Hi,
Thought you might be interested in this, on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rl8nd
Cheers,
Ben
Anyone seen Seagal spilling the beans on his five favorite movies over at RT?
Regarding Henry
The Last Emperor
The Godfather
Red Beard
Yojimbo
Except for “if I comb my hair forward maybe I’ll get an Oscar”-Ford it’s a good list.
Surprisingly classy list, kinda surprising he doesn’t have even one martial arts film in there. Now, if only it were possible to discern any meaning whatsoever from his rambling commentary…
Happy Steven Seagal’s birthday, everyone!
I’m afraid we’ve got some more bad news about Seagal beyond him being a Trump supporter, it sounds like he’s also a sleazebag ala Harvey Weinstein.
Yeah, disturbing news.
We were
discussing it yesterday in this CODE OF HONOR thread.
[visual-parse url=”https://outlawvern.com/2016/06/29/im-giving-away-two-code-of-honor-blu-rays/”]
[visual-parse url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rayu57jjSAk”]
Cool to see, thanks
I was about to say that this is the first time Ed Norton has ever come off like a cool guy without a stick up his ass but then I realized he’s admitting that he knows martial arts and NEVER ONCE USED THEM IN A FILM and I’m back to thinking this guy is no fun at all.
He’s right though that scene is something else. Especially the escape via guy through window. ABOVE THE LAW will never get old.
Wow. This brings up so many questions.
Hey remember when Edward Norton was the big bad of the Jeremy Renner Jason Bourne spinoff that completely left you hanging and never got a sequel? That interview makes me wonder for the first time if there was actually going to be a physical confrontation between the two eventually, which is odd because it’s not like Norton is too old or out of shape or anything – he just seems to be more of a cerebral villain even though he was in a movie called Fight Club and everything.
FYI – If you can still stomach movie podcasts, the newest episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers is on Marked for Death and they have good things to say about Seagalogy and Vern (or, uh…”Vern from Ain’t It Cool News”). I’ve substantially lowered the number of movie podcasts I listen to because most of them just enrage me with their snarky attitude, but SNMS is consistently one of the best (the episodes do run way, way too long though – Marked for Death’s episode is 2:13 and I think as a general rule no movie podcast should be longer than the movie it’s discussing)
What is the gimmick for them? I only listen to one movie podcast.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out.
Which podcast is that again, Sternshein? I’ve gotten really into Blank Check recently. They’re harsher than me but share my fascination with auteurs who use their clout to make weird mainstream movies, they often stand up for widely hated movies (including ones I don’t like, such as GEMINI MAN!), have some really great analysis and make me laugh. I’m not current on them, though – I’ve been listening to an old Tim Burton series.
Sternshein – I guess the gimmick is just “movies that we watched together at sleepovers growing up”, so mostly 80s/90s action flicks like Robocop or Predator, etc… even though every once in a while they’ll throw in a modern movie like John Wick or an older one like For a Few Dollars More. I’m pretty sure I watched most of Seagal’s Golden Era during sleepovers at a friend’s house too, so I can definitely relate. (I wonder do kids these days still sleepover at a friend’s house and watch Scott Adkins movies or something?)
Vern – I’ll have to check out Blank Check then. I’ve somehow pivoted away from “Snarky movie podcasts where a talentless guy with a mic tells us how Director X fucked up and how he could have done it better” to “Snarky political podcasts where a talentless guy with a mic tells us how Democratic Candidate X fucked up and how he could have done it better”. So yeah, I’m in a constant state of enragement and I don’t know why I keep doing it to myself.
For a sample you can look up the episode of The High and the Mighty about HOBBES & SHAW. Blank Check’s host Griffin Newman is the guest and he is so right on about not just that movie, but the appeal of FAST & FURIOUS, Vin Diesel, Sylvester Stallone, why The Rock’s movies aren’t that good, and many other things.
Vern, I’m referring to Junkfood Cinema. I really tried to get them to bring you on as a guest to talk about Seagal movies but I’m not even sure you really want to talk about Seagal movies. BTW, you and Cargill were both AICN people I read, do you keep in touch with anybody on a semi-regular basis?
Sternshein – I wouldn’t say I’m in touch with anybody other than on Twitter. But I keep up with what Drew and Quint and Jeremy Smith are up to. I should check out that podcast.
I’ve listened to some of BLANK CHECK but I find the hosts a bit annoying to be honest. I will have to check out Junkfood Cinema and the Sleepovers one…although my podcast queue is probably about 9 months long.
