Patreon Sneak Preview - At Close Range

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Hello Patreon subscribers, and welcome back
to nineteen eighty six. It was a

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limited series on a film buy,
and it is currently enjoying its renaissance here

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on Patreon. As always, if
you like what you hear, just keep

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subscribing. I will say it's been
a while since he's joined me in nineteen

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eighty six. These days, he's
spending plenty of time in nineteen seventy nine

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as well as on the bridge of
the Enterprise. Welcome back, David.

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So this is what nineteen eighty six
looks like. I've kind of forgot.

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It's good. It's good to be
back. Yeah, this is this is

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the first time we've had you on
the Patreon the lost episodes of nineteen eighty

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six as we've been calling them.
Yeah, I'm happy to be here,

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man, I'm happy to have you
back. I'm feeling out that you missed

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out. Yeah, We've had some
We've had some fun ones, you know.

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I'm glad. I'm glad that you're
back, and cause, uh we

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I think we got a fun one
today, actually I think so. Listeners,

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crack open a Cult forty five and
join us as we talk about the

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crime drama at close range and is
there a big Brad? Who is he?

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He's my father, a man too
dangerous to get close to, a

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boy too dazzled to break away.
Sean Patt, He is Brad Whitewood Jr.

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Yeah, family, good Dad,
I love you? Is that what

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you want to hear? Sean Penn
Christopher walking like father, like Son,

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Like hell at Close Range featuring Madonna's
hit song Live to Tell. So,

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Dave, we always start off with
first impressions. M I know we were

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talking about this one you had.
This is the first time watched for you.

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It is you were you had some
some uh raw deal witchboard iron eagle

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type concerns, as I recall,
yeah, nothing maybe nothing made me happier

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than when I read this. Uh
this is this is a this is a

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great review for the movie At Close
Range. Well whole I'm quoting here,

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Well, holy shit, that was
a damn good film. David Burns are

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David Burns. That's a that's a
quote from Ardavid Burns. So we don't

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even have to worry about you struggling
with this one. Who enjoyed this one?

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Right? I did? Yeah?
I mean when you told me about

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it and I watched the trailer report, I'm like, I don't know if

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I'm gonna like this one at all, and then then I'm glad to be

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wrong. Jeff, I am glad
to be because this was a pleasant surprise

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of a film. I wasn't It
wasn't too many years past ninety eighty six

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when I first saw this one,
and it would have been on cable.

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My first impression, like when you
when you when I hear that, when

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I think of the title, the
first thing that pops in my mind.

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I have to imagine pops in the
minds of most people. Madonna's Live to

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Tell. Oh, Yeah, absolutely
one of the incredible songs. Aside from

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that, though, Christopher Walkin's mustache. You know, Christopher Walker always has

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that evil look to him. I
mean he can pull it off so well.

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Yeah, man, does he look
evil in this one? Good for

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anyone? You know, when we
think Christopher walking nowadays, we immediately think

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white hair sticking straight up, kind
of kind of ghostly. In this film,

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though, he's he's got this this
quintessential eighties villain mustache. He's kind

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of like a white trash kind of
a oh he's degenerate, look at her.

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Yeah, I mean Yeah, he's
he's definitely on the fringe. And

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yeah, this is a this is
walking like we've never seen it now.

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Yeah, I think even you know, yeah, I think this is this

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is less than ten years after Deer
Hunter. Yep. And that's like that's

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like the baby face Christopher walking,
like when his whole life was ahead of

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him. Here we got Christopher walking
where he's just a little bit uh,

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a little bit worn, a little
more haggard, a little more villainously better

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picked anybody you better to play that
role, I'll tell you that right now,

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which we'll get into a little bit
later too. Well, we'll get

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to it, but first, Dave, as you remember public service announcement,

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So got a fun one for you. And this this is obviously very close

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to the date that this that we're
dropping this episode on Patreon but on March

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twenty sixth. In nineteen eighty six, Madonna releases Live to Tell as the

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first single from her True Blue album. Song goes on to be her third

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number one hit on the Billboard Hot
one hundred and coincidentally, the music video

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was directed by James Foley, who
just so happened to direct this film.

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How about that for a public service
announcement. That is fantastic. Man,

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what a great connection to this movie. It's got Yeah, I'll tell you.

