Warrior (2011) with Josh Griffey

Brian & Griffey go to war (on the shore) with Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Kurt Angle(?) in 2011's Warrior! 


...it really should be called WarriorS

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's a mean junk and watching Rabbi. You gonna come
out and stop me?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
All right?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
This is Dick Miller. If you're listening to Junk Food Cinema,
who are these guys?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Have you got a son of a bet? You stop
the podcast? You got the st of a bet? Now? Well,
then I guess we're gonna have to listen to Junk
Food Cinema, brought to.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
You by War on the Shore dot Com, dad Cam
dot com, DoD If you.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Don't move, you die. This is, of course, the weekly
cult exploitation film cast. So good it just has to
be fattening.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
I'm your host, Brian Salisbury, and usually this is where
I tell you the cargol is joining me, but he's
actually off participating in the Kumaite of pie eating contests.
So in his stead we have a returning favorite guest
of Junk Food Cinema, the co host of the Messed
Up Movies podcast, filmmaker at Misfit Parade Productions, and the
Ultimate Fighting Champion. Oh wait a minute, I'm sorry I

(01:30):
read that wrong. It says the Ultimate Deep Frying Champion.
It's Josh Griffey.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
I was so amped to tell you brought me back
to just crushing reab. I will say, there's nothing like
watching this movie as I'm just covered in the rappers
of Halloween Candy six Micultris and I'm like eight SIGs in.
I was like, I gotta do better. Brian.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeahah, it's the kind of movie where Nick Nolty legitimately
gets to judge what you eat.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Do you know what I mean? That's the life I've
been trying to cult that votes for Luis Harson old Man. Yeah,
it's It's one of those movies. I was like, well
I ever work out again? Probably not, but this movie's
as close as Okay.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
Before we get into the madness of what it is
we're talking about, just want to remind you that if
you like what you're hearing, there's something wrong with you.
But you can find eleven years of this horseshit on
your favorite podcaster, Podcasher, pocosh, share Podcatcher, follow us on
social media, and if you really like.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
The show, I mean you really like the show, I
mean you like it as much. Oh my god. I'm
just you know what.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
I've been punched in the head too many times to
do this intro, so I'll just say Patreon dot com,
slash chok Foods and know if you want to financially
support the show and get me some fucking.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Space, start a pay Yeah, you guys gott to join
us in the shit. Yeah, I don't know. I'm trying.
I'll get this.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Nick Nolty, Betty, As you might have guessed from what
we're talking about, Uh, this is a movie that I've
wanted to talk about for a long time on the show.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Prince of Tides, Prince of Yeah, that's what it is.
Oh it shade?

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Uh yeah, No, this is a This is a movie
every wanting to cover for a long time. You might
even say this is our white whale here on junk
food Cinema. So put up your dukes, because shooting at
the walls of heartache. Bang bang, We're talking warrior.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
This is tournament. There's a big tournament.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Two brothers.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
I have some Tommy's back, did you say if he
wants to see me?

Speaker 5 (03:23):
One fights for the country. I'm proud of you, Tommy,
but you did for a kidding entertained.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Tommy Reard and you saved my life. One fights for family,
but in this hellhouse in three months, when running out
of options.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
I thought we weren't going to raise our children in
a family for liter You're a teacher.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
You got no business in a ring with those animals.

Speaker 5 (03:42):
Actually I used to be one of those animals.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Guys.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
I've got to put that down on my application. I
need this.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
I got the family and protect. Everything I do is
for them.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
You're my big brother.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
You bailed on me. I was a sixteen year Okay,
well did I know I had a choice? Who had
a choice? War Hero? Tammy Reardon and Ryan and Conlin
the physics teacher have pull on a miracle.

Speaker 5 (04:06):
Oh you're to lose.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Warrior wait to peat thirteen in theater September ninth, from
twenty eleven.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
And Griffy, you have the honor, sir, of being on
an episode that was a patron request.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Whoo, yeah, I do. One of the things we were
talking about. I like that this movie just immediately lets
you know what it is. It's like, it's not war
yours plural, right, because there's a lot of warriors in
this way, it's Warrior one.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Which is odd considering the amount of warriors in this movie,
A lot of them for this to be a singular title.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, a lot the poster is just literally too jack
dudes with Warrior vertically splitting them into It's immediately letting,
you know, turn that brain off, get ready for some
CTA and some action.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
It would be like looking at that poster and it
being called cum gut her instead of come gutter Tell
there we are a lot of sin.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, it's what my teacher once told me. We contain multitudes.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
So, speaking of cum gutters, I would like to thank
the patron requested this episode. What a segue, Charles Armstrong,
Thank you for requesting Warriors.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Charles, Wait a minute.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Charles arm isn't that booger from Revenge of the Nerds.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
I think that's Curtis. Oh okay, oh thank god, thank god.
I was like, shit, Charles probably auditioned and didn't get
the role, and he's like, that's it. I'm just gonna
be the booger of the junk food cinema patriot.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
Not a bad role to Phil. We appreciate it now.
I love this movie. This is one of those films
where I feel like it represents that you said, we
contain multitudes. This represents the multitude of my appreciation of
sports films and combat films because to me, Warrior is
to something like blood Sport the way Field of Dreams
is to Bad News Bears, do you know what I mean?

(05:52):
Like it's covering some of the same ground, but in
a much more emotionally.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Complex and deep way.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Even though the you know, like Bad News Bears and
blood Sport have laid the foundation and we're we're still
pulling a lot from that boilerplate. But this is sort
of the elevated version of that. This is the fancy
restaurant version of blood Sport.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah. I kind of think of it as if you
think Rocky is like a little too lofty and artistic,
and you really like white monster energy drinks and vapes,
this is Rocky for that. This is like seven eleven Rocky,
seven eleven Rocky coming to a theater near you. Yeah,
It's like if you just think Rocky's crushing poverty, like

(06:36):
that's a little quaint, you know what I mean, Like
he's just walking around squeezing a racquetball, being a good guy, Like,
you know, we need a little drunken dads. What I
was thinking watching this movie, Brian is honestly I was
like this, did you ever see those memes where it's
like a really bizarre looking person. And in the comment
there always be a comment that's like, this was a
challenging wank. I think this movie's a mentally challenging wank

(06:58):
for dad and uncles, right, because Okay, I like this.
We have the American dream. Right is Joel Edgerton. He's
a teacher, he's a good dad, but he's upside down
on his mortgage. He's gonna lose his house. His wife's like,
don't fight. He's like, I gotta fight. I gotta do
it right. That gets the uncles going one way. Then
there's Tom Hardy, who's the PTSD war hero who's just
this absolute savage monster. That's another one. You're already putting

(07:21):
dads and uncle brains. It ends. And then there's the
dad who's just so drunk from his hard life at
the mill, but he's seeking redemption. I was like, who
are we supposed to be rooting for, right, because none
of them are interested in rooting for each other even
by the end of the films, like this is a
mentally challenging wank for guys our age.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Wow, No, I never I you know what, I did
not put it in those terms, And maybe that is
my forthcoming.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Uh. A wank of the heart, Brian, this is not
a gross thing. A wank of the heart. That is
of the heart. Yes, that was written on the side
of the Monster Energy drink. That was the that's the
Valentine's Special Monster Camp.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
This is a twenty eleven movie directed by Gavin O'Connor.
So welcome back to the show. Gavin O'Connor, because he
also directed Miracle, which we covered a couple of years
ago as part of the Virtual Chattanooga Film Fest, And
he also directed those Accountant movies with Ben Affleck, which
I haven't seen, but I assume they're about a guy
trying to figure out how many times he can afford
to go to Dunkin Donuts per day.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
It's another one of those like how do we just
streamline autism. It's a very bizarre film. It's just Ben
Affleck like, I think this is what autisms is. That's
probably yeah, that's probably it. We nailed it. We nailed it.
Let's move on, let's do a sequel. Yeah, that's the movie.
My mom's like, have you seen The Accountant? And I
was like, why have you seen The Accountant? So many times?

(08:48):
It just comes up in conversation all the time.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
This movie is about two brothers who are both entering
into a mixed martial arts tournament and moving toward the
inevitability of having to face each other and very estranged
from one another, and they're both estranged from their formerly
alcoholic father. And one of the things I love in
all movies, and I talk about this a lot Griffy
is cinematic shorthand. Like when you watch enough movies, you

(09:13):
tend to start reading the visual language of what the
movie is trying to make you understand immediately. And this
movie opens with some of my favorite types of cinematic shorthand.
We get trains going over bridges, we get factories that
are billowing smoke. We get people coming out of a
tiny old church, and that is just the movie shorthand
to let you know this is a working class town
and we are dealing with pores.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah. And then all of a sudden, Nick Nolty has
like the cassette audio tape of Mouffe Thick and you're like,
but it's got brains, it's got brains. It's poors and brains,
poors with brains. Uh. I'll tell you this. I don't
know what it is, but this cinematic shorthand I am
always in immediately one of my biggest pet peeves or
movies about the plights of the rich, right, because I'm like,

(09:58):
what's their fucking problem?

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Right?

