Joe Esposito

Also referred to as Joe Estadito

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The Karate Kid The Rewatchables March 26, 2020

The Karate Kid

Most Rewatchable Scene

'You're the Best' tournament montage; soccer tryout scene

In the discussion (24)

Approx. transcript time · 00:29:24Read transcript

The first beach fight opens the list; nobody knows how the moped gang got to a beach at least 40 minutes from where they live, or who rides mopeds on the beach. — Bill Simmons
Daniel's soccer juggling on the beach is presented as forward-thinking but is basic stuff; Johnny smashes Ali's radio with uncomfortable, unexplored O.J.-Nicole vibes, and none of her friends stand up for her. — Bill Simmons
Daniel lands one cheap-shot punch before being finished off, and Freddy and his friends immediately drop him. — Bill Simmons
Starting to work out took a lot longer than age eight; the movie's first scene has Daniel boasting he can teach Freddy karate, and it is unclear whether the film wants viewers to think he can hang with Johnny or is just laying a foundation so his tournament rise is less absurd. — Ryen Russillo
Johnny's red jacket is dated to a nine-month fad; the beach is Elisabeth Shue's first scene, and she belongs on a Mount Rushmore of 80s movie crushes with Kelly Preston and Apollonia, and she is said to have later won an Oscar. — Bill Simmons
The Halloween fight: Daniel hoses Johnny while he rolls a joint wearing a Walkman, is too slow to escape over the fence, and gets run down to the 'Danger' song; 'I'll decide when he's had enough' is called one of the best lines ever. — Bill Simmons
Miyagi 'goes hero ball' like Kobe in 2006; the double punch and the tummy-slap finish on Johnny are questioned as unrealistic, though Zabka's footwork is praised. — Ryen Russillo
The hosts cite a Sports Illustrated oral history in which Macchio says the scene was filmed at 4 a.m. and Zabka, meant to fake a roundhouse, really hit him in the jaw; Zabka says Macchio leaned into it. — Bill Simmons
The episode exists partly because a son demanded it after re-bingeing Cobra Kai; they watched the movie on day two of the quarantine. — Bill Simmons
In Miyagi's visit to the Cobra Kai dojo, a background student does knuckle push-ups through every take; the favorite line is 'no one touches the prima donna until after the tournament.' — Bill Simmons
The hosts point out Andrew Shue, Elisabeth Shue's brother from Melrose Place, as an unheard Cobra Kai in the scene, along with Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds, whose toughness is hard to believe. — Ryen Russillo
The Kreese actor reportedly stayed in character on set, and he was not one of only three real black belts in the movie. — Ryen Russillo
The All Valley Karate Championships poster is visible; reproductions are on eBay, but only an original would be worth buying. — Bill Simmons
After roughly ten minutes of Daniel remodeling Miyagi's house, the wax-on/wax-off confrontation reveals the chores were karate training; it is ridiculous but still enjoyable, and kids said 'wax on, wax off' to each other for years. — Ryen Russillo
The country club scene is not a top-five scene: it is unclear why Ali would date Daniel, her parents are an extreme cliché, and a whole dining room laughing at the spaghetti collision is called absurd. — Bill Simmons
A scene said to have been cut had Daniel sit on blueberry pie; the spaghetti coverage looks painted on. — Ryen Russillo
Daniel's unfunny flirting is compared with Serpico's painful dating phase; the couple is said to have fought like hell for each other. — Ryen Russillo
The training montage on the pier and the boat, with its music, is praised as high-level for the mid-1980s. — Bill Simmons
The declared pick is the tournament montage that kicks into Joe Esposito's 'You're the Best'; it is ranked with the opening of Rocky 3 (Eye of the Tiger) as the best movie music montage, and it is on-sight viewing whenever it airs. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say 'You're the Best' was originally meant for Rocky 3 and was also in play for Flashdance; the tournament was shot with about six cameras like live theater, with a real crowd, and Zabka's mother was upset by the booing. — Ryen Russillo
The referee Pat Johnson, described as a real black belt, brings authentic intensity; the hosts say the tournament was staged as a real event at Cal State Northridge's arena with 500 to 1,000 spectators and a couple hundred competitors. — Ryen Russillo
An alternative is the whole last stretch, from Daniel asking Miyagi to fix his leg through 'sweep the leg', 'get him a body bag', the crane kick and the trophy presentation. — Bill Simmons
Asked for a pick between the two or something else, the answer is the soccer tryout where Daniel is thrown off the team; the slide tackle was vicious, Daniel was right to punch back, and the coach just did not like him. — Bill Simmons
The segment ends with 'You're the Best' named as most rewatchable. — Bill Simmons

Bloodsport The Rewatchables August 9, 2019

Bloodsport

Donald Gibb as Ogre; Janice Kent and the free press; the fight scenes; Chong Li's nose-blowing, steroid physique, 'I break you' line and celebrations; Van Damme's terrible acting; the arena; Stan Bush's 'Fight to Survive'; young Frank's Giants gear; the first underground walk to the Kumite; the name Kumite; the tournament structure; Chong Li overall

In the discussion (13)

Approx. transcript time · 00:39:33Read transcript

Donald Gibb as Ogre: his trilogy ran Revenge of the Nerds, First and Ten (the HBO football series with O.J. Simpson) and Bloodsport, a nice five-year run; he is the perfect sidekick with no turn coming, Jean-Claude's buddy through and through; the hosts joke the intro left out that Chong Li has done more steroids than everyone in Hong Kong combined.
Janice Kent and the importance of a free press: she hears whispers, goes undercover for the Atlantic, cracks a centuries-old event never written about, gets in the room, talks to five fighters, and pulls out her recorder in the front row where everyone will notice.
Chong Li details that aged beautifully and disgustingly: blowing boogers out of his nose about seven times, the late-eighties steroid body nobody has anymore with a chest like a love seat, 'break my record, now I break you' as a yearbook quote, and celebrations that one host finds creepy and dorky while another calls them the scariest thing possible since he cannot raise his arms over his head; his unreadable, smiling-but-furious savagery with a weird daintiness makes him scary, a riff imagines him at home with a wife and kids, glasses on, saying he got carried away and killed a guy again, which lands as both funny and unwanted since seeing him clothed in the reflection is odd, and Brock Lesnar stole the pec flexes from him.
Van Damme's terrible acting has aged best for one host because it is so bad; the director seemingly cared only about the fighting and treated dialogue as a hindrance, which the others concede was the smart play, and Van Damme was decent seven years later.
The arena is the perfect fight arena: a sandy floor you fall into, nothing to change, and alligators around the pit rejected as too far and too much upkeep.
Asked whether he would change the arena, it is called kind of perfect; the Kowloon walled city in Hong Kong, since knocked down, fascinates as a structure, and a secret fighting arena inside it is cool. — Jason Concepcion
The arena is the right size, maybe 400 seats, smaller than a middle-school gym with the crowd close; the hosts would pay $249 for a UFC or Bellator pay-per-view called Kumite with 400 fans, lots of cameras and a dirt floor.
Stan Bush, who wrote 'Fight to Survive', is the Joe Esposito of the late eighties; young Frank with his bad French accent wears a number 55 Giants football jersey and a San Francisco Giants hat, rooting for two Giants teams in two cities; a kid in the bullying flashback wears a Bartles and James (as transcribed) shirt, and the hosts wonder whether the boys knew they were going in for the sword.
Comparing the first underground walk to the Kumite with the Scorsese one-shot nightclub walk in Goodfellas, they are very close, 1A and 1B, with Scorsese edging it on camera work. — Jason Concepcion
The Goodfellas shot goes on continuously, but the Kumite walk brings you into a world you would never have access to; Kumite is called a great, incredible name, just the best.
The tournament-movie structure is added as aged best: any movie with a tournament and a board where names advance works because little needs explaining; this leads to a proposed Ringer MMA tournament where Rusillo is floated and Brian Curtis, with hands like football helmets, a Texan who has been in brawls, is called the secretly strongest man at the Ringer.
Tournament movies listed: Bloodsport, Undisputed, Karate Kid, Warrior, Best of the Best (a cumulative tournament), Enter the Dragon, Never Back Down, Mortal Kombat and The Quest, basically Bloodsport 2; the late-eighties video-game wave shaped them; the Best of the Best hero not finishing his opponent makes sense now because Daehan returns in Best of the Best 2.
Chong Li is the overall pick for aged best: 31 years later the hosts are still in awe of what they created, with every part of him interesting; his celebration, Tom Hardy's character leaving the ring immediately in Warrior, and Daniel LaRusso's confused look at his support group are called the three best post-fight celebrations.

Bloodsport The Rewatchables August 9, 2019

Bloodsport

Most Rewatchable Scene

Chong Li killing a guy; the final fight; Chong Li's introduction before his first fight

In the discussion (16)

Approx. transcript time · 00:16:16Read transcript

The opening credits are loved: the music sets it up, Bolo Young (as transcribed) as Chong Li gets the last-billed credit shine while kicking giant ice blocks (how long does an ice block take to prepare and hang?), there is a terrible cut to the tree-chopping coconuts, a monkey-style fighter does MMA in front of torch-holding island natives, Ogre as Ray Jackson hears you can get killed in the Kumite, and a giant smiling bear-hug guy breaks a man's back over his knee; it is called powerful storytelling that introduces every piece before the arena is readied.
Young JVD training blindfolded and the rope device, written down as a 'rope Jesus cross', are rewatchable; the real Frank Deuce (as transcribed) said the drawn-and-quartered device was real and used on him; the hosts wonder what it would do to a normal person, note the film implies children were forced into splits, and that Kickboxer does the same thing lying down; the mentor is borrowed from seven other movies including Enter the Dragon.
The small scene where JVD honors his invitation by breaking the bottom brick of a five-brick stack is a favorite 'show how cool this guy is' moment; Ray Jackson reacts like he unwrapped a plasma TV, Chong Li is not impressed, the low-angle shot of Van Damme's gigantic eyes convinces one host he really did it, and 'brick not hit back' is recalled; nobody can explain the physics beyond a transfer of energy.
Asked to compare Van Damme breaking the brick to Eleven from Stranger Things moving things, the answer is that Van Damme is far more impressive because the power is embodied in him, with no cutting-edge science experiments or interdimensional forces. — Jason Concepcion
Eleven is said to have had multi-billion-dollar weapons-program help while Van Damme is all him; the hosts skip past the fact that he hit the top brick yet only the bottom one broke, do a Stranger Things impression, and wonder why Eleven cannot telekinetically hold her nosebleed in or carry a handkerchief.
The first-round fight montage is almost unfair to call rewatchable: a council of officials whose link to the Black Dragon Fighting Society is unclear, the ring that bends down, six minutes of fights, and Ray Jackson winning his first bout then taunting Chong Li, which one host calls a tactical error (finish the job) and another defends as setting the tone since Chong Li talked trash first after the brick; it presages the Mountain and the Viper from Game of Thrones.
Whether Ray Jackson should have been named Ray Jackson is debated: he seems to be from a mountain state like Wyoming, 'Sully' is rejected as not strong enough, and he does no MMA moves, just brute strength; JVD's 12-second knockout gets Ray's 'first round of Kumite, broke the world record' line; the song 'Fight to Survive' is rated behind 'You're the Best' by Joe Esposito.
The later-round montage: Chong Li crushes Swan Paredes, Jao Gomez (as transcribed) does a slow-motion throat slit and is beaten in about five seconds and kicked off the mat; the hosts ask how anyone keeps time with no clock or stopwatch, and how 12.2 reaches the scoreboard faster than Fenway Park posts runs.
The smiling bear-hug guy beats the crawling fighter, who makes the mistake of closing the distance, and JVD's revenge is called probably the second-best fight in the film: the slow-motion stomach punch, the shake-off, then the finish; the hosts joke there was no CGI, he really hit him, and imagine the one-take set conversation; the giant's name is Pumala.
Chong Li versus Ray Jackson is tough to watch, like Goose dying in Top Gun; celebrating was a terrible idea when one shove would have pushed Chong Li off the edge, and the shouted 'he's dead' is enjoyed; Van Damme's 'No, no!' while held back by a 5'7" man after punching through five bricks is called the Oscar reel; Ray looks murdered Apollo Creed style, and the earlier brick-with-the-head scene foreshadows his hard skull.
Semifinal gambling lines: Chong Li about a minus-600 favorite, both finalists massive favorites with the top three fastest knockouts in Kumite history; Dukes versus Paco is a wonderful fight, with Paco's Muay Thai leg-revving compared to Vince Carter starting a motorcycle and a dancing vibe in the shoulders; one host says Paco is the guy he pretended to be with his sisters.
Chong Li killing a guy: the silent ref's disgust is praised, there appear to be no rules beyond quitting and falling off the stage, the crowd and council turn their backs; Chong Li ratchets it up every fight with Dukes the final target, is a Darth Vader figure on screen about seven minutes who casts a shadow over the film, like how WWE uses Brock Lesnar; 'you are next' may be dubbed, as every line of his might be.
In the final, the blinding powder is guessed to be a salt pill and whether he went fully blind is debated; the slow-motion freak-out is the moment Van Damme might figure out acting, a pure emotional beat of a man cheated like Tim Duncan in Game 6 of 2013; nobody official saw the cheat; the slow-motion is good for an era that had not figured it out, probably the most expensive day with one special Hong Kong camera.
The comeback is one of the better sports-movie comebacks; the hospital scene with Ray's comical bloody bandage, the Harley-Davidson bandana returned, 'anytime, anyplace, anywhere,' the lady friend near tears and 'I love you, my friend' is a genuine moment in one of the worst-acted movies of the eighties, more emotional than anything Steven Seagal did; the hosts wonder what the set was like when they suddenly turned into De Niro and Pacino in Heat.
The three picks: one host's favorite scene is the hospital but his most rewatchable is Chong Li killing a guy; another goes with any of the fight montages, effectively a five-way tie, and settles on the final fight as iconic; the movie knows what people want, quick backstory, the different fighting styles, Van Damme in a Speedo.
Going a different way from both others, the pick is the introduction of Chong Li for his first fight: his name on the cards, the bad-guy sound, him rising from his seat while Victor Lin downloads his stats to Van Damme, never defeated, fastest kill, a man kicked in the throat who died on the platform; the scene sticks the landing on every part, and a good character introduction is loved more than anything else in this kind of movie. — Shea Serrano

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