Quantum Recast: Your Favorite Films, Recast In Different Years
We are a time-traveling film podcast that journeys through time to take classic films, blockbusters and cult favorites, to recast them in different years!
Quantum Recast: Your Favorite Films, Recast In Different Years
The Rock: Completing the Almighty Nic Cage Trilogy
What if we recasted Michael Bay's 1996 classic "The Rock?"
Ash Hurry joins us once again to break down why this film stands as possibly Bay's greatest achievement and the culmination of Nicolas Cage's action movie trilogy.
• Exploring the James Bond theory: Sean Connery's character John Mason is actually an older James Bond who was captured and imprisoned
• Michael Bay's filmography and how "The Rock" represents his peak before the Transformers era
• The anti-villain brilliance of Ed Harris's General Hummel – threatening but ultimately unwilling to follow through
• Standout scenes including the shower room speech by Michael Biehn and the green smoke finale
• Chemistry between Cage and Connery creates the perfect action movie pairing, similar to other great duos in film history
• And of course, our fun recasting game, where we reimagine the film with modern actors (Nick), DC universe actors (Ash), and professional wrestlers (Cory).
Check out our social media for more content and to join the conversation about your favorite action movie duos and scenes from The Rock. Leave us a review if you enjoyed this deep dive into 90s action cinema!
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Tapbio
Hosts:
Cory Williams (@thelionfire)
Nick Growall (@nickgrowall)
Co-Hosts (Season 6):
Aly Dale (@alydale55)
Ash Hurry (@filmexplorationah)
Cass Elliott (@take5cass)
Terran Sherwood (@terransherwood)
Voice of the Time Machine:
Kristi Rothrock (@letzshake)
Editing by:
Nick Growall
Featured Music:
"Quantum Recast Theme" - Cory Williams
"Charmer" - Coat...
Welcome to another episode of Quantum Recast. It's me, corey and Nick and joining us from across the pond, ashery.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome. Hello, yeah, I can't believe I'm back. It's been a minute, so really happy to be back guys.
Speaker 3:Yes, he's busy.
Speaker 1:He's in the video movie tv world right now yeah, he's texting us canceling podcast recordings because he's on set very fancy.
Speaker 2:Very sorry, sorry, it's not as glamorous as uh is one thought it would be, but it's very, it's very rewarding at the end. But, yeah, very, very um time consuming, as I'm sure people know if they've done it before.
Speaker 3:Yes, for sure it is.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of sitting around no, it honestly is, but I honestly prefer doing podcasts and, honestly, we've tried to get this episode on the wraps for a while now and uh, it's my fault, I keep pushing it back but I can't do it. I'm too tired. But, um, I'm just glad that we're doing it now, because this is one of my favorite films, if not favorite michael bay film, for sure, absolutely.
Speaker 1:This is michael bay's favorite film he's done. Is this his favorite? Yeah, this is the top. This is the one he considers his favorite.
Speaker 3:And if you, if you clicked on it, you obviously know what we're talking about, but it's this is a big episode.
Speaker 1:It is, First of all, we're continuing down our weird action packed streak of like what are we coming off of?
Speaker 3:A decent proposal.
Speaker 1:Did we do two Bay movies back to back, or is this the second one in?
Speaker 3:a row. I think this might be the second one.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, so we're continuing the Bay hymn and we are doing the Rock. But that also closes out on this podcast. The Holy Trinity of Cage.
Speaker 3:We've finally done it. We're here.
Speaker 1:You've done Face Off and Con Air already. We've done Face Off twice. We have that's true, and we've done con air. So amazing yes, so we're. Nicholas cage won an oscar and then just spent the next three years making three of the best action movies of all time. So such a nicholas cage and snake eyes is in there and I think it's underrated okay, okay, oh yeah, that's very cool, yeah all right yes, the why of what.
Speaker 1:Why are we doing this one, the rock um, I don't know, I did ash pick it or did I pick it?
Speaker 3:ash did pick. Okay, ash picked it. I mean, it's been on his list for a while because it's a great movie oh yeah, I would say it's yeah, like we've established.
Speaker 2:I think it's probably his best film. I just think we caught nicholas cage at his precise moment where people start to discover the nicholas cage definition of his name, because it was at that moment we realized, wow, this guy is actually kind of fun to hang around with in a movie and as a character, and he started to explore his personalities which would soon emulate in all his other films. Uh, this nicholas cage ism, I guess. Um, I believe this is the first of the trilogy, right 1995. And then we get Con Air and Face Off. This is the first one, this is the one that kicks it off the whole. This is 96.
Speaker 1:Con Air might have been the same year.
Speaker 3:Con Air is 97. Okay, 97.
Speaker 1:And then Face Off is 97. So this would be the beginning. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:To answer your question, this is the start of something that we didn't know was going to exist the Holy Trinity and the start of the decline, I guess, of Michael Bay, which he peaked very early I think it was Bad Boy then the Rock and then Armageddon was a lot of fun, but I mean the Rock, and then you've got the chemistry of Sean Connery. I just don't think you've got that. I don't think you get that chemistry again. I think Rush again, I think rush hour might have got very close, but other than that, it's a once in a decade kind of chemistry these two actors having on. So I think that's why, and it works, it's absurd sometimes, but it works, and it's emotional, um, but I just think you've got two a-list actors side by side, at the right year, at the right time, directed by the right guy, um, and I think we've got the peak of pretty much all three of those people. Um, I don't know if you agree with that, I don't know maybe, but it's definitely one where I can just re-watch the film and love sean connery for who he is, love nicholas gage for who he is, and michael bay, of course, is doing his typical explosions one-liners, cheese, uh, brunettes with eyes, the usual things that you see in a michael bay, um, but yeah, I, I, I love this film. I loved it the second I saw it.
Speaker 2:I don't think I know many people who don't like this film. It's just. There's nothing not to like about it. It's very it's just. It's just a good. It's a good fun, it's fun. And um, also the establishment of hans zimmer as well. That's what continues from like the crimson tide era. We're starting to get musical scores that are starting to be a bit more heavy and a bit more electric, and that comes from crimson Tide and then into this and you kind of get those. You know that's the beginning of that as well. So the Rock does establish a lot of cool things that really come in later in action films, I think.
Speaker 3:For sure. I have a question Is this the last of Sean Connery, like the last good Sean Connery?
Speaker 2:I mean his last official film was the league of extraordinary gentlemen, before he retired and I I enjoyed it as well, but I just don't.
Speaker 3:I know it's not viewed as like a good movie by most people oh, I see, do you mean like critically acclaimed, or like? Do you mean success, I would I guess I could say like, while it's while league is enjoyable, it didn't do well in box office.
Speaker 2:It was kind of a bomb I mean there was entrapment with captain zeta jones. That was a good movie. Nothing, I think. Yeah. I mean I mean by yeah, using bias I'd say the rock is his best film out james bond franchise.
Speaker 1:Um he did a movie called the avengers like right after this one where he actually was, the villain, which is rare and it's watchable and the villain strong, I mean technically.
Speaker 2:He's sort of anti-hero here, isn't he? So yeah.
Speaker 3:So here's what you get after the rock, which is which the year before you have uh, first night, and then this year he does dragon heart and the rock follows it up with the avengers playing by heart. Entrapment with katherine zeta, jones finding forester the next year, and then 2003 is league of extraordinary gentlemen yeah, and now he has a voice role later on, but it's not anything, uh, that I've heard of before. Sir billy, he's a voice role and also executive producer, so yeah and I mean like he, he like.
Speaker 1:I mean there's a lot of mythos around sean connery, like there's the rumor that he turned down lord of the rings because he didn't get it and did league instead, and then obviously lord of the rings was what it was and league was not, and that they, like people, say like he pretty much said okay, obviously my time in hollywood is done yeah, like I don't get it anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's. And he did the same thing for the matrix as well. He turned down the, the role of morpheus in 1999 again, I think same reason, he didn't understand it. Um, but I wanted to ask you, like, as a Brit, um, and he's Scottish like, is he like, do you are you aware of, like his films outside of James Bond? Was he a success in Hollywood, would you say? Or would? Was the Rock one of those films, like all the untouchables, maybe the one he won the Oscar for? Like, was he known as an American Hollywood star, would you say?
Speaker 3:I would say so because even outside of the Bond movies in the 90s he still had a run. Even outside of this he had the uncredited cameo in Robin Hood, prince of Thieves, previous to that in the late Hunt for Red October in 90. Of course, indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He had Touchables in 87. Highlander, to some people is an enjoyable movie, but he has appearances in a lot of movies like the man who Would Be King Time Bandits, murder on the Orient Express some notable movies of his post-James Bond run.
Speaker 1:I guess you could say To me he's this dude that's got a really weird kind of like he's James Bond and then kind of does all these weird fantasy kind of movies for a minute. I don't know, I feel like growing up he was always a big deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I just feel like we knew him from Indiana Jones Our people, our age and stuff like that. It always just came off as he was a big deal. Yeah, like I just feel like he, we knew him from indiana jones, like our people, our age and stuff like that, and then like, so it always just came off as he was a big deal for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I mean, that's exactly the same here, like, to be honest, like our age group I guess, from people from 30 to 40. I mean I also knew him from, uh, last crusade um, who's this guy? And then my dad was, oh, that's, uh, james bond. Have you not seen dr? No, and all this. And then I revisited the 60s and I was like, oh okay, he's pretty suave, but the really funny thing about him, which I only found out when talking to girls, was that he was still attractive in the 90s, even as a 60s, 70s old man, which they make a kind of an ironic reference in the movie. When he's like, maybe I've lost my sex appeal, like, and it's a massive, a massive ironic thing, because he's still considered a sexy person even at his age, which is another thing he had going for him, apparently.
Speaker 3:A silver fox, if you will.
Speaker 2:I think he was the silver fox, like before. George Clooney made it kind of fashionable in the maybe naughty side, but yeah, as soon as he gets his hair cut on the balcony, when he's like his haircuts on the balcony, um, when he's like my structure here or Cecil the bill, I mean that that's a very sexy shot of him just spinning boots hair and every woman I speak to is like, wow, yeah, that is that's James Bond, right there in you know. And I don't know if that comes across as like wow, this man is suave, this is someone we like, someone who's actually still good looking at this age. Uh, which?
Speaker 1:is why I think this works for sure, sure, for sure. Well, that's because the Rock is the final James Bond movie for Sean Connery. I consider it canon.
Speaker 3:So tell us about the theory, corey, tell us about the theory.
Speaker 1:I think that he, like I'm, of the notion that James Bond's a codename. I don't mess with this Daniel Craig crap of trying to de-establish that James Bond's a codename. I'll say this I'll say Craig, canonically is the first James Bond and he becomes the codename, and that Sean Connery's version is arrested for trying to steal state secrets from the United States and is held without captive because he's such a valuable guy. His real name is John Mason. Codename James Bond. That's such a valuable guy. His real name is John Mason, right, codename James Bond. That's such a crazy theory, which is why he's so good at being a badass.
Speaker 2:So wait, you're saying that Sean Connery as John Mason in the Rock is actually James Bond.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is the 60s James Bond that's such.
Speaker 2:I mean the maths adds up. I guess he steals a microfilm in 1962, which is when the first Doctor no came out, I believe. Yes, I mean yeah, that's a conspiracy. Theories go, or theories go, like the Ferris Bueller one, or whatever ones, that's not a stretch at all?
Speaker 3:It's not. Let's compare the two. So you've got James Bond, who's a British MI6 secret agent. You've got John Mason, who's a former British SAS captain, allegedly working for British intelligence. Their personalities are kind of similar, where Bond's more suave and witty, cocky, mason's a little cynical, reclusive, which you can imagine, he's been in jail for a long time and without due process.
Speaker 3:Both are elite in combat, tactical thinking, escape, artistry, interrogation, intelligence. Uh bond has more resource access, obviously, but mason operates with like raw skill, improvisation and like because he doesn't have m or q or whoever to give him the tools and stuff he has.
