Fully Operational

Wind River is the directorial debut of actor/screenwriter Taylor Sheridan. Coming off of Sicario and Hell or High Water, expectations were high, and he knocks it out of the park again, with some fine performances from the requisite Marvel Avengers Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, and Sheridan staples such as Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal and Kelsey Asbille.

But before we travel to a Wyoming Native American reservation, Goodman asks Dre an essential life question: who would you rather hang out with for 24 hours, Tom Cruise or Nicolas Cage?

Then we have to talk about what we watched this week. Dre finished off the first season (more to come?) of the sci-fi philosophical drama Raised by Wolves directed in part by Ridley Scott and his son, Luke; the largely naturalistic and improvised film, The Comedy, starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric fame (on Criterion—#MoneyBagsDre); and the Ang Lee super-high frame-rate (120 fps) misfire, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, starring Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, Chris Tucker, Garrett Hedlund, Steve Martin and the living legend, Vin Diesel.

While Goodman re-watched the solid, fast-zombie sequel 28 Weeks Later (in honor of Jeremy Renner) directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (who did Intacto) and watched the movie that Dre recently watched, Wild Mountain Thyme, starring Emily Blunt, 50 Shades' Jamie Dornan, Christopher Walken and featuring the most ridiculous 3rd act reveal he's seen in quite a long time.

Then  we get into Wind River, and discuss what it means to be a warrior and a survivor, including the cast, the quotes, trivia and more!

Coming up next week we close out The Taylor Sheridan Experience with his latest written and directed feature now out on HBO Max, Those Who Wish Me Dead, starring Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal and Nicholas Hoult.

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

Come Hell or High Water, this episode is gonna go live! Because we're talking about Taylor Sheridan's script, directed by David Mackenzie, starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham, Katy Mixon, Dale Dickey, and more in Hell or High Water—a modern western that may just give you peace.

But before we do, we talk about the new trailer for the Guy Ritchie/Jason Statham Wrath of Man, and the fate of award-winning directors now that Chloe Zhao's next film is Marvel's Eternals.

Then, as per usual, we talk about what we watched this week. Dre & Goodman only watched 1 movie each—a rare occurrence. Goodman watched director Denis Hopper's 1988 deep dive into police/gang violence, Colors, starring Robert Duvall, Sean Penn, Maria Conchita Alonso, Don Cheadle, and a seriously batshit Damon Wayans performance.

Dre watched a hot, trending, animated movie on Netflix, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, produced by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller with a score by Mark Mothersbaugh; and the first episode (TV so it doesn't count) of the Ridley Scott produced show on HBOMax, Raised by Wolves, about two androids who are tasked with raising human children on a foreign planet.

Then we head to West Texas to follow the Howard boys as they rob banks and try to set things right—what things? You'll find out. These boys are so good, you'd think there were ten of them. We talk Taylor (including his cameo in the film), the cast, and a whole heap of quotes and trivia.

Last, we give a shout out to a new docuseries coming to Apple TV+ (Date: TBD), Big Man on Campus, which follows hoops phenom Makur Maker during his freshman year at Howard University, which our buddy Ramsey was involved in bringing to life! Way to go, Rams!

Join us next week for Mr. Sheridan's directorial debut (and screenplay): Wind River.

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

Tom Clancy's novel, Without Remorse has been waiting for the Hollywood treatment for years—even Keanu Reeves was attached back in the day—so who knew it would end up in the lap of screenwriter Taylor Sheridan and director Stefano Sollima of Sicario: Day of the Soldado fame? Probably no one.

But before we get into all the Michael B. Jordan action-thriller tête-à-tête, we have to talk about what we watched this week.

Dre saw three movies this week, including The Firm (not the Tom Cruise/John Grisham one, the one from 1988 with Gary Oldman & Lesley Manville about soccer hooligans); the throwback legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer, featuring Matthew McConaughey, based on the book by Michael Connelly; and Wild Mountain Thyme, the John Patrick Shanley film based on his play, starring Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan. Jon Hamm and Christopher Walken.

Goodman beat Dre by watching four movies (!!!!), including the new Netflix sci-fi film, Stowaway, about a space mission to Mars where things get disrupted by a stowaway; Dark Waters, the latest 'Civil Action'-style legal drama about how corporations are the worst things ever; The Silencing, starring Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Annabelle Wallis, about a hunter and a sheriff seeking a serial killer, which feels like it owes a bit of a debt to Taylor Sheridan's Wind River; and Spike Lee's heist film, Inside Man, starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer (RIP) and still holds up.

Then we go all zero dark thirty with a bunch of Navy Seals to discuss Tom Clancy's Without Remorse. We talk Taylor and Stefano Sollima, the cast, including Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith and Guy Pearce (and Colman Domingo—blink and you miss him!), quotes, trivia and more!

Next week we head to Texas for some good old-fashioned Comanche references with Hell or High Water.