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I know some people know this as
the Sean Penn Madonna left the Tel

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movie and they're like, you know, I think I've seen it, but

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I'm not sure. Dave. Let's
grab the VHS tape, Let's flip it

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over. Would you please please read
the back of the box. I would

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be honored to read the back of
the box. Sean Penn an Academy Award

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winner Christopher Walken star as a deadly
father and son combination in At Close Range,

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a fierce film of spellbinding actions.
At Close Range is the true life

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story of one family's bizarre life of
crime. Young Brad Whitewood Junior has finally

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discovered why his father has been missing
for so long. As the head of

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a family operated national crime syndicate,
Brad Senior is a ruthless ringleader and his

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son's newfound idol. Brad Junior and
his brother Tommy form their own gang of

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hudlums to gain their father's respect and
become part of the family business. Instead

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of respect, Brad Senior fears he
is losing control of both the gang and

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his sons. He formulates a plan
to take them out of the picture permanently.

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That's one of these synopsis that you
read on the back of a VHS

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box and then you watch the movie
and you say, hey, that is

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exactly what I was I was expecting
exactly is this is crime drama? Dark

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crime drama? M like like,
I mean, there's so many great examples

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of it, but this one is
one of the better ones from the eighties,

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and it just it pains me.
It pains me, honestly that we

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didn't cover it in our initial run
for nineteen eighty six. I agree with

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that. I'm kind of sad that
we didn't, to be honest with you,

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Yeah, we would have had a
good we would had a good conversation

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or we're gonna have a good conversation
with about it today. But yeah,

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I just feel like this is one
we shouldn't have been asleep on. Yeah,

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honestly, And when you mentioned crime
drama too, it's kind of funny

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that this one takes place like out
in the country, you know, a

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farm land and stuff like that,
something you really don't think about when you

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think of a crime drama, right, No, Well, you know,

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I'm glad that you say that,
because crime drama in like a rural area

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and this movie takes place in Pittsburgh. I'm sorry, where's it at chester

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Chester? Swimmy Swammy Swammy, Samsonite
was off off like Chesterton, Sunton Bucket.

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Don't think I'll I'll just drop that. Chester County, Pennsylvania. What

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is it, Dave, Chester County, chester Chester. It's Chester County,

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Pennsylvania, right, Yep, that's
correct. You saying that though, reminds

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me like when I when I watched
this movie or when I well, when

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I did a rewatch of this movie, it gave me some real wisdom vibes.

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The Wisdom which also came out in
nineteen eighty six. I know,

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Jason Colvin and I covered that one
on Patreon. You know, you see

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Sean Penn and you see Mary Stuart
Masterson and I kind of get that.

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Emilius it is to mean more type
of feel to it. Yeah, I

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could see that. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh. This movie, the title

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card we open up with based on
a true story of nineteen seventy eight,

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and we got to immediately look at
the fact that it is in fact based

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on the actual crimes of a guy
named Bruce Johnston Senior. He's he's kind

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of heading up one of the largest
crime families in Chester, Pennsylvania during the

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sixties and seventies. And in the
end it was his son who did in

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fact testify against him, like we
see Champagne at the end of this movie.

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Yep. Can we I know,
we can't stay too long on this

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book. Can we talk about this? This just huge cast. Oh my

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gosh. Like when I was watching
this movie and I hadn't looked at IMDD

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or anything like that to look at
the cast. I was just watching the

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credits role at the beginning of thing, Oh my gosh, who's not in

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this exactly? You know, in
nineteen eighty six, this was this was

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two maybe three established actors and then
a bunch of people that we had never

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heard of. Right, But when
you watch it now and it's a it's

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on two b uh if you want
to catch it listeners. When you watch

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it now and you see these these
opening credits, you're like that guy and

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that guy and that girl and that
guy. You know, huge cast.

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Let's start with Sean and Chris Pinn
brothers. Yep, they're playing brothers in

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the movie. This is the only
I can't believe this, but this is

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the only time that they ever were
in a movie together, which that amazes

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me with the body. What a
miss what a missed opportunity. Yeah,

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I agree, I don't. I
don't even know how that happens, you

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know, I don't. I don't
know. And it's just if you've seen

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these people's careers and you go back
and see this kind of movie. And

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for me, since this was my
first time watching this, looking how baby

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face these people were, Oh gosh, yeahs could you? I mean,

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let's you talk baby face. Like
Chris Pinn, who we're used to seeing

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is like the larger, brooding,
playing cut guy. Here he is.

