True Lies Vs. Eraser (Ep. 0043)

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[00:00:23] I don't have a quote. Uh, your luggage. I'm Drew. Taking a page out of old Phil's book here. No, that's not true. It's nothing. It's a few numbers and some plastic. What you are is in here, and no one can take that from you. It's me, Filnold. Now let's make out by the fire. Which, at early rando, apparently there was a romance scene after that scene that they cut because it didn't play.

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[00:01:06] And he's like pointing to his chest. I'm like, what the f***? He's talking to like a seven year old girl. Like what the hell anyway? Yeah. And there's a lot of reasons that there's more randos that pertain to why, why eraser is the way it is, but you know, it was only a matter of time before this podcast became an Arnold versus Arnold podcast.

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[00:01:38] Crazy. I've been Finishing the final edits on my book. Uh, it's been a crazy summer, but we're back. Someone actually asked if we were okay. Someone sent me a message like, Did Phil die? Did Phil actually take a spike bat to Kyle's head? And, no, that didn't happen. Well, it did. He did, but you survived. It was the wrong Kyle, actually.

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[00:02:08] Oh yeah, they are very similar movies. Very similar era, similar, obviously, Arnold's. Well, one reason for that, you and I talked about it, is that, um, Eraser pays a lot of homage to other, like, we were pointing, like, that was like Point Break. Like, there was all these little pages. Totally. They were pulling out of a lot of other action films.

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[00:02:38] Arnold is now a hero of yours. Yeah, he's a hero of mine. Yeah. Like, uh, I think by way of Kyle's influence, he's really become a figure that I've grown to respect a lot. I still hold that he's not a good actor, but you know, what's the measure of a man is not his acting skills. Especially when they get paid 25 million a movie to act.

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[00:03:14] It's not to say he doesn't have an enormous penis. Enormous. And we actually were gonna do Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but all three of us just, even though the through line was there, there are through lines here too, but even though the through line was there, it was just really hard to compare True Lies to Mr.

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[00:03:46] I'd say similar different eras, but I mean, the through line being, you know, secret life hidden from your spouse, et cetera. Yeah. But in, you know, for you, the audience, we decided to stay integritous to our, you know, Goal and, uh, only cover [00:04:00] movies that are actually good. Yeah. f*** Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Some bulls**t.

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[00:04:28] Um, like you said, he's still kind of coming to into his own as an actor. A lot of the movies, even though they were amazing, didn't have great budgets. I'm thinking about Predator and Terminator and Commando. Those movies were not. Explosive budgets like true lies at the time just like t2 at the time was the most expensive movie budget in history 100 million dollars T2 before it was also at the time when it came out was the most expensive movie ever made So yeah, and and that's funny because it's all the money spent.

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[00:05:06] It was the most expensive movie before that was, well, that one makes sense. I'll tell you something. You saw it. They definitely didn't spend money on, uh, the freaking plane scene and the eraser looks like he's dude. That, that was, or the CGI. Okay. I have. Thoughts. We'll get to that. Alright, let's get there.

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[00:05:38] I got an amazing rando about this. Oh, I can't wait. But he was trying to clean up his image. The closer he got to trying to, you know, to get elected and, and uh, cause he had political aspirations since the eighties, but he didn't really start coming around to it until the mid nineties to the 2003 when he won the governorship.

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[00:06:07] Who have you killed? You know, who's rotting at the bottom of the pond on your private golf course. That's what I want to know. Exactly. And you know, and lastly, one of the things about these movies is they feel especially true lies. It's, it's like, what does it want to be? Is it trying to be tongue in cheek?

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[00:06:36] Yeah, man. True Lies was weird because like. Uh, well, I don't, we didn't need to get into this now, but um, that movie, it was a comedy. It was. Both of these movies are funny. It wasn't clear until like a good ways into the movie that it was like a comedy. Once you delve into the marriage. Because I was actually super confused for the first.

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[00:07:10] So it doesn't know what it wants to be like. It wasn't until he's talking to the f***ing horse on the roof. That I was like, oh, this is a comedy. He's like, what are you doing? You should have, you should have saved me or whatever. What kind of cop are you? Yeah, it was that part that I was like, oh, this is actually a comedy.

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[00:07:41] For those listening that, like, I hope you suffered with this, like, you cause I posted, right? I always want our fans to tell us what they think of the movies coming in. Hell yeah. They probably couldn't find it. Yeah, exactly. Funny story, five months ago, you and I were smoking cigars and I was like, we, because Drew and I have been watching all the Arnold movies together for like the past two years and I was like, we've, I think it's time to watch True Lies.

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[00:08:14] It was up there. I think I had rented it or it was on Prime or something. It was on Prime. I watched it on Prime. I was going to zip through it again just kind of because it had been a week or two and then it was gone. Yeah. What the? Yeah. What happened? I don't understand the licensing world. The streaming s**t is getting out of hand.

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[00:08:44] But why would it fall off somewhere that you could purchase or rent it? I know. I wanted, I, I, I always ordered 4k discs. Always have it on, it should always just be on Vudu and Apple and Amazon to rent or buy. And this is a love James Cameron Arnold movie. This is a beloved film. [00:09:00] Right. We're talking about.

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[00:09:15] 73 percent of our fans prefer True Lies. over, yep, over the eraser. Some comments here from Chase, uh, on our Instagram. A loyal fan who sends us a lot of messages. He says, I'm gonna side with True Lies. Eraser has horrible CGI and True Lies had better practical effects. Also, the police horse chasing motorcycle is awesome.

