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Episode Summary: Cops and robbers are a sacrament of film. Once crime was introduced to cinema, filmmakers and writers uncovered its narrative power. Like any popular subject matter, it tends to get bland as films present watered-down versions and half-assed attempts at telling a compelling crime story. Fast forward to 1995’s Heat. Heat is art meets action in the form of cops and robbers. Instead of your standard crime drama, Michael Mann serves up a delicious character study that focuses on the subtle variance in moral fibers that put good and bad on opposite sides. The movie breaks wide open when you realize that Vincent and McCauley are the same people. They just happen to fall on different sides of the law. The Departed seems like a Scorsese rerun on the outside. However, it doesn’t take long to see that it’s not his age-old formula of “3 hours of zooming in on the thing that makes a character unbearable.” Instead, he puts together a giant cast and shows his ability to tell a story across multiple points of view. In this episode, the guys discuss how simply having a giant, star-laden cast doesn’t guarantee a good film. It takes a director and a vision. These two films are the ultimate example of how to balance star power and story. As for randos, the guys discuss the preparation that actors went through, Michael Mann’s attention to character detail, and the artistic design of these powerhouse films.
Movie Wars Scorecard
Best Top Bill Cast
Best Supporting Cast
Least Bloated cast(best utilization of gigantic cast)
Music
Neil McCauley Vs. Frank Costello
Gun Fight
The award for best police work
Best Criminal Enterprise
Worse with relationships (all the men of both movies)
Psycho Henchmen Wanegrow Vs. Mr. French
Which gang do you want to join?
Martin Scorsese vs. Michael Mann
Film Summaries
Heat: Master criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is trying to control the rogue actions of one of his men, while also planning one last big heist before retiring. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Hanna (Al Pacino) attempts to track down McCauley as he deals with the chaos in his own life, including the infidelity of his wife (Diane Venora) and the mental health of his stepdaughter (Natalie Portman). McCauley and Hanna discover a mutual respect, even as they try to thwart each other's plans.
The Departed
South Boston cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes under cover to infiltrate the organization of gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). As Billy gains the mobster's trust, a career criminal named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrates the police department and reports on its activities to his syndicate bosses. When both organizations learn they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin must figure out each other's identities to save their own lives.
Episode Summary: On episode 0008 of the Movie Wars Podcast, Kyle, Drew, and Phil dissect two modern masterpieces. These films duked it out for best film (No Country edged TWBB out) in 2008. Both qualify as American classics of masterful storytelling. These movies were even filmed in the same place. One of Kyle’s Rando’s covers how one film’s pyrotechnics halted the production of another. Kyle’s Randos cover original casting, pre-production mishaps with one of the film’s stars, notes from the books, and many more items. The story-hook focuses on how films were exploring dark and nihilistic themes comfortably after the tragic events of 911. Artists in all mediums weren’t shying away from dark themes. This created the opening for these two films. Not to mention that these two films were released the same year that Breaking Bad began its unprecedented run as, according to several, the best show ever made. Walter White took the concept of the antihero to new heights as do No Country For Old Men And There Will Be Blood. Anton Chigurh and Daniel Plainview are two of the darkest, complex, and interesting antiheroes to ever hit the big screen. The guys finish it out with their epic scorecard and personal picks to conclude the show.
Movie Wars Score Card Categories for Episode 0008
Plot Summaries:
No Country For Old Men:
While out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds the grisly aftermath of a drug deal. Though he knows better, he cannot resist the cash left behind and takes it with him. The hunter becomes the hunted when a merciless killer named Chigurh (Javier Bardem) picks up his trail. Also looking for Moss is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), an aging lawman who reflects on a changing world and a dark secret of his own, as he tries to find and protect Moss. -Courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_country_for_old_men)
Courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_country_for_old_men)
There Will Be Blood:
Silver miner Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) leads a hardscrabble life with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier). When he hears about oil oozing from the ground near the Western town of Little Boston, Daniel takes his son on a mission to find their fortune. Daniel makes his lucky strike and becomes a self-made tycoon but, as his fortune grows, he deviates into moral bankruptcy.
