#61 - Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon

[00:00:00] Properly Howard, a podcast that reviews classic films and other pulp fiction. Today we look at the 1985 action-packed romantic kung fu music video, Berry Gordys The Last Dragon. The Last Dragon features William H. Macy and Chaz Palmentary in bit rolls supporting Time

[00:00:40] Act as Bruce Leroy and various other actors that put on a masterclass in cultural appropriation. Also quite possibly the only movie with the maximum allowable amount of L. de Barge allowed by the FDA. With me, do his wisdom thing is Dr. Anthony Ladon.

[00:00:59] Steve, when you sit in a movie theater, do you have a preferred location? Do you want the back road? Do you want middle, center middle? Where do you like to sit? I want to be as far away from the break dancers in the aisle as possible.

[00:01:21] Otherwise you can angry and do a double foot stomp. Right, and I don't want to have to unleash that fury. I don't like to be too close to front row because that's where you'll get a lot of

[00:01:33] hair thrown at you or blown at you from the fights that break out. Now Bruce Leroy, he sits right in the front row. Over the front row. He's got the worst seat in the house. And the worst seats available. There's a whole balcony up there.

[00:01:53] It's when you look at the crowd, are you suggesting that he might not want to sit next to some of these fellows? Right. There might be a... I can't imagine that theater smells great. There's a lot of tank tops.

[00:02:12] I've never seen so many tank tops in a movie theater. It is a humid theater. That theater could double as like a 14 year old boys room. Who am I? Who am I? I can't hear you. Show-naught. The show-gun of Harlem. Show-naught. So Shonoff has a specific seat.

[00:02:57] He's got a row that he's selected. And he can show up late. He shows up super late. He shows up... He's probably seen this movie before. He shows up late. He's got an entourage. He's got an entourage and he's got seats selected.

[00:03:15] He has beasts clear out the two white girls who are in his row. But here's the thing about this particular movie theater. It's not just a place to watch movies. It really is the stage for Shonoff to strut his stuff. I mean, everyone's there in one spot.

[00:03:37] He's got enough authority to shut down the movie for a little bit whenever he walks in. This is his home court advantage. Well, and he's been gone. He's been gone. And this is what I mean... The movie doesn't answer this. And this is... He's been gone?

[00:03:53] Well, I mean, he's back. But he's made it very clear that the show-gun is back. So he was on hiatus. Was he sort of on a little walkabout? Was he training? You know, there's so many questions like I mean, this movie... I think he went to the restroom.

[00:04:11] That's what it was. He was... The entourage went... Yeah. His football shoulder pads needed adjusting. Went to the restroom. He was gone for maybe five minutes. But every time he enters that space, he need beast crunch, wipe. He needs the full ceremony.

[00:04:44] So yeah, no, he's got a certain seat selected. Is that where you would sit in the theater? Sure. Yeah, I would definitely be in Nuff's row. Not in the balcony. He doesn't... It's sort of like off to the left of the aisle. I've seen this movie a lot.

[00:05:05] And I've never actually taken the time. And I will do that in the next viewing to see like who was in charge of wardrobe and what other work have they done in Hollywood? They just raided Barry Gordy's closet.

[00:05:21] I mean, it is bonkers, the outfits that are in this movie theater. This movie theater is probably like, I don't know, the Harlem equivalent of the cantina in Star Wars. That's exactly what this is. This is the cantina scene.

[00:05:40] And I mean, there's a lot of different little au mages in this film. I mean, you've got the whole Wizard of Oz thing, right? When Leroy finds out that there is no master, it's just a computer. Goes back into the back room, realizes that there is no wizard.

[00:05:59] There is just this little guy. But in this one, it's a computer who's pumping out fortunes. Very disconcerting. In fact, this was the moment where I wept, marked my childhood ending. Yeah, I wept and, you know, my parents never taught me about Santa Claus.

[00:06:22] And so I never had to show up in this movie. Yeah, no, I realized that there was no master. But I did start believing in Santa Claus after the final fight scene of this movie. Well, Santa, Santa in this movie has a Mohawk, which, you know,

[00:06:43] which we don't see because he typically has his Santa hat on. And so what we saw is a dark side of Santa the same way that you, your God died, you found out that Santa is with you unleash Santa to.

[00:06:57] This is what he does the rest of the year. This is summer, Santa. I feel like this is him blowing off steam, you know, like he gives himself a couple of weeks out of the year to just kind of like break Amish.

[00:07:13] And his mind in his mind, Kung Fu is naughty. This is how he unleashes. Santa's Mohawk is an interesting choice. So it's suggesting either like a punk rock or maybe he's a Mr. T fan. Maybe both, maybe both. This movie is a rich tapestry.

[00:07:38] And then it's like, there's just no word like, you just know where to know where to begin with this. Right? I mean, yeah, there's no way that I didn't know where to be. I will say this though. I was thinking like

[00:07:51] if ever we wanted to end this podcast, like this would be a good one to go out on. Like this is almost the climax of our history of podcasting together. Like we were built as we are built in a lab specifically to cover this movie on a podcast.

[00:08:12] And then I thought, well, it maybe it's even more than that. Maybe this isn't the pinnacle of our podcasting career. Maybe this is the teleological outcome of our friendship. Like maybe it's possible that this is us speaking right now, Steve. Yeah, it's quite I mean, it is.

[00:08:32] There is sort of a multiverse quality to this. I mean, I had seen this movie in high school. A friend of mine called me and this is going to sound crazy to all of our millennial and Gen Z listeners.

[00:08:46] We don't have any, but in the event that for some reason, you know, your son, oh no, we're going to get them. They're going to start listening in about 20 years. That's right. But this. So what would happen is I was I got a phone call

[00:09:02] on a landline from a friend of mine and says, turn it to Channel 44. And and I did and he says, have you seen this? And I said, I don't know what I'm watching. And he says, I've never seen this.

[00:09:16] And we just sat on the phone and watched the last dragon together. And then so then the time goes by and I kind of forgot about this movie. And then and then I'm house sitting, my wife and I are house sitting.

[00:09:29] And we have our young son and you come over with a VHS tape. Recorded I was wondering. Yeah. See, that's I was trying to remember how this all went down. I was thinking, I think it was a VHS tape.

[00:09:45] And I think I gave it to Steve and then took it back. Like I think I gave it to you as a gift like happy birthday. Here's here's your present. It's a VHS tape that that taped a movie off of the television. And then we we watched it.

[00:10:07] And I said, OK, I need to take this back because I need to record it for myself. And then I never gave you the VHS tape back. Is that Ring of Bell? It does. And I thought it was it was ironic that when you're asking like,

[00:10:21] you know, where is this streaming? And I'm like, well, you have the tape. So. So there's there's more to that story. So I was working on Catalina Island with a group of, you know, four or five other year round staffers.

[00:10:41] And there wasn't a lot to do. There was no internet. We were on literally on an island together doing maintenance around the camp. And this woman I was working with named Carolyn Martinez had this movie

[00:10:56] and she popped it in and I my eyes just popped out of my school. I thought I need to show this to Steve. And so when I was back in Sonoma County, I had asked to borrow the tape and she said,

[00:11:10] you have to get this back to me. I'll let you borrow it, but you have to get it back to me. And my idea was I'm going to take this home. I'm going to have a copy made of this.

[00:11:20] This is this is all really, really janky technology we're dealing with here. And I didn't do it. I didn't I didn't know why it didn't happen, but I didn't make a copy of the tape. I just decided I'm just going to go show this to Steve.

[00:11:38] So it showed you her copy of the tape, which I needed to return. Never made you a copy. And so you got screwed out of your present. So this really does keep with the theme of felonies and forgazies. Yes, your whole birthday present was a fake.

[00:12:02] And I don't know if that's a felony on my part, but. Well, Filonia is active damage to our friendship, at least. Well, you were kind of in your Filonia's bag, if I may bring our listeners into a little bit more.

[00:12:20] I know they're they're Johnson for more Last Dragon review and we will get to it. But during the same time period when we were house sitting, you and a friend broke into the house. Yeah. And stole my video camera.

[00:12:36] So that you might mind it was a borrow, I feel like it was a borrow. There was no no there was no nothing. We woke up and our video camera, which we had like spent a lot of money on,

[00:12:45] which we didn't have a lot of money, but we wanted to invest in like, you know, our son's, you know, Christmases and things like that. And you guys took it and then you went around and kind of broken

[00:12:55] to other people's houses to film them and give them goodies and all this stuff. And you thought this was hilarious. Well, we called the police and had them come over to this was Christmas morning. Yeah, it was Christmas.

[00:13:07] So what I was doing on Christmas morning, I was breaking into people's houses and videotaping them wake up from. Yeah. With a stolen video camera with, I mean, with a borrowed video camera. I mean, I think yeah, I mean, the police report says one thing.

[00:13:25] I mean, look in my defense, how much have you actually watched these old videos of your son at two years old? Well, that day none. So now that we've established that I'm the Eddie Arcadian of Sonoma County. Yes. I appreciated you forgiving me in the end.

[00:13:52] I did return the video camera. You were pretty pissed. You're pretty pretty pissed. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, when you've spending Christmas with the police doing the police board, your wife's crying and you're it's, you know,

[00:14:08] you don't you don't even have a copy of The Last Dragon to console you. Yeah, no, it was not my finest hour. And I'm older and wiser. I rarely break into people's houses on Christmas morning anymore. I would like to speak to him bad. Anna.

[00:14:36] I'd like to play you something. Let's just a little snippet of a song that Eddie Arcadian is going to try to get out into the world. Right. And it's a banger. Certified. It's called it's called Dirty Boy. And it's it's not just a song, Steve, it's a story.

[00:15:10] And the story is about a woman who finds dirty magazines in a guy's suitcase. And he wants her to participate. He does now that she's seen it all dress her up and dress her up in peekaboo's body oil and roller skates. This guy's specific.

[00:15:28] And they're trying to get her song on to the seventh heaven. TV program. Yeah, yeah. Lord Charles. It's it's kind of like Soul Train, but it's more like I mean, it's it's like Soul Public Transit. I mean, it's it's kind of Soul Train meets like UMTV raps.

[00:15:53] I guess Soul Subway, maybe. So Angela, she's sort of the up and coming star that Eddie Arcadian is going to use to cross over into the music industry. Because I think at this point, he's made most of his bones in video games.

[00:16:16] And I think probably a pretty successful video game magnate. He's got his video games in in pizza shops around New York City. Exotic fish. Exotic fish. I don't know. OK, so he's got he does have a flesh eating fish

[00:16:36] in his apartment, but I got the sense that that's rock that that's rock's fish. Is that rockers fish? He may have been I think it may have been rock's idea. But I mean, obviously, Eddie had signed off on it.

[00:16:47] He says, you know, he said, like you said, keep it around. Like coming handy. I mean, at one point he notices that it's there. And then he's like, I thought I told you to get rid of that. Right. Like, yeah, that giant fish tank that he had, like,

[00:17:02] I mean, he didn't even notice rock throwing like a big old like chunk of meat in there. Like, like just moments before whatever's in there because we don't actually see it. Whatever kind of monster lurks beneath that green water, it creates lots of bubbles. Yeah.

[00:17:20] Massive amount of bubbles. And it can just it can just tear through a frozen pig leg. He had Amazonian jacuzzi fish. So this so our Eddie Arcadian, clearly the villain of the movie, motivated, I think by greed, but also

[00:17:46] like I think he legit goes crazy by the end. But he surrounded himself with kind of 80s. Omages to me. Angela is clearly a Cindy Lopper. Omage, right? Yes. Hair do the even the look of the video. Right. It's sort of a Cindy Lopper rip off.

[00:18:12] And then Rocco is absolutely rocky, right? He's the great he was going to be the great white hope. But now he's a he's a bodyguard, a fish lover, you know, and Rocky. He has turtles. That's right. Yeah.

[00:18:27] Cuff and link in this movie, rock, who's who's an Xboxer has Amazonian jacuzzi fish. Well, yeah, it's kind of it's kind of like a parallel universe. Right? Like, I mean, if Rocky never gets his shot, right? Like he was kind of a two bit, you know, enforcer. Yeah.

