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For the second film in our look at boxing films, we're moving ahead four years to likely the best performance of his career, Robert De Niro's starring turn in 1980's "Raging Bull!" Directed by Martin Scorsese, and starring De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, and Nicholas Colasanto, this film tells the story of middleweight bruiser Jake LaMotta, and his life of triumph in the ring, alongside his battles with insecurity and its effect on his relationships, both romantic and familial, throughout his life. Co-written by LaMotta himself, this is a semi-tragic tale of a guy who never knew just how good he really had it. It is, however, one of the greatest films of Scorsese's career, and one of the best films period! Plus, the trio reveal which pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe Marvel films made the cut for this podcast!
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Boxing, in all its despair and glory, is the topic of this pairing, beginning with argually the best of the genre, 1976's "Rocky!" Directed by John G. Avildsen, and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, this was the film that launched a franchise that is still spawning movies today! Co-starring Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and the incredible Burgess Meredith, this is the story of a young Italian boxer named Rocky Balboa, who fights part-time whenever he can get a fight, who is, by a million-to-one chance, given an opportunity to step into the ring with the world heavyweight champion! He doesn't have a chance in hell of surviving the fight, let alone winning. The only problem is... no one told him that.
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For the second film in our tribute to the "Buddy Cop" genre, it's 1987's smash hit and franchise-maker, "Lethal Weapon." Directed by the genius that is Richard Donner, and starring Mel Gibson (before he went crazy in real life), Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Traci Wolfe, it's the story of one cop who's ready to retire being forced to partner with another cop who should have been placed on leave a long time ago! Combine that with a dead prostitute and a drug-ring, and you have an action-packed film that is much darker then the last one reviewed, but not as dark as it could have been! Plus, the trio reveals what their "one-two punch" will be for the next pairing!
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It's off to the chilly Lake Michigan shore community of Chicago for this episode as the trio review one of their favorite buddy cop films of all times, 1986's "Running Scared!" Directed by Peter Hyams, and starring Gregory Hines, Billy Crystal, Jimmy Smits, Darlanne Fluegel, Joe Pantoliano, Dan Heydaya, Jon Gries and Tracy Reed, this is a mostly-forgotten gem in the "buddy cop" genre! While a bit more light-hearted than a lot of others of this type, the movie does an excellent job of following most of the rules of the genre without succumbing to tripping over the tropes and showing a lot of over-used elements. Although it's clearly an 80s film (watch for the "carphone"), otherwise, it's still representative of the best this type of story can become!
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For the second film in our homage to the car chase, we turn to 1971's "Vanishing Point," which answers the question "Does speed kill?" in more ways than one. Directed by Richard C. Sarafian, written by Cuban screenwriter Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger, and Victoria Medlin, the film represents a significant entry in the counter-culture movie genre especially popular in the early 1970s, when disillusionment with the government, the police, the war in Vietnam, and organized religion was starting to really simmer. It also has a rather deep philosophical message (although whether existential or nihilistic, we'll let you be the judge) that doesn't exactly endear the film to one of our reviewers once he understand it, but it's interesting nonetheless! Plus, Buddy, Chad, and Jeff reveal what two non-traditional buddy cop films they'll be talking about for the next two episodes!
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