Speaker 1: Jingle Mel Jingle Mal jingle mel rock.
Speaker 2: All Right, everybody, welcome back to the Surely You Can't
Be Serious Podcast? Jason, is this the episode that we
start with someone plummeting off of the tall building? Or
is this the episode that we end with someone plummeting
off of the tall building? Well?
Speaker 1: I guess we can talk about both today, So I
guess if you're ready, let's do this. Okay, ready?
Speaker 2: One?
Speaker 1: Two? Is it one? Two?
Speaker 2: Three?
Speaker 1: And then go? Or do we go on three? Welcome back, everybody.
We are so excited. This is episode three of the
Diehard versus Lethal Weapon.
Speaker 2: This is the last episode of our movie comparisons of
the year. But we may have something special in store
just before Christmas.
Speaker 1: Which will that be a surprise that's right coming Christmas
Eve or maybe twenty third, We're not sure yet. Quick
shout out to our new Patreon member Brad Moore. He
is the executive producer of today's show.
Speaker 2: Brad, Thank you so much for donating through Patreon. It
means so much to us. We can't express it. If
anybody else would like to be an executive producer, it's
super easy. Just go to our Patreon page if you
wanted to buy us a cup of coffee each month
that costs about five bucks. And that's what you can
get in on for these Patreon pages. And then there
are more prizes and exciting things that come as you
step up the contributions. But anybody who contributes is going
to become one of our executive producers.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much. And here we go with episode.
Speaker 2: Three, any dingle Heart all of the tales in Western
Civilization that have a love story and component have a
guy saving a princess, right, yeah, that's just part of it,
so absolutely. And then we've got Death of Number two
and leathal Weapon mister Joshua, Mister Joshua, which is preceded
by a fight scene, yes, which is really dumb. It's
a little absurd, It's yes, it is. It's incredibly incredibly dumb,
and I love watching it. It's every single time. It
is like the oxygen tank in the mouth of Jaws.
That's just absurd. But if you've come along this far
along in the ride, you want that payoff, You're ready
for it, and you buy in full tilt. You got
Marta refusing refusing to follow the rules just so that
riggs can have his fisticuffs with mister Joshua.
Speaker 1: Yes, but can you imagine coming to end of that movie,
you have Special Forces Killer one, Special Forces Killer two,
and they arrest him and take him without a fight.
Speaker 2: No way, right, right?
Speaker 1: So Riggs asking for if he wants to shot the title.
Speaker 2: So cowboy, it is so cowboy, so amazing, and.
Speaker 1: The entire LA Police Department along with the helicopter say yeah,
heck yeah, let's let these guys fight.
Speaker 2: Yes, And then, of course it can't end with just
a beat up. It's got to end with bullets, right, absolutely,
bullets from both of our heroes.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: And then we have and die Hard, the twist ending,
the surprise return and resurrection of what we thought was
the dead villain.
Speaker 1: Yes, Carl.
Speaker 2: And who is it that saves the day?
Speaker 1: Not Roy, No, absolutely not. It's it's Al Palell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has made his transition to he has become
that thing that he was afraid of becoming again gun. Yep.
Speaker 1: Listen, when I saw Diehard in the theater. Yeah, and
I'm not exaggerating, people stood and cheered, Yeah, stood and
cheered in a movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When Al Powell pulled.
Speaker 2: His gun yep. Because it's freaking awesome, right, and the
guy who you just think is the fat twinkie eating
can't drive a car cop is ultimately the guy who
saves the hero in the movie.
Speaker 1: Without a doubt.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean too.
Speaker 2: And that brings us to the end. Happy endings in
both movies. Happy ending for die Hard. You get kiss
in the window of the limo as they drive away
into the sunset. I realize it's not into the sunset,
but it looks.
Speaker 1: Like it, right, it could be, And you get that
great line from Argyle. This is their idea of Christmas.
I got to be here for New.
Speaker 2: Year's right while it's snowing, bear bonds right because it
doesn't snow in La No, it's fantastic now. The ending
for Leith a Weapon, unsurprisingly by Shane Black, was not
supposed to be a happy ending. It was a parting
of ways, we're not going to see each other anymore.
But by the end of the movie they said, now
we can't do that. We have to have we have
to have the Hollywood ending.
Speaker 1: They filled it. Did you see that scene?
Speaker 2: Absolutely so. Yeah, it's depressing. It's depressing, yes, now, and
Shane Shane Black is kind of big on this. You know,
doesn't like the Hollywood endings, which is why Riggs dies
at the end of his Lethal Weapon twy script that
he wrote.
Speaker 1: Rigs it gets shot nineteen times at the end of
leath Weapon two right, and is like and lives and
worries about you know, throw little cigarettes away.
Speaker 2: What we do get is the moment where he hands
the bullet over right. We realize that he does. He
says it he doesn't need it anymore because at the
beginning of the movie he was alone. He meets this guy.
They're obviously at odds. They're bickering the whole movie, but
by the end he has a new family.
Speaker 1: He does, He's been adopted into the Murtav family. He says,
if you think I'm gonna eat the world's worst Christmas
tinner by myself, you're crazy. And Rick says, I'll tell
you a little secret. I'm not crazy. Yeah, it's great,
love it. It's an ending with a Christmas bow on top.
Speaker 2: Yeap. As a kid of the eighties, I like Hollywood endings,
absolutely right. I don't want my hero to die at
the end.
Speaker 1: No, no, which is why we hated the last Jedi.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that does it for me for the plot.
You got anything else?
Speaker 1: I mean, I got tia, but it's coming out my nose.
Come all right, So here's a few things for you. Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you know that Leonard Nimoy was originally supposed to
direct Leth the Weapon? No? Yeah, okay, so Leonard Nimoy
ended up doing three Minutes a baby instead of Leth
a Weapon.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, kind of interesting. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: There's a point in the movie at the beginning Murta
tells Riggs that Huntsacker saved his life in a certain
battle in Vietnam. Right, Bell Gibson portrays this exact battle,
and we were soldiers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was it. We were soldiers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I got something that's going to blow away. Okay, okay,
here you go. This is gonna blow you No, no, no,
I got something that's gonna blow you wad Okay, this
will blow your doors off.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: The bretta that Mel Gibson uses in this film is
the same prop gun used in die Hard that Bruce
Willis tapes to his back. What same gun? No, same gun? Okay,
according to my extensive internet research, same gun. According to
an obscure webs law. Okay. A running gag in the
Lethal Weapon movies is the one two wait wait wait
wait heys one, two, three and then go or one
dude like three? Right this running gag? Part two yes,
but it starts between Rigs and Merta and part two Yes,
when Myrta is on the toilet, Yes, toilet bomb. But
if you'll, if you'll go back to the beginning of
Lethal Weapon, when they are singing Silent Night, when the
cops are seen in Silent Night so bad they can't
they can't figure out when they're going to start. That's right, Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2: I forgot I noticed that as I was watching it
this most recent time. It wasn't until this most recent time.
But they're like wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1: Wait, the cops keep starting too soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah right. A couple of things on Diehard that you
may not know. Yes, Hans Booby.
Speaker 1: Hans Booby, I'm your White Knight.
Speaker 2: Improvised line by ellis totally so when you see Hans's reaction,
when you see Alan Rickman's reaction, it's genuine because he
was not expecting that.
Speaker 1: I must have missed sixty minutes. What are you saying,
can we let's talk about Elis for one second. Okay,
he is the biggest sleeves ball. Huh cokehead, yep, scumbag. Right,
here's something that I have a theory on. You ready
for this?
Speaker 2: Yes, they make.
Speaker 1: This big to do about l us have. I mean
they they crack open a coke, can pour it, fill
it up. He's drinking it.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, here's what I'm thinking. Yeah, I think Ellis
asked somebody there if they had any coke, probably right,
that's probably right, and they went and got him Coca cola.
Speaker 2: Here's one for you. Okay, Okay. So they brought in
Stephen Desuza to add additional lines, try to get some
humor in there. Yep. He first meets Bruce Willis. They're
only five years age difference. Stephens Desuza is five years
older than Bruce Willis. Okay, and they start talking and
they realized that they grew up in the same area. Oh,
by the way, most German actor in this movie Bruce
Willis because he was born in Germany, but he was
raised in New Jersey, which is where Stephen de Seuzan
was raised. They knew some of the same hangouts. They're
having a good time. They start talking about old TV
shows that they liked, and one of the old TV
shows that they liked was Roy Rogers Call Me Roy. Yeah,
and they both start talking about Yippi kaya and how
much they like that line, and the SUSA says, I'm
going to get that in the movie somehow. I want
to get that in the movie. And so that's how
you get the yip kya in the line.
Speaker 1: That is fantastic. Yes, let's talk about that line.
Speaker 2: For a second.
Speaker 1: Okay, go ahead, Okay, we are a PG thirteen podcast.
