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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And

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Speaker 3: today on Weird House Cinema, we are talking about the

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Speaker 3: nineteen ninety five supernatural martial arts film Mortal Kombat, adapted

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Speaker 3: from the incredibly popular nineties video game franchise. The movie

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

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Speaker 3: cast that we'll get into as we go, most notably

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

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Speaker 3: First thing I gotta say about Mortal Kombat is that

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

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

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Speaker 3: on Super Nintendo before the movie came out, so of

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Speaker 3: course I was extremely pumped for it, and I think

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

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Speaker 3: was male eight eight to twelve years old, obsessed with

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Speaker 3: karate and ready to accept mid nineties CGI as a

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Speaker 3: legitimate visual art form.

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Speaker 2: Super Nintendo. So you had the version of the home

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Speaker 2: Wortal Combat 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. You'd punch somebody and something flies off of

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

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Speaker 2: So that you did have, as I recall, a superior

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Speaker 2: in my opinion, sub zero fatality, because in the Arcade

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Speaker 2: version and in the Sega Genesis version that I had,

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Speaker 2: he did like the spine rip like a predator. They

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Speaker 2: could be good. I mean, that's a great, great one,

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Speaker 2: but it's not very ice themed, and I really liked

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Speaker 2: the theme of the Ninja with all this ice magic,

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Speaker 2: and so the super Andes version of the Fatality was

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Speaker 2: freezing solid and then shatter them, which which I thought

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Speaker 2: was really It's classier and it's more befitting of an

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Speaker 2: 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 2: Yeah, yeah, so yeah.

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Speaker 3: Anyway, So I was excited for this movie. I saw

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Speaker 3: it in the theater, I think probably with my dad.

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Speaker 3: I owned a copy of it on VHS, and I

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Speaker 3: don't know if you recall, rob, but in the nineties

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Speaker 3: VHS tapes were expensive you like had to really want

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Speaker 3: a movie on tape to justify saving up to get it.

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Speaker 3: I was trying to do a little math, and I

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Speaker 3: think it's you know, now you can go get a

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Speaker 3: Blu Ray for like fifteen or twenty bucks, but they

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Speaker 3: were essentially like twenty or twenty five bucks for a

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Speaker 3: VHS tape in the nineties, which is like forty to

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Speaker 3: fifty dollars today.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but then you knew once you bought this film

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Speaker 2: on VHS, you were good to go. You would never

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Speaker 2: have to buy this movie again.

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Speaker 3: That's true.

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Speaker 2: VHS purists out there would agree with that without the

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Speaker 2: tiniest shred of irony, I'm sure. But as it worked out,

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Speaker 2: like yeah, these movies you bought on VA, you ended

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Speaker 2: up buying them again on DVD, then buying them again

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Speaker 2: on Blu Ray, and then because you can't find your

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Speaker 2: 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.

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Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, yeah, come back around to the nostalgia.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I watched this tape many many times, I

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

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Speaker 3: I had the Mortal Kombat Original Motion Picture soundtrack on CD,

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Speaker 3: which was This was something I did a number of

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Speaker 3: times as a kid. Rob, Have we ever talked about

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Speaker 3: whether you did this too? Like when I liked a movie,

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Speaker 3: I wanted to own the soundtrack and not just to

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Speaker 3: own it, but actually like listen to the CD over

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Speaker 3: and over.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I absolutely did this. I definitely had the

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Speaker 2: Mortal Kombat Original Motion Picture soundtrack, had it up there

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Speaker 2: on the shelf, probably beside my soundtrack to The Crow.

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Speaker 2: Let's See Gonna Fit were another of big ones. I mean,

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Speaker 2: obviously pulp fiction was in the mix, but I would

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Speaker 2: go for stuff like one of my earliest cassette purchases

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Speaker 2: actually was a cassette that had all the James Bond

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Speaker 2: theme songs on there, but not official versions. They were

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Speaker 2: all like some sort of horrible cover like.

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Speaker 3: Instrumental version of Goldfinger.

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Speaker 2: Almost It wasn't aimed exclusively at children, but it was

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Speaker 2: something like some off brand Bond compilation that I got

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Speaker 2: at Walmart on cassette. So yeah, I was very much

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Speaker 2: in this boat. Like if I love the film, I

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Speaker 2: wanted to read it in novel form and I wanted

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Speaker 2: to listen 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 ninety.

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Speaker 2: Six, which had 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 the you know,

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Speaker 3: the soundtrack to Sneak In Around the House.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's a great theme song.

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

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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 two and three on the arcade cabinets with

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Speaker 3: my friends, which I think we're 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: thirty seven games, new movies, TV series, a bunch of

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

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Speaker 3: any 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 Vorhees

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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.

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Speaker 4: Uh and uh.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So I really did not keep up with Mortal Kombat,

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Speaker 3: despite how into it I was for a brief period

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Speaker 3: of time.

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Speaker 2: I think I've kept up with it pretty well. I

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Speaker 2: wasn't really playing video games when four came out. That

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Speaker 2: was the three D one that I don't think his

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Speaker 2: all owned probably has an aged all that well, whereas

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Speaker 2: one and two and three those are still great today.

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Speaker 2: You can still play those and they're still a blast.

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Speaker 2: And then I got into I think all the major

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Speaker 2: installments of the franchise since for with the exception of

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Speaker 2: the most recent one, because I don't have the hard

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Speaker 2: way to run it, otherwise i'd probably have played it

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Speaker 2: by now. But it's I think it's going to be

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Speaker 2: even harder to understand because they decided it's time to

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Speaker 2: factor in the multiverse for this one. So I don't

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Speaker 2: know if I have the time and mental energy these

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Speaker 2: days to handle that level of Mortal Kombat.

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Speaker 3: But do they do like a like a reality gem,

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Speaker 3: like in game explanation for why characters from other franchises

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Speaker 3: are in the game.

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Speaker 2: In the games that I've played, generally the outside characters

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Speaker 2: are not involved in the story at all, so they're

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Speaker 2: kind of external to.

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Speaker 3: Story mode bonus content.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but then if you beat the game with those characters,

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Speaker 2: they'll generally find a clever way to explain to you

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Speaker 2: why leather Face just won the Mortal Kombat tournament, you know,

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Speaker 2: things like that, which they do a pretty good job,

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Speaker 2: so I'll give them credit. But I would say that

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Speaker 2: this is something I'll hammer home again later, is that

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Speaker 2: these early Mortal Kombat games, they did not have a

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Speaker 2: true story mode like a lot like video games today.

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Speaker 2: They had an intro that would play on the arcade cabinet.

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Speaker 2: There'd be a very short like epilogue for your character

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Speaker 2: that you beat arcade mode with, and that was it.

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Speaker 2: The rest was just you filling in the blanks based

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Speaker 2: on like the cool sounds and sights and moves and

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Speaker 2: the individual aspects of these different characters. It wasn't all

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Speaker 2: spelled out to you. And I think that's one of

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Speaker 2: the appeals of Mortal Kombat is that it was enthralling

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Speaker 2: and it was captivating, but it didn't give you, like

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Speaker 2: beat by beat, like who all these characters were really

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Speaker 2: supposed to be and what all their motivations were, and

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Speaker 2: you got to sort of dream up the red that.

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Speaker 3: I think that's exactly right. You might that might be

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Speaker 3: surprising because on the surface these games are like the

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Speaker 3: content that's there is mostly pretty dumb and quite violent,

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Speaker 3: but they do stimulate a lot of imagination when you're

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Speaker 3: a kid, like you get to kind of make up

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Speaker 3: a story as you go along.

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Speaker 2: Speaking of the violence, I do want to throw in

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Speaker 2: that I'm gonna sound like an old person here, but

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Speaker 2: the games are just way too violent now, Like the

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Speaker 2: fatalities are now just unwatchable, Like they're traumatizing to behold.

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Speaker 2: Like when I the most recent games I've played in

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Speaker 2: the Moral Kombat series, I'll just intentionally not do fatalities

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Speaker 2: because it's just too much.

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Speaker 3: It's like Saw Territory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just it's just too much. So but I

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Speaker 2: don't know, that's just me. Evidently they're still popular, but

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Speaker 2: the games are The games are still fun.

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Speaker 3: Oh sorry, I forgot one more thing. I did engage with,

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

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Speaker 3: talking about today, which is Mortal Kombat Annihilation from nineteen

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Speaker 3: ninety seven, which has strong so bad it's good energy.

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Speaker 3: It's a movie in which Christoph Limbert would not return

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Speaker 3: to reprise his role and had to be replaced by

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Speaker 3: Dexter's dad.

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Speaker 2: Ah. Yes, yes, I did not see moratl Kombat Annihilation,

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Speaker 2: but I am familiar with it due to its reputation.

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Speaker 2: So my memory is a little hazy on exactly what

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Speaker 2: my expectations were for this film when it came out.

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Speaker 2: Like the brief timeline that we've alluded to is first

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Speaker 2: Mortal Kombat game hit arcades in ninety two, and then

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Speaker 2: the excellent sequel, Mortal Kmbat two came out in nineteen

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Speaker 2: ninety three, which, just looking at that, that's just crazy

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Speaker 2: turnaround time by today's.

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Speaker 3: Standards, right, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2: And so I was. I was all the way in

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Speaker 2: on MK two by the time this film came out.

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Speaker 2: I played it like at the local Walmart until one

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Speaker 2: day they turned the blood off and everyone was upset

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Speaker 2: by that, which was the day Kurt Cobain died, I believe.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, strange.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but that was Is there like a physical switch

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Speaker 3: on the cabinet. It's like blood on, blood off.

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Speaker 2: No, No, we checked, we thought of that. We're like, well,

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Speaker 2: we got to find the switch, we got to turn

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Speaker 2: it back on. But I guess it's inside the cabinet,

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Speaker 2: and if the local parents group, you know, pressures the

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Speaker 2: store owner, they'll change it. But anyway, so, and then

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Speaker 2: MK two had come out on Sega Genesis. I played

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Speaker 2: it there, and then MK three came out April of

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Speaker 2: ninety five, ahead of this film's August eighteenth, nineteen ninety

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Speaker 2: five theatrical release, And yeah, MK three was pretty awesome too.

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Speaker 2: So by this point in the franchise, we were three

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Speaker 2: games deep in an ever expanding lore. We had this

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Speaker 2: story about an interdimensional martial arts tournament that was determining

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Speaker 2: the fate of the world. And I would have been

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Speaker 2: sixteen at the time, so I was old enough to

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Speaker 2: be a little opinionated about movie adaptations of video games.

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Speaker 2: But I think also optimistic enough to think that a

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Speaker 2: video game adaptation of Mortal Kombat was a good idea.

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

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Speaker 3: because you could see little Inklings and Rob you were

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Speaker 3: sharing the 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 two cabinet and stuff, and

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

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a TV commercial for MK two for

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Speaker 2: the console editions and it was amazing. You can still

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Speaker 2: find it on YouTube and stuff, but it was I

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Speaker 2: was doing some digging. They filmed it at Shepperton Studios

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Speaker 2: and Bob Keane's Image Imagination Group did the makeup. This

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Speaker 2: is a group that had worked on the Hell Raiser films,

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Speaker 2: Lord of Illusions, Life Force, So it looks really sharp

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Speaker 2: and there are aspects of it that look better than

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Speaker 2: what we see in this picture. But I remember I

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Speaker 2: remember like videotaping that commercial and like rewatching it and

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Speaker 2: thinking like, yeah, yeah, this this could work.

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Speaker 3: Wait how did you take Did you just like happen

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Speaker 3: to get it while taping something else or did you

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Speaker 3: intend to tape the commercial?

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Speaker 2: It was probably both. I was something and either I

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Speaker 2: wasn't taking out the commercials because you know, whatever I

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Speaker 2: was watching and taping was probably in the same demographic

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Speaker 2: as MK two console edition. Yeah, yeah, all right, so

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Speaker 2: we've provided a fair amount of the basics here regarding

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Speaker 2: Mortal Kombat. Joe, what's your elevator pitch? For Mortal Kombat

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Speaker 2: the movie from nineteen ninety five.

