Lethal Weapon 2 Vs. Bad Boys (Ep. 0045)

Written By Kyle Castro

The Movie Wars crew was exhilarated to tackle two buddy cop classics in 1989's Lethal Weapon 2 and 1995's Bad Boys. Similar to Westerns, the Buddy Cop genre has been transformed and retooled, all while paying homage to a timeless formula. The chemistry between the lead actors drives both of these films. LW2 reveals that Riggs and Murtaugh are more like family than when they were introduced in the franchise's first entry, where they were beleaguered and struggled to reconcile their opposing policing methods. Bad Boys hinges more on Mike and Marcus' friction and bickering, leading to the ultimate payoff when their highly effective partnership is put on full display. Both films are anchored by comedic third wheels played by a pair of legendary Joes(Pesci and Pantoliano). How will the war score fair for these two genre titans? Give it a listen because you're never too old for this Movie Wars sh*t. 

Film Summaries

Lethal Weapon 2

South African smugglers find themselves being hounded and harassed by Riggs and Murtaugh, two mismatched Los Angeles police officers. However, the South Africans are protected by diplomatic immunity, and so the two are assigned to witness-protection duty in an attempt by their captain to keep his job. It is only when this witness reveals to them that he has already dealt with the smugglers that the trouble really starts.

  • Rating: R

  • Genre: Action, Mystery & thriller

  • Original Language: English

  • Director: Richard Donner

  • Producer: Richard Donner, Joel Silver

  • Writer: Jeffrey Boam

  • Release Date (Theaters): Jul 7, 1989  Original

  • Release Date (Streaming): Aug 15, 2008

  • Box Office (Gross USA): $144.9M

  • Runtime: 1h 53m

  • Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

  • Production Co: Warner Bros., Silver Pictures

Bad Boys

Miami-Dade detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) blow a fuse when $100 million worth of heroin they recently confiscated is heisted from station headquarters. Suspecting it was an inside job, Internal Affairs gives them five days to track down the drugs before they shut down the narcotics division. Action meets farce when Marcus is compelled to masquerade as his partner in order to gain the trust of a call girl (Tea Leoni), a key witness in their investigation.

Film summaries courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes. 00:04] 0045 Lethal Weapon 2 vs. Bad Boys This is some bad S**t Listen through and don't quit Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Outdoor version of the Movie Wars Podcast Episode 0045 Well, if it isn't Miss Sigmund Frod, this is Kyle. Mike, put it back in,

[00:00:22] I can't believe

[00:00:23] you took it out

[00:00:24] This is Phil Nice I'm getting too old for this S**t.

[00:00:28] This is true. Yes, it's

[00:00:30] one of the most iconic quotes in film history. We are doing Lethal Weapon 2 vs. Bad Boys and we are doing another outdoor edition. Although it's more work for Phil on the editing side, it's a nice night, we're smoking cigars. We haven't done this since our Batman matchup. We lost Drew for a little while there because once he started Lethal Weapon, he could not.

[00:00:45] Stop, he went through, he went on a tear, and then he went

[00:00:48] I went on a bender, y'all. I did a buddy cop tear. This is the truth. I hit Midnight Run, I hit all four lethal weapons, I hit Tango and Cash, I watched Bad Boys, Miami [00:01:00] Vice, the 06 random uh, Jamie Foxx. Colin Farrell movie. I was just like tearing through Buddy Cotton.

[00:01:05] I love that. Anyway, great job. Mark

[00:01:08] Wahlberg, Will Ferrell. Other guys. Other guys, yeah.

[00:01:11] Well, what happened with the other guys was funny. You guys remember Due Date? Not a Cotton movie, but a similar genre film. That's, uh, Robert

[00:01:18] Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis.

[00:01:20] That's a good movie. Not a Cotton movie, but just that Buddy, like, comedy.

[00:01:23] That's a really funny movie.

[00:01:24] Really funny. It makes sense that you would love it because, you know, the Buddy Cop, I was researching this because I was just like, I kept thinking, like, is that the origin of the Buddy Cop film? Is that the origin? And the truth is, is that, you know, really what film scholars think, the first actual Buddy Cop movie was Stray Dog, a Japanese film in 1949, and that kind of set the tone.

[00:01:42] But, you know, up until the 80s, the Buddy Cop film was really, you know, it wasn't as funny. Like, for example, In the Heat of the Night, 1967, it dealt with, like, racial tension in a southern town. And then you go on, you start to get a little more levity when you go on to Freebie and Bean, which has James Caan in it.

[00:01:57] Enforcer, even, the third, one of the Dirty Harry films [00:02:00] even dabbled in buddy cop stuff. The first one isn't a buddy cop film, but eventually they get to the Enforcer, and he has a buddy, a rookie cop. So you're starting to see the little tendrils of the buddy cop themes and the tropes develop. And then, of course, you get 48 Hours.

[00:02:17] That's the one that started introducing the, the comedy, um, cause I don't really think of comedy when I think of Dirty Harry. I mean, there's some funny stuff in there, but it's definitely not what it becomes. Eddie Murphy ends up adding that comedy, but Lethal Weapon, the way that it injects comedy and the way that it's, it's so balanced with the dialogue and it really started to maximize those tropes.

[00:02:35] You have the one rugged, kind of out of his mind, individualistic, not necessarily. It's not necessarily a clean guy, the other one's a family man, wears the suit, looking clean, and that kind of became the, the yin and the yang of the buddy cop trope. Salt and pepper, yep. And it's, it's really, it's really wonderful, but you know what's funny, I couldn't help but thinking, I had to bring a question.

[00:02:53] Let's say we're a triad of a buddy cop, like what kind of buddy cops would we be? You know, the movie wars crew. I had to ask. Who's gonna [00:03:00] be who? Who's the crazy one? Me?

[00:03:01] Yeah, so I'm probably the straight man. I'm the Danny Glover type. You're probably the zany one, and, and Phil is probably more like the Joe Pesci, like the third.

[00:03:09] Yeah, I'll take that. Who comes in and is loud and end up obscene for, like, no apparent reason. Yeah. Yeah, let me tell you guys about this

[00:03:15] Last night, and you're like I don't want to hear that S**t, Phil.

[00:03:17] Okay, okay, okay, they f*** you in the drive thru. They f*** you in the drive

[00:03:21] thru. Pesci. Oh, my third favorite actor of all

[00:03:26] Oh, the bronchiole.

[00:03:27] The Denver bronchiole. I know. Too bad it wasn't a joke. Bronchiole County, let's ride.

[00:03:35] Phil doesn't get it because he's not an NFL fan, but you know,

[00:03:37] when you go to the bad boys, when you go to bad boys, Michael Bay, it's his directorial debut. It's kind of crazy that bad boys was his first film. And we're seeing those early tones, the explosions, the giant set pieces.

[00:03:47] One thing I'll say about Michael Bay that is just like consistent through all of his movies.

[00:03:51] And it's true with Bad Boys. This movie did not look almost 30 years old. There's a tone to movies from that time period. And, and like, I feel like [00:04:00] in 2002 ish or three ish, there was like a shift in the look of films. Like you can see like this graininess in movies up until that point. And then after that, everything's got this like kind of otherworldly clarity to it.

[00:04:10] But Michael Bay has always had that in his movies. Well, this was

[00:04:13] his first real at bat. Right. And what's interesting is when you said that I thought about that last scene, it's in like a hangar or something. Forgive me if I'm stepping on randos, but he only got paid a hundred grand to produce this or to direct this Michael Bailey because this was his first dude.

[00:04:27] He did an unbelievable job. Hundred grand. The studio wanted him to cut that last scene in the hangar. That sick, you know, the, the scene that is Michael Bay 30 minute gunfight. Where it's like a spectacle they wanted to cut that for budget reasons, and he paid for it out of pocket 25 grand He paid an extra 20 I guess they were gonna have to cut it because they couldn't keep the people late or something like that and he's like I'll pay For it how you do it because he knew like that like this is my one You know real shot because we I don't want to get Stuck in director hell or whatever, you know, you missed director.

[00:04:58] Nobody [00:05:00] wants you to take the keys again. So that's, it made me respect Michael Bay. Researching that made me respect him so much more. Cause he gets a lot of, he's kind of like the Nickelback of movie directors. Like he gets a lot of S**t, but the fact that he, he bet on himself. And I thought that was really cool.

[00:05:13] And then. Full circle at the end of the story. Once the movie made 60 million, he called the studio and said, can I get reimbursed for that 25 grand? And they obliged, dude, that was a

[00:05:22] really sick story. That's awesome. It's amazing. Michael Bay. I feel like it's a lot of undo S**t for his films. Like he has definitely made some bad films.

[00:05:29] Like Pearl Harbor was a terrible movie. There were a few, there's a few movies he's made where like his style became the focus and then like. Everything else went out the window, but he made

[00:05:37] the rock which was

[00:05:38] awesome for the most part. Yeah, like bad boys the rock Armageddon Transformers there's like a whole list of really like, you know His movies are not gonna go down in like the the hall of cinema fame or whatever.

[00:05:49] Maybe the rock would yeah I think the rock could but he he has a very distinct style. Michael Bay assumes that you're along for the ride from the beginning. There's very little handholding. [00:06:00] There's very little explaining. He dives right into the relationships with people. You're kind of just in it from the beginning.

[00:06:04] Like they're, they're quick cuts. The camera work is incredible. The way he colors the films is really unique and like they all have this sheen to them that like you didn't really see prior to him coming on the scene and that you see a lot now that I don't think he gets a whole lot of credit for, but like I have a ton of respect for him as a filmmaker and you know, a lot of people don't, but he's easy to hate on because he.

[00:06:22] He does the big dumb action thing bigger and better and dumber than most, but good God, is it fun? Well,

[00:06:28] and he makes a crap load of money. Yeah. I mean, his movies, gross, insane amounts of money worldwide. Say what you want. And he's expensive. The world makes fun of him, but Hollywood, he only makes. the movies that he wants

[00:06:40] to make because he's a the island.

[00:06:42] That was one that flies under the radar. I

[00:06:43] mean, listen to this skid between 95 and 2001. All these films are with Jerry Bruckheimer. Bad Boys, the Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and then in 03 is when he makes Bad Boys 2, but him and Bruckheimer teamed up and when they teamed up during those movies, the.

[00:06:56] The set pieces, the explosions were immaculate.

[00:06:58] What's the other guy, Don, [00:07:00] um, his co producer in a lot of

[00:07:01] those movies? Well, Don Simpson, but he died in 97, so they, this was, so it's interesting cause he, Simpson and Bruckheimer did Lethal Weapon 2, among many other movies, then Simpson passed away and then it became

[00:07:12] Bruckheimer.