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[00:09:49] Oh my god, it was so obvious too. Arnold body double, like I was just like, so bad. It was so obvious. Like you're like, that's another person like all together. Do you look like streamable? They're like, they're [00:10:00] trying to fix it before they put it back up. Yeah. He's fake Arnold. He looks like s**t. What are we doing?

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[00:10:19] Just wrecking s**t in the flick, but outside of that, maybe that snowy cabin. Uh, setting it for a bit. True lies is better in every way. Thank you, Brad. Not a bad point on the rail gun. I, I liked the gun. It was fun. Mm-Hmm. . A rail gun. You said? I have . I have, I have like a category about this. I still have no idea what that is.

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[00:10:56] Remember 007 on 64 had railguns only mode? Oh. But [00:11:00] didn't they call them moonrakers or something? What were they called? I don't know. I never really played that game. All I know about railguns is from Metal Gear Solid, you know, one of the most famous. Scenes when he's talking to I think Donald Anderson. He goes a railgun you said which I'm going through now at your leadership Yes, you're at your behest your guy I've been texting him for tips on beating the bosses cuz that game does not hold your hand on the PS No, it's not.

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[00:11:41] I love including it. Thank you Mr. Brad and mr Chase and thank you to our patrons as well I I just launched a and you guys are finishing your list But I just launched my number 50 video about my number 50 movie of all time on our patreon So thank you to our patrons amazing patrons and drew. What are your uh, what are your thoughts on these films?

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[00:12:18] You know, with True Lies, it's like, it's sort of him becoming a big boy. Like kind of a real Hollywood actor. I mean, he's always, he's already a Hollywood actor, but like sort of a serious actor working with James Cameron. And like, he was trying, you could tell he was trying to do something outside of what he had always done with a racer.

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[00:12:59] I went in [00:13:00] thinking I'm gonna love this like what it's Arnold. It's mid 90s It's like right in his prime. It's Cameron like what it's in his prime seemingly like how what could go wrong? And like Phil said I didn't know what the hell I was watching for like an hour I'm like, what is this a romance? Is this a comedy?

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[00:13:35] Arnold. You know, like I think he probably delivered one of his better acting roles that he's ever delivered. Same with Jamie Lee. I thought she was actually, I went in expecting to hate her for whatever reason. I don't know why. I just write her off. But she was fantastic. Amazing. And it really, she was kind of asked to.

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[00:14:08] Like I thought she did a really nice job. And then eraser, I went in thinking this is going to be absolute s**t. And I'll be honest, guys. I enjoyed it. I thought it was a blast. I'm right there with you. I know it's no piece of, you know, cinema history, but it was kind of like, it felt like it should have come out in like 1989.

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[00:14:42] And that's sort of my main beef with both of these issues and probably the most Similar thread is that the identity problems that they both have but I had a blast with both of them And I'm glad that we paired him up. Love it. Glad we made the audible We could be talking about Brad Jelena right now and I'd be like Well, when Brad looked at her across the [00:15:00] table, that was just some premier acting Tried to kill each other and beat the s**t out of each other and then they made out like an hour Yeah, and Brad was like weren't you in Tomb Raider?

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[00:15:34] I, I had never seen it and I, I didn't do any reading about it beforehand so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. We had paired up True Lies vs. Mr. and Mrs. Smith initially because they were both these like couple's action comedy things. So I kind of like knew that True Lies was comedic in nature in a way, but then I start watching it and I'm like, I feel like this movie's really trying to take itself seriously and then some time passes and then I'm like, maybe it doesn't take itself very seriously and then, [00:16:00] so like, it was, like Drew said.

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[00:16:19] Had your boy James Kahn. It was so good, but so dumb at the same time. Like everything about it. Like, and once again, Drew put it really well. Like it was an. 80s film that happened to be made in the mid to late 90s. Oh, yeah. And it just didn't missed it by like a decade. It didn't fit in that ethos of what was going on at the time.

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[00:16:58] I feel like they could have done a [00:17:00] lot better at the time because, what is it, Armageddon came out two years later and that movie still looks unbelievable. Like, they, they had the capability and they just didn't make it happen. So, it, it looked really weird. Um, it had cheesy, cheesy, like, forced feeling, emotional moments.

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[00:17:32] Like now this is a plot twist. I still was unsure of what, like, was he, he was trying to throw them. Off, or make, get Arnold to move Vanessa Williams, yeah, he was trying to, I think he was killing her so that Arnold would be like, Oh, we gotta move her, they're on to us, or something, but like, I don't know, it just, it really didn't add up for me.

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[00:18:06] I absolutely love True Lies. Eraser was bizarre. Um, the other funny thing about Eraser is I'd never seen it prior to watching it for this podcast. But I have the clearest memory of going to this video store we used to go to when I was a kid. Um, it's called Video Tracks in Miami. It's right near Miami Dade Community College.

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[00:18:40] He can't stop me. Now you're talking about it on a podcast. Look at me now dad! Such a big boy. I have the clearest memory of that. Poster and Arnold on the front and just thinking like, do you eraser? What does that mean? You know? So, yeah. Here's the thing though. I would watch it again. Oh yeah. Oh, totally. I had a blast.

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[00:19:10] I do think. Eraser is underrated and I think True Lies is over it. Hot take. Eraser flows much better than True Lies does. There's just a more even flow. I felt like the plot, I could comprehend it. I also felt like James Caan solidified it, um, as an actor. I loved having him in the Arnold, uh, universe. You know, having him counter, like, one of the world's greatest actors has been in the greatest films.

