[00:00:21] Speaker A: Welcome to Friendly Competition, a podcast discovered the best of all time. I'm Nick Carey, alongside my co host and best friend, Cody Lena. Discuss various pop culture topics and narrow it down to truly the best of all time.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Or as we like to call it, the boat. Before we're gonna set foot on the boat, we put him into a sweet 16 style tournament, and we argue each round till we decide a winner. Nick, what cartoon do we use? We decide he steps foot on a boat.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Whatever the hell we want. Cody, you wanna tell em what we're talking about this season?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Absolutely. We are talking about just the most inspirational and the greatest actors of a generation. Okay? These movies would not be made without some of the best ass actors ever. We're talking Bill Paxton. Okay? I'm talking Keanu Reeves, my dude. In two of them, we got Will Smith, bro. Will Smith will slap you if you don't like him or his wife. I'm not sure why he slapped that guy. In hindsight, when everything broke down, I.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Don'T think Will Smith knows when it's all said and done. I think. I think. I don't think he regrets doing it. I want to be clear. I don't think he regrets doing it. I think he does. One, he's like, man, what was. And what was going on with me that day? One of those. You're like. You almost are like, I didn't have anything for lunch. I didn't have a single thing for lunch. And then I had all those martinis. Oh, my God.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: That's what it was, honey.
And then to get cucked on national television, truly, truly a way to be.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So, folks, here we are in group DNA of the best nineties action movies. And that means we've already gone through groups a, B, and c to figure out their final four champion. So go back, listen to those. But we've taken 16 of the best action movies from the nineties. We put them into this bracket, and now here we are trying to figure out this final. The final member of the final four. We have the three. We have the three seed speed going up against the 14 seed men in black, and then we have the six seed independence day going up against the eleven seed twister. Cody, where do you want to start?
[00:02:24] Speaker B: With speed and men in black. Nick, which one of these movies has a more ridiculous premise?
Which one of these premises?
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Well, let's go through it. Let's go through it. So, speed, you are trapped on a bus with a bomb that will explode if the bus goes under 55 miles an hour.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: I think it's 55.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So 55. Yeah, so.
Which is pretty fast, let's be honest. The movie does not lie.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Five is not slow. If you're going 55, you might think, oh, this is not, you know, it's not 70, it's not 80. Like the interstate. If you're going 55 down just roads downtown, anything.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Hella, bro, anything. That's not the interstate. It's pretty. I am now. Hey, I own a. I own a home in a neighborhood, right? And I. And our neighborhood speed limit is 25. And I'll see someone driving and I. Now I am the person who's like, debating getting one of those signs. It's like 20 is enough. Hey, hey, hey. I know what the posted speed limit is here. You're not doing anything illegal, but I don't think you need to. This is a neighborhood with children. I think 20 miles is fine enough. Imagine if a bus was going 55 miles an hour down your road.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Like, known for their. Known for being easy to handle.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Easy, great handling. That's why. I mean, that's why Tokyo drift, vast and furious. Tokyo drift has so many great bus drifting scenes. Cause it's just like, well, obvious you're gonna get a Honda Accord, like a 1996 Honda Accord. Or you wanna get yourself a nice, like, early nineties greyhound. Cause the suspension is killer on them.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Which is what this one was, by the way. Early nineties greyhound.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: So they knew what they were doing.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: So that's speed. Men in black is seek. So secret government agency that is. That knows of aliens.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Not only knows of aliens, is facilitating the existence of aliens on this planet by providing them jobs such as coffee shop workers, newsstand employees. I believe one is a politician. Actors and actresses.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Michael Jackson at some point.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Like, and. And all. And Will Smith is just there by the. And Will Smith gets to be there as well as Tommy Lee Jones.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: God, Tommy Lee Jones does rule. What's up with that?
[00:04:43] Speaker A: What's up with Tommy Lee Jones being cool, man?
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Why is he so cool? He doesn't look particularly cool. He doesn't sound particularly cool. Like, all of the. Everything about Tommy Lee Jones taken separately like that. I'm not. That's nothing. But when you mix that stew, the gumbo that comes out is fucking cool.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Here's what I like. I feel like men in black. I don't think men in black was cast for a very long time. I think, like, they were like, they're trying to figure it out. They don't know. They're like, all right, whatever movie comes out. Like, they were like, all right, we're gonna watch every movie that came out in this. In, like, the year prior, like, whatever year before. They're working on it. Like, all right, whoever the fucking coolest. That's who we're casting. And then Independence Day comes out, and so does the fugitive, and they're like, nailed it. Get me Will Smith and get me Tommy Lee Jones. Like, it doesn't make any sense. Like, don't you worry about this.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: It's perfect, though.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: These are two men that will. That will hand and, like, that buddy comedy. That buddy action movie comedy, man. That is.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: That's where I'm at, actually, here with this. We're trying to find the best action movie of all time.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Keanu Reeves is delivering the action and the intrigue the whole time. Men in black is kind. Is it more of a comedy than it is an action movie?
[00:05:50] Speaker A: I mean, that's the thing.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: What's the big fight scene? What's the big fight scene in men in black?
[00:05:54] Speaker A: Oh, I guess a true fight scene. There's mostly. You have the, like, they have to take down the big ship, so they blow up.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Is there an action sequence in men in black that lasts more than five minutes?
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Cause. Well, I don't. Cause it's a very shoot heavy movie.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's all abrupt. It's like, bang, bang, done. You know, it's not. There's in speed when he's under the bus and he's trying to get that bomb off. And they have to, like, don't they have to, like, ramp a bridge or some shit and they're driving around in the. It's, like, always intense and always action.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: There's literally, like, men in black is like a bunch of jokes truncated by moments of action.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Right. No, and I. It is tough. Right. Because I think I want to see men in black more. Right. Like, I think, like, as far as, like, a movie goes, that I would enjoy to see more.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yes. A movie that I believe more is men in black.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Which is why.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Right. That you're like, no, that's probably. That could be closer to true than not speed. On the other hand, though, because I feel like when you think of nineties action. Right. What. What is our. The defining things about nineties action? It's that we've ramped up the surrealism. We've gotten more ridiculous. Right.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: We've gotten to that point where it's like. And this is like I was talking about earlier in a bracket where it feels like by the time speed comes out. I'm almost like, is Hollywood, like, are we out of ideas? Because we. It's just a bomb on a bus. But like every, I like to think.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Of it more as they wanted. They had Keanu Reeves, this young, hot actor doing all like, this is his moment. They're like, okay, we see that you can, you got the Swayze thing. We saw that with, uh, you know, in point break and whatnot. But can you be up? Can you drive a whole movie just on a bus? No change of scenery, no nothing. This is just him in a room and Sandra.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Him and Sandra just doing it and just making it. And I just feel like when you, if you say nineties action movies to someone, right. If you're like, give me five. Give me five action movies, Speed's going to be come out way more than men in black, even. Cause I just don't like, I think to your point, it doesn't, it doesn't have the full, that action, that heart pounding, you know, everything's going to be fine in men in black. Speed has that element of. You're like that. Especially that first night. You're like, how are they going to do this?
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Like, like, I think I'm locking in speed, dude. It's just completely unbelievable. Plot aside, it's a very fun movie.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I'm with you. I think we'll move speed on where it. So now it will go up against either the six seed independence day or the eleven seed seed Twister. Cody, story time. So I'm in Florida. My parents, my parents had just recently gotten divorced. It's been about a year. My dad's stationed in Florida for some training exercise. So he's like, hey, why don't you come bring the kids? And we'll do, we'll do like Disney and stuff like that together. So they, so we do Disney together. But then my dad takes us to Universal Studios. So we get to Universal studios. They have the Twister ride, right?
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: And what it is, what I assume it is, is that we would have gotten into like some kind of theater where they would have then blasted us with fans and water and maybe some not debris, but you know what I'm saying? And we would have watched a scary, we would have felt like we were along the ride, right. I don't know what actually it is because I'm halfway, we're halfway through the line. We are so, and by the way, this is, this line has already taken. We are, we have been in this line for an hour. It's a two hour wait to do this. Twister has, like, this is like the. This is, like, within, like, the first weeks of this ride coming out, my dad wants to go on it so bad, and I break down halfway through because I saw, like, one kid come out in tears, and then I'm just like. And he was like, it was a real tornado. And I was like. Because, like. And now along the walls are like, feel the power of a tornado. And I'm just like. I remember my kid brain being like, this is dangerous. You can't just put us in tornadoes and expect us all to live. Like, I don't know what my little brain was thinking at the time that I was like, can you just put, like. Cause a roller coaster if you're only seven years old and can't really ride them yet is a terrifying proposition, right? You're just like, we're just gonna. So we just strap people onto these rockets and just shoot them around and just expect everyone to live. Like, my own brain's like, I think we let some people die. Like, I'm like, probably the safety cannot be.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Where's the thrill if no one's gonna get hurt? So they must let people get hurt.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Every once in a while, we have to. And this place is promising. They're gonna put us in the tornado. And so I just freaked out because Twister. This is like, you know, this is one of those movies that. And you and I grew up in South Dakota. It was like, the one movie where you're like, this could happen here.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: This could happen here. I was it. We were in. I was in a tornado once. I don't know about you. I've seen.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: I've seen them like, I've seen a tornado.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: We had to pull over and run underneath, like, a culvert that was underneath a big overpass.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Let the tornado, like, go over us. It was terrifying, right?
[00:10:48] Speaker A: And so it's one of those things where I was just like, hey, man, there's just some things we don't joke about, okay? There's just some things that are serious.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: This is fucking serious, dad. You moved to Florida and all of a sudden you're fucking with tornadoes?
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah. No, that's my life. That is my life back home, and I can't. I don't want to know. I want to know. I don't want to. I don't want to practice for tornadoes, dad. What?
[00:11:11] Speaker B: You abandoned me and your family to come down here to avoid tornadoes, and then you want to taunt me by bringing me down here and forcing me to live in a tornado.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: No. No, we will not. We will not be doing that. I will ruin this day. I will.
And so, like, that's the. So, like. So you have Twister, right? A great. Probably the best, like, natural disaster movie of the nineties going up against Independence Day, which I. I mean, the fact that we have two Will Smith alien movies just tells us where we're like, God, we know who we want to save the world. Like, this is our dude.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: We had him. He had wild, wild west. It's like, please, will.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Anyone could do it. It's you.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: And so you have Independence Day, arguably, like, the better of the two Will Smith alien movies. I think that's fair to say. I don't think we're going to get too much heat for that. And, man, we. I will say. And so there's going to be a little bit of recency bias. So I do need you to check me, because we did on this most recent July 4 put on Independence Day. Hot damn, dude. What a film. Like, dude, that's a perfect.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: I'm so glad that that's your experience, because me and Catherine watched Twister recently, and hot damn, dude. Doesn't hold up. It's not very good.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: It wasn't. Okay.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: I don't think it was very good. I was watching, like, this is so do everything stupid. The plot's kind of like crowbar in there a little bit. It's just not. It's not great.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: It's just not. It's just not. Yeah.
So I'll just tell you this for when you watch Independence Day, because I think there's this idea about Jeff Goldblum. We all know Jeff Goldblum's in the movie, and we have this, like, look back on Jeff. Like, man, no one knew how hot this guy was. Like, wow. He was just getting it. Like, we kind of give him that Brendan Fraser treatment where it's like, man, no, man, what a. What. What a dude, man. He didn't even know. He was just being, like, a kooky, goofy guy. And, man, we should have given him more. More credit. Lies. That is slander being put on us in the feet by us currently. This movie knows exactly how hot Jeff Goldblum is.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Holy shit.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: You. There are times where you're like, I think I want to fuck Jeff Goldblum more than 1996 Will Smith. Maybe the hottest a man can ever achieve. And Jeff Goldblum is right there. There's the moment when they're. When the mission's over, they've crash landed, back to earth, and they're walking back in the desert, stoked, my panties gone, soaked through. Dude. I was like, this is the hottest that two men have ever been in my life. And so this idea that, like, Jeff Goldblum's just kind of there, like, doing, like, skipping or. No, no, no. Jeff Goldblum has a cigar in his mouth, and he's. And he's got his sunglasses at that right angle so he can look right over him.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: It's. It's not fair that independence. Got these two sex symbols, these two fucking Adonis is gods among men. And then twisters. Like, we got Bill Paxton, though. Aren't you wet for Bill Paxton?
