The Reel Rejects - The Truth Behind Reel Rejects & Jaby Koay (Cinepals)

Episode Date: October 6, 2024

The First Episode Of Reel Rejects Diaries! Greg Alba sits down with his brother Jaby Koay (Anthony Alba from CinePals) to talk about the movies and moments that shaped them. From their childhood memories to first celebrity crushes, from martial arts films to stories about meeting Robin Williams and Keanu Reeves — this episode dives deep into how cinema has defined their lives. Watch as these two reaction YouTubers share never-before-told personal stories, explore their favorite fight scenes, and discuss iconic films like Spider-Man and The Matrix. This candid conversation gives you a glimpse into their behind-the-scenes life, the bond they share, and the movies that inspire them. If you’ve ever watched Reel Rejects, CinePals, or even CineDesi, this episode is packed with the kind of stories you’ll love. Whether you're a fan of reaction videos, movie reviews, or just looking for a deep dive into how movies can shape a person, this podcast is for you! Jaby Koay & CinePals: Known for his work on CinePals and CineDesi, Jaby Koay (Anthony Alba) brings his perspective on film and martial arts. Celebrity Encounters: Listen to Greg and Jaby share their unforgettable experiences meeting celebrities like Robin Williams, Keanu Reeves, and more! Martial Arts Films: Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and iconic martial arts movies are a major influence on the Alba brothers' upbringing, and they break down how these films impacted them. Spider-Man & Matrix Memories: Hear the brothers relive their first time watching Spider-Man and The Matrix Reloaded, two pivotal films that left a lasting impression on them. Reaction Videos: Both Greg and Jaby are well-known for their reaction videos on YouTube. This podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at their journey and how they approach the world of reactions. CineDesi & CinePals: If you love content from CinePals or CineDesi, this episode is filled with the type of stories and insights that fans of both channels will appreciate. Favorite Fight Scenes & Quotes: The episode highlights their favorite fight scenes from films like Eastern Promises, Drunken Master 2, and discusses the deeper storytelling in action choreography. Family & Movie Bond: A touching theme of this episode is how movies bonded their family — including their father’s reactions to X-Men, The Ring, and their shared movie-going experiences. PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelrejects?lang=en Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Just another way to save with a personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings, and eligibility vary by state. When you want to grow your list size, pop up like it's hot, pop up like it's hot, pop up like it's hot, pop up like it's hot. And when you gotta boost your revenue, pop up like it's hard, hey, pop up like it's hot, pop up like inside. Pick your favorite template you can tailor to your brand. They're MailChimp-A-Riffick. You're gonna be a fan. MailChimp your marketing with our new customizable pop-ups. Hello there, citizens of the Reject Nation. Welcome to the first episode, The Podcast. The show that is sure to have everything look a little disgruntled. Real Rejects Diaries.

I have a couple of guests lined up for later on, but I've been determined to make my brother from Sina Pal Sinedesi be my first guest. Right. This is the one that goes on the editing room before. Yeah, this is the one where we're going to work out all the kinks. We're just going to steal Koi set for that's a great question. Yeah.

Meanwhile. And thanks to Multi House as well. And hey, maybe I should insert this at the beginning because I forgot to say it. I forgot to say it. We're actually in this at the preserve. The largest, what's my script here? The largest urban jungle in L.A. With 65 million trees.

65 million, 65 for the days. I got to clarify, 6,500 plants and trees. I might plant one myself. And it's a great place to shoot and thanks to multi-house. Yeah. Yeah, natural. Just naturally throw that in there in the beginning. Several bad puns later.

Because it's about the content. It's about that stuff. And what I wanted to do with this one, it's going to be different than I think a lot of other podcasts. Okay. What I want to do, it's going to be like a memory thing, exploring our emotions. And I'm going to try to be more sincere. You know, I just realize in this moment, do I have to call you Jabby? That would be great, but you can call me Anthony.

I'm going to just call you Anthony. I can't call you Jabby. But by memory, do you mean like we're going to have like memory cards and we're doing tests? No, no, no, no, no. I mean that we are going to explore how movies and shows have affected us in certain ways. I'll start by asking this. This is going to be my opening question for every guest. Okay.

This is going to be my signature question. You guys ready for it? I am ready. You guys ready? Who was your celebrity crush, your first one growing up? It could be an actual actress or a character. It might have been Lisa Bonnet. Who is Lisa Bonnet?

She is Aquaman's ex-wife. Jason Momoa's ex-wife. What did you know her from? The Cosby Show. She was on the Cosby Show? I think so. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, that's where she was famous.

You watch the Cosby Show? Yeah, as a kid. mom used to watch the Cosby Show. Mom used to watch the Cosby Show. There's a lot of things Mom used to watch. The Cosby Show was one of them. Yeah, I grew up with that, we grew up with Roseanne. This was not the answer I was expecting. Yeah, I think, I'm pretty sure is Lisa Bonnet. What was it about Lisa Bonnet that you were attracted to? Oh, she's beautiful. Like, but it turns out that, um, Jason Momoa had the same experience. He saw her on TV and he's like, I want that one. That he married her. That's crazy. Was there anything about her personality

that was specifically intriguing or was it just the physicality? It's just physicality, purely. I mean, she just, there was a sweetness to her. She looked like an angel to me. I don't know. So, because when you ask that question, that's the first person that comes to my mind.

I'm trying to think of anyone else that I might have watched when I was a kid, and I can't think of anyone off the top of my head. I remember you used to have. Are there's Kim, Kim Bessinger or whatever? Kim Basinger? Kim Basinger, you know, when you watch Batman, I think everyone had a crush on her too. Fascinating.

Yeah. I thought you were going to say Sunghili. Wow, your memory is crazy. That's what this podcast is all about, people. Yeah, I actually met her, funny enough. You met Sung Highly? Yeah. I don't even know what she was famous for.

I just remember he had photos of her in the bedroom. I think her name was actually pronounced Senghili. She is a Korean nude model. Can't show those photos. No, well, you can show her non-nude photos. What's the point? Yeah, sure. But yeah, I met her.

She was actually really nice. She was super cool. Everyone who I've met in industries like that have always been cool. Really? Yeah. They're always the nicest people on the planet. I don't know why that is. People who work in adult films, always the nicest people.

And I can't, like, they're nicer than people who work in Hollywood. I don't think I've ever met someone in the adult film industry. Yeah. Like, I was working at a sushi restaurant years back, a place that's no longer there. And this guy came in with two girls, all of them hot, all three of them. And he just got into talking with me about martial arts. And I'm like, what do you do? And he goes, are we allowed to tell him?

I'm like, okay. And he's like, we work in the adult film industry. I'm like, oh, okay. Cool. That's why you're so cool. Cool. Yeah. Well, you said martial arts.

And what I recall growing up, because a lot of people know that I'm a big fan of Jackie Chan. Right. A lot of people don't know. And I often say sometimes like, oh, yeah, I grew up watching Asian cinema. A lot of people don't know is that really I was just shadowing you. You're a couple years older than me. I can't specify. how much out of respect I'm older than Greg he's a lot of people think you're

older than me is that a good thing or a bad that's just that's normal I think that happened with dad uncle Andrew people thought Uncle Andrews older than dad is it because I'm I come across more mature or I look over absolutely I'm such a brat I'll take whatever but no with the martial arts side of it we we did martial arts together yeah before doing this podcast I was thinking about what am I going to talk to you about what like so it causes me to kind of look back Yeah on some stuff. Yeah. And I've talked about Jackie Chan being an inspiration of mine and everything, but I'm like, no, this actually all started with you because you were into Jackie Chan. You introduced me to, I think it was Rumble in the Bronx. You were the first one to tell me about how he would do his own stunts. Yeah. Yeah. And then we got into Taekwondo together. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, ever since I was like, I can remember, like my earliest memory is wanting to do martial arts and action and stuff like that. Like, I have this weird, vague memory. of some white dude that kind of looks like guile jumping over a camera doing a split kick you know just random stuff like because when you're a kid you just you know you think of random stuff I thought of like some Asian guy in a martial arts outfit doing back tucks and I always wanted to be able to flip and do martial arts and so I got introduced to Bruce Lee through dad we were at Costco and I remember there was like a VHS pack of four of his movies if you're a Bruce Lee fan you'll know the four movies that I'm talking about and it had like a dragon logo and that was my first experience

with Bruce Lee ever. And so I got introduced to it that way. And then with martial arts, I had a friend at school when I went to St. Charles who was studying at Juncheng Taekwondo and he gave me like this 30 day. Yeah. He had this 30 day certificate for trying out, you know, martial arts classes. Yeah, yeah. And I brought you along. And we were, we trained in our St. Charles outfits, our PE outfits for like three or four weeks because we didn't commit to buying the outfit yet because it was expensive and you know our parents didn't want to spend money on that so i didn't start until i was 12 and you were six i must have been six years old yeah i think i was like looking back i'm like was i just following you was i actually was this really my passion was this

that's made me question what i think growing up though you brought up dad and i feel like if there's one like even right now i got an out-of-body experience right where we started talking our family's not really used to making eye contact i think that's a big big thing of ours we don't really make eye contact when we talk. Okay. So this is a real big exercise for me. Okay. This is why I want to do it on camera. Why do it if we're not going to monetize it? Okay. I wanted that's what I wanted to, I thought it would be a fun experiment. But one thing though, whatever happened in family, if we couldn't we couldn't talk about a lot of things growing up, but there's one consistent thing we've always been able to talk about. And that is movies. I think that's the main thing we've always

been able to, even to this day, we're we can't talk about something serious. We can't talk about something personal, we just find our way into reviewing movies. And I find that to kind of be a unique thing about our family, because even mom will talk about it. Megan, our younger sister will talk about it. We always talk about it with dad. He was like, Mary Black. Mary Black, my dad. But there was kind of like a celebrity obsession, I think, in our family growing up. Yeah, mom was obsessed with Mel Gibson and then you adopted that. I just kind of followed everyone. Yeah, she was absolutely obsessed in Mel Gibson. But to answer your question, I think that it's a mixture of both. Because there are things

that I did and you didn't necessarily do and so you adopted whatever appealed to you. Sure. Like, sure, there's a shadow element to it but you followed your heart mainly in that, oh, that looks cool to me, I'm going to do that too. Yeah. You know? Have you seen any movies

about brothers that have ever reminded you of us or have made you wish we were more like that? The only thing that reminded me of you was probably onward and I watched that with you. I don't remember that movie. I don't remember thinking about it. Well, it's just two brothers on an adventure.

Which we've never done. That's true. That's true. No, I think, well, I'm sorry, ask the question again. Have I seen a movie that reminded me of us? Yeah. Can you see a movie that's like, that is our sibling dynamic? I don't feel like I've ever quite seen one where I'm like, this is Anthony.

A little bit recently, actually. I saw a film called Didi. And it's an older sister and a younger brother. and it made me think of you almost immediately when I watched it. Really? Because there's a bit of a contentious relationship between the older sister

and the main character and at some point the main character lashes out at his older sister like why do you always treat me badly and she does a 180 realizing the error of her ways and it's very heartfelt.

I love that movie. You should see it if you haven't seen it that reminded me of you. Have you seen Ironcloth? I haven't. That was actually one now that I think about it where because that's all about brotherhood and with a hard relationship with their dad

needless to say it's like the very light version of putting it like that and while our circumstances are not so there's actually a lot of correlations I think I can draw between that and that's because they were all like pivoted towards the same career path they were all that's that's they found their commonality within the career path that they pursued contentious relationship with their dad and I think that is probably like the closest one I could find between like the brotherly thing that I can think about. that or whatever I've heard about this movie called warrior I haven't seen warrior either I think they've oh no I did see it I did see warrior that but it

didn't make me think of us what about the Canaan Abel story we came pretty close no but you know it's going through all this like there's a movie called it's not peanut butter falcon this the other one he did at the same time honey boy honey boy haven't seen it I can never watch that again it doesn't make me think of siblings but it makes me think of dad in like some of the weird shit that we went through as kids like I had I cried horribly on that movie because it was too close to home I told it I'm like I can never see this movie ever again it's too it's too real but yeah I recommend watching it and bringing tissues yeah it sounds like a great experience it's cathartic you need that sometimes you know live that a

little bit yeah you got to have the the dark movies sometimes to like it's you know sort of therapeutic in a way there's could be an absolute catharsis I think to that experience yeah um anyway next question Greg next question coming up here when we were growing up there was something that there was like thinking about um some random experiences we have in movies i remember i was thinking about spider-man okay do you remember the experience of us watching spider-man i have memories of spider-man but not the experience of you and me watching spider-man okay because that is a really major stand-out to me okay uh i was in st charles okay you had booked tickets to a screening i think it was like a 12 or 2 p.m. showing

i did night yeah this is before reserve seating but there's a time where they you know like nowadays are like movie releases on friday but they started showing screens at like 3 p.m the day before okay this was like friday the day it came out okay you went to school and you just surprisingly pulled me out of school no heads up oh you pull me out of school and you brought me to the theaters to watch spider man oh and it was undoubtedly one of the most magical experience i've ever had because Because it was not too long before that, where I had, I just read my first Spider-Man comic. Oh. And to be able to watch, this is the first experience I ever had with a movie of watching something

you read be brought to life. Like, I'm watching this unfold. I'm like, oh, he's going to go into the wrestling. Oh, this is when Uncle Ben's about to die. Like, watching all this happen on screen. Yeah. And then to be with a theater that was all, like, cheering the whole time and, like, watching the web slinging.

I remember being young and everyone was constantly, like, I don't feel like with the, that's one thing i think with the with the tom holland once i feel like when the aunt with the toby mcguire once came out i feel like everyone was doing the swift thing with their hands they'd be pretending same thing like when wolverine first came out everyone was like going in the shadows and doing the three fingers doing the knives and stuff yeah people sure yeah yeah but people would do that but i feel like with tom holland spider man he doesn't inspire that no he doesn't inspire the thwhip flip little love you know well his is so engineered by iron man it's it's quite a different spider man i know and i think that is that that's how i i feel like little things like that place a massive influence though

on an experience that you have with a character like i feel like a lot of people can illustrate that tom hollins is perhaps more comically accurate in a lot more ways you just you just reminded me of something of when i was a little kid um so michael keaton's michael keaton douglas is batman he goes by michael keaton douglas now uh yeah that was a whole thing in the news about it because that's his actual last name no way and oh because he didn't want to go by michael douglas yeah Oh, yeah, because there can't be two Michael Douglas is. Yeah. And so he just went through a phone book, found Keaton.

He's like, that's my name now, Michael Keaton. And at the age of 72, he's like, I'm Michael Keaton Douglas. So, anyway, when he did Tim Burton's Batman, there's this thing he does in the movie where he, like, he gets knocked out. He's dead. Yeah, yeah. And then he wakes up and, like, beats up the bad guy or something. I used to do that in kindergarten. I just knock out and pretend I'm dead and then come up and, like, you know, pretend, fight with your friends.

