FMC 080: Collateral Directed by Michael Mann

Full Episode Transcript
This episode of Filmmaker Commentary Michael Mann's 2004 crime thriller "Collateral," exploring its production details, performances, visual style, and thematic depth, while also touching on current film industry news and streaming trends.

Opening Discussion & Film Details
Reginald Titus Jr.: Filmmaker Commentary, episode 80. Welcome to Filmmaker Commentary, where we give you insights from our favorite filmmaking commentaries. These commentaries can be heard on your DVD and Blu-rays of your favorite movies. We'll show you how you can use these commentaries and apply them to improve your video production and filmmaking techniques. All of this here on Filmmaker Commentary. I'm your host, Reginald Titus Jr.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Welcome to Filmmaker Commentary. I'm Reginald Titus Jr. I'm joined with Casey G. Smith.
Casey G. Smith: Welcome back, sir.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Good to be back, sir. And today we're talking about Collateral, 2004, directed by and produced by Michael Mann, written by Stuart Beattie, music by James Newton Howard, director of photography Dion Beebe and Paul Cameron. This was in theaters from August 6, 2004 to November 25th, 2004. About 22 weeks. Wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It was nominated for two Oscars. One, Jamie Foxx, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Achievement in Film Editing.
Casey G. Smith: Interesting enough, the same year, Jamie Foxx was also nominated for the movie Ray.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Wow.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, he was nominated for two categories in the Oscars that same year. And of course, we all know he won for Ray.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Full circle, full circle. I can't remember what episode that was in. But anyhow, we did an episode with Ray, so if you can go back and check out that Oscar performance, Oscar-winning performance by Jamie Foxx in the previous episode.
Reginald Titus Jr.: We had a budget of 65 million, box office of 217 million. 100 million USA and about 116 for the rest, international.
Casey G. Smith: That's a win.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That is a win. Yeah, good film.

News & Movies Watched
Reginald Titus Jr.: Before we dive further into Collateral, let's talk about news and movies watched.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It's been about two weeks, so this segment is going to be a little bit longer. But what do we have in the news?
Casey G. Smith: All right, so one of the things that I pulled up specifically, again, you know, always kind of always come back to kind of what's happening on the box office standpoint. So Joker has become the first R-rated film to reach 1 billion dollars globally.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Really? I've yet to see it, but heard good things, of course.
Casey G. Smith: That's impressive. Well, especially again, we talked about the budget in the previous, the previous episode, but that is just, man, I, I did not see that coming. But kudos for Warner Brothers and DC. That's like their their past two comic book films, you know, Aquaman and and then now Joker crossing that billion dollar mark. So, you know, they're able to quietly make, you know, make that money.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes, indeed.
Casey G. Smith: Also, I don't know if you if you've seen it or not, the have you seen the the did you see the original Sonic the Hedgehog trailer that came out earlier this year?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, is it uh is it like CGI, animated?
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, I maybe at the theater. I don't know what movie they showed that before. Yeah, I think I like kind of deleted it from my brain. But
Casey G. Smith: You weren't the only one. There was a lot of backlash when that trailer initially came out. And so the studio immediately responded to it, and said, hey, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna fix this. And they went back, and they did. And they they changed the whole look of Sonic. He looks more like the the video game. And they
Reginald Titus Jr.: So they kind of dumbed down the animation to make it more cartoon looking?
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, more more stylistic choice.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: Um, but it looks good.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: I it I I watched the trailer and I was like, wow. Before, I didn't have any interest in in watching Sonic. I was like, ah, whatever.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Cause it was more CGI looking, right? If I'm I don't remember the first one.
Casey G. Smith: It was it was it was yes, it was CGI looking. And this one still is CGI looking. But the other one, they tried to go a little too anthropomorphic and it got too far away from from the Sonic that people know and love. People were like, what the hell is this?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. Cause he had teeth.
Casey G. Smith: Because he had teeth and he looked he just looked he looked creepy.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. Okay. I yeah, I definitely deleted it from my brain. I remember seeing it and I was like, not impressed.
Casey G. Smith: But this this new one, he looks good. Like it's very it's kudos to the studio for for responding in a good way. So, uh, I say definitely that it's worthwhile checking out that that trailer for um, the new Sonic the Hedgehog.
Reginald Titus Jr.: When's that when's that due to come out?
Casey G. Smith: Uh, Sonic the Hedgehog is due to So, February of 2020 is when it's set to come out.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: Jim Carrey playing Dr. Robotnik, James Marsden, he's the main lead. But there's a image of how we how he looks now.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, but yeah, right?
Casey G. Smith: Much better.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. But yeah,
Casey G. Smith: I again, I I I dug the trailer. I dug like some of some of the effects, but yeah, I definitely recommend uh giving that giving that one a look. Uh, also at the box office right now, Ford versus Ferrari, uh, as well as the new Charlie's Angels has both dropped this weekend.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: And uh, Ford versus Ferrari, uh, sitting at about 52 million so far worldwide. Which is not, I think not bad for that that film. Um, and also there's already buzz around both
Reginald Titus Jr.: Charlie's Angels?
Casey G. Smith: No. Uh, the two the the the two actors in Ford versus Ferrari, Christian Bale and Matt Damon. There we go. Uh, there's already buzz around both of them. Um, for Oscar buzz. So,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oscar time.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, that should be should be fascinating.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And this also like in the news, it was kind of like a from a couple weeks a couple weeks back. Uh, but when the Harriet movie dropped, there was like a backlash. Um, with uh, just kind of like the community. Like you got, you know, the black community is kind of divided on the film. Uh, the lead is Cynthia Erivo. Hopefully I'm saying her name right. And she's a British musical actress. And, you know, there was some, at first, her just being cast in the first place, you know, a British person coming in to do this American historical character. That's an issue.
Casey G. Smith: I'm like, that's that's kind of part for the course, y'all. I mean,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, they complain about Idris Elba.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I don't know. Did did he play anything in the slave, any slave stuff? American slave stuff? Anything? I don't I don't I can't recall.
Casey G. Smith: What about Chiwetel Ejiofor? 12 Years a Slave.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Don't know.
Casey G. Smith: He's yeah, he's British, right?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Or or he's not American. That much I can say. I don't know the specific country of origin. I don't want to guess out of turn, but
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, neither was the director on that one.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, or or Benedict Cumberbatch or something. I'm like, what are we doing here?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Um, I think the black folks kind of in general, they vote with their dollars, you know. Everybody votes with their dollars. So we'll say what we feel, but I know I didn't go see it or want it to see it.
Casey G. Smith: But in general, you don't want to see those movies from from my my my from
Reginald Titus Jr.: No, but I did go watch Django. And I remember Tarantino saying that
Casey G. Smith: Django's a different vibe.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It is, it's a slave movie. And stuff is made up, same thing with the Harriet. There's made up stuff in there. That's also was causing the backlash is because it's there's some made up things in there. The in in the Harriet movie, I haven't seen it yet, but they were saying there's this character, a black guy that's going out killing other people and other black people. And so that's like a made up thing and so they're portraying a black serial killer?
Casey G. Smith: They portrayed a black serial killer?
Reginald Titus Jr.: I think he's trying to hunt down, you know, slaves that are escaping and things like that. So that puts black men already at a bad light. So like when you when things are like that are kind of turned into the movie, it's uh, certainly people are not going to go go watch that and there'll be a backlash because of that. Uh, because you're going out of your way to kind of again, do something for to black men to make them look a certain way. And then you have to have the white slave white savior figure always. So,
Casey G. Smith: Wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So that's what's kind of causing that. But I think I remember Tarantino saying that when he when he was doing an American slave film, he wants to make sure that the kids from slavery, the Americans are playing these parts because they'll be able to draw into something that's not necessarily in the genetics of somebody else. Then you have things like, what's that one brother that has a scar on his face, uh, actor, well-known actor had a scar
Casey G. Smith: From The Wire?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Ah, I can't think of his name.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. But you know the face. You know, yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Absolutely know the face.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, but he was in that he was in uh uh 12 Years a Slave. And he talks about how like for a moment he like like kind of just broke down crying. It's almost like he was like moved into that time period. He was just like for like a split second, he like felt all the horrors and everything like his an you know, the ancestors kind of went through at that one it was so much that he kind of broke down crying.
Casey G. Smith: Michael Kenneth Williams.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, he talks about that experience with 12 Years a Slave. And depending on what you know about genetics, things are memories can be passed down through your genetics. Certain things, certain traits can be passed down, are passed down through your genetics and I don't know, maybe memories as well.
Casey G. Smith: Fascinating.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: So yeah, so that was a backlash on that. I don't know. I don't necessarily know what to say. I say, hey, you know, make a good movie, people will vote with their dollars. And sometimes when
Casey G. Smith: Sometimes. Yeah. Cause marketing marketing still still plays a role, too.