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

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Speaker 2: you know, which is about international competitors coming together to compete,

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Speaker 2: and to a very limited extent, that's the story of

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Speaker 2: Mortal 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 ten times in a row,

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Speaker 3: something will come and eat your soul.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that's kind of the plot of what is it

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Speaker 2: Monster Jama?

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Speaker 3: Is it Space Jam?

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Speaker 2: Space Jam? That's basically a pot of space jam.

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Speaker 3: Right, it's close. Yeah, speaking of we've just been talking

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: should we very briefly describe Mortal Kombat in terms of

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Speaker 3: gameplay setting in story?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Okay, So the original Mortal Kombat is a

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Speaker 3: side view, one on one fighting game in which players

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Speaker 3: could select from a list of seven playable characters and

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Speaker 3: face off against either each other. So you fight against

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Speaker 3: your friends or you could fight against the computer playing

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Speaker 3: some other character, And there was a sort of a

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Speaker 3: story mode, as you alluded to earlier, but there wasn't

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Speaker 3: really much of a story to it. Instead, that just

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Speaker 3: means you sequench Lee face off against all of the

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Speaker 3: other characters in the game, one after another, and then

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

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Speaker 3: different boss fights.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. You just basically go up a ladder.

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Speaker 2: So with solo fights against the computer, then you would

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Speaker 2: do there's some test your mites in there where you

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Speaker 2: karate break things in half. There'd be a mirror match,

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Speaker 2: some endurance matches, especially in that first one, they had

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Speaker 2: to make the most out of a limited roster, and

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Speaker 2: then you would fight the two.

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Speaker 3: Bosses, right, and so the seven playable characters are Lu Kang,

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Speaker 3: who is kind of the canonical hero of the video

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Speaker 3: game series. He is portrayed as a practitioner of sort

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Speaker 3: of classic kung fu. He's a Shaolin warrior and he's

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Speaker 3: he's the good.

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Speaker 2: Guy, very Bruce Lee as 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

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Speaker 3: the Ninja Scorpion, who can throw a spear on a

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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 special move and he says come here when

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

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Speaker 3: mask off and breathe fire on you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like an infernal revenant. I guess you'd say.

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Speaker 3: There is Sonia 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 Cano 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 2: I think it's supposed to be just like a cybernetic

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Speaker 2: replacement for his eye. But it also is a weapon

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Speaker 2: that shoots a laser beam. At least in later games,

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Speaker 2: that 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. Yes,

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Speaker 3: Striker is the cop that shows up in him k III.

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

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Speaker 3: but I have my like police anyway. There's also two

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Speaker 3: more characters in the first game. There is Johnny Cage

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Speaker 3: you can play as. He's a movie star, like a

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Speaker 3: martial arts movie star, based I think on Jean Claude

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Speaker 3: van Dam And then he does the split punch right right,

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Speaker 3: he does the splits and punch it. Yeah, it goes down,

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Speaker 3: splits and punches 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 Raydon, who is a god. Seems kind of

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

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

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Speaker 3: who has electricity powers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the name very loosely based on the Japanese thunder

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Speaker 2: deity Ragion. And also the character is very clearly inspired

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Speaker 2: by the lightning empowered member of the Three Storms in

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Speaker 2: Big Trouble in Little China. John Governor's Big Trouble in

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Speaker 2: Little China 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 Raydin 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, Like,

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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 Lukang can shoot a fireball and he can do

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Speaker 3: a flying kick, and kane O 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 like physical fighting, but

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

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Speaker 3: the end of a fight you are there is like

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Speaker 3: a voice that comes on when one side has been

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Speaker 3: defeated and tells the victorious party to finish him I guess,

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Speaker 3: meaning kill him, which then you can do one of

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Speaker 3: your fatalities, which is a special move. For example, where

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Speaker 3: the Scorpion, the Yellow Ninja, he pulls his mask off

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Speaker 3: and breathes fire on the other person.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, reduces you to a skeleton which then crumbles to

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Speaker 2: the ground. These were a huge hit. You know. You're

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Speaker 2: looking up these special moves and the special fatality inputs,

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Speaker 2: you know, perhaps bringing them to the arcade with you

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Speaker 2: on a little sheet of paper, folded up page from

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Speaker 2: a magazine.

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: instead of two. He will factor into the movie and

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Speaker 3: then there is Shang Sung, the Big Bad of Mortal Kombat,

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Speaker 3: who was an evil sorcerer who could shape shift into

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

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and this character was clearly inspired, at least to

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Speaker 2: some degree, by the character of Lopin in Big Trouble,

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Speaker 2: 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 nineteen ninety three Super Mario Brothers movie,

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Speaker 3: which I still maintained, is one of the weirdest movies

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Speaker 3: we've done on the show, and one of the weirdest

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Speaker 3: movies I have ever seen. Mortal Kombat in the movie

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Speaker 3: is a pretty strange cultural artifact, but as an adaptation

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Speaker 3: of its source material, I think it's a lot more

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Speaker 3: straightforward than Super Mario Brothers. Like, so, the game is

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Speaker 3: about a weird, supernatural martial arts tournament where people around

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Speaker 3: the world come to fight to the death. The movie

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Speaker 3: is about that too. Super Mario Brothers instead veers way

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Speaker 3: way off into its own Dennis Hopper mud bath and

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Speaker 3: just I don't know, it introduces a lot of its

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Speaker 3: own stuff, and all that stuff is quite unexpected.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Super Mario Brothers as a motion picture doesn't right

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Speaker 2: 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 of this with this basic premise that it's like

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Speaker 3: a destination martial arts tournament that is ruled over by

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Speaker 3: some kind of evil king or sorcerer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so it's yeah, pretty simple structure to sort

408
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:31,399
Speaker 2: of aspire to there, and then at least in the game,

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Speaker 2: your mind kind of fills in the blanks. And then

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Speaker 2: not to say it's I think it is a challenge

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Speaker 2: for the screenwriter, and I think you see that in

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Speaker 2: this film, like there are certain story points that have

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Speaker 2: to be created and nourished in order to make this

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Speaker 2: work on any level as a picture about characters, and

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Speaker 2: then they go for it, and I think it mostly works.

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Speaker 2: But I can imagine some people, some like fans of

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Speaker 2: the film and maybe even I thought this to some extent,

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Speaker 2: like wondering like why do we care about this character?

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Speaker 2: It's like, well, you've got to have these things it

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Speaker 2: can't just be one fight after another. That's what the

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Speaker 2: video game is. This is a movie. It needs to

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Speaker 2: tell some sort of story.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm kind of two minds about that stuff, because

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Speaker 3: I think a lot of the character development in the

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Speaker 3: movie is on its face laughable, But at the same

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Speaker 3: time it works pretty well as a plot glue that

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Speaker 3: just helps chain one scene into the next and keeps

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Speaker 3: the movie moving.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, and I think that's mainly where it succeeds,

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Speaker 2: because to be clear, there's not a lot of character

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Speaker 2: development to go around in this picture. Some characters don't

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Speaker 2: get it at all.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So yeah, maybe that leads into some of my

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Speaker 3: summary thoughts upon revisiting Mortal Kombat this time. I think

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Speaker 3: for the most part, you could say you could certainly

436
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:45,440
Speaker 3: make the case that the scripting is not great. It's

437
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:49,439
Speaker 3: strangely heavy on these two dy little banter exchanges between

438
00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 3: our heroes, a lot of hate flirting. But at the

439
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,959
Speaker 3: same time, there are quite a few memorable lines, and

440
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,520
Speaker 3: I think that is mostly due to qualities of delay livery,

441
00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,400
Speaker 3: which brings us to the question of acting. I think

442
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,679
Speaker 3: the acting in the movie is quite a mixed bag.

443
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 3: There are a couple of velvety, rich villain performances, one

444
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 3: in particular that really stands out, which are accompanied by

445
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 3: a fine Christoph Lambert pairing. But a lot of the

446
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 3: other actors are just sort of treading water and they're like,

447
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:22,480
Speaker 3: what is going on in this movie? I don't know,

448
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,360
Speaker 3: We're just getting through this scene. But that's what you'd

449
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 3: often expect from a martial arts movie. However, despite some

450
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,400
Speaker 3: of the limitations of the script and the acting, this

451
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 3: movie is not boring. It has lots of zippy energy

452
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:38,360
Speaker 3: and it's just fun the whole way. It really maintains

453
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:41,199
Speaker 3: a strong sense of momentum, I think due to some

454
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:46,440
Speaker 3: choices about editing a pretty good discipline about not letting

455
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,680
Speaker 3: any of the fights or really any of the scenes

456
00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 3: that all go on too long. It just keeps moving,

457
00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:55,000
Speaker 3: and it really uses music to great effect to keep

458
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,080
Speaker 3: the energy up and keep a feeling of forward motion.

459
00:22:58,640 --> 00:22:59,480
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.

460
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:02,679
Speaker 3: Also, I'll say that the martial arts scenes are on

461
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 3: the whole a lot better than I expected them to be.

462
00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 3: When coming back to this, the fights mostly convey some

463
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:12,560
Speaker 3: amount of drama. Longtime listeners will be familiar with my

464
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:15,760
Speaker 3: gripe about action scenes, but for newcomers, if you want

465
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 3: to hear it briefly. I think action scenes are often

466
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,960
Speaker 3: quite boring in movies because there's really no drama to them.

467
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,960
Speaker 3: There's no meaningful exchange of power, no genuine fear for

468
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 3: the character's fate. Nothing is revealed about the characters, no

469
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:32,720
Speaker 3: questions are asked or answered, there's no effect on the

470
00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 3: broader story. They're often just an interlude where we take

471
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 3: a break from the story to watch some violence happen.

472
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 3: But great action scenes transcend to this by containing drama

473
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 3: within them. And you know what, I think Mortal Kombat

474
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 3: does a reasonably good job at making the fights dramatic.

475
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:51,560
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I think the fight most all of the fights

476
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:55,640
Speaker 2: hold up really well. That they tell a story. That

477
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,760
Speaker 2: is That's always been my key way of thinking about it.

478
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,040
Speaker 2: Like you can't just lot of films, especially Western films,

479
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 2: if they engage in some fights, it'll just be like

480
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 2: some moves. You'll see some moves, you'll see some you

481
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,199
Speaker 2: get a vibe of fighting, but you don't get the

482
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 2: sense of there being a story. There a story where

483
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 2: there are obstacles to overcome, there's conflict, there are stakes,

484
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 2: there are little callbacks and so forth. Like a great

485
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:23,360
Speaker 2: cinematic fight is going to have all of these elements

486
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,159
Speaker 2: and you can become lost in its own inner drama.

487
00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:30,640
Speaker 3: I think that's exactly right. Another thing about this movie stylistically,

488
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:34,440
Speaker 3: it is extremely nineteen nineties. I think if you were

489
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 3: to be teaching a film class about the conventions of

490
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 3: popular filmmaking during the nineties and you're making a viewing

491
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 3: list for that class, this movie should be on it.

492
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 3: It strongly reflects that music video influenced style that was

493
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:51,159
Speaker 3: dominant in blockbuster films of the time.

494
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and so it's really kind of a minor miracle

495
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,879
Speaker 2: that the fight scenes are so good, because when I

496
00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,680
Speaker 2: think about that music video style, I can instantly turn

497
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:02,919
Speaker 2: my head to various examples I'm not going to call

498
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 2: them out here, but various examples where you have that

499
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 2: kind of music video vibe to the fight sequences, where

500
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:12,960
Speaker 2: it is all vibe and it is not about telling

501
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 2: a story.

502
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 3: It's just stuff happening. It's just loud noises, flashes of things.

503
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:19,959
Speaker 3: You can't tell where anybody is or what's going on

504
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,040
Speaker 3: or why it matters. But this movie, yeah, mostly not

505
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 3: like that. The fight scenes are well choreographed and well

506
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 3: filmed thumbs up to that. Special effects also a mixed bag,

507
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 3: but leaning toward the negative, I would say the standout

508
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:38,960
Speaker 3: element is some truly egregious CGI. I think we've called

509
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,000
Speaker 3: out this movie before on the show is a nideer

510
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 3: of CGI in big budget movies. The technology was not

511
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:48,439
Speaker 3: ready to be used the way it is used in

512
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 3: this movie.

