John McTiernan - Last Action Hero with Special Guest Andy Frye

0:00 Today's episode of A Film By is brought to you by black Key Coffee. Head over to black Keycoffee dot com and get your favorite flavor. I know I like to start my day with Guatemala Espresso, But if you're not sure what you want, build your own sample pack and be sure to hit subscribe so you can save money and have it delivered every single month black Key Coffee. With enough coffee, anything is possible. And now let's talk about a film by John McTiernan, his criminally underrated nineteen ninety three action comedy Last Action Hero. Hello everybody, and welcome back to a Film By podcast. I am Jeff Johnson. I am Brad. Brad. Why am I wasting my time co hosting this podcast when I could be doing something more dangerous like organizing my sock dua. We're talking about the thirtieth anniversary of Last Action Hero.

1:23 You said you wanted an expert with us on this one. I could think of no one better than to call up author of ninety Days in the nineties, Andy Fry. Andy, Welcome to the show. Yeah, I was going guys. Thanks for having me on a Yeah, it is an honor. We actually we heard first first time we heard about the book, first time we heard about you was on our it was all the shirt that you Can't Be Serious podcast. You were talking with our good friends Jason and d I gotta be honest. I maybe was ten minutes into that interview. I had already been on Amazon and ordered the book, and then you know, ten minutes later, You're like, hey, order it for my website.

2:07 I'll autograph it and I'll send it to you. And I was like, shit, well, Jeff Atlos has a new new ridiculous cowboy. Yeah, thanks to you. So yeah, absolutely. I mean it's it's it's cold like Amazon is, uh, everybody's connected to it. We all got to buy Q tips and Z bars and I don't know gaskets for our car. But it was like, um, I do try to tell people though that like, if if it's your thing, support support a local bookstore because like we want them to be around. And I've had a couple in Chicago asked me to come by and and you know, it's kind of like as a music fan, I try to make sure well best Buy and like circuit cities and around anymore. Best Buy doesn't sell anything other than K pop and I suppose, Uh, I don't already on a GRANDI. So like I have to go to like the local Leon and record store. Its buy you know, if I was gonna buy a Bi Vinyl or He's or whatever. Um, you know. So I try to take the same thing with the bookstore.

3:04 So if you buy a buy it for one of your aging gen X friends for a Father's Day gift, just buy it from a local local bookstore next time, I suppose, And I'll do it now. And he can you give us a little bit of background because before this, before this, and and currently you know you are an incredible journalist. You've written for Rolling Stone, You've written for ESPN, h Forbes. Uh, you have talked some incredible people, Brad, he's actually been on the phone with one of our hometown heroes. Uh, since I read uh legend Johnny Bench but oh yeah Andy, uh Andy Adye Like who's who's on your your mount rosmore as far as people that you've you've had the opportunity to speak with, well, I mean there's party. Let me update it by also there's another hometown hero of yours and don't you follow uh the five time World Cup champion women's US soccer team I just hung out with. I got to go to Seattle, was going to see my friend actually, and yeah, I got to hang up with Rose Lavelle for a couple of days or like a day and try to keep up with her with one of her workouts. And we talked about Skyline, chili and Cincinnati and all that fun stuff. So yes, just how fun to talk to. Johnny Bench mostly talked to me about growing out and gave me some tips that wouldn't give me his secret recipe, of course.

4:20 But there's been all kinds of different people I've talked to you who are great. I mean, some are people that you've heard of obviously, like like Tom Brady and Jerome Bettis, and I've talked to Megan Rapino twice. I've talked to Lindsay Von a couple of times. Then there's some, you know, some athletes like I just last week spoke with Alona mar who is if you find out anything about the women's rugby team, the national team, she's the one that you don't want to get tackled by. Like she's just a bruiser. She's a center. It's about five to ten, you know, like just a really sharp person and she was great to talk to and I just did my most recent article on her just because I thought she's a captaining person. Not really like that educated about rugby, but like another example, I talked to a guy during the lead up to I guess it was between the Olympics and the Paralympics in Tokyo, so it must have been summer twenty twenty one. Talked to a blind sprinter named David Brown. I didn't really know what to make of a blind sprinter I research the sport. Long story short, they run with a like a sprinting partner who is attached by a tether to kind of keep them going straight, obviously because he's blind, And I didn't know what to ask him what he'd be like. And he was just like, yeah, man, I'm out there to dominate what I'm going to Tokyo to win some gold medals like he was not. There was no shred of a liam blind and it's tough being a runner like he was.

5:41 He was ready to kick some ass and take some names. And that was great to see and talk to him just like it was you know, I'd never heard of the guy, but I was like, wow, man that that guy's got some broado, like some Jordan level bravado there. So you know, on the music side of things, I've talked to, um, you know, a couple of my favorite musician. I got to do an email exchange through an agent with Morrissey, you know, d Morrissey, and that was kind of because I thought it was gonna get blown off and he didn't answer any of my questions. So the ESPN article was about that pretty much. Uh you know, talk to Noel Gallagher from Oasis and Billy from Spash from Pumpkins a couple of times, and probably one of the best ones was when I was with Rolling Stone, I got to interview uh Jerry Kntrell Malison Change and we talked about Fantasy at All and how much he loves you know, like he went on and on about I think I asked him about early influences and he he had just come off like a two day sitting of listening to nothing but Physical Graffiti and he talked about that he dropped the f bottom probably thirty times, just how great the album is in his opinion, and uh, you know, he was like he was, you know, he's kind of like for rockeries. He's kind of a little tightly wound, kind of like Axel and Billy from Spashing Pumpkins would be. But I mean like great conversation. So I've been lucky to be able to how to start with, you know, like extreme sports athletes and minor league is in, local athletes in Chicago, is covering Catholic football for ESPN Chicago when they

7:11 had a blog on it, and kind of gradually work my way up to like these legendary athletes. So and I mean I'll talk to I can't write an article on everything, but I'll talk to anybody generally. And I think some of the most captivating people talk to are ones that you know, maybe aren't an NBA champion, a World Series picture, but they're they're going to talk to too. So I mean Mount Rushmore isn't large enough. I there's so many great people I've talked to that I could, you know, spend two hours talking about like the thirty five people who have been the most impressive and fun to talk to. So I'll just say I've been fortunate and it's been great block of all kinds of people from all walks of life, in both sports and music. So with ninety days in the nineties, a rock and roll time travel story. But what's the origin there? How did how did how did this? How did this book come about? Well? I think everybody, I think people who even are not writers have we all have an idea for a book or maybe even a book that would make a movie.

8:09 We all have all had interesting fun things happen in our lives that make us think like that'd be a great story to tell if I could tell the story. So as a writer, you feel like at some point you failed if you've not tried to write a book. And about about six years ago now, I was on just like a short vacation and was listening to the nineties playlists, and I had this thought that I know that I've had a bunch of times, and I think it was the basis of some jokes with my best friend and who's also a writer, about like, hey, we should time travel someday to like go see Hendricks's last concert in Isla White or wouldn't be great to see you know, I don't know the sex Pistols before they basically melted down. You know, all these bands that I want to see, all these events, I either I went to a concert, I want to see it again, or I didn't go, or I couldn't get tickets or whatever. That was pretty much it, like I think, and kind of stapled to that. Yeah, I think we're kind of in you guys, in me or sort of in the same ballpark age wise, Like we grew up with Back to the Future, we grew up with Bill and Ted's excellent adventure. But also the time travel books and movies, there's always some big thing that like they've got to solve or they've got to prevent the world of ending by having this subplot in the movie. And I always thought, like, yeah, if you if we could really time travel, we would probably just go back to a kick ass weekend in our life to really re live something or experience something, or maybe go back to a diner that we miss or to visit a friend that passed away. And it wouldn't we about, like not everybody who time travels has to go kill Hitler and save the world. So that was kind of a mix of things. And I

9:41 think I just got excited that one day back in June of I think twenty seventeen, and I was in April twenty seventeen, and I decided that if I like this idea in two weeks, three weeks and I'm still excited about it, I'm gonna try to write a book. And June one rolled around and I said to myself, Okay, I'm gonna I don't know how to write a book, but I'm gonna try to do this. Probably what informs a lot of it is nineties movies and the fact that I grew up as part of the generation that, yeah, we read books too, but we also were really our kind of mental landscape was painted by TV shows and movies. Everything from you know what you're talking about? Willis on Different Strokes to some of the great movies of the nineties like Pulp Fiction and Days Confused, who were that were very pop culture heavy and have their own catchphrases too.

10:26 So it was a lot of things that I'm just kind of I'm always a fan first of movies and sports and music, and I've gotten to write about a lot of that stuff, but I kind of wanted to bring it all in from a gen X perspective, and it took me about five years, but uh, yeah, that's that's how this book ended up being what it was so one thing that that I was. I was really looking forward to talking with you about um, your protagonist Darby. You know they always say writers, you know that you write what you know. But this is a situation, and correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is you know, this was initially written in the first person and then it changed to third person. Is that correct? Yeah? And and Darby was originally like a straight white dude is about my age? Okay, I mean there's a lot of reasons for it. I did to kind of have an epiphany probably in the follow twenty twenty. I had written maybe like three or four drafts already, and I thought, like, I just I was walking my dog one night and I was kind of grumbling about agents, literally agents saying yeah, send me fifty pages, no thanks, send me a synopsis, no thanks.

11:31 And I thought, well, you know, maybe my perspective isn't isn't what you know, the literally world wants or anyway, long story short, I thought, like, after a couple years of Trump, and after me too, and after George Floyd and all this stuff that happened in the world, I thought, maybe the last thing that people want to read about is in the middle aged whitey. I want to go back to the past. And I thought about, like the main themes that were interesting to me was music a gen X perspective, And I thought, well, I athletes that write about I mean, really are these great female athletes. I mean Making Rappino and Billy Jean King and Jenny Finch and you know, there's dozens more that are just as great athletes as the Johnny Benches and the Tom Braiser a little but I've got to interview, So I thought, why don't I try it from you know, I'm not trying going to try to be a woman.