Speaker 2:The us government, nicholas cage and his and then that coin that he gets from Womack or Paxton. But the thing I mean it does make sense. I mean the first thing he does ask is the feel of a good suit and that's like an iconic thing as James Bond is the suit. You have to wear the suit, the tux. I mean it was I swear it was in Pierce Brosnan contract that he couldn't wear a tuxedo in any other film when he was James Bond. So it's a big deal um the suit and he deliberately asks for that when he's making his negotiations. So I like that theory.
Speaker 1:I really do uh, james, that's how I watch the Rock well, I think that it plays into it.
Speaker 3:I think that it it clearly is building this movie in the story off of Sean Connery's time, as James Bond like, like, I don't think you casted him in that spot for nothing yeah, I mean, I think they probably don't.
Speaker 1:I mean, I I listen, that's just a theory that I like to subscribe to. But I'm sure michael bay kept telling him you're kind of james bondy, you're kind of like an old james bond, yeah you know, yeah, I was like, why not be james bond?
Speaker 2:but let's make it a bit ironic and change your name a little bit, but keep the character the same. I know I like it. I like that theory. I mean, the film doesn't actually go anywhere in terms of not addressing it, so I think that's a clever move and it's just like what have you and just we'll deal with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think if James or Sean Connery had his way, he'd still be playing James Bond.
Speaker 1:Yeah probably.
Speaker 3:I mean he's dead now. He's gone now. Rest in peace. But I mean they were making dual James Bond's movies, where him and his replacement were playing movies at the same time. His last one was Never Say Never Again in 83.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure though.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, roger Moore had come in, so he wasn't willing to give off the title yet.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he came back to do another one, like in the late 80s, I think, or something Early yeah 83.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, he'd already messed up with that character once, right, because the lands be. Did it in the middle of his run, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, it was like David Niven did it as a spoof. He did Casino Royale, which is the first book, and then they Broccoli did dr no, which was the first official James Bond of Sean Connery, and then it was Roger Moore, then it was this Australian cap, australian chap called Lazenby. I think Lazenby might have been before, but he just did one film and he actually everyone says the guy who can't remember the film but he's meant to be in the best James Bond film voted in one of the magazines and he only did one film. Oh, really, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, and he was a fashion model.
Speaker 3:That george lazenby, yeah he was in on on her majesty's secret service in 69.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was a good film, yeah, that's, that's what voted one of the best bond films, and it happened to be the one that lazenby was the bond and he was he's a good. The one that sean connery's not in, yeah. But then this is the thing though sean connery sort of he sort of established what it was to be suave, and it probably wasn't him. I'm sure many people were suave, like, I guess, the character of dracula or you know other people, but I mean it was more the cigarette and the way he talked and the womanizing kind of made it kind of cool and british and whatnot. Um, I mean, dr no is full of just uh, examples of his. It's more of his attitude rather than the story, and there's never really been a film that's more about the character's attitude than the actual storyline itself, which is why I think Bond is such a popular character, because it's all attitude based.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which on, mason has, I think as well. He has a certain attitude which is quite attractive yes, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 3:Corey, do you want me to give you the rundown of the Rock real quick, with some useless movie trivia and critical stats? Yeah, give me the critical stats. All right, we got some movie details for you guys. So the Rock it was released in 1996, a runtime of 136 minutes.
Speaker 3:Michael Bay, the director, as we know, of Bad Boys, armageddon, transformers, fame and Infamy. The writers David Weisberg, douglas S Cook, mark Rosner. Weisberg and Cook did Double Jeopardy in 99. Rosner did the Blue Bloods TV show. Don Simpson this was actually dedicated to him. He passed away before the movie was released and it's also a Jerry Bruckheimer production Cinematographer. John Swartzman, a Michael Bay staple. Seabiscuit, jurassic World and the Founder are some of his notable movies. This film's budget was $75 million. It made a total box office of $335.1 million worldwide. So it did pretty well, pretty well for itself. Critics stats We've got IMDb gave it a 7.4. Rotten Tomatoes got a critic rating of 68,. A fan rating of 85. Metacritic 58 from critics Users got 8.7. And on Letterboxd it sits at a 3.4 out of 5. What is your score for it, corey?
Speaker 1:What like on.
Speaker 3:Letterboxd, yeah, letterboxd.
Speaker 1:What's the top?
Speaker 3:Top is 5 out of 5.
Speaker 1:Like 4.5.
Speaker 3:Okay all right, All right Ash. What about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd agree with Corey. I'd probably put it in the four and a half bracket, for sure. I think it's a timeless action movie, for sure.
Speaker 3:Trying to see. I gave it three and a half so I was pretty critical of it.
Speaker 2:I don't know, it's a solid movie.
Speaker 3:I don't have a problem with it.
Speaker 2:I don't know. It's a solid movie.
Speaker 1:I don't have a problem with it.
Speaker 2:I have a question, Name one flaw. Yeah, I mean, look, Corey, I will ask Nick this question and you can gang up on him with me if you want.
Speaker 1:Would you say this is Michael Bay's best film. So yeah, it's going to for me. I have a trinity of Michael Bay movies and it's the Rock. Armageddon and Bad Boys 2. I think Bad Boys 2 is way better than Bad Boys 1.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Bad Boys 1, the car chase, the favelas.
Speaker 1:I just feel like that's Will Smith and Martin Lawrence having the most fun, but I would say it's probably up there. But I also have a massive affinity for Pain and Gain, which everyone forgets. Really, because there's not a lot of explosions, so right, it's explosions, but it's biceps. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, explosion of veins.
Speaker 1:An ambulance was really good. I don't know if you ever watched it. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:It was a lot of fun yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel like. I feel like Michael Bay is good at fun and I like fun movies, yeah. So I just hate that he took 10 years off to make Transformer movies. That pissed me off. I hate that.
Speaker 2:I completely agree with you and I'm getting that way about Denis Villeneuve. I'm like, are you completely committing yourself to Dune right now, because I'm just looking at, like Prisoners and Enemy and Ensemble D's and all these great arrivals you know, go back to making singular films. Don't commit yourself to a franchise, because it's honestly, I mean, yeah, some of them are good, I mean they're both great films, but you're sort of denying yourself the opportunity to make another arrival or another Prisoners, which I don't know if you like those films, but I love them and they're great films Michael Bay, exactly, I think, after transformers, one which you know was great it had the lincoln park ending.
Speaker 2:Megan fox, shia labeouf. You know it was great in 2008-9 whenever it came out, but yeah it's what?
Speaker 1:four or five movies after that as well. It's a bit heavy. You know um the movies that he's directed. This one has the highest rating on imdb, that's the rock. The only other movie that does better is a documentary that he just came out with this year the we are store, store. Yeah, it got a nine, wow, but it's a documentary. So of all the fictional or feature movies he's made, the. Rock is the highest rated.
Speaker 2:What about you, Nick? Is the Rock the best Bay film for you?
Speaker 3:I got a soft spot for Armageddon, I think. I think it takes the cake for me.
Speaker 1:Armageddon. I just want you to tell me the flaw of the rock that cost it one and a half stars. Yeah, nick, I don't know it's long. It is long, it's a minute.
Speaker 3:But show us Armageddon. But there's a lot going on. In Armageddon there's a bunch of characters, the world's at threat. This one you're like okay, it's Cage Edge Connery and we've had our fun. Let's wrap this up a little bit. Okay, a little leaner version of this. I would have probably gone four stars Maybe let me play devil's advocate.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you one floor of the rock that really like I. Only I watched it recently. You know that he's meant to be feeling the microfilms. That's why Mason's in prison, Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then Walmack and Paxton have this like chat about what Mason did, and then they're like this guy knows, or everything from the last half century is the alien at roswell. I'm like, wait a second, why hasn't he stopped him right there? I want to find out more about the aliens at roswell. Why not go into that? That's one thing I was like, oh why, why not ask a bit more about?
Speaker 1:roswell. I mean, that's just my alien knows this, or who? It's not walmart. Who's the other guy? Paxton knows his place, ash, I know.
Speaker 2:but if someone says to me this guy knows the truth about the aliens at Roswell, what, hello, what?
Speaker 3:truth. Yeah, I'm going like okay, tell me more. We can't just say that and then walk away.
Speaker 2:Exactly? How is that not the next question? Okay, so what happened at Roswell?
Speaker 1:First of all, he said just the truth For all we know. That just means he definitively knows nothing Like nothing happened. Nothing happened and that really hurts tourism in New Mexico and they don't want that out.
Speaker 3:True, they do live off of that in Roswell. I've been there recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been. They really milk that whole alien thing.
Speaker 3:It is. Mcdonald's is a spaceship. Their whole main street's got all kinds of stores and stuff. It's a big deal out there.
Speaker 2:You went to Roswell. Is there an actual place where it landed? Is there a site or something, or is it just this place?
Speaker 1:So there is an Air Force base outside of Roswell. So I went, like years ago with an ex-girlfriend and her grandparents own like a hunting ranch there and like, honestly, you can see it. Like her grandfather said, oh yeah, that's where they took the stuff from the crash and I was like, yes, I'm ready.
Speaker 3:Show me the goods.
Speaker 1:There is an air force base there that were that supposedly they took whatever landed there.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, okay, quick question, do you? But do you believe the alien landed at roswell or crashed?
Speaker 1:oh no, I. I went to the alien ufo museum there. That was totally just a weather balloon oh yeah, there's no way.
Speaker 2:That was just a weather balloon. Oh no, you've ruined the magic that's just my thing.
Speaker 1:I felt like there was nothing there to say anything other than a weather. Balloon crashed and then that city just said we're riding this out.
Speaker 3:Gotta ride this till the wheels. Roll off, baby. Oh man, You've crushed Asher's dreams.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry His American dreams. That's my perspective.
Speaker 2:No, no, I his american dreams. That's my perspective. So no, no, I mean no. I mean you've been, you guys have been, I've not. I'm planning, I want to go there at some point. But also, did you guys also notice that michael bay mentions jfk in both this film and in armageddon? So obviously the scene is like, oh, do you really want to know who killed jfk? Like the closing line of a movie this good and that was fine. And then in armageddon, you know when they're handing in their requests, like they don't want to pay taxes you wouldn't know who killed Kennedy.
Speaker 2:Yeah exactly, and that's like a back to back Bay film with the same question. That's quite interesting as well, michael.
Speaker 3:Bay really wants to make us think about if JFK was assassinated by the government yeah, that's like a big, that's a massive thing here.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Obviously it must be a big thing that you guys are near Texas where it happens.
Speaker 1:We go to the grassy knoll often because it's just in the middle of Dallas. No way.
Speaker 2:Honestly, that is insane. My password is literally 11-22-63 because I've read the Stephen King books. Not exactly a biography.
Speaker 3:Now everyone knows Ash's password, you just steal all of this stuff he's gonna log in after this drops and be like what's what's happened just just beat that out.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I have to like change everything my passcode um, so yeah, okay, all right, all right, um, but uh, no, uh, I know I love this movie. I think it's just. This movie from beginning to end is fun. I I do agree with nick it's a little long. I think the older I get, the more I do go. We did not need the 20 minute car chase through san francisco.
Speaker 3:It's a ton of fun, sure, but I don't know that we needed it in the movie no, no, it apparently was just michael bay was wanting to do it for, as a nod to bullet, the movie from 68. Yeah, and then connery, like he's rumored to have insisted on filming something in san francisco because he wanted to enjoy the city's golf courses during production connery's like so we're gonna film a car chase, that's gonna take six weeks. Yes, so I can golf well, how long is it perfect?
Speaker 2:that's a good point, because apparently they were all on alcatraz and he wanted to build a trailer on alcatraz and they refused, so he had to stay on a hotel and keep bringing him back and forth. Then, like well, can we just shoot a scene in San Fran to show that we're there, because all like the interior stuff wasn't in San Fran at all, which is why I read, so they weren't really in San Fran at or mainland San Fran for a lot, a lot of it. Which is why I think I actually enjoyed the car chase scene, because I think I think it was Catherine Bigelow. You know she did Point Break and they have that famous chase sequence that's meant to be like the best sequence of all. She was saying that the reason and I actually kind of agree with Corey, because someone asked me the question if you could take 10, 20 minutes out, what scene would it be?
