The Gray Man – MOVIE – Episode 45

The Buddies revisit The Gray Man, this time watching the $200 million Netflix action flick. The conversation touched on some of the Buddies favorite topics: Bathroom Etiquette, Austin Powers, and how to correctly pronounce/spell certain words. So join us the only podcast that can match the Gray Man in both action and character attractiveness.

Intro: (0:00-2:57)
Stock Up/Down (2:58-20:38)
Love/Hate (20:39-28:30)
Notes & Book vs Movie & Reviews (28:31-37:52)
Conclusion (37:53-40:57)

Next Book: JURRASIC PARK by MICHAEL CRICHTON
Next Movie: THE MENU

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

All right. Welcome buddy. Book Club. I’m Dylan here with my going gray man. Keith, what’s up buddy?
Sophisticated dusting, sir.
I used the same intro. We did the book and I’m pretty sure you said the same thing.
Did I? Yeah. Which everything’s just repeating over and over. It’s fine. No one’s listening to this. We’re, I’m just talking in a, I’m, I’m a straight jacket in a room right now. This podcast isn’t even happening. No one’s recording it. That’s what I’m thinking. We
Were watching Jeopardy the other night and they said something about Casper, Wyoming, and I was like, oh, that’s where all of our listeners are. <laugh> <laugh>.
It’s a real place.
Oh, it’s so good. And obviously, you know the sgf, she’s just so nice. She’s, I was like, oh, they’re all bots or something. She’s like, no, they’re real people. <laugh>. Oh,
I, we’ve done 45 cough reaction and, uh, got nothing. Not one response.
They don’t have internet
Out there. That’s CTA button is just not good. That’s the problem. It’s a bad CTA button.
Well, here at the bbc we’re breaking down some box office bangers, and this week we’ll be discussing the Russo Brothers most anticipated film since Yumi and Dupree, the Gray Man. We released our podcast, the book on uh, December of 2021. So it’s been a while. I think that’s actually when this was released on Netflix. Uh, it was like, kind of at the same time, which was our thought process. Uh, what did you remember? Cuz now it’s February of 2023. What did you remember about the plot of
This book? I remember there was no backstory at all for the characters, and it was just like, basically escape scene to next escape scene to next. And it was basically just like Superman running around.
As I turned it on, I was wondering, okay, what are some books to movie differences? Now? I, I have no idea. Like, I really don’t remember <laugh>. I remember there was a gray man, I remember he was a badass and I remember he like fought some guy in an alley and got fucked up. Like not drunk. Like they, they’ve, he stabbed him a bunch of times or something like that. And it was like this soul assassin guy that was about it. So this will be interesting. Uh, but for listeners out there, if you like to recommend a book or movie for us to read or watch, you can visit our website buddy book club.com or slide into our dams on Twitter or Instagram, buddy book club podcast. You can listen to us on iTunes of Spotify. So please download and subscribe. My summary from the book, I’ll just read this quickly.
The Gray Man is a story of an X CIA operative turn, freelance assassin who finds himself at odds with a pencil neck paper pusher, who is the representative of a large shady company in the midst of a multi-billion dollar oil deal. This cubicle monkey takes the gray man’s handler hostage along with his family, including his two precious granddaughters. Well, one is precious. The gray man now really out on a limb must make it across Europe while being hunted by assassins from all over the world to save his handler and his family. I should write this stuff. Well, you
Wrote
All that. Yeah, I wrote that.
Put it on the blog Kid. Jesus Christ. You’re writing this much and you’re not kidding.
It’s a paragraph. It’s literally four
Sentences. That takes me like three hours to write that. That’s, I’d be like, man, I’d like try to figure out where the commas go. That really upsets me.
Keith, what do do you got for Stock
Up? Stock up. And stop me if you heard this one before. Child Abuse Stock Up.
<laugh>. We have heard it before on the Green Lights podcast.
I think I’m the only one that’s bought it. I’ve bought it
A few. I think we’ve bought it a few times. Yeah.
The stock keeps going up, kid. What, what do you, what do I wanna tell you?
Just like the bruises on their faces.
Why is Ryan Gossing AK Cortland Gentry a badass? Well, I’ll tell you what, he ha very strong pain threshold because his dad used to burn him with cigarettes. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And he tells him to cover it up. Like, toughen up, don’t
Show your mother.
He is able to survive being his head, being forced into the water and drowned because his dad used to do it to
Him. It was almost like his Popeye spinach. He was, he was dying at the end. And he remembered that. And it was like
<laugh>. Exactly. Kid. Exactly. He’s resourceful. So
He is resourceful because he got abused.
Well, yeah, he found that gun and then killed his dad with it. But anyways, moral the story, like, like I said, you treat your kids well. Yeah, they’ll go to Harvard, they’ll, they’ll be smart, they’ll actually be fine. But then when they go to Harvard and after that, they’ll go to the cia, get morally corrupted and become shitty pansies. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like all the bad guys in this. Yeah. So beat your kids up. Make the Sure they, uh, have a terrible childhood and they’ll be the best assassins in the world. Interesting. Also, have you seen the accountant,
Uh, Ben Affleck movie? No. Oh,
We could add to the list. Yeah, add to the list. But the, the backstory of the characters are very, very similar. His dad is like a general and he is like, all right, we, I gotta fucking train you.