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

As soon as Sicario came out, we knew Taylor Sheridan was a good screenwriter.  Three films later (with two more about to drop in the next few weeks), he's cementing his status as a great screenwriter. And for the next month or so, we're diving deep into his filmography, starting with a double dose of Sick-ario action with the original and the sequel, Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

But first we have to talk about the 2021 Oscars (the Lauren Lapkus snub still hurts) and what we watched this week. Dre started with Mortal Kombat (not the good one); the 1974 James Caan film, The Gambler; The Father featuring Anthony Hopkin's Academy Award winning performance (sorry, Chadwick); and the latest film by someone he follows on Twitter (Brian Duffield), Spontaneous, which is about high school kids spontaneously exploding (could happen).

Goodman couldn't stomach finishing Mortal Kombat, so instead he rewatched the Quentin Tarantino gear-head exploitation film, Death Proof (one half of the great Grindhouse combo) and Friends with Kids, written and directed by Jennifer Westfeldt, and starring half the cast of Bridesmaids.

Then we go all inter-agency taskforce and move to the El Paso/Juarez border for a hell of a lot of drug cartels and the badasses waging war on them... if only it was a war worth fighting. We talk the casts, the quotes, the trivia, and more!

Next week we're going full Tom Clancy with the Michael B. Jordan starring Without Remorse, written by Taylor Sheridan and directed by Sicario: Day of the Soldado's Stefano Sollima. Let's see if the magic is back!

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

We close out The Godfather Saga with a double feature courtesy of Mr. Coppola himself—The Godfather: Part III + The Godfather, Coda. We're talking almost five and half hours of pure Corleone action! But before we can break down everything that happens in these films, including Sophia Coppola's line-readings, Donkey Boy, Dre's Joe Mantegna, and 'It's his diabetes!', we have to discuss what we watched this week.

First, we watched the new movie trailers for two blockbusters: Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead which is like Ocean's 11 meets World War Z, and the latest in the Fast & Furious Saga: F9, which is like The Fate of the Furious meets pure ecstasy and magnets (yeah, bitch).

Dre also watched Zack Snyder's Watchmen, which still works for him and the Academy Award Best Picture nominated Minari, directed by Lee Isaac Chung.

While Goodman finally watched the Tom Cruise classic Risky Business (what a slide!), which could never be made today, but is a pure 80s vibe, and the proto-Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Then it's time to close out the Italian Star Wars and see if the third movie in the trilogy is really as bad as some people like to think, and whether Coppola's re-cut Coda improves upon it. We discuss what works, what doesn't and what changed, as well as the cast, the quotes and a whole heap of trivia.

Last we announce our upcoming theme: Taylor Sheridan films

• Sicario and Sicario: Day of the Soldado (written by)
• Without Remorse (written by)—the new film coming to Amazon Prime based on the Tom Clancy novel, starring Michael B. Jordan
• Hell or High Water (written by)
• Wind River (written and directed by)
• Those Who Wish Me Dead (written and directed by)—the new film coming to HBO Max, starring Angelina Jolie

Join us next week as we turn the podcast loose with some double Sicario action!

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

The saga continues with a part II (of The Godfather: Part II) to remember. After a blistering part I, it wasn't clear if we'd even make it back into the recording studio (aka Zencastr) to finish it up, but we set aside our differences and did just that. Goodman finished the movie, and Dre held back the acid in his mouth.

But before we can conclude the first sequel to ever win an Academy Award for Best Picture, we have to talk about what we watched this week.

For Goodman, he caught up with Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop 2; the 80s smash hit, Crocodile Dundee, and Another Round starring Mads Mikkelsen and directed by Academy Award nominated Thomas Vinterberg.

While Dre watched Goodman's pick from last week, the hilarious Eric Andre, Tiffany Haddish, Lil Rey Howery prank-doc, Bad Trip; all of the recent Godzilla movies since Gareth Edwards' 2014 version, including Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong; and the documentary, White Boy, which the film White Boy Rick was based on.

Then we get right back into The Godfather: Part II, and all the reasons why Dre can't take Goodman seriously. Not to mention, a whole bunch of quotes, the acclaimed cast, and a bit of trivia.

Coming up next week we close out the Godfather Saga with a double screening of The Godfather: Part III (the theatrical cut), and the recently recut, The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

In the famous words of Don Dre Corleone, you broke my heart, Goodman. Or more specifically, Paramount+ broke Goodman's (and the internet's) heart. In this episode, art imitates life because Fully Operational becomes a tragedy, an opera... a saga.

