The Rewatchables - 'The Equalizer' With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Bill's Dad

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

The Ringer's Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan and Bill's dad revisit the 2014 action-thriller ‘The Equalizer,' starring Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, and Chloë Grace Moretz. Hosts: Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Bill's dad Producers: Isaiah Blakely and Jesse Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. the rewatchables is brought to by the ringer podcast network where you can find you still cranking out the watch yeah twice a week man CR cranking out the watch yeah you fucking flip ahead did the boston santa gravel guy this early and uh my dad doesn't have a podcast in fact

this is only your second rewatchables ever i keep asking for one you tell me it's the blue plate special yeah it would have been good i'm okay with it he's got a lot of mac jones thoughts but you'll never hear them you are going to hear his thoughts and the equalizer, the first one. Yeah. We could have done equalizer, we could have done a double feature and just really done it,

but we're going to do the equalizer that is next. Yo, pop, best you do have to push no dollies at your old job, did you? Guilty is charged. When you do a refund from you when you're done, open the register up right now. Move. Give me that ring.

No, it was my mother. Please. It's okay, Jenny. What's you doing about? It is about a guy who's a night and shining armor except he lives in a world where knights don't exist anymore.

My reign. I think you can be anything you want to be. Change your world. I promise I would never go back to being that person. When somebody does something unspeakable, the son you hardly knew, you do something about it. All right, CR.

The only other time my dad did a podcast with us, we did Shawshank for my 50th birthday. So I don't think the stakes are as high here. But the movie's just as long, though. It really is. My dad was the first person. in my life who absolutely loved the Equalizer. I saw it.

I was like, all right. Another Denzel was in this whole action movie boom. And then it was on cable. And the real secret sauce to this movie is you just have to throw away the first 20 minutes and then go. And then it just goes and goes. But this movie, you and I knew each other when this movie came out. I don't think we saw in the theater together. But what happened with this movie?

Yeah, a lot of his Clint Eastwood movies, like his vigilante movies or his action movies. So Man on Fire, Rickishish. two guns, safe house equalizers, even that Magnificent Seven remake. Yeah. You know, maybe the first time you see them, you're like, it's not training day. Yeah.

It was pretty cool. And then they get into that second life, whether it's on cable, whether it's on streaming. And you're like, you know what? I'm going to watch Denzel kill some guys for about 40 minutes. And then we can go to dinner. Well, the day this came out,

I went to see it in the movie theater. There weren't too many of us in the theater. And it was a classic. I can't believe. that you didn't right away jump in. Yeah, there was a lot of action movies. This was a real action movie boom. I think it got cut up a little in that.

My dad was the one once upon a time who coined the phrase five o'clocker. Do you want to explain the concept of the five o'clocker? Well, this was not a five o'clocker. What is this like a six-thirty? This is a 7.30 at night. Oh, you're saying this is 7.30 one. It's a primetime movie.

Oh, this is dinner and a movie. At AMC, it is. Five o'clocker is the movie that you and I would go to when we knew that it wasn't going to be great. Yeah. A lot of people might be killed. There'd be a lot of action. Probably some naked women in it.

And it would get terrible reviews. And we'd walk out of the theater and say, yeah, that was worth six bucks at five o'clock at night. But you would even, he would drive home when he was superintendent. And sometimes if he thought there was going to be traffic, he would be looking at the movie schedule. So it would be like there would be like a 4.45 of some terrible movie. Well, it wasn't just that.

I always had a 7.30 meeting at night. So instead of driving home, I'd find a 5 o'clocker in Brockton, the next town over. And hopefully it had all those things that I just described. And that was kind of his rating system. He's like, no, it's better than a 5 o'clock. So this is a better than a 5 o'clock. Yeah, then I'd be all psyched to go do battle in those meetings. What's the platonic ideal of a 5 o'clocker?

Give me like, is it tango and cash? No, but I mean, you're in the vicinity of the. actors. Okay. I think, like John Wick is too good. No, John Wick is too good.

I would say like taken two. Sure. Not taken one. Yeah. But taken two, I think is a five o'clock. It could have been that Sylvester Stallone movie

where he was doing the arm wrestling. Oh, over the top. That's going way back. Yeah. I mean, movies like that. Or I would say the gambler with Mark Wahlberg.

I know you love that movie. I'd say that's a five o'clocker. That's an opening night of con film festival. That's a five o'clock. Can we talk about vigilante movies? I know it's a passion project for you. Well, I grew up with them. In the 70s, we had Billy Jack, we had Dirty Harry, Walking Tall, Foxy Brown,

which I wasn't allowed to see in the theater. Death Wish was the most famous one. And then one of my dad's Alzheimer's is Josie Wales. Oh, it's a top. It's a Western, but I accounted as a vigilante movie. Top five ever. So we had this amazing run, and then it kind of dies. But then it comes back.

with the Equalizer on TV, a show that I never watched. Did you watch Equalizer? I mean, you were not opposed to CBS programming. What night was that on? Was that on after 16 minutes? It's one of the things that was kind of happening over here. And I never knew what was going on.

But then he would get nominated for the Emmy every year. Edward Woodward, he got nominated four times. Yeah, I would just, like, I remember I would always be like walking through the room and it's like, after 60 minutes, the Equalizer. And he would just be like, what is this? It's like an old guy who solves crime. Well, it's ironic that now they have the new Equalizer after 60 minutes. Yeah, that's right.

With Green Latifah and don't think my dad doesn't have a season pass for that one. It might be part of my Sunday night watching. Yeah, I never watched the Equalizer. Never really knew what it was about. So then when Denzel decides he's going to remake this, it's coming on the hail. It's like, man, on fire, 04. Then we have this whole vigilante thing going on in 08 with Taken, the first one, Grand Torino,

and I'm going to throw in Inglorious bastards in there too. As a vigilante movie? Well, it's semi. It's a World War II vigilantes. Then 14, we have John Wick and the Equalizer. John Wick, vigilante movie, basically. I think that that's what they, like, they had smaller ambitions for John Wick at first.

I think it's just like, yeah, he's got to revenge it. I don't think they realize what they stumbled into. That was another one where you texted me. It was like, did you see John Wick? I think I went to the movie theater, immediately texted you. I'm not sure you even knew it was out yet. And now, of course, all four of them are on excellent.

iconic. Top of the list. iconic, yeah. We had a few people, because we were doing a great one that year. I remember Mark Lassanti was another one who was, and I was, I think I was super busy. I think basketball was going on. It was like during that when we were like really, really busy in 14. And Mark Lassanti who never said things like this was like, I can't believe you haven't seen John Wick yet.

They literally made that movie for you. And I'm like, all right, all right. And then I went, and it was great. And then we had the accountant in 16 and then WIC 2 in 17. But what is it about these movies? Why do we never get tired of them? The guy just taking something personally and then wreaking havoc. Well, retribution.

Somebody has to pay. All the Westerns you love is built on this, right? I don't know. When can I take part in the rewatchable on? Josie Wells. Yeah. That's not really on. You should have been in the Unforgiven one because that's like in your top

seven or eight. But yeah, I'm Forgiven was kind of the level. I think Josie Wells is better for me than... That I'm Forgiven? Where do you stand on Josie Will? I love Josie Will. Yeah. I love that.

I love Pale Rider. Wesley wrote about the Equalizer. An Obama era black exploitation picture in one sense, a polished globalist reasoned defense of a small brownish community from Poshwet invaders. That was his review for Grantland. He loved this movie. He called it Denzel Porn, which I think is a great way to put it.

It's just Denzel playing the hits. Yeah, and I think I would say with the retribution movies, Josie Wales is like this. And I think equalizers like this, it's always ramped up when the vigilante has to do what law enforcement refuses to do or is complicit in. Right. So like in Equalizer, Boston is basically being run by these dirty cops. Yeah. And he has...

And the Russians. And the Russians and the Irish. You know, and then so he has to basically circumvent law enforcement for justice. And he does it with his very specific moral code of not using guns and giving people a chance, giving people the choice. But usually they choose wrong. And a lot of these movies have that one specific bad guy like Teddy. Yeah. Yeah.

And you grow to hate Teddy in the movie. Yeah, he's got to have the one scene where it's like, whoa. you went a little too far there. Yeah. And in this scene, it's when Teddy punches the guy from Boston, Santa Gravel a hundred and forty five times in a row. He wins.

That was a 10-7 round for Teddy. What's your favorite of all of these? What's your favorite vigilante movie ever? I mean, I think that the WIC series is probably my favorite, if I had to say. God, that first taken really was awesome.

