May 3, 2024 • 30 mins
Ben is a former CIA station chief whose world comes crashing down after his wife, a former operative, dies in a terrible accident. Soon, a cryptic message sends him back into the shadowy underworld of Eastern Europe, teaming up with a former adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he knew about his wife and the agency that he worked for.
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Olga Kurylenko, Alex Pettyfer, Chris Petrovski, Laetitia Eido, Nick Moran, Daniel Bernhardt, and more.
Music by Sean Murray
Cinematography by Jonathan Hall
Edited by Richard Blackburn and Matthew Lorentz
Written by George Mahaffey
Directed by Jesse V. Johnson
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Olga Kurylenko, Alex Pettyfer, Chris Petrovski, Laetitia Eido, Nick Moran, Daniel Bernhardt, and more.
Music by Sean Murray
Cinematography by Jonathan Hall
Edited by Richard Blackburn and Matthew Lorentz
Written by George Mahaffey
Directed by Jesse V. Johnson
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:36):
All right, Ellisten, I'm aback another dish. How are we doing
(01:26):
out there? Good? Great GrayYane dy Yane day yanned wonderful as you
see on your screen your dial.However, you are choosing to join me
today. I know the cast andcrew appreciate you. I don't know that
I do, because I told youI don't really don't like doing this show
if I'm going to do it alone. But I'm such a fan of our
(01:48):
director on this piece that I wasgoing to do it through hell or high
water. And I initially thought thatI was gonna ask Jesse V. Johnson,
the director of chief of station onthe show, and then like,
I know, Jesse's busy, Butonce I saw he's got two more films
in pre production right now, Iwas just like, fuck man, I'm
(02:09):
not gonna bother him. I'm notthat guy. I will not hound you
if I think that. I justlike waiting in the wings and then striking
when I feel like it's an opportunetime. But when I cause he's always
working. He you know, he'sbeen averaging two three films a year for
you know, the past five toten. It's it's unreal how he continues
(02:30):
to deliver action thriller after action thrillerat such a high level. I mean,
it's truly remarkable. In fact,one of his last films came out
a few months ago, Budica.I told Boudica, is I believe still
on Netflix right now? And andI message him, and after I watched
(02:50):
it, I was like, man, I don't know how you are able
to do so much with clearly ashoe string budget, because Budica doesn't have
I mean think of like like Braveheartmoney, Like it's a war epic of
that scale, right, And Itold him, I was like, man,
if I had two hundred million dollars, I want you to do it
(03:13):
again because I know it would justbe fucking fantastic. But I am kind
of derailing here, Ain't that?I love Jesse? What can I say
following? I'm gonna follow him untilthey put me or him in the ground,
and I would assume that it's gonnabe me first. But anyway,
so who is in chief of station? We got Aaron Eckhart who plays Ben
Molloy. We got Olga Kirolenko whoplays Christina Kowerski. We got Alex Pettifer,
(03:38):
who plays John Brants. We gotChris Petrowski who plays Nick, and
I have been practicing this name forthe last five six hours. You would
think that I would probably get itor just do some research, But until
this podcast gives me dental, I'mnot doing any research. So we also
have all right, bear with me, Gang laett Itia idol Layetti Laetia,
(04:02):
I do I know that's not Sheplays Parah, who is Ben's wife,
Aaron Eckhart's wife. We got NickMoran, we got Daniel Bernhardt, Nina
Bergman, James Faulkner, Jonathan Ajai, and many many more. You want
(04:23):
to know something that I also loveabout Jesse so much keeping the friends close.
I mean, if you've seen anyof Jesse's films, a lot of
these people that you see in Chiefof Station are regulars. And as someone
who is a wanna be filmmaker anda fan of film to begin with,
listen, make make films with yourfriends, especially now with how crazy it
(04:46):
is to make film, TV,everything. I mean, it's just a
it's a really weird time to bein the arts and entertainment. Would we
agree, Gang, would we agree? So? A couple other the films
that if you guys haven't dug intoJesse's catalog. I mean I can give
you some of the big ones thateverybody talks about. What do we got
(05:11):
here? We got Savage Dog,Accident Man, the Debt Collector, Triple
Threat, Avengement, Avengement is prettymuch everybody's go to. All of these
are solid in their own right,The Mercenary, Debt Collectors, hell Hath
No Fury. If you're if youend up watching hell Hath No Fury and
you feel like taking the time.I was able to sit down, sit
(05:33):
down with Jesse V Johnson and starNina Bergmann for that one. That was
a fun show there. He didWhite Elephant, One Ranger. I was
able to watch One Ranger and Boudicain the last few months. Always working,
always delivering high quality product and asI already mentioned, I'm going to
(05:57):
follow him wherever he goes. ButAaron Eckhart, obviously, if you don't
know Aaron Eckhart, he obviously playedtwo Face in the Dark Knight, but
he's in so much, you know, say it. I feel I hate
it when we pigeonhole actors to thatone movie, you know, because Aaron
Eckhart is tried and true, triedand true, and I think what was
(06:21):
really fun to watch in this oneis him go just as dark as he
did in Dark Knight. There's layerswithin Aaron's character here that you know,
maybe the layman movie watcher may notpick up on, but someone like me
seeing the little stuff that he isdoing throughout this film, it is fun
(06:42):
to watch. Who else we got? We got Olga Kirolenko again. You
would probably remember her from Quantum ofSolace, but if you want to see
her take the lead into her ownhands and kill it, budaka Queena war
end of story, like you wantto see her come into her own I
thought that she did an amazing jobin Boudica, but she's also been in
(07:06):
Romance, Bed of Silence, BlackWidow. She was Antonia in Black Widow.
