Ep. 31 - VS! vol. 1 Armageddon vs. Deep Impact

This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] J.J.: Welcome back to the show. Today my guest is...

[0:04] Olaf: Question for you.

[0:06] J.J.: Yes.

[0:07] Olaf: Have you ever been in a fight?

[0:09] J.J.: A fist fight?

[0:11] Olaf: Yeah, a physical fight.

[0:13] J.J.: I've never been in a physical altercation.

[0:16] Olaf: I've seen you in all the years that I've known you. I've seen you frustrated. I've seen you annoyed. I think I've only maybe seen you angry once that I can recall.

[0:27] J.J.: I'd like to think that I let a lot of things roll off my back. I don't let things bother me. When I do get upset, historically in my life, people think I'm not mad.

[0:38] Olaf: They're like, oh, you're getting angry.

[0:41] J.J.: And when I'm upset, it takes a lot for me to get there.

[0:45] Olaf: They think you're kidding.

[0:47] J.J.: Yeah, they don't believe that I'm actually angry.

[0:49] Olaf: It's because you're just so sarcastic all the time.

[0:54] J.J.: So they're like, ah, he's just being sarcastic. Classic J.J. I feel like there have been times in my life where I've talked myself out of getting into a physical fight. Somebody may have wanted to throw hands, and I was able to talk my way out of it.

[1:10] Olaf: Okay, that also wouldn't surprise me.

[1:12] J.J.: But I also feel because of my stature, a lot of people don't find me threatening, rightly so. You know what I mean?

[1:20] Olaf: As people know me, I'm 5'5", maybe 140. I think people see me as a non-threat, which I'm totally okay with.

[1:28] J.J.: Yeah, it's like somebody just made him in Build-A-Bear.

[1:34] Olaf: But they also underestimate me, too, because I feel I'm scrappy.

[1:38] J.J.: I have to be scrappy.

[1:39] Olaf: But you've never actually had to scrap.

[1:41] J.J.: No, I've never been in a—

[1:43] Olaf: Yeah, I never knew that about you, whether or not you'd actually been in a fight.

[1:47] J.J.: Well, speaking of fighting, we've got a brand new series of episodes coming at you right now. So let's get back to the movie theater, where we're going to talk versus.

[2:02] Olaf: We're talking combat.

[2:21] J.J.: We're talking fights. We're talking this versus that.

[2:24] Olaf: Right.

[2:25] J.J.: In this, we're going to be discussing movies with similar plots that came out around the same time. We're going to talk about originals versus remakes. There's so many instances in Hollywood, in the history of film, where you can take two movies and put them together because of whatever reason.

[2:45] Olaf: It's a remake.

[2:46] J.J.: It's the same movie under a different title, whatever. So welcome to our new episode, Versus.

[2:55] Olaf: And for our first edition—

[2:57] J.J.: I think this is a classic.

[2:59] Olaf: Oh, I think when people think about this particular type of topic, these two movies, I feel, are the first thing that people think of.

[3:06] J.J.: Yeah.

[3:07] Olaf: And those two movies are Deep Impact versus Armageddon.

[3:12] J.J.: That's right. These two movies, all about asteroids and people in space and landing on them and blowing things up and trying to save the world from imminent destruction.

[3:22] Olaf: That's right. Came out in the same year, two months apart.

[3:26] J.J.: And so we are going to sit here, and we're going to see who did it better. We're going to go through both movies together, comparing key parts.

[3:35] Olaf: And then we'll decide in each individual part who comes out on top and then put all those results together to decide who the ultimate winner is.

[3:45] J.J.: It's almost safe to say that there may very well be a clear winner. These movies are both over 25 years old. So it's been a lot of time for people to establish their own opinions on both of these movies and have a particular preference.

[3:59] Olaf: But we are going to do a lot of the footwork here and really break down which movie edges out the other.

[4:06] J.J.: We're going to try to play fair.

[4:07] Olaf: We will. Try to be objective.

[4:08] J.J.: And then at the end, we can make our final decisions on what we prefer.

[4:12] Olaf: All right. I like it. I'm excited. So welcome to Versus.

[4:23] J.J.: All right, guys. So as we said, we are battling it out between Armageddon and Deep Impact. And we're going to start right at the top with the Rotten Tomatoes score.

[4:35] Olaf: That's right.

[4:47] J.J.: So Armageddon has a Rotten Tomato of 43 percent, which I was kind of surprised when I saw that. But I guess it makes sense. I don't know if people are going in and after rewatch and updating that. I think that's probably the original Rotten Tomatoes score. The audience score is 73 percent.

