Episode 191 - Rad: LIVE!

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Live from Onion Fest in Chicago, Paul, June, and Jason go balls out as they discuss the 1986 BMX racing movie Rad. They cover everything including ass sliding, bike dancing, the fashion of the twins, and much more. Plus, stay tuned at the end for all the extra amazing 2nd Opinions theme songs!

 

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[samtrano 33]

They spent enough time showing him try to get the backflip that I was sure it would turn into a Big Thing that would help him Win The Race but that turned out to be nothing. He does a backflip but still only won because Bart stopped to let him catch up.

In the same vein it was weird how much of his preparation was doing tricks when the actual event was a race.

 

Random thoughts:

- Based on the name and hype, I was expecting Hell Track to be more like The Running Man

- I thought the diner he worked at would sponsor him

- It's very rude that he rides his bike through other peoples' lawns, ruining their grass

- Everyone in the town lives a life so regimented that he can time his paper delivery down to the minute

- The parade they threw before the race was really boring, just a bunch of cars driving down the road

- Lori's dress at the dance was like some Klaus Nomi stuff

- $11 million budget and they couldn't stop cars from driving around in the background of shots?

- Movie presumes you only have one year to get into college and then you're out of luck forever

- All those last-minute rule changes would surely be illegal

[pscudese 701]

Jason sort of touched on the notion that the bikers do whatever they want during the course... but I am here to say that Cru is a no-good dirty cheat and should not be the champion of Hell Track!

 

PROOF #1: During the last qualifying match, there are three separate instances where Cru is the ONLY biker who ignores the course.

 

First time is during the downhill section where he is just riding down an unclear path and ends up taking out another competitor.

 

 

Then Cru jumps a corner cutting off a number of other bikers.

 

Finally, he veers off the sanctioned, dirt path to ride on hard concrete. Cru's cheating is so egregious, because riding on a harder material will surely give him an advantage. You even know it's not allowed for Cru must jump a barrier at the end to get back onto the official course.

 

 

 

PROOF #2: Obviously Cru shouldn't have qualified based on the evidence already provided, but he's even more obvious in the finals. When Cru was trying to make up some lost ground, he does a big backflip to illegally get ahead. It's obvious it's illegal for the announce calls it a "SHORTCUT!" Since when are shortcuts allowed in any kind of race? I mean for an event that has a thick-ass rule book, you'd think they would have some language about staying on the god damn course!

 

Cru... you are a low down dirty cheat!

 

That said, this movie is awesome and appreciated the call out from Paul at the opening of close of the episode.

 

Sincerely,

Pete the S-Man

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

Great episode, guys. I have heard about 'Rad' for a long time (nearly entirely thanks to Cameron H.) but only just got to see it last night. One quick addition to Jason's commentary about the 1980's obsession with twins, citing the Doublemint Twins and the Double Trouble twins as excellent examples. As the audience member mentioned, the twins in this movie, Carey and Chad Hayes, are successful screenwriters now, but in the '80's, their pre-'Rad' claim to fame was that they were... Doublemint Twins!

 

[samtrano 33]

First time is during the downhill section where he is just riding down an unclear path and ends up taking out another competitor.

Just wanted to bring attention to this because that actually looked like quite a dangerous stunt, the guy actually gets hit by another bike

[jimkiler 84]

In the beginning of this movie the boys are going on the paper route. Besides the issue of 1. the main character lands on a station wagon and the mom cannot tell the difference between obnoxious kids and a bike crashing on her hood (which would leave a dent!) 2. the fact that you can have a paper delivery sent to my boat. But to me the most disturbing thing is 3. the firefighters are getting a paper while on a call. If I lived in that town i would move ASAP. I can imagine the firefighters on scene of a house fire but not doing anything until they read the paper. Where are their priorities that a paper has to be obtained before going to a fire? Do they have to stop and get coffee on the way to the fire as well?