We're not going to say the big m I first,
so don't turn us off. But that line, Yeah, Bruce
Willis drops it like a freaking atomic bomb. Okay, so
like whispered, subtle, brilliant. He sprinkles f words throughout diehard. Okay,
they're all over the place, but this one is a
freaking cruise missile, right, And he says it was such
cool and such style. Yes, and it's one of the
greatest movie lines of all time that I can't say
on this podcast. Yes, Yippi kaye. Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 2: So at one point they had been filming all day,
all day long, de Susan goes home as soon as
he walks in the doors two o'clock in the morning.
Soon as he walks in the door, Joel Silver calls
him up and says, you got to come back. He's like,
what why? He goes These morons built the vents.
Speaker 3: To spec so they had this whole plan that Bruce
Willis is supposed to crawl through the vents, but instead
of building them big enough for him to go through,
they build them as normal size vents, which is why
you have this.
Speaker 2: Tight enclosed moment. And so Desusa comes back, and that's
where you get the line of come out to the coast.
We'll get together, we'll have a few less That one
was Desusa and then the now I know what it
feels like to be a TV dinner. That was Bruce
Willis improv Wow, that's awesome. Oh and and him getting
into the vent that was I mean I watched that scene.
There's no freaking way that any human being can fall
that far and catch them. The stuntman was supposed to
catch the vent before it he missed.
Speaker 1: Here's the deal. The stuntman was supposed to grab that ledge. Yes,
he slipped, fell, hit the air, bag like four stories down. Oh,
but they cut in that quick oh where.
Speaker 2: He barely misses, like he hits it. But then you
can tell that guy false.
Speaker 1: You can see it clears that he is plummeting. Yeah,
and but they're like, no, we can still use that.
Speaker 2: We'll just cut it that. Yeah, cut to his fingers,
to his fingers. Yeah, okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Hey, did you know there's one scene in particular Bruce
Willis wears fake rubber feet. Oh, yeah, so that he
can run across the glass. Yeah, shoot the glass.
Speaker 2: Why does he speak to him in English? They're both
supposed to be German. He says something in German, Carl
doesn't understand, and so then he says in English, shoot
the glass. Because he's not talking us. He's not talking,
he's talking to the audience. Right, So good. I got
to say that I love in both of these movies
that you get your exposition through the arguments of the characters.
Speaker 1: Okay, Like that's an amazing thing.
Speaker 2: Like we talked about how in you know, we had
a great exposition moment in Raiders because he's teaching the
government guys about the arc, right, and so it's this opportunity.
But he's I mean, it's an obvious exposition. He's telling
a long story. It's not an argument. And the same
thing with Back to the Future, you've got doc explaining
time travel because they're document documenting everything with the TV.
But with both of these movies, you don't have any
of that one character telling a long exposition type of thing.
It's all just an exchange, like them trying to paper thin, right,
this idea that there's something more going on than just
a bad drug deal until the paper thin pays off.
But it's always arguments between them. Yes, same thing in Dieard.
It's the arguments between Hans and John Roy or whatever.
It's the arguments between Dwayne t. Robinson and John or
Al Powell or those conversations that really informs the audience
about what's going on. I just I thought that was
a great way to write a skillful both circumstances.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, a couple of little tidbits on Lethal Weapon.
Danny Glover and Gary Busey appear again together in Predator
Part two. Yep, Okay, here's one of the things I
wanted to mention to you. There's a couple of setups
in Lethal Weapon one that come to fruition in Lethal
Weapon two that I want to mention briefly and then
maybe we can get into sequels a little bit. Yeah,
there is a bumper sticker that's taped to the Murtaz
refrigerator that says and apartheid. In part two, the bad
guys are South African. Also Riggs's wife Vicky Riggs. Yes,
Victoria Riggs. Yeah, she was killed by the South African
bad guys that you find out that part too, Yes,
So yeah, okay, do we want to talk about sequels
real quick?
Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead, let's talk about sequels. Here's an interesting thing,
you know. I talked about how Bill and Ted face
the music starts off kind of slow. Yes, I don't
really think about it, but that kind of was the
way movies started out until Leith A Weapon Too. Leth
a Weapon Too is really if I'm looking back, it's
the first movie that I can think of where you
start in the middle of the action and it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: It's not like you just start at adventure. You're in
the middle of a car chase.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like the opening title sequence, Rigs is pounding the ceiling.
I love this job. It's full throttle. Right out of
the gate. Leath the Weapon two has a lot more humor.
It's it's leaning on that chemistry between those two actors,
and it's absolutely fun. You still have Crazy Rigs. It's
way more funny.
Speaker 2: It's funny. It's certainly got its way. It's way dark
in spot. Yeah. Yeah, I mean you've got the death
of the hot South African girl. Yeah. I can't remember
her name, but anyway.
Speaker 1: Which I don't know if you know this or not,
you can google deleted scenes for Leath.
Speaker 2: Weapon two show her mispronouncing her name. Yes, pronounce it's
her name like five yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You could also see a original ending where she's having
Thanksgiving dinner with Riggs and mertas she lived the first
time through. Oh wow, But they changed it because they
wanted Crazy Rigs to come out.
Speaker 2: So I get great. Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Leath the Weapon two, love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Leath Weapon three fun with the one on gently No, that's.
Speaker 2: Four okay, that's the one where we get Rene Russo
for the first time.
Speaker 1: You get Renee Russo in part three she's introduced, but
part two you get Leo gets introduced.
Speaker 2: Which is Joe Pesci fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When I asked my wife what her favorite part
of Leith the Weapon was, yes, all she could tell
me was Leo gets line. Right, okay, No, they have
you the drive through, yeah okay, and then it progresses.
So two three four you have jet Lee and.
Speaker 2: You by the way, sorry before we go too far.
That Leo gets part was originally written for John Lovetts.
The character was based on something they saw on Three Amigos,
John Lovett's part and Three Amigos. They saw that and
that was the inspiration for Leo gets part. They wrote
it for John LOVETTZ. Joe Eschi is Edged Indoor.
Speaker 1: Remember love Love love that character.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So two three four of Leeth Weapon, you yourself just
said you can kind of missmash them because they're all great, right,
I mean great is a strong, they're all fun.
Speaker 2: Are we going to talk about five?
Speaker 1: Let's talk about five.
Speaker 2: Five is in the works.
Speaker 1: It's twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Mel Gibson is sixty four years old.
Speaker 1: What's Danny Glover? If he was fifty and eighty seven,
that means he's eighty three.
Speaker 2: Dick Donner is ninety and he's doing it.
Speaker 1: Good for him, for ear least web in five.
Speaker 2: Sure, I don't know what they're gonna do with it,
but sure, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Heck yeah, yeah, yes, more old. He was too old
for it in eighty seven, and he's not.
Speaker 2: Too old for anyone.
Speaker 1: It's great. Yeah, okay, die Hard sequels. Okay, die Hard
Part one one of the greatest action movies of all time.
Speaker 2: Ar you believe, the perfect action movie.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna argue against that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Part two good, good, very good.
Speaker 2: Again. You trade in your German mercenaries for your American mercenaries.
You've got a couple of bad guys to be concerned about.
You've got the confined space again. It is right, Yes,
I mean it is. It is another die Hard. It
for sure is.
Speaker 1: Yes, a step down, but who wouldn't step down from
a ten?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's it's still a very good movie. Yes, okay.
Part three, Diehard with the Vengeance. It's good, it's good,
It's okay, it's okay. He's running around New York City
trying to figure out clues. Simon says, this, do that
and this that was written as a lethal weapon sequel.
What Diehard with a Vengeance was originally written as a
Lethal Weapon sequel. Oh my gosh, wow, So there you go.
Speaker 2: So Shane Black tells a story about going to he
did the rewrites for Last Action.
Speaker 1: He wrote, okay, right, the last movie that I walk
out of, right, Yes.
Speaker 2: And what I understand is John McTurnan rewrote the rewrites,
which is why you have such a terrible movie. And
so it comes out and obviously everybody felt about the
same way that you did. Yeah, it was not a
well received movie at all. And so they have their
after party where everybody can't talk about the movie. Well,
food sure is good. So and so she Black tells
the story of how he like after that is over.
He and Arnold and John mcdernan are sitting there having
a beer together. I just can't even imagine that, but
talking about it, and basically they changed the subject to
Diehard with a Vengeance and John mcdernon starts smiling again
because he was totally defeated after Last Action. Hero did
so badly, but he was he came back to direct
Diehard with a Vengeance.
Speaker 1: What about Diehard four and five?
Speaker 2: I didn't even watch their crap. Yeah they're crap. Yeah, Well,
here's what happens. He turns into the invincible hero. Right. Yeah,
he went from a flawed hero which we love and
can identify with, to Superman who it's it's not interesting.
Speaker 1: The action was absurd, So sequels I definitely. Oh and
Lethal Weapon has a TV show that was well received
until the guy who played Martin Riggs got fired. Yeah,
that's that's a story for another day, right, But the
sequels for Lethal Weapon are definitely stronger than the sequels
for Diehard.
Speaker 2: I think maybe my favorite sequel to die Hard right
now is the Diehard Battery commercial. That is where he
crashes through the window and says, I'm going to need
one of those and then.
Speaker 1: Hops into the Great Man. It's great.
Speaker 2: Yes, Okay, little note on John mctarne. Did you know
that he was arrested and then went to prison. What
So we're talking about one of the biggest directors of
the eighties and nineties. He is potentially a guy who
can call his own shot, right, Yeah, for sure. So
there's even after the last Action, even after the last
Action Hero, he still got tired with a vengeance. He's
still got a ton of movies to his credit. And
then he hires this guy.
Speaker 1: Named Anthony Pelicano.
Speaker 2: He was a private investigator, also a fixer, also a
really slimy guy, and was used by a lot of
Hollywood folks and basically got a lot of dirt on
a whole lot of Hollywood folks as well. So he
used him to spy on his wife whenever they were
getting a divorce, and then he also called him back
up again whenever he was directing the movie Rollerball, because
he was worried that this producer on Rollerball was trying
to sabotage him, and so he wanted to have this
guy check and make sure he wasn't sabotaging him. Well,
this guy's tactics were not legal in the strictest sense
of the word, and he got in some big trouble
with the FEDS, and so an FBI agent calls John
mcturnaon and says, hey, have you ever used this Anthony
Pelicana as a private investigator? John mcturn and says, yeah,
I used him whenever I was going through my divorce.
So I had him, you know, do some investigation of
my wife. And they have the investigators like anything else,
and John return says, no.
Speaker 1: That's a lie.
Speaker 2: That would be lying. That would be lying to a
federal officer, which is a felony offense. And so ultimately,
I don't want to go into the big story of it,
but you know, he agreed to do four months and
then he withdrew it and then ended up doing twelve
months in prison, filed for bankruptcy while he was in
prison and lost. I mean, it's gosh, huge, huge deal
for this guy who's like at the top of the wave.
I mean, it's just crazy that somebody at that position
could lose it all. Its tragic.
Speaker 1: It is the guy who directed Predator, the guy who
directed Diehard, Last Action Hero Hunt Forred October. This guy
went to jail and lost it all.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk composers.
Speaker 1: Okay, before you do that. I got one little titbit
that I wanted to throw in and that I forgot
to do it. The other day, when John is plucking
glass out of his feet, al Pal is like, how
you doing, and he makes the comment he says, all
things being equal, I'd rather be in Philadelphia. Yes, okay, this,
I've heard this quote my entire life. I knew was
referencing something, but I didn't know until I started looking
I know it.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is one of those things. This is the
trivia card I would get. I know this. This is
the last words in W. C. Fields. Yeah, yes, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: So W. C. Fields was born and raised in Philadelphia
and would often poke fun at his hometown. And basically
the reference was the grave was just slightly worse than
being in Philadelphia. But the interesting thing. So this is
a famous W. C. Fields quote President Reagan. After he
was shot, he wrote on a note, They said how
do you feel? And he said, all in all, I'd
rather be in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: Fantastic. Okay, So let's talk composers. Okay, except that we're
not going to talk composers. We're going to talk composer
because it's the same guy for both movies. So Michael
Kaman is a guy who has a huge library of
film work. I mean, it's amazing. And he's not one
of those ones that pops up like Con Zimmer or
John Williams or any of those guys that I did
not know his name before we started looking into this,
but it's huge. He's I mean, his music work is huge,
and he was a guy who was classically trained but
also just had a love for all kinds of music,
and he did stuff with so many rock and rolls artists.
I don't think I could possibly list them all. Wanted
to be a composer's whole life. But he started off
arranging music with Pink Floyd for the movie The Wall.
But he worked with Roger Waters, David Gilmore, Queen. He
did the orchestration for Who Wants to Live Forever from Highland,
was the composer for Highlander, worked with Eric Clapton Aerosmith.
He did the live orchestral part for Dreamson. He worked
with Bond Jovi. He worked with the Arrhythmics, Metallica on
the Nothing Else Matters and their whole that Whole live
album that they did the ES and M he was
the s part. He was the symphony for their Metallica's
That's Fantastic. Why have we not heard of this guy?
I don't know. I don't know. He passed away like
in November eighteenth, two thousand and three, of a heart attack.
But he got called on to work on leth the Weapon,
and he said, no, I'm not interested in action movies.
I don't like action movies. I don't want to do them,
and I think it might have been Eric Clapton that
persuaded him to become involved with the movie, because you've
got two themes going on with leith a Weapon. You've
got the sex theme, Sexy Sax, and you've got the
guitar theme. So the Sacks theme is Roger Marta, the
guitar theme is Martin Riggs. And then he goes on
to do action movie after action movie after action movie.
So after Lethal Weapon, he did Adventures and Babysitting.
Speaker 1: Nobody gets out of Here without playing the Blues.
Speaker 2: He did Renegades, he did License to Kill, he did Roadhouse,
he did Lethal Weapon two, he did Die Hard too.
He did Nothing but Trouble. He did Hudson Hawk, he
did Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. He did The Last
Boy Scout, he did Tales from the Crypt, he did
Lethal Weapon three, he did Last Action Hero, he did
The Three Musketeers, he did Don Juan de Marco. I
mean it just goes on and on and on. I
mean it's and then he in ninety five he did
Mister Hollands Opus and oh yeah, you're a fan, right, yeah, yeah.
So after that he started his own foundation called Mister
Holland's Foundation that would provide used musical equipment for underprivileged sklls. Yeah,
it's great.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Eric Clapton. Eric Clapton actually does play the
guitar for the leath of Weapon rigs theme.
Speaker 2: Obviously he's got the leth of Weapon theme. And then
of course he did the music for Diehard as well,
and it is I mean, we know it's Beethoven, right,
we know.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely joy, yes, but I.
Speaker 2: Mean in order to do that, you have to be
able to take that and not only cut it down,
but slip it in and make it relevant to what's
going on in the film. And he did it so well.
I mean that music is perfect throughout. He uses it
throughout the movie along with the little jingle bells to
make sure that we remember that this is a Christmas movie.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yes, you know you talked about it at the
beginning at the Christmas party. Yeah, there is a four
piece orchestra at the Christmas party playing Ode to Joy.
That's diegetic music, diagetic music again, and he does slip
it in. He teases you with it. And then when
they open the vault and Hans and theo are raiding
the place, you get oh to joy a full tilt right,
it's peak.
Speaker 2: Yes, at that peak moment, and then what does he say?
Merry Christmas?
Speaker 1: It's time. Okay, we've been waiting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got to talk about it now.
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. We've been teasing this. I have
my own battles with my sister. She and I go
back and forth on this. I have a friend, Dana Smith.
She likes to poke the bear when she teases me
about this. Are these Christmas movies?
Speaker 2: D Let's go they are definitely Christmas movies. That's not
just an opinion. We can we can establish this through
empirical and now of the evidence in front of us.
So okay, despite the fact that Bruce Willis caused a
stir about three years ago whenever he during his roast,
he made this point of I only did this to
say that this that die Hard is not a Christmas movie. Okay,
I'll due respect, Bruce. You didn't write the movie, that's right.
You know who wrote the movie, Stephen, Stephen Jesus. You
know what Stephen and Susan says.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest Christmas movie of all time.
Speaker 2: Yes, and he even created a chart. He created a
chart to prove his point, and.
Speaker 1: We'll go through that.
Speaker 2: And he just obviously he just has die Hard that
he's taken off these points on. But let's look at
both Leath the Weapon and die Hard and the movie
White Christmas. Who know one no one would argue that
White Christmas is not a Christmas movie. But let's look
at them all side by side. And you tell us,
after this empirical analysis of the evidence in front of us,
what you think. All right, let's go all right side
by side. Here we go. Okay, takes place during Christmas holiday.
Die Hard, yes, takes place entirely during Christmas Eve, right, absolutely, Okay,
Lethal Weapon takes place week at the most, but clearly
first scene is him buying Christmas trees when he makes
his drug bust. Last scene is You're not gonna make
me eat the worst Christmas dinner by myself. And so
obviously the whole movie takes place during the Christmas holiday. Yep,
White Christmas final reel, only the rest of the movie
does not take place during the Christmas holiday a all
right setting, Okay, die Hard obviously yes, Christmas part right, yep.
But we know from the movie in Lethal Weapon that
they are preparing for some sort of party because they
have the quartet of officers practicing singing Silent Nights, So
there has to be some sort of event, which is
why they're prepping for this, which, as you mentioned, was
really the birth of is it do we go on
three or do we go one two three? Then go?
