Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
38:46 – 41:32… and just cemented him not winning the re-election, but is a really good speech that I wish somebody would give now. The hockey. Yeah. We'll go, when we do Apex Mountain, we'll go whether this was best sports ever in a movie, but the hockey just... So they, it's worth mentioning, they pick hockey players instead of actors. Which is another Wednesday's the best. They went all hockey. It's easier to teach hockey players to act than it is to teach actors how to play hockey and the verisimility or whatever you want to say, like you are so, you believe so deeply that you are watching these guys really do this. …
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which is one of the great speeches of all time and just cemented him not winning the re-election, but is a really good speech that I wish somebody would give now. The hockey. Yeah. We'll go, when we do Apex Mountain, we'll go whether this was best sports ever in a movie, but the hockey just... So they, it's worth mentioning, they pick hockey players instead of actors. Which is another Wednesday's the best. They went all hockey. It's easier to teach hockey players to act than it is to teach actors how to play hockey and the verisimility or whatever you want to say, like you are so, you believe so deeply that you are watching these guys really do this. It's wild. And the best thing is the goalie who's the one guy who didn't necessarily have to be an A-list or hockey player who they get more of an actor for, but you could just throw a mask on them and get a stunt double. So they had Bill Ranford who was a goalie for a long time for Edmonton. He played for the Bruins and he's basically Jim Craig, but you would never know because he's got all the equipment on. So that was the one place you could cheat, but you could cheat totally organically. Yeah. The hockey's awesome. They did such a nice job. And look, I'm not always a it has to be as realistic as possible guy. You know, Teen Wolf, I like having Chubby in Teen Wolf. I like having 5'2 Michael J. Fox. Like it has its place. Stallone as an arm wrestler. Like, but for this, I think it really helped. I think there's certain movies where it helps. It's the era. Yeah. So I was thinking about this. Like if you were going to do a movie now about the NFL, you'd be hard pressed to make it look better than Sunday Night Football. You know what I mean? Like you'd be hard pressed to make it look better than it does on a big screen television on any given Sunday night. Yeah. But from this era, they basically had one camera and it was, it was not great. And there's not really a lot of close ups and there's no sound that's good. Like we should be mining this 1975 to like 1988 era of like make lots of sports movies about the greatest moments of this time because you could shoot it in a way that like completely brings it to life in a different way. Like you're saying, you guys were watching the YouTubes after, after this movie. It's like, it's like night and day. It's like, after you see Miracle, it's like you can't really watch the highlights unless you just want to hear Michaels. But the best part about this movie and what I was going to say age the best is having Al Michaels redo all his audio so that you basically get the third act of this movie narrated by Al Michaels. It's an incredible, I had that on there as well. It's an incredible wrinkle for this movie. And he's talked about it. I remember doing podcasts with him where he was so delighted to be involved again. Obviously it was the greatest moment of his career.
45:42 – 48:28… We said, Hey, we covered Al Michaels and he, Oh, Noah Emmerich I have for what's age the best. This and beautiful girls are really the Noah Emmerich, uh, apex mountain combo. Um, so the only thing I would say is that for most of this movie, Craig Patrick seems like he's like, uh, like the guy in midnight road who's like, I'm going to go get the papers. You know what I mean? Like I'm going to go get some donuts. You know? Like he seems like he's just like, like a glorified water guy. Craig Patrick didn't even win like multiple cups as a GM and he's like, he was a real hockey guy. Yeah. I think, but I think …
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and the tendency was just to pack in and try to counter punch and it was never a good idea. Um, yeah. We said, Hey, we covered Al Michaels and he, Oh, Noah Emmerich I have for what's age the best. This and beautiful girls are really the Noah Emmerich, uh, apex mountain combo. Um, so the only thing I would say is that for most of this movie, Craig Patrick seems like he's like, uh, like the guy in midnight road who's like, I'm going to go get the papers. You know what I mean? Like I'm going to go get some donuts. You know? Like he seems like he's just like, like a glorified water guy. Craig Patrick didn't even win like multiple cups as a GM and he's like, he was a real hockey guy. Yeah. I think, but I think it spoke to what Herb, that he was just this force of nature you had to lay out. His facial expressions, I