Anytime I watch a movie, it’s, it is real life to me. It’s just a documentary. So yeah, <laugh> of course I’m thinking would he really go to jail for that long? Like killing his dad who was like super abusive. Like, you know, I’m sure that there was multiple people that knew that this kid was being abused. And you see it happen in the real world when women are abused by their husbands and they end up killing their husbands. Like they might go to jail, but they’re gonna jail for like five years. There’s laws, like, there’s laws in multiple states, probably not down south, but there’s laws of multiple states, like victim self-defense kind of things where it is murder, but at the same time, like you were a victim of abuse for so many years. So I don’t think he would really like need to take that deal.
Well I think it really depends on how they paint it, right? Let’s say his dad was a police officer or a firefighter and then they’re like kid that was at, at school had troubles and, you know, failed out and was always a problem child. Which he probably was because his dad was beating him up. Yeah. Turns on hero father and shoots him. Yeah, true. That’s going, that’s 25 years, you know, that’s, that’s,
Yeah. Just an interesting turn here that they pretty much like peeled him out of, uh, out of prison. Cause I don’t think that was, uh, maybe it was in the book. Yeah. I
Dunno. It could be in the future books. Cause we didn’t really get any backstory on him in any way. Yeah,
That’s in the book. That’s very true. Um, my stock up is America Heard of it?
Oh, let’s go. So
<laugh>, I did read your blog on buddy book club.com about the Gray Man movie. Did you just write it or was it a Rotten tomato? Rotten Tomato
Variants. Rotten Tomato variants.
Yeah. Okay. And you were confused as was I about why Gray is spelt with an E or with an A <laugh>. Yes. I had no idea. And I thought you’d posed a really interesting question cuz I had no idea. So quick little Google search. And it turns out that the gray man with an E is the British way of doing it. British English and with an A is the American way. And what is this book titled? Gray Man with an A? What’s the movie? Gray Man with an a America Stock up. Fuck the Brits <laugh> Throwing your tea off my boat. Good enough.
<laugh>. Good to know. What’s another word that’s like there they add extra vowels or letters or Beautiful. Is
That one no favorite?
Yeah, you’re
Right. Favorite. And I only know these ones cuz my sister and brother-in-law are Canadian. So whenever she texts she texts like, oh, that’s my favorite pasta shaper. That’s my favorite ice cream flavor. And I’m like, you know, auto I change it to correct it. So
Do they have the accent of, uh, who’s that? Like Canadian psychiatrist that always pops up everywhere. What’s his name? You’re
Not talking about like Dr. Sue, the sex therapist woman. Right. <laugh>. I think that’s funny. I dunno is you don’t, she’s on TV all the time. Oh my God. She’s amazing buddy. Go on YouTube and look up some Sue Johansen stuff.
I might have watched her like late night and she’s like, people call in. Is that that woman?
Yeah.
Yeah. And they’d be like, I’m having trouble, um, when I’m beating my husband with the whip. He and he’s liking it a lot. Like Yeah,
Deadpan is like, oh, okay. You have to take nails off the edge of the cat Nine tales or else like, you’ll actually create, you know, serious injuries.
She was very scientific about. I I I respect that.
Yeah. I think she went on Letterman once and or one of the talk shows and was trying to do like a serious bit and they’re obviously trying to turn it into comedy. She was not having it. It’s, it’s worth it. It’s worth checking out. Air
Show should be called Don’t Yuck. Someone’s y hmm. That’s, that’s a, that’s a common phrase here in the buddy
Book club. Or don’t cock someone’s cu what?
<laugh>. I’ll see my way out. Good chatting with you. I’m out. See you later.
All What else? Did you ever stock up
Stock up Ear protection? Um, <laugh>. I don’t know what I’m doing, but this is the first time I’ve ever noticed in the movie that they’re actually really protective of their ears. You know how like loud guns and explosions and things like that will hurt your eardrum? Yeah, I sure do. Well, Corins in the little pit thing and he’s making that pipe bomb in order to, to blow, like, to get out of the water. You know what I’m talking about? Yeah. He’s in the little trap door and like he rips off some cotton and puts us in his ears, which I’ve never, not one action here has ever done that. I’ve never seen that before. And then he fights his way through, gets to that castle, finds Fitz Roy’s daughter. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. What’s the first thing he says to her? No, I’m so glad you’re safe. No, we need to get outta here. It’s, Hey, put these in your ears. And he answer earpieces. Yeah. That’s literally the first thing he says to her. And I was just like, wait, what? Like earplugs, or I should say not earpieces, but what a thoughtful guy, first of all about ear drums and do these directors, are they like the, you know how Quin Tarantino loves like feet? Is, is this, are they like really big into ears? Do you think
I I didn’t know that Quin Tarantino loved feet, but now it checks out.
You didn’t know that? No. That’s like very well done kid. I think you were a film connoisseur. Jesus Christ. But then at one point, what’s his name? Chris Evans character goes and twists Billy Bob Thornton’s ear. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> for no reason. It didn’t make any sense. And he’s like, I just made that up. But it was like a sexual twist, a little bit <laugh>. I think they’re really into ears. I’ll put it out there. The RSR brothers into ears.
Interesting.
Interesting. Stock up <laugh>.
