EPISODE 68: THE 10 FOUNDATIONAL ACTION MOVIES SET IN LOS ANGELES

In this week's episode of Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast, host Jon Steinberg shares his list of the 10 foundational action movies set in Los Angeles. His list includes: "Crank", "Tango and Cash", "Fight Club", "Point Break", "Set it Off", "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", "Face Off", "Heat", "Speed" and "Die Hard".

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Transcript

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Hello listeners and fellow explorers. This is living in the sprawls lovely and talented producer slash wife, Lisa Steinberg. I wanted to thank all of you for your continuous support of the show. As a new podcast on the scene, John and I self-support the logistics and research that go into the show. The number one way to support the show is to rate, review and share this podcast with everyone, you know, Many of you have been doing this and it has helped immensely. I also invite you to check out our website and the show notes for other ways to support the show. We are currently working with companies. We currently use ourselves. To get discount codes for our listeners and support the show in the process. These companies include. Every table, just CBD store, gold belly cats, botanicals, and so much more. By using the links on our website, you are letting them know we sent you an intern, supporting the show. You can also support us on Patrion and pod fan. Please check out the website@livinginthesprawlpodcast.com. For updates on companies we are working with our testimonies links codes and new living in the sprawl merchandise Again thank you to all of you our lovely listeners for tuning in every week and allowing us to do what we love Without further ado you're humble correspondent John steinberg Hello, and welcome to another installment of living in the sprawl. Southern California's most adventurous podcast. I am as always your humble. Correspondent and host, my name is John Steinberg joined by my lovely, an immensely talented. Producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. We are the team here at sprawl enterprises, ready and excited to get into yet another foray into the vast expansive terrain that we have lovingly dubbed. The sprawl. On today's show. We had back. Into the world of cinema, something that we specialize in here. In the greater Los Angeles area today, we're going to be looking at action films. What are some of the best action films that are set in Los Angeles? Well, today we're going to address that very question with our comprehensive. Heavily researched. Whist of R 10. Selections. Why action movies. And why Los Angeles? Well, There's a long. History. of action movies being sent. In the city of angels. This of course has no surprise. The entire film industry is based in the area. So it would only stay at reason. That a number of notable entries into the action genre. Would stem. From stories set. In greater Los Angeles. Now it's argued. When the first quote unquote action movie was released. Was it the great train robbery in 1903? Maybe a little bit later in the twenties with some of the swashbuckling tales storing the likes of Douglas Fairbank's. Or did it really come. Into its own. With the release of. White heat. Other James Cagney movies. No matter. The action origin story. The genre. As morphed and evolved. In the last hundred years. But some of the central themes. Or still recycled. Pretty much every single year. There are different sub genres with the. Kind of action nomenclature. These would include. Saifai Western. Crime. In Los Angeles. Has been utilized as a backdrop. Four. Many of these. Uh, claimed and not so acclaimed stories. So here now, let us begin our quest. To uncover. R. Foundational list. Of action films set. In Los Angeles. Let us begin at number 10. Crank. Starring Jason Statham. Amy smart. Dwight Yoakam. This film from the early arts. It's one of the most. Insane productions. You're liable to ever see. I got to show this one to Lisa recently. And her response was pretty simple. That was wild. It is wild. Here, state them. Plays champ. Chelios. An assassin. Who wakes up to find out that he has been injected? With a fast acting. Poisonous. Substance and the only way to mitigate the effects of that substance. R two. Employee. The services of adrenaline boosters. In the movie. We literally see him go to a hospital and request. For doctors to pump him full of epinephrin. And. Pump up his heart. Using tools that are designed for folks. Approaching the end of their lives. This wild. Picture. Incorporates. Los Angeles. And it's various neighborhoods. As we track. The progress of Chelios. He goes from Beverly Hills, downtown Koreatown, Chinatown. He kind of goes all over the city in his quest. To remain amongst the living. We get. An unforgettable climax set. Downtown. Utilizing. The dramatic skyscrapers. And the pace at which the film is staged. We'll leave audiences and I've never seen this one breathless. At number 10. In our list of the foundational action movies set in Los Angeles. Jason state thumbs crank At number nine, tango and cash. Sliced alone. Kurt Russell, Jack Palance Teri Hatcher. Come on board. This is one of the most preposterous vehicles that you will ever. The sea. This is what comes to us. From the late eighties