What Are You Watching?

131: Warrior (2011)

June 27, 2024 Alex Withrow & Nick Dostal
131: Warrior (2011)
What Are You Watching?
More Info
What Are You Watching?
131: Warrior (2011)
Jun 27, 2024
Alex Withrow & Nick Dostal

Hey, are you awake? Yeah, I’m right here. Well can I ask you, About Today?
In this mixed-bag episode, Alex invites brand-new guest, Taylor, to the podcast to review Gavin O’Connor’s “Warrior” (4:28). The guys discuss boxing, brothers, MMA, Nick Nolte, Frank Grillo, Tom Hardy not knowing how to fight, meeting Joel Edgerton in real life, and what it feels like to nearly break someone’s arm.
Later, Alex reviews Frank Grillo’s TV show, “Kingdom” (1:24:53), and discusses the emotional range of the show, the remarkable fighting sequences, Jonathan Tucker’s groundbreaking performance, and more.
Finally, Alex brings Nick on to honestly review Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw” (1:38:00).
Follow @WAYW_Podcast on Twitter and Instagram and Letterboxd.
Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
Send us mailbag questions at whatareyouwatchingpodcast@gmail.com

Show Notes Transcript

Hey, are you awake? Yeah, I’m right here. Well can I ask you, About Today?
In this mixed-bag episode, Alex invites brand-new guest, Taylor, to the podcast to review Gavin O’Connor’s “Warrior” (4:28). The guys discuss boxing, brothers, MMA, Nick Nolte, Frank Grillo, Tom Hardy not knowing how to fight, meeting Joel Edgerton in real life, and what it feels like to nearly break someone’s arm.
Later, Alex reviews Frank Grillo’s TV show, “Kingdom” (1:24:53), and discusses the emotional range of the show, the remarkable fighting sequences, Jonathan Tucker’s groundbreaking performance, and more.
Finally, Alex brings Nick on to honestly review Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw” (1:38:00).
Follow @WAYW_Podcast on Twitter and Instagram and Letterboxd.
Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
Send us mailbag questions at whatareyouwatchingpodcast@gmail.com

Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex Withrow, and. Wow, it's a special episode today. We've been looking forward to this one for a long, long time. This episode is so special. There's, I think, three intros. And here is the outline for today's episode. First, I'm bringing on a brand new guest to the podcast, one of my best good friends, Taylor. I have talked about him a lot in passing, so I have wanted to have him on for ages and we were wondering, what's the perfect movie to talk about? And it was just right there. Gavin Oconnors warrior. This is a film that I have brought up on the podcast so many times with Nick present, so it was a little bit of a bummer to not have Nick in this episode, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. Taylor and I used to work together. He actually used to be my boss, which is just like, I mean, that must have been hell for him. Jesus and I saw warrior when we were working together, and I wouldn't shut up about it. And then we'll get into the story. But the first time he saw it was with me. But moreover, why I wanted to have him on specifically for warrior is that Taylor and I both have training as fighters. I have trained exclusively in boxing. He has trained in jujitsu in Muay Thai. So we talk a lot about the fight scenes in warrior. I would say that's mostly our central focus, but it is a lot of fun that Taylor, you know, personally, we just jump right into warrior. We didn't get into like a lot of personal stuff. But you know, when we were working together, I made a short film, earings. He helped me. He helped me create the poster for that. I'm still really, really proud of that poster. I will never forget the marathon session he and I did sat down for like nine hours and did not move until the poster is done. I love that poster. He's listening to every episode of the podcast, except maybe the Oppenheimer commentary, because he's one of the few living people who has not seen Oppenheimer, but I'm fairly certain he's seen cocktail with Tom cruise 30 times, maybe 50. All joking aside, this is a guy who's been there. a lot for me in since we've met. I've talked about, you know, I have used this podcast on occasion to talk about some sad things that I've gone through in my life. And, we're not doing that today. Today's all fun. But behind every single one of those stories, every single one of those sad stories that has happened since 2011. Taylor Taylor's right there supporting me, like texting me, how are you doing? Are you good? Just all that stuff. An extremely good and humane person. I was the best man at his wedding. He has four. Count them four kids. One more till starting five. I adore those kids, so that'll be up first. During the Warrior Pod, Taylor mentions a TV show called Kingdom and it makes for a hilarious bit of podcasting, which I will explain later. I had not seen that show when we recorded. I have seen it now, so when he and I are done talking about warrior, I'm going to come in for ten minutes and just gush about Kingdom Solo. It'll just be me talking about Kingdom. What a show! And then finally I bring Nick on so that he can briefly review last year's film, The Iron Claw. Nick loves professional wrestling as much as I love erotic thriller movies, so I just let the man go. He takes us to school and provides a lot of context for the movie. It's a mixed bag episode. It's a lot of fun. We're going everywhere for the warrior review. Forgive you know, some minor audio quality, some chair squeaks. We were in an Airbnb. Whatever. You know, it's all good. It's all good. Just some guys talking. And please know that my love language is is Frank Grillo screaming coaching plays from the corner of a ring. So I hope you enjoy the warrior clips. Here we go. The gang's all here. Let's go to war. See? See it? Hey, everyone, welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex with throwing. Well, the special one today, folks. Nick is not here, so it's just going to be me inviting a very special guest to the podcast. Someone I've referenced on the PA number of times. My good friend Taylor is here. I'm so excited. Taylor, how are you? Yeah. Hey, Alex, I'm excited to be here, but, like, why don't you back it up, and I want you to call me name like you do. Nick. Shit. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I could do it. I could do it. Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex with throat. I'm joined by my best good friend, Taylor Scott. How are you doing there? Cobr? I'm doing great, man. Well done, well done. Thank you. I try, I try, I'm so excited to talk about this movie in general. And with you, Gavin O'Connor's warrior release in 2011 I. This is one of the movies I've referenced on the podcast, just in passing, more than most, you know, movies that make me cry. Favorite music moments in movies. We've talked about it so, so much. Favorite movies of the 2010 decade so, so many times. And the personal and, you know, relationship I have with it. But I invited you on for it because Nick loves this movie, too. I want to be clear about that, or I should say likes it, you know, whatever. so I wanted to invite you on because the first time I saw this, you know, like opening weekend in the theater. But the first time you saw it with me. Yeah. Man on a bus. And I want you to tell me a little bit about that experience and what the movie, like, did for you. Okay. You're watching it. Yeah. And I mean, I'll say, like, thanks for having me on, like, and I think you, you've referenced, like, I like movies, I love TV. but when I see a movie, like, I love it really, like, like, yeah, it really hits me. So this is one, we've been talking about doing for a while and having me on, and I'll tell you, like, it was a fantastic viewing, and I know you remember, but like, let me lay it out. Right. So, you and I were working together? Yes. At the nonprofit. That will remain nameless. Sure, sure. raided by the FBI. you see, so you were editor of a magazine? and I was semi graphic design. Yeah. And our subject, for the upcoming article lived in New York. Yep. and this is back in the lean days, like, we decide we're going to go up there and interview them. We drive up to Bethesda in Maryland, and we jump on a bus. Bus? They take us right to Madison Square Garden. Yeah. And like, do you remember how we watched that movie? Yeah, it was on like an iPad, I think one of our iPads. And we were like splitting the audio or splitting the audio. Exactly. Like what I remember is sitting next to you on the bus and like, we had the headphones plugged in and like, you had the left earbud in, I had the right here, go ahead and sit next to each other. And like, that's how we watched. Yeah. Yeah. and it was memorable and like, man, like this movie hit so many like different things for me. Right. Like so like I like sports. I like that element of the movie. Like I trained jujitsu for five years. Another reason why I wanted to have you on. Yes. Yes yes. And currently train Muay Thai. Yeah. so like I love that aspect. but also like what they did with movie, like the fighting wasn't the sole like purpose of it. It was about relationships. And I've got a twin brother and like, we've got a good relationship, but we've had our ups and downs. So like, all of those things played in. Yeah. And like there's one and I we'll talk about it. There was one. Do you remember sitting next to each other on the bus watching this thing. And there was one sequence in the movie when we both went, oh, and shouted on the bus, I think it was the when he knocks out Mad Dog in the beginning, it's at the gym at coach and shit out of keep you crazy. Yeah, yeah. We're like, oh shit. Yeah, a good times man. Yeah, yeah, that was great. I mean, that was that moment 2012. Yeah. So that was the fact that we both remember that. So well. And then I don't know how many times you've seen it since. I've seen it a bunch. But I know the last time you watched it was right next to me on the plane out here. Because we're in Denver right now. We're just having a guys weekend. We're hanging out in Denver. This is hysterical. We're in Denver the exact same weekend that Dan and I were last year, when we saw M83 recorded Gremlins two. And then what's just hilarious is that Dan is asleep in the next room, but he hasn't seen warrior, so he can't be on this episode. So dad says hi from the next room. but yeah, and it was it was fun to watch it, watch you watch it, you know, on this. And then kind of I loved you. You would pause it occasionally and be like, okay, that's my favorite character. I'll we'll wait to get that. All right, all right, all right, all right. Cool. So yeah, the trainings I've talked about, you know, my boxing experience and how I can be really drawn to movies of that kind. But wow, you can get it wrong. Like the hand-to-hand stuff. You get it really, really wrong. And if we go back to 76, we're watching Rocky it. I'm sure it looked like awesome then, but they're just air punches. Rare punches. Right. Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton these guys learned how to fight by the end of their sparring and training before the movie. They were doing full contact with. Yeah, with four ounce gloves. Like that's that. That is wild. And that's not, typical for actors at all. Yeah. It was clear you could tell that they had been training like they had put, you know, some effort into it, which was good. Like when, when you can tell when it's completely fake and they're cutting out from scenes and it's like all you see is one big punch or one big hand, kick. And that's all you get. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, this is cool. Yeah. And then they don't have to cut around ratchet or anything. All right. Before we get into the movie a little bit I do want to talk about Gavin O'Connor. This guy's had one of my favorite careers. I'll go now. Like favorite. His career is just so interesting. You he's born born and raised in Long Island goes to UPenn. His first movie screen to con. It's an NC 17 rating movie called Comfortably Numb that I've never seen, although I would like to. In 1999, he makes a movie called tumbleweeds for 300 K. It was based on. He wrote it with his then wife. They actually got divorced while they were making it and still, like, made the movie all the way through to the end. So that's kind of cool. It was about his then wife's upbringing. Not a lot of people have seen that movie. She, Janet McTeer got nominated for Best Actress, which is cool. 2004 is a huge change, a huge pivot, and he directs miracle. The movie with Kurt Russell that recreates the Miracle on Ice when USA, Russia in 1980. Do you ever see that? no. It's a good hockey movie. No, it is, and but, like, I know what you're talking. Yeah, yeah, it was pivotal. Pivotal. And. Yeah, that is his target. Yeah. And it's it was cool to see him go like that's a PG rated Disney movie. Which to me I'm going oh God, I don't know if it's going to be for me. And I love that movie. The way they handle the the match at the end is so spot on. And this is really important because what he did for that is he hired, professional hockey players to be in the movie, and he taught them how to act. So then for warrior, he goes, I need to hire professional actors and teach them how to fight. Yeah. And that's kind of what we were talking about the training earlier. Okay. So that's a PG rated Disney movie. And in 2008, Pride and Glory. Fuck this movie. Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, crooked cops. It is dirty, raw and I really, really like it. Frank Grillo shows up. He's going to be important later. Nick Nolte, he was originally supposed to be in it and then he got the he said the press, what they release to the press was it. And the knee injury flared up. But then he and his memoir said that he hated Edward Norton so much that he quit. But it's important, you know, mentioning Nolte is important. So that brings up the warrior. O'Connor wants to make a movie about brothers. He also had a brother that when they were young, they were split up. When went to live with mom. One went to live with dad and he wants to set it in the world of MMA, but he really did not know much about the sport at all. I think he picked it because I see his point at the boxing movies a bit played out, like, let's, let's bring something else into it, a different dynamic, like, you know, even from a cage and being able to incorporate different types of martial arts. So I'll bring it to you like UFC was at its height, like 200, 2010 okay. Perfect. Yes. Thank you. Because that's that's when they're filming this. They're filming it in Pittsburgh in 2010. So yeah, they're, they're trying to tap into that so that I'm and then I'll talk a little bit more later about his post warrior career. But he still says Kevin O'Connor still says that warrior is his favorite movie that he's made, which I love to hear because, you know, this is a movie that it was released and I was one of like, I saw it the first time I saw it went, yeah, that was good. And it did not hit me the way it did four weeks later when I saw it again and I was like crying and like, oh my God. And just it was an I don't know, it didn't it barely it did not make its money back actually, which is pretty wild. And then it, it has had an insane resurgence over the past decade on streaming. It's usually always somewhere on one of the major apps. And people love this movie like it's it's an I do not think it's just like a, guy's movie. I think they really. No. Definitely not. Yeah. No, we're gonna get some fun out of the way, do a little basic plot description of the movie before we get into, like, the sequences. So what warrior's about is there's there's basically a conceit that we have to get two estranged brothers in the final match of this MMA tournament, despite the fact that neither brother is a professional MMA fighter. So how do you do this convincingly? Because we, you know, we have two estranged brothers. They want to enter this tournament. There's a $5 million purse. So what? So that's, you know, essentially very loosely what the movie's about. But I just want to get one thing out of the way now because I love this movie. I will love this movie till my dying day. However, in order to proceed, we just have to open the knowledge. Something that this whole idea is a like. It's absurd. It would absolutely never happen. Like, yeah, the what were we talking about? The amount of, especially Joel Edgerton getting shit kicked out. Yeah. You can't get like, you get like, he's got, like, so, so like in amateur fights, right? Like, sometimes you fight multiple times a day, sometimes like, within hours. But you were wearing gear, right? Right. Like you got headgear. You got 16 ounce gloves. Now with these guys are doing no. And definitely not getting busted up like you can't you can't go there. There's no way. Yeah, yeah. And so it's like, I don't know if this is, you know, plausible that the two brothers who don't have experience. Okay. So you have to like, forgive that. That's fine. But then, yes, the amount of especially when Edgerton like earlier in the day gets he beats Cobra like he makes him tap out but he gets the shit kicked out of him by him. He's throwing him against the cage. And then it's like, all right, I got to go fight my brother outside. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, we'll let that go. Let that go. Whatever. It's a good it's a movie, you know, it's a set up. And it to me it pays off. But starting all the way, we'll go back to the beginning. Movie opens this was the first time I had heard of a band called The National, but I never heard their music. And right here they're playing a song from them called Start a War, and this is going to be this band is going to be hugely important as we get to the end of the movie. But we're in Pittsburgh. They decided on Pittsburgh. It was originally going to be Long Beach, and Nick Nolte was going to be like a dockworker. And then they needed a tax break from a state. So they just start looking around. They settle in Pittsburgh. And I think it works. I think it works. For me, it was a better choice. Yeah, way less choice. Yeah yeah yeah. Hearing me Tom Hardy as Tommy pre warrior who's in Black Hawk Down Star Trek nemesis layer cake Marie-Antoinette. But it's really things like Bronson and Inception that you know punches him through. So we're meeting him. He's like sitting on the porch. He hasn't seen his dad Paddy played by Nick Nolte, in a while. Patty's a thousand days sober. He's listening to Moby Dick on audio on the on tape. Yeah. And this is you know I love this scene so much because we don't know who the hell these people are. And like they, it's really, contentious on the porch. And then when he invites him in we get the title card and it's like boom, warrior. And we go in and right away we're seeing that this Tommy guy is not in good shape, and he's really antagonizing his dad and saying, like, you were, you know, we're getting oh, God, you were. This dad was terribly abusive, an alcoholic growing up, and he's like, you. I liked you better when you were drunk, which is his like, he's like his like his remarks. It's not even like like outward aggression and anger. It's like cutting, like cut, cut, cut. Yeah. Every time he talks to him, I would like to brutal. Like brutal. And part of you is like, why the hell is he here? Did he really just want to, like, show up? And what do he say? He's like, come on, you're not going to have a few belts with me. No, not like the jacket. But yeah, we don't know what the hell's going on. We don't know why he's here. Everything just looks shitty. It's cold, it's gray. Pittsburgh damp. Then all of a sudden we just boom, we are jump to another brother. And now we're meeting Brendan, played by Joel Edgerton, who's in Star Wars Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Smokin aces. But Animal Kingdom, I don't know if I ever told you to watch that one 2010 Australian movie. So I do like yeah, yeah, yeah, he's in that. So that's like that was his kind of break there. But he they and for Bronson with Tom Hardy no exams 2008. But I know for Animal Kingdom like that had not come out yet. So they're you know they're making a movie about like All-American boys fighters. And then Joel Edgerton has the thickest Australian accent and Tom Hardy has this thick British accent. They both highlight them really well, which I like. But yes, we're meeting Brendan. His world is much brighter, more saturated. He's got a family here. We meet his wife, Tess, played by Jennifer Morrison, who I just love in this movie. I think she is. She's my favorite. Yep, yep. That's good. I was gonna say she really grounded. Like the God. We talk about this on the podcast. The, What's the term? Just the pushover wife, the nagging wife in these movies, we, you know, the I think the best version of it is, you know, Adrian and Rocky where she's, like, supportive, gets nominated for an Oscar. All that. But women are not usually treated with any sort of like, respect as as they're written. And this one is. And I really appreciate it. Yeah, I love that. Okay. So yeah, they live outside of Philadelphia. Yeah. We're getting to meet him. Brendan's science teacher still don't really know what's going on. Like, who the hell are these people? And then here we go. Tommy shown up to cults. So we're going to talk about this. Shows up the cults in Pittsburgh in the gym, you know, signs, signs, waivers, all that. I love these little details. Like, do you sign his waiver? He's good, he's good. And then I have seen this a few times. When you go into a gym and there's a pro in there and in the ring, in this case this guy Mad Dog and he's he's probably the most I think he's probably ranked fighter, a really skilled person. And he's just supposed to be sparring. You're just having a sparring partner to keep yourself warm. You're not here to kick the ever loving shit out of your sparring partner bustin motherfuckers up. Yep. Yeah. What does that do? You know that move when he spins and hits him with the back of, like, it's like this? Yeah, yeah. You do like spin back elbow, right like that. And just lays him out and like, you just don't do that. So it's like disrespectful. You don't do that. It's sparring partners making like next to nothing. And it's probably like wow I get this far with mad Dog. Not you're not treating these people. So I've, I've actually seen that a few times and see people get way too aggressive. And then I've also seen what happens not to this degree, but I've seen another guy go, okay, if that's how you're going to play in the ring, I'll fucking humble you out right here. And there's just, you know, Hardy like looking at it out of the corner of his eye, then going up to Colt like, I'll keep your boy warm for you. And then when they get in there, that's when we see how hard he's going to fight going forward. Oh, I need to say mad. Mad dog is played by Eric Appel, who's, former pro and MMA fighter. Last fight was in February 2011. So all the people they fight against in this are like, yeah, I think all of them are, you know, known fighters. Not to me, because I'm not that we're not that like in this world. We don't really watch it. You and I like UFC may I don't, but I'm I have respect for it. But it's not something that I'm going to, like, put on on a Saturday night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't like I don't follow UFC like, but in the world of jujitsu and Muay Thai, right. Like, it's you don't see any jiu jitsu fights in like, Muay Thai. You can if you want to get up to like, 3 a.m. and like. Yeah. So like UFC is like the thing, right? And like, everyone in that world, like, lives and breathes UFC and knows the stats. And there's the people like all that stuff. Yeah. Like never been my back. Yeah. Same here, same here. And that is fine for me when watching a movie because they pull it off so well. But this this is right up there. I mean, this might be my favorite fight in the movie. It really does not last long. It's only it's 50 seconds. I timed it, but when Tommy goes in and just dropkicks him right away and then is hammering on Mad Dog beating the shit out of him, this is a great fight. Tell me about this fight. What do you think? When he slams him down with you and I. Yeah. So like, you know, it starts with like push kick, which is like standard Muay Thai, like space did. That was wrong. Yeah. That's wrestling. Yes. But like, yeah I you know I love that. Right. And like what's, what's cool is like this fight reminded me of one of the first fights I saw from guys from the gym and Muay Thai, and it was the same thing where you had some dude in there who had a number of fights under his belt who was kind of like, all brought out. And then our guy got in there and like, same thing, fucking push kick, elbow, bam. And like, yeah, that's the one. Like I mentioned, we're on the airplane and we're on the bus when he fucking drops that boy and it's like, bam! It's me. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, this moves. This is his face. And I took looking back. I'll take it back. Get up. Cover up, cover up. Don't get me back. Cover up, damn it! Yeah. Perfectly edited. And he falls like a sack of potatoes. Like the sound that the editing. Like the, cinematography. Everything about the fighting is so good. It cuts when it needs to. And. Yeah, you really feel like, oh, wow, they're beating it, or he's beating the shit out of him. And yeah, that's going to be his fighting style, I guess I'll say here. I didn't really know when to bring this up. This, you know, I'm, I have the I don't have the 4K. They have this in 4K. I only have the Blu ray. I gotta buy the 4K. They have so many great special features. The craziest thing I learned watching all these special features was that Tom Hardy did not know how to fight at all when signing up for this. Not like I don't know how to fight and make it convincing. He never been in a fight. He had no athletic ability in any in any way, and he just openly admits this. And special features Joel Edgerton, Joel Edgerton you can tell. Yeah, you can tell because he's he's actually doing technique. Yeah, yeah. So technique. And he said like I don't even think they well they had to have known it when they cast him. But when they were training Hardy, they realized, okay, Tommy, he's going to be you're going to have to be a bruiser where his fights are going to be 50s or something. And it's punch, punch, punch. Not a lot of he's not doing he's not making people tap out. That's what Adrienne's doing. Yeah Brendan but I and I'll say to like Hardy is jacked. So jacked. Oh my god he oh my god. Like when they're on the beach and he walks away, you're like Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Huge. So they, he it was tough for them to, you know, they trained rigorous, rigorously. Edgerton, like, biked to the gym. He wouldn't drive. He would do it. So he's doing that thing. Yeah. And, Hardy is completely jacked. They're just lifting weights between takes, all that stuff. So, yes, this is an amazing and amazing scene. An amazing fight. It is filmed by someone at the gym, and that's going to become important because this is going to go viral on the internet. And that is House and no one virtual. No one like Tommy is eventually going to find his way into Sparta, which is this tournament we're talking about, you know, some smaller scenes Brendan would get his we get to realize that he's good dad, but they don't have any money. So he's a teacher, science teacher, and you know his he may have to file bankruptcy there, might lose the house, all this stuff. So he. That is what is motivating him. His desire to fight. Because, you know, after work and after he tucks, after he tucks the kids and he does something that I think you have some experience with, I wanted you to tell me about, you know, saying goodnight to the wife, talking to kids and, and going to the strip club and fighting in the parking lot out back. It's a joke. No. Never happened. Never have. Yeah. That's what it it's doing. And that man, he gets it like this, but he's telling his wife that he's bouncing. Yeah. Bouncing. So. So if he has bruises, it's because in college kids hit him or something. Yeah. Yeah. So he's going to these things and that first fight he has, it's a little longer than Hardy's. It's like 75 seconds. And we're seeing him do some grappling like get guys down and everything. And then he wins his first fight. It's a tough fight. And then the guy comes up and he's like the ref goes two more buddy. And then you're you. It's the purse is yours. And here. So that's what you're talking. Yeah. As soon as I saw that. Yeah. Like can't happen. Can't happen. Oh, yeah. God. So yeah he's getting tuned up. Face is too messed up. He's going to think he's going to go bad at his job. So that's how he is going to. That's his motivation. We don't know what Tommy's eventual. We don't really know what Tommy's right motivation. It's till kind of the end. But Brendan needs to save his family. Boom. Now we get to the diner scene. I love this scene so much. Is when Tommy and Patti meet up and finally we're like, okay, he's going to ask his dad who they are clearly very strange, but he's going to ask his dad to train him because he wants to get in this Sparta contest. I do want to talk about Nulty a little bit, because I just love him and I always have, and I want to know kind of your relationship with him, because, I mean, starting North Dallas 40, 48 hours, there's going back that far. I mean, Cape Fear, I've just always loved him and he really leaned into his like old man Brutus in this with the voice and everything. Yeah, this is this might be my favorite performance for him. It's right up there. I love him in this. Yeah, I think he's great. Like, I think he played his character well. Like, you get that kind of broken man trying to to build back up. And like I think he just has the characteristics like I love him in this. I thought he gave a great, great performance that like one critique when we get there. Okay. Where I felt like, you know, he was a little over the top with, and, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, it got, you know, and then I think too, when the sequence get there with, with with Brendan like, and his family and trying to see the kids like not quite as believable. Like, I just don't know if he would have played out like that. Like in the street outside of his home. Oh, well, we can I mean, we're just about. Yeah. Well, yeah, we will get there soon. I know what you mean. Yeah. No, I know, but like, overall like, I thought it was great and. Yeah. Because you feel the, the years in the history of it like, okay, he's he's a marine, a former marine. And that's what Tommy ended up doing. But it Tommy fled. That's what it is. And we'll get to that. But Tommy fled when they were kids, and Brendan was supposed to go. But then Brendan was in love with his then girlfriend Tess. So stay behind. And that is why Tommy has a lot of resentment toward Brendan. They have not seen each other in or spoken in quite some time, but we're getting a little ahead of ourselves because, yeah, it's the this combative relationship. this is like the first time we see Nulty kind of stick up for himself. And he's like, you called me, right? Okay. Yeah. That's the whole time. Five minutes. Yeah. That like I appreciated that the most. Like, here's like here's a son coming in like saying all the shit and then being like, hey, will you train me? And like, when Nulty said that, like, hands down, I was like, that needed to be said. Boom. Yes. Yeah. And then like, get out of this diner. Are you gonna eat this shit? Yeah. Cause there's it all about it. Here's the pills. Apparently, that was improvised by Nulty. He heard the three bottles and just. Yeah, that was great, too. That was great. Yeah, I just told you. This doesn't mean anything. Now get that through your skull, right? Yeah. I'm walking. All right, all right. But you did something to your skull, too. You called me sir. Don't go threaten the walk every five minutes. And since this is about training, you dump whatever it is you need to dump. As far as those pills are concerned, I don't want to see him. That animal right now. I know they're on you, Tommy. You sounded like a goddamn truck. Come to the door. Yeah, Brendan's getting in trouble at school. You know, he's actually get suspended. We get to meet Kevin Dunn, the principal. I love this guy. Great character actor, great character. He was great. Yeah, I love you. He's talking about the superintendent. He goes, guy hasn't been inside of the school since 911. I love that is a really this has some sharp, dialog that I really liked it. I don't know, just makes me makes me laugh. And then he has to get Tess on board, which is not easy to get on board, you know, to be in Sparta because there have been horror stories of his fights in the past, and he's unconscious in the hospital, and. And then, I love the scene when Nulty is all, like, happy, like I'm training my son. It's day. What it is. Make it little, like, a silly solid. Walking up the stairs. There's hardy again. Like I can pull my own coffee. Yeah. Yes. Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Right then. Like, this is not going to be easy at all. But I love that the going back to the old training and like, that was something you were good at. So yeah, we'll do that. But we're not we're not going to be friends buddy. Yeah. No relationship. All right. Here he goes. We love this guy. Brendan has the green light from test. So he walks into a gym, walks into his old buddy's gym. Frank. Frank, played by, played by the great Frank Grillo. I love Frank Grillo. We were talking about him and he's so great. He's so great. And then talk to me a little bit about because you were explaining like he's a, I keep getting the name wrong, a something, a purple belt, and it's Gracie. Gracie, Gracie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's, he's the real deal. Like he knows what he's doing. And he has a show on Netflix. Fight world. Yeah. Yeah. Like which, you know, like he does a great job. Like. Yeah. Learn about other cultures and fighting like I just respect him. Like I think he brings a lot, you know, to the sport. Like you can tell, like, he's passionate about it. Yeah. And it comes through in this, and it comes through. And what's that other TV show? Serious. Serious. He did, with the Jonas Brother. What? What? No. Hold on TV show with Frank Grillo, the Jonas Brothers. Yeah, yeah, you would know the TV better than me. Hold on, man. All right, I'll hold a hold. I can, I can vamp. We talked about it. They talked about it. Kingdom. Kingdom. Oh, okay, I don't I haven't seen that. You haven't seen Kingdom. Is that on Amazon. That's an Amazon show man. We talked about this. I, like if he's in it, I'm going to watch it. So yeah, it was previously called Navy Street. Like you got to check that out okay. Thank you. Okay, cool. I'm a wreck. That's what I'm gonna do. There's your. What are you watching? Boom. Damn right. Check it out. Okay. Like you, I've heard it, I've seen it. And like, that's the first. Like. Like where? Like I looked up the actor and, like, who is that? Frank Grillo? Like, I'd seen him in other stuff. Yeah, I'd seen Fight World, but like his performance, they're fantastic. Okay. And like, you got to get, like, you'll see the Jonas kid too. Like he was all right. Damn. All right. I don't know how you. It. I don't I don't know because I just don't get the TV on. Too obsessed. Okay, okay, well that's good. Check out 30s and 40s, I don't know. No, I will, I what I need a good I need a good show sometimes so Kingdom I don't know I've definitely heard about it okay. So yeah their rapport right away. You know they used to he used to train Brendan. So he gets him on board. You know, I'm already Frank already has a fighter. He's prepping for Sparta so that he's got to focus all of his attention on then. But, yeah, Brendan, I can get you, like, in rotation. I don't even think Brendan thinking about Sparta right now. I think he's thinking about. He's just getting fight, fight, fight. Yeah, 300, 400 bucks at a time. That stuff. Yeah. So it's not. That's not really even, but. So I will like one thing that I didn't remember the first time I watch is like they mentioned that Brendan had been in UFC. Yeah, yeah. Which I, you know, like so and like UFC in early days wasn't as popular as it is now. So like, I don't know, kind of like what timeframe they were saying he was in. If it was like early days where it was a little more wild, but like here he is at a younger age, would had UFC experience. Yeah, yeah. Very true, very true. And now we get to the scene you were talking about where it's Patty. Got it. You know, if you pay attention to stuff like Nulty slash Patty lives in Pittsburgh with Tommy and Brendan lives in Philadelphia. This dude is gets in his car and drives like to see his family shows up. Now here is one thing like I love about movies and screenwriting and all this stuff. It's a very delicate balance of tell don't show because in movies you're only supposed to show, don't tell what they do here. One of the reasons I do like it is that Edgerton is like, no, you are not welcome here. You have to call first. And then he goes, you remember the last time you saw test and my kid the shit in the shame that comes over his face and you're like, what could that have been? What the hell did he do to where you're not allowed to see my wife? Like you have to call. And then I look at your mail. Yeah, yeah. Old mail. I love, Edgerton. He just turns. He's like, I all the time for whatever this is. He's. Yeah. Really dismissive. You got two lines of communication. You got the telephone and the post office got just because you decide it's a special day, it doesn't make one for me. I got wife and kids inside and they're waiting for me, so I don't have time for whatever this is. I know you got a wife and kid in there. I've got a granddaughter in there I haven't seen in three years. And another one I have never met. Yeah. Why is that? Pop? Why is that? Do you remember having anything to do with that? Yeah, yeah. That shit you pulled. Never again. And all that shit I saw growing up. That doesn't happen to. But, yeah, he's pleading with him, you know? And then he drops the hammer that your brother's back. Tommy's back. And that hurts Brendan up. Like, does he want to see me? So. Yeah. Yeah, but I hear what you mean. Like Nulty, especially when the kid comes to the door. I think it was just that. That was all. I mean, it was a good scene, like. Like Brennan in that I thought was great. yeah. No, he just went, like, one two notches too far from me. Like it was all good. I got you, I got you. It's the type of guy he is. I think. yeah. We find out that Colt from the gym has gotten Tommy into Sparta, and then, you know, there's been this, like, Iraq backdrop where we jump to Iraq, even though they film that in a parking lot in Pittsburgh, which I appreciate, of course, a little movie magic, like, what's going on? Like, Tommy's here with some old footage, like marine footage that some guy had, like, was he. Is he a hero? Was did he do something bad? Tommy's called this woman peeler. So we're trying to figure out, you know, what's going on, but that's in the background. And then what every fight movie has to have, presumably, is a training montage. Yes. So we're going to get to this training montage. And they this was the last thing they cut, the last thing they worked on. The editor, John Gilroy, we've talked about him on this podcast a lot. He edited Michael Clayton and he's an amazing editor. He's edited all of O'Connor's movies, actually. So they they went, you know, how do we do this in a way where we're not doing the rocky thing, where we just have to come up with something new. So they go, okay, and they come up with this idea to have all these boxes, like these floating boxes. And when it's really the sound that gets you because you can't, like, have full volume of every box, like, what do I do? And even though everything's moving, you're the sound guides you for where you need to look. And they cover a lot of shit in here. Like, Frank's a fighter gets injured. So now maybe that's. Maybe that's Brendan's opening. Like, Hardy's getting a little better. Like, he's training completely different than Edgerton is, and I. Yeah, I just I love that shit. And this. Yeah, I did have a note here that when you're watching this, you're like, these guys are doing this. They are fighting. They are sparring. They're running it. Absolutely. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. So as far as training montages go, I was always partial. Rocky two I like the Rocky two one, but this one's really good too. It was good. Like I love I love a good training montage. Like bring it back to Bloodsport for me like any other. Yeah. Tim Ryan, I have not seen that movie so long. Oh, my God, I love that's like. That's what, when I saw this, on the plane, it made me think of fucking Bloodsport, right? No, Frank Dukes, do doing his thing in the committee. Committee? God, yeah. I love that movie, Eddie. And then an hour and three minutes into the movie, we're finally enough. Finally, we're at Sparta, and we're not going to, you know, we're really not going to leave, like, this location. So we got half of the movie ish is going to be at this tournament now, every, you know, everyone showing up to, Atlantic City. And we've seen this guy is bald guy on the news, JJ Riley talking about he's like some hedge fund dude. Why he's wanted to put up the money for this. And he has that great quote. You know, growing up, growing up, we all want to know the toughest kid in the neighborhood was right. I want to know the toughest man on the planet is that's why I put this thing together. That's what all these people are here to see come Saturday night. That's what we're going to find out. Thank you JJ. And here's something fans, that is Gavin O'Connor. That's the director of the movie which is okay cool. So he was not planning on doing that. He was not planning on playing that part. He did have acting experience. He actually has a really good part in that movie tumbleweeds. He's just huge asshole. Great. Good actor, good actor. So this part was I don't know if you know this guy is this part was originally written for guy named Charles Mask Lewis. That's who the film is dedicated to. In the end, that he is the reason that O'Connor was ingratiated into this world. Well, why everyone accepted him. So he was a huge, part of the MMA community. This guy mask, and he died right before, filming. All right? Just right before. And it gutted everyone. I mean, they get emotional talking about it, like in the special features. It. Yeah, I think it was a really tough times. Then he had he stepped up. They changed the part a little bit because he wasn't going to be some rich like hedge fund guy. But and I think he does good. I like this. Yeah. Yeah sure. Well Long Island accent a little bit. Yeah. And then oh we see Coba for the first time, the monster cobra, it's like, not only are these two, these brothers have to figure out, like, how are they going to win this purse? It's like you're not even your biggest enemies necessarily, because we have Cobra in the mix. Cobra, played by, famed pro wrestler Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle, man, he is he is. So good. Goodness. So Jack and I remember the first time I saw this, you're going okay. He's going to obviously he's going to end up, I mean, come on, I think I know where this movie's going. The brothers are going to end up fighting each other and then, okay, so who the hell is going to beat this guy? It's going to have to be hardy, right? That's what I thought when we got to it. It's Edgerton. I went, how is this going to work? So oh yeah, we'll get there. Oh my god. But then that great moment when, Tom Hardy just like sitting across the lobby and they lock eyes him and Joel Edgerton and Hardy just wants like nothing. He's all, like, kind of sunk in and won't even, like, make eye contact with him. God, I love him, I love I it's just so good. And, you know, Brendan wants to, like, talk and be brothers. all right, so then that brings us to the beach showdown, because some stuff has come out on the news about Tommy saving some soldiers. And in Iraq, he seems very upset that this has come out. We don't really know why he goes for a walk. Brendan knows that he's going for walks. They go out there, and now, an hour and eight minutes into the movie, the two brothers meet, which is really, like round one. Yep. And man. And like, we we, we love movie arguments here on What are you watching podcast. And this one is a doozy. This is a really good one of brothers, which you don't see like where there's always the hint, or suggestion that this guy get physical at any time. And maybe it will in a few days in, in the cage. But you just think like, I don't know. And I love it. I the way Tom Hardy is such an asshole to him and will open up is like, yeah, he's brilliant. And Brendan's going to come on like, this is my this is my wife. She's not just some girl. I married her. No, I thought it I thought it was great. and like, again, like Hardy carries for that kind of cutting remark like. And he's like, so casual about into, that's a good point. It's just like within him. It's just like you can tell like that shit is just sitting there like boiling and like. Yeah, like Edgerton. He's like, I didn't I didn't stay back, like for some whatever, like, yeah, I got a wife. This kid like you've got, like, you've got nieces like that you haven't met. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's like that's not. Oh. And then he's like yeah that's not oh I don't know them or oh yeah. When he's like pictures of yeah. And he's like yeah. He's like you know you know my brother like you went oh man. Oh like yeah. Were you in the car. Yeah yeah yeah. And as soon as he said that I was like I was like yeah I was talking. Yeah. I was like, I know where that's going. Yeah. I was like, yeah. And then Brennan's like, dude, what? And so yeah, a source, the sources were told of Hardy's of Tommy's rage against Brendan is that Tommy fled as they were supposed to with their mom. Their mom ended up getting sick and dying, and Tommy had to take care of her. Brendan wasn't even aware of this, so he's. That's his position. Like you didn't. I didn't even know my mother was sick. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. Tommy is like, I don't fucking like I don't care. Like you're. You're full of shit, man. And this. Yeah, this combative attitude from Tommy is not, you know, we've only seen him really interact with Patty. So we haven't seen. And you don't necessarily think that level of angst is going to carry over to his brother and how he has plenty. He has plenty to go around. I mean, brother man. In the court. What I said, I know you in the court. I wasn't going to call. I remember me. My brother was in the corner. This is Tommy. Tommy? I was a 16 year old kid. What the hell did I know? I don't know what you know. Why don't you go ask your girlfriend about. She's my wife, Tommy. Well, so that's it. I stay with Tess. I never get to see you guys again. Not a single phone call. Nothing. I didn't even know she was sick. I never even got the chance to say goodbye to my own mother. You had no right to keep that for me. That was not your decision to make. The way you walk around with your pictures in your wallet and. Oh, I forgive you. I forgive pop, I forgive everyone you know. You foolish shit. Here we go. Sparta won Tommy Reardon versus Barbosa. I love this. No walkout music for Tommy, no press, no sponsors. So that's my favorite. Oh, dude, that's my favorite. Walk it out all fast. Like a, I don't know, like a gorilla or something. He's like, I just got to what? Every punch I throw is one punch closer at 5 million. So I need to do that quick boom, boom boom. and why was this quick? Well, first of all, Barbosa is played by a stuntman. Daniel Stevens 126 IMDb credits for stunt work. Wow. Tommy lands a left hook. Barbosa is knocked out to Tommy store down the cage. It's 10s. It's just like boom boom and you go what? You can watch on the Blu ray, the take of it from them filming it, and it's all that's the way they would do this. They wouldn't, stop and start like, we're going to do this whole they would run the matches all the way through granite. This one's 10s. But that's what they were doing it. They would have multiple cameras running and you can see and then I mean, he just storms all the way the hell off the set, like out of the gym. God, I love that. And they're like, what? I've never seen this to ever see this. Oh my God. So that one is very, very quick. That's Sparta one, Sparta two Brendan Conlon versus midnight Lee. Midnight Lee. Oh, so his walkout music is fucking Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Frank Grillo that's you know, I've heard of techniques like that. Not so much classical music. Never seen it. No, I haven't heard of that. I heard of like, fighters training with like, salsa music. And they would do the dance stuff. Not like walkout music. That's. I mean, that's her, like training a class. Classical music. Like. Yeah. Walk out now. Walk. Yeah. Oh the joy. It's hilarious that I love. oh my God, when he's edgerton's waiting to walk out in the locks. Eyes with notes right there. And he's like, you know, go get him. Go get him. Oh, God, I love that. This is a great fight. It's certainly not as short as Tommy's first fight, but do a little color commentary. So midnight Lux Brendan up in the. That's the rear naked choke. 10s left. Oh, my God, can we get Frank Grillo? Don't you tap. Don't you tap. Very close. can Brendan make it to the round? He's got the choke. You got 20s of crap. Comments. May 20th, 2012. Get on my knees, lads. Hands down! Get down, get your weight down, get your weight down. By midnight is squeezing with all his might. Has got a very deep 10s and 10s. You can run, you don't do. 1009 Brendan Holland doing his best to hang up, and his whole world's about to go there tonight. Don't. You can't do that. I can't do I can't win that. Round two. Brendan keeps taking midnight down. He gets him in that, kimura lock and looks like he's about to break Midnight's arm. And Frank Grillo again turn your hips up and and you got it. You got it. So midnight taps out a lot. There's got a very. You hold your hands in and, standing up on your hands in. It's up for your hands in your hands on the ground. You gotta hold your hands up and in and up. Take up reasonable. Hello. Can I come on? One night is in very, very, very bad position. He's not. He's in big trouble now. Relax. Got it? You got Brendan Conlan is getting very, very dangerous. Position is in big trouble. I don't think it has anywhere to go. Got it? Slow now you got it. You got it. And this isn't, This isn't happening. This can't happen. It just bring it down the tent. I can't believe that. What does it feel like when someone's about to, like, you know, break your arm or your knee? Like what? Explain to people like what that level of pain is. Is that nothing people understand? So it's so crazy because, like, it happens so quick, right? So quick. Yeah. When you talking like more, or like any kind of, like arm lock. Shoulder lock. It's like pressure pressure pressure snap. Right. And like, you have to know like you can't get to the snap part, right? Like you, you have to know at a tap before you get there, like these big boys and UFC is or bros that are do I mean like they just like you're fighting against that strain, sir. And try and push and like, yeah, I'm pain tolerance higher whatever. But like it's like nothing slight pressure bam snap. I mean it's that quick. Yeah. Yeah. So it can that can change any, any man as we're going to see with like Cobra when we get to the Copa thing. That's where I went. How is this going to work. And then when you look that up and your because I think that's when he gets him in the the knee bar or something and you're like, if I could just. Yeah. And that still was career. That's. Yeah. You break that knee that's done. So at that point you're making a decision like okay, well it's really not much of a decision. midnight Lee's played by Anthony Johnson who fought in the UFC and was known as Rumble. He was the number one ranked light heavyweight in official UFC rankings. Just wanted to call that out. Spartan three Sparta three, not Spartan Sparta three Brendan again versus the Dane quickly gets him in the armbar. This is now Tessa's watching on a TV she couldn't watch before, but I love that she has that little moment. When's the first one she, like knocks on the table for, you know, the, superstitious luck thing because she said, I can't watch you fight like this, so go for it. Go do this. Go make the money. But I can't watch you fight again. The Dane is played by Nate Marquette. He's an MMA fighter. Hugely, well known in UFC in that community. And I love, you know it's a good Brendan's like all high from the knockout knees. Rushes out and he sees Nulty get. He's like, I'm doing this. Yeah yeah that that's my no penalties like way to go. And he's like I'm doing this. And I'm like I got chills. I'm like yeah there you go. Get it get it, get it, get. You're starting to feel it. Yeah, yeah I think I'm a believer. You didn't wake up in the morning okay I'm. Oh okay okay. Rob catching fire. Yeah okay. Here we go. Sparta for Tommy, for Santana. Tommy beats the shit out of this poor guy to slams him down, punches. It gets on top of him. He's punching him over and over in the face. Ref stops it storms out of the ring. Yeah! Boom boom. And the whole time no one knows anything about him. So we have like, you know, Joe Rogan Light, Brian Cal in there who's doing the color commentary and they, they're like, who is this guy? This is so weird or even allowed to do this to storm out of that ring, I love that. Okay, well, here we go. Shit. Now we're going to. We get out of the cage with maybe the two most intense scenes in the movie. And this is I know there was a movie before this that did it. Trust me, I know. I just can't think of anyone right now. I call it the goodwill hunting effect, where you single Will hunting. It is cheesy. Stellan Skarsgard and Robert Williams get into this like horrific fight about Will hunting it. You know, all the fields men are. It's not about you, you arrogant prick. And they're screaming and then Will comes in, breaks it up. So that's a hugely intense moment. Like crazy intense. And then right after that is it's not your fault. It's not your fault, which is also. So can you pull off having two hugely intense moments like that here in warrior? You know Tommy, there's more news is coming out about like his the war stuff. He's this is not a guy who's interested in fame or having his name out there. So he's just going down to the casino to, you know, wasting time slots and slots. Nulty finds him. He's trying to tell him. You know, how proud he is of them. I'm so proud of what you're doing. And this is just one of the most absolutely devastating verbal takedowns I've ever heard. Like in a movie where Tommy is, you know, I just. I don't give a shit about you. Right? The only thing that Brendan Connolly and I have in common is that. Yeah, we we want nothing to do with you. Yeah, like. And I mean, naughty God, the look on his face just the. Got it. He just looks so gutted and I. It's such a heavy scene. And I love it when he throws the corners at I mean oh man. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Throws him in his face like yeah it's crazy. Yeah. And he's even. That's when you really see him try to be dad. He's like tell me I'm really trying here. Yeah this isn't easy for me. Like I'm really trying. And then just, you know, and this is always a hard thing for me when we're dealing with, addiction issues in a movie, I don't want to see if a relapse is going to come. I don't I don't necessarily need it to be like this big, huge thing which this movie does. It is a big, huge thing. Like it is a moment and it's saying, you know, he went through this one horrible thing. So then that night he's going to get loaded. That's what he's going to do. And wow. So when we leave the casino and then we're out like some, you know, establishing shots, it's day. It's the morning. Now when we start to hear Nulty like over the soundtrack, his voice over and he's, like slurring and everything and and you know. Yeah, here we go, here we go. And he's, you know, he wakes up Tommy. Tommy opens the door. And Nulty just doing what Nulty does, man. He's this brute holding a bottle of I don't know if it's Jack, but he's holding something half drank. He looks like hammered shit wearing a robe has, you know, Moby Dick halfway hanging off his face. His Walkman. His Walkman. Yeah. And just starts like, saying the lines over and over. Ahab. Ahab, you stop the ship, you godless son of a bitch! So you bastard. God bless you. And husband. God, stop you! You stop! Stop! You ship! You godless son of a bitch! You stop the ship! You God, which will ship. You thought he went a little big here. I can deny that. No. Like. Yeah. No, I think it was good. Like. I think it was good. And like. Yeah, like I and I maybe appreciate that in this movie you didn't have this, like, very predictable, long, drawn out downward spiral. Yeah. You know, this thing happened and like, you know, backing up to, like, because, like, I was trying to find sympathy for Nulty. Right? When his two sons are like, I don't want to mess with you. And like, so, so they definitely talk about, like, the alcoholism. Right. But but I think why I stopped short of like, sympathy was the abuse. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah of course like that he was abusive abuses of. Well so like you got to the boys and the mom. Yeah. Like beat the mom that we understand. We know this. Yeah. So like that's why. Because like when I'm watching it, I just want to be like, dude, that's your dad. Like, he's reaching out. Just whatever. But I'm like, I pull short because I'm like, man, those kids. Yeah. You know, to the point where mom ran off, like, I mean, that it hasn't been terrible. Yeah, yeah. So, like, I thought the scene, like, I thought the scene was good. Yeah. Like, And then what Tommy did after what? You don't expect, how he, like, cradles him, literally. And just, you know, takes the bottle away, gets him in bed. You know, it's. I love you. Kind of puts his hands all right in this lab. And, yeah, there's finally a little bit of a I mean, it's the last time they're going to be on camera together in this movie. So this is finally they're getting their little moment. Does this one thing I love about this movie is that this does not suggest that, hey, everything's going to be happily ever after now. It's not what it is at all. It's just a little step. It's a step I think Tommy is fully aware now of. Wow, the things I can say have a lot of impact. Yeah, yeah. So. And, you know, it was it was really funny the first time. The first few times I saw this, I kept wondering, like, where the hell is Nulty at? These fights are about to come up to. And I went, oh, he's sleeping it off. He's in the room. I can sleep it off. Hung over his shit, probably. And I just want to make, one quick note here that this film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000. 11. It was best supporting actor for McNulty. I love Christopher Plummer. I like his performance in the film beginners, but that shit ain't this man filthy. This shit ain't this. I love Plummer, he should have won before Nulty. Probably should have won before. Not that. No, no one else had any chance to win this. It was one of those things where Plummer was just a lock. But hot damn it, it would have been great. but yeah, you're seeing, like, a real brute of a man kind of lose his shit here. And what's hilarious is on the special features Gavin O'Connor and Nulty are watching some of Nulty scenes together, so you can watch Nulty watching it. And when this scene comes up, Nulty just grits his teeth and starts growling. He's, like he's just thinking about like, the headspace he was in. And he looks at O'Connor. He's like, wow, that guy looks like he's been drinking five decades. Nulty himself has had troubles with, you know, alcohol, drugs in the past. And he it was risky to bring him on for this movie because he's an insurance liability. Like, will the dude go off the wagon, like, get hammered or will something happen? So O'Connor the role was written for him. They Anthony Tom Backus I think it's his name was the co-writer. They wrote this role specifically for Nulty and they knew was going to be a challenge. But O'Connor sat him down and he's like, look, if you're going to do this, you cannot mess up on the set like, I need you. You're there on time. You're not messing up. You don't go like a while. You're here. Agree? Agree. Everything's fine. I don't it might be. So was he having a hard patch during this time? Like so? He was sober at the time and he was, you know, the infamous mug shot was like a few years ago, I remember. Yeah, that that was a few years earlier. So some. So something happens where he decides to go out with some of the crew members. I don't know if they're filming yet. If they were, they were like a weekend and he goes out and gets annihilated. he's talking about he's just doing coke with, like, bikers. He's drinking and they can't, like, find him. So he almost fired him. And O'Connor had to, like, sit him down and go. Nick, man, this is this is exactly what we talked about. So then O'Connor hired bodyguards to follow L.T. around for the rest of the shoot, like on set off. Said no to that. So he said he had to, like, I guess, relax and have that moment. But it was, notice when he told that story, shortly after warrior came out. So yeah, that's I think what we're seeing on screen was also being lived, you know, in life. There's some demons there, I'll put it that way, some demons. And so you can edit this out, but like, you know, I get like, I'll admit, I get Nick Nolte confused with Gary Busey. A lot of people do. Okay? A lot of people do. Gary Busey's, point break, you know? Yeah, he's. I mean, because now they both are. So they both