If you guys watched that, Marvelone not as bad as everybody thinks
Black Widow. I thought, likemost of the things these days, there's
no whatever happened to things being inbetween? Why does everything have to be
(07:30):
fucking amazing or terrible? Why can'tsomething just be fine? Why can't something
just be good? Why does ithave to be fucking Yeah, it's so
fucking awesome, or it's so fuckingstupid. I don't I don't understand anymore.
Gang y'all, confuse me. Whoelse we got in this? We
got Alex Pettipher, good looking man, Alex Petipher. If you guys don't
(07:54):
know Alex, he's been in MagicMike, Elvis and Nixon. You know
what, Elvis and Nixon. Wedon't talk about that movie. It was
a good fucking movie. He wasjust recently in Guy Ritchie's The Ministry of
Ungentlemanly Warfare. What have we got? Five Pounds of Pressure, Sunrise,
Black Noise, Infernal Machine Collection,again tried and true, and it shows
(08:18):
on screen. Patient actor letting hisco stars are working off of his co
stars, and it shines on screen. If you ask me, perhaps one
of my favorite people in this filmwas Nick Moran. Nick again a staple
of Jesse's films. I'm trying tothink of one that you probably most known
(08:43):
Nick from probably Lockstock Into Smoking Barrelsis probably be everybody's go to that or
the younger crowd. Harry Potter.He was scabule in Harry Potter. He
was also in the Musketeer. Hewas in Unum a one Ranger again keeping
keeping the gang close Renegades. Whatelse do we got? Nemesis also good?
(09:11):
Also an Avengement? Uh, youknow, I can't remember did I
do a show on Avengement? Becauseif I haven't, I really fucking should
because Avengement was hardcore. I fuckingloved Avengement. Who else do we got?
Jonathan Hall who did the cinematography forChief of Station. Another Jesse V.
(09:33):
Johnson Staple amazing working hell hath noFury, Debt Collectors and again worked
with Jesse on Avengement Triple Threat.He also did some stuff I feel like
before he kind of started teaming withJesse. I can't remember Burying the X,
that underrated film Burying the X reallyalso did zombieber had zomb Beaver's a
(10:00):
couple episodes of Teen Wolf. Iwould argue this may be Jonathan's best showing
in terms of the images, alsotelling a story without necessarily any dialogue going
on. Like I've already mentioned howwe have added scale to this film between
(10:24):
some of the decisions that Jonathan madewhile working on this film, and it
shows, and I don't think thelayman understands just is simple and this is
why I do the show. SoI can ENLiGHT you guys. It's a
simple drone shot. Though I wishI had Jesse on to see if we
(10:45):
did some of those fly by exteriorswith a drone or with a helly.
I would assume a drone to savemoney, but you never know. That's
why I hate fucking doing this showmyself. I want the real answers gang.
But going back to being able totell a story without any dialogue being
spoken, you, I don't thinkthe layman understands just by that simple overhead
(11:07):
shot that you see of a cityor blah blah blah blah blah, whether
you realize it or not, subconsciously, that film just became bigger in your
mind. You know what I'm saying. You know we're not watching Phone Booth
with Colin Farrell. I don't knowwhy I use that as an example.
I tried to go from the biggestto the small. Well everything takes place
in the Phone Booth if you didn'talready know that one. And I really
(11:33):
kind of thought he came into hisown on this one. I thought he
shined and hell hath no fury.But this one feels very refined, patient,
just like everybody else on this onepatient working together and it shows another
Jesse V Johnson Staple is composer SeanMurray, who I think is fucking fantastic,
(11:54):
Avengement, Deep Blue cy Two,He's done. He did music for
Call of Duty, Boudhica, Soulmates, One Ranger, Gunfight at the Real,
Bravo, hell Hath No Fury Dead, Reckoning, Debt Collectors, The
Mercenary, Avengeamin. I love Jessefor doing this and I love showing That's
(12:15):
another thing, too, is atestament to all the people working. They
must love each other or they mustlove Jesse one of the two, because
you don't just continue to sign ondoing pieces with these people if one you
don't trust their artistic vision and twoif they're piece of shit people, or
(12:35):
maybe they do. I don't know. I've never sat down with any of
these people to be able to makethat claim. But nevertheless, again,
when I grew up making you know, my films or whatever, I'm always
making films with my friends, andit made it a hell of a lot
easier. And more importantly, they'reinto intuition to know that what I was
(13:00):
looking for, you know, madea shoot, any given shoot a hell
of a lot easier. So,but anyway, a lot to fucking love
in this film. I think whenyou read a synopsis like this, your
tendency is to go out. I'vealready seen that, but you haven't seen
(13:20):
it executed the way Jesse does.And I promise you it's not something that
you've seen before. I mean,I read a review not too long ago
that gives Double O seven vibes.I would agree with that, but it's
a much grimier, a much greasierthan Double O seven, and quite frankly,
(13:41):
I'm here for it. I'm herefor it. I I'm gonna hurt
a lot of people's feelings here.But James Bond is not I don't know.
I just I look at the JamesBond series as an action series.
I don't look at it as thecharacter of James Bond. I think the
(14:03):
character of James Bond is kind ofoverrated at this point, especially like you
guys, got to think about whattakes place within a James Bond film.
I've seen. If you watch asmany movies as I do, I've seen
that shit before. You know,like, oh, here we go another
fucking car chase, you know,in a James Bond film, but when
(14:24):
I see, like, for example, in this one one of my favorite
sequences in this is a very smalland contained car chase. I'm not gonna
go too much into it because Idon't want to ruin the setting that it's
in, which is what I thinkputs it over the environment that they're in.
(14:46):
Is this takes place, I don'tknow this, Listen. I'm not
gonna sit here and say that youknow that James Bond doesn't hold a place
in cinema, but I do thinkpeople take it way too seriously not to
break off into a tangent here,But when that whole thing went down,
(15:07):
how you know James Bond can't beblack or anything like that? Like,
I just lost a lot of respectfor the franchise and the people that follow
the franchise. And I know thatthat's not fair. That doesn't make any
sense. Why are you penalizing thefilmmakers for you know, x or Twitter's
reaction to Idris Elball being James Bond, and to that fact, if you
don't think Idris Alba would make afucking awesome James Bond, you're a fool,
(15:31):
You're a fucking fuck. Idris Elbacould play Abe Lincoln, and I
would be fine with it. That'show much I don't care about. And
everybody was up in arms about afictitious character, like we're not talking about
a real person anyway. I knewthat I was gonna go down this road,
and I really shouldn't because at theend of the day, the focus
(15:52):
needs to be on Chief of StationJesse V. Johnson Aaron Eckhart turning in
what I think is just as entertainingaction thriller. Is that you can that
you can watch. There's no lullsin the story. The pacing on this
is it's rapid fire, you know. I think some of the fight sequences
(16:15):
that you may see with Daniel Bernhardtor even Alex Pettiford good good stuff,
really good stuff. Daniel Bernhardt is, in fact, I'll say he's the
villain in this. This will bea spoiler. I'm not gonna tell you
how, but I I think myfavorite part of the movie is how Daniel
(16:36):
goes just say that that took meby surprise. Well, there's quite a
few things that took me by surprisein this one, but that that might
have take the cake, Like weneed more of that in film. Sometimes
like I don't know, once yousee the film, you'll you'll understand what
I'm talking about. When Karen meetshis demise cameo by Nina Bergman, holy
(17:03):
shit, fans face loosens collar.Fans face loosens collar. But again,
there's no reason that you can't youknow, enjoy this, like because Daniel
Craig's not in it. You know, I would argue to a certain I
would actually not even to a certaindegree, to full on degree that if
(17:27):
you whoever wrote that, I thinkit was Collide or Deadline or something that
compared it to a double O sevenpiece. I'm sorry, but Aaron is
way darker than Daniel Craig in thisas opposed to a Bond film, and
it works too. You know,I know that we all have seen the
(17:49):
tried and true trope of the whiteman who has taken, has had something
taken from him, and now he'svery upset and is out for vengeance.
I don't get tired of well,I don't get tired of watching most films,
but I don't I never listen.Gang one goes back to what I
(18:11):
was saying earlier, Not everything hasto be the best shit ever of the
worst shit ever. But I donot mind seeing tried and true tropes as
long as it was executed properly.You know. It's the same same ideology
I use when people bitch about runtimes of movies. You know, the
one that really got under my skinis I am a white man's I know
(18:37):
that this is fucking probably stupid,but listening to all the whites complain about
at least my friends complain about therun time of Killers of the Flower Moon.
First of all, you need tosee that for historical purposes. But
thing number two. I understand it'sa three and a half hour run time,
but guess what it was executed properly. It felt like two hours and
(18:57):
ten minutes to me. This filmChief of Station felt like an hour to
me. You know, like ifas long as it's executed properly, the
beats hit where they're supposed to hit. Just appreciate these people, why we
have them, gang, Don't dismissit. Don't don't dismiss it because it's
(19:21):
not fucking Marvel. Don't dismiss itbecause it's not fast in the Furious ninety
two, which to that point,now that I'm thinking about it, you
know, who should direct Fast inthe Furious ninety two ninety two Jesse V.
Johnson because he you would see insanitywith what he's been would would be
able to do with a fucking dollar. Of course, I am not putting
(19:42):
Jesse's hat in the ring to directFast in the Furious if unless he wanted
to, but because I would preferto see stuff that. Are you getting
the point that, like I've hadit with car chases bringing up my my
contempt for the Fast and Furious movie. And here's what they Gang, they
have a place in cinema, Okay, Like, there's nothing wrong with that,
(20:04):
you know, it's just not mystyle, you know, I the
older I get, I prefer somemean dialogue over an explosion, which is
why I I think I like thisone so much. It's not saturated with
boom bang pow. Yes, thereare elements in there, but it's used
(20:26):
when it should be used. SoI'm trying to tell you, Gang,
stop taking these people for granted.Okay, you know we need to rally
behind films like this so that thepeople involved can make bigger films, you
know, Like I just I can'ttell you how many times I thought to
(20:47):
myself Fuck what Jesse would be ableto do with two hundred and fifty million
dollars. Fuck it would be afucking sight to see. But anyway,
this is on demand right now,and I urge you, after you check
this out, show this some love, because again, we get traction on
this film. More of his filmsget made, more of Aaron's films get
(21:10):
made, more of Olga's films getmade, and we get to see,
you know, some character acting byNick Moran and Daniel Bernhardt. And I'm
here for it, and I'm gonnakeep fucking supporting it because I don't know.
