You're listening to the down Beats ninety seven to one, The Freak. The
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Will remind you two things. Tomorrow at nine We're gonna give away two
pairs of Green Day tickets away in a very fun and special way tomorrow at
nine, and also will remind you that the uh Let's Freaking Chill Series begins
next or continues next Wednesday at the Alamo Draft House and the Cedars. It
is the movie Diner with the Speakeasy. You get tickets at ninety seven to
one, The Freak dot Com and the Downbeat to movie. The month will
be in December, and we'll let you know what that is as we get
a little bit closer. But speaking of movies, last night, we were
invited to go see The Iron Claw, the world premiere of the Hidden Movie.
You don't know that. It will be at the Texas Theater, the
beautiful Texas Theater. I'd never been for whatever reason, to the Texas Theater.
I'd never been. That is a jewel. It's incredible. It's right
on Jefferson Ave down in Oak Cliff. I'll start there at that place was
looking good. They had it all so I didn't know how like the setup
was going to be. But obviously the Marquis was all perfect, you know,
the Iron Claw. Welcome to Van Eric Country. The other side said
they decked it out all the neon was working properly in a huge uh I
think it was green, but red carpet area off to the right with man
tons of press. It was. It was bigger than I pictured in my
head, like the world premiere movie night in Dallas, Texas. I didn't
know if it was just a nod to Texas, but this was like the
real national world. I don't know, the first time it had ever been
screened to the public. Yeah, national outlets all over this and Entertainment tonight
was there. This is a December twenty second release. So, as we
said yesterday, I've never seen a movie this early, you know, I've
never I've never been the first, you know, first person to see it.
And that's why I'm excited about this. We're the first people doing a
live radio review of The Iron Flaw. And by the way, the actors
strike, which says real quick, the actors strike ended last night too.
Like I got home and opened up my phone and I was like, oh,
the actress strikes over after one hundred and eighteen days. So the writer's
struck over. The actors made a deal after one hundred and eighteen days.
Yeah, they have live or video of Jeremy Allen White on the red carpet
being told by a reporter that the actor strike was over and that was his
first time hearing it, and he said, cool, dude, put two
thumbs up. That's right right as the audio you showed me earlier. Yeah,
we deemed it not worthy of air, but thanks for reenacting it,
we say, Katie will just reenacted. We don't even play the audio.
I'm a good actor and I've always said that it's not that hard to be
a good actor. Agreed, they're a tremendous actor. So the place looked
amazing. It was there. It was all blocked off, kind of like
the street was half blocked off. There's a lot of fans standing across the
street. We had a little security side entrance to kind of go into.
I don't know everything about it was bigger than I expected. It was just
cool. It was good to see Dallas looking fine, and good to see
the Texas Theater looking gorgeous. That place with a long, wild history.
It's just really cool for it to be the site of something this big.
I thought about this, excuse me leading up to it. I wonder if
the actors that were there last night, and we'll get to that in a
moment, but yeah, the main stars of the movie of our Iron Claw
were there, and I wonder if they were fully aware of the history of
that theater, if they had been briefed on that. Certainly, right,
despite sitting in separate rows, I'm very much closer than yours. I had
the exact same thought from my incredibly good vantage point of the film, and
I was wondering if somebody would stand up at the very beginning and sort of
give a quick reset of that, like why Dallas, Texas, which becomes
obvious if you see the film, but why the Texas Theater? And yes,
like a one minute recap of the significance of that theater historically and just
how long it's been there. But that didn't happen, So I don't know
that at all, probably not. I fully expected the guy. So they
had the guy that kind of mceed I guess or made the introductions to the
of the director, some dudes with a European accent from the Austin Chronicle.