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I love movies that put me in this, like just it.
It's so kind of poppycock on its surface across the board,
but every single thing about this works because they put
it in this. Hey, we're one of you. We go
to diners not looking our best, we wear hoodies, maybe
you've had a few too many drinks. Right, there's something
about this movie that just immediately activated. And also you

(10:21):
know this, we're dad's now we're moving into our middle
age this movie. My kids kept looking over at me
and they're like, why are you crying so much? Yeah?
R and I yeah. I was just like They're like,
I don't get it, and I was like, you will,
you will. Boy. Some days it's like someday, once you
unpack my parenting with your therapist, you will get this. Yeah.
This is one of those movies.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
This is one of those movies that's like, you don't
need therapy as long as there's punching.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Do you know what I mean, this is the extent
that men will go to not address that they have feelings, right, Like,
this movie was actually ahead of its time, before we
had the manosphere. Sure, that's exactly what this movie's about.
It's like if I just get a gym and start
physically abusing my closest relatives, it's all gonna work out
for me. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
Absolutely, all we need to do is punch our way
through this and we'll be fine. Which is one of
the things I weirdly like about this, and I agree
with you. The working class aspect of this is very,
very relatable, and I love it. I mean, I'm definitely
gonna connect to a character like Nick Nolty in this movie,
way more than I'm gonna connect to like Edward Norton
in The Glass Onion or the kid cavalier motherfucker from

(11:27):
Alien Earth. Like, those are not characters that are going
to speak to me. But you know, Nick Nolty in
this movie, and I just got to say it, this
may be one of his best performances of his entire career,
and if not, it's definitely the most Nick Nolty performance
of his entire career.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah, there was a certain phase Nick Cage hit like
this right, where he all of a sudden just got
to do like himself playing Nick Cage, playing a character. Yeah,
and we all love it, right, And I think Nick
Nolty is one of the least appreciated actors who for
a time was white hot as the sun. Right, he
won a People Magazine Sexiest Man of the Year award
against all odds. Everybody was yeah, exactly that. I'll say,

(12:08):
He's like I've been angles the Hulk and then there
were just no more wanks after that, you know what
I mean, Like something happened and the wangs just stop short.
And I do feel like movies like this. I love
these movies where they pull these guys. It's like it's
been a couple of years since you've done any real work,
and you just see why they were at the top
of the game. I think Nick Nolty is astounding in
this film. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
This role of Patty was written for Nick Nolty by
co writers Anthony Timbachis and Gavin O'Connor, who also directed it.
Because they lived next to Nulty in Malibu. So like, Ie,
you fucking imagine that you you're in Malibu and you
go to take your trash out and just through the walls.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
You hear like, I used to be a sexy us
man alive. Your mobs used to rob it into me, like,
you know, just shit coming from the other house. Oh.
I used to love going to Malibu to get high
and drink and it never failed that eventually be having
fun and some old guy would walk down this is
a private beach, like, hey, man, suck our balls and
you know whatever, the cops will get called. I think

(13:08):
these guys just watching noalty for years. This is a
private beach, right, it's just shit face. Maybe he's just
in his underwear, the hair's a ski whatever, and they're like,
Jesus Christ, this guy's a Mentori built made ah help
you back, and they're on my private beach. Aget ah. Shit,
your dog's taking a dump on the sand. God damn it.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
It's like that sound if you hear that sound and
you're right, like seeing Nick Nolty in this movie. He
is grizzled, but he's the kind of grizzled where when
you say the word.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
It sounds those z's.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
That z sound sounds like the sizzle of a skillet
that just made six pounds of burnt bacon, you know.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Old Chevy truck starting up. Zee's yeah, right, yeah. Nick
Nolty looks like he's still absorbing man. But all he
absorbed was Marlboro reds and hard liquor.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Nick Nolty has never driven a car that didn't have
a cigarette lighter, even into like twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
He's just got like they're like the mosquitos from Jurassic Park,
just those ancient old sigbats that he just can't part with.
Nick Nolty still uses lard to comb his hair, like
do you know, he's just got a big bucket a
lard in a comb. He's just he's what we used
to be before the Internet and social media ruined us.
It's what Tony Soprano said, what happened to the strong,
silent timety. He's not silent, He's just screaming at things.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
Whatever happened to Nick Nulty with the Prince of Tides
is the guy who could have a slice akaba ghul with.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Like absolutely with Streisand we all saw that. We all
saw that.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
And in this movie, Carmela's like, but you like Nicknolty,
he just looks at him. In this movie goes not
this much like you know, like some pulp, some polp,
I like some petty, not this much Paddy.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
I do think though we're kind of on the edge
of this. The cast of this movie is fucking bananas.
There are so many not just that the actual like
fighters they got that, the pairing of Joel Edgerton and
this was kind of to me the Tom Hardy movie
that made him a thing. Yes, I just remember being like,
who's that guy with all the fucking traps and then

(15:09):
this led me to Bronson and this whole Tom party
rabbit hole, Yeah exactly what. But this was just like
he was so white hot with rage in this movie,
oh yeah, captivating, you couldn't take his eyes off it.
And Joel Edgerton's one of those great like I think
of him as like the uh Tim Allen's tool time right,
Like he just he's just gonna show up and get

(15:29):
the job done just right every time, without ever having
any kind of like special feature about him. But I
think the cast of this movie this is a really
hard sell, right. This is a this is a movie.
It's specifically designed to trigger all those like al Bundie
style uncles that I'm like, God if I had just
gotten to play in that fucking state championship varsity game, right,
the Uncle Ricos of the world, Oh shit, And I

(15:50):
think it. I think it's a fine line between that
kind of telenovella ham but still being just enough that
like the guy who still thinks he could win a
fight against teenagers skateboarding can buy into it. I guess
that's exactly what I love about this movie.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
And you're making me like you're putting me on the
couch right now, Like doing this podcast is how far
I will go to not go to therapy, because I
tend to find that it is my therapy doing this
show sometimes, because here I am watching this movie and
thinking like, oh, this is so ella, this is such
a prestige movie, et cetera, et cetera. And the more
we talk about it, the more I'm like, yeah, I no,
Griffy's right, this is this is completely silly, Like it

(16:26):
pulls off a lot of things that it should, but
in other ways, this is I have a list on
letterbox like dad movies, right, and this movie was on
that list until just now I realized, You're right, it
should be on the Uncle Rico list instead of the
Dad movies. This is an Uncle Rico movie, and it
is very much if a monster energy drink.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Wrote Rocky, like, You're so right about all these assessments.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yes, And I'm realizing now that's kind of what I
love about this movie is that it wants to be
that big, prestige dramatic movie, and it hits a lot
of those notes. It doesn't it's not batting a thousand
by any starch of the imagination, but it has those
lofty expectations. But at the same time, as I'm reading
the research for my research team, I find little bits
about how you haven An O'Connor literally picked the song

(17:07):
for the end of the movie and then played it
over and over again while he wrote the end of
the movie. That's the kind of shit I would do
if I was writing a movie, and I'm very stupid.
So like, I'm starting to realize that maybe this is
a little cheesier than I was really giving it credit for,
and thus even more appropriate to be covered on this show.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Right again, they literally made a Kevin James movie that
was the exact same plot as this, where he was
just a tea. It's called here Comes the Boom. I believe, Yeah,
and it's just a teacher who somehow can magically beat
cage fighters who never stopped training.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Right.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
And again, I think with this movie, this movie makes
the proper calculation, which it has the aesthetics and Nick
Nolty and some of the cashtryre like, wow, they're going
for awards. This movie knows it every turn, don't over explain,
don't go too deep in it. When they're fighting about
their past, they just kind of let out these bits
about mom and dad's drunkenness, the poster of the Greek

(18:03):
wrestling champion record versus Tommy's. They just let out just enough.
This movie always knows that the more that you are
activating your brain, you cannot get those fucking, you know,
nicotine staying monster tears that you need from this movie.
And it just goes all heart. Right, Tommy is all heart.
Joel Edgerton's character, right, who's sitting there losing his family.

(18:26):
He comes home and his wife's like crying on his
lap and he's like, I gotta do this. We're gonna
lose the house. It just it knows exactly what this
movie is, which is this is and I think the
best sports movies know this, right, We're very nostalgic about
sports because it's the chance where we can defeat the monster.
We can defeat the dragon. For one day, we can
be great. A lot of those stories don't end well.
We don't want to hear that shit right. We want

(18:48):
that moment in the sun. We want to believe that
for one day, we could be great. And this movie
so over indexes on heart. I think it was the
absolute right play. I think that's why it didn't get
any award buzz, but I think it's what makes it
a better movie.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
After these messages, we'll be right back. The Kumate the
World's Ultimate competition. The true story of a contest so
deadly it must be held in total secrecy.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Now one American has come to this hidden location to
win the toughest battle of him to have full contact karate.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Martial arts sensation.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Jean Claude von Dam fights to be world champion in
Blood Sport Rated R.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Blood Sport starts Friday at a theater near you. And
you know what.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
This podcast is not sponsored by Better HEELP, So I
don't want to talk about therapy too much, but if
I can talk about psychoanalytic again.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
For just a moment.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
What I'm realizing, not only with this movie, but in
the course of doing this podcast, is that legitimacy, much
like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So
whatever you get out of a movie like this, the
movie is worth at least that much. So you can't
really discount the entire thing, and you also can't, you know,
over praise the movie like it really just depends on

(20:05):
what you take out of it personally, and for me,
I do take a lot out of this movie, and
I think there are things that Gavin O'Connor has done,
Like I think Miracle is legitimately one of the greatest
sports movies ever made. It's also telling one of the
greatest sports stories ever told. Like it's based on a
true story. This is not based on a true story.
This is really just based on what seems to be

(20:26):
a few UFC matches that Gavin O'Connor had watched, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Like some guy who just listened to a lot of
Joe Rogan and he had this fucking fever dream. That's
what this movie is.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
Absolutely But I will say the lightning in a bottle
of this film is that they got stars on the Rise.
They got Tom Hardy, who came Exploding out of the
Gate with Bronson in two thousand and eight, but that
was largely a festival Darling movie, and that that same
year he did Rock and Roller with Guy Ritchie and
people were starting to take notice and I was on

(20:56):
board by that point. But Inception in twenty ten was
his first big box office smash movie. And then the
very next year I went to the press screening for
this and I had just seen him an Inception, and
then I saw him in this and I was all
in on him, not only as an actor but as
a physical force of nature. And it was shortly after

(21:16):
seeing this press screening that they announced he was gonna
play Baine and I was like, yep, yeah, on board.
You see this and you're like, that's fucking vain. I mean,
that's the thing. I think I had seen him in
other movies, but there's something about this. It's just such
a fucking animalistic exercise. Yes, you cannot take your eyes
off of this guy for a second. And that was
the moment I was like, oh my god, we're looking

(21:38):
at the next guy. And he did become that.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
He took more of like a not as much Blockbuster,
but he does very interesting work. But you just you
knew immediately and to your point earlier, I think a
lot of things right inception rock and ROLLA Bronson. There's
a lot of us in the cenophile community, right, and
a lot of your patrons and the fans of this
show are fucking insane in their movie knowledge.

Speaker 5 (21:59):
Right.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Every day I'm like, I know a lot about movies,
and I go on your fucking discord and I'm like,
I guess I don't know shit about ah. But they
I think we index on very different things. My brother,
who I lost a year or two ago, right, this
was his favorite film, so rewatching it. I got to
sit with that, and he was just a guy who
had some troubles in his life, and to him, he

(22:20):
saw that Tommy character is that's fucking me up there.
This movie meant everything to him, right, And I think
a lot of us sentophiles. We talk about the art
and all this kind of stuff. This is one of
those movies that is just an open nerve for some people,
and I think it is so cathartic for people who
are down and out right, even in a way that
Rocky wasn't this just feels because there's something about Mma.

(22:43):
It just feels more of a backyard varietal to me, right, sure, yeah, yeah,
but it's like there are people who watch this movie
and they just latch on. I think that's why Rocky
was so big, right, the first one, not the others
as much, but just latching onto these guys who are
at the bottom and refuse to fucking bend. There's something
about that for certain audiences that I think we don't

(23:04):
appreciate enough when it comes to these kind of kind
of cinema talks, right, And there's there's something beautiful in that, right,
there is something beautiful, right, take out some of the
kind of other aesthetics of the film. There is something
beautiful about just the guy who doesn't quit. That always
fucking works. I think for dads, for uncles, you know,
when you're in charge of someone else, you have these

(23:25):
thoughts about, man, I'm fucking ruining this kid. Yeah, I
think this movie hits in that, like it kind of
hit me. I was like feeling the journey of all
three characters in a beautiful way.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
It's one of those First of all, I did not
know that this movie was a favorite of your brothers
and that I appreciate you sharing that and it makes
you even more the perfect person to talk about this
with me on this episode.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, I was really excited because when you said it,
I was like, oh boy, this is gonna be a
tough heartwink again. Wow.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Wow, I must have come off like an asshole. I
did not know that, No, you didn't know, but I.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Was just like, you know what, this will This will
be a good thing for me to kind of reconnect
with that. And again, I think it's one of those
things people who think of the movie Warrior, I don't
think attach any kind of emotional weight to it. It's
male soap opera, sure, But when I watched it, I
got put into his headspace and I saw what he
saw in that Tom Hardy character, that is I was

(24:17):
kind of washing. I was like, yeah, he was just
a dickhead, right, That was all me and you watch
it and it gave me at least a deeper appreciation,
not just because they're great actors, but I do think
the script is better giving them the ammunition to really
sink its claws into me in that way. So because
it was you, I was like, I'll definitely sit and
rewatch it. So we did a mistake right after it happened,

(24:40):
where my co host Standino was like, hey, man, we
should talk about dead poets society. I was like, yeah, cool,
there's nothing weird in that movie. I love that movie.
So there are just cinematic triggers occasionally, But yeah, I thought,
I don't know, maybe I was a little nostalgic for it,
but I just think there's such a lovely this is
this guy. Let me put it this way. I'm know

(25:01):
I'm rambling, if this makes any fucking sense. I think
this is the kind of manosphere thinking that I think
is actually mildly constructive, right, Like, this is the least
scummy version. It's become so grotesque now. But there's something
just in this believing in yourself, working hard, you know,
fight your way out of it. I get why my
brother was in love with this movie.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
Yeah I can. I can see that one thousand percent.
And I do think you're right, because this is the
first time I've watched this since becoming a dad, and
it does hit on a different live. There's a lot
of movies I've noticed how oh yeah, dude, differently after
you've had kids. But the idea that you know, we
as men are, especially parents, are dealing with the shit

(25:44):
from our own past, not even necessarily all related to
how we were parented, but just the world as a
traumatic place, and we all carry a little bit of
that with us, so having to deal with that internally,
but then also trying to raise your kids right, but
then also being afraid of them being, you know, so
seeped in their own trauma and the things that they experienced.
Whether it's your fault or not, the world is just
in a horrible place, so that fear is constantly on

(26:06):
your mind. And like, I think that's why this movie
plays so well now, as it played well for me
when I wasn't a father, it plays just as or
actually better, I think now, because again it's whatever you
take away from a movie like this, But I do
think there are legitimate strides that this film makes that
I don't see in a lot of movies. And I'll
get to that in just a second, but I want

(26:27):
to just say the other thing. The other lead of
this movie, Joel Edgerton, talking about a star on the rise.
I first saw him in a Fantastic Fest movie called
Acolytes in two thousand and eight. So two thousand and
eight was actually my introduction year to both Tom Hardy
and Joel Edgerton, I think at the same fantastic fest
even but this movie Warrior was the one that really

(26:49):
put him on my radar, and I just you know,
they do so much to make this a relatable character.
He's a science teacher, he's got two little girls, one
of them as a heart condition, He's struggling to pay
his bills. Like, there is so much about this character
that is relatable, and I think it speaks to the
truly remarkable thing about this movie is that it is

(27:11):
a sports film that has the gall the absolute unmitigated
cajones to pit two underdogs against each other, set them
up the path toward inevitable confrontation, and yet the audience
finds itself rooting for both of them. How a how
do you make that work? And how do you get

(27:33):
past the fact that on paper it shouldn't work.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, it's one of those It's such a ludicrous premis right.
It's the underdogs, like we snuck into the big tournament,
and they're like, both of these fucking guys sneak into
the big tournament. Uh? No, one finds out their brothers.
Tommy is like a war hero that goes big and
there it's like, ah, there's so many haymakers that they're
throwing at you in this fucking mailstrom of the tournament.

(27:57):
But again, what this movie does, and I think think
the smart thing this movie does that makes it latch
on for that audience, This is not a team sport.
This is one guy in the cage, whether your dad's there,
your dad's not, your dad falls off, whatever it is
you in that cage, and whoever stands across from you,
that is the obstacle you must become right and the
kind of manifestation of all of that childhood trauma being

(28:20):
your brother. It weirdly works so well for me. Right
as absurd as this movie is, because again I think
this movie's trying to get at a lot of these
underlying issues of you know, macho neis and again I
would say we are probably two of the softest men
who have ever loved, but you know, we go through
this all the time. It puts it in this kind
of looney tune sports setting right like this, This is

(28:42):
almost as ludicrous as like The Running Man, just so
that we can approach these things because there's thousands of
great dramas every year about fathers, sons, brothers that no
one fucking watches. Right, the tournament gives it this safety
and somehow creates this beautiful kind of Thunderdome cocoon where
whatever happens in that cage makes perfect sense and we

(29:04):
just have the absolute ability to just let go of
logic and just fucking feel the fight as it's happening.
I actually think that's the greatest achievement of the movie,
that the tournament format doesn't completely bog it down. I
would agree.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
I would also ask this question, when are you and
I sitting down to write Cocoon three colon beyond Thunderdome?

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Oh you are speaking? Can you imagine having had my
first colonoscopy? I feel primed to write that movie. You
play the dope, you face the scope. Yeah, it's just.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
A bunch of old fighters thrown into like one massive
tournament under a big dome, like we could.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
We could definitely write this movie, Oh for sure, dude.
I think we do it at like a facility where
all the like old timey wrestlers who aren't doing so
good they get housed in this one like Shanty Village
and we revive them and have a battle at the end.
I love it.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
I'm signing a three picture deal just to make this
a three part movie.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah. The boss is Rick Flair, who just won't stop
not getting hitted pro wrestling, like please. So I have
a cousin who lives in uh Saint Pete, right right
outside of Tampa, and he says, you see Rick Flair
all the fucking time when you go out around there,
and I was like, that's is that cool or sad?

(30:27):
I think I'm hitting the age where it's not as
cool to me anymore. It's just sad.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
I'm just now realizing, as you're saying this, that some
of the more recent AW pay per views kind of
feel like Cocoon three beyond Thunderdome anywhere.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yes, that's what I'm saying because I turned it on
the other day. I got something and my my kids
were like, oh, this thing happened in wrestling, and I
was like, these guys are still wrestling, like my god.
I was like Jesus, ah, Yeah, I think that's the
Cocoon mode. Though I think we steal the warrior thing.
We do some kind of anal Jesus cocoon cream really glad,

(30:58):
and that's how we bring to finish the way it did.
I was wondering where we were going. That's the stipulation
of the match. First penetration wins.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
You put way too much pause between anal and Jesick.
That's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
I was trying to remember the word I'm done, Brian,
and I drank a lot at dinner.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
So tom Hardy in this movie plays Tommy and Tommy Conlin,
but he's going by Tommy Reardan because he is a
former marine. He's got a lot of ptsc also has
a lot of trauma associated with his father, Patty, played
by Nick Nolty, who at the beginning of this movie,
he kind of shows up on Patty's door and says,
you know, I'm back, and he's really giving him a
hard time about the past. Clearly, Patty used to have

(31:40):
a problem with drinking and it ruined his marriage, and
there was some spousal abuse going on. A lot of
things that Tommy hasn't forgiven him for. But Tommy also
wants to participate in this fighting tournament, and the one
thing that Patty seemed to be good at as a
father was actually being a fight trainer. So you know
with the full on understanding that this is not reconciling.

(32:00):
He doesn't want anything to do with him on a
personal level, but he wants him to train him for
this tournament. So they start bunking together and training for
this tournament. And then we're also introduced to Brendan Conlin
played by Joel Edgerton, who has mentioned as a science teacher,
he's behind on his bills, he's got two daughters when
is a heart condition, and to make extra money, he
participates in what essentially are the tough Man tournaments.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
You know from from that.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Movie we talked about tough enough, that's what's going on,
and so he also ends up entering this tournament because
these fights have landed him in hot water with the
school administration, who have put him on unpaid leave while
they think about because he keeps showing up to work
with black eyes and split lips and they have an
issue with it. So that's kind of the basic structure

(32:44):
of the movie is you got the one brother over
oh in their brothers, And I think it's funny because
the movie does everything to again cinematic shorthand let you
know that these two characters are related. But then it
still feels like they try to sell it as a
surprise when Nick Nolty shows up at Joel Edgerton's door
and I'm like, no, no, no, guys, you already given us
all the clues, mister policemen, Like we were.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
We saw the poster. We know exactly what's happening. We
know it's not one warrior singular. We get it. We
saw the poster for cum Gutter, like we know that
these two come. Yeah, Cocoon three, cum Gutter anal Jesus,
the Final roy Battle Royale. It's a long one. We'll
have to workshop it.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
I didn't know you had your own brand of mad
Lib books, but I feel like them.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
I wanted't noted for the record too. I've gotten some
messages from other junk Food Cinema listeners. Brian said, come Gutter,
not me. I want that noted. In the Annals of
Fucking Junk Food Cinema History.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
And the Analgesis of Junk Food Cinema History, it is
noted that, yes, I made the Joe Coumgutter. It's kind
of like a unibrow. It's just one that connects between two. Look,
that's not the point. It's not the point.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
That's not the point. These two brothers are the gutters
and their dad's this behavior is the com that's either
here or there. Think on that while we continue this
conversation speaking of your uncles.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
Uh, I feel like the movie has that tough enough
type of mentality within its cast because a couple of
things that I found in the research here, or that
my research team found and highlighted for me, is that
Joel Edgerton actually tore his mcl in the cage during
production and they had since for six weeks. Tom Hardy
had a broken toe, broken ribs, and a broken finger.