You can't show me too many espionagethrillers. You can't show me too
(21:33):
many, you know, like CoenBrothers stuff. I am will forever be
a part of normal people getting intofucked up situations and making fucked up decisions.
That's not necessarily how this one playsout. But like man, woman
dog, I don't give a shit. I want to watch the classic tropes
(21:56):
over and over again. I lovemovies, and y'all need to go back
and start watching, you know,some of those older ones, thirties,
forties, fifties, sixties, becauseI truly believe that, you know,
you watch something from the sixties orseventies, it'll make you appreciate a film
like this even more, you know, with what we were able to achieve
(22:18):
within this film. And I cannotreiterate more just how good you need to
be from a dialogue standpoint, whichis kind of crazy to think that.
George Mahaffey, who wrote this,I hope I'm saying that right. George
Mahaffey, who wrote this is hisfeature debut. It's his first feature film
(22:44):
debut, and somehow he managed tonot have any lulls while also providing new
but also tried and true dialogue,whether it's you know, a catch there's
not any catchphrases this, but likea one liner here and there. But
here's the thing, didn't overdo it. There wasn't a one liner after every
(23:07):
fucking action piece, you know.In fact, now that I think about
it, I think there's one,maybe two. But it you watch the
older stuff, then you appreciate thatstuff like okay, all right, you
know specifically, there's a one linerbetween Aaron and Olga, you know,
and it's like, all right,we're in for an action film, you
(23:27):
know, to that point. Bythe way, the way that Jesse and
Jonathan decided to introduce Olga's character wasawesome. It's fucking awesome. I was
like, I was honestly getting tothe point in the film where I was
(23:49):
like, where the fuck is Boudica? Again it's Olga, but she did
play the Queen of Wall where Istarted asking myself where the fuck is the
queen of War? And I kidyou not almost on cue what an entrance?
Gang? What a fuck an entrance? Not a blaze of glory like
(24:18):
Farah's exit, but what's a goodIf anybody saw the film, they probably
kind of smirk at that joke,or maybe they wouldn't it as a stupid
fucking joke. I don't know.Maybe I should do writing for this show
and then it would play better sothat I'm not struggling for things to say.
Honestly, I only struggle because Itry to figure out a way how
to say shit, which I'll beIt not that great to not spoil anything
(24:41):
for you. It's so ingrained inmy body that I don't want anything spoiled
for me that I'm obsessed with doingit on the show. Like and again,
if you're a first time listener,this is how bad I am when
it comes to trailers and spoilers.If a trailer to a movie starts to
(25:02):
play while I'm in the theater,I will get up and walk the fuck
out. Like if I know fuckingTom Hardy is gonna be all right,
I'm getting the fuck I don't needI just know that he's in it.
I don't need my arm twisted togo see it. You know, it's
same with Jesse. If a trailerto Jesse's movie started to play, I'm
(25:22):
walking the fuck out. I'll Ialready know I'm going to watch Jesse's next
film, So why I want tobe surprised? You know, I'm not
part of this generation that gets anxietyand then googles the ending of the movie
before it happens so that you're notso anxious that shit is foreign to me,
Gang, I tell I don't knowwhy that's then why watch movies?
(25:47):
If that, if that's what youdo on the rag, then why watch
movies? Man? I apologize,guy, I'm still fired up about I
don't know if you guys heard melast week on the show. I just
discovered the term second screen viewing,which means that I mean the example that
was used was Netflix. I guessone of the showrunners that was writing blah
(26:11):
blah blah whatever. The Netflix gavenotes back and it was like, hey,
this show isn't second screen friendly enough, And I believe the writer was
like, whatever do you mean?Well, you don't want it to gets
you don't want it to get discombobulatedfor the audience who was probably looking at
(26:36):
their phone and occasionally looking up atthe screen. And I just was like,
what, that's a thing. Thoseare actual notes being given that you
need to you need to make yourscript more second screen friendly. What the
fuck are we doing here? Gang, Like, why is it the ship
(26:57):
that you're seeing in front of yourface? Why is that not good enough?
And here's the thing. If it'sa problem, just do what I
do. I fucking listen. Ilook at my phone the same as you
guys. But if I'm gonna watcha movie, I mean in the theater,
it's different. But if I'm gonnawatch a movie at home, where
everybody talks about the freedom of watchingstuff at home, which is why streaming
(27:18):
so ba bla blah blah blah.I leave my phone in the other room
and I'm not going to sit hereand pretend that I haven't. On occasion
went to grab my phone. Butguess what, once I realized that it's
not there, I don't fucking getup and go get it. I just
after the second time, I go, oh, my phone's not here.
I now I'm tuned in to thefucking movie. Tune the fuck in.
(27:40):
I shouldn't say tune in. Dialedin baby, just like Jesse was in
creating yet another high level, wellexecuted action thriller. And as long as
he keeps making him, I'm gonnakeep paying to see him. And I
think that you should too, becausewe're not talking about Shark Nato here,
(28:02):
Okay, We're talking about a castingcrew that is very good at what they
do. Not one person. There'snot one week link in this fucking movie.
And that and crew includes, youknow, some of the d E
F characters that we have in thiseverybody's showing up to play. So fuck
(28:25):
you need to see Chief of Station, which is on demand now, no
excuses. Chief of Station, starringAaron Eckhart, Olga Kiralinko, Alex Pettifor,
Chris Petrowski. Uh shit, LaetiaIdol fuck, Nick Moran, Daniel
Bernhardt, James Faulkner cameo here JonathanAjai. Directed by Jesse V. Johnson,
(28:52):
written by George Mahaffey, Music bySean Murray, DP. John Than
All Chief of Station available now EllisCinema Chief of Station. Have we gone?
All right, Ellisten, I'm aback another dish. How are we doing
(01:26):
out there? Good? Great GrayYane dy Yane day yanned wonderful as you
see on your screen your dial.However, you are choosing to join me
today. I know the cast andcrew appreciate you. I don't know that
I do, because I told youI don't really don't like doing this show
if I'm going to do it alone. But I'm such a fan of our
(01:48):
director on this piece that I wasgoing to do it through hell or high
water. And I initially thought thatI was gonna ask Jesse V. Johnson,
the director of chief of station onthe show, and then like,
I know, Jesse's busy, Butonce I saw he's got two more films
in pre production right now, Iwas just like, fuck man, I'm
(02:09):
not gonna bother him. I'm notthat guy. I will not hound you
if I think that. I justlike waiting in the wings and then striking
when I feel like it's an opportunetime. But when I cause he's always
working. He you know, he'sbeen averaging two three films a year for
you know, the past five toten. It's it's unreal how he continues
(02:30):
to deliver action thriller after action thrillerat such a high level. I mean,
it's truly remarkable. In fact,one of his last films came out
a few months ago, Budica.I told Boudica, is I believe still
on Netflix right now? And andI message him, and after I watched
(02:50):
it, I was like, man, I don't know how you are able
to do so much with clearly ashoe string budget, because Budica doesn't have
I mean think of like like Braveheartmoney, Like it's a war epic of
that scale, right, And Itold him, I was like, man,
if I had two hundred million dollars, I want you to do it
(03:13):
again because I know it would justbe fucking fantastic. But I am kind
of derailing here, Ain't that?I love Jesse? What can I say
following? I'm gonna follow him untilthey put me or him in the ground,
and I would assume that it's gonnabe me first. But anyway,
so who is in chief of station? We got Aaron Eckhart who plays Ben
Molloy. We got Olga Kirolenko whoplays Christina Kowerski. We got Alex Pettifer,
(03:38):
who plays John Brants. We gotChris Petrowski who plays Nick, and
I have been practicing this name forthe last five six hours. You would
think that I would probably get itor just do some research, But until
this podcast gives me dental, I'mnot doing any research. So we also
have all right, bear with me, Gang laett Itia idol Layetti Laetia,
(04:02):
I do I know that's not Sheplays Parah, who is Ben's wife,
Aaron Eckhart's wife. We got NickMoran, we got Daniel Bernhardt, Nina
Bergman, James Faulkner, Jonathan Ajai, and many many more. You want
(04:23):
to know something that I also loveabout Jesse so much keeping the friends close.
I mean, if you've seen anyof Jesse's films, a lot of
these people that you see in Chiefof Station are regulars. And as someone
who is a wanna be filmmaker anda fan of film to begin with,
listen, make make films with yourfriends, especially now with how crazy it
(04:46):
is to make film, TV,everything. I mean, it's just a
it's a really weird time to bein the arts and entertainment. Would we
agree, Gang, would we agree? So? A couple other the films
that if you guys haven't dug intoJesse's catalog. I mean I can give
you some of the big ones thateverybody talks about. What do we got
(05:11):
here? We got Savage Dog,Accident Man, the Debt Collector, Triple
Threat, Avengement, Avengement is prettymuch everybody's go to. All of these
are solid in their own right,The Mercenary, Debt Collectors, hell Hath
No Fury. If you're if youend up watching hell Hath No Fury and
you feel like taking the time.I was able to sit down, sit
(05:33):
down with Jesse V Johnson and starNina Bergmann for that one. That was
a fun show there. He didWhite Elephant, One Ranger. I was
able to watch One Ranger and Boudicain the last few months. Always working,
always delivering high quality product and asI already mentioned, I'm going to
(05:57):
follow him wherever he goes. ButAaron Eckhart, obviously, if you don't
know Aaron Eckhart, he obviously playedtwo Face in the Dark Knight, but
he's in so much, you know, say it. I feel I hate
it when we pigeonhole actors to thatone movie, you know, because Aaron
Eckhart is tried and true, triedand true, and I think what was
(06:21):
really fun to watch in this oneis him go just as dark as he
did in Dark Knight. There's layerswithin Aaron's character here that you know,
maybe the layman movie watcher may notpick up on, but someone like me
seeing the little stuff that he isdoing throughout this film, it is fun
(06:42):
to watch. Who else we got? We got Olga Kirolenko again. You
would probably remember her from Quantum ofSolace, but if you want to see
her take the lead into her ownhands and kill it, budaka Queena war
end of story, like you wantto see her come into her own I
thought that she did an amazing jobin Boudica, but she's also been in
(07:06):
Romance, Bed of Silence, BlackWidow. She was Antonia in Black Widow.
If you guys watched that, Marvelone not as bad as everybody thinks
Black Widow. I thought, likemost of the things these days, there's
no whatever happened to things being inbetween? Why does everything have to be
(07:30):
fucking amazing or terrible? Why can'tsomething just be fine? Why can't something
just be good? Why does ithave to be fucking Yeah, it's so
fucking awesome, or it's so fuckingstupid. I don't I don't understand anymore.