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[00:19:54] The identity crisis that you spoke to, Phil, at one point I'm like, is this a Bond knockoff? Is this giving, [00:20:00] giving cadence to the spy genre? And then, but it, they couldn't help it, but get to the big Arnold action at the end. They eventually got there and it's like, it's because I don't think James Cameron can let himself not do the most.

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[00:20:27] And it, it just like, there was a hunger for that type of film, but it was Arnold the right guy for that movie. You know, cause Tom Cruise did Mission Impossible that same year. I have to feel like. Even like a Keanu or a Bruce Willis or like one of those would have fit better in this like spy thriller kind of thing.

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[00:21:07] You, you pointed at a scene. It was like, that felt kinda like die hard. I saw a scene where it felt a little bit like Robocop. Um, you know, and, and uh, you know, both, both of these films suffer though because the big through line for these movies, even though we got rid of the through line with Mr. And Mrs.

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[00:21:35] Oh dude. Yeah. The ambiguity behind John careers, pseudo us Marshall position, like where he goes into some f***ing bunker. It's like that kind of s**t. It's, that's where you're like, I don't know. It's also just Arnold as a us Marshall. Yes, exactly. Do we buy that? It's a little bit like. Super soldier, maybe, but like, he's just, he's in the military.

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[00:22:19] I was getting John Wick vibes. In John Wick 3 or 2? I was getting some Wick vibes from the horse, I wonder if that was sort of an inspiration. It was 2 or 3 where he rode the horse, I can't remember but yeah. Like I said earlier, I realized that the charm of Arnold to me really exists in some of those older movies where he's kind of coming into his own.

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[00:22:54] It wasn't Stephen Wright, no, it was um, it was one of the old one liners, I'm talking like punchlines from 60s, [00:23:00] 70s guys. Oh God. Yeah. Um, I can't remember. If I said the name and remembered it, you would be like, Oh, that guy. But you know, he, he had such an interest in comedy and, and before this he had twins and junior going into a racer.

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[00:23:33] I, I think also these movies kind of suffer in retrospect because they're kind of cheesy and, and it's, I didn't see them in the 90s, so it's like, were they cheesy in the 90s? I don't really know, but all I remember is like when I was a kid. My friend's parents, I just remember there being a lot of conversations around True Lies and them talking about how amazing it was.

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[00:24:09] And what's interesting is I can't wait to hear like what my kid thinks, like what she picked up on. She's like, Oh, I remember that. And it's going to be this clear memory to us, but some foggy, like Oppenheimer, that's right. I saw that poster. The most terrifying, depressing movie of all time. The best Bob maker ever.

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[00:24:46] I do think. I would agree. I think it had, it had been an amazing thing and it kind of, it kind of hit its, I mean, James Cameron had moved on. Think about it. How, how long before after true lies, as you go to Titanic, I mean, an avatar, that dude flipped a switch. He was done with the [00:25:00] Arnold game. I mean, true lies is done.

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[00:25:16] We're gonna have some young actor who's up and coming, he's gonna freeze on a big door. True Randos. It's been too long since I said that word, Randos, it really rolls off the tongue. True Randos. Here we go. Tom Arnold. James Cameron loved him so much that he threatened Fox to take this movie to a different studio because they didn't want him because his recent, his, he had a lot of issues in the public eye.

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[00:26:00] But James Cameron said he brought him in for his audition, and he was so good, he blew him away. When the studio said they didn't want him for all those tumultuous reasons, he said I'll take this movie to a different studio. Arnold also loved him. He loved playing across from him. And also, I think it took a little bit of the pressure off Arnold to have these, both of these movies.

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[00:26:32] And I think, I think Tom Arnold is actually a huge bright spot. At first, he was a little annoying, but I kind of warmed up to it. And then I loved his, I loved his commentary throughout the film. You know, it's interesting you mentioned that because I think you just pinpointed some, uh, one of the problems I had with it.

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[00:27:14] Like it was just like So well intense and like yeah too much for no reason really for no yes also something that is very observable in both of these films and I was this probably won't make it to the final cut but um they were both really chauvinistic oh yeah totally true lies true lies was derided as a misogynistic film like they were so f***ing chauvinistic I was watching these and I was like Damn, man.

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[00:27:58] God, like the whole [00:28:00] joke about the tits and the buttermilk. Like I go, nobody would ever say that. I was like, yeah, it made me just really uncomfortable. Like you drill drill, like a drill. I am a Bill Paxson guy. If he was talking, I was cringing. Another thing about packs into is he had been a side guy in so many camera movies.

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[00:28:31] Yeah. After this, he starts to take on star roles. So I think he was in the middle of this transition. Think about it compared to other movies he's been in that we've reviewed up to this point. He had a lot of lines. His character was larger than life. Like he had a lot of screen time. He then transitioned.

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[00:28:59] Also, the scene [00:29:00] when he was like, when Arnold's test driving the car or whatever, like why the f*** wasn't Arnold driving the car? He's trying to sell this car to this guy and Arnold's in the passenger seat just like glaring at him. I want to know what it's like to be a passenger. Why is the salesman driving the car?

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[00:29:30] Maybe, maybe it was to give him a sense of control, but it was probably just an oversight. Rando, true Rando. Nger actually almost died during the horse scene. There was a point where the, he was actually, so there is the infamous scene where you can obviously see it's a stunt man. Yes. Um, but he also, he does ride the horse in some scenes.

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[00:30:16] Oh my god. At least he said it was 90 feet. Dude, the number of celebrities that have, like, been injured in horse incidences and things. Yeah, I don't trust horses. I know everyone loves them. I mean, Christopher Reeves, man, like, literally ended everything for them. Well, they're very big, and they're very jumpy, so Yes, they are.

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[00:30:46] Yeah, because he died. So, but anyway, side effect. Hey, Cormac McCarthy died three weeks ago and I'm still recovering. Nobody cares. He's a top three writer for me. Speaking of almost dying, Jamie Lee Curtis It was her birthday on the day they [00:31:00] did the helicopter scene, and she did that stunt herself. She was the one dangling off the side of the helicopter.

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[00:31:16] You know, she's known for Halloween and a bunch of other failed films. She has a long ass torso. She crushed this movie. Crushed it. I loved it. I don't know why I'm talking like this. Crushed it. So, but anyway, on her birthday, she did the Halloween stunt. No, the helicopter stunt. There's definitely someone listening out there that was like, Man, my bro in the f***ing frat house used to talk like that.

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[00:31:49] No. Oh, I don't know, she would do a Cameron movie, probably. I don't know if she'd do the dancing part, and, and, but she also opted for a different movie called Nell, which didn't do as well, but Nell was like a film about, she played a [00:32:00] woman that was trapped in the woods, or grew up in the woods and didn't speak English, and had her own language.

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[00:32:15] And lastly, true lies true randos. The jets, they used three fighter jets. Real government issued jets. Um, and the total cost was over $100,000 to use these three jets to hire the pilots too. That's, do you wanna guess what the hourly, hourly rate was though? Probably a couple grand an hour. $2,400 an hour.

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[00:32:50] It had a legendary writer Uh who didn't get credit jane or john milius did an uncredited right on eraser the guy that wrote apocalypse now [00:33:00] jaws He has an uncredited writing thing here. He also wrote Shawshank Redemption. That was an Arnold request, right? No, I don't think it was an Ar Was it? May have been.

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[00:33:26] I feel like everything Frank Darabont touches starts off okay, and then just nosedives was awesome. Yeah, it was good. Nevermind, I repent. I forget the guy's name, but he was working at the gay bar in that movie. He was freaking hilarious. Yes. And there was some really good writing for him. He was hilarious.

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[00:33:59] One of my [00:34:00] favorite Kyle quote, it's not f***ing yo Deon, it's f***ing Yoon, Deon . Oh, wait, what? It was from the speed episode. He messes up at one point and he's like, and you know, Yoon Deba. And he goes, f***ing Yo Deon. I left it in the episode because it was just great. This is one of the craziest randos that I've ever found for the podcast before a racer was made.

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[00:34:37] So they gave them huge budgets. Well, this is around the time they were on the nosedive and they were starting to become, you know, start to go bankrupt. At the time, before Eraser, Arnold was entertaining doing a movie called Crusade. Originally it was attached to Martin Scorsese, but it did end up being a Paul Verhoeven movie, but Carol Co.

[: 00:34:54

[00:35:10] So, that was in play. We could have had a movie. This guy says he was gonna do it. Yeah, originally and then Vorhofen. Oh, I would've loved to have seen that. Yeah, so. It would've been really weird. It would've been. Yeah. Apparently, it was. over the top violent, over the top. How would he have shuffled his mother into that movie or whatever he always did in his films, right?

[: 00:35:28

[00:35:46] Because apparently if you read the script That was my first thought. There's a scene where he rips a guy's beard off and his whole face comes off with it. Like it's like vulgar, over the top violence. And he was like, I love dudes. That was going to be an Oscar Beatty kind of thing. That's not something that's going to get you elected.[00:36:00]

[: 00:36:00

[00:36:14] He's this is funny. The original name of the central defense contractor was Cyrex, but there was a real company called Cyrex and they. Sued the production company and said, if you don't change it, we are going to sue you. So that's why it's Cyrez and not Cyrex. Wow. Yeah, there was a real company called Cyrex.

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[00:36:44] Maybe someone told them, did you hear that f***er James Cameron's making a movie about our company? He's like, dude, we make fertilizer. Why do you want to make a movie about a fertilizer company? I don't know, that's weird. We make defense fertilizer. Hire Jim. Who's Jim? My cousin, the lawyer. He lives in the Bronx.

[: 00:36:56

[00:37:15] It was gonna be a great cost to the film's budget, which was 100 million dollars, which is funny, that was the same as True Lies, and at the time, True Lies, that was the biggest budget ever. Now it's just like, eh, nickelback. What? This is horrible. I mean, f*** this rando. I don't want to do it anymore. What is it?

[: 00:37:28

[00:37:47] Uh, and I love what you said, Phil, that it felt like it should've come out in 89, you kinda said this too, Drew. It should've come out in 89, but it was in 96, that this genre had passed by, people were done with it, I think the misogyny of those [00:38:00] Eraser is a lot like Commando. Commando is him taking a woman and protecting her and she's falling.

[: 00:38:04

[00:38:21] It wasn't even his voice. Like, I just feel like Conan, his body, that was like part of his bodybuilding career. Part of me doesn't, but in my research, like film people, writers, you know, critics do. I, they, they consider that to be the golden Arnold era. I don't personally, cause I don't necessarily love that film as much, but I mean, even if he started in 84, that was 82, Conan, it feels like it started with Terminator.

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[00:38:59] And [00:39:00] so it is interesting. So it's kind of random, but I just wanted to mention that, you know, scholastically speaking, this is kind of the end. Kind of sad. Yeah. Cause next he did what was next end of days, which is kind of a horror thing, right? And yeah, he fights. And it was his first movie after his heart surgery.

[: 00:39:14

[00:39:29] It's fun. Oh, wow. It's horrible. It's a Korn and Limp Bizkit. I would watch it right now. I feel like we're gonna watch it next time we hang out. Yeah, yeah. End of podcast, we'll watch End of Days. Next time Phil can't get together, we'll be like, End of Days? Shall we parse the lies? Let's erase or, erase war.