-Information, courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/there_will_be_blood)
Episode Summary: Rocky and Raging Bull are two of the greatest boxing films of all time. Although seen as two drastically different films, they make a great pairing for episode 0007 of the Movie Wars Podcast. Kyle, Drew, and Phil discuss the themes that tie these two films together. Although Rocky and Jake LaMotta are very different, Kyle surmises that they make up two sides of one coin. One is a naive optimist while the other is a gifted but insanely troubled person. This paradox is what makes sports films great. The sport itself is often just the proving ground that acts as a metaphor that plays out the complexities of the characters themselves. Boxing itself is arguably the most superior sport to tell those stories.
Randos cover the underdog elements of Sylvester Stallone's rise to fame through a film he wrote but no one wanted him to act in. Other randos cover other casting considerations, little budgets with big results, Martin Scorsese’s artistic approach to making a sports film, and actor dedication to learning how to fight convincingly.
Movie Wars Scorecard:
Best Top Bill Cast
Best Supporting Cast
Who would you rather get punched by?
Adrian Vs Vickey in a fight
Music
Best fighting depiction
Bloody Bruised Face: Who Wore It Best?
Best Nickname
Worst with women
Worst jokes
Best Italian
Plot Summaries:
Rocky: Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a small-time boxer from working-class Philadelphia, is arbitrarily chosen to take on the reigning world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), when the undefeated fighter's scheduled opponent is injured. While training with feisty former bantamweight contender Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith), Rocky tentatively begins a relationship with Adrian (Talia Shire), the wallflower sister of his meat-packer pal Paulie (Burt Young).
Director:
John G. Avildsen
-Summary and info courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1017776-rocky)
Raging Bull: The story of a middleweight boxer as he rises through ranks to earn his first shot at the middleweight crown. He falls in love with a gorgeous girl from the Bronx. The inability to express his feelings enters into the ring and eventually takes over his life. He eventually is sent into a downward spiral that costs him everything.
Director:
Martin Scorsese
Episode Summary: After the brain-searing, philosophically exhausting episode 0005(The Matrix Vs. Inception), the guys needed a week or two to catch their breath. For a change of pace, they give comedy a whirl. What better than quite possibly the best two buddy comedies of all time? Buddy comedy is its own subgenre of comedy. It appears throughout comedy in every decade. Dumb And Dumber and Tommy Boy are side-splitting films that take the audience on road trips through less than ideal situations. One of the major themes of episode 0006 is the idea that comedy in and of itself should be judged similarly to dramatic films(Jeff Daniels even said so). This rests in the fact that so many comedic actors can do drama but the reverse isn’t nearly as prevalent. Jim Carrey is an incredible example of this range. Knowing this is true, you can’t help but think about what several of entertainment’s biggest hitters had to say about the late and great Chris Farley. The common sentiment is that we hadn’t even seen the tip of the iceberg of his talent. Like many great comics, his potential to do drama was not only high, but expected. Kyle speaks to failure as a stand-up comedian to provide insights into the emotional layers of comedy. During randos, the guys discuss how Dumb And Dumber was a film that was more than likely never going to be made, how Jeff Daniels ended up playing opposite of Jim Carrey, and the original casting choices that would blow your mind.
Movie Wars Score Card
Best Top Bill Cast
Best Supporting Cast
Best buddy duo to go on a trip with?
Who would you rather be, the bird or the deer?
Best thwarting the police technique?
Best Soundtrack?
Who would win a duo Cage Match?
Whats nobler? Delivering the suitcase to the woman or saving the father’s company?
Best use of condiments
Best 90’s Soundtrack
Most quotable
Film Summaries
Tommy Boy: After his beloved father (Brian Dennehy) dies, dimwitted Tommy Callahan (Chris Farley) inherits a near-bankrupt automobile parts factory in Sandusky, Ohio. His brand new stepmother, Beverly (Bo Derek), wants to cash out and close, but Tommy's sentimental attachment to his father's employees spurs him to make one last-ditch effort to find someone who will buy their products. With his father's tightly wound assistant, Richard (David Spade), in tow, Tommy hits the road to scare up some new clients.
Dumb And Dumber:
Imbecilic best friends Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) stumble across a suitcase full of money left behind in Harry's car by Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly), who was on her way to the airport. The pair decide to go to Aspen, Colo., to return the money, unaware that it is connected to a kidnapping. As Harry and Lloyd -- who has fallen in love with Mary -- are pursued across the country by hired killers and police, they find both their friendship
Episode Summary: Kyle, Drew, and Phil were asking for a brain bruising when they decided to do this matchup. The Matrix carries its equal weight in philosophy as it does innovative action and camerawork. The only film that comes close in recent years is Inception. Both require multiple watches to understand. Typically, the first viewing amazes with their visuals. However, you are left scratching your head at the meaning of it all. The guys do their most research to date in order to do these titans justice. The story hook is summarized by two protagonists traversing alternate realities in pursuit of their own version of personal freedom. Truth is uncomfortable and unsettling. Dom(Inception) and Neo(The Matrix) push every boundary to accomplish those freedoms at a high cost. During randos, the guys discuss the high-powered actors who turned down the roles of Neo and Morpheus, the educational preparation that was required to make these films, the physical tole that was taken out on one star(and his stuntman), and the philosophies that drive these films.
Movie Wars Score Card
Best Top Bill Cast
Best Supporting Cast
Which one is your wife asking for an explanation every 5 mins?
Who's more handsome, Leo/Keanu?
What's worse, being a placenta pod for a machine or losing 50 years in the subconscious
More badass?
Best effects
Best Choreography
Who gets the award for Most Confusing?
Dom Vs. Neo
FIlm Summaries
The Matrix: Neo (Keanu Reeves) believes that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), an elusive figure considered to be the most dangerous man alive, can answer his question -- What is the Matrix? Neo is contacted by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), a beautiful stranger who leads him into an underworld where he meets Morpheus. They fight a brutal battle for their lives against a cadre of viciously intelligent secret agents. It is a truth that could cost Neo something more precious than his life.
Inception: Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb's every move.
Episode Summary: Film is often a canvas that can be used for so many things. They reflect the politics of the time. They often reflect the issues that people faced. Artists embody those by reflecting them onto the big screen But you also have movies like Jaws and Jurrasic Park. Two movies that can only be described as downright adventures. In the heaviness of any time period, leisure can be had in the form of pure entertainment. At a base level, film exists to transport us. It transports us to a time that we didn’t experience or tickles our imagination to wrap our minds around something we can’t comprehend on our own. Nothing accomplishes this like these two films. During randos, the guys talk about what it took to make these films, the struggles of the mechanical shark, the CGI of JP, Steven Spielberg’s desire to walk on making Jaws, and the improvised acting moments that often get buried by the action of Jaws.
Movie Wars Scorecard
Best Top Bill Cast
Best Supporting Cast
Who would you rather be eaten by?
Dino CGI Vs Practical Jaws
Tastiest characters
Jaws Vs T Rex
Best Spielberg
Best score
Best pet for a millionaire?
Quint Vs a Dinosaur
Best intro kill scene
Best Kills/deaths
Which sets up for the best franchise?
Film Summaries
Jaws: When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) overrules him, fearing that the loss of tourist revenue will cripple the town. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and grizzled ship captain Quint (Robert Shaw) offer to help Brody capture the killer beast, and the trio engage in an epic battle of man vs. nature.
Jurassic Park: In Steven Spielberg's massive blockbuster, paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are among a select group chosen to tour an island theme park populated by dinosaurs created from prehistoric DNA. While the park's mastermind, billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), assures everyone that the facility is safe, they find out otherwise when various ferocious predators break free and go on the hunt.
Episode Summary: How does a director develop a sequel to a masterpiece? Ask James Cameron. Cameron originally directed The Terminator in 1984 and created the sequel T2. He also took on the daunting tasks of developing the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece Alien. Hindsight is 20/20 now that we’ve seen Cameron make relevant and innovative films every decade since he came on the scene. At the time, Scott’s old crew from Alien wanted nothing to do with him. The visuals for T2 had never been done before. However, this didn’t stop him from making two sequels that(depending on who you ask) are better than their predecessors. James Cameron isn’t the only thing linking these two films. Both films are buoyed by strong female arcs that don’t yet exist in the sci-fi drama. When it comes to Randos, the guys discuss the budgets and innovation behind these two groundbreaking films, an actress who hated guns but shot a lot of them in the movie, alternate endings that would have changed the outlook for a certain franchise, and James Cameron’s not-so-friendly welcome by Ridley Scott’s original Alien Crew.
Movie Wars Scorecard
Best Top Bill Cast
Best Supporting Cast
Best Music
Best Gun Fight
Biggest Jump from the original
T1000 Vs. Alien Queen
Best effects
Design Of Alien Vs Terminators
Best Final Fight
Sarah Connor Vs Ripley
Film Summaries
Terminator 2: Judgement Day: In this sequel set eleven years after "The Terminator," young John Connor (Edward Furlong), the key to civilization's victory over a future robot uprising, is the target of the shape-shifting T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a Terminator sent from the future to kill him. Another Terminator, the revamped T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), has been sent back to protect the boy. As John and his mother (Linda Hamilton) go on the run with the T-800, the boy forms an unexpected bond with the robot.
Aliens: After floating in space for 57 years, Lt. Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) shuttle is found by a deep space salvage team. Upon arriving at LV-426, the marines find only one survivor, a nine year old girl named Newt (Carrie Henn). But even these battle-hardened marines with all the latest weaponry are no match for the hundreds of aliens that have invaded the colony.
-Summary and info from Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000617-aliens)
Episode Summary: Alien and Predator are two films that get mentioned in the same breath frequently. There are video games and the eventual fan-craved AvP series. At surface level, it seems that the only thing linking these two films are the extraterrestrials. There is a deeper thought there. In the estimation of the Movie Wars crew, what really links this film is a proliferation in how aliens are portrayed in films. Alien sci-fi really focused on the mystery of aliens. Maybe they probe you. Maybe they want to take over the earth. Nobody knows. Alien set a new precedent that whatever is out there is terrifying and violent. Predator takes on that idea in a more commercial way later on. Ridley Scott’s alien is vulgar, disgusting, morbid, and violent. Its journey is filled with sexual metaphors. Randos for this episode include a big-time actor who wore the first(and very ugly) Predator suit, the inspiration for the Alien look, an actor that required an insurance policy to protect the other actors and directorial decisions that led to some of the most iconic scenes in film history.
Movie Wars Scorecard:
Best Top Bill Cast
Best Supporting Cast
Best Interpretation of Extra-Terrestrials
Best Kills
Best possible TV series
Best Music
Worst Creature Body Odor
Best Weapons
Who’s uglier?
Which creature died the best death?
Which movie does your wife hate more?
Film Summaries
Alien: In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to investigate a distress call from an alien vessel. The terror begins when the crew encounters a nest of eggs inside the alien ship. An organism from inside an egg leaps out and attaches itself to one of the crew, causing him to fall into a coma.
Predator: Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.
-Summary and info courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/predator)
Hear Kyle, Drew, and Phil as they navigate the "War Score" card for two of the greatest Sci-Fi Action films of all-time. Movie Wars starts off with a bang(an explosion?) by pitting two of the greatest heavyweights of all-time against one another.
Can Arnold defeat Peter Weller in the top billed cast category?
Who would win in an all out brawl?
Have you ever wondered which Machine is more likely to get Malware?
All this more on Ep. 0001 of Movie Wars!
FIlm Summaries
RoboCop: In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.
-Summary and info courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes(https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1017712-robocop)
The Terminator: Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) travels from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Sent to protect Sarah is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who divulges the coming of Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that will spark a nuclear holocaust. Sarah is targeted because Skynet knows that her unborn son will lead the fight against them. With the virtually unstoppable Terminator in hot pursuit, she and Kyle attempt to escape.
-Summary and info courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/terminator)
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