Episode 61 - Independence Day (Don't Start and Interstellar War) - Middle Age Movie Reviews Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Electronic Media Collective podcast network. Yeah,
it's a mouthful. For more great shows like the one
you're about to enjoy, visit Electronic Media Collective dot com
and now our feature presentation.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hello, and welcome to the Middle Aged Movie Reviews Podcast.
Three guys saying, once again, the LAPD is asking everyone
not to fire their guns at the visitor spacecraft. You
may inadvertently trigger an interstellar war. Filling in for Tim,
my name is Matt, and my podcasting partner.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Is What's going on everyone? It's Rick here, dungeon Master
from the dungeon Master YouTube channel, always glad to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
And joining us tonight. A man who could have been
at a barbecue if he wasn't busy dragging smelly aliens
from the burning desert. From the Cybernetic Shark and MCU's
Bleeding Edge YouTube channels. It's cyber say Hello.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
Cyber Dans, folks, how are we doing tonight?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Also joining us tonight, a man who likes to kick
the tires and light the fires. From the Andreas Top
Culture podcast Guy and MCU's Bleen Edge YouTube channels. It's
Andreas Say Hello, Andreas.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Good Morning. Podcast is Andrea's Polk Country Guy, Time Lord,
bt Lord, and recently Toxic Adventure.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
All right, Rick, why don't you tell us what we're
watching by the campfire tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
So by the campfire tonight we'll be watching the nineteen
ninety six movie Independence Day, which is number nine hundred
and fifty five from the book of one thousand and
one Movies You Should Watch Before you Die. This one's
written by Dean Devlin and Roland Emrick, directed by Roland
Emeric and starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldbloom.

Speaker 5 (01:56):
All right, you got your job right this time. Fantastic
high five whoo. All right, guys, So our usual question, cyber,
when was the first time you saw ID four aka
Independence Day? The first time I saw it, I saw
it in theaters back in nineteen ninety six. Uh, you know,
it's opening weekend and I was ecstatics as ever to

(02:19):
go see it. And I just remember, mid to late
nineties was really when disaster film started becoming a big
thing again, and we had, of course Dante's Peak come
out a year later. We had Daylight, we had you know,
Anaconda in ninety seven. We had a lot of great
like disaster like movies that were coming out, Twister and
so forth, and I just remember thinking, oh, this is

(02:40):
a great era of disaster films. And I just remember
seeing the trailer and going, oh my gosh, this looks
so awesome. Visuals were, you know, amazing for its time,
and you know, it was definitely it blew you away
watching that trailer and then seeing on the big screen
you were just like, oh my god, that is awesome.
I just remember sitting there just being in awe the

(03:01):
whole entire movie, just going this is epic, This is awesome.
And I absolutely just loved it and I had a
great experience with it because it just really resonated with
me because I absolutely love science fiction. I love aliens
and great cast you know, from Jeff gold Bloom to
Bill Pullmn.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
You know, I was right there. I was like, hands down,
this is an all star cast. I mean, I can't
get enough of it coming out of the theater, going
I can't wait to watch this again, because it just
was so amazing and just such a great alien movie
that just you know, blew my mind because it was
just so state of the art for nineteen ninety six.

(03:41):
So I had a really great first experience with it.
Loved it, love scene in theaters, and I've watched it
multiple times since.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Awesome. Yeah, you know, I'm right there with you. But
I'd like to hear from Rick our dungeon master. What
when was the first time you watched Independence Day?

Speaker 3 (04:03):
So I watched this around ninety six. I don't think
that was there the opening weekend necessarily, but something that
I remember about this was kind of interesting. I had
a friend who was maybe a year or two older
than I was, and he had only recently, like I
think it was the week before, a couple weeks before
he actually landed a gig to regularly write movie reviews

(04:27):
for a newspaper, a pretty big newspaper actually, And I
specifically remember him talking about it and how he's going
to be able to when Independence Day was going to drop.
So we had this conversation maybe a week or two
before it dropped that he was going to be writing
this review in the newspaper, and I was like, Oh,
that's super cool. So I specifically remember when it was

(04:50):
coming out and everything. I just can't for life you
remember when I watched it in a theater, But I
could tell you that I had really fond memories of this.
When it first came out, it was something else man.
So I'm sure that'll probably give a little bit of
bias at the way that I look at this each
piece today. But yeah, super good.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, you know what I'm saying is that's awesome. But
you know what, this is my best will Smith I
can get, So that I could ask Andreas, when was
the first time you saw the fresh Prince of la
fight some aliens in the nineteen ninety six Independency. Well, oh, man, well,
wait before before we dive into this, were you even

(05:32):
born then?

Speaker 4 (05:37):
Man?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Well, because you're a time traveler, I don't know. You
might have been born in like twenty ninety six and
then you travel back in time.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Kay, you'd be careful, you'd be careful when you say that.
Matt Andreas might tell you to get his name out
of your mouth.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Anyway, though, as a time travel unofficially I wasn't in
the time nineteen ninety six, But officially, if you want
to know, that's actually the year I was born officially,
so as a kid, I was born in nineteen ninety
six in August. Unfortunately, it was not in the year
of going to see in thee years, so you know,

(06:17):
so it was not born yet exactly. Anyway, No, I
saw this a TV as usual with a lot of
these classic you know movies, you know, my Theoration, you know, AMC, TNT,
you know, all the you know, the famous cable channels

(06:37):
were always the ones that you discovered the classic movies,
you know, the movies that define the decades. And you know,
Independence Day was like no different for me from that.
When I saw I was like, wow, this is amazing
and it's part of the regular reeling with family. Yeah,
I love it Independence Day. It's not a perfect movie,
but it doesn't matter. You know, as my my friend here,

(07:01):
my co hosts from them see Blee Edge. You know,
cyber brought up before. You know, this movie had to
entertain and this movie just is so well dot but
it just works than every level. So I'm so excited
to talk about this believe with you guys.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Fantastic. Well, I just want to say listeners, thanks for
listening to the Not quite so middle aged Movie Review Podcast.
Oh oh man, thanks for making me feel young again. Andreas.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't realize the year.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
I was like, that's all right, man, I just like to.
I like to approad you everyone. Yeah, all right, I'm
gonna travel back twenty nine years. It's nineteen ninety six
and I just graduated high school and I am now
going to the movie theaters with my family. I got
my sister and my parents. We all decided that we're
gonna go see this movie Independence Day.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
I was.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I was a big fan of Jeff Pulblum. Like, you know,
Jeff Poldblum had had a big, a big hit. You know,
it was like the movies after movie that he was in,
you know, After the Fly and then earth Thrills are Easy.
So now he's you know, he's in Dress Tart and
Independence Day. He was a draw for this that aside.
I got to see this movie the big screen in

(08:13):
a local town near me. It was called The Paramount,
and I had a great time. I really enjoyed it.
I mean, the screen was probably about a good I
don't know if you can back me up on this
on this stript, but I believe that that screen is
like twenty feet high.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
A bit larger than that. I would think, you know,
it's the it's their like movie theater.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's like the number one thing I like I mean,
this is this theater day fact like the nineteen thirty
it was. It was great. I loved it. I got
hooked by it, and I think it kind of like
it reinvigorated that disaster movie genre, like Cyber had said,
with all those wonderful movies that he was talking about,
like dante'sd which I totally forgot about Dante's d Great callback, Cyber,

(08:53):
thank you, no problem. But yeah, that's uh. Since Tim
is out, normally he is our puppet master to tell us,
you know out there what to write, read the synopsis,
as you know, what character to channel. But now that
he's gone, I get to be the puppet master. I

(09:15):
could be the alien inside Area fifty one, wrapping his
tendril around Brent Spiner aka Data and forcing my voice
through somebody else. So I'm going to pick Cyber. Can
you portray former President Thomas Whitmore and tell us all

(09:36):
about Independence Day?

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Let's see what I can do here, all right? So,
as as mister Whitmore would say, good evening and the
hours to come. Man Review broadcasters will join others on
the panel, we will be united and our common interest
in discussing an extraterrestrial mothership that enter Earth's orbit near

(10:01):
the Moon, releasing flying saucers over the major cities in
the world. With the help of a technician named David Levinson,
we are able to decode an alien transmission indicating an
eminent attack. Our response was too late, and the alien's
attack and destroy every major city. The world's military attempted

(10:25):
a counter attack, but were overwhelmed by the Alien forces,
and their bases meet the same fate as its cities.
As we now go.

Speaker 6 (10:35):
With the help of a secret base at Area fifty
one and crazy plan to counter the aliens defense, the
humans are going to strike back on July fourth.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Should we win the day, the fourth of July will
be no wagerbi known as the American Holiday. But as
the day, the world declared in one voice, we will
not quietly go into the night. We will not finish
with out a fight. We're going to live on. We're
going to survive.

Speaker 6 (11:04):
Today we celebrate our Independence Day.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
On Core.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
All right, So if everybody loved that speech, vote for
cyber in twenty twenty eight for president.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, I'll take Sagraaz the president over you know who. Yes, yes,
it will be great.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Okay, gentlemen, Well, let's take a look at Independence Day.
We had a wonderful script and a director who kind
of like dive really deep into the whole disaster films
because after this, you know, he had the Day after Tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, man, Day after Tomorrow. Upon looking up what this
guy has done, it's a pretty much every movie that.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
I like that is awesome. That is awesome. It's nice
to find him, find a director that you just kind
of get sucked into it. He did a great job
with Independence Day.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, let's go ahead and dive into the story.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Then.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
So the movie starts out. It's July seconds and extraterrestrial
mothership enters Durt's forbit outside the Moon and deployees. It's
flying saucers each fifteen miles wide for international listeners as
twenty four kilometers in diameter over major cities worldwide. Your

(12:41):
U West Marine Cat Stephen Hiller and his unit at
a Black Nights Fighter squadron stationed out of the mcas
El Toro are called back from Independence Day. Le His
girlfriend Jasmine Burrow played by the Wonderful with the Box,
decides to flee the city with her son Dylan, retired
combat pilot that Russell Case, now an alcoholic single father

(13:05):
and crop duster who don't knock those cropdusters to really
help us out, sees this as a vindication of the
alien abduction yes, and claiming for the last ten years.
In New York City, technician David Livinston decodes a signal
embedded within the global satellite transmissions, realizing that the aliens

(13:25):
are counting down for a coordinated attack. And of course
David Livinson is our wonderful Jeff Goldbloom, and of course
he has his father with him, the enigmatic taxi driver
extraordinaire Jed Hirsch. Aided by his ex wife White House
Communications director Constant Spano, David and his father Julius reached

(13:49):
the Oval Office in Washington, d C. To alert the
President Thomas, which whitmore than of course, orders evacuations of
the target cities in the US. But it's too late,
because each saucer fuires a beam incinerating every targeted city,
killing millions. That is Day one of Independence Day. That's

(14:10):
a lot of information happening. I mean, the way they
delivered it, all the way that they told the story,
I mean, we get to see every titular character they
didn't kind of set all our characters up of the
various casts, and I'm gonna focus first on Will Smith.
You know, what did you think of Willson's portrayal as
our fighter pilot cap.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
So Will Smith, this was him coming fresh off with
fresh Prince of bel Air, and this was kind of
like his really big first real role. I mean, he
wasn't bad boys the year prior, but this really is
what catapuled him to start them was this film. And
I enjoyed his character. I thought he did a decent job.
It really you know, showed he had some you know,

(14:52):
heavy muscle guns and then he could kick some butt.
And I thought that he worked really well with everyone
in the film, you know, including his relationship with Vivid K.
Fox and uh, you know Ross Bagley Junior who plays
the little boy. I really enjoyed, you know, his kind
of him and his camaraderie with Jeff Goldblum's care mister Levinson,

(15:13):
and uh, I really just thought he did an overall
decent job that was really fun. I mean, he had
some great one liners throughout the film. I thought that
he portrayed a person, you know that would be in
the Air Force. That's dealing with this situation the best
to his ability, and you know, for it being like
his really first big, huge blockbuster, you know, getting recognition everything.

(15:35):
I thought he did a really fun job. You know,
I enjoyed him. I thought he was really good.

Speaker 7 (15:40):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
He definitely was still very green around the gills, you
can tell. But overall I think that he got the
job across and did a decent job.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Nice. Yes, I agree, because I mean I knew Will
Smith from the Fresh Print and seeing him in an
action role, it was hard for me at first to
kind of get into this, this whole thing, but I
think he I think he had yeah, acting chops to
do it. How about you, Andreas?

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Firstly, I you know, Will Smith is not my favorite actor.
You know, I like his I like his movies in general.
I mean, I mean, compared to his other movies is
quite unfair because each one is different from another, you know,
you know, I I guess for me, this role definitely
helped because he was an actor hero like Mike, you know,

(16:26):
McLain from the die Hard movies, like this regular Joe
that we know like can go through this, you know ship,
and you know he is you know, you know, he's
with the girl who you know has a son, and
he's like a good you know, actually a good you know,
finantial figure to him, you know, that small kid, and
I think it really works. He helps to ground the

(16:47):
film in a way that some of the other parts
in the film. I'm like, oh, you know with so iconic.
So I mean he really delivers, you know, the formats
and he you know, you think about the line that
I remember is from him, like yeah, welcome to Earth
and bail or like you say, like that's my close encounters.

(17:08):
You know, I'm like, you know those lines, I remember
that because this Will Smith he delivered that. I mean,
it's an ensemble piece. But but the actor, you're most
suppressed as well, because you know, he holds his own
you He like shows levels of emotion that like no
actor has done. Like you could tell it from his eyes,
like Okay, he's sad or you know, like he's wake

(17:32):
up and like he's seeing like the neighbors leaving and
like he doesn't know that the aliens just arrived on
the Amphiosphere. And then he gets the newspaper and like
he looks around and you tell, like he's like he's
cut his military mold On right there, and it's like, okay,
something's going on here. And then he looks up he
sees the mothership or you know, the small mothership of

(17:53):
hovering LA. Just a great direct to scene and like
get the sum into his eyes, you know, his face
before you know, the Fox character comes in asking about coffee,
well the kind of coffee once and you know that
that seems so good because just the way will conveyed slightly.
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, yeah, I have to agree he does. He does
portray like the average Joe in this movie. You know,
he's he's yeah, he's in the military, he's a fly boy,
he's part of the Air Force. When we're introduced to him,
you know, he's hanging out with his girlfriend and I
totally forgot that it wasn't his wife right off the bat.
It was his girlfriend. Yeah, it's neat to see that

(18:31):
you get this kind of average, ground to earth kind
of guy. You know, like you said, he wasn't really
aware of what's going on around him. I mean he
even looks at the in the bathroom and says, oh, hey,
he looks at our neighbors are moving out, you know,
completely oblivious to what's going on in the world. Yeah,
what about you, Rick, what did you think of Will Smith?
You know, before he became Captain James West from the

(18:53):
Wild Wild West.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
So I think he paid played a very pivotal role,
kind of like what Andreas the pop media culture giant
was saying, he definitely kept the movie grounded. But I'd
also like to add to that, I think that the role,
because I'm saying, I'm making the case that it is pivotal,

(19:17):
is because of these one liners that he has the
lightheartedness that he carries despite the seriousness of the situation.
Without Will Smith in this film, the film would have
been much darker, a much more serious tone. I mean,
the rest of the actors, for the most part, had
is there very serious tone with regard to many of

(19:39):
things that were happening around Earth and around their own
personal situations, which, by the way, the movie had a
very good job of showing individual situations as well as
broad situations as a whole. But yes, Will Smith, there's
fighting going on, and Will Smith is able to, you know,

(20:00):
carry a really light tone. Could you imagine the scene
where said welcome back to Earth. Could you imagine how
that scene could have been so much different if you
had a different person playing that part and they had
a different tone with their response. Yeah, it would have
been like Aliens Man, like the movie Aliens. And I

(20:22):
think that allows it to reach a broader audience, a
younger audience, which is something I think it adds to
how how ubiquitous that this movie is with it's the
amount of popularity that it has achieved.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, honestly, I couldn't see anyone other than Will Smith
delivering that that line, you know, welcome to Earth. He
had that way of delivering lines like and like I said,
an average, an average show, a regular person. You know,
he was definitely grounded in reality is just stuff. And
you know, you mentioned how he kind of brought a
little lightheartedness this movie, otherwise it would be dark. But

(21:01):
I'm gonna kind of pivot and say there was another
gentleman in this movie, because, like like Andrea said, it's
an ensemble cast, and Randy Quaid definitely grabs the comedy
in this movie. Oh yeah, you know, I really liked
his character. He uh, he wasn't cousin Eddie, but he
was kind of in the same same framework.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
You know, he totally was cousin Eddie Broh.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, I was. He was channeling his cousin Eddie in
this movie.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, but I probably just couldn't call him cousin Eddie,
you know, exactly exactly, Yeah, exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
Well, that's true. I mean he has the other kind
of line that I remember. It's like, uh, was it, Hey, boys,
I'm back. It's like another you know, it's like you know,
man is right.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
I was gonna say, speaking of the one liners, I
don't know about you, you guys, I mean maybe not Andreas,
but the rest of you. Gotta remember how many thousands
of commercials were using clips of this movie for everything
like tortilla chips, soda, I mean, every single thing, you

(22:19):
know from from the scenes where uh, the the death
ray gun was, you know, in its full effect or
times running out by Jeff Gobloom or so on, and
so I guess that's a good segue.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Mec Yeah, you you had it. You had a hit
hit on. I mean, there was there was such a
media bus to this movie. I mean I can remember
like Dorito's commercials where they show the scene with the
with the ship over the top of the White House
beaming down and someone's like, oh my gosh, my Dorito's

(22:55):
or something like that.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
You know, yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
It was in pop culture. It's definitely a pop culture film.
What about you, Cyber Any any thoughts on on Randy Quaid.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
I loved Randy Quaid in this. He was absolutely fantastic.
I mean, his comedic role in this was very similar
to cousin Eddie most definitely. He had a little bit
of vibe, especially when he gets sober, uh and when
he's trying to be you know, awake and everything where
when he goes into fight and he's like he actually
turns on the nuclear missiles when he's getting into the

(23:29):
into his wonderful little plane, which was absolutely hilarious. And
but then like that great beginning opening and his son
tells him, you you did the wrong field. He crossed up,
did the wrong field, and he's are you sure? Yeah,
like totally totally maybe think of cousin Eddie exactly.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
And I mean he even stumbles out of his plane drunk.
I'm like, okay, you know that he is.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
He's gone definitely, and he was He just was like
hilarious in this film. Then I loved it and him,
you know, with the original theatrical cut him being the
martyr he ends up becoming. It is just a great
way of bowing out that character, you know, kind of
giving him this great kind of arc throughout the film.
Going from this like drunk Bubble the idiot we see

(24:15):
at the beginning, to becoming the hero of the nation
of the world, you know, from stopping these aliens is
just like amazing. You know. It's one of Randy Quay's
best roles, I feel, besides cousin Eddie, to date. I mean,
he just was so see get Fitaska with his character,
and I just I always enjoyed it and I thought
he was great. I think he has some great one liners,

(24:36):
and he has some great scenes with some of the
other cast members that are just super funny too.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna pivot and I'm gonna
use that that segue a little bit because Rick set
me up for it. I didn't. I didn't pivot soon enough.
Let's let's let's take a look at and our good
friend David Livingston Jeff Goldbloom, and I don't know about you,
So it always seems like Jeff Goldbloom is kind of

(25:02):
cast in these roles where he's kind of the handsome,
brainy guy you know, looking at look at like Malcolm
Reynolds from From Jeff from From Dressed Park, or Brendel
Fly from The Fly before he becomes you know, this
disgusting life creature. You know, he's he's always these brain

(25:22):
guys that kind of almost are the smartest guy in
the room. And I just thought it was needed to
cast Jeff Goldbloom in the David Levinston role.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
He's got that like, you know, really smart but yet
still slightly oblivious to certain things going on. Like the
time it takes for him to complete the things that
he needs to complete means that he misses out of
what nuanced other people might share. So, like everyone's freaking

(25:53):
out about the press conference and he's still figuring out
the code that is going to actually inevitably save you know,
the president and all that stuff. So he comes out
and he says, oh, yeah, I've got the the you know,
the code figured out, and the thing is it's recycling.
But after seven hours it's gonna be it's gonna be over.

(26:14):
And everyone's like, David, what are you even talking about?
That's not even what's the important anymore, that's old news.
With that raspy voice and everything. By the way, what's
that guy's name? That was? That was so good, that
raspy voice was just I don't know, man, I thought
that was really good. I I really like that cast,

(26:36):
even though it was a minor role. What's that guy's name?

Speaker 4 (26:39):
Harvey Fierston?

Speaker 2 (26:43):
He always he always plays that role, not not quite
a feminine but definitely a guy that Yeah. Do you
think Mike played for the thirteen?

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah? Yeah, And and you know he I mean, honestly,
there was a lot of good one liners. He even
shared a few one good one liners when you know,
just like anyone else who's facing the end of the world, which,
by the way, the opening scene had that song by
what was the name of the band? Yeah, the end
of the World. Yeah, But everyone's facing the end of

(27:18):
the world, and their own personal endeavors are at the
top of the list. He's trying to get in touch
with his I don't know, therapist or doctor or something
like that in the Hamptons, and he's like, look, I'm
paying tons of money. I want to talk to him,
not really realizing that everyone's taking care of their own
personal business. The last few moments before it's over for Annihilation,

(27:43):
you know, back to Jeff Goldblum though, and David Liviston. Yeah,
I mean, you know, he played that thing and it's
casted type casted for him, but it's I don't know,
I liked him.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, like, like I said, it
seems like he's he's always in these roles. Three. He
starts off as the speaky guy, but he kind of
he turns around and comes this handsome, iconic, sexy kind
of hero. What about you, Cyber.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
I absolutely love Jeff Globoelman anything I ever see him,
and he is one of my all time favorite actors,
and so when I saw that he was in this,
I was just as statics as hell. He just was
so fantastic as David Levinson. I think Jeff Golobelm is
so good at delivering, you know, these great types of
roles that he just he does it flowlessly because almost

(28:33):
in an essence, I feel it's a little bit like
his real self, because if you ever see him in
interviews and stuff like that, he is just as geeky
as he is as his geek characters. He essentially is
just playing himself but adding a little hero element usually
to his characters. He just one of those people that,
no matter what the role is, you cannot not love him.
And he was absolutely fantasticist. I mean, he's got one

(28:55):
of the best lines of the film, you know, him
going my God in heaven. You know, it's one of
my favorite lines. And I remember repeating that several billion
times over the course of, you know, several years after
I saw the film in theaters because I just thought
it was a super hilarious line.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
And then you know, in the towards the end of
the film, when he's like getting drunk and everything and
he's acting like all like totally drunk himself, was super funny.
When he finally comes to like an idea of how
to stop the aliens, You're like, oh, there's a nerd again,
you know, but kind a hero dude too. At the
same time, you're like, that's awesome. But yeah, I absolutely

(29:35):
loved his character. He was super fun Some of the
great iconic lines in this film is are you know
hit lines that he said? And I just I couldn't
get enough of him. He was just so great in
this film, and his relationship with all the different characters too.
I thought really blended really well. They all felt real,

(29:57):
they all felt like they actually had like a relationship,
and I think that plays really well the fact that
how I think talented, you know, Jeff gooblom as an actor,
and I think that, you know, he just did such
a great job. So yeah, I really enjoyed him in
this So I thought he was He was like, like
my favorite part about this film, besides Judd Hirst, because

(30:18):
I've I've always been a big jud Hurst fan since Taxi,
But yeah, Jeff Golba was absolutely fantastic. And for a little,
great little pitpoint for you guys, the scene where Will
Smith is pulling the alien through the desert. They filmed
that in Utah. Now they were right by the Salt Lakes,
and when there's little microsopic strip that lived in that

(30:39):
in the salt lakes and when they die, they basically
fall to the bottom and then they stink up the place. Well,
when he's like dragging the alien and goes, you know,
I'm dragging your ass here and you're out the back
of it, He's like, what's that spell? He was actually
yelling at the fact that he was smelling a real
pungent smell from the trip. They hadn't told him that

(31:01):
that there was gonna be the smell, so that was
actually ad libbed, and I thought that was a great
little point.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
All wow, awesome. Yeah, yeah, and that was a great
delivery too. All right, I'm gonna get down here. I'm
gonna I'm gonna say rather nicely. So so Andre, since
you're you're our hero ge, you got you got that
great Jeff Goldblum kind of kind of appearance. What did
you think of Jeff Goldblum's performances.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Well, for as well, I got it curdious to you, Matt,
you're definitely detract google in here vol uh sir, and
uh yeah, I'm a huge chef gooble fan. I mean,
I love to Fly. It's one of my firstonal favorite
horror movies. And of course I love Drastic World. I mean,
The Lost Ward was my guilty pleasure film of full time.

(31:50):
So I love this performance here and I agree with
with Cyber here, like we watched it again. It's really
it's really cool and like why I like the late
this movie is like how interconnected he is in the
other characters, you know, with the the Detroit Chief of
the Wife you know who's working with the president, and
he knows the president prior to his like turn, you

(32:13):
know that he like had apparently had a fight, which
by the way, I love that scene because his father's
like like, like.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
You punched the president.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, because he thought he was having a fairs with
his wife. I was like, WHOA really, Okay.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Do you see there's there's still love there. There's still love.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Exactly, still still love there. It's like, oh man, yeah,
his character is so funny. He's so great. I mean,
like it has all like the Jeff gool Bloom is
it like not too many actually have to say. It's
not like Idon Mackham where like you can really see
Jeff pool Bloom in that role. Here is like you
see here, It's like it's kind of like flew in between,

(32:53):
Like I agree with that Line's like oh my god, yeah, great,
great line. And he's a great character. I mean, like
he saved the president. He helps out like like he
figures out what they're doing and then like how to
like look adem towards the end of the film. So
he he's a very important character and really works well.
And plus about this, you know, concurring it to like

(33:16):
Will Smith, like, you know, because Will Smith weirdly is
this other guy where he always body cup with somebody,
you know, bad boys. He personed up with Martin Lawrence,
Ray Campbell there and then Man Black, He's with tomm
Lee Jones. I don't know. I feel like his teaming
up with Jeff Gooplum is on the radio. I really
like their chemistry. I just wish we have more of that,

(33:37):
which unfortunately this sequel didn't do.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
You know, that's really sad because I think there was
so much that was potential. Just just imagining Will Smith
bouncing out with Jeff Goolue like two hours is like
it's gonna be gold people gold, right, you know.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
So well to kind of go off on a little bit,
I'm gonna go on a little bit of tangent there.
What about when he teamed up with Kevin Klein on
Wild Wild West? I mean, was that was that an
inspirational thing there? Or was that more of a bad It's.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
A bad movie. I I the bush. I just get
right to the point.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, yeah, it is the opposite of Independence Day.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
I love Kevin Klein. I I mean I love Fish
Koltwanda and I love the other movie in and out,
like he's uh and Dave he's a great actor. They
were a good cumpbell. I. I just think the movie
just I don't know, like that we just was not
a great film. It just didn't have the the comedy
that was well, like like this movie, like in the

(34:46):
Benistet is not a smart movie or it's not this
like high art, but it just knows how to lend
the jokes and like it's like everything right, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
It's it's the summer blockbuster. I mean that's the thing.
It's everything that you're looking forward to in the summertime.
You know. Yeah, I gotta say, I really what I
really enjoyed about this movie, and you kind of see
it moving forward with Emo remishes and iily butchered his name,
his films. You know, he's he's got a way of

(35:17):
bringing this this cast together, an ensemble cast where you
get each character's development throughout the movie. And we get
Jeff Goldblooms, we get Will Smiths, we get Ready Quays,
everybody's got everybody's character gets some development throughout the movie.
You know, Thomas Whitmore, you know, we get some history
with him, we find out that he used to be
a pilot. We find out that he's President of the

(35:39):
United States. You know, he relies on his cabinet, but
yet he's also a man of action, and he's a
man of his own standards. And I think that they
did a great job casting Bill Pullman for him. And
it's just neat that writers and the directors were able
to give everybody a uniqueness to this movie, make him
all included in it. There was nobody left side to

(36:00):
be like some kind of Golden Rod robot telling everybody
the odds in a movie. You know, there was there
was no necessary for for someone shouting out alien you know,
alien rights or robotic rights or you know, AI is
gonna gonna, you know, gonna destroy everybody. Sorry, I'm going
on a tangent there, and.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
Make sure you catch the episode of Star Wars Empire
Strikes Back, both episodes one and two. Everyone.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Uh but uh yeah, So what about you, Cyber? You
know I was talking about Bill Pullman. What would you
think of Thomas Whitmore since you did a great job
in a reenacting lone start, I mean, I mean Bill Pullman.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
I absolutely loved Bill Pullman two. Like I said, this
movie was was such an ensemble stack cast had such
great people that were just au fantastic actors at that
time that were, you know, becoming big and popular. Just
really all were fun to watch. He was fantastic as
the President. I loved him as the President. His emotion
throughout this whole entire film was so on point and

(37:02):
so good, especially when the white guys that speech he gives,
you know, everything about how he presented himself felt like
a real president, Like he felt like a president. And
so I was really impressed with that. And I love
that about that film, that the fact that we get
so many characters that felt really authentic, and Bill Pullman

(37:23):
definitely was one of those people that really brought the
authentic anticity to his character, even like when he gets
like please, you know, taking over his mind as being
taken over by the alien and down in the area
fifty one and he says, nuke the bastards. You know,
you can see you can just feel it, and you
felt it from his performance, like he saw something so

(37:44):
evil and vile. He's like, just just kill these bastards,
you know, and you know, he just has such a
great presence about him that was so well done. And
I just really enjoyed him as his character, and I
just think that this film would not have been complete
without him playing this performance. And I feel that he

(38:05):
really brought it and really worked well with everyone in
the film as well. I just really enjoyed him. I
thought he was a really great addition to that cast.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Nice I'm a big fan of the actor.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
I mean, you know, he's got a he's got a
couple of my favorite couple couple roles in some of
my favorite movies and stuff. On this particular one, I
think he did a really good job. However, I don't
think it's necessarily his fault as an actor. I think
that there is a minor issue that I take with
regard to what his character would have done in a

(38:42):
certain situation. So the scene where David Levenstein and his
dad are in the Oval office waiting for the President
to come back with David's wife when he finally gets there,
David had actually had the laptop on the president's desk
and he was standing behind the president's desk. That I

(39:05):
don't know necessarily if it was like within the character
of David Levenstein's to actually be behind the desk the
OVAL's office, you know, but I was looking at that
when I was I'd never noticed it until this last
time I watched it. I was like, WTF, this dude
is standing behind the president's desk. That is a big no, no,

(39:29):
you do not do that. That is so disrespectful. So
I don't know necessary. I guess Frobel like.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
He's on Time magazine with his feet on the desk. Okay,
I mean, he's just he was sitting behind the desk.
I'm pretty sure he was oblivious to the fact that
it was the resolution. He was more interested in the
fact that he had information to tell the president. He
had information.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
It's sure, yeah, he didn't. He didn't he didn't watch
the National Treasure so he didn't know right right exactly,
But in all seriousness, I thought it was good, especially
that argument that they had on the plane, you know,
right before David's dad came in being like, oh you
guys had you guys knew you knew back then when

(40:11):
there was the area of fifty one area of fifty one,
you knew then, and you did nothing. And the whole
time he's just standing there like, bro.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
I gotta say, Rick, you really know how to capture
an old Jewish man played by Judd Hirsh. You did
a great job right there. You know, I'm gonna go
to jud Hirschnax, but I still want to know what
you think of Phil did Good.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
That was gretty good, I think in that particular moment especially,
I mean it was kind of like, you know, the
president doesn't necessary isn't supposed to drop to a certain
level of drama and just kind of stay stoic. Let's
the things happen. Let's secret service or whatever take care
of any kind of things that would negative type of

(41:00):
situations like that, And being that there really wasn't any
of the plane, it just kind of happened, and he
just waited for calmer heads and then it's like, all right,
this is I'm gonna speak now. So I thought it
was good. I thought, I mean in that speech, man,
I mean nearly as good as cyberst Rendition, honestly, Like.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
I said twenty twenty eight, Cyber, all right, Andreas as
Cyber's running mate, what'd you think of Bill Pullman?

Speaker 4 (41:28):
Uh? Bill Pullman is toughly president of best fictional presidents
of all time. I mean, nothing will be Margaret Freeman,
I mean, come on, like when he was the president pack,
I'm like, hell, yeah, I want him to be my president.
He's great. I mean Bill Pullman, I love. He's a
great actor. His son is great to just a little

(41:50):
hint sight. He's great in the Bolts.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
And yeah, he's he's a pretty funk character here.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
You know.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
He's another one that also grabbed this well, like he's
you know, he's a pilot, like a former young pilot.
That's kind of cool. I never caught that with this
recent review. I think that was really good addition to
like relate to the president.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
No.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
Pullment great traumatic actor. I mean, the reason I love
this movie is just when he you know, his wife,
like we had to tell it, like we get to
his wife, you know, dying of course, like such a
powerful scene, Like he just delivers it so well. And
you know when he's hugging you know, the daughter gets
material you know, to seeing you know, his wife dying,

(42:33):
you know, with lots of blood and it's like, oh
my god. So I just remember those parts. He's a good,
you know, grounded, you know president who's trying his best,
you know, like any president to like make peace and
like figure out what we're going to do with these aliens,
you know, so he's just a human person. And and

(42:53):
of course, you know the speech is so iconic, you know,
very silly, you know, but he you know, he delivers
it in a way that's like so like pump like, yeah,
come on, we're gonna beat the aliens. And this is
not American holiday anymore. It's a natural all of us equal,
you know, white green, Uh, you know Latinos, you know

(43:15):
me Latino boy and and and dungeons masters is litial
maybe I don't know, like anyone here is Latinos, you know,
were all equal to have a holiday that's a ka
independance day. So but that they beat cyber speech no offense.
But woman and I was like, yeah, come on, I'm

(43:35):
gonna beat those aliens up. Yeah yeah, Bil Woman Gray
addition to the cast, like just another one. I don't
know who could play that role. I just take both
women really played like pressing very well.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Man, that that speech that he had was like the
level of uh was the level of rallying the role
hero and Lord of the Rings? You know? That was yeah,
it was.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
That it was up to that nice nice I mean,
I would almost parallel. It like a Jim Gordon speech
to his to his well, yeah, I say to all
of his his officers, and look, I made a Batman
reference before, Andrea, what is.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
Going on here? Well?

Speaker 2 (44:23):
You keep you keep blowing up Cyber's head. I didn't
want him to get too big, so I mean, you know,
I'm sorry. Well, hey, you know, there's one last character
I want to talk about in this this section of
July second, and of course that's David living in his
father the wonderful actor character actor Jed Hirsh. I mean,
he did a great job playing an old Jewish man.

(44:45):
And as I had pointed out earlier, you know Rick
Rick with his great you know impersonation, did a fantastic job,
sounding like someone from possibly a lost tribe. I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
But anyway, now who's had his gonna get too big?

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Right?

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Right? Well?

Speaker 2 (45:05):
Cyber, you know what about? What did you think? What
do you think of Judge Hurst?

Speaker 7 (45:09):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (45:09):
My god, jud Hirsh is the best. I absolutely loved
jud Hurst, Like I mentioned earlier, I've loved him since
I saw him in Taxi. I thought he was one
of the best characters in that show. I just always
thought he was just a great character actor because he's
been in so many other things and he's done little
roles and cameos and stuff and other things. And he
was just recently in a new show with Nathan Lane

(45:33):
that was on I think it was ear Amount, I
think it was or Hulu maybe Hula. I think it
was Hulu actually, where him and two other gay guys
they're living together and jud Hurst plays this like little
brief part that somebody that's dating Nathan Lane's mother. And
he looked absolutely fantastic. I can't believe this man is ninety.

(45:55):
And I was just like so impressed with how good
he looked and how fun he's still was watching him
in an Independence Day, he was just delivered everything about
that kind of old Jewish father that was perfect, especially
like when he comes to the door to get him
to use the car and he's like those vultures. You're
just like, oh, that was perfect. That was so like him.

(46:18):
You know, I feel like pretty much Eddy role he plays.
He always playing like a sort of you know, like
a Jewish guy. He usually plays like a Jewish character,
which is always funny.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
You know.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
Overall, he always plays those characters really well because he
just that's that's pretty much what he is anyways. But
in Independence State he just plays you know, David's father
so well, you know, as we kind of mentioned the
airplane scene earlier, he's like, you know, you know about
that in era fifty one. You know, you guys knew
all these years, but you did nothing. And then you know,

(46:50):
basically he's like, you didn't listen to my David. You
don't listen, you know. So it was just one of
those things that was, you know, such a great speech
like everyone's kind of mentioned and just really showed and
shined how good jud Hirsch is.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
He was just absolutely fantastic film. I loved him in it.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
I mean I totally agree with you. He the way
he portrayed his father, he in the movies, in the
TV series Taxi as well as there was t show
called Der Jock. He was really good at that conflict.
He could he could really convey the conflict of two characters.
I thought he was fantastic playing playing David's dad, And

(47:29):
there was like a little nuanced and tasts that he
had with his characters too, and I thought really conveyed,
like I don't want to say that the stereotypical older
Jewish man. But he definitely hammed it up a little bit.
But what about you, Rick, what would you think of Judd? Oh?

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Super believable. I mean he had nailed I mean, whether
whether we're talking about a Jewish father or just a father.
I mean he he he nailed the parental pressure whenever possible.
I mean, sure he could say the line, but he
the line was believable. The way that he said it.
You know, he even felt like a disconnected boomer, you

(48:06):
know when he's all like, oh yeah, John Lennon shot
in the back that he said, you know, like Roe,
how do you think I don't know this? What's up? Man?
You know? I mean yeah, And you know something that
I thought that was really touching again bringing back the

(48:28):
whole having issues with the characters both on a personal
level and then on a global level, how do they
work together to overcome the eminent danger to the human race,
But on a personal level at the end, his character
had that moment to be able to rectify the loss

(48:50):
of his wife with the loss of his faith through
his son, almost like giving him another chance at it.
And it was kind of cool to see like him
be able to say, you know what, I can move
past my own personal loss to be able to be

(49:11):
whole once again, because you could tell he you know,
his his faith was a very strong part of his character.
It just had been missing all the way up to
the very end, you know. So I thought that was
really cool as a character development, not necessarily on his
on the part of the actor.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
But right, how about how about you andres any any
last thoss on on Judd Hersch and his his phenomenal
performance as a author.

Speaker 4 (49:35):
Oh no, no, I think you guys covered it really well.
I mean he's fantastic actor. I mean have you ever
seen his roles, you know, like in TV shows, you know,
like Taxi or he was in the on Gems. He
was really great in there. Yeah, to say he's definitely
a great father's uh you know a character. I really

(49:56):
like that. Let's the you know that I appreciate the
line when you say, like, look when I ask your mom,
I I you know, I did lost faith, you know,
And I really like how that got payoff. When you
know David gave him the like the Bible. Well, I don't.
I don't want to say the Bible because that you know,
that's the Jewish the tour. Thank you. I that was

(50:18):
such a great payoff. And that's the thing I like
about this week, the great payoffs they did earlier what
we heard from our characters, and and that was a
really good touch that, like, you know, David brought back
faith to him because you know, thanks to I mean,
the Dad really saved the earth really too. I mean
like he gave him the idea for his son to
like figure out the weakness, you know, give it the virus.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
You know, hold on, I think your skip I think
I think you might be skipping ahead a little bit
of my podcast, buddy, because that's going to lead to
a question I have later.

Speaker 4 (50:50):
Sure, so sorry, but you know that's that my fault.
That's my time travel fall, you know, because I I
was in that moment and then now I'm like this moment.
But anyway, you know, you know what I mean. The
you know, the Dad is a point in a very
figurely way for David's plant. But anyway, but no, just
that much to say. I think he's a great dad,

(51:11):
and he has great lines. The vultures, you know, you
won't get out of my yard. You know, I had
to take him for that. Yeah, he plays Jewish pretty well.
I I gotta say, you know, vultures, you know.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Just real quick, just to be religiously clear or correct here,
I think it was actually the Tana. I don't want
some some of our Jewish audience to be offended, like
it's not the Torah, it was the whatever it was.
I I said the wrong thing, No offense was meant.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
No, it wasn't great, it wasn't the Old Testament. Sorry, okay, Andreas,
I'm sure. Sorry I cut you off. What was your
last last to be the comments from.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Judge Hurby, Yeah, I don't know. Great great actor, just
you know, I think wow him. I like he has
great lines. I mean his driving like slowest, like so real,
like I mean like that's not how our parents are.
It's like, look you're in this lane, you can move
fast like anyway, so I can relate to that. But yeah, yeah,
great character. I love his character so much. I mean

(52:24):
especially when he I love he's come back to the
the Chark Secretary defense. He's like, I'm not Jewish. I
was like, no, one's perfect, it's just the way lyric great.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
That's how i'd say, well, hey, you know what as
a middle aged man, Andrea's I just want to point
out so that we're not insensitive to all the middle
aged people out there. It's okay to drive the speed limit. Okay.
You know, I realized that Andreas is a younger guy,
and and you know, he wants to point out that
we need to go everywhere real quick and fast. But

(52:56):
it's okay to drive the speed limit. You know, if
it's toasted thirty five miles an hour, we'll drive thirty
five miles an hour. If it's sixty five or two
hundred and thirty five, like those routes signs say, we'll
run two hundred and thirty five miles an hour. Oh wait,
you know that's five Yeah, Okay, anyway, there you go.
I happy to hear you understand that. Well that that

(53:19):
brings us to July third, and of course that's where
we start addressing the problem and we start looking for
a solution. The Earth's military counter attacks against the invaders
are thwarted by the alien warships force fields, because like
Star Trek, the ships have force fields. You know, as
established in every science fiction movie we ever know, spaceships

(53:43):
have force shields. The Millenium Falcon has a deflector shield. Okay,
Each saucer launches shielded fighters, devastating the human fighter squadron
and military bases, including Captain Hillar's aka Willsmith. Pillar lures
an enemy fighters into the Grand Canyon before ejecting from
his plane, blinding the fighter using his parachute and causing

(54:05):
the alien to crash into Mahabi Desert. He subduesed a
down alien and flagged down a convoy of refugees transporting
the alien to Area fifty one, where Whitmore's plane has landed. Okay,
So before I go a little further, did you guys
know that the military did not give any assistance to
this film because of the use of Area fifty one.

Speaker 4 (54:27):
Yeah, I heard that distaff today.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
I can't sneak on that I'm at liberty. I am
not at liberty to speak on these specific topics. As
I am, I there are commitments that I must fulfill
and if I speak then it would potentially put me
or my family in danger.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
So well, okay, if anyone's listened to our previous episodes,
we are all well well aware that Rick is actually
an android and his wife is an astronm. So we
we established that okay, so we know that he knows
about Area fifty once again.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Once again, make sure you check out the Middle Aged
movie review podcast episodes for Star Wars Empire Strike Back.
If you are on the side of artificial intelligent rights.

Speaker 4 (55:21):
Oh my god, I can't believe you.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Guys.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
You shouldn't wait for that for a return of the Jedi,
because that's where all the abuse of work that the
address deltlift come on.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Well, anyway, back to the artificial telligions happening in this movie,
the US Defense Secretary Albert Nimis reveals that a government faction,
also a government faction, has been involved in a UFO
conspiracy since nineteen forty seven, when one of the Invaders
fighters crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. Area fifty one houses

(55:52):
the refurbished ship and three alien corpses corpses corpses. What's
the poor for corpse?

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Maybe cease.

Speaker 8 (56:02):
Corp corpses Sparpside from the crash, Doctor Brackish o'coon, the
chief scientist, examining the Aliens captured by Steven, which.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Awakens telepathy, invades Acuon's mind. Now, when I first watched
this mind you I am a huge Star Trek path.
I immediately recognized to scientists as Data. I'm Star Trek
Next Generation. What I didn't realize until later on when
I actually read the movie adaptation of this film his

(56:37):
last name is Akuon. Well, if you know anything about
Star Trek and specifically the Next Generation, one of the
design technicians on the Next Generation, his last name was
a Coon. So that was actually the writer's way of
giving a tip of the hat to Star Trek, along

(56:57):
with having Data play that guy guy's name character.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
So did not know that. That's cool And I am
really big into Star Trek too, man, I did not
know that.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
All right, Well there you go, so we're was it? Oh? Yes,
They awaken the alien that was captured, and Akoon's mind
is then treated like a puppet. They are able to
communicate with the alien, but the alien attacks Whitmore before
being killed by the secret Service agents and military personnel. Whitmore,
the invaders plant from the psychic attack, annihilate Earth's inhabitants

(57:30):
and harvests its natural resources, as they have done on
other civilizations. Whitmore reluctantly authorizes a trial nuclear attack against
a saucer above Houston as Houston, Texas, Indiana, but the
ship is unharmed due to the force field because there's
force fields. We're talking about aliens here, people, they have

(57:51):
force fields. While the city is destroyed by the blast
and all subsequent nuclear attacks are aborted, Jasmine and Dylan
common deer a highway maintenance truck and rescue more survivors,
including the critically injured First Lady Marilyn Whitmore. Though Hiller
rescues them and takes them back to Area fifty one.

(58:12):
Marylyn succomes to her injuries after reuniting with her family,
and that is where we see Bill Pulman's dramatic the
Fact talks as Andre said to talk about with the
death of his wife. So, gentlemen, that's a lot. On
July third, Cyber, what did you think of those aliens
coming out of that ship and attacking the quote Black Nights.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
This is you know, action packed and really fun. And
I just remember seeing on the big screen and being
like like this is awesome, Like I God, get into it,
get down and dirty and kill those aliens. And I

(58:56):
just remember thinking about something like I'm like and I've
kind of at one point I was kind of rooting
for the alias for a second. I don't know why,
but I was I was like, yes, yes, get that finer,
get that fighter, you know. But you know, it was
just such an action pack sequence that was just so awesome,
and the visual effects for nineteen ninety six were done

(59:17):
so well. And when I recently rewatched the film, you know,
looking at the four K cut of it, I was
like really impressed with how good those graphics still stand,
you know, almost thirty years later, and I've seen movies
that have come out within like the last five years
that the CGI looks absolutely horrible. Really shows how much

(59:40):
you know, detail and how much effort they put into
the CGI for this film, you know, because this being
one of those first really big type of CGI, big
budget films for its time, you know, it holds up
and which is really great. And this scene here, I
think is a really great example of that how good
it still looks. And I always I find it so

(01:00:00):
impressive with that, and I think, you know, just overall
the whole sequence is just really entertaining as well, you know,
just like with any other kind of alien evasion film,
you know, we always have you know, of course, that
big kind of first evasion always the tax and stuff
like that, but there was just something about this one
that just really pulled me in more than others I've seen,

(01:00:21):
and it just was so well done. Through this this action,
we see that we're over you know, we're under power
in this situation, and that we got to regroup, we
gotta we gotta think of another strategy because this is
not working. And so you're just kind of like, uh, yeah, okay, guys,
get back, Okay, come back, get back.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
You know, yeah, this isn't.

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
Working, you know, and you're kind of like sitting there
looking at the screen going, okay, guys, you stop getting killed.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
So, I mean I think that this is a really
fantastic sequence that I always enjoy. I think it's a
great battle, and I think overall it just looks so
amazing for being almost thirty years old.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Right right. What about you, Andre's, what do you think?
Do you think that the effects really hold up? Because
I do know that even though this is where I
lighted heavily on CGI, there were quite a few model
effects to this. Yeah, I'm kind of curious. What do
you think, Andre's, Well, I agree with Saber here. I mean,
I see dye of these movies, like I mean more
like more Countback has the worst CGI, right, and it's

(01:01:28):
like we watched this movie today, I'm like, wow, the
effects still holds up. Because the thing about this movie
it uses all the trick in the book of filmmaking,
you know, the practical effects, the CGI and model, like
all that together and make it one of these spectacular films.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
And this movie is not expensive. That's another thing we
have to bring up, Like this one was only seventy
five billion dollars, like, which is crazy for like.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
I'm sorry, did I hear you right? You say million
with an m or billion.

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
With a million dollars.

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
It was a seventy five million, you know dollar budget.
In comparison another evasually, uh you know, my my guilty
pleasure from this year, uh marsh Attacks was even was
a much bigger movie a budget there. It was like
a round in flights here, like eighty or one hundred
billion dollars like what it was made for. So it

(01:02:27):
was a way more expecivily than this wille And the
fact this movie like was just under that is a
is a really incredible fee. And yeah, I mean like
the investment, the like you see the investment of the
Sigiz spresh effects here because they help a lot to
enhance like certain things that you know, like the lasers
and and like the scope of it. But it's just

(01:02:48):
the models and and and you know, and the practical
effects helps to bring this real life attention to these
preachers and then the ship, so which is incredible. I
love this effects. And when I find out like like
it's just like I mean, the explosion on like the
biggest like iconic, like you know, what do you call

(01:03:10):
the landscapes you know, Empire, State, Billy And and the
White House. You know, it's like whoa, Like it's incredible.
I mean it looks real. I mean because the fact
that they use actual explosions, uh, you know against the
the the models they create for those landscapes you know
those Empire and and and the White House. It's it's

(01:03:31):
it's really incredible. I just it's dunest me to do today,
you know. Yeah, you know, you know you get some
shots that are like dodgy, but that's that was part
of the time. But it's still still holds up definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
I Mean I gotta say that I got to give
a shout out to this movie to make to make
think that Aliens are russ Barians as mom, Yeah, I'm
dragging your dreadlines across this freaking shrill What does smell?

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
All? Right?

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Cyber? Did it better than I did? Okay?

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Anyway, how about you, Rick? What did you think of
these effects? I mean, do they hold up? They do
they meet the model shots for Star Trek, for Star
Wars to be as effective today as they were back
in nineteen ninety six, I have.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
To say yes. And the reason why, anecdotally I wrote
nothing in my notes about the effects being that this
is as old as it is. I mean, shoot, we're
at what thirty years now? Almost? Yeah? So, and I
noticed nothing about any sort of decline in quality of effects.

(01:04:44):
That is just a testament to how well these effects
are standing out. And I mean, speaking of that battle
though as a whole, I have to say again, it
could have gone much dark. I mean, because the Black
Knights were losing, they were losing bad Man, and the

(01:05:07):
dialogue was just absolutely key to maintaining a somewhat hopeful
and positive tone in the whole entire sequence. So why
we are on this particular mission we'll never know, But
I do know here today that the Black Knights will
emerge victorious once again. So so, I mean it's stuff

(01:05:33):
like that that really like gets you riled up. But
then also the lines and the dialogue between Cornick and
and uh Smith have in there with their characters, it's
just really really really good keeping it even though even
though he he dies, you know, there's a there's a
brief moment of pause, but then you know, Will Smith

(01:05:57):
still keeps his his character keeps his chin up, keeps
to the mission, and actually he does remain partially victorious,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
So Harry conn of Junior is the one character in
the movie that I always feel fat about because you know,
he shows up for maybe like ten minutes in this movie,
but I like his character. He's basically the goose from
Top Gun. Definitely, Yeah, that is true. Well, I mean
the thing is, though, is that part of the loss

(01:06:27):
is felt in the movie to further remind everyone that
it is the end of the world right here, all stakes,
you know, like this is it it do or die.
So I think that it was a necessary loss for
the plot. But I agree, I agree that the chemistry
between the two were amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
Yeah yeah, Oh this is they're achievement with that role.
It wasn't. He was like the last first State cast
because he replaced by Perry, who was originally be cast
for the role. That that's defense for Will Smith a fairly.
So I'm always kind of curious what if how Perry

(01:07:07):
could have had a Will Smith as like the Cold Pilot.
Uh yes, just distretroll that a little trivia.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
You know, I could.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
I could.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
I could almost see that because you know, Harry Conny
Junior's character was a bit snarky, a bit you know, yeah, comedic.
I could see that being on Mac Perry roll. What
about you, cyber any any any thoughts on Harry connych
Junior's character.

Speaker 3 (01:07:29):
Yeah, I really liked.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
His character too, and I and when they killed him
up so quickly, I was really disappointed. This same year
that this came out, he also did the film Copycats,
where he played a serial killer, and he really showed
his great vibes at being a great actor, you know,
from you know, just being a musician and singer. He
came in and started doing some acting and I thought

(01:07:51):
he was pretty damn good. And so when he has
short part was in this, I was like, really kind
of sad because I was like, I really like that character.
I think that was a great character. You know, that
great speech he gives while they're up in the airplanes
before they go into battle was really well done. And
his like southern accent was really fun too, because it
sounded really genuine and that's just how Harry Conta Junior

(01:08:13):
really talks. So I really appreciated that, and I like that,
you know, he was like this kind of you know,
kind of suave friend of Will Smith, you know, kind
of like, you know, more strict to the book type
of deal, you know, and Harry Conton Junior's character was
a little more loosey goosey, you know, kind of like
as you we mentioned about Top Gun.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
It was kind of the same kind of deal. I
gotta say though, that I do see the parallels with
the Top Gun and the Wingman and stuff like that. However,
there's one big like wrench in that theory. The wrench
that I would say is that in this movie, the
two pilots were straight, whereas in Top Gun it's really

(01:08:54):
about the main character seeing whether or not he's gay,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (01:08:58):
So all right, all right, flag gonna play you gotta
know what I'm talking about, though, I mean, look, Quentin
Tarantito laid it out perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Look Rick, Rick, this summer, I want you to come
to my house. I'm gonna set up my volleyball on
that and we'll we'll, we'll we'll discuss this over a
game of volleyball. Okay, I'll even bring some baby oil.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
Yeah, I got you, brod. Just like just like a
story from Dave Chappelle. It'll be like shirts versus blouses.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Sure, sure, Yeah. We get a lot of characters in this,
we get we get a disaster. The disaster movie, we're
seeing them trying to figure out a way to combat
the situation. And this movie it's so I don't know,
it just revitalizes a lot of this. Just like I

(01:09:58):
don't want to beat a dead horse with this. This
is as movie thing. Where do you guys think that
this movie at this point it kind of sits with
other disaster movies. I mean, you know, we had The
Day after Tomorrow, we had Godzilla, we had twenty twenty
one Years all directed by Roland m Rish. You know
where does this sit in your opining?

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:10:18):
I mean it has to be top peak because I
was because I mean, first off, this is probably the
best alenen evasion we have seen so far just display
in film, I guess. I mean, like, you know, against
the classic films like I don't know, like the Earth Standsdale,

(01:10:39):
the the Ritual, not the you know, the Rebate. But
I haven't seen like this, this type of allenvation. Like
I'm trying to think of my head, like what kind
of alevation like this scale? We have seen this before
besides the Avengers, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
As far as alien Avengers or alien I'm sorry Alien
Alien Invasion movie. Let me throw this out to you.
How does this set up to, like, say, yeah, yet
Mars attacks the TV series V I don't know if
you remember that TV series?

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
Oh I remember I seen the remake. I remember?

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
Now okay, so you got you got the.

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
We including like War of the World, Rival Edge, Tomorrow,
sign Fifth Wave.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
Okay, Okay. I have to put this as number one
because I like, I kind of care for the characters
in this film against like gonna sample this the World
Awards the two thousand and five Let me go with
the two thousand and five version of Ward Awards like that.
I like Tom Cruise, but his character is not a
character I like I care for, and he's like such

(01:11:47):
a douche in that film, you know. And you know,
and then you know, I love Mars Attacks, you know,
I love to Burn, and but it's a movie. The
movie is so weird. It's so nalistic. It's like it's
like everyone needs to die, you know, and it's not
the type of film for everyone to watch.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:12:07):
I I enjoy because I get the sense to humor
for to burn, against the independence State. It's so practical,
like you know, like like they feel real, like especially
when the actor does from star Trek dexleiration Q, you know,
when he you know, the way they do the theistic
it's like so cool, like it's real. It's like very practical,

(01:12:31):
you know. So uh, you know, I want to really
answer Matt's answer disassage film, like yeah, this is top
disassage film. I have to say number one. Like I
seen the other films. To the Towering Inferno, that's a
really good movie. The Sight Adventure starting from the Lake,
great Gie Hackman build up of like the Attack, it's

(01:12:54):
so good. Like nothing has really come to like beat
that you know from this film.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Really, what about you Cyber where does this fall in
disaster movies for you?

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
For me, I would say it was top five because
there's so many great disaster movies that they've made. You know,
as we mentioned before, there was a lot of great
films in the seventies, and then we had all these
great films come out in like the mid to late
nineties at early two thousands, and I really enjoyed Day
After Tomorrow. I thought that was a really fantastic film. Armageddon,

(01:13:26):
Deep Impact, we're all great, you know, asteroid films. So
those both came out in the same year, both Armageddon
and Deep Impact, and so you had two very different
films simp the fact that the Army Geddon was a
lot more action packed, whereas Deep Impact was a little
bit of a more more of an emotional coaster versus
how Armageddon was. I mean, of course there was emotional

(01:13:48):
stuff going on in Armageddon, but it definitely was more
you know, action heavy versus that. Then, you know, between
Independence Day, Dante's Peak, Daylight, you know, all these films
coming out around that time. They all were great in
their own rights. So you know, get putting it into
a certain category, and disaster films is very hard because
even back in the seventies, you know, when we had Earthquake,

(01:14:09):
we had Towering Inferno, we had the Airport movies. You know,
those are all really great disaster movies too, which all
deserve to be on the same you know, ranking list.
So I mean it's very hard. So but overall I
think that you know, Independent State deserves at least a
top five tier, so the fact that it's still such
a great film thirty years later, but at the same time,

(01:14:32):
it was one of a great kind when it came
out in ninety six because we hadn't really had a
really action pack kind of disaster slash alien movie in
a while that really had a big impact on alien invasion.
And I think that's what Independence Day does, and Roland
Emrick did a great job of bringing that to life.

(01:14:53):
So you know the fact that he's gone on to
do so many other great kind of disaster films Day
After Tomorrow, twenty twelve, so forth, you know, he he's
got that genre pat down. And I think that you know, definitely,
you know, Independence State belongs in least somewhere in that

(01:15:13):
the five range of the top tier, because it's just
it's that great of a film that you know, thirty
years later, you're still talking about it, requoting lines so
much from it and just such a great ensemble cast,
whereas you know, unfortunately it was some of the older
films beside The Venture Tower and Perno that even though
they had really big casts and all that, some of

(01:15:34):
these movies didn't have some of the greatest memorable lines
like Independence State.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
Does you know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:40):
So you know, I think that you know, these those
may fall a little underneath, but you know, ensemble wise,
they all are in the same category in themselves because
they all have such great all star cast.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:51):
So you know, great, you know, huge success and disaster
films you know around that time, and it just you know,
Independence State is one of those top tier film. So yeah,
I have to put in the top five.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
Well, I agree with you guys. I think I think
as far as disaster film goes, it's in the top
five definitely. I'm gonna say like number two or number three,
because it sets up the story arc type of a
disaster happening. There's a group of people that we're going
to follow. Every character has its own development, everybody has
their own line that it comes iconic. Although honestly, looking back,

(01:16:26):
at like the nineteen seventies movies. I can't remember a
single line that Hilly Winter says in the Side of
Adventure other than I can hold my breath in two minutes. Okay, great, fantastic.
How about you, Rick, what do you think do you
where do you put ID four in in the disaster
movie ranking?

Speaker 3 (01:16:43):
Definitely near the top or at the top. Although I
mean when you really consider all of the different disaster
and epic you know, End of the World, Armageddon type
of films of that time, there seemed to be one
one that just kind of rolls above the rest because
of the popularity of all of them together. And I'd

(01:17:06):
have to say Evolution. Okay, I mean, don't get me wrong,
it is a really fun movie and stuff. I kind
of kid a little bit, but it is. It is
actually pretty good of a movie. When you watch the
others in tandem, then all of a sudden, this one

(01:17:27):
becomes much better because you get all the jokes and
stuff like that. But as far as like alien type movies,
I'm I would probably say I'm an Arnold fan, so Predator.
I don't know if that.

Speaker 5 (01:17:41):
Counts, but man oh man, and you know what for
this podcast, I'll put it count get to the.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
It's kind of alien invading.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
Yeah, yeah, And I definitely agree with Cyber with regard
to Day After Tomorrow. It's definitely one of my favorites
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
All Right, gentlemen, Well, with all that being said, we
are now approaching July fourth, where they implement the plan.
And here's what the plan is so inspired by Julius.
David writes a computer virus on his laptop. Now, mind you,
we're talking nineteen ninety nineteen ninety six computer laptop. So

(01:18:23):
we're looking at what that gateway.

Speaker 4 (01:18:24):
I think it's actually an IBM.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
It's maybe got am TM two core processor.

Speaker 4 (01:18:31):
Yeah, okay's candy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
Bro ninety six, not eighty six. Okay, it's not an
apple to eat. So now, so his plan is to
take the laptop in a ship up to the mothership,
upload the virus into the operating system to dislabel the
alien shield, and Hiller volunteers to pilot the alien ship

(01:18:57):
armed with a tagical nuclear weapon to destroy the mothership.
The US military contacts the remaining forces and airborne squadrons
through the classic Morris Code to organize a united counter attack.
Lacking pilots, Whitmore and General William Gray enlists volunteers to

(01:19:20):
flight with flight experience, including Russell Case aka Randy Quaid
from the refugee camp in Area fifty one to fly
the remaining jazz Hiller Mary's Jasmine aka Vivica Fox, the
stripper of the movie Red Flag, with David and Constant's
presence present. So of course, you know, that then invigorates

(01:19:44):
their you know the fact that they still love each other,
because he's there's love still there, during which the divorced
terror reconciled before leaving on the mission. Entering the alien mothership,
they upload the virus and launched a nuclear missile, destroying
it and the alien invasion forces ord narrowly escape with
shields down. Whitmore's squadron engages a saucer targeting in the

(01:20:07):
Area one base the exhaust or ammunition, and as disaucer
readies to fire, Russell sacrifices to himself by crashing his
primary weapon, destroying the warship. Gray orders notifications to resistance
groups worldwide about the station ship's critical weakness, leading to
their destruction. As humanity celebrates the victory against the aliens,

(01:20:31):
Tiller and David are rest dued after surviving the crash,
landing back on Earth, reuniting with her families, and looking
like two badasses walking through the desert. There are two
things that I really want to point out about July fourth,
and that is Randy Quaid's sacrifice in this movie and
Thomas Whitmore's steeche. I want to talk about Thomas widmore

(01:20:51):
sweech first. So as we've we've talked about Bill Pullman
being the President of the United States, Thomas Whitmore steeche
feels is written and is delivered like those classic speeches
we heard about from like John F. Kennedy or you know, FDR.
You know, he was able to deliver the speech that

(01:21:12):
made me feel like I was watching a president of
the United States. You know it. It was It was
kind of iconic. It's something that like sticks with you
when you walk out of the movie theater. And the
fact that he like says, you know, the title of
the film at the end of the speech, it just
it just reinforces, it drives to nail into the coffin

(01:21:33):
for this movie.

Speaker 3 (01:21:34):
Oh man. Like I said a little bit ago, I mean,
this was just at the same level pretty much for
me as many of the very famous speeches in cinema
history of the recent past. So Braveheart with William Wallace,
the speech with like Theoden King with rallying the roll.

(01:22:00):
Hear him in the Return of the King, So yeah,
it is definitely up to that level. And something else
about his speech because after he said his speech that
was like, all right, we're gonna do this. He's getting
everyone together. What happens right after was something I took
note of. I know a fair little bit about American

(01:22:24):
history and history in general and stuff, and it was
really cool that the general stopped the president before he
climbed into his cockpit and he was like, yo, I
can't let you do this. And he's like, yo, I
am a pilot. This is where I need to be,
you know, like this is the end, this is the
last fight we're gonna have. Anyways, it's do or die.

(01:22:47):
I gotta be up there. And as a reference to history,
that would have been the first actual time when a
sitting president would be in bad The first time and
only time when a president has led troops in the
battle was with George Washington for the Whiskey Rebellion.

Speaker 2 (01:23:08):
Nice. Nice, Yeah, because he is the commander in chief.
So nice, nice reference there. Way to show you your history.
I applaud to you. All right, well, how about how
about you Andreas? What did you think of of the
iconic speech.

Speaker 4 (01:23:27):
I mean, it's going back to my conversation about Phil
Pulman's character him as general as an actor. He just
I it could have been bad. It wasn't the right actor.
I think Phil just did the right way, like it
was really was a president like building up purge and
and and just giving the you know, the American people

(01:23:50):
some hope and and help defeat the aliens, and in
such a good way. So I so I really appreciate
the h you know, the speech, and I really like it.
I did question. I mean, we haven't discussed the nick
picks and the weird things like him going to the
plane was always weird. But then I don't know, I

(01:24:13):
think Judge Mester just came to this like very like insightful,
like parallel to our first president, Like this is like
the first time we see the actual president going, you know,
to battle with their comrades for the first time since
what George watched did Yeah, so, and you know it's
always the weird thing is like why you know, you know,

(01:24:35):
you know, go help the soldiers and all that, so
that that's very unique. They did that here and now
now it doesn't make it silly In my hand, I'm like, okay,
that makes a lot of sense. And and it also
makes sense to him because he's a pilot and like
they don't have like that's the thing by we watch here,
they don't they have few like inexperience like experienced pilots.

(01:24:58):
They have very inexperien is ones that that you know,
they have pilot you know, license, but they don't have
the training that like requires for these like fires fires,
so they they you know, so it makes sense for
him to come back to be a pilot because he
has the expertise and all that. So you know, you know,
whatever you think about it, you know, there's two things

(01:25:20):
that makes a lot of sense in a very dramatical way.
And as judge matter did it just anically say it
in his you know, his turn, but also you know,
realistically in the film, like he's him and a few
you know others that are not like they are from
military and back film they need to be part of

(01:25:40):
it to help these other you know, pilots they are
not military experience, you know, and so to help out
this battle, they're going to go against the ship. So yeah,
I this actually is always iconic. I mean, you know,
we've been brought up to one of the liners. This
one is like the peak iconic moment from movie history.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
Well, how about you, Cyber, You know you delivered that
great speech to the beginning. I don't want to blow
your head up too much because you did a great job,
as our studio audience has told you. What are your
thoughts on Bill Bowman's delivery?

Speaker 4 (01:26:11):
This is by far one of the greatest speeches in
movie history ever. And I have it pulled up. I've
been rewatching it back and forth here as we've been
talking about it, because it's just such a freaking amazing
speech and it is just it just like everyone's kind
of mentioned, you really think he's president of the United States,

(01:26:32):
is how impactful his speech is in this movie. And
I feel you could use this speech in any instance
to show just like what a true person that's leading
your land or you know, commander in chief as we've mentioned,
would sound like what they would do. And this is
exactly you know about unifying everything and he brings that

(01:26:56):
in such a great speech here in this you know,
amazing spe each if you listen to it, it just
I mean the best part of the speech is, you
know when he goes when he's about to say that
we're declaring this new uh, this new day as Independence
Day by you know, you know, basically going out and

(01:27:16):
I think it's just absolutely fantastic. Ah and Pullman just
pulled it off so amazingly.

Speaker 2 (01:27:23):
Each alone was fantastic. But the fact that every character
gets a role gets some point in this movie for
some kind of character development. I mean, no one's left
on the floor. What is his character doing? You know,
it is a well written film. And now I want
to kind of take that and I'm gonna pivot and
I want to talk a little bit about Randy Equating.
You know, we didn't we didn't talk too much about him.

(01:27:43):
We did mention that, you know, about a little bit
of this character. But this is kind of like a
very pivotal point in the movie for him because you know,
he's signed up to be a pilot. He was a
pilot in Vietnam. He was also a pilot as a
as a cropduster. You know, he has this fantastic scene
where he takes his ship and he flis it straight

(01:28:04):
up into the into the attacking saucer and he has
his his rocket right there and he blows the ship
up and he has that iconic line, which I'm going
to turn over to Andreas. What was that iconic line again.

Speaker 4 (01:28:19):
Hello boys, I'm back and band explosions exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
Now. I don't know if you guys purchased the DVDs
or the Blu rays or anything, but one of the
deleted scenes or alternate takes was that he was actually
flying his crop duster up in there with a bomb
strapped to it. And I think it makes more sense
that it was a fighter a fighter jet and not
the crop duster, because it wouldn't make sense to me

(01:28:51):
to have him in the fighter jet then land it,
get out, and then get into his crop dust.

Speaker 3 (01:28:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:28:58):
Any any thoughts on that and oscarf for Andrea's.

Speaker 4 (01:29:01):
Yeah, Well, I mean that's I mean, I mean that
line I'm back boys is so iconic. I mean the
he like you think like that's like when it's like uncle,
like uh I go from the you know, the vacation
feels it's like right, oh, cousin Reddy cousin Reddy, did you?

Speaker 3 (01:29:20):
Uh is there?

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
And it's like that moment. I'm like, oh yeah, that's
cause already And uh yeah, it's good that they change
that because here's the thing. You're you're high in air
and you need something to breathe, you know too, you
need to have a mask to wear to breathe.

Speaker 3 (01:29:39):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:29:40):
I think it's good they they stuck with the Federal
draft because you know, if he I mean, I don't
know how like technical he is as a person, you know,
but I don't know that the US they could make
the film even more sillier. So I'm happy that they
stuck with this firsture than or turn it one. So
so that's good, you know because and with the fire there,

(01:30:02):
you know, it was jam that's so realistic it could happen.
So it made the sex face more meaningful, you know,
than the crypt duster. So I think this is good today,
stuck with us.

Speaker 3 (01:30:13):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
Well how about you, Cyber, what do you think of
the final moment? I think that the leaded scene, the
alternate ending is absolutely hilarious. Him being in the flying
and the crop duster and having the bomb attached to it.
When I first saw that when I had the I
believe it was the special two disc silver case it

(01:30:36):
like g listened independent State DVD version when they were
like when they were doing special dishs back in like
the late nineties early two thousands, they came in like
you know, it was it was a big it was,
you know, thicker type of casing, but I had two
discs in it. It was usually considered a special dish
to look fancy and stuff like that. And I remember

(01:30:56):
watching it for the first time and going, oh my god,
this was the original ending that they decided to go with.
I would have been cracking my ass up because it
was like, absolutely freaking hilarious, And I'm like, you know,
that is great that. I think that was a great
alternate take to make, and you could have done and
you could have gone that far out into it, but

(01:31:16):
I think they ended up deciding to go with the
other version because just like you were saying that, it
makes a lot more sense than to have him go down,
change planes and then come up back up, you know.
And so I think that you know, it could have
it still could have gone. You could have gotten away
with it, and it would have been hilarious because it

(01:31:37):
would kind of be like, you know, basically kind of
a full round story, you know, showing him at the
beginning movie with the crop dusting plane and then dying
in the crops dusting plane. So I get why they
kind of, you know, they decided to shoot it and
see how it would do. Uh, because it is a
great idea. I think that overall it could have worked,

(01:31:58):
but definitely having him in one of the fighter planes
just seemed a little more sensible, simply the fact that
everyone else was getting into fighters and that it wasn't
a whole bunch of different types of planes. Everyone was
using the fighters. So yeah, I still think it's a
great alter to Eddie, but yeah, I think the one
that's in the film is a little better.

Speaker 3 (01:32:18):
Never actually seen that cut scene, however, I could only
imagine what it would look like, and I can definitively
say that the way that its been put into the
final cut is appropriate, And I'd like to take a
minute to explain. So. In the very beginning of the film,

(01:32:39):
it is announced through various techniques in the film, through
the storytelling aspects that he was abducted by aliens. It's
at least pretty conclusive that he told people this, and
it seems as though, which really makes sense as a
story arc or a character development, that type of situation

(01:33:04):
would lead someone into becoming a drunk through the trauma experienced,
especially if some of what they hinted at was true,
because they said, there's a couple of people who mentioned
that there wasn't just an abduction, there was some things
going on that would probably lead someone to start drinking.

Speaker 2 (01:33:21):
If you know what I mean, I look at exactly
what you're talking about. I was when I was up
in that spaceship man. They did things to me. I
had no way I am going to.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
So it leeds to drunkenness, right, which affected his kids,
you know, and it created the space between the relationship
he was having with his kids and the bottle basically
was just like this this gap that you can actually
see earlier on in the film. I mean, honestly, the

(01:33:59):
kids were like, we're about to leave him behind. If
it wasn't the end of the world, they would have
left him behind on the side of the road, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:34:08):
However, through the turn of events in the film, he
was given just like robinhood Men and Tights, he was
given another shot all right.

Speaker 2 (01:34:18):
So with that, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, so you
are comparing his second shot, the second shot to who
in Robinhood mid and tights.

Speaker 3 (01:34:34):
Well, Robin Hood, none other than Robin Hood.

Speaker 2 (01:34:37):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:38):
I wanted to make sure we're on the same page here,
and so he's given this second shot, and I might
add that during the recruitment process, I found this to
be really silly because during the recruitment process, when they
were introducing their selves and their prior experience as a pilot,

(01:34:59):
he said, yeah, yeah, I'm pilot. I was a non
And on a personal note, I was abducted by aliens.
And you can see people snickering in the background in
the scene, and I'm thinking to myself, like, this isn't
a joke, man, These aliens are real. That's not funny.
That's sad because it's probably true, you know what I mean? Right,

(01:35:20):
So moving forward, the last bit of this cyclical nature
here was his redemption. And while I'm back, is the
last thing he said. Something that's not as focused on
as much, which I would like to really touch on,
was what he said before that. He said, tell my

(01:35:41):
kids I love them very much, and that is the redemption.
That really honestly allows him to become the hero that
everyone wants him to be and to make that redemption complete.

Speaker 2 (01:35:56):
So there you go. You know, I couldn't have said
it any better than you did. Great, which, you know,
taking that moment, taking that hero moment, it segues nicely
into my next question, my last question in the movie.
So this is an ensemble movie. We have all these
different characters, everyone has their moment, everyone has a reason
to be in the movie. But does this movie have

(01:36:19):
a singular hero? And if so, who do you think
it is? And I'll turn it over to you first sight.

Speaker 4 (01:36:26):
Well, I think that was one thing about this film
that sets it apart from a lot of disaster films
or from a lot of the alien evasion films you
know over the last thirty years, is this movie was
about working together and unifying. That's what this film was about.
And everyone in this film was a hero. Everyone worked
together to save the day. Doesn't matter who they were,

(01:36:48):
if you had a little part involved with it, or
if you had a big part of all it. Everyone
was a hero. And I feel that's really what the
message was. And for me, you know, I I couldn't
single out just one person. Sim the fact that everyone
provided some sort of help to this cause in helping
to get rid of the aliens. You know, from Will

(01:37:10):
Smith's character to Jeff Goldblum's character, to Judd Hirsch's character,
to viv K Fox, to you know, Bill Pullman, to
Robert Loja to you know, everyone that was in this film.
They all played a part in securing what they needed
to to be able to beat this battle and to
survive and declare this their next Independence Day and you know,

(01:37:32):
keep themselves from being eradicated by this alien menace. So
I have to say everyone was a hero hands down
in this film because they all worked and were unified
as one country.

Speaker 2 (01:37:45):
Okay, well you know what I'm going to agree with you, Okay,
And just from this simple fact that if you go
back and look at all the classic movie posters for
Independence Day, every single movie poster from nineteen ninety six,
what do you see on the covers of the movie posters?

(01:38:05):
Do you see the ship? You see the White House?
Do you see New York City? You do not see
a single person's face nowhere on the movie poster. Do
you see any character on the movie poster? They did
not highlight anybody. They didn't point anybody out as being
a main character. All the characters had a pivotal role
in the movie. All the characters were kind of quote

(01:38:27):
a hero, and they had their heroic moments. Nobody in
this movie would be your typical Arnolds Fort Snegger, a
typical Tom Cruise leader of this movie. That's my opinion.
How about you, Andreas, what do you think you think
there's a single character in this movie. Is jud Hirsh
the true hero in this movie?

Speaker 4 (01:38:48):
Oh my god, no, no, no no. I kind of
agree with Zeigbier, like everyone is the hero here. I'd
bean like it's Bill and Jeff and thence Will. It's
say unifying tea really and it makes sense, and then
I think the one of these I you know, it's
good that you brought up the poster in the marketing

(01:39:08):
because the marketing wasn't focused on the cast, despite the
cast is well known. Everything about this movie was about
the spectacle and like the disaster that it was. I mean,
like the like, you know, we didn't bring out the
marketing in the market was crazy because the football uh
commercial that they did for the Super Bowl was the
first time that Steve did that to pronoct the film,

(01:39:30):
and they did that to show the White House explosure
and like it's to show, well, what is this?

Speaker 2 (01:39:35):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:39:35):
It was about that, and you see the film as like, oh, yes, okay,
I see what's going on is evasion. Everyone is joined
together to defeat you know, a common enmity.

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
So you know.

Speaker 4 (01:39:46):
So that's one of the reason I like about this
movie is because it's so universal. You know, because when
you what you do, like like the one person all that,
it could be very tricky, you know, so like delivered
that well and in this way is it delivers well?
Because everyone chipped in and defeat the aliens, that's all
it matters. So could just to death, you know?

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
Gotcha?

Speaker 3 (01:40:10):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:40:10):
How about you, Rick, who is the rat from the
end Game? The main character? Who do you think is
is the sole titular hero in this movie?

Speaker 7 (01:40:21):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:40:21):
Probably Brent Spiner's character, because Brent Spiner is awesome. But
you know, there I have some serious Bret Speiner, the
serious Brett Speiner fans out there. I'm sure they will
say they would agree with that sentiment. But yeah, I
mean you could you could say a handful of characters

(01:40:45):
even even some of the you know, uh, subsidiary characters.

Speaker 2 (01:40:50):
You know that the.

Speaker 3 (01:40:53):
People in the background even had roles, and you could
make a play to say that some of them had
instrumental roles. But I think Cyber is right here on
this one. This pretty much everyone everyone. You could make
a case that everyone did something that was instrumental, like
Matt said, So yeah, there's really not anything to argue

(01:41:13):
about that.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
All right, Well, gentlemen, that has been Independence Day. I
have to ask you, is it worth taking two hours
and twenty five minutes off your death pop to watch
this movie? And I'm gonna throw it over to you first, Cyber, Oh,
one hundred percent. This is a classic disaster alien sci
fi film that every person should watch. You want to

(01:41:37):
see true cinema, You want to see a really great
film that holds up thirty years later. This is a
film to see and it just is so well made,
from the set designs to the CGI they used, to
the practical effects, to the acting, to the writing who
was written by Dean Devlin and and Roland Emrick also

(01:41:58):
was a co writer on the screenplay. Those two are
responsible for that really great speech, and you know, this
is just one of those films that really was so
amazingly done and just was that classic nineties disaster action
packed film that we loved, you know, as we were
you know, when we were younger. This is the type

(01:42:20):
of movie that we still enjoyed to this day and
want to see regularly. And the fact that this film
thirty years later still looks amazing and awesome, that's to me.
It shows that this film is, you know, determined to
stay in the test of time and be one of
the greatest sci fi films of all time. It's just
one of the greatest films and it's definitely worth that

(01:42:41):
twenty twenty minutes off Your death flock all right, awesome? Well,
Rick as my partner in crime. Here for Milley's movie
reviews podcast. What does Independent State rank on Your Death Clock?

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
It's uh ten out of ten. Man. I wrote down
things after I watched it, and I'd like to read
it to you guys. This movie lends itself to be
balanced in multiple different ways. It balances action, emotion, suspense, comedy,
hope and hopelessness. This is a great movie. One product

(01:43:18):
of the era cinema that came out of Henry Ford
is often credited for saying, if I had asked people
what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. Unfortunately,
this innovative ideology has been lost in the current age
of cinema, as this movie was made when risk could
be taken because companies could always earn back money from

(01:43:39):
VHS sales and rental sales. Paradigm for cinema nowadays. Taylor
creates to audiences based on what surveys, projections say that
will make the most amount of money without giving a
creative license to explore new things and taking risks. It's
really quite a shame. And I wonder if we'll ever
get back to hits like this and the box office again.

Speaker 2 (01:44:01):
Wow, fantastic. All right, Andrea, is is this worth taking
time off your death clock?

Speaker 3 (01:44:07):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:44:07):
Hell, yes, folks, it's worth the death clock because this
is the perfect pitch disaster active field of old time.
I mean it just I mean, if you want to
see perfect special effects and funny characters and well, you know,
one liners, this movie has all that. That's something that

(01:44:28):
we rarely get nowadays. And yeah, it was great to
rewatch this movie. It's been a whattle and it did
not lose this This theme. I still love the film,
and yeah, it's worth deft clock. I mean, everyone pick
up you know, stream it rented and you know by
the DVD folks, this is a good movie. So so
I have to say, all.

Speaker 2 (01:44:50):
Right, well, you know what, this is going to be
four for four because I agree, it's definitely worth worth
taking time off your death block. It's worth the two
hours of twenty five minutes. I mean, it is ablishes
that the archetype every disaster film that takes place after this.
We got, you know, twenty twelve the day after tomorrow.
You know, we have all these ensemble casts. Everybody gets

(01:45:12):
their moments to shine in the film. Everyone has their
their key points. There's a there's a fantastic cast to this.
It is definitely worth taking time on watch. It's right
out there with movies like Mash and Kelly's Heroes. It's
that great of an ensemble past. So all right, gentlemen,

(01:45:34):
Well that brings us to our feedback seession of the night.
So I don't have a whole lot of feedback tonight.
We we got some comments on YouTube and Spotify, so folks,
if you want to check out what people have said,
I want to say thanks to everybody who has commented
on our YouTube channel. You know, if you want to

(01:45:55):
delve more into a conversation, follow us on Facebook and Twitter,
email the show and we'll read your emails right here
on the show. We love to hear from you to
know how we are, what are we doing? You know,
do you like what we're talking about? Do you like
these movies?

Speaker 3 (01:46:08):
Let us know?

Speaker 2 (01:46:10):
Do you have us some feedback right here at the
Man Review Podcast at gmail dot com. Well, like I said,
we'll read your emails, we'll talk about it, we'll give
you our comments. It's just some fantastic stuff. With that
being said, gentlemen, I'm gonna turn it slowly over to
each of one of you and I'm going to ask
you what else are you watching other than dealing with
Independence Day? What really floats your boat? What do you

(01:46:32):
want to let our listeners know about? What are you watching?
What are you watching for your podcasts? I mean, Andreas,
you have your Hot Culture podcast. I'm sure you've watched
some really recent stuff. Cyber You've got some great reviews
out there on YouTube. Dungeon Master, Rick you have been
doing some great stuff video games and such. What do
you want to let us our audience know. I'll turn
over to you first. Andreas well, Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:46:54):
Man, I say plenty. So right now I'm really I'm
watching the last of season two, and I'm watching the
Oh my god, hell's the other show in Doors season two?
And then now added to that, I'm watching Dead City

(01:47:15):
aka The Lucky Dead. Spend enough shows starting Meagan and Maggie,
characters from d went to show second season. So yeah,
I watching your films this like half month now, which
is crazy. Recently in movies, I saw On the Bolts great,
great film, definitely the best FC films we have recently.

(01:47:37):
I recently saw Sinners that was great, probably my favorite
twenty five. I highly ranked everyone to watch them. One
of the best horror movies I seen. Ryan Couger is
the best director. I think he's up there with Christopher Nolan.
He said, no Dank Nolan and his wife in the
INCREDITIVEY check that out for helping out with the IMAX

(01:47:58):
screens for his film, you know the techniques and that. Yeah.
I saw plenty of films last April. I saw like,
you know, The Workingman, the Amateur, what's the other one?
Warfare and the Deaf and Ucord. So I saw plenty
of movies last month and then entry to me. So
that's where I'm at right now. In turns of podcasting movies,

(01:48:21):
I say, recently fantastic, all.

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
Right, Cybery, cyber Way as honest, what do you watch
and what's what's new?

Speaker 3 (01:48:31):
What do you like?

Speaker 2 (01:48:32):
What do you want to tell our audiences about?

Speaker 4 (01:48:35):
Well? As Andre sorry mentioned, we are reviewing and Or
and the Last of Us season two on our other
channel that we are part of the mc U Spleating Edge,
So if you want to catch us talking more, you
can check us out there. That's what we've been watching
pretty much weekly for that, those two shows that we

(01:48:57):
do on Wednesdays and Fridays. For my solo stuff, I've
been just watching a whole bunch of random stuff recently.
I haven't been to the movies in a couple of
weeks now. I just I've had a busy last portion
of April living into the beginning of May.

Speaker 2 (01:49:12):
Here.

Speaker 4 (01:49:13):
I did go see the Dogma restoration that they just
did that and they're doing a re release of it
into theaters June fifth. I went and saw it at
in Boston and the four K restoration is amazing. Looks awesome,
and Kevin Smith himself was actually there and so we

(01:49:37):
got to ask him questions and have a great Q
and a while while getting to rewatched Dogma in theaters.
So we did get to do that recently. And of
course I've recently watched a few other movies recently. One
is a nineteen sixties classic called The City of the
Dead with Christopher Lee that was on the Last Drive

(01:49:57):
In with Joe Bob Briggs, which was really interesting and
really fun. And and then of course I've been watching
other TV series other than that, like Matt Locke, The
Night Court reboot and stuff like that. So I'm watching
a whole bunch of stuff. I can't hardly ever keep
up with everything. But I most recently put up my

(01:50:19):
A working Man movie review on my channel aslong with
my Naked Gun and tron Aries trailer reactions. If you
haven't seen those, you go check them out there on
under Cybernick Shark. You find me on YouTube people, all.

Speaker 2 (01:50:30):
Right, Rick over to you. So other than other than
Independence Day and maybe Sonic a Hedgehog three because it's
a video game movie, what else do you want?

Speaker 3 (01:50:42):
Great movie? So you know, I love my anime So
for all you webs out there, I got you. If
you haven't watched, I left my a rank party to
help my former students reach the dungeon depths. Make sure
you watch. It's it's a long title, but it's a good,

(01:51:03):
very very very good one.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:51:05):
There's a number of anime that's coming out recently where
you've got a trope that's forming. The main character is
actually really strong, but his party members or her party
members don't quite value what he brings to the table,
so then they kick him out of the party or
he leaves the party or something like that. And then

(01:51:28):
you know, later they get to say, I told you so,
I told you that I was much better and you
thought I was and you guys are wrong, and you
get this. It's there. It's a trope that's forming. I
think that it might even have a little sub genre
given a name to it soon in the next year
or two. Another one, Ohsen Nuby Adventure. It's about an

(01:51:48):
old dude. This is another trope that I think is forming.
These there's a few movies at animes that I've been
watching that have these middle aged people who are trying
to make a play at adventuring, and these ones are
really good. This one's called Osa Nubi Adventure, so middle
aged people looking for an adventure. It sounds like middle

(01:52:08):
aged people trying to get podcasts out, I tell you, yes. Yeah.
So there's a few of these that actually are cropping up.
These These are two kind of like new tropes that
I think might actually form into sub genres of anime,
kind of like issakais and stuff. And of course you know, uh,
if you want to watch any videos dark soul stuff,

(01:52:33):
Elder ring stuff, Bloodborne Tactics, Tactics, Ogres, Fell Sale, Oh Arborers,
March Arborers, mark any of these kind of games, and
you can check my stuff out at Dungeon Master Elite
YouTube channel.

Speaker 2 (01:52:47):
Awesome, fantastic. Well, you know what, I'm actually looking to
watch a movie that has a really long title, So
maybe I will check out that that anime super Monster
Crazy Kaiju. Would you call it? Maybe this anime movie?

Speaker 3 (01:53:05):
I left my am ranked party to help my former
students reach the dungeon depths. By the way, that's an
English I can give you the Japanese if you want.

Speaker 2 (01:53:13):
No, I'll look it up on the English. So the
only other thing I want to I want to shout
out is the thing that I've been watching recently, and
that is actually what we're going to premiere next episode,
and that is Blade Runner. So folks, if you want
to hear what I think about a movie later, check

(01:53:37):
us out next week because that's what we'll be talking
about and that's what I've been watched. All right, gentlemen, Well,
Andreas Cyber, I want to thank you both for joining
us tonight to discuss the Independence Day film Independence Day. Cyber,
I'll ask you first, where can our listeners hear more
of your reviews?

Speaker 4 (01:53:58):
Well, if you enjoyed me here on the Middle Aged
Review podcast, you can check out my stuff. You can
find my solo content under a Cybernight Shark at YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, threads, Facebook, Patreon,
pretty much any of those places you'll find me. And also,
if you'd like to listen to me on the MCU's
Beleaming Edge podcast, can check us out on YouTube. We're

(01:54:21):
live every Wednesday, Friday and Monday discussing some great TV
show or et cetera. And yeah, you can definitely check
us out.

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
We're early.

Speaker 4 (01:54:31):
As I mentioned, we are doing the Last of Us
season two and and or on Wednesdays and Fridays and
of course on Mondays they are doing the Walking Dead
spin off series. So come check us.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
Out, all right, fantastic andreas our pop culture podcast gentlemen, Uh, you.

Speaker 4 (01:54:51):
Could check me out on Drea's book Culture Guy channel
for sins. May channel on Drea's Book Culture Guy channel
for sens where I do my respectius last week podcasts
and tributes to any pop culture thing like Louie's TV
or characters the actors play or the actors slash actress.
So please check that shut out all right?

Speaker 2 (01:55:13):
Well, Rick, can you lay down to our listeners as
our partner at Middle Aged Movie Reviews where they can
hear your other stuff and then can you take us home?

Speaker 3 (01:55:23):
All right? So first I want to say this was
a super great conversation. I appreciate everyone. I love being
on here and you guys are awesome. If you want
to check out more of my stuff, like I said,
you can come to Dungeon Master Elite on the YouTube
and there's no spaces, so it's just Dungeon Master Elite.
That being said, thanks for listening to the Middle Aged

(01:55:45):
Movie Review Podcast. We've hoped you've enjoyed our review and
we ask that you lead a rating or comment on
whatever you listen to onto this podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:55:58):
Follow us on Facebook, xt LuSE guy and Instagram. Have
a comment or a suggestion, then email the show at
Man Review Podcasts email dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:56:08):
And as always, thanks for watching, Stay cool and buy everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:56:34):
Free audio post production by Alphonic dot com

All Episodes

Episode 61 - Independence Day (Don't Start and Interstellar War)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Fudd Around And Find Out

Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 61 - Independence Day (Don't Start and Interstellar War)