Transcript of 70mm’s Speed (1994) Episode.
SLIM Heeey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday I’m joined by famous artist, Danny Haas.
DANNY Yeah when the front goes straight up — Casey and I think we looked at each other while watching this film. We made eye contact, almost started making out on the spot.
SLIM And spiritual adviser, Protolexus.
PROTO This is the best action movie starring a bus.
SLIM And together as friends for ever we discuss recently watched movies. Joining us this week is the host of the ON LYNCH podcast, McKenzie Wilkes.
MCKENZIE [in a perfect Cher impression] Show a little mooore, show a little leessss. And a little smoke. Welcome to Burlessssque.
SLIM Later in this episode and from the fallout of our VHS Village Olympics, we’re discussing 1994’s Speed, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Spoilers — McKenzie is not the only person on this episode watching Speed for the very first time. Enjoy!
[70mm theme ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM I want to talk about The Green Knight. Real quick.
DANNY The what?!
SLIM I want to get into this.
DANNY Okay.
SLIM Because there’s a lot of buzz. We’ll get into our special guests in just a moment, McKenzie’s here, like I think McKenzie has seen it five times. [McKenzie laughs]
DANNY Five times!
SLIM Before we even get to McKenzie, and The Green Knight. Danny is doing some kind of covert viewings of The Green Knight. Is that true?
DANNY I’ve seen it twice. It’s very true. My first experience kind of sucked.
SLIM Really?
DANNY Just the theater experience kind of sucked. The people around yappin’. Couldn’t focus.
SLIM Yappin’ during the movie?
DANNY Yeah. It was rough.
PROTO What?!
DANNY So I had to see it a second time. Watched it Monday. Midday. Alone.
SLIM Oh my god.
DANNY In the theatre. You know?
SLIM How was the experience watching The Green Knight alone?
DANNY It is exactly what I wanted to be. And you know what? I think there was like one time where I saw a movie by myself. For the first time I did that was Jeepers Creepers. I think it was in this exact theater and I was getting the vibes of watching Jeepers Creepers again alone in a theater.
SLIM My god.
DANNY Which scared the shit outta me.
PROTO What a moment. Yes!
SLIM The first 20 minutes of Jeepers Creepers are pretty legit.
DANNY Yeah, insane!
PROTO Unrivaled. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Some would say the Star Wars of horror movies.
DANNY Some would.
PROTO Not the first time I’ve heard it. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM McKenzie, you’ve seen The Green Knight several times.
MCKENZIE I have! I’ve seen it three times. Yeah.
DANNY Wowowow.
SLIM Cripes alive.
MCKENZIE My girlfriend loves a Dev Patel, so we believe in Dev Patel supremacy in this house.
SLIM What’s Dev Patel from? He’s from like a show or something? Right?
DANNY Skins.
MCKENZIE Yeah, I saw him in Slumdog Millionaire first because that movie like blew up. And that’s the only thing I know him from, really, other than this. But my girlfriend has seen his entire filmography.
SLIM Before we ditch Danny’s thoughts on Green Knight, there’s something in the wind. I don’t know what it is.
DANNY Excuse me?
SLIM But Danny watched it in secret. Something is cooking in the TAPEDECK community. So I don’t want to stay on topic with a Green Knight business. We have a guest, that’s more important.
DANNY I agree.
SLIM McKenzie Wilkes. We talked about it last week with Speed, during the VHS Village Olympics.
MCKENZIE Yes!
SLIM McKenzie took part. You’re a part of our Discord. And you revealed, bravely, that you had never seen Speed.
MCKENZIE I haven’t!
SLIM So we thought why not? You know, you just launched a hit podcast, the ON LYNCH podcast, essay style podcast with interviews going through the David Lynch filmography. So welcome to the show, McKenzie.
MCKENZIE Thank you. Thank you for that warm welcome. I’ll put a ‘hit podcast — slim’ on my website now. [Slim & Danny laugh] That’s really great, thank you.
SLIM Cartoonish version of me giving like a thumbs up, like a sticker, like a stamp of a rule you can put on a podcast.
MCKENZIE Absolutely, yeah.
PROTO Make sure it says ‘Slim of 70mm’ just so everybody knows where to go. [Slim & Danny laugh]
MCKENZIE Not Slim Shady. Slim from 70mm.
SLIM Make sure we get the 70mm in there, please. So when we usually have a guest on the show, you know, they’re brand new to potentially the majority of our listeners. We go directly to the source. To figure out who you are. We go to your Letterboxd profile. We go to your top four, and we try to get some explanations.
MCKENZIE Oh god, okay, an interrogation.
SLIM We get some answers. And your number one movie on there related to your podcast is Mulholland Drive. David Lynch. Tell us about this movie.
PROTO What?!
MCKENZIE I mean, it was the first David Lynch movie I had watched and like many people on gay Twitter, I watched it because it looked gay. [Slim & Danny & Proto laugh] And I was like, alright I’m in! I just have to see two women looking at each other and I’m like, alright, I’m in. I’m into this movie. But boy, oh boy, was I in for much more than that. I don’t know. I love it. It’s that old Hollywood Neo-noir, you know, psychosexual kind of weird tale and I’ve seen it called David Lynch’s Sunset Boulevard is Mulholland Drive. And I fully agree with that, like this tale of Hollywood and I just, I don’t know, I just think it’s like one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. And it kind of jumpstarted my love of David Lynch. And so that’s why I’ve just kept that as number one because it’s the brand you know?
SLIM Gotta stay on bran. We know that. We’re all about the brand here. You heard us mention 70mm.
MCKENZIE Have you all seen Mulholland Drive?
SLIM I think I have when it first came out, maybe and I was like, this is quote ‘not for me’. I think I might have thought when I first saw it. Proto, what about you? Have you seen Mulholland Drive?
PROTO I think Mulholland Drive is also my first Lynch. I think I saw it, I know I saw it a long time ago. I can’t remember anything about it. But I distinctly remember it being viewed. And I think I felt the same way. Like I didn’t understand what was going on. I was just in over my head at the time. I was in over my head. I’d love to go back. Yeah, you know it’s embarrassing as, you find these sometimes. I have a three star rating of Mulholland Drive. And this was definitely a day one rating somehow someway. [McKenzie laughs]
SLIM Danny, have you seen Mulholland Drive?
DANNY No, no. I had a friend who is out in LA, he’s movie guy and he hates that movie, like hates it with a passion. So it turned me off to it. But I mean, I love Lynch for Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks is all time for me. I love that show.
SLIM Twin Peaks stan.
DANNY My only Lynch is Twin Peaks. Well, we don’t talk about Dune that sucked.
SLIM Your second movie on your list, Big Fish.
MCKENZIE Yeah!
SLIM That’s a Tim Burton movie, isn’t it?
MCKENZIE I think it is, yeah. It doesn’t feel like him to me.
SLIM It doesn’t, it feels almost like before we get the modern Tim Burton that we know today. No love or hate. So what’s up with Big Fish?
MCKENZIE I don’t know. The first movie I can remember being obsessed with was Bowfinger, sadly. [Slim laughs] That great Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy vehicle.
SLIM Wow.
MCKENZIE Yeah, I found my mom’s unmarked, blockbuster VHS of that. And it became the first movie that was like my favorite movie ever. And I think when this came out, I took my mom’s DVD of it. And it was the first movie I ever remember emotionally moving me in my life, like as like a nine year old. I like cried and I loved it. And it was this bright, fantastical, beautiful world. And I think it’s just always remained one of my favorites because I find that I returned to it at different points in my life. And it means something different to me every time. Like I feel like as I get older I see the the themes about aging and death and legacies and what you leave behind with your family. And Albert Finney’s character reminds me so much of my grandpa in terms of like a silly old man who tells tall tales. And storytelling being the things that we kind of used to help our stories live on. And I just feel like as I grow older, I just kind of grow up with this movie. Like I’ve never been able to leave it behind. And I think that’s why I’ve kind of let it be one of my favorites. I think it’s a magical movie. I love that movie so much.
