The Horror Returns - The Action Returns - Ep. #46: Spawn (1997)

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

This episode  Brian and Nez help out Al Simmons from the flames of hell in the 1997 film based on Todd McFarlane's SPAWN.    An elite mercenary is killed, but come back from Hell as a reluctant solider of the Devil.   Join The Action Returns Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/841619946357776   Follow The Action Returns on IG and Twitter: Instagram: @theactionreturns Twitter: @action_returns    Check out everything Horror Returns at: https://thehorrorreturns.com Join The Horror Returns Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns   Join the THR Presents: Stream Fiends Facebook Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/3860579827402429 Follow THR Stream Fiends on IG: @thrstreamfiends

Someone's a little angry because they died. He went to hello, my mutant. Hello, my carcass. Hello, my fucking vest it, go. Like, Satan send you guys? How come God hugs up all the good followers, and he get all the retards me? What's up in the face?

Get your hands up, me. Baby, I need some passion tonight. All right, welcome back. We are back again. took another little break this is the action of the terns i'm your host brian you know who's always with me my brother nez what's up man

hey man spawn spawn i don't know if this will be a long one yeah i don't think so his face a mask of courage who are you his armor

awesome armor a living weapon His mission A fight for justice His name Spawn Let's get it over with PG-13 starts Friday

Special Advanced Screening Thursday Check newspapers for listing Oh man All right Well run through the synopsis Before we died All right Like Ness said

We're talking about 1997 Spawn Let's go to Google Jesus This is a long one covert government assassin Al Simmons is killed after being double crossed by his boss, Jason Wynn. Upon arriving in hell, Simmons is offered an opportunity to return to her. If he's willing to lead an evil army, he accepts and is reincarnated as a hellspawn.

A twisted, horribly disfigured version of his former self, however, Spahn serves as a force of good, much to the dismay of the devil's henchman a wicked clown all right IMD yeah here we go IMDB an elite mercenary is killed but comes back from hell as a reluctant reluctant soldier of the devil that's it

IMDB this star is Michael Jai White John Leguizamo Michael Sheen Teresa Randall Nicole Williamson D.B. Sweeney Melinda Clark and Mika Hughes. This is directed by Mark A. Z.

Dipay. And written by Todd McFarland, Alan B. McElroy, and Mark A. Z. Dipay. Dipe. Whatever. Nez. What do you have to say about Spawn?

All right. 1997. I read some of the comics. I did watch the animated stuff And then I've seen this I remember Like all right, that was okay But I remember I mean this is still

Early CGI So I wasn't Completely blown away I mean does it still hold up today No I mean, it's terrible. The story is all over the place.

It's kind of like the books. It's kind of not. The characters were there, but I don't know. I mean, the one I watched was on Netflix and that was the PG-13 one. There's an unrated version, and I don't know

what's left in that. I haven't seen it enough times to know the difference. Michael Jai White, he is who he is. He's badass no matter what. Martin Sheen, from what I understand, he needed to pay the bills. And I heard that his kids were really deep into spawn, and then he didn't know what it was. It's kind of like how Raoul Julia did Street Fighter,

dated for his kids so he's like what's his name from fucking uh super mario brothers yeah he didn't know what he was doing until his kids was like oh we got the game so um

Melinda Clark she's hot period I like her and everything uh Teresa Randell she's hot as well it was good to see a little gauge in there I forgot he was in this, Miko Hughes. John Ligua Zamo, he is who he is.

I thought he was good as a clown. I mean, I'll give it to him, though. I mean, I'm sure that clown suit was pretty heavy, wearing all that stuff on. But I don't know, it seemed like he was kind of phoning it in with some of his comedy. Like every other thing was just a joke a second. Michael Jai White, when he became Spawn, I thought he looked cool.

I wish there would have been more of just his helmet face, whatever covered, instead of having the burnt-faced the whole time. You see, he did say that took a really long time for them to put all that on. But this movie, it just doesn't hold up. it's the CGI is terrible the mainly the hell scenes

I'm like well who thought this would look awesome it and it wasn't the devil it was just another demon from hell the main one that was down there that was

trying to run the whole thing but it I was just like oh my God I made it just looked that was taking me every time they went to hell I was like

this looks terrible and the main demon the big giant one he sounded like um claw from inspector gadget the cartoon

and I was like oh my God or even the scenes when a clown was in hell and you could clearly see he was just standing in front of a green screen and they added all all the background stuff and

oh man um it uh i don't know i don't i own it on DVD but i don't i don't have the blu-ray um that probably get me if they put it in steelbook form but this oh man this movie was was a little tough to get through i think i know that we're supposed to redo it or um just make another one and uh, Jamie Fox was supposed to be Al Simmons, but I don't know what happened to that. Yeah, I think there's still

going to do it, but he might, I read something he might have to pull out because of scheduling. Hmm. Let's get Michael J. White again. I mean, he said he'll do it. He did a good job. I mean, there was nothing against him. He did

what he was supposed to do. Yeah, he didn't do the effects. Yeah. I think from what I was listening to the people that made this and they were saying, or no, Michael J. White, he was on a collider or something on their little webcast. And he was saying that the cut that he saw

isn't the one that went into the theaters. He said they cut a ton of it out just to go with this big high special effects, CGI extravaganza And he was like He goes That's

He goes it is what it is He goes It isn't what I first seen He goes But they really went for it With the effects And he was like It was

The effects were of the time But he goes now Everyone laughs at it But I mean I mean I'd like to see the cut That he saw Because even Martin Sheen

Was saying some stuff He was like Yeah they had to go and redo the end because of some of the stuff that I guess all about special effects that they added I did like They redid it and it looked like that?

Yeah Well they were supposed The initial plan was to have this big fight in hell But since I don't know they couldn't do it They just went to Well we'll just fight in his house In the library or whatever they were

Oh man It just didn't It didn't The effects The CGI is what took me out of it I did like how they did try to do Some of the special effect Or practical effects

With the creatures What was a clown When he became the monster Um Uh Fuck is his name The Something

Um I know listeners, somebody is yelling. Yes. The violator. Yeah. That, it looked cool when it was practical, but CGI, it just, it didn't look good. And the big giant demon that was running the whole thing. It looked like a bigger version of the violator.

Yeah, he was talking, but his mouth was just going, you know, sometimes wasn't even moving. He was using his mind. I was like, what's happening here? And I don't know, man. Some people who were laughing at the effects of spawn when the spikes came out of him, when his chains and all that. I thought that looked cool still. I mean, I did like his cape.

I'm sure they could do a million times better now today, like Dr. Strange. how his cape and all that was. But, I mean, for 97, I thought the only really good thing, I thought every time they showed his cape, I thought that looked really cool. But as far as some of the effects that he had did, especially with the motorcycle, that was terrible.

I don't know what that was. That big hard shell that went around him. And I just, I was just laughing at the whole thing. but um he would what uh what was in um al simmons he was in the books he was he was worked for a cia in this they kind of just said the agency or something he was supposed to be uh this uh the number one assassin i assume because he took out those guys uh in the beginning i think they were in china or somewhere and then he got mad because when he when he blew some of the stuff up

I guess there was some civilians there that weren't supposed to be there so he was starting to rethink what he was doing but then why did the the hell demon and the clown and all that want him because he was just because he was a killer yeah he's number one assassin so he's perfect to lead the army I guess I don't know stupid

Yeah to lead the The hell spawn army And then Martin Sheens Jason Wynn he was This CIA director He was Gonna

Set off some kind of Virus Weaponry Bio weapon or something And kill everyone in the world Could they make him look more like a villain Than he already did Oh man

they like extra black hair and the black goatee. Oh, and Melinda Clark is his sidekick. Oh, she, henchman written all over her. Yeah. What was her name?

Jessica Preece. She was a character from the books, but this movie just didn't do her justice. From what I understand, um, before the movie came out to, to justify this character in the movie, they,

added her to the books. So when everyone that was just super diehards into the books saw the movie, they were like, oh, okay, she's in it. But my buddy was telling me that she had a bigger part in the comic books. And this one is like, they just showed her. The next thing knows, she was dead and that was it. I was like, okay.

The movie wasn't very long. It was only 96 minutes, but it was just rushed. what was going on and Spong was supposed to the demon told him was look you'll get to see your wife again

if you lead our army and he was like I'll do it just because I want to see my wife again but how big of a time jump was it obviously it was a long time well his fucking partner best friend knocked up his wife and they had like what a

seven eight year old kid maybe maybe six at the least okay so there was that and then he came back and saw that his buddy his buddy was begging his wife and all that but all right

how long he waited to get in there I don't know I mean he might have been like right in the cut already because if that kid was six six or seven years old he must have slid right in there and I remember this movie differently like I'm

This has, this had to been my second or third time watching it since it came out. And I thought that was his kid. So did I. And then I'm rewatching. I'm like, oh, that's D.B. Sweeney's kid. I was like, he got in there right when you died because she looks kind of old. He wasn't even buried yet. And he was already in that bed.