Reginald Titus Jr.: They were hitting, but the thing with the Harriet movie, they were pushing that thing heavy. They were pushing it heavy, heavy before it dropped, you know, trying to get the awards and then also like for a political standpoint, you know, in California, you know, politicians and things attached themselves to certain projects.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: You know, there's always that political hand going on there. But people want the movie to win so badly that it's uh,
Casey G. Smith: I don't know what to say.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Interesting.
Casey G. Smith: I yeah, I had I remember seeing the trailer and I was like, okay. It looked it looked it looked impressive to me. Uh, and then I I didn't realize it had come out. I was kind of I've been busy and I was like, oh, you say I'm like, oh, dang, it's out already? I thought I thought there was more time. You know, sometimes you see a trailer like, oh, there's I saw the trailer in the theater. I'm like, usually it's a, you know, a couple months out. I'm like, oh, it it's here. It's here. What? Sorry about that.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Right.
Casey G. Smith: my bad. Um, one thing I, okay, so just speaking of like just news in general, you know, one big thing that has happened, of course, uh, since the time of this recording, um, is the drop of Disney Plus.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, go ahead. All right. I got another story, but I'll do it after Streaming Wars. Streaming Wars.
Casey G. Smith: Streaming Wars. Here goes a new segment. Streaming Wars. It's true.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It's true.
Casey G. Smith: So, Disney has officially, uh, thrown its hat into the ring of the Streaming Wars and it uh, it is pretty significant. So, Disney Plus, their streaming service, uh, dropped last Friday.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: And uh, for some, some had some some issues, you know, logging on. I'm like, okay, it's a new thing that just dropped. Yes, there's gonna be there's gonna be some bugs. So, I think everybody's experienced different. I've had little to no issues at all. Uh, since since I started using it.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Which is kind of expected. It's expected if you have a new service, that millions of people are trying to log in at the same time. Hundred thousand millions, I don't know. But uh, Netflix had the same situation when they dropped. But it was so new that the expectations were kind of low.
Casey G. Smith: Absolutely. And they had so few content. I I remember the first time using Netflix on my Xbox and there were maybe literally like 20 pieces of material on there to access. So, Disney drops with let's just say there's a lot of content, y'all. There there's a lot of content, a lot of nostalgia.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Wow.
Casey G. Smith: I love it. Absolutely love it.
Reginald Titus Jr.: How much is it again?
Casey G. Smith: Um, I think it's like 6.99 a month. Um, I paid I paid for the for the annual just went ahead and dropped it.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Six nine nine, seven nine nine.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, it's like 70 something for like the the the the year. Some people paid for like a a two or three year deal up front to keep their price like locked in. Uh, but then also there's a bundle with ESPN Plus, Hulu and Disney Plus for like 12 something in that case. Yeah, which is like great. If you don't have cable, I think that's a great deal. Um, I have cable, so I was like, ah, it doesn't really work for me. So, I'm good with my annual subscription, but
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: it's not only of course, the all the Disney movies, the Disney stuff from the Disney Vault, you know, back in the day, Disney used to protect their stuff. Always. You know, for a limited time, you know, get this, you know, DVD or Blu-ray before it goes, you know, air quotes for those listening, back in the Vault.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Right, right. Wow, no, not the Vault.
Casey G. Smith: You know, now that's not a thing anymore. It's like, hey, it's here. We got so many of the MCU movies, more so than I thought. Like they had mentioned how, you know, certain ones were gonna be on there, but they're not all of them are there, but a good chunk of them are. Uh, some are still kind of finishing their their agreement or contract with Netflix.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Right. You still got Ragnarok and some more things on Netflix.
Casey G. Smith: Exactly. Uh, and then they, you know, should should come over. Interesting enough, on the side note, on I was on Amazon Prime, uh, before we started recording, and I noticed that it said, you know, new to Amazon Prime. First Avengers, I think like Thor The Dark World. Like several MCU films popping up on Amazon Prime. I'm like, what are you what's your what is your play here, Disney? Like you trying to like kind of in to entice? Is like, you're gonna have to to entice, hey, you want to see more of it? Then, I don't know, that was fascinating to see. But , the service has been good. I mean the fact that it launched with original content there. That's a new thing from I I've never seen a streaming service because all the other services were already established and then they started making original content, right? All the other streaming services started with a premise of we're using other people's content and then eventually we get into the game, right? Netflix was was the first, right? When they did House of Cards. That kicked it all off and then Hulu got in the game with some of their stuff. And then
Reginald Titus Jr.: HBO.
Casey G. Smith: Well, yeah, yeah. Oh, HBO wasn't streaming, were they? They were just a a a channel, right? That had original content. Just there's a premium channel that you paid for. But as far as a streaming, just a straight streaming service, um, Netflix was the first with House of Cards, and then Hulu got in the game, and then Amazon Prime started having their original series and got and movies and got in the game. Disney's the first to drop, from my understanding, they're the first to drop to show up and say, hey, we're showing up with our with all of our old stuff and our brands, but we are dropping day one with original content. Because The Mandalorian, the first episode of The Mandalorian, a Star Wars series, boom, there day one. And and several of their other series that they had touted and mentioned. I'm like, man, they came out the gate.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It's crazy. Yeah, because with the streaming services, it's kind of hard to keep up with streaming services that may not be as popular or marketed. You know, you got BET Plus, you got their movie channel. Uh, you have the ones like Tubi, Pluto, all these other streaming services that are like under the radar that are making money. But, of course, Disney, you know, they everybody's gonna know about this one.
Casey G. Smith: They they they planned it out. They they I thought they they planned it well. You know, initially when they first mentioned it, I was like, ah, okay, you know, we'll see. But as it got it got closer and now that it's here, which is hard to believe like, man, it's here. And along the way acquiring Fox. And so you got, you know, the Simpsons on there and all that kind of stuff. And with some of the movies, and I think this is this is only going to expand with some of their movies, they have a bunch of the special features. So, like when you see Avengers: Endgame on there, you've got deleted scenes. You have additional deleted scenes that weren't on the Blu-ray and the 4K versions that they had kind of held back on. You got a commentary track.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Ooh. I'm a fan of that, of course.
Casey G. Smith: Yes. Yes. I want to see that Disney. Keep that up. Make that the norm for all your films. And here's the other cool thing, especially with with for for our show.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Mhm.
Casey G. Smith: If you are moving all your content to the streaming format and you're gonna have the extra features in, right? Why not have it in people, especially if it's gonna help attract more subscribers?
Reginald Titus Jr.: For sure.
Casey G. Smith: And now even with older stuff, if you want to add a commentary track, you can simply just, you know, have to have, you know, the directors come in, record it, and then simply add it in.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: That that could be a game changer, man. Like, hey, you don't have to abandon the commentary tracks. You can bring them back in for those uh, aspiring filmmaker and just, you know, those those cinephiles.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Streaming Wars. Stay tuned. Also kind of talking about, you were talking about Joker, the Joker movie earlier. Recently, there's been protests. Lebanese protesters in Beirut and around the world. Uh, the protesters are painting their face like the Joker. Like the Joker movie, dressing up in the suit. And so I remember before we talked about, you know, entertainment versus like what happens in reality. And this is like one of those strange things where the protesters are dressing up as the Joker and doing their protesting. So that's been recently kind of making the news.
Casey G. Smith: You know, iconography, symbolism, you know, seeing him, I mean, again, obviously it's a super popular movie with as much as it's made.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, billion.
Casey G. Smith: But seeing him in that movie as a as a kind of representing a little a little bit of of of anarchy and upheaval, um, and kind of standing up against the system. So, it's death and murder, you know, aren't appropriate.
Reginald Titus Jr.: There you go.
Casey G. Smith: But but that that symbolism of that of the message of, you know, standing up and and kind of bucking the system. When you you see the movie, it it it to a degree would make sense. And again, just not, you know, death and murder. But um, but to say, ah, you know, we're fighting back or whatever, then
Reginald Titus Jr.: It just shows how influential movies are. And people were scared. What they were scared of, initially were, you know, the white guy is going to the theaters and shooting people. You know, the theater was like, no, yeah. And the guys that are going out mass shootings and doing stuff like that. They thought that's what they were kind of protecting other Americans from. But who would have thought, you know, internationally it would have this kind of effect.
Casey G. Smith: Joker, I think is arguably becoming might be the most influential, um, like villain that there is. Because, you know, you can go back to Heath Ledger's Joker. How many people cosplay, uh, that Joker? And whenever and they keep him protective. Whenever somebody else is going to be cast as Joker, they, you know, unfortunately Jared Jared Leto didn't get much of a of a shot with, you know, the Suicide Squad stuff. Yeah, but and, you know, one once Joaquin was doing this, people were, you know, what's going on here, yeah, yada yada yada. And now, you know, you've got the imitation and the, uh, duplication going on.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I think with like with protests, you have the guy, um, V for Vendetta, that mask. Um, so you have that because I think it showed up in uh, Mr. Robot series. Uh, but people when they're protesting, you see that mask a lot. So now you have another mask, you have the Joker as well, whenever you're doing your protests. To kind of uh, what they were saying is that it uh, communicates something without necessarily saying it.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: All right. Do you have anything else in uh news before we go to trailers and movies watched?
