Transcript

Intro Clip

So, uh, so how's the family, man? Oh, you didn't know? Of course you don't know. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my parents are divorced. They got divorced? Yeah, my dad's shacking up with this woman. She's like 20 years younger than him. She's like a biscuit older than me. It's ugly. My mom's making ceramic nightlights. Takes like the plane shells and paints them. How's your sister? Did she ever marry that guy Kenny? Kenny? Yeah, I mean, did that ever work out? Come on, man. He did 3 years at Joliet. They put one of those bracelets on him, like a LoJack, you know? They know where he is at all times. I think he's at Pizza Hut right now. Let's not go there. No, we won't. Yeah. Yeah. So you look good. You seem good. Thank you. You may have, uh— 10 years, man! 10! Where have you been for 10 years? I freaked out, joined the Army, went into business for myself. I'm a professional killer. Oh, does that— do you have to do postgraduate work for that, or can you jump right in? I'm curious about that. It's an open market. Open market. That's good. Wow. 10 years, man! 10, 10 years. 10 years. 10, 10 years. 10 years. I freaked out. I joined the Army. I worked for the government. I went into business with myself. I'm a professional killer. That's what I did. Okay, well, can I join up? Yes.

Steve

It's 2 Dads 1 Movie. It's the podcast where 2 middle-aged dads sit around and shoot the shit about the movies of the '80s and '90s. Here are your hosts, Steve Paulo And Nic Briana. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of 2 Dads, 1 Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

And today we're talking about the 1997 John Cusack crime action comedy romance, Grosse Pointe Blank. This one was my pick for us, uh, the last of our picks before we get into our theme months, which is going to be a lot of excitement and stuff.

Nic

Yeah, I can't wait.

Steve

I mean, it's gonna be great. I just love the idea.

Nic

I do like freelance time. There is freestyling. It's been fun these last Couple months, you know?

Steve

I've noticed a lot of my picks that we were talking about before the pod, like a lot of my picks, boy, I'm kind of hitting Steve's greatest hits. And I seem to love everything I'm bringing because it's like you go from 2 Dads 2 Decades and, you know, Shocktoberfest is coming. And so in between it's like, oh, I got to jam in a couple of these ones I've been really meaning to do.

Nic

Totally. And like for every movie that we pick, I'm sure this happens for you, there's 15 other ones that I like wanted to also put in that place.

Steve

100%.

Nic

So yeah, this has been really fun.

Steve

Yeah, so, but before we get to next week and the start of October, we've got one more movie to do. We're doing Grosse Pointe Blank. For my part, this is actually, this movie actually holds like a pretty fun kind of part of my memory. So this came out in spring of '97. We were juniors in high school.

Nic

Mm-hmm.

Steve

I took a girl to this movie like as a date. She was my date to junior prom. She was actually a year behind us. You know, it was just like the kind of thing where I thought we were, more than just friends, which she didn't. But she was very cool about it, so we stayed friends through high school, even though I was trying to date her, and she was like, you're really nice. And it's OK, I get it. Not everybody's for everybody. But it was a really great time. We both loved this movie. It was a good movie to go see on a date and then go get coffee after and just talk about, because there was so much to talk about. And it was like a romance without too much, um... It wasn't like—.

Nic

It's not a sappy romance.

Steve

That, and it's not fucking Basic Instinct. I didn't take her to an erotic thriller that you get hella uncomfortable. You know what I mean? It was like the right tone, I think. I think for like teenagers on a date.

Nic

No beaver flashes.

Steve

Yeah, nothing, nothing too wild. So, uh, so yeah, so my history with Grosse Pointe Blank is that. And then this is also a movie that I, I have this— to me, there's in my mind this, um, this pair of movies that, that really interact with each other in John Cusack's history. Maybe it's even 3, but the music thing kind of seals it as 2. This movie and, uh, High Fidelity were like hugely impactful to me, uh, from like a music standpoint and from just like storytelling and stuff through college. Both movies that I absolutely adore, and the soundtrack on this is like legendary.

Nic

Impactable.

Steve

It's great. So that's my history with Gross Point Blank. What about you, Nick?

Nic

Yeah, I saw this when this was out in the theaters, and I feel like this was at— I don't know what your memory is like. I feel like this was at the Crow Canyon Theater.

Steve

It sounds right to me.

Nic

Not at the theater that I worked at, because I would have seen it a lot more. Right, there you go. Because even just like going in to like check on things, you know, and catching a song or two, like there's so many good things in this movie. So I believe I saw it in the theater there, and then again on video. And then it kind of dropped out of my memory for a long time. Like, this isn't a movie that kind of like bubbles back up to the surface when Netflix releases a new string of movies from the '90s or whatever. Like, you just don't see it promoted that much.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So it kind of dropped out of my mind and I didn't think much about it. I do listen to the songs a lot and I still have my CDs. Shout out physical media. And I got both volumes of the soundtrack back in the day. They released a second volume after the fact. Probably could have released a third. Might have been clearance issues with a couple of the bigger songs. But yeah, this movie I remember liking at the time, and I was really excited that you picked it because I haven't seen it in a while. And I'm like, dude, was I just like 17 and the stuff I thought was cool back then is no longer cool to me? Or is this a fucking classic? Yeah, John Cusack's the man. We'll find out.

Steve

We'll get into it for sure. I will say too, this is a movie— or the soundtrack of this movie Really suffers, as many do from this era, from not really being on streaming because the way that the rights clearance work. Yeah, you know, there are these soundtracks like this, like Dazed and Confused. There's a bunch of movies that had really impeccable, crazy good soundtracks, but you can't find that album, that like OST album, on like Spotify or Apple Music or whatever because of rights clearances and these different things. So if you don't have a physical copy of this soundtrack, there's a song in particular that I will point out partway through the movie because it is my favorite song on the soundtrack, and it is not, as far as I can tell, Available on any streaming service I have had access to, and it cannot wait.

Nic

So we'll get to that before listening to like the soundtrack playlist is just kind of a bummer. Like we seriously were listening to this last night because my wife and I watched this movie together a couple days ago, so we're into it, and it was like it's not it's not same.

Steve

Yeah, because usually it's like it's it's like whatever particular recording or version the music supervisor chose to put into the movie is not is not always the like album cut. Right. From that artist, right? You know, so it may not be a version that's easy to find as well. Yeah. And that's the thing I think maybe is what it is, that I have never been able to find this version of this song, which I'm continuing to tease, uh, uh, on, on streaming. But, but we'll see.

Nic

Heck yeah.

Steve

Uh, let's jump into the facts on Grosse Pointe Blank. The film came out on April 11th, 1997 with an R rating and a running time of 107 minutes. It was directed by George Armitage and written by Tom Jankovich, D.V. De Vincentis, Steve Pink, and John Cusack. Starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, and Dan Aykroyd. Scores on Rotten Tomatoes, 82%. Nice and solid. IMDb, a 7.3, right in that good category. We get a thumbs up from Roger Ebert, but this was at the point where Gene Siskel was not reviewing everything. We don't have a thumb either direction. We have just a— just getting fisted.

Nic

Just a closed fist. Siskel fist.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So we got Siskel fist.

Steve

We got nothing either way. No major awards that I could find. There was, there was a handful of sort of critics awards and things, but nothing major. On a $15 million budget, it pulled in $31.1 million at the box office. At least $20-ish of that was mine, uh, for 2.1 times what it cost. Uh, but yeah, those are the facts on Grosse Pointe Blank.

Nic

All right, well, Steve, you want to, you want to start us off? How do we get into the Grosse Pointe Blank universe?

Steve

We start off on Martin Blank. He is on the phone, he is assembling a rifle, and he clearly is in like a hotel room. Um, in my mind, this is in San Francisco, but I don't know that we get a deliv— an explicit like, thing that that's where we are. But it's like the hill and the way that the hotel— you know, it's almost like could have been outside the Sir Francis Drake or something, or, or, you know, something similar. But basically, uh, he's on the phone talking to his assistant but also preparing to foil a hit, right? Which is an interesting thing. So he's a hitman, he's a hired killer, but the person that he has been hired to kill in this particular instance is a man who has been hired to kill someone else, right? Doesn't always work out that way, but that was, that was sort of the way that this worked out. So it's this really great scene. I love when he is like training, you know, he sees the, the would-be assassin coming down the hill on a bicycle as the target for that person is stepping out of a hotel across the street from him. And the way that he like looks out one window and like tracks the man's speed, and then as he gets to the other window where he couldn't possibly see him for a while, he's immediately lined right up on it. It's such a neat little detail.

Nic

They, they did a lot to show his like crazy expertise. So much competence.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Uh, yeah. And then I do want to point out, as we will throughout this movie, I mean, it starts off with a banger music-wise, like a Black Sleen, is that I Can See Clearly Another Day. Rain is gone. Not the Brady Bunch version, so nobody's going, sunshiny day now, but, uh, great song to kick it off.

Steve

Missed opportunity though on that Brady Bunch thing.

Nic

I know, an all Brady Bunch soundtrack on a non-Brady Bunch movie.

Steve

Brady Bunch covering Violent Femmes. Let's do that. Like, blister in the sun, let me go out.

Nic

Greg Brady, definitely lots of blisters in the sun once he got his own bedroom. Um, so during this time that, that Marty is, uh, he's like watching the guy, he's trying to take out this assassin, he's on the phone with his secretary, played by Joan Cusack. Unbelievable in this movie.

Steve

So amazing.

Nic

She is just Robert Orie, just like hitting 3s at the correct times throughout this film. And, uh, and she's kind of like going through his mail with like— it's very funny, they go between very serious life and death situations and Oh, here's some junk mail that came for you, right?

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

And, uh, so he gets an invitation to his 10th, uh, his 10th high school reunion.

Steve

Yeah. And it's— and I just want to like pause for a second here because I think it bears mentioning or pointing out, or like, just the premise of this movie is so solid gold brilliant.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Like, just the idea, what if a hitman went to his 10-year high school reunion? That's all it takes. That's, that's the elevator pitch that I bet sold this movie.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

That's all it took because that is such a cool concept. It had never been done to this point. It can never be done again because it'll just be like, well, that's Grosse Pointe Blank. Like, you know, even if you, you know, made the character's wound different and put it in a different place and like all this stuff, it wouldn't matter. You could do this movie again and just shift all the music to like, at this point, you know, the, the teens or whatever.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Or whatever. It's kind of a different time, but it wouldn't make any sense. The, the, the brilliance of this is its simplicity. So yeah, and we get it right away because we immediately know this man's a hired killer, or at least I mean, look, he's wearing all black and he's firing from a hotel room. He's clearly an assassin, right? And then he's on the phone about this thing. So it's like immediately we understand what this movie's about, which is so great.