Well, she was so sad. I had to do something. It says five years past. okay that kid was not five years old yeah all right so so that was a story he that was why he became one of the the spawn of hell or whatever so he was gonna lead this army army for what to take over the world after everyone was dead i didn't i didn't get what they needed to lead his army for i couldn't they just invade with the fucking hundreds of thousands of hell spawn they already had.

Yeah, because this is... We're not equipped to fight hell spawns from hell, so... So Simmons arrives in hell where one of the rulers of... Okay, one of the rulers of hell, male bulgea or whatever, offers him a Fustandil. If Simmons becomes his eternal servant and leader of his army in Armageddon, he will be able to return to her to see his fiancee Wanda Blake. All right. That was a reason why he did what he

did. But yeah, he was able to go back and see her, but he couldn't be with her because he was still all burned up and everything. So, but all right, it was kind of a bum deal. But so that's when he goes up there and finds out that his buddy is married to his woman. And then this is when he also finds out who killed him. It was a, uh, uh,

uh, uh, priest. They were the ones that, that, that had him dead, or they burned him up. And so he was just trying to stop them.

And then there was, uh, the old night guy. What was his name? Um, that fucking guy. Was it, uh,

Nicholas. I gotta try that. Colostillo. I don't know, Nick. It was him. He was like a, a,

a, a, a, that was basically trying to show spawn or basically tell him who he is and what he's doing. Like you're fighting for the wrong team. You should fight for good. Man, that guy was just getting his ass kicked every time he jumped into something. Yeah.

I mean, he was basically like the Obi-1. He was trying to tell him, this is how you use your powers. And don't overdo it. because if you, I guess if you use your powers on too much, you're, you're going to die.

How does he know? I, I don't know. I guess he was fighting this battle between heaven and nail for millions of years. Was he just a hobo that lived down the skid row?

Everybody was a hobo because, you know, we just were we meet Miko Hughes and his dad is the guy that killed Uncle Ben and Spider-Man. They're just eating out of trash cans. Yeah, and he was about to just beat his son

because he didn't want to eat garbage. That's good food. No, it's not. He was about to just beat him down and then Spawn stepped in and was ready to kill him. And then my gauge jumped in the way. No, he's my dad. You guys killing Uncle Ben and beating kids.

man, what the hell? Yeah, yeah, man. Rest and peace to Uncle Ben. So, but did they need that story? I mean, they didn't need to add this little kid into it. Or did they just? I didn't, I don't see what his purpose was. I mean, to, I don't know.

I thought he was at least be some kind of little sidekick help, but he didn't do anything. He just basically just popped in every now and then. I mean, he didn't even really get put in a position that he needed to be saved or anything so he served no purpose in this movie other than uh to fucking bring his dog home yeah um spas yeah so i mean this i did like this part the part when um uh spawn goes into um i guess some kind of dinner or something was going on i loved how he i thought this looked neat the way he came crashing through that skylight and his cape is down and all this but then at that

He didn't even know how to how to control it because the one guy, the night dude, told him, was, look, you're only using your powers through like your reflexes because he didn't know how to do it. Later, when the movie was almost over, is when that night guy was telling him how to do it. And then it was over. But I wasn't wondering that they explained it, though, but I always think when I was watching it, I was like, why is he using guns if he's got all these powers? but they explain it later. Well, you can only use your powers only so much. That's why he was using guns. But he can only use his guns on the living.

I mean, the humans. He couldn't use it on the clown or any of the other demons because they would just get shot up and then they'd heal up like how he did. So, but I, what the other thing I was kind of lost on was a clown. why why was he going after jason went i mean

martin sheen was he just helping him try to destroy the earth i don't know they made it seem like i guess him setting off this bomb that creates this virus i guess that kicks off

the apocalypse the armageddon or whatever and they they couldn't do it themselves or something so but I don't understand why he's trying to what does he get out of it destroying the world I mean yeah because wouldn't he die too but all right I know they were saying that oh no if you went underground uh you would survive but I don't know I don't understand why he was doing have I seen the matrix I mean you don't want to go underground and live so okay he was Martin Sheen, Jason Wayne, was the one that was going to release this biochemical warfare crap.