But the last time I ever did it, I'd knock. out and I opened my eyes and this kid was crouched in front of my face and he farted in my face oh Jesus I was like okay that's that's dead now I'm not doing that anymore that man prank on yeah did any kid ever actually believe you were knocked out no no I was just messing around but I I understand what you're saying and so there's a whole emphasis in Spider-Man with Toby McGuire where he's like saying all the things and he does the rock-on joke yeah yeah I mean that's why it kind of sticks in your mind so hard yeah well I feel like that's the

maybe I'm maybe just because I'm an adult now and I'm like I watched Tom Holland as an adult so I don't know if there's actually I didn't put that in that perspective maybe there's kids who watch Tom Holland that are like yeah flip flip flip but I don't I just don't know if I do I don't think so I don't feel like those movies really inspire that but I do remember another another movie experience one of my favorite ones you pull me out of the school again to watch Matrix Reloaded yeah here's what he did I was hoping you were going to bring that here's what he did I was hoping I was going to stay hidden I I went to actually you know Matrix is one of my favorite movies of

all time. It was really funny. It's the first time you showed me it for this act. This is true. The first time you show me the Matrix, you ended, you stopped playing it after Neo got shot. I did. Yeah. And so there was weeks where I thought, oh, Neo just dies at the end of the movie. And then later on I watched it on my own. I'm like, there's a whole other like 10 minutes following this. The secret ending. It was just some like messed up joke you play. But yeah, Matrix Reloaded. You pulled me out. We went to a theater. You had me wait in line at like 10 in the morning for a midnight showing by myself. And then you showed up with like a gang of people like 20 minutes before screen time. I felt, I feel bad about that. No, so what happened was I bribed you and I said I would

get you the Matrix Reloaded soundtrack if you would wait in line. Did you get it for me? I did, but you didn't keep it. I kept it. No, because I was at E3 and I remember that day I met for the second time or something like that because every I would go to E3 every year and I would meet Robin Williams I met him three years in a row not nicest guy at the you know what do you remember me well okay so the first time I met him I was watching this show near the exit or entrance as it were of the LA Convention Center it's like this big theater thing and it was Star Wars the Old Republic or something it's just a trailer and he was walking by and I was

like holy crap that's Robin Williams and I realized I had a film camera around my neck, the one that dad used to use all the time when we were kids. So before I realized that, I said, Robin, you rule, which is something I don't do. And he goes, thank you. And he threw me the peace sign. And I realized I had the film camera, and I ran after him.

And I said, can I please get a photo with you, which is something I don't do today. And he goes, okay, but you got to make it quick. And I hand the camera to his bodyguard who did not want to take a photo of us. And he put his arm around me, we took a photo, and he was out. and I found out later that day that leading up to that moment he was actually trying so hard

to get out of there because he was swamped by so many people he was surrounded and like he could barely move an inch at a time because so many fans had been on top of him and so when he finally got out he was trying to bolt out

and he stopped to take a photo with me oh that's really kind yeah so that's how big of a heart he had for his fans you know was like that the next two times you met him yeah yeah he was always always in a rush oh no no no he's

Always just trying to get out of there No, he was always sweet Actually the last time I met him We were chill walking out of E3 together Because we basically were there until they closed down And so we were just walking out and having a conversation What would you say is the best celebrity Is that your best celebrity?

Him and Keanu Reeves was one That's right Yeah You and dad met him at the same time, right? It's hard to explain how we got into that So through through Megan or Mary Black's godfather

we got to a screening where Keanu Reeves' girlfriend was starring in a film so Keanu Reeves showed up. You heard this a million times, right? I don't know this story. Okay, so, okay, yeah, so we got into the screening through Damien Chappah, who's Mary Black's godfather. Also known as Ken from Street Fighter. I also know

and he's also an under siege. Yes. And so what happened was after the movie, which was boring, by the way, it was so boring as a kid, because This is a grown-up movie, and so you can't process that as a child. Dad took me to watch Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, as a kid, and I was horribly bored. Oh, really?

Yeah, as a grown-up, I'm like, this is amazing. But as a kid, you're like, geez, when can I go home? Yeah. Anyway, Keanu Reeves is just standing right next to us. So I tug on Dad's jacket, I'm like, look, and dad sees him, and then dad goes, hey, would it be all right if we took a photo together? And Keanu Reeves goes, sure. And so Keanu Reeves puts his arm around me, and there's all these people walking by, and

Keanu Reeves goes, you know, it'd be better if we took a photo over there in the corner. Wow, that's like unheard of. Yeah. And so he takes us over to the corner, we took a photo. And then dad goes, is it okay if I take a photo with you? And Kenner Reeves goes, sure. Takes a photo with dad. And then afterwards, dad chats with him up in.

He goes, well, you guys have a great night. And then he walked off. It was like, amazing. And then that night, we went to dinner. And we just so happened to be like four booths down from Keanu Reeves, who was hanging out with the director. And I was just watching him all night while he was having a fun conversation. I think it was right before he did The Matrix. Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah. Coy introduced me to it. There was an event, and Coy brought me to it where he was doing a signing for his comic book, Berserker. And I was like in line to talk to him the whole time I had nerves. This was like a couple weeks after like the third time I saw John Wick for in the theaters.

So I was like, I'm nervous to meet him, nervous to meet him. And it's, he is such a fascinating celebrity presence to me because he's got that presence. It's like that weird surreal thing where you're used to seeing someone on a TV or a movie theater and they're like they're I don't know how do you explain that feeling when you see a celebrity that you're so used to watching it there's something like odd about watching them in person emotion because you feel like you know them there's sort of this parissocial aspect of the whole thing

because you've seen them so many times in your brain because our brains aren't equipped to deal with television or and you know screens yeah so we just associate that as oh we know that person it's like they're out of the box it's strange yeah but when I finally went up to talk to him he has this amazing quality to just feel like a total human being and not make like it doesn't feel like you're talking to a celebrity he asks you questions it doesn't feel like he's forcing it's like he's thoroughly like engaged the way he like engaged he'll put his hands on his like I see the way he interacts with everyone puts his hands up here really focused and paying attention and he is he was like oh this is exactly what everyone has ever said about him online yeah and it is very true with him in

person. Yeah. And so yeah, I think he's probably the coolest celebrity who's ever existed. I met David Hater, who voiced Salt Snake. He also wrote X-Men. Did I ever tell you about this? No. Or maybe you did. I used to smoke a lot of fun. Okay. So there was a little showing in North Hollywood near the 24-hour fitness over there. And it was to watch X-Men, the first X-Men movie, a group of us watching X-Men hanging out with David Hater. Yeah. Super chill. And it was like, I can't believe I'm in the room with solid snake right now. This is crazy. And he's right over there. And so anyway, we're watching

the movie, and I was waiting for the line when Storm goes, do you know what happens to a toe when it gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else when it gets struck by lightning. And I could see a little whisper, whisper over there, and David Hader goes, I didn't write that line. Because it went through several drafts, including

like with Joss Whedon and whatever. That's a carryover from Joss Whedon. Afterwards, there was just like a one-on-one. The nicest guy in the world. In the middle of us talking, I forgot what I was saying to him. He goes, I'm just going to grab a beer for the fridge. Keep talking.

I'm listening to you. And he walks over, and he's like, and he's just a beer. And he comes over, and it's like the most chill conversation ever. He was super, super nice. And afterwards, I was like, yo, can we take a photo

where you're, like, excited to meet me? He goes, yeah, that sounds amazing. And we've had a little back and forth on Twitter as well. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so he's really, really nice. If I ever could work with anyone, it would be Keanu Reeves for sure and David Hayder

Like those two Just because of like I remember the people Who were nice to me There was A memory I got two memory Flashes

When you were talking about this First one was us Playing Metal Gear Solid And by us playing Metal Gear Solid I mean I'm in the bedroom Watching you play Metal Gear Solid Okay So he used to play Metal Gear Solid

On the PlayStation Like the shitty graphics ones When Metal Gear Solid became like a phenomenon It was amazing back then though It was amazing It looked like the most like cinematic thing you ever created Yeah it was the first of his kind

And it's just so funny. It's a, Melasol games are known to be notoriously very long. They're extremely long games. Dialogue heavy, yeah. And we did not have a memory card. That's right. That's right.

I think you know what I'll go on with this. Hours and hours and hours. I'm just on the floor watching him play. He gets to the final boss, literally fighting the metal gear. Yeah. Yeah. And the PlayStation just dies. And he has to start off.

We, I remember Rose. both freaking out like yeah it was such a unity moment for us even though i didn't do any of the work i just watched you play but it was that experience of like i'm also on the edge of my ice it was such i was so used to watch you play that when i find i didn't play metal gear solid one for i play middle girl solid two on my own for the first time oh okay i was like so scared to play metal gear solid because i i was so tense watching you play it and i was like i don't want to pick this up because of that yeah um yeah that's a traumatic memory right there two endings of Metal Gear Solid, by the way, in case you guys didn't know that.

Funny enough, there's these clips of Metal Gear Solid, too, that have been circling the internet for a while saying Hidey Okajima predicted 2024, like, back then, because it talks about all this stuff of where the Internet's going, and it's like all of it has come true. It's pretty wild. The other thing, X-Men, as much as we might drop little things about, oh, yeah, a complicated relationships with Dad, there's some funny moments I remember with that so much, and one of them was watching X-Men.

it was the first time I watched it I went to the theaters with Mom to watch it okay again dazzling experience had no idea who Jackman was I mean no one did that was an amazing experience yeah and then I was like I gotta show dad this movie yeah and the the bar scene

I was right next to dad and I feel like if there's anyone we got reactions from it's dad yeah yeah a couple of fun stories about reacting from dad it's the cloth when he's in the bar and then he whips out the claws

and it does the close-up on the middle claw and all I see his dad in the theater go really? He's like full on like gasped at the side. Really? Yeah, sometimes you do embarrassing I took him to see Spider-Man and we saw Spider-Man it was jam-packed theater opening day

when I took dad to see Spider-Man been out for a week so we were in a tiny, tiny, tiny theater with like four rows in it small amount of people. Toby McGuire lets the burglar go and he's like, why'd you let that guy go? And he's like, I missed the part where that's my problem. Dad just starts going,

this small group of people just turn to see like what he's doing. Yeah, he's a very expressionate movie watcher. Well, yeah, the one thing I got from dad was I could be the only person in the theater laughing. Dad would definitely be the only person in theater laughing sometimes. They'll find humor in everything, which is great but one of the memories that I have that I wasn't there for but you told me about

was the ring where that was one of my favorites yeah because like I just like because you watched it with him yeah and dad used to just like be lounge at home in his underwear and so he was laying on the floor watching the movie and there's that part where the you know the lady comes out of the TV well what what happened was he fell asleep okay and then he woke up moments before this he happened yeah and then you said dad was like going oh my god and rolling it right out of the floor in his underwear. Yeah, he was, I think that's the most I've ever seen him flip out.

Okay. At a movie, yeah. He was literally rolling back and forth, like never seen anything like that before. That was a terrifying moment. Yeah, well, that was the moment. That's the moment everybody remembers from that movie. That cemented the movie, I think.

But, yeah, I had a lot of great memories with you as a kid and dad where we would go to the, I forgot what it's called? It was called, what's the name of the company that used to produce James Vaughn movies? United Artists. There was a United Artists movie theater in the Valley. Yes. And so you and I and dad would go to that theater, we'd bring, like, we'd be wearing sweaters and sweatpants and, like, have popcorn and sodas and stuff. Yeah, yeah.

And we just go and, like, watch five movies in a day. We did that with Moral Kombat. We saw Mortal Kombat twice the same day. Right. So at that same theater, um, but the funny part about, because sometimes we would do that with the, with the, with the, sometimes we would do that with the smaller theater, too. Yeah. And those rooms, like the bigger United Ars one, there's like two stories. So you could probably get away with it.

So United Artists is the small one, and you're thinking of the different one. I think it's a regal now or something like that. But yeah, I know what you're talking about that. Oh, so it was the small one. The small one is the United Artists, and they're all like right next to each other. So it's so easy to get caught. Yeah. And so they had Mortal Comet and Waterworld.

We had already seen Waterworld at that time. And so we watched Mortal Kombat. I loved it. And Dad's like, I want to watch Waterworld now. So we go to watch Waterworld, and it gets maybe 10 minutes into the movie, and then the film dies. and then it starts over again. I'm like, Dad, I'm going to go watch Mortal Kombat again.

I'm not sitting through this again. I go to Mortal Kombat, and then he joins me, and it's a packed house. I just, that was when you could, like, get away with that kind of stuff, though. You can't get away with that today. It's all reserved seating. Yeah, but, like, Mortal Kombat was the experience as a kid. I was so happy with that movie. I'm pretty sure Mortal Kombat Annihilation was the first movie I ever saw in the theaters that I knew I really did not like.

You saw it with us? Yeah, I remember coming out of the theaters and being like, I didn't like, I'm like a little boy. Yeah. I didn't like that. You're like, that was terrible. Like you said to me, I was like, oh, my feelings are validated. Yeah, that was probably the first movie I saw in theaters. Like, this is objectively not a good film, you know.

Yeah, I think it's got a cult following now because it's so awful. It is such a terrible movie. It's funny. But I remember walking out with dad and dad going, that was, that sucked. But speaking of random memories, I watched Lion King with Jessica and, and Uncle Ranian. and to Marissa. And I remember as we were walking out, Jessica was so young. She's like, bye, Simba, bye. As if you could hear her. So, but anyway, yeah. Those childlike experience, I think are great. And, like, I remember the last time I, like,

as an adult, the last time I saw, like, the childhood impact was when I went to go see Black Panther. Um, the second time when I took, when I took Olivia, it was, uh, you know, you wait for the credits, post credits and whatever. And when we were leaving, there was an African American family and they went to the front of the screen when the theater cleared out and it was like this little boy and their mom did the Wakanda forever pose and I was like oh this is such a touching moment to watch like this is why this movie is made it's for like this kind of experience right here they don't really see that that often I guess it's part of why I wanted to do this podcast is to remember like how movies can be a memory defining experience and shape us in a lot of ways yeah I mean I think that a lot

of people got inspired to do like parkour and all that because of jacky chan you know seeing him do all that crazy stuff a lot of people i credit tom cruise i'm like jackey chan started the whole like you know doing his own stunts thing you know yeah i think that we're in a different generation now where they just don't get exposed to that as much yeah you know jacky chan's famous as a personality today but when we were coming up like he was famous for doing all that crazy stuff yeah um and so yeah like i i got inspired and wanted to do park core yeah and then you used to use your own sense you to jump off the roof. I did that once. It was painful. Never did it again. Yeah. I used to jump off the roof like regularly because of that. There's two sides to the old house, right? There's the

backside and the front side. Yeah. And the backside is closer to the ground. Yeah, that's when I did. It's not a big deal. No, it is a big deal. The other side, the other side is much higher. And I remember jumping off and I did it once and it was fine. The second time I did it, I like landed weird and my back was wrecked for like a month. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah, just because I landed in a hunched position and all that force came down and it was just not good. That's like the second time I hurt myself jumping off something high. Because in Eagle

Rock where we used to live, all these kids used to jump off this neighbor's stairway. Yeah. Because it would go right onto some greenage and stuff like that. So I did it as a four-year-old and I jumped off and I landed and my knee hit my jaw right here or my gum line rather. I was bruised there for like a good month.

Yeah. Ouch. You used to make a lot of short films. We used to I used to beat some of the really cool. I'm talking, not the ones that you guys see online. Like some really cringy homemade video ones. One about the world ending. What was that one? Yeah, we used to do a lot of those.

Because I, you know, I hijacked Dad's camera and just started filming stuff. The first time we did it was at Antaresa's place in New York. Oh, really? Yeah, in the basement. Oh, my God. I got such a vague flashback of this. Oh, it's like slowly entering my brain. Yeah, so I just took Dad's camera and I grabbed you.

I grabbed Matthew and Chris. And I said, let's go down to the basement. And I just shot some random stuff with all of us. And I remember that day is when I finally figured out who's, not Soundgarden. Who's the other one? Savage Garden. That's what I finally learned the name Savage Garden because I would hear their music on the radio. Before we had SoundCloud or not SoundCloud, what's it called?

Spotify or whatever, where you could just like play us, like put your phone next to the song and figure it out. Oh, Shazam. Shazam. Anything like that. We didn't have that as kids, right? You just had to listen to the next five stupid songs and hope that the DJ would say it. Right. And so Matthew was the one who told me, oh, that's, you know, what was the name of the group again?

Savage Garden? Yeah, but anyway, I made the short film that day, and we did two of them. And so we played it for the family. How did you edit, though? In camera. We were shooting. I was shooting and editing as we went. So it's like we had to get the shot.

If we messed up, I had to rewind the tape and go right back to that spot again to make it work. Yeah, because this was like VHS days. This is not VHS, it was high eight. Are you being technical with me? Yes. No, well, it's a little cassette called High Eight. Okay. And then there was like Super 8 and then high eight and then we had many DV tapes.

But then you transfer it to a VHS. Later on I did, yeah. So when there was like cut action, you'd have to rewind it back just enough so you didn't hear like the cut and the action. Yeah. Got exactly. Did you know that at Chevron you can fuel up on unbeatable mileage and savings? With Chevron rewards, you'll get 25 cents off per gallon on your next five visits. All you have to do is download the Chevron app and join to start saving on fuel.

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Yeah. So I started editing VHS to VHS. And so before we had computers and stuff like that. Old school, old school. Good old times. Yeah. But yeah, you were in a ton of them. You were in one that I did a few years ago, the Dragon of Old J short film.

Yeah, no, but that's like when you're, I don't know, I kind of like. Like, I just shot like a random sketch at IMAX with John for Beetlejuice. It's just like they, I showed up. People loved it who saw it. I just saw for social media. And it was, we showed up and they're like, we got Bob for Beetlejuice here. Do you want to set up? And we were like, I've literally said to them, I don't know what we're doing.

Like, I don't know why we're here. And they're like, you got 20 minutes. And then I just randomly came up with something and John shot. And I was like, this is so much more fun than like, you know, having a script. Having a shoot. Like that, that, that, to me, there's just something more spontaneous about it. They're kind of editing in your head as you're putting it together.

I think those are fun, but like real filmmaking is a chore. It's tiring. It's exhausting. It is exhausting. I think the most stressed out, one of the most stressed out instances of my life was not that long ago making Love Punch Kill. Yeah. You know, I didn't talk to you about that at all.

But like, I did a lot of prep for that. And every day was expensive. And so I was like, I got to get this in two days. And so I made a shot list. And when I got to the end of my shot list, I'm like, there's no way I could shoot this in two days. But I'm going to try because I had over 100 setups to do in two days. Yeah, there's a lot of shots.

And so I did it. That was awesome. Yeah, I got it done. But I was like every second I was looking at my watch going, God, okay, I'm out of time. I'm out of time. We got to keep moving. I was like sweating, drenched the entire time.

It's very stressful. Damn. Well, it turned out great. If guys, I haven't seen it, go watch it. Thank you. What memories do you have? Do we have anything with, like, Mom? I got one memory of a mom, but do you have anything

with Mom at all? Of, like... Because Mom loves movies, too. She absolutely loves it. Mom, Mom has a very... She's a very... She likes franchises. She's a very binary opinion.

It's always like... It was fine. It was okay. And I'm like, Mom, what does I mean? I know it sucks. I paid for them to go watch Dark Night Rises on IMAX. I'm like, it was good. Like, yeah. What the hell right?

So, okay, everything everywhere all at once. I saw that film before the world, you know, before it became this huge thing. Because I was excited because of Michelle Yo. And so, you okay? Okay. John almost died. I was excited because it's Michelle Yo starring in this movie. And for those of you that have no idea, my internet name Jabby is formed from Jackie Chan, my name Anthony Alba, Bruce Lee, and Michelle Yo.

And so that's how much she means to me. So I go watch it. And I'm like, oh, my God, mom has to watch this. And so I tell Mary Black, I'm like, take mom to watch this movie. She's got to see it. So they go watch it and mom's like, it was fine. My mom, this is my you. What do you mean it's fine?

Definitely reminded me a mom the whole time. It made me feel better. I think that's when movies can be really good when you're like, oh, we're not a, this is fine. I mean, it's not like everything is healthy or something, but it's not as like the fact that there's like a relateability to it. Like, even watch, I watched this horror movie called Long Legs, and there's like a straight-up character who's a hoarder in it. And I rarely see hoarder characters, like, accurately portrayed. And it was surprisingly like, yeah, this is what it's really like when you're in a hoarder

or something. And there's something kind of weirdly reassuring. I can't say this for, like, everything that's bad in life, obviously. Like, there are certain instances that happen to films that are people like, I can't watch it, I get triggered. I understand. But I feel like sometimes, though, there is such a, there's a, there can't say, you can be a relatability when you're being like

where you're identifying with it. Yeah, yeah. I think that really does help. Is there a movie that you feel like you identify the most with a character as? For me? Yeah. Is there a person who you're like, who is, or what can you say is the movie that, or show even, like this is the one where I feel like I either adopted

a lot of personality or who I am today is very much like this person. Well, this is going to sound bad to some people, but I think that Whiplash is the one that hit me the most. That's my favorite movie all time. They're re-release in it.

Oh, they did? There's something about the journey that that character goes on that I kind of identified with where it's like, this is the most important thing ever, and everything else is just in the way. And there was, I don't know, there's something about that character and his journey and just, like, fighting with every fiber of his being to get to the thing. And it's like, it's not pretty. It's very ugly.

It's messy and it's stressful. And I'm like, that, that's reality, you know, because, like, movies painted as, like this cool sexy exotic adventure of going the distance of the hero's journey and it's like no it's ugly and difficult but you do it anyway because it's that's what your soul is telling you to do yeah um and that's why i resident that movie resonated with me so much um i guess like kind of it's not in the same way but like the wrestler right where i'm going to spoil the movie you haven't seen it but like he dies doing the only thing he knows how to do yeah you know and i feel like you and i are kind of the same way it's like we we are like really good in our lane you know there's a lot of

regular people things we don't do very well at but we're very we excel in this like very narrow passionate driven uh creative and um ambitious sort of thing yeah you know i'm terribly articulating this but you know what i mean and so yeah like you know make your work's character in whiplat and uh in um the wrestler is kind of the same way it's like he only knows this that's all you can do you know uh but yeah whiplash that's the that's the answer to the question probably whiplash was the character that you feel like when you watch this movie that that's the one where you identify with someone the most i think so yeah there i mean there's a great moment in the movie where he finally has his shit together and he calls up the uh the ex-girlfriend and he's like hey i've got a show

and she's like yeah cool i just need to check with my boyfriend he's like i don't remember that I'm like, whoa, that was so great, because that's so real. You know? I most identify with J.K. Simmons in that movie. The tautry, John. Well, I see J.K. Simmons as a metaphor for life. It's like, I think that's part of why I love the movie so much is because J.K. Simmons is what life will do to you, and you have to, almost like, the rocky thing.

It's like, it's not how hard you can hit. It's how much you can get hit and keep on going. That, to me, is what's going on in that dynamic. Yeah, you know, until he conquers that whole scene. Would you say that's your favorite quote of a movie? It's a lovely quote. I do like it a lot. I mean, I definitely identify with it, you know.

Is there other quotes? I've never, I love, I do so much personal development that I have quotes there, but I've actually, now that I've just spit out this question, I'm like, I never thought about that myself. Is there like a quote in a movie that stuck with me so much that it kind of like help shape me in some way? Do you have anything like that? Oh, goodness gracious. I'd have to think about that for a while.

Nothing immediately comes to mind other than like this the classic Star Wars Yoda thing of like do or do not. Yeah. You know, there's like no half measures, Walter. That stuck with me. You know, I say that all the time. Because in my own life, I think that a lot of people,

especially in Los Angeles, they're like, that half-heartedly are like, I want to try YouTube. It's like, look, you've got to love this. You have to, whatever it is creatively or artistically, you have to love it. There's no half-measures. otherwise you're just wasting time. Actually, for some reason, when you finish that sentence,

I was like, there is something that did pop up to me where I do find myself often linking my brain back to it. And it's the Batman Begins quote. Oh, okay. It's not who you are underneath. It's what you do that defines you. Because I think that a lot of people, for me personally, rather than talk about generality,

for me, that's all about like taking action. And then you've got to be a man of your word, and then you've got to live by your principles. you got to live by what you actually believe and so i think there's a lot to deconstruct from that one quote where i feel like that has been a really solid foundation for me like like when it comes to motivation in life what a lot of people don't realize is a lot of people wait for the feeling to come then they take action versus a lot of times if you just take action yeah the motivation will follow you know like a very easy thing to liking it to is going to the gym usually i don't

want to go to the gym. Right now I'm on a calorie deficit and I didn't want to do it. But once I started doing it in a couple days in, I'm more motivated to keep going. And that's the same thing I think with like career pass or becoming Batman. You know, you just got to start fighting crime. Yeah. I watched, of all movies recently, I watched Medea. The specific one I'm thinking of is called Medea's Family Reunion. And you'd be surprised how much heart that movie has if you've never seen a Medea movie. but I got into them recently

and in there Tyler Perry's character says it's not about where you come from it's about where you're going and I was like oh that's really cool I gotta keep that one yeah that's pretty cool yeah because I think that we came up

from you know a rather difficult upbringing yeah I would say but I think that we've managed to like make diamonds out of pressure you know it's it's I don't know I'm pretty happy with knowing where we've come from and where we've

gone to you know i think it's pretty cool the what's the lord of the rings quote because sometimes that pops in my brain and of course i can't call it now uh the one that gandolph says john you know it the one where he's like uh so do all what's the quotes so do you all yeah jamie do we have any bison uh do you do you know the quote of like when he when he's talking to freder he's like so do all who live to see such times but it's not it's the same thing about like about it might not be your fault that i know but that's the thing about a quote. Sometimes I might not remember it word for word, but the gist of the quote means that fault and responsibility are not the same. That even though it's not your fault of what's happening

right now, it is your responsibility to go through with it. One of my favorite quotes is from Kenneth Brana and from Dead Again when he says, did that guy look like he knew karate? That's my favorite quote. Kenneth Bromich is terrible. What was the personality growing up that you feel like most influence? Like my answer for me is like so obvious. But for you, do you have like, a personality that you saw so much on TV or because I feel like obviously we get personality choice from our parents of course yeah but more than like being influenced by friends I feel like I was very much influenced by people I watch on TV uh like who for sure Matthew Perry is Chandler 100% oh yeah oh yeah for sure yes I think a lot of people with emotionally stunted

problems who identify with that as like humor will be my escape you know yeah Matthew Perry for sure definitely had an impact I co-signed that one for sure yeah He had an impact on my personality. He was the first celebrity who died where, like, upon hearing his death. Yeah. Sometimes I hear a celebrity dies, and then as I'm, like, diving more into it, it makes me cry. That was the first one where I heard a death where I felt like I lost someone I knew when I really never even saw him in person because of that's how much of a impact

and how much I just wanted to be him, you know, watching that show. For me, it was Robin Williams. Really? Yeah, when he passed away, it felt like I lost a family member. Wow. Yeah. I remember exactly. I was at Starbucks and I got

the Twitter news and I'm like oh geez my heart sank. Who was what was the movies you watched of Robin Williams growing up? It was more of the drama I watched hook I watched what dreams may come Mrs. Doubtfire

I think it's just his personality you know in the zeitgeist more than anything it's like it's easier for me to just remember him as a person more than his specific films if that makes any sense. I feel I don't know if you resonate with this I feel like movie and shows really helps and like not only to activate my imagination because I'm usually in an imagination place it it helped I think it did save me I understand why people sometimes take it so personal

when it comes to opinions about stuff even though I have to like really work at like we both have to it's like hey this is my opinion don't get offended it's just a movie yeah yeah at the same time I do feel like when you're younger it can I look at the Star Wars fandom when they treat it all like a like a a religion, right? The real fandom. And I can understand that to a certain degree. Obviously, sometimes you're like, yo, chill out. It's just Star Wars. But I think movies did actually help shape me so much into the individual that I am today. Yeah, I'd agree that. I mean, likewise. And a lot of that goes back to Dad, you know, showing us movies and stuff. That's what we talk about all the time. Car rides and everything. There's always movies and shows. Um, it's up,

It's definitely something I miss. I remember you and I had this interesting experience where we watched gravity separately. And I called you up. Yeah. And you're like, dad would have loved that one. I'm like, yeah. Wow. It's like it's weird that we both knew that.

Yeah. Like there are movies I watch and I go, Dad would have loved that. Like Mad Max. Yeah. He would have ate that up. There's a few things like I think he would have appreciated Dune quite a bit. You know, there are certain things that just kind of resonate with his personality. To give you guys an idea, like when our dad died, I literally.

really bought Blu-rays of some of our favorite movies watching growing up and we put it in the put it in the coffin with him to be buried like that's how much of movies were the connective thread in our family you know yeah uh you you uh put a terminator 2 the laser disc with him i just rewatch terminator 2 yeah um yeah dad bought me he got a terminator 2 laser disc and then he bought another one just for me i was like three years old censorship did not come in our family will. Yeah, it was weird. If it was violence, that was fine. If it was sex, that was a problem. Sometimes they weren't good at doing it. I remember Monsters Ball. There's a very famous scene in Monsters Ball. And okay, so the setup in the living room was like, there's like sheets on the ground.

And like, so you and dad were on the ground watching it. And I was on the couch right behind. Once that famous scene comes up, all dad does for me is go, just puts his hand up like that. Doesn't even turn around. It's just like just expects me to like lock my eyes to where his hand is without actually like, hey, go to the other room or close your ears or something. It's like really light. We saw species in the theaters together when I was like seven years old. Yeah. Species is another weird memory from our childhood because of Damien because Damien used to be married to her. Natasha Hensridge.

And I remember you and I went to Natasha Hensrich's like mansion. Yeah, she was super rich. Yeah, with all that species money, she bought this huge house. and it was like one of those very Hollywood I don't want to say pretentious but you know it's like a very lavish house and where everything you could just tell everything was expensive

and in the middle of it was one of those like toys you get at the back of Target that's like a brain game where it's like red and then you turn it to red I forgot what it's called you didn't know the name of the game that I'm talking about Jamie and it says like three and then you turn it to three it's like a brain game and I thought that was

I always wanted that as a kid I'm like oh my god This is the first time I ever played. It was at Natasha Hensdridge's house. And it was just like on their couch. That was probably like $10,000. You know what I mean? Yeah. I got that little flash of like being a little kid looking up at her.

Yeah. She's all in black and talking. She signed the VHS. That's right. Yeah. Good time. She was super nice. Yeah.

I appreciated getting the opportunity to hang out with her. It was a ball. Yeah. I don't know what that is. Bad research. But thank you, Jamie. Bad research. My quotes on the phone.

Let me get this down. What quote? The quote that I was looking for from Lord of the Rings. Okay. It's, hold on. I want to say it right. And so do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to do is, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

That's a good quote. Brainworm? The one on the far right, the one on the far right there, the upper right hand corner, what's that called? Brain warp. Yeah. And it's like, it's like it's like it's, it's, it's sounds a color or a number. and you've got to keep turning it and it messes with your head. I get addicted to stuff like that,

like Brain Age for the Nintendo DS. Anyway. So we should wrap this up. How is the podcast? I think it's cool. We didn't talk about any martial arts movies. Do you like the raid a lot? Yes, I do.

I remember you did a review for the raid and the raid too, and you got this huge Indonesian fan base when you did your review. And it blew up. I think that was one of your first reviews that blew up when you two. That's what blew up. Yeah. And I was like, but I only want to watch these Indian Indian Shams.

I'm not in the... You follow the trajectory where something was working and then you found an interest and passion for like the Indian side of cinema. Right, exactly. With the right terminology, I'm always afraid to mess that up. Indian cinema is probably the best way to phrase it. There's a new term that they're trying to throw out there

called Pan Indian because there's all these different regions of India that are like different industries that have their own vibe. Yeah. And so Pan Indian is sort of like all encompassing of all. all of India. Got it. And so, I mean, I feel like there's more to pursue there because Iko Owaya started doing a string of martial arts movies after that.

Oh, cool. Yeah. Maybe. That'd be fun. No, why are you asking me? Oh, it was just memories, you know. There was a, I remember I made this four-hour compilation of all these like martial arts fight scene stuff.

This is just all these, just fight scenes, right? And I wanted it to be like background on my TV during my birthday party while I just play pop music. Can you do that? I did do that. Yeah, you succeeded in that, yeah. And it backfired because then everyone just sat and watched it for four hours. Compelling. Compelling martial arts. Yeah. But so what I would always throw in there

to throw people off is one of my favorite fights scenes of all time from Eastern Promises, where he's butt-naked. Mud-naked and the sauna bathroom right now. Yeah. And everyone's like, what the hell's happening right now? He's, this is happening. That's one of my all-time favorite fight scenes. Because he's like

he was so vulnerable. Like, people get surprised when I say what my favorite fightsings are because it's not it's not what you expect yeah but to me it was just like I haven't never seen a fight scene where someone is more vulnerable than that like he's completely naked yeah it's a great fight you know you introduced me a lot of what makes a good fight a good fight you're the one who introduced me the fact that there's a story in a fight I know you learned that from somewhere might have been you and woping or something like that but you're not sure who you learned that from but you introduced me that fact that there's a story within a fight in fact I remember that matrix reloaded screening and I didn't understand what the hell I just watched

like um but the after that movie i'm glad i waited 12 hours in line to watch a movie i'm like i don't know what happened yeah yeah i don't know what that old guy said at the end but uh colonel and i didn't know what's going on but the but you were breaking down the fight with serif with a guy and and you were you were you tell i remember like having it like i'm the little kid amongst all these like older adults and you guys were talking about how each table that they hopped on had a different fight yes where it was like defense mode first fist and the second one being kicks and it's neo studying him and then the third one that's when neo starts fighting back yeah yeah i was like oh i never actually like drew those lines when it came to movies and i think

that was the first fight scene that i heard broken down in front of me just for your conversation that made me go oh there's stories to fights yeah and i never i always thought it was like just cool choreography like a lot of people do and a lot of times i think it's very subtle the story in a fight yeah and i think that's why i like furiosa more than the first mad max because I think there's more emotion to the fight scenes in that than even though the first one's like probably more solid film. I think Furios is like better. Well, two of my favorite fight scenes of all time is Flashpoint, the ending fight scene. If you haven't seen it, it's great.

The Donnie Yen one? The guy who plays Seraf is in it. Fantastic fight scene. It's like 15 minutes long, but every moment of it is great. And then the other one that's like a classic is Drunken Master 2. Or it's called The Legend of Drunken Master in the States because they dubbed the name. that whole ending fight scene is amazing. The guy was like,

he was like at one point of bodyguard for him. Yes, Ken Lowe. Ken Lowe. Yeah, yeah. He was at one point of bodyguard. But I think today it's interesting for me. I'm drawn more towards this sort of halfway point of less fancy and kind of realistic, but not brutal.

Like, kind of brutal, but not like so visceral that it's ugly, if that makes any sense. That's what I sought to do with love. Shameless plug. That's what I sought to do with, like, Love Punch Kill. And that's what I saw in, of all things, Squid Game. Did you watch Squid Game?

The ending, there's a fight scene in the last episode. I'm like, this is actually a really cool fight. Like, it seems like a real scuffle. Yeah. And I'm buying into it, you know? Because there are so many fights ins you watch where it's like, it's very fancy. And it just gets so flowery and unrealistic. And so I sort of disconnect from it a little bit.

Yeah. I can still appreciate like classic kung fu fight scenes and whatnot. You know, you bought me the Jackie Chan box set recently, and I watched Fearless Hyena. Oh, cool. Yeah, because, like, I was just admiring these long takes that you never see. But today I'm drawn towards, we got John Wick today, right? Yeah. That's super cool.

That's super cool. But it's like, sometimes it just goes on so long. I'm like, this is just exhausting to watch. And it doesn't, I have a disconnect. So I get excited by stuff that's sort of like halfway between this is visceral, but kind of fancy. And it feels like, it feels like they're trying to kill each other still. And then it's done as quickly as it can be. It is interesting thinking about the evolution of martial arts in,

American cinema, especially. Yeah. Because I don't really know it was there before Jackie Chan. It was kind of like half-ass shit. Like sometimes we're like a little cool. Like surf ninjas was all right. Like surfers was kind of cool.

But then there's like Jackie Chan and the Matrix came out and that kind of just started changing everything. Ninja turtles. Ninja turtles, yeah. It's goofy. Yeah. It was goofy but I think like fight scenes

weren't really like the thing. Like we had action stars back then but they were like mainly guns and stuff. We had we had Van Dam who doing Universal Soldier and blood support and kickboxer we had segal uh yeah they were known for like a cool move they would do yeah yeah uh there was a movie called perfect weapon uh and uh yeah ninja movies there was a lot of ninja films in the 80s american ninja god i don't remember yeah and then david caradine you know he had the kung fu series yes so there's billy jack dad loved that yeah i never i never finished it but yeah

there's a whole bunch of stuff but none of them quite made an impact like the matrix did when the Because, like, Jackie Chan fight scenes were special. There was, like, for a strike, all the films he was bringing from Hong Kong. But then when he did, but the Matrix came out, so not only everyone was like, we gotta do black leather and martial arts fight scenes. You know, that's what everyone's got. And every actor now has to learn martial arts for a few months and copy this. And then the real change started happening when the Bourne movies came out.

Yeah. And then they were like, let's call handheld, gritty, realistic. And it's like a complete swing because we started gaining, like, more Asian influences before that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon started and Jet Lee started introducing a little more fantastical martial arts. Yeah. And I think like having Matrix helped that out. But now I'm like, I don't really know what the defined fights style is in cinema.

It seems like there's more of a variety that they aim for. I do kind like I love the extraction fight scenes. That's Chris Hemsworth movies. Like I think those are awesome. Yeah. A lot of people are into the one take thing now. I hate that. You don't like them?

I don't like the one take thing. Oh, my God. I'm such a sucker for a one take. Oh, well, I'll tell you why I don't like it is because I can tell that it's artificial. If it feels-in cuts. Yeah. If I can be tricked into thinking that there's no cuts, I'm into it. Like I watched The Fall Guy, I couldn't see most of those cuts.

And I was like, this is amazing because it feels like one long take. The first one's a genuine long take. Yeah. The first opening scene. I love that movie. Yeah. And it's because I was tricked. I like being tricked.

I couldn't watch 1917 a second time without noticing the edits. The first time I was like, this is great. I mean, the shots are still freaking long. There's still super long shots, even if there is a hitting cut. Yeah, but once you notice the magic trick, it's sort of like, oh, there it is. And so with extraction, I think that they have amazing choreography and setups and stuff like that. But then it goes through the window of the car and I'm like, well, that is not real. Obviously not real.

Yeah. That's what bugs me. I don't feel like they try to hide it as much with extraction. That's what bothers me. I think they're letting you get kind of, I don't know, I get lost in the fantasy of it because the whole thing is like ridiculous. There's no way this one guy can just go from a prison ride to on a train with a machine gun. But I like the fantastic and the car chase and everything, the fantastical element. Yeah.

Yeah, there's not really a defined martial arts style now, the way how there was before. Like, I have no idea what it is now. Well, I think that today, it's kind of like with everything, there's just this broad variety that we have acclimated to. Yeah. Where we can sort of accept whatever it is. Like, you can have Shang Chi and you can have extraction, and you can be a fan of both. Yeah. You know, I think that's where we're at today, which is pretty cool.

I think the Shang-chi kind of fights are more of my favorites, though. Maybe because I just grew up with them, but they're my- I love it. I think it's great. Equally, though, I think that that first fight scene in Creed in the middle of the movie is one of the best fight scene. The one take. The one take. It's fantastic. Real one take, yeah.

Yeah, and I'm like, this is so cool. Like, I feel like I'm in the ring with him. That's what it's what a one or should be is I feel like I'm part of it. I think it started with the daredevil hallway fight. What everyone was like. Oh my God. What a great example. Yeah. That's when everyone was like, we got to do one takes. People love one takes. Yeah. It's so rare that I see some do better than that.

Yeah. That hallway fight scene is a landmark in cinema in terms of like, that is what you should aspire. And that's what confuses me when I see bad fights scenes from Marvel sometimes. I'm like, you guys had the hallway fight. Like, how do you mess this up? That's one of my all-time favorite fight scenes. Yeah, I think it's amazing.

So season one of Daredevil is one of the best things have ever been made. What's your honest opinion on the winter soldier fight scenes? When I first watched it, I was distracted by the camera work and the editing. And it made me, it turned me off. and years later I revisited Winter Soldier and I'm like oh I was stupid like that was amazing I don't know I think I was just so distracted by the style

and I wasn't ready for it but now when I watch it I'm like oh this is actually really really good and it's wild because so many of these these people who make these fight scenes are my friends oh yeah yeah that certainly you know a good amount of people yeah yeah like the person who doubled Winter Soldier was a buddy of mine I used to flip with so anyway yeah I like the fight scene quite a bit

God I remember the knife fight well But I remember people flipping out over the fight scenes of that movie and being like I was in love with it is everyone else Have you watched it recently?

No, I haven't I'm generally not in love with that movie as much as everyone else's Watch it again I think that you'll have a different opinion today I hope so

I've seen it like three times And every time I'm like Why don't I love this the way everyone else in the world loves this movie? I mean I get you I've had the same experience

with something like 300 where you and I kind of had the same feeling I mean maybe your feelings different today? I don't remember that movie. I wanted to react to it because I'm like, I don't remember that well. Well, when you and I watched it, we had a similar attitude of like, it's all right. That might have been the last movie I saw with Dad in the theaters. Really? Yeah, we went to IMAX. That might have been the last movie now to think about it.

Wow. I can't remember the last film I saw with him in theaters. But yeah, 300, like, I watched it again. I'm like, oh, okay, it's better than I remember. It's definitely better than I remember. But I just remember, like, being more turned off by it at the time because everyone loved it so much. Right. You know what I mean? that feeling of like, no, it's even worse now in my mind because you guys are so happy about it. Yeah, yeah. But yeah. So, yeah, I think that we've reached a really cool place where we can enjoy a lot of things, like musically, cinematically, story-wise, everything.

Well, there's so much content now. Exactly. So much. Yeah. But like this podcast, adding on to the content machine, do you get why it's called Real Reject's Diaries now? Yes. No.

You know, you don't? Does it make sense? Does it make sense to you, John? It makes sense. It makes sense. It makes sense. I get it. Come on. I get it. I don't know how to articulate why it's called Real Reject's Diaries. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how to do that. You are still clear of five minutes. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, we got to get out of here. All right. So what needs to improve. You know what I should do next time?

I should probably come with like speed round questions, right? Like a good, like a solid, like every time someone's here. I got like these like speed round ending off questions. I think it's good to have just questions ready at the hip in general to fire off. for those moments where you start to feel it weighing just a little bit. I felt it very early on. Yeah. I was like, shit. I need to end this now. No, pilot, pilot.

Yeah, I think having questions at the ready is great. Yeah. Just because I think people really enjoy those kind of like hot ones where he always asks like, oh, from your Instagram. And it's like you kind of know the formula, but that familiarity is what makes you enjoy it. People like it because he researches and stuff. Yes. That's not my side.

research and react to things what am I real quick one of my favorite memories off of that is like I interviewed Dustin Daniel Creton and one of my things is can I get a reaction out of a celebrity because they get asked so many questions all day long and it's always the same questions and so leading up

so in my first question to him was like so you did this movie here and this movie here and this movie I just got to ask is everything okay with Destin he laughed I'm like yes I did it yeah anyway okay wait there's a random thing to end on isn't no here's a more random thing there's one story i wanted to bring oh my god i don't know why i didn't think of you

have three minutes told this story so many times on like live streams um the story about there is a specific story with mom about going to the theaters i can't believe i didn't think about this okay let's hear it woke up one sunday and we i went to watch because i loved r-rated movies like the movies i watched all the time repeat were the crow and scream like i watch it every sunday i remember that yeah i was obsessed with those two movies and woke up one Sunday, saw an image of 28 days later. And I was like, oh, Mom, you want to go watch 28 days later? I had no idea, like, what the movie was.

So we go to watch 28 days later. It is packed. Mom has to have her popcorn. I go in the theater. It's not reserved seating. So I just find some random seat, like isolated one off seat. Mom enters the theater exactly when Killian Murphy's penis is on screen. And all I see are her two eyes through the glasses holding two buckets of popcorn standing

in the front of the theater in a jam pack house scanning for me. And she can't find me. So she just sits like in some random row with two buckets of popcorn. And that's what she took her like 10 year old Sunday to go watch. Well, you guys didn't know. Yeah, we didn't know. We didn't know it was going to happen. But yeah, I don't know why I didn't think about that story.

But yeah. But no, I wanted you me my first guest because I felt like this would kind of drive home the point of why I wanted to. to do this podcast because I think there's so many great memories associated with movie going experiences. Honestly, I feel like we could probably talk for like hours more about like I think so too. Yeah. Stuff literally kept popping in my brain and I was like I don't know if we have time for that. I don't know if we were talking. I'm like I don't know if I had time for that. I don't know if it's you know. So there's like there's we keep going forever. But thank you for being the first guest

for this funky pilot. Even though it's funky, I'm honored to be your first guest for this. I'm really happy that we got to do it. I hope it gets some views. Because views are account. Otherwise, what's the point? And John, thanks for setting up everything. And thanks to multi-house as well. And hey, maybe I should insert this at the beginning, because I forgot to say it. We're actually in this at the preserve. The largest, what's my script here? The largest urban jungle in L.A. With 65 million trees. 65 million, 65 for the days. I got to clarify, 6,500 plants and trees. I might plant one myself. And it's a great place to shoot. And thanks to multi-house. Yeah. Yeah, natural. Just naturally throw that in there in the beginning and keep it

here at the end. Full circle, baby. Tarantino did this. All right. Thank you, Anthony Alba, Jabby Kouye, Sinadessi, Sinna Pals. Choose a name. I'm sick. Oh, my God. See you guys. Thank you.