Nic

Gets right into it.

Steve

This is not get them to the mall within 10 minutes, mall rats thing. This is like, we know within 10 seconds what this movie is about in a lot of ways. But Martin has a problem, which is that as he, you know, and he literally tells his secretary, hold on a second, like I'm working or whatever, you know? He shoots the would-be assassin, the man he's been hired to kill, and the bodyguards for that person's target join in and are bang, bang, bang, bang. So there's a whole bunch of mess on the street, but Martin's done his job. Problem for him is dressed as a doorman just behind a column near the front of the hotel is sort of the second male lead, the third lead of this movie, Dan Aykroyd, playing a character we know only as Grocer. And he has a couple of very large hand cannons, like big, Magnum revolvers. Yeah, double guns, everybody. He shoots everybody, makes sure he empties the clips completely, whatever, throws the guns down, like just leave the murder weapons, and heads off. I mean, this is like, you know, no fuss, no muss kind of thing. Yeah. So yeah, and which Martin witnesses and is like, Goddamn.

Nic

And he's just like, ah, son of a bitch. Like, so he ends up meeting— he goes out like to, you know, parks his car in this remote area or whatever outside the city, and he meets the Dan Aykroyd character, Grocer, that he wanted to meet. And whenever they meet each other, it's funny because like 2 professional killers meeting each other who know how the game works, yes, are like extra cautious, and they play it so hilariously in this. It's like they're mirroring each other.

Steve

Well, it's this combination of like, I'm gonna keep my hands where you can see them so that you keep your hands where I can see them, but I'm also going to have my hands in the position where if you try to fucking do something, I'm gonna be able to reach my gun or knife or whatever. And so this— yeah, this is very, uh, stilted sort of movement that they—.

Nic

Yeah, and like the ends of their fingers are always twitching a little, you know, like a— like an Old West, uh, cowboy about to like reach for his revolver, you know.

Steve

Um, every day is the O.K. Corral.

Nic

Oh man. Uh, so, so it's really great. And the thing that Grosser brings up in this is like, hey, you know, shit like yesterday happens because we're not coordinated. He's kind of trying to get— yeah, uh, Marty and these other assassins, you know, the guys that have the similar job, to like unionize in effect, or just kind of, hey, we gotta work together, like, what's going on here?

Steve

Right, and he points out like this specifically, right? He's like, I got booked to do the opposite of the job you got booked to do. If, if, if we had been working together, we could have like made sure nobody did that second job, or vice versa, whatever it is, whichever, you know, in his mind, I'm sure whichever one paid better, make sure that one gets done. Um, and, and, you know, Marty is basically just like, no, I, I, the whole point of this life is to not fucking I can't trust anybody. And don't want to. I like— like, the lone wolf is like the whole point. Like, I don't want to fucking deal with anyone. I don't go to meetings. I don't want a union. I don't want fucking healthcare. Like, fuck off.

Nic

Yeah. If I liked barbecues and stuff, like, I would work in insurance. Like, I do this because— so, so he doesn't want to do it. And then so he's kind of back and forth on the phone now with his secretary. What's her character's name again?

Steve

Marcella, I think. I can't remember now. I always think of her as just Joan Cusack.

Nic

All right, we'll use it. We respect you, Joan. Has nothing, nothing against you. And you know they're kind of talking again about this ten-year reunion, and he asked her, he's like, "Well, did you go to yours?" And she was like, "Yeah, it was just as if everyone had swelled." Yeah, she has some really funny lines. She really does.

Steve

It's really good stuff. But but he basically says, "Don't tell me. Don't talk to me about the skin. Burn it, right?" Yeah. And and now he's got another job to do. So we kind of cut to like an indeterminate amount of time later, and this is such a neat thing. He's got this. Uh, sort of like a, like a, uh, honestly, it's the kind of scope they'd use maybe on like a colonoscopy, like a really tiny camera on a huge, you know, like thing that he's able to drop down like through ventilation into a guy's hotel room where he's sleeping so that he can see really close to the man's mouth. And then this like long wire and this like poison basically. And it's like, and it's so cool. It's like a—.

Nic

The way it plunges down the wire. Yeah, it's neat. It's a great— and I have never seen this in another movie, and I've watched a million movies with shit like this, you know. So shout out, like, every time you see that happen, you're like, hell yeah.

Steve

There are so many. And there's other little— there's so many little things this movie does right that I don't know if they're right. Like, I don't know if anybody would ever try to kill someone this way. Obviously, I'm not— I don't know. But it seems plausible and it's unique and I haven't seen it before. So it like totally checks all the boxes, you know? It's really cool. Unfortunately for him, his target like sort of snorts and moves his face to the side as soon as that poison drops. So now it drops on his face. It wakes him up. He has to run downstairs. Kick in the door and shoot the guy. And he kind of shoots him in the stomach first and then goes to finish it off. And the guy says, you know what, whatever, whatever I did that you want, or whatever I'm doing you want me not to do, I'll stop doing. And he goes, it's not me. And this is the first of like, I think, 3 different runners, at least 2 different runners. It's not me is a big one.

Nic

Mm.

Steve

Uh, and then I think the other one we'll see later, but the, you know, hey, you're a handsome devil, what's your name? Like, right? And I love these callbacks and runners that the writers do in this movie. Um, this really is like, I'm I'm going to be saying it the entire episode. Just get used to it. This is one of the best screenplays of a movie we've watched. I can't believe that it didn't get any sort of awards activity. It's because it's a— it's because it's an action comedy. Yeah, it's not in the right tenor or genre for a lot of the like writing awards that are out there. But I thought that the screenplay for this, I could tell just by watching it like how well put together it is. Like the way that they do callbacks, the way that they refer to things throughout, the way they set things up and pay them off is all like so incredibly clean. It's like really Really impressive, and that's the first of that runner.

Nic

Yeah, it's it's weird. It might be you know another symptom of how were we supposed to market this movie? Like we talked about with Princess Bride, where it's like it's great looking back at it, but at that time, like it's so different. How do you even push it? Yeah, I mean, they should have fucking figured it out.

Steve

I remember the way they advertised this movie. They advertised it as a romantic comedy action. So it was like I think their whole idea and how they tried to market it was. Guys who like action movies, bring your girl who likes rom-coms and you'll both enjoy something. That was sort of how they— and it's really, that's kind of the only angle you could take on it.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

I just don't know that there's really an audience looking for that.

Nic

But they don't treat that like— yeah, yeah, totally.

Steve

Yeah. I think they were aiming at people that don't really exist and are not looking for that kind of movie. They'll either go to the romantic comedy or they'll go to the action movie.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

They don't really care about the middle.

Nic

Don't make the compromise movie. The point of going to a movie is one person hates it.

Steve

Yeah, right, exactly. It's the only way it works, people.

Nic

Um, um, so he, uh, so Marty, he finds out that his next job here—.

Steve

He goes back, he goes back to the office, and, and Marcela, I think is her name, like, is, is like worried because she's like, dude, they're pissed. Like, this was supposed to look like— Yeah, he was supposed to die in his sleep. Now he's died from gunshot wounds. Like, like, this is— they're pissed and they think you owe them. And he's kind of like, okay, fine, whatever. And she's like, where's the job? And this is when she's like, I'm feeling sort of a Black Cat Friday the 13th, like, thing about this one, you know?

Nic

That's right.

Steve

And it's— he has to go to Detroit, and that's his, his alma mater, his— where he grew up. Was in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, which is sort of a ritzy, sort of nice suburb of Detroit. And so she's like, hey, you can go this weekend, you can do this job, and then you can go to your reunion. And he is like pissed, doesn't want to do it, you know, but like obviously takes the job because he owes these people. You know, he doesn't want— whatever group hires you to kill other people, you don't really want to piss that group off.

Nic

Yeah, it seems like you probably want to stay in their good graces, whether or not you feel good about your job.

Steve

Yeah, exactly.

Nic

Yeah, so then we have Marty sitting on a therapist's couch, And kind of he's, he's letting off about it. And we see the therapist, Alan Arkin, who— so once again, I mean, this should be a hashtag, #WPA, well-placed Arkin. They just, they just put Arkin in the right spot here. But it's funny because Marty's talking for a while and then the first thing the therapist says is like, I told you I can't work with— like, you are not my patient.

Steve

The funniest thing to me is that the actual very first thing we see Dr. Oatman do, that's Alan Arkin's character, is he is praying the rosary. He's holding a rosary and going bead by bead. So he's doing his Hail Marys and his Our Fathers. Because he's so scared of Martin. Uh, and, and there's a very funny exchange here where it's like, yeah, it's like, you know, he says like, like, Martin, like, you know, you don't— you're not my patient. You just keep showing up at the same time and this doesn't work for me. And he goes, what are you talking about? Like, I came to you, like, you know, I needed help. And he goes, I told you what I did. And he goes, you told me what you did after 4 sessions. And I told you I'm not comfortable, like, working with you. I don't work with you.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And he goes like, you know, Martin says something about like, well, you know, but you're gonna keep working with me. He's like, I know where you live. And I love Arkin's response is, that wasn't nice. That wasn't designed to make me feel good. Like, it's like such very therapist speak, but it's like also true. Like, that was definitely a threat. Yeah.

Nic

And Mars is like, you know, he's like, what do you think's wrong with me? He's like, I don't know. Do you think you possibly might have angst over killing a lot of people? And he's like, no, that's not it. I mean, like, what do we do in therapy? Can we talk about my dreams?

Steve

And that's actually, that's the other, that's the third runner I forgot about. It's the, no, if I show up at your doorstep, you did something to bring me there. He says that several times in different contexts as well. But yeah, then he goes like, yeah, I had this dream where I'm that pink bunny, you know, in a commercial with the batteries. I go, the battery bunny? Yeah, yeah. What do you think of that? It's a terrible dream. It's a horrible— it's an inanimate object. It has no anima. It has no life force. Like, it's a terrible dream, Martin.

Nic

Um, so, uh, so he's off now, right? And he's off to Grosse Pointe.

Steve

I think Oaken tells him like, yeah, go to the reunion, try not to kill anybody for a weekend, see how it feels.

Nic

Right, that's right. So I'm going to hang out at the reunion and then I'm going to go do my job after that's all done. I got to say, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, beautiful.

Steve

Gorgeous. Lovely little downtown.

Nic

My, my college girlfriend Nicole, who I'm still in touch with, is still a friend. She lives there with her family now. So good for her.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

What a place there to live. So as we're going into town, we've got the radio voice, you know, he's listening to the radio and the first song she's— first she's shouting out the previous songs that had played.

