REPETE: Tony Martin and Top Gun

Good Apeter Hally here, Welcome to You, and Seeing Nothing Yet the movie podcast, where I chat to a movie lover about a classic or beloved movie they haven't quite got around to watching until now. And today's guest comedian Tony Martin.

Oh, Christmas isn't just today, It's a frame of mine.

Oh oh, sounds like someone needs to singer Christmas, Carol.

Very Christmas.

You're fealthy animals.

It wouldn't happening right, See nothing.

New quite simply think Tony Martin is one of the most revered comedians in Australia. There wouldn't be many of us who wouldn't consider Tony either an influence or an inspiration from the d Generation to the Late Show for Martin Maloy to get this. Tony is an author, a stand up comedian, a podcaster. His series Sizzletown is Magnificent. Tony also wrote and directed two thousand and three is

Tony Martin, Hello everyone, I'm Tony Martin. Three of my favorite films would be This is Spinal Tax.

It's a fine line between stupid and clever.

Turn about singing in the rain.

This California Do is just a little heavier than usual.

Tonight really and Midnight run.

These sunglasses, they're really nice. Are the government issue that all you guys got like to the re stored again.

But up until three nights ago, I had never seen Top Gun.

It's noisy, it's bombastic, it's patriotic, and featuring Tom Cruise. Top Gun may just be the most American film of all time. The US Navy's Top Fighter pilots had the San Diego to play beach volleyball, hang out in their underwear, and played tonsil hockey with their teachers. Will Maverick and Goose take out the Top Gun title and live to tell the story. Let's find out if Tony Marttin felt the need the need for speed?

Peter, can I just ask it? People have been coming on this podcast. Do they generally like the film they haven't seen?

There's been a couple, there's been Rachel cor but did not necessarily love Castaway. Matt Preston had in a bit of an ishie some issues with Get Out. Oh good, So I'm sending I'm sending a vibe.

Well, I went down the list of films that other people have done, and it's like, it's all my favorite films. It's Apocalypse, Now, The Godfather with Nila and I, Heat Star Wars, Jaws, and then I've realized I've seen all those.

Yes.

The idea is you have to see a film you haven't seen. And if I haven't seen a film, it's usually because I know I'm not gonna like it. And I was proved correct here and I'm sorry. I know this is a celebration of cinema, and I know some people have maybe clicked on this and gone it'll be an affectionate reminisce of one of my favorite films. And I'm gonna have to be the bad guy in this one.

I'm afraid you are the villain. You are the Iceman, my.

God, the Iceman. Every time I saw Val Kilma, I kept thinking, I wish I was watching Top Secret and not Top Gun. I wish Nick Rivers would come out and do a number.

Top Secret was his very debut film.

I love Top Secret.

It's such a good I prefer that over the Flying High.

Well, I'm from New Zealand, we call it airplane.

You got the airplane, which is the American.

It was only in Australia it was called Flying High.

I'm always curious as to why those decisions get made.

Yeah, it's often. I actually someone told me with Airplane it was because they were worried that Australians would confuse it with one of the airport movies that it was setting up. And you go, well, it wasn't a problem in America. They often do change the name, like I remember Harry and the Hendersons became Bigfoot and the Henderson's for Australia. Yes, Howard the Duck. I have a lot of these in my brain. Howard the Duck. Though it was such a disaster, they called it Howard dot dot

Well, I mean the other going the other way. Mad Max, of course was became road Warrior.

The second one became Robot. Was that last one was mad still Mad Max? Right? The second one was just called the Road Warrior. But with the first one, didn't they redouble the voices because no one could understand. I would love to hear that version.

That would be amazing. Who I wonder who would play in the early eighties, who would play Max?

Sorry? Planes going overhead? I think, are we under the fly recording this podcast? I didn't think so this could be we may have to interrupt the iceman buzzing us.

It's requested a fly by Derek. Did you get it? They didn't get it. There was no request made. My copy copies have lids on them, thank god.

Oh good exactly. I'm jumping all around here because I've had a couple of coffees. That bloke who kept spilling his coffee. That was my favorite part of the film because I kept thinking, if this was a Zucker Brothers airplane style parody, and there was one, wasn't there hot hot shots? Ye? They would just have that guy spilling his coffee in every seed. That was one of the few bits I enjoyed.

Well, let's come back to Top Gun because obviously there's a lot, or maybe very little to discuss, but your three favorite films, some classic films. Let's start with Spinal Tap.

Yeah, well, Spiral Tap is. I mean, it's sort of maybe lost its power a little bit because everyone knows every bit of it. But I'm old enough to remember when it first came out, and there had never been a fake documentary. There had been. I think Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run is maybe the first movie that presents itself as a documentary, as a fake documentary, but it's clearly a comedy sketch. But the acting in

Yeah, Dumpy's replacement Peter James Barne. He also died in mysterious circumstances. We were playing a festival, jazz blues festival when that blues jazz, really blues jazz festival.

It was in the Isle of Lucy and it was tragic really he exploded on stage.