[ChunkStyle 1160]

They could have made this movie a hit with one simple change. Make it Paperboy: The Movie. I think there was enough connective material there already they wouldn't have had to change anything but the title. It would have made 10x at the box office because that game was the best.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperboy_(video_game)

 

Where was the Oscar nomination for Jack Weston? I was more creeped out by his town hall speech than anything Anthony Hopkins did as Hannibal Lector. And that happened before he was revealed as the villain of the movie.

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

They could have made this movie a hit with one simple change. Make it Paperboy: The Movie. I think there was enough connective material there already they wouldn't have had to change anything but the title.

Hell yes, the idea of a group of paperboys adapting their delivery skills to win the Murderhorn (or whatever the damn competition is called)? That's a movie I'm way more on board for. And while we're at it, make Lisa at least a little bit interested in Cru to set up a classic blinded-by-the-new-girl-but-realizing-you-love-the-hometown-girl set up. Link that in with Cru properly delivering Lisa's copy of USA Today, and you have a third act ready made!

[faye-raye 109]

Um, seems to be a problemo on the sight. Can't play this episode. Says it's unable to download.

[Chainsaw Starring Nic Cage 95]

 

 

I wish I had the artistic ability to make an 80's style tee of June riding a BMX Bike saying "Where Is The Motor?!"

[BuildaLibrary 6]

I watched the Vimeo copy and there's a moment where, thanks to a really terrible editing choice, I thought the movie was going to be WAY darker than it actually was.

 

When Cru gets called out to the car for his audience with Duke Best, he's excited and nervous. He gets in and Duke says, "How would you like to be responsible for bringing BMX to all of the small towns in the USA?"

 

It then immediately cuts away -- to a nothing scene with Bart Taylor's two groupies mocking a local store.

 

We cut back to the car. Cru is now mad and Duke Best is pleading, "You don't understand it's the chance of a lifetime!"

 

The movie doesn't explain what happened in the car AT ALL. Cru just angrily says, "You and me, we don't think the same, not at all" and runs out of the car - with Best calling after him, "You'll regret this!"

 

In the moment, I presumed that Duke Best had sexually propositioned Cru. "Hey, you can be my new Bart Taylor Jr. and work the small town circuit, if you'll submit to being my own personal BMX bandit."

 

It takes the movie another 3-4 minutes to explain that Duke only proposed that Cru should throw the race for money, but why keep that a secret? Why not show that scene? Because, instead, they just showed a young teen get into a car with an old man, cut away, and then came back to the young man saying "no, no, no, no, no."

 

WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO THINK?

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

Great ep. I was a big fan of this as a kid. I was a stupid kid.

 

I was also a fan of Gleaming the Cube. You guys should have done these back-to-back.

[grudlian. 4725]

My favorite part of this episode, besides getting to be in the live audience, was Paul calling the twins Xamot and Tomax. I saw part of this movie in college and that's what we called them.

 

They could have made this movie a hit with one simple change. Make it Paperboy: The Movie. I think there was enough connective material there already they wouldn't have had to change anything but the title. It would have made 10x at the box office because that game was the best.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperboy_(video_game)

 

Where was the Oscar nomination for Jack Weston? I was more creeped out by his town hall speech than anything Anthony Hopkins did as Hannibal Lector. And that happened before he was revealed as the villain of the movie.

 

A movie of Paperboy would be even crazier than Rad. The game has the literal grim reaper try stopping you from delivering newspapers. Can you imagine Cru getting stopped on the Hell Track by death himself?

[PollyDarton 1807]

A movie of Paperboy would be even crazier than Rad. The game has the literal grim reaper try stopping you from delivering newspapers. Can you imagine Cru getting stopped on the Hell Track by death himself?

 

I am ON BOARD with this Paperboy movie.

It seems like mid century to 80s pop culture would be rife with paperboy vignettes to pull from, but for some reason at this moment I can only think of the episode of King Of The Hill where Bobby and Dale share a paper route... and the kid from Better Off Dead.

 

Do paperboys actually exist anymore?

[PollyDarton 1807]

Jason mentions that the movie would be better off if they had switched the Helltrack sequence with the bike dancing sequence. The funny thing is that I saw this movie only once many years ago and that is exactly how I remember it happening. When the bike dancing scene showed up in the first half of the movie I was so confused because I would have sworn that it had been the climax. (An unrelated side that there may have been substances imbibed when watching this at that time... and this time, too.)

Since this is how I remembered it, I have to completely agree with Jason.

 

Also - I never saw this as a kid but I saw BMX Bandits a bunch. Is anyone else like that, they saw one but not the other?

[Cam Bert 8145]

So I'm going to assume that the cavalcade of BMX racers we get at the start of Hell Track were all actual professional BMXers at the time. Those were their actual names and their actual sponsors. However, I secretly wish this was completely untrue and it was the work of a frazzled writer who spent days coming up with fake names and going around Calgary looking for a guy who looks like a "Kevin Hull from Texas."

[Westing1992 17]

During the race, after Cru does his backflip, the announcer says, "Hulk Hogan, eat your heart out!". What does this mean? I don't think Hulk Hogan was particularly known for doing backflips.

[FUCK! 189]

This was so good I had to watch it twice.

 

Here's couple interesting trivia pieces from imdb: The cop was a pro wrestler and played for the Packers and the Lions. Bart was a 2 time olympic gold medalist in gymnastics.

 

This comment is brought to you by Mongoose, Coke, AT&T, 7-11, USA Today, Van's, and Corvette!

[tomspanks 9039]

This was so good I had to watch it twice.

 

Here's couple interesting trivia pieces from imdb: The cop was a pro wrestler and played for the Packers and the Lions. Bart was a 2 time olympic gold medalist in gymnastics.

 

This comment is brought to you by Mongoose, Coke, AT&T, 7-11, USA Today, Van's, and Corvette!

 

O. M. G. That’s how I know Bart. He’s the gymnast who married Nadia Comaneci.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

More on BMX Bandits from the GOD DAMN DIRECTOR, legendary Aussie B-movie craftsman Brian Trenchard-Smith:

[ElieB 238]

Ummm the episode isn't available for me on iTunes OR GooglePlaymusic. What's up with dat? I needs my Jason.

 

Edit: Seems to be back up. Crisis averted.

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

As a kid growing up in Australia, I GENUINELY loved 'BMX Bandits', and saw it on first release at the cinema. I watched it again last year and was astonished to see what I tolerated as a child.

 

 

Come for the BMX, stay for the fifteen year old Nicole Kidman.

 

This scene of the BMX Bandits on the waterslide was formative for me.

 

[Crummy Scrimmage 188]

I watched this movie for the first time last night with my 10-year-old son (who loved it, btw), and during the ass sliding scene, he said "what is that...a sewage pipe??" Then I listed to the pod and Jason said the exact same thing, haha. I just thought it was a drainage pipe, not necessarily for human waste.

 

I remember the commercials for this movie (coincidentally, I was also 10 at the time), and I was angry -- as a kid who said "rad" a lot -- that a movie had the audacity to co-opt that word. I was like, "that's MY word!" and had zero interest seeing the movie that ripped it off.

[ilovebacon 8]

When they talked about. Cru's age, they neglected to mention that he needed his mom's signature on the permission slip since he was still a minor. Definitely not 18.

[Crummy Scrimmage 188]

I can't get over how low the stakes are for Cru. It's initially set up like he has to make a life-altering decision between taking a chance on BMX racing or higher education. "Oh no! The qualifying race is on the same day as the SATs!" "Don't worry...you'll have a chance to take them again in six months." Aaaaaaand problem solved...like, a third of the way into the movie no less. The remainder of the movie presents other seemingly insurmountable random challenges that are just as easily erased, usually in the very next scene.

 

The town hall scenes were my favorite. So many townsfolk concerned about the feelings of local kids who don't seem to reciprocate the feeling at all. Why do they suddenly like Cru and his pals so much? Their feelings about them in the opening montage are mixed at best.