But I guess the timers of the bombs or whatever, they say, okay, we're going to hook it up to your heart. So if you die, then boom, the whole thing blows up. I was like, well, what was the point of that? I mean, I understand what they were trying to do, but I was like, okay, because he had to get this thing surgically put into a pacemaker. uh next to his heart or attached to his heart and i was like okay whatever he got talked into that real quick too yeah he did i mean i was like what he what are you getting at this but are you going to be the the ruler of the underworld or i don't know so so that was he was trying to stop him through the rest of the movie and clown and spawn went at it a few times um that's why

he jumped on that motorcycle and turned it into, I don't know, some kind of hard cover. It was like his cape went over him, but then it turned into this hard shell or something. I was like, who designed this? It looked terrible. But after all them going back and forth,

we finally get to the end where Spawn's going to, well, he finally lets, what the hell was her name? Wanda and And what's his name? His buddy, D.B. Sweeney, Terry. He finally, they've, no, Terry found out earlier that that was, Spawn was Al Simmons, because that's when he had talked to him.

And then he kind of realized, all right, cool. Jumping to the end when he's doing his little telling the news what's going on. I didn't buy none of his shit he was saying. He was like, I knowingly took part in this and I had nothing to do with it. he had everything to do with it. He should have went down too for knowing all of this of what Jason when was going to do and having all that stuff that he had on his computer.

Because that's when they came at the end, when they came in, he blew up his computer and all the disc drives and everything. I was like, okay. I mean, you should have killed him. Yeah, you knew all this.

He should have killed you for taking his woman. and I'm like, all right, whatever. While he's killing her, he should have been Wanda. And it just takes him out. So they're in Terry and Wanda's house and they're about to fight. They're fighting a violator comes and then Spawn and Nicholas gets sucked into the fireplace into hell. I was like, wait. He was like, well, hang on, here we go.

And then they go into the fireplace and they'd shoot down that long tunnel to hell. And that this, it was so bad. I was like, oh, my God. Violator looked terrible. The main demon looked dumb. And it was just some stupid fight in hell that just it was dumb.

Oh, before they went to hell, Spawn sucked that little detonator or whatever that was inside of Jason Wynn. He like did his x-ray vision and then pulled it out somehow. I was like, okay. This is seeming like those early Superman movies. He has these powers nobody else knows about. But it was like, he didn't like, okay, I suck this at you.

He didn't tie him up. What was he doing? Was he just laying there waiting for them to come back from hell? because Jason said, well, man, they're gone. I'm out of here.

He stayed there because that, that fight in hell. Go to YouTube and watch it. Or if you guys have Netflix, watch it. It was, oh my God,

it was so bad. And they, actually, they, they fight in hell, but then they go back into, to the house and they're fighting in there again.

Violator comes back out and spawn ends up cutting. was this bond who cut yeah he did the chains and they spun around oh yeah that's right his head off because I guess that's how you killed him but yeah didn't seem like he was dead because he was his head was still talking

yeah he was talking shit until he just melted and then said he'll be back stuck back into hell yeah I was like okay and evil was punished for the time being uh Nicholas the night guy was going to

help spawn figure out who he is and how to work all his powers and evil is punished for the minute and then that was it oh my God this movie was all over the place

and smoking was garbage the crappy CGI is what was taking me out of it again I didn't mind it when it was just live action in the shooting shooting and shoot them up and everything. I thought that was cool.

Well, they were saying the reason why he was using guns was because he, I think I already said this, that he wasn't using it. He couldn't use his powers too much. But then I'm looking. But you could, you get a badass real martial artist like Michael Jai White and he didn't really do shit. Uh-uh. Nothing. I'm like, I'm a fan of his. I mean, we're in here in the future on actual returns.

we were going to review some of his movies and he is for real like multiple different martial arts black belt and he didn't do nothing in this he did more martial arts in uh his first movie toxic avenger two yeah he did and this this he didn't do nothing he was just wearing the suit i love just had a he could i just had an all-out battle scene with the other hell spawn where he's just using his fighting skills and yeah that he's used the suit There should have been more bad guys, monster, demons that he had to fight. I mean, it was just him and the violator, and that was, he was basically just getting thrown all over the place. But, again, I did like how he looked when he had the, I guess his helmet and his cape and everything.

I liked how he looked. I thought he looked awesome. But, I don't know, this, this movie just doesn't hold up at all. it's nothing against any of the actors they did what they were supposed to do it was just whoever did the special effects just didn't didn't do good from what i understand i guess these were some guys that worked at or used to work at um uh skywalker ranch and i'm like were these guys like the low end guys that were just beginning because i did why did they used to work there because they weren't good enough.

That's why they used to work there. From what I understood that I guess, this is what I was told, I was listening to some other things. I guess that whole ranch, there's microphones in every room. So maybe they were talking shit about George and they got fired.

I don't know, but. Well, I'm looking here. It says Jamie Fox is still attached. And the Blumhouse is producing it. We'll see. Jeremy Renner is attached to play detective Twitch. The budget for this was $40 to $45 million. And it boxed office, $87.9 million.