Casey G. Smith: That's all I've got.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Trailers, man. Have you seen any interesting trailers?
Casey G. Smith: Aside from Sonic the Hedgehog.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, did we talk about Dark Fate last time?
Casey G. Smith: No, I hadn't seen it yet. I said I was going to see it. It had come out and I was like, it didn't do well at the box office. I was like, I'm part of the problem. Of course.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Of course.
Casey G. Smith: So I was like, I will see it. I said, next time we meet, I will have seen it. And I and I did. I went and and saw Terminator Dark Fate. Um, I enjoyed it. Uh, it's it's a I think it's a solid entry. It it probably honestly, it's right after, you know, for me it's Terminator 1, 2, and then 3.
Reginald Titus Jr.: This one.
Casey G. Smith: And then this one, yeah. Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, I thought it was a a solid entry. Um, it it
Reginald Titus Jr.: What does that mean?
Casey G. Smith: Well, so I'm kind of like going back and forth like, I don't know if there'll be any more after this just because of the box office performance.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Ah, gotcha.
Casey G. Smith: Which is, you know, it is what it is, but it feels very much like The Force Awakens in that they are using a lot of beats from the very first Terminator in this one to set up a
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Like a new new people, new characters.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, yeah, to set up like a like a next like a next generation. Like very much so how The Force Awakens, uh, retraded a lot of beats from the earlier Star Wars movies. So that's the, uh, biggest thing. But again, , , I I enjoyed it. Um, and it's one of those things like again, when I saw the first Terminator when I was younger, as I went back, you know, I appreciated it even more. Now I love the first Terminator. So, um, it might one of those be one of those things in the course of time, um, that, yeah, we'll we'll see what it is. But yeah,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, you seen any any trailers?
Reginald Titus Jr.: There's a trailer, uh, called The Invisible Man. Oh my God. You might want to check it out. Uh, did you see the first one of the first Invisible Man's with uh, what's his name? Footloose.
Casey G. Smith: Kevin Bacon. Hollow Man.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes. That's what it was called.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm. Oh, there you go.
Reginald Titus Jr.: But he was invisible.
Casey G. Smith: Yes, he was.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, it was based off the invisible, it's, you know, for the most part based off the uh, the Invisible Man. Uh, which I've seen and I've I've I've I've listened to the book, uh, which is phenomenal. But anyway,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh-huh.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, okay. I'm intrigued by this one.
Casey G. Smith: Really?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Uh, I like the approach to this version of it.
Casey G. Smith: See, yeah, yeah, I will definitely check out the trailer.
Reginald Titus Jr.: You want to check it out? We pause. Why not?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, The Invisible Man. Um, so yeah, I saw that a week or so ago and I was like, Ooh. Good cast too with Elisabeth Moss. She's she's fantastic.
Casey G. Smith: Yes.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, okay. Okay. Uh, yeah, man. I always been intrigued with uh, the Invisible Man and what people would do if no one could see you. You know what I mean? What demented things would you do? That's always interesting.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, if you ever get a chance to um, to listen to the book, I actually found it via I found it via podcast on um, on iTunes, actually. Okay. Free, just a free like reading. Somebody had, you know, done a reading of it. And I found it years ago on a road trip. I I I put it on and listened to it. And I was like, dude, it was like, I'm driving. I'm like, oh. He. Is he watching? It's intense. It's very intense, but it's you know, it's it's it's um, horror/you know, science fiction for its time. Um, you know, based on the on the premise and and what's going on in this dude's mind and how he's trying to survive. Anyway, but yeah. But this is this is a totally different take on it, which is super interesting as well. Like that, yeah, what you could do if you were invisible and
Reginald Titus Jr.: And people think and people think that you're dead too. So, people think that you're dead, you're invisible. So you can got free range to do anything. And you're rich on top of that.
Casey G. Smith: Man.
Reginald Titus Jr.: What? Another trailer, uh, what's it called? The Bankers? Uh, there was uh, David Sammons had uh, said, hey, check this film out. Check the trailer out. What's it called? The Banker, The Bankers? Uh, with Sammy O Jackson and
Casey G. Smith: Anthony Mackie.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Anthony Mackie. Yep.
Casey G. Smith: The Banker.
Reginald Titus Jr.: The Banker. So, yeah, I like that film. I like the way the trailer looks. I may not go to the theater necessarily to watch it. I'll wait to hear what people say about it. Another film is The Photograph. And it's a film, uh, by Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield. Uh, love story. Kind of kind of kind of has a vibe of Love Jones in a way. You know, it's got that kind of Love Jones vibe. Um, very beautiful, looks beautiful. So I'm like, my wife checked the trailer out. She's like, I want to watch that. I was like, all right, all right. That might be one that goes, you know, go check it out at the theater. Got to show support on that one. Little date night. Yeah, it's some black love out there.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, little date night.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Black love. But that's all for trailers I've had. Have you watched any more trailers?
Casey G. Smith: No, nothing really come to uh, come to mind that just stood out to me. I feel I know there's uh, actually no, because when I, you know, when I went to see Terminator: Dark Fate, I um, my time I got there and got through the line, it was a, you know, the movie was like was really just starting. So I didn't I didn't get to see any trailers for that one.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Fresh timing.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, usually actually, I usually when I'm going to the theater, I try to actually not watch trailers. I'm like, I can find them online. So.
Reginald Titus Jr.: More like you've already seen them already anyway.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: You watching any TV shows, any movies in the last couple weeks?
Casey G. Smith: Definitely I cannot recommend Watchmen. No.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, HBO. Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Man, it is fire. Yeah. Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Fire.
Casey G. Smith: And this this week's episode, episode 5, I heard is supposed to be, yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. I need to catch up. I need to catch up.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, it's it's it's been it's been great.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Um, I I there's that. I've been watching a lot of a lot of uh, you know, a lot a lot of just YouTube and different like stuff that I follow there. But uh, Watchmen, uh,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Is it an hour long? The Watchmen, each episode or is it like 30 minutes?
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, yeah, each episode is a is like, you know, 40 or 40 or 50 minutes. Um, but
Reginald Titus Jr.: We just recently watched the uh series finale of Suits.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, okay.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Finally. Finally got that out of the way.
Casey G. Smith: How was the finale?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Satisfying. It was satisfying. I was like, oh, man. I was, you know, sometimes you warn about the characters, but it was like, looks like everybody's ready to go. You know, you can kind of tell that the actors are like, all right, we're done. Let's let's wrap this up. So much so that the um the auction was held maybe a couple weeks ago. Cause I didn't what I didn't know was they shot it in Canada. Uh, and so every all the office space, all of the clothing, everything was up for auction for sale. Like, this show is done. There's no coming back. I remember watching Dexter, uh, and then they're like, man, I wish, you know. Even like fans of Dexter to this day, like, uh, you know, let's continue this thing. Uh, this one it felt like, yeah, a satisfying but it's time to go. It's time to move on.
Casey G. Smith: It's nice when a show has a satisfying resolution. When when the show can go out on its on its own terms.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Yes.
Casey G. Smith: Is is always always nice. Again, for me, the standard at this point is still still Parks and Rec. Parks and Rec, man.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. How many uh seasons you remember?
Casey G. Smith: Four or five.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay, that's not bad.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. But when that when that bad boy ended, I was like, wow. I was I mean, satisfying. I was like, okay. Yes. This was this was a great ride and a a wonderful final destination and happy to move on.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes. Uh, I don't like it when here in America what we tend to do is once there's a hit, once a show is a hit, we tend to try to like draw more out of it. And like, you know, characters, like the the originators may not have had. Hey, I had three seasons in mind, you know, and the arcs lead all the way up to that third season and have like five, six, seven, eight. But we tend to because it's making money here in America just like just kill a series, just to continue to push it, push it.
Casey G. Smith: Right.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. I don't like that. Um, what else? Um, I've been on stand-up. I'm watching a few stand-up uh on Netflix. Netflix. Got uh Christina P. She has a uh a stand-up called Mother Inferior. Um, that one was actually pretty good. She's been doing this for like 14 years, man. She's uh she's solid though. I've been introduced to her by uh uh Joe Rogan and his crew of comedians. And she comes on there and talks to Joey Diaz and all the stuff. So it was like, she's like one of the guys kind of type. You know, nothing really phases her. She knew about the CK Lewis stuff and all that. Um, that one was pretty pretty good, you know. I know sometimes women comedians kind of get flack sometimes, especially like, especially I think it was like uh Amy Schumer, you know, where it feels like sometimes they're not paying their dues. You know, comedians can be kind of territorial when it comes to that. Like, you're not paying you're not grunting it out in the in the clubs or whatever. Yeah, you're not doing you're not doing the ground work. You're just kind of using your popularity to kind of shortcut the line and do your specials.