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[00:40:05] Going, if you don't do that top bill cash, we can't commence on the scorecard. If we can't commence on the war card, the podcast will never end. And we're using open source software to record because s**t, he left his IKEA at home. What the f*** did you, I'm sorry, did you say Ikea in there somewhere? Ikea, he left his cheap couch at home.

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[00:40:35] a thing to happen since they found out about bread and they opened all the factories there was a huge boom but then remember during 1942 during world war ii when they closed down all the bread making factories they started making bombs for the d. i. a so they could bomb other countries and we could use elicited drug money to fund terrorism around the world do you remember this motherf***ers wow yes i do the sheer amount of verbiage [00:41:00] Falling out of your face is impressive.

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[00:41:28] Rounders! Okay, but it didn't work itself out to be Top Bill. Right, exactly. You know, somehow, I should have been anticipating this, and I wasn't. Mostly because I'm a Arnie in True Lies versus Arnie in Eraser. It's tough. I could go either way, but I feel like I know how Kyle's going to go on this one because he has a bizarre dislike for Arnold in True Lies because he's too polished, but You know me so well.

[: 00:41:53

[00:42:25] As good as that type of actor could be, I thought he crushed it in True Lies. I thought his polished nature was very becoming. And I, I, I don't know. I just really enjoyed him in that movie. He was funny. He was as believable, I guess, as you could be. You know, he had a lot of really great moments in that movie.

[: 00:42:40

[00:42:55] Drewskies. I don't want to see Arnold sitting by a fireplace talking to a woman. [00:43:00] I don't even want to see him I do. Sitting, ever. I don't want to see him riding a horse at a Marriott. I want to see Arnold In an airplane, throwing a chair out to kill the engine so he can jump out, miss the engine, deploy a thing, it not work, find the backup, and then take on an airplane.

[: 00:43:18

[00:43:36] Watch the documentary, we know how it negatively impacted his marriage and his life, like, I just hate that, I hate that. As amazing as it is, is he became governor. I just feel like Terminator 3, like, he was, that was the same thing. Terminator 3 is supposedly the one that suffered the most. You know, he, that was really close to his political aspirations, and he totally audited himself.

[: 00:43:53

[00:44:13] Like, it just, it felt like some kind of bizarre, adjacent Yeah, or just like a, an adjacent universe kind of thing, you know, like where he could have been the Terminator. And, and also he plays a very Terminator like role in that movie because he's the Eraser. He goes in and f***ing terminates people, literally.

[: 00:44:30

[00:44:47] I will make mistakes. English is not my first language. The Scantron form is gonna f*** me over when I My muscles are too big for these bubbles. That's so good. Run it again! Run it again, I got the right answer. I need a [00:45:00] 920 on my SATs. Or else James Cameron won't let me run for president. Ha ha ha ha! The eraser had a lot of Terminator adjacent things going on.

[: 00:45:09

[00:45:25] Big motherf***er. You put that guy in a tuxedo. He's not nondescript. People are going to be looking like, who's that big guy in the six foot. He's not, he's actually not that tall. He's 6'2 I think he's 6'2 supposedly. Wow, that's way shorter than I thought. The eraser actually was a little more close to what I love about him.

[: 00:45:42

[00:45:57] Yeah. Well this is the third movie. Tom Arnold was in it and we're like, wait, [00:46:00] what? This is the third movie he's done with Arnold. Both Terminators. Oh, that's right. Damnit. Cut all that. . . f***. You said it earlier too. I was like, he's a Terminator. Was kind of a big deal, but damnit. I didn't say anything though.

[: 00:46:14

[00:46:28] Yeah, we actually got adopted into a cult and they gave me four kids. I own the, the butter churning children, which has been great for me. I love butter. It's been, you know, the boss doesn't know that I'm siphoning a little bit, you know, but. I'm the head of the Branch Davidian compound here in Tennessee, so there you go.

[: 00:46:43

[00:47:06] Been too long since you had that iPad. World War II Oppenheimer, s**t, f***! Best Supporting Cast! Supporting Cast! Cut all that. Uh, True Lies, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, forgive my pronunciation. Tia Carrera. Carrera? Carrere? Carrera, yeah. Carrera. She's wonderful. Uh, in Eraser we have Vanessa Williams, James Kahn, James Coburn, and Robert.

[: 00:47:30

[00:47:46] Such a s**tty last name. Charlton Heston's the boss. and true lies. He's the boss of the, the not even list. Oh yeah. He's at the end of the table there when they're like, yeah, he's having eyebrows with the eye patch. I'll start. This is tough. A young John Slattery. Oh yes. Still smoking. Our [00:48:00] friend from this is, he was, he was pre silver, but he was post gray.

[: 00:48:03

[00:48:24] I love how she transformed. This is kind of because Arnold's not super nuanced as an actor. I think it gets lost. I think a better actor could have portrayed this feeling more. But the real point of the story to me was, is that she fell in love with him, even though she found out he was lying. She fell in love with Spy Arnold because she was into that.

[: 00:48:39

[00:48:53] I hadn't thought about it like that. Yeah. And she's, she was known as a genre actor, people, she did a couple of s**tty movies and people didn't really [00:49:00] ever get over her from Halloween. She really shows off here, and she did so well that originally Arnold, I didn't have this in my randos, she didn't, he didn't want her.