Speaker 2:And it would be the car chase scene. No-transcript, clever, and you can. I think the geography of where the both, both the cars are are really well done. Um, but I also agree with cory that if there's a scene that you need to take out, that's the one. Yeah, I'm trying to think of another scene, but I can't, I think that, no, no, every other scene has to stay in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can all of them.
Speaker 3:You can literally cut from him escaping the hotel to him meeting up with his, yeah, his daughter.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, like in my and I'll say this about the car chase scene. I think it hurts nicholas cage's character a little bit, because it's like he kind of turns into a superhero. For about five minutes he does like. All of a sudden he turns into like God in 60 seconds, nicholas Cage for a good like three minutes and it's like oh, I'm really good at driving and it's kind of like you're supposed to be a nerdy biochemist that drives a Volvo. Why are you handling that Ferrari so well?
Speaker 3:How are you able to do this?
Speaker 2:That's the thing. Do you know, it wasn't even that, but you're 100. It's when he pushes that kid off the bike and he's like you just fucked up your ferrari, and then he's like it's not mine, and then he pushes the boy aggressively off the bike. I'm like that's kind of odd character. You're kind of a nerd. Why you wouldn't be that aggressive, you kind of. And so and I agree with cory, like yeah, he definitely goes for memphis rains on the, uh, the car chase scene and uh, yeah, the guy off the bike, and then does the detective work to find out where jade is all in like you know five minutes. I'm like, okay, is he really the lab technician that was listening to the beatles earlier, or have we just gone?
Speaker 1:yeah it just it's it, does it's it's, it's it. For a movie that's long, it doesn't actually serve that much of a purpose other than a giant set piece, and I think for every character and everything it just kind of weirdly like does it's almost crowbarred in, even like sean connery driving a hummer, like like it's like dude, he would have hit something immediately that those things are like eight feet wide. You know, those are like.
Speaker 1:They're just not maneuverable, it's not a car chase car and so it's just, it's kind of like it's a little all over the place, but can I ask another question?
Speaker 2:so that's the scene that you take out. So let me ask you the opposite question what is the best scene in the movie? What's the scene in the movie that sort of defines what the rock is about? What would you say that scene is?
Speaker 1:I'll just say there's two goosebumps scenes in this movie there's the shower room scene is b. It's michael bean's best performance in anything and I it. Just he delivers those lines with such conviction and you're just like hell yes, and it's so disturbing that they just immediately all get killed. You're like, oh man, I was in it.
Speaker 3:And then, uh, I do think the green smoke scene at the end is also just really powerful yeah, when he the final fight with the guy and with the last bit of the bomb, and then he stabs himself in the heart and then comes out and is waving the smoke and the guy's like we got green smoke, pull up pull up.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, I dropped it. Yeah, no, no, that last sequence, I think it's like on the poster or on the DVD of like Nicolas Cage is holding those two green flares right at the end. Um, yeah, no, definitely, definitely. I would try and find a scene with sean connery in it. But nicholas, because this is another debate as well, because nicholas cage is the main character, sean connery is sort of. Sean connery is actually the kind of eye candy, if anything.
Speaker 3:I don't know if am I right he's he's the lovable rogue of the movie, the jack sparrow, the han solo type, like he's. He's the guy who's a little too cool like to be the main character because like his growth uh isn't essentially tied to saving the world or anything like he does want to like do right and like get back with his daughter and stuff, but for him this is just one last uh joy ride outside of prison kind of thing. Yeah, I would say my favorite scene of his is the escape from the hotel room. That's just Connery at his pure essentialness, because the rest of it, the best parts of Connery for me in that, is all his one-liners he's just throwing at Cage, like the homecoming queen line or the prom queen, that's right.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's so good.
Speaker 2:No, I completely agree. I can. Oh my gosh, it's so really. No, I completely agree. I can't believe none of you said I I the scene where they first meet in the interrogation room, when he's trying to pretend to be in there and he's like it's a good one.
Speaker 2:I just, I just the opening scene or that, the scene where they first meet, where they're trying to suss each other out and he's completely got his number and nicholas cage is nervous as hell, which is exactly where, if you see that character, and then three hours later he's driving a porsche or ferrari right, you know it's interesting. But yeah, I kind of like, um, I was like he figures him out by, uh, translating what he's just said in greek or latin. Um, the whole moral aspect of him ripping off or the contract, it just it just says a lot to the audience between these two characters like that. Sean connery is indeed quoting all these people that were wrongfully put in prison, which gives you an idea of oh okay, maybe he's not such a bad guy, which I think you have that some way, cause you're kind of rooting for him even though you don't know you should be, and you also. This is the really cool thing as well. What winds us?
Speaker 3:are you sympath Hummel's character as well? I mean, is he actually a villain in this movie, would you say? I think for the most part, but he redeems himself in the sense of like who, ed Harris? Oh, he's an anti villain, yeah he believe he's Thanos.
Speaker 1:He believes wholeheartedly in what he's doing. Yeah, I would say. But I'd say he's even more of an anti villain than Thanos. Thanos wants to kill half the planet. This guy just wants he and like I think ed harris from the very beginning knows he's bluffing. Yeah, I think that's the biggest reason we can see him as, like this, really anti-villain. He feels backed into a corner. He feels he has to do something. But at no point do I ever think ed harris genuinely thinks he's going to kill someone. He is. He is bluffing with like eight deuce offsuit in poker.
Speaker 2:He is just like he's got nothing other than a slim chance that someone's gonna like hit the river yeah yeah no, and I was gonna ask as well, because obviously he makes no attempts to try and become the villain like he's gone this far. He steals the vx gas, he loses his own men. He doesn't want to kill. You know michael bean's character and he regrets it. Everyone that dies in the process is not due to him.
Speaker 2:It's due to mistakes that happen during the process of what he's doing sure, yeah, and I mean it's not go ahead, sorry no, no, I find it very interesting, like the opening scene is like his wife's grave it's he had to wait for her to die for him to do this. He couldn't do that with her alive. To see what he's about to do, I also think that's a very big tell on yeah, what is like where his moral compass lies for him to wait for his wife to do something like that?
Speaker 2:and he even calls it right at the end. He's like, look, we bluffed, they called missions over, um. He even says outright, he doesn't even try and hide it, um, yeah, he rock it out of, maybe peer pressure, but then he soon gets rid of it. So I find him a very interesting anti-villain, I would say, because there's, and you know, sean connery even says I mean it's basically read to the audience like I read his eyes and nicholas cage is like, oh well, I guess everything's just fine. But I think, as the audience we all know, you know, as cory said, that there's not one part of us who believes that he was going to go through with it, which is makes it for the movie yeah, he's very much a villain.
Speaker 3:who who has cause, and those are generally better villains. But he even has his limitations as a villain. He's not going to go down with the ship or his ego doesn't get in the way. He's very much different in the sense that it's like okay, they got me, I won. He's not going to just do it out of spite or something, and the problem is he just happened to hire all these crazy people around him and they're the ones that want to keep it going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, around him, and they're the ones that want to keep it going. Yeah, yeah, the mercenaries extremist. Yeah, candy man at his best yeah, definitely, but did you guys want go ahead? Did you think that was a weird role for tony todd coming off the like candy man in a few films in the early 90s, or was it a good role for him?
Speaker 3:I feel like that again.
Speaker 3:It's another role that they played off of expectation of, like you see tony todd and you think candy man or like I don't know final destination is it's not even out yet but like I think that they play off of that to an extent, like oh well, yeah, tony todd, of course he's gonna be one of the crazy guys. And then when he becomes basically the de facto one of two main villains, at the end it becomes like oh yeah, I definitely, he's definitely like in the right spot. I feel like yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Cause he hasn't been overcast at that point he hadn't been overcast as like a villain by any means. You know, you get a lot of actors that have that problem where it's and and like the work. When the work's good, the work's good. But like you, you run into the problem of just being typecast in in a bad way yeah, yeah, I feel like that.
Speaker 2:That's sort of what's happened with um the, the guy from gladiator digimon who soon? Oh yeah, because he recently did an interview. Just he's got two academy award nominations and the man still struggling to find work and every role he has to accept is because of money, are very stereotypical supporting roles and he's like I've got two academy award nominations. How has this happened? You know, like blood diamond, they thought okay, well, listen, after amstead, blood diamond, I thought working with big directors as well, like, surely you know?
Speaker 3:why you know he's done all the right things like he's. He's been in classic movies. He's played great roles in them and he's.
Speaker 2:He's a good actor. He's a very good actor. Like you believe him in everything he does and he's had to sort of resort to these like really supporting even, like you know, roles in like captain marvel, these like roles that, yes, in hyphenated stereotypical for him and yeah, and they don't. He's obviously got acting abilities that haven't been exploited. He's just and he's outright. He just said he's just getting paycheck to paycheck, he's just taking the money because he needs, he's working for a living, he's trying to support a family and I find that he's in the same category of me of like a sam rockwell, where it's like the second you see him in a movie, it's already improved the movie.
Speaker 3:I'm like, yes, he's in it, awesome. Yeah, I'm locked in. So I'm surprised that he has trouble getting movies because like, yeah, if I had a chance to cast him but yeah, cast him, they'd well, does it matter that he has this very strong accent and stuff? No, it doesn't, we'll work around that. It's Digimon Honsu. Yeah, and I think people have a. It feels like Hollywood movie producers have some issue with that, where they're like, well, he's, you know, it's hard to believe. It's like it's 2025.
Speaker 2:People immigrate. Like you can explain it in five seconds or less, like, yeah, it's just, it's just falling into a crack where he's just working for a living and the place he's working is hollywood, which is a very, you know, interesting dynamic to sort of like look at as a case study. Like sam rocker was very much, like you said, in danger of becoming that, but I think he started to become well known, more established. He was getting roles, got his oscar and, you know, love him Got his Oscar.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, yep, yeah, very sad.
Speaker 1:There's also something we have to discuss. I've already done my James Bond theory, but how about the theory that this is the same world as Armageddon? Because it's the same president.
Speaker 3:Ooh, didn't know that one.
Speaker 1:Yep, the same president in Armageddon and the Rock, and they both give monologues.
Speaker 2:That's right. The and they both give monologues. That's right. The big question, corey, is this after they saved the world from the asteroid, or before?
Speaker 1:I feel like it's got to be before. I feel like Hummel's not going to do this after something as chaotic as you know, trying to nuke. Yeah, set off the nuke on the asteroid the world just got saved and he's like all right, I'm going to hold San Francisco hostage just got saved and he's like all right, I'm gonna hold san francisco hostage. That's a little raw, yeah you know.
Speaker 3:So I think you know it's more, it makes more sense from a progression standpoint that it's like okay, this guy tried to fire on san francisco, he's definitely gonna fire on the, the rock and the pearling towards us.
Speaker 1:So I mean like it's. It's just. This is the like. This president just had a shit term. Yeah, as soon as this is resolved, some people come in and say Listen, we've spotted something in space. And he's like Are you serious? We just defeated Ed Harris. We just saved San Francisco.
Speaker 3:Well, now you've got the world, sir.
Speaker 1:Oh man. That president, he did not run for re-election.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:He's just like I'm out, I'm tired.
Speaker 3:I'm tired, he was done, he was done?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. But Nicolas Cage was sort of watching the news after relaxing with his JFK files in his hand, going oh, this is cool. Oh wait, the world's ending now. Might as well to the world now, or something. Can you imagine Mason coming out of prison after like 30 years? Oh, an asteroid hit Earth in 18 days. It's like great.
Speaker 3:He finally gets free. And then, yeah, it's like the asteroid shows up. He's like oh crap, of course this is the way it would go, so before we move forward, guys, do you want to hear any guesses what Roger Ebert's score for this movie is?
Speaker 1:I don't know, really disappointing.
Speaker 3:Give me a wild guess. Go on, Corey.
Speaker 1:The movie's fun, so I bet he gave it like two.
Speaker 2:Okay Ash, I'm being a bit more optimistic. I'm going to say three.
Speaker 3:He gave it a 3.5 out of four.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah.
