Den Of Thieves (2018)

Matt (00:00:21):

Oh, this is 1-Week Rental: A Movie Podcast, where we spend a week with a movie and we take you along on our journey. My name is Matt Stokes. I am a film snob, but a recovering film snob who’s working very hard not to be so annoying and obnoxious about it.

Laci (00:00:33):

And you’re almost getting it right. I’m Laci Roth, a recovering nostalgiaholic blossoming into a cinephile against my will and yet to my delight.

Matt (00:00:42):

Every week on 1-Week Rental, we take you through a movie after we’ve spent the week digesting it and researching it and watching it and re-watching it and thinking all about it.

Laci (00:00:50):

And then we discuss the movie. We talk about what works, what doesn’t work, and we do some irresponsible psychoanalysis about the people who made it and the characters in it.

Matt (00:00:59):

We assume if you’re watching this or listening to this, it’s because you don’t mind spoilers. We spoil every movie we talk about. You’ve seen the movie or you don’t mind. If it gets spoiled, we are going to spoil Den of Thieves.

Laci (00:01:09):

And everything we say comes from a place of love. We are celebrating these movies. Even if we don’t like a movie, we still never regret having seen one. We certainly could not make a movie of our own.

Matt (00:01:20):

Not a problem here because Den of Thieve’s best movie ever made. But when we don’t like a movie, we’ve been told we’re too obnoxious or we’re too strident, we’re too negative. You guys are too negative. But you know what? We’re just doing it because we love it and we’re wrong all the time. If we’re wrong about something, let us know in the comments. We want to have a discussion. The whole point of this is to be talking about movies with the people.

Laci (00:01:40):

You just say, “Matt, you were wrong at timestamp, blah, blah, blah.” That’s how you do the comments. We love them.

Matt (00:01:47):

That’s right. Hey.

Laci (00:01:48):

Hey. We have no aspirations of working in Hollywood or ever making a movie of our own. And for that reason, we are 100% honest about everything we say.

Matt (00:01:56):

One more thing, Laci and I, we are married to each other.

Laci (00:01:59):

Oh, so everything inappropriate we say to each other is pre-consented to and welcomed.

Matt (00:02:04):

So we spent this week with Den of Thieves and my new best friend, Gerard Butler.

Laci (00:02:08):

He’s my best friend.

Matt (00:02:10):

No, he’s mine. But this is a bit of a new thing for us because I’ve only seen this movie one time and this is a more recent movie than we usually talk about, but I just wanted to share my newfound love and appreciation for Gerard Butler. Laci, you had never seen Den of Thieves, correct?

Laci (00:02:24):

Never.

Matt (00:02:25):

Had you heard of it?

Laci (00:02:26):

Never.

Matt (00:02:27):

Never. Okay. Exciting times we watched the movie, we researched it and we’re going to tell you now all about the history of 2018’s heist movie classic. I’ll call it a classic Den of Thieves. Okay, so history of Den of Thieve, but really the history of Gerard Butler. We’ve been doing this podcast for a long time. We were load bearing beams for a long time.

Laci (00:03:10):

Oh, that was the old name.

Matt (00:03:11):

That was the old name. Here we are with Gerard Butler and whenever we talk about current Hollywood, both me and Laci will complain on the show that things just aren’t what they used to be.

Laci (00:03:23):

I’ve never said that.

Matt (00:03:24):

You have. I have evidence of you saying that.

Laci (00:03:26):

They just aren’t what they used to be, Matt. Well, the kinds of movies that you feel like used to get made, there’s not variety.

Matt (00:03:33):

Yeah.

Laci (00:03:33):

Right.

Matt (00:03:34):

So what we’re really bemoaning is that romantic comedies, they’re just comedies in general. They’re not that the movie theaters anymore. And then just sort of your middle brow and middle budget action thriller. Just the kinds of movies your parents used to go to the movie theaters to see. They don’t get made anymore.That’s what we’re complaining about. Until 2025, I had not spent a single second thinking anything about Gerard Butler at all until it came to my attention that he has been making the exact kind of movies I say I want for, I don’t know, 15 years or so.

Laci (00:04:11):

We talking Steven Segal or are we talking like Harrison Ford?

Matt (00:04:14):

No. Yeah, we’re talking like Harrison Ford. And that’s a good distinction because we did our summer of rock series and when we were talking about Hobbs and Shaw, we were sort of comparing the parallel careers of The Rock and Jason Statham and how the Rock wanted to elevate beyond sort of low to mid-budget action movie and Jason Statham’s comfortable staying there. I think Gerard Butler kind of occupies the exact middle point between those two guys and maybe the kinds of movies they want to make.

Laci (00:04:40):

Physicality with acting chops on both ends.

Matt (00:04:44):

Yeah. And

Laci (00:04:46):

Vibes. He’s grizzled, but in a loving way.

Matt (00:04:50):

Yeah. Certainly in the performance, you’re totally right. I’m more talking about just like the audience for this kind of movie is like, yeah, I could tell my parents, if you’re like in a hotel room and need something to watch, check out the movie where Gerard Butler has to save the White House. And they would enjoy it, but they wouldn’t enjoy check out Jason Statham takes this drug that makes him go really fast. They wouldn’t like that. You know what I’m saying?

Laci (00:05:14):

Right, right. And then we would necessarily love to sit down with the tooth fairy. So Gerard Butler has just found some … This is a Thanksgiving movie is what we’re trying to say. Everyone sit down.

Matt (00:05:27):

No, she’s right. She’s right about that. You need to find something that’s going to appeal to all. And I think he’s kind of making those movies. And these were the kinds of movies that were always at the multiplex every weekend in the 1990s. Now, Den of Thieves written originally in 2003 and it kind of does feel like a 1990s movie. So the movie, and again, this didn’t happen to me until the calendar year of 2025. I was looking at my letterbox retrospective and it’s like, which actors have I watched the most? I watched 15 Gerard Butler movies this year. That’s crazy. But I think the place it started was when the Den of Thieves sequel was coming out and I knew there was kind of like a cult of Den of Thieves fans of people being like, “That’s a great underrated action classic.”

Laci (00:06:09):

This chaos, this Din, you might say?

Matt (00:06:12):

Yes.

Laci (00:06:12):

Causing a ruckus,

Matt (00:06:13):

Enjoying- It’s called Den of Thieves.

Laci (00:06:15):

Yes.

Matt (00:06:15):

This Chaos This Din. Den of Thieves has a sequel coming out called Den of Thieves two: Pantera.

Laci (00:06:21):

Uh-oh.

Matt (00:06:22):

And literally just hearing that title made me think, I got to check out Den of Thieves One then. What the fuck does that mean?

Laci (00:06:28):

Den of Thieves won, Metallica.

Matt (00:06:30):

Anthrax. Yes. Iron

Laci (00:06:32):

Maiden.

Matt (00:06:32):

Fucking awesome. So you did a great job naming your sequel because that’s so-

Laci (00:06:37):

Millennial coded. We’re in there. Let’s check out what the fuck you mean by Pantera.

Matt (00:06:42):

So I want to read here from film critic Bilga Abiri in 2019. Bilga Aberi, a great film critic, you should read his stuff. He’s kind of the leader of the Gerard Butler fan club among serious movie critics. In 2019, he wrote for Vulture a piece called I think I Love Girard Butler, and I’m going to read here from it. Okay. “Last month over the course of about a week, I variously described Gerard Butler to three different people as the poor man’s Liam Neeson, the poor man’s Bruce Willis, and the poor man’s Harrison Ford. I was mostly joking at the time, but after watching his latest Angel has fallen, I’m starting to think that maybe all these descriptions were correct. Gerard Butler feels, and I mean this in the best possible way, like he has been assembled from the used parts of other movie stars. He’s an action star for the age of the declining action star, and sometimes I could swear that he is almost single-handedly keeping a very specific type of movie alive.

(00:07:37):

“Bilga Abieri goes on to say,” And while the films are of varying quality, Butler’s rough charisma is the glue that holds them together. You feel at ease around him. He’s got a weathered face with kind eyes, a bruiser’s nose and a lopsided way of talking that lends him a certain macho modesty. Somewhere between the gritted teeth reticence of Clint Eastwood and the motormouth charm of Mel Gibson back when people liked Mel Gibson. You know he’ll scream like a motherfucker when the situation calls for it, but until then he’s an amiable awe shucks dude. This all makes him somewhat antithetical to most of our ideas about movie stars nowadays. He’s not a superhero for starters. He’s not absurdly ripped in the way the rock is, nor does he possess seemingly supernatural fighting abilities. Allah Jason Statham or say Tony Ja. He has some of the qualities of late period Keanu Reeves, but Reeves, who is five years older than Butler has achieved another level of grace entirely with the gorgeous otherworldly John Wick movies.

(00:08:31):

Gerard Butler is in a word accessible.

Laci (00:08:37):

We must read this man more. God damn do I agree with everything he just said. Kind eyes. I love the description of kind eyes.

Matt (00:08:46):

And I mean, I think Bruce Willis in the first Die Hard, I mean everybody … It’s a thing everybody says about the key to that movie is he’s vulnerable in that movie. He’s not a superhero. Literally

Laci (00:08:56):

Barefoot. Yeah.

Matt (00:08:57):

Literally barefoot, exactly.

Laci (00:08:59):

You just see his training. I mean like the scene in this movie where the guy is literally the cop, one of the cops. Wow, what a great description. He’s literally going through the motions of loading his gun, loading his gun, putting it to holster, but he has no gun in his hands. And you just know this is something this man has done over and over and over again.This is a highly trained person, not an above average in strength person. Yeah,

Matt (00:09:27):

Just competence. Just people who know the rules know the process to follow and have sort of mastered what they do. But it’s all stuff that like you watching the movie think like, “Well, I could do that if I practiced hard.”

Laci (00:09:42):

I understand where it comes from. It’s all very uniform. It reads this very military. You’re like, “This was at one time a very disciplined, focused person, even if what I’m seeing now is like the chewed up remnants of someone who’s been doing this job for just a little too long.” The muscle memory still kicks in when it needs to and you just know you’re safe.

Matt (00:10:04):

In his capacity as producer, because he’s producing all these movies and basically his whole point is like, these are the movies I saw in the 80s and 90s. And when I came out of one of those movies, I thought, “You know what? I feel cool. I feel like I’m a submarine captain.” Even though I didn’t do anything, I just watched it. But he’s like pointing out nobody thinks that when they watch Captain America because you can’t be captain of

Laci (00:10:27):

America. Yes, God, you’re so right. No one leaves the theater after watching John Wick feeling cool. They feel like fucking cucks. I’d let him shoot up my house, kill my dog.

Matt (00:10:39):

So let’s talk about Gerard Butler or Jerry as he’s known.

Laci (00:10:43):

He’s known as Jerry.

Matt (00:10:44):

Yeah, everyone calls him Jerry.

Laci (00:10:45):

If

Matt (00:10:46):

I’m like that, I’m going to call him- He’s a

Laci (00:10:46):

1. Fine, but I’m going to call him butt.

Matt (00:10:49):

So he grew up born in Paisley, Scotland. He grew up in Scotland. His parents divorced when he was a baby and he did not see his dad after that divorce until he was 16 years old. I’m using as my source a 2009 profile and interview of Gerard Butler from The Telegraph by Chloe Fox. “One day when he was 16, Gerard Butler came home from school to be told that his father was waiting for him in a nearby restaurant. When he got there, the only way Butler could pick his father out from the crowd was by spotting his sister who was with him. All he could think of to say was, ” Why didn’t you get in touch? “Afterwards, Butler cried for hours. That emotion showed me how much pain can sit in this body of yours, pain and sorrow that you don’t know you have until it’s unleashed.

(00:11:30):

In the years that followed, he and his father became close making up for lost time, but the reunion was short-lived. When Butler, by then a law student at Glasgow University with a penchant for partying was 22, his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Laci (00:11:45):

My dad also died when I was 22 of cancer after me and him reuniting when I was 18.

Matt (00:11:52):

Oh, wow. Yeah. Even the … I didn’t think of that. I thought of the dad at that certain age, which is such a specific age.

Laci (00:11:58):

Right. But we just didn’t get a lot. I mean, he was around if I wanted him, but I

(00:12:03):

Had no interest in him. He was not nice to be around when he was drinking. So from age 13 to 18, I opted to not spend any summers with him or any overnights or anything and barely saw him. And just when I became an adult, I was like, ” You know what? It’s my choice. Let me wish him a happy birthday. “And then we became closer and closer over time. I guess we got a few years in there, three years, three and a half and then he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and died after six months of that.

Matt (00:12:31):

You haven’t been doing the Gerard Butler marathoning that I have been doing.

Laci (00:12:35):

I’m sorry.

Matt (00:12:36):

It’s okay. You’re going to get to it, but you will notice he’s always playing a divorced dad or he’s always playing a dad with a teenager who he’s estranged from. I mean, that’s often … And part of it is the sort of ordinary guy wish fulfillment is like, ” I’m a divorced dad and my kids don’t talk to me, but I could be a badass and save the world too.

Laci (00:12:57):

“At least there’s a reason they don’t talk to me. I’m a dangerous man.

Matt (00:13:00):

But in Den of Thieves, I think in some of these other roles, Den of Thieves takes it more seriously, but he has a sort of sensitivity and not realism, but I mean, yes, realism, but sort of he convinces you of what this actually looks like. And if you’re a cop who lives to be a cop all the time and walk around in this crazy seedy world of bank robbers and drug dealers and stuff, of course your family life is going to be a mess.

