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Music.

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Welcome, everybody, to DenXL Theory, the Mostly Marvel Podcast. I'm your host.

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With me, as always, is Dennis. This is episode 121, where we're dipping back into that Mostly well and talking about The Crow. 1994.

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The Crow. Yeah, you know, I just want to point out, it's a freaking 30th anniversary

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of this movie that's an old movie that's an old ass yeah.

0:55

I'm old I was 16 when this movie came out wow,

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movies that came out in the 70s I was 15 actually yeah movies that came out

1:09

in the 70s that's what this movie is to you that is to me,

1:14

fair enough fair enough I think that's I think that's bad math.

1:19

There's something that checks out I think it's the 60s I think you're thinking

1:24

of the 60s oh yeah 90s sorry yeah you forget about a decade it's okay you know

1:31

I honestly have not seen a lot of movies from the 60s,

1:35

I feel like. It's way easier to go back and watch a movie from the

1:40

90s for you than it would be for me to go watch a movie from

1:43

the 60s uh yeah do

1:48

you know i mean i think there's i think there's a weird there's a

1:52

there's a sliding scale well i was back

1:54

in the day when they were just like fuck it this movie's getting

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destroyed yeah we're still doing that back then but it's it's like i'm not like

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i'm only putting that out there because i'm like please don't make me go watch

2:09

movies from the 60s because i don't i don't watch like what's the 60s superhero movie we can watch,

2:15

the scary well bat batman the adam

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west batman movie okay i'm i'm down because i

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would i would mind watching the wait have you never seen that movie no oh really

2:27

okay i've watched i've seen some of the adam was batman episode i've never seen

2:32

that movie oh the movie is like a thing It's like the the trial of the Incredible Hulk that 70s.

2:40

No, it's 80s. Oh, that that show started in the very late 70s and it got really

2:48

popular in the early 80s. Yeah it's it's 80s the trial yeah yeah that in that movie that show kept going

2:56

like it was it went through a lot of the 80s was that a tv movie or was that a movie is a tv movie okay.

3:03

You're talking about with daredevil right yes yeah that's that's 80s no okay

3:10

or is a different one there's two different tv movies ones with thor and ones

3:14

with daredevil oh yeah there might There might be three TV movies,

3:22

if I remember correctly. But I'm down to watch those any day of the week.

3:26

If you want to watch some old Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, just to be clear,

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those shows are probably why I love Marvel.

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Because I grew up with those shows.

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I want to try Ascargo in my life.

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I don't I'm not at the point where I want to seek out a restaurant that has

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it I just want to be there and it's it's on the menu so I want to watch these these movies,

3:56

I'm not seeking it out actively all right but I think we can get down some of

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that list before the end of the year but just for the record Batman's just on

4:06

HBO Max that's or Max is whatever you want to call it that's fair it's just

4:09

there it's just there all the time but yeah Yeah, no,

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I like my my childhood was The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman.

4:19

Like and Wonder Woman was in rerun, I think, when I was when I was watching

4:24

it. And in fairness, we get a movie. I think her pilot was like a TV movie, like it was a good hour and a half or

4:31

two hour long, but she never got a movie like now Linda Carter.

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No, I mean, that's, I think that's kind of why it was a big deal for her to be in 84.

4:42

Right. Cause that's like early in it.

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She, I mean, she's like pretty important to the story though. Right.

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Although she's, she's, she's the McGuffin character that the,

4:55

that the wings belong to. Like, she's the character.

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Anyways, we're spoiling all kinds of other movies. The point for everybody,

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thank you for tuning in to us today. We are pre-recording this on a Thursday. This is what we're doing right now.

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We're trying something out. So if you're showing up to troll us live,

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apologies. We're not really here right now.

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We are doing this in the privacy of our own recording studios.

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Videos and but we hope that you enjoy listening

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to us talk about all kinds of superhero related content

5:27

ricky's going to talk about some news and then

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we're going to just chat about 1994's the crow starring brandon for a little

5:35

while and you know if there are other old oldies but goodies you'd like us to

5:40

watch that are even remotely in the hero genre let us know because you know

5:47

we We watched Mars Attacks last week, and that one was a stretch to call that one, you know.

5:53

That's a pop culture IP.

5:57

Yeah, but I usually like to stick more into that. Would you consider the Green

6:02

Hornet? That's absolutely.

6:05

Okay. By the way, what is the Green Hornet's connection to the crow? No.

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Well, Kato and then Kato was Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee's son is a crow.

6:17

Yeah, there you go. Did you know that they did a crossover with the Green Hornet and Adam West Batman?

6:23

I feel like I did know that. But was that they were on the TV at about the same time?

6:29

Was Kato always in the Green Hornet or did he come in after the fact?

6:34

Kato was always there. Was it always Bruce Lee? Yes.

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Yes. and that's when they realized that

6:41

he was a far better entertainer than the guy playing

6:44

the green hornet and his movie career took off

6:47

pretty quickly after that yeah he he

6:52

was his sorry his american movie career i

6:55

think he'd already made a lot of movies in in china but but

6:59

the the green hornet was his first did

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he finish i i feel like there i there's a trivia nugget

7:05

that i'm forgetting where he left the great hornet

7:08

and they have another there's two katos basically there might

7:11

be there there might be because like i mean dude they used to ask the guy to

7:16

slow down because the camera couldn't catch his movements like he's too he's

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too good right like he's too good but yeah no he is the father of brandon lee

7:26

and and sadly both both manage the mom famous.

7:32

She's a white lady i don't know i don't think she's famous

7:35

she's from california i i

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you may you put me on the spot i can't remember her

7:41

name i feel like back then you were in hollywood you're dating famous

7:43

people it feels like i don't think she was famous but

7:47

if you've never seen there is a movie about the

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life story of of bruce lee and it's pretty good it stars

7:53

uh jason scott lee no relation at all

7:56

it's pretty good movie you should

7:59

check that out well aside before i guess before we get into the news what what

8:04

have you been watching or doing in this this uh late weekend january i've been

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watching two things randomly i just finished up the orville,

8:18

oh we're talking about that last season three i finished it up finally it turned

8:23

out to be a lot It found its stride at the end. Is it done or are they doing more?

8:29

You know, I found out this week that it's not necessarily done.

8:34

It's just never been canceled and it's never been renewed.

8:38

But, you know, writer's strikes really messed with things for a lot of last year.

8:43

So I think they're kind of just weighing the pros and cons of different shows

8:47

and trying to figure out which ones are worth it.

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But the networks never canceled the Orville. And according to Seth MacFarlane

8:55

in an interview last week, Logic, he is very much working on season four.

9:00

So I was surprised that kind of made me more excited as I kept watching the show.

9:04

I'm like, OK, cool. cool that's that's interesting

9:08

to know shannon what is

9:11

her name shannon sorry i was looking his

9:14

wife's his wife's bruce lee's wife's name

9:17

is shannon i can't find the full thing in this i was reading an article anyways

9:23

yeah i've been watching the orville and then the other thing that i've been

9:27

watching is kind of a weird one i started watching the legend of vox machina what is that,

9:36

It is Critical Role's animated show on Amazon Prime.

9:44

It's basically their D&D campaigns animated as a show.

9:50

Is it scripted as a show, or is it just their voices? It's scripted.

9:56

So basically, it takes their stories that they did and kind of just writes them

10:02

as a clean story to digest,

10:05

chest and they do the voices of their characters and

10:08

stuff but the weirdest part about it is it's not

10:10

branded dnd and they don't

10:13

want to pay hasbro for it so it's just

10:16

you know because they own their characters but hasbro owns

10:20

you know like big b's magical hand or

10:23

something yeah exactly so they just don't use

10:25

any of the terminology so you kind of have to like put two

10:28

and two together together sometimes when you see things on

10:31

screen you're like oh that's hunter's mark you know what i mean but they're

10:35

never gonna say hunter's mark or stuff like that you know what i mean like it's

10:39

it's weird but yeah i've tried to watch that show before without having any

10:44

context of like critical role like because i'm just that guy that didn't really watch critical role.

10:50

But over the past year, yeah, I watched it and I didn't like it the first time

10:55

I tried watching it for like five minutes. But this over the past year, my TikTok has served me a lot of critical role

11:02

videos like little snippets and stuff.

11:05

And the more and more I watch them, the more I get it.

11:09

And so I went back and tried to watch the show and I'm like,

11:12

OK, I like it. It's it's better.

11:15

I get it. It's it's they're like they're kind of like us. They like to do silly

11:22

stuff. They like to do raunch. They like to have sex.

11:27

I've been to like six, seven PAXs.

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And PAX is a gaming convention. So video games and board games.

11:36

I'm usually just there for the video games.

11:40

But Critical Role is like a pillar of that convention that I just never dip into,

11:46

do nor do i care to care to dip into i have

11:49

i think i own critical role merch somewhere that you

11:52

just kind of get for showing up but yeah

11:55

that's a that's a whole part of the

11:58

fandom that i just neglect to experience yeah

12:01

i mean it's really just about like you know

12:04

people doing dnd at

12:08

like a really high level like

12:11

they they're they are so comfortable with the

12:14

rule set of dnd that that's not the complicated

12:17

part for them so that so they can they can put more time and investment into

12:23

story and being and inhabiting their characters you know I mean so they really

12:28

they go to a lot of trouble to think about the ins and outs of their characters

12:32

and and and and they really use that to like.

12:38

Fuel every decision that they make in in you know

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and really it's something that we struggle to as dnd

12:44

years especially because we play you know uh remotely

12:47

is really trying to like take a moment to like

12:50

get into character before before we

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hit start on that game you know and and like and

12:57

and in fairness sometimes it can get annoying you know

12:59

like i like when art and kelly all right god

13:02

bless him he was great but he he

13:05

was full-on so heavy on that accent and

13:09

the rest of us are just like you know here trying to survive a

13:12

covid by just playing a playing a

13:15

game for two hours once a week and and this dude

13:18

has got a full character and it doesn't quite

13:21

work right it's a little it's too it's got.

13:24

To be balanced but if you get a whole group that are

13:27

all on that level and we're talking like you

13:30

know all of these are like actors that have you know

13:33

had struggles in hollywood but

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like they still know how to act you know and so that's what

13:39

you get and so when you watch it as a

13:42

show it takes away a lot of the baggage right

13:45

because you don't have to like you're not watching them roll dice you're

13:48

not watching them like yeah you get the the story

13:51

which is like yeah the part you want yeah yeah

13:55

yeah yeah and and but you as a person who's played

13:58

dnd for a while you can catch all the

14:00

stuff you know you can see it you're like i know what that is and

14:03

you know oh that's a barbarian you know like oh he's

14:06

doing berserker rage you know like you get it you just understand the more you

14:11

play dnd the more you get the nuance of the show and so i like the show now.

14:16

Like it's cool but i think you should check it out i know you don't like fantasy

14:20

in general but like i think for somebody who's been playing dnd for almost you know two two years now,

14:25

you might appreciate it more than you think you would.

14:29

I'm not saying go back and watch Critical Role. I still haven't.

14:32

I'm not taking that step yet. For me, I've never been the kind of guy to watch other people play games.

14:39

You know what I mean? I prefer to play games myself. But I know that's a huge market, right?

14:46

There's a lot of people that make a lot of money off of people watching them play games.

14:53

Live streaming is a big thing. No way. I never would have guessed. Yeah.

15:00

No that's cool i it's one of the things where

15:03

i'm sure if i watch it i will enjoy it but it's like

15:05

i it's not the the first the first

15:08

thing i reach to once i'm in the in there you know yeah i

15:12

did watch i watched uh ted i watched the

15:15

first episode i think i felt your sentiment

15:18

i will say when that joke when this jokes land

15:21

in that show they're pretty good they're pretty

15:24

good good but it takes a while in the first episode right it

15:27

takes a while but when they get a lot more

15:30

a lot more misses when they get to the weed

15:32

though it definitely got better and yeah

15:35

i was surprised how long they were right they're like

15:38

40 minute episodes like they're too long yes but

15:41

i promise you every time from then

15:45

on out they they hit their marks they get it they they only get better and better

15:50

as each episode goes that first episode's rough it's rough it's like 20 minutes

15:54

of not hitting the jokes like just not not landing him so but I'm glad you checked

16:00

it out it's weird to me after finishing the Orville it's like,

16:04

basically everybody on that show is from the Orville except for except for like

16:08

the mom but I'm happy to support my one IMDB credit even though I didn't get called back for this one,

16:18

Ted Ted Ted was fun for the record by the way Linda Lee Caldwell was an American teacher.

16:27

She's the one who, she's Bruce Lee's wife. She was a teacher.

16:32

So they don't always marry famous people.

16:35

Sometimes. Some of the most successful Hollywood marriages. I mean,

16:39

to be fair, Kurt Russell and Cody Hawn are not married.

16:42

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Some of the more successful Hollywood marriages,

16:46

though, are people marrying normies.

16:49

You know what I mean? Like, it happens sometimes. actually you know it's funny

16:52

when i did the carussell thing for the monsters monarch show,

16:59

he had talked about his dad how his dad was an

17:02

actor but his dad was an actor in the

17:04

sense of like it was a job and he would just talk about

17:07

like how he would go to work that was his work and he would come

17:10

home like for dinner and that's what

17:13

was kind of expected like the the acting days of

17:15

the past weren't you weren't necessarily a superstar per se you were just an

17:20

actor as a profession yeah yeah i mean for a lot of people that that is you

17:25

know like that's it's just how they pay the bills you know like and so you know

17:30

i think the idea of the hollywood star has kind of.

17:35

Conflated in in a lot of people's minds like

17:39

what it means to be an actor but like a lot of people it is just you go to work

17:45

you do your job you come home you know like it's you know not everybody who

17:49

acts gets to be famous it's just that's not how it works but we just put so much emphasis on to,

17:57

what it means to be a celebrity nowadays that it's it's hard you know like it's

18:02

like i had a i knew a guy in college that was wanted to be an actor and you

18:07

know every now and then we see him in like a random commercial or something

18:11

like that and it's like hey go you you know like Like I saw him in an episode of,

18:16

of I think new girl or something like that.

18:20

And I'm like, what is, what is this? You know? And he's like,

18:23

he's, he's just probably not going to be famous, but like, that's his job, you know? So.

18:30

It's weird. It's a weird. Well, that's his job. Our job right now is to get through some news.

18:38

Music.

18:47

But like, is it our job or is it us doing it for fun?

18:51

It's us doing it for fun. And you know who's coming back for fun and probably

18:56

a decent amount of money? Wilson bethel daredevil season three

19:01

it's three's bullseye benjamin poindexter is

19:05

making a return i just gotta say

19:08

i love the hoops that this show

19:11

is jumping to course correct like they've

19:14

already filmed a bunch of this show and

19:18

then trashed it and said it's terrible and then

19:21

fired everybody buddy and now you know what we need i

19:24

don't know why we were considering doing a show.

19:27

Called dare devil born again and not including

19:30

bullseye that sounds pretty fucking dumb but

19:34

sure okay i guess they finally got to the point

19:36

of let's it just seems like they they wanted to

19:39

make a daredevil show inspired by

19:44

the by the netflix series great

19:47

and just take take the bits then bob but now it's

19:50

yeah to your point they're like in fuck it we're just making season four

19:53

which is not a bad thing it's not

19:56

a bad thing because daredevil is one of the best superhero

20:00

shows period so i think bullseye was

20:03

cool one of the coolest uh characters i

20:06

think maybe bullseye cool i think bullseye was

20:09

way better than calling her right i don't

20:12

think bullseye is dumb i think he's terrifying is

20:16

what he is he's a sociopath that like has

20:19

like a crazy ability like it's he's basically what

20:23

if hawkeye went super contract killer

20:26

but you can't do the bullseye things

20:29

right yeah you can you can't yeah don't you remember in in in the show when

20:35

he taught kate how to how to ricochet a quarter was it ricochet a quarter or

20:39

like a yeah hawkeye can do this they have the same skill set but he bounces stuff off of walls.

20:47

Yeah, Hawkeye can do that too. Well, Hawkeye's just lame.

20:54

So, you went from hating on Bullseye to now you're hating on Hawkeye. Yeah, they all suck.

21:01

Fair enough, fair enough. If you don't like one, you're not going to like any of them.

21:05

I like Bullseye because his skill level is like,

21:13

appropriate to to the hero he's

21:16

fighting you know what i mean like daredevil and and bullseye

21:19

are just slightly above normal human

21:23

like you know like they're they're they're like peak they're

21:26

like peak human and so they're not doing crazy stuff

21:29

in fairness there is a point in the story where eventually like

21:32

bullseye gets like adamantium skeleton

21:35

and i'm like come on guys does lady lady bullseye have

21:38

powers i think it's similar powers

21:41

but i'm not sure you never

21:46

seen that the the the tiktoks were like

21:49

a dude will just sit there all day yeah just imagine that's bullseyes that's

21:57

bullseye he just taught himself how to do that you know i i applaud this news

22:03

good good for them i'm happy that this guy's coming back This is great,

22:08

because he didn't get to wear the costume. And I need him to wear the costume.