Speaker 2:Roger, he gave something good, a good score. Yeah, he said that, the Rock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, roger, about time he gave something good, a good score, yeah, oh man he said that the Rock is a first-rate slam-bang action thriller.
Speaker 3:It's made out of pieces of other movies, yes, and not as much in it as really new, but each element has been lovingly polished to a gloss. So there's a little backhanded compliment in there, but he enjoyed the ride. It's in there, for sure.
Speaker 2:Because it's very much clearly a ride and it's kind of like what Corey said you are there to have fun and Armageddon is definitely the epitome of just having fun with the movie with a big, all-star cast. But the Rock you just can't not have fun when you have this on-screen chemistry. And I think the on-screen chemistry between Cage and Connery, much like Harrison Ford and Con connery in last crusade, carries the film and it doesn't even need to carry the film because there's so much else going on, because hummel does well, michael bean, in a short role, does well. Yeah, this bx serum gas, this, this green colored ball that causes this disgusting monologue from nicholas cage.
Speaker 2:I mean, there are there's scenes all over this place that you can sort of extrapolate and say this is an awesome scene, this is an awesome scene. The haircut scene is an awesome scene. The interrogation is an awesome scene and and in between it you have moments between nicholas cage and sean connery which I think are the the magic moments when them two are sharing the screen together. Um, but yeah, it's. It's just hard not to like. I mean, it's a, but it's almost a buddy, a buddy comedy, I could, I guess.
Speaker 3:I guess by definition, sure, yeah, I'd agree with that, corey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree.
Speaker 3:Cool. Any other final thoughts? Before we decide to do the thing that we do, I would ask one more question.
Speaker 2:We're about to recast these two, well, a few people in this movie. If this film, I mean in terms of chemistry between two men and I'm going to say two men, because there are two men in this movie sure can you think of any other film where there's chemistry that I mean outside of michael base and no bad boys here. Okay, can you think of a good chemistry like them two? Like because they're both opposites, and I think it works when they're just two completely different people. Can you think of like a film or a film where two actors just nail it, kill it. The chemistry just carries the movie besides this, like one that kind of tops the rock.
Speaker 3:Hmm, I mean you could probably put die hard with a vengeance up there with.
Speaker 2:Sam.
Speaker 3:Jackson and Bruce Willis.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of fun. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one, yeah, cause they are having fun, aren't they In?
Speaker 3:that film. You could argue that oceans 11, Brad Pitt and Clooney, if it's, if you're, but it's more of an ensemble and it is really just those two. It's like a stomach balance, Isn't it? Them too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But but another Clooney is from dusk till dawn.
Speaker 1:What about Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan?
Speaker 3:I mean, that's the one. I think that's the other one.
Speaker 2:That's probably it I would say that's the one to beat, wouldn't you? If I think classic duos, I mean that's got to be it, I mean it's magic. It's two completely different people, two cultures, two different worlds throughout two free movies. Yeah, I think that is the one to beat in terms of.
Speaker 1:I think it just it defines what it should be, that genre, yeah, I would also throw out Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black because that's a young and old dynamic as well. That's really good, you know, a real up-and-comer with a seasoned vet that just play off each other super well.
Speaker 3:I love that we need a buddy cop movie in the MCU.
Speaker 1:Is there not? One already Athow and Lennon's made a lot of movies together.
Speaker 3:Oh, like Grumpy, Old Men yeah.
Speaker 2:Is there a buddy cop one? I would say. The Winter Soldier and the Falcon are buddy comedy films.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, they try to be very serious. They try to be kind of serious with that one too. I think that's what pulls it a little away from its full potential. Honestly, the new Captain America movie probably should have been a buddy cop movie with him and Bucky.
Speaker 2:To be honest, I thought so as well, because they did the TV series and that was okay, but it wasn't too much of them to like. I think you know stark and captain america had the potential to do a buddy comedy, but they it's just going on in civil war that there wasn't enough time to just have to. They had a moment in the game, didn't they? When they went back in time yeah, yeah, there's, there's.
Speaker 3:There's been pairings, not not full movies built around yeah, yeah, true, true, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right there.
Speaker 3:I mean, we have any loki and thor, loki and hulk, or I mean I mean have Loki and Thor, loki and Thor, loki and Hulk. I mean Thor and Hulk.
Speaker 1:We haven't even mentioned the actual prototype of Gibson and Glover. That's true. It's literally the buddy cop. Blueprint.
Speaker 3:Or you go back to 48 Hours.
Speaker 1:But Gibson and Glover got way more movies out of theirs.
Speaker 2:I retract my statement. Okay, hold on. It's notucker and jackie chan. It is mel gibson and danny glover. I mean, I just love those films. They're just so good and just they are they're still trying to make one more, yeah yeah, I hope they do. Isn't the director then, richard donner?
Speaker 3:he passed, yeah, and he gave permission to gibson to direct the last one so he's doing the passion.
Speaker 2:Uh, sequel, isn't he at the moment?
Speaker 3:yeah, I guess he's doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the christ too yeah, the return of this. What's the sequel?
Speaker 3:I think it's about him, either when he gets back from his three days or it's about the three days okay, I watched this podcast with joe rogan and joe rogan asked him like, what is the story behind the sequel?
Speaker 2:when he goes well, I'm gonna try and tackle something that's never been before. He doesn't have to visualize it, and he's basically. He hinted, well, he didn't hit. He's confirmed it now that he's gonna show scenes in hell and heaven. Uh, because he needs to show why the people in hell are so attracted to people on earth, and he's trying to show that narrative in a film. And he wasn't sure how he was gonna do that, but he is gonna give it a go, apparently, so okay since hollywood won't make paradise lost, he's gonna make paradise lost.
Speaker 1:Man, I was really excited.
Speaker 3:I was really excited about paradise lost as a film. Like they, they're a little afraid to tackle all of the heaven and hell stuff. I feel like a little bit, and understandably so yeah, no, they should, they should definitely do it.
Speaker 3:I don't think I've seen a good film that really takes that seriously, honestly well, now we're in this age where a lot of like you know the biblical epics, the greek epics that we've seen in the past that featured the gods or god uh proper, like they, the, the uh, cgi. The effects weren't up to date to like, really, I felt like the clash of the titans movies did a decent job of portraying them, but the movies themselves just didn't hold up. So I I would be excited for like, like uh, nolan's uh odyssey I'm excited to see what how far he goes into it, but.
Speaker 3:But he's also grounded in reality, so I don't know how much we're going to get to see.
Speaker 2:So well, that's the thing I think it's just going to be. I don't think there's going to be much in terms of cv. I think it'll be an epic, but I don't think there'll be much special effects going on, sure I think it'd be like a journey, which I guess will be. Yeah, but yeah, gibson glover, yeah, I like that well, cory ash, are you ready?
Speaker 3:is it time?
Speaker 3:it's time man all right but yeah, for those of you that have never followed the show before, this is the part that we have our title off of. We recast things forwards, backwards, different casts and stuff. This year it's all about free will and dealing, so each of us have our own cast. We don't have a uh quote unquote director that's going to pick between two of our casts. We're just giving our visions for different versions of this movie. So, uh, I'm doing just the usual standard of a modern recasting of it, but you guys are doing something unique. Both of you are.
Speaker 1:Yes. What is Ash doing? I have no idea what Ash is doing.
Speaker 2:I am picking or recasting actors from the Rock that have appeared in a DC production.
Speaker 1:DC. Okay, that's a little bit harder than MCU. I was like, if you did MCU, you're just going to make whatever Nick makes.
Speaker 3:Just every popular actor ever of the modern era has showed up in one of those movies.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, I we're coming off. We're coming off WrestleMania weekend, that's true. So I'm doing all pro wrestlers.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:But I am. I'm not doing like all time. I am doing current or alive Like can play the part currently.
Speaker 2:That's so much more fun than mine. I could put Al Snow as Mason or something. Oh man, I'm looking forward to your list.
Speaker 1:Corey.
Speaker 2:I did not make my list.
Speaker 1:I am so sorry.
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to your list, Corey. Honestly, I can't wait.
Speaker 3:So, as we always do, we have some you know what we call the 30 seconds of our list are under the radar characters, and then we have like six, what we have quote unquote, main character types. But we'll just I believe we just agreed that we would just go up the list and each of us would present our characters and just keep going that way. Yes, so to keep it simple. So, if you're listening, just try to keep along with us. We'll try to keep reminding you what everybody's doing and we'll go from there. Corey, do you want to flip the imaginary three way coin to see who goes first?
Speaker 1:I should probably just I cast it more than y'all, ok, so I should probably just tidy up a little bit at the bottom, okay, okay, because I will say this I think a really fun thing about this movie is that not only does Ed Harris is this anti-villain, but he also manages to find a bunch of Marines to go along with them.
Speaker 1:True, you know and one of the best parts of this movie, though, is you have Marines that are on his side, that they're doing it for what they believe is an injustice, and then you actually have Marines that are like they are genuine psychopaths, right, and they want to be like evil.
Speaker 3:They, you know, like there's also a believable like reason for what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so like it, it is interesting, and so I do think a lot of like the really fun thing about this movie is there's weirdly a lot of well-known people playing these marines with. Like, yeah, like like, john c mcginley is one of the bad guys you know, everyone knows him from scrubs. Okay, um, he's literally one of the like bad guy marines you have. Bokeem woodbine is like one you know and like. So I mean, there's all these kind of like recognizable faces in the background of these movies. So I just wanted to make I just gave, I made a list of who I think should be background marines. Okay, that is going to be samoa joe, adam, page, swerve, strickland, jade, garfield, ray, ripley, kitty, omega. Those are. Those are just background through in rhea ripley.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he got us a nice badass female marine and jade car like okay, okay, they're massive, they're both massive they are, they are so but like, but you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Like you have like the one and Jade Cargill, they're massive, they're both massive, they are. But you have the one that's a sniper, you have the one that boxes Sean Connery. There's all these no-name Marines that get these weird moments in the movie, so I was just going to fill those out with some wrestlers Okay. I also casted the president.
Speaker 3:That is Ric Flair.
Speaker 1:Who else? Who else? Ric Flair is the president because he has to give a promo. Only thing he does in this movie is just give a promo all right, okay, no bumps. No bumps in this movie um, and then, uh, I did cast john c mcginley and bokeem woodbine's characters, just because they do have like kind of lines and things, um, and that is seth rollins and roman reigns okay, yeah, all right, and that's that's who those are.
Speaker 3:Who, what characters?
Speaker 1:uh, john c mcginley plays captain hendrix and uh, bokeem woodbine plays sergeant crisp. I have seth rollins, the sergeant crisp. Um, he's gonna get shot in the throat. Um, during the mexican standoff, of course. And uh, roman reigns will be set on fire during the uh, mine cart chase.
Speaker 3:Okay, so nice, nice, very nice, very nice. I like it, I like the shield down. Okay, some more to go maybe, so all right. Well, I met Captain Fry and Captain Darrow.
Speaker 1:Yes, is that where you're at now? That's where we started, I believe.
Speaker 3:Okay, Ash, are you on pace with us as well?
Speaker 2:I am now on pace.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I'm really looking forward to those Marines Excellent excellent, looking for, really afforded those, seeing those, uh, marines, excellent, sorry. So, uh, I'll give you the quick, the quick rundown for these characters. Uh, captain fry is played by gregory, spore leader. He's in twister, blackhawk down, true romance. And then you have, obviously, tony todd playing captain darrow of candy man. Final destination, the crow and hatchet in 2006, apparently, yes. So, uh, tony todd improvised several of his uh, more intense lines and, uh, and Gregory, he leaned into the manic energy for Fry, yes, staying in character between takes.
Speaker 1:These are two of the Marines that genuinely are not bluffing. They intend on fully killing.
Speaker 3:San Francisco if they don't get paid Right. Yes, they're the ones that turn fully. They do a double heel turn.
Speaker 1:They're, weirdly, the only genuine heels in the movie. It's true, it's these two guys. Yeah, I mean, some of the other Marines are also bad guys, but these are the two primary villains, because Ed Harris and David Morse are, like, not their anti-villain.
Speaker 3:Right. So yeah, for sure, for sure, ash, as the guest of the episode, I will have you go first with your cast list. And it's DC, only DC actors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I've actually I've made it harder for myself, so I've picked a year and I've gone for a theme. So I've done DC in the year 1994. Around, yeah, around that area 94?
Speaker 3:94, yeah, 94. So you're getting actors from that period of time, or they are like current DCU.
Speaker 2:Basically, I will be casting them as they look in 1994. Okay, I will be casting them as they look in 1994. Okay, okay, cool, go right ahead, okay. So basically, I have got for Fry good old, and this is staying with the themes of DC Scar himself. Jeremy Irons I've got, and if you look at a picture of him in 1994, I believe he was doing the voice of Scar at the time. Yes, he's a very young fit. I mean, you've seen Die hard with a vengeance.
Speaker 1:I mean he's so good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a great shape for um. I mean, if he was in 40s and I think he takes that role quite well as one of the marines, that sort of takes on the villainous role at the end and sees it through um and obviously the references is he plays alfred in the batman, which and snyder did which some hate and some love, which is so sure, sure, I think he was a standout from that for sure oh yeah, I mean, I think jeremy irons is one of those actors that can make a bad film quite good just by being in it, kind of like what you were saying about uh, um uh, sam rockwell.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so I've casted him as um fry. Did you want to go with your fry, cory, or should I just go through my list?
Speaker 1:you can give me your fry. I mean, give me both. I think we're doing them as a pair okay.
Speaker 2:So fry, I've got jeremy eyes and then, paired up with fry, I have got from cliffhanger, uh, or maybe, you know, from the walking dead, michael rooker, uh okay yeah, and I think just the way I think he plays. I don't think he was sort of typecast as a villain yet, because he played quite a good character in cliffhanger with sly yeah.
Speaker 3:He's. He's playing like the friend in a lot of movies like days of thunder and stuff, exactly.
Speaker 2:I think later on he becomes typecast as a villain, uh, kind of like how Liam after two are taken. So yeah, if um, and he's got that face, he's got that attitude, he's got that slur. So I think him paired up with Jeremy Irons, him and Michael Rooker same sort of height, same sort of antagonistic manners about them I think that would be a pretty cool pair to actors that can lurk in the background behind our Hummel and Morse, um or Baxter sorry, but yeah, I think they bring, and they're both filthy in DC movies.
Speaker 3:Michael Rooker will be in Mallrats the following year, in 95, or he will go heal. Ok, so that's the start of his 90s, 1994 DC cast.
Speaker 1:OK, so, Corey who do you have, for it's a modern wrestling cast? Yes, for Captain Darrow played tony todd.
Speaker 1:Um, you obviously need a like an imposing figure, because he's kind of like the biggest guy yeah like there he's kind of this muscle, um, also a little unhinged, and honestly I just need someone that can say I don't like that soft ass shit right before. We're talking about two of the most creative deaths with these two characters. Sure, like tony todd literally has a rocket shot at him which throws him out of window and he gets impaled on like a rebar. A lot of impaling, yes, um he goes out like a G and then crit or a fry, gets the, the VX gas put in his mouth and then punched and melts.
Speaker 1:Um, turns out VX gas is real, by the way. Oh, and the science is that pretty much what they say happens to you happens. They said it's pretty rough. Pretty much what they say happens to you happens, they said it's pretty rough. Wow. So I looked it up. They got this movie, got a lot of the science right by VX. They said it's not a gas, it's actually like a jelly form which they kind of show in this in the more gelatin, yeah.
Speaker 1:So for Darrow I have the Undertaker. Okay, so the Undertaker will be playing that character, because I think he just is large and imposing and he probably doesn't listen to Elton John.
Speaker 3:Is this like American Badass Taker? Oh?
Speaker 1:yeah, they're not going to be in their gear.
Speaker 3:They're acting, they're acting, yeah, yeah, yeah, just confirming. This is like if WWE made this movie.
Speaker 1:Okay, got it, got it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:He's not going to like. Sit up after being impaled in his hat, hailed in his, in his hat, now, um, he'll be, he'll be dead, um, and then fry. There's, it's dean ambrose. It's john moxley. Okay, okay, john moxley, the wiry, crazy guy that's just completely off his rocker he's just ready to like go nuts with it and so I have the whole shield in the the bad guys.
Speaker 3:Okay, nice, nice very cool very cool, all right for For my modern cast a little less fun. But for Gregory Sparger's Captain Fry character I'm giving you Jack O'Connell. You know him from the recent Sinners movie. He is the lead vampire. He does incredible in that movie by the way, I immediately was like, yeah, he can play unhinged and just ready to do whatever it takes kind of role. And then for Captain Darrow, I'm giving you Yaha Abdul-Maheen. He's in the Watchmen series. He's also Black Manta in Aquaman movies.
Speaker 1:He's in the modern Candyman.
Speaker 3:He's in Ambulance.
Speaker 1:Was that your go-to?
Speaker 3:That was not, but that works out he also plays Candyman, he's also Candyman Nick.
Speaker 1:And so, alright, I like that. That was a happy accident.
Speaker 3:It was, it was.
Speaker 2:Andy Mann, who's been in the Michael Bay film. I like it Very good, there we go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, another man, that's right. That's right, all right, we have up. Next I have Commander Anderson. Do you guys have an Anderson played by Michael Bean?
Speaker 1:Oh yes, absolutely all right. This character is the best character in this movie by far and he get. It's the best scene that I will not give that order scene. It's shot perfectly. He delivers the lines well. Apparently michael bean was really insecure filming because he was in navy seals with um, uh, what's his name? Uh, charlie sheen, the 80s movie? Yeah, navy seals, but that was a ridiculous 80s action movie that wasn't grounded in reality and in this movie.
Speaker 3:It's grounded in some reality and a lot of the Navy Seals are actual Navy Seals and he's like they're gonna make fun of me because I was in that goofy Navy Seals movie in the 80s, and so he nailed this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you need a good promo, nick. So I'm bringing you the best in the world on the mic. Oh shit, cm punk. Wow, okay, is gonna be my commander anderson. I love that. He's going excellent, excellent. He will not give that order. He cannot give that order you know that order exactly.
Speaker 3:Oh, if you don't know michael bean, uh, he is in such noble movies as the Terminator, aliens, the Abyss and Tombstone, tombstone. Yeah, johnny Ringo has a great 80s to 90s run and I feel like this is probably what caps it off a little bit A notable supporting act. End to the movie. Did he do anything else?
Speaker 2:Sorry, Michael Bean, did he do anything?
Speaker 1:He was in.
Speaker 3:Navy Seals with Charlie Sheen. That was in the 80s, correct? I'm not sure what he did. Let's ask the internet.
Speaker 2:He sort of disappeared, didn't he? He did.
Speaker 3:He went off the radar a little bit. I wonder what happened to old Michael Biehn. It's not spelt B-E-A-N, it's B-I-E-H-N, but it's said like that. He was in Greece. Did you know this? He was at Uncredited Rollins, greece, back in 1978. So after this he was 40 at the time of filming this movie. So after this, the only notable things that come up that I'm recognizing if you're a Nickelodeon kid Clockstoppers was a movie that came out it might be the Havoc movie that's known more for the more heel-turn version of Anne Hathaway. Just a lot of.
Speaker 3:Anne Hathaway's boobs. Yeah, he's in Grindhouse segments of Planet Tear and Thanksgiving and then beyond that it's nothing of no. Take me home tonight if you're an 80s fan.
Speaker 1:I think like I can't be honest, but I've heard enough Michael Bean on podcast that he does. He's kind of like a shoot interview where he will just trash everyone he's ever worked with oh wow and so I think he might have just got a bad rep okay yeah, that's probably what it is.
Speaker 1:Then, that's probably what it is so and I think he like had some missteps or some recastings that really hurt him, like um kind of when he was on top of things, like I think he got replaced in movies. You know, it's kind of like I've heard interviews that sound very close to like. Only I mean, he's a very cool guy and it seems like everything he says is like true, unlike cory feldman who's now going around saying like he was originally supposed to be in titanic and all this stuff and that johnny downer killed his career.
Speaker 1:He's just saying nonsense at this point okay, and so I don't think it's like that, but I do think he had some. He got removed from some movies, like by directors or something that didn't want to work with him and I think he just got real, you know whatever. I think that's what happened, okay, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, now we have a nice solid background on michael bean. Sorry, uh. No, you're good, you're good, uh, ash, who did you pick for commander anderson?
Speaker 2:yeah, I actually like these roles because you give, I guess, an actor who has some sort of gravitas, someone who's a name, a very small role and I bet when that actor reads the script it's like I've got this really big scene in the shower scene, yeah, um, but one scene with mason explained in the sort of procedure and that's it. So he's got like two or three big scenes, but that third scene, kind of like how Corey said, was one of his favorite scenes. You've got to nail it and that's his job. So I've picked someone who can deliver a good monologue or a good speech, even at this point of his career in 1994. So he lied about his age in Apocalypse. Now you haven't seen him as Morpheus yet, but Boys in the Hood, you could definitely get that authoritative figure. I think you just immediately know he's someone that you're going to follow and listen to, and for sure there's a big debate in, uh, my group of friends. We think he has a better voice than morgan freeman um, so that's an arguable.
Speaker 3:That's arguable.
Speaker 2:I would say it's pretty good, yeah, no, I just think. Yeah, morgan freeman has a lovely voice, but I mean, if you listen voice, but if someone gives him the opportunity to narrate a documentary or just narrate, it's a beautiful voice when he speaks, it's just gold.
Speaker 3:What's the scientist's name that has? He does all the discussions.
Speaker 1:Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Speaker 3:Lawrence Fishburne was on his channel and, like they were doing, they were talking about who had the deeper voice and I was like why is laurence fishburne voicing god more in movies?
Speaker 2:I know exactly, um. So, yeah, we have this debate where we think he has the. I think it's like the. You know, morgan freeman's the easier man to believe because he narrates a lot of films like shawshank, redemption and seven, and I think he continued. He played god um and he does documentaries on planet earth. But yeah, lawrence fishburne, I mean his voice, it does the same job. For me it's beautiful. But, um, yeah, I just think he's just sort of got lost in the wind and sort of overshadowed by morgan, you know, rightfully. So some could argue sure, sure, anyway, he's, he's who I'm picking for, commander addison.
Speaker 3:I think that i's a solid, especially early Lawrence Fishburne, like you said, boys in the Hood. He's still very much a young man but he's got a presence about him for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I don't think he will be screaming it like Michael Biehn. I think he'll bring something different to the monologue. I don't think he'll go. I will not give that order. I think it'll be more like a gritty. I will not give that order. Kind of a more.
Speaker 3:His voice will just carry on its own. There's no need for shouting for him.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, it's the tone of his voice that will just sort of get the message across. But yeah, that's who I've picked for Commander Anson.
Speaker 3:Excellent Guys. We're going back to the modern times and for this role I'm picking Ben Foster. All right, normally he'd probably be one of the crazy Marines, but I'm like good little face. Turn here for old Ben Foster. Yeah, our mascot Marv has attacked the stage. Oh no.
Speaker 1:Uncall for Marv.
Speaker 3:He's a cat. If you aren't aware, he's jumped all over the keyboards, luckily not the main one. That's important. He was like I have something to say, I got something better. That's he's like I got a better pick for you. He's, he's an idiot. Well, moving on to picks, next I have Jade Angelo, who's played by Claire for Leonie. This is the daughter of Sean Connery's character, john Mason. You might know her from mall rats a year from 94. She's also in Meet Joe Black, and those are probably the two main ones. I think people know her from Small but significant character.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beautiful lady.
Speaker 3:So I'll go first, since I haven't gone first yet and this could show my hand a little bit, but I'm giving you for a modern casting. I'm giving you Kiki Palmer.
Speaker 3:Okay, little bit, but I'm giving you, uh, for a modern casting, I'm giving you kiki palmer, okay, okay, I think you know, yeah, uh, she is most known probably for uh, akilah and the b and she's in nope, correct. And then she's in some other things, such as joyful noise, scream queens, the tv show um one of them days from this year. That was released earlier. But I think she'll do a great job just being, you know, the college student type. And then she's suddenly out of nowhere being like oh my dad, you just showed up out of nowhere. Great, why should I care? Kind of thing, corey, who do you got next for wrestling?