Some movie podcasts that I enjoy:
HOW DID THIS GET MADE – I know some of you really hate this one for some reason. You just don’t like being happy I guess? My only knock on this one is that I don’t listen to episodes for movies I haven’t seen – which is most of them. But when I do listen I love it.
THE REWATCHABLES – I really like this one even though the hosts can be annoying and have terrible takes. And the categories are also annoying. But some episodes are really good (like the BLOODSPORT one).
UNSPOOLED – It’s like THE REWATCHABLES but with way less annoying hosts, way more research, and only covering the AFI’s top 100 movies. I would highly recommend this one to the crew here because they really do a deep dive on great movies. I just listened to the one on the WILD BUNCH and it was really good and informative.
THE PROJECTION BOOTH – It’s like UNSPOOLED but waaaay more of a deep dive. So if you want to listen to a four podcast about GHOST DOG or MAD MAX, this is the one for you.
DOUG LOVES MOVIES – a classic, but not as good lately. Still, a fun podcast which is basically a bunch of comedians talk about what movies they’ve seen and play movie trivia games. And he gets some good actors/directors from time to time (e.g. Riann Johnson was on recently to promote KNIVES OUT). It’s too bad he doesn’t do the Leonard Maltin game anymore as that was the best part of it (especially when Leonard Maltin is actually on the podcast).
Man, Belly of the Beast…maybe the last time anyone worked on a Seagal movie who actually gave a shit. Horrible, horrible movie but it had some really good fights in it. Not shocking considering the director. The best is the big one at the end because it mostly focuses on the villain who is great at martial arts and only uses Seagal for close ups for the most part. Gotta love these movies that have Seagal doing shit he couldn’t even do in his PRIME.
Seagal the dog-killing, serial-raping, slave-keeping, pants-crapping, morbidly fat Russian agent has just popped up again for whatever reason, this time in the country where journalists are killed with drills, and with a mask on his greasy chin.
[visual-parse url=”https://youtu.be/0x5QaKL7sa4?t=92″]
He now looks like an overinflated rubber rhinoceros with a plastic wig dropped on its head.
I knew Seagal soiled his pants when Gene Lebell slapped him, and I knew he urinated in them when he dealt with Sonny S. but it turns out that in the latter situation, he cried in fear after meeting the “boys”, too!
Sammy has just told the story and it’s hilarious: [visual-parse url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu3XeWvYAtM”]
That might only be of a little bit of interest for most people here, but Ekkehardt Belle, who was Seagal’s German dubbing voice for a long time, has died. Like I guess everybody else here, I stopped watching Seagal’s output long ago, so a recast of that part won’t be as annoying as when the standard voices of Tom Hanks or Robin Williams died. But he was in general a very prolific voice actor and had a really distinctive raspy voice, that could go from “cartoony evil” (He did indeed voice a bunch of cartoon villains from my childhood, like Phantom Fink in YOGI’S SPACE RACE or Negaduck in DARKWING DUCK) to badass. I think Seagal was his only standard actor, but he also appeared sometimes as Eric Roberts, Kevin Sorbo (during his whole HERCULES run) or Danny Trejo.
Man, all our voice acting legends are dropping like flies these days. In his case it was complications from a surgery.
It must be a mini relief of sorts to hear Seagal being dubbed because the movie itself is being dubbed in a specific language as opposed to him being dubbed EVEN in English, which has been the standard in the Seagal oeuvre of the last decade, rivalled only by the number of times he’s body doubled. It’s sort of a blessing in disguise, as when he uses his own voice, it’s either a half garbled, mumbled whisper forcing you to turn on the English Subs (for an English language movie), or an annoying (one could even say racist) attempt to sound Black when he’s talking to Black actors.
I’d be down for a documentary featuring all of Seagal’s Body Doubles and Dub Artists, guys we’ve actually been seeing and hearing more than Seagal himself in the last 35 movies he’s made and the effort it took to make The Great Pony-Tailed One seem bad-ass. The mystery of how Seagal drops 50 pounds on the walk from his apartment doorway to his car, then gains it all back when it cuts to the shot of him inside the car. How he can sound like up to 3 different people in a single movie. And a breakdown of the Seagal Vs Mike Tyson fight in CHINA SALESMAN, the Apex of Body Doubling Magic, because reportedly, there wasn’t a single day when both were present on set at the same time.