[5:05] Olaf: For what it is, I think that doesn't surprise me.

[5:07] J.J.: Yeah. And then it also came out in 1998. So did Deep Impact. Armageddon came out July 1st. Deep Impact came out May 8th.

[5:17] Olaf: Right.

[5:18] J.J.: Deep Impact's Rotten Tomatoes score, 45 percent.

[5:22] Olaf: So slightly higher.

[5:23] J.J.: Yeah. Slightly higher than Armageddon.

[5:25] Olaf: Slightly higher.

[5:26] J.J.: Audience score, 43 percent.

[5:29] Olaf: Drastically lower.

[5:31] J.J.: Yeah. So in this category, we're looking at the Rotten Tomato audience score and release date. So clearly just by the numbers, the critics seem to favor Deep Impact, but not by much.

[5:45] Olaf: Not by much.

[5:46] J.J.: And then the audience overwhelmingly picks Armageddon.

[5:50] Olaf: Yeah.

[5:51] J.J.: But here's where Armageddon takes this category. They release it on 4th of July weekend. And as we go through the movie, the fact that they released it on July 1st, screams America, screams we're going to win at whatever we're battling here.

[6:09] Olaf: Versus Deep Impact's May 8th, we're going to be the first summer release of the summer. We're going to show off some brand new technology, simulating a giant wave. But we also need to come out at least two months earlier, because if we come out afterwards, nobody's going to watch.

[6:28] J.J.: All right. So based on the numbers, not your feelings, based on the numbers, I'm going to say Armageddon takes this.

[6:35] Olaf: Absolutely.

[6:36] J.J.: Armageddon.

[6:37] Olaf: Yeah.

[6:38] J.J.: I mean, the audience score alone. The Rotten Tomatoes scores are just practically a tie. There's like a 2 percent difference. But then the audience score, 30 percent difference between the two.

[6:47] Olaf: That's substantial.

[6:49] J.J.: That's huge. All right. So Armageddon takes that one. Next up we have the run time.

[6:55] Olaf: Now the run time for this, Armageddon, two hours, 30 minutes, two and a half hours. Deep Impact, two hours.

[7:03] J.J.: Right at two.

[7:04] Olaf: Right at two hours.

[7:05] J.J.: Personal feeling?

[7:07] Olaf: That movie's three hours long.

[7:09] J.J.: Deep Impact.

[7:10] Olaf: It feels like it.

[7:12] J.J.: So in Deep Impact, the first at the hour mark, the halfway mark, the mission has already failed to destroy the comet, the asteroid, whatever it is that's in Deep Impact.

[7:24] Olaf: Well, one of the missions to destroy the comet. They try several times.

[7:27] J.J.: An hour into Armageddon, they're not even in space yet. But it doesn't matter because for whatever reason, the pacing of Armageddon, it just feels like it's just moving right along.

[7:39] Olaf: Yeah, it moves.

[7:40] J.J.: It drags in any way. It's two and a half hours, feels like two. Deep Impact is two hours, feels like three.

[7:46] Olaf: So who wins this round?

[7:48] J.J.: If we're just going off the numbers, it would probably be Deep Impact because it's a shorter movie. The length in terms of shortness shouldn't be the deciding factor because if it's two hours but it feels like three, then it's almost like you're on the machine in Princess Bride where you've had one year of your life sucked away, whereas with Armageddon, you just want to keep watching.

[8:08] Olaf: I don't feel sitting through Armageddon like I need to do something else.

[8:13] J.J.: Okay. So we're saying Armageddon wins this round.

[8:17] Olaf: Yes.

[8:18] J.J.: I wasn't sure. That could have been an opportunity for Impact to tie it up. Now, here's the thing. I'm going to do my best here because there's one or two categories where I'm going to try. We're going to make it a little competitive, a little interesting here for Deep Impact.

[8:35] Olaf: Yeah, we're not trying to pick favorites here.

[8:37] J.J.: No.

[8:38] Olaf: We're trying to be scientific.

[8:40] J.J.: And factual.

[8:41] Olaf: And factual. So that brings us to the next category, directors.

[8:46] J.J.: Armageddon, we've got Michael Bay.

[8:49] Olaf: We all know Michael Bay, Transformers.

[8:52] J.J.: Bad Boys.

[8:53] Olaf: Bad Boys. I mean, the list goes on and on and on.

[8:57] J.J.: Deep Impact, we have Mimi Leder or Leder.

[9:01] Olaf: I think it's Leder. The only real movie she's made other than Deep Impact was—

[9:05] J.J.: Up to this point, yeah.