22:13

I need him in the suit. Yeah. Hey, man, we're finally getting Wolverine in the

22:18

suit. We can get this guy in the suit. Oh, did I spoil your other news? Round of applause for Daredevil and round of applause for Marvel.

22:28

It's award season here in the U.S. The Oscars are coming up next month or March.

22:34

I don't know when the Oscars are. I think Marvel got two nods as a whole.

22:40

So into the Spider-Verse is nominated for Best Animated Feature and Guardians

22:45

three is nominated for Best Visual Effects.

22:50

They didn't get nominated for makeup. Wow, that's pretty rough because that makeup in that, you know that movie has

22:57

like the new, the new, didn't get nominated for makeup.

22:59

Yeah, but you know, you know, Guardians replaced the Grinch as the most prosthetic

23:05

used in a movie. I didn't know that. You told me that on the show.

23:08

Yes, I'm kind of surprised that they didn't get nominated for the thing that

23:11

the Grinch got nominated for. Just for doing the most of the get you the.

23:16

Okay, are you going to try and crap on the makeup in Guardians really.

23:21

I'm just saying just because you do the most of something doesn't mean you're

23:24

going to nominate. I don't think it's bad. Okay, move on. Move on. Yes, and Barbie, that is just like, that's wrong.

23:32

I don't understand how they can so entirely miss the point of the Barbie movie

23:39

and go and like nominate Ryan Gosling and not nominate Margot Robbie.

23:47

America forever got nominated i know but we're not

23:50

talking about america we're talking about barbie the

23:54

teacher this is like when when

23:57

he ledger were nominated and christian bale didn't

24:00

come on man those scenes only work because

24:03

both of them are in those scenes okay like

24:06

it's i think the prize for barbie is the billion dollars

24:09

at the box office that oh that's the trophy don't

24:13

get me wrong i'm not i don't think barbie has anything to

24:16

be bitter about those people don't have to be be bitter but what

24:18

i'm saying is culturally like this is

24:21

how ass backwards the oscars are is they

24:25

they don't understand why these

24:28

billion dollar movies are important to us and

24:31

so they go in and award the movies that none of us watch you know what i mean

24:36

like that's that's the weird part to me and like it makes them very out of touch

24:41

because i think it's really hard to argue that That Barbie was not a cultural

24:46

touchstone of last year. Right?

24:49

It's a big... I'm going to give a hot take.

24:52

I don't think we have these conversations if the MTV Movie Awards were so relevant.

24:58

Nobody gives a shit about the MTV Movie Awards. I just... My counter is I don't think the Oscars...

25:05

They shouldn't be a representation of like... It's not a contest to...

25:12

You know, amongst... The country right because i do think it's a

25:17

that's a different bar okay it's so

25:20

you're not wrong but here's here's the

25:23

thing the reason i make this claim is because

25:26

when they get surprised every year

25:29

that their ratings are lower and lower it's still

25:32

a show that they're putting on for people to watch

25:36

they have a lot of paid sponsors they want

25:39

people watching it and they get surprised prized year

25:42

after year after year nowadays when there's less people watching it and why

25:46

it's because we don't care what they chose to nominate or or or you know or

25:53

we are award like because they're they're just so far you can say the same thing

25:57

about the grammys like i don't yeah probably.

26:02

I don't know like i i you could say the same

26:05

thing about most award shows except for the mtv movie movie awards

26:07

probably or the critic critic not no viewer's

26:10

choice your choice the spike lee man award or spike

26:15

lee spike spike tv awards spike tv

26:18

spike t yes yes spike tv

26:22

anyways that's my rant about

26:25

barbie i think that movie got denied some very

26:28

important push or uh

26:32

attention whatever whatever moving on

26:35

what you got anything else that that's it

26:37

for the news i'm surprised that

26:40

you didn't bust out the poster the poster

26:44

the deadpool 3 poster there's no poster was that not a poster oh it's a promotional

26:51

image yeah yeah the promo the promotional image they released the promo with

26:55

the mask or yeah i don't know if that was released last week i think it was

27:00

out there I don't think it's been released.

27:03

Oh, was it not officially released? No. The trailer is tied to the Super Bowl.

27:08

That's probably most likely when any stuff like that's going to come out.

27:12

Well, you still saw the same promo I'm talking about, right? Yeah.

27:16

Did he not look... He's wearing the mask, Ricky. He's wearing the mask.

27:23

Wow. The sleeves, man. The sleeves do it for me. Are you okay?

27:27

I need the sleeves off. are you are

27:30

you in a bad place today like we

27:34

didn't ask you what what stuff you've been watching is it i'm sorry

27:36

just ted ted spoilers ted and

27:40

uh wolverine dead full spoilers i don't know i didn't hate it i it's so so we're

27:45

referencing a promotional leak promo image showing the wolverine mask it's but

27:52

it's not like a photo of the mask it's almost like a it looks very similar to a concept art,

28:00

it's like it's it has like a stylized a slight stylized tinge to it right,

28:08

Yeah, it's well, I mean, it looks like it's drawn just like all the other promo

28:12

art. Yeah, it's like it looks like promo art. That's the best way to put it.

28:15

It'll be like marketing art probably for the for the. Yeah, you buy you buy Deadpool cereal.

28:22

This is the image on the back of it. Yeah.

28:25

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So like I don't I don't have a problem with it

28:29

because I know that they're going to end up looking like like that picture.

28:33

You know what I mean? But I'm trying to understand why you don't like it.

28:39

Why don't you like seeing Wolverine finally wear the mask?

28:43

I think the proportions are a little off. I like my big wing,

28:48

big wang, ear thing Wolverine.