guess is what the Noah Emmerich, like, which are basically the same expressions for beautiful girls where it's like, oh cool, uh, Tim Hutton's going to play the piano for us and oh my God, he's playing Neil Diamond. It's like the same lucky ass when Herb's like. He does do one thing at the end of the game, right, where he puts a guy on and Herb's like, what are you doing? And he's just like, trust me, right? Like, yeah, yeah, they give him the one moment. The other stuff I had that age the best, I mean, a couple of lines, but I could save that for best quote. I thought the B-U-M stuff was awesome. Yeah. And, uh, my favorite little, little moment is when they're getting towards the end of the game in the third period and, uh, Herb Brooks goes, he doesn't know what to do. Yeah, yeah. That was great. Yeah, because he didn't pull the goalie. What's age the worst? Herb Brooks died before the movie came out. He never saw it. He died in a car accident. That's why, uh, in the credits, they say how he never saw it. He lived it. But, uh, such a bummer, like such a random stroke of bad luck that he didn't get to, uh, not only not see the movie, but the outpouring of when they released the movie and that whole thing. Anyway, um, more of what's age the worst. This doesn't relate to the movie necessarily, but this ruined all subsequent USA Olympic hockey things. I remember 84, 88, whatever the Pat LaFontagne year was and everybody wanted this to happen so badly again. It just is, you know, it's not, now all the pros play, it's a little different, but there was this stretch after 80 where he's like, could it happen again? It's like, no, this was a marriage. This is why they call it the miracle. It was, it was, if you played this game 10 times, Russia wins nine. Yeah. The, uh, 1980 players, they were pleased with the film, but they did, they pointed out what you said, like Herb, Herb wasn't going to holiday parties and, uh, and they did not like Herb. But they respected him. They just didn't like him. All right. So the wife, this is a sports movie trope,
61:15 – 65:39… good in this movie. I think he could have been an actor. He easily could have, felt like he could have been Tim Riggins. Um, so anyway, that's a bummer. Apex Mountain, Kurt Russell. Oh, I have one more piece of Half-Assed Internet Research. Go. Jim Craig did stop 39 shots. When you're watching the game, the game and the movie, you're like, that's a, he's taking a lot of, a lot of hits here. Like he's, he, they're really teeing off on him, but he really did. It was 39 to 16 shots, shots attempted. Yeah. And he really like that. I think they show all 39 in this movie. Yeah. No, it felt like 20 in the third …
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it's a really wild story. Yeah. Yeah, so that's a bummer. It's tough. I, it's tough to watch that movie because I actually think he's really good in this movie. I think he could have been an actor. He easily could have, felt like he could have been Tim Riggins. Um, so anyway, that's a bummer. Apex Mountain, Kurt Russell. Oh, I have one more piece of Half-Assed Internet Research. Go. Jim Craig did stop 39 shots. When you're watching the game, the game and the movie, you're like, that's a, he's taking a lot of, a lot of hits here. Like he's, he, they're really teeing off on him, but he really did. It was 39 to 16 shots, shots attempted. Yeah. And he really like that. I think they show all 39 in this movie. Yeah. No, it felt like 20 in the third period. There, there's some tough Half-Assed Internet Research for Jim Craig too. Like he had a, he had a DUI in the, in the eighties. And, um, that I think was a manslaughter. Oh man. Uh, yeah, it's, it gets dark. I think he's rebuilt it to some degree, but, um, but that doesn't have anything to do with the movie. Um, Apex Mountain, Kurt Russell, I'm going to say no. No. What is Kurt Russell's Apex? So, so for me, it's, it's one of the three Carpenter movies. It's either Escape, Big Trouble, or The Thing. They all have their qualities, but I would probably go Escape from New York. Are you saying the best or the Apex? When did Kurt Russell have the most use? It's not Escape from New York. I mean, he wasn't that big. So that would be Tango and Cash then or something, right? I think it's in that, in that Tango and Cash, Escape from LA kind of era where, which leads to Tombstone, which I think is actually his Apex. Right, because he basically directs Tombstone. Yeah. Gets all the recognition. He has the most use in Tombstone. Okay, yeah. Gavin O'Connor, no. Olympic hockey, yes. Mm-hmm. The Winter Olympics, yeah. Sports, I think maybe for me. I think it was Apex Mountain, just in life, much less sports. Yeah. Noah Emmerich, would you go this, Beautiful Girls or Truman Show? No, I'd probably say, I would probably say, maybe the Americans for him, being on the Americans. good call. You're right. The PNE Agrodome, I still think it's Rocky IV. Yeah, but what an era for it. What an era. Stallone broke his ribs in the PNE Agrodome. They had to stop filming for two weeks and come back. Great times. Al Michaels, so 