Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Welcome to another episode of five Minute Film Finder. I'm excited to be here today. My name is Darren. I'm gonna be your host. And with me today is Ben.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Hey guys.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: We are talking about a couple of great 80s cop comedy movies.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I think like, as far as you can get on that spectrum, like for like a huge genre for the 80s.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Big time. Big time. One of the big stars of the 80s, we have, we have Eddie Murphy and Beverly Hills Cop at the peak of his like.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Or the start of his.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Like he had come up through comedy in the early 80s and this was like one of his big breakout roles.
Everybody got to see his charisma and what he could do.
And then we're also gonna be talking about the Naked Gun with an all.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Time slapstick comedy hero.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Good old Leslie Nielsen.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So are you a fan of like blended genres like crime comedy, action comedy?
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Absolutely.
The Tucker and Dale vs. Ewell is one of my favorite movies ever.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: One of the best horror comedies.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Great. So I love that.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's a nice way to poke fun at genres, but these movies manage to like run the spectrum of like silliness but also like seriousness and like, like kind of like really knowing those genres well and like following their tropes and all that stuff.
So we might as well just go ahead and jump into it because we're pretty excited. Do we, do you want to start with yours?
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, we're going to start off with Beverly Hills Cop. We're going to get the timer started here. We'll get Wilhelm set up.
And here we go. All right, so I'm going to start off with the IMDb description. We have a free willing Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation, finds himself dealing with a. The very different culture of Beverly Hills.
So yeah, he's a Detroit cop and he's shown. It's like their, their police station's rough. Right? Like it's, it's a rough police station. It's crime is tough that it shows some scenes of Detroit and then basically he leaves Detroit, goes to Beverly Hills and culture shock for him and he brings his, his Detroit energy to Beverly Hills.
What do you think of Eddie Murphy?
[00:02:34] Speaker A: So when I was a kid, like he was just like one of the all time people. Like, like, I mean he had a movie like every two years. It was like fantastic. And you're just like, this is incredible.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Here he is again.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And especially during that like mid late 80s period, early 90s. That was like my, my prime Eddie Murphy before he like started to slide into like more like family friendly stuff when he like was like real crazy, real silly.
And we should mention both of these movies are a bit crass, a bit crude. Definitely not like family friendly on the.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Adult end of the humor for sure, though not outrageous. Yeah. I'd say especially for the, for the time, like, you know. Yeah.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: What can we say about this movie?
[00:03:26] Speaker B: So it's crazy. It's an all time for the genre. The music. Right. Like everybody knows. I mean, I feel like everybody knows that tune.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Right. Synthland.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Is iconic and like the way that they use it to like play the light part parts and then drop it for the serious parts. Like near the end there's a big action set piece and leading up to it, they're still being funny, still kind of quipping. And as soon as the guns start firing, it drops and there's no music for a good little bit and it's just intense.
Which is the interesting thing about this one, especially in contrast to the other one. It does real action.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Yes. Definitely ramps up the action and stuff.
Whereas the other movie we're talking about is sillier in general. Right? There's sillier.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: There's real world stakes in this.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Yes, yes. He is very seriously in danger. Bad things happen.
There's other police officers involved. Great, great showing by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as the supporting characters. Ronny Cox as the captain. Yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: I mean, we have been gushing already, Murphy, but we have to say, say how. How important the supporting cast is because.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: And what's his name? Bronson.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Pinchot.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. He stole.
Stole the show as Serge. Serge, yeah. The museum guy.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
So this like spun off so many like movie like it kind of like legitimized the genre in like you can be serious and make an action comedy.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Action comedy movies like from somebody who's a comedy expert rather than like the action star being funny.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah. This is not a kindergarten cop.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Right?
[00:05:19] Speaker A: This is. Yeah.
But what's your favorite and great action.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Like the, the opening truck chase scene with all the crash. There's so many crash cars in this movie.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And clearly like everybody's having fun. Like the guy who's like supposed to be driving the park the truck during that scene, they keep like cutting to him and he's just got a huge grin on his face now that we're.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Watching it in high def. Right, right. You can see those things like.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: So it's. It's clearly like they had a ton of fun making this movie and like, like it was of the time. Like they. Everything was practical.
They. They spent money just crashing cars and like, like blood packets and like walls exploding with bullets and all that stuff. So it's.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: But yeah. They tear up that house at the end of the movie.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And expensive Beverly Hills home. But I don't know what else to say. It's like it's. It's the classic of the genre and the classic of the genre that's taking it seriously while still being so funny. Like all the way through.
Did. What was your favorite sequence? Was it the opening?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: I. I mean, I think that my favorite action part of the movie is that opening truck scene.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: The end is. Is good too. But that opening truck scene's great. It really.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Well, I mean, yeah.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Sets the flying around. Yes, exactly. His. His character is set so perfectly in that opening set.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Is it our time?
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Our time. And so, but, but if, if you like any action comedy, like if you like Pineapple Express, if you like any of the modern ones, like you can trace back to this, like they, they owe a debt of gratitude to this movie for like, like exploding this kind of form factor for movies.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: All right. Yeah. Great one. Yeah. Watch it. For sure. Yeah.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Please watch. It's on canopy.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: We'll be right back with our next movie.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: We have a great one coming up.
All right. And welcome back. We have another great 80s comedy movie up here for you. We're going to talk about the Naked Gun. We got Wilhelm all set to go.
