Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty, Nature.
Speaker 2: Key, Mark Talks, Pontificates, bout pop Culture, ron and Report
Speaker 2: with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 3: K if I AM six forty and YouTube. It's now
Speaker 3: time for the Ronner Report with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 4: Okay, I hadn't seen much of Romy Mallick lately, and
Speaker 4: I wanted to think he had the decency to go
Speaker 4: into hiding for a while after being the worst James
Speaker 4: Bond villain in the worst James Bond movie of all time,
Speaker 4: No Time to Die in twenty twenty one. I know
Speaker 4: he's been in other stuff, but in my fantasy world,
Speaker 4: people feel shame and act accordingly. Now he's shown his
Speaker 4: face again in a remake of a very good thriller
Speaker 4: from nineteen eighty one called The Amateur. And here's some
Speaker 4: of the trailer.
Speaker 3: I want to find and kill the people who murdered
Speaker 3: my wife.
Speaker 4: This is a joke, right, Take it.
Speaker 1: Take it, point it at my chest, do it now.
Speaker 3: You can't do what I do, no matter how much
Speaker 3: I train you.
Speaker 1: You're just not a killer, durn.
Speaker 4: You were just a nerdy fell It works on computers.
Speaker 4: Did you account the thing I'm good at.
Speaker 3: You held a gun to my wife's head to remote
Speaker 3: controls the device decompressing the glass beneath you.
Speaker 4: You have the wrong person.
Speaker 3: No, I'm exactly the right person.
Speaker 1: This ends here.
Speaker 4: Are you done?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Don't want them all.
Speaker 4: You recognize her.
Speaker 3: You jumped really fast, you might survive the glass right.
Speaker 4: If you've never seen the original version of The Amateur,
Speaker 4: it was streaming on Hulu last I checked. If you
Speaker 4: have seen it, it's probably one of your all time
Speaker 4: favorite John Savage movies. Hello, yeah, if you're really nice
Speaker 4: nothing no, no no. If you're young, like born after
Speaker 4: a certain time, you should know that. Back in the
Speaker 4: eighties we all look forward to the latest John Savage movie.
Speaker 4: It was a real event. People had his poster on
Speaker 4: their dorm room walls. When people did coke. The catchphrase was,
Speaker 4: that was a Savage rail dude. Nah, that's all lies,
Speaker 4: all of it. The Amateur was one of his few
Speaker 4: starring vehicles after everybody from The Deer Hunter got big
Speaker 4: in the late seventies. You may also remember him from
Speaker 4: Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. About a decade later.
Speaker 4: The Amateur still had one foot in that more adult
Speaker 4: smart thriller of the new Hollywood of the seventies. It
Speaker 4: and this new remake are based on a novel by
Speaker 4: Robert Little called The Amateur Colon, a novel of revenge.
Speaker 4: We didn't really need the rest of that, and it's
Speaker 4: a pretty cool twist on the revenge flick. Or I
Speaker 4: guess I should say subgenre if I really want to
Speaker 4: be insufferable. We'll talk about mees on sen at a
Speaker 4: later date. Savage played a CIA computer expert whose wife
Speaker 4: goes on and overseas trip in the original and gets
Speaker 4: killed on live TV and a terrorist caper. His bosses
Speaker 4: at the CIA won't do much about it, so he
Speaker 4: more or less blackmails him into training him. He's a
Speaker 4: whoosy and a nerd with no James Bond like skills whatsoever,
Speaker 4: and he wants to go find and kill the terrorists himself.
Speaker 4: The CIA bosses don't want to do this and would
Speaker 4: like to screw him over, but he's a clever wos nerd.
Speaker 4: He doesn't Jason Statham his way through his wife's killers
Speaker 4: because people don't do that. He uses his wits to
Speaker 4: wipe him out, also in ways that nobody really does,
Speaker 4: but in ways that are more plausible for a normal
Speaker 4: person who isn't an unbeatable superhero, martial artist, bodybuilder, killing machine.
Speaker 4: If you've ever seen Three Days of the Condor with
Speaker 4: Robert Redford as the analyst who gets swept into something
Speaker 4: that's pretty much completely out of his lane, the amateur
Speaker 4: could be sort of an inbred cousin, and they taught
Speaker 4: each other how to tongue kiss. So I was game
Speaker 4: for this remake. It's been more than forty years, and
Speaker 4: now now there's plenty more for a tech nerd character
Speaker 4: like this to deal with when striking out for homicidal revenge.
Speaker 4: You get smartphones, you got surveillance cameras everywhere. Tawala coming
Speaker 4: in and wanting you to look at his pictures of
Speaker 4: huge roaches from the men's room on his phone, that
Speaker 4: sort of thing. Rachel Brosnahan from Missus Mazel plays the
Speaker 4: wife Julianne Nicholson who we've just been watching in Paradise
Speaker 4: as the CIA director. She's your new go to mean
Speaker 4: authority figure lady of a certain age. Laurence Fishburns the
Speaker 4: experienced agent who figures out pretty quick he can't turn
Speaker 4: the nerd into a human weapon and John Burnhal who
Speaker 4: must contractually be in everything that John Carlo Esposito isn't in,
Speaker 4: plays another Agent. I like revenge movies like this, and
Speaker 4: it made me think of another damn good one I
Speaker 4: only recently caught up with, called Blue Ruin, directed by
Speaker 4: the same guy who did Rebel Ridge that we all loved,
Speaker 4: Jeremy Solnier. It's a pretty nerve wracking journey, this Blue
Speaker 4: Ruin movie. It's about an exceedingly average, non tough guy
Speaker 4: absolutely determined to get revenge for something, no matter what
Speaker 4: it costs him, and it costs him a lot. You
Speaker 4: got to see Blue Ruin. That's from twenty three teen.
Speaker 4: You can find that screen streaming too. There's your subgenre.
Speaker 4: The amateur is watchable, not an instant classic solid, won't
Speaker 4: be your favorite. When I think of remakes like The
Speaker 4: Manchurian Candidate that was just instant mobile, instantly forgettable, useless,
Speaker 4: and yes, horrible, this isn't in that category at all.
Speaker 4: It's an entertaining update and it's a good vehicle for
Speaker 4: romy Malik, who, whatever his other strengths are, he's not
Speaker 4: a big alpha male action type. He's a little five
Speaker 4: foot seven guy, which incidentally, is the same height as
Speaker 4: John Savage from the original, and that concludes my height
Speaker 4: based critique of this week's movies. Hugh Jackman was attached
Speaker 4: to this movie initially, I would have been a whole
Speaker 4: different ballgame.
Speaker 3: That would have been less believable because you've seen Hugh
Speaker 3: Jackman as an action star.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he could do it. He's got the acting shops
Speaker 4: to pull it off, but it wouldn't have been the
Speaker 4: same movie. Now that we're really talking about this, look,
Speaker 4: it's going to be streaming soon and you'll be telling
Speaker 4: your kids someday lies about when you used to rush
Speaker 4: out to the theaters did see the new Rami Malick movie.
Speaker 4: If we have just a moment, I want to touch
Speaker 4: on one other hot tip for people who prefer not
Speaker 4: to go outdoors ever. To be is streaming both seasons
Speaker 4: of the Human Target series from twenty ten with Mark Valley.
Speaker 4: These are such fun, well made old school action adventure,
Speaker 4: uncomplicated shows with some seriously fun fight set pieces stunts.
Speaker 4: Valley is a cool action hero and he's clearly up
Speaker 4: for the physical aspect. Here's a little trip down memory lane.
Speaker 4: It's short.
Speaker 3: I'm want a cop, You're got a bodyguard.
Speaker 2: We'll be here to identify your problems, solve it gets
Speaker 2: you out cleanly with no loose sends.
Speaker 1: But I can't do that unless you let me.
Speaker 3: Perfect.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Christopher Chance you're not one of them?
Speaker 3: Would we still be talking if I were.
Speaker 4: All got to do is get in there, identify the threat,
Speaker 4: eliminated without causing international scene.
Speaker 3: Would be the first time with Cosway. Hey, did who
Speaker 3: are you seem you can find guarrel? Let's bring him
Speaker 3: in on this.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, wait a minute, now, you're not serious. You
Speaker 1: think you're gonna fight back.
Speaker 3: I'll take the beating and then one night soon I'm
Speaker 3: going to break in your houses and kill each of
Speaker 3: you in your sleeve.
Speaker 4: Probably start with you off RIGHTO?
Speaker 1: Do you really think you can trust that animal?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 2: The ones we're paying one time?
Speaker 1: Your best? Where's my best?
Speaker 4: And that's a pretty good line, I'm your best? And
Speaker 4: followed by a fight. Of course. That was Jackie Earl
Speaker 4: Haley as one of the team members with a fairly
Speaker 4: impressive huge wig and shades, calling everyone dude. Sean McBride's
Speaker 4: the other partner, sort of a chronically unpleasant skuld who
Speaker 4: always comes through in a pinch, then always complains about everything.
Speaker 4: The Human Target's a DC Comics character who goes under
Speaker 4: cover in all sorts of situations to protect people. There's
Speaker 4: some good comic collections you can get from the library
Speaker 4: or comic shops. I like the one from twenty twenty one.
Speaker 4: Rick Springfield played the Human Target years before this.
Speaker 2: Jesse's go.
Speaker 4: It's worth seeing now. Another version popped up on the
Speaker 4: Arrow series. I haven't seen, but you don't have to
Speaker 4: be neck deep in comic nerdism to dig this show.
Speaker 4: Very fun, escapist stuff. Not that you need any reason
Speaker 4: for escapism lately, because maybe you haven't looked at your
Speaker 4: retirement money or were you thinking about buying a new truck?
Speaker 1: Nope?
Speaker 4: Do you have friends in Canada who won't talk to
Speaker 4: you anymore? Do you want me to go on? Because
Speaker 4: I could go on? How about your social security? It
Speaker 4: seems like.
Speaker 3: You've convinced me to at least go see The Amateur.
Speaker 3: I think I'm gonna go see that in theaters. I
Speaker 3: want to see that. I've been looking forward to it.
Speaker 4: Like I said, it's not an immediate classic, but it's
Speaker 4: fun and it's worth a watch, and you must see
Speaker 4: the human target. I'm plowing through this. I never saw
Speaker 4: the episodes when it was first on TV, and I'm unwinding,
Speaker 4: right rewinding. I'm rewinding with that at the end of
Speaker 4: the night.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty