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The racing series continues! John Leavengood and I continue our racing series by talking about the 2001 racing film Driven. Directed by Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea, Cliffhanger), and starring Sylvester Stallone, this $90 million budgeted movie spared no expense in its quest to recreate the sights, sounds and feeling of Championship Car racing (it succeeds). In this episode, we discuss unnecessary street racing, synchronized swimming, and humming. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
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I’m a big fan of the movie MacGruber, it’s incredibly profane, always funny, and it doesn’t make anything easy for audiences (think MacGruber’s speech about stealing Casey from Cunth). One of my favorite moments is when Lt. Dixon Piper breaks down MacGruber’s military achievements. Here’s what he has to say:
“The Legendary MacGruber. Former Navy SEAL, Army Ranger and Green Beret. Served six tours in Desert Storm, four in Bosnia, three each in Angola, Somalia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Sierra Leone. Recipient of sixteen Purple Hearts, three Congressional Medals of Honor, seven Presidential Medals of Bravery and starting tight end for the University of Texas, El Paso.”
After hearing about his war heroics, and learning he foiled an assassination attempt on Jimmy Carter in 1979, I became curious as to how old MacGruber actually was in the 2010 film. I started by researching the Saturday Night Live skits, that aired between 2007 and 2010. However, I quickly learned that they’re zero help because his age is all over the place, (44-50 in some skits) and according to the MacGyver/MacGruber skit he was born in 1973. The year is problematic because in the 2010 movie timeline he foiled an assassination attempt on Jimmy Carter in 1979. This means if the timelines are combined, he was only six when he helped save Carter. Nope.
Here’s a document from the film that discusses his heroics in 1979 and proves the two timelines are different (this is insane….I know it).
Based on the clues from historical data, UTEP sports records and the 2010 film, I’ve come up with a MacGruber timeline that suggests he was 54 years old in the 2010 film.
MOVIE TIMELINE
1956 – MacGruber is born – Parents unknown (His tombstone and passports say he was born in 1963, which I believe is a classic MacGruber lie. He wasn’t a Green Beret when he was 16)
1974 – Was recruited by UTEP to play Tight End. He had two receptions for 18 yards and a touchdown during his Freshman year.
*Based on the film’s timeline and UTEP records, the UTEP TE Dean Allcorn fits the dates perfectly. I’m using his stats.
1975 – Five receptions for 59 yards – He also bowls a 225 game at a local bowling alley.
1976 – 14 receptions for 256 yards and two touchdowns
1977 -Six receptions for 83 yards and two touchdowns. He is recruited by the Army after graduation, because they are impressed with his hand/eye coordination (E.G. beginning of throat rip training). He also breaks up Dieter Von Cunth and Casey Janine Fitzpatrick.
*I’m happy with this late 1970’s assumption because during the flashback scene in MacGruber, he is wearing a ringer T-shirt. They were immensely popular in the 70s.
1978 – Army Ranger Training – During his training, he learns that he hates guns. Normally, this would be an issue, however, his aptitude for remorseless killing and throat rips make him a valuable asset.
1979 – Foiled the Assassination of President Jimmy Carter in Israel (Carter did visit in 1979) – MacGruber foiled the terror plot and killed 200 in process. I’m guessing bombs and throat rips. In the report, he says “Bombs are super complicated”
This is the article about how he prevented an assassination attempt on Jimmy Carter in 1979
1979 – Green Beret Training (busy year for MacGruber) – He also meets Frank Korver for the first time
1980 – Two Tours in Nicaragua (received 3 Purple Heart Medals, One Congressional Medal of Honor, and a Presidential Medal of Bravery) – During the “Chattanooga Two-Step Mission” he saved most of a village and his fellow Berets when he throat ripped 27 soldiers during a 17-mile trek through the wilderness. He was shot twice (oddly, he didn’t mind the bullet wounds) during the trek
1981 – One Tour in Nicaragua (received 1 Purple Heart Medal) – He received the Purple Heart Medal when his homemade dynamite exploded early
1982 – Navy SEAL training
1983 – Missions in Israel, Canada(?), and Persian Gulf (Classified – I never heard back from Canadian sources)
1984 – Missions in Iran, Honduras, and Persian Gulf (Classified)
1985 – Missions in Iran and Libya (Classified)
1986 – Missions in Libya and Bolivia (Classified) – We do know he and Tut Beemer became friends during this time
1987 – Two tours in Mozambique (3 Purple Heart Medals and Presidential Medal of Bravery)
1988 – One tour in Mozambique (1 Purple Heart Medal) – During one particularly nasty throat rip, he poked himself in the eye and claimed he received the injury from his foe
1989 – Two tours in Somalia, One tour in Nicaragua – Vicky St. Elmo is shot during this Nicaragua tour
1990 – One Tour in Somalia (cut short), Two tours in Desert Storm (3 purple hearts) – During these tours he teams up with Vernon Freedom, Tug Phelps, Tanker Lutz and Brick Hughes
1991 – Four tours in Desert Storm (special military rules allowed the tours to be shorter than normal – first person to ever have this happen to) – (Two Congressional Medals of Honor, 3 Presidential Medals of Honor) – MacGruber was able to deactivate a scud missile and throat rip a famous sniper at the same time.
