Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
72:42 – 79:25… session for all for all naval officers in the event of a mutiny? Yeah. Why, Chris? What's the fucking answer? You could never be too sure. What's the answer? Apex Mountain. Tony Scott. Shit, Bill. I'm asking. I'm not saying I'm asking. Well, there's a case to be made. It's the it's the definitely the career crossroads. It's a hit. It shows that he can work. He starts his relationship with Denzel with this movie. I don't think it's his best film. I don't know. Do I think it's his best movie? God damn it. I think it's the I think my three favorites, my three personal Tony Scott favorites are last Boy Scout, True …
The whole segment, as transcribed
there a training session for all for all naval officers in the event of a mutiny? Yeah. Why, Chris? What's the fucking answer? You could never be too sure. What's the answer? Apex Mountain. Tony Scott. Shit, Bill. I'm asking. I'm not saying I'm asking. Well, there's a case to be made. It's the it's the definitely the career crossroads. It's a hit. It shows that he can work. He starts his relationship with Denzel with this movie. I don't think it's his best film. I don't know. Do I think it's his best movie? God damn it. I think it's the I think my three favorites, my three personal Tony Scott favorites are last Boy Scout, True Romance and Crimson Tide. And they come in a row. I think true romance is the is the apex though. So I would argue for Crimson Tide because it comes off true romance. The next movie he makes is the fan, which is an apocalypse. It's such a bad idea and it's ludicrous in every way. But it got made because he was Tony Scott, which makes me think that was his apex mountain because in no world should any studio have greenlit that movie that's going to end with a pounding rainstorm and a fan impersonating umpire and then them fighting at home plate. And the whole thing is just so over the top and so wrong and so bad. I'll never defend that movie. I love Tony Scott. So I would I would argue that for that. Jack Russell Terriers. No. Season one of Frasier. Stay with me. OK. Frasier is still on and kicking ass with a Jack Russell Terrier. And then Crimson Tide comes in. We've got double Jack Russell Terrier mega pop culture things in 1995. It's a double whammy. Eddie versus Bear. Who are you taking? Chris, yes or no? Jack Russell Terriers. Yeah, I prefer this Jack Russell because this Jack Russell Terrier is in a much more, you know, consequential situation than Frasier. Other than that, I don't unless mutinies on subs, we could we could say this is Apex for that. Is this Apex Mountain? Is this the best submarine movie ever made? It's this or I think it's this for Hunt. But did it Das Boot like get nominated for an Oscar? Sure. But we're like real heads know the deal. I mean, I think if we're talking about rewatchable movies, if we're talking about entertainments, if we're talking about movies that we go back to, I think it's it's Hunt for October or Crimson Tide. I think every generation gets their chance at this question. You know, you get Fantastic Voyage is kind of a submarine movie. You get 20,000 leagues under the sea to run silent, run deep. What's the there's another one in the 50s that is that is a really big film. Is Ice Station Zebra kind of it has elements, but it's not the main focus. It's a Robert Mitchum movie that they oh, Enemy Below. Enemy Below is on the list. And then K-19 The Widowmaker comes after this. The Catherine Bigelow movie, which is OK, but it has Harrison Ford doing a Russian accent. Not not exactly what you want. That movie is bad. You think this is better than than Hunt for October, Bill? What year did that come out? Ninety. I think it I think it performed better and I think it I think it has a better kind of tail. It just feels more modern to me than Hunter Hunt for Red October does. I mean, Hunt for October definitely feels rooted in that Tom Clancy, like late Cold War stuff. This feels a little bit more almost closer to like a terrorist story. but I think that the story and plot outside of the submarine and Hunt for October is a little bit more compelling. Then the one in Crimson Tide like Redchenko you see for like five seconds on CNN in the beginning and then the rest of it is just Matt Craven screaming about him for the rest of the movie. I think that the the Ramius versus Jack Ryan stuff in Hunt for October is a little bit more rich, but it's it's pretty neck and neck. Jason Robards cameos Apex Mountain Enemy of the State. I like this one. Yeah, the weird thing about this movie is it's really nobody's apex. It's just people passing through it who are really good, but it's they certainly aren't peaking picky knits. Bring in the dog on the sub like the whole strategy for the dog going to the bathroom. Just bug me for some reason. You think there would be a real effort to keep a sub safe no matter how crazy the lead captain is. You know, I've worked with some people who are pretty nuts with dogs who would bring the dog everywhere and but never to this level where it's just like, oh, there's watch out for the piss and shit. And this just seemed kind of off to me. And couldn't they had like some low level person walk the dog or like create some little AstroTurf place to go to the bathroom? Can you imagine walking down that hallway and there's a Jack Russell Terrier taking a piss and then like four guys smoking Marlboro Reds? Yeah, put me in a fucking torpedo bay and like shoot me out into the ocean. Rough enough being in a sub like we don't need to add urine and shit. So I don't know. And then Hackman going full racist. I never fully understood that, but we talked about that already. Any other nitpicks? I got a couple. What's Steve Zahn's job in this movie? Because for most of it, he spends just like smoking and listening to the radio and then like can't close a hatch or can't can't screw that pipe shut. So I was just trying to try to figure that out. And the other one was do these guys learn a little too much of their information from cable news, even for 1995? Like they find out about it at the Hunter's daughter's birthday party that Red Chinko is taking over. And then when Gene Hackman walks in to do his briefing, they're all watching cable news and he's like, yeah, you guys are probably all up to speed, right? It's like they're watching Richard Valeriani or whatever. Right. They'd be watching MTV like Beavis and Butthead or something. Yeah. I just love to see those guys get a couple of newsletters about this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to that point, why is the only cassette they're listening to Martha and the Vandellas nowhere to run over and over again? That's pretty weird for a bunch of naval officers and on a submarine in 1995. Yeah. It's getting pretty, you know, Timmy, do you like gladiator movies down there? With with dog piss and shit. Best quote. I think we hit all of them unless you guys have any extras. I wanted to I wanted to cite Denzel's pronunciation of Holocaust.
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