Casey G. Smith: Why not?
Reginald Titus Jr.: That would be foolish.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, at the end of the day you got to do you. If the opportunity comes your way, you're not going to turn it down, that would be foolish. You can't tell me that the other comedian who's been paying his dues would they would say, no, I need to stay in these in these in these hole in the wall clubs. Get out of here.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Get out of here.
Casey G. Smith: Get out of here with that. They've got they've got a right to take an opportunity and succeed or fail like anybody else and to learn and if they failed to learn from it and if they succeed also to hopefully learn from it to learn how to manage the success and
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, yeah.
Casey G. Smith: So come on.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Come on, man. Well Amy's situation, was she an act she was an actress first, right? And then turned to the comedian circuit? Or was she a comedian before all that?
Casey G. Smith: I don't know. I mean, to me it seemed like she was a comedian that went that went into into acting. That's that's the vibe that I get. But at this point, I'm not sure anymore. I haven't really followed her all that that closely.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Have you seen one of her specials?
Casey G. Smith: Never been really a really big fan of of her uh, of her specials. Just just from the trailers that I've seen. I'm like, it didn't they didn't catch me. Um, and I've only seen one of her movies, Trainwreck. Which I I you know, I enjoyed Trainwreck. That was a fun movie, but yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That was fun. Yeah. Uh, what was I about to say? I like uh what Marlon uh Wayans has done, you know, he, you know, he was film TV all day. But, you know, being in the uh a comedian family, a bunch of comics that are putting in the work that are going and touring. I like how he devoted himself over the last few years to, you know what? Let me develop as a comedian. Let me go out, see how it feels to bomb, you know, develop my material. And it actually start it shows on his special. Like, you know, some stuff he's talking about, I'm like, man. But he's getting solid as a comedian, you know, straight up stand-up comedian.
Casey G. Smith: Does he have another a new special on Netflix?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Well, I think the most recent was was was within within the last year. I can't remember the name of it, but that one was pretty pretty good.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, I I watched one that was fairly recent, a couple of, you know, maybe half a year ago now. So, I wonder if that was that same one.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. I think it was the same one. Okay. And uh, you can see his development is growing. For sure. You can tell when somebody's been on the road and been testing their testing their content. He's like, okay, that doesn't work. Let me try something else. Cause it's a process to work on your jokes. That's not working, throw that away. Also, with stand-up comedians, I've been listening to uh Tom Segura, who was also on he has specials on Netflix. Uh, he has three specials on there. One's called Disgraceful. The other one's called Mostly Stories. And the other one's called Completely Normal. You actually see his weight change. You see him from being like a heavy set guy to like getting in shape over the course of these three specials. That's cool. And that one's hilarious. It's a good one. What about you, man? You've been watching some more movies?
Casey G. Smith: That's cool.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That's cool.
Casey G. Smith: Not really, again, Disney Plus, man, I've been obviously, I've been doing some nostalgia. You know, I've been doing some nostalgia. A little a little bit of 90s Spider-Man, which your boy will love.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Because all man, you remember 90s the 90s Spider-Man?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, 90s Spider-Man, uh, Oh, the cartoon. Animated. I was thinking uh Spider-Man 1. What year was that? Was it 2001 or something like that?
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Yeah, like the 90s cartoon.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: Like they've got they've got there's a lot of Spider-Man on there. There's Spider-Man for days. Like when you when you literally go in, like from a just from a cartoon standpoint, we're talking 90s X-Men. We're talking Spider-Man and his amazing friend from the 80s. Spider-Man from the 80s. Spider-Woman from the late 70s, early 80s. We're talking, um, Fantastic Four from the 90s. Iron Man from the 90s. Hulk from the 90s. There is so freaking much. We're talking we're talking Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes from the mid 2000s to Avengers Assemble from now.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Dang. Too much. How many hours is that?
Casey G. Smith: It's a there's a a lot that is there.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Years. I wonder how long it took them just to uh uh digitize this and put it on this platform on the service and things. I wonder how long that took.
Casey G. Smith: Well, it's already I think it's already been digitized because you could like because through Amazon, you could buy because again, I I own the first two. Yeah, I own the first two seasons. It's like literally just brought this freaking year, which kind of took I I'd bought the first two seasons of of X-Men The Animated Series. And then they announced within the past month that that was going to be on Disney Plus. I was like, ah, come on. Get my money back.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, yeah. So they're all there.
Casey G. Smith: But I'm like, you know what? It's it's still enjoyable. So, so I've been going through, you know, going through my 90s X-Men. Um, I uh, again, you know, I like musicals. So, I I literally went and pulled up TaleSpin and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Just listen to the theme song. TaleSpin. Or was that DuckTales?
Reginald Titus Jr.: TaleSpin. That was a Yeah. DuckTales.
Casey G. Smith: That was a remix. That was a remix. That was DuckTales. My bad. My bad. So, no, so we didn't just to listen to the theme song from TaleSpin and the outro because that yeah, like, yo, it was my jam. Uh, so just listen to those and then I went and put on Little Mermaid just to listen to um, Part of That World. I don't know why. Love that song. Love me, 'cause I was like, so when I hear that cut, all right, I'm good. All right, come out. All right. What's next? So, just yeah, so just all over with Disney Plus. And I did I did watch the pilot of The Mandalorian.
Reginald Titus Jr.: In that
Reginald Titus Jr.: Is that good?
Casey G. Smith: It was enjoyable. And I I don't consider myself a huge Star Wars fan.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Me neither.
Casey G. Smith: I'm I'm very much so a casual Star Wars fan.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Sorry about that, guys. Sorry about that.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. I I I want to I want to be on it and know what's going on for the sake of conversation. Right. Um, I respect the lore. I think it's awesome. It's no no denying the impact that it has. Uh, I like the original ones better than, you know, any of the other stuff that's come out. The original trilogy is I love I I dig that a lot. Um, and some of the cartoons. Some of their cartoons, uh, Star War The Rebels cartoon that they had was was actually I I I was surprised how much I I really enjoyed that. Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Video games. My son likes some of the video game stuff.
Casey G. Smith: Yo, yeah, they've had some awesome.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That's what makes it fun, the video game. You can choke somebody out with your hands.
Casey G. Smith: Playing a Star Wars game is that's different. Knights of the Old Republic, son? That was, yo, that paved the way for um, Mass Effect and all that kind of stuff was anyway, but yeah, first episode of The Mandalorian, I was like, okay. And and where it ends and what it's like, you're like, oh, wait, 'cause it's set, you know, in a different in a different time. It's set earlier than what than where the movies are now. This is set before then. Okay. Um, so it's yeah, it's interesting. But it look it looks good. Like they're spending big money. It it looks and feels like Star Wars. But in HD like nice production value. But it it looks it looks good.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Wow. So this is the pilot and then when are the other
Casey G. Smith: Second episode already came out. I which I was surprised. I was like, whoa, okay. So, I don't know if if it drops on Fridays. Maybe that's when the new episodes drop for that particular series.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Got to keep people hooked in, man.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So they're not just dropping it all out at the same time.
Casey G. Smith: No, they're going to it's going to it's going to come out um, cron not chronologically, but um, what's the word I'm looking for? Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Weekly.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, weekly. Episodic episodic. Yeah, we'll say weekly. They're going to drop it. Uh, also they had a nice little piece on there for, you know, because they have a multiple MCU shows that are going to be coming on Disney Plus. You know, uh Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So at D23, they showed footage and brought, you know, the actors out and all that kind of stuff. They had a nice like a like a 15-minute montage called Expanding the Universe that they have on Disney Plus that they showed off, which was great to see, 'cause if you didn't go to to to D23, you would not have seen this footage. Uh, and so it was awesome to be able to see it. And they had it just, you know, cut together and I was like, yeah. So that's going to be fascinating to see in the future. Will Disney use this platform for when they have special events or stuff at Hall H at uh Comic-Con?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Makes sense.
Casey G. Smith: That's that's exclusive. Will they just put it on on Disney Plus for people to see? They're already paying for it, so,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, or to get new subscribers. Like the like you can only exclusively see it here.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. So, yeah, man, they've
Reginald Titus Jr.: Brilliant.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, man. They're doing some things, man. Uh,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Only your own platform is key. My last movie watched, um, recently Hoopla. I've been talking about Hoopla. Just if you have like a library that carries these uh digital streaming services. Uh, Hoopla is a good good little uh app that has movies you might have forgotten about. And one I had forgotten about was Super Size Me 2. Um, in 2017, it was supposed to drop, but if you remember Morgan Spurlock had his own kind of situation with the Me Too movement and kind of stepped down from his company for a while, because originally Super Super Size Me 2 was supposed to launch with uh, I think YouTube Red, like like it was going to be this big like roll out, you know. It's going to the festivals, all that, you know, and just kind of show everybody what's going on. But what ended up happening is that he stepped down from his company. He put himself out there like, hey, you know, there's some things I need to address in my life. I'm taking myself away before he got exposed by anybody, he just decided to do that. Um, just being transparent, you know, he had some alcohol issues. And so, he's kind of just been kind of missing for a year and a half, two years. And you know, he had a production company with like 60 something people, like literally overnight, everybody kind of like abandoned ship.
