Jordan Morris on Demolition Man

We are going to talk about Demolition Man. But before we get going, uh, and know that you have a project coming up soon, which is in this sounds like you're some kind of a self centered jerk to say that you got in touch with me for that reason. But uh, you know, he said, hey, let's get a movie crush and talk about it and talk about something else. Yeah, listen,

you know, I'm making the rounds, I'm doing pods. I have a graphic novel coming out that I co wrote, and you know, since since comic CON's and the like might not be a thing for another couple of months, I'm you know, just trying to get the word out. And also there's there's a there's A sub reason for wanting to podcast is that, you know, pandemic and all. It's it's a nice way to see friendly friends that you like. So you know, yeah, totally mental health reasons

for wanting to to get in touch. I hope I can help and not make things worse for you know, I mean talk talking talking about Demo Man with one of my favorite dudes. Instant cheer up, instant cheer up. Um, yes, I don't want to hear about it. What's going on?

Of course? Yes, I uh so. July thirte, a graphic novel called Bubble is coming out, uh, written by me and the great comedy writer Sarah Morgan, drawn by the great comic book artist Tony Cliff who does the Delila Dirk series, and colored by Natalie Reese who does the Dungeon Critters series. Um yeah, just an awesome, awesome team of of funny, cool people worked on this. It is a sci fi comedy. Uh. The the Elevator pitch would probably be Search Party meets Guardians of the Galaxy, if

you can imagine such a thing. Uh, it is. It's based on the Maximum podcast um that came out a couple of years ago, which was great. Oh thanks, Yeah, yeah, totally awesome and a lot of great a lot of great fans of that show. And um, yeah, I just really decided to to comic book if I it. I think it's a it kind of felt like a natural place for the story to go. It's a very comic bookie story with the aliens and robots and Gore. Uh so yeah, it really like really took nicely to the

comics page, I think. Yeah. Let me. I got a couple of questions here. The first one is what, as far as the story of Bubble goes, is this a sequel or is it a prequel? Or is it just another chapter? How? How does it? How? What is it? Yeah? So, um, you know, the initial talks I had with the publisher, um, they said they wanted something that was, um, you know, kind of a retelling of the events of the podcast,

but with some changes. There was obviously like stuff you know that we wanted to make a little more comic bookie. They wanted a different ending. Um. And so I think when we were kind of setting it out to you know, to adapt in and we were deciding what to cut and what to add, we wanted to like keep favorite stuff from the podcast, but also give people enough new stuff to where you know, you don't just feel like

it's the exact same story. So hopefully it's like it's the cool bits of the podcast, but with enough few stuff and a new ending and some new scenes and locales that you know, you feel like, you know, it wasn't just weak handed the podcast to an artist and said, you know, get drawn, asshole. Yeah. Uh yeah, different ending. Interesting.

I'm curious about this new ending. Yeah. Yeah, we definitely, like, you know, there's so much plot in the podcast, you know, because there's eight episodes and there's a lot of like there's a lot of a lot of plot, and I think it it you know, we had a you know, a limited amount of space because obviously, you know, this thing can't be pages um as not be the snider

cut of graphic novels. Um So, yeah, we we, so we kind of decided to kind of like minimize the plot a little bit and really drill down on the characters and really kind of get into them a little bit more, figure out what makes them tick, kind of give them, you know, kind of explore their inner lives and motivations and stuff like that. So yeah, and hopefully you know, a funny, cool way. Um. But yeah, that was kind of like those are kind of the broad

goals we went into it with. That sounds cool, It sounds like, I mean, if you're a fan of the Bubble podcast, which i am, I thought it was really great, it sounds like this could be a really good companion piece almost too, to make it. Um a bigger hole if you know what I'm talking about, A bigger hole. Yeah. You know, if there's one thing I love, it's big holes, big gaping cavernous holes. Um. Yeah, So no, I mean

that's it's a really good way to put it. I think, you know, I think something that we wanted was that like, okay, if you've heard the podcast, we want this to be something that feels new and additional. But also, you know, a lot of people don't listen to narrative podcasts, you know, like a lot of people you know, just aren't into the genre or they you know, they like chats, they

like other kinds of things. So you know, we wanted this to be something of like if you just if you love comics, if you're a comics person, you know, and you like monsters and sex jokes and you know, satire and robots and explosions like this is this is something you can like pick up and enjoy. So yeah, yeah, and ideally it doesn't feel like it's all inside jokes, although we have some little easter eggs for podcast fans.

But but hopefully it doesn't feel like you know, you're you're just you know, you're paging through somebody's inside jokes, you know. So is hope that this becomes a first of many. Yeah, I think that's you know, that's what we would like. I mean, obviously, you know, uh, we'll see how this one sells and see how preorders go.

But yeah, I mean I think I think, you know, I think the team really really had a good time with this, and um yeah, I think I think, given the opportunity, we would love to just keep telling Bubble stories until uh we die. So so yeah, no, I think it's I think, you know, schedules permitting, everybody would love to do more. And um, yes, so hopefully people people are into this one. Now, what is it like

writing for a graphic novel? I mean, you've written everything from uh to straight up sort of satire to uh, you're a writer on at midnight for a while, so very kind of quick punchy jokes. Um, what about writing for a graphic novel? Was that an entirely new thing or was it just sort of a different skin on

what you do? Boyd? Yeah, it was really interesting. I have been a like comics reader since you know, I was a little little kid, since I was you know, being bad in the grocery store and my mom had to get me something to quiet me down. Like, I've definitely just like read comics, you know, since I could read things. Um, so yeah, and they always like seemed like magic to me though, you know, they always seemed like something someone else did, you know, Like, well, I

could never do this. This is a goddamn magic trick. How these things get right? So yeah, I definitely, like you know, held them in very high regard. Um. And you know, Tony Tony Cliff the artist is you know, just a goddamn pro and you know has done such beautiful work over his career and just kind of knows the format and has really great storytelling ideas. So he

was a great guy. Um, you know, and I know Sarah, my co writer, you know, it's similarly is is a TV writer who loved comics who always kind of wanted to do it. Um. So you know, we we kind of came at it with this TV writing mentality, um and very specifically late night comedy. She does a lot of late night comedy in the UK, and so we we are used to jobs where you get paid like by the page. It's like you just need to fill a fucking page with jokes, you know, and that's kind

of how your success is measured. So we definitely in our early drafts overwrote we like you know, would have ten, you know, ten jokes per premise, ten jokes per page, and like when that happens, you can't see the pictures because the fucking page is filled up with the words. So there was a process of being like selective about what we put in, kind of like being a little choosier with jokes, some kind of shortening ideas because you know,

the the the art and this thing is beautiful. Uh, you know, Tony and Natalie are both like two of the fucking best in the world, you know, and so you know, we wanted to strike a balance between like letting people kind of enjoy you know, the scenery and you know, it is a cool world. It's it's kind of a world where, you know, it's a it's a kind of a near future where people live in these bubble cities, but outside there's this crazy alien landscape filled

with monsters. So, you know, both both kind of those primary settings. You know, Tony and Natalie made them look so cool, so um. So yes, there was kind of a process of like, can we be choosier about this? Can we be a little more like you know, snipery with the dialogue and the ideas so so as to you know, let people enjoy the visuals and the words too. That's awesome. Imagine that's an interesting exercise for a writer to put on a different hat and a different medium,

and especially if you're having to to whittle it down. Um, I would imagine you end up with like the gold you know, at the bottom of the pot. Yeah, that's that's that's the hope, is that the gold pot is what you're getting of. You know, I think I think you know, definitely, Sarah and I kind of joky word nous is still there, you know. I think I think you know that that sort of thing is still kind of present in it. But but you know, in a way that's still like respectful to the art. So yeah,

it was. It was really interesting, and I think were I to do more comics down the line, I definitely would like kind of have that mentality going in, like Okay, how can I you know, how can I make this dialogue, you know, say what I wanted to say, but also kind of give the artist room to kind of like show off and stretch their legs too. That's cool, man. I really I can't wait to see this world come to life, because that's the I mean, one of the great things about Bubble is it is such a cool

world and it's fun. You know, if people haven't listened to um fiction narrative podcasts like give It a World, because it's a rich it kind of reminds me when I was a kid and you would listen to stories, records and stuff, and it's just such a rich area for the mind to blossom and picture your own stuff, and you can, you know, you can do so much in a podcast to try and describe stuff without bogging it down, but a lot of that you just have

to leave up to the listener to imagine. And um, I know the world of Bubble in my brain and now I'm gonna be interested to see what it looks like and like how wrong I was in my own brain. Basically, yeah, no, it's interesting. I I That's something I think we're all kind of curious about. Is the like reaction from people who have listened, Yeah, does this looked like what was in your brain? And I think hopefully, you know, people

are cool with it being different or the same. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm that's one of the things I'm super fascinated to see. It's like, people who listened, how close is this to what was in your brain? Honestly, it's pretty close to what was in my brain. I was really surprised how how Tony drew stuff really similar

to what I was what I was thinking. Um yeah, that was actually a little bit part of our process was every time there was, you know, a monster or something, you know, He's like, can you send me some comps? So I would just do you know, Google image searches for certain dark souls monsters that I liked and send them over and you know, like buildings, like what does this building kind of look like? So I would send

him like apartments and stuff. So yeah, I mean it's obviously that contributed to why stuff looks similar to my brain. But also just some of the voices he made him like that is right on, and um, oh yeah, this is kind of interesting as far as the character designs go. Um, he didn't. He didn't draw the actors from the podcast probatim, but with every character he started with one of their

physical attributes. So like, um, you know, we have a character played by Eliza Skinner, the great comedian and writer Eliza Skinners. So she, uh, you know, she has a she has a really cool beauty mark and so we kind of he started with that character's beauty mark and kind of expounded off it. And yeah, so you'll see that with all the characters that there's something you know, if you know the actor, then you can see those

little physical attributes that were the starting point. But they all do look, you know, kind of like their own characters. So that's awesome. Man, give him a little a little nod, yeah, for sure. But there are some yeah, and there are some little uh, there are some little drawn Maximum cameos in there too that you'll see if you're you're a Maxi, if you're a fan of the Maximum podcast averse, uh, some some there you'll see some familiar faces. Oh that's great, dude,

I can't wait. Um, when does it come out and when can people pre order? And where? Yeah? So uh so July thirteenth it comes out. But you can preorder it now basically wherever you you get your books, so Amazon, Barnes and Noble, but also like, hey, man, call that local indie bookstore that might be having a tough time right now, or your local comic shop and they'll pre

order it up for you. And I think I can say this is that we have some cool stuff planned for people who preorder, so like, if you're curious, um, yeah, please please get out there and pre order. And it really help the book. It helps it helps those uh those little bookstores. And yeah, hopefully you're gonna get some cool uh stuff in return that I'll announce on social media when the time comes. So yeah, I'm looking now at the US dot McMillan dot com website. Yes, and

it looks great. It actually has some panels here based on the smash It podcast, and I'm going to preorder it right now, hardcover, hardcover. Chuck, you know, you know, yes, that's too much. Get the no, you know it gets the hard it's beautiful. Always always get hardcovers. I just I'm still a book guy. I'm one of those weirdos who hardcover books and putting them on my bookshelf. And this looks fantastic. Cannot wait, my friend. Oh thanks dude, thank you so much. It's really really nice to you.

And yeah, definitely, uh yeah, definitely. I I you know, it's funny. I I my first publishing thing, and I really got a lesson in the importance of preordering books. So I needed to. Recently, Josh and I had our book out, and they're like, you hear that word a lot when you're in the in the meetings. Uh, it's all about that pre order. Yeah. Yeah, I was not. You know, it's not something I'm embarrassed to say. It's

not something that I did personally before this. But now I'm like, oh, yeah, now I am a book preorder. I realized that anywhere. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Pre orders are. And we told this, we were preaching to this stuff. You should know listeners for a while about the importance of preorders, and I think it's just I don't know what it is. It builds. I think they want a big first day number, which the pre orders sort of aggregate to and uh, it's just a very significant thing.

I remember Hodgman talking to me about pre orders being a big deal, and that's why people get sick of hearing people say pre order, because yeah, yeah, yeah, pre order bubble everybody. It looks fantastic. Yeah yeah, thanks, I love it. So, Uh, Demolition Man is the movie you picked, which I thought was kind of funny. You sent me a few options, and uh, I picked Demolition Man for two reasons. One because you picked Point Break the first time, and this is another sort of nineties kind of corny

action movie that's a lot of fun. And I picked it because I had never seen it. And then I remembered I saw the first like fifteen minutes of it, and uh, this came out when I was in college, so I could explain. I'm older than you, So this came out probably when you were primetime young kid. Yes, yeah, maybe in hindsight, maybe a little young to have been seeing this in the theater, but yes, definitely like the age to where you know, uh, stallone in Snipe's High

Kicking Things was my uh primary interests. Right, So I was um, like twenty two in college and we went to the theater to see this, me and a couple of friends, and uh, after about I would have stayed. I'm not one to leave a movie ever, but my

friend Brett is he has very little patience. Was something he'd after about fifteen minutes, I can't take it, you know, I'm working out of here, and he got up and we followed him and we went in and saw True Romance for the third time, which was had been going for about ten minutes as well. So that was my Demolition Man. And I think until this morning, like I

literally just finished watching it, I was confusing it. I thought it was a comic book spin off and I think I was thinking of Judge Dread Oh right, yeah, similar yea, also stallone and then also maybe some similar like costume design, especially on the like yeah, yeah, so

I had it totally wrong. Um, and this was definitely you know, as of two and a half hours ago, I had never really seen Demolition Man, and now I have, and I gotta say it was corny and dumb and great and funny and and I think a movie that like and I did read, you know, thankfully, Din of Geek and some other Rotten Tomatoes had a pretty good essay of like, you know, thirty years on or twenty years on has been thirty years yeah, let's see about yeah,

thirty years on almost and these nice retrospectives when you can go back and look at a movie like this.

And I think the consensus for this guy from Rotten Tomatoes was this was a great comedy satire in the making that Stallone, like Stallone was acting in his own movie according to this guy, and it felt like he phoned in the comic moments, whereas a Kurt Russell or Bruce Willis would have really taken this over the top as some sort of PC culture meta commentary on on life and uh and where we were headed, whereas Stallone

was a little too self serious about it. And I sort of agree, But I also thought Stallone was kind of fun. Yeah, I think he gets the comedy of it. Yeah, I mean obviously, like you know, Kurt Russell is so good at this town, you know, uh yeah, so kind of unfair to Yeah, so maybe hard not to say Russell would have been better, But I think stall Loan does a pretty good job. He kind of like, you know, it's such a wild mishmash of tones. You know, like, I think part of it is like the movie is,

you know, the movie is kind of schizophrenic. Um. But yeah, I think he does a good job with this. Um. You know, obviously dreamcasting, you might find a better actor for it. But yeah, I think Stallone works. And definitely like there are there's an element of this movie that is kind of like parodying the Stallone uvra. So I think he him being there like adds to some of the that satire. You know, I have to say that the listeners. I'm struggling right now because your cat just

jumped up. Yeah. All I want to do now is pet your cat. Yeah, it's bug. She definitely kind of know when the zoom zoom is on. Oh man, it's the worst. I can't get in there and pet that cat right now. Yeah, you know, she's got a fuzzy little belly. I'm a magnet to all animals, so like it. I have a palpable reaction going on. Yeah, I wonder, I wonder if she's going to just sit here gargoyle like for the she's so pretty, what a pretty cat? Yeah, I know, she's stunning. I moved recently, and she did

a great job with the move. I'm yeah, I'm really really proud of her and how she's handling change. Yeah, did she spend the first like three days sniffing every square inch? Yeah, definitely, almost kind of like yeah, they're so yeah, there's some weird little animals. But I think she's going to try and jump onto the TV stand? Now will she make it? Where's the new by the way? Pasadena? So yeah, it's kind of like nice. Yeah, so it's been.

It's been lovely ive Pasadena. Yeah, it's really cool. It's definitely like kind of a cookie, you know, charmingly square suburb outside of l A. So yeah, I'm having a good time. I had friends that lived there. I quite enjoyed Pasadyen and we lived at the end Emily and I lived in Eagle Rock. So Pasadena was like a quick great great restaurants, which you know, of course you'll

get to someday, yes, yeah, take out. So yeah. Uh So I thought it was kind of funny when this movie first opened, and it was released in ninety three, and the initial waste Land of Los Angeles was yeah, so the the movie starts but three years later. Yeah, it's so funny that they chose something so close to the movie's release date to be like the World is fucked in three years how it starts with, starts with the Hollywood side burning a not not at all subtle

piece of stad tire. Not a subtle movie. Um, it's interesting. Yeah, there's a couple of movies of this time that, like, imagine l A is this war zone. I think Predators Too is another good example of like, you know, the gangs of l A have gotten out of control and you know, criminals run the streets. It's such a funny little subgenre. Yeah, I mean, I think John Carpenter kind

of kicked. I mean, there's probably it probably predates Escape from New York even, but that's always a fun premise where one of the biggest cities is now a war zone. And what's going to happen to our hero when they're thrust into this world or in this case, frozen out of this world into And what's the spin on this movie is interesting? Is the hell is ninety six and then they figured it all out thirty years later, and it's this weird sort of utopian society all of a sudden, right, Yeah,

And that's the opposite. It's usually gets worse that's interesting. Yeah, I got I don't even thought about that. That. Yeah, this movie is like a flash forward inside of a flash forward, you know. Yeah, that's that's kind of so interesting. It's like right imagining the dystopia and then imagining the utopia. Did you know about the story of the writer the original story guy? Did you look into that at all? Oh? Yeah,

isn't it isn't he you know, wasn't it? This kind of just his first movie and he shopped it around and it got got rewritten at a couple of phases, well quite a bit. I think he was like some guy from some eastern block country or something and wanted nothing more than to be in Hollywood and like working in Hollywood. So he wrote a bunch of scripts and this one, uh got optioned, and like he said, they brought in a bunch of writers and changed it a lot.

And apparently the writer of the shooting script wasn't even credited, and that's where most of them, that's where they really poured the comedy on, and it was a lot more serious in previous iterations. Well, yeah, it is such a tone mishmash, and it makes it makes all the sense in the world you know when when you hear that it was just like rewritten by ten different people with different tones and minds, and it does seem like there

are scraps from previous drafts in it. Um, let me know if you thought this while you were watching, do you think they were leading to a reveal that Sandra Bullock was his daughter? I saw that online afterward. I did not pick up on that, but I did see that test audiences did and were creeped out when they started getting frisky. Yeah, I didn't see. I didn't get

that at all. You oh, you know, so yeah, every time I watched this, I you know, because they make a meal out of the couple of little dramatic scenes in this movie, which which really just give you a whiplash because it is so goofy and when they decided to like drill down on the reality of this, um.

You know. So one of those scenes is Sta Loan, you know, wondering, you know, after he's been frozen where his where his daughter is, kind of him weighing the decision whether he should get in contact with her or not he decides to know, but you know, yeah, kind of the movie writer in everyone's head. Um, you know, seems to say it's gonna be Sandra Bullock because she's she's your fans, she knows who you are anyway, That's

why that's would have made sense. And then they have virtual reality sex and then Frank gets each other at the end. So I mean, looking back, that could have I think that could have been a really interesting plot element if this movie were made by um had a more singular focus. And like, I know, this was the first time director who was a TV commercial guy and who never really did anything else feature film wise. He does like art installations now like he does he does

like art pieces that play at moments. It's so weird and he's been doing that for yeah, such a strange things, like he did Demolition Man. I think there's an Alicias silver Stone movie in there somewhere, and he's like, now, I only do art pieces for moments. So strange. It

is a weird trajectory for a career to take. UM. I know that the shoot was I don't know about a disaster, but it was I think like forty days over, fifty days over, and um stallone got hurt and I think they went through five A d s, which is never a consigned, but it was just sort of a um, a challenging shoot, and I'm sure the first time director Joel Silver apparently defended him. I was like, that's not the reason it went over budget or over time. It

was because it's a really hard movie to make. Um. But at the same time, though, it's one of these movies that was made in nine three that feels like it was made in ninety three in a good way. Though. Yeah, it definitely does seem like the product of another time. And you know, and I think maybe that adds to the satire little bit. It's like it's just commenting on the action movies of another day kind of sort of is so. Yeah, I think that that works in it's

in its favor. It made me missed alone, to be honest. I yeah, I mean I love that for the first Blood movie and then maybe that first Rambo movie after that. Loved a lot of the Rockies. You know that that was my life that I grew up on that stuff, and you know, I was the kid watching Rhinestone on HBO. R Yeah, leaning into the comedy. Um, but I love those movies. Those are HBO smash It's for me, Cobra

when I was a kid, like I would have watched those. Yeah, and I've kind of forgot how much I love Stallone In a movie like It's I didn't see any of the Expendable, so it's been a while since I've really seen him in a row. I would say, maybe don't be Expendable sound like a little bit more fun than they actually are. It's kind of a cool They're not good, Yeah, they're not great. It's it's they don't really do liver on the promise of the Expendables. So I actually got this.

I have this movie in a in a three pack. It was one of those like Stallone triple action packs and it has Tango in cash and over the top, which is like, yes, the greatest ten bucks I've ever spent is on this thing. Um yeah, I know that that era of Stallone is so much fun. Um Yeah. You know he looking looking great in his nude scene going into his cryo chamber. You know, because he was forty seven years old when he made this. Looks amazing.

Isn't that incredible? He's he's pushing seventy five now, jeez, I know, right, um yeah, so yeah, definitely like he was, he was proven he could still do it. And this is pre Blade Wesley Snipes, but I imagine this movie kind of set the stage for that a little bit. Yeah, I think so. I don't know if he was really doing this kind of stuff before Demolition Man, was he? Yeah? I mean he has action movies. God, when was Passenger

fifty seven? Uh? I know, like to me, he was the guy back then from Jungle Fever, right, uh, kind of before he made that was so that was one year before that probably. Yeah. Yeah, so he was kind of like getting into this um sort of thing, I guess. And yeah, and then yeah, it seems like that was his late kind of pre tax exile career was action movies. And yeah he's great and Blade um and I think

he's good. Yeah, totally, he's he's really physical. All the like high kicks and like you know, stomps and stuff that he does really seem like him. It does seem like they're going out of their way to say, like he's doing this, it's not a stunt double. And yeah, he's he's funny. He plays the comedy well, some of the comedy has not aged well I think it's worth mentioning. But yeah, sure, but yeah, yeah, and not in not in the most egregious of ways. But there's some you know,

there's some some stuff you wish wasn't in there. But but yeah, but yeah, I think he's he's great in this, and it's it's funny that he's coming back and doing all these comedies now, because like, yeah, he's funny, Like he's you know, he's funny in this and I think, um, you know, he's been funny and stuff like Dolomite and uh coming to America too. Yeah, definitely like fun to see comedy Wesley Snipes coming back. I thought he was great.

I thought he was really good in this. I had a lot he's he's a really great bad guy and this kind of bad guy that is sort of over the top and fun. And I guess at the time he was kind of a modeled on a Dennis Rodman, uh sort of character. He saw that in a in a couple of reviews, and I guess I forgot when you know, back in the day when Dennis Rodman was like the most famous you know, yeah, black guy with blonde hair on the planet and the history of the world.

I have three words for you, okay, please murder, death, kills, murdered death kill. Yes, murdered death kill so unnecessary. It's great though. That whole scene is amazing at the beginning when the first murder death kill happens, or the trio of murder death kills, and all the the cops and the reactions on their faces and just how to how a feat they are, and it was really funny. Yeah, I know, the like soft future Cops is a good

is a good gag. It's a good gag. And they definitely like pick actors who have a g whiz, you know, kind of sensibility. And yeah, and the fact that the fact that in the future you don't just say murder, you say murder death kill is such a great like just change this a little bit and then people will

know it's the future. Right. Well, that's one of the fun things about one of these um kind of corny let's envision the future movies is being in a well, I think of a writer's room, but the different writers at least you know, what's the future going to be, Like, oh, I know, well, we'll have seashells instead of toilet paper, which will never explain. We'll have no physical touching, so they give these weird high fives. It was weird. It was almost pandemic e watching some of this stuff, like

the lack of toilet papers touching. Yeah, there is definitely like some yeah, there are pandemic vibes to this or sure yeah, people talking about how gross physical contact is you know, uh yeah, yes, the fluid what was the fluid exchange line? Right, yeah, Sandra bullet fluid transfer, fluid transfer activities. These are all great album titles for Like, it is funny that they're they're there there. Joke premise seems to stem from like cone heads, you know, cone Heads,

We're like we are your parental units, you know. It does seem to kind of take that like everyone talks a little bit like a robot. Yeah. And the and the listening to old TV or old radio commercials is like the most popular radio station. Yeah, that's a weird old TV commercials. It's a weird joke. Well, Benjamin brad in this movie, I just I wonder if he ever looks just looks back at this movie and gets mad that like he had so little to do, yeah except

be uh sort of a butt of the joke. And I don't think he has more than five or six lines in the whole movie. Yeah, definitely, I think he does. He does come off really well in his scenes that he has, and I think he does He's a good choice for the like you know, ge whiz Ill equipped cop. But yeah, it does seem like there are some you know, there are some people who maybe had bigger parts or

bigger story lines. Um got Jesse Ventura is in the credits and you kind of see him as a member of um Wesley Snipe's gang UM, but doesn't have any lines, and like Rob Schneider is in there for you know, two scenes. So yeah, I I wonder if there's a different cut of this, or a longer cut where some of these actors have little plot lines or something. Well, Jesse Fenderer definitely had a big at least one big fight scene was still alone that was cut out. Oh yeah,

Oh that's interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah, which makes it I mean that that explains everything, because it is weird to see him pop up. Jack Black is in this movie, did you Jack Black? Yes? You know, I did not know that until I watched it last night. I'm like, hey, this movie is still revealing things to me, I know, and I had to go back. I was like, wait a minute, was that who I thought it was? That's so funny, I know, Yeah, he's one of Dennis

Leary's goods, Dennis Leary's freedom fighter guy. Right. Yeah. I had a hard time kind of figuring out I might have missed a key line, but I didn't quite get that Dennis Leary. I thought he was another bad guy and not sort of a leader of a resistance of you know, let's let's give people more freedom. Sure, yeah, libertarian,

he would be the voice of the libertarian. I know, it's weird to examine this through a political ends today, it really is, and it definitely yeah thinking about it like as a like railing against PC culture, which I think was you know, something people were kind of talking about in the nineties, and you know, maybe it's now a little more sinister when you look back on it, Like, you know, if this movie was made now, would they be doing cancel culture jokes or like maybe stallone comes

back and say, I don't know what bathroom to use? You know about pronoun you know, you would hate for it to be that movie. Uh yeah, I could see that though, because I mean that was sort of I mean that was Bill maher territory back then with his first politically incorrection, right, that was when I first started hearing people railing a It's that of course, was when

I was in college. And it's it's interesting to look at this movie, like, on one hand, this I could see this being like a conservative underground you know, cult classic, right, yeah, totally in some way. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, you right, it's it's kind of satire. At the time was you know, pretty light. But yeah, I think like definitely, like when you compare it to like people who rail against PC culture now, it maybe seems a little more aggressive than

it did at the time. Anyway, I think that's fair. Yeah, so she was not Mr Patuto Whood anymore, I don't know, Yeah, exactly. Uh. I do love that the you know, there are no guns in the future except for the museum, which has all the guns and all the ammunition and they're loaded,

you're just ready to go. It's such a I think it's a great cool, uh cool little plot point in this that that before before Stalone was on Frozen, they did invent laser guns but then immediately outlawed them, and Leslie Wesley snipers finds the one laser gun they invented before. They got such a cool like like oh, what we missed, like while Stallone was frozen, Like what kind of role we missed? It's such a funny like, uh, yeah, it's such a great little detail about they're having been this

history of the world before this. Yeah, and you know at some point, and it does happen that he's going to find a period car because I can I can't drive these things whatever preous mobiles that they had. Uh, and you know they get that badass for Oldsmobile and uh you know you know that's coming yet it's still

and when it pays it all, Yeah, definitely for sure. Um. I think it's interesting in this movie what they what they assume Stallone knows about, and what they feel like they need to explain to him, Like you know, he's like the Los Angeles a San Angels, so they're like, yes, well Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego merged after the earthquake, the blah blah blah, so like great, we

explained that to him. But Sandra Bullock doesn't explain VR sex to him, and she's like, you don't know about this or how to wipe his button, how to wipe Yeah, exactly. Sometimes they sit him down and walk him through the changes, but other times they're just like, he'll figure it out or yeah, they definitely like it's a case by case basis based on what is funniest at the time. Yeah, it was also funny as someone who lived in l A and spent time in both Santa Barbara and San Diego.

Like the merging of those three places, is it's not that big of a deal. Yeah, I mean I guess there. I don't know, they're only voting for one person now. Like Santa Barbara was a little nicer. San Diego is a little quieter, but it's basically all sort of the same stuff. I know. Yeah, it is interesting. Wow, I can't believe they mashed up three similar coastal towns. Like

it's actually kind of sensible. Maybe they should do that anyway, Dennis Leary was I kind of forgot that the age of when Dennis Leary was this MTV character who I don't know if you were remembered that stuff, but when he was an MTV guy that did those little short, uh I guess short films in between videos of him fast talking and railing about stuff, and they really just

basically said, here, go do that in this movie. Definitely. Yeah, I absolutely remember those from MTV and thinking that was funny. I think he had a music video for a song called like I'm an Asshole where he likes saying about being an asshole. Remember that. Yeah, this definitely just seems like they're like, let's give Leary three and a half minutes of stand up where you know he can you know, rail about vegetarians or something like that. Yeah, it's it's weird.

It definitely like definitely dates it so hard and um it, I loved it at the time. At the time, I thought it was so funny. Um, of course, yeah, now it's it's about the most nineties thing ever committed to film. Uh But yeah, at the time, but I loved it. It was you know, Sandra Bullock is she has her nineties fetish right, and that's why it would have made sense for her to be the daughter because her office is all decorated with basically what looked like my college

dorm back then. Yeah, lethal weapon poster, Red Hot Chili first poster that was basically me. Sure, Um, but it's a movie where I wasn't sure for a little while. Who did you even root for? Because is I feel like Wesley Snipes is way more interesting and routable than uh than Stallone's character. Yeah, and Dennis Leary's character, right, uh, Like I kind of thought he was the I mean, I know he was meant to be the protagonist, but

I was way more into it. Like when he when he killed uh Nigel Nathaniel half or Nigel Hawthorne name, yeah, I forget that actor's name. Yeah, the guy who plays the like supreme leader King George Society. When he killed him, I was that was one of the best parts in the movie to me. I was like, I found myself rooting hard for the bad guy Nigel Hawthorne. Yeah. Yeah. And then the throwing his his body that like very limp dummy onto the fire is kind of gruesome. Yeah.

You know, It's something I noticed when I watched that, like I didn't pick up the other times I had watched. Was the interesting thing that alone Snipes and Dennis Leary all kind of want the same thing if they want the world to go back to how it was. I'm like, it's so interesting that the hero the villain and this other kind of like anti hero guy all kind of want the same thing, but they're all opposed. I guess, you know, Stallone and Dennis Leary joined forces at some point,

but yeah, I don't know. It's something that that you would think they can make a meal out of, but don't you know, and maybe kind of like speaks to the you know, kind of hodgepodge of a script that they were using. But yeah, I don't know. There's no there's no moment where Snipes and Stallone both say like, hey, we both missed the old ways, right, is there a

way we could work together? It's it's yeah, I could have seen that though, Like I could see a version of this movie where Leary, Stallone and Snipes and maybe bring Sandra bu Look along because she's into it, team up to destroy this new uh and maybe make the guy from Shawshank Redemption the police chief. You know, he's always the ultimate bad guy. I don't know why they made him the second in command bad guy. I know, yeah, which his little his his to frame glasses, so funny

it's the future frames. But yeah, I can see them teaming up and reverting back to the old days. But then it's It's sort of like those people who miss Times Square when it was a ship hole, right, yes, and yearned for the days when New York was dirty and scary. Yeah, which I have found myself do at times.

And it's not doesn't make any sense, but I know, like Stallone wants there to be crime again so he can fight crime, right, Yeah, that is that is an interesting Yeah, it is an interesting exploration of that impulse. And I know exactly what you mean, and I do feel that way about l A sometimes when I see how it's changed, I'm like, I remember when this was a you know, dive bar, and you know you could buy cocaine in the bathroom, and right now it's a

Panera bread right. Bread is better, right, honestly, and they have pizza now. Another one of the funniest parts was when um Wesley Snipes was finding he was sourcing bad guys from the past to thaw out and and make on his UH as his henchman. And then he chooses Jeffrey Dalman. I love that guy. Every drummer would be the worst possible choice of someone to be on your

bad guy team. Yeah, I know that is insane. What is he going to send him to do, Like, all right, you'll you'll be the guy that goes into the bars and drugs underage boys. That'll be your your job on the bad guy team. Yes, when we're waging or against society, we need someone to do that. Yeah, totally. And the thought that like all he has to do is thaw these guys out and they will follow him is very funny to just the assumption that like, well naturally they'll

all do what I say. Yeah, it had a great ending too, with the It had an ending a re round two or three times because I couldn't quite make out exactly like I know Wesley Snipes ended up getting froze and being having his head kicked off or whatever. But the device and the means that it all happened, I just didn't quite get. I think it was a play on the beginning with the gasoline and the fire. Yeah, yes, I think it is. It is kind of meant to be a parallel scene to that dystopia that we see.

So yeah, so in that scene, Wesley Snipes, you know, punctures the gasoline can that is always in the room him. In an action movie, there's always just a fucking giant drum of gasoline. Yeah, like Doom. Like when you're playing Doom, there's just explosive barrels. So yeah, and then at the end, yeah, stallone punctures the like cryo tube and the you know in a very terminator to like way Leslie snipes freezes and then he gets his head kicked off. I think

you're right. I think they were trying to like, you know, create parallel scenes echoes of the past, but it is, uh, it's a very confusing scene. It looks good, though, I mean it looks cool when you kicked the head off in the Frozen Blood and everything. I like that. Yeah, there's like great practical stuff in this, Like they definitely build the you know, the cryo Prison's definitely a built

set with mechanical arms and ships. Yeah, it definitely. It's like, yeah, if this was, you know, an Avengers movie, it would all be you know, c g I in Atlanta somewhere. But yeah, it's it's got a cool practical look to it, like a lot of neat sets and stuff. Well, I think Jurassic Park was that same year, wasn't It was, Yeah, ninety three, wild wild year for movies, So yeah, I

mean it just missed out on. I mean, this would have been a completely different movie had it been released in I think, totally visually because uh and you know, that's one reason it looks a little corny is because they did use They're like, we're in l A, and we need to make it look like the future. So yeah, let's just sweep up and make everything look really clean. It's funny. There's the buildings they used for the future. Buildings.

I used to work in one of them. Uh yeah, and one of them is the Pacific Design Center that's by my old one. Totally, so yeah, there's a lot of like recognizable l A buildings in this they're supposed to be the future. You just gotta keep that camera tight. You gotta absolutely yes, don't. Yeah, don't don't handover to show the Marie Calendars that's next to this place, because all restaurants are Taco Bell. There would be no Marie Calendars in this world. Because oh that's good and you know,

I'm sure you know this. But a little uh factoid about the movie is that the Taco Bell was Pizza Hut in Europe. Oh that's funny because they don't, yeah, they didn't know much about Taco Bell. So they dubbed they re shot stuff and they dubbed some stuff to make Pizza Hut the winner of the franchise wars. That's so funny, that's great. Which they offered to McDonald's by the way, and they and Burger King and I think they all turned it down fools. Yeah, yeah, that's interesting.

They that. I wish that Blu Ray I have had like a Pizza Hut cut on it, or you could watch it with Pizza Hut dubbed in. That would be fun so the fans. Another one of the funny lines was when pre Sex pre Virtual Sex, when Stallone is talking about the old ways, he goes, you know, boning the wild mamba, the hunka chunka chunka. I know, has anyone ever said that? No one ever, No one calls it the hunka chunka like maybe if if they if they said that was like Stallone improv I wouldn't I

wouldn't be too surprised. Uh. And I think originally um Jean Claude van Dam was offered and Steven Seagal was offered to team up for this movie. I don't know who was going to be I guess Seagal would have been the bad guy. Maybe, Yeah, I can see it both ways. I guess Van Dam hasn't played too many bad guys until kind of recently. Um, I guess neither Stagal um interesting. Yeah, I don't know that would be

that would be kind of a cool worst movie. Well, it says that neither one of them really wanted it would have been worse. Neither one of them wanted to play the villain. And then Stallone came aboard and he wanted Jackie Chan to play Simon Phoenix, and Jackie Chan was like, I don't know, man, I got it like a really big following in Asia, and I don't I don't know if they would be down with this because I'm the hero. That's interesting. Yeah, uh, I mean I

think it worked out definitely with Snipes. I mean, I I any one of those guys would have been worse in the role. Although you know, to see Jackie Chan at his Jackie Chan stuff into this would be really cool. I'm sure they would have done you know, some free running and you know kind of funny, some funny, some funny fight choreography. But yeah, as far as like performance goes and nobody's nobody in that on that list is

better than Snipes. Well. Stalone as late as last year said that he was developing a sequel while Warner Brothers and he said it's it's gonna happen, and I was I was very surprised to see that. I thought. When I read the article, I scrolled up very quickly to see what year that was, and I thought it was going to be may be twenty yeah, two thousand three. Yeah, that's a good estimation. But no, it was just in

he said that. He he said it's going to happen, And I'm not sure if it is or not, but I think it could be, um pretty interesting to see what's what's going on with that? Now? Yeah, me too. I I would be fascinated to watch another one of these, Yeah, I I you know, the hope is that it wouldn't be oppressively conservative, you know. Uh, but yeah, it's you know, I have no I can't really explain why this movie is in my brain like it is. And I think for a lot of people my age, it has stuck

with us. It's amazing. I feel like when I talk to people and you know, the Three C shows or you know you can take this job and shovel it like all that stuff you know, Yeah, I don't know. All that stuff is so memorable. And every time I watched this movie, I'm like, I get why this is fun, but I don't understand why lives in my brain like it does. Yeah, it's interesting. Well, I liked it, man, I thought it was a lot of fun. Um, I feel bad about walking out on It's okay. You know

you just weren't ready. You weren't ready for demolition. Man, I don't think I was. And I think maybe it's an interesting movie to watch for the first time because now you can you can definitely see it as a kind of a funny satire that hit on some levels and just missed on some others. But you know, I see what the potential of what it could have been. Um,

like a robotcop almost totally. Yeah, it definitely like it is not as good at that tone as RoboCop is, but definitely seems to be trying for a similar thing. It has like, you know, more hard jokes than RoboCop does. Um, but yeah it is it is. Yeah, I think it is trying to like hit that same target that just Obo Cop hits fucking dead on Bull's eye in this movie kind of well, Paul Verehoven, I mean, and it would have been amazing, you know. Yeah, I've never thought

of that. That's a that is that is a very cool thing to imagine if Verehoven did this. But I guess wohldn't stars Starship Troopers was sometime around here in Toose ninety six or ninety seven. Yeah, so okay, well, so he was. He was busy doing that satirical action masterpiece, which, by the way, I hadn't seen you it was ninety seven until I covered it on the show. I don't know why, but Starship Troopers got by me. Yeah, and

I totally loved it. Yeah, Starship Troopers is a blast and has aged so well and the yeah, like comedy is great and yeah just the like, yeah, just the you know, the fun of that movie is that's you know, the secret satire and a dumb action movie. Um, you know, cold take of course, but yeah, it comes across so well. Well, dude, this was a lot of fun to I want to tell you that you are find one credit for a

violation of the verbal morality statue from any credits. Yeah. Man, I'm not gonna have any credits left to eat a taco bell. That was a pretty funny. I mean they go to the point where it was funny, and then they overdid it, and then it got so so much so that it was like a a Simpsons joke or something, and that you just hear it going off in the background and all these scenes. Yeah, great, really funny again. Yeah, I know you just faintly in the background hearing the

thing scold them for swearing. Is it is a good gag? Pretty awesome? Yeah, good gag. Sandra Bullook not understanding the aphorisms funny every time she was great. Yeah, originally Laurie Petty. Laurie Petty actually shot some scenes and so much. Yeah, she didn't like still yeah, I think that was the that the stuff I read that to be the the subtext is that they couldn't stand each other. U interesting. Yeah, but yeah, she would have. She would have been the

mouth on that girl. Yea. Yeah. Looking her hair is like a man's haircut. Nice weird, I don't know. Yeah, can we get someone sexy and here get with? Yeah? Exactly? Um, yeah, I mean yes. Speaking of our last conversation of point break, I will you know, nineties Lori Petty is about as about as good as it gets. Um. But but you know, Sandy is so funny in this kind of underplays it. So yeah, I think it worked out, totally. Agree, fun movie.

Check out Demolition Man and everybody do yourself a favorite. Pre order Bubble pre order the hardcover. That's a that's fine. That's a good deal, a bargain, and twice the price you get two d seventy seven pages of actions. Yes it's long. Yeah, action and jokes and great art and beautiful colors and sweeping vistas. It looks awesome. Oh thanks man. Yes, and the softcover for those chief skates out there. But you know, spring for the hardcover. You're worth it. You're

worth of it. Agreed, And I look forward to having you back to talk about another nineties cornball action. This is great. Yeah. I love this as a running as a running theme, I know Hodgeman as the Avengers movies. Um, yeah, I don't know. Maybe we'll do Maybe we could do Commando or Predator or something perfect. I love it all right,

Thanks a lot, Georgie. Yeah. Thanks. Movie Crash is produced and written by Charles Bryant and Meel Brown, edited and engineered by Seth Nicholas Johnson and scored by Noel Brown here in our home studio at pont Stey Market, Atlanta, Georgia. For i Heeart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows