The latest episode of the Movie Wars podcast dives deep into "The Crow: City of Angels." Just two years after Brandon Lee's tragic death, does Tim Pope and David S. Goyer's(Batman Begins writer) follow-up hit 1994's watermark? Or does it serve as a cash grab, obliterating the legacy of Brandon Lee? With a new set of villains, a tunic-wearing gang leader, and a grown-up Sara, how does Vincent Perez's Crow fare in this orange haze-filled setting? With another rocking soundtrack and the much-delayed casting of Iggy Pop, City Of Angels does what it can to extend the cult love of The Crow.

This episode delves into the controversial sequel, The Crow: City of Angels, analyzing its attempt to follow up on the cult classic that was The Crow. The hosts express their disappointment, particularly highlighting how the film fails to capture the essence of its predecessor. They discuss the film's lack of character development, especially for the new protagonist, Ash, played by Vincent Perez. The conversation reflects on how the absence of Brandon Lee's charisma and physicality significantly diminishes the film's impact. The hosts lament the film's reliance on clichés and uninspired dialogue, which leads to a lack of genuine emotional connection with the characters. They dissect the film's attempts at revenge and how the method of retribution feels unearned and poorly executed compared to the first film, ultimately labeling it as a missed opportunity that does not resonate with fans of the original.

Takeaways:

• The podcast hosts express strong disappointment in 'The Crow: City of Angels', highlighting its lack of coherence and character development.
• The discussion emphasizes that no character stood out in the sequel, making it difficult for viewers to engage with the story.
• The hosts compare the film unfavorably to the original 'Crow', noting the absence of Brandon Lee's compelling performance and physicality.
• They discuss the poor execution of flashbacks in this sequel, which ultimately detracted from the overall narrative flow.
• The hosts lament the missed potential of the sequel, mentioning that it felt rushed and poorly constructed, akin to a cash grab.
• The critique includes how the villains lacked depth and uniqueness, failing to provide any memorable or interesting dynamics.

Movie wars.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the movie wars podcast.

Woo.

I got my buddies back here again.

I'm all your nightmares rolled up into one.

I'm Kyle.

I'm Seth.

I'm Drew.

Insert movie quote here.

I wrote down a few you could have.

These were the worst ones I saw.

I'll be seeing you, sugarplumen.

We're gonna celebrate Christmas a little bit early this year.

And fuck you, bird dick.

That's mine.

Spider Monkey is a fucking crispy critter.

Oh, my God, it's Spider monkey.

Just instantly, we killed you.

You remember how, like, the last one, it took t bird?

That was part of the drama.

He was like.

He kind of slowly realized it.

Spider monkey's like, hey, we killed you instantly.

It is like, yeah, yeah, give it a minute.

I mean, I don't know, if I was in his circumstance, that might be the first thing I'd say too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I do think my favorite quote from the whole movie was, pain is my power.

Oh, my God.

Everything was so telegraphed.

I have so many thoughts on this movie.

Oh, I cannot wait.

Yeah, let's, you know, like, to be.

Honest, if no one realized how fucked up Harvey Weinstein is before this movie, this movie should have tipped everybody off.

Yeah.

Cause he took the idea of the first movie and was just like, what if we made it more bdsm?

Yep.

Like, let's just get more tits, more black wax poured all over people.

Like, let's just.

Let's go all the way.

Let's put all of my fetishes in there.

Listen, tits and black wax aside, it was a terrible movie.

So bad.

It was so, like, it was like, they tried.

They were like, let's do the crow.

As if a fifth grader just watched it and was wanting to make his own story.

And then he just basically rewrites the crow, but not as good.

Basically, anytime some film snob.

And you know them, right?

Like, you're like, oh, well, Weinstein discovered and nurtured Tarantino's career.

It's like.

But he made City of Angels, literally.

What are we gonna do about that?

That's what got him in prison.

Yes, his name's on Lord of the Rings, but the city of Angels.

What if, like, he just had a busy week and the script was due and, like, I don't know, maybe there's some family stuff.

Maybe he had another project he was working on and, like, if we knew his side, like, maybe he's like, look, I was already working 60 hours.

I did what I could.

Yeah, that was a favor for a friend, for a bird.

I lost a bet, and so.

Well, I gotta.

I'll kick off with this.

So I.

You know, when I look at sequels, I have a couple of different methods for assessing.

I think timing, timing, context is always the most important for any movie.

Yeah.

It's not that you can't call out maybe the.

The less progressive ideals or whatever it is, but, you know, respecting it for what it was when it was made is important.

Absolutely.

So that's part of it.

But also, James Cameron has this idea, and he talks about this in the t two and the end, aliens, too, and those sequels, that the sequel should stand on its own.

Like, you should not have to see any other movie in the franchise to enjoy the movie.

And I think that's interesting.

I don't necessarily think that's the truth, but I do think there's an element that you do want to make it that good.

To me, I think it depends on whether or not it's a sequel or part two, because if it's, like, great example, Lord of the Rings, I will always bring anything back to Lord of the Rings if I can.

Lord of the Rings to me is 111 and a half hour long movie put into three volumes.

Yes.

That's a part one, part two, part three versus alien.

Aliens.

Alien three.

Those are each their own.

Yes.

They're continuing a broader story, but they should start and end as if it's going to be the only entry into that part of the franchise.

I like knowing that people go into directing sequels like that and having that knowledge there that some people are like, it should stand alone.

I don't know if I agree with that, though.

I think it should stand alone in that it says just as good of a movie.

Four sequels are a thing, and we don't like those.

But if I'm watching the crow part two, I want it to be connected to the crow part one, because I watched the crow part one, and I thought this was so good.

Let me watch part two in this movie.

Like, at no point does anyone be like, remember when this happened a couple years ago?

Yeah.

Like.

Like.

And I.

It's just.

And I'm trying to conserve my thoughts.

Cause I'm trying to keep two and three separate.

Yeah, yeah.

But, like, I feel like they should.

Sequel should build on each other, and then as a result, like, the bad situation should always be escalated.

Absolutely.

Like, right.

So.

And honestly, the ending of this movie, like when the guy, when the bad guy got the crow powers, like, I was like, okay, cool.

This is something bigger than last time.

Threw it away.

I was like, we should have gotten here sooner.

This is, yeah.

Yeah.

Their choice to dip into the ethereal randomly, really.

Like the crow blowing up the palm trees where I flew by.

It was like, where the fuck did that come from?

Like, what coked out night did you guys write that?

Suddenly there's like a Yde thousand crows and it's like, oh, wait, then why did the one crow matter?

Yeah.

So at that point, I was so, like, done with this movie.

I was, I pointed to my tv screen and I was like, sure, yeah.

And somehow two years later, the CGI is worse.

Yeah.

Let's not forget to talk about the blood in the third movie.

That, that's, that was, so we'll get there.

But we got a whole other episode.

For that one, too.

Like, even, just again, like, the movie should be standalone.

Good.

And it should be the kind of movie, like, if you didn't see the first one, you could still enjoy the second one.

But, like, I don't know, Sarah, at some point when she's helping this guy, she'd be like, hey, I've actually seen this before.

Yeah.

See, I am just now finding out that Sarah is the character in the second movie.

I had no idea.

I would never have told you.

Yeah, I had no clue.

We talked about it before and where you confirmed it.

I was on the fence because, like.

But if I was writing the movie, she would have been the, I mean, not saying that I feel like other people might have suggested it's not just a Drew Davis exclusive idea here, but she should have been the crow.

She should have been the one who got the powers.

And even if she didn't die first, even.

Cause she was seeing these visions, if she was able to help, I mean, I mean, I don't wanna, I don't know what the rules are to crows resurrecting you to become a vengeance machine.

I mean, you kind of have to die to be resurrected.

But that's the story.

Maybe she dies and then she, that.

Was one of the ideas.

In fact, that idea got kicked around for a lot of the sequels is could we bring Sarah back and make her the crow?

That was one of the, it could have worked.

I will say I will give.

Cause I am the type of person, I will give credit where credit is due.

That resurrection scene was actually amazing.

Yeah.

I was so into that also.

Just down to the stupid little scientific facts.

About how, literally, him being underwater in a cold city like that would have fully preserved his body.

That kind of was a little bit of a nitpicky problem I had with the first one is he was buried for a year.

He wouldn't have had skin.

He probably wouldn't have had muscle.

The bones would have started to, like, decay.

So there really is no reason he should have come back as a full blooded human being.

A good looking one, too.

Yeah, exactly.

He eventually heals, though.

Like, he would have.

I mean, maybe not right away, but, like, it would have.

Sure.

But still, it's just.

It's like he just came out longer.

He came out as if he had died the night before.

Yeah, I.

But I think because, honestly, with the whole movie, my biggest thing was, like, I could care less about ash.

Yeah.

Everything about ash.

I was like, I don't care.

Every time Sarah was in a scene, I was like, she's the main character in my brain.

Every time Ash talks to, you're just like, shut up.

Yeah.

What was with his accent?

Yeah, well, he's a.

He's a european actor.

He's a big deal.

So Vincent Perez is actually a big deal in Europe.

I heard the name.

Yeah.

I don't know anything about him.

He'd done a lot of, like, french historical romance movies.

He's like.

He was like a kind of a.

So this was sex icon.

This wasn't his niche.

I mean, he's like, I'm more into french historical romance.

And I got plenty of randos about how they achieved the.

The lead actor for this.

Yeah.

You know, and we.

Earlier, we mentioned just two years later, not just the CGI, but they, you know, Brandon Lee's grave is not even settled yet.

You know, literally.

Yeah.

You know, it's so crazy how.

How much, you know, the trajectory of the first film had to do with his death and just kind of the hysteria, but also kind of the cult aspect of that.

Yeah.

They're not even waiting two years, and we got a cash grab going on, and it's.

Why it sounds like Harvey Weinstein.

Yeah, it sounds like Tarantino.

So that was.

So we're thinking then that this was, like, 100%, a four sequel cash grab, and not like the movie was made in this way, because they were attempting to pay respect to the first one, because I read a little bit about that where they asked the fans, what should we do?

And they try to do justice with the first one, and then it seems like the second one was like, let's do it.

Almost seems like it was a reboot before reboots were a thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think it's weird.

I agree.

And I read that this is, like, the early days of message boards.

And they were, like, going to crow message boards and asking the fans.

And they literally somehow drifted back towards basically the same.

And they got a crow that they try.

You can tell with the hair.

It's almost like they were trying to remake Brandon Lee again.

Right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, the makeup was worse.

Yeah.

Oh, that makeup scene was so cringey when I was like, she's.

I was like, she's not like, she's.

She's got a busy schedule.

She's got some more tattoos on her.

She's not putting a lot of time in.

When he took his shirt off, my immediate thought was, is she about to fuck a dead guy?

I know.

And he's kind of a father figure.

Like the original one.

Because if he's, like, a metaphor for the original, like Draven.

Draven was almost like this caretaker type.

Like, she was into him, though.

Yeah.

They did not do Sarah justice.

No, Sarah's not.

Sarah's nothing.

I wrote that on my notes.

Sarah is nothing.

Like I would have imagined her growing up eight years later.

She would be more well rounded, more street savvy.

I just don't.

I just don't.

This is not Sarah grown up to me.

No, not at all.

So much so where I was, we were.

I mean, she's.

We were not sure if she was the same Sarah.

Maybe it was just a coincidence that another person finding a dead body risen, resurrected by.

Like I said, had no idea.

Honestly, I want to see one of these movies.

Or maybe.

Maybe they do a reboot of the whole series, but from the perspective of the crow.

Yeah.

It's the same crow that keeps coming back and helping people.

Yeah.

That crow's seen some shit.

Yeah, seen some stuff.

Was he back in the 14 hundreds?

And, you know, he's, like, resurrecting knights.

He's just an immortal crow.

And, like.

And there's, like.

There's like a.

I don't know.

Since the crow doesn't talk, I don't know if dialogue's the right word, but there's some interaction between ash and the crow.

The crow always seems so annoyed, which I don't blame him.

Like, I was annoyed on the crow's bath.

I was like, when he's suiting up, the way it kept cutting back to the crow just looked like the crow was so hype.

Just like, what the fuck, man?

Look at this guy.

What?

Yeah, dude, I know.

That's actually a really good idea from the bird's point of view, I think I just.

I'm assuming it's the same crow.

That crow is seeing a lot of weird stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's hilarious.

I love that idea.

Now, granted, I have to say, I could see bits of the script that I was like, oh, he actually put some work into writing this thing, and it was just ruined by the director.

Yeah.

Because here's my thing.

If I watch a movie and one actor is over acting, I blame that actor.

If every single actor in the entire movie is overacting, that is 100% the director's fault.

And, my God, was this bad.

Yeah.

It feels like no one's in the same movie.

No, no.

It seems like none of them could care at all about.

There was no.

I mean, so, like, in the first one, it seemed like we talked about this, where we said, like, they all seemed like they were having a good time, all these villains.

Like, yeah, they were one dimensional, but, like, each actor playing the villain was like, this is my.

They're finding their space.

We're gonna have fun and that I'm gonna be the knife guy.

You know?

Like, they were having fun with it.

And, like, I swear, all.

Every character, the good guys, the bad guys, they all looked like they were just ready for their shift to be done.

They were.

So right from the beginning, I was really hoping, because in this movie, I did not enjoy it, but there kept being parts where I was like, oh, maybe this will turn into a good movie.

And so the three parts where, like, I thought Sarah right away began, I was like, she's gonna become the crow, and that's gonna be awesome.

But that didn't happen.

And then there was one scene where Ash almost was interesting because he was like, he's like.

He's like, wait a minute.

What if I don't want to die?

I was like, oh, my gosh.

That's the movie where, like, he has these crow powers, and then he's torn between vengeance, which is his calling, and carnal, but, like, he doesn't want to go back to being dead.

It's like, how's he figured out how to stay alive as the crow?

And then I did.

I did think it was really cool.

And I'm coming up with all these great crow fan fiction movies here.

I support.

I really.

So I did get cheesy and ridiculous, but when the main villain was it Noah was the main villain?

Was he the main.

Jonah.

Jonah.

Yeah, Jonah.

Earl, which should have been a redneck with the flannel in Copenhagen.

You hear his name before you see him.

I was thinking, oh, this guy's gonna be a hillbilly.

Yeah.

No, sexy black dude.

He's the first black Jonah I think I've ever.

He was raised by white gangsters.

We already know, like, he was adopted or something.

But, like, when he got the crow powers, when he, like.

And that was still goes to, like, someone knew that this something had happened.

So it, like, think it connected a little to the first one.

Like, oh, this happened two years ago.

What should we do?

Yeah.

And, like, I think they should have gotten him crow powers earlier and should have made that bigger and then maybe not ended in so weird, but, like, 100% agree.

Yeah, that was interesting to me when.

That'S where I keep saying, like, the script, I feel like, was probably decent when it landed in front of the director.

And I have a very strong feeling the director made a lot of changes before they even got to shooting.

And then once they hit editing, it got even worse.

Yeah.

I actually have a rando for it, but the Weinsteins.

Oh, okay.

Took to it.

Yeah.

Cause knowing what he tried to do to Lord of the Rings, I can only imagine what he did to this.

So we'll get there.

We need a Snyder cut of crow.

City of Angels.

Yeah.

If it tells you anything, like, if you want to buy the Blu ray of this, it's like a $100.

Cause they never even felt the impetus to do another run.

So you gotta go get them on eBay.

They're actually, like, a collectible.

Even though it's a really bad, like, they don't make them.

I mean, it's so bad, it's funny.

The extended version of it.

No, it's not there.

Yeah.

They actually do talk about it.

It's not.

It's not available.

And there's no.

No one has a desire.

No.

When you.

When you watch the movie, that's very believable.

Nobody there looked like they were like, oh, look at me.

I'm in a movie.

They're like, not at all.

Oh, my God.

The final note I had is, it's never good when a serious effort looks like a satire of itself.

Yes.

It literally looks like it's a movie.

That's.

That's being.

It's satirizing the first one.

It's like a naked gun version movie.

The Crow scary movie movie, too.

Yeah.

It's just like, oh, they meant that.

Yeah, that's real.

He's in a tunica yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, that's serious.

Yeah.

There's so much we.

There's.

Oh, my God.

I know.

We got to get.

Get on.

But there's so much about Jonah that I just.

Why?

First of all, what is the thing?

He kills the crow on the sphere thing?

It's like, who has one of those, like, this.

This guy was a drug dealer.

He worked his way up to be the crime boss.

He wears a tunica.

He's got a blind oracle with a hood that looks like resident evil three.

Absolutely.

I think the actress was just so embarrassed.

She was like, please don't show the top half of my face.

I will never get another job again.

And then even when you heard her.

Backstory, you're like, that's an interesting movie.

Yeah, let's have a movie on her.

Yeah.

Everything is more interesting than the crow.

You know, it's like.

Yeah.

And I'm just like, where did you get one of those things?

It's like, why are you, like, somehow, like, you're like, he's mystical.

Like, yeah, why is he mystical?

And really, there wasn't.

We didn't.

There wasn't much about him up until, like, we saw him and he showed, like, there was more about the.

The second lead henchman, I guess.

I think that might be the one played by Iggy Bob.

Yeah.

Like, his death and, like, the.

The ash's attempt of monologue.

And, like.

Because I was like, I feel.

I looked at, like, the times.

I was like, I feel like we're not the end of the movie.

I feel like I was like, what if this is the end?

That was the main guy.

He had to kill and.

But, like, you didn't.

Unless I might be wrong, but you didn't see Jonah anywhere in the actual.