1992 – One tour in Bosnia (1 Purple Heart Medal), One tour in Somalia (Classified)
1993 – Two tours in Bosnia (One Presidential Medal of Honor) – The film Behind Enemy Lines was inspired by his missions here.
1994 – One tour in Angola (Classified)
1995 – One tour in Sierra Leone (2 Purple Heart Medals) – Deactivated two bombs at the same time. However, he missed the third bomb, which is why he received two Purple Heart Medals
1996 – One tour in Sierra Leone (2 Purple Heart Medals) – Same as above
1997 – One tour in Sierra Leone (One Presidential Medal of Honor) – This time he got to all three bombs.
1998 – One tour in Angola (Classified)
1999 – One tour in Angola (Classified, Redacted and Classified again…Something bad happened)
2000 – Retired – Marriage to Casey Fitzpatrick – Wedding Tragedy
2000-2010 – Isolation in Rio Bamba, Ecuador – Faked his death
2010 – BACK IN ACTION!!!!!!
There it is! MacGruber was 54 years old in the 2010 MacGruber. He also had a long and storied military career that left at least 7,000 dead (good and bad people).
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Listen to the MFF Final Fights podcast on Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean or Google Podcasts (or wherever you listen to podcasts)!
The final fight between Robert Roy MacGregor (Liam Neeson) and Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) in Rob Roy is one of my favorite fights because of the narrative it tells. I love the William Hobbs (Willow, Ladyhawke, Count of Monte Cristo) choreographed brawl because it tells the story of a hulking badass (Rob Roy. who is a good man) battling a lithe murderer (Cunningham. who is a terrible human) in a battle to the death. If you are into beautifully choreographed sword fights, watch the clips below, then listen to our episode! Enjoy!
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MY CALL: An important film for any fan of found footage horror, and great for such a micro-budget. But if you’re not a fan of the subgenre, I doubt you’d enjoy this.
MORE MOVIES LIKE The McPherson Tape: My gut response is to first tell you to see Signs (2002) if you haven’t already seen it. For more alien abduction films, strongly consider seeing Communion (1989), Fire in the Sky (1993), The Fourth Kind (2009), Dark Skies (2013), Skinwalker Ranch (2013) and Extraterrestrial (2014). But I’d skip Alien Abduction (2014) and especially Xenophobia (2019). For more good quality found footage horror, go for The Blair Witch Project (1999), Paranormal Activity 1-2 (2007, 2010), Lake Mungo (2008), The Last Exorcism (2010), Grave Encounters (2011), Grave Encounters 2 (2012), The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), Exists (2014), Demonic (2015), Hell House LLC (2015), Blair Witch (2016), Ghost Stories (2017) and Butterfly Kisses (2018). And even though it’s not purely found footage, Cannibal Holocaust (1980) was still ahead of its time with respect to the found footage subgenre.
IMDB summary—“On a typical fall evening in 1983, a young man was videotaping his niece’s 5th birthday party. As the night’s strange occurrences took place, he kept his video camera running, recording the entire event.”
After witnessing flashes of bright lights in the sky, the brothers search the woods to find a spaceship landing and several extraterrestrials on foot.
