Eye On Horror

A Rampage Celebration with Paul Farrell

April 12, 2021 iHorror Season 4 Episode 7
Eye On Horror
A Rampage Celebration with Paul Farrell
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

This episode, the guys welcome Paul Farrell from Scream Addicts and Dead Ringers Podcast to celebrate the third anniversary of their collective favorite movie - RAMPAGE!

Paul Farrell: Twitter / Dead Ringers Twitter / Scream Addicts Twitter

Correia: Twitter / Instagram

Jacob: Twitter / Instagram

Jay: Twitter

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Mascot Loomis: Instagram

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Get more horror movie news at: https://ihorror.com

James Jay Edwards:

Welcome to Eye On Horror The official podcast of ihorror.com. This is Episode 64, otherwise known as season four, Episode Seven. And I'm your host James Jay Edwards and with me as always is your other host Jacob Davison, how you doing Jacob?

Jacob Davidson:

Doing good just getting used to recording at night.

James Jay Edwards:

Yeah, we're recording at a weird time because tomorrow's Easter and we kind of wanted to let the Easter Bunny do his thing. And so yeah, we're staying up late. If you can call 715 late. Also with us is your other other hosts, Jon Correia. How you doing Korea,

Jonathan Correia:

doing good. And you know what, tomorrow is an important holiday because it's the one day I'm not working so I can give thanks to our true Lord in saviors Godzilla and King Kong. That's how I'm spending my Easter Sunday, of course, at the drive-in safely. Yeah,

James Jay Edwards:

we've also got a special guest this episode. I usually bring our guests in or not usually, but a lot of times we'll bring our guests in at the midway point, but we're gonna bring this guy in now because I think he's gonna have a lot of cool stuff to say in the What have you been watching category? So we've got Paul Farrell, the co host of the Dead Ringers podcast and the Scream Addicts podcast, is that right?

Paul Farrell:

Well, that is that is right. Got all that right.

James Jay Edwards:

Awesome.

Paul Farrell:

I'm doing good man. I'm happy to be here. appreciate y'all inviting me on. So thank you for that.

James Jay Edwards:

The reason we invited Paul will become clear when we get to the second half or it's already clear to you if you read the title of the episode,

Jonathan Correia:

it's a celebration,

Paul Farrell:

it is a celebration.

James Jay Edwards:

If you just click play, you're still gonna have a little bit of suspense because we'll we'll be talking about something that Paul shares a love with us later on. But for now, what he has been doing what's what's been happening this week?

Jonathan Correia:

I I've mostly been working on this weed award show I'm ADing on. So that's been interesting. They haven't been long days but I I was surprised to finally happen because I don't smoke weed and nothing against it. Just you know, I'm already fat and lazy. I don't need performance enhancing drugs for that. But I we they did some like testing with some influencers of different products. All I know is the studio got hotboxed and I was just sitting there like, some like paperwork or something and I realized oh, shit. I'm gonna have to step outside for a little bit, guys. I'm getting body high here. So it made it a struggle to come back home that night. Like this was yesterday. Actually, I should clarify. So it made it a bit of a struggle to come back over and watch King of the Monsters and then Godzilla vs. Kong before we record this episode, but I did it I stayed awake.

James Jay Edwards:

I have watched a couple of things that I got screeners for. One is a movie called The Yellow Wallpaper. Have you guys heard about this?

Jonathan Correia:

No, no,

James Jay Edwards:

it's actually an old feminist feminist text and a short story that has been used, you know, as basically an indictment of 19th century, the 19th century patriarchy and how women were treated back then. It's been adapted probably 20 times into short films, plays features TV shows, and this is a new one. It's a pretty creepy movie. It's beautifully shot and the score and sound design just kind of weave together perfectly so that you're kind of like Wait, is that running water have a beat to it, you know, kind of thing? You know, you're it's that kind of thing. My only issue with it is it kind of strips the feminism angle out of it, because it um, it takes away some of the ambiguity of the short story. So you don't basically it's a great indictment on 19th century medicine. But it's not so much the patriarchy like it should be. But it's I mean, it's it's worth seeing just because a beautifully made movie. It just I just don't know. I mean, it's not going to be shown in any women's study classes.

Jonathan Correia:

That's unfortunate. Could you imagine Slumber Party Massacre with all of its feminine overtones stripped you wouldn't have a movie

James Jay Edwards:

now slumber party massacre is a better feminist text than this version of the Yellow Wallpaper.

Jacob Davidson:

big words. Yeah, but I'm back on the drive in last week. I saw that Bob Odenkirk action movie Nobody

James Jay Edwards:

Yeah, Hows that

Jacob Davidson:

it was bad ass is what it was. It looks

James Jay Edwards:

like a badass in it.

Jacob Davidson:

He is he nice? Awesome. He may be a nobody but he is a badass nobody.

Jonathan Correia:

Everyone's badass in that movie. Like, flat out even even RZA finally gets like a good action scene. You know,

Jacob Davidson:

I was casting the casting is amazing because You got like, okay, so did Bob Odenkirk Christopher Lloyd RZA. Michael Ironside is in there. Like That was unexpected. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Love them. And just it was Yeah, you know, is by some of the John Wick dude. So of course, it looks really cool. And the action choreography is insane. Yeah, yeah, no, just, every time shit goes down like you do not forget it. But and Do we need a Bob Odenkirk versus Kevin James movie? He changed also and also it really goes with what you know, kind of these sort of these kinds of movies like Death Wish try to go for where, you know, it's supposed to be about, you know, like Joe Schmo who, you know, like, start or start using violence and, you know, like the fatal flaw and a lot of those types of movies, you know, like, between the remake and the originals is that, you know, it's like the actors portraying you know, is supposed to be in every man. We're like action stars, so it kind of takes a little bit out of it. But you know, Bob Odenkirk, has pretty much almost always been a comedy actor. So like, it really leans into that. And, you know, it feels themeactically right his

Paul Farrell:

I'd be down.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, I mean, Kevin James was pretty unsettling as that neo nazi and Becky, Becky. Yeah,

Paul Farrell:

like he was a surprise, like a good soul. Yeah. Well,

Jacob Davidson:

I'm with you on that.