[00:18:48] And if he had never gotten his shot at the title, this is what, you know, inevitably would have ended up happening. So in many ways, I don't know that this isn't a in the Rocky universe. Just so yeah, right. This could is yes, this is sort of inspired.

[00:19:04] This is Rocky, too. It's going to work easily as Rocky, too, for sure. So Angela kind of realizes what she is to Eddie Arcadian. She decides, oh, I all of this glamour. Maybe it's a facade, you know, maybe it's maybe it's all a Fugazi.

[00:19:26] And she sees that what he has done to rock now he's doing to her and she confronts him. And I for me, this was this was the stand up performance of the entire movie. It's all for you, isn't it? You know, I like to trade places with you.

[00:20:01] Why don't you just walk out? Go have a nice normal boring life. Well, to tell you the truth, it couldn't be any more boring than hanging around here with all this cooking my hair while you guys go play cops and robbers. Where are you going to go, Angie?

[00:20:18] Without me, you're nothing without that outfit. You're just another no talent, dental hygiene school dropout from two gardens getting by on our kids. It's pretty rough. And you know what? You're nothing but a misguided, midget asshole with dreams of ruin the world. Yeah, also from two gardens

[00:20:49] and also getting by on my kids. Got him. Not even the nominated. Where do you think you're going? Probably a Meryl Streepier. Delocution class. What's up? She's going to she's leaving to go to elocution classes at the end. Mm hmm. What is this?

[00:21:15] Because because if you're from Q Gardens, you talk like an old timey gangster. And in order to sort of enter into regular society, you need a location classes. And it's I mean, and it's kind of cool now because

[00:21:33] we're in a time where Biden is forgiving all elocution class debt. So it's just a really it's just a really cool time to be to be alive. Well, and I feel like this movie kind of foreshadows that because

[00:21:50] a lot of the people in this movie are trying on different accents. I mean, New York City is so cosmopolitan that you you got people trying on all kinds of different cultures for size. You know, you got the Green Family.

[00:22:08] Who is trying on these sort of the Italian restaurant. Right. You've got the fortune cookie guys who are more street than even Leroy Green. Well, yeah, then you kind of got, you know, the whole basis of the movie. She feels because Bruce Leroy.

[00:22:31] Bruce Leroy, that's what they call him. It's a black kid from Harlem who's decided to sort of embrace all things, I guess, Kung Fu culture generally. And he's become pretty good at it. He's absolutely ascended through the ranks as demonstrated by the very

[00:22:56] well displayed symbols that his master shows him in the in what appears to be a rough draft diorama of of his journey. Sure. Right. He's got one more level. He's got but he could be that he is at that level.

[00:23:17] I mean, it's it's one of these times in a movie where you're told something at the beginning, but it really does the impact of what you're told at the beginning doesn't really take on full meaning until the end of the movie because because of the golden belt buckle.

[00:23:36] And I was going to ask you this. Is this the most prominent golden belt buckle in film history in this movie? I'd have to. I mean, trying to think of another situation where I mean, there's outside of Rockies Rockies belts, right?

[00:23:56] It's not really a boxing belt would be probably the closest thing. Yeah, not really a buckle, though. Is this movie a musical? Kind of. What you looking for? I am looking for the master. Ain't no masters here, dude. Ain't no slaves either.

[00:24:17] Is this not his fortune cookie factory? The master here doing his wisdom thing. I seek only wisdom of the master. You want wisdom? You buy fortune cookie. Take a height, Cool breeze. Please, I must see the master. It is very important to me. Look here, Chuck.

[00:24:36] The master don't see nobody, especially no job, Coolies. Yeah, he don't see no one who don't know how to get down, baby. You dig, bro, you to square. I love the idea that that if indeed there is a master,

[00:24:50] the only way you have access to him and his wisdom is if you can get down. He doesn't hang out with anyone who's square. Right. The master, the master's like sometimes it's like, oh, you know,

[00:25:04] you've got to you have to either go through this like maybe some sort of a test of endurance or wisdom or some strength, something that gets you to a point where you earn the right.

[00:25:14] This is just simply like, you know, these three guys go in and they go, it's like, who wants to see me? Oh, it's this guy's kind of a jive coolie or whatever. And they're like, well, does he get down? Yeah, yeah, he gets down and come in.

[00:25:25] All right. So I have a lot to say about these three guys. They're attracting quite a crowd out in front of their fortune cookie location. Imagine being so good at lip syncing that that people stop what they're doing. I mean, wow.

[00:25:48] I mean, it's not just a lip sync. There is there's some no, no, no, there's a yeah, there's a whole there's a presentation. It's choreographed. Yeah, yeah. Arguably the just the tiniest male nipples on display through a mesh shirt and cinematic history.

[00:26:12] Let's just that's not barely the mesh shirt is notable. True. I did own a mesh shirt once. I don't know if you ever own a mesh shirt. Did you go? So did you go full? Just let it all hang out underneath the mesh shirt?

[00:26:27] No, it was sort of like OK, so let me paint a picture for you. It was sleeveless. OK. Army green mesh just underneath the collar and mesh under over the mid-drift. But it had sort of like a strip of solid cloth

[00:26:52] across the chest with a tiny and I mean tiny zipper pocket at the lapel there. And it's like a designer was trying to save some material. And in keeping with my my criminal background, this was a shirt that wound up in my suitcase

[00:27:18] at the end of summer camp. And because there's no way that my parents would buy that for me. But I somehow it came home with me. And I honestly don't know whether I stole it or whether it just happened to fall into my suitcase or whatever it was.

[00:27:35] Somebody who's like, I'm not bringing this thing home. I did bring it home. I did wear it a lot one summer, probably around 85 with the captain's hat. The captain's hat was a little little ostentatious with that outfit. No, no captain's hat. But I did have at that point

[00:28:03] the kind of the strip sunglasses who that was just one solid lens, you know, a little bit like Jordy from Next Generation. Amazing how even as children in the 80s, we gave off cocaine energy. What was the most ostentatious thing that you ever wore as a kid?

[00:28:28] Boy, that's a great question. See, I was always pretty self conscious and didn't want to draw a lot of attention to myself. We've we've flipped roles. We've definitely taught you. Yes, I'm much more conservative with my dress now.

[00:28:41] And yeah, you fan, I am actively writing down mesh shirt, no sleeves, tiny pocket because I want to put it in my search engine. Sure. Very tiny pocket like maybe fit a quarter in it. Like it's not it was a tiny little zipper.

[00:29:05] What would it even be for? Probably for a single quarter. Just just in case I got one video game on me. No, it's sort of like if you wear this shirt, we're just going to assume that you're going to wind up in the gutter somewhere.

[00:29:19] And so here's a quarter so you can call home and ask for help. All right, so these these fellows, these three fellows who run a pretty successful fortune cookie factory have access to some really decent technology.

[00:29:40] Entrepreneurs, to me, these guys are just living their best lives that no one is having more fun in any movie ever than these three guys. That's fair. That's a fair assessment. They've got the computer doing all the work for them.

[00:29:57] And what they do with their day is they lip sync in front of the building to adoring fans, adoring fans. And then at night. They're tricking black men and to teach them how to play craps, which they don't know how to play. All right. Right.

[00:30:21] They smoke weed, they drink booze, eat pizza. I mean, how much weed are you have to smoke? To think hopscotch is craps. Yes. All right. So the veil is a little bit let down in this because you can tell like they're

[00:30:37] actually not as hip hop as they put on because I know and that's something big reveal apparently there's not a big gap between hip hop and hopscotch. This is a. It's a powerful film, right? I mean, it's it's all about self discovery.

[00:31:03] Like throughout, I mean, this whole thing is like it's just you don't have to be who your society tells you you need to be right? You can be whoever you want to be. Well, definitely a lot of eastern, you know, themes which are the journey

[00:31:20] to within, especially where you kind of maybe have a Western look at like a higher power or some sort of way to like, in many ways, like it sort of brings you into some Star Wars thematics of like the force and all that.

[00:31:36] But so the whole I mean, this whole movie is a journey, right? The whole I mean, everybody's on a journey and it all essentially leads to self discovery. Right. What and everybody ends up finding is that that what they really

[00:31:48] were looking for was either within them or right in front of the whole time. His brother, who is so standoffish and searching for like he's he's looking for satisfaction and self worth through a date with Laura Charles. And who would write? She's she's intoxicating performance by vanity.

[00:32:12] Just I don't know if I've ever seen a more interesting woman on screen. She she sings like maybe she's in a horror movie. Yeah, it's a little sort of thriller homage there. But but it's also a little bit demonic because what is the lyric to her song?

[00:32:33] It's we don't burn angels suggesting that we don't burn angels on the fire. We don't burn angels on the fire, suggesting that whoever they are going to burn is a little devil. Very very. Yeah, we should probably do a close reading of the

[00:32:54] Seventh Heaven lyrics because I think I think the a lot of the story is being revealed through through this song. Because I mean, obviously, this movie is very Gordy's The Last Dragon, right? So there's a fair amount of. Cross over right between them.

[00:33:18] And the soundtrack is important and there's not so subtle advertising or promotion for probably people that have been signed through the label. Right? Like the song Fire that they, for some reason, take a lot of time to just

[00:33:32] watch while they're getting ready for a big kung fu showdown. That with that just pushes Arkadian over the edge. He's just he's just screams the title of the song. Fire. Just just an amazing little way to like, like there's a there's kind of like a,

[00:34:20] you know, life imitating art thing going on. Like like Eddie Arcadian is trying to force the issue with his his protege to get onto this, you know, get her video played. And but meanwhile, you kind of get the sense in the background.

[00:34:34] Very Gordy's like, and make sure to put this act in there. I want to I want to give a little teaser for for Charlene. So Seventh Heaven lyrics, I found a place. By the way, I was I wanted to say about Charlene.

[00:34:48] I was convinced for years that that was Carrie Fisher. Yeah, I could see that. Anyway, yeah, let's talk about the lyrics of Southern Heaven. All right. So I found a place. For you and me to go if you want to get in. Ha, ha, ha, step up.

[00:35:12] That's all you've got to do to get to Seventh Heaven. Obviously a very biblically sound number. Right. So basically saying, look, look, the the entrance to Seventh Heaven is easy. It's actually this isn't a narrow road.

[00:35:27] Right. So this is where you started maybe move away from sort of some of the maybe more Christian ideals, right? Like the idea that the path is narrow. This is no, it's that's all you got to do. All you got to do is want it.

[00:35:37] Right. I can't believe what you're going to see once you get inside. I know you're coming alive. If you want to play around in my school, you'll obey my golden rule. All right. So I can't believe what you're going to see once you get inside.

[00:35:49] It's OK. OK. Well, once you get inside where? Once you get inside the elevator, once you get inside Seventh Heaven. This is going this is back to the concept that he's going on a journey and where he's really going is inside himself.

[00:36:03] And he's not going to believe what he sees once he gets inside. And I know you're coming alive. If you want to play around in my school, you'll obey my golden rule. And this is this is the rule. Right. This is what I assume. Right. Keep it up.

[00:36:15] Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Keep it up and around. I'll never let you down going up. I'll keep it up and around. Do I ever? There you go. So I mean, that's cryptic for sure. And then eventually I found the place finally found my trace of love inside.

[00:36:31] I pray you'll arrive on time. Step off the elevator. Check the incinerator. Heaven never burned an angel on a fire. Oh, my. Oh, my God. I can't explain how I'm going to feel once you come inside. I know you love my ride.

[00:36:43] You can fool around in my room and enjoy my golden rule. And then the golden rule once again is keep it up up and around. I'll never let you down. So there's a test. Right. You step off the elevator. You check the incinerator.

[00:36:56] This is where you this is the true test, right? Because heaven never burned an angel on a fire. If you step off that elevator and you check the incinerator and you get burned. Well, you you're not you are not worthy. You're not ready. That's interesting.

[00:37:12] I had always kind of taken that as this, you know, sort of a it's not really heaven. This is a debauched place where they're going to have. This is seventh heaven. When you actually get to the seventh level of heaven,

[00:37:29] you find that they're burning all kinds of people except for angels. And here's the thing is heaven is like a bunch of people just getting off at the lobby, they don't even realize you just you could press seven. That's all you have to do.