And this is Ben's movie. Ben, take us off.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: So we are gonna start by reading the IMDb synopsis, which is probably going to be pretty basic.
Incompetent police detective Frank Drebin must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth ii.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: I mean, yeah.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: That's so thin.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah. We have to define the genre of this movie a little more tightly because this is. This is satire, this is a spoof, this is parody.
And it's such high slapstick, extremely absurd and like nonsensical. Like I think is like the most important word when you're talking about. I mean most Leslie Nielsen movies is like, they're incredibly silly. They're about gags. They're not about like a real world thing happening. They're more akin to a cartoon.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: And as is typical, he's straight faced the entire time.
Like it's completely normal.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: The king of like of stone faced deliveries of the silliest thing or like not reacting to the silliest things happening around him.
Were you a big Leslie Nelson guy?
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: So like I loved these kinds of movies in the, in when I was growing up.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah. These were like the, the video, the. The VHS shop classics that we always just went and grabbed. Airplane, of course.
But I think what's so fun about these types of movies and the, this one specifically is just like there's never more than like 10 seconds without something happening, something weird.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Right. Like something interesting, visually interesting on the screen or the characters are doing something weird. Weird people just saying things like there's a whole list of people that are credited by the line that they say at the end of the movie.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So like you're constantly just like your, your attention's being like pulled all over the screen because they never abandoned the plot fully. It's always like kind of serving, going towards the end in the corner of the screen there may be like one of my favorite ones is they go to a crime scene and there's a body outline floating on the water.
Which is so silly and like so dumb but like so good. And it's just like, it's that kind of like they're taking like a very serious and like, like melodramatic genre and just like being like, well, it's silly. We can, we can be just have goofy jokes.
So the other cast of this movie we have Priscilla Presley who plays the secretary slash love interest, assistant of the.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: The villain. Yes.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: We also have OJ Simpson before his whole history happened.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Very just post athletic career. Like he was trying to find himself a new career kind of thing.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Yeah. George Kennedy as his, as Leslie Nielsen's partner or because he's the captain.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Yes. But he basically follows him around the whole movie.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: He's a police captain who's at every.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Crime scene and he, he's like in real cop movies throughout his career you'll know his face and be like, oh, he's not a comedy guy.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: He did a great job at following the straight face, Leslie Nielsen thing.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah.
So as we said with the other one, this movie can be a bit crude, a bit crass, but it's all so light hearted that it kind of just goes by breezily like something will.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Happen and then he crashes his car and you feel good about it again. Cause he just crashes his car all the time.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that's one of the recurring gags is like as he pulls up anywhere is he hits something. So like one of them, he hits a van so hard that it just rolls out of screen one. He hits A scaffolding where people are.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Working and he just walks away like it happened.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. And it's just that delightful. Just like light hearted, like silliness.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: And again, that big difference between Beverly Hills Cop and this where there is no point where you think this movie is serious. Like there's no. There doesn't ever feel like there's a real stake.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Because like O.J. simpson's in his hospital bed getting flopped around.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Like he's supposed to be nearly dead and he's hitting the wall and stuff and nothing happens to these characters. People are shot. Yes.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: People are maimed. People are run over by steamrollers.
Very cartoony. But like it's, it's all in that very like Looney Tunes fashion of just like they're fine though. Like you never have to worry about the well being of our characters.
I think that's.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: But you don't see a lot of movies like this anymore.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: The Naked Gun. No.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Except for that being said, we have a legacy. Quel.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Yes, we'll call it that. Sure. That's a great term.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: It's.
How many, gosh, how many years has it been since the 90s? Since the last one.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So something like 95, maybe something like 30ish years. Yeah, something like that.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Liam Neeson is going to be taking up the role of Leslie Nielsen's son.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Drebben Jr. Frank Drebin Jr. I think. Yes.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: So there will be a new Naked Gun this year and.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Looks pretty good.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it looks fun. The trailers are out now. We're excited to watch it because like you just don't. There's not that many comedies being made on a big budget anymore and it's nice to see like a big silly.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: One happening with, with somebody stars. Yeah. Who hasn't done. It's an interesting thing. He hasn't done this level of weird. Silly.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, other than like cameos, like for just like little things.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: But he's never like starred in a big silly cameo. And the, the little. The St. Bear movie where he's buying.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: The scene at the register. The checkout register. Funny, but not like he's carrying that whole movie in that same way where he's the comedy draw in that, so.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: Absolutely. So if you like super silly stuff. If, I mean if, if you like Three Stooges, if you like the Marx Brothers, these.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: It's that Looney Tunes, like you said.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: That level of like silly gags, visual gags, wordplay gags. It's, it's, it's all just really fun.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Unending, from the opening scene to the end, just gag after gag.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's not. It's not a dramedy by any means, like a lot of modern comedies are. It is just a breezy time.
But yeah, I think. I think that was a good couple of movies.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Go watch those both.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Both available on Canopy currently. I believe one of the sequels to the Naked Gun is on hoopla right now as well.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Yeah, 33 and a third, I believe, is on Hoopla. Yep. Yep.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Well, I guess that's it.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Thanks for. Thanks for listening and we'll see you guys next time.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Bye.
Five Minute Film Finder is a digital program brought to you by Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma.
All opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben Cuba. Theme music by Ben C.
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