Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
92:18 – 99:17… a lose relief. I was going to make this case. I was going to make this case. Ice is going to break. Yeah. He's the best. See, I was going to make this case in Apex Mountain, but he gets to be funny in this movie, though. He doesn't get to be funny in Deer Hunter. So he's using like 80% of his pitches, but he's not going to throw a slider in that movie. In this movie, he's funny. He's scary. He's weird. His funny stuff is also physical. His scary stuff, too, which is why it's the perfect thing for him. You guys got fat while everybody stopped on the street. That whole thing is like he's hilarious and so scary at …
The whole segment, as transcribed
And it might win. It's tough. All right. It might actually win a lose relief. I was going to make this case. I was going to make this case. Ice is going to break. Yeah. He's the best. See, I was going to make this case in Apex Mountain, but he gets to be funny in this movie, though. He doesn't get to be funny in Deer Hunter. So he's using like 80% of his pitches, but he's not going to throw a slider in that movie. In this movie, he's funny. He's scary. He's weird. His funny stuff is also physical. His scary stuff, too, which is why it's the perfect thing for him. You guys got fat while everybody stopped on the street. That whole thing is like he's hilarious and so scary at the same time. And like all these other guys, like I said, Harvey being a little too over serious about this. A lot of people being a little too over serious about it. Walken realizes he gets to play a vampire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. All right. And not make it a metaphysical piece of bullshit. So I have this leads into Apex Mountain. I have this as this Apex Mountain. Just 1990. Okay. And for all the reasons covered before. I think it sets up everything that's about to happen to him. He's in a Batman movie, what, 18 months later? Yeah. Playing Max Schreck. Yep. He is. He's brought to again. Yeah. He's people like you writing scenes for him and it's just, he's in a better place. More Apex Mountain. What about Quotable Lions? We're getting there. Oh, is that good? Okay, cool. Apex. Look, I actually. Able? I say fish. I say it's fish as Apex Mountain. I say because it's like as terrific as he has been in other things. It's the level of excitement that I had over him when this movie was over. I have never had that excitement again. I mean, I was satiated. I was satiated by what's love got to do with it. I would say, I personally would say that's his Apex Mountain. And that is. I'm not saying from a performance standpoint. No, no, no. But that's. Just like after that movie he has better. Look, no, I can go with that. I understand that. And I get that argument. And I was satiated with Matrix. You actually think that's air you're breathing? And then if you take the blue pill, you will wake up and you will tell yourself whatever you tell yourself. It's not Boys in the Hood. It's not. Because think of Apex Mountain not just as when you liked him the most, but when he had the most that he could do. It's the most career chips. But Ike Turner comes after. Yeah, it does. Boys in the Hood. And then after that, it was just like, oh, this guy's going to be the next Denzel. Yes, but I, and I mean, to me, I just thought his world after King of New York would be a far, far huger world. And it wasn't. It wasn't. It was good. And it was terrific. And he did wonderful work. But I mean, I thought with this, he could be the greatest actor of his generation. I literally, that was an actual, real fucking thing. Wow. He could be the greatest actor of his generation after seeing this. And not just after seeing this. It's not like, you know, from Apocalypse Now and Willie and Phil and every fucking thing he did after that and before this. You know, so it was all building up to this. And he had made movies with Coppola and Spielberg. Absolutely. He was not. I can quote his lines from Cotton Club. You want me to go against O.A. Madden? If you get O.A. Madden on your ass, you truly have somebody on your ass. Not Bobby Fischer for Apex Mountain? I'm not inviting either of you on that podcast. No, it's Joe Dallin's Apex Mountain. I'm not inviting either of you on that one. I have The Plaza Hotel as Apex Mountain. You have this movie and Home Alone. Same year. When was it better for The Plaza Hotel? It has to be Apex Mountain. This is a great poll. This is why you're the best at this. That is really a great poll. Thank you. Donald Trump back when he was still not really Donald Trump yet? Movie Limos, Apex Mountain? Movie Limos, yeah. Movie Limos, Apex Mountain. Put it in there, man. Incredible. How about Schooly D, no question. Of course. On screen, sure, but maybe not in his career. No, but it's a great year for him. Yeah, I would say Freddie Jackson's Apex Mountain. You know, I was trying to rack my brain about whether or not, like, where he was in his career in that scene. Because is he still, like, in the prime of his? He's not Luther Vandross anymore, but he's still a dude. A dude, yeah. He's still a dude. He's not Luther Vandross. He's not Sylvester, all right? You know, but he's not to be real Sylvester. But he's... He's still got clout. Would you go pre-gentrification Brooklyn? I mean, you're talking about, like, a long history of movies portraying Brooklyn, though. But this is every gangster movie in the 30s. And 40s, and yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Just throwing it out there. Anything else? Because it's also, they bounce from the burrows, too. Like, the movie takes place all over the place. Anything else? No, I don't think so. Who gets the Dion Waiters Award? Is Caruso eligible is my first question. No, he's one of the leads, man. I think he's probably in too many scenes. Too many lines, yeah. He's like the third lead. I'm going off the map for this one. I have a... For my choice. Okay. I always loved Teresa Randall. Really? And I loved seeing her in this. She's not in it that much. I had a lot of... Wouldn't she be then that guy? I had her in there, too. I think she's too famous. She's led films. No, but yeah. But look, I was under the impression that that guy is either... He's either that guy, or it's that guy before he's that guy. It could be either. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I always thought that... Yeah, I always thought it could be... It's somebody before they were that guy. Yeah. Okay. It could be either. That's tricky, then. Especially in this movie, that complicates it. It does. Because Caruso is that guy. No, no, no, no. But Caruso's too much of a lead. I mean, he literally is... Okay. No, the answer to the Joey Pants Award, we can go back to the on-waiters, is Paul Calderon. Because I think most people don't know who that is. They know he's that guy. No, man. I would... No, no. I would... They know he's that guy, though. But... I would say it's Buscemi wins... No, because he becomes Steve Buscemi, though. He's... But we just talked about before... This is a mess. This is a mess of this. You turned this into the Matrix. Hold on. Here are my candidates for heat check. For Dion Waiters, my candidates are Cary Nygren, who does not speak in this movie and is amazing as Melanie. Roger Guinevere Smith, who is a city councilman, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Leonard L. Thomas, who you already mentioned, who has one of the great line deliveries in the movie. Joey Chin. Joey Chin is doing a lot. Joey Chin's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. That's a good one. Joey Chin watching Nosferatu and doing that whole spiel is one of my favorite parts of
103:00 – 105:49… in this movie. He dials it up in that last scene. The death scene, he's dialing it up. When he's screaming, laughing. Like I said, I'm choosing Fishburne for Apex Mountain. So I wouldn't give him the overacting award, all right? Even though he would earn it. I've just said he dialed it up. I think it's Artie Clay. I think it's Artie Clay. But also I think, I mean, one, Artie Clay is the perfect that guy, too. He's one of the hoods at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in America. Oh, yeah. All right, that shows up. Another that guy is the father of the bride. Yeah. He's in Sorcerer. And he's, whatchamacallit, …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Linda Partridge, they knew overacting award. I have Artie Clay peeing on Paul Codron's shoes. Listen, Fishburne's amazing in this movie. He dials it up in that last scene. The death scene, he's dialing it up. When he's screaming, laughing. Like I said, I'm choosing Fishburne for Apex Mountain. So I wouldn't give him the overacting award, all right? Even though he would earn it. I've just said he dialed it up. I think it's Artie Clay. I think it's Artie Clay. But also I think, I mean, one, Artie Clay is the perfect that guy, too. He's one of the hoods at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in America. Oh, yeah. All right, that shows up. Another that guy is the father of the bride. Yeah. He's in Sorcerer. And he's, whatchamacallit, Scheider's partner in the robbery. Right. And he's also one of the five members of the Brinks job. Okay. Are we meant to believe that he's the father of the bride or the father of the, is he a family member? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, he's the father of the bride. But then he's in the bar later in the movie, too. Yeah, no, but he's a cop. He's a cop. He's a cop. He's a cop. Yeah. James Lorenz, all right, marries. Right. Who's from Street Trash. All right. Yeah, he marries a cop's daughter. Okay. I'm moving to half-assed internet research because we're behind schedule. The real Christopher Walken called Biggie's hotel room and left a message, hey, this is the real king of New York. Call me. That actually happened in the mid-90s. That's maybe apocryphal. I love the story. I love the story. It's half-assed internet research. At the second showing in the New York Film Festival, Lawrence Fishburne and Nicholas St. John were booed off the stage. So that happened. The first cut of the film ran for almost two hours, had to be edited down to 106 minutes to avoid an X rating. I don't know what was in there. I want to see that version. Me too. Donald Trump, this is the director saying this, Donald Trump gave him permission to film at the Plaza Hotel at no charge on condition that Walken would pose for a photograph with Ivana Trump. Incredible. That almost has to be true. I believe that one. Abel claims that Wesley Snipes was living in his car during production of this film. I looked at his IMDb. It's possible. He really only made Major League and it was like a year later. He might have been living in his car. It's conceivable. Sure. The film's opening sequence was shot partially at Sing Sing Prison, the first time the prison was ever used in a movie. Oh, wow. The word fuck? Great gate. The word fuck is used how many times do you think? I have no clue. What would you guess? I'm bad at that. I don't have a guess. What would you guess, Sean? 100. 90. 90. And then, did we mention that Abel directed a porn film titled Nine Lives of Wet Pussy
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