Gang y'all, confuse me. Whoelse we got in this? We
got Alex Pettipher, good looking man, Alex Petipher. If you guys don't
(07:54):
know Alex, he's been in MagicMike, Elvis and Nixon. You know
what, Elvis and Nixon. Wedon't talk about that movie. It was
a good fucking movie. He wasjust recently in Guy Ritchie's The Ministry of
Ungentlemanly Warfare. What have we got? Five Pounds of Pressure, Sunrise,
Black Noise, Infernal Machine Collection,again tried and true, and it shows
(08:18):
on screen. Patient actor letting hisco stars are working off of his co
stars, and it shines on screen. If you ask me, perhaps one
of my favorite people in this filmwas Nick Moran. Nick again a staple
of Jesse's films. I'm trying tothink of one that you probably most known
(08:43):
Nick from probably Lockstock Into Smoking Barrelsis probably be everybody's go to that or
the younger crowd. Harry Potter.He was scabule in Harry Potter. He
was also in the Musketeer. Hewas in Unum a one Ranger again keeping
keeping the gang close Renegades. Whatelse do we got? Nemesis also good?
(09:11):
Also an Avengement? Uh, youknow, I can't remember did I
do a show on Avengement? Becauseif I haven't, I really fucking should
because Avengement was hardcore. I fuckingloved Avengement. Who else do we got?
Jonathan Hall who did the cinematography forChief of Station. Another Jesse V.
(09:33):
Johnson Staple amazing working hell hath noFury, Debt Collectors and again worked
with Jesse on Avengement Triple Threat.He also did some stuff I feel like
before he kind of started teaming withJesse. I can't remember Burying the X,
that underrated film Burying the X reallyalso did zombieber had zomb Beaver's a
(10:00):
couple episodes of Teen Wolf. Iwould argue this may be Jonathan's best showing
in terms of the images, alsotelling a story without necessarily any dialogue going
on. Like I've already mentioned howwe have added scale to this film between
(10:24):
some of the decisions that Jonathan madewhile working on this film, and it
shows, and I don't think thelayman understands just is simple and this is
why I do the show. SoI can ENLiGHT you guys. It's a
simple drone shot. Though I wishI had Jesse on to see if we
(10:45):
did some of those fly by exteriorswith a drone or with a helly.
I would assume a drone to savemoney, but you never know. That's
why I hate fucking doing this showmyself. I want the real answers gang.
But going back to being able totell a story without any dialogue being
spoken, you, I don't thinkthe layman understands just by that simple overhead
(11:07):
shot that you see of a cityor blah blah blah blah blah, whether
you realize it or not, subconsciously, that film just became bigger in your
mind. You know what I'm saying. You know we're not watching Phone Booth
with Colin Farrell. I don't knowwhy I use that as an example.
I tried to go from the biggestto the small. Well everything takes place
in the Phone Booth if you didn'talready know that one. And I really
(11:33):
kind of thought he came into hisown on this one. I thought he
shined and hell hath no fury.But this one feels very refined, patient,
just like everybody else on this onepatient working together and it shows another
Jesse V Johnson Staple is composer SeanMurray, who I think is fucking fantastic,
(11:54):
Avengement, Deep Blue cy Two,He's done. He did music for
Call of Duty, Boudhica, Soulmates, One Ranger, Gunfight at the Real,
Bravo, hell Hath No Fury Dead, Reckoning, Debt Collectors, The
Mercenary, Avengeamin. I love Jessefor doing this and I love showing That's
(12:15):
another thing, too, is atestament to all the people working. They
must love each other or they mustlove Jesse one of the two, because
you don't just continue to sign ondoing pieces with these people if one you
don't trust their artistic vision and twoif they're piece of shit people, or
(12:35):
maybe they do. I don't know. I've never sat down with any of
these people to be able to makethat claim. But nevertheless, again,
when I grew up making you know, my films or whatever, I'm always
making films with my friends, andit made it a hell of a lot
easier. And more importantly, they'reinto intuition to know that what I was
(13:00):
looking for, you know, madea shoot, any given shoot a hell
of a lot easier. So,but anyway, a lot to fucking love
in this film. I think whenyou read a synopsis like this, your
tendency is to go out. I'vealready seen that, but you haven't seen
(13:20):
it executed the way Jesse does.And I promise you it's not something that
you've seen before. I mean,I read a review not too long ago
that gives Double O seven vibes.I would agree with that, but it's
a much grimier, a much greasierthan Double O seven, and quite frankly,
(13:41):
I'm here for it. I'm herefor it. I I'm gonna hurt
a lot of people's feelings here.But James Bond is not I don't know.
I just I look at the JamesBond series as an action series.
I don't look at it as thecharacter of James Bond. I think the
(14:03):
character of James Bond is kind ofoverrated at this point, especially like you
guys, got to think about whattakes place within a James Bond film.
I've seen. If you watch asmany movies as I do, I've seen
that shit before. You know,like, oh, here we go another
fucking car chase, you know,in a James Bond film, but when
(14:24):
I see, like, for example, in this one one of my favorite
sequences in this is a very smalland contained car chase. I'm not gonna
go too much into it because Idon't want to ruin the setting that it's
in, which is what I thinkputs it over the environment that they're in.