Laci (00:13:32):

Because you need to be connect, you need to be awake when those people are awake. You need to be connected to the same kinds of bars and clubs. And without being seen, you need to be living kind of a parallel rough life just so you are around and in earshot of the things that can tip you off to these movements of the people you are tracking.

Matt (00:13:51):

Yeah. So to contrast him with The Rock who we spent all summer last year with, the rock as a producer chooses his roles very carefully. He wants to show like, ” I’m the world’s greatest cop, but I’m always there for my daughter. “But

Laci (00:14:05):

He’s Disney World cop, right? That’s the thing. He’s never dirty, never gritty. He’s always shiny. He looks fine. He doesn’t ever look banged up. He doesn’t ever look like he didn’t sleep that night or he’s even have a five o’clock shadow. Any of that would be completely out of place for him. He’s like a shiny piece of plastic. You almost can’t take him dirty.

Matt (00:14:26):

Damaged. The thing you’ve said on a recent podcast about if somebody came into your driveway and just pushed you over, that would be the defining thing about your life for years.

Laci (00:14:38):

Just a stranger bringing me food decides that they’re pissed, pushes me over my driveway, that’s all that would have to happen. And I am telling every person I meet for the next six months and I’ve got a bruise to prove it. I just know I would. The point being it takes so little to actually interrupt a normal life. We are not used to falling on the ground. Adults aren’t supposed to fall down, but in these movies.

Matt (00:15:05):

Well, I mean, I’ve watched so many of them. They’re not all good. They’re not all great. But even in the bad ones, I think it’s important to him that if he gets in a fight, it needs to leave a mark on him. You need to see the effects of the fight afterward. He needs to seem exhausted. You need to see cuts and bruises and stuff on him.

Laci (00:15:25):

And that’s so interesting because if you say he has a hand and he’s producing these and if it’s strung through all these different movies that are from different time periods and directed by different people, it has to be him that’s understanding and respecting these things because in the movie we’re covering today, there is a scene where he chokes someone out for only a few moments and it’s enough to scare this person into confessing things and to reacting to the having been choked out far after he’s even left out, like on the train going home and he’s still like, ugh. It makes you appreciate how little force and little interaction with someone’s body you need to like … Well, I don’t know.

Matt (00:16:08):

You don’t need to

Laci (00:16:09):

Torture anyone. You just have to choke him out a little.

Matt (00:16:12):

Enhances the experience because the viewer feel it. You feel it on behalf of the character in a way. Sorry to keep bringing up superhero movies, but Thanos shoots a planet on top of Iron Man and it doesn’t feel like anything. But Gerard Butler just puts his arm around O’Shea Jackson Jr’s neck for a few minutes and you’re like, oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my

Laci (00:16:30):

Dad. His eye. It looks like his eyes are going to burst out of his head. The movie knows how to frame it and that actor just does a good job of seeming affected just enough throughout the conversation that follows that you don’t forget it.

Matt (00:16:43):

Yeah, because you pointed this out. We check in with that character later in a different location and he just kind of coughs. He’s still feeling it.

Laci (00:16:49):

Right. Or just kind of like just the same. If in my imaginary push, I hurt my elbow, I’m going to be grabbing it. Oh, I’m going to be grabbing it. Yeah.

Matt (00:16:58):

All right. So Butler dabbled in acting as a teenager, but he was dead set on becoming a lawyer. And he went to the University of Glasgow School of Law. The way he seems to talk about himself as a student was kind of like, I was smart, I was talented but I didn’t take it very seriously, but I kind of coasted on just being charming and everybody liked me. Look it up. But also I was smart enough.

Laci (00:17:23):

He’s six foot two and he looks like that.

Matt (00:17:25):

Okay. So he went through law school, but he left after his dad died with one year left to go and he went to California and he partied and spent a year-

Laci (00:17:34):

Yep. That’s when I really enjoyed cocaine for

Matt (00:17:36):

Several years. Oh God. You really are Dard Butler.

Laci (00:17:38):

Well, because I was visiting, I was the only one to be there and care for him and I mean my brother was much younger than me, so going to the hospice every day, the whole thing was super draining. And so I broke up with the boyfriend I was with through that whole process. It was the end of a long relationship and started seeing someone else and rapidly started doing drugs and partying with that guy for like two years. And I know it’s because I was telling myself like, “You deserve this. ” But I think I was just prolonging the like-

Matt (00:18:07):

You did deserve it.

Laci (00:18:08):

And you deserve to

Matt (00:18:09):

Do it again. We’re going to make it happen one day. Cocaine

Laci (00:18:11):

For everyone.

Matt (00:18:12):

We’re going to start partying one day. I don’t know when, but we’re going to make it happen.

Laci (00:18:15):

Okay.

Matt (00:18:16):

Okay. So then he went back to Scotland, returned to law school, graduated. Now Laci and I both work in the legal world. I know that the legal … In Britain, lawyer doesn’t necessarily mean what it means here. There’s a barrister and a solicitor, but there’s something called being a qualified lawyer, which rather than like taking a bar exam involves you just being like an apprentice. Apparently this has all changed. It’s become more like the US legal system where you just take an exam and now you’re a lawyer. Great. But apparently he was working at a law firm as like a trainee lawyer and was one week away from qualifying when he got fired because he was always showing up hungover and late.

Laci (00:18:57):

I knew I felt those sausage fingers.

Matt (00:19:00):

And so he says, Fuck it, going to go give acting a try. So he was dating a casting agent in London and she had him read audition, like come in actors are going to be auditioning. I want you to read lines with them, which is the same way Harrison Ford got Star Wars. George Lucas-

Laci (00:19:20):

Changing a light bulb and then reading lines.

Matt (00:19:22):

“Hey, Harrison, as long as you’re here, can you read the trust? Don’t you really

Laci (00:19:25):

Handsome and you look like you know how to swing a weapon.

Matt (00:19:28):

Yeah. And it’s the classic thing like, ” Oh, this guy is way more compelling and interesting than the people who are actually auditioning for the thing. “So at 27 years old, he starts to actually have a lot of success on stage in England and had a few small parts in movies when they got filmed over there. The James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies from 1997. He has a very small role in that. And then at age 30, he decides I’m going to go try this thing for real, moves to Los Angeles and starts getting fucking movie roles. Dracula 2000, he plays Dracula. He’s in Reign of Fire with Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale. He’s like steadily ascending. He gets to play opposite Angelina Jolie and two later two. Right.

Laci (00:20:14):

He’s being seen with the right people during the right time of their careers.

Matt (00:20:18):

He

Laci (00:20:18):

Just happens to be going up the monkey bars the right way of life. As the supporting yet that compelling other guy.

Matt (00:20:30):

In as straightforward a way is like, if you could script it, you’ll play in this kind of movie and then you’ll level up to this kind of movie and then level up to this kind of movie and you’re the second lead and you’ll get the rub from the lead and eventually you’ll get your own vehicles. He was in a indie hit called Dear Frankie. I saw this movie like 15 years ago. It’s a very lovely movie with Emily Mortimer and him and that was like a surprise international hit. And then he was the lead in the Phantom of the Opera, which was a moderate success. It seems like everything he tries is like he throws himself into it and kills himself to train to sing for this forever. In that 2009 profile I mentioned, he said,” When I started out, I’m not sure I was actually in it for the right reasons.

(00:21:17):

I wanted very much to be famous. I did expect to succeed and I did have faith that I would. In reality though, it has turned out to be something very different to what I wanted. It’s the work and not the adulation that has proved to be the most fulfilling.

(00:21:30):

“That was in 2009. I’ve read lots of interviews with him. To this day he says similar things like the only-

Laci (00:21:35):

I love that.

Matt (00:21:35):

It’s the space in between movies where I struggle. It’s when I’m actually doing the work, that’s when I feel okay.

Laci (00:21:42):

Is he married? Does he have kids?

Matt (00:21:43):

He is not married.

Laci (00:21:46):

He’s eligible bachelor. Does he need a place to stay?

Matt (00:21:52):

He’s never been married.

Laci (00:21:56):

P.S. I love you. I remember that being a very sad movie, but I don’t. I remember it’s a movie that was so sad I did promise to never watch it again.

Matt (00:22:03):

I started to watch P.S. I Love You and I turned it off because it sucks. So Hillary Swank, he plays Hillary Swank’s husband and he’s like, ” Ah, I’m dying of cancer. “And I’ve left you all these cassette tapes for after I’m dead. And it’s just him dictating to her what to do. Now go to this bar. It’s just like, ” Jesus, I still have to listen to you. “Oh, that’s not deep. Yeah.

Laci (00:22:26):

Right.

Matt (00:22:26):

No, it’s really bad. I had to turn it off. Also, it’s two hours long, but that was a bit … Okay, so the big thing that happens to him is 300. He’s the lead, he’s Leonitis and Zach Snyder’s 300. A giant movie, very important movie, mostly for the wrong reasons. I think this is where the Snyder Bros thing really starts. You watch this movie today and you’re like, huh, kind of a fascist movie. Kind of white people going up against the pansexual hoard from elsewhere in the world. But this was a big movie for you, right?

Laci (00:22:57):

Yeah. I watched it a bunch. I don’t know why. I don’t know why it was so big for me, but I loved it.

Matt (00:23:03):

I don’t dislike 300. I kind of like 300 and I think I mostly like it for him. He’s just so effortlessly old-fashioned movie star in that movie. I’ve

Laci (00:23:12):

Never seen a movie shot that way. The color grading and just the way it kind of looked like a fantasy video game. I don’t know. It just didn’t look real, but it was very gritty anyways and it was before Game of Thrones. So it had that dirty, sweaty realism that I really ended up really loving in that show. So I think it just made me feel like they were doing what they were doing, even though it looked-

Matt (00:23:35):

Well, it’s intentional- Like a dream. Well yeah, it’s intentionally stylized. It’s not going for realism, but Zach Snyder’s idea is like, I’m going to make you feel it.

Laci (00:23:43):

Yes, yes. I liked the strategy. I liked how they made it seem doable. I liked the gratuitous piling up of bodies and blood. I don’t know, which is not really my thing, but maybe it was all Gerard or Jerry.

Matt (00:24:01):

Okay. So he’s in this giant movie and Hollywood’s like, now you’re the man, you’re the man. Here we go. This is still the time in Hollywood where it hasn’t totally transformed into only superheroes and IP. So if you’re a movie star, what you do is you make romcoms. So they put them in a bunch of romcoms. P.S. I Love Yo. The Ugly Truth with Katherine Heigl, which I kind of like and the Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston. I said up at the top, I had never considered Gerard Butler. I’d never spent a second thinking about him. If I did, I would have said, isn’t he kind of like a never was like a Hollywood tried to make it happen with him? But as I go through his career and look at these movies and look at the money they made, no, these were all successful.

(00:24:42):

The Bounty Hunter, The Ugly Truth, these were huge movies. I think that if anything changed, it’s that the industry changed and he didn’t want to do superhero stuff and that’s the actual thing that changed about the story. He

Laci (00:24:54):

Found a way to keep doing the work. He didn’t mind doing the smaller projects if it meant he could keep going, seems like. It might be him not being selective that helped him actually stick with projects that were good for his career, not embarrassing, just not flashy.

Matt (00:25:12):

We did seem to stop. He stopped doing the romcoms. It doesn’t-

Laci (00:25:15):

Sure. Well, because those seem like the kind that your agent tell you to make.

Matt (00:25:19):

Like you said,

Laci (00:25:19):

It was part of a formula.

Matt (00:25:21):

Yeah. And it’s like, well, fuck, I’m just going to do the things I like to do. I’m just going to make movies that I wish if I were younger that I would have loved to go see. 2018 in an interview with Forbes, he said, “Even just saying the term movie star is so silly. Some of the best actors of our generation are struggling right now, but a lot of that is because the movie industry as a whole is kind of struggling. Hopefully we will come out of this slump.” Keep hoping Gerard, that was 2018. It’s

Laci (00:25:44):

Very sweet, Gerard.

Matt (00:25:45):

And there will be something new and refreshing. I love making movies. I love making all different types of movies. You make those little movies and then you make the big ones and you just hope the big ones make a bit of money. But to be honest, I’m just past the point of taking on too much responsibility for it. So it’s kind of just like what Laci just said. You don’t have to be too selective. You just try a bunch of stuff, you hope the big ones hit and that lets you keep doing the smaller stuff that you’ll do. I mean, he’s

Laci (00:26:11):

Not a guy that seems like he’d be comfortable with an entourage so he doesn’t have one it seems like. He doesn’t have a wife for kids. It seems like he can just kind of pour himself into project after project.

Matt (00:26:19):

I think the origin story of this sort of Gerard Butler movie that I’ve recently fallen in love with starts with 2009’s Law Abiding Citizen alongside Jamie Fox.

Laci (00:26:28):

Jamie Fox Meow.

Matt (00:26:29):

This is not a great movie, but it is pretty fun. It’s just like, this is actually the movie I watched earlier this year that made me say to you and say on this podcast, I’m getting sick of masterminds because he does play a mastermind in that movie. Like, “I got arrested, but I meant to get arrested.”

Laci (00:26:46):

Who’s in a beautiful mind?

Matt (00:26:47):

Russell Crow.

Laci (00:26:48):

I get them confused. I guess because- Those two confused. Interesting. Well, because 300 versus Gladiator and then they both have similar white boy like Bangs pushed forward haircuts. They’re both similar stout but attractive brunettes who have- They’re both from the

Matt (00:27:04):

British Empires. … have

Laci (00:27:05):

Accents and who always play someone physically capable.