Speaker 1:I mean there's not a whole lot to say here, because this character is in the movie for about 25 seconds and we never see her again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just what's Paige's name now?
Speaker 1:Soraya, not a whole lot to say here, because this character's in the movie for about 25 seconds and we never see her again. What's Paige's name now? Soraya?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just picked her.
Speaker 1:Okay, soraya Paige I picked an irrelevant wrestler as far as I'm concerned because it's an irrelevant role.
Speaker 3:That's fair. She's a solid wrestler when she wants to.
Speaker 2:Very cool.
Speaker 3:Ash, who do you have for Jadeade the daughter?
Speaker 2:uh, I have a very early a-lister um in this role um, she does the flintstones that year, uh, with good old john goodman, uh, and then later does executive, one of my favorite action movies in two years time. So I'm going with hallie berry, sticking with the of dc and of course, 1994 a young, beautiful hallie berry, I think, is a a good pick for a very, very small role. Um gotcha gotcha so to clarify.
Speaker 3:Just just to clarify for audience listeners you're picking characters that are not just the dcu. These are characters that have played within dc in general. So exactly correct, yes, very, very cool, very cool, very cool, awesome. Yeah, I feel like we've covered DCU. These are characters that have played within DC in general.
Speaker 2:Exactly correct, yes, Very cool, very cool.
Speaker 3:We've covered what all needs to be said. It's a very small role and it's just meant to pull some heartstrings for the John Mason character, for sure. Alright, let's round out. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:You said she was big in Meet Joe Black.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Do you remember the bad guy in mission impossible 2? Yes, so them two are married in real life, which I really yeah, yeah, they've been and they're still married and they live in england and still, and that's why they uh, you don't probably see her as much as you think she's just happily married in england at the moment, I think, or maybe scott if that works for you, then by all means. Yeah, Dougray Scott, that's him.
Speaker 3:Dougray Scott. Yeah, he was supposed to be Wolverine. He was one of the finalists for Wolverine.
Speaker 2:He was the first pick for it as well. How that could have gone any differently that would have shifted lots of realities. Yeah, massively.
Speaker 3:Up next we have Ernest paxton, played by william forsyth. Uh, you might know him from raisin, arizona, out for justice the devil's rejects, and once upon a time in america, in 84, this is a no-nonsense fbi agent. Uh, he's one of the few government officials, though, that's willing to listen to good speed and mason's efforts inside alcatraz. So he's the kind of guy like uh, hear him out, hear him out a second. He represents the jaded guy like hear him out.
Speaker 1:Hear him out in a second. He represents the jaded FBI guy. He hasn't gotten his like. He's not into all like the. How corrupt everything is.
Speaker 3:He's still like. He's still the Boy Scout. That's still like everything.
Speaker 1:Hey, we do this because we love America.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, he hasn't realized that everyone else around him is just hiding all these horrible secrets.
Speaker 1:Yeah and saying oh, we actually do really terrible things.
Speaker 3:Okay, corey, do you want to go first?
Speaker 1:Yes, so I'm bringing you a guy who I still think believes America's better than it is. Cody Rhodes is my Ernest Paxton. He's just going to play straight man FBI agent.
Speaker 3:Believable Blonde hair or dark hair Cody Rhodes.
Speaker 1:We're going to have. The dyes are dark. I don't think the FBI allows bleach blonde.
Speaker 3:That's your problem, right?
Speaker 1:That's probably a dress code thing.
Speaker 3:Just the adrenaline's still in his soul, though, but he's still going to have a goofy-ass American flag skull tattoo on his neck. For some reason they're not going to get rid of that.
Speaker 1:No, it's like I've always been with one of the Brotherhood guys. Don't worry, that's my guy. I mean again, it's not a whole lot, you can say. William Fortescue is a really fun character actor. He plays a great villain in a 90s action movie called Firestorm but other than that you're playing the straight guy for sure.
Speaker 3:Ash, who from DC history do you have for us?
Speaker 2:I do. This is like stretching the dc history and the year, so it's more of a 2000 role, but the 1994 one works. I see this uh actor with a mustache, actually much like the actual character. I've got a sort of a just out of the academy but is very intelligent and has gone up the chains way quicker than he should um kind of character and he's sort of the actor that I would consider lovable. Uh, easily trust has played the villain before, um quite recently in a film I quite liked in 10 cloverfield lane. I believe he's playing fred flintstone in 1994 but, I can see a John Goodman kind of character.
Speaker 2:So John Goodman and he's sort of the Hollywood coaster. He's always relevant, he's always in films and everyone knows who he is and he's not particularly the main character in the last 20 years, but he has been and was known for TV shows, probably Fred Flintstone being the biggest one, but probably the supporting character of supporting actors who you can rely on. But I think he makes a very good sub-character here, especially in the early 90s. He's a big guy as well, so you have that unwarranted trust already on him. So yeah, John Goodman, I've always wanted more for John Goodman. I wanted to see him at the Academy because I feel like he needs more recognition than he's guessing.
Speaker 3:I know he's pushing.
Speaker 2:He's just one of those guys where I think I want to see you do more. I want to see you do more like something people, I just want people to see you more. You know what I mean. He's that guy.
Speaker 3:Well, he has a couple golden globes for Roseanne Barton Fink. And then I'm trying to see his screen actor, guild Uh, he was nominated. He won for Argo, but he's been nominated for the artist Trumbo, you don't know. Jack and Roseanne. I don't see any Oscar. That's very strange. You would think he would have at least gotten one.
Speaker 2:That's interesting he was in back-to-back oscar picture, oscar winning pictures, so I'll go in the artist. He was in both films. So he's like the, the hollywood coaster, like he's always there, but I just wanted someone in that role. You know where it's like. Well, okay, that's, you know, there's john goodman, you know, maybe he doesn't care about that.
Speaker 3:Maybe he just does his thing. He's not trying to get the oscar win, you know, yeah, I love actors like that. I like doesn't live in la doesn't you know?
Speaker 2:chase it, he's just content with making a living. He's established enough. He was already established in the 80s anyway. So yeah, but yeah, loved him, loved him crazy.
Speaker 3:Okay, we've taken care of the bottom half, now we're going to take care of the top six. Here we'll'll get through this. We're really wheeling and dealing. Now, ash, I'm going to have you go back to back for once. We'll do like a snake style draft thing that we do in the past. So our next character is Carla Pestalozzi. Perhaps Pestalozzi, maybe.
Speaker 1:I think in the movie they only ever call her Carla. Yeah, this only ever call her Carla.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this was an added thing into the script and some character building going on Literally just Nick Cage's pregnant girlfriend. Yes, played by Vanessa Marcel. This is probably her most notable film role. She's been in things like Stormwatch, the Nanny Express and Stranded in Paradise in 2014. But she is Nicolas Cage's character's fiance. She's initially unaware of the danger he's about to face, but remains a strong, you know, emotional anchor for him. Yeah, so, that being said, ash, who? Who's the one that keeps nicholas cage's character going in your dc? Uh?
Speaker 2:version of this movie in 1994 yeah, I've gone for one of my favorite actresses, unfortunately I I could probably cast her in every role, but I I think she suits this role perfectly. It's a very small role but she's relatively, I would say, actually unknown. I think she's very much known in the movie industry, but not as much as a established actress in audience eyes. So I'm going for someone who francis ford coppola said was his favorite actress. I'm going to go for a diane lane who is henry cavill's mother in the movies. You may know her from a film called Unfaithful. She was in a film called Jack with Robin Williams. I really love that film. Also, in Streets of Fire, yeah, no, but last season of House of Cards, that's right.
Speaker 2:A very, very good looking woman, yes, but yeah, 1994, I mean, she was a knockout. I think she was married to Josh Brolin, I think. Divorced now, uh, for a long time. But yeah, uh, I'll go for diane lane. I think she will definitely have that sort of error, for, you know, when she runs out of that fbi agent, it's like you just be a bureau bonehead then, and then has that emotional standpoint when they're about to bomb the island at the end. So, yeah, I think she's got the range, definitely to be a good actress. Another woman I'd like to see do more, but um, you know, there you go.
Speaker 1:That's hollywood for you cory wrestling I just wanted a lovable, I went with bailey. That's nice again it's a movie that doesn't do a lot for women no, there's only really two female characters in this movie yeah um, and even like the fun characters like the Alcatraz tour guide in the in the gay barber, are also men.
Speaker 1:It's literally. We just said there's only two women in this movie, and so this one she actually gets some meat though, and it's, it's, it's, it's. It's weird. They kind of give Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage the same stakes, which is like someone Nicholas Cages is more fleshed out. He invited her there because he thinks it's a training exercise and he tries to prevent her from getting there. But then she's there and now he has this stake and, like I have to pull this off. You know, because my pregnant girlfriend's there.
Speaker 3:Right, she does really well.
Speaker 1:So I thought Bailey would be fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Bailey's the lovable. You know, baby face good guy. She's played bad guys before but she's truly at her best when she's a lovable, good person it was between her sasha banks or whatever she's called okay, yeah, yeah, mercedes monet yeah well, uh, I'm gonna round this out with my modern casting and I'm going with someone who's kind of a hot commodity right now, but I you know there's again.
Speaker 3:There's limited options here for our female actresses of the time. I'm giving you margaret quali okay, the substance once upon a time in Hollywood Driveaway Dolls from last year or the year before. I think she's just solid. She can be kind of the vixen, she can be kind of the lovable lead of a movie. So I think she's just very well rounded and I think she'll just have fun with this role in whatever capacity she gets to have of screen time, for sure yeah, I like that alright, up next we have Director Womack.
Speaker 3:Director Womack played by John Spencer. You might know him from Presumed Innocent Copland. Are you noticing a theme? The Negotiator.
Speaker 1:West Wing, he likes cop stuff he likes detective FBI stuff. He's a procedural character actor. Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 3:Head of the FBI, womack, is a bureaucratic and basically just hates Mason. He's the one that keeps him under his thumb and wants to lock him right back up right after the mission's over. And it's fair, because Mason tries to throw him off the side of a building, which I also don't blame him for. Yeah, he's a lot of fun though he is, he's a lot of fun. I will pick. Corey. Did you go first? Ash went first. You're going to?
Speaker 1:go first.
Speaker 3:I'm going first, okay.
Speaker 1:So this is a character that's a lot of fun. It's mainly all about really over delivering your lines. Yes, really, just chewing up your lines for the last half century.
Speaker 3:You know, I mean he's, it's Paul Heyman man, paul Heyman can play it down and he can play it upman man Paul Heyman can play it down and he can play it up as well.
Speaker 1:Oh man, he's arguably the greatest manager in wrestling history. He is the greatest manager. He has surpassed that one guy. I forget what his name is. That was the other, you know.
Speaker 3:Like Hulk Hogan's guy. Yeah, the southern guy with every wrestling fans just disowned us. Yeah, you know, he's got the megaphone, he's got the mullet and the mustache and the sunglasses. He came out. Oh no, no, no, I'm not talking about Jimmy Hart. Are you talking about Gorilla Monsoon?
Speaker 1:No, now it's going to bug me, man. It's the one they put in a cage once and they're like a Dominic Mysterio?
Speaker 3:No, like in a bunny suit, oh what? No, it's an old.
Speaker 1:It's an old Heenan. Oh, ok, bobby Heenan. I think Paul Heyman is officially past Bobby Heenan, that's fair.
Speaker 3:So how many people has he now managed for that have gone on to become superstars?
Speaker 1:Too many.
Speaker 3:Too many, too many to count, wow, well, I will go next. Just to keep things rotating, I was tempted to do a female here, and it sense because, like you know, you hate Mason, you could play off the whole idea that you hate women.
Speaker 1:What are you trying to say?
Speaker 3:No, I'm playing off the idea that, like you know, she, she could be like a score.