He was the guy behind the guys.

Yeah.

I mean, they.

Up until they brought him up, I was like, who's this guy?

They clearly were trying to recreate the.

The mystery that they had with the first one of.

Oh, you think this guy is the final boss?

Oh, no.

Then you realize that there is really a bigger boss.

This just, like, they introduced him too early to make that happen, but then on top of that, didn't give us any information to give a shit as to why he's in charge of all of this.

And then there was just this random, like, oh, by the way, he's kind of magic, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He also knows how to steal the crow powers.

Yeah.

Which maybe they could have given us one more scene earlier in the movie where we learn why he knows this about.

So when he hears about the crazy resurrected guy killing, we know why he knows all this stuff.

Maybe he was a buddy drinking buddy with the villain from the first movie.

Yeah.

With top dollar.

Yeah.

Oh, crap.

Top dollar in his age.

He's like, I got some advice for you.

If you ever run into a crow, first eat an eyeball.

You gotta start with an eyeball.

Gotcha.

And then you gotta do your sister.

Oh, what a movie this is.

Oh, my God.

As a reminder, if you really love the city of angels, make sure you share this with your grandma, your friends.

I know you got a city of angels fan out there in your life.

Hit that sin button.

Could you please tell us why you love this movie?

I would love to know.

Cause I do.

I wanna hear a perspective.

Maybe they're out there.

I'm gonna YouTube it.

I'm like, people who are biggest fans of City of angels.

And, like, there's gotta be one guy who's like, let me tell you why.

This is the best movie in the franchise.

Yeah.

I'm gonna go on the crow subreddit and just be like, people who love this movie, please defend it, because what the fuck?

I think I would rather you go and be like, I love City of Angels.

It's the best movie ever.

Watch that.

You tell me why.

I think it's retroactive, actually.

I think what happened was they probably shat on it when it came out, and then they saw the next one and the next one, and they were like, maybe it wasn't that bad.

It was okay.

Cause it gets worse.

I haven't seen the fourth yet, but I've heard that's the one.

People are like, I think it has.

A 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Holy shit.

He's got Dennis Hopper.

Edward Furlong.

What's the girl from american pie?

Tara Reid.

I forgot about her.

Yeah, everyone did.

Don't worry about it.

Well, I mean, I'm also, like, in my brain.

I'm not lining up the timeframes.

It's like her in american pie days in this movie.

Yeah.

So that's.

2006?

That would make sense.

So, yeah, it was like, right after the second american pie had come out.

So obviously her career was already on a downward trend.

Can you do something besides take your clothes off?

Was there?

I'll try.

They're like, well, we have a perfect move.

You know, everyone loves the crow.

Do you remember Dennis Hopper?

He was a great actor.

Not anymore.

We ruined that for you.

We basically took out a loan and we're helping them pay off that loan, so.

All right.

Oh, actually, not randos.

We're gonna do the.

We're gonna do the interview questions.

All right.

Okay.

Seriously, did Sarah just have a crow making factory up there?

The moment a dead guy showed up, she's like, I know what to do.

She's got the makeup.

She got the paint, she's got the clothes.

Did you think about that when he's put the sweater in the trench coat?

Or.

He didn't have the coat yet.

She had all the gear.

Yeah, you had the black leathers.

And you gotta figure, if she's been trying to find the next crow, she has, like, multiple sizes.

Cause who's to say?

Yeah, you know?

She's like, God, I hope this fits.

She's got the small to xl, and then if you got two x, then.

I'm sorry, dude.

You should have lost some weight before you got murdered.

Yeah, she's putting in some major tattooing hours.

Got a little bloating down there in the water, mister medium.

Also, everyone in the city is struggling, right?

It's a crime ridden city.

Poor children are in the streets.

But she's a tattoo artist, and she's got sexy scarves hanging around her bed.

What is.

What's going on with there?

What happened?

Tattoo artist makes some serious bank.

Okay.

And that's, like, a real, like.

Like a cyberpunk vibe.

Like, everyone wants tattoo.

Tattoos are like.

That's a good.

Oh, yeah.

That's, like, a respectable job in this city.

Is this.

Is this supposed to be, like, a dystopian laden.

Is that.

Cause the city of Angela?

The first one was, like, dystopian Detroit, and this is dystopian La.

So it's not the same city every time.

It's not.

Well, they don't ever make it clearly moved.

But she needed to find a place comfortable, so she moved to a similar.

Right.

Like, it'd either be, like, the wen from Crow one, dystopian La, Gotham, or Detroit.

Like, those are her options.

Yeah, basically.

Yeah.

And she didn't want to hang out with Batman, so I need someplace where.

My seasonal depression feels normal.

Yeah.

There's no Palm beach, you know, like, you know, resort.

See, that's.

It's interesting to me that, like, they don't keep it in the same place.

Cause one of the things we're talking about in the first one was such a.

It was so fun about the scenery, the fun, the, like, the vibe of the place and all the set design and everything like that.

Like, it.

It would be interesting if, as these movies kept going on, you saw, like, the state of this made up city.

But it's like, now I'm realizing it's different places, and I'm like, that's.

Well, and I understand.

And where it really throws you off, where, like, there's this day of the dead motif.

Yeah.

You know?

Wait, are we in Mexico City?

Yeah.

No one's speaking New Orleans?

No, it's LA.

It's basically Mexico.

Yeah.

Wait a second.

And actually, I actually thought the day of the dead motif was kind of cool.

I liked that.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was right when we started going through that parade was when I was like, oh, this movie might actually have potential.

Yeah.

You might have my attention again.

Then.

Part I liked.

That's where I'm like, I feel like the script was solid.

Like, they started with some decent stuff, and then it just devolved into whatever this was.

Even though if you really zoom in on the people partying and dancing, they look like they're acting.

They don't look like they're, like, at a rave.

Like, you tell one guy was like, whoa.

It was like, you're not high.

It's like, you tell everyone to dance, but you don't have any music, so everyone's got a different beat going on in their head.