Yeah. I you’re, I didn’t notice that and I’m really hoping it was like the guy on set who’s the military specialist or whatever that says something like that. You know, I always love those little takes. At least the guy who is that person in band of brothers, he actually plays one of the characters as well. But the behind the scenes stuff is awesome when you just see like him working with actors being like, no, no, this is not how you would hold this weapon. Or like, here’s what you would do. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> if you were actually getting shelled. Those kind of things. I love that stuff cuz it’s, you know, it makes it
Real. Were they on set for that Alec Baldwin movie or they, they like No, no, no. You, you gotta put real bullets in here. <laugh> too. Too much.
Too soon. Too soon? Yeah. He’s like, no, no, no. In more in the West. Like you shot real bullets, like put real
Bullets in. Yeah. Why are you using a blank? <laugh>? Yeah. What are you doing <laugh>?
Um, but in the last of us, when he’s talking to spoilers,
Yeah, spoilers. I’m on episode one, it’s
Not a spoiler. Okay. He’s talking to the girl and she’s like, oh, I noticed you can’t hear really well. Is that from getting shot? And he pretty much says, or from shooting, like just shooting, you eventually will lose your earring cuz it’s not like we’re, we have headphones on or anything. And uh, additionally I was watching Yellowstone the first season and he’s about to blow something up and he tells the son to, uh, open his mouth so that the, the concussion of the explosion doesn’t boil his brain. I think that’s what it does. <laugh>. I
Dunno. Are you really into ears too? Do you man, is this a new thing we’re finding out?
Ear guy.
Huge
<laugh>. Yeah. Um,
There’s nothing
Wrong with that. My second stock up is butterfly knives. So Lloyd is quite the butterfly knifes knife ologist, which is an interesting skill to have and I feel like it’s somewhat gone away. I don’t know, since the nineties. I remember in the nineties all the bad guys in movies had butterfly knives. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, it was all this big show of whipping it around and just kinda like a show of force. And now, I mean, butterfly knives, switch blades, like they’ve gotten, maybe it’s the Crocodile Dundee effect or something, but they’ve just gotten overtaken by big old hunting knives. And I enjoy a good butterfly knife scene in a movie. So I was appreciative of that and I appreciate the nineties. So
Yeah. That’s a great comment. Oh,
Stop it. <laugh>. Uh, what else did Jeff for stock up?
Uh, last ones stock up an day, ais <laugh>. Nothing, nothing to add. That’s it. Just buying stock. Yeah. Continually, you know, that’s it. That’s all I got.
They were like, so we have this veterinary assistant character in the book who has an actual role in that. She’s patching the gray man up throughout his, this whole journey because he is gonna get shot up and stabbed and all, all these different things. Like Yeah. Yeah. That’s an interesting idea. What if we just instead have Anad de Armas? There’s no background on who her character is or what ties she has to this gray man or why she’s even interested besides the fact that he’s beautiful and she’ll follow him around the whole time. Not really do much until the end when she just throws grenades and shoots rockets all over the place.
<laugh> the best part about the end was when she’s like, all right, here’s the game plan. You’re gonna run down the middle with 30 people, shoot at you, shoot rockets, blow up dodge bullets. I’m gonna sneak in the back and, uh, get them. Yeah. So, all right, break also,
It’s like, man, yeah, she’s like 120 pounds and she’s carrying her body weight in equipment. I’m not trying to sell her short for her abilities. Uh, short, uh, pun actually not intended there, but, uh, it just seemed, it seemed like a lot. It seemed like a lot to me. Also
Though, I do like this movie because they showcased her. I saw the bond, new bond where she’s, I think she’s like in like two minutes of the, you haven’t seen two minutes and 32nd trailer. Well, I’m gonna spoil it for you because she’s in it literal, I wanna say maybe five minutes max. Three minutes is a low, five minutes is a high. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> doesn’t come back after that. I was like, what? Yeah. So this movie though, stuck up
That’s kind of like her and, um, blade Runner 2049. It’s like Annaa de Armos in Blade Runner 2049 as a billboard <laugh>.
She’s in it, she changes costumes enough though. She’s in different outfits the whole
Time. I didn’t have any other stock ups. What do you have for
Stock down, stock down bathroom etiquette, please. I mean, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve gone at great length in the buddy book club to, to talk about the proper etiquette, to talk about what you’re supposed to do and don’t, but it comes up again, Suzanne, the semi bad guy, short hair Tia person who, she’s like the, the Asian woman with like the short
Hair. Oh, okay. Got you. Gotcha.
She breaks in or busts into the CIA bathroom, which mind you as like 15 stalls in a row, which I can’t even imagine. That’d be terrible. There’s no lights on in there. I don’t know if the sensors are off and like he’s just been sitting in there for a while. But he, it’s a stressful job at the cia. A man needs to go in there and go to the furthest doll and just like be with his thoughts and you know, take a solid Roger Goodell. But no, she has to break in there. Couldn’t wait five minutes to let the man take an RG and peace and, sorry. Yelling at
Him. Yeah. I forget the scene truthfully.
Well, I, I couldn’t forget it. <laugh> and I won’t forget it. Stock, stock down bathroom at a kit.
The actual stock down should be the furthest stall in the bathroom because studies have shown that the cleanest, it’s the most used, the cleanest stall is the, actually the first
One. Yeah, but nobody wants to use
That one. I always go in the first stall now.