12:20 I'm not gonna. I'm probably gonna I thought to myself, like, when I'm done with this, if it works, I'm gonna probably have some of my women friends who are avid readers tell me like that I missed the mark here, what do you think? And yeah, So I just kind of rolled with it, like she was the same person that I designed from the beginning, and I think it kind of gave a little bit more labored the character and made some of the situations with the relationships kind of like I don't know, just from my perspective, more interesting. So yeah, there's a lot of change up between the start and the finish, but I think the character is a lot more interesting. And I think I thought what you were going to ask me was, well, when writers put out their first book, it's always kind of about them, and if I'm in this book, it's probably slightly unreliable, sarcastic, very overly opinionated narrator who has something to say about music, whether it's Depeche Motor, Sleen Dion, or you know, the narrator kind of forgets the names of some of the bozos that Darby dated back in the past, but you know is on board with like her music venture. That's I guess where I fitted this. So yeah, there's a lot of changes. I did hire an editor, so that was out of my own pocket. I just paid for an editor to guide me along.

13:28 So I took a lot of suggestions there. I'm not gonna bore you with the writers nick knacks with that, but it was a learning process for me and that's probably why the character. One of the reasons the character has changed and how it ended up becoming different, I think better at the end of the end of the story. So well, I got to be honest with you. I mean I would have enjoyed the character regardless, but having Darby as this this just this kick ass woman who you want to hang out with her, you know you want to know more about her. Very believable that I you know, you know, as anytime I read a book, I always trying to cast the movie in my head, and there are certain characters I'm like, I know who would play this role, but Derby I just couldn't any any like, did you see a particular person in mind when you were writing Darby? I mean when I was probably first trying to do more than change pronouns and be like, well, what does she really like?

14:22 I actually like printed out a couple of pictures of like Scarlett Johanson with short hair, Christen Stewart was short hair, a couple of you know, like um music and sports idols of mine that are female, and just like June Jett like posts it up like Louis taped to the side of my computer my laptop and just proceeded from there. And I think, I kind of I don't. I don't have an actor for that one. I mean, I guess she's a little bit like Branda from Sex in the City, but maybe a little bit less anxious. I kind of thought more about way the other characters, like who would play who would play U when she, you know, she meets the redhead that she starts dating, um Rachel. Talking about Rachel. Yeah, Rachel's a metal head, like in the hair metal.

15:03 And then that kind of tests for anybody hasn't read the book, it kind of tests Darby's music snoppery and like the fact that, you know, how how important is music really in relationship? I thought, like, that's gotta be Jessica Chastaim, like a stunning head who looks great in a leather jacket, you know, but doesn't look too scary or too punk or metal for us. But I don't know. I mean, as far as Derby goes, I have no background casting, so I don't know. But if you have any suggestions, it'd be interesting to hear. But we don't even have to go that round if you don't want to. Yeah, it's something something I was thinking about. But again I just uh, the great thing, you know it because it is a time travel story and the book.

15:46 I mean, like I said, we're we're of that age, you know, We're we're Derby's age, so you know, the experiences that she's having, the things that she's talking about. We're just a couple of years out of high school. And I was immediately pulled back. I mean it was like I jumped on the gray line with her, and all of a sudden, everything that was that was happening in nineteen ninety six it's relevant again, and and I'm I'm reliving it, you know, So that is you know, if that was the if that was one of the attentions of the book, you hit a home run there, because I have been living, you know, second rate through, just been living through nineteen ninety six, past couple of weeks. One thing, as I say, since we're talking about move, we're gonna be talking about we Let me give a little little credit.

16:30 There were three nineties movies that really impacted me and also made me. I was thinking about them. They're They're getting my gears turned back in the back of my head the whole time. So it's pulp fiction, Friday, and Days Days Confused. The reason why, coincidentally, all three of those movies take place in the span of one day, which I think is interesting. Maybe it's a very nineties thing to tell a story from that perspective. My book doesn't take place in the span of a day, but in each of those movies, you were hanging out with a character. So I don't own a gone. I've never been on a stakeout with gangsters, but I felt like I was hanging out with Jules and Vincent in most of the pulp fiction. Um, I've probably I've never been to Watts, but I could hang out with with Smokey and Craig, you know, and that that was really what m Friday was all about. So I mean, I have to kind of throw some credit to the film landscape of the nineties because I probably stopped watching TV at that time. I just was too busy with college and chasing girls and you want to see bands. But movies always stuck out, and you know, I think I was heavily influenced by that time from a film perspective, So you know, I have to give them some credit.

17:33 So, Brad, let's talk about one of the one of the nineties movies that we're here for today, Arnold Schwartzenegger's Last Action Hero, directed by John McTiernan. Brad, there are there are people that maybe have not seen this one. It was not a critical success. What can you tell us about Last Action Here? What's for those who not seen it? Brad? Give us give us the synopsis. Well, the easiest synopsis is when when young Danny Matt again is given a magic ticket from Harry Hudini, he is transport into the world of nineties action movies with his hero Arnold Schwarzenegger. Danny and Arrow are about to discover that this magic ticket is a revolving door that will collide the movie world with our world. It looks like a typical nineties action cop and kid movie is much much more this. Uh, Like I said, it did not do good. People weren't ready for this movie when it came Well, well, there was another movie in nineteen ninety three that came out around that time with dinosaurs in it. I don't know if you remember that, but it happened to kill everything at the box office for that couple months. Yeah, I think what was it? Jurassic Park came out a week after this one. Yeah, Andy, do you remember the first time you saw Last Action Hero. I'm pretty bad about unless it's a James Bond film, I don't see it when it comes right out I do. The thing is like one or anything. I do remember the commercials Last Action Hero because they were they were a little campy. They're a little like hung and

19:04 cheek. And here's Arnold Schwartzeninger being and Arnold Schwartzeninger type of character in the movie, and it's you know, I think, um, little blondhaired kids with kind of a Disney haircut, that's were grown up bolt cut. I guess McCauley culkin in Holdon was the exception. Like every other every kid in Hollywood who was in a movie look like that. This kid in this movie, whether it's like Taylor Thomas or the kid who ended up Hailey. Joel Osman a couple of years later than the nineties was in like The Sixth Sense and all that stuff. So it was kind of like it seemed formula leg but I remember that. I just I think I remember seeing the ads TV ads on MTV, so I feel like they're pushing it on MTV for kind of like you know who, we were like the young teens and older teens, young twenty somethings at the time, and they tried to hook us on like, well, you've already seen movies like this, this is like the same thing on steroids and you're gonna love it. And I don't know if that was a good message or not, but I do remember the commercials and the logo for like the Last Action Hero. It looked like an Indiana Jones logo sort of stuck out, and that I remember that more than the movie.

20:11 I didn't even I think I saw it on video. I didn't remember too much about seeing it. So that's a kind of strange dichotomy and mine trip, you know, very appropriate to nineties. I suppose what's funny you mentioned mcaulay culkin because he was I believe he's short Nighter's pick for the role of Danny. He's got committs on. I think it was the good Son. And so they find this guy Austin O'Brien who took the role and again had that quintessential bulk cut that every kid that age had. I don't know, A different movie with mcaulay culkin, Brad, but are too young? Too young? I think with this movie, like the stuff you were talking about, the MTV stuff, it's it's weird because it it hurt them movie, but it also was playing on what was going on at the time.

21:04 You know, Yeah, it was played on MTV a lot because of it was the ACDC video, you know, with that you saw Arnold in it. I mean they were pushing that right away, and Arnold had had a run of hits at this point. So this movie is kind of an end of a certain kind of movie that existed and is now looked upon as nostalgia. So there's a lot of things in this movie that are very clever, very smart, way ahead of its time. But I think that the only thing that really kind of hurts the movie is the casting of Austin O'Brien.

21:53 I don't know if it's the lines he's given or that his just he's not very dynamic, you know, even standing next to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Um, I think a better kid would have helped. Um. But I think that's one of the things that kind of hurts the movie. Um. But this movie has gotten a lot of kind of rebirth after seeing what it did. Um. And So I mean it's a very clever movie. I didn't understand the jokes in nineteen ninety three a lot of it, you know, I sort of got some of it, But like I said, the more and more. Watch it, you're like, yeah, there, And there's a lot of movie talk in this movie. And with the exception of when Scream came out Dawson's Creek, all that Kevin Williamson stuff, people weren't speaking in movie terms. They do a lot more casually. Now you know, your everyday person can understand some movie lingo night three, not everybody did, so it just man, it missed that mark. Yeah. I was gonna say, like, it kind of reminds me in a strange way if you're Kevin Smith fan of Jane tile Bob strike Back, like in this sort of roundabout thing where they're going through and maybe it's just because the kids the tickets to go through all these movies in the movie, but it kind of feels like, again, that's kind of Hollywood camping this thing, Like you people out there, you know what Hollywood's like, Well, we're gonna take you behind the scenes. I don't know if it really works for the Last Actions hero

23:26 Um, I mean definitely, like Jaane, Silent Bob seems like a movie that Kevin Smith wanted to do and a throwaway movie with just everybody. All his friends were in it, and and and in the same way. Like, Okay, so like Tina turns in this movie, um, just going down on the cast like Anthony Quinn and f Murray Abraham and so the cut, I feel like the same thing is happening here. But like to your point, yeah, the kid in the movie, the other star of the movie, I don't want to see he sucked. But it was like that was it didn't just didn't hit us in the face, like I pick that guy out in the police lineup, even if he was the same age, because I don't what was he in anything after that. Obviously he didn't really stand out to the audience and started to interrupt you guys. But that's just like it stands to me. I didn't even think about that until you said it. But yeah, that's maybe it didn't kill the movie on its own, but didn't help. Yeah he uh, O'Brien. I know he did the lawnmower Man, and I think after this he had My Girl Part two.

