1996: Last Man Standing

0:01 These are the movies of nineteen ninety six. What's up, everybody. I'm Jeff Johnson from a Film by podcast, and I'm hoping you're down for this dope series we've been doing. We've broken down the fresh films of nineteen eighty six, we examined the gritty cinemascape of nineteen seventy six, and now it's time to check out the hella good flicks of nineteen ninety six. My co host today has spent most of his life on the dodge, drunk or sober.

0:42 He's got no complaints. My good friend, Andrew Blakeley. How are you doing? Jeff, so glad to be here. I'm glad to have you. Man. It's ninety six we were you know. We're actually doing movies that was alive for now. That's good. Absolutely. I thought it was time to bring you more in the decks here. Well, I do want to talk today Andrew about an American retelling of a Japanese classic, So the Ring No, think more, think more action, think more gunfights. Oh, the Magnificent Seven. Not quite. Let me help you out here. It's a retelling of the classic Yojimbo story, but made with one of our generation's greatest action icons.

1:33 Oh well, that's obvious, then, Paul Blart Mall cop two, classic cinematic gold. I'm about I'm grabbing the bottle right now. I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and pull myself a double. We are talking once again, Andrew. We are talking about Bruce Willis, and this time it is Last Man Standing. He's pulling off the con of a lifetime. This man is here to make some money in the action can fail them of the year he shot some of my guys. What was it deserved that Bruce Willis's best movie ever? Last Man Is I Shoot him Up? Slam bang action bonanza. It might be a good time for you guys to give up Bruce Willis in a Walter Hill Hill Last Man is Scanda.

2:17 It's such a nice guy. Rated R starts Friday at a theater near you. A drifting gunslinger for hire finds himself in the middle of an ongoing war between the Irish and the Italian mafia in a Prohibition era ghost town. Andrew, this first time watched for yours? Did you grow up on. This un Uh? No? I think I watched it once when I was a kid. But I just I kind of forgot about it as just some boring gangster movie. You know, as a kid, it didn't really land, so I was vaguely aware of it. But okay, so I'm keenan aphraser. You said that some boring gangster movie. Let me take you back to nineteen ninety six. Last Man Standing was considered a failure for New Line Cinema. Had a worldwide gross of forty seven point three million against a budget of sixty seven million.

3:07 Critics overall weren't kind, offering up mixed to average reviews. Andrew, I was gonna ask you were they wrong about this? But now you know, Andrew Blakely back in nineteen ninety six is feeling this kind of kind of way, what's up? Yeah, it's definitely grown on me a little bit. There's a lot to like about this movie. There's a lot of things it does well. Overall, it felt a little needless. I mean, we can kind of get into the nitpicky stuff later, but it was okay, it was decent. You know, if I'm a film reviewer, I'm not gonna, you know, bash the thing. But I'm also not gonna be like, you've got to get out and see this one either, you know. Yeah, I remember I didn't see this one in the theaters. But as soon as I found this on the shelf at Blockbuster, I was a little bothered that I didn't go out and see it in the theater because, you know, at that point in ninety six, I'm I have like a a cinema knowledge, you know, I'm because I'm into it, and I'm I'm kicking myself because I was like a Walter Hill film came out and I didn't go see it in the theater, What the hell is wrong with me?

4:12 But you know, and we well, we'll get into like, you know, the the the premise of remaking something from a Curac Krosawa here in a second. But I just love the fact that it's, yeah, it's a it's it's Kirasawa, but it's also it's a noir type of type of vibe to it. You know, the hard boiled detective character you know now is like a gun singer for hire. I love Bruce Willison this, yeah, just the like, let me let me read you this, because we we open this film and we get this great voice over where he's kind of setting the stage for us. He says, Uh, it's a funny thing. No matter how low you sink, there's still a right and a wrong, and you always end up choosing. You go one way so you can try and live with yourself. You can go the other way and still be walking around, but you're dead and you don't know it.

5:07 You know, Jeff, I love your voice, but nobody can pull that off like Bruce Willis. It's Bruce Willis. He has the perfect voice for the narration for this movie. He can't do him justice, but he this is this is Bruce Willis where he's you know, mid to late nineties. He adapts this the whispery Bruce Willis Willis's voice, you know, like we we taught we you know, we heard it in Last Boy Scouts. It's I dig it though. Yeah, like Clint, he's doing like his like his Clint Eastwood, not that it's Clint east Wood, but he's kind of given it. It's it's the new Bruceville Willis voice. Yeah. I saw an interview with Hill where he said, like working with Bruce, they weren't close. He's like, we didn't have a great, like intimate relationship, but he came in he was like, so I get it. You want like a Bogart or a Mitchum. Yeah, and Hill was like yeah, he was like cool, got it and then just ran with that. And you definitely get that feeling like he's trying to play that old Hollywood cool guy, you know. And I don't know that that's necessarily where he shines the best. I think I like Bruce Willis with a little more snark and a little more humor.

