The Weekly Planet - Blade 1998 - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

Blade 1998 is considered an overlooked classic kicking off what is considered the modern MCU movie. Others think it's dated and not good. HOWEVER in this retrospective review, this Caravan Of Garbage if you will explores whether it holds up as well as it did when released.Video Version ► http://bit.ly/2Z0ZQz1James' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownTWP Itunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4TWP Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetTWP YouTube Channel ► https://goo.gl/1ZQFGHPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesBuy Blade Collection Amazon ► https://amzn.to/2ni09ViT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors, like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause, causing the risk of heart disease to go up. Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. Blade's coming back, everybody. Welcome to Caravan of Garbage.

Be scared if you're a vampire. That's right. But if you aren't a vampire, maybe also be scared because there's a lot of stray bullets flying around. Sometimes he'll be holding you in a hospital and then cops just open fire. Yeah, and maybe he'll spin around and like cop the bullets on his back and protect you, but maybe he won't. Maybe he won't.

He's getting old, this guy. He doesn't live as long as vampires, if you recall. He has all their strengths and none of their weaknesses, except for the weaknesses that he needs, like a lot of blood or a serum all the time to survive. Yep. And he ages rapidly. Seems that way.

Yes. Anyway, Blade 1998. This movie, it kicked off a lot. It kind of doesn't get the credit it necessarily deserves because it's pre-X-Men, like pre-Spider-Man. It's pre-The Matrix. And there is some stuff from this that's kind of like, well, that's very Matrix-esque, isn't it? Certainly. Trenchcoats.

That's right. But it's also post-Crow. Oh, of course. It's right in that sweet spot, isn't it? It really is. It was a post-Crow universe. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, yeah.

But it was also an era where it was the same year as Batman and Robin. So everyone was like, these are over. We're not doing these comic book movies anymore. That's absolutely true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this sort of reinvigorated the genre. This was also in the era where Marvel comics, because there's a Marvel property. I think maybe not everybody knows that.

I mean, they'll know it now. Sure. They'll bloody know it now. Because it seems... Well, they don't say marvel at the start no the success of this is not the comic book element of it that's not why it took no it's the gore and the action yeah wesley snipes and yeah but so this was right when marvel were in some serious financial trouble as they often were throughout the 90s and if i remember correctly this is one of the properties that they sold for like a pittance yeah right and i don't have the exact figure but i think

it was like 75 000 like they sold the property to new line cinema and who then made 100 130 million dollars yeah just for this one alone yes yeah the whole trilogy made something like 400 million in total that's enough like Yeah, which is plenty. Yeah, New Line apparently originally wanted to do it as an action comedy, but David S. Goyer, who's gone on to do Batman v Superman, and things are very in quality. There's good and ill, for sure. But he was like, no, let's do this gritty and real.

But this isn't actually the gritty and real. It's kind of funny. Yeah, I think this is dated, but it's the best kind of dated. Yeah, look. I mean, a blood rave. That's what vampires would do in the 90s, wouldn't they? In the 90s, exactly. That's right. That's how you'd lure a 48-year-old human man into a...

In the 90s, there would be an action subplot where Blade has to get back his tiny little sunglasses which are cool then these days no no no no no back in the day oh he made those cool you know he did so this particular version of blade the vampire elements of him and the fact that his mother was bitten by a vampire and then he's born and he's got half the powers and all that that's not the blade from the comics is it a lot of that is invented for this. Yeah, I mean, the original comic book blade, A, British. I won't hear of it.

And yeah, secondly, his powers were much more limited in the comic books. He was more or less a regular human vampire hunter, except he couldn't be turned into a vampire. That was his number one strength. So say a man with a metal collar is the equivalent. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, exactly.

A man who's good at dodging someone flinging their face and mouth at you. Sure. You know? When this movie became popular, when the Blade trilogy became popular, they did what often they do with the comic book characters. They make it more like the movie version. So in the comics, he was then bitten, I think, by Morbius, the living vampire. And he basically mutated and gained all the powers that he has in the movies it's actually a morbius cameo and an alternate ending but we'll come back to that don't even

worry about it the blade that we kind of know in the comics now is this blade yes really i love the martial arts and this is pretty decent for the time especially in a pre-matrix world post the crow obviously yep and they they recycled those same four like punch sound effects yeah boy do they did it they did it they gave it enough variation you barely even notice you don't even notice every time you can't help but notice it's inescapable the effects are a mixed bag but for the time mostly pretty good like the ash effect when he kills a vampire and they go down to their skeleton i think if it was faster it would look better because often you'll just see the cgi skeleton for a second before it disappears but everything about

the character in terms of like the costume i love the symmetry even the sword is like directly in the middle of his back like the haircut and the tattoos the jacket i love his array of weapons some you only see like once like the sword's great with a little trick blade in it the gun the gun for shooting The gun for shooting. The gun for shooting is good also, but he only uses this weapon once. The garrote is incredible. Oh yeah, right.