That's right, that was the birth of that. But still
they're singing in preparation. They're practicing in preparation for something.
So again, you have a Christmas party, White Christmas again,
only the final real.
Speaker 1: Okay, hold on one second before we move off from
Silent Night.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you know the name of the composer of Silent Night?
The original Austrian composer's name is Franz Gruber. No, yes,
what Franz Gruber?
Speaker 2: Wow? Oh my gosh. That's the point, die Hard, that's
really amazing. All right. So number of Christmas songs so
far White Christmas is losing two out of two battles,
right right, Okay, so number of Christmas songs in Lethal Weapon.
We have the beginning song jingle Bo Rock, jing Bell Rock.
Speaker 1: We have the.
Speaker 2: Quartet of officers singing Silent Night, yes, and we also
have what.
Speaker 1: Else you've got the Bugs Bunny Holiday special playing in
the background.
Speaker 2: That counts.
Speaker 1: When Riggs is looking down the barrel of his own.
Speaker 2: Gun, that counts.
Speaker 1: That counts.
Speaker 2: So die Hard has three. It has let it snow,
it has Winter Wonderland, and it has Christmas in Hollis
by run dp MC and so three three, and what
does White Christmas have? It has White Christmas and snow.
And that's it again, three for three. White Christmas is
losing to both die Hard and leave the Weapon as
a Christmas movie. Now at this point, Steven DeSUS it
gets a little bit weird. It gets like he's talking
about the party venue being threatened and die Hard is
by terrorists and White Christmas is by foreclosure. I think
that just makes the point that Diehard's more exciting, not
necessarily that it's a better movie.
Speaker 1: And then he mentions that, you know, the German ring leader.
Speaker 2: Is Hans Gruber and die Hard and a White Christmas
is Hitler, And so the point goes to White Christmas
on that one, again for weighty value, but not necessarily
for Christmas. But if we're looking at Christmas stuff, really,
then what we have to look at this is the
key christ like sacrifice Leath a Weapon. Mel Gibson is
hanging by his hands after being tortured and refuses to
talk in a sacrifice to save his partner and his daughter.
Obviously at christ Like sacrifice for sure. John McLane, running
barefoot across the glass, has his feet pierced in order
to save his wife and the rest of the people.
Again obvious christ Like sacrifice. What's the sacrifice in White Christmas?
Danny Kay has to upgrade Vera Ellen's train ticket. I'm
going to say without question that both Leath a Weapon
and die Hard beat White Christmas without any hesitation as
Christmas movies.
Speaker 1: This is not a fight, This is an execution. I've
got a few other things to throw on the pile,
all right. So die Hard is essentially about a husband
and a wife desperate to get their family back together
for Christmas. Yes, okay, Leath a Weapon, It's all about
a family taking in someone without a family. It's an adoption, yep. Okay.
There are gifts given in Leath a Weapon. In Diehart, Okay,
the gifts given in Diehart, the Rolex McLain gives his
gun two hans Yeah, okay. He then takes it immediately back. Yeah,
and no bullet. Oh, no bullets. What do you think
I'm having stupids? Okay, the bad guys give themselves the
biggest Christmas present of the movie, and then McLain gives
himself his own gun at the perfect time, wrapped with
season greetings gift tape.
Speaker 2: If that doesn't tell you Christmas, when when the camera
pans back and you see a gun taped to his
back with the tape saying seasons greetings on the tape
and the music is going Jeans, it's fantastic. Yeah, tell
me again, it's not a Christmas movie.
Speaker 1: Bruce Leath a weapon. At the end of Leath the weapon,
Rigs gives Roger a gift wrapped hollow tip bullet, actually
gives its Rhiann. She's like, it's a bullet. He's like, yeah,
it's bullet. What he's saying is I'm not suicidal anymore,
thanks to you.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: That's Christmas spirit?
Speaker 2: Is it not Christmas? All over the place?
Speaker 1: And then you have tons of Christmas reverences like twas
the Night before Christmas?
Speaker 2: You know THEO.
Speaker 1: Hans even says it's Christmas time, THEO. It's the time
for miracles.
Speaker 2: Yes, and then of.
Speaker 1: Course you have Now I have a machine gun. Ho
ho ho, with the Santa hat on, with the Santa
had on. Absolutely, and then leath the weapon. You've got
Christmas lights, You've got the Christmas tree, You've got the
Christmas fight in the front yard. Oh wait, is that
just my family?
Speaker 2: No, everybody has a Chris. Everybody has a front yard
Christmas fight.
Speaker 1: Everybody leave the weapon has Christmas tree? Is Caroline presence?
Snow those girls were messing around with snow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and die Hard it's snowing the barapons.
Speaker 1: Absolutely music, as you said, John McLean's wife's name, this
is the key. It's Holly.
Speaker 2: It is so brilliant you you totally call that, and
I can't believe I overlooked it. But knowing that, you
have to say, this is not only a Christmas movie,
it is deliberately a Christmas movie.
Speaker 1: Main themes of both movies family, love, joy, peace. Okay,
are we ready to move to final judgment?
Speaker 2: Let's do it?
Speaker 1: Okay? Okay, am I going first?
Speaker 2: You're going first? All right?
Speaker 1: Final judgment. I love both of these movies, and I
can't stress that. I know I say that every time.
Both of these movies are automatic watches. If I'm passing
by the channel and I see Leath the Weapon, I'm stopping.
If I see die I'm stopping. If I see die Hard,
I'm stopping. I'm throwing my remote behind me. It's I'm
not changing the channel. Okay, it doesn't matter to me.
Lethal Weapon is the best buddy cop and maybe the
best movie of nineteen eighty seven, a movie packed full
of Eighties gems. It's my favorite movie of nineteen eighty seven.
Die Hard is in the conversation for best movie ever
for me. Okay, so I do love wholeheartedly both of
these movies. I love the Lethal Weapon franchise more, but
I love die Hard as a standalone movie the most.
For me, it's die Hard.
Speaker 2: I feel like he kind of stole my thunder there.
Speaker 1: About time.
Speaker 2: I just always wanted to say that. I mean, it's
the end of the season here, we're done. I just
wanted to be able to say it. Okay, Yeah, So
two absolutely brilliant movies, without question. If they're on, I'm
watching no hesitation. So the question is which one's better
of these two amazing movies. Diehard is arguably the perfect
action movie. It has little bits of action intermixed with
comedy and story and struggles, and it is brilliant from
beginning to end. Lethal Weapon is fantastic, but it has
some flaws. The fight scene that you just mentioned, the
holiday fight in the yard, that is ridiculous. That is
just plain ridiculous. The suspense music as we're waiting and
waiting and waiting for the cars to drive up in
the desert is just UnrealEd. I'm like, guys, I know
you spend a lot of money on this shot, but
you could have had this done about a minute and
a half ago. Let's move on. And then the worst
scene in the movie is at the very beginning where
Roger Murtaz in the bathtub and his family comes in,
and he doesn't hide the turtle head floating up out
of the water. He just lets him sing Happy Birthday
and gets a kiss from his daughter, and then sexy
music starts playing. I don't know, That's just there are
some things that just can't be excused in this movie,
and so for that reason, I have to say Diehard
wins as the better of these two movies. Now, you
make an important point, franchise to franchise, Lethal Weapon wins
hands down. Close. Leth the Weapon franchise is great. I
can't wait to see what they do with five Richard
Donners ninety and he's gonna do something amazing, I'm sure
of it. Die Haard was pretty good after the second
one was about the last good one. Really, I mean
some people like the third one. I don't really care
for it. And then he becomes this hero that you
can't be, which was I mean, the whole reason we
loved it was how human he was. And so I
am disappointed with where die Hard wind So there, I
am franchise the franchise. Lethal Weapon wins, but we're not
comparing franchises. We're comparing the movies and movie to movie.
Without question, die Hard wins.
Speaker 1: The day, all the leather outside. What the fie best
Christmas movie of all time?
Speaker 2: That might be pushing in a little bit.
Speaker 1: Let us hear from you, guys, what is your favorite
of these two die Hard versus Leath the Weapon. Tell
us what your favorite.
Speaker 2: Christmas movie is of all time? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Maybe you're a Christmas vacation guy, or maybe you're an
Elf guy yeah or girl?
Speaker 2: Yeah, guys were at the end of season one, we've
covered so many movies so many albums, so much stuff.
Write in and tell us what's your favorite. Right in
and tell us what you want to see. We love
hearing these things. We've got guys who have supported us
on Patreon. We have got guys who communicate constantly with
us via email, via Facebook, via Twitter, and we love it.
Keep doing it. Come in, join the conversation. This is
what we do. It war is to make connections with
folks like you, Jason, Merry.
Speaker 1: Christmas, the Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2: We will see you all next year. No, let us know, let.
Speaker 1: Us know, and we finally kiss good night. Oh I
hate going out