I guess he's their media critic down there. He came up to bring them
on stage, and I was really surprised that he didn't say something to the
effect of, you know, I can't believe that it's sixty years ago this
month that you know, blah blah, Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy, all
that happened this month in November, and not one mention of the history of
why it was being held there. Yeah, and quickly on that note,
because we discussed this briefly prior to the movie beginning, I don't know who
that crowd was, Like I think and we I think you and I disagree
slightly. I think it was more and we have JJ who can probably answer
all this and please do. I think it was almost more industry types from
la or wherever A twenty four is based that flew in for this than Dallas
sites in there. Not certainly there was a lot of people from this area,
but I feel like it was more people from you know that would come.
They would come to a movie premiere. They're like what Dallas? Why?
Okay, Sure, it was a mix. Especially seeing it at the
after party, I saw a lot of people who I know from the area
media wise, and then I saw like Andrew Frond if you know who he
does this nation, he fluent like he came in and yeah, yeah,
you're saying a few people from outskirts here obviously because it's you know, it's
a premiere, it's a it's a world premiere. Because during the opening credits,
you know in every movie they show like five production companies and you're like,
why is this? They were getting weird applause and yeah, right,
weird for random. Yeah, it was like house productions. I think that's
it's kind of exhausting. I think that's kind of a given when you have
something that is like, uh, like a world premiere, that it is
going to be a lot of industry people that are either media or connected to
the making of the film in some tangential manner that you know, people from
a twenty four Like you said, no, I do agree with that,
but I feel like it was I felt like the majority, and even if
it be a slight majority, were people that were from Dallas socialite types,
people that may own lucrative real estate firms, law firms, people with big
business in dow Us that have the connections to be able to maybe that people
would reach out to. And it's the beautiful people that we don't rub brush
shoulders with in our line of work and in our lifestyles that are hanging out
and uptown and all of these these clubs that you hear about but you just
never go. It was definitely the beautiful people, which does explain why they
put you guys in the absolute dead last. He's not ever going to shut
up about something so insignificant when he was literally two rows in front of us.
I told the bathroom and they stopped me. I was like, hey,
guys, and I looked at the screen and then I look back at
that JJ was on the second row because she's big time in forty Answer one
question, yes or no? Okay? Were there any two seats in the
entire theater closer to the bathroom than the two that these guys were sitting,
which was a convenience That was actually a because it was tough to get into
the bathroom, so it was very convenient for you, Lathom. I told
Danny to request exactly pay a picture. As a matter of fact, we
were initially by Ashton given your tickets, and because Kevin has micro bladder,
we swapped him out so nobody would know. And our tickets came with wristbands
to the after party, yours didn't. Do you think Jeremy Allen White needs
to wear a wristband and get in the after party. I don't need a
risk band to get into the after party. Oh boy, you sure did.
JJ had a wristband, didn't you? I did, Well, I
don't. They looked at me and they're like, well, who's gonna stop
this guy trying to do anything? JJ? Did you see Mike at the
after party? I didn't. I was interesting. I didn't go. I
went to a different after party that you guys wouldn't even know about Yeah,
in my bed with Simon telling him I love him forever, I love you
forever and ever that all right, let's get to the damn movie The Iron
Claw. Should we take turns? Because I think we're gonna have some differing
viewpoints here. Okay, let me preface something here as a full setup.
I'm thirty five. I've worked with older people, seemingly my entire adult life,
and someone like Ben Rodgers, who was there last night on the been
In Skin Show, who was a big von eric fan growing up, but
as a guy who only liked wrestling for a couple of years when I was
like twelve, in the era of Stone Cold, the Rock Cane, Undertaker,
Mankind, gold Dust. Okay, so a lot this form of wrestling
a little foreign to me outside of what we've heard our good listener and friend
Brody talk about. So first and foremost went in knowing some of the history
about the von Erics, but not the details very clearly, and just kind
of didn't want to know going to watch the movies. I just wanted to
take it for what it was. And I want to say that I think
anyone who is under the age of forty and might have heard their parents talk
about the von Erks. Should go see this movie just for that alone.