No one told me I was gonna.

Have to do this.

Also, like, her friend who eventually died, like, the old guy that.

Was he a tattoo customer or was he.

I think it was just a.

Oh.

The tattoo shop owner.

Oh, he's the owner.

Yeah.

Creepy vibe.

Like their tattoo hr department.

Really?

Yeah, like a daughter to me.

But I'd fuck you, too.

I was like, that is you, you.

Yeah.

But, hey, maybe in that city.

But you know what?

At that point, she's, like, used to it.

She's lived there for a while.

She's like, look, good.

Help's hard to find.

He's, you know, he at least gives me a paycheck.

I don't know.

Everybody's horny.

Everybody.

I need the money to pay for my crow attire for the dead guys I'm picking up on the street.

I'm missing an xl from the last guy.

Next question.

At what stage of the.

The villain life cycle do you get to just wear a tunic around?

They tell you, you hear his name, they drop his name.

I think Sarah is the one that drops his name.

And what's funny is you don't even know it's the Sarah yet, because you're like, wait, is this the Sarah?

And they say, jonah, Earl, I'm like, this guy's got Copenhagen and a flannel.

There's no doubt.

This guy's got a double barrel shotgun and a spit tune.

The confederate flag.

You're like, what is that?

Like, the tunic.

He's jacked.

He's, like, beautiful.

He's like.

I'll say it.

He's a beautiful man.

Absolutely.

He's got the damn tunic on.

It's like, what is this?

He looked like he came straight out of the mummy movie.

Like, he can pull a tunic off because he looks like that.

Yeah.

Like, if I showed up as, like, the final boss in a tunic, they'd be like, put some clothes on.

This is embarrassing for both of us.

Like.

Like, ash would be like, I am not gonna kill you in the horrible way.

Horrible way I've planned until you put a sweatshirt on in both of us.

Uncomfortable.

Like, I was gonna kill you, but now I just feel kind of bad for you, bro.

Yeah.

So we need to get the what not to wear people in here.

I just can't imagine, like, when you start, like, you start entry level, you're dealing, like, crack or whatever on the streets and, like, where along the line you just envisioning the tunic once you.

Move on to action warlord, and then.

Give me the stone orb so I can sacrifice a soul carrying crow.

Yeah.

You know, I bet you bought him at the same place, though.

I bet you like the tunic.

Came with the tunics.

Rs.

Is this what I think it is?

They're like, you can't use this to sacrifice a crow unless you're wearing this.

It's like, I want to be a great archaic wizard, but I want to look the part, too.

I'm a villain, not a monster.

It's true.

I love the idea of him going to the villain store and.

Is that the stone orb?

I thought you were out of those.

He's lived in this dystopia in LA for so long.

He's like, everyone dresses the same.

It's only a green color scheme.

Let's be real, though.

LA is the only city you could get away with.

Yeah, it's all about branding.

I used to do.

I used to have a bit about.

And it's funny.

I actually got the worst heckle I've ever gotten in my comedy career.

We had.

I don't know if you were back at Nashville yet, but we had the waffle house killer.

Oh, that killed all those people.

I miss that.

And I would have totally been a target there.

I would have been like, yeah, I would.

And it was at Antioch, if you're not in, and if you're not in Nashville, you know, Antioch's like our kind of our crime ridden area.

I lived there for three years.

I got all three of my roommates.

We got robbed at the same Burger King at different times.

We didn't realize it.

And then, like, one of us shared a story, and they're like, oh, I have a story.

And then we realize it's all the same place.

And I was like, we should stop going there.

You're like, this isn't a lounge.

You said this was a lounge.

A BK lounge.

So anyway, so I had this bit about how, like, you need to, like, if you want to be a serial killer or kill people, you need to, like, do it in a good place.

So your branding is good, because if you do it at Waffle House, you're the Waffle house killer.

You're a redneck or you can't speak.

You don't have a great iq.

So, like, Nordstrom Rat killer.

There you go.

Respectfully.

So that's where you gotta aim.

And then I had a woman in the crowd go, my friend got killed there.

Oh, my God.

Oh, no.

And I was a guest.

I was a guest host.

And, like, usually I would have, like, I had all these ideas.

Like, I was like, oh, but I'm not gonna get kicked out of my friends, Mike.

And so I was like, oh, okay.

That's always the worst feeling when you're guest hosting, is realizing you might be the reason your friends mic goes, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

And you guys know if I said the name of the person who was, you would know why I didn't do it.

I was like, I can't ruin this.

I can't ruin this.

That's funny.

So anyway, it's all about branding for Jonah Earl.

I think he's doing a good job.

He is.

He's memorable for a man named Jonah Earl.

He is like, he's gone from rags to a tuna.

I was gonna say rags to riches, but, like, maybe he's saving money on the clothing he needed to buy the pay for the oracle lady.

She's probably high on the payroll.

I still think top dollar snorting eyeball smoke is better.

He's just trying.

He's still somehow not even in that strategy.

Until you snort the smoke of an organ out of someone you killed.

You're nowhere, man.

No, that.

Yeah, I was like, that seems a bit much.

Settle down.

Yeah, it's so unfortunate.

Like, when a movie, you can see the glimpses, but it's all so bad.

Cause, like, throughout the whole thing, I kept seeing that the DP and the pyro guy knew exactly, exactly what they were doing.

The DP literally was like, I don't care how bad this is turning out, I'm gonna put in the work.

I'm gonna make this look as good as it can, no matter how bad this director makes it.

And I gotta say, he delivered, like, everything looked fantastic.

I had no complaints with any of the camera work whatsoever.

The camera work was actually, I thought, spectacular.

Absolutely.

What was happening in front of the camera, not good.

But the framing was creative, the movement.

So much with the camera.

They were probably like, I wish I could.

At some point, they're like, I should just get out there and do the acting for this.

He was.

Someday I'll film Daniel Day Lewis, but right now I have Ben to Perez.

Yeah.

I don't even know what he's saying.

I don't even think he wants to be here.

And the haze.