24:27 Yeah, and because maybe some TV, but because he's our narrator, you know, he's our narrator through the film to guide us through what is going on, tell us what's going on. So we needed somebody with a better. I think understanding of the terms, maybe a little bit more or just like I said, someone just more screen popping and able to be a little bit funnier. Yeah. Yeah, so like I like I said, we you know Arnold once mccaulkin, he's busy on uh on the good Son Elijah Wood wanted the role. They said he from the get go. They said he's way too young. So we get we get Austin and Brian, but someone obviously perfect for the role, uh, Jack Slater. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

25:18 Now, Brad, you talked about it like he was he's on a he's on a hell of a run here, you know, through the eighties and you know, right in one in the nineties, like he's hot off of Terminator two, Judgment Day. I think, you know again, like where do you go after Judgment Day? Uh? You know, it only goes so high before. Yeah, so I and you know, he made a good point. This is kind of the end of the the eighties action hero though, the muscle bound, invincible one guy versus an army type of eighties you know, hero trope. Uh. And I thought I thought, I thought it was brilliant that he's like, you know, what now, let's let's period it a little bit, let's have some fun with it, and kind of call to question all these ridiculous things you've seen, you know, whether it's you know, the the over the top bad guy who has this ridiculous plan or you or the it's the police captain who is always threatening to take your badge and you know, screaming at right Like this movie has it all. Yeah. It took every cliche that we had seen for about seven to eight years and pointed fun at them while they were kind of still going. And with this movie, they were pointing fun at themselves, Arnold pointing fun at him. But it was too early, because you know, Terminator two was just two years away. He's still we weren't ready to laugh at Arnold what we loved. We weren't ready to take that. When did Jingle All the Way come out? Though? A couple of years A couple

26:49 of years later, I want to say, nineties, maybe ninety six, and yeah, like in that rain after Yeah, I guess, okay, so that funny Arnold yet or okay, yeah, good point. Well, I mean to defend Arnold's comedy, I would say we did have a little bit of comedy, because Twins is nineteen eighty eight. No, no, it wasn't the comedy aspect of it. It was saying, we're gonna poke fun at almost a lot of the stuff that you've seen very recently still and tell you how ridiculous it is. We weren't ready to laugh at it.

27:29 Maybe if it would have waited ten years later, you know, you get, can get. You know, look at what Edgar Wright did with like Hot Fuzz. You know, he basically parodied those types of movies as well. So it needed time to linger because the action movie was shifting. Arnold Sylvester, Jean Claude, they were going down weird actors like Nicolas Cage, you know, John Travolta. Know, these were your action stars. The actor you know, it was do a comedy movie or do a deep drama, get an Oscar nomination for it, and then the next summer you have usually a Bruckheimer type of action film for your thing, and that's where their action movies were going. But this one was basically telling you it's done.

28:22 This kind of movie is done. So maybe they knew that it was shifting and just wanted to kind of jump, you know, ahead, of the game. We've got a pretty eclectic cast of villains in this, uh Andy. You've got f Murray Abraham playing FBI agent turned a bad guy John Practice. You've got Anthony Quinn as You're just ludicrous crime lord Mafioso Vivaldi. And then the brilliant Charles Dance, who plays like the the the Hitman slash number two been at Andy, Anie, Who's your favorite out of this Charles Dance, Like, the only other thing that I know that I've seen him in is is The Golden Child, which was maybe a very similar like throwaway movie from Eddie Murphy. Like I watched that movie and there's a lot of quotables in it, and it was kind of, you know, it's kind of stupid. It's just Eddie Murphy being Eddie Murphy for two hours, and so he plays like the humorless um, you know, the guy who basically steals the young Dolly Llama and then the rest of the movie Eddie Murphy just joking around that you're making fun of him, making fun of his name and all that. So it was weird to kind of see him sort of flip that role and be like a ridiculously not he can't take this guy seriously, but he's dangerous type of villain, which I guess was appropriate for this movie.

29:44 Um, I guess the other ones, you know, like I think when you know, like you're saying, he's kind of a stock version of a character that we've seen a bunch of times, and he played it well, I don't know, I don't think that's I mean, let's just go back, well, I don't we just don't we just blame Jurassic Park for all the all the I didn't get because there really wasn't like anything terrible about it. I guess maybe the critics can say it was very formula late, but that was the whole purpose of it, So maybe bad timing, you know. I a couple of years ago, I saw Big Bad Voodoo Daddy play a live show in Chicago, and like the first thing that they said was when they played their opening songs, they talked to the audits to like, you know, we our career was going great. Our new albums coming out just came out like literally the same week as never Mind, you know, the great Nirvana album. So you know, we thought that swing dance was gonna be the next thing, and there wasn't because it was you know, Seattle Ground, so that happens in life. Sometimes started to get off the track there, but no ninety slashback coming out of my mouth. But yeah, I think Charles Dance. I didn't know his name before I looked it up after, you know, seeing this movie again and he's I don't know, he just works perfectly for the themes in this movie that really were what the movie was about. I think, Yeah, it's like you see the people that are playing these kind of villains or these parts in this movie, and you're like, yeah, that guy would fit, you know, And like he said, they had kind of all played p you know, Anthony Quinn did uh, you know, one of our episodes Revenge, and then he did Charles Dance did one of our episodes Golden Child. But an audience

31:19 had seen these guys kind of play this, so it was of course were the formula would be to cast someone that you already know. We're not taking this, we're not trying to be different at all. We're being so formula. You know, the cameos, the big names, the beautiful girls, like they went all the way with this kind of inside joke. Yeah, I liked. The one villain we didn't talk about, all right, I didn't mention was the ripper himself, tom Noonan, Yeah, who I feel kind of like, is you know that he's channeling the tooth Fairy from Yah Hunter another film by episode. Yeah, love love love tom Noonon in this too, because his character, like he he feels pain, like but it's like that emotional pain. You know. He's he's telling Jack on the on the roof before he you know, takes his kid out. You know, Andy, you were you were kind of mentioned in some of the major cameos on this. We would be here for a couple hours just talking about all the cameos. Um. But a favorite cameo you got in this one, Andy, Well, so I'm not seeing the cast was the guy who when Schwarzenegger goes up and he knocks on the door he asked for like the the drug dealer of the house. Was the guy who answered the door that that wasn't odd job from from It's It's It's not a odd job. That's you're talking about Toro Tanaka Yea who he played sub Zero and the Running Man.

32:45 That's yeas Yeah, and uh he answered another famous door pee Peee's Big Adventure. He was the Buckston's uh guy for instances busy. He's okay, yeah, no, you got to knock on that. That's a good that's a good call because uh definitely like him Martins two doesn't. She is like a store clerk or something. Uh. Yeah, she's in the video store where the Danny's like, hey, these these women are way too hot to work in a video store. And you know he has like the he has the one. He's like, what what's the store's phone number? You know, five five five? You know what's your phone number? You know, five five five? He's like, yeah, see, like when he's trying to do the whole Yeah, we're in a movie because everyone's got a five five five number. I think my favorite cameo is stallone as the terminator. The just the my favorite cameo. I'm gonna go, uh, I think for me because I completely I mean, I love the movie. I've seen it a bunch of times, and I guess I never paid attention. But when uh, when Charles Dance is like jumping through movies and uh and we get death from the from the Old, the Old, the black and white movie.

33:53 They're watching I had yeah, yeah, seven steal. I had no idea that's that's sir Ian mc kellen. I wasn't paying attention so that that that's gonna get my favorite cameo right there. He wasn't super famous back then. I mean he really became famous during that. I mean I try to think of things in perspective, like someone could get excited about that. Samuel L. Jackson was in Drassic Park, but he was I mean in tell pull fiction he was kind of just character actor. How he's a national treasure. But um, keeping perspective, I don't remember thinking like, oh, that's Keyan McKellen. He was great years later. And Richard the Third I don't I don't know. I mean, gays are moving whilst I'm not. I just think of, you know, maybe a little bit backwards like that.

34:35 That. Yeah, he was a great actor for that role and just you know, but he wasn't really you know, he wasn't sir Ian McKell at the time, right, Yeah, he wasn't the sur yet. I do I do that call out to uh Danny DeVito playing Whiskers, the the animated cat detective. He's's that's fantastic because you know he has such a that he's got that voice. He's like, anytime you hear Divito, you know you're here, div Yeah, Yeah, absolutely love that one. Bred Let's talk, uh, let's talk some of them, you know, because you know, sometimes like we we'd like to talk about like a scene that was the most impactful, like, you know what, what this movie needed, But this is this movie being what it is, Like, let's just talk about some of the fun stuff, like what you got a favorite? You got a favorite moment in this one? Bred? Um Yes, when they um are um at the door um questioning Benedict is hilarious. The lead up to it, why they why they're there, the whole lead up to you know, the bad guys are in there too. You know I'm the famous comedian on a bron shraga too. You know all of that leading up to you know, the sock drawer, all that stuff. It's great. That's one of the best best scenes. I think that Schwartzinger's most comedic in this film. How about you, Andy, you got something that sticks out?