Jonathan Correia:

There was just so much to like with Nobody. I mean, they Oh, yeah. did a lot of the formula when it comes to these type of action films, like you're saying, when it's like, you know, it's the badass who retires to have a normal Joe Schmo life and he's struggling with it, and then gets pulled back at you know, I guess I'm, you know, back type deal. But they, they really do a good job of playing around with it and having it be realistic. Like, in the beginning, when he's living as Joe Schmo, like, you spend a lot of time in there, you spend a lot of time seeing his day to day and how he's having these real relationships, you know, with his kids, and it's, there's no real, one thing I really respected about the movie was, there's a part where after, you know, he has his first like, kind of getting back into action, these type of stuff. And he has that he has an honest conversation with his wife, where he's just like, you know, I miss you know, we haven't, you know, been intimate, you know, in a while. And usually, with these type of action films, it's like, I just did some actiony stuff, I'm filled with testosterone, let's go have sex. But they don't do that at all. Like, they actually take a moment to have like, an honest conversation of just like, what happened to us, like, what, like, what's been going on? Like, I've like, and they just have this like, kind of moment where they're both like, yeah, I guess we kind of forgot about us. And then like, they walk away from each other. Like, there was no like, I'm filled with testosterone, and I'm reclaiming my, you know, my woman. And at this moment, it was like, a genuine moment. And yeah, and then of course, the action was fucking awesome. Throughout. I really do hope they make a franchise out of this. I want. I want sequels every two years. I want spin offs. This was Christopher Lloyd's best role in 10.

Jacob Davidson:

Oh, yes. Dude shines.

Jonathan Correia:

Yeah, I want him to get a movie. I want him and RZA to get a spin off movie together.

Jacob Davidson:

And it feels like it's in the john wick universe. So you know, there's crossover material right there.

James Jay Edwards:

So do they call the next one somebody? And then everybody

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, and in terms of home video stuff, I got some cool new releases from vinegar syndrome, including one of my favorite recurring Grindhouse movies from the new Beverly Death Promise have any you guys seen it? No.

Paul Farrell:

I haven't watched it yet. I watched the other two in that pack. But it's on my to watch shelf.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah. Now this one was a lot of fun. And I do kind of have a soft spot for it because it was one of the last movies I saw at at the new Beverly before the pandemic shutdown. And it was so popular that they were actually going to play it again in March because so many people wanted to see it again, but you know, pandemic hit, but yeah, it's just it's like the ultimate Grindhouse movie he's got like everything you expect from a Grindhouse movie in one movie, because Okay, so it's basically about this martial artist and his and his friend and like Eve and there's like this evil like Real Estate Group with these five landlords are trying to push them and their families out of the apartments they live in. And so they start like hiring thugs that you know, just beat people up and ruin the apartments by like, throwing rats and stuff around. But since their martial arts, they just beat the shit out of them. And then the landlords have, have one of their dads killed. So now it's personal and they decided to go out for revenge. And they and they team up with like an Asian martial artist from there. dojo and yeah, cuz there's a lot of martial arts. There's blaxploitation. There's vigilantism, there's revenge. You know, it's just it's just got a bit of everything Grindhouse. And it's and it set in New York during the 70s. So it's got that 42nd Street Style feel to it.

James Jay Edwards:

When was it made?

Jacob Davidson:

Oh, let's, I

James Jay Edwards:

mean, is it a period piece? Or was it made in the 70s?

Jacob Davidson:

Oh, no, no, no, it was made in the 70s. Yeah. 1977.

James Jay Edwards:

Okay. I just wasn't sure if they were doing a throwback thing. Or if it was because it was actually made then.

Jacob Davidson:

No, no, no, it's 100%. legit. And I love this tagline. filthy rich landlords Get Away with Murder, it's time they pay for it. Like this movie is just the ultimate anti landlord movie. Like, even in the movie, like there's a narrator who talks about how shitty landlords are. So, you know, just whoever wrote it probably had a had a issue of landlords, which considering the time and setting was probably justified. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's, it's, it's just such an entertaining movie. You know, it could feel almost like a Black Dynamite type of movie even though it is an actual you know, like Grindhouse movie,

Jonathan Correia:

it almost gets to the level of parody with it?

Jacob Davidson:

a little bit. Yeah, I mean, there are some scenes that are funny in their own way. You know, like in Streets of Rage or double dragon, like there's always like, that one boss is just like, it's just like, he's just a big guy with it with a knife or something. Because this movie has that. It's like they reach a boss level. And there's just this big, hulking dude with a knife who rips his shirt off and starts screaming at them.

Paul Farrell:

Is it kind of like Raw Force in that way? Like it?

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, yeah, that's another good comparison.

Paul Farrell:

Yeah. And well, I mean, vinegar syndrome, almost like has the market cornered on these like obscure Grindhouse oddities, but better the most entertaining damn things you've ever seen. And that's one of the many reasons that I love to just blind buy what they put out and dive into it and just let it wash over me.

Jacob Davidson:

The same here like this is one of the rare instances where I actually saw the movie beforehand.

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, I, I do the annual subscription to Vintage Syndrome. And so like, every month, I just get this box of strangeness. And I never know what's gonna happen, you know, and my wife's always like, I was at Vinegar Syndrome night. Because usually, and she's kind of like, ah, do I want to stay up for this? I don't know what this is.

Jonathan Correia:

What's this movie called? Oh, it's called the severed arm that kills you while you drive? Oh,

Paul Farrell:

yeah. Severed Arm is so good.