6:09 But I think you did a. Great job, you know, now that you mentioned that, I definitely see a lot of Bogart and what he's doing in this movie. Absolutely, I'm seeing not Mitcham so much. Mitcham was more of a boisterous, tough guy, you know, he kind of threw his weight around. I'm not seeing that. This is this is This is definitely more Bogart and I'm here for it man. Which yeah, plays in that noir space really really well. Yeah, Now, Andrew, this is nineteen ninety six. A lot of times we talk about the the impact on pop culture and you know things, you know what you know, ninety centric things. This this is a period film though, we're nineteen thirties era prohibition, so you know we're gonna skip, We're gonna cut through some of that and jump right into going behind the scenes on this one. So Walter Hill receives an offer to remake a Kura Kirosawa's Yojimbo, which itself was based on Dashio Hammett's nineteen twenty seven novel Red Harvest. Hill is quoted as saying, it took me a long time to be persuaded to do it.

7:14 I thought the very idea of adapting mister Kurasawa was insanity for the obvious reasons. The first movie was very, very good, and in addition, I would be in the shadow of mister Kirosawa, who is probably our most revered filmmaker. You gotta give Walter Hill credit right there calling out Kirosawa for the brilliance that. That absolutely yeah, it is a bonker's concept to try to take that on, you know, and mentioned Magnificent seven earlier, and I can't I would be so daunted to be talked about in the same breath as a Kia Kurrasawa so respect and that he was able to be humble enough to do it. I'm glad he did, because I like the idea of trying this in new spaces, But I also get his fear was somewhat well based, because I think we all know Yo Jimbo. I think it is one of the great cinematic masterpieces, and I think Last Man Standing is good.

8:14 That's fair you talk about getting into a different space. New Line Cinema wanted to remake this as a dystopian sci fi thriller in the vein of Escape from New York, which yeah wow. But once Walter Hill learned that Kirosawa was supportive of the remake, he agreed to write and direct it on the condition that the film not be science fiction and definitely not a western, given the lawsuit involving the first remake. Yeah yeah, the first remake A fistful of dollars. Great, great movie, obviously, Siergoloni and Clone Eastwood. It's fantastic. Leads to genuinely one of my favorite filmmaker squabble quotes. So when he saw the movie A fifth full of Dollars, Krasawa wrote to leondirectly saying, Senior Leon, Senior Leon, I have just had the chance to see your film. It is a very fine film, but it is my film, and right out of the gate. The snark there is fantastic, but he went on to say, since Japan is a signatory of the Burn Convention in the international copyright, you must pay me. And this led to a lot of legal trouble and a lot of biggering back and forth, to the point where Kisawa actually did end up settling.

9:33 And while the exact numbers aren't out there, at least I wasn't able to find them, it looks like he actually made more money off of the settlement for a fifth full of dollars than he actually did for Yo Jimbo. Which I gotta dig the irony there. Yeah, yeah, well so Walter Hill, he's gonna avoid all that. He sets his story as a nineteen thirties noir gangster film, But I ask you, isn't this still a Western? Yeah? That's That's one of those areas where I kind of feel like this one misses for me. I would have really loved to see this like maybe take place in Chicago or New York and really lean into the gangster noir setting, but instead it's this dusty ghost town in the middle of Texas, which makes it just feel like a Western but with like slightly more updated clothing.

10:21 So let's talk about the cinematography here. Now, Hill would have been happy to have had this shot in black and white, which studios absolutely like, absolutely not, We're not doing that. Yeah, so he I think part of the reason why we see this in this dusty ghost town of Jericho is because he's got this what would you call it, like a monochromatic Yeah, almost, Yeah, everything's just yellows and browns and gray, you know. Just which I want to give Hill a lot of credit here because I feel like a few years after this, a brother Artow came out and they really like they actually digitally you know, washed everything to bring out a lot of the color, and that's become really normal since then.

11:05 I think it's almost cliche now if you're setting something in Texas or Mexico, like everything's kind of yellowish and so it's very normal and almost cliche now. But at the time, that was a really cool thing that he opted to do. I gotta be honest, with all due respect to Walter Hill, Like the idea of this movie taking place in Chicago, like you're suggesting that might be a better film, I don't know, but I mean it definitely lends itself to some pretty amazing set pieces. I would think, yeah, absolutely. Let's talk titles. So before landing on Last Man Standing, they consider the following options during production. I want, I want Andrew Blakeley's take on whether they got it right or not. So at various points, this film was called Gun Down, Gangster, Jericho, and lastly, Welcome to Jericho.

12:00 I don't know this is This is sort of a hard thing to name. I don't love any of those, but I also don't love Last Man Standing, not just because now if you're googling it, you get that Tim Allen sitcom. Yeah, but it's it's a it's a difficult film to name because there's really not a lot to it from a plot standpoint. The main character doesn't even have a name, or in this case he does, it's you know, John Smith, but even that said tongue in cheek, like that's not his real name. Oh yeah, So I don't know really where you go with his Last man Standing feels accurate, but I don't know that it really gives the vibe of what this movie is. I must think. Honestly, I'm kind of warming to Jericho just by itself. Well yeah, not so much Welcome to jo with Jericho, Like I almost feel like, you know, you get a hit on your hands and then you could you could have seen Jericho at like different stages in American history just like you know, yeah, I don't know, but you know we got last and standing.

13:01 Could have done whatever. You know. Yeah, it was the nineties. Speaking of the nineties, we have we have a movie tie in novel. Yep, did you This is something I want to talk about this real quick. I want to see what your your thoughts are. So in the movie tie in, it's written that we do learn who the dead man is in the Undertaker's parlor window at the beginning, when Bruce Willis first shows up, he was supposed to meet John Smith to sell him fake id's to escape to Mexico, but had gotten himself killed by Doyle's men. Because you know, Bruce Willis rolls into town immediately he's got trouble Doyle's through. You know, they kind of vandalize his vehicle and warn him immediately.

13:43 So I like the idea that, you know, maybe smith Is is hitting town for a reason and it's you know, well. Yeah, yeah. There's a couple of times really early in this movie where his motivation didn't really make a lot of sense. I think giving him a reason to a be in Jericho and be a reason to now stay in jail outside of just oh, I gotta get my tire replaced like that wasn't great motivation. That wasn't really great drive for the plot. But if he's in a situation where Okay, now I'm stuck and I've got to get some cash, I've got to figure out a way to set myself up, that makes more sense to me. That gives me a little more drive for him. Yeah, I'm definitely a fan of the dead Man in the Parlor Window being being an associate. I think that that helps it. You know, it would be cool if there would have been a way for them to give us set in the movie. You know, I know they can't.

14:28 You know, it's it's exposition. There's only so much you can do. But yeah, let's talk about this. This film's score. No. Andrew Elmer Bernstein is arguably one of the greatest composers in film and television history, and it shocks me to find out that he has the score finished. He's about halfway through finishing it when Walter Hill. Fires him, Yeah, that's not. You know, you gotta give it. H'll's got some stones man. He tells one of the greatest composer was like, listen, it's it's just not what I'm looking for goodbye. Which is, like you said, he's he's an amazing composer. I get coming to him and saying, I don't like the direction you're going. Let's try something else. Yeah, So I want to know what that interaction was where he was like, Nope, we're not even going to salvage this, could you know, get out like that's that was wild to me.

15:19 So to that end, though, what'd you think of ry Cooter's guitar work here? This is it's very it's a very western score, I think. But what I want to hear what you thought? Yeah, I actually didn't hate it. It didn't really stand out. There was no scenes where the score really grabbed me. But like you said, it really leaned into the western vibe of it, and I think that was not necessarily bad, but a mistake. You know, we've already seen this movie as a Western. We should be leaning away from that, not into it. Well, I'll tell you I kind of picked up on you know, before I knew it was Rycooter. I'm like, you know what, I this feels familiar. He'd actually worked with Walter Hill before nineteen eighty four, a film that I absolutely love. It's called Streets of Fire. I don't know if you've ever seen that one, but yeah film. Yeah, And then nineteen eighty six he's he's doing the score for a Crossroads. Yeah, which makes perfect sense.

16:15 Right, Yeah, Yeah, Honestly, that's the thing. And I think that a lot of people that do the score, like, you can either be amazing. You can be you know, John Williams, you can be you know Suore in Lord of the Rings and write this iconic score, or you can just really set a stage for the movie and like kind of be background. And I'm not going to necessarily hear the song, but it really lends itself to setting the mood. And I think that that's really where this guy falls. Like I can't really picture any of his songs in my head, but when I think of those movies and like it really it just feels right. I agree. I absolutely agree. Let's take a quick break and when we get back, we'll talk about this Castle's Let's talk about Bruce Willis. For a second, here he's playing John Smith and obviously that's we know, that's not his given name. Bruce does thirty films in the nineties.

