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?
Speaker 1: Well? I guess we can talk about both today, So
I guess if you're ready, let's do this.
Speaker 2: Okay, ready? One? Two? Is it one? Two? Three? And
then go? Or do we go on three? Welcome back, everybody.
We are so excited.
Speaker 1: 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. Which will that be a surprise.
Speaker 1: That's right coming Christmas Eve? Or maybe twenty third We're
not sure yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: 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 three.
Speaker 2: Ingle Heart pick all of the tales in Western Civilization
that have a love story and component have a guy
saving a princess, right, yeah, absolutely part of it, so absolutely.
And then we've got Death of Number two and lethal
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 the
entire LA Police Department along with the helicopter say yeah,
heck yeah.
Speaker 1: 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. Yes, And then we
have and die Hard, the twist ending the surprise return
and resurrection of what we thought was the dead villain. Yes, Carl,
And who is it that saves the day? Not Roy, No,
absolutely not.
Speaker 1: 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. Yep.
Speaker 1: Listen, when I saw die Hard in the theater. Yeah,
and I'm not exaggerating, people stood and cheered, Yeah, stood
and cheered.
Speaker 2: Yeah in a movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when Al Powell pulled.
Speaker 2: His guy yep, because it's freaking awesome. Right.
Speaker 1: Oh, the guy.
Speaker 2: 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 without a doubt. I love it. Yeah,
I mean too. 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 like.
Speaker 1: 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 Year's right, while it's snowing, bear.
Speaker 2: Bonds right because it doesn't snow in La.
Speaker 1: No fantast it's fantastic now.
Speaker 2: 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 two script that
he wrote.
Speaker 1: Riggs gets shot nineteen times at the end of leath
Weapon two and lives and worries about, you know, throw
those 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
dinner 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: Yeah. 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 of
my mouth. Come all right, So here's a few things
for you.
Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you know that Leonard Nimoy was originally supposed to
direct weapon?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so Leonard Nimoy ended up doing three minutes
a baby instead of leth a weapon.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, kind of interesting.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Bill 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.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, here you go.
Speaker 1: This is gonna blow you No, no, no, I got
something that's gonna blow you a d Okay, this will
blow your doors off.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: The burretta that Mel Gibson uses in this film is
the same prop gun used in Die Hard that Bruce
Willis tapes to his back.
Speaker 2: What same gun?
Speaker 1: No, same gun? Okay, according to my extensive internet research,
same gun.
Speaker 2: According to an obscure webs law.
Speaker 1: 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?
Speaker 2: Right this running gag?
Speaker 1: 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 singing in Silent Night so bad
they can't they can't figure out when they're going to start.
Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, that's right. 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, Hans Booby, I'm your
White Knight 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.
Speaker 3: What are you saying?
Speaker 1: 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? Yes, they make this big to do about
elle us have. I mean they they crack open a coke,
can pour it, fill it up, he's drinking it.
Speaker 3: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, here's what I'm thinking. Yeah, I think Ellis
asked somebody there if they had any coke.
Speaker 2: Probably right, that's probably.
Speaker 1: 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 Susan 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 yep kya in the line that is fantastic. Yes,
let's talk about that line for a second.
Speaker 1: Okay, go ahead, Okay, we are a PG thirteen podcast.
We're not going to say the big MF firs, so
don't turn us off. But that line, Yeah, Bruce Willis
drops it like a freaking atomic bomb.
Speaker 2: Okay, so like whispered subtle brilliance.
Speaker 1: 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
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 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.
Speaker 1: Willis improv Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: 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 him.
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.
Speaker 2: Oh, but they.
Speaker 1: Cut in that quick.
Speaker 2: Oh where he barely misses, like he hits it. But
then you can tell.
Speaker 1: That guy false. 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 it. 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.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so that he can run across the glass.
Speaker 1: 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 to 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. Okay,
Like that's an amazing thing. 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 you know, 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 Diard.
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 script.
Speaker 1: Skillful both circumstances.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: A couple of little tidbits on Lethal Weapon. Danny Glever
and Gary Busey appear again together in Predator two. Ye 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 and 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 in apartheid
in part two, the bad guys are South African. Also
Riggs's wife Vicky Riggs.
Speaker 2: Yes, Victoria Riggs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she was killed by the South African bad guys
that you find out that far too, Yes, So yeah, okay,
do we want to talk about sequels real quick?
Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead, let's talk about Seaquls. 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. Lethal
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. 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.
Speaker 2: Has a lot more humor.
Speaker 1: 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, you know. Yeah, I mean you've got got
the death of the hot South African girl. Yeah. I
can't remember her name. But anyway, which I.
Speaker 1: Don't know if you know this or not, you can
google deleted scenes for Leath Weapon.
Speaker 2: Two show her mispronouncing her name.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is her name, like five yes.
Speaker 2: 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, Leith the Weapon two, love it. Yeah, Leith Weapon three.
Speaker 2: Fun with the one on gently No, that's four okay,
that's the one where we get Renee 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. Yeah.
Speaker 1: 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
in 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 Getz part was originally written for John Lovetts.
I think 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 Eshy is edged indoor, I.
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. It's twenty twenty. 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.
Speaker 2: For ear least web in five. 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 too old
for anym It's great. Yeah, okay die Hard sequels.
Speaker 2: Okay, die Hard Part.
Speaker 1: 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. Part two good, good, very good. Again. You trade
in your German mercenaries for your American mercenaries. You 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? I mean it's it's still a very good movie. Yes, okay.
Speaker 2: Part three, Diehard with the Vengeance.
Speaker 1: It's good, and 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 Weapons sequel. Oh my gosh, wow,
So there you go. So Shane Black tells a story
about going to he did the rewrites for Last Action.
He wrote, okay, right, 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, like, 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 mcnernon 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.
Speaker 1: Yeah they're crap.
Speaker 2: 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 a sirt so sequels I definitely. Oh
and Lethal Weapon has a TV show that was well
received until the guy played Martin.
Speaker 2: Riggs got fired. Yeah, that's that's the story for another day.
Speaker 1: 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 commercial. That is where he crashes
through the window and says, I'm gonna need one of
those and then hops into the Great Man. It's great. Yes, Okay,
little note on John mctarne. Did you know that he
was arrested and then went to prison. 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.
Speaker 1: So there's even after the last Action, even after.
Speaker 2: 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 named Anthony Pelicano. 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 aho
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 mturn says, no, that's
a lie. 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 everything. 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 Huntred October. This guy went
to jail and lost it all.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk composers. Okay, before you do that.
Speaker 1: 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 it was referencing something, but I
didn't know until I started looking.
Speaker 2: I know it. Okay, this is one of those things.
This is the trivia card I would get. I know this.
This is the last words a W. C. Fields. Yeah, yes,
it's fantastic. So. W. C.
Speaker 1: 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 are you feel? And
he said, all in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: That 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.
Speaker 1: Know his name before we started looking into.
Speaker 2: 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 roll 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 Jovie. He worked with the Arrhythmics,
Metallica on the Nothing Else Matters and their whole that
whole live album that he did the ES and M
He was the s part. He was the symphony for
their Metallica's That's Fantastic.
Speaker 1: Why have we not heard of this guy?
Speaker 2: 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 a 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 leth a Weapon. You've
got the sex theme, Sexy Sax, and you've got the
guitar theme. So the sas 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.
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 2: I mean it just goes on and on and on.
I mean it's and then he in ninety five he
did Mister Holland's 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. Yeah,
it's great. You mentioned Eric Clapton.
Speaker 1: Eric Clapton actually does play the guitar for the Leath
of Weapon rigs theme.
Speaker 2: Obviously he's got the Leath 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.
Speaker 2: But I 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.
Speaker 2: Peak, 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 talk about it now. So here's the deal.
Speaker 1: 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, d let's go they.
Speaker 2: Are definitely Christmas movies. That's not just an opinion. We
can we can establish this through empirical and nowalysis 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 Dejesusan. You know what Stephen j.
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 we'll go through that,
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 it 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 reel.
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.
Speaker 1: That's the point, Diehard, that's really amazing.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: 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 Rock, jing Bell Rock. We have the
quartet of officers singing Silent Night. Yes, and we also.
Speaker 1: Have what 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 gun.
Speaker 2: That counts. That counts. So die Hard has three. It
has let it snow, It has Winter Wonderland, and it
has Christmas in Hollis by run d 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. And then he
mentions that, you know, the German ring leader 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, Yeah,
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.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And no bullets.
Speaker 1: Oh, no, bullets.
Speaker 2: What do you think I'm having stupid hunks.
Speaker 1: 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. Bruce Sleath a weapon.
Speaker 1: At the end of Leath the weapon, Rigs gives Roger
a gift wrapped hallow tip bullet, actually gives it's rheann.
She's like, it's a bullet. He's like, yeah, it's a bullet.
What he's saying is I'm not suicidal anymore, thanks to you. Right.
That's Christmas spirit? Is it? Not?
Speaker 2: Christmas? All over the place?
Speaker 1: And then you have tons of Christmas reverences like twas
the Night before Christmas, you know, THEO. Hans even says
it's Christmas time, THEO it's the.
Speaker 2: Time for miracles.
Speaker 1: Yes, And then of course you have. Now I have
a machine gun. Ho ho ho, with the Santa hat on,
with the Santa hat on.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and then leath the weapon.
Speaker 1: You've got Christmas lights, You've got the Christmas tree, You've
got the Christmas.
Speaker 2: Fight in the front yard. Oh wait, is that just
my family? No, everybody has a Chris everybody has a
front yard Christmas fight.
Speaker 1: Everybody leave the weapon, has Christmas trees, caroling, presence, snow.
Those girls were messing around with snow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and die Hard it's snowing the barons.
Speaker 1: Absolutely music. As you said, John McLean's wife's name.
Speaker 2: This is the key.
Speaker 1: 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? Okay?
Speaker 1: Okay, am I going first?
Speaker 2: You're going first?
Speaker 1: All right, 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 Hard, I'm stopping. If
I see die Hard, I'm stopping. I'm throwing my remote
behind me. It's not 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.
Speaker 1: There's about time.
Speaker 2: I just always wanted to say that. I mean, it's
the end of the season here or 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 unreal. 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. Leath 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 moving to movie
without question, die Hard wins today.
Speaker 1: All the weather outside but the fire, so 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 a 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.
Speaker 2: Yeah or girl? 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 for us to make connections
with folks like you.
Speaker 1: Jason, Merry Christmas, the Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2: We will see you all next year. Let us know,
let us know. We finally kiss good night. Oh I
hate going out