MMA Fighting - ‘Mais Forte que o Mundo’ Review: Is This Even A Jose Aldo Movie? | This Is CineMMA

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

José Aldo is one of the greatest fighters in UFC history. You think you know his story? Think again! On this episode of This is CineMMA, the MMA Fighting movie review crew gets in touch with their feelings as we follow Aldo’s heart-wrenching journey from Brazilian bad boy to MMA legend in the 2016 biopic Mais Forte que o Mundo a.k.a. Stronger than the World. Some… interesting choices are made, with Aldo (José Loreto) shown rising through the ranks in the fighting world while battling demons outside of the cage. If this sounds more like a telenovela than a martial arts film, then this might be just what you’re looking for. Ahead of Aldo’s return at UFC 301, Alexander K. Lee, Jed Meshew, E. Casey Leydon, and special guest Guilherme Cruz try to make sense of a sometimes baffling narrative, separate fact from fiction, and discuss ideas that could have made the movie so much better. Is this even about José Aldo? Why is it missing some of his most famous moments? And is lumber-bashing a real hobby in Brazil? (Leg) kick back and chill with us for the answers to these questions and more. Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Follow Guilherme Cruz: @guicruzzz Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Right. Welcome everyone to another episode of This Is Cinema, I'm a Fiting's Mixed Martial Arts Movie Podcast. I'm your host, Alexander Kay Lee.

Very, very excited to speak, guys. but your usual fantastic co-hosts, the jubilant Jed Mishu, the excellent E. Casey Leiden, and a special, special guest, the gorgeous Guillermo Cruz. Now, we got a lot of bit of preamble here, but first let me address the fact that

anyone who listened to last show is probably wondering, I thought you guys were doing, are you guys doing bruise this week? And listen, we were, Our plan was to do bruise, the Halliberry, Netflix, M.A. film, also featuring Valentin to Shepchenko. But we forgot. This is UFC 301 Fight Week coming up. It's coming up this Saturday, Jose Aaldo, the King of Rio returning. And there just so happens to be a prominent Jose Aldo biopic that came out some time ago called MESFORC-E-E-Mundo. Guy, how was that, how was that, Guy?

Yeah, so be-bless. Okay. That was a good effort. B-plus. That's a good effort. It was a little too Italian, I think. I'm as Portuguese-ca-Mundo. I'm a little Italian.

I apologize. More forte than the world. Thank you. Thank you, me. I apologize to all our Portuguese and Italian listeners, and are in the speaking listeners at this point, frankly, because I don't think I'm doing that that great. Any one of ears, we apologize.

No, we don't. Because we have the best intro music in the game. This is. Yes. English title of this film, Stronger Than the World. I'm just going to be referring to it as the, the, the old, movie the Aldo Pio Pic. I'm not going to try

that Portuguese name again. Of course, Guy, you're welcome to do so. So yes, the timing worked out. We will be doing bruise probably ASAP, probably next week, but with Jose Aldo coming back at UFC 301, we decided to call an audible. And we got to bring in Guy. I mean, how can we complain? The other thing I have to mention is

we actually, this is actually our full disclosure to everyone. This is our second recording of this episode. We got 45 minutes into a recording a few days ago. Technical difficulties lost the episode. So if it's sounds like some of our dialogue is rehashed. Guess what?

It probably is because we literally... If it sounds that AK is pronounced much more than World so well, it's because we spent nearly an hour talking about this movie. So he just got to practice that already. And they should have seen how I pronounced it the first time. Yeah, it was incredible. I nailed it. A plus.

Thank you. Well, they'll never know. It's lost the time. The other thing I forgot on the first episode, I forgot to mention I'm representing Brazil. You're a long way from home. This is Brazil. One day we're going to do those.

Jed, we're going to do those movies. We're going to shoot more in those movies into this. Buddy, guess what? I'm doing a Fast 5 thing this week in the honor. UFC 301 because I was going to make that happen. So this is Brazil, baby. It's right there on the board. UFC 301 is in Rio.

Fast 5 is set in Rio. I don't think you're the only one having this thought right now this week. I think it's you and me, actually, but... No, the whole world. The whole world. So, very quick, spoiler-free synopsis. This is the life story of Joseoaldo, guys. It's told in kind of a weird way.

It tracks his life from the... His days as a lumber-bashing pizza-stealing bad boy to, of course, becoming one of the most decorated UFC champions and enemy fighters of all time. So we're going to get to spoil this real quick, so we'll let you guys know. And for some reason, you haven't seen this 2016 film. I'm planning to. He beats Mark Ghammanick. He beats Mark Dominick.

He can't be a story movie that's a decade old and based on the life that you know. Spoilers, titanic stinks in the end, guys. This movie is not what people expect. I don't want to ruin this experience that we had going through this very strange telly of Jose Aldo's life. Before we get to the meat of the movie itself, Guy, I think you've got to give a little background on sort of the build to this movie. when it got released and why it got released when it did. Yeah, it was shot in 2015. I'm not a movie expert like AK who knows everything about the fast franchise,

which is the curious one in movie history. So I don't know if shooting a movie in, I think, six or seven months is fast because it was done that quickly. But the plan was to release that movie a month after Josealdo and this Irish guy that he fought in December 2015. But then something happened in the fight. I don't know if the fight of cancer. I never got to see the fight. So they didn't release a movie.

Instead, they waited at five or six moments and premiered three weeks before UFC 200 when Josialdo finally fought. and won the belt again. I don't know why he wasn't the champion anymore. Something happened. And that's some technical issue, I don't know. And he beat Frankie Edgar to win back the title. So that's why it took longer than expected to release a movie. But yeah, it was before an iconic victory

for the Brazilian, the King of Real. Yes, June 2016, six months. Jerry, just before that iconic win, and as you said, over Frankie Edgar. and six months after the incident, as most Jose Albo fans will call it. What you're talking about? I don't know what I'm talking about either. Like he said, I don't even remember the big fight that was supposed to happen initially even going down.

So I wanted to mention it. Jed, what is your elevator pitch for this film? So we're going to get into it, but this is like a lifetime movie version of Josealdo. if they don't have access to all the good fights. Again, it was a very weird viewing experience as this story. It's Jose Aldo's story, but it's also kind of not. And really, like, I don't know that you could have picked fights I would be less interested in. If you were like, Jed, write the Josealdo story.

I'm not confident I'm putting any of these ones in there. But they picked all of those ones as the only fight. So it's very interesting, but yeah, it's weird. Yeah, we can tell people, like, there's no Cub Swanson double-knee, eight-second knockout over the hell. That's not in there. There's no Yerai of Faber fight. That's not in there.

It ends with the Mark Hominic fight, his very first UFC fight. So anything that happened after that, that's not in there. It's peculiar. It is peculiar if you know. The Shedman is fighting real. When he became the king of Rio. No, the actual, like, that's when the story should end. It's insane.

Like, I don't. In the crowd. Understand how the story doesn't end. It's like he knocks out Chadmendez, jumps into the crowd, and then it's fade to black. Jose Aldo is still the strongest boy in the world or whatever. I don't know how they botched that. So much, the most interesting things happen during the credits

when they're showing his QFC career. Yeah, they stay called like, here's what happened to Jose after the Marcommonic fight. All this amazing stuff happened. I'm like, man, some of that would have been cool to kind of put on, see a dramatized version of that. but Casey, I don't see normally this is where we go to Casey's first impression, but we have to kind of, we had to explain at first right away, we're spoiling. So the framing of this movie is very strange.

Josie Aldo has a rival throughout the film called Fernandino. They never say his name in the movie. That's the only know that from the credits. He has a rival, very sinister, evil, almost mustache twirling rival who looks kind of like Ian McCall. Honestly, a little bit. I didn't think of that. A little bit. When I saw the trailer, when I first saw the trailer of this movie, I thought like, oh, did they like repurpose Ian McCall to be the villain?

This would be very strange. He has nothing to do with Jose Aldo. As it turns out, this Fernandino is a figment of Josie Aldo's imagination. He is a symbol of his deep inner pain from his life turmoil who keeps coming up. It's like the evil side of Jose, getting him into trouble, distracting him at the worst possible time. So it's almost like a little bit of fight club twist, not exactly. but we go to Casey now for a first impression because Casey we talked with the first time we discussed this

you weren't fully aware of what that manifestation was supposed to mean. Yeah, I thought like, so toward the beginning there's a scene where Fernando or whatever is like, Fernadino Fernandino. Fernandino. Virginin. Evil Jose.

You've been around him. May long ago. Evil Aldo. Evil Aldo. Evil Aldo. Evil Aldo. I knew to see all the pronunciations ahead of UFC 2 or 1. Evil Auto.

I thought evil Otto was just, I thought he was real at first. I mean, toward the end, I got it when he had like the identical facial scar. I was like, what a coincidence. But. Can you call it Rose A Aldo? Yeah. Go for the full Mario. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. It did take me a while. Maybe because our version. It was a little bit of a low-res version. Maybe I wasn't getting enough of high-res detail in the face. But yeah, it was like a weird, yeah, like weird fight club, I guess they were trying to do. But so that guy never existed, by the way, right?

I don't think so. Nope. Okay. All right. I guess I have to rewatch it. I don't know. I actually rewatch some of the scenes now that I knew the M. Knight-Shama-Lan twist. And I was kind of like, oh, okay, that's kind of, there's one part where the guy literally goes like,

don't, don't worry about me, man. It's like, I don't even exist. And when I was first watching it, I was like, what a weird thing to say to someone. But I also thought it's, you know, we got kind of this English subtile translation. I assume like, oh, maybe that's just like it didn't translate into English. So I didn't take it at base value. And I'm like, oh, no, literally the guy does not exist. And they were just kind of tipping their cap early.

So the scene where he hits, okay, so the whole, the big car chase scene, Well, people chasing a car on foot. It's not really a car. It's like they're literally chasing a car. You're chasing a car. It's a car chase. It is a car chase where the car is being chased by people and not the other way around. Yes.

And they can't get away from them. Yeah. So the guy that Auto It's, he hits his evil version of him or? He thinks he is. It's a random guy. He's manifesting it like Bobby Boucher and the Water Boys. this is the man, except for he's actually just a dude. We should explain to people.

I mentioned the beginning lumber bashing. This is apparently a thing in the movie. I'm an ounce. I don't know. Jose and his friends drive around the car and pop out of a window and literally hit people with a piece of lumber and he does it to some guy who he thinks this is his evil, is Waldo.

Guy, he tells us your favorite childhood stories about hitting people with GIF. Yeah, yeah. How is that just the most common? At least once a week I do that. It's so fun. Still.

Why not? I was going to ask when to ask one's the last time you did it, apparently last week. Yesterday. Every time about the full place. I mean, like, I'm not going to pretend. I'm not going to pretend, you know, I wasn't an Air Dewell kid who like hit mailboxes with bats. Like, that's a thing that kids do in America.

Unclear that I've been. We don't have mailbox in Brazil. violent assault like that. I think in the movie they like, and you're supposed to kind of hit the person in the back or on the butt or something, and just in this one scene, he hits a guy right across the face.

And it's quite... Have you ever been hit by a two by four from a moving car? Because I got to tell you, I don't think it matters. They're not going that fast. They're not going that fast. You're doing a lot of equivocating.

They're apparently going so slow that they can't outrun two people chasing them on foot. So, anyway. So, yeah, that's fun. I'll tell you what, let me hit you with a two-by-four, and I'll be totally stationary. See how much you like it. Just gently on the bottom, on my bottom.

Casey, you raise a good point. Gently bashing. So one problem with the Josie Aldo character and kind of differentiating between him and his evil Aldo, aka Waldo, one problem is that he doesn't, our Josie Aldo does not look like Josie Aldo, other than they gave him a scar,

but he's a very, he's pretty tall, He's pretty tall. I checked the actor six foot one. He's considerably tall. He's hulking over like everyone in every scene he's in. So he's very physically intimidating. They kind of joke about him being ugly throughout the movie, which is weird because he looks like a model.

He has these chiseled cheekbones. He's a very sharply handsome man. And that's why this leads us into our first question. When we first discussed this, as we normally do in the show, we have a segment. How much an MMA movie is this? And I still want to ask that. But more importantly,

how much of a Jose Aldo movie is this? this. This is supposed to be the Jose Aldo biopic. Jed, is this a Jose Aldo movie? No, like, kind of. And this goes hand in hand with how MMA is the movie question, right? Because we talked about the first

iteration we did this and Ghee can kind of speak to this a little bit more about the interpersonal parts of the story. But this is a lifetime movie. This is not an MMA movie. Like, this is my lowest MMA score. Like, it's I guess a blue belt because it is like there are actual cage fights in it and it is the direct

telling of one of the most important fighters of all time, his life story. But it would be honestly the movie probably works a little better and has more success with what it's trying to accomplish if it's just a story if it's a fictional story entirely. If instead of this being Jose Aldo, we call the dude whatever the actor's name is, Larento, just the Jose Loretto story, and it could be anything other than fighting. It could be football or whatever. This is really just, this is a story of personal drama, and I guess it's Josealdo story, but this is not any of the Josealdo that anyone is familiar with.

There's none of the happy go lucky joy. It's a bunch of, like, it's a really heavy film in a lot of ways. and so it's a blue belt for MMA, and it doesn't feel like a Josealdo movie, even though I guess ostensibly it is. He seems to have given it the okay, so I don't know. Yeah, before even watching, I'd sort of pencil in, well, this must be a black belt MMA film.

I mean, it's literally about a UFC fighter. It can't be more MMA than this. And very wrong, definitely changed my perception after. The least MMA movie we've watched. In a weird way, yeah. I think it is, yeah. Guy, what was the reaction in Brazil

and also from Jose himself? We got the chance to watch it when it premiered in Rio like before the Frankietta and we were in the same in the same room with Jose Aldo with him watching. He was just crying like a child.

He was so emotional and it was nice man. I mean, it's been in a while but I remember enjoying that. But it's not an MMA movie and I think that's good because if you if you try to do like a pure action movie MMA movie it's not not gonna be like no I mean I like that they went with the with the the drama of his in his life in life story and all that but it's there are some weird choices some of some of the stories like him people

here hitting people in the face with the with wood and all that, I don't really know if that happened. If I had to guess, he never did that in his life, but who knows? He'm going to jail for death, you know. So there are a lot of weird parts

in this movie, but in general, I think it was a good choice to go with more like a drama movie, but yeah, Bluebell is the right answer because it's not an MMA movie. It's a drama movie about the MMA fighter. You don't even focus on his actual fighting career.

So, he's going on his life, his father and all that. So, yeah, Blue Belt, I think it's a good ranking for this movie. Do you know if this movie was a hit at all? Did this, we're talking elite force numbers here? I mean, did this thing make any money out there? Any Reall? Reall? No.

That's not what that's right. Yeah, heirs. Yeah, it's plural. Yeah. I don't remember how much money he did because, I mean, Brazilian movies don't actually do well in movies in Brazil. And it was produced by Global, so then they turned it in the four-part TV series. So, yeah, it was.

Yeah, after, I mean, I like it. They aired on Global as a four-part series. And it was even nominated for an Emmy International for Best TV Series. Yeah, it didn't win, but it was nominated, yeah. Well, I mean, I get to win and get nominated a lot for TV series because of global is such a gigantic network. And they do like soap operas and TV series and all that. They, the production quality is incredible. So they always get nominated and win a lot of prizes.

And they were nominated for this when they turned it into a TV series. I mean, I'm guessing it got limited financial success because it never, I don't, from what I can tell, it never really got any American distribution. or any American rights or anything. Like, we've seen Brazilian movies over there are successful. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Trope de lich, yeah, yeah, that was like, that was easy to find in America. Yeah.

But there's, but that, but. There wasn't a financial hit in Brazil. That was because he, oh. Oh. It leaked before he went, you went to the movies. So everybody saw it. Oh, wow. So just ruined this.

It was a huge of sex, but, but, but, but, but, but, it was a huge of the movie movie movie movie. but it didn't make them a lot of money. Yeah. It could, of course. I think it's, and it's not, it's on Brazilian Netflix, right? Is it on Brazil? Like, you can just pop that. Yeah, we should have people know for Jet Casey and myself.

We had a little bit of trouble finding this movie. It is not on any. Yeah, we're so curious when I do, say, to watch it. I was leaving. I was wondering how. You can't, you can't even rent it, I don't think. I don't even come out of a place to rent it. So someone had uploaded it to YouTube, fortunately, no English subtitles.

and then we just got lucky, I think, and there are English subtitles floating out there, so we did some wizardry, and we were able to put together a properly subtitled version for ourselves. Again, English, probably not on point, but close enough that we could understand what was happening in this very strange movie.

And Casey, I assume you're kind of with us, like, not as MMA as you hope this would be. Well, excuse me, in terms of actual MMA, in terms of the actual fighting, as, like, yeah, I was actually a bit disappointed in the lack of just, like, real,

MMA fighting. Yeah, you do see like an arm bar and no, a head kick and, but of course, the showtime kick. And a couple, you know, flying, you know, roundhouse kicks that auto, I think it's never done. But my biggest issue is as far as the martial MMA belt ranking is that at no point in this film did the actor who was playing Otto ever fight like Jose Otto? He just didn't. I never, if you're going to use a person that's, you know, I can just easy, like he's active right now. It's not like we're doing a fighter in this from 1920s or something.

We know what he looks like. We know how he fights. And he just never really fought like him. He brawled a lot and did a lot of like kind of very movie fighting, but they didn't do like movie MMA fighting. So that was just kind of a letdown. Yeah, let's talk about the performance of the main actor as as Jed mentioned earlier. Jose Loretto.

I at least, you're right, he didn't fight like Aldo, but in a broader sense, Casey, did you at least enjoy his fighting? Did you enjoy seeing him, you know, get down? I don't know if he doesn't, he's no Michael Jai White, but compelling stuff there? He looked like an actor fighting, you know, to me. No, it just, it looked like movie fighting.

That's it. It just looked like movie fighting. Guy, any previous experience with Jose Loretto, the actor, any background on him? Do we know if he's had, is he an action guy? Was this his first big break as far as you know? And what did you think of his fighting? Yeah, he does a lot of soap operas. And a few movies here and there, but never an actual character like that, like a fighter.

But he's, I believe he's a brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu. And so is the Fernadino, the actor Homer Mettel is also brown belt and jiu-jitsu. And the original actor that was going to play Josealdo was Mavirun Salvador

who's a brown-belted jiu-jitsu as well. He's now married to Kira Grace. He's on his way to get a black belt under Kira-Grease. But they all have this experience as jiu-jitsu guys, but never as a, like,

I strike it. He had to work a lot. And like I said, since he wasn't the original plan, when he got the part of the movie, they started filming like four months later. So he didn't have much time to, he basically just got in crazy shape for the movie. But Malvino Salvador was supposed to be the actor in the movie for like two or three years.

But in the end, they just changed it. So Joselle Loretto had to get ready for it three months. So, yeah, if you just train Jitsu just for fun, it's not the same thing as pretending to be an elite striking like Josealdo. Yeah, and that's kind of what case is getting at. You just never got that fluidity, the fluidity and that excitement that we associate with Josealdo striking. It was a lot of kind of movie heavy punches. There was leg kicks, but they're very dramatic.

Like, one leg kick would, like, sweep a guy off their feet. And I'm like, that's not really how it worked in real life. The paper fight you kind of did, but outside of that. Oh, sure. Guy, real quick, I do want to ask, the original guy, would he have been a better, as far as you know, a better physical fit for Aldi? Is he a smaller guy? No, same thing, probably.

Yeah, yeah, he's smaller than Joseo Loretto, but I think Jusel Loretto, you can turn him into Josialdo like his face. His face more than Mavino Salvador. Mavino Salvador doesn't really look like Josialdo at all. It would be harder to get him there. And he, I mean, Jose Loretto is big. If you get in the next to Josealdo, he's a way bigger, but the discrepancy is not as incredible as the actor that played Marcus Galvon. Marcus Lourg Galvon, the former Belta Chedricenture, who's a bansomite.

And they got an actor that is 6-5. Yeah. It makes sort of sense. Blanky guy. It's bigger than Josealdo in the movie. I honestly, I didn't mind the wrong sizes of the people, because I, I, I get that's just difficult to find actors who are going to be, who can look like feather weights.

But it was just, but you have to mimic the style of him. You just have to. But Max Gavon, the guy that did in the movie, he's even an actor. He's a journalist slash stand-up comedian. So,

I mean, if you, if you go in that way, not using a real actor, just get someone small. Don't get like six or five guys to play Marcus Gavon. see i'm the exact opposite casey we're like i if you don't have the style that's fine like it would be better if you could do that but like if you're just going to say no what it's not going to

work we're going to do our own thing that we think we can pull off better which i think is true i don't think loretto could have done josie aldo so we're just going to go to this but like having us like no we talked about this the first time i had no idea that that dude was supposed to be margis cavil had no clue because because he physically not him, that I was just like, okay, this is just a dude. They, they kind of amalgamated to make a character until we started recording. And he was like, yes, that's more so it was like, how? That's not even closely.

He had a blonde streak in his hair. Loro, Loto. He had a blonde streak. It was just. You didn't immediately think that was. No. And that's my thing was like, if you don't really, like, if you know who Jose, like, it is, it's an easier lower bar to clear to.

get physical resemblance to like a passable level that it is to get stylistic fighting resemblance. Like that is a harder thing to accomplish for me. And like you're going to hear me say this a lot as we talk about this movie, but I thought Loretto's performance is good. It's not Josealdo. He's not doing Josealdo. If you are just talking about this character in a film, I think he does an admirable job here. If you were talking about him being Josealdo in a biopic, it's not. There's None of Jose Aldo's joy here. He is clearly a welterweight at least. Like, it's, so it's a real tough thing for, like, a lot of how the movie is written and, like,

the parts of Jose Alda you are supposed to feel of like, oh, you know, they're trying to tell the story about a young boy who's maybe a little undersized and quote unquote ugly and stuff. And it kind of doesn't work when you've got a large male model in your lead acting role. Yeah. Yeah, he's just kind of generic martial arts guy, which is, again, disappointing when you have a personality like Josie Aldo that we all know so well, whose personality and charisma transcends language.

I mean, this is one of the, he rarely speaks English in real life and interviews and things like that. So that's how charismatic guy is, and he's so connected with a global audience. And then just it's, again, no disrespect to Josie Loretto. Maybe it's how the character is written, because it is, as, as he said, there's a big focus on drama and his personal life, his relationship with his father, who's abusive to his mother and all that.

So it's not really like, there's not a lot of laughs to be had in this movie. But still. It's the biggest issue of the movie, actually. There are no laughs. It's a joyless film. It's a joyless film. And that's,

and I understand them choosing to show this other side of Josiah out of this. Which is wrong. We have to see something that we haven't seen. Yeah. Yeah. Show something more. Show something of at least something of, of at least something of what we know about Josiahado.

You're showing us nothing about what we know about Josiah. Only this dark side that we don't know it. And maybe it doesn't even exist like him, smashing people at the face in the streets of Manash. We don't know if that's even true. So it's crazy. Legitimately. Like I've been thinking about this since we did our first recording of this.