17:07 That is bonkers thirty he's and he's coming off of, like right before this, he's coming off of pulp fiction. Yeah, the Third die Hard and Twelve Monkeys, and after this he's got Fifth Element Armageddon and the sixth Sense. Just banger after banger after banger. Is it safe to say we're witnessing Pekee Willis here in nineteen ninety six. Oh yeah, I mean I don't think there's any doubt about that. I mean, he's he we as the audience know who he is, and he really leans into that. But he also, you know, he takes and takes some chances. He goes outside his comfort zone a little bit sometimes, and I love that. Like he is absolutely at the top of his game in the late mid to late nineties.

17:50 I'm a I'm a I'm gonna point this out too. I think when you're when you're talking about Bruce Willis and his physicality, h this is you know, when I say peek Willis, this might be like the best. He's the best shape he's in in his career. Yeah, yeah, I mean he's clearly wanted us to see his ass in this one. So yes, I think he knows how good he looks right now, you know what I mean. Yeah, he's hey, hey, Walter, let's uh, let's do a bathtub scene. I'll let's jump out, you know, let's do a let's do a scene where I roll out of bed. Yeah. Nah. The dudes in like, it's incredible shape, man, And this is this is our hero. This is John McClean. Like he wasn't in bad shape to begin with. But I just feel like here, it's like, okay, Bruno, hit the gym a little bit and just Seeah, the man looks good in a suit. You gotta give him credit.

18:38 That's true. And I think the nineties really fetishized this like gangster like their look. It was. It was a clean look. It was a good He steps out of that car, he takes that jacket off, sleeves rolled up, and it's like, damn, that's a good look, man, It's. A great look. How about that fedora It's it almost feels like it's a little too tight for him, but it looks perfect. It's yeah, not many people can pull that Fodor off, but Bruce, Bruce is one of them. And some about I was watching this movie and like the gun fights, and we'll talk about those, I'm sure in a little bit because they're amazing, But something about when he's firing guns, like the face he makes like he really is into it, Like Bruce Willis looks good shooting people, because like it's believable, like he's got this like grit, like his jaws clenched, is like lips are pursed a little bit, like he's really pulling the trigger and killing some people, you know what I mean.

19:26 Yeah, Well, if you if you fired a handgun, you know he I think he's got If I'm looking at it correctly, I'm pretty sure it's a cult nineteen eleven he's got. Yeah, yep, it's a forty five. I've got a forty five. And when you fire a weapon like that, you feel it, you know. Yeah, I believe Bruce Willis is firing these weapons for real. When I watch Last Man Standing, he just like, yeah, it's a great look. Absolutely a great look someone who isn't firing their weapon. Well. Ever, in this film, Bruce Dern is playing Sheriff Ed Galt. Yeah, and I honestly, I don't know how to feel about about the Sheriff Galton this. You know, you and I had a great conversation about this guy on our Patreon talking about silent running. What would you say he's doing here?

20:13 Because he's he's not the villain, he's definitely not a hero. I I kind of liked it. I think the first time I watched it, I didn't really know where to place him. But second time through, I like it because at the beginning, you're introduced to him, you think this guy sucks, like he's just a he's a shit sheriff. He's not doing his job, and that's accurate. But I think by the end of it, you know, you start to realize this this guy maybe at one point was a good guy and this ground just beat it out of him. I'm looking at my notes and it says Bruce Dern is the worst to shareff exclamation point, and then you just you read my notes man like like but yeah, but. By the end of it, you're like, Okay, there's a decent guy in there. Yeah, he's just worn the hell down and I mean lost as how could you not be well.

20:59 Yeah, yeah, I mean even even the Marshall that comes to town is like, look, I will condone, you know, some a little bit of murder. I will condone one gang because there's gonna always be trouble, but I'm not gonna condone two gangs anymore. So you you all figured it out. Yeah, yeah, you get the feeling Bruce Dern maybe he showed up to Jericho with you know, gleam in his eye. He's gonna be the White Knight, but years and years have just beat him down and now he just doesn't care. And it's it's it's a sad it's a sad. Character, you know, but it's a relatable one that's related. It's absolutely relatable. Like you're when you're up against a system that you can't defeat, Like what are you gonna do besides collect the paycheck?