He garrotes Mr. Pigtails at the head and takes his head off. Yeah, right. That's an incredible weapon. Before Wesley Snipes though, they actually considered Denzel Washington, LL Cool J and Lawrence Fishburne, but Wesley Snipes became involved

because he was going to do Black Panther for Marvel and that was kind of, it was taking its time and it wasn't really, didn't look like it was going to happen. And then, so he ended up being Blade instead of Black Panther. Yeah. Good move. There's an interview with him. Cause I know we'll get to Blade 3 another week, maybe even another year.

But there's an interview where he's in the full Blade get up, glasses and all, and he's talking about the movie Blade and he kind of slips in and out of him being Blade. Was that before he was cast as Blade? No. He just started doing interviews as Blade and hoping for the best. Because there is that story about Blade III where he'd gone full meta character or whatever was happening

and everyone on set had to refer to him as Blade. It was very much in the moment, yeah. What do you think of Karen Jensen? Who's that? Ah, the love interest. She's fine. Yeah, she's fine. There was a scene with her that was cut because it was too disturbing.

She goes to Blade and Whistler's hideout and she's like, sweet warehouse, and they're like, we know, it's the 90s, we know. We know. It's a sweet warehouse that's very easily accessible by just, it's just next to a train station. There are literally trains going past it. There's a sweet warehouse that's very easily accessible by just, it's just next to a train station. There are literally trains going past it. There's no doors. You can just walk in.

Well, they do just walk in. He gets right up to Whistler, doesn't he? Right there. Hits him right in the face. The villain. We'll get back to him. But she finds a vampire baby in this deleted scene that they're just testing all their different weapons

and experiments on to see what kills vampires. And what would also probably kill regular babies as well. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. You think this silver bullet will kill this vampire baby? Bang! We'll give that a go. Yeah.

Donald Logue's in this, Mr. Pigtails. Yes, it's Quinn. Yeah. His role was extended because he was very funny on set. And so he gets a fair bit to do before he's garrotted to pieces at the end but i saw this bit of trivia and i thought it was pretty amusing so in the hospital scene you know where donald loge is in the complete burn victim makeup like head to toe and then later he uh he regenerates his entire body including his hair and his beard that's right well it's like the wolverine isn't it yeah it is he's got his hair back instantly

but in that fight scene he got his jaw massively dislocated oh for real for real so they had to take him to a real hospital and the hospital were like what happened to this man because he's just covered still head to toe in the burns oh yeah wow in the prosthetic burns but apparently it's this thing where he had this accident years prior and if he gets hit in the jaw the wrong way it'll just lock open all right yes so there you go also why didn't blade kill that guy he just lights him on fire and just backs away you know he's gonna jump up in the morgue no i think i think was it the cops interrupting no i think he would have killed the cops as well okay no i think i i got the impression and i'm sure i didn't think about it at the time but i

got the impression when we just re-watched it that he wanted to send a message to the bad guys, the leaders of the vampire factions. But really, he's making more vampires doing that, isn't he? He made two. I mean, one got un-vampired. That's true, yeah. Because he happened to be an un-vampirologist. Yes, exactly, yeah.

Yeah. That just happened to be a degree, yeah. Yeah, absolutely it is. What do you think of Whistler? He dies briefly. He comes back. What do you think of that character? he dies briefly he comes back what do you think of that character chris christopherson he's like a movie star of the past uh-huh uh at

the time this rolls around country singer as well yeah sure why not yeah he's a bradley cooper-esque man isn't he yes what you know bradley cooper does the country singer song where he's like i'm in a road am i winding down down. I'll kill myself at the end. I haven't seen whatever movie that is. I haven't seen it. I love the bit though where Whistler's filling up the car and he's just splashing petrol all over the car and then he lights a cigarette.

That guy, if the vampires didn't get him, he was going to explode himself regardless. Well, he's got a big leg brace down one leg and I guess we're to assume that he got that in battle with vampires, but he probably just got a corner revolving door or something. No doubt. Then alternate ending, you know, for jumping ahead, but Blade goes to Russia at the end.