I think Taken is the best executed. I mean, I like a lot of the 70s stuff. It's just like 98 minutes. It's, you know, it's just, all right, I'm on the phone. My daughter, someone's in the hat. And then it's like, put the phone down, lie into the bed. And then we're just off.

And he's just killing people. Yeah, I would probably say that the more recent ones, even though I like watching Dirty Harry and Death Wish and stuff like that, the more recent ones are like easier to watch in a lot of ways. Yeah, Death Wish, which I also like Death Wish too, even though it's got a brutal beginning. It's really like one of the most brutal movies, I think, or movie scenes that's been filmed. But I always did like. Bronson when he just kind of unravels in the original death wish and he's just going out

who had the gun waiting for somebody to look we had this happen in New York City was late 80s when that we had that vigilante who was just going on the suburb Bernard Gates yeah yeah yeah and that was like the real-life version of this and people I almost feel like that's why they stopped making the movies yeah I think they got like I think a lot of the social social politics of the original vigilante movies from the late 70s and early 80s pretty pretty screwed up So then you get, you just have to find yourself the right foil. And there is no better foil in the Russian mob. Well, I also liked how that Death Wish led to a movie I was like Jody Foster playing kind of the same role.

Do you remember that? Which one? She was like a vigilante. And I can't remember the name of the movie. Are you sure was Jody Foster? Yeah, Jody Foster. I don't remember that one. Not Panic Room?

No, not Panic Room. But I'll come up. Every once in a while they try to do it with like what was the one. Jennifer Lopez, she had enough where she takes revenge on her husband. Jennifer Garner had peppermint, which she was, it's actually a pretty good movie. I just, you can't take Jennifer Garner seriously in it. That's a classic five o'clocker. Yeah.

Peppermint. That's right. That really is the standard. Yes. Because that's not a good movie. But it's totally watchable. It's a good movie at five o'clock. Yeah.

Yeah. late career denzel so we go from oh nine to 16 here this is just in a row uh-huh taking of pelham one two three book of eli unstoppable safe house flight two guns de equalizer magnificence and seven there are no rom-coms in there chris ryan there are not is he you know i was trying to think about unless you think is flight a rom-com i don't know i haven't seen it in a while i think that there's some romance with Kelly Riley. I think the thing that's incredible about him is that he basically has De Niro's career and Eastwood's career in the same career where he has six or seven iconic,

will be remembered for the rest of movie history performances, maybe more. And then he also has 10 or 11 awesome action movies where he is usually playing somebody who's defending like the week and defending the people who can't. defend themselves he's i don't know what the mount rushmore is but he's i feel like he has to be on it yeah he's on action guys right he has to be but you wouldn't have thought that when he's was career first time that's the thing is he's got like 20 years of being in mobetta blues and like you know dramatic films and or whatever Philadelphia we don't live in this courtroom now do we yeah and then even like when he would do genre stuff it would be more like pelican brie for the

siege and then later in life he becomes essentially like discontalcitrae kind of like late middle age action star, which I guess is what happened to Liam Nesem too. It seemed like something that... Well, when they put Safe House up on, I think, Netflix this summer, it shot to number one. Yeah. And it's not a new movie, obviously.

Safe House is pretty good. Very good. Yeah, worth we watching. Who do you have? Do you have Denzel and, like, your Rushmore? Oh, definitely. Clint's got to be in there. Clint, Liam.

Oh, Liam's made it. Liam, sure. There's another Liam movie that's coming out of August. Oh, yeah. that. Yeah. It's out today. He's got a self-controling car that he can't drive.

They're trapped in the car. I think that's the plot. Yeah. I'm not sure. He's not a lift driver, but they're in a car together. He's in a car with his family and it's basically like speed. If you stop driving, it'll explode. Oh, he just had that movie where he was.

That sounds like a five-a-car car car car. And the icing. Yeah. Oh, he's in that. Yeah. What's that movie called? Where he's in like Alaska? Yes.

Yep. That was good. I actually think the gray is better than a 5 o'clocker. Oh, the gray's actually pretty good. Yeah, I think that's like a good movie. That might actually be like a 7 o'clocker. I actually just rewatch that recently. Yeah, it's good. Grillo is really good in that.

Yeah, he is. I think that's the best Grillo. But the other guy you ever mentioned, Canna Reeves. Yeah. I mean, he was never an action movie kind of guy. He was in lots of other... Until until speedpoint break, yeah. Yeah.

You know, John Wick 4. I've seen it twice already. It's a classic. I'm saving it. We could be doing Wick 4 right now. The plot of this movie, retired U.S. Marine turned former DIA spy, reluctantly returns to action to protect the teenage prostitute from the Russian mafia. Just an unassailable sentence. You know what's great with these is the reluctantly.

Yeah. It's always a big one. Not that reluctant either, though. He's really not. He's kind of itching to. He's like, we got to go through the proper channels, report this to law enforcement. Yeah.

You know. Even when Melissa, when he goes to see Melissa Leo's character and she's like, what are you doing? Watch this happen. He's like, you know, sometimes you're sitting there in a diner.

Takes something personally and shit happens. Except Melissa said, don't you want to be the man that your dead wife wanted you to be? Yeah. Always good. There's always the dead wife. They had to throw Vivian in there, the dead wife.

You never want to be the wife in a, in a, vengeance movie. I want to know when Vivian was in his life, though. Right, because it sounds like he did some pretty dark stuff for the decades previous before that. And then he

probably a marriage with some secrets. Everybody thought he was dead. Was he dead because he went to live with Vivian? Yeah. He's dead because he moved to East Boston. Nobody else said to get there. I can't wait to talk about East Boston. I think that's all might be my favorite actor.

I kind of realized that as I was watching, the Equalazzer again, I was trying to do the Desert Island test of my head, which was usually Cruz. If you just, I'm on a desert island. I want this person's filmography. I can only have one actor. Yeah. Right. That's it. I can only take one actor. I get all there, I have a Blu-ray player and Blu-rays, and that's it. But I just get one actor, who would I want? I think he might be the favorite in the clubhouse. I'd really have to go through it. I always thought it was Cruz or Stallone, but I've seen the Stallone movies so many times. I'm kind of tired of them. I think I think that's how it's catalog.

I think being on a desert island with the Stallone filmography would get tough. Pretty tires. 20 years ago, Stallone would have been in my hands. Doesn't it depend on the era you're thinking about? In the late 70s, Stallone, you idolize Stallone.

Yeah. But, I mean, it's 30 years later. Late 90s. I would go with Balcovic. Who would you pick, though? Denzel is a really good one for entertainment, but I do think that,

especially in this later period, it's like, it's pretty monochromatic. Like you said, like, there's like fences like that, you know, he's got some performances in there. But like, for the most part, he's been making these kinds of movies for the last few years. I mean, we've done it. I don't know what the number is, but we've done at least 10 Denzel movies now, right? And we still have some more to go. Yeah.

And there's some meat on the bone. Yeah. I would go with that. I think I would probably go with like, I might go with De Niro just because of like the. De Niro. Oh, then you get. Do you get Godfather, too, but you don't get one? Yeah, but I get Heat.

I get Goodfellas. I get Casino. So Pacino would be another good one for this. Yeah, I get Heed. Yeah, I get Rohnen. So Pacino, I get all three Godfathers and Heat. Right. It's tough.

It's a tough one. If you do West's Duty, you get Last the Mohicans and Heat, you know. You kind of have to do it almost by decade. No, but that's part of the game is the guys got to have a big enough filmography. It's not like who do you think is the best, and it's not. Who do you think is the biggest star? It's just like, whose filmography would you like to be? I wish fantasy was here because his answer would infuriate me.

He'd be like, I just want John Cazale, just five classics. That's it. I don't need any more than that. Yeah, it's a good clip. Anyway, Denzel's in the conversation for me. Cruz has a pretty good library too because you get all the Mission Impossible's. You get all the 80s stuff. You get the two top guns, risky business.

He'd be like Marcello and Mostraiani. you get eyes shut just watch that over and over again going what the fuck happened in this movie um all right so east boston is a hideout location you want to do this now yeah i mean we can do it because i want you to i think you need to tell

the non-boston audience about east boston and like the the relationship to the larger city you want to do this why don't you take this since you're our special guest try to explain east boston people know southy right they know charleston well east boston

Justin faces the airport. Okay. And nobody knows how to get there. Nobody knows how to drive there. You can take the train because of the blue line on the way to the airport stops at a stop called Maverick. And Maverick not only has a train stop, but in the movie, that's the bus he took. Okay. It's had the Maverick on the bus.