(14:46):
Is this takes place, I don'tknow this, Listen. I'm not
gonna sit here and say that youknow that James Bond doesn't hold a place
in cinema, but I do thinkpeople take it way too seriously not to
break off into a tangent here,But when that whole thing went down,
(15:07):
how you know James Bond can't beblack or anything like that? Like,
I just lost a lot of respectfor the franchise and the people that follow
the franchise. And I know thatthat's not fair. That doesn't make any
sense. Why are you penalizing thefilmmakers for you know, x or Twitter's
reaction to Idris Elball being James Bond, and to that fact, if you
don't think Idris Alba would make afucking awesome James Bond, you're a fool,
(15:31):
You're a fucking fuck. Idris Elbacould play Abe Lincoln, and I
would be fine with it. That'show much I don't care about. And
everybody was up in arms about afictitious character, like we're not talking about
a real person anyway. I knewthat I was gonna go down this road,
and I really shouldn't because at theend of the day, the focus
(15:52):
needs to be on Chief of StationJesse V. Johnson Aaron Eckhart turning in
what I think is just as entertainingaction thriller. Is that you can that
you can watch. There's no lullsin the story. The pacing on this
is it's rapid fire, you know. I think some of the fight sequences
(16:15):
that you may see with Daniel Bernhardtor even Alex Pettiford good good stuff,
really good stuff. Daniel Bernhardt is, in fact, I'll say he's the
villain in this. This will bea spoiler. I'm not gonna tell you
how, but I I think myfavorite part of the movie is how Daniel
(16:36):
goes just say that that took meby surprise. Well, there's quite a
few things that took me by surprisein this one, but that that might
have take the cake, Like weneed more of that in film. Sometimes
like I don't know, once yousee the film, you'll you'll understand what
I'm talking about. When Karen meetshis demise cameo by Nina Bergman, holy
(17:03):
shit, fans face loosens collar.Fans face loosens collar. But again,
there's no reason that you can't youknow, enjoy this, like because Daniel
Craig's not in it. You know, I would argue to a certain I
would actually not even to a certaindegree, to full on degree that if
(17:27):
you whoever wrote that, I thinkit was Collide or Deadline or something that
compared it to a double O sevenpiece. I'm sorry, but Aaron is
way darker than Daniel Craig in thisas opposed to a Bond film, and
it works too. You know,I know that we all have seen the
(17:49):
tried and true trope of the whiteman who has taken, has had something
taken from him, and now he'svery upset and is out for vengeance.
I don't get tired of well,I don't get tired of watching most films,
but I don't I never listen.Gang one goes back to what I
(18:11):
was saying earlier, Not everything hasto be the best shit ever of the
worst shit ever. But I donot mind seeing tried and true tropes as
long as it was executed properly.You know. It's the same same ideology
I use when people bitch about runtimes of movies. You know, the
one that really got under my skinis I am a white man's I know
(18:37):
that this is fucking probably stupid,but listening to all the whites complain about
at least my friends complain about therun time of Killers of the Flower Moon.
First of all, you need tosee that for historical purposes. But
thing number two. I understand it'sa three and a half hour run time,
but guess what it was executed properly. It felt like two hours and
(18:57):
ten minutes to me. This filmChief of Station felt like an hour to
me. You know, like ifas long as it's executed properly, the
beats hit where they're supposed to hit. Just appreciate these people, why we
have them, gang, Don't dismissit. Don't don't dismiss it because it's
(19:21):
not fucking Marvel. Don't dismiss itbecause it's not fast in the Furious ninety
two, which to that point,now that I'm thinking about it, you
know, who should direct Fast inthe Furious ninety two ninety two Jesse V.
Johnson because he you would see insanitywith what he's been would would be
able to do with a fucking dollar. Of course, I am not putting
(19:42):
Jesse's hat in the ring to directFast in the Furious if unless he wanted
to, but because I would preferto see stuff that. Are you getting
the point that, like I've hadit with car chases bringing up my my
contempt for the Fast and Furious movie. And here's what they Gang, they
have a place in cinema, Okay, Like, there's nothing wrong with that,
(20:04):
you know, it's just not mystyle, you know, I the
older I get, I prefer somemean dialogue over an explosion, which is
why I I think I like thisone so much. It's not saturated with
boom bang pow. Yes, thereare elements in there, but it's used
(20:26):
when it should be used. SoI'm trying to tell you, Gang,
stop taking these people for granted.Okay, you know we need to rally
behind films like this so that thepeople involved can make bigger films, you
know, Like I just I can'ttell you how many times I thought to
(20:47):
myself Fuck what Jesse would be ableto do with two hundred and fifty million
dollars. Fuck it would be afucking sight to see. But anyway,
this is on demand right now,and I urge you, after you check
this out, show this some love, because again, we get traction on
this film. More of his filmsget made, more of Aaron's films get
(21:10):
made, more of Olga's films getmade, and we get to see,
you know, some character acting byNick Moran and Daniel Bernhardt. And I'm
here for it, and I'm gonnakeep fucking supporting it because I don't know.
You can't show me too many espionagethrillers. You can't show me too
(21:33):
many, you know, like CoenBrothers stuff. I am will forever be
a part of normal people getting intofucked up situations and making fucked up decisions.
