The Crow-back

Hi, this is John Waters and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. You better keep listening or I'll have you killed. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. It's showtime, folks.

Enjoy the show. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million kilowatts of power. Provide more cooling in the containment chambers. Do you still use Movie Meltdown? Dead people don't snow.

Or do they? What's up? Welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. And joining me this episode via the magic of the internet is.

I'm Sam. Thank you for being here. Sure, no problem, Brian. Thanks for asking. And it's kind of your fault this time.

Right, right, right. Is it? Oh, yeah. I said let's record, but then you got us in this boat that we're currently floating at sea, lost at sea, somewhere under the sea. Anyway.

Right, right, right, right. I figured, knowing how things usually go with us, specifically when we're supposed to focus, I'm using air quotes, focus. focus on a movie, one particular movie, we better not distract ourselves with the top of the show of their movie talk or we'll never get to our movie. Right. So we'll just get rolling and I'm sure we'll sidetrack ourselves along the way, but that's fine. That's fine.

I did want to say beforehand, this is sort of interesting for the two of us because, you know, normally we just sit in our house and watch stuff and then talk about it. But this time, We went out into the world. Into the actual biosphere. Both of us left the house and went out amongst people. Absolutely.

And saw a movie in a theater. A movie in a theater. I had my aluminum foil hat on. I had my dishwashing gloves on with my Windex and everything. Just a regular old Tuesday for you.

Here's the thing. I found out that in Seven Miles Away, there's an older movie theater that I've always enjoyed going to. And it's called the Aurora Cineplex. And I've had many people that I've known work at this place. But this was not where I grew up and everything.

But I've just always enjoyed this one because it was more of an old school theater experience. And they still do early movies. They still do early movies on a Tuesday. All right. They still they do movies, early movies all week.

All right. It's crazy. I mean, retirees got to have something to do. Dude, absolutely. Absolutely.

God bless. God bless. Literally, the guys that used to be on the show, I hardly ever see him anymore. But like that all worked at a specific theater. Their stories, it was funny.

That's all there was. Most of the week, maybe some late night shows during the week, but weekends were normal teenagers and kids and cool kids and people just hanging out on the town. During the week, specifically in the daytime, nothing but old retired people that have nothing to do all day. And they just go sit there and may or may not fall asleep in the theater. Oh, wait, no, that's me.

Okay, never mind. If only I was retired. That is what I think every day when I leave the house. I'm like, why? Why can't I just stay home and do whatever the hell I want?

Do my projects. Yeah, I have a lot of stuff to do. Don't get me wrong. I made up a lot of work for myself to do. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I overwhelm myself sometimes with things that no one else cares about that I've convinced myself I have to do. To do this is this is the things these are the important things right right and once we retire and everything we will have time to do all these little projects you know um i mean it. Is kind of my my thinking i convince myself these are important and i think work is not important like. I feel like i'm right i know i know that's yeah this is total drag total drag Yeah, I don't know. I agree.

I agree. These things in our brains seem much more important than the actual reality that we are actually living in. But I think they are equal. It's the yin-yang. But this movie theater has a $ 6.

50 movie if you get there before noon. And I remember those things. At the theater I worked at, we had those. They were a pain in the butt. But uh, to, to work during, but, uh, but, uh, but, uh, but, but, you know, that in the late movie, but, but $ 6 and 50 cents is a pretty good deal to see a movie that, uh, when nobody cares about movies, it's just like, it's just like, Hey, we gotta, we gotta adjust the, we gotta make the rent, you know?

So let's, let's get people in somehow, you know? So anyway, God bless them every day of the week. They have a 10 AM showing of something. And it's pretty darn cheap. So, yeah, we both ventured out into the world.

As far as my theater, let me ask you this about yours, because this is I realized I mean, I guess I've always sort of known this, but so much so I was realizing it there and other places recently. My favorite aspect of the theater I go to now, which is a big chain and like attached to a freaking mall and like the most generic homogenized theater ever. Right. But the reason I go to that one was I ended up there like years ago just for something for the show and went, oh, look at this new feature. So does yours involve you interacting with humans?

Well, it does. It does. Yeah. What sort of old timey place are you going to? Because I realize now it's like the reason I like to go to this one is it's got the whole website and I go to the website.

Not only do I buy the ticket, I pick out my seat well beforehand before the other nerds come along and take all the good spots. Right. So I get my spot that I like early. Then I don't have to worry about getting there for a seat. So I leave the house like 10 minutes before I need to be there because it's right up the jump on the highway and I'm there.

And then I get there, I walk in, I go to another giant computer screen, type in my thing and it spits out a ticket. And then I didn't come in contact with some weird ticket person. And then I get up there and the ticket guy at the door just scans it. And half the time they're dumb kids that don't even talk to me. So they just beep and I walk past them and I go sit in the theater and I find the seat based on my number and no humans were really spoken to. or no interactions took place and I was like no wonder I like this so much I am detached from all humanity and I found a way to go see movies like.

That that's right it's basically like being at home but there's just somebody who kind of passed by the theater closest to my house is one of those terrible movie tavern places you know you can eat ribs that's trouble dude Dude, I hate it. I don't even trust the popcorn people anymore. Dude, absolutely. No, I hate it. I love popcorn, but I don't trust other people and their food eating around me.

No, not at all, man. It has ruined so many movie-going experiences for me. When the person next to me is chomping away at something, I'm just like, oh, jeez. Just the chewing noises are like, can't be drowned out. Thanks for getting the pot roast.

Yeah, I know. I'm just like, you know. It's just gross. It's just gross. I don't know this guy.

And, you know, I'm trying to watch like some Scarlett Johansson movie. We'll get back to that. Gross. Just nasty. You know.

And anyway. Anyway. So what? OK. The point was the. it is so detached at that movie theater.

I just know people who go early morning, early weekend mornings and they don't have anybody there. You just walk in and you don't see anybody. And so it's just became this guy's a regular thing. Just don't, Walk in, walk into the movie, you know, because it's like a ghost town. I mean, there may not be anybody running it at all.

They should put just like a big VCR controls on the wall. So when you get in the theater, you just walk up and hit a big play button and then sit down and start your movie. And then like, you're good. It should just be like an automat where, you know, you, it should be like connected to your cell phone. And if you walk into the building, you're charged, you know.

Cha-ching! Cha-ching! And then, you know, but I mean, it's like crazy. So, you know, I mean, these movie theaters are so understaffed now. When I went to go see Furiosa, it was like a Friday night. and it was like one person I.

Mean I went surprisingly I've gone I went for a long time and didn't see anything like I think whatever the last thing we talked about on the show probably one of the weird superhero movies that I was kind of meh on like a lot of lately but it was probably the last thing I saw. So up until a few weeks ago, I hadn't seen anything in a while in the theater. And then all of a sudden I've seen, I've been there like three times lately, which is really weird. Yeah. So I just went yesterday and like, it was to me the biggest movie in the world right now.

And yet I went in my entire row was empty, which don't get me wrong. I was so excited to not have to be like awkwardly sitting really close to a person that like doesn't really want you there and vice versa so like no offense i'm you know they can live their life but i don't need to be that close to you so yeah i got there and i was just like oh no weird awkward armwrestling going yeah messing with your seats up and down back and forth yeah i was just like there were other people in the theater surprisingly but you know my whole row was empty and stayed empty the whole time i love that yeah Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that. I don't think the theater or the movie industry likes these facts, but I like it.

It's fine. It's like Omega Man, you know? It's like Charlton Heston watching Woodstock. I'm gonna watch Woodstock now. Give my own commentary and nobody's gonna care because everybody's dead.

Yeah, yeah. I think that's sort of the way it feels like at movies now. Well, my life in general. Well, that's what I was thinking. It wasn't because I did that with my movie ticket.

And then later, as I was getting my food, and I think most of my food choices now are like, there's at least two that I hit regularly. One of which I never come in contact with people. It literally is automatic. I love the magic door that opens when I get there and I get my food and I don't talk to the dumb kid at the counter and I walk right the fuck out. It's like the greatest thing ever.

And there's another one that I go in regularly and they have the big screen on there and I go and I type it in and I don't say my thing to my person that takes my order because nobody takes my order and I get the right thing because I typed it in myself. The most there is they hand it to me. Sometimes they don't even say anything. They just sit it on the counter and the kid's like, and then i take it and happily walk out the door and get away from them. And they got their earbuds in you know everywhere you go they don't even listen until you're like jamming out their spotify account.

Actually i had that yesterday but it was a grandma and she had these big old like freaking beats looking ones on like they were these giant ones and she was sitting there Just sort of head bobbing like she was rocking out. And I was like, all right, grandma, you go for it. Technology is a ruined people. I don't know if it's as impressive as the second when I went to get my food at the place where I didn't interact with anyone. There was another grandma equally as old.

But I kind of had to feel bad because it was grandma and her like 14 year old grandson. I'm assuming just guessing these. But the fact that he was with her and yet she was wearing one of those denim caps with sparkly words on it. Oh, no. And the sparkly words said juicy. oh no and i was like oh that poor kid like if she wants to wear that i guess that's up to her cool but the fact that your grandson is with you man that is uncool for him what the hell are you doing grandma juicy out of the town i'm assuming you also wore your juicy hat when you I swear I'm not making that up.

That was yesterday. That was yesterday. It is kind of like living in the zombie apocalypse, but the zombies all just kind of suck, you know? The zombies are just the most ridiculous assemblage of humans that are left roaming the Earth. Yeah, that's what it is.

You don't really want to interact with them, but you can't look away. Car wreck that they all are. And I'm kind of throwing myself in that mix. But yeah, the car wreck that is humans at this point, I'm just like, I can't look away. I just...

I feel so bad for this dumb kid. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like a carny show. It's kind of like every time you walk out, it's kind of like walking into a carnival, you know, it's like the, the three ring circus of humanity that it's become.

And it's all just kind of like, uh, Kishi, uh, tacky, uh, ridiculous, uh, surface level candy wrapper. Uh, it's, it's like the culture has become a, a deep fried Twinkie. You know, I was. Thinking of John Waters movie. It is.

Dude. That's exactly what it is, man. It's like John Waters got into the water supply, like the crazies. Literally, Waters. And the water supply.

Something's in the John Waters. Right, exactly. And it's just turned everybody into zombies, John Waters zombies. And it's very true. No, all right.

So two things. Okay. All right. Whew. All right.

So we're getting warmed up now. So we're the movie theater experience. All right. All right. I go there at 10.

I have to talk to two teenagers. Okay. All right. All right. But it was kind of cool because, you know, ever since COVID.

I have lost my ability to speak to people. All right. And so barely there before. It was not my strong suit before. And then so, you know, you go up there and you just sort of try to talk and everything.

And all your words come out dyslexic and everything. And they're going like, oh, you can see that the people that are selling you the ticket or giving you your ticket. Or something. Whatever. Oh, that's another thing I ought to mention.

But the people that are selling your ticket, they're going like, aw, he probably lives in a person-enabled group home. You know? I was like, they're just like, aw, they let dad out by himself. They let dad out, or they're like, aw. The kids need to keep a better leash on this boy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Obviously, they know what's going on, but he is clueless. It's like you try to say like, hey, I just try to say something, but it comes out all backwards and forwards and upside and downside. You're going like, wow, I think the message got lost when I was like, it's OK, man. Hey, buddy.

It's like, hey, buddy. Hey, buddy. We'll get you some popcorn. It'll be all right. It's going to be.

Hey, buddy. So you get to go see your movie today. Oh, that's great. Oh, you like the crow. What are you, like an old man or something?

Oh, yeah, okay. Sit down right here. Do you like the crow? Do you need us to walk you to your seat? It's kind of spooky here.

I know you're very gothy. You're into it. Shut up! I just came from Hot Topic. Shut up.

Right. I'm just like, anyway. But they actually handed me an actual paper ticket, which I haven't had in like the last 20 times. I still get mine. No, I never get mine.

See, I do everything through an app. And so they just scan the barcode on your phone, right? I don't like phone scanning. Dude. I used to collect stubs, you know, and everything.

Exactly. That's why I like mine. Container of them sitting right over there, right now. Absolutely. Well, I've got a new one now.

I haven't had one in forever. And I looked at it and like a silent, stoic tear ran down my face going like, I remember. Oh, it's like Pinhead at the end of Hellraiser 2. It's just like, I remember. I think the new option is every time you have them scan that phone, you take that phone and you go throw it in a bowl. and you gotta get a new phone because it's like this is my memory of when i went to see the crow so i can't use this phone ever again it's just remind me of that wonderful decision i made when i went to see the crow.

The wonderful wonderful time i had you know it's. Stacked on top of all these other phones that i went to the theater and that's right so that's it i mean they're kind of disposable at this point anyway so you just go and it's your ticket stub you Hopefully they don't tear it in half because that's going to be a mess. They're so cheap now because they put up suicide nets around the factories to catch the people jumping to their deaths because they can't stand working there anymore. I was going to say, can you blame them really? As we've discussed, work is dumb.

Work sucks. But what was it? The third thing. At the movie theater I went to, no assigned seating. So you just go.

What year is this? wild, wild country. Even if you go into the app, they will not let you pick a pre-seat and everything. They're going like, look, you're just going to have to get there early, like a freaking adult okay and get the seat you want 1950s or something like it's about 1950s gotta go see me one of the pictures go to the picture show i gotta get dressed up there go i gotta get there to see the newsreel cartoons this is how we live our lives that's it that's it so i was telling you when we were planning the uh planning this episode, that this is going to be early, and it's kind of like the old men sitting at the Hardee's, you know, drinking their coffee and eating their stuff. I mean, I got my coffee, so that's a given.

You know, we've got a Bojangles. Do you have a Bojangles name? you in your town? I've watched so many Bojangles close down in my area. Like, I couldn't tell you if there's one currently, but I remember growing up there was one, and then that one closed, and then I thought they went away and weren't even in town anymore, and then more came back, and those closed. And, like, now I don't know if a new one's opened.

But, I mean, is Bojangles your usual breakfast stop? No, it's not. It's not. It's not. It's not.

I was just trying to figure out, like, give me some dirty rice and a coffee. Right, right. It's nine in the morning. I need heartburn now. I need a nuclear-powered chicken biscuit, all right?

Nuclear-powered chicken biscuit is going to be my band name. We're going to have practice on Tuesdays. It's going to be awesome. Practice on Tuesday. Be there if you're serious about The Rock, right?

Well, if you're not there, you are out of the band. Out. First time, out. Well, at the Bojangles near my house, though, I've been there enough to know that there is like this gaggle of old retirees, you know, that meet there in the morning and I guess discuss, you know, the politics of the day, you know. But I've seen that at the Hardee's.

I've seen that at the Bojangles, you know. But there are certain places where they just sort of meet up, and I don't know how they find each other, I guess. Message boards? Yeah, I guess. Craigslist?

Oh, God. Need old man to eat biscuits with. Probably an index card thumbtack to a cork board somewhere at, like, an old-timey grocery store or something. Like, I think they're really old school. I think it is.

I think it is. Yeah, yeah. And there's like a community center in the town nearby. So, you know, they may say like, hey, want to eat biscuits with me? Yeah, I feel like that's a normal thing.

I'm rarely at a McDonald's, especially in the morning. But the few times I've been around, like there is just like an old crew and all they get is like a freaking coffee and just sit there because they have nothing to do because the movies don't start till 11. Like we have nothing to do. We're up at 4.30. I'm going to go get my coffee and sit there until the movie opens, and then I'm going to take a nap in the movies, and then I'll come home and do some gardening.

Oh, dude, you just described basically my perfect day. So, yeah, I think I'm ready for that, man. I think I'm ready to do it. I mean, I want the retiring, but I got other crap I got to do. Yeah.

Oh, I know. I know. I know. I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Sure. Sure. Sure. Well, you know, you've still got ambition, Brian. You know, that's been sapped out of me.

How ambitious do you have to be that your life plan is to build this cyberpunk Lego world I'm working on over here? But, you know, hey, that's just goals. Life goals. I think. if you can have the goals that you had when you were, you know, pre-puberty, you know, and can now, hey, now I've got the power of adulthood, you know. The power of credit cards.

The power of credit cards to actually see some of this stuff through. Yeah, I think that's a great thing. I think it's a really cool thing. It makes me want to segue into a show I've been watching, but I don't want to completely destroy it. I don't want to destroy this episode.

I think we're so close to actually talking about the movie that we're here to talk about. Towards it and that's what i was yeah that's what i was thinking that was my lead into it is because i remember being at the theater to see the crow and i'm walking down the aisle while past all because it was at the very end in this little shoebox sized one because nobody was going to see the crow and i'm walking down the aisle past all the other open doors and And I'm like, looking at all the other movies I could be going to. And I was like, what the hell was he thinking with this idea? Dude, dude, listen, listen, listen. I don't regret it, but it was funny because I literally was walking by going, oh, I haven't seen that one.

Ooh, look what's in there. I haven't seen that either. I should probably be, I guess I gotta go see The Crow. I walk by Alien Romulus, I'm going like, man, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get. Why am I not watching that?

Why am I not giving this freaking franchise another freaking chance? As you should. It has been disappointing since 1991, but I'm going to keep going, even after Covenant, you know, basically made me swear off movies for a month, you know? I'm on board with the first four. The last two are weird as hell, but interesting nonetheless.

But yeah, anything from the let's Prometheus this bullshit and keep on rolling. I'm like, oh, Ridley, what have you done? So it's funny that. The next one that like somebody actually cared about and thought was potentially good has nothing to do with Ridley. He did two that nobody wanted to watch.

And then like some other kid comes along. He's like, oh, no, look, old man, get out of the way. You don't know what you're doing with this alien franchise. Yeah. He's not wrong.

You've got to give it to the fans at a certain point, you know, because the people that created it, well, I mean, we can go into prequel conversation here, but sometimes the creators have moved on philosophically and they now feel like they're big shots and they have to, you know, vent out. their life views into. I think they have to claim it. Like, this was mine. I don't like whether Doofus is making my movie. I started this franchise, and I'm coming back to run it into the ground.

The ground. Run it into... Because he's not. A terrible director, like I've liked. Oh, come on.

Come on. He's great. What was the last duel? Was that him? I can't remember.

Whatever the one is with, you know, Kylo Ren is a knight. Oh, right. That was... good like that was really entertaining and surprisingly well put together and he's solid he's still decent yeah i haven't watched the other stuff that he's done he did like two that same year but no that's the one i saw and i. Was like this is actually good no i think he's like i've got to like make the movies that tony scott would have made because i mean it's like he cranks them out he's like a thousand years old and he cranks them out man And. They still have a signature touch, good or bad.

It's not like they're just phoned in bullshit. Whether you like it or not, it is definitely an auteur kind of a movie, even when it's a weird story that's totally different from his other stuff. He still has a weird touch that makes it a little different that for somebody just cranking him out shouldn't be that noticeable, but. It still kind of is. Yeah, no, it's a level of...

Even if I start one and I don't finish it, you gotta respect the craftsmanship that goes into his movies. He's still a filmmaker, yeah. As old as he is, he's doing what he's. Doing to some extent. He hasn't made his Ghost of Mars yet.

Oh, we can dream. I don't know. Prometheus is pretty Ghost of Mars. Well, okay, okay. I would say Covenant.

Of the Alien franchise, the first two, of course. Part three, I like in a curiosity way. Part four, no. I just re-watched. Those two, actually, because it had been so long since I've seen them.

And they're both, again, they're really interesting. They always got amazing directors. Always, always. I have issues with plot and story, but as films, they're both pretty solid visually. I'm not a Resurrection fan.

I like Winona in it. And I like Sigourney. I like Sigourney's performance in it. in part four a lot. Well, because it's completely different. Like, she's finally had a chance to do whatever the hell she wants because she's not technically Ripley.

She's a Ripley. But, like, she's not really the Ripley we know. So she has license to do whatever. And it's kind of like, oh, well, yeah, this crazy lady, this weird clone project has gone horribly wrong. Look at her.

What an amazing... What a great... I mean, I don't like the movie, but it's like the line... be careful when you're fighting something that you don't become what you're fighting. And that is like the perfect like visualization of that, you know, and just her not even knowing what the hell she is anymore, you know, is like a great, it's a great thing. In fact, as soon as we get off this podcast, I'm going to go watch it again.

Well, I, I just described this on the last tour episode, but, but just because I hadn't discussed it with you, And watching the fourth one again, I realized, I'm like, okay, this is essentially just the Poseidon adventure, but with aliens running around. Right, yeah. Because midway into the. Movie, I'm like, we've got to get from here to over there. We're going to die here.

And along the way, we've got to traverse all these crazy things. And eventually we're going to have to swim underwater a long time. And Shelly Winters is going to save us. Oh, dude, you're right. It's exactly like the format was like essentially Poseidon Adventure.

And then at some point, a Giger alien is going to come along and jab at some tiny mouth into your brain. Like that's the major difference. But otherwise, it's not that different plot wise. Dan Hideo will come up and creep you out with his shoulder hair. His shoulder hair and then like, hey, reach into his head and look at his brain and then go like, oh, I guess I'm dead.

This is a strange performance. Going back and rewatching. it, it's like he's in a different movie. That's the problem. It's like it's got this French touch to it. It is very French at times.

Yeah, it gets very French. I like the crazy wheelchair guy because he's awesome in his other movie. Oh, it's other stuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but that guy is super interesting and always making a weird face, which again is very French, I suppose.

Weird faces. So, we're talking about, we're here to talk about Alien Romulus. Which only one of us has seen. Alright, no. Alright.

Are we ready to start this episode's movie? I think so. I think so. Okay, let's do it. Let's do it.

Get more out of life. Go out to. A movie. What's the first thing you liked about me? I thought that you were quite brilliantly broken.

You feel like my person. You feel like my person. What's the worst thing you've ever done? I saw things. I shouldn't have seen any of it.

Eric! Julie! Julie! Please don't do this! When someone dies....

A crow carries a soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes something so bad happens... that the soul cannot rest. Until you put the wrong things right. You were given the power of a god. But you're running out of time to save her.

I'm gonna kill every single one of them. I killed you. Yeah, you did. We have a problem. It came for us.

First impulse. Anger. It's not anger. It's love. Look at what you've become.

You know that love promises only pain. You have no idea what hell awaits you. No, I do. How many people have you loved? This out on the town feature is The Crow.

Not that one, the other one. The year is 2024. The director is Rupert Sanders. And the plot, according to IMDb, soulmates Eric and Shelly are brutally murdered. Given a chance to save the love of his life, Eric must sacrifice himself and traverse the worlds of the living and the dead, seeking revenge.

That's, you know, a pretty generic version of any Crow story. So, spoiler alert, we're going to ruin the hell out of this movie, and maybe every other Crow thing ever created, so just fair warning. Spoilers abound. Let's just talk about the Crow TV show. The one thing I have the least amount of knowledge, because I feel like I saw an episode or two, maybe, sort of, I don't know.

I mean, Damascus, people like that guy, so it's cool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, no. All I know about the Crow TV show, I've watched like one or two episodes and it was like a TJ Hooker, but with the crow, you know. Every episode he's hanging on the front of a car.

It happens. It happens. And it was just like, I'd like you to meet your new partner. And it was like the crow. You're going like, oh, Jesus.

I think he's teaming up with the LAPD or something. I don't know. The Toronto Police Department. The Crow in Canada. Oh, no, it's New York.

I swear it's New York. So I got the name of this episode should be Crowback. It's a crowback. Ah, never mind. No, you can do it.

You come up. You come up with the title. When it comes out, it's your fault. Everyone is well aware now. I mean, I came up with enough cheesy titles for these episodes.

How can I bastardize. One thing with the thing we're talking about and call it a thing that's really cheesy? That's every episode. This one's your fault. No, no, no, no.

You do something else. Once I said it out loud, I was like, that's terrible. Which is why it's very fitting. For what we're about to do. Listen.

Crow. Okay. Crow. Re-Crow. The Crowback.

All right. So let's get into it. I think we talked about. Do you want to get into the original? Let's do the original.

That is the thing. I will say up front. I did re-watch the original. Me too. Yesterday.

Because I wanted to. I know you were talking about it. I was like, technically, it's been a long time. Okay. Here's what made me.

This is funny. Okay. This is what made me really want to do it. I saw a pop-up on the goings-on of the internet that, because of the new one, people were writing into Honest Trailers. They were like, oh, you gotta do the original Crow.

And so they did it, and I saw it pop up, and I was like, well, okay, I've seen that one. I try not to do it with stuff I haven't seen, because it doesn't make any sense. So I'm like, I've seen that one. I can watch this. So I turned it on, and I'm like, basically, they're...

They're trying hard to even get to jokes, really, because it's such hallowed ground. It is. Most of it is just making fun of Detroit. Right, right, right. Look, what is this, a future hellscape?

Nah, it's just Detroit on a Thursday. It's the most ridiculous world that they live in, and they're just like, nah, it's Detroit. but uh so that was their main joke and then like a few things about it but like they didn't really have much like usually they're brutal and they just lay into this dumb stuff and like they didn't have much but my takeaway i'm just looking at it going oh man look at that scene oh look at the visuals there oh look at that shot of the city i was just like the whole time i'm like man i just want to watch the crow now i was like your dumb jokes are getting in the way just play the crow So it made me, so yeah, if you haven't seen that, you can go watch it. They don't really have that much material, and it's way better to just go watch The Crow.

Yeah, yeah. Well, let me tell you. My experience with the original Crow, alright, and I did re-watch it like Sunday morning, okay, Friday night, started the weekend, I started the Friday night re-watching The Crow, and then Sunday morning, I watched The Crow remake. So I had a little 24-hour ours to percolate and rethink the original and then go see the remake. All right.

See, I did it the other way. I watched the new one and then went back and was like, okay, now let's, of the potential questions and issues I might have with the new one, like let's compare it to the old one, which I haven't seen him forever. So for me to kind of balance them out, I went back and rewatched the original. Perfect. Perfect.

Now the original. Okay. Is hologram. All right. What, but it is a time and a place for me. because, uh, it is the, I saw it senior year of high school.

I was working at a movie theater. I had just seen like 12 really terrible movies in a row. Okay. And then, uh, I went to see the crow and I was like, this has everything I like in one movie. All right.

And, uh, I w it was just such a, uh, It's such a Gothic landmark and like industrial music. And, uh, you know, amazing. That's what I, as I got into this, I was like, I know all of these songs. Cause I listened to that soundtrack on a loop. Like I had it and drove around that.

That's where most of my music memories are is me just driving around back in the early days. And I had it in there and just looped it and played them so many times. And all of these songs are amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

I had that cassette tape and that plus the Cool World soundtrack. I mean, we're just like. I just, as I was watching, I was like, I'm listening to them in the club doing that music. And I said that I was like this and the cool world soundtrack is like kind of all you need for this era of music. Like just cram those two together and do a multi mix out of it.

And like, you're all good. You got it, man. It's kind of like when your brain is still soft and accepting of when you get into something, you get way into it. I remember after not really feeling anything for movies for a while, there is energy to that movie, especially the buildup to his big confrontation to the bad guys with the thrill kill cult music going on. All right.

You know, um, where he's playing his, uh, guitar on the thing. And then he smashes the guitar. That's maybe the most moody teenager aspect. Yeah. Yeah.

Sure. And then like the sky is almost like a, like a play, like it is very theatrical and, and yes, stylized. And like, and again, I'm not complaining. Like that's kind of the epicness of that scene is like, yeah we've all been this moody kid like. We get it yes you're a.

Broody about some shit it might be that you and your girlfriend got murdered but i also got some shit going on man all kind of right we feel for him in that moment we're like yeah yeah the world sucks right yeah i get it. Yeah yeah yeah absolutely when you're a moody teen watching the crow it's like a big cathartic thing you know it is and uh and uh and that you know he smashes the guitar and then we start that uh bird's eye point of view, crow's eye point of view of flying through the city, and you've got the thrill cult going on, and then you've got just the most ridiculous conference table of drugs and guns. And the weirdest group of people that would never be sitting at a table together. And I'm going like, how are they making money off burning down the city?

I don't see where the money is on that. I kind of had that thought as I was rewatching. I was like, wait, where is the... I mean, I guess you steal, you're looting and then selling stuff? I don't really know.

People are freaked out. And they need more drugs to deal with Hell Knight? What are you doing exactly? Are you taking away people's livelihoods so then they have to turn to drugs? I mean, I don't know.

I don't really get it. It's just an act of amazing... uh, nihilism, you know? And so, you know, I mean, it was a great, when you're a nihilistic teen, it just sort of makes sense, you know? And, um, but that scene leading up to that is what I remember in 1994, just like almost vomiting, you know, that the shit was so cool, you know? And, uh, and, and so, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So big experience, you know? Uh, the, uh, the, my high school girlfriend walked out of that movie going like, that was terrible. And it should have been, you were like. We're done. We should have just, it was an omen.

It was an omen. It was an omen that, uh, that should have ended there. But, uh, wouldn't that have been the funniest reason to break up with somebody because they didn't like the crow? No, a very good reason! I'm sorry, this is over.

This is over. We're done now. You can leave alone. Right, right, right. I'm gonna go paint my face.

Fuck off. That's right, that's right. And, you know, so, the big thing is, like, you've got, you know, it just depends on if is it a good movie, uh, Is it, does it, but does it have David Patrick Kelly in it? So maybe that adds two stars. To it.

To the movie? I mean, it's just maybe so well cast, you know? I mean. That's what I was thinking this time. I was like, I think that's a big difference in that 1994 version.

Is like, this could have been just another random, almost straight to DVD movie of like, oh, it's a revenge movie. And like... even based on what is, you know, a sort of beloved comic, but even then there's tons of stuff they've tried to take from comics and make movies and it doesn't work. I think that's what raised this because I mean, our, our director hadn't really done anything of note at that point. So, I mean, visually it is cool, but what brings it up several levels? And yes, I'm going to give a huge amount of credit to Brandon, but that aside, uh, Like, if you put Michael Wincott in your movie, especially as a villain in the 90s, I'm just like, how?

How are you going to go wrong? Like, that dude can say anything, and it sounds amazing. Yeah. He elevated that last Jordan Peele movie, where you're just going like, thank God Michael Wincott's in this. I like that movie anyway, but he adds so much to it.

Like, he is so fun that you don't expect from Michael Wincott. No. He had such an extra layer to it, but... Absolutely. And again, re-watching it, I forgot how, like, important Ernie Hudson is.

Like, I knew he was in it, but I'm like, I forgot he's got a good amount of screen time. Like, he really is, like, a big character in it. But, I mean, yeah, David Patrick Kelly, again, these handful of, like, classic moments in cinema and TV, because his Twin Peaks run is amazing. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, you've got him, the...

Fucking Gideon, that John Polito or whatever. Oh, dude. From Miller's Crossing. I'm just like, yeah, you're again, another one of those. You're a character actor that like can do no wrong if you're cast in this role.

This is your guy. You got to be this guy. But when you do it, you're amazing at it. Dude, it is really like a perfectly cast movie and everybody is in the same movie. Like, even if you're, like, casting minor characters, Tony Todd barely has any screen time, but I'm just like, whoa, wait, I forgot, that's Tony Todd!

Like, it's, like, the whole cast is amazing! Absolutely, and they're all, and they're all, okay, so it's very cartoony, you know, now that I watched it last Friday, you know, it's very... But it's kind of nice to see a low that I didn't realize how low budget it was, you know, until I watched it recently. I think it's theatrical, which almost works in its favor. Like it doesn't have to look real because it seems like it's a fantasy in a fantasy world.

So like, it's okay that everything looks like it's, you know, not our reality because it's. Kind of not. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's kind of nice to see. a low budget comic book movie like they used to do back in the 90s before they had all the resources of Disney and everything and just going like, wow, this is kind of like a 90s action movie, you know, but it's got like this level of artificiality to it.

And I was really watching it going like, I didn't realize, you know, how kind of, hobbled together it is because of brandon's death where you know there's just so much yeah. Yeah there's so much that's told through like wordless flashback yeah like is the entire structure of it definitely the beginning but even they come back to that in the end of like how they put together like the whole journey he's going on and like the weight of what happened to him is all through flashback And it's all just sort of editing. Like there's not much you could have written. It's all pieced together in the editing room after the fact, which may or may not have been due to Brandon. You know, I don't know, but I don't know.

Yeah. I don't know. It's very oddly structured looking at it now, but again, probably for very real world reasons. Absolutely. Well, I didn't get like, That whole thing after he crawls out of the grave, you know, and then like him walking through the city and then going up to his own apartment.

I mean, that's all body double. So it's like, you know, it's like, wow, I never really quite got it. They had to shoot that whole. So it's really cool that, you know, the first time I watched or first 20 times I watched that movie, I never really quite, you know, noticed, you know, or didn't care. There were scenes.

They did even try to do face replacement for quick shots. But again, 94, it's probably not going to look great. So they probably didn't have a ton of that. But yeah, it's like I don't remember noticing so much. Maybe now if I really go looking for it, I can find them.

But I don't feel like that's a distraction if you don't know that that happened and you just watch this. I don't think you would notice. What also got me rewatching it was just how crazy violent it is. Well, as an adult. Right, right.

As an adult, because I was going like, hey, I'm probably going, I was telling my kids, you know, I've got a 12 year old and a 16 year old. The 16 year old, you know, they're real picky about movies, you know. But I was going like, hey, you know, maybe we should watch The Crow. And then if you like it, we'll go see the remake, you know. And, uh, they were like, and I was rewatching the.

Surprise me actually. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably every kid at this point. Yeah.

They were like, it was only for old angry people to go and complain. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so they didn't watch it. I was kind of watching.

I was going like, I'm kind of glad I'm not watching this with them because it's pretty, it's pretty brutally violent. I mean, Pilato's death. I was going like, Oh, that's really terrible. And then like a, uh, you know, just the shoot-em-ups, you know, it's very John Woo-ish, you know, kind of mixed martial arts good. going on and everything. And I was just going like, this is real violent.

And so I'm kind of glad I'm not having to. See, I don't remember noticing that originally. And like, I didn't overly... I mean, this time, I just, again, maybe because I already knew all the kills, but I was just like, oh, yeah. Like I love Tintin as a pin cushion.

Yeah. Right. Awesome. Yeah. So there's other things about it, I guess I was noticing, but I, I wasn't sidetracked by the violence.

I'm just so numb to violence at this point. Sure. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so let's, let's get, I guess we can, I can say that I still love the crow. I do see some of the, the tears and the seams, you know, and I think I, I, I think, uh, I think Brandon Lee is fine. I think he does emote, but I think it is very, uh, acting school emoting.

I'm, I'm, I'm scrapping on a, uh, an icon. I know, but, uh, I'll stand by him. But again, I think he's doing a performance because again, it's not a real world thing. So like, and he's dead by the time we meet him essentially. So he's just real.

The character more or less is realizing that, Yeah, no rules really apply to me. So I can just walk around and be a weirdo because I'm dead. I am a weirdo now. So he's just performing in every one of these little interactions he has with all the guys. And like so that.

Yeah, I think that's part of it for me watching. I was like, he just knows he doesn't have to. Again, our complaints of the day to day run of the mill living your life bullshit. He doesn't have that anymore. So if you want to just sit around and laugh at things for no good reason, because they did bring it up in the Honest Trailer, that he just laughs all the time.

Yeah. Nobody else is in on the joke. He's just laughing to himself like a crazy person. Yeah. He jumps off a building and he's like, hey.

And laughs, because it's hilarious. Yeah. I mean, again, the rules don't apply to you, so I guess you can do whatever you want, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it is kind of refreshing to have a guy who's like life ruined and he's like sad about it and moody about it and not like, you know, like the other action movies of the time were like, you know, Steven Seagal movies and Jean-Claude Van Damme movies.

Yeah, they're just tough guys. Tough guys, and that's it. You kind of act like a tough guy all the time. All the time. He's just freaking depressed.

Depressed. He wants his life back. That's right. And so if you're like a manic depressed teen, you probably relate to that. I don't know anything about that.

What are you talking about? Right, right. Okay, along that note, just to give my balanced and out myself as the dork I am, And I had to double check the date because I was like, okay, I know what happened with me after the movie, but when did I see it? So it came out in May of 1994. Okay.

And I was, again, movie geek, going to see, again, back then, going to see all the new stuff as it was coming out. Absolutely. And I loved this movie. Yeah. And got it in a way that most other dorks didn't seem to.

But again, I was working at a video store, so there was this handful. There was this little group of dorks that would come in, and they'd be like, do you have The Crow yet? They were looking for it on freaking VHS so they could buy it for $ 99. 99. A few of them, literally, it's one of the few times we ever did a pre-order that was at full rental price.

Normally, we'd wait until stuff dropped down, like $ 20, you can order it. The Crow had such a weird fan base that they put it on the official listings of like, You want to buy it the second it hits the street? $ 99. 99. Get yourself a copy. And a handful of super hardcore dorks did it.

I knew it was having that little fan base. But I was enough of a dork. And I don't do this anymore because I just don't care. I don't have the energy anymore. But at the time Halloween was coming up, I was one of those people that dressed like the crow.

Dude! That's pretty epic. Here's the thing. I did it that year. That year, it hadn't found its audience yet.

That year, nobody knew what the hell I was. Right. So if you fast forward even a couple of years, and everybody's seen it on VHS, and everybody's watched it on cable, and every moody nerd in the world dresses up like the crow, and you see 40 of them show up on your porch today. Sure, sure. I did it in 1994.

That's right. And went to, first off, went to work. Which is a terrible idea. Don't ever dress up and go to your job. It's a horrible idea.

You get excited. I was a dumb kid. I don't know. So I did that. And then I also kept it on.

Makeup, outfit. The rest of the day. And went around with the kids trick or treating later. And I was just like the whole day. I was the freaking crow.

Nobody knew. There was one dork at work. That obviously was one of those people. That was like cool. And other than that.

Everybody's like, were you like Kiss or something? Nobody had a clue. They're like, nobody knew what the hell I was. So, that was my... Again, that's my interaction with it.

I was on the wave before it was a wave. By the time the other dorks were dressing up, I'm like, no, I've already been there, man. I've done my time in the makeup. I've electrical taped myself up as much as I need to. I'm good now.

I need to move on. I'm still going to love the crow, but I don't need to dress up anymore. And I think that was like the last time I did a full on like dress up for Halloween for no good reason. Like now I'm just like, nope, too much effort. Can't do it.

It's out of my system now. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Yeah.

Yeah. So there was mine. Yes. I love the crow enough that I was one of those dorks and nobody knew what the hell I was because the crow, and that's, that's part of what I don't understand is the crow didn't make a ton of money. Mm hmm.

It did alright, I guess. But it's not like it was the big blockbuster of the year. So that's moving forward. That's what I don't understand. Why?

Why are they killing themselves to make another Crow? Repeatedly, since 1994, all they wanted to do was like, oh man, we gotta do that again. I'm like, why? So you can lose money for your studio? What the hell is your reasoning for it?

I mean, I guess Crow must have been just so low budget, and it made its money. It maybe doubled its money back. Maybe. Who knows? You know, its $ 10 million budget got doubled to $ 20 million.

So they're like, it's a hit for Dimension Pictures. Which isn't saying much. The Weinstein's probably just said, like, man, we can squeeze this to death. And so they had one more theatrical, and I think a semi-theatrical, and then they were you know, it was just, I don't know. It was cause I guess maybe Brian, the rabid fan base that would spend $ 99 on a pre-sale.

There was enough of them country, you know, worldwide. That's the thing. Like, even though the fan base is very vocal about how much they don't like other versions and they don't want anybody else playing this character, they keep cranking them. We're trying to like, I started looking at this. I was like, the fact that we finally, this many years later, actually got one.

Because, I mean, immediately they fired out City of Angels. But then I started looking at all the ones between. Because I remember I've heard so many rumored ones that I was like, we should at least kind of address that. Yeah, yeah. And some of it I didn't even know kicked in as early as it did.

So they said, after City of Angels was released... Now, certainly, we've actually talked about this version on the show before, years ago. But I didn't know it was this early. After City of Angels was released, Rob Zombie was approached about making the follow-up. And Zombie's version was going to be called The Crow 2037.

And it followed a young man who grew up in a dystopian future, unaware that he was a resurrected crow. And he... I don't know. I'm just like, what? What is.

I mean, halfway into reading this, I'm just like, what the hell is that going to be? And with Rob Zombie at the helm of that, so that's a nightmare. Yeah. But yeah, that far back, they were still bringing in the next big name in movies, Rob Zombie, to do the next one. And then after that, it's almost ridiculous the more it goes through here.

By the time you hit around 2000, there's a remake called the crow Lazarus, which would have starred DMX as the resurrected crow. That would have been great. That would have been actually, that would have been okay. Actually, I would have liked to have seen it. As we roll into the 2000s, we've got Stephen Norrington making a crow.

That would have been good. The director of Blade, which again, right up that alley there, visually it would make sense. Yeah. According to this, who knows what the internet has that's true. Nick Cave was supposed to be writing the script.