Speaker 1:It would be a good gender bend.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to gamble, I'm going to gamble a little bit and I'm going to give you I like it. I think she can play steely, she can play like no nonsense and she may not be able to turn it up to the level that John Spencer does, but in a modern version I think it'll work better.
Speaker 3:Think of her in that Rock of Ages movie that perfect musical ruined by a lead actor, Don't remind me Corey Corey, we have to recast that oh my gosh. Ash have you ever seen Rock of Ages? Yeah, I didn't know, tom Cruise could sing Neither did we, but it was all ruined by whatever his name was. That was the lead actor, freaking Diego or whatever his name is.
Speaker 2:It wasn't. It had good bits in the movie, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3:Forever blacklisted on the podcast. If anybody else tries to cast him, I will immediately sabotage it.
Speaker 1:Get out of here.
Speaker 3:Diego Bonetta.
Speaker 1:Yeah, else tries to cast him, I will immediately sabotage it. No, get out of here. Diego Bonetta yeah, I'm sure he's a fine, lovable, great guy but, Manny should not have been in that movie, absolutely not.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. Ash now that we've gone off our tangent, who do you have for director Romack in the 94 DC cast?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so again, the 94 should probably go a bit higher, probably more 2006. Only 12 years out, I've got the year wrong here, but the actor that I would like to the gender bend is actually quite an interesting idea, which I thought was that. So that's quite cool. Catherine Zeta-Jones is yeah, definitely yeah, I do like that one. But yes, the actor I've gone for he was acting in 1994, but I think an older version would probably be better.
Speaker 2:Um it, uh, one of my favorite actors who is actually in a film, uh, that is never going to be seen by anyone, ever, because it's called the film that will never be seen and they put it in a time capsule, um, for the, for 100 years.
Speaker 2:So I think it's going to be released in 2189, um, and it's. I can't remember who directed it, but the actor who's in it is in john, is john malkovich and he's very good playing. I think he's actually better at playing good roles as well, because he's very much typecast as the antagonist and he's got that face, but he's very easy to hate. Um, and you know what you were saying last half century. He's very exaggerative and he's got that face, but he's very easy to hate and what you were saying last half century. He's very exaggerative and he's got that Pete Garsgaard voice as well, which does carry a lot of flair, that sort of southern drawl, which is really good. But yeah, I can relate to a Mason character hating a John Malkovich character and most stereotypical John Malkovich characters. You end up hating his character anyway, but you always have to admire his performance as well. So, yeah, john Malkovich.
Speaker 3:John Malkovich in man in the Air Mask face. Uh good guy. Role played Athos one of the musketeers. Yeah yeah, notable one for sure for sure he's also.
Speaker 2:He's also the good guy in um Changeling, which was um, which I really. I was like, wow, clint eastwood, who put him in in a line of fire where he plays a bad guy. Yeah, I'm in a good role. So clint eastwood used him in both roles and he was really good as a good. Good, uh, he's a detective actually nice yeah, so yeah go malkovich excellent.
Speaker 3:All right, that completes that round. So up next we have major tom baxter. Major Tom Baxter, major Tom Baxter, you've recognized him. David Morse is this character actor probably most notably three mile. Also Disturbia, hurt Locker and World War Z in 2013. Corey, he's 42 at this time. He shadowed real military personnel to prepare for the role, and him and Ed Harris previously worked on the abyss together in 89. For the role, and him and ed harris previously worked on the abyss together in 89. So hummel's jesus, loyal second in command to ed harris's villain or anti-villain. He initially supports the cause but questions the methods as things start to spiral, spiral out of control a bit. Um, I'll go first here. I guess I am going to give you a probably roughly around the same age of filming, but I'm giving you jesse plemons I like it.
Speaker 3:Oh, I think this seems like a good plenons role yeah, like starts off kind of like he looks like a villain, acts like a villain and then becomes, switches over with ed harris at the end as well. So that's that's who I got for the modern cast. Uh ash, who do you have for your dc cast?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I've gone for someone. Uh, honestly, we're gonna have to get rid of this 1994 thing, because I've just completely gone above that, okay you're a dc cast ash, yeah, dc cast.
Speaker 2:Uh, the the first three or four were very much on the nose of that. Um, I've gone for someone who's a bit on the nose with david morse and david morse, you know, he was in disturbia, green mile, the rock, um, world war z as well. Uh, briefly, yep, yep, yep, someone I kind of wish, because he had a good face and he had a good. You know, he's very tall man. I thought this is an actor I'd like to see in more things, kind of like john goodman, and unfortunately sort of just didn't get the roles. Kind of like the aaron eckhart agent thing I think happened with him as well.
Speaker 2:But someone who, who he reminds me of, is, um, someone who's just becoming, who's been around for a while but is getting quite big at the moment. He's actually on tour at the moment with the new thunderbolts movie and that, um, stranger things, david harbour. Um, and I think he's a bit too on the nose of david morse, who's always tall, kind of don't know where he stands, but he's got that good face kind of thing. Uh, stranger things, playing hopper. Uh, you know, he's got that very nice space where you just know he's okay, he's not a bad person, and I think David Morse has that, especially if you watch him in the Negotiator like he's meant to be. They're trying to swing you to believe he's the bad or the rat in this whole maze, but you just know he's doing his job. But yeah, david Morse, david Harbour sorry would be for sure.
Speaker 3:Excellent, excellent, corey WWE. Ae. Sorry, yeah, it would be. Yeah, for sure. Excellent, excellent cory wwe. Auw tna. Who's who's who you picking?
Speaker 1:john cena, john cena, yeah, that's right, john cena's playing second in command, to my humble, wow, but I think I think that's what john cena should play in this movie. That's fair, he's.
Speaker 3:He's gonna be the tweener okay, I originally had randy orton okay, yeah, that makes sense, but I wanted cena.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay I wanted cena cena can do it.
Speaker 3:It's reminiscent of his role in bumblebee it's.
Speaker 1:It's just also cena's face can be very stoic and david morse has a stoic face?
Speaker 3:yeah for sure, excellent, excellent. We're at the top three, gentlemen, and we're going to start with the villain or anti-villain, depending on your stance uh, general hummel, played by the legendary ed harris ed harris absolutely legendary uh known for things such as the abyss, apollo 13, beautiful mind, the westworld tv series as the man in the black hat. Uh also recently in uh what's the movie with kristen stewart that we just watched last year, the great pulpy uh muscle muscle girl.
Speaker 1:That movie was awesome and I can't remember what it's called.
Speaker 3:My brain just shut down, oh man.
Speaker 1:Love lies bleeding.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you. We had two lesbian love stories that were great in the last year, so that was the other one.
Speaker 1:I love that movie. That was way better than I thought it would be Ed Harris.
Speaker 3:Yes, his character in this is General hummel, as we've talked about this highly decorated but disillusioned us marine general. He's leading this rogue group to kind of hold san francisco hostage, just uh, they're demanding justice for his fallen men and, like we said, despite the drastic actions, at the end he kind of blinks and decides like I'm not doing this and kind of gets some redemption. So who went first last? Did you go first last? I went last last.
Speaker 1:Okay, you go first this time okay, so john cena is playing second two. It had it's duane johnson. Oh my gosh, you're right. Okay, it's duane johnson it being a good villain, because he's done, he's been a great baby face and a great villain in wrestling that.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:And I think it's just going to be nice, john Cena backing Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne Johnson, even though he's more powerfully imposing, he is not a bad actor. He delivers lines, yeah, and you're going to believe that he's capable of murder. But you're going to believe it when he doesn't.
Speaker 3:It's very much the rock to be like I'm going to be a villain, but you're going to believe it when he doesn't. It's very much the rock to be like I'm going to be a villain, but at the end I'm a good guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also that, also, that, also that I will never go full heel ever again in my life. I'm going to sign onto a DC movie, that for a villain, but I demand to be the hero, so it's, it's, it's, it's on brand.
Speaker 3:I, I love it, it's good, I like that. Meta on point. Just like we need in a quantum recast. Sometimes I will go last on this one, ash. Who do you have for General Hummel?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wanted someone where you can figure out if he's good or bad. I think Ed Harris is actually one of those characters who always plays quite a loud character, but he's always on the good side of the narrative, kind of like Apollo 13. He's a very authoritative, shouty person well not actually that shout, but the abyss.
Speaker 2:He's quite an aggressive guy as well. He's the main character, sure? Uh, history of violence, um, anyway, but yes, the person I've gone for, I you know I had a look at morgan freeman, but I just don't think people would believe morgan freeman is bad and people just know, do it. But I would. I do think he could do that role. I think he has playing a few like corrupt people, but I don't think he has. I've been as a film called the contract with john cusack, but he plays a fugitive and it's just very hard to believe, uh, morgan freeman. So the person I've gone for instead, um, obviously morgan freeman in dc, but I've gone for someone else in dc, um, in the same film as a morgan freeman dc movie, and that is a liam neeson who would change his career in 2008 from taken plays raz al-dul.
Speaker 2:Uh, spoiler alert for batman begins um, it's not ken wannabe and yeah I feel like he is a actor who is got this dual persona where you don't know if his compass is pointing north or south, and could very easily flick halfway through, kind of like Batman Begins in a way. He does kind of play an anti-hero in that movie as well.
Speaker 3:He has a cause and a belief, but he's an extremist.
Speaker 2:It's sort of that role in Batman Begins in the Rock is a bit transferable. Imagine that, so, imagine that. So that's who I'm going for Liam Neeson.
Speaker 3:Very nice, very nice. Well, I'm going to round this out, because I also weirdly picked another Batman villain from the same trilogy for my pick. I picked Tom Hardy to play General Hummel. I think you're going to have a charismatic villain, but it's going to be hardy, so he's going to find some way to make it a little unique, a little twist in there, but then, yeah, he'll be the one that's like nah, we lost, we can't make this call anymore.
Speaker 1:We got to move on no. I like it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like that one. Excellent, all right. Top two John Mason first, since he's not the lead, but he's Sean Connery for sure. We've spoken about him already. If you don't know him by now, just Google it. If you haven't been listening, it's okay, we understand. The TV was on. You were watching something, sean Connery. He's playing James Bond, basically in the movie. I'll go first this time. I'm going to bring you one of Corey's favorites. I'll go first this time. I'm going to bring you one of Corey's favorites, a man from England himself, I believe Idris Elba. That's right For John Mason.
Speaker 3:I'll take it, it's all right there, he should be a Bond. He should have been a Bond. He could still be a Bond. Come on man.
Speaker 1:Pull the trigger.
Speaker 2:Just do it already, I know, Come on, amazon.
Speaker 3:He's aging a bit now, which is fine. We'll play into that a little bit. We can age him up even a little bit if we want to, and I think he's just going to have real fun chemistry, the same way Connery would with our lead, incredible For sure. All right, ash, you'll go next, so give us your DC, john Mason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have gone for a actor who has one of my favorites uh, if I'm a favorite actor of all time notoriously played Lex Luthor in a Superman movie. Uh, I'm going for not, not Jesse Eisenberg, not Kevin Spacey, but good old and the late, unfortunate Gene Hackman. Uh, I'd go for Hummel and this would this would be in 1994, kind of Kind of imagine the character in Crimson Tide, okay, the role of Mason, and he obviously lived to a very healthy age of 90. He was pretty much very independent, but he was very well-apped in his 60s and 70s, much like Sean Connery, and I could see he's got the oppression, the fighting not so much, but there's not much fighting or like combat in the movie that he has to do.
Speaker 2:He gets punched a few times but he just you know two or three moves or equipment to help him, but he is playing an old person so he can't play on that. So I think that's something believably that gene hackman can portray and he's not scottish but he's got a very. He's one of the best actors I know who's got, um, you know a very believable voice, uh, but yeah gene hackman for me, yeah, you could.
Speaker 3:I mean, you could play that many different ways and I think I like to see either uh, replacements, era gene hackman, or even before that, uh, what is the clint eastwood? He won the oscar for unforgiven, unforgiven gene hackman for sure that would be a good one. Yeah for sure about 1991 ish yeah, yeah, who you got for your john mason ed harris and sean connery share only one scene really that isn't involving gunfighting.