That vampire that he sees was going to be Whistler. So that was one, at one point, that was going to be that situation. So yeah. But they saved him for Blade 2, Blade On, bro. Is that what it's called? Yeah, bro so what it's called yeah that's what it's called okay good excellent okay so the villain in this deacon frost well there's two villains there's of course the great udo kia who's been in one million films who's that the the the eastern european guy you know like the the head of the traditional vampires i love the board of

weird eastern european vampires yeah i'm there for it every goddamn day of the week. But then we've got a fresh new face, Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost. I'd forgotten kind of his role in this. Like, I knew he was in it, but he's really good in this movie. I agree. Yeah, he's a very sinister villain,

and he kind of, he's mostly, not mostly disappeared, but, you know, he's popped up here and there. Most recently, he was in the new season of True Detective, where he was also really good. He was in that Britney Spears film clip, if you remember. The one where she's on Mars? No, that's Life on Mars.

It's David Bowie. Oh, I see. Right. But yeah, the Deacon Frost role was, they went to Jet Li, and they ended up getting this guy, which I think works. The hair, the cigarette behind the ear. That's very 90s. Oh, the leather blazers.

You know it. So good. What do you think of familiars in this? I like that element of vampire lore, and I like them bringing it to the modern era of 1998, where, you know, you've got your cops and whoever. They can be anybody. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah. I like that. Me too. That's all I have on that. You threw me a curveball. I hadn't even thought about it, but I like it. How's this, though? Yes.

This movie has some terrific lines. I wrote down my three standout ones. I already know what number one is, but give us the other two. Okay, so the number one is obviously some motherfuckers always try to ice skate on. Is that an expression? No. Apparently it was something he said in relation to that character. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors.

Like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause causing the risk of heart disease to go up know your risks visit heartandstroke.ca character offset and people are like that's cool and makes sense it does not it doesn't though does it does it really apply to that character no because he doesn't feel like like he's not really skating uphill. He has the powers of a god at that point. Yeah, he's doing very well. He's doing very well for himself. I think it's also probably something

that maybe a member of his entourage said and he stole it. Okay, right, yeah. So that guy's just still seething 20 years on. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. He ratted him out for tax evasion. That's right.

The other one is when the police shoot Blade in the hospital and he says that, I'm butchering these. But don't worry, in the video, they'll have been related in the real dialogue. You know, that motherfucker,

you're out your damn mind or whatever. Because he breaks out of that because a lot of the movie is just like, I'm Blade and I'm serious and I'm talking through my teeth with a slight lift because I've got the teeth in. And the other one is where Whistler hands in the torch, the UV torch.

And he's like, it's still heavy. And he's like, but you're so big. It's great stuff. It is a so big. It's great stuff. It is a good movie. It's held up. For the most part, it is held up. The blood effects certainly haven't held up. A lot of the CGI hasn't held up.

I know we mentioned it earlier. Most of that finale where we've got vampire demon skeletons coming out of people's bodies and atrocious. When Deacon Frost turns into that blood god and his hand sort of regenerates. He's cut in half and then he switches back together. That's an alternate ending though, because they re-shot it.

I don't know if you've seen it, but the actual ending they shot is he just turns into a big blood tornado. And Deacon Frost kind of, he whips Blade around the room and Blade's like, I can't even deal with this blood tornado. And then at one point, it's still rough, but Deacon Frost's head and shoulders come out of the room and Blade's like, I can't even deal with this blood tornado. And then at one point, it's still rough,

but Deacon Frost's head and shoulders come out of the top and he's like, hey, Blade, it's me. You mean the anti-dandruff shepherd? That's what I mean, yeah. So he's got great 90s hair, doesn't he? Yeah. Upon test screening that, people were like, there's a big disconnect between this character that we enjoyed

and then he's just a big swirling blood tornado. Yeah, how about we have them fight Kung Fu style? Yeah. But a lot of that Kung Fu style bit at the end is just, it seems to be them just clacking swords diagonally have you noticed that well i i agree but at the same time i think because that was the limitations of the genre again at the time because that again that was pre the matrix sure that it was just post the crow post the crow exactly so it was just a lot of swords clacking but i think they fixed it i think the editing yes seals that as best they can

yeah at the time like it looks dangerous again even though it's just okay clack them together for five minutes and we'll just put something put something together that works did you enjoy the the spin kicks hitting nobody yes solitude the other okay and here we have the clip a blade and a henchman spin kicking the air you could loop that endlessly that's right. There's probably a 10 hours clip on YouTube. Oh, there almost certainly is, yeah. But I think that there are some special effects that are good. The bit where they put that European vampire in the sun. Yep.

