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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema Rewind. This is Rob Lamb,

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Speaker 1: and I have a fun one here for you today.

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Speaker 1: This one originally published 8-9-2024. This is our look, or

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Speaker 1: this is part one of our look, at Mortal Kombat

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Speaker 1: from 1995. This is a film that we, yes, had

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Speaker 1: two episodes worth of thoughts about. So this is an

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Speaker 1: ideal week for us to re-air this one because this

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Speaker 1: is a buffer week for us. We are not traveling.

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Speaker 1: We are not off from school and so forth. That

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Speaker 1: usually happens halfway through October. This year, we decided, hey,

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Speaker 1: let's go ahead and take that week off in September,

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Speaker 1: and then we can just plow ahead through October, put

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Speaker 1: out more October Halloween content. So this week is going

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Speaker 1: to be a week of, I think, some high-quality reruns,

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Speaker 1: and it looks like we'll probably have an omnibus episode

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Speaker 1: of The Monster Fact on Wednesday. So please enjoy Mortal

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Speaker 1: Kombat Part 1, and you can tune in Friday for

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Speaker 1: the second half.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema...

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Speaker 3: We are talking about the 1995 supernatural martial arts film

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Speaker 3: Mortal Kombat, adapted from the incredibly popular 90s video game franchise.

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Speaker 3: The movie directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, starring a very

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Speaker 3: interesting cast that we'll get into as we go. Most notably,

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Speaker 3: show favorite Christoph Lambert as some kind of god of thunder.

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Speaker 3: First thing I got to say about Mortal Kombat is

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Speaker 3: that this is nine-year-old Joe McCormick's idea of a really

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Speaker 3: good movie. I had the original Mortal Kombat game on

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Speaker 3: Super Nintendo before the movie came out. So, of course,

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Speaker 3: I was extremely pumped for it. I think I was

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Speaker 3: like the target demo of this movie. I was male,

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Speaker 3: 8 to 12 years old, obsessed with karate and ready

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Speaker 3: to accept anything. mid-90s CGI as a legitimate visual art form.

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Speaker 1: Super Nintendo, so you had the version of the home

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Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat that didn't have blood.

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Speaker 3: No, it's all sweat or sand coming off of people.

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Speaker 3: Like you'd punch somebody and something flies off of their head,

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Speaker 3: but it's like tan in color.

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Speaker 1: But you did have, as I recall, a superior, in

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Speaker 1: my opinion, Sub-Zero fatality. Because in the arcade version and

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Speaker 1: in the Sega Genesis version that I had, he did

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Speaker 1: like the spine rip, like Predator. That's pretty good. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's a great one, but it's not very ice themed.

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Speaker 1: And I really liked the theme of the ninja with

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Speaker 1: all this ice magic. And so the Super NES version

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Speaker 1: of the Fatality was freeze them solid and then shatter them,

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Speaker 1: which I thought was really, it's classier and it's more

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Speaker 1: befitting of an ice ninja.

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Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, I see what you're saying. This may be

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Speaker 3: a case where some, I don't know the real reasoning here,

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Speaker 3: but it may be a case where a censorship impulse

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Speaker 3: actually produced a better artistic choice overall.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3: So, yeah, anyway, so I was excited for this movie.

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Speaker 3: I saw it in the theater, I think probably with

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Speaker 3: my dad. I owned a copy of it on VHS,

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Speaker 3: and I don't know if you recall, Rob, but in

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Speaker 3: the 90s, VHS tapes were expensive. You, like, had to

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Speaker 3: really want a movie on tape to justify saving up

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Speaker 3: to get it. I was trying to do a little math,

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Speaker 3: and I think it's, you know, now you can go

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Speaker 3: get a Blu-ray for, like, 15 or 20 bucks, but

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Speaker 3: they were essentially like 20 or 25 bucks for a

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Speaker 3: VHS tape in the 90s, which is like $ 40 to

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Speaker 3: $ 50 today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but then you knew once you bought this film

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Speaker 1: on VHS, you were good to go. You would never

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Speaker 1: have to buy this movie again.

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Speaker 3: That's true.

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Speaker 1: I know VHS purists out there would agree with that

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Speaker 1: without the tiniest shred of irony, I'm sure. But as

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Speaker 1: it worked out, like, yeah, these movies you bought on VHS,

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Speaker 1: you ended up buying them again on DVD, then buying

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Speaker 1: them again on Blu-ray, and then... because you can't find

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Speaker 1: your Blu-ray, you buy it again as a digital purchase.

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Speaker 3: And then buy it again on VHS off eBay many

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Speaker 3: years later.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, come back around to the nostalgia.

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Speaker 3: So I watched this tape many, many times. I acted

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Speaker 3: out the scenes. I not only had the VHS, I

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Speaker 3: had the Mortal Kombat original motion picture soundtrack on CD,

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Speaker 3: which was something I did a number of times as

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Speaker 3: a kid. Rob, have we ever talked about whether you

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Speaker 3: did this too? When I liked a movie... I wanted

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Speaker 3: to own the soundtrack and not just to own it,

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Speaker 3: but actually like listen to the CD over and over.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I absolutely did this. I definitely had the

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Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat original motion picture soundtrack, had it up there

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Speaker 1: on the shelf, probably beside my soundtrack to the crow. Um,

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Speaker 1: let's see, goodness, what were another big ones? I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously Pulp Fiction was in the mix, uh, but I

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Speaker 1: would go for stuff like, uh, one of my earliest, uh,

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Speaker 1: cassette purchases actually. was a cassette that had all the

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Speaker 1: James Bond theme songs on there, but not official versions.

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Speaker 1: They were all like some sort of horrible cover, like

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Speaker 1: instrumental cover.

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Speaker 3: A kids-bop version of Goldfinger.

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Speaker 1: Almost. It wasn't aimed exclusively at children, but it was

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Speaker 1: something like some off-brand Bond compilation that I got at

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Speaker 1: Walmart on cassette. So yeah, I was very much in

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Speaker 1: this boat. If I loved the film, I wanted to

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Speaker 1: read it, in novel form, and I wanted to listen

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Speaker 1: to it in audio format.

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Speaker 3: Well, we had that in common. So, yeah, I got

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Speaker 3: into soundtracks, in fact, way before I actually appreciated the

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Speaker 3: album by an artist music format. And I did this

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Speaker 3: with other movies, too, that were less in the weird

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Speaker 3: house zone now. Like, I remember I really loved the

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Speaker 3: soundtrack CD to the original Brian De Palma Mission Impossible

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Speaker 3: movie from 96.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that soundtrack at all.

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Speaker 3: It had like the cranberries and stuff on it, but

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Speaker 3: I think actually my favorite tracks on it were just

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Speaker 3: the mission impossible theme itself. It's like the theme, you know,

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Speaker 3: the soundtrack to sneaking around the house. Oh yeah.

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Speaker 1: It's a great theme song.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, like many, elementary school kids in the 90s

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Speaker 3: I was a real Mortal Kombat head from the game

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Speaker 3: to the movie to the soundtrack it was a lifestyle

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Speaker 3: which is curious because after this I really did not

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Speaker 3: keep up with Mortal Kombat at all like I played

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Speaker 3: Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 on the arcade cabinets with

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Speaker 3: my friends which I think were both out before this

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Speaker 3: movie came out so I think right yeah but since

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Speaker 3: then there have been, I don't know how many, like

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Speaker 3: 37 games, new movies, TV series, a bunch of expanded

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Speaker 3: mythology and lore, and I'm not really familiar with any

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Speaker 3: of it. I've sort of seen it at a distance.

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Speaker 3: I know the new games have characters like Jason Voorhees

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Speaker 3: and Superman in them. I'm not quite sure what's going

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Speaker 3: on with that. And yeah, so I really did not

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Speaker 3: keep up with Mortal Kombat, despite how into it I

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Speaker 3: was for a brief period of time.

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Speaker 1: I think I've kept up with it pretty well. I

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Speaker 1: wasn't really playing video games when 4 came out. That

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Speaker 1: was the 3D one that I don't think has probably

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Speaker 1: hasn't aged all that well. Whereas 1 and 2 and 3,

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Speaker 1: those are still great today. You can still play those

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Speaker 1: and they're still a blast. And then I got into,

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Speaker 1: I think, all the major installments of the franchise since 4,

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Speaker 1: with the exception of the most recent one, because I

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Speaker 1: don't have the hardware to run it. Otherwise, I'd probably

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Speaker 1: have played it by now. But I think it's going

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Speaker 1: to be even harder to understand because they decided it's

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Speaker 1: time to factor in the multiverse for this one. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if I have the time and mental energy

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Speaker 1: these days to handle that level of Mortal Kombat.

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Speaker 3: But do they do like a reality gem, like in-game

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Speaker 3: explanation for why characters from other franchises are in the game?

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Speaker 1: In the games that I've played, generally the outside characters

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Speaker 1: are not involved in the story at all. So they're

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Speaker 1: kind of external to story mode.

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Speaker 3: Bonus content.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but then if you beat the game with those characters,

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Speaker 1: they'll generally find a clever way to explain to you

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Speaker 1: why Leatherface just won the Mortal Kombat tournament. You know,

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Speaker 1: things like that, which they do a pretty good job of,

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Speaker 1: so I'll give them credit. But I would say that

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Speaker 1: this is something I'll hammer home again later, is that

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Speaker 1: these early Mortal Kombat games, they did not have a

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Speaker 1: true story mode like a lot of video games today.

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Speaker 1: They had an intro that would play on the arcade cabinets,

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Speaker 1: There'd be a very short epilogue for your character that

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Speaker 1: you beat arcade mode with. And that was it. The

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Speaker 1: rest was just you filling in the blanks based on

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Speaker 1: the cool sounds and sights and moves and the individual

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Speaker 1: aspects of these different characters. It wasn't all spelled out

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Speaker 1: to you. And I think that's one of the appeals

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Speaker 1: of Mortal Kombat is that it was enthralling and it

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Speaker 1: was captivating. But it didn't give you like beat by beat,

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Speaker 1: like who all these characters were really supposed to be

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Speaker 1: and what all their motivations were. And you got to

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Speaker 1: sort of dream up the rest.

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Speaker 3: I think that's exactly right. That might be surprising because

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Speaker 3: on the surface, these games are like the content that's

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Speaker 3: there is mostly pretty dumb and quite violent. But they

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Speaker 3: do stimulate a lot of imagination when you're a kid.

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Speaker 3: Like you get to kind of make up a story

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Speaker 3: as you go along.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of the violence, I do want to throw in

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Speaker 1: that I'm going to sound like an old person here.

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Speaker 1: but the games are just way too violent now. The

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Speaker 1: fatalities are now just unwatchable. They're traumatizing to behold. The

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Speaker 1: most recent games I've played in the Mortal Kombat series,

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Speaker 1: I'll just intentionally not do fatalities because it's just too much.

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Speaker 3: It's like Saw territory.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just too much. But I don't know. That's

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Speaker 1: just me. Evidently, they're still popular. But the games are

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Speaker 1: still fun. Oh, sorry.

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Speaker 3: I forgot one more thing I did engage with, which

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Speaker 3: is I've seen the sequel to the movie we're talking

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Speaker 3: about today, which is. Mortal Kombat Annihilation from 1997, which

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Speaker 3: has strong So Bad It's Good energy. It's a movie

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Speaker 3: in which Christoph Lambert would not return to reprise his

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Speaker 3: role and had to be replaced by Dexter's dad.

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Speaker 1: Ah, yes, yes. I did not see Mortal Kombat Annihilation,

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Speaker 1: but I am familiar with it due to its reputation.

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Speaker 1: So my memory is a little hazy on exactly what

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Speaker 1: my expectations were for this film when it came out.

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Speaker 1: Like the brief timeline that we've alluded to is first

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Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat game hit arcades in 92. And then the

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Speaker 1: excellent sequel, Mortal Kombat 2, came out in 1993, which

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Speaker 1: just looking at that, that's just crazy turn turnaround time

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Speaker 1: by today's standards, right?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: And so I was all the way in on MK2

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Speaker 1: by the time this film came out. I played it

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Speaker 1: like at the local Walmart until one day they turned

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Speaker 1: the blood off and everyone was upset by that, which

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Speaker 1: was the day Kurt Cobain died, I believe. Oh, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Strange. Yeah. But is there like a physical switch on

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Speaker 3: the cabinet? It was like blood on, blood off.

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Speaker 1: No, no, we checked. We thought of that. We're like, well,

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Speaker 1: we got to find the switch. We got to turn

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Speaker 1: it back on. But I guess it's inside the cabinet. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And if the local parents group, you know, pressures the

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Speaker 1: store owner, they'll change it. But anyway, so and then, yeah,

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Speaker 1: MK2 had come out on Sega Genesis. I played it there.

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Speaker 1: And then MK3 came out April of 95, ahead of

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Speaker 1: this film's August 18th, 1995 theatrical release. And yeah, MK3

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Speaker 1: was pretty awesome, too. So by this point in the franchise,

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Speaker 1: we were three games deep in an ever-expanding lore. We

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Speaker 1: had this story about an interdimensional world martial arts tournament

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Speaker 1: that was determining the fate of the world. And I

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Speaker 1: would have been 16 at the time, so I was

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Speaker 1: old enough to be a little opinionated about movie adaptations

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Speaker 1: of video games, but I think also optimistic enough to

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Speaker 1: think that a video game adaptation of Mortal Kombat was

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Speaker 1: a good idea.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, that impulse might not have been totally

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Speaker 3: misguided because you could see little inklings. And Rob, you

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Speaker 3: were sharing before we started recording this, you shared a

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Speaker 3: link to some of the TV spots advertising the games themselves,

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Speaker 3: like advertising the Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet and stuff. And

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Speaker 3: they're awesome commercials. Like, they got incredible atmosphere.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a TV commercial for MK2 for the

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Speaker 1: console editions, and it was amazing. You can still find

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Speaker 1: it on YouTube and stuff, but I was doing some digging.

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Speaker 1: They filmed it at Shepperton Studios, and Bob Keen's Image

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Speaker 1: Imagination Group did the makeup, This is a group that

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Speaker 1: had worked on the Hellraiser films, Lord of Illusions, Life Force.

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Speaker 1: So it looks really sharp and there are aspects of

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Speaker 1: it that look better than what we see in this picture.

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Speaker 1: But I remember I remember like videotaping that commercial and

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Speaker 1: like rewatching it and thinking like, yeah, yeah, this this

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Speaker 1: could work.

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Speaker 3: Wait, how did you did you just like happen to

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Speaker 3: get it while taping something else or? Did you intend

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Speaker 3: to tape the commercial?

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Speaker 1: It was probably both. I was taping something, and either

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Speaker 1: I wasn't taking out the commercials, because, you know, whatever

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Speaker 1: I was watching and taping was probably in the same

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Speaker 1: demographic as MK2 console edition. Yeah, yeah. All right, so

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Speaker 1: we've provided a fair amount of the basics here regarding

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Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat. Joe, what's your elevator pitch for Mortal Kombat,

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Speaker 1: the movie from 1995?

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Speaker 3: Some random fighters from around the world are invited to

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Speaker 3: participate in a martial arts tournament that it turns out

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Speaker 3: will determine the fate of our cosmos and whether our

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Speaker 3: souls are to be eaten by monsters from another dimension.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting that we're talking about this during the Summer Olympics,

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Speaker 1: which is about international competitors coming together to compete. And

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Speaker 1: to a very limited extent, that's the story of Mortal

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Speaker 1: Kombat as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of like if the Olympics were only

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Speaker 3: combat sports, And several of the competitors were from another

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Speaker 3: dimension and they had four arms and were giant. And

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Speaker 3: in order to win the Olympics, you had to beat

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Speaker 3: those things, the monsters from another dimension. And if you

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Speaker 3: lost the Olympics against them 10 times in a row,

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Speaker 3: something will come and eat your soul. Okay.