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He's young, he's lean, he's
got that long curly hair. Yep,

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and he looks so much like on
Pin in this. Yeah, it's it's

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incredible. I loved I loved what
they did on the screen though. Honestly,

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oh yeah, absolutely, I thought
they did an incredible John And you

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know, they're they are real brothers
in real life, so they didn't have

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to fake that. So when they're
on screen together, you can see the

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chemistry there because they truly are brothers. The chemistry is undeniable. Yeah,

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I love, I love every moment
they show on the screen. Honestly,

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someone who I have to admit I
did not enjoy on the screen every time.

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And it's just because the character is
a total scumback. Let's talk walking

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Christopher walking like you're never gonna see
him before, right, This guy is

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like the scum of the the of
the earth man. He is the dirt

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on the bottom of your boot.
Some of you definitely don't want to hang

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out with, that's for sure,
and some of you definitely want to be

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your father. And well, fortunately, you know, Brad Junior and Tommy

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find that is their father. Yeah. But here's here's the great thing about

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this movie, because I think it's
fair to say that this as much as

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it is a crime like a noir
crime type film, it's definitely a father

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son oh yeah, without a nout
relationship type type of film. You know,

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these these two they've never had a
relationship with their father. They don't

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know why they haven't, and then
he kind of comes back into their life

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and then they realize he's he is
deep into this this crime ring, you

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know, stealing things, and he's
in he's got he's got drugs running.

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He's running drugs, he's doing all
this other stuff, and they idolize him

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immediately, like their poor mother wants
you know, she what can she do?

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Right? I think she can't keep
she can't keep away from him,

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because so, yeah, they're they're
idolizing this guy. They want to hang

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out with this guy. They want
to they want to prove themselves to this

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guy, and he is the worst
kind of guy. But the amazing thing

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about this film and what James Foley
does, the director, I kind of

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feel up myself feeling like like like
the Penn Brothers, like, yeah,

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he's so cool, Like look at
these these muscle cars he's got, he

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hangs out, he looks cool.
I mean, he's he's obviously he's a

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bad he's a bad guy, right, he's he's got he gives up that

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bad boy vibe. But you're kind
of he's he's definitely it's almost spellbinding the

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way he the way he looks at
him and then talks, because he's not

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he doesn't act like the tough guy, right, he's very smooth, very

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persuasive, and he's gonna he's gonna
take the attention of his son immediately.

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No, matter who he is,
because you know, he gives him that

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car. You know, here,
here, take this car. He hands

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him money. You know, that's
why he shows up. You know,

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from the first time that we see
him, he heeds what like three hundred

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bucks or something. Yeah, He's
like, he's like, hey, your

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mom needs some money, Like how
about one hundred, two hundred, three

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hundred Yeah, like it's nothing.
Yeah, I know. Uh. This

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movie obviously does not have any bit
of a comedy to it as far as

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I could find. But I'll tell
you what. Some of these scenes,

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these early scenes when he kind of
shows up in the in that cool ass

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car and kind of motions him to
come along, and the mom is just

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and the grandma are just very disapproving. He definitely gave off like a Reese

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Bobby like taligate taligated nights like Gary
Gary Coleman's character. He's I was like,

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this is Reese Bobby. Yeah,
let's get the car. Let's let's

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go do some crime. Yeah,
he's reesed Bobby. Let's let's call it

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what it is. Dave. I
got to ask you, Christopher Walking is

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fantastic in this movie. I wouldn't
wouldn't change a thing, but I would

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ask you the role was initially offered
to both Jack Nicholson and Robert de Niro.

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Do you see this movie better with
either of those two or was this

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walking from from the get go?
This is walking from the get go?

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When when I read that those two
were up for it, after I saw

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this movie, I was like,
there's no. I mean, don't we

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get those two actors are incredible and
I know they would bring their a game

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in this performance as they always do
or as you know it's but Christopher Walkin

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just brings that Christopher Walkin. You
know that you just can't get around that

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that it's it's tough to beat that. So no, it is his role

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and his role only. I'll challenge
you this now. He was never in

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contention for the role, but the
only other person that I could see doing

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this role justice aside from Christopher Walkin