The very premise of this film smacks of the scene in Signs (2002) when they capture footage of the shadowy alien figure during a children’s birthday party. And it seems Signs (2002) owes more to its predecessor—for example, the scene of the panicked family listening to the aliens on the roof trying to find a way inside the house.
The acting largely feels very candid. When the aliens approach the house, the family yells and argues and makes quick erratic decisions. The power goes out, people go missing, there are hints of possible telepathy and mind control, and no one knows what to do.
As we start seeing them up close, these aliens don’t look awesome. The budget is meager, so the creature effects feel no greater in quality than a mid-to-low-priced “grey” alien costume from the discount section at Walmart the day after Halloween.
Honestly, director Dean Alioto (Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, Portal) did alright. I mean, can we remind ourselves that this is a found footage movie from the 80s!?!?! I’m no expert, but I doubt there were any “true” found footage (i.e., 100% found footage) horror films before this—at least, very few anyway. Even Cannibal Holocaust (1980) was only perhaps 30-50% found footage despite being transformative for the subgenre.
Much of the alien scene execution feels hokey even if purely by fault of the budget, and it may very well violate your suspension of belief. And some of the acting felt a bit forced (particularly the mother character). But, really, the overall frightened mania of this film works. And while I doubt I’ll ever feel the need to see this again, I’m glad I saw it.
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What I love most about Equilibrium is how Christian Bale wipes the floor with an insane amount of people with total ease. He kills gun henchmen, sword henchmen, an overly confident henchman (Taye Diggs gets wiped out quick), and finally, a gun-fu loving villain who is a total jerk. Equilibrium features some beautiful violence, and we loved talking about it for the Final Fights podcast.
Watch the clips then listen to the podcast!
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MY CALL: What a weird, well-written, clever and brutal film. And boy, does it have a lot to say. Great for fans of either brutal or thoughtful horror. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Platform: For more genre statements of class, check out Brave New World (1998), The Island (2005), The Experiment (2010), In time (2011), Snowpiercer (2013), The Purge (2013) and Parasite (2019).
As if introducing a ritzy episode of Chef’s Table, a vast kitchen teeming with top pedigree culinary masters produces a cornucopia of high caliber, gorgeously-plated dishes. From lobster and fish to quail to quince, all such entrees find themselves crowded on a stone platform destined to feed the incarcerated occupants of a vertically oriented prison… two inmates per floor will dine, followed by the two of the level below, and so on for perhaps 150 floors (or more?). And whereas what is left for those at level 47 may strike the eye as unappealing, imagine the souls at level 138. How do they survive? And those who do… what stories do they have; what stories do they hide?
There by his own discretion, Goreng (Ivan Massagué; Pan’s Labyrinth) is an inmate with a different story. And being there of free will (initially), he more freely questions and challenges the organization of this literally linearly-tiered classism in which inmates eats the scraps of those above and inmates of higher levels are abusive of those below… to such limited extent that they can “reach” them.
Early in his stay, Goreng is indoctrinated by his cellmate (Zorion Eguileor), who has spent nearly a year cycling monthly through various levels high, middle and low. He knows the psychological quirks that are typically adopted at certain tiers, and knows what it takes to survive them. Goreng’s relationship with his cellmate dynamically evolves. One must wonder the kind of “friendship” one finds in facility in which you only interact with one other person directly… and what happens when such friendships are tested.
There are rules, and they are not so sensible to the civilized world. We find elements of The Experiment (2010) and Cube (1997) regarding inmate communication and relocation. As the movie progresses it more frequently becomes more brutal and mean and artery-slit bloody.
When the film does get bloody, it’s brutal about it. Not so graphic directly on-screen, but you feel the intensity; you hear the slimy “wet” sounds of cutting into bloody flesh. Oh, and the foley work and sound editing in this are excellent. From gross ravenous eating to slippery flesh-stripping.
For his first feature film, director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia has conquered with this intriguing genre oddity. It’s as if the people behind the creation of the Cube (1997) decided to open a restaurant, and the main dish is social commentary.