And he kind of sizzles away and it's kind of Raiders of the Lost Ark-esque where his body's just kind of tearing apart from the sunlight. That's probably it in terms of special effects. I like the serum that bubbled up the vampires. Actually, yeah, you're right. I think that's a good effect. That feels practical, some of those bubbly people. I wonder whether they made them practically

and then kind of imposed them into the shot. Yeah, or just put them in a decompression chamber. Yeah, that might have been it as well. Get some extras, doesn't matter, mate. You do it for the credit and the love of the craft. Absolutely. Yeah, the movie The Craft. That's right, exactly. That was probably this year, I doesn't matter, mate. Yeah. You do it for the credit and the love of the craft. Absolutely. Yeah. The movie The Craft?

That's right, exactly. It was probably this year, I'd imagine. Almost certainly. Yeah. There's also the puppetry of that giant slovenly vampire. I mean, that's a practical effect, but, you know, there's... Good choice of words, slovenly. It's a slovenly vampire. It's very slovenly.

Apparently, the story behind that guy is he's just eaten babies. So he's just got to that point where it's beyond blood. What is this original script? There's a lot of babies being eaten and shot with silver bullets what's happening there certainly is was this a reworked script that was just called blade baby shooter it may it may work very well to be you know what surprised me there's a scene that showed a lot of restraint it's after whistler dies and Blade is suiting up and he's clicking in his silver bullets. And it's just mostly silent with some kind of low hum ominous music.

But I feel like you could have easily just had that go. But it's not. And I mean, it becomes that. Oh, sure. When he gets to the lobby, like the Matrix, or maybe even the bit where he dodges the bullets. Like the Matrix. I enjoyed the bit where Blade tears out a vampire's throat

and throws it at another guy. It's pretty good, yeah. That's a good scene, sure. I loved it when the vampires could survive in daylight just by putting on a lot of sunscreen. You'd really want to zinc that scalp, you know what I mean? You get that right in there, yeah. Or a lot of gel, I guess.

Oh, gel would probably... It was the 90s, yeah, I guess that's true, yeah. Fudge, was that the 90s? They probably put some f in there, yeah. Or a lot of gel, I guess. Oh, gel would probably... Hairspray would do it. It was the 90s, yeah, I guess that's true, yeah. Fudge, was that the 90s? They probably put some fudge in, yeah. SPF 30 fudge. I liked that sunscreen element, because you'd give that a go, wouldn't you? You'd give it a go. I mean, you'd probably still get your eyes, but, you know, you make it work, don't you?

Yeah, put some fudge in your eyes. Yeah, put some fudge in your eyes. There was actually a Stan Lee cameo that was cut in this. You know, the cops that run in to find these pigtails on fire on the wall. One of them was supposed to be Stan Lee, but they just went, nobody knows Stan Lee. Nobody can imagine Stan Lee. Even if you knew him, nobody can imagine Stan Lee running into any location. This isn't Mallrats.

Exactly. That's right. This is post-Mallrats. This is serious business. This is post-Mallrats days. Yeah. I think it wraps up well and it sets up a sequel that they probably were very unsure that they were going to have without leaning

too heavily into it. There is an alternate ending and you can find this where Blade goes outside and he's with his lady friend whose name I've already forgotten. The scientist who cures being a vampire. You'd think the vampires would at least look into that wouldn't you? I mean I know they probably don't want to be cured but it's kind

of it's knowledge you'd want. Say you've got an enemy that you could turn to a human and then you could use them as a blood bag or whatever. Exactly. That's all I'm saying. But they're like, Or if you want to go on like a seaside holiday. Yeah, exactly.

And you don't want to fudge your head. You don't want to zinc up. Yeah. Then you could just become a human for a bit, go on and have a lovely holiday, then just get bitten by a vampire again, turn into a vampire. Come back, be vampire.

Exactly. I can appreciate that they kind of really speed over that vampire cure curing a vampire is impossible I did it in like six hours oh wow that's pretty good can you make me a new serum

yeah probably I probably can I probably should have got in contact with you years ago to be honest I mean it's nice that happenstance has brought us here together

but yeah but no there is an ending where Blade goes outside and it's like there's more danger and there's more things to do and the lady who's never forgotten is like what about that guy and you look in the distance and there's a man in a trench coat with long hair standing on a building and blades like he gets ready for action that's supposed to be michael morbius which they're making a solo film of with jared let at this very moment. Leto himself. But they realised that they don't own the rights to that character because Spider-Man was at Sony and still is,

so they couldn't just put in Michael Morbius. But also, they could have just put him in and be like, who's that? Some other guy. Just some guy. Because they don't say, that's Michael Morbius! You know, from the comic books none of you are reading, that's why Marvel's going out of business.