DANNY Wowowow.
SLIM Proto, you got BLB rating for Big Fish?
PROTO Ah man. I’m like in the same boat. This came out in 2003. I saw this in theaters with my dad. I was 16. I remember weeping in the theater watching this movie. [Proto laughs]
DANNY Weeping.
PROTO So in some ways, I almost feel like I want to call it a guilty pleasure because whenever I see people rate this they’re just like eh, it was okay. So I feel but looking back I remember just loving this movie and I’ve watched it in the last 10 years as well and loving it as much then. But yeah, I really connected with this movie as well. I don’t know if it’s like the age when I saw it, but it stayed with me in the same way.
SLIM Third on your list. This is a movie that has been being bandied about in our Discord. Several times.
DANNY It has.
SLIM We have someone in our Discord that really wants the podcast to cover this movie.
MCKENZIE It’s a great movie.
SLIM Very hot topic. That movie is Bound by the Wachowskis. Tell us about Bound.
MCKENZIE Yeah. It’s just like so good. It blows my mind. I think that I probably sound silly, but I think it’s criminally underrated as a Noir. I think. And I think that is because it is queer. And because — the 20 minutes are softcore porn. I’m not gonna lie, like the first 20 minutes, the interactions these women have. There’s like a whole part with Jennifer Tilly who already has like a voice specific to softcore porn, is like, [McKenzie in sensual voice] do you want to see my tattoo? [Slim laughs] And just like pulls her shirt down. Like, who does that? [McKenzie laughs] It’s so, it’s cheesy. And so my friend made me sit down and watch this and was like, this will be the best gay movie you’ve ever seen in your life. And I was like, whatever. And the first 20 minutes, I’m like, this is just, this is so cheesy. And then I don’t know what happens. But it’s like the bottom drops out around 20 minutes in, and it really does, in my opinion, become one of the best Neo-noir fiasco mafia crime movies I’ve ever seen.
PROTO What?!
MCKENZIE I think it’s underrated because of the corniness if that makes sense? I just, I don’t even know. It’s so good. The performances are so good. Every shot is different and artistic and strange, the way they use colors. And there’s this shot of like, a cop coming in and they’ve pulled a rug over to hide some blood. And there’s this shot of his foot sinking into the rug and the blood creeping over his shoes. Like stuff like that just blows my mind. And I just think it’s an underrated movie. And cherry on top, it’s gay! That’s what I look for in movies. If you can’t tell already.
SLIM Yeah, I remember when I was younger, I think that had come out on VHS. And when I was a kid in, you know, my friend circles, this was like the movie to get, like you got to get Bound. We gotta go rent Bound. Have you seen Bound? Mainly because like what you said about the first 20 minutes. That this was like, you know, the easy access to see those types of movies as a kid. And maybe it is because of those first 20 minutes that maybe the main, quote unquote, ‘mainstream’ don’t talk about Bound as much. Because, you know, it’s probably too quote unquote ‘taboo’. Proto, have you seen Bound?
PROTO No, I know nothing about this movie, other than the talk in Discord. And I mean, the Wachowskis. You kiddin’ me? That’s what’s great about this too. 96 Wachowskis?
MCKENZIE Yeah, this is what apparently paid for The Matrix.
SLIM Wachowskis Month.
PROTO We owe it to them. [Slim laughs]
MCKENZIE And also, I think another reason — I’m surprised it’s so underrated, I think in the LGBTs as well, because — I don’t want to… spoiler alert a little bit for Bound. There’s like a happy ending, which is kind of rare with with queer films. Like, that’s the kind of a complaint a lot of people have about LGBT movies is that sometimes the endings are tragic. But I think that it has, in my opinion, a hopeful ending. And that’s like also kind of a rarity. And I think that’s why it’s such a gem to me is that it is a cool movie with high stakes that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but like, you still get to kind of have a happy feeling when you leave the theater, the film and right. I just love it. It’s my favorite queer movie of all time, I think.
DANNY What’s the other actresses name next to Jennifer?
MCKENZIE Gina Gershon.
DANNY Where do I know her from?
SLIM She’s in Showgirls. She’s in a bunch of stuff.
DANNY She looks so familiar.
MCKENZIE She did like this and Showgirls back to back.
DANNY Ohhh Face/Off.
SLIM Shocking addition to round out your faves on Letterboxd.
DANNY Yeah, let’s talk about this one.
SLIM Everyone, please, just sit down. [McKenzie laughs] We’re gonna through this together. Scooby Doo 2.
DANNY The second one.
SLIM Matthew Lillard starring vehicle. Why? What’s happening here with this movie?
MCKENZIE I had a recent fav, I had The Green Knight there for a little bit. But then you were like, well, we’re going to talk about your favorites. And I was like, I gotta make sure these movies represent me as a person. [Slim laughs] And when I first got Letterboxd, I only had one favorite and it was Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. [Danny laughs] I don’t know if you have this in your friend groups but sometimes there’s like things about you that becomes such a bit that they become deeply ingrained in like what people think about you.
DANNY Mhmmm.
MCKENZIE Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed became that amongst my friend groups that I have an an ironic love for this movie, and that everyone associated it with me. It was on my Tinder profile. I think I had it on my Facebook. I just, I loved this movie. And I forget why — I mean. I do know why I love this movie. I have always loved the live action Scooby Doos. Just growing up I always loved those movies. And then in college, I had like just moved to college and was like depressed and stressed out because being an adult, quote unquote, for the first time is scary. And I remember I was laying in my dorm room at night watching Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and I got to the scene where Shaggy is thinking about how easy it was when they were kids. And I just started bawling. [Danny & Proto laugh] And I like called my friend and I was like, ‘Peyton, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is about growing up, man!’ [Danny & Proto laughs] ‘It’s about the fact that when we get older, we can’t unmask the monsters because they’re real now! We can’t go back to what we once knew! We’re grownups. And we can’t go back.’ And he was like, okay, calm down. And it just became my favorite movie. It’s become like a comfort film to me. Because I do feel those themes in it. I do feel those themes of like, wow, life was better when things weren’t hard, and we weren’t grownups, but you have to grow up and you do and you face the monsters for what they are. And so I love Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
SLIM I don’t want to get anyone chilled up. But Danny is wearing I think a green shirt. Very similar to Shaggy right now.
DANNY It’s not.
PROTO What are you trying to say right now?
SLIM Can you see it Proto? Can you see it?
PROTO I can see his shirt, yes. [Slim laughs]
MCKENZIE I know there’s some famous Matthew Lillard hate on this pod.
DANNY Yesh, it’s unacceptable actually. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Listen, I…
MCKENZIE His tongue is too much. I’ll say that.
SLIM He’s not for me. He’s extra in Scream. He’s extra.
MCKENZIE He is.
SLIM He’s too extra for me. I think on my Scream review —
DANNY I love him in Scream.
MCKENZIE I do too.
SLIM I said that like Matthew Lillard is like the kid that you knew — or the friend of a friend that I would see at parties that I would actively try to avoid at all times. [McKenzie laughs] You know, I would not engage in conversation and I would go elsewhere.
PROTO Dang, he should have been Joker. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Ohhhhhh.
PROTO Look at that face.
MCKENZIE Oh my god!
DANNY Baaaaaby. Riddler.
MCKENZIE I love him is Shaggy. I think he’s so funny. I would take 50 more movies with that cast. I love that cast and the roles they’re in. Also Linda Cardellini in that orange leather cat suit? Excuse me? [Slim laughs] That was an awakening, definitely. [Proto & Slim laugh] She says ‘who’s your mommy?’ That’s in a PG movie! Like what?
SLIM I was gonna say there’s a Scooby Doo recent animated series that was really good. I’m not sure if anyone here watched it. It was a couple of years ago. It was like an adultish version of it. It was really — I can’t remember — Mystery Incorporated, I think is what it was called. Lasted like two seasons. And like one of the cool plots was like there was an original Mystery Inc. like before that, you know, before them, that had like this deep history and they had a falling out. And there was like another version of them before and it was really cool. Just a reminder, we’re getting to Speed right around the corner. 1994 Keanu. Sooondra Bullock as my dad would say. Proto, did you watch any movies this week?
PROTO I did. I got to watch one movie… on August 15. I continued in our Noir Journey, the Noirney. And I watched the classic Noir for August, which was The Killing from 1956, Stanley Kubrick. I gave it two stars. You know, it just didn’t really work for me. This is from 1956. But it kind of gave me like a Mank feeling where it felt like a movie that was made in the 80s trying to be set in the 50s. I don’t know, it was very strange.
DANNY Mmm, interesting.
PROTO I don’t know how to describe it. But it just really took me out of it. And Sterling Hayden is in this. Who I I loved in The Long Goodbye. Like I thought he was amazing in that. But in this, man, he is just — I couldn’t handle it. There was like one scene where I nearly shut it off. It was bad. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Oh my god!
PROTO But yeah, I mean, it has a great premise. It has a great — so it’s a heist story. And the heist is like very technical. It’s very, like, very complex. I love that when they do that in movies. So that part of it I really enjoyed and I wish there was like more of that. Because whenever that happens in the movie, I love it. But yeah, this was kind of a dud for me.
SLIM Dudsville.
DANNY Proto, I know this is a safe space and it’s just the four of us talking right now. So when I say this, I know I’m safe with you. I watched 10 minutes of The Killing and turned it off.
SLIM Whaaat?
DANNY I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it.
PROTO Thank you.
SLIM What is going on here?!
DANNY I was so bored. And I just I was like I can’t get into it. The narration is so weird to me. It feels so off.
PROTO Oh yeah.
DANNY So I haven’t gone back. I don’t think I will.
SLIM Oof gif has made an appearance after Danny’s opinion was revealed.
DANNY I was just bored. I was just not vibing very fast. I was done for.
PROTO This is a dark moment. Let’s move on.
SLIM Have you watched Body Heat yet, Proto?
PROTO No. I thought about it. But, we’ll see. I still have time.
SLIM His own journey, he’s skipping movies.
PROTO It’s choose your own.
SLIM Choose Your Own Noirney. [Slim laughs] Let’s see, real quick we have to call out some of our new friends on Patreon that joined this week. Four bucks a month, you get access to exclusive episodes. Access to our discord, you get a membership card mailed to you from Danny for the VHS Village.
DANNY Listen, I’m dealing with lost cards right now. Okay? I’m trying to replace cards for people.
SLIM The USPS is in shambles right now.
DANNY It’s in shambles. [McKenzie laughs]
SLIM I stopped ordering things. I don’t want to deal with the USPS. This week, diveinking, woody and Gary joined.
PROTO I’d rather not own anything. [Slim laughs]
SLIM So we appreciate your support. And we’re at 181 patrons, just a fresh reminder.
DANNY Oh gosh.
SLIM Two before Seantana — where — is Seantana not listening? I haven’t seen Seantana in chat yet. Can we get a pulse check on Seantana? 200 patrons will unlock the Harry Potter episodes for patrons.
MCKENZIE Who’s idea was that?
DANNY Slim’s. You know it was Slim’s. [Danny laughs]
PROTO He was producing in that moment.
SLIM I think we talked about a thing to do at 200 patrons and the Harry Potter movies were were talked about. There was another franchise we thought about doing a 200 too.
DANNY Save it for the show.
SLIM But I’m not, we’re not going to get into it right now. It’s too hot. It’s too hot. And then one one patron friend of the show who isn’t super active in Discord. We missed their birthday recently, and I pulled up a review of theirs I wanted to spotlight indogyrs. I think our friendship with the show started eons ago when we were first talking about Possession. Remember Possession? The journey that that disc is on right now.
DANNY Big journey.
MCKENZIE I did a Google image.
SLIM Yeah?
MCKENZIE No thank you. [McKenzie laughs]
SLIM Not for you? [Slim laughs] Not for me.
DANNY It’s a lot.
SLIM Chris, indogyrs offered to give us his I think Possession blu-ray. So I want to spotlight one of his reviews that’s related to a topic in a minute. He reviewed My Dinner With Andre, which we will be covering for Patreon exclusive episode. The review for My Dinner With Andre. ‘Just like me and the boys splitting some endless apps at TGI Fridays.’
PROTO Wow.
SLIM If that doesn’t make you want to watch My Dinner With Andre, what will?
MCKENZIE Wow.
SLIM I used to love going to TGI Fridays.
DANNY Really?
PROTO I know that.
SLIM Getting their quesadillas.
MCKENZIE Those potato skins, otherworldly.
PROTO A fountain.
SLIM Real quick. Our winner of Letterboxd Pro this week for sharing the show on social media, get access to Letterboxd without ads, you get access to your stats, see where all your movies are streaming. You get entered to win for sharing the show, moviecat1408.
DANNY Wow.
SLIM Win a free year of Letterboxd Pro, so congratulations. And if you want to support Letterboxd and upgrade to Pro or Patron status, you can do so at 20% off with using the special page on 70mmpod.com. [music from Speed plays] Speed, 1994. This is our pick for Summer Blockbusters, 21st century. We did a slight pivot because the time was right to cover Speed. Keanu, Sandra. Jan de Bont — is it Jan or Yan? I got scolded last time I said it.
DANNY However you want to say it, Slim. It’s your podcast.
SLIM J de Bont directed. This is his second appearance on 70mm. Proto, can you help us understand the film Speed before we discuss it?
PROTO Dennis Hopper is a man who has served his time and has nothing to show for it but a cheap pension and a missing thumb. Fueled by rage, he seeks to hold an elevator full of people hostage, only to have his well crafted plan foiled by Jack. Hell bent on getting his just desserts and revenge on Jack, Dennis draws up a plan to wire a transit bus with explosives. There are rules to this game and Jack must abide. No one off the bus stay above 50 miles per hour and don’t kiss Sandra Bullock until the final act. With time running out, it’s a do or die race through LA. Speeeeed.
SLIM Speeeeed. This one is the big one. The big one.
MCKENZIE I like that Jack is the character named Jack but Dennis Hopper is the actor Dennis Hopper. [Slim laughs]
PROTO It’s the way it happened in the my head.
SLIM I think Dennis Hopper’s character, his name is Dennis Hopper. [McKenzie & Proto laugh]
PROTO That’s what I know him as.
MCKENZIE He just showed up on set, they started running a camera. And they were like, god, we gotta get this guy.
DANNY Dennis, what are you up to today?
SLIM He thought he was on set for a Batman movie. [Danny laughs] The portrayal he was putting on for this film.
DANNY He did not know where he was.
SLIM Especially when he turned that corner doing that cackle. [Danny laughs] But we’ll get into it. So McKenzie, do you have memories of hearing about this movie at all growing up? Because you have not seen it before. And at least for me, this was like a historical VHS growing up, obviously, older movie, but what about you? Do you have any kind of cultural memories of this movie?
MCKENZIE Not to make anybody feel old… this movie is one year older than me. [Slim & Danny laugh] I had never heard of this movie in my life until VHS Olympics when I looked like a a fool.
DANNY Whaaat?
PROTO That’s amazing.
MCKENZIE Just sitting there not knowing what this movie is. And I Sandra Bullock. I like Keanu. I’ve never heard of this movie in my life before this week.
SLIM
DANNY That’s amazing.
PROTO That is amazing.
SLIM Danny, did you grow up with Speed?
DANNY I think my all I knew of Speed was when ever I caught it on TBS. I don’t think I ever actually sat down and push play on this movie and watched it from beginning to end. I’ve seen so much of it though. So this felt like a first viewing even though a bit of it is what I’ve seen. I’ve seen a bit of it.
SLIM Mmm, Proto?
PROTO This movie has lived in my head for a long, long time. Yeah, I’m very familiar with this movie. But this was actually my first time seeing it, I’d never seen it before. I passed it many times on TV, and I knew of it so well. This was, I mean Speed — I knew, like I just knew the story and knew everything about it without ever seeing it.
MCKENZIE I will not lie. I didn’t know there was a like a bomb aspect of this movie. Like I just knew, bus go fast. So when I showed up, things are exploding. I truly had no idea what I was going to be in for starting this movie.
SLIM I just want to circle back to Proto’s comment. This is the first time you’ve seen this full through in one setting?
PROTO Period. Yeah, I’ve seen scenes probably on TV, but I’ve never watched the whole thing.
SLIM Yeah, I wonder how many people are the same way? Like they think they’ve seen Speed, but they’ve maybe seen 25% of Speed?
PROTO Yeah, because you flip it on and you’re like, oh, they’re on the bus. Uhhh… okay, you know, like they’re always on the bus when you’d watch it.
SLIM `Yeah, most people don’t remember the first 20 minutes probably or the last 20 minutes, really. So I’ll go through my notes here as we can go around the room to talk about what we notated. I am so enthralled with Keanu’s voice in this movie as you might imagine. [Danny laughs] He has this strange inflection when he speaks. The one that I wrote down in caps was when Sandra Bullock is driving and she you know turns for one second, she hits that baby carriage.
DANNY Oh my god.
SLIM She thinks she hits the baby that she just ran over and Keanu turns back and you see the cans roll out, he turns back to Sandra — [Slim in what is supposed to be Keanu Reeves’ voice] It’s caaans. It was caaans. [clip of Speed plays] He has the weirdest voice! It’s so strange! [Danny laughs] I couldn’t get past it. But the way he says ‘ma’am’. [Slim in what is supposed to be Keanu voice] ma’am, ma’am.
DANNY He kept calling her ma’am! That’s what drove me nuts too.
MCKENZIE Well she introduced herself —
DANNY I know, it’s just wild. Call her Sandra. [Slim laughs]
SLIM So that is my note. You know, he’s great in this movie. I just love his voice. I love his Casio watch. There was a review. I think it might have been Paul’s review.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
SLIM I wanted that Casio watch bad when I was rewatching that thing.
PROTO How about his flannel jacket that he’s wearing? Before he gets on the bus. You kidding me?
MCKENZIE Fit check. [Proto laughs]
DANNY His layers. What time of year was this?
MCKENZIE Yeah, LA? Fire everywhere?
DANNY He had to be sweatin’ his ass off.
PROTO 6 am at the coffee shop, it’s a little brisk there. [McKenzie & Danny laugh]
SLIM So McKenzie, what was the first thing on your list for this viewing of Speed that you wanted to bring up?
MCKENZIE The first thing I wrote down was just — my first two notes are this opening score, oh my god. I love the music. I love the scoring.
DANNY Mmm. Killer.
MCKENZIE And then my second note is, all caps, A KNIFE IN THE DUDE’S HEAD? [Danny laughs] What the hell?!
SLIM That was brutal.
MCKENZIE I was not expecting to straight up face stabbing within like 30 seconds of being in this movie.
PROTO I also keep coming back to that moment when I think of this movie because I keep thinking he says he spends two years putting this elevator job together. This is his baby, like this is his plan. Was part of his plan dealing with the guard in the basement by stabbing him in the head? [Slim & Danny laugh] Was that like part of this plan that he had crafted? It seemed like he had no idea this guy was gonna be here. I’ll just stab you in the head, that’ll solve it.
MCKENZIE I loved Dennis Hopper in this so much. I mean, I to be on the Lynch thing, like Blue Velvet. I think he’s amazing as the villain in that. And he had this similar level of unhinged in this film. I just don’t think this villain would have worked for me if it wasn’t Dennis Hopper just because I think he scares me. Like he is a human being scares me.
SLIM He’s a very strange individual. I mean, we talked about that once that one scene where he turns the corner like, does that laugh.
DANNY Oh my god. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Danny’s doing prayer hands right now.
DANNY Honestly, it’s amazing.
[clip of Speed plays]
JACK YOU’RE OUT OF OPTIONS!
HOWARD [manically laughing]
[clip of Speed ends]
DANNY This whole beginning, though, this this elevator sequence like kind of blows my mind, it’s so good. Like I really was like, when Keanu comes over the crest the hill with that cop car. [Slim laughs] And they are off the ground by four feet, for whatever reason. I just put my note, I have my notepads down, there’s no reason take notes for this movie. [Slim & Proto & McKenzie laugh] I know exactly what’s gonna happen the rest of this movie.
SLIM Danny got on his knees and started praying in front of the TV as soon as that car flew over the hill!
DANNY There is no reason. There’s no reason to take notes. You’re not here for a cinematic journey. You’re here for Keanu and a bomb and Sandra and bad guy Dennis Hopper. And for whatever reason, what’s his name, Jeff Daniels is a cop. I don’t know how he got credentials, or how I pass any sort of tests to be a cop. But he did. This elevator scene was so crazy! Like I really thought we’re gonna see someone get cut in half when they’re pulling them out of the hole. That one last lady, I’m like oh, they’re cutting her in half. We already saw one guy get stabbed in the head and fall limp at the basement. That last lady I really thought she was a goner.
PROTO Verhoeven would’ve cut her in half. [Danny laughs]
DANNY Verhoeven would’ve cut her in half, yeah, for sure. For sure.
SLIM He knows the score. That elevator stuff freaks me out. This was so well done. You’re right. It was very scary, very nerve wracking. But I think like two years ago, I was at the office and they’re renovating working on elevators. And there was one time where I want to get lunch and the elevator like legit shook up and down like twice. And I thought in that like, split second I was like, oh, this is it. I’m gonna die in an elevator. [Proto & McKenzie laugh] What an awful way to go!
PROTO Wow! [Slim laughs]
SLIM This sucks! Like, I could’ve died any other way! God, what a dumb way to go.
DANNY There’s so much about Dennis in this scene too. Like, the way he reacts to Jeff and Keanu coming in to the top of this elevator. Like when he grabs Jeff by the nose to pick him up. [Proto laughs] Like it’s so random. It makes no sense! He’s so weird! Like, he’s so weird and awkward. But why? Like why is he performing like this?
PROTO He could have had clown shoes on and just walking around in clown shoes on and I wouldn’t have batted an eye. [Danny & Slim laugh] Like him just walking around in clown shoes. Like I would have been like ‘this fits’.
DANNY Yeah, it’s still fine. Yeah.
SLIM Proto, what is on your list for Speed?
PROTO Um, let’s see, what else? Oh, so the big stunt in the middle of the movie right? I think probably right at the middle. We got the bus going over the bridge!
SLIM The gap.
PROTO The construction, it’s not finished. The bridge is not finished. [Slim laughs] They need, they have to jump the bridge, the gap here, you know. So they’re gonna get this bus going… not 50… not 60… we’re getting up to like 75 on this bus and we are jumping this gap! [Slim & McKenzie laugh]
DANNY I can’t get over that scene. [Proto laughs]
PROTO It popped a wheelie!
DANNY When the front goes straight up, Casey and I, I think we’d looked at each other while watching this film. We made eye contact. Almost started making out on the spot because of this scene. [Proto & Slim & McKenzie laugh] Like, you kiddin’ me right now? That bus went erect. Unreal.
SLIM There’s no reason for that bus pop a wheelie!
DANNY No reason.
SLIM In that moment.
MCKENZIE Except for that it’s sexy! [Danny & Proto laugh]
SLIM The symbolism in that moment was not lost on it. Okay? We all felt it. And it landed very well. [Slim laughs] Let’s see. Next on my list. The scene where he confiscates that dude sports car to try to catch up to the bus to tell them. Those stunts looked so cool. He’s like literally driving on the highway at what looks to be like 70 miles an hour with this dude to catch up to him. Like Keanu was driving. And in looks like so old school and real. Like him on the highway doing that, which sounds crazy to say but like it looks real. And he’s trying to tell them that there’s a bomb on the bus. And I was cracking up because he writes this note that just says like BOMB ON BUS. [Danny & Proto laugh] Why did he not put like, ‘…don’t go under 50 miles an hour’ or whatever. It’s just like, your instinct, there’s a bomb on the bus?! I’m gonna stop the bus right now! Come on, Keanu!
PROTO Right, yeah!
MCKENZIE I love that shot though. I love him losing the paper and lying on to the window and that the close up of Sam the bus driver. I love that. I was watching a little bit of it before I came to record. That scene like made my girlfriend like look up from her laptop and be like, oh… shit. Is this really cool? [Slim & Proto laugh] I was like, yes! It is! Watch this movie please.
SLIM So what else is on your list, McKenzie for Speed?
MCKENZIE I will not lie, I’m finding it hard to make jokes because I just really… like I liked it so much. And I feel like there’s all these like silly things that are dumb, but like I was so unbothered by them and did not notice them until other people in the Discord pointed them out.
SLIM Right.
MCKENZIE There’s a lot of balls jokes going on. [Danny & Slim laugh] And, like, I feel like one is like okay, alright, we’re making a balls joke.
PROTO We hit our limit.
MCKENZIE There’s like three in this movie. There was like multiple languages. We had a lot of balls jokes happening. I felt very blindsided by it.
SLIM 90s action. If you didn’t have at least one ball joke, then they were probably sending it back to the script writer. Rework this. We need more.
PROTO This is a good start, but we need a balls joke in here.
MCKENZIE But it was specifically Dennis Hopper going [clip of Speed plays while McKenzie is reciting the line]
HOWARD Alright, we got all the balls in the world right here!
MCKENZIE It’s the funniest line I’ve hear of in my entire life.
SLIM Danny, what is on your list that you didn’t talk about yet for Speed?
DANNY I feel like the best performance in this movie is Joe Morton. I love him as the cop like, he’s so good. And there’s a line that I laughed so hard. I don’t remember if it was right before they find out the road’s not finished. He just yells, he’s just like, I wrote it down. He said, ‘You’re fired. Everyone’s fucking fired.’ It was just the way just said that line. It was like, it was perfect. Like, he’s so funny. He’s great in this film. And also Alan Ruck as the stupid tourist. I love him. Like, it’s I mean, I love Alan anyway in everything. But man, Joe Morton. He was really pulling it in this movie.
SLIM Can we get a Joe Morton t-shirt on the VHS Village store front?
DANNY Yes. I definitely will.
PROTO That’s a great name. That’s like a brand.
DANNY Joe Morton?
PROTO Joe Morton.
DANNY Joe Morton’s. Cigarettes.
PROTO Pour me some Joe Morton. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Proto, anything else? It feels like you didn’t take notes during this movie. Do you ever take notes when you watch movies?
PROTO Oh, no, no. I’ve got some notes. I just been thinking about Hopper.
DANNY It’s so hard.
PROTO And again, not to dwell on the spending two years on the elevator job. [Slim & Danny laugh] He then comes up with like this even more complicated bus job and throws in a revenge aspect to get Jack back for you know, screwing up his elevator job. What’s he do? He comes up with is in two weeks? Like the amount of work that he accomplished. Was he just slacking off for two years and then he just puts the pedal to the metal like I’m going to get this done. Because this job is more complicated! You got a moving bus! You got cameras on the bus. How could you even do all this work?! I mean, the guy only has one thumb. [Danny laughs] I just don’t know if he could have done this in two weeks. I just don’t know!
SLIM Also, when he is chasing the hop around the corner where he does his laugh scene, you know, he turns the corner. Keanu doesn’t catch up to him and there’s an explosion. They say that the guy took his own life. What are they basing that on? Did they see human flesh on a wall or like he didn’t die?
PROTO Where are the remains?! [Proto laughs]
SLIM Did he vaporize? Yeah, like, where is the factual evidence that he’s dead in any way shape or form? So terrible. When Joe Morton, Joe Morton Steaks, gets on that like sidecar with the cops because they think they’re gonna be able to pull people off of the bus. And he gets him to agree to get the driver off, so they pull the driver off. But they like say several times. He’s only going to let us take one off and no one else can come off. And then the crazy lady tries to jump off and the cops are like yeah, yeah, come on, come on. Did they not hear the rules of this game here? Like if she comes off, he could blow the whole thing. Like these idiot cops. I hope they got fired.
DANNY He also had a second bomb to blow the steps off for her to go under the tires.
SLIM What are the chances that you know you’re going to be in a situation where I’m going to need to blow someone up from the steps of that bus?
DANNY Without blowing the entire bus up. [Slim & Danny laugh]
PROTO Yeah, he’s like taking notes like, ‘okay so bomb on the bus, but also bomb on the steps in case someone tries to jump off the bus.’ [Proto laughs]
SLIM The backup plans that he had in his mind. McKenzie what else you got?
MCKENZIE So like the only thing I knew about going in this movie was bus go fast. That’s all I knew. So I was honestly so like happily surprised at how well it filled a two hour runtime. Like I really was like how the hell are they going to fill a movie with a bus can’t go below 50 miles per hour but I like was so into every little like wrench that got thrown in. You know, the bus driver getting shot, into the the highway isn’t finished, into the you know, the gas tanks leaking into the explosions are happening. Like, I just felt like the development of every kind of little thing that could go wrong was so like fun to me that like I was like, shocked and loved how they were able to fill the runtime. And then this third act is like its own thing, which really interesting as well. Like yeah, I feel like I am showing my cards a bit with how much I enjoyed re: rating. But yeah, like most of my notes are just incomprehensible yelling. [Danny & Proto laugh] Like, oh my god. That’s so cool. I know we talked about it, but the fake out with the baby. I screamed. I was really like she’s about to hit this baby. I was Sandra in that moment. I was crying. I was screaming. I was just like, I’m like mad that this movie got me. [Slim & Proto laugh] I’m so mad that this movie got me so into it. I’m like, that’s how I feel about this movie. I’m like, I can’t believe I’m so into this movie.
DANNY Verhoeven would have killed the baby. [Slim laughs]
SLIM There’s a lot of Verhoeven slander on this show going on right now.