I don’t care about cleanliness. I care about not being in the action. Privacy over cleans cleanliness.
The only concern with being in the first stall is if there’s a urinal right next to it that you might have some collateral damage, hit your feet <laugh>,
You gonna
Exactly sprinkle on your unlaced shoelaces
Also that everyone in the first urinal knows who’s in the first stall. You know what I mean? Like shoe wise.
I agree with you. We’ve gone over this, I feel like for half of the BBC that we’ve had this going, but
Okay. Read my blog on the work from Home Ben Benefits and it’s all about dealer shit home. That is my best blog. I don’t know, that’s the best one I’ve ever read.
Yeah. I just, you know, we’ve discussed the CEO when he came in and changed my whole life by, you know, just exploding the bathroom. And I since then have just embraced it. You know, I, I can’t, I pull out my copy of everybody poops and I read. They’re
What?
I read it on the
Toilet seat. That’s a hard sea. You’re, I pull up my cup. Uh, copy
<laugh>. No, there was this guy I used to work with and I don’t know if I’ve told this one before, but he used to, and this is, I’m not talking 1986 here, this is a couple years ago when phones are invented and newspapers are on phones, he used to fold up a newspaper and throw it under his arm and like do a lap around the office to talk to people before heading to the bathroom. Make sure, so make sure everyone knew that he was about to absolutely destroy the men’s room.
Well maybe Carmichael should have done that other, that’s why she wouldn’t have busted in and, or maybe he did do that and that’s why she knew he was in the bathroom. Yeah.
The Carmichael character in general, just out.
He he’s just a good looking man. That’s all he was. Exactly.
That’s, he’s like, oh, he’s good looking and, and mean.
That checks out to me. I dunno what, what else you
Are. My stock down are Thursdays. They seem to suck. That’s it. Go
Go. That,
That was it. That
Is all I had. Just a typical Thursday. Yeah. Just a, I gotcha. Good, good, good call out. I thought that was funny. That was cute.
I, yeah. Well, do you have another, do you have other stock downs? Cause that was literally my only one.
<laugh>. I have one more last one. I think you’ll appreciate this one. Duck down Scott, Dr. Evil’s son Unscreen stock up. Mufasa, ak. Will Ferrell tie those
Together,
Please? Well, first of all, I mean this is every action movie, but there’s probably a million chances to kill ’em. But they’re just like, let’s do a million things that we, you know, that are more complicated than just like getting a sniper and shooting him when he gets to a place. So we know he is going to, but that’s neither nor there. Yeah. But the, the Fitzroy thing being like, I’ll never tell you anything. Whatever you do, I’m not gonna leave my boy out stranded. And they’re like, well, we got your niece now. And he is like, all right, I’ll have ’em killed right this instant. And then so they’ve proven that it, he’ll do anything for his knees, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, then they torture him by ripping his ear out ears back. They
Just kind of clapped his ears. Did they? They didn’t rip him out. Right?
I don’t know what they were doing. He was, they’re giving him like the wrestling move or they like, they fuck up your
Ears. They’re Yeah, exactly. It was like an Indian sunburn for your ears. Yeah.
Yeah. I, that would hurt. I think that
Hurt. No, I’m sure it would. It’s definitely a starter. It’s like a torture starter pack.
But then they go to rip out all of his fingernails. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then he’s like, you know what, I’m gonna go get your niece again. And then immediately he tells him what he needs to know again. So it’s like the Mufasa where he is like, I can’t have you asked me three times <laugh>. That’s pretty much what it is every time. Yeah. So stock up for that from a faa from AK Welfare, from, uh, Austin, Paris.
We all know that you bring the, the niece in or whatever and, and it’s over. But I think it just ties that Lloyd is a total psychopath and just wants to torture someone. Oh, okay. So he was gonna torture him anyways
Here. Regardless, or regardless.
Yeah. I, regardless, oh, which by the way, I continued to say thanks to you. The SGF looked it up on the internet and it says it’s totally fine. It basically says that because we have said I regardless so many times that now it’s become the vernacular. So you’re allowed to say it pretty much is is the gist I got. So we’ve changed the English language for the better. I might add for the better. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I think we’re, I think we’re pretty close to making min a thing.
<laugh>. All right, we’re bringing it back. Yeah. Uh, it’s kind of like that’s saying, fuck, what is it that people always mess up? I couldn’t care less. I could not care less. Yeah. And it’s supposed to be, I could not care less, but people say I could care
Less. Yes. Yes.
Right. But everyone knows what it means. Exactly.
That’s what I was Well, how do you feel about intensive purposes?
Fun fact. I didn’t know that until I read it in a Mitch rap book and I looked it up and I said, why did they spell this wrong? And then I saw, oh my God, that’s actually like, people get this wrong all the time. That’s why reading’s important Boys and girls out there, or listen to it on the audio book.
We follow some economist woman who does like baby stuff or whatever, and she was talking about reading to your children. And studies have shown that there’s a very, very big link between reading to your children and them turning out somewhat intelligent. I will say that all studies have a bell curve because my parents read to me and I’m a dulled, so,
But did your parents beat you? That’s Oh,
Right. Cause that what? Yeah, they didn’t,
You would be assassin <laugh>. Yeah, that’s,
Shoot,
I’ve heard that too. But were they reading to you in baby talk though? That’s my question. Um, question. Or are they doing an adult talks?