Jacob Davidson:

Oh, that's a good one, too. I

Paul Farrell:

love that one. Yes, every time. Yeah, that was one of Brad's like bread sort of babies that he tracked down. And because he had been talking about that movie for years. But he Yeah, I mean, this this month in general. I haven't watched that one yet. But I did check out Rush Week and Last Gasp, which are the this month's package? Yeah, I mean, so Rush Week is a very, very, it's 1989. So it's sort of like at the end of the cycle, right? Like it's it's dead at this point. It's B it's already been recycled. It's getting a little meta. We're kind of going into the 90s. And it's changing. And this is just sort of it really does feel like the last gasping battle cry of the slasher of the 80's slasher. It's very sleazy. It's, it's like so tropi like every single character and every plot point is a trope. You can see who the killer is a mile away. I mean, you could look at the boxer like okay, no, the killer is really have to watch the movie. But it's the other great thing about it. It's fun. You know, it's a rush week at a at a college. There's a reporter who's investigating murders. The murder actually weirdly gave me a black Christmas 2019 vibes. He kind of has like

Jonathan Correia:

had jaundice? And

Paul Farrell:

2006, right? Not the 2006 remake, not the supernatural stuff of that movie. Spoiler alert, but it's sort of the look of that how they did the killers in that one. I thought that was kind of interesting. I was

Jacob Davidson:

like the robe and

Paul Farrell:

yeah, like it very, very fraternity esque. Like, it looks like a TV guy who's going to some sort of ritual. Lot of shameless nudity, a lot of shameless you know sort of violence although I have to say it wasn't as gory as you would expect. You can tell it was kind of low budget. very socially tone deaf but but pretty damn fun. Like if you're having a few drinks and you just want to watch kind of a cheesy late 80s slasher, you could definitely do worse than rush week. last gasp was a wild ride that movie with As in every sense of the word of vinegar syndrome release. It is. Again, this word is gonna come up a lot when you talk about vinegar syndrome, but very sleazy. Kind of a whodunit flick that involves like possession of this native tribe. So you've got, oh, gosh, Robert Patrick. Yeah, of Terminator 2 fame, who basically travels the world collecting artifacts and things and he, there's this this tribe in this country, you know, he kills a guy and that spirit sort of possesses him and kind of can take over and makes him want to kill. So you've got like this weird sort of possession thing, but it's presented in this sort of nore esque intrigue kind of movie. Like there's literally like a pie that's hired by this woman whose husbands missing and she's kind of presented like a femme fatale. Like it really feels like it's trying to be a NEO noir in it, like, but it doesn't, by someone who's only ever seen like magazine articles about what nor is, like, they don't really fully get, like, what they're, they're what tropes are trying to utilize. So it all feels very, very, like shadows projected on a wall of that sub genre, but it's very fun. And it It feels very, like it's sometimes it's a slasher, sometimes it's a possession movie, sometimes it's a war movie. It is not cohesive at all, but the damn thing just moves man like you, you you're just with it. Like it's so weird and so much shit is constantly happening. But you don't have time to be angry about how little sense it makes. And there are some good gory sequences. There's some fun effects like it's just, again, it's it's one of those weird vinegar syndrome oddities that I would never ever defend or say as a good movie. But I enjoyed I had a good time with it. So like, definitely a fun friday night, have a few beers kind of movie.

Jonathan Correia:

And was that that was during like that post Terminator two era for Robert Patrick, where he was just like, couldn't find another niche. Like he was trying to like not do that role. The T 1000. But

Paul Farrell:

yeah, and yet, he's still just played the same character in every damn movie. Like he's just the same guy. Like he's the stoic, kind of serious, scared, trying to intimidate you, man, a few words kind of character,

Jonathan Correia:

except for Fire in the Sky. He was

Jacob Davidson:

just about to say Fire in the Sky.

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, you got a few things. I'll give them that.

James Jay Edwards:

Another screener that I watched that I got was for a movie called HoneyDew you guys familiar with honeydew?

Jacob Davidson:

Ooh, I've heard about that.

James Jay Edwards:

It's kind of crazy. It's it starts out it's this couple who they're camping. And through a series of unfortunate inconveniences, actually, they end up at this this farmer woman's house with her son. And um, and then it just goes off the rails from there. It's It's a crazy movie. It gets a little weird because it does weird things with, like hallucinogens and drug trips that I thought was a little unnecessary. But it's um, when it's actually this couple Beto being it's kind of like, um, they're meeting the local Yoco kind of, uh, you know,

Jacob Davidson:

that the House of a 1000 corpses?

James Jay Edwards:

Yeah, it's kind of when it's like that kind of a story. It's pretty compelling. But then it just gets really, really quick. And it should have ended about 10 minutes before it did. But but it's one of those movies that like ends and then it gives you all this extra exposition and you're like, just let us figure it out. But it Yeah, I mean, it's a it's kind of it's a it's a pretty suspenseful it is. There's a few things they did really, really well as far as just like keeping you leaning forward on the edge of your seat. You're like, oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. You know, it's so I mean, it's, it's kind of cool.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, I'm gonna probably see that at panic fest next week. No, fez is doing a virtual festival. But yeah, I've been wanting to see that. I had a friend who saw that. I believe the night stream festival and spoke very highly of it. So it does sound interesting.

James Jay Edwards:

Spielberg son plays the male lead. Whoa, yeah. Well, I think it's a son, his name's Sawyer, Spielberg. And I I saw on IMDB it said that it was his son one of the trivia so unless whoever wrote that trivia was wrong. But you know, yeah, so we not only do we have Schwarzenegger acting, we've got Spielberg's acting like, you know, Schwarzenegger kids and Spielberg's kids.

Jonathan Correia:

And Scott Eastwood is out there somewhere. Ah, yes,

James Jay Edwards:

Eastwood's kids do it.

Jacob Davidson:

And Wyatt Russell? He's Falcon and Winter Soldier.

Jonathan Correia:

Yeah. Peanut Butter Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah. So

Jonathan Correia:

I so I guess I'm the one who has to ask. We all saw Godzilla vs Kong right I

James Jay Edwards:

was saying this is gonna This is gonna lead into our topic. So do we want to go there now? Let's do Godzilla vs

Jonathan Correia:

Yes, I was being such good boy and holding off and seeing it I was going to see it tomorrow at the drive and for the first time because you know you always want your first time to be special You bastard also before me before we record it, so I had to watch it on HBO last night at like, 1130 at night.

Jacob Davidson:

I couldn't resist.

James Jay Edwards:

I was there at 1201 the night that it premiered. Just a happy coincidence. I happen to have insomnia that night. But I was one of the first to watch it.

Jonathan Correia:

Oh, I'm gonna be doing that for Mortal Kombat. Like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna be sitting there with like, energy drinks.

Paul Farrell:

Tick past 1159.

Jacob Davidson:

And then you play the Mortal Kombat theme song from the 90s as your

Jonathan Correia:

neighbors gonna hate me, dude.