Steve

Yeah. Great. Yes.

Nic

Because I was so excited at the time that she shouted out more Oh, and Massive Attack as well. Yeah, I wrote Massive Attack and Morphine here. I was like, fuck yeah. Um, because I loved Morphine at the time and they never got any, uh, they never really broke, did they? No, never got any play. And then that guy died in like the late '90s. Um, but Rudy Can't Fail coming on. I read that, uh, Joe Strummer was involved with like the music, uh, the composition for this movie.

Steve

Nice.

Nic

Which makes sense. And it's cool that, you know, we've got a few good Clash songs in here, but God, all these songs are just so amazing. Oh man.

Steve

Yeah, Rudy Can't Fail is definitely a favorite. I remember from like the soundtrack, like it was just, uh, drinking brew for breakfast. There's something about that line that like as a 17-year-old, it's like, yeah, fuck yeah, man. Counterculture, baby.

Nic

Like, and as a 17-year-old, everything like that you listen to, you're like, they're talking about it because it's cool.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And this is not a sad situation.

Steve

I'm the same way. I definitely, as, as a, as a Northern California suburbanite, I definitely like understand the plight of the inner city London teen that's Joe Strummer was really singing to.

Nic

Like, yeah, I'm a rude boy getting in fights with Nazis in my job at Pacific Sunwear.

Steve

Elmer's glue in my mohawk.

Nic

Like, uh, so, so he's going into town and like this voice on the radio, this is Minnie Driver's character Debbie. Debbie. And, uh, she looks great. She is just fantastic.

Steve

Between this and Good Will Hunting, she was definitely like a, a, a banger in that era for sure.

Nic

This was her like like ultra peak, her like Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez, like 4-year peak. Uh, so Marty, one of the places he goes, he goes to like see his old school.

Steve

Yeah, Pointe Cy.

Nic

And he, uh, and he runs into an old English teacher. And like based on this conversation you can have, you can tell he was just an incredibly bright student and stuff. And she was, you know—.

Steve

This is another thing where it's like the, the, the, the information they're giving us about Martin and where he came from and who he was is so loaded with subtext.

Nic

Right?

Steve

Nobody, you know, she's not saying exactly what she's thinking. She's just saying like, oh, you fooled us all in the teachers' pool. We thought Harvard, Yale would happen. So it's like she doesn't have to say, oh, you were such a good student.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Where'd you go to college? Like, that would've been the kind of crappier way to sort of get the same information.

Nic

For sure.

Steve

The way they did this was so wonderful. And there's this undercurrent of like, it's not disrespect, but there's something underneath with the two of them where it's almost like she's so shocked that he even showed up. That it's sort of like she doesn't really know what to say. There's— it's a really wonderful dynamic between these 2 actors.

Nic

Yeah, I like this interaction. It was, it was really nice. Um, and, uh, and Marty— so he's been gone for 10 years. Like, he's not— and not— no contact with anybody, just disappeared for 10 years.

Steve

We get very clearly understood that it's 10 years a little later.

Nic

Uh, he goes to check out his old house. So as he departs from the teacher, he says, oh, I'm actually gonna go check out my old house.

Steve

Yeah. And she kind of hints at like, oh, are you?

Nic

Like, okay, okay, take care.

Steve

I don't care.

Nic

And when he goes by and sees it, it has become an Ultramart.

Steve

Ultimart.

Nic

Ultimart.

Steve

Like ultimate, but Ultimart.

Nic

Nice. So this 7-Eleven-style convenience store in there.

Steve

And while he's pulling up to the Ultimart, the song Live and Let Die, the Guns N' Roses version, is playing over the soundtrack. This is not diegetic at this point. It's just on the soundtrack, right? But as he walks into and the scene cuts to the interior of Ultimart, one of my favorite transitions in movie history is that Live and Let Die is then playing as muzak inside the Ultimart, and it is brilliant. It's just like, it's so perfect. And so just, dun dun dun dun dun dun.

Nic

And it's so much quieter that like, you know, it'd be easy to miss.

Steve

No lyrics, right?

Nic

No vocals. Yeah. And it's just just— it is— it's perfect.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And it's one of those details in this movie where it's like they really paid attention to things and like took every opportunity for— to like make something fit and to make something better.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And, uh, yeah, this is a great example of it. So Marty goes into this convenience store and he's kind of like mad at the cashier, like, what the fuck? What are you doing here?

Steve

He's like, what?

Nic

This should be my bedroom.

Steve

It's crazy. Sage, what are you doing here? The kid's like, I'm on a shift. Like, what do you— I work here. What do you mean? What are you doing here, customer? And he's like, no, no, but what are, what are you doing here? Like, what— why are you here? Yeah, he's so confused.

Nic

You as representative of the Ultimart.

Steve

Why is the Ultimart Corporation in my old home?

Nic

Like, yeah, the guy's like, I don't know, I've worked here for 2 months.

Steve

Right, like, fuck off.

Nic

Uh, so, so that's a great, uh, that's a great realization there. And then kind of the one of the last connections to town before he starts meeting his classmates is he goes to visit his mom.

Steve

Yeah, who's clearly in some kind of sanatorium. Yeah, something.

Nic

Yeah. And like, he's asking her, he's just like, hey, what happened to the house? What happened to all the money that I've been sending you? She's just like, they stole it. But his mom also clearly has dementia, so it's like she could have spent it, she could have been lying, she could be just super confused.

Steve

I don't even think she's old enough for dementia. She must have something specific going on. There's something— because it's just like, she doesn't even seem that old, you know what I mean? He's like 28. Yeah, she can't be older than her 50s, most likely.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

So dementia is probably not it, but she's got something that— yeah, she has had a psychotic break or like something really bad, and she's been— she's convalesced, you know, she's been committed. And so he tries to like talk to her, and she is just like not really responding to him per se. And then the nurse comes and like has to take her somewhere, like, so she gets in a wheelchair and they start pulling off. And, and he's like gonna ask another question, but as she just turned around to face him, she sort of pulls her hair up and goes, like, you're a handsome devil, what's your name? And it's like, uh, Martin. Martin. Oh, you know, it's like— and it's just like, fuck, man, she doesn't even remember 2 seconds ago that I was here.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Like, there's no— there's no getting information out of her.

Nic

No. Goldfish— goldfish memory.

Steve

Yep.

Nic

Uh, yeah, so that really sucks, but at least he's got his dad.

Steve

Oops.

Nic

So it shows Martin, uh, going to visit a cemetery, and there's the grave that's clearly his father's grave. Uh, he pulls out a bottle of scotch. You think, ah, you have a nice drink at your dad's grave. And he just dumps it, pours it out for him all over the entire thing. He doesn't understand the concept of pouring out a sip.

Steve

It's pouring one out, I believe, is the term. Pour one out.

Nic

Yeah, I think you pour a sip like with a 40. You pour a sip on the concrete for the deceased, right?

Steve

That's what I'm saying. You pour one out. So not all of them. He's like, one, one swallow, one drink, one, one share is all you need to pour out. You don't need to pour out the whole bottle. But he does.

Nic

But we find— I think we find out throughout this movie that Marty, he doesn't drink. He's always ordering club soda and stuff. So that could also be something about how his dad died. Like, we don't find out a lot about this. No, but dad was an alcoholic or whatever.

Steve

But I think that the, the years on the tombstone make it clear he only lived— he died young, in like his 40s or something. Like, he was a young man.

Nic

So, uh, and he died during the time that Martin has been gone.

Steve

Is that right?

Nic

I think so.

Steve

Okay. Yeah, yeah, I couldn't— I can't remember now exactly what it said, but yeah, it basically was, was, yeah, It's clear why he wouldn't drink.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Like, I think it's pretty obvious. Like, he is so focused on staying operationally aware wherever he is that like any amount of alcohol is gonna, you know, turn that off a little bit. So that part makes sense. But an additional thing of, yeah, did his father die of alcoholism or something, right? That would double that up and make it even clearer. So, but yeah, so then he decides to go back to visit Debbie again at the radio station. And so she's on the air. And this is the part with, with the song, the song I love that is hard to find. So it's specifically this version from The Specials of Pressure Drop. Pressure Drop's been done several times by several different bands. I think there's a Toots and the Maytals version. I think there's like a bunch of different ones, but this is The Specials doing it. And it is my favorite version of Pressure Drop. And I cannot find it anywhere on Spotify, on Apple Music or whatever, this particular recording of Pressure Drop. Okay. And it is one of my favorite songs on this soundtrack, if not My favorite song on this soundtrack, and it is not.

Nic

I tell you what, Steve, I'll burn you a CD.

Steve

Please, please, because I love this version of this.

Nic

I will be with it today. I will get my CDs.

Steve

Rock and roll, man. I don't even know if I have a CD player anymore. I'm gonna throw it.

Nic

Doesn't matter. You could spin it around on your finger.

Steve

Maybe you can. Can you just like rip it to MP? You know what? I'll figure it out. I'm like, I need like an MP3 of it these days.

Nic

Steve, don't ask me tech stuff. I don't even understand this thing I'm talking into right now. Well, that's fair.

Steve

That's a good point. You really don't. It's frightening, people. He really doesn't.

Nic

This interaction, uh, that he has with Debbie is so good.

Steve

It's so good.

Nic

And she's like— so he's sitting down, he's like, hey, I want to talk to you. And she's like, yeah, talk, and shoving the microphone in his face like, you're gonna do this shit, right? So he stood her up. He— they dated in high school and he stood her up on prom night.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And not only stood her up, like skipped town for 10 full years.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Like just completely vanished.

Steve

Yeah. And this is what I think maybe the first time, maybe, uh, of the people in town that he tells the reality of what he did. Like, he does not lie to these people what he does for a living. Nobody believes him.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

But he says like, I, I, I freaked out, I joined the army, you know, stuff happened, went places, work for myself now, I'm a professional killer. Yep. And she's like, you know, I don't know which joke— everybody has some joke. Do you get dental with that? Oh, that's a growth industry. Like there's all these little jokes that they sort of throw in. I don't remember which one she gives him, but it's, it's, it's— she doesn't, you know, nobody believes— it's the kind of thing people joke about. Yeah, right. And so nobody believes him, but he's trying to be so honest To all these people from his past.

Nic

Yeah, and it's like throughout the movie, this was cracking us up. My daughter watched this with us too, and every time he mentioned the professional killer thing, she was dying. She's like, he's just telling everybody.

Steve

I'm like, he's telling him the truth.