I think I read to myself, they were just like, here, take this book
<laugh>, who are the, the subjects that are the o on the other side of that. They’re like, here’s what we’re gonna do. You guys treat your child like shit. Don’t read to them, don’t interact with them and we’ll see if the your kids become smarter or not as smart as these other kids. Who’s the control?
We’re looking for parents that put their kids to bed without brushing their teeth. Give ’em a 20 ounce Mountain Dew <laugh> and don’t read to them. Well my first love, cuz we talked about how the jokes and whatnot, I did enjoy the, like, levity joke stuff that was going on in it. It seemed like the movie was somewhat self-aware. I mean, the Roosevelt Brothers are known for the four Marvel movies they did. So, you know, a lot of that joke stuff is part of those Marvel movies where they’re like action movies, but there’s like some jokes in there. And I thought, I think just Ryan Gosling, his delivery is so perfect that yeah, he was able to pull off all of those jokes, which like took us out of those action sequences just momentarily cemented his character more, made him more likable and not just this like, cement person that kills people and then took us right back into the action. So I did love that aspect of the movie. I think that a lot of people didn’t though, which is weird because I feel like all fun action movies have that it’s not like this movie’s trying to be mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I don’t know, something really serious. It wasn’t like Serco or something. Well,
I mean in the book, you, he didn’t have a personality. The the only thing that he said in the book I remember was like, he was like, you’re gonna be to be hard to survive. And he is like, what about you? He’s like, I’m already hard, I think or something like that. Maybe I mis missed. Maybe that was a different video I was watching. But anyways, um, yeah, they, they, it’s tough to make someone that’s supposed to not have much emotions or personality be a good, a like character. And I thought he is good in it. One of my loves is dust. Everyone knows casted really well. I thought everyone was, uh, attractive and
<laugh> definitely attractive. Like everyone was attractive. Even Billy Bob Thornton had hair. Amazing.
Yeah. Billy Bob Thornton was playing the guy from Armageddon again, which I really liked. He was <laugh>, he was, I just really like Billy Bob Thornton. I won’t lie to you. There’s no role. I don’t like him. Have
You seen Sling Blade?
No, I haven’t. Yeah. Is that where he plays like a weirdo?
Not a, I think he’s just mentally like underdeveloped or whatever. Not a weirdo. Oh,
I’m, we’ll cut that. <laugh>
<laugh>. It’s okay. You didn’t know It’s not a big deal. You just didn’t know. I haven’t seen it in a very, very, very, very, very long time. But he won. I’m pretty sure he won best actor for it, so I’m gonna go back and watch that. It’s like a serious drama though. So, you know, when you’re sitting around at night with the sgf, the wife, the girlfriend, whatever you got in your life, in your banding about different movies. Rarely am I like, you know what, Daniel Day is great in my left foot. Like, let’s watch that. But it’s unfortunate because then I just end up never watching those and I watch the comedies and the actions and the horror movies and then I have just never seen any dramas. So
I feel like you gotta say those for like the weekend. You can’t, you, you gotta do a light every,
Every week, you know? Oh yeah, yeah. It’s like I’m already miserable enough. I don’t need a
Serious talk. Yeah, you have like a nice dinner, you get like a glass of wine going. I would never do either of those things, but you know, I mean, ramen noodles and drinking and bush light, but yeah. And theoretically,
What
Did you love? I thought the all the action was great. I mean, all the scenes were like fun to watch. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> the square scene was like pretty insane. Yeah, I understand. This movie was 200 hundred million dollars. I understand why after seeing that.
Yeah. That reminded me of the, um, Deni Thieve’s traffic fight.
Oh, I was gonna say heat, like kind of the heat where they just pull out machine guns and start shooting.
Oh, it’s pretty much the same as Deni Thieve. So yeah,
<laugh>. Oh, okay. All right. Well everyone’s just trying to steal heat. Heat is like heat started the, the, the best of all time with that heat. Yeah. Obviously’s so fucking good. You already mentioned Anna De Arm’s Freedom running up the middle. I love that. Just Freedom
Gosling as an action hero was, was pretty good, right? Because has he, has he done that
Before? I mean, blade Runner, he is kind of that same character, right?
Kind of. It’s a little more detective Noirish, you know, than like a straight up mercenary action hero.
I mean, he’s gone a long way. First time I remember seeing him on film was
Mickey Mouse Club. Wasn’t he on that? No.
<laugh> remember the Titans? Oh yeah. And he was like the sunshine, like the soft player. No, he wasn’t <crosstalk>. Right,
Right, right, right, right. Yeah, he was the safety.
Yeah. He wasn’t fast enough to cover a guy and he is like, I can’t do it, coach. I’m like, you’ll never be a gray man. Yeah. <laugh>,
Oh, I guess place beyond the Pines. He was kind of like a badass and drive. Yeah.
He’s been, he’s kind of played this role. I mean he, the role is just a fun role to watch. That’s really what it is.
Do you love anything else? I think you said you had one more,
But most of those movies would end with like, and then they turned everyone in and the government got cleaned up and then instead it’s just like, all right, cool. These people all still suck. It’s just, I’m just gonna go along with
Well, they’re also setting it up for a sequel.