513
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 2: I don't think i'd seen this film since the nineties,

514
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,000
Speaker 2: so I was prepared for the CGI to be rough.

515
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 2: But it was worse than I remembered it. Like, I

516
00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 2: remember being excited the CGI this film and thinking it

517
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 2: was like pretty cool.

518
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 3: It seemed great at the time.

519
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seemed amazing at the time. Now it looks

520
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 2: very very liquid television in the worst ways. And I

521
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 2: say that as someone who loved liquid television at the

522
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 2: time on MTV. But then the other thing is I

523
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 2: expected to be really excited about the film's practical effects,

524
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 2: namely the Goro effects, and this didn't hit the right

525
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 2: notes for me either. Yeah.

526
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:27,640
Speaker 3: Well, let's get into that in a bit.

527
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,959
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll come back to Goro, but let's go ahead

528
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 2: at this point. Let's go ahead and listen to a

529
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 2: little bit of the trailer audio. For Mortal Kombat. I'm

530
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:38,919
Speaker 2: almost certain we're gonna hear just a little snippet of

531
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:40,440
Speaker 2: that Mortal Kombat theme song.

532
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,680
Speaker 4: In each of us, there burns the fury of a warrior.

533
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 3: Generation.

534
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,120
Speaker 4: A few chosen to prove it. One of you three

535
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 4: will this side. Yeahut, come of the tournament, three strangers,

536
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 4: You'll travel to the mystical realm of outworld to defend

537
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:11,840
Speaker 4: our people against Shang Sung. You will live and it

538
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 4: forces of darkness in an ancient tournament. One more victory.

539
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:26,800
Speaker 4: Your song, It's mine in our world? Is theirs?

540
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 1: Has begun?

541
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 3: Be saying I don't need to run.

542
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 4: Combat begins?

543
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 2: All right. If you're wondering at this point, where can

544
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:27,200
Speaker 2: I watch Mortal Kombat the nineteen ninety five cinematic treatment, Well,

545
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 2: it is widely available in pretty much all formats, including

546
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:33,479
Speaker 2: various franchise bundles. I streamed it on Max, but I

547
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 2: also realized I own a digital copy that I received

548
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 2: as some sort of an Xbox bonus for one of

549
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,480
Speaker 2: the you know, the recent games with like I don't

550
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,280
Speaker 2: know ten or twelve or something, maybe eleven. I don't know,

551
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 2: the tenth, eleventh or twelfth game, one of them They're like,

552
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 2: here have the ninety five film version as well for.

553
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 3: Free download code or something.

554
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you just got it through like the Xbox

555
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 2: film download things. So I watched it on Max. I

556
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 2: don't think that there is a definitive special edition or

557
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 2: anything here. So this is very much a case of

558
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 2: watch it wherever is least painful for you.

559
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 3: I guess I watched it by getting into a time

560
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,520
Speaker 3: machine made by the Tubular Corporation and going back to

561
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety five to my local cineplex.

562
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 2: There you go. Maybe the effects are better if you

563
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 2: said it in the nineties, you know, like not only

564
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 2: in terms of expectations, but in terms of like picture quality.

565
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about the people who made this film.

566
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 2: We mentioned that the director is, of course Paul W. S.

567
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 2: Anderson born nineteen sixty five, English director and writer and producer,

568
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 2: who started out in TV writing for the British crime

569
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 2: series LCID starring Alfred Molina at least in the first

570
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 2: couple of seasons. I think someone else came in to

571
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 2: lead it after that. But Anderson made a big splash

572
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 2: as a director after this with the violent crime drama

573
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 2: Shopping in ninety four, which He also wrote, I have

574
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:03,959
Speaker 2: not seen it, but it features an excellent cast, including

575
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 2: the feature film debut of Jude Law, and it features

576
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:11,560
Speaker 2: an extremely stacked soundtrack featuring such acts as Stereo MC's

577
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 2: Salt and Peppa Emf and Utah Saints.

578
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 3: Oh, Utah Saints are on this soundtrack. Yeah, Yeah, they've

579
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 3: got some really good hype music in there.

580
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 2: So it is worth noting, yeah, that Paul W. S

581
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 2: Anderson clearly put a lot of stock in the soundtrack

582
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 2: to these pictures that he was involved in, and he

583
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 2: brings a lot of I think enthusiasm, especially for electronic

584
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 2: music of the time period. Yeah, So Mortal Kombat was

585
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 2: his follow up to the success of Shopping, which was

586
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 2: a big commercial hit. Even Roger Ebert admitted that it

587
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,959
Speaker 2: was better than expected, and he would follow this up

588
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 2: with nineteen ninety seven's Even Horizon, a film that certainly

589
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 2: wears its inspirations on its sleeves. But this was a

590
00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 2: huge favorite of mine upon its release, and it's still

591
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,240
Speaker 2: one that I'd come back to now and again, I'm

592
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 2: probably overdue to revisit and see how I feel about

593
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 2: it at my current age.

594
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 3: You know, I just recently put on event Horizon sort

595
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 3: of in the background while I was doing something else

596
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 3: and tuned in for a few scenes here and here

597
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 3: and there. And I'm gonna say I think I feel

598
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 3: about it similar to how I feel about Mortal Kombat,

599
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 3: which is that it's hard to say like it's a

600
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:22,960
Speaker 3: good movie, but it really does have its charms.

601
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. It has a great cast, has some great sets,

602
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 2: great look in many ways, and the score was a

603
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:33,720
Speaker 2: collaboration between Michael Kaman and the English electronic duo The Orb.

604
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 2: So I think a lot of people look fondly back

605
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 2: on Event Horizon. And he followed that up with Soldier

606
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 2: starring Kurt Russell, and that one was scripted by David Peeples,

607
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 2: one of the screenwriters for Blade Runner. But I've never

608
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 2: seen that one, and that one, I'm to understand kind

609
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 2: of failed to find an audience. Really. His next big

610
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 2: picture was a return to video game adaptations, because you know,

611
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 2: he'd proven himself there, and so he came back with

612
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 2: two thousand and two's Resident Evil, which proved another huge

613
00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 2: hit and kickstarted a French eyes of films starring his

614
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:06,320
Speaker 2: soon to be wife, Nila Djoviovic. Anderson directed films one, four, five,

615
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 2: and six in that franchise, and also remained active as

616
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 2: a writer and producer on other installments, including the one

617
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 2: that Russell McKay directed in two thousand and seven, Resident

618
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 2: Evil Extinction.

619
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,479
Speaker 3: I did not know they'd made it to six Resident

620
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 3: Evil movies. Yeah, I think I saw the first two.

621
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 2: I think I saw one, and then I saw part

622
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 2: of Russell McKay's and I was I was impressed by

623
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 2: what I saw, but for some reason I didn't finish it.

624
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 2: I don't know.

625
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 3: Those Resident Evil movies are the kind that I know.

626
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 3: I've seen them. I remember literally nothing at all about them.

627
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 3: Couldn't tell you a single thing.

628
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 2: Now, we also have to mention that Paul W. S

629
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 2: Anderson directed two thousand and four's Alien Versus Predator. That's

630
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 2: probably a film we could do a whole episode about.

631
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 2: But to be fair, I have to stress that while

632
00:32:58,000 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 2: I don't think it was a solid entry in the

633
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 2: Alien franchise, you can make a case for being a

634
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 2: solid entry in the Predator franchise. I think I'm mostly

635
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 2: glad that it's considered non canon, but I still do

636
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 2: remember seeing it and being entertained by it. I don't

637
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:17,280
Speaker 2: remember being bored in Alien Versus Predator, and I remember

638
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 2: many of the effects being pretty terrific, So I probably

639
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 2: need to revisit that one as well, even though I

640
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 2: don't really want to.

641
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad you feel obligated.

642
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 2: I don't know if I feel obligated. I'm sure I

643
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,320
Speaker 2: would enjoy myself if I rewatched it.

644
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I probably would too.

645
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 2: Like if I'm faced with, Okay, do I rewatch Alien three?

646
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 2: Or Alien Resurrection or Alien Versus Predator. It's a strong

647
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 2: case to be made for each of these films for

648
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:44,880
Speaker 2: pretty different reasons.

649
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 3: I think I'm on the record being a really not

650
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 3: a fan of Alien Resurrection. I would do Three, then

651
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:54,280
Speaker 3: a VP, then Resurrection.

652
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,240
Speaker 2: I think it's pretty solid, all right. Other Anderson films

653
00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 2: include a two thousand and eight update of Death Race,

654
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,960
Speaker 2: twenty eleven three Musketeers movie that has a pretty amazing cast,

655
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen's POMPEII, twenty twenties Monster Hunter, and up next,

656
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 2: this one actually has me a little bit interested. Lost Lands,

657
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:14,439
Speaker 2: a werewolf fantasy movie starring Mila Jovivic and Dave Bautista

658
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 2: based on a story by George R. R. Martin. Okay,

659
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 2: so that could fly drastically off the rails, but it

660
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:21,839
Speaker 2: could be really good.

661
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got to see it all right now.

662
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 2: On the writing front, Mortal Kombat ninety five credits the

663
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 2: creators of the Mortal Kombat franchise, that being ed Boone

664
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 2: born nineteen sixty four and John Tobias. Famously. Of course,

665
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 2: these two last names spelled backwards create the Ninjas. The

666
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 2: name of the shadow ninja Nube Sibot in the franchise,

667
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 2: Nube Saibot is not in this film.

668
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:49,319
Speaker 3: Though, very cool sounding ninja.

669
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, all of these two individuals. Ed Boone remains creative

670
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,880
Speaker 2: director and team leader on all Mortal Kombat and related

671
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 2: games at nether Room Studios. He's pretty active on social

672
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,000
Speaker 2: media as well. He also did a lot of the voices,

673
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 2: So Scorpion's voice is ed Boone, and we hear ed

674
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,560
Speaker 2: Boone's voice as Scorpion in this picture. John Tobias is

675
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 2: widely considered to have been really instrumental in the first

676
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 2: four Mortal Kombat games, you know, that really established much

677
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 2: of the mythos and the lore. But after that, I

678
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:21,279
Speaker 2: believe he parted ways with the production and kind of

679
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 2: went off on his own.

680
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 3: One of the goofy er choices in this movie is

681
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:28,920
Speaker 3: that it does use sound effects from the video game

682
00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 3: in the movie. I don't remember all the examples, but

683
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:34,839
Speaker 3: you know, there's a voice over in the game, so

684
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:36,799
Speaker 3: like when you select a player, it'll say their name,

685
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 3: it'll go Scorpion, and I think they use stuff like

686
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 3: that in the movie.

687
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 2: Actually, I mean maybe there are voices in the room

688
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:46,919
Speaker 2: that were like, this is what video game fans want

689
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 2: and we should give it to them, which brings me

690
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,600
Speaker 2: to the screenwriter for this, which I can't help This

691
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:55,480
Speaker 2: is me projecting, but I can't help but notice that

692
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 2: screenwriter Kevin Droney was born in nineteen forty eight. That

693
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 2: was the same year my dad was born. I can't

694
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:03,960
Speaker 2: help but think back and to imagine me as a

695
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:07,840
Speaker 2: sixteen year old and my dad writing a Mortalbat film.

696
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:12,319
Speaker 2: Not a fair comparison, but at any rate. Droni writer

697
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 2: and producer who previously scripted episodes of TVs, The Equalizer,

698
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:19,240
Speaker 2: Jake and the Fat Man, Hunter and Highlander, the TV series,

699
00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:22,399
Speaker 2: among others, as well as the TV movie Down Came

700
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:26,360
Speaker 2: a Blackbird starring Roald Julia, Laura Dern and Vanessa Redgrave.

701
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,799
Speaker 2: After Mortal Kombat. He worked on the screenplay for the

702
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine Wing Commander film Hilary.

703
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:35,840
Speaker 3: He's writing for Raal Julia and Vanessa Redgrave and Mortal Kombat.

704
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm really only familiar with his work here,

705
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:42,360
Speaker 2: and again he gets the job done. You know, he

706
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:46,400
Speaker 2: takes he adapted the Mortal Kombat video games into a

707
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 2: workable screenplay.

708
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 3: So it is a dumb screenplay, but this machine cranks.

709
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:56,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, Top Build. In this film we have

710
00:36:57,080 --> 00:37:00,919
Speaker 2: Christopher Limbert playing Lord Raydon with a wha, I don't

711
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 2: I didn't look that up. Why it has a y

712
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:03,240
Speaker 2: in it?

713
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 3: For this he gets spelled in different ways in different games. Also,

714
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:10,360
Speaker 3: like there, I don't remember which was which, but like

715
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:12,840
Speaker 3: it was spelled differently in the Arcade Cabinet versus the

716
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:13,800
Speaker 3: console versions.

717
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 2: All right, well, Lambert, We've talked about Lambert before. He's

718
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:22,520
Speaker 2: one of our favorites. Born nineteen fifty seven, French franchise mainstay.

719
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 2: We discussed him at length in our pair of episodes

720
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 2: on Highlander two. This is he's again Top Build here,

721
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,040
Speaker 2: but he's more of a supportive character. He's, like you said,

722
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,839
Speaker 2: he's kind of one of two actors who were kind

723
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 2: of the glue holding the whole thing together. He did

724
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,799
Speaker 2: not reprise this role in the sequel, as Rayden would

725
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:46,360
Speaker 2: be played in that in Annihilation by James Ramar. Of course,

726
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 2: Dramar was in The Warriors and looking at his filmography

727
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 2: everything else as well. This is one of those guys

728
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:54,320
Speaker 2: is just continually acted in anything and everything.

729
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 3: Now he plays his role as openly cheesy, which not

730
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,320
Speaker 3: everybody in the movie does, like some characters are playing

731
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 3: their role fairly straight. For example, our heroes mainly play

732
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 3: their role straight. But Lambert is act He's on a

733
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 3: different level. Like he is embracing camp and cheesiness openly,

734
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 3: and it brings a wonderful kind of seasoning to the proceedings.

735
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 3: I think that contrast between some actors taking it seriously

736
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:27,839
Speaker 3: and a couple of actors primarily Lambert not doing that,

737
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 3: it works out pretty well. But it also there are

738
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:33,880
Speaker 3: moments where he turns it on and and kind of

739
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,520
Speaker 3: does take it seriously. There are only a few of them,

740
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:40,520
Speaker 3: but those I don't know. It's charming.

741
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I agree, Like there's some points where he

742
00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:47,400
Speaker 2: brings a serious tone that really powers up the exposition

743
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 2: dumps and then other times he's a little lighter and

744
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,239
Speaker 2: a little silly, and it's it's interesting to think about

745
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,239
Speaker 2: this in terms of where they ended up going with

746
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 2: the Raiden character in the later games, where Raidin is

747
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 2: very serious and all the imust consult the older gods

748
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 2: and all this, but in this film, Lambert plays him,

749
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:08,960
Speaker 2: and I feel like Rayden is written as a kind

750
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:14,160
Speaker 2: of trickster god who's helping humanity but on one level

751
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 2: genuinely wants to help them, but also is amused by them,

752
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:21,840
Speaker 2: And so you're not exactly sure, like what which is

753
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 2: his primary motivation seen to scene, and I think it's

754
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,800
Speaker 2: more befitting of a supportive role god character and something

755
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 2: like this.

756
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 3: But he's also partially playing it like a beloved sitcom character.

757
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 3: He has what happened catch phrases, Oh yeah, he says,

758
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 3: I don't think so.

759
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:42,680
Speaker 2: He says it three times that I counted, I don't

760
00:39:42,719 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 2: think so. So.

761
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 3: I would not be surprised to learn that Christophe Lambert

762
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:52,440
Speaker 3: did this entire movie without knowing what it was about,

763
00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 3: and only read his lines for the first time on

764
00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:56,840
Speaker 3: the day he was shooting his scenes. I can't prove

765
00:39:56,960 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 3: that just feels possible, but he but still he provides

766
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 3: this wonderful just signature twinkling eye and mischievous chuckle and

767
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,600
Speaker 3: all is right with the world. I'm so glad he's

768
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 3: here now.

769
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:12,480
Speaker 2: While Lambert is the top build actor, Raydn again is

770
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,839
Speaker 2: not the main character. He's not our true protagonist. Our

771
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 2: protagonist is Lou Kang, of course, played in this film

772
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:23,319
Speaker 2: by Robin Chu born nineteen sixty. Not only is he

773
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:25,400
Speaker 2: the true hero of this film, he is the canonical

774
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 2: winner of the first three Mortal Kombat games. So you know, reminder,

775
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 2: never bet on a Mortal Kombat game because Lu King

776
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:34,239
Speaker 2: is always the winner if.

777
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:35,799
Speaker 3: You can get good adds betting on him. I guess

778
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:38,080
Speaker 3: you should, I guess. But yeah, He's always going to win.

779
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:39,200
Speaker 3: It's just how it works.

780
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:43,919
Speaker 2: And he shit so. Robin Schu born in British Hong Kong,

781
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:47,360
Speaker 2: raised in la and while at California State University, he

782
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 2: decided to travel to mainland China to study wushu martial arts.

783
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:53,280
Speaker 2: He finished his schooling in the US, but then traveled

784
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:55,360
Speaker 2: back to Hong Kong, where he got into stunt work

785
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,919
Speaker 2: in Hong Kong cinema and this basically spilled out into

786
00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 2: small parts some Hong Kong productions as well. So prior

787
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:05,200
Speaker 2: to Mortal Kombat, he'd appeared in such Hong Kong films

788
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 2: as nineteen eighty eight's The Big Heat co directed by

789
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:13,560
Speaker 2: show favorite Sue Hawk and nineteen ninety threes Undefeatable. But

790
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,520
Speaker 2: then he's out of the blue cast in Mortal Kombat.

791
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:18,120
Speaker 2: So this is a huge break for him, you know,

792
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 2: going from basically smaller roles in Hong Kong productions to essentially,

793
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:25,759
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe not top bill, but still the main

794
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,520
Speaker 2: character in the fairly big budget production that ends up

795
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 2: being a summer blockbuster release. He would follow this up

796
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,840
Speaker 2: with ninety seven's Mortal Kombat Annihilation, reprising the role of

797
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 2: course Beverly Hills Ninja. The same year, he was in

798
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,000
Speaker 2: an episode of The Outer Limits. From nineteen ninety eight,

799
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 2: he was in Death Race Street Fighter, The Legend of

800
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 2: Chun Lee in two thousand and nine, Deathrays two Into

801
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:52,000
Speaker 2: twenty ten, Deathras three, Inferno in twenty thirteen. He's also

802
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 2: written and directed I Believe that the film is two

803
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:56,480
Speaker 2: thousand and three is Red Trousers The Life of the

804
00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:59,799
Speaker 2: Hong Kong Stuntmen, and he is also credited with fight

805
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 2: choreographer additional fight sequences for this film. So I guess

806
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:05,880
Speaker 2: you got to throw in some of his own special

807
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,040
Speaker 2: sauce in some of his fight scenes here.

808
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I also really like him here. None of

809
00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:17,800
Speaker 3: the characters in Mortal Kombat are written with great finesse,

810
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 3: and our hero role here is no exception to that.

811
00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 3: But Robin Show is a great casting choice, and he

812
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:29,520
Speaker 3: shines through due to just strong baseline likability. He's handsome,

813
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:33,680
Speaker 3: He's charismatic, but not in a big overt way. He's

814
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,239
Speaker 3: got an understated charisma. He rips in his martial arts

815
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:40,319
Speaker 3: scenes and just gives off good guy energy even in

816
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,840
Speaker 3: the scenes where he's bringing a bad attitude. He also

817
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:48,000
Speaker 3: has astoundingly voluminous hair. It's at almost glam metal volume.

818
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 3: I'm in awe.

819
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:53,880
Speaker 2: It is impressive hair. Yes, the wind is often catching

820
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 2: it just right.

821
00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 3: Who did the hairstyling in this movie generally quite good?

822
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:04,400
Speaker 2: Catherine Reese, Michael Pockel, and Alicia M. Trippy. Those are

823
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 2: the three three individuals credited. I don't know which one

824
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 2: is responsible for this hairday, though, hats off two.

825
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:12,799
Speaker 3: You three quite literally because you wouldn't want to put

826
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:14,160
Speaker 3: a hat on that feathered de.

827
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 2: It just wouldn't be the same if Luke King was

828
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:18,360
Speaker 2: fighting at a ball cap. Yeah, trucker hat, you know,

829
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 2: I don't know now I'm picturing it sounds pretty cool,

830
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:24,720
Speaker 2: all right. Then we have Johnny Cage, played by Lyndon

831
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:28,239
Speaker 2: Ashby born nineteen sixty American actor and martial arts practitioner.

832
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 2: His credits go back to eighty six. They include the

833
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,320
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven Werewolf TV show that we frequently referenced.

834
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 2: He'd mostly done TV work prior to Mortal Kombat, but

835
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,760
Speaker 2: also some action films sprinkled in there as well. For instance,

836
00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,400
Speaker 2: there's a role as one of the ERPs in the

837
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:47,120
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four film Wyatt Erp. And his post Mortal

838
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 2: Kombat credits include thirty five episodes of Melrose Place, Wild

839
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,480
Speaker 2: Things Too in two thousand and four, Resident Evil Extinction,

840
00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:56,240
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, prom Night, two thousand and Nine's

841
00:43:56,440 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 2: Anaconda's Pearl, Trail of Blood, me Girls two in twenty eleven,

842
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:05,160
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen's Iron Man three, eighty eight episodes of TV's

843
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 2: Teen Wolf. That one is a strong Russell McKay connection there,

844
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:12,439
Speaker 2: and various TV roles. On top of that, he would

845
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 2: return to voice Johnny Cajo believe in downloadable content for

846
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:19,520
Speaker 2: Mortal Kombat eleven in twenty nineteen, and I believe Christophe

847
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:21,840
Speaker 2: Limbert did the same. I don't know if he says

848
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:24,839
Speaker 2: I don't think so, but I hope he does so.

849
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:29,040
Speaker 3: I thought Johnny Cage was really cool and really funny

850
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:31,560
Speaker 3: when I was nine. Not sure I feel the same

851
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 3: way now, or at least maybe to rephrase, I thought

852
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,239
Speaker 3: he at the beginning of the movie was cool and

853
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,319
Speaker 3: funny when I was nine. Not sure I feel the

854
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:41,759
Speaker 3: same way now. You know, early in the story his

855
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 3: character is written smug, smarmy, and egotistical, but he's got

856
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:50,359
Speaker 3: a nice redemption arch. He redeems himself with courage and

857
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,120
Speaker 3: with a well executed punch to the groin when it

858
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 3: matters most. So I think it all evens out.

859
00:44:55,960 --> 00:45:00,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think this role may have been important

860
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:02,800
Speaker 2: and setting the course for Johnny Cage in future combat

861
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 2: games and media, so moving away from just sort of

862
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:08,880
Speaker 2: a cocky Van dam clone into this kind of privileged,

863
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:11,640
Speaker 2: semi hateable jerk who maybe comes through in the end

864
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,400
Speaker 2: for the good guys to spite his ego I should

865
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:17,000
Speaker 2: point out that Carl Urvin is going to play him

866
00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:20,439
Speaker 2: in the next Mortal Kombat film, despite Urban clearly being

867
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 2: the most Cano ready actor alive.

868
00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:25,880
Speaker 3: Oh Man put him in a metal face plate right now.

869
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:27,799
Speaker 2: I think they already have a guy playing Kano, so

870
00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 2: they're like, what do you do with Carl Urban? But

871
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 2: Carl Urban's great at comedic role, so he's going to

872
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 2: deliver something special. I'm sure.

873
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,439
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, but I feel we've waited too long. We've

874
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,720
Speaker 3: got to talk about Kerrie hiro Yuki Tagawa playing our villain.

875
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:42,920
Speaker 3: Shang Song in this. I love him.

876
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,160
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he is tremendous. This is the quintessential Shing

877
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 2: Song born nineteen fifty Japanese American actor whose credits fittingly

878
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:54,200
Speaker 2: go back to an uncredited extra role as a Wingkong

879
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:56,839
Speaker 2: man in nineteen eighty six. Is Big Trouble in Little China.