35:53 Well, I was gonna say the same scene. I guess that's why. I mean, I didn't really feel like that impactful. The scene It's kind of a funny moment where it sort of sums up the whole attitude of the film that Schwartzeneger's knocking on your door being complete smart as well, trying to call you out. And yeah he's too weirdos show up to the door. And I guess it kept if it kept with keeping the rest of the movie, that he would have blown up the house right there. But I don't know. I mean, little comedic moments and kind of blueing clue in audiences and you know, just kind of provide you know, a breath of fresh air in between explosions and you know, people getting shot and burned alive or whatever, you know. But yeah, I don't know why. I just that that one just kind of sticks out. Yeah. I remember the first time I saw this in the theater, right when they hit the police station and Sharon Stone comes walking out as Katherine Schamel from Basic Instinct, and then Robert Patrick has the two one thousand comes walking out looking on tense. I flipped. I was like, oh my god, this, you know, this movie is like going fourth wall, like we're nothing's off the table, like anyone could pop up in this which uh, which which do you know the premiere later? I mean everyone goshaps up in this movie. Yeah, everyone's in this one. I'll tell you. One thing that surprised me based off of off the soundtrack is like none of the we didn't get any like bands like at the premiere. We didn't get bands in the movie, which I thought you could have done, Which leads me to the next thing I want to talk about is this soundtrack. So, uh, going back to

37:29 uh Andy's book ninety Days in the nineties. So, uh, you know, Andy, you referenced the Rachel character, who is this metal chick? I love, there's a there's a great moment in the book, and Brad, I'm, you know, not trying to spoil alert, but uh, Rachel was like an endearing gift. And this is something I know for a fact I did several times. Brad, I know you did. And Andy, Andy, I had to leave you did this? Uh the the very special gift of the mixtape, Rachel gives Darby Metal Mix ninety six, which which ironically doesn't really as Darby points out, ironically doesn't really have any ninety six songs on it. But I gotta ask, like, what, Andy, what would what would what would Rachel think of the Last Action Hero soundtrack?

38:17 Because you've got Alice and Chains, Mega Death, Queen's Reich. Yeah, Queen's Reich is that. So I've never really been into Queen's Right, but I've I've had musician friends both of the metal flavor and my friend Bobby Jorner, who is um from Mississippi, lived out in LA It was like a studio musician all this stuff, like he would like warm up to Queen's Reich. That's that kind of band that it is. Yeah, that's how the Docking Bad guys are. They love just like guitar people. Either you're a folk person, you love Dylan or you're hooked on Hendrix. Um, I feel like it Queensdrek Like Queensdrick had to be. If you're gonna pull an ac DC and def Leopard and Anthrax Aerosmith, but you're also gonna pulling like Fishbone and that. I guess that Queen's Rich is kind of like the people who would like Alison Chains and Anthrax and the people who would like Deaf Leppard and Megadeth and ACDC, Like that's the commonality. I don't really like Queen's Right, but for whatever reason, it's just like, yeah, So Rachel would be really into the fact that all those bands there, there's a little bit of flair and a little bit of hairspray with deaf Leppard, who also had some great albums in the early eighties, but by the time the nineties who roll around, they're not really particularly appreciated, and a CDC, like we forget at the same time, like a CDC wasn't really cool in nineteen ninety three. So you guys from Cincinnati. I went to college in Oxford, Ohio at Miami. I remember very vividly walking out of my German class going to the bathroom and on the wall somebody had written a CDC rules,

39:50 and then under that somebody else had written a Towny was here. Just kind of understood that, yeah, a CDC was not cool to like in nineteen ninety three. So I'm the prize that it's the first pick here. But I guess also maybe for the type of people that would buy the soundtrack, and this soundtrack would platinum by the way, that's what they want to hear. So that was whoever designed the soundtrack. I don't either, you think the soundtracks are like, yeah, movie studio whatever, and just put a soundtrack, just do whatever you're gonna do. I don't you know, the director doesn't care, or it's painstakingly devised and developed and perfected. And I think that's probably the scenario here. So, yeah, metal head like Rachel in my book, or anybody who's ever listened to you know who's metal head, who's put through your phones on blastted by themselves, or I think that they would only appreciate this. Now, Andy, you're just going off, you know, just from reading the book and uh, and definitely checking out your your playlist on Spotify because you've got these two you know, you got ninety Days in the nineties and ninety Days the ninety Days and nineties two ninety more songs which which I've been I've been, I've been listening to you.

41:01 Kind of you kind of speak to me as like, you know, the indie like you're you're more derby, Like it's like the am I writing and saying that you're more in like the indie rock, the punk that kind of stuff. Maybe not so much like the metal head like like the Rachel character is. Yeah, definitely, I mean just to kind of give you my urgent story. Um, I mean I played a guitar. I got a guitar in eighth grade. It was like the only cool thing about me. I did learn led Zeppelin. I was kind of obsessed with led Zeppa for a while. And the thing that like, I think I had a I've told the story a couple times. I had a couple of friends my freshman year and sophomore year who all had an older brother sister who were in college. So what was happening was their mixtapes that they were getting from their brothers and sisters at you know r T or University of Delaware, University of Maryland or Penn State would be you know what we call college music alternative music.

41:50 And it was a friend of mine. I just I gave him a tape and I was like, I just bugged the hell out of him, Like, whatever your brother is listening to, I want some of that making a mixtape. Maybe a mixtape or maybe you like just pick two albums. So what he did was he picked one side he taped me meet his Murder by the Smiths. The other side was Hoosker do Kndie Apple Gray. And I've listened to that thing until the tape basically buckled and fell apart. So that's kind of my angle. I get metal, and I appreciate the musicianship side common I do love to go to metal shows in very small clubs because you can experience that musicianship. But yeah, I'm I'm an indie alt rock person through and through, and that's that's my basis. So I really love that there's Fishmone on this soundtrack, and then there's Cypress Hill, and I can kind of appreciate Anthrax, and even though I'm not really a fan, and the Death Leopard takes me back to when I was a ninth grader, you know, listening to Death Leopard songs, I'm thinking about serenading some girl or whatever. It wouldn't give me the time of day. So it's all here, really, I mean, I have to. And then there's like, okay, they didn't get Guns of Rose on the soundtrack, but what buckethead. There's like a cameo appearance in the in the twelfth song here so or put this thing together? Brad Well life oh ahead was I'll say, Brad you you are a metal head? So yes, uh, best track on this album, you know, in your in your expert opinion. Uh, there's this is this is a tough question. Okay, So I can't pick dream on because let me point first for point point out. With the

43:22 exception of I think like ac DC, I mean that was the drawing to the soundtrack you had. Yeah, they had come off at Razor's Edge, which is kind of the comeback album. But a lot of these other bands were big ACDC fans and I think just wanted to be a part of this this album. So some of these tracks are just like B sides or you know, throwaways. Um, like the two Alison Chain songs. You hear what the hell have? I think like very beginning of film. But actually my favorite track on here is the other track A Little Bitter by Alison Chains. It starts off slow and it's it kind of kicks in and unless you had this soundtrack you had to buy like I think the Alison Chain's box set.

44:09 And then things like def Leppards two Steps Behind, which was basically a leftover from Adrenalize and they had no other album coming out, and I think they later put it on like retroactive and just kind of releases. This song had a video, you know, it had you know it went, you know, very high, you know, the the Queens Reich song. He said, I'm not a Queen's Rech song, but this is one of the better I think Queen's Rech songs. I'm sure every Queen's Reich fan would argue to even though with me to death, I actually really love the version of dream On. I remember that from the MTVS ten and it received a great version of dream On. And you know, big Gun is actually I think kind of the weaker track. The Tesla song not that great, but I mean, yeah, you got some cyper soil, but I like a little bitter. I think it's a great song. But yeah, I love this soundtrack. Is it overblown? Yeah, but nineties soundtracks kind of did that, you know, and I feel like they got overblowned a little bit later like ninety six and said, you get the soundtrack to Like the Crows City of Angels and it was better than the movie. Well, yeah, this is with Sliver with Billy Baldwin and Sharon Stone. Um, you might just go to see them that movie because they're pretty. But like that. That album had the first single by the Verve and I'm a huge I'm a yeah, yeah, verve and a friend of mine who's I lived with a sou

45:40 One of the characters in the book Rod, who's like a film student basically based on my roommate at the time, a guy named Rob Yapp who was, Um, yeah, like James Bond, obsessive film guy, Like he liked the verb because it was on that soundtrack, and he's like, yeah, the movie sucked with the soundtrack is kind of awesome. So yeah that those ninety soundtracks. Um, the UB forty song was on there. That was It was a cover of Can't Help Falling in Love with You? Right, Yeah, yep, it was an Elvis cover. Yeah, I'll tell you, Uh, Brad, you you know you're saying big Guns kind of kind of a weaker one. Um. The man himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, would probably disagree with you. The big guns on this soundtrack. It was written for the movie because Arnold went to a CDC and said that he wanted them for the for the soundtrack. I mean, it's not a terrible song.

46:30 I'm just saying that, you know, a good song. It's just you know, I wouldn't be upset if I went and saw a CDC and they didn't play it. I think I think your love for last action here, you wouldn't be a little miffed if they wouldn't be. I really, no, big gun, Yeah I would. I mean, And I've seen def Leppard a few times and I've heard two steps behind at every performance. Yeah, it's kind of the ballot, like the ballad is their second act, like you know, Photograph probably the best single, two guitar solos, rock site hell. And but then there's a lot of stuff that's like def Leppard is about the ballots because they fucking sell records and that's the only Yeah, they know that shit. They know there's a band that moved to Ireland to avoid taxes. Obviously they know their business. They know what's gonna sell, whether it's good or it's cheese. So yeah, and you never even hear that song in the movie never, I think. I think it's at the very end. It's the closing credits. I thought, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll tell you what I if I'm gonna go with a favorite track on this one, uh, probably opening the movie up with We're not opening it, but the opening up the Jack Slater for I'm a bag of Death fan, so hearing Angry Again with like exploding titles like you like you bread this. This soundtrack is over the top, but it has to be to compliment the movie. I feel like, because this movie is over the top on purpose, I feel like you've got to get bands with over the top songs. Yeah, and over the you know, I mean think about like the you know we got we got titles on these songs, Big Gun, Angry Again, you know, Last Action Hero. You have to go

48:05 over the top because if if you don't, it doesn't it doesn't compliment the movie. And some of them have nothing to do with the movie. Two Steps Behind is about following a girl. What does Aerosmith dream on have to do with the movie? Who cares? I love this version of this song? Yeah? Well again like you know, uh, and he mentioned Fishbone, like I you know, the song swim, It's like, well, does it belong in this movie or is it just let's let's get a different you know music. I think they were just like anything can go, anything can go in. It could be it could be that you know, they knew the agent, you know, for the manager for Fishbone, and yeah they got you know, we want to be involved. So Fishbone. Yeah, we got on a movie soundtrack. Who knows if that's what And if you think about it, Look what happened to the band that did Arnold's last movie, Guns N' Roses with you could be mine? That was you know every year to the soundtrack. Yeah, everyone wants to soundtrack. If you want to be on at that time, you're going to be on a summer's soundtrack movie. The Arnold Schwarzenegger movie was the best bet. Yeah. You know, a band doesn't surprise me, even if even if you're like, why are they here? Is is Cypress Hill? Because they were kind of getting the reputation either they had it or this was this was leading to it because you know, Brad, we've we've talked before one of our favorite films, Judgment Night, that might have one of the greatest sounds. Yeah, that's a great soundtrack and you hear pretty much every song in that soundtrack in

49:40 that movie. Yeah, that soundtrack. I was like, Okay, put cypres Hill on every movie soundtrack and I'll be I'll be happy with it because they do good They do good work. Speaking of doing good work, uh, let's talk a little bit about the director himself, John McTiernan because he is no stranger to uh to the hits. Um So, Andy, one thing we like to do. We always like to look at the director's filmography and kind of kind of talk a little bit about, you know, some of their some of their hits, some of their misses. Um if if you are patron h members already know this. Uh. Jason Colvin from the Shirley You k Be Serious podcast? Uh not too long ago, uh covered Nomads with me, which is Tiernan's directorial debut. Uh. And just to recap something we talked about there, Arnold Schwarzenegger sees Nomads, thinks it's brilliant and insists that he's hired as director for Predator. And that is basically how John mctiern and the director comes into play. That's that's why we have John mcturner and the director because, Uh, I don't know, Andy, have you seen Nomads? No? I haven't, mean, I've seen all the other movies pretty much that and what's up because they're just such you know, they're marquee films or they're or they're over hyped films like Rollerball. But yeah, and there's not a lot of them there's not a lot. No, I mean I like it even as as Bond and I've not seen them mad

51:13 It's like, I guess I know what the fuss was to Arnold on this. Yeah, it's uh, I'm sure, I know. We we talked about. It was streaming on tub or Pluto at the time, and Jason makes a good point, it's worth seeing just to see what we get the body of work that we get because of Nomads, Because the first time I saw Nomads, I was like, Oh, I don't get it. What what is going on here? This is a little bit of a train wreck. But at the same time, Arnold saw something different and said, this is the guy I want to go into the jungle with for Predator. So his directorial debut, nomads Um leads to one of the greatest action films ever made. Uh, definitely one of the best action films of nineteen eighty seven.

51:59 Talking about Predator, it's still so good. It's still so good and just player with every viewing right, it really is. It's because it's I want to say simple, but I mean it is. This thing's a hunter and it's it's about as as simple as it gets. But it just manned the movie works. Andy thoughts on Predator. You know, it's been so long since I've seen it. I mean I remember just sort of the action and the I don't know, the gravel us of Schwarzenegger. He was around before that. It wasn't like his I don't know what I mean. Was was Predator his first big, big film, because the first I feel like, the first Terminator came out and it was sort of made for sci fi fans, and then a Terminator too was just a film that maybe, like like Predator and die Hard, like anybody can relate to it, just like like top On, you can hate Tom Cruise and you can think he's a douche and you could even think that, Okay, handsome guys playing volleyball on the beach. This is not for me. This is a dude Burger movie.

53:05 And you know you're gonna like the new top Gun that came out because there's just a formula there. So I'm not surprised that cours Naker found his man um Predator. It just kind of seems like it's you know, the Yankees won a lot of world series and it's just one of those ones that nothing. It doesn't stand out. But it's just like, yeah, of course he was gonna do that movie. Of course that movie is going to be, you know, still important. Now. I just kind of see it as like one of those columns of like like a just like a pillar of cours Enaker's career. So okay, okay, Well let's move on to uh to nineteen to eighty eight a year later, not only again probably the best action movie of that year, definitely, in my in my expert opinion, Brad, the greatest Christmas movie of all time talking about die Hard without a doubt, Andy smiling Andy, Andy, what you know, die Hard Christmas movie? There is an action movie, I mean. But at the same time, I'm the guy that says one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time was Trading Places because I love that. Yes, that works too, That's that's a good answer. That's why thing that you roll their eyes are, like you said, a Christmas movie, And yeah, you talk about the movie all the time, but yeah, I feel you, so um yeah, I don't think anything really beat. I mean, I can't think of anything from nineteen eighty eight that stands up more than die Hard, and uh yeah, it was probably the perfect role for Bruce Willis. He got to be an action here in a little bit of a smart ass was you know, the writers were great on that. Maybe that came from McKernan,

54:37 but uh yeah, I mean there's nothing not perfect about that movie. Bred you mentioned how Last Action Hero is kind of issuing the end of this particular type of genre. Hero die Hard gives us the everyman hero, Like would you say that's like it's kind of like the birth of the everyman hero, Like yeah, you you you look at Conan, you look at Terminator, and you go, I want to be Conan. But but you never look at and go I could be Conan, you know, because he's larger than life, whereas Bruce willis you know, eighty with your dad. Yeah, he had your plant, Yeah, you had your planet. Hollywood boys, you know, you had Arnold standing next to Stallone, standing next to like Van Damn, you know, and then there's Bruce, you know, and he's small, but but he was the only one that could kind of, yeah, kind of stay in the same field with them. Yeah, but again, you know, Andy, you can't you might not be able to storm a castle or or or or hunt an alien in the in the jungle. But but you could be you could be John McClane, right, Like he has that that feel like, you know, what if if I was in that, if I wasn't Nakatomi, maybe maybe I run around and and fight the bad guys. Well, yeah, I mean obviously anything happened when you're board at a Christmas party and it's a corporate game. Yeah, people that are around you sipping drinks you have nothing in common with. I mean, that's a pretty much fertile ground for both a hostage situation and her

56:13 heroism. But you mentioned that the ever Man hero, there's really two. There's Bruce Willis and then the cop that he's talking to the whole time. I thought it was a great Oh gosh, Yeah, I really appreciate dialogue in movies. Maybe that's one of the reasons I like Days Confused and pulp fiction and Friday so much. You know, that's there weren't a lot of clever lines that dialogue, but just the sort of the purpose of it. Everybody appreciated that. That was probably an underrated part of that movie. I think with the nineties, we're now starting to see that what you know, you might call the Smart The Thinking Man's action movie. Mccarnan does The Hunt for Red October our introduction to Jack Ryan. Still a good movie. I was actually looking for it the other night. It's not streaming all right.

56:58 At the moment, I was like, damn, I was just like a comedia my friend. Yeah, yeah, and yeah. And it's not a action I guess it's considered an action movie. But it's a spy thriller, you know, in some way with you know, a lot of talking in it, mostly well, Andy, you mentioned you know you're you're a big fan of great dialogue. Did you you know the Hunt for October? You know you've got you got Connery in one of his best roles. I think, um, what your what your thoughts on on a Hunt for October. It's definitely a very cerebral type of action. I love Cold War stuff. I just got done watching for the second time. If you've not seen it, takes place in the nineties, uh Netflix series called Cleo. It's about a a stazzi assassin a woman who then gets falsely imprisoned, and when the wall falls down and East Germany's no more, she goes on a rampage and goes after all the people who imprisoned her and screwed a life over. But it's like it's a dark comedy, so it's like women on the verge of a nursing nervous breakdown combined with far You guys are gonna love this, um so for me, Hunt for Bread October does not have as much action as I'd like, but it is very cerebral, and I mean I just love the background story of the Lithuanian, you know, rogue military officer who just takes off and causes the world potential world catastrophe. And the only man then

58:28 kind of talks some sense into or relate to him, is is Jack Ryan played by um Um Bow. Yeah, so uh yeah, I mean I love the movie too, but at the same time, I feel like I want a little bit more. I I mean, I've been spoiled by movies like Ronan and just a lot of the Cold War and like kind of post Cold War movie that come out where there's just a ton of crap going on and everybody's out smart for a lot of spy versus spy. So um yeah, it's it's one that I don't reach for as much as probably Brad does. But I think that it was a slightly different work for McTiernan then the other things that we've talked about about Dinard. It was a little bit more and it could just because ham Clancy kind of wrote it that way. So I don't know, it's it's definitely a classic, but it's of a different flavor than the rest of the films we're talking about here, Andy, not to take us down a different road, but uh, you know Jack Ryan.