have lives. They've had they've lived, you know? I mean, you see, God damn motorcycle accident is never the same. But yeah, they both live fast, lose hard lives. Yeah. So I think a lot of people get them confused. And in their if you look at Busey in Point Break 91 and then Nolte in Cape Fear 91, they have a very similar look. Yeah, sure. He's got that, you know. Well, no fucking not. He has a crazy voice. Two never. Yeah. This is not okay. here we go. The rematch everyone has been waiting for Tommy versus Mad Dog Sparta five, the group of. Now, we got a group of marines in the arena. They. They're singing their song. Tommy finally acknowledges them. I love that gives a little nod. And. Yeah, this is. We're not in the Colts gym in Pittsburgh anymore here. This one really counts. And I just I really assume that this is going to be kind of a big set piece. It's gonna go long and deep and like I was like, he's going to win. But like we're going to see some action here. Yeah man. Dog's going to get some licks in because he feels you know the it went viral of him like getting knocked out. And oh it was just a sparring thing. The yeah the ref let's go to war Tommy slams and down beat the ever loving shit out of him to the point where he has to be pulled out. Pulled off by the ref. Yep. Stormed out in victory. Fucking game like it looks like he's dead. Yeah he does get up off the mat. Oh my God, it's great. So we've been kind of cutting back and forth. Not really. But they've been showing us that. Hey. Yeah Tommy's on the rise knocking people out. Brendan's knocking people out. But there's also this mad rush coma. Yeah it was he's who were you know, he's who we really have to look out for. So like I mentioned, I knew in the theater that these brothers were eventually going to have to fight. And I'm like, but it's going to be Tommy versus Cobra, right? So then it's these two, and this is where I think it really comes into play to talk about these holds. Like what you can, you know locks. You can get people in round one really tough for Brendan gets pounded on thrown, thrown to the ground. Tough round two. Now Kobe's just picking Brendan up and like throwing him against the cage like a ragdoll and going oh my God, you don't even know if he's going to be able to survive Brendan I mean, I love, Frank to and the, the sideline kind of pep talk. You know, you don't knock him out. You don't have a home. That's like his moment of the ring. Guy always has to get a moment in the movie where he says something, you know, kind of inspiring. Round three. Brendan's in there showing shooting at Kobe now showing some heart a little bit. Kobe gets Brendan in a guillotine. Brendan gets out. They start brawling in the middle of the ring, which is awesome. Brendan takes him down and gets Coba and a knee bar and Frank's yelling break it, break it! He's deeper than that. I'm gonna listen to this again today. We're seeing it here, but you're gonna break the driver's like you're gonna break anything he's gonna give in the ass. I don't know, like maybe. Hey, guys. I can't believe it. This, that and that shot of, like, Edgerton, you know, on his side, just flexing every muscle. Man. I remember the first time I saw this, when I was watching it, I went, who has who locked up here? Like, I actually don't know who because they both look like they're an agonizing pain. But it's just Brendan pushing as hard as he can. And Kobe's like. But yeah, when you do a little research, this is not if this knee breaks, you lose this, you lose Sparta. You may not be able to compete again. Yeah, yeah. Like that. Like, again and like amateur fighting like knee bar is like, you don't like they're not allowed. Right? Okay. Yeah. Like you're not allowed to do that in competition because, like, you'll end like, deal in someone's career or like, the ability to train, right? Yeah. Yeah. Then not not allowed. Like, you see it, like, all fair game, but like, ripping the knee like dangerous stuff. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that ends it. Yeah. Man, I didn't even. Yeah, you kind of mentioned that to me on the, on the plane you were like, that's not allowed. And I forgot to bring that up because, yeah, it's a that's a career ender. Damn, that's a really good point. Tessa has been here for Brendon. She's shown up. So keep in mind this is Brendan versus Coba. That is a hard, hard fought victory for Brendan to win. He does tap Kobe out. That's great. But then not too much time in real life. It's gone by where it's 4 to 7. Brendan versus Tommy. Yeah. Cain versus Abel. I'm fairly certain, you know, Tommy is not a that rough of the go of it physicality wise. He really the only thing we see him doing is just like laying on his back, stretching out for each fight, which I love. But yeah, I don't I don't think Brendan would be. And he just wouldn't be in a position to fight. But that's okay. No way, no way. We did, we did. Yeah. Now, before this for the fight. This is when we finally learned that Tommy actually went AWOL. He did come across some soldiers as he was going a while. He saved them. And if he wins, he's giving all of this money to the wife of his former fallen comrade. But because he went AWOL, the military police are there and are likely going to detain him when the fight's done. And then now the rest of the world is finding out what we've already known. That Tommy and Brendan are brothers, and it's a lot of things happening, like at once. And you're going, okay, okay. Yeah. So, like, I was wondering why like, that angle exists, right? So, so the AUP is right, like, agree because like and like, I don't know. Right? I was never in the military, but like it was no joke. Right. So at the point where that happens, I don't know that they're waiting to pick him up after Sparta. Right. That's true. Yeah. Like yeah. Well that's another thing about. Yeah. They might be taking his ass right away. Yeah. So it was. Yeah, it was interesting. Like, I don't, you know, I don't know, the first time I watched a movie, like, I paid enough attention to understand what was going on there. Like, why am I seeing this? Okay. So, like, he's like, this unsung hero. He doesn't want to be recognized, like, fair enough. But then all of a sudden it evolves to, like, nah, I mean, he's getting out of there because, like, he's pissed because of friendly fire, right? That my like my brother, my actual brother or military brother was killed. So yeah. Like and like the the call with PR. yeah. Yeah. That was like that was touching too. Like you saw another side of Tommy. Except for the whole time. Yeah. I mean, he, like, lights up and you're thinking, is this someone he's romantically involved with? And. No, it's just that was his brother. That guy who died that, you know, that is his brother. That's who he considers it. And this. Yeah. We need they need to give Tommy something like a reason to be fighting for this. For. Do you need to give him a reason, a believable reason to not give a shit about the $5 million? And why is he going to just pass it off? So that's his whole motivation. Obviously, Brendan, Brendan is fighting to save his house, his family, all that stuff. I did a whole color commentary for this. Five rounds, baby. Round one. Here we go, let's go, let's go to War. Tommy's a pit bull. Brendan tries to stay away from him, gets in a few hits. Tommy slams him down once, twice, four times. The horn blows. Tommy gets that cheap shot in. Oh, that's that's tough. Like it's already. It's already you know the round is done and he punches him after. And this I love the way Frank Grillo handles this where he's just yelling at just the ref. He's like do your job job you a few extra minutes a few extra seconds for the cheap shot. Oh yeah. And that guy, almost everyone in this was that's like really that rolls that guy. So the name is Josh, and he's a referee. He's really nice. You and I love, yeah, he really plays it so well, but I just love that. All right, round two. Now we're in the middle of the ring fighting. Great stuff. It's pretty even Brendan slams Tommy. Brendan gets on top and is wailing on Tommy but Tommy's blocking it. Rounds done. Round three Tommy is the aggressor again, but Brendan finally gets Tommy in the ground. And, you're gonna have to help with this, Plata. a lot of, a lot of Brazilian jiu jitsu hold, which doesn't look, like, comfortable. Looks like it hurts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. So that Brendan presses down. Oh, God. I'm moving too fast. This. Okay, so he has him in this hold, and the round is about to come to an end, and Brendan presses down so hard that breaks his, I guess, shoulder. Yeah. So something. Yeah. So like a dislocated shoulder. Yeah. So that it. But it happens right when the horn hits. So the idea is that no one really knows except Brendan. What's happening. He's trying to help him. And then Brendan's doing the thing like he wants to call the fight. He wants to stop the fight. I'm a little unclear what would happen here because Frank is like, no, don't. Don't call Josh. We're not stopping this fight. If the fight stopped, would it go to, like, points and then Tommy would be up and point because, like, if if the ref called it right? Yeah. Said Tommy can't fight and then Brendan wins. That's what I. Yeah. So I thought too. Yeah. There's no reason to, you know, not throwing in the towel. Yeah. you know, and I don't know if Tommy's like the one that can make the call. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I didn't understand why it was like, leave it alone. I didn't because. Yeah, he would want. Yeah, exactly. And I know he goes I broke his, broke his arm, broke his shoulder like, break his elbow. Yeah. So this is 310 on the shoulder. That's good for the shoulder. Let's go. Josh! Hey hey hey. No! Josh, no! Hey, look at me. Go! Give me the two out. Two out. We need both hands. yeah. So round for now. Nulty shown up. You know, he was. He's late getting there. He. It's so great when he comes in because he can kind of assess what's happening and he sees it. Brendan's like reluctant to fight. And he can see that its other son Tommy's you know, hurting. And then Brendan really just doesn't want to do this. And he starts beating on Tom and Tommy mercilessly, really. Just like hitting the shoulder over and over some hard core shit right there from both of them. I mean, they talk about the real fighting thing, like Joel Edgerton tore his ACL filming this. Tommy broke his Tom Hardy, broke his ribs, broke some fingers. Not just in this fight, just in the process of training. So yeah. All right, here we go. Well, in between round five Jesus Christ, this I can't even put into context how much has changed my life. A song starts playing, that I never heard before. Called about today by the National. And it's just a specific version of the song because the the real song is like, you know, 4.5 minutes. And this song somehow informed Anthony and Gavin O'Connor, who wrote the script, the entire script for them. They listened to it on repeat, over and over and over, so they basically wrote it was everything came from this song, and they reached out to the band and the band agreed to kind of turn it into an orchestral version. So that's why it sweeps up and gets really big. So man, the song starts to play Brendan like sits when he sits down and looks over and locks eyes with Nulty. And they're just there's so much communicated. They're notice like nodding like, do what you have to do song like I get it, I get it. And then there and then you know we go over to Tommy and he's like leaning on the fence crying, yeah, God, this is the toughest motherfucker I've ever seen in the city. You're crying. That shows you how much the shit can hurt. And, you know, it's like, is he crying for his brother because he doesn't have anyone? Because he's not going to be able to pay the money or because it's just too much. All of the above. Whatever. But it's the music's flaring up. It's so, oh my God. So then we're in the ring again. We're starting. Brendan doesn't want to fight, but he has to. He kicks Tommy down and then it's, you know, it's the movie thing that happens that he. It tells him he loves him. Like he tells his brother he loves him. And that's what makes his brother tap out, I guess. I don't know, some people might call that like corny or something. I just think it's such a moving dude. I think it's like, so it was done. It was done. Well, yeah. It's like all this, like war and conflict in the cage. Yeah. Song comes on and like, I think it just wraps it. Yeah. And then as soon as, as soon as the tap happens, the song flares up. I've had chills the entire time we were talking about this test. Loses it. And then my favorite, my absolute favorite fucking moment of the movie is when they're gathering, you know, Brennan's picking him up, trying to get Tommy out of the ring. They're not even going to stay for, like, the official winner. Yeah, Gavin O'Connor is. JJ is like, what's going on? Like, what are we doing? What are we doing? And then, man, we just get a few seconds of Nulty watching him and smiling that and crying that his his sons are finally brothers. Yep. Finally will last forever. I don't know, but this has to be a step toward starting and maybe they don't even want anything to do with Patty. Still not. But the knowledge is that. Yeah. Flips his hat, walks out. Oh, that's your fucking world right there, dammit. Oh, I love it. I just love it so much. And I mean, that's our movie. We get one more shot where they're walking toward the camera in slow motion to them. Done that fucking song layer and up and up in. Yeah. I you know, the first time I saw this, I don't I was so, like, just it reminded me so much of my own relationship with my brother. The combative nature of it that I think I almost. I did reject the movie at some point, I gave it, I wrote a review on my blog, gave it like a, B, a, B, okay, a, B, and fine. And then it didn't leave my head. I became obsessed with this song when I saw it again, I was like, oh man, this is this is one of my movies. But by then it was too late because it was about to leave theater. So since then, I've just never shut up about it. I told you about it to everyone I know, but yeah, what a perfect ending, man. That song taking us into the slow motion shot of them walking. It's one of my favorite endings of a movie since it's been released. And. And like, when we were working together, we'd put that song on repeat and, like, work for hours. Let that thing play in the background all the time. Oh my God, I loved it. So this is one of those things that I can't. I think I've talked about it on the podcast a little bit. I can't, I don't know, I don't know how to put it into context. But I became because of warrior. I became so obsessed with that song, and we did play it over and over. My feature film, wait, is the the last five minutes of weight of that movie were all I came up with that first. I thought of that first, just listening to that song over and over. That's where I came up with the characters. I don't know why. I was like, there's something in a hospital, okay, there's now there's going to be someone walking through a hospital. I knew what the words were. I built that entire movie around the end and I formed the characters from that. Listening to this over and over and over so much. And, yeah, it just, it really it really changed things because I already had discovered M83 and M83 released Hurry Up or Dreaming. Like right Around, this movie was released and that album changed my life. So it's a great time. It's a great time now. Like, Jesus, look