The Horror Returns - THR Presents: Stream Fiends - Ep. #17: Gladiator (1992)

Episode Date: May 28, 2021

This episode Brian and Nez head to the south side of Chicago to check out the underground boxing world in 1992's GLADIATOR.   Join the THR Presents: Stream Fiends Facebook Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/3860579827402429 Follow THR Stream Fiends on IG: @thrstreamfiends   Join The Horror Returns Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns   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 

back to another episode at THR present stream beans. I'm your host Brian. With me as always is my brother Nez. What's up, man? I'm good, man. It's just ready to get back in the ring. Lately we've even knew nothing but fighting movies, so I'm

juiced. I'm juiced. 1982, gladiator. Tommy, I got a fight. Lincoln. This is my ticket. Two fighters. Get them from different worlds. You're mine. You fight against true i say from opposite sides

or watch us to kill each other their friendship broke the rules i ain't gonna fight you their courage be the odds you don't say no to me boy no their triumph locked their world gladiator when did you when did you first see this I was a kid this was definitely

cable it was always on cable I remember seeing didn't know nothing about the movie I just remember seeing Arsigno Hall show one night. They brought out Cuba, did a random ass backflip for no reason. And Arsenio was like, what was that for? And he was like, well, people said in the trailer, I'd do a backflip. And that wasn't me.

That's a stunt guy. And so I had to come out here and show you, I can do it. It is me. And I was like, okay, okay Cuba, you know, coming off of like boys in the hood and stuff like that. And I'm like, I'm interested. So checked it out. And it was just one of those for me when it always popped up on cable. Like I just always put it on and watched it.

There's some issues now, you know, being older and doing doing this thing that we do with the reviews. There are some nitpicks I can have, especially with the main actor, Tommy Riley, Mr. Robotic. No emotions. And whoever the girl is, too, because she was pretty just there. But, I mean, it's got the great Brian Dennyhy in it, Cuea Goody Jr. Let me see. As a matter of fact, we might as well just get into the synopsis real quick. Matter of fact, we'll wait on that.

When was the first time you've seen it? I thought I seen this whole movie. but watching it this time seems like it was the first time. I did remember the fight stuff. It was just everything else in between and the story. Did you remember the most disrespectful

scene of all time? That was near the end? Which part was that? The one where somebody gets backhanded. Oh. Oh. I'll just say, you got to kill somebody after that.

Yeah. You can't let that go. You can't even go back to the neighborhood or anything anymore. No. But watching this, yeah, James Marshall, he played Tommy Riley. He actually seen him in everything that I've seen him in, and I haven't seen him in a lot. I know he's still out there doing it, but yeah, Mr. Robotic. He was just no expression at all and all stiff.

I just always wondered, did they want him to play like that? Because there's some times where somebody's like talking to him. And then he just turns away and just walks, you know, off like the Terminator. Like he whatever, whatever they just said didn't compute in his computer mind. And he just like walked off. And it's like, okay. Or he'll just say like little one word like, yeah. Okay.

I'm surprised nobody went to jail for, all of this having these little teen boys in an underground illegal boxing boxing rap thing papy jack was paying off the police

yeah he was best damn best damn papy you'll ever have that was uh what's his name from Scarface Frank Lopez yeah but I mean yeah I thought it was

there's a few nitpicks in it especially with the fighting. Clearly see they were missing each other. And it was like obvious. But, um, but overall I thought it was good.

Uh, it was, the story was nothing new. I mean, this is a, a story that's played out many times. Um, um,

some young kid, high school kid that moves to the south side of Chicago, uh, with, they just moved there, right? Yeah. All right.

So it was him and his dad. Um, what is Mr. McAllister Oh damn it John Hurd Yes

John Hurd Rest in peace Um he was just addicted to gambling And his debt was just getting out of control Um

There was a scene With the bookies Because when they were Making a collection Um Pappy Jack Called someone today I think some of your boys

are down here I thought that was going to go into something else like you need to stay out of my neighborhood and and collect somewhere else. I thought it wasn't going to that, but it just like went nowhere. But, um, well, they, they really wanted Tommy. So they paid off his gambling debts or his father's gambling debts.

