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Key, Mark Talks, Pontificates, bout pop Culture, ron and Report with Mark Ronner.
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Okay, I hadn't seen much of Romy Mallick lately, and I wanted to think he had the decency to go into hiding for a while after being the worst James Bond villain in the worst James Bond movie of all time, No Time to Die in twenty twenty one. I know he's been in other stuff, but in my fantasy world, people feel shame and act accordingly. Now he's shown his face again in a remake of a very good thriller from nineteen eighty one called The Amateur. And here's some of the trailer.
I want to find and kill the people who murdered my wife.
This is a joke, right, Take it.
Take it, point it at my chest, do it now.
You can't do what I do, no matter how much I train you.
You're just not a killer, durn.
You were just a nerdy fell It works on computers. Did you account the thing I'm good at.
You held a gun to my wife's head to remote controls the device decompressing the glass beneath you.
You have the wrong person.
No, I'm exactly the right person.
This ends here.
Are you done?
No?
Don't want them all.
You recognize her.
You jumped really fast, you might survive the glass right.
If you've never seen the original version of The Amateur, it was streaming on Hulu last I checked. If you have seen it, it's probably one of your all time favorite John Savage movies. Hello, yeah, if you're really nice nothing no, no no. If you're young, like born after a certain time, you should know that. Back in the eighties we all look forward to the latest John Savage movie. It was a real event. People had his poster on their dorm room walls. When people did coke. The catchphrase was,
that was a Savage rail dude. Nah, that's all lies, all of it. The Amateur was one of his few starring vehicles after everybody from The Deer Hunter got big in the late seventies. You may also remember him from Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. About a decade later. The Amateur still had one foot in that more adult smart thriller of the new Hollywood of the seventies. It and this new remake are based on a novel by Robert Little called The Amateur Colon, a novel of revenge.
We didn't really need the rest of that, and it's a pretty cool twist on the revenge flick. Or I guess I should say subgenre if I really want to be insufferable. We'll talk about mees on sen at a later date. Savage played a CIA computer expert whose wife goes on and overseas trip in the original and gets killed on live TV and a terrorist caper. His bosses at the CIA won't do much about it, so he
more or less blackmails him into training him. He's a whoosy and a nerd with no James Bond like skills whatsoever, and he wants to go find and kill the terrorists himself. The CIA bosses don't want to do this and would like to screw him over, but he's a clever wos nerd. He doesn't Jason Statham his way through his wife's killers
because people don't do that. He uses his wits to wipe him out, also in ways that nobody really does, but in ways that are more plausible for a normal person who isn't an unbeatable superhero, martial artist, bodybuilder, killing machine. If you've ever seen Three Days of the Condor with Robert Redford as the analyst who gets swept into something that's pretty much completely out of his lane, the amateur could be sort of an inbred cousin, and they taught
each other how to tongue kiss. So I was game for this remake. It's been more than forty years, and now now there's plenty more for a tech nerd character like this to deal with when striking out for homicidal revenge. You get smartphones, you got surveillance cameras everywhere. Tawala coming in and wanting you to look at his pictures of huge roaches from the men's room on his phone, that
sort of thing. Rachel Brosnahan from Missus Mazel plays the wife Julianne Nicholson who we've just been watching in Paradise as the CIA director. She's your new go to mean authority figure lady of a certain age. Laurence Fishburns the experienced agent who figures out pretty quick he can't turn the nerd into a human weapon and John Burnhal who must contractually be in everything that John Carlo Esposito isn't in,
plays another Agent. I like revenge movies like this, and it made me think of another damn good one I only recently caught up with, called Blue Ruin, directed by the same guy who did Rebel Ridge that we all loved, Jeremy Solnier. It's a pretty nerve wracking journey, this Blue Ruin movie. It's about an exceedingly average, non tough guy absolutely determined to get revenge for something, no matter what it costs him, and it costs him a lot. You got to see Blue Ruin. That's from twenty three teen.
You can find that screen streaming too. There's your subgenre. The amateur is watchable, not an instant classic solid, won't be your favorite. When I think of remakes like The Manchurian Candidate that was just instant mobile, instantly forgettable, useless, and yes, horrible, this isn't in that category at all. It's an entertaining update and it's a good vehicle for romy Malik, who, whatever his other strengths are, he's not
a big alpha male action type. He's a little five foot seven guy, which incidentally, is the same height as John Savage from the original, and that concludes my height based critique of this week's movies. Hugh Jackman was attached to this movie initially, I would have been a whole different ballgame.
That would have been less believable because you've seen Hugh Jackman as an action star.
Yeah, he could do it. He's got the acting shops to pull it off, but it wouldn't have been the same movie. Now that we're really talking about this, look, it's going to be streaming soon and you'll be telling your kids someday lies about when you used to rush out to the theaters did see the new Rami Malick movie. If we have just a moment, I want to touch on one other hot tip for people who prefer not
to go outdoors ever. To be is streaming both seasons of the Human Target series from twenty ten with Mark Valley. These are such fun, well made old school action adventure, uncomplicated shows with some seriously fun fight set pieces stunts. Valley is a cool action hero and he's clearly up for the physical aspect. Here's a little trip down memory lane. It's short.
I'm want a cop, You're got a bodyguard.
We'll be here to identify your problems, solve it gets you out cleanly with no loose sends.
But I can't do that unless you let me.
Perfect.
Hi, I'm Christopher Chance you're not one of them?
Would we still be talking if I were.
All got to do is get in there, identify the threat, eliminated without causing international scene.
Would be the first time with Cosway. Hey, did who are you seem you can find guarrel? Let's bring him in on this.
Wait, wait, wait a minute, now, you're not serious. You think you're gonna fight back.
I'll take the beating and then one night soon I'm going to break in your houses and kill each of you in your sleeve.
Probably start with you off RIGHTO?
Do you really think you can trust that animal?
Sure?
The ones we're paying one time?
Your best? Where's my best?
And that's a pretty good line, I'm your best? And followed by a fight. Of course. That was Jackie Earl Haley as one of the team members with a fairly impressive huge wig and shades, calling everyone dude. Sean McBride's the other partner, sort of a chronically unpleasant skuld who always comes through in a pinch, then always complains about everything. The Human Target's a DC Comics character who goes under
cover in all sorts of situations to protect people. There's some good comic collections you can get from the library or comic shops. I like the one from twenty twenty one. Rick Springfield played the Human Target years before this.
Jesse's go.
It's worth seeing now. Another version popped up on the Arrow series. I haven't seen, but you don't have to be neck deep in comic nerdism to dig this show. Very fun, escapist stuff. Not that you need any reason for escapism lately, because maybe you haven't looked at your retirement money or were you thinking about buying a new truck?
Nope?
Do you have friends in Canada who won't talk to you anymore? Do you want me to go on? Because I could go on? How about your social security? It seems like.
You've convinced me to at least go see The Amateur. I think I'm gonna go see that in theaters. I want to see that. I've been looking forward to it.
Like I said, it's not an immediate classic, but it's fun and it's worth a watch, and you must see the human target. I'm plowing through this. I never saw the episodes when it was first on TV, and I'm unwinding, right rewinding. I'm rewinding with that at the end of the night.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty