Ep. 32 - Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)

[00:00:00] It's showtime folks! It's on bad hat Harry. What was the weight of the car when you got it? You're not right or wrong. You just don't care. Benway! Oh sons of bitches. I didn't know. I didn't know.

[00:00:18] Welcome to episode 32 of The Complete Works season 4, a deep dive into the career and films of actor Roy Scheider. My name is Mike Smith and joining me on this journey across the Scheiderverse is my friend, co-host, and fellow Roy boy. Mike Truccio. How are you doing today Mike? I'm doing great. I'm excited. 32, that feels like a lot. I don't know. That's not really one of the five.

[00:00:46] It's not a multiple of five so it's not important to humans because we have five fingers. But it feels like a lot. 32 episodes feels like a lot. That we've done so far already? Yeah. I mean when did we start the Roy Scheider season? I think it was like August? September? Yeah. Maybe it was before then, right? Well we started recording in the summertime. In the summertime. Yeah, I don't remember when we started posting. Gotcha. But yeah, I feel like late summer. Yeah. Yeah, like in mid to late summer. Yeah, so 32, that's about right. It's about half a year's worth of, a little bit more than half a year's worth of podcasts.

[00:01:16] And we still have quite a ways to go, I think actually. Yeah, I think we have, you know, the bulk of the episodes left to go still. I don't know about the bulk, but I think, you know, I would say there's probably at least like 20 to 25-ish episodes left, right? There really stops being new episodes by the time he gets to 2008 because that's when Roy Scheider dies. The natural conclusion to the end of the episode.

[00:01:41] Yeah, exactly. I know there's a lot of them in the late 90s, like the late 90s. He has like eight movies in 97 or something like that. Yeah. But then, you know, I think it becomes a little more sporadic towards the end, which also makes sense. So yeah, we'll be talking about a lot of movies in the weeks to come, many of which we have not heard of. Yeah, hopefully we can find them also. A lot of them might be unobtainable, which I don't think is true, but we may have some difficulty. Yes, we will see. This might be the first incomplete works season that has ever happened.

[00:02:11] I think technically if we're counting TV movies, it already is. It already is a little bit. I think what we can do, I mean, one episode two or movie two, something we couldn't watch, the Galileo movie. Yes. I forget what that was called, but yeah, it was some kind of like stage, a film stage play of Galileo or something that Roy Scheider was in. But it was, yeah, it was a TV movie. Yeah, I think what we might do for some of the TV movies that we missed, if we can find them, which I know one of them has been found.

[00:02:38] We have it right. It was to be young, gifted and black. Right. I think the name of that movie. I think what maybe we can do is in between seasons four and five, we can kind of do, you know, a quick bonus episode here and there of any TV movies that we might have missed. OK, I like that plan. If we can find those movies. Yeah, that's the thing. Some of these things we are at the whim of the YouTube uploading fates.

[00:03:03] That's true. If somebody has posted them on YouTube in the last six months, like, oh, hey, now we can watch this. Yes. Or something is was there and is now removed. You know, oh, well, yes, things are a little wonky as far as some of these movies go. And today's movie, you know, it's well, it's an interesting. Tell me about today's movie.

[00:03:26] You know, here's a here's a story about the production of this movie, Mike, that I think sums up the experience of watching this movie as a whole. Are you familiar with the song Always by Bon Jovi? Not off the top of my head, but I'm sure if I heard it, I would recognize it. I think you probably would. It's a big power ballad released in 1994. Ended up being one of Bon Jovi's bestselling songs. Like, it's still like one of their biggest songs. Right. OK. Did you also know? And I guess you probably wouldn't if you can't name that song off the top of your head.

[00:03:55] But did you know that this that song was originally written for today's movie? What? Yes. It was written for the movie we're talking about today. Jon Bon Jovi was given the script to this film and wrote this song to be played in it. The lyrics even mentioned the title of the movie almost immediately. That's incredible. And then Jon Bon Jovi got a private preview screening of the film with the song as part of it. And he hated the movie so much. No way.

[00:04:25] That he refused to let them use the song. That's incredible. Yes. So Always was removed from the film. Bon Jovi released on an album a year later. And that was it. But yeah, a song that, you know, I think he read the script. It was like, oh, this looks pretty promising. Looks interesting. I'll write a song that's kind of based on the themes of this movie. And that's really what the song is about. Again, it mentions the title immediately, like right off the bat. That could have been played over the end credits. This movie, however, they were going to use it and hated it so much that he took it away.

[00:04:56] And based on reviews of the time, that pretty much reflects the attitude for most people surrounding this movie. And since Roy Scheider is in it, we've got to talk about Romeo is Bleeding. You know what the best part about making it with a cop is? I got two gums. One for me, one for them. Honey! I'm a hole! I got you something. Now either I was really good, Jack, or you were really bad.

[00:05:25] Nick Azari got popped. They think what's up, Faze? DeMarco did it. They think somebody's working both sides. You broke out deals. You don't make the deals, Jack. I make the deals. And you're in until I say otherwise. I want Mona DeMarco dead. I won't do that. Coffee. So you're the big hoodlum. Personally, I don't see it. Keep looking. Honeymoon rate?

[00:05:55] Short stay. $200,000. For what? Tell him I'm already dead. Nice work, Sergeant. Romeo, you chicken fast! You can dig one grade, or you can dig two. Take two.

[00:06:24] He loves those toasts, Tony. She turned around and she pointed my own gun at me, Jack. You know, like some kind of an animal. You know what I was thinking about? Your wife. She's a dead woman, just like you were a dead man. I played both sides against the mill. I got caught.

[00:06:54] Gary Oldman. Lena Olin. Annabella Sciorra. Juliette Lewis. And Roy Scheider. Romeo is bleeding. Did you miss me, sweetheart? Ah! All right, so Roy Scheider appears in Romeo is bleeding as Don Falcone, a mob boss whose actions hang over the protagonist for the whole film. Not to be confused with Carmine Falcone, one of the mob bosses from Batman. Definitely not a Batman character, yeah.

[00:07:22] But you know who else is in Batman, Mike? Gary Oldsman. Whoa. It all comes back. That's my segue into this. Uh, Gary Oldman plays the lead of this film, Jack Grimaldi, although he was not the first choice for the role. Uh, in an alternate universe, we actually could have covered this film already, Mike, because Nicolas Cage turned it down. Whoa. A Nicolas Cage movie with a Bon Jovi power ballad original song. Maybe that's what would have fixed the timelines. Maybe, uh, that's where everything kind of split off.

[00:07:51] You think that's what it is? Yeah, I think that's where it started. Yes. No, Nicolas Cage turned this down. This was back in the era when he used to turn movies down. Uh, this would have been around the time he was making Red Rock West. I think he was, I think he was focusing on that. He also made Deadfall around the same time, which is much funnier to think about him deciding, no, I got to make Deadfall. He's, I've already got two neo-noirs on the books. I can't have a third. Exactly. Yes. Um, Michael Keaton also turned it down. Um, he was also approached about it.

[00:08:21] Al Pacino was briefly attached. Uh, he was going to do it and then dropped out. So Alec Baldwin also briefly attached. And then he dropped out as well. Eventually it fell to Gary Oldman, who was coming off movies like JFK and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Uh, so Jack finds himself at the center of three different romances. Uh, his wife, Natalie is played by Annabelle Ashura from movies like Jungle Fever and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. She was also Gloria on The Sopranos. His mistress, Sherry, is played by Juliette Lewis from movies like Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers.

[00:08:49] And more recently, uh, Yellow Jackets. That's right. A big Mike D favorite. I think season three is coming out soon, right? I think, uh, yeah, in a couple of days from when we're recording this. Yeah. One of these days I'm going to watch the show. I'm going to get into it. You're done with Twin Peaks now. I, I did finally finish my, well, I finished season two of my Twin Peaks rewatch, Mike. Okay, fair. However, once I watch Firewalk with me, I got to rewatch Twin Peaks The Return, baby. I got to get in there. That's only 18 hours. And there was 18 hours fly by, Mike. They're fantastic.

[00:09:17] Uh, there's so many scenes of a guy sweeping. Uh, it's, I think, I think it's only one scene of a guy sweeping, but it goes on for like six minutes. It's fantastic. Best thing that's ever aired on TV. And then there's Mona Demarkov, a mob hit woman who he's supposed to kill, but has sex with instead. Uh, and she's played by Lena Olin, uh, from films like Chocolat and the TV show Alias. From there, Michael Wincott, who was recently the awesome cinematographer in Jordan Peele's Nope. Uh, he played, he plays Sal. David Proval, who, uh, played Richie April on The Sopranos.

[00:09:47] He plays Scully. Will Patton, who was in all of the recent Halloween movies. Uh, he plays Marty. Tony Sirico, who played Pauly Walnuts on The Sopranos. A lot of Sopranos guys, uh, popping up in here. That tracks, you know, when you watch the movie. Yes, uh, absolutely. Honestly, whenever you watch any crime movie from the 90s that was shot in New York, you're almost certainly going to find at least a few people who went on to go on The Sopranos. Yes. Uh, which is one of the fun things about The Sopranos. Uh, Tony Sirico plays Malachi.

[00:10:14] Uh, James Cromwell, of course, best known for his role in Star Trek First Contact. Uh, as discussed on this podcast. Uh, he plays Cage. Ron Perlman is in this movie. At this point, probably best known for his role on the Beauty and the Beast TV show. He plays Jack's attorney. He pops up for like one scene. Uh, and Chicago's own Dennis Farina, uh, from movies like Manhunter and Midnight Run plays Nick Zara, who I think is also in one scene early on in the movie.

[00:10:39] Romeo's Bleeding, written by Hilary Hankin, who was later nominated for an Oscar for co-writing Wag the Dog with David Mamet. And it was directed by Peter Medak, uh, which makes this a Roy Scheider reunion because he was also the director of The Men's Club. Everybody's favorite movie here on the pod. Finally, A Club for Men. Uh, this was released two years after Peter Medak's previous film, a British drama called Let Him Have It with Christopher Eccleston.

[00:11:04] And one year before his next film, 1994's Pontiac Moon with Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. Uh, his most recent film was a 2018 documentary, uh, which was called The Ghost of Peter Sellers, which recounts the incredibly difficult experience, uh, of a movie he made with Peter Sellers called Ghost in the Noonday Sun from 1974. Uh, supposedly it's a really good documentary. And Peter Medak, you know, spoilers for our thoughts on this movie. I don't think either of us were big fans of it. And, uh, neither of us were big fans of The Men's Club. He does have good movies. Uh, he did the crazy thing.

[00:11:32] He directed The Changeling, uh, you know, with George C. Scott. Good movie. So Romeo is Bleeding was released on February 4th, 1994, uh, where it opened to number 16 at the box office. Opening to number one that weekend, Mike. Do you want to take a guess at, uh, what this is? What if you say the date again? February 4th, 1994, it was the first of many big hits for this comedy star. Oh man. Comedy star in 94. When does The Mask come out? Or Ace Ventura? I have no idea.

[00:12:02] You got it, Mike. Ace Ventura. Ace Ventura is the number one movie at the box office. Also opening this weekend. Uh, opening to number four was My Father the Hero with Gerard Depardieu and Katherine Heigl. And opening to number five was James L. Brooks' I'll Do Anything. The rest of the top ten contains Mrs. Doubtfire, Philadelphia, Schindler's List, Grumpy Old Men, Blank, Intersection, and Iron Will. Uh, Grumpy Old Men could have covered on this podcast.

[00:12:27] Uh, if we did the Walter Matthau season, uh, which, which almost seemed like was going to happen. I remember back when we were doing the poll, right? Yeah. And then the Shatterheads came out of the woodwork. Yes, they did. They wanted to hear us talk about Romeo is Bleeding. Yeah. I think that was why. Uh, the IMDB plot synopsis for Romeo is Bleeding reads, A corrupt New York policeman falls under the spell of a seductive and ruthless member of a Moscow crime family. So yeah, Mike D, going into this movie, uh, what were you expecting from Romeo is Bleeding?

[00:12:55] And, uh, what are your overall thoughts on this film? So I had never heard of Romeo is Bleeding, uh, which is probably going to be a trend for the next little while on the, on the podcast here. Yeah. Um, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I didn't, uh, I never heard of it, but I think I saw, it's got like pretty low ratings and stuff on like Letterboxd and all that, which is, makes me nervous when you look at this cat, like this movie on paper, like this cast and everything. So they're sort of like men, the men's club too.

[00:13:22] Like you look at that cast and you're like, Oh my God, this is going to be like an incredible run of character actors and the same thing here. And it's a crime movie from the nineties in New York. And I was like, Oh baby. And then, and then sort of an erotic thriller element to it too, which is always fun. Yeah. Yeah. So I was maybe a little excited, uh, but tampered with the general reactions to it. It seems. Uh, and yeah, baby, this movie is just nothing. Uh, what is this movie?

[00:13:48] Um, I, it starts with, uh, it's gone like, you know, you know what it's doing? It's, it's doing the neo-noir. It's, uh, doing the crime movie. It's doing the erotic thriller thing. And, uh, there's just like, even a red rock West is like such a better example, which we've covered on this podcast. Red rock West rules. That movie's incredible. Yeah. That movie's great.

[00:14:10] And it's such a better version of like almost the, not, not literally the story, uh, but the same kind of thing, which I guess is part of the noir thing in general. Guy, uh, gets in over his head and a plot is with larger machinations and he knows what to do with. And he's just sort of got to survive, right. It's sort of the whole thing. Gary Oldman. It's just being Gary Oldman, you know, like I get it. That's like, I guess what you hire him for.

[00:14:34] It's so interesting to see him like in modern day stuff, which I guess he, what he's doing on like slow horses, which is like the only thing he's doing now. Um, right. The TV show on, uh, Apple plus I think, right. That's an Apple show. That's an Apple. I have not watched slow horses, but you have. Uh, well, I've watched like one or two episodes. My parents really love it. I've heard it's great. I've heard it's like really terrific. It's incredible. Um, they, oh, they say it's incredible, but, uh, Gary Oldman is just like a disgusting slob on it. Uh, and Gary Oldman loves to wear fat suits.

[00:15:02] He loves to like slather to make up and do weird voices. Yeah. He loves that stuff. Yeah. He loves that shit. And that's what I was going to, I guess you, uh, hire him for that. Right. Like, especially now, like the time period of this movie, I guess it's a couple of years earlier than, uh, Romeo is bleeding, but like him in true romance. It's the same year as this. Is it really? Yeah. Actually, there's stories about, uh, you know, I think he filmed it right after this movie.

[00:15:26] Uh, so in the, uh, according to him, you can kind of see care, like glimpses of his character in true romance in certain scenes of this movie, because he's also like rehearsing to go to that. And it's, and that's like more like what he wants to be doing. It totally tracks. Honestly. Yeah. There's a lot of like just psychomanic energy sometimes in this movie. And you're like, well, what is going on? Um, but even in true romance, he's got like, you know, a bunch of weird affectations, I guess, in that movie. Right. Yeah. Dreadlocks. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah.

[00:15:55] Yeah. Dreadlocks and scars. And he's doing like a, uh, uh, like Rasta voice thing that he's got going on. If I remember right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I guess in 1993, you hire Gary Oldman to be the weirdo white guy. Uh, and they're just doing the most New York voices anybody's ever heard anybody do on a movie ever once. Uh, right. It's like, yeah, they're just so from Queens, uh, and everything, which is fun. But man, I think this movie is only like an hour 40 or is it two hours? No, I think it's, I think it's about an hour 40. Yeah. Something like that.

[00:16:25] It's an hour 40. Uh, and you feel every second of it, um, the plot makes no sense. So yeah, I mean, it's just a crazy, it's just a wacky movie. Um, and in a not fun way because so where, where I was going with all that is to say that this has all been done better in other movies. And, uh, it feels like it's just sort of like a pastiche of tropes and like neo-noir and okay, we got it. You know, just like, it's just that plot.

[00:16:54] And, uh, so yeah, I don't know. Some of the performances are good. I mean, Juliette Lewis is fun cause it's Juliette Lewis. Uh, she doesn't really have anything to do in this movie. Um, and everything, uh, Michael Waincott's fun cause it's Michael Waincott. Uh, so yeah, Romeo is bleeding is just like, what is, what a slog. Yes. Uh, yeah, no, I, I think my biggest issue with Romeo is bleeding, which I think is like, you know, a fairly stylish movie. Like it looks all right. Uh, I think it is fairly well directed. Yeah.

[00:17:22] Uh, and I think it does have a good collection of character actors kind of doing their thing. The problem with it is it's incomprehensible. I could not understand anything that was happening at any point in this movie. It just, there's so many different threads that are going on. You don't really know whose allegiance is to who at any real capacity. I feel like the story just kind of took so many different turns that like made absolutely zero sense. So it's a rough watch. It's not very good. Unfortunately, it's funny. I just watched this like a couple of days before I watched, uh, Romeo is bleeding.

[00:17:51] I watched foreign correspondent, the Hitchcock movie from 1940. Yes. Um, a very good film. Very good film has a labyrinth and espionage plot. Yeah. Totally, totally fallible. Like you can totally completely understand who's doing what and why. And that's all about clandestine groups in Europe trying to assassinate the right person to kick off World War II. Um, right. And, uh, totally tracks. And then you watch Romeo is bleeding and you're like, who the fuck is this person? Why do they have one arm? When did that happen?

[00:18:21] Um, which I want to talk about later, but yeah, there's just like all kinds of wackiness going on in here and double crosses. And I don't even understand what happens at the end or like in the courthouse at the end. Like, where did, why are you, why is she leaving? I don't understand. We'll talk about that too, but yeah, there's just, and then Gary open like steals a cop's gun to shoot her. Right. And shoots her. Yeah. But then the cops are like, ah, good job. And then they leaves. Yeah. And they're like, make up a story about how she stole a gun and it's in self-defense or whatever.

[00:18:50] Cause the cops are all bastards. Um, yeah. You know, as they say, and even in the movie, they just talk about it all the time. So everybody's a two timing, uh, you know, abusing their power. Right. Yeah. I guess I say, I say Gary open steals a cop's gun and he does, but he is also a cop in the movie, like a really corrupt one. Right. Right. Yeah. Well, yeah. And he's like taking the fall for this whole thing. Yes. Uh, and so he steals an ankle gun off of one of the cops in the courthouse and shoots Mona. I think it was right. That's yeah. Mona.

