Let's Talk - Cobra Kai

The Next Karate Kid (1994) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown (Re-Release)

April 26, 2023 Just Curious Media Episode 144
Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
The Next Karate Kid (1994) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown (Re-Release)
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Show Notes Transcript

Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
Episode 144: The Next Karate Kid (1994) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez revisit their 115th episode as they break down the not-so-classic movie, The Next Karate Kid, and talk about visiting the monk monastery, Mr. Miyagi waxing on, waxing off, and the catch-and-release strategy.

* The antagonist in the movie is known as Alpha Elite,  not Alpha League as mistakenly mentioned in the episode.

Synopsis: Mr. Miyagi is back and he takes a new pupil under his wing: a troubled adolescent girl.

Director: Christopher Cain
Writer: Robert Mark Kamen (characters), Mark Lee
Cinematographer: Laszlo Kovacs
Cast: Pat Morita, Hilary Swank, Michael Ironside, Constance Towers, Chris Conrad, Michael Cavalier, Walton Goggins
Composer: Bill Conti

Recorded: 04-04-23 & 08-02-22
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Jason Connell:

Whoa, just curious. Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's talk Cobra Kai. I'm Jason Connell.

Sal Rodriguez:

And I'm Sal Rodriguez.

Jason Connell:

All right sound we are back for another special episode. I might add. Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

I know that they're all special. But this one is very special. You know, why would this movie The Next Karate Kid break down? I slow down. I feel like we delayed on this one.

Jason Connell:

Yes, yes, we did

Sal Rodriguez:

didn't we?

Jason Connell:

We did. It took a long time. Well, it's the weakest of anything Karate Kid movie style movie related. And it wasn't on our radar, but it is true. We are discussing revisiting rereleasing The Next Karate Kid 1994 scene by scene breakdown. Why are we doing this? Well, if you're listening to this, hopefully you've seen the other three, the original trilogy, got rereleases, as well. So hey, you got to throw this guy in for good measure. We're going back dusting them off, not touching them. That's what we're not doing, not redoing them. But we're putting, you know, beginning on they're catching up to reflecting where we were at the time. And then also putting these in order for our fan in order. You know, boom, boom, boom, boom, there'll be in order in April. So if you wanted to go back and do a deep dive scene by scene breakdown, and enjoy them, you can find them more easily Sal me people rerelease episodes, I've never done it. But this was an I've never done it in this fashion. I've definitely taken something that's was on Let's Talk movies and repurposed it for let's talk Cobra Kai, if it's relevant. And we also put something new on the beginning to make it you know, to kind of connect the dots. But this was brand new, but I've been wanting to do it for a while because you can't change the sort of ability of podcast when it's out there. Boom on that episodes, Episode, 22, and so on and so forth. So I figured, hey, this is a chance to put them in order. And, and who knows. I hope people enjoy it. Enjoy this intro. And we can kind of share some tidbits where we were when we did this one.

Sal Rodriguez:

I think the length of all of these could be like a great road trip. Yeah, great road trip listening. Totally. Totally. Each one each each movie.

Jason Connell:

I like it well in LA just driving somewhere

Sal Rodriguez:

else driving 10 Miles that's all

Jason Connell:

Yeah, I loved here all your episodes. Oh, wow. Well, this was and let me just bring up the poster here. I have it next to me.

Sal Rodriguez:

You happen to have it. Boo. Yah.

Jason Connell:

You see one. Marie's on there twice with Hillary Swank two times. This was episode 115. So for us for let's talk Cobra Kai. And we recorded this one Sal, August 2 2022. And the significance of this was also the fact that

Sal Rodriguez:

you were somewhere else again, right? Wait, I was somewhere else again?

Jason Connell:

No, we were in person. No,

Sal Rodriguez:

that's what I mean. I wasn't in my studio. We weren't in your name. And you and I were in the same studio for

Jason Connell:

the first time since episode 10 of season two of Cobra Kai. Oh my god. That's the significance. We were in studio together.

Sal Rodriguez:

We were in the same room. But unfortunately, if you listen, it sounds the same. We were at West. Oh, yes. Very significant. Very significant.

Jason Connell:

We're at Orange dock studios. Great friend Wes Hambright. Got a shout out. So much fun. He let us come in and take over the studio for a few hours because it takes a while. And we released it August 31 2022. actually went back home to Massachusetts at the time and put it together and came out then. Now the running time that day edited running time. This isn't just raw time but the edited time one hour 48 minutes. They'll movie The next Kearney kid movie. One hour 47 minutes. Once we almost we almost nailed How did that even have? I do not know we weren't doing a director's commentary. Just didn't happen that way. So it was a lot of fun. Hang

Sal Rodriguez:

on Jason was what was the gap between Karate Kid three and The Next Karate Kid? You mean the movies?

Jason Connell:

Not our Yeah. Well, commentary or commentary? Oh, the comment it was saying like episode. They're miles apart. This is episode half right? Oh, yeah, exactly. This is Episode What's

Sal Rodriguez:

wrong with us? Why did we wait so long for this one?

Jason Connell:

Well, just to answer your question in Episode numbers, it was episode 28 was the Karate Kid part three and this is episode 115. Well, what happened was so after we did the Karate Kid, Part three, we're going went into season three of Cobra Kai when Netflix took it over. And then we were doing special episodes every freaking week for so long. And then season four came. And then season five came and we had little gaps because let's not forget, season three comes out. Since that point in time, I moved two times to Massachusetts to Rhode Island. That's a lot of logistics. So we had gaps, and it was like, well, we're gonna make time for The Next Karate Kid. Now to be clear, we did the next one before I moved to Rhode Island, but it wasn't high on my radar, because let's be honest, let's call it what it is. It's the stepchild to the Karate Kid franchise. It does. It does. Your pet Raider. Sorry.

Sal Rodriguez:

That's what I'm saying. The only reason is because Macho is not if Macho? Well, it

Jason Connell:

is not the only reason the writing the absurdity of the movie, Hilary Swank is fine. But it has a lot of issues, to say the very least. So I wasn't in a hurry to go back. Even when I put it off. Sometimes I'm like, Okay, I'm going to try this. There are parts that are just hard to get through. There's a lot to love. And I'm more connected. Just to be clear, with this movie. Now having gone to Julie Pierce's house, not inside, but I went back and it's in Massachusetts before I'm

Sal Rodriguez:

right. We had a special episode where you were outside of Julie Pierce's house.

Jason Connell:

And I also have been to where the monks were. Wow. Yes, remember that this movie is close to your heart at this point. It's Castle Hill on the crane estate in also in Massachusetts. Ipswich actually went there one day, didn't know at the time that it was the backdrop so I was walking around these grounds going this is really magical. And then I put the movie on because we were starting to explore the trailer. And we were getting ready to do the episode. I was getting this house and I'm like, wait a second it was out of body so Oh, and then let's What am I thinking? We met since a gym true. Since a Christiansen they were in the movie I met you know since a jam his dojo help find the students that are in some of those scenes. The bull you know, the bullpen, the bullpen scene and whenever you call that out in front of the school where Michael iron sides, you know, challenging kids, a lot of the students from the dojo so I am more connected to this movie than I ever was. But it doesn't help the issues, unfortunately.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, well, I think that's a parent. Yeah, you say a lot happened. Sure. Episode 20. Something to Episode 115 something. Yes, a lot happened between there. But I still feel like that does signify there was a lot of similar some reluctance and apprehension and just overall delay and procrastination. On the part of Let's Talk Cobra Kai, think

Jason Connell:

that's well, I don't like to procrastinate. But I just wasn't feeling it. But when I got in the mode, you can't fake it in this business. You got to have passion and true. That's true, a connection to something to be able to bring in energy and enthusiasm to listeners and viewers. And that said it grew on me. Yeah, it wasn't by accident that I meet since a Jim true who runs through Martial Arts Academy and was connected to the movie wasn't by accident. I wound up at Castle Hill in the crane estate, and was like, Wait a second. And I was only 20 minutes away from Juliet Pierce's house that really invigorated me to do it. And I am proud of that movie for what it is and you and I and many others are hopeful that this or this either of these Julie Pearson's is going to come and join us in the Cobra Kai universe. That's the one thing they before the show goes off. Yeah, exactly. They have to. They have

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I mean, if they don't bring back Julie piers, I would think that they're leaving it to open ended or they're not completing. They're not completing the job. They've brought everybody back for crying out loud. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

And we're rushing over this, but I know you and I feel the same way. This is the last time in a movie that Pat Merida plays. Mr. Miyagi.

Sal Rodriguez:

That is what I savored when I watched this movie. Yeah, I had some eye rolls. Yes. But I savored watching Patton Rita's final performance I really did. Yeah, yeah,

Jason Connell:

absolutely. And he's great at it there's no doubt he's amazing as usual, and I almost wish there was just the next credit card Part Two the next credit card par three is painful as it is to say and even envision if we had it there just be a bit more. Right now

Sal Rodriguez:

though, you know what else we may have Jason? Gifts Julie Pierce does indeed come on to sixth. At some figures Julie Pierce action figures. That'll be cool.

Jason Connell:

Well, if and when you listen to the scene by scene breakdown rerelease you're going to hear mistake I admit my mistakes. Okay. And this is not as big as the 70 South Seas track it is the South Seas but I went through a spell where I thought it was 70s SPIKE going there years and years ago but in the movie, the antagonist is known as alpha elite. I heard it differently when I revisited this movie for notes. And I call it alpha league throughout the episode now alpha league You even went with it because we were doing it in person

Sal Rodriguez:

because you know, I started the question well, maybe I'm wrong. Am I wrong? Maybe it is awfully Yeah,

Jason Connell:

I think I even like squashed you saying it lead. Of course, it's Alpha league because it's cooler. I have a tendency to like yeah, no, I would have done I would have called it such anyway, so you're gonna hear that we know it's Alpha Ely. Or at least I do now. So enjoy that. And I don't need a ton of messages telling me I got it wrong because I'm here to tell you I know. Anyway, so now here is the synopsis I have for this episode that is there online already. Episode 115. But this rerelease might have a different synopsis, but here's what I put. Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down the not so classic movie, Han talk about visiting the month monastery, Mr. Miyagi waxing on waxing off, and the catch and release strategy. That's pretty enticing. I kinda want to hear this scene by scene breakdown,

Sal Rodriguez:

way catch and release on fish or insects

Jason Connell:

or whatever, anything in the movie, there is the whole they don't kill the insect. And then Julie squash, it's won and upset. Oh, yes, spoiler alert. But you would always told me you have a catch and release strategy. And then I had said to you at one point in time on one of these shows, it may have been this one. Does that apply to women? I know it's bad taste. I'm thinking of a younger Sal when he was single. And it was it was a joke. So I kind of worked.

Sal Rodriguez:

Remember the time when we fell in love?

Jason Connell:

Yes. And I liked this the only time ever put not so classic movie because I gotta be honest here. If I'm talking about the Karate Kid got to get Part Two, they get the classic movie moniker, especially the original Come on. And as far as Mr. Miyagi waxing on wax enough, he is doing that in the movie. And Julio wants no part of it. So I thought that was a nice homage to the original. And yeah, anyway. So I did I did visit the monk monastery, as I just pointed out, sorry.

Sal Rodriguez:

There's one more thing Jason and I just realized this and that is that I do want to give The Next Karate Kid their respect is due because they were kind of ahead of their time and having a female patent Rita. I mean, if you look at like later on Ghostbusters had the all female cast. A lot of times they'll remake a movie right? With the like, look, we were just talking about the thing. And in 20 elevens thing, instead of Kurt Russell, we have a female who did a great job. So it's like, I feel like The Next Karate Kid was kind of a ahead of the curve a bit.

Jason Connell:

You know what I gave you that? Absolutely. And there are some scenes in the movie that just wouldn't fly today. Like Alfa elite, not League. Ned is like insinuated all these things coming on to her being But doesn't that

Sal Rodriguez:

make him more creepy? Well, part of the deal Yeah, but it's like the more more slimy

Jason Connell:

more slimy but it just it really was a bit rough to go back and watch like wow, yeah, I guess they got away with this, but the year was what night before. So anyway, and Walton Goggins is in the movie he's fantastic. He's had an incredible career. And Michael Ironside is a really good bad guy. So there's a lot to like, but there's a lot to anyway, this is the synopsis from the movie, the actual synopsis Mr. Miyagi is back and he takes a new pupil under his wing a troubled adolescent girl could a kind of give me a little bit more there was really only one sentence but I liked Mr. Back like let's embrace that. They

Sal Rodriguez:

should have just like put Mr. Miyagi is back, exclamation mark, and then carried on.

Jason Connell:

So this is the not so classic movie style, but why don't you give us a hit list of people who brought it to an existence.

Sal Rodriguez:

director Christopher Kane, writer Robert Mark Kaman characters by Mark Lee cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs cast Pat Morita, Hilary Swank, Michael Ironside, Constance towers, Chris Conrad Michael Cavalier, Walton Goggins Composer Bill Conti, producer Jerry Weintraub,

Jason Connell:

so you got Some of the big players they have Weintraub Conte, of course Merida came in characters didn't write the script. He's not taking any credit for that. And of course, Goggins and others constant towers is really good as her aunt, the Pierce house, the piers Housel, who winds

Sal Rodriguez:

up in receipt Oh, not around her grandmother, her grandmother wise have been receiving we never get to see her

Jason Connell:

grandmother gotta get shipped off to a receipt and we never care. Yeah, not her odd. But yeah, that's it. We do a deep dive, we give respect to the movie, when it deserves it. We are more connected to it. And we really truly hope at some point in time, this becomes part of Cobra Kai. If you bring Julian you've connected the dots. If you don't, it's always this outlier. So, I mean, I'd love to see like, Goggins or Cavalier someone show up in it in a random scene or the love interest with Julie if you're gonna get Julie or not, but bring in somebody else like a Friday, Fernandez sprinkle them in, but they've never had any any connection at this point in time. But as season six is the final season of Cobra Kai, this is the chance this is that operator. Well,

Sal Rodriguez:

hang on. Here we are going on and on about Julie piers. But yeah, what if Michael Ironside pops out?

Jason Connell:

Ironside?

