The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #37: Commando (1985) & John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) (Re-upload)

Episode Date: August 28, 2021

This week we are joined again by good friend and very special guest Jack Falvey IV of BingeMedia, to discuss John Wick Chapter 2 as well as Commando. Thanks for listening!

Greetings, victims. For those of you who delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify gore, welcome. You have found the place where the horror returns. Listeners beware. This podcast contains major plot spoilers and the foulest of language.

Join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror. These listeners, you have found the horror returns. For all of you who delight in dread, fantasize about fear and glorify gore, welcome home. This is the podcast that proves that the horror never ends. Each episode, we seek out and review a brand new horror movie. Then we go back and find a classic work with similar themes.

We're looking at both similarities and differences. Our goal here is to explore how our perceptions of fear remain the same from generation to generation, but also to point out how the presentation can change, based on the social and political climate of the times. We include spoilers for the new film. However, we will wait until the very end of the show to spoil the new feature, and we will let you know before we do so with a spoiler alert. If you don't wish to hear the spoilers, simply turn us off at that point, and we promise you won't miss a thing.

We generally assume you guys have seen the classic film, so there will always be spoilers when we're discussing anything that has been out for at least a year. The other thing we may do from time to time is use a few four-letter words. This is a horror podcast, and horror movies tend to be R-rated, so you can pretty much expect us to be, too. I'm Lance, and with me as always, are my co-hosts, Brian and Philip, and this week, all the way from New England, home of the world champion New England Patriots. Our good friend Jack Falvey, once again joins the fray. Jack is always always happy to have you on the show. What's going on in your world, my man? Oh, just living a life of a championship football fan.

So it's been quite a week. And thanks for having me again. I always like coming on with you guys. Yeah, we really appreciate it, man. So Brian Phillip, you guys had a good week? Yeah, pretty good, pretty good. Yeah, working on it. Wish Cowboys were there with them.

But I'll take another Patriot in Super Bowl. Yeah, I think your Cowboys weren't. weren't quite, quite ready. Yeah, no. And now, and now, uh, uh, freaking Tom Brady has got as many Super Bowl rings as the whole Cowboys team. So that's fun. Another, another, another chilling fact, right, Jack?

Yeah. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I say it all the time. Very lucky. Very lucky to be alive and see this right now. Very lucky.

Yeah. That's true. Good. Good time to be a Patriots. fan. For sure, for sure. All right. It's been, it's been an eventful week.

That it is. Happy to be here. Yeah, well, we're happy to have you here. And one thing that we like to do is we always get started with our guest. And first feature that we do is cool of the week. Jack, what's the coolest thing you've seen this week, man, outside of the movies we're reviewing? Caught me off guard here. Well, actually, does this extend to,

the video game realm as well. Absolutely. Anything you want to pick, man. All right. So I've been playing a little... Actually, I've been anticipating a game that's coming... Actually, it came out Tuesday called Neo, N-I-O-H. It's on PlayStation. It's just like Dark Souls, but it's in like Samurai Japan. And it looks pretty awesome. I didn't know it was coming out this soon, but I will be picking it up, hopefully,

momentarily. But yeah, for me, that's the coolest thing I saw this week outside of, you know, the obvious, of course. But, yeah, I'll definitely be checking that out. And hopefully when school allows me to get back to the binge game cast, I will give you them a review over there. Awesome. Oh, actually, another cool of the week. I'll give you another one more related to what we do. And Brian, this might be in your headlines later, but.

You guys read about the new Halloween movie? Oh, yes. We're going to talk about that later. We'll save it for it. Oh, boy. Brian, what was your cool, man? Besides all the action movies I was watching this week, getting ready for John Wick, I checked out a couple of new TV shows.

First one was the Training Day TV show. Okay. Oh, yeah. it's not bad. It actually picks up after the events of the movie. And the trainee is actually an undercover cop. And what is the actor's name? Bill Paxton is basically the Denzel Washington character.

Okay, yeah. I was going to ask you who was in it. Okay. I forgot about that. It's not bad. I'm going to stick with it right now. But the one that I was super excited to work. watch was a legion.

Oh, I saw that. Yeah. What did you think of Legion? I thought it was phenomenal. It came out of nowhere. I had no idea what it was. That's good to hear. Oh, my God.

I didn't realize it was out already. I got to watch it. Jack, you said, no, I haven't, but Jack, didn't you say it was the same showrunner that did Fargo? Yeah, I, uh, you know, sometimes you just have so much bandwidth. Like, I, I had read that Noah Hawley was doing

this and I had like some familiarity with who the character is but not much and then this just kind of popped up I think I might have seen an ad for it I don't know maybe during the Super Bowl or something but yeah this was like especially after X-Men apocalypse which was just such a fucking misstep like this was pretty awesome I don't know Brian what would you think of it oh I loved it uh Lance I think you would enjoy there's a lot of Kubrick uh influences in the show. What? Absolutely.

I didn't see that coming. No kidding. Yeah. The only thing that's got me worried is they're saying this is in the current X-Men universe. Okay. Oh, don't complicate it too much. Yeah, and they said eventually Professor X will appear on the show, but it won't be Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy. Oh, no.

That's not good. The continuity really confuses me with this whole X-Men. universe. But besides that, the show, the show was great. I really liked it. I tell you what, though. I mean, I know it's not on our trailer list this week,

but holy shit, that new Logan trailer was on my, I saw it when I went to go see John Wick and, man, I'm excited about the new X-Men. I mean, I don't know if they're going to be in the new X-Men universe. I know this is Hugh Jackman's last movie, but holy shit, that looked pretty awesome.

Yeah, I think that one is supposed to, to be kind of like it's something allegedly. I don't know. Yeah, well, that one does have Patrick Stewart in it, so at least it's... Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Philip, what was your cool of the week, man? Man, I watched Santa Clarita Diet

from like start to finish. It was... Oh, wow. Yeah, it was really funny. It had Drew Barrymore and that dude that looks like Fergie's husband that played on justify. Timothy Oliphant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always get those two guys mixed up.

Right. But it was, yeah, it was very funny, man. Very, very funny. I was a big fan. I loved Drew Barrymore in it. I love Timothy Oliphant. And the daughter was hilarious as shit. And then the neighbor who was just some kid I've never seen before.

He's funny. The whole thing was really great. I wish that in the season they had finished their thought. That's one of the things that irritates me. I don't like it when they leave it completely open-ended like that instead of wrapping up a storyline. But aside from that, man, it was a lot of fun to watch. It was really good.

Yeah, it sounds like it. Actually, you might could almost say your cool of the week was the Logan trailer, huh? Pretty much. It was pretty awesome. I know you're looking forward to that. Well, my cool of the week is I'm actually hope I don't catch any shit from you guys. I'm kind of embarrassed to say this

because this one really kind of falls in the guilty pleasures arena big time, but I've been watching the TV show Emerald City the one that's sort of like a retailing of Oz and

Brian was talking about how good that was. You know what? It's so fucking terrible, though, as far as the production value. It's a network TV show. you know but uh and and vincent d'nafrio just fucking hams it up it to 100 180% you know he's like he's just so terrible but for some reason i just can't stop fucking watching it you know

and so far i've noticed every episode uh jack you familiar with the director tarcum sing oh yeah of course the fall is an amazing the fall is amazing the cell was pretty good he's done a couple of shitty shitty ones like immortals and all that. He's kind of hit or miss, but I've noticed he's actually directed every single episode so far, and that's really unusual. So that's my guilty pleasure slash cool of the week. Anybody else besides me and Brian checked it out?

No, I haven't seen that yet. Yeah, it's just something about it, man. And the younger chick that plays the Wicked Witch, man she is she's something else dude she's uh who she's she's a haughty she's definitely not yeah definitely not the traditional green ugly wicked witch from the movies that's for damn sure

but yeah that's that's it so you guys all right Brian so uh we got any headlines this week yeah I'm gonna start with my Blu-ray pick for this week coming out February 28th is Dr. strange and if anybody's into the steel books

Best Buy is going to be having an exclusive steel book Nice Steel book? Yeah, they're pretty cool I kind of wish a lot of them would be more in this steel book case. I don't know I like the artwork. I'm a

movie collector myself so I always look for the steel books. When I was at Rhode Island Comic Con a few years back I found this one guy who did his prints on metal. Oh, okay. Wow. I'm not any kind of crazy, you know, Dr. Strange fan, but I had to buy his Dr. Strange

strange print because it's basically, you know, Dr. Strange cross leg, levitating. He's got the sanctum sanctorum window behind him, and it's all like swirling color. It's basically like a rainbow of color. Oh, wow. But I can only imagine that a steel book of something like that would look really badass on a shelf. Yeah. Was that the Dr. Strange with kind of? the Freddie Mercury look.

Actually, it was the Cumberbatch look, believe it or not. Yeah, because that was like the week after that came out. Oh, okay. The guy had a little bit of time to put it together. So, yeah. Well, they couldn't have picked a better actor for that movie, man. It was really good.

Yeah. Yeah, I like it a lot. Yeah, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Okay. Our first bit of news here, Netflix has officially renewed the OA for a second season. Oh, good. Good, good.

I would hate for it to have ended like that, man. I don't know what the hell was going on with that ending. Megan's been on me to watch that show for about two weeks now. So how should I be prioritizing that? Yeah, it's definitely a watch, but it's for me, I didn't, I didn't binge it. completely through. I did an episode here, episode there. Because personally for me, there was

a couple episodes where it kind of lost me, but then it pulled me back in. Yeah, it's tough to binge the whole way through, but I mean, overall it was super good. Yeah, the ending, I definitely glad they didn't just leave it

like that. That's kind of the same gripe I had with the Santa Clarita diet where they didn't completely finish their thought. And your tape. Sure. Aside from that, man, it was really good.

Fair enough. Speaking of Netflix, it was just announced that we are going to get an animated Castlevania series. I heard something about that.

It's coming from Adi Shankar, who's worked on Dred and the Grey, and he's done a lot of shorts that he put online. The Punisher, and the Power Ranger basically like the

you guys ever see the Power Ranger one it's like a gritty take on the Power Ranger No what is that again a gritty power range Yeah it's he he he does like these little little short films And this one had it starred like James Vanderbeek

And Katie Sackoff and it was like a more adult Oh yeah I remember that Dawson what? Yeah And then he did He did one for the Punisher. I think it was called Dirty Laundry or something like that.

Yeah, yeah, the Tom Jean thing, right? Yeah, yeah. So he will be basically handling this Castlevania animated series, and he said basically, to quote him, he said he's going to flip the vampire subgenre on its head with this one. Okay. So, very interested in that one. Yeah, I was a fan of the game back in the day.

Yeah, classic Okay I'm pretty sure you guys heard Along with Friday the 13th World War Z-2 was taken off the schedule Yes, I heard that No one's crying any tears over that I don't think

Well David Fincher has came out And expressed interest in directing it Oh what? Okay, now you got my interest Officially it's just It's nothing set in stone But he is very interested And, you know, he's worked with, I believe he's worked with, um, who, uh, yeah, that's, that's who I was thinking of.

So this, uh, this, I could, I could actually see this happening with, with his relationship with Brad Pitt. Yeah, um, I fucking hated World War Z. Um, yeah. You know, if Fincher wants to take it on, I'm down. I mean, you know, if I'm nothing if not consistent and I'm a director's guy. So if Fincher's going to do something, I'm going to check it out. Definitely give it a shot, right? For sure. I just don't. It's so odd that, like, that story comes out because he's a guy who the last genre or the last

franchise movie he made was like Alien 3. I mean, he's completely disavowed that, you know? Right. I don't know. That's an odd. To me, that was a really odd thing that came out last week. But, hey, you know what? If it's true and he goes after it, then I'm down.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, if he's directing it, I'll watch anything he directs. Absolutely. He's definitely one of my top ten of all time. There's no doubt. We look at the body of work. Sally could be a completely different movie. Yeah. Stephen King's It remake is going to be officially rated R. Brian, I swear to God, man. You have an It update every other week, man. There's something coming out every week about it.

God. Well, yeah, it's got a lot of buzz around it. They haven't changed directors again, have they? No. I think it's almost done filming from pictures I've seen online. Right. So I'm sure within the next couple months we'll probably be getting a trailer. So is this going to be the two films, or is it going to be a single film?

Well, I mean, if the first one bombs, then there will be no second film. But, yeah, the first one's just going to be the... the kid's side of the story. Okay. Okay. It's got a bomb pretty hard for it to not come out. I think it's got enough. Yeah, I think it's got enough buzz behind it.

Man, it's going to do something, even if it's awful. With Ben Affleck stepping down directing the Batman, they've hired Matt Reeves to direct. Ah. But Matt Reeves, I quit. Is that official? I didn't realize that was official yet. I believe it is official.

Damn, okay then. That's interesting. Yeah, I'm pretty down on that movie. You know, Affleck stepping down from directing, and the one complaint that he's had consistently with these movies has been the writing. Kind of tells me that maybe he's having second thoughts about signing a multi-picture deal,

and he's just trying to get out of this thing. I don't think it bodes well for the future. I'm really, I like Matt Reeves, but I don't think he's going to be given a script that he can do something with personally. I'm wondering if he's going to rewrite the script from the ground up. I don't think that D.C. is running things like that. I think that they've got their roadmap and they're just doing it the way that they think they should. I mean, if they're not going to let Affleck do it, they're not going to let Reeves do it. Well, I'll tell you, Reeves, Reeves has never done a movie I didn't like.

I'd agree with that. So for, you know, relatively young director, he's, yeah, I wouldn't say he's top, top 10 or anything, but he might be top 25 for me. Yeah, you can check that box off because you're about to hate this movie, I'm sure. Jack, I have a quick question. Yeah. How do you feel Wonder Woman and Justice League are going to do? I don't like how Wonder Woman looks at all.

I feel that it's awkward to introduce a character in one movie, then go back to tell her whole story only to know that she's coming back for a Justice League movie. Right. You guys want to rant, here it is. DC Comic Universe, right? Or the movie universe, they have shot themselves in the foot like three times over with the way that these...

No kidding. But it's just like the fundamentals of it are breaking. broken, right? Like, you have a movie called Batman v. Superman, which is a stupid thing to do first in the first place. Like, let's just get that out of the way. There's a bad idea to start with that, okay? But, you know, take that out of the equation. You introduce Wonder Woman, right? A year later, you've got a movie that Wonder Woman is in that, that you know she does not die in. Like, you know that there's no danger for her and she's getting out. Now, granted, you can make that argument for every superhero movie these days. I get that. But ultimately, whatever happens in the Wonder Woman movie, has absolutely no like relevance or consequence on what is going to happen in the Justice League movie because we know it's all in the past

and we've already established who she is in a different film. So then you're going to go to the Justice League movie which like you know Superman's in it so you've already spoiled Batman v. Superman's ending not that anybody thought he was dead

in the first place. Right. It's just bad writing. Like it's bad storytelling. It doesn't you're setting up things that the audience already knows are going to happen. Like you're trying to set up these moments, but they're, they're moments that don't need to exist because they're, like, Snyder just loves making moments in movies,

right? He doesn't like making good story or, or, like, really good writing. He likes the cool action scene that he can slow down to fucking 120 frames per second and, you know,

show somebody kick another guy down a hole or something. That's what he does, you know? people like that and that's fine but it's not it's not good storytelling it's not good writing and it's not good directing visually it's good but I don't know so so Wonder Woman

I think is going to be a pile of dog shit and Justice League like why the fuck is Cyborg in Justice League like why he never he never was in comic books right he was I don't understand and then you know you look at the Flash movie too right like the Flash has gone through what three directors now

I mean yeah that was my next question do you even think that movie's happening. Dude, I just, and then you hear that the Green Lantern core movie, they're modeling it after lethal weapon. Well, that just to me sounds like they're trying to make it Guardians of the

galaxy. And frankly, like, fuck you. You know, I'm kind of done. So, Affleck stepping down from directing the Batman movie, I mean, you guys know I'm a big Batman fan. I'm kind of out on that movie now. Like, I just don't get to fucking ever. I'm with you, man. That is

about the biggest red flag I could have ever seen because I'm a huge athlete fan. I haven't always been, but man, that dude has proven over and over again how great he is as a director and as an actor. And the fact that he's pulling out of directing this,

they've had so much other turmoil in that whole DC universe with the Flash movie and all that other crap, man, it's like somebody up there needs to get slapped in the face. I just think that they've set a bar that's impossible to

get back to. Like, and the people who are in charge now, they don't understand why people loved the Dark Night and in that whole series. Like, yeah, DC was smart, and they wanted to do something different than Marvel. What they should have done was start making standalone stories. Like, go to the graphic novels for Batman and do, like, thrill killer, right? Or do Dark Victory, you know, and just take these stories, give one director, give him free reign over like a particular option that they have,

let him tell that story his way, and then don't make a direct sequel to that story. Like just let somebody else rip with the material the same fucking way that the comic book writers make the Batman books. Like I don't know why that didn't make sense to a studio. That's totally the direction I would have gone in, because then you separate yourself from Marvel, right? because Marvel, they're very committed to making everything in the same universe and a building continuity, right?