21:43 Right? Yeah? And that's that's where Bruce Dern shines. Is like an everyman, you know, he's he's never gonna be the the man with no name, gunslinging hero, and he's he's just got a very everyman feel about him. Yeah. I agree with you, though, as the movie progresses, I like that. Okay, maybe he's not such a bad guy, and he's he's helping when we need him to help. And so now he's he's kind of like he's an ally. Yeah, you know, as long as. He's making I'm going to get my ass shot for you. But you know, I'll bring you some food. I'll you know, slip you some information. What I gotta do. You know, I want to. Talk about Doyle the U, the leader of the Irish Mob, David David Patrick Kelly. I'm pretty sure he's cranked up the like ten and then they just tore the knob off.

22:31 He is explosive in like every single. Scene, which is great because his character doesn't have a lot to do. If you're watching this on paper, his character is kind of boring. So he's like, you know what, I'm gonna take this and I'm gonna I'm gonna steal scenes that anyway. I'm just gonna choose scenery. I'm gonna just scream when I feel like it and it's I enjoy it, like that's that's where this movie shines. When it's it's a little over the top, it's a little crazy. He's one of the all time great movie bad guys. I'm gonna ask you, uh David Patrick Kelly as Doyle, and then I'm gonna give you uh Sully in Commando and lastly t Bird in the Crow. Oh no, I'm gonna give you one more. Let's let's let's do Luther and the Warriors all time, all time best, David Patrick Kelly villain. Who do you got?

23:21 I mean, it's it's gotta be Warriors, Like that's it's gonna be Warriors, right, yeah, which I mean that's Hill also, so I think that they got you know, they've got a good thing going. But yeah, he's iconic in that he is. He is. I love him though. I love he's always playing like a Weasley guy in power and like especially in this one, yeah, this one. I love the fact that he's very He's got that little band syndrome. Yeah time, you know he's we got that moment where Bruce Willis is having a kind of a playful exchange with Christopher Walken and he's just like, you know, he just ex I'm like settled down. I really enjoy that because you know, Bruce Willis and Chris were walking are really leaning into that like tense stare down like quip off that you see in these kind of movies, and he just completely ruins it so and it's so amazing.

24:12 I love him. I absolutely love him. Let's h let's talk. We've got a couple of good supporting players in this one. William Sanderson as Joe Monday, the barkeep this he's the greatest sad sack of all time? Is it? Oh my god? Yeah? I can't see him in anything else of The Blade Runner. Like the second he pops up on the screen, that's all I can think about. And he's so just pathetic in that and not far off from there here. Yeah, I mean, my my heart's kind of breaking for him when he is taking joy and watching Bruce Willis work the two sides of these these uh these gangs. Yeah, he has that like that that happy moment and then Bruce Willis walks in. He's like, what do you what are you so? What do you smile by? He's like, Oh, that was amazing what you just did. Like this poor guy is so emasculated throughout this this movie. I know, I love it. Yeah, it's hard to watch, but I love that he gets a little come up at the end, you know, he gets his at least. Yeah, yeah, fantastic. Uh.

25:06 We mentioned Christopher Walkin playing Hickey Walter Hill wanted James Remar. Another another Warriors studio insisted on Christopher Walkin. I gotta wonder, like I I kind of feel like I see James Remar and this a little bit more than I see Christopher Walker. What do you think? Look? I like James remark he would have done a great job. I'm not I would not be unhappy with his performance. But if you want to convince me somebody is terrifyingly crazy, yeah, like their biggest thing is you can't fathom the depths of this person's like insanity. Nobody's gonna be walking, nobody. He is terrifying and like a way that almost circles back around to funny, it's it's great.

25:51 He's so good in this. My only my only nitpick with his his performance, and it's not his performance, it's just his look. I don't know how I feel about like that, that reddish brown hair, he's rocket. I think you're trying to go like, you know, he's Irish Kang whatever. I agree with that, I get it, but I don't know, it's just it felt a little less walking to me, Yeah, I don't know another guy that's over the top of this. If you thought David Patrick Kelly was dialing up ned Eisenberg playing Strassei, the leader of the Italian mob Andrew, I'll be honest, I see this guy and cannot take him seriously as a mafioso. All I do see is the character he played named Wink from a classic underrated comedy Moving Violations, which I assure you we'll cover next season for its forty of the anniversary. Like you're looking, I'm like, you haven't seen Moving Violations, and no it is.

26:48 It's it's slapstick comedy at its finest, like think Think Police Academy type of comedy with Bill Murray's little brother and a very very young and practice the unknown Jennifer Tilly, Oh nice, absolutely adorable. Well this guy, yeah, Mike ned Eisenberg plays plays one of the guys are it's a situation. All these guys, all these people lost their their license, are in traffic school. And then there's like a I can see that he's he's very over the top in this and like I like him, and I like his performance because he's sort of meant to be playing like his character is playing a gangster, Like, yeah, he's definitely acting tougher than he is, and so that a little bit of comedic element works really well. I kind of there are several times in this movie I thought, you know, if you leaned into the comedy in this I feel like you could have found a really cool movie different than the one we got.