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Speaker 1: That's kind of the plot of, of, of what is it?

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Speaker 1: Monster jam? Wait, what is it?

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Speaker 3: Space jam.

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Speaker 1: Space jam. That's basically the plot of space jam, right?

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Speaker 3: It's close. Yeah. Speaking of we've, just been talking about

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Speaker 3: it as if, you know, it's common knowledge. Probably a

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Speaker 3: lot of people know what's going on with Mortal Kombat,

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Speaker 3: the video game. But for people who aren't familiar, should

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Speaker 3: we very briefly describe Mortal Kombat in terms of gameplay, setting,

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Speaker 3: and story?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so the original Mortal Kombat is a side-view, one-on-one

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Speaker 3: fighting game in which players could select from a list

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Speaker 3: of seven playable characters and face off against either each other.

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Speaker 3: So you fight against your friends. Or you could fight

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Speaker 3: against the computer playing some other character. And there was

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Speaker 3: a sort of a story mode, as you alluded to earlier,

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Speaker 3: but there wasn't really much of a story to it. Instead,

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Speaker 3: that just means you sequentially face off against all of

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Speaker 3: the other characters in the game, one after another. And

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Speaker 3: then at the end of that, there are a couple

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Speaker 3: of different boss fights.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. You just basically go up a ladder

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Speaker 1: with solo fights against the computer. There's some test your

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Speaker 1: mites in there where you karate break things in half.

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Speaker 1: There'd be a mirror match, some endurance matches, especially in

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Speaker 1: that first one, they had to make the most out

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Speaker 1: of a limited roster. And then you would fight the

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Speaker 1: two bosses.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: And so the seven playable characters are Liu Kang, who

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Speaker 3: is kind of the canonical hero of the video game series.

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Speaker 3: He is portrayed as a practitioner of sort of classic

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Speaker 3: Kung Fu. He's a Shaolin warrior, and he's the good guy.

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Speaker 1: Very Bruce Lee-esque, clearly inspired by Bruce Lee.

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Speaker 3: Yes, there are two ninjas that look identical except a

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Speaker 3: swapped color palette on their outfits. One is the ninja

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Speaker 3: Sub-Zero who has ice powers and the other is the

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Speaker 3: ninja Scorpion who can throw a spear on a rope

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Speaker 3: that grabs you and pulls you over to him. And

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Speaker 3: that's his like special move. And he says, come here

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Speaker 3: when he does that. And then also he can take

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Speaker 3: his mask off and breathe fire on you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like an infernal revenant, I guess you'd say.

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Speaker 3: There is Sonya Blade, a special forces operative who is

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Speaker 3: at the tournament chasing after a criminal who's another one

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Speaker 3: of the players named Kano. Kano happens to be the Terminator.

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Speaker 3: Like half of his face is the Terminator. It's metal

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Speaker 3: with a red eye. But I don't know if canonically

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Speaker 3: he is robot beyond that metal part of his face.

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Speaker 1: I think it's supposed to be just like a cybernetic

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Speaker 1: replacement for his eye, but it also is a weapon

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Speaker 1: that shoots a laser beam. At least in later games

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Speaker 1: it shoots a laser beam.

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Speaker 3: That's right. So you got the sort of the cop

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Speaker 3: and the criminal. I think in the later games, there

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Speaker 3: is more straightforwardly even than Sonya Blade, a character who's

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Speaker 3: just like a cop who just has like police equipment.

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Speaker 1: Yes. Striker is the cop that shows up in MK3.

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Speaker 3: That's a strange choice. I'm just in a tournament here,

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Speaker 3: but I have my like police belt.

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Speaker 1: Anyway.

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Speaker 3: Um, uh, there's also two more characters in the first game.

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Speaker 3: There is Johnny Cage. You can play as he's a

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Speaker 3: movie star, like a martial arts movie star based, I

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Speaker 3: think on Jean-Claude Van Damme.

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Speaker 1: And then he does the, uh, the split punch, right? Right.

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Speaker 3: He does the splits and punches. Yeah. Goes down splits

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Speaker 3: and punches, uh, in the groin area, which plays into

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Speaker 3: the movie we're about to talk about. And then finally,

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Speaker 3: there is Raiden, who is a god. It seems kind

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Speaker 3: of unfair that a god gets to face off against

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Speaker 3: all of the other human fighters, but he is a

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Speaker 3: god who has electricity powers.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the name very loosely based on the Japanese thunder deity, Raiden.

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Speaker 1: And also the character is very clearly inspired by the

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Speaker 1: lightning-empowered member of the Three Storms in Big Trouble in

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Speaker 1: Little China. John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China is

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Speaker 1: is an obvious strong influence on Mortal Kombat.

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Speaker 3: Yes, on this character in the game, but also on

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Speaker 3: the way Raiden is portrayed by Christopher Lambert in the movie. Now,

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Speaker 3: just a couple of other things to mention from the

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Speaker 3: game that'll play into the film. As we've alluded to,

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Speaker 3: all the characters have their own different special moves, like

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Speaker 3: they can all punch and kick and jump, But then

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Speaker 3: they've got these special moves that you would enact by

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Speaker 3: entering a different series of buttons in the game. So

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Speaker 3: like Liu Kang can shoot a fireball and he can

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Speaker 3: do a flying kick and Kano can throw a knife

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Speaker 3: and he can like turn into a ball and fly

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Speaker 3: across the screen. Sub-Zero can shoot ice and so forth.

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Speaker 3: One thing that kind of separates Mortal Kombat and I

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Speaker 3: think perhaps justifiably drew the ire of some like parents

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Speaker 3: who are watching their kids play this game. is that

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Speaker 3: the game is not just about physical fighting, but it

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Speaker 3: is explicitly a fight to the death. And at the

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Speaker 3: end of a fight, there is a voice that comes

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Speaker 3: on when one side has been defeated and tells the

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Speaker 3: victorious party to finish him, I guess meaning kill him,

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Speaker 3: which then you can do one of your fatalities, which

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Speaker 3: is a special move, for example, where the scorpion, the

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Speaker 3: yellow ninja, he pulls his mask off and breathes fire

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Speaker 3: on the other person.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it reduces you to a skeleton, which then crumbles

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Speaker 1: to the ground. These were a huge hit. You're looking

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Speaker 1: up these special moves and the special fatality inputs, perhaps

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Speaker 1: bringing them to the arcade with you on a little

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Speaker 1: sheet of paper, folded up page from a magazine.

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Speaker 3: That's learning how to do research. It's an important skill.

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Speaker 3: And then, of course, you had your non-playable villains in

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Speaker 3: the game. One of them is Goro, who's this big,

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Speaker 3: scary guy who's huge, and he has four arms instead

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Speaker 3: of two. He will factor into the movie. And then

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Speaker 3: there is Shang Tsung, the big bad of Mortal Kombat,

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Speaker 3: who was an evil sorcerer who could shapeshift into the

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Speaker 3: form of any other fighter in the game.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and this character was clearly inspired, at least to

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Speaker 1: some degree, by the character of Lo Pan in Big

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Speaker 1: Trouble in Little China.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Now, should we put this in the context of

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Speaker 3: any other movies based on video games? We have done

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Speaker 3: on Weird House the 1993 Super Mario Brothers movie, which

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Speaker 3: I still maintain is one of the weirdest movies we've

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Speaker 3: done on the show and one of the weirdest movies

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Speaker 3: I have ever seen. Mortal Kombat, the movie, is a

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Speaker 3: pretty strange cultural artifact, but as an adaptation of its

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Speaker 3: source material, I think it's a lot more straightforward than

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Speaker 3: Super Mario Brothers. Like, So the game is about a

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Speaker 3: weird supernatural martial arts tournament where people around the world

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Speaker 3: come to fight to the death. The movie's about that too.

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Speaker 3: Super Mario Brothers instead veers way, way off into its

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Speaker 3: own Dennis Hopper mud bath and just, I don't know,

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Speaker 3: it introduces a lot of its own stuff and all

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Speaker 3: that stuff is quite unexpected.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Super Mario Brothers as a motion picture doesn't write

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Speaker 1: itself to the same degree that Mortal Kombat does.

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Speaker 3: And I think to some degree that's because the Mortal

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Speaker 3: Kombat game premise, I would assume, it seems quite clear,

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Speaker 3: it is based on movies of a certain type. Movies

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Speaker 3: like Enter the Dragon, but there are a lot of

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Speaker 3: movies with this basic premise that it's like a destination

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Speaker 3: martial arts tournament that is ruled over by some kind

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Speaker 3: of evil king or sorcerer.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. So it's a pretty simple structure to sort

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Speaker 1: of aspire to there. And then at least in the game,

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Speaker 1: your mind kind of fills in the blanks. And then

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Speaker 1: not to say it's, I think it is a challenge

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Speaker 1: for the screenwriter. And I think you see that in

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Speaker 1: this film, like there are certain story points that have

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Speaker 1: to be created and nourished in order to make this

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Speaker 1: work on any level as a picture about characters. And

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Speaker 1: they go for it. And I think it mostly works.

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Speaker 1: But I can imagine some people, some like fans of

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Speaker 1: the film, and maybe even I thought this to some extent,

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Speaker 1: like wondering like, why do we care about this character?

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Speaker 1: It's like, well, you've got to have these things. We

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Speaker 1: can't just be, one fight after another. That's what the

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00:22:07,590 --> 00:22:10,389
Speaker 1: video game is. This is a movie. It needs to

431
00:22:10,490 --> 00:22:11,609
Speaker 1: tell some sort of story.

432
00:22:11,970 --> 00:22:14,050
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm kind of of two minds about that stuff

433
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 3: because I think a lot of the character development in

434
00:22:16,340 --> 00:22:20,879
Speaker 3: the movie is on, on its face laughable, but at

435
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,300
Speaker 3: the same time, it works pretty well as a plot

436
00:22:24,380 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 3: glue that just helps chain one scene into the next

437
00:22:27,340 --> 00:22:28,640
Speaker 3: and keeps the movie moving.

438
00:22:28,980 --> 00:22:29,270
Speaker 1: Yeah.

439
00:22:29,369 --> 00:22:29,459
Speaker 2: Yeah.

440
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,070
Speaker 1: And I think that's mainly where it succeeds because to

441
00:22:32,090 --> 00:22:34,500
Speaker 1: be clear, there's not a lot of character development to

442
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,100
Speaker 1: go around in this picture. Some characters don't get it

443
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:37,439
Speaker 1: at all.

444
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 3: Yeah. So yeah, maybe that leads into some of my

445
00:22:41,500 --> 00:22:45,850
Speaker 3: summary thoughts upon revisiting Mortal Kombat this time. I think

446
00:22:45,890 --> 00:22:47,870
Speaker 3: for the most part, you could say, you could certainly

447
00:22:47,910 --> 00:22:50,389
Speaker 3: make the case that the scripting is not great. It's

448
00:22:50,470 --> 00:22:55,110
Speaker 3: strangely heavy on these 2D little banter exchanges between our heroes,

449
00:22:55,150 --> 00:22:58,820
Speaker 3: a lot of hate flirting. But at the same time,

450
00:22:58,859 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 3: there are quite a few memorable lines that, And I

451
00:23:02,140 --> 00:23:06,220
Speaker 3: think that is mostly due to qualities of delivery, which

452
00:23:06,300 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 3: brings us to the question of acting. I think the

453
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,030
Speaker 3: acting in the movie is quite a mixed bag. There

454
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:15,930
Speaker 3: are a couple of velvety rich villain performances, one in

455
00:23:15,990 --> 00:23:19,830
Speaker 3: particular that really stands out, which are accompanied by a

456
00:23:19,930 --> 00:23:23,120
Speaker 3: fine Christophe Lambert pairing. But a lot of the other

457
00:23:23,190 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 3: actors are just sort of treading water and they're like,

458
00:23:25,660 --> 00:23:27,540
Speaker 3: what is going on in this movie? I don't know.

459
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 3: We're just getting through this scene. But that's what you'd

460
00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:33,639
Speaker 3: often expect from a martial arts movie. However, despite some

461
00:23:33,660 --> 00:23:36,440
Speaker 3: of the limitations of the script and the acting, this

462
00:23:36,500 --> 00:23:40,310
Speaker 3: movie is not boring. It has lots of zippy energy,

463
00:23:40,380 --> 00:23:43,369
Speaker 3: and it's just fun the whole way. It really maintains

464
00:23:43,430 --> 00:23:46,230
Speaker 3: a strong sense of momentum, I think due to some

465
00:23:46,290 --> 00:23:51,410
Speaker 3: choices about editing, a pretty good discipline about not letting

466
00:23:51,550 --> 00:23:53,670
Speaker 3: any of the fights or really any of the scenes

467
00:23:53,750 --> 00:23:56,310
Speaker 3: at all go on too long. It just keeps moving,

468
00:23:56,450 --> 00:24:00,020
Speaker 3: and it really uses music to great effect. to keep

469
00:24:00,060 --> 00:24:03,200
Speaker 3: the energy up and keep a feeling of forward motion.

470
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:04,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.

471
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,699
Speaker 3: Also, I'll say that the martial arts scenes are on

472
00:24:07,740 --> 00:24:10,100
Speaker 3: the whole a lot better than I expected them to

473
00:24:10,140 --> 00:24:13,740
Speaker 3: be when coming back to this. The fights mostly convey

474
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,410
Speaker 3: some amount of drama. Long-time listeners will be familiar with

475
00:24:17,450 --> 00:24:20,629
Speaker 3: my gripe about action scenes, but for newcomers, if you

476
00:24:20,670 --> 00:24:23,510
Speaker 3: want to hear it briefly, I think action scenes are

477
00:24:23,550 --> 00:24:26,590
Speaker 3: often quite boring in movies because there's really no drama

478
00:24:26,630 --> 00:24:29,550
Speaker 3: to them. There's like No meaningful exchange of power. No

479
00:24:30,090 --> 00:24:33,510
Speaker 3: genuine fear for the character's fate. Nothing is revealed about

480
00:24:33,530 --> 00:24:37,169
Speaker 3: the characters. No questions are asked or answered. There's no

481
00:24:37,210 --> 00:24:40,860
Speaker 3: effect on the broader story. They're often just an interlude

482
00:24:41,190 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 3: where we take a break from the story to watch

483
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:47,360
Speaker 3: some violence happen. But great action scenes transcend this by

484
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,020
Speaker 3: containing drama within them. And you know what? I think

485
00:24:50,140 --> 00:24:52,699
Speaker 3: Mortal Kombat does a reasonably good job at making the

486
00:24:52,740 --> 00:24:53,440
Speaker 3: fights dramatic.

487
00:24:54,020 --> 00:24:57,260
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I think most all of the fights hold up

488
00:24:57,300 --> 00:25:02,530
Speaker 1: really well. They tell a story. That's always been my

489
00:25:02,570 --> 00:25:05,530
Speaker 1: key way of thinking about it. A lot of films,

490
00:25:05,890 --> 00:25:08,610
Speaker 1: especially Western films, if they engage in some fights, it'll

491
00:25:08,630 --> 00:25:10,750
Speaker 1: just be like some moves. You'll see some moves. You'll

492
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,159
Speaker 1: get a vibe of fighting, but you don't get the

493
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,020
Speaker 1: sense of there being a story there, a story where

494
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:22,100
Speaker 1: there are obstacles to overcome. There's conflict. There are stakes there.

495
00:25:22,580 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: There are little callbacks and so forth, like a great

496
00:25:25,300 --> 00:25:28,290
Speaker 1: cinematic fight is going to have all of these elements

497
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:31,109
Speaker 1: and you can become lost in its own inner drama.

498
00:25:31,450 --> 00:25:35,710
Speaker 3: I think that's exactly right. Another thing about this movie, stylistically,

499
00:25:35,910 --> 00:25:39,510
Speaker 3: it is extremely 1990s. I think if you were to

500
00:25:39,750 --> 00:25:43,060
Speaker 3: like be teaching a film class about the conventions of

501
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:46,359
Speaker 3: popular filmmaking during the 90s and you're making a viewing

502
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 3: list for that class, this movie should be on it.

503
00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:53,790
Speaker 3: It strongly reflects that. that music video influenced style that

504
00:25:53,810 --> 00:25:56,129
Speaker 3: was dominant in blockbuster films of the time.

505
00:25:56,830 --> 00:25:59,490
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And so it's really kind of a minor miracle

506
00:25:59,530 --> 00:26:01,869
Speaker 1: that the fight scenes are so good, because when I

507
00:26:01,930 --> 00:26:05,690
Speaker 1: think about that music video style, I can instantly turn

508
00:26:05,730 --> 00:26:07,949
Speaker 1: my head to various examples. I'm not going to call

509
00:26:07,970 --> 00:26:10,590
Speaker 1: them out here, but various examples where you have that

510
00:26:10,630 --> 00:26:15,350
Speaker 1: kind of music video vibe to the fight sequences where

511
00:26:15,910 --> 00:26:17,910
Speaker 1: it is all vibe and it is not about telling

512
00:26:17,950 --> 00:26:18,190
Speaker 1: a story.

513
00:26:18,510 --> 00:26:22,610
Speaker 3: It's just stuff happening. It's just loud noises, flashes of things.

514
00:26:22,890 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 3: You can't tell where anybody is or what's going on

515
00:26:25,100 --> 00:26:28,100
Speaker 3: or why it matters. But this movie, yeah, mostly not

516
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 3: like that. The fight scenes are well choreographed and well filmed.

517
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:37,020
Speaker 3: Thumbs up to that. Special effects, also a mixed bag,

518
00:26:37,060 --> 00:26:39,800
Speaker 3: but leaning toward the negative, I would say. The standout

519
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:43,950
Speaker 3: element is... some truly egregious CGI. I think we've called

520
00:26:44,010 --> 00:26:47,210
Speaker 3: out this movie before on the show as a nadir

521
00:26:47,470 --> 00:26:51,410
Speaker 3: of CGI in big budget movies. The technology was not

522
00:26:51,470 --> 00:26:53,449
Speaker 3: ready to be used the way it is used in

523
00:26:53,490 --> 00:26:53,970
Speaker 3: this movie.

524
00:26:54,730 --> 00:26:57,429
Speaker 1: I don't think I'd seen this film since the 90s.

525
00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: So I was I was prepared for the CGI to

526
00:27:00,540 --> 00:27:03,679
Speaker 1: be rough, but it was worse than I remembered it. Like,

527
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,750
Speaker 1: I remember being excited for the CGI in this film

528
00:27:06,810 --> 00:27:08,150
Speaker 1: and thinking it was pretty cool.

529
00:27:08,340 --> 00:27:09,580
Speaker 3: It seemed great at the time.

530
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seemed amazing at the time. Now it looks very,

531
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:17,699
Speaker 1: very liquid television in the worst ways. And I say

532
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,080
Speaker 1: that as someone who loved liquid television at the time

533
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,190
Speaker 1: on MTV. But then the other thing is I expected

534
00:27:23,250 --> 00:27:26,490
Speaker 1: to be really excited about the film's practical effects, namely

535
00:27:26,530 --> 00:27:29,470
Speaker 1: the Goro effects. And this didn't hit the right notes

536
00:27:29,490 --> 00:27:30,010
Speaker 1: for me either.

537
00:27:30,930 --> 00:27:32,650
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, let's get into that in a bit.

538
00:27:32,990 --> 00:27:35,889
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll come back to Goro. But let's go ahead

539
00:27:36,070 --> 00:27:37,810
Speaker 1: at this point, let's go ahead and listen to a

540
00:27:37,830 --> 00:27:41,230
Speaker 1: little bit of the trailer audio for Mortal Kombat. I'm

541
00:27:41,340 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 1: almost certain we're going to hear just a little snippet

542
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:45,400
Speaker 1: of that Mortal Kombat theme song.

543
00:27:48,420 --> 00:27:52,300
Speaker 4: In each of us, there burns the fury of a warrior.

544
00:27:53,859 --> 00:27:57,340
Speaker 4: In every generation, a few are chosen to prove it.

545
00:27:57,460 --> 00:28:00,160
Speaker 4: One of you three will decide the outcome of the tournament.

546
00:28:00,380 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 4: Three strangers. will travel to the mystical realm of Outworld

547
00:28:10,310 --> 00:28:15,990
Speaker 4: to defend our people against Shang Tsung. You will die.

548
00:28:16,690 --> 00:28:23,550
Speaker 4: And his forces of darkness. In an ancient tournament, one

549
00:28:23,570 --> 00:28:24,409
Speaker 4: more victory.

550
00:28:24,490 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 1: Your soul is mine.

551
00:28:28,820 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 4: And our world is theirs.

552
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:53,920
Speaker 1: No! You can't run from me, Shang!

553
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:55,700
Speaker 3: I don't need to run!

554
00:29:24,660 --> 00:29:27,300
Speaker 1: All right. If you're wondering at this point, where can

555
00:29:27,380 --> 00:29:32,450
Speaker 1: I watch Mortal Kombat, the 1995 cinematic treatment? Well, it

556
00:29:32,510 --> 00:29:35,210
Speaker 1: is widely available in pretty much all formats, including various

557
00:29:35,310 --> 00:29:38,870
Speaker 1: franchise bundles. I streamed it on max but i also

558
00:29:38,930 --> 00:29:41,890
Speaker 1: realized i own a digital copy that i received as

559
00:29:41,990 --> 00:29:44,830
Speaker 1: some sort of an xbox bonus for one of the

560
00:29:45,270 --> 00:29:48,430
Speaker 1: you know the the the recent games like i don't

561
00:29:48,470 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 1: know 10 or 12 or something maybe 11 i don't

562
00:29:51,130 --> 00:29:53,340
Speaker 1: know the 10th 11th or 12th game one of them

563
00:29:53,380 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 1: they were like here have the 95 film version as

564
00:29:56,460 --> 00:29:57,860
Speaker 1: well for free just.

565
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,020
Speaker 3: A download code or something Yeah, yeah, you.

566
00:29:59,980 --> 00:30:02,740
Speaker 1: Just got it through like the Xbox film download thing.

567
00:30:02,770 --> 00:30:04,969
Speaker 1: So I watched it on Macs. I don't think that

568
00:30:05,030 --> 00:30:07,729
Speaker 1: there is a definitive special edition or anything here. So

569
00:30:07,770 --> 00:30:10,150
Speaker 1: this is very much a case of watch it wherever

570
00:30:10,750 --> 00:30:12,590
Speaker 1: is least painful for you, I guess.

571
00:30:13,230 --> 00:30:16,390
Speaker 3: I watched it by getting into a time machine made

572
00:30:16,430 --> 00:30:19,650
Speaker 3: by the Tubular Corporation and going back to 1995 to

573
00:30:19,690 --> 00:30:20,730
Speaker 3: my local Cineplex.

574
00:30:21,250 --> 00:30:24,030
Speaker 1: There you go. Maybe the effects are better if you

575
00:30:24,090 --> 00:30:27,210
Speaker 1: see it in the 90s, you know, like not only

576
00:30:27,230 --> 00:30:29,950
Speaker 1: in terms of expectations, but in terms of like picture quality.

577
00:30:38,860 --> 00:30:40,820
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the people who made this film.

578
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:43,660
Speaker 1: We mentioned that the director is, of course, Paul W.S. Anderson,

579
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: born 1965, English director and writer and producer who started

580
00:30:48,660 --> 00:30:51,980
Speaker 1: out in TV writing for the British crime series L.C.I.D.,

581
00:30:52,660 --> 00:30:55,540
Speaker 1: starring Alfred Molina, at least in the first couple of seasons.

582
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,060
Speaker 1: I think someone else came in to lead it after that.

583
00:30:58,140 --> 00:31:01,210
Speaker 1: But Anderson made a big splash as a director after

584
00:31:01,250 --> 00:31:04,550
Speaker 1: this with the violent crime drama Shopping in 94, which

585
00:31:04,570 --> 00:31:07,050
Speaker 1: he also wrote. I have not seen it, but it

586
00:31:07,310 --> 00:31:10,050
Speaker 1: features an excellent cast, including the feature film debut of

587
00:31:10,110 --> 00:31:14,780
Speaker 1: Jude Law. And it features an extremely stacked soundtrack featuring

588
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:20,300
Speaker 1: such acts as Stereo MCs, Salt-N-Pepa, EMF, and Utah Saints.

589
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 3: Oh, Utah Saints are on this soundtrack.

590
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.

591
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:25,660
Speaker 3: They've got some really good hype music in there.

592
00:31:26,060 --> 00:31:29,060
Speaker 1: So it is worth noting, yeah, that Paul W.S. Anderson

593
00:31:30,300 --> 00:31:34,090
Speaker 1: clearly put a lot of stock in the soundtrack to

594
00:31:34,150 --> 00:31:37,310
Speaker 1: these pictures that he was involved in. And he brings

595
00:31:37,330 --> 00:31:40,750
Speaker 1: a lot of, I think, enthusiasm, especially for electronic music

596
00:31:40,790 --> 00:31:41,430
Speaker 1: of the time period.

597
00:31:41,850 --> 00:31:42,050
Speaker 3: Yeah.

598
00:31:42,610 --> 00:31:46,250
Speaker 1: So Mortal Kombat was his follow-up to the success of Shopping,

599
00:31:46,930 --> 00:31:50,320
Speaker 1: which was a big commercial hit. Even Roger Ebert admitted

600
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 1: that it was better than expected. And he would follow

601
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:58,100
Speaker 1: this up with 1997's Event Horizon, a film that certainly

602
00:31:58,810 --> 00:32:01,850
Speaker 1: wears its inspirations on its sleeves. But this was a

603
00:32:01,890 --> 00:32:04,390
Speaker 1: huge favorite of mine upon its release. And it's still

604
00:32:04,470 --> 00:32:06,209
Speaker 1: one that I come back to now and again. I'm

605
00:32:06,230 --> 00:32:08,890
Speaker 1: probably overdue to revisit it and see how I feel

606
00:32:08,930 --> 00:32:10,290
Speaker 1: about it at my current age.

607
00:32:10,630 --> 00:32:13,370
Speaker 3: You know, I just recently put on Event Horizon sort

608
00:32:13,390 --> 00:32:15,330
Speaker 3: of in the background while I was doing something else

609
00:32:15,390 --> 00:32:17,380
Speaker 3: and tuned in for a few scenes here and here

610
00:32:17,390 --> 00:32:19,580
Speaker 3: and there. And I'm going to say, I think I

611
00:32:19,620 --> 00:32:22,620
Speaker 3: feel about it similar to how I feel about Mortal Kombat,

612
00:32:22,700 --> 00:32:24,570
Speaker 3: which is that it's hard to say like it's a

613
00:32:24,740 --> 00:32:27,850
Speaker 3: good movie, but it really does have its charms.

614
00:32:28,370 --> 00:32:30,990
Speaker 1: Yeah, it has a great cast. It has some great sets,

615
00:32:31,270 --> 00:32:34,110
Speaker 1: great look in many ways. And the score was a

616
00:32:34,250 --> 00:32:38,790
Speaker 1: collaboration between Michael Kamen and the English electronic duo, The Orb.

617
00:32:39,230 --> 00:32:40,870
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of people look fondly back

618
00:32:40,910 --> 00:32:43,090
Speaker 1: on Event Horizon. And he followed that up with Soldier,

619
00:32:43,230 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 1: starring Kurt Russell. That one was scripted by David Peoples,

620
00:32:46,380 --> 00:32:48,910
Speaker 1: one of the screenwriters for Blade Runner, about I've never

621
00:32:48,930 --> 00:32:50,830
Speaker 1: seen that one. That one, I'm to understand, kind of

622
00:32:50,930 --> 00:32:54,530
Speaker 1: failed to find an audience, really. His next big picture

623
00:32:54,570 --> 00:32:56,910
Speaker 1: was a return to video game adaptations because, you know,

624
00:32:57,730 --> 00:33:00,390
Speaker 1: he'd proven himself there. And so he came back with

625
00:33:00,630 --> 00:33:04,560
Speaker 1: 2002's Resident Evil, which proved another huge hit and kickstarted

626
00:33:04,620 --> 00:33:08,640
Speaker 1: a franchise of films starring his soon-to-be wife, Mila Jovovich.

627
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,220
Speaker 1: Anderson directed films 1, 4, 5, and 6 in that

628
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 1: franchise and also remained active as a writer and producer

629
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:19,700
Speaker 1: on other installments, including the one that Russell McKay directed

630
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:22,370
Speaker 1: in 2007, Resident Evil Extinction.

631
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,510
Speaker 3: I did not know they'd made it to six Resident

632
00:33:25,550 --> 00:33:26,190
Speaker 3: Evil movies.

633
00:33:26,650 --> 00:33:27,630
Speaker 1: Yeah.

634
00:33:27,730 --> 00:33:29,590
Speaker 3: I think I saw the first two.

635
00:33:30,330 --> 00:33:33,350
Speaker 1: I think I saw one, and then I saw part

636
00:33:33,390 --> 00:33:36,510
Speaker 1: of Russell McKay's, and I was impressed by what I saw,

637
00:33:36,550 --> 00:33:38,770
Speaker 1: but for some reason I didn't finish it. I don't know.

638
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,080
Speaker 3: Those Resident Evil movies are the kind that I know

639
00:33:42,100 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 3: I've seen them and I remember literally nothing at all

640
00:33:45,020 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 3: about them. Couldn't tell you a single thing.

641
00:33:48,500 --> 00:33:51,700
Speaker 1: Now, we also have to mention that Paul W.S. Anderson

642
00:33:51,740 --> 00:33:57,870
Speaker 1: directed 2004's Alien vs. Predator. Oof. That's probably a film

643
00:33:57,910 --> 00:34:00,890
Speaker 1: we could do a whole episode about. But to be fair,

644
00:34:00,930 --> 00:34:03,690
Speaker 1: I have to stress that while I don't think it

645
00:34:03,730 --> 00:34:06,209
Speaker 1: was a solid entry in the Alien franchise, you can

646
00:34:06,230 --> 00:34:07,710
Speaker 1: make a case for it being a solid entry in

647
00:34:07,730 --> 00:34:12,219
Speaker 1: the Predator franchise, I think. I'm mostly glad that it's

648
00:34:12,260 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 1: considered non-canon, but I still do remember seeing it and

649
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,860
Speaker 1: being entertained by it. I don't remember being bored in

650
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,380
Speaker 1: Alien vs. Predator, and I remember many of the effects

651
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,500
Speaker 1: being pretty terrific. So I probably need to revisit that

652
00:34:26,580 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 1: one as well, even though I don't really want to.

653
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:30,240
Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad you feel obligated.

654
00:34:32,300 --> 00:34:34,489
Speaker 1: I don't know if I feel obligated. I'm sure I

655
00:34:34,530 --> 00:34:36,210
Speaker 1: would enjoy myself if I rewatched it.

656
00:34:36,489 --> 00:34:37,650
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I probably would too.

657
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:42,380
Speaker 1: Like if I'm faced with, okay, do I rewatch Alien

658
00:34:42,380 --> 00:34:46,110
Speaker 1: 3 or Alien Resurrection or Alien vs. Predator? It's a

659
00:34:46,140 --> 00:34:48,270
Speaker 1: strong case to be made for each of these films

660
00:34:48,330 --> 00:34:49,810
Speaker 1: for pretty different reasons.

661
00:34:50,790 --> 00:34:53,330
Speaker 3: I think I'm on the record being really not a

662
00:34:53,350 --> 00:34:58,009
Speaker 3: fan of Alien Resurrection. I would do 3, then AVP,

663
00:34:58,310 --> 00:34:59,330
Speaker 3: then Resurrection.

664
00:34:59,350 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty solid. All right. Other Anderson films

665
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:06,029
Speaker 1: include a 2008 update of Death Race. a 2011 Three

666
00:35:06,070 --> 00:35:09,630
Speaker 1: Musketeers movie that has a pretty amazing cast, 2014's Pompeii,

667
00:35:09,870 --> 00:35:12,790
Speaker 1: 2020's Monster Hunter, and up next, this one actually has

668
00:35:12,830 --> 00:35:16,350
Speaker 1: me a little bit interested, Lost Lands, a werewolf fantasy

669
00:35:16,390 --> 00:35:20,070
Speaker 1: movie starring Mila Jovovich and Dave Bautista based on a

670
00:35:20,090 --> 00:35:21,890
Speaker 1: story by George R.R. Martin.

671
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:22,420
Speaker 3: Okay.

672
00:35:22,860 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 1: So that could fly drastically off the rails, but it

673
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:26,779
Speaker 1: could be really good.

674
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:29,980
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I gotta see it.

675
00:35:29,980 --> 00:35:34,810
Speaker 1: All right, now on the writing front, Mortal Kombat 95,

676
00:35:34,810 --> 00:35:37,950
Speaker 1: credits the creators of the Mortal Kombat franchise, that being

677
00:35:38,090 --> 00:35:43,110
Speaker 1: Ed Boon, born 1964, and John Tobias. Famously, of course,

678
00:35:43,330 --> 00:35:47,009
Speaker 1: these two last names spelled backwards create the ninjas, the

679
00:35:47,050 --> 00:35:50,140
Speaker 1: name of the shadow ninja Noob Saibot in the franchise.

680
00:35:51,100 --> 00:35:52,460
Speaker 1: Noob Saibot is not in this film, though.

681
00:35:52,739 --> 00:35:54,060
Speaker 3: Very cool-sounding ninja.

682
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:58,940
Speaker 1: Yeah. Of these two individuals, Ed Boon remains creative director

683
00:35:58,980 --> 00:36:01,100
Speaker 1: and team leader on all Mortal Kombat and related games

684
00:36:01,140 --> 00:36:04,690
Speaker 1: at NetherRealm Studios. He's pretty active on social media as well.

685
00:36:05,410 --> 00:36:08,510
Speaker 1: He also did a lot of the voices. So Scorpion's

686
00:36:08,550 --> 00:36:11,780
Speaker 1: voice is Ed Boon, and we hear Ed Boon's voice

687
00:36:11,940 --> 00:36:15,580
Speaker 1: as Scorpion in this picture. John Tobias is widely considered

688
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:17,819
Speaker 1: to have been really instrumental in the first four Mortal

689
00:36:17,860 --> 00:36:21,370
Speaker 1: Kombat games that really established much of the mythos and

690
00:36:21,390 --> 00:36:24,590
Speaker 1: the lore. But after that, I believe he parted ways

691
00:36:24,810 --> 00:36:26,890
Speaker 1: with the production and kind of went off on his own.

692
00:36:27,450 --> 00:36:30,089
Speaker 3: One of the goofier choices in this movie is that

693
00:36:30,230 --> 00:36:34,259
Speaker 3: it does use sound effects from the video game in

694
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:38,319
Speaker 3: the movie. I don't remember all the examples, but, you know,

695
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:40,239
Speaker 3: there's a voiceover in the game. So like when you

696
00:36:40,260 --> 00:36:42,940
Speaker 3: select a player, it'll say their name, it'll go Scorpion.

697
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 3: And I think they use stuff like that in the movie, actually.

698
00:36:46,500 --> 00:36:49,799
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe there are voices in the room that

699
00:36:49,820 --> 00:36:52,180
Speaker 1: were like, this is what video game fans want and

700
00:36:52,219 --> 00:36:53,100
Speaker 1: we should give it to them.

701
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:53,700
Speaker 3: Yeah.

702
00:36:54,050 --> 00:36:56,930
Speaker 1: Which brings me to the screenwriter for this, which I

703
00:36:56,989 --> 00:36:59,450
Speaker 1: can't help, this is me projecting, but I can't help

704
00:36:59,469 --> 00:37:02,720
Speaker 1: but notice that screenwriter Kevin Droney was born in 1948.

705
00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:04,980
Speaker 1: That was the same year my dad was born. So

706
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,919
Speaker 1: I can't help but think back and to imagine me

707
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,660
Speaker 1: as a 16-year-old and my dad writing a Mortal Kombat film,

708
00:37:13,180 --> 00:37:16,800
Speaker 1: which is not a fair comparison. But at any rate, Droney,

709
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:20,529
Speaker 1: writer and producer, who'd previously scripted episodes of TV's The Equalizer,

710
00:37:20,610 --> 00:37:24,240
Speaker 1: Jake and the Fat Man, Hunter, and Highlander, the TV series,

711
00:37:24,340 --> 00:37:27,379
Speaker 1: among others, as well as the TV movie Down Came

712
00:37:27,420 --> 00:37:31,360
Speaker 1: a Blackbird, starring Raul Julia, Laura Dern, and Vanessa Redgrave.

713
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: After Mortal Kombat, he worked on the screenplay for the

714
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:36,780
Speaker 1: 1999 Wing Commander film. Hilarious.

715
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:40,870
Speaker 3: He's writing for Raul Julia and Vanessa Redgrave and Mortal Kombat.

716
00:37:41,110 --> 00:37:44,109
Speaker 1: Yeah. But I'm really only familiar with his work here.

717
00:37:44,190 --> 00:37:49,029
Speaker 1: And again, he gets the job done. He adapted the

718
00:37:49,070 --> 00:37:52,509
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat video games into a workable screenplay.

719
00:37:53,430 --> 00:37:56,790
Speaker 3: It is a dumb screenplay, but this machine cranks. Yeah.

720
00:37:58,570 --> 00:37:59,010
Speaker 3: All right.

721
00:37:59,730 --> 00:38:03,350
Speaker 1: Top build in this film, we have Christoph Lemberg playing

722
00:38:03,610 --> 00:38:06,759
Speaker 1: Lord Raiden with a Y. I didn't look that up.

723
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:08,700
Speaker 1: Why it has a Y in it for this film.

724
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:12,140
Speaker 3: I think it's spelled in different ways and different games also.

725
00:38:12,460 --> 00:38:15,940
Speaker 3: I don't remember which was which, but it was spelled

726
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:18,800
Speaker 3: differently in the arcade cabinet versus the console versions.

727
00:38:19,020 --> 00:38:22,360
Speaker 1: Hmm. All right, well, Lambert, we've talked about Lambert before.

728
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: He's one of our favorites. Born 1957, French franchise mainstay.

729
00:38:28,450 --> 00:38:31,170
Speaker 1: We discussed him at length in our pair of episodes

730
00:38:31,230 --> 00:38:36,930
Speaker 1: on Highlander 2. He's, again, top-billed here, but he's more

731
00:38:36,950 --> 00:38:39,790
Speaker 1: of a supportive character. Like you said, he's kind of

732
00:38:40,350 --> 00:38:42,290
Speaker 1: one of two actors who are kind of the glue

733
00:38:42,370 --> 00:38:44,910
Speaker 1: holding the whole thing together. He did not reprise this

734
00:38:44,969 --> 00:38:48,150
Speaker 1: role in the sequel as Lambert. Raiden would be played

735
00:38:48,190 --> 00:38:52,450
Speaker 1: in Annihilation by James Ramar. Of course, Ramar was in

736
00:38:52,489 --> 00:38:55,359
Speaker 1: The Warriors. And looking at his filmography, everything else as well.

737
00:38:55,739 --> 00:38:59,240
Speaker 1: This guy is just continually acted in anything and everything.

738
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:04,819
Speaker 3: Now, he plays his role as openly cheesy, which not

739
00:39:05,020 --> 00:39:08,360
Speaker 3: everybody in the movie does. Like some characters are playing

740
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:12,609
Speaker 3: their role fairly straight. For example, our heroes mainly play

741
00:39:12,630 --> 00:39:16,720
Speaker 3: their roles straight. But Lambert is he's on a different level,

742
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 3: like he is embracing camp and cheesiness openly. And it

743
00:39:20,739 --> 00:39:24,170
Speaker 3: brings a wonderful kind of seasoning to the proceedings. I

744
00:39:24,210 --> 00:39:28,950
Speaker 3: think that contrast between some actors taking it seriously and

745
00:39:28,969 --> 00:39:33,779
Speaker 3: a couple of actors. primarily Lambert, not doing that, it

746
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,820
Speaker 3: works out pretty well. But it also there are moments

747
00:39:36,860 --> 00:39:39,359
Speaker 3: where he turns it on and kind of does take

748
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 3: it seriously. There are only a few of them, but

749
00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 3: those I don't know. It's charming.

750
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:48,700
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Like there's some points where he

751
00:39:48,739 --> 00:39:52,740
Speaker 1: brings a serious tone that really powers up the exposition dumps.

752
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,770
Speaker 1: And then other times he's a little lighter and a

753
00:39:56,790 --> 00:39:59,529
Speaker 1: little silly. And it's interesting to think about this in

754
00:39:59,590 --> 00:40:01,810
Speaker 1: terms of where they ended up going with the Raiden

755
00:40:01,850 --> 00:40:04,730
Speaker 1: character in the later games, where Raiden is very serious

756
00:40:04,790 --> 00:40:07,049
Speaker 1: and he's all, I must consult the older gods and

757
00:40:07,250 --> 00:40:10,840
Speaker 1: all this. But in this film, Lambert plays him. And

758
00:40:10,860 --> 00:40:14,080
Speaker 1: I feel like Raiden is written as a kind of

759
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:20,100
Speaker 1: trickster god. who's helping humanity, but on one level genuinely

760
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 1: wants to help them, but also is amused by them.

761
00:40:23,300 --> 00:40:27,460
Speaker 1: And so you're not exactly sure which is his primary

762
00:40:27,540 --> 00:40:31,240
Speaker 1: motivation scene to scene. And I think it's more befitting

763
00:40:31,260 --> 00:40:34,149
Speaker 1: of a supportive role God character in something like this.

764
00:40:34,469 --> 00:40:38,690
Speaker 3: But he's also partially playing it like a beloved sitcom character.

765
00:40:38,810 --> 00:40:41,290
Speaker 3: He has what happened catchphrases.

766
00:40:41,310 --> 00:40:41,910
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

767
00:40:41,930 --> 00:40:43,970
Speaker 3: Like he says, I don't think so.

768
00:40:43,989 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: He says it. Three times that I counted. I don't

769
00:40:47,700 --> 00:40:48,180
Speaker 1: think so.

770
00:40:51,060 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 3: So I would not be surprised to learn that Christophe

771
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:57,029
Speaker 3: Lambert did this entire movie without knowing what it was

772
00:40:57,090 --> 00:40:59,610
Speaker 3: about and only read his lines for the first time

773
00:40:59,690 --> 00:41:01,450
Speaker 3: on the day he was shooting his scenes. I can't

774
00:41:01,550 --> 00:41:06,750
Speaker 3: prove that. It just feels possible. But still, he provides

775
00:41:06,810 --> 00:41:11,569
Speaker 3: this wonderful, just signature twinkling eye and mischievous chuckle and

776
00:41:11,610 --> 00:41:13,770
Speaker 3: all is right with the world. I'm so glad he's here.

777
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,330
Speaker 1: Now, while Lambert is the top build actor, Raiden, again,

778
00:41:17,370 --> 00:41:20,350
Speaker 1: is not the main character. He's not our true protagonist.

779
00:41:20,790 --> 00:41:23,549
Speaker 1: Our protagonist is Liu Kang, of course, played in this

780
00:41:23,590 --> 00:41:28,319
Speaker 1: film by Robin Xu, born 1960. Not only is he

781
00:41:28,340 --> 00:41:30,400
Speaker 1: the true hero of this film, he is the canonical

782
00:41:30,460 --> 00:41:35,220
Speaker 1: winner of the first three Mortal Kombat games. So, you know, reminder,

783
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,650
Speaker 1: never bet on a Mortal Kombat game because Liu Kang

784
00:41:37,770 --> 00:41:38,509
Speaker 1: is always the winner.

785
00:41:39,050 --> 00:41:40,550
Speaker 3: If he can get good odds betting on him, I

786
00:41:40,590 --> 00:41:41,089
Speaker 3: guess he should.

787
00:41:41,370 --> 00:41:43,350
Speaker 1: I guess. But yeah, he's always going to win. That's

788
00:41:43,370 --> 00:41:47,050
Speaker 1: just how it works. And he should. So Robin Shu,

789
00:41:47,469 --> 00:41:50,930
Speaker 1: born in British Hong Kong, raised in L.A. And while

790
00:41:50,969 --> 00:41:53,570
Speaker 1: at California State University, he decided to travel to mainland

791
00:41:53,610 --> 00:41:56,750
Speaker 1: China to study Wushu and martial arts. He finished his

792
00:41:56,770 --> 00:41:58,850
Speaker 1: schooling in the U.S., but then traveled back to Hong

793
00:41:58,870 --> 00:42:01,470
Speaker 1: Kong where he got into stunt work in Hong Kong cinema.

794
00:42:02,210 --> 00:42:05,170
Speaker 1: And this basically spilled out into small parts in some

795
00:42:05,210 --> 00:42:07,990
Speaker 1: Hong Kong productions as well. So prior to Mortal Kombat,

796
00:42:08,030 --> 00:42:11,430
Speaker 1: he'd appeared in such Hong Kong films as 1988's The

797
00:42:11,469 --> 00:42:17,620
Speaker 1: Big Heat, co-directed by show favorite Sue Hawk, and 1993's Undefeatable.

798
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:21,540
Speaker 1: But then he's out of the blue cast in Mortal Kombat.

799
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: So this is a huge break for him, you know,

800
00:42:23,260 --> 00:42:28,620
Speaker 1: going from basically smaller roles in Hong Kong productions to essentially,

801
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:30,770
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe not top build, but still the main

802
00:42:30,830 --> 00:42:34,450
Speaker 1: character in this fairly big budget production that ends up

803
00:42:34,469 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 1: being a summer blockbuster release. He would follow this up

804
00:42:37,980 --> 00:42:41,120
Speaker 1: with 97's Mortal Kombat Annihilation, reprising the role, of course,

805
00:42:42,020 --> 00:42:44,620
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills Ninja the same year. He was in an

806
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:47,340
Speaker 1: episode of The Outer Limits from 1998. He was in

807
00:42:47,420 --> 00:42:50,299
Speaker 1: Death Race, Street Fighter, The Legend of Chun-Li in 2009,

808
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:54,320
Speaker 1: Death Race 2 in 2010, Death Race 3 Inferno in 2013.

809
00:42:56,300 --> 00:42:59,860
Speaker 1: He's also written and directed, I believe the film is

810
00:43:00,070 --> 00:43:02,489
Speaker 1: 2003's Red Trousers, The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen.

811
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:06,489
Speaker 1: And he is also credited with fight choreographer additional fight

812
00:43:06,530 --> 00:43:09,069
Speaker 1: sequences for this film. So I guess he got to

813
00:43:09,430 --> 00:43:11,870
Speaker 1: throw in some of his own special sauce in some

814
00:43:11,890 --> 00:43:12,969
Speaker 1: of his fight scenes here.

815
00:43:13,469 --> 00:43:16,650
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I also really like him here. None of

816
00:43:16,710 --> 00:43:22,770
Speaker 3: the characters in Mortal Kombat are written with great finesse.

817
00:43:23,170 --> 00:43:25,509
Speaker 3: And our hero role here is no exception to that.

818
00:43:26,790 --> 00:43:29,890
Speaker 3: Robin Cho is a great casting choice, and he shines

819
00:43:29,969 --> 00:43:37,029
Speaker 3: through due to just strong baseline likability. He's handsome. He's charismatic,

820
00:43:37,070 --> 00:43:38,870
Speaker 3: but not in a big, overt way. He's got an

821
00:43:39,030 --> 00:43:42,960
Speaker 3: understated charisma. He rips in his martial arts scenes and

822
00:43:43,020 --> 00:43:45,719
Speaker 3: just gives off good guy energy, even in the scenes

823
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:50,060
Speaker 3: where he's bringing a bad attitude. He also has astoundingly

824
00:43:50,140 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 3: voluminous hair. It's an almost glam metal volume. I'm in awe.

825
00:43:54,670 --> 00:43:58,870
Speaker 1: It is impressive hair, yes. The wind is often catching

826
00:43:58,910 --> 00:43:59,430
Speaker 1: it just right.

827
00:43:59,969 --> 00:44:03,149
Speaker 3: Who did the hairstyling in this movie? Generally quite good.

828
00:44:04,230 --> 00:44:09,400
Speaker 1: Catherine Reese, Michael Pockel, and Alicia M. Trippi. Those are

829
00:44:09,420 --> 00:44:12,600
Speaker 1: the three individuals credited. I don't know which one is

830
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 1: responsible for this hairdo, though.

831
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:17,299
Speaker 3: Hats off to you three. Literally, because you wouldn't want

832
00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:19,320
Speaker 3: to put a hat on that feathered do.

833
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:21,009
Speaker 1: It just wouldn't be the same if Liu Kang was

834
00:44:21,050 --> 00:44:23,390
Speaker 1: fighting in a ball camp. trucker hat, you know.

835
00:44:23,489 --> 00:44:23,790
Speaker 3: I don't know.

836
00:44:24,010 --> 00:44:27,430
Speaker 1: Now I'm picturing it sounds pretty cool. All right, then

837
00:44:27,450 --> 00:44:31,430
Speaker 1: we have Johnny Cage, played by Lyndon Ashby, born 1960,

838
00:44:31,430 --> 00:44:33,969
Speaker 1: American actor and martial arts practitioner. His credits go back

839
00:44:34,010 --> 00:44:38,029
Speaker 1: to 86. They include the 1987 werewolf TV show that

840
00:44:38,050 --> 00:44:41,370
Speaker 1: we frequently reference. He'd mostly done TV work prior to

841
00:44:41,410 --> 00:44:44,529
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat, but also some action films sprinkled in there

842
00:44:44,590 --> 00:44:47,529
Speaker 1: as well. For instance, there's a role as one of

843
00:44:47,550 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 1: the Earps in the 1994 film Wyatt Earp, And his

844
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:55,980
Speaker 1: post-Mortal Kombat credits include 35 episodes of Melrose Place, Wild

845
00:44:56,020 --> 00:45:00,540
Speaker 1: Things 2 in 2004, Resident Evil Extinction, 2008's Prom Night,

846
00:45:00,660 --> 00:45:06,550
Speaker 1: 2009's Anacondas, plural, Trail of Blood, Mean Girls 2 in 2011,

847
00:45:06,550 --> 00:45:10,790
Speaker 1: 2013's Iron Man 3, 88 episodes of TV's Teen Wolf.

848
00:45:11,430 --> 00:45:15,109
Speaker 1: That one is a strong Russell McKay connection there. And

849
00:45:15,130 --> 00:45:17,669
Speaker 1: various TV roles on top of that. He would return

850
00:45:17,710 --> 00:45:20,640
Speaker 1: to voice Johnny Cage, I believe, in downloadable content for

851
00:45:20,780 --> 00:45:24,940
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat 11 in 2019. And I believe Christophe Lambert

852
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: did the same. I don't know if he says, I

853
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:28,680
Speaker 1: don't think so, but I hope he does.

854
00:45:29,780 --> 00:45:33,600
Speaker 3: So I thought Johnny Cage was really cool and really

855
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:36,360
Speaker 3: funny when I was nine. Not sure I feel the

856
00:45:36,380 --> 00:45:39,080
Speaker 3: same way now, or at least maybe to rephrase, I

857
00:45:39,140 --> 00:45:42,090
Speaker 3: thought he, at the beginning of the movie, was cool

858
00:45:42,150 --> 00:45:44,190
Speaker 3: and funny when I was nine. Not sure I feel

859
00:45:44,230 --> 00:45:46,590
Speaker 3: the same way now. You know, early in the story,

860
00:45:46,650 --> 00:45:51,290
Speaker 3: his character is written smug, smarmy, and egotistical, but he's

861
00:45:51,310 --> 00:45:54,969
Speaker 3: got a nice redemption arc. He redeems himself with courage

862
00:45:55,300 --> 00:45:58,080
Speaker 3: and with a well-executed punch to the groin when it

863
00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:00,239
Speaker 3: matters most. So I think it all evens out.

864
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:05,100
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think this role may have been important

865
00:46:05,140 --> 00:46:07,780
Speaker 1: in setting the course for Johnny Cage in future combat

866
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,400
Speaker 1: games and media. So moving away from just sort of

867
00:46:10,460 --> 00:46:13,860
Speaker 1: a cocky Van Damme clone, into this kind of privileged,

868
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 1: semi-hatable jerk who maybe comes through in the end for

869
00:46:17,180 --> 00:46:19,719
Speaker 1: the good guys despite his ego. I should point out

870
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:22,299
Speaker 1: that Carl Urban is going to play him in the

871
00:46:22,420 --> 00:46:25,740
Speaker 1: next Mortal Kombat film, despite Urban clearly being the most

872
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:27,430
Speaker 1: Kano-ready actor alive.

873
00:46:27,790 --> 00:46:30,850
Speaker 3: Oh, man, put him in a metal faceplate right now.

874
00:46:31,150 --> 00:46:32,830
Speaker 1: I think they already have a guy playing Kano, so

875
00:46:32,850 --> 00:46:34,730
Speaker 1: they're like, what do you do with Carl Urban? But

876
00:46:35,010 --> 00:46:37,150
Speaker 1: Carl Urban's great at comedic roles, so he's going to

877
00:46:37,690 --> 00:46:38,570
Speaker 1: deliver something special.

878
00:46:38,610 --> 00:46:38,870
Speaker 3: I'm sure.

879
00:46:39,310 --> 00:46:39,469
Speaker 2: Yeah.

880
00:46:40,469 --> 00:46:43,029
Speaker 3: Oh, but we've waited too long. We've got to talk

881
00:46:43,070 --> 00:46:46,830
Speaker 3: about Kari Hiroyuki Tagawa playing our villain Shang Tsung in this.

882
00:46:47,030 --> 00:46:47,850
Speaker 3: I love him.

883
00:46:48,330 --> 00:46:48,649
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.

884
00:46:48,670 --> 00:46:53,250
Speaker 1: He is tremendous. This is the quintessential Shang Tsung. Born 1950,

885
00:46:53,250 --> 00:46:57,569
Speaker 1: Japanese-American actor whose credits fittingly go back to an uncredited

886
00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:01,060
Speaker 1: extra role as a Wing Kong man in 1986's Big

887
00:47:01,100 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 1: Trouble in Little China. I don't think I've ever spotted him,

888
00:47:03,540 --> 00:47:04,779
Speaker 1: but he's supposedly in there.

889
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:05,460
Speaker 3: Okay.

890
00:47:06,270 --> 00:47:08,630
Speaker 1: That same year, he had a small role in the

891
00:47:08,630 --> 00:47:12,719
Speaker 1: 1986 Fred Olin Ray-filmed Arm Response, starring David Carradine, Lee

892
00:47:12,739 --> 00:47:16,839
Speaker 1: Van Cleef, Mako, Michael Berryman, and Dick Miller. I mean,

893
00:47:16,980 --> 00:47:19,379
Speaker 1: to the extent anything. I mean, some movies star Dick Miller.

894
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:22,080
Speaker 1: We've covered them on the show before, but Dick Miller

895
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:23,660
Speaker 1: is generally a supporting note.

896
00:47:23,980 --> 00:47:26,580
Speaker 3: Yeah, he plays your door-to-door vacuum salesman.

897
00:47:26,980 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 2: Yeah.

898
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:32,600
Speaker 1: So Tagawa, since this film, has acted and voice acted

899
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,620
Speaker 1: in tons of titles, often playing villains because he does

900
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,549
Speaker 1: that so very well. I can't do all of his

901
00:47:39,570 --> 00:47:42,089
Speaker 1: credits justice, but just a few things to mention. He

902
00:47:42,430 --> 00:47:44,870
Speaker 1: did an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation. He

903
00:47:44,890 --> 00:47:48,910
Speaker 1: was in 1987's The Last Emperor, 1989's License to Kill.

904
00:47:48,930 --> 00:47:53,589
Speaker 1: Let's see, the 1991 Not of This World remake and

905
00:47:53,670 --> 00:47:58,529
Speaker 1: Showdown in Little Tokyo, same year. 1992's Nemesis, 93's Rising Sun,

906
00:47:58,630 --> 00:48:03,170
Speaker 1: Thunder in Paradise 1 and 3 in the mid-90s, Babylon 9,

907
00:48:03,170 --> 00:48:07,879
Speaker 1: John Carpenter's Vampires in 1998, the 2001 Planet of the Apes,

908
00:48:08,450 --> 00:48:10,820
Speaker 1: and he came back to play Shang Tsung again in

909
00:48:10,860 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 1: the 2013 TV series, possibly this was a web series,

910
00:48:14,460 --> 00:48:17,920
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat Legacy, and a major role in the TV

911
00:48:17,960 --> 00:48:20,239
Speaker 1: series The Man in the High Castle. And he would

912
00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:23,180
Speaker 1: also come back to play Shang Tsung in likeness and

913
00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:26,390
Speaker 1: voice for 2019's Mortal Kombat 11.

914
00:48:26,390 --> 00:48:28,350
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we were talking about how he seems to

915
00:48:28,370 --> 00:48:30,750
Speaker 3: have been typecast as a bad guy, but you can

916
00:48:30,810 --> 00:48:35,730
Speaker 3: understand why, because he has a world-class sneer. But he's

917
00:48:35,790 --> 00:48:37,819
Speaker 3: also just a great actor. I'm sure if you gave

918
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:40,460
Speaker 3: him a lovable, friendly, good guy role, he'd do well

919
00:48:40,500 --> 00:48:43,420
Speaker 3: with that as well. I think Tagawa is the best

920
00:48:43,580 --> 00:48:45,879
Speaker 3: actor in this movie, or at least, let me say,

921
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:49,500
Speaker 3: make it not about the person, but gives the best

922
00:48:49,580 --> 00:48:53,259
Speaker 3: performance in this movie, and it's not even close. Every

923
00:48:53,320 --> 00:48:56,270
Speaker 3: scene he's in, he dominates everything. He has this great

924
00:48:56,530 --> 00:49:01,110
Speaker 3: rare skill of making even quite badly written dialogue just sing.

925
00:49:02,190 --> 00:49:04,510
Speaker 3: As we said earlier, even though this is a dumb movie,

926
00:49:04,550 --> 00:49:06,609
Speaker 3: it does not ever get boring. And we talked about

927
00:49:06,710 --> 00:49:11,049
Speaker 3: some reasons for that, like the pacing that keeps things

928
00:49:11,110 --> 00:49:14,169
Speaker 3: moving along briskly, the use of hype music to keep

929
00:49:14,230 --> 00:49:17,529
Speaker 3: the energy up. But I think a big reason it

930
00:49:17,590 --> 00:49:19,969
Speaker 3: does not get boring is a couple of the major problems.

931
00:49:20,989 --> 00:49:24,440
Speaker 3: One is Christophe Lambert, who just keeps things fun. But

932
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:28,959
Speaker 3: the other one is Karihiro Yuki Tagawa, because he's almost

933
00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:33,680
Speaker 3: like a lubricant that keeps the movie's motor from reaching

934
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:37,140
Speaker 3: the failure threshold. You know, it's like every scene he's in,

935
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:39,440
Speaker 3: he just makes it come alive.

936
00:49:39,969 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's clearly physically and spiritually committed to every scene

937
00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:49,120
Speaker 1: he's in. It is a completely over-the-top mustache twirling villain role,

938
00:49:49,300 --> 00:49:52,720
Speaker 1: except he doesn't have the mustache. But, you know, certainly

939
00:49:52,780 --> 00:49:57,170
Speaker 1: embodies that over-the-top vibe. The character lacks the complexity of

940
00:49:57,230 --> 00:50:00,669
Speaker 1: James Hong's Lopun, you know, one of the obvious inspirations

941
00:50:01,030 --> 00:50:03,489
Speaker 1: for the video game character. But yeah, Tagawa makes it

942
00:50:03,530 --> 00:50:07,190
Speaker 1: his own. And in this film, essentially becomes the quintessential

943
00:50:07,230 --> 00:50:10,020
Speaker 1: Shang Tsung moving forward. Oh, and he has a great coat.

944
00:50:10,420 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 1: Amazing coat.

945
00:50:11,940 --> 00:50:15,420
Speaker 3: One of those martial arts movie costumes that makes so

946
00:50:15,500 --> 00:50:20,250
Speaker 3: little sense. It's like a huge, heavy, calf-length leather coat. Yeah,

947
00:50:20,310 --> 00:50:22,250
Speaker 3: I'm going to do some roundhouse kicks, so I'm going

948
00:50:22,270 --> 00:50:24,470
Speaker 3: to wrap my whole body in loose leather.

949
00:50:24,489 --> 00:50:28,969
Speaker 1: It's amazing, yeah. Costume design here by Ha Nguyen, who

950
00:50:29,010 --> 00:50:31,520
Speaker 1: lived 1955 through 2012. I hope it's in a planet

951
00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:33,520
Speaker 1: Hollywood somewhere and people can look at it while they

952
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:34,560
Speaker 1: eat their cheeseburgers.

953
00:50:34,780 --> 00:50:34,960
Speaker 4: Yeah.

954
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:46,279
Speaker 1: All right. Now let's move on to the character of

955
00:50:46,320 --> 00:50:51,839
Speaker 1: Sonya Blade. Played in this film by Bridget Wilson. Sampras credited,

956
00:50:51,890 --> 00:50:53,950
Speaker 1: of course, as Bridget Wilson for this film.

957
00:50:54,670 --> 00:50:57,049
Speaker 3: I was trying to think of a not unkind way

958
00:50:57,070 --> 00:50:59,810
Speaker 3: to say this, but this character is the source of

959
00:50:59,870 --> 00:51:03,470
Speaker 3: a lot of the unintentionally funny parts of this movie.

960
00:51:04,030 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 3: Like the scene where we meet her is probably the

961
00:51:06,219 --> 00:51:09,630
Speaker 3: most unintentionally funny part of it. where she's decked out

962
00:51:09,730 --> 00:51:12,830
Speaker 3: in SWAT gear with her partner Jax, and they're running

963
00:51:12,870 --> 00:51:15,970
Speaker 3: through the middle of a techno dance club. I don't know, Rob,

964
00:51:16,010 --> 00:51:17,989
Speaker 3: if you can identify what kind of club this is

965
00:51:18,010 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 3: supposed to be. But they're running through this club with

966
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:25,640
Speaker 3: all these dancers with shotguns, and she's relentlessly barking out

967
00:51:25,700 --> 00:51:30,899
Speaker 3: these tactical speak lines like, secure the perimeter and stuff.

968
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:34,020
Speaker 3: It's an awkward fit in the role.

969
00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:36,140
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe it's supposed to be a heavy metal

970
00:51:36,200 --> 00:51:40,590
Speaker 1: rave club in mid-90s Hong Kong. which I guess maybe

971
00:51:41,250 --> 00:51:43,109
Speaker 1: that's realistic. I don't know. Hong Kong certainly has both

972
00:51:43,150 --> 00:51:45,610
Speaker 1: a metal scene and a rave scene, though nothing we

973
00:51:45,660 --> 00:51:49,739
Speaker 1: see here feels actually connected to any potential reality of that.

974
00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:52,819
Speaker 3: Now, Sonya was actually one of my favorite characters in

975
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,640
Speaker 3: the original Mortal Kombat game because I could do several

976
00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:58,629
Speaker 3: of her special moves and I thought they were cool.

977
00:51:58,690 --> 00:52:01,130
Speaker 3: She could shoot these energy rings out of her hands

978
00:52:01,190 --> 00:52:02,589
Speaker 3: and she could also do a thing where she would

979
00:52:02,630 --> 00:52:05,090
Speaker 3: like stand on her hands, grab you with her ankles

980
00:52:05,150 --> 00:52:08,569
Speaker 3: and flip you over. Um, so, uh, so Sonya was

981
00:52:08,630 --> 00:52:11,529
Speaker 3: cool in the game. In the movie, they, they really

982
00:52:11,590 --> 00:52:15,950
Speaker 3: emphasized like the special forces revenge element. So she is, uh,

983
00:52:16,070 --> 00:52:19,020
Speaker 3: hunting this guy Kano on the island. But a lot

984
00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:21,739
Speaker 3: of her dialogue once we reached the island is what

985
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:24,620
Speaker 3: I would call hate flirting with Johnny Cage, where they're

986
00:52:24,660 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 3: just like trading barbs and insults back and forth. But

987
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,200
Speaker 3: of course they're going to end up falling in love.

988
00:52:30,580 --> 00:52:32,440
Speaker 1: Yeah. And having children, you get to play their children

989
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:33,100
Speaker 1: in the later games.

990
00:52:33,610 --> 00:52:34,319
Speaker 3: Are you serious?

991
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:34,590
Speaker 1: Yeah.

992
00:52:34,610 --> 00:52:34,800
Speaker 2: Yeah.

993
00:52:34,820 --> 00:52:35,089
Speaker 1: For real.

994
00:52:35,130 --> 00:52:35,549
Speaker 3: No way.

995
00:52:35,730 --> 00:52:39,120
Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, that's like a son and a son and

996
00:52:39,160 --> 00:52:39,750
Speaker 1: a daughter, I think.

997
00:52:39,830 --> 00:52:43,190
Speaker 3: But anyway, and they let their kids enter the mortal

998
00:52:43,230 --> 00:52:44,709
Speaker 3: combat tournament. Yeah.

999
00:52:44,770 --> 00:52:47,890
Speaker 1: Yeah. And yeah. And they fight against each other too. Yeah.

1000
00:52:47,910 --> 00:52:51,419
Speaker 1: So all that is in play, but, um, it's often

1001
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,719
Speaker 1: pointed out that Cameron Diaz, uh, was cast in this

1002
00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:57,680
Speaker 1: role and was training for the role and then suffered

1003
00:52:57,719 --> 00:52:59,420
Speaker 1: some sort of training injury and had to back out.

1004
00:52:59,950 --> 00:53:02,750
Speaker 1: That could have been interesting. It could have been. And

1005
00:53:03,050 --> 00:53:05,609
Speaker 1: to be clear, Cameron Diaz is great, but I'm not

1006
00:53:05,670 --> 00:53:07,589
Speaker 1: sure if even she could have done much with this

1007
00:53:07,660 --> 00:53:11,580
Speaker 1: role because like you said, she's this sort of cardboard

1008
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:15,279
Speaker 1: revenge seeker action hero until suddenly she's not because then

1009
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:18,090
Speaker 1: suddenly she's a damsel in distress, kidnapped by the villain

1010
00:53:18,110 --> 00:53:19,730
Speaker 1: that needs to be rescued by the male heroes.

1011
00:53:20,060 --> 00:53:23,259
Speaker 3: Yes, this movie does. There's a tension there because they're

1012
00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:26,180
Speaker 3: all supposed to be fighters in this tournament. Right. And

1013
00:53:26,219 --> 00:53:27,720
Speaker 3: they can hold their own. And we do see she

1014
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:29,750
Speaker 3: has a fight with Kano in the movie where she

1015
00:53:29,830 --> 00:53:33,330
Speaker 3: is victorious. But right. For some reason, right at the

1016
00:53:33,430 --> 00:53:37,630
Speaker 3: break for Act three, she transforms from a from a

1017
00:53:37,710 --> 00:53:40,390
Speaker 3: determined fighter into. Well, now she just like needs to

1018
00:53:40,430 --> 00:53:41,839
Speaker 3: be rescued by the dudes.

1019
00:53:42,300 --> 00:53:42,520
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1020
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:44,820
Speaker 3: Predictable twist. Yeah.

1021
00:53:46,070 --> 00:53:48,069
Speaker 1: Now, she would, of course, go on to marry tennis

1022
00:53:48,090 --> 00:53:51,790
Speaker 1: star Pete Sampras, thus Bridget Wilson Sampras. She was a

1023
00:53:51,890 --> 00:53:54,950
Speaker 1: former Miss Teen USA. She started out acting on Saved

1024
00:53:54,969 --> 00:53:58,590
Speaker 1: by the Bell and Santa Barbara before appearing in 1993's

1025
00:53:58,650 --> 00:54:02,489
Speaker 1: Last Action Hero, followed by Billy Madison, this film, and

1026
00:54:02,670 --> 00:54:06,700
Speaker 1: Nixon in 95. So quite an interesting 95, I have

1027
00:54:06,739 --> 00:54:07,020
Speaker 1: to say.

1028
00:54:07,540 --> 00:54:11,080
Speaker 3: And then Oliver Stone movie and Mortal Kombat.

1029
00:54:11,780 --> 00:54:13,740
Speaker 1: Other films include I Know What You Did Last Summer

1030
00:54:13,820 --> 00:54:16,859
Speaker 1: in 97, House on Haunted Hill in 99. And she

1031
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:20,200
Speaker 1: also came back to lend her voice to MK11 in 2019,

1032
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:23,549
Speaker 1: I think, for some DLC. All right. Another female character,

1033
00:54:23,930 --> 00:54:27,410
Speaker 1: a woman of mystery that shows up, is the character Katana,

1034
00:54:27,850 --> 00:54:33,210
Speaker 1: played by Talissa Soto, born 1967. She'd previously appeared in

1035
00:54:33,630 --> 00:54:36,489
Speaker 1: 89's License to Kill as the villain's girlfriend, like the

1036
00:54:36,510 --> 00:54:41,149
Speaker 1: drug lord's girlfriend. And so she's not really a bad

1037
00:54:41,190 --> 00:54:43,250
Speaker 1: guy in that. I think she ends up, she doesn't

1038
00:54:43,270 --> 00:54:45,960
Speaker 1: like the villain either. But then Bond chooses the other

1039
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:49,259
Speaker 1: girl over her, if memory serves. If you remember any

1040
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:53,839
Speaker 1: of the romantic themes and plotting of License to Kill.

1041
00:54:54,410 --> 00:54:57,190
Speaker 3: License to Kill is the one with Robert Davi, isn't it?

1042
00:54:57,390 --> 00:55:00,870
Speaker 1: Yep. So she plays Davi's character's girlfriend.

1043
00:55:01,150 --> 00:55:03,070
Speaker 3: Okay.

1044
00:55:03,130 --> 00:55:05,890
Speaker 1: She would reprise her role as Katana in the 97 sequel.

1045
00:55:06,130 --> 00:55:08,350
Speaker 1: And of note, she is the wife of Benjamin Bratt.

1046
00:55:09,130 --> 00:55:11,560
Speaker 3: She is a character of power and mystery in this.

1047
00:55:11,660 --> 00:55:14,450
Speaker 3: She is not a human fighter in the tournament. but

1048
00:55:14,469 --> 00:55:17,150
Speaker 3: appears as one of the envoys of Outworld. I think

1049
00:55:17,170 --> 00:55:20,330
Speaker 3: they say she's the daughter of the Emperor of Outworld.

1050
00:55:20,730 --> 00:55:25,070
Speaker 3: And she's here at the tournament with mysterious and ambiguous motivations.

1051
00:55:25,190 --> 00:55:28,680
Speaker 3: And clearly the villains are sort of afraid of her.

1052
00:55:28,739 --> 00:55:30,979
Speaker 3: They don't know exactly what she intends to do.

1053
00:55:31,380 --> 00:55:34,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. And she's unfortunately in one of the least interesting fights.

1054
00:55:35,980 --> 00:55:39,160
Speaker 1: It's more about passing secret information on to Liu Kang.

1055
00:55:39,630 --> 00:55:42,089
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, yeah, but she saves Liu Kang's life by

1056
00:55:42,130 --> 00:55:43,810
Speaker 3: letting him know that water freezes.

1057
00:55:43,989 --> 00:55:48,069
Speaker 1: That's right. All right, we mentioned Kano. Kano was played

1058
00:55:48,090 --> 00:55:52,500
Speaker 1: by Trevor Goddard in this. He lived 1962 through 2003.

1059
00:55:52,500 --> 00:55:55,840
Speaker 1: English actor who often played Australian characters. I've read he

1060
00:55:55,900 --> 00:55:58,080
Speaker 1: might have actually been going for a Cockney accent here

1061
00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:01,500
Speaker 1: with Kano, but what we get certainly feels Australian, and

1062
00:56:01,540 --> 00:56:05,690
Speaker 1: it actually led to the franchise character becoming Australian. So

1063
00:56:06,010 --> 00:56:09,290
Speaker 1: I think ever since Kano has always been Australian, And

1064
00:56:09,310 --> 00:56:12,190
Speaker 1: I believe he's currently played by an Australian in the

1065
00:56:12,230 --> 00:56:16,669
Speaker 1: new film series. So Goddard was a punk rocker turned

1066
00:56:16,850 --> 00:56:20,049
Speaker 1: actor who really gets to choose some scenery and some,

1067
00:56:20,330 --> 00:56:24,210
Speaker 1: I think, turkey legs in this one. He'd mostly done

1068
00:56:24,250 --> 00:56:26,310
Speaker 1: TV work prior to this, but went on to appear

1069
00:56:26,410 --> 00:56:29,279
Speaker 1: in 1998's Deep Rising, which is a pretty fun creature feature,

1070
00:56:29,780 --> 00:56:32,600
Speaker 1: and 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the

1071
00:56:32,640 --> 00:56:35,800
Speaker 1: Black Pearl. This was the same year of his untimely passing.

1072
00:56:36,540 --> 00:56:39,520
Speaker 1: I would say Kano feels underutilized in the film. But

1073
00:56:39,580 --> 00:56:42,819
Speaker 1: Goddard literally makes a meal at any Kano scene he's in.

1074
00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:46,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a scene where he just eats this greasy,

1075
00:56:46,680 --> 00:56:52,089
Speaker 3: juice-squirting turkey leg. And he's very much eating it in character,

1076
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:55,370
Speaker 3: if that makes sense. He's, like, acting through eating. And

1077
00:56:55,450 --> 00:56:57,370
Speaker 3: I love him in that scene. He also gets to

1078
00:56:57,450 --> 00:56:59,850
Speaker 3: throw the turkey leg on the floor after eating about

1079
00:56:59,969 --> 00:57:01,149
Speaker 3: one-eighth of it or so.

1080
00:57:01,170 --> 00:57:04,190
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. He's a food waster. And there's a lot

1081
00:57:04,230 --> 00:57:07,029
Speaker 1: of spittle. There's a lot of spittle from this character. Yes.

1082
00:57:07,989 --> 00:57:09,730
Speaker 1: All right, and I'll mention this in passing, but Peter

1083
00:57:09,750 --> 00:57:12,510
Speaker 1: Jason is in this in a very small role playing

1084
00:57:12,550 --> 00:57:19,270
Speaker 1: Master Boyd, Cage's old trainer or whatnot. Born 1944, he's

1085
00:57:19,310 --> 00:57:21,550
Speaker 1: a familiar character actor who's been in everything from The

1086
00:57:21,590 --> 00:57:25,300
Speaker 1: Karate Kid and Congo to a slew of John Carpenter films,

1087
00:57:25,360 --> 00:57:29,120
Speaker 1: including the likes of Prince of Darkness, Escape from L.A.,

1088
00:57:29,520 --> 00:57:30,560
Speaker 1: and In the Mouth of Madness.

1089
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:32,780
Speaker 3: I knew I recognized him from somewhere.

1090
00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:34,540
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's one of those guys. He's in a lot

1091
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:34,720
Speaker 1: of stuff.

1092
00:57:35,570 --> 00:57:37,750
Speaker 3: Except when we see him, he's not really Master Boyd,

1093
00:57:37,810 --> 00:57:38,050
Speaker 3: is he?

1094
00:57:38,290 --> 00:57:38,830
Speaker 1: That's right.

1095
00:57:39,230 --> 00:57:39,870
Speaker 3: We'll get to that.

1096
00:57:40,630 --> 00:57:43,230
Speaker 1: All right. Voice actors, Frank Welker is in this, doing

1097
00:57:43,250 --> 00:57:46,620
Speaker 1: the voices of Shao Kahn and Reptile. Born in 46,

1098
00:57:46,610 --> 00:57:50,760
Speaker 1: he's a voice acting mainstay, especially when you need some

1099
00:57:50,860 --> 00:57:53,540
Speaker 1: odd grunts and weird creature noises.

1100
00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:56,660
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So he does the squealing of Reptile,

1101
00:57:56,720 --> 00:57:58,960
Speaker 3: I guess, and then he, at the end of the movie,

1102
00:57:58,980 --> 00:58:02,480
Speaker 3: gets to say, you weak, pathetic fools, I've come for

1103
00:58:02,500 --> 00:58:03,120
Speaker 3: your souls.

1104
00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:07,250
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And then the voice of Goro is Kevin

1105
00:58:07,290 --> 00:58:12,670
Speaker 1: Michael Richardson, born 1964, deep-voiced actor who has worked extensively

1106
00:58:12,710 --> 00:58:15,250
Speaker 1: as a voice actor for film, TV, and video games.

1107
00:58:15,730 --> 00:58:17,910
Speaker 3: Now, is this the point where we want to mention

1108
00:58:17,930 --> 00:58:20,970
Speaker 3: the Goro special effects? Because I'm a little bit on

1109
00:58:21,010 --> 00:58:25,880
Speaker 3: the fence. On one hand, I acknowledge that the Goro...

1110
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:28,900
Speaker 3: I don't even fully know how they accomplished it. Maybe

1111
00:58:28,920 --> 00:58:33,060
Speaker 3: it's some combination of, like... suit and animatronics or whatever.

1112
00:58:33,100 --> 00:58:36,760
Speaker 3: Whatever it is, it's an impressive achievement. Those forearms feel

1113
00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,800
Speaker 3: kind of real. They feel like they're moving independently. But

1114
00:58:39,890 --> 00:58:42,770
Speaker 3: on the other hand, the design is just hideous. I

1115
00:58:42,790 --> 00:58:45,510
Speaker 3: want to wipe my eyes after looking at it.

1116
00:58:46,130 --> 00:58:49,570
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. Goro is... It's a lot

1117
00:58:49,590 --> 00:58:50,070
Speaker 1: to take in.

1118
00:58:50,510 --> 00:58:53,060
Speaker 3: Yeah. But to come back on the other hand again,

1119
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:56,830
Speaker 3: I will give them that his presence... the presence they

1120
00:58:56,850 --> 00:59:00,720
Speaker 3: achieve is genuinely menacing. And I remember being scared of

1121
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:03,360
Speaker 3: Goro in this movie when I was a kid. It's scary.

1122
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:06,830
Speaker 3: And some of the early teases of his presence are

1123
00:59:07,030 --> 00:59:07,570
Speaker 3: quite good.

1124
00:59:07,930 --> 00:59:10,350
Speaker 1: Yeah. The teases are the best really. where you don't

1125
00:59:10,730 --> 00:59:12,610
Speaker 1: see much of them at all. But then you see

1126
00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:15,040
Speaker 1: all of them pretty much. And yeah, it's a weird

1127
00:59:15,100 --> 00:59:18,240
Speaker 1: mix because as a 100 percent practical effect in a

1128
00:59:18,300 --> 00:59:21,940
Speaker 1: film that has some hideous CGI elements, you know, he's

1129
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:26,000
Speaker 1: instantly admirable. You're like, yes, prove my point that the

1130
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:29,860
Speaker 1: practical effects are the best. But he also just looks

1131
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:33,140
Speaker 1: a little stilted and awkward most of the time. He

1132
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:36,220
Speaker 1: comes off looking like a jacked Crypt Keeper, but without

1133
00:59:36,340 --> 00:59:39,090
Speaker 1: all the lifelike articulation of the Crypt Keeper. Like the

1134
00:59:39,110 --> 00:59:43,930
Speaker 1: Crypt Keeper always felt real. And I wanted Goro to

1135
00:59:44,050 --> 00:59:47,410
Speaker 1: feel more real. I wanted to believe in him more.

1136
00:59:47,910 --> 00:59:49,860
Speaker 1: And at the same time, yeah, I realized like a

1137
00:59:49,960 --> 00:59:53,140
Speaker 1: lot of admirable work and artistry went into creating this effect,

1138
00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:56,540
Speaker 1: but it just doesn't quite work. And I'm not sure

1139
00:59:56,580 --> 00:59:59,290
Speaker 1: exactly where the shortcoming is here. Like, Is it just

1140
00:59:59,330 --> 01:00:01,370
Speaker 1: that he should have been a stop motion effect, more

1141
01:00:01,390 --> 01:00:03,620
Speaker 1: or less like he is in the game? Does it

1142
01:00:03,660 --> 01:00:06,880
Speaker 1: come down to the way that they shot it and

1143
01:00:07,020 --> 01:00:10,280
Speaker 1: lit it? I mean, I'm not sure exactly what could

1144
01:00:10,320 --> 01:00:11,760
Speaker 1: have improved the scenario here.

1145
01:00:12,020 --> 01:00:15,620
Speaker 3: He's got a kind of uncanny valley quality that makes

1146
01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:17,880
Speaker 3: him sort of gross to look at, I think. It's

1147
01:00:17,980 --> 01:00:22,030
Speaker 3: that he looks almost like a human, but has held

1148
01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:24,900
Speaker 3: back in some way. Maybe if they had gone more

1149
01:00:25,040 --> 01:00:27,919
Speaker 3: fully monstrous in his design and made him a little

1150
01:00:27,940 --> 01:00:31,590
Speaker 3: bit less humanoid in the face, say that might've been better.

1151
01:00:32,070 --> 01:00:35,630
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, sometimes humanoid faces can be the

1152
01:00:35,690 --> 01:00:38,230
Speaker 1: most difficult to make work. Like that's one of the,

1153
01:00:38,990 --> 01:00:40,510
Speaker 1: you look at some of the behind the scenes stuff

1154
01:00:40,550 --> 01:00:41,990
Speaker 1: on the dark crystal and they talk about how the

1155
01:00:42,050 --> 01:00:44,710
Speaker 1: gelflings were the most challenging because they were the most,

1156
01:00:45,210 --> 01:00:46,570
Speaker 1: they were supposed to be the most beautiful and the

1157
01:00:46,610 --> 01:00:48,480
Speaker 1: most lifelike. And I don't think they're trying to make

1158
01:00:48,540 --> 01:00:52,160
Speaker 1: Goro beautiful, but maybe there's a case to be made that,

1159
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:55,670
Speaker 1: close-ups of goro speaking should have been um like a

1160
01:00:55,690 --> 01:00:58,950
Speaker 1: prosthetic on a human actor yeah instead of what we

1161
01:00:58,990 --> 01:01:00,950
Speaker 1: have here and i don't know it's also probably just

1162
01:01:00,990 --> 01:01:04,930
Speaker 1: another testament to how how great the effects are in

1163
01:01:04,970 --> 01:01:08,500
Speaker 1: things like the dark crystal where a fully artificial uh

1164
01:01:08,580 --> 01:01:12,460
Speaker 1: being is brought to believable life like it it's not

1165
01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:14,420
Speaker 1: even if you have all the tools at your disposal

1166
01:01:14,520 --> 01:01:17,000
Speaker 1: and you have a budget and you have expertise like

1167
01:01:17,300 --> 01:01:21,770
Speaker 1: you're trying to create a masterpiece So on the effects front,

1168
01:01:21,890 --> 01:01:23,990
Speaker 1: a lot of people were involved in this film. Tom

1169
01:01:24,030 --> 01:01:27,890
Speaker 1: Woodruff Jr. is credited with Goro special effects and Goro suit.

1170
01:01:28,390 --> 01:01:29,770
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, some of the times it

1171
01:01:29,830 --> 01:01:32,990
Speaker 1: is a person in a suit. Born 1959, tons of

1172
01:01:33,050 --> 01:01:36,430
Speaker 1: solid credits. He was a Stan Winston Studios guy. So

1173
01:01:36,470 --> 01:01:39,890
Speaker 1: he was on the team behind the Terminator and Aliens,

1174
01:01:40,300 --> 01:01:42,980
Speaker 1: though he'd splintered off at some point after those films

1175
01:01:43,720 --> 01:01:46,470
Speaker 1: prior to Mortal Kombat. All right. And then we mentioned

1176
01:01:46,490 --> 01:01:49,290
Speaker 1: the fight choreography. I'll mention that Patty Johnson, who lived

1177
01:01:49,290 --> 01:01:53,770
Speaker 1: 1939 through 2023, was a fight choreographer here. And he

1178
01:01:53,790 --> 01:01:57,610
Speaker 1: was an accomplished martial artist with his own action acting

1179
01:01:57,690 --> 01:02:01,220
Speaker 1: credits going back to 1973's Enter the Dragon. He appeared

1180
01:02:01,260 --> 01:02:04,620
Speaker 1: in multiple Chuck Norris movies, such as 79's A Force

1181
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:08,060
Speaker 1: of One. He served as fight choreographer on 1984's The

1182
01:02:08,100 --> 01:02:11,780
Speaker 1: Karate Kid and also the three sequels to that. all

1183
01:02:11,880 --> 01:02:15,120
Speaker 1: three of the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies, and

1184
01:02:15,140 --> 01:02:18,400
Speaker 1: he also came back for Mortal Kombat Annihilation. He also

1185
01:02:18,440 --> 01:02:21,820
Speaker 1: plays the referee with the mustache in the Karate Kid movie,

1186
01:02:21,840 --> 01:02:25,720
Speaker 1: the first one. All right, and then finally, the music.

1187
01:02:25,820 --> 01:02:29,220
Speaker 1: So we already mentioned the importance of music in Paul W.S.

1188
01:02:29,300 --> 01:02:32,140
Speaker 1: Anderson films, but music is also a key part of

1189
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:36,590
Speaker 1: the Mortal Kombat franchise. The video games, especially MK2, had

1190
01:02:36,610 --> 01:02:39,530
Speaker 1: some pretty great music. I've listened to the Mortal Kombat

1191
01:02:39,530 --> 01:02:42,700
Speaker 1: 2 soundtrack, like the original video soundtrack, a little in isolation.

1192
01:02:43,380 --> 01:02:47,800
Speaker 1: It has, you know, an Eastern-influenced electronic vibe. I guess

1193
01:02:47,820 --> 01:02:50,460
Speaker 1: you'd maybe call it chiptune by today's standards, you know.

1194
01:02:51,620 --> 01:02:54,990
Speaker 1: Partially inspired by Carpenter and Hoarth's tremendous score to Big

1195
01:02:55,010 --> 01:02:59,310
Speaker 1: Trouble in Little China. And then in 1994, Virgin Records

1196
01:02:59,370 --> 01:03:03,790
Speaker 1: released Mortal Kombat, the album, by the Immortals. This is

1197
01:03:03,930 --> 01:03:05,030
Speaker 1: the release that gave us.

1198
01:03:06,640 --> 01:03:10,820
Speaker 1: A number of infectious beats, some solid cheese, and also

1199
01:03:10,840 --> 01:03:13,900
Speaker 1: the Mortal Kombat theme song that we hear in this,

1200
01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:15,620
Speaker 1: the 1995 film.

1201
01:03:15,820 --> 01:03:19,420
Speaker 3: I was going to ask if you knew, so I

1202
01:03:19,580 --> 01:03:22,190
Speaker 3: think of the theme song from this film with the

1203
01:03:22,230 --> 01:03:27,430
Speaker 3: main dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, that thing I fully associate with Mortal Kombat

1204
01:03:27,890 --> 01:03:30,770
Speaker 3: going back to the games, but I actually don't know

1205
01:03:30,830 --> 01:03:33,810
Speaker 3: if anything like that is in the games. Is there

1206
01:03:33,850 --> 01:03:37,300
Speaker 3: something like that? That's just straight from this album and

1207
01:03:37,320 --> 01:03:38,010
Speaker 3: then the movie.

1208
01:03:38,380 --> 01:03:38,780
Speaker 1: Correct.

1209
01:03:38,860 --> 01:03:39,540
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1210
01:03:39,800 --> 01:03:42,140
Speaker 1: I don't think we had anything quite like this in

1211
01:03:42,160 --> 01:03:44,240
Speaker 1: the video games. Though I love the video game music,

1212
01:03:44,900 --> 01:03:45,380
Speaker 1: like I said.

1213
01:03:45,840 --> 01:03:49,260
Speaker 3: Yeah. Man, it managed to cement a place in the

1214
01:03:49,340 --> 01:03:50,060
Speaker 3: early canon.

1215
01:03:52,560 --> 01:03:55,060
Speaker 1: They've continued to make music a big part of the franchise.

1216
01:03:55,180 --> 01:03:58,860
Speaker 1: In 2011, they put out the album Mortal Kombat Songs

1217
01:03:58,940 --> 01:04:02,340
Speaker 1: Inspired by the Warriors. This was part of the promotion

1218
01:04:02,380 --> 01:04:04,620
Speaker 1: for that year's new Mortal Kombat game. And it has

1219
01:04:04,680 --> 01:04:09,540
Speaker 1: some really solid EDM and dubstep tracks on it. For

1220
01:04:09,560 --> 01:04:11,120
Speaker 1: some of you, if you don't know what dubstep is,

1221
01:04:11,180 --> 01:04:14,460
Speaker 1: or you just have a vague idea, I'm talking dubstep

1222
01:04:14,520 --> 01:04:18,940
Speaker 1: and like, say like the larger Euro understanding of dubstep.

1223
01:04:19,240 --> 01:04:21,910
Speaker 1: So like, yes, Skrillex is on there and Skrillex track

1224
01:04:21,950 --> 01:04:26,210
Speaker 1: is really good. But there's a lot of dubstep that's

1225
01:04:26,550 --> 01:04:30,470
Speaker 1: more on the darker end of the spectrum, more atmospheric,

1226
01:04:31,350 --> 01:04:34,439
Speaker 1: especially a number of like British and Euro tracks. artists

1227
01:04:34,460 --> 01:04:36,480
Speaker 1: that were responsible for that. So this particular release has

1228
01:04:36,500 --> 01:04:39,220
Speaker 1: some great tracks. It's got some stuff by Sound of Stereo,

1229
01:04:39,700 --> 01:04:44,940
Speaker 1: Run DMT, LA Riots, Bird Peterson, Harvard Bass, JFK, and

1230
01:04:45,160 --> 01:04:48,840
Speaker 1: Toki Monsta. These are all really fun artists. And I

1231
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:51,919
Speaker 1: occasionally will pick up at least a track or two

1232
01:04:52,020 --> 01:04:54,600
Speaker 1: off of this album and listen to it. The Run

1233
01:04:54,620 --> 01:04:57,840
Speaker 1: DMT track especially is really good. All right, but this

1234
01:04:57,900 --> 01:05:01,070
Speaker 1: is side tension. How does this film do on the

1235
01:05:01,120 --> 01:05:01,640
Speaker 1: music front?

1236
01:05:02,120 --> 01:05:04,130
Speaker 3: Oh, well, as I said earlier, I think that it,

1237
01:05:04,680 --> 01:05:06,870
Speaker 3: the use of music is one of the things that

1238
01:05:06,910 --> 01:05:09,110
Speaker 3: really keeps the momentum up. Like we were talking, there's

1239
01:05:09,130 --> 01:05:13,050
Speaker 3: some great hype music throughout. Uh, I'm thinking of, Oh,

1240
01:05:13,930 --> 01:05:15,430
Speaker 3: I don't know. There were a bunch of moments. Like

1241
01:05:15,470 --> 01:05:18,430
Speaker 3: there is a scene where Shang Tsung has all of

1242
01:05:18,490 --> 01:05:21,300
Speaker 3: the warriors come in and like have dinner. There's this

1243
01:05:21,340 --> 01:05:24,160
Speaker 3: big feast. Uh, and then he has his, you know,

1244
01:05:24,300 --> 01:05:26,460
Speaker 3: oiled up muscle boys run in and they're going to,

1245
01:05:26,560 --> 01:05:28,160
Speaker 3: one of them is going to fight sub zero. And

1246
01:05:28,220 --> 01:05:30,340
Speaker 3: as they're getting ready for this fight, There's just a

1247
01:05:30,480 --> 01:05:34,680
Speaker 3: drum track that is great. It really gets your blood pumping.

1248
01:05:34,880 --> 01:05:37,510
Speaker 3: You are ready for an action scene. But there's also

1249
01:05:37,550 --> 01:05:41,030
Speaker 3: a lot of use of music to sort of power

1250
01:05:41,390 --> 01:05:44,970
Speaker 3: plot transitions. So at the moment where Liu Kang is

1251
01:05:45,070 --> 01:05:47,530
Speaker 3: leaving the temple after having said, I'm going to the

1252
01:05:47,570 --> 01:05:50,860
Speaker 3: tournament with or without your consent, there's this hype track

1253
01:05:50,900 --> 01:05:54,140
Speaker 3: that comes on with these ringing bells and heavy drum beats.

1254
01:05:54,680 --> 01:05:57,220
Speaker 3: It just sends a thrill through your body like you're ready.

1255
01:05:59,230 --> 01:06:01,890
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the score is pretty darn good. And

1256
01:06:01,930 --> 01:06:05,570
Speaker 1: it is the work of George S. Clinton, born 1947.

1257
01:06:05,570 --> 01:06:09,360
Speaker 1: No relation to funk legend George Clinton. This is the

1258
01:06:09,460 --> 01:06:11,120
Speaker 1: Chattanooga-born film composer.

1259
01:06:12,500 --> 01:06:14,560
Speaker 3: I think his name's come up on the show before.

1260
01:06:14,600 --> 01:06:16,220
Speaker 3: He did something we've talked about.

1261
01:06:16,240 --> 01:06:18,930
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't remember what it would be, because I'm

1262
01:06:18,950 --> 01:06:21,110
Speaker 1: looking at the films he worked on, and they're the

1263
01:06:21,150 --> 01:06:25,610
Speaker 1: likes of American Ninja II in 87, Hellbound, Chuck Norris,

1264
01:06:26,030 --> 01:06:30,080
Speaker 1: and Brain Scan in 94. Delta of Venus in 95,

1265
01:06:30,080 --> 01:06:33,420
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills Ninja, and Mortal Kombat Annihilation. So I'd have

1266
01:06:33,460 --> 01:06:35,100
Speaker 1: to go back and look at his filmography to see

1267
01:06:35,220 --> 01:06:37,720
Speaker 1: what I'm forgetting that he might have scored that we've

1268
01:06:37,900 --> 01:06:38,580
Speaker 1: discussed before.

1269
01:06:39,340 --> 01:06:42,680
Speaker 3: Well, maybe I'm mistaken about that. I associated him with

1270
01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:45,510
Speaker 3: Austin Powers for some reason. I think he did that.

1271
01:06:46,050 --> 01:06:48,090
Speaker 1: I think you're right on that. I think I forgot

1272
01:06:48,110 --> 01:06:50,570
Speaker 1: to include that, but let's see. I think you're right

1273
01:06:50,610 --> 01:06:53,070
Speaker 1: on that. I think he was involved in the Austin

1274
01:06:53,110 --> 01:06:54,070
Speaker 1: Powers franchise.

1275
01:06:54,830 --> 01:06:56,770
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think a lot of the original score

1276
01:06:56,890 --> 01:07:00,920
Speaker 3: used in the movie is is very strong. But that

1277
01:07:00,980 --> 01:07:03,020
Speaker 3: brings us back to that CD I had, because there's

1278
01:07:03,060 --> 01:07:06,200
Speaker 3: also the original Motion Picture soundtrack CD, which is not

1279
01:07:06,240 --> 01:07:09,140
Speaker 3: just the score, but it's got all the needle drop tracks.

1280
01:07:09,520 --> 01:07:13,169
Speaker 1: That's right. So, of course, we have that Immortals Mortal

1281
01:07:13,190 --> 01:07:19,930
Speaker 1: Kombat theme song track, which is high energy, pretty great. Infectious, cheesy, yes,

1282
01:07:20,070 --> 01:07:22,970
Speaker 1: all of the above. There's also a Utah Saints remix

1283
01:07:23,010 --> 01:07:25,189
Speaker 1: of that theme song that is maybe like a little

1284
01:07:25,230 --> 01:07:26,110
Speaker 1: deeper in the bass.

1285
01:07:26,930 --> 01:07:27,570
Speaker 3: Hmm, yeah.

1286
01:07:28,240 --> 01:07:30,680
Speaker 1: And let's see, some of my favorites off of this,

1287
01:07:30,860 --> 01:07:33,590
Speaker 1: I would say I have to single out three tracks

1288
01:07:33,610 --> 01:07:36,680
Speaker 1: that were my favorites. First of all, there's KMFDM's Juke

1289
01:07:36,720 --> 01:07:41,330
Speaker 1: Joint Jezebel. This is the Giorgio Moroder Metropolis mix. I

1290
01:07:41,350 --> 01:07:43,290
Speaker 1: don't know what the original mix sounded like because I

1291
01:07:43,390 --> 01:07:45,310
Speaker 1: only ever listened to this. And this is basically the

1292
01:07:45,370 --> 01:07:48,490
Speaker 1: only KMFDM song that I know. But it's a solid track.

1293
01:07:48,830 --> 01:07:51,410
Speaker 3: I wonder if someday we should do the Disco Metropolis

1294
01:07:51,490 --> 01:07:53,590
Speaker 3: on Weird House, the one with the Moroder score.

1295
01:07:53,610 --> 01:07:57,910
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. It's a classic. I mean, it's a classic film,

1296
01:07:57,950 --> 01:08:00,610
Speaker 1: and then it's highly regarded in terms of going back

1297
01:08:00,690 --> 01:08:07,770
Speaker 1: and adding a new score to a classic silent film.

1298
01:08:07,790 --> 01:08:12,310
Speaker 1: Another one that I really like is Tracy Lord's Control.

1299
01:08:12,350 --> 01:08:15,790
Speaker 1: This is the Juno Reactor remix. It's an instrumental, so

1300
01:08:15,810 --> 01:08:18,930
Speaker 1: we don't hear Tracy Lord's vocals on this. But I

1301
01:08:18,970 --> 01:08:22,070
Speaker 1: went back and listened to the original track, and I'm

1302
01:08:22,090 --> 01:08:25,710
Speaker 1: pretty sure I've heard this in mixes before. It's really solid. Lourdes,

1303
01:08:25,750 --> 01:08:28,630
Speaker 1: of course, also acted in a number of mainstream genre films,

1304
01:08:28,670 --> 01:08:32,190
Speaker 1: including 1998's Blade. Oh, yeah.

1305
01:08:33,270 --> 01:08:34,400
Speaker 3: Is she a vampire, I guess?

1306
01:08:34,439 --> 01:08:38,480
Speaker 1: Yep, she was one of the vampire cronies. And then, oh,

1307
01:08:38,820 --> 01:08:43,240
Speaker 1: we actually have a techno-ambient classic that is featured late

1308
01:08:43,260 --> 01:08:46,220
Speaker 1: in the picture, and that is Halcyon plus On and

1309
01:08:46,400 --> 01:08:47,219
Speaker 1: On by Orbital.

1310
01:08:47,740 --> 01:08:50,340
Speaker 3: The sound of feeling good. You might guess that this

1311
01:08:50,340 --> 01:08:52,490
Speaker 3: plays at the coda of the film when evil has

1312
01:08:52,490 --> 01:08:55,910
Speaker 3: been defeated and everybody's running around hugging it out. That

1313
01:08:55,910 --> 01:08:57,590
Speaker 3: that is when we get orbital.

1314
01:08:57,630 --> 01:08:59,990
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great track. Absolutely great track.

1315
01:09:00,520 --> 01:09:02,960
Speaker 3: It feels like everything's gonna be okay.

1316
01:09:04,260 --> 01:09:07,160
Speaker 1: I Also should mention that so the the soundtrack album

1317
01:09:07,220 --> 01:09:10,460
Speaker 1: featured some clips from the score by George S Clinton

1318
01:09:10,540 --> 01:09:14,720
Speaker 1: including the track Goro versus art Art is the first

1319
01:09:14,780 --> 01:09:17,380
Speaker 1: name of the car of Goro fights. It's not it's

1320
01:09:17,420 --> 01:09:19,340
Speaker 1: not as high concept as it sounds and.

1321
01:09:19,560 --> 01:09:22,780
Speaker 3: It's not that scene in Batman where the Joker is

1322
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:24,500
Speaker 3: smearing on the paintings.

1323
01:09:24,740 --> 01:09:26,680
Speaker 1: That would be great. I mean, Goro missed his calling

1324
01:09:26,820 --> 01:09:29,820
Speaker 1: as a painter. But anyway, yes, this track has Buckethead

1325
01:09:29,880 --> 01:09:31,590
Speaker 1: on it, so that's notable.

1326
01:09:31,900 --> 01:09:34,469
Speaker 3: There are also some tracks I like a lot less. Man,

1327
01:09:34,510 --> 01:09:38,610
Speaker 3: there's one on there that's a big Black Sabbath fan,

1328
01:09:38,630 --> 01:09:41,110
Speaker 3: but there's like a Geezer Butler track on there that

1329
01:09:41,189 --> 01:09:41,990
Speaker 3: is not good.

1330
01:09:42,330 --> 01:09:44,299
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was not crazy about this one as well.

1331
01:09:44,960 --> 01:09:46,200
Speaker 1: The vocals did not speak to me.

1332
01:09:46,820 --> 01:09:48,620
Speaker 3: But there's some other metal on there as well.

1333
01:09:49,150 --> 01:09:54,090
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the film uses several tracks by Stabbing Westward

1334
01:09:54,450 --> 01:09:57,070
Speaker 1: that are not on the soundtrack album. I think they're

1335
01:09:57,150 --> 01:09:59,930
Speaker 1: Can't Happen Here, Lies, and Lost, and these are all

1336
01:09:59,970 --> 01:10:03,400
Speaker 1: great tracks. I was looking around. I know I listened

1337
01:10:03,420 --> 01:10:06,599
Speaker 1: to some Stabbing Westward somewhere, and I thought maybe they

1338
01:10:06,620 --> 01:10:09,260
Speaker 1: were on the soundtrack to The Crow or something, but

1339
01:10:09,300 --> 01:10:11,040
Speaker 1: I couldn't find them. So maybe I actually had a

1340
01:10:11,060 --> 01:10:15,540
Speaker 1: Stabbing Westward album, but I don't specifically remember. But anyway,

1341
01:10:15,800 --> 01:10:16,680
Speaker 1: some of their tracks are pretty good.

1342
01:10:17,460 --> 01:10:19,540
Speaker 3: Really know them they're like industrial metal.

1343
01:10:19,939 --> 01:10:22,200
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah there's somewhere in that i don't know there's

1344
01:10:22,220 --> 01:10:26,960
Speaker 1: somewhere in that alternative industrial landscape but i'm not sure

1345
01:10:26,979 --> 01:10:29,490
Speaker 1: exactly where to classify them like you know you can

1346
01:10:29,550 --> 01:10:31,509
Speaker 1: sort of pick up on some vibes you might compare

1347
01:10:31,550 --> 01:10:34,170
Speaker 1: to nine inch nails you might compare to you know

1348
01:10:34,210 --> 01:10:37,670
Speaker 1: something like the tea party but um uh yeah i

1349
01:10:37,729 --> 01:10:39,210
Speaker 1: i don't know how i don't know i'd like to

1350
01:10:39,229 --> 01:10:41,559
Speaker 1: hear from any of you big stabbing westward fans out

1351
01:10:41,600 --> 01:10:44,720
Speaker 1: there you tell us where we're supposed to classify.

1352
01:10:44,340 --> 01:10:50,389
Speaker 3: Them now uh-oh We're looking at the clock here. We

1353
01:10:50,450 --> 01:10:54,849
Speaker 3: did not at all intend for our Mortal Kombat 1995

1354
01:10:54,850 --> 01:10:57,790
Speaker 3: episode to stretch to two parts, but I think we

1355
01:10:57,850 --> 01:11:01,220
Speaker 3: are at a point where we have no choice because

1356
01:11:01,260 --> 01:11:04,860
Speaker 3: it would be ridiculous to release a three-hour episode on

1357
01:11:04,900 --> 01:11:07,540
Speaker 3: Mortal Kombat. But I guess we've got a lot of

1358
01:11:07,580 --> 01:11:10,360
Speaker 3: personal history with this movie and this franchise, so it

1359
01:11:11,160 --> 01:11:11,840
Speaker 3: couldn't be helped.

1360
01:11:12,120 --> 01:11:14,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, this is a franchise that's a part

1361
01:11:14,979 --> 01:11:20,090
Speaker 1: of both our childhoods. And also, apparently, it's a Christoph

1362
01:11:20,130 --> 01:11:23,000
Speaker 1: Lambert film, and I guess we just can't cover Christoph

1363
01:11:23,040 --> 01:11:25,480
Speaker 1: Lambert films without breaking them into two parts.

1364
01:11:25,880 --> 01:11:28,980
Speaker 3: Oh, you're right. We did that with Highlander 2, didn't we? Yes.

1365
01:11:29,000 --> 01:11:30,160
Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah.

1366
01:11:30,360 --> 01:11:33,099
Speaker 3: Well, once again, folks, we do not have the intention

1367
01:11:33,140 --> 01:11:36,180
Speaker 3: of making two-part Weird House episodes a common thing, but

1368
01:11:36,520 --> 01:11:38,089
Speaker 3: I guess it's going to happen every now and then.

1369
01:11:38,740 --> 01:11:41,450
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we will be back to really get into

1370
01:11:41,490 --> 01:11:45,090
Speaker 1: the plot of Mortal Kombat, and there's a lot of

1371
01:11:45,130 --> 01:11:48,430
Speaker 1: fun to be had here, so we'll get to dig

1372
01:11:48,570 --> 01:11:51,309
Speaker 1: in and make a meal out of it. Let's see.

1373
01:11:51,410 --> 01:11:53,830
Speaker 1: In the meantime, Kano eating a turkey leg. Kano eating

1374
01:11:53,870 --> 01:11:58,830
Speaker 1: a turkey leg. Oh, Goro getting punched in the nards.

1375
01:11:59,010 --> 01:12:01,090
Speaker 1: There's so much fun, fun for everyone, fun for the

1376
01:12:01,110 --> 01:12:01,630
Speaker 1: whole family.

1377
01:12:02,170 --> 01:12:04,280
Speaker 3: I want to say it has begun, but it has

1378
01:12:04,320 --> 01:12:06,000
Speaker 3: not begun yet. It'll begin next time.

1379
01:12:06,320 --> 01:12:09,000
Speaker 1: That's right. So in the meantime, do feel free to

1380
01:12:09,020 --> 01:12:11,640
Speaker 1: go ahead and write in with your thoughts about 1995's

1381
01:12:11,700 --> 01:12:16,010
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat or the Mortal Kombat franchise in general. Anything

1382
01:12:16,030 --> 01:12:18,490
Speaker 1: we discussed in this episode or you anticipate that we'll

1383
01:12:18,530 --> 01:12:21,389
Speaker 1: discuss in the next episode, write in. We would love

1384
01:12:21,410 --> 01:12:25,010
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Let's see. First of all, oh,

1385
01:12:25,030 --> 01:12:28,750
Speaker 1: if you're on Instagram, go ahead and follow us, stbympodcast.

1386
01:12:28,790 --> 01:12:30,900
Speaker 1: That's our handle on Instagram. And if you want to

1387
01:12:30,920 --> 01:12:34,760
Speaker 1: keep up with Weird House Cinema specifically, go to letterboxd.com.

1388
01:12:34,780 --> 01:12:40,220
Speaker 1: That's L-E-T-T-E-R-B-O-X-D.com. Really fun site for chronicling your own cinematic

1389
01:12:40,700 --> 01:12:44,060
Speaker 1: explorations and favorites. And you can follow us there. We

1390
01:12:44,120 --> 01:12:45,850
Speaker 1: are Weird House. That's our handle. And we have a

1391
01:12:45,870 --> 01:12:48,230
Speaker 1: nice list there of all the movies we've covered on

1392
01:12:48,270 --> 01:12:49,689
Speaker 1: the show thus far.

1393
01:12:50,390 --> 01:12:53,870
Speaker 3: Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, J.J. Posway.

1394
01:12:54,270 --> 01:12:55,809
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1395
01:12:55,870 --> 01:12:58,390
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1396
01:12:58,430 --> 01:13:00,570
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1397
01:13:00,630 --> 01:13:03,670
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

1398
01:13:11,110 --> 01:13:13,550
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

1399
01:13:13,930 --> 01:13:17,260
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple

1400
01:13:17,300 --> 01:13:19,640
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