Sal Rodriguez:

What if alpha elite tries to do a hostile takeover a Cobra Kai Imagine that. Oh

Jason Connell:

my gosh, let's do it. Ironside wasn't Top Gun. Whatever that means, but you gotta love it. Wasn't in Robocop two. I believe he was he's insane. He was enrolled so many movies. Yeah, he's great. Great. Anyway, that's all we got. I hope you enjoy this because there is. Yeah, there's a lot to bite off. It's almost two hours of fun scene by scene breakdown. And it completes our four pack. It's a trilogy. You

Sal Rodriguez:

know what the four pack? No, you know what, Jason? I almost feel like for the listener for our fans. This is actually let me look, we're 115 episodes in versus only 20 Something episodes in. So I kind of feel like maybe we might even do a better job. Even though we may not love the movie as much. We may do a better job of a scene by scene breakdown of this movie than maybe all the others. Wow. That's a bold statement. You decide listeners,

Jason Connell:

you guys, I just looked this up, by the way. Yeah, Michael Ironside was going to be Robocop

Sal Rodriguez:

but wasn't Whoa, he was going to be Peter Wellers character. I

Jason Connell:

thought I quickly looked this up. So we'll have to do a deep dive on that later. That would

Sal Rodriguez:

be interesting, because he's a good guy. Robocop is a good guy officially.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. Uphold the law protect the innocent. So without further ado, please enjoy

Sal Rodriguez:

The Next Karate Kid.

Jason Connell:

All right, sound. We are in studio. Together. Yeah. It's

Sal Rodriguez:

pretty amazing. It's almost surreal.

Jason Connell:

It is very surreal. So those watching on YouTube Live one frame one box. Can you believe this?

Sal Rodriguez:

We're in the same room. Literally.

Jason Connell:

We have not been in the same room recording since November 18 2019. Pre pandemic, we at that point in time recorded season two, episode nine and episode 10 of Cobra Kai.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, that's because Jason, I started distancing before distancing was even a thing I

Jason Connell:

was social distancing way back. But here we are. And then we kind of got to our virtual recordings. And that was April 11 2020. So we're in the midst of the pandemic. We did the Karate Kid part to that time. And then that kind of started this whole new thing. So I am in Los Angeles for three weeks, or at least in California for three weeks la for two. And we wanted to do this particular recording because we are doing The Next Karate Kid 1994 scene by scene breakdown.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, this is pretty big. Because this is not only you being here, us being in the same room, but a very, very special episode and a lot has led to this right. I feel like this. At this point. I almost feel like this is like couple years in the making.

Jason Connell:

Totally. Yeah, let's just say that I put it off and I put it off and I put it off. Yeah, we did the trailer. We broke down the trailer recently. I went to the house Julie's house, Julie son's house in the movie, Julie Pierce. And here we are breaking the movie down. I will say this is the worst movie. I've done a scene by scene breakdown. But it's not because we don't love it. It's just it's not a well built movie. And that's obvious. But we're trying to find little, little things to love and hang our hat on because Julie pairs very well could pop up in the Cobra Kai universe.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I mean, at this point, it's hard to tell what's going to happen. Nobody knows anything. You know, the showrunners are very tight lipped about everything. Everybody involved in Cobra Kai is very tight lipped. Yeah, we don't know. Yeah, they do a great job being tight lipped. I mean, for us for the fans. We want to know we need to know but I mean, we don't know. Nobody knows.

Jason Connell:

I have a funny suspicion. Although I felt That about Mike Barnes so I'm not sure so I'm gonna have to look over here south because the cameras like way over there. But yeah, we assumed Mike Barnes was coming. I feel like it probably set up to happen now. But Julie pears in or not I feel like they could even just bring her back for a cameo I'd love more, but it makes sense. Now if they're gonna go get big names, two time Oscar winner. No one's achieved that in this sphere. This universe. Elizabeth Shue was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Leaving Las Vegas, which Nick Cage won an Oscar Mike figures film. But beyond that no one else has these type of credentials. Right? So why wouldn't you go get her if she wanted to be a part of it?

Sal Rodriguez:

Sure. And also, this movie is very special because of the legacy of the Miyagi verse. Yes, I kind of on my last watching of this movie kind of stay focused on that I kind of stay focused on that legacy and the connection with Miyagi and Julie's grandfather and Daniel that that holds that will serve they're all related.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, by the way. We're in orange Dog music studio, my boy, our boy, Wes Hambright, who also created the just curious media intro just curious. So that's where we are. We're at his studio in Northridge, California, where there was a big earthquake way back in the day. For those out here. I was not. And before we get started though, sell a word from our sponsor. Let's do it. Support for let's talk Cobra Kai is brought to you by manscaped who is the best in men's below the waist grooming and offers precision engineered tools for your family jewels. Join over 4 million men worldwide who trust manscaped and with this exclusive offer you'll get

Sal Rodriguez:

20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code Cobra kai@manscaped.com

Jason Connell:

All right, here we go.

Sal Rodriguez:

Hang on Jason sorry. We have a third person here.

Jason Connell:

Oh, that's right I'm so sorry Mr. Miyagi.

Sal Rodriguez:

It's not just Jason and I today as if that wasn't enough Yes. We have right here he is in frame Yes. Oh yeah. He is Mr. Miyagi action figure shot complete with bonsai tree made by NACA we're not endorsed by NACA yet but here he is. Here is Mr. Miyagi he is with us in spirit and in action figure form. Yeah, with bonsai love it with lawn and Chopsticks. Chopsticks for catching the fly that's buzzing our air is

Jason Connell:

a fly the snuck in the studio and Mr. Miyagi sleeping on the job but it was really Danielson that caught the fly the first time it was began to look so we are breaking down as I said earlier, The Next Karate Kid 1994 also known as online The Karate Kid, Part Four right whatever

Sal Rodriguez:

I don't like when people call it that because that's not the official name right

Jason Connell:

now it's not an early titles for this film. Were Young Americans and kids in America where the kids in America

Sal Rodriguez:

well yeah, like wait what? That's an interesting release. Seriously?

Jason Connell:

Seriously saw this so you know I don't know without choice very odd. Now the synopsis for this credit good film, Mr. Miyagi is back. And he takes a new pupil under his wing, a troubled adolescent girl. That's it. That's your synopsis? Wait, I

Sal Rodriguez:

just realized we might be getting a Julie Pierce action figure. Oh my gosh, look at hanging out with Miyagi.

Jason Connell:

So, really quickly to go over what we always do the IMDb Rating. I'm going to move quick. 4.5 on IMDb. Wow. Wow, not great. Yeah. 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. The tomato meter is 7%.

Sal Rodriguez:

What's worse, Tommy, we saw the room. Is that what that's probably

Jason Connell:

more because people love it. This was released September 9 99. Before I saw the trailer and ran the other way. Honestly, true story. So that happened. Columbia Pictures put it out the US gross. Approximately $8.9 million did not even cover its cost and they did not make a Next Karate Kid Part Two or part three.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, Jason, you mentioned the trailer. You know, Jason, I recently covered the actual trailer. And both of us agreed anyway that the trailer does not do the movie justice. Like the movie is better than the trailer. If you want to go back and listen to our episode, we'll recover the trailer if you want if you care, too. I mean, it's just pretty. I mean, at this point, if they're listening to us cover the movie too. They care about the trailer. I probably already heard that episode A Okay, hopefully. So

Jason Connell:

just to give you some context, those are a lot of numbers I threw at you. Let's go back in time. The original The Karate Kid. IMDb Rating 7.2 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, credit card, part two. IMDb Rating 6.0 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, the Karate Kid part three. You see a trend here? The Karate Kid Part Three IMDb Rating 5.2 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. It kept going that way, folks. Now the reboot, which I don't have that information with us. Well, I'm with a Jackie Chan and Smith. I'm sure it was an uptick, right. Yeah, a Cobra Kai then sets the bar up there with a karate kid. It's hitting on all cylinders on IMDb. And so yeah, they just kept going down and wineshop finally threw in the towel on the sequels.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I'm constantly surprised when I hear every little news clip or headline. It appears that the reboot was well received.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, it was and they didn't make another one which was shocking to me. They could have easily tapped in part two parts. Maybe Jackie Chan didn't want to I don't know, because that was still 2010 Yeah, it took a long time for Cobra Kai then to take off after that year. Now, this movie did win an award. It won an award winner of stinker award, and it's the sequel nobody was clamoring for and that went to Jerry Weintraub. So he made a fistful of money sell on karate kid but this one was not one of those.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, so it wasn't like they were just in it for the money because there was no oh,

Jason Connell:

he probably thought I owe it to patent right. You know, he figures all things Karate Kid. They've got a great talent. They got a young Hilary Swank, but they just fell short. So of course, Weintraub was back as producer John T. Appleton was originally slated to direct but dropped out in order to make eight seconds also came out 94 started Luke Perry's Lane frost really good movie, but it would have been a better movie with Appleton at the helm.

Sal Rodriguez:

That's all I'm saying. Well, would that have changed the writing I think

Jason Connell:

it would have had impact all the way down. If he's on board maybe came in we don't know the trickle effect of that if it happened to disrespect the director

Sal Rodriguez:

away and not and I was gonna say not to disrespect the writer because there's some good lines in here. There are some good lines in

Jason Connell:

here. Right. And just to quickly on, the director was Christopher Kane. He did other movies I think like young guns and some other films we talked about on the trailer episode. The writer was Robert Mark Kaman characters only. Yeah, characters only. It was actually Mark Lee, who wrote the script and then was composed by Bill Conti. And you can hear it in this movie. It's so I had some of the Dream Team, but not all of the Dream Team.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wait, hang on. I think it's a little bit misleading because the characters are by Robert Mark Heyman the characters meaning Miyagi, not Julie Pierce.

Jason Connell:

Miyagi. Yes, that's the only one that would have come out of the original right here. Here he is. All right. Yes, again, folks. And now the cast Pat Marita, he's back to reprise his role as Mr. Miyagi Of course, Hillary Swank is Julie piers she would go on to do movies like Boys Don't Cry Million Dollar Baby back to back Oscars, their freedom fighters PS I love you and many, many other things. She's fantastic. Then there's Dugan Michael Ironside, Top Gun. Total Recall Starship Troopers. He always plays a good kind of jerk. You know, jerky roll. Bad Guy. Louisa constant towers. She was on tons of shows and movies General Hospital. She had a long run on so you may recognize her if your general hospital fan. Chris Conrad plays Eric Michael Cavalera. He plays Ned really good as a jerk and he doesn't he

Sal Rodriguez:

does a good job. I want to say later on. I'm gonna say how much I hate this guy.

Jason Connell:

I mean, the character. He's good.

Sal Rodriguez:

I mean, the character, not the.

Jason Connell:

And then Walton Goggins plays Charlie and he's had a great career. He's in Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight justified TV show vice principals, TV show. Love him. I was shocked when I went back and watch this movie. For the first time. I was like, Oh, my gosh, I know him. Yes. So he popped, but he's barely in this movie. Line while rule. So that sets the stage. And now so we can go into our scene by scene breakdown if you're ready.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, and I'm pretty excited actually. Because again, this was a long time coming a long time coming. I mean, we've been waiting for this. I know our listeners and viewers have been waiting for this. And here we are.

Jason Connell:

All right. So we open at Fort Myer in Arlington Virginia with the Washington Monument in the background so I've been to DC several times never this particular spot but you see that monument very authentic. And so it's a bit of a celebration here. Yeah. Tapping it so do you know what's going on?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, at first you think maybe it's Fourth of July or something patriotic military happening.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, the President is honoring the Japanese American soldiers and of them of that group. Que Suki Miyagi is honored along with Louisa Pierce and her passed away husband she's a widow now Jack Pierce and Jack Pierce and Miyagi were in the war together and had this super bond helped each other through lots of things save each other's lives and all this all that we don't know him we just see a photo and a super young photo of pappelina

Sal Rodriguez:

What great photo I like a

Jason Connell:

photo Yeah, whatever they

Sal Rodriguez:

think that was really him

Jason Connell:

It looked so much like his face like someone could have altered it. You know, it was really really good stuff was

Sal Rodriguez:

a great photo but also we don't know when Jack Pierce died. We don't have that

Jason Connell:

time. Okay? We've talked about this in the past so they called him Keisuke right out of the gate. Yeah, this guy honors him and then he goes up to accept this award. Now we know him from the original as near Yoshi Nari. Well, not the original sorry, the original it's just Mr. Miyagi. Yeah. And then there's the key chain the car, the car key the dog had that had Hideo on it? Yeah, we only know him as Mr. Miyagi, the sequel and the TV show Cobra Kai he is narrow Yoshi Yagi that we know. So I don't know where they came up with this Keisuke? I don't know why they wrote something in that wasn't there. So that's a little bit confusing. And I was also thrown off a little bit taken aback that there was no speech from Mr. Miyagi. It's like he walks up there with Louisa, and then we cut out, I would have loved to seeing him give some sort of wonderful speech.

Sal Rodriguez:

I'm gonna say this, and I'll just say this once, this opening scene with this ceremony. I thought it was fine, but I don't think they should have opened with it. I think they should have moved it. Maybe put it along later. That's a good point. That's what I think

Jason Connell:

I liked it. I liked the pageantry and the honoring the Japanese American soldiers. But again, I wanted to speech and I don't know why they called him something else. That's my

Sal Rodriguez:

issues. Oh, by the way, that speaker who introduces him, he's a he looks really senator. Oh, thank you. Well, yeah, I think it was a Hawaiian Senator, I believe. So

Jason Connell:

we dissolve into Boston, shout out to my new now hometown. And we're really in 259 Hyde Avenue. Newton, Massachusetts, is the house to pierce household, which I was at most recently. And it's a beautiful white house in the movie. It's been painted, it looks different. Now. It's been updated. But the home is the same way. Itis still white. Well, it has white, but it's like another color. It's like a beautiful blue. Like it's been a long time. So they gotta kind of speed things up. But they also pulled this driveway on the left side of the house, which that's not there anymore. Now that's been like sequestered by the neighbor. Because he just pulls up right to the left. It's like, I don't remember seeing that. So some little things have changed in the last 30 plus years.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, later on, I'm gonna ask you about the window where they were dancing because I like still there. Okay,

Jason Connell:

parlor is there and I sat right in front of it. But so it is odd to me that Miyagi comes back to Boston with Louisa and her car like so they go mate, and Virginia hadn't seen each other in a while. And now he's coming back to Boston. And he doesn't even know about the troubled adolescent girl yet.

Sal Rodriguez:

No, but you know what? I was today, years old when I realized that the military ceremony with the honors was Virginia. Then they go to Boston. Yeah, I just assumed who was in Boston and

Jason Connell:

I made that drive before. And that's like a six hour drive. So it's like, yeah, I'll go back with you, Louisa. I'll drive you home. Yeah, it's it's kind of weird. I don't know why that's happening. We also learn that Miyagi is a rice man hates potatoes. Yeah, you know, I'm Irish. So I love those potatoes. But I also love rice. So

Sal Rodriguez:

I like them both. I like them both. That's a tough one.

Jason Connell:

So now we meet the angsty teen. Julie Pierce. She comes in quite an entrance. Yeah, right away. Yeah. And we also get the obligatory exposition about Julie's parents died in a car accident, and she just is mad at everybody in particular, her grandmother. Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

I don't know why we don't know why she seems to harbor anger towards the grandmother.