[9:06] Olaf: Peacemaker starring George Clooney, which was not well received. But she's done a lot of television.

[9:12] J.J.: Right.

[9:13] Olaf: ER, I believe.

[9:14] J.J.: She did direct a lot of ER, I think. She's done so many different TV shows.

[9:17] Olaf: But Up to this point, you're right. Peacemaker was her big film.

[9:22] J.J.: I think Up to this point, Bad Boys was the only film Michael Bay had directed.

[9:26] Olaf: Yeah, this was very early on for Michael Bay.

[9:29] J.J.: Okay, so when we're pitting these two directors together, you have to think of what the objective of the filmmaker, the story they're trying to tell.

[9:38] Olaf: Okay.

[9:39] J.J.: So Armageddon absolutely is a Michael Bay stamp. Boom.

[9:44] Olaf: Yeah.

[9:45] J.J.: It's unmistakable. This is a Michael Bay film, unapologetically. And this is also his first big budget. I mean, I think they just sort of said, here's a check, because Bad Boys was this screaming success. Now we're going to give you a lot more money, and here you go.

[10:00] Olaf: I feel like Mimi Leder, comparatively speaking, almost feels like this sort of indie film trying to be a big blockbuster.

[10:07] J.J.: So I almost want to give her a slight edge, just because of the story she's trying to tell. She's not trying to tell an Armageddon. Whether she was successful at executing everything she wanted to do, probably.

[10:20] Olaf: So you want to give this point to Deep Impact?

[10:23] J.J.: It's like barely. And it's not a sympathetic vote. I just feel like Michael Bay could have produced this movie, too, and somebody else could have directed Armageddon.

[10:34] Olaf: Okay.

[10:35] J.J.: So the way I look at it is, what have these directors in film, what have they accomplished?

[10:41] Olaf: After this?

[10:42] J.J.: In their career.

[10:44] Olaf: Okay.

[10:45] J.J.: And I would say, as far as film goes, Michael Bay is the clear winner. Mimi has not done a lot of film work. She's mostly television.

[10:54] Olaf: So he would have the edge as far as a movie goes.

[10:57] J.J.: But if you're going to compare these two films, because that's what we're doing, we're putting these films together, my edge goes to her based on what she did with Deep Impact versus what he did with Armageddon.

[11:08] Olaf: Okay.

[11:09] J.J.: It's very edging out. Deep Impact, they're on the board. They win this round.

[11:13] Olaf: All right. Next up, this one's going to be tough.

[11:19] J.J.: I think this is going to be tough.

[11:21] Olaf: I agree. The next one, the cast. Now, Armageddon, the main cast or the majority of the cast is Bruce Willis, huge star. Billy Bob Thornton, huge star. Ben Affleck, huge star. Liv Tyler, huge star. Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clark Duncan, Peter Stormore, Ken Hudson-Campbell, Keith David, Jason Isaacs.

[12:02] J.J.: Yeah. I mean, no, it's a stacked cast. And these are, I mean, obviously, is sort of spread out in various types of lead, to supportive, to minor, but still very important.

[12:12] Olaf: But all very recognizable. I'll let you go rattle off Deep Impact and then we'll...

[12:16] J.J.: All right. Get a snack, everybody. There's so many people in this movie.

[12:46] J.J.: They both are loaded with star power and then does it just come down to which cast is bigger to overpower?

[12:53] Olaf: I think it's more about what they're being, what these characters and actors are being asked to do.

[12:58] J.J.: Sure. Deep Impact is a stacked loaded cast filled with more stars at the time than Armageddon.

[13:05] Olaf: Yeah, Armageddon, well, not everybody, but a decent amount were up and coming.

[13:11] J.J.: Bruce Willis is your main actor. He's your top of the poster guy, of course.

[13:18] Olaf: Other than that, Billy Bob Thornton and Ben Affleck were, not that they hadn't done stuff, they're your two Academy Award winners of this movie, both for screenwriting, not for acting.

[13:30] J.J.: You got Steve Buscemi.

[13:32] Olaf: Right, character actor. He's not headlining this thing.

[13:35] J.J.: Liv Tyler, a couple of things. Will Patton, amazing character actor at this point, but Bruce Willis is your ticket, your big ticket, versus Robert Duvall and Morgan Freeman.

[13:45] Olaf: Huge.

[13:46] J.J.: And both huge. Jon Favreau, like Ben Affleck, are coming off of their independent swingers in Armageddon and Good Will Hunting.

[13:55] Olaf: T.L. Leone coming off of Bad Boys.

[13:58] J.J.: Elijah Wood. So my edge here goes to Deep Impact off of sheer star power.

[14:04] Olaf: They have more Academy Award winners. There's my other caveat.

[14:07] J.J.: Duvall, Morgan Freeman, and Vanessa Redgrave.

[14:12] Olaf: So, I mean, if we're taking it as time of release, yes, Deep Impact is the winner.

[14:18] J.J.: If we're talking about just overall time, I would say Armageddon wins it.

[14:22] Olaf: Yes, because Owen Wilson, again, like Ben Affleck and Jon Favreau, got this movie because of Bottle Rocket. He hadn't broken out yet, but this was a nice, and Michael Clarke Duncan hadn't broken out yet. This movie helped them do that.

[14:38] J.J.: Yeah, this launched some careers.

[14:39] Olaf: Right. Deep Impact didn't launch anybody's career.

[14:42] J.J.: It tried to launch Lili Sobieski's career.

[14:44] Olaf: Dougray Scott, I forgot he was in it.

[14:47] J.J.: I mean, he has two lines, three scenes.

[14:51] Olaf: Two to three lines. And yeah, he's only in like three scenes.

[14:55] J.J.: He shows up on the doc, James Cromwell's doc with T.L. Leone with a camera in his hand. I'm like, is that Dougray Scott?

[15:01] Olaf: Yeah.

[15:01] J.J.: Yeah, I think we need to give this one to Deep Impact. It is so neck and neck in this category.

[15:09] Olaf: It is so close, but I think the edge goes to Deep Impact.

[15:14] J.J.: Yeah, and I love how the wins that Armageddon has gotten so far are blowouts.

[15:18] Olaf: Deep Impact is winning at the buzzer.

[15:20] J.J.: Just barely.

[15:22] Olaf: They're winning on a judge's ruling.

[15:25] J.J.: They hear the bell, ding, ding, ding, and they're like, oh my God.

[15:28] Olaf: Oh, goodness.

[15:29] J.J.: Quick, run to the locker room.

[15:31] Olaf: Yeah.

[15:31] J.J.: Get in the car.

[15:33] Olaf: Yeah, they're basically Rocky.

[15:35] J.J.: Yeah, so it's an edge out. Well, that means that we are currently tied in this battle of the best asteroid movie.

[15:46] Olaf: All right, so the next category, I think this might be also a bit of a hard decision.

[15:52] J.J.: I don't, not for me.

[15:53] Olaf: Yeah, you think?

[15:54] J.J.: Yeah.

[15:54] Olaf: Music.

[15:56] J.J.: Both films have a composer.

[15:58] Olaf: Armageddon's composer is Trevor Rabin.

[16:02] J.J.: He's most notable for Deep Blue Sea and National Treasure.

[16:06] Olaf: And I think he does a lot of Michael Bay.

[16:08] J.J.: Doesn't he do a handful of Michael Bay or-

[16:10] Olaf: I'd have to double check, but he's definitely done other films.

[16:14] J.J.: And then Deep Impact, you have James Horner.

[16:19] Olaf: One of the kings of movie composing.

[16:23] J.J.: I mean, wow.

[16:24] Olaf: He's done Aliens, Titanic, the list goes on and on.

[16:28] J.J.: The list goes on.

[16:29] Olaf: Yeah, Glory, Braveheart, Apollo 13.

[16:32] J.J.: Yeah.

[16:32] Olaf: Now, I will argue that there's another hidden composer in the Armageddon film in the name of Aerosmith.

[16:38] J.J.: They didn't compose anything.

[16:45] Olaf: I mean-

[16:45] J.J.: Yeah, I know.

[16:46] Olaf: They added two of their songs that became monster hits.

[16:52] J.J.: You couldn't go anywhere without hearing these songs because of this movie.

[16:56] Olaf: My pick for this is helped out by the soundtrack. Not the score soundtrack, but the Aerosmith soundtrack with ZZ Top.

[17:06] J.J.: Shantel Kriviazhik does a version of Leaving on a Jet Plane.

[17:10] Olaf: So the soundtrack in and of itself helps. But even without it, if you were to listen to Trevor Rabin's score of Armageddon-

[17:19] J.J.: Yeah.

[17:20] Olaf: And then listen to Deep Impact's score, James Horner's score, you'd know that that's Armageddon.

[17:26] J.J.: You wouldn't know that that's Deep Impact.

[17:27] Olaf: And it's not a fault of James Horner, but it's not one of his memorable scores, even though he takes a lot of his own themes like most of his grunts do.

[17:36] J.J.: I would agree.

