean, I really like that.

[00:49:13] I like the sort of this.

[00:49:16] I like Sam watching a Sam Elliott as like a good cop, but not necessarily

[00:49:20] a pure cop, you know, working amongst the sea of mulleted bad cops.

[00:49:25] I oh, no, he's not a good.

[00:49:27] He's not a good cop.

[00:49:28] But he's not on the tape.

[00:49:29] He's not on the tape, but he's absolutely a bad cop because being from Texas,

[00:49:34] he doesn't understand the concept of a sky rise

[00:49:39] because being on the 13th floor, he doesn't quite get that.

[00:49:43] You can't play fetch with the dog in the windows.

[00:49:46] Right.

[00:49:47] There's a lot of things about heights he clearly doesn't understand.

[00:49:49] Right. Like, I mean, he hangs on to a plane flying through the air.

[00:49:53] You know, no, I like he's I don't think he understated.

[00:49:56] He might have depth perception issues, right?

[00:50:02] And so his mustaches obstructing his vision.

[00:50:06] That's what it is.

[00:50:07] There's another movie I want to watch, though, where it's just Peter Weller

[00:50:10] and Sam Elliott on motorcycle shooting.

[00:50:13] I mean, it's great.

[00:50:14] Like, what is their relationship?

[00:50:16] Because at the end of the courtroom situation, right?

[00:50:18] Like, he gets the get the guy gets found innocent of being murdering a cop,

[00:50:26] necessarily. And and then it's like, OK, great.

[00:50:29] And then he just books it out of there.

[00:50:30] And then Sam Elliott's waiting for him with with the Porsche that he stole

[00:50:33] from the cop that was killed and it's like, you want to drive?

[00:50:36] You want to shoot? I'm like, you're the cop.

[00:50:41] Why does the lawyer have the option?

[00:50:43] Why are you waiting for him anyway?

[00:50:45] What is he?

[00:50:47] The whole that whole sequence.

[00:50:49] It's so it's so great where he's just like, man,

[00:50:51] I hope he reps up his trials soon.

[00:50:53] I just found out. No, go get him.

[00:50:55] What?

[00:50:57] You ever waited for anybody in court or for any kind of proceeding?

[00:51:01] You don't know when it's going to end.

[00:51:03] And he's just all he's you want to drive or you want to shoot?

[00:51:07] I let the cops shoot in Texas.

[00:51:10] The lawyers drive or shoot.

[00:51:13] They don't do that.

[00:51:14] That's amazing. I just it's a state law.

[00:51:16] And there's so many other ways that I felt like they could have stopped them from flying.

[00:51:20] I don't know.

[00:51:22] All right, let's let's move on to the.

[00:51:24] Is there one tweak that you would make to this movie to improve it?

[00:51:30] It's well, and I think the easy tweak would just be like, you know, pick pick a lane.

[00:51:35] Right. That's not like a slight tweak.

[00:51:37] But I think I would want a little more.

[00:51:40] Honestly, I loved the whole crane sequence,

[00:51:43] but like even just a voice over at one point going, I can't stop this crane

[00:51:48] or something because it did take me a long time.

[00:51:52] I'm like, is the crane guy in on this?

[00:51:55] And and then there's a oh no, it's just he's really, really bad at his job.

[00:52:02] How many how many cabs has he picked up that day?

[00:52:06] Right.

[00:52:07] It's just Tuesday.

[00:52:09] It's only been four cabs.

[00:52:10] I mean, I may be a little more Sam Elliott.

[00:52:12] Maybe I think would be.

[00:52:13] I think more Sam Elliott for sure.

[00:52:15] I was going to say this movie is a little bit

[00:52:18] like one good white guy in the midst of a lot of racists.

[00:52:23] Mm hmm.

[00:52:23] And this is sort of we're supposed to read his lack of racism as, oh,

[00:52:28] well, he's a nice guy and then at the end, you know, because, of course,

[00:52:32] the dirty cop hates rap music, right?

[00:52:35] Right.

[00:52:35] And then immediately, which by the way was red hot chili peppers.

[00:52:38] OK, so let's all settle down.

[00:52:40] And then immediately we go to Weller's apartment where he's making a shake.

[00:52:46] When I was like a smoothie or something.

[00:52:48] Yeah, like orange Julie is a little bit of instant Folgers.