59:22 You know we've seen several people play him. Now, Uh you got a favorite actor who's done it because we're talking Alec Baldwin's done it, Harrison Ford, Chris Pine, and uh, the Jack Ryan series. That's the most recent thing. You know, Uh what is it on Prime? Harrison Ford's type of role. But I didn't the um, the guy from the Office John kris Jinski, didn't he do Yeah Krazinski. Yeah, he's the he's the most he's the he's the recent Jack Rymigot. It's weird to see him going from the office to this dude all buff. You know, I don't know that I' favorite. I just kind of feel like it's Harrison Forde role because I feel like the way that Tom Clancy wrote books, he probably had this A. Yeah, it's he's he's a boomer and we're talking mid eighties Reagan era. I think that he just kind of had something a little less slick than all Baldwin and Harrison Ford. You a little bit kind of a pained guy who's got some stuff and some skeletons in his closet. I think that that just kind of fit more perfectly than than anybody else. But I'm also like, Connery's not my favorite Bond. So you can fight with me on a number of different points here. We can go down a different road at a different time if you want on that. But he's not my favorite. Oh holy okay, hold on, Jeff, I didn't grow up with Sean Connery. My fine, I didn't grow up I listen. I didn't grow up with him either. But we're definitely have to cover this now because now well, I mean at a later or another, but just another episode. But hold on, Andy, uh favorite Bond Daniel Craig because he's

1:00:57 a womanizing sociopath and he's he's the most he's the most close to the novel, the character in the novels except for these books, fit and a little bit more, you know, a little crazy in the brain, all right, not not that's not a bad answer, Brad, Brad, We've we've known each other more than half our lives. I can't believe we've never even brought this subject up. But if Connor's not the best Bond, who is George Lasenby, I'll stop, You're full of shit. Come on, the Harry Bond. It's Craig. It's Craig's Yeah, yeah, I see, Andy, I caught that reference, uh, you know, from the from the book because uh, you know the was it's the Rod character who's a bit of a Bond fanatic and dressed up liking for Halloween. But uh yeah, don someone get his goat by the going Yeah, Lasonby's the best the Harry Bond. Wow, uh Brad, uh Andy. You know, before we got on the subject of Jack Ryan and James Bond, h he mentioned what might be one of my favorite Frankheimer films Real And I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and put that out there right now, because I know there's probably a couple of good movies we could cover for for when we do that episode.

1:02:07 But I submit to you, Ronan should be that episode, because that is such a that's such a great movie. Yeah, all right, well Connery not your favorite bond for these two guys. Definitely, he's my favorite bond. Uh. And I think McTiernan as a fan because a year later, in nineteen eighty two, he teams up with Bond Bond. He teams up with Sean Connery again. Uh to do medicine man. Uh, Sean Connery Lorraine Bracco. I need to watch that again. I was too young to understand it what was going on. I agree, I wasn't interested enough. I think if I watched it now, I'd probably enjoy it. It's a it's one of those when we saw it, you know, we were you know, I wouldn't say we were kids, but we're definitely younger.

1:02:51 Not interest of it in that, you know, you're like, yeah, it goes up against you. It's like, I don't really care. It's not interesting enough. Did you catch Medicine man? Andy? No? But I love Loreine Black. I mean, Lorraine Brocco is not really leading lady. But you know, it's one of those. I think people who appreciate films and actresses, we all have our little crushes too, I kind of wanted to see her in a lot more so I probably should have seen it. I just I don't if I saw, I don't remember it. Yeah, it's again. It's kind of you know, like he's like a where Conny Connary is the long hair is it. Yeah, he's like the long hair bearded, you know, kind of like a proto what I wanted to say, Uh, Dank Seaman type of guy. Yeah, so something like that. He's he's definitely uh, he's he's definitely rocking his look for the rock. Like you know, when he starts off the rock, he looks like he just walked off the set of of Medicine. Man. You know, he's they're they're deep in the Amazon. Uh you know, they're they're looking at it's like science and looking for a cure, looking for you know, yeah, I think they're looking for care for cancer. Political intrigue is involved, there's there's a whole there's bred. You're right, we're adults.

1:04:04 Now, we should go back and check that one out. I think I think we'll have a new appreciation for it. We've been talking about Last Action here at which he does in nineteen ninety three, and uh in nineteen ninety five, he revisits John McLean. He comes back for the third film, Die Hard with a Vengeance. Loved it. How do you know it? I mean, this is this is this is originally this is a lethal weapon. It's uh, I think it's I think it's originally written as lethal weapon three. Yeah, they pass on it and then it becomes it becomes a John mcclan movie. Yeah. Jeremy Irons is a bad guy. Yeah, and a great team up with him and Samuel L. Jackson. I mean, somebody that's a sidekick that's interesting to watch. Well, yeah, I mean, you know Andy, and he was talking about having him earlier.

1:04:53 Andy, you're you know, die Hard with a Vengeance. At this point of you like, are you getting Tyer McLean or is this like yep, give me another one. No, I don't think so. I mean there's not too many I think, you know, and maybe in the case of The Godfather three, like you really have to, you know, swing and miss to mess up a franchise because we're so in trench with the characters. We have kind of relationship with them. So, I mean, I think it was good enough. I'll put it that way. I do remember walking it and my film Buff Bond Obsessive was also in an obsessive of die Hard, and he gave it the thumbs upper over and probably made me watch it like two or three times when we would do our annual starting at Christmas die Hard, you know, kind of mini movie marathon. I've seen it a couple of times, but it's been it's probably been twenty five years since i've seen it, So okay, I'll tell you. I think I mentioned this before. I'm I'm a huge fan of Steve McQueen and his films. So for anyone to say, hey, let's remake this Steve McQueen movie, and I know it's happened once or twice, I'm quick to go, I don't think so. But the Thomas Crown Affair a couple years later, he does Thomas Krannifair in nineteen ninety nine. Pierce Brosden Renee Russo. I gotta say it. It's better than the original. It is. It is. It actually is um but and it has so many other great things too, oh, so many other things that you wanted to see. And this it's a

1:06:26 sexy movie. I'll say it. It's a sexy movie. It's a probably great date movie, but it's a cool, slick heist fun movie, you know, and it's it's fun. It looks like both actors are having a ball doing the movie. Um, I definitely buy it. As far as I think today, this art concierge type of guy being more like somebody like Pierce Brosnan, not somebody as rough as McQueen or McLean or McLean yeahmcqueen or mcclein andy whatchul uh? I mean, have you seen the original? Yeah? Yeah, it's been a long time. But I mean, I think your point. So one thing I think you're kind of alluding to, you know, maybe saying, is that I'm not a film historian, but I feel like the Thomas Krown of Fair is one of a handful films that came out in the late nineties that sort of, you know, brought back the heist and made the heist, made it okay to have expensive cars and fine wines and not beat bond. So I'm talking about everything from the Italian Job to some of the stuff that you know, even Vin diesel Is in and Jason Statham in The Rock where there's a there's latitude for humor there's fancy cars, there's people appreciate, you know, fancy restaurants and and fine dining and yeah, wine connoisseurs. But that there's sort of hyper masculine Action hero is still there. But also you've got this, you know, these intelligent women in the film and with with Thomas Crown of Fair it's Renee Russo they're not

1:07:57 playing just kind of like an arm candy and in that film. So I feel like one of a couple of movies that opened up this kind of new wave of heist films that are a lot more intelligent and maybe, you know, kind of the point of this visual conversation, we're getting away from the kind of movies that the Last Last Action Hero were kind of poking fun at, the big explosions, the van damn stuff that Bruce Willis is John McClain, some of the stuff that made Swartzenegger famous, and that we're really kind of going to a different realm here. And I don't know, I think that the timing of that statement the Last Action Hero Intext three, maybe it was a little early, maybe with the Thomas Crown affair and Nine tells Us is this movie that Swartzenegger did with everybody else. You know, it's kind of like a cannonball run in terms of all the appearances of famous people.

1:08:46 Was just a little bit ahead of its time, just like a lot of great popcole fillers out there. Well, I like with the one thing you were kind of alluding to also, you know, with like the fancy stuff, you know, because like you see this this kind of stuff, and there there is a pretentiousness to it. But at the same time, I feel like the Thomas Crown affair made you made it, made it cool, made it like, yeah, that's I would I would, I would want that. And I also kind of feel like it makes it like you know, you're talking about the new Heist, you know, bringing about the heist film many it this is a situation where we're you know, we you know, the audience we start sharing for the bad guy. I mean, not that not that Pierce Brosten is a bad guy. He's a he's not that he's a villain, but obviously morally, you know, he is a master thief. He is he is the bad guy. Whether we like it or not. You know, we shouldn't be you know, we should be rooting for Dennis Leary in that movie, you know, to catch to catch him and put him in jail. But you want Pierce Brosden to get away with it, right, and we're just like you want the Oceans Boys to get away with it? Yeah, and you want you want mister Challenge up naked out of the back of a car again, you know, to hit something with And I would you know, four or five comes out. I'm gonna see it, even even though the reviews are terrible. As long as that guy's in it, I'm gonna watch that movie. So at you. I get your point on steroids is what I just said. I think. Yeah, all right. Uh, same year he does Thomas Crown Affair, he does The Thirteenth Warrior. This is brad. We could have easily talked about this movie, uh for Rick tarn And I know we didn't because our good friend Dayton Johnson at Documents seventy seven already did excellent coverage on it. But

1:10:23 yes, very underrated film, yeah, but a damn good one, right, Yeah, and a good movie to have the book as a companion with. You read the book first and watch the movie, and I believe you'll enjoy it more. The Eaters of the Dead Eaters of the Dead. Yeah, I would like them to rerelease that movie with some damn special features on it, but call it Eaters of the Dead as it originally was. Okay, so like a special edition. Yeah. Well, you know, you you make a good point with you know, because that book is phenomenal. Andy, you know, author to author, you know, cry, like, what what do you think of him? Well? That's um, you know, just as much as us all rock fans on an X punks can be music snobs were also snobs about literature. So I mean, you're not You're just you're not gonna see a Michael Criden book in my house. Not nothing wrong with it, just like you're not gonna see any Dean Coots or I don't know, James Patterson book. You're gonna find some Nick Hornby and some George Plimpton. It's just kind of not my flavor. I'm not saying it sucks. It's just um yeah, um, kind of not my not my shade of pop culture, like the Ancient. So I didn't see the movie. Yeah, so I'm a little uh, I'll just listen to listen to you guys on that one. It's not a lot of people did see it. Yeah, it wasn't a big hit. But so a couple of years goes by. I think I think it was Andy that mentioned this.