So yeah, that blew me. I mean it was. It's funny when you watch spinal Tap now, it's like you're watching the best of spinal Tap, because every bit of it is a classic bit.

Have you listened to the DVD commentary oh with them as the band? Yeah, yeah, and that's pointing out all the extodrast who had been now.

Yeah exactly and claiming they were tricked. They've only used all the bad stuff.

I mean, it's hard to imagine a comedy or think of a comedy that's had more of an influence if you think now, obviously Christopher Guests well sorry, I mean Christopher Guess was was, you know, but he went under make all these great films with Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. But obviously Ricky Gervais with the Office, which is the UK and the US version, maybe the biggest sitcoms of recent times wouldn't exist. I don't think without spinal tap.

No, the fake docco sort of thing. The and the office. The office though had a new What I loved about the offices. Remember they would have scenes where they didn't know they were being filmed and they would be slightly different. Yeah right, yeah, the anting was slightly yeah yeah, but spinal tap is Yeah, there's another cliches every band, like when we were doing Martin Molloy, literally every musician who came in, we go, what do you think of spinal tap?

I have a similar story Tony. I played a character called Strawny for and I was invited to play at the mcg for a charity cricket match actually for the Shane Warn Foundation, and I found and a few people came up to me, and because the crickets spent a lot of time overseas, so they went really some of them weren't as a cross drawing and some of the others.

To this moment, I never realized that it rhymed. It was it partly that it was.

A complete coincidence. So and I found out later that Warning had kind of like maybe had thought it was based on him, and it was just it was a coincidence. Somebody else came up with the name. Paul Collegia came up with the name, the initial idea of doing it,

I love the fact that no one can spell Strawny, and I've always felt that that was you taking the pins out of how no one can spell your name. To this day, still see Hellier spelled incorrectly.

It is I've been to a venue where I'm performing to a thousand people and my name is misspelled at the front. Really yeah, wow, It's just if I get an email requested me to do something now and my name is incorrectly, I don't, I don't do it.

Well. We I talked about this many times, but I worked with Sado Claro for years, and when you work in radio, you get sent invitations to things, and he had a wall of misspellings of his name over five years. It was just wallpaper. Our favorite was Snatto Goro. To this day, if I have to introduce him on a radio show, I'll bring him on as Snatto Goo.

Singing in the Rain I saw. I saw this when I was very young, and I don't have the you know, the muscle memory call back, particularly to their Singing in the Rain. But what does it mean to you?

It's a musical and it's full of amazing dance numbers, tap dancing numbers with Gene Kelly and everyone knows make them laugh. But what makes it still work is it's the comedy. And it works because it's about a weirdly specific thing, which is the transition from silent movies to sound movies. Like even then, it must have been a weirdly specific thing to do a big budget Hollywood film about.

I'll have to be really great, I'll have to revisit that.

The problem is people I think, no, they just think, oh, it's a shitty old musical. And I remember they did a stage show of it a couple of years ago in Melbourne and we had the guy I was doing Nova Breakfast and we had the guy who was the lead who was who is he? The guy from Bootman and Coyote Ugly And so he comes on the show and I told him a story that Ross Noble had told me, Am, I getting too far off.

The traw r. No, No, this is what is part of the all about it, and we've only got top gunder this.

Gus Well, there was this yeah, if we can stave that off as long as possible, Peter. But there was a stage musical of Singing in the Rain and it was done in the West End of London, and obviously it had to rain on stage, so they had a giant tank of water over the stage and then it would rain down and then it would drain away and

So it was Dame Judy Dan.

She had a crack. And I was telling this to this guy, Adam Garcia, who was coming on to Melbourt, and you could just see his face going, who have I offended? And he was genuinely shaken.

I love the idea of that being in his head.

In everyman, What a glorious feeling I'm carving in, What a wonderful and warm feeling.

Midnight Run. For some reason, I I'm aware that you love me Night Run, and I'm not surprised at this sta.

The reason I always bring it up is that back in the era of video shops, because I was known from the radio as being a film nerd if I was ever in a video shop, like on a Friday or Saturday night, I would every time be approached by people, what should we get? We can't find anything. All the new all the cards are in the new releases that they want you know, not available, and my go to was always Midnight Run because it's a film, possibly just because of the blandness of its name, A lot of

It's great.

It just works every time.

It's de Niro and Charles g Yeah, it's it's it's it's it's funny, isn't it Well? And I've never thought of it like that, but maybe that the name just kind of got lost. I mean, it's got Robert de Niro in it.

Yeah, people they're not sure if they've seen it or not.

Yeah, I wonder why do you get confused with Midnight Cowboy or Midnight Express not expressed.

That's dangerous. It's not a fun Saturday night.

Come on kids. Tony Martin recommended.

He says it's hilarious. Oh dear, what did what.

Did growing up in New Zealand? What did the movies mean to you? Did you you know? Did you were you were?

You know?

I imagine you went a lot.

Oh yeah, it was this. It was all about the Saturday matinee one thirty. You would just go every week, no matter what was on. And I was trying to remember recently what the first Do you remember what the first film you saw?

Yeah, the Pirate Movie really.

The Australian Christopher and Chrissy McNichol.

Yes, that's right, And I saw it at Greensboro twin and I remember mostly because I got they used to do the tie in at the candy store, the tie in, you know, promotions and a candy treasure treasure chest. I remember that as much as I remember the movie. I have seen it since it's not great.

It's not great.

Let Nickki Brittain came in and highlighted it is one of her favorite films.

Pardon me, I think we wanted. I didn't see it, but I remember being excited by it coming out because Norman Gunston was in Norman he was in there. But the first film I saw was it was a compilation movie of Charlie Chaplin shorts. My grandmother took me to that, so it wasn't a proper film, but it was amazing because we didn't even have TV at that point, so it is weird to see a movie having never seen TV. Wow, Like,

No.

Fantastic Voyage is a science fiction movie from the mid sixties where a whole lot of scientists are shrunk down to microscopic level and put into a spaceship which is injected into the blood stream of diplomat who's about to die so they can destroy all the cancer cells that are going to kill him. So this is the plot of the film. People are shrunk down and injected into someone in a tiny spaceship and so they're battling red blood cells and antibodies and stuff like that. So that

What would the cat do?

But what I always remember is we would suit with my uncle and one of the people who's shrunk down is rack El Well you know who that is. Yes, it was the actress famous for having large breasts. I remember Michaelekay, Well she's been shucked down to microscopic size, but there's still bloody here. That was. That was a big joke at our house for many years. But yeah, fantastic voyage. I got it recently on Blu Ray, and of course it's nowhere as impressive as it seemed what I was four.

Sometimes I get the impression some movies are only released on Blue Ray. For Tony Martin, We're still there's still some of them saying you there. I still got to I realized recently I still have a VHS player I was. I'm told they're very hard to come by. I imagine it's probably worth quite a bit. It's weird. Now they'll come back into vogue. My kids have asked for record players for Christmas. In my eighteen and sixteen year old

You know who thought we would long enough to see the record section be larger than the CD section at JBHI five.

That is that is incredible. Often in this podcast has come up where people's favorite films are often the films they taped off the TV I had on VHS? Was that like a large part, you know, a large thing?

I think, so I remember, yeah, I remember VHS coming in.

We went to a market, the bunder or Weather market at near where I lived, and it was my brother's my brother's friend's birthday. My brother's four years older than me, and and my brother wasn't there. The mom said they had all these pirated tapes, cassette tapes, right, and one of them was Jimmy Barnes's freight Train hert and my mum saw it and it was like like three bucks back then, you know, you probably would have been twelve bucks,

An answer birthday present. Wow, it would be great to hear that though.

Yeah, I would love to have that.

You should send it to Jimmy Bark send it to him.

Where did you're telling that story? And you are very you are across that that. You know, you love compiling sketches and producing sketches, put them together and you and you work with the one for Matt Down's like, where did that love come from?

Sketch? Well, I was just a mad It's funny because sketch comedy goes in and out of fashion. I mean you were in issue was the one you get Skihouse and that was part of a remember there was like they were all chance.

The sketch wars. Yeah, for some reason, all the networks the start of the do sketch comedy at the same time, which is a bit weird. That's Big Bite, Big Bite and Comedy, inc.

And then and then it goes away for teen years and then it comes back. It was open Slaver and I don't know how successful that was, but that seems to have been the end except for black comedy. I guess there's just not a lot of straight up sketch comedy in It's right, yeah, and it goes out of fashion.

It feels like it's it's heading in a you know, in a new direction, which I think is a positive direction in the way like Arnie Donna is yeah exactly, you know, is just killing it and comedy bang bang and that stuff. So yeah, it's all good. Now, all right, let's let's let's just compose ourselves, right we might we might take a word from our sponsor and come back and get into mav and goose. All right, Tony, Uh, what what did you know of Top Gun going in?

I knew about the soundtrack album. I remember that a lot of people seem to have that. I knew there would be planes and warfare, and I remember being confused about what war was taking place. And that's one of the I think one of the worst aspects of the film. And the Enemy is just this ill defined. It's a very patriotic American film, but they don't have the guts to name the enemy they're taking on, or even show them.

It was Cannaba that you passed.

And then at the end they're shooting them down like and then but you don't even see the pilots of the other play. It's very strange.

It is extremely strange all of a sudden and like just off the coast of San Diego. I mean, they're so he's America being invaded. Like it's even the fact that there's there's danger so close to the United States. They don't seem to even pumped that up as a like this is no.

It's sort of plotless. It's strangely plotless for an action film.

Well, apparently they went in with quite a skeletal script. There's a lot of things that they kind of were working out as they were going going along. They famously had to come back. They did the test audiences, and they wanted more sex and more more I've seen the pecks. They came back and they re shot the sex scene, the silhouetted sex scene, and the reason and the and the scene in the elevator.

Which where her here is a different color. Even though it was sort of under a baseball cat.

That's because you were shooting a different movie. And Tom Cruise's hair he was shooting Color of Money, so his hair is longer in that scene, and then it's in silhouette because they were hiding those those things. Right.

But you asked, what do I know of this film before I saw it? I have. I just remembered I actually knew this film largely through that famous scene with Quentin Tarantino. Do you know this scene? It'll be on YouTube's in Sleep with Her, Yes, Sleep with Me, Sleep with Me with Eric Stoltz. No one remembers that, NOILM. They just remember this scene that goes through about three minutes where a pretty kind of is it illegal for

Well, scene. The scene that really got me was when when Viper's telling Maverick that, you know, like Goose's dad and consoling him, he's in his undies exactly. I think I've got that scene ready to go. Let's have let's listen to this. Mhm.

I don't.

All right, Ghosts is dead five jets long enough, something like this happens.

Here's my real, my responsibility.

My squad in Vietnam we lost eight of eighteen aircraft.

Ten men.

First want dies, you die too, but there will be others.

You can count at it.

You gotta let him go.

You gotta let him go, just to remind of Tom Craizers and he's underway for that, and he's.

There's very little chemistry between him and Viper and knowing Kelly bigill My girlfriend was watching a bit of it. Mean, she just at one point said, it's like she's his mum. Yeah, he's so baby faced and young.

Well interesting. On set, Kelly McGillis ended up hooking up with the pilot who played or the actor who played Wolfman r. Tom Chugg or something his name is, and but were worried that because she was calling for this other guy that the chemistry between him and her and Tom Cruise may suffer and maybe they're under something.

Whether that scene in the lift, Tom Cruise is so clearly standing on a box because she's quite tall.

Well she apparently did a lot of her scenes barefoot. But yeah, I just and Goose as soon as Goose was benual. I was great to Steve Bisley from Mad Max on board. But what are those names they have? He's Maverick going? Was he named Maverick before or after? Was that just a coincidence that he is actually a Maverick? And what did I say about Goose?

It's no very complimentary nickname. And then and and we're going all over the place, I know. But the thing about this film is I'm going, Okay, all of the scenes where people are talking are just rubbish. But I'll watch any film, an action film that's terrible if there's just four good action movies in it action scenes, and this they're all flying scenes. I barely could understand what

There's a lot of turning around, looking over shoulders and looking around.

The It did impress me. Is it all looked There was no dodgy green screen work. No, it all it's very beautifully filmed. Yeah, there's not a single shot in the film that looks like a special effect.

What Appendagon got involved and let approve the script, which is why Cougar was originally supposed to die. And they said, no, it's too anti military, so too interesting, it's too interesting. So Cougar that shit's the bed now and now he flies I think for Rex.

But well that opening scene, okay, so the opening scene is they're just flying around and these MiGs are on them, and then they have lines like oh it's locked on. But no one gets shot, no one gets blown out of the sky. It's quite anticlimactic. It's an actionless action scene.

Yeah, it's because there's no enemy until that weird enemy at the end. It's like it's basically they're playing paintball exactly.

All the scenes. There's no stakes in any of the scenes. They're all just training exercises. Yeah.

Really, And it's not like like Raging Bull, like every bount tells a story like and he shoots it differently. And with this you don't get the feeling that thought has gone into the action sequences and.

The story such that it is is this kind of it's like out of a screenwriting computer. The thing about oh, his dad, what did you know? His dad had a he was a disgrace, and then Tom Skirit takes him beside. Na he wasn't really, I.

Mean, and Tom Cruise's reaction is like, ah, okay, Tom Cruise.

That's That's the other thing. How much smiling does he do? I know he's famous for. There's so much smiling from Tom Cruise. There's one scene where he's telling Kelly McGinnis about sorry Kelly McGillis not Kelly McGinnis, telling her about how his parents died, and he's grinning like an idiot all the way through that scene as well.

It is the birth of Tom Cruise. He'd done the risky business.

Yeah, which I remember really liking.

Yah, risky business is great. I think this is the he said This is the first character he just played which was larger than life, and I think he's obviously taken that and really run with it for the rest of his career, because Yeah, when you think of Tom Cruise, you do kind of think of these kind of bigger characters that he plays, but this is this. I think it's probably still the most famous Tom Cruise. Yeah, Jerey maguire, Mike, i'ma saying is the best, but it's I think it's good. Is great.

People have sort of gone off it because of the overuse of the catchphrases from it, but it's a pretty good film.

Jere McGuire. I think is a perfect date movie because you get you get all the sports staff, and you got the romance, and it's funny.

It's funny too, And also is that the first one, I guess because Tom Cruise as soon as we put this on, a girlfriend goes, gee, do you think he's going to be cocky and arrogant throughout the film? And then that was sort of used for a long time as the Tom Cruise character, and then he's got interesting when he started to play failures and flawed characters like Magnolia. Well, Magnolia is a fascinating use of Yeah, his strange persona.

Well, it's taking that cockiness and arrogance and making it interesting.

And also it's one of the few times, well he plays a really horrible person, yeah, in a really interesting way. I think it was he Oscar nominated for the last thing. Yeah, and now he's sort of I don't know, he seems in very good shape for someone who's in his fifties. Yeah, and I do enjoy those mission impossible films, but he's he's kind of more interesting as he's older, isn't he Like, Yeah, he's very uninteresting in this film I found well, Yeah, and it is the.

Birth of Tom Cruise. You know he is. He arrives and you're right, he just smiles his way and you can imagine how excited they were, and they had to convince him. He said no a few times, and then they kind of took him up into it, you know, a megaan the flear around. He came down and said, hey, I'm doing the film, which is a great reason to do it because of a joy ride. But I reckon

Sex scene is like a sort of Chanel number five commercial. The Scott brothers, yeah, they were from There was that generation of directors in England like Alan Parker who all came out of making ads in the seventies. Adrian Line, Yeah, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, and Tony Scott I think had done the which is all shot like an AD.

Which was a massive, massive failure. And he said he couldn't get worked for four years and this is the first one. And it's interesting consider he couldn't get work. What was it that Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson saw in him? And it must have been that he knows how to shoot, and we want somebody who can.

Yeah, right, I've forgotten Don Simpson.

Now what was his He had a horrible indig Don Simpson was apparently knee deeping coke and books. Halfway through filming, he enrolls himself in rehab, but then takes himself out of rehab, as someone who's knee deeping coken hookers sometimes tend to do. And then he goes back to set, stacks his car in the car park, and then storms into a production meeting, says, starts screaming, we're not shooting

Oh right, so he's so he's one of the screenwriters. Who is the screenwright? I know someone's just called cat.

Yeah, Gus Cash or something. Apparently Tom Cruise takes a bit of credit, apparently for getting involved in the scripting stage. I think it feels like a movie where a few people had a bit of a crack out of but Don Don passed away with an overdose.

I think ten years after, Oh goodness, I saw his name and the other name that really took me back to the eighties. In the opening credits was music by Harold Foaltermeyer, who of course did the music for another Brookheimer Beverly Hills cop Yes, the Axel f you know, oh well a bit of music and Fletch the music for Fletch.

And Flash Dance as well, because that was another that was a Simpson brook Because one of the interest things about the soundtrack, because this was they kind of, i think created this kind of idea of having these you know, soundtracks as opposed to score and like really investing in

Stick Journey. How far down the list did they go?

Rat Cat and then and then at landed with Kenny Loggins who had written the film the song for the beach volleyball scene playing with the boys. I think it's called and he just thought, everyone's going to try to write the song for the opening. I'm going to concentrate on this little beach ball beach volleyball scene that nobody's going to worry about. And yeah, score score him.

There halfway I mean it starts sorry, halfway, what is it? Highway to the and and then we immediately go into a scene with very little danger whatsoever.

The danger. Let's play paintball.

I know I keep quoting my girlfriend, but here's something else. She said, Well, we're watching this film.

She goes, this is the.

Sort of film that Mac from Sonny would really like, you know, from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Yes, this is such a Mac film.

It was a huge film, which I should point out it was the highest grossing film of ninet eighty six. Second only, sorry, first second was Crocodile Dundee. Really yeah, wow, which reminder how big Crocodile Dundee was.

Yeah, and here's something people forget about Crocodile Dundee. It was nominated for an Oscar for screenplay. Yes, and it was written by Paul Hogan and someone I'm fascinated by a man called Ken Shady. Isn't that such a great name?

Is fantastic?

He was a writer who I think wrote on Paul Hogan's TV shows. Got an Oscar nomination for Crocodile Dundee. I don't think it's ever been heard of since.

Wow.

I love that. I'm fascinated. Where is Ken Shady? There's a podcast that there's a serial style series. Okay, so I wrote down, So you're talking eighty six? So what was the number one? So Crocodile that and Platoon was through Platoon I wrote down. These were the films I liked in that year. There was This is How out of Touch I Am with the general Public? Lost in America was one of my favorite films from that year

Alien?

And After Hours? Martin Scorsese's After Hours and the Australian film Malcolm Malcolm's Great with a Car that splits some hard which really needs Highway to the danger zone playing.

Underneath that deserves it more than Top Gun dos R.

There is more action and excitement in Malcolm or suspense at least Top Gun. I'm sorry. I know those a lot of people who love Top Gun and probably furious at me right now. I apologize.

I think there are films because I saw Top Gun in the cinema, I was like, Wow, this is pretty awes.

Somebody would work better in the cinema. I'm guessing those playing scenes, it.

Would absolutely And also I'm eleven years old, I'm not kind of seeing all the issues with the movie. But I think even if you love Top Gun, you are you are used to people taking the piss Yes, okay, yeah, I think you're in safe territory.

Yeah, that's right, there are. I'm trying. I can't think of there's films I love that people just take the piss out of constantly you and you have to defend your own films. I live with someone who who has said she will never see a Star Wars film, so that's constantly, and it's very hard to get through a day without a Star Wars reference.

Well, it's the thing that this is I think what surprised me most that you hadn't seen Top Gun because it feels like such a pop cultural kind of you know, because you know, yeah, and like sales and ray bands kind of went through to roof arth of this, you know, is kind of like impact. It's been parodied so many times.

