The Perfect Weapon / Speak! Man! (Guest Co-Hosts Moses Olson & Ben Burris)

SURPRISE! It's a Birthday Bash episode with Guest Co-Hosts: Moses Olson & Ben Burris! In an entry much longer in duration than the actual movie, our hosts discuss "The Perfect Weapon," (1991 d. DiSalle) Starring: Jeff Speakman, John Dye, and Mako. This Birthday Bash episode (Co-Host Moses' birthday) is at least as much cake as it is the delicious filling, which can't necessarily be said for the movie itself. If you've been waiting for more in depth discussion into the nuance of the "punchy-kicky," films you know, or in this case may not know, you've likely randomly stumbled into the right podcast episode, in the right place, at the right time. How convenient! 8/6!

More Moses:

Superman (78 & 25)

More Burris:

Half Baked

Transcript

Start The Movie (conversation)

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Woo! It's getting a little hectic in here, but we can do it. We can do it. We gotta snap. We gotta snap and get ready to go. Are you ready? Oh yeah, I got something for that. Oh, what's this?

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Oh, we're just gonna we're just gonna take some hits of ammonia. I was feeling a little tired. Just do like the as Speakman does to get that little bit of uh energy.

SPEAKER_05 0:22

The deep close from behind the scenes footage is wild here.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Welcome everyone. It's the review review, the movie podcast where we take a film that's usually submitted by a guest. It's seven years old or older, two hours and twenty two minutes or less, not a sequel or part of any major franchise. And something that one or multiple, hopefully all, especially the guest party, can discuss indefinitely. All parties watch the movie before we gather a review and ultimately re-rate. I am your normal, regular. You're gonna be like, there's nothing regular about this man once we get to the end of this episode. Or if we talked about what happened just before this episode. Uh, my name is Paul. It's so good to be here. I have a couple of pals with me. Are

Guest Intro

SPEAKER_02 1:11

you guest hosts, co-hosts? How does everyone feel? I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

Supporting.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Supporting. I whatever, I'm here for it. I love the spirit. Like, just never give up your dreams. Always go after your dreams. Uh put people at a higher vibrational level. Remember to follow your dreams. Today we have Ben Burris and Moses Olsen, and we're here for Moses' birthday. Woo-woo. And your birthday. What? What? Oh, he's right. Oh boy. Was this like your 101st? 111th. Ah, well. Wouldn't you know it? Also, it's so terrible on a level, and I should probably cut this, that we're talking about a movie called The Perfect Weapon for

What Have You Been Doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:59

a birthday episode on August 6th. It's all just hitting me.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Also known as The Crazy Stranger.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Give me a second. Uh okay, but before we get into anything too deep about the perfect weapon, Moses, I want to ask you, what have you been doing? Did I say I was gonna do Burris first?

SPEAKER_05 2:25

I don't think it matters, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Okay, let me start over. What's going on?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Burris, what you been doing? Oh god. I don't know. Um I've been doing a lot of house shit. Um I'm trying to replace a garage door. You know, it's real exciting stuff. I did fly to Seattle and um uh rented a giant cargo van and filled its uh 11 by six foot uh insides with um puppets and scenery from my uh my puppetry mentor's uh theater who that had closed down. And so uh we needed to find homes for new puppets or for for all those puppets. And so I I got a handful of them and drove it back, and now my house is more cluttered than it was before.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

I think that's the only occasion where you can just kind of stand and look at that at something and say, I'm gonna fill you with my puppets.

SPEAKER_04 3:33

It's always creepy. I was gonna say that that's hard to not sound creepy, but that's impressive.

SPEAKER_05 3:40

Ben, are you also a Pacific Northwest transplant?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Um, no, I grew up in LA, but I uh I went to school. Uh I went to Cornish. So I lived in Seattle for about 13 years from 20 uh 2004 to uh 2016, and then uh I did another stint. I did a show in 2018 up there.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

I am also a Cornish person.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Oh shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:07

Yeah. Uh yeah, and I've been um uh as of this recording, I will have completed my tenure at um I've been handling all the media over at a company called One More Game and doing all their like kind of fun uh video production. It's been an amazing team, and uh yeah, the game should have come out by the time of this recording and hopefully sold like a billion copies and they bring us to do bring us on to do more stuff.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Well, of course they will have sold a billion copies.

SPEAKER_05 4:38

I mean, they've been the the the loveliest team to work with, and so it's it's uh I think we've talked about this before, but coming out of uh end of last year, my producing partner and I just had this like kind of heart-to-heart come to Jesus combo about like, let's just work with awesome people. And if we don't work with awesome people, let's get paid lots and lots of money to make it okay that they're not that awesome. But uh this ended up being the former that's um you know paying us our day rate and just genuinely the the easiest team to work with, letting us be as creative as we want. So yeah, I uh hopefully we'll um continue kind of doing stuff for them. But yeah, we're we're kind of wrapping everything up, act literally this week. So it's been been a lot of fun. Yeah, so that's what I'm coming out of. And I think every time I've been a member of this podcast or joined as supporting uh on this pod,

What Are You Watching?

SPEAKER_05 5:35

just you know, just trying to be the best darn father that I can be. So those those are the things. Hey, heck yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Mission accomplished.

SPEAKER_05 5:42

Thanks, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Yeah. What have I been doing?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Yeah, what have you been doing? What have you been doing?

SPEAKER_02 5:48

I say something that I haven't been doing, and I'm trying to really focus on punchy kicky movies this episode. We don't talk about a lot of punchy kickies. I got invited to an advanced screening of Roadhouse 2, and I passed.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

I don't I can't I won't. I just is it a sequel to the the remake that they did? Correct. Oh, they made a sequel? Correct. Oh. And also with like Jake Jillo?

SPEAKER_02 6:29

That's my understanding. I just could I I couldn't bring myself to I don't want to do I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_05 6:37

Uh Ben Prime is not here, but we should also say check out your roadhouse episode.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yeah, absolutely. Another funky kicky movie/slash episode that includes Ben Burris and like, whoa, all the overlap, the Venn diagram that's here. We're gonna talk a lot about shapes, triangles mostly.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah, triangles.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

How about that rhombus though? Come on. I would like to talk about what I've been watching.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Which we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

If that's all right with everybody.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

I find it very interesting. Now, I do own this movie, as all three of us own this movie. Spoiler alert. This movie was available at the library. I didn't need to check it out, but lucky for me, it was there if I wanted it. I couldn't get Amadeus, I couldn't get, I don't know, uh Roger and me or something like that. But they had Showdown in Little Tokyo, which I hadn't seen in quite a while, and has some similar crossover premise, but is more of a buddy cop thing and has some very different content in it and so forth. But this was Brandon Lee's first studio movie for those that are unawares, and man, I just want to shout R.I.P. from as Speakman is not somebody who I'm like, love the acting or saw got to see a huge actor's arc or whatever. Between Showdown and Little Tokyo, Rapid Fire and The Crow, this was like an actor that was learning and growing and experimenting and like some of the dialogue and things that he says, does whatever it, especially in Showdown and Little Tokyo, like somebody with like a very heroic lack of ego that's really fucking beautiful. And so it was cool to watch that movie is Moses. You and I recently discussed Brandon Lee was considered at a point, name was talked about to play Liu Kang. And my understanding is that and did you and I, Burris, talk about that at a point? Okay, Burris and I Burris and I talked about this at a point. Did you know this, Moses?

SPEAKER_04 9:16

I did, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

And my understanding is that Speakman was at least mentioned at a point to play Johnny Cage. Oh, which whether or not that makes sense or would work, or and it was like right after his his like or right before his exclusivity point ended, they made a choice on who they were gonna go with. And so he missed it by like months, apparently, like being maybe seriously considered to play Johnny Cage, which could have been like a really fun and interesting thing. I would have liked to see this guy do another studio movie at some point, but the fact that he got to do one at whatever point, etc., is it's is crazy. And we're gonna get into that.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Yeah, I uh I like uh and I think we bonded uh the very first episode I ever did with you guys. Um I like a good punchy, kicky movie. Um, I do like a lot of subtitled movies. So looking at my little letterbox diary, it's it's I'm genuinely like kind of all across the board. Like um, I've been watching everything. Um, I picked up um uh a Jackie Chan box set a little bit ago uh and have kind of been throwing that into the mix as well. And because I was asking a friend, uh, like how many Jackie Chan movies are actually good? And not to say how many Jackie Chan movies are are not you know, having him do something phenomenal or they've got these amazing. A lot of entertaining, but like how many of them are like genuinely legitimately good movies versus um, you know, and and I have like my list of Jackie flicks that I adore, but yeah, so uh there's some of those. There, you know, I saw the the bride, I saw uh the Miami Vice flick, um Chinese animation film. So I've kind of been kind of everywhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Will you take a beat?

SPEAKER_05 11:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

I saw you uh re-watched The Protector, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:21

Part of that Jackie Chan box set. And uh, you know, and that question of are are the Jackie Chan movies any good? Uh it it's I'm I'm still in this space of they're okay. Uh I it's it's one I think The Protector is fascinating because it's the movie that he was so unhappy making that he went and made what is known as one of his best films, right? The first police story film. He had such a bad time making The Protector, which was meant to be his like uh American debut, and they you could tell they didn't understand Jackie. They didn't, they basically wanted him to be Clint Eastwood, right? They were kind of going for this dirty hairy thing, and that's definitely not Jackie Chan. Uh, so it's a weird movie, but there's there are nuggets in it. So I ended up watching both cuts of The Protector. There's the original theatrical release, which is not great, and then there's the slightly better version, which is the Hong Kong cut that Jackie Chan like personally cut and added like extra scenes into and re-tried to re-edit the footage to kind of feel and it's it's kind of a movie that's a little bit at war with itself because you've got this slightly strangely cut together film. That film actually has a connection to the movie that we are talking about today because Bill Superfoot Wallace is the bad guy in it, and uh basically all roads lead to Ed Parker is really where we're gonna kind of go go go into with this. But yeah, so I've just kind of been watching everything. Um and don't get me wrong, you you said it best, like they're fun, they're they're they're entertaining, but uh good is is is is is maybe not or great, you know. They're they're better they're better in my memory of being like 12 or 8 watching them versus in my now 40s.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

There's an art to entertaining people. That is uh an art unto itself. Very fine, I'd say.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

But Jackie is amazing in them. I will I will throw it.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

You gotta put things in categories too. Like oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Categorizing, subcategorizing, all yeah, because like there are some grade B movies, there are some great fucking C movies, but you can't compare them to something that's one of you know, best

"The Perfect Weapon," Facts

SPEAKER_00 13:44

picture.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

What's what's your guys' favorite other Kenpo movie? You have what's can you what's your other name your top five Kenpo movies? Tell me, no? Oh right, because it's like if you go, it's like this isn't a subgenre of a subgenre of a subgenre, because this is a motherfucking Kenpo movie.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

It is like the only Kenpo movie.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Exactly. Buris, what have you been watching?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Um, I had to write it down. Um uh I've been watching Cape Fear on Apple. Oh, go on, yeah. I am really enjoying it. It's creepy and funny, and it's got a great cast. Um and uh wait, no, that's I'm thinking of Widows Bay. Sorry. No, oh not Cape Fear. I'm already fucking this up. I have watched Cape Fear, but that's not the one that's funny. It's uh that one's that one's you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

I was hoping Cape Fear was funny in an unsettling way. Either way.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah, and not Cape Fear. I was thinking about Widow's Bay because that's also on my list. Got it. And I just I just fucked it up. People love Widows Bay. Widow's Bay is great. Um, but yeah, I've watched the first two episodes of Cape Fear and was really into it. I uh there was a night that I I woke up at 3 a.m. and then couldn't get back to sleep, so at like 6 a.m. I just turned on Cape Fear and started watching that in the morning, and that was you know, I I don't it was very creepy in the morning, um, but really good. Um uh we saw Backrooms. Backrooms was also another uh very interesting uh movie that had me feeling all sorts of uncomfortable, but I really liked it.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Me too. I really liked Obsession as well. I think if you're a horror genre person in the way that things are going and the the generation that's up and coming, I like a lot of the shit that I've seen. Yeah, that's cool to whatever degrees. It's it's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Been watching the second season of four seasons. How is that? It's enjoyable. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Okay, I liked the first one, it has a cozy factor that I enjoy, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Yeah, and then I watched uh Punisher One Last Kill, which is not as much uh kicky punchy, but more like stabby shooty.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Okay. I watched the Dolph Lungren Punisher not that long ago. After I watched Don't have a little Tokyo, I was like, I don't know, let the good times roll. Well, we know what we've been doing, we know who everybody is and what they've been watching. I think we talk about the movie.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

All right. Um, well, the perfect weapon was brought to you by Paramount in 1991. It was rated R, and it was an hour and 22 minutes long. And this is a a martial arts movie, martial arts action.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

If you didn't get that from us talking about kicky punchy or it's a kicky punchy, right, Moses?

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Kicky punchy. Roundy housey.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Yeah. Sticky hitty, all that stuff. Sticky wacky. Um, the budget for this film was $10 million, which is $23.8 million adjusted. Um, opening weekend was March 15th, 1991, the Ides of March. And it made $3.9 million in the US, 9.3 adjusted. Uh, the final gross in North America was $14 million or $33.3 million adjusted. Is that a thing?

SPEAKER_02 17:14

We're all three here talking about this movie.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

For the I mean, I'll cut this part. Our birthday, Trinity Pro like You're seeing it. I don't like it. It's scaring me now.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

And the final gross worldwide was the same.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Now, he does mention a global release in the interview that we all watched, by the way, because this is inevitably gonna come up, but I couldn't find anything in terms of global numbers, and I asked Hal, and Hal couldn't find global numbers. Did that happen?

SPEAKER_05 17:51

I I would assume this era, and and I think we'll get into it a little bit later, too. This era of cinema just did really well internationally, right? Because this is the prime VHS era. Yeah, you know, we're seeing a lot of. I mean, we were just joking about off, you know, off-mic. Like, there's a lot of action B movie, martial art centric B movies starring. I mean, this is the the era of the white guy karate movie.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:18

So yeah, I would assume that it did very, very well international.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

And it was it was an add-on for Paramount in VHS packs with other movies to like help move other movies. It was almost like a bonus, like add-on movie that you got. And like the numbers, I think, on VHS were crazy. I mean, it made its it made its money back. And it did well in the US overall, too. When you consider like what was the marketing budget? Probably nothing.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Um, but uh going back, uh other releases this weekend were uh class action, if looks could kill, and uh guilty by suspicion. Um the weekend top five was Silence of the Lambs, New Jack City, Sleeping with the Enemy, Class Action, and uh The Hard Way. And this opened and peaked at number six.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Not bad.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

No, not bad at all. Um, other films from 1991, Awakenings, uh Backdraft, My Girl, White Fang. Oh, White Fang. Um I just had flash memories of that now. Uh, Misery, Oscar, Point Break, Teenage You Ninja Turtles 2, Secret of the Use, baby. Um the letterbox average was 3.0. And uh you can follow everyone at their uh letterbox things. Mine is at Ben DoneBefore. That's true. Yes, and uh you can follow uh the other Ben at Run B M C and Paul.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

I'm Paul acts badly. Moses is on letterboxed as well.

SPEAKER_05 20:08

I am holy Moses, W-H-O-L-L-Y, M-O-S-E-S.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Get to see all our Venn diagram all over the place, whatever, blah, blah. For sure. I need to get more active on Letterboxed. I always forget. You're you're more than welcome. We'd love to have you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

It's a safe space.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Absolutely. Umberman for Entertainment Weekly. Ah, Entertainment Weekly. You can start over. And what is the D? He gave it an overdoing ratings.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

A to F. Got it. Yeah. You're good.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Um Owen Gleberman from Entertainment Weekly gave it a D. Uh Rotten Tomatoes uh uh gave it a 36% with a 63% popcorn. And Metacritic gives it a 35%, and the user rating is not applicable.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

You know what? I'm with the not applicable people. You know what? Stay out of it.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

It's none your business. If you're not part of the popcorn still score, you're part of the problem.

SPEAKER_05 21:13

Preach. Um the the producer and director is Mark DeSalle, who basically gave us Von Daum's career.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Oh, right. Well, uh, I'm so glad you made that fix and also mentioned that. I want to make sure Burris reads this because I also think this is the first time he's read this. Yes, and he's having quite a reaction to it.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

The uh there are some major the major award wins and nominations um was uh for the the Paul R. Award for outstanding achievement in the field of movie punching excellence. That's a big deal in the very big deal in movie punching.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Mm-hmm. Multiple punching. It doesn't say the one or not. Uh uh going forward, backward, always. Making contact, always winning when you're gonna be able to get backhands, spinning, all the punching.

SPEAKER_05 22:06

Yeah. The the producer director is Mark Desal, who basically gave us Von Damme, produced Bloodsport and Kickboxer, directed Kickboxer as well. Uh, writer is David C. Wilson, who gave us Supernova, The Man from Uncle television series, and the 2002 Phenomenon rollerball.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Rollerball.

SPEAKER_05 22:29

Music by Gary Chang, Under Siege, Double Team, Point of No Return.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

I well, and I won't sorry. Go for it. I just want to say really quick. Uh, in terms of the music, I fucking hate it. It's I really I like some of the songs, but I hate the fucking music in this movie.

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Yeah, it's got that thing that I uh dislike. I call it plastic orchestra. And it's just it's it's really it's really that that like not quite synthie plastic orchestra. I'm with you. Yeah, I I definitely cringed a few times at at uh some of the score.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Yeah, the perfect weapon is the noise in my ears. I can't move, my teeth are exploding.

SPEAKER_05 23:12

Uh director of photography, Russell Carpenter, Titanic, Ant-Man, Monster Lana, James Cameron's go-to cinematographer.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Bananas, but also I see it.

SPEAKER_05 23:22

Yeah, yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

I see it.

SPEAKER_05 23:25

Uh produced by Mark DeSalle, who gave us also aside from uh Von Dahm's early oeuvre, uh, Mother's Day, Pierre David, Scanners, Videodrome, Ralph Winter, X2, X-Men United.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Starring these cats have done a bunch of action stuff. Like these action people.

SPEAKER_05 23:45

I think even as um Ben was reading off um the other notable movies, what's so fascinating about everything we're talking about, my brain can picture the VHS boxes for all of this stuff. Like I'm seeing, you know, even like everyone's credits, yeah. Jeff Speakman playing uh a very far cry from himself, Jeff. He was in the film The Expert. He was a big step.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

He was a big step.

SPEAKER_05 24:11

Street Knight, Land of the Free, John Die, Rest in Peace, Adam, making the grade, modern girls, and best of the best. I just now clicked that that is the same actor from Best of the Best.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Isn't that awesome? I'm so glad we're talking about Best of the Best and this performance. I'm so glad because there we did a recording, Moses, and Ben McFadden was like, is that real? And I was like, Oh, your tongue I am I'm all about best of us.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

And it literally like just click now that that is the same actor from Best of Us. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

I I'm reacting to this Burris. Best of the best. If I saw a poster for it, maybe I'd I'd recognize it. I'm just I'm gonna say a few names to you. Okay. Chris Penn, Eric Roberts, okay, James Earl Jones, yes, martial arts tournament movie, like U.S. Olympics, gotta win the karate gold medal, whatever, and James Earl Jones is the coach. Nope, never seen it. Yeah, but you're in. Oh yeah, oh, he's in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:18

And I would I would say, and this is this is quite the statement. Best of the best is to taekwondo movies as Rocky is to boxing movies.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Oh, whoa.

SPEAKER_05 25:30

Or this is to Kenpo movies,

FUN Facts

SPEAKER_05 25:32

and as the perfect weapon is to Kenpo movies, as is only the strong is to Capoeira movies.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Thank you, Moses. Yes, Moses gets it.

SPEAKER_05 25:44

I'm here for you, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

That's so Moses. That's so good. That only the strong pull is so accurate. It's gently fucking accurate. And now I can't help but see as we're talking about VHS jackets, the different jackets, the fighting, the music, the the uh Mark DeCostos with his hand up in the air.

SPEAKER_05 26:07

I I I had that on VHS. Uh yeah, I think right off the bat, if you're listening to this podcast today and you like yourself a good punchy-punchy kicky movie, you're gonna be in a very happy place today because I think there's gonna be a lot of nerdy uh VHS movie pulls, and I already know uh Ben Prime will be rolling his eyes throughout this episode, just being like, what are they talking about?

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Isn't it so funny that Moses calls him Ben Prime when you consider certain jokey things that we've worked on together? Moses.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

I'm so sorry, guys.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Isn't that so funny though?

SPEAKER_05 26:48

Uh Mako, uh Rest in Peace, the great Mako. Um, and also every name that we say from here on out, like a lot of these character actors, all of these Asian character actors, a lot of these like B movie henchmen and villains made up my childhood. So I'm just gonna throw that out here right as we kind of jump into this. But I mean, Mako, what a legend, right? Like playing Kim, Sidekicks, Pearl Harbor, Conan the Destroyer, uh, and Conan the Barbarian.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

I believe I'm 99% sure you're right. And I just want to say on the Conan the Barbarian, good movie, good good film, Conan the Destroyer, very entertaining.

SPEAKER_05 27:29

Back to that fun thing we're kind of talking about now for sure. Uh James Hong, again, the legend, young Kung Fu Panda, Big Trouble in Little China, Tank Girl, Blade Runner, let's just name other cool things he's in. Uh, this made me very happy. And I thought of my wife, who is a huge fan of Law and Order SVU, Mariska Hargate playing Jennifer, Lake Placid, leaving Las Vegas. Uh, if you've got a gavel, bang it now, Law and Order SVU, Dante Bosco, Jimmy, uh, who is in Hook, Extreme Days, but I'm a cheerleader, very famously known for being in Avatar, the animated series, Bo Star, Captain Carl, and Fletch, Halloween 4, The Return of Michael Myers, and Cinderella Man. Uh, Seth Sakai, Rest in Peace, Lo, The Hunted, uh, the 95 version, The Next Karate Kid, Captive Hearts, Professor Toru Tanaka, Rest in Peace, Three Ninjas, The Running Man, Hall of Famer in the WWE, and Last Action Hero.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:29

Clyde Kusatsu, uh, who was Wong in Midway, the 76 version, 47 Ronin, Top Dog. Again, another legend who just passed uh before we recorded this. Kerry Huriyoki Takawa Tagawa, uh, Mortal Kombat, Rising Sun, License to Kill, and every villain in any movie that I watched as a kid. Uh speaking of Showdown in Little Tokyo.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Yeah, I I want to say also really quick, and I'm gonna cut all this piece out before Boris, you do the fun facts. I know the Bosco family, and I am close with them. Let's all be nice. And like that being said, if I'm I'm considering so many people from so many action movies, but also in this movie, this child is acting circles around this man. Like it's embarrassing if you're Jeff Speakman. He also did hook the same year. He's dude, he is everything in Hook. That is a Rufio movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

I uh I grew up because when I was around that age when this movie came out, I looked kind of like him. So every time I watch that movie, like any movie that he was in, I like imagined that I could be in these movies. So there will be no Dante Bosco slander.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Yeah, no Rufio slander. This is a house that respects Rufio always. Okay, all day around. Uh give it like a two or three count. And also last airbender.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

I mean, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

Yeah, as we said, yeah. Avatar The Last Airbender, he's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Okay, good. I somebody that was like on the program like started in on Dante Bosco of all people, and I was like, Don't don't do that. Like I was like, of all people on the face of the planet, like, what are you doing? Like, this is weird. Uh, and not to say I thought you guys were gonna do that. I just want to make sure I said something. No, for sure. Clearly, it struck a nerve with me when it happened. Uh give it a two or three kill, and then you can read the fun facts.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

And now it's time for fun facts. That's fun. Yeah, right. I thought so. This sounds fun. Yeah, great. Um uh this film is chock full of stunts and martial art legends. Um and uh here are a few. Uh I'm gonna butcher this. Uh Craig Ng. It's N G, so I was like, um, I'm gonna start again then. Here are a few. Uh Craig Ng, uh John Koyama, uh Roger Wan, uh Leland's son, James Liu, Leo Lee, Philip Tan, Brandscombe Richmond, Phil Chong, uh Jeff Imada, Al Leong, uh Will Leong, and Dick Warlock. The shape.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Not Dick Warlock, the shape. I'm not saying like penis wizard or like caster until you said it. No, but he was he played Michael Myers in one or more. He had to have done the fire stunt in this movie or something. That guy's like a fire stunt legend,

Brought To You Buy

SPEAKER_02 31:33

but like also Leo Lee, the dude who plays bandana, that guy fucking rules. That guy's the shit.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Um oh, the uh the likeness of Speakman as Jeff Sanders was used for the cover of the video game Fighter Maker 2 on PlayStation 2. Ooh. And if you didn't know, the Fighter Maker series allowed players to build their own custom fighter using 3D models, costumes, body types, special moves, and even camera angles ahead of his time. Wasn't just a clever name. It was really a game where you you make your fighter. Created a fighter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Neito. Did you play Fighter Maker Moses? Of course I did. I mean, if it had this one.

SPEAKER_05 32:23

Yeah, if if you if if had had any martial arts or any fighting in whatsoever in it in a video game thing, I had to at least rent it and play it. Did you it just had to happen?

SPEAKER_00 32:33

I don't know if I played this one. I definitely remember Shack Fu.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Me too. That's actually a fucking underrated game. That's a solid game.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Um so in this movie, uh Jeff makes his way through a lot of enemies that are knocked out or incapacitated in some way.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

For indefinite periods of time. For yeah, very 30 seconds, days, months, years, years, eternity, decades, yeah, forever.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Uh but uh when Jeff finally definitely kills, as his father had foreseen, Tanaka, it's in self-defense. As opposed to the previous enemies he initiates uh the fights with. So, you know, when you see Bosco say, You didn't kill him, it's like, no, I didn't, but I did kill that guy and maybe that guy. But I made that guy this guy over here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

I exploded that guy. The amount of bloodlust that people have in this movie

Cinephile Round

SPEAKER_02 33:33

at times is like that. This child's like, kill him, kill him, kill him for me, Jeff.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Kill him for me. Insane.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

All these people trying to pull this poor, beautiful moron who is capable of murdering all these people to just murder for them.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Like just putting like a double on the shoulder.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Like, do it, do it, just do it. It's just like everybody's just like, I'm I don't know, I gotta kill somebody at some point. Like, that's the big thing of the movie, is just like he's like, I gotta kill somebody. And the audience, you're like, kill somebody, even though he killed everybody already.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Um, star Jeff Speakman signed a multi-picture three-year deal at Paramount prior to this film going into production. Um, and a regime change occurred soon after, and the projects he was attached to following this were strategically shelved by the new leadership until the three-year contract period had passed, and they could terminate Speakman with no repercussions. Wow. Yeah. Um, one film in development was a sequel to The Perfect Weapon, which makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

Yeah, maybe they'd let a lady have a word to speak. Any lady, a lot just one line. Any of the perfect weapon, a lady speaking. The perfect weapon, too. A woman gets to speak.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Um, another one was uh was a script about a mad bomber terrorist that uh if it if that at all sounds a little familiar, went on to 20th century Fox and became speed. Oh shit. Now imagine uh like just uh after watching this, like imagine Speakman instead of Reeves in in uh in speed. It would have been a very different thing. Or

First & Current Experiences

SPEAKER_00 35:33

speed two cruise control.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

They may they maybe could have got Speakman instead of Jason Patrick. Like, dude, the Keanu looks so good with that buzz cut, man. He's so good in that movie.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

He's great in that movie.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

I love him in that movie. Oh darn. Imagine all of the kicking and punching and martial arts on a bus that could have happened.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Like he would have just ended up ripping out like the passenger bars and like feeding to keep playing. Very like, very different movie.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Um uh and then oh yeah, uh, Speakman was still considered for speed before the lead role went to Keanu Reeves. So that's at least they like let him read for speed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

They did let him read for speed.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

Great.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Yeah. And by the way, I want to say that Keanu Reeves played Ted, and I know that, so I get to keep my Bill and Ted cred. So don't be rude, dude. Don't cop a toude. Like Jeff. What's left?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Uh the log line for this film is uh an expert in Kempo karate avenges his Koreatown friend slain by a mobster in Los Angeles. Pretty cut and dry.

SPEAKER_05 36:56

Pretty pretty straightforward.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

That is that's the movie. That is the movie.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

This episode is brought to you by Cut and Dry. Enjoy. We'll be back. Happy birthday. Fun time. Great. Invite me. Why not? Bye, American baseball. We'll be back. Will we?

SPEAKER_00 37:20

What's happening? Doing the one that I know.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Well, we're pretty cut and dry on this, as we're back from break with Moses Olson, Benjamin Burris. Benjamin is going to look up an actor for us as we don't have the Cinephile cards. Moses. Benjamin McFadden has the Cinephile cards.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

He has the Cinephile cards.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

The only way to destroy him is to get my Cinephile cards back from him. Why do I need them? What do I do with them? What kind of power do I get? Don't worry about that. Don't ask no questions. Just get me the cards. I would really appreciate it. What are you looking for an actor from 19, like from Wings from the first winner of the Academy Award? I was going back and forth.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

But I think that's between 16 people?

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Um right?

SPEAKER_00 38:11

This I think this is one.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Moses, you want first or second? I'll go second, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Okay. I can see what you're doing. Um all right. With uh since the uh the remake just just came out uh I think this past week. We're gonna do uh uh Dolph Lungrin.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

The Punisher from 90.

SPEAKER_05 38:41

Yeah, okay. Uh Joshua Tree.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Also known as Army of One. Can I use the alternate title?

SPEAKER_05 38:49

I think it's the same movie, so you should go with a different movie now.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

Shit.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Men of War. Pentathlon Universal Soldier. The Expendables. Masters of the Universe. Ooh, good one. Rocky Four. The Expendables 2. The Expendables 3.

SPEAKER_05 39:14

Creed 2. Oh, nice call. Uh let's go with Oh man. I want a really, really fun one. I come in peace.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

Good poll. Really good poll. Blackjack.

SPEAKER_05 39:31

Does that count? Because that was a television show.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Oh, was it a pilot technically? Yep. Fine. If you want a challenge, I'll take that. Uh View to a Kill.

SPEAKER_05 39:40

Oh, wow. Nice. First movie. Let's do. I'm gonna bow to you on that one because it's yeah, that movie is a good one. Yeah, let's go with that. View to a kill is a great one to close out because that was his first movie, yeah?

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Yeah, I think that was when I think he was mostly doing stunts or whatever, and like he was introduced to people by Grace Jones, because I think he and Grace Jones like had a thing at the time or whatever, and she is fucking Grace Jones.

SPEAKER_05 40:06

So yeah, he was her bodyguard, right? I think. Yeah. No, I I like that. I feel like that's a good one. It's full circle first movie, and now we're talking about someone else's first movie.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Yeah, right. And we were talking about Showdown in Little Tokyo, which had Dolph Lungren, which coast Brandon Lean is first studio movie. It's all crazy. It's creepy.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Uh okay, Moses, if you would be so kind, would you please tell us your first experience with the movie The Perfect Weapon as you recall it? And if you had any rating at that time, what was it?

SPEAKER_05 40:43

Yeah. Um, so this movie, The Perfect Weapon, starring Jeff Speakman, uh, was a movie that you know, we're it's it's going to kind of keep coming up. Is to me, I loved going to my local video store, and that poster that is right behind y'all.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Uh just I saw it everywhere.

SPEAKER_05 41:06

I thought it was the coolest looking poster, seeing you know, him with the two sticks in his hands. And I I think I was just very, very hyped to see it. I think it was always, you know, I I went to a really small mom and pop video space near us, and it was always kind of gone when it had first come out. And I think I ended up finally seeing it at my grandparents' house on VHS. Like I think I was out in um at the time when the movie came out, I was still living in North Carolina, but I was visiting my grandparents in Bremerton, Belfair, and got it, sat down to watch it, and I remember for all my excitement, because again, absorbing every Von Dom movie and every straight to video DTV, martial art, action flick, I think I remember being a little bit disappointed in the movie at the time. Um I remembered obviously thinking that the Kempo on display was very cool. Some of the uh fight combinations were really cool, but I think that the movie, even by my little nerdy direct-to-video standards, was just okay. So I remember just being like, oh, that was okay, and not like loving it in the same way that like the very first time I saw like a Steven Seagal film or a Von Damme, you know, the many or the few Von Damme films that I just had over and over in rotation. So if I had had a rating for it, watching it alone at like midnight when everyone else was asleep in the house by myself on the It was like a guilty pleasure you were ashamed of the perfect weapon. No, no, because it was just the only time like because the Olsen household is just so big that everyone was just kind of like little little cousins.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

So it was just also a little embarrassed.

SPEAKER_05 42:49

No, zero embarrassment. I I had no shame in making yeah, but I had to get through whatever whatever the family you know had been wanting to watch, some Disney movie, you know, the classic clamshell Disney movies.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

You were like, uh, you know what? I'm gonna save my battles for the things that matter. I'll watch Perfect Weapon alone in midnight.

SPEAKER_05 43:06

Yeah, they gave me enough free for making them watch, you know, whatever it was, Superman 4 or something. So yeah, uh the quest for peace. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Way to go, gentlemen, way to go.

SPEAKER_05 43:19

So yeah, uh watched it was, you know, because again, uh that poster was always up at the the the my local video shop. So I think by the I think it was just too hyped up in Little Moses's head at the time. But like was it at least a two and a half? It was a it was definitely a two and a half. I've seen it now.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Oh, it was that.

SPEAKER_05 43:40

It was that, yeah. I'd I'd say if it was a out of a out of a five star, potential five stars, yeah for as uh as most like two and a half, maybe two point seven five, something in that ocean. And subsequently after, because I've seen the movie probably every Because I always want to enjoy the movie more than I do. Every time and every time I've seen it, I'm always like, oh. Don't I like this more than I and and every time I revisit it, it stayed at a solid 2.5 every time.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 44:17

And this go around as well.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

Uh going to spin around. Spin around.

SPEAKER_05 44:22

Spinning around. The the things that I I like.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Punch pin punch pin pin punch punch punch cake.

SPEAKER_05 44:28

And that I will say, yeah, and we'll we'll totally get into that later. Like, um, but I will say this recent iteration or uh visit, I was like, okay, I haven't seen it in a while. Been I'd been meaning to watch it, so it was funny when you were like, Oh, I kind of want to do perfect weapon. Let's let's get all together to watch it. I had a it was like genuinely in my wish list, like two point for your birthday.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

We had to get together to watch it for your birthday.

SPEAKER_05 44:54

It was for my birthday, which makes me yes, dreams do come true, gents. Never stop dreaming. And right now it is at 2.5 way too tight jeans and too wet, like sweaty.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Yeah, it's wearing like martial arts pants and stuff, and like they're loose to like, oh, you can flex.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

And he's he's just wearing these fucking jeans, like he's wearing, it's like, oh man, he's wearing his sister's friend's little sister's pants.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

How is the cross not like ripped out? Like, I just keep waiting to see like a giant rip in the cry.

SPEAKER_05 45:32

Then it's just a good gusset back there. That's that's all you need.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Perfect weapon indeed. So uh between Burris, you and I, uh, who who talks about their first and current experiences? Um, I'll go.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

So, okay, this is this is so interesting. So, my experience of this movie is has basically been since it came out. I've my dad has had this poster like on the wall of whatever place he was living uh since then. Um he was I'm pretty sure he was an he worked on this film, was uncredited, and then he did work on he worked on Street Knight in '93.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Which was like Speakman's next movie. Which like was uh three calendar years waiting, or what he waited a long time to shoot it, I think.

SPEAKER_00 46:19

And so yeah, my dad was the UPM for that, and um, and um I was talking to my mom, and we uh because he never hung posters on the wall of things that he didn't work on. So and I have this perfect weapon poster that I then uh realized was also signed to me from Jeff Speakman that says, To Ben, remember to follow your dreams. And but when I was when I was really young, I'd look at this poster was like, okay, he's carrying a stick and a pan flute. Because of the motion blur of that one, I was like, why does he have a pan flute? From like my height and like where it was on the wall, like and then as I got older, I was like, oh, it's a motion blur, and I actually understood what was happening.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

I love that you thought it was a pan flute. One movie you thought it was like a music, a movie about a guy who was like, no one will stop my music, and it was like an evil composer behind him.

SPEAKER_05 47:17

Like, in Ben's defense, there was a whole series with Kung Fu with Quai Chen King running around with a flute.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Right, that's true. And the legend continued.

SPEAKER_05 47:28

Many Kung Fu the Legend continues, also rocking the flute.

SPEAKER_00 47:31

You got Bosco's in this film who also did Hook. Right. Um, the same year, Pan the Man, Pan Flute, Pan Whoa. I mean, we have to stop connecting all these things. So uh with that said, I embarrassingly will have to say that I watched this movie for the first time last night. After the first 15 times you saw it? No. After staring at this poster for my entire life. I watched it for a second time every night.

SPEAKER_05 47:59

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

How did you what did you I know? Because I told we all have, by the way, the Kino Lorber Blu-ray.

SPEAKER_04 48:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

Which is something that people can snag very easily from all sorts of outlets out wide for like a very reasonable price, new and used. So like check your check your interwebs if you're interested in snagging this movie when we're done. As I said, and I wasn't bullshitting, it has like 700 letterboxed entries or whatever it is, but it's at the fucking library. Like, can you get Schindler's list? Probably not, but you can get the perfect weapon.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Like, and it it's weird that my dad never like sat me down and like watch this movie because I also I grew up going to like all of the Jackie Chan films when they hit theaters and Van Damme and Seagal, and but not this one. And then it just I don't know, it's like then I just like the poster was here, and it was just like always like a I guess not a point of pride, but just like, well, it's I just it for whatever reason just never came up to like watching it, and um, and then yeah, now yeah, my dad passed away, and I was like, I should start trying to watch some of these things that he didn't show me.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

We don't have video here, but Moses gets to see Speakman over our shoulders like watching over us in Standy and poster form. Like, you're not gonna hear, I think, on many podcasts at all, people talk about Jeff Speakman movies, like from the Jeff Speakman filmography. Uh, so that said, Boris, you just watched it. Do you rate it highly? Do you rate it with some of the high-rated Van Dams and Jackie Chan's?

SPEAKER_00 49:40

I think this is I when I started watching this, I was like, oh, this is just a classic, like 90s action like film, like martial art film specifically of that era. And it was it was enjoyable. I enjoyed it. I'd probably give it I'd probably give it like a three because I enjoyed, I you know, it's it's like I know what's wrong with it, and I know watching it, I was like, oh, I wish they had done this. Like, why didn't they do this? Or like, oh, why doesn't this woman ever speak? This character that we see as a child, and then as an adult, but is just like walking around and staring very intensely at Speakman and but doesn't say anything.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

Like, but you can tell the inner monologue for both of them is I'm gonna make you come, no, I'm gonna make you come, no, I'm gonna make you come. And you don't know if they're gonna, you know, you know. So but it is interesting that like I don't think any there's not a female that has a line in this movie, like other than like a uh an off-screen mumble or something, or whatever, like it's nobody. So I And then I watched it again today. So I've watched it twice now.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

Okay, making up for less time.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Buris has watched it twice. Yeah, I need to ask the two of you. Can so I do a thing on here when I rate things where I tack a hard on to the end where it's like this has personal entertainment value. I personally love this, but I can't imagine that most people would necessarily would either of you add that for my three rating, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

I mean, otherwise I'd probably say like I think 2.5 is more accurate, but like a okay, uh, okay. Moses.

SPEAKER_05 51:17

I think I think the hard part for me is as you know, we were kind of joking about earlier, I am so well versed in this niche genre of type of movies that it there's just too many that I do like or adore or have like a deeper connection to that I I think would get a heart. So uh as we get into the review-review portion, this I'm excited to kind of have that kind of shift. But yeah, I don't know if it gets a heart for me as just a like for me though, when I give something a two and a half in general, like overall, like especially in Letterboxd, is like if you're a genre fan, two and a half is like you're gonna dig this. Like, you know, if you don't like this genre, don't check it out, is kind of what I usually say with like a 2.5. Like that's my like, you like these type of movies, you're gonna watch it, you're gonna like it. This is for you, you know. Um, and so that's where I'm at right now, is like right. It was okay. Well, I'm gonna book it no part yet for me.

unknown 52:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Also, Private's like it's it was also just such an interesting thing to watch after I I've lived with this for so long.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

He's always been watching over you, protecting you, protecting you, playing you to sleep with his beautiful flute lullabies.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

Seriously, for the last uh 26 years, it's been in the hallway right over there, you know.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

I uh I'm gonna blow both of you away, maybe. Now, first experiences with this movie. My former stepdad, my stepdad at the time, like my mom and stepdad had a fairly extensive VHS collection, and this was part of it. And similar to it sounds like both of you, the poster was like captivating to me. The font is great, it's super like macho and has like this red drop shadow, and he has like this ghosting effect and Toru Tanaka's and this drop shadow behind him, and it's just like it looks so menacing and high energy and everything. And uh it took me until I think like watching this movie whatever time, at least the second or third time, with my stepdad, and he was like, You're kind of like this kid, like you just have like this crazy anger and like energy about you, and whatever. And it was kind of the thing that started my short, sporadic martial arts story, and so it's holds like a special place for me. So I feel like I need to say that and always has. Yeah, and the first five years I w had access to this movie, probably, and maybe more than that. I don't know how many times I watched it, eight or ten. And so I probably rated this three and a half leather couches.

SPEAKER_04 54:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

This is JD Vance's least favorite movie. JD Vance fucking hates this movie. He's like, get him away from that poor baby, it's already dead.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

He's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Okay, so I re-watched this movie today, and I'll tell you, I watched it and made notes and occasionally had the commentary on because that's available, and watched the interview with Jeff Speakman in the trailer, which had some different cuts of some things that the movie didn't use. And uh I watched it twice because I just wanted to watch the movie a second time and just like absorb it and feel it, feel it. Oh, different, different canned white dude. But um, I mean, I've watched, I mean, I watched this for free on YouTube the last time I watched it before, like, and Moses knows this, and I've watched on you know Blu-ray a few times now, and it looks great and it's got a lot going for it. And Burris mentioned something off mic, like we spoke very briefly. A lot of stuff didn't get used in this movie, partly I think because some people were like, so this guy's great at Kenpo, right? And everybody's like, uh-huh, and they were like, so he should do that, right? And they were like, uh-huh. And they were like, but the acting part, and they're like, he's great at the Kenpo thing. And so, like, the the movie has like one storyline, and I think it actually kind of works for it. But that said, I walk away with two just absolutely destroyed. JD Vance had his way with it, leather couches, but with a heart, I love that I own this movie. I will re-watch this movie. I think the movie has a lot of like deep themes and things it's trying to say, and I don't know, doesn't always. And I also think it's beautiful to see a lot of these actors that you don't get to see shine, like this is a house that respects Rufio. I don't get to see a lot of Dante Bosco. I don't get to see like a crazy amount of James Hong or Jeff Amada or Karahirayuki Tagawa, or like a lot of actors in this movie are doing a lot of fucking heavy lifting with a pretty fucking hollow script to make this movie entertaining. And like Speakman is one of those people at times, so I should give him a little bit of credit for that. Uh so that said, two and a heart. So we're at a two and a half, a two and a half with a heart, yeah, and a two with a heart, and I will say it may be difficult to maintain because apparently I uh I'm kind of bothered by the fact that it's like, why does no woman speak in this movie? Like the one we've talked about, and I'm like, what the fuck is that about?