There's also a deleted scene where Deacon Froster opens the freezer in his apartment. And there's dead babies? No, you're close. Oh, what a twist. Do you know who his idea is? He's going to release the blood tornado and infect everybody in the world and turn them into a vampire. That was also an alternate ending,

where then it would end with Blade and his lady friend travelling the world fighting vampires. But then if you turn everyone into a vampire how do you feed how do you feed so he's just got people hanging in giant plastic bags in his freezer and he's like yeah i just keep people in here and i just drink their blood like this is a test but we're gonna do this the world over it's gonna be great people gonna love it so that was the idea that's if you were thinking this plan makes no sense i was and, and continue to do so, yes. I've got a last little fact here. Steve Norrington, the director, he didn't direct enough. That's a name I recognised when I saw it in the credits,

but I didn't know what he was from. You'll know in a second. He didn't do either of the sequels, but the last film he did direct, and this makes a lot of sense, is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Oh, yep, okay. Do you understand now? Yep, Stephen Norrington's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Yeah, I get it now. That's interesting because, again, yep, okay. Do you understand now? Yep. Stephen Norrington's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Yeah, I get it now. That's interesting because, again, Blade, having re-watched it in the year of our Lord, 2019, still a pretty solid film. Yeah. I'm willing to bet that if we re-watched League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it would not hold up at this point. I 100% agree with that.

So how did a man fall so far? Yeah. Is the question, right? Hubris, though I name be Stephen Norrington, I guess. Yeah, exactly. But there you go. Yeah. What I did like in the question, right? Hubris, thy name be Stephen Norrington, I guess. Yeah, exactly. But there you go. Yeah. What I did like in the credits

we had Blade created by Marv Wolfman and Jane Colan. I'm like, that's a nice little touch because that often didn't happen. I just looked into it. Apparently that's because Marv Wolfman sued New Line for $35 million.

And then rather than giving him the money, they're like, let's give you a created by credit. Brilliant. And didn't he not get it on the second one either or something? That is correct, yes. Great.

Good work, everybody. Or the TV show. Or the TV show. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, so we're getting the new Blade. You excited for it? So excited.

Yeah. Because, I mean, first of all, reintroduction of Blade, but also introduction of vampires into the larger Marvel Universe. What kind of vampires are they going to be? They're going to be this kind of vampire? They're going to be a weird magic vampire that turns into a bat and a wolf and and whatever got hypnosis powers you want steven dorf 90s vampire you want him back yes sunscreen him up gel in the head i feel like that's the essence of a vampire you know how they say like certain men like

their fashion stops in the best year of their life and if you're a vampire bitten in the 90s leather blazer fudge in the hair oh my goodness that's right yeah what What an era. People thought maybe Wesley Snipes wouldn't be happy with this situation because he's talked about wanting to return to the character of Blade, but he recently put up a social media post where he's like, that's a new era, man. Good on him. Let him get out there. So there you go.

He's got the blessing of Blade himself. Do you think he's going to get a cameo in the movie? That's a good question. Maybe he could be the Whistler character. Yeah, maybe. By that I mean Abigail Whistler. Oh, daughter of. Yes. Fantastic. Maybe it could be the Whistler character. Yeah, maybe, potentially. By that I mean Abigail Whistler from Blade 3. Daughter of.

Yes. Fantastic. Famous anti-vaxxer, Abigail Whistler. Oh, no. Let's save that for Blade 3. All right, this has been Carrier Battle Garbage. We do this every Tuesday. You got something you want us to look at?

We'll bloody look at it. Comic, movie, video game, Blade sequel. If it's Blade 2 or 3, don't even bother because we'll get to it. Don't even worry. Don't waste your time and hours we're gonna get to them all right i would love though to hear people's thoughts on this movie how do you think it holds up it's one of those things where like i said yeah it's dated but it's not bad yeah for sure yeah so there's way there's way more good than bad in this movie yeah i don't disagree and of course we have a podcast called the weekly planet where we talk movies and comics and tv shows we do that every monday

morning you want another bloody movie news of the week? We cover most of it probably. Some of it. We're across it. Some of it. I'm at MrSundayMovies on Twitter. I'm at WikipediaBrown on Twitter. Thanks for stopping on by.

Grabbed our gem, you guys. We'll see you next week. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit PlanetBroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want.

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