But it was always the last 20 years, Hispanic neighborhood. And the rest, my wife actually worked temporarily at a health center there because she spoke Spanish and Portuguese. And that's who lived there. Well, the last 10 years, the developers have come in and they're gentrifying the neighborhood. And three-deckers are being torn down or converted to condos. And it's that strange neighborhood. Again, nobody knows how to get there. The prices have escalated greatly.

and it's now considered a hip area. Okay. Hip restaurants going in. But here's the problem. One of the reasons it's hip is because nobody can get there. Because it was an equalizer. Because especially now, like the tunnel's been closed all summer. So the way to get there is the same way to go to the airport basically, right?

Unless you want to take the train. I don't know how to drive there and I've lived in Boston my whole life. You never want to do with airport traffic ever, right? Right. So if you're on, East Boston, that's why this was like, live. literally the perfect place for Denzel's character to hide out. Nobody is ever going to East Boston for any reason unless they kind of have to go out of the way to get there.

I lived in Charlestown, which you can see in the movie across the water. Yeah. And I could see East Boston. And I don't think I went to East Boston once because it would have taken forever to get there unless I took the blue line. Did you ever eat at Centaurioles? Twice. I never loved the bottom.

Yeah. Like it had that. That's the one famous restaurant. They have a pizza restaurant. Which you can see when you go to the airport. But it's so tucked away. I don't like New York doesn't have an East Boston. I mean,

East New York in New York is very difficult to get to. Yeah. But it's cool. It's almost that they had like like fairy stuff, like what Brooklyn has and just easier ways to go back and forth. I do feel like more people would have lived there initially. Maybe that's going to happen now. One of the things I liked about how the movie depicted East Boston. It reminded me of the scenes in Goodwill Hunting.

Yeah. The same kind of three-deckers. I mean, it is true Boston. And you do get really good water views. It's one of those things. I never knew one person that lived there. It's such a real estate feed. Water views are great.

I never knew one person that lived there. I never went there for any reason. I only went to St. Tarpios twice, but it was close. But it was just like, it was just the East Boston people were there. And it was really hard to get to. and it was kind of jealous of them. There's any other part of Boston, you could just do whatever. It was a closed-knit, very closed-knit neighborhood.

But again, the developers have gone in there, and that's changing. So for Equalizer and Equalizer, too, it actually makes sense that it's like, what's going on in this place where there's just this diners open all night and nobody's walking around? And it's like, yeah, that's actually what he's Boston's like. It's like a highly stylized version of a real neighborhood. It does feel very authentic to, like, to a city.

I had it later in picking it. I'm not positive the diner would be open all night, really anywhere in Boston. There were a couple open all night. There are. All nighters? Yeah. In East Boston, though?

Well, I don't know East Boston. He doesn't even drive there. It's like Charlestown would close down on like 1 o'clock or 1.30. Well, it's also unclear, though, what time he went there. It could have been... It could have been like 2 in the morning. Yeah, good one. Yeah, there were diners that were open pretty long.

late in Boston. Deli house is open pretty late, wasn't it? They gave the perception that that one was just 24 hours and that guy behind the counter was just happy to hang out by himself, waited and make somebody at grilled cheese at 3.48 in the morning. Are you prostitutes coming in? It wasn't clear though whether that was two in the morning or like six in the morning when he went to that diner. Four in the morning.

Because he couldn't sleep. Directed by Antoine Fuku. Who becomes Denzel's kind of his muse. His Don Siegel, yeah. Well, it was initially he had Tony's Scott for a little bit there. Wade Spike first. Goes into the Tony Scott realm.

Then was with Antoine. 60 million dollar budget. Seems high. I think that's for Denzel. Yeah. You think Denzel's like half of that. Made $173 million. Spawned two sequels.

It's the only trilogy he's ever done. Sadly, no Roger Ebert. Because I think he was either close to dying or passed away when this movie came out. We did have Wesley Morris, so the Grantland. writing, it barely matters where you stand on Washington as a star to recognize that this absurd, grisly, relentless, subversively feel-goodish entertainment amounts to one thing. Denzel pornography. The multiple endings are multi-orgasmic.

You might not be able to arrive at an intelligible definition, but you know it when you see it. When you see McCall doing one of those calm walkaways from a massive explosion, you know you're seeing Denzel porn. This is a man so cool, he takes a city bus to the film's first finale. needs to say Wesley liked it. He didn't do stars, but I would have said at least three stars. Probably, yeah. All right, we're going to take a break and come back to rewatchable scenes.

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None of the diner scenes got you? In fact, I was going to say, with an old man in the sea? The pee break is to drink a ton of water an hour before. you start the movie and then just pee the entire first 30 minutes so i look this up it's really you can come in at 19 minutes okay he's walking he's he's he's left a diner with chloe what's her name race marats yeah the hooker yeah and they're walking and then that's when the car pulls up yeah it's about 19 minutes you're really good to start there they could have just had the opening credits and then just them walking sure and we would have been good it's funny i and i enjoyed the 20 minutes.

Your dad wants the no violence cut of the vehicleizer. You love the dialogue. More Home Depot. It set the scene for me. Set the stage. Denzel goes to see the Russians

I have as the first rewatchable scene. $9,800 for freedom. I didn't you arrive at $9,800. I don't know. So what he had in the bank? Because I was under the impression that he's got some early version of crypto that he's just got millions of dollars.

Yeah, because he's like an ex-D. CIA guy. But it seems like maybe he's emptied his bank account to like, he's like, this is how much I have, you know? See, I thought he had money all over the place. I had two apartments. Yeah. It's true. Stash and stuff left and right.

Great water views in that second. Good electricity, good water views. Great phones. A quarter suite. Yeah. I mean, but it was unclear why that was the figure. Maybe he spent all his money on hidden cameras. Yeah, that's true.

It was initially 10,000, but he is... This is good because, you know, Slavi, the Russian gangster, who I kind of wish had a little bit more runway in this movie. Yeah. He does the sort of, the Russian villain, he runs the, he gets the triple crown. He does, you fucking Americans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to have a Russian villain say that.

He tells the threat that then he says is a joke. He's like, I'm just fucking with you. Right. And then he's like, you've got very big balls. man, I like you. Like, why do, why do the gangsters always say, like, I like you? You missed the last piece of that. Who are you?

Yeah. Well, he's dying. You have to have the Who Are You, right? Well, he's not the only one in the movie who asked, who are you. Yeah. Who the fuck are you later. I can give you $9,800. It's cash.

You're wanting to give me $9,000. $9,800. For what? Freedom. Uh-huh. This guy gonna give me $9,000 for one single piece of pussy. Must be Ferrari pussy. Fucking Americans think that you can come into my place of business and just buy whatever you want.

Beautiful Russian girls, no problem. Just throw down this bullshit money. You fucking insult me. So I think this scene is really brilliant. I do too. Like from a rewatchable standpoint, flicking channels, if I know this scene's coming, I'm staying. Yeah. Because I went the way they have film it where he's like, all right, that guy's got a corkscrew.

I can see the knife over there. This guy's got a gun. This guy's got a gun. There's a glass over there. He has the clock. Right. And then he's got his OCD stopwatch thing going. When he locks the door from the inside, you're like, it is fucking on.

Now you guys can't go anywhere. Right before he locks the door, I remember he shuts it three times. He has to do the OCD thing. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel like they just immediately shoot him when he locks the door. door, but that's fine. Yeah, I mean, we can get into that and picking it.

There's a lot of opportunities for those guys to get the call. Except we just had to kill a guy. I don't think they were afraid. There were so many of them. Yeah. And they certainly didn't know why he was locking the door. Yeah. Well, so he turns like all those things on the desk toward the different villains.

They're probably a red flag. I love that part. It's just it's just an elite six minutes for an action movie. Like elite, top of the line. Yeah. If you only had 10 minutes and you only could watch 10 minutes of the movie, those are the 10 minutes. Oh, that's a good call.

If you only had 10 minutes. That's a good award. It is one of those. They do a good job of editing it to not make you go, wait, why didn't one of the six guys just hit him from behind as he was stabbing the other guy? But the way they cut it, it makes sense. Yeah, they have like, there's a little post-limitless element to this

where it's just like this guy. guy's brain is a supercomputer and you're going into his POV and he can see all the angles and time everything. Well, he could see all the angles is a good way of putting it. Yeah. I have next the Boston Sand Massacre. I thought that scene was a little bit overdone. That scene is American classic, honestly.

I should have counted. See, I'm slipping. Four years ago, I would have thought of this. I should have counted how many times he punched the guy in the face. It's got to be like 27. Yeah. And when David Harbor is just like, oh, shit. That's always good when one of the other bad guys is like, Jesus.