Yeah. Well, of course naturally
Got. So we’ll get to hates, I’m just gonna say it. I I didn’t like the an de Armas character. I just didn’t like it. I’m, I’m, you know, get out. I <laugh>. It’s not that I didn’t like Anad de Armas, I just thought the character was a little silly.
I don’t know what the difference between those two things are. Why
Not just put her as the vet assistant? The book made sense with that. He’s all beat up and he finds this vet assistant who like helps him.
Well then it would’ve just been born identity. Right? That that’d be exact same problem.
Yeah, I guess that’s fair. That’s exactly what happens to the Born identity
<laugh>. That’s exactly the same.
And he pays her to drive from across the country or
Yeah, I’m gonna need you to sew me up and it’s gonna get a little sexual all of a sudden. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. I just didn’t know what her motivations were besides like, this job went bad. Like, why did this job go bad? I’m gonna put my life on the line for this guy.
She’s on day Armas kid. There’s no, you don’t need to ask questions, just, just let it happen. Right. Also,
Sometimes she had more of an accent than other times when she had less of an
Accent. They didn’t need to make her American. She could be whatever. We have no bachelor in
Her in any way. Yeah. She could’ve been part of like the Spanish special Forces or something like that. I’m kind of convinced her name’s like Hillary Smith and she’s from Wyoming and went into his studio one day to like read lines and they, she’d played the accent and they were like, perfect. My name is Aade Ramas. He was like, oh, perfect. <laugh>. Uh, what did you
Hear the special effects were a little bit, um, James Bond die, another Dayes at some points. Do you remember that movie?
<laugh>? I do remember James Bond dying another day. I can’t remember like, the special effects necessarily.
I think there’s like, at one one point there’s a laser ba shooting down and he’s like, water skiing or something. I forget. <laugh> something. It’s like the most, it’s one of some of the most horrific special effects I’ve ever seen for a 200 million movie. There’s a train scene, there’s a parachute scene that both were like, all right, it looked a little, little dumb. But the action scenes were good. That, that, those took away from it a little bit. But what are you gonna do?
Uh, what else did you hit?
I mean, there was no realism. I mean, it was an action movie, but there’s zero. I also like the plot to breathe a little bit more. So there’s more between the actions. This was just like, action three second break, action. Three second break. Action. You know,
So yeah. Guys, guys, guys, guys. Don’t just go to Hammer Town out there, you know, slow it down a little bit. I need a little context. You know, I wanna be loved. I wanna be snuggled, I wanna be kissed. Okay.
Still talking about carpentry, right?
Oh, yes, yes. Sorry.
Of course. Yeah. Okay,
Good. But yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s probably because the world that we live in is just so fast paced. People will pick up their phones in a second. They don’t let anything breathe anymore. It has to just be right in your face all the time for these action stuff. And sometimes it works Like John Wick, it works. This, I needed some space. I needed, I, I needed some space in between and the little jokes helped, but I just gimme some character to Filmer or something. Like, John Wick’s very clear they killed his dog. Yeah, I’m going crazy
To be fair. I’d rather have this than what most of the Marvel movies do where it’s just, its generic, exact same backstory. And this person’s gonna overcome the, it’s so cookie cutter that I would rather have, don’t gimme anything and have a lot of action than gimme that bullshit. Yeah.
So I agree with you on that. We don’t need the same, you know, story arcs all over the place. All over again. Rehashed. Let’s get into some studio notes. The film adaptation of Mark Greeny’s novel was originally announced in 2011 and was going to start Brad Pitt and be directed by James Gray. He’s the guy who wrote and directed at Astra. Brad Pitt would’ve been interesting, but I think this is much better later. It was actually supposed to star Char Theon as the Gray woman, which would’ve been interesting. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But the Russo brothers actually were supposed to do that one with, with Chars Theon. But they got their hands on it. Like you said, 200 million budget, one of the most ever spent on a movie by Netflix. It had 43 million viewers in the first three days. So pretty good. It was like the number one Netflix in like 80 countries or something.
And honestly I didn’t even know there were 80 countries. So good for them. Uh, like you said, with the Rotten Tomato variance, 46 critics, 90 audience, I don’t know about that second one, but 46 critics, interesting. Critics didn’t like the quote unquote cliched script and break neck pacing. I think that’s fair. You know, I, I don’t think that necessarily I agree with it because that’s kind of the point <laugh>, but I get it. You know what I mean? It’s, it’s fair enough. And there’s gonna be a sequel. So what’s the difference between the book and the movie? I mean, there’s lots of differences in this movie, that’s for sure. We’ve discussed some of them. The most glaring on a De Armas role, which we said is the vet Chris Evans role where he’s in the book. He’s really a behind the desk guy Yeah. Who’s doing stuff from a afar. And in this book he’s more hands on and wants to torture everyone,
Which I think was good. I think it was a better addition. You can’t make a behind the desk guy that’s gonna be like a bad villain.
Yeah. I kind of think you could. I mean, I liked it in the book. I don’t know if you can do it necessarily in the movie. Yeah. But him kind of directing things from a command post, but calling, cuz he used to always call the gray man. Like, he’d get him a hold of him and he’d talk to him or one way or another. So him being there and like talking all this shit from behind his computer, I think would be better for the audience once they actually met up and he was like scared of the gray man as opposed to this Harvard guy who for some reason is a monster with a switch blade or a butterfly knife and can actually like, yeah. F fuck Cortland up Cortland Gentry’s like the biggest, baddest on the planet. And all of a sudden this Harvard grad with a terrible mustache and actually a great style. I did like how they did his, his his attire. I, I enjoyed that thoroughly. But he’s all of a sudden like kicking his ass.