Casey G. Smith: Damn.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Dang. Yeah. So, I went on Hoopla and saw it was up there. I was like, what the heck? Like, and then just recently dropped in September. Like the movie officially released everywhere in September. Went to a couple theaters, whatever, and then, uh, he did a deal with uh, Sam Goldwyn, who holds the rights to Super Size Me, the original Super Size Me. And they're uh, renewal rights were up. I said, hey, you want to, you know, do you want to renew the rights to Super Size Me? They want to do that and then why not just release part two since it's already ready to go.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Huh.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So, they released it and it's uh, it's pretty good. You saw that on Hoopla?
Casey G. Smith: You saw that on Hoopla?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Hoopla.
Casey G. Smith: I'll have to check check out that. It's a so is it uh, is it a streaming service where you has ads or do you do you you pay a monthly fee or what's what's the
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, I'm not sure if you have to pay, but if you are a um, so with our library, all we have to use is our library card to get access to it. But I don't know if you can pay. I haven't looked to see if you can pay for this service separately. I don't know if it works that way.
Casey G. Smith: Okay. Yeah. I've got I've got a library card.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Casey G. Smith: Ladies and gentlemen, support your local libraries.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes. Yes, man.
Casey G. Smith: They are they are free and they are a fountain for content.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Dude. And then also with our library, we got access to Linda.com, tutorial stuff. Like there's a there's pretty brilliant. The library how they pay for it is because they have a budget to pay for um, DVDs, Blu-rays and things like that. But then Blu-rays and stuff that get used up so quickly. You play, I don't know if you ever played a Blu-ray from the library, it is tragic sometimes. Like for me, sometimes it just never plays. It just keeps spinning.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: To be continued. Yeah. That's happened twice. Um, and so them having a digital service is awesome.
Casey G. Smith: Starting sometime soon.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Coming this fall.
Casey G. Smith: Coming this fall. I put in the Blu-ray. It said, coming this fall. What is going on here?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Like, wow. Um, so them having a digital service is awesome.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And you know, allowing me to look at comic books, uh, books, uh audio books, all through this platform.
Casey G. Smith: Now, you use it on a tablet or you use it on a on a on a on a on a on a computer or on a smart TV or
Reginald Titus Jr.: Right now on the desktop, uh, but they do have an app. So you can just, you know, download the app and access it that way.
Casey G. Smith: Okay. I gotta see if if again, I gotta see if the Arlington library is connected. Cause I know I know with your side of town, uh, in your city, uh, it was. So I'll have to check it out again.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes, indeed. So they pay for these streaming services by the minutes watched. So, the library, if you watch certain minutes, then they pay the distributor or whoever's giving it to them a certain amount of money.
Casey G. Smith: For that time. Huh.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. And they works out, it's better. You know, you pay for what you use.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Casey G. Smith: Last thing that that I that I had watched, what is Disney Plus? Was uh the show called The Runaways, which one of the few reasons why I was considering to get Hulu was to watch this show. It's a it's a it's a Marvel show based on a comic book called The Runaways, which is what wonderful, wonderful comic that came out years, years ago. But the original premise was is was cool. They're three seasons in, like their their third season is getting set to to drop. So I was not expecting Runaways to be on Disney Plus. Like was not and then but when I was like, yo, it's here. So I'm I'm two two episodes in on that and digging it like they they the cast they have so far. They are man, it's it's a good cast as far as like they're how how how faithful they seem to the the characters in the original book. And even, you know, the books called Runaways. So they're their parents as well. They're actually flushing out the the parents more, which is which is cool. That's a big something that's not flushed out as much in the comic. So seemingly the parents be flushed out more in their stories. So it's very uh it's it's an it's intriguing so far. So I'm looking forward to uh to more.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So much content.
Casey G. Smith: Disney, cut us a check.
Reginald Titus Jr.: You're welcome.
Casey G. Smith: Is that it?
Reginald Titus Jr.: That's it.

Collateral Synopsis & Discussion
Reginald Titus Jr.: All right, let's tune back into the show.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Thank you for tuning in. We're talking about Collateral in 2004, directed and produced by Michael Mann. Let's go into the synopsis.
Reginald Titus Jr.: After a long day, LA taxi driver Max is about to end the day when a sharp-suited Vincent offers him $600 to make five stops. Sounds good, until Vincent turns out to be a merciless hitman and each one of those stops involves a hit. As the night goes on, Max starts to wonder if he'll live to see the sunrise. As the pair are hunted down by the police and the FBI. Collateral.
Casey G. Smith: Read it all.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes, indeed, for violence and strong language. And if this is your first time listening to Filmmaker Commentary, please note that there will be spoilers. You've been forewarned.
Casey G. Smith: Spoilers.
Reginald Titus Jr.: How did you watch this movie?
Casey G. Smith: So, back in 2000, maybe 11, um, you had told me about it.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yes, sir.
Casey G. Smith: It was not on my radar. I didn't I think I maybe seen a trailer for it or something like that. And so, uh, you actually let me borrow uh a copy of your DVD. And I watched it and I was like, man, this is really, really good. And at the time I remember I watched I watched quite a bit of the behind the scenes and and all that kind of stuff and seeing, you know, the the training that Tom Cruise went through and all that and, um, yeah, I I found it to be very uh impressive. So this is my second time seeing it. How about yourself?
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Likewise, man. Uh, when I mentioned it back then. This is one of those performances by Tom Cruise. I'm like, more people need to be talking about this. Like, he should have been nominated as well. You know what I mean? But it was Jamie Foxx's year though, let's keep it real. It was Jamie Foxx's year, so, you know. Um, I watched it back then and then watched it this time around. I didn't watch it in 2004 when it was everywhere in the theaters and things like that. Same thing with Ray, I didn't go to Did I go to the theaters to watch? I can't remember what the Ray situation, I talked about in the episode, the last episode, but this time around, watched it with the wife. And she like, she said, this is like one of my favorite movies.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That's cool.
Casey G. Smith: That's cool.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, she said, this is one of my favorite movies. Just because of like all the metaphors that are happening in there, like the like the subtext, but
Casey G. Smith: Layers.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, I actually enjoyed watching this time around and seeing it through her eyes.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: What about the commentary in the uh and in general and then uh special features? You check any of those special features out?
Casey G. Smith: Um, I didn't I didn't really I no, actually, no, I did. I did. I I rewatched the the documentary of the making the making of. So, once again, them going in and just, you know, Michael Mann is so detail-oriented. He's so he's so big on the characters and their backstories. I mean, going going down to where Vincent was born in Chicago, his relationship with his dad, you know, his training, Tom Cruise going through and and learning how to fire live rounds. He had never, from my understanding, hadn't shot live ammo before. Yeah. And so, you know, was getting into when you see him there. Tom Cruise is dangerous, ladies and gentlemen. This man is dangerous. He's he's got the training, man. Like, But yeah, just seeing that. And then and then with Jamie Foxx, Jamie Foxx is such a chameleon any of himself. He for me, when I see him play different roles, like like this role particularly, I don't see, you know, Jamie Foxx. I see the character.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Right.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. He he he takes me into the character. Why I see the I'm not seeing Jamie Foxx playing Max. I'm seeing Max.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. He's not swaggy.
Casey G. Smith: Same thing with The Cellist. I don't know if you've ever if you've ever seen that. The Cellist with him and Robert Downey Jr.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, you never go full.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I didn't see that. I didn't I didn't I I never watched that. I saw the trailer and just made assumptions.
Casey G. Smith: We were talking about Tropic Thunder last night with the people who were making that movie.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, man.
Casey G. Smith: Um, but no, it it's it's a great performance.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay.
Casey G. Smith: We don't make those. But, uh, Jamie Foxx credit to him and his acting. I totally see why he was why he was nominated. Uh, and then Jada Pinkett, man, she's just she's got this way that she connects with people. Especially like in a romantic way where she can just be so subtle but like you just the connection is just like there and yeah. So, yeah, good performances there. And some nice some nice cameos. This movie is chalked full of of of cameos, uh, with actors, some great actors.
Reginald Titus Jr.: True.
Casey G. Smith: But I didn't I didn't recognize it the first time. This time I was like, oh, hey, hey. Yeah. Ruffalo up in there. And so.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Hey.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, yeah. Mark Ruffalo up in there. And so.
Reginald Titus Jr.: So, enjoyed those special features. They they had the behind the scenes, they had a um a visual effects sequence kind of showing how the MTA sequence how they shot that with green screen. Which now is just a movie. That's just a a day in the life of green screen. But back then, you know, it was a big deal. They had some deleted scenes, but I didn't check any of the deleted scenes out. They had commentary with it. I didn't check any of those out, though.
Casey G. Smith: I think I did the first time through but not not this time.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Yeah, it's not it doesn't have too many special features, but it does have just enough, you know, and that documentary, that's behind the scenes. That one gave a lot of insight. I mean, I think that's enough.
Casey G. Smith: It's like 40 minutes.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And uh the commentary itself, Michael Mann seemed a little bit more into it, you know, uh versus I think the Heat one that we went over last time.
Casey G. Smith: I think because there's maybe because there's there's so many characters and it's and it's cutting back and forth. And again, the Heat itself is again, I feel it's a little too long. Um, whereas this this feels pretty succinct, you know, when this ends, it ends. You know it's done. Heat feels like it has like almost like two or three endings to it. Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: Right. Fourth act or something.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. So, uh, yeah, it feels like this is a little more succinct. So then the commentary seems it feels like it hits it hits right and and and rings true. And again, he knows his stuff and he's able to explain the setups for the shots. Like when he's talking about, you know, the the car that they wanted to, you know, um, when he had the car to flip over and, you know, Max crashes it and all that kind of stuff. But, uh, but yeah, he's he's he's he's he's thorough.
Reginald Titus Jr.: True.
Casey G. Smith: Very, very thorough. Almost like a um, Fincher. Um, so much knowledge, though, just about different topics and eras. It's very uh, maybe two very fascinating people to just sit down and have a conversation with.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And I didn't realize how old Michael Mann is. He's like 76.
Casey G. Smith: That to me that rings yeah, I saw him I'm like, oh, he's he's he looks much older. But that makes sense, I guess it kind of makes sense with as much experience as he has and as much knowledge that's there. But yeah, I didn't think I didn't know he was that old. I thought maybe six, you know, maybe like 60s, you know, mid to early to mid 60s.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, that's where I go. He was up there. Life.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Life. Yeah. How did you feel about the tone, tone of the piece? Because we open up with showing the MTA, right? Is that what we're we're opening up with that? We see Tom Cruise, guy drops off a bag. And then we're also introducing Jamie Foxx's world. Like all the montage of a couple minutes.
Casey G. Smith: It seems to be like this uh like tone of of of like solitude. Like there's a lot of even though they're together for a good chunk of the movie, they're both from their own worlds. And what and what they normally do, even though they're around people, what they what they both do is fairly seems fairly lonely. It has degrees of isolation. Even with with Ann, with her job and what she does, though she's just going to defending. There are there seems to be a lot of isolation and solitude.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. And when we're getting there, the characters that we're introduced to, they're straight to business, you know. They're at work.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Tom Cruise is preparing for his job. We don't know what it is yet. Uh, we see, you know, Jamie Foxx and it's cool how visually how Michael Mann shows his character without saying anything. Showing how he's keeping his car clean, things straightened up, how precise they are. We get introduced to uh uh Jada Pinkett's character and she has like like kind of like the the delivery of a uh uh an attorney. How she does. Like, oh, uh uh she's willing to uh all right, you were right to say you were right. And it kind of seems like as an attorney, you would be like that.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh what do I get, you owe me to that. And of course, we've been watching Suits for quite some time, so you kind of see that. So yeah, it's like we're straight to business. This is a a a day in the life of somebody working.
Casey G. Smith: Suits. Right. And even with that, I mean, the, you know, time is so is so critical. I mean, in this film, it it is succinct. We are dealing with like a eight what, a six to eight hour period of of time, uh, that that's going on.
Reginald Titus Jr.: For style. I have like just from a a visual kind of standpoint, at time, especially when it's starting out, it's like a handheld. Got the handheld style. And of course, it's shot digitally, anamorphic with the Sony F900, which, um, kind of allowed Michael Mann what he says, like seeing to the dark.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, and I think he mentioned that a couple of times. I'm like, that's super fascinating to see. You know,
Reginald Titus Jr.: That was like kind of before its time in being able to do that. You can kind of tell that it's digital on certain part parts of it. Just the the technology wasn't as isn't as great as he is right now.
Casey G. Smith: Exactly. It feel at times it feel a little a little it feel it feels like early digital. Um, but served its purpose, though.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It did. It did. There's a lot of early on, there seems to be a like a um, some noise. Heck, yeah, a lot of noise. You can see. I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah. I was like, this is a little noisy. I mean, back then you're talking this camera, you're talking about $100,000. I mean, I wouldn't say about like $100,000 for this camera, something like that. Um, to achieve that same look, you can get a Sony AS7 for like sub $2,000. And it will shoot crisper than you're seeing in this film into the night. So much so that you can use the moonlight as your key light.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Wow. Come on, people, the moon is out. Uh, did you have anything else on that one?
Casey G. Smith: Um, you you hit you hit the main things again, the shot digitally on the Sony camera, the wide angle lens. Um, there's I mean, there's still like a a dark um, you know, it's it's a darker looking film. Similar, similar, I think to to Heat. It's like things are, you know, seem fairly dark and muted, cooler, cooler tones for the most part. Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: And then style with the to kind of add to that with the suits. The suit that Tom Tom Cruise is wearing, it's a gray suit, it's kind of dull, kind of like I think it was Al Pacino's character.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, blend in. Like seem like an everyday guy, you know, everyday older business white guy. They're just going about their day, you know. Nothing nothing sociopathic about them. At all. No, let them just go go about their go about their day. And yeah, it's interesting to see.
Reginald Titus Jr.: At all.

Themes, Tropes & Trivia
Reginald Titus Jr.: Themes. What you got for themes?
Casey G. Smith: Uh, chasing perfection. Uh, it seemed like all all all three in there given professions, they are trying to be uh, efficient or trying to putting so much pressure on themselves. You know, Jamie Foxx with starting that limo business, putting so much pressure on themselves to want to be perfect. But not actually making the moves to to do it. Um,
Reginald Titus Jr.: But good at what he does as a cab driver.
Casey G. Smith: Absolutely. But but so saying that, you know, hey, 12 years. You know, been waiting to to to to do this thing. And I think he at one point might even wants to say that he might even says he might even have said that it needs to be, you know, perfect, you know.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That's true.
Casey G. Smith: Um, and and Anne's character, Jada Pinkett Smith, saying that when she's preparing her notes from the night before, opening statement, she she gets this this thing that comes over her where she'll, you know, feels like she's going to be almost like discovered or found out that she's, you know, not who she says she is. And then she'll she'll she'll cry. Yeah, she'll cry and go through all this and then she'll rewrite the opening statement, you know, you know, recompose herself, come together, and then be ready to to rock and roll. Um, Vince's character, kind of talking about, you know, whether it was a fully a lie or not, but talking about like his his his his, you know, potentially like his dad beating him. And I may be bringing in some things from the, uh, making of. But, uh, it's talking about kind of who his who his dad was and how, you know, and kind of shaping who he is and maybe what he has to prove and and and just his his his nihilistic point of view that like none of it matters. When, you know, it does it does it does matter, but he's trying to convince himself so so much. Uh, maybe to numb himself from all the the killing and the and the death. But trying to he's trying to become a perfect killing machine with like almost no emotional ties.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah, kind of you were talking about the behind the scenes, the documentary with Jada Pinkett's character, uh, was based on a real attorney. And that attorney was talking about, you know, what she goes through. So I like the realism of they were able to bring to these characters. Like, man, it feels real. And they shout out he had um, also had two cab drivers that he had that he had he had had worked with in in in in and and talked with and talked about the one who did take so much pride in in being a cab driver.
Casey G. Smith: That's right. You have a uh a theme of adaptation. Um, I wrote down social Darwinism, which is like just natural selection and survival of the fittest in regards to sociology and politics. And then like just a final theme of remorse, you know.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, man. tagging along in kind of partnering with with with some of those themes again, you have the adaptation. I I had improvisation. Yeah. Um, I had I had a a delusional dream, ultimately like Max's dream to start that limousine company, maybe at the end of the day, maybe a delusion because he's so focused on trying to get that perfection, maybe he'll he'll never actually pull pull the gun on it. Yeah. And and maybe even for Vince's character, maybe delusion and thinking that he can totally disconnect from being human or or thinking that he's invincible, that he'll never die. Um, yeah. Um, I had, you know, nihilism versus hope. Again, that's just their two conflicting philosophies. Yeah. Um, decisive versus indecisive. Which again, when they meet that's, you know. Yeah. It's perfect. That's perfect writing. Characters that are on the opposite end of the spectrum that meet each other. That's drama. Oh, yeah. And begun to, you know, impact each other, um, as well. So, yeah, those are the themes that I had.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Got any tropes?
Casey G. Smith: Tropes. Uh, the loser saves the day. Yeah. You know, black I put black and white contrast. Um, again, having two characters that are that are so different and all the different ways that we've mentioned already with those themes. And then, you know, having one be black, one one one be white. You know, you got the the the everyday working black guy and, you know, the white guy in the suit that that, you know, shows up. Even though they're both more than they they, you know, appear to be, but still a still a trope. You know. Black guy and white guy put together in this situation. Um, again, going back to that great suit, hiding in hiding in plain sight. You know, the guy that looks good and professional, but no, they're they're really just hiding in plain sight. And I put uh, the Tom Cruise run.
Reginald Titus Jr.: True.
Reginald Titus Jr.: That was pretty cool. That was pretty cool. I was like, ah, Yeah, it is. Run, Tom, run. They were running for real.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Run, Tom, run.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, my only trope I had was just the uh, trying to convince the bad guys that you're a bad guy too, you know. We've probably seen that scene before. Um, but then find finally the the guy gets his balls, you know, his courage. We finally see that that that turning point in the character.
Casey G. Smith: Drop.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Quotes, man. What you got for quotes?
Casey G. Smith: I've got a quote of um, so when the guy falls onto his cab and he's like, and then he says, hey man, you all right? Clearly that man is dead. He's like, oh, I'm all my bad.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, man. Oh, my bad.
Casey G. Smith: You know, what do you do when when a body falls onto your cab and crushes it? It's like, it's such a nonsensical response, but it's an extreme situation. So just to be able to have concern, but shock. Hey, hey, man, you all right?
Reginald Titus Jr.: In that scene, uh, just kind of teed it up a little bit. Uh, Jamie Foxx's character has dropped has pulled up in an alley, dropped uh, Tom Cruise's character off. And then while he's waiting on him, the body falls from the sky onto his cab. And so Jamie Foxx, he's like, he's literally he's concerned. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. I I had put a quote on that one, but he was like, oh, no. The way that he says it. He is scared for his life. As he should be. As as as his character, absolutely should be. When it when when they are pulled over by the the cops. And and Tom Cruise is kind of just he's intimidating, but also trying to coach, trying to motivate Max to get rid of these cops, get rid of them, you know. He's like, hey, He said, don't let me get cornered. You don't have trunk space. He's like, yo, that is funny and dark. Yeah. Wow. Um, the going back to the scene when the guy falls onto the cab. Um, uh, Vincent, he's helping Max put the dead body in the trunk of the cab. Uh, and then uh, Jamie Foxx, he's like, hey, man, just just keep the car, you know. Just keep the car, you know. They don't even check on stuff like this anyway. And then, uh, Tom Cruise his character's like, promise not to tell anybody. Playing with his emotions. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Get in the car, man. What are you talking about? Uh, you you alluded to it earlier, uh, when Jamie Foxx makes the when Max makes the bet with Annie. And then when she finally says, go ahead and say it. Yeah. Just go ahead and say it. This is the chemistry between those two. I just, yeah, I just love that she's a kind of just conceding to it. And but it's just this this wonderful, playful flirtation between these these two really smart brothers and sisters. You know, just like, yeah, yeah. Come on, Michael Mann, make it right. How you treating the brothers, Mike? Yeah. When uh Vincent is on like his second or third, I don't know how many people he's killed by then. Um, and Max is like just tripping. What are you doing, man? Um, uh Tom Cruise is like, if it makes you feel better, he was a criminal. Continuing on a criminal enterprise. Like just paints it so he so Max could feel better. Well, yeah, whatever it takes to get him just to keep going along. So, when he uh, when the flowers are are given to Max's mom and she's like, what am I going to do with flowers? And then when she finds out that Vince brought them for her. Oh, they're beautiful.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, yes, he is.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, they're beautiful.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, man.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Oh, man.
Casey G. Smith: Wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: When she says that, um, I don't know if I wrote down a favorite scene, but when she says they're beautiful, because uh Tom Cruise, his character's not paying attention to her really. He's like looking at his watch like, we got to hurry up. Soon as she says that, he looks at it, he's like, oh, he straightens up a little bit. And he like he his body turns towards her. But then they cut to uh Jamie Foxx and then his arms literally drop. Like, what do you what? His body language. What do you what? He says that in the commentary. I was like, oh, he he just he just Yeah. And I love that and especially in the behind the scenes he says that. And it was just it was a moment. I was like, yeah. Like what do you what? He's body language. He's like, what do you mean? What do you want me to do? That's what I love about like when he's like, what do you want me to do? And he says that and he just he doesn't know. He's kind of like just he's just going. You know, he's just going with it, but she melted me. He said that. Oh my gosh. Uh so it's a great moment. Yes. Yeah. And it's you know, he didn't he didn't care for his mom. So, he's like, why are we doing this? You know, why are we gonna get to my mom some flowers? Yeah. But he got she got she melted him. That was just Yeah, that was hilarious. Uh, so Jamie Foxx's reaction.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, man. Man, come on, moms.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Man. Um, when uh, right before that scene when they're going into the hospital, he's like, ain't going to get your mom any flowers? Man, she don't like flowers. We say it's like a waste of time or she don't like flowers. And he's like, she carried you in her womb for nine months. Like, what is this come from? Like, what does this mean? You know, this is like a like, what do you care? Exactly. And and you you wonder what is it is it an angle, you know, that he's playing. Um, with the intention of of kind of that maybe having that happen to kind of just, you know, I don't know, whatever, maybe just kind of make things just go smoothly while they're there so they can get in and get out or, you know, is that something that really is important to him because he has such a bad relationship with his dad. Oh, you know what? I think in the backstory that Michael Mann mentions in the behind the scenes stuff, they mentioned that maybe Vince's mom died giving birth to him.
Casey G. Smith: That's right. That's right.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Exactly what happened. And so. So at when before knowing that backstory and you just watching the film, I was like, why would he say that? You know, there's something there, but you can't really figure out why would he would say that. You don't know if he's playing with him or what. But in actuality, this is like, you know, he there's a there's a void missing in his life. And yeah, that was true. You know, his mom died giving birth to him. And so, he ended up with a deadbeat dad.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Beautiful father.
Casey G. Smith: Um, yeah, that was true. You know, his mom died giving birth to him. And so, he ended up with a deadbeat dad.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Deadbeat dad. Aha. Yes. Uh, one of the quotes, one of my last ones is just uh uh Tom Cruise's character's like, what the F are you doing still driving a cab? All it took was a down payment on a car.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: This laid like truth bomb.
Casey G. Smith: Wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Cause they were going at it, you know. Max was drilling in him, kind of threw him off his game a little bit. Then he said, you should have been doing this. He was bullcrapping this whole time.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Favorite scenes. You got any favorite scenes?
Casey G. Smith: Favorite scenes. Um, again, meeting Max and Annie, uh, meeting their characters initially when they have that cab ride. Lovely scene.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, the cab ride with who?
Casey G. Smith: With Annie. Annie, excuse me. Annie.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh-huh. Uh, Jada's character?
Casey G. Smith: Yep.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. Um, yeah, I was just going to add to that when like there's a shot when she's looking down and then she looks up and the way she looks at him, he's like, oh, she kind of like melts the screen a little bit. I was like, she does a lot with her eyes. I was like, yeah, she does. Yeah, I think Michael Mann was like, he like, she melted me or you know, this He said that. Oh my gosh. Uh so it's a great moment. Yes. Yeah. And it's you know, he didn't he didn't care for his mom. So, he's like, why are we doing this? You know, why are we gonna get to my mom some flowers? Yeah. But he got she got she melted him. That was just Yeah, that was hilarious. Uh, so Jamie Foxx's reaction.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah, she does.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Vincent when uh, when they pulled over, when they're pulled over by the cops because the car is damaged, all this blood on the windshield. The one of the police officers are telling everybody to get out the car, you know, hey, you get out the car, you got to impound this because you can't you can't drive around this car in this kind of shape. And there's a body in the cab that they have not discovered yet. Uh, but Tom Cruise, if you look at Tom Cruise when he's getting out the car, the way he looks, he is prepared to shoot this cop. You can see it in his eyes and he's like prepared. And like, oh, as the audience member, we like, dude, this dude's nuts, but they don't see it yet. And then soon as um, uh, they get that call that that there's a, you know, there's another call, whatever. And they go to the cop, hey, you know, park it for the night of the night or whatever. And then you see kind of Tom, like kind of putting that gun back and like, all right, serial killer face off. That was actually that was good acting. Oh, yeah. He is dialed in, man. This is one of my favorite performances by Tom Cruise. Yeah. And it really is. So, my my my last favorite scene that I have is when Max is uh, well, so once once when Max, when the officer tries to arrest Max and he he gets he gets free and and he gets the officer's gun and, you know, TIE-wraps the officer handcuffs the officer. uh ties wraps them and proceeds to to to run and he he calls Annie. No, he doesn't have a cell phone yet. Uh sorry, it's him going to the guy, seeing the guy outside of the the hotel or whatever with his cell phone and Max runs and just grabs his phone from him. The guy's like, hey. And Max just points the gun at him. The guy's like, oh, the guy's like running for his life. And just Max is like just going to this totally different zone. Just a man, a decisive man of action trying to save trying to save the girl. Yep. You know, like nothing's going to stop me. No one's going to get in my way. I don't I don't need a cab to do this. My feet will work just fine. It's just all me. And I'm going to do it. How convenient is that for that building to be kind of close by. Just saying. That's very convenient. In in LA. We got any trivia? Again, the story takes place, I mentioned earlier, I said like between six to eight hours. It actually takes place over the course of 10 hours.
Casey G. Smith: Oh, yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Okay. Originally this screenplay, uh, was in New York City and involved the Russian mafia. I think California as a backdrop is uh, it's it's better, you know, we've seen these kind of New York killing films before. But the way that he shoots it with the LA backdrop is great.
Casey G. Smith: Agreed. Agreed.
Reginald Titus Jr.: And a smart way to just, I already live here. So why don't I just shoot it?
Casey G. Smith: Hey, hey, hey.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh, Tom trained for three months with uh, sheriffs and again, he was actually learned how to shoot live ammunition.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Man. It's uh, it's always great to see the the actors become, you know, having the budget and being able to become these characters. We see that now all the time with John Wick. And uh, just Keanu Reeves in general. So, it's always beautiful to see it on screen like this is a real thing. We could do a long shot because this person is actually they're actually doing this thing.
Casey G. Smith: That's a great point.
Reginald Titus Jr.: One last little trivia that I had was just, um, Michael Mann talks about when somebody's like has this super concentration and then they're being interrupted, while they're especially actors when they they're focused on being this character or whatever the scene is. Whenever they're interrupted, a lot of times it can like erupt into like anger and just lashing out at somebody. And um, it's it's not personal, but it's just like that zoning in of like just pure focus. And the character in the jazz scene kind of talks about that. When Miles Davis, how he could be that way when he was like kind of tuned in on his playing his instrument.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Make me think about uh, Batman. What's his name?
Casey G. Smith: Christian Bale.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Yeah. Going off on somebody. Oh, on that boom mic operator.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Nice, nice. Couple other quick pieces of trivia. Uh so the the there's two club scenes, but the I think three club scenes. There's a jazz club scene. There's an Asian club. Yeah, so the Asian club scene. I think I heard from her and Michael Mann, right. They were like 8 to 900 Korean extras that they used in that large club scene. Wow. So, yeah, and I'll cut back to that during the uh the tips. Uh, real officers were used in several of the scenes. Michael Mann has a has a couple of different uh police officers that he works with and stuff who come in and and can do scenes. Uh, and then lastly, uh Jamie Foxx trained on a racetrack with a Crown Victoria to just get used to handling that. And Michael Mann and his family actually come from a line of of cab drivers. Yeah. Multiple multiple people in his family. Dad, maybe his brother even. I think he himself actually at a point uh, drove a cab. Filmmaker tips.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Wow.
Casey G. Smith: Wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Filmmaker tips.
Reginald Titus Jr.: When uh, what you got, man for filmmaker tips? What you got?
Casey G. Smith: Um, well we've been talking about it the whole time, build the lives of your characters. You know, giving them a flushed out backstory will help your actors be able to dive in, be able to find their motivations and inform their actions, their reactions and their dialogue. You know, hey, you know, your mom carried you in her womb for nine months. Um, just beginning to understand why he would say that. How profound that is. And just everything comes back from their motivations and the lives these characters, the characters have lived.
Reginald Titus Jr.: I think it's important, um, and Tom Cruise says like, Michael Mann is over-prepared and usually that's my job as a actor. That's what he said in the behind the scenes, like, that's my job, you know, but he already had prepared it. So, if you're a director that's developing some of these backdrops, um, it allows you to have more control so that you know kind of like the motivation of the actors and you can, uh, communicate to the actors what their motivation is and their backstories. Tarantino's great at that. Haven't so much information about the background that they can act off of that. Even though us as an audience don't know what that is, you know, we haven't been communicated to that, you know, Tom Cruise died, you know, his mom died during childbirth. Um, but we feel it some kind of way.
Casey G. Smith: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, also, man, when you are shooting a story that happens in one night or day, the changes that happen to the wardrobe throughout the story are very important. We see uh, when, uh, Max is helping Annie. Is that Annie or Annie? Annie. When he's helping her out, you and he shoots uh, Vincent like in the face. Like grazes his face. You see his suit for the first time, it's bloody. There's like a rip on his right shoulder in the back. There's a rip on his jacket and you can see he's all right, he's he's this is getting closer to the end. Visually, you're seeing closer to the end.
Casey G. Smith: Annie.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Mark Ruffalo again. It's just more preparation for his role. We actually spent time with a real detective by the name of Q, um, who kind of had his own style and and and things like that. But, uh, again, Michael Mann just putting his actors in a place to succeed. And often often utilizing utilizing real contacts that he has within the police force or other armed forces or um, other elements and other groups.
Casey G. Smith: True.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Um, Michael Mann's approach. Um, he he said he must be able to communicate what's going on in the scene through action. And one of the scenes that he talks about this is, um, when Vincent is in the back of the cab like, what is Vincent doing? You know, he's um, going through his laptop. He's talking to Max. And basically what he's trying to do, he's trying to manage Max. And Michael Mann is saying that he communicates this uh, through action. You know, what are the characters doing?
Casey G. Smith: So, back to that the the the club scene with the the 8 to 900 Korean extras. Um, they were on set for five days to 12 to 14 hours uh each day. And having to be in a frenzy because right there's a a shooting, you know, shootings that are happening. And so being able to manage that, uh, to plan that out, to have all these people there, to have the waivers that are necessary and to to work 12 to 14 hours with all those people. Having uh uh uh enough of um a budget to, you know, to feed those people. Um, that's that's pretty amazing. So, just, you know, plan, plan, plan and have the right people in place to help you with that planning because that's that's not something that one person could do by themselves.
Reginald Titus Jr.: $65 million budget. Boom. Having a little style. One one thing I noticed about Michael Mann's style was in the movie Heat, well, in this film, we see Tom Cruise, he's um, at the jazz uh bar. And he kind of has his glance. He like looks to the right. He like tries to see who's in the kitchen right before he shoots this guy. He has a one last glance cuz uh the waitress goes into the kitchen and moves to the right. And so he kind of look while the uh guy's talking, he kind of looks to the right. He's like, I'm about to shoot this. You can tell that he's about to shoot this guy.
Casey G. Smith: Wow.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Uh just by that glance. And in the movie Heat, we have Tom Sizemore, who does that same glance because uh Robert De Niro like slaps the guy. I think he's like slams him up against the glass or on the table, I can't remember. Uh, but Robert De Niro does that because he messed up during that robbery by shooting those cops. And um, when he does that, Tom Sizemore kind of does that glance. He looks to the right. And he's kind of giving the glance to any patrons like, mind your business. Yeah. You didn't see anything. Yeah. So I saw that connect. I was like, oh, he's he's done this shot before. Um, that's nice. Very nice. Uh, my last bit of trivia was um, that the cab, that when Jamie flips it over, that cab, it was actually, it was uh weighted and it was uh set to to flip multiple times. And they did that shot three times.
Casey G. Smith: Yeah. Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Mhm.
Reginald Titus Jr.: It's funny because he um, he did that three times, but he thought it was like two, I don't know, he said Kinetic or something. That's right. That's right. And like that first time it flipped over was the one, just one and done. That's what they went with. Yeah. It was something about once they got in the post, they were it seemed he thought it was going to be like two, two violent, maybe. But once they got in the post and saw it it it worked. It worked fine. And once you had it in the, you know, your your Foley, and it was good to go. Rock and roll. Anything else?
Casey G. Smith: That's what they went with. Yeah.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Rock and roll.
Casey G. Smith: That's that's it, man.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Next time, what are we watching?
Casey G. Smith: We will be diving into Mario Puzo's The Godfather Two.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Gonna dive back in. Um, and where can they catch us?
Casey G. Smith: You can find us on facebook.com/filmmakercommentary. You can also like, rate and subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and SoundCloud. Uh, you can also follow us on Instagram at Filmmaker Commentary. If there is a a movie you'd like to uh recommend for us to check out, number one, please make sure it has commentary. Uh, and uh yeah, let us know and let us know what you think about this episode and um, if you've seen the movie Collateral and what your thoughts are. Um, if you'd like to contact Reginald Titus, you can do so at Twitter. Simply at Reggie Titus. Also at Instagram @ReginaldTitusJr, that's JR. You can find me on both Instagram and Twitter simply at CaseyG Smith 32.
Reginald Titus Jr.: Until next time. Peace.
Casey G. Smith: Respect.