[00:37:42] Now, does this mean that she is part of his final level? Like does that mean that she is part of him achieving the last level of Kung Fu? The elevation includes. Yes, his elevation with her. So let's look at the whole movie, right?

[00:38:04] When we first see this movie start, right? The movie what's happening in the credits, we're seeing very close up imagery of Bruce Leroy famously played by Timek doing all of his kung fu work, right? He's doing the moves. He's he's out there and then we see him training.

[00:38:21] He's like chopping out, you know, arrows. Is it getting like shot by him? Right. I mean, he's doing all of it. So it starts with him doing all of the moves that he's learned, that he has mastered. That's why he's going on the next level.

[00:38:35] Every level he moves up means that he's mastering more moves and he's getting out of thinking without thinking and all of that stuff. And how does the movie end? He calls out to her. Can you show me some moves? Yeah. Yeah. Can you teach me?

[00:38:51] Isn't that amazing? I mean, isn't that isn't that powerful? Because his whole journey began because of the moves he's mastered. And at the end, he realizes in this part, in this next level, this seventh heaven, if you will, he doesn't know any of the moves.

[00:39:10] So this is the obvious next life. He was trying to get to seventh heaven the whole time. So right. So he's accomplished everything that he's going to accomplish as a kung fu master on this level. He's even got the glow. I mean, let's let's be honest.

[00:39:28] You've got the glow, but you but you don't know how to please a woman. What good is the glow? But in order to sort of, let's say, consummate your full humanity, you're going to have to start living life outside of the dojo.

[00:39:42] You can't be ready to give to others until you have learned how to appreciate and love yourself. That's this movie is powerful, right? I mean, it's it's evergreen. It's it's it's I feel like this should be played in public schools as kind of like a coming of age.

[00:40:01] It should just be required. I feel like if I was a marriage counselor, for example, I'd make you watch this and play this in the background. Yes. Showing once again that there's a there, you know, look, there are masks that we wear.

[00:40:18] There are there are facades that we put on. There are there are things that are about ourselves that we're not ready to show. Let's think about the dirty boy. And like I think. Yeah, it's easy to sit there and say, look, she's disappointed.

[00:40:32] But what if he was honest from the gate? Right. What if you what if he showed what he was about from the jump? Don't hide it under a bushel. Let it shine. Don't be afraid of who you are. If you want to reach the upper level,

[00:40:45] mind, body and soul must be one. Is Bruce Lee Roy every man? Yes. Mentally challenged. Well, well, I mean, does he have struggles? Is he I mean, because in some aspects of his life, he's he's kind of a savant.

[00:41:07] Like he's actually got a whole dojo where he's teaching acolytes to his his particular kind of training. And yet when he goes home, his younger brother is acting like kind of an older bullying brother. Well, it's funny because I think it's really easy.

[00:41:25] It's really easy to see the younger brother as kind of antagonistic, right? Like he needs to come full circle and we need to he has that moment at the end where he was like, hey, man, that ain't a cornball. That's my brother, you know, powerful words.

[00:41:37] And but also in this movie, I think that maybe is under appreciated is that that Bruce Lee Roy kind of goes to the same transformation, right? Like he sort of kept his family sort of at arms length. I mean, he did all these polite bow type thing,

[00:41:53] but he was because he was so he was so obsessed with kind of going to a different culture as opposed to being a part of his like the one he was being raised in that maybe he's lost a little touch.

[00:42:04] So his brother really does a really good job of like he sees that. And I think it's like he understands that he is starting to step into a world that maybe like he can't really be himself unless he embraces who he where he

[00:42:17] comes from, who he surrounds himself with. And I think obviously I think Laura Charles is is a catalyst because he has feelings he's never felt before because again, maybe he's not well. And then. But then when he meets these these fine gentlemen, these fortune cookie entrepreneurs,

[00:42:41] Titans of the fortune cookie industry and they're kind of embracing a different culture. Like I think there's it becomes a little bit of a mirror and noted karaoke enthusiasts as well. Yes, yes, yes.

[00:42:55] So, you know, there is there I think he's he comes kind of comes face to face. This is sort of like when, you know, if I may borrow from Star Wars again, when like the when Luke confronts Vader in the, you know, and the cave it dig about.

[00:43:07] Right? Like you have this like he sees himself in that and is like, oh my gosh, where am I headed? Right. And so this movie has that that sort of that sort of thing going on as well. And so I think there's an opportunity for for self actualization,

[00:43:21] realization of the whole thing. And then, you know, and why is Eddie Arcadian ultimately the villain is because he never gets to that point. Show enough is a sense of purity. I think there's I mean, yes, he's he's a villain.

[00:43:33] But I think he's kind of like this is the path. Right? Like if you, you know, what is it what they say that you either you either die a hero or you live long enough to be shown off.

[00:43:45] So I think show enough actually is a very interesting character in this because he kind of gets shown up by Bruce Lee Roy at the very beginning. Bruce Lee Roy says those who are bound by desire can see only that which can be held in their hands. Right.

[00:44:02] So he kind of like he gets schooled. He gets schooled by Bruce Lee Roy at the beginning. By the end, he doesn't take the briefcase of money. Show enough is not as superficial as Bruce Lee Roy suggested earlier.

[00:44:19] Either he's taken that lesson or he always knew the lesson. I think he always he already knew it because he's got the glow too, man. He's got the glow too. He doesn't have to glow as fully, perhaps, as Bruce Lee Roy,

[00:44:32] but he absolutely has the glow and he rejects the money. He's in it for the fight. He feels like he's on a journey of his own. And that's the only guy that stands between show and total supremacy. Total supremacy, the words of bees. Right.

[00:44:50] So the movie is showing these two kind of on a collision course. I'm not sure what show enough next level is going to look like. Total supremacy. Yeah, well, it could be total supremacy. The next level and realizes like, oh, this was all a lie.

[00:45:09] This is all empty in the same way that Bruce Lee Roy does. Well, see, and that's and there is it is like the two sides of the coin. Right. Because while while Bruce Lee Roy is out there trying to find the master,

[00:45:22] what is shown off claims, who's the master shown up like he's he's wrecked in his. I mean, he knows he's got the glow. He sees himself as the master. One thing that's interesting too about show enough and his use of the glow.