Right. So, if DC wants to separate itself, let it do a Superman Red Sun, you know? Like, why not make that a fucking movie? And then once it's done, just move to the next thing. People know who Superman is. They know who Batman is. You don't need to be told all this shit and set everything up for the 15th fucking time in film history. Yeah, like Spider-Man was doing for a while there?

Exactly. Yeah, that's a good point. So I don't know. I've got no faith in any of it. There's that select few superheroes that, yeah, you don't necessarily have to have a backstory on them in every movie. Or if you do, make it quick. Because that means the whole goddamn thing. Yeah, get in and get out, huh?

I mean, to be honest. Batman or definitely two of them. To be totally honest with you, I hope that Dr. Strange is the end of that kind of origin story. Because, like, I like Dr. Strange, and I, like, I like Dr. to strange and I get that you have to like make that that way to get to that universe and like open up the mysticism and everything

but man like at this point I hope Black Panther is just black Panther when the movie starts like I don't want to not you know yeah no I definitely wouldn't bet on that they've got a formula and they are sticking to it but you know

they've been talking about Infinity War as being structured around the idea that Thanos is the main character. I mean, that to me sounds fucking awesome, you know? So I hope that Marvel's starting to evolve and making their movies a little bit differently. But, yeah, I know that I went off on a tangent there. But yeah, at the end of the day, I don't, I have no confidence in anything that DC is making film-wise.

I think it's, well, unless they decide to make Lego versions of their movies, then I'm good with them. But I was just going to, I was just going to make that exact suggestion, man. Well, the thing to me about, because we just threw it on the other night just to have it on in the background. And Dark Night is one of those movies where, like, every frame of that movie is important to the story, right? Like, that movie starts, Joker's robbing a bank. You find out later it's the bank that's owned by the mob and that they had all their money there. That's integral to what Joker wants to do. That's how he gets Batman involved, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

Like, there's no wasted time in that movie. you know Batman v Superman I mean they waste like the whole fucking movie yeah pretty much it's terrible

you just don't have a clear direction of what the story's about like this they don't start from a place of saying okay this is the story I want to tell they start from a place of okay I need Batman to fight Superman how do I do that

and it's just not a good way to structure it I don't think but fuck do I know what Hey, what do you guys think about the Lego Batman movie? I know I'm not the only one who's seen that, right? No, I just got it out of it. What did you think, man?

What was your takeaway? It was fantastic. It's a fantastic movie. There's no, uh... We came out of that. I went with the girlfriend and a couple other friends and all four of us came out. We were all just like, yeah, the movie was awesome. Wouldn't change your thing.

I, uh, Will Arnett kind of bothers me just in general. Really? I think that he was, yeah, he was kind of a total dude. douchebag in this movie, but it worked. Sure. It's supposed to be. They certainly had a lot of a lot of pretty expensive voice actors in this movie. I can just imagine how much they spent to make this.

And how do they go about getting the rights for all those different characters? I mean, that's amazing how they can do that for these Lego movies. It's pretty genius on Lego's part to realize that that's the market they need to go after. And, like, actually, they've applied it to their video games, too. They have Lego Dimensions. Oh, that's right. It's like, for those of you don't know, it's like you buy this platform that plugs into your game console or your computer.

And what you do is you buy sets of Legos that are specific for the game. So like you could go and buy the Ghostbusters pack, right? And it'll have like Peter Venkman in it. And when you put Venkman on the little platform, you get him in the game. So you unlock the characters that way. So, they've been building out that brand and acquiring like, gremlins back to the future. I mean, you name it. They've got it.

And it's fucking genius marketing. Like, you know, the fact that you can see in these games, like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and Star Wars, and you name it, it's fucking crazy. Right. Yeah. That was, that part was pretty awesome. That was a lot of licenses all in that same movie there, and it was pretty funny. The Gremlins, Jurassic Park. Jaws.

Jaws. Okay, I saved our biggest news for last. We are officially getting a new Halloween movie coming October 19, 2018. There you go. And it's going to be written by David Gordon Green and Danny McBride. Wow. No Rob Zombie this time, huh? Nope.

And John Carpenter is still going to produce. and yeah, this actually could work. I've read Danny McBride is a big horror fan, and he's quoted to saying that just because he's involved, don't expect this to be a funny movie. He said he's going for a dark, vicious horror film. Well, he said something, isn't he in the new alien movie or something? Yes.

And I've read he is not a comedic character in that one either. I'm not sure I'm buying that. He's got to be some kind of comic release. Right. So is he an established writer? I mean, do any of you guys know if he's actually, like, done any screenwriting before this? Or does this give me, like, his first try? No, so I can't remember the name of the school that they all went to.

But David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and Jody Hill, they all went to the same college. And I've heard them on podcasts talk about the fact that, like, you know, when they were in school, they would make student films and stuff. I mean, they made some comedy, but they weren't necessarily just comedic films that they made. I said they made a lot of drama and some horror movies and stuff like that. So the fact that these guys are getting together on this, I think it's a great choice personally. Like, you know, the zombie Halloween movies are visually pretty wild, but they don't really bring too much to the table, in my opinion.

I think zombie I like his visual style a lot I really love devil's rejects but I don't find his version of Halloween is particularly interesting like he just kind of goes for some easy targets in terms of like the way he portrays Loomis and stuff

I really like a lot of David Gordon Green's stuff you know Pineapple Express is obviously a hilarious movie Joe is pretty good Prince Avalanche is good, but all of his movies have a really indie feel. Maybe not so much Pineapple Express, but he's made a lot of, you know, I think interesting choices as a filmmaker. I can totally see this being the kind of thing that Danny McBride takes and makes his own and makes something that we never seen from him before. You know, what's his name?

Jordan Peel. He has a movie coming out called Get Out. That's a horror movie. I think it releases like next month or something. So it's not unheard of to see, you know, comedians. go the horror route. I mean, they're pretty close in terms of, like, tone sometimes. I mean, movies like, you know, obviously cabin in the woods, but your next has a lot of comedic elements to it. And, you know, some of the ideas and some other horror movies, like, it follows and shit can be kind of, they're like a heartbeat away from being hilarious, you know? Right. So I'm, I don't know about you guys, but I'm really down for this. I think it could be really cool. as long as James Franco doesn't show up playing the part of Michael Myers I'll be okay

Dude if that happens I might have to call it the best movie of all time Or at least if he's wearing a James Franco mask I'll take that Seth Rogan that Seth Rogan should be Michael Mike Interesting fact about the movie it's it's gonna take place after the original two films Ah okay that probably makes sense because those first two went together really well and then it all kind of fell apart after that. Although I love the third movie.

I really loved Halloween 3 the way they took a different direction. But anything after 3 to me was kind of shit. And I'm with Jack. Like, zombies films visually look beautiful. But that's kind of where it stops. There's not a whole lot of substance. That is all the news we have. Well, yeah-ha.

Guess what that means, boys? Are we going to the trailer park? We're going to the trailer park. Our first trailer we are going to talk about is The Assignment, starring Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Anthony Lapeglia, and Tony Shaloo. Definitely very, very weird. I guess the world's first transgender hero, huh? So what did you guys think about this one?

I'll let you guys go. It's a weird trailer, man. I don't know how else to say it. I think Michelle Rodriguez is fine in a couple of movies. They all happen to be fast and furious movies. Right. But it's really weird concept. I don't know.

That's really all my only takeaway. I mean, Sigourney Weaver was probably, she probably got given this script, and, you know, she probably thought it was okay. And then realized that if she took the movie, she could buy the new condo that she wanted in the Hamptons. so that's probably how they got her. Because I don't know. I don't have much confidence in this.

The fact that it's the alternate title for the movie is Tomboy, A Revengers Tale. Doesn't really vote well. You're kidding. You made that. No, no, go ahead. Go to IMDB. It's right on the poster.

I don't know about this one. Yeah, I'm not in on this one either. I think I pretty much explained it a couple episodes ago. I'm not the biggest Michelle Ribigis fan. She's the same. fucking person in every movie. And I'm just tired of it and nothing

intrigued me about this trailer. But if anybody wants to check it out March 3rd. Yeah, I kind of had the same reaction to it. I think we'll stick with Logan instead. Yeah, it was weird. It didn't really catch my intention.