Before I talk about anything about the movie. I want to get that out
there because I think there's a lot of people who are younger Zach Effron's age
in real life who just like, the hell the von Erics. What a
wrestling? Regional wrestling? What's that even mean? And I think it's this
helps you. It made it very easy to go understand what's going on and
follow along with the story if you didn't know the ins and outs of it.
I think that's a good point, a fair point. It's a broad
because it's different. I mean, here, the von Eriks are you know,
to at least one generation of people. Gods, yes, And that
doesn't apply to me because I wasn't here at the time age wise, Danny,
I guess it could apply to you, but it's not right in my
wheelhouse. The problem for me was with wrestling. I was way into it
in the early eighties or mid eighties, early eighties, kind of like in
their heyday that the thing was growing up out in you know, central West
Texas. We didn't get Dallas local channels. We did not we got which
TAF we got Abilene, but like the sublocal channels like your Channel twenty one's
Channel twenty seven's where the Sportatorium events would have been televised, we did not
have access to those. The only wrestling that I had access to was from
the superstation WTBS at the time Turner Broadcasting Network out of Atlanta, So we
had wrestling from the omni and our mercer, Bill Mercerill mercer. Our Bill
mercer in my wrestling world was Gordon Soley. He was the announcer. He
was the guy that interviewed the wrestlers. So I wasn't privy to Dallas wrestling.
Of course, I knew who the von Erics were, and you would
see them in news clippings and ever once in a while they might when they
would tour that you might see them fight the fabulous free Birds. But it
wasn't a cultural thing for me growing up where I was just all van Erks
all the time. In my wrestling circle. I want KT to go first,
Okay, I fing loved it and I don't even care if there are
some inaccuracies that I'm not sure of. I think hardcore wrestling people may have
some questions about what did that happen? Did that happen? Did he go
down like this? I thought it was awesome, And I think for a
story that does have that many dark moments in it, it never dragged.
I mean that was I was never sitting there looking at my watch like can
we go and I get up early tomorrow morning? I mean, is pretty
in that entire time. I thought it was great. Thought the performances were
great. It's a great casting job. I want to give Lily James a
bit of a shout out as Pam Kevin on Eric's Wife, because she looks
nothing like she did when she was Pamela Anderson and Pam and Tommy on it.
He plays Pam's Yeah, it's her thing. Yeah. When they make
the Office movie, she's actually playing Jenni Fisher's role. I man, I
walked out of that thing. And maybe it's just being there and it being
a special event last night and getting to see something a month before the rest
of the world could see it. But I told you guys, there are
no five dumplings because nothing is perfect. Four and a half out of five
dumplings. Wow, four and a half out of five loved it all right?
And I don't even like wrestling that much. I don't care about it.
I think that's interesting. Yeah, I wonder if that how much that
impacts things. UH did not love it, did not hate it. I
thought it was so close. I thought they missed the mark, but they
were so close to hitting it. Man, I agree with Kevin really well
cast. I thought the sleeper performance was Harris Dickinson, who played David,
the guy that really wasn't into wrestling but wanted to play in a rock band.
I thought his performance was outstanding. I thought it was too long,
and not because of the duration of the film, but because I thought that
with the limited the way they kind of microscoped, or the way they condensed
all of this vast material, they could have made it even even shorter film.
I thought with that, with a running time of two hours and ten
minutes, I thought they could have hit on some some more threads that they
left out. I think they could have expounded on some some storylines that that
might have been more relevant to to the overall narrative. One of the problems
that I did have is I feel like that Kevin was so involved in this
film as far as consulting, and I think that the filmmakers and the actors
wanted to pay so much respect to the to the von eric family. I
think there was so much deference paid to that cons or that that idea or
that ideal, that they avoided getting as visceral and dark as they could have
at what a at the tragedy of this family. I thought it was really
glossed over. Some of the darkness and mental health aspect and addiction aspects and
the suicidal aspects of this film were kind of PG. Thirteen To me,
it didn't feel real. I never I always felt like I was watching a
movie, and I don't like that. I want to get lost in it.
