To Create Confusion

We wrap up our look at the Lethal Weapon series with the fourth, and as of now, final film, 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4. The series is pretty clearly out of steam by this point, but the movie is watchable, especially for the American film debut of Chinese actor Jet Li, who steals every scene he’s in. This film finds Riggs, Murtaugh & their family having to take down a group of Chinese Triads. We talk that, plus Big Cat’s visit to the Monster Mania convention & other topics.

We’re back and it’s the Two Man Power Trip lineup of TCC this time as Ryan & Big Cat go it alone for the third entry in the Lethal Weapon series, 1992’s Lethal Weapon 3. This is the first of the series your intrepid cohosts recall seeing with a lot of frequency, but in retrospect, it signals a series that was beginning to run out of gas. This time, Riggs & Murtaugh have to take down a dirty ex-cop with the help of previous ally Leo Getz & new ally Lorna Cole. It’s a breezy watch but the underlying darkness of the prior two films has been completely removed.

After a bit of a hiatus we’re back, and we’re resuming our look at the Lethal Weapon series with Lethal Weapon 2. In this one, Riggs & Murtaugh have to take down a group of shady South African diplomats who use their diplomatic credentials to run a crime ring. We love this one as it builds up to maybe the most famous line in the series: “DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!!” Plus, we talk the history of Apartheid era South Africa, what we did during hiatus & get into CIA-music conspiracies. It’s just been revoked!

We’re back after a bit of a break and as the Christmas season starts to come into focus, we’re starting another series, the Lethal Weapon films. We begin in 1987, with the Christmas themed first film, which find LAPD cops Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh trying to bust up a gang of ex-Special Forces soldiers turned drug traffickers. We do an extended riff on the career of star Mel Gibson, who has been revealed this century as a massive asshole and all around crazy person. Plus, we talk holidays and drop the line “I’m too old for this shit” numerous times.

On a special edition of TCC, we pay homage to the spooky season with one of, if not the, greatest horror movie of all time, 1978’s Halloween. John Carpenter’s film didn’t invent the slasher film, but it absolutely perfected it and this movie still remains a great watch all these years later. The premise is simple: child murderer Michael Myers is all grown up and escapes an institution to return and terrorize his hometown of Haddonfield. The object of his wrath is Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut) and her friends, but hot on Michael’s trail is psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, who seeks to stop the man he believes to be pure evil.

We wrap up our look at the Mission: Impossible films with the sixth entry in the series, 2018’s Fallout. Picking up where we left off in Rogue Nation, Ethan Hunt and the team have to stop an offshoot of The Syndicate, The Apostles, who are trying to obtain weapons grade plutonium to make a nuclear bomb. This has the most insane Tom Cruise stunts yet as he flies a helicopter, jumps off buildings and jumps out of an airplane, all for our amusement. Plus, we rank the movies in the series up to now

On this episode we hit the fifth movie in the Mission: Impossible series, 2015’s Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. In this movie, Ethan Hunt and his team must stop a rogue group of secret agents who have banded together as the shadowy group, The Syndicate. This movie contains two of Tom Cruise’s most insane stunts, including hanging off the side of an airplane & holding his breath underwater. We talk the making of those stunts, hit on our favorite scenes and have a side conversation about the greatness of Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.

On this episode we have the full team assembled again to discuss the third film in the Mission: Impossible series, 2011’s Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol. This one finds Ethan Hunt have to stop a terrorist from launching a Russian nuclear missile, but oh there’s so much more to this movie than that as Tom Cruise does his craziest stunt to date: climb the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building. Plus he gets two new team members in the form of Paula Patton as Carter & Jeremy Renner as Brandt. We do a dive on various Jeremy Renner ephemera, touch on Robin Thicke’s embarrassing album about Paula Patton, let Kaya Papaya educate us on who the Real Housewives are & pay homage to the late, great Norm Macdonald.

On this episode we tackle the third film in the Mission: Impossible series, 2006’s Mission: Impossible 3. Directed by JJ Abrams, this film sees Ethan Hunt trying to stop international arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) from obtaining a superweapon called the Rabbit’s Foot & all the double crosses & crazy stunts that follow in its wake. Plus, we talk horse paste, popes and the weirdest year of Tom Cruise’s career.

We go back to the Year 2000, a time when Fred Durst was king, Napster was a thing and Tom Cruise decided to once again choose an impossible mission. It’s Mission: Impossible 2, the John Woo-directed sequel and this one drew a mixed response from the crew. Big Cat & the returning Kaya Papaya loved its nonstop action & 2000 nostalgia, while Ryan and Rachel thought it got too far away from the series’ origins and was way heavy on John Woo’s signature flourishes (lots of slo-mo, doves, lots of shootouts & chases).