[: 00:49:07

[00:49:22] And that was a huge deal for her. The problem though with True Lies is not Jamie Lee Curtis. She carries this movie in a lot of ways. To me, there's malpractice with Bill Paxton here, who I love, who we love. We've loved him on this podcast. And rest in peace, the great Bill. But his character, and it's not his fault he's reading the lines that are meant for him, but he's It's just He's not good.

[: 00:49:40

[00:49:58] But the eraser [00:50:00] felt below James Conn. Yeah, I thought that a little. In a way. Of course, was Elf below James Conn? That's a fair question. That's a different question. Yeah, that's actually a really good point. He's not much different than De Niro in that way. They both, they both ended up take, you know, doing more.

[: 00:50:15

[00:50:31] Yeah, but I, I am seriously gonna go True Lies because I think Jamie Lee Curtis deserves so much credit. She just won her first Oscar this year for Everywhere, All at Once. It's about f***ing time, jeez. She was fantastic here and, uh, I think she's underrated. So, I, I give it True Lies, it's, strictly, I give Tar Mono credit from a comedic point of view, too.

[: 00:50:49

[00:51:07] I'm sorry. He's, I'm he, I'm so glad you brought him up. You and I, so Drew and I watched, we've not talked enough about him. Yeah. Pastor Ellie. We watched a racer together and we were laughing our ass off him. I, we were laughing my butt off. And part of it is probably, I was sitting with a friend, you know, when you watch a movie with someone, you laugh more, but, but he stuck out to both of us.

[: 00:51:24

[00:51:49] Vanessa Williams, she's beautiful and, and Married to the great Rick Fox? She's never bad, is she really? There she was during this time, they had four kids together. Oh, okay. Red Fox? Rick Fox, from the Lakers. Wow. [00:52:00] He played on those great Laker teams with Kobe and Robert Ori. Oh, wow. Yeah, and then you got James Cromwell, like, he was, he's kind of a legend in his own right, like, you know, not an A list survivor.

[: 00:52:08

[00:52:24] I really liked Jamie Lee Curtis. She played the, like, the demure, like, suppressed housewife thing really well. I also loved Dude, her awkward striptease thing was It was, like, so funny to me. She was obviously so uncomfortable. There was some real acting happening there. It was uncomfortable, but it was also like some real acting happening.

[: 00:52:43

[00:53:02] Both are surprisingly dense at the supporting level. They are, man! Like, there's some juggernauts in both of those. When I saw James Caan on Eraser, I was like, holy s**t. I know, yeah, it's kind of weird. They got Sonny here! Well, the truth is, Eraser is learning the truth behind the lies here, because it's tied.

[: 00:53:17

[00:53:35] Oh my god. That's really difficult. Um, I feel like if they're both secret, they wouldn't be on LinkedIn. The Omega Super Secret soup, sauce, whatever the f***. Omega counter terror sector, I think, is what is official. That's what is on Charlton Heston's business card. Yeah, the U. S. Marshals are like a bizarrely underfunded branch of the U.

[: 00:53:55

[00:54:14] The pointed like squid heads? Yeah, and they just kind of leave s**t on your paper and also the graphite and you'd be like, what the f*** was the point of this? Like, that's what I feel like you might get if you were part of the U. S. Marshals Service. If I'm gonna erase, I need resources. I can't just erase on a suestring budget.

[: 00:54:29

[00:54:48] Wow. Brought to you by the NRA. So he's like a father to me. Ha ha ha ha ha. He raised you. So, I have to go with the Omega Cops here. I also, that's funny. I did not know that. That is amazing. It's true. I also go [00:55:00] True Lies, but that's because WITSEC, man, get your s**t together. I mean, one of your lead guys is, is a mole, and the boss is so surprised.

[: 00:55:07

[00:55:27] There's no boxes. You're just sitting there. No cases. Remember this, Drew? We pointed this out when the the the the boxcar falls. I'm like, those they're just they just pack the railguns in there. They don't need cases or styrofoam. Like, they just literally, like, what if they get to the Russian mob and they don't work?

[: 00:55:41

[00:56:03] I feel like that was. scene I've ever seen in any movie ever. Like this is the dumbest thing, but I feel like that's why that's where that ambiguity of like, is it a comedy or isn't an action film? A serious action film jarringly shakes you from it. Yes, it does. Comedy. That's the crazy part. Oh my gosh. And that was a hundred percent.

[: 00:56:21

[00:56:42] I don't know if she killed Lee, but she said you get your ass to the bottom and then the, you know, that the submarine will come down later. Yeah, she really does, he really does elevate women. Don't misgender him. And Helen, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, she does transform here, but this seems like a super like, ditzy thing to do.

[: 00:56:59

[00:57:15] Yeah, the whole thing is off brand for everybody. Yeah, everybody had food poisoning or something. I don't know what happened, but I do go true lies. So, Eraser is learning the truth here. At two to one, here we go. Category three, or uh, category four. What's more believable? Simon slash Bill Paxton as a spy, or the railguns being jammed into a container with no cases, boxes, or styrofoam, or protection of any sort?

[: 00:57:38

[00:57:56] When that car opens and they just fall out, I was like, [00:58:00] really? Yeah, it's like as much as you'd think that that wouldn't be that way. We've all been around long enough to see the, like 24 inch by 48 inch Amazon box show up with a f***ing tiny ass vial of, of lube in it. And you're like, you guys put this two ounce bottle of liquid in like a four square foot box.

[: 00:58:23

[00:58:40] I believe that. So that's more believable to you. A hundred percent, dude. This is America. We f***ing cut corners. Yeah. What's more believable to you? Bill Paxson as a fake. car dealers. 100 percent agree. Bill Paxson was not believable in any way. That was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen. It was deplorable.