So they owned them. Yeah, because that's, that's just how bad they wanted him, which was just, I, I mean, I guess, but nothing he really did. I mean, at that point, what he, he punched a couple of people. in the back of a diner, and then he fought one person, and all of a sudden,

he's your great white hope all of a sudden. Yeah. It's a little odd. Some little high school boy. And I was like, okay, but I mean, yeah, he had to, his dad owed all kinds of money, so,

Brian Dennyhee, Jimmy Horn, he paid off his dad's gambling bets. So, now Tommy's dad owed Jimmy Horn So I goes Well your dad owes me

All this debt now And the only way You're going to pay it back Is you are going to get in there And fight for me So that's How the story went But I was at this

This whole time I was like man Everybody that was fighting Was just little teenage High School boys That's what they were supposed to be I mean All these men in high school

But But it's still yeah That was the main story and then Tommy getting into it with the local street tufts What are they called the stormtroopers or I don't Is that's what Cuba's Lincoln? Yeah, called him I see you see you got your stormtroopers with you and Like he called Lincoln and his boys the avenging angels and I was like what is this is like heaven versus hell or something but I guess Yeah

This is just reminded me of like The neighborhood in Child's play Or um Was that movie in Chicago? Billy Crystal Uh running scared With the Billy Crystal and um

Gregory Heinz But um It was what it was I mean it was cool I liked it Um The fight started the file All the time they were in the ring

I thought that was cool but yeah, you can clearly tell they were missing each other. But this is underground boxing, illegal boxing. And it's like pretty much anything goes. I don't even know why there was a ref there. Because you can suplex fools and you can knee them and punch them in the balls and kick them and everything. And they had, what, the six-ounce gloves? And those are like almost just like regular little yard gloves.

So they just don't do nothing but protect you. Man. Yeah. But I liked what was happening. And it was cool. I mean, the high school stuff was funny. The funniest part I liked is when one of the local tough guys, they called him Spits. And then the teacher, man, she even got into it and started clown.

He goes, how did you get that name? Or is that just what you do? You like to do afterwards? That's my suitor name. It's like, no, that's a nickname. And I don't know want to know. I don't want to know how you've got it. But what's his name?

Romano, John Seda. I like him. I do too. I like that. I just like him. He's an actor. I forgot he was in, he was Chris Perez in the Selena movie with Jennifer Lopez. With his hot sauce and his holster.

Yeah. really quick we always go veer off and other things did you watch selina the series after what you told me about it uh i kind of it's in the queue but just fell into that if i don't have anything to watch then maybe i'll throw it on yeah and she's a beautiful girl i don't know the actress's name from the walk and dead gorgeous gorgeous girl but body type that's not selina I was thinking that they might have added some extra padding down there, but I'm not sure. I mean, I don't remember seeing that in The Walking Dead. So I, that's, she's very slim girl.

Yeah, a beautiful, beautiful girl. But I think they maybe patted her up a little bit in the caboose. But anyway, I thought everybody in was in it. Brian Denny, he, he's always a good bad guy. I mean, Sheriff Teasel from First Blood. Um, Pappy Jack, Robert,

La Gia or however he says last name. Loja. Loja. He's good in everything as well. I mean, said Frank Lopez and the Scarface and plus he was the owner of that toy store. Do you know what a hassa is? Yeah.

You had to do that one day. Yeah, I just watched that the other day. But, um, the, the, the chick. Um,

the one that Tommy was messing around with the one that worked at the diner with him. Oh, Mrs. Robotic? She,

yeah, she didn't. Here, don't practice your lines. Just here, read it real quick. Yeah, and go.

We're going to hold this big card so you can look at it and read it. And I was like, ah, but, Tommy. There was no need for her character at all. I hate when they all

have to shoehorn in some kind of, love story during all. Hey, this kid's fighting for his life pretty much. Because if he doesn't, they're going to kill his dad. Well, I assume that's where it was going to go and they didn't come out and say it, but since his dad owed him all this money.

And where was he? Was he like a traveling salesman? Yeah, he had got some job where it was going to require him to get on the road. And then at one point, I guess he was doing so good. He got, He got a promotion.

He got some, he got bumped up or something, but it was going to, he was going to have to stay on the road longer. So you just leave your teenage boy home alone for just weeks on it? Figured his teenage son looks like he's like 20-something. So he's good. And he's a golden gloves boxer. So he can handle, I guess he can handle himself in the streets of Chicago. I don't know, man. Southside's pretty rough over there.

but especially now yeah just some little pretty boy uh white guy walking down the street in the in the wrong neighborhood which i you know to be honest i felt like he was pretty much left alone yeah other than spitz yeah i mean you know he would show up with a black eye and then spitz you know he would just say something funny shit oh he must have bumped into a suitor name you know and i just kind of felt like nobody was really really messing with him. And he made a friend and what's his name? Like

yeah, I forgot his name. Romano or Romano? Yeah, he made a best friend. Got a girl. People kind of leave him alone. Teacher says he has a gift for language, which is odd since he barely speaks ever. And

yeah, I didn't you know, he seemed like he was doing okay in south side Chicago yeah I liked how smart he was and I learned something from here learning that Mark Twain wasn't really Mark Twain's a name I didn't know that

was that what was that yeah okay Samuel Clemens yeah I you learn something new every day boys and girls I thought he was cool I mean Spitz there's always when they have these high school movies and they throw little gangs in it.

It's always that one outspoken asshole. And I don't know if the gangs in Chicago walk around with red arm bands. I'm sure you would want to be like not so. Look at me. I'm in a gang because I got this arm band. I was like, I don't know any gangs of walk around like that. The Cowboys in Tombstone. Oh, yeah.

Maybe that's what they were going for. But I liked everybody in it. Again, the fighting. I mean, it was what it was, but it served its purpose. I think my favorite character in this was, what's his name, the mayor, Ozzie Davis. I really liked his character. He reminded me of Morgan Freeman and, what was that movie, Clint Eastwood movie? A million dollar baby.

Yeah, yeah. It reminded me of that character. But I mean, I know. Yeah, he was there to, he was the, the, the, the trainer in the gym and he was helping Tommy. It was like he knew all the shadiness and illegal stuff that was going on there, but he just turned the other way. But he was trying to tell Tommy, come on, man. I liked what he was telling me. I go, don't just go in there and start swinging.

You got to use your brain. You got to outthink these guys. So I love that he was I don't know if he was a real boxing real life But his character was actually a boxer So he was dropping knowledge Throughout the movie When they first met he was like you got recollections

And he was like, no Some and he was like Give it time give it time You know You're gonna be in that sport of boxing For a long time That's all you're gonna have is recollections Pappy Jack

I thought he was gonna be Kind of back and forth But then you realize that he was just right Right there with Brian Denny's character What was his name? Jimmy Horn. Jimmy Horn. Yeah, you saw him right in there,

basically his right-head man and everything. Were they going to, or was Jimmy Horn going to rape Tommy's girlfriend? I got that weird vibe if you don't. if you don't fight with his arm around yeah I was because they're like yeah look for her and then we see him I was kind of like whoa what's happening here I got a new date right here

you know they implied it yeah um what's his name he was only he was just kind of in the background uh Vante sweet tidbits is what his name he was one of um Cuba Goodings guys

I remember he Oh that guy yeah he was in menace of society the Muslim guy and he was a dude that hit Doe Boy and Boys in a Hood When they were

Hey, he tried to Give him a leg kick That's right he did Oh boys in the hood I love that movie Got enough money to buy 100 balls But yeah Yeah he's

Had to get his little lines in here You gotta teach that baby to hate white folks Yeah I was like Where'd that call? Yeah, so there was this underage boxers, teen mom and dads and parents didn't give a fuck where their kids were Because these guys were all running out of the street Yeah, they were out just running the street

And Romano, when he showed up at school all pimped out and his hat and his scarf and big old leather coat he was wearing I was like, man, what's you guys getting in these fights? Nobody says anything because if that was my school and somebody showed up like that, it was like, that kid's selling drugs. Something. But the fights that Tommy had to deal with as well as Cuba Giddings character, Abraham Lincoln, 9s, all that was cool. I must have missed something.