27:39 You could have, but it's dangerous because like like Eisenberg, you know, his his his Stasi character. I think you leaned just a little little too much and he could have fit perfectly. And Johnny Dangerously That's exactly what. I was thinking. You're taking Peter Boyle and Johnny Dangerously was exactly what was picture. And yeah, you gotta wonder. Uh well, another wise, another guy that's really leaning into it. Let's talk cameos and before they were famous extras. Michael Imperioli playing Giorgio second, you know, right hand man. Yeah, I mean it's that's the sopranos. It's so weird to see him as like such a little kid basically. Yeah, well, okay, so you know nineteen ninety five, he's got a couple of small roles and bad boys and clockers playing different Ironically, he's playing different characters, but they're both named Jojo in those movies, which I think is ridiculous.

28:33 Last Man's Standing is one of seven movies he's featured in in nineteen ninety six. He's having a hell of a run this year. Obviously, his memorable role in Goodfellas as Spider comes to mind. Yeah, you know, he's the guy that stands up to Joe Pesci and he gets shot for it. But as you said, he goes on to fame. He's Christopher and the Sopranos. So it's weird to watch him here when you know, like I said, I saw this movie when it came out, you know, a year or two after, but kind of forgot that he was in it. So to see Christopher, I'm like, you know, again, dial it down just a little bit, just a little bit. Another one we got Leslie Mann. I completely forgot she was in this. She got a small role playing Wanda the hooker.

29:16 This is another one of those scenes. I feel like there was a fair amount of just natural humor in it when he's talking to her and she's just that obnoxious, like jabbering, won't stop talking even mid sex. She's still just kind of prattling on. There was a lot of natural humor there. I mean, Leslie Man's hilarious. Obviously we've all learned that since. But yeah, you know again, it could have been really funny. Yeah, ninety six definitely her breakout year. She's got this small role here, but she's also starring alongside Matthew Broderick and Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy. She plays Robin the girlfriend. She's Connie and she's the one. And then a year later she definitely explodes because she's the leading actress in Georgie of the Juggle with Brendan Fraser.

29:58 Yeah. That's I mean, that's where I always like in my head, that's her first movie. But yeah, I was a kid. My timelines are all wonky. Yeah, well i'll tell you, you know, as far as cameos go, this is this is about as cameo as it gets. Uh. It's a blinking you miss a moment. But following the shootout that involves Leslie Mann's character, Wanda Bruce looks down into the parlor. She's the house madam sitting there, no lines, just just looks up at him. That's Lynn Shay Bob. You know producer New Line Cinema producer Bob Shay's wife. You know we've seen her in tons of stuff. Yeah, I did not even register. I'm gonna have to go back and watch that scene now. Yeah, I'm watching like, oh, that looked like Lynchay, but it's not Lynchay. And then I'm I'm more I'm watching.

30:41 I was like, well, this is a New Line Cinema movie could be and yep, sure enough Lynchay. And then lastly, I gotta give some love to this guy, Tony tiny Ron as Jacko the Giant. So you know, the the Doyle Henchman. That's he's just a he's a monster. Right yeah, head and shoulders above everybody else. Yeah. Uh tiny Ron Amber and I had a great discussion about this guy recently on our Tim Burton episode covering Big Fish, so please check that one out, Andrew. I gotta be honest, like, we lost this guy way too soon. Yeah, I mean, that's that's an unfortunate thing. Anytime somebody's that large, it usually comes with a host of health issues.

31:21 It's sad. He was actually he was he was gearing up to play Andrea the Giant in a in a film when he when he passed away. Interesting, let's take one last break and when we come back, it'll be time for keeping it real. We're back, Andrew. Before we talk about keeping it real, can we can we talk about how how how real the the violence is in this. Reel is an interesting choice of words. It's fantastic. It is fantastic, right, Yeah, I love it because again I hadn't seen this in so long, so like right out of the gate, you know, the opening scene is the Doyle guy's kicked his cars in and he goes in, just blows that one guy away and slow motion, this guy flies about fifteen feet back, hits the ground, does it backward summersalt. He probably lands about thirty feet away from where he was hit with Again, like you said there were forty fives, yep, it looks like he was hit with the bazooka. And this is the first real kill of the movie. So it just lets you know, like this is what we're doing here, and it's so good.

32:26 I love it because again we're adapting Kirosawa, but I feel like we're kind of paying tribute to John Wu in this moment. Yeah. Yeah, My first two thoughts were Wu and Tarantino that ridiculous. Like Robert Rodriguez is desperado. Yeah, yes, yes, you clearly to see these stunt guys like there's some kind of harness that's about to sling shot them back up against the wall. It's awesome. I love it. This is kind of over the top action is something that we've kind of we've definitely moved away from from the late nineties. I'd love to see it come back because it's it's just fun to watch. Yeah, this is one of those things where I really wish they could have leaned into this more. It's so great in the gunfights that I want to see more over the top style in this movie, you know, because at times it gets the pacings a little slow and it gets a little boring. I really want him to dial it up, like you know, we just I know you and I just recently talked about boy Kill's World.

33:21 Not a very in depth movie, not a whole lot of substance to it, but the violence and just everything is so ridiculous over the top. It made it a joy to watch. Anyway. That's what I wanted to see from that. Yeah, especially with that first that first kill. Built Boyko's world. That's a that's a great example. And then we have another one that just came out called kill. I don't know if you saw that one. Yet, not yet. No, it's it's like it's just it's John Wick style carnage. We're very low on on story and just high on watch this guy mow down like a ton of people as quickly as possible. Was that was that one? Shoot him up with Clive Owen. I love shoot him up with Clive O. Yeah, it's got that great like sex scene shootout. I feel like Bruce Willis is trying to get there. And then Clive Owen was like, no, no, no, I can do better.

34:05 Clive O was like, hold my Fedora, you know I can do this. Yeah, I'm gonna give it to Clyde. That's that One's a great one. I'd love we if there's a way to cover that one, we should at some point. I'd love to talk that you, you especially, would be a good a good uh a good hang on that one, Andrew, Let's let's let's keep it real. So I got I got three questions for you, right, I'm gonna start off with one of my favorites, uh, one of our favorite actors Billy Zopka. He was dominating Dojo's high school cafeterias and college swimming pools in some of the best movies in the nineteen eighties, and then he was notably absent from Hollywood for most of the nineties. So the question is what about zob Andrew. I want you to replace one actor from this film with William Zobka.

34:53 Well, see how how old would would Zapka have been. He would have been probably what late twenties. Yeah, he's he's late twenties, late twenties, maybe pushing thirty. I don't know. I feel like he's a bit young for a lot of the roles here. I could I could see him in Michael Anucci's role. I don't know that he plays Italian, but everything other than that, I could absolutely see him as the young, impulsive, angry, wanna be gangster. Think about everything you just said and then understand why I'm saying, give me William Zopka as Hickey and no disrespect, no disrespect to Christopher Walking, but think about this character has an excellent background. You know we were They're building him up the whole time. He he stabbed his father, murdered him, he burned down an orphanage. I feel like Zopka comes in plays it like a humorless billy the kid.

35:48 Uh yeah. I will say, if we were going into what I was talking about and leaning into the more over the top ridiculousness of the movie, I could see that. I don't know that he sells it in the noir western that we got. Zopota could do anything. I'm just putting this out there that we've got like six or seven of these these ninety six episodes ago, and I'm gonna go ahead and say it. Zopka can do it all, all right. One question you have you have answered many times because this is a holdover from our nineteen eighty six series but sequel prequel remake, Andrew, if you had control of this ip, what would be your pitch to the studio to revive it.

36:29 I mean that's one of the cool things about this And I thought about this a lot while watching it. Actually, this story, because it's so simple, could be told a hundred times and you could keep it fresh, like you could take the yo jimbo structure and you put it in like that could be a two episode arc on the Mandalorian and I would watch the hell out of that. Oh absolutely, Or you know, you could put that in the futurestic sci fi world like New Line wanted to do. I'm on board. You know. Obviously you got to get a good director and a good vision, but you can play with this space anywhere and really take it and run with it. So I'm all about remaking it. I want to see another Yo Jimbo reimagining. All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna break my own rule.

37:10 I've yelled at you guys time and time again for doing what I'm about to do. But just follow me here. Let me. Let me remind you that Joseph Gordon Levitt once played a younger version of Bruce Willis in Looper. Yeah, and I'll further remind you that Gordon Levitt is no stranger to playing a hard boiled detective type in a noir film, because he did Ryan Johnson's neo to our film Brick, which we covered fantastic movie. We covered Brad and I covered that a couple seasons ago. It's awesome, go back and check that one out. Well right now, Joseph Gordon Levitt is of an age where he could possibly play a younger John Smith back East in a prequel, or possibly play Smith heading onto Mexico as planned in a sequel. What would you want to see?