(34:20):
Like these guys were going for it.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah. I saw a thing at one was it like
two years ago where it just came out some guy
posted He's like, yeah, I signed up for a blue
belt jiu jitsu tournament and Tom Hardy just showed up
and whipped everyone's ass. It was that like a local gymnasium,
So yeah, he's committed to the life.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
He heard Rick Flaher might show up, so he came
to take the belt. I think as why he's yeah right.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
I was like, could you imagine it's like, dude, you're rich,
you're a famous actor. Everyone wants to fuck you. Can
you just let the fucking other forty year old dads
have something? Do you need the fucking blue belt Champions?

Speaker 4 (34:54):
But I think there's something. I think there is something
naturally sort of symbiotic. There's a It is meant to
the fact that these two guys were cast at their
hungriest points in their careers, because they do really feel
like these characters. They feel like they are desperately trying
to prove something and desperately wanting to be the best
that they can be. In fact, apparently when Tom Hardy

(35:15):
got to America, his flight from England gets in around midnight,
and instead of going, you know, to his hotel, he
shut up at Gavin O'Connor's door at midnight the night
before the audition, and.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
They end up living together for five days. Like he
is method to the point of maybe we should call
the police, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's like
I just gotta let this happen. I think this guy
just wins the role. Cancel auditions. Yeah again, I think
you see that a lot, like in the beach scene, right,
it's classic cinema shorthand. Right. It's like the old Western
shot of them walking up and you see in that

(35:48):
scene those two are fucking It's like watching a fight.
It's great great actor. I think Ray Fine said that right,
like watching two great actors is like watching a tennis match. Yeah,
you felt that in these two they were both try
to win the scene without upstaging their partner.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
Right.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
It wasn't selfish acting, but they were both going all
the way to the depths. And I was like, that's
exactly you have to have that scene in this kind
of movie for it to work. And yeah, you just
see these guys like right on the edge and this
is the time where it's all congealing. They're the star
of the picture, and it just I mean, it just works. Man.

(36:24):
I think those two because Edgerton gets a lot of
the not as fun acting beats. Yeah right, it has
to be like the somber adult Tom Hardy. They're like, hey,
do you just want to go sniff whatever and just
have your eyes bulging out of your head and if
you could get some traps, that'd be great. They're both amazing,
but in very different avenues. I think that's where the
beauty in that collision lies.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
Dude, you're making me realize that when he played Baine,
he had those massive traps as well, Like Tom Hardy
has more traps than Kevin McAllister.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
I don't understand what exercise you do to just work
that part of the body you have to the point
that your your head just recedes into them. But it's
it's incredible what he does here.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
There's something about traps that just turns the male mind
on right. Like I remember when we were in college
and brock Lesnar first came to Wwe Sure, You're like,
what the fuck is that? And he'd always do that
thing where he'd like shrug his traps and he'd be like,
oh my god, his fucking traps are hitting the top
of his ears, and you're just like, I'm upset. There's
something about that. I think it might be the most
erotic thing to other men that in like a Byset vein.

(37:28):
There's something about that that at primal level, we're all like,
I'm pretty gay for that, whatever that is. Yeah, I'm
one hundred percent in.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
We managed to be attracted to brock Lesnar despite the
fact that he looks like the body they put Kraying
in and teenage Mutan Ninja Turnal.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Like this was sick abs. I always wondered that about Crag.
I was like, was that the only model?

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Yeah, you're gonna like put his body in Stephen Tobolowski
and see what happens.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
You know what I mean? Yeah? It was King Kong
Bundy the only available model? Like that is that all
we're doing. I was like, he's so fat that he
has suspenders while he wears underwear and red booties. I
was like, there was no other options, Like I've seen Voltron,
I've seen all these shows.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
At this point, Wow, King Kong Bundy reference. I was
not expected. Are we gonna hit some some Bee Brian
Blair references while we're at.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Coco Beware that's the body eye want to chose him?

Speaker 4 (38:23):
You when the scene work in this is very much
like sparring because you're working on your moves, You're trying
to perfect these things, but you're not trying to knock
the other person out. There is a give and take
with sparring. There is a sort of pact that has formed.
There an agreement that you know, we're not trying to
actually deliver the knockout blow where we're we're both in

(38:43):
this together, so I mean it is the scene work
in this is definitely sparring, and the sparring that takes
place at Colt's Jim where Tommy is working out. I
love the insane collection of real fighters in this movie,
and then even like extras at the gym, I feel
like had to be real people involved in the professional

(39:04):
fighting world, Like did you did you spot the guy
at Colts Gym with the tapestry of face tattoos, the
little skinny, white bald dude. Yeah, get a massive dollar
sign on his shaved dome.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
He trains boxers so that he has enough money to
go to the gathering every year. Oh who Cash Faratu?
Is that who we're talking about? Yeah? I think that
that man is a Juggalo supreme for sure, But it's
just it's the flavor because I used to when I
was in La I used to do jiu jitsu and muytai, right,
and I trained at this gym that was owned and
operated by powder Sean Patrick Flannery. But occasionally we would

(39:41):
have real fighters come in there and they would always
call me in. They're like, you are a wrestler and
you're kind of a big fat guy. Uh, could you
just come in and tire out like you? Riyah Faber
came in all these fighters. So there was a time
I was when this movie was coming out. I was
really invested in the MMA thing. And if you were
a really big fan, right, they're so so many faces
you recognize in this movie, right from just the TapouT crew.

(40:04):
That was like a huge thing when the tap Out
and Affliction shirts were everywhere. Those guys were in it.
You've got Nathan Great Mark Quard was a UFC fighter.
You've got Anthony Rumble Johnson who died tragically. He was
a great UFC fighter. Kurt Angle, Right, Like, there's so
many fighters in this movie. I had forgotten completely that Cooba,

(40:26):
the unbeaten Russian badass, the cull lee of this movie,
if you will, is played by Kurt fucking Angle. It's yeah,
I did too. There's something about like the way they
announced him in this movie. You just imagine like a
Drago like figure. I think, Brian. That's the other thing
this movie nailed is if you make it heavyweight, you're

(40:46):
inherently telling a bunch of people this is not your fantasy.
There's something about middleweight where everyone's like five eight to
five ten, right, that means there are one hundred and
eighty five pounds. There's something about that that makes it
feel more accessible to other guys, because that's the thing.
Kurt Angle is not a large man, and he looks
I don't know what kind of drug phase he was

(41:07):
in this movie came out, but whatever they were doing
to his eyes and cheekbones in this movie, it took
me a couple seconds to even realize it was Kurd
Angle once he was on the screen.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
And I can guarantee you when I saw this at
a press screening because that was in twenty eleven, it
was in the period of my life when I had
stopped watching wrestling, I guarantee you I did not recognize
Kurd Angle in this movie because it was like learning
it for the very first time seeing it today for
this podcast, and.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, easily.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
When I showed my eight year old, my eight year old,
I was like, look that's Kurd You know, my eight
year old watch is wrestling. He watches all the wrestling
I watch. He's very into it. And I showed him,
was like, look, look it's Kurd Angle. He goes, that's
not krd Angle.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
I was like, yeah, yeah it is. It goes, Dad
kurd Angle doesn't have a beard. Yeah, you're like kurd Angle. Also,
when you knew him was not chock full of cocaine,
this is a different kurd Angle than you were. This
was like t an a kurt Angle. This is DNA
M DNA kurd Angle for sure. Uh. When the arenas

(42:09):
get smaller, your habits get bigger.

Speaker 5 (42:11):
You mean absolutely, after these messages, we'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
They think they can get away with murder, but vandamns
out for a dage who lose are simple, the stakes
are high.

Speaker 5 (42:29):
That's him a born killer. You win, you live, the
guy you lose.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
You die. Lionheart rent it r It starts Friday, January eleventh,
that theaters everywhere.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
I also want to throw a shout out to the
insane supporting cast of this movie, starting with Kevin Dunn.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
I fucking loved Kevin. Great character actor.

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Uh you know, And what I love about Kevin Dunn is,
no matter the type of character he is playing in
a movie, there is something impossibly likable about Kevin Dunn.
So he's the stuffy principle in this movie, you know,
reading Edgerton the riot act like you're you know, we
can't have.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
This and blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
But even before he walks out of the room after
that lecture, he turns around, he's like, UFC huh, son
of a bitch. And by the end of the movie,
he's there with those kids at that drive in, which
is now where I want to watch the fucking Super
Bowl is and a goddamn drive in, because that looks amazing, And.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
I'm telling you what that was. Another thing that had
me crying, right was him just like because he does
that thing, He's like, you don't belong in there with
those animals, and Joel ed Schinton has the great line
like I was one of those animals. He does the ohoh,
UFC fuck. Watching him scream in his house alone, that
was a moment I teared up and I was like,
look at this fucking guy, like because he always plays
like authoritative figures or dads, but he is like that

(43:53):
I have to lay down the law, but I'm charming.
I get it. I'm the cool guy boss. Just one
of the greatest weapons ever. Every movie should have Kevin
Dunn in it. In my opinion A thousand percent. And
then we also have Frank Grillo in this movie.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
Yeah who Honestly, Frank Grillo looks like a baby in
this movie, but a baby that would try to sell
you low.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
T meds and a multi level marketing scheme. I was
gonna say he hadn't fully embraced his like final Pokemon
transformation of like overly vany, leathery floridian, like if you
saw the movie were Wolves, right like that that Frank
Grilla A thousand percent.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
And you know what it's this is a breakout year
for him because this is the same year that he
did The Gray, which.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
Oh yeah, I thought about that movie. By the way,
Warrior and The Gray.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
That's a double feature that ironically is a surefire cure
for low T do you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Like just watch the type movies. You turn on The
Gray after this, and it's just fucking grizzled old Kurt
Angle chew on limbs. I brought a broken freaking neck.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
I remember, by the way, another thing those movies have
in common they were both shot by the same cinematographer,
Massonobu talking Yanaki no tagi yanagi. I'm never gonna get
that right. He also shot silver Linning's Playbook and The
Punisher Dirty Laundry, which was the short film which made
us all want Thomas Jane to come back to the role.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Do you remember that from twenty twelve? Yes? I do? Yeah,
uh yeah, I did. Man the Punisher. That's a whole
other canon. That's another battling low t movie that might
not have worked as well.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
No, I feel like The Punisher has been co opted
by people who watch this movie for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Do you know what I mean? Yeah, there is something
incredible about people who The Punisher would definitely unlive, just
being like hell, yeah right, it's you obviously have not
read the comics. You have no idea what this is about. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:40):
If there's one character you can't say not my with
you can't say not my Punisher. There's really only one
type of Punisher, and he doesn't like you.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, it's kind of those people who are like, yeah,
Batman and me would be cool to take. No, No,
there are certain guys It's like, No, there's a reason
the Punisher works alone. He doesn't have a lot of friends.
Because it's even around you long enough, you're gonna get punished. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
The one thing Batman and the Punisher don't have is
a web a circle of friends that use their their
trucks as their profile pick while they're wearing Oakley's.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (46:09):
Like, that's not a thing either Batman or the Punishers
surround themselves with.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Yeah, it's my favorite profile tag, like ready for war.
It's like, look like you're ready for the cracker barrel
buffet again? Brother? What is their war? Crippy? The Hey,
I'm also fighting the war against carbs? I get it.
Is it diabetic? I get it.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
I've seen people online describe them as gravy seals, and.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
To me, that's the gas moniker. Ever. Yes, there is
a a just pitch perfect lack of awareness in these
men that I appreciate the internet content, but I'm also
saddened by the world.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
For example, I don't think the Punisher would use Beethoven
to train a fighter, but Frank Grillo definitely.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Does in this movie. He trained s Brendon.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
Quote like its Beethoven, and we see that in the
exciting trading montage, because you have to have at least
one and Gavin O'Connor knows this in a sports movie
you gotta have at least one training montage. And he's
training him to the sounds. They're sparring to the sounds
of Ode de Joy, like he's training to fight Hans Kruber,
for fuck's sake.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
You know what's even better about this montage, though, sports
movie montage is one of my favorite things in all
of cinema. This movie does the weird split screen. We're like,
it's not half and half. It's like corners, right, it's
like half a Brady Bunch. Sure you get two trading
montages at the same time, cut together, it's even better.