Yeah, that's it when you know a film better from the parody from hot Shots.

Yeah, did you know the line you know, I could tell you, but I would have to kill you came from top of it.

From there. It's interesting because that is a line you hear in everything now. Yeah, and there's another one too, something about that. I've heard a few people say about you. Something you're writing.

A your egos, writing checks. Your body can't cant.

That's right. And he's the guy, and I love that guy. James Tolkien, who I always remember, is playing Napoleon in Woody Allen's Love and Death. But he gets the classic the sort of boss of the cops, you know, bawling them out, going to exactly it's that role. But then they go to another base and someone else has that role. Three different characters throughout the film get to play the I'm taking you off this case Maverick.

Character, and then there's the guy with the coffee who's this mad running through scenes.

Right.

The adult lines were take me to bed and lose me forever kind of became a bit of a thing, and I feel the need the need for speed, which when when he watching it back last night, I was really disappointed at the high five. I remember being really cool.

Yeah, yeah, but watching it like it's.

Really like Tom Cruise is like really like they know these high fives coming, really concentrating on landing that high five.

Wow, Wow, great movie. High five. There's a category. The other song you mentioned, the songs You've lost that loving feeling? Is that? Where is that from? Is that? That's obviously an old song even when this, yeah, I seem.

To when that came out, I feel like even as an eleven year old, I knew that song. But that became a famous, very famous scene in the movie. It was one of Meg Ryan's first She has.

Very little to do, and Tim robbins as well. Is it a small role? And I was amu is by seeing him, a famous lefty actor having to sort of take part in all the high five patriotism at the final scene.

I wonder if he was back then, Yeah, he done. He'd done a movie Anthony Edwards, the movie called The Sure Thing.

That's pretty good. That's a that's a good rob Ryaners follow up to spital Town.

That's right, yes, yes, John Cusack, Yeah, that's that's a really good film. That one.

I knew him probably from Bull Durham as the first time I noticed him, although he was the lead in Howard the Duck or Howard Dot Dot, a new breed of hero for Australians.

Did you notice there's a lot of perspiration, yes, almost distractingly so yeah, that's part.

Of the advertising lighting of the whole thing, isn't it.

Yeah, you're right, yeah, Bell Kilma. Just to get back to the valcom he was contractually a blind yes, so he didn't want to be in this film. He didn't want to be in it, so it was.

He had he he done top Secret.

It's weird that he had that attitude because he'd done Top Secret, one of the two other movies that I.

Hadn't Real Genius.

I think, yes, he's done. Really, I think maybe he was this top Secret and real Genius and TV appearances and then he's saying I don't want to be in.

This yeah, big action movie, which is kind of would this be the film he's most not?

I think so, I think his most iconic role. He's probably had better performances, although I think ice Man he's actually I think he's really good in it.

Yeah, well, he's sort of when you first see him, he's menacingly flipping a ball point about sort of casting shade on Tom Cruise, and you think they're going to be, you know, clearly the antagonists, but he sort of they sort of come together quite quickly, and then it's a full blown romance by the by the end credits when at the very end of the film, the very final scene where Tom Cruise is in that bar and he puts on the song of the jukebox and then out

Was obviously they knew to get the female audience, and because a lot of it's you know, in jet planes, you know, with their faces you know, and often in their eyes covered, they needed to see some flesh on earth. So that's the only reason why the beach volleyball scene is there, and why they hang out in towels and their underwear around base. I mean, have you ever hung out with that many men in towels?

You know, I've never. I've been being very thin and oft bullied young man I was. I spent my entire life avoiding situations like that, like batman. Like even at school when we had to get into swimming togs, I would somehow manage to get in. I'd probably warn them under my school uniform.

I was the same with you know, the opposite reason of being a man of girth, right, okay, And I remember actually felling playing a charity game as Strawny over in the South of Straight with rather footballers.

Oh my gosh.

And afterwards everyone's in the shower and like I'm like, I'm just sat in the corner like you knows, in the feet position show and the confidence of those footballs do the walk around naked, that's right, there's extraordinary.

I never had any of that. And because I'm growing up in New Zealand two where the enormous Polynesian gentleman and gentlemen, I'm talking about a nine year old who's already at six foot. It was very intimidating for young man.

Did you expect Goose to die? Did that come as a surprise at all?

I sort of was. I was feeling that coming, but it was I didn't feel like the relationship was developed to the point where I was moved when it happened. I felt all of the melodramatic plot developments, that the thing about his dad felt very tact on. Yeah, and very I mean, I'd love to speak to someone who loves this film. I'm assuming this is sacrilege what I'm saying now.

No, I mean I remember as an eleven year old feeling the Goose moment. Okay, watching a back, I can understand exactly what you're what you're saying. It did occur to me that Tom Cruise knows that Goose is dead as soon as he gets in the water, like you know, for some.

Reason her out. When you look at the way that's edited, he gets over to him very quickly. Oh yeah, they landed the water miles apart, and then there's a cut and he's almost there.

Well, and that scene when we played early when Viper kind of comes in and like the idea that you have to get over this is like, yeah, yeah, it just happened.

He's right. And also when it happens, like, explain to me what happens? So they release the canopy, Yeah, and then he hits his ejectacyat too quickly, so he goes up and hits the canopy. What's happening?

I mean, Meg Ryan should be suing. I think that's what Top Gun too, which is coming out soon.

Is that true, isn't it? Yes?

It was supposed to come out in June this year, but Corona has sent it back to July twenty one. It may be one of the gifts coronavirus has given us.

Okay, but what is Top Gun?

To what I've seen the trailer, it's Maverick gonna coming back to Top Gun?

Is he a train because he was training he is, Yeah, so it's.

Unclear to me. I think he stopped training for a while. I'm sure something happened.

Is he going to mentor like the how the older Indiana Jones had it. It's not going to be one of those, is it. I can only assume it will be Timothy Challo May will be the new young Maverick. I was just like you spills his coffee.

I was always going to say, actually, Timothy shall Mate is in it?

Oh is he really? No, he's not.

Because I watched the Top Gun trailer to trailer last night, and then I watched the Dispatch trailer after, which is Where's Anderson movie? Timothy shallow mate?

I would love to see Wes Anderson doing the sequel to Top Gun, shot entirely in front on wide shots with harpsichord music, play Bill Murray. That would be great. No, that's and then the planes, even the planes exploding looked good. I thought, I'm going these are models, clearly, these are models. Yeah, but they must be huge models.

Yeah, No, they're there. It's that is one of that. As you mentioned, it's one of the impressive things they did. They were allowed to use one missile. Yeah, so they'll give them one missile to actually shoot and film. And so they got it from different angles and either looped it or reversed it and and flipped it.

And because even that look there was no like, it has not dated at all in how it looks. No, whereas remember Twister, how amazing that it was. I remember going a second time because it was so amazing wat it for a while. I saw it about a year and a half after it came out and just WoT, oh, no, already looks terrible. The other my lifetime has been full of films that looked amazing when they came out, and

Star Wars is you know, almost the best example of like you know, you're almost I mean, we did an episode with why lead who hadn't seen Star Wars and you really have to put yourself to really completely understand it, and he enjoyed it, but to really understand and get why this that's a phenomenon. You've really got to put yourself into the nineteen seventy seven and to imagine seeing this for the first time.

That's right and one of the great The only thing I think that impressed me about those prequels that came out is that obviously they've they've had a meeting and gone. This is kind to be very strange in the future when people watch them in order, when they watched one, two, three, and then they go to four and they go, hang, why does it suddenly look like Doctor Who from the nineteen to sixties.

It's like going from VHS to That's.

Right, but they've obviously anticipated that. And if you look at the last ten minutes of the third prequel, they take it back to try and smooth over the joint. They take it back to the look of that of the fourth or the first one, part four because the first scene, remember the first scene in Star Wars is in the corridor on a spaceship and it's quite cheap, like Star Wars was only made for I think nine and a half million dollars Credible, which was quite cheap

I'm going to go and look at that again. Were you surprised from a story point of view from top Gun that they sent Maverick back up to say this this dangers looming or or you're not even looming. It's on the on the doorstep unspecified enemy. Maverick hasn't got his confidence, has got his mojo back yet no people are losing faith in him, So why not put him up in the sky as Iceman's wingman. I think ice Man had a good point, to be honest. Is he the right part to send up?

I know, because the problem I had with a lot of this, and you always feel bad siding with the bad guy in a film. But whenever the iceman started doing his rand about how undisciplined and not a team player, I was just on his side. I was Man's completely making sense. Tom Cruise is a dangerous person to be out there. And then at the end, don't they mirror that line where he goes, yeah, you are dangerous.

You can be my wing man anytime. Bullshit, Yeah you can be mine.

But I'm assuming because as you've mentioned that, the Navy, in order to let them film all this, they had to approve the script. So part of me is going, this seems very unlikely. But then I'm going, but this has been approved by the news. I don't know. I'm assuming it's possible, but it didn't seem believable.

No, no, not at all. Do anything else.

I'm just trying to I'm searching through my notes to see if I've got anything positive written down. I love how when this was a great line that's aged well. When the very near the start of the film, when Tom Cruise and Goose walk into a bar full of hot women, and Tom Cruise says, and I've written it down, this is what I call it target rich environment.

This is what I call it target rich environment.

You live your life between your legs, Mau Goose.

Even you can get lead into place like this, Dhania.

I'd be happy to find a girl who talk dirty killing.

Do you want to know who the best is?

That's him Icet. It's the way he flies ice called no mistakes, just wears you down.

You get bored, frustrated, do something stupid.

He's got you.

That's aged very well. I've just written down. I've written down several times. Zero chemistry. Yeah, no, I think I think we've covered everything.

I mean, you know you have mentioned you were impressed by at least the shooting of the action sequences.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's one of those films that hasn't dated in its look, and there's not many films in that kind of special effects action era that.

And because they're often wearing just the uniform. Even from a fashion point.