MCKENZIE Yeah, what’s going on with Verhoeven hate?
SLIM I don’t know what movie you watched that Danny turned off after 10 minutes. But I’m not happy about it!
MCKENZIE This movie connects to Verhoeven because the guy who drove the Jaguar was in Showgirls, so it’s all connected.
PROTO I would want a Verhoeven Speed movie, he could do it. He could do an amazing job.
DANNY Woooof.
MCKENZIE He’s too busy doing horny nuns.
PROTO True.
SLIM It’d be two nuns on the bus.
PROTO We can’t take him away from that work.
MCKENZIE Two nuns making out on the bus.
SLIM Which I still need to see, please, god, I need to see that movie. Let’s see, who’s up next? Is it Danny? Danny, you’re up!
DANNY I’ll go. Like McKenzie was saying, this film has like three major — like it has the elevator scene. It has the bus chase. And then it has the subway scene. And the subway scene is bonkers too! Like Dennis Hopper gets his head knocked off. Like I was not ready for that! I didn’t even like comprehend that anything could happen like that at the end of this film. And Sandra like handcuffed to the rail. You kidding me? And then he just cranks the speed up. And for whatever reason ramps out of the subway, and lands just fine in the middle of a street. Like it’s chef kiss ridiculously perfect. Like, if there’s no reason any of this should work.
SLIM Yeah, I mean, 99 times out of 100 they’re crashing into a wall and they’re just blood puddles if that thing crashes.
DANNY It was so good. And Sandra is so good in this film. I love her like just driving the bus nonchalant at moments. Like she literally has a bomb, but it’s like, it’s cool. I’ll keep it a 50, Keanu, whatever you say. I mean, I would be the same way.
PROTO That was my other note, was just Sandra in this, I just love her in this. And this is a 95, it’s an older movie with her in it and I don’t think I really — because she’s such a great actress, especially in like some of her later movies that she’s done. It’s like, I don’t know, I wonder, I kind of want to go back and if there’s like any movies of hers that I missed during this period. She’s so charismatic! Like I feel like the first movie she struck me in was Miss Congeniality. I remember seeing that and being like, huh, this is actually, like she is really something special. And that’s 2000. But then like, I mean, every movie I see her in, I love her.
SLIM She was in Force of Nature, Mikey P says. Force of Nature. Is that with Ben Affleck?
MCKENZIE It is.
DANNY I think he’s just describing her in general. [Slim laughs]
SLIM True statement.
PROTO Oh and then, hold up.
MCKENZIE While You Were Sleeping.
SLIM Oh, yeah.
DANNY While You Were Sleeping was all time. All timer.
MCKENZIE All time best.
PROTO Listen to this. 2006, The Lakehouse. Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves.
SLIM Ohhh yeah, I remember that.
MCKENZIE I forgot that movie even existed.
PROTO Is this just the spiritual sequel to Speed?
SLIM The Net. Ohhhh.
PROTO The Net! That’s the one.
SLIM The Net!
PROTO That’s the one.
MCKENZIE I mean, I hate —
SLIM You hate what? You hate The Net?
MCKENZIE No, I hate to bring up the white savior movie she did. But Blindside was her Academy Award winning movie right? Or am I making that up?
SLIM Can anyone confirm that? Marcie? Can we get Marcie to confirm? She says yes.
DANNY All I know is Gravity was an amazing theater experience movie. That movie was bonkers.
SLIM Oh yeah, love Gravity.
PROTO Thank you.
SLIM There’s a The Net easter egg on Letterboxd.com. FYI. If you go to The Net on Letterboxd.
DANNY See if you can find it.
SLIM See if you can find it. Lost his head. That line was oof for me from Keanu. [Slim in what is supposed to be a Keanu voice] He lost his head.
DANNY Dennis saying ‘don’t fuck with daddy.’
PROTO Oh yeah.
DANNY Like, are you kidding me? Like it’s so good.
SLIM I feel like all of his lines were all Dennis Hopper lines. Like I don’t even know if he used the script.
DANNY He improvised everything. [Danny laughs]
MCKENZIE Can we have a supercut of all of his lines? [Slim laughs]
PROTO How did that bus stay above 50 when they were scrapping along all those cars?
DANNY Yeah the amount of times this bus had to have been under 50 miles an hour. [Proto laughs]
SLIM How stressful was that too when she like hitting the sides of all those cars making that turn? Oh my god!
PROTO How much horsepower does this bus have? [Danny & McKenzie laugh]
SLIM Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Oh, Jeff Daniels as —
DANNY The idiot.
SLIM His partner in crime. SWAT, somehow snuck onto the SWAT team and the police force in general. But you’re dealing with a bomber who has set up elaborate traps, traps, just period, traps. You find out his home address. What kind of idiot are you the you would not assume that that house is also a trap with a bomb? Right McKenzie? Back me up here.
MCKENZIE Literally.
DANNY Why would you think he’s in there? Why would you think he’s there?
PROTO Because he doesn’t seem that smart.
MCKENZIE Yeah, also that was one thing I was like why would you walk into — the second I walk in, I don’t hear life, I’m walking right out, like clearly this is a trap. That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. [Danny laughs]
PROTO I stand with Jeff Daniels. I would have went in the house too.
SLIM You would have went in the house?
PROTO Yeah. I thought it’s fine. Why is a guy gonna blow up his own house?
SLIM You know I believe that Proto would walk in to the bomb house because we vacationed together in the mountains and there’s like a ladder —
DANNY Oh my god.
SLIM Steep ladder going up this mountain.
DANNY Wild.
SLIM That was at like a 90 degree angle. Proto walked up the ladder without using his hands. [McKenzie laughs]
MCKENZIE What?!
SLIM There’s video evidence of this, it’s one of the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed.
PROTO Stop! This is being exaggerated right now.
DANNY It’s not.
SLIM It’s true! Danny was there. Danny was there that day.
DANNY It’s true. I’m getting the chills of what we witnessed that day.
SLIM I’m chilled up! So I believe that Proto would walk into a bomb house and just hope for the best.
DANNY No fear.
SLIMNo fear.
MCKENZIE I would never assume it’s his real address. Truly ever. He’s a mastermind, right? I would never assume it was his real address.
SLIM Mastermind, Dennis Hopper.
MCKENZIE I gotta go be on the LAPD instead. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Proto, anything else for speed that we didn’t cover yet?
PROTO No, that’s really it. I mean, my last note was that the train track also wasn’t finished. [Danny & McKenzie laugh] They’re stuck on a moving vehicle going super fast and they’re on something that isn’t finished on the road. What are the chances?
DANNY Nothing in this movies finished.
SLIM No.
PROTO I mean, Keanu brilliant though. [Proto in what is supposed to be a Keanu voice] I’ll speed it up. [Danny laughs]
MCKENZIE He made the worst lines sound like gold to me.
SLIM Yeah, I would believe him. I would believe him in those moments if I was Sandra. I like that she — they couldn’t get her off that handcuffed thing. Like that was just the thing that they’re just had to deal with and potentially die.
PROTO They were having a moment there too.
DANNY You stayed with me.
SLIM Yeah, you tried to post a photo of those two in Discord and Discord NSFW’d it.
MCKENZIE Too steamy!
DANNY Too steamy for Discord. [Slim laughs]
MCKENZIE I saw too much of Sandy’s, I don’t know, shoulders?
SLIM Bare shoulders were too much.
MCKENZIE Discord said no, no.
SLIM What else for speed McKenzie that you wanted to cover?
MCKENZIE I think the only thing we haven’t really talked about at all is like the passengers of the bus. [Danny laughs] I don’t know, I really liked, I feel like Sandra Bullock’s character was like the prime example of this. But I really loved the range and like arcs of emotions they let the passengers kind of feel as unit like I liked that there was this fear and then there was this like, ohhh, we’re feeling bad ass, when she gets exploded it’s like oh no, now we’re gonna die. [Proto & Danny laugh] I just felt like I was one of the passengers. I felt like they were kind of the vehicle with which the audience could kind of sit with as well. And I liked that we got to see them like, become heroes, like they got to work together to save each other’s lives. And Sandra Bullock’s arc of like, becoming a hero, like I really liked that. You know, there’s like the copaganda of like, we’re the badass cops, here to save the day, but it was kind of fun to see the ordinary people also be the ones to save themselves a lot. I don’t know I really liked I just like the passengers. I thought they all were fun. And I liked them.
PROTO The bus driver getting shot is just nuts. [Proto laughs]
SLIM Ugh, yeah.
PROTO Why is this happening?
SLIM What a way to start. I think those are probably all of my notes. Danny, what about you? Do you have anything left before we get to final thoughts and ratings?
DANNY This is just a shit ton of fun. I mean, you just, it’s hard, from the beginning to end this movie is ridiculous. Dennis Hopper is amazing as a bad villain just doing his own thing. Keanu is amazing. Sandra is amazing. The stunts are fun. I mean, I just, I had a lot of fun with it. I’m gonna stick with three stars.
SLIM Whoa, I thought you were gonna be a four banger at least on that!
PROTO Whaaaaaat?
DANNY Whaaaaat? Come on guys.
PROTO Come on.
SLIM Come on.
DANNY When you put your notes down at the beginning of the movie, you know you’re sitting with a three banger. [Slim laughs]
PROTO Okay. Alright.
SLIM Three stars is good. That’s true. Omar points out. Twister says hi, Kev says. Yeah, what was your Twister rating? It was like four and a half stars, didn’t it?
DANNY Of course I did.
SLIM I wouldn’t rate Twister higher than Speed. IMO.
DANNY Twister has nostalgia.
PROTO Let’s get into it.
MCKENZIE Haven’t seen twister.
DANNY I’ve seen Twister a lot though. That’s the difference.
SLIM Proto, what’s your final thoughts and rating for Speed?
PROTO This is the best action movie starring a bus. [McKenzie & Slim laugh] This is the best movie with Keanu and Sandra as romantic leads. And this is the best two star movie.
DANNY Ohhhh!
SLIM My god! I feel like we knew where we’re headed with that Proto Letterboxd review.
MCKENZIE I’m sweating.
SLIM It was sopping with sarcasm. I think I previously had a three star rating for Speed. I think I watched maybe last year, maybe a couple years ago stars.
DANNY Four stars.
SLIM Did I give it four stars? So I’m going to stay there. This is a four star enjoyment movie. You know you have a lot of fun watching this movie. I’m not saying this is like Oscar. You know? Although maybe Oscar should have shone brightly on the cast of Speed. But this is a four star movie for me for sure. I had a lot of fun going back to it. McKenzie, the floor is yours.
MCKENZIE Oh god, I’m sweating.
DANNY You’re safe here.
MCKENZIE Here on the 70mm pod.
DANNY Live your truth.
MCKENZIE I had never seen this before. I knew nothing about it. Did not know what to expect. And every single second of this movie, I was smiling ear to ear. I loved every like moment of this movie.. Even the like dumb stuff, I loved. I am someone who rates on my enjoyment. You know, Scooby Doo 2, five stars. [Danny laughs] Charlie’s Angels, five stars. Speed, five stars.
SLIM Ohhh!
DANNY Yes, there it is.
SLIM Wowowow.
MCKENZIE I’ve been flip flopping. I was like, I gotta go four and a half. I don’t want to seem like a dweeb. [Slim laughs] But I have to live my truth because I was thinking about it in the car today. And I was like, I really, I left that movie, just feeling like I enjoyed it so much. And it’s been a long time. I think since the movies made me enjoy it that much. But yeah, I don’t know. I think I’m gonna give it five stars. I’ve been like my fingers been itching on my Letterboxd review to update it. [Danny laughs] I just, I loved it so much. I really did. I am glad I had an excuse to watch it because I couldn’t believe how much fun it was.
SLIM What was the last two star movie that Proto gave on this podcast? What was Hercules? Was Hercules — I don’t mean to bring it up again. [Danny laughs]
DANNY I can’t believe you just went there.
SLIM Was that one or two?
PROTO That’s a Patreon exclusive, okay?
MCKENZIE Hercules is also a five banger, so. Favorite Disney movie growing up.
PROTO I mean, everything is in balance again, because McKenzie just made up for the stars missing from me and Danny’s reviews. [Slim & McKenzie laughs] So it all evens out.
MCKENZIE There we go!
DANNY We’re all balanced.
MCKENZIE I’m here to bring balance.
SLIM The balance has been restored on this podcast. We do have a letter and I think a VM to get to real quick. You can leave us some feedback at 70mmpod.com. There’s links on there to shoot us a letter, an email or a VM. So we’ll see what we got here. Dimeinking sent one and I think just under the wire Monday, a couple days ago. Subject line: Signs and Speed. ‘’Hey 70mm. It’s your pal kingdime from Twitter again. I was listening to the episode of Signs and side note, the scene where Mel and Joaquin running outside the house yelling, ‘time for an ass whooping!’ Am I losing my mind? Hilarious. But you guys mentioned that the next movie is Speed, which I saw for the first time earlier this year. And loved it. Keanu Reeves was born to be an action star, four stars all around. Can’t wait to hear what you guys say.’’ Thanks kingdime. Might be in chat right now. Four stars for Speed. A lot of high ratings I saw from the Village for speed. Currently sitting at three and a half star rating on VGER, the supercomputer who loves movies. Five stars from Seantana.
PROTO What?
SLIM Yeah, that’s real. And five stars from Dylan as well.
PROTO Is this real?
SLIM Gonna read Dylan’s review. Quote ‘Honestly, it’s insane that they kept making movies after this.’ [Danny laughs]
DANNY The peak was Speed. [Slim & Proto laugh]
MCKENZIE All we need! I think my Speed review is my most liked review now.
DANNY Yes!
SLIM The great balancing. Alright, let’s see, we have a voicemail to get to. This might be from Woody.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hey, this is Woody calling in from Hampshire in England. Hope you and the Villagers are doing well. Since finding 70mm earlier this year, it’s become my favorite podcast. And when I heard you guys were covering Signs, I decided it was finally time to lose my voicemail virginity. This was such a significant film growing up. I first watched it at around age 10 in the early 2000s ater I stumbled across the VHS at a friend’s house and was very intrigued by the spooky art on the box. It terrified me and fascinated me in a way that a film had never done before that point. So I just watched it for the first time in at least a decade. And while it is a little dated, I still have a lot of warm feelings attached to it, which perhaps helped me to overlook some of its shortcomings. Nevertheless, some notes I have are how funny the script is, the brilliant score that still gives me chills, and the scares which I think he executed perfectly. Also, while I’m here I wanted to ask, how did you guys all meet and become friends before the podcast? I’ve always been curious. Okay, thanks, guys. Take care.
[voicemail ends]
SLIM Ohhh, thank you, Woody. Welcome. Thank you for going on this journey with us. Reminds me, this is like, I guess sort of a while ago, we did an AMA after an episode like last — when was that? Feels like eons ago.
PROTO 2021. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Wanna feel old? We did an AMA, that was pretty fun. We should do another one. How did we all meet? Um, I think, correct me if I’m incorrect, but we met due to the Paperkeg podcast that me Dale and Jonesy did about comic books. And we all became friends. I think Proto listened to that podcast. Danny became a listener to that podcast. And then we had something very similar to what has happened with the VHS Village. We all became friends. And we made like a Slack where we talked during the day to pass the time. And then we all just became best friends forever. And then we started playing — then Apex came out. And then we started talking nightly. Did I leave anything out, Proto?
PROTO That’s it. That’s all the major points.
SLIM The rest is history.
DANNY That was a decade ago, Matt. I was thinking about this. Because I started listening to Paperkeg when I opened the comic book store in Orlando. And 10 years in September would be the store. Wild.
SLIM 10 years!
PROTO First time I met Slim was Free Comic Book Day 2013 in Delaware.
SLIM We did, listen, it was a different time. 2013. Our friend’s shop, The Comic Book Shop, which is the full name of it. We got a table for our podcast at the comic shop.
PROTO Outside.
SLIM Outside, we just like hung out.
MCKENZIE What?! [Slim & Proto laugh]
SLIM And looking back —
MCKENZIE Was it a coming podcast?
SLIM It was. It was a comics podcast, but these kinds of like promos just always feel so goofy to me and looking back it was just so strange that we did it But we just sat there the four of us talking while one previous host Mark — now deceased RIP — that’s an old gag. [Danny & Slim laugh] So he’s not actually dead. That’s a joke to the Paperkeg listeners that is not gonna translate now. [Proto laughs] Set the record straight. He’s still alive and I still talk to him. But we sat outside the comic shop. Proto came up, some other local listeners had come up to the show, some people that never listened to the show came up. And we were like trying to pitch them on our podcast. Eventually, we got like burned out talking about comics. We’re doing a comic weekly comic book podcast for years, we got burned out talking on comics, so we eventually drifted into movies and like TV shows, and then our lives just got really busy. So we slowed down and eventually went into semi retirement.
DANNY You know how long I thought Mark was dead for? [Slim laughs]
SLIM Mark eventually left the show, I think around like Episode 70 or maybe 90. We did over 300 episodes.
MCKENZIE Geeze.
SLIM So to explain his absence, as you may know, from listening to the show, I like to just do goofy bits that make make me laugh. So I said Mark died. [Slim & Danny & Proto laugh]
MCKENZIE You know that great bit where you say someone is literally dead?
SLIM So I said, you know, Mark’s, you know, now deceased, former host of the show, RIP. And I just did that for like a decade. [Proto & Danny & Slim laugh] So that’s a little insight into the past. But thank you very much Woody for your VM, and thanks for joining the community.
PROTO Yeah, thanks Woody.
SLIM We need to announce our next movie. You know, this is 21st century blockbusters, Proto has been thinking about this for a long time. You know, we’re getting into the end of the month. What’s been your thought process Proto for choosing this movie, and what’s it going to be?
PROTO Well, I mean, just to be honest with everyone, this is what happened. We were brainstorming what to do, you know, we all picked movies. They were all, you know, lined up. But then we got to you know, needing to pick a fourth movie. And I double checked there hasn’t been another summer blockbuster in the 21st century. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Geeze!
PROTO There was only three. Yeah, it’s kind of crazy. So, you know, we looked. What are we going to do? We just got to go in a different direction. And we realized, you know, like, let’s not make this a disappointment. Let’s make this a victory for us. So we said let’s go back to the one of our wells. Something where we had a great time. So we’re going back to the comedy well, we’re going down to Monty Python. And we are doing — which one are we doing?
SLIM The Life of Brian.
PROTO The Life of Brian!
MCKENZIE Wow.
PROTO It’s happening.
DANNY Netflix.
SLIM 1979. Proto’s right. We went to the bottom of the barrel, there’s nothing left. We had to go back to try to get a win for the community and for this podcast.
PROTO Need a win.
SLIM I’ve never seen Life of Brian.
MCKENZIE That’s Criterion Collection. Scooping Cinenauts again. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Another scoop.
PROTO Okay!
SLIM If Cinenauts was planning to do Life of Brian for the Akira month that started six months ago. [Danny & McKenzie & Proto laugh] Listen, we can’t pull back any further!
MCKENZIE I’ve only seen the Holy Grail.
SLIM Ohhh.
DANNY Holy Grail is such an all timer. I cannot wait to watch this with you guys.
SLIM Casey says 94 minutes.
DANNY Bless.
SLIM Remember the fun we had doing Monty Python, that episode?
PROTO Life changing.
SLIM The amount of voices. [Slim in British accent] Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?
DANNY The Britains!
SLIM [Slim in British accent] WOT?! Amanda still says ‘what’ like that to me when something shocks her. [Proto laughs] Life of Brian. Thank you Proto for your bravery in choosing this movie for August. It’s going to be a great time. And before we leave, thank you McKenzie for coming on the show.
DANNY Yeah, thank you McKenzie.
MCKENZIE Yeah, thank you! Thank you for having me.
SLIM A lot of fun talking about Speed. And there’s probably a ton of Lynch fans that are listening right now. Check out McKenzie’s podcast ON LYNCH, we’ll have a link to it in the episode notes. And join our Discord! You know? If you’re hanging out and want to talk movies with us. There’s a book club! I need to point out there’s a book club happening for Dune in our Discord.
DANNY Listen, Casey bought Dune to read. Okay, the book is in our bedroom. And I keep glancing at it like there’s no way she’s doing this. [McKenzie & Proto laugh] I’m proud of her for giving it a go. I am.
SLIM One of the one of the hosts of Dune Pod is running this book club, Jason. I’m not sure if you listen to that podcast from TAPEDECK. But we’ll see. Proto, can you take us out before Life of Brian?
PROTO You know what, I didn’t really have anything prepared. But you know what, McKenzie? I did a little research on you. And I did see that you have some, some performance work and we heard it earlier where you do some great impersonations. So I was wondering, I mean, we love voices here, right? Could you just give us a taste of something? Could you just just give us an impersonation? Anything? Anything you got?
MCKENZIE Um, yes, I went to school for theater like a fool. [Slim & Danny laugh] And I’m just kidding, I love my theater degree. I only have one impression and it’s Cher.
SLIM Oh my god.
DANNY Oh baby.
MCKENZIE I have a couple of Chers. I have share accepting her Academy Award. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Okay.
MCKENZIE Moonstruck, amazing movie. I just love the ending line for some reason when she says — I haven’t done this a year and a half. [McKenzie in a perfect Cher voice] I don’t think this means I am somebody but I do think this means I’m on my way. Thank you very much.
DANNY Yes! [Slim & Danny & Proto laugh]
MCKENZIE I also still love doing Cher in Burlesque because I think that that is her — I can’t even believe, I was front row center for that movie the day it opened. I love that movie. But she does the… [McKenzie in a perfect Cher impression] Show a little mooore, show a little leessss. And a little smoke. Welcome to Burlessssque.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM 70mm is a TAPEDECK production featuring original artwork provided by Danny Haas. Spiritual guidance and VGER, the robot who loves movies created by Protolexus. Producer emeritus Dale_a. Prints and other merch are available on 70mmpod.com. This episode was mixed, edited and produced by me, Slim. You can support our Patreon for access to the VHS Village Discord to talk movies with new friends, access to exclusive episodes, discounts on merch, and a physical membership card mailed to you. To check out other TAPEDECK podcasts, find the link in the episode notes. And if you’d like to support our friends at Letterboxd and upgrade to Pro or Patron status, you can do so with a 20% off discount using the links at 70mmpod.com. Goodbye!