(47:36):
One fighter training for the big fight is incredible. Two
I mean that's when it was an easy wank. That
was the easy way.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
Yeah, it's like if Brian DePalma worked for ESPN. This
is what it was. Split timeter. Everything is split screen,
and the split screens have split screens, and we're just
we're fine with that.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
I love it. It's very much you know again boilerplate.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
This movie understands the boilerplate but has the balls to
be like, okay, but what if you were rooting for
both fighters, like you go to Rocky four, right, we
watched Drago and Rocky train simultaneously, but we're clearly in
one of their true.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
But yeah, but never with half of the screen missing.
That was the key. That's true me.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
Two different worlds seemed to be added later, kind of
a situation that's kind of like that's like how my
aunt puts together like our family reunion photos in eyemovie.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
There's something about it that was titillating you.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
But I mean, again, the emotional depth of this movie
that I do think is there. Whether it's you know,
sometimes a little over rot is up for debate, but
I love that we get into this backstory for Tommy,
who essentially just shows up into the movie right and
then we're like, oh, he clearly was you know, he
was in the Marines. And then it's like, well wait
we we go over to a rack and people are

(48:50):
looking for him. Did he desert?

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (48:52):
No?

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Is he a hero?

Speaker 4 (48:53):
He's calling the family of a fallen comrade. Like there's
so many layers going on here that he's not just
you know, it's it wouldn't be written man in the script,
like you know, Tommy twenty eight Marine with PTSD and
that would be it. Like they really do kind of
plumb the depths of who this character is and what
makes him so angry and what is the trauma that
he's It's not just I hate my dad, because I

(49:15):
feel like, if all you want from a character is
I hate my Dad, you just listen to a Corn album.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
You know, you don't have to watch a movie like that.
Just go watch the movie Problem Child, Like that's all
you have to do. Yeah, that's a classic I Hate
my Dad movie.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Here's the Netflix Monster series about the bow Tie Killer
from the first Problem Child.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
That's what I want to Yeah, he was at this
comedy club in la he dropped a racial slur and
then it just evolved from there.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
But with ed Gans's voice, you know, like he's like
the Bowtie Killer, but with Edgans's voices.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Like Junior, we're gonna be friends now, mother will let me.
I still am shocked that an entire series season in
TV and Nol was like, is this are we doing?

Speaker 3 (49:57):
This?

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Is this the voice for We're just We're cool with
his voice? Yeah? Like, how long were we training for this? Right?

Speaker 3 (50:04):
This?

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Okay? All right, cool, We're going We're going for it.
We're going for it.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
I feel like, if there's an odor in this movie,
who would sympathize with that. It's Tom Hardy like, oh yeah,
I know they made a big fucking stink about the
voice I did in Batman.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
Don't worry about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that was
at least cool. This was insane. But I will say
to your point, uh, the scene where I thought it
all unlocked for Tommy and you knew this was a
movie in Bitter Hands. He comes into the gym, right,
and they're like, hey, I got you in this spar
and he's like, ugh, right, he's doing his k ban
thing and he's like, hey, ten percent and a thank
you would be great. He goes upstairs and when he

(50:35):
calls his buddy's wife, he immediately turns into a normal person. Hey,
how you doing, how are the kids? Oh that's great.
You see this whole other side for the one person
on earth he's not violently trying to destroy And I thought, oh,
that's because that's the thing. You can't have a character
like this all the way without it being a cartoon
unless they have something. Even the scene at the end

(50:58):
when there's that brutal fuck. I remember I was watching
him with my kid and I just looked at it
was like, man, I hope you don't fucking hate me
that much someday, and he was like never. But it's
when Nick Nolty's like, hey, Tommy, you're a war hero. Yeah,
this is great. Yeah, and he's just like, I liked
you better when you were drug At least he had balls.
He starts fucking screaming at him. He throws quarters at
him and just like get out here. And he goes
back in the room and fucking Nick Nolty's there in

(51:19):
his bathrobe, fucking reciting Moby Dick, just like completely fucking
broken down. Dude. It's iry thinking about it. It was
such a devastating scene. This is another like as a
dad scene, right, and when Tommy just brings him to
the room and pulls him up because Nick Nolty's not
sober now, right, He's not okay, So Tommy can relent

(51:41):
and love him for a moment and if not love him,
protect him. Yeah. Right. I think there's some really good
writing in that. I thought that was really like when
he pulls him up, right, he's trying to pull him
up like a sack of shit, and he just like
lets him lay on his lap. The movie we had
followed with this guy doing that. Those moments, I mean

(52:02):
that that that really teered me up a lot. I
appreciated those moments.

Speaker 4 (52:06):
I agree one thousand percent because that, first of all,
that's the moment where Nulty earned his Oscar nod, which
he did get for this movie.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Yeah, well deserved. And it's not the heartbreaking part of that.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
The part that gets me, the part where I lost
it is just like you it wasn't him, you know,
because he's listening to Moby Dick the entire time, because
I mean, and not to this is a ham fisted metaphor,
I get it, whatever, But you know, this is a
character whose own white whale, his own unobtainable obsession that
will cost him everything is being a father again, I
get that, and that's why he's listening to Moby Dick

(52:36):
the entire time.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
But it's not him.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
Like you know, he's gone back into the bottle and
he's just completely lost. He's screaming, stopped the ship, stop
the ship here. But he's he's starting to identify with
a hab as a bastard whatever. But yeah, when Hardy
hugs him, that's when I lose it. When you know,
despite all of this, that kindness has been restored, like it.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
It gets me every fucking time. Yeah, and you see
that like he is a hab right, he'll never have
that again. And the only moment Tommy shows him a kindness,
he's fucking blackout drunk, and you know he's gonna wake
up the next day and know that he fucked up,
and it's it's another scar on the body again. I
think I think it works so well because Joel Edgerton
has those moments the whole time. He has the wife

(53:17):
who doesn't want to see him in an ambulances, he
has the daughters, he's fixing their little pianos. He has
that the whole movie. Tom Hardy gets those two moments truly,
and they really solidify at the end because I think
the rest of the movie, the soldier thing, I was like,
it kind of flippantly happens. I don't think that would
have been enough for us to be cheering for both

(53:38):
of them. When you see him be an actual human being.
Now you get it because we all have a family
member or we went through it ourselves, and it's the
classic hurt people, hurt people, right, you just I know
those people and I know it's Vogue Online today in
the manosphere to be like, if you have bad luck,
that's your fault. It's all your fucking fault. Sometimes it's
not man to your point. The world is a fucking

(53:59):
brutal fuck in place. It wasn't his fault that his
dad wasn't drunk and abusive. It wasn't his fault his
mom got cancer. This guy's been through the shit and
we all know people like that or have had moments
like that. And I think seeing that he's not all
the way destroyed allows us to get past the fucking
serial killer like battling he's doing, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
And I should say I don't think I've mentioned that
it's the estrangement between Tommy and Brendan. Is that Tommy
left with mom, and you know it was Brendan's decision
to stay with dad, and that's what caused the estrangement
between them.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
And then we get to this third act, which is.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
Sparta War on the Shore, because I mean, it's the
moment we need in a UFC movie to make it
worth watching, which is the tournament and the kumata, if
you will. Any movie like this needs a kumata, and
I feel like we keep bringing that up and I
truly do feel that MMA is kind of the last sanctioned,
socially accepted blood sport that we have, So it is

(54:56):
is kind of a one to one comparison. But I
love that with this tournament you have this confrontation that
you know we're building towards, but just the emotional confrontation
of the two of them on the beach, you do
feel for both of them. They're hurting each other, but
you understand both their positions. Again, the fact that we're
rooting for both of these characters is remarkable. What's also

(55:17):
remarkable is that you have comedian Brian Kallen in this,
essentially playing Joe Rogan.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Yeah, this is the part that has not aged. Well,
here's my question, and this is a little bit of
a sidebar. At one point during Brendan's first match, he
the other commentator believes in Brendan. This character that Brian
Kallen is playing does not, And at one point he

(55:43):
holds up a goldfish in a bag and says, that's
Brendan Conlin right there.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
He's about to get dropped in with the Sharks. And
I have questions, did you really have some poor Pia
go buy you a fucking live fish in a bag
just for one joke, because as near as I can tell,
y'all aren't even on TV. So like, did you just
do all this to pull a visual gag on the

(56:08):
fucking radio?

Speaker 1 (56:09):
Like, what the hell is happening? What is this? Like?
Why did you need Why couldn't you just say he's
a fish that's gonna get thrown to the sharks. Why
did you need to put a hat on a hat
on a fish and hold him a fish in a bag?
I was so confused by this. He's like, this is
gonna crush in the drive ins with high school kids.
This is gonna propel my podcast for I like to

(56:30):
think that this guy has h women. They probably don't
like him. He's trying to impress him and he steals
this right from an aquarium at a buffet in the casino.
That's how I imagine that moment when.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
It's like someone needs to lean over and go, dude,
I know they're both underdogs, but could you take these
beagles out from under the desk? Like, no, I get
they're underdog. I get no, dude, dude, dude, I understand
the reference. I think you can just say it the
other announcers like, was carrots Top booked? What are we doing?
It's a problemedian? Yeah, what what are we doing?