did um uh abraham get that head wound uh when he when they threw him in that match with the with the heavyweight oh and he kicked him in the head when he was down all right see i must have missed that part when he got kicked and then he he had a blood clot which they called a bleed and he needed to take time off if he didn't and he got a hard enough hit to the head that that could be it could be done which is a real thing in boxing and combat sport Yeah, because he was training And then just collapsed Dizh

And I was like, oh, weak And that was Even, what's his name? Romano, man, he got Whooped up By, What was the Was his name

Shortcut? I think I can't remember his name. I can't even find it on here. I think his name is shortcut Okay well Yeah, we'll just go with that Someone's screaming his name But yeah he

What was that thing they put On the wrist on his gloves? What was that? I don't I know but I can't Come up with it on the top of my head It Makes you kind of go blown

Not blind But gives you blurry vision Yeah I liked when he first did it because when Shortcut was fighting Romano, Romano was just whooping that ass. During one of the breaks in between the round, he was like, go ahead, just put it on there. And that his, as soon as that was his trainer, looked all suspicious looking around. Like, is anyone looking? As the room was full of people, I'm like, everyone probably saw him to it.

I was like, nobody cares there. No. If you could get punched in the balls and all that and still win, no one cares what you put on there. I mean, they could have did the Chong Lee with the little pill tablet, crushed it over in the powder and just threw it in his eyes in front of everybody. I don't think anybody would have been like, he's cheating. Yeah.

I mean, people are getting kicked in the head when they're down and punched in the nuts. And nobody cares as long as whoever they bet on wins. Yeah. Because he had that whatever that stuff was on his glove, he rubbed it in Romano's eyes. and then he just couldn't could barely see he could still see but everything was blurry and shortcut just just just started beating the hell out of them and just just pulverized them so bad that he just dropped and that was it and he uh went to the hospital and he was basically brain

dead uh they which couldn't find him at first because he was calling all the regular Tommy was calling all the regular hospitals and then uh Noah came up and was like I think you should start calling the hospitals for the poor and indigent. And then he just kind of looked at Horn, like, kind of really realize him what kind of person he is. Yeah. That was kind of sad. I was hoping that Romano would just be beat up and then be there for the final fight. But now he was pretty much done.

He was vegetable. He was brain dead and he was on life support. I assume they were getting ready to pull the plug on him. But I was like, oh, that part was sad. I liked him. I thought he was really cool. He was a cool character. And they shortcut and those guys did him dirty.

But when it got to the final fight, it was, Tommy was supposed to go. No, no, was it Abraham supposed to go up against somebody? When him and Tommy fought? Yeah. Yeah, they both came there to fight somebody else. And then when Tommy got there, he's seen he's seen his name on the board, on the betting board up against Lincoln. And that's when the whole conversation where he was telling Lincoln, I'm not going to fight you.

You got to bleed. You can die. And Lincoln's all caught up in the whole moment of Horn said, if I win, he's taking me pro and all this stuff. And basically, if you're my friend, you'll fight me and don't fuck with him. my money and and uh that's that's the how this fight is put together which it kind of happens quickly too yeah but i liked how tommy just refused to hit uh lincoln in the head because everybody even jimmy horn and all those guys were screaming in the crowd hit finish him hit him in the head but he was like no i'm not i'm not gonna he would just give in um lincoln like body shots

and all that that all time but then it got to the point where Lincoln just stopped and didn't want to fight like, like, dude, come on, fight me. What are you doing? And then they just, they got into like an argument and just refused. And then that's when everybody, the crowd turned on them and started throwing stuff into the ring. And then they basically said they weren't going to fight.

And here comes the scene. Oh, yeah. It was so phony. I just laughed. You, you don't say no to me, boy. Yeah. No. Backhand. So hard. He flies over the top row. And I'm just like, okay, you got to bleed. You're probably going to die or at least you're you're fucked up. But if you're not, you got to kill horn because he just did it in front of everybody and everybody's going to be like, damn, you got slapped out of the ring. And I was, I was like, that's disrespectful. I was like, who thought that looked all right? They look so stupid and cheesy. He, like, he backhands him.