Okay, come on. Okay, this is the knife in the heart. By 2010, it was announced that Mark Wahlberg would be playing Eric Drake. In my research for this show, I was like, no. This is a good point.

It was just like, how long? A crow reboot. has been in Underworks and different permutations. It's in so many different versions. It's like by 2011, there's Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who did like 28 Weeks Later. He's the director.

Oh, yeah. He's in talks with Bradley Cooper is the lead. Oh my God. And that's like, when I'm hearing this stuff, I'm going like, stop. Yeah.

We, I mean, I don't know that we got what we wanted anyway, but we dodged so many bullets along the way. We might as well be an undead crow character because they were also talking to James McAvoy. They were talking to Ryan Gosling. They were talking to, Oh, this one kills me. Channing Tatum.

Like, yeah, he can look good with a shirt off maybe, but he ain't the crow. Like, what are you doing? Like, it's called the bro. I give up so then let's see it goes to core and hardy who went on to direct the nun his was going to star tom hiddleston which might not be bad but interestingly this was a year before the avengers so he would have just been kind of he wasn't the girl bait that he became by the time that Avengers movie came out. Like, he was still randomly unknown.

So that's interesting. I mean, he kind of looks like a bird, you know, and everything. Yeah, it's not the worst casting. No, no. So then, yeah, like, they're throwing out Nicholas Holt.

Holt? I don't know him. Oh, he's from all the X-Men movies. Oh, okay. Oh, okay, gotcha, gotcha, okay.

Which, again, now he's in a ton of stuff. Right. Then I think it goes to... F. Javier Guterres or whatever his last name is.

He ended up doing Rings and The Wait. But now this one got James O'Barr all excited because he was supposed to be doing a black and white shot for shot remake of the original graphic novel using the panel layout and dialogue directly from the novel. Nice. So, like, that would have been... That would have been cool.

Kind of interesting, I guess, because I guess they veer off enough from the original Brandon win that, like, this would be a different, slightly different take on it. Right. And then he dropped out with production troubles and delays in shooting, like all of these are. At that point, I think Luke Evans was in talks, the Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies guy. And so, like, he was going to do it at one point.

But he even said, I don't think I'm worthy of portraying Brandon Lee's iconic role. And, you know. So this is the one I think I, this is the recent one that I think I heard the most of was the, uh, the crow reborn based on Cliff Dorfman and his original story idea of an undead police officer returning to avenge his family, which got the attention of Jason Momoa. And that's the one they were making like fake trailers that I saw online. So that was supposed to be coming out.

And then, uh, It all went to hell once again. So that was not that long ago. Like I remember seeing the fake trailers for Jason Momoa as the crow. I think he even did like test makeups and like they, the photos got out on the internet. So I think there are like some legit ones.

And then I saw dorks making fake photo or trailers and stuff. So that was pretty, you know, in the last five or six years, I feel like. So it's going on. Since the first movie, it has been going on nonstop. And that's the part I don't get.

It's like, what the hell? I love that movie, but why? When you've cranked out so many unsuccessful versions of it, including a TV series, why do you want to go back to that well of heartbreak and bankruptcy? Yeah. It's not like the fans are just going out and seeing whatever's got a crow on it, you know?

Yeah. You know, the Jason Momoa. Now, if there was one that should have been called the bro, that's the one. That's the bro. That's the bro one.

That's the bro edition. The bro crow. But I think that would have been unwatchable. What the hell are you saying? Because nobody wants to see depressed Jason Momoa.

I mean. Jason doing moody and sad. I mean, he's already, he, he's so hard to take when he's being a tough guy. Like the only, my favorite thing of him is that like switch to the cable company commercially does with the scrubs guys. That's like the funniest thing ever is him dancing around with those two dorks.

And I'm like, can we just watch him do this kind of stuff? Cause him being a bro on screen does not do anything for me. I'm sorry. It's pretty funny. It's, um, So if we're getting to the movie, now here we are, here we are.

That's our journey that led us to this movie. Now, would you like my, as I walked out of the theater review of it? Yes. I'm pleased. Fine.

Please do. It's fine. That's fine. Like that. That was my, I wasn't upset.

I wasn't shaking my fist to the gods. I was just like, that's fine. Yeah. And before I got to the car, I thought to myself and went, you know that I can easily say that is the second best Crow movie. Now, that's not saying.

Much, but it's totally. The second best Crow movie. You know what? You know what? Okay, my walking out of the movie theater, all right, was, uh, All right.

Well, walking into the movie theater after I saw, I don't read the reviews, but I just saw like the critical score, you know, and it was so low. I heard not good things via the internet. I thought it was going to be like one of those, let's just release it, you know, before streaming. Cause we put all this, we put, I don't know, maybe somebody will come see it. So we can get Oscar nominations, obviously.

Gotta get a theatrical run. So, you know. I thought it was just going to be a train wreck. I thought it was going to be like. See, that's what I expected.

Well, I mean, the way people talked about it, I was like, how can it be that bad? It's the pro setup. Like, all you have to do is follow the checklist. Every dumb straight-to-video movie's done it since then. Like, just do this, and then do this, and at the end he does this.

And, like, it can't be that hard. And then they didn't... You know, that's all they did. They were fine. Yeah, I just thought there must be, like, some base... uh, miscalculation and the conception of this movie that just makes it so terrible that it, it's, uh, it's, it might just be like an interesting train wreck, but I was going like, yeah, the, the sequels are all terrible.

Um, I kind of have a spot in my heart for city of angels now, you know, because it's like, so of the time, you know, I have not. Revisited that one. I hated the second one so much in the theater. Me too. Me too.

Me too. I've watched the other ones. Well, haven't revisited four i did watch three in the last year because i forgot almost 99 of it and it's fine-ish it's again maybe the third third best crow movie not saying much but exactly it's a big little kirsten dunst in it that's all you need. I walked out of the crow reboot and this is going to kick kick me out of all the cool kid clubs but i walked out it's okay i was never invited anyway um I walked out going like, I actually had a really good time with this. I would say, but I had just recently watched the first one.

But I was going like, I was really happy to see that they didn't just read. I didn't feel like they just tried to read. I was glad it wasn't a nostalgia grab. You know, I was glad that they did. It's only a nostalgic glad for people enjoy what there's the thing I like, but nobody liked it.

So there wasn't, there wasn't like a, there wasn't like a, a new metal. They weren't, it was just like a different, I mean, new metal, like that's still a relevant thing. It's out there. It's just a totally different version of it these days, but yeah. Yeah.

It's definitely out there now. I was sitting there going like, This is like, I was going like, the first one is like this cool indie movie that's held together with just sheer force of will and a singular vision from a director with something to prove and Brandon Lee trying to get out from under the shadow of his dad and a certain level of just, you know, the right time, the right place, the right people involved where Yeah, it's cartoony as hell. The scenes with Ernie Hudson and the homicide detective are just laughably. It's any standard cop movie. Exactly.

We're busting you back down to a beat cop. That's right. It's what every action movie of the time had, really. Yeah, yeah. It still kind of does.

It's not like it's changed much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like, wow. It's like an indie freaking movie. like with like a certain level of, you know, layer of theatricality, as you say, you know, and this, I felt like, and this is usually what I hate is. And in my old, old man days, like when, you know, in my chip on my shoulder days with like, when they remade like last house on the left and it looked like a timex commercial i'm just like and i'm just like uh i'm going like or like you know the dawn of the dead remake where it's like this you know they took this scrappy little indie film and they throw unlimited resources into it you know uh but but this felt like they had all the money in the world to make a crow remake.

And they had every resource and every permit and every this and every that, and had some high class or, you know, highfalutin director, you know, and, um, you know, uh, I just thought, and they got, you know, John Houston's kid, you know, the bad guy. And, uh, there's a certain level of, sheen to it that I was like going like this is its own thing it's not the crow 94 it really is like this weird alternate universe it's kind of like a special edition one-off comic version uh you know it's like if you just saw it as like a you know like a mini series like the crow the original crow is like the crow and this is kind of like this you know limited edition 3 you know, one-off, you know, version of the crow where they got a new artist in and, you know, they printed it on expensive paper and, you know, it's got a foil cover.

Well, and that's kind of what it is. And that's what we, I think on the show and definitely off, like for six or eight months now, I've been having this discussion with Misty, which if you're listening to this show, I'm assuming you know who she is. And Jay's like the biggest crow fan in the world, but like he's torn off all the other ones. And like, she's loved it too, but like, isn't just annoyed by all of it. So this was the first thing we said when I got the first, those first shots of, of him came out in the makeup and the tattoos and like in front of the mirror there, those shots leaked out and leaked again, released.

And like people just started losing their mind. Yeah. And I'm like, from the get go, we both said the exact same thing. We were like, here's your problem. You guys have shot yourself in the foot.

Because you know what you did? You made them have the same names. Sure. Because I saw the trailer after that and I went, this looks like an entirely different story. So why is it Eric Draven?

Why is Shelly there? If you're telling an entirely different story, go ahead and tell the entirely different story. And go with it. Which is because it actually is. Like, if you go and look, the look that he has with the shaved down hair and the tattoos everywhere is from an entirely separate Crow comic.

Right. And that's what the character looks like exactly. If you go look it up, he's got those tattoos. He's got that terrible haircut. Like, that is exactly what it looks like. but it has an entirely different title.

So it's just like, if they would have gone with that and not somehow some corporate executive was like, well, we can't sell it unless it's just the crow. Everything now has got to be a reboot. So we've got to make it just the, if they would have done the crow colon redemption and you know, it's like, it would have been fine. And like called him Bobby and she was Sally and like, I think it would have been, it would have gone over as well as any other sequel for fuck's sakes, but which isn't great, but nobody lost their mind when those other three sequels came out. But because this one, they called it the crow.

And they made the characters Eric and Shelly. I'm like, okay, you've killed it now. Because every fan of The Crow, both the comic and the movie, are going to show up waiting to hate this thing. Absolutely. And I feel like that's the only people that came to the theater will hate watch.

You know, it's like nobody, no kids, your kids are a good example. No kids were out there going, oh man, can't wait to see that. They were just like, what the hell is this? And they skipped it. Like everyone else in the world, except Crow fans, who showed up ready to be pissed at this movie that's not brandon he's not eric draven like i'm like no he's not if you go look at that comic that's not who he's supposed to be he's an entirely different character and they're telling an entirely different story so it's not really a reboot but they shot themselves in the foot by calling it the crow and making them the same characters names they're not even the same characters they're not they gave them the same character names which is a stupid move Sure.

Stupid move. They did it for probably financial reasons and everything. Who knows? But yeah, totally different. Totally different characters, which I appreciated.

Yeah. That's why it's. Good for what it is, you know? For what it is. And I go like, yeah, I don't want to go out on a limb and just say that this was a...

I'm not going to say it's a great movie, but I said I had a lot of fun watching this Crow movie and the fact that they... did something different and it didn't feel like a city of angels, uh, slapped together. Let's just make the same movie again, you know? Um, and, and so, so I would say there's some, there's some stuff to get into about this movie. Uh, and we'll just start with the, my gut reaction to was when I saw the first stills with the, uh, bad haircut and I'm just going like, man, Just everybody's on fentanyl nowadays. And the proof is in the haircuts.

Yeah. Looking it up here. It's the crow colon wild justice. It's not The Crow. It's an entirely different series that came out in comic form as The Crow Wild Justice has an entirely different main character.

Cool. And was its own little story arc. That's what I felt like. He's done that over the years because that's kind of what City of Angels is. It's like, here's that story again, but with a different character.

They all kind of fall into the same... Oh, they're in love and they get killed and blah, blah, whatever. But like, so it's the same setup, but they're all different stories. That's kind of what James O'Barr has done for the entirety of his career. He's just like, this is my thing.

This is what I do. So again, they just, they screwed themselves over by trying to cram it into the reboot mold. And then not at all doing that. Like we're going to make an entirely different movie, but we're going to pitch it as this thing that everyone hates and wonder why we don't make money. Yeah.

I think the movie is unfairly maligned by probably the fans and by the critics. I thought that this actually felt like a movie, not like a mistake. I felt like they actually had some interesting reboot. I felt like there was a reason for it to go. I would say...

I made some notes, all right, when I first got out because I knew we weren't going to talk about it for a week afterwards, okay? And my brain doesn't retain information anymore. It does not retain information at all. I'm talking about mine. Yeah, mine too, mine too.

All right, all right, all right. So I'm going to just say, all right, number one thing I appreciated was about the Crow remake, and it's probably, you know, it's one of the maybe weaknesses, if you were to call it that. I mean, it was fine at the time, but of the Crow original, where it's all flashbacks and you kind of get a feeling that they were in love, I really liked them fleshing out the relationship between... the crow and his girlfriend. We won't call it Eric and Shelly. Whoever that random guy is with this random girl.

Those two new people. I like that they met in rehab. I like that they had a pass before they met. You get a feeling that they're coming from you know, really messed up. You really get a sense of Shelly's messed up history.

Oh, yeah. Eric Draven's, well, you know, New Crow. This version of Eric Draven. This version of Eric Draven. You get a sense that he had a really sick mom and, you know, his horse cut.

But then he's got a Brooklyn accent for some reason. I don't know. I was like, I guess that was... The farm in Brooklyn or something. You know, the farms of Brooklyn.

The farms of Brooklyn, the prairie land of Brooklyn. Where you keep your horses, obviously. Right, right, yeah. I was going like, I didn't get his accent if it was like the Midwest or something that he's coming out of. But it was fine.

You get a fact that he's kind of a loser, you know? He just looks like a trailer kid, you know? He would grow up to get really bad tattoos all over him. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So there's a certain glamour. To Eric and. Eric and Shelly. You know. In the original.

Of like this kind of like rock and roll couple. You know. Social activists. You know. There's kind of like this.

You know. Idealized thing. But in this remake. They're kind of more like. You know.

Outcasts. Or people who have messed up their lives. You know. And here they are. And they meet.

And I like that they meet in rehab. And I like that they just kind of cling to each other because they're just like they've got nothing and they know they're a mess. And so I kind of like that aspect of them fleshing out their relationship more, you know. So when something does happen, you know, you go like, man, they really had only each other, you know. uh so i like that i. Like that in theory i think okay re-watching the first one i think that's i think that's what separates it and why i think it should definitely be like and here's a different crow story because like The reason the original Crow works is, as I said earlier, and it really solidified it rewatching it this last time.

It's like it is a fable. It is a fairy tale. And like we've literally like the big dreamy world be whether it's, you know, the it's just as like boiled down to its essentials of like the, you know. the knight and the maiden and like, here's the, he's the, the fallen knight and here's the evil dragon is our bad guy. Like, so it's, it's very much that so much so that like, by the time you get to it, like they have to be idealized for this to work. So it's like, we don't, we, and this is why I think that romantic version of that comes through that like every like hot topic girl in the world swoons for this movie is because, right. there's no real basis to the relationship.

It is a romance novel version of like, all we've got is dreamy shots of them doing cute couple things. And they are quote unquote, the perfect couple. Exactly. That's the difference is we don't have any background. All we have is his flashbacks and that's it.

Most of them don't even have dialogue. It's just flashbacks of them being in love. Right. Super heightened romanticized version, you know, it's like, Exactly. So I think.

Picking out a wedding dress, commuting on the couch, ordering pizza. Wonderful fantasy memories. Yeah. It's like, it's the cutest thing you've ever seen. Exactly.

But that's why that works as an idealized romantic thing. Absolutely. When you cut to the new one, the reason it needs to be a new and entirely different thing is they're like a real couple and we. See their backstory. And you see... that they're a freaking mess and that the relationship kind of doesn't make sense.

And the further you go into it, you realize, Oh, these are kind of shitty people. I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm just like, they're massively flawed versus Eric. And the original one is perfect. You know, he's just like, he's the most beautiful man you've ever seen.

He plays guitar. He loves his girlfriend. He takes care of this weird, almost orphan girl. Like, he is just a perfect character yeah and then you get to these two and they're just screw-ups from day one like they are a mess and they bet like by the in the context of the movie they realize yeah i don't even know if this romance is working so much like dude we've already died for each other but i'm not so sure about the romance I'm like, wow, this is very, that's why I'm like, this is a different movie because they are not even in a relationship anymore in their undead life. Like when your main character is doubting the relationship, I'm like, this is not our idealized romantic fable thing that we're telling in the first grow.

This is kind of too grounded to work in that aspect. Like it's, it's a totally different thing. We're taking a look at, A, the relationship first before the crow bullshit kicks in. And then, like, you get to see them, like most relationships, go to hell. Like, it just falls apart.

And I'm like, this is a weird version of this story to try to do. But I do think it's really interesting that we spend that much time with them. Right. That we see what they are as a couple. Mm-hmm.

It also like makes kind of no sense. Like at least in the original crow, we had this, like they've been together for years and they're engaged and they've got all this. So like when you get to that true love and like, I will do anything for this person that I love, it kind of makes sense. In this one, I'm like, they spent a weekend together, dude. And I think that's what they start to realize.

He's like, yeah, I don't know about this relationship anymore. I just met this girl in rehab. I don't know about giving up my whole soul. So I don't know. It's such a different take on that from just the way that it approaches the coupledom of it.

It's so different and so idealized in that first one where we just don't. even try that in this movie. It is more grounded than it possibly needs to be. Dude, that was one of the parts I liked the best. I'm probably not the best guy to ask if true love lasts forever right now. Well, I took some moments of that myself.

I was like, oh yeah, I get this. I really liked the part Where he's like, am I ready to throw my soul away for this girl I met in rehab? That I just watched a video of her murdering someone. I'm like, ooh. I'm like, ooh.

I don't know if I'm, you know, we've been together, what? You know, maybe a month. That's why this has to be a different story. Because it's like, the whole Eric and Shelly thing is crazy. perfect romance, and I'm like, these two screw-ups, like, this is not the same story, so please give them different names, and I'm fine to, like, explore this relationship and, like, see, okay, what if you take these two screwed-up kids and throw them into the crow scenario, because it shouldn't go the same, because they're not the same thing. Absolutely, that's what I liked about it, because I was able to put aside that they were supposed to be Eric and Shelly, alright, because they were totally not, alright, and so I was more like, this is a totally different situation here.

All right. You know, it's the same story, but told through the point of view. And I get that he does what he does because he just wants to do one noble damn thing in his life. Uh, and, and, and so it's just like, I've been a screw up my entire life. And so can I forgive Shelly?

Can I do something that, Outside of myself. And I know I'm already screwed. So maybe just on my way out. I can do something good. For this person.

Who pulled into a bad situation. Because I don't. I feel like I'm trash. I don't care if I go to hell. But maybe this person.

Showed me some compassion. So I can. Even if it's not like this perfect love. It's like a noble idea. And one thing I liked about it was that kind of up the stakes a little bit in that he's not going to live happily ever after with her in the afterlife.

It's like, this is like, he's basically, you know, my soul for hers is, I thought that kind of redeemed that aspect. Because I was like, no, it's not the first crow. It's something else. You know, that's what I was hoping as I got into it and I saw him make that deal. I was like, man, I really hope they don't like hollywood out and give us a happy ending and like you know he he sold his soul he's going to hell for her don't wuss out and then have them be happy together in the end i was like no no no screw that i'm like that is the first crow it is a fairy yeah they're supposed to be that way in that first movie this movie he just sold his soul to the devil essentially to save her so now you've got to kill this dude and have him go to hell like that's the only way this story works So I was so, not to jump to the end, so relieved when they were like, oh no, he's just gone and he's gone to hell for her.

That's the romantic gesture. You know, that's the, it's not the coming back and killing people like the first one of like trying to, you know. Save us. It's the, I... Gave myself for you.

Even though we weren't really that great together. I didn't know you that well. We kind of slept as people. We didn't connect that much. We kind of enabled each other's bad behavior.

Yeah. I was like, it's not an ideal romance. But again, I think you're right. I think it's like his one noble act was the only... good thing he'd done in his life, arguably, or certainly in his recent years, it's like, and him doing that was his act of love. Even if he didn't really love her, like this was the best thing he had to give for.

Right. Right. It was like, it may not be the only thing you had to give for. It was like, it was the closest thing to love he had had, you know, it was like, she says, have you ever loved anybody? He's like, I don't know.

You know, it's like, there's like, it's like in this imperfect world, in my imperfect brain, and there's, uh, screwed up, uh, thing environment, you know, and maybe just my mental illness and my, my drug abuse and, you know, never having any kind of center, you know, and then making it a person who, who never could stand up for himself, you know, and, uh, you know, just kind of this broken, broken person, you know, it's like, I don't know if this was love. I don't know if I'm ready to make this decision yet, but it's, uh, But it's the closest I've gotten. And it's, it's something good I could do, you know, and I'm not really known for doing great things. I mean, that is. the best thing to take out of this that yeah decision because it kind of again in the other crow world it doesn't make any sense like the whole idea is to like redeem yourself and get revenge for what happened to you bring the two of them together forever and like so the fact that yeah this guy is so messed up that he's just like this is all i have to give this is the best thing i can do as a person but yeah i'm kind of a shitty person but if this one act can hopefully redeem everything else i've done right i don't get to go to heaven for it but that is the deal like i've seen this one window and like i can't do anything to save her i go back to my regular life and it's gonna suck and i'm gonna be unhappy So here's this one thing I can do to just put it into it.

And hopefully somebody else will get something good out of me having lived to some extent. Yeah. Yeah. Which I think is a, uh, valid reason to remake the crow. All right.

Or to do another version. Of another version. It's not a remake. It's not a different. Story to do a different story.

And so, yeah, if you were going into this, expecting a nostalgia grab, expecting a gothic overload with industrial gothic music, then yeah, you're not going to... I would see how you'd be disappointed. But if you have an open enough mind to say like, hey, look, they spent all this money and they actually had a different take on which none of the official sequels gave us the, I mean, I guess the one in the old West, you know, but what a, what a mess, you know, what a mess. You know, I mean, I was like, wow, you know, I was going like, okay. So, and I thought the act, you know, that we're talking about casting, I think that guy, you know, played a real good, you know, performance of that.

He's a good actor in general. He's a good actor. But he is good at being this messed up kid. And he doesn't read as anything more than a kid. He's a broken kid that just got older and did enough drugs to try to numb himself from his crappy life and just continued to make bad decisions.

And he plays that really well. Absolutely. And him and Shelly's relationship. I read one thing that they didn't have any chemistry but i thought they did as like two broken people who felt like they had screwed up their lives too much to ever be in love again you know. Again where the story goes that kind of works because again to me that's part of what happens here is like you get midway in and you're like it isn't this idealized love we didn't spend years together We spent a weekend together.

I barely know you. So the fact that I'm making this decision to sell my soul to save you is almost ridiculous. But this is the world I live in. This is the place that I've ended up in. Due to all my bad decisions in my life, I ended up here, and this is the one thing I can do.

So, like, the fact that they didn't have chemistry almost works for that, you know? Well, you're right. It would become an idealized romance if they did, if they were perfect for each other. You'd want them to go off to heaven and live together as perfect souls, but they're not, they don't have chemistry. They had a screwed up weekend where they screwed around and had tons of drugs.

And like that, that's what happened. And like, that's the weird world of this movie is like, it's not them having perfect chemistry and going to be together forever. It's like, right. This was a bad hookup. And now I'm going to sell my soul for you because that's all I got.

Well, it's interesting. He wouldn't had there not been something there, the crow wouldn't have given him a chance. All right. But, you know, so there may have been something there. But, you know, they were just him.

Is it just the well, I kind of want to get to that, too. What you think of the the limbo world that he ends up in and whoever that guy is, that this is a job. But I could maybe that's all he saw of him. He's like, look, you've done nothing with your life. You haven't shown anything that would be reason for you to go to heaven, but I'm going to give you this chance.

Like whether or not you guys are meant to be together, whether you have chemistry and you love this girl, here is the chance I can give you because otherwise I'll just take you off right now. Yeah. Judgment ain't going to be good. So let's put you back and see if you can redeem yourself. If you can become something like, even if it's not for her, if for you, you can become something better by going back.

Right. I don't know. It's really interesting. It's like her fate, Shelly's fate is to go to hell. And so like, this is a person who is the first time he's maybe felt belonging.

And so maybe it's not. Yeah. Like the fantasy love, but what a great story of like, just being selfless, you know, of like saying like, look, I just don't, I, it is kind of, it's kind of like a be in a night where it's like, maybe he doesn't know. It just like, The stakes for Shelly wasn't that she'd be dead and she's in heaven now. It's like, she's going to hell unless somebody intervenes.

She's going to hell and deserves it, basically. She's meant to screw up. She's not a great person. Whether or not the bad guy is involved, she murdered someone, at least one person that we know of. Based on the facts, she needs to go to hell.

He's the one that has to come in and go, no, I think there's something... to her. I think she is redeemable. Yeah. Like she got led down the wrong path, but like, there's something good there in her still. Right.

And like, that is like the reason to give it, you know, give it a shot, but. It was something not a great person. Right. There was, there's something good and I'm not a great person, but there was something good in each other that we brought out of each other. You know, we, we showed peace and compassion towards each other.

And maybe they just aren't used to being in a world of, people showing compassion for each other you know and so we've seen not that we've seen all right and so the I like the the fact yeah what that was interesting when Danny Houston whispers into your ear is the the movie says that it just brings the darkness in you and brings it up to the surface you know And so it's like that darkness was in these people and it just makes you do the horrible things, you know, that. The things that you talk yourself out of all day long. Yeah. It just gets rid of that reservation, that bumper that stops it. Yeah.

So we all go through the day and be like, oh, I could murder that dude. And it just takes that away and you go murder someone. Takes that away. Right, right, right. Or, you know, you hurt yourself or you're doing something, you know, just something that makes you less destructive.

You know, that that barrier is taken down. So, yeah, that was a really cool thing. There was some interesting stuff there. All right. So I was in that line.

I liked the bad guy's motivation where he wasn't just like this nihilist going like, let's just watch it all burn. You know, that was not greeting cards and stuff. Yeah. I like that line's awesome though. Man whatever the hell he says it's so good right um that only is funny because it's michael wink got.

Bad well yeah wouldn't have been terrible had they had uh danny houston try to redo that line i mean so we're gotta say that they're is this could have been so much worse had they tried to, you know, do line grabs and, you know, have it reset and just been terrible. Which happens in a reboot type things. One of which I won't, won't discuss. Cause I don't think you've seen, but we got that in a recent one that I'm just like, Oh really? Like we're going there.

So yeah, that happens a lot. So the fact that they like purposely went a different direction because that's, That's the other thing. This delves into, like, the otherworldly... Like, all we get in the first one is just the basic structure of the crow. Yeah.

And, like, that's pretty much it. Yeah. And, like, there's sort of some weird mystic-y stuff going on with our winged cot and his girlfriend's sister. Right. You know, eating eyeballs or whatever.

You know, that's weird and mystical, but, like, we never cross the line into, whoa, you know, this is otherworldly. Whereas this one, like, this guy made a deal with the devil. Right. He has... otherworldly evil powers to make people go murder and whatever they need to do. And like it, it takes on an entirely different role as far as the like bad side of it.

Whereas bad side in the original is just like street thugs, you know, it's just like dealing drugs and making money off of people and burning shit down. Like, you know, it's just a bunch of, you know, idiot bad guys from any action movie. Right. And versus this is like otherworldly demon powers. Yeah.

Yeah, which I can buy because the movie is about a guy coming back to life. Yeah, I mean, it is. Again, the structure of the crow sets up for that. So it's almost weird that the original doesn't really... Like, we don't even get to the rules of it much.

She just gives the, if you love someone, and they come back, and blah, blah, blah. And then eventually the bad guys kind of figure out it's connected to the crow. But, like, we don't really understand why or who... Actually, I mean, that stuff was kind of in there, that... the stuff that got cut out yeah skull cowboy character right right michael berryman showed up right told him the rules more or less and is also why we get that weird jump cut and he's all taped up because it was sort of that same thing of like if you you know start to doubt yourself or your relationship or whatever you don't have the healing powers anymore right right duct taped himself back together which doesn't make any sense in that first one so i think it's actually a smart move as far as the like it they again there's no doubting himself like he's in the right their love is true like everything makes sense in that first one the way that it is if you add in that doubting part in the non-healing part it doesn't make any sense so Like, the only time he should be hurt is they figure out the weird thing with the crow, and then they hurt the crow, and then he hurts.

So, again, it's all a real balanced version of why. It's a logical reason why. Oh, the crow was protecting him, more or less. But no, like, behind the scenes, you know, oh, this is this rule, and you have to follow this rule, and if you start to, you know, if you don't believe you can fly, you're gonna fall. Right, right.

Clap your hands, people, if you believe in the love of the crow, and he'll come back. Yeah. Yeah yeah well it was cool i like that. Line it makes no sense in that first one but this one it actually makes sense to work that kind of stuff in yeah because he doubts the relationship from the midway point in this movie he's just like right yeah i don't know about this yeah it was a weird turn in the theater i was just like what what are they doing but as it went on i'm like that kind of makes sense in this story not in the original but it makes sense in this story. No, I really like the line, the opposite of love is not hate, but doubt.

I thought that was great. I thought that was very true. And why love is so fragile. And so I thought that was great. I liked what they were doing.

I liked the motive of the bad guy, because basically he's terrified of going to hell, and he will do anything to to keep himself. I did set up a little piece of this backstory that like, he's been around for hundreds of years. Right. Right. He's just keep for some reason, keeps suckering in these like talented young girls.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess it was exactly why, but like, right. You just pick any random dude on the street, I suppose, but he just likes hanging out with talented young girls and then stealing their souls. Yeah.

I guess that's because of their innocence. Uh, yeah, it would seem like they're, they seem, you know, like, They've just been pouring themselves into this talent. So they're uncorrupted. So it's a bigger win for the devil if he can take something beautiful and really destroy it. But I got the feeling that it's not like something– it's transactional for him.

There's no love of doing evil. He seems to love the finer things in life, but. He enjoys the spoils of his activity. Right, right. But it's like, this is like what I have to do to keep doing this.

And I just got the feeling that he was terrified of death, which was a different motive than Michael Wincock, you know? So I was going like, that's kind of nice. And kind of interesting, again, in this story, to bookend, like, he's such a pussy, essentially, he'll do anything to... Because he's so scared of death. Meanwhile, our screw up lead is just like, yeah, I don't even know that this is the right decision, but I'm committing to die for this girl that I don't know very well.

Like if I'm willing to sell my soul to hell. Basically just because I feel like it's the right thing to do. So it just makes him so much more impressive than our like loser bad guy that's like. So afraid of death. He's been running for hundreds of years.

Hundreds of years from it. He's been running from the consequences. And our new crow, he's like going like, I'm going to finally stand for something and take the consequences for standing up for something, you know? Death is death. And I'm going to deal with it.

That's right. Whereas our other guy won't get anywhere near it, essentially. That's right. One other little line I got that I really liked was when he was about to kill the not Tilda Swinton character. Well, when you can't afford Tilda Swinton.

She was a good stand-in. She was a good stand-in. I saw her, and I was like, is that what they're going for? Because it very much.... Right.

Right. I, well, she goes like, she goes like, he goes like, why were you doing this? And she was just was like going like, it's, it's just, you know, the bad that's going on and it's just a little bit at a time and you're not really involved in it. And then just a little by little, and then it swallows you up. And I was going like, that is a great description of, I bet there's.

A lot of people that that's where their lives end. That's how it happens. Like, how am I in this situation? This is not my. Much like our two leads, more or less.

Like, they start out wanting to end up the screw-ups. That they are. But, like, you know, little by little. It's like, oh, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna make this decision.

I'm gonna do some more drugs. I'm gonna go break in this place. I'm gonna, you know, they continue to make worse and worse decisions. And the next thing you know, that's all their life is. Like, it is just this. concentrated version of every bad decision they've made and here they are stuck in rehab together right right like government enforced rehab you know you've already been arrested god knows how many times you're such a junkie we're sending you here.

And so but it was a cool that was a cool mirror in that you know the lead that woman was going like look I'm as much a prisoner of my bad decisions as anybody you know And so it was kind of this fatalistic view of, you know, it's like how what people are or the sum of their decisions. But you're just sometimes just like making the best decision at the moment. But sometimes those decisions are just wrong decisions. And sometimes you're making a bad decision to cover another bad decision, you know, because it's I don't know. I don't know.

Now it's my life. Hold on. This is what I'm saying, man. I've made a lot of stupid decisions and look where I am. This is what I'm saying.

There's just sometimes you go like, I don't know how I got here. I see the train of events that happened. I see some bad decisions I made, but I'm going like, you know, I wouldn't say I set out to be a bad person though, you know? And so I thought that was really, they just give it, a line, you know, of like how evil people get evil or how messed up people get messed up, you know, and just like, you know, kind of like ignoring, you know, there's wrong things going on, but you don't, you're not directly involved. And it's benefiting you, so why not just shut up and go along with it?

Right. Just keep shutting up and going along with it in your deep, deep, That's right. A lot of people get themselves into that. I think so. I think so.

So the fact that, you know, I got something out of this other than like, uh, what a crappy crew. I mean, that's more than you're going to say about the other three movies. The other sequels don't really give you something to think about except, Oh God, what are they doing here? Absolutely. Absolutely.

And we'll just say, you know, and the fact that, um, we'll, we'll talk about the other side real quick. Just the train station. I thought I was going to say. What is your thoughts on the limbo world that he ended up in? I thought it looked cool, but I thought it was really funny that the, that the, his little guide that he says, the first thing he says, like, you would think we would have thought of something better.

That was just in the margins in the production notes. And then they actually forgot and said that as a line. Like, oh shit, that was in parentheses on the side of the script. They could have come up with something better for this scene, but. Alright, whatever.

A train station? I couldn't even tell. Sometimes I feel like it's a train station. Sometimes it's like they're in the middle of building a skyscraper and they stopped and then Let in some water and weeds. Like, I don't know what it is.

Are we on a bridge? I don't know where we are. Like, it's just a weird otherworldly place. And I don't know what I think of it. It's kind of like it's kind of like I know you waited, you know, you crow fans have waited like a thousand years for a big budget reboot where we can see the other side.

But this is all we could think of. Because i think the other one just appears to him like i think he just like hangs out in the graveyard and then the skull cowboy shows up and gives him some rules and whatnot but yeah it's like we don't get the weird limbo world that we keep keep that's the thing he keeps going back there he keeps dying and ending up in there which is another weird in-between thing that i'm like this is definitely different than what they were doing the first time because we never have an Like, it's almost like Groundhog Day. He keeps screwing up and like, oops. Back here again. Time to start over.

Send him back up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so I thought the train station was fine. I thought it was serviceable. i like that they had some guy giving you some some feedback and some rules and raising the stakes for him. I thought it was fine.

And he's not like a super all-powerful, godlike character. He seems like, again, we've almost entered into Beetlejuice world, where in the other world, this is like civil servant duty. He's just like, I drew the short straw, and I gotta go talk to this guy at a train station about rules and yeah throw him into a puddle six or eight. Times yeah yeah like. It feels like this is his job like he does once again his job that he's not thrilled about what he has to do but this is day in day out i gotta go talk to curry this up guy because i got another guy at a broken down building on the other side of town i gotta.

Go right so right right yeah no i think he's uh He's kind of like the social worker for these guys coming in. It's like, look, okay. He's like, he's like doing a plea bargain for him. He's like, look, you can do this. I gotta go help.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you can do this. You can get that.

All right. But you got to give us something if you want that, you know, you know, it's like, you know, you know, there's gotta be some balance around here, you know? I liked, I'm just going through these, these 10, 11 quotes I've got here. I've got one. OK, go for it.

Because you mentioned the violence in the original. Yeah. What do you think about the gore? Because this was full on horror movie gore throughout this movie. All right.

I have a love of gore and I also have a love of posh settings getting all fucked up. All right. I like I like to see it. I like. Break and stuff all right i like to see stuff i like to see i like to see a table of fine china get body slammed and i just at a visceral level i like to see nice things get ruined okay and so um uh i as much as i and i love that action sequence at the end of the first crow i think it is like a perfect freaking thing i mean again i was.

Looking back at that comparatively because that's one of the reasons i also wanted to go back and re-watch the first one because i'd seen people like sort of making fun of the fact that like he just starts killing all these other people and they're like weren't you supposed to just be killing the guys who killed you and by the end he's like taking out 28 guys for no good reason that's true all right that might be different And I mean, it is kind of rewatching the first one. It is like, he's pretty much just focused on those four guys. And like, even when you get to the big shootout scene with the drug dealers, he walks in and he's like, Hey guys, I just want him. And, like, he really was not there to kill Wincott, you know?

He was like, I'm here for this mental challenge guy. And, like, if you hand him over to me, I'm walking out of here. I'll go kill him and be on my merry fucking way. And that's actually something I got out of it this time was that he, once he found out, I guess, that Wincott was the guy that was behind everything. Then he had to add him to his list, essentially.

But, like, originally. And the same thing with all those guys. He's like, I don't want any of you guys. I'm here for that one guy. Okay.

And that's my job. That's my redemption is take out these guys so I can move on and be with the one that I love. You know, it's like it was more of like, here's my list. All I'm here for is revenge on these specific people. And that's it.

I don't care about you being bad. Because the other people that were bad, he was trying to, like, he'd rough them up. Like, again, our pawn shop owner is an asshole. And he knows he's feeding off people. But he doesn't kill them.

He could have. He almost does. But he like kind of gives him a chance he's like he could have just killed him you know point blank but instead he's like i'm gonna let you live so you can go tell them i'm gonna kill the rest of them and then same thing with her mom like i love the moment when he like oozes drugs out of her yeah that was cool again he's not he doesn't go and beat the hell out of her he's just like look why don't you be a good mom and quit being a damn junkie right right so like again he's just trying to send people on the right path that he's there to, you know, he'll rough them up if he needs to, but he's not there to murder everyone that gets in his way versus this time. I don't think he cares.

Okay. Listen, I think I get from the feeling that he is resigned and this new one, he is resigned that he's got to get this main bad guy, Danny Houston. Okay. And, but he doesn't seem to be taking any action. pleasure he looks like he's dead inside he knows he is damned and he's going to do the thing that he said he's going to do and he's not going to let anybody stop him. Anyone who gets in his way anyway he gets in his way but there's so many guys along the way even before the big finale that i'm just like just random dudes in the apartment cops yeah they're kind of dirty too so like everybody's a horrible person in this movie so who cares if they die But it is funny that he doesn't seem to worry.

Even though he gets way more of the handed to him rules, he doesn't worry about that shit. He's just like, oh, you're here? Eh, whatever. Time to die. Well, I'm already dead.

Why don't you be dead too? I was not bothered by it. I wasn't bothered by it. It's just a story beat that's different, I feel like. Or adds a different feeling to it because this one is just like, we're here to take out everybody in the way who gives a shit.

Whereas the other one almost seemed like he was just sticking to the plan. You know, this guy's just like, I'm going back. Chaos abounds. Like who cares what happens along the way, who I take out. I got to get this bad guy because he's screwing things up here.

And maybe I'll save my girlfriend along the way. But yeah, it just seems like for the one who got the rules handed to him by some weird guy in a train station, like he also doesn't worry about those rules versus Brandon, like add sort of a checklist. And he's like, I'm just here for this one thing and that's it. Like, so, I don't know. It's just a different, again, it's just a different way of looking at it.

So I think it adds a different tone. To this movie, which is already like super dark and gory. Yeah. The fact that like his, like with Brandon's again, it's 1994 special effects. So you're seeing closing up wounds or iffy at best, but they're fine.

They're serviceable. You know, it does what they need to do versus here. full-on horror movie like his guts are spilling out and you're just like okay this is a different version dude i love some visceral gore and i i saw him on this kamikaze mission at the end I love that ending, really. Again, I don't even know how I feel about it, except I was so entertained. It's a good thing there was almost no one in the theater, because I was laughing. I was having so much fun.

I was loving that whole finale. And I don't know that there were four other people in my theater. And I don't know if they were concerned that they were in the theater with me by the end of it. Dude, I was in the theater by myself, tackling like a hyena. That was me!

I was having so much fun. Because it just. Dialed to 11 by the time he gets to the opera. I like that it wasn't industrial. I like that it was opera, intercut.

I was going like, this is big budget, highfalutin, cutting in scenes of a cool opera. Isn't this dramatic? Yeah. Isn't this dramatic and operatic? And they cranked it up to operatic levels of violence.

First of all, is that opera a real thing? Because I want to go see it. I want to go see that. I'm not into opera, but that one looked great. That one looked awesome.

So it was perfectly suited to our creepy, gory world. But yeah. The other thing, as he gets to the opera, tell me that entire segment doesn't exist in a pre-John Wick world. Because it was the most John Wick shit I have seen outside of John Wick or Atomic Blonde. So like outside of that little world, like this is, I guess, like the wake of that now.