[00:45:38] He's he's a pretty decent steward of the glow like he's he could have brought the glow out in the in the movie theater and just, you know, away with these guys. He doesn't even bring out the glow until right towards the end of of the

[00:45:55] the Bruce Lee Roy face off. So there's something to be said like now, no, there are, you know, there are scholars that suggest that show enough glow because it is based sort of on personal interest and this idea of total supremacy that that's why it's

[00:46:09] not fully it's not fully realized he can't access it. It's actually born from anger. And if you look when does he actually use it when Bruce Lee Roy is kind of towards his weaker state? So he has less power.

[00:46:21] It's more of a they call it I think the scholars call it a show glow because it's it's more theatrical than it is actually effective where and why when Bruce Lee Roy's glow comes into effect, I mean, it actually regenerates him right

[00:46:38] and it not only regenerates him because it's it's explosive. Right. So I guess the show glow is more destructive, whereas the Bruce Lee Roy glow is more sort of self generative. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you probably you probably have rather same articles.

[00:46:57] So I was just going to say shows show enough hiring practices are pretty inclusive. Mm hmm. Super progressive. His entourage includes people of different races. He's hiring women, he's hiring women that are maybe on the fringes of society.

[00:47:18] He's hiring women who aren't really great at karate or like dental hygiene. He's he's they don't have I mean, yeah, all kinds of benefits. No, no dental benefits in the show. No, I mean, come on, he's not well, but he's he's a shoe.

[00:47:35] He's all briefcases full of money. He doesn't have money to pay out health care. He could probably use like maybe throw an accountant in the mix in the in the posse. That is, I mean, going back to talking

[00:47:48] up speaking of progressive, let's go back to that movie theater. I mean, that is a progressive movie theater. I mean, there is a lot going on there. You got you got bodybuilders who are wearing pink tank tops. Barely. Yeah. You get. Oh, this poor native American fellow.

[00:48:11] You have a Rasta, Rastafarian. Smoking a huge blunt. Man, that it's very inclusive theater. I mean, that theater is is impressive. I also love that, you know, a guy with the last name Arcadian felt compelled to get into the arcade game business. I mean,

[00:48:45] he's he's I'm going to form a merger, the former merger with this guy who's in the he's in the music industry. He has this thing called touch tunes. His name is Jeff Jukebox and steam. I mean, Eddie Arcadian has

[00:49:00] has struck the fear of God into the people of Harlem. Poor William H Macy's just he's fearing for his life. Oh, my he's a real he's a real heavy dude. I mean, he's a real heavy dude. I think this is William H Macy's first film.

[00:49:16] I also think it's the first film of Rudy from the Cosby show Cosby show. Yeah. What was her name? Was the actress's Keisha night? Pulling him. Yeah, there you go. There you go. And then, of course, Chaspalm, a Terry. Now, you mentioned Chaspalm, Terry, and I

[00:49:37] I didn't see him in the film. Maybe I was he's the he's the the the car driver when they get Lord Charles in the and then and the Bruce Lee Roy. He gets dispatched by through the open window.

[00:49:53] Yeah. Everybody in that that group, those thugs in their suits, all were wearing white socks. I thought that was an interesting choice. Just something I know of all the of all the wardrobe being in this film. That's what really caught your attention. Yeah, yeah.

[00:50:10] Not the the saggy yellow Bruce Lee suit that was already dirty that Bruce Lee Roy was wearing. Also, it's really hard to notice him. He doesn't have any lines, but I did notice in the back of the pizza parlor. I do believe that's cockroach from the Cosby show.

[00:50:29] A young think you're right. Yes, yes, it is. So yeah, so there's there's a little bit of Cosby show DNA in this film. Unfortunate because this film was so progressive that it ends up getting tainted in retrospect.

[00:50:49] The actor who plays Eddie Arcadia and I just saw him in Maximum Overdrive but didn't recognize him. I knew he was a question about him and I wanted to get your take on this. So he's pretty comfortable with his male pattern baldness, right? Pretty wealthy.

[00:51:06] You think that he would be wearing a hair piece, but the only time he ever wears a hair piece is when he goes into show enough dojo. Right. He's got the full wig on and I'm wondering why you think he chose that moment to wear the wig.

[00:51:27] Yeah, because it's not like he's in disguise. You know, he wants to be known. It almost feels like you know, a Cobra commander would wear the hood when he was in the lair,

[00:51:37] but then he would wear like the helmet and the faceplate when he was out in public. Maybe that's that's sort of what it is. You lack imagination, Destro. We possess the ultimate weapon of control. People trust television. It's their friend. Just more comfortable when he's in his apartment.

[00:51:57] When he feels like there's a possibility his face may get put in with the jacuzzi fish. Right. Well, I risked it. Peace. It's a subtle, like I said, it's a subtle way to show that Eddie Arcadian is not

[00:52:11] getting into his own personal elevator to get to his seventh heaven, right? Still still self conscious, still trying to pretend he's something he's not. And the fact that she goes to the Elocution class, she's like, I know what I need to work on. That was a huge moment.

[00:52:30] Uh, Steve, is there a trope of device or a cliche that you enjoyed in this film? God, I mean, where does one begin? I really like it when there is a friend in the group that really doesn't match the group

[00:52:58] and really serves his only purpose is to like rip his pants. You're talking about the young portly boy? Yeah, who was like like he's like a heavy metal fan. He's got like Motley crew patches and and a fedora. And then they lift him inexplicably,

[00:53:16] lift him on something that he could easily get on. And we hear the sound of pants ripping, but his pants never rip. So I don't know if it's scrotum tore open or what, but it was at the same. It's just I've watched that.

[00:53:29] I watched it was where he goes, ah, shit. I watch that scene like a Heather like watches this movie all the time. And she knows it's like, oh, here we go. He's going to rewind this like at least four times.

[00:53:42] I like a fight scene that includes a lot of thumbs ups. Like. Yes. Oh, man. You've got like all of the the worst villains of New York City gathered into one place and Bruce Leroy has to fight them all.

[00:54:01] And you know, he's got people on his side, but these are not people who are fight ready, right? They're not these are not battle tested warriors. And some of them are, you know, sub four feet tall.