If you just swapped character names and like that's it, all you did was you didn't call him Josealdo. I am, and just like gave me this. this film on a blank slate. Here, watch this MMA movie. Tell me what you think about it. I am honestly not sure that I could draw the Josaldo comparison to like,

oh, that movie is pretty clearly based on Jose Aldo's real life. It's it. Like, I don't think I get there if you just swap character names. It is a wild time and not at all what I anticipated. Before we get to some of the negative, Jed, did any of the fighters, actors slash fighters in the movie impress you? Did anyone kind of jump out of it? There's a lot of editing in the movie.

We should say the movie has a lot of cuts. You don't get a lot of straightforward fighting, which is disappointing. But like we said, this is movies more focused on drama than like the intricacies of a martial arts scene. So, Jed, any of the actors jump out of you? In a good positive way. We'll get to the negative in a positive way. Like, again, like I actually think all of them do a good job acting. There's so little fighting that I'm not, that it's nothing really to judge on like, who would be the best fighter or whatever?

Is there just so little of that in the film? I think everyone fills their role mostly pretty well in this movie. It's just if you're looking at it through the lens of an individual I am familiar with, it is a wholesale fail. But if you're just looking at this as a film, I think everybody's just good. There's nobody that jumps out of the screen to me that I'm like, oh, that guy's really bringing the film down, which, frankly, is the first time I can say that on the movies we have covered thus far. There's at least one really bad performance in every movie we've talked about this far.

I think all of these are perfectly fine. Like, the guy who does Galvalla is, I guess, the worst actor of the group. He's funny. He's not even an actor. Yeah, and it's fine. It's not like a terrible performance. He's probably just the worst one. So, uh, and, you know, shout out to my boy, Pedro Hizzo.

The other actors, they're just elite. They're, they're some of the best in Brazil. some of the best they're like dexed experience the father the father is fantastic yeah because he's dad

is the quality of the back thing I was always okay with it was just they weren't given the words they weren't given the script it's just with it there so the thing about this movie that I kept thinking about

as I watched it is this is a professional film like this is a professional film but my people who are very clearly in the industry have been doing this a long time and are succeeding of what they do.

If you ever watch a lifetime movie, like they have their tropes and stuff and like, and it's not for everybody, but there's never like, oh, that dude's, this was that dude's first day on set. Like, dude, there's no idea what's going on.

Clearly, everyone involved in this, a lot of issues with some parts of it. Editing was real, real tough. And I feel like there's probably a lot of valid scenes left on the cutting floor here. But, like, this was a, up and down, thought this was a very well put together film for what it was a,

attempting to accomplish. Casey, there was one actor who's fighting you were not, you're particularly not in love with. So go ahead. Get it out of your system. I'm okay. We talked about this on our first taping and I, maybe I was, I was on, uh, bad take. It's not bad take.

It's just, VV, VV, VV. It's just for as, for as much time as she spent in the gym, I would expect her technique to be just a bit better. That's all. I'm just saying. She spent a lot of time with that gym. You've been in gyms. There are plenty of people in gyms who suck and just keep coming.

No, no, no. It was inexcusable. Dede was their coach. She was in there. I don't think Diti would have allowed that. I don't think it that long. I mean, if it was like her first week, her third Muay Thai class. But she was getting privates.

She was on the bag, working with a coach. And like, that was just. And it took me out of the moment. I'm sorry, took me out. Her proposal defense could use a lot of work, too. I don't think. I think if she, her proposal defense is better. Best seen the movie.

Jose, never would have got that ring on her. She would have been, she would have judo throwed him or something. Yeah. Hip tossed, yeah. Need him. And the ribs really, you know, creates a space. But yeah, we didn't see any of that.

Instead, she got her arm taken and got a ring foot on it. And that's how, apparently that's how Josie Aldo froze, proposed to his wife. I know we talked about this last out. I need you to ask him this week. Is that I just be like, hey man, I just rewatch stronger than the world. Is that how you actually proposed to your wife because it's awesome? I'm going to ask you that. I promise you.

There's so many of guys. That would be. And if you have enough time, get into the lumber bashing. Ask him about lumber. That doesn't mean to be the first question, just if you have time. I think legally Jose should not talk about the local

that's just me He just served jail time apparently like five hours or something like that so he's not very okay with a lot No big deal boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes

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And there's quite a few of them. We do see some montages. We do see some, we do see a couple of pivotal fights in his career. We should tell people it kind of goes from his regional career to one WEC fight, the WC title fight with Mike Brown, and then goes right from that to the UFC title fight, his first UFC fight with Mark Hominig in Toronto. So there's some jumping around. You can give you flight. It's Mario Begola, then it's Mike Thomas Brown, and then it's Homynic, and those are the only fights in the movie other than the...

His loss, his loss as well. Oh, yeah. Yes. I guess that's in there because it's like real short, though, because that's mostly dealing with the other part of it. It's like... So there's that. The Azavada loss.

Say that, if you lose one more, you out, no way. Oh, yeah. Like, out of what? Like, how do we're just going to retire? You're going to go back to my house after this. Like, honestly, the biggest fight is. in the movie is the restaurant fight. Like, that's the thing.

Yeah, let's talk about that. That is the fight of the movie. That is like the longest pro long, which is, which I got to tell you, man, fundamentally you're making a Jose Aldo movie and that the fight you are going to focus the most in the film is a restaurant brawl, is an insane choice.

But it's an assaye shop, so it's so Brazilian. Right, go on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A big shout out to Fake Mark Harmonic who was the It's kind of like the final boss

of this movie It's presented in a very strange way It is the very first UFC fight of Jose's career Is the end of this movie We kind of said this earlier They kind of talk about the rest Everything that happened to the UFC

In the credits Strange choice but it's fine This is an origin story And the fight for the most part Is pretty faithful to what happened at UFC 129 Jose wins the first four rounds pretty comfortably.

And then there's a very dramatic fifth round with Mark Harmonic on top. 21 and O, by the way. Bill does 21 and O in this movie. Undefeated fighters, as we all remember. I think he was actually 29 in real life or something. But he's beating up,

Aldo from half guard. But people remember this in real life. Clear a round for Homonick. In the movie, it's like he's battering and bloodying Jose. His corner is like shouting for him. Like, get up. Like, you gotta survive, Jose.

You got to survive. He's having flashbacks for his relationship with his father and his wife, who he loves, or his fiance at this point, I guess. He's a flashback of the scar. Had the scarred, Waldo, Jose Waldo.

Yeah. Flashback on him. It's very, very dramatic. Listen, maybe that was what was going to Aldo's mind in that actual fight. We don't know. Maybe they asked Mark Hominick. You forgot the other part of it.

That was around five, man. They asked Hamnick, what did you think was going to Aldo's mind? Well, I'll tell you. I was looking in his eyes. see his whole life flashing in there. It was crazy. And they're like, mm-hmm.

You also forgot that they set it up in the writing that his dad dies like right before the fight. We don't know that until after. That's how it's edited together. It's edited like Day Day Day's in the back. It's like gets a call that Jose's father has died. Okay, well, we're going to go walk out. It's such a weird thing.

But we don't know that until after that that's the call he received. We know there's like some dramatic talk before. And then after the fight's over, they kind of flashed. What other call did you think he was getting at that point if you're watching? I don't know. I don't know. Sure. I got into a lot of trouble.

I don't know what's going on. When I saw him getting a call, it was like, oh, Jose's father's died. That's very clearly, because that's what the rest of the film have been setting up. And he, I believe, he's not even real. Yes, it's not even real. He had passed, but well before. Yeah. Like a year before, right?

Like a year. Like a year. Like three months. after he fought grab favor. So after that, three months later, he fought Maggie Cambodian, and then he fought in the UFC. So it was a while. I don't know why he decided to just kill his father

before his UFC debut instead of, like, tell him the real stuff. It's, again, the choices made in this movie are so. There are choices. There are choices. Yeah, they shuffle his career a lot. some of his biggest moments, again, relegated to montage. Some of his biggest moments you don't even see in the montage. We don't see his most famous knockout of Cub Swanson.