James Jay Edwards:

I did get a visit. I was in the front room. And I did get a visit about five minutes in from my wife who was trying to sleep. She said, Oh, can you turn that down? I'm like, it's Godzilla versus Kong. How much you

Jacob Davidson:

can turn it up.

James Jay Edwards:

I ended up putting the chair right in front of the TV. So I didn't you know, I didn't want to disturb her. But it was Godzilla versus Kong. I had that. You know. Movie.

Jacob Davidson:

Maximum.

Jonathan Correia:

But what do you guys think?

Jacob Davidson:

I loved it.

James Jay Edwards:

Loved it.

Jacob Davidson:

I had a lot of fun. You know, it delivered what it promise. Yeah. Godzilla vs. Kong. Yeah. Yeah. No, just as you know, like, it was really cool that Adam Wingard was directing and you can definitely see some of his fingerprints on it. Especially the neon

Paul Farrell:

so much. It was beautiful. Yeah.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah. Real feast for the eyes. Yes. But yeah, no, just I thought it was a solid monsterverse movie. And I did like how it kind of drew on kind of both of the franchise headliners because you got a lot of the Godzilla stuff you got a bunch of the kong skull island stuff. And it actually meant mended together pretty well.

James Jay Edwards:

But it was absolutely Kong story. I mean, it's it's Kong's arc, and and Godzilla just came in and fuck shit up everyone. But it's totally cons are. And I actually liked that about it, because I like Skull Island is probably my favorite of the new monsterverse saying, Yeah, I don't know if it's because Kong is more expressive, but I feel like they're, you know, I mean, as much as you can. A kaiju monster. They're developing his character pretty well. You know, Kong has got a pretty good. You, you know what Kong's thinking.

Jacob Davidson:

Okay,

Paul Farrell:

oh, no, you're fine. You go ahead.

Jacob Davidson:

I was gonna say just I love that opening where there's that musical montage of how Kong starts his day?

Paul Farrell:

Yeah.

James Jay Edwards:

And then they pull a hunger games on? Yeah. Like, what? I don't want to spoil anything. But

Unknown:

yeah,

James Jay Edwards:

I feel like everybody has seen this, though. I mean, I had a review of it that published on Friday app two days after it opened. And I felt like it was already old news.

Paul Farrell:

Yeah. Well, it is interesting with this new model, how we can all sort of experience these huge movies all at once together. And I think there's something in a way something special about that. I think I think that makes the experience more exciting. Like a bunch of my podcast buddies actually timed our watches for like, 7pm that Wednesday night. So we all we didn't like live tweeted, we watched it. But we were all watching at the same time. And it just kind of felt fun to do that. And, you know, I agree with everything y'all are saying. I mean, for me, I agree that kong skull island is pretty much my favorite. And I think Kong has an unfair advantage and that he's an empathetic character that's emotive I mean, Godzilla specifically doesn't emote that's like part of his thing. toe. Even, that's part of their claws. They don't want him to, with with them using them. And I think that, that gives them an advantage and a lot of ways because there's something to give a shit about and to invest in story wise, you can actually tell a story. I mean, Godzilla King of the Monsters suffers from the fact that it's really difficult to tell the story without any empathy towards these giant creatures, right? They're just these big monsters fighting each other and they're angry, and that's fun to watch. But after a couple hours, if there's nothing else other than that, it doesn't always stick and then people love to, you know, there's this whole debate raging right now about the human stuff. Like, does it matter? should it matter? Like, are we allowed to criticize that? I mean, one who gives a shit what you think is what you think nobody's wrong, and loving it or hating it. But in my opinion, I think part of the reason it works better in con, or Godzilla versus Kong is they remember that that's that the movie is supposed to be fun, right? Like these aren't simple Supposed to be these deep dramatic looks at introspective character stuff that's just not really going to work. And I think Godzilla, King of the Monsters attempted to do something more serious. And it didn't land because we didn't have enough time, effort or energy put into that plotline to make it land. So in this one where you've got like a podcast guy going on a misadventure with children, like it understands, okay, this is kind of silly. Let's let it be silly but still allow the people to progress the plot.

Jonathan Correia:

And wasn't that the most accurate depiction of a podcaster?

Paul Farrell:

A guy who's so damn

Jonathan Correia:

awkwardly asking someone to be a guest constantly saying, Oh, this might be the last one. No, it's

Paul Farrell:

really of the piece

James Jay Edwards:

as opposed to the podcast or in Halloween. You're a documentarian, you're not a podcaster. Yeah,

Paul Farrell:

I guess with$3,000 to go to the unkillable killer, who you know who can like be stabbed, stabbed? can transfer his evil to other human beings and yet I'm going well, this the podcasts are with that much money that just doesn't. I can't

James Jay Edwards:

get out of it.

Paul Farrell:

Blow up in a house and walk away but the podcaster with three grand to give us interviewee that's bullshit. I can't. That's not acceptable.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, and on the other side, I liked the because it was kind of you know, like two separate plotlines in that regard. Because you got the Godzilla crew, and then you got the con crew. We're including Alexander skarsgard. And the Rebecca Hall. Oh, yeah. Rebecca Hall, if I did a good job of that. And the devil and the devil girl who's kind of Kong's best friend. She was incredible. Yeah, she was great. Great. She was awesome.

Jonathan Correia:

And one of the things that I really appreciate, especially with Khan is we got to see Khan grow old. We've never seen that before, because he always dies. Yeah. So it's really it was really incredible to see old man Kong and really see them, you know, because he was I think one of the special features that they had on HBO max for it, they Adam, when God was talking about how, in previous movies, you know, there was always the blonde woman that he's in love with. But at this age, he's not looking for a love partner. He's looking for a family and stuff and they really did a good job of driving that home throughout the movie with GE and Rebecca Hall's character skarsgard was I was it was interesting to see the attractive skies guard son be goofy for a while.

Paul Farrell:

And kind of offbeat, not knowing how to sort of present himself and yeah, that was cool. putting him in that sort of position.

Jonathan Correia:

It's like, dude, I've seen you in Tarzan. Like, I know how jacked you can get like, don't you get Yeah, you're selling being awkward way too. Well, man.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah.

Paul Farrell:

He's the son of a bitch in True Blood. You know? Yeah. Really is

Jacob Davidson:

he was Randall Flagg. Yeah, that's true. It's true.

Jonathan Correia:

Still need to watch the Stan

Paul Farrell:

I've been a little I've been kind of putting

Jacob Davidson:

well that's a whole other

James Jay Edwards:

Yeah, let's let's move on from Godzilla vs. Kong. Because everybody has seen that too. And you know what I've been impressed about last word on Godzilla vs. Kong. The internet at least not that I've seen has not spoiled probably the most jaw dropping surprise in it. In the third act if you as soon as I saw it, I'm like, Oh, crap. This is going to be all over the internet but they've been pretty cool about keeping that a secret who beragon so I so if you haven't watched Godzilla vs Kong hopefully it hasn't been spoiled for you yet. But anyway, watch it because it's good. And I'm

Jacob Davidson:

hoping that if it's successful enough, we get another monsterverse movie really cross my fingers there.

James Jay Edwards:

We need a Rodin movie Rodin Gotha raw deal offer looking at a month now but see mothra I'm sure a pistol that Rodin got a raw deal and King of the Monsters monster actually at least got some camera time. No, you're all wrong. We need a jet Jaguar movie and we need it.

Jacob Davidson:

Now. You're right. The world needs jet Jaguar now more than ever. And Pacific Rim they get crossover with Pacific Rim.

James Jay Edwards:

And ultra man giant robot. Man we are getting Shin ultra man. So there's that look forward to let's move on to our topic which anybody who's listened to more than two episodes of this podcast knows that we fucking love rampage. We don't just love rampage. We fucking love rampage this time. I'm earning the explicit Korea.

Jonathan Correia:

Yeah.

James Jay Edwards:

Listen box for me. And we happen to be three years. It's the third year anniversary of rampage. And the reason Paul is joining us is because he loves rampage as much as we do. So we wanted to talk rampage. As if we haven't enough

Jonathan Correia:

and when we say rampage we mean the Dwayne The Rock Johnson giant American kaiju film not the will bowl movies as I almost claims that people are going to be confused between them but so we just wanted to clarify

Paul Farrell:

we all know that that rampage the the the rack starring rampage lesson the value of your bolts epic trilogy and if it weren't for this movie it would be a household name I mean everybody but because of rampage that's all lawsuit launches then this will all get cleared up they'll retroactively change the name and we can we can all move on for

Jonathan Correia:

all I'm saying is every time I see one of all balls rampage movies on dvd at the Dollar Tree across the street for me it doesn't last more than a day there so it's like hotcakes. It's gotta be doing good.

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, Brett rampage is a glorious epic amazing movie and frankly, should be the movie that the monster verse creators are studying to get shit right because if there's one thing this movie does that a lot of those movies struggle to do is it has fun. It has a lot of fun with the premise and its characters and it lets its characters have fun.

Jacob Davidson:

It's just fun as hell

Paul Farrell:

yeah. And there's nothing wrong with that and that that should be celebrated.

Jacob Davidson:

I still love that there's an actual rampage cabinet. Yeah, played prominently in the movie in their labs office,

Paul Farrell:

which which raises so many questions that I love that are now in. So definitely a multiverse that's but 100% of multiverse.

James Jay Edwards:

I think it goes back to what you were saying Paul about the characters in King of the Monsters versus Skull Island. All of the characters in rampage, the human characters it well, and the monster characters obviously, but the human characters are almost all cartoons. I mean, you have evil scientist woman and her sycophant, brother and then you've got some

Jonathan Correia:

chewing scenes left.

James Jay Edwards:

Yeah. The Jeffrey Dean Morgan, cowboy guy, and then you've got you know, the rock, his answer to every problem is to knock the guy out.

Paul Farrell:

Yes, yes. And he Yeah, he has like a macgruber level of obsession with the curtain. And he has so many great one one liners but just feel like like he's in the wrestling ring again. Like he's not in a real movie. out of his character, and he's like strangling guy. He's like, hey, it's a big arm. Don't fight it. Like the rock like you're not even in this. And I love it.

James Jay Edwards:

Do you guys know sign language at all? His symbol for himself when he would refer to himself for George was symbol for rock?

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that.

James Jay Edwards:

Which I thought was kind of a kind of a funny little nod. He's and

Paul Farrell:

I love that you talked about the Claire white and carry the Malin Akerman villain and how cartoonish your brother, they straight up feel like villains out of a 90s family comedy. Like there's always a male female dynamic, where like one of them, you know, where the man is sort of like, you know, slavish to the woman. And then she's just a sort of like, commanding sort of, you know, person, like, it's very Casper. It feels like the villain, Casper villain.

Jacob Davidson:

I was gonna say they reminded me of the villains from Hudson Hawk.

Paul Farrell:

Very go. Yeah, that works to

Jonathan Correia:

another classic.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, no, just there's so many one liners in this movie. And a bunch of them were pretty big at the time, like who could forget? And of course, the wolf flies.

James Jay Edwards:

He just says what everybody's thinking because the wolf does this little, you know, this little bank and land and everyone's thinking the wolf flies. And he goes, of course, the wolf flies.

Paul Farrell:

It's so great. Yes.

Jonathan Correia:

So one of the things because I rewatched it in preparation for this and of course, in preparation for the celebration. And it has been a minute it's been it's been about six months since I last watched rampage. And I gotta say, one of the things I respect the most about the movie is it really lands it's cheerable moments or it's, and it's references. Primarily, if you have any connection with the original games, when you see Malin Akerman at the end of that movie in a red dress, back George is going to eat her. Or as soon as they get to the city, and they do that beautiful, long shot of just George and Ralph, running through and you see George slamming to the side of a building, I stood up and threw my arms up and cheered like, like, like at the end of Breakfast Club, just

James Jay Edwards:

Yeah, the one thing I wish they had done from the video game that they didn't do is there's There used to be a part in the video game where a train would come like a little trolley train and you could punch it back and forth, you know, between two monsters and it would go faster and faster, faster. I wish they had played train ping pong in the movie, but, you know, it didn't serve the story.

Jacob Davidson:

It was one of those rare movies where my first thought was When he, when it came to theories was, I'm gonna see in 4DX because you know, if I'm gonna, if I'm going to go in for this, like, you know, special effects, action kaiju or Rama, I wanted it in the most visceral dis kind of gimmicky way I can. And because it was a roller coaster ride, and it was like I was in the movie, you know, just I get, you know, the seats moved around, I got sprayed with like water when like the, you know, the water was exploding and like the gust of air when Georgia screaming at you. And it really enhanced the experience.

Paul Farrell:

I you know, what's great about this movie, too, is and I, I sort of dove into some of the special features, and a lot of the special features on the disk are very like PR features, they're not really, I feel very, sort of, yeah, faked for the camera. Now, that's not to say there's not some interesting information in there. And a lot of what it goes into is the practicality with which they they built this movie, I mean, a lot of practical sets, a lot of practical stunts, a lot of stuff you don't really see very often these days in big budget movies, like they tried to go practical as much as they could and build digital around it. Especially with like, you know, even in like the air, the, like the scene where the sort of they're in the airplane and it breaks apart and they're gonna fly out. That's all one giant real set that they constructed. And we're sort of like on hydraulics and moving it around. So that way the actors would sort of feel like they're in that space. And I think the movies is all the better for it. And I think that's another reason why those action sequences land so well. Because even though these these situations are so cartoonish, the characters are also damn charismatic, that you you care about them inherently. For that reason, you don't need to really have any sort of deep emotional attachment. And then the action is so well done and well photographed. Add to that you get giant monsters, which you're going to like anyway, it's just a blast across the board. So I actually really respected the craft that went into this movie, which is not a thing I expected to say about the video game adaptation from

Jonathan Correia:

Well, it's like, also in preparation, I wanted some comparisons. I was gonna watch San Andres, but I couldn't find my copy anywhere. So instead, I watched skyscraper. So I was like, Oh, it's another Dwayne The Rock Johnson that came out around the same time. And that movie fell so flat with me because it felt like they did the exact opposite. So much of the set was CGI it like they would have these big things happening. Like he's jumping from one from the this crane to the giant building. And it's like, Yeah, but he's probably just like, in front of a green screen at this moment. You know, like, and you can feel it and you can see it and there was no investment because it didn't feel like there was at risk. So you're right, when there's at least like practical sense, and then digital built around it. It does you feel it, you know, because they probably feel it when they're getting thrown around everywhere. Yeah, and

Jacob Davidson:

on the designs, I also really liked the creature designs they did for the movie because I mean, George is basically an albino gorilla, but you know, he got the wolf which is like that wolf kind of Dragon looking. And then you got Liz which is is like some kind of giant alligator in this version, but it kind of kind of like, I don't know exactly how to put it but it's like you could tell it's mutated, like it had all those kind of growths on it and it was all spiky and

Jonathan Correia:

had warthog horns coming out of it or tusks

Unknown:

Yeah.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, yeah. No, they've really went above and beyond for the creature effects for the for the different monsters. And

James Jay Edwards:

this Ralph with part porcupine two, I think because he shoots quills at a helicopter and take some

Paul Farrell:

random shit. And there's lines movie that feels so like self-referential, like making fun of how dumb it kind of is. But it's still really fun. Like, at one point of the villains is like, also there's some bad DNA in there. Like he just says, Oh, yeah, they just threw some bat into and now it's high or whatever the fuck you want to say it is? But no, I mean, I think part of the reason that works so well, too is I mean, WETA Digital did all the effects and like George was was basically already done because they had they had just done the Planet of the Apes movies. So they just took the technology that they use to build out like rise and Dawn. And I think they'd already done war at that point to I don't know, four had been released. But they use they just use those builds. And George was like done. So what would have taken like a year was pretty much immediately there. So they were able to focus their efforts on other things. And then they kind of said that is that that's why that's kind of why George is the only one of them that isn't some weird hybrid animal. I mean, obviously it helps us empathy. dies within more and gives us sort of a relatable monster like we talked about with Khan. But it also makes sense why they're like okay, well, we're just gonna keep him an ape. So we don't or a gorilla, so we have to worry about this and then we're going to actually design these really cool other monsters

Jonathan Correia:

well, and he's the only one that's actually played by an actor to the other ones were completely CG build and all that but George, I forget the actor who played him, but

Paul Farrell:

yeah, I was reading about that. Jason Wiles.

Jonathan Correia:

I think he was an alumni of the Apes movie. Yeah, it was

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, and well, and they were they animated another like a squid type monster that was in the deleted scenes with Alexandra daddario and like a cameo role and so there was actually going to be like hints that there were other monsters like out in the world but they decided to cut that out because I thought it sort of convoluted the the overall plot which I think is kind of a funny thing in a movie like this. Oh, we don't want this

James Jay Edwards:

shown more faith that we were going to get a sequel if they had kept those in because if you didn't deal with those,

Jonathan Correia:

well, there's still two canisters. There's canisters left remember they said there was five three went to Earth two are still floating out there in space. They can land anywhere on Earth at any time and we can get our giant lobster which is all I want is

Paul Farrell:

the movie opens with Marley Shelton and space and I'm a big Marley Shelton fan from the you know from the 90s. So like, I think that she could potentially be somebody that even though she died an explosion, who cares? It's an action movie she could. Because in the game, it's people who mutate into the monsters. What if Marlene Ives and she becomes one of the mutated creatures, she could become a rat creature?

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, cuz she was attacked by a rat.

James Jay Edwards:

She was fighting the rat race,

Paul Farrell:

which I guess is a reference to, to another version of the game that was like on one of the Atari systems.

Jonathan Correia:

Yeah, I was about to say for the Atari. T. Ha, I had it. I had the counts. I read that fact earlier to I think, I think it was the tea wreck or something. Or?

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, and they actually did intend that as like a reference to it or like a potential setup for the sequel.

Jonathan Correia:

To Larry the rat is what his name was, Larry, because they they all had we like the most awesome most simple names Ralph or Larry.

Paul Farrell:

Yeah. Well, and it it didn't like the movie didn't like do horribly. I mean, worldwide, it made almost half a billion dollars.

James Jay Edwards:

I had forgotten or never knew that it won the box office, its first week of release. So I don't know if that's because it was in the beginning of April and you know, quote, good movies hadn't yet been released. Um, because you know, you're that's kind of the end of the dumping ground. Sure. But it I mean, it made enough money.