[00:07:12] There is a funny rando about the origins of the script for Bad Boys. He's a big coke head, right? Big coke head. Yeah. Really

[00:07:19] funny story. Did I have a heart attack? Is that what

[00:07:21] happened? Probably. Yeah, probably. It wouldn't shock me. What are our impressions here?

[00:07:25] Phil? Man, I think I kind of gave my impression on Bad Boys already.

[00:07:28] I had actually never seen either of these movies. I thought I had seen Bad Boys before, but as I was watching it, I realized that I definitely had not seen it. I loved Bad Boys. Like, some of the storytelling was a little weird, but like, the dynamic between Martin Lawrence and Will Smith was just a lot of fun.

[00:07:42] The one thing I love about Michael Michael Bay films is just the act of watching them, like, looking at them. They're a joy to look at, and this was no exception. Like, it looked like millions of dollars, and it felt that way, it felt and looked expensive, and I love that in a in a film.

[00:07:57] That's crazy that you say that because [00:08:00] it was a nine million dollar budget.

[00:08:01] Yeah.

[00:08:01] Nine. Dude, that's I mean,

[00:08:03] that it was technically 19, but apparently I did some research on this. There was like, this script bounced around Hollywood, like, for several years, and so like, one studio sold it to the studio that made it for, like, 3 million, and then there was some other expenses, but by the time it got down to just making the movie itself It was only nine million bucks, which is crazy.

[00:08:22] It's such a good looking movie for 9 it made like, I mean, a ton more

[00:08:26] than that. Yeah. And to quote one of my favorite franchises of all time, you know, it's not the car. It's the driver. Like it just goes to show that any, any usable budget in the right hands is going to look incredible. And you see that.

[00:08:39] Across all forms of media like you can have a movie with a hundred fifty million dollar budget And it sucks are you getting nine million dollar budget, and it looks like they spent 150 million dollars on it So that's what I mean other than the fact that it was like a really fun story and the the lead guys were great And it was just a cool movie to watch I just love the sheen that Michael Bay puts on his stuff sure I'll get smoked on reddit [00:09:00] for that but And Lethal Weapon, I watched the Lethal Weapon 1 first for the first time, loved that movie, it like was not anything that I was expecting, and it was so damn good, and then Lethal Weapon 2 was even better somehow, like those were so great, and the buddy cop thing with Danny Glover and Mel Gibson was, the dynamic was It's just so good and so believable.

[00:09:23] Like, because, you know, hatred and, and love are like, they ride a fine line. And, and in the first movie, Danny Glover couldn't be rid of this guy faster. And by the second movie, they're basically family. It's, it's just so cool to see that dynamic. These were such great movies. Yeah,

[00:09:35] man, I had such a blast watching these movies.

[00:09:38] Just like Phil said, I Cause we had kicked around matching up Lethal Weapon with Bad Boys. And I loved Lethal Weapon. I thought it was so much fun, right? I don't know, you believe Danny Glover and Mel Gibson. Like, you just believe, you buy that whole thing. Like, whatever sparks that are sizzling off the screen in every scene they're in, just works.

[00:09:55] But then I watched Lethal Weapon 2, and I was like, floored. I was just like, this movie is [00:10:00] So much fun. Well, so I watched Lethal Weapon 1 then I watched Bad Boys. I was like, okay, they're sort of similar I get that but I really liked Lethal Weapons I was like, I gotta go watch Lethal Weapon 2. Watch Lethal Weapon 2 and I was like, okay This feels way more like Bad Boys.

[00:10:12] It's a very similar movie. Because it's you know, Bad Boys These partners have been together for years, right? So they're like they're friends and that you know, they've worked together for a while. In Lethal Weapon, they're like it's It's the classic buddy cop dynamic where they're thrown together, but in lethal weapon two, they had been together for several years and there was some family, you

[00:10:28] know, stable family guy and the kind of renegade dude who kind of pops in for breakfast

[00:10:33] and meals, the basically Danny Glover's family basically adopted, you know, Gibson and I just thought it was such a better matchup.

[00:10:40] So I'm so glad that we're pairing those two up, but you know, they're, they're similar. Like that one set in LA, one set of Miami, you know, both kind of like exotic, you know, sexy, warm, sexy. Similarly colored and all that, you know, they're both chasing drugs. Basically drug crime is, is the crux of both of these movies.

[00:10:57] The crime of choice. Um, obviously [00:11:00] both movies are attempting to balance like action and comedy and you know, one better than the other. I'll just, we'll get to that. Agreed. I just thought they were just a great time. Both of them have their flaws. Let's not get carried away. And like. They're not fantastic movies from a cinema perspective.

[00:11:15] But in terms of just an audience making popcorn and watching movies, I had a blast with them both. Specifically, Lethal Weapon 2, Joe Pesci, dude. He stole the show from me. I was crying in like half the scenes he was in. But anyway, I'm stoked we're doing these.

[00:11:28] Well, I got stoked at how stoked you got when you told me you were going on a tear through all those movies.

[00:11:32] I really did. I love

[00:11:33] it when you do that. I watched both Beverly Cott movies. I was just like

[00:11:36] Yeah, I mean, you know, I had a, I had a drew moment. Cause you remember a couple of weeks ago, you and I were talking, you're like, I just realized I'm a Willem Dafoe fan. Like you kind of like had that realization. I just kind of realized I'm a Mel Gibson fan.

[00:11:48] I mean, you can say whatever you want. We all know about his personal life and his accolades. You're not allowed to like him, his craziness outside of it. But you know, I'm a big Mad Max. fan and what I thought like I love all the Mad Max films and what made [00:12:00] me laugh is like I think he's more mad in Lethal Weapon than he is in Mad Max.

[00:12:04] He is truly unhinged. Dude,

[00:12:05] the scene with him getting out of the straitjacket, like that was some serious crazy people S**t.

[00:12:10] Dude, he plays that

[00:12:11] part so well, I dislocated my shoulder once and now I can do it whenever I want. Yeah. And he just pops that thing out of the socket. Anyway. And part of

[00:12:18] me can't help but feel that like the reason he's easy to So, so organic with the way he portrays it, cause he's a little, he's a little off his rocker in real life.

[00:12:24] And I think on the screen, he's, he easily is just like, wow, that guy's kind of off his rocker a little

[00:12:29] bit. And of course, you know, like, let's just get this out there. He, he's said and done some horrible things and he hasn't, he, I don't know what he's like right now, but in the past he had a drinking problem and people got some.

[00:12:40] stuff on him that was not flattering and it went out and what happened happened. So yeah, we acknowledge all that, but I think it's okay to kind of like disconnect from all of that and go back to the eighties and enjoy something great that he made. Well, I

[00:12:52] had a blast. We mentioned this in the, I mentioned not we, I mentioned this in the last episode as it pertained to Harvey [00:13:00] Weinstein.

[00:13:00] Yes, the man is an undeniable. Scumbag like yes, he did really really f**** up stuff. You can't really rewrite history as it pertains to what they have done That's really great And just as Harvey Weinstein's responsible for like some of the most iconic films ever made especially over the last like 30 Plus years.

[00:13:18] It's the same with Mel Gibson. I mean he made some incredible, I think in the Braveheart episode, we went through his terror that he went on where he made just one f***ing blockbuster after another. The Patriot.

[00:13:31] And then he started directing.

[00:13:32] Braveheart, What Women Want was a great romcom. It really was.

[00:13:36] He's not going to be in any of those movies, I don't think, anymore. Then he

[00:13:39] directed Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto. Tequila

[00:13:41] Sunrise. He had a lot of what I'm sure are regrettable moments where he'd said and did some terrible S**t, but he also made a lot of really great films. Yeah. Those two things can

[00:13:51] coexist.

[00:13:52] So I realized that I just like Mel Gibson. I just, I liked it. He's kind of naturally a little bit off his rocker. And I was thinking the entire time I would [00:14:00] love to hear you guys response to this, watching lethal weapon and leave the weapon too. I was like, I feel like Danny Glover is who I'm going to be when I get old, especially the scene where they're watching the condom commercial and he doesn't know his daughter.

[00:14:10] It's one of the best scenes ever and I love it when when it's like we learned that in human development He goes Trish human development what he's just so old and out of touch And he's just so like he has no idea like I feel like that's me now like when I get old That's all

[00:14:24] Trish human development.

[00:14:26] What what's crazy is he's not even that old He's like what 52? He's playing like 10 or 15 years older than he actually was. But it really made me love Danny Glover, that whole series. And I, again, I've watched all four of them. I love that whole fricking, what's it? It's not a trilogy. What's the, what's quadrilogy quadrilogy.

[00:14:43] I'm a, such a

[00:14:44] fan and I can't wait for five. It's

[00:14:45] been in the whims whenever, you know, Mel Gibson gets kind of uncanceled. Cause it always happens. Isn't Danny Glover

[00:14:51] like 85 now?

[00:14:52] No, that's the thing. He was so young. He was only like 40 when he did Lethal Weapon. So he's like, yeah, I mean, he's older. He's probably what late sixties, [00:15:00]

[00:15:00] seventies.

[00:15:00] When I interviewed Mick Rogers. Uh, Mel Gibson's stuntman, he told me he was gearing up to do five. But then it got put in development hell, and then Mel Gibson had something to say that? Yeah, he did. I mean, it's on the He That's all he could tell me. I asked him more questions, I can't tell you anything else.

[00:15:12] I

[00:15:12] was like, okay. Yeah, that's fair. Well, it's on IMDB in production. It's been, like, it Okay. Rumors are flying around on

[00:15:18] that for a long time. And then you add Joe Pesci, my third favorite actor of all time. And you, you and I were talking about this, Drew. I love how Pesci can just do any movie, you know, he does Home Alone.

[00:15:27] Amazing. Leave the Weapon 2. And then he's in one of the greatest films ever made, Goodfellas. And he's just, he just captivates all every movie he's in. He just captivates

[00:15:34] me. Yeah. It's amazing what he can do both in like in a serious role and a drama. He plays a gangster. He sells that, but then he's got this, you know, my cousin Vinny, or he'll show up in this movie or Home Alone or whatever it's like.

[00:15:46] He's so freaking funny. He really is. One of my favorite scenes of any movie of all time is when we talked about this in the My Cousin Vinny pod. But like, when he came out in his underwear screaming about something. Like he's just so

[00:15:59] funny. [00:16:00] He's like kind of a low key great physical comedian. Like he does physical comedy.

[00:16:04] Exceptionally well, yeah, I don't think he gets a lot of credit for that. But I mean you really see that in home alone He's one of those guys. He does it so well You don't think about the fact that he's doing it. Well, cuz it looks so damn good dude Home alone is all physical comedy. Yeah, when it when someone makes it look that easy

[00:16:17] Yeah, I totally agree I don't know no snakes I love them and you know, I I I don't know what you two thought of this But, you know, continuing with my, my, uh, thoughts on the film.

[00:16:29] Sorry, we totally hijacked your impressions. No, I love it. I love it. I'm just trying to remind the listener where we're at, but no, I love it. Yeah, impression these nuts, b***h.

[00:16:35] Don't

[00:16:36] impress the mean nuts. It's really interesting to me, and Drew, you, you overnight became the Lethal Weapon X. What did you think about this?

[00:16:43] I thought the, it's really, it's always interesting, right? Whenever they make a sequel to a movie, you're like, okay, how are they going to pick up? Where are we going to find these characters? Like, what's happened between one and two? And I think on paper, when you see that they're basically like brothers, and they're just like, not in love in a weird way, they're like, they just love each other like [00:17:00] brothers.

[00:17:00] Oh yeah,

[00:17:00] he's been adopted into their family. And they pick up there. Like he's coming over for dinner and he's just like, Yeah. It's

[00:17:06] that lack of hand holding. I love the fact that they assume you've seen Lethal Weapon 1 and they assume that you can make the jump, but it's two years later and their bond is strong.

[00:17:15] And you get the sense that they further forge their relationship in the meantime from

[00:17:19] the last movie. Love. Yes. I loved it. And that first scene's hilarious when, uh, Glover is screaming at people. I love it when he is just yelling and they're, they're both yelling at all. The cops at that, at the very beginning, after that chase and they crash and he's like, they're like both yelling across each other and all the other cops, da, da, da.

[00:17:34] I just love it. I'm like, I like, this is how we're coming back into the franchise. And like they started it off. Such a

[00:17:39] bang. So what was the que, you said you're curious to get my

[00:17:41] thoughts. What were you, uh, just on that transition? 'cause you know, like that's where they picked up from the first one because, you know, the beginning of the first one, it's the very traditional trope one's really rugged one's clean family man.

[00:17:52] They hate each other. They don't get along. I don't, you know, I work alone, that whole thing. But then, and two, they're, they're family and I love that.

[00:17:57] Well, and it's almost like. Gibson's character [00:18:00] has reinvigorated Glover's career. Cause he was wanting to retire, right? He was like, I'm out, I'm out, I don't wanna do this.

[00:18:05] Yeah,

[00:18:06] that's right! Cause he was like, I'm close to retirement,

[00:18:08] or something like that. Yeah, he kept saying, I'm close to retirement. And in the first movie he said, I'm old, I'm too old for this S**t. Yeah. Is what he kept saying. But in the second movie, he says, I'm getting too old for this S**t. So it's like, he gave up on the idea of retiring, and now he's like, He's still in that place, but he doesn't want to leave because he loves his

[00:18:24] partner.

[00:18:24] You know, in Bad Boys, I always thought Bad Boys was interesting. I liked it every time I've seen it. I've actually seen it a lot. What I love about it is Martin Lawrence was considered one of the greatest comedians of all time. When he was doing his full on thing, I think he was like on Def Jam. You hear stories like Joe Rogan talks about it.

[00:18:39] A lot of comedians. He's like, Started going up during that time. Did not want to go up after Martin Lawrence because he would crush and kill so hard. He still does it today. He's actually gone back out and started doing open mics again in la Good Like the comedy store. And people are just like, I don't want to go up after him.

[00:18:53] 'cause there's no way, like it's just he, it's impossible to fall. And I really. would have told me that he [00:19:00] was going to star in a lot of films like Blue Streak and, and Bad Boys, like, well, I don't know how his comedy would translate. I think it's so great. In fact, so good. I think he dwarves Will Smith and Bad Boys like, cause they're, they both were comedic, you know, cause Fresh Prince, Mel, you know, Michael Bay, he liked Fresh Prince and that's how he ended up getting to Will Smith.

[00:19:17] What

[00:19:17] a game changer for his career. You

[00:19:19] know? But he's not funny. This was Will's first outing. I mean, he had one role, I think, in a, I forget what movie it was, but he was a supporting cast. This was his first lead. So, when we're talking about Bad Boys, we're talking about Michael Bay's first director, I mean, his directorial debut, and we're talking about Will Smith's first lead role.

[00:19:36] I mean, he's not the lead, because to your point, Martin Lawrence was Like he was billed above Will Smith, which is crazy because Will Smith came out and did Independence Day and Men in Black and Wild West and it was game over. Will Smith became the biggest actor in Hollywood, but at the time, Martin Lawrence was like the guy.

[00:19:52] And

[00:19:52] if you put yourself in the shoes of a viewer in 95, when this came out, it's like Will Smith was known for being funny on Fresh Prince. I [00:20:00] mean, there are emotional moments, but they're very low key. People were kind of like. Why is he being so straight? Like, why is he not funny? You know, and everybody knew Martin Lawrence was funny, but I think a lot of people expected Smith to be funny, but he played it straight the whole time.

[00:20:11] And there weren't a great job! He does a good job. I thought he was really good. He was. But I think at the time it was very like, when you researched the film, a lot of people were like, that's weird. Like, why is Will Smith not saying anything funny right

[00:20:23] now. Yeah, but it was huge for his career because people, it shifted him from like, he's the goofy, funny rapper teenage kid to, Oh, this guy's kind of like sexy.

[00:20:32] Yeah, man. Cool. Like the whole

[00:20:35] rich, like it was a total like new facet of what he's capable of that he had never done before. And that I think that's, it was those two things put together that catapulted him into where he's at. And once

[00:20:46] again, that's the sneaky genius, I think of Michael Bay that he doesn't get credit for.

[00:20:50] But the man knows. Was he

[00:20:52] involved in casting? Do we know that? Is that

[00:20:54] Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would imagine. He handpicked Will Smith. Jeez, dude. Yeah, and there's a lot of casting stuff. I [00:21:00] have some randos on. But yeah, at the day, I love this genre, and it kind of made me, like, want to get into Buddy Cops. It's just I just realized that it's one of my favorite formulas.

[00:21:09] It's, uh, you know, it's one of the oldest Foundations of film going back to 1949. It's, it's a fantastic, fantastic genre. Before we go to our randos, our, our listeners have spoken once again. This was crazy close lethal weapon to 52 percent bad boys, 48 for the first day of the poll, it was all bad boys. And then like the rest of our listeners woke up and we actually have a new, a new friend that has reached out to me recently named Becky, but apparently apparently went through all of our episodes randomly and just loves us.

[00:21:37] Thank you, Becky, for following us. And her response was just LW2. I love it. No, no descriptions. Like, Hey, Lethal Weapon 2 is the winner. I love that. I dig that. Once again, Minord, our friend who loves

[00:21:46] to get comments. I like when he, I like when he hangs. We love him. I like you, Minord. Do more. Yes. He

[00:21:52] said, I can't look at Will Smith.

[00:21:53] Do more, Minord. That's your nickname now. I love it. I can't look at Will Smith movies the same anymore. And, uh, Lethal Weapon 2 kind of [00:22:00] redefined the buddy cop movies. I agree. We've gone over this as a That's

[00:22:04] a tendril we kind of missed Kind of like two embattled actors now In these movies We got Will Smith who, you know, had his moment there At the Oscars or whatever the hell that was Two

[00:22:14] cancelled, uh, semi cancelled ballet

[00:22:16] artists And then, you know, we all know about Mel Gibson So

[00:22:19] there you go I agree, I mean, I feel this comment deeply Because as a failed comedian who has You know, never even sniffed the same stratosphere as Chris Rock.

[00:22:26] Uh, I did take it personally when Will Smith assaulted him, so I agree. I don't know who this person is. You assault one of us, you assault all of us. Let me get their name real quick, who is this person? And then Chase said, This one's tough, but the winner for me is Lethal Weapon 2. There you go. Randos, we got lethal, we got some lethal Randos here.

[00:22:41] So Shane Black, this is a really funny story. I guess Riggs was supposed to die in Lethal Weapon 2. He was, yeah. Originally, they wanted him to die. And Shane Black was writing this with a friend of his named Warren Murphy. And when he got to the end, he's like, I don't like that Riggs dies. And I guess Shane Black took that personally, because he was quoted saying, Oh, I failed everybody.

[00:22:57] I screwed up and I blew it. My writing sucks. Is what Black [00:23:00] said when his friend told him he didn't like it. Woe is me, Shane. Yeah, seriously, Shane. Go make another movie. Because

[00:23:05] of. The fact that the script was mostly rejected, he didn't write for a long time because of that. Because of Lethal Weapon 2.

[00:23:12] This script was called something entirely different. You're thinking of Bad Boys? No, it's not Bad Boys, it's Lethal Weapon. It was called something totally different. Shane Black, he was so discouraged by how a lot of the key points in the script are taken by the studio that he just kind of gave up. For a while.

[00:23:26] So

[00:23:26] later Black reread the old script and he actually went back on it. He said, there's no question the draft of Lethal Weapon two that I wrote, death ethanol is my best work. So he actually later revisited it and he actually thought it was still the best one, even after the movie

[00:23:37] was huge success. A massive

[00:23:39] smash hit.

[00:23:40] Yeah, it's really, it's interesting. I wonder, I wonder what motivates. It's that going back and thinking, because it was very well received. So next random, the carpenter that was working on the house extension or whatever for Murtaugh. Yeah, with the nail gun. And they're watching the condom commercial. So he actually improvised that.

[00:23:55] I thought she was great. She made me want to go out and buy rubbers right now. In the rehearsal, when they were [00:24:00] rehearsing, Glover didn't know he was going to say that, and he actually spit sandwich out of his mouth during the rehearsal when he said that, because he wasn't expecting it. That's amazing.

[00:24:07] That, that's one of my favorite scenes. Like, I can't, cause as a dad of, of daughters, I couldn't help but think like, my God, if I didn't know my daughter was in a condom commercial. We all

[00:24:17] have daughters. I put myself in that same spot. I was like, Oh my word. Now

[00:24:23] I just want to say Trish all the time when I'm like.

[00:24:25] feeling distressed. I just want to say Trish, your, your

[00:24:28] wife's going to come in and be like, why do you keep yelling Trish? You know, our daughter's name is not Trish,

[00:24:32] right? Lethal weapon too, baby. Speaking of condoms, the product placement deal, the makers, uh, Ramsey's condom paid 10, 000 to showcase the product.

[00:24:39] That's a real company. Yep.

[00:24:40] It's called Ramsey's and it's spelled,

[00:24:44] isn't it spelled like the Egyptian,

[00:24:46] Egyptian, like it's an amazing play on words. Are you kidding me? Like Ramsey's

[00:24:51] like seems like a classy condom

[00:24:52] company. That scene in the living room when they're watching that Pretty amazing. And then all the S**t that they gave him at the department the next day with the bouquet full [00:25:00] of condoms and stuff.

[00:25:01] Well, he called it. He was like, you don't understand. They're going to be condoms in my coffee, condoms on my desk. He's like, that's how

[00:25:06] cops are. That tree of condoms was hilarious. That scene

[00:25:09] when he gets that bouquet or whatever. And like, he's. He's miffed at the, at first, and then he breaks out in laughter over it.

[00:25:16] In that moment, you believe just the S**t that cops give each other. And he's annoyed and he's frustrated, obviously, because his daughter is going through a thing and he's dealing with something, but also like he loves his boys and he appreciates the camaraderie. Yeah.

[00:25:28] Speaking of, very young Dean Norris, Hank from Breaking

[00:25:31] Bad.

[00:25:31] Who somehow doesn't look any different than he did in Breaking Bad. Yeah, a lot thinner than Breaking Bad, Hank. That was amazing.

[00:25:37] Schrader, bro. Breaking, or uh, Breaking Bad randos were doing bad boys now. So, you had hinted at this earlier. Originally, this is crazy. The original script was called Bulletproof Heart, and it was intended for Dana Carvey and John Lovitz from SNL.

[00:25:50] That wouldn't have worked. And this was during a time Bulletproof

[00:25:52] Heart.

[00:25:53] That sounds terrible. That is lame as f***. And apparently it was a Disney project and a lot of, and at the time, SNL actors, [00:26:00] because this is like kind of the tail end of the golden era. I would say the golden era of SNL started in the seventies and it kind of like started tailing off in the late nineties, but this was still during cause Wayne's world, Wayne's world two, the ladies, man, those movies were all coming out.

[00:26:12] And then this is the Don Simpson. So Don Simpson was a co writer for the script basically. And he. partner to write the script for Bulletproof Hearts, and he was in an insane coke head. And Dana Carvey and John Lovitz were still heavily considering being in the movie, but Simpson took him out for a crazy party in Las Vegas, and no one really knows the details, but apparently it was enough.

[00:26:31] And Dana Carvey said, that dude's a nutcase. I never want to see him again. I never want to work. Cause Dana Carvey's, you know, he's a comedian, but he's a very level headed dude. He's very chill. In fact, he went on to do that family movie, uh, Master of Disguise. You know, that's, that's kind of who he is. And he did not like Cokehead Simpson taking him out for a party in Vegas to try to convince him, so that was the breaking

[00:26:49] point.

[00:26:50] Well, he made the right call, because that movie would not

[00:26:52] have been this movie. Yeah, and eventually, you know, this script, and it's hard to remember all the details, this script went through a lot. When they started [00:27:00] to film the movie, they said, still had that script and everyone hated it. Michael Bay even has come out and said that it was a horrible script.

[00:27:06] And so they had Will Smith and they had Martin Lawrence still reading this bullet heart or bulletproof heart script that Dana and Carvey and John Lovitz didn't want to do. And they're still working off of it. So they went out and like outsourced at 25, 000 someone just to come in and do a massive rewrite on it because they were like, why are we still working?

[00:27:22] And even after they got that newly revised script, after dropping 25 K, they were still just like basically Bay Lawrence. And Smith would meet every day before filming and he would just tell them, I need you guys to improvise. Like, this script is awful. Even after the rewrite. Nobody loved the script.

[00:27:36] Michael Bay, dude. Genius. It's amazing that it turned out like it did. It

[00:27:40] did feel a little scattered at times. It was, yeah. A little incoherent here and there. It didn't have a strong sense of direction and not in like a film direction like just in from the script standpoint It didn't like know exactly what kind of movie it was.

[00:27:54] I personally think it's the Julie Mott storyline

[00:27:56] Okay, so I love Tia Leone. Tia Leone. I don't know how you say her name. [00:28:00] I'm a big fan of hers I loved her in Family Man couple other things, but she, she was great. I think she was really good in this movie, but it seemed like there were times when it felt like she was in a slightly different movie than the comedians

[00:28:11] in the room.

[00:28:11] What's the movie she did with Jim Carrey, Jim Dick and Jane fun with Dick and Jane. I actually never saw that. Um, but yeah, I agree with you. It kind of felt like she was in a different movie. I never, I never was super bought in on her story. Cause she's really just a witness. You know, and they, they don't just take her testimony, then all of a sudden, she's like, with them all the time, and So wait,

[00:28:28] can we get into that a little bit?

[00:28:30] What's going on with her and her stripper friend? Yeah.

[00:28:32] They're, they're call girls. Is she? I don't think she's a call girl, but the call girl took her on the thing because it was like, Oh, it's just gonna be some dumb rich guy, and like, you're just gonna, you know, just be there as eye candy or something like that.

[00:28:44] It wasn't, like, she was just supposed to be there. And then, like, the S**t went down, and her call girl friend got murdered. Oh yeah, stripper,

[00:28:50] not stripper. Prostitute. One is a prostitute. They

[00:28:53] all did it for Mike Lowry. It was because Mike Lowry needed them to do it. So, but is Julie

[00:28:57] also a prostitute? Or, uh, like an [00:29:00] escort?

[00:29:00] Or is she just a friend? I think

[00:29:01] she's a friend of that girl, or something like that. Cause she didn't, remember, she didn't know Mike Lowry. But

[00:29:05] why is she going to a party with an escort when she knows that she would just

[00:29:09] really love her friend? Yeah, I

[00:29:11] think that was it. Yeah, I think, didn't she, I haven't watched it in a couple weeks, but didn't she want her?

[00:29:14] Like, she's like, you'd be good at this, or kind of thought she'd be. Yeah, like,

[00:29:18] she brought her along, like, kind of as support, and then, you know, she got shot

[00:29:21] to death. That's my point. We're all kind of like, barking around what may be, like. She wasn't a call girl. They're roommates. Call girl, is she just really like a friend?

[00:29:29] I think she's just a friend. I don't know. It

[00:29:31] was very vague. That's a lack of hand holding for Michael Bay. He just

[00:29:35] lets you fill in the blanks. Somebody that was writing the script, if there was one person in charge, would have been like, we need to be clarified what's happening here. It just was kind of a bowl of soup.

[00:29:44] So one thing that's wild is that before Will Smith, Arsenio Hall was the number one pick for that role. Really? Yep, and so, uh, Uh, I don't know about that one. So producer Barry Josephson, that's, uh, it's hard to say Josephson. Son of Josephson. Barry Josephson pushed for Arsenio Hall because [00:30:00] he was the one that said we want African American leads.

[00:30:02] Which, interesting side fact, this was the first huge African American led movie to do really well in Europe. So traditionally, traditionally African American lead films don't do well in Europe, but this one crushed in the box office.

[00:30:11] Wow. Well, and even in the U. S. it was. Pretty impactful, but they picked

[00:30:15] the right guys.

[00:30:16] That's the thing. I think Arsenio Hall would have been, he would have been too polarizing because he was a talk show host. Like he wasn't, he was kind of on his tail end, wasn't he? People liked him, but not like, I mean, Fresh Prince was a thing. Martin Lawrence was obviously like one of the biggest comedians on the planet.

[00:30:31] So you get like this dude who's beloved from his television show and his music. And then. You know, one of the best comedians on the planet. Like, that's kind of a no fail

[00:30:39] situation there. Yeah. And the reason Bay ended up going with, cause oh, he was entertaining this idea of Hall, and then he caught an episode of Fresh Prince, and decided, he's like, I want him.

[00:30:47] I know they looked at

[00:30:48] Wesley Snipes, which would've been That would've been good. It would've worked, probably for the Will Smith role.

[00:30:52] Especially cause Snipes is not a comedian. Snipes is really good at playing straight, but it probably would've been very serious.

[00:30:57] Very serious. Well, and they looked at Fishburne too, which that would [00:31:00] have been way more serious.

[00:31:01] Oh, I had that in my notes. I'm glad you remembered it because I forgot. Fishburne, which I love Lawrence Fishburne, but again, a much different actor.

[00:31:07] Larry Fishy. And no disrespect to Snipes or Fishburne, but they're not as cool or sexy as Wilson. No! Not at

[00:31:13] all. And I don't think as young at the time. I don't think so.

[00:31:16] I mean, Fishburne had already been in Apocalypse Now by this point. Right, right, right. Yeah, when he was Larry Fishburne. He was already old enough to have changed 12? Yeah. So, Michael Bay's mother actually made him clean up the film. Like, apparently there was, his mother was like, there's just too much profanity in this, and to appease her, he edited one scene and reduced the profanity in it, just to appease his own mother.

[00:31:35] Because his mother was very critical of the amount of profanity. Mrs. Bay. Apparently, she had never Obey Mrs. Bay. Yeah. Apparently, she had not, was not familiar with Martin Lawrence's work. This is a good time to bring up another side, Randall, but I texted you guys about this. Martin Lawrence, I think, if not one of the few, one of the only actors to have his opening monologue for SNL canceled.

[00:31:55] So he had done, he did an opening monologue cause like they always do on SNL and he, [00:32:00] he was, he went off script and he was so crass that they cut it and they actually rolled B roll that said, you know, we found this very offensive, which is why we're not showing Martin's introduction. So it was just when, when they aired it, it was just the black B roll screen with the words like the star Wars.

[00:32:14] cat type. Your friend Tia, Le Leo Is it Leone, right? It's either Tia or Teah. Teah. Leone. Leone. I I've heard it pronounced so many ways. She was knocked unconscious during filming. She stood on the wrong mark and a stuntman threw an AK 47 and she was not in her OH NO! She wasn't in her right place and she acknowledges that.

[00:32:31] I was not in my right place. Hit her in the head. Michael Bay apparently freaked out on set. Cause when she came to, she was sobbing. Oh no idea what happened. Poor girl. Ha ha. Aww. That sucks. And, you probably know this, Rando, I'd love to know if you have more color on this one. Michael Bay, it was only a nine million dollar film.

[00:32:45] It was actually 19, but something happened where they lost some money, and so it ended up being like a nine million dollar budget. Well, because

[00:32:51] the studio had to buy it from Disney, I think. Or it bounced around studios, and so they paid three million bucks just for the idea and the script. That's how much they [00:33:00]

[00:33:00] And so the high speed chase, the explosion laden film, they wouldn't approve it, so he literally wrote them, he said, How much is the scene?

[00:33:06] And so Michael Bay wrote him, wrote the studio a check for 25, 000 and have his own bank account. I thought that was the end scene. Yeah, the ending. It's a long Oh, that's part of, it chases into that hangar building. Yeah, it's a long scene. It's a chase, and then it's a shootout.

[00:33:18] That is a very

[00:33:19] long scene.

[00:33:19] But that scene made Michael Bay Michael Bay like yeah, that's kind of like his like his bread and butter

[00:33:25] cuz right when that happened I'm like, I feel like I'm watching The Rock right now So yeah stroke that own check out of his own

[00:33:30] book and then like I said earlier then he once it made 60 million dollars He called the studio and asked for reimbursement.

[00:33:35] They said no

[00:33:36] problem. I love that. I was wondering when I read that I was like, how did how did he afford that? He had a very successful career as a music video and commercial director There you go. So he was already fine. Hey, I guess he had it

[00:33:47] It's why he does stylized things so well, like I mean you look at the The club scene and the liquor store scene.

[00:33:53] It's all very just like stylized. Yes.

[00:33:55] I love it. Shall we read our rights?

[00:33:57] Yeah. Read me those rights. Shall we? We have the right, [00:34:00] the right to remain violent. The right.

[00:34:04] The right to remain lethal

[00:34:06] and bad. You guys are making this so much better than what I have. Like, I love it. Like that you have all this

[00:34:10] stuff.

[00:34:10] I just like, I liked

[00:34:11] these movies. So I'm glad, trust me. Like I love hosting, but sometimes it's like nice just to be like, well. Y'all got this, I love

[00:34:16] it. I, yeah. I even did some research on Lethal Weapon 2. It's like the first time I've ever done any research for this podcast.

[00:34:23] When you, like, sometimes a movie, like, it's just, we talk about this all the time, but like, you don't see this, like, they made, they tried to remake it as a show, and they still couldn't capture it.

[00:34:31] Like, it's just a specific time. They just captured something in Lethal Weapon, and it was just It's endearing. It's funny. Like, I want the camaraderie they have. I want to be Murtaugh when I'm old. Like, I'm just relating at every level, you know? Well,

[00:34:43] and the family dynamic really grounded them. And I think, even with bad boys, and this is one of the tendrils that we've talked about, but like, Martin Lawrence Is that family man who wakes up, you know, with an erection and wants to have sex with his wife, but she's like slaps it away and like the kids are coming.

[00:34:59] The [00:35:00] kids come in. Like the whole just, you know, we're all married men. We can all relate to like, just like the kids are cock blocking and the wife and you know, just like life happens and you just like, that's very relatable. Yes. And then it just cuts to like, you know, rich boy, I guess like Will Smith who inherited money.

[00:35:15] Cause why else would he have this? It's like crazy apartment and this crazy car and he's a cop and like, it's just that dynamic of like married guy with a family doesn't have that much, much money to a rich guy who's single and super cool. And like, it's just sort of like, it's the same with lethal weapon.

[00:35:30] Like they're just complete opposites, but they're

[00:35:32] grounded and it's great. Now's the time. To get out that iPad, if it's charging, it's over in the corner, it's charging, we're outside, do iPads even work outside? Does it need some kind of power source? Or does the iPad use angel waves? Does it use UV rays?

[00:35:47] Does it use wind? Solar? Is it carbon neutral? This iPad is way too undercharged for this S**t. Okay,

[00:35:53] okay, okay. Poor Kyle, dude. He's, he's struggling over here.

[00:35:56] I'm sorry, I, this cigar is I, and I swear I'm over it. I [00:36:00] was It sounds like it. I was sick two weeks ago. I I'm DBFs, not even that. If I thought I was contagious, I definitely wouldn't have

[00:36:05] come, I promise.

[00:36:06] I don't think you're contagious, you're definitely not over it. Ha ha ha! As evidenced by the

[00:36:09] fact that I think it's the cigar. I actually was doing fine and I smoked. I'm

[00:36:13] sorry, dude. It's probably because you're talking so much, so you're getting more smoke,

[00:36:16] you know? I feel bad. I feel bad I'm coughing around you guys.

[00:36:18] No, please. Top Bill Kass from Lethal Weapon. Well, let's just keep it easy, right? Mel Gibson and Danny Glover vs. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

[00:36:28] I think at the core of Lethal Weapon is the chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. You know, Offset, they became very good friends. Their chemistry, they talk about in Special Features about how their chemistry leaked into their personal lives and they became friends.

[00:36:39] They really love working together at shows. I don't think it's easy to sell two guys that have kind of that platonic bro love. For each other, like it's not an easy sell, but these guys make it seem so natural. Like you said, it's very grounded. I think they sell it. And I think the dialogue is just written so well for them.

[00:36:54] Like I love it. My quote, I, the reason I picked that quote was because there are just little jokes written in the [00:37:00] lethal weapon that didn't have to be there. Like the, if it isn't Sigmund fraud, like it's just, it's just a little line, but it's just a nice little touch. The stray jacket thing, the dislocated shoulder.

[00:37:09] There's just these little moments. And Mel Gibson and Glover sell them so well. I think Martin Lawrence overpowers an early, dramatic Will Smith. And I think Will Smith does good here. And it's close, but I don't think he can beat Mel Gibson and Dan and Glover here. What do you think, Filskies? Uh,

[00:37:23] man, I actually go bad boys here because I really do think Will Smith did a pretty solid job, especially in his first.

[00:37:29] I mean, it was comedic, but he was like, And there's that one scene where he kind of loses it in the car when Martin Lawrence is driving. I think he's driving the Porsche. That was the funniest scene in the movie, man. Yeah, when he's sitting over in the passenger seat. And he kind of has that moment where he goes off.

[00:37:43] Basically says that everybody thinks I'm some kind of f***boy because I have a ton of money. But he's like, I could do anything and I choose to do this. Like, I want to be here. You can't say that for the other guys. And he like, just goes off and says it. sells that whole thing that like, yeah, I might be rich, but that doesn't take away the fact that I'm a serious cop and I want to be here [00:38:00] and it's like I bought all that and I just personally, I loved the whole Martin Lawrence, Will Smith dynamic and really enjoyed the way that they played those characters in that film and um, in, in spite of the fact that like Martin Lawrence is a pretty relentless comedian, I really enjoyed him because you could see he's, he's trying to convince It's the Tao Leone character that, that he's Mike Lowry and um, he just, he pulls out every trick in the book to keep that charade going, especially when she figures it out and starts kind of like trolling him a bit being like, Oh, that guy, that's gotta be a hell of a man to, to keep a woman like that around like, or she's gotta be a hell of a woman to keep a guy like this.

[00:38:36] Dude around like he's so sexy going on and on. So

[00:38:39] like,

[00:38:39] and you know, he's laying in bed with her. Like, I'm so horny, right? Yeah, exactly. It's basically throwing myself at me right now. Yeah,

[00:38:45] man, I love Martin Lawrence. The way he played that, he played the family man really well in spite of the fact that he's ridiculous and the way he like, you know, resists.

[00:38:52] It's the Taylor Leone's character. I thought it was, I, I really enjoyed their dynamic and it's not even necessarily that I think that one [00:39:00] duo was better than the other, but I personally really enjoyed the Martin Lawrence Will Smith thing a lot. Like I love those two guys and especially that era in comedy in the nineties, that was just so good.

[00:39:11] I love their dynamic in that.

[00:39:13] Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were, individually, I think they were both really solid. I thought Martin Lawrence was just Martin Lawrence ing all over the place. Like, he's funny, he is who he is, he chews up the scene. Like, it's just entertainment. You know, just pure entertainment value, watching him do his thing.

[00:39:29] And Will Smith, like, you know, he was, Just solid like yeah, he's just a good actor. He is yeah, so and this was his first kind of way to like hey Hey world I'm more than just a funny guy like or you know a rapper or a comedian like on a sitcom I can act what a talent Yeah, like and he did a great job, but I think if we're talking about them as a unit It's impossible to get over Danny Glover and Mel Gibson's chemistry.

[00:39:52] They just, and they had an advantage because they had already, uh, they'd have done an entire movie together. So they had already laid the groundwork. So there, if we're just comparing these two movies, which we [00:40:00] are, they had a significant advantage. They had the same director. Yeah. So they had had some experience, but even in the first one, like there, there was just sparks from the, from the get go.

[00:40:07] And I think they were just hitting their prime in this movie together. And so for me, it's.

[00:40:13] Yeah, it's so close, but I totally agree. I love that. One to zero, it's getting lethal for bad boys already. How good can they get, those boys? Best supporting cast! It's an iPhone today, it's not an iPad. I don't know what's happening.

[00:40:24] It's a much smaller version of an iPad, but you can

[00:40:26] make phone calls. I'm squinting. It's a squint pad. It's interesting, uh, Tia Leone did not get paid much for this movie. She's not even on there. She's not even on here. But we're gonna say Tia Leone, Joe Pesci, I guess I'll just read some of these names here, Patsy Kinsit, Joss Ackland, Derek O'Connor, Darlene Love, Tracy Wolfe, I guess you have to throw in Dean Norris.

[00:40:45] One of my favorite that guys. Nestor Serrano who's been in like every crime TV show known to man and then on bad boys We got kind of a bunch of people that aren't names Michael Talaferro, Emmanuel, [00:41:00] Zareb. I don't even want to try. Yeah to guess the the villain's name Checky Carreo That that word weird villain, by the way, Teresa Randall.

[00:41:08] Yeah, this is a Teresa Randall obviously played the wife Mm hmm. I mean to me this is like a layup

[00:41:14] one person. That's not on this list though That that because they were still early was Michael Imperioli who played Christopher Montessant. That's right in Sopranos, which I'm rewatching right now So I'm getting a ton of Joey.

[00:41:25] He was like the guy that owned the car place He was like their snitch or whatever.

[00:41:29] I get a lot of the Supporting cast in these crossed up for some reason because like they're both buddy cop films and I'd watch them very close to each other and

[00:41:37] also Yeah, and I watched like nine buddy cop movies in a week.

[00:41:39] So

[00:41:40] you're like swimming in the details. Yeah, Michael is really great. I mean he plays a horrible dude, uh, Christopher Montezani in Sopranos, but he's so good. So,

[00:41:48] uh, Phil, let's go to you. I was gonna go to you first. Oh, okay, I'll start. Lethal Weapon. I mean, T Tia Leone, while in her own movie at often times, I don't think that's her fault.

[00:41:57] I think she was she did what she could do with what she was handed, and [00:42:00] I thought she was just wonderfully charming. I don't understand why the hell she wanted to go to this. Quote unquote party with her roommate who she knows is an escort. Maybe she's an escort. Maybe they're just good friends. Who the frick knows?

[00:42:10] They didn't say. But I thought she was really fun. She was a fun person to just kind of have in the background to babysit. I'm not sure why they couldn't just go down to the police station and have her Oh, I guess she didn't want to go to the police, right? Was that the problem? Yeah,

[00:42:21] she was scared. She was

[00:42:23] scared out of her mind.

[00:42:23] Why can't she just go pick out the guy? Like, look at some mugshots and But she wouldn't. So that whole thing was a little confusing. But I think what she was given, she did a really good job. I thought she was really You know, really, uh, charming and that scene on the bed. Like she was, she was kind of like figuring it out, trolling him a bit.

[00:42:40] Yeah. She was teasing him. I thought that was really fun and she's just likable. I think she's a, she's a really, you could tell she was going through a hard time and Joe Pesci stole the freaking show. I thought he was so funny. Like he instantly, I mean, I've seen a lot of stuff he's done, but this seeing him in this light made me just really want to see everything he's done.

[00:42:58] Yeah. He's just. So, so [00:43:00] talented and so dynamic and diverse and, uh, bad boys. I don't know. It was fine. It was, that was, that was all about Will

[00:43:06] Smith and Joey pants is pretty good, but he's not, he's not full on Joey pants. Yeah. Uh,

[00:43:11] there's not a lot else going on in that movie, but yeah, so I'll say lethal weapon because I think Joe Pesci was just.

[00:43:18] Yeah, same. Lethal Weapon, Joe Pesci, stole the show. He provided all the support you'll ever need in that movie. And, uh, he definitely outshined any of the supporting cast in Bad Boys. Even the, the woman who plays, uh, the one they call Sigmund Frod, she was not, she was so unbelievable. She comes in with, like, I, I can't even describe.

[00:43:37] It was It was so ridiculously cheesy what she would do in every scene. She'd come in and be this, like, rule following regulator. Like, you guys can't do that, blah, blah, blah. Like, she was, she was ridiculous and not believable at all. But, um, yeah, Joe Pesci, man, he, he stole the show in that. So, uh, for that reason and that reason alone, I gotta

[00:43:56] lay it all out.

[00:43:57] For that reason, I'm out. No. That's Michael Imperioli, by [00:44:00] the way. He was in

[00:44:00] season two of, uh, White Lotus. Yeah,

[00:44:02] he's really

[00:44:03] great. He was in Bad Boys. He plays the dad in White Lotus. Oh, I didn't like season 2 very much. Well, he was in, and then he's most known for Sopranos. He's incredible in Sopranos. He's really, really good in Sopranos.

[00:44:13] Um, I also go with Lethal Weapon. Listen, I, I actually was thinking the other day, I was, cause I've been knee deep in my Sopranos rewatch cause my favorite show probably ever. Sopranos? Yeah, I made that decision recently. It's just So Over the wire. Yeah, over the, I think so. Breaking Bad Mad man. It's, yeah, it's close, but it's, wow.

[00:44:30] It's just so good. It's hard to explain, but, um, you know, 'cause not just Michael Imperia, but Joey Panta Leone. Is it Panta? Leona. Panta Leone. Panta Leono. I think Pan Leono. We call him Joey Pants. Pants. We call him Joey Pants. Everyone calls him Joey. He is incredible in The Sopranos. He plays the most unlikable guy in The Sopranos, even for a mobster.

[00:44:49] I mean, he's just, he's just so good. I was thinking he's been in over 150 films. And I think that's why they call him Joey Pants. Cause he's kinda just this, every guy. Like, he just, he just. Every movie needs their pants. And he [00:45:00] was Cypher in The Matrix. I mean, he's just done all kinds of movies. And, but he wasn't enough to hold it together for me.

[00:45:05] The reason I do go Lethal Weapon is like, yes, you're right, like the, the administrator, I can't remember if she was like the, the cop therapist or if she was the administrator, but I do buy into the precinct. It's not really elevated, but anytime they're in the police precinct, I feel like that kind of set the tone for buddy cop movies in the future.

[00:45:21] Like, this is how we act in the police precinct. We play jokes. There was a lot of dynamic, and a lot of them, I don't even know their names. I do know Dean Norris. Who does great. But I just They're kind of one

[00:45:30] character. Yeah. Kind of like the family. None of the fam None of the fam Danny Glover's family stands out.

[00:45:35] Mm hmm. But then the household and the family as a unit is a great character. Much like the department as a unit, none of those stand out. Except for maybe the, you know, Sigmund Frod. She's funny. But the rest of the Mm hmm. The department kind of is a character as

[00:45:48] well. They're all buddies. Yeah, I love that.

[00:45:50] So I, I love it. I love the reality of that. So that's why I went Lethal Weapon 2. Speaking of Lethal Weapon 2, is this going to be death by lethal injection for bad boys here? It's two to [00:46:00] zero early on. Is it looking grim for them? I don't know. Let's see. It's looking bad. It's looking bad. Boy, I'll say. Boys, it is looking bad.

[00:46:07] I, I don't know if you two picked up on this, but it feels like one of the tropes of a buddy cop movie is there's got to be inter monologue music and the score has to kind of always be the same. Same for Lethal Weapon, it's the harmonica and the blues guitar. Eric Clapton, baby! Yes! It was Clapton, which is amazing, one of my heroes.

[00:46:23] And then in Bad Boys, it was the classical guitar, almost the Cubano, Miami flair. Yeah, very Miami. Yes! Best in between dialogue, music, score, filler, whatever. I love it. They're both

[00:46:34] great. I f****** loved the score in Bad Boys. from the beginning with that little ditty that would right when they like do that kind of like the pano of the city of Miami thing at the beginning and that like kick ass little tune is going over it.

[00:46:48] I was like in from that I was like, dude, this music rules. It's a total vibe. They got the Miami thing right with that score and it felt really, really good and cohesive in a part of that movie the whole time. And to me, that's. [00:47:00] like a landslide for bad

[00:47:01] boys. And for those that know, Phil, Phil is of

[00:47:03] Miami from there.

[00:47:05] I have like a rational affinity toward that town, even though I haven't lived there in 20 some odd years. I love it. And, uh, any, anything that does it and does it some justice, which I feel like bad boys mostly did. I was in and that I love the soundtrack in that

[00:47:19] film. Yeah, it has sexiness to it. It was great.

[00:47:21] Nylon strings. What do you

[00:47:22] think, Drew? Yeah, I'm torn on this one. If we were comparing the first Lethal Weapon, I actually think the music in the first one was better than Lethal Weapon 2. It was much more Clapton y. I think he maybe was less involved in the second one, perhaps. I don't know, it seemed less like Eric was involved,

[00:47:37] but.

[00:47:37] Yeah, I can tell you from the guitar tone that he was. I could be totally

[00:47:39] wrong. Okay, you're a guitar player, so. Yeah. Okay. You can definitely tell it's not. I'm glad that checks out. So, I think, I think I gotta go bad boys here too. There's some great hip hop, old school hip hop moments. Even just pulling in the bad boys theme song kind of rooted it in the 90s.

[00:47:53] Even though like we're in 95 bad boys was popular, like the show cops, the show was more [00:48:00] popular in the early nineties. So it seemed like that song was a little dated for maybe where this movie came into play. Also, I don't know why this movie is called bad boys. I'm not really, they're not bad. Yes, they're cops.

[00:48:09] They're bad, they're badass. I think it's the cop show. They're cops. Bad boys, bad boys.

[00:48:12] They're badass boys. I get that, obviously, and they put the song in there and stuff, but like, I was expecting this movie for them to be, like, criminals or something. You know, I thought it was gonna be more like They're ass boys.

[00:48:22] They're quite good, actually. Like, training day type cops. You know, like, um, they're actually criminals, like, and then they were just, like, pretty good cops. I'm like, why are they, well, they're not bad boys, they're good guys. Anyway,

[00:48:31] so you're saying at a bare minimum, should they, they should have renamed this movie.

[00:48:34] Good Boys. Decent Boys, yeah. Or Quality Boys. Quality Boys. But they're bad though. Amicable Boys. f***ing bad. Yeah. Standup Citizen boys. Standup Citizen Boys. Anything

[00:48:44] but bad Law. Law. Abiding family man. High quality boys. We've gotten off, off topic of the music, but I still think Bad Boys music was more, I guess to Phil's point, it was more of a Mm-Hmm.

[00:48:54] It's an aesthetic. It felt like a fresher vibe and aesthetic than Lethal Weapon, which had already done in the [00:49:00] first movie, but it did

[00:49:00] more of in the second. You know, this could have been a tie for me. I loved both. Like I, I, the reason I went Lethal Weapon is because I don't know why it worked. It kind of became another trope to have that kind of bluesy guitar, that harmonica kind of like, and I don't know why they went that route, but it works.

[00:49:15] And as a musician, I can't even tell you why it works. It just feels right. Like it does. I just love that. It feels good. You know, I could have also gone bad boys because I do love the sexiness. I love that nylon string guitar. I love like it fits Miami and it fits so well. I just can't tell you why lethal weapon works so well.

[00:49:29] Like why did they go that way? Like why have Clapton come in and it just works? But you know, I could have honestly it doesn't matter. I probably picked lethal weapon. You both got bad boys, but I I love them both. Bad boys is becoming decent boys. They are now it's now two to one. Okay, bad boys is in the hunt.

[00:49:44] It's in the hunt. Maybe it's the lethal injection for lethal weapon. Who would you rather babysit? This is another Drew. Drew helped me out with a ton of categories here because he is our resident buddy cop expert now. Who would you rather babysit? Leo Getz or Julie Mott? If you're a cop and you got to protect somebody, who you want to babysit?

[00:49:59] Are [00:50:00] you going to me? Yeah,

[00:50:01] go ahead. I feel like Joe Pesci's. answer this in one of two different ways, but I'll just say he basically what was going on on screen. We'll just answer like what was happening on, on the screen. I think Joe Pesci was more of a loose cannon. They didn't know what to do with him.

[00:50:17] They didn't know what to expect with him. They actually didn't really like him very much. If you watch the following movies, like they kind of grow to love him and involve him. They want to get him involved, but in two, they don't really like him and they don't want to deal with them. So I think Julie Mott would be.

[00:50:30] Probably be easier to babysit. She's just sort of like there and she's scared, but she's mostly going to follow the rules. She's poking at them here and there, and she's stealing a key here and there. But like, yeah, for the most part, I think she'd be easier to handle. Although my biggest nitpick in that movie is why the hell didn't they just tell her that Mike Lowry was Mike Lowry?

[00:50:48] Like I get the initial like they had she only wanted to talk to Mike and Mike couldn't be there So Marcus had to show up and do the thing I get that but once you got her Why didn't they just say yo, it's actually I'm Marcus. We got to go see Mike, [00:51:00] but just chill I think that could have been an easy like that was an unnecessary thing They just carried on through the movie in my opinion, but I think she to answer the question I think she probably would have been an easier babysit.

[00:51:09] Yeah, I'll go I

[00:51:10] guess

[00:51:11] I'll go bad boys. Yeah, I, I, there are just so many weird little plot decisions in bad boys I don't get. And that's one of them, it's just like, yeah. I mean, it's part of the

[00:51:19] comedy though, because if they were to go out and say it, then a lot of the jokes go away, you know.

[00:51:24] That's true, and there's some 90s humor, all the no homo jokes when he's Like, she's in Mike's apartment, but she thinks it's Marcus's.

[00:51:31] And like, all the pictures of Mike are in the thing. And she's like, is this your lover? And he's like, no, no, no. We just, I put a picture of him up every time he saves my life. It's just, it's a cop thing. He did the same thing for me. There's some, yeah, that's a good point. There's some comedic moments built around that.

[00:51:46] Yeah.

[00:51:53] Dude, I totally forgot about the apartment scene when he first goes into Mike's apartment, and he's like, I designed this [00:52:00] place! Why don't I know where all the light switches are? And then he trips over something, and he's like, Why do I keep tripping over S**t that I know is there?

[00:52:06] Yes! Okay, yeah, now I'm totally bought into why they kept it because it was so f***** funny dude when when

[00:52:12] Will Smith I was I had to pause the movie.

[00:52:14] I was laughing so hard He's like, why do I keep tripping over S**t that I know is there so good I go bad boys in this too because I think she'd be a far more enjoyable Person to babysit for that Joe Pesci was an unhinged Psycho, like I don't want to babysit that guy. f*** that S**t, man. Yeah. Well,

[00:52:30] she's charming and she's kind of hot Yeah, it's fun to have a girl around but like Joe Pesci, good lord He's funny for us But if I was in charge of him, I would not want to deal with that Like he's

[00:52:39] just divulging all these illegal things the whole time like this is how money laundering works

[00:52:44] Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

[00:52:47] Dude,

[00:52:47] anytime when my kids get older and they ask me about money laundering, I'm just gonna hit play on that scene and let him explain money laundering. They're f***ing you in the driveway! They f*** you in the drive thru. That was a terrible look for Subway, by the way. f*** you in [00:53:00] the drive thru. They were talking about

[00:53:00] Subway.

[00:53:01] Yeah, I also go that. As a lover of the movie, Pesci is incredible, and I prefer his character. But if I'm the cops babysitting, you don't want the guy. That dude's running his mouth. He's constantly getting you in worse trouble. Also, Julie proved to be more Capable of defending herself. She, she

[00:53:16] kind of like took up the, took up arms there a bit and did her thing.

[00:53:20] Yeah.

[00:53:20] Leo offers no physical intimidation. No, he's not, which is funny because in Goodfellas, Joe Pesci was so freaking frightening. And for being even short, he was still very frightening in this. He was, no, he was like, when they wanted to capture him, they captured him. He didn't put up a fight.

[00:53:35] He was. It's so funny dude and it's what one thing I loved about that whole thing was that Danny Glover's like six five or something Like he Danny Glover's a large man and Leo, you know, he's so short And so just in half the things he's like looking up like he's looking up like it's his dad or something half the time It's just so funny.

[00:53:51] I do love

[00:53:52] the chemistry. I love it when they They're having lunch or breakfast with him or whatever. And he's explaining to him how the laundering works. Leo gets you what you want. I love it when [00:54:00] Murtaugh's like, okay, okay. And he's kind of playing with them, going along. I did love that chemistry. That was really

[00:54:06] fun.

[00:54:07] Danny Glover is 6'4 and he is 77 years old. Boom. That's a tall

[00:54:10] man. Big man. It is two to two. And like I said, Drew has come up with a bunch of great categories. I love this one. We got two great Joes. Maybe the best Joe of all time in Joe Pesci versus Joey Pants. Drew, you want to kick off? Who do you think?

[00:54:23] Which Joe? Well, we've already

[00:54:24] talked so much about Joe Pesci, so I'll go over to Pants for a minute. That scene of him shooting basketball, like shooting hoops, that was so entertaining. I don't know why just seeing him in like a normal environment, just shooting hoops, smoking, he was smoking a cigar, right?

[00:54:37] Shooting basketball, like what is happening? Why was he shooting hoops, smoking a cigar? Like to me, that was such a funny scene. I still, I have to go Pesci because I'm like a Pesci lifer because of this movie, but I did think that that scene was awesome and very memorable. However, I'll go Lethal Weapon

[00:54:52] 2.

[00:54:53] Yeah, LW2, same. Once again, Joe Pesci, Joe Pesci stole the show in that one. That was the better Joe, [00:55:00] like hands

[00:55:00] down. I did love though that in the basketball shooting scene, Will Smith is just there and he's like completely oblivious and Joey Pants and Martin Lawrence are just talking back and forth like while they're shooting hoops with the sky, like it was the most random thing ever.

[00:55:13] And Will Smith is just standing there like, Somebody want to tell me what the f f*** is going on? It's just

[00:55:18] a good, it's a good scene. And this is really tough. I mean, and I, and listen, I think Joe Pantoliano is such a great actor and there's a reason why he's been hired over 150 times. But I think one of the things about him being a guy that can be in everything is he's often nondescript and I don't think, I don't think he necessarily did anything that was super above and beyond.

[00:55:37] Like, I think he was great and Breaking Bad, or God, I keep saying Breaking Bad cause Dean Norris. And bad boys. And bad boys. Like, he's, he's serviceable and he's good. But I've seen him be great. He's great in The Sopranos as Ralph. I mean, he is just unreal in that role. So, I don't think he necessarily does the full thing here.

[00:55:53] Like, I even think as Cypher in The Matrix, he was very memorable. He had a memorable look. He was like the backstabbing guy. Yeah. Um, he, [00:56:00] he definitely stuck out there. I don't necessarily think he sticks out here. Joe Pesci, you can't miss him. He's like, I'm here. Joe Pesci's like, I am here. And he's like that in every movie.

[00:56:07] Um, it's, it's weird to me, I think one of the reasons I was trying to think like, why do I love Pesci so much? Why is he in my top five? I just think he's always super loud, he's always chewing up a ton of scene, but for whatever reason, it's never, you never get tired of it. You know, you're just like, give me more Pesci.

[00:56:22] Like, I watched this, I was like, you know, I didn't get enough Leo. Like, Leo was awesome, give me more Leo. Um, so Three and four and then you get even more. So I do go, but you know, listen, I love, I love Joey pants and there's a reason why he's been hired so many times. I love him. It is three to two and I do have another category.

[00:56:39] If you're a criminal, I love this idea. If you're a criminal, which cop duo do you, do you fear the most? This is a tough one. Oh, interesting. Flipping it on the other side. Yeah. If you're the criminal. Interesting. Obviously we have some pretty high rank and file criminals here in both movies, but if you're like, uh, You know casual dealer

[00:56:55] at the risk of not giving this a lot of thoughts I'm just speaking off the cuff first time.

[00:56:58] I've heard this category I [00:57:00] think I would fear the Martin Lawrence Will Smith duo the most because those guys got they had a synchronization to their partnership Out in the field, that was pretty great. That opening scene where those guys try to carjack the Porsche, and they like, get into an argument solely for the purpose of distracting the dudes, and then they take them both out.

[00:57:18] You could tell that they'd been working together for a long time, and they kinda had like, this shared brain of sorts. And uh, you know, then that that in Sanely violent end scene where, you know, they're, they're just taking dudes out left and right. I mean, I guess that happens a lot in Lethal Weapon also, but there was a little bit more like synchronized badassery to the bad boys duo.

[00:57:37] Whereas like Riggs and Murtaugh, they kind of bumbled a bit and it was part of the fun and part of the comedy that film, but they weren't necessarily scary. They were really good at their jobs, but they weren't quite as terrifying to me as, as the Martin Lawrence. Will Smith duo. Love it. I don't even have anything on it.

[00:57:53] What do you

[00:57:53] think, Drew Skees? Well, I think the characters themselves answered this question, in my opinion, because Lethal Weapon villain didn't [00:58:00] really care. I mean, his whole thing was, what did he say? Like, something immunity? Yeah, because he's a diplomat. Diplomatic immunity. Like, he clearly just did not fear those guys because he had the government standing in his corner.

[00:58:10] So he's like, you're not, you don't scare me. I got diplomatic immunity. Your immunity's just been revoked. He couldn't care less. So he stood behind that kind of, that wall and didn't really fear them. Even when he had chances. To like, have these guys killed, they'd just end up in a fist fight. Cause it was like, you know, I don't have to kill you, I have immunity.

[00:58:24] So, he just, I don't think he was much afraid of them. Whereas bad boys, I think there was just more, uh, they were a greater threat. I think, I don't know. I will say both of these randomly, one tendril we haven't discussed yet is both of these were progressive for the African American community in Hollywood.

[00:58:40] Cause one was like, you know, the apartheid. and like these are bad guys who stole drugs and all that stuff but also they're racist like and they're out to just like get rid of these racist bad guys and then on the flip side, bad boys you had two African American leads for the first really for the first time you know making a huge splash so it's interesting that just that's side note but I think I'll go what what how did you phrase [00:59:00] the category I always forget if you're a criminal

[00:59:01] which duo do you fear the most So I think I go bad boys because they feared them more well even Donner, so Donner actually I read an interview with him and I think he talks about on the commentary When a casting director suggested Glover, his response was but he's black.

[00:59:16] Like, and he actually talks about it at the time. Oh, wow. Okay. At the time, he's like, and he talks about it like, regrettably, that he had that response. But he never envisioned Murtaugh being a black guy, so. Yeah, no, it was not written,

[00:59:25] he just, Danny Glover got the part because they had the best chemistry.

[00:59:28] The only reason I would go Lethal Weapon 2, I agree with everything you said. There's a professionality. They're, they have more sheen to them, the bad boys. Like, they're, you can tell they have a lot of chemistry. They've been in the field together. And there is this inherent clunkiness to how Murtaugh and Riggs work together.

[00:59:43] But I think that's why it's scary. Because Riggs is so unhinged, you never know what that dude's gonna do. Okay,

[00:59:49] yeah, sometimes

[00:59:50] it's really effective and sometimes it isn't yeah, he's chasing cars on foot through like a city like

[00:59:56] Do they know that it's him? Do they know that he is the lethal weapon [01:00:00] so to speak like it does does the enemy know that this guy's unhinged and crazy?

[01:00:03] I

[01:00:03] don't know, but if you don't know when you're experiencing it, it's like

[01:00:06] uh, what the f*** this guy doesn't follow the law Yeah,

[01:00:09] which we haven't talked about his love interest at all. Mm hmm. I thought she was great. We never mentioned her. Yeah, the African consulate, yeah, it's interesting because we you lumped Pesci and Julie kind of in the same category, but really the two women, you know, is Julie and I forget her name, but they both found themselves kind of, they were both involved, but neither of them wanted to be involved, but then they found themselves kind of carried away in this story.

[01:00:32] And anyway, I thought she was. Uh,

[01:00:34] Rika Van Den Haas, cause he makes fun of her name. Her name is Rika. That was

[01:00:38] another heavy handed plot point. We talked about some plot errors in Bad Boys with Lethal Weapon. Like, did we need to find out that these guys were the ones that killed his Vicky, his early wife, too?