that. Wonderfully unrealistic decade. That private itself on. Gross out comedies like Porky's or bizarre. Saifai. Stories like the fly. Here we have two Los Angeles police officers. Uh, Stallone and Russell tango and cash. And they are. Presented to viewers as being famous cops. They are covered the way that TMZ covers the exploits of the Kardashians family. We learn through. Glances at. Newspapers. And at the LA times, Covers. The officers. Quite often and they're on a first name. And last name basis with them. And I got to thinking, do I know of any quote unquote, famous police officers? Are they ever covered? In Los Angeles, times like this and the answer to both of those questions is, um, no, I don't. This is only one of a myriad. Of. Incredulous. Events that come from. Events depicted in the film. We get Teri Hatcher. Pre. Radio shack commercials, pre desperate Housewives. As an exotic dancer. Who. It doesn't really take off any of her clothes. So I'm not entirely sure what kind of a club she happens to be. Dancing at. We get Jack Palance. In all of his. Kind of Batman era glory. As a gruff villainous drug pusher. Kurt Russell at his. Most subversive in your face. I don't care what you have to say. Style. Sliced alone wears glasses in the movies. So I guess we're to assume that he's the brains of the operation. It's a big bowl of. Idiocy in the best possible way. These Los Angeles police detectives are unlike any that have ever existed because none of them. Have existed quite like this. We strongly recommend. For a fun night in. Get your action movie, fix with tango and cash. I never ate fight club. Now I know what some of you must be thinking. If I, club's not really an action movie. Well, for the definition, That we subscribe to here at sprawl enterprises. It does fit the bill. This is not a movie that I would show my mother or my mother-in-law, because they would say that's way too violent. And if it's too violent, And we're doing action set pieces then by the parameters set forth by us here at sprawl enterprises, fight club is very much an action film. With the source material, being the great. Book by Chuck Palahniuk. The movie never explicitly tells you that we're in Los Angeles, but we are. And we're Norton's character resides in an apartment on Figaroa. Maybe a mile and a half from where I used to live. And the bar shipwreck, Jos. We're fight club. Begins in earnest was also located. On Figaroa, just a couple blocks away from the apartment where Edward Oren's character resides. There's a lot of great downtown stuff going on here. The apartment where. Or I guess it's a hotel where Marla. Attempts to take her own life. that is downtown. The ending with the exploding skyscrapers that is century city. We get. An exterior shot of Clifton's cafeteria on Broadway. One of the cooler hangout spots in DT LA. David Fincher seems to really have a thing for setting his movies in Los Angeles, but never explicitly telling the audience that we are. In fact, in Los Angeles. We get a lot of stuff going on in Wilmington here. That's, uh, a. Let's go ahead and call it a rough and tumble neighborhood near San Pedro in the south bay. That's where Tyler Durden's house is located. And the. Scenes. Which feature Tyler at work. In his capacity as a screen projectionist. Those occur at the tower theater also on Broadway in downtown. A great Los Angeles movie of the action variety, even though we are never told outright that we are in fact in Los Angeles, it is David. Fincher's a landmark. Fight club And number seven. Vaya con Dios. We're talking point break. Kathryn Bigelow's. Much lauded, early nineties action flick. C's. A young Keanu Reeves, starring as. Detective Johnny, Utah. Attempt. To track down and bring a herd. Of bank robbers to justice. How does he do it? Well, Once he figures out. That the criminals a question may be. Surfers. He goes undercover. Learns how to serve. Buddy's up. To Patrick Swayze and the rest of the ex presidents. And we get an enormous amount of fun. Los Angeles related set pieces. Much of the beach action was shot. In Malibu. And the bank robberies take place in both Kovar city and Santa Monica. The chase. The part where Johnny, Utah. Attempts to corral. The guy in the Reagan mask. Even though he comes up short, that was filmed near Bellona Creek. On the outskirts of Culver city. When they remade point break at 2015. I knew it was a mistake. And everyone involved should have known also. When fast and furious, the first one. Came out. In 2001. It was pretty clearly a gigantic Amash two point break. But how can you think that you can actually remake something? As distinct and unique as point break. Not a great idea. But there are plenty of great ideas afoot in this one. Kathryn Bigelow knows her way around. An action scene. And there's. Quite a bit of what I would characterize as highly entertaining dialogue going on here. Gary Bucy. Playing a side kick detective here. Requests that Johnny Utah bring it back. Two sandwiches, not one, but as he states, Hey, Utah. Give me two. And eliminate. A great meal, perhaps as you sit down. And bask in one of the greatest los angeles set action movies of all time point break And number six, set it off. With queen Latifa, Vivica Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, or she was just, she had a pink and at the time. And a young Elise Neal. Oh, the soundtrack here. Don't let go by and Vogue. The other classic RNB jams. This unforgettable picture. Includes. The four female protagonists. Attempting to become bank robbers. F Gary Gray hot off the success of Friday. Presided over this one. And it has been much parodied studied and applauded since it's released in the mid nineties. We get Blair Underwood. And in yet another. Over the top. Police Sergeant role, John C McGinley, who was in the. The point break. Set it off is loaded. With. Pulse pounding action sequences, perhaps. None more thrilling than the climactic bank robbery. Lots of downtown here, all the banks that they Rob are in the bank district. And who knew. That queen Latifa could be an action star. This movie taught us that she. Very much. Could compete. With her male counterparts. We love set it off here at sprawl enterprises. The soundtrack. Oh, the soundtrack again, I will double down on that invoke song. Check out the soundtrack, check out the film. We strongly urge you. To sit down and enjoy set it off Number five Terminator, two judgment day. Now some would see this as being too low for a movie as important. Shall we say as Terminator two. But I thought at a fair landing spot for the sequel. To the immensely successful. 1981 original. Here we get a lot of. Wonderful car chases, maybe the most notable being. A breakneck scene. That incorporates. Terminal island. There's also quite a bit of valley stuff going on here. There's a truck that flips at, I think Haven Hurston plumber. In this movie, we get some support in a basin. The family, the foster family. Where John Connor, is living. Those folks reside in the valley. So some interesting stuff for us that reside in the S F V. But what you're really here for are. The battles between terminators T 1000 and the pretty well unnamed Terminator, the Arnold Schwartzenegger character. I was surprised and fascinated to learn. That in addition to the former Kaiser steel mill. Which used to be in Fontana. And was demolished to make way for the California Speedway. And. The Santa Monica place shopping center. Those were used as staging grounds for these unforgettable battle sequences between the two terminators. The first Terminator is also a great Los Angeles action film. But with T2, Jim Cameron really stepped up his game. For beginners to the genre. This is a terrific place to start. Nope. You don't need to have seen the first installment in the Terminator franchise. T2 judgment day will bring you to the present. And send you off. Gleefully into the night. And number feel face off. One of my personal favorites, this 1997. Blockbuster comes to us. Courtesy of Hong Kong vendor kin. John. Woo. For those of you. That loves cinema. I love movies. And notice similarities between a face off and his prior films. Maybe it is the insistence on utilizing the services of. Dove's for some reason. John Wu has an enormous appreciation for doves. We get a lot of doves near the climax, which takes place in the San Pedro Harbor. John Travolta. Oh, why bother the plot is so absurd. Me explaining it. Uh, we'll just make me sound like a lunatic. Suffice to say that John Travolta and Nicolas cage star as. A lot, man. In a criminal. Who for. Reasons that don't even make sense after you've seen the film. Half to switch faces. But what I found interesting. Is, we know that. The Sean Archer character, the John Travolta. Character. He works. Out of an FBI office downtown, but yet his family, they reside in the Pacific Palisades, which I suppose makes sense. Given that Eve, his wife here, Joan Allen. Does work as a doctor's I suppose, with the salary of a doctor and an FBI agent. You could muster up enough cash to splurge on a house in the Palisades. I don't know though. Seems a little farfetched. This one is memorable for all the right. And even some of the wrong reasons. The over the top performances check. The inexplicably plot developments, uh, check, check. We could go on and on. Face off is. An undisputed classic within the room of action filmmaking. Check out. The opening scene at the airport. Which is. In the Mojave desert. And was to be a later spoofed. By puff daddy and mace in there, been around the world, music video amongst other things. There is a considerable amount to be appreciated from face off. We love this one. And cannot wait for the reboot or the sequel, which just got greenlit. And number three. Heat. I grappled with this one, the most out of any. On our list. But in the end, I ultimately decided that in fact, yes, he. In final summarization is an action film. This legendary production, starring Al Pachino and Robertson Nero. Is one of the most realistic. Action movies. That had ever been made. Before it's time. Michael Mann. Envisioned. The story. Have a crew of bank robbers and. Lawn Fishell's hot on their trail. As needing to take place in a setting that people could actually believe. So what better place to stage? And outlandish bank robbery, then downtown Los Angeles, 4 44 south flower street in particular. It's interesting. Again, I used to live near this area and if you walk by that address, 4 44 south flower. Yeah, you will remember the climactic bank robbery from heat. And you will ask yourself how in the world did they pull that off? I don't know. That's why. Michael Mann is who he is and he has the reputation that it does. In addition to