Okay. Also coming out, March 3rd is Headshot and I am going to skip pronouncing anybody's name in this movie. I think that's probably a good idea. Yeah. I'm okay.

I'm pretty much in on this one. From what I've heard, some of the people from the Raid movies are involved in this, and I guess they said this movie is to hold people over until the Raid 3 comes out. Huh. Okay.

Trailer definitely had that feel to it. I will say this trailer, I'm definitely intrigued by it, but I do, I don't like the manipulation in the trailer. I don't know if you guys caught this, but this movie, I would be willing

to bet that this is 100% foreign language, and they cut a narration just for this trailer. Okay. Because if you watch it, I had a three-minute trailer that I found on YouTube, and throughout the whole thing, the only English speaking, or

any speaking, was that narration. Everything else was just like reaction shots from characters, which is totally fine. I don't, you know, there's no issue with that. But I don't like when a movie feels like it has to be disingenuous

like that with the trailer. So I wasn't the biggest fan of that, but I get why they did it. Yeah, it's, it didn't really pull me. And I like the raid. I haven't seen the raid too. But this didn't look like it had a whole lot of substance from, but then again, I mean, how much can you really tell just from a trailer

especially when they don't have any speaking parts in it? Yeah. Do you guys, any of you guys play Metal Gear Solid 5? No. Is that the Phantom Pain one? Yeah. I started it. I haven't finished it.

All right. So, interesting connection between this movie and that game. I don't know if it's an official connection, but it looks like the lead character's name is Ishmael. The lead character in Metal Gear Solid 5 is also named Ishmael, and he is somebody who's dealing with amnesia. so I'm not sure if one is a reference to the other or what, but there may be something there. Sure sounds like. A little too coincidental there, huh?

For sure. Especially considering the guy who made the game was, I believe he was Japanese. I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with this. I'm not sure what the country of origin is of the film, but I don't know, maybe. Interesting.

Yeah, I think you may be on to some. Maybe. All right, moving on to our final trailer, Iron Fist, starring Finn Jones, Jessica Hanwick, Rosario Dawson, and others. Hmm. Going on to prove that Netflix can do no wrong with Marvel, I'm sure. Probably well, yeah. Yeah, I've got no reservations about checking out this series. It comes out in March, right?

Right? 17th, right, Brian? Yes, sir. Okay, cool. I'll definitely check it out. I'm not going to, I've never missed a single Marvel Netflix show, and I don't, I don't plan to ever miss one. I kind of, um, I just recently, uh, finished, um, Luke Cage, and I, I did not like that whole second half of that season or series. Oh, yeah.

I like the first half a lot better. I like, when Cotton Mouth was, was out, I think the show took kind of went downhill a little bit, but, I mean, it's still fun to watch. I mean, I'll definitely check it. I know it's already been renewed for a season two. I know there's a Jessica Jones season two that's already in the works. So I'll continue to watch for sure. Yeah, I'm interested in this one because this is going to set up the whole Defender series that we're getting later this year.

So, yep, that was our last trailer. I need some more listener feedback, guys. Come on. Yeah, come on, guys. The fuck. You bit me. What the fuck? Yeah, we're trying to make this interactive, right? Yeah. Well, yeah, we want to be as interactive as possible. We don't really have anything

this week. But yeah, we definitely want to talk about you guys, man, send us some emails, some messages, you know, whatever you want to do. You can reach us at the horror returns at gmail.com or, you know, shoot us a message on any of the social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, any of that stuff. And we'll talk about you on air and maybe get you a T-shirt, some kind of prize. There's benefits to interacting. Absolutely. And actually, that gives me a nice little segue.

Since I am sort of a walker of two worlds here, being that I am on the show, but I do listen every week. I have a little something that I want to ask you guys and figure I'd wait until we got on air about it. So we've got Oscar season coming, right? Or I should say the Oscars are coming. It is Oscar season. You know, Screener Paloos that happened a few weeks back. And there's all sorts of shit coming out. Sure.

And as you guys know, horror, like, comedy and to a, maybe a lesser degree, sci-fi, they just, those films don't get recognized. They just, it's very rare for, you know, for every hundred movies like, I don't know, that piece of shit crash, you get like, you get, like, like one exorcist. So my question was, because I think that last year was a really good year for horror, you know, when you look at like the witch or green room or don't breathe, do you guys, what are some of the biggest award snubs in terms of horror movies?

Like when you guys think back and you're like, wow, that that movie should have gotten some kind of award, is there anything that jumps out for you guys? And it's just like, wow, that's kind of fucking bullshit. Do you guys have any that come to mind? Yeah, absolutely. How about the Babaduke? I thought there should have been a best actress nomination for sure for that one. You guys all seen the Babaduke?

Yeah. S.E. Davis? She was fucking brilliant in that. Really good. That would be the first thing that springs to mind for me. Because I was thinking about that while I was watching. I was thinking, I wonder if she's going to be nominated. and then I thought, no, hell no.

First of all, it's not an American film. And secondly, you know, it's a horror film. So it had like two strikes against it, you know, right out of the gate. So that's a big one that I can think of. Yeah. I mean, not to go off that too much. But, you know, the first one that I always think of is the shining. And I know that that got Razies when it came out, but I can't think of like.

It wasn't appreciated when it first came out. That's for sure. Wow. Yeah. Shelly Duval got worse. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. But, like, I can't.

Looking back on it, especially the fact that, like, to me, Leo and the Wolf of Wall Street is doing the same fucking thing that Nicholson did in The Shining. Sure. I can't fucking believe that Nicholson didn't get nominated for anything for that performance. Yeah, that's mind-blowing to me. Absolute robbery, man. Yeah.

But I don't know. Brian, Phillip, you guys have any off the top of your head? Hey, hey, I've got another one. Speaking of our buddy, Matt Reeves. We were talking about Matt Reeves earlier. How about let me in? The American version of Let the Right One In? I thought that was a bit of a masterpiece.

It's pretty well made. I don't know if it goes past the original for me, but it is a good movie. Chloe Grace Morance was awesome. Richard Jenkins was awesome. Definitely up there. Yeah. I thought it was as good at least as the original. Yeah.

It's rare. Yeah, just throwing that out there. I think Seven comes to mine. Didn't Seven get snub for some awards? did it get did even get nominated or you know that's a great question it should have for sure yeah and i mean just the ones that you that you rattled off the top of your head when you started the witch was an excellent movie

yeah and uh yeah i can't believe that it didn't get any oscar i mean like it was a legitimate good movie and uh it really well written well written and very serious and it seemed like something the oscars would have enjoyed But, uh, no. Oh, they, they hit, they hit horror the same way they hit comedy, you know, because there's a lot of comedy movies that are they stupid? Yeah, but they're comedy. They're funny. That's the point. And they don't, they don't appreciate it. They fulfilled their purpose. Oh, my God. So seven? This is, I mean, there are a lot of Academy snubs over the years. This is got to be top three, though.

Slapping the face, huh? Seven was nominated for one Academy Award, and it was Best Film Editing, and it lost. How that screenplay was not nominated for original screenplay is beyond me. That's sickening, man. Oh, my God. That's right up there with Hitchcock never getting Best Director, Kubrick never getting Best Director. Like, fuck you.

Yeah. Yeah, I was just thinking about that the other day. I figured you guys might have some input. Yeah, that's a good topic, man. and that, yeah, Brian, that was a really good pick, man. Yeah, I just assumed 7 was nominated for Best Picture. All this time, I guess, kind of like the Mandela effect, Jack, you know? Here I'm thinking for sure that it was nominated that year, you know?

Hey, but guys, at least a rival was nominated this year. What do you think about that? That's fantastic. Well deserved, right? Yeah, big fan of that pick. It'll never win. Oh, no. No.

Now, anybody not putting their money on La La Land is throwing their money away. Oh, how Hollywood loves to suck its own dick, right? It does. Sometimes. For the record, sometimes, I kind of like when it doesn't. All right, fair enough. Oh, yeah, you love La La Landis. We got Kinky there for a minute.

I'm talking movies. I don't know what you guys are talking about. Anything else to talk about in feedback, Philip, or just basically give us some fucking feedback. Yeah, pretty much. Hey, let us know what you think. Good or bad. If you hate us, please let us know.

We'll probably talk about that on the show, too. Oh, yeah. They're going to have a whole new dimension. Yeah. All right. So you guys ready to move on to featured attractions then? The show. All right.

So now the time you've all been waiting for, folks. It's time for our featured attractions. Once again, it's Action Week on the whole. horror returns. This week we go it alone to take on the world all by ourselves with a new film John Wick Chapter 2, as well as the 1985 Arnold

Classic, Commando. So we'll start with Commando. As always, we do trivia. Director is Mark L. Lester, also known for Fire Starter and Class of 1984. Writer, Stephen E. de Sousa, also known for

Die Hard, 48 Hours, and The Running Man, also with Arnold. Man. Marshall Arts expert and fight choreographer Michael M. Vendrell worked with Schwarzenegger on the film, and by the end of the production, Vendrell estimated that Schwarzenegger had become a second-degree black belt. Hey, it gets deeper, guys. I don't know about all that. Arnold Schwarzenegger performed many of his own stunts, as producers found it difficult to find a stunt double

for the bodybuilder. The actor suffered a dislocated shoulder and several stitches during the shoot. Schwarzenegger at one point stabbed himself with a knife and had to get stitches. Also, the cut on Arnold's forehead in the beginning of the movie was real.

This is interesting. There are 54 stunt performers listed in the credits, which is 17 more people than the actual cast. That's kind of movie it was, man. And finally, Mark Lester called the film, quote, the quintessential 80s action film and granddaddy of the genre. Jack, guest, always goes first, man. Yeah, one person that also collaborated on the film, a story was created by a guy named Jeff Loeb to sort of bring it back around full circle.

Jeff Loeb is a big guy in my universe. he wrote Batman the Long Halloween and Batman Dark Victory. Really? The Long Halloween in particular being one of the chief sources of inspiration for the Dark Night, particularly it's Harvey Dent story told over the course of a year. It's one of the seminal Batman books. Jeff Loeb is also in charge of Marvel TV. So the Netflix series and Legion and everything else,

he is sort of the guy on the Marvel's, not Marvel Studios, but like Marvel Corporate. He's the guy who's sort of maintaining all of it across all platforms, like, you know, ABC and all that stuff. So Jeff Loeb is a big presence in my geek life. So I always like that he came up with this movie. And he's appeared on a bunch of Kevin Smith podcasts and stuff like that. So really, really down-earth guy. He's also worked on one of your favorite shows of all time, Jack, lost. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to gloss that over.

I don't think. I'm pretty sure we can leave that alone. But I'm sure his contributions were of quality. But yeah, so a lot of good stuff about this movie, man. I mean, you know, I've gone on a record saying I think that Arnold's best performance is Terminator 2. I just think that he's brilliant in that movie. I'm a big believer in the concept of, you know, everybody can act in one role. It's the good actors that can kind of morph and become other people, other roles. I don't think that Schwarzenegger's ever been more comfortable in a role than Terminator 2.

Not even Terminator 1. Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. But Command. But Terminator 1 still. still awesome. Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But Commando for me is top five Schwarzenegger movies. I mean, it has absolutely everything I want from a Schwarzenegger movie. It's only an hour and a half long. I mean, it begins with him carrying a tree out of the fucking woods in a chains on there. Yeah. That's the bar, you know, and then the movie just sort of exceeds that at every turn.

and I'm pretty sure that this is like the framework for every first person shooter final level ever made I mean, is this movie not just the definition of putting in the cheat code for invulnerability and just destroying every fucking person on the level? He is the invincible guy. That's what I was thinking the whole time I was watching this movie. I was like, okay, see, when I'm playing video games,

this is the guy I want to be. I'll put that shit on easy and just destroy Everybody. Unlimited lives, huh? But yeah, I don't know. I love popping this movie in every, I don't know, every couple of years. I definitely don't watch it as much as I watch something like Predator or True Lies, you know, but this, I'm always pleasantly surprised at how cheesy this is. The music in particular to me, it's like in any other movie it would be really distracting, but in this, it just seems perfect. because everything's so over the top. Yeah, the steel drums.

Speaking of the music, is this the same music from 48 hours? Is it? You know, I thought it sounded familiar, so you might be right. I don't know for sure. I'd have to check, but, but yeah.

No, I have a good time with this movie every time I sit down and watch it. It's, when people talk about cheesy 80s action movies, I don't know that there's a better definition of that. That is also of pretty good quality than this movie. Sure. Yeah.

Like, despite all the fucking, you know, Dan Hedaya doing a Cuban accent. Despite all of that, the movie is still, it still delivers when it needs to. Even having fucking bet it, that Freddie Mercury want to be a piece of shit. Oh, you stole my line. I hate you.

Apologies. But now I'm a big fan of this. Yeah, I thought I thought this was a lot like one of the canon films. For sure. When you're talking about it, it's sort of like it follows that exact formula from start to finish. And boy, you couldn't have put it better than it being like a video game where you get to the boss at the very end. But I mean, most of these action movies are like that. there was a Bruce Lee film.

I can't remember what it was called. I think maybe it's called Game of Death or something where he had to fight his way. It was kind of almost like the raid a little bit where he had to actually like fight his way from the bottom up to the top of the building or something like that. And he finally, who did he fight Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Cream Ad-Bul-Jabar, yeah. But yeah, this movie gives you everything you need and everything you want. and when he fucking killed the guy on the airplane and then he made his way down through the cargo area

and he he ended up on on the I guess the wheel lower down and he ended up jumping off and landing in the water and he was just fine kind of brushed himself off and walked up walked off and everybody just thought he would thought he was on that flight and he kind of he pulled it off perfectly and then I that that was I thought that was a great scene and then I I I thought that was a great scene and then I I thought toward the end there. And did you guys notice that when he blew up that building, they showed the same exact explosion of the same building, but from like 12 different angles. One right up to the other.

Hey, that's efficiency, my friend. Efficiency. Absolutely over the top from start to finish. I thought Raydon Chong was hilarious, and the part she was in, especially when she fired the missile in the wrong direction at first. and turn it around and shoot the police carrier. The little douchebag guy that followed her.

I mean, he was perfect. I don't know what that actor's name is. I can't think of it, but he was in a lot of those movies of that time period, and he was pretty much always typecast as just like a cheesy, sleazy, gangster type. I thought he was good. Yeah, Dan Hedaya, for what he had to work with, you know, I mean, I think he pulled it off.

And there was a lot of, I mean, there were some great one-liners in this movie. Brian, I know one of them you want to talk about, but, you know, that, remember solely when I said I'd kill you last? I lied. I mean, this is, basically this movie gives you everything you want. And I don't know how they could have done it any better, quite frankly. Oh. Brian, I'll definitely say this, man.

You picked a hell of a good movie to pair with John Wick, too, man. Yeah, no kidding, right? You did good. It was just what I seen the preview for John Wick 2, that's the first thing that popped in my head was Commando. Jack said this was his, you said it was in your top five Arnold movies? For sure. This is in my top three.

Wow. It is the first two Terminator movies and then Commando. and then everything else. Really? Yes. This is... I can see that. This was definitely my childhood.

Arnold, action movies, the one-liners. And if it was anybody else doing this movie, I probably would be picking it apart right down to the... Clearly a dummy falling out of the plane when he jumped out to the springboards.

Every time someone... There was an... explosion by someone. You can, you can, they didn't hide the springboards in this movie. Oh, yeah. But it,

but it was Arnold, though, and it was Arnold kicking ass. And, you know, even, even when he runs out of ammo, all you need to give him

is some garden tools. And that's it for everybody. And, um, for the longest, uh, go ahead. He completely wrecks the car and then just,

like, pops out like nothing's wrong. Oh, yeah. Did you guys notice when he drives off in the car, I believe it was in Porsche? When he flips it back onto his wheels, the side's not messed up no more when he drives away? I didn't catch that. Yeah.

There's, you know, little things like that because it's an Arnold movie. I totally. Pure cheese. Okay with it. Yep. You know, I like Bennett. I liked Bill Duke's character in it. You know, I like when he pops up.

Sully was a complete douche in this movie. Yeah. He plays that role really well. And like I said, this is like, besides the Terminator movies, this is by far my favorite Arnold movie. And I've been watching some, you know, some other Arnold movies this week. And they just don't hold up to Commando. Right. Though the only problem I did have, I wasn't really buying his whole,

early scenes with his daughter it just felt awkward I didn't I didn't yeah it was super cheesy right I mean yeah it's like a little cheese montage there of like feeding it wild deer and that kind of shit but I thought I thought that was kind of that added to it

yeah but later when later when he has the fight scene with Bennett I feel like he doesn't give a shit about his daughter oh I never got that that feeling man yeah like, I don't know.