And, yeah, it was hard, but not hard enough for him to go flying 10 feet in the air out of the ring. Yeah, he goes straight up. I was like, oh, my God. That just took me out of that whole fight. I was like, damn, Horn is a true supervillain. He has superpowers. Oh, man. Yeah, and then that's when Tommy jumped in.

Ah, he was getting rid of. to fight him and then he challenged uh Tommy or um what was his name horn yeah um Jimmy horn he he'd Brian Danny he challenged him look man he was you gotta fight me and and all this and because he was like well what do you got that I don't have and if you win all your debt is paid and and if I win this is what Jimmy Horn was saying it was like I'm gonna own you forever and then it was like all right So they kind of get in the ring and Jimmy Horn. He's like in a suit this whole time.

But then he goes and get into his little ring, ring gear. Just basically sweats and t-shirts or whatever. He had it on underneath just in case. His shit got real. He gets to the ring. Was it? Tommy's there already. He guys, gloves ready to go.

And Jimmy's just standing there bare-knuckled with none. Nothing except for a little tape around his wrist. So Jimmy or Tommy was like, cut him off. And then they get to get to fighting. All right. It was Brian Danny and there in the ring that whole time. But man, this fight was just terrible. I mean, you thought the other guys were missing and not doing a good job.

I thought they did a good job for what it was, but you can clearly see they were missing. And this was just totally unbelievable at the head. But Jimmy was bringing it to him, man. He was lighting him up for a minute. Doing every dirty move he could think of head butts, uh, standing on his foot, pushing him back so he couldn't move,

uh, fucking for some reason after he punched him, he wanted to pants him so everybody could see Tommy's ass and, just, just, just, Just trying to embarrass him, which is not a... That was my problem.

If... If you want him that bad, if he's this great white hope or whatever, then maybe you not want to embarrass him in front of everybody. Yeah, because then no one's going to want to pay or bet on or whatever. But... Yeah, like, you can't even beat this old man over here, and he's over here fucking pulling down your shorts in front of everybody. I did like the

when Tommy started swinging on him and Jimmy Horn just put his head down as Tommy swung and and he goes at the top of the skull is the hardest part of the head and from what I understand that I've heard that before and I probably heard in this movie as well but I remember hearing that

my uncle saying it yeah man if you're getting a street fight man just leaning with your head head and they punch the top of your head and if you don't get knocked out uh it'll jack their hand up because it did he was like a weak like he just kind of just held his arm to the side and all that and that's when yeah pulls pants down and all that but i liked how uh Tommy turned it on him and stuck his head down and broke his hand because he he remember what noah said that the anger anger is your worst enemy yeah and he was in there started talking shit hitting with the couple body blows some head butts and then he just it's kind of playing possum with that

hurt hand but yeah the fight was goofy at the end i mean everything else before was was better but uh of course Tommy's gonna be be Victor at the end and paid off all his dad's dead, I assume. But I was like, what kind of gangsters are these guys? How come they didn't just, I'm paying you and then kill Tommy? But I don't know. That would have been. In my mind, they never made it out of there.

Yeah. As soon as Jimmy woke up. Because I just don't see him just letting everybody go. Yeah. But then again, he, his, like some movies, maybe his people kind of turned on and was like, uh, you ain't nobody because clearly his woman was disappointed.

Yeah, because, uh, she was like, ah, I had to rethink her life. We rethink her life choices. She,

she wanted some of Tommy though. Yeah, she did. I find you're, you're fighting very exciting. I was like, they're licking her lips. I was like,

oh. I was like, what's going on with everybody? Yeah. I guess Tommy's the man. I guess nobody even does seen him fight one time. A lot of pedophiles in this movie. The women,

the guys, ladies want the underage boys. And I was like, man, what's happening here? But overall, I mean, it's a good movie for what it was.