I love.

I did love the haziness.

We do have a category for this, but I did love.

I did like the first one better because it felt more like a place that exists.

Like, I was like, that place exists somewhere.

This felt more ethereal, really fictional.

Yeah.

But I did love that everything kind of had smog and you couldn't see far in front of you.

I did dig that a little bit.

I thought it was a little cheesy.

Like, I thought.

I thought I was.

I was like, it's like they're pretending to be a bad movie.

I was like, they're like, how can we.

It's like they were.

They saw what was going on.

They're like, well, let's lead in.

Let's put smog in there and not the dragon.

What's a really bad city?

Like, you can't see 3ft in front of you, Todd.

That's what it is.

We're going to Shanghai.

Get your cigarettes ready.

Yeah.

Randos.

Here we go.

Randos.

People are so glad randos are back, by the way.

I'm so glad, bro.

And you put in your.

I made a new name for, like, I call.

That's the Rand bros.

Rand bros.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

Couldn't do that shit.

Drew, if you're listening, Drew 1.0.

I I hope we meet.

And it's not like a western.

Dual type.

Movie.

Wars host in one room.

This is awkward.

Aren't you the quarter mile guy?

And then they all come in.

Vin Diesel stands behind him.

You don't insult my family.

We're a family.

We're not co host.

I'm contractually obligated at least once to mention fast and furious.

Absolutely.

You have to.

Yeah.

And I feel like we just did so good.

Yeah, yeah.

You're so good at dropping it in there.

All right, Randos.

James Obar was going to.

So the author of the original Crow comic was going to write this, and once he started to, you know, join the team and work on the film, he couldn't do it.

Seeing someone else at the crow was really hard for him.

Him and Brandon became very close friends.

In fact, there's a couple of interviews where Brandon's not clear about it, and there's this one interview in particular where Brandon was in his drab and he was kind of almost method out.

He was almost talking like he was draven.

But the way he's talking about Obar, and like I mentioned on the first podcast, Obar had gone through a lot of stuff in his life, and that's what led him to write it.

You could tell that they had become friends, and he was kind of joking around about him.

He's like, he's not the kind of guy you want to bring home to your mom.

And like, he's like.

But he was like, James would want me to say that.

He says that.

And you could tell they had a very endearing friendship, and James couldn't do it.

And so he.

He gave everything, him and David.

Sorry, how can I.

David S.

Goyer.

David S.

Goye.

I almost say Goyle, or, yeah, David S.

Goyer were splitting duties on that, but he ended up saying, you do it all.

And for those that don't know, some of you may.

As bad as this movie is, David S.

Goyer becomes the person that writes all of Nolan's, Batman's, Terminator, Dark Fate, and some of the modern Superman movies.

Yeah, this is like the start, the foundation.

Rough start.

Yeah.

Hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Can I pose a question from that Brando, please.

So I know that there's multiple crow comics.

Do these movies follow what, like, was this storyline, what the second comic was?

So the first, actually, the first crow was based on a consolidation of four.

So there were four comics, I believe, and I'm sorry if I'm getting a number wrong, was the late eighties, early nineties.

Please go to Reddit.

Please rip Kyle to shrimp and talk about my mother.

She's fair.

Dad.

Make a new slur just for Kyle.

Yeah, you Castro hole.

You can do better than that.

But that's the bar right now.

That's the one to beat Castro Hole.

Yeah, that's a very low bar.

Gotta start somewhere.

The fact that I came up with something so bad is insulting.

Maybe I deserve.

I deserve.

It's in line with city of angels.

So keep going.

Yes.

Castrate yourself.

So these other movies, are they related to the actual.

A little bit?

They, they do.

There were other ideas.

Obar did continue to write more.

So there were other ideas.

He wrote.

And he also had offered more ideas throughout the franchise.

There was one where there was like a Native American.

One where like the crow was actually like a Native American who died like in pre America and came back during modern times.

And so not only is he like alive now to revenge, but he has to get used to modern life.

Yeah, that could have been so good.

Yeah.

That sounds like a great movie.

Yeah.

And there's another one where like a pregnant woman dies and she comes back to avenge her.

Oh no, that's sad.

But that would be a good movie.

There were all these creative ideas.

I was really hoping you were gonna say the baby came back as a baby, but like with a gun played by Alec Baldwin.

If the crow character was like, when she came back, she was still pregnant and still dealing with like pregnancy stuff, but with the crow humor.

She's like talking about cravings or talking about her cramps and like, I'm just.

Saying my sciatica's acting up.

I can't do this right now.

Yeah, my psychiatric, like, she just becomes.

Where's the pickles and mustard?

She's dealing with the psychoticness of the, you know, I imagine it's a lot to be from the dead and not pregnant, but then also, like pregnant stuff.

And in these heels.

That would have been a good crow too, if Sarah was the pregnant lady that died.

And that's the thing.

Yeah, and that's the thing.

And there was one where Sarah dies and she comes back.

There was another one where top dollar was supposed to be resurrected.

So to kill all of.

And they were gonna be resurrected by a bad crow.

And so.

And you see it in this movie.

I love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There were all these better ideas.

Literally.

Even the worst one I just mentioned is still better.

And they went to the message board and asked a bunch of questions.

Yeah, we should do that.

And then he's ended up like basically doing a cut and paste with worst actors.

And it's pretty amazing, but yeah.

And throughout the entire franchise, Barr did continue to produce more comics and ideas and a lot of them were interesting.

So.

But they weren't interested in it.

They had a formula.

They knew what worked, they knew what people wanted.

And, and honestly, we'll get to this in three.

But that's what led to the third one, going straight to vhs, was that it originally was supposed to have a theater release.

But the.

I was gonna ask actually.

Yeah.

Okay.

The performance of this movie was not only it.

Well, actually, it didn't.

It's not that it didn't, it wasn't profitable.

It was actually, at the time, the biggest Labor Day release of all time.

Oh, wow.

At the time.

But fans were so disappointed.

Critics hated it so much.

It was so pan.