Matt (00:27:10):

But Law Abiding Citizen is a movie that could have come out in 1996 starring Tommy Lee Jones. So that’s it I think is these are the kinds of movies I actually want to make. So I mean, he has How to Train Your Dragon. He’s a voice in that. So he’s got the franchise money. He doesn’t want to do franchises, but he ends up starting a bunch of franchises inadvertently. The Has Fallen movies. Olympus has fallen in which that’s literally just die hard, but in the White House. He’s a Secret Service agent terrorists or North Koreans take over the White House. Give me, give

Laci (00:27:41):

Me, give me, give me, give me. I’m sorry. Now I’ve got him with Morgan Freeman and London has fallen.

Matt (00:27:45):

Yeah.

Laci (00:27:47):

Wow. Make your cat noise. Yeah.

Matt (00:27:50):

London has Fallen is the sequel. I like these movies because each of them’s kind of a different action movie. London has fallen as more of a Jason Borne movie where the president is Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler has to protect him and they’re going on a Jason born adventure through London. And then Angel has fallen is kind of the fugitive because they’re like, wait a minute, Gerard Butler, the hero, he’s turned his back on his country.

Laci (00:28:13):

That always happens when you’re a cop in a gray area, you’re a protector, an enforcer in a gray area. They will turn on you. They’ll ask you to be a double agent and you turn into a triple agent and then they act like they don’t know you.

Matt (00:28:25):

But that’s not what’s happening here. Well, it sounds like it. He’s not complicated at all. He’s just the guy who always saves everything and they’re like, “But this time you’re the bad guy.”

Laci (00:28:33):

He got tired.

Matt (00:28:34):

Those movies are all fun. They’re not exceptional or anything, but they’re just fun. They’re hotel movies. Watch it in your hotel room while you order rooms.

Laci (00:28:42):

Guys, it spends a lot of time at fucking hotels, huh? This one?

Matt (00:28:45):

The problem with hotels these days is- Okay,

Laci (00:28:47):

Stop. You don’t even know. You’ve been in one.

Matt (00:28:49):

I’ve been in one hotel in the past few years and here’s the problem with it. I couldn’t turn off the motion smoothing so I couldn’t watch TV. I’m going to have to travel with universal remotes from that one. I even

Laci (00:28:58):

Believe you watched the TV. I just watched the laptop.

Matt (00:29:01):

I mean, Den of Thieves comes out in 2018. Dinner Thieves two came out in 2025. And then Greenland came out in 2020 during the pandemic but was still a big hit or just made money overseas even though movies weren’t coming out in America. And Greenland II comes out the day of this episode’s release. What? Wow. Greenland is like a disaster movie that is one of the best disaster movies I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, Laci can’t watch it because she will get too upset by it.

Laci (00:29:30):

Oh, damn it.

Matt (00:29:31):

It is a grounded look at the world ending and things like you get separated from your family because of bureaucracy and stuff.

Laci (00:29:40):

No, thank you. There’s kid trauma.

Matt (00:29:42):

Yes.

Laci (00:29:43):

Special needs?

Matt (00:29:44):

No, not like you’re thinking. Okay. They get selected to get put on the arc or whatever and the kid forgets his diabetes medicine in the car. So Gerard Butler’s like- I

Laci (00:29:54):

Knew that.

Matt (00:29:55):

I got to go get the medicine.

Laci (00:29:56):

Yeah, he’ll die.

Matt (00:29:57):

And then the soldiers are like, “Wait a minute, He has a chronic condition. No, no, no. We’re not taking people with chronic conditions. So then they kick the mother and the sun out. Okay. Stop. Stop.

Laci (00:30:08):

Yeah.

Matt (00:30:09):

It’s important to him that, okay, we want to just make this a little more human than Gerard Butler versus a comet that that movie sounds like it would be if you didn’t know the kinds of movies he made. Are we getting right? They’re just a little bit more grounded and convincing than stupid, big, dumb action movies are. Going back to the Bilga Abiri piece. Actually, no, this is an interview. Bilga got to interview Gerard Butler after writing that love letter to him. He said to Gerard-

Laci (00:30:38):

Gerard.

Matt (00:30:39):

“You seem to play character. It seems important to you that you play characters who are relatable.” And so Gerard says, quote, “I grew up with those movies that you’re talking about back in the ’80s and ’90s. I’d feel like that watching those movies. I get in the car, I put my feet up on the dashboard. I think I’m the coolest thing, even though I wasn’t even in the movie. But I’m like, that movie made me cool. That movie made me want to be a badass. It made me want to be more brave. I want to be that guy making people put their feet on the dashboard and think, I want to be a hero. That’s one of the main reasons that I’ve always loved these kinds of stories. I don’t know if it’s specifically been a plan. I think it’s partly that’s what I do and partly that’s what so few other people do now.

(00:31:12):

They’ve all turned into superheroes and there’s very few just regular heroes left. I’ve always been into the hero’s journey, but without necessarily having to be the most amazing warrior because we’re all on a hero’s journey. If you meet a submarine captain, you speak to them and you go, “It’s just a guy. He’s just a guy that I know and I like, and he’s quite funny. He’s very smart and he has issues. Maybe he has a litle bit of a big ego here or maybe has a chip on his shoulder there. I want to play that in a way that people can imagine themselves in that situation rather than, all right, that guy’s cool, but I could never be that. “

Laci (00:31:41):

Humanize him, not immortalize him.

Matt (00:31:44):

Yes, exactly. So Den of Thieves, which I think is the crown jewel of this empire. Christian Gudagost is the writer, director of Den of Thieves. His dad is a famous soap opera star. I’m doing these James Bond retrospectives with Wade and we’re talking about the development of James Bond movies and you can go to that or James, but the author of the James Bond novels. And it’s like, how did he get this novel pub? Oh his brother’s a famous author. But your

Laci (00:32:10):

Brother.

Matt (00:32:10):

Yeah. Yeah. So this guy sold a lot of scripts in the ’90s that didn’t get made, but his first script that was produced was A Man Apart, the Ven Diesel movie in 2003. And then he sold the script for Den of Thieves in 2003. Most of the characters in it were based on people that he knew. Apparently it was based on a heist that was planned, that was never attempted to rob the Federal Reserve. But it was in development for 15 years. It got bought by studios that went out of business. He eventually got the rights back, sold it to STX, which is an independent distributor. And he said that the most important thing to the movie was that I really grounded in a real place. So he went to the Federal Reserve. He went to a Federal Reserve Bank three times. Said, “You’re not allowed to document anything when you’re there, but I had to commit it all to memory.” And I just think one of the great things you can do in a movie is just find a place that nobody ever thinks about, but this is the most interesting world that you never knew existed.

(00:33:09):

And it’s so important for this movie.

Laci (00:33:10):

I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but I am waiting on my movie that is about the underneath of Disney World. That’s all I want. Yes. Oh my God. Yes. I want it to be actually really informed. I want access. I want actual cast members to have helped write the script.

Matt (00:33:25):

That’s such a good idea. I need

Laci (00:33:26):

Realism.

Matt (00:33:28):

He had written script for London as fallen, that’s how he got on board the Gerard Butler Caravan. And afterwards, he wrote Gerard Butler’s movie Plane, which rules. And then he did the Denithive sequel, Dena Thieves Pantera. This movie was like, it cost $30 million. It made $80 million. We’re going to watch

Laci (00:33:45):

It?

Matt (00:33:45):

Sorry. Denifieves one cost $30 million, made $80 million. It’s like, oh, okay, yes. Nice little hit. The sequel didn’t make as much money, but still it made its money back. People like it, people are watching it on planes, people are paying to stream it. And the sequel’s just as good. The sequel’s really good. The history of Den of Thieves, really the history of Gerard Butler. Drod Butler. And so we’re going to now get into the movie Den of Thieves in great detail. So this movie opens with really awesome helicopter shot of LA, but it’s an LA you’re not used to seeing. The sort of industrial boring sprawl outside the city.

Laci (00:34:59):

The LA that looks like Metairie, Louisiana.

Matt (00:35:02):

Exactly. Except with ports and just tons of shipping containers and stuff. But then it’ll be like a stretch of street with like, oh, there’s a Chase bank and a Target in every single store that’s in every single-

Laci (00:35:12):

It’s the depressing realization I have anytime we venture outside of the main city we’ve went to visit when we travel. It’s like, “Oh, everywhere’s just this.

Matt (00:35:22):

” It’s all that. Yes. And we didn’t mention in the history segment how indebted this movie is to Michael Man’s Heat. It’s not like it’s a clone, but I think they’re not even being subtle about like, “This is the main movie we took inspiration from,” which also takes place in LA also is centered on a heist also about the cops, a crew of cops and a crew of bandits. And they’re not so different, are they?

Laci (00:35:44):

If I had to guess, because I haven’t seen it lately, it just isn’t as military focused as … This movie’s making a comment on ex- military need money, they need adrenaline. They have all these skills that make no sense in a civilian life and it’s a feat. Ex-military seem like ripe to go to prison and then run drugs.

Matt (00:36:12):

No

Laci (00:36:12):

Offense, ex- military.

Matt (00:36:14):

Well, it’s like you cannot help but notice how much that seems to be what this movie is about is just the militarization of everything in America, including the cops.

Laci (00:36:27):

Including the cops, right? In fact, the cops I know in real life are the ones who couldn’t get into the military. It’s like because they’re that kind of person early. You know what you want to do, but if you’ve got a heart murmur or a stigmatism, you can’t get into the military. So you’re like, “What do I do with all this need for power?”

Matt (00:36:44):

And need for respect. And hey, I’m not a fan of cops or the military, but in a land without opportunity, military and cops are like some of the only paths available to anyone from the working class.

Laci (00:36:56):

Yeah. With instant respect, instant power in certain circles and these are pointedly Marines. So this is the hardest thing to get into and these are the most highly trained and the more training you go through, it seems like the less prepared you are to go back into a life without it. They’re not

Matt (00:37:15):

Just Marines, they’re Marsock. And we both read that book earlier this year, the Fort Bragg Cartel, which is about … And Marsock is the special forces division of the Marines, which operates under JSOC. If you read that below- Under

Laci (00:37:25):

JSOC, okay.

Matt (00:37:26):

Yeah. You’ll find out these guys go over, they receive the most elite training in violence and drug dealing and stuff. And that’s all part of the job because you’re going over and you’re forming alliances with warlords and drug dealers in Afghanistan and wherever the hell else you’re going. And then they’re like, “All right, your deployment’s over, come back home and on be normal.” Yeah, exactly. And what do you expect to happen, especially in a country that is not creating opportunities for anybody?

Laci (00:37:52):

In Dina Thieves too, the girlfriend makes an appearance. Merriman’s girlfriend is in that one too and she makes a comment about that he was prison weird and so they didn’t have sex. I think that’s what she called it, prison

Matt (00:38:06):

Weird. Oh, I didn’t catch

Laci (00:38:07):

That. And it’s like, yeah, I’m sure that would do something to you maybe, but I’m sure he came back fucking check off the scan weird. I couldn’t think of a country that they randomly send them to to do black op fucking fucked up shit, kill entire families and then come home. Yeah. Panistan’s

Matt (00:38:26):

The one you know about. Yeah. Right.

Laci (00:38:27):

Tha’s why I didn’t say Iraq or Ran or anything that I could think of. It’s the ones where I don’t …

Matt (00:38:32):

No, it’s like, wait a minute, I’m sorry. We’re doing operations in Niger or I don’t know, Equatorial Guinea. What are we doing? So yes, this is a lot. I think this emphasizes the military a lot more. I mean, Michael Mann I think has more respect for the characters in his movie. There’s more of a code among the people in that movie. I think it thinks more highly of cops and this movie I think is very much saying like these cops-

Laci (00:38:58):

They’re the same, right?

Matt (00:39:00):

Well, they’re worse.

Laci (00:39:01):

Yeah. They seem like bigger bums. They’ve got more neck tattoos or all the indicators. And

Matt (00:39:07):

Gerard Butler literally says, “We are a gang.” And then I went down this rabbit hole of deputies gangs and this is literally groups, social organizations of cops who just do their own thing. And you’ll notice in this movie they never talk to a superior.

Laci (00:39:21):

Never.

Matt (00:39:21):

Where are they getting their orders? Who do they have to report to? Oh,

Laci (00:39:24):

It only seems like he ever gets any kind of guffer of yeses and nos from that one FBI guy who he treats like a piece of shit.

Matt (00:39:31):

Who he doesn’t work with. That’s just somebody else. I

Laci (00:39:34):

Mean, he’s totally rogue and it’s a perfect mirror to something like JSOC where your normal military commanders, they’ve got no power over you. You’re in some other shit, you’re in a security clearance that they don’t even fuck with. So they see you walking around and they pretend you’re their superior or they pretend they don’t know who you are at all. You’re working outside of normal military hierarchy.

Matt (00:40:00):

Yeah. And in that kind of environment, a group like Gerard Butler’s crew is going to grow because we’re responding to like all these guys are coming home from the war and then they commit crimes and then they go to prison where they just learn how to be better criminals and build their networks more intensely. I

Laci (00:40:15):

Guess it’s like we know we need people who are willing to sacrifice their family life and not work normal hours and ruin their bodies. And so it’s like we just let them just kind of do what they want. We don’t even really know what they do. We’ve already created these monsters. We’d rather they work for us instead of becoming the people we are hunting. Just don’t fuck with that guy in the leather jacket. We don’t talk to him.

Matt (00:40:42):

Yeah, except that I know Pablo Schreiber’s crew, they kill some security guards. They don’t mean to, but it happens.

Laci (00:40:51):

Right. Literally muscle memory,

Matt (00:40:53):

The guy

Laci (00:40:54):

Drew his weapon.

Matt (00:40:55):

So it’s like, okay, so they are murderers, but the cops are doing so much more damage and it’s like, just let them steal the money. Why are you engaging in this military firefight in a traffic jam in Los Angeles? How is this doing anything for anybody?

Laci (00:41:09):

Right. But no, they’re heroes because they’re like, “Get down.” You watch no one get down,

Matt (00:41:13):

By the way. “Get down, get down.

Laci (00:41:15):

“Right. You wanted to know what would happen in my vehicle if I have my son with me and they say,” Get down. “He says,” He would never get down.

Matt (00:41:24):

We would be

Laci (00:41:24):

Fucked.

Matt (00:41:25):

“That’s that. But I like that when we were watching that part of the movie, you’re like, ” Matt, pay attention. You need to know what to do if this ever happens.

Laci (00:41:30):

“Because he said it’s the safest if you go behind the engine block. And I’m like, ” Mt, what’s an engine block? “You’re like, ” I don’t know. “I’m like, ” Oh my God, Matt, it’s the block of engine that’s in your car. It’s the densest part of

Matt (00:41:39):

Your car. You’re just testing me.

Laci (00:41:40):

I want to make sure you were listening and you get down. Wait, don’t make me do it again. You just made me second time sound stupid. You made me second time.

Matt (00:41:49):

So some onscreen text tells us that every 2,400 times a year, every 48 minutes, a bank is robbed here. It’s Los Angeles County. Now even the math doesn’t work. It’s like, wait a minute, 44 times a week, but 44 times 52 is 2,280. It doesn’t work. This is a totally made up stat. It works though. It’s like banks are not robbed this often.

Laci (00:42:11):

I really was confused by the text. It’s like, are we just supposed to feel like the things that we know, the things that are common knowledge and put in the media and on Wikipedia, the facts that we are given, they’re so wrong because we’re just civilians. We’re not the ones coming up with these statistics. How could we? We rely on the reporting of the military for certain things in our police type folks, FBI.

Matt (00:42:39):

Those police

Laci (00:42:40):

Type

Matt (00:42:40):

Folks.

Laci (00:42:40):

The police, but they operate so many secret … Even just inside of this normal ass precinct of cops, there’s a gang who do God knows what. Then there’s the FBI and then there’s all the secret parts of that and then CIA and then don’t get me started on the secret parts of that in the military. So it’s like, we’re working on no statistics here. It’s a fucking free for all.

Matt (00:43:03):

Right. And also, what is a robbery? If somebody stole the free cookie from the thing, does that count? No,

Laci (00:43:08):

They said banks.

Matt (00:43:09):

In the bank when sometimes they have Otis Bunkmeier cookies, a cookie of it. The pin

Laci (00:43:13):

Without the chain.

Matt (00:43:14):

Was it really

Laci (00:43:15):

Stealing if they don’t put a chain?

Matt (00:43:17):

So they go to this donut shop. Pablo Schreiber plays Ray Merriman. 50 Cent is Leveaux. I forgot his first name. The thieves. We’ll call them the thieves and they steal an armored bank truck. I mean, what do they call these? A Brink’s truck

Laci (00:43:34):

Yeah, armored bank truck. Armored … Yeah, it goes between banks.

Matt (00:43:37):

Yes. And so that’s one of the things that this movie is playing with is like, “Huh, I bet you never thought so much about the world of these armored trucks and how the logistics of all of that works.” And I’m like, “No, but I’m interested.”

Laci (00:43:49):

I’ve definitely seen these used in a Fast Five situation, but yeah, they really dig in.

Matt (00:43:54):

They inadvertently kill several, not cops, but guys who are just probably paid $40,000 a year to wear a uniform and sit in these trucks. They end up

Laci (00:44:01):

Killing cops too. It’s just they start

Matt (00:44:03):

Off by- Yes. And then the cops come and then just an insane firefight ensues where throughout this movie, because these are Marine Special Forces guys, they are so much better at what they do.

Laci (00:44:15):

Oh yeah. You’re just like a beat cop. You’re just a guy in a fucking cop car. You’re not even in an unmarked vehicle. Maybe slow down your excitement to show up to the scene.

Matt (00:44:25):

But they show up and they also have the military grade weapons. That’s true. They’re just me getting out like they shoot and then fall backwards. So they get away with the armored truck and go over to their garage. And this movie is a little bit of a fast and furious, but grounded because this crew is kind of the Toretto crew, but you’re not supposed to admire them or anything, but they kind of are a family. Well,

Laci (00:44:49):

None of them talk as much as any of the fucking Torettos and none of them have the ego. They’re just doing their business. They’re there to do a job. It feels much more normal.

Matt (00:44:59):

Pablo Schreiber, he’s the leader, Merriman. O’Shea Jackson Jr. Is Donnie. He’s the driver and this is such a great performance, especially when you rewatch the movie because the movie has a big twist at the end that makes you go, “What?” Right.

Laci (00:45:12):

You see it all differently.

Matt (00:45:14):

And you start to reevaluate. He’s always fidgeting and just kind of moving. He’s always doing this nervous motion that is all a performance.

Laci (00:45:23):

Well, he’s also way too easy to catch and way too easy to confess. All the confessions were to help his cause, even to the cops and even to get caught after. Who’s to say he was trying to also meet up with Merryman? He just wanted the money. They ran off, he got caught, he was able to escape and he put the money in a place that he didn’t tell them.

Matt (00:45:44):

I think his plan was always to ditch these guys. Yeah,

Laci (00:45:47):

That’s what it read like to me because why would Maryman waste his time loading in fake money?

Matt (00:45:52):

Yeah. I think it’s like, I’m a smart person. I’m not a fucking special forces guy who can do the things you guys do, but I can outthink you.

Laci (00:45:59):

I can use your abilities, the things I don’t have, your muscle, and mind game you to get what I need. And I’m going to take care of my crew, my little pack of men who would never …

Matt (00:46:13):

Which you have to watch the movie twice to realize like, oh, it’s kind of two separate-

Laci (00:46:17):

It is two separate

Matt (00:46:18):

Names. … interlocking groups of guys. The same as

Laci (00:46:20):

The second one. Yep.

Matt (00:46:22):

I don’t love movies about masterminds that like, oh, the whole … Con artist movies and heist movies are a little different. But I think one idea this movie is playing with is like everybody’s putting on a performance. They’re performing their job, they’re performing their persona. And Osha Jackson, as Donnie, he’s like, “Okay, I’m going to take advantage of that. ” These guys come into my bar who work at the Fed and they love talking about their job and they never expect someone’s listening and tracking all of it.

Laci (00:46:48):

Certainly not a person of color who’s a bartender.

Matt (00:46:52):

But you’ll notice when you watch the movie, it doesn’t matter what job you’re in. Everybody loves to be able to lecture you about their job and like, listen, next time you come here, bring a cash sack, okay? It’ll be a lot easier. Everybody wants to tell you next time. You’re

Laci (00:47:06):

Right. You’re right because these guys have to … And I am so nervous the whole time they are working their way through the … Just when you’re the first day on a job, you’re just hoping you move through that office the way other people move through it. But there’s so high stakes in this because they already think it’s weird that you’re new and you’re dropping off some money. Every little choice you make, you’re doing something they expect or going completely against their code, whatever the fuck it is. Anyway, I’ve got secondhand embarrassment the whole time. Don’t say the wrong word. You’re going to look stupid.

Matt (00:47:41):

Going to look stupid too. Again, they work at the Federal Reserve, but this is just a job. Everybody just wants a little bit of dignity and wants to feel like I do something that matters.

Laci (00:47:51):

Those big giant clear things with all the money in them, what if they call them a bin, not a cart?

Matt (00:47:56):

Right,

Laci (00:47:56):

Right. I call it a pushy or whatever the fuck. It’s so embarrassing. I didn’t know it wasn’t supposed to bring it in half full.

Matt (00:48:03):

My freshman year of college, I went with my friends, Patrick and our other friend, Derek. We went to Target and Derek was always cooler than me and we went to Target to just buy some stuff for our dorms. And for some reason, he put something into a shopping cart that I was pushing and I said, “That’s my buggy.” And then he immediately went, “That’s my buggy.” And I realized like, “Oh, do not everybody call them buggies? Do I sound like a baby?”

Laci (00:48:30):

Yes, this fucking happened to me too on a Discord in front of all the people who don’t say buggy. Apparently Buggy is specific to our honky ass parents.

Matt (00:48:41):

It can’t be.

Laci (00:48:42):

It is. It’s not even just a Louisiana thing. It’s like a, “No, your fucking mom was from Alexandria bum fuck nowhere.” And mine was from Jackson, Mississippi and we say buggy, like goddamn Amish.

Matt (00:48:54):

And it’s not like calling soda pop or whatever. No, right. It has to be a baby word.

Laci (00:48:59):

My

Matt (00:49:00):

Passinette.

Laci (00:49:02):

Yeah. Thanks moms.

Matt (00:49:04):

Fucked us.

Laci (00:49:05):

And

Matt (00:49:06):

The other key members are 50 Cent who plays LeVo. Really good in this movie, just a sort of quiet, terrifying, menacing energy. And then the other important guy is Bosco, who’s played by actor Evan Jones and they’re debriefing and they’re like, “Well, we’re kind of fucked because we’re cop killers now.” So the heat’s going to come down even further on us. And then Gerard Butler.

Laci (00:49:31):

Just the most haggard, hungover, splotchy man, but goddamn it is he not attractive.

Matt (00:49:37):

Yes, but yes, he’s attractive.

Laci (00:49:41):

But that doesn’t come into play in this one. It does multiple times in the second one, which is interesting.

Matt (00:49:46):

And I love the second one. We watched the second one last night. I think I might prefer the first one because I like that it is the second one can’t help but make him likable because it takes him out of his element. In the first movie, and I’ve watched all these Gerard Butler movies where he’s always likable, this is the one where he has no vanity about letting you know I am a piece of shit.

Laci (00:50:05):

Yeah. He makes you uncomfortable. You can tell he’s the kind of person that probably should be arrested, not put in a domestic situation. They don’t make him a hero in terms…One kid still likes him after his wife leaves him. That’s nice. But also that kid’s really young. Had that been a teenager, you’d know they’d know this. You’ve got no hopes of this guy getting redeemed. I love that the wife and kids in the first one are simply to show you what he’s like as a dad, not to show you his future.

Matt (00:50:34):

It’s to show you what he is losing- What he is right now. Of just nothing of bullshit.

Laci (00:50:39):

He’s just your average, selfish, decided his job is really important. But then he admits later that like, no, I just like to hunt. I don’t even care about catching bad guys. I just care about being really good at this.

Matt (00:50:52):

So

Laci (00:50:53):

He’s giving up his entire life and being a bad husband because of him and in his ego, which you know that. He doesn’t need to say it for you to know it.

Matt (00:51:01):

He is always eating.

Laci (00:51:03):

Constant.

Matt (00:51:04):

And it’s just like a masculine thing men will do to like … It’s like a dominance thing is if I’m eating you for … There’s some animalistic like I eat first. I’m the headlion and that shows you that you have to wait to eat. That’s why I’m eating while I’m talking to my underlings. That’s why anybody got a donut at this donut place. Well,

Laci (00:51:20):

Also it’s rude to talk with your mouthful, but you’re

Matt (00:51:22):

Telling me them like,

Laci (00:51:23):

“Fuck you. I’m literally talking to you on my break. That’s how much I care about this.

Matt (00:51:28):

” Yeah. So his gang, his gang of cops, I love that they’re just standing at the crime scene. They’re not doing anything. It’s just like, that’s what cops do. They go to a crime scene and stand around and they’re like, so-

Laci (00:51:39):

Wait for someone with an idea to come stand with

Matt (00:51:41):

Me. Looks like a crime was here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These cops are good at their job, but this isn’t a movie where it’s like they’re the best of the best.

Laci (00:51:49):

But pointedly, these cops are good at following his lead. He’s the one that’s the biggest pain in the ass. He’s the one that’s going to be late, be the most hungover. They’re going to give him a hard time. But at the end of the day, he’s the one that knows what to do next. That’s why he gets to be that way and he knows it. They don’t show him a ton of respect, but without him, we don’t get to have a gang anymore because all of us would just be looking at a whiteboard going, “I don’t fucking know.

Matt (00:52:12):

“That

Laci (00:52:13):

Other one was the one with the ideas.This

Matt (00:52:15):

Movie ends though with him. They didn’t stop the heist. The mastermind got away and the only reason he kills Pablo Schreiber is just because he’s the one chasing him. It’s not like he outskilled him or outsmarted him. It’s like just luck. It’s so interesting to watch a movie about a cop who’s not the best cop in the world. Yeah,

Laci (00:52:35):

But that just goes to show you that that’s not what it’s about. Just everyday coping is just someone who’s got pretty good instincts.That’s why he’s still respected. He doesn’t lose his job or anything and the FBI guy likes him even more. Everyone thought those bank robbers were still in the bank. He’s the only one that realized they’re gone. I’m going to go approach them. But what they are seeing is a guy that’s taking risks, but his instincts are mostly right. And the rest of them without someone who’s like that are just people pointing guns at stuff and waiting for someone to give them a tip. They rely so heavily on a guy that just is willing to go for it.

Matt (00:53:17):

Yeah, that’s a good point. To make any movement in the case. And these instincts come from knowing that the people I’m hunting are exactly like me. Like me, right? That they’re doing this nonsense just because they need to.

Laci (00:53:28):

You’re like, why would a police unit even have the liability of having someone like Nick? And it’s like because it’s actually super hard to get people who aren’t paid that much to care really, really deeply about a couple of people getting shot in a Brink’s truck. Most things just go unsolved. We go put tape around things. We go tell families that people are dead. That’s mainly all we are. The only honor we get is when someone like Nick’s got an idea.

Matt (00:53:55):

I mean, and you can say this is copaganda because I mean in the real world, cops like him, what they mainly do is like shoot black teenagers and then the scene- Their

Laci (00:54:06):

Instincts are all the same. It’s definitely a black guy.

Matt (00:54:09):

And then they’re like, “Oh yeah, now the county had to pay $30 million out in settlement funds or whatever.” And that’s what they actually do. So the FBI shows up and even here his interactions, this FBI guy, Bob, I don’t know his last name and Nick starts big dicking him like he’s, but like he’s in a cop movie like us the fucking Feds. This is my scene. No, it’s not. And the FBI guy’s like, “Can we not do this anymore, please?” This

Laci (00:54:35):

Is so tiring, right? He’s everyone’s big brother. Big brother Nick here to ruffle some feathers.

Matt (00:54:41):

We’re cutting back and forth between the crew, the two crews researching each other, which is also a thing in heat is mutual spying upon each other and Gerard Butler’s barking at his men as he shovels food in his mouth and Chuck’s Pepto Bismol. And we find out that Brink’s truck they stole was empty. Why would they steal an empty truck? Was it a bad tip? No. Is something else going on? But they have been tailing Donnie, who’s O’Shea Jackson Jr’s character, and he works at a bar called The Hoff Brow, which is a Bavarian beer wench themed bar. Right.

Laci (00:55:14):

It seems like you can get a hooker real easy and a beer. The reason why it’s kind of Switzerland is because men of all kinds of caliber go here to engage a sex worker and that’s why there’s a code because mutually assured destruction, right? That guy in a tie is also about to pay for sex with that guy that just came from the fucking factory. We all don’t want to lose our wives. Who’s with me?

Matt (00:55:41):

Yeah.

Laci (00:55:41):

That’s the best I can figure for why this place is special.

Matt (00:55:45):

You don’t see too much of like that it’s both a cop and a crook bar.

Laci (00:55:50):

Yeah, I thought they did a good job of mixing it all together and it’s why he chose it.

Matt (00:55:55):

No, I know it’s why he chose it. No

Laci (00:55:57):

Matter why.

Matt (00:55:58):

Girard Butler’s at … Well, first Donnie is talking to his friends and they’re like, “How do you remember all the orders and everything?” He’s like, “Well, I’m in complete control of my environment. People just don’t even know it, which is a clue.” And then Gerard Butler turns out is at the bar and he starts talking to him like, “I’m just a normal, tough guy at a bar just engaging, just chatting up the bartender.” And, “Hey, buddy.”

Laci (00:56:18):

Being sexually assaulting a litle bit toward

Matt (00:56:20):

You. Well, I bet you pull in a lot of pussy here and Donny’s like- Which is also

Laci (00:56:24):

Assaulting. It’s

Matt (00:56:25):

Just guys being guys, Laci, you wouldn’t get it. I don’t

Laci (00:56:27):

Think so.

Matt (00:56:28):

No, you just wouldn’t get it.

Laci (00:56:29):

The one time someone said something like to you when you were Uber driving, you were like, “Oh, don’t ask me if I go to strip

Matt (00:56:37):

Clubs.” All right. No, here’s what happened is a million years ago I worked for Uber- A million years. Okay. Seven years ago, I drove for Uber for a little while and this guy in New Orleans was like, “Hey buddy, what’s the best strip club on Bourbon Street?” And I was like, “To be honest, I’ve never gone to a strip club.” And he’s like, “I bet you haven’t dude.” And I was like, “No, seriously. I’ve never frequented a strip joint, sir.” He’s like, “I bet you do. “

Laci (00:57:06):

Everything you said was just proof that you had. He just can’t even perceive of another kind of guy the same way my ex was telling you that when you were 36, “Don’t worry, you’ll get in your first bar fight. It’s coming.” I don’t think it is.

Matt (00:57:21):

I think

Laci (00:57:21):

I’m 36

Matt (00:57:22):

Now. How many bar fights you been in, Matt? Zero. How many fights have I been in zero? He’s like, “Oh, it’s coming. It’s

Laci (00:57:29):

Coming.” Right. You just got to wait till you’re

Matt (00:57:31):

Elderly. I’m 49 years old, sir.

Laci (00:57:33):

I don’t think it’s coming.

Matt (00:57:35):

So yeah, you must pull in a lot of pussy and Donny liked to flex. He’s like, “Oh, I do all right for myself.” And Gerard Butler’s like, “I’d fuck you. ” Just kidding. He’s great at just destabilizing everybody just by saying weird shit

Laci (00:57:51):

Like that. Right. You think you know what kind of guy I am and then I say this and you’re confused long enough for me to just kind of measure you a little bit and I just want you to not look forward to seeing me. That’s all I’m going for here.

Matt (00:58:04):

It’s such a good detail that he keeps calling him Frowline. Flying. It’s like, hey, yeah, you work at the bar, the German bar, you’re a frow line. It’s like there’s people who just- You’re a lady. Make the easiest shortcut you can possibly make. Well, like the office joke.

Laci (00:58:18):

Hey Tuna Sandwich.

Matt (00:58:19):

Because I ate tuna one time. Now I’m tuna. But the thing about Gerard Butler’s character is he is not … Well, nobody in this movie, no clever one-liners. Nobody ever says anything clever.

Laci (00:58:31):

Just awkward masculinity bumping up against each other with some men in the mix more cerebral and some more passive, but everyone is doing some kind of masculine display.

Matt (00:58:44):

So then Donnie’s leaving the bar, gets into his car and Gerard Butler just abducts him and just like again, the movie’s not putting a fine point on it, but this is not something police are allowed to do. You cannot just … Well, it’s happening all the time right now, but you cannot just kidnap somebody, take them to a hotel room, beat the shit out of them, never arrest them or charge them with anything because Donnie wakes up in a hotel bed, he’s in a large hotel suite, then goes outside.

Laci (00:59:09):

His pants are wet. He’s pissed himself. His shirt’s not on.

Matt (00:59:13):

Yeah. And the cops are all there. Some are eating. There’s sexy ladies hanging around, looks like a good time.

Laci (00:59:21):

You can tell they’re sex workers.

Matt (00:59:23):

And they’re like, “Oh, hey, look who’s up. Dumb little pussy. Come on out here, motherfucker. Have a drink. Yeah. ” And so Donnie’s trying to talk himself out of it, but Nick isn’t like, “I don’t know. You got me confused with somebody else.” And they’re like, “No, look at this picture of you with that guy, Merriman.” He’s like, “I’m just his driver.” And none of it’s working on Gerard Butler who’s doing a lot of hard, hard back slaps and stuff like, “Come on, motherfucker. You can tell me.

Laci (00:59:52):

” He’s just constantly slapping him in the face and slap … And all those things hurt by the way. None of that’s just super fun to have, but the That is a kind of guy. There is a kind of guy that’s always hitting you and you’re like …

Matt (01:00:06):

Kind of girl too, like you.

Laci (01:00:07):

Hey, I don’t want to talk about that.

Matt (01:00:09):

But yeah, no, you’re right. That’s

Laci (01:00:11):

To protect me. The other thing is it’s just a way of I don’t want anyone to feel too easy around me.

Matt (01:00:17):

Yeah. Everything he says is to keep you feeling uneasy even when all of this ends and Donnie’s like, “So am I arrested or can I go? ” Even then Gerard Butler has to give him a very unsatisfying. He’s like, “You just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Laci (01:00:31):

Sitting

Matt (01:00:32):

Here? No, you didn’t even get me a get the fuck out of my sight or anything like that. That would’ve been more satisfying.

Laci (01:00:38):

Right. Also, does that mean carry on with my

Matt (01:00:40):

Cries? Do I work for you now?

Laci (01:00:43):

Have I been turned? The fuck?

Matt (01:00:44):

Exactly, yes.

Laci (01:00:45):

I don’t know. Right.

Matt (01:00:46):

Yes. And maybe that’s the point. I could see somebody getting frustrated watching the movie at that sort of … Nothing is definite enough for me to be able to- But I

Laci (01:00:58):

Think the gray area is intentional. I think these guys operate fully in it and it’s smart because now you can have Donnie’s character walking away going home and truly thinking to himself, I don’t work for the cops. He didn’t say I did. I want to pretend that didn’t fucking happen. That was horrible. This is going to change my life. I will just continue. But if he had specifically said, everything you find out from here on, you’re telling me and you’re going to do this and I want you to get them to go to here or any of that. And he would totally fuck up the way that he interacts with the other people. Now Donny can be the most himself because he can … There’s some part of his brain that can tell him that that didn’t really

Matt (01:01:38):

Happen. Yes. Which he says later, “I kind of figured they just forgot about me.

Laci (01:01:41):

” Right. And he could say that with honesty because there is always that part of you.

Matt (01:01:45):

Nic shows him his tattoo, the regulators. I guess that’s what their sheriff’s gang is called.

Laci (01:01:50):

Neat.

Matt (01:01:52):

And he says, “We’re a gang. The only thing is we have badges. We are a legalized gang and we can do whatever the fuck we want and we will just execute you right here. We don’t care. We’d rather execute you than arrest you. It’s easier.”

Laci (01:02:04):

Less paperwork.

Matt (01:02:05):

Donnie starts talking and tells them the story of how he got involved with the crew of thieves. He’s a very good driver. I’m just a very good driver. I’m like Dom Toretto, basically. That’s why they hired me. So there was an earlier job where they stole a lot of cash from a stadium. And then we see in a movie that’s obsessed with process, it’s kind of like breaking bad that way. We get to see them taking out just huge amounts of cash, putting it into sinks full of water in case the die pack bursts and then putting them into stacks of microwaves. Well,

Laci (01:02:36):

No, they’re actually putting them in a sink because water gives instant pressure to set off a die pack. They’re intentionally setting off the ones that have dye packs.

Matt (01:02:45):

But the whole operation that’s going to take up the rest of the movie is essentially like stage two of the heist we already did. We already stole all this money. Now we basically need to clean it because ultimately what they’re trying to do, I mean, I think they’re going to get more money out of the Fed than they put in.

Laci (01:03:06):

They don’t put any money in.

Matt (01:03:07):

They do. They have to put in some money because they need-

Laci (01:03:10):

Oh, that’s what’s full in the bins.

Matt (01:03:12):

Yep. Okay.

Laci (01:03:13):

Because

Matt (01:03:13):

They need to be able to sneak Donnie in to get into the building. Yeah.

Laci (01:03:16):

It’s just like the second one. Part one is just, we see them finishing it up. We barely see it.

Matt (01:03:22):

And then

Laci (01:03:22):

Part two is the rest of it.

Matt (01:03:25):

I don’t know. It’s so cool. It’s like we could have been watching the movie that was the heist of the stadium because that’s … Yeah. So then Donnie’s like, “All right, I told you everything I know. Can I leave?” And just chewing some donuts or whatever. You just keep doing what you’re doing.

Laci (01:03:40):

Well, this is when he’s choked out too, the thing that we talked about, how realistic, how little choking out it takes before you realize, “I’m going to die right here. I need to breathe.” Did he ever get hit in the throat? That shit fucks with you for hours, if not days. So anyway, just some great realism. His eyes are bloodshot for the rest of the time, all that.

Matt (01:04:01):

See him later on the bus and he’s still coughing.

Laci (01:04:03):

And it’s a smart way to rough him up too, right? Because if he shows up with a black eye or a busted lip, his friends are going to be like, “What happened?” Choke him out, beat him with some oranges, whatever it is the guys are doing these days.

Matt (01:04:14):

So Gerard Butler drives home at six in the morning and he goes into the … It’s now we’ve learned like the first episode of Mad Men. Wait, he has a family?

Laci (01:04:24):

Yeah, but he pulls up on the curb. He doesn’t pull up in the driveway. And so I’m like, “Is this his sister? This does not look like a house he’d live in. ” So it’s not until she’s pissed.

Matt (01:04:33):

But I think that’s the point. He just

Laci (01:04:35):

Doesn’t fit in here.

Matt (01:04:36):

He has drawings on the fridge and everything you’re like, “Jesus.”

Laci (01:04:39):

This woman’s gone out of her way to make a very orderly house and you’re drinking from the carton you asshole. Just this act saying the single thing of him drinking out of the carton is to show you, I care about no one fucking else in this house.

Matt (01:04:52):

Yep. And as he’s doing that, he’s deleting stuff from his phone and then his wife just comes in. She’s like, “You’re deleting your calls.” And he’s like, “What do you talk about, babe? I don’t know the first thing about technology just because it’s an act for everybody. I’m just a big dumboaf. I don’t know how to work the phone contraption.” He’s like, “You clearly texted your mistress. You accidentally texted me instead of your mistress.” Something like, “Hey, babe, you’re so hot when you suck my whatever.”

Laci (01:05:16):

And it’s not even that graphic. It’s just something it’s so hot when something that clearly had nothing to do with their conversation. It’s the best because it’s such a throw. It’s not sensational. It’s not nothing. I mean, it’s so every day and it’s how people get caught all the time. The time I had a boyfriend that cheated on me, I just saw his phone light up. I miss you, babe. I’m like, “What the fuck is this?

Matt (01:05:40):

” And he can’t even, he’s just kind of half our … Come on. It’s like a street act I have to perform, but he knows she leaves the room and she’s like, “Fuck, fuck.” And he just knows it. It’s over. And she leaves and he is being a … I mean, we’ve seen a million versions of the wife takes the kids. This is one of the most interesting versions I’ve ever seen where he’s being an asshole and physically getting in her way and stuff and still ultimately lets her leave.

Laci (01:06:10):

Because he’s a threat and he’s a menacing guy, but he’s not a bad guy. The most menacing he is when he shows up at her sister’s house or whatever and whatever that’s that scene is terrifying. He probably won’t do any domestic violence, but he’s so capable and he injures people for a living. He’s just such a dangerous person to share a house with if you don’t have his skills too. So that just does a good job at showing how threatening he is without even moving his hands in her direction.

Matt (01:06:45):

And this scene and that scene are him totally owning how ugly this character is. Now we go into the mission prep section of the movie. They’re going to rob the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Bank, it’s the bank where banks deposit their money. The place is case proof. 53 break in attempts. None even got past the lobby. And the whole thing, I think I understand this. I’ve seen the movie now three times. I think I understand what they’re trying to do.

Laci (01:07:10):

I understand it.

Matt (01:07:10):

Okay. That every bill, every cash note that goes and is deposited into the Federal Reserve, they send it through the system. Every bill has a serial number on it and the federals are regularly disposes of bills that are too old. And when that happens, it deletes that serial number from the records and then it sends it off to be shredded. Any bank that’s robbed anywhere in the world, the serial numbers are registered so it’s relatively easy to track. So they’re like, if we can get to the money after it’s been deleted from the system, but before it’s been shredded, that money doesn’t exist, but we can spend it.

Laci (01:07:51):

Yep.

Matt (01:07:52):

Okay. Still, you got it. Still, it’s like, oh god damn. I don’t know why that was so hard for me to be able to put that all together. It’s not a problem for me while I watch it because I’m like, oh, now they got to do … Yeah, do the thing and now getting … Ooh, you got to throw it down that garbage shoot. Okay, yes. But when I try to actually sit down and explain it for whatever reason, it’s hard for me.

Laci (01:08:12):

I would like to know a little bit more about what makes money time to go. Is it literally when it changes the way it looks like when we were freaking kids and it went from the little face 20s to the big face, the dollar bills and money that looks completely different from the ones we grew up with? I

Matt (01:08:27):

Don’t know.

Laci (01:08:27):

Because that makes sense because there’s all kinds of fibers and little hallucinogens? No?

Matt (01:08:36):

Hallucinogens, yes.

Laci (01:08:39):

And it’s a different weight and stuff. So I get how there could be a machine that could sort easily between those two things, but is that the movie? The movie. The money they’re still trying to get out of the system is people’s

Matt (01:08:50):

Oldest. I think that and anything new that’s just too worn down.

Laci (01:08:53):

Yes. But then how is there a machine that can tell that that’s what’s going on with the money?

Matt (01:08:56):

Because it’s the best. All

Laci (01:08:58):

Right.

Matt (01:08:59):

What they’re going to do is Donny’s going to get a job at a Chinese food restaurant near the Fed that regularly delivers food into the Fed. And so we get to watch the process of him getting that job and then having to walk into the Federal Reserve and check in and the elaborate process you have to go to just to get entry into the building.

Laci (01:09:16):

Yeah. For the man who’s the driver, he sure does do a lot of the job and it makes so much more sense on a second watching. Why would they leave it to this guy to get a job at the Chinese place to be the one that stuffs himself inside the little money thing and does all the work? Why would it be the driver? That’s a good point. That does this. That’s because it was always his plan. He’s the one that knows everything. The little colloquialism’s the best. He’s the most unassuming of them all and he has the smallest record.

Matt (01:09:45):

I thought that that was it, that he’s the one with the least criminal record, so he’s the one who’s going to draw the least attention. And also just the most amiable personality. He’s going to be able to charm everybody.

Laci (01:09:54):

The first time I watched it, I was just like, “Oh, he just feels weird because he’s been implicated with cops and I need to prove himself.” That’s why he’s doing this part. It’s like, why would it be up to you?

Matt (01:10:04):

Yeah.

Laci (01:10:05):

I’ll

Matt (01:10:06):

Do it. But he goes and delivers Chinese food to these two women who are just in the cafeteria of the Federal Reserve.

Laci (01:10:13):

It’s so relatable.

Matt (01:10:14):

But he also has another paper bag, which he leaves in a light duct in the bathroom. I love that throughout the Federal Reserve Bank, there’s a giant $100 bill that’s framed in the bathroom, a giant framed $100 bill. This is where it all started. All the thieves are eating at a hibachi restaurant and then Nick’s crew comes in and he just goes over to talk to them and he pretends like he knows Donnie from the gym. And just like in heat, Al Pacino and Robert Dinio are the first movie they were ever in together, but they’re only in two scenes together and you have to wait an hour and a half for them to even be in the same scene and it’s the diner scene where it’s like finally they’re going to sit, oh yes, you and I were kind of exactly the same. We’re on different sides of the law.

(01:10:57):

And this version is like the deformed, uneloquent, unlike refined version of that because it’s just Gerard Butler just being an asshole and talking about like, you used to play football and saying vaguely racist things about the football players he used to play with. All of this to get them to start suspecting Donnie because afterward they’re like, “How the fuck did that guy know you? It’s not from the gym.”

Laci (01:11:22):

Yes. I mean, but we’re kind of giving him a lot of credit to say that he had any plan at all with this. He seemed to just be wanting to make Donnie unstable and like, remember I can fuck up your life. In fact, I’m inconveniencing it right now. Maybe it’ll be fine. Plausible deniability, but I will just keep popping up. Isn’t that fun? And you’ve got this ragtag group of thieves who are with their families eating hibachi that’s like super, that’s very wholesome. They’re just all deciding about to eat together. But then these cops who are after hours, not with their families that are just still at work for some fucking reason and then this one drunk one that’s like, “I’m going to go talk to these fucking guys.” It’s like

Matt (01:12:02):

Goofy. Foodie fucking sucks too.

Laci (01:12:04):

Right. Who’s the unhinged one? Who’s the unpredictable one? Who’s the actual dangerous one here?

Matt (01:12:09):

Right. And I know it’s like an old cliche like, “Oh, the robbers are more honorable than the cops.” And that’s not exactly what’s going on in this movie, but it is very clear that …

Laci (01:12:21):

It’s a thin blue line

Matt (01:12:23):

That

Laci (01:12:23):

Separates us all.

Matt (01:12:24):

There’s at least one group you’d much rather have a meal with. So the scene that we’ve talked about where Nick’s soon to be ex- wife is at friends or a family member’s house or something- She’s staying

Laci (01:12:37):

With her sister.

Matt (01:12:37):

This is

Laci (01:12:38):

Her sister.

Matt (01:12:38):

And has maybe a new boyfriend, maybe not. It’s kind of nebulous.

Laci (01:12:43):

It looks like it’s just some guy that came over to talk with them and it could just be totally innocent, but it is so uncomfortable.

Matt (01:12:49):

So what does he do?

Laci (01:12:51):

Well, he walks in uninvited. He’s clearly drunk. God, he’s so familiar character to me. He’s been served with divorce papers and I guess that embarrassed him because it happened in front of his friends. So he wants to make a big show out of signing them. He didn’t bring the signed papers. He brings a lot of the papers to plop on the counter. Give me a pen. Just anywhere? Have you never seen a fucking legal document? There’s probably a line.

Matt (01:13:17):

But first says to the maybe new boyfriend, “How’s the wine here?” Goes over, takes his glass and drinks from, he’s like, “It’s pretty fucking good.”

Laci (01:13:24):

Oh yeah. I mean, he’s all in the new guy’s space and implying that he thinks he’s fucking his wife. I mean, we have no proof of that, but he just keeps touching everything and everybody.

Matt (01:13:37):

And he says, we don’t have to spell it out in here in these documents, and all of it’s like, “I’m the bigger man here. I’m signing these documents. I’m letting my wife free, but you even talk to my daughters and let’s just say and just …

Laci (01:13:51):

“

Matt (01:13:51):

Yeah, I’m a cop. I can fucking kill you and do whatever I want. And the other people are just like, “Come on, Nick. Nick, I think it’s time to leave. Nick, I think it’s time.”

Laci (01:14:00):

And he shows his strength a couple times by, “Get the fuck off.” Those fast, lightning fast, hard movements where you’re going to hurt someone’s arm who’s just trying to guide you out by doing that. You’re going to give them a bruise. You can let someone know so quick, if you swung and punched me, you would ruin my month.

Matt (01:14:17):

And the wife says, “You always have to make a big scene, Nick.” And he just says, “Yeah, pretty much.” There’s no one line. All I could think is this is the most unlikeable thing that a hero of a movie I can remember doing. It’s truly disgusting. And I could see Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis or somebody in a 1991 movie doing this exact scene and it being cool and it being like, “Ha ha, he’s making that new loser look like a real fool.”

Laci (01:14:44):

Show

Matt (01:14:45):

That bitch ex- wife. And he would say something cool rather than just, “Yeah, pretty much.”

Laci (01:14:50):

And this is more and more still exploring what it means to be male in the world. Clearly the wife’s husband works out. He looks fit. He’s got a relationship with Nick and he’s like, “Hey, I was going to call you. I was going to take you to lunch.” But Nick is freaking out the women and so he’s like, “Okay, I guess I have to escort this fucking man meat out of the … ” Come on, Nick. Luckily he’s taller than him, but he’s a buff what you would think of as an all- American guy, but against someone who doesn’t care about the law, what does it matter You are no match for someone like Nick. Yeah, this

Matt (01:15:30):

Feral Scottish animal.

Laci (01:15:31):

And then this tiny man who’s smaller still than even the brother-in-law, you’re so fucked, you’re about to suck his little titties or whatever because he’s like, “Come on, give me a hug.” And he fucking does it and he gives him the tightest hug and makes him go to his bosom. He puts them to his chest like a baby. It’s so fucking uncomfortable

Matt (01:15:54):

And still it’s a little funny. Still I’m like, “God damn it, Gerard.”

Laci (01:15:57):

Yeah, but you’ve ruined this man’s ability to get a hard on. If that were the guy that came over to talk to me, I would just feel bad for him. I don’t think I’d hold it against him, but how could that guy not hold it against himself after being seen? Also, it’s like, do I like this woman enough to have that in my life for the rest of the-

Matt (01:16:20):

I know. That’s okay.

Laci (01:16:23):

There’s no kind of, sorry guys, we’re all used goods unless you’re getting someone fresh out of a cracked egg, you got to deal with their exes and if they’ve got kids with them, you might as well consider that person your new friend.

Matt (01:16:37):

Yeah, you will and it’s fine.That’s how you can level up if you’re somebody like me to somebody like Laci.

Laci (01:16:43):

He leveled up.

Matt (01:16:45):

So Nic goes and meets up with Donnie at a men’s apparel store and Donnie tells them that the heist will be happening on Friday, but then we find out, oh, that was on Ray’s instructions. And then Nick goes to where Ray is shooting at a gun range and Nick goes to the thing next to him and they start shooting at the same time. Who is

Laci (01:17:01):

Ray?

Matt (01:17:02):

Merriman. Ray Merriman. And then Nick pulls the sheet back like, “Ooh, who did a better job at shooting the gun good? Oh, he’s 10 billion times better at shooting guns than I am. Okay, great.”

Laci (01:17:15):

Well, and Maryman has what Nick wants at the end of the day. Maryman’s in a relationship. Murrayman has friends who hang out with him after work. They go to dinner together. They’re all at this gun range together. We’re Nick’s friends. They do a good job of showing how the police are not as tight a gang as the actual gang. He’s mainly on his own all the time. He doesn’t have a best friend. There’s no one in the cop gang you get attached to and that’s on purpose.

Matt (01:17:43):

Yeah. We didn’t mention the scene at 50 Cents House where his daughter’s getting picked up for the prom and then he takes the prom date. He’s like, “Hey, let me just have a little man to man chat with your son and brings him into the garage.” And then his entire crew of terrifying men is in there.

Laci (01:17:57):

And they all know what role they’re going to play. It’s like a bit they’ve done before. You can just tell their friends. They all got each other’s back and they know exactly what he’s looking to get out of this performance and then they all laugh their asses off afterward because this is not to be Toronto about it, but this is a family. Toretto. It’s Canadian.

Matt (01:18:19):

The thing is, yeah, Gerard Butler would never have a group to do that with. No,

Laci (01:18:23):

He’s

Matt (01:18:23):

A one- Just to have fun.

Laci (01:18:25):

He’s a loner and it makes sense why in the second one, spoiler alert, he’s with Donnie. Donnie’s a loner too. Donnie protects his crew, but Donny does not think of himself as having people who are on his level. He allows the crew to stay his crew. But I feel like in the second one, two loners who think of themselves with very high regard.

Matt (01:18:47):

I think the first time I saw the movie, there’s the scene where Gerard goes to Gerard Butler as Nick O’Brien, big Nick O’Brien, goes to talk to his daughter who’s on the playground, come talk to me and it’s a very sad scene. And then afterward Gerard Butler goes to his truck and cries. The first time I saw it, I was like, “Okay, come on. ” About him crying. Of course he cried. “Would this guy cry/do we need to see this? “And now he has the self-awareness to recognize that I have absolutely nothing. I’ve destroyed everything good in my life and none of it in pursuit of anything good or admirable.

Laci (01:19:23):

Well, and also I’m not capable of change. He knows that. She’s so heartbroken to leave him. It’s not like he’s cheated on her a bunch of times. She’s not over it and this was the last straw. She’s crying. She loves him. She doesn’t want to be divorcing him and he doesn’t try to talk her out of it at all and doesn’t spend any time going to see her. That is why we get introduced to her. It’s why we see that he cares about the kids, but he cares about them just enough for it to torment him because he knows he doesn’t care about it enough to change or to have some kind of other job.