Nic

This interaction though is, is excellent. And she's calling out to, okay listeners, what do you think of this situation? Call in, you know, and people are calling in. I love the small town radio station with the window right onto Main Street. I feel like What? My taxes can pay for that. The police can have one less tank and we can have a fucking Main Street radio station in the middle of the town. I want that so bad.

Steve

It's very cool. It's very Do the Right Thing, right?

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Senior Love Daddy. And, and it's— yeah, it's the kind of thing that is a quaint idea that was rare then and is impossible now because it's just there's no money in like radio the way—.

Nic

That tank is just sitting there. That tank doesn't need to run over all the homeless people. Sell the tank.

Steve

That's true. All right, we got to rework the city budget here. Um, but yeah, no, so she's just there and they get— they take some calls and it's basically people saying like, oh, I'd make him jump through some hoops because, you know, she tells people like, long lost, you know, the guy comes back after 10 years, like, what do I do?

Nic

Should I let him back? And everyone's like, no, fuck that.

Steve

And we get a call that'll come back later of a guy who identifies himself as Nathaniel, like, I don't hear a lot of remorse, Debbie. I think, you know, I'd make this guy like do some stuff, man. Like, he'll come back later, but yeah. So basically he does not want to talk, so he takes his headphones off and he's like, I'm not gonna talk. So is this when he goes to leave and then comes back in? No, he came back in. They make out at one point, which is very funny because it's like she obviously thought she'd never see him again, right? And then now here he is, and it's like the confusing emotions you must be feeling at that moment. Oh, for sure.

Nic

And I mean, especially like 10 years after high school, everyone still looks Looks the same. Like, you'd probably be more likely to have those feelings.

Steve

Sure.

Nic

If it was like 20 years, right? Like, what happened to your hair, you piece of shit? Um, and not that that's ever happened to me, uh, but Martin's like, can we get out of here? Can we go get a cup of coffee or something? Uh, when he goes to meet her, he's obviously very paranoid about not having his back to the wall. Like, he needs to be in the back corner. And like, you know, I'm, I'm kind of like that anyway. Imagine being a professional assassin. Like, you're definitely not gonna want to do that.

Steve

Yeah, for sure.

Nic

Um, let's see here.

Steve

So I think now he runs into another friend on the street.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

So this is Paul, played by Jeremy Piven.

Nic

Oh, right before Paul, we see— oh yeah, someone who looks so weird that you know they're coming up later. This guy looks like he— I— the only— I was calling him the fake face guy. Yeah, he looks like the Tim Robinson There's Too Much Fucking Shit on Me sketch. The Carl Havoc thing. Like, he, he looks like he just has a false face on.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And it's a very weird look. So he's a short guy with long hair who's like gonna come into play later, right before we meet Jeremy.

Steve

He looks very European.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

And at the same time that Martin notices him, he also clocks 2 guys who have been following him, a Black guy and a white guy. The white guy I know is Hank Azaria. I don't recognize the other actor, but they are— we're led to believe some kind of government agent, and they're following him as well. Uh, it turns out— I don't know when exactly in the story we get it, but basically Grocer tipped them off to the fact that Martin is here to kill somebody, so that when they follow him, witness him, let him do it, and then they can kill him, you know, sort of like for Grocer or something like that. But that way it's not really assassination. They can claim they did it, you know, the, the suspect died in trying to arrest him or something, right? Like that kind of thing. Shocker, cops lying. Um, but basically, like, he clocks them too, so now he's, he's on kind of high alert. And I think he even calls Marcel and is like, find out like who else is in town. Like, I've spotted 2 spooks and a ghoul, I think at some point he mentions, right? And, and, but then, then he bumps into Jeremy Piven, uh, Paul, his old buddy. And this is clearly like 2 people who were very close friends in high school, right? Like, this is clearly old buddies. But again, Martin hasn't seen anybody in 10 years. So, you know, he's like chatting and Paul's a real estate agent. He's like, hey, I gotta go show a house. You know, why don't you come with me, hang out? Uh, he makes a comment every time somebody drives something that's not American, because he always drives a Lincoln Town Car. That's the only car he drives. Grocer as well. Black Lincoln Town Cars. That's it. Apparently the choice vehicle according to this movie, like the most maneuverable car.

Nic

Seems like it's crazy the moves they pull.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

But yeah, if it's not a Detroit-built auto, yeah, exactly.

Steve

Isn't that sacrilege? Because Jeremy drives a BMW. Paul rather drives a BMW. They go off to check out this house. He's like milling about on the lawn while Paul shows the house to this couple. And this, I don't remember the name of the guy, but it's this this, uh, like really small, bald, meek-looking like security guard guy. Yeah, who like rolls up hella fast and it's like, hey, I've been seeing people on the street. Martin! Like, and he recognizes him, another guy from high school basically.

Nic

This guy is a funny character. And, and he's telling— Martin's asking him about his job, so he's like, he's like, so you're a cop? He's like, no, I'm not a cop. We're kind of private security for this neighborhood, so anyone who needs something done in this neighborhood. And he's like, can you carry a gun? Yeah, I carry a gun. Yeah, so you're authorized to just shoot and kill people? He's like, he's like, yeah. And Martin's like, that's a crazy job. How did you get it? He's like, well, they were hiring, plus it was only a 2-week course.

Steve

So it's ICE, basically. He's, uh, he's got the same training the ICE agents have.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

Yeah. But yeah, so it's funny, there's a line here where, uh, as, as Paul is like talking to the couple and they're getting ready to sort of leave, but they look like they really like the house. Yeah. Martin says something like, I've always felt very temporary about myself. But seeing the two of you here, like, if the time ever comes for me, and I hope it does, I want a house like this. I want a wife like you. It's just like very creepy. He's trying to be helpful and he's very bad at it.

Nic

That's a guy who spends all his time alone and like looking out hotel windows.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

Uh, one, uh, funny detail too about Paul. So as they're leaving there and Paul, uh, discloses that, oh, I was the realtor that sold your mom's house to Ultimart.

Steve

Well, Ultimart came with— I tried to get a family in there, but Ultimart made the best offer. Oh well, you got to do what you got to do. Like, um, and this is— and now they're driving down the street for a bit and, uh, smoking a joint. They're sharing a joint, or at least, uh, Paul is smoking it. Uh, and this is when he is just talking to Martin and then freaks out in the middle of his sentence and starts screaming, 10 years! Yeah, 10 years! 10 years! And like honking the horn and stuff. And then again, Martin's back to like like, I freaked out, I went in the Army, got into the CIA, now I work for myself, I'm a professional killer. And he goes, oh, do you get dental with that? Like, oh my God.

Nic

Oh man. Um, okay, so he's— is he going back into the Ultimart?

Steve

He goes back to the Ultimart. I don't even think we're really told why. Yeah, per se, but he goes back to the Ultimart, uh, and the kid is now not behind the counter anymore, he's playing the Doom 2 arcade game. Yeah, there in the corner and wearing a Detroit Red Wings hat.

Nic

Hockey gear.

Steve

Hockey gear. Hashtag hockey gear. Hockey A will be added to this one. But yeah, he goes there, and then as he's on the phone, I think with Dr. Oatman, just being like, Dr. Oatman, like, I'm not, you know— or no, no, this is when he calls Marcella to ask about the spooks and the ghoul, like find out who else is in town. He's on the phone with her as the ghoul, that weird-looking short European guy, comes barreling into the Ultimart carrying 2 Uzis and just starts spraying bullets at Martin everywhere. A huge gunfight ensues.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Uh, and I love this too. This is great, another great kind of music editing thing or sound editing thing where when we get the perspective of the kid, so we're either close up on his face or we see the Doom 2 game he's playing, we hear Ace of Spades by Motorhead, uh, playing, which is a great song, and playing in his headphones. And then when we cut out to the battle going on, the, the song is basically gone, or it's like, or it's very tiny in the background. So yeah, we get this like cut back and forth of like, we can tell the kid does not hear the gunfire. Because Motorhead is playing so loud in his headphones, which is like, I think, a little unrealistic, but that's okay, like, whatever, right? So there's this— it's a great cut back and forth and another great example of like the sound editing in this movie.

Nic

And this is good, you know, good action here. Good double gun, John Woo style, you know, diving around. Convenience store makes for a great set. Shit flying all over the place.

Steve

All the chips are getting blown up and the milk behind you and whatever.

Nic

Bags of chips blowing up. Give me that all day, dude.

Steve

Clerks could never.

Nic

So So the fake face guy manages to kind of get away. Yeah. And, and Marty's like, all right, I got to get out of here too. He notices that in the microwave there's like a brick of C4, you know, clearly rigged to explode. And so he grabs the kid and gets him out of there. Just, you know.

Steve

And I don't know how you would set that up. I don't know how you would set that up where the microwave counting down was somehow related to the timer of the thing. That was a little strange.

Nic

It seems like it would have to hit a certain temperature, right? So it wouldn't—.

Steve

Yeah. Yeah. But it was— it's good. It's cinematically good.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

It's not logical, but that's fine. But yeah, he actually runs out the door and then comes back and grabs the kid. This is sort of a Martin's not really a bad guy confirmation moment where he goes back for the kid and drags him out and blows up. And this is another, it's not me, 'cause the kid's like, what'd you do? He's like, it's not me. He's like, no, I gotta find another job.

Nic

I know, I love that the kid's reaction was that. Uh, one thing that would've been satisfying we didn't get here, and I get why because of the sequence of things, is the kid turning around and seeing like the destroyed store. Like, he doesn't have a moment to even notice that 'cause he goes straight from the video game like out into the field.

Steve

From his perspective, this guy showed up earlier in the day freaking out and like kind of talking crazy, and the next thing he— next time he sees him, he's pulling him out of the store right before it explodes. Right.

Nic

So nobody else around.

Steve

No one else there.

Nic

Okay, so this guy came to blow up the store he was mad at earlier.

Steve

Um, domestic terrorist.

Nic

So Debbie and, uh, and Martin are meeting at the Hippo Club.

Steve

Hippo Club.

Nic

Pretty cool looking place.

Steve

It looks a little tiki-ish maybe. I can't even really tell exactly what's going on in there, but yeah, the decor is a little a little nondescript.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

But yeah, he's— again, he's got a, you know, club soda or whatever, and she's, she's got a shot. And then they, they get interrupted as they're talking. And again, he— I think he's explaining to her like, I'm a killer, and she deflects, you know, whatever. But some other woman shows up, and this is the first time we see— we don't see very many until the reunion sequences— other women they went to school with. You see several of the guys. We see Paul, we see the security guard guy. Like, there's a couple, right? This woman, and later women we see who went to school with them, they all look way too old. It's something about the hair or the— what they're— the outfit they're wearing. They all look like they're in their 40s.