Speaker 1 (57:01):
He's not even a real fight commentator, He's a fucking
prompt comedian. Oh my well. Also, he's just exclusively wrong
in every single fight. The movie's very unkind to him,
which I feel like has aged well. Oh but yeah,
he gets every single opinion wrong. He's a prop comic.
He's just fucking gross. He's just a gross addition to
this movie.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
There's part of me that wishes carat top had played
this role and he'd be like, Oh, look.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
These guys are both gonna have cauliflower.

Speaker 4 (57:27):
Ears, and he's got like little fake ears with real
cauliflowers on them or something like.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
I would have loved that. I would have loved it
so much better than Brian Khals. I'm just saying, just saying,
brown pipe. So let's run through these fights really quickly.
The first one, we got Tommy versus a guy named Barbosa,
and know he has nothing to do with the Black Pearl. Uh,
Tommy levels this dude in one punch and walks out
of the cage before it's even called. That is my

(57:53):
son calls this aura farming. I'm sure your sons are
of an age. You've heard this phrase, ye a Tyrese
Halliburtonism apparently. Uh. When he fucking rocks him and just
fucking pushes his way out and walks back, I was like,
I've never seen that in a real fight. I used
to watch these very religiously. That was one of the
best decisions this movie makes. That was so fucking cool.

(58:15):
It's just it's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (58:16):
He just has this unresolved trauma strength and that's kind
of his super far in this movie.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
But yeah, that's he's kind of like Jason who didn't
die in a lake. He's just an unstoppable revenge machine. Yeah,
Jason the machete for He's Yeah, I can see that.
I get it working. Tap him. Oh my god, that

(58:43):
would be fucking incredible. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (58:44):
Just the the one punch and walk away is so
fucking baller. I love it so much and then incredible.
The next fight is Brendan versus Orlando Midnight Lee. Uh,
and again Brendan comes out his walkout music is owed
to Joy even though he is his opponent is not
actually Hans Grueber, who I think would have been a
really great cage fighter if you if given the chance.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Yeah, I feel like this is one of those when
you know people tell me like, well, Batman could beat
up Superman if he had time to plan, And I'm like,
this is such a stupid mental exercise. I was like,
Frank Miller really pickled your brain. Yeah, this is insane.
If you want a really good YouTube dive, go look
up Anthony Rumble Johnson's knockout highlight reel. It looked like

(59:26):
he killed guys. That's who he's fighting, and that this
is the guy who plays midnight uh Johnson, midnight whatever,
midnight ly. That is Anthony Rumble Johnson and it starts
this precedent with Brendan's fights. That I do think is
it's a little silly. It's it's kind of the uh,
the jiu jitsu equalizer. If you're a big puss, you're

(59:47):
like a lot of people I did jiu jitsu with
were very tiny people and they're like, if anyone messing
with me on the street, they're getting choked. I was like,
some guys are just huge and will pick you up
in power bomb you through an arcade machine. Like this
is not right, But Brendan essential just gets his ass
beat for thirteen minutes of a fight and then at
the end wraps his legs around people and it's like
a miracle the movie that I actually like he just

(01:00:09):
won the whole tournament after the first fight, I know,
but it is it's like, who let this fucking dad in?
He was a loser UFC fighter. Now, how did this
guy sneak in and he starts winning. I do think
I wish that Brendan's fights had had a little more variety.
I think that's kind of the one quibble I have
with the film is if you look at his three fights,
Tommy has a little of the extra emotional stuff. They

(01:00:30):
are the exact same fight over and over and over again.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
They are, but at the same time really pushing the
maxim from Rocky Balboa of it's not how hard you
can hit, it's how hard you can get hit and
keep moving forward. That's entirely the energy that Brendan has
throughout all these fights.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Yes, you know, getting it, like Brian Kallen at the
desk gets like, sometimes I get it. Sometimes I don't
need the extra prop to remind me. Yeah, No, that's fair.
That's totally fair.

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
When he's getting choked, he lasts till the end of
the round without tapping, and then he gets that arm
bar on Midnight him too and gets the wine.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
I still kind of wish he was fighting Hans Grueber, Like, yes,
I mean, I get it, I get it. We could
add that to our cum Dumpster trilogy.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
I'm a wire if featherweight, I always go for the
single leg takedown Pulty.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Not since Jake the Snake has the mic been seduced
so perfect. We see snippets of Coba and mad Dog Grimes.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Mad Dog Grimes, by the way, is the guy who
was like the local boy that was training for this
tournament when Tom Hardy joins the gym and he's like, hey,
I'll fight him, you know whatever, I'll keep a guy
war him because he's doing his American accident, just trying
not to flatten the rs out too much, like I'll
fight him. And he gets in there and just like
embarrasses him all over the internet, and that's how he
kind of gets enough notoriety to be in this tournament.

(01:01:44):
So we know that we're gonna be heading toward a
rematch between Mad Dog and Tommy. But we see snippets
of Coba, the Russian Monster, and Mad Dog Grimes winning
their fights handily in this montage.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
Uh. And then we get uh.

Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
We get Brendan versus the Dane, who's just it's another
fight where Brendan takes a lot of punishment and again
wins by arm bar. I'm noticing even from my notes
that you are correct, because I'm literally writing the same
note for a lot of Brendan's fights.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Yeah, they're all the same until the Tommy fight. And again,
I think you could say Tom Hardy's are too, but
they're so explosive and short, we don't have to sit
in it, right. It's just true. This guy's got the
magic death touch, and there's something about that that's more
fun than just watching this father or too just get
beat and it is. It's the one thing in the
film that kind of strains my watchability, which is at

(01:02:33):
a certain point you're like, this guy's got fucking brain damage,
his eyes are all shut, this guy's going to fucking die.
And because the fights drag on, you have more time
to look at the lack of difference. But I would
say I do think the fights in this are exceptionally choreographed.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
Oh absolutely, the way that they're shot, the way that
they are are choreographed in stage, like everything feels and
again I'm saying this is someone who is not in
that world. I mean, you could probably speak more to
the authenticity than I can, but it feels authentic to me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Like it feels. Yeah, it's it's kind of like how
Rocky is to boxing, right sure, which is it's a
lot of no blocking and hits, but it still looks
like boxing in a way. Yeah, I think that's how
this is. There's a lot of like big fucking suplexes
and power bombs and you know shit that you don't
see a lot of. But it feels very much like
an MMA fight. I thought they really captured the essence

(01:03:26):
of it.

Speaker 5 (01:03:26):
After these messages, we'll be right back for the world's
greatest Fighters.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
There is no.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Greater challenge is to fight for the Ultimate Prize Jean Lavanda.
The quest right at PG thirteen starts Friday, April twenty sixth.

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
Brown Boo Pipe.

Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
And then the next fight is Tommy versus Diego Santana,
which is just another trauma dump beat down. This guy
doesn't stand a chance. And then you know, that's where.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Brian cat We cut to Brian Cowen. He's dressed as
a stripper Graham cop and he's like, if you did
that on the streets, they're throwing you in jail and
they're like stop, stop it. So I'm gonna stop the
durn match. That guy has a family. I would have
killed for Jr. To be in this movie. Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:04:12):
And then the next fight is Tommy versus Mad Dog Grimes,
and I love it by this.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
Point the the war.

Speaker 4 (01:04:18):
Hero circumstances so because apparently it comes to light that
Tommy saved like a bunch of guys by ripping the
tour off of a tank. Like, sure, let's go. I'm
totally I believe it. Watching what he does with these fighters,
I didn't even question.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Oh my god, yeah, they sell the power of Tommy immediately.
That was a great moment because that's also the first
time when he kind of nods to the soldiers in
the crowd. They cut to Brian Cowen, who has a
hot wheel tank and pops the door up. I was like,
I'm really, I'm really jazzed about this sequence. Again, I
think I think the mad Dog Grimes character is the classic,
like they know our dads and all of us are watching.

(01:04:54):
It's like all the guys who are like boxing purists
that watch MMA, they all picture mad dog rhymes is
like the that's what's wrong with that sport? And then
we just see a war hero beat the fuck at him, Yeah,
because I think that's throwing red meat to the crowd.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
Sure, And by this point, the like the Marines are
so in Tommy's corner. They show up and they sing
the like the actual marine hymn as he walked. Because
Tommy walks out to no music. It's like this this
again or a farming thing. I guess he's doing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:05:20):
And by the way, I let my eight year old
decide what our jack lanyard was this year, and it
was him, not the fourteen year old who decided to
carve six seven into the pumpkin. And I shit you,
not every fucking kid that came up to get candy,
which we had three hundred and forty one trigger treats
this year.

Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
New record.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
Damn.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
Yeah, it was insane.

Speaker 4 (01:05:36):
But everyone who was between the age of nine and
it's sixteen six seven six seven, they kept saying it
to me, and I was like, I don't know what
that means.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
I don't language. It is a a plague, a scourge.
I was like, am I just hitting that like boomerage
where I'm like the younger generation's week and sucks six
seven makes me think I was like, oh, this is
exactly what my dad thought when I I was doing
Ninja turtle talk, but worse.

Speaker 4 (01:06:03):
No, I think I think for us s griffy and
not to bring this back to attitude or ar wrestling
one more time, but I think R six seven was
the suck it just like sucking the time with the
next on our crotch.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
And again not to say everyone thinks their generation is
the best. Six seven is infinitely lamer than suck it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
It's, but it's also more sterile, Like at least I
don't have to worry about it meaning something filthy because
it literally means nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Stuck it. It was pretty clear what it meant. Would
you be more mad if you got a call from
the principal that your kid was like six seven six
seven like a broken fucking demon toy, or that yeah,
some kid mouthed off to him and he gave him
a suck it, I'd be way more proud of a
dad if my kid did to suck it and you
want it, you want to hear a funny story about
my kid, of course I do. Though, did I tell

(01:06:48):
you about the famous Diddy party incident? No? And I
hate that this is the lead in, but go. So
I worked at the elementary school. I'm the technology specials teacher. Right.
I get a call from the principal and she goes, hey,
Hunter's in the office. He's crying, and I was like,
oh my god, what happened. They're like, there was an
incident on the bus. It was uh Hunter who started it?