There's a horrified even for the bad guys. And then Teddy says, it's a message that says, I'm here. I also love the Boston Sand guy who mouths off to them. Yeah, he's going to come up in later categories. That guy's elite. Well, the Boston Sand Place right near where you used to live in Charleston. Yeah. Drop by it every day.

Walk by it recently, actually. Is it still there? Yeah. Still pumping out sand. Definitely. So, Craig, get out the sand. It's still got sand and gravel. Sand, gravel and cement.

Yeah. Shout to those guys. Hope they're listening. Hey, officers, I'd like to report a crime with the blue light. And those guys come out of his row office thing. That seems great. The cops. Yeah, the cops.

Yeah, you must have a death wish, pal. What the fuck do you want? Huh? Huh? Those people you took the money from, maybe you should give it back. Why will we do that? That would be the best interest of everyone involved. Really?

Yeah. Well, maybe our best interest is to tie a cinder block around your waist and throw you in the fucking mystic. Huh? Let's do that. It's a good idea. He holds a stand for something. Punk. Protect and serve.

uphold the law. Justice. Remember. I actually, as much as I like the Russian mob, McCall versus like the Boston the crooked Boston PD would have been awesome. If it was just like him making his way through all the bosses of the Boston, and then he finally gets...

That could have been Equalizer, two and a half. Yeah. Yeah. I really like that scene. I like when they go return the money, and it was like, that almost hurt more than the beating. Yeah. Next one, Teddy goes to see Denzel and pretends he's a cop.

We all know what's really going on. I like those. Even then? When you got a guy with a foreign accent going, hey. Yeah. Hey. Aren't you going to leave me your card? Yeah.

He said, I must have given them all out. Next one I had was Denzel Diner Murder. Yeah. Blocked by the Boston Herald truck. One of the most Boston scenes in the movie. Yeah. The guy comes in and asks, what does he ask for, like, an egg and cheese? He's like, no cheese.

No cheese. Yeah, no cheese. And that's the guy from the Anaconda sequel and Tears the Sun. He's a Fuku guy. He's like a really good, like, kind of Johnny Messner. He's like kind of a Scott Atkins type dude. This is the second part of the movie where you're just like, why didn't they just shoot him right there in the street?

Yes. Witnesses? For some reason, Teddy is worried about witnesses. He, like, nearly caved in little John's head in front of, like, nine guys. Plus, it was like four in the morning. I'm not sure how many witnesses were out there. East Boston and four of the morning. It's the Russian mob.

Kill the witnesses. What are we talking about? Just kill everyone. Remember, he wanted him taken alive. Oh, right. He wanted to find out who he was. He wanted to find out who he worked for. That's a good call.

Yeah. next one Denzel's foster child story to Nicolai I loved it you know and we'll talk about a little bit with the research but

I think when Denzel's making an action movie I think he puts in the request of like just give me like two speeches just let me cook twice because in this movie he gets to cook in that scene and then with the when he goes to visit Melissa Leo and I think that's his only request

he's like just make me look cool just watch the money to my account. I want it all. I had no installments, just everything all at once. It can be two speeches and we're good? Well, can we assume that when he, that Melissa Delio gave him the background on Teddy? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, because she gets off the helicopter and she's like, here's the deal. Like they're Russian, their Russian mob. Well, and that we're assuming all, I'm assuming that the story about the 12-year-old kid is about Teddy. Yeah. And that was all in the information she gave him. They find out. And he's like, it starts out and you're like, is this like a fair? or something and then it's like, oh, this is Teddy's story.

It's Teddy story. Is this your most watch movie of the last 10 years? Or is it John Wick 2? This one. Yeah, because John Wick... It's wise here. John Wick has been out long enough for me to keep watching it. Johnwick 1 was, but you've seen this more than John Wick 1.

Probably. John Wick 2 is... I watched it at 8 o'clock this morning. And then when... The last one is the Home Depot Massacre even though it's not the Home Depot. It's what's it called? It's like the Boston.

Home Mart. It's like Home Mart. Home Mart. Yeah. We can call it Home Depot. We all do respect to Home Depot. I don't know what Home Depot was thinking, not being like, no, cool, use Home Depot.

I think it would be probably like if it just took place in Home Depot, but the fact that Robert is using his expertise of Home Depot to like, you know, creatively kill people. You think they had a call? You think they talked to like the CMO of Home Depot? I'm like, hey, man, you don't understand. It's Denzel. I would have loved to have been in the room when Home Depot is weighing the pros and cons of this.

Well, all the color. It's essentially free advertising and at Denzel Washington. It's like, wait, how many people die? We may get a bunch of psychopaths coming to our store looking for different ways to kill people. They were the Home Depot colors. I mean. Yeah, the orange, right? The CMO is like, what if only like four people?

die. None of any need 11. We got a pass. Well, I love that Denzel knew where everything was in the store. I know we're not there yet, the final scene, but he knew where every killing weapon. That was a real home field advantage kind of thing. I mean, do we just lump this all together as one scene, or would you split that? The Home Depot fight?

Yeah. See, I, yeah. I mean, I think the Home Depot fight is its own sequence scene. I also have the Kid Cutty Pursuit a Happiness Award for Best Needle Drop for the Die alone song. Oh, vengeance. Yeah.

I'm gonna die alone. So I actually have... Very Michael Manish. It's very... And then they use New Dawn Fades the Moby song that was in heat. They use that as like the right

before the credit song before M&M kicks in. I would say though, a dark horse for rewatchable scene is when Robert makes the cop take down the warehouse with him.

Pulls the gun out of the guy's hand and puts it in his face. Like, Whenever you have a gun pointed at you and puts it in his balls. Yeah. Hold the gun out of the guy's hand, point it back at him

and then point it at his balls and then distribute dirty money to all the people working at the warehouse. I should have had that in. Mr. Pushkin, thanks you very much. Yeah. That was good. And Harbor is just like

the fuel restrictor plate is off for Harbor in that scene. I thought that was... You're fucking nuts! There was one other little scene before that, though, that I thought was classic when he was cleaning off the hammer, Oh, yeah.

As he was walking down the aisle. Yeah. And we know we, in our mind, we know what happened. I also really enjoy as far as we watchable scenes that Robert sticks the hose and masters his car. Yeah. It keeps rolling up and down the window. Yeah. I do feel like Robert at some point is getting a little choked up from the exhaust.

Like that it's just, no way, he's not breathing exhausted. But he kept going outside. Remember he said I'll be right back. So the Home Depot massacre has, we have an incredible drill kill. we have the nail gun for the final weapon and a really good wrestling fight with the big bearded guy yeah and one of those guys is Bill Zarian right

who's that Dan Bill Zarian the oh yeah one of the guys in the crew there I think is him I thought you were saying his name was Bill no Zarian I was like what actor is that I don't know that actor

all right what do you have for most rewatchable I got to admit it's still when he goes to see Slavi and the first time we get the like he's taken down the entire crew there. That's my favorite as well. That's my most rewatchable yeah. What's age

the best? We already mentioned any action movie when someone says, who the fuck are you? Or who are you? I always love that. As they're dying. The ending of this movie was just so clearly we're not done here guys. I like sometimes the movie knows what it is. We're like, you know what?

We would be running this back. Well, you and I talked this morning So he has this anonymity in East Boston. He's hoping nobody, except obviously Elena finds him in the last scene. But put that aside. He does all the killing in the... He's 11 kills. The Home Depot is just a murder center.

It's the biggest story in Boston for seven days. And all the employees know that he's not who he says he is. He says he is. He's just back in right field for the softball team on Thursday. Does he go back to work Monday? No, he's because in two, he's driving a lift. Yeah, but he's back in Boston. We don't know how many years later that is, but do you think he showed up for the softball game on that Thursday?

And they're like, you know. Yeah, you know, Bob, we actually got. We didn't think you'd be here. Yeah. Please don't kill all of us. But how about poor Ralphie? Does Ralphie check on him later? I think Ralphie exits security as a profession.

Ralphie might move. Maybe goes back to the restaurant. He moves to Jacksonville. He's got some relatives there. More would stage the best. Anyone who tries to read 100 books, I'm just always impressed right out of the gates. Yeah. Like if you, I'm like, hey, C.R. What's going on?

I'm on 98 of the 100 greatest books. 91 books. I'm only nine away from my 100. I'd be just so impressed by you. Thanks, man. Maybe I should do that. I feel like close to him, you think he's 100 books a year for him? I think he can do 100 books a year.

I don't know if he does. Taking the local bus to your final fight showdown. That makes it sound like I don't think Chuck's committed to reading. I'm sure he's read 100 books. Well, I like when people take the bus to major things. He only had 29 minutes to get to the Home Depot. Yeah. I guess the bus was the quickest way.