28:52

Okay, fair enough. You like him to get his head stuck in a doorway?

28:58

Yeah. He should look like a classic yellow jacket.

29:03

Jacket that's what his ears ears should

29:06

look like classic yellow jacket yeah

29:09

the ant-man villain like yeah

29:12

the shoulder thing oh his shoulders

29:15

okay yeah but with his ears but with his ears all right okay fine fine i i i

29:24

was pretty happy with it and i saw some really great reactions I just love how

29:28

much that movie cares or that franchise cares about making its fans happy.

29:35

And it just makes me happy. Like, I think, I think that goes a long way when,

29:40

when you see, when you see something, they could just, they could just do a

29:44

cash grab, right? Like, and don't make no mistake.

29:47

They are grabbing the cash from us when they make this movie.

29:51

But I like to see that they're actually putting the effort into making things

29:57

look more and more the way we want them to look.

30:00

I'm sorry Wolverine has sleeves. Okay.

30:04

Maybe they get ripped off. Maybe they get ripped off. They might.

30:08

They might get torn off. You never know. Well, I think we're going to tear off this bit of news and just get into the crow.

30:20

Music.

30:27

Miss the days when i just yelled at you all the time a little

30:30

bit really it's like i think there's

30:33

like a therapeutic or therapy trauma response call

30:37

a response to that action but you know i can't say don't miss it okay all right

30:43

all right i'll try and find the way to bring back the vitriol every now and

30:47

then because i i do i do feel like we one of us usually backs down more than

30:54

we used to from From these arguments. And we're just like. All right. But I think it's because you told me.

30:59

Don't just don't yuck my yum. One too many times. I think that's.

31:03

That's probably why. I'm like. Well, you know what? I don't want.

31:06

We like different. We like. We like different things.

31:10

Yeah. Yeah. It's fair. We might like different things about this.

31:13

This movie. It's just sometimes the things you like are wrong.

31:17

There was that better. Is that better? Would that make you feel good? Yeah. A little bit. All right. Fair enough. I'll try.

31:25

I'll try more and more to do that. And it's truthful.

31:28

I'm not making it up. I'm not faking it for you.

31:32

I just was trying to be nice, but I feel like you don't necessarily want me to try to be nice.

31:38

So I'm going to tear into you. Let's go. Let's talk about The Crow.

31:41

The Crow, directed by Alex Pryas, starring Brandon Lee, Michelle Wincott,

31:47

Rachel Davis, came out in 1994.

31:50

Before this r-rated based on the comic book by james yeah r-rated crime action drama.

32:01

Yeah you know when i i watched it on paramount plus and it was classified as only a drama,

32:06

and i was like really that's that's a

32:09

bold move alex prius by the

32:11

way do you know what all the things he directed i'm looking at

32:14

it right now i robot dark dark city knowing and i actually i really like knowing

32:22

a lot i don't think there's no it's nicholas cage yeah i know i know but i haven't

32:28

seen it he also directed that crappy gods of egypt movie that was that just looked,

32:34

awful that movie made money though it bombed at the box office money no it did

32:41

not make money any gods of Egypt bombed at the box office.

32:46

I robot did not bomb at the box office. Okay. Fair enough. That's fine.

32:52

I don't, I don't know why you were arguing that a movie succeeded when it clearly did not, but yes.

32:58

So this guy actually, the crow was his first movie, just so you know,

33:03

like his first theatrical movie. So yeah.

33:06

I just want to I just want to say, like, however good or bad any of the movies

33:11

that he made after the crow, you got to give this guy some credit because this guy had some pretty rough

33:19

circumstances for this movie. I don't think it's a spoiler to say, you know, we're talking about this movie,

33:27

but like Brandon Lee is the star of this movie.

33:29

And this was like this was going to be a really big one for him. He did.

33:33

He done it. He done a movie or two before in Hollywood.

33:36

He is the son of Bruce Lee, but the previous movie he'd done was like called

33:41

showdown in, in I think little Tokyo or something.

33:45

Yeah. And it's, it's a, it's a martial arts movie.

33:48

You know what I mean? And so like, I think Brandon Lee's goal was to break out

33:53

of that, that corner that he'd kind of already been painted in for like the

33:59

kind of movie he should be making. And so that's why he wanted to go and do the crow

34:04

which is a it's a big it's a

34:07

big jump from a martial arts movie

34:09

right this is not that's not what this is and and

34:13

sadly for anybody who's listening this and as

34:16

didn't know the bigger significance of this movie is that brandon lee actually

34:21

died on the on the set of this movie he was he was it was a stunt gone wrong

34:27

like a a gun was not properly loaded it was loaded with a real bullet it was a 44 magnum by the way,

34:35

that's a big gun and in a scene

34:38

that the director just kind of improvised and said hey i think it'd be cool

34:43

if this guy shot you they handed that guy a gun they said roll or or action

34:48

guy shot the gun and brandon lee died right like later from a bullet that went

34:54

into his abdomen and into and and lodged into his spine.

34:57

He died from that injury later that day.

35:01

And that's crazy, right? Like, and I remember as a teenager who used to watch

35:05

Entertainment Tonight when it was cool to watch Entertainment Tonight,

35:09

like, that was the big news in Hollywood.

35:11

And it was really sad.

35:14

And it was really creepy, too, because his dad died on the set of a movie as well.

35:19

So there was all this weird, like, you know, speculation and stuff like that.

35:23

There's secret shadow people that want the Lee family.

35:26

Older but i think it's

35:29

just it just goes to show that like sometimes these movies that we

35:32

love to watch and criticize and stuff we don't realize how

35:35

dangerous they are unless it's a top movie then we

35:38

know full well how fucking dangerous it is like i feel

35:42

like if you haven't been on a movie set it's very

35:45

if you ever been on a go to a real movie

35:48

set you'll you'll notice or become very apparent how much of everything is pretty

35:53

much a facade yeah and how shoestring a lot of operations are and by that that

36:01

that can extend down to staff any competent staff who you know can.

36:09

Lead to situations and accidents like these yeah but like so back to what i

36:15

was saying credit to alex proyas because like what ended up happening is paramount

36:19

was producing this movie Brandon Lee died in the middle of the movie and

36:24

then they shut down production and Paramount said

36:27

screw it and they wrote this movie off as

36:30

a tax write-off it wasn't going to be released and then you know in interested

36:36

parties ended up forming a corporation just specifically to take over production

36:41

of this movie and and finish it through because the director and Brandon Lee's fiance Beyonce,

36:49

Eliza Dutton, who was on set, you know, as his like credited as his like assistant.

36:56

They both decided that they, that he would want the movie to be made,

37:00

to be finished and released. Least and so they got the crew together they tried

37:05

some weird shit they they at first they

37:08

they said hey you know what we have this face

37:11

mask that was molded from brandon's face that was meant for the stunt performers

37:18

to wear should we try doing the scenes with somebody wearing this mask they

37:23

tried that and it creeped people the fuck out they're like no we can't we can't do And they're like,

37:30

all right, fine, we'll do it the other way.

37:33

And so the other way was they went to the trouble of like, they,

37:36

you know, computer generated imagery was just getting, you know,

37:40

becoming a thing in, in movies at the time.

37:43

And, and they realized that they might be able to use like existing footage,

37:49

you know, a B roll cutting room floor kind of stuff of Brandon on set to, you know.

37:56

You know, finish the movie in a way that was good enough.

38:01

And so that's what they did. And so like, you know, it's crazy.

38:06

It's crazy to think they did that. Just so you know, the guy who killed,

38:10

who was responsible for firing the gun, that guy quit acting for a year after that movie.

38:16

He still has nightmares about that.

38:20

Like, you don't think you're going to go to work and kill somebody, you know what I mean?

38:25

Like that's not oh i mean most normal people

38:28

don't think that i guess it's you know i

38:31

don't want to i don't want to make you out there feel bad

38:34

if that's something you dream of doing but please don't do

38:37

it just don't no murder is bad no no murder

38:40

like like gypsy rose said murder is bad here at denix celsior we do not endorse

38:46

murder okay i i was actually pretty impressed with this I saw the vision and

38:55

I don't think they failed on their execution of that vision.

39:00

It is a very stylized look. It has a particular lane that I think they're trying

39:09

to stay in and they achieve it.

39:13

It reminded me honestly like a lot of 90s Zack Snyder.

39:18

A 90's Zack Snyder movie that's what this felt like to me interesting,

39:24

I would have I thought you were going to say Sin City it's different than Sin

39:30

City though it is different in that it takes on more of a goth.

39:36

Atmosphere whereas Sin City is taking on a pulp noir atmosphere there's a shininess,

39:44

yeah there's like a shininess to Sin City that That this is a very like grimy movie.

39:52

I think it's, it's cool for that. Like it, they, they have an aesthetic and

39:55

then they, and they go for it. I think that's why people liked it is because it had that.

40:00

It really leaned into an aesthetic that, that a lot of movies,

40:05

one topic personified like nineties hot topics. There you go. There you go.

40:12

Yeah. Just so you know, it was a sleeper hit box office.

40:16

It opened at number one and with 11 million and averaging, you know, 7,400 per theater.

40:23

And then it ultimately ended up grossing 50 million, which and 50 million in

40:30

America and 43 million internationally. So budget 23 million.

40:36

I was a baby, obviously, at this time. I did not see it in theaters,

40:39

but was, I mean, was this a big thing when it came out?

40:43

Was, was the crow book like a well-known thing?

40:48

I didn't read this book. I didn't read the crow, but somehow I think through

40:54

osmosis, I knew when this was being, when, when I was seeing previews for this

41:00

movie, I knew that it was based off a comic book.

41:03

So i had probably seen the

41:06

crow at my local comic store when i used to

41:09

physically have to go pick up my comics so i

41:12

i definitely knew that crow was a thing and i

41:14

and i you know i'm not trying to

41:17

sound judgy but i knew the kind of

41:20

people that liked reading the crow all right does that make sense like i think

41:26

let's be let's be real like it's it's it's a it's a go-to book for every goth

41:31

kid in the in the 90s right in the and so and but that's fine though right there's citizen kane.

41:38

Maybe not citizen kane but yeah i think it's

41:41

definitely it it speaks to people of a

41:44

certain subculture in a big way and i

41:47

think that was really cool that this movie wasn't trying to

41:50

cater to the masses and yet still succeeded in hollywood you know like as or

41:57

like worldwide as like a very popular movie and was part of that probably the

42:03

morbidity that like people wanted to see the movie where the guy died yeah probably you know but I.

42:10

I think it's still a compelling story. And so like, I think we've done a lot

42:14

to talk about like all the behind the scenes of it, but do you want to like

42:18

explain the story of this movie really quick? Man who is who a man and woman who is a musician, a musician,

42:29

a couple, an engaged couple dies on the night before Halloween.

42:34

They're murdered by some gang.

42:38

One year later, the man is resurrected,

42:42

by a by a crow by

42:45

a raven pretending to be a crow raven pretending to be a crow and it's the raven

42:50

bestows crow powers to the man and then he goes and gets revenge for the night

42:54

it's just a fun fact I learned that all the crows on set were actually ravens which a raven is a bigger,

43:03

bird with a more pronounced beak but I thought it's funny that they didn't use

43:08

use a single crow in the movie called The Crow.

43:12

Didn't mean to derail you. Yes. He gives him superhuman powers and the guy goes

43:18

on a revenge kick, right? It all takes place in one night? One night in Detroit. Yeah. One night in Detroit.

43:26

I guess Devil's Night is actually a very famous known thing in Detroit.

43:32

Arson. It's like it's the night they do arson, right?

43:36

That's what they do. And so I just use arson and so this like evil guy that's

43:41

in charge of all the bad people in Detroit he supposedly.

43:47

Created Devil's Night and he wants it to get bigger and badder every year And

43:51

so he wants to burn it all down and I don't know I don't really I don't think

43:57

you're supposed to empathize or feel for the bad guys And I think that makes

44:00

it easier for the plot of the movie to take place Right.

44:04

Is this guy just goes on this insane murder murder spree, but he he likes to

44:11

creatively kill his victims. Right. Almost kind of like I don't know, like it feels almost like Freddy Krueger

44:18

or like or like Jason Voorhees. It's almost like a monster movie.

44:22

Right. But like it just stays on somehow on the side of you still empathizing with him as a person.

44:29

But like well he he he uses their i don't say vices but they're yeah i think

44:38

that's fair he uses their sins against them yes he does and so he gives me a

44:44

very he gives me a very ghost writer vibe.

44:48

You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I can see the ghost side goes for a parallel.

44:53

Yeah. But I mean, well, before I answer, I mean, do you like this movie?

44:59

Do you like this movie more or less now?

45:02

Like, what's I got the sense that this was a good movie.

45:06

I don't like this movie more now than I did then. I liked it a lot,

45:10

actually, without ever being a goth kid.

45:13

Yeah. Well, I could see myself like in that same lane.

45:17

Like this seems like a cool ass movie it was

45:19

for a kid in the 90s it was a cool movie for

45:22

a kid in the 90s yes i think one of

45:25

the main reasons it was cool for a kid in the 90s is because

45:28

we were so starved to see things from our

45:31

comic book stores end up on the big screen and so

45:34

this was like a win right like it was a win

45:37

because it was made and it didn't suck right

45:40

like it didn't suck like it could have been way worse

45:43

than it was right all things considered the

45:47

guy died in the movie and it's still not a pile of shit right like it's still

45:52

it's still it's still effectively gets the point across you feel bad for eric

45:59

draven as a character you even feel bad for ernie hudson's character who's just

46:03

trying to do good in the city you feel bad for his wife you You know,

46:06

like, and you feel bad for the girl that got left behind, right?

46:10

Like Shelly, or wait, no, Shelly's the wife.

46:13

I'm trying to remember what her name is. But you know what I mean?

46:16

Like, it's like these characters actually extract, like, they extract our compassion.

46:23

Like we, like you watch it and you do feel something for them.

46:28

And I think that's, there's a lot to be said for that because a lot of action

46:32

superhero movies don't pull that off.

46:36

You know i'm glad we didn't actually

46:38

have to see his wife get raped but they

46:42

kept alluding to it a lot like they kept showing

46:45

like first person rape i think you know yeah it's i mean that's a very like

46:50

80s 90s shot like robocop has a lot of that yeah did this movie not remind you

46:56

of robocop oh it's the same exact movie as robocop it's the same movie right

47:00

but with a different vibe movie as John Wick same movie as,

47:05

The Punisher I mean it's,

47:10

the 90s. Beekeeper what's the movie you saw last week I didn't see Beekeeper but I'm

47:17

not Beekeeper but the other one the other one, The other one, Mars Attacks? No, no, no.

47:25

Like how this generation, we have ex-CIA agent who's now a baker and gets called

47:32

back in to save the world. Yeah. The 90s was man dies, gets resurrected, and comes back and gets revenge.

47:41

I mean, it's true. I think every generation has this movie, But like at its

47:48

core, revenge movies are fun because you get to see people get their just desserts.

47:54

Right. And it's all about if, if, if we know, like, it's just like diehard, right?

47:59

You see, you watch, you watch a movie or you're like, oh, this is a diehard movie.

48:02

I get it. You know, like that's a fun kind of genre.

48:05

And, and every time somebody does it, you want to see what they have to add to it.

48:11

And I don't know if the

48:14

crow added a lot besides style right

48:18

I don't think there's a lot of substance there but

48:22

I think like you talked about the the grimy aesthetic of

48:25

it all they go hard on that

48:28

aesthetic man like it's pretty like I

48:31

like we were so grossed out by like okay so

48:34

his apartment was a murder scene a year ago he

48:37

goes back there and it's still a murder scene like

48:41

they didn't nope nobody's renting that place there's a lot of trash everywhere

48:45

it's so trashed right are people squatting there or what or was it just this

48:50

trash when they left it there you know what i mean like like the the amount

48:53

of detail that went into every set in that in that movie is amazing Even more so,

48:59

did you catch that it's kind of like toy photography?

49:03

Yeah, the model work for the building. The city, the entire city is a miniature.

49:08

Did you catch that the miniatures are also used for the car chase?

49:13

No. Yeah, the entire car chase was actually miniatures with projection.

49:19

They're projecting the people into the cars and stuff like that.

49:24

There's some cool special effects in this movie that I'm I was pretty impressed to see on the rewatch.

49:30

So, like, technically, there's a lot of interesting things going on in this movie.

49:34

I think story wise, like I I warned you yesterday.

49:39

Right. I was like, hey, the audio mix by it might be weird for you.

49:43

Like we read that there's some weird thing the way movies were encoded in the

49:47

90s and and then processed.

49:50

They weren't meant for home theaters back then. you

49:52

know so like so when i was watching it the audio mix was

49:55

weird and like the the dialogue was really

49:58

really quiet compared to all the other sound and

50:02

i told you hey you might have to do subtitles

50:05

or whatever stuff like that but then i also said but honestly it doesn't really

50:10

matter i don't think the dialogue's that important i couldn't tell you a word

50:14

that it would said dead exactly i don't think i can tell you like the the actual

50:20

story where he's like reasoning.

50:24

Like i know he dies crow's crow

50:27

brings him back he gets revenge he goes back in like is

50:30

there a higher being or god tied to how he

50:33

came back or is it just spooky crow they say

50:37

sometimes a crow will bring you back that's what

50:40

they said at the beginning of the movie that's it

50:43

that's but that's right like that's it's cool though

50:46

it's cool like it gets that's all you need to

50:49

know it's more about the vibe right like yeah it's like

50:52

hey come live in this world and watch a guy murder bad

50:55

people and that's that's what the crow is like

50:58

that's you so take it or leave it if you

51:00

don't like the vibe if you turn on the crow and you

51:04

watch five minutes of it and you're like i can't

51:06

you're either in or you're out yeah just get out

51:09

now okay because you're not going to get more than than that it's

51:13

yeah well this movie has four sequels

51:17

right it's got sequels and

51:19

a tv show i believe you've seen any of the sequels i

51:22

think i have seen the first sequel i have

51:25

not like city of angels city of angels yeah yeah i've seen that i have not seen

51:30

any of the others for sure and i honestly don't remember city of angels other

51:35

than like you know at the time back then i wasn't super super used to my,

51:42

my actors getting replaced all the time.

51:44

I think only, only Val Kilmer had replaced Batman, you know,

51:49

like it's, it wasn't a normal thing yet. So I think I just like whole, wholly rejected the crow sequel because they couldn't have.

51:58

Yeah. I'm not, I wasn't very forgiving of them back then. You know,

52:02

I'm like, no, the guy's dead. You shouldn't allow anybody else to do it. Like that's, yeah,

52:07

that's pretty rough, but no, I didn't watch it. So, right.

52:10

I mean, I don't remember it, Why were you going to ask?

52:13

No, because I know this thing has lived on. I can definitely remember going

52:18

to the blockbuster and seeing the crow there, along with like four other movies.

52:25

I did see, I thought it was still conceptual, but you know, there's another

52:30

Crow movie coming out this year. Really? Probably like a pseudo reboot. The 30th anniversary.

52:37

Wow. Thomas Jane is in the Crow too.

52:40

And the screenplay is from David S. Goyer.

52:44

So you have Bill Skarsgård is going to be the new Eric and singer, songwriter FKA Twigs.

52:53

It's going to be Shelley Webster. Okay that's that's pretty cool that's coming

52:59

out in uh september i love me some bill

53:02

skarsgard i think he is but see

53:05

i think he's gonna do what i was trying to what i was saying

53:07

is like i think he's gonna add the monster to it right because at the end of

53:12

the day this thing is kind of he's this character is kind of a monster right

53:16

he shows up and he's kind of terrifying like people shoot him and stab him and

53:21

then he sits there and lets them watch the holes heal up and like Like that's

53:24

a terrifying thing on its own. Right. But like, then he murders you in like a way that's very specific and very graphic.

53:32

You know what I mean? It's like, like, dude, that's a lot of heroin to put in

53:37

one human being or morphine or whatever they were using.

53:41

Also like that was a really cool and gross effect when he sucked the morphine out of that woman's arm.

53:48

Oh yeah. Yeah. That was weird, but it was cool.

53:52

Like he was trying to, so, So, you know, the poster actually says,

53:56

you know, the crow, believe in angels.

53:58

So I think this movie is trying to call him an angel who goes down to Earth

54:04

and does angelic things.

54:08

I don't know. Is that your take?

54:11

Do you see it? Is this the Old Testament way of relieving you of your sins?

54:17

I guess so, yeah. Yeah, but he was trying to make Darla, who was the whore of the movie...

54:26

Remember that she's also a mother and i thought

54:29

i thought it was a cool scene it was that was probably one

54:32

of my favorite scenes of the whole movie sadly by

54:34

the way that's the scene where he died in that movie like there's no

54:37

when when when the guy's shooting

54:41

him like when they're you know and he's when him

54:44

and darla are on the bed yeah that's when he died

54:47

like i was i was thinking that when i was watching that scene i was like i wonder

54:52

if it's this scene and i looked it up and it was and it's sad but yeah the I

54:57

think that for me that was the most powerful scene like the the watching him

55:03

do something other than get revenge,

55:06

right he wanted that brought in the hero park parts of the story where he just

55:10

he just wasn't a psychopath yeah exactly I'm reading here that there was a cancelled

55:18

crow movie in 2000 starring DMX the crow Lazarus.

55:25

Oh, well, I'm glad we didn't do that.

55:27

That's great. But yeah, no, I guess like I, you know, I think it goes without

55:32

saying, like, I think you and I like this movie, but I like it.

55:36

Like, if you if it's emo night, got some friends over, put on the crew.

55:44

I mean, the bad guy does some cool kills. I'll give him that.

55:47

Like, he has like a weird Western accent to know. He was cool. Yeah. He has swords.

55:52

Yeah. He's a bad guy. At one point,

55:55

I'm like, it's the crow fighting the Highlander. What's going on here?

55:58

You know, like only Highlanders own that many different swords from all over the world. Am I wrong?

56:05

You can never know. You never know. That would be the perfect crossover for it. Right.

56:08

It would. All right. I I just wanted to say thumbs up to the crow,

56:13

but I'm probably never going to watch the other ones. Thumbs up to the crow. I'll watch the one coming out later this year.

56:19

OK, I'll watch that one, too. Fair enough. All right. right next week venom

56:24

let let there be carnage later are we doing it are we doing it we'll do it we'll

56:29

do it let's do it well you heard it here first guys venom next week and with

56:33

that true believers enough said.

56:38

Music.