Well, it made its money back, doubled its money, but. I was a part of that. That's the first time I've seen it was in the theater. It just, this movie doesn't hold up. I mean, there is a fan base. It's one of those movies that is so bad that people love it. Would you call it a Cold Classic? I don't think it's at that status yet.

Honestly, I don't think I even know anybody that talks highly of this movie. I mean, my friends, it was really deep into Spawn. He liked it, but he just complains about the CGI and all that. because he's got all the McFarland figures and he's got like every book I guess this is the comic series is still running it's like in the 300s

or something like that but yeah I picked up some of the newer I haven't read them yet but there's like gunslinger spawn and king spawn and stuff like that I picked him up and I've been meaning to get into him

but I haven't I want one of the actually the little statues I mean I want how he looked in this movie because there's multiple ones that are out. But I want the one how he looked in this movie.

Probably pretty penny. But yeah, Spawn. I mean, if you want to watch it, again, it's on Netflix. But I wouldn't recommend it unless you just interested. If you got HBO Max, go watch the animated series. Yeah, watch that. That's awesome. I think Todd McFarland had a bigger hand in that than in this.

but I don't know I again I would still like to see the cut that Michael Jai White saw before they messed it up so I don't know maybe a future Blu-ray steel book special edition I remember when this movie came out everybody was ranting and raving about the soundtrack

it was terrible I don't care what I mean I love Metallica and they did like a industrial mess with for whom the bell tolls and I was like I couldn't even finish that song and for whom the bell tolls was like one of my favorite Metallica songs and they

I don't know if Lars just let him do it for the money but I don't know and all the other crappy music that was on that soundtrack I'm not the one for that type of stuff but yeah spawned what else to say about it like I said I was probably going to say the least on this movie's trash

special effects is garbage uh did nothing with Michael Jai White and just after talking about this movie with you I just don't know how to feel about Wanda because I'm looking here the little girl had uh D.B. Sweeney and

fucking Al Simmons last names at the same time. Like, what the fuck? It's not even his kid. Or is it? Sian Simmons Fitzgerald. I don't know. She was calling him daddy. She doesn't even have neither one of their last names.

She's Wanda Blake. Well, that was her working. She was a somebody. all right yeah spawn everyone well hopefully our next

next movie will be a lot better getting us of the Christmas spirit with a long kiss good night I have not seen that in a really long time I think I only seen it once it was like on HBO or something I remember really liking it

I remember really liking Sam Jackson in it I don't remember anything except for that deer hitting the car or into the windshield that's all I remember but

all right yeah come back for that and in the line of fire is a stream fence so get ready for that one as well and

next wrestling returns is going to be day one speaking of wrestling returns Jeff Hardy what happened I don't know

but it kind of seems like maybe he might have slipped up again. Oh, man, I hope he didn't fall off a wagon. From what I understand, he, I think he was late to one show and asked to go back into the back instead of going out to the ring. And then I think he was a no show for the next one. He's neither a no show or they just told him to not come. I saw the video and he just walked off. and left

King Xavier and um um um um um um um

yeah I think I think he was told to to leave because even when he would just hopped the rail and walked into the crowd this was at a show the video I saw

and um Grigano is he done uh that's what I was reading it's very strange kind of seemed like he was saying goodbye

but then I forgot who came out and basically beat the shit out of him. I don't know if that was his goodbye forever, just his goodbye for NXT, but I think he could say he's done with NXT. Who knows? Maybe, if not day one, maybe wrestling. Oh, yeah, Rumble.

That's, that's, uh, geez. Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking WrestleMania is like soon. That's not until April. Yeah, you got day one and then we got Royal Rumble so we can see Brock and Roman again probably. I don't know, but I'm still trying to decide on what day I want to go to WrestleMania. I know I'm going to pick one and then whatever happens on the day, I'm not there. Something big is going to happen and I'm going to miss it. So I don't know.

You should take Lance with you. Get some wrestling in them. I don't know. But yeah, if you guys are down in Dallas, I'm gonna go to one of them. I don't know which one yet. I'm buying me a ticket this time. Well, I had a ticket the last time,

but I stood the whole time. I ain't doing that again. And I'm definitely bringing in my sweatshirt because it was freezing in there. The AC was a full blast. But, all right, everyone. That's it for this episode. Just come back next week for more.

So until then, everyone, just be safe out there and we'll see you guys next time so until then party on don't forget to go to the www.thehorror returns.com for everything we do uh you just even links to skaternett's podcast and e-society anchor link on there so until then everybody be safe and buy a t-shirt yes too