1980, no, but I think 2004, yes. Right. At that point, he's the voice of Monday Night Football. He's done all these amazing, he's like the zeleg of sports. He's done all these amazing events, worked with all these people. He's at the pinnacle of his powers and then comes back and is the voice of Miracle, which he's in. It's like, what a flex. Yeah. Great job, I am. Ride out his golden years with Chris Collinsworth being like, Al, this Taylor Heineke, he just likes to sling it. I don't know. I was thinking if Collinsworth was doing the AD Olympic game instead of Ken Dryden. I mean, Al, the courage of these guys, just a rousy owner. We were talking to Herb Brooks before the game. He says, man, you know, like, Jim Craig is just a wall back there, a Berlin wall. We talked to Herb and he told us to fuck off. He wouldn't talk to us, but Al, he is so impressed by Jim Craig. I just can't, I can't say enough about Jim Craig. Sports Illustrated. I actually think this was the apex of Sports Illustrated in 1980, not the movie, but it was that the covers meant the most. They still had, the writing was still at its peak. They had challengers and then this cover, you could argue, was the apex. How about evil, mute Russian sports movie villains? Would you go with Drago or the hockey coach? We don't get enough of Boris or the coach in this movie to make them into an actual villain. Yeah, the Russian coach, which I forgot to do Dion Waiter's award, so let's do it now. I had for Dion Waiter's OC or the Russian coach because he has no lines in the movie, but has a great, like, combination Russian coach Brezhnev face. I was going to say, he has like three expressions. Can we nominate his eyebrows for Dion Waiter's? Everything. He's got that kind of, he's evil at one point, but then he's confused and then he's angry and then at the end with Herb Brooks, he's like, kind of has the eye and press.
72:08 – 74:54… I have a probably, a possibly unanswerable question. Yeah. Is this the greatest motivational speech in sports movie history? You know, I forgot to put that in Apex Mountain. I'm sorry. Sports movie, sports movie speeches. I think it's in the top three. I think it's this, I think it's Friday Night Lights, the forever starts like right now or forever's right, like about to happen and it's Al Pacino on any given Sunday. I'd have Pacino one. the chef in Vision Quest has to be mentioned. Oh yeah. It's so fucking good. Tells the whole story about Pele and he scores the bicycle kick and all these fans are going nuts …
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in New Orleans or something. Oh my God. I was like, went home, took the Silkwood shower. I have a probably, a possibly unanswerable question. Yeah. Is this the greatest motivational speech in sports movie history? You know, I forgot to put that in Apex Mountain. I'm sorry. Sports movie, sports movie speeches. I think it's in the top three. I think it's this, I think it's Friday Night Lights, the forever starts like right now or forever's right, like about to happen and it's Al Pacino on any given Sunday. I'd have Pacino one. the chef in Vision Quest has to be mentioned. Oh yeah. It's so fucking good. Tells the whole story about Pele and he scores the bicycle kick and all these fans are going nuts and he's just sitting there and starts crying and then says, anyway, that's why I'm coming to your match today. And then Loudon has to, that's incredible. Um, I'm sure there's some other ones. Do you like the Friday Night Lights one? Yeah, that's a good one. I still feel like the Pacino is the Apex though. The Pacino's really great. There's some bad ones. There's some good bad ones like Vanderbeek at halftime of the last Varsity Booze game is great. Um, yeah. The funny thing that through line through almost all of them is the entire movie the coach is like nothing matters more than winning. And then they get to this big crucial moment and he's just like, look, as long as you play your game I'll always love you. That's what fucking Hackman says to the Hoosiers. Yeah. And he's just like, you know what? Like if you guys go out there and practice the fundamentals then you'll be winners in my eyes. Right. I'm like, then why were you such an asshole for the last six months? What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? Herb's plaid pants. Yeah. The plaid bell bottoms. That's pretty good. I would take the, uh, the Arruzzioni jersey. Oh, I got another one too. The Arruzzioni journey is good. The, I would love to do Jim Craig's post-game outfit. It's like hockey pants, suspenders, tank top, beanie. Hmm. You would, you would wear that on a Thursday. Yeah. I would just like, I would love to just be like, if I ever become a bartender, that's what I'm going to wear. On the memorabilia thing, you know, I used to go to the, I still go to the Sports Collectors Convention and we'd do photo essays from there and we shot some videos from there. One year I went and they had a whole Olympics thing and I got two unripped tickets from the Lake Placid, the, uh, the US-Russia game.
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