I just, I like it. I like the message. He might have taken an Uber, but. C.R. this is for you. What's age the best? A bad guy telling someone to commit a crime and quote, be loud about it.

I think of the splashy, splashy messages. What's age the best Russian mobsters in Boston? Look just like, this is a real thing that exists. Let's give flowers to the Russian mob in general. Yeah. You know? Great villains.

And they're up there with apartheid era, South Africans and Nazis. It's just really uncomfort. complicated villains. That's really the bronze, silver and gold for action movies. Nazis still undefeated in movies. Different crews from the Balkans

can get involved. But there really is like a Russian scene. Like, you know, the J-Bug and I, back in the day, might have played some pool against people talking in Russian

and wondering whether we should take the $80 we want or not. No, no, no. We just wanted to play play. You guys keep it. Next time. But yeah, there's the Russian mob scene and then there's that whole Irish side too.

But there's way more Russians in Boston, I think people realize. Yeah. I mean, you read about it in the nightclubs. Yeah. And I think they own some of the nightclubs. Yeah. OCD and action movies? I had that in the worst.

I just don't think it adds that much to it. So you don't like when our hero has some sort of relatable flaw, like in the accountant with Affleck? It's just in this, in this one in particular, it feels like he can turn it off. Like, it never affects him. You know, he's really careful about his tea bag, and he's really, like, nervous about, like, you know, locking and unlocking the door or whatever.

But I don't feel like, like, in the warehouse when he goes and takes Andre's gun from him, he's like Denzel Washington. There's no, like, oh, I don't know if I want to, like. So you're thinking conditional OCD? It just seems a little bit, like, come and go. I like, you don't look like a Bob. You look like a Robert.

That was maybe the only good part of the Chloe Moritz parts. pouring hot honey on a cut. I had that. You're going to try that next time I get a cut. It just feels like it's not going to go perfect and maybe the hot honey is going to roll down your leg. Oh, you have to have the discipline. Yeah.

You know? It was unclear to me when he got hurt. When he got hurt. Because he took that guy down pretty quickly. I think it's like he got nicked on a wall or against like a gate or something like that. It probably has tetanus. But he was already bleeding when he goes against the wall.

That's right. Yeah. Russian mobsters shoving balls down their victim's throats. I love when people have a signature kill. It's like, ah, it's the Colombians. Oh, it's the balls down the throat. Russians. Well, it also begged the question, why did he kill the two cops?

Because they didn't do their job, I guess. Yeah, I think it was like a message to the other people. A lot of messages. Yeah. Was that a loud message or like a stealth message? I think that if two cops showed up dead in that fashion outside of the precinct and the trunk of their own car, like Boston itself. would be like the lights would be on all the time.

They would just be like, this is the biggest story that's ever happened. Well, you mean after the Irish guy in the sand? After Mookie Betts getting traded. Wrong weekend for that joke. The only other what's age of best I had is the garage exhaust pipe tortures, which I've only seen a couple times in movies.

It's hard to pull off. Pretty good. You got to count on a guy not having an EV vehicle. Yeah, you got to get there a couple hours early in the garage. What if Fester's had a Tesla? You know? My wood's age the best is East Boston. What about you?

The scene's all over Boston. Yeah. All over. It wasn't just East Boston. I mean, it was the Zekam Bridge. It was all over the place. Good skyscraper scene at one, or not skyscraper,

but big building scene when Teddy's looking out the window. Yes. Best in the Great Shock Order. Yeah. Oh, really? The dissolve from Teddy stretching out. Yeah. Dissolves to the Boston skyline.

I was like, Antoine's really cooking here. Yeah. Do you think there was any chance that Teddy ran across Jim from the town at any point from the same bar I don't know

who the fuck you think you're looking at you think shot Chris went up to him it was just like you will look like would be a good stepfather to shine yeah

do you think Teddy visited Sullivan's in Charleston it's very possible I have for which is the best I had a couple others just being able to identify someone's profession by looking at their hands

I love that in movies and he's just like Also looking down on somebody if they don't like their look of the hands enough. These hands have never worked a day in their life. But he's able to pick the guy out in the diner because he's like, if you work the power lines, your hands wouldn't look like that. And I think that this movie does a good job. He never uses a gun in this movie.

He pulls a gun, but he never uses it. And it's not ostentatious. It's actually kind of cool. And it's really effective. He uses a nail gun at the end. One thing that really aged well for me, the music in the movie. I thought throughout the movie, it wasn't just the ending scene in Home Depot.

Throughout the movie, I thought it was well done. I think he's done a couple of, Harry Gregson has done a couple of Denzel. I think he might have done Man on Fire. He's done a couple of Denzel's from that period. You know, man, just to say, man on fire, anytime it's on TV, I watch it. So there are Denzel movies that you just watch over and over.

Yeah, got a special place on the mantle. You don't need to commit CR and I. Yeah. The funny thing about, I like when people say, yeah, we never used a gun in the movie. But it's like, but we used a nail gun, which is like more horrifying to get shot by. Yeah. Yeah.

But I shoved the corkscrew through somebody's chin. Yeah. Didn't use a gun, though. For Batman, it's like because he beats guys up. For the equalizer, it's because he has more creative ways to kill people. Would you have for the Big Kahuna Burger Award for best use of food and drink? The tea bag and the napkin? You agree with that?

Yeah. And that's to keep like the, the pure taste of the tea, like, uncontacted. contaminated, I guess. Also, you already... Oh, the honey's the answer. That's good. Healing a cut with hot honey. But you mentioned it earlier when the power,

the so-called power line guy came in and said, no cheese on my sandwich. Yeah. My dad's having a really good time. He's just gotten over game seven. Tatum spraining his ankle right in front of us. One minute in. Porzengis trade.

Porzigas having planar fasciitis. I don't want... Mookie bets come back to Boston. We don't have any starting guards on the pads. The Bruins Jailers are retired Yeah, it's been a rough summer He's having a good time

He's a lineman Gonzalez went down and hurt yesterday Yeah Great Shock Order Award I had the same thing But I can find it to just The overhead shot of Teddy's tattoos Which are really

It's really cool how they do it It almost looks like it's moving Really amazing Yeah The Vincent Chase Award for Are we sure this character Was actually good at his job Teddy

Are we sure he was good? Yeah I mean Pushkin definitely has his doubts. He's just like, I sent you over there. All I got is fucking dead bodies and problems. Yeah,

this retired dude is just wiping out my entire army of dudes and you can't stop him. Except obviously Teddy has a history 100% doing his job. He just, he never ran into Denzel. Yeah.

Never ran to be able. We didn't talk about the final scene of this movie. I forgot. Like the scene after the warehouse you mean? When he goes to see Pushkin. Yeah.

The tail. Oh. And he's just like, I want peace. All of a sudden, we're in the show. shower with an old Russian guy. In Moscow.

Yeah, what's happening? Well, I liked it when he walked out of the shower and you could see all the dead bodies on the staircase. Yeah, as he walked out a little bit. I apologize for not mentioning it. The Butch's girlfriend Award for Weeklink of the film. I'm not going to do the

first 20 minutes here. It really bothers me that it's not a Home Depot. I really just it's like when it's like a coming to America when it was McDowell's and it wasn't a McDonald's. It's like when they can't get the rights to something, but it's so obviously the thing, it's always in the back of my head as I'm watching it.

The thing is that's wild is like that's where Lowe's pounces. You know what I mean? Yeah, Lowe's like, we're right here. Or who else is in the competitor space? I mean, true value could have gotten involved. You know what I mean? I know you need the big box store. Why I use the fake?

It just, it bugs me every time. So that's mine. Dude, what do you have for weak link of the film? Oh, there's no weight clinking the film. No, yeah, sorry. I apologize for asking. I think that with all due respect, I find that the Alina Terry music career is pretty boring.

Yeah. I had what's age the worst? Explaining old man in the sea to a 17-year-old Russian prostitute. Could have skipped that scene. A bad guy named Pushkin just because that's what Gladwell ended up naming his podcast company. It's just kind of funny that Pushkin. is the bad guy.

A Russian mobster. Yeah. Oligarch. And I don't have a lot of what's age is the worst, but David Harbour's Boston accent is just an absolute affront. I think that he makes up for it. There's a couple of things I want to say about it. He gets better as it goes along.

But the first scene when he's like he hadn't had enough time with the dialect coach yet, it's really bad. Yeah, their first scene when he's talking about who do you think you are, we're not your drivers. That was a little hard to take. But it got better. I think he kept working. on it. It's also confusing, a little bit confusing the first time you meet him because he's

wearing a suit and he's at a nightclub and you're like, oh, this is another gangster. Yeah. And then the rest of the movie, he's dressed like a Boston asshole. And now it's confusing because it's like, isn't that the dad from Stranger Things? The only other thing I had that's aged the worst aside from the 20 to 30 minutes when Denzel isn't killing people is the OCD stuff because I don't really think it. I don't think it lends a ton to the story. You want a better payoff. And on the first watch or like earlier watches, I was always just like, who is Teddy fooling with trying to pretend to be a Boston cop

when he goes to McCall's door? But I think after a while you can kind of tell he's like, I have no intention of actually trying to trick this guy. He's just like, we're here. Yeah, but you know, that raises a point. Why didn't he just shoot him? Yeah. When he's found him.

When he opened the door, he found him. He knew from Elena's girlfriend, a friend that It was him. A black man had been at the hospital. And as soon as he starts talking to him, he's just like, I paid cash. You know, like we didn't put our name down for a reservation. Like, how did you know I was there? It's like, okay, well, this guy knows what he's talking about.

But I think Denzel could have taken the gun out of his hand, so it wouldn't. Yeah, Denzel just has this cat-like reflexes. Was there a better title for this movie? God, no. No. Equalizer is great. Love the Equalizer. Best quote, I had, he didn't come for help, came for permission.

I've got really solid. I've done some bad things in my life. life, Nikolai, things I'm not proud of. I promise someone I love very much that I would never go back to being that person. But for you, I'll make an exception. Yeah, that was great. Good one. Let's take a break. We'll come back to some casting what-ifs. This episode is brought to by the active cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it big or small. So whether it's buying tickets to the game and grabbing a coffee, it earns unlimited 2% cash rewards on.

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nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-9-9-9 or visit zepbounce.lily.com. Did you have a hottest take for this? I'm going to try. Okay. Stephen A's just been inspiring me all week with Alonzo Ball stuff. Yeah.

So I wanted to sort of meet the moment. I don't think Robert can be a passenger, you know. And if he's, he's just much better qualified to be the security guard. of the Boston home mart. He's got to take that job. He can't make Ralphie do that job. It's like if Kauai passes the last shot off. You say Kevin Durant, bus jumper?

Are you driving the bus? You ride on the bus, Robert. That's a good one. I didn't have one. My one was kind of, I think, Denzel is now my favorite library, but I shot it at the top. Also, I think it's pretty easy to imagine

someone of McCall's expertise could pretty quickly get Alina like out of the country. He could just be like, I've got new identity, $9,000, and you go to Los Angeles or something. I don't think he wanted to expose himself. I don't think Elena ever knew that he was the one helping her. Do you think so?

I had that in unanswerable questions. Yeah. I feel like she kind of deep down knew. I think she has a sense. When she said thank you at the end. Yeah, I think she knew. Casting what ifs. 2010 was supposed to be Russell Crow as the equalizer.

Directed by Paul Haggis. I didn't know that. Yeah. And they couldn't land the plane on it. And that one fell aside. Made it a different movie. And then they were doing a lot of adult actresses for the Chloe part. Like normal aged women, not adult.

Anna Kendrick. Yeah, not adult film actresses, but just adults. Yeah. And then she came in. She was only 17. And she won over Antoine Fuqua. And then asked somebody for advice on how to look more. like a prostitute and they said gain some weight you're too skinny so she gained weight

to be the prostate yeah the only other thing that for me is that nicholas wending ruffin was attached to direct this for a while he's the guy to drive you like that movie costly it's okay wow just stab chris in the heart because she wanted to take a break and just walk around the table a couple of times it's a good five o'clock it's a five o'clock oh my god uh yeah so he left the movie one month they almost had it and then it felt part. What'd you have for Ruffalo, Hannah Rubinick, Partridge overacting? I mean, we should put Harbor in the in the actual award here. Well, so I did think that. Teddy does dial it up a couple times. Yeah. I mean, he does a lot of like,

I just wanted to talk about. He has, he does like the subtle thing and he yells a couple of times, but Harbor is screaming the entire movie. Yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't think that this guy would go on to be the dad in one of the most shows. Oh, actually, I like, I like him in this. But yeah. No, but I mean like just that he'd be a dad and a movie. What do you have for the overactor? Nobody overacted in this movie. It's perfect.

It's perfect. Not like Ryan Gosling overacting and drive. Yeah, that story will. Just kept grabbing it. Pushkin. Oh, Pushkin. Yeah, he does dial it up. Best that guy were not eligible, David Harbor, because he became David Harbor. But when he, when they made the equalizer, he was a fucking full-fledged that guy.

Yeah, he's in a couple of like. these kinds of movies around this type of yeah it's like the lead of it yeah and he's it but he was like in run all night back then I think he was like in a bunch of these crime movies I never knew what his name was until Stranger Things yeah I had Johnny Messner the guy who's in the Power Lines guy in the diner

well you could also I never knew what Teddy's name was in real life I just knew him as the guy from Martin's Socus yeah but he's been in a bunch of stuff so best that guy who'd you have best that guy I had Messner the guy who goes into the diner to get. Okay.

Deanne Waiter's a word. A lot of people are ineligible. You have to be like only a couple scenes. Can I give you Melissa Leo? Okay. Give you a little Bill Pullman. I can give you John, the Boston sand and gravel guy. You fucking flip ahead.

Uh-huh. Who else do you have? Slavi. David Moornear. Ralphie's mother. Ralphie's mother. Oh, Ralphie's mother. You liked her.

Just like looking at the heavens when she gets $9,000. You get some money in their hand. Can I do my award now? my special award. Let's do it. So in honor of you guys, I wanted to throw another one out there, the Dustin Petroia Award for the most Boston character.

Oh, yeah. So we got little... That's a great one. Why did we get... It's a good ad. Little John Looney, who's, you know, the guy who gets beaten up at Boston Sand and Gravel,

is played by a guy named Sean Fitzgibbon. I'm not making it up. The cop who says, I should have shot that motherfucker that gets... that gets jammed up by Denzel and then the guy robbing the Home Depot who's just empty the register.

Yeah. I think those are real Boston people in it, right? I'll throw one more the worker in the dinah. The dinah. Yeah. So let's go, I think we go

with little John Looney here. Listen, huh? Do me a favor, all right? Whatever you do, don't call them Little John, okay? Frank, I work for these fucking oceans. My money not good enough.

John, you know I got respect for your business. Mr. Dune. You understand why I'm compelled to make this visit. I know shit about what went down or you should be out looking for. If I want to take over anything, I'd fucking do it. There may nothing left to you, people. So maybe you just don't understand who the fuck I am. John, easy, huh?

Don't easy, Frank. Shut the fuck up. Fucking flip ahead. So you want an image. after Dustin Padreya. Who do you want to know better? Who do you want to name after? What was Jim's last name?

Did Jim have a last name or was he just Jim? I think Jim is the most Boston character of all time. James Coughlin. Yeah. The Jim Coughlin Award. The Jim Coughlin Award. He's the most Boston character that's ever been in a movie. Yeah.

But we should start doing this for like when we do Josie Wales, we should be like, who's the most Boston character in Josie? It just stays Boston. Yeah. It would be funny to do city-centric versions of that. Yeah. Yeah, because we had this run in Boston when they just wouldn't put real people from Boston and Boston movies.

Oh, I mean. Gone Baby Gone really shifted it. The woman who's friends with Amy Ryan and Gone Baby Gone? And then now everybody's a more conscious of it. But you still think Gone Baby Gone's too dark to be rewatchable? I do. Okay. Yeah.

It's not one of those. Let's crank this up tonight. I've never rewatched it. Casey Affleck's about to shoot the Coke. It is great, though. I mean, there are scenes in it. I think it's awesome. Do you have any recasting couch characters?

No, I thought that this is pretty well put together. I think you could have had a little bit. I would have a conversation about other people who could have done Teddy, you know? And I mean, I think in a very special place, we could have done an American gangster reunion and had Russell Crow playing Teddy. Oh, interesting. You know? But I think he was fat Russell Crowe. I also think then the budget goes up a lot more.

So I understand what they're doing, but I thought. I don't think I wanted to see Russell Crow's back with all the tattoo. Flap. Half Fast Center Research, Denzel's place is at 40 Falcon Street in East Boston. You can go Google Earth at your home doing nothing. Is there such a street? Yeah. You can find it.

The Bridge Diner was located in Chelsea, 25 Everett Avenue And it was actually Right, Chelsea is right next to East Boston So they grabbed this business called Chelsea floor covering And the studio rented the building And turned it into a diner Over the course of two months

The diner doesn't actually exist, sorry, Dad In case you took the blue line Just kind of wandering around looking for it But it made sense that he would He wouldn't want to go to a diner right down the street From his apartment Right That he would walk five minutes to Chelsea

The script originally had no backstory about Robert. So that's where Denzel gets involved and does the OCD thing, does the thing where he interviews a bunch of OCD people to get some of the stuff down and does the backstory where he goes to see Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman. There's a bunch of characters in his later part of his career where he really like spreads the mustard real thick with the ticks and stuff. Yeah. But you know, we learn a lot more about Robert's background inequality. Equalizer, too.

Yes. True. We do. There's a lot left out in the first movie. The tattoo on Teddy's upper back, which looks like C-M-E-P-T-B, is the Russian word smurt, which means death. Cool. Oh, so there you go. Glad to know that.

All the books in Robert's home are leather-bound books, which are from the Franklin Library, Franklin Midset, which is from the 80s. Two, he gets the last one. He gets Proust. Yes. And he buys it for 40 bucks. The last book he puts down at the end of the movie is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Mm-hmm. And then I did some research on the TV series, The Equalazzer, which is where I found out

that Edward Woodward was nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for four years in a row, a category later dominated by James Gandalfini. 13 shows on back then. James Gandalfini. Do you think every year Don Johnson is just like, Not Woodward again? What do I have to do? Do you remember growing up watching Equalysis?

Not once. But so this is what I found out of my research. His son comes on the show for 12 episodes, played by William Zabka. Oh wow. Johnny Lawrence from Cry to Kid was the Equalizer's son. And is he an Equalizer in training or like, do you know what the plot was? Unclear. That was where my research ended. Okay.

Yeah. Apex Mountain, Denzel, no way. Vigilante movies, no way. East Boston is a movie location, I think, hands down, yes. Hands down, yes. Boston sand and gravel. I can't remember. Is that where Chuckie worked in Goodwill Hunting or no?

Is that also, where does Nicholson get killed in the Departed? It might have been there. I should have researched that more. It's some kind of like construction site, right? Yeah. It might all have been Boston Sane and Gravel. It might have been, I don't think in those movies that showed the sign. Yeah.

David Harbor, no. Boston Herald trucks. I'm going to say yes. I don't remember a Boston Herald truck figuring more prominently into a piece of pop culture. It's true. They really...

Pretty great. Yeah. And then they kind of dip after spotlight. Do you think Boston Herald had to pay so that it wasn't Boston Globe to be in that scene?

Get publicity? They probably did. Where did you work the Herald or the Globe? Harold. Harold. Yeah. Craigslist postings? In movies.

Yeah. Better Craigslist posting in a movie? Probably not. Any other Apex Mountain? I mean, I think that a box hardware store or a home store as a killing field is definitely Apex Mountain for this. Fake Home Depot's? Dad doesn't know what Apex Mountain is. No, but I don't think Home Depot has been used that way before or after.

There you go. Yeah. It goes it got. Picky Nets. Oh, no. Best resource name, the Equalizer. Yeah. Or fucking flipperhead.

Fucking flip her head would be good. the stretch. Pick of nits. All right. Denzel's playing right field. Yeah. For the softball team? I had an unanswer real question about this.

Yeah. I thought he was playing left field. So wait, are you saying that? Right. Are you saying that because don't you think you would want Denzel in a higher leverage position or that right field requires like athleticism? Okay.

I'm pretty sure he has the athleticism because we saw him kill six people in the span of 11 seconds. Right. Right field is where you kind of step. Or a ton of ground. It's not like you can play center. Do you have like knee stuff? Put me in right. I don't think he wants everybody to know how talented he is at Home Depot.

Well, they're all mystified by him. They think he's in Gladys Knight and the Pips. Exactly. Oh. Was he? Well, so if we do the movie softball team and Daniel Kaffee is the shortstop. And the player manager. Yeah.

And we have. Player coach. Robert and Wright Field. I don't know who else is in there. It's pretty good team though But yeah, right field Just really jumped out of me I would put him in left

Yeah Left field is still a little unassuming And you're like Like you can use the cannon A little bit Yeah I just wanted to know what his slash line was Like how important was he did the team

I had that down as well Like his stats Was he like a two for four Two hard doubles where the outfield Wasn't playing guy Did he try to hit bombs Yeah Well they won the game

And I assume that he Hit the home run In the third inning that won the game Also didn't really call the second baseman in the pop five almost ran them over picky knits we did did are we sure there would be a diner that would stay up all night in news Boston kills six guys because his Russian prostitute acquaintance is even a strong word that he's talked to three times gets roughed up kind of rude to him in the diner anyway this isn't exactly like his muse yeah

And he's just like, you know what, this is the one where I need to kill everybody. But I don't think he went there intending to kill six people. He went there to pay $9,800 for a free. To get her out of her situation. But he's not a spring chicken. He must have known that they weren't going to say. Oh, yeah, $9,800 is a really great price. I think he was itching for it.

I think he was sitting at diner just hoping and praying. And then the Russian prostitute comes in. He's like Brady gripping the football on the couch. They talk three times. And he's like, wait, somebody smacked her? Can you really heal a cut with hot honey? Did you look this up? I think it's an adhesive.

It's one of those things that happens in movies where they'll do something like this, and I just assume this is... I assume that... Oh, yeah, of course, hot honey. That everybody does it. I think, I mean, there's been war movies and action movies where guys use crazy glue on wounds,

so I assume hot honey serves the same. I'm going to ask Kyle to cut his leg and pour her. hot honey on and then report back. So stay tuned for next week's pod. Is this the picking next week's section? Yeah, yeah. What do you got? I had a couple. And early apart when he's walking across the bridge, across the bridge and the car pulls up.

Yeah. And the guy smacks her to get in the car. I was surprised he didn't do something right then and there. Yeah. He could have wiped out Slavi and his driver and Elaine. and it would have been in good shape. To your point, it seems like he was important to him to, like, keep Elena in the dark about who he was and what he was capable of. Yeah, that's why he probably didn't.

What else do you have? She's in a very convenient coma from my respect to knit. That was a good knit. Well, the $9,800. Yeah, how we got to that number? It's uncertain where that figure came from. And then the scene where he helps out Ralphie's mom with the two cops, how did he get the cops? how did he get the cop's cell phone number?

He's because he's the equalizer. He's obviously got, like, he's able to find out all this stuff about Teddy from Melissa Leo. I just agree. But he got the Melissa Leo, but this was a separate issue. I mean, did he have connections we don't know about? Right. It's a cool trick. Yeah.

I mean, he could easily have been the GM of the Red Sox and just equalizer things. And we didn't see the scene where he went in the other restaurant. and tape the cops threatening the owner with fire. Right. That was kind of neat, I thought, the way they did that. I have two more nipicks. The Russian prostitutes in Boston are just too good looking. It's just not realistic.

I'm sorry. Especially the second one, no way. Just no. No way. Is it the Russian prostitute part or the fact that they're in Boston? What's the determining factor? Yeah. I think they're definitely.

a little more weathered. Okay. I'm going to use the word weathered. And then the watch that he wears, which is a Sinto core all black, which I researched. And the stopwatch is not actually in the watch.

That's the actual model of the watch. So they reconfigured the watch to make it cooler. But the CIA could have done that for him. The equal, because he's the equalizer. Yeah. Any other nipics? Just Ralphie's wearing a

a t-shirt from the band the band foreigner and it doesn't he doesn't seem like a big foreigner guy yeah it's like an ironic t-shirt but there's nothing ironic

at all about ralphy dude a lot of home depot security guards were ironic rock t-shirts maybe they do I don't know but maybe it was his dad's yeah maybe it was his dad's

we didn't spend a lot of time talking about ralphi yeah it's it's like what was his box score in this movie you know what sucks is that eight points four rebounds one assist

when terry olina get goes to the hospital you're kind of like, all right, let's go. Now we're going to really get into this. And then Ralphie kind of plays the role of Terry where he's like, I'm just a knafe who needs your help, Mr. McCall. And it's just kind of like, you're like,

I really want to see Denzel interact with the Russian mob and the Boston cops like really badly at this point. Did this need to be like a funny actor? Did this need to be like 2002 Horatio Sands? Or like 1995 Chris Farley, where it's like, actually this guy's legitimately funny. I like him. Why did Ralphie need to be funny?

What just can you describe Ralphie in a sentence? Well, he weighed 247 pounds. Yeah, I know that. And he wants to get into security. By the way, what kind of security? Was he funny? Was he serious? Was he smart?