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Like it's weird.

SPEAKER_02 57:09

Uh Jennifer?

SPEAKER_00 57:11

Mariska Hargate. Um in the deleted scenes, that's where she speaks. Of course. Where it's like she's the one who's not her fault telling them about the dragon, and like that's not how you find the dragon, and that's not how how dragons act in the almost kiss moment that is just you don't feel it from him.

SPEAKER_02 57:35

Oh, it's awful. Is it like have you seen Demolition Man? Yeah, is it Stallone in Demolition Man? And him being like, You want me, right? And Sandy being like, I'm here. I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 57:46

She's leaning in because she was told to lean in and then have to keep leaning in. And Speakman is just still, is not leaning in. And he was just it was cutting all the work there in front of this really fake rock. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_05 57:59

And that's I think also for me, as we kind of jump into this, also where it kind of stays locked in at like a two and a half. Uh, the way that women are treated in this film, and then also just being I'm I'm black and Korean, so Korean culture, this is one of the few I think that was also where my disappointment as a young kid, because you know, not getting to see uh the Korean culture being shown ever anywhere in Western cinema. And and so I think what was really hard this go around as well, and one my memories of seeing it that first time is that there are no Koreans playing Koreans in the film, and then the weird mix of uh using Korean, but Kempo is Japanese and just the Asians in the film. It looks like the script, the script kind of really feels like it was from leftover other movies using Asian mysticism type of stuff. So Mako, who is Japanese, is playing a Korean guy who's taking this kid to go do a Japanese-Chinese martial art with an instructor who's meant to be vague but is meant to feel Japanese-ish. Like it's it's just a weird use of Asian culture randomly. Uh, the only good Korean that you hear is in whoever was hired to do the background voices in the background, some of them. Even some of the Korean in the movie is not Korean, it's just like gobbledygook letters. So it was it was just a little bit of a rough, like those things kind of came back up for me watching this.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

That's that's a bummer because one of the big bummers for me in this movie, and we've talked about Ed Parker a little bit, and I'm sure we will a little bit more, but uh Master Lowe is an avatar for Ed Parker, is my understanding. And Speakman and the writer worked very closely together, and Ed Par they wanted Ed Parker to do the movie, and the studio and various other people for whatever their reasons were like, no. And part of the reason is they were determined to have an actor of Asian descent in that movie for exactly what you were saying, Moses, where it's just like you're just using this or these things as like a hook. There's no actual like respect for the culture or whatever. You're just do you're doing what you think you should be doing, or what will make you money, or Miyagi and Karate Kid did it.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:24

Yeah. Yeah. But I I I also want to defend the film, right? Like, I think something that's really important when we jump into this in movies like this and movies of a particular era, and a martial art, and let's we've got to say his name, and hopefully we'll say it more than once. Ed Parker is is very much uh in the spirit of this film, and I would argue, and this is coming not as just a martial art movie geek or you know, be martial art geek, um, but just as a martial art geek, period. Um, Ed Parker is like, if you've got this Adam, he is like he is the core of all of this. Um, Ed Parker is a very, very big deal in the martial art world, especially in the martial art world in terms of cinema. Without Ed Parker, you don't have Bruce Lee going to the invitational and and showcasing Jeet Kune Do. Uh without Ed Parker, you don't get to know who uh Chuck Norris or Bill Superfoot Wallace or uh the Jeff Amada's like basically all the stunt men that you see in this film who probably were attached in some way because of uh his invitationals, because obviously Jeff Speakman speaks very highly of him. But um, you know, he's the reason that quote unquote Elvis learned karate, right? He was known as kind of uh Elvis' bodyguard. He's the guy that taught, quote unquote, uh Elvis.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

It's it's definitely more of a uh here's your black belt, buddy, kind of it's really cool though that this movie is is a celebration of martial artistry, like mostly one discipline for the most part, but martial artistry in general. We've all watched the interview. Speakman's feelings on martial arts and humanity and stuff in general. He seems like a very grateful.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:10

And I think Parker being you know known as kind of the father of American karate and uh uh American Kempo. Um I I do want to like defend it, even though I just said what I said about it as well. But I'm fine, having a diverse uh Asian cast, and and again, these amazing Asian character actors that are still in the game today. Yeah, um, these stuntmen, you know, you've got uh Louis 10, who's in the Mortal Kombat, the modern Mortal Kombat movies, it's his dad is one of the stuntmen in this, right? Like there's a whole legacy of martial artists, and um I would argue also that maybe this mix of Korean and Japanese and you know, Chinese and these actors kind of one, it was these were the go-to actors, these were the go-to stuntmen you could trust to to take these hits and kicks. But also if you're doing Kempo, especially in places like California or Hawaii, right? Like you are gonna see, you know, not just Japanese martial artists uh taking place in this. So I want to hopefully give it the benefit of the doubt that they were also going for kind of a quote unquote realism.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

Well, and we're we're gonna get into the movie a little bit more in depth here and more like chronological, but there's also I think a lot just like a celebration of the stunt person and just like so many things happening in in this movie, and I think it does touch Moses on some things a little bit, like that it should a little bit more, or whatever. Like, I'm hoping to bring your score up or keep it where it's at, because I totally understand why you're at a two and a half, or like it's got a lot of great things going for it, but like also it looks like a fucking cheap like movie that has been pretty hollowly written, and like a lot of like it to Jeff Speakman's credit, as he said, it it takes a village. No, Hillary Clinton said that. Let's be cut and dry about that. But Speakman says something similar where it's like coming together and doing this thing is very difficult, and some of the things that are specifically done on this are particularly impressive, and we'll get into that as as we move forward. The movie opening with that perfect perfect weapon font that's different than the font that's in that's on the movie jacket and everything, which is so fucking cool. And I know I'm talking about like, you know, only shit that only three ADHD kids with no babysitter are gonna be like, oh, that's cool, yeah, that was awesome, is like excited about. But this begs the question between the lethal weapon and the perfect weapon, who wins? Because only three ADHD kids would care about this. Who wins between the lethal weapon and the perfect weapon?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:56

Probably the weapon that's lethal.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:59

Okay, but the other one's so perfect. One speakman won't Gibson. I say the perfect weapon. I don't know. No, I mean, as a movie, lethal weapon's amazing. But of course, like we're way overthinking. Like, wait, how does this break? What are the rules?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:13

Oh, no, it was I was definitely doing what are the rules, and I was definitely like, well, he does do uh Kimura at the end of the first movie. Like I was deep weight, and I was like, and he did take on Jet Lee in four. Like, you know, and Jet Lee's dodging bullets in that movie, man. Like, you know, so yeah, yeah. Um, and you know, and that opening too, when we're watching him be this kind of blue collar guy, you know, this era, and again, this is such a what? What's that? Digging for what?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:47

Digging what but I'm just saying, like they're digging and doing construction, and it just shows like this handsome guy with like a drawn on beard or partially or whatever. And there's just like all this group of dudes just digging around and throwing dirt around at nothing. Yeah, at nothing.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

Doing his kata. He looks fucking great. The moment I saw that, it reminded me of Hugh Jackman in 2000's X-Men. X-Men 1. I was like, oh, Hugh Jackman was just like channeling Jeff Speakman. Because they always talk about like this is what uh looking buff looked like in 2000, which is you know, just like there was not a lot, it was just lots of hair and some pecs for Hugh Jackman. It's like I was like, oh, it's the same thing. And it's like and his hair was all the same. I was like, oh, this is just he was channeling Speakman. Speakman looks fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:43

Like he looks like he looks actually attainable, dude. Great. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:48

Yeah, he's and I think that that's that's where I'm kind of going with this as well. Is this era of cinema where we had right? Like you would generally, again, we we're gonna keep saying it. The the the poster for this movie was just so cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:01

You know, it was it was kind of everywhere. But that this era, for those of you that didn't grow up with this of VHS boxes that that grew up with like you would legitimately have these people that weren't actors, uh, you know, that were just martial artists, like, oh, you were a kickboxing champion, you got movies now, right? Like Don the Dragon Wilson had how many movies to his credit for a guy that didn't act, you know. Cynthia Rothrock had a whole career because of she was a woshoe stylist. You had these amazing martial artists that kind of jumped in. And what I thought was really cool when you start to go, oh, this is the guy that you know is one of the reasons that Von Damme kind of blew up, who again, right? Like Von Damme's credentials were all over the the back of the boxes in this era. When you see Speakman and you see him digging for no reason and being a blue-collared construction guy, the first thought is like, oh, he's a good looking dude. And then when you see him doing the kata, you know, at the beginning of the film, and it is very different than what we've been seeing at this point in time, the Von Doms who's like flexing every five seconds, doing like, you know, not real moves. Um, Speakman looks like a very in-shape, like he looks kind of attainable. It's still like he looks amazing, he's an incredible shape in that film, but it's also one of those things where like, oh, like I immediately the movie's kind of telling you, yes, you've kind of seen this thing before, but we're also, you know, we're we're pumping up the volume just a little bit here. And he's he looks really good, he's moving really well, he's doing a different type of flow. We've never seen that style, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:36

The grace and power that coexists, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:39

You know, I think the way that uh, you know, uh Segal's first movie, where they really wanted you to believe that this guy was this amazing master and studied in Japan and like this movie kind of goes through that right away, right? And just goes, look at how he's moving, it's very different. And I I do uh really appreciate that. And and I think at the time, and and still as we were joking to this day, we don't um see that type of movement here in the US.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:05

And it and it just proves you right at the beginning that he is a dangerous, sexy animal.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:10

Yes. Oh, on the parallel tonight. He he there's also a level I feel like the it's easy to imprint on this guy. Nothing about this guy feels like unattainable or what have you. And there's also a level of like he looks like Roddy Piper from They Live, where he's just like some construction guy with uncuffed hair, and who's like, hey, be nice to people. What's your problem, or whatever the fuck? I when the movie also it everything happens like to a lot in so many ways, a level of convenience, uh derived or planned or not, like in this moment where Jeff is like, I'm gonna do my kata and call my buddy Kim for the first time in many years, and Kim's being robbed by these local gangsters.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:05

He's being pressured to uh let them sell drugs.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:08

That's what it is. Thank you. And Kim's like, no, I'm good. Mako does Mako things, and I'm not in any of that. And the gangsters are mad and disconnect the phone, and Jeff's like, fuck this, I'm out of here, and immediately books back to Koreatown. Because he's he's been gone after he got his belts and all this other stuff we find out through a flashback for how long?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:34

Because he left and he was driving, and then it's like, how do we how does he know that guy he was just on the phone with? Well, let me tell you, can we do that whole well and they he left when he was how old? He was like in high school, he was like a senior, it looked like because he he was on a yeah, he was like a junior senior, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:54

Because he was pole vaulting and dad kicks him out because he kicked the kid in the face. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:01

That's crazy. How does it so he comes back like 45 years later?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:08

I think I think that they're going for the movie magic, like he's been gone for about 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

For I was gonna say like 12 or 14, truly, but like also like him and his younger brother, who's somehow three years older, are all like I'm like both of these dudes are clearly not. I like how Moses is like movie magic. It's like, no, no, no. You be nice.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:35

That that that that very perfectly shaded beard has zero gray in it, sir.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:41

Uh that like the thickness changes and like the angle changes a little at times, but he also has a dope car. He has this cool like red Mustang convertible that he's flashing back to when he was in Kenpo school rather than military school because it was only because of uh the protecting the brother.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:03

Well, the the friend I can't think of his name, who he's talking to on the phone. Uh yeah, yeah. Um Kim gave that idea to his father who was gonna send him to military school.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:12

Wait, and it's not one of those new age hippie schools, is it? No, no. Somehow their dad, who's only six years older than me. Okay, so uh Kenpo school with Master Low, and there's this kind of like wait, what am where am I at?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:41

Yeah, flashback.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:43

One of you guys can take over for however long.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:45

Yeah, I mean we're we're here, we're we're as as Ben said, we're the and I think that this is also where my brain just goes, oh, this is so straightforward, paint by the numbers, he's in the car, we're getting the flashbacks, the Asian master, kind of everything that we've seen. And that's why I said in terms of the genre flick, like this has been done a million times. And the montage, yeah, it's the montage of like the moments. Like hear the belts and the rings, they and they add the ring thing, which doesn't really have much to do in the film. And aside from there's a little bit of a Miyagi-esque master teaching esque thing about the dragon.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:25

You want to get punched with that ring.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:26

But see, that's the thing. No one, no martial artist would keep a ring on their hand. Like, no, you wouldn't. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:32

And I think I'm in dragon mode. Going in tiger mode.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

Tyrannosaur!

SPEAKER_05 1:13:43

So that's that's where even little Moses was like, uh, and now grown Moses is like, there's what is with this ring? Who like, and it again, that's where the the Asian mysticism thing, the dragon ring, the tiger ring. Well, I'm sorry, tiger is to in Korean culture, uh, a tiger is a very big deal. But you know, this ring that doesn't again. I was like, I think even as a kid, I was waiting for like, oh, we're going into we're going into this mode, I'm flipping my ring, and that never it never plays into anything aside from like one story, but yeah, it's just a weird, you know, again, we're getting all the things, but the fact that he gets he randomly calls Kim, who's in that exact moment being like harassed, and he immediately drives there to have this fight. Like, that's where my brain starts to go, okay. Like, this is and as we said, like, nothing's inoffensive. This is where it's going, it's on this track. Here we are, and and he ends up showing up right in time as the as the heavies are destroying the place that they want to have him sell things at.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:51

I want to say the kid who plays young Jeff, the big reason why he decides to leave is because the younger brother gets hit by like a football player, and part of the reason why the football player is pissed is the younger brother is like he could he could egg and he could he could kick your ass with one foot. Untrue. He uses two feet, he uses both feet, he goes right, left, right, left. Just saying. Well, one foot at a time. That's the main thing that why apparently, like, Jeff, why had why Jeff had to leave town and his dad's like, I want you out of the house, I want you out of this place, like you're dangerous, and the level of how absurd it is that he shows up after all these flashbacks and how long it takes to drive to Santa Monica to Koreatown and whatever, Kim is being attacked in the moment Jeff arrives.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:52

At that exact moment. Oh, I know. Perfect timing. Um, I one more thing about the flashback. One moment I didn't enjoy was um the roundhouse kick uh succession of the belt changing color. Um uh growing up through these kicks, and you watch him like getting uh um it's effective. Yeah. I was like, oh, it's like oh fun little, fun little uh camera moment there.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:14

When you see and you see him pole vault, which not only apparently dude did, but also like sets up something like later in the movie where it's like, okay, the guy is a was a pole vaulter, but like whatever. I'm not gonna come back. And it's like they do set it up, and they do. I will say, Moses, there's there's a part here where there's this pretty good fight set piece, and there's this kind of thing where one of the gangsters breaks this stick that Speakman gets and it makes like Kenpo sticks, and he's like, Come on, you know that was the last thing you want to do. And he's like, No, he doesn't. You're the he did you're just some fucking guy. You're just some dude who walked in here. He doesn't know that these sticks make you some sort of magical man or whatever. Like you assume this, but where Jeff gets done with this whole thing, and Jeff's like, I don't know this, I don't know that. And Kim's like, Yeah, you've never been Korean. You're just like you're just this white guy that showed up here and like basically like stay or whatever, but like mind your fucking business. All you can really do is fuck shit up.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:16

And it's also of that era, you're in a shop or a you know, it's a bar, it's always like a grocery store, whatever it is, a place where stuff can break. What I I will say though, and this is where for me the moments when the movie does kind of shine or glimmer is it does glimmer, man. There they're glimmer man.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:37

Wrong movie. Sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:38

But there are moments like this where when you know, because Speakman does moves that if you're a martial art guy or a martial artist just period, that are it's not just his combinations, but he'll do this like step-in kick that that the the hours that he must have done as a martial artist to do this very seemingly simple kick that is clearly rooted in like a traditional karate. Um, I'm I I do love that. But in that that even when he grabs it, gets the sticks and he'll do these kind of like this kind of smirk or smile, and those are my favorite parts of the movie when the movie wants to be a little bit fun. I think when you know, when it's a little bit in this kind of straightforward mode of just traditional of the era action film, but those things we you know, we were just talking about Jackie Chan's Protector. The the Hong Kong cut of that that Jackie did, the a lot of the choreo, because it's Jackie adding these things, feel and have a rhythm that Jackie Chan, you know, has has perfected, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:37

I I agree with what you're saying in terms of like when it adds little like things with like the foley, like with the sound effects with like things breaking or knocking or hitting or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:47

But even when Speakman is smiling, the yeah I I think I enjoy, you know, like I again we get to it later, the pole vault moment. Like, he's like, Can you believe that work? Like that kind of fun energy, that like a little bit of like a playfulness, if you will, are is when I think the movie is at its best because it does differentiate itself from the traditional Western action movie of that era.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:11

Well, and it's like there's there's whatever you want to call it, an air of confidence, an arrogance, a thing that comes over that really works. That other action people that have done more studio movies, Seagal, that doesn't go that way in a Seagull movie. A lot of these things don't go the same way, like in some of the movies with people that arguably were quote unquote more successful with their movie career or had more longevity or what have you. I I agree with what you're saying, Moses. There is a part of me that's like, why are you doing that? But there is a part of me that's like as an audience member, I'm like, okay, I kind of like this nod. We're just coming into the second act, and this is revealing to me, like, this is where this is going from here. Like the the movie really is built around these like Kenpo reveals and fights.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:05

Totally.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:06

And they happen, they happen at very specific beats. Like, where this little thing that happens here afterward, where Kim again is like, Hey, Jeff, you're an outsider. I love you helping me fix the window and hanging out. It's really good to see you. Like, this is Jimmy, he's the best. This is Dante Bosco, who's playing this role. And they're they're having these nice little bonding moments that are like mostly working that kind of feel like Jeff integrating into, reintegrating into like his home community, like the people that he knows, and like learning who some of the new people are, etc. etc. Like again, like his acting isn't like necessarily singing for me, but some of these moments where people aren't fighting, especially where you're giving these, we've talked about this, these character actors some room to like do a little bit, like it's fun. It's it's fun to watch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:08

And there's just so reliable. Like, this cast is like a great cast of very reliable actors that were doing a lot of work in this time. But like Mako immediately adds a dignity, right, to that role. Yeah, like he's not on

Meet Me Halfway (through the movie)

SPEAKER_05 1:21:22

screen for as long as it feels like he is in a really beautiful way. But every moment that he's there, he's very believable. You, you know, there's a gentleness, there's a wisdom to him, you know, and that's even his abrupt kind of death is a bit of a bummer because it makes this show of like, oh, he served in the war, or I don't know which war it was, but he was a war. You know, like, and I think that that's again, it just feels so like cliche in these actors, Dante Bosco especially, like, are trying to make the best with the material that they've been given. You know, Mariska Hargate doesn't say a single word in this film, but she's she does well with the longing look that she, you know, gives, which is you know, insane for you know the material that she's given.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:03

They they have these looks back and forth. Like Jeff even walks by the dojo at a point and she like catches him and he's like and like runs off. And it's like any normal person would have just walked any other way than you did, other than by the crock pit or run away, ran away like you just did, but okay. And so when Tanaka kills Kim, it becomes clear that Tanaka can't kill someone if he doesn't have this flower, like to leave or whatever. It can't become official, it won't be effective unless he does that. And Jeff gets in what I think is the first really cool of a couple pretty cool, because it's not like the last one wasn't good. This movie has a lot of fight scenes, and there are a couple different cuts of this fight scene where these guys are like, give us your wallet, and you look at the one from the trailer, the one that made the movie, and so on and so forth. Holy shit, man. There are also some recognizable actors in that group of horror. Yeah, I was like, Oh, dude, just a bunch of like stunt and character legends, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:05

That guy in the thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:07

The yeah, exactly, just the way he moves and the way that he raps, and like the spinning is a little excessive at times, but also it looks really fucking cool for camera, and also like the way that it's choreographed, which my understanding is Ed Parker and Jeff Speakman spent a crazy amount of time choreographing this movie on the choreography of this movie, and it shows, and it really shows. I think the trailer cut Burris and I were watching the trailer. That the the camera angle of that wallet fight in the trailer is really fucking cool. Like it's all just like a side angle, and the whole thing happens, and it's really awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:54

Yeah, and that that fight to me felt the most like a I've been to a lot of martial art demos, and that that fight feels the most Kempo-like to me. Like the most kind of traditional, like that would be the one that you would have on display, and and it would probably be like a wallet, give my wallet kind of demonstration kind of fight scene. But it's it's it's the thing that I do love, and this is you know, when I mean we're all uh performers here as well, like right, like when you can get an actor to just be or do, and that's obviously when he's the best, uh, but that fight, especially, um, whenever I'm watching um actors that have learned martial arts from a movie or learned the choreography from a movie, the one thing I tend to look at are their shoulders and their feet. Um, and man, if you and I know it sounds so weird, like I like to wash their feet, but like if you watch his movement, like the way that he moves his feet, the way he steps in, the way like that that guy's not moving like an actor that learned the choreography. That is the positioning that a person that is a fighter, uh that is a practiced martial artist would do, right? The positioning, the way that he steps in with his left or right, the way he kind of angles out. So when he's sitting on a backfist, he's not just spinning with no power behind it. It's meant to go, you know, the spin is similar to like a Muay Thai spin or something, where this elbow or this backfist is I'm doing this to generate power and to right. We saw the um the uh the Dark Knight trilogy, the Christopher Nolan Batman series.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:29

They use I was gonna bring this up in a minute.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:32

Yeah, the KC fighting method, right? Which is uh uh has clearly a lot of Kemple-esque movement in it. Uh it's a little bit tighter, it's got a little bit of a prison system uh fighting styles kind of thrown in there as well. But that that movement that he has, you're like, oh, this guy's again the 10,000 hours as a martial artist are clearly in his movement. It's really cool to watch.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:55

I definitely, yeah, I totally clocked his stance uh in a lot of these fights of just how how ground he like he grounded but could just go go out in a in a moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:06

There there is a more than zero percent chance that someone after this movie was done was like, we all agree Jeff Speakman's a great fighter, right? And then they cut a scene that didn't include fighting. So the brother cop is now back as Jeff is getting questioned about Kim's death, and he's a witness, and we get Clyde Kusatsu for a short moment in like a nice little like kind of authoritative position and gives the the little brother the case, which seems like that's not something that a police department should do. But the movie very quickly after this, because Jeff is on the case as much, if not more, than the cops, and it goes to the taekwondo gym. And this fight apparently was two and a half days of shooting, had over 20 hours of footage, and before takes Speakman would like mainline ammonia to like get himself like jazz up before a take. These are his words, like and it wasn't something that you could fake. No, this is gorgeous, it's lit beautifully. I think the slow motion motion usage in this movie is fantastic, and then where the cuts happen uh when Speakman talks in the in the interview where it's like how many cameras they were using at times, it feels like a camera almost cutting to another camera, like almost in exact micro nanosecond timing. And the The Leo Lee's attitude when Speakman comes up to him and he's like, Hey man, you know this guy? He's good at Taekwondo. And Leo Lee's like, Man, fuck you. Full contact. And like the smile on his face. And these are like this is Speakman and a bunch of just people watching and just these fucking legends like going at each other apparently for two and those jeans, Moses, those jeans.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:27

Those jeans.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:28

Those sweaty fucking jeans.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:31

Those tight, tight jeans. Um, well, yeah, and you know, the fight starts with the legend James Lou. Um, and I think speaking of one of the uh the main uh members of the Korean team in Best of the Best and fought uh Jet Lee in his American debut in like uh Lethal Weapon, uh Lethal Weapon 4 that is, but like I think I never loved this fight, even though I love everyone in the fight scene. Um, and I still don't love it, mostly because of that kind of stand around and wait to get hit energy, and I don't understand quite the motivation of why they're doing this.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:09

Don't they say one at a time?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:10

Well, um they do say one at a time, but I think it's it's the the way that everything's kind of presented, and I don't get what the stakes are in the kind of the scene. But I will say this, even with my own disconnect in terms of the emotional stakes of the scene, I will say it is a bummer because you're watching this film, and I'm like, we were sh what you were just saying earlier, like we were shooting and cutting action movies in this era better than we do now. And I I that did kind of like the fact that the even though I felt disconnected from what was happening and kind of the what what was meant, it is meant to be a showcase of speaking speakman's skills, which is clearly what it is. And and his very specific style of kicking and and and this and that, uh the fact that he can even get a spinning crashing kick up with those jeans on is impressive in itself, let alone a jumping spinning crossing kick.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:59

But I think it's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:01

It's it is amazing, but it is um it is really nice to see coherent visual action in a thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:09

The thing about the wallet fight that's so great is a couple of those guys take a couple of hits, a couple of those guys take a hit, whatever it is. In this, as you were saying, Moses, it's a showcase of Speakman's skills. Boy, is it because like the amount of punching and kicking that happens to people in this scene is ridiculous. I will say that per second. My point, it is unbelievable how much like head trauma each one of these people like goes.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:45

Especially when your punches and kicks sound like machine guns every time you throw one, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:49

Like in a movie that in a couple points in action scenes, like it's brutally realistic. And and other points like this, it's like cartoonish.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:59

What's also kind of even for its era, you know, because we're seeing um Speakman take a hit and take a kick, yeah. Uh, that's not a thing we ever saw Von Dom do. It's not a thing we saw Segal do. You know, it does separate itself not only again from the modern era of action design and or and specifically the way we shoot it in Western cinema, but even strongly the way comparatively to the heroes at that time, right? Like you never saw, you know, I mean Rocky would get punched, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:31

Like, but beyond that Rocky should have been dead after one Rocky.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:35

That would be the only the only you know especially three, but every Stallone character outside of that never really got hit, right? Every Schwarzenegger, every Seagal movie, right? He's he's the one breaking everyone's arms. And and so there is something that I think I can see what they were trying to do in terms of the scene. I just don't get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:54

Yeah, I get it. Yeah, I get it. I also like by the way that you anytime I've tried to like kind of make fun of the movie or poke a hole, you're like, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I just want you to know if you didn't realize you're doing that, you're doing that. So there is this moment too where the younger brother cop goes to a local like Asian restaurant in Koreatown and wants to ask some questions about the murder. And the restaurant owner, host, whatever, like not only kind of like takes advantage of the guy's ignorance, but it's his way of being like, I'm not gonna talk to you. Nobody's gonna talk to you. And at the end of the interaction where he's like, Have a nice day. Like, I I really like that little scene. I like the actor who plays like the host or what, and I like that it ends with just like, I'm not talking to you. Take your noodles and go. Like, you're not, you're a cop, you're a white guy cop.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:45

I don't need you. And it's until the punchline of like him saying, Have a good day, then like, oh, okay, now I know what we're doing. But before that, I was like, I was starting to get uncovered. I was like, Oh, this is a really like I like that it flips it. I like that it flips doing this. Like, this is like, oh, okay, I get it. It's all it, yeah, it's just I I'm glad you picked that up.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:02

It was there, yeah. I was there for a reason. I was like, okay, it feels a little cringy at first, and then when it kind of flips it, it I think it really was like all on purpose. Yeah, Moses is nodding his head. Okay, this is good.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:14

Again, no world apparently. Just again, I would like to see an actual Korean in a movie that's supposed to be in Korea town.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:20

That's okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:21

That's that's my one wish.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:23

Yeah. So we go to Kim's funeral, and somebody says, like, no one's saying anything. Like, it's just like a very somber, like, no one, like, again, another kind of pointing something out that like uh the younger brother says, like, no one in the neighborhood saying anything, no one at this event saying anything. Like, it's a different, like, you're ignorant to this. Uh, the brother and Jeff, and like those guys, like you don't really know what's going on, and they're they're looking for Jimmy. They know there's like a kid who saw what happened, and lo and behold, of course, fucking Jimmy. Fuck there's Jimmy, man. Fucking he's right there, putting on his very noticeable red cap and then just like booking it.

unknown 1:34:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:10

Oh my god. And he gets away really quickly because he's the quickest runner in Koreatown or whatever his claim is. And when the brother and Jeff get into it, with Jeff's insult, why don't you go play with your little badge? And the brother then accuses Jeff of like Kim's dead because of you. You hadn't been. Jeff hits him, and then the brother pulls a cocked and ready handgun at his brother's face.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:43

Like that escalated quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:45

And like walks away and kicks a cardboard box or whatever. Like the some of the I wonder what some of the scenes are that got cut, because some of the scenes that they kept are just like, what what?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:56

Like that scene where he just he just so quickly pulls the gun on him, like out of nowhere. Well, the the little brother had to like toughen up because um Speakman got kicked out of the house and wasn't around to protect him anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:12

So he But like did Speakman kill somebody? Did he rape somebody? Did he deal drugs? Like it's just it's like he has an anger problem. No, he protected him. Get him out of here. He protected his brother against bullies. Right. And he said, and then better pull your gun safety off. Yeah. Also, it cut that part, and then it cuts to this beautifully lit. I love a lot of the neon stuff. I know Moses, you're saying like some of it's just fucking gobbledygook, and that's unfortunate. But like the look of some of the this stuff when he's like walking into the crock pit club, and even though he's walking like a fucking robot, like nothing about his walk is natural as he's going in.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:58

That song.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:59

And you see him all the way up, feet, head, above his head, everything. It's such a weird shot for like, I'm pretty sure an Academy Award-winning DP first movie. Like, I'm pretty sure first studio movie, one of his early studio movies. But like that crockpit club fight, my goodness. I love this fight. The Bransom Richard, little like legendary stunt guy, bunch of legendary stunt people in this. And the guy who apparently, according to the interview, was like, Hey, Jeff Speakman, kick me in the face for Ed Parker. And Jeff Speakman was like, No, I really don't want to. And the guy was like, do it. And Jeff Speakman was like, I'll like, I'll kick you with like the pad of my foot. I'm not gonna kick, like, uh, like, I'm not gonna fall. I'm not gonna kick you with my heel, I'll kick you with the flat of my foot. How long? How many how much distance does that guy travel in the air?

SPEAKER_05 1:36:55

He goes flying, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:57

Yeah, like six feet up, down, forward.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:01

And it's a beautiful spinning kick, too, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:05

And does it he breaks Al Yang's neck right before that? Like he kills somebody. Yeah, yeah. He does like this thing, he gets a murderer. He's like, Oh, Al Leon doesn't even get his crunch bar, anything.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:17

Yeah, and we're so used to right, like seeing a little bit more from Al Young at that era, both he and our model. But but there is something, again, right? Like, you're seeing very clear action, really great movement. And even that story you just shared, uh, what I really appreciate is this almost like, you know, especially in the fighting, like uh actor, uh, actor-fighter community, you know, the the conversations and the dialogue around people like Steven Seagal, who was also really big in this era. I what I really appreciate is you know, Speakman being like, I don't want to do that, right? Versus like it was known that Steven Seagal would like hurt, you know, want to hurt an actor or want to hurt, you know, stunt men, and he would like to be able to do that. Why?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:00

He broke Sean Connery's wrist or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:02

Yeah, like he would just do these kind of things. And here you're you're seeing this like very high level of like uh respect uh amongst martial artists and respect uh you know, even these post-interviews where you're hearing Speakman talking about working with these um actors and these stunt performers and the level of love and respect that he has for them. Just uh my heart like really kind of uh opens up in those you know kind of conversations because I think it's just a really cool thing to hear uh from fellow martial artists, you know, that kind of uh conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:34

And you can you can really see like his precision uh within these fights as well, just of speakman, just like his he's he's he's so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:43

He says that uh in interviews. I love that you brought that up, Moses. That he's like, look, not all my movies are great, not all my movies are like you know, big blockbusters or whatever. My acting maybe is whatever you think it is, but like I really tried to bring it with the martial arts that really matters to me. And I watched The Expert not that long ago, and I'm like, yeah, man, dude's legit. This guy's a legit martial artist when I watched that movie. I couldn't finish it. But I was like the couple fight scenes that I saw, like was likely that he him choreographing and less money, less time. Like, you can feel these things, but you can also feel his love for the artistry, totally, which is really, really cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:28

And you said it from the top of this too. Like, how many Kempo movies are there?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:34

Dude, this is it. Yeah, the I cannot think of another. The that's part of why I give this movie the heart, like the entertainment value. I can't think of another movie that looks like this. We we've mentioned a bunch of martial arts people, like we've done martial arts people's movies on here, like uh Stephen Chow and Wesley Snipes and some of these things. And it's like this is a movie that that has a very specific look in its physicality, its martial artistry, its brutality that that makes it so specifically watchable that I really, really like and not making it puffed up with movie magic to make them make the the choreography and and the the fights even more.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:20

Like it's the fights themselves, they hold their own. The the celebration of and we just gotta film it.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:26

Yeah, of Ed Parker and Lou Angel and and Kenbo and and all these different disciplines and these different people that have worked in different media, like we were just talking about Al Young, where we're like, oh, he normally has more to do than like just get his neck broken. And it's like, but also you're doing that stunt with this guy in his first studio movie, had basically worked as a glorified extra before this. I feel like we've not talked about this. I I know I've like said some things about his acting or whatever. This is a guy doing his first fucking studio movie who has a background as a martial artist, and so I just want I feel like I need to give him his flowers a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:01

And if you're comparing asking a lot, and if you're comparing him to again this era of throwing any guy with uh any martial art cred and sometimes no cred whatsoever David Bradley, Michael Dudakov, like Speakman is not in the the lesser of that group, right? Like, so it we we should give him his flowers absolutely for that, yeah. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:24

I mean the core the choreography in this movie, as we've said, as I've said especially, is like it's very specific. And it's also been said that uh if Tanaka doesn't have a flower, he can't kill people.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:41

And the amount of joy he has to take it out and put it on his so free. It's just like he's so happy. I'm just so happy for his joy.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:49

Yeah, yeah, him talking to himself too. It's so cute.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:52

At the croc club, because there's someone in the shadows like, no, take him outside, and the professor doesn't kill him and drags him outside, and suddenly we're back at Kim's. Like, out of nowhere, it like you feel the edits at points, and this is one of them where it's like suddenly we're back at Kim's memorial and we're meeting young. And there's a part of me that's like, why not have the young stuff happen before the crocodile pit? And Moses, you and I have talked about this. I don't know if I've talked to you about it, Boris. I don't want to sit here and talk about what a movie should have done. I want to talk about what they did and what I saw.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:29

Totally.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:30

But it's for me, it's so easy to play armchair quarterback as a as a professional dipshit of just like taking the the young stuff and moving it to before the crocodile pit. And still at the end of the crocodile pit, you're like, don't kill him, he's useful to me. Just take him outside.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:47

Especially because we see Young at the funeral, right before they start running after Bosco. He's there in the background in one of the shots where he's talking to his brother, and then he just walks away. And then we we move on to chasing after Bosco.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:59

And we don't they don't explain who he is, but you know he's evil because James Hong is a legendary villain, and you know he's a bad guy. Like you look on his face as like, oh, this guy's no good.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:09

Yeah. And it's it's kind of a bummer, right? And and again, this is where we play in our two, two and a half star kind of space, is it's like a pointless mystery that isn't a mystery, right? Like it's a weird red herring that's just kind of existing, and maybe it's a leftover from a previous draft, but whatever it is, it's not, you know, it just extends the length of the film, is really all it kind of does.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:33

And it's a short movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:37

It's not, it's not long. And the the the fact that young James Hong, it's like clearly this guy's evil. Clearly, this guy wants you to kill people. And I will say when he's trust him, when he has him go, that's Kai, or like, watch out for him, there is just a level I think that you were saying this about Mako Moses, that I give Kari Hiroyuki Tagawa. Like, there's a level of like of villainy or intimidation, a level of respect that like I give him in these types of roles. Where when he's like choke when Speakman's choking him, when when Kariuki Hiroyuki Tagawa flicks the cigarette that he smoked none of, he hasn't even taken a drag, nothing, and he like very coolly flicks it. And Speakman's choking him, and Kari Hiroki Tagawa is like, go to Sam. There's a level of me being like, Yeah, go to Sam. Like, but the James Hong of it cancels it out. I just know.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:45

We've got to give Kari Hiroyoki some props because he does try to speak some Korean. He sounds like a Japanese dude speaking Korean, but he does a pretty decent job speaking Korean. Like better, better than other actors I've heard that are supposed to be native speakers. Uh, so props to, but yeah, you're right. There's a there's a presence, and there's a I mean, you know, he was like the go-to guy in this era, and every interview I've ever heard with him outside of the movies he did, you know, he's kind of a gentle dude. It was weird seeing him in his like Disney era where he is just playing more of a native Hawaiian guy, you know, and get to kind of speak a little bit more pigeon and and these kind of things. But you know, this era of cinema, like the moment he shows up with that slick back hair that he had in every friggin' movie he ever did, you're like, Yep, he's a bad guy. He's gonna, you know, like you're just you're in. You already know that that guy's a thing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:37

Yeah, he's great. He has so much like gravitas. Like, I'm always so interested in like what he's doing or has going on. Maybe that's part of it too, where he's like, Sam did it, and I'm like, yeah, do whatever karaoke takeaways go to Sam. Yeah, and so Jeff goes to one of the other South or goes to other one of the Jeff goes to one of the other Koreatown crime lords, Sam, who is pointed out, and this break-in scene, especially outside, I love it. I love the look of it. I I see Russell Carpenter's, I see it all over.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:16

I was like, this is such a crazy elevator. Yes, I mean, like, very cool, but like, what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 1:46:23

Didn't they do this in speed?

SPEAKER_00 1:46:24

Put Jeff Speakman in speed, streak the hostage, outdoor, like outside of the building elevator. That's like being held by like a rope. And it was like, oh, what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 1:46:36

But I loved it. It's just enough to not squish a man at the top. I do like the look of it though, like the lighting, oh, yeah, and the framing and the way he moves through it. It's like it's very cool. It looks like shot very well. It looks like it could be from like a movie that costs two or three times or whatever. And we were talking about this, Moses too. There's so much with Speakman where it's like you and I who watch stuff like Gary Daniels movies and stuff like that, where it's like, no, this is this guy like doing this stuff, it's cool. Yeah, like and and the the lighting in the camera is almost showing it off. And Jeff makes it to Sam, gets through all his guards through these dynamic little fight interactions that are are great because they're short. Is that part of why I like them so much?

SPEAKER_05 1:47:30

Yeah, well, and I think also we're we're aside from aside from what's happening in uh Asian cinema where we're getting a lot of character-driven action, I think what really is great about this is even even you know the the the um gym fight scene and each of these kind of set pieces, they're all kind of rooted in character. They're all rooted in like oh, I get this guy's fighting style and and what he's doing, and I get what this henchman's kind of few moves that they're gonna throw off do. You know, like I think that that's what I do. The it's not just that they're short, but that they they make sense. Like, yeah, yeah. I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:13

And like using what's around you. I love a good fire extinguisher moment, you know, like everything is a weapon.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:18

You know, what are going on? And every object around you is and that's like the scary thing that some people are potentially taught for whatever reason, and you may think it's scary. I don't know. I I use the word scary, but that's like part of why this guy in this movie it even says in the tagline, no gun, no knife, that's a lie, no problem. And it's like, you know, this guy could grab a fucking coaster and be dangerous, is the idea of the whole the whole movie. And Jeff proves all that, right? When he's breaking into Young's place, this Koreatown gang lord gets through all his guys, and Jeff's gonna like break his neck, and Dante Bosco pops out and he's like, Young killed Kim Dick, Tracy, which I love that I love that delivery. I think it's so funny. The the level of mischievousness that he gets away with, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:18

Like, it just totally works. And they make the point of like you trust the first person who told you who killed him, that and you didn't know him, and you just and you were going to kill me in front of my kids based on this.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:34

I really like that it feels like you know, Bruce. What you're saying, it's like a thing that it keeps reminding us like this guy is an outsider, he knows nothing, he's a bull in a fucking China shop, he does not care, he's just like, I want vengeance.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:51

And that's the first time I feel like Speakman's character like kind of got put a check and he's like, Oh shit. Yeah, yeah. I fuck. Okay. I need to. I need to I want to kill in Rampage, but I just need to like take it back.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:04

But it also would you not be taken aback also if like a fucking gang lord looked at you and was like the perfect weapon? You'd be like, Alright, man. Alright. Cool. And the the like when Sam's like, you came in here to kill me in front of my children. Now you're leaving with my blessing in one of my people. What a fucking day. Like I really like that little Dante Bosco gets a bunch of awesome exposition. James Hong gets a bunch of good exposition. And just this actor with this very distinct voice, and I know I've seen him in a couple other things or whatnot, but I just think he does this lovely job of wrapping up this scene. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:50

Does anybody disagree? With this crazy stranger.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:53

The perfect weapon. Moses is nodding and smiling.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:57

Just again, no Koreans in a movie that's meant to be Korean, and none of the thing he's doing is very Korean, but he's Asian and he passes on the Asian wisdom and the Asian gentleness. Like it's just that's that's again where it just keeps me from like none of this feels like a Korean gang thing, you know. So it's it's a weird. I think by the time we're in James Hung putting him on this weird, random loop-de-loop. I'm like, I don't why are we why are we here? Why did he want to just randomly kill this guy? Like, you know, it I that's that's where I'm like kind of hurting.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:32

He thinks he killed Kim. Like though that's the only storyline that the movie is going on.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:37

For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:37

Who killed Kim? I have to kill Kim, and there's a mystery of who killed Kim in between this.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:43

And I And he's just seeing red the whole time, and this is the first time he's like, ah shit, I I fuck.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:48

Yeah, and there's a a part of me that it's like, man, this movie like they recast the Ed Parker role with Seth Sakai, not only because he's a good actor, but because he is an Asian actor. Is there a part of me that's just like I find this entertaining? That's like you know, the d the devil's in the details. I don't know a better term to use or whatever, but it's just like if we get down to the nitty-gritty of some of the stuff in this movie, like it's like haphazardy, like he is, but I don't think the movie's trying to be too much. No, and I think it's it just is.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:30

It's and and I I'd be curious to see what the original script was. But I it I think, like I said, my disconnect isn't just that it's not Korean and this and that, but more it's it's trying to be playful. We're doing the elevator bit before that, and he's like sneaking into this space. It doesn't feel like until the moment where he's about to kill this guy, it doesn't feel like he's here to kill this guy. It feels like we're trying to be an adventure movie in this point, and that's where I'm like so. We get this the punchline at the end of that is you know, this great line. And again, you've got actors making the best. Delivered well, but but I like I said, I'm just never connected to what's going on because the film is just going down this, like, oh, this is the next part of the story, and it's it doesn't feel like you know what we're used to in a movie like this, which is like very mysterious and ninja-like, and he's getting through the thing, you know. Instead, it's like, oh, he like got in the thing and he jumped. Like, and I think that that's why when we get to him wanting to kill this guy, I'm like, we were just having like a lot of fun here. You're like sneaking in like a kid on this adventure, and now you want to kill this guy. It just feels like we got real serious real quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:39

Is you're yes, you're true.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:41

It does ramp up really quickly.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:42

You're making a lot of sense in that part of the reason why I think I like this movie is that it's a bit of a tonal mess, in that the movie seems like a fantasy, like a fantasy adventure to some sort of degree. There's a movie I've referenced on this a few times called Cool as Ice, starring Robert Van Winkle. And I have reviewed that movie on Letterboxd as 100% white man's fantasy. And there is some of that in this movie. There is, I think it is effective at the message of saying, like, all you can really do is fuck shit up. You don't respect these people, you don't really respect what's going on, you're a you're a bull in a china shop, you're a blunt fucking instrument, and like you just wanting to go around beating the shit out of everybody doesn't necessarily help. And we need to say the title of the movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:44