(01:07:08):
And I was like what? And because my kid had
already told me what had happened, and he's like, yeah, Dad,
it was crazy. I was there, but I didn't do anything.
So he had already done his first, like lying to
me about the princil And I was like okay, and
I was like, uh so what happened? And they're like
Hunter was the ringleader and I was like, all right,
that's news to me, and she goes we have tape
and video and I was like a tape in the

(01:07:28):
audio and I was like can I get that? She
goes no, I go fuck, and I go what do
you do? And she said that my son because of
something he had seen on the internet, right like the
Scourge of six seven shit, he had found out what
a Diddy party was, not really but just the phrase
Diddy party. So my son started yelling. Yeah. My son
started yelling Diddy party, stood up in his bus seat

(01:07:49):
and started humping the shit out of the seat in
front of him, which started the kid next to him
doing it, and all the little boys in the area
started going Diddy Party, Diddy party and humping the seats.
It spilled out to where there was some humping happening
in the vicinity of other kids. And I was just like,
are you shitting me? But she goes no, we have
the evidence. I was like, please, God, give me this tape.

(01:08:10):
They wouldn't. And I came home and I'm laying into
my son. I was like, how do you even know
what Diddy is? And he goes, Dad, it's not a person,
it's a kind of party. And I just go You're
a stupid fucking idiot. No more. Yeah, he didn't even
know who it was. He just goes, Dad, it's a
kind of party. With this attitude that just fucking sent
me to the moon. But to this day, I've been

(01:08:30):
talking to the tech guy at our school to see
if he can retrieve that Diddy party.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
I just I love the fact that you're like, why
is my son in the office, Well, he's Diddy Party
patient zero.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
And there was a small plague that proceeded. Well, let
me tell you this, Brian. This is a parenting moment
that I hope you never experienced, which is the principal's
like your son was the ringleader of a Diddy party
on the school bus Yep, yeah, never hear that words. Yeah.
The pause, which may have been half a second, felt
like an eternity as my brain was like, what the

(01:09:01):
hell is happening? Jesus Christ. By the way, it's all
because they see these fucking YouTube shorts that just say
stupid shit.

Speaker 4 (01:09:10):
Yeah, when you reduce all language down to hashtags, I
think this is become the problem for sure. During the
fight Tommy versus mad Dog Grimes, mad Dog which was
not a ditty party, not a titty part at all.
Mad Dog is begging to be made an example of
because he's mocking Tommy's service with a camo mohawk. Now,
I just want to point out as toxic and problematic

(01:09:31):
as certain male athletes can be, you would be hard
pressed to find less than a handful who are openly
disrespectful to the military. Like, I think the last guy
who was this blatantly anti military was the Iron fucking Chic,
Like it doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
And he was just anti r military exactly exactly. Yeah,
it was like, this is this is caricature, This is
not something. No, I think it was when Sergeant Slaughter
turned and started working for Iraq. That was a real wound.

Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
Yes to the Americans, Yes, the Iron What did they
call him at that point, the Iron, the Iron Sergeant
or something anyway, Uh. Yeah, So Tommy beats Mad Dog
almost to death within seconds.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
It's it's pretty it's pretty traumatic, actually it is. It's
one of those where like and tom already does such
a good job of when the refs start to step in,
he almost goes like completely stiff, so he almost stands up.
It's not like he's standing but being lifted by the
fucking rage that is beneath him. Right, he sells the
shit out of that. Oh and again I think everyone's

(01:10:33):
fucking pumped to see Mad Dog get crushed. Yeah, I
do think it's one of those things like even if
you have gripes with the military, you could not find
It's just one of those like taboos you don't cross, right,
It's like God and and and the military, right, like
just you would never see that. So yeah, mad Dog again,
I think he's specifically designed for our dads who like
couldn't possibly understand the sport of UFC, to feel like

(01:10:56):
this was a movie for them, like Rocky You.

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
With r And then this is where we get Brendan
versus Coba, and Brendan's wife is there and the kids
are watching it the drive in and Cooba comes to
the ring and the crowd isn't chanting you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
Suck, you suck. How cool would that have been.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
It must have been a new experience for Angle to
not hear that, and and so much so that the
first thing Gorilla yells to Brendan when the fight starts,
his Angle out of it, and I'm like, come on,
that was very confused.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
I didn't even catch that.

Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
I was like, come on, man, but yeah, I mean
Coba is just beating the brakes off of Brendan at
one point.

Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
Oh yeah, at one point he ragged dolls Brendan over
his back and into the cage wall. That was incredible. Yeah,
Angle's really taking him to suplex City, which again is
not something you see a lot in MMA, is like
full fucking suplexes Like that, I thought it was such a Again,
Brendan's fight needed a little extra something, and I thought

(01:11:52):
Angle was really up for the challenge. Obviously, he's an
Olympic gold medal level athlete who apparently at one point
was in talks to joined the UFC after the gold medal,
but they just want to match the WWE price. I
thought he was incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:12:06):
Yeah, there have been rustles that have flirted with that,
you know, see him Punk famously had a failed mm
A career. Prop Lesner tried it and didn't succeed at it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
So I mean, yeah, Batista had a fighter too. Yeah,
there was a handle. Pip Plane is more frequent than
you than you might think.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
Who is that Jack Swagger m run yes, yes, yes, yes,
yes uh. And so it gets to a point where,
again you know, not how hard you can hit, how
much you can how much punishment you can take to
your brain before you get CT, how much you can
get cam scatabooed before dude, so completely ironic that it

(01:12:43):
was his ankle that took him out of the season
and not his I have to.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
Say, yeah, scam Cam scataboo to that injury. That was brutal.
And that guy was fun. He's like that old like
Mike allstot style meathead guy. That as like we've been
missing that in the NFL for a while. Like I was.
I was like, give him the fucking giant Mike All
style pads, right, famous Purdue player went on to have
the world's largest pads. You might often find him on
Facebook reels with like a Creed montage playing under his highlight.

(01:13:09):
Oh that's always good. It's just something we've been missing
in the NFL. That fucking sucked. I will say, how
about the line know that Grillo gives him right when
the third round he goes, if you don't knock him out,
you lose. If you don't knock him out, you've got
no home. That again, I started crying.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
Yeah, I mean that's really putting a fine point on
it movie. I think we're all you know. It's like
it's like Gruffy said earlier, you don't need to tell me,
like we're all.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
We all saw the movie. Brian Collen sitting over there,
he closes his trunk of props. He's like, come on, dude,
that's too far. But Coba ends up tapping out on
an ankle lock. Brendan beats Kurt Angle with an ankle lock,
and that made this fat little wrestling nerds day. Yeah,

(01:13:57):
he Olympic slammed the over under on. Yeah. I thought
it was cool, man Angel. He did have that presence. Man.
He came in because he was kind of supposed to be,
like there was a fighter back in the day, Fador, Right,
he was this fat Russian guy who would just fucking
annihilate people, and he was like this freaking matrix. He

(01:14:18):
was just this very pudgy, bald white guy but would
fucking crush in the heavyweight division, and they never were
able to sign him in the UFC, so it was
always a thing. Uh, Fador was always ranked pound for
pound number one, and Dana White with him and be
furious because he's not in the UFC and they never
fucking got him in there. So I thought Covid was
this kind of great nod to MMA fans about the

(01:14:39):
Fador thing, and then perhaps a little shot that this
fucking science teacher beats him that they all thought that
maybe had Fador come to the UFC, he would have
got worked final round fight.

Speaker 4 (01:14:49):
And we finally get the fight that we've been building
toward the whole movie. The poster promised us, and it delivers.
It's Tommy versus Brendon, final fight for all the marbles,
for the five point two million dollar pers Tommy takes
the first round pretty easily, but he also gets that
one punch after the horn. Yeah, cheap shot, cheap shot,
cheap shot. He also again talk about our farming. Nick

(01:15:11):
notes he's like fleeing through traffic because he's been shitfaced.
Tommy doesn't have a stool, he doesn't have the water,
He's just fucking staring at Brendan. Right, this is a
full unleashing of all of this fucking trauma. And then
that leads to Brendan who eventually gets him in a
Kimora and Frank Girlo's like, snap his fucking arm and
he's like, what this is my brother? Like what He's like, Tommy,
please stamp tom he Tommy right, He's like, stap his

(01:15:33):
fucking arm, and finally he fucking pops his arm out.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
So Tommy goes back and I don't know how they
did it, because it actually looked like he had a
separated shoulder. I don't know how they If you go
back and watch the last scene when they're walking in
together to the under lane whatever that's fucking called, where
they go into the arena, it looks one hundred percent
like tom Hardy shoulder is separated. And Tommy goes back
and he won't fucking quit, and Brendan's just like Tommy,

(01:15:58):
come on, it's allva and he's just sitting there and rage.
He's gonna fight him with one hand. And I was like,
this to me, is where the movie took its full
kind of beautiful form, where all of those weird flourishes
and those kind of you know, pull yourself up by
your bootstrap isms really manifest in something that is objectively
insane that a referee would not stop this white and

(01:16:19):
let it continue. But we all are so bought in
that it doesn't fucking matter.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
Seriously, like in Gorilla's words, to this weirdly to this referee,
And is now something I say every time I'm watching
football and a ref blows a call to your.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Job, Josh, to the referee job. Yeah, no, it's it's
fucking crazy. But then I was like, maybe the movie
wants us to think. Because his dad's not there to
throw in the towel, he has to take this beating.
But Brenda just starts dodging him and he's like, come on,
this is insane. Tommy no time. And then eventually he
does this. He's like, well, the only way to save

(01:16:53):
my brother is to fucking destroy him, and tom already
has one hand down because his arms fuck is separated.
He throws a fucking high kick right to the face,
gets on the ground and starts punching him. Then he's like,
you know, gets him in the submission or whatever, and
then immediately he's like, I love you, Tommy, And I
was like, this is insane.

Speaker 4 (01:17:12):
Look I get that it's again a little ham fisted,
but there there is no part of me that doesn't
weep when they get into he gets into that final
choke and he's like, I'm sorry, Tommy, I love you.
And you realize that's the closest they've gotten to a
hug in years, and that when he finally taps out.
When Tommy finally taps out, it's like that reassuring pat

(01:17:32):
you get from like your kid, Like if you hug
your guess and they give you that little power back.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
That's literally what's called a sympathy pat right, their little
brains like when they're babies, because you help them, they
their brain knows they're supposed to do something in return, right,
and it takes the four If you have ever had
a baby or kid, hopefully you didn't take it. You
birthed at yourself. There's this beautiful little tap they do
on you that I miss more than anything about the
baby face. Sure, yeah, it's it's a beautiful moment. And

(01:17:59):
again this is where the movie to me, so told me.
It's like, this is not UFC, this is not Rocky,
this is pro wrestling. This is what we like about
the pro wrestling. It's the storytelling, right. It's the good
versus evil, the two brothers apart who now find each
other after they got it all out in this intense thing.
And as absurd as it is, you never see Edgerton

(01:18:19):
or Tom Hardy winking to the camera that they know
it's crazy. We're so completely bought in. Tommy's about to
get arrested as soon as this fight's over for being
a deserter. Yeah, they have the people in his room
that are like, we're taking him to jail as soon
as it's over, and it's all of that stuff just stops,
and you just watch these two brothers embracing. You watch

(01:18:39):
these two brothers holding each other the way they both
walk out. They're not doing media after now. They both
do the walkout, and he's just kind of sheltering and
holding his little brother who he didn't run away with
in the past. That's just beautiful. If that doesn't melt
your heart, you are too cynical and need to fucking
take a step back and enjoy the kind of movies
like this that can take you there. I'm not telling

(01:19:01):
you anything you don't know, but great sports movies they're
the ones that find a way to use whatever literal
arena as a figurative arena for the confrontation of human struggle. Yes,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
This is a movie about two brothers who were forced
into a fight as kids. It wasn't their fight, it
was forced upon them by their drunken father. They went
their separate ways. They went, as you might say, to
their individual corners, that estrangement.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
They had a terrible role model in.

Speaker 4 (01:19:29):
Their father, so they were poorly coached and their trauma's
experience separately caused this animosity, and their conflict was inevitable.
But in that fight, they worked things out that they
couldn't say. They worked things out the only way that
they had been taught to do it, and ultimately they
both triumph over their demons, which makes crowning a champion

(01:19:51):
in the literal fight of the movie a moot point.
And I think that's why the double underdog story works
is because these guys aren't fighting for money, they're not
fighting for a championship, they're not even really fighting each other.
They're fighting against their past. They're fighting against their demons,
and they both find a way to triumph, and that
is triumphant for the audience as well.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
Yeah, I think the title that we hope they both
get again is brother right. They get to be brothers
again together. And I think one of the really smart
choices too that I loved is at the end, Nick
Nolty comes fucking sauntering in and he watches from afar
as Brennan is holding Tommy taking him down the tunnel.
He doesn't go over, he doesn't get that wink in

(01:20:33):
a nod like we'll all work on this together. He
watches them literally walking away from him, right, the dreams
slipping away. He's no longer his trainer, and I think
Naughty kind of gives like a little rise smile, right,
and just kind of nods, and he's like, yeah, I
fuck these guys up, but I think they're gonna be okay.
And I think as a dad too, that Nick Nolty
always got me because I was like, I think that's

(01:20:54):
all you can hope for, is it? Whatever my bullshit is?
Because I feel I don't know if you feel this,
but I think a lot of my friends feel this
way too, that like we feel more like childish adults
than our parents were. Oh yeah, and we're more like
worried about our traumas in this and that is like
I hope that my bullshit doesn't fuck them up, Like
I hope I just live long enough to see that
they'll be okay. Right, And in a weird way, Nick

(01:21:14):
Nolty gets a win in that moment too, right, even
if he's.

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):
Not going to get to be a part of it exactly,
because the selfish win would be I get to be
their father.

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
But what he really wants.

Speaker 4 (01:21:24):
The the the morally upstanding goal here that the duty,
the obligation is is they need to be okay. As
long as they are okay, then you know I can
at least die without that on my head. I like
whether or not I have earned the right to be
their father again remains to be seen. But the win
right now, the thing that I should be striving for

(01:21:45):
that's not selfish, is just that they are okay. Whether
or not I am involved in their lives anymore or.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
Not, Yeah, because I don't. I don't think the smile
plays is like, look at how cool I am. My
two sons are the world's best pad leave It's really yes,
I think it's they They survived me. And in a
post scene where we just saw he didn't know if
he was gonna survive himself either because he fell back
off the wagon. I just again, this movie, it just

(01:22:10):
knows where to pluck the heartstring constantly, and I thought
they landed it in the most absurd fashion, which shouldn't work.
It to your point, whether it's this or Blood of
Heroes or Bad News Bears or fucking Flesh Gordon, whatever
sports movie you want to talk about, they all do
have this right where it is. It's just that's why

(01:22:31):
we love sports. We watch these guys go out on
the fields, we learn their stories, where they come from.
What's their adversity this season? Are they coming off injury?
Oh this quarterback is, you know, being looked down upon
because he can't win the big game. It is microcosm
of the things we all battle every day. That's why
we fucking cheer for these people that overcome. And this

(01:22:52):
movie knows exactly what the heart of a sports movie is.

Speaker 4 (01:22:55):
I think the saddest thing about this movie is that
it owns earned twenty three million dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:23:03):
That actually blows my mind. I thought I thought I
remembered this being a big movie when it came out.

Speaker 4 (01:23:07):
No, but despite that, it did have both an Indian
and Russian remake in twenty fifteen. No shit, Yeah, the
Indian one is called Brothers, the Russian one is called Voin.

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
And then voind Kurt Angle just comes in as the American. Yeah.
They could just bring Kurt Angle and that's perfect casting.

Speaker 4 (01:23:27):
I don't know, dude, So there's a part of me.
The things in the Russian version Coba wins, do you
know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
Like, Yeah, I think they're all Koba's and then they
just have one American and he's like, hey, I just
got off the plane with my therapist and they're like, boom,
I'm gonna go get a diet coke. Boo. Hey, what's
this band Pussy Ryot. I like their hats. Boom. It
was like, yeah, it's a very it's a very less

(01:23:53):
healthy version of it, but I would be pumped to
watch the other two versions of this.

Speaker 4 (01:23:57):
All I know is that this is one of my
favorite movies of twenty eleve and I really dig the
hell out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
It's it's a movie that you.

Speaker 4 (01:24:03):
Know, I'm not an mma guy, I'm not really a
boxing guy, but when movies like this can make me appreciate,
at least on some level, the sport as a as
a vessel of a very a very compelling story, you
know there is something we said for that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:19):
Yeah, I agree, No, I think again, it was fun
for me to reconnect with it and get kind of
that spiritual like balm right like this going back and
like thinking about and again, I don't I don't think
a bad movie can be that for you. Maybe it can,
Maybe I'm full shit. I don't think it's a good
or bad movie. And I'm trying to say is there
are just some movies. The only goal of the movie,

(01:24:40):
right to me, a movie is not to be boring,
and two is give me something to hang on to.
And this one it definitely achieves both of those goals. Man,
it's entertaining. The cast is fucking great. I just I
found it a really fun rewatch. I enjoyed it a lot.
And again, I hadn't seen this movie either since I
had become a dad, so I mad it even more.

Speaker 4 (01:25:01):
And I just want to give one more time a
shout out to Charles Armstrong, the Lieutenant O Megaforce Patron
who requested it. Really glad that we finally got to
talk about it on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
Charles, I'm sorry I called you the booger of the Patreon.
That's fine. By the way, when I was in Days
of the Dead, the whole cast of the Revenge of
the Nerds were there. Lamar was doing the wrap, so
I've actually had some drinks with the Revenge of the
Nerds cast. It's an honor to be a booger. That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:25:41):
And that brings us to the junk food pairing and
for this one, I'm calling my junk food the Primanti
versus cheese steak. This isn't so much a patch up
as it is a fight between the signature sandwich is
a Pittsburg and Philadelphia, respectively, to honor the hometowns of
the two eponymous warriors in Warrior, I want you to
get an extra long piece of Italian bread and use

(01:26:02):
it to house half a Philly cheese steak with cheese whiz.
Thank you very much, and have a Primante sandwich. Promanti
sandwich is the name of the Pittsburgh delicacy composed of
grilled meat, melted provolon cheese, coal slat tomatoes, and French.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
Fries, and all on one bread on one bread.

Speaker 4 (01:26:18):
If this monstrosity doesn't make you stop the runaway ship
that is your diet, you might actually be a godless
son of a bitch if.

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
You are ever drunk in Pittsburgh. It is the fucking
greatest late night meal of all time. I've had many
Primani sandwiches. Uh, they absolutely rule. That is a great
junk food pairing for this movie. Thank you, min friend.
Do you have a you have a competing one or
do you just want to Yeah? If I had to
do one. This is maybe a little person, but I
would go with the Life is Cruel h junk food pairing,

(01:26:49):
which is it's late at night, you're a little hungover,
you go out for your last cigarette. You got that
cotton mouth from drinking all night, and you're looking around
for a drink and you reach down and grab your
white sugar free Monster Energy drink. You shake the can,
there's a little bit left. You take a drink and
realize that people have been using it as their ashtray
for the last hour. Oh and so it's just Monster

(01:27:09):
Energy drink and cigarette butts. Oh oh, sounds like the
first beer I ever had. Yeah, if you know, you know,
if you've been there, Yeah, that is what I think
the journey of this movie is all about. Well, there
you have it, folks.

Speaker 4 (01:27:22):
Griffy, I want to thank you so much for being
the warrior in my corner as we work our way
through this movie. Please let people know where they can
find you on the interwebs.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
Yeah, so we at misfit Parade. You can find us
at Misspritparade dot com. We have a YouTube channel, Misfit Parade.
We also run the Messed Up Movies podcast. You can
find us everywhere you find pods. We're also on the
Misfit Parade YouTube channel. You can come support the show
if you want. Messed Up Movies podcast has a Patreon
page where we do a lot of exclusives. We do
TV mini series, we have Tales from the Crypt. We're

(01:27:53):
getting back on creep tapes. We just did Alien Earth,
which was an odd journey than I imagined, so lots
of fun stuff. Also, if you want to go to
Indiegogo and type in mister Cream Jeans because our movie,
Mister Cream Jean's Hidie Hole got shadow band for being inappropriate,
you can support and help us finish our first movie.
We have a perk on there where you can actually

(01:28:13):
join the podcast. So yeah, Mister Cream Jean's Heidi Hole.
We are almost done. It's been a very fun ride.
Any support you guys could offer, we would greatly appreciate it.
I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:23):
Of course, you can find Junk Food Cinema anywhere you
good podcasts, follow us on social media's and if you
really like.

Speaker 1 (01:28:28):
The show, I mean you really like the show, I.

Speaker 4 (01:28:30):
Mean you like it as much as I love the
idea putting French fries on a sandwich You can go
to Patreon dot com slash junk with Cinema financially support
the show. We're gonna wrap up this episode on Warrior
Singular by I'm gonna I'm gonna requote. I think the
most inspiring thing that this movie has taught us the
one line that I say over and over again that
gets me through the hard times, and.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
That is do your job. Josh So is set up
Storm