Jason Connell:

Now they had to make your uptight, upset and Miyagi had to step in and write because their grandmother calls her Susan, what was her mother's name? And she takes that and start like, I'm not Susan. She's dead. It was. It's a bit over the top right there. I could tell like it's a little melodramatic. This movie's got issues, but I love Mr. Miyagi. I'm going on this right.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. And you know, he's gonna save the day. You see, you see a trouble and you know that he's gonna save the day.

Jason Connell:

But then what does Miyagi have to say?

Sal Rodriguez:

Anybody who lose parent have much grief? Grief, trapped in hot, become big anger. And he's right. You know, some people say, a lot of people have said the root of anger is pain or sadness. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

And she's a kid. She doesn't even have her wits about her. Her brain is still evolving her mind are all of the emotions and yeah, she's just harboring a lot of anger.

Sal Rodriguez:

Was she playing 1617 here while she churns? I

Jason Connell:

thought 16 In the movie, so like 15

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, I assume okay, but she's actually 20 I think Oh, yeah. Yeah. Older for sure. Yes.

Jason Connell:

So based on this one meeting with Julie Miyagi has already hatched a plan. And Sal, he's putting Louisa to work. Danielson style

Sal Rodriguez:

suggest Louisa Sun water flowers.

Jason Connell:

What do you mean flowers?

Sal Rodriguez:

Not here flower flower in Miyagi garden? California.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, so he is shipping Louisa off without even talking about it. He's got a plan. Now do you think Luis is gonna go to work at Mr. Miyagi little trees or what's going on here?

Sal Rodriguez:

You know, after having seen New England? Yes. And after having seen receita Yes. I wouldn't necessarily call going to receipt from no. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

she's in a good place. Yes. A beautiful no Miyagi just needs to stay there. He needs exactly. Yeah. Louisa could have stayed. Yeah. But he's like, no, no, we gotta get you out of this. No,

Sal Rodriguez:

you know what this was Jason. I got to be honest, transparency is kind of annoyed me this, I think is the is the tradition here of the Karate Kid. Absolutely. Just to go trying to get rid of people. Just get rid of them. Yeah. Especially if it's a woman like some sort of matriarchal figure Daniel's

Jason Connell:

mother. Yep, there we go. You're absolutely right. Ali and part two. Yes. We don't even see Ali.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, and from a credit cut to.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, we don't see Kimiko because she's out dawn.

Sal Rodriguez:

Exactly. It's just like get about a hair.

Jason Connell:

Man. Yeah. Danya you're gone. And the sad thing is we never see or hear from her again. She Okay, she calls once so little call but not with is she getting harassed by crease in receita? Yeah, what is happening in receita? Yeah, Barnes and company are harassing her. So now we see Julie breaking into school. By the way, it's Brookline high school, but I know they took some and cheated some of Tufts University which I've also gone by I've not yet visited Brooklyn high school, but it does come up a lot brick line in the movie. And she's got food for an injured Hawk named Angel. And Shawn. Oh, please,

Sal Rodriguez:

Hawk. Hello, Hawk. Yeah, it took my third viewing recently to realize Hello. Do you think Cobra Kai went back and grabbed it means something right about that sounds good point.

Jason Connell:

Good point. But

Sal Rodriguez:

maybe I'm grasping if there's nothing here I don't

Jason Connell:

know what my question sounds. Why is the bird here at school? Why not just take it home?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, because there was the enclosure there was the guy used to keep pigeons there. Yeah. And we learned that plus

Jason Connell:

they want her at school for these various reasons. Yeah, for the Alpha leads. So now Brookline PD arrives because she breaks into school triggers and alarm and this is like Beverly Hills Cop type music's

Sal Rodriguez:

playing. Yeah, these cops were kind of bungling. Yeah. The score plays

Jason Connell:

and Julie escapes. Yeah, and they're bumbling they can't catch her you know we've all seen these scenes before and it's a bit hokey

Sal Rodriguez:

these were not track and field stars these cops

Jason Connell:

no no. So she heads home and learns of Miyagi is plants right and probably not loving it either. But everyone goes along Miyagi plants. No one stands up to him they have great ideas because next thing we know we're headed to Boston Logan where I flew out of to come on this beautiful trip miss and Miyagi and Julie see Luisa off. Like you just said though, it's Lucia from the credit card, part three with Uncle Louie and Sally Miyagi offers to make Julie a special birthday meal. Like, what's going on here? Sounds

Sal Rodriguez:

good to me.

Jason Connell:

I guess he did bake Daniel a cake and the original Karate Kid. So he is known to do these big.

Sal Rodriguez:

Freshly caught fish about them. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

So he's trying to bond with her right away and maybe it's good for Julie to hear it from a different voice. Not the grandmother. Like this new guy that's got some wisdom. But what does Miyagi say?

Sal Rodriguez:

Miyagi pick you appear this afternoon. Okay, Julie son, sayonara, yeah, a

Jason Connell:

lot of signers in this movie. And that's because he takes her right to school where I think she's probably been skipping and missing and doing certain things. So he's dropping her off and wants to pick her up in the same spot. He wants Julie to get back into school set a good pattern for herself.

Sal Rodriguez:

No, no, if you're a young person stay in school. Trust Yeah.

Jason Connell:

truant officers will pick you up. Oh, yeah. So now we're at school and there's a montage with the song moving on up what by in people and not to be mistaken. It's not the Jeffersons soundtrack or theme song. Yeah. How's that? Go?

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, hey, moving on up. Moving on up to the side. Do a D Lux apartment in the sky high.

Jason Connell:

I wish it was that song. So we learned that Julie, we learned right away that she's an outcast, a loner, and then bad boy Alpha League member, Ned sponsor and saw this is a very uncomfortable thing.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I think unfortunately, during a lot of the interactions with Julie Pierce and the Alpha elites, I think anytime you have like a group of guys or any guy like threatening a woman, yeah, there's always that undertone. That creepy rapey undertone is always Yeah, it's

Jason Connell:

like physical ride aways grab. Yeah, and then there's the sexual advances. It's like this is not okay. It wasn't okay then but it's especially not okay now not being tolerated. But Daniel never dealt with this being a male he dealt with being bullied, but this is far worse than that.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, that's the burden that women have to carry with them. It's like if you and I walk out here and get our ass kicked that's probably just what's going to happen we'll just get our ass kicked. Not gonna happen. We're not gonna have what Jason martial artists but the point is, it's going to end the exact most likely Yeah,

Jason Connell:

this is goes on. I didn't notice because I didn't see this as a kid. But right away watching as an adult, like, oh my gosh, he just wouldn't probably put this in the movie. Yeah, um, well, no. It could be a woman that's pressuring her and probably should have been a Women's League of some sort. We should have had that. Okay,

Sal Rodriguez:

interesting twist. Otherwise, yeah, there is the rapey vibe and the rapey vibe, though. Makes you hate these guys. These guys are terrible. Terrible.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. If they wanted to make worse people than Cobra Kai, they were successful in that. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Now Sal, please describe for everyone I'm the Alpha league attire.

Sal Rodriguez:

I can't say a word, much dissimilar attire. This is your outfit. Well, because you know, I was class at 91 High School. This was 94. So this wasn't too far at all. I recognize a lot of styles. So they had the black T shirt tucked in with a black belt into jeans. Yeah. And then black shoe Reeboks or so yeah, like black Reeboks, I was looking for tactical boots. I was thinking they should have had tactile Dre and I don't think that was

Jason Connell:

the tucking in and really says this is the 90s Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

and also says like we are one group. Yeah, we're one. Yeah, they're all and they have some logo. Shoulders. Yes. Well, in the very beginning, these guys look like rogue hall monitors. Like these guys are like salutely. They're sanctioned by the school. But you could tell that these guys are like taking this way too seriously.

Jason Connell:

It's like what they got not vigilantes, but what was that group of? Oh my gosh, they used to patrol streets, the angels and guardian angel guard that's already in a minds me but they're not doing good. You're causing all the problems? Exactly. You need the guardian angels for guys with these guys in check. So the leader is Colonel Dugan, and of course it's played by Michael Ironside. And he enters and Ned claims Julie was smoking because he's coming in his net is harassing Julius we've just described and Ned goes under the bus. She was smoking pulls out cigs

Sal Rodriguez:

great like do you think Dugan bought that? I couldn't tell if Dugan really believed that Julie was legit smoking no

Jason Connell:

matter what he's got proof, no nonsense. And she is sent to the principal's office. And it was a lot like bad cop setup saying you know, they come in we found this drugs over here immediately. Interwrite Dugan probably even knew but even if it wasn't smoking, what is she doing over here hiding from class? Yeah, right. So Dugan tells the principal Harold Wilkes one more mistake and Julie will be kicked out. I love how do Gaines telling the principal how to principal, the school?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, because we don't even know what deacons official role is. But he's like head of school security. Somebody who is this guy? Yeah. Yeah. And he's telling the principal,

Jason Connell:

yeah, this outworks. One more, she's out of here. And then do again, has Eric McGowan. Who's this other guy's gonna be the love interest? There's a little bit of he's keeps looking at Julie. And there's a little bit of a connection there.

Sal Rodriguez:

But while they're having that connection, Dugan sees. So that's what I couldn't really tell what Dugan was thinking yet because he saw that connection, but then he has him walk her like why is he doing that? I couldn't understand what his motives were

Jason Connell:

it well, this whole movies discombobulated, but so yeah, he has Julie walked to class Class 238 He knows her schedule. And Eric's gonna take her and Ned also notices this

Sal Rodriguez:

guy, okay. He Yeah. He asked him what's going on here?

Jason Connell:

But so I'm not sure about this joke. When Eric is with Julie and asked her name and she replies go to hell. Right and in which he responds with Go to hell. That's a funny name. What is it Chinese? Now? I'm studying Chinese and I don't even get this joke. I don't it doesn't sound that's a bad joke.

Sal Rodriguez:

It sounds more like it could be what Arabic or something? Like if you're gonna make any stupid joke.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, terrible joke. It's terrible. So then Eric goes on and shares the school is known for alpha League. Now we know that these guys they know about it. It's made the school famous. You want to be an alpha League? Why? I have no idea.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, you're the kings of the school. No, we can pick this year. Yeah, you're the laws on your side. You're untouchable. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

it's Cobra Kai adjacent. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

it's Cobra Kai sanctioned.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, only thing that's missing is Chris wasn't in the hallways. But Johnny is a cover guy. He's always at school trespass trespassing. So Julie ducks out in the girls room so she gets away from America. I'll be right back. I go the restroom. And Ned checks on Eric all this is happening so that's like hey, you know what's going on? Well then Eric goes to check on Julie who is now flood the restaurant right do a little bitty window. And she's on the roof to check on ANGEL. Yeah, she's crafty. This Julie

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. Yeah, but unfortunately she is followed and then they're followed

Jason Connell:

exactly. Yeah. Well Ned's keeping a close eye because you can kind of tell there's this weird love triangle happening percolating but we don't really know what's going

Sal Rodriguez:

well net is just staking his claim and doing his dominance thing. Yeah, when he says she's mine right?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, well, because he's like, Hey, I'm going to invite you to be come to the docks with me girls want me and the heck is this guy? Yes. But so is the hawk in this movie a to give Julie a reason to go to school all the time or be to show that she's got a caring and nurturing side is that that the device here with Hawk

Sal Rodriguez:

No, I Angel I think a spoiling our whole review here. But I think the Hawk is representative of her herself herself. Yeah, the Hawk is her

Jason Connell:

wounded currently, and then sores later on. That's it. That's a wrap night America.

Sal Rodriguez:

Thank you. So Oh, and the Greek guy Ellen's

Jason Connell:

Oh yeah, we love the Greek island. So now Eric finds Julie and angel. He pops up on the roofers threatens to tell everybody about this angel. And Julie threatens Eric with it. It's just so silly like, Well, okay, if you tell people all have a bunch of pizzas delivered to your house late into the night, or I'll tell everybody you have a social disease, or I'll put sugar in your gas tank, Julie slow down.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, it also I don't know if the youth of today knows about the sugar in the gas tank. That's old school. That was a big thing. Like if you hated somebody, you would literally take actual sugar and pour it into their gas tank and we just like ruin their fuel lines.

Jason Connell:

Some people did it to motorcycles just on random people. Like

Sal Rodriguez:

okay, so not even somebody who hated just just random.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. So she's threatening it doesn't go more than that. But it's not like they got up to this great start. This is not like a romance or a cute meet. It's not that it's like whatever. So now we cut to Alpha league training, very Cobra Kai style hairstyle. And we actually had sensei Chris Jensen on the show and he was in this scene. This is the same one well, one of to the prom and the Bull Ring sing because there's tons of playing in alpha league playing and alpha. He had the whole describe that outfit if you would, I don't remember what those were. It was just the tease with a grey tank tops, great grey shorts, tall socks, and a kneepads they all had the pads listed there and then they're all around learning how to fight a couple of the Alpha Leaguers had the black on I thought and then Dugan, of course, but of all these other guys and Chris I was looking for him. He said you could kind of see the side of his face. Because there's a lot and that boring.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cuz usually Alpha league is like five guys usually. Yeah. Running around the movie. Yeah, but this was the there Lars like

Jason Connell:

all over the underlings and newbies. We don't even know who but what is Dugan? Say? He's given a big speech to everybody there and what is he say?

Sal Rodriguez:

ready and able to give a maximum response maximum effort go to the limit now so

Jason Connell:

that's a far cry from strike first strike hard no mercy little clunky much like this. You know, like, yeah, maximum response, maximum effort. Go to the limit. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

that would be hard to put in stencil on your dose.

Jason Connell:

We should do it. Let's just do it. I

Sal Rodriguez:

love it. And he's and he's obviously taking his job as like school security a bit too seriously? Way

Jason Connell:

serious. Yeah, way series. So Dugan pulls a crease, he takes everyone down, including Charlie's so he starts to fight his own to show them how to do it. Not all the guys around but kind of the you call them the elite squad? The five that we get to know Yeah, he's like, oh, yeah, do this and he's like throwing Ned down picks on Charlie, which is Walton Goggins? He basically a

Sal Rodriguez:

grown man kicking teenagers assets in the principal things it's great. Sure. Well, because if the principal says anything, Dugan will kick his ass that's Yeah, exactly.

Jason Connell:

So So while this is happening, Miyagi pulls up watches. Julie not meeting Miyagi watches from afar a different vantage point. Eric won't enter the ring. Yeah, calls out McGowan McGowan's, like he's in alpha League and we learn why later, so hold off on that, but he's not really participating. He's questioning things. Yeah. And we'll learn so what happens when he wouldn't enter the ring? Well, he slaps him. Exactly. He gets it he gets a shot and we'll do can provokes him. Yeah. And he gets a shot. Because McGowan

Sal Rodriguez:

doesn't want to fight so Duke is like, Whoa, are you gonna fight out of anger then it gives them a Yep. And by the way, all of us have seen recently the famous slap on the Oscars slap. One man slapping another man is a bigger insult and punching another man.

Jason Connell:

True. Very true. Well, who else saw this I just said Miyagi and this is it. This is like that point where he has to intervene.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, this is the parking lot of the all Valley tote again. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

part two. Yeah, well, it was supposed to be in part one, but it got moved to part two. Yeah, so he enters he come in he doesn't know anybody and he doesn't know where to Julius. And so he comes in and Dugan cleans Miyagi is trespassing as a students do laps. Now that's interesting, sad that Miyagi is trespassing because he's there you know, to get not as kid but you know who he's looking out after right? He's a guardian in this instance. So I do get a little out of line with his trespassing business. Any parent on premises of the property is trespassing. But then it goes on and shares his old Okinawan story which just goes over dragon's head. He's got a lot of these Miyagi isms or dungeon master type stories. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

the moral of the story is that the wild beast will get put down.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, it's pretty funny like okay, so foreshadow there puts it out there. And then Julie leaves. Miyagi never shows up in the spot that she's supposed to. She jumps in the car with Eric and his dad, remember the car?

Sal Rodriguez:

It's a beautiful red 72 Oldsmobile 442.

Jason Connell:

And he's quite proud of it. Saved from the junkyard. It looks. MIT.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, me. Yeah. Almost. I'm surprised he even has this car. Totally. Because he has sort of a sad story. You know, right. Yeah. That's coming. That's coming. Yeah. So So we learn about him. And so it's almost surprising that he has the car but then again, that's all he has is the car.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. It doesn't have a father. Yeah. So I like how Eric takes Julie to his job, right. How does she get home so this is pre Uber taxi nowhere inside by the way, he works for

Sal Rodriguez:

a train I guess she's let's take a train. That's probably what happens. And he

Jason Connell:

works for the MBTA known as the T. It's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. And he's a security guard. Well, he doesn't do anything but like walk on top of the train. He chases the dogs or the cases the rats away yeah, chase

Sal Rodriguez:

the rats. And then we do what you would need to do if you had the cats there then he'd be out of it exactly.

Jason Connell:

But you do learn his backstory and like you just said father left didn't die like Daniel's father. Yeah, father left and we sent him money for a while but then stuff and he wants to be in the Air Force again a Top Gun Top Gun. And that's the only reason he joined do guns clan was maybe there's a referral here for the Academy.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Dugan was to put in the good word write some sort of letter of recommendation. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

So now Julie son gets home somehow. I don't know how maybe it was a train. Maybe she walked and Miyagi ends a phone call, which I believe he was talking to Louisa son. Okay, I believe and she walks us Would he be talking? Yeah. And Daniel. Okay. Yeah, that would have been great that they would have split screen

Sal Rodriguez:

and

Jason Connell:

hey, are Daniels mom. Yeah. So Julie walks in right to her bedroom slams the door like all teens. Yes. And she's changing. Yep. And so this is a sitcom moment like three's companies

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, this is where we start to get in sort of a sitcom II atmosphere because then we get into like the nylons hanging in the medicine cabinet. Oh, yeah. It gets a little sick CAMI

Jason Connell:

here. It does and this is the one Daniel reference. So basically, Miyagi opens the door like Julie's on and she's changing you don't see anything but she's definitely got a bra on or sports bra or something that she's changing. And she yells at him and he's red in the face super embarrassed because he's never dealt with this

Sal Rodriguez:

well also I wouldn't have thought she'd be changing because she had just walked in there. That was a real quick It was fast quickly went into champion she has

Jason Connell:

popped every button Yeah. Yeah, what does Miyagi say because this is the one and only reference to Danielson.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, believe me any Machiel fan or LORUSSO fan would probably feel slighted. I would say by the overall Yeah, yeah, this is all we get. So after this incident with the changing and him walking in there, Miyagi feels terrible. It feels terrible. Miyagi apologizes you see before I'm live with a friend Daniel son, Danielson come in Miyagi room. Miyagi come in Danielson room, no big deal, boys easier.

Jason Connell:

And that's it. We don't talk about Daniel again. None of the Cobra Kai stuff, nothing else comes

Sal Rodriguez:

well, like what we discussed on the trailer. It's not so much that they only referenced Daniel once but this was the references this is when they chose to reference Daniel this very moment. I know odd choice

Jason Connell:

making light of it. I said they should have told a story about how he helped a troubled kid in the past who had issues he was being bullied. Yeah, just sit her down and set her straight. This story goes right in her head like whatever. Great. You knew a guy says he means nothing to Julie

Sal Rodriguez:

used to live with some guy. Okay, that's cool. That's

Jason Connell:

cool. My roommates are cool. So, Miyagi offends Julie. He tries to talk with her. And he says, you know, Julie, ambition without the knowledge is like boat on dry land. So he's throwing these like Miyagi isms, these little nuggets out there and she's like, What are you talking about? Like that almost makes her more mad that he's coming out and talking and code

Sal Rodriguez:

while he says something like, I'm trying to teach you something. She goes, what are you gonna teach me you can't even speak English. Like she makes some sort of ouch out she lashes out. So

Jason Connell:

she's so mad now that she blazes out of the house where I was sitting. I was literally sitting across the street so she would have come right outside and nearly hit by a pizza delivery car. And so it's funny when I finished our episode, when I was at the house, I actually went around the block and reenacted the pizza delivery as the pizza I will put that on YouTube Live It was pretty funny or you our YouTube channel and just did exactly as I was the pizza guy how that moment would have been. So he comes over stops. What does Julie do?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, Julie does something amazing and unexpected things even for Miyagi. I mean, we all you've seen some interesting things in his life, um, a certain especially as a war veteran, right? She jumped Yeah, how about that? How about the crane? This pizza delivery guy comes up she suddenly li reflexively jumps up and lands on the hood of the car. She only holds it, she only plants it for a few seconds, and then she jumps off again. But she jumps up onto the hood of this pizza delivery car and avoids being killed basically, because

Jason Connell:

he does slam on the brakes. To be clear, he doesn't keep mowing down. He's going way too

Sal Rodriguez:

fast for that area. 20 Because he's trying to make his 30 minute limit.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. He works for party time pizza 5551235 We're never late 30 minutes or it's free. So he's probably going 45 and a 25 or 4025. But he's like, she jumps up jumps off. Miyagi, can't believe.

Sal Rodriguez:

I just imagined a lot of pizza places were probably like, we can't do this. 30 minutes. I think people are getting killed

Jason Connell:

to kill somebody. It's not worth it's not worth it. But Miyagi comes out. The pizza delivery guy is hilarious. Yeah, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I gotta go. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm out of here. And Miyagi, like rolls his eyes, and then they go back inside. Julian Miyagi, go back inside. And so we learn that Julie knows karate. Yeah, she already knows karate. Yeah. Or at least was taught lesson taught lessons. And a lot of kids learn it as a youth, and then lose sight of it for a long time. But if they ever get back into it, that skill sets there, right? And that's why she could make that leap muscle memory, muscle memory. But how did she learn karate?

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so this right here is what I held on to this carried me through the movie is the connection between Julie Pierce and Daniel Russo because Miyagi taught karate to Julie's grandfather, who taught it to his son. Yep. Who was Julie's father? Who taught it to Julie? Yep. So she is a part of the Miyagi dough. Legacy and dynasty, as is Daniel Russo. So there he goes there but what are the kind of like, like cousins? Not not so different from him and chosen right, in a way?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, that's that's pretty close. So there's the lineage there, right there. And the grandfather, by the way, saved Miyagi his life.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. Okay. So more more time. So

Jason Connell:

he was like connection. You say, my life. I'm going to teach a karate maybe to save your life? I don't know. But this is something I passed down. But I got a red flag here. What? Yeah. And the Karate Kid. The original. Yeah. Miyagi tells Daniel. He never taught anyone karate. Because Daniel says, Have you ever taught this to someone else after this is when he jumps over the fence, saves him on the Halloween night, brings him back to the little office there and Daniel's getting patched up. And he asked me if you've ever taught me one. And he says,

Sal Rodriguez:

No, I might have took that meeting as Have you ever like taught me kids? Oh, that's what I thought. No, no, that's what I thought kids. It's like Have you ever talked to

Jason Connell:

anybody under a teenager this movie doesn't really line up it's a bit of skewed with the you know his name Kisaki and then this is a big fat

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so in other words, the Cobra Kai creators and showrunners want to stay canon or stick to Canon. But The Next Karate Kid show runners did not care about Canada

Jason Connell:

they did not they did not know if they bring Julianne and they maybe they can write this wrong. Like Miyagi taught him because of this, they can maybe say something and just put it behind us. So there's just that I want to point it out. That's all.

Sal Rodriguez:

Also an interesting lineage is you had Okay, so he saved Miyagi. Miyagi taught him karate, He taught his son and it could have ended their exact but instead, we went one step further. And then the dead teachers, Julie, enough for her to reflexively jump up on a speeding vehicle. Thank goodness she knew it. So very impressive. For Julie that bond. Yeah, in the Miyagi verse. That's what I held on to when there were moments in this film where I'm doing an eye roll or whatever. I'm like, Ah, focus on marinas. final performance. Yep. And focus on that connection in the Miyagi verse legacy.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. Yeah, I could sit here and slander movie all day. I have my thoughts, but I'm looking for the things to draw me in. And we'll kind of surmise afterwards about some things that could have done differently. Like maybe she was bullied by women. And there's a few things that I think would have made this movie better, right, but they lost some of the Dream Team.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, what that would have done is it would have made it a woman's movie effectively, right? If you have a female hero bullied by other females, it will by default become a woman's movie, not that I'm against that. I love the Ghostbusters reboot.

Jason Connell:

Good idea. And way ahead of its time,

Sal Rodriguez:

it would have been way Yeah, no, I'm by the way, just to be clear. I'm on board with whatever people want to do. You know what I'm saying? What you do is though you make a choice. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

you man they did. But I think if Cayman and Appleton had been in the writers room, it would have come out differently. Now was Karate Kid Part Three a home run? No, but it's not this much of a train wreck. It's got to tissues, the tacked on all Valley. It's an afterthought. But there's a lot of good stuff in there.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, what? Well, if Abelson and Kaman were on board, it had been the continuing saga of debt. Well,

Jason Connell:

we don't know have Daniel would have continued let's just say that he tapped out to go do other things.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, that would have been his decision not maybe they made Julie

Jason Connell:

just a little bit richer move around. That's all. So next up more sitcom moments,

Sal Rodriguez:

Julie, here's where it gets a little wacky.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, Julie Blair's music with door open my eyes, wide open leaves, stockings and makeup in the bathroom. So my question is this.

Sal Rodriguez:

When does she wear stockings?

Jason Connell:

Or this is a huge

Sal Rodriguez:

house. That's those are Luis's stuck places.

Jason Connell:

This is a huge house. I've been by it. I've seen it up close and personal. Yeah, they gotta share their home bathroom. Doc, come on.

Sal Rodriguez:

We got five bathrooms, but you gotta share. We're

Jason Connell:

gonna put you guys in here the lawn suite. You're gonna share this bat. That's funny. Yeah. So yeah, there's that. And then Miyagi? Wax is a car. So he is waxing on waxing off, and we figure we know what's coming. Yeah, it is. But this is Julian is the magical and she's not falling for it. And Julie wants to which I love. So she doesn't want to wax. But she does want to relearn karate. Right, right. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

he's interested. He doesn't have to convince No, this is on her. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

And then they kind of negotiate if she won't wax on wax off. How about to math papers? One history paper for one karate lesson? Yeah. Yeah, he's good. quick on his feet.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I like that. You're negotiating. You're not ordering the youth around or trying to dominate them. You're negotiating with them as what? You know, she ate it. I like it.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. But I did love that. She was not interested in waxing on wax off, much like Anthony LORUSSO. I'm sure he was like, No, I'm gonna hire a TaskRabbit does this for me. But Julie comes up once never really mentioned really? But she needs money for the mall. She's a teen girl. She wants to go get stuff, right. She needs goods.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. 94. Especially. I mean, I would say the 90s was the end of the mall

Jason Connell:

era mall rats. Yeah, kind of the 80s and 90s for sure. Yeah, like,

Sal Rodriguez:

you know what, I found myself at a mall about a year or so ago. And I was sitting there having lunch and I was made it a point to look at the teenagers. I was like, what are the teenagers doing in the mall? They're not doing what we used to do. And that was trying to meet other teams. They weren't trying to do that.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, there's old people walk in the mall. Yeah, walk around. Yeah, having fitness. So Miyagi to help Julie raise some cashola gets her a babysitting gig. Yeah. But Sal, this is no ordinary babysitting job.

Sal Rodriguez:

And no, no, it was almost an ambush. It was

Jason Connell:

super ambush. And three young kids across the street. So when I was parked there, that house was still right there. I just didn't take photos of it. But that house is just across the street. Okay, so that was the literally they're legit, because they walk across the street. You see that shot, but it's a quick exchange between Miyagi and Julie and you play Miyagi, per usual.

Sal Rodriguez:

Son, his warm grass is green, because he's

Jason Connell:

trying to give Julie like, kind of like be in your safe place. You're gonna deal with these three young crazy kids. Yeah, who are gonna be a handful. You know

Sal Rodriguez:

what it is? Sun is warm grass is green. was the precursor to Serenity now?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, serenity. Now Seinfeld. So Julie's like, what if

Sal Rodriguez:

today, Julie's on get hungry. Just you repeat those words. Take deep breath in through nose. Son, his warm. Grass is green. Everything workout? Sayonara.

Jason Connell:

Sayonara. There's more sign hours on this movie than any other Cobra Kai karate.

Sal Rodriguez:

I don't think I've ever heard Miyagi say sign.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, cuz when when Daniels driving away, it's Banzai. It's not saying Nora. Yeah. So anyway. And then she uses this later with Eric at one point in time, and he wants to kiss her. Spoiler alert, what's coming, and then she had to reset herself and she uses it. Sun is warm grass is green. He's like what? Yeah, so it does come back into play. But it's these little things. It's just so it's off point. It's off script. This is new stuff. Right? Now putting Miyagi down. It's just you know, this is the writing. And this is where they took it. So at her babysitting gig, she is bombarded by nerf toys, which I love nerf toys by, but she gets a revenge sell. And any thoughts on how much money she made that day?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, there were three kids. And I do believe I don't have my inflation calculator. But babysitting pays more today

Jason Connell:

than it did then. Then a lot less than the idea. Well,

Sal Rodriguez:

I think today, you're obliged to give babysitter's minimum wage at least right back then. I think you don't even need to I'm gonna guess that for the evening. Those rambunctious kids she made in 1994 $25.