I was like Chris Evans, anytime he plays a bad guy, he’s awesome.
He’s so good. I mean, knives out. He was so
Good. I mean, how many, how many people can you think that can play Captain America that can also turn around and be a very, very convincing bad guy? You’re like not many, right?
Yeah. He just puts on like the douch hist face <laugh>, you know, when he does it, he just puts on this like, oh my god, the, the guy that you hate. And the other big difference was the why. You know, in the book, Lloyd works for a gigantic French corporation trying to shepherd this multi-billion dollar Nigerian oil deal. The Nigerian president wants Gentry dead because he murdered his brother. So that’s why they’re after him. Uh, and then the movie, the CIA is trying to clear out operatives for the previous generation cuz they had drive detailing corruption of the CIA officials in both movie and book, though they go through extreme lengths and kill lots of other people and don’t do anything covertly to try to get him, which you talked about in the book. That didn’t make any sense. But, uh, yeah, you got, you gotta do it, you gotta do it. Uh, did you have any other differences between book
And I liked the, what they do with Fitz Row’s character, obviously Billy, uh, Billy Bob Thornton and the book. He was like that British dude.
Yeah. We liked Michael Kane for
Him. They quickly turned him into, uh, like a bad guy. He was like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he was like, like 75% bad, 25% good. So like, it didn’t make any sense why he was going to save his niece or daughter or granddaughter in that book where it was like, what? This guy’s just like betrayed you like three or four times and now you’re like, all right. He’s a good guy though. He had to do what he had to do. It’s like he betrayed him once in this, which is true to the book, but like, even that was kind of weird. Yeah. I, I like they changed that at least.
Yeah. I, I wish they would’ve just changed the whole thing and just made him like, get overpowered by Lloyd or something besides just saying like, tell those guys to murder him. But I guess if your, if your niece is there, yeah, it makes sense. I’m not, I’m not too upset about
It. Yeah. I also liked that they took out that terrible log cabin scene that was like by one be big pet peeve. Oh really? Remember I hated that because it was like, all right, we know he is gonna go to the log cabin. We know he is in there. It’s like a, a six by six square. There’s nothing where he can escape. And they’re like, all right, let’s fully attack it. Let’s all run in there on it.
Yeah. But then he is on a snowmobile with shotguns. I remember that. That was cool. From the book, anytime there’s a snowmobile and shotguns getting shot, oh, I guess the one thing that I didn’t like was they changed when he sneaks out of like his old boss’s house and she blows everyone up.
Oh yeah. Yeah. They kept that the same.
No, it was, well, kind of, it was, I mean, it was a different man, woman doesn’t matter. But the better part in the book was that the guy loads him up with equipment. He’s like, all right, take this. The, it’s, it’s kind like the Q roll in James Bond.
Well, they hinted at it. She said like, oh, here’s the keys to the car. It’s fully loaded with all the weapons you need in
The back. Yeah. But then he immediately gets t-boned and handcuffed to a bench. So
No, the what’s her name gets it. A arm comes in the, in
Handy. Oh, right, right, right, right, right.
That’s why she’s driving that red fucking cooped
Up. Yeah. That’s why they have all that stuff at the end. But I always just like those montage scenes and action movies where they roll everything. I mean, my ultimate favorite is like desperado when they open up the guitar cases, <laugh> and it’s all the different guns. I mean,
I, I I would say, uh, matrix is better than Desperado, sir.
Well, that’s fair. But
The columns come out and it’s just like, and the music’s playing. You’re like, oh shit.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s not bad either. I wanted that. That’s all I do in an action movie. I, I want, I wanna see all the stuff out. I wanna see all the stuff they’re gonna use. And then later when they throw it like, Ooh, that was fragmented. That’s cool. Yeah.
<laugh>
Recast rewrite review. I don’t think we’re gonna recast it. We really like the cast that, that they picked good job by them rewrite. We already kind of touched on that stuff. Reviews. The only review that I could find that was uh, of somewhat interest was Billy Bi. He goes by William Biani, but Buddy, figure it out. Your last name is Biani. You gotta go Billy Biani.
Yeah. Yeah. Billy b that’s
The guy plays keno and smoke cigarettes at the local corner store.
<laugh> Billy b up to his
Old tricks. Yeah. Eating a giant Italian sub, like white, white undershirt. You know, this guy <laugh> tucked into his sweatpants. There’s oil stains on this shirt. Right. Of course. Like, I love this guy. So he said it has all the artistic value of watching a blank screen, except a screen has a purpose, buddy. Relax. Are you kidding me? Artistic value. You’re talking about the gray man. What I, I just don’t even understand it. It, it makes no sense to me. This guy’s gonna get on his high horse about the gray. Man. You sat down for two hours and watched it. What did you think you were getting into?
A lot of these people think they’re like walking into, uh, the English patient on every movie. They’re like, what? What the hell? There’s guns in this movie. What’s going on? No, this is a pure action movie. Like, what are you, what are you doing?