[: 00:58:56

[00:59:15] She's so smart in this movie. Not really, though. I know, but he's, the way Bill Paxton plays it, it's like, oh my gosh, this guy. Yeah, I, and, and you pointed out the fact, like, you pointed out a really glaring part of this movie that I never really thought of. The fact that, like, she ends up falling for what she was attracted.

[: 00:59:33

[01:00:06] Yeah, we just cleaned house with the racer, that was a, that we just swept that across the board. The government would not pack a, a, a car very well, of railguns. Toe to toe! Toe to toe, here we go! This is more general. We have two of, two fantastic Arnold action films. What was the best action, best action film?

[: 01:00:22

[01:00:53] Yeah. Oh, yeah, I kind of didn't mind it I kind of liked the gun. It was fine. But to me, the scene, the [01:01:00] airplane scene was epic. Like, absolutely. So epic. Just from, from the moment James gone, like hands that other kid, like he takes the water bottle from him and he's like, here's something you'll like a little more.

[: 01:01:11

[01:01:29] Out and chases it that that was amazing crazy dude like and then went after it and then when it didn't work he threw the other thing and then he took on an airplane that was coming back around at like it was just the whole scene was that was great absolutely incredible that was that was pure Arnold's bizarre as cool as the bridge scene was and props to Jamie for doing all the stunts like I don't think you can top that airplane scene no I go you know there's no shame in going to race here I go there too and And there's two reasons.

[: 01:01:56

[01:02:10] And Predator. The, uh, the, the bow and arrow with the fire arrows. When Arnold picks up certain weaponry in a certain way. There's no other actor that visually you're like this s**t's going down and when he picks up two railguns. Arnold is the king of picking up a weapon and just, and it's fixing to go down.

[: 01:02:27

[01:02:55] But James Caan being the great actor he is makes it more interesting. As [01:03:00] much as the Crimson Jihad is bloated and, and they're this organization and it's playing on real life fears that are actually playing out in our society in real life, I was so disinterested in the first thing we see the leader do, uh, played by Malek, the actor Malek.

[: 01:03:15

[01:03:31] For Predator, and Rambo, and Rocky. You need a great villain in there to start there. Both are forgettable, but Wait, you mean to tell me that the guy that only had hair on the back of his head Yeah. and nothing Thing mysteriously in the front whatsoever. It was almost laughable. Yeah. He had like a lion reverse lion's mane.

[: 01:03:49

[01:04:08] Yeah. Just because of what we know ends up happening. Yeah. So, it's like, when those are portrayed, it's like, ha ha ha, America was laughing their asses off at this, and then we know what happened. Like, it's just, it's tough. Yeah. It was very trope y. And it's weird that, you know, the reason Rambo 3 suffered, at the time Rambo 3 was the most expensive movie ever made, and the reason it suffered is because they, they picked person to cheer for at the wrong time, we're just six years removed from that.

[: 01:04:31

[01:04:48] I'm starting to see, Oh, maybe this is why the genre faded out. They just couldn't stop writing. I mean, the tropes worked for a time, but they just couldn't stop writing those things out. You know, that kind of like However, only [01:05:00] challenge to that, the show 24 started in 2001 and was primarily about Middle Eastern terrorists the whole time.

[: 01:05:07

[01:05:23] You should watch this network television. Even 24 was like, make popcorn, sit down, really see TV, 24, my family. Like, I don't know. I haven't seen it in 20 years, but it was, it was incredible. Then it was an event like the concept of an entire season of a show covering a full 24 hour day and they showed you minute by minute and that's what every episode was.

[: 01:05:44

[01:05:59] This is a [01:06:00] good entrance for you to do, try 24. Dude, 24 is really good. And then you've got the guy from the Nationwide Commercials. Yeah. Who was awesome. David. Well, his name was he was president David Palmer David Palmer. Yeah, I will I will try it Well, it's three to two and and our fans are probably hating us right now because so many of them love true lies But the scorecard the scorecard dick takes off.

[: 01:06:20

[01:06:42] Oh! The f***ing alligator scene! Worst CGI ever. That s**t was crazy! But still awesome. That was bananas. Alligators do not do any of those things. Horrible, horrible CGI but still a great idea. None of them. Your luggage, like what the f*** was that s**t? Okay, I'm gonna say something controversial here. The horrible CGI, the concept was [01:07:00] still enough to overcome how s**tty the CGI was.

[: 01:07:02

[01:07:21] But man, that alligators. This is a stroke of genius and we've yet to really talk about the other director here. The other director is not too shabby, Mr. Chuck Russell, who directed the most beloved Nightmare on Elm Street, Dream Warriors. And also, his biggest success going into this movie, you know what that was?

[: 01:07:35

[01:07:52] Like, he was cool with this because of some of the stuff he does in Nightmare on Elm Street. Like this dude, the mask, think about the mask, and he's doing this with alligators. [01:08:00] So I, I'm gonna go ahead and just call it, I, listen, the horse stuff is fun in Arnold, but I just thought the alligator thing, like, it didn't seem out of place.

[: 01:08:07

[01:08:23] And it's just conveniently small enough to fit into an elevator? The only difference is they didn't have to CGI the horse. Yeah, but then there's blatantly just a non Arnold guy on the horse for no apparent reason. We're like, wait, where the f*** is Arnold? That's some other guy. Oh, there he is! It's another Arnold.

[: 01:08:38

[01:08:56] Like those horses are like, you know, Arnold almost died. The horse [01:09:00] association doesn't allow you to CGI horses, so. Yeah, I mean they have a guild. Yeah, the horse guild. The International Guild of Horses. It's more impressive to use horses that aren't CGI in an urban setting, in my opinion, than to just CGI, like, some alligators.