Nic

I know.

Steve

You're supposed to— like, 10-year reunion, you're 28.

Nic

It's our association with that look, though, with looking at people who are older.

Steve

But the guys don't look like that to me. Like, John Cusack and Minnie Driver doesn't look like that to me. Like, it's something about these other women in their class reunion grouping, and not even all of them, but just several of them have got these crazy, like, beehive haircuts. These very, like, '50s-looking crazy hairs. And it's like, you went to high school in the '80s and you're 28. 28 years old. This, this doesn't make any sense.

Nic

I know it does. I do feel I read them as, as older for sure. Uh, yeah, so yeah, and this lady is, is very, you know, classic irritating former classmate.

Steve

Spills a drink on them, like, yeah, yeah, all this stuff. So he goes to the bathroom just to like clean up, like wash his hands or whatever, because he's got like the liquor all over it. And he sees the 2, the 2 guys, the 2 feds basically are in there. And they have— first everybody acts like nobody knows who the other person is. But after he washes his hands and he's like drying them off, he goes— he like looks at them and goes, I'm gonna go back to my table, I'm gonna finish my drink, I'll be going back to the hotel in about 20 minutes, see you there.

Nic

I, I can't get enough of this in any film, is the guy just notifying his tail. Like in Goodfellas, like where he knocks on the window to wake him up, come on, fuck, like, let's go.

Steve

Beverly Hills Cop and the banana in the tailpipe stuff. Like, it's always good, it's always good. And so Grocer comes out. So after Martin leaves the bathroom, Grocer comes out of one of the stalls and it's like, why don't you guys just kill him? And it's like, like, no, I love the one guy goes, cuz we're not assassins. The way he does the little—.

Nic

I was trying to figure out how to write that down cuz I wrote—.

Steve

It's ahyuck, I believe is the spelling.

Nic

Yeah, his reaction was really funny cuz it was like, it could be that Grocer is just intimidating and pushing these guys around, but these guys are being like so sarcastic, like, fuck you, man.

Steve

And then the very— one of the funniest jokes in the entire movie is then Hank Azaria is looking down the hall and he goes, He's coming back! He's coming back! And Grocer dives back into the stall. And then Hank Azaria looks at his partner and just shakes his head like, no, he's not. And like maybe 3 or 4 seconds goes by, and Grocer comes out and goes, oh, fuck you guys! That's one of my favorite jokes in the whole movie.

Nic

It's so good. And then right after that, right, he's talking— Marty and Debbie are back at the table, and they're kind of talking more about him. And she's like asking about his life. He's like, I have a cat. And he's like, it's very demanding. And she's like, it? Is it a boy or a girl? He goes, I respect that. Its privacy. Banger line. So good.

Steve

So good. Oh man. Um, yeah, and then, uh, so I think we get a quick phone call between Marcella and, and, uh, Martin a little later, uh, where she's asking, how did it go? And he's like, I haven't done it yet, I'll do it tomorrow. And she's like, uh, because she's giving him info, well, these are the guys that are there, like, this is, this is not good, right? Like, I think this is this part where it's like, you know, yeah, there's these 2 NSA guys and then there's this other guy. And he actually does recognize from like reputation, like who this person is. Oh, that guy's a fucking asshole, like whatever. And he's like, yes, you're getting out of there, right? You're leaving, right? You're not staying, right? This is dangerous. And she's— and he's like, no, no, I'll take care of it.

Nic

When she's reading the name, she's like, uh, Steven Lardner, AKA Steve.

Steve

It's so good because like the, the European guy actually had some aliases, I think, right? Yeah, AKA Steve.

Nic

Uh, and the thing about the NSA, the, the feds, is like they have to catch him in the act. So they can't just take him out, even though they plan on fully murdering him.

Steve

Oh yeah.

Nic

They need to like wait for him to—.

Steve

They have to at least have a plausible excuse for why it happened, whereas the other guy is just here to kill him in whatever way he can. And then it's kind of like he doesn't— I don't think at this point he knows Grocer is in town, or maybe he does. Maybe that's— oh no, that's right, because she tells him Grocer dimed— Grocer's the one who dimed him out to the feds. And so, and so then he contacts Grocer and they go to meet. At like a diner.

Nic

That's right.

Steve

Right? And so, so they are both— so Grocer's got his hand in a paper bag and the feds are watching. So they're watching this thing. But like, like, uh, uh, uh, Martin's got his gun like under a napkin. Grocer's got his in a paper bag. And they're both sort of like really, really fidgety with each other.

Nic

So twitchy.

Steve

This—.

Nic

The, the physicality in this is so good. It's so funny, man.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Um, yeah, because it's just like, oh, hello, sir. How are you doing? I'm good too. And just knowing that there's a gun on you and everything.

Steve

Um, when the waitress comes to take their order. I don't remember what Grocer orders, but it's very like this, then this, then this. It was very simple, whatever. And then Martin goes, I'd like an egg white omelet, please. And she goes, what would you like in the omelet? Nothing in it, just the egg whites. Well, then that's not technically an omelet. And he goes, look, I don't want to get into the semantics about it. I just want some protein. Like, can you bring me the egg white?

Nic

Like, that was, that was a little, uh, Brody Randall, like, uh, Kevin Smith character that snuck in there. I think that's a little bit Kevin Smithy kind of exchange. Um, one thing that, uh, that Grocer is telling Marty is that Marty's like, well, what, what the fuck's happening? Like, why is this guy after me? He's like, oh, you killed this guy's dog.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

He's like, what are you talking about? And, you know, they think he killed this dog named Boudreaux. And Marty's like, no. He's like, I threw a stick of dynamite like away or something, or the dog went to fetch after it.

Steve

The guys that he was there to kill were playing, uh, were flushing games out of the brush with dynamite.

Nic

Oh, Boudreaux is a retriever to fetch it.

Steve

So the dog went and fetched the dynamite, and it wasn't even— Martin was just there. It wasn't his doing or whatever. Yeah, um, but he's still being blamed for it.

Nic

Yeah, so he got— and he's saying like, I'm not joining your— yeah, your union. Like, I'm done. I'm actually doing my last job. I'm gonna do this, and then you're never gonna see or hear from me again. Yeah, right. And then the waitress comes back to the table as they both kind of get spooked at the same time. And the way that, uh, Grocer gets up, and it's It's like so chaotic the way that they get up and leave the place.

Steve

And Martin like knocks the plates over. And I love as he's backing out the door with the gun still trained on Grocer, goes, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Like, I love that for some reason. This is like so funny.

Nic

Yeah, just trying to cause chaos.

Steve

But Grocer makes it clear to him, no scabs. Like, when we build this union thing, we're not gonna allow scabs.

Nic

Right.

Steve

You're gonna— you're enemy number one, basically.

Nic

You're an enemy, yeah.

Steve

Like, right, like this is a big deal. Okay, so he then calls Oatman, and he does— and is this when he fires Oatman? No, I think that's later.

Nic

Yeah, that's later.

Steve

But yeah, he calls him— oh, that's right, he calls him. Oatman's like eating, and he's kind of like, you know, uh— oh, that's right, because it's the reunion. It's time to— he and Debbie are gonna go to reunions together, and he's like having second thoughts, and he's like trying to talk to Oatman, and Oatman's trying to talk him down. It's like, this is me breathing. I want you to realize you're breathing. Wait, do you want me to realize I'm breathing, or you want me to say that I'm breathing? Say it. He's like, you know, this is like Oatman being as good a therapist as possible. First of all, He knows Martin is, you know, I think at least hundreds, if not 1,000-plus miles away. Like, I think New York is where Othman's based, and maybe it's LA. But he's like, you know, he's just eating his lunch, and like, but he's helping. He's trying to help Martin, right?

Nic

And so— And Martin is calling Othman at different times, right? He's calling him crazy times of night. He'll get the voice machine, and then if he starts leaving a message, he picks it up. So you could tell, like, how terrified the therapist— he's basically not leaving his phone in case Martin calls, you know? Even though it's the last thing he wants to deal with. Exactly. He doesn't wanna piss him off.

Steve

Yeah. But Martin is late to pick up Debbie, I believe, right? Like, yeah. So, and so he brings her flowers and she has a great line about like, you know, oh, hey, cool, you're here, you know, whatever. Like, my dad's down the hall, he wants to say hi to you. I'll just go put these in some rubbing alcohol.

Nic

And then he like, he chucked the flowers too.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

He did like, kind of like a valet key toss, not like a whip 'em in the face.

Steve

It was good.

Nic

I mean, unless those were thorny roses, in which case she just got scratched up badly. Uh, so he goes and he starts talking to Debbie's dad.

Steve

Yeah, yeah.

Nic

And, uh, you know, Debbie's dad's obviously like, fuck you, dude. You know how much my daughter suffered because of your ass leaving her and everything? Like, I would be like—.

Steve

Oh, he basically says something like, I'd hoped you died. I figured that's the best possible— I hoped you died, and yet here you are, you know? And he's like, yeah, no. And he goes— and he says something about like, so did you end up how I thought? Was I right about you or wrong? You know, like, I thought you'd be a layabout, pot-smoking, flannel-wearing, you know, coffee shop type, whatever. And he goes, no, no, I went the other way, you know, corporate 6 figures. I wear suits. I travel a lot. You know, I execute with a killer instinct or something like that. And this is another one where he tells the guy straight up, he's like, I'm a professional hitman or a professional killer. He goes, oh good, that's a growth industry.

Nic

Um, so, so he and Debbie now head to the reunion, and, uh, when, when, uh, when they walk in, Marty saw like, I should have brought my gun. And she's like, what'd you say? He's like, ah, it should be fun.

Steve

Because he did, he almost brought it. He sort of like, you know. And there was a point too where, uh, I don't remember who called Martin, maybe it was Marcel at one point, like left a message or something. But basically we see that someone else— and we don't see exactly— is in Martin's hotel room and sees the invitation to the reunion, right? It, it's the killer from Europe, whatever, the guy that's there to hit him.

Nic

Uh, fake face guy.

Steve

Fake face guy. We don't technically see that, but it is pretty inferred pretty clearly that he now knows where Martin is for the evening.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Um, so yeah, so Marty and, and Debbie are at the reunion.

Nic

Marty is so flinchy when he's meeting people. It's, it's funny, you know, it's a symptom of, A, just like what he does, but also, I don't have my gun. I always have my fucking gun.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Uh, so it's really just someone like thrusting their hand out to him scares the shit out of him.