Jason Connell:

That's probably a good guess. Although I think it would be fitting how many kids so maybe that's why I say 25. Otherwise,

Sal Rodriguez:

I'd say 50. I'd say between

Jason Connell:

20 and 30. Tops 25 might be the max. So yeah, the kids are wild and then she does a good job of taking it in stride and then returning some of these nerfing He's back at them these nerve devices, she shoots them with nerves and they love her and then she's out. So now it's night. We don't ever see those kids never see those kids again. They're all I look like that as a kid, super blonde. They're all blonde kids are cracking up. I wonder if any of them became anybody but I didn't recognize any

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I guess we may find out on Cobra Kai season five or six if any of those boys show up. Yeah, exactly.

Jason Connell:

So now it's nighttime. Miyagi is in bed, and Julie sneaks out and so it plays as if Julie cranked up the tunes again because Miyagi reaches for cotton balls and puts him in his ear. But we never see her turn any music on. So that was a bit off. It was like we hear music kick in, but it's like, is it score? Are she playing the music but small thing?

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, you thought maybe she's she is playing music as a decoy for her escape.

Jason Connell:

But then he puts those things in as if he's annoyed. like, Ah, here she goes again. But they should have shown it. Yeah, like she pushed his play. And I guess it's about nine or 10pm. Right kind of late for her to be sneaking out the house. But she heads to school to feed Angel. But guess who's waiting?

Sal Rodriguez:

What that is funny though. She's sneaking out to feed a bird not to like sneak out to go hook up with a boy.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Well, who's waiting for her at the high school? Alfa league you

Sal Rodriguez:

got a tip of my tongue? Oh, finally. Oh, they're waiting

Jason Connell:

for her, which is weird. So they had been waiting because there was they'd heard that a girl had broke into the school. So now they're all waiting like it's a girl. It's a girl. It's got to be Juliet. They're waiting for her and their students themselves. It's 9:10pm on a weeknight, and there's five of them waiting for maybe someone's gonna come

Sal Rodriguez:

but no, yeah, nobody's supposed to be there. No one's supposed to

Jason Connell:

be there. Totally bizarre. So she shows up, and they chase her through the school into the cafeteria. And it's kind of scary like Ned's taking the lead keeping the other four at bay. All that stuff from before is in play. But all slimy creepy, but slimy. This guy represents bad. Yeah. And it also kinda reminds me of Jurassic Park. When the velociraptors are chasing them to the cafeteria you've got those old device was

Sal Rodriguez:

also a precursor to hawk chasing Eli tono Demetri Demetri Hawk Chase and

Jason Connell:

all that feeds Yes. And it's kind of a scary scene. It's super dark. He's got bad intention. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

because you know what these guys so far are very they're just one dimensional bad guy. These guys have no goodness. These guys are just all bad, creepy slimy chasing a girl at night through school. And mainly nothing can come of this.

Jason Connell:

Well, it starts at the top Duke is bad. We see that and NAD that closest to is bad. We never really get to know the other ones. They think for themselves. Or hangers on Charlie and then the other ones just don't even have names. So Julie smartly, hits the fire alarm.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, good move.

Jason Connell:

And it's a fast response. Yeah, well, it's Boston. It's not I was gonna say Boston doesn't mess around with this. La you'd be hanging out. One of my neighbors is a firefighter Cambridge, shout out and even have

Sal Rodriguez:

a show about Boston fire department or wasn't there the Dennis Leary show? Yeah, I was that way.

Jason Connell:

Before I live there. I wasn't really focused on so fast response. She escaped but the police pull up fire truck pulls up. Thank God you're here. Dugan gets out. I know squad car not driving. He's riding along. It's Brooke line PD. And she's like, I can't What the hell

Sal Rodriguez:

I can do guns everywhere. It's like one of those moments where like, you jump in the car like oh my god, I kill us chasing me and there are new killer. It's like, hey, yeah, no safety.

Jason Connell:

So now we cut to the Brookline police station and Miyagi is picking up Julie. So I'm not sure what she arrested. Or they just took her to jail. But

Sal Rodriguez:

let me tell you something in my life growing up when I've shared some of my juvenile delinquency experiences with friends from across the nation coast to coast. Yeah, in Los Angeles. Things that got us arrested would have only gotten East Coast kids detained. Oh, I've seen so much of this truancies Nobody I know in my lifetime who was ever caught being truant was arrested and put in handcuffs. We were in Los Angeles. So just a different climate here. So yeah, I think kids maybe got away with a lot more on the East Coast especially a white kid in the 90s. Let's but they took her to the police stations. Yeah, it was it was detained to tank Yeah. Not arrested, not fingerprinted not mug shot the whole thing

Jason Connell:

but we do know that she was suspended for two weeks. That was cool. That was a Dugan is doing because he's there he's like, that's Julie Pierce out for two weeks. And he ordered the principal he does or the principal around. We've seen that firsthand. So now we're at the train yard. And Eric agrees to feed the hawk Angel. And Julie admits she misses air. Yeah, did I miss something? And it went from like, I don't even know you. I can't trust you to miss you. Like they bonded very quickly. Maybe when he opened up and told his story.

Sal Rodriguez:

Young Love can happen quickly. I used to go to summer camp every year as a kid and you would like have the ultimate relationship in a week. That's true. So believe me Young Love you right away yeah internet speed is young love

Jason Connell:

and when she admits that Miyagi is in the car because basically when he knows that she is suspended for two weeks he hatches a new plan with a plan to help her get more training but Miyagi rolls his eyes

Sal Rodriguez:

what I like how he gave her her space he didn't try to go metal Oh, no, no, no, you know what what do you want with Julie like he didn't we see a little bit that later in the kitchen with the knife. I like that moment. But he just he lets her have her space and the he lets her communicate with this. You know, potential love interest

Jason Connell:

and Miyagi doesn't even meet Eric yet. Meanwhile, he's on top of training again, not moving. Mind you. It's just stationary. So now we're at Bernie's. I love this name. So Ernie has got gas. That is a great name for a gas station. But I want that shirt. Yeah, Ernie. He's got gas.

Sal Rodriguez:

I like it. And we're going to be guys similar to the beach guys from the first movie. Yeah. Who are those guys? Oh, yeah. What they call who?

Jason Connell:

One? Yes. One Yahoo. Yahoo. One spoke at my high school commencement. Dr. giggles Yeah, yeah. Larry Drake. And he was also dark, man. Yeah. Yeah, these

Sal Rodriguez:

guys are similar.

Jason Connell:

There's also deliverance vibe going on. Yeah, yeah. There's that. Yeah. So Miyagi wants five gallons of gas like specific? Yes. Yeah. He didn't give $1 I want five gallons. And I want some chocolate bars with almonds. So big fan of that. But the locals Sal have other

Sal Rodriguez:

plans. Yeah, they're in there, like playing cards or some playing cards

Jason Connell:

and Ernie is behind the register. And the Doberman, a Doberman guard dog growls at JULIE Oh, yeah. Very aggressive now so it's like oh, no, we see a doberman. You immediately think like guard dog. This guy's bad.

Sal Rodriguez:

The cropped ears cropped here look friendly.

Jason Connell:

So Miyagi comes in, calms the dog just by he's got that Paul Hogan Crocodile Dundee sensibility calms him down. The locals are mad that his dog he's like, my dog a wet brah you know, so he gets chicken. He gets scared. And this starts to escalate things. One of these guys grabs Julie pushes Miyagi I believe twice it's like, oh, my gosh, what world is this? Yeah, so not going good. But Sal, it definitely had some deliverance vibe because they were coming hot and heavy and just grabbing a teenage girl i This happens too much in this mood while

Sal Rodriguez:

also making a threatening statement. Like you'll go when I say you go or something like that.

Jason Connell:

We're just here for five gallons of gas and some chocolate bars. Yeah, but then from that moment, it does turn silly.

Sal Rodriguez:

When he beats up the guys yes, this

Jason Connell:

fight is ridiculous. farcical Keystone Cops. Well, because

Sal Rodriguez:

one of the other guys that grabbed like a crowbar or something as a smacking his buddy and they

Jason Connell:

started hitting themselves. Yeah. And Miyagi doesn't take. He's not hitting yourself stuff. He's using them to shield each other. It's like they all go down. So three are on the ground. And then Ernie, he's like, Hey, I got no problem here.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, you could tell Ernie was kind of subjugated by these guys, too.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So cheesy. And now we're off to the monk monastery. What we're going to soon find out is the monk Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

Instead, it's almost kind of reminded me of like Princess Bride where they're like outside. They knock some doors like this brick wall. And she's like, what do we do now? He goes, we wait. We wait. And they just sit there and they five days pass? Yeah, yeah. We don't know how long it is.

Jason Connell:

Well, so I've talked about this on the episode. We talked about the trailer. And I think I haven't mentioned it when it's in front of Julie's house, but I have been to this location. I was not going for this location. Part of the movie. I was just going there with Sophia to take it in because it's Castle Hill on crane estate. Beautiful. I mean, there is a castle there rolling hills private beach, but this movie cheated this the gardens which are gorgeous. We went through this gate, Sophia and I did what is adjacent to a private beach. Yeah, they have their own private Bush. And it's at just to be clear 280 are Gila Road, Ipswich, Massachusetts. Look it up Castle Hill, Granite State, we became members of this whole organization, you can go visit these properties. But they don't show that because they don't want to show like it looks like Downton Abbey or something. They want to keep it on point. So we went through that brick wall and you see the turrets when they enter when the monks let them in. Yeah, hours later nightfall for monks, I believe show up and let them in. And you see a turret in the background. A real beautiful, what's a turret? It's like a rounded area and a castle that's protected. And it does little rooms that they stayed in. They have windows but no glass and they're circular. Yeah, well covered. Well, there's two were like Rapunzel would be up there. Exactly. And that was much higher. This is lower the ground like a level up okay. But there was two of them. You see one when they walk in the gate, and we went in that area and I was like, This is amazing. And I was telling Sophia. It'd be or maybe she mentioned to me, this would be a great place to stay. You could rent these two things out as Airbnb, sir. Well, it's where they wound up staying. Julie had one Miyagi had one. There was not the tranquil garden there wasn't the sand garden that was not there that could have been there in the 90s and 2000s. But more likely the movie inserted that but I don't know. But all the other stuff looks like that

Sal Rodriguez:

what you were there. And while you were there did not know not where you were in the connection to the next credit card

Jason Connell:

did not know until we started prepping. And we're doing the trailer episode. I put it on just kind of scan and get familiar because it's not in the trailer. No, but I wanted to get ready to talk about it. So I was going through the movie again. And I thought Hold on. This is like totally bizarre. I'm having an out of body experience here. We were just there. So no, I had never knew until I researched it. And I was only there a few months ago.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. And I'm watching these monks where they live. And I'm like, I need to become a monk.

Jason Connell:

It's just right there in my backyard. Oh my god. So about a 45 minute drive from a great place they get to live. So the monks that the minutes I said but it is gorgeous. It looks that way today. Now it's morning and Julie isn't one of the turrets. You know, it's open air. I mean, it's really cool. There's no glass, there's no wind last on the windows and she runs all the way through the courtyard to me argues it's a pretty good distance. And what is Miyagi doing so,

Sal Rodriguez:

Miyagi appears to be in a deep state of meditation, like a real deep state of meditation. Yep. In real meditation, actual, like the practice of meditation. There's like kind of different levels of consciousness. And Miyagi isn't one of these levels of consciousness where a trance is gone. Yeah, hello, hello.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, so she can't wake him up. And he finally wakes up. It's Miyagi. He's kind of come back to and training begins, it was bound to happen. So he brought Julie here for a reason. And now they're in the oversized tranquil garden. I was thinking the ones that you know, wasn't your day. So it's huge. And there is two big rocks and what do they represent? This I love and what does the sand represent to by the way?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I guess the sand would be the ocean. Yep, I would imagine and the big rock represents Japan and the smaller rock represents Okinawa. That was beautiful, where Miyagi born, Okinawa and where I've been, oh my god, I love it. One of the reasons why I love karate kid too, so much is because I've been to Japan, I've been to Okinawa. I've been to the Kadena Air Base where a lot of the filming took place in that region. So yeah, when he starts talking about Okinawa, and then he has the big rock examples. Beautiful. I love it.

Jason Connell:

I love it too. Really, really great stuff. And to be clear, there's a big rock and then not next to it. It's a good size Justin's sure there's a smaller rock and they're flat on top. Yeah. So Miyagi wants Julie to do it. He calls it a round kick. I call it a roundhouse but to do a round kick from Japan to Okinawa, but first he said fake they say fake a kick. Yeah, so

Sal Rodriguez:

it's something like I couldn't understand exactly what he wanted her to do. Fake a kick, then do it. And then

Jason Connell:

this is round kick butt in the air like a flying kick. Yeah, where you get you know what people who really start martial arts young, they can do those crazy kicks. I didn't learn that I can do a roundhouse all day, but I don't do I leaping flying through the air roundhouse? A little a jump kick, but that's tough. He wants her to land on Okinawa. It's a hard exercise. It looks far and if you miss you can hit a rock fall down Parker

Sal Rodriguez:

before Parker. Yeah. Parker before Parker.

Jason Connell:

So Julie falls twice. Jen get hurt, but she wipes out twice. And then so that's it. That's enough exercise that's walked to the bar now. I don't know where that barn was at. But I did see some other structures so that also could have been on the property and as far as I know, but so this is where Julie is supposed to learn more about focus. And what happens in there.

Sal Rodriguez:

I like the first month is up on I don't know what you call those things. Rafter Yeah, so like, the next level in the barn, and he releases one of those bags on a rope and bag or sandbag on a rope. He releases it. Yeah, I was surprised she didn't sustain some sort of physical Yeah,

Jason Connell:

he tapped her with it like hard and so she wasn't focused enough. No, she's not in touch with her surroundings.

Sal Rodriguez:

Also, doesn't she like quick to congratulate herself, right very little too quick to catch up.

Jason Connell:

So that's next that's later cuz she they go back and for more training. So now we're at dinner with the monks and Julie tries to kill a cockroach because a big cockroach is on the table. Yeah. And so these are monks they look at things very differently. And this attempt to kill she grabs a shoe and goes to hit the cockroach and a monk covers up the cockroach and grabs it. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

a real crude way. I mean, even if you were to try to kill a cockroach would just really smash it on the dining room table with your shoe. Kind of kind of an odd way to our choice. Well, this

Jason Connell:

ends dinner

Sal Rodriguez:

abruptly. Yeah, almost like a record scratch.

Jason Connell:

They all get up and they all walk away. Miyagi says he didn't shake his

Sal Rodriguez:

head, but he wanted to shake his head.

Jason Connell:

I think he's doing he shaking his head in his head. Let's out. You've always believed in a catch and release strategy. Yeah, is that true with women for you as well?

Sal Rodriguez:

In both directions point in time in both directions. in both ways, it goes both ways. Sometimes the fisherman becomes the fish and it happens sometimes. No, I do, I do catch and release at home. Unfortunately, I learned something about the catch and release. As much as I pride myself on doing the catch and release with insects at home. My understanding is that you have just put a domestic sort of a domesticated child into the wild and they're not going to survive like you put a spider out in the bushes. They grew up in your kitchen, and all of a sudden, like, oh my god, so yeah, well, my motives are pure.

Jason Connell:

That's true. Well, we learned that monks and Miyagi respect all living things. And that's a really great philosophy in life.

Sal Rodriguez:

I'm especially at the dinner table for credit. And this isn't her dinner table. No. And you know, they're eating a vegetarian. I don't even get to see what they're eating. I know they're eating a vegetarian meal.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. What did she have a radish and then they have like, rice.

Sal Rodriguez:

Miyagi was eating rice with the chopsticks. Oh, by the way, I love chopsticks. Big fan.

Jason Connell:

Love to be pretty good. Adam got pretty good. took me some time. Now we're at an alpha League meeting. And Eric gets a call from his mother. Classic call from the mother. Dugan will not dismiss Oh, take that call. Nope. Eric leaves anyway. Putting everything at risk his future at risk? Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

What do you say you'll be flipping burgers the rest of your life? Yeah, it's

Jason Connell:

like what? So and he can lose his recommendation to the Air Force. So he leaves goes upstairs to take the call. But Sal, who's on that phone.

Sal Rodriguez:

Julie Pierce is calling Eric McGowan. Just to find out about age Yeah. faked it as his own mother.

Jason Connell:

Now Eric's unfazed about what he just gave up, because he's so happy to hear from Julie.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, but he didn't think he was running to his mother. Right. He came over said your mother.

Jason Connell:

The moment he found out he wasn't like, I just gave up the Air Force for

Sal Rodriguez:

this. My life is ruined. I'll be flipping burgers because uh, you Yeah. Oh,

Jason Connell:

that's good to hear from you. But my other question sow is, how did Julie get to this paper?

Sal Rodriguez:

Where were they right before that

Jason Connell:

he is on the monk mind. Oh, hang on. Is there a payphone? She was off site. She was at Ernie. He's got gas. And it's hard to get through the gateway. It's like, How did that even happen? Yeah, problems there.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, you know what the funny thing is today, we take cell phones for granted, especially in movies taken for granted. Yeah, once upon a time, you had to find a phone. And then in the movie, you're gonna like, well, we got to have our character find a phone. You have to establish that. So I love seeing

Jason Connell:

movies without it. In fact, it was a movie a few years ago, which I really love Lady Bird. But Gerwig film, who I met at a film festival years ago, when I was out on the festival with strictly background, but great movie, and she put it in the 90s. And there's no cell phones. It's sometimes it's great to see a modern movie. Just go back and remove that device completely.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. Because variable that has to be addressed. Exactly. Yeah. Like if you're running and you got your phone. Well, it changes. Everything changes

Jason Connell:

everything. She can be texting information, but it just takes that out of play. Yeah. So now Julie, she's growing. She's evolving a little bit. She's not the angsty teen from the beginning of

Sal Rodriguez:

this movie is going through what the character arc is like. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

And she goes off in the field fields I saw here at Castle Hill states, but she finds a praying mantis. And if you studied martial arts, even when I started as a kid, our high school praying mantis, there are techniques for the praying mantis. They look like they're praying. They also could do you know forms after? Yeah, yes. And they're really remarkable. Insects. They

Sal Rodriguez:

are. They're interesting to look at interesting. Especially when one's biting the head off of

Jason Connell:

one another. There's that but she doesn't kill this praying mantis. She captures catches Yes. And then gives to a monk. Yes. And he's touched, you know, and then puts him in a tree right away. He says good. Yeah, she's redeeming herself. Redeeming herself. Yes. And then she goes back to practice the Japan to Okinawa kick fails again. And then it's back to barn training with Miyagi. And this time, she's blindfolded, because she knows what's coming. Yeah. So he slaps the old blindfold on her. And it looked like one from the original film.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. 10 point. Yes. And also, I think this has to be done the inspiration for the Kenan Thompson sketch from Saturday Night Live. Remember it take only pennies and do it blindfolded for out of my hand. Remember that? That's from SNL. I think that the only time we see me on karate teen Yeah, the only time we we see Miyagi tell anybody to cover their eyes is right here.

Jason Connell:

You're right about that. So that's back sound. Yeah, the karate team which we love that episode. Go back in our archives and listen to the one Yeah, you're right. That's the only time he said Yeah, it's like a Star Wars thing. No, Luke cover your eye. So she puts it on and then what happens? Because she blocks one she celebrates

Sal Rodriguez:

premature celebration and then the next two bags hit her there's

Jason Connell:

two more marks and they send them down and they both hitter

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta be careful. You know, I think I recently I just saw somebody like running to the finish line, like a track and field. And they're like celebrating Yeah. And then they trip and then the next person. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

yeah so Danielson did not put the blindfold on the credit card Part Two at the old Canary ditty now that was dangerous that thing had like a hook. Oh, that would

Sal Rodriguez:

have killed you. It would have killed you the the sandbags a mess. Yeah, yeah, they're not gonna kill Oh,

Jason Connell:

and so she got one couldn't get the other one. But she's learned like she learned something back down to Earth. You have more to learn.

Sal Rodriguez:

Strategy not be there. Now he's teaching her not be there.

Jason Connell:

Well, he also says you need to widen your focus. Because she blocks it celebrating. Yes, yes. Yes. So now Julie somehow sells smuggled in a jam box. Maybe she bought it It earned he's got gas batteries. 10 plays dreams by the cranberries. Which I loved the cranberries and we lost the lead singer. Not that long ago. Sad or SMPS.

Sal Rodriguez:

Zombie right. Zombie zombie linger.

Jason Connell:

Yes. And then she does a Kata because I guess she has not showed her this. Or at least we have not seen it. Yeah, this is probably a Kata that she learned through her father through a grandfather. Yeah. And three monks enter one monthly, no, three bucks. And then they begin to do what Sal

Sal Rodriguez:

okay. Let me just say I like the scene a lot. Because you can watch this movie. And I think at the end, you'll be like, what did the monks have to do? What's going on? Like, why? You know, but this scene I think kind of redeems the whole monk arc, if you will. I like to seem to the monks start dancing and they do like sort of a special monk dance. It's it's not a new way of dance. It's not a hip hop dance. It's nothing that you would do. No, do they? Yeah, they kind of do their own. Yeah, they kind of go arm and arm a little bit. Very sweet scene, Miyagi joins them. Julie then joins them. And then at the end of the scene, you have all five of them dancing the three months in front of

Jason Connell:

a great song. Cranberry song is really good.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, that's what it maybe inspired the monks to dance. They might not have danced otherwise, yeah. So

Jason Connell:

she apologizes at first kills the music, they come over hit it, and they start dancing. Now. I do think it's a really cute scene as well. I really do. It also could have been a deleted scene. Because I feel like what is the purpose is pushing the plot forward beyond cuteness. Sure. And then I'm starting to think how many more deleted scenes were there like this. Let's have the monks do this. Because he really Yeah, the monks are like, I love the backdrop. I do and it helped her. But you also could have had her arc another way. Sure. It is a clunky device in the writing. Let's get her to a monastery then because amongst also turned very quickly against her and then they wrap her arms around her very quick. Yeah, like oh, yeah, Julie's on. Yeah, they were in order for a while after they would talk to her. They'd walked by and she

Sal Rodriguez:

ostracized. So I don't see you.

Jason Connell:

But a cute scene. I'll give you that. Yeah, so now we're back to the Japan Okinawa kick. Which I love that and Miyagi gives praying mantis tip. Do you remember this?

Sal Rodriguez:

I don't remember the praying mantis tip

Jason Connell:

tells her what to do like crowd

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, he said yeah, the praying mantis Neil's

Jason Connell:

always kneel down before they kick so she gets extra spring in her step bends down, does the jump with that will be hard. I gotta say the whole kick is hard. I might better run and do it. But she does it from like a kneeling position. nails that although you don't really see the two rocks, you just see her kind of gliding, or however they did that. I think that was sort of photography. And then Julie succeeds. Yeah, right. And she celebrates and she might over celebrate for Miyagi, you know a little too much for him like okay, all right for his liking. Yeah, but she also wants a karate belt. Yeah, like a brown belt, a black belt. She wants to be you know, recognized for

Sal Rodriguez:

the ease to go to the mall if you want to belt.

Jason Connell:

Our Elvis you know, Elvis even got a black belt because Elvis was also in the army. I guess he was in karate. And he's like, next time you see Elvis ask him and it's like that once you get your belt, JC Penney he's always got the belt jokes. Yes, yes. Yeah, give meanwhile, he stills belts.

Sal Rodriguez:

Stole the belt at the All Valley can't forget it. It's canon. Pretty much canon.

Jason Connell:

So now it's wax on wax off time and Julie's doing it. She's playing along sound she's learning. And we got a little training montage. This is when she kicks it and explodes a bag like this is a training montage. That was the conclusion of the training. Yes. And I gotta say she's got a really nice round house. She does round houses. She pops it she has high. It's up we're

Sal Rodriguez:

gonna see at the end one of her kicks, which was very impressive.

Jason Connell:

I mean, they're high but Miyagi short, but they're still really good kicks.

Sal Rodriguez:

If I limber up. I can kick a guy in the face my height not over my height.

Jason Connell:

Right. Well, I could go my high.

Sal Rodriguez:

Can you go? Yeah, yeah,

Jason Connell:

let's practice. So now Miyagi and Julie have their last meal. So I guess we're coming up on two weeks. Oh,

Sal Rodriguez:

he says we're leaving tomorrow. We're

Jason Connell:

leaving tomorrow. I wish the monks were here to celebrate the last meal with us because they're talking to her now. And she's not trying to kill any cockroaches lately, although she did kill a spider by mistake. But she said a little prayer, a little prayer and bury them.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes, that's nice. It was accidental an accidental death. You Is excusable in any religion? That's your what religion?

Jason Connell:

That's true. So now the monks intersol. And what do they have with them?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, yeah, at first you think they're going to do some sort of like Buddhist ceremony or something and they end up singing Happy Birthday. Have a cake

Jason Connell:

have a cake, right, I count as 16 Candles now out of frame, but I think she's turning 16

Sal Rodriguez:

Sweet 16 at a monk monastery really cool and interesting. And sounds

Jason Connell:

Julie's wish. Totally bizarre is to have the monks visit Boston, of all the things Julie could have wished for. She wants the monks to visit Boston, not like something superficial or materialistic that she was focused on prior. But she wants that. And then the present sow is to see what happened.

Sal Rodriguez:

Nobody knew this. The audience didn't know this. And Julie didn't know this. No. 10 The trailer is in the trailer. Okay, so the president is to see Miyagi catch an arrow? Well, we don't know that cuz she goes, What's the target? He says you're looking at it. Yeah. And that's when we learn holy cow. What what's going on? And what Miyagi does here. Now, when you see me all you do this is when you know why nobody can touch him. Because if an arrow cannot touch them now, how can anybody else touch?

Jason Connell:

And this is something we may have seen, and maybe we did see on? That's incredible. are real people? I think it was, yeah, but the one month goes back and he's shooting it right at your heart arrow and I was thinking you could have just used like a false tip. Not like, no, it's an arrow with a tip on it. And he shoots it's right on Yagi waits, and then grabs it. And it wouldn't be fun if it got him a little bit. Just a little

Sal Rodriguez:

it's just just in the sternum. It's stuck in the sternum. Little help here.

Jason Connell:

Now he catches it before it hits him shows everybody that he's still got it these catlike instincts

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I think I was really amazed the main thing was that there was no remember like lethal weapon or we're gonna go on three or you know, there was none of that it

Jason Connell:

was just like to go Yeah, exactly. That's a good point. So now we kind of course back to school and Julie is back. And I love Sam when she first get to hear someone say like

Sal Rodriguez:

Hi Julie. Camera and she loves a player. Voiceover

Jason Connell:

hilarious because we not really established anybody at school, but I feel like she has a boyfriend.

Sal Rodriguez:

She has a friend. Nobody. Yeah, nobody is a loner. Yeah. Who's that person yelling?

Jason Connell:

Julie that was in post. And then principal Wilk says Welcome back. He knows her. Yeah. And then she talks in riddles to him. Miyagi style. Yeah. And he doesn't. Yeah, but

Sal Rodriguez:

the boat. Dry. laughing Yeah. The whole best answer is if you ask the right question. Yeah, he's like,

Jason Connell:

huh, so you see that she's churn? Yeah, she's more enterpise a monk. Now she's a monk. She's a Miyagi monk. And now Julie and Eric are in the cafeteria, as usual, and then they go up to the rooftop but Soule Angela's gone. Yeah. And of course net appear. Oh, this is where Ned fall. Yeah, just falls right up. Yeah, he didn't fall out. And he's right. Yeah. And then

Sal Rodriguez:

if you're gonna go to a secret space, don't look over your shoulder.

Jason Connell:

Okay. It's clear. Yeah. But net is there and fights Eric. Yeah. It's all well, Eric's

Sal Rodriguez:

not afraid of that. No, he's

Jason Connell:

not afraid. Not afraid of him. He might not know as much but he's not afraid. But it also looks like someone could have easily gone off the side of the roof

Sal Rodriguez:

yet. Well, doesn't he has a right over the edge of the building. Yeah, that's pretty. This is almost attempted murder at this point. Yeah, but alpha Lee can do it.

Jason Connell:

We also find out Ned says that the birds gone. They didn't kill the bird. But animal shelter. They sent that bird out of there. Right get this bird out of here. So we cut to animal shelter. Yeah, animal shelter, the one and only one in town apparently. And we see angel coming out Miyagi, Julie. They have angel. She's got one

Sal Rodriguez:

of those professional leather. Now she's got this whole thing. And I didn't have that before.

Jason Connell:

No, the falconer has this thing. You got to have that. And now we go to this beautiful place. I don't know where this is in Boston, Massachusetts. I don't know. There's some rocks. There's water. And they're going to release Angel into the wild. Yeah. So

Sal Rodriguez:

this is where I think then the hawk becomes a metaphor for Julie herself. She

Jason Connell:

will here's Yes.

Sal Rodriguez:

Let Julie go. She can now spread her wings.

Jason Connell:

Well, that's true. Well before Angel flies away. I can't believe Miyagi went there with Oh, healing hands. It was just a little bit. Hawks can't handle that much. Just

Sal Rodriguez:

a little bit of heat. They have small bones, small muscles

Jason Connell:

touches, it takes off the little dressing.

Sal Rodriguez:

This is the blessing of the animals by Miyagi who knew that that works on animals too.

Jason Connell:

And they have this little exchange. Be Miyagi again. I'll be Julie, because angel is just like, you know, sitting there thinking what do I do? Like when you take a spider out in the wild? They're like, No, I like your kitchen. You're like no spider. You gotta go. While Julie says, What's wrong angel? You're free fly away.

Sal Rodriguez:

Sometimes when living gets too long, whole world seemed like very big play. He's

Jason Connell:

your strong Angel you're strong I know you are fly away fly free. You held a Mr. Miyagi

Sal Rodriguez:

but no angel he'll himself but your faith gave him courage to fly. There you

Jason Connell:

go. Beautiful metaphor for Julio, as you say, I'll take that as what it is. And it's nice. I don't know if we need the angel Hawk device in this movie, but it wasn't a bad thing, but I think it was a little clunky like so much of this movie, but of course I love me

Sal Rodriguez:

I guess take on it but it also showed also the tendering nurturing side of that

Jason Connell:

that's what I asked earlier that's what what

Sal Rodriguez:

showed the tendering nurturing side of her but then that very thing was she tended to nurtured I think, then it's symbolizing, like maybe her own spirit.

Jason Connell:

Yes. I could have used her calling her grandmother one time. How about that just set the record straight? Because it's like grandmother just sits and she has no idea how things are going in. The Grandmothers like Sanata She's so busy with Miyagi. He's watering details, and why are you there? I want the back fence painted. And I already

Sal Rodriguez:

know Louisa is back in receipt of Fending off crease fending off

Jason Connell:

my gosh, what is this place? So So did I miss something? Did we see Eric asked Julie to prom because she tells us to Miyagi. I was off camera that might have been a deleted scene. It wasn't off camera. And with this turned around in her character, don't you think as I just said, she would have shared some of this will be August, she would have talked to her grandmother and just kind of built that bond more like the minute you're on the right path. You probably say gosh, you know, I was really rude to my grandmother and and she put me I gave my life on. I think you would have maybe flown her back and she could have experienced some of this. Julie 2.0. Right. But no, that's not happening. Because we just talked about the grandmothers run around with their head cut off am Yagis Ranch, think

Sal Rodriguez:

maybe Louisa told Miyagi before she led like at the airport, like hey, if Julie wants to call me I'm off. I'm not available. I'm off grid

Jason Connell:

off grid. So now Mr. Miyagi goes shopping, which could have been a short film of its own sound. And yeah, that was funny. Quickly, Miyagi is out of his album, it was

Sal Rodriguez:

so subtle that the sales woman was kind of implying the dress was for Miyagi. And that was okay. Yeah. And he's like, Oh, no, no, it's for a teenage girl. It's not for me. Yeah. Because she was about to sell this man a dress for him.

Jason Connell:

It was pretty funny. Yeah, it was a good scene and I could have seen more of it. Yeah. And how he made the ultimate decision and got a dress because we leave and we don't go back there. And now we're at home and that parlor is what Julie calls it that round room that's there today. Yes. Beautiful first floor like that room. It's like oh, yeah, I was sitting right there by that room. I mentioned it on the episodes where they dance

Sal Rodriguez:

is that what that is called a parlor as what she called it that's what she called okay, we you know, grown up in Los Angeles. Yeah, we didn't have any park parlor and well, we didn't nor did anybody I know they might have had some on the west side but ya know where I live west side.

Jason Connell:

So Miyagi then teaches Julie karate waltz. Yeah, she's doing cat does and moving and countering to him. And that's how he slowly introduces waltzing to jewel.

Sal Rodriguez:

Now this I like because I very cool. Any fight fan knows that dancing will help you fight but in this instance, fighting helps you dance. Yeah. So this I liked and also very cute, you know, fatherly type father the bride type moment.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. Very cute that came to mind. Or that Tony Danza movie. She's out of control. Yeah, and the father and the daughter bond and it's all innocent. And she mentioned she doesn't have a wall to do any of these things because the prom is coming up. And he won't call it a prom. It keeps calling it the dance which is kind of old school go to the dance tonight. Go throwback credit get part to our favorite actor who pops up every once a while BD Wong Yeah. So Miyagi gives this great dress to Julie. Beautiful. He did good. Sure to helper, you know, the shop salesperson picked it up

Sal Rodriguez:

and I thought, Miyagi, you know, a little modern. Yeah, a little a little short. It wasn't below the knee. No,

Jason Connell:

no, no, no, no interesting. Choice. Miyagi. Yeah. And he tells her to dance with Eric. It's okay. Go with Eric's a good guy. He's got a job. He seems like he's on the up and up. He quit the old Alpha league. And so I don't know where sow Julis wish comes true.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, this was unexpected. Maybe? What happens in that VW bus? I don't know the symbol VW bus, the symbol instead of the Volkswagen. That's phantom

Jason Connell:

three monks arrived. Yeah. Her favorite three, I guess.

Sal Rodriguez:

And I liked that the one month like the chubby or monk was really impressed by the house.

Jason Connell:

And I'm thinking like the tourists he's reminded of Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah, I thought well, that's great. He's moving from an impressive place to an impressive place.

Jason Connell:

Yes. Which I've been to both of them. Impressive. And I'm connected to this. You are you are, as are you? So it is also prom night so they show up on prom night. Erica I'm looking like the money he's got it got a tux on looks great. And so he's quite confused meeting Mr. Miyagi and monks. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah. And I like that kitchen scene where Miyagi has the knife. And you can tell Miyagi is a joker. Let's not forget, Tony Yagi is the Joker. Yes, every once in a while, you're gonna be reminded of that. I think he was playing with him right with a knife. Yeah, chopping, chopping. Like cucumbers. Yeah, kind of pointing the knife at him a little bit, right. Yeah, cuz

Jason Connell:

Miyagi first says 10pm have a backpack. And Eric without a beats like, well, the dance isn't over until I love our midnight and night. How about I bring her home at one I was like, good for him for pushing bad but

Sal Rodriguez:

I like Miyagi, his answer to that Miyagi was, what will you do for that hour? I was like, Ah, what a great response. Yeah. And he's like, oh, and then he goes, treat her with respect, treat

Jason Connell:

her with respect. Perfect. And then comes a very touching scene. The best, most touching. dramatic scene in the whole movie. Oh, with Julian Miyagi. Miyagi goes to see Julian there Caesar on the dress. This is where the acting training does. He doesn't have a child never had a daughter. Daniel was in his life. Obviously. Those scenes are amazing credit card. Part Two, the best breakdown scene ever with me arguing he lost his father. But this was a nice touching scene because both eyes water. Yeah, they're aware of the evolution of Julie. And he's just awestruck by her. She's turned into a woman. Yeah, it is a nice moment. I gotta say.

Sal Rodriguez:

And not overreact. Did you see the ocean by Mr. Pat Marine, a phenomenal actor. You see the emotion, but not overreacting. And you could tell like as a man, as men, we're kind of got a hold back. I could just break down right here. I gotta like, hold back and Miyagi did that he did a great job. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

way to go. Miyagi. Ready to go. Good job. Good job. And so then Julie, and Eric had to prom. And Eric even says like, who are those people back there? Yeah. That'd be shocking to meet a bunch of monks. Miyagi ties. You live with like five monks what's going on there, but I liked them a lot. And they're off on their way. So meanwhile, you think it's a night end for Miyagi and the monks not to be sad because they go

Unknown:

bowling Zen bowling Zen bully?

Jason Connell:

Yeah. Is that hilarious? So another short film? I think this could have been its own short film.

Sal Rodriguez:

You know what I just realized? I just thought of this just now. Uh, one of our excursions on Okinawa. They had a bowling alley was a bowling alley on the military base or near the military base. Regardless, I had been bowling on Okinawa. That's crazy. Zen bowling. It wasn't sent.

Jason Connell:

I don't know if it was in bowling. Okay. Well, also since a gym true, who was on the show had a scene deleted from the movie, right? It was he shot a bowling alley, and it was at the bowling alley, but like in the pool room of the bowling alley, and that got shot

Sal Rodriguez:

and then taken out because they had to make room for the monks dancing.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, that's it. Oh my god, what can we get that song? Can we get the cameras on? So now we're at prom. We're kind of bouncing back and forth. And Julie and Eric share dance and all as well. So they have this one dance is one moment they're embracing good stuff going on back to the bowling alley are actually to the bowling alley for the first time driving the first time. And they're challenging other bowlers there to a big bowl off.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, cuz that one guy gets kind of aggressive and show Bodi? Yeah. And then yeah, Miyagi challenges him

Jason Connell:

so they challenge them. And it's pretty funny because there's in bowling, so they all just kind of go up and do granny shots. Yeah, but they're just so focused. And these are monks Yeah, highly in tune with the universe. And those balls slowly go down and get strikes.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, there was even one magical moment where the ball goes in the gutter and then bounces out of the gutter. Now unfortunately, as wonderful as that was and funny is that was, I believe, official bowling rules once the balls in the gutter out. Yeah, even if it bounces back, which I think it's a ball bounces back. You should let it right in baseball. The ball can bounce out and come back in into play. Right? Yep.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. So pretty funny. Same. And again, we're kind of going back and forth. And I like bowling a lot. I really do. I like bowling as well. They have the challenger. They beat him and then later to make it all light. The challenger who lost fair and square tries to do blindfolded bowling. Yeah, he plays for eight ball tavern by the way. His old Jersey shirt said that and he tries a blindfolded bowling selling what happens

Sal Rodriguez:

and he makes a strike strike. A strike with the blindfolded was a granny style also he

Jason Connell:

went normal. Okay, that's right. All cheer. festive time at the bowling alley believe was Brookline bowling alley. And now we're back to the prom. And three Alpha league members attempt to do what

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah, this was kind of unexpected, and that's the whole point they bungee jump from the rafters again for no from there from the top of the room they three Guys, that was it that was their stunt.

Jason Connell:

We know how to bungee we are alpha League. Well,

Sal Rodriguez:

I mean if they were like bungee and then like broke out into like an in sync or Backstreet Boys dance Yeah, that'd be okay. But just to bungee out and get silly.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, and they're hanging there and they gotta be brought out Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

the one guy crashed through one guy

Jason Connell:

hits a structure apparently breaks his arm or thinks he breaks his arm and Eric Superman and he actually pulls helps the guy down helps another guy down. Superman grabs Julie they're gone. They were there for one dance.

Sal Rodriguez:

Nobody stays in the Karate Kid universe. People don't stare dancers very long.

Jason Connell:

Ralph macho Dan Hassan's causes trouble bales as a shower we just don't have much dancer yeah Cobra Kai a little bit longer.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wait Karate Kid to when they're on Okinawa. Where are they at that dance?

Jason Connell:

Well, they're at the bone dance. The

Sal Rodriguez:

bone dance is a big

Jason Connell:

but it gets dark at the bone dance it does on the other dancers are dancing a little bit. Part Three. They hired the guy to fight Daniel. Terry Silva hires the guy to fight Daniel. Daniel breaks his nose and oh at the club. Things don't last very long threaded dance. Oh, yeah. And then chosen. Was that the other one and they fights Daniel. So yeah, if you're a dance and karate kids, yeah. He's going down. Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

Have fun while it lasts. Right.

Jason Connell:

And so, Ned well, when Eric leaves with Julie, it's funny how everything focuses to Eric. Why is alpha league so fixated on Eric and Julie I should say Angelica but net is jealous and you see it

Sal Rodriguez:

is there together because remember in the beginning he says she's mine so he has claimed he claimed it but doesn't know why I'm not saying he has the hots for like he wants a relationship like he wants to do probably bad things. Bad

Jason Connell:

things. Yeah, who is this guy? Magallon getting in the way. Yeah, I'm claiming that she's mine. Like what are you talking about? Well, he's jealous and he wants to fight Eric and Dugan agrees

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah. Dugan is supports this decision do get very much a crease in this

Jason Connell:

case. So Eric takes Julie home so she was gone for about a half hour.

Sal Rodriguez:

In fact, Miyagi is still chopping wood he would have still been chopping vegetables

Jason Connell:

but they're already back home but in reality they probably would still be at the bone wasting

Sal Rodriguez:

and they wouldn't bully and came back home yeah, that was a quick turnaround

Jason Connell:

they should still be out but that's not how this movie works. And they share a kiss are begin to share a kiss.

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, he said if you know karate, would you use it against me if I tried to kiss you and that's when she

Jason Connell:

said the mantra. Yes, he gave her Miyagi gave her but then what happens? Okay, this was unexpected. This is a good scare. Oh, I was like what

Sal Rodriguez:

all of a sudden Ned smashes of what a baseball bat through the driver side window. Gosh, that's war. And then just didn't stop there. Did the back window then to to more of a beautiful vehicle. Beautiful view. Yeah, this was not an 89 Toyota Tercel.

Jason Connell:

No. 272 Oldsmobile Cutlass for 2010. Yep. So Julie gets out. And Eric. Well, she gets out of the car. He's like, go this is my thing. Because Ned pulls up in his jeep gets back in his jeep pulls up next to him and says, you know, we'll be at the docks.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, hang on. I just want to point this out. I did catch something that I thought was kind of odd. Okay. Okay, smashes the window, jumps back in his jeep starts it. It wasn't running. If you're gonna smash somebody's window, wouldn't you leave your car running running? I liked that. He turned it on. It was off.

Jason Connell:

So he pulls up basically says you know where to find me be the docs. Eric gets out toxic Julie. Julie runs to Miyagi he's not the front porch because the monk saw this go. Yeah, they heard and they called me. Miyagi. Miyagi, since a Miyagi and they take off so you got Ned? Eric following you know, this is a trap Sal. It's not just Ned going but

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah, what do you think the guy that just smash it when it was bad is gonna go to the docks. You're gonna follow him and Eric thinks it's gonna be a one on one fight right here.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, we're I'm right here.

Sal Rodriguez:

Alright, like to fight near water. What

Jason Connell:

is this? What's going on? So pretty scary. As they get to the docks. Eric follows him there. Alpha league awaits. And we know this. He's walking to Ned Ned's like the bait goes up. And then they literally do something unexpected. I think it was in the trailer, though. I know it was in the trailer. They pour gasoline all over the Oldsmobile and light it. Yeah. Like a real effect like something out of lethal weapon.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, you could tell when they did the wide shot. Yeah, there was nobody on the dock when they exploded the car. And then all of a sudden they came back? Yeah. Yeah, no, no, it was really me. If you're a car lover, this is pretty brutal. And also as far as the plot going, I mean, these guys, this is all out war. I mean, I don't know what there is. I mean, this is like, you better get a gun at this point. Yeah, I

Jason Connell:

don't know what Eric did so bad to get on this hit list. He just went to go get a phone call one day. Eric did not deserve this now, but it's him and Julie combo, and they hate them both. But why can't they just focus on getting more students that Bowl ring saying they had 20 3040 People sign You know, just focus on growing what your if that's your thing. Focus on that not going after these two people making an example out of Julian Eric, it's ridiculous.

Sal Rodriguez:

I think the idea for Eric was to Alpha League. It's that mindset. If you're not for us, you're against us. So as soon as you leave us, which is like a gang, hey, gangs, you can't just walk out that's true. You're either gets killed, or they beat your ass, but you can't just walk out. So this is one of those things you have to get

Jason Connell:

true. That is true. So his car blows up. And they all call him a gallon by the way, it's Eric Yeah, for like Julian Mr. Miyagi, but they all call him a gallon. And so it appears Dugan wants to kill Eric Cree style like he wants him killed Dugan doesn't want to do it himself. He wants to push it in play like nadie kill him, not just hurt him. They want Him done, which is kind of like what chosen is going for and the critical part too. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

my honor. Right, my honor.

Jason Connell:

So now, Eric's taken a beating. And now it wasn't just Ned. It was five on one has

Sal Rodriguez:

been jumped and I have been jumped. Yeah, in years past I haven't jumped. It's not you're gonna get kicked in the end when you're down. Oh, they're gonna kick you. Yeah. And this is what's happening.

Jason Connell:

It's bad. It's so bad. They don't even want to partake in Yeah, some of the Alpha. He's out. What do you want us to do? Yeah, but thank goodness Miyagi and Julie arrived because she heard them say the dock and so this is where they're going. And Julie

Sal Rodriguez:

wants to fight Ned now. Yeah, this is some gangsta stuff

Jason Connell:

and Miyagi is not having it but then she pleads her case like I'll never live with myself I can't honor myself in this and you know, just all those things and Miyagi thinks about it like he does. Okay, yeah, it's like Daniel and the karate kid wants to fight in the tournament. Finally at some point he gives into it Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

Miyagi as we've learned hates fighting doesn't want to fight wants to avoid fight. But there does come a time where he there is no choice to fight. There is no choice

Jason Connell:

if Julie walks away now. This will never end. Yeah, this is not the end tonight. Alpha league will come after her repeatedly. Same with Eric. So Miyagi thinks about it and relinquishes and says, okay, and he's also got her back.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, well, you still gotta kill the ball. Back to the old story. Here

Jason Connell:

you go in the beginning, good soup. And so Eric's like wait, what? What are you crazy? He doesn't know that she can fight. Yeah, that's in this level.

Sal Rodriguez:

I think anybody present would be like, Oh,

Jason Connell:

yeah. And Dugan wants them to kill Julie. What are you kidding me?

Sal Rodriguez:

So Chris S gets ridiculous next level of evil.

Jason Connell:

But Sal Julie has truly become The Next Karate Kid. There it is. And outclasses Ned, even when he throws mud on her i

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he fought dirty. He did. He fought dirty. But I guess we also learned that alpha league don't know martial arts.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. They know how to do a few takedowns here and there. Yeah, Street Fighter well trained in martial art. No,

Sal Rodriguez:

no, no, it maybe you can tell them some military maneuvers. Exactly. But yeah, not to take down somebody who can outclass you in martial arts.

Jason Connell:

She does fantastic in this fight. Yeah, kicks her great. And it's not Oh,

Sal Rodriguez:

she does that what it's called an axe kick. I think the axe she brought her leg with the hell up there. She

Jason Connell:

by the way.

Sal Rodriguez:

I watched that twice. I like what Yeah,

Jason Connell:

I thought it was fantastic. Now, we didn't see her doing any of these moves. Daniel, we saw some things you put it together and then he went to so far like you said he was that a genius prodigy? Prodigy? Yeah, she's that prodigy. She was trained as a kid. But it all comes to light shines here. She best him in a hurry. And this does not make Dugan very happy so and he loses it and he wants anyone and everyone to go after Julian because Eric couldn't go another round if his life depended on it, and it almost did. He threatens Ned very similar the credit card part to the crease threatenings. And then finally, that's it.

Sal Rodriguez:

Who steps in while Miyagi steps into fight? Dugan?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, he's had enough. He can see that he's churning on his own students now. Yes. And he must intervene.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, the Bull has to be put down and now is the moment and Sal

Jason Connell:

once again, Mr. Miyagi dominates a fight and sustains no hits.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, you know, I guess I'm a little disappointed that none of these fights were close at all. I mean, yeah, there was no real competition here

Jason Connell:

how he fought Sato. That may have been a fight to the death and it may have been really close but as we know, was avoided thanks to the typhoon and then sort of being stuck and saved but that might have been the one that Miyagi would have gotten no back and forth. Yeah, same trainer.

Sal Rodriguez:

That would be the only close match. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

but alpha league is no more they took down the bull, as you say,

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah. Took down the bull and then sort of a coup at the end where they turn against the leader. Yeah, they realize the one guy says the one actor Yeah, what do you You're crazy, Charlie. Yeah, like it's yeah, this is where I stopped right here.

Jason Connell:

Is it even Ned? He's no longer being led that he can think for himself he wants nothing to do with it anymore and it'll have redemption for them but they didn't see that they were led down the wrong path

Sal Rodriguez:

right yeah, it's gone too far.

Jason Connell:

And now a quick exchange as we fade out between Julian Miyagi because Julie a she did fantastic but now she sees Miyagi fight. Yeah, she saw him fight at Bernie's gas station of course, and complimented him then, but here she says, Mr. Miyagi You are great.

Unknown:

Not great. Mr. Miyagi. I, you kick some butt Julissa,

Sal Rodriguez:

how many times Miyagi say fighting not good.

Jason Connell:

I know somebody always gets hurt. Mr. Miyagi, come on. Admit it. You kick some butt.

Sal Rodriguez:

Julie son fighting not good. But if must fight, win.

Jason Connell:

Ah, there it is. And then Mr. Miyagi winks at you.

Sal Rodriguez:

I can't disagree with that.

Jason Connell:

I love that line. If you're gonna do it when Mr. Miyagi winks at Julie, but rather than freezing on that shot, and then in the movie, like all other Karate Kid films, we see angel flying around, we fade to Angel, flying freestyle. And it all comes full circle. That's

Sal Rodriguez:

what finalize that I go. Oh, I see. Angel is Julie. Julie is Angel, you know, symbolically. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

So that is the end. We made it through the next Karate Kid. 19. Wow, see, scene breakdown. We still have our outro. But I had a few takeaways. Because I thought about saying these earlier but things i this watch. I've now seen it a few times didn't notice it took a long time to watch it for now. It's really took it

Sal Rodriguez:

I've seen this movie. I saw it. What about a year ago? I saw it. And then just yesterday saw it twice. That's crazy.

Jason Connell:

Well, a couple of things. Besides the females would have been better villains. But I think we should have ever talked about this earlier. We should have met more students and friends at school. Yeah. Or even out of school because we never got connected to anyone else. But these few people. It was very claustrophobic in that. No, there was no Freddie Fernando, none of that. And this is what Cobra Kai gets. Right. They've built a large ensemble. Yeah. And we liked your you know, we really liked that supporting players. Alpha League, besides being female could have been a dojo. It really could have been you take it away from this vigilantes, and they really could have been competing in an all Valley type tournament. I mean, let's go back to 2010 on the remake. Yes, it was kung fu it was in China. But there's something about that formula that works. And I know they felt resistant to go that way. But had they gone there with different nuances and people? I think it would have been more effective. This plane for life and death at this age. It just falls short. More often than not, in my opinion,

Sal Rodriguez:

your thoughts? When you're fighting life or death, the stakes are higher. So you would lower the stakes is what you're saying?

Jason Connell:

Yeah, lower the stakes and make it something we can connect with? Yeah, you know, when I was running the film festivals for all those years, I started seeing this device happen a lot with young filmmakers. And it was a lot of short films. And listen, I did short films, and feature films and documentaries. But I was seeing this so much like oh, yeah, it's it's a thing that we think would be interesting. And that was the fact that a lot of short films have a gun in them. What are we gonna do with this gun will be in the short film. And that'll be more often than not the story slacking. This device doesn't make it good. It can enhance it. But it's all about the writing and how we're connecting with people. And I felt like yeah, to the death is not always good if we can't get there. And that's where I felt it was disjointed. And Julie's arc was nice. It was also destroyed. A lot of things just didn't really line up. Now, we don't know what was cut. We don't know if there was issues. We don't know how many drafts went through a lot of things we don't know for sure. But the end product is what we judge.

Sal Rodriguez:

I think I have a problem if bad guys go down to easily exactly like in karate cut two. It was a lot of back and forth with chosen. It was. Yeah, it was a very they were fairly matched. Yeah, they got there. Yeah. Whereas Dugan went down to easy. Ned went down to easy Yeah, yeah.

Jason Connell:

And they were just be lining for Eric and Julie just didn't make sense that they're not a threat. They want nothing to do with it. And they weren't like going around their back. And had they done some things like Daniel had done back in the day when he poured water on Johnny and then got him more. They didn't even do that. No, had they done something I know Eric botnet one time on the roof, but it's like, they weren't even a threat to you. So why go after them?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I think maybe what I would have wanted to really wrap it up a little more was if maybe McGowan could have trashed Ned's jeep. Well, yes. Something that was like,

Jason Connell:

oh, maybe you shouldn't have provoked him. One thing it would have been helpful. I also mentioned this already, they should have reconnected Julie with her grandmother, even if a very would have been a

Sal Rodriguez:

pleasure. What if grandma would have showed up at the dock at the coffee out of a taxi?

Jason Connell:

This movie might have done And might as well. Now also the fact Julie already knew karate, which means she probably had competed in tournaments as a kid. Maybe we don't know. Yeah, I would have liked to seen childhood footage of her training and also of her family. We never see anything from her parents. I mean, maybe a photo but that's more her grandparents. Yeah, I just a little something of like young Julissa?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, we don't see her parents. We don't see her father who taught her karate. Exactly. Who was this man who just connected either missing guy from the Miyagi verse? Yeah,

Jason Connell:

who learned it and was killed? Yeah. And you've made a good point about how angel represents Julie and I get that I have issues. But angel on the monk scenes I felt were often clunky and could have easily been eliminated. And that could have worked a different way. It's not terrible, but it does bring the movie down. It just does. I could see someone watching it now for the first time and not doing a podcast about it and not doing it for can and going. Watch this. I've heard a lot of people have tried to watch this movie and can't make it through it.

Sal Rodriguez:

No, you know, I think that there should have been why because all that went down with the monks. But I really don't think there was a payoff, like maybe at the end after she bests everybody. And they're riding off into the sunset. Maybe she sees a bug. Yeah, she sees the bug and she leaves it alone. We Ah, there you go. Lena, she's changed. How did the monks help her beat the Alpha league on that dock? I don't know. So that's what I mean. So there's no payoff with the monks. They

Jason Connell:

should have been on the dock. Yeah, what if they would have appeared in the VW artists jumped in the cop? Miyagi? Yeah, they would right house, Alicia.

Sal Rodriguez:

Exactly. If Miyagi and Julie showed up at the dock. Why weren't the monks with them for backup? I know. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

Also Julian Ned could have previously dated we don't know, right? IE, Gianni and Ali, and thus playing up this love triangle, which was there but missing? Yeah. It was kind of like devoid of that. But Ned had his own plan. It seemed

Sal Rodriguez:

like there was a history there seems sort of backstory. He's always

Jason Connell:

had his eye on Yeah. And I got the feeling too, like, did she just come to the school and got shipped over live with grandmother and she's in a new school? Maybe that happened a few months prior? I just, I felt like she's being fish out of water. But maybe she'd been there all along. We don't know.

Sal Rodriguez:

But remember, Hi, Julie.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, someone. But had they followed the beats of the original? Really? I mean, honestly, maybe it's female villains. And maybe it is a dojo. And maybe she's remembering she knew karate and put her in a tournament where she could have bested more than just one. I think it would have been a stronger film, it would have gone down that path. But I think in the end, we would have had a better movie. Yeah. So that's my thought.

Sal Rodriguez:

Jason, I can't disagree with a lot of these takeaways that you had. Absolutely. This is not my favorite of the whole franchise, either. I latched on to a few things. One was the relationship between Miyagi and Julie, through the grandparents through Julie's father, and then how that then circles back around to Daniel. So even though we feel Daniel was slighted and dismissed in this movie, and marginalized, if you will, he's still there in spirit. He's connected. Now Julie's a part of that Miyagi universe. So I focused on that. And of course, the final portrayal of Miyagi my Pat, Marita Oh, I savored every minute of that. I don't know if it was easy for him at this point, if he slept block through it, or phoned it in as they say, but whatever he did, he nailed it. He did a great job. It's my pleasure.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. So no, I don't think he found it in. I think he loved this role embodied this role, and didn't take it too far. Unfortunately, the movie wasn't strong enough around him and his performance, but I could have seen another Karate Kid with Mr. Miyagi. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

I could have seen Sure. And there was a time right there was time there

Jason Connell:

was time. There was time and maybe something that would have happened maybe it would have sprouted up another one. With this storyline or another he's back in Canoga Park receded the valley? We don't know. And we'll never know. But he also lives on in Cobra Kai. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

he truly does and an action figure form?

Jason Connell:

Yes, he does. I am anxious to see how this movie could potentially come into the universe. I am rooting for Julie Pierce, because her arc was really great. And whatever she did for the last 30 years, could come into play. Maybe she's teaching at a dojo, she's doing something she's winning, has her own children and has her own children. Is she in Boston? Is she moving to LA? I want to see it. I'm fascinated because they're not restricted like they were with Elizabeth Shue while they weren't restricted with Elizabeth Shue but I mean it's just different it's wide open for them to take it wherever they want to take you and I'd love to see it so here's to that but sow we did it Here's to us also being back in studio. Yeah. How amazing was this? Yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

Thanks for joining us on this very special. I mean, this is a was a very special all things combined. Yeah, a very special episode. So thanks, everybody for watching and listening.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. So thank you so much for listening and please be sure to subscribe to the let's talk Cobra Kai podcast and the let's talk Cobra Kai YouTube Live Channel. You can also really help us by giving the show a five star rating on Apple podcast.

Sal Rodriguez:

And for all your listeners and enjoy sharing your thoughts you can leave us a review on Apple podcasts, send us a direct message or post a comment on any let's talk Cobra Kai social media platform. We also highly

Jason Connell:

recommend checking out our other podcast and visiting just curious media.com

Sal Rodriguez:

No Mercy

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