[01:00:48] Yeah. That felt like an extra twist of the dagger. It was like, that's a stretch. to me

[01:00:54] was a little bit of a, that was a stretch. Yeah. Like it was kind of like, let's write that in. [01:01:00] Cause that'll be an, Oh S**t moment. But it didn't, I kind of didn't land for me. Yeah. It was, it

[01:01:04] was heavy hand. It was like, you got to pick one.

[01:01:06] You know, these are the guys that killed his original wife or he falls in love with this girl and they kill her, but he falls in love with this girl. They kill her and you find out they killed his fine. Like it was like, Whoa, I don't know. I go back and forth. I kind of like it. Cause it adds to the drama and the twists and the turns, but also like, I'm just, did we need it?

[01:01:22] I don't know. Well, I, I think what proves your point is why it's so heavy handed, you know, for a fact in the first one, they weren't writing that script and being like, by the way, later, if we want to make a sequel, we're gonna have to blame this on the South America, the South African. They

[01:01:34] did put one apartheid, it said free apartheid or stop something on the fridge.

[01:01:39] There was a Sticker on the fridge, I don't know if you caught this, but in Lethal Weapon 1, there was an apartheid reference on the fridge. Really? I did not catch that. Because his wife, I guess, was pretty, like, just the family, because it's an African American family and they were like, so they had some stuff on the fridge.

[01:01:50] So they did plant those seeds, but I don't know if they really earned that

[01:01:54] storyline. Eventually, we're going to blame this on the South African consulate. Right. On the diplomats. Yeah. [01:02:00] That's wild. Yeah, so that's why, I mean, I think, did you both pick bad boys or would you base? So I went Lethal Weapon 2 just because of the unhinged nature of rigs, but like, Totally fair.

[01:02:09] But, no, great points across the board. It is tied! We are, we're getting good at this. I think our last few matchups, right, Phil? 3 3? Yeah, it's 3 3. Wow. So that means Last two have come down to the last category. Yes. And this one, so here's an extra category I hadn't put on the card. And now that I'm looking at it, I actually love it.

[01:02:24] This category only makes It's a car category. Murtaugh's station wagon versus Lowry's Porsche. Now, the only reason it makes sense in this world is that station wagon puts up with some S**t. It does. That is

[01:02:38] a tough ass. I mean, how are we pitting these against each other? Because, like, as two cars, like, there's an obvious pick.

[01:02:43] But to me, like, there was a lot of comedy around, like, this is my wife's new car. And then Riggs is like, it's still new just because it got blown up. And then, and then I loved how Danny Glover, like, took that concept. So when the kid comes out and he's like, this was mom's new car. And he's like, it's still a new car.

[01:02:59] You [01:03:00] know, I

[01:03:00] thought that was so funny. And the reason I like this category is they also made a point of it when they were on the radio. Like they were like talking about what was happening. Like he's in his wife's

[01:03:08] station. I don't know anything about that car. I just

[01:03:12] love the balls. Cause like the, I think the Temptation is the Porsche, like that's what you want your, that's what you want your protagonist in.

[01:03:20] But he's a family man, and he's in his new station wagon. I just love that they had the balls to go with that. And like, and it's, it's, to me the station wagon had it's own personality. It did. It really totally did. This is a tough one for me, because like Those guys can't

[01:03:33] cruise around

[01:03:34] Sorry to interrupt.

[01:03:34] No, no, I wasn't gonna say anything of relevance, like I love cars, like Man. Yeah, that's That's a, that's a tough one. I don't know.

[01:03:39] I'll go ahead and start off, cause I, cause like, to finish my earlier point, it's the hilarity of the unhinged Riggs, Riggs character in the station wagon in the beginning, like, they're screaming at each other, they're like, he's making all these jokes, and it kinda looks like, cause you know, like, Riggs has his moments where he's like, super out of his mind.

[01:03:56] And he's like, hyped out of his mind in that car. And they're, but then they're in the [01:04:00] station wagon and they're like, it's just, it's so absurd. But to me, like what I said earlier about those little dialogue moments, they didn't have to add, but they did. And they add so much. The station wagon is one of those little things.

[01:04:10] Like they didn't have to, they could have given an indentation. They could have given Murtaugh a Corvette or some really sexy ass car, but they gave him a station wagon. I think

[01:04:17] it's class. That's a great point because he has a boat. Right? He's a boat guy. They coulda easily just been like, He's going through a midlife life crisis, His thing is his new car.

[01:04:26] And that coulda been a whole thing. But they're like, Nope. We're gonna keep him true He's an older, crotchety guy, Boating is his thing, We're sticking him in a station wagon. I

[01:04:34] love that. It's a nice little plot thing. But, you know, with the Lowry character, even though I'm sticking with Lethal Weapon 2, it is it's reflective of You know, who he is.

[01:04:41] He's rich, he's wealthy, and that was an interesting twist on the genre altogether to have one of them not necessarily be like a middle of the line, blue collar cop type of guy. What do you think, Drew? Yeah, I'll go.

[01:04:50] I think the, uh, you you can go either way on this category for sure. Cause, uh, obviously, what what car is cooler?

[01:04:56] Obviously, the Porsche. And, a little another little rando that we didn't mention, [01:05:00] that Porsche is Michael Bay's. Oh, yeah. The studio didn't want to provide them a Porsche. Bay's like, no, we have to have a sexy car. f***ing Michael Bay. So, Michael Bay provided his own, like, sexy car. Six figure car for use in the movie, and I just thought that was awesome.

[01:05:13] However, I do like, from a storytelling standpoint, I love that they were, they kept the story grounded. It was, you know, just the old beater station wagon. He was a family man. Like, I love that they kept that and didn't feel the need to overextend themselves. So I will, I will go Lethal Weapon 2. Love

[01:05:29] that.

[01:05:30] Philskies, close us

[01:05:30] out. Oh man, I, I can't not go the Porsche here because if you have ever driven one, There is nothing like one of those. Is it like my Camry? It's a lot like your Camry in that it is Paid off? No, no. No man, like, Porsche is a special vehicle, and I'm sure some, some f***er on the internet will be like, It's

[01:05:51] actually pronounced

[01:05:52] Porsche.

[01:05:53] And it's like, whatever, dude. Go beat off in the corner. f***ing asshole. Probably drives a Camry. Man, those are special cars. [01:06:00] There's nothing quite like them still to this day on the road. Nothing drives like those. Nothing. Sounds like those nothing feels like those it is a vibe is the most impractical pointless vehicle to have on the street But they're just great.

[01:06:12] And so I just have to go the Porsche I cannot not go the

[01:06:14] poor except makes up Martin Lawrence was b***hing about that car Well, my one of the funniest scenes in that movie it was when he's there 100, 000 on a car This is like a penis on wheels or something Like he's a penis on

[01:06:28] wheels and we're the two balls That was my original quote I

[01:06:32] couldn't I couldn't remember the actual

[01:06:35] Well, this category ended up having a lot more meaning than I anticipated because I totally forgot that about the, the, the, with the portion.

[01:06:41] Well, holy smokes, 4 to 3, Lethal Weapon has put the bad boys that were, they were verging on good boys. They got to, they got to medium boys, they kind of got to the, to decent boys, but Lethal Weapon pulled it back down, read it it's rights. and arrested it, put it back in the car, and is officially in jail.

[01:06:57] This was a great matchup. This was one of the most fun ones [01:07:00] we've done in a while. Drew went on a tangent with his, with watching all these movies. Amazing. I love that you brought all the expertise here. Totally took the load off me, which I loved. I'm raising my

[01:07:08] hand because I have one bonus category. It doesn't matter because we already, Lethal Weapon wins.

[01:07:13] Bonus. Bonus category. Do it. Best MJ reference. And this is why this is important. I need to be reminded of which, of what those were. I'll lay it out. So, Lethal Weapon 2 comes out in the 80s. Lethal Weapon is known as an 80s thing, even though the last two came out in the 90s. Bad Boys in the heart of the 90s, right?

[01:07:28] Different eras, kind of, similar, you know, there's six years removed, but there's a Michael Jordan reference in both movies, which I think is awesome. Lethal Weapon in the, when Danny Glover comes in to console his son, he closes the door, there's an MJ poster on his back door. I was like, yes, that feel, like that roots that movie in the era, which I loved.

[01:07:45] Fast forwarded six years to Bad Boys in the basketball shooting scene, Joey Pants made. made some comment like you're gonna retire like Michael Jordan or something, something along those lines. Also references MJ in that tiny little window where he retired for the first of three [01:08:00] times. And I just thought that was cool that both of those movies shared like an adoration for MJ.

[01:08:04] Amazing. I don't know if that's a category or more just an observation, but.

[01:08:06] No, I love that. I'd have to go actually Bad Boys on that one because I love the relevance of the retiring and the baseball thing. And it

[01:08:12] was more. It was more featured. The MJ poster was more of a throwaway nod to

[01:08:16] MJ. But that was such a big deal to when he retired.

[01:08:19] That was such a I love that reference. And by the time

[01:08:21] the movie came out, he had already like, yeah, looped. So it dated it was like the quickest dated joke ever. Like by the time the movie even came out, he had unretired. So it didn't really play anymore. But the crowd probably like laughed and rolled their

[01:08:31] eyes.

[01:08:32] I love that. What do you

[01:08:32] think, Phil? Oh, I mean, the retirement joke. I do remember that now that you mention it, the retire. I mean, it kind of depends on what you value. Is it like the joke about Michael Jordan retiring? Or is it like the. Subtle sliding in like to time the movie with the Michael Jordan poster.

[01:08:46] I think the joke about Michael Jordan was pretty solid. So we'll give Bad

[01:08:50] Boys half a point for that. Half a point. So Lethal Weapon wins four to three and a half. There

[01:08:54] you go. No, I love that observation. I mean, you know, I'm always a sucker for a Michael reference. Mikey j Mikey. [01:09:00] Well, this was one of the most fun podcasts we've, we've done.

[01:09:02] And I mean, I, I feel like we probably should do some more buddy cop stuff 'cause it is just so fun. But, uh, thank you so much. It was four to three Lethal Weapon Two is a very close fought battle. Couple of great movies here. Uh, this podcast is, is the Shiny, you know What? And we are the three balls. Yeah.

[01:09:16] This has been

[01:09:17] Kyle, uh, this has been the, the Phil Ball. Phil

[01:09:20] Ball, yeah. Which ball are you? I'm the, I guess I'm the Drew Ball wheel. He drew the ball. They

[01:09:24] drew up into the scope. We,

[01:09:26] I'm not, I'm not Mike Lau. We

[01:09:29] are the three balls dragging along the podcast. Love y'all. Bye

Kyle Castro
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