Jonathan Correia:

I don't know why we don't have a sequel. From what I've been reading. It's because I not only was looking into this, I read a few articles about why there was no SQL does Santa dress, which for some reason, people, I don't know if it was just the articles I read, but it sounds like people more want a sequel to San Andreas than rampage, which blows my fucking mind. Don't get me wrong. I had a lot of fun with San Andreas, but I have way more fun with like if I had to pick which Dwayne The Rock Johnson movie where he does an impossible thing in a helicopter, which is like a sub genre of its own. It's rampage all the time.

James Jay Edwards:

A sequel to San Andreas would be the same movie. What more can you do with that?

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, you can't you can't see equalize a movie. Like I mean, you can. I shouldn't say can't but it's Yeah, it would be very samey. I think when it comes to the Brad Payton. Dwayne Johnson, filmic universe. rampage is their magnum opus, right? I mean, it just is as good as that. Because you can see elements of this in San Andreas and even the journey to I was about to say, like, there are things in those movies that are reminiscent of this, but this is this is them perfecting that really, I mean, this is as good as it gets. I heard that there is a San Andreas sequel like in development. I don't know if that's actually happening or not. But in my mind that it was I was like, Why? Why do we need that? Like, give us a rampage? Well, the

Jonathan Correia:

director is working on a movie called Sniper Elite which sounds like it's based off of video game, but I'm not sure. But I mean when it comes to anything with the rock he's a busy guy they were saying with the San Andreas sequel that it's his schedule that's one of the main issues and they did say that if they were to do a sequel they would want to do something totally different. Possibly like a giant Ring of Fire which down for

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, big write down maybe a volcano movie somehow make it a volcano thing I'd

Jonathan Correia:

be down a sequel to Dante speak or volcano. No, do a versus Dante speak versus volcano?

Paul Farrell:

Yeah, you should do they should do they should bring back all those like weird movies that were kind of the same that came at the same time to do versus movie somehow,

Jacob Davidson:

like Armageddon versus Deep Impact

Paul Farrell:

right? It'd be very emotion,

Jonathan Correia:

A Bug's Life versus antes.

Jacob Davidson:

Deep Rising versus Virus. Virus.

Jonathan Correia:

But I mean the rock beat that that like I never stops. I mean, he's got his TV show. He's got movies coming out. He's got Jungle Cruise. He's got it. He's got young rock, his knee

James Jay Edwards:

Black Adam,

Jonathan Correia:

he's got Adam come in, which they're finally making they cast him as Black Adam, almost like, what, 10 years ago at this point?

James Jay Edwards:

I don't know why 10 years, but yeah, long

Paul Farrell:

time ago, about the rock that you Only you only get a guy like this once in a generation, someone who's just a natural movie star, right? Someone who's when they're on the screen, they are electric, and you like them, and you're interested in what they're doing. And it doesn't matter what they say how they say it, what they're just, they're going to capture your attention, and they're going to carry you through the movie even if the movie sucks, right? And that's that's why he's so good and why I'm always so interested in what he's doing. And you and there aren't that many people like that anymore. I feel like you know, you don't see many natural movie stars. I don't know if the movies are built that way anymore. You know, I we don't get as many sort of, I don't know, like because the blockbusters are so wrapped up in these big superhero plotlines. You know, like it's hard to get standalone blockbusters

James Jay Edwards:

any longer. It sounds like you're saying that the WWF was on to something when they called him the most electrifying man in sports entertainment.

Paul Farrell:

They weren't wrong.

James Jay Edwards:

Even back then it said

Paul Farrell:

show me one other person in sports entertainment from that time. That is bringing in billions of dollars at the box office in 2020. There isn't one there's nobody else. So you know, I think they were right.

Jacob Davidson:

Definitely. But man, I would give anything to see the rock fight new, you know, slew of monsters and rampage 2

Jonathan Correia:

Yeah, I need my giant lobster. Like I need my crush-station. You know? Yeah,

James Jay Edwards:

I just want subway ping pong or you know, whatever. trolley ping pong. I don't care what two monsters do it and rampage

Paul Farrell:

opens up the door for so many possibilities. I mean, it'd be the easiest movie in the world to make a sequel to I mean, hell, you could even go to the Love Monsters route in a post apocalyptic sense where, you know, it's creating a whole slew of monsters which ends the world. I would love to see the rack in a post apocalyptic rampage. Oh, he's dealing with like, now they have to sort of restart civilization in a world of monsters that are all weird combinations of other animals. I think there's just so many different directions that that could go in and they're all fun.

Jonathan Correia:

And you call it world destruction tour after the game.

Jacob Davidson:

There's that all the time on Nintendo 64. Yep. Wow. Yeah, like rampage World Tour rampage. Universal tour, and you get to hang it from aliens because they have aliens pop up later, too.

Jonathan Correia:

We haven't even gotten the aliens involved in this, which going back to the rat Larry the rat in the beginning, that was possibly the like most well crafted Alien Omage that a movie has done but it features a giant rat. That is an accomplishment that I cannot praise the filmmaker rampage enough about

Paul Farrell:

is so great. And it's creepy and it's and it's a horse you can stir in through. I love I mean, I get goosebumps when I watch a big budget Hollywood movie that does a horror thing. You know, it's one of the reasons I think horror fans really love Sam Raimi. Spider Man 2, is there's like, or just like straight up Evil Dead horror sequences in it. And you know, even though it's a spider man movie, like Yeah, but there's so much horror, you know? And so like, I think this movie has a lot of that. I mean, for God's sakes, like within minutes of the movie beginning like a severed hand floats by the screen. Okay, cool. I'm in for something I'm going to enjoy. But yeah, I will sequence was awesome.

Jacob Davidson:

And it did it better than others that kind of did somewhere because there was a similar sequence in Venom. There was, well, you know, the movie Life with Jake Gyllenhaal and stuff. But yeah, rampage really added them.