[00:54:15] But what they all have in common is when they take a guy down, going to give each other the thumbs up. And I really appreciate that. Yeah, I agree. I think we should talk a little bit about the dojo coming to his aid.

[00:54:29] Johnny, another guy who was pretending to be something he wasn't. But then when he was confronted with an actual situation, ended up being really great at Kung Fu. You may recognize Johnny. He was in another movie. I believe you've seen called Penitentiary Three. Oh, yes.

[00:54:49] The one with the one with thud. Yeah, Johnny is in that. OK, so Johnny's interesting to me because everyone else in this movie is trying to be something else, right? It's like the Asian guys are trying to be black.

[00:55:03] The black guys are trying to be Asian or the black guys are trying to be Italian or whatever. Johnny, his whole view is look if people are if you just kind of posture, people are afraid of an Asian guy that knows karate.

[00:55:17] If I just lean into the stereotype, that's going to that's going to work for me. It doesn't really work for him. But sometimes you got to fake it till you make it. And he makes it when he gets on to that stage at Seventh Heaven.

[00:55:35] He can absolutely take down anyone and everyone. He can get he can get it with the nunchucks, too. By the way, I mean, I that's that's legit. I do like I like the incorporation of breakdancing and fighting. I also like it when

[00:55:50] the younger brother rest in peace, by the way, we lost him a few years ago. Is that right? He yeah, yeah, breakdancing accident. Yeah, he was complications from a shooting. Oh, he was also in New Jack City, by the way. He when he's trying to escape his

[00:56:10] if he's tied up so he kind of breakdances his way out of it. And my favorite part is not just tied up. He's sort of like he's kind of like Houdini tied up. It's like right there's chains and ropes all up and down his body.

[00:56:22] And he breaks he breaks out of it. But the best part is that there's a scene where they could have just edited it or maybe shot it again, where he can't break dance the ropes off very

[00:56:32] well. So he sort of just sort of pushes him with his free hand, which also demonstrates he could have just just taken them off. So it's just it's a it's a wonderful little tribute to the overall attention to detail that's in this film.

[00:56:49] I was watching an interview with Ty Mac on this. But one of the things that I found out was that that every scene that they shot for this movie, they used. It wasn't like there's a bunch on the editing room floor. There's no director's cut somewhere.

[00:57:08] There's no director's cut. They used every bit of footage that they that they shot. It's a bold move. And it kind of created something of a little masterpiece. I like that. I like the leaving. Yeah, I mean, because there really is. I mean, it is also

[00:57:27] kind of a miracle that you can have a movie where you use every single scene and every scene is value added. Is there a tweak that you would make to this movie to improve it? I mean, you did text me and say it was a perfect movie.

[00:57:47] Right. So I'm saying I want to prequel. I want to know what show enough was. I kind of want that journey. Mm hmm. I mean, I was kind of surprised there wasn't a sequel to this. It made good money. This movie did not suffer financially.

[00:58:09] Almost an immediate cult classic. Yeah, which is kind of wild, right? Yeah, because usually like if you think of like a cult classic, it usually doesn't do well and then people discover it on VHS or something like that. It was just never kind of marketed to

[00:58:26] mass audiences, I guess, unfortunately. This would have been like a great reboot, like with the Wu Tang clan somehow involved. I was watching this and my lovely wife sat down for the last 10 minutes of this. Has she seen it before? I honestly thought that she had.

[00:58:50] It's possible that she has and just forgot. How do you forget if you've seen this movie? How would you ever forget that you saw this movie? Right, I mean, according to Sarah, she's never seen it. And she sat down and she said, is it supposed to be serious?

[00:59:11] That's like why don't you watch a little bit? Just get just try it on for size. You'd be the judge. And then, you know, five seconds. She's like, oh, I get it. And then she said something that I thought was so profound I would write down. She said,

[00:59:30] how are any of us normal after surviving the 80s? For me, it wasn't till the 90s that I actually saw this. But, you know, this just got a lot of 80s in it. But you were wearing a mesh shirts with tiny pockets.

[00:59:49] I mean, regardless of whether this movie was a part of your life, it was in your DNA. Yeah. Absolutely. Steve, is this movie better, worse or in par with that? Ron Howard film. This is a really great question. I mean, this is probably this is a great.

[01:00:08] I'm glad we're ending on this one because it is. I think maybe Ron Howard says, hey, let's take another shot of that one. That one scene like maybe he cuts a thing or two. But I don't know if he's got the courage to tackle

[01:00:26] this level of grand concepts and genre mashups. Yeah, I'm going to give it. I mean, I think I look. I watch this movie. A lot. This is like there are movies that I rewatch over and over again. This is one of them.

[01:00:46] You know, obviously Lost Boys, somehow Howard the Duck. And I I love the music every time. I love the dialogue. I just it's it's it's like it's like if you made Paella out of a bunch of different sugar cereals. So many flavors.

[01:01:10] I don't even know if they work, but I just oh my gosh, it's just perfect. So I'm going to give it a Howard plus three. It's interesting. I think that when we covered Dune, the first movie, we had Alicia on. And she suggested something called the anti Howard.

[01:01:35] I think what you're saying is that Howard is still stuck in sixth heaven. I want to give this a Howard plus seven. That seems right. Because eventually Bruce Lee Roy does reach seventh heaven. And you know, biblically seven is the number of completion.

[01:01:58] And this this film does indeed complete our Philanese and Fugazi season in style, I might add in the style. Steve, is there a half about a one to grow in movement in this film to reach the upper level? Your mind, body and soul must be one.

[01:02:21] I'm just going to go ahead and and quote Bruce Lee Roy again. Those who are bound by desire see only that, which can be held in their hands. I do feel a little bit bad. I feel a little bit bad for Bruce Lee Roy.

[01:02:39] I feel like everyone in this movie with the exception of Laura Charles kind of treats him pretty badly. You know, yeah. His dojos holding him on unrealistic pedestal and his his sensei is straight up conning him straight up conning him and laughing at him.

[01:03:02] Giving him duping him with a golden belt buckle that he says was once owned by Bruce Lee just just mean he was maybe trying to kill him with those bow and arrows the whole time. OK, just don't know.