I want to feel like I am watching something that really happened. And
I thought I was kind of watching a caricature of events. I thought that
the hairstyles were funny and maybe not necessarily accurate. I thought it felt like
a caricature of that era to me, without being funny. But that's like
analytical garbage that nobody really cares about. I enjoyed the film. I think
I would have enjoyed it better had they kind of gone a little harder.
I think they had an opportunity there, and they just missed it. But
it was good. It wasn't great. You ready, she can't, she
can't. Jjy's a part of the Yeah, she can't review it. Not
as part of the press, No, she can foreign press. I'll say
this because I tweeted this j on air Best Picture nom question mark. WHOA
Really? I was thinking that too. I can see it without seeing Killers
of the Flower Moon. Yet I was sitting there going, I can see
it really the best movie I've seen it outside, man, I had one
Tenny caveat Outside of a couple of skyline views and the recreation, whether it
be CGI or or actually a set build of the Sportatorium, I didn't really
feel like Dallas was represented in the film. It was obviously it was a
lot of ranch stuff people on ranches, But outside of a couple of aerial
skyline shots and then the skyline behind the Sportatorium, I didn't really feel like
I ever thought, oh wow, there's Dallas at all. Yeah, there
was a great external shot a couple times of the Sportatorium. And look,
anyone who has been to the Sportatorium or saw the one Eric is gonna go
see this movie and that will give you nostalgia I would imagine. That's incredible.
I assume that's exactly what it looked like. I wouldn't know. I
heard that it was reversed. That when you're looking in the movie, you
look at the entrance of the Sportatorium, the front facade, the skyline in
the background. It was supposed to be back It was originally backwards. Yeah,
that if you were at the rear, looking at the rear of the
Sportatorium, then you would have seen the skyline. Otherwise you would have looked
at South Doubt. It had a cool like Old I imagine that was c
g I Old and the Old Dallas skyline. I imagine that it was accurate.
There's a couple helicopter drone shots of Old Dallas, right. Uh,
it was really cool. That's us to nitpick the rest of the nation,
doesn't. That's just me local dingu making a studio a Christmas time release that
I think that's important. Yeah, this is a Christmas time released movie,
a holiday blockbuster film potentially. Yeah. I just felt like, if it's
going forward, it's such a tragic, dark, horrible story and it didn't
impact me as such. I felt like it they could have gone to some
deeper, darker levels to really send that message home. I hear what you're
saying, but I disagree with that a little bit in that I feel like
the whole thing was I didn't love it, and I went in there.
It's more excited maybe than you guys, because I like wrestling and I just
watched it. And maybe it's because I just watched a documentary on the von
eerics of the night before to get my head right for it, because a
couple of the tenants of the movie are I know, to be false in
a good movie, right from Trevian von Eric's mouth, like he is vehement
that there's no von Eric curse. There never was one. But in the
movie it's all about this family's cursed. And I get it. I get
you have to embellish. But and maybe it's because that I knew I was
in real time noticing things that were inaccurate. There's no doubt you were doing.
Yes, I was, and that's why I really am more curious.
And I think Kevin's and Danny's to an extent review is more accurate than mine
because they're watching from a different viewpoint. I mean, there was a von
Eric brother that was not in this movie of Chris van Eric, who committed
suicide, was never mentioned. I thought about that all night that I was
like, what I thought? I did think that that was weird. But
the director had made a comment about that. There was an article came out
he said he didn't add him in because of time. Yeah. I knew
that watching it live. And it's like, did this movie need another brother
that they loved the committed suicide that shot himself in the head, right,
Like we had that a plenty. Yeah, rule of threes. But I
thought the movie was I guess by design slow. Fine, Yeah, it
was sad. Obviously, it's an incredibly sad story. But Christine and I
talked about this, dude, I warned her before the movie. I'm like,
and she knows it. I'm like, I cry, I'm a crier,
and if this movie is a jerker, I told her to go ahead
and take a picture of me when I'm balling. It might be funny because
I cry. I never even came close to crying for a movie that that's
sad, and I never came close. I did, Yeah, I did
too, Yeah, okay, and that's yeah, there's no right or wrong
here. It's obviously different viewpoints. You guys all have like good valid points,
but you also have to keep in mind of it's based on a true
story. I think people forget that this is still Hollywood. No, you
you know fee to you know that Hollywood crowd, and yet they're taking bits
and elements of their people's lives to create this story. Thinking like people thinking
this is exactly how it went. No, that's why they put based on
a true story. At the beginning of it, I've always known this is
actual everything that yeah, of course, that's that's understood for sure, and
I know that I don't, like Kevin said, don't let the facts get
in the way of a good movie. And I'm fine with that elimination of
Chris, okay with that. The problem was the actual story is so much
more impactful and emotion pulling than what they adapted. Like, if you just
tell the story and make it feel real, then that's enough, man,
and that's gonna kick you in the gut. I think the emotion would have
been offset by a higher highlighting of their rise to power and when they're at
the top, which was essentially just kind of covered in a montage with Rush
playing. You know, like the Freebirds. Again, I don't need a
wrestling documentary, but their battle with the Freebirds was fun and funny and that's
what sparked their popularity in this town and that nationally. And the Freebirds were
just in a match at one point randomly, and that's okay. I don't
need it. It's not a document about the Freebirds. But then we have
Rick Flair, and even the guy who played Rick Flair. I was like,
I don't know, this is kind of how I think. I'm like,
you have to nail Rick Flair. He was there, by the way,
the guy who played Rika. I also think this is this reminded me
of a little bit of of the Queen Movie because some of the kickbacks I
was getting from people and could I think Skin is the one I think talked
about it with the last time when the Queen Movie came out, and he
was like, there's just so much they left out, and I was like,
you can't tell that story. And this is why TV shows are getting
increasingly more popular than movies. You need ten hours, you can need ten
episode. You can't tell your life story in two hours. You just can't.
You have to. You have to figure it out. And yeah,
and then on top of that, because he's von Eric, Kevin is so
involved in this movie, like y'all say, you have to think of him,
to think of how he's sitting there and having to relive thought of him
the entire time moment like these these tragic moments of his life. Yeah,
and he was witting right there the people he cared for the most. He
has to say, here, we live it. And I thought that the
director did a great job of kind of tatering in that, but also still,
look, you know, I think they did that to the detriment of
the film. I do. I think they catered too much to the emotion
and and what Kevin Vaughan Eric would think having a relive those real, real
moments, and they avoided making a real, real film. And it's fine,
it's a good movie. It's cool. I liked it enough. I
didn't love it. It could have been better, in my opinion. I
went in with incredibly high expectations and I enjoyed it, no doubt. And
maybe I was just throughout it. I was thinking the whole time Kevin,
Like I was thinking of Kevin sitting there going O, well, that didn't
happen Nope, that's not true at all. Well, my brother is just
eliminated from this movie. Look, I'm gonna you should go see it.
I'm just ember twenty second it comes out. It's fun, it was great,
and go absolutely anything at the Texas Theater. We can't thank enough for
inviting us as well. I mean, I'll give it three dumplings. Oh
yeah, three three dumpling. Yeah, I'm with you. I should backfuddled.
Four. JJ is not allowed to assign dumplings until some of the release.
I'll break it down for you. We might need some more because we
didn't really talk to zach Efron's or they have to party ground beef head.
Yeah, we'll get some of that at nine after pictures glids, we'll get
in a little bit of that. But let's do ding' good morning news up
a little bit. Yeah, sure, sure yet boy, driverless ride shares
are going well. Oh