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week David Cross (of The Award Wieners Movie Review Podcast) joins us to discuss the excellent 1999 creature feature The Mummy. Directed by Stephen Sommers (Deep Rising, Van Helsing), and starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, The Mummy is a very fun remake that tells the story of a jerky mummy attacking likable people. In this episode, we discuss sandstorms, whiskey blood and the excellence of Brendan Fraser.
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #269: Train to Busan, Fast Zombies and Train Movies
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about the zombie classic Train to Busan. The MFF readers voted for it (they made the right choice), and we were more than happy to research, rewatch and analyze the film again. I’ve been praising Train to Busan since 2016, and I love that it’s become a cult classic that’s spawned a prequel and an upcoming sequel. In this episode, we discuss fast zombies, blue suits and train movies. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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The final fight between Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) might be the most iconic final fight ever featured on film. Why? The fight tells the story of a likable underdog getting his chance to challenge the likable undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. It’s a thrilling fight, and undoubtedly helped the film win Best Picture at the 1977 Oscars. In this episode, we discuss low budget filmmaking, gut punches and Apollo’s beautiful jab. Enjoy!
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John’s Horror Corner: Bad Blood (2016), a gory, funny werewolf movie… about an awesomely brutal werefrog.
MY CALL: It’s no Oscar winner, but this movie does an excellent job being this exactly what it was intended to be: a gory (even brutal) and funny creature feature B-movie. Ample blood, monster effects and humor make this a strong B-movie recommendation. MORE MOVIES LIKE Bad Blood: The tone falls somewhere between the extremes of Pigster (2019) and Bite (2015), maybe wandering into the B-movie atmosphere of Ticks (1993) and Mosquito (1994). For more wacky weremonsters, try Black Sheep (2006), Wolfcop (2014), Rottentail (2018) or Zombeavers (2015). For more amphibious B-horror, go for Humanoids from the Deep (1980), Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988), Croaked (1981) and Bite (2015).
With a major crime scene investigation in the neighborhood (a brutal murder and dismemberment), college student Victoria (Mary Malloy) sneaks out of the house to escape her domestic drama. Unfortunately, she picked the wrong night to be out of the house.
From the opening shots of the frog laboratory, a murder scene and a monstrous frog-like claw, this feels like a B-movie with shockingly high (attempts at) production value (for a B-flick). To the contrary, the writing, editing, photography and acting are acceptably on par with what you’d expect from a B-movie. But that’s okay, because this movie knows exactly what it is.
Our recently escaped monster skulks around like a cartoonish Scooby Doo villain often with greenlit mist behind him. As it nears its victims, we see its slimy rubber monster suit clawed feet pace closer. As hokey as that is, other aspects of the effects like the abundant flesh-lacerating latex and ooey-gooey bloodwork were effective and frequent. But make no mistake, the hokiness of this movie will grossly outweigh the professional if you keep score. Especially the green glowing Ninja Turtle ooze in the giant Re-Animator syringes. And don’t even get me started on the hilariously inappropriate grisly violent PTSD fantasies of the private investigator character. These scenes are short, sweet, brutal, unexpected and will have you laughing out loud.
Our story follows Victoria after she is attacked and infected with a werefrog version of lycanthropy. She works with a scientist who dedicates his garage research to the cause, and he supplies her with werefrog antigen to prevent her full moon transformation.
Eventually we get what everyone wanted to see: a transformation scene. It immediately reminded me of Zombeavers (2015) as teeth were pushed from their rooted sockets to be replaced with monstrous “amphibian” teeth (which I didn’t know was even a thing), her hair falls out along with her grip on reality as she develops her neck sac and her skin exudes thick mucous-like slime. And finally we have a frog-human hybrid with great looking mask effects along with some strikingly anatomically correct female characteristics.
Overall, the gore and creature effects in this otherwise low budget movie were very satisfying. The death scenes were messy and sloppy and fun, and I loved the head-ripping geyser of a sloppy decapitation.
I think first-time writer/director Tim Reis id admirably. It’s not Oscar winner, but he did an excellent job making this exactly what it was intended to be: a gory and funny creature feature B-movie. Strongly recommended for gore-hounds and creature feature junkies who can appreciate a lower budget. As far as those parameters go, this movie swings for the fences.
Movies, Films & Flix 