[00:52:51] It was like milk, orange juice, egg and Maxwell House.

[00:52:57] Oh, yeah, Maxwell House.

[00:52:58] Yeah, so again, I'm not sure how good this guy is, but he likes Jimi Hendrix.

[00:53:04] He's even got like a Jimi Hendrix poster.

[00:53:06] So you're thinking, oh, well,

[00:53:07] he's not racist because he can't be racist, of course.

[00:53:10] Right.

[00:53:11] Like Jimi Hendrix, right?

[00:53:13] But then at the end of the movie, they try to show that he's morally superior

[00:53:18] to his client, stand up and face me like there's a little bit of white

[00:53:24] superiority in this at the end.

[00:53:28] So I feel like you didn't need that.

[00:53:30] And it almost like if you're going to make everyone in this movie dirty,

[00:53:35] then do that.

[00:53:37] But don't try to make this one guy like this is the one non racist guy in all of New

[00:53:42] York City. Yeah, I mean, I guess I mean from from the racism perspective, sure.

[00:53:47] He is I mean, he is a guy that spends a good chunk of this movie

[00:53:51] cheating on his fiance.

[00:53:53] So in terms of his pretty bad

[00:53:57] terms of hard of gold, yeah, but he doesn't know he thinks he doesn't know

[00:54:01] she's faking the pregnancy.

[00:54:02] In fact, he thinks she's pregnant while he's still actively cheating.

[00:54:06] So I mean, just keep that in mind.

[00:54:08] I mean, keep in mind he's probably just engaged to her for the money anyway.

[00:54:12] Right.

[00:54:13] So also maybe not good,

[00:54:15] which I think is good.

[00:54:16] I think it's good to have have some flawed main characters,

[00:54:20] but it does seem a little inconsistent in how they're they're trying to portray

[00:54:23] him. I think so. I think so.

[00:54:24] Because I think I think I think the way that the movie is designed and this

[00:54:28] might be going back to some of the maybe the latent misogyny that's in it.

[00:54:33] I'm not latent, but, you know, apparent is

[00:54:39] is that like we're supposed, I think, be OK

[00:54:42] with the fact that he's with his infidelity because

[00:54:46] well, that's his that's his old claim.

[00:54:49] He's and yeah.

[00:54:50] And and it's ultimately what we are supposed to believe is best for him.

[00:54:55] So kind of consequences be damned

[00:54:59] because he's the center of this universe.

[00:55:03] Well, we don't want to see him marry for money, right?

[00:55:06] Right. I guess.

[00:55:09] So is there a trope, a cliche or a device that you enjoyed in this film?

[00:55:15] A Sam Alley, it's mustache.

[00:55:18] Does he not have a house?

[00:55:20] I was rewatching a few scenes of Roadhouse and it looks like he's not wearing

[00:55:24] a mustache in Roadhouse.

[00:55:26] It's just not as prominent.

[00:55:27] It's for sure there. I've seen him without his mustache.

[00:55:30] It's it's it's unsettling.

[00:55:31] Is this better with Ron Parr with a Ron Howard movie?

[00:55:37] This is probably the toughest question, and I'll tell you why.

[00:55:41] Because I think Ron Howard makes a more cohesive film

[00:55:47] and probably leans way more into the courtroom drama and maybe some of the

[00:55:53] relationship issues.

[00:55:55] But I don't get a roller coaster and I don't get a near 9-11.

[00:56:05] So it's a real tough one because

[00:56:10] of the of the four movies, I think two of them are a maybe three of them are a

[00:56:16] Howard minus four, but there's one that's a Howard plus three.

[00:56:21] You know, yeah, I got to say this is a Howard negative three.

[00:56:27] Hmm. I think Howard Howard picks a lane.

[00:56:31] It's interesting, like I think what was Howard's first?

[00:56:34] What was his film debut?

[00:56:35] Directorial debut was the one with Winkler and and Michael Keaton with

[00:56:40] Night Shift Night Shift.

[00:56:42] That's a look, you know, sort of New York City.

[00:56:45] I mean, they're corrupt corners

[00:56:49] and pimps, but it is kind of like that wacky after dark New York movie.

[00:56:57] So we know he can do something along those lines.

[00:56:59] Right.

[00:57:01] But yeah, but you know, pick a lane.

[00:57:04] What's his grittiest movie?

[00:57:07] Howard's grittiest movie.

[00:57:10] Because I don't know if he really does gritty.

[00:57:12] Right. That's a great question.

[00:57:15] Because I mean, I'm looking at it.

[00:57:16] I mean, is it backdraft?

[00:57:19] You know, I mean, ransom perhaps.

[00:57:23] You know what?

[00:57:26] Maybe ransom in a way.

[00:57:28] But you know, Night Shift, the back corners turned pimps.

[00:57:32] There's prostitutes.

[00:57:34] I mean, that's pretty gritty in terms of like it's a gritty comedy.

[00:57:38] Yeah. So the thing is, is that I don't

[00:57:40] I don't know we have a real good, you know, grit comparison.

[00:57:45] I think Night Shift is analogous at least.

[00:57:49] Well, then this movie's better than Night Shift.

[00:57:51] So then I'm going to go stand by it's a mixed bag.

[00:57:55] Because I mean, now if you give me

[00:57:57] Henry Winkler killing somebody on a merry-go-round in Night Shift, look at Doc.

[00:58:05] Is there a

[00:58:07] one to grow on half the battle moment in this film?

[00:58:13] You know, stick with the sax.

[00:58:18] Follow your dreams.

[00:58:19] I was going to say you can't trust anyone

[00:58:22] who's ever fallen in love with the saxophone.

[00:58:25] Let's just be honest, if there's one to grow on,

[00:58:27] if you're at someone's apartment for the first time,

[00:58:31] check for open windows, especially if you're going to play catch with a dog

[00:58:35] through it harder.

[00:58:37] Like he doesn't know the layout of this apartment at all.

[00:58:40] How about close your windows when it's raining?

[00:58:42] If it's you already react true.

[00:58:44] Thank you. Yeah, you're risking you're already

[00:58:46] risking knocking over a blender by throwing it harder into a room.

[00:58:48] You're not aware of what's going on.

[00:58:52] A little bit of feedback for you, Steve.

[00:58:55] All right.

[00:58:56] This was not sent to our regular email account, which is cocoonsofhorror.com.

[00:59:05] But I got an email

[00:59:08] and has some really nice things to say about you, Steve.

[00:59:15] Those are some of my favorites.

[00:59:16] This is from JJ.

[00:59:18] He says, unironically, when Steve really gets impressed,

[00:59:22] is there anyone who can incisively encapsulate what unique,

[00:59:27] unnoticed element caught his attention?

[00:59:29] Why and how it does this more brilliantly or passionately better than he does?

[00:59:35] I don't think so.

[00:59:37] People that are funny are inevitably brilliant.

[00:59:39] Hey, wow.

[00:59:42] So I think that's a really nice, really nice email.

[00:59:47] Is this me?

[00:59:48] Is this me trying to wax poetic about Howard the Duck?

[00:59:50] It must be.

[00:59:52] But I like this and I wanted to call this out because I think that in general,

[00:59:57] when we get reviews or emails

[01:00:01] that compliment you, they really kind of focus on your sense of humor,

[01:00:06] which is not a, you know, you're a stand-up comedian.

[01:00:09] You probably do care about that.

[01:00:12] Sure, maybe more than most.

[01:00:15] But I think that this person has said something true about you.

[01:00:20] I don't think that this

[01:00:23] podcast works unless you're bringing to something to the table intellectually.

[01:00:28] And I agree with this guy.

[01:00:33] And that is all I have to say about that.

[01:00:36] Well, that's interesting because you on my end, you completely cut out.

[01:00:41] Well, I was just saying a lot of really nice things and you'll never hear them.

[01:00:45] Since you do not listen to this podcast, you'll never hear what I just said.

[01:00:49] This one I may actually tune into it because you've got a great teaser.

[01:01:58] Oh,

[01:02:15] Hey, listeners, if you've been listening to our show, chances are

[01:02:19] you've heard the wonderful contributions of our favorite Tolkien

[01:02:22] scholar, Marilyn R. Pukila.

[01:02:24] Marilyn just launched her own podcast on our network called Rings and Rituals.

[01:02:28] Join me and Dr.

[01:02:29] Sarah Brown on our journey through the Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power

[01:02:33] through the lens of ritual.

[01:02:35] Episodes drop every other Wednesday on the Rings and Rituals feed linked in the show notes.

[01:02:40] See you there.