We’re back after a bit of a hiatus (sorry, life got in the way for all of us) and we’re starting our new series, the Mission: Impossible films, which are still going strong with Tom Cruise still running intensely & doing insane stunts. To start, we go back to the series’ roots, which were not in action, but in an elaborate spy thriller. Oh sure, there’s plenty of crazy action sequences, but this one is a Brian De Palma film through and through with a focus on tension. We meet master spy Ethan Hunt as he seeks the identity of a CIA traitor who cause his whole team to be killed. This one is still fun and almost more interesting to watch now in light of what the series turned into.

(The following episode contains spoilers) We wrap up our look at the Fast Saga with the franchise’s newest film, F9. In this movie Dominic Toretto is called into action to stop his long lost brother Jakob, working on behalf of an obnoxious dictator failson, from attaining a device that could control worldwide weapons systems. But that cannot prepare you for the awesome ridiculousness of this movie, which just keeps upping the ante of absurd set pieces. Plus, we rank the series, do Matthew McConaughey impressions & prepare for our next series: Mission: Impossible. Apologies for the rough audio during the sign-off

Our final episode before the new F9 is the Fast & Furious spinoff film, Hobbs and Shaw. In this one, Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw are forced to team up to stop a genetically engineered super soldier, aka Black Superman, played by Idris Elba. In addition, Ryan and Rachel detail a wild Father’s Day trip and prep for F9.

We’re heading down the homestretch in our look at the Fast Saga & we’re at the 8th movie in the series, 2017’s The Fate of the Furious. This movie had all kinds of behind the scenes drama as this was the first film in the series to be made without Paul Walker. The result is wildly uneven as while there are some cool set pieces, the movie becomes exhausting as it hops locations and defies the laws of science once too often. The idea is good though: the team, now joined by Deckard Shaw, must face its most dangerous opponent: Dominic Toretto himself, who is manipulated into turning on the Family by a cyberterrorist named Cipher.

We hit the emotional high point of the Fast Series with 2015’s Furious 7. Hanging over everything in this movie is the death of Paul Walker, who died in a car accident during production. After some soul searching to determine whether they should move forward, the film was finished. This is the biggest, craziest Fast movie to date with some absolutely outlandish stunts (most notably jumping a car through three skyscrapers). The movie’s plot is relatively simple: elite special forces badass Deckard Shaw is hunting Dominic Toretto and his family after they put his brother in a coma. In addition, the family has to also keep a surveillance system on steroids from falling into the hands of a sophisticated terrorist. But the movie’s biggest punch is it’s ending, in which the team and the audience say goodbye to Brian O’Conner. We go a bit long here, but there’s a lot to unpack, plus we figure out our next series once we’ve finished up the Fast movies.

On this episode, we tackle the sixth film in the Fast & Furious saga, the aptly titled Fast and Furious 6. In this one, Luke Hobbs calls in the retired Dominic Toretto and his crew to help stop an international weapons dealer named Owen Shaw, who intends to build a doomsday bomb and sell it to the highest bidder. Complicating things for Dom & the gang is that the miraculously still alive Letty has amnesia and is a member of Shaw’s crew. We talk that, The Rock getting in a massive real-life burn on Tyrese, everything surrounding Gal Gadot and her character in this movie and the introduction of Jason Statham to the series. Plus, Big Cat & Kaya Papaya dunk all over the recently released Zack Snyder zombie-heist movie Army of the Dead.

On this episode, we hit the peak of the Fast & Furious series as we tackle 2011’s Fast Five. This is the one where everything comes together: we get the “Avengers assemble” scene where Tej, Roman, Han, the brothers & Gisele join the team, the introduction of Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs & one crazy ass set piece after another. Plus, we discuss the recent oral history of The Fast and The Furious and some of the jaw-dropping Vin Diesel quotes therein.

We’ve hit the fourth film in our rundown of the Fast & the Furious saga with 2009’s Fast & Furious. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and crew are back to embark on what in music is known as a “transition album.” The series becomes less about street racing and more about wild stunts and crazy set pieces. It makes for a kind of awkward film that sort of lumbers along. This movie did boffo business when it originally ran but it has aged rather poorly compared to the big budget wildness to come. Plus, we talk about the F9 trailer & The Last Blockbuster.

Buckle up folks, we’re going drifting with the third installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, 2006’s Tokyo Drift. The red-headed stepchild of this series, this film takes us to Tokyo inside the city’s street racing culture of drifting: basically just pulling your emergency brake at a high rate of speed. Anyway, the story involves goofy redneck Sean going to Tokyo where he comes under the mentorship of the lovable Han & runs afoul of the failson of the local Yakuza boss. They tried something different with this one but clearly, the series had tapped out on street racing stories, so this film brought back a certain mumble-mouthed star to begin this franchise’s ascent to billion-dollar business. Plus, we talk COVID vaccine stories as we anticipate moving into the After Times.

On this episode we dive into the second movie of the Fast & Furious saga, 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. This film is a massive guilty pleasure for us as it is so goofy it’s hard not to be amused by it, in all the film’s “bro-ness.” We discuss this film, plus we have a mini-pod at the beginning as the gang dives into the 2020 action film Money Plane.