Steve

Yeah. They run into a guy. I love this guy. The tall guy they run into is like a lawyer, and he talks about how he does like, no, mostly Like you know, a little personal injury, a little divorce, little like mergers. Basically all this stuff. Yeah. And he's like, personal injury—it's all kind of the same thing. As he goes, I'm gonna use that line. I'm gonna steal that line. And he gives him a pen for for high high quality clients or something like he says. Yeah. Instead of a card, he gives him a pen, you know, and everything. And and they're just like, okay. And it's so funny. Every time Marty and Debbie need to leave talking to someone, it's sort of like, hey, do you want to go somewhere else? Yeah. And they just leave. It's like it's like we need to talk to. Over there, you know, it's like they don't really have little escape hatch phrases, so they're just saying whatever they have to to just walk away. It's so uncomfortable.

Nic

And, and Paul, uh, the Jeremy Piven character, so clearly was, you know, not the cool guy in high school and is trying to prove that he's changed and he's different now. And the way that he's talking, you know, the classic like confident nerd Anthony Michael Hall type character mentality. Yeah. Uh, and at one point Marty asked him like, oh, how's, how's it going? And he goes, goes, it's a festival of pain. Yeah.

Steve

And there's like a, a woman walks up to them and says hi to Marty, and she's pretty blonde, she's got like a little dress, a little party dress on. And, and I think Jenny Slater, I think, is her name, or whatever. And so Paul keeps going, hey Jenny Slater, hey Jenny Slater, hey Jenny, hi Jenny, while she's talking to Marty. And she finally is like, um, hi. And he's like, Paul— I don't remember his last name, whatever. It's like, we had like— and she's like shaking her head like she doesn't know. We had 11 classes together, like sat next to you for like 2 years or like whatever. And she's like, nope, sorry. Like, he's, he's pretty good.

Nic

He's really, uh, he's really reaching here. Yeah. Um, so Debbie and Marty, like, oh, so one of the per— uh, one of the people at the reunion has a baby. Oh yeah. And this is where Marty is kind of like holding the baby, looking at it very like much the way that, uh, that Arnie in Terminator picks up that little kid by his overalls and kind of looks at him just like, what the fuck is this? But It's definitely affecting him, like the way Marty's really like taking time and looking at this and kind of having realizations while he's doing so.

Steve

And a fantastic music cue too. It's David Bowie and Queen, Under Pressure, playing over this. And this is the other thing too I wanna say, like sometimes movies are written and sort of ideated and you know they're gonna have to have a great soundtrack in order to work. And I feel like this was that, that was for this movie, that was true of this movie from the beginning. Because like Minnie Driver's character is a radio DJ. So there's, and literally the whole back to the '80s weekend or whatever like central to the plot in a lot of ways. The reunion was always gonna be DJ'd and have a bunch of like music and stuff, you know? And so it's like, this was always gonna be a banger soundtrack.

Nic

Like you gotta get 20 songs in there. Yeah.

Steve

It's at least— You need the needle drops. You're gonna have to— and again, sort of like thinking about Swingers where the music was such a major part of that movie and they spent half their budget. And obviously this was a much higher budget film, but like they probably— I can't imagine what the licensing rights cost them for this movie. I would love to see— Probably a couple of million, I would guess.

Nic

I could see that. Yeah, for sure.

Steve

'Cause the total budget was like $16, I think it said.

Nic

Yeah. Something around $15, $16.

Steve

2 million of that maybe to go to all these these recording artists to play these these songs. It's it's it's remarkable like what they were able to do with this.

Nic

But yeah, you know great music being played, and especially if like budget constraints led to them making certain choices about the soundtrack that makes it even more impressive. Yeah yeah yeah. You know where it's like oh shit we couldn't afford Bad to the Bones. Right. So we picked a bunch of good songs.

Steve

Well, and it's and this is I think too why I kind of equate this with High Fidelity is that and knowing that Cusack has a writing credit on. On this. I feel like this is very— this movie and High Fidelity are both very much like, this is John Cusack's personal taste in music. It's very much like if you watch a Bill Lawrence TV show and you hear the music with Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Cougar Town, Scrubs, you know, any of those kind of shows, the music in them is always really good. It's this kind of like particular brand of like indie-adjacent, folk-adjacent kind of, you know, music.

Nic

Mm-hmm.

Steve

And it's all Krista Miller. It's Bill Lawrence's wife and the actress who's on Shrinking. King and was on like the Drew Carey Show and stuff. She picks— she's the music supervisor for like all of his series, and you can tell that there is a, a through line of like the kind of music you're hearing. And there is some— there is so much easy connection between the very like early '80s-centered kind of like— we didn't call it alternative music back then, but that, that sort of off the beaten path, not quite top 40, you know, new wave and etc. A lot of like, uh, reggae and a lot of like kind of different stuff And then what they— what is all throughout High Fidelity, like Massive Attack is referenced in both movies. That's not a coincidence. Yeah, that's not a band that coincidentally gets referenced in 2 John Cusack movies released 4 years apart, right? You know what I mean? Like, so just an interesting thing. I think it's very, very Cusack-oriented.

Nic

And for the character, it's more believable that the character who becomes a hitman is more into this, like, you know, lesser-known music, the kind of darker music. He's not a Hall and Oates guy.

Steve

No, this, this guy loved Joy Division. Yeah, you know, for sure.

Nic

Like Um, all right, so we are, uh—.

Steve

Well, they sneak off to the nurse's office. We should mention this. That's right. Yeah, because they go to make out and then, and, and Debbie's like, no, no, there's something missing. Hold on a second, you gotta stop, you gotta stop. He goes, oh no, no, is this too fast? She goes, well, yeah, but I'm forgetting something. And she pauses and she goes, oh right, and she slaps him across the face super hard and then goes, welcome home. I love that moment.

Nic

And there's a quick shot before they go in the nurse's office of Just like they're watching from the bleachers as everyone is like dancing and stuff. And it's just a perfect encapsulation of how lame/fun these events are. Like, you just have to embrace how much it kind of sucks to really have fun at it. And everyone's doing that. Like, I, I like that shot a lot.

Steve

The scary part for us, man, is our 20th is not far away. We're like a couple years, right? Isn't that—.

Nic

Our 20th has passed. Our 30th is coming up.

Steve

Oh my God, that's right. It was the 20th. That was the 20th. You and I hung out at the 20th. The 20th was fun. The 20th wasn't bad, but it was at like a restaurant, wasn't it? I don't remember a whole lot of that, which is not great. But yeah, anyway, yeah, the 30th is coming up. That's fun. That's good. I like that. Definitely not dying. Okay, cool.

Nic

So as everyone walks into this reunion, there's of course like the coordinator woman who has the table and everyone has a name tag with their yearbook picture in it, right?

Steve

That's cruel.

Nic

So seriously. So fake face guy walks up to the table and she like looks at him kind of surprised. Like, I'm like the yearbook nerd. I know everybody who went here.

Steve

She was probably class president or whatever. She knew everybody.

Nic

Yeah. So, and the way the guy looks, and he just grabs one of the, uh, name tags, he goes, it is I, Sidney Feldman.

Steve

With like some kind of Eastern European accent. It's hard to place, but he's— he sounds vaguely, uh, Slavic.

Nic

Um, so then, uh, there's this guy Bob who's kind of like a jock kind of—.

Steve

Bobby Beamer.

Nic

Dude, and, uh, right, he's the car dealer guy. He was actually in, uh, Walking Dead for a bit.

Steve

Okay.

Nic

And my daughter has been watching Walking Dead very recently and saw this guy, and then she sees him and then she's like, oh shit, like losing her mind. I love watching her make those realizations because like I've been doing that my whole life, you know.

Steve

So I remember him playing a bully as a younger kid, like a young— when he was younger, so maybe late '80s, early '90s. Yeah, the bully in something. I'd have to look it up. I'm not I don't care enough because he's a small character.

Nic

Yeah, so, but he's like, you know, the guy who becomes a car dealership owner after high school, right? And it looks like him and Martin are gonna get into it because he's just like looking for some shit. He's drunk or whatever. And Martin's ability to de-escalate here is really incredible, right? So he, he de-escalates. We're not in a fight anymore. Like, what's really going on?

Steve

Using some of what he's learned in therapy because he's like, oh, you do, do you really imagine there's some pent-up up thing between us for all these years. Like, there is no us, man. That you and I do not exist. Like, there's you and there's me. There's no us. He's like, what do you— who do you want to hit? Because it's not me. Like, it's Dr. Oatman did a really good job with Marty, I think.

Nic

And then Bob pulls out, he's like, I have a poem. And Marty's like, oh yeah, go ahead and read your poem. And he lets him read like a couple lines. He's like, hey, that's great, man. He's like, oh, there's more. He's like, just read the last line.

Steve

Skip to the end. For a while. He's like, for a while. It's beautiful.

Nic

That's amazing, dude. Uh, but again, you know, showing Marty like is, uh, professionally violent and personally completely like nonviolent, you know?

Steve

Yeah, it'd be interesting. I think like taking— I would want to take— if we took, uh, I don't know if you ever saw the movie America's Sweethearts. Uh, John Cusack— it's not in the '90s, so we probably won't get to it, but it's early 2000s. It's like John Cusack and Julia Roberts. Catherine Zeta-Jones is in it. Billy Crystal. It's actually a very funny movie. Hank Azaria is actually You'll also learn that as well. Very funny movie about this pair of actors who are America's sweethearts. They like are always in movies together. It's John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

And then they are together and then they break up and there's this whole like storyline, right? And it's a funny romantic comedy. But there is his character after the breakup goes to this like zen healing, you know, place, like a rehab center practically, but becomes like very zen and very like, you know, um, and like kind of like almost annoyingly like, I'm cool and I'm calm, whatever. I would love the idea of like a movie where that, that guy who's actually that guy is also a professional killer.

Nic

Yeah, yeah.

Steve

Just because that's what he's good at for paying the bills. But like in his own life, he is like, you know, Caine from Kung Fu without the actual fighting. Like, you know what I mean? Just like very like— I just feel like that could be very funny. Like mix these 2 John Cusack characters.

Nic

Hell yeah, dude.

Steve

Um, but yeah, so he decides to go back to his locker. He's like, tells Debbie, hey, I'll catch up with you, but I'm gonna go run by my locker. And sure enough, he's hidden— you know, he must have hidden a joint in his locker 10 years ago. He pulls it out. It's dust, but it's kind of a neat little neat little thing. You know, after he breaks into whoever's locker that is now, but as he's standing there, who comes around the corner? But our our ghoul friend. Yes, and this is a good fight. Cusack was trained for some decent choreography here. Fantastic.