This is before the Internet was, was predominant.

So, like, we're talking newspaper critics and you're shitting all over.

And.

Yes, and the fan sentiment was so bad that they're like, we can't, we're not gonna fund this to go to theater.

So that's why the third one, salvation, ended up being straight to Vrdev.

I'm going to save my thoughts on the third one.

I have so many thoughts.

I have a lot of thoughts.

Anyway, it's super interesting.

Once I saw Goyer's name on this, I was like, holy smokes.

This is where he got his start.

Like, that's wild.

Obviously, no one Batman's are okay.

Yeah, I liked him pretty damn good.

Which I will say, he wrote the script for the first one and then worked with Nolan.

Both the Nolan's on the story for the second two.

Right.

So, yeah, he was like, what if.

We brought in more crows and men in Tunis?

And they're like, you're just gonna work with us?

Yeah, like they didn't know he wrote City of angels.

And like, the first one comes out and they, they bring him to them.

Like, listen, Batman begins was good, but we found out what you did.

Yeah, we need to take you off.

We saw Vincent Perez.

Dude, get the fuck outta here.

We'll put your name on it.

But you're.

I bet you.

Cause it seems like he's a guy that knows how to do things.

When you look at his whole line of work there, I bet you winda City of angels came out.

He was like telling his friends, like, please don't.

Yeah, don't go.

We're like, it's like us telling friends not to come to an open mic.

Everyone's high.

Yeah, there's the crowds high.

No, no, something come to this other one, but not the mic.

Please wash it when you're high.

Yeah.

Obliterated.

So you don't remember.

Don't bring mom.

Please, God, don't bring mom.

Unless you hate her.

Then bring her.

Then bring her.

Yeah.

So anyway.

Oh, I'm sorry.

No, but no, no, I was like.

Or the opposite.

He's like, the one person in America that's like, this was freaking genius.

This is the best thing.

I basically have established myself.

Okay.

Oh, man.

So next, Rando.

The weight of replacing Lee weighted heavy.

We alluded to this earlier with.

How did they land on Vincent Perez?

They auditioned 300 people.

Wow.

Until Vincent Perez was.

Was hired.

You know who the leading was?

Who?

Bon Jovi.

That would have been awesome.

Jon Bon Jovi was the.

The lead to.

He was the number one choice.

Now it's really interesting.

It makes sense in one way.

Bon Jovi did do some movies.

Like, the first movie I ever saw him was that really shitty romance movie moonlight and Valentino.

You ever seen?

I watched that with my mom.

She was drunk.

Yeah, yeah.

And I was sad.

And you were wishing you were drunk.

I was getting Virginia slim secondhand smoking my hair.

Like, man, Bonjovi has beautiful hair, you know, and.

But it makes sense.

And they have this obsession with Iggy Pop because James Barr in the comics, like, all the body.

Like, the reason he is jacked.

And I agree with your sentiment on why Lee looks so jacked coming out of the grave, but Iggy Pop was the frame.

Like, he was like, who inspired him?

So Iggy Pop is very jacked.

You see him old in this movie.

Very jacked.

That was his thing.

Shirtless, really muscular, really athletic.

And so he was the inspiration for a lot of the bodies in the comics.

And this and the first two crow movies are directed by Alex Proyas and Tim Pope, our music video directors.

That's where they got their start.

Yeah, I noticed that.

It always sounds like it's like the start of a really.

Like, there's gonna be an eighties electric guitar at any point.

Yeah.

And the movies intentionally look like music videos.

That's why the soundtracks are always really important.

And even though this one's not as good, it is a bright point.

The soundtrack was still fun.

It was all right.

Yeah, it's one of those things.

I'm shocked with how many David Bowie videos.

What's his name, Tim Pope had done.

I'm shocked they didn't try to get David Bowie in, especially after labyrinth.

Did he do I'm afraid of Americans?

That music video with Trent Reznor and David Bowie.

I'm afraid of Americans?

I love that song.

I'm afraid I can't help it.

I'm afraid I can turn on it.

Sorry.

Comment below with your favorite David Bowie song.

Yeah.

And your favorite American that you're afraid of probably works at some gas station.

All right, I already kind of hinted on this, but originally, top dollar and Grange.

We're gonna be resurrected by a bad crow, which I think would have added such an interesting thing.

Now we have good crows, and we obviously learned at the end there are thousands of crows out there.

What are they doing?

Just doing shit.

Yeah.

Flying through people.

It's like, hey, I don't have a soul right now.

If you want me to kill Jonah, I can fly at him.

I don't have a guy, but they're like a sign, like once or something.

Like, sorry, I got two crows this week.

I got two resurrections this week.

I can't.

It's my night off.

But Betty.

I know Betty.

Her guy didn't show up.

He actually didn't resurrect.

So she can fly into Jonah and create bad CGI.

So ask Betty and her, but her pals.

Someone needs to do an animated series that is not just from the perspective of a crow, but all the crows, as if they have, like, a gigantic office, and there's, like, they have the boss crow who's giving them, like, pep talks before they all go to their resurrectors.

Yeah.

An it department.

Bunch of regular murderers.

Oh, my gosh.

Ed does the same joke every week, and we have to laugh at it.

It kind of goes back to your idea, though, like, from the perspective of the crow.

There's, like, a break room.

They're all smoking.

Like, God.

Yeah.

Or like, they last guy, they have some guys.

He was so badass.

Like, that Brandon Lee guy.

He was so awesome.

And then they like, man, this.

He was.

He was such a fat.

Like, he was unmotivated.

Even with super speed.

He was like, so, like, the bad guys.

I had to help him murder them.

I was like.

I had to do weight to carry his.

I love this.

We just went full circle on your idea earlier.

That's amazing.

I tell you, that's.

That's the.

That it should be a crow animated series.

Yeah.

With the crow.

Like, use that animation.

I'll produce it.

We gotta make money on this.

Yeah, yeah, the crow.

The crows.

Oh, I love it.

So this is really cool.

This was my favorite, Rando.