Yeah, we need to say the title of the movie, right? He gets we finally get the you're the perfect weapon, right? Like, yeah, we get it all, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:51

It is and I do like the actor committing here. I do like the actor, I I do like that the movie has like a bit of a tonal juggle, but Moses, you are right in that like it's not always successful at juggling that.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:04

I think what we've got here, and and yeah, let's let's just give it to it right off the bat. This movie is the Asian buffet.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:16

Right, it's just got a little bit of everything there. I don't know if I want to eat very much of it, but it's there if you want it. And this is this movie is that equivalent of it, like giving you kind of everything. And I and I, yeah, so I I see I see where you're going. I'm gonna I'm gonna be like, yeah, you got you got the the the fried rice, okay. Yeah. How long was it under that heat lamp? That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:38

Yeah, that's yeah, yeah, that's where we're at. I we were talking about tonal things when the movie does this thing here too. You make such a good point, Moses. Like when they're in the bank teller line, the only place that anybody ever knows where Young's gonna be, him and his bodyguard go to the bank teller every day. It's told to us in exposition, and Tanaka's going through the line, and the woman dumps the tube and gives him the finger, and it's doing this kind of kooky thing with the eyes cut in the newspaper. And then it goes into this pretty fucking well done car chase. Burris is kind of reacting.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:23

Oh, I just um in the car chase, there's just this wonderful rule of three that happens. Yeah. The timing is just a little bit off, but the there's like a um a construction, no, not our um um there's like a roadmaker or something. Oh yeah, oh shit, and then another car goes, oh shit, and then and then the the all the cars like hit together, but the timing is just like it now, it's like done like an extra like beat and a half, and then the brother goes, Oh shit, because he his car crashes into all the other ones. And it was like, because like I heard the first two was like, oh, there better be another oh shit. And I was waiting, and it's like and it was like that heartbeat, and I was like, they're not gonna do it, because it's like it didn't match up rhythmically, and then it happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:06

I was like, Well, thank goodness it did, but like timing was just a little I like I like the chase itself, and I it's so it's like you pulled it out of my brain. In the editing, like it's like somebody makes like this wild turn, or you're looking at somebody's face in the car, and it cuts, and the car seems like it's in the right position, and like it looks like the drive, like the driver's asleep. It's just like there's there's not any continu. There's continuity apparently in the in the positioning of the car, but there's no continuity in the in like the actors' like faces whatsoever between these cuts.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:43

I also love that everyone's seatbelted except for Bosco, who's just like in the back, like this is fucking off child, who's yelling, this is fucking awesome, during this thing, because who wouldn't think so?

SPEAKER_02 1:57:55

When they finally come to this big car crash, and we cut to the little car crash that Tanaka gets in, and a car falls on the limo. I gotta say, like, it doesn't work for me. Like him like lifting it off the limo, and it clearly got pulled by a hook, and it's just it's like we know he's strong.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:17

We can't, but he headbutted someone to the ball with one headbutt.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:23

People are dying all over the place in here. People are getting their necks broken and fucking knives thrown in their collarbones and shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:30

Yeah, that's that's also a thing in this movie. You know, he he probably headbutts Mako to death, and and the cops are like, we just don't have the evidence.

unknown 1:58:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:44

Again, we don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:46

I'm like, I'm pretty sure there's some DNA left when it's like, blood, hair, spit, yeah, DNA existence there.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:54

Yeah, but that being said, I'm I'm with you guys. I think what I do like, and and I will always love, and we get it a lot in this era of cinema. I love a real explosion, I love a real car gag, I love car sliding. You know, you I you see the piston, you know, you see the air, you know, yeah thing flip the car, but I'm here for it. Like people worked on this, yeah. People worked on this, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:16

You could tell that they live life and limb to entertain you, to put a heart on this movie if you rate it on a podcast someday in the future. Uh so Tanaka is gonna finally drop the flower. The fucking standoff here, and like gets into a standoff with the little brother. And I like that it does the double taser and it gets him where there's like a level of like the largest fucking taser 50,000 volts, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:44

Like, you know, the the 1991 taser model.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:47

It was just like, wow, it was so it was really luckily it had two shots because the first one didn't work. And Toru's not gonna go down. And I will say the brother also, he's like, get a paramedic to check this guy, back the crowd up, do this. When he goes through little police procedural things at some points in the movie, I'm like, this guy's probably an okay cop. Like, maybe he's actually going in the neighborhood and asking people what happened. Like, there's a level of a tiny level of detective work at least. Hey, I tased this guy, can we get him an ambulance?

SPEAKER_00 2:00:18

When he does pull out the first set of tasers and then it shoot, it jumps back to the brother, and you see that oh shit look.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:24

And he's like, Okay, next one. I was like, Adam, you're okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:28

Of course. So the third act, because the big second act thing is like I think that's what the movie leads us to outside of Kim's death, is like Tanaka is unkillable, and like Jeff has to kill somebody.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:46

That seems to be part of the movie. Well, he escapes the police car by like smashing through the the the cage easily. And then I had to rewind this the first time because I thought that he killed the brother. Yeah. Because he takes he he gets out, he's handcuffed, and he he drags the brother out and takes his gun to shoot the chain of his handcuffs to free him, but it does it so close to the brother's head. Like, I thought he shot him in the head and I had to go back and check again. And I was like, no, they didn't make enough of this if that was the case. And so I I uh I was like, all right, I don't think they killed him.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:20

Like he he didn't kill the brother because like they were still like the cops were behind him or whatever. Like, what happened there?

SPEAKER_05 2:01:25

I don't know. It's it's a little messy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:27

Yeah, oh what?

SPEAKER_05 2:01:29

Just just you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:31

Okay, fine. Well, the brother ends up in the hospital, and Jeff says to the brother, like no head wounds. I used you, I used you like I was used. Yeah, no head gauze. Yeah, didn't hit his head on a rock or anything, which was good. She was driving anyway. But the the thing with with Adam being used like Jeff was used, and Jeff telling him everything that's been happening, and still like on this quest more maybe more so for vengeance after his brother's intraction?

SPEAKER_03 2:02:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:02:14

I would say so.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:15

Like the does the brother say to kill him? Kill him, brother? No.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:20

Is that just Dante Bot, just the child? Just Dante wanting him to be able to do that. The brother immediately forgives him. He says, like, right, the brother's like, yeah, I used you. I didn't we didn't actually identify this guy. We know, you know, and so that's why Bosco was there, and he he didn't actually ever see him do this. And I used that moment to get to the guy who um uh young who uh who made the order the kill order. Yeah, and he wasn't in the car, and I use you, and I don't, and you almost died because of it. And the brother was like, you know what, we're brothers, it's alright. Go out there and get him.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:56

Go do a good job, super good. I was like, Oh, that was uh that's not what I expected. Okay, well, there you have it. I just like I I I'm more interested and captivated by other actors giving exposition. I think I've seen this movie, as I've said many times, and I'm like, this is what happens, right? And the as we're talking about this, that is the if not the biggest, the second biggest Jeff Speakman exposition like jump. And I'm like, wow. Like tells you how much I was paying attention. And so Jimmy, after all the plans are revealed and everything's thought of, and uh Speakman's gonna wait till the night. Jimmy says, kill him for me, kill him for Kim, kill him. You gotta kill Young. And taking Bosco on the stakeout to the stakeout who figured all this stuff out. He was a good little spy or whatever, he did a good job. But Speakman prepares all these weapons, knives, in his cowboy boots, and the Kenpo sticks and stuff, and he beats this couch harder than JD Vance beats 2-1. Like, this guy absolutely annihilates the fucking couch.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:15

And it's it's in moments like like you can see throughout the power that Speakman actually has in his movements, and that moment I mean, because he could just go all out on this couch, because it's not a human being, like it is scary, like the force behind his uh his abilities is just like it's uh it's scary.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:36

Question Moses I want to say it's like three repeating motions, it's like three repeating moves, to maybe two moves with like it's not he does it extremely fast, but what he's doing is very, very simple,

Final Ratings

SPEAKER_02 2:04:56

but looks massively impressive to me because he's so fast and like Burst of what you were saying. The power that he has.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:06

I think it's the it's the difficulty, is it's the the power and the accuracy. It's like you know, when we're kids and Bruce Lee comes out and we see like nunchucks used for the first time in cinema, right? Like, and then kids go out and they get nunchucks and then they try to use them and you realize like how difficult it actually is, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:05:23

And it takes until you're an adult to go, you know what? I just like the nunchucks. Yeah. Raphael's my favorite. And he's on the couch.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:33

But that but what he's doing to the couch though is uh difficult in the way that like um obviously there's there's similar styles, right? Because Kempo is kind of a combination of a few kind of styles, you know, and then very popular is like Kallier Screma. And there's a few movements that you do that are meant to for defense, but it's the it's the combination of them and an understanding of doing so. I would argue what he's doing is actually kind of more difficult because you're seeing someone that's making it look easy and making it look like it's three moves. Oh but again, it goes back to the kind of the stance thing, it's going back to the accuracy of what he's doing. Um, and also as you're saying, the power, because I think um oftentimes, especially a style like Kempo, which has a lot of flourish to it, you know, um uh martial art geeks usually like, oh, it's like spinning a you know a baton, right? Is it sometimes you can end up being too flourishy that you don't understand, especially in kind of the tricking era of martial arts where people are you have these amazing athletes that do kicks and things, but there's no actual usage for most of the things that they're doing in their movement, versus I think what Speakman's showing off here is in that rhythm, even in that spin, that the angle that I'm holding that stick is going to block all the way until I hit. So yeah, it's it's impressive and it's fast. And again, we've just never seen anything like that in American cinema, right? Like, uh and again, there are a few styles that we've seen kind of since then. But yeah, I think what he's doing, yes, it's a little bit of a drill in the same way that he does the opening kata. Um, but you know, you look at again that opening when he's doing the kata, like where his eyes are looking, right? He's doing things that are kind of traditional, like, oh, I'm hitting up here, I'm blocking down here. That's the whole point of doing these movements. So it's it's a he's he's doing like a perfect thing that will show that he's very strong and very fast. And it's not the most complicated, but it is very like Well would you say he's the perfect weapon?

SPEAKER_02 2:07:36

He's kind of the perfect weapon.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:37

So you're saying he's a bit of a lethal weapon.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:39

Oh crazy stranger. Interesting. I oh I think we mentioned another movie that here Speakman pole vaults onto the scene because he's gonna infiltrate another yet another, like you know, stronghold or another base, another of this time it's a warehouse instead of a strong.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:57

It's always gotta be a warehouse, man.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:59

I mean, we talked about another movie with pole vaulting. I thought I'm almost sure somebody pole vaults in pentathlon.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:04

Someone definitely does a lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:06

That was Masters of the Universe. But uh Speakman pole vaults over, and Moses, you mentioned this. I I live for this shit in this movie.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:15

Those are my favorite parts. That playfulness, that like that. I think when he's clearly having fun, and like I said, there's a vulnerability here that we're not getting from traditional action years. That's this that's the stuff that I want more of from this movie for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:29

And I I think Schwarzenegger was really good at it through a lot of his career. It didn't really start happening, I guess, until twins, but was like he adopted that and it really endeared him to me. Yeah, and I actually like a lot of like the later Van Damme. I've spoken a lot about my affinity for Time Cop. And I think like there's a level of a Van Dam performance where he's just like there's a level of humanity and and of Jean-Claude Van Verenberg in that Max Walker 10 years later performance that's just like I'm just fucking coked out and tired, and that's really good.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:04

Yeah, I think if we had more moments of that with Speakman doing that type of thing in this film, we would that would I think we'd think his performance was a little bit better than what we do right now. I agree. It's interesting, those moments of joy are real, and that's we're looking for that honesty, and that's something he's you know, he's not he doesn't he doesn't quite have the chops, but he does he when something's enjoyable, like he you can see the truth in that, and we see that we enjoy that as well. And if I think we had that more, it'd be we'd be more endeared to it.

SPEAKER_02 2:09:34

I second Burris, you had a good time watching this, yeah. Moses, you had a good time watching this, yeah. I had a good time watching this. Do you think Jeff Speakman had a fucking great time making this movie? Do you see that in the movie? So do I. I and this is part of why the movie gets away with and gets like a heart for me in that warehouse infiltration. He's beating the shit out of all these guys and throwing knives at dudes and stuff. Brownhouse kicks galore. Brownhouse kicks galore and stuff, but like the first guy that sees him goes, Hey you, and immediately like tries to bury a metal, a rusty metal hook in his face, and it's like alright, like uh cool, as long as you're fighting, but it's so dynamic when he like when he pulls those sticks out, like holy shit. Like, I feel like we've been waiting the whole movie to to this guy put all this shit on display, not only figure out what who Kim's killer is, but that it took me till this viewing, realizing where it's like, no, no, the reveal, the star, like the progression of the movie is you experiencing Kenpo. And like what a strange thing it is. And the random knife distraction to throw another knife. Again, Job, Job, that cooler that does that decoy cooler that buys us three set five seconds, maybe. It buys us all the time in the world, Michael. Just hit him the first time.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:03

Like, why did he do that?

SPEAKER_02 2:11:06

And it looked expensive, it looked like a good knife. I don't know. This whole C this whole sequence, though, it's just like, I don't know, man. It's we're fucking it's straight up corn chowder here. We're not just like maybe like spraining Al Leong's neck or like giving guys a sleeper hold. He's throwing fucking knives and major veins and shit. And he finally gets in the fight with Kai, which I'm forgetting his name. You said his name earlier, Moses. He was in Lethal Weapon 4.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:40

Oh, James Liu?

SPEAKER_02 2:11:42

James Liu is at times you can see. Clearly doubling. Yeah, he's clearly doubling.

SPEAKER_04 2:11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:49

But uh, they have a little fight, has some cool foley, and like as you were saying, Moses, like flourishes of punches, like when the camera's still and you see how fast he punches. Despite the added sound effect, it's like, Jesus, did he punch one more time than the effect made the sound? Like, God bless. So he knocks Kai out indefinitely, like he does so many people. Are they asleep for three minutes, three days, three years, three hundred years? We don't know. But Jeff makes the active choice. I'm not gonna kill Young, and Young goes to stab Jeff in the back, and Kenpo saves him from being stabbed in the back. Literally, his Kenpo stick saves him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:12:39

I have a couple things that happened prior to this. Um, because I was still he says brains, no, brains this way.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:46

But it looks like shoot his brains on me. But it looks like he's saying no.