Like we're starting to see movies that are like, yeah, we're going to do kind of like that, only our way. So it's like they're doing it Crow style, but it's also like the most John Wick shit I've ever seen. And I'm not saying that is a bad thing. I think John Wick movies, from the action perspective, again, I think they are diminishing as you get further away from that original because there's so much heart in that original. And later he's just beating people's ass.

So this one is just, let's focus on the beating people's ass and do it like so brutally. Like that's the laughing is like the extent that they were going to to make it. the most violent death for every one of these assholes that came at him. Dude, dude. I was watching the 94 one going like, man, movies used to be so violent, you know? And then I went to go see this remake, and I was going like, holy shit.

I mean, it was violent, but again, it was shooting people from across the room violent. Versus the, we're going to get up close and personal with their insides now. The gore level on that one was just. Again, you can tell the budget's a little more to work with. A little more to work with.

And the CG is a little bit more refined, so it doesn't look too wonky. There's still a little more CG than I was. Oh, CG blood always looks bad. So I wish they could have toned down the CG blood and just splattered a little more with real blood. But yeah, that's just personal.

I wasn't taken out. Like there was a movie a few years back, Renfield with Nicolas Cage, where the blood, the blood just looked like cartoon blood. It didn't seem to touch anything and get on anybody. And I got him. Yeah.

This one definitely was gory and messy and, you know, it just also got an extra tweaking of CG blood for some reason. Right, right. Him, you know, the big spoiler, or the big gag in the movie was just like him... pushing the blade through the guy's face. Well, again, one of my favorite moves ever. I feel like I've seen versions of this before, but him stabbing through himself to get to the guy behind him.

Yeah. And then following that up with another, like, body slam with a blade through me. I was like, dude, this is hardcore. Like, this is what I'm looking for. This guy's having so much fun.

What I liked about it also, one of my big points was, in the original, you've got Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee doing action sequences. So even though his character is like this, you know, even though his character is like this, you know, sad musician, he's a pretty rock star. He is also an expert mixed martial artist. All right. So it would be, it's in his blood.

It's in his blood. And if you did the crow with Brandon Lee and he wasn't that, you would want your money back. If he couldn't do like spin kicks and backflips and you know, all that stuff, you'd be like, only I. Did realize that watching this again, just to intercut with this, it is interesting because it only becomes the, the big noble fairy tale after he's dead. Like in the real world, he's not that guy in the real world.

He comes in, they beat his ass and throw him out a window. Yeah. He's not a super bad-ass. He really is a pretty boy musician. And he comes in and wants to save his girlfriend and can't.

So the only way that he becomes the hero is in death. Like, he comes back, gets the second chance, and now he's a fucking badass. Right, he's kind of got crow powers. Yeah, he's got, I mean, he really does, because he, like, throws people across the room. So he, like, he has crow powers.

He's got Logan powers, because he heals himself. Like, he's just indestructible for. Most of the movie and just beats people's ass. And, like, that's what makes him... really cool for us, but, like, in the real world, in that window of two minutes that we see him, I'm like, he's not that guy. That's a good point.

So that was interesting, like, re-watching it this time, realizing that, like, he wasn't always badass Brandon Lee in the story. In the beginning, he's just a dork that shows up in the wrong place in the wrong time and, like, wants to save his girlfriend and is unsuccessful. And, like, that's part of the tragedy. I'm like, he doesn't save his girlfriend. His girlfriend gets...

I forget how much there's like, oh, and rape. Yay, fun. Yeah, yeah. I try to block that part out of the original, but no, that's realistic. Those are horrible guys, and that's exactly what they would have done.

So that part is a little harder to take when you love these two the way that you do. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, another reason I'm glad I didn't watch it with my kids. Yeah, really. But then fast forward to this world where it's like, yeah, he's just.

He is. He just becomes, like you said, he's on a mission. Like he's there to go through everybody. Like he's there with damned and determined, literally damned and determined. I am dead already and you're all coming with me.

That's right. That's right. I like that take on it. And I like that, you know, he wasn't great at it. He was not like, you know, Brandon Lee gets like shot and everything, but he's very adept at killing people and, I got the feeling that this seemed like a normal guy with indestructible powers taking out a room of people.

It wasn't... It was messy. It wasn't choreo. It didn't feel like, you know, John Woo to me. It felt like real ham-fisted, you know, street-fighting, uh, just kind of improvising it, you know, he's just like, I'm going to walk up to this guy.

I want to do this, but, um, you know, if it wasn't for my, you know, superpowers, basically. The ultimate version, did you ever see blue ruin? Blue ruin. Yeah. Yeah.

I did. I love blue ruin, but it is that is like, here's a normal dork. Here's a regular old guy and shit goes wrong. And like, he wants to get revenge. But what if you're a normal dorky guy who's not a martial artist, who's not a gun-toting superhero, who doesn't have powers, and you still want to carry out vengeance, you know?

And it's like, everything goes wrong for this guy. Yeah. But he still keeps at it because he's just so determined. And that's kind of what this is, only they gave him superpowers. Right.

Right. Right. So it wasn't like he became somebody else when he became the crow. He's just the same guy. But now just bullets won't stop him.

He doesn't stop. He just keeps going. And that's what makes this fun is like these guys are just getting mowed down right and left and like they're still coming. Like it's a video game of like somewhere off screen. They're regenerating a new batch of dorks and like they just keep coming at him.

And he just, he's getting his ass kicked, but doesn't care. He's like, I'm gonna keep, because every one of them shoots him and stabs him. Like, he keeps getting hurt every time. And he's like, don't care. Still going up these stairs.

Like, I'm gonna take out whoever I need to. And I'm like, that's the, like, I'm damned and don't give a shit. Yeah. It works so well in that scene. It's a weird scene in context with the rest of the movie, but I'm like, I don't care because it's so much fun.

It's so much fun. Yeah. Yeah, and you got a feeling from the bad guys. I know they're just, like, stop bad guys, but I get the feeling that these bad guys are used to getting their way. And they are, again, like, it's like, it should be an issue because he's murdering all these dudes, but they're also, like, action movie rules.

They're thugs. They're working for the bad guy. They're equally as bad. They gotta go. That's right.

Okay, so, I think I've almost gotten through all my notes here and everything, but I would say I really liked, um, they played this song by The Veils. uh i guess it was like him walking uh through it was like i guess at a certain point where he's at this crossroads of should i do this or not or i don't know but they play the it's like a long you know miami vice driving through the city to the september hill collins scene but they just played almost the entire song of uh by the veils uh it's called uh i can't remember now Did the. Electro drums kick in at that specific moment and make it awesome? It was called Total Depravity. Okay. It was the name of the song.

It was a good song. The songs were interesting in this one. Yeah, they're totally different vibes from what, you know, even normal movies today. It was like kind of different than I expected. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And they actually played a song from one of these bands that, a band that came out in the last decade. So I could call them a new band. They played a song by this, probably my new favorite band was a band called Cold Cave. And they, it's a real gothy band, you know.

And everything. But I love them. I love them. And they're coming out with a new album and I'm all excited and everything. So there was a, It was a, they were like, cool.

They got the good taste to play cold cave for me. You know, the other thing on the, on the random weirdos running up to him to kill him in there. This was just a casting choice that I was questioning because most of them are like your random, like 30 year old dude. And it looked like a tough guy who'd become a bodyguard. And then midway into him murdering people, this old dude comes running to him wearing a tuxedo.

The dude with the beard? I'm like, that guy's like 60. What is he doing being a guard? I missed that. He lost his retirement fund and now he's like, oh, I gotta go get a job again.

This sucks. He just was so much older than the rest of them. I was like, who is allow like just for the weird difference like if it was everybody all over the place in ages and body types but like this guy wasn't a big dude he didn't look like a guy who'd be like a protecting you kind of a dude he was much older than the rest of us like What happened here? That was a real weird question. I was like, where did that guy come from?

He was on craft services and you were like, hey, the other guy didn't show. You look like you've got our tux. Could you put this on for me and go over there and get punched in the face? Thanks. Yeah, right, right.

I don't remember that guy. I just remember the old guy that was like one of the higher up henchmen and everything. But I got, when I rewatch it and everything. This was, yeah, on the stairs in the middle of the beating the hell out of people there's one of them that when you go back and watch it again be like oh yeah that guy what the hell is he doing. There i mean i did love the uh the the guy about to blow his brains out then get his arm chopped off the older guy those.

Like again i don't know how much i'm gonna sit around watching this movie again but i feel like i'm gonna revisit the going up the stairs to the opera scene. Over and over again and Another one was, which I thought was pretty realistic because he's not an expert fighter, was when the fight in the car in the tunnel and everything. I mean, it happens everywhere. in the movie, so you kind of forget about it. Pretty good freaking action sequence when he gets thrown out and then run over by the Mack truck. That was pretty great.

That was pretty harsh. I mean, again, it had decent action scenes in there. Yeah. For our director, Rupert Sanders, who did one of your favorite films of all time. Oh, which one?

Man Who Brought Us Ghost in the Shell. Speaking of your favorite girl you were trying to watch. Oh, right, right, right, right. Which I actually, unrelated to this, I just rewatched because I started thinking about it. I was like, I don't remember that much about that.

I kind of want to watch it again. So I found a copy of it and watched it again. My take is the same thing. So maybe that's just this director. I finished watching that movie and went, eh, it's fine.

It's fine. Once again, he likes things that are going to piss people off. Yeah, right. Because that's one of those, like, don't touch Ghost in the Shell. Don't make a live action movie.

Don't put this white girl in here. That's right. Like, it's going to piss people off no matter what you do. And he's like, nah, I'm going to make that movie anyway. What do I care?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's probably like, you know, some prick or something, you know. But he's, you know, in that movie, I didn't really... Ghost in the Shell isn't hollow ground for me like other people. Yeah, that was my thing.

I went and saw it in the theater, and I knew of the anime, but I don't even think I'd watched it originally. I just knew it was a thing, but I also knew it was a big thing if you're in that world. So I was like, oh, yep, this is going to piss people off. And I watched it, and I was like, yeah, it's fine. I was like, I don't have that, so I don't care.

I just watched it as a cool sci-fi action movie, and I don't hate Scarlett Johansson. So you can be mad at her if you want. I think she did what she could. She's handed this role. It almost makes sense that she looks like she does because that's the whole point of the movie is they're trying to hide her identity.

So why wouldn't you make her look like somebody different? That makes sense. It doesn't matter. It's going to piss people off. So it's going to piss people off.

I mean, it was, it was, it was weird, but I mean, he did go through the trouble to basically recreate in live action, you know, scenes and shots. The opening scene specifically. The whole thing that seems like it would only work in a weird opening scene of an anime and yet he tried to CG his best version of that in the real world. He's committed to these ideas. I don't know that people responded well, but he's committed to all of this.

He's kind of like my favorite director, Zack Snyder, who just has.... No, he's not delusional and insane. Oh, by the way, while I was out yesterday after the movie, I saw there was a pop vinyl of that robot guy from your Zack Snyder movie. Oh, okay. Fantastic.

So if you need to go grab one of those as a follow-up, if you guys have been listening to us yammer on about Zack Snyder movies, yeah, whatever the Johnny the Robot or whatever. His freaking name was. Johnny the Robot. There's a pop vinyl of it. I was like, really?

They made pops of this? That's how you know they're running out of stuff to make pop vinyls of. Yeah, exactly. Like Zack Snyder's straight-to-Netflix movies. But anyway, no, Rupert Sanders is, I think, technically a good director.

Like, you're in Ghost in the Shell. There's good action scenes. Like, whether you like the movie or not, there's some really good, like, stunts and action scenes buried in there. Absolutely. And same thing with this.

Like, for something that could have gone horribly wrong, and somebody who, I guess... is it known, you know, they didn't bring in the director of John wick. They didn't bring in, you know, atomic blonde guy. They brought this guy in and that scene going up the stairs is it's getting close to that. I don't know if it's white at that level, but it's pretty damn close. Yeah.

It's, it's a, it's, it's, you know, some great for me, it's a great a action sequence. And, uh, you know, I mean, I'm just like, I'm just like, I think I walked away from this movie, especially after talking about it here. Uh, thinking that i'm not sure exactly why it got so mutilated and you know i talked to somebody i. Told you though i think it's the title and the names yeah i think if you changed all of that i don't think it would have done well but i think it would have just flown under the radar and the people who saw it would go oh you know this isn't bad and other people wouldn't see it because they don't care about the crow but I think that's the reason it got so much backlash is they set themselves up.

If you, cause there's a movie, I think it's fine. I don't think it deserves the low rating that it got. And I think it's more well put together than any of the other sequels that they didn't get upset about. So I think that's what did it. They screwed themselves over.

Yeah. And, you know, and it's really something that I used to hate. As I said at the beginning of the show, I used to hate, movies that basically stand on the shoulders of these little scrappy Indies and they just do it with like all this money. But I really kind of feel like they, you know, you kind of, it's okay to do a retake on something if you've got something new to do with it, you know? And I, I have much more respect for this reboot than I do for city of angels, you know, or some of these just, you know, slap together, you know, cash-ins.

I mean, it's, It's such a– it's an IP. They're desperate to get people back into the movie theater, so they get these IPs. And, hey, I went to go see it. So, I mean, I went to go see it, and I didn't go see the new Shyamalan movie, which is an original idea, I guess. Again, I talked about.

Not going to see the movies, and then I finally go back to see, and I've seen Alien. I've seen– The Crow, and I've seen Beetlejuice. All there are now is just, let's reboot that thing that we saw that one time that people kind of liked. So yeah, that's what they're making now. So I mean, I don't know.

You can bitch about it if you want, but if they're making good ones, I don't have a problem with it. If they're making crappy ones, I'm going to call them out. I don't really care. People just get upset about the concept, and I'm like, well, if you just do something good with it, I don't care. Just make a good movie.

That's the most important part. Treat it with some respect and give us something to chew on. And, and I am fine with it. I mean, the, the sacred ground of the crow has been desecrated so many times, so many times with so much less respect and, and thought and effort, you know, that I'm going like, yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm totally down with this new one. And I talked to somebody, I didn't, get their full take on it but i said like hey i'm gonna go see the new somebody at work i said i'm gonna go see that new crow movie and uh they said like that movie's terrible and uh i at first i gave it like a seven but then when i was thinking about it you know i got like uh you know i started poking holes in it and then you know i i think it's a it's a I was really walking into this like thinking this was going to be garbage, you know.

So the fact that it was a competently made movie. As I sat there, I was just like, I don't know what it is. They were, I mean, again, taking the Crow fans out of it that they have, you know, the deck against you from them. But like as a normal person on the street throwing yourself into this, I'm like, I don't know what it is unless you just don't like. the basics like you don't like oh there's too much gore i don't like this character i don't like you know his dumb tattoo look like i don't know what they're taking from it that that upsets them so much that yeah people were just i'm like there's nothing on that level offensive about this unless you just don't like gore or you don't like action movies or like i don't know what else you're so upset about because even if you if you take this out of context and this no other Crow movie had ever been made.

This is in a void. And like, you go watch it. It's fine. Like, even if you don't love it, it's fine. It's a totally serviceable movie.

What are you guys getting so worked up about? I, exactly, dude. Exactly. And I was like, yeah, I'm going like, and you know, it wasn't like a John Wick. I mean, it had John Wick style kind of actions.

Just that one scene, basically. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, John Wick is good. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And the John, but so, but it wasn't like, every five minutes an action sequence, you know, which I appreciated that they gave the people some room to breathe for some character development. I mean, there's a lot of setup there. Like, it is interesting, whereas, you know, we have no time with our couple in the original.

Like, we spend, what, 25 minutes or something of just them getting in trouble going into rehab talking breaking out going on their long weekend like it's just like all of that build up is surprising really that like this is what they've chosen to do with this action movie like it's kind of weird that like they devote as much time as they do to character development and in a movie like this like You would think they would just crank out something and not worry about it and do a ton of action scenes. But there's a lot of character development and setup on this thing. Right. So I didn't leave the movie like a John Wick movie. I leave exhausted.

I feel like I feel pummeled by John Wick movies. All right. That's our job. That's right. Beat you as well as the characters on screen.

Exactly. You feel like you've been in one of the action sequence at the end of a John Wick movie because I think those movies are great. as like probably a web series, you know, which you can sort of digest and appreciate. Five minute snippets. I just went five minutes of beating people's ass and then I can go back to doing my stuff and I'll come back later and. Watch them come back later read another chapter later you know um but this one actually felt like you know yeah there was enough build that i actually enjoyed the action more because it wasn't just trying to be non-stop every second so yeah you know.

And it's not polished. You watch that first one with him and the cop, and he doesn't know what's going on, and he's just getting shot. He has no idea what's happening, and yet he's the victim in this scenario. And then he's just like, oh, wait, I can heal? Hold on.

So it is just fumbling his way into being the superhero in this movie. It is such an interesting take on all these things that could be played differently or generically and like they do different things with them than you expect so there's something to be said for that there's. Something that they tried you know you gotta give them and it's not like a condescending oh you tried to do something different I go like I give you I give you props for trying to do something that's what I. Want from anything in a franchise and this is what I don't get especially in our reboot world where everything has to be labeled as a reboot or a recall or some sort of re it attempt at whatever that worked the first time.

I'm like, I don't care if you stay in the franchise. I don't care if you're sort of using the basic overall thing. But once you get there, just do something else with it. If you want the original thing, well, you already have it. Go watch it.

It's not like this is the old days when they played the movie once and you never saw it again. That's right. You can own it. You can have it on your phone. You can walk around with it all day.

It's there at any moment at the touch of a finger. You can watch whatever movie you ever want to watch. So there's no reason for us to remake the exact same movie. Exactly. But if the concept is interesting and you have a different spin... take it there.

Like do that. Like, I don't care that you're using. A basic idea, but tell a different story now that you're doing it. Right. That's totally what happens here.

So it's like, I appreciate that. I wish more franchises would do that instead of trying to just rehash the same thing. Let's reboot it and then do kind of the same thing again. Yeah. It's like, why, why?

Like, we already have that. Don't do that again. Do something else. It's way more interesting. That's all we're looking for.

Like, I don't know. That's it. My thoughts on it. I agree. Do something else.

I mean, I don't want them to, like, go so far out. But if you got the story, just do a different take on it. Just don't pretend like it's the same. Like we're doing here. If you call it a different title, it's the problem that we have.

Our brand recognition is so burned in in some corporate brain that, like, You can't stray from that. You can't tell anything that's not going to come off as the thing they love. And I'm like, no, if you mess with the thing they love, you're going to piss them off. Like they don't ever seem to get a handle on that part of it. I'm like, you can't mess with the geeks like thing that they love.

Like that will piss them off. You can give them more of the thing they love and they will line up and give you money. But if you mess with the thing that they already love, you're going to piss people off. And like they never seem to get a handle on that. Right.

Right. Yeah, yeah. Like Alien Covenant. Oh, like the aliens were designed by this robot man. I'm like, what?

You've almost single-handedly ruined... You've almost made me retroactively not like Alien. When we all know that they were created by the Predators so that they would be the ultimate game to hunt. We all know. We all know this.

We all know this, right? Anyway. Alright, so. heroin addled my mind yeah anyway go ahead but i'm sorry. Well again i the only other thought i had came after watching both these movies and i thought maybe that's how we should round things out here okay so yesterday i i get up you know i'm an old man so the only time i can watch stuff is in the morning otherwise i'll fall asleep so i get up and have my morning movie just like you do and um i'm drinking my coffee and watching the crow And then afterwards, I finish, and I'm like, oh, let's go make some breakfast. So I'm sitting there, and I'm making breakfast.

And out the back door, there's this squirrel that runs up and just sits on the little fence outside the back window. And then I start having these flashes of Sarah talking to the crow in the 94 one. And she's like, hey, what are you doing here? She has whole conversations with the crow when he shows up in the window. Yes.

And so I look over and I'm like, hey, what's up, squirrel? What you doing? So I'm like, what if it was a different animal option? What if a squirrel carries your soul to the other side? And like, so now we're going to have the squirrel.

Like you've got a little shimmering squirrel on your shoulder the whole time when you're beating people's ass. Do you think it would work with other animals? That's my question. Okay, well. The squirrel.

I don't know if you know this about youth culture nowadays, but... This is going down the furry road, isn't it? Jesus Christ, dude. Furries aren't just for sexual perverts anymore. There has become a disnification of furries where just people are just...

You know, teens and middle schoolers They're just walking around with tails and, uh, uh, free masks. And, uh, you know, I would say that I know some of them very well. And I, when they started saying like, I'm a furry, I go like, you do know that just basically means you're a, that she goes like creepy perv. We all know. Right.

Right. No, no, no, dad. It's not just creepy pervs. Okay. It's just like, uh, okay.

It's a lifestyle choice. All right. And I go like, okay, I guess I just, in my day, furry meant creepy sexual perv. Well, again, originally you just had, like, team mascots. And then they branched out and became something else.

And, like, by the time regular, I'm saying, you know, in quotes. Yeah. Boring people found out about it and were like, oh, well, this is just nothing but creepy sex stuff. And then, you know, as we branch out and, you know, a whole new generation kicks in, they find other aspects of it, I'm assuming. That's it.

I'm okay with it. Will I possibly make fun of you? Yes. Yeah, that's all right. I make fun of everyone.

I suck, so, you know, it's fine. I can make fun of other people, too, and they're making fun of me, so that's fine. I'm hanging out with a squirrel on my shoulder. What do I know? Yeah.

Well, I mean, I kind of see it as like, you know, you know, because of like the sexual liberation of everything, everybody now, you know, it's like everybody is free to be what they want. I think if like you, I think furry has become like the new different thing that you can be because nobody cares if you're gay or bi or anything anymore, you know, but whatever you are, whatever it is, you know, you're do your own thing, you know. Which opens up all new avenues too. It's like, well, here's what I want to do. And now you're not really supposed to question that stuff.

And that's good. That's fine. That's positive. You know, it's like whatever. And I've always said that I'm like, whatever you're into be into as long as nobody else is getting injured in the process.

As long as it's all on good terms, go do your thing. And who cares? Like, yeah, again, I'm okay with that happening in society, but there are still people that want to fight it tooth and nail. That's right. That's right.

And really, it's become like a new thing to be hate-crimed over. So, you know, because you can't hate-crime somebody because of their sexual orientation because you're an asshole. You got stupid ears on, though. I'm going to beat your ass. Yeah.

You know, it's not a sink. It's a frontier that has not been. Shamed yet, you know, and everything. So, yes. Can't we all just get along?

They could do a version of the crow for the furry community called the squirrel. All I know is That squirrel sat there for like 10 minutes. I was getting to be kind of convinced he was there to take me on a journey. So the fact that I'm talking to you now is surprising because I assumed I was going to be going off with that squirrel yesterday. That's right.

So there you go. Some people say when something really, really lame happens, a squirrel will bring you back. When your life is really, really lame, a squirrel will show up and just kind of sit there and laugh at you. You're like, what an idiot. You just watched a movie and you're making a breakfast burrito.

What a doofus you are. The squirrel laughed and ran off. Oh my gosh. That's a great alternate universe of the crow. Yeah, I think that would totally work, man.

I think you could do anything. There you go. So that's what I was thinking as I was having my conversation with the squirrel like Sarah. Awesome, dude. Well, we have definitely addressed both crows and other side crow avenues.

Yep. Many facets in this. There was more there than I expected, so good. for that movie for sort of stepping up to do something. Different absolutely i think i think we've actually given uh this reboot and the crow franchise a fair shake of analysis and you know fandom geekery so i mean i think that's uh I think we got more I got more out of this than I thought we would I mean I liked it. More than I expected in the theater but yeah I kind of have way more appreciation for it now just having this conversation movies.

Are the experience but equal part of a movie is the discussion of the movie so. For me geeks that we are that's yeah That's the thing. It's a bad movie. The regular people of the world just watch something and glosses over them and they go on and have the rest of their normal ass day. Geeks, that's just the first step.

You watched it. Oh, I watched it. Now, who can I talk about with it? Who's going to dive into this with me? Absolutely.

We don't have much of a community. But when we have it, we have it you know it's like exactly we're a broken bunch of dorks but when we get together and we find the things that we both appreciate like you just. Dive in and yeah absolutely that's absolutely world it's it's it's it's a very important then it's then it's not uh consumerism it's culture if you can have a discussion about it you know so you know, a really bad movie is one where you really just don't really have anything to say about, you know, even if it's a bad movie, if you've got nothing really to talk about afterwards, then it is a disposable snicker bar. And so this, this movie is. Even better, like well-made movies, but just don't offer anything different one way or the other.

I'm just kind of like, yeah, it was good. It's just like, yeah. If, if, if the discussion was, if the full discussion of the movie was, oh, that was good. You know, like, like if it was like a Bruckheimer movie, like, you know, that's good. Yeah.

Yeah. They made a movie. All right. They sure did. And I really, I really forgot.

I was, I, I really, uh, was not thinking about my problems for 90 minutes and it was loud. And then, but the day, and it was, I was, but I was glad to be out of it. I was glad I was glad to be there and I was glad when it was over now I've got. Other things to do so I'm stopping this movie and moving on with. My life right right but if that's your discussion of the movie then you know it's not I don't know it doesn't say much for the movie but you know the fact that we can sit and take this you know crow remake and actually get something out of it and actually have a real conversation about it I mean for me you know that makes a good movie so.

Yeah definitely So I don't curse your name for suggesting this as a topic. Well, I thought it was very important. When I was walking into the theater, it was still up in the air. But as it turns out, we had a good episode and we saw a nice movie. So there you go.

That's it. That's it, man. That's it. What more can you get out of life, you know? I mean, I think this was good.

I think it was good. Awesome. Well, thank you for coming along on this journey. Yeah. Thank you for listening out there.

If anyone made it through this, hopefully you appreciate this kind of geek talk too. So this is, this is what keeps us coming back. So that's it. All right. Good.

All right. Otherwise that about does it. We will return next time. Same geek feed. Thanks for listening.

Bye y'all. As a crow flies. Strike to her. Why tell her something He has already. Done to her.

Time flies as a crow flies in a straight line through you not around you your life is only that with which. Has its way with you. Hit the corner, weight the tail, pick the torer Rain, rain, through the arms Swing blade, underwater Run! Me! Run!

Me! Like go! Me! Yeah. Am I going to like, you know, is this going to be like hallowed?

This is going to like, Am I going to dress up as... Am I going to give myself a bad haircut? Are you going to get Sharpie and draw a whole bunch of weird ass tattoos on yourself? Absolutely. I'm probably not going to do that.

I mean, I'm not. This Halloween is going to be such a letdown when I don't see those photos. I mean, everybody already looks like the crows. Except they have ears and a tail. The squirrel.

The squirrel. I've got to get this going. If next time I see a picture of you, you're wearing squirrel ears, I'm going like, oh, he's out. See, I'm not going to bother. I'm going to do the crow style, so it's just me with a squirrel on my shoulder as I'm walking around.

I've got vengeance on my mind, like always, and I'll just happen to have a squirrel on my shoulder. You've got the marker, but it's drawn like the squirrel mouth. Just got little squirrel teeth. You got butt teeth. Just carrying an.

Acorn around for no good reason. Carrying an acorn. Throw acorns at people. I don't know. Ha ha!

Take that! My vengeance! Ridiculous. Ridiculous. They're just like, oh God.

There's that weird squirrel guy again. Stay away from him. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown. Produced and edited by The Oddity Studios. With opening music performed by The Empires.

For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard! This program is a proud member of the Battleship Pretension Fleet.