And it's kind of wild that.

That, at the time, you wouldn't have had a clue, but the band.

Did you know who the band playing at the Dead festival was at the day of the Dead festival.

No, the Deftones.

That was.

It was before their first record ever came out.

They hadn't even released a record.

This was their first track.

Oh, Chino and Chino.

Chino Marino.

Steven Carpenter.

I love the Deftones.

Yeah.

That's why I love this.

I love the Deftones.

And.

But anyway, you.

No one knew where they were and they were the way the band.

But, you know, Chino still had dreadlocks, locks then.

So I just thought that was cool.

That's cool.

I remember, I think you told me that and I was like, oh, that's fun.

It goes to show you that.

And the last one, we're talking about how much the music added to the movie.

But we learned in this movie that if you just have good music, it doesn't necessarily mean a good movie.

You also have to have, like, one of those.

What are they called?

A plot.

Yeah, yeah.

The thing under.

It's gotta be.

It's kind of gotta be good music.

Takes it from good to great, but without others things.

It's just like, oh, that's a fun song.

Yeah.

It's like, what if we put a really good song over it?

Is that gonna fix it up?

We'll try, Tim.

And this.

You already alluded to this a lot.

The film submitted at two and a half hours.

That was Pope's version.

Oh, my God.

And usually there's the pro.

I don't understand.

I did research on this and I could never really find all the details.

But usually the director's not left in the dark with how long the final runtime is.

But the story here is.

And it's kind of hard to believe he submitted it at two and a half hours.

And then without his knowledge, Bob and Harvey Weinstein cut it down to 84 minutes.

And they kind of, like, went to it with a machete.

Yeah, there's missing scenes, there's massive chunks of the story.

There's a lot of stuff that probably got this leading us to ask the questions we're asking.

Yeah, it might have been an awesome movie.

Like I said, it's not surprising because Harvey Weinstein originally asked Peter Jackson to make Lord of the Rings in two movies.

And then once they wrote two movies, he was like, now you need to make the whole thing in one movie.

Huh?

Like, I.

And I mean, don't get me wrong, Harvey put out a fuck ton of good movies.

Fuck that guy.

But he put out a lot of good movies.

So it's like, I understand.

He kind of knew what he was doing with certain things, but like, there comes a point when you're just.

You cut the life out of something.

Like, you can't just cut it down to, like, the bare minimum and still.

Still expect it to have everything in it that made it good in the first place.

Right?

Shall we war?

Let's do it.

Shall we crow?

Shall we fly?

Let's crow.

That's right.

Top bill class.

Fuck the old granddad top Bill Cass.

And remember, the crow flies is our affirmative.

Yes.

This is great.

And our negative is eat crow.

It's bad.

Hate it.

I still think it should be that crow.

That's Crow Raven.

That's Crow Raven.

Yeah.

Just in case I didn't have enough time for this random, but all the birds in these movies are actually ravens, so Edgar Allan Poe would be proud.

Of what I've heard.

And, cuz.

Cuz.

Don't judge me, y'all.

There's a movie I grew up watching called the Omega Code, which was, like, a better version of left behind.

Yeah.

There's a shot right near the beginning where they had to get this.

This.

It was supposed to be a crow flying away.

And every time they used an actual crow, it just would not do what they wanted.

They bring in a raven first take.

It does exactly what they want.

Ravens are just easier to train.

But crows are too busy resurrecting people for revenge plans.

Like, let's not.

This is the first cigarette I've had all day.

I'm not flying nowhere.

Let the ravens be actors.

Let the crows be the supernatural being.

I got a Vincent Perez on my schedule.

I can't do this, man.

I can't do this job anymore.

I have a very, very good idea of where all of our votes are going to go.

I had a cousin who was in the birds.

I could have made a lot of money.

I was sick that week.

Damn you.

H one, n one or whatever.

Is that what that one was?

Yeah, I think so.

I get lost in the numbers.

Top bill cast.

Vincent Perez could care less.

He could have not been in the movie.

And I would have been like, it's fine.

He should have picked an accent and stuck with it, because there were moments his europeanness would come through, and then others were like, are you trying to be american?

Like, what are you doing here?

The only cool secret was when he was, like, riding the motorcycle.

But, yeah, that's my favorite scene.

Yeah, I think I just liked the motorcycle.

Yeah, the motorcycle did most of the work in that scene.

If the rest of the movie somehow captured, I was.

I had that in my notes.

I loved.

I actually loved that scene.

I hate this movie.

It's complete garbage.

That was cool.

Yeah.

The haze, the birds flying with them.

The camera work is right on.

Like, why couldn't they just, like, capture a little bit of this and put this elsewhere?

But, yeah, that was his best acting.

But no notice he's not saying much.

Yeah.

The crows talking a lot.

So far.

I feel like they try to give the crows some personality.

And I will say, and maybe this is supporting guys, but I liked the crow in this movie a lot.

Like, he seemed like a fun crow.

Yeah, he was kind of.

What's the word I'm looking for?

He was a little finicky.

It was kind of.

Yeah.

Unpredictable.

The crow was a bro.

The crow.

Bro.

The crow.

Raven.

And I'm looking back at the quotes, like, for example, I'm.

I'm all your nightmares rolled into one.

For example, every line he delivered was really hurried, and maybe it was an accent or something.

I'm all your nightmares rolled into one.

I'm like, what is this?

Like, street fighter?

That's where.

That's where I'm like, okay.

I could see where Goyer had some really fucking badass lines that were just completely butchered by whoever was.

Did he caw at some point?

Was that his reaction in a fight?

Was he acted like a girl?

It was when he's killing spider monkey.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's my favorite fighting in the barrel.

And that's the one where spider monkey instantly recognizes him.

You know, he's killed thousands of people.

We killed you.

Yeah.

It's like, you're right.

You did correct.

And I'm all your nightmares rolled into one.

What's next?

We got anything else in the Penn dispenser of dialogue here?

Anything?

So we crow on this one?

Yeah, yeah.