They'd even montage that. It wasn't in there at all, right? I was waiting for it. I was waiting for it. I was waiting for him to go into the crowd, at least in the montage. Nothing. They should have had the Marconi. I don't get it.

They should have taken the ending of the Mendes fight, the first Mendes fight, and just that the ending of the hominic fight. Like, I think that would have made. a more traumatic moment. I mean, I mean, we all would have been rolling their eyes. I think they just shouldn't have had the Mark Hominnick fight. Who gives your shit about it? Yes, it's his UFC debut.

We talked about this the first time we did this. They directly bring in the WEC as a thing, which is real weird and confusing for this sort of a story because like, you're already taking liberties. Just be like, yeah, UFC's the whole time. No one would actually have a major issue with that. She'd be like, oh, we beat Mike Thomas Brown for the World Championship. Just don't even have to call it.

the UFC belt, like just the that. Like, if I could change one thing, this is a category we have and I'm jumping us right into it, A.K., I would change the whole movie. Like, I think this movie works and it's fine. But like, I just don't like the fundamental decisions of what parts of his fight career to cover because this movie should end with the Chad Mendez-K-O.

It should have the Cub Swanson flying knee. and probably the Uriah Faber fight over Mike Thomas Brown. Like you just run those as the three fights that you cover. And that's good. You can do all the other storytelling aspects to it. But just like it's the weirdest thing in the world to me to end on the Mark hominick fight. Like if I could only change a single thing end on Chad Mendez.

There's no reason for us to be doing the Mark Omnick fight other than they're clearly trying to shoehorn in the dead father angle. but it's not even true. You're doing that, just do Manny Gamburian. Who cares? That would be like doing a John Jones movie and it ends on the OSP fight. Almost exactly.

It's super weird. John came back and won the belt. Move the credits roll. Weird as shit, man. And like I said, if you're going to meld it, again, I would again, tack to Chad Mendez ending onto the Mark Homonig fight and then have,

but then he jumps in. of the Toronto crowd. I don't know. It wouldn't have made. Yeah, you know what? Yeah, I guess you can't do that. But yes. Just don't even call it a Toronto crowd if it's clearly a Brazilian dude with Brazilian

fight shorts. Like, I don't know what we're doing. Yeah, the whole like really the Canadian angle on it too, like really like, we must be in Canada because people are holding flags. It was just like, you just don't have to say that part of it. Like, you could just leave this out. It would be fine. I didn't have problem with it.

I don't have problem with it. Love it. Love that part. We should also. Yeah, they did want to make a big deal about. Well, I guess because they wanted to tie it to a real-life massive event, U.S.C. 129. I think at the time was the attendance record. This was before Ronda and Australia, I think.

So this was like their U.S.S. attendance record. So they want to make it like a super big deal. But again, they could have set it anywhere. They could have said it. The writers were kind of trying to set it up. Like, this is the biggest deal of this group because there's so many people there. Yeah. It was just.

But they don't have the budget to kind of show that crowd and make it feel that big. There was stock foot. There was stock footage from the actual event. Yeah, Bruce Buffer, they did get to refil. There was definitely a new, like, they got Bruce Buffer to film, like, a new intro to the fight. I mean, I guess he's probably just reading the same stuff he read that night. But they, you know, they filmed it so it felt very real in the movie. That kills me, though, because if they can get Bruce Buffer, they could get him.

They could have gotten a Canadian. I mean, they could have gotten Goldie, which was fine, but that's whatever. Like, it was so dissociated. to watch Mike Thomas Brown and Mark Havnik be played by very clearly kind of overweight Brazilian actors. Yes. Why, you can't fall.

Like, just go to the beach. There's some Canadian on vacation, just have him step in there and get his ass beat. Like, this shouldn't be that hard. In a film that is so very clearly professionally done from front to back, they just punted on this. And it was so distracting to me.

Yes. And like you said, Mark Harmon, clearly not a Canadian. Clearly not. I'm looking at his profile now, played by a real fighter, Dirli Brundstrup, a light heavyweight,

who has fought, and I guess sometimes heavyweight, who has fought the likes of Maxime Grishin, Bruno Capolosa, Geronimo dos Santos. Jose Lorenzo is already huge anyway, so. And, of course,

he has fought Park Porter. So six degrees of Parker Porter strikes again, guys. But yes, that means theoretically in this world, in this world of Parker Porter, I guess, could have fought Jose Aldo in this movie?

I don't know. Yes. Honestly, that would have been better. I would have been better. This heavyweight Parker Porter, I would have, if you're going to go, if you're just going to fake it, might as well, it's just, yeah. We're doing it. Weight classes don't exist in this movie world.

It's just, we're doing it. The whole movie's a dream, really. But how is this to fight you end on? I don't. I don't know. Fundamentally from a, from a basic story, if there was no other good fights and you're just like, okay, well, you know, the Korean zombie fight ends

weirdly and we don't want to end there. And, you know, Kenny Flore ends sort of a whatever decision. Even if you want to go with like a war, go through the second childman's fight. There you go. It's just, just giving better. Combine fights. Combine fights.

I don't know. Sure. Mixing together. In the history of cinematic MMA fights and finishes, Josealdo cheating, Kneying Chad Mendez in the face and jumping into the crowd

to be mobbed by the city of Rio is like top five all time and you're just like, don't need it. It's the most cinematic thing you could have. There's not another fighter who has a better moment to end a fight on than Jose and they didn't do it. The greatest championship celebration

we may have ever seen. Yeah. To the crowd. the rap favorite fight as well it's so insane he also went to the to the crowd in California it almost he was really

he ran up the aisles and stuff it was like I remember those and I remember those moments I was like oh my God this guy is amazing because like he isn't that guy before the fight but as soon as he wins he becomes this completely different person

and that was kind of an incredible as a fan watching it it was incredible and we're watching this movie because we're fans, not because we're watching we're not watching this film for any other reason. And so we're expecting something like that, and we got zero.

Hey, fan boys. Hey, fan boys. You want to relive those moments? Cue up ESPN Plus or UFC FightPass, right? If you want to see a movie about a man's life. Buddy, he's on Fight Pass. He ain't on ESPN Plus. Do you guys even have FightPass anymore? I don't even know if I do. I do. Okay. ESPN Plus does it have? Again, we don't have that in Canada.

ESPN, so the We have members. This is not. relative to anything ESPN Plus basically has a two-year shelf life and then stuff rolls on. If it's like older stuff, it's all on fight pass. Just to get you all jealous, we got five pass in Brazil and it's 30 bucks a whole year to get every year of C event, 30 bucks. I mean, that's a, that's a steal. Yeah, but I feel afraid of getting lumber bashed or on the street.

Yeah, that's a price of pay, man. worth it yes instead of a dramatic knockout of Chad Mendez or dramatic

back and forth one of the best fights of all time fight with Chad Mendes we get a decision win for Jose Aldo which people

remember in real life of course I got to read the scores here 4846 real score 49 46 real score and a very suspect

considering let's remember Mark Harmonic dominated the fifth round a very suspect almost killed him in the movie 50

43 scorecard for all dope. You didn't even get the round five. He didn't even get the round five. He might have gotten 10-8ed the other way. Up of being out, 50-43? Like, what? I don't know. How do you?

So, very controversial. A couple of 10-8s in those early rounds. Yeah, I'm not sure why they tweaked that. I think it was like 11 and 8 to confess it. Yeah. Oh, okay. 11. Oh, the rare 11-8 score.

It was so much. He beat him so much. I gave him an 11. I'm British in real life. It was another 48-46 or 49-46. I don't know why they made that change. Very random. Again, I have...

People who have no idea how to score fights. We don't know how to go it in America either, so it's fine. I've been to an MMA event once, and I saw the Georgia score of fight. It was like 8 and 3. Like 15 in them. I love that. He doesn't get more 8-3 scores. He pluss it 15 times, 15.

And you just copy it up, 2. That's the best. 152. Jed, yeah, I've seen your live blogs. I've seen you throw some pretty wild score. Next, you throw some 15-2s in there next time. I want to see. I'll throw an 8-3 for sure.