[: 01:09:17

[01:09:36] So anyway, uh, yeah, the horse thing wins for me. Last category. Three to three. Oh s**t. The pressure is on. Make a break. Oh my gosh. Who wins here? Arnold or Arnold? I'm really in, in just suspense here. Is true lies going to be erased? Or is Eraser going to learn the truth of the lie here? Biggest flex. We're going to finish with a flex category.

[: 01:09:55

[01:10:21] Or, we're bringing the alligators back, killing your adversaries with alligators in the tank. Biggest flex. Both are crazy flexes. I mean, she accidentally, she drops, she drops and runs! And it's just boop, boop, boop! I have a patent issue with the situation in True Lies because guns don't work that way. I was gonna ask you, you're the marksman in the room.

[: 01:10:42

[01:11:02] Unless you drop them down a staircase. I guess. Then they start eating Then they start eating everybody. Biggest flex? Oh man, I, I personally loved when Arnold just f***ing shot that alligator tank and those gators came out and then the chaos that ensued. So I'll go biggest flex like having the foresight to take out a tank full of alligators with two bullets left in order to kill your adversaries.

[: 01:11:25

[01:11:43] They're just like, this is just kind of like a thing we're doing. A punchline. We hope it, yeah, exactly. But I, we're speaking in terms of what's the bigger flex. And I think to Phil's point, the bigger flex would be, he was like, I'm going to blow the glass out of this. And then they're going to have, there's going to be a problem here with that.

[: 01:11:59

[01:12:15] Like, you just, you killed them by mistake. I don't know. Not to mention that when it starts off, it's at the top of the stairs. The angle it would have to achieve firing, even though it can't possibly do that, let's say theoretically it could happen. Yeah. It's at the top of the stairs, yet it's killing people every step it takes.

[: 01:12:31

[01:12:47] It was reminding you like, Hey, we're not taking ourselves. Yeah. Like that was just the most James Cameron was in between wife. Number four, number five. He was really feeling He was maybe feeling out wife number six with Jamie Lee Curtis. He was still married, so he was like, Oh, I [01:13:00] can't marry her like I married Sarah Hamilton.

[: 01:13:02

[01:13:23] It is here to wipe out the future. And it doesn't apologize. It doesn't. And it shows up naked. That's why we Every time. That's why we shifted to Eraser, because we wanted to come here with better films. Because they're both great. I Listen, I I go Same Same thing. I God, I love James Cameron so much, but True Lies is so uneven to me.

[: 01:13:40

[01:13:58] So he wrote a script that, [01:14:00] that really bent to what he could do at the time. And like, it's, it's about the pace. It's almost a horror movie in some ways. And Cameron is so intentional, but there's so much malpractice and true lies. And this is, this seems lazy. to me at least the alligators it made sense he had two bullets left he's like in there there's more there's more enemies than bullets so he shoots the freak he's in a zoo and he kills the alligators that was awesome like it was creative it was interesting the cgi was really bad it was so bad but it was it was a progression and it's just right i don't know cameron cameron was something's wrong here i just i just felt like he was out of his element if you're you're if you're sitting at a table and important you know you're a writer's room or whatever you're like what if what if he shot what if The shot, the alligator, like the glass and the alligators.

[: 01:14:42

[01:15:02] It's like, are we trying to be serious? You know? Yeah. Anyway, that's a, that's a great point. Like true lies was a comedy that never quite realized it was a comedy. And it was also an action film that never quite realized it was an action film. So it was like, is it a soundtrack issue? What's some lighter? I don't remember the music from either music make you feel like, Oh, they're being silly here.

[: 01:15:23

[01:15:42] She's quirky. She's quirky, and she was dropping guns, and she was stripping, and she was, you know, like It just, yeah, it didn't land for me. So you shredded AF for the strip scene? Well, not to prolong the end here, but I was just thinking about 1994 as a year for film. The fact that, so I think, I don't remember these perfectly, but so, the thing is, True [01:16:00] Lies, I think, made, it would cost 100 million to make, it made 120.

[: 01:16:03

[01:16:22] The Lion King, The Mask, another Chuck Russell movie. The other one is Jean Reno, right? Yes. Yeah. I love that. We gotta cover that movie at some point, by the way. Speed, with our beloved Keanu Reeves, Legends of the Fall, Brad Pitt making his ramp up to stardom, uh, Dumb and Dumber, The Little Rascals, Interview with a Vampire, another Brad Pitt movie.

[: 01:16:41

[01:17:00] The 90s rule. 1994. The mid 90s. s**t just felt good back then. It did. True lies is a blip on the radar in 94. I also can't believe I was eight years old in 1994 because my daughter is about to turn seven and I feel like she's like so old and I don't remember jack s**t about 1994. Yeah, 94 may be, I mean, I remember Lion King.

[: 01:17:22

[01:17:49] Three to four, and I'm sorry ifremember, this war card is completely out of my ass. No, no, no. No apologies. No apologies. The war card does not apologize. It doesn'tit doesn't feel emotion. It's Kyle. [01:18:00] You can, but the war card doesn't. Here to change the future. Well, I'm beholden to it. It's its own entity. It's like the exorcist.

[: 01:18:05

[01:18:21] It's been a crazy summer. We'll get back on it with the, the regularity, but this has been fun. And, uh, hope you're all having an amazing summer and a pucker those assholes. I'm Kyle. Drew. And I'm Fubwop Fubwop. Tell the true lie. Love you.[01:19:00]

[: 01:19:14