[00:19:20] Yeah. Yeah. Is these, she's sort of a Russian, like mob hit woman. He is originally assigned by Roy Scheider to kill her, I think. Right. So what happens basically is right. His, his side gig, uh, his, his, uh, dirty cop gig, right? So he's a detective, uh, normally, but what he does is he rats out mob witnesses, mob witness safe houses to the mob. So they can go kill that person before they testify. So he knows where these people are being held in protective custody.

[00:19:49] He tells the mob, they kill somebody. What goes wrong is Mona is assigned to one of these hits and she kills everybody in the room. So she kills all the cops and the FBI and everybody. So it draws a lot of heat and it's a whole thing. And then they arrest Mona. The cops find Mona and arrest her. And so he gives, uh, Gary Oldman gives the mob, the safe house where she's supposed to be. And, uh, she's been moved. She's not there. So now they think he's lying.

[00:20:16] And so now he gets the assignment from Roy Scheider. Okay. You have to do this yourself. There's still another hour of the movie and you're like, Oh my God, come on. That was a clearer and more concise explanation about what happens in the movie than what you get in the movie itself. Yeah. Yeah. I just like sat and actually thought about it for a minute after it was like, okay, so what the fuck happened? And so I put that, yeah, I pieced that all together. Yeah. And then, um, but then after that, like I said, there's still an hour left of the movie

[00:20:45] and I can't follow what's going on and why he keeps finding Mona and letting her go. And somebody's, she's going to pay him off. You know, a psychosexual, psychosexual, like cat and mouse game between the two of them. Right. Where, uh, you know, every time he has her cornered, she's like, ah, but what if I started undressing? And he's like, Hmm, interesting. Uh, tell me more. They end up having sex. And so he's cheating on his wife and he's cheating on his mistress with Mona now, but that only happens like every once in a while. Like anytime he's about to capture her, she seduces him and that like throws him off his

[00:21:14] whole rhythm. There's car chase at one point and she goes like flying through the windshield and that's a pretty cool stunt. Like that's pretty cool. Yeah. Neat. Uh, and then yeah, at one point she, she has two arms earlier in the movie. I think that's what I was going to ask. Does that, did that happen out of nowhere or did I miss that setup? I wonder if she lost the arm in the car. Like when she goes to the windshield, he shoots her in the arm before that scene. Cause they go to meet at the, this is after everything has gone down or is going down.

[00:21:43] They're going to double cross Reichsheiter or something. Honestly, I'm not really sure. Uh, and they meet at like a pier. She tries to kill him. It tries to like, uh, with a piano wire kind of thing. Uh, and this, he escaped, rolls out of the car, gets out and pulls his gun and shoots her in the arm. And it's this big juicy squib and she's like, well, it's like this whole crazy scene. Yeah. And that leads into the car chase thing where, uh, he throws her in the back of the seat. They're, they're speeding away and all this stuff.

[00:22:10] And she goes through the windshield and then, and then the next time you see her, she's cutting off Juliette Lewis's arm or something. Right. Like to take it. I don't really understand what's happening, uh, but she now has one arm and I thought the setup was that, oh, she got shot in the, in a fake arm. Like I was like, oh, does she have one arm the whole time that this movie just didn't tell us until now? Maybe. And that's why she survives the whole car chase thing and all that. But I have no, I genuinely, I have no idea.

[00:22:39] Uh, it's other, I think it's just to put her in that sexy leather harness at the end. Like that could be part of it too. Yeah. It could be part of it. Uh, which seems like a long way to go to put so many in a sexy leather harness. You don't need to cut off their arm for that. Especially like this character seems like she might be wearing one anyway. Okay. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so it's a very strange movie is what I'm getting at. Yes. Uh, it is certainly a strange movie and one that I unfortunately watched like four days ago. So a lot of it is like already left my head. Yeah. I did watch it yesterday. So that helps. That does help.

[00:23:09] Yeah, absolutely. But Roy Scheider's in it. He is. We confirmed. Uh, Roy, Roy Scheider is in the movie. Actually, this is another, I think this is the last of the movies that features a line of dialogue from our theme song. I thought, yeah, I thought so. And I totally forgot that that was like, I had taken one from Romeo is bleeding in the theme song. You're usually the theme song kind of represents like, Oh, these are like kind of the best of projects for all these actors. Uh, and I, I, when I'm blind faith with Romeo is bleeding and man, it didn't, it didn't pay

[00:23:38] off. Uh, but yeah, the line, you know, right from wrong, you just don't care, which is a good line. You know, he's pretty good line. Well delivered by Roy Scheider. Uh, but yeah, Scheider is in this movie really only for like two or three scenes though. He's not in a ton of it. Uh, however, much like naked lunch, he's the guy that everyone's talking about the whole movie. That's true. Uh, so that's my, like, how does this fit into the Scheider roles we've seen so far? It's sort of similar to his role in naked lunch, uh, where he's being talked about constantly. He's only in a couple of scenes, but whenever he's there, he's orchestrating everything. Right.

[00:24:08] Uh, so what did you think of Roy Scheider in Romeo is bleeding Mike? Yeah, he's fine. Um, I don't think there's anything quite standout about it. There's not really anything bad about it either. It's just like is good. It fits the movie. I think he's doing, it is cool for him to be a mob boss. Like, cause for a long time in the movie, I was like, where is Roy Scheider going to face? Is he going to be a cop? Is he going to be a lawyer? Well, yeah, he could be the, like, you put it, put your gun and your badge on the desk, right? Like he could be that guy or something. I don't really know.

[00:24:38] He could be, he could be Warren Oates and blue thunder chewing him out. Right. Exactly. He could take on the, uh, the police precinct captain role. Yeah. Yeah. The guy who's too old for this shit now. Instead when, yeah, he gets after Mona is after, after Gary Oldman discovers that Mona was not in the safe house where he said she was, somebody pulls up in a car. It was like, you better come with me, uh, kind of thing. And he gets brought to the mansion out on the Island, it seems. Um, and, uh, he's led through this big house into the big palatial backyard to find Roy

[00:25:07] Scheider in a bathroom or like a smoking jacket kind of thing, uh, sitting out in the, in the back garden. And I was like, Oh man, that's actually pretty cool. Like, it's fun to see him be that role. And he's only in, it's three scenes total. I think it's the backyard scene, that one funeral scene. Right. Which I don't know whose funeral that was. I do forget whose funeral that was. I think it was, you know, one of their associates, right? Something like that. It might be, um, the guy Dennis Farina plays. I don't remember. Okay.

[00:25:35] Cause he's only in like one scene early in the movie, right? Yeah. He is one of the witnesses that gets whacked. Yes. I think he's the one that gets whacked that, that Mona kills the entire room, like kills everybody. Okay. I think it's that guy. And then that scene, he, they cut off Gary Heldman's toes or right. Cause he's failed. He gives him a, you have to like, you have two days to find Mona and he doesn't. Uh, and so he's at this funeral because he's there with the cops are there. Yeah.

[00:26:02] Uh, and yeah, shatters guy is like grab them and hold them back. And he takes two of his toes cause you're two days later or some shit. I don't remember what he says, which is pretty cool. Yeah. And then his death scene, uh, right. Uh, where I guess they buried him alive, right? That's their thing. Yeah. I think like in battery park, like directly under the Brooklyn bridge, which is like a populated famous park. Uh, sure. So that's kind of cool. It's, I mean, it looks really cinematic, you know, the Brooklyn bridge all lit up and

[00:26:31] everything. Yeah, absolutely. Look shit. It looks cool. Yeah. And then they, they bury him alive. Uh, Oh no, actually, uh, Mona shoots him. Oh, she does. Okay. Yeah. They're going to bury him alive is part of the thing because, uh, you know, Gary Oldman, even though he's putting targets on people's backs for the mob for them to kill, he can't kill anybody personally. Right. That's like a whole, yeah, he's a cop. And that's the whole, you know, right from wrong. You just don't care. Like that's what he's talking about in that scene. And so he refuses to do anything to shider. So Mona just shoots him when he's in, in his grave already. Right. Yeah.

[00:27:01] No, I think shider is a, he's pretty solid in it. I mean, it's a weird, like, like I've kind of said before, we're sort of at a turning point in the shider career where he's not really leading movies anymore for the most part. Uh, I think there might be some TV movies where he's like the lead or something like that. But for the most part, whenever we're at a theatrical release movie, it's a pretty small supporting role, but usually supporting role that like has big ramifications for the rest of the film. Right. Yeah. Uh, and so I think between naked lunch and this, it's like, Oh yeah, he is, you know, this character who, uh, pops, pops up only for a few scenes.

[00:27:31] So we need somebody to cast as that character who like will really pop, like who will like be memorable to the audience. Uh, and I think Roy Scheider has sort of slid into that phase of his career where he's like, yes, I'm Roy Scheider. I'm here for a couple of scenes. You will remember who I am as a result. Yeah, no, I think you're right. And especially it's like weird crime. So, I mean, not so much going on in a naked lunch, even though I guess technically it's like a drug thing or whatever, but, uh, here he's, it's a, he's a mob boss.

[00:27:58] Um, I'm also thinking like, it's interesting even just two movies ago in, in, uh, the Russia house where he's a small supporting role, but much more than in naked lunch and, and Romeo is bleeding. It's like the size of his role. I think you're really diminishing his role in the Russia house. I think he's a really like major supporting role. I don't understand why you think that, but it cuts back to him every 10 minutes, uh, listening in for 30 seconds. Like he's always listening in though. He's always there. Okay, fair enough.

[00:28:27] But I'm saying he's in, he's in Russia house a lot more than he is in, in naked lunch. And Romeo is bleeding that even in this three year gap, all of a sudden he's in two scenes where in Russia house he's in five scenes. Yes. I think he's in more than five. I think he is in the Russia house. Uh, but yeah, but it's always like, okay, we like, this is a, this is an important character and we need somebody like with some kind of gravitas, somebody that audiences will recognize, uh, in order to make sure they know, Oh, this is an important character.

[00:28:55] That's going to even, even though he's not in that much of the movie, this is a pretty important character to remember. Uh, and casting Roy Scheider is a good way as a good shorthand to be like, Oh yes, Roy Scheider's here. The guy from Jaws, the guy from Jaws pay attention. Yes, I agree. Uh, so yeah, Roy Scheider, I think is really solid in the scenes that he's given. He's not given that much, but he, he does have, I think his like first meeting with Gary Oldman, like he, he's doing a great job. Like he's like sort of hamming it up a little bit and having some fun with it. Uh, how do you think this fits into the other Roy Scheider roles that we've seen so far, Mike?

[00:29:24] Well, it's another death for Roy Scheider, which, uh, been a handful of, you know, right back to the very first one, curse of the living corpse. Right. Right. Yes. I, uh, I didn't clock that. So thank you, Mike for, uh, I can add that to the list. Yeah. Here's the list so far of Roy Scheider deaths. Okay. Uh, curse of the living corpse. The, the very first Roy Scheider film. Yeah. Uh, the outside man, he dies in that movie. Uh, marathon man. He also dies. Uh, sorcerer question mark. Question mark.

[00:29:52] Because it's, it's a little ambiguous at the end. Uh, whether it's a car backfiring or a gunshot. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, all that jazz. Uh, he dies at the end of that. Right. Okay. Uh, and Cohen and Tate, uh, where that's probably the most memorable death scene out of all of these, honestly. Um, I mean, all that jazz is probably the most memorable just because that's like, that's a 30 minute song and dance sequence. Yeah. Yeah. But Cohen and Tate has, has the hardest cut to credits ever. Yeah. Um, but I think, I think it's interesting.

[00:30:20] All that jazz notwithstanding, of course, uh, that's just all like sleazy crime movies and one over the top theatrical dramatic melodramatic. I don't remember, how does he die in Curse of the Living Corpse? Which technically is about his criminal conspiracy, but. Right. Doesn't he drown in that movie? Isn't that, uh, what happens? I think he does drown. I feel like there's either water or fire and I'm not sure which, which one. Somebody dies to both of those and I don't remember which one is, uh. Right. I, I think it's drowning in Curse of the Living Corpse. You like get drowned in the swamp or something, right? Yeah.

[00:30:50] Something, something along those lines. But he's, he's the one who is killing everyone, uh, in disguise, like pretending to be the corpse of their dead father, like is alive, right? And it's supposed to be him. Right, he's coming back to, in there like that. And, and he creates deaths for all of his like, you know, family members that are based on their deepest fears. Yeah. So one of them is like afraid of fire and so he burns alive or something, right? Something, and some, somebody's like afraid of like tight spaces so he encloses them in a tomb or that, that kind of thing. That's it. Right. Curse of the Living Corpse, pretty good. Pretty fun. Pretty fun movie.

[00:31:20] You know what? Better than Romeo is Bleeding, I'll tell you that much. I, yeah, more, a more fun sit than Romeo is Bleeding, absolutely. I don't know. That's fun that he, he always dies in some kind of sleazy crime, bleak movie. Yes. Sorcerer question mark, uh, you know? Absolutely. All right. Any, any scenes or anything else in Romeo is Bleeding? Do you want to give a shout out to Mike? I do think it's like, it starts out kind of fun. I think like there's like that opening montage.

[00:31:45] It's not really a montage, I guess, but for the first act set up where it's like him talking to, and of course he's got the annoying voiceover because that's what they do in noir movies where he's like, let me tell you a story about this guy I know. And he's talking about himself and you're like, oh. But how he's a cop and, and how he does these stakeouts to learn where the mob witnesses are being held. And, and he's doing the little like, uh, tango cha-cha with his wife in the backyard every night. Yeah. They're like having all that stuff.

[00:32:13] So I was kind of like, oh, maybe, maybe I'm sort of into this a little bit. This seems interesting. And, uh, uh, Juliette Lewis and I don't know. It was like, okay, this is kind of fun. Uh, but then it just never like doesn't go anywhere from there. It was just like, okay, we're just doing this for an hour. I think the movie's biggest problem is that I had no idea what was happening at any given time. Uh, that said, I do think it looks pretty good. And I think, you know, everybody is doing a pretty good job in it. I think Lena Olin as Mona is really, really great in it actually, you know, as sort of this

[00:32:41] like psychosexual like partner to Gary Oldman. That's very fun. I think she's good, but her character is literally Satan. Like, I don't know. Like she just, just instantly hypnotizes every man. Uh, it's like, it's like she's a sex demon or something. Yes. Like, yeah, okay. I guess like, I don't know. It just, it feels so weirdly out of place in this kind of like grungy real, not realistic, but grungy like New York movie. And then here comes this like succubus and you're like, okay, I guess. Right. Sure.

[00:33:10] Uh, yeah, I agree with that. Uh, but I think she is really fun. Like she is good though. Considering that that's what the character is. I think she's playing that very well. Uh, and I also give a shout out to Annabella Shora as his wife. Um, who I think is also really great in the movie. I think like weirdly, it's a weird kind of thing where like, because Gary Oldman is, has a mistress already with Juliette Lewis and then is also engaged in these sex games with Mona DeMarcov. I feel like the natural inclination would be to make his wife just like, you know, an uptight bitch or whatever. Right.

[00:33:40] Just like, you know, total nag. Yeah. And she's awesome in the movie. Like she's just like really chill. Like I feel like in their interactions, like in the first, like half of the movie, you kind of get why they got together. They're fun. They're flirty together, all that stuff. And I think that actually does make it hit a little bit harder where, you know, at the end of the movie, the back half of the movie is him trying to protect all of the various women in his life. Right. At this point, uh, and trying to make sure that like they, their paths don't cross either, but of course they do.

[00:34:07] Like she finds out about Julia Lewis and she finds out about Mona and all that stuff. And so she eventually leaves him. Um, but there is like kind of this open question of like whether she'll come back. Right. Because they kind of set a plan for each other to like meet on like every May 1st and December 1st. It's like a whole, it's a recurring thing throughout the movie. Uh, where like May 1st and December 1st, like the, the main dates in their relationship, the end of the movie kind of implies that like, Oh yeah, she, we planned that she would meet me on either at one of these days.

[00:34:33] And then, uh, there's a moment where he sees like a vision of her and then it turns out that's just the vision. Like she, she doesn't ever come back to him. Yeah. It's sort of like, uh, uh, before sunrise, like we'll be back here on this exact, um, yeah, they, they said that he like named this diner in Tucson or something or whatever. Where they're going to, or Phoenix or I forget where it is, uh, where they're going to meet on, on these days every year or something. Yeah. The final moments are him owning that diner or working at that diner. I'm not really sure. I think he owns it now. Yeah.

[00:35:04] I think he's like gets put into witness protection or some shit and he thinks he sees her come back in. And then of course it is a ghost or something. Uh, yeah. Yeah. A vision. And so, yeah, it's just him being lonely. And of course the, the final shot is the reverse of the opening shot coming down the road. Uh, right. Turning, turning to look at the diner and this is looking from the diner up, back up the road. It's like, whoa, poetry. Um, hashtag analysis. It rhymes. It rhymes. Yeah. Uh, it's symmetrical.

[00:35:33] Yes. Remember a couple episodes ago, I couldn't remember the word symmetry. Is it going to throw it in as much as you can now? Now that I've remembered it. So, but yeah, I think you're right though. The, uh, Mona and Natalie, those two actors are like actually doing a lot with considering, uh, what, what their roles could be. Yes, exactly. Uh, yeah. And then Juliette Lewis is also in the movie is kind of like, again, Juliette Lewis, a very good actress. I like her a lot. I think she's supposed to be like the teenaged mistress. Like she's supposed to be a teenager, right? Uh, I don't know if teen, but yeah, I mean young, obviously.

[00:36:03] I don't know if they say her age. I think she's, isn't she like a bartender or a waitress at a club or something? I don't know. They say something like that. Something along those lines, but yeah, she's younger than the rest of them. I don't know how old she is in real life in 1993, but yeah, she's the, the young hot mistress for him, uh, that he loves question mark, uh, but then accidentally kills, which is like just one of Mona's most evil things. Right. Yes. She, uh, she sets them up.

[00:36:29] Cause she knows cause she's the literal devil, uh, that he's like staking out a, uh, a hotel room or something to find, I think Mona, like she knows that he's waiting for her. Uh, and so she like sneaks in and ties up Juliette Lewis to the radiator or something. Like stages her silhouetted against a window at night. So yes, like from the back, she looks like Mona. So he kicks the door open and blows her away. Right. At this point he has already like sent her out of town for her safety. Right. Like he sends, he sends her out on a train, right? Right. Yes, that's right. I forgot about that. Yeah.

[00:36:59] It's after every, after his toes have been cut off and he realizes it's all downhill. So he's trying to get everyone he loves out of town and yeah, he kicks the door in, blows, she just lights up this figure. Uh, and of course then a subway car goes by and the flashing lights reveal that it's actually Juliette Lewis. So yeah, there, I mean, this movie is like pretty cinematic, especially compared to, uh, the men's club, uh, which is just, I mean, it's a not flashy movie as opposed to this being a stylized neo-noir. Sure.

[00:37:25] Although I, I do think in our men's club review, you kind of knocked it for being like a little too stylized. If I remember correctly, I think I remember the weird camera moves. Yeah. Yeah. I think I do remember that, but most of it is just like boring to look at. That's the problem with men's club. That's the problem with men's club is it's boring. And the problem with Romeo is bleeding is that it's also pretty boring, but in a very different way. Yeah. It is weird to think about. You're right. So yeah, he kills his mistress is where all that to say. Right.

[00:37:53] Uh, and then, and then she cuts her arm off at some point she loses. So this is the part where I was like, wait, what? So yeah, Juliette Lewis is dead. Gary Oldman flees. Mona comes into the room and, uh, she starts like staging the body and like spreading lighter fluid and gasoline. She ends up burning like this building down or whatever. Yeah. Uh, but not before they show us her Mona picking up a circular saw and then, uh, laying an arm

[00:38:23] down next to Juliette Lewis and then picking up the Juliette Lewis's arm. And she wants it to make it seem like that she's the one who died and not Juliette Lewis. Right. And so, and so if Mona only has one arm, which we're still figuring out. Yeah. Then that kind of makes sense. The way I interpreted this is that she took Juliette Lewis's arm and sewed it onto her own. That's so, I mean, they show her, uh, not sewn, but like wearing an arm and a harness with

[00:38:51] the sexy leather harness I was talking about before. Yeah. But like, I thought it was some kind of psychological torture thing that it was like, it's like a serial killer. Like this is her arm that I'm using as a fake arm right now. Uh, because this movie is insane. And just by the way, uh, you know, when you show images back to back in succession, you create like, like the next scene I think is her is revealing that she has one arm. Yeah. I think the next scene is like, she has, uh, Gary open, like chained to a bed and they have sex. Right. Right. I think so. Yeah.

[00:39:19] Uh, so yeah, it's weird. It is a weird movie. Any other moments of this movie that you feel like we should talk about Mike before we start moving on letterbox reviews? It's weird that I feel like we need to run down the entire series, like every scene, because I, I feel like we have to figure out what this movie is. We used to do that on this podcast. I know. It used to be like, let's run the movie down scene by scene, no matter how long it takes. And that's why our Jurassic Park episode is two and a half hours long, you know? Yeah. Because we couldn't stop talking about it. Yeah. No, we, I stopped taking such detailed notes. Yes. Me too.

[00:39:49] Uh, since then. So yeah, no, I, I don't think we can really run it down scene by scene because honestly, I don't remember half the scenes. There's. And the ones that I do remember are all jumbled and out of order. And I don't really know what was happening at them. Fair. I'm only saying that because I, I, I feel like Pepe Silva, like we're going to have a string and we're going to figure, we're going to untangle this movie one way or another. We're going to figure out Romeo is bleeding. It's going to turn out to be a secret masterpiece. That's right. I think so. Which you mentioned actually that, um, the way you watched the movie, uh, there was like

[00:40:18] a, you know, a film critic commentary on it, right? Like it was. Yes. Let me see if I can pull up the name of the person while we're talking. But yeah, I, uh, I procured a version of the film, uh, and it had a separate audio track that was a set like with critic commentary. And I was like, that's crazy. And so I put it on for the opening credits and it was the, the, the critic introducing himself and talking about their, their professor. And they, they talk at the rate criticism from like a feminist critique and all this stuff. And I was like, that's going to be teams.

[00:40:45] And then having watched the movie, that seems like a very interesting angle to come at this film. So I'm interested to go back and watch a couple of scenes with the commentary on it is interesting. That's, uh, you know, that, that kind of film commentary is usually reserved. Like, you know, when you have like a film critic doing commentary over a movie, as opposed to somebody who worked on it, like the director or an actor or whatever, when you have a film critic doing it, it's usually a movie that has a very good reputation. Like that's, you know, citizen Kane has like a Roger Ebert commentary on it, you know, like that kind of thing.

[00:41:14] And so, yeah, that's a surprising to me that this movie got one of the, got one of those. So it's, uh, Alexandra Heller Nicholas is the critics, uh, critics name. I know that critic. I've heard that critic before. Yeah. Yeah. And they have, uh, I have now I Googled their name. I've seen two of their books. Yeah. One is the rape revenge films and the new one is a cinema coven, which is witchcraft and women's filmmaking, which has hellbender on the cover. So that's why I was like, Oh, that stands out to me. So yeah, that seems neat. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:41:42] So there it's possible there is, you know, a reading of this movie that we did not find in our watch. That's right. Yeah. And I mean, when it came out, it got pretty mixed reviews. People didn't like it that much. Uh, it did get, uh, there were two, according to Wikipedia, two awards that it was nominated for. Is one of them the Razzies or some shit? No, no. Uh, the Chicago film critics association, uh, nominated Lena Olin for best supporting actress. Okay. Uh, and the MTV awards, uh, nominated this movie in best action sequence, uh, which I believe

[00:42:09] was for the car stunt, uh, happens in the movie. So yeah, a little bit of recognition here and there, but, uh, yeah, it's got a 27% of rotten tomatoes. It's not like it's held in that high of esteem now. Uh, but maybe there are some people out there who do like it. Yeah. I'll have to watch that commentary, learn some more, get some hashtag analysis. Yeah. Somebody on letterboxd probably has a positive rating. I'm sure. Uh, I think there were a couple of, you know, positive reviews.

[00:42:34] I'm not sure that I collected any, but let's see what the people have to say. Mike, uh, for Romeo is bleeding. Uh, I got a two-star review here from Justin Liliberty. Uh, and if there's anybody who was going to give this movie a good review, I feel like it would have been him, right? Yeah, for sure. Uh, Justin Liberty, a two-star review who said some sort of unholy amalgam of post Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino Cool, dated Jim Thompson Pulp and Gary Oldman being overly horny. Even his narration sounds like he's babbling through his vinegar strokes.

[00:43:06] It mostly doesn't work, even with a good cast, but I guess it's what you should expect from an early 90s neo-noir from the director of Species 2, which is way better than this, FYI. That's crazy that this person, this director's journey is wild. Yeah, The Changeling from 1980 and, uh, you know, some good films in the 70s and 80s. And yeah, and like I said, his, his most recent film was a documentary about Peter Sellers that is supposed to be great. It's supposed to be really good. But, uh, yeah, unfortunately we, we got a raw deal with his two films that are represented on this podcast.

[00:43:34] Uh, here's a two-star review from Tyler Lake, which reads over long and wholly incoherent. Romeo is bleeding, hits a lot like a friend, clumsily regaling you with the details of a fuzzy dream over breakfast. I couldn't regurgitate the gist of this film with a gun to my head. That's crazy. I mean, yeah, that, that feels exactly correct. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, here's another two-star review from Keith, uh, which reads lots of over the top elements that are head scratchers, but perhaps the most egregious is the plot point where it is continually asserted that May 1st and December 1st are six months apart.

[00:44:06] That, yeah, it's just so simple. Yeah. Uh, that does feel like, why wasn't it June 1st and December 1st? Why, why is it like this? Um, yeah, very, very weird one. I have one last review here, Mike. It's a review from Francesca with no rating, which reads, I was a teenager and my parents and my brother were away for a weekend. So I had the house to myself. I remember renting this from Blockbuster at the insistence of my then boyfriend who had seen this before and thought I would like it because it's pretty fucked up. And he was like, you like movies that are fucked.

[00:44:36] Uh, we watched part of it. I think it's about police corruption or something. I remember being bored and we moved on to heavy petting at all. We then had sex in my parents' bed because I figured, well, why not? Post-coitus, I remember this movie was still playing and there's a woman wearing like a road warrior costume with her boobs hanging out. And I think maybe she has someone tied to a chair. And I was like, yeah, I guess this is what is defined as fucked up. I thought about rewinding the tape and rewatching stuff I missed, but I figured, nah, I've seen enough. I'll just return it.

[00:45:04] Had a child been conceived from this day, they would be over 30 now. Passage of time so freaky to me. Life goes by so quick. That's the sexy leather harness. That's what I was talking about. Yeah. That's the one. So a memorable moment in the movie for sure. It's revealed she has one arm at that point. Yes. All right. And that is Romeo is bleeding. Mike, any final thoughts on this movie before we start wrapping this up? No.

[00:45:31] I mean, this is a fun little curio and yeah, I guess post-Reservoir Dogs. It's, you know, we're not quite in the full Tarantino ripoff 90s yet because that's it's gone. What's the name of the movie? Pulp Fiction. Yeah. Pulp Fiction is not out yet. It is coming out this year in 94, right? It's happening. And then, yeah, once that happens and Pulp Fiction really explodes, then you get just a ton of imitators that are happening in the mid 90s to early 2000s. Chain of Fools. I was just thinking about Chain of Fools, Mike. That's the one I was about to name drop. You know, I've seen better days.

[00:46:03] Wow. We got to bring that bit back. Yeah. No, we're kind of a very it's going to be happening very soon where we're getting a lot of post-Tarantino knockoffs. And this feels like an early kind of I mean, you are also having like true romance happens in this year. Natural Born Killers is also like the year after this or the same year, too. So, yeah, like that that era is is dawning. It's happening right now. Yeah. So it's interesting to see sort of the beginnings of that kind of movement, I guess, a little

[00:46:31] bit starting to percolate in the film industry and stuff. But otherwise, pretty forgettable movie, which is crazy considering this cast. Yes. Unbelievable cast. A really, really weird, strange movie. Unfortunately, it's kind of boring and incomprehensible. And that's a real bummer because you see this cast, you see this premise, you're like, all right, we got a picture going. Like we got we got a movie here. But like Jon Bon Jovi said, the movie really sucked. But all right. Mike D, where can we find you online this week?

[00:46:59] You can find me at MD Film Log on Letterboxd and Blue Sky. You can also donate to support the show on our Ko-fi page, which is Ko-fi dot com slash Mike and Mike Pods, where you can donate fifty dollars and make a topic of Mike and Mike go to the movies, the bonus episodes we do. And if you want merch, we have merch available on our Redbubble, which is Mike Mike Pods dot Redbubble dot com. That's right. You can find me online at M Smith Film Blog on Twitter and Blue Sky. Mike Smith Film and Letterboxd Radio Mike Sandwich Instagram. Thank you so much for listening to Complete Works. I'm Mike Smith.

[00:47:29] That's Mike Decricio. Don't forget to rate and view the show on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast app. And if you want to contact us, you can tweet at us at Complete Works Pod. That's W-R-K-S. No O in the word works. And you can find the rest of our podcast and Rapture Press alongside many other podcasts, but all kinds of comic books and movie news and all that good stuff. Our theme song was created by Kyle Cullen, who you can reach for your own podcast themes at Kyle's Podcast Themes at Gmail dot com. And our logo was designed by Mac V or at Fearless Guard on Twitter. Next week, Roy Scheider heads to television.

[00:47:58] It's going to be finally time to talk about Sequest DSV, Mike. It's the one. It's the one. Yes. So we'll be talking about, I guess, probably the first two ish episodes of Sequest DSV. That's usually how we do it when we're talking about TV. But I'll try to talk about some of the later stuff in Sequest. Also, I've not seen any of the show, but I know the story of Roy Scheider being on the show is a fraught one. Yes. That's what I've heard also. I think he's in like every episode of season one.

[00:48:27] And then at Rally Time season two starts, he's like, I don't want to be on the show anymore. I'm out. So we will talk about all of that next week. Remember to check out our other podcast, Mike might go to the movies for all kinds of other movie related stuff, including recent releases, ranked lists, general discussions, and a lot more. Thanks so much for listening, guys. And thanks for being a Hollywood insider.