Was this in the theater? I don't remember. I wouldn't have known. Because I think it was. in the theater, but I didn't see it until it was on cable. Oh, I stay, that's when I saw it. I guess

I must have saw it back in 92 and never saw it again. But it says box office. Budget 20 million box office 9.2. Okay, I could see that. But yeah, overall, I mean, what was this

streaming on? Stars? This was Stars, yes. Yeah, so if you guys have stars and I haven't seen this one, definitely give it a shot. I mean, it's, it is what it is. I mean, you like early,

earlier Cuba Gooden Jr. I'm sorry, after radio, that's all I see now. Every time I see Cuba Good and Jr. Amazing movie, if you guys haven't seen radio, it was really good.

I love that movie, but that's all I see now. I can't see nothing after that fucking video of him in the club. You ever see that video? What? where he's like drunk and he's like yelling at somebody he's like tell somebody to tell him to suck that baby's dick and everybody's like what the hell are you talking about like he's in the club and he's some for some reason somebody thought it was a good idea to let him get on the mic and he's just he's just yelling that

at somebody in the club and everybody's like what the fuck are you talking about this was when he allegedly was like grabbing on women and clubs and all kinds of weird stuff so I heard he's kind of a weird guy now. Oh, okay. I've found it. Let me. Oh, man, what's going on here? Oh, all right.

I'm going to leave it right there, boys and girls. Radio, man. What are you doing? What I'm assuming is he was telling maybe one of the females in the club to come perform fallatio on this young man that he referred to as a maybe. Oh, man. All right.

That's the Cuba I know now. I mean, I wish I could say radio, but after that and a couple of other videos, I'm like Cuba's kind of out there now. Trey styles, man, he left the hood and went all crazy.

Oh, man. You should have listened to Furious. Yeah, you should have, man. I guess going to where it might be, this might be from his college years I think that was a couple years ago

I'll have to watch old video look yeah there was other videos of him being all wild but um all right everyone Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. Out of the club um your pretty all righty everybody

I'm gonna keep it with the fighting movies And this is one we kind of mentioned a while ago, but I didn't know it was streaming anywhere, and I found it. This is 1984's Action Adventure, starring the one and only John Claude Van Dam and Raul Julia, rest in peace. And we're going to go with Street Fighter. I knew this day was coming. Yeah, man, we did say we were going to do it at some point. I didn't know I was streaming anywhere and I found it on peacocks. I'm like, ah, okay.

I had another one lined up, but then I actually saw this on Peacock today when I was looking around for something to watch. I went, ah, okay, good. We're going to do street fighter. Rest and peace, Roe, Julia. He did it for his kids. Yeah, he did. For his kids. That's what good father's do.

You do it for your kids, but I don't know what was Van Dam's excuse. but yeah come back next week everybody he turned down mortal combat oh he was going to be johnny k's that's right huh yeah and he was like let me go play this american in street fighter yeah with uh what what nationality is he the uh Austrian okay Brussels or I don't know where Brussels is I don't either but somebody does it wasn't an American in street fire I don't do that. I do not remember that movie at all. I do.

What's her name from the Mandalorian? Oh, Ming Na. She's a, Chun Li. Did you see that another street fighter movie? The legend of Chun Lee with Lana from Smallville? Yeah.

I said on a past episode I'm trying to be more positive towards movies, but man, and the actor they got to play Bison in that I was like you guys are going for a completely different direction what's his name from Black Guy Pease

he was um Vega yeah what's his name bamboo or something like that sure I don't remember but oh man that one

I see I saw that in the theater too and I was like, what's happening? That better not be streaming anywhere because we might have to do it. But yeah, come back next week, everyone, for Street Fighter. Be sure to listen to the latest action returns.

And, yeah, come back next week for more. So everyone, be safe out there. Keep your dukes up. Lead with your right or your left. Whatever is your one to lead with. And stay out of undergrad. ground underage boxing rings.

Until that everyone will be safe and talk to you guys next time. So until that party on. And for those of you who do not, please follow the action returns, the horror returns, skaternez, McNez,

E Society, Blu-ray Nez, just follow all those social media accounts. And until next time, everybody be safe and make sure you don't bump to your suitor name.