8-3. Yeah. It's an 8-3 round. Just felt like them. Again, yeah, it's really hard to evaluate. We normally like to do a tier list. It's really kind of hard to evaluate who can actually fight in this movie. I did do it anyway.

You guys can dispute it. Casey, I know you will. So very quickly, I thought the S-tier, the best guys, obviously Aldo and Evil Aldo, neck-and-neck. Aldo does beat Evil Aldo in the film at one point, but A tier. I actually thought I liked fake Mark Harmonic. I thought he's A tier fighter. Casey, I'm sorry.

I actually thought I liked VV at first. I guess I'm wrong. I need to reconfigure. I had her as a B-tier fighter. I guess she belongs D-tier. C-tier, fake Mike Brown. I don't know. I wasn't impressed.

And D-tier, I slept in the juice bar, one of the guys who was fighting the juice bar because pretty good, like, take down. I think he like slammed Aldo at one point. I'm like, we can work with this here. We can work with this here. So I don't know if I left anyone off the list or if I overrated anyone, maybe VV. We'll see. Best Fighting Related Quote, guys.

Let's get to the quotes now. First of all, do they say the name of the movie? No, they don't, but we had some dispute about this, right, guys? We had some confusion because the English language name of the film is stronger than the world. Key, how accurate is that translation? Is that about right? It's about how you would do it? Yeah, pretty sure that's correct.

Okay, stronger than the world. But in the movie, they come close to saying it. At the end, they go, Joseo Aldo became the strongest boy in the world. You're the strongest boy in the world. So we're like, does that count as saying the name of the movie? Probably not, right? It makes no sense.

Okay. I mean, it's kind of adorable. He's the strongest boy in the world. It's kind of adorable. No, I'll be honest. And you know what? We needed more of adorable Josie Aldo in this movie. Like, not even joking.

There's none. He is zero parts of it. We've all seen the video of him buying a suit. That's adorable Aldo. That is adorable Aldo. There is no hint of that in this movie. How is there not a montage when he's like rising up the ranks of like him flying kneeing somebody and go in and party and then getting like buying his suit?

Like it's just. No. Missed opportunity. Actually, that was a giant part of the movie I really didn't like to is the fact that he went I suppose he went from stealing pizza to, you know, UFC champ. but I didn't see that If they're trying to sell A rags the richest story

They didn't sell the riches You know the suit And everything is life changing What is the UFC so you know Well Now I'm gonna actually go to you first Because I don't know if any of the dialogue In the movie stood out in Portuguese

Because I imagine there's stuff They had to simplify for English I don't know if you remember anything The movie that jumped out Or is the what would the slogan For the movie might have been was there any cool phrase that again

they threw in there that they just couldn't translate properly anything jump out of you dialogue-wise here no okay I was hoping because no no no yeah

there are two quotes he said of like getting quotes from the movie because I thought I thought you guys would I went back and got the quotes from Aldo himself after watching the movie

what he said about the movie and this is what said, I don't know if we agree. Aldo said, and I quote, I think that being a fight fan or not, this movie will move you because it's an emotional story. It's impossible not to cry.

It's a beautiful movie. Do you agree with Josie Aldo? I mean, like Jed said, I disagree with the prying part, but I do think it's a fine film. Yeah, it's kind of a beautiful movie. I don't, can I talk about the father story

now? Of course, please, please, dig it. Because that was to me another giant issue I just didn't get. They show his father beat the crap out of his mom, but they showed no kind of redemption. But yet, Aldo was like really sad. His dad died before the fight or I don't know. Complexity of the human spirit, Casey. But as a viewer, why do I care? Like, oh, this guy that beats the crap out of Jose Otto's mom is dead now.

and you know it's his father i don't know that you need to care but you can recognize that he still cares about why does josie auto care about the guy why isn't he care about his mom why he's so focused on his dad there's no explanation to get into the deep complexities of the relationships between fathers and sons and the world domestic violence plays to screw that up but there's a whole lot of films and literature and people out there who still love their parents despite being the victims of domestic abuse in home life. Yeah, we should be clear in this movie. So they reconcile because his father has some sort of indeterminate illness and falls sick and dies.

And that's when, you know, they essentially like, well, there's our last chance to sort of forgive each other. So he forgives his father. But his father never really apologizes. He never really like takes responsibility for what he did. No. His whole thing is like, well, I guess I did a good job by chasing you away. And I'm like, that's not how that works. You don't get to own that.

You don't get to say, well, I improve my child's life by being a horrible person. There's no reconciliation. There's no actual reconciliation. Here's the thing. I agree that, like, sure, that's not how you. That is absolutely how, like, things like this happen every day in the real world. I know, but this is a movie. Around people have this, but like, I don't know.

I kind of respected the fact that this was like a pretty unflinching look at this aspect of life. It's like, oh, yeah. Again, Guy, Guy, another thing to ask. about at the presser if you want to bring that up I don't I'm not asking you know I'm not depressed I have just said no no no we can finally get some answers get some closure because he doesn't get it's moment I mean so honestly like it was just I mean I know I guess everyone's degree of what's acceptable and that was just to me like unacceptable as a as a viewer like he beat They showed scenes of him beating the crap out of his mom.

And then, like, later on, I'm like, ah, dad. I don't, that's just unacceptable as a viewer. Like, that's just, it's a line that's too much. I guess everyone's, I know I get we're different, but I don't know. It's unsatisfying. It's unsatisfying. I just like, I couldn't. And another quote.

I mean, unless I missed, unless I missed a scene in the movie or missed something. You did not. You did not. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I thought.

It did. I was like, the director. Afonso Poyah set his own potential at the time for a second movie because they were hopeful that he would fight Connor again, but actually never happened. Oh, no. And they were hopeful that they would get the rematch and wins the rematch, then stronger than the world, too, or something like that. And you know what, Guy, he's still stronger than the world. Hold on. Yeah. And Guy, he's still waiting because

he never directed another movie after this, as far as I didn't tell. Really? I see he did TV. I see he did TV. I'm just going by internet credits. Okay, I'll check that. I'm not familiar. I think this was the last movie. And before that, he had done a movie with like Anthony Hopkins. He directed an American film like Anthony Hopkins.

So his career was on the up and up. And then it looks like it's only TV after. Never did another movie again. You know why? He's waiting. He's waiting for him. He'll have the last laugh. When Aldo finally fights McGregor again,

Afonso player will have the last laugh. Then we'll be like, ah, well, that's why he didn't need to do any movies in between. This is the project. He did one. I think he did... I think he did one movie. No, one movie.

A short movie and TV series, but one movie, Galleria Futuro. I've never seen that in my life. So, yeah. Okay. Based on this movie, Aldo will get a rematch

of Connor McGregor. They will shoot the sequel, and the sequel will end with the Jonathan Martinez fight. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. They're just playing... And Jose Al do like,

I just outside, like, there's a huge story to be told in the future, just like in their Rocky movie, they have a lot of movies. I think that they get my belt back. Again, it was before the Frank Eager rematch, EFC 200. I think getting my belt back, this start would be awesome. I think it would be a great story with me, beating Connor and getting the belt back. I would love to make like five Aldo movies. I'm sad.

We're not living in the world where we got the Aldo franchise. I don't need an Aldo franchise. I just think we now have a real path to write the good Jose Aldo movie and make it. Because like I could go over with American sports fans real easy. You just do that. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus powered by Peloton IQ.

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Our buyers have got you covered. Marshalls. We get the deals. You gift the good stuff. Jed, I think you and I have the same best quote. I'm assuming, and again, I really need to run this by Guy, because I just didn't understand the point of it. If you guys don't know what my best quote is going to be, we're not friends.

I assume it's involving a word, one of your favorite insults. Sure. Taunt, one of your favorite taunts. There's a, what was his character? He's like the janitor? What was he? Sabara, Sabara. He was like the, he works at the gym.