Jonathan Correia:

Although life was a close second. Life is

Paul Farrell:

another one of those movies, I think of life a lot like I think of Underwater, where there is great sci fi horror movies that were dumped in January, that should have been bigger films that I think wide audiences would have really loved but they weren't given the attention or respect. Like, if you had made if you'd put like studio advertising behind either one of those movies and release them midsummer, they would have been huge. Yeah, you know, with what they had and the production value. So anyway,

Jonathan Correia:

giving them a cooler title. That wasn't just one generic word. You know,

James Jay Edwards:

I mean, Underwater, I can get that title but Life they shouldn't. They could have thought of something better for that because it's so generic. People are thinking Eddie Murphy know David Attenborough. No,

Paul Farrell:

no I mean Elsa, like Danny Murphy like. But no, I agree. I think life is a terrible title. I think January is a horrible time to release that movie. And it was barely advertised. I mean, that movie was on blu ray within like, 30 days, like it was nuts, I think came out so fast. And you know, I watched it, I was just like, Damn, this is this is fun. This is good. This isn't horrible. This isn't deserving of like what it was and

James Jay Edwards:

cast. Yeah. Jake Gyllenhaal was it Ryan Gosling,

Jonathan Correia:

Ryan Reynolds.

Jacob Davidson:

Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds.

James Jay Edwards:

Ryan read. Ah, they're interchangeable. Rebecca Ferguson, I think was the other Yep. It's like with that cast. How do you dump that in January?

Paul Farrell:

Yeah. And it's creepy. I mean, it's good anyway. Yeah. But that's the problem is studios get these movies, and they don't know what to do with them. Because the heads change, or the executives change out by the time that's released, and that guy doesn't like it. So whatever, and they spent 60 million on it, and they don't think they're gonna make it back. So they want to invest more in advertising. I mean, if you look at rampage, I think the movie cost what like 110 120 million, they spent almost 20 million more than that, just to advertise it. So it's like, All told, this thing costs 250 million bucks. So that's why when you see it made like 450 well into the studio, well, that's not as much as it sounds like and life where it cost 60 to 80 million to make it and they spent probably a fraction of that to advertise it and it did not make even close to that in the box office. Right, then then it's just a failure. And let's move on, but that again, this there's so many great things that come out of these studios, we just don't know what to do with them.

Jacob Davidson:

Which is why we still have yet to get that rampage sequel.

Jonathan Correia:

Someday, even if even if I have to take over Warner Brothers and greenlight a fast and furious type sprawling universe,

Paul Farrell:

it could happen. Well, we're not that far away from the movie to where I would give up total hope. And it was such a and the fact that starring the rock that's the other thing.

Jacob Davidson:

Yeah, True. True.

Paul Farrell:

I bet you if he said like, I want to do this movie, it would happen. And so what we really need to do is send Dwayne Johnson letters every day from here on like Shawshank Redemption style, like we're gonna send it until we get these library books like until we get rampage to. He will receive a letter from the fans.

Jonathan Correia:

And we need to tweet hashtag continue the rampage.

Paul Farrell:

Our version of the Snider cut, right.

Jonathan Correia:

Yeah, this Snyder fans, they're not going to continue the Snyderverse continue the rampage instead. I'm more noble cause Yes.

James Jay Edwards:

Cool. All right. Well, thank you very much for joining us with for this discussion. Paul. This is a it's great to to gush over rampage with someone who loves it as much as we do. I get tired here and these to gush about it. So I'm glad that you could join us.

Jonathan Correia:

It's been a beautiful three years of just randomly bringing rampage, almost every episode. Like I think there was an entire season where was brought up every single episode. Oh, yeah,

Jacob Davidson:

we would look for an excuse.

James Jay Edwards:

Yep. And we didn't have to look far. I'm glad. where can our where can our listeners find you if they want more of you?

Paul Farrell:

Yes. Well, there's there's a lot of me out there online. Like you mentioned earlier, I'm on the Dead Ringers Podcast, where we do horror double features. Usually movies was sort of shared DNA, kind of do like an analysis of each one and kind of talk about similarities and differences. And then I do something Scream Addicts with my co host Jinx, Jason Jinx. Jenkins, who writes for many publications, and has been doing that show for a while and we do a hammer show under that banner called the Hammer Pub, where we do commentaries for all of the hammer horror movies. So we're slowly making our way through the hammer horror film on so

James Jay Edwards:

gotten to the snorkel yet.

Paul Farrell:

We've not gotten to the snorkel.

James Jay Edwards:

That's my favorite.

Paul Farrell:

We're big hammer fans. It's very fun. And yeah, it's just you know, we have a few drinks and we talk through the movie, we often get off on random tangents. It's pretty, pretty relaxed. It's not like an intensive commentary. But we get deep on the movies, and we have guests and things like that. So if you're at all interested in Hammer, check that out. And then also, I do a column on Bloody Disgusting called Hammer Factory where I break down the screen factory releases of hammer movies, and talk about sort of the context of the film, when it was made, because I'm really interested in hammers sort of story because they had just such an interesting, like the makings of these movies were often even more interesting than some of the movies themselves, then go into the movie or go into the release, sort of a review, but more of an analysis of the film. So that's called Hammer Factory, and that's on Bloody Disgusting. And you can find all this stuff on my Twitter feed at the very modest Handle @Paulisgreat2000

James Jay Edwards:

will will link that in the show description as well. So if people don't want to don't remember that they can just click the three of us you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Eye On Horror. You can find us at iHorror.com which is where we all call home. miss anything Korea, you have your finger on the pulse of our socials.

Jonathan Correia:

I mean, I'll probably make a letterbox list again. If people want to see what movies we mentioned, surprisingly, you know Magic Mike XXL and Mamma Mia. Here we go again won't be mentioned are featured on that letterboxes. Now they will I just mentioned how they

Jacob Davidson:

did it.

James Jay Edwards:

Alright, so so that's where to find us. Um, so thanks again, Paul, for joining us for this look at rampage and everyone if you haven't seen rampage see rampage. That's your homework. And we'll see you again in a couple of weeks. So for me, James Jay Edwards.

Jacob Davidson:

I'm Jacob Davison.

Jonathan Correia:

I'm Jonathan Correia.

James Jay Edwards:

I'm Paul Farrell. Keep your Eye On Horror.

Intros
What We've Been Watching
Nobody Reviews
Vinegar Syndrome March Titles
What is Honeydew?
GODZILLA VS. KONG!!!!!
RAMPAGE!!!!!
Did Jacob just reference Hudson Hawk.....
Practical Sets VS CGI
Creature Designs
Dante's Peak Vs. Volcano, For Some Reason
Once in a Generation Actor
Lets Talk About That Great Opening
Call to Action