None of that, there's no It's funny when that happens because one of my very favorite films from the eighties is David Lynch's Blue Velvet, and he's so particular about the look of everything that it's kind of timeless. Yeah, you're not even sure when it's happening. But there is a scene even in that film, there's a scene towards the end where they go to an eighties party and it almost becomes you know, weird science for a few minutes.

It was like Crocodile Dundee almost has a Yeah, the first half when they're in Australia has a lot of timeless feel because there's all out back, so you accept that. But when he goes to New York and he goes you know that the parties where they're playing mentals and anything, you know, live it up and you know, you got the shoulder pads and that's where you know it starts feeling.

I've forgotten that. And then the second one, this is like tough streak gangs, isn't there?

Yeah?

Yeah, the second one. And here's a question for you. We were talking about this on radio recently. Who is the most Eighties person, the most eighties looking person in an eighties movie? Ah, I know it's a tough one to just spring on you.

You know, you know, we're My mind went straight away was Anthony McCarthy, Anthony manequin and oh yes, Andrew mccas Andrew McCarthy from Pretty and Pink almost some reason. I'm not sure if that's my absolute answer, but that's where my mind went to. First.

Here's the one I thought of, Robert Downey Junior in Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield.

Take a hakee, you elitist fraternity scumbag.

Now you might not be getting a picture of that right now, but if you google that, if you google it's the most eighties outfit here, sort of mascara everything. That's that's my favorite eighties looking character. That.

It was great, Hey, before we let you go, we direct again. Bad Eggs was a wonderful movie. Go check it out if you haven't already. There was such a great, great thing I remember thinking for many years later afterwards like, when's only going to make another one? Well?

And yeah, I've written a few. I've written for the last three or four years, I've been trying to get and this is in saying don't do this everyone. I've been trying to get a stop motion animation film made, but very few people are aside from the people who do Wallace and Grommet, and where's very few people set up for stop motion. Trying to get one made is as slow and painstaking as making a stop motion film. I'm hopefully directing a web series, so that's that's how

What was your experience with bad Aggs? What did you what did you learn? Because I remember, like im even asking you like in probably like five years out the Bad Eggs, are you going to do another one? And when I made we made I Love You Too. I didn't direct I Love You Too, but we made it that in twenty ten, Yes, and I remember I asked, was you know? And even the years since then I've kind of gone. They're really hard to make.

It's such a massive undertaking. I mean that was even though it came together quite quickly. It's probably two or three years work for something goes ninety eight minutes. Yeah, yeah, And it's such a huge amount of work. And it wasn't a huge hit when it came out. It did all right, but it had come out after Crackerjack, which was a massive success, so it was seen as not being right, you know. It was seen as a disappointment.

Well, that's really funny. I Love You, I Love you too. Well, it's kind of weird because you kind of put this film out and then the goods goes that you almost hand it over, Yes, the distribit is kind to take it over, and it has this weird life like I Love You Too. It was like number two for quite a while in Russia. Wow, you know, and then it did quite well at the Israeli Film Festival.

You've got in that film, You've got Peter Dinklin. Is there anyone else?

Instowski?

There you go? So we didn't. The biggest name we had internationally speaking was Bill Hunter, and even Bill Hunter wasn't a household So it's always amazing to me where it's like we heard Bad Eggs was doing really well in Germany, making me the comedy version of David Hasselhoff. In Germany, it's called mits volum ainsartz, which apparently means with extreme force or something to that effect.

I can't believe you did. You mentioned this earlier when we were talking about retitling.

Exactly exactly, because I just go, what does Bob Franklin's voice sound like in German? Although it's funny. Have you seen your film dubbed into another? That's always a very odd experience.

I don't think I have. Actually, i've seen posters for it in foreign languages, which is unfortunately I wasn't able to get my hands on any of them. That's the one post, if a post it would have been the one in Russian.

You know, yeah, what about the jokes that you're going, what are they? Well?

And Germans particular one too, because they Eddie Isar talks about it. The way they the syntax and the way they sent they structure their sentences is kind of almost the opposite the way we do it. So comedy has got to German. Germans have ad a weird relationship with English comedy.

Yeah, and it's a very and in my film it's a very dry sort of those Bob Franklin lines. I can't imagine what I really I would love to hear and as well exactly, Oh yeah, I must get the German version at some point.

Well, thank you. You can be my wingman. Anytime I'll meet of them.

I'll get the jukebox fired up. We can do a little dance number.

That was so much fun. Tony Martin was one of the first people I dreamed about getting when I thought of this podcast, and I even had emails from people saying, please get Tony Martin, and people were fascinated with what movie he made Choose. I know somebody had emailed me saying, I'm sure he's seen everything. He'd probably be impossible for him to nominate a movie. Well it wasn't Top Gun.

There it is.

Tony was a bit nervous. He told me afterwards about coming in and knowing he didn't particularly enjoy the film. But you know, that's what this is. It's yes, it's you know, I hope this is a celebration of film, but not everyone who's gonna love every film they watch him. To be honest, I had a bit of a hunch that Tony Martin may not love Top Gun the way