at all this stuff. Like all this inspiration coming. And then my last little personal story. So when I lived in LA, well, yeah, you know, one of my friends there, Andrew Bunch porno, he played my brother and I'm alive. He was the driver and wait took to fantastic actor, an amazing actor. He is Australian and he would take me to some events because these men, these Australians and LA, they have each other's back. So they look out for each other. So he would invite me to some premieres and we got to see Joel Edgerton's movie The Gift. It was the first movie he'd directed with Jason Bateman, and Edgerton was there. So after there's like, you know, a little cocktail hour and I'm looking at Andrew and I'm like, man, I don't I is it like an appropriate to go say something? He's like, no, it's totally fine. Don't be like weird. You know, just say your thing. So I walked up to him. He had bleached blond hair because he's about to film a movie called loving, which was released in 2016. So I'm talking to him, and I complimented him on, you know, it's customary in the movie. We just seen The Gift really good job. And then I start to try to thank him for warrior because he was also a producer on it. Like he played a big role in it. And I start to get like choked up and I, I like, stop myself. And I said, I can't tell you what that what that movie meant to me. Thank you so much for your work on it. I know it couldn't have been easy and just thank you. And, you know, we talked for like five minutes. It was really nice. Really. I mean, that's awesome. Yeah. I didn't know that. Yes. I'm fucking bathroom. So it's like sobbing in there after and just like hey where'd you go now? I'll be back, man. I'm all good. yeah, it was great. Just one of those things, you know, totally, totally gracious guy. And it in those moments, I know that it means more like I'm saying this to kind of benefit myself. But the only thing I never asked for an autograph, never asked for a picture. I don't do any of that shit. I think the best thing, the nicest thing you can do is thank them for their work and that's all. And I, you know, meant it. What else? I didn't mention their name, cinematography. He has a very hard name for me to pronounce. So he is his nickname is masa, so I will call him masa. This was his first major movie that he was the cinematographer for. It looks Amazing music by Mark Isham. He has 199 film composer credits. It's crazy. He's been around forever. Editing by John Gilroy that I mentioned. He's edited every O'Connor film, every Tony Gilroy film, every Dan Gilroy film. Also, Billy Madison. Oscar, I talked about no more coming post-career here. I don't know if you know this. Do you know any of Oconnors other movies by name? okay. Maybe not by name. So he did. Jane got a gun. Didn't really work out. Did the accountant with Ben Affleck? Oh, yeah. I guess they're working on a sequel to it now. Very like studios, you know, friendly. Made a lot of money. The last movie Gavin O'Connor made is the way back with Ben Affleck. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. And that movie got we. Yeah. You know, we got more fucked by Covid than that because that came out the week before we got locked out. Like we came out on a Friday. And then the next week we were locked out to the point where I saw it. Then Covid hit and I couldn't even it was because Covid like dominated the world. I had a little trouble remembering every beat of the way back, and that oh, so Ben Affleck sour beer here, man. Oh the fridge. Oh man. Oh God, oh my God, that is so there are kind of two sides of O'Connor's career where we're seeing like miracle. We're seeing the accountant, these kind of bigger studio things. But then the way back warrior gritty gritty. Yeah. That's that is I bought it. I watch it all the time. It's Ben Affleck's. It is my favorite performance of his. Nick and I have said, is it Gone Girl? Nick may still think that, but no, the weight like what he taps into there. It's it's unreal. It's I remember watching it like. And it was disturbing. Yeah. That's weird. Yeah. Like I was like I'd seen that and yeah, it I can be critical of people who are, you know, boozed up on camera and they're playing that, that his slurs when he gets on, like, how were you sober when you made this? Oh my God. Yeah. It's perfect. It's crazy. And then so that just a huge endorsement. If someone if people haven't seen that it it's following kind of like a sports sports movie convention. But then the you know the last big game, it ends and there's 30 minutes left in the movie and you're like, what's going on here? This is not the way this typically this is not following formula. And it deviates so drastically. Yeah. So I love that movie. And I know you're a fan of it too. So yeah, I wanted to mention that for sure. Hardy has Hardy and Edgerton have gone on to have great careers. Hardy was Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. He was in lock. Mad Max Fury Road, Oscar noms for The Revenant, he's going to be in The Bike Riders, the Jeff Nichols film that's coming out later this year. Edgerton was in Peaky Blinders. Piggyback. Yeah. Oh good then right? You're right. You're on TV, TV, you're right. No, no, you're right, it counts. Count it. He's great. That show. He was great. I watch that show because of you. They're apparently making a movie to wrap every. Yeah. Thank god. Edgerton. Zero dark 30, The Great Gatsby, The green. He has so many. The Green Knight, Master Gardener, the Paul Schrader movie so good that he directed, like I said, The Gift, Boy Erased with Russell Crowe. Final thoughts here I have you know, if you're I talk about special features a lot. This thing has something I've never seen in on a movie before. You can watch it. It's called the Full Contact version, where O'Connor is sitting there. So the movie will be playing in like a tiny little box in the bottom right. And then there he's sitting in there with, in a cage. And as the movie goes on, he'll bring in people who are important to like those scenes of multiple. Come on. And then a lot of the fighters who are in the movie will come on it. So it's just really it's awesome learning. That's how I learned so much about this. So I highly recommend that if you're a fan of the movie, it's just it's great. It's great making a feature, but that's it, man. This warrior, this is a lot of fun. This was a lot of fun. It went really well. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for thanks for letting me. Come on. Yeah, absolutely. We're at everyone's favorite section. What are you watching for? You. I said this can be round robin. You can list anything. Everything. Whenever you're watching TV, movies, I don't care, okay? It's going to be TV. Okay. All right. Well, first, like, I didn't have this rundown, but, like, I'm going to have to give a shout out for Kingdom like. Yes. I need you to see it, though. Like, I'm writing it down. Frankly, low was fantastic in that, it's another like, maybe like, not the main focus, like my family, kind of dynasty. And it's following, like, the two brothers, which is like their. It's kind of like where, like there's, there's different. You've got anyway. Okay. I don't want to, like, that's definitely, I must say, but, like, what am I watching? the gentleman, Guy Ritchie on Netflix. I think it's fantastic. I would tell you that I'm not a huge Guy Ritchie fan. but I was looking for something to watch. I turn this on and, like, not to not to spoil. Right. But, you know, semi plot is, there's a brother who our son who inherited, an estate, out in England and come to find out, like, there's, like an underground weed farm. Weed. Yeah. That sounds perfect for me. So. And like, it it's got the right mix of, like, drama, conflict, but, like, there's, like, humor in there, and, like, I'm only like, three episodes in, but, like, really good character development. Like, there's people you like, people you don't like. It's good. I've heard nothing but good things about it. Yeah. It's great. I'm really interested in checking. Yeah. What else do I see? That's good. What about, fallout that you told me about? watch it. Liked it. I just want to. I just want to hear. Yeah, a bit about it. Yeah. Okay. So you watch that too? Yes. All out on Amazon. Yeah. you know, it's based off the video game, which is one of those things where it can go either way. Right? Yeah. Like, I would tell you that fallout has, like, cult following, in the video game world, and like, I was really interested to see, like, how this would play. Right? Because when you do something like that, you have those people coming out of the woodwork being like, you got this wrong. You got that wrong. Like you weren't true to it. And I'll tell you, like, the acting I thought was phenomenal. And I think anyone who knows about the fallout world like, loves it. Like they did a really good job. And it's got my man Walter Goggins in there. Love will love it so much. Did you watch The Last of Us? This is a video game. Yeah. So? So like that was on HBO, right? Like I watched the first couple episodes like that. And, I mean, people love it, right? It does stand up to fallout. Like, it was fun, but like, I love to hear it. Okay. That's great. Good. Good recommendations. I actually like hearing, TV show wrecks because we never really talk about them. Mind. I'm I kept I'm going to be a little themed with like, fighting wrestling. There is a movie that came out last year that we didn't talk about on the show because I, I don't know, I, I guess I should have been more interested to see it, but I didn't. It was the Iron Claw, directed by Sean Durkin. And this I can't believe I'm bringing it up without Nick here, so I don't want to speak for him, but he, you know, it's about the I know nothing about professional wrestling. So I, I knew nothing about the Von Erichs. Absolutely nothing. I since the movie has come out, I had heard some oh, they left this out. They did this. So I had heard like some stuff I it it was like, it started okay. And then I as it went on, I'm like, you're confusing me a little bit with the timeline like it was. I don't know, it was okay. It was well shot, but it didn't really do much for me, which I was a little surprised by. And again, not to speak for Nick, he absolutely fucking hated it as like. And he loves professional wrestling, knows everything about about the Von Erichs. He hated it. My dad loved it. So I I'm somewhere in between. So I don't know I would when Nick when we are back on just you know for like a new episode. I do want to get his opinion because I even texted him about it. That's what I was watching on the plane. He was such a warrior. I was watching Iron Claw and man, he just came back. He never talks like that about stuff like this. Fucking bullshit, man. I can tell you the timeline. It's so ridiculous. So that was just my thoughts on Iron Claw that over to talk about it. Then for the past two days, you and I have been watching Foxcatcher. Oh, man, you're in the RV. It'd be you'd ever seen it. I mean, I forgot how creepy Steve Carell is in that, like, just, gone. There's no Michael Scott in him here, no office like it is. He is John DuPont. To follow suit. Like, disturbing you were to discern it was. I was watching it like. And I was like, I feel uncomfortable. Yes. The whole time wrestling when they get us in with the guys and, like, let's all get very drunk and then. Yeah. And, it was you. So we started it, like, a few nights ago, and then crash went to sleep. So we finished it this morning. But in that time, you said you would looked up John DuPont because you didn't know who he was. I didn't either before I saw that movie. So I didn't know if you would spoil the end for yourself, which you had not. And when we watched, you were like, Holy shit, I don't expect it. I had the first time I saw it, I had no idea. Again, don't know anything about the Schultz's. I didn't follow wrestling. Yeah. So it was the kind of two movies that I think fit in well with warrior. But Foxcatcher is a good movie. It's just. It's very disturbing. Yeah. The mood, the tone. So disturbing. this was great. It was, invited for cameo. Hey, Dan. Dan, obviously he came out. I know, I back to super. Well, do you want to recommend anything? Have a little cameo. You know, the fans would love to hear from you just talking to this. It's going I just saw True Lies and it was really good for the for. That's right. You did watch it for the first time. Yeah. You like Jackson, Tom Arnold, get me get a little farther down. I did like Paxson. It was a he was ridiculous. I really enjoyed him. I didn't realize how campy was going to be. It took me a bit to get into the campiness because you realize how over the top was. I liked it. Yeah. Yeah, it was good. It was good. I didn't realize how long I assumed the whole plot of the movie was going to be Jamie Lee getting sucked in in the world, right? But it's like the last third. Yeah. It's not. There's the whole the first two third of the movie I didn't know to expect. So yeah, it's good. It was fun. It was like Arnold being fun. It was what, Arnold being fun? Yeah, he was very fun in it. He was. I love a minute. Sorry. He keep saying sorry. He's mocking. Jim James. James Cameron. That's why I keep saying sorry in a Canadian accent. Old times like sorry. Because that's what James Cameron says all the time. Sorry, sorry. Anyway, little cameo from Dan there. Last time you were solo on the part was Gremlins two. Last year was this weekend. He just gave me the thumbs up. All right, everyone let me know about Taylor's performance. How did he do? Rate it on a scale I don't know. No. Let us know what you think about warrior. Any of this Iron Claw, Foxcatcher, Kingdom, The Fall or Fallout at Wawa? Underscore podcast. Twitter, Instagram, Letterboxd. We're out there. But as always, thanks for listening and happy watching. We did. Oh, that was great. Great to have Taylor on. It was all good, right? Don't you love how these like, soft spoken guys? They have these, you know, kind of gentle, quiet voices. But then believe me when I tell you that dude can just beat ass. And, man, you should see him kick a bag. Jesus could not touch me, though. I'll leave that. There cannot be kingdom. All right. So what happened? What? You all just heard what he's like in that show. What was it? So when he and I were on the plane flying Denver, he finished warrior. And then we brought up the Frank Grillo show. That's just how it was presented. The entire time. He and I are having a conversation about the Frank Grillo Show, I was referring to Frank Grillo's documentary series Fight World on Netflix, which is, I think six episodes, and he goes to a different territory and learns about a different style of fighting. It is great. That's what I was referring to. Taylor evidently was referring to the show called Kingdom, which I had never heard of and had never seen, and we made it through a five minute conversation without realizing that we were talking about different shows. So then when we got on the podcast, he thought I had seen Kingdom. That's why he's like, we talked about this. Okay. Anyway, so obviously he gave a a pretty resounding endorsement for Kingdom. Taylor did. So today we got back from Denver. I start the show and my God it I've, I don't think I've ever come on here and reviewed a TV show solo, but so this is wow. First off, if you type in Kingdom Show into Google, it's probably going to bring up a South Korean show that's on Netflix that was made in 2019. What I am talking about is not that I'm sure that's a fine show. I'm talking about a series called Kingdom that was originally titled Navy Street. Probably should have just kept that title. Navy Street. And in my Venn diagram of watching tastes, films, shows whatever Kingdom is perfectly aligned in the center of a lot of stuff. There is truly astounding fighting in the show. There are amazing realistic family arguments. Really, really going for it. There are very serious addiction issues that are treated very seriously, very realistically. The show can be funnier than shit. I loved it, I loved it. The series premiered on October 8th, 2014 on the Audience Network. The Audience Network. What the hell was that? I've never heard of that. It was an AT&T network. That's probably why I never even heard of this show. The Audience Network, okay, season one was ten episodes. Then the show moved to DirecTV now. Season two is 20 episodes, but they split it over two years, so the first ten episodes were released in fall 2015. The next ten episodes were released in summer 2016. Then it came back for a third and final season, ten episodes that aired in 2017. So Kingdom All Told is 40 episodes start to end. I watched it all on Peacock, where it is now. I don't think a lot of people watch this show live on Audience Network and then direct TV, but it was on Netflix in 2021, and in my research, that is when it took off. It hit that Netflix binge model and just cooked. And it's not on Netflix anymore. Which is kind of a bummer because Netflix, you know, everyone has that. But it is on Peacock and I have watched it, I devoured it, I watched it in two weeks, front to back, and then I rewatched it. And now the show has become a sort of happy place for me, just to watch the fighting scenes or just to watch the training scenes. The show's about a guy, Alvey Colina, played by Frank Grillo, who owns an MMA gym in Venice, California. He has two sons who are into the sport. The younger Shai Nate played by Nick Jonas, and the bad ass rabble rouser Jay, played by Jonathan Fucking Tucker. Jonathan Tucker Alvey is divorced from the boys, his mother, but she is still a huge factor in their lives. She's played by Joanna Going, and when the series starts, one of Alva's best fighters, Ryan, is released from prison and he starts training at Alfie's gym again. The gym is called Navy Street. However, Alvey is now dating Ryan's ex-girlfriend Lisa and Lisa, in addition to being much younger than Alvey, also manages Navy Street Gym. So it's this modern boxing family. There is just as much drama at home or in the gym as there is in the ring. If you like the movie warrior, I promise you you will love Kingdom. If you like boxing, MMA, any sort of competitive fighting style, you will love Kingdom, I promise you. Frank Grillo for I got into Frank Grillo because of warrior. I had seen him in earlier stuff, but post Warrior I have all the stock and Frank Grillo one could own. In addition to being a purple belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Frank Grillo has been boxing his whole life. Born and raised in the Bronx, been boxing since 1112 years old. You can tell. You can tell when you watch that show. He owns the gym, he trains fighters. And Alvey is, you know, one of the reasons why I love the show so much is that everyone in it is deeply fucked up and deeply flawed and makes tremendously dumb decisions because they are human beings. He drinks. Alvey does a lot, and it is something that is, you know, relaxing with maybe a bottle of red wine at the end of the day in the first, you know, season or so. And by the end this is a problem. But he still owns a gym. And there's this cycle that he's in of getting completely fucking annihilated every night. But then putting on the rubber suit and training for hours the next morning and sweating it out. That's what Alvey is. And I loved watching him for 40 episodes. Nick Jonas is Nate Colina, Nick Jonas, obviously I know who he is. I have never seen him act and Hindu God probably could name you one Jonas Brothers song. He's very shy. Nate is. He's very quiet. You could say whatever. Anyone can say. Whatever they wanted about Nick Jonas is acting performance in it. That boy learned how to fight and fight well for this show. That's what matters to me. He is out there whipping ass, and I really like. I mean, him and Frank Grillo have some really fucking intense scenes, like where they. Oh my God, there's one scene where Nate's like, why don't you hit me? And Frank just looks at it, but he's like, hit you, I'll fucking kill you. It's your son, dude. And they're good. Frank's good, Nick's good. Oh, folks, I don't get this a lot. I don't get truly groundbreaking acting in TV, as we do with Jonathan Tucker's performance as Jay Carlino. This is why I'm rewatching the show so much. This is one of the best acting performances I've ever seen on television. It's one of the best acting performances I've seen so far this century on any medium. Jay. Jay. Jay I loved him. I was mad at him. I rooted for him. I wanted him to live. This is maybe Kingdom's most flawed character. This is someone who is heavily into drugs, heavily into partying. Here's a great line where he says women either bore him or destroy him. You see, both of those play out very well in the course of this series. He is an incredible fighter. Jay is he can get into the ring and really do some work, but he has a lot of demons, a lot of demons outside the ring that take him to bingeing crack or drinking for days and days at a time at his, you know, Venice Beach house. He he's a type of kid who does not refer to his dad as dad. He calls him Alvey. What Tucker also does with the character playing his mom, Joanna Going is so empathetic. You're seeing an extreme polarization of this guy, Jay, who is capable of ferocious violence but capable of intense love. That's what he is. He's just intense. Yeah, it really affected me this performance. And, you know, a lot of shows, in my opinion, run out of steam as they go and they don't have satisfactory conclusions. I will tell you that the last two episodes of Kingdom may be the best two episodes of the series. Immensely satisfying. The 40 hours, the 39 hours, whatever you have put into it, absolutely worth it when you hit this 40th hour. Holy Christ, Holy Christ, all the emotions this show made me at different times throughout the 40 hours, literally jump up from the couch and cheer. The show made me cry. Show made me laugh my ass off. Jonathan Tucker is so funny. Brian Blasko invented Kingdom. He also in to say invented. podcasting a lot is fun. He created Kingdom. He also created shows like Huff, Without a Trace, FlashForward, Detroit 187. Holy crap Kingdom. You know, Joanna going is the mom. I'm watching the show, and when I see an actor and I do not remember what they're in, I don't look it up. This is my, Wordle. This is my connections. I will sit there and challenge myself and go, you're not getting on IMDb until you know what you know this woman from. And I'm just like, I'm waiting. I'm waiting. The hell is it? I've seen her in so many things but could not place her. You know what I placed her in? She played Sean Penn's wife in the Tree of Life. She's been in so, so much. But the thing I remember her from is, like her 30s in the Tree of life when she doesn't even speak. great. The arc that she takes, there's a lot of, I don't want to give too much away here. Some other character actors Kaylie Sanchez plays Lisa, who I had never seen before. Matt Lauria plays Ryan, the fighter who's just gotten out of prison. I never seen him before. Natalie Martinez comes in as a fighter. Fantastic. Paul Walter Hauser as Keith. He's one of Ryan's best friends. He's a little off, and I. There's no one who could play a role like this, like him. It just. I mean, fantastic. Brian Callan, who is also in warrior, Jamie Kennedy pops in, Mark Consuelos, pops in. Mark and Kelly Andre Royo, that's bubbles from The Wire. He shows up in a really nice, like, chill role. Loved it. Jeff Ross A comedian. He shows up a few times. Kurt Acevedo, who I talked about in The Thin Red line, but was also in Oz. He shows up, Talia Shire comes in for a little bit there. Yo, Adrian, a lot of boxing movies are fun to watch because the sport is fun to watch. Well-made basketball movies are fun to watch as well. Any well-made sports movie is fun to watch, but rarely do those movies or shows actually teach you how to play the sport or how to conduct yourself in the sport. I'm not saying that's a requirement of movies and shows we're here to be, I don't know, entertained, not necessarily to be taught a lesson, but as someone who's been boxing for quite a long time, Kingdom taught me and reminded me of so many useful bits of information. I mean, I got chills watching it and I would just rewind it. It's very it's counterintuitive for one, when you're in a boxing fight to grow accustomed to missing punches, you do not want to land every punch. You want to like get a jab in, but then kind of throw some controlled flurries to keep the person off of you. That's very weird to train your brain to miss punches. It is very weird to train your brain to take hits. Part of boxing, part of fighting is not avoiding every hit. It is being able to take a hit and keep going. Such a fun show so compulsively rewatchable. I cannot recommend Kingdom Highly enough. It's an all timer show for me. It's not something that's going to be as acclaimed or it's not going to be considered as prestigious as The Wire or The Sopranos or Mad Men or Breaking Bad or all those, you know, top echelon Mount Rushmore shows. But as an entertaining show that took me through all the emotions, I loved it, and I highly recommend anyone watch this show. I am so happy Taylor told me about it. The most surprising thing is I never heard of it. I that's just baffling. This is so in my wheelhouse. Whatever. I've heard of it now, I loved it. Kingdom go watch it. All right. Final segment. So I did review The Iron Claw and at the end of the warrior episode, and when I said Nick absolutely fucking hated it, that was, you know, maybe I talked a little out of turn. I so to be fair to Nick, I did want to have him on and actually explain what he liked about the Iron Claw. What he didn't like about it. We recorded this little segment right after we recorded our last episode, The Hitman podcast. So I make a little references to hitman. That's why. So here we go. We're going to bring on Nick for the Iron Claw. All right. Nick's here. Why? I mean, it got to have more. And to talk about the Iron Claw. I couldn't mention the Iron Claw in this episode. Did not have you on to talk about it. It's fair. I know you weren't here for the For the Official Warrior podcast, but. Awesome. You know, we talk about this. Yes. Awesome. Good. Glad you like it. But you. We talk about this a lot that sometimes maybe we're. And I'm not even putting words in your mouth. I'm speculating for me that sometimes I can be a little too close to something. Yes, like all the experiences I've had with hiring, contract killers, I've been doing that for years. So that's why I do that. That was actually a thing that Richard Linklater. No, but you are a huge fan of professional wrestling. You know, the family that this movie is depicting. So real quick, I already gave like kind of a mini review on it. I did it as my what are you watching recommendation or it wasn't really a wholehearted wreck. It was just something I had literally been watching to me, as someone who didn't know a damn thing about this family, I thought there was a narrative, an emotional sparseness to the movie that I guess is intentional for this director, Sean Durkin, because it's exactly what I felt from his other two movies, from Martha marcy May Marlene and From the Nest. not movies I dislike, but movies where I'm like, feels like you really left a lot out of that, a lot of significant details out. And I don't know why he does this. All of his films leave me wanting more, including this one, but I would love to hear specifically. You have full rein right now to talk about any and everything the Iron Claw related. So I guess I'll start by saying I actually liked, those two other movies a lot, The Nest and yeah, I know you love The Nest, Marsha Martha Mae I can never remember the title of that first movie. Yeah, I like it a lot. Well, isn't that part of the issue? Yeah, it's a little bit, Martha, but I had to look it up. Martha. Marcy. May. Marlene. Yeah. All right. Dude, the movie, And not Fritz Lang. it's, So. Yes. No, I was not a fan of the Iron Claw. I think it is a bit of a case of what you're talking about, where I'm a little too close to it, but my biggest issues from the movie. Yes, there were some things that were, in terms of the history of the time, of what actually happened to the Von Erichs, that, just didn't really match up. But I'm also trying to be a little forgiving. And because it is a movie, but some of these things just just were not like, accurate. And it narratively screwed up to me. The movie. Well, and before you get going, I will say I got confused a lot by the timeline. Yes. Again, as knowing nothing, I was like, wait, what? When is this? So I never really knew how popular they were. I never I didn't that was never put into context for me. So yeah. Yeah, exactly that that was a big part of the problem. Is that it, so the Von Erichs and I'm trying not to get too much of my on my soapbox here. The Von Erichs were insanely popular in Dallas, Texas. back then in the day, wrestling was broken up into territories throughout the country. So if you lived in Texas, you would only get that wrestling. You could not see what's going on in the World Wrestling Federation, the Vince McMahon organization in New York. Just as much as you couldn't see what was going on in the Carolinas with NWA, Florida had their own California. San Francisco had a bit of their own. but this is how it was. So wherever your syndication and television lined, that's the wrestling you got to see. So what they would do is, they would bring in their world champions from other territories and bring them into that territory as this special attraction. So the Von Erichs reached a level of popularity that at that time, I actually kind of would argue, say that they might have been the most popular wrestlers in the world because you had Bruno Sammartino in the 70s, that was in New York. You had flair. He was the most popular. Dusty Rhodes this is all the NWA. But in Texas, you had the Von Erichs and you had The Freebirds. This was your draw. So all of that is to say that that's how popular that they were, but you would not have known it from the movie. I did think that the wrestling sequences that were shot were actually the best wrestling sequences I've ever seen. Put to film. Yeah, as a credit to the movie, I love the way that they did that. I thought it looked great. but. I think the movie started off so good. I like I loved it, really sturdy in the black and white, all the stuff with Holt, like in the beginning I was like, oh, all right, this is okay. I don't have any problems yet. So yeah, and I love this because the idea is, is that you're trying to understand that this families love for each other. So, you know, you get in, in Kevin Von Erich, that's Zac Efron. We get everything. The weight of everything is through him and what he wants. And now the truth is, is. Yes, this family. Well, number one, I don't know. I can understand why, but let's also the spring of this out, there were two other brothers that the movie does not. Oh, I thought there was just one other brother. No. There's two. Technically, there's two because one died as a child. Okay, so. But