Nic

I was really shocked by it. You know, and definitely not not stunt doubles during a lot of the. I mean, it's clearly you know them both in in frame doing this thing. Mirror in the bathroom by the English Beat playing. I think yes, excellent song. And uh. God, yeah, this fight is fantastic.

Steve

It's really well done.

Nic

Yeah, great, great martial science happening back and forth.

Steve

I would say better standing sidekick than we got from Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Nic

So at least— yeah, at least with his left foot, Cusack could beat Van Damme if it was a left-footed fight. Um, so it ends with, uh, you know, a real struggle on the ground and what's gonna happen. And Marty reaches for the only weapon that he has, which is the pen he was given by his lawyer friend earlier.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

And then jams it into Fake Face's neck. Yep, fake face's real neck, uh, and it's pretty gnarly, man. Stabs him a bunch of times. It's very bloody. Very bloody. So this whole movie, there's not been a lot of carnage. I mean, there was like the guy getting shot by Aykroyd at the beginning, the guy on the bike getting shot, but it wasn't a lot of close-up, like—.

Steve

Yeah, this is the most personal of the kills in it. It's the bloodiest, the way that the action scenes ever get, um, you know. And, and yeah, like, the, the action scenes being scattered throughout the movie make a lot of sense. You know, this is not a straight action or a straight rom-com or a straight anything else, right? This is a very blended sort of movie, and I love that they punctuate it just the right amount of time. It seems like every, you know, 20-ish minutes you get like a pretty decent-sized, you know, fight of some kind.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Uh, and this is the one here, and it's great. The problem for Martin is, is that Debbie comes around the corner, uh, and sees this and sees him covered in blood with a dead body in front of him, sweating. You know, he's holding the pen. I mean, everything.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And again, we get another It's not me. And she just freaks out and runs back down the stairs to get away from him.

Nic

Realistic freakout, by the way, because I feel like a lot of movies would film that where she's like, what are you doing? Would stand there and have like a 10-minute conversation with him, but she's gone. Yeah, but then Paul comes along, right? And he's just like, hey, what's going on? And where's our boy? What's going on? And Marty's just like, Paul, I need you to help me. And Paul, to his credit, fucking soldier, good-ass friend, right?

Steve

I don't know if I could do that. You haven't seen this guy in 10 years, and now he's, he's hanging out over a dead body, person you don't know.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

I don't, I don't know if I'm that friend. I gotta be honest with you. I don't know. I don't think I could do it. I'd be like, dude, deuces. Here's the thing. Yeah, won't tell anybody. Bye-bye.

Nic

Like, Marty could be like, hey, he's not even real. Look at his face.

Steve

Right? He's a rubber mask.

Nic

They pull, uh, they pull like the banner for homecoming, whatever's up at the school, the big paper banner, and they're wrapping this body in these, uh, big paper signs, and they take him down. And luckily the school has like the Freddy Krueger incinerator in the basement.

Steve

Big furnace.

Nic

This is a big furnace block.

Steve

Yeah, it is. We got some furnaces coming up. And, and, uh, for another movie we talked about, I did some research on the, the temperature a furnace would have to get to, to, to properly dispose of a body. It is about 1,800 degrees. I don't think that's a normal— even for heating a school, which is obviously— it's a huge like single building school. I still don't know that 1,800 degrees is where you'd actually get to for a furnace like that. So this body is not really going to go away. It's going to get gross.

Nic

It's gonna stink. It's gonna stink. Like, sure, it's gonna smell.

Steve

It's real bad. But they do— they dispose of the body in the incinerator. Paul helps. Um, they go back up where the, the reunion has almost cleared out. They head back up. There's a handful of people not really dancing anymore, just sitting around. Um, they go and he gets a club soda and Paul gets— he gets like a drink, like a double scotch or whatever.

Nic

And they haven't cleaned themselves up.

Steve

No, they're both still—.

Nic

He's just like a disaster. He's got blood on him and stuff.

Steve

And, and, and Paul turns to Martin and goes and he says something like, I'm Paul again. I can't remember his last name. Paul whatever, you know, I'm in real estate. What do you do, Martin? It's like, now he's, now he's not happy about it.

Nic

Oh man. And, uh, and as Marty's leaving, uh, to the attorney guy, he's like, oh, take care, Ken.

Steve

Thanks for the pen. Yeah, that's right. Oh man. So he heads back to the hotel and, uh, he actually gets on the phone. He's like watching TV or whatever. He gets on the phone and He calls Dr. Oatman, and this is the only Oatman interaction I don't like because it's so unrealistic. But he calls and is leaving a message for Dr. Oatman about like, Dr. Oatman, uh, it's not you, it's me, um, but I don't think this is working anymore. I'm gonna fire you. You know, like, we're not gonna do this. This isn't helping. But like, blah blah blah, whatever. Uh, I want you to sit and realize that this is me firing you. Like, kind of like referencing this thing before. When we then cut to Oatman and he is trying to get his answering machine to stop because it is, it is out loud You know, Martin's message is being played out loud while Oatman is in session with a client. Oh yeah, that's ludicrous. That would never work out that way. Either the the there would be no audio on the you know answering machine. It would be a silent thing, or it wouldn't ring. There would be something that he would be smarter about. There's no way that any that is going to come through during a session. To me, that doesn't work at all, and actually kind of popped me out of the movie a little bit. It's like the one part of the movie that I'm like, fuck that. Like everything else has felt so careful. Yeah, and this is like so just. That just, just, just, just would never happen like that. It's just not possible that that would be the reason Oatman has to freak out, whatever. They honestly— and they didn't even need it. That's the other thing too, that joke isn't even that funny. He could have just called and fired him and been done with it, and we didn't even need to see Oatman's reaction. You know what I mean? Anyway, not that it—.

Nic

Like magic answering machine, we had it in Swingers, you know, that's a— it's a recurring theme. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so he, he fires the therapist. Uh, Uh, does Debbie show up?

Steve

Debbie shows up and is basically like, tell me what the fuck is going on. Like, like, and he, and he tells her the same story he's been telling her, but she's like, people joke about that. Like, that's not real. You're not— people joke about the horrible things that they do. They don't go do them. Yeah. Um, and he says, you're a psychopath. And he says, no, no, no, no, a psychopath kills for no reason. I kill for money. It's a job. That sounded bad. Like, yeah.

Nic

And, and Debbie's Like done. She's pissed. She's like, "Hey, guess what? You don't get to have me." Like fuck you. Yep. We get a cut back to Marcella. Yes. And so he's on the phone with Marcella, and she's at the office doing one of my favorite things: pouring gas all over, you know, about to incinerate it, move on to the next place.

Steve

Which actually reminds me: we skipped at one point the best Marcella scene in the movie, and I think it just it gets thrown in between other other calls with with Martin. She's on the phone. And so Martin calls her, and so she cuts over, whatever, to talk to Martin and says something. And then she's like back to, hey, uh, uh, Brenda? Yeah. Oh, hold on a second, another call's coming through. She clicks over and she goes, yeah? No, no, it was 5,000 rounds of 9mm subsonic. You had that on the fucking list. I gave you that. Well, I don't give a fuck. You get it here now. Clicks back over. Brenda? Hi. Yeah. No, no, no, you're gonna season it. No, no, stop it. Brenda, carrots and celery are just the base of a soup. You're gonna add the chicken and the seasoning later. Yeah, jumping back and forth between the like weapons purchasing and the like giving her friend a Supra. So perfect.

Nic

Yeah, she, she was really, she was really great throughout this. Um, yeah, so she's like, hey Marty, I'm taking the office out here. And Marty's like, okay, hey, uh, take a look under your desk for me, like way up under there. And she pulls out this brick of cash, very, uh, There's Always Money in Gotta be like a couple hundred grand. Oh, man.

Steve

The sheer volume of it. Yeah.

Nic

Um, so, uh, and he's got, you know, he finally gets around to looking at his assignment. He's got his envelope. He's like, well, okay, everything's fucked, so you may as well do this job and not get killed.

Steve

And, uh, he opens up and he said— I can't remember exactly what he says, but it's like, it's basically like, what dumb locker? Or, are you fucking kidding me? Something, whatever. Yeah, because it's fucking Debbie's dad. It's Debbie's dad is who he's been sent to kill.

Nic

Right.

Steve

And it's like he's got a choice to make, you know?

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

He's got a choice.

Nic

So, so Debbie's dad is, uh, he's like jogging.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Right? We see him jogging and we see that he's being watched by Grocer. And, uh, and then we see that Marty is like speeding.

Steve

Yeah, yeah.

Nic

To try to get there really fast. And right as Grocer is about to take a shot at Debbie's dad, Marty kind of pulls his car in front of him. He's like, get in the fucking car.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

Really cool scene there.

Steve

You're a bad fucking guy. What'd you do? Yeah.

Nic

And, and what Debbie's dad maintains is he's like a whistleblower of some sort, which— and who knows if that's how a snitch would refer to themselves. I think that's a good—.

Steve

Well, no, but that's— but that's the point is that— no, but he is, he is a snitch. He was doing criminal stuff and he is turning states, right? So in his mind, he's doing the right thing now, right? Right. And being punished for it.

Nic

I think of whistleblower more as like, hey, my airline company isn't attaching the wings to the plane.

Steve

You know, but yes, a snitch would— a snitch for organized crime would absolutely consider themselves a whistleblower, right?

Nic

Like, for sure.

Steve

But yeah, so we get back to Debbie's house, uh, which is for Stale, as we should mention. Like, he is planning on, like, leaving, right? Um, and, uh, they pull up and basically, you know, Debbie's there obviously still. And so she's like, what's he doing here? And Martin's got his weapons and he's like starting to tell— and he's basically just giving the whole story of, like, you know, what he's doing, the journey he's been on, like his mental and sort of emotional involvement, advancement over and all this stuff. And meanwhile, he's like shooting through the door and like protecting them from people. And it's just such a great shootout sequence throughout the house, really.

Nic

Oh my God. And there's such a crew of guys coming after him. And the way that he's handling it, he's being so calm and like allowing himself to get in kind of a— like the type of argument where even if you're like at your kid's soccer game or something, you'd be like, you know what, we need to have this later. Like, this— we got something to pay attention to here. And he's fully engaging in it even though it's like, in this life-or-death situation otherwise, you know. Uh, really great. And he has, uh, he has Debbie and her dad like go up in the bathroom, get in the tub, right? Like, here's a gun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you hide and I'll come get you. Yeah, yeah. As he's going down and taking the dudes out.

Steve

It's, it's good stuff.

Nic

Um, he, uh, he finally, uh, comes face to face with Grocer. They're like on the opposite sides of the kitchen counter, like kind of shooting at each other. They realize that, you know, each are out of bullets.