He's a guy who works at the gym. Custodial services. Custodial service. And a very wise man, clearly like a wise man who's lived a life. He's a pretty classic guy in boxing films. Like the, yeah. Yeah. A lot of a janitor.

Like the boxing trope. And Jed, from the first. From the first day, what is his advice to Jose Aldo and the other young fighters? I mean, this is, it's advice. to Josaldo and the other young fighters, but really this is life advice. It's advice you can take with you. And I certainly try to live by every day.

It's annihilate the playboys. You have to annihilate the playboys. What? Is it easily the best quote in this movie? I have one other quote that I like, but this is the best quote of all time. What does it mean? Any of the movies you've had. What does that mean?

It's a lifestyle like, Kay. If you don't know, better ask somebody. And I think Yeah, I think for UFC fans, I remember hearing that during the Anderson Silva Damian Maya fight, right? Did you do Jitsu now?

Playboy! Yeah. Yes. Yes. It's the best insulted fight. Like I said, just if you don't know what that means, just as Feijon.

Rafael Feijon, how welcome, he'll tell you that. Oh, yeah. But what does this have to do with Aldo? Like, I was familiar with Playboy being a very very derogatory. I was just saying,

do you not know the derivation? of like Playboy being a derogatory thing. But what do that do with this movie though, with this story in particular? Because it's like... It's just out of coming from a poor family, from Manos and coming to Rio and just beat the crap out of that rich people here.

You... Okay, I got it for you. You're Canadian. You're Canadian. You love hockey by definition. Do you remember in those seminal franchise The Mighty Ducks when they were just called Adam Banks

Cake Eater? It's that. It's just You got to annihilate the cake eaters That's not clearing That's not clearing things up for me I'm more confused now That I was before

Eating cake is a sin Just like being a playboy is a sin You're too fancy Gee is the English translation Does that cover that same idea Like did they kind of get it right? Yeah Same idea, okay

I mean I haven't watched the movie With English subtitles But yeah based on that Yeah. That phrase is correct. And that's something that you have to live by. Always be the Playboys. What if I am a playboy? If I ever get a tattoo, that might be it.

What if I am a Playboy? Then I'm in trouble. No, then like Jose Aldo, you violate that version of yourself. A.K., if you come to Brazil, you're never going to be a Playboy. You're going to be a Gringo. Okay. That's good, I think.

I've heard that's a good thing. And we have, we are, we are, usually we are cool with gringos, so you'll be fine. Usually. I heard it usually in there. Casey, uh, did that, did that line resonate with you right away or were you as confused as I was? Are you going to be like, Casey? No, no, no, no, no. Gringo, gringo.

The line did stick out. I remember hearing that. I was like, oh, I was like, Anderson Silva. Anderson Silva. That's what when he said that. Um, I don't know, I don't know when this was from. I think it was D.D. that said it, but he said, hate is fuel for the engine.

I wrote that down. That was, that was D.D. Yeah, it was D.D. Oh, what do you think about the performance of Dedi? Maybe in the movie and, like, I thought there. We just for a second, it's Dede. It's not Dede. Oh, sorry, sorry, Dede.

Andre Pedernella. Yeah, De De De De Dei, yeah. Yeah. I thought that should have been a bigger. role. I felt like it was, I don't know. Does he, in reality,

did he play a bigger, bigger, more important in Otto's life than the movie did? I feel he did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

He's like the father to Joe. Yeah. I guess that's kind of the bigger issue in the movie. The movie kind of treat him as a father, but then when it ends, he cares more about his real father and then his actual figure of a father. I thought, Yes, he does care more about his dead real father than his still alive coach.

That's an insane take. It's totally justified to be upset about your true. No, I don't think. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I just don't think so. If I had a father like that. No,

do I. This is an insane take. I just don't. Okay. Now we're talking to somebody outside the movie. I just don't. Yeah. Biological.

That was his biological father, a bad person. And I just don't think. he would care about that. And that's just, and that's, and I guess that's just a big, a wall I hit in the movie, why I just, we get later, I mean, I would get a spoiler, like, why I can't recommend the movie, because I just did not. I was like, I was kind of like offended by it. Yeah, I know.

And I see what Casey is saying because it's not just about, Jed, I see the point you're saying, too, in a broader sense, but in the movie, the way the relationship between Jose and his actual father in the movie is not presented as being particularly, it's actually not complicated. His father just seems like a total piece of shit. And I get, I get, I get your, there has to be your shit ass dad getting sick and going, okay, my shit ass dad's getting sick. It sucks. Yeah, yeah.

They have to show at least some, some connection beyond just like, oh, his whole connection with his father is so, so horrible. Meanwhile, De DeGas is this very positive influence in life. Like, they just didn't, they just didn't show enough of the, we do see a lot of the father. But again, it's all bad. It's all bad. He's almost too much. It's not all bad. It's not all bad because the other quote that jumped out of this movie is from his dad in one of the

scenes where it's not all bad. Because it, like, sure, if you guys want to argue that there should be more connective tissue there between those two to make his death a little more reasonable, I can accept those terms. I think it's insane just having been around people in my life. Like, you're just sad when your dad dies. We're not saying, listen, we're not saying that doesn't happen in real life. We're saying when you do a movie, though, you cannot just draw upon, well, this is how

it is in real life so we can skip all these corners and you, and you take this relationship for what it is. It's like, no, you have to present these characters. You actually actually have been in these characters as people. You cannot just draw upon real life and say, well, because this is how it is in real life. That's how you had to accept it as the movie. No, the movie presents a certain reality, right? So I don't think they did a good job.

I think you can. What was the, but we don't need to argue that. You can, but it's not a good movie. Then you're not doing your job. Then you're failing. I disagree. We don't need to argue this because this episode's already going longer than we wanted to. Yeah.

What is the father's line that's to them? It's when they're walking on like train tracks or whatever after the dad has, after dad has bailed him out of jail because he goes to jail right like he josay goes to jail for the assault on the lumber bashing yeah that bales them out and they're talking about like getting out his dad ends up offering him here here's some money get out like you you want to leave get out and in that scene there's like jose is you know frustrated and says i i just i just got to get out of here i just got to get out of here and the dad goes yeah me too but everywhere i go i take myself with me And that's just like a really good piece of writing.

And so I liked it. That is a good line. That was solid. Yeah, that was solid. I like that. I liked, again, this was sort of right away, giving away the twist. Before I realized it, I realized it. There was another female.

So there's his wife, Veevi, his future wife Veev, his original Manous, like, lover, Lucia. And then there is another random. That's Waldo's lover. That's not Jose. Well, you know, and then there's another random woman who they meet later, a photographer named Laura, and she says, you know that fighters are those who can fight themselves, right? And at the time, I was like, that's a pretty good line. And then by the end of the movie, you're like, oh, got even better. So, but I think we can all agree.

You have to annihilate the Playboys. Just a great line. Great line in life. Great line for the movie. The movie should be called that. That's the header for this episode. Yeah. That'll be the thumbnail.

The thumbnail. This movie was called Annihilate the Playboys. Playboys rather than stronger than the world. I wanted to be known when we write our Jose Aldo movie, it's going to be titled. Deniated to play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the better version.

We'll get that guy back to it. Guys, did we like this movie? Let's get to our review here. And we do have to rank it with some of the three previous films we've done this show so far. Jed, yeah. I have a note. I have one last note on the Andre Pettanaris thing because this also stuck out of me. And I just wanted to make sure it was said.

Did you guys notice the picture of Anderson Silva in Pananeris's office? Because that didn't make a goddamn bit of sense to me. It was big, too. It wasn't like just eight photos. A close-up of them. Classic Novoinia. It was like, what is that? I mean.

I mean, he was trained in a novonee home early in his career. It wasn't that long. Did he? Because I distinctly remember them having beef with like, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. Casey, there's no. But.