that is something you could potentially add into the curse. And I use the quotes. Yeah, I say curse because that's how the Von Erichs were like that. They were the curse of the Von Erichs. There was a child that died in a drowning accident at six. Okay. Then there was another brother who also died later on. And the director, he said that that was just too many tragedies. I, I don't, but there's a way to make it work, though, man. There is there's a I get. Yeah, but sometimes life is more tragic than fiction. Whatever you want to say. Like it? You had to have known. Because even someone like me who doesn't know about this stuff, that this is all I've been hearing about. You excluded a brother, you excluded a brother. And I'm like, well, you didn't need to do that, dude, so. Okay, okay. And, so insofar as the timeline starts to go to me, I hate to do this because it's just like, I feel like I'm really critiquing. But to me, the movie falls apart right after the death of the first brother because up until that point, we're crafting a pretty like the relationship between the brothers, the father dynamic, the, Zac Efron with his girlfriend. We're understanding that they're coming up. They're doing well. everything's good, but then tragedy has to strike because that's the way that it goes. But as soon as that first brother died, the movie's narrative just felt like this domino effect of tragedy after tragedy of the tragedy. Now, that is technically like the way that it went, but I just didn't really understand the the narrative way it went. It it just I didn't understand why these brothers were doing what they were doing. Yeah. because we only don't we don't hear from them. We really only heard from David. who's the first brother who died? And Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, who ended up in real life. Kerry Von Erich became the most successful of all of them. I don't recall a scene where we really understood where he was coming from with anything. I didn't understand where any of them were ever coming back. Yes, as as someone who does not know this. And I was like, yeah, so this all is tracking for me. Yeah. So this was a big part of it. I was like, oh, everyone's just dying and and no one knows how to deal with it. And I know a big part of it too, is that there is this element of like part of this situation is that the men don't know how to deal with these things, they don't know how to speak about them. And, well, I do think that that's probably valid narratively. I just don't think it translated very well to me. Another issue I had with the movie was a timeline error. So when Kerry Von Erich wins the world title from Ric Flair, which did actually happen then, and that's a huge deal, huge deal in the history of wrestling. In the movie, they have him go on a motorcycle accident the night that he. Yeah, that he won the title. That's just not true. That's not how it happened. Did that happen like two years later? Really? Yeah. Yeah. What? Yeah. so I see I didn't know this. Yeah. So. Oh, yeah. They make it seem like it's that night and he's like, oh, kind of messed. I need to go for a drive. And so I did. I will say, I didn't think the movie handled really any of its tragedies that well. Neither did, the brother that died by the tree. I was like, okay, hey, you're telling me that men don't know how to communicate their feelings? I know, I get it, I get it, but that that is not being translated here is a different way to show and convey all this. Yeah. And so like, and this is just an also a thing to me that didn't really work. Was that the, the timeline from where we're at in all of their careers, the significance of that doesn't really play. And then their things, like all of a sudden like a tragedy happens and then this, oh, someone else died. And then like the like the father's losing his company, but we over here that Kerry Von Erich has won like the Intercontinental title in WWF, we don't even know. Like that's a huge that's that's the the most popular that, anyone ever got was getting to the WWF, especially at that time. We're talking the 90s. The territory sister at this time is done. Vince has bought out every single territory there is only the WWF, WWE, however you want to refer refer to it as and then at now at this time, WCW, which was what NWA used to be. So these are the only two companies in the game on television, and it's also nationwide. So the territories are done. We're not getting this information at all. All of a sudden we hear that because we're watching Kevin struggle wrestling wise, but carries gone up to do bigger and better things, which is true. That is what happens. But we don't see any of it. And so I'm like, wait a second, you're jumping from here to him winning the Intercontinental title. We're talking like five years, probably from like maybe 1987 to like 1991, 92. Around that time, I think it was probably 90 once, maybe not five years, but years for sure from where this was until then. And I'm like, oh, okay, this is were and then when Kerry comes back and has that whole entire thing with his dad with the gun. Yes, I'm, I'm like, where is all of this coming from? There was no there was no I don't see the animosity. I don't understand where it's coming from. Again, if you want to go but then don't know how to communicate their feelings, sure. But a lot has happened and he's coming in without us knowing where he's at in his life. I'm talking about Kerry Jeremy on White's character. Yeah. And because basically all I'm seeing is a unhappy father, a very conflicted Zac Efron who just wants everyone to be happy and keep everyone together but doesn't know how to do it. And then Jeremy Ellen White ruining a holiday for a reason that I don't know. And he's got all this success. I don't know, I don't know. And then, yes, Kerry, Kerry Von Erich dies with a suicide to the chest in their family home. That did happen. All of the ways that the the the Von Erichs died is true to what happened. The timeline of which we got there is skewed. Which, if you want to make those choices as a movie, that's fine, because you kind of have to. But if you're not kind of making them work narratively, for me at least, then I'm like, it just seems like we're just boom, boom, boom, boom, okay, everyone's dead. Yeah, it. And another thing that I'm not saying, like, this will sound very like screenwriter E 101. I'm not saying a movie has to have a hard drawn point of view, but I had no idea who to where my allegiance should lie. What should I just care about? All of them equally. But yeah, when they're when they were sticking with Zac Efron. But then the other brothers coming off successful, I'm like, is that more interesting to show? It kind of feels like that would be more interesting. I was feeling that, yeah, a lot. These all the things you're talking about are also well, we've talked about things like The Fighter, how Micky Ward is one of my favorite, the person who got me into boxing, really. And what they did with that movie, I'm like, man, you, oh my God, there's a whole world of boxing that you just left out of here that is so much more interesting. Whereas the fights that are in that movie are so unmemorable, one because of how they're shot, but two because of how the stakes are brought up. So yeah, I'm very, very close to that story, so I have my qualms with it. But I dislike hearing all this because for me, as someone who didn't know all the thing, now you're just giving context as to why it didn't fully connect for me. And I thought the movie had strong, some strong performance is I thought it shot well. Yes. It was not like a total misfire. No, no. But when you're making a movie like this and it's this specific about one family, you got to know that people like yourself, the diehard fans, they're going to take you to task for this stuff like, and I mean, they kind of have a right to. But and honestly, that's the stuff that I actually forgive the most is actually okay. Like, that's not when he lost his leg. But if you want to give that to the narrative to make it mean more like he wins the title and then this tragedy happens, you know what? It's not what I would have done. But if that's the choice you want to make, you have your right. You have the rights like you can. It's a movie now, you can. But if you're not letting me know where these characters are coming from and giving us context to these things happening, then we're just watching bad things happen over and over and over. We're without a place to kind of form thoughts or feeling about. I'm just like, oh, okay, now that and oh, okay, now this and now. Yeah. If I didn't know what the history was, I would still be unhappy because I would be like, I why am I carrying like I don't know anything about. Exactly. And then and then the but my biggest if I'm just going to vent about the biggest wrestler faux pas that they did. And this is unforgivable in my eyes. Oh, shit. Whoever got that actor to play Ric Flair is the, worst choice I could have ever fucking imagined. Because you're talking about Ric Flair, who is, you know, arguably he's a mount Rushmore level, guy in terms of the history of wrestling. And earlier in the movie, you had an, an actor do a Harley race. He played Harley Race, and that guy nailed it. It was like, spot on. I almost like, got like, hey, do do double takes. I go, oh my God, that's that's Harley Race. Ric Flair is one of the most like known it personality even I know him. Yeah, yeah. And if you know and if you've ever seen Ric Flair cut a promo, then you know what Ric Flair is now as Sean, Durkin has said that he's a wrestling fan. That's why he made this movie. How you made the choice to not get a Ric Flair impression because, like, I'm not blaming the actor. It's the choice to not go into, like, if we're going to see Ric Flair, I don't want to see a Ric Flair promo. Do your own thing with it. That was the choice. Clearly had to have been, because what we got from that actor is nothing like Ric Flair. And I almost walked out of the theater because of that. So now I know some some wrestling fans might disagree and be like, oh, that's okay. They went with a different choice, but you can't go straight up Harley like that. And then give me this Ric Flair. That's unforgivable. No, no, no. The two big things I heard about it was that they left a brother out, and then they completely missed Ric Flair. Well, he missed it, which is Unforgiven for like to your words. And then so I watch and I'm like, man, I got I don't know what the fuck he's doing, but I yeah, it was very, very weird choice. Like it just didn't work. And that is if even I know who I know who Ric Flair is, like, you got it. Yeah. So weird. Weird misses like that, that kept kind of taking me out and going, man, man. But that's it. I just wanted anything else. I just wanted to know kind of why it didn't necessarily hit for you. It's just a bummer because there's not that many professionally professional wrestling movies. There's not just to get the shit right, but like I said, I do think that the visual, of what they captured with the actual wrestling itself, the action is the best I've ever seen. And, yeah, yeah. And it did tell the story of the Von Erichs, but it just did it in a strange way for a movie to do it. Anyone out there who's actually really curious, there is a, vice documentary, from the series called The Dark Side of the ring. Sometimes not my favorite to watch, because sometimes the realities of professional wrestling are just really grim and dark and yeah, it's just it's just the thing. so sometimes I love pro wrestling so much that I don't want to live in some of that reality. But there is a Von Erichs episode. I think it might even be two, where if you were actually really interested in the true history of the family and seeing what happened, that would be a much better, road to go down to watch as opposed to the movie. Yeah. All right. Fair, all fair. It's kind of like when I saw, Back to Black, the news that Amy Winehouse biopic. And I was sitting there watching it going, you know, if you didn't know anything about this person at all, never heard of her. Maybe this is kind of like, okay. It's like a surface level movie. But if you go home and watch that fucking documentary that won Best documentary Oscar. Yeah, you're going way back to Black is rated R, but that's G. That's the G rated version of this woman's life. It's just all glossy surface to where I'm like, why did we even need to make this? No one was asking for this. We a lot of us know who Amy Winehouse was and how she was, and all the stuff in the movie just skirts over all of that, and it kind of sounds like that's. I'm not saying everyone knows who the Von Erichs are. People like you, fans of the sport too. And yeah, not I mean, there's not going to be two Von Erich movies, so like, no fucking get it right? Like just spend I don't know, it's a bummer. I can't all put the blame on him. On Sean Durkin like that's not fair. But yeah, I yeah, I don't know. I just remember hearing the stuff about leaving a brother out and all this and when, when before the movie's come out, you're already on the defense about your movie. It's usually not a good sign. So I think that's what happened to this one. Yeah. A lot of people felt like you did. Yeah. They were just, But I know some people like, Fong, like, he loved it. Really? Yeah. And he's my wrestling like counterpart. Like, I, I don't even think I've really asked him what he liked about it. because I know that he, like, he knows the historical inaccuracies, but like I said, I can actually forgive those a little bit. But you gotta give me more human narratives. I totally get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, well, thank you, sir. Thanks for hopping on. It's been great having me. Yeah. All right. That's it. We did it. Go watch warrior. Go watch Kingdom. Let us know what you think of the Iron Claw. It doesn't sound like we're, you know, really motivating anyone to go watch it. But if you've seen it. We'd love to know your thoughts. Nick. Would love to know everyone's thoughts. Because, you know, as you heard, the man loves professional wrestling. He referenced his friend at the end, Thong Song. Lee, go watch The Sympathizer on Max, HBO Max, whatever the hell we call it now. The sympathizer costarring Phong Lee. His character's name is The Watchmen. Episode three He got the shine. I'm so fucking proud of him. How cool is that? The sympathizer like he's on a show with Robert Downey Jr. It's awesome. Next time, homeboy, it's a fun one. It's a fun one and a long one. It's Nick and I doing a commentary for Damien Chazelle's outrageous movie Babylon. Oh, yeah, all three hours and nine minutes of it. Watch Babylon on Amazon Prime or Paramount Plus. Highly recommend watching along with us. We had a lot of fun recording this episode. I'm so excited to share it! Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I know I already sent us out at the end of the Warriors segment, but really go watch it all. Warrior Kingdom Foxcatcher. let us know what you think on Twitter Instagram, Letterboxd at y w underscore podcast. And as always, thank you so much for listening and happy watching. Hey. you always. Yeah, I'm right here. Can I you. To the. Today. Hey, everyone. Thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex withrow.com. nicholas.com is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter, Instagram and Letterboxd at WWE w underscore podcast. Next time, watch Damien Chazelle's Babylon right along with us. It's going to be a blast. Stay tuned to movies and TV to be.