880
00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,480
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever spotted him, but he's supposedly

881
00:45:59,520 --> 00:45:59,879
Speaker 2: in there.

882
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:01,080
Speaker 3: Okay.

883
00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 2: That same year, he had a small role in the

884
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty six Fred Olin Ray filmed arm Response starring

885
00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:11,320
Speaker 2: David Carridine, Lee Van Cleef, Mako, Michael Berriman, and Dick Miller.

886
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:13,680
Speaker 2: I mean to the extent anything. I mean, some movies

887
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 2: starred Dick Miller. We've talked, we've covered them on the

888
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:18,840
Speaker 2: show before, but Dick Miller is generally a supporting note.

889
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:21,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, he plays your door to door vacuum salesman.

890
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:26,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, so to Goawa since this film, has acted and

891
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,359
Speaker 2: voice acted in tons of titles, often playing villains because

892
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:34,319
Speaker 2: he does that so very well. I can't do all

893
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:36,680
Speaker 2: of his credits justice, but just a few things to mention.

894
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,240
Speaker 2: He did an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation.

895
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:42,360
Speaker 2: He was in nineteen eighty seventh, The Last Emperor, nineteen

896
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:46,040
Speaker 2: eighty nine's Licensed to Kill, Let's See the nineteen ninety

897
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:49,520
Speaker 2: one Not of This World remake and Showdown in Little

898
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:53,520
Speaker 2: Tokyo same year, nineteen ninety two's Nemesis, ninety three's Rising Sun,

899
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:56,520
Speaker 2: Thunder and Paradise one and three. In the mid nineties

900
00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:00,840
Speaker 2: Babylon nine, John Carpenter's Vampires, in nineteen ninety eight the

901
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,759
Speaker 2: two thousand and one Planet of the Apes, and he

902
00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:06,240
Speaker 2: came back to play Sheang Sung again in the twenty

903
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:09,640
Speaker 2: thirteen TV series Possibly This was a web series Mortal

904
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:13,280
Speaker 2: Kombat Legacy, and a major role in the TV series

905
00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:15,560
Speaker 2: the Man in the High Castle, and he would also

906
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:18,720
Speaker 2: come back to play Sheang Sung in Likeness and voice

907
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:21,000
Speaker 2: for twenty nineteens Mortal Kombat eleven.

908
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:23,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we were talking about how he seems to

909
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:25,719
Speaker 3: have been typecast as a bad guy, but you can

910
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:30,400
Speaker 3: understand why because he has a world class sneer. But

911
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:32,640
Speaker 3: he's also just a great actor. I'm sure if you

912
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 3: gave him a lovable, friendly, good guy role, he'd do

913
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 3: well with that as well. I think Tagawa is the

914
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:40,959
Speaker 3: best actor in this movie, or at least, let me say,

915
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:44,560
Speaker 3: make it not about the person, but gives the best

916
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:48,240
Speaker 3: performance in this movie, and it's not even close. Every

917
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,799
Speaker 3: scene he's in he dominates. He has this great rare

918
00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:56,120
Speaker 3: skill of making even quite badly written dialogue just sing.

919
00:47:57,120 --> 00:47:59,439
Speaker 3: As we said earlier, even though this is a dumb movie,

920
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:01,720
Speaker 3: it does not ever get boring, and we talked about

921
00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:04,880
Speaker 3: some reasons for that, like the you know, the pacing

922
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:07,759
Speaker 3: that that keeps things moving along briskly, the use of

923
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:10,839
Speaker 3: hype music to keep the energy up. But I think

924
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 3: a big reason it does not get boring is a

925
00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:17,960
Speaker 3: couple of the major performances. One is Christoph Lambert, who

926
00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:20,759
Speaker 3: just keeps things fun. But the other one is Kerrie

927
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 3: Hiroyuki Tagawa because he's he's almost like a like a

928
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:29,960
Speaker 3: lubricant that keeps the movies motor from reaching the failure threshold.

929
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:33,200
Speaker 3: You know. It's like every scene he's in, he just

930
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:34,400
Speaker 3: makes it come alive.

931
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:38,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's clearly physically and spiritually committed to every scene

932
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:42,439
Speaker 2: he's in it. It is a completely over the top

933
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:46,120
Speaker 2: mustache twirling villain roll. He doesn't have the mustache, but

934
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:50,120
Speaker 2: but you know, certainly embodies that over the top vibe.

935
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 2: The character lacks the complexity of James Hong's lopen you know,

936
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 2: one of the obvious inspirations for the video game character.

937
00:48:57,400 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 2: But yeah, Tagawa makes it his own and in this

938
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:04,200
Speaker 2: film essentially becomes the quintessential shanksn moving forward. Oh and

939
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:05,080
Speaker 2: he has a great coat.

940
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:09,000
Speaker 3: Amazing coat, one of those martial arts movie costumes that

941
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:13,240
Speaker 3: makes so little sense. It's like a huge, heavy calf

942
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:16,840
Speaker 3: link leather coat. Yeah. I'm gonna do some roundhouse kicks,

943
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,360
Speaker 3: so I'm going to wrap my whole body in loose leather.

944
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:23,239
Speaker 2: It's amazing. Yeah. Costume design here by ha Win because

945
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 2: of nineteen fifty five through twenty twelve, I hope it's

946
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 2: in a planet Hollywood somewhere people can look at it

947
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:40,439
Speaker 2: while they eat their cheeseburgers. Yeah, all right, now let's

948
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:43,120
Speaker 2: move on to the character of Sonia, played played in

949
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:47,239
Speaker 2: this film by Bridget Wilson. Sampras credited. Of course, this

950
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:49,080
Speaker 2: is Bridget Wilson for this film.

951
00:49:49,600 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 3: I was trying to think of a not unkind way

952
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:54,799
Speaker 3: to say this, but this character is the source of

953
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:58,360
Speaker 3: a lot of the unintentionally funny parts of this movie.

954
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,200
Speaker 3: Like the scene where we meet her is probably the

955
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:04,680
Speaker 3: most unintentionally funny part of it, where she's decked out

956
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 3: in swat gear with her partner Jacks, and they're running

957
00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:10,960
Speaker 3: through the middle of a techno dance club. I don't know, Rob,

958
00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:13,000
Speaker 3: if you can identify what kind of club this is

959
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 3: supposed to be, But they're like running through this club

960
00:50:16,040 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 3: with all these dancers with shotguns, and she's relentlessly barking

961
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,960
Speaker 3: out these these like tactical speed lines like secure the

962
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:28,439
Speaker 3: perimeter and stuff, and is just it's an awkward fit

963
00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:29,000
Speaker 3: in their role.

964
00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:31,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe it's supposed to be a heavy metal

965
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:35,040
Speaker 2: rave club in mid nineties Hong Kong, which I guess

966
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:38,160
Speaker 2: maybe that's that's realistic. On Hong Kong certainly has both

967
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:40,600
Speaker 2: a metal scene and a rave scene, though nothing we

968
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:44,560
Speaker 2: see here feels actually connected to any potential reality of

969
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:45,239
Speaker 2: that now.

970
00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:47,880
Speaker 3: Sonia was actually one of my favorite characters in the

971
00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 3: original Mortal Kombat game because I could do several of

972
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:53,759
Speaker 3: her special moves and I thought they were cool. She

973
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:56,200
Speaker 3: could shoot these energy rings out of her hands, and

974
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:57,799
Speaker 3: she could also do a thing where she would like

975
00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:00,279
Speaker 3: stand on her hands, grab you with her ankle and

976
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:04,440
Speaker 3: flip you over. So so Sonia was cool in the game.

977
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,680
Speaker 3: In the movie, they really emphasized like the Special Forces

978
00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:12,600
Speaker 3: revenge element. So she is hunting this guy Cano on

979
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:14,960
Speaker 3: the island, but a lot of her dialogue once we

980
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:18,120
Speaker 3: reach the island is what I would call hate flirting

981
00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 3: with Johnny Cage, where they're just like trading barbs and

982
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:23,920
Speaker 3: insults back and forth. But of course they're gonna end

983
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:25,000
Speaker 3: up falling in love.

984
00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:27,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, and having children. You get to play their children

985
00:51:27,480 --> 00:51:28,200
Speaker 2: in the later games.

986
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:29,280
Speaker 3: What are you serious?

987
00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:33,400
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, no way, yeah, that's like a what a

988
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:36,080
Speaker 2: son and a son and a daughter I think, But anyway.

989
00:51:36,400 --> 00:51:39,560
Speaker 3: And they let their kids enter the Mortal Kombat tournament.

990
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:42,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and yeah, and they fight against each other too. Yeah,

991
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:46,800
Speaker 2: so all that is in play. But it's often pointed

992
00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:50,200
Speaker 2: out that Cameron Diaz was cast in this role and

993
00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:52,960
Speaker 2: was training for the role and then suffered some sort

994
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:54,480
Speaker 2: of training injury and had to back.

995
00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:56,360
Speaker 3: Out, and that could have been interesting.

996
00:51:56,560 --> 00:51:59,240
Speaker 2: It could have been, And to be clear, Cameron Diaz

997
00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:01,839
Speaker 2: is great, but I'm not sure if even she could

998
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:05,000
Speaker 2: have done much with this role because, like you said,

999
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:08,760
Speaker 2: she's this sort of cardboard revenge seeker action hero until

1000
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,840
Speaker 2: suddenly she's not because then suddenly she's a damsel in distress,

1001
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:14,120
Speaker 2: kidnapped by the villain. It needs to be rescued by

1002
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:14,840
Speaker 2: the male heroes.

1003
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 3: Yes, this movie does. There's a tension there because they're

1004
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:21,160
Speaker 3: all supposed to be fighters in this tournament, right, and

1005
00:52:21,160 --> 00:52:22,680
Speaker 3: they can hold their own and we do see she

1006
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:24,719
Speaker 3: has a fight with Kano in the movie where she

1007
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:28,359
Speaker 3: is victorious, but right for some reason, right at the

1008
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:32,600
Speaker 3: break for act three, she transforms from a from a

1009
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:35,520
Speaker 3: determined fighter into well, now she just needs to be

1010
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:39,240
Speaker 3: rescued by the dudes. Yeah, predictable twist.

1011
00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:43,080
Speaker 2: Now, she would of course go on to marry tennis

1012
00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:46,839
Speaker 2: star Pete Samprass thus Bridget Wilson Sampress. She was a

1013
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:50,000
Speaker 2: former Miss Teen USA. She started out acting on Saved

1014
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:53,000
Speaker 2: by the Bell and Santa Barbara before appearing in nineteen

1015
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:55,800
Speaker 2: ninety three He's Last Action Hero, followed by Billy Madison

1016
00:52:56,280 --> 00:53:00,840
Speaker 2: this film and Nixon in ninety five. Quite an interesting

1017
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:03,520
Speaker 2: ninety five, I have to say, and then.

1018
00:53:03,080 --> 00:53:06,240
Speaker 3: Oliver Stone Movie and Mortal Yeah.

1019
00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:08,680
Speaker 2: Other films include I Know What You Did Last Summer

1020
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:10,959
Speaker 2: in ninety seven, House on Haunted Hill in ninety nine,

1021
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:13,440
Speaker 2: and she also came back to lend her voice to

1022
00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 2: MK eleven in twenty nineteen. I think for some DLC

1023
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:20,279
Speaker 2: all right. Another female character, a woman of mystery that

1024
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:24,280
Speaker 2: shows up is the character Katana, played by Telissa Soto

1025
00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:28,760
Speaker 2: born nineteen sixty seven. She'd previously appeared in eighty nine's

1026
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:31,800
Speaker 2: Licensed to Kill as the villain's girlfriend like the drug

1027
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:36,319
Speaker 2: lord's girlfriend, and so she's not really a bad guy

1028
00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 2: in that. I think she ends up she doesn't like

1029
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 2: the villain either, but then Bond chooses the other girl

1030
00:53:41,239 --> 00:53:44,360
Speaker 2: over her. If memory serves, if you remember any of

1031
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:48,840
Speaker 2: the romantic themes and plotting of a License.

1032
00:53:48,520 --> 00:53:51,360
Speaker 3: To Kill, License to Kill is the one with Robert Dovey,

1033
00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:52,560
Speaker 3: isn't it yep yeap?

1034
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:55,920
Speaker 2: So she plays Dobby's character's girlfriend.

1035
00:53:56,080 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 3: Okay, okay.

1036
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:00,239
Speaker 2: She would reprise her role as Katana and the ninety

1037
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:02,640
Speaker 2: seven sequel, and of note, she is the wife of

1038
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:03,400
Speaker 2: Benjamin Brad.

1039
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:06,480
Speaker 3: She has a character of power and mystery in this.

1040
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:09,400
Speaker 3: She is not a human fighter in the tournament, but

1041
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:12,120
Speaker 3: appears as one of the envoys of Outworld. I think

1042
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:15,359
Speaker 3: they say she's the daughter of the Emperor of Outworld,

1043
00:54:15,680 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 3: and she's here at the tournament with mysterious and ambiguous motivations,

1044
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:23,680
Speaker 3: and clearly the villains are sort of afraid of her.

1045
00:54:23,719 --> 00:54:25,960
Speaker 3: They don't know exactly what she intends to do.

1046
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she's unfortunately in one of the least interesting fights.

1047
00:54:30,920 --> 00:54:34,200
Speaker 2: That's more about the passing secret information onto Luke King.

1048
00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:37,080
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, but she saves lu Kang's life by

1049
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:38,800
Speaker 3: letting him know that water freezes.

1050
00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:43,239
Speaker 2: That's right, all right. We mentioned Kano is played by

1051
00:54:43,239 --> 00:54:45,960
Speaker 2: Trevor Goddard in this, who lived nineteen sixty two through

1052
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, English actor who often played Australian characters.

1053
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:52,160
Speaker 2: I've read he might have actually been going for a

1054
00:54:52,200 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 2: cockney accident here with Kano, but what we get certainly

1055
00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:59,040
Speaker 2: feels Australian and it actually led to the franchise character

1056
00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:03,040
Speaker 2: becoming Usustralian. So I think ever since, Cano has always

1057
00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:06,239
Speaker 2: been Australian, and I believe he's currently played by an

1058
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:08,080
Speaker 2: Australian in the new film series.

1059
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:09,720
Speaker 3: Okay.

1060
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:13,480
Speaker 2: So Goddard was a punk rocker turned actor who really

1061
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:15,880
Speaker 2: gets to choose some scenery and some I think turkey

1062
00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:19,759
Speaker 2: legs in this one. Yes, he'd mostly done TV work

1063
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:21,600
Speaker 2: prior to this, but went on to appear in nineteen

1064
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:23,520
Speaker 2: ninety eight s Deep Rising, which is a pretty fun

1065
00:55:23,520 --> 00:55:26,200
Speaker 2: creature feature, and two thousand and three is Pirates of

1066
00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:29,120
Speaker 2: the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl. This is

1067
00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:31,839
Speaker 2: the same year of his untimely passing. I would say

1068
00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:35,839
Speaker 2: Cano feels underutilized in the film, but Goddard literally makes

1069
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:37,799
Speaker 2: a meal of many Cano scene he's in.

1070
00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:41,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a scene where he just eats this greasy,

1071
00:55:41,719 --> 00:55:45,920
Speaker 3: juice squirting turkey leg and he's very much eating it

1072
00:55:46,160 --> 00:55:50,080
Speaker 3: in character, if that makes sense. He's like acting through eating.

1073
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:52,400
Speaker 3: I love him. In that scene. He also gets to

1074
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:54,919
Speaker 3: throw the turkey leg on the floor after eating about

1075
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:56,160
Speaker 3: one eighth of it or so.

1076
00:55:56,520 --> 00:55:59,200
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he's a food waster and there's a lot

1077
00:55:59,239 --> 00:56:02,160
Speaker 2: of spittles, a lot of spittle from this character. Yes,

1078
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:05,160
Speaker 2: all right, I'll mention this in passing. But Peter Jason

1079
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:08,360
Speaker 2: is in this in a very small role, playing Master Boyd,

1080
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:14,240
Speaker 2: Cage's old trainer or whatnot. Born nineteen forty four. He's

1081
00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:16,520
Speaker 2: a familiar character actor who's been in everything from The

1082
00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:20,320
Speaker 2: Karate Kid and Congo to a slewage on Carpenter films,

1083
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:24,040
Speaker 2: including the likes of Prince of Darkness, Escape from La

1084
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:25,680
Speaker 2: and In the Mouth of Madness.

1085
00:56:26,160 --> 00:56:27,920
Speaker 3: I knew I recognized him from somewhere.

1086
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:30,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's one of those guys. He's in a lot of.

1087
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:32,800
Speaker 3: Stuff, except when we see him, he's not really Master Boyd,

1088
00:56:32,840 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 3: is he.

1089
00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:36,880
Speaker 2: That's right, we'll get to that, all right. Voice actors

1090
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:39,080
Speaker 2: Frank Welker is in this doing the voices of Shao

1091
00:56:39,160 --> 00:56:44,400
Speaker 2: Khan and Reptile. Born forty six. He's a voice acting mainstay,

1092
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,760
Speaker 2: especially when you need some odd grunts. It's like weird

1093
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 2: creature noises.

1094
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:51,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So he does the squealing of Reptile,

1095
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:53,640
Speaker 3: I guess, and then he at the end of the

1096
00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:57,160
Speaker 3: movie gets to say what, you weak, pathetic fools. I've

1097
00:56:57,160 --> 00:56:58,120
Speaker 3: come for your souls.

1098
00:56:58,320 --> 00:57:02,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the voice of Goro is Kevin Michael

1099
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:06,719
Speaker 2: Richardson born nineteen sixty four, deep voiced actor who has

1100
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:09,480
Speaker 2: worked extensively as a voice actor for film, TV and

1101
00:57:09,640 --> 00:57:10,360
Speaker 2: video games.

1102
00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:12,839
Speaker 3: Now, is this the point where we want to mention

1103
00:57:12,960 --> 00:57:16,000
Speaker 3: the Goro special effects? Because I'm a little bit on

1104
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:20,080
Speaker 3: the fence. On one hand, I acknowledge that the Goro

1105
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:23,880
Speaker 3: I don't even fully know how they accomplished it maybe

1106
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:28,080
Speaker 3: has some combination of like a suit and animatronics or whatever.

1107
00:57:28,120 --> 00:57:31,480
Speaker 3: Whatever it is, it's an impressive achievement. Those four arms

1108
00:57:31,520 --> 00:57:34,040
Speaker 3: feel kind of real, they feel like they're moving independently.

1109
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,600
Speaker 3: But on the other hand, the design is just hideous.

1110
00:57:37,680 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 3: I want to wipe my eyes after looking at it.

1111
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:44,360
Speaker 2: I would agree with that it's Goro is It's a

1112
00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:45,120
Speaker 2: lot to take in.

1113
00:57:45,520 --> 00:57:48,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, But to come back on the other hand, again,

1114
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:52,160
Speaker 3: I will give them that his presence, the presence they achieve,

1115
00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:56,080
Speaker 3: is genuinely menacing. And I remember being scared of Goro

1116
00:57:56,200 --> 00:57:58,320
Speaker 3: in this movie when I was a kid. It's scary,

1117
00:57:58,920 --> 00:58:01,840
Speaker 3: and some of the early teases of his presence are

1118
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:02,560
Speaker 3: quite good.

1119
00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:05,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, the teases are the best, really where you don't

1120
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 2: see much of them at all, but then you see

1121
00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:10,080
Speaker 2: all of them pretty much. And yeah, it's a weird

1122
00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 2: mix because as a one hundred percent practical effect in

1123
00:58:13,160 --> 00:58:16,200
Speaker 2: a film that has some hideous CGI elements, you know,

1124
00:58:16,760 --> 00:58:20,840
Speaker 2: he's instantly admirable. You're like, yes, prove my point that

1125
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:24,400
Speaker 2: that practical effects are are the best. But he also

1126
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:27,320
Speaker 2: just looks a little stilted and awkward most of the time.

1127
00:58:28,040 --> 00:58:30,800
Speaker 2: He comes off looking like a Jack crypt Keeper, but

1128
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:34,000
Speaker 2: without all the lifelike articulation of the crypt Keeper. Like

1129
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:38,960
Speaker 2: the Cryptkeeper always felt real, and I wanted Goro to

1130
00:58:39,040 --> 00:58:42,440
Speaker 2: feel more real. I wanted to believe in him more.

1131
00:58:42,840 --> 00:58:44,920
Speaker 2: And at the same time, yeah, I realized, like a

1132
00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:48,160
Speaker 2: lot of admirable work and artistry went into creating this effect,

1133
00:58:48,440 --> 00:58:51,560
Speaker 2: but it just doesn't quite work. And I'm not sure

1134
00:58:51,560 --> 00:58:54,280
Speaker 2: exactly where the shortcoming is here, Like, is it just

1135
00:58:54,360 --> 00:58:56,320
Speaker 2: that he should have been a stop motion effect more

1136
00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:58,640
Speaker 2: or less like he is in the game. Does it

1137
00:58:58,680 --> 00:59:01,840
Speaker 2: come down to the way that they shot it and

1138
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:05,280
Speaker 2: lit it. I Mean, I'm not sure exactly what could

1139
00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:06,840
Speaker 2: have improved the scenario here.

1140
00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:10,320
Speaker 3: Got He's got a kind of uncanny valley quality that

1141
00:59:10,400 --> 00:59:12,600
Speaker 3: makes him sort of gross to look at. I think

1142
00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:15,280
Speaker 3: it's that he looks almost like a human but has

1143
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:18,560
Speaker 3: these but is held back in some way. Maybe if

1144
00:59:18,600 --> 00:59:22,200
Speaker 3: they had gone more fully monstrous in his design and

1145
00:59:22,240 --> 00:59:24,960
Speaker 3: made him a little bit less humanoid in the face,

1146
00:59:25,200 --> 00:59:26,640
Speaker 3: say that might have been better.

1147
00:59:27,120 --> 00:59:30,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean sometimes humanoid faces can be the

1148
00:59:30,680 --> 00:59:33,200
Speaker 2: most difficult to make work like. That's one of the

1149
00:59:33,960 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 2: you look at some of the behind the scenes stuff

1150
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:37,040
Speaker 2: on The Dark Crystal and they talk about how the

1151
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:39,800
Speaker 2: gelflings were the most challenging because they were the most

1152
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:42,320
Speaker 2: They're supposed to be the most beautiful, the most lifelike,

1153
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:44,360
Speaker 2: And I don't think they're trying to make Goro beautiful,

1154
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:48,000
Speaker 2: but maybe there's a case to be made that close

1155
00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:51,240
Speaker 2: ups of Goro speaking should have been like a prosthetic

1156
00:59:51,440 --> 00:59:54,479
Speaker 2: on a human actor instead of what we have here.

1157
00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 2: And I don't know. It's also probably just another testament

1158
00:59:56,920 --> 01:00:01,200
Speaker 2: to how great the effects are, like The Dark Crystal,

1159
01:00:01,240 --> 01:00:05,720
Speaker 2: where a fully artificial being is brought to believable life,

1160
01:00:05,760 --> 01:00:08,800
Speaker 2: like it's even if you have all the tools at

1161
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:11,480
Speaker 2: your disposal, and you have a budget and you have expertise,

1162
01:00:11,880 --> 01:00:16,040
Speaker 2: like you're trying to create a masterpiece. So on the

1163
01:00:16,080 --> 01:00:18,400
Speaker 2: effects front, a lot of people were involved in this film.

1164
01:00:18,720 --> 01:00:22,200
Speaker 2: Tom Woodruff Junior is credited with Goro Special Effects and

1165
01:00:22,240 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 2: Goro Suit, so I think you know some of the

1166
01:00:24,480 --> 01:00:27,000
Speaker 2: times it is a person in a suit. Born nineteen

1167
01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:30,040
Speaker 2: fifty nine tons of solid credits. He was a Stan

1168
01:00:30,080 --> 01:00:33,040
Speaker 2: Winston Studios guy, so he was on the team behind

1169
01:00:33,160 --> 01:00:36,680
Speaker 2: The Terminator and Aliens, though he'd splintered off at some

1170
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:40,840
Speaker 2: point after those films prior to Mortal Kombat. All right,

1171
01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:42,920
Speaker 2: and then we mentioned the fight choreography. I'll mention that

1172
01:00:43,000 --> 01:00:46,000
Speaker 2: Patty Johnson, who lived nineteen thirty nine through twenty twenty three,

1173
01:00:46,400 --> 01:00:49,440
Speaker 2: was a fight choreographer here, and he was an accomplished

1174
01:00:49,560 --> 01:00:53,480
Speaker 2: martial artist with his own action acting credits going back

1175
01:00:53,520 --> 01:00:56,320
Speaker 2: to nineteen seventy three's Enter the Dragon. He appeared in

1176
01:00:56,400 --> 01:00:59,320
Speaker 2: multiple Chuck Norris movies, such as seventy nine as a

1177
01:00:59,360 --> 01:01:02,520
Speaker 2: Force of One. He served as fight choreographer on nineteen

1178
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:05,040
Speaker 2: eighty four as the Karate Kid, and also the three

1179
01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:08,520
Speaker 2: sequels to that, all three of the nineteen nineties Teenage

1180
01:01:08,560 --> 01:01:11,000
Speaker 2: Mutant Ninja Turtle movies, and he also came back for

1181
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:14,960
Speaker 2: Mortal Kombat Annihilation. He also plays the referee with the

1182
01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:19,240
Speaker 2: mustache in the Karate Kid movie The first all Right,

1183
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:22,200
Speaker 2: and then finally the music. So we already mentioned the

1184
01:01:22,240 --> 01:01:25,440
Speaker 2: importance of music in Paul W. S Anderson films, but

1185
01:01:25,720 --> 01:01:28,440
Speaker 2: music is also a key part of the Mortal Kombat franchise.

1186
01:01:28,760 --> 01:01:32,600
Speaker 2: The video games, especially MK two, had some pretty great music.

1187
01:01:32,640 --> 01:01:35,440
Speaker 2: I've listened to the Mortal Kombat Too soundtrack, like the

1188
01:01:35,480 --> 01:01:39,680
Speaker 2: original video soundtrack a little in isolation. It has, you know,

1189
01:01:39,720 --> 01:01:43,440
Speaker 2: an Eastern influenced electronic vibe. I guess you maybe call

1190
01:01:43,440 --> 01:01:47,640
Speaker 2: it chiptune by today's standards, you know, partially inspired by

1191
01:01:47,680 --> 01:01:51,000
Speaker 2: Carpenter and Howart's tremendous score to Big Trouble in Little China.

1192
01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:55,240
Speaker 2: And then in nineteen ninety four, Virgin Records released Mortal

1193
01:01:55,320 --> 01:01:59,360
Speaker 2: Kombat the album by the Immortals. This is the release

1194
01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:04,720
Speaker 2: that gave a a number of infectious beats, some solid cheese,

1195
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:08,240
Speaker 2: and also the Mortal Kombat theme song that we hear

1196
01:02:08,400 --> 01:02:10,360
Speaker 2: in this the nineteen ninety five film.

1197
01:02:10,440 --> 01:02:12,360
Speaker 3: That's what I was going to ask, if you knew

1198
01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:16,240
Speaker 3: is the so I think of the theme song from

1199
01:02:16,280 --> 01:02:18,600
Speaker 3: this film with the main Dun Dun Dun, dun du

1200
01:02:18,680 --> 01:02:21,960
Speaker 3: dah dun dud that thing I fully associate with Mortal

1201
01:02:22,040 --> 01:02:25,600
Speaker 3: Kombat going back to the games, But I actually don't

1202
01:02:25,640 --> 01:02:28,240
Speaker 3: know if anything like that is in the games. Is

1203
01:02:28,640 --> 01:02:32,040
Speaker 3: there something like that that's just straight from this album

1204
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:32,960
Speaker 3: and then the movie?

1205
01:02:33,360 --> 01:02:36,760
Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, I don't think we had anything quite like

1206
01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:38,720
Speaker 2: this in the video games. So I love the video

1207
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:39,280
Speaker 2: game music.

1208
01:02:39,920 --> 01:02:43,520
Speaker 3: Like I said, yeah, man, it managed to cement a

1209
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 3: place in the early canon.

1210
01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:50,080
Speaker 2: They've continued to make music a big part of the franchise.

1211
01:02:50,120 --> 01:02:53,440
Speaker 2: In twenty eleven, that put up the album Mortal Kombat

1212
01:02:53,520 --> 01:02:56,800
Speaker 2: Songs Inspired by the Warriors. This was a part of

1213
01:02:56,840 --> 01:02:59,320
Speaker 2: the promotion for that year's new Mortal Kombat game, and

1214
01:02:59,360 --> 01:03:02,920
Speaker 2: it has some really solid EDM and dubstep tracks on it.

1215
01:03:04,360 --> 01:03:05,960
Speaker 2: For some of you, if you don't know what dubstep

1216
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:08,840
Speaker 2: is or you just have a vague idea, I'm talking

1217
01:03:08,920 --> 01:03:13,960
Speaker 2: dubstep and like say, like the larger euro understanding of dubstep.

1218
01:03:14,200 --> 01:03:16,880
Speaker 2: So like, yes, Skrillis is on there, and Skrillick's track

1219
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:20,919
Speaker 2: is really good, but there's a lot of dubstep that's

1220
01:03:21,560 --> 01:03:25,440
Speaker 2: more on the darker end of the spectrum, more atmospheric,

1221
01:03:26,280 --> 01:03:29,560
Speaker 2: especially a number of like British and euro artists that

1222
01:03:29,560 --> 01:03:31,600
Speaker 2: were responsible for that. So this particular release has some

1223
01:03:31,640 --> 01:03:34,080
Speaker 2: great tracks. It's got some stuff by Sound of Stereo,

1224
01:03:34,680 --> 01:03:39,880
Speaker 2: Run DMT, La, Riots, Bird Peterson, Harvard, Bass, JFK and

1225
01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:43,360
Speaker 2: Tokey Monsta. These are these are all really fun artists

1226
01:03:43,400 --> 01:03:46,360
Speaker 2: and I occasionally will we'll pick up at least a

1227
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:48,480
Speaker 2: track or two off of this album and listen to it.

1228
01:03:48,560 --> 01:03:52,160
Speaker 2: That the run DMT track especially is really good. All right,

1229
01:03:52,160 --> 01:03:55,560
Speaker 2: But that's just side tension. How does this film do

1230
01:03:55,800 --> 01:03:56,800
Speaker 2: on the music front?

1231
01:03:57,000 --> 01:04:00,400
Speaker 3: Oh? As I said earlier, I think that the use

1232
01:04:00,440 --> 01:04:02,480
Speaker 3: of music is one of the things that really keeps

1233
01:04:02,520 --> 01:04:04,920
Speaker 3: the momentum up. Like we were talking, there's some great

1234
01:04:05,120 --> 01:04:09,480
Speaker 3: hype music throughout I'm thinking of I don't know. There

1235
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:11,560
Speaker 3: are a bunch of moments, like there is a scene

1236
01:04:11,600 --> 01:04:14,520
Speaker 3: where Shang Sung has all of the warriors come in

1237
01:04:14,640 --> 01:04:17,880
Speaker 3: and like have dinner. There's this big feast and then

1238
01:04:17,920 --> 01:04:20,760
Speaker 3: he has his you know, oiled up muscle boys run

1239
01:04:20,800 --> 01:04:22,439
Speaker 3: in and they're gonna one of them is gonna fight

1240
01:04:22,480 --> 01:04:24,479
Speaker 3: sub Zero. And as they're getting ready for this fight,

1241
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:28,120
Speaker 3: there's just a drum track that is it's great, like

1242
01:04:28,240 --> 01:04:30,800
Speaker 3: really gets your blood pumping. You are ready for an

1243
01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:33,360
Speaker 3: action scene. But there's also a lot of use of

1244
01:04:34,600 --> 01:04:38,400
Speaker 3: music to sort of power plot transitions. So like at

1245
01:04:38,400 --> 01:04:41,280
Speaker 3: the moment where lu Kang is leaving the temple after

1246
01:04:41,320 --> 01:04:43,720
Speaker 3: having said I'm going to the tournament with or without

1247
01:04:43,760 --> 01:04:46,720
Speaker 3: your consent, there's this hype track that comes on with

1248
01:04:46,760 --> 01:04:49,840
Speaker 3: these like ringing bells and heavy drum beats. It just

1249
01:04:49,880 --> 01:04:52,320
Speaker 3: sends a thrill through your body, like you you're ready.

1250
01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:56,760
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the score is pretty pretty darn good

1251
01:04:56,800 --> 01:04:59,560
Speaker 2: and it is the work of George S. Clinton born

1252
01:04:59,600 --> 01:05:03,240
Speaker 2: nineteen forty seven. No relation to funk legend George Clinton.

1253
01:05:03,880 --> 01:05:06,160
Speaker 2: This is the Chattanooga born film composer.

1254
01:05:07,480 --> 01:05:09,560
Speaker 3: I think his names come up on the show before

1255
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:11,320
Speaker 3: he did something we've talked about.

1256
01:05:11,520 --> 01:05:13,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't remember what it would be, because, like,

1257
01:05:13,720 --> 01:05:16,000
Speaker 2: I'm looking at the films he worked on, and they're

1258
01:05:16,040 --> 01:05:19,120
Speaker 2: the likes of American Ninja two in eighty seven, Hell

1259
01:05:19,240 --> 01:05:23,560
Speaker 2: Bound Chuck Norris and brain Scan in ninety four, Delta

1260
01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:26,280
Speaker 2: of Venus in ninety five, Beverly Hill's Ninja and Moral

1261
01:05:26,320 --> 01:05:29,040
Speaker 2: Combat Annihilation. So I'd have to go back and look

1262
01:05:29,080 --> 01:05:31,720
Speaker 2: at his filmography to see what I'm forgetting that he

1263
01:05:31,800 --> 01:05:33,640
Speaker 2: might have scored that we've discussed before.

1264
01:05:34,280 --> 01:05:37,680
Speaker 3: Well, maybe I'm mistaken about that. I associated him with

1265
01:05:37,760 --> 01:05:40,520
Speaker 3: Austin Powers for some reason. I think he did that.

1266
01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:43,080
Speaker 2: I think you're right on that. I think I forgot

1267
01:05:43,120 --> 01:05:45,560
Speaker 2: to include that. But let's see, I think you're right

1268
01:05:45,600 --> 01:05:48,080
Speaker 2: on that. I think he was involved in the Austin

1269
01:05:48,120 --> 01:05:49,080
Speaker 2: Powers franchise.

1270
01:05:49,760 --> 01:05:51,680
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think a lot of the original score

1271
01:05:51,840 --> 01:05:56,160
Speaker 3: used in the movie is very strong. But that brings

1272
01:05:56,240 --> 01:05:58,320
Speaker 3: us back to that CD I had, because there's also

1273
01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:01,080
Speaker 3: the original Motion Picture so on Track CD, which is

1274
01:06:01,120 --> 01:06:03,400
Speaker 3: not just the score, but it's got all the needle

1275
01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:04,200
Speaker 3: drop tracks.

1276
01:06:04,520 --> 01:06:08,120
Speaker 2: That's right. So of course we have that Immortals Mortal

1277
01:06:08,160 --> 01:06:11,640
Speaker 2: Kombat theme song track, which is which is high energy,

1278
01:06:12,120 --> 01:06:16,280
Speaker 2: pretty great, infectious, cheesy, yes, all of the above. There's

1279
01:06:16,320 --> 01:06:19,240
Speaker 2: also a Utah Saints remix of that theme song that

1280
01:06:19,400 --> 01:06:23,120
Speaker 2: is maybe like a little deeper in the bass. M. Yeah,

1281
01:06:23,160 --> 01:06:25,560
Speaker 2: and let's see some of my favorites off of this.

1282
01:06:25,760 --> 01:06:28,280
Speaker 2: I would say I have to single out three three

1283
01:06:28,320 --> 01:06:30,320
Speaker 2: tracks that are my favorites. Okay, first of all, there's

1284
01:06:30,440 --> 01:06:35,920
Speaker 2: kmfdm's juke Joint Jezebel. This is the Georgio Moroder Metropolis mix.

1285
01:06:36,200 --> 01:06:37,919
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know what the original mix sounded

1286
01:06:37,960 --> 01:06:39,560
Speaker 2: like because I only ever listened to this, and this

1287
01:06:39,600 --> 01:06:42,120
Speaker 2: is pretty basically the only KMFDM song that I know.

1288
01:06:42,440 --> 01:06:43,560
Speaker 2: But it's a solid track.

1289
01:06:43,760 --> 01:06:46,440
Speaker 3: I wonder if someday we should do the disco Metropolis

1290
01:06:46,480 --> 01:06:48,720
Speaker 3: on Weird House, the one with the Marauder score.

1291
01:06:49,000 --> 01:06:52,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's a classic. I mean, it's a

1292
01:06:52,240 --> 01:06:54,960
Speaker 2: classic film. And then it's it's highly regarded in terms

1293
01:06:54,960 --> 01:06:59,520
Speaker 2: of going back and adding a new, new, new score

1294
01:06:59,640 --> 01:07:03,000
Speaker 2: to a classic silent film. Yeah, all right. We also

1295
01:07:03,080 --> 01:07:07,280
Speaker 2: another one that I really like is Tracy Lord's Control.

1296
01:07:07,360 --> 01:07:10,760
Speaker 2: This is the Juno Reactor remix. It's an instrumental, so

1297
01:07:10,800 --> 01:07:13,880
Speaker 2: we don't hear Tracy Lord's vocals on this, But I

1298
01:07:13,920 --> 01:07:17,000
Speaker 2: went back and listened to the original track, and I'm

1299
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:20,720
Speaker 2: pretty sure I've heard this in mixes before. It's really solid. Lords,

1300
01:07:20,760 --> 01:07:23,600
Speaker 2: of course, also acted in a number of mainstream genre films,

1301
01:07:23,640 --> 01:07:28,400
Speaker 2: including nineteen ninety eighth Blade. M Oh yeah, is she

1302
01:07:28,480 --> 01:07:30,400
Speaker 2: a vampire? I guess yep, she was one of the

1303
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:35,400
Speaker 2: vampire cronies. And then all we actually have a techno

1304
01:07:35,560 --> 01:07:38,840
Speaker 2: ambient classic that is a featured late in the picture,

1305
01:07:38,920 --> 01:07:42,720
Speaker 2: and that is Halcion plus on and on by Orbital.

1306
01:07:42,760 --> 01:07:45,200
Speaker 3: The sound of feeling Good. You might guess that this

1307
01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:47,720
Speaker 3: plays at the coda of the film, when Evil has

1308
01:07:47,720 --> 01:07:51,280
Speaker 3: been defeated and everybody's running around hugging it out. This

1309
01:07:51,360 --> 01:07:52,320
Speaker 3: when we get orbital.

1310
01:07:52,600 --> 01:07:55,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great track, absolutely great track.

1311
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:57,880
Speaker 3: It feels like everything's gonna be okay.

1312
01:07:59,160 --> 01:08:02,160
Speaker 2: I also should mention and that So the soundtrack album

1313
01:08:02,200 --> 01:08:05,520
Speaker 2: featured some clips from the score by George S. Clinton,

1314
01:08:05,560 --> 01:08:09,680
Speaker 2: including the track Goro Versus Art. Art is the first

1315
01:08:09,760 --> 01:08:12,640
Speaker 2: name of some of the Goro fights. It's not as

1316
01:08:12,720 --> 01:08:14,320
Speaker 2: high concept as as it sounds.

1317
01:08:14,520 --> 01:08:17,600
Speaker 3: It's not that scene in Batman where the joker is

1318
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:20,000
Speaker 3: like smearing on the paintings.

1319
01:08:19,600 --> 01:08:21,280
Speaker 2: So that would be great. I mean Goro missed his

1320
01:08:21,320 --> 01:08:24,320
Speaker 2: calling as a painter. But anyway, Yes, this track has

1321
01:08:24,360 --> 01:08:26,679
Speaker 2: bucket Head on it, so okay, okay, that's notable.

1322
01:08:26,880 --> 01:08:29,400
Speaker 3: There are also some tracks I like a lot less man.

1323
01:08:29,520 --> 01:08:33,559
Speaker 3: There's one on there that's a big Black Sabbath fan.

1324
01:08:33,640 --> 01:08:36,080
Speaker 3: But there's like a Geezer Butler track on there that

1325
01:08:36,240 --> 01:08:36,920
Speaker 3: is not good.

1326
01:08:37,320 --> 01:08:39,280
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was not crazy about this one as well.

1327
01:08:39,320 --> 01:08:41,200
Speaker 2: I just the vocals did not speak to me.

1328
01:08:41,760 --> 01:08:43,719
Speaker 3: But there's some other metal on there as well.

1329
01:08:44,160 --> 01:08:49,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the film uses several tracks by Stabbing Westward

1330
01:08:49,439 --> 01:08:52,040
Speaker 2: that are not on the soundtrack album. I think there

1331
01:08:52,160 --> 01:08:54,960
Speaker 2: Can't Happen Here, Lies and Lost, and these are all

1332
01:08:54,960 --> 01:08:57,920
Speaker 2: great tracks. I don't I was looking around, I know,

1333
01:08:58,000 --> 01:09:00,880
Speaker 2: I listened to some Stabbing Westwards some way, and I

1334
01:09:00,880 --> 01:09:03,240
Speaker 2: thought maybe they were on like the soundtrack to the

1335
01:09:03,280 --> 01:09:05,400
Speaker 2: Crow or something, but I couldn't find them. So maybe

1336
01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:09,040
Speaker 2: I actually had a Stabbing Westward album, but I don't

1337
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:11,840
Speaker 2: specifically remember. But anyway, some of their tracks are pretty good.

1338
01:09:12,080 --> 01:09:14,320
Speaker 3: I don't really know them. They're like industrial metal.

1339
01:09:14,960 --> 01:09:17,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's somewhere in that. I don't know, there's

1340
01:09:17,240 --> 01:09:21,920
Speaker 2: somewhere in that alternative industrial landscape. But I'm not sure

1341
01:09:21,960 --> 01:09:24,479
Speaker 2: exactly where to classify them. Like, you know, you can

1342
01:09:24,520 --> 01:09:26,519
Speaker 2: sort of pick up on some vibes you might compare

1343
01:09:26,560 --> 01:09:29,160
Speaker 2: to nine inch Nails, you might compare to, you know,

1344
01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:33,360
Speaker 2: something like the Tea Party. But yeah, I don't know how.

1345
01:09:33,439 --> 01:09:35,000
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'd like to hear from any of

1346
01:09:35,080 --> 01:09:37,840
Speaker 2: you big Stabbing Westward fans out there. You tell us

1347
01:09:38,080 --> 01:09:39,519
Speaker 2: where we're supposed to classify them.

1348
01:09:40,040 --> 01:09:45,320
Speaker 3: Now, uh oh, we're looking at the clock here. We

1349
01:09:45,439 --> 01:09:49,160
Speaker 3: did not at all intend for our Mortal Combat nineteen

1350
01:09:49,240 --> 01:09:52,400
Speaker 3: ninety five episode to stretch to two parts, but I

1351
01:09:52,400 --> 01:09:55,760
Speaker 3: think we are at a point where we have no choice, uh,

1352
01:09:55,920 --> 01:09:58,439
Speaker 3: because it would be it would be ridiculous to release

1353
01:09:58,479 --> 01:10:01,960
Speaker 3: a three hour episode on more Combat. But I guess

1354
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:04,160
Speaker 3: we've got a lot of personal history with this movie,

1355
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:06,920
Speaker 3: in this franchise, so it kind of it couldn't be helped.

1356
01:10:07,120 --> 01:10:09,519
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is this is a franchise that's

1357
01:10:09,600 --> 01:10:14,320
Speaker 2: a part of both our childhoods and also apparently it's

1358
01:10:14,320 --> 01:10:16,799
Speaker 2: a Christoph Lambert film, and I guess we just can't

1359
01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:20,559
Speaker 2: cover Christoph Lambert films without breaking them into two parts.

1360
01:10:20,800 --> 01:10:25,280
Speaker 3: Oh you're right. We did that with Highlander two, didn't we. Yes, right, Yeah,

1361
01:10:25,320 --> 01:10:28,000
Speaker 3: Well once again, folks, we do not have the intention

1362
01:10:28,120 --> 01:10:31,000
Speaker 3: of making two part weird house episodes a common thing,

1363
01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:33,080
Speaker 3: but I guess it's going to happen every now and then.

1364
01:10:33,720 --> 01:10:36,479
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we will be back to really get into

1365
01:10:36,520 --> 01:10:40,000
Speaker 2: the plot of Mortal Kombat, and there's there's a lot

1366
01:10:40,000 --> 01:10:43,080
Speaker 2: of fun to be had here, so we will get

1367
01:10:43,120 --> 01:10:44,920
Speaker 2: to dig in and make a meal out of it.

1368
01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:47,960
Speaker 2: Let's see. In the meantime, you know, eating a turkey

1369
01:10:48,040 --> 01:10:52,759
Speaker 2: leg okay, no eating a turkey leg oh goro getting

1370
01:10:52,840 --> 01:10:55,679
Speaker 2: punched in the nards. There's so much fun, fun for everyone,

1371
01:10:55,720 --> 01:10:56,679
Speaker 2: fun for the whole family.

1372
01:10:57,080 --> 01:10:59,240
Speaker 3: I want to say it has begun, but it has

1373
01:10:59,320 --> 01:11:01,360
Speaker 3: not begun yet. It'll begin next time.

1374
01:11:01,320 --> 01:11:04,000
Speaker 2: That's right. So in the meantime, do feel free to

1375
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:06,120
Speaker 2: go ahead and write in with your thoughts about ninety

1376
01:11:06,200 --> 01:11:10,040
Speaker 2: ninety five's Mortal Kombat or the Mortal Kombat franchise in general,

1377
01:11:10,640 --> 01:11:13,280
Speaker 2: anything we discussed in this episode or you anticipate that

1378
01:11:13,320 --> 01:11:16,240
Speaker 2: we'll discuss in the next episode. Right in. We would

1379
01:11:16,280 --> 01:11:19,960
Speaker 2: love to hear from you. Let's see. First of all, Oh,

1380
01:11:19,960 --> 01:11:23,759
Speaker 2: if you're on Instagram, go ahead and follow us STBYM podcast.

1381
01:11:23,800 --> 01:11:25,920
Speaker 2: That's our handle on Instagram. And if you want to

1382
01:11:25,960 --> 01:11:29,400
Speaker 2: keep up with Weird House Cinema specifically, go to letterbox

1383
01:11:29,439 --> 01:11:31,000
Speaker 2: dot com. It's l E T T E R B

1384
01:11:31,080 --> 01:11:34,160
Speaker 2: O x D dot com. Really fun site for chronicling

1385
01:11:34,160 --> 01:11:38,400
Speaker 2: your own cinematic explorations and favorites, and you can follow

1386
01:11:38,479 --> 01:11:40,560
Speaker 2: us there. We are weird House. That's our handle, and

1387
01:11:40,600 --> 01:11:42,160
Speaker 2: we have a nice list there of all the movies

1388
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:44,599
Speaker 2: we've covered on the show thus far.

1389
01:11:45,400 --> 01:11:48,960
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.

1390
01:11:49,200 --> 01:11:50,880
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1391
01:11:50,880 --> 01:11:53,320
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1392
01:11:53,400 --> 01:11:55,519
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1393
01:11:55,640 --> 01:11:58,160
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1394
01:11:58,200 --> 01:12:05,800
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

1395
01:12:06,000 --> 01:12:08,920
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1396
01:12:09,040 --> 01:12:12,840
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1397
01:12:12,920 --> 01:12:14,719
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.