[01:03:19] Yeah, I mean his little brother just abusing him and forcing him to write him to the theater like a donkey. While he wrapped. Well, while he kind of half heartedly offered in that wraps. Yeah, yeah. Poor Bruce Lee Roy just being abused left and right.

[01:03:48] He can take down a goon, though. I mean, he can take down a goon like no one's business. Good work, Steve. I think I think we've done good work today. I do feel like this we hardly we hardly talked about this movie.

[01:04:05] I mean, we could we could easily do it. I almost I almost wonder if you could even just do an entire podcast. Like the whole podcast is just a weekly check in on a different aspect or theme

[01:04:18] of this because you could just the music you can talk about. You can talk about the stunts. You could talk about the wardrobe, as we mentioned, we just barely scratched the surface. Yeah. I bet you we could get a lot of these people to interview

[01:04:31] because I imagine they've got some time. I mean, I feel like we didn't even touch the elder barge video, which is a significant portion of the movie. I almost play the whole video. Sure do. If that's why I'm saying it feels like a musical, right?

[01:04:51] I mean, Laura Charles, like she sings a whole song. Yeah, there's lip syncing that goes on. There's there's Dirty Boy. And that's and also test drive. She also. Yeah, don't forget test drive. Yeah. I might watch it again this weekend. Yeah.

[01:05:23] This summer, we enter a new era of Star Wars. You mean the dawn of the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast? Yeah, yeah, sure that too. But I was obviously talking about the acolyte. We've got to cover that on the Lorhounds.

[01:05:35] Oh, but the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast is exactly at that point in the timeline, the end of the High Republic, one hundred years before the prequel trilogy. We've got to cover it there. Why not both? OK, deal.

[01:05:50] It's the first live action Star War outside the Skywalker saga. Nobody can miss this. Listeners kick off your hot Lord summer weekends with seem by seam breakdowns of the acolyte found in both the Star Wars Canon Timeline podcast and the Lorhounds mother feed and the Lorhounds Star Wars

[01:06:08] feed wherever you like to listen a couple of days after each new episode is released. Steve, we have an iTunes review. From Don't Hassle the Hoff. Nice five star review. It says podcast exciting and new come aboard. We're expecting you so far. I like it. Fantastic.

[01:06:41] Basically, the two guys who sometimes dubiously make each other watch movies based on the theme theme is in scare quotes here of the season and then casually shoot the breeze about it. Steve and Anthony make a great double act in their comedy flows very naturally.

[01:06:59] They will even surprise you with some quality in sight. So now you know what to expect and knowing is half the battle. Very nice. So theme is in scare quotes here, Steve, just a subtle commentary on how well we follow the various themes of our seasons.

[01:07:23] Now that we're wrapping up felonies and fugazies, how well do you feel like we followed the theme of the season? Well, we abandoned one. We did. We had to abandon one for sure. In fact, we abandoned a couple,

[01:07:41] which I guess would be sort of be a crime against our fans. Yeah, now with that sort of felonious podcast. Yeah. And yes, I guess in a way, we not only we not only adhere to it in terms of the films we watch,

[01:07:54] but also in a manner in which we deliver. Or you could say that the felonies and fugazies was itself a fugazi. It was it was a fake. And in reality, we really wanted to cover here at large. I mean, it's funny.

[01:08:09] I mean, we had all this very specific criteria and we did. It felt very legal. You know, like we felt like very much like really focusing on the letter of the law. The intent going in was Anthony would like to cover some of his favorite crime dramas. Yeah.

[01:08:27] And then it sort of like got loosely like there's got to be a crime in it. Well, I mean, come on now that you've broadened it to that extent. Why not cover my cousin? Yeah. How many of the ones do you actually wanted to cover?

[01:08:40] Did you get to? I think there was a few that I didn't think I wanted to cover, but I'm absolutely excited that we did like Pulp Fiction. I wouldn't have occurred to me to cover that. Right. I did. I did really want you to watch True Romance.

[01:08:56] So True Romance was one that I wanted to get you to get you to watch. There's a number of crime dramas that we kind of paired off because of the time period we chose. Like, I would really love to watch something like The Drop with You or

[01:09:15] Watch Inside Man. Right. I don't know if either of those are movies that you enjoy. I've never seen The Drop, but I do enjoy Inside Man. I've seen it several times. I recently watched Tower Heist with Ben Stiller. I don't know if you've seen this. How is that?

[01:09:31] I quite enjoyed it. It's kind of a silly stupid heist movie. So I mean, if you go in thinking like I want this to be sort of a thriller, that's not it. This is a comedy. So it's a Ben Stiller thing.

[01:09:47] You should go in thinking like it's got Ben Stiller, it's got Eddie Murphy. This is going to be a comedy. And if you go in thinking that, I think it's quite enjoyable. I'll give it a look, see. So we love iTunes reviews.

[01:10:03] If you want to leave them for us. Usually on your phone, you just click on the podcast app and scroll down and, you know, leave a review, click that link and you can do that. And we would appreciate it. Let me ask you this.

[01:10:21] I was thinking that it might be worth revisiting the theme. I don't know if we want if we'd ever want to do that, but do sort of a felonies and fugueses sequel season and kind of open it up. Certainly, I got painted in the hero at large corner.

[01:10:37] I had no choice by virtue of our categories. Let me just say it took three. It took three iterations of our draft for us to arrive at Hero at large. Oh, well, I'm going to accept about five percent of the blame on this one.

[01:10:53] Well, let's talk about punishment, right? I mean, like you you earned it. All right. Now, I don't know when we are going to return as a properly Howard thing because going forward, we're going to be working on House of

[01:11:13] the Dragon podcast, which is going to be featured on Double Dragon and then over at the Bald Moon of hot D feed. And then fingers crossed, we'll get season two of Severance and then we'll be busy with that. Right.

[01:11:29] So who knows when we will return for properly Howard? But when we do, it'll probably a lot like this. We'll probably pick a theme. We'll probably screw it up. Yeah, let's imagine like maybe it is a few months before we return to this feed

[01:11:48] and something horrible happens to you, Steve. Is there anything that you would like to say to our fans? If this is the last time you're going to address them? Wow, that's great. I would love to shout each and every one of you out by name.

[01:12:04] But to get through all 13 of you would just cut into our podcast, which is so that you are here to my heart.