And the actor that the. played Deda, he also worked in the Tropa of Elite Movie. I could tell he was a good actor. I could tell that gentleman was a good actor. He was probably the best actor of the film. Yeah, best just straight acting, yeah. Casey, there was no, there's no photos up at the gym of other, of fighters from other, a famous fighters. Of just a random. Like Chuck LaDelle or something. No, that's not a thing. You just don't have GSP photos in the gym? Yeah, because. It's a great fighter.

All right. Great guy. All right. Well, Gee, first, before actually we really dig into our rating, we've kind of given our thoughts so we can get right to the... Guy, I need you to ball up both of your fists. And this is a two-fist scale, all right? So each of us can put up to two fists. We're going to do a little drum roll, a little countdown.

And we go one, two, three, and then reveal, show us how many fists you give this film with zero being terrible, one being okay, two being excellent. It's pretty broad range. It's not a large system. So, Casey, are you ready? I'm ready. Jed, are you ready? Gee? You're putting your fists up already.

You can put them off. Wait for the drum roll, Jed. Oh, here we go. All right. One, two. Right. No, I got a drum roll going. Hold on.

Oh, you do? Okay. Did I like this? One, two, three, or zero? One. Now. Three, fifth. Oh, three, but a zero from Casey.

So that's going to hurt the average. So, again, normally we have a three, one to six, sorry, zero to six. This is now zero to eight. So we're going to have to do the averages here. I'm pretty sure that this means this is not our number one, doing the math here. This is not our number one. It does not have 50% fists. Yes, it's not have 50% fists.

Just below. Casey, why? You've kind of given your reasons, but real quick, why the zero? Why the zero? of the ending okay if this is a biopic and if something very recent we're not talking about something in the 20s or whatever it just needs to be more accurate to something and the choice and the creative choices they picked the hominic fight the lack of the Mendez fights the lack of the cup swanson knockout the lack of his amazing celebrations the lack of just feeling like josie auto is in their

fighting rather than just a handsome Brazilian actor fighting were too much for me to give it a fist. So although production-wise, filmmaking-wise, this might be the best one as far as hiring the best cinematographers and things like that. But in the end of the day, it's still a fight film and the fights were poorly choreographed, poorly edited. and that wasn't enough to make up for generally good acting with a bad script. So no-fuss for me. Yeah, I think we can all agree we enjoyed the production values. Didn't love the fighting.

So, Guy, why one-fist then? How does it earn the one-fist? It's all right. It's good. I mean, like I said, it's not an anime movie. It's not an action movie. It's a drama. And it's all right.

It works in a certain way, but you would expect more of an M&A movie when you're doing a movie about Jose Aldo. Guy, it made Josealdo cry. How can you speak so lightly of this film? He made him cry. It didn't make me cry, so. If you had Josie Aldo, he's going to give you all the fist you want, but you're asking me, so that's it. Two fists and a leg kick. Jedd

Or a showtime kick Or a showtime kick As we all know he did Yeah I think this is the best movie we watched It's the least in a movie Which is tough I'm heading into the sort of third act

I was fully prepared to give this two fists Because I think it's just a well-made film Ultimately the creative choices Certainly down the stretch Take enough away If this movie ends on Chad Mendes It's getting two fists That's pretty much how this would go for me because I was able to very quickly disassociate this from Josealdo.

I know that this is the Josealdo biopic, but pretty early on it was like, okay, this just isn't what I was anticipating. This isn't sort of a traditional biopic. This is looking to achieve something different. And that's okay. I can just be along for this ride instead of coming in with the same notions. I'd like this to be here. And I think this succeeds as a film. I don't think it succeeds as an MMA movie.

And so it only gets one fist because I've, you know, if this were readily available, if this were on Netflix in the U.S., I would have no issue being like, you could spend the worst 90 minutes of your life. Like, this wouldn't be that bad for you to watch this film to somebody who's not like maybe as loosely interested in an MMA and has heard of Jose Aldo, but doesn't really know anything about it. I think they didn't, I think they get the things that you're supposed to get from this film. So pretty easy one-fist for me and feel okay about that.

Yeah, I had to settle on the one-fifst as well because you're right, I did kind of just enjoy it as a movie. But as far, like, action-wise, it might be the least, like, if you're going to recommend someone just having a dumb old time, it's definitely below blood and bone and roadhouse. And I did not like Roadhouse at all. But again, I think there's a lot of people there who was looking for action, would enjoy Roadhouse far more than they would enjoy this movie. And I would go as far as say Fight Valley as well, right guys?

Fight Valley would also be, no? Am I not? Fight Valley remains, I think, the actual. I've never watched Fight Valley. You should. Don't. It's free on YouTube. It is free on YouTube.

It is free on YouTube. People, that's not true for everyone out there. That's on YouTube. That's on YouTube. I've seen a lot of movies. Listen, I tried to slide that one under the fence. You guys caught it. Well done.

You didn't let me get away with it. But it looks like, Guy, can you say the name in the movie again, please? More Faultier than the world. It's sliding in nicely at our number two spot behind Blood and Boat. So the second greatest MMA movie in all time, that's still pretty good. We'll get a graphic soon. We'll do a graphic. We'll do a graphic.

We'll have a graphic soon. The second greatest movie, MMA movie of all time, just behind Blood and Boat. Just very, like, fractions based on the percentages with the votes, how the votes worked out today. Roadhouse at number three. Fight Valley, very close to number one. It's really, White Ballon, it's a really tight cluster. Blood and Bone, Vinole of Top film is the best. I did enjoy Blood and Bone more than this.

It's funny shit. I don't have more fun than any movie we've watched. I enjoy Blood and Bone. If you haven't seen Blun Bone, I recommend that as well. As I especially look at this, any final. It's hard for me, though, because you were talking about movies in the names in English. And I know movies about, for other names, in Brazil.

So maybe I've watched one of those. I doubt it. But I don't come to my mind. But I know if I really haven't seen it. I know I haven't seen it. Are you sure? Has Chris Seaborg in it? Are you sure?

Yes. I would remember watching a movie with Chris Cyborg. Give me some final thoughts on this project. And whether you think we're, if or when, we will see another Brazilian fighter get this sort of biopic treatment. I mean, there's a lot of great stories for movies. Doesn't Anderson Silva have one coming out on Amazon? soon.

Is it a documentary? No, no, it's a TV series. Oh, it's a TV series. Oh, okay. About his life story? Yeah. Yeah. What?

Wait, an actor. I know this is a lot already did the Anderson Dam. Is this an actor or a documentary? Actors. It's an extra. Yeah. There are three different actors for Angel Silva. Oh, well, there are guys.

There's a future. Thank you, Guy. We have future. Did you guys really not know about this? I know. I was, I totally forgot. If I knew I didn't. I just didn't know.

I mean, there are potations movies, Big Nog. His life is incredible. Oh, my God. Nog deserves one. Becoming a heavyweight champion. I mean, if you tell that story, you don't believe it can ever be real. And that's Big Nog, a real person. No way to Shia is a great story.

A lot of petition for great stories. But, yeah. Jose Alvo is a cool first start. Aponsa, Foyart. If you're out there, we need your special. touch, I think, to tell some of these stories. Yes, this is the man to tell Big Nog story. I saw the creative choices you made here.

You don't get to botch Big Nog. Imagine we're doing a Fador fight as the final film. Like, no, we're not doing that. The truck, the truck will be Big Nogs Fernino. It will haunt him throughout the film. Like, he will keep seeing the truck, like coming around the corner. Like, oh, oh, my God. Like, during his greatest moments, like, and only in the end,

when you were realized, oh, the truck was not real. Faye George's truck. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the truck is Fado. Anyway, thank you so much. We could not have done this episode without you. Could not possibly done it without you. Thank you, as always, to Jed and Casey.

Next week, everyone, next episode, we will be doing bruise. We had some powerful female characters in this movie. But finally, we'll have a movie where the women take center stage, Halliberry, Valenzhena Schipchenko, and others. Thank you again for joining us on another episode of This is Cinema, and we'll see you next time. Love y'all. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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