Yeah, it, it’s, I I like it. It confuses me because you know exactly what the situation is. These guys, the Russo brothers made four Marvel movies. They made Yui and Dupree, they used to write for Arrested Development and Community. It’s gonna be an action movie with some like cheeky comedy stuff. And it’s a big budget, so it’s gonna be like a money grab and people like, oh, it’s a money grab. It’s like, there’s no problem with a money grab. I, I don’t understand why people care that much about it. So Billy, figure it out. Yeah, clean it up. Get six numbers One time on the Keno board.
<laugh>, I had one that I wrote in the, the blog, but I wanted, oh, I got it. Johnny Oolican. Oh, oh, oh on a <unk> ky, I don’t know. I fucked that up. New York post 1.5 outta four Stars. He gave it My barista could even been cast as a lead of this action thriller in the film would’ve been absolutely no different. What? First off, I mean, we already talked about the cast. I think it was perfect.
Yeah, no, it was great.
You put a lot of other people in this movie and it’s terrible. Like the cast, you needed these people there. Secondly, my whole thing though, I wrote about my barista. Who, who the fuck is this guy? My barista, first of all, who calls him barista? Like that’s first. That’s step
One. Yeah. They call them self baristas and it’s on their resume.
Yeah, you’re saying it’s personal. Like, unless he literally has someone that’s at his house must be night that’s making him coffee. That it’s literally a barista that’s like, he shipped in from Italy. He’s a Billy b what’s your guy’s name there?
<laugh>. Billy Biani.
Yeah, Billy Biani cousin in Italy. That’s shipped in. Then you can’t fucking say my barista. You fucking asshole. This is not a Duncan’s drinker. And you shouldn’t be allowed to watch this movie, Johnny. Yeah. Clean it up. That’s
All he saying. This is a guy that like is an actual, thinks he has ownership over the woman who makes his coffee at Starbucks every morning. <laugh>. Like he thinks that she works for him. Yeah, no, she works for a company and she’s serving you because that’s her job. You’re not important to her. Would you recommend the
Book, uh, the movie?
Uh, the movie? Excuse me. Yes. This is a movie.
I think it’s exactly what you, you paid for. I gave it 2.5 stars out of four or 2.5 buddies. Out of four Buddies.
Oh, <laugh>.
Okay. I honestly saw no difference between this or most James Bonds. I’ve seen most of the Mission Impossibles I’ve seen. Like I, I get like people really love those movies. Every time I go to those movies, I give it the same rating. Exist. It’s like, oh yeah, they were, they’re fun, but I’m never like, what a fucking mind twist. It’s always just like tons of fun Action. It’s a popcorn movie. You escape. There’s tons of shooting that misses, you know, it’s just what it is. So 2.5, I think it’s a, there’s not much very high ceiling for this type of movie. It’s not, not very low floor, but it is what it is. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what do you think?
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I gave it a two. I thought it was a two on my scale of 4, 2, 2 buddies. <laugh> as you like to say <laugh>, but I’ve watched two Mission Impossible movies this year. The original and Mission Impossible two and Mission.
I just watched those two as well. Yes.
Okay. Mission Impossible was a two and a half and I remember it being much better. It was not, not very good. Me
Too.
Yeah, me too. And it was unfortunate. And, and I think the two and a half is really a pump up just because it like created a series. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Uh, but it, it was not very good. Mission Impossible, too terrible movie that was a one and a
Half that used to be my like favorite when I was young. And now I watched it again. I was like, ye yikes.
So it was one of the first movies I burned on, like Kaza and I used to watch it all the time. So yeah, this, this is a two, A solid two, two for me is Yeah, it was fine. I’m not upset that I watched it. I’m never gonna rewatch it. I think if someone asked me, probably wouldn’t say anything about it. But if you have nothing to watch and it’s on like that you wanna watch really And you have like a hungover Sunday cuz no football’s on anymore. Yeah. Put it on the gray man. Like enjoy some action sequences and you
Know, well here’s my don’t hate. Well here’s my question. I guess the reason I gave it a two and a half is cuz if I give it a two, I wouldn’t watch the sequel. Whereas two and a half, I think when the sequel comes out, which you said that it’s coming out for this, I’ll definitely watch it. There’s not, there’s, I’m not gonna be like, ah, I can’t watch it. I’ll be like, yeah, why not? It’s, and it’ll be the exact same mindset going in as I have for this one. So it’ll be no different.
Yeah, no, I’m, I’m with you. I think I could still watch a sequel at two because maybe the sequels a two and a half or maybe mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it’s a, it’s a one and a half. Like, but either way I’m not gonna be upset about it cuz it it is. I know what I’m expecting. Well,
The artistic integrity, you’re gonna be upset about it. But I mean, it’s a blank screen essentially.
So I, when I drive down to the donkeys down my street, I don’t say my barista gave me some, you know, a
Large ice, large coffee, three creams, three show, guys.
No, you say light and sweet hon. Light and sweet. All right, good times. So think we’re gonna continue doing some movies interspersed here. We have Dre Park book coming up and then we’re gonna do a movie that we actually, there is no book for. I think we’re gonna do the menu, which came out recently starring Ralph Fines. Uh, and Anna, wait, on day A Anna Joy, right? Isn’t that her name? Anna Taylor. Joy. Okay, cool. Well, uh, I guess until next time. Bye now. All right. Bye now.