That's how I always felt like you go for, like, go ahead. No, I was going to say, I totally agree with you, but I don't think that it really, it ultimately like doesn't fucking matter because we'll talk about John Witt in a second, but like, dude, that's a movie that pretty much, it goes out of its way to create a conflict and then just to lower on it for no reason. Yeah. Just so you can have another badass fight thing. Totally, totally. So like with Commando, you know, if it takes him and like, you know, was it 13-year-old, Alyssa Milano sharing fucking ice cream cones, fine, you know, whatever. That's right. But I do, I know where you're coming from, though.

Yeah. But I mean, besides that minor gripe, you know, this is one of my favorite action films of all time. Wow, strong words, man. Yeah, I'll definitely agree with you that that first montage was, Super cheesy. I totally forgot Alyssa Milano was in this movie until I started watching it again. They should have called it like Tiny Hulk versus

Fat Freddie Mercury. Oh, wow. Oh, a piece of trivia for you guys. That guy, I think it's Vernon Wells. Vernon Wells. He's the Mohawk's

motorcycle riding kind of like Dominatrix type guy in the Road Warrior. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. I knew I'd seen him somewhere. Yeah, same dude. Yeah, I actually read a little trivia.

He was actually, when he auditioned, he didn't get the part originally. They hired somebody else, and that guy got fired. And that's why in the movie, that's why his outfit looks a little strange, because it's a little too small for him. I guess the actor that they hired originally, they made the outfit. for him and he was a smaller guy. Oh, that makes more sense. Because I kept wondering the whole time, I'm like, man,

what the hell is he? Is that like supposed to be Arbor? Because it obviously didn't work when the pipe went through his chest. And it just was completely awkward. But hey, you know, it was 80s. You do an 80s montage. Look back to this.

80s action movie. You come back to this movie. You do that super, I'm going to destroy everything in my sight. Tough guy, Schwarzenegger, man, this is quintessential. That's what this is. This is a, if you are a Schwarzenegger fan, you had to have seen this movie at some point.

I don't know if it's my top three, but it's definitely up there, even though it is full of a whole lot of cheese. Man, a whole lot of cheese. But it's really fun to watch. I love the, the actress that they put in as his little sidekick, which sort of paved away for the rest of the action movies

where they had this little chick that comes in as a sidekick. And, you know, the whole movie was great. It was fun to watch, man. Well, did you guys notice that there were two, speaking of Terminator, there were two lines that he used in both films. At one point, he said, I'll be back. At another point, he said,

fuck you asshole yep I didn't think about that one but yeah I saw that I'll be back all right cool so I guess it's

score time Jack yeah like I said I always have a good time with this movie it knows what it is it totally yeah

it's all in on it being cheesy 80s fucking glory action day action movie days um

And it's always entertaining when I watch it. So this is a solid 8 out of 10 for me. Cool. Yeah. Well, this definitely would not be in our conversation earlier about snubbed Oscar films. There's no doubt about that. For sure.

But yeah, I mean, for what it was, it was a hell of a fun movie, and I'll give it a solid seven and a half. Yeah, I'll give it a solid, I'll give it a solid seven,

man. I think it was, I think it was really fun to watch. And, you know, despite a lot of the shortcomings, just the 80s cheese is really what it was. If you look past that, it's a fun movie. I'm going to go ahead and give it a 9. Oh, shit. Oh, wow.

I can watch this again tonight. That's how much I love this movie. It's just 80s Arnold Goodness, and I love the one-liners in it. And I'm trying to really think about it. I think this might have been the first time I've seen boobies in a movie. Fair enough. Oh, speaking of that scene, what in the hell was going on when they left it into that hotel room? Because the chick was like behind, I don't know what kind of crazy, like, the chick was behind the dude and they had some kind of rim job thing going.

I don't know what was happening. I was like, wait a minute. That kind of took me out of it because it surprised me. Yeah, that was interesting. and hey, hey, something I noticed, Jack, that our friend over at binge media, Ammon would really appreciate. Did you notice the Miller High Life, the six-pack of Biller High Life? Yes, I did. And I forgot to mention that.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. All right, cool. So it sounds like we all enjoyed this one. Let's see if that carries over to our second film, which is John Wick, Chapter 2. Director was Chad Stahelsky, who is first and foremost a stuntman, but he's also known for directing John Wick, as well as the upcoming Highlander remake,

which, Brian, I think you've told us about. Yep. Writer is Derek Kohlstadt, also known for John Wick. He's also slated to write for an upcoming John Wick television series, interestingly enough. And I'm wondering if that's going to be a prequel, like what he did before he retired, or how they're going to do that. But, you know, I don't know if it's for sure, but he's in IMDB for an upcoming television series.

Keanu Reeves is on it, right? I don't know. I have no idea. His is the only credit I've seen some shirt speculative at this point, but I could see them doing a TV show of John Wick in the days prior to his retirement and using a different younger actor. Yeah, I guess they could, but I kind of, I'm not sure if I'm digging that, man. I don't know. I guess we'll wait and see if it really comes out, right? Yeah.

But a couple of Matrix points here. The director, Chad Stahelsky, was actually a stuntman in all three of the Matrix films. And, of course, this was the first time for Fishburn and Keanu Reeves to work together since the third Matrix movie. In preparation for the role, Keanu was trained by. by an ex-SF members in dual weapons and close quarter shooting. So I guess SF, Philip, means special forces? Yes, sir. All right.

A clip of Keanu, training with live ammo, was released online, showing him performing to a high standard with multiple weapons on a CQB range. I saw that. Final trivia is John Wick is intended to be a trilogy. This film being the second in that trilogy. So, Jack, what do you think? So just to qualify it a little bit, saw the first John Wick in a theater,

expected nothing from it, came out, very impressed. Like, I've said this pretty much to everybody I know about the first movie, but I really think the first one has maybe the best 15 minutes of set up in any action film that I've ever seen. No kidding. Great story, right? Well, you come out of it with a complete understanding. of who he is, what the stakes are, why he's fighting, and what he has to do.

And they waste no time doing that. And, you know, if you really want to make sure that your audience hates the bad guy, have him kill a dog. Right. A puppy, no less. It's just a ruthlessly efficient opening to a movie. And I really think that it's an impressive piece of filmmaking. So I love the first one.

The second one went in with pretty high, expectations for it. You know, the trailer came out, and it was set to some classical music with all the beats of the music to gunfire. The poster looked really cool. I like that they brought back all of the same cast that, you know, was still alive at the end of the first movie. Right. And, you know, I just, I really wanted, I think the first movie has a really good visual style. Like, there's a lot of shooting at night and in a dark city, but everything's very colorful and vibrant.

This movie opens with a car motorcycle chase and fucking just destruction of a goddamn taxi garage. But everything just looks like candy. Like, you know, the yellow on the taxi is bright. And when they're driving through the city, all the lights, you know, it looks alive. And I really like all that stuff. but this movie man I just don't know that I have any problem with it I've been thinking about it since I saw it last night

and they just brought the goods this was a really well-made if again I would say efficient movie I think that story-wise it's it's good it does what it needs to I don't think that there's any fat on this movie they really don't waste much time

and I think this one ultimately feels a lot more confident than the first one does you know they have the balls to take scenes like him choosing his you know the number of buttons on his suit and looking at maps and choosing his guns they take like this complicated montage of like him in five different locations

and they take their time with it you know and they're so good at what they're doing here that they know the audience is on board with it. So they don't try to, you know, do anything to compromise the pace. Yeah. And that by no means means that they're going to like forego the action because this was as action-packed as it comes. Yeah.

I mean, if I have two big takeaways from these movies, it's I love the fact that every kill is a double-tap. It's like an automatic double-tap. It's like an automatic double-tapped. It is it's the chest shot and the headshot immediately. Right. And then I absolutely love the fact that during every gunfight, they have full respect for the reload.

Like, it's such a simple thing, but because he's basically like a fucking God in these movies, the fact that he reloads his guns keeps it really grounded for me. And I love it. I really love the movie. That's a great observation, man. And especially in one scene where they actually said exactly how many rounds he had. Right.

They pointed that out. That was really cool. What did you think, Phil? Yeah, man. The story wasn't quite as good, I thought, as the first one. Just because in the first one, they gave you such a reason to hate the bad guy, you know, and you're like, okay, he's about to whoop some ass. and this one they make it slightly more complicated,

but the action sequences are amazing. It's the most efficient fighting and killing that I have ever seen in a movie ever. And man, I've never seen Keanu Reeves as badass as in this movie. And the way that he rolls around and just incorporate so many different martial art styles into his gunplay and popping these dudes in the head. It's very real action, you know what I mean?