38:01 I don't know. I love the structure of this, I don't necessarily care about the character. Okay, so you're still for the remake? Yeah, the remake. I love Gordon Levitt. You put him in my remake for sure? Yeah? I think, okay, you can absolutely play that that cool, quiet, you know character. But yeah, I just I don't that was one of the areas that felt fun. I don't really care about John Smith. Bruce Willis was cool, but the character all right. DVD extras in nineteen ninety six, the DVD format is initially introduced to US markets, and while the simplicity of the compact disc pleased us, the high definition wowed us and had us tossing our VHS tapes out, which I truly regret doing at this point. But you got yeah, you got a couple, you know. But for centophiles like us, the exclusive special features were usually the no frills package of scene selection, French or Spanish subtitles. If you're lucky, you got to try trailer. So Andrew, what DVD extra would you want on your DVD for Last Band Standing?

39:06 And I'm gonna give you a couple options here. I mean, I already know my answer, so it's not one of your options. I'll choose Option D or whatever. Wow, okay, right, rule breaking left and right. I'm gonna give you an end character audio commentary, okay, a making of documentary, or the Amber Lewis Actors roundtable. You can you can choose three people from the film and kind of watch like a roundtable discussion and them talking about the movie and their experiences. Which one are you going to go with? I mean, of those, I love see I love the idea of getting to see from the filmmakers and not just actors. And you could throw director, you could throw a writer in there, just kind of getting their perspective on it. But what I really really want is to see either an audio commentary or at that roundtable. I want to see a character a salad there. I want to see how he feels woout this adaptation, because obviously, you know, we talked about he gave it the green light like he was on board, but what did he think about it once it actually came out?

40:06 Damn? You know, I I I was gonna have some fun. I was gonna pick audio commentary with Walter Hill and David Patrick Kelly because you might even get a little bit of talk about the Warriors filtered in there here and there. But but now I kind of want we could we have a Walter Hill a Kira Kirosawa commentary where he's kind of pore there. Like yeah, this, why did you choose to do it this way? Or like this is what I would have done, or things like that, and you just know there's gonna be a little bit of sass towards Sergio Leoni, which I'm gonna be here for. I would totally be on board with that. You know, we lost Kirasawa in nineteen ninety eight, so this could have been like one of his last Hollywood projects. He could have came in and just sat down with Walter Hill.

40:54 That man. I have no idea how good his English was. I've you know, I've only ever seen translated stuff, so I don't know how realistic that would have been, but I would have loved it. Well, you know, give me the give me the round table. Like if you Asa could sit there with Walter Hill and just Walter Hill, you know that would have been great film's legacy. Andrew, would you call this a classic, a cult classic, or just a product of its time? I'm kind of waffling back and forth between a product of its time and a cult classic. I know some people who really really like this movie, and as I said early on, it's good. I don't. I don't think it. I think it is harmed by its relationship to Yo Jimbo because it's never going to be that. It's going to sit in the of the movie shadow. But it's fine.

41:41 So I'd say either cult classic or just you know, a product of its time. It's a decent nineties action movie. That's fair. Let's talk Bruce Willis one last, Let's start to wrap up here. Bruce Willis. Where would you would you say? John Smith? Is this a a top ten Bruce Willis character? I like Bruce Willis in this. You know, I love Bruce Willis. We just talked about him recently on the other last movie with him, Last Boy Scout. Yeah, but I don't think he was necessary for this movie to be what it was. I think the character was a little bit blamed. I think it probably could have had a lot of other people Bruce Willis to me, shines when he's funny, when he's snarky, when he's a little bit, you know, angry, and this character is a little flat for him. So like it's good, and his performance was good, It's just I don't think it's going to crack the top ten.

42:28 All right, Well, Andrew, I definitely want to thank you for joining us on nineteen ninety six, But you want to tell us a little bit about what's coming up next on Patreon. Yeah, so we're heading into October for you and I are doing our ten for two series, which I'm a huge fan of. So we're gonna take a dive into some classic horrors and man, that is a giant grab bag to choose from, so we're gonna we're gonna find some good ones. I know we are. We want to thank you for listening to today's nineteen ninety six episode. We are fast approaching the completion of this limited series and if we haven't covered your favorite from nineteen ninety six, there's still some time to hit us up on social media or email us and share your requests. You can do that at a film by podcast dot com or hit us up on social media you'll find us on Facebook, Instagram, and X, Andrew and I got a bounce.

43:29 Peace Out,