Steve

Well, they get out of bullets because the feds pop in and Grocer blows them away. And, and, and it's hard to tell if Marty actually— because he's sort of shooting in their direction, but Grocer is like very carefully shooting. Marty's almost got his eyes closed. Yeah, just kind of like, ah, you know, whatever. So the 2 feds are dead, the NSA guys, right? And then now Grocer and Marty are both out of bullets, uh, at least in the weapons that they were— that they had. And Grocer says, well, I got a couple more. I'll sell you one for 100 G's. And he goes, uh, yeah, sure. And so So, uh, he goes and like throws the gun into the room Marty's in and then goes up because as he goes to get it, he's gonna shoot him. And Marty turns with the CRT, the old school TV, and slams it onto Grocer's head. And let me just tell you, this is legit. Those things are dangerous as shit even when they're unplugged. Yeah, the mechanics inside or the— all the stuff inside a CRT monitor, like it straight up electrocutes him on the head like that. Dead for sure.

Nic

Yeah, just destroyed, uh, smashing the screen straight over his face. It's so good. Uh, he, he didn't borrow that sick line from Demolition Man that, uh, that John Spartan used, which is, you're on TV! But, um, but it still was pretty effective.

Steve

It worked. It worked okay. Maybe it would have been better like, oh, there's nothing on TV these days, right? Would have been good. I don't know. But yeah.

Nic

So, so he ends up, uh, you know, he goes back upstairs and kind of silently knocks on the door. He's like, hey, hey. And she goes and like takes a shot in his direction.

Steve

Well, she doesn't know who's coming, right?

Nic

He's like, It's just me. And then, you know, the last thing he says is, uh, like, hey, will you marry me?

Steve

Yeah, right, like Debbie.

Nic

I know this isn't the right time.

Steve

Not the right time. Will you marry me? And then the dad pokes up and goes, you got my blessing. Which really he should think maybe more than a second on. The guy did just save your life, but also your wife might be in like— or your daughter as his wife might be in constant danger, right?

Nic

Yeah, yeah.

Steve

For the rest of her life.

Nic

Right. Um, yeah, so then it ends with, uh, with Debbie and Marty like driving off in their convertible, leaving beautiful gross point to go, you know, somewhere, explore the world. Yep.

Steve

And, uh, and no, no epilogue. I love it. It really, like, from, from Grocer getting killed to the credits rolling is like 90 seconds.

Nic

It's so quick. This is a very efficient— yeah, I mean, this is a type of movie, like you were talking about how good the, the screenplay is, is that this could have been like a 2-hour and 10-minute movie.

Steve

Yeah, easily could have been padded out and, and wasn't, and it would have been unnecessary if it was. So Yeah. No, it's really fantastic that way. But that is Grosse Pointe Blank.

Nic

Absolutely. All right, Steve.

Steve

Well, this was, yeah, this is mine. So I'm gonna give it, I'll be honest with you. I came in, I started watching this movie this week and I thought to myself, I know I like this movie. I remember liking this movie. I'm sure I'm at least gonna like it, you know, this watch through. And I thought to myself, looking back over recent movies we've done, I mean, I gave what, like a 4 to Breakdown. I gave a 5 to The Princess Bride. I gave like a 5 to Do the Right Thing. Like these are very high scores. And I thought to myself, I can't keep handing 5s out like candy. So I watched this movie and in my notes I wrote 4.5, but like, that's just not, I'm not being true to like what I feel about this. The nostalgia I have for it, the tightness of the script, the brilliance of the premise. It's got funny, funny, funny lines. It's got great action sequences, like the fight, the fist instant kick fight between Marty and the ghoul is so good and just so well choreographed. Like, there's so many bits and pieces of this movie that just work perfectly well. And then the soundtrack is like— it's like a top 3 all-time movie soundtrack. Like, yeah, potentially. Like, it really— and it— I don't think it gets mentioned when you talk about great '90s soundtracks. People talk about Judgment Night and they talk about The Crow and they talk about Empire Records.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

But a lot of great movies— a lot of Dazed and Confused, right? A lot of movies from the '90s had great soundtracks. I don't think enough people talk about Grosse Pointe Blank as a movie soundtrack. It is, yeah, impeccable how good this soundtrack is. So, you know, fuck it, like, whatever, I'm a grade inflator, call me that. I'm giving this 5 out of 5. Again, the, you know, I go back to that, that sort of baseline I have, like, could I ask for anything this movie doesn't give me? No. It's funny, it's sweet, it's romantic, it's got action, it's deadly, you know, and then it's got a fantastic soundtrack. So yeah, I'm a 5 out of 5 on Grosse Pointe Blank. I this movie. Awesome.

Nic

All right, well, yeah, dude, I mean, watching this the whole time, I kind of had the same thing in my head where I'm like, dude, we're giving out a lot of 5s. Are we— are we the substitute teacher who's just like telling everyone like, as long as you show up every day, you get an A in this class? Like, I don't know, man, but like, yeah, there's not a lot in this movie that you would go back and change. Like, all the soundtrack choices are perfect. Yeah. Um, the Joan Cusack element was so entertaining I would have loved for the end credits to just be a montage of like unused little Joan Cusack moments, like from those phone calls, like bloopers sort of, whatever, like a gag reel. I mean, she is incredibly funny, and I hope got cast like on her own merit and wasn't that, you know, John had to muscle her into it, because she fucking earned every bit of time that she got in this movie. And I know she's an actor in her own right.

Steve

Oh yeah.

Nic

Um, but, uh, Minnie Driver, like, right in her prime. I like the idea that the Minnie Driver character in this is the same as the Good Will Hunting one, right?

Steve

Oh, okay.

Nic

So she, she breaks up with Marty, she moves to Boston, and then she gets together with Will Hunting and starts telling him about how cool her ex-assassin boyfriend was, and then he becomes Jason Bourne. So I think there's a through line of the, uh, of the evolution here.

Steve

I, I do think the Minnie Driver character in Good Will Hunting is still in college though, right? Isn't that— whatever, we don't care. Good stuff, man. Um, a little time travel never hurt anybody.

Nic

Hey, we can time travel, we can have magical answering machines. It's cinema. Um, this movie is like— yeah, I liked it so much. Uh, my wife and I both enjoyed it. My daughter, who's 14, watched the whole thing with us. She was gonna just like hang out and Then go study. And then she got her study stuff and brought it back. And every time something happened, like, I was hearing her laugh. She was fully engaged with this movie.

Steve

That's a stamp of approval right there.

Nic

Oh man. And this comes like just shy of perfect, but I'm still giving this a big score. Uh, I love this movie and it needs to be out there more. More people need to have seen this. More people need to be bumping this soundtrack, honestly. Uh, Grosse Pointe Blank's very solid 4.5 out of 5 for me.

Steve

I love 9.5 out of 10 is what the 2 dads have given Grosse Pointe Blank, uh, and I think that that certainly works. Like I said, I, I came in with a 4.5, but I'm happy with a 5. I'm, I'm, I'm— that's— this movie's too good, too much, too much for me to enjoy. Um, so Nic, we have a very important announcement to make here. You're going to tell us what the next movie that we're going to see is, but before we do, we should tell people this is a cool, uh, milestone for us as a podcast because this is the first time we get to do something that's the annual something.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

This is going to be the 2nd annual Shocktoberfest, where we are going to only watch scary movies for the month of October. So every episode in October, not necessarily horror movies, but like at least kind of scary, horror adjacent, kind of dark. You know, if they're funny, they're funny in a dark way, like whatever it might be. And we're calling it Shocktoberfest 2: Electric Boogaloo. And that has nothing to do with the movies we're gonna pick or anything. I just like the idea of the sequel being called Electric Boogaloo. Boogaloo, just like in Breaking. Uh, so yeah, so what is the first movie we're watching for this year's Shocktoberfest?

Nic

Okay, so, and we've talked about this in past, uh, Shocktoberfests, and like, I'm not like a big horror movie guy, right, as far as like traditional horror movies. And I'm trying to think of what the pick was last year. I know I picked Silence of the Lambs. Yeah, you did. Yeah.

Steve

And trying to think about Jacob's Ladder.

Nic

Oh, Jacob's Ladder, right? So not like traditional horror movies. And I I kind of like living in that zone because you've given us like, you know, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, like just fucking great, like classic horror movies and stuff. So this one's a little bit outside of the normal genre, but in the, in the vein of being like spooky and scary. And I think a good way to ease us into the month here. And, uh, where we're gonna go is, uh, we're gonna go to the suburbs. The 'burbs for sure. And we are gonna watch a 1989 Joe Dante directed, Tom Hanks starring. First appearance of Tom Hanks on 2 Dads 1 Movie.

Steve

A crime.

Nic

Cannot believe it. Yeah, an '80s and '90s movie podcast, and we're in episode, what, 81 when we get to Hanks?

Steve

82 even, I think. Okay, this is 81. Yeah, so, okay.

Nic

Yeah, yeah, so no mention of Hanks until right now, episode 81, and then next time we're gonna talk about it. But yeah, we're gonna watch 1989 '89's The 'Burbs, which I realized after watching it I had never seen.

Steve

Oh my God, that's awesome.

Nic

So I'm really excited to talk about this one and get into Shocktoberfest because I had a blast with it last year and I love our theme months. So I'm excited to be getting into this.

Steve

Yeah, and we're gonna have— we're gonna have just like last year, October, November, December, and January are all gonna be theme months. We'll announce them as we get to them, but we are back into sort of the themed, uh, territory, which is like, you know, I think it's good. I think it's more likely we'll get a little more variation on on scores and stuff because we're not just picking movies we love.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

Which is kind of the default mode I think we both get into, which is fine, but you know, it's gonna be a little different here. So yeah, we'll start with The 'Burbs. For my part, like, I've watched this movie probably a dozen times as a kid. I definitely was like big into this movie back in, you know, when I was like 10, 11, 12 years old. Don't think I'd seen it. I don't think I've seen it in 30 years though, like at least. So it'll be definitely going back to it and figuring out if it holds So up. Yeah, excellent. Next week, The 'Burbs. That's a wrap. So if you like what you hear, please consider heading over to Apple or Spotify and leaving us a 5-star review. It helps new folks find the show. Be sure to check out our website at twodadsonemovie.com. That's the number 2 and the number 1. There you can explore the movies we've covered, sign up for our newsletter, The Rewind, and even get sneak previews of upcoming episodes. Once again, this has been Grosse Pointe Blank, another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

Thank you so much for listening, and we'll catch you next week.

Nic

Thanks, everyone.