Speaker 1:That's when Ed Harris threatens to kill a hostage for the microchips. The guy I want, walking out of the fog, coming towards Dwayne Johnson pointing a gun at some dude's head. You can have the glass break if you want.
Speaker 3:Stone cold.
Speaker 1:Steve Austin. Give me a hell. Yeah, it's not an Irish guy. Instead we have a redneck accent. All right, okay, all right so that's uh.
Speaker 3:We're gonna rewrite a little bit, yeah, just a little bit of real yeah, I'm not expecting sean connery put on a on a scottish accent okay so, but we're getting old stone cold, steve austin, so that works yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2:Older yeah, with you know older duane johnson there, so that's yeah right, the whole uh the barber scene on the rooftop, though wouldn't you in there, the whole barber scene on the rooftop, though, wouldn't you?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you would.
Speaker 3:We'd have to have a wig on him at the beginning and then we'll shave him off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:My instructor here. That changes the dynamic of the movie. So much A little, but yeah, it's fun. We're having fun, guys, listen I didn't.
Speaker 1:The only other, roddy Rod piper, doesn't even have an accent, that's true, and he's the kill your best your best bet is uh crap, what's his name drew mcintyre and he's like 30 years old.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's in his 30s, but you could go for it. I can't remember his name right now. He he was in aw he says war games now. He was the nxt manager like general manager I don't't remember his name. They're going to William Regal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:William Regal. He's the only British wrestler that I can think of. That would be prominent enough.
Speaker 1:No, no, but he's been Steve Austin. Ok, all right.
Speaker 3:All right, fair, fair, fair enough.
Speaker 1:I do think about these. People haven't interact like us. I want Dwayne Johnson yelling at CM Punk to give the order and CM Punk refusing to give the order to Dwayne Johnson. And then this scene. It's the greatest feud of all time.
Speaker 3:It's just going to work. I see it. I see the vision. I see the vision. Thank you, I appreciate that. Well, corey, I'm going to make you go back to back on your last round. So who is Stone Cold Steve Austin going to be buddy copying this with?
Speaker 1:And I have no idea if they have any chemistry at all. I can only think of like one youngish actor that I think would just play a lead in anything, and that's MJF. Okay, I don't know if he can play a biochemist, but I do think he just. He's pure Mike skills.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and therefore it's just line delivery At this point.
Speaker 1:It's just saying Zeus's butthole with a lot of conviction in, you know, in that.
Speaker 3:And that's fun. Yeah, you get, it's hard to find like a nerdy wrestler like you'd have to go like like maybe, uh, sammy zane or something like that yeah, I just, I don't know, I just went with jf it just seemed like, and I think he would have chemistry with steve austin. Yeah, maybe but at least they'd be. He steve austin would be annoyed by him the entire time, and that's really half of the battle. And when the prom queen line comes around, mjf's going to say she was the prom queen.
Speaker 1:And he's going to bring the sass right back.
Speaker 3:The entire movie. You're going to wait for Steve Austin to kill MJF.
Speaker 1:So you know that, tarantino has writing credits.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's no way he didn't write the F, the prom queen line.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%, 100%. Alsoaron sorkin also had uncredited rising in this movie. That's right yeah that's right that's probably really the humble stuff.
Speaker 3:That's probably him.
Speaker 1:You have the I will not give that order really dramatic stuff, and then you have winners go home and f the problem, which tarantino did the same thing in crimson tide. He has writing credits in crimson.
Speaker 2:Tide.
Speaker 1:It's.
Speaker 2:Gene.
Speaker 1:Hackman delivering great lines, and then you have Viggo Morrison saying you don't put a condom on unless you're ready to F. So there's Tarantino's line in the movie.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's a lot of Tarantino in Crimson Tide. I think there's a lot.
Speaker 3:It's good stuff.
Speaker 2:Ash I. There's a lot. I need to rewatch that Ash.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna give you the honor of the last pick. So for my modern cast I'm going a little crazy. But keep in mind I'm trying to go with the scientist. I want that dynamic going on a little bit, but I wanted somebody that's a little, that can play a little off kilter too, if we need him to. I'm giving you, for one of the few times we've cast him in this show, daniel Radcliffe. I kind of love it for one of the few times we've cast him in this show, daniel Radcliffe.
Speaker 1:I kind of love it Wait why?
Speaker 2:Because not?
Speaker 1:only are we getting the nerd, we're also getting the guy that's secretly ripped when he takes his shirt off. Like Nicolas Cage in the 90s, you're like oh dang.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're kind of buff what happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I like it. There's no one for one for Nicolas Cage. Maybe Ash has one in his pocket that he's about to throw at us. That's why he's Cage, that's why he's adaptable, he's blendable, moldable.
Speaker 2:Daniel Radcliffe is a very good actor, I would say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe it was the Weird Al movie that sold it to me. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Guns Akimbo, he's into it.
Speaker 3:The Harry Potter know, but he can guns akimbo when he commits. Yeah, he's into it. The harry potter um ash. Before you give your final pick of the show, I'm gonna give a real quick thing. Cage insisted on adding quirky character traits to godspeed, such as his love for the beatles and his refusal to swear, which I noticed in this rewatch. He performed several of his own stunts, including the car chase through san francisco. So cage was like you're not gonna let me not drive through San Francisco in this car. So fun times, fun times.
Speaker 1:He also fought for the Zeus's butthole line did he really can you imagine having to go to director? Be like my character would say that and like in the director, being like no, that's ridiculous. That was a weird ad lib. Don't do it.
Speaker 2:He's like if you take this out, I'll walk yeah, yeah, I thought that would have been a Tarantino ad or something.
Speaker 1:No, apparently a lot of Nick Cage's stuff was ad-libbed, apparently like this movie was not supposed to be as humorous as it is. But, it's just they kept coming.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm glad it did. That works out really well. It worked very well, Ash, for your DC cast list. Who is topping this list in the role of Stanley Goodspeed?
Speaker 2:I think I've got a good pick. You're right, nicolas Cage, you can't replace him, but you can give it a damn good go, so let's get nuts. I'm going to pick a Batman. Batman in the main role. I really think he could do this role honestly and I'm sticking with the 1994 that I've completely obliterated in the last seven picks. Really think he could do this role honestly and I'm sticking with the 1994 that I've completely obliterated in the last seven picks, but this one I'm sticking. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to. I'm going with michael keaton.
Speaker 2:Michael keaton, that side of him where he literally does for sure go nuts, um, I mean beetlejuice, clearly being like the, the big example. But if you, if you watch him in one of those rom-coms like Duplicity or one of those Jack Frost, you see the hint of that crazy. He could have played the.
Speaker 3:Joker.
Speaker 2:He could have played the Joker as well, as Batman as well. For me he's so diverse in terms of what Batman can do. I think he never got the opportunity in the 90s to really explore it. It was sort of that dull period of his. But yeah, I think, if you put him in that role, I think he could definitely give it a good bash for just going a bit crazy, going nuts and having those ad libs now and again.
Speaker 2:But yeah, beetlejuice is definitely the I guess case study that he could audition. He could probably pull this off. I'm not saying he has to go crazy with it, but he could be. He could easily, easily, um, convince audiences that he's a nerd, a geek, uh, he's frail, and then all of a sudden he can just sort of turn that screw kind of like when he shoots that guy and then mason's like I'm rather glad you didn't hurt her too long, that that kind of, and his eyes are just fired up with zoomies. But yeah, I think, yeah, I think he could definitely do. He could probably replicate what nicholas cage did in a pretty convincing way I think.
Speaker 3:Oh for sure people forget that this is. He was a comedian to start with. That was the whole thing about his casting of batman was. Everybody was up in arms going why did you cast, mr mom? Why did you cast? And probably because he played beetlejuice.
Speaker 1:He didn't want to play the Joker, I imagine huh, yeah, I would imagine, um, wow, okay, I like it. I like it. He's been around a lot of dead bodies it's that normal. What's the foot thing? Yeah, um, nick, I gotta be honest with you. When you said you're doing a modern cast, I thought I had you pegged. I did not envision Radcliffe and Elba. Listen, and I don't, I mean, they're both English yeah, so I mean Tom Hardy's English too. Yeah, maybe now yeah, I really thought you were gonna repackage Gosling and crow.
Speaker 3:I know you're a big nice guys would have been nice actually. I take back what I did.
Speaker 1:I was like I was like it's working to get to a Gosling-Crow reunion here, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because Gosling has the zaniness.
Speaker 1:He can do it. It's a little weird. I would have you know who I would do, just because Jake Gyllenhaal is my favorite modern-day actor. Now, for some reason, I would pair him with Keanu Reeves as Mason.
Speaker 3:He's high energy and low energy and it would just work.
Speaker 2:Wait, who would be playing Mason? Huh, who would be playing Mason? Keanu or Jake Keanu would be amazing. Old man.
Speaker 1:Keanu and young.
Speaker 3:Gyllenhaal.
Speaker 1:Is this high energy, like almost ADHD, and then like a dude that just constantly seems like he's meditating?
Speaker 3:Yeah, or just gets really annoyed.
Speaker 1:I think Keanu delivers the American equivalent of Sean Connery. It's just like. You must never hesitate.
Speaker 3:It's just going on a trip with John Wick, basically as he crosses my TV screen.
Speaker 1:Just make this the John Wick, james Bond, it's just. This is what happens to John Wick he gets arrested.
Speaker 3:There it is. We've modernized it. We've done it, guys. Done Hollywood has given us a million dollars for this idea. I love it.
Speaker 2:One car chasing yes.
Speaker 3:That's it, Corey.
Speaker 1:That's the rock. That's the rock scene in DC 94 sort of Modern and wrestling. We had a little fun. We got the Rock as seen in DC 94, sort of modern and wrestling.
Speaker 3:We had a little fun, we got a little real with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 3:Ash is completely tired right now. It's probably like 3 in the morning. There it's 2 44. Yeah, pretty much close. We got him in bed before 3.
Speaker 1:I'm just realizing I didn't put a Batista in my, you did not. I didn't put the best wrestling actor, the best actor.
Speaker 3:Because you were thinking of wrestlers. It's kind of, yeah, he's actually transcended this so much.
Speaker 1:We don't think of him as a wrestler.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, that's the thing Such a good actor.
Speaker 2:Alright cool.
Speaker 1:Well, that's it. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Um um, I think we're out of bay him for a while, though I think we're gonna take a break for michael bay I think our fans will appreciate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, but if you've never seen the rock. I cannot stress how fun this movie is, um, and you should watch it. It's, it's. It's. It's not pete cage, because face off happens a year later, but it's on the the way to Pete Cage, and so, but yes, and again, if you have time for a triple feature, it's this, it's Con Air, it's face off. Treat yourself. It's a great day, it's an amazing day. But follow us on social media. Tell us what you think of these casts. Give us your own cast. Someone, give me a Muppet cast. I wanted to do it, but I I didn't hesitated he, he hit, he was, he withheld.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you right now, bean bunny would have played captain fry. That's just I. I just bean buddy will be in every cast I ever do, um, and he will die the most horrifically um. So no, actually no. Bean bunny would play in my the rock movie, just the guy when they're stealing the vxHex that gets locked in. They just close it on him and he's just at the window melting the frog looks on because he's Hummel.
Speaker 3:Because Gonzo's Nick Cage. Obviously Nick Cage is Nick Cage. He's my only human in this, or it could be Connery.
Speaker 1:I don't know if Connery would have done it. Michael Caine could do it, yeah we'll just put.
Speaker 3:Michael.
Speaker 1:Caine in John Mason's role. There you go and the rest are Muppets and he's playing it like a heart attack. It's Gonzo's Cage, oh my gosh. Okay, alright, nope, nope, we have to back off Be sure to subscribe.
Speaker 3:Check us out on social media. It's mainly Instagram, Twitter, talk X, whatever you want to call it these days. Then we are on there. Follow us on Spotify, hit the like, subscribe and tell us what you thought. Did the reviews do help?
Speaker 1:So do it All right. Thank you for listening. Say goodnight, Nick, Goodnight.
Speaker 3:Ash.