Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
64:43 – 71:09… it in a bunch of theaters and it didn't do well and they pulled it. I'm obviously partly to blame for that as we know at the top. Yeah, including Braintree. Apex Mountain. O'Connor. It can't be as Apex Mountain because the movie didn't do that well. But I think it's like his belated Apex Mountain because it's such a great achievement. And I think it did, at least in Hollywood circles, it wasn't one of those things where like, oh, your movie didn't work, we're not getting it anymore. I think he actually gained respect in the industry for it. So I would say it's his artistic Apex Mountain. I don't know what his …
The whole segment, as transcribed
would be to let it slowly build, percolate, simmer, and then like popcorn and keep going. But they wanted to come out with it in a way stronger way. So they released it in a bunch of theaters and it didn't do well and they pulled it. I'm obviously partly to blame for that as we know at the top. Yeah, including Braintree. Apex Mountain. O'Connor. It can't be as Apex Mountain because the movie didn't do that well. But I think it's like his belated Apex Mountain because it's such a great achievement. And I think it did, at least in Hollywood circles, it wasn't one of those things where like, oh, your movie didn't work, we're not getting it anymore. I think he actually gained respect in the industry for it. So I would say it's his artistic Apex Mountain. I don't know what his actual Apex Mountain is. He might have had more successful stuff. Tom Hardy, it's got to be either Bane or Mad Max. Yeah, because he probably just isn't enough in Dunkirk and Inception, even though I love him. Yeah. He doesn't do a ton of Dunkirk, but he has to save everybody. I'm going to say Bane because that movie was huge. He was huge in it. He's got Inception, then Warrior, then this, and it just felt like a bunch of great stuff was going to happen for him. Atlantic City. Apex? Has it ever gotten better for Atlantic City than Sparta? You know, I had never been until I did a remote for Ringer. Pretty grim there now. Shout out to Belvedere. Yeah. That was, that was, I remember I had never been, so I was like, hey, bring me up to the boardwalk. I go, but drop me off a few blocks before so I can kind of get a real feel as I go to the boardwalk. The guy was like, yeah, that's not a great idea. Yeah, mistake. Atlantic City coming around, but for now, this might be the Apex unless it's the guys in Rounders going down to the casino. Welcome to the Chesterfield South. What about Sopranos though, just in reference, where the Pine Barrens and they go, hey, how about after this to go down to AC? That's true. Somebody has to call it AC for it to be the Apex Mountain. Edgerton, I think it actually was the Apex for him. He's awesome in this and I actually, I looked at his career and he's another one who I think made some, you know, some intense choices. I don't think he wanted to be the A plus lister. He made that weird movie, it's called The Gift, I think, which I thought was really good. But yeah, I thought he was 100% leading man, held his own with Tom Hardy. He's really good in this. Nolte, no. No, but staying on Edgerton though, it looked like it was going to go for him, you know, and I loved him in this and then he did, what did he do where he was bald and it was kind of weird? To me, it's like, because everyone at the Ringer loves Clive Owen. That's another one where it's like, I felt like there should have been more great movies from him. Didn't happen. Because you know what I didn't love with Edgerton is his Boston accent in Black Mass when he plays John Connolly. That movie's bad. Yeah. That movie didn't, that book is so good, you know, basically The Departed was basically, you know, they basically did Black Mass. The movie was just jinxed. It was, I think Depp was at a weird point in his life and there was no way to make the movie good. It should have worked. It's not terrible. It's not terrible. They almost like should redo it, but they should redo it. I would do it again. It's not terrible, but it didn't, it didn't, I think we just, look, all those of us that are from, not from the area, the expectations for it were through the roof. Again, the book is insane. So, yeah. Too bad. Underground MMA movies, 100% yes, for Apex Mountain. Frank Grillo, he's gone on to do some really good stuff. I mean, he was in The Purge. Gotta give him The Purge. Purge was, he was in one of those Purge movies. Are you a Purge guy? Oh, yeah. That's a Ben Simmons staple. He loves The Purge. Does that concern you? He likes it that much? He loves The Purge. He asked me once, like, could this actually happen? And would we be ready if it did? I'm like, Ben, don't worry about it. It's fine. But that, but then during the pandemic, it started to become like, eh, maybe we should. I like my chances in The Purge better than you. Yeah, you'll be good. You've been training for it. Pittsburgh, I still feel like the 79 Pirates is probably Apex Mountain because you had the Steelers that year. Yeah, the Steelers, Deer Hunter, Pirates, Brian Callen probably, and then Sparta definitely. Pick and Nets. Would it really be this easy to get into Sparta? 16 people for 5 million just like, hey, can you make a call? I'm guessing it wouldn't be this easy. It probably wouldn't happen to both brothers. Right. Okay, fair. We talked about the health risks of doing an everyday tournament in 2011. I think, in general, this movie makes a little more sense in the early 2000s, like 2004, as MMA's coming up. 2011, MMA's pretty established at that point. Even ESPN was acknowledged. Yeah, but if you're doing it, I mean, that was kind of their out with this. It's like, hey, we're not doing the UFC. It's this hedge fund guy. He decided, I mean, it's a good line where he goes, everybody wants to know who the toughest guy in your town. We want to know who the toughest guy in the world is. I'm putting up the money on my own. Yeah. It's not like the contract is on. Stanley Tucci. Yeah. Well, that leads to the next question. Could you really do a Sparta tournament in 2011 without the UFC? Would you be able to get 16 guys? I guess you could because they had Bellator they're going against. You could get 16 decent guys. All right. No, but real quick, like I watched one of the other, it wasn't even Bellator. I mean, we're talking way below that and you watch that and you know, it's kind of like you would expect, but it was, it was like watching bad high school basketball compared to the NBA. There's such an appreciation for the skills. Like, even if you think like, oh, this guy sucks or he got worked, you go and watch some of the lower level, like real other MMA stuff. I'm not just talking about like, you know, a couple of guys beating the shit out of each other. You'll go, oh my God. Like, yeah, I guess these guys are that amazing. So, I mean, sure you can find the depth to do it, but would you find enough names in there? Would there be retreads in there where it would get enough? And I just think it would be hard unless you had the main guys. A couple of internet things. I think Tommy's desertion storyline comes out way sooner. It's 2011. We have the internet. If this Sparta tournament is becoming even a little bit of a phenomenon, people are Googling him trying to figure out who he actually is. I think it comes out. I think it also, he goes a little Dick Whitman on us, but that made sense more coming out of Korea. Yeah. And in 1950s, you can do it. 2011, a little harder. Same thing with them being brothers in real life. I feel like that comes out before the finals, but you know, we did have the internet in a really strong way by 2011. I can't imagine how Brendan was able to fight again after that COBA fight.
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