That's not necessarily how this one playsout. But like man, woman
dog, I don't give a shit. I want to watch the classic tropes
(21:56):
over and over again. I lovemovies, and y'all need to go back
and start watching, you know,some of those older ones, thirties,
forties, fifties, sixties, becauseI truly believe that, you know,
you watch something from the sixties orseventies, it'll make you appreciate a film
like this even more, you know, with what we were able to achieve
(22:18):
within this film. And I cannotreiterate more just how good you need to
be from a dialogue standpoint, whichis kind of crazy to think that.
George Mahaffey, who wrote this,I hope I'm saying that right. George
Mahaffey, who wrote this is hisfeature debut. It's his first feature film
(22:44):
debut, and somehow he managed tonot have any lulls while also providing new
but also tried and true dialogue,whether it's you know, a catch there's
not any catchphrases this, but likea one liner here and there. But
here's the thing, didn't overdo it. There wasn't a one liner after every
(23:07):
fucking action piece, you know.In fact, now that I think about
it, I think there's one,maybe two. But it you watch the
older stuff, then you appreciate thatstuff like okay, all right, you
know specifically, there's a one linerbetween Aaron and Olga, you know,
and it's like, all right,we're in for an action film, you
(23:27):
know, to that point. Bythe way, the way that Jesse and
Jonathan decided to introduce Olga's character wasawesome. It's fucking awesome. I was
like, I was honestly getting tothe point in the film where I was
(23:49):
like, where the fuck is Boudica? Again it's Olga, but she did
play the Queen of Wall where Istarted asking myself where the fuck is the
queen of War? And I kidyou not almost on cue what an entrance?
Gang? What a fuck an entrance? Not a blaze of glory like
(24:18):
Farah's exit, but what's a goodIf anybody saw the film, they probably
kind of smirk at that joke,or maybe they wouldn't it as a stupid
fucking joke. I don't know.Maybe I should do writing for this show
and then it would play better sothat I'm not struggling for things to say.
Honestly, I only struggle because Itry to figure out a way how
to say shit, which I'll beIt not that great to not spoil anything
(24:41):
for you. It's so ingrained inmy body that I don't want anything spoiled
for me that I'm obsessed with doingit on the show. Like and again,
if you're a first time listener,this is how bad I am when
it comes to trailers and spoilers.If a trailer to a movie starts to
(25:02):
play while I'm in the theater,I will get up and walk the fuck
out. Like if I know fuckingTom Hardy is gonna be all right,
I'm getting the fuck I don't needI just know that he's in it.
I don't need my arm twisted togo see it. You know, it's
same with Jesse. If a trailerto Jesse's movie started to play, I'm
(25:22):
walking the fuck out. I'll Ialready know I'm going to watch Jesse's next
film, So why I want tobe surprised? You know, I'm not
part of this generation that gets anxietyand then googles the ending of the movie
before it happens so that you're notso anxious that shit is foreign to me,
Gang, I tell I don't knowwhy that's then why watch movies?
(25:47):
If that, if that's what youdo on the rag, then why watch
movies? Man? I apologize,guy, I'm still fired up about I
don't know if you guys heard melast week on the show. I just
discovered the term second screen viewing,which means that I mean the example that
was used was Netflix. I guessone of the showrunners that was writing blah
(26:11):
blah blah whatever. The Netflix gavenotes back and it was like, hey,
this show isn't second screen friendly enough, And I believe the writer was
like, whatever do you mean?Well, you don't want it to gets
you don't want it to get discombobulatedfor the audience who was probably looking at
(26:36):
their phone and occasionally looking up atthe screen. And I just was like,
what, that's a thing. Thoseare actual notes being given that you
need to you need to make yourscript more second screen friendly. What the
fuck are we doing here? Gang, Like, why is it the ship
(26:57):
that you're seeing in front of yourface? Why is that not good enough?
And here's the thing. If it'sa problem, just do what I
do. I fucking listen. Ilook at my phone the same as you
guys. But if I'm gonna watcha movie, I mean in the theater,
it's different. But if I'm gonnawatch a movie at home, where
everybody talks about the freedom of watchingstuff at home, which is why streaming
(27:18):
so ba bla blah blah blah.I leave my phone in the other room
and I'm not going to sit hereand pretend that I haven't. On occasion
went to grab my phone. Butguess what, once I realized that it's
not there, I don't fucking getup and go get it. I just
after the second time, I go, oh, my phone's not here.
I now I'm tuned in to thefucking movie. Tune the fuck in.
(27:40):
I shouldn't say tune in. Dialedin baby, just like Jesse was in
creating yet another high level, wellexecuted action thriller. And as long as
he keeps making him, I'm gonnakeep paying to see him. And I
think that you should too, becausewe're not talking about Shark Nato here,
(28:02):
Okay, We're talking about a castingcrew that is very good at what they
do. Not one person. There'snot one week link in this fucking movie.
And that and crew includes, youknow, some of the d E
F characters that we have in thiseverybody's showing up to play. So fuck
(28:25):
you need to see Chief of Station, which is on demand now, no
excuses. Chief of Station, starringAaron Eckhart, Olga Kiralinko, Alex Pettifor,
Chris Petrowski. Uh shit, LaetiaIdol fuck, Nick Moran, Daniel
Bernhardt, James Faulkner cameo here JonathanAjai. Directed by Jesse V. Johnson,
(28:52):
written by George Mahaffey, Music bySean Murray, DP. John Than
All Chief of Station available now EllisCinema Chief of Station. Have we gone?
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