Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
28:45 – 31:34… to put stuff in there, kind of making fun of Americans. And we didn't realize it, as we love the movies. Didn't realize he was flipping it on us. What's his apex mountain for movies, CR? I think, in retrospect, it's Starship Troopers. Yeah, I think so. In some ways. Really? I think that has, like, a better reputation than Basic Instinct. Interesting. What do you think, Van? I think it's easily Basic Instinct. I think it's not even close. I think Starship Troopers has, he has this ability to elevate, I guess, what people would consider to be, like, trash or really accessible kind of stories. But Basic Instinct …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Just four of the many. Just a pervy Dutch guy. I think would be the best way to describe him. Love pushing the envelope. Love to put stuff in there, kind of making fun of Americans. And we didn't realize it, as we love the movies. Didn't realize he was flipping it on us. What's his apex mountain for movies, CR? I think, in retrospect, it's Starship Troopers. Yeah, I think so. In some ways. Really? I think that has, like, a better reputation than Basic Instinct. Interesting. What do you think, Van? I think it's easily Basic Instinct. I think it's not even close. I think Starship Troopers has, he has this ability to elevate, I guess, what people would consider to be, like, trash or really accessible kind of stories. But Basic Instinct was a cultural phenomenon. It was a movie that, like, legitimately, my mom and them went to see it, and they came back, and I was like, girl, was it just stabbing with that ice pick? What's going on? Like, it was a movie that you absolutely had to talk about. And really, as much as Fatal Attraction got this genre started in a management way, this kind of solidified the genre as a moneymaker and as something that could, like, be star-making for Sharon Stone. Like, you would approach these movies differently after Basic Instinct because you know that doing one and taking the risk and taking the chances and, like, putting yourself out there on film like that could end up in making you a star. Which is what this movie did for Sharon Stone. So she did all of this stuff, and then it paid off. So I think this is probably his magnum opus, in my opinion. I also think it's fair to say that there weren't really characters like this until this movie. Like, these kind of powerful female in control of the relationship. Look at Susan B. Anthony over here. This became something that a lot of movies tried to do, but I don't know who tried to do it before this movie. I can't really think of one. Can you see her? A femme fatale like this? No, I mean, like, not this explicitly and this violently. Because, like, Body Heat did it, right? Sure. And that was ten years earlier. And there's some other ones over the years, but I think this jump-started. Then what was interesting about this movie is all the rip-off terrible movies that tried to, you know, like, the jade, color, night. Participated in it, yeah. Yeah. Sliver. I've seen them all. I know Van has them all on Blu-ray. Yeah. This movie had people protesting various parts of it. Like, they couldn't even decide what to protest. Sharon Stone hosted SNL in April of 92, and six people disrupted that and actually disrupted the monologue, and they had to, like, change it. But people are pretty pissed off for a variety of reasons about this movie. Joe Esterhaus was the writer. Three million dollars got for the script. There was a bidding war from Carol Coat Productions, who, if anyone has ever listened to the Rewatchables, probably our favorite production company.
95:13 – 98:01… right. You know what category we didn't do? We didn't do, does this movie need more black people? No. It's a killer cop one of these. He killing everybody. Apex Mountain is another category we do where we decide if this was the peak of somebody's something. Got it. Controversial character, category. Michael Douglas, I'm going to say no. Nah. No. Sharon Stone, yes. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Joe Esterhaus, yes. Ceiling sex mirrors. Could be. Oh. Has it been done better than this? Do you think that this is maybe the end of the peak of ceiling sex mirrors? I know. Cribs brought it back. Cribs brought it back? I think …
The whole segment, as transcribed
and has done some things that we might consider wrong. Including four murders. Incredible. All right. You know what category we didn't do? We didn't do, does this movie need more black people? No. It's a killer cop one of these. He killing everybody. Apex Mountain is another category we do where we decide if this was the peak of somebody's something. Got it. Controversial character, category. Michael Douglas, I'm going to say no. Nah. No. Sharon Stone, yes. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Joe Esterhaus, yes. Ceiling sex mirrors. Could be. Oh. Has it been done better than this? Do you think that this is maybe the end of the peak of ceiling sex mirrors? I know. Cribs brought it back. Cribs brought it back? I think like three members of the Trailblazers had the ceiling mirrors. I remember. Zach Randolph definitely had it. Love it. San Francisco movies? Probably not. Probably not, yeah. Erotic thrillers. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I'm going to say yes. All right. Freeze frame moments? Like moments you pause on in a movie? Side dick freeze frame? Yeah. It's like this or like, yeah, Phoebe Cates. What is it for Gene Triplehorn? Because it's probably The Firm, right? The Firm. Yeah. Isn't that like right around this time? Is 92 kind of like breaks out? Yeah. Coke and Jack Daniels. Oh. Sure. Got Pepsi in the fridge. Elevator murders? I'm going to go dress to kill. Mm-hmm. Gratuitous male actor ass shots? I think maybe? Oh, yeah. So there was a whole competition. So look, bust this. So he like, so he had to show his butt. He had no problem. Right. He was in a white butt competition. Right. This was the apex of white butt competitions. Mel Gibson's butt, Lethal Weapon. Kevin Costner's butt, Robin Hood. Bruce Willis' butt, later on in Color of Night. Douglas was like, you know what? I got the ass. Douglas Thee Stallion. Got to do it. I'm going to show y'all that I got that nasty. He had to show his butt. He probably wanted to show it. He lost 25 pounds for the filming of the movie. He looks great. That shape of his life. We don't get to give this award all the time, but it's the Floyd Gondoli. Hold on for a second. Apex Mound, I got a couple of things. Oh, what do you got? Ice picks. Yeah. Yeah. Apex Mound, I think you're right. Ice picks. Yeah. Thank you. The crowd's applauding ice picks. What's happened to all of you? We've corrupted you in less than 90 minutes. Ice picks, fucking your therapist. I think this was like way up there, fucking your therapist right here. That's Sopranos? Also, Sopranos. Sopranos, they never fuck. Fantasy scene. Yeah, the fantasy scene. Do they fuck in Princess Bride? Prince of Tides. I thought you said the Princess Bride for a minute. I did for a second, yeah. Whoa. Do Streisand and Nolte have sex in Prince of Tides?
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