Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
58:32 – 61:21… Johnny finishes him off. It's a demolition. And it is like, if you're talking about Johnny as one of the greats in sports movies, which we should, this is his apex mountain right here, right? Yeah, but it's kind of like the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead, you know, after the fact. So that's the part. Because he destroys Vidal, who is one of the three black belts on this. He's still an instructor in, is it Marietta? Yeah. California? Yeah. So I was just looking at him this morning. He's still killing it. And he's so much better than everybody else. Like you can just see how crisp he is, how technical he is. These …
The whole segment, as transcribed
After the second one, like Vidal's just down, the ref's like, are you all right, Daryl? And he's like, yeah, I'm okay. Gets up. And Johnny finishes him off. It's a demolition. And it is like, if you're talking about Johnny as one of the greats in sports movies, which we should, this is his apex mountain right here, right? Yeah, but it's kind of like the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead, you know, after the fact. So that's the part. Because he destroys Vidal, who is one of the three black belts on this. He's still an instructor in, is it Marietta? Yeah. California? Yeah. So I was just looking at him this morning. He's still killing it. And he's so much better than everybody else. Like you can just see how crisp he is, how technical he is. These spinning back kicks are all over the place. And then Johnny just wipes him up. I still think for the sake of the movie, but this is where somebody would differ with me is that should have been a closer fight. It should have been a little bit more back and forth, but then you can't have that fight be that much more suspenseful than the main fight. And then if you want to really sell the idea of what a badass Johnny is, have him take out the other guy that's looked like he's better than everybody else and have him take him out 3-0. So I can kind of understand like, Hey, whatever, dude, it's a movie. We were doing this. One of my favorite things I've never noticed before is that when Johnny's watching Vidal fight before he fights him, he's standing next to crease and you can read his lips and he goes, he's not that good. Yeah. I rewound it. Yeah. Like he's murdering everyone at this tournament. It's not even that close. And like, just, just all blonde, tall, Billy Zabka turns to his instructors. Like, eh, not even that good. Another one's aged the best. The music by Bill Conti, which mentioned earlier, um, the, uh, the decision not to use the original ending, which if you've seen Karate Kid 2, which I hope you have out there, the first scene in Karate Kid 2 is the original ending to Karate Kid. When Kreese is furious at Johnny for the second place trophy, breaks it, he punches him. It's, it's a whole mute Cobra Kai mutiny basically. And then he gets into it. Miyagi punches two windows, hands bleeding. Miyagi twists his nose. He falls over. That was supposed to be the end of this movie. What a great decision to end it the way they ended it with everyone celebrating with Daniel San. Then him looking over at Miyagi, by the way, don't forget about Freddie and his friends back in on Daniel San after the ending. They're, they're the first one celebrating. It's like, where were you fucking, where were you guys for an hour and a half? Yeah, right. Hey, I've been out here eating lunches by myself, getting my ass kicked every two weeks. And now I'm back. Frontrunners. It was like when the Lakers signed LeBron, you know, all of a sudden you're like, what?
93:45 – 96:42… And then we mentioned Daryl Vidal, who was Pat Morita's double for basically anything cool that you see Pat Morita doing in this movie. So there you go. Apex Mountain. This is easy. Ralph Macchio, yes. Pat Morita, yes. Every single person in Cobra Kai plus Mark Cove, yes. John Avilson, no, because I think Rocky is his Apex Mountain. The town of Reseda, I'm going to say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. In fact, I've had some soccer games there. I've had some baseball games there. Pretty nondescript town in the Valley, but it's now known as the Karate Kid Town. The All Valley Karate Tournament, no question, yes. And …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Those are her words. I noticed. I noticed. And then we mentioned Daryl Vidal, who was Pat Morita's double for basically anything cool that you see Pat Morita doing in this movie. So there you go. Apex Mountain. This is easy. Ralph Macchio, yes. Pat Morita, yes. Every single person in Cobra Kai plus Mark Cove, yes. John Avilson, no, because I think Rocky is his Apex Mountain. The town of Reseda, I'm going to say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. In fact, I've had some soccer games there. I've had some baseball games there. Pretty nondescript town in the Valley, but it's now known as the Karate Kid Town. The All Valley Karate Tournament, no question, yes. And Cruel Summer Bananarama, yes. Elizabeth Shue, probably no. I would say winning the Oscar. No, no. Elizabeth Shue, she's the only no. High School Biker Gang slash Ninjas, yes. Yeah. Red, red, weird red jackets between that and the Thriller video with Michael Jackson. Kind of expensive red leather seeming jackets. I would say that was for that. And then those mid-80s arcades that have a whole bunch of stuff with golf and everything else, yes. So there you go. Okay. Picking knits. We've mentioned a lot of these. The soccer tryouts. Still unclear why Daniel was just banished from the team. I can understand. Get out of here. Come back tomorrow. I don't understand. Like, it's like a run-our-test David Stern thing where it's just like, you're out. You're gone for the year. Like, he never gets to try it again. Even the soccer was his thing. He's out. Does he get to play high school soccer? No, that was it. That was absolutely it. I felt like it was quick, but I feel like Macchio had already made a little bit of a name for himself. Like, hey, we're about this new Italian. He got his ass kicked in the beach going after Shue. Like, yeah, he's the skinny one that doesn't pass. All right, I'll have my eye on him. Another picking knits. Why couldn't Mrs. LaRusso just get her car fixed? It just seemed like there was something wrong with the starter. How hard was this? Just take it to the shop. Just fix the starter. Well, look. Hey, man. Some of us are living, you know, check to check back in the day. It should fix the starter. It's $10. I don't know. It's a new place. Mechanics. Although, if Miyagi can heal bones and everything else, why couldn't he take a look at it? Yeah, take the car to Miyagi. What the hell? Miyagi's like the car guy. Actually, now that I think about it, of all the things that don't make any sense in the entire storyline is her not having Miyagi look at the starter. Terrible job by her. The first time Daniel-san makes out with Allie in the... At the arcade? When they make up, there's some flirting, he goes for the kiss, and then he starts eating her face. It's awful. It starts out as a normal kiss, and then he starts trying to devour her top lip like he's a zombie. And it is one of the weirdest things.
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