What kind of security outfit has a weight limit of you need to be no more than 247 pounds? It's also weird because he's getting the job at the store. Yeah. So it's like he's already in the system. They could be like, well, we'll try out for a while, Ralphie. it doesn't have to be this huge. How hard is the system, too? Like, they're really like...

He also, on like his first day, they get robbed by that guy who takes the woman's ring, too. Sequel, prequel, prestige TV, all black cast are untouchable. Well, they made two sequels. Second sequel's coming out this weekend. By the way, we're not doing this as publicity

for the movie. It just happened to be this way. Is it coming out this weekend? I think it's next weekend. And it's Dakota Fanning, so we have a man on fire reunion. It's very important. Very important.

It's also, and he's taking out the Neapolitan mob. I wonder what time Friday I can see it. Hopefully five o'clock. Well, is that disrespectful? Oh, that's disrespectful. This would be a, if it's one in the afternoon. Yeah, this is either a Saturday at one or Friday at one. It opens a Friday.

I mean, you're retiring. I'll probably be with the other 18 guys in the movie theater. Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Treo, Catherine Hahn, Steve Bouchemy, Sam Jackson, J.T. Walsh, or Philip Baker Hall. We can go a couple of different ways here. I would like to also add maybe another wrinkle to it, which is, would this movie been better with Staff Sergeant Dignam? You know who that is? It's Mark Wahlberg from The Departed.

And so when Teddy goes to see Robert, he goes, I got a question, Robert. How fucked up are you? That's good. We should add Diggum to the list. I'm going to add him for the next one. Just want to ask her who gets it? Oh, can I also say, how excited would you have been if when we get to Moscow, Pushkin is played by Bouchemey? And he's just showering with Russian prison tax.

Yeah, they could have done a better, like, stunt casting person. There could have been any, like Russell Crowe could have been in that part. I did have a question there. Do you think Robert flew commercial to get to Russia? This is, I mean, that's a huge nip. Well, he had $90 and extra dollars. For me is just like how he's moving through blockchain. Arguably, like, the most protected man in the world is a Russian oligarch.

Yeah. You know, well, I guess not. It's all out there. Just want to ask her who gets it, then so. Probably in answerable questions. How did the rest of the softball season go? I think it's a round playoff exit. I think they're all shaken from what's happened.

You know, we've had a. Maybe stop the season? Yeah. Yeah. You know, Ralphie maybe is like, I don't want to play catcher anymore. Re-evaluating stuff. Yeah, do they have like a guy who can fill in and write field? Right.

You know? Maybe they can't even fill the team. You're assuming he doesn't go back and join the softball team. I mean, everyone's dead. He could probably just go back. I mean, everyone... The cops probably aren't happy. Do we think that nobody at Home Depot or Home Mart knew where Robert lived?

Because Elena found him. right um and he was still living there it is a whole it does seem like pretty easy to find yet impossible to find that's it's state thread that where the russians can't find them yeah anyone else can find them immediately my other do you have any more in municipal questions yeah i want to know whether or not especially in the warehouse scene when they go to to sort of take the take pushkin's money and give it away harbor is just dressed exactly like billy costigan from the departed and i want to know whether or not, like, they were like... Was it an homage?

It's an homage or they're just like, that's how fucking Boston cops have dressed when they're walking around. There's Antoine Fuqua's watching The Departed to get this guy a windbreaker and a hat. Which movie came out first? Departed. Yeah, like eight years earlier. My last unanswerable question is Equalizer 2 better than Equalizer 1? It is.

It is to me. I kind of feel like it is. Equalizer 1 is more important because it creates a franchise. It's like John Wirt. John Wick, too, right? Pedro Pascal is awesome. Yeah. Equalizer, too.

He's awesome. I think it's like a whiff better. And it's a little guy, like a little bit of Sicario stuff happening. Yeah. And it's like a little bit, it's pretty cool. Killing Melissa Leo. Spoiler, hurt. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, but it gives him really good motivation. Poor Jesse had no idea. It just ruined Equalizer too far. Best double feature choice for this movie is also answers the Indian Red Zawatine Award for what happened the next. Day Equalizer, too. That's what happened. He's on a train in Turkey, rescuing

a child. Although you could watch Man on Fire as a double feature with this. Oh, that's interesting. Pretend he's Creasy, basically. Creasy lives. Man on fire, too, Creasy lives. Are you there at 1 o'clock on Friday? Well, I mean,

Creasy could have lived. He could have fainted in the car. We talked about this when we did the rewatchable spot about it. No, just like, he dies in the car but you could also say that he didn't

that he just went into a really deep coma but came out of it somehow it would have been awesome if they had basically made Creasy into the Christopher Walken character in Manow Fire and he was now like

the sort of mentor facilitator for like Ryan Reynolds on fire or whatever I should know this but you guys already did Man on Fire yeah yeah why wasn't I part of that

I don't know okay Probably should have been. I apologize. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? It's got to be the watch. Yeah, the watch.

How is it not the watch? It's definitely the most iconic thing. What would you want from this movie? Or the sledgehammer. I think the sledgehammer. I love the gruelgrew. Him putting the bloody sledgehammer. How about just using the corkscrew and like,

hey, does anybody want a new bottle of computer noir? By the way, this corkscrew has been in a guy's throat. Except they didn't pull the corkscrew out. He left it in. Left it in. Yeah. Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson. Don't cross.

Don't cross Denzel. I have, don't talk to Russian prostitutes in a diner at three in the morning. It's my lesson. I got, when you pray for rain, you got to deal with the mud, too. Oh, good one. Yeah. Good one. Who won the movie?

Denzel. Denzel. Have we done a Denzel movie where he didn't win the movie? You know what? I was wondering, I couldn't remember. We haven't, because we thought about doing Pelican brief, right? and it didn't. We're going to it at some point

because the Half Fass Center research for that movie is so good. That's an interesting battle. That's a good battle. And we haven't done Philadelphia. But from the most part, Denzel wins the movies. He loses Philadelphia probably. Probably.

Did you do Trini Day? Yeah. We have him winning Training Day, obviously. That was a dub. Yeah. That was an easy. Although Ethan really, he put in a shift. It was a 4-0 sweep,

but the other team was good. It was a 4-0 sweep, but everybody like, really like, we're like, hey, man, you guys are next. Great job. American gangster would be a good one for. I mean, he definitely wins American gangster, but Crow's a good discussion. Crow's good in that movie. Yeah. I haven't watched in a while.

So in the Boston crime movie Pantheon. I guess we should have asked this. Is this a Boston movie? Well, for you, it must be. For me, it is because it feels like everything is happening in Boston, all the scenes. I'm sure they did scenes elsewhere, but I don't know that. It doesn't get mentioned with the town and friends of Eddie Coyle

and like the verdict. And when people rip off like the Boston movies, it's kind of on this stealth Boston side with like starting over. Yeah. A couple of those other ones. Or departed. Like starting over is a Boston movie, but nobody would say like.

But arguably this is more of a Boston movie than Departed, which was shot in like Toronto and New York, right? Yeah, what's cool about it? And the same thing for what the town did, but Charlestown is there are these really distinct pockets of outer Boston. But anytime you see a movie, it's always like just Boston like the Boston people think. Goodwill Hunting the same way. Yeah, Goodwill Hunting is another one where they go in the South through pretty hard.

But I do, there is like, I'd never seen anybody do it with East Boston. So I thought that part was cool. No, I don't remember East Boston either. Chelsea's still sitting there for somebody. They've done Charleston now, Charlestown. Nobody's done Chelsea, though. no and gloucester was in uh the movie that won the Oscar

Cota oh yeah that was another one that was always should have been a movie location for somebody and then it finally happened well gloucester is where I start perfect storm right oh yeah we did that one glostom in

all right dad it was a true pleasure it was thanks for talking to equalize with us it's always wonderful to pie with you this only happened twice this was a one for us, but it was like one for us and my dad. And Denzel. I got to do Shawshank and I got to do equalize it.

What's the next one? Joe's the next one. Yeah, you gotta call your next one. What is it? I don't know how we're gonna be able to book you again. Busy schedule. Seeing movies at 1 o'clock. I mean, Josie Wales, Robert Redford, I'm not Robert.

Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood. You haven't done Jeremiah Johnson? No, that's right. You've always said that's like his, that's your number one favorite movie ever. Yeah. Are you in on Jeremiah Johnson? Yeah. It's incredible. Incredible. And I read an interview, Redford Diddy, said that was his favorite movie that he's ever done.

Interesting. Yeah. All right. Well, this was produced by Jesse Lopez. Craig Horaceck, I think, is back next week. We have another good one coming next week. So we will see you then on. Thank you, Chris. Thanks, Dad. Thank you, Chris.