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Don't you? You got. You can get it up for Will, can't you? No. And then, oh, yeah, I think. I mean, if that's the case, I think we got to move. Independence Day.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: We got to do Independence Day.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Twister is not as good as I wanted it to be.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: I'm glad you. I'm glad you did that research ahead of time then, for. For us, because, honestly, I'm like, I. That movie did. I mean, Twister scared. Like, this is like, that true. Like, scared me as a child to that point of, like, I was like, I don't. I'm not gonna mess with tornado. Like, I was like, uh uh. No. So I'm like, glad. I'm like, oh, good. I don't need to see it again. This is.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: This is what I like, though. This is when you know. Exactly. This is good. Take notes. If you want to write an action movie, speed, independency. They both have exactly what you need. They have strong leading characters that we get their motivations. They have an enemy we can all rally behind, whether it be an alien invasion or a bus. There's something we can get.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Is the enemy the bus in this?
The enemy is. The bus is like, I put the bomb on me. It's me.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: The enemy of my enemy is the bus. And the bus is a problem right now.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: And. Yes, like, I think this is that great example of once again, the nineties were still. There's still. There's still good cocaine. Okay? There's no fentanyl. People aren't worried about it. We can still do good cocaine and come up with great movies. That was the problem. The eighties, they were just doing cocaine and then making whatever, whatever. They decided the nineties, at least. It was like, do the cocaine, and then we'll rewrite the script.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: See, that's what exactly. What are you saying? The problem with the eighties is they wrote the script. Then they did cocaine in the nineties, they did the cocaine and wrote the script that. It sounds the same on paper, but it is not. It's very different.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. There's just. I just feel like there's one step of editing in the night. There's one editor who maybe doesn't do cocaine. They're like, yeah, this mostly holds up. I'll just. I'm just gonna fill this out a little bit. And it's, like, awesome. Whereas the eighties was, like, everyone was on no one. You couldn't tell anyone not to do cocaine in the eighties, Nick, my dream.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Job would be for me and you to be the punch up guys. For two guys to do a bunch of cocaine and write a movie. They give it to us. It's like, now make this make sense. We'll give you the writing credit.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: It's like, hell, yeah, dog. That is the dream, isn't it?
[00:16:11] Speaker B: I'd even be the cocaine guy.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Well, we're gonna have to read it on cocaine to get, like, the gist of, like, the idea.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm just worried about all this fentanyl. Well, see that coke?
[00:16:22] Speaker A: See? Yeah. Now we can't. That's why. Well, we'd have to go back in time. I mean, this is a time machine situation.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Do you think I. You know what I could see the catalyst for actually creating a time machine is someone to go back in time. Because we can't get good drugs anymore.
Because if there's anyone, any group of people I've seen, when they put their heads together, solve any problem. All of. It's all of them, dude.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Every single one of them. Yeah.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: They'll solve any problem they need to solve. That being said, the problems are solving aren't that big.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
But hot damn if they don't know how to. Man, I. Yeah, no, that's very. I could definitely. That could be the catalyst for.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: No one's more driven than an addict who needs a fixed bro, is what I'm trying to say.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: And if you're that scared, I mean, at this point, too, the weeds, too strong, right? You'll hear that people be like, man, I just missed that old. Like, just where you could just smoke a whole joint and not be paranoid. Like, that'd be dead. Yeah. Like, it's just. It was a diff. It was a different time, but. All right, so, right, where are you at right now? We got independence I'm leading towards right now. Okay.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: I just think they're both huge movies. But Independence Day is that big blockbuster, that huge cultural touchstone that still gets quoted. And like, I think speed is a nostalgia film for me, but it's not like it's a. It's a fucking bus, bro. Like, I can't take speed seriously. At the end of the day, dog.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: The president, not only does the president make a speech that is one of one of the greatest movie speeches of all time, let's be clear. That's. That's not up for debate. That's not. It is one of the greatest movie speeches of all time. He then gets into the fighter jet himself. He's like, no, I'm going to handle like, it. Go to your point of what we were talking about in group C where it's like, hey, all that. Any disaster that impacts the earth, the president also has to help with, like, the president has to have a leading part in fixing the issue. Like, he can't just sit on the sidelines and be like, we have the best men. I'm going to let them take care of me. No, you're the best man we voted for, you fucker. Get your ass in that plane and go fight those fucking aliens, dude.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: I think speed would be a completely different movie if in the movie count is like, I don't know what to do. And another car pulls up alongside and the president jumps out of that car onto the bus. He's like, I'm here to help.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Hey, I was in LA. I heard what was going on. I got you.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: I'm gonna disarm that bomb. You know how to do that? Of course I know. Yeah.