SPEAKER_00 2:12:50

It looks like he's gesturing to like no point the brains at my face. I want to get splattered in the face with his brains.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:57

I want to make sure I have some brains on my face.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:00

I was like, the hand is not making the gesture felt weird. And then the um when Speakman lifts him up and does like the crosshand uh lift, the sound effect behind that yeah, and how is he choking him?

SPEAKER_05 2:13:13

I was like, we call it a gi choke. So you're actually using the shirt to choke.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:19

Yep. He's being choked by his own clothing. He was choking, it felt like there was like some crunching, but his arms right here was like, How yeah, so you're crossing it in the the clothing, atypically your jacket shirt.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:29

His arms looked low for that, or his hands, I should say.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:32

Well, I think he probably wanted to do it as safely as possible. But it is a river.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:36

But it looked low for a ghee. So it was just like so.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:40

Basically, his shirt is choking him. His own.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:48

And the sound effect is weird, and like uh the the tone splash clenching noises. So it's like, yeah, his bones are.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:55

It's like, dude, this guy's as esophagus by places.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:00

But I but again, though, those are those little things as a martial artist. You're like, that's a real move, and that it yeah, that would crush your throat. Like, so it's you know, like I'm like, yeah, man, there's stuff in here that we just don't want to.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:11

Yeah, yeah. Wouldn't you cross yeah, either way. The there's a the Torutanaka fight happens, the bodyguard shows up at the last second on the boat, and there's some sound effects here. I think I heard a pan flute. Is that speaking on the pan flute in the background? So the Torutunaka fight finally happens, and it's like three ninjas. Like he's hitting the fucking lights on the dummy where he's like, Oh, the body's not really working, the head's not working. By the way, yes, hits to the neck and to the head, and it just and he's smiling through the whole thing. I was like, Oh fuck. By the way, always go for the knees.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:48

Yeah, love the knee.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:54

The first time he went for the knee, I was like, Yeah, that's like Moses is sitting here like, yep. Do that. So there's all the sound effects through this, and the sparking chain that Tanaka's going after him with, and Jeff Speakman says that Toru Tanaka were a size 60 suit, just a fucking enormous man. At Moses, you noted he was a WWE Hall of Famer, like entertainer, scholar, like learned and enormous, apparently, like very gentle and funny man, according to Jeff Speakman and Arnold Schwarzenegger and various people. But he threw Speakman so hard into some drums that his fingertips apparently left bruises on Speakman's back. He was like, I'm sure he didn't mean to do it. The man never meant to hurt a fly in his life. Like, but like we really went after it at a point, and he like threw me and like Can you imagine being that strong that your fingertips that your fingertips bruise someone?

SPEAKER_05 2:15:50

That's wild.

SPEAKER_02 2:15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:15:52

It's nuts.

SPEAKER_02 2:15:53

The raw power you have to have. So there's an explosion here, I believe, that is our uh pal penis penis wizard.

SPEAKER_00 2:16:03

Dick Warlock. Dick Warlock, yeah, yeah. Dick Warlock, I think, does this fire after the lovely uh oh, I do have to say there so you do the whole knife belt scene. Yeah, and then and then Speedman goes behind the corner and the belt goes around and you hear him fake ah system that like oh I hit him and then goes around and then you know we get a little nice little counter. I was like, I really enjoyed that. It was a really lovely moment of just using you know trickery and like and it's very they didn't they didn't like uh put a lot of light on it, it just like happens and then we move past it. But I really I really appreciate it. I did too. Like I feel like they thought out the fight.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:44

Really love the way the professor kind of talks to himself throughout the movie. Like, you know, even when he's pulling out the little flower and stuff, he's just like, oh, he's like kind of like there's just something really like you you can tell again, not the most dynamic in terms of uh performance, but something about that gave it so much personality and felt really real. I loved it. Terrifying, it just makes him yeah, it's like he and the fact that he's so happy, like he's just so pleased he's that he's about to be.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:15

Yeah, there's something really fun about it and about him and the physicality, and like we're the smiling and laughing and the business.

SPEAKER_05 2:17:21

I couldn't quite hear it, but yeah, he's like mumbling to himself in Japanese, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:26

Uh so Jeff uh actively and actively throws three links of an industrial chain and blows up in a pretty fucking incredible explosion for an at the time $10 million movie. Like it is amazing. And you see Professor Torutanaka blow up like he's fucking Dark Man, Liam Neeson in Darkman.

SPEAKER_00 2:17:50

His face is just on fire, and you like it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:53

The stun performer with a mask on his face, yeah, just like melting away. So good, such a great practical effect, a great burn effect, and Jeff drops off young in a like in a body bag, yes! To his dad. Like, I didn't kill him, dad, and it uh like and Jeff goes back to Master Lowe and shows Jennifer without saying it, that and Master Lowe, but especially Jennifer, that he's got the power, pow. And that like he has he's the dragon now. I think that's what that's saying, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:18:27

He is the dragon, and then she just closes the doors and never talks the entire movie. And and we just was like, ah, this is the beginning, but it just ended. And it was like, oh yeah, and that's like that the ending was like there is a sequel. There or there was meant to be seen.

SPEAKER_02 2:18:42

And there was meant to be. There was meant to be a sequel. Well, we have spoken about this film Adnauseum. I think it is time. Burris, I think it's only appropriate. I mean, I guess Moses started us off. Do you want to end or do you want to go after Moses? Over ratings?

SPEAKER_00 2:18:57

Yeah. I'm gonna stick, I'm gonna stick at uh Oh, he's gonna go. I'm gonna I'm gonna go with like a I'm still going with like a two and a half. I with a heart, with a heart, which is why like I was saying three, but if we're adding a heart, I'm going to two and a half with a heart. Because it's just I don't know. I had fun. I'd watch this movie again. Aren't you glad you own it? Oh yeah. I mean it's fun. It's and it's got this nice keynote spine, looks so nice on your shelf. You know, nostalgia of action and martial art films that had. Not the score. Not the score. No, but like the music and stuff, and it's like it's fun. The fact that this is the same guy that did the score for Underseas. It's got an amazing supporting cast. Like, all of these people are just incredible. And you know, like, and even like in the smaller roles, it's like, oh, it's like I've seen these people, I've watched them in other martial arts movies, and I've I've grown up with them as well. It's like, yeah, like it's just like it's a really good cast.

SPEAKER_02 2:19:51

So two and a half, he's staying. Two and a half on the heart. I mean, I recommend like everyone should like check it out at least once. Moses, yeah, you were it's your birthday, you or me.

SPEAKER_05 2:20:02

It's bro, I'm gonna default to you because you're I think you should go last.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:06

I think you're the one I'm most excited about. Yeah, I think I'm gonna pull the Okie doke on both of you. Okay, I'm gonna rate this one and a half absolutely annihilated JD Vance assaulted couches with a heart.

SPEAKER_04 2:20:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:22

I cannot forgive this movie some things, some things that happened throughout the edit that we had some laughs about, some things that apparently hit the clut cutting room floor that we had some thoughts about, and some things that we had a talk about, that we get to have this talk as three gentlemen doing this, which would be approved in this movie. But if there were a lady here, that kind of that's kind of weird. I don't know why that stands out to me so much, but it really does. And part of like the I know Speakman didn't edit this. I assume Mark DeSalle didn't edit this, I assume uh David, I forget his last name, who wrote this and had Speakman over his shoulder as if he were Van Dam, like writing this with him and developing it with him. I don't think this is any person's fault, but like that being what I can only assume is an oversight is not forgivable to me. You're right. I I also want to say though, this does retain the heart. The the so sought after on this program. So glad I own it. It looks great. I love the Foley stuff in it. Moses, you and I are just different. It's a subjective thing. I like that the movie's a little bit of a tonal mess, but I understand if that hurts your score. I can't think of another movie that looks like this. As somebody who likes a handful of Hong Kong movies and a handful of we were talking about this earlier, a Capoeira movie here, a kickboxing movie there, whatever. I like martial arts movies. And this is one that I will re-watch, but I will be extremely careful about whose hands I put this in. Not only because the acting can be a little bit uh part of the reason why these character actors are so good in this movie is because they know the movie that they are in. Whether or not you, audience member, are like, oh, I don't know if I this performance is bad. It's like, no, these people know that they're in something that's like kind of a total mess, and they know that they're supposed to be playing this role a certain way. That's probably the expectation of the writer andor director, and so that's what they're doing, and they do it really fucking well. So one and a half. I I do want to say though, Moses, it would be nice if this were steeped a little bit more appropriate appropriately in the culture it wants to claim so badly.

SPEAKER_00 2:22:59

Uh, yeah. There's a lot wrong with this film, yeah. I mean, like we we all can agree on that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:06

Um, yeah, I think any rating is really fair outside of five.

unknown 2:23:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:12

So I'm gonna I yeah, I one, you know, I I say this to you every time I've been a guest on your podcast. Like, I I love talking about movies, and I love that we're talking about a movie like this because you know, how often do we get to just wax the poetic on something like this, let alone you know, Ben, your connection to this movie is is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:34

Um other no other podcast is stupid enough to review the purpose of the movie. I don't think it's even only the review, review.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:41

It's not even, you know, I I think it's it's there's just something really great about it. And I think as a human being, I'm I'm kind of torn between two sides, the the movie geek in me and then the martial artist in me uh are kind of at at kind of at odds in this. And so I I was almost going to drop it down to two. I'm very in awe that you can give a one and a half star rated in your head movie a heart, which is wild because for me, like I I can't go that low in my head and still put a heart on it, but I but your logic makes absolute sense. You know, I think the the mental discovery of this kind of just being a buffet kind of helps me a little bit. I think the martial art geek in me and the martial artists in me has to give this a slightly higher rank and keep it at two and a half. I was gonna drop it down as we were kind of talking about all these things that kind of don't work. And and the reality is if a movie like this wasn't with Jeff Speakman or showcasing Kempo or doing any of these other things, I don't know if I, you know, it would have been in that bin of forgotten of the era D uh, you know, VHS movies that probably had Gary Daniels or or someone else in them. But the martial artist in me, there is something kind of pure about it, even in its kind of silly, campy, kind of ridiculous stuff. That like if I were in Jeff Speakman's school and you know, he's doing uh, I think he's created something called like uh taking the forms and introducing more ground fighting, and he's kind of like a Kempo 5.0. And and I think martial arts should kind of evolve and should grow. And every conversation or and we shouldn't project too much about the performer into the movie, but a movie like this, I don't think you can separate Jeff Speakman, the, you know, the artist, the martial artist, and then Jeff Speakman, the performer. I think that he wanted to do something of of his love and something honoring his um his teacher who died before the movie, you know, he his you know Ed Parker never got to see the film. Right after the film. And Ed Parker means so much. Like to me, like he is in my echelon of like, hey, if we're gonna talk about cinema and martial arts, like you can't not mention Ed Parker's name in the same way we say Bruce Lee's name or these other, you know, um, these other kind of amazing. Like Wen Wu Ping, like that. Benny the Jet. Well, I'm just talking just Western cinema. Oh god, I'm not sure. If I talk like Benny the Jet or you know, or these these people that were a great big deal in the martial arts world that ended up kind of bleeding their their work bled into, you know, Benny the Jet trains uh Nick Cage for this movie, he fights, you know, John Cusack in this movie, you know, um Bill Superfoot is in this movie, and you know, these Chuck Norris obviously was kind of everywhere and these these you know um amazing martial arts that are a big deal in uh the martial arts world. If I were at Jeff Speakman's school and and you're like, dude, Sensei made this movie when, you know, you would want to see it. And I think that there's there's something about that that is kind of lovely that I I have to kind of keep that because it exists with this guy that clearly wanted to show the world something that he's really passionate about and is really proud of. Um, I think that there is a lot, as you said, the movie is almost like wants to be too many things, and you've got these amazing character actors that don't have a lot to do aside from like being these pawns on a board to kind of rush this story for. But again, Jess Speakman didn't make that. He he just added as much of what he could do to this film, and I think he does that very well. Um, and it's a bummer that he didn't get to make more movies, or that we never got a sequel because you know, this is a movie that clearly could have made 50 sequels, but I think it's because of the the Kenpo facet that was really, really important. So you've got this guy who's teaching uh something that he has dedicated his life to, like legitimately and genuinely dedicated his life to. So if I were like at his school in the same way that you know, had being able to visit like uh Danny Nosanto's school or these kind of cool places as a martial art nerd, you gotta show love to it. You've got to go like this is a I know it sounds ridiculous to say, but like a very important piece of martial art movie history that again, we don't have any other thing like it. So it's gonna state up.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:03

You just have to put a heart on this then.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:05

I don't know if I could put a heart on it just because as a movie, it doesn't move the needle for me.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:09

I okay, I just seen way too many.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:16

And that's again, we'll have to break down your your heart.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:26

So I and at two and I do need to wrap up the episode, but I want to make sure that I mention before we do that at the end of this movie it says this film is dedicated to Ed Parker and the spirit of Kenpo. Yeah, it says that it is very clear in its intentions. Yeah, yeah. And so I didn't realize that it was a movie about like, no, you need to uh we need to unfold Kenpo in front of you. Uh Moses, do you feel like Kenpo was unfolded in front of you even though you gave it a two and a half? I do, and I only gave it a one.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:57

I'll let it be unfolded for you.

unknown 2:28:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:00

That couch was unfolded.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:02

Yeah. It was unstuffed and unupholstered and everything. Is there anything that either of you gentlemen want to discuss, plug? Anything we missed very quickly before I do our little canned wrap-up?

SPEAKER_05 2:29:13

Thanks for having us, man. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:15

Oh, a pleasure. Are you kidding? Uh, well, that's the episode, everyone. We learned so much and ended up at a score of 1.5 and a heart, two and a half and a heart, and a two and a half. And uh, if you're concerned, we decided that's a two point two, two, two, two, two, two, two, two. Our bookend themes are by Jamie Henwood. What you've been doing and what you've been watching are Matthew Foskett. Fun facts, lyrics are Chris Old's. Follow us at Run BMC and at PaulAxBadly on Letterboxd. You can also follow at been done before and at holy moses. That's with a WH and a delicious pun. Review X2 Podcast on whatever that is. Review X2 Podcast on Instagram. Text us anonymously from the link in the episode description. Email us at review review pod at gmail and don't forget our subscription channel, the complete review review with every episode from the annals, including surprise drop spin-offs, like the shelf help episodes and physical media psycho is a replay. Listen to all of it. It was so good having you, Moses. I'm done reading the canned bullshit. I'll rewrite it again. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. It truly was a pleasure. Thank you so much for listening. We should probably just Yeah. Well, happy birthday to both of you, you dangerous sexy animals. Well, I'm gonna end this. I don't mean to be too cut and dry, but