[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's amazing how much of that movie is practical, except for the flames, which are not practical at all, but are incredible.
The blue flames. God, I love them so much. I love Hellboy.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Welcome to five minute film finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library system.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Okay, hello, and welcome back to another episode of five minute film Finder, a podcast where we talk about films that you can watch using your pioneer library system library card. I am Tracy, and I am very happy to be back with Ben.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Hey.
Hyped up from these movies, if the.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Action buds are back together, does anyone else call us the action buds?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: No, not even my fiance will call us.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Do we call each other the action buds? Yes, we do, because we are, are obsessed with action movies.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Yeah, we've watched some good ones over the course of this podcast, and some.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Bad ones we have, and we've just watched some good ones in the course of our friendship. We got to see monkey man the other day together, and that was like wild ride. What a film. That made me incredibly nauseous in the.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Theaters, but, like, in a effective filmmaking way, it's like, I think this was the choice.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we talked about it.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: They're trying to make you feel bad.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: This was a feature, not a bug of that movie. But we're talking about some action movies today that are maybe a little bit less highbrow, maybe have a little bit less of a message.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: They're not trying to make you feel bad about the violence in them.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: No.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Or really even think about the violence in them.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: No. They are definitely a very particular.
Both of these films are from the early to mid two thousands.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: They both very much have the energy of an action movie from that time where it's like we're leaning towards being grungy. And it was.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: It's just like the whole culture. Like, it's like we're into new metal, we're into extreme sports.
I think we should just jump right in because we're already excited.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: I'm already thrilled. Okay, so Wilhelm can start the timer, and we're gonna start with 2000 four's Hellboy, directed by one of my favorite directors, Guillermo del Toro, and also written by him, at least in a sense, but based off of the Hellboy comic.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Books by Mike Mignola, by several people.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: I think, across time.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: But it's become a whole universe of.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Comics now, its own thing, and Ron Perlman is part of it.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: I am obsessed with IMDb. IMDb plot description. So it says, a demon raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness. So, boy, how to talk about this movie. It does have a lot of. A lot of Nazis in it.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: It does.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: It does. Also, Rasputin of russian fame, russian murder of royalty fame is a major. Is the main villain in this movie. He's just.
Oh, boy. Do you start from the beginning? I guess so. So you start. You're in World War two. There is a scientist. He is in the major part of the movie, played by William Hurt.
He discovers a nazi plot to bring about a horrific demon to earth.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Yeah. But what comes through is a tiny little red boy who loves baby Ruth.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: The sweetest red boy.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: They do a lot of thinking about what to name that boy. They call him Hellboy.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Flash forward.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: It's really a coming of age tale.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: It is. It's also like a romantic film. There is the romantic lead is Selma Blair pulling off, and she's kind of.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Like a classic lead of that time of, like, oh, Selma Blair as a kind of, like, angsty, sweet, put upon person.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Like the main female lead of every song by the counting crows. It's just like, you know what makeshi a woman beautiful? Her baby needing to be in a mental facility.
Oh, boy. But she's great in this movie. She's super fun. We were talking about before we started recording that this movie is really clunky in parts.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Like, showing the weight.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah. It is not the best written script in the world, for certain, but there is a few people truly pulling this movie behind them with their sheer charisma. And Ron Perlman is the main one doing that.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, he becomes the vibe of the movie because just his voice has so much gravitas and personality that you don't pay attention to the fact that his face can't move a ton. You're just like, okay, I'm getting all that emotion, but it works.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: He's bringing 700 pounds of charisma behind, 500 pounds of prosthesis. Truly, it is incredible that you're like, yes. This person.
I relate to this man in 500 pounds of prosthesis with sawed off horns and, like, a giant key hand.
And he is the emotional center of our movement.
It's his relationship with his father, William Hurt, and a fish man, Abe Sapien.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Played by Doug Jones, who's played millions of creatures on screen.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: And for Guillermo del Toro specifically, I think.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. He's also shape of water creature, I think so.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Which, like, culturally important to me, specifically.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
Though I read something interesting on IMDb today, I was like, Judge Jones sounds so much like David Hyde Pierce. He was dubbed by David Hyde Pierce, asked to be uncredited.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: That's nice. Of David Hyde Pierce.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Because he's like, Doug Jones made this character, so I don't want to take any credit because he made this what it is.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: I do love him.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: So sweet, but also, like, a lovely voice in the film.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: So good. He does, I think, a decent amount of voice acting. And I just. I mean, I love him. I know that he's the Frasier guy, but he's also done, like, a ton of. Yeah, I just love him. In wet, hot american summer. I'm just constantly saying, we're just having a good cry, Beth.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: What a perfect film. But we're talking about Hellboy. Yeah. I mean, the physical nature of Abe Sapien and how weird. And then there's so many weird we haven't even talked about. The man who's made of clocks and sand.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Who is.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Who's addicted to surgery.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, is a surgery.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Like, is this surgery?
[00:07:23] Speaker A: I told someone, I'm like, that time system in sand is how Mick Jagger is still alive. Like, he's just, like, running off of clockwork and sandhya. But that, like, the character creation of this movie is what is so cool.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: And so fun and classic Guillermo del Toro strength.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: I think this was pre Pan's labyrinth.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: I think so.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: And so you can see certain things that were, like, ideas in this movie.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: It felt like they were testing him out, and he was testing ideas out.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: Yes. And it.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Cause the next one, the Golden army.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Is so Guillermo del Toro coded, exploded.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: To all the creatures, all the things.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: And you're like, everything is gold plated, and everyone's doing karate, and you're like, yes.
And so to see kind of like the beginning of a vision for him because it's pretty obvious that Abe Sapien, speaking of the shape of water, is, like a huge character design gets kind of shifted and changed into something a little bit prettier to become the shape of water character. And so it's so cool just to see.
We should let artists make superhero movies again is, like, my main takeaway with Hellboy, because this movie is not too serious about its plot.
It's not too serious about its writing, because some of it is truly.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: I mean, there's a whole sequence where Hellboy is angstily following his love, spying on them from a rooftop with a child who just happens upon him, and they're just like, this is no good eyes.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: He, at one point, literally says, why would I take romance advice from you? You're nine.
While they're, like, eating cookies together. I disagree with you. That's pure cinema.
But it's just the way that movie looks and the vibe that it is and how it ends up kind of carrying into so much of Guillermo del Toro's future film work. But also, I feel, like, affecting a lot of movies around it just because his artistry ends up affecting a lot of movies.
It was incredible. So how are we on time?
[00:09:31] Speaker B: Oh, I think we blew past.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Oh, perfect. I was like, I forgot to. Wilhelm didn't tell me when to end, but, yeah, watch Hellboy. It's so fun.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: It is currently available on Canopy.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Yes, both of these films are on canopy, which is. Canopy is traditionally the place for the art films, and I feel like you can get away with that for Hellboy. But the next film we're gonna talk about.
I mean, it's my kind of art.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Do we want to take a.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: We'll take a quick break, and then we'll talk about our next film.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Okay. Welcome back to five minute film finder. We're ready to talk about another film here, and this is one that is near and dear to the hearts of me and producer Ben, I believe, truly.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: I'm building the suspense by searching the IMDb page.
Next, we will be talking about Wilhelm. Start the timer.
Triple X 2002, directed by Rob Cohen.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: What else did Rob Cohen do?
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Good golly, probably not. He made some wild movies.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Okay, that's good.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: See?
So this is a 2002 film. It is right after Fast and Furious came out the next year, I believe.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: I think so.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: First, fast and furious, also made by Rob Cohen.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Okay. And he made Dragon heart.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Dragon heart stealth. He was a producer on the running man.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Thank goodness.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: Those are his big directing and producing credits.
Yeah, he was kind of, like, at the forefront of the new metal extreme sport craze, which I think we were all just like, this is the time is like jackass was on MTV.
Just kind of the explosion of extreme sport, skater culture, rascal culture, basically.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: I was trying to think of how I would explain this movie to someone who had never seen it. And the place I landed was, imagine if a James Bond film were written while the screenwriter was only listening to the band corn.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean, we obviously have this era. I think between, like, 98 and 2006, every movie like this had let the body sit the floor at some point.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Okay. The incredible.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: It has to.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: This is something that I wanted to talk about, because in the first ten minutes of this film, this film opens on a Romstein concert.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Which spoke to me. Cause my brother and I listened to a lot of Romstein when we were teens, so that was incredible. Does one of the members of Romstein have a flamethrower attached to his face?
[00:12:33] Speaker B: And I feel like the whole purpose of that was to be like, remember old spies? They're dorks. Get em out of here. Look at this. Dorks sticking out at this Ramstein concert suit. We all are at like, this is culture.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: And then he gets sniped by a man with an open shirt.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Thank goodness. So that happens. Then we cut to Vin Diesel stealing the car of a California senator. He is basically doing the equivalent of, like, crime based twitch streaming from the.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Car, which I think we've seen some real life versions of that in the last few years.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: I think.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: So you see the guy who jumped out of a plane and crashed it into a mountain for the views?
[00:13:20] Speaker A: No, he went to jail. Good.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: As his natural.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: So would Xander cage if he had not followed the plot of this film. But, yeah, then he jumps out of a car to drowning pools. Let the bodies hit the floor directly into the arms of Tony Hawk.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: There were so many extreme sports. Oklahoma's own.
What's his name?
Matt.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: I don't think I know who you're talking about.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: I'm gonna come back around to. But a famous Bmxer from Oklahoma who I think still lives here. Okay. Love that.
I think there were some UFC guys. I think there were some skating guys.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Well, and we've talked about. So we've talked about fast and furious movies during some action buds segments before, and also basically every time we've ever seen each other in real life. Yeah.
Vin Diesel did produce this movie, which is one of the reasons that I wanted to look this up.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Apologies. My dog luce is attacking our water bottles.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: It's okay.
But he is so good at pulling in people.
In the Fast and Furious movies, it's like international presences, but in this, it was like, tony Hawk is in it. I'm looking right now. Danny Trejo's in it. Eve of let me blow your mind, fame is in it.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Just so briefly. I was, like, so thrilled when I saw her on there the first time. Because, I mean.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Cause she's amazing.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: She's great.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: I wish she had had more to do in this movie because she is, like a captivating screen presence, in my opinion, beyond just being beautiful and wonderful, really great on screen.
And, of course, Samuel L. Jackson is in this movie, who is playing kind.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Of a subdued version of himself.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: It's like a subdued version of his character in the Marvel movies. Yes, sort of. But he is, like, working for the government. He has a brilliant idea to go, you know what we should do? Instead of having spies, we should hire criminals because they're disposable.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Which is ethically very bad.
And then enter Xander Cage, America's most reluctant spy. Until he isn't.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yep.
And very quickly, this movie, he becomes a spy. He saves the world from Anarchy 99, which a time, a place, a feeling.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: How obsessed were you with Anarchy 99?
[00:15:56] Speaker B: I was like, oops. Oh, man. That one flew by.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: So are we done with our five minutes already?
[00:16:02] Speaker B: We're gonna blow past this one too. But I love Anarchy 99. And that actor, I feel like he pops up as evil russian evil bad guy just in so many things.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: He's, like, fabulous in this, though.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Martin Sokas.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Yes, I believe so.
One of my favorite parts of the movie is where they just bond over quoting a punk song at each other while walking downstairs at the club. And I was like, we love to see boys supporting boys.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Honestly, it felt like a couple of middle schoolers who were like, you like that band? I like that band.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Cool. And they were like, anyway, joined my anarcho terrorist organization.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: You're cool, man. You're in.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: You like Pontiac gtos and the same punk band as me.
Do you want to be best friends, yes or no?
[00:16:52] Speaker B: I think it's safe to say we can highly recommend this movie if you like fast and furious.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Pretty much. Yes, it is. In the same vein, I was telling you, I started watching it, and I thought, this is amazing. And then it gets to some of the parts that are pretty dated.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: And I said, is this actually gross? And it is. It is gross, but it does know. I was looking at the Wikipedia page for this. And fun fact. Roger Ebert gave this film three and a half stars out of four and was like, wow, I love this movie.
And I think it was. Maybe the reviewer for Rolling Stones said, it's hard to be mad at a film that is able to laugh at itself as much as you're able to laugh of it.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Dang.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: And I think that is what Triple X is.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: It's weird to think that the culture knew back then it wasn't like a, like, unaware, like, behemoth, just like, being like, no, this is cool. It's like, no, it's kind of wild.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: The same way that the James Bond films know that they're a little silly and we can have a good time. So, yeah, if you like James Bond movies and fast and furious.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Definitely give Triple X.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: And if you're, if you're just a fan of the Vin Diesel universe, honestly, I mean, this is like a, a critical piece of the origin of who he has become over time.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: It is, because then there's the, we were talking about it earlier, his career of, like, he does this movie, he refuses to do the second one.
They end up casting ice cube, and then they do a giant legacy quilt, like, ten years later.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: That is one of the most astonishing pieces of megalomania I've ever seen in my life. I love it so much.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Truly.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: And so does your dog.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
So I guess that's where we're gonna wrap it up today. If you liked this podcast, please like follow subscribe. If you have any questions or concerns or suggestions, you can email
[email protected]. dot. We'd love to hear from you, but until next time, I've been Ben, and this is Tracy.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: Bye.