1:11:46 Uh and when we opened up, Uh, he does Rollerball, you know, he he he goes back to the remake. Well, uh, this time not as successful because you know, say what you will about the original Rollerball with James Cohn, but ello coolj was just not gonna save this one. What about Chris Klein, No, he wasn't gonna save it either. I don't even think John McTiernan could save this movie. I remember seeing that this movie is coming out and then you know, kind of going to the bottom of the post or whatever, and then seeing directed by John McTiernan, and I was just like, oh, come on, man, really and yeah and it Yeah, nobody liked that movie. Andy, what what kind of a in an alternate universe? What kind of article is Andy Fry writing for ESPN about the the deadly sport of rollerball? Uh? You know, to me, a kind of I mean, I've written about extreme sports like skydadding and roller derby and ice cross, which is a sport by Red Bull, which is basically downhill speed skating on spit, which sounds just terrifying to me. I just I think that the whole thing with this one is it just didn't feel like they approached it with authenticity, and it does kind of smack of those short lived summer TV shows where there's like, I don't know, it's like American Warrior, but there's you know, a pit of alligators in the middle of it. You might follow it like it just doesn't really feel like it's for real. And then I don't. I don't know that you could take the original and remake it and not have it be a joke.

1:13:15 But I just feel it well, like Chris, it's it's very it meant to be slick. You've got Chris Klein wearing his helmet and he's not got his helmet strapped at all during the whole thing, even competition, and Ella Cool j is great in some things and other other things, it's just okay, Ella Cool Jason in the film Cool. So I don't know who else we're gonna get. We're gonna get um, you know, appearances, Bike, Spike Lee, Like I don't. I just wasn't. It didn't feel like it was serious. I think it's what Brad's getting at yeah out in the poster just kind of screams at so yeah. I think it was if you're not gonna do it right, don't do it at all. And I guess there's a budget for this and mccharning took it and just couldn't, you know, make it work. Well. A year later, uh, you know, right before his his hiatus, he does a very you know, I wouldn't call it a it's more of it's more of like a mystery.

1:14:04 Not a lot of people saw this one, you know. It's another underrated Jim of his. But he gets John Travolta and he does a film called Basic. This one it's one of those hey something, when something happened in the military. Travolta is brought in to investigate, and it's all a matter of the It's like a who done it basically with a really slick twist at the end. Brad, you know, I'm a you know, we've talked about this before. I know I've told you like how much I'm a fan of it, But I don't know if I've ever asked you, like what you thought about Basic. I think I watched it. It was very forgettable. I don't think John Travolta has done one good movie post two thousand.

1:14:45 I don't know name a movie past two thousand, and it's he and he changed his acting into doing this thing where he just grinds his teeth. Yeah, it's very forgettable. I remember he lost a bunch of w for it, and that's for like one scene. And then that's the only thing I really remember about the movie. Ah man, okay, Andy helped me out here. John Travolta, Sam Jackson, have you have you seen this one? Not in a long time. I don't remember much other than what Brad's kind of talking about, and they're same Miel Jackson's in it. You know. I don't really think. I guess I'll make another pronouncement, maybe more shocking than my Bond choice. I don't only think that John travolt is that great of an actor. I mean, I think there's he's an icon pop culture wise. I think he's fiction. But I remember to kind of goo geek out and you a little bit here. I remember in thid round Line and there's a conversation with Nick Nulty and his manning officers played by John Travolta and just in that scene you immediately see, like how much better of an actor Nick Nulty is having a conversation with John Travolta, and You're just like, John travolt is not really that good an actor. Marquee name.

1:15:50 And I think it's kind of the same thing here, Like, you know, there's a string of movies like Phenomenon in the nineties where John Travolta was big again, so he's gonna get films. And I feel like this was an attempt at that. Uh. It just yeah, it's kind of like it was forgettable. It's probably a good way that. Yeah, Brad said that. I just I gotta I got, you know, I gotta I gotta say. Uh. I know the last time Brad and I uh had someone with us. Uh, Brad was definitely outnumbered when we were talking about Super eight and Brad, I'm I'm not picking up, Brad, I'm not picking the scap So you don't don't don't start on your whole Super eight Die tribe. But uh, you know, Brad, I kind of I feel like the tables have turned because I'm definitely seeing you and Andy are are like minded on a lot of a lot of these things that we're talking about tonight.

1:16:39 So, um, yeah, I'm sure you know how it feels now, I know. Yeah, all right, So uh look, you know after after Basic, you know, this is this is two thousand, um, two thousand and three, he does Basic. This is his last film for well, this was his last film because he had you know, we won't we won't really get into it. But obviously he got into some hot water with the FBI over some illegal wire taps and he went away. He did some time. But Brad, he's actually he's making his comeback. I'm talking about it's. Uh, he's in pre production right now on a film called taw Setti Boxtrot And I'm not I might be saying that wrong. I don't know, but listen to this. Let me give you a little quick synopsis. Here. Three rebels set out to kill the oligarchs and military thugs who terrorize a war torn planet in the remote taw Seti Solar System. So he's going, he's going sci fi. You know, he hasn't really done that since Predator, and but that sounds like something that would cost a lot of money, and right now he does not have the clout to make that, you know, in that kind of scale. Well it is. It's it's listed as his next his next feature project. He's writing it, he's directing it, starring Uma Thurman. Okay, now, well listen, let's

1:18:14 let's let's go back to you know, as as we start to wrap up, let's go back to last action here one last time. So the you know, the main thing with this movie, you know, the mcguffin is this mysterious golden ticket. You know that was once given to uh uh Nick, the old guy that runs the theater. You know, he apparently when he was a little kid. He got it from Harry Hudini and you know, legend has it it can it could transport you to any movie you know, and put you right in the film. So my question to you guys, and we'll start with We'll start with Andy, the golden tick. You have the golden ticket, you get to you get to step into any Arnold Schwartzenegger movie. Andy, which which movie? Which movie universe of Arnold Schwartzenegger's are you are you walking into? I'm probably walking right into and jumping on the back of the motorcycle and terminator too. Really, I'm not sure if I could hang with that crowd i'd I'd like to think I could, but I mean, just you could you watch that movie with a sound down and not know anything about the premise of the movie, or have not seen the original Terminator and you're seeing you know, Edward Furlong on this motorcycle or in a public Enemy T shirt. I mean, I think a dream of mine, an unreal sty dream of mine and probably have most men, is to outrun the cops on a Harley and kids like thirteen. He's doing that, and he's also kind of in coots with this robot man to kill another robot man and save the world. So that's that's a lot of a lot of shit going on to deal with, and I don't know how you get top

1:19:46 of that. So that's where I would go again. I hope I could hang with that crowd. Might be terrifying, but it's also be pretty exciting too. That's a good good call, Brad. They're tearing your ticket. What are you head into? What? I'm actually gonna go to this movie for a couple of reasons. One, I would not survive any other Terminator. I would die Predator. I would die true lie. I mean, I would not make it very far I feel in this movie I could maybe give the more fun comedic edge that was missing from the you know, Danny Madigan part. And I think I could have fun in this movie. But yeah, all the other ones I would oh god, I'd be gone in a second. I see again, you guys. You guys seem to be in sync because you know, Andy chooses a world where you know, he's he's jumping into the kid's role and he's jumping on the back of the of the Harley, and he's he's trying to take down Skynet. You are jumping into the back of his convertible and you know Slater's convertible in Last Action Hero, and uh and recognizing like, you know, hey, you know I'm a I'm a comic sidekick, so I gotta I gotta watch what I do.

1:21:05 Yeah, that's the thing. I would need to watch what I do. Really, you're going to Conan's world, so none of us are going to garden cop or jingle all the way, which I guess would be my second choice. I did like have a little fun with that, but I alread made my choice here, so well, I'll tell you, Brad, you you read my mind. Definitely Uh, I'm all for days of high adventure. I'm ride I'm riding horseback alongside Conan uh and and helping him on his many adventures until he until he becomes king by his own hand. Because you know, if one thing, you know, we all had those, you know, Andy, I don't know about you, but Brad, you and I have had plenty of a of a time and customer service in the in the retail world. And the idea of someone disrespecting me and then having the option of bearing my my battle axe in their face. Uh, you can get away with that in in Conan the Barbarians. So that's that's the universe I'm going to. UM. I liked that Andy mentioned kindergarten cop as a as a fun one. If I was going to have any kind of alternate answer, it's not so much for the comedy, But I'm going I'm going to the world of Twins, and I'll say two words. Kelly Preston so well, the important part here is that none of us would want to be Republican governor of California, that California was none of them mass in the two early two thousands, that we wouldn't want that job. Yeah. Oh and speaking of if you haven't watched the Netflix Arnold documentary, there is a very small blurb where he does talk about Last Action Hero and his disappointment with

1:22:42 the way it turned out. Yeah, and I Brad, I know, uh, I've seen the documentary. It's fantastic. I know what you're alluding to. But I would definitely recommend anyone. It's like a three part documentary series like uh, you know, they talk about the body but you know, growing up in Austria, the bodybuilding, they talk about the movies, to talk about his political career. It's it is a fantastic um documentary. Um. And he's got this new you know, speaking to Netflix, He's got this new comedic action it's kind of in the vein of a Last Action Hero because it's comedy, it's action. He's got this new one called this series called fu Bar. Uh andy, have you have you called it yet? Have you familiar with it? Now? That's probably next of my list now when I finished Cleo again, it's it's kind of um, you know, went in my whistle with some new Arnold stuff. And so I don't know if I'll jump to the documentary or food Bar first. I do have sort of a difficulty committing to series, Like I've not watched Game of Thrones because i know I'm not going to be into the universe there. I'm just not gonna do it. But you know, once I commit to a series, I'm gonna watch the whole thing. So um yeah, I'll probably uh peruse it and make a decision and i'll take it world. If you say it's good, I'll check it out. Because I can't really say I've ever really been disappointed with any Schwartzenegger film. I mean ever. I mean yeah, but we talked about some some semi duds today, but there's you know, he always keeps us coming back. I think, well, you you mentioned you know, like you said, you uh, you're always gonna come back for Arnold. Your recommendation on Last Action Hero, Andy, do you

1:24:14 recommend people check this one out or give it a as Brad likes to call it a second chance Sunday When you haven't seen it for a while and you're not sure if you if you still like it or you still hate it. What's your recommendation for Last Action Hero? I would say, yeah, I mean and kind of to Brad's point, like don't get too hung up on the kid character, because I mean I do feel like that was a stock Disney kid type of character. I didn't even know the thing about McAuley, Culkin or even Elijah Wood that it really could have benefited from a stronger character or more recognizable face worth something. But you know, the whole reason that we would have gone to see it anyway is because of our Schwartzenegger And you know, look at the poster. I think I think that stands out there.

1:24:56 One question I wanted to ask both of you before we wrap things up, even considering the fact that there's a kid in it, because we were all kids watching Redded R films, would this film have benefited from being more successful, more understanding, and a little bit more dangerous if it was our because all the movies that the kid is talking about, these are all our movies. Yeah. So this was a PG thirteen movie and they poked fun at it, but I think a rated R version of it would have really kind of sealed that deal of everything that you saw in the late eighties to the into the early nineties. I'm gonna say, you know, you know, before Andy answers, I'm gonna I'm gonna say I. I say no.

1:25:47 And the reason why two things. First off, because it is a PG thirteen or because Jack Slater four is a PG thirteen movie. Because we're dealing with a movie within a movie. You lose some of the jokes if it if it is RATEDAR Like, you know, he he writes, he writes what we presume to be the F word on a piece of paper, says here say this. She's like, I don't want to say it. He's like, you can't say it because it's PG. It's PG thirteen movie. Um, So I think you're gonna lose a little bit of the comedy in that aspect. And to make this an R rated film, I think the only thing you're missing would be, uh, a little more gratuitous violence, or you know, more graphic violence, or maybe maybe some gratuitous nudity, you know, because that's what you saw in early eighties action movies.

1:26:35 And I don't feel I feel like both of those would be a little out of place, especially when you're your pro you're one of your your your narrator characters is a like a thirteen year old kid, twelve year old kid, whatever. I don't know. I could be wrong, though, let's out there, let's say, well, let's see what Andy has to say, because you know you said you asked us both. So you know, I'm kind of torn on that because you can't really do a rated R. I mean I would, okay, I can't say that you can't do a rated R movie with a kid in it. I don't I don't remember was the sixth cents rated R? Was it PG? You guys know, off the top of your head, I feel like, yeah, a much more serious movie. I don't know. I kind of feel like that it was a business decision that somebody, probably in one of the studios said, well, Kindergarten Cop, which came out on nine ninety, was such a great success.

1:27:21 Uh, you know, schwartz Are can kind of do these family friendly movies. But you, as we talked about the whole time, yere really the people who go to see schwartz enor without fail are the people who want the art movies. They want the Terminator Terminator two. Um. So I don't know. I mean, I think maybe that was a calculating I don't even I don't know that that really matters. I think that, I mean, I think I just keep going back to Brown's original point that, Um, the casting of the kid just didn't work out here. And I don't know that in our or sticking a PG thirteen was really a factor here. You probably could have done it either way, but I think it was kind of a big reach. They thought that they probably could get the size audience, the size of the audience that came out for kinder Carten, GOP and Terminator two. But I think that the timing was really off on this film in terms of what it was presenting, what it was trying to accomplish.

1:28:15 So, um, you know that's not things like that happened in film. You know, sometimes the outer world just doesn't know what's going on or what's trying to be achieved, or something huge like Jurassic park right access for a number of years. So I didn't like Jurassic Parking. There's nothing kind of film that I would go to see. But you know, I'm not I'm not every man out there. I'm not the person who goes to the goes to the cinema every week of the summer because that's just what we do. So yeah, I don't I'm not gonna render opinion on that I think that the issues were different than the rating for sure. Right. Well, I know I've got a I've got a blue ray of this one. Uh, it's it's streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Prime right now. Where'd you you know? Yeah? I think I watched it on Netflix? Yeah, okay, and yeah, I'm guessing when when he wasn't watching Cleo Andy, Andy tuned in and and is you know, He's like, he's he's already on Netflix. Maybe he watched it there. I think that Netflix is kind of stacking up on the Arnold stuff, considering the documentary and the television show.

1:29:19 So you get a good selection of Arnold movies on Netflix right now. Yep. Well, listen, we have been discussing the the thirtieth anniversary of Last Action Hero with journalist and author Andy Fry Uh ninety days in the nineties. One thing, um I'll point out that I thought was that I think was really cool. Uh. Andy has not one but two Spotify playlists that uh and Andy Craig Roman If I'm wrong, it's almost like, you know, these were meant almost like a supplemental material, you know, because the second time I read the book, I actually had your playlist going on in the background, just to kind of immerse myself in Darby's world. Fantastic you know collection of artists too, like some stuff I hadn't I hadn't heard since ninety six, ninety seven, some some stuff I'd never heard ever, and you know, kind of clude me in mayde a fan so um. I have tried to make nineties playlists so many times and always fail because I'm always forgetting something, I'm always walking something. Well, go straight, go straight to his two playlists, ninety Days in the nineties and ninety Days in the nineties, two ninety more songs, uh Andy. I can't even imagine what your music collection would look like. I've seen Brad's because Brad owns everything on it.

1:30:43 He he and Darby would be the exact same, and like, hey, I've got all the great stuff. I've got, the live recordings, I got the the you know, the rare imports stuff. I gotta imagine you've got it. You've got a pretty amazing collection. To put together a you know, a playlist like this and to write like the like you do, I'll say in my mind, I've actually never started collecting vityl because you know, It's weird because in music people kind of assume now and generationally too, that if you're a real, diehard music fan, you have to have VITYL. I don't necessarily agree with that. I'm not a fish fan or a dead fan. They do fine without VITYL. It's all about the the live tape there, and I kind of wonder what they're doing now that those tapes deteriorate, if they have it on reel to reel or something. But um, yeah, I mean I've I've I've taken up streaming, just like anybody else has. I'm not really a record collector in this sort of the geek out sense, but yeah, I mean it's it's a soundtrack in the back of my head, constantly going, and that was sort of the spirit of the book, and also the playlist that went with it. I had to make those playlists because what else would I do. I can't make a mix tape mixtape these days, so just a five hour playlist in ninety songs times too. So one more question for you, whether whether we've seen the last of Darby and her time traveling adventures, or if there's something else, any anything you want to share with us, anything that's on the that's coming up soon for you or anything that you're able to talk about just yet.

1:32:13 I mean, I'm just working on a couple couple of new ideas. There's I mean, I don't know if there's gonna be a sequel of this. I published this independently through what we call a hybrid Polisher and Austin, Texas called Atmosphere Press. As you can see with the cover, they had a really great cover artist and the book design was great. Um, but yeah, I mean it was an indie production. So it's it's I'm working through a couple of different ideas. I'm probably working on what I would say was a Chicago trilogy. I've got a couple of other story ideas that I've picked at and started to write. So nothing imminent, but that's just sort of part of the creative life, Okay. And where you know, for for our listeners, is there you know, because you mentioned like, hey, go to your local bookstore and pick this up or to get more of your work any is there a place to go? Is there a place you know, like a specific website or you know, and I'm not talking about just for your for the book, but like you know you've again you've you've had some amazing uh interviews, some amazing articles, So any anywhere where we can get it all? Yeah, I mean you can just go to my straight to my website, Andy Frida dot com. That's fried with any Uh.

1:33:20 First thing you'll see is a kind of a pitch about the book and if you're interested in the book, it'll take it on my website or yeah, you can definitely go to a local bookstore. Um. The other tab on my website is my sports writing and there's kind of some little blurbs there about some of the people I've interviewed and been that I've been fortunate too to write about. So U that would be the place to go. And other than that, I guess check out the playlists on Spotify if you want to do the music first. Excellent. Well, uh, we we definitely thank you for your time today. I've had a blast, thanks a lot this. Yeah, yeah, I mean I was going to talk to you guys all right, Well, uh, you know, hopefully we have not we've not heard the last from Andy, obviously. We've we've got some unresolved issues with with James Bond and and some other stuff going on. So uh, you know, Andy, I you know, we'd love to have you back, you know, definitely. I can think of a couple of things where we would appreciate your your your take. So yeah, and if you guys do ron it and it's not you know, one of your next episodes, I'm calling me for that because that's one way keep I mean. I also think of route it as like old retired, retired, old guys getting back in the game. But they pulled it off though, So yeah, any any like heist film or cold war film that takes place in all the beautiful cities in Europe just works. You know, that's just a formula that is fun to watch. Absolutely, Andy, thank you very much for your time.

1:34:46 Next week, Dave and Scott will be back in the studio with our limited series A Film at forty five to discuss an excellent action adventure film from nineteen seventy eight, Worse Ten from Navarone and Brad. We are not done talking about Last Action Hero in the very near future you and I are. We're heading over to the Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast because Jason N. D want to talk about Last Action Hero versus Alien three and what went wrong. If if you've got any comments thoughts, uh, you know, we'd love to hear it. Please head over to www dot a film by podcast dot com, where you can find all of our stuff streaming on all of the platforms. Reach out to us on social media at a film by h We we love to love to interact with our listeners, be at Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Brad, I think that's going to about do it for us this time. All Right, we'll see you guys again. Sound saying ad, But as a child we all my down my finger suntime.