And like you were saying earlier about the reloading. He even makes the reloading part of the action, and it's cool. I had a blast watching this movie, man. It was fun. I'm ready to go watch it again. Yeah, there was a lot of emphasis on impact. Did you guys notice that? Whenever there was a hit, it was like it was a real hit,

whether it be a car hitting someone or someone getting shot or a fist hitting someone. Oh, yeah. And that first scene, too, where he gets, like, knocked out of the car. Sure. I hated that they killed that beautiful car. But, man, that was killer, dude. This was some serious action. Oh, that shit was so awesome.

Oh, my God, it was great. Yeah, it was a beautifully film movie. And I'm not a bit surprised to learn because I didn't know that. I didn't really do research on the director of the first film. But to know that he was a stuntman now makes perfect sense. Right, as soon as you said that. Yeah, there was actually a movie, Philip, that we watched the zombie movie that was basically by military for military.

Oh, yeah, yeah. It almost felt like this movie was by stuntman for stunt men, you know? That makes sense. The choreography was just immaculate. And the way it was shot, as Jack alluded to, the colors, the vibrancy, the way that everything stood out. One particular scene that showed quite a bit of blood was just almost gorgeously shot. Gorgeously and ruthlessly and just brutal and just really realistic looking. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

What did you think, Brian? Oh, I love the first one, and I definitely love the second one. I did not think it was just going to start outright how it did. Oh, yeah, it started exactly where the other one left off. Yeah, and I loved every minute of it. The way it was shot, the action, I like that they actually gave us more different assassins in this movie than what we got. I like the inclusion of that. And I thought everybody, with the exception of one person, I'll save that for spoilers.

I thought everyone did a good job. and I am definitely looking forward to the third one. Cool. Yeah, and this one, he wasn't like, it's not like Commando where he's walking through just annihilating everybody, like, and nothing's hurting him. He's, you can tell he's taking a toll in this movie. You know, he's like, he's getting shot, he's getting beat up.

It's more real, it's more raw. And I actually thought the villain was, had, was, for me, I hated this person for his reasonings. And because you said you didn't really like the villain in this one, Philip, or his reasoning? Yeah, I was, yeah, I mean, it just wasn't as straightforward as the other one, you know? I'll agree with that. I kind of see it differently. I don't want to spoil it, but just, you know, he had a reason for getting John to do one thing, which was kind of fucked up.

And then after he did the thing for him, you know, he added another thing, another decision he made, which was kind of fucked up. And it just made me hate that villain even more. So I actually kind of liked it. I got, well, you know what? I'll save it. Because I do have a gripe about that. Yeah, I've got a few things to add there, too. One thing, I don't know if you guys picked up on this, but did you notice who the head of the Continental in Rome was?

He looked familiar. I could not figure it out. All right. So that was Franco Nero. Franco Nero is the original Django. In the original 1966 Django, he also showed up in Django Unchained during the scene where they meet DiCaprio for the first time, where the two mandigos are fighting. Jango sits at the bar and he's sitting next to a cowboy dressed like Jango, played by Franco Nero. and he says, what's your name? He says, Django, the D is silent. And then the guy looks at him, he's like, I know.

And he takes a drink and leaves. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah, I remember that scene now. I didn't even know that. Yeah, yeah, that was Franco Nero. Very cool. I'm a big spaghetti western guy. So that was really cool.

I thought that was an awesome piece of casting. Oh, man. That, you just added a whole new dimension to it, man. Yeah, yeah. I'm telling you, man, I like, it seems like the director of this movie and the first one, like they have a very specific respect for a certain kind of movie. And I can, to me, this movie does have a very Western feel to it.

You know, the sort of like man apart from, from his colleagues and you have to settle a score and all that stuff. You know, old cowboy wants to be left alone, gets pulled back. in all that stuff. It's right there, you know. So, yeah, I, you know, I just had a great time with this movie. I mean, I'll leave for the spoilers, but let's just say there was a certain kill in this movie that became my second favorite kill of that type ever. Ever?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. And then if we're going to do some spoilers, you'll know why. All right. But, yeah, lots of good stuff in this movie. had a great time on it. I think I might know what kill you're talking about. I'm not sure.

I think if you think about it, you may be able to figure it out. Well, we'll definitely get into some spoilers after we give our scores, but I've got one question for you guys. Sure. Do you guys think that there's going to be a single action movie this year that doesn't have Ruby Rose in it? Holy shit. I've never seen this thing before, and then all of a sudden I've seen her like in

three movies in a row, like within two weeks of each other. She's coming out hard, man. What the hell? What's her background? Do you guys know? Is she like an MMA fighter or something? She's a model. That's it? And the only thing I, before all these movies, the only thing I've seen her on was Orange is a New Black. Yeah, me too. But as soon as she hit the cast of Orange's the New Black, she got a ton of buzz.

Okay. All right. Well, you guys ready for scores? Absolutely. Yeah, let's do it. All right, Jack. Yeah. Like I said, visually, you know, taking out the fighting aspect of the movie, the visuals were fantastic. I liked all the cinematography. That being said, I liked all of the Kung Fu style of fighting.

Very Raid-esque, just with more guns involved, I would say. you know there were a few takes in the movie that they weren't quite long takes but i was impressed with how much choreography went into certain shots hated the villain you know properly obviously wouldn't need to hate the bad guy um love ian mcshane love larry fish larry fish is my boy um god you know of a first viewing i i would say confidently an eight out of ten but i wouldn't be surprised if it goes up a little bit bit over time. I have to see it again first, but it's a very, it's a very confident, very well-directed, hardcore R-rated action movie deserves, deserves to be, deserves to be in a very, you know, elite group of R-rated action films, I think. Definitely a lot going on, right, Phil? Yeah, man, I, uh, I kind of agree with you there. I thought, uh, everybody did a great job, common. Uh, kind of surprised me because he was so awesome in this movie.

I'm going to give it a nine, man. I really enjoyed this. Yeah, dude, it was a lot of fun. Like, I'm no joke ready to go back and watch it right now. Man, it sounds like this may be in your top five at the end of the year. It might be, man. It was pretty kick-ass. First really good movie of the year, huh?

Yeah. All right, who went next? me or Brian, I can't remember. I think you did. Okay, cool. Well, I'm giving it an eight, solid eight. Might end up being an honorable mention. Let's just see how the rest of the year goes,

but, you know, again, probably not going to be nominated for any Oscars or anything like that. But, yeah, it delivers, man. What it sets out to do, the way that it's filmed, the way that it's choreographed, the interaction of the characters, the despicable nature of the villains

the cowboy as Jack said the cowboy nature of the hero the loner I mean yeah this this was a great movie really enjoyed it I'll give it an eight I am going to give it a strong nine it was just a fun movie it was just from start to finish

just straight action I love the cast my only minor gripe is probably always going to be a right for me is the occasional digital blood in the movie. It just bothers me. I just grew up in a time when it was, you know,

practical effects and, but that's just a small little minor thing, but I am not. Yeah, it's it's when, when people get shot. There's digital blood. But other than that, um, I like, uh, they continue

the story from the first one and they're just moving it along and I, like I said, before I cannot wait for the third one. All right. Spoiler time. Spoiler time. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert.

You've been fucking warned. Okay. Well, like they said, it is going to be a trilogy. And at the end of this one, there's no doubt about that. What do you think, Jack? Yeah, I'm all for it, man. They've got to keep the same director, same actor, same stunt team. but yeah I know a lot of people

give Keanu Reeves shit you know when I was younger I love Bill and Ted's excellent adventure obviously a huge Matrix fan have been for a long time

you know I just think the guy gets a bad rap maybe for some core choices you know a lot of romantic comedies and shit like that but

but you know I forgot about those yeah but I think that when it comes to like a movie like this or even that was a man of Tai Chi. Like that movie didn't do very well, and it's not particularly impressive, but he actually

he helped develop this camera rigging system that sort of moves freely with like a jab arm over the fight as it's happening. It's kind of difficult to explain, but there's a whole YouTube video about it, but the guy seems very committed to making, you know, innovating in action movies. And I think that this is a good. example of him doing that. Yeah, I'm all for it. I really like to see another of these movies.

I think that they deserve a third movie. I think they've totally earned it. There's a lot of, there's too many good things going on in these movies for them to stop it too. And, you know, I'm a big fan. I mean, I know it sounds like I'm just kind of gloating over these movies, but they're really are. It's kind of rare. They're really good.

But it's kind of rare that you get an R-rated action movie that's this confident and this professionally done, you know? Right. Like I walked out of that thing and went, wow, that's really awesome. So, you know, it's, I'm all for a third one. I hope it happens. And yeah, so the kill I was talking about. This movie features my second favorite number two pencil kill of all time. Okay, that's what I thought it was.

I was hoping you was going there because I didn't want to say anything before, but they mentioned it in the first one. And I just always wanted to know how did he kill somebody with a pencil. I like that they went back and told that story again, though. Like they gave like a brief description of the same story that they did in the first one at the beginning of the second one just to catch you. Right, right. And, yeah, of course, you know, starting your movie with Peter Stormair is the bad guy. That's always a good thing for me, too. Yeah, sure.

I'm going to love with that guy. Can't go wrong with him. That's a damn sure. Absolutely not. I'll tell you which kill I thought was the most brutal because it was just shocking the way that it was actually done or the way, going back to the double tap. But when he confronted Gianna to kill her in her chambers, and she said, you know what, I'm going to die on my own terms because she knew she knew she was fucking toast.

So she did herself out. And man, I was thinking I was watching a horror movie there with her getting into the pool and all the fucking blood coming out. I mean, that looked realistic as hell. Yeah. It really was creepy looking. And then, you know, he's holding her hand until she passes away. And then there's that double tap just to make 100% sure, you know, that the job was done. And I just found that double tap on that to be so far.

fucking brutal, man. Yeah, it actually made me jump in the theater. I don't know why. Like, I knew that he was going to pull the trigger, obviously, but there was something about it. It was just, like, I don't know. It's kind of jarring. Man, it was very, very jarring.

It shows how cold-blooded he can be. Good point, man. In a good way. But, yeah, man, he popped it. No, one of the things that bothered me, though, was, like, okay, If you know who John Wick is and he's the boogeyman, he's the guy that you send to kill the boogeyman,

why are you going to try to double cross this dude? That is the worst idea in the history of ideas. It was fucking stupid. Okay, Brian. Actually, are you going to do stupid people this week? That's it food. That's it food. Brian, you got anything to add?

you know, I think it just goes along with the guys, with the villain's character. That's why I was saying before. It just made me hate him. You little shit. First, he's going to call John on this favor that he owes him to kill his sister just because he didn't get a spot at the table. And I'm like, that's fucked up. Yeah.

And then when he, when his sister dies, he's coming after John and he's telling him, well, what did you expect? I had to avenge my sister's death. And I'm like, you're a fucked up individual. I just felt that was just part of his character like I love what he oh I love what he killed him though

oh yeah and speaking of scenes that kind of you knew it was coming but that made me jump when he shot him yeah me too that surprised me a little bit yeah he kind of

he kind of wow I don't even know what to say he's like no I'm making my own rules. Fuck you guys. I'm a pop this dude I did. Where are they going to go from here, guys? I mean, what's our...

Everybody got to the third chapter here. Well, it seems in that... Everybody's a hitman in that park. Right. Yeah, okay. So that was part of my... That was... I thought some of the coolest scenes

was when he was fighting all the different hitman, hitman in the movie, you know? Right. And like that big old sumo wrestling-looking dude, Yeah, he had to triple tap him. Yeah, boy, and then some. And I think the whole next movie may be that way. And I'm down for that, man.

It's like a whole bunch of boss bites all in a row. I heard that... Yeah, I heard the... Kenner-Reeves was talking about the fact that he wants to take the third one to Jerusalem. What? Yeah, yeah, because they went to, you know, obviously they went to Rome and this one. He wants to keep an international. and keep going to different places around the world.

I think it's fucking cool idea. But why Jerusalem specifically? You know, I don't know exactly, but I, you know what? They made two good movies so far. I'd be willing to trust his judgment on this. I, I, okay, listen, I'm saying it here. Let's see if it comes to pass. In the third one, he and common are going to team up.

Watch. If he's still alive? Oh, he's still alive. Absolutely. He still alive. Hell yeah. Yeah, he's definitely still alive. So is Ruby Rose.

They're both still... Yeah, I didn't think Ruby Rose died either. Wow. Okay. Yeah, because he didn't... Yeah, he didn't take the final... The final shot on her either, did he? Yeah, that's equal bit if I've ever seen it.

Okay. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Getting a little cheesy, really, but... Eh, all right. I guess we'll see how they pull it off. Yeah. I mean, I think the most interesting question is whether or not they're going to have him square off against Ian McShane, so...

Yeah, that was my next. question, do you think Ian McShane and maybe John Leguizamo are they going to get involved of this? Because everybody was getting that much. Sure looked that way, didn't it? Johnny Legs is definitely getting into that. Especially with...

Right. Yeah, especially with the prices, you know, with the prices getting doubled. Right. Yeah, I think Johnny Legs is a little more loyalty than that. So, it's just that's just that way I feel. he's on John Wickside all the way I think I think in McShane I don't know if he's going to like get involved in the fighting aspect of it but he's I'm sure he's going to play a big part in this next movie right well what do you guys think of Ian McShane boy could that guy choose some scenery man

that guy had some of the best dialogue and some and that voice is just so commanding you know yeah he's pretty awesome And then that last scene in the movie where he like stops everybody in the park, then you finally realize how much power this guy has. No shit. Oh, John Wick is scared of this guy. Yeah, I really don't want to see those two go against each other, though. I guess it's inevitable, huh? Well, you can tell there's a lot of mutual respect, too, though.

Yeah, for sure. Oh, man. What else do you guys want to talk about? it's a big movie there was a lot that happened I you know I gotta say the movie did a pretty good job yeah yeah

um did a pretty good job of making yeah I don't want to well is it upping mistakes I guess it is as soon as they call the contract out on him and pretty much everybody in the city is a goddamn assassin I thought that was a cool idea

and like yeah especially the actors that they chose to to play those roles were kind of funny like the the gigantic Samoan guy. Sure. Yeah. And the one lady with the electric violin and shit. Yeah.

The subway musician. Yeah. It's just like there's a cool mythology behind everything they do in this movie. There is. That's a good way to put that. I like that. Yeah. I'm all for it.

Yeah. I mean, definitely not realistic. Well, I wanted to get more into, what Lawrence Fishburn's character, his whole thing he was running with all the You thought they was homeless people, but yeah, but they had arsenal on them Every single one of them and I kind of wanted to get more into that And I still want to get more into the whole

The idea of the continental, the hotel Because I think that's a really cool cool idea Right, that was kind of the only part that I don't know, I kind of liked it in a way, and then in a way I kind of didn't, because they, they allude to his whole backstory in this movie, but they never really give it to you, you know? I think they do the same thing in this one that they did in the first one, you know, and they, well, they just don't quite explain it, but it leaves a little bit of mystery to it,

and I think it is kind of cool at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of like it that way. the mystery of it. They even said, I think Peter Stormer said it, like all the stories you hear about John Wake, those are just a watered down versions. Yeah, that was a cool line.

You really don't know anything about this guy or what could be happened. Yeah. That was a good line. All right, well, I think we definitely had fun this week, didn't we guys? Absolutely. We can't think you in enough, man, for coming on the show. We always love to have you. What all do you have

going on? I know you're still involved in the binge media network, aren't you? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, right now, I've kind of slowed down slightly. I'm finishing my last quarter of my degree, so things have ramped up kind of significantly with the schoolwork. But, you know, we've got the game cast still going. I know that, you know, Batch and Cup have kind of been carrying the torch on that for me for a bit. A lot of stuff with the Binge Media Fantasy Movie League. And then I've made some appearances on binge casts over the last few weeks, too. So, yeah, I'm always always like to stay involved in what we've got going on over there.

And obviously looking forward to Boston Palooza and Lollapalooza and all that shit coming up this year. And, yeah, yeah, a lot of – we always have a good time over there. So, you know, I know you were thanking me for coming on, but I thank you for inviting me. All right, man. Well, you're welcome anytime for sure. And as always, listeners, we want to thank you guys for listening to another episode of the horror returns. We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. You can always read.

There you go, man. Like Philip said earlier, man, you guys are the catalyst. I mean, basically the listeners dictate where we go with this show. So, quickest way to reach us is through email or Facebook. And, you know, if you want to leave an iTunes review, that's good, too. So follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Podbean, all that cool social media stuff that Brian has set up for us. You can just do a search for the horror returns. And next week, now this is one that I have been looking forward to since I saw the first trailer.

Next week is a review of a cure for wellness, the new Gore-Verminski film. And I think Brian might have hit the nail right on the head again here. He found 1989's Death Spa for us to watch. So, until the horror returns again, good.