Matt (01:20:01):

And she says,” I’ll go find a man whose cock will get hard for me, “which is to try to demean him in a language he can understand, but it’s also like she’s heartbroken that she is not enough for him.

Laci (01:20:13):

Yeah. Well, and that he’s got PTSD too. He’s also got prison brain or whatever. I mean, because of the shit he’s seen and done, the chemicals he takes, the way he lives his life, he can’t get a fucking erection.

Matt (01:20:28):

Yeah, that would be insulting. If you’re Harvey Weinstein and need to inject your dick to get hard and you’re still cheating on me, come on, you won’t even do it with me. Well,

Laci (01:20:38):

Because there’s an amount of shame when you’re around someone you respect, your wife who may have known you in a different way and who you don’t think you’re good enough for, but that’s why it’s a sex worker, right? Because then you can pretend you have some sort of moral superiority and you’re not embarrassed if your dick is soft at first and can get over it and then eventually get a hard dick as she works through it. But with your own wife, maybe mentally you can’t start soft. They just don’t have that kind of relationship and he doesn’t have that kind of relationship with himself.

Matt (01:21:10):

If you dick can’t get hard, fellas, you just go downtown, that’s all you got to do. Come on.

Laci (01:21:14):

Not everybody is around … Matt, Jesus Christ.

Matt (01:21:16):

Gerard.

Laci (01:21:17):

Our children

Matt (01:21:17):

Listen to it. Dig Nick. Well, after this, Nic goes to visit a strip club where Ray Merriman’s girlfriend works.

Laci (01:21:27):

I am so confused by this. I figured it out, but I’m like, wait, Nic already got an apartment? Good for him. Already back on his feet because I don’t know that he went to this strip club to once again fuck with Merryman or if it’s just the one that’s around because we find out later it’s the girlfriend of Maryman who’s been told to do something because Maryman anticipates this in some way and she suggests that they go have sex at his house or whatever and that’s when she gives-

Matt (01:21:59):

At her house.

Laci (01:22:00):

At her house.

Matt (01:22:01):

Well,

Laci (01:22:01):

It seems to be Maryman’s house too.

Matt (01:22:03):

Oh, sorry. Yeah.

Laci (01:22:04):

Yeah. And that’s when she is able to give him some-

Matt (01:22:08):

The location of the heist. It’s at Pico Rialto at the little savings and loan bank. That’s where we’re going to hit on Friday because he already knew it has going to happen on Friday.

Laci (01:22:18):

Yes.

Matt (01:22:18):

Now he knows where.

Laci (01:22:19):

Anyway, when you’re watching it though, Maryman just walked … Okay, so we already know Nick has now interrupted two or three things with Merryman and his crew. That’s a funny thing to say. And so that’s how he’s showing how dangerous he is. I’m just going to show up everywhere. I just know where you are. So I think Nic is letting his guard down, having sex with a woman and then Maryman walks into his apartment, Nick’s apartment like, I’m just walking in now and then goes in his bedroom and I’m like, Maryman, whoa, what a move. Not realizing, oh, this is his apartment.

Matt (01:22:53):

So much confidence.

Laci (01:22:55):

This is crazy.

Matt (01:22:57):

Now me and me and Gerard Butler are sleeping in the same bed spooning each other. We’re

Laci (01:23:01):

Just ironically looking at each other and smiling like, yeah, we’re dominating this shit out of each other right now.

Matt (01:23:06):

We’re at the movies holding hands. Oh shit the heist. Now it’s time for the heist. The heist begins. It happens at the Pico Rivera savings and loan. Now one thing I love about this movie is like the locations are just like shitty strip malls and stuff. I mean, except for the Fed, but the bank that they hit is not like a grand freestanding bank. It’s just like-

Laci (01:23:30):

Because it’s not about the bank. The bank’s

Matt (01:23:32):

Instruction. No, I know that, but it’s also, this is just, you wouldn’t even notice a place like this. This is like an invisible place. Pico Rivera savings and loan next to a family dollar.

Laci (01:23:41):

And that is the point because they need to also have a drop coming from there and they need to be able to be late from there. Where if it’s a Chase Morgan, maybe they already know the guys who work for Chase Morgan. You’re not the delivery guys for them. Also, they run their ship tight as a drum. Anyway, there’s a reason it’s a mom and pop bank.

Matt (01:24:03):

So they go in, they zip tie all the customers of the bank and they’re like, “We’re not going to hurt you. You are going to be here for a long time, which I would be way more devastated to hear the second thing. Just hurt me. Just hurt me and let me go, please. If you’ve got to use the bathroom, piss yourself.” But they are playing the roles of bank robbers. They’re yelling at the bank manager, “Get on the phone with the cops. We need, hello, we need a chopper and $10 million and full of gas.” And they’re all just saying things from movies. And as Nick hears all of this, he’s like, “What the fuck is going on? This is not what they do. I know something is wrong.” And then the FBI cuck shows up and he’s like, “Nick, goddammit, we got to get in there with the … ” But Nick, so he could tell something’s off.

(01:24:46):

Ray says, “We’re going to kill a hostage every hour that we don’t get our chopper.” And then the negotiator, just like in movies, is like, “We’re going to get you your chopper, but it’s going to take some time.” Because it always takes some time.

Laci (01:24:55):

Red tape, man. They need to just have a chopper with money inside of it ready for these situations.

Matt (01:25:02):

So they go ahead and kill a hostage, but we don’t see it very notably. And I love that the negotiator hears the gun go off on the phone and just like, “God damn it. ” The killed one.

Laci (01:25:14):

You know how bad I look for the … This is literally my only job.

Matt (01:25:18):

And then Nick Ray gets on his cell phone and calls Nick in the parking lot. He’s like, “Hey, hey bud, you watching?” “Yeah. How are you going to get out of this one? “He’s like, ” Not sure yet, but I ain’t cuffing up. You’re not going to take me alive, copper. “Outside the cops hear something blow up. They assume it’s the vault, but Nick’s not convinced. And then he’s looking at the maps. He’s like, ” Oh my God, the sewers. That’s what they’re doing.

Laci (01:25:43):

“I knew circus music. It’s penny wise at it again.

Matt (01:25:47):

Of course they broke into the banks in order to go down into the sewer and go that away. Yes, the perfect crime. I

Laci (01:25:55):

Mean, he’s confused the whole time, but he’s very like, this one’s fun to hunt, jumps in those sewers and runs a very long time before he’s like, ” I need my car. Fucking go back.

Matt (01:26:07):

“Goes into the bank, realizes … Well, no, he sells everybody like, ” Fuck it, I’m going in. “He could

Laci (01:26:12):

Just

Matt (01:26:12):

Tell- Lone Wolf going in.

Laci (01:26:14):

Yeah. He’s like, ” No, this doesn’t make sense.

Matt (01:26:16):

“And the FBI agent’s like, ” What the fuck? Is he off his meds or what? “And one of Nick’s cop partners says to the FBI guy, he’s like, ” Hey man, fuck you. “And I think my favorite moment in the movie is right before it cuts, the guy who says fuck you to the Fed turns over to his buddy and gives him a little smile like. I

Laci (01:26:35):

Did a Nick. I did a big Nick while Nick was in here.

Matt (01:26:39):

So Nic walks into the bank, the hostages are all there, including the one they pretended to kill, no sign of the thieves. But uh-oh, the thieves have blown a hole in the floor and gotten into the sewers. The Pico Rivera thing was just a distraction or was there something in there they needed?

Laci (01:26:56):

Well, it was a distraction, but it was also to stop the regular delivery and deposit coming from that bank to go in the truck that it would’ve gone in and at the time it was going to go in. No one at the Federal Reserve knows that bank’s being robbed right now. They haven’t had time to get to that. So whenever they get a call saying that they forgot to make a drop for this bank, can we come now? Can we have a spot now? They’re like, oh yeah, come. So because that bank has not come yet. I mean, that truck has not come yet and they are expecting it that day even though it’s late.

Matt (01:27:28):

Okay. So Pablo Schreiber and 50 cent get into the truck that is delivering what is supposed to be the Pico Rivera deposit of cash in the two cash bins. And now just the absolute best 30 minutes of the movie, the Fed heist where they’re just getting to see the inner workings of all these people doing their jobs and Pablo Schreiber is so great here just doing his little idol chill. How you doing? Yeah. Oh, we’re running into traffic. So sorry about that. I just love this kind of like basic bullshit small talk that they’re doing. But I think that the director is such a good ear for the way people will talk when they’re just doing these mundane things they’ve done a million times before. And I’ve said it already, but this guard working at the Fed is like, “You guys are late.” And he’s like, “Oh yeah, sorry about that.

(01:28:14):

We ran into traffic.”

Laci (01:28:15):

Just don’t be late.

Matt (01:28:17):

So next time, just have your guys call it in and Pablo Schreiber’s like, “Yeah, man, that’s totally…” And the guy interrupts him like, “Hey, next time, just call it in. “

Laci (01:28:25):

Right. He’s like, “Do you understand that we have 150 of these every single day? I need you to just … You’re even making me later. Just go. “

Matt (01:28:33):

See, you could read it that way or you could just read it like these people, it doesn’t matter what they did for a living. They would be like, “Hey, if your library materials are going to be late, give us a call. I don’t want you to get those library late fees next

Laci (01:28:46):

Time.”That’s the exact kind of guy you need working at a place like this because it’s just employees. You’ve got the people who are highly trained, but then you’re relying on the heart and soul of it, which is the guy in the blue shirt who’s making the count and doing … They can’t do any … Even the security guards can’t get into the glass counting room because only these two guys have access to that. But these two guys are military trained. They’re trained with this machine. It’s just, I don’t know, you need a certain kind of person, but you can tell it’s a militant vibe in that building. It looks like a government building. It runs like a government building.

Matt (01:29:23):

It is a government building.

Laci (01:29:24):

I know. And that’s why it looks so familiar to me because just going to different places for when I worked at a law firm- Yeah, different courthouses. Yes, that is exactly what a cafeteria looks like in one of these places. This is how employees look. This is what it’s like to try to get through the front and to get your purse through and all this stupid shit you got to do.

Matt (01:29:45):

Federal buildings all kind of look the same. State buildings, state courthouses all look kind of different, but in this … Or no, they all look-

Laci (01:29:51):

Different

Matt (01:29:51):

But in the same way. Different but in the same way. Yes, exactly. They

Laci (01:29:53):

All look dated from whenever it is that they were built, but there’s still a government building, meaning funds would have to go into any kind of room Model or redecoration, so it just doesn’t happen. It’s like, no, the year that this building was built is forever what this building will look like. So all the state ones are just stale in the same way, a lot of wood.

Matt (01:30:12):

The whole thing is they’re pushing these bins full of cash in and Donnie’s in the middle of all the cash. They’ve made it look like this thing is full to the brim with cash, but they’ve just lined the sides with cash so you can’t see him on the inside. And they go in, they send it into the room where the guys do the count. The count’s going to take a while so you guys just go and chill and get yourself a Coke or something. So they go and get themselves a Coke or something and then they set off their little like, “We have an EMP to shut off the cameras and a virus that’ll shut down the whatever.”

Laci (01:30:40):

Whatever they got.

Matt (01:30:41):

Yeah. And Donnie just goes to the big vault that has all the cash that’s in just the 2B shredded drawer of cash and just as quickly as he can gets all of the cash he can, puts it into garbage bags and just throws them down the garbage chute. It’s so good.

Laci (01:30:56):

It’s so good.

Matt (01:30:58):

And it works.

Laci (01:30:59):

And this is another fucking building that’s got man-size vents. Without man-size vents, there would be no

Matt (01:31:06):

Heisting of any

Laci (01:31:06):

Kind. Huh?

Matt (01:31:07):

The whole thing falls apart. Yeah.

Laci (01:31:09):

I mean, I’m like, how’s he getting out? He’s going back in the bin. Is he going to go through the shutter? Is he going in the trash? What the fuck’s happening? And then I’m like, oh, there’s a Donny … And he’s not a small man. There’s a dinny size air vent in this fucking place. What a great security system.

Matt (01:31:23):

And he also had to bring the Chinese food with him in the cash bin. No, he didn’t.

Laci (01:31:28):

The Chinese food is in the light thing that he put up in there days ago.

Matt (01:31:33):

The same Chinese food? Wait.

Laci (01:31:34):

Yes,

Matt (01:31:35):

That’s why she spits it out. He put Chinese food.

Laci (01:31:37):

He brings two bags of an identical order assuming these women are going to order the same thing twice. And so he brings it, pretends he has to deliver the other one, just goes in the bathroom, puts it in the light. And then because he knows they’re going to accept it. It just needs to work long enough for them to look at it and say, “Yeah, this is my food.” And that’s why she spits it out and she’s like, “I’m not paying for this. “

Matt (01:32:01):

See, I assumed it was just like, this smells like it’s been sitting in a cash bin for two hours. No, thank you. He gets out of there. It’s taking him longer and it seems like the whole thing is going to collapse because these women called

Laci (01:32:12):

They don’t like the taste of their food.

Matt (01:32:14):

But it’s only one of the women. The other one’s like, “You’re being way too finicky.” And she’s like, “No, I’m calling. I’m getting my money back.” So she calls down the front desk and the front desk guy here is receiving this, “That guy committed a crime. Stop him, but it’s just stop him. I want to yell at him for poor customer service.” And the guy’s like, “Stop that guy in the very noticeable red shirt.” And then Gerard but look at him. None of that

Laci (01:32:35):

Happens.

Matt (01:32:36):

It does happen. No,

Laci (01:32:37):

That call happens, but he never gets stopped.

Matt (01:32:39):

No, I know. He’s too far away, but the guy does say, “We need to stop that guy,” or whatever.

Laci (01:32:44):

It does happen, but nothing ever actually comes of that except for that it took him a little bit longer to get out.

Matt (01:32:51):

That’s all. But it’s

Laci (01:32:52):

Thrilling. It is drill, yes.

Matt (01:32:53):

This is the kind of movie where the whole thing would be ruined because of bad customer service because that falls just in line with we are just trying to take any … We just want some dignity. We just want to be respected and customer service sadly is like the only area where we can be little Lords. If you take an Uber, you’re like, “Oh yes, I’m like a rich person being chauffeured around. Oh, you brought me food at my place of business.” It better

Laci (01:33:15):

Be hot.

Matt (01:33:15):

No tip for you. I’m afraid. In fact, I might have to talk to your boss. Oh,

Laci (01:33:19):

Got you. Okay.

Matt (01:33:20):

Anyway.

Laci (01:33:23):

I guess I was only pointing it out and being a stickler because I’m of the mind that he always intended to get caught because he also immediately tells them where the rendezvous point is. So I’m like, damn it, Donnie, you could have … If they catch him at the rendezvous point, all the money’s gone. You could at least lie or stall or something so they can finish what they’re doing. That’s my point. I think he wanted them to get held up because they’re picking up money that isn’t there. They’re putting bags of stuff in the car that are full of nothing.

Matt (01:33:54):

Where did the money

Laci (01:33:55):

Go? I’d have to watch it again to figure that out, but it just went to a different crew person, I think. That’s why that Samoan guy gets so upset because he calls Merryman to say, “Donnie’s burned. Donnie’s burned.” And he won’t respond to the guy on the phone because he’s like, “This doesn’t make sense. This guy’s burned too.” And he hangs up. And at that moment, that crew guy thinks he fucked up because he’s like, “He knows I’m in on it because he’s part of Donnie’s crew.”

(01:34:23):

I go back to the name of the movie, Den of Thieves. And then the idea of that, the whole thought behind that is if we’re all here to commit a crime, how do we trust any of us? How we are all by definition criminals, we’re all okay with risky shit and alliances are, “Can I trust the fact that you were a Marine? Can I trust the fact that we did football together? Which one of those bonds is stronger? Can I trust the fact that me and you are cops?” Which one of these gangs has a code and inside those gangs, who’s bonded to each other?

Matt (01:34:59):

And do bonds-

Laci (01:35:00):

Alliances are shifting constantly and that’s true whether you’re a thief or not.

Matt (01:35:05):

And bonds mean something, but they’re also easily dissolvable in the face of something like, oh, a lot of money. When money, there is a price at which everybody is willing to do anything. There is a number that can get high enough where it’s like, “Yeah, I’ll betray my best friend.” The whole thing is like, we need to steal the garbage truck with the cash in it that was supposed to be shredded. They think they’re delivering shredded money to the dump. No, they’re distributing bags full of tens of millions of dollars. We got to seal that garbage truck and then that’s that. We’ve made it scot free, but they catch Donnie. Donnie tells them where to go and then they pursue Gerard Butler and his guys- That’s where

Laci (01:35:44):

The money went. There’s two garbage trucks and the two guys nodded each other. They both face each other in the garbage trucks, the one that has the money, the one that has bags that look like the money. They nod each other and one goes one way and one goes the other way. So one goes the Donny way and the other one goes to the Rendezvous. That’s what it is.

Matt (01:36:04):

Gerard Butler and his guys are in his giant pickup truck pursuing Ray and his guys in their giant pickup truck. These are just big old American men and they’re big pickup trucks, but they get caught in a traffic jam. Which

Laci (01:36:14):

Is so … Yeah, you’re in LA.

Matt (01:36:16):

That’s

Laci (01:36:17):

Going to happen anywhere. But think about it, Matt, where is this? He might has to get roughed up and punched a couple times, enough times to be like, “The rendezvous point was here.” But where’s a safer place than pursuing the gang he’s trying to get over on, not in front of them and he’s not being pursued by the cops. He’s already been caught. He wanted to get caught.

Matt (01:36:39):

Okay. Okay. The only thing I dislike about that is in the beating a dead horse is the whole mastermind thing. It’s like you can know that, you can be that smart. You even anticipated that.

Laci (01:36:50):

But they’ve already made it very, very clear that he’s not a physical person. He’s not a fighter. Marymay even shows him how to use a gun. What he has, his only weapon is that he can think through scenarios and he’s usually the smartest person in the room. So I think it’s okay that … I mean, what was he going to do in a foot race with these guys? He would be last. He’s not athletically. It works for me.

Matt (01:37:19):

I love Merriman and 50 Cent, just the sort of casual resignation, like we’re fucked. They’re over there. They’re in traffic, but they’re like, I don’t know, half a mile away. So we got to shoot our way out of this. And they just methodically put on their tactical vests, take out this insane military grade gun and then they’re all just arming themselves.

Laci (01:37:41):

But they

Matt (01:37:42):

Have such

Laci (01:37:42):

A plan, right? They’ve been through this before. They know what they need to do to cover each other. Two of them, they say move. And two of them move as one person has a gun. They know what order they’re in. They say move. The next person covers the other two. It’s like red light, green light.

Matt (01:37:56):

And

Laci (01:37:56):

They beautifully make their way through.

Matt (01:37:58):

Yeah. And the cops are not. The cops are just like, they’re good. They’re better than you or I would be, but they do not have the expertise that these guys do. But they do have the weapons because we got to give those cops these weapons. And who knows how many civilians die in this firefight? I really did

Laci (01:38:11):

Want to know. I wanted some little wrap up.

Matt (01:38:14):

But ultimately 50 Cent gets killed and- A

Laci (01:38:17):

Cop does too.

Matt (01:38:18):

And a cop does too. And sort of Gus is the black cop who works with Gerard Butler. I forget the actor’s name. This guy is such a presence. He’s the one who’s with 50 Cent as he’s dying. And 50 Cent doesn’t give like some big eloquent like, “Oh, I’m dying. Oh, he just says my kids like

Laci (01:38:36):

My kids, my

Matt (01:38:37):

Kids.” And the guy’s just like, “You’re in God’s hands now.” And that’s it. There’s no meaning to any of this. You’re just dead man.

Laci (01:38:45):

It’s a very human thing to do.

Matt (01:38:47):

They were very human with each other.

Laci (01:38:48):

Yeah.

Matt (01:38:49):

It’s like, I mean, congratulations. All of this was for fucking nothing. And then Gerard Butler pursues Pablo Schreiber and Paulo Schreiber, the superior physically and intellectually, he just is at the disadvantage of the state is pursuing me and the state will always win. The state has more resources and because he’s the one chasing me, he’s always going to have that advantage. He happens to shoot me, he happens to shoot him and then that’s that and he’s dead. But I mean, this is shot like Black Hawk Down or something. This is shot like a war movie, but it’s in the streets of Los Angeles. And so the movie I kept thinking about this time watching it was No Country for Old Men, which I think is a movie about the phrase the war comes home. You fight these wars overseas, then you bring the people home and now the violence is here because we’re not doing it over there.

(01:39:36):

It needs a place to go. That’s

Laci (01:39:38):

Perfect.

Matt (01:39:39):

Yeah. And this movie was originally written in 2003. The Forever Wars hadn’t even really started, but it’s like we’re always going to be doing this. We’re always going to be taking young men and sending them somewhere and training them to

Laci (01:39:49):

Do this. And then those men are going to come home and have kids and make dysfunctional adults.

Matt (01:39:55):

And then they get to the truck with the garbage bags in it. Donnie is gone. They’re like, “What the fuck?” And then we start getting some usual suspects, flashbacks like, “Ooh, he pickpocketed his way out of the handcuffs.” Wow.

Laci (01:40:09):

Yeah. He had that on him, Matt.

Matt (01:40:11):

Yeah. Okay. Yes.

Laci (01:40:12):

And the dangling handcuff, it gets very usual suspects, especially when he goes to the bar and he starts looking around at all the objects on the fucking wall.

Matt (01:40:20):

That’s the only thing I dislike in the entire movie.

Laci (01:40:22):

I like it.

Matt (01:40:24):

So the garbage bags in the truck are just the shredded ones. They’re like, “The did all this to steal shredded money? What were they going to make 10,000 snow clobs?” “Hey, did you hear what I said? I said 10,000 snowblobs. “Now it’s a montage and Gerard Butler goes back to the hof sprout. He’s like, ” Where’s Donnie? Like, Donnie, he hasn’t worked here in days. “And he looks up at the wall and he sees loose lips, sink ships. This is the thing Donnie said earlier in the movie. And yeah, it is getting a little usual. Oh my God, a photo of Donnie on a soccer team with the big Hawaiian guy. But

Laci (01:40:56):

It’s like, okay, so this is the first job Donnie’s done and he immediately knows the second one he’s going to do because that’s how the movie ends is him outside of the Diamond Exchange in London or France.

Matt (01:41:07):

It’s London.

Laci (01:41:07):

Okay. But no, this is his home. Well, it is. That is where he grew up. And he makes that very clear this is where he grew up, was in this area. But he’s such an employee that they let him hang up his soccer pitcher in the fucking bar. Would he grow up there?

Matt (01:41:23):

I figured the bar sponsored the soccer team.

Laci (01:41:26):

And he’s a child that now works there?

Matt (01:41:28):

No, but no, that happens. You go to your boss like, ” Hey, will you pay $100? We’ll put Hoff’s brow on the back of our jerseys. “We’ll hang up our picture in the bar. Come on. I

Laci (01:41:38):

Just thought he was a litle kid in it. No, no,

Matt (01:41:40):

No. I thought

Laci (01:41:41):

He was in college because they spend a lot of time talking about college ball and that goes nowhere.

Matt (01:41:48):

The black cop says two passports out of the streets. It’s sports in the military. These are the only avenues available to an America where there is no opportunity for anybody. But yes, turns out Donnie was the secret mastermind. And there was a thing where Ray earlier in the movie, 50 Cent asked him like, ” How do you know all this about the Fed? “He said

Laci (01:42:05):

Don’t worry.

Matt (01:42:05):

You don’t

Laci (01:42:06):

Want to know.

Matt (01:42:08):

Because it was Donnie because Donnie’s like, ” Hey, I have a super secret plan. “He’s like, ” But can you tell everybody that’s actually my plan please and that I’m really smart? “”Yeah, no problem. We can do it that way, buddy. Whatever you want. ” And the movie ends in London with O’Shea Jackson Jr. Now working at a bar now speaking with a British accent and these guys come in and he’s like, ” .” And he’s like, “I work in the whatever, the diamond house over there.”

Laci (01:42:33):

Let me buy you a point.

Matt (01:42:35):

Your job sounds super interesting. Why don’t you tell me all about it? Oh, that may tell you because people love to tell you about their jobs and that’s what the whole movie’s kind of about and that’s the movie.

Laci (01:42:45):

There you go.

Matt (01:43:03):

Final thoughts and star ratings for Dene Thieves 2018, Laci.

Laci (01:43:08):

Just a good little movie. I gave it four stars.

Matt (01:43:10):

Those

Laci (01:43:10):

Are nice boys.

Matt (01:43:11):

They are. Yep. I love this movie. It’s one of my favorite and now I feel like it’s our movie, me and Laci’s movie.

Laci (01:43:18):

It is because we are watching Dinner Thieves, half of it. The second one, I mean, what? Because I immediately wanted to watch the second one and we’re going to finish it tonight and it’s going to be great.

Matt (01:43:28):

And I feel like it’s a little lesser known than the movies we usually cover, so hopefully we can raise some attention for it. But I think that it has some really interesting things to say about life in America, about the lack of opportunities and the only way any of us conceive of anique sort of mobility is going to fight in the military and then when finding, oh, that has only destroyed my soul. Well, maybe I can use the things I’ve learned to enrich myself by stealing. And to do the kind of theft that is truly a victimless crime, we stole some cash that you were going to put in the shredder anyway. It’s my favorite Gerard Butler performance. I think it’s my favorite performance by everyone in this movie I think is great. And I think Danief Thee’s two is great. I’m going to go with four, fuck, five stars heart on Letterboxd.

Laci (01:44:13):

Yeah, I assume once it’s up to five,

Matt (01:44:15):

You’re going to heart

Laci (01:44:15):

That

Matt (01:44:16):

Shit. No. A lot of times you don’t heart the fuck because-

Laci (01:44:18):

I always heart everything.

Matt (01:44:20):

Oh, well that’s … Yeah. Anything

Laci (01:44:22):

Over three and a half I heart because what else does it mean?

Matt (01:44:25):

Because sometimes you want to signal like, “I know it’s not a perfect movie, but I love it. ” But then if you get to five stars, you’re like, “I want to show there’s a difference between five stars and five…” This five stars plus. Like our cinematic Joshua says there needs to be a six star. The problem with that is then it’s like, but then we need a seventh star.

Laci (01:44:43):

You need a six plus. Right.

Matt (01:44:45):

Follow us please. One week rental is our handle on all the social media, Facebook, one week rental on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blue sky, load, Instagram. Being

Laci (01:44:56):

Tormented.

Matt (01:44:57):

Instagram and TikTok. And you can follow me on Letterboxd at Matt’s 69. Follow Laci on Letterboxd at loadbearing Laci.

Laci (01:45:04):

But

Matt (01:45:04):

Do. Follow my band Rural Route nine on Spotify. We do the music for one week rental and I thank you so very much.

Laci (01:45:12):

I thank you more than he did. And please tell a friend I love you. Goodbye.