It's like, wow, that's writing.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: That's writing cinema, folks. I. I will say I think it's just because I haven't seen speed in a minute that I'm like, I wouldn't mind watching a little speed. But I get. I don't. I can't deny you Independence Day.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: It's gotta be Independence Day. I think what we're thinking of nineties action films, this is. This is one of the ones I do.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: And I think speed is up there, too. But I think speed is up there because it's almost like the weirdest one that broke through.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: In like a meaningful way. Like it's a. Because let's be clear. This should be a Sci-Fi tv movie, right? Like, this shouldn't. This should be like.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: This should have been straight to vhs. This is. This.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: There's nothing about. Except for it just works perfectly. Everything lines up in a way that you're like, rips, though. Like, you can't deny it.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: But at the.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: At the end of the day, the premise of it, like you said, does not hold up to scrutiny in the same way. Like, hey, aliens come down and want to fight and want to take over and destroy the world, and. And humanity fights back.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: And let me be clear. Humanity doesn't fight back. The speech.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: The speech from Independence day, dude. Like, if you can't. If you listen to that and you.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Don'T want to go fight aliens, you got it. It'll. It'll run you through a brick. You will run through.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Make sure.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Hey, make sure that you just put up. Make sure that there's no brick walls near you because you will want to run through it after this. And, like, I'm going, dude. Yeah, man. I. I'm with you here. I think we got to move. Independence Day on. All right, folks, that is it. We have our final four. Well, do maybe kind of have it go back almost.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: Maybe see what happens at Group A.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Go listen to it. Not going to. No spoilers, but go listen to it. But that means we got final four Friday coming up. But until then, thank you so much for listening to this episode of friendly competition. If you want to, boys, a few things that you can do, as always, share with a friend, tell a friend, wherever you're listening to this, make sure you hit that. Like that, followed that. Subscribe and wherever you can. Give us a those five stars, please.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Absolutely false. On all of our social media, Instagram, Facebook, fuck, Twitter. Just look up at friendly compound. If you have an idea for a whole 16 team tournament you'd like to see us do, email us to us at friendly competition
[email protected]. email us. Email us the most sick, twisted thing you would do after listening to the Independence Day speech. How inspired are you? How.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: What could it get you to do?
[00:21:06] Speaker B: What it gets you to do? This is like, what would you do for a klondike barber? I want to know the truth.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: I want to know on the other side of this. Like, go to the darkest place and be like, I would think, go to your darkest thought. Watch it. And then be like, I still wouldn't do that. Okay, cool. Move it to the next darkest thought. How far? How many? Let's be clear. It's not. It's not, will you kill someone? After this speech? The question more becomes, how many? And what's your line? No women and children or. Well, speech. Pretty fucking good.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's rated eat for everyone, baby. Everyone get these hands.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So go. Yeah, we will. We'll let you know. We'll let you know all the bad stuff we do on Friday. But as always, shout out to Charizard for that intro music. You want to hear more of their stuff, head over to band camp, type in Charizard, replace the vowels with sixes. That's going to be it for us, folks. We'll see you on that final four Friday. But until then, I've been Nick Carey.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: And I'm Cody Lena. See you on the boat.