downtown. We really get to explore Los Angeles in heat. Whether it's. The Redondo beach, green line station, where we see. Robert de Niro's Neil McCauley exiting at the beginning. The infamous. Or I guess just famous. Face off if you will seen between DeNiro and Pachino, that takes place at a restaurant that no longer exists in Beverly Hills on Wilshire Boulevard. Even though Pachino says it was BJ's on Alvarado. The scenes. At the diner when. Neil McCauley just starts bashing Wayne Gross head. Into the table. Those. We'll filmed at. Uh, landmark googy. Structure Johnny's broiler. In Downey. The dinner that the robbers all have near the end. That's at a restaurant in Santa Monica. This is a really, really terrific Los Angeles action film. And far be it for me to continue going on and on about heat. I would recommend. Checking out the three part. Although, I don't think it was ever meant to be three part series of. He examinations. That were conducted on the rewatch herbals podcast by bill Simmons and Chris Ryan. And then the third, they actually bring on Michael Mann to discuss some of the finer points of this iconic. Action film. And number three it is heat At number two. Speed. Pop quiz, hot shot. This one. is arguably the most exciting of any film. To be discussed on this list. As somebody who utilizes public transportation on a daily basis, the idea of a bus. Having. To continuously drive over 50 miles an hour is absolutely terrifying. It's completely impossible that the folks in this bus would have survived. There's just absolutely no way that this could have actually happened, but that's okay. We get. Some Santa Monica here, a little bit of Venice at the beginning when the bus blows up and Annie Sandra Bullock is desperately trying to wag down. The bus in question. There's some great stuff. At the end involving another form of public transportation in Los Angeles. Did you know that we had more than one year? The. Pershing square trade station. At the end, we get the still under construction. Redline station at Hollywood and Highland. And in between. A ton of goings on. On the. Regrettable, but entirely necessary. Set of Los Angeles freeways, the seven 10, the one 10, the 1 0 5. They all. Get their day in court as it were. As staging grounds for scenes. In speed. Now speed was followed up by a disastrous sequel that even Kiana Reeves passed on. But this 1994 original deserves. To be mentioned alongside the best action movies in the genres history. A premise. That's second to none. Genuinely. Terrifying stunt work. And. A terrific. Villainous portrayal. Of an officer gone rogue. By none other. Then Dennis Hopper. We adore speed. Here at sprawl enterprises and believe that you will too Check it out. And that means that we've arrived at our number one spot on this list. Our examination of the foundational action movies set within. The Los Angeles area. And number one. We would be doing everyone out there. A. Dramatic disservice. If the number one spot did not go to. Diehard because of course. This. 1988. Jim. Was to begin. An action movie Renaissance. After this, we got under siege, the aforementioned speed point break so that, Hey, you see what we're doing there. We are trying to kind of weave a thread and diehard plays a pivotal role. In that discussion. Nakatomi Plaza. Is actually the Fox Plaza. In century city. A place that I used to see all the time. When I would take walks. On Pico Boulevard from my grandparents' house in Cheviot Hills. Bruce Willis as John McClane, it doesn't get any better than. His gruff, erstwhile. N Y P D. Protagonist. Who's only in town, on a vacation. Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber really set the tone for all action movies that would come. A little bit later. John McTiernan directs this masterpiece. With a deft touch. Typically reserved for the highest craftsmen. That specialized in the genre. Diehard is. A cinematic Marvel. Now we can't speak for some of the other. Films in the die hard franchise that would come later. But this original blockbuster action extravaganza. Well, it just doesn't get any better. That's going to do it for. Another episode of the program, we would like to thank everyone for their continued support for the show. Uh, if you'd like to. Leave us a five-star rating and a kind review. We would greatly appreciate it. Hop on apple iTunes or wherever you're listening and do that for us. It would mean the world. To the team here at sprawl enterprises. Uh, if you'd like to follow us on Instagram, the handle is living in the sprawl podcast. Right us with any suggestions that you might have for episodes, you would like to hear. On the podcast, you can drop us a line@livinginthesprawlpodcastatgmail.com. We'd like to direct you to our wonderful website and it's on this website that you can snap up, tremendous living in the sprawl merchandise. Also here, you can get your hands on a copy of the living on the sprawl, a guide. This will help you out. He enormously. On behalf of, uh, myself. Your humble correspondent and host. My name is John Steinberg joined by my lovely and talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Elisa Steinberg. We are the team at sprawl enterprises, thanking you from the bottom of our hearts for listening to another episode of living in the sprawl, Southern California's most adventurous podcast. We shall talk very soon.