In Part I of our, now, 2-part episode of The Godfather: Part II, we start off with everything you know and love about Fully Operational:

• A sufficient dose of witty banter
• The announcement of our one listener
• Unveiling what Goodman watched this week
  • Jumper - the Doug Liman directed movie about teleporting humans (Hayden Christensen and Jamie Bell) and the bad government-type guys (Samuel L. Jackson) chasing after them, plus Rachel Bilson & Diane Lane
  • Action Jackson - a quintessential 80s movie mashup with half the cast of Die Hard and half the cast of Predator, starring the incomparable Carl Weathers, who every kid in the 80s wanted to grow up to become (and still do)
  • Bad Trip - hands down some of the funniest scenes in a movie, ever. Thank you, Eric Andre, Lil Rey Howery and Tiffany Haddish
• Unveiling what Dre watched this week
  • Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence - a WWII movie by Nagisa Oshima starring David Bowie and Tim Conti, available on Criterion
  • Phoenix - a Holocaust survivor tale, also on Criterion
  • Beverly Hills Cop - still so good, even on Dre's 8 millionth viewing, starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Martin Brest
  • Gomorroh - an interesting, solid flick that wants to be the Italian City of God

But when it was time to discuss the second movie in The Godfather saga, we ended up with Global Podcast Host Thermonuclear War.

So, if you're game. Give it a listen. And we guarantee that by the end of this episode, you'll ask yourself... is there ever going to be another episode of Fully Operational? 

...will Dre & Goodman hire their own hitmen to take out each other like Joe Exotic and Carol Baskin? 

...and how much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? 

But we can't disclose any more family business. 

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

Yes, it's April Fool's Day. Yes, we're back. No, it's not a joke, we're really back. Seriously, there's a real movie episode that's now live. It's not just Goodman going off the top of the dome for 45 minutes on Tenet (with only 5 minutes being the actual review). We repeat. This. Is. Not. A. Joke. Which is a shame, because it would've been a pretty good one.

And what better way to kick off our return than a dissection of the classic American film saga, The Godfather series directed by Francis Ford Coppola based on the books of Mario Puzo, written by both of them (with Robert Towne thrown in for good measure for the first film), starring Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, John Cazale, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire (little nepotis), Robert De Niro, Bruno Kirby, Andy Garcia, Joe Mantegna, Sofia Coppola (little nepotis) and so many others!

All April, we're celebrating all things Godfather. We're talking The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III, AND Francis Ford Coppola's latest director's cut of Part III, Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (really, that's what it's called?).

In this episode you'll learn some things you probably never knew about The Godfather, such as:

• Who does a better Brando impression, Dre or Goodman?
• How the movie Predator ripped off The Godfather
• The appropriate number of times to scream after your favorite horse has been decapitated and put under your sheets, then you wake up to find said horse's bloody head seeping blood all around you

But before we talk Godfather, Dre gives a lightning round rundown of what he watched in March: Butter, The Chase, Harold and Maude, Nomadland, The Grey, 22 July, Bowfinger, My Octopus Teacher, Screwball, Belushi, Fargo Seasons 1 & 2, and Brockmire.

Goodman forgot half of what he watched, but he did remember watching the Russell Crowe Gladiator (aka the worse Gladiator—shouts to James Marshall), Eddie Murphy's sequel Coming 2 America, and Billions Season 1.

Then we break down Zack Snyder's Justice League and discuss whether it's an improvement over the original (spoiler alert: we guess, but that's not saying much).

So join us for a bit of film history while we make podcast history. This is The Godfather.

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

Hello, Fully Friends! We're still on vacation, but we couldn't let the 2021 Oscar Nominations come out without our expert analysis and insightful reactions (uh, where TF is Lauren Lapkus' Best Actress nomination?). 

So join us for a quick debrief on the nominations and see if you agree with us (which you should). 

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert

Welcome to the definitive podcast review of Christopher Nolan's 2020 film, Tenet. This review is so hot, it's basically the audio equivalent of OnlyFans, which is why it had to come in 2021.

If you're a Goodman-completist, this is a must listen. If you're not, or have never listened to this show before, then it's also a must listen. Sure, you could skip to the last 7 minutes of this 40+ minute review, and you'll 'get' it. But then you'd miss out on all the fun!

--
Praise for this episode:

"This episode will be, for our listeners, what it's like to get one of your rambling, stream-of-consciousness voicemails... but 10x as long."—Dre, Co-host of Fully Operational

"I think this review will be, for all generations, the definitive review of Tenet. Or if you spell it backwards, teneT."—Goodman, Co-host of Fully Operational

"Best play ever, man"—Mr. Littlejeans
--

In this bonus episode, Goodman discusses Christopher Nolan's filmography, the plot, the time travel mechanics (in super-crystal-clear-easy-to-follow format), the cast, and some crazy non-Tenet quotes for good measure.

Note on spoilers: Definite spoilers.

Disclaimer: This review is Goodman's and his alone. Dre's absence and silence is not meant to affirm or denigrate the  substance of this review (which is perfect in every way).

SONG CREDITS:
Theme music: "70s Funk" by Frank Cogliano
Closing music: "This is My Jam" by Will Van De Crommert