[17:37] Olaf: It pains me to vote against James Horner, just the master of his craft.

[17:43] J.J.: He is.

[17:43] Olaf: But if we're just going off of composers, Trevor Rabin scores a film that brings emotion, brings tension, brings urgency.

[17:53] J.J.: It really fills out the movie.

[17:56] Olaf: And I feel like this score is probably his most recognizable.

[18:00] J.J.: Maybe.

[18:00] Olaf: Like if you played this, you'd be like, that's Armageddon.

[18:02] J.J.: Yeah.

[18:03] Olaf: But then James Horner, as much as I love him, it is kind of a generic.

[18:09] J.J.: Yeah.

[18:10] Olaf: And sometimes I felt like the themes didn't quite fit what was going on.

[18:14] J.J.: Right.

[18:15] Olaf: Like it was weird. It felt like a lot of times the scenes were like serious and sad, but the music had more of a uplifting, hopeful sound to it.

[18:25] J.J.: I don't know trying to if he was trying to cheer us up because.

[18:29] Olaf: And there are certain sections of his score in the movie that just sounded like Apollo 13.

[18:33] J.J.: No shade on Horner. I love him, too.

[18:34] Olaf: But in this particular case, Trevor Rabin, it wasn't even a question.

[18:40] J.J.: Now, yes, the arrows don't want to miss a thing. Get out of here, like, please.

[18:45] Olaf: Huge.

[18:46] J.J.: So I think it's kind of, I thought maybe it'd be more of a close call.

[18:51] Olaf: But yeah, it is more obvious.

[18:53] J.J.: Armageddon strikes again.

[18:55] Olaf: Yeah.

[18:56] J.J.: Taking the lead on that one. Alright, so the next two categories are kind of combined.

[19:15] Olaf: Or three, but sure.

[19:16] J.J.: Yeah, that's true. The next three.

[19:17] Olaf: So we're talking budget, total world box office and overall profit.

[19:22] J.J.: So let's start with the budgets. Armageddon had a budget of $140 million estimated.

[19:29] Olaf: Probably more, but okay.

[19:30] J.J.: Yeah. Deep Impact had an estimated budget of $75 million, which is half.

[19:37] Olaf: Right.

[19:37] J.J.: And you can see it.

[19:39] Olaf: You really can.

[19:40] J.J.: You can see it in the final product. And I think most of that budget went into trying to create a believable title wave.

[19:47] Olaf: For Deep Impact.

[19:48] J.J.: For Armageddon, they spend the last hour and 20 in space. I think, honestly, in every frame of the entire movie, you see the budget.

[19:57] Olaf: I mean, the sets, the locations.

[20:01] J.J.: Those two things. But if I'm not mistaken, Deep Impact never mentions NASA in their movie at all.

[20:08] Olaf: It's welcome to Houston.

[20:10] J.J.: That's it.

[20:11] Olaf: Yeah, that's right. Where Armageddon, clearly, it's plastered all over the place.

[20:16] J.J.: Well, they're at NASA. They're there. They're celebrating NASA.

[20:19] Olaf: They're like...

[20:20] J.J.: Right. Where Deep Impact, I don't think has their name on this movie at all.

[20:24] Olaf: Yeah, you might be right.

[20:26] J.J.: Total world box office. Armageddon, after a budget of $140 estimated, earned $553,712,773 worldwide.

[20:40] Olaf: U.S. Global box office.

[20:42] J.J.: Deep Impact, $349,464,664.

[20:52] Olaf: So the difference is about $204 million between the two.

[20:58] J.J.: So then we get to the profit. So with an estimated $140 million, I round up to $554 million world box office. They roughly made $414 million in profit.

[21:13] Olaf: Armageddon.

[21:15] J.J.: Deep Impact roughly made $275 million.

[21:20] Olaf: Just by the numbers, I think you have to give that to Armageddon.

[21:23] J.J.: Well, you do. And again, Armageddon had also extra days too.

[21:27] Olaf: Not only that, they had a longer weekend to release it. I mean, maybe if I ever look at the calendar, maybe Deep Impact got released on a Wednesday too.

[21:34] J.J.: I doubt it.

[21:35] Olaf: It probably got released on a Friday. But just the staying power. People went back to go see it again and again.

[21:41] J.J.: Now, I tell you, Deep Impact did really well.

[21:45] Olaf: It did.

[21:46] J.J.: I mean, $75 million budget, and you come out with $275 million profit.

[21:52] Olaf: No, I agree. It did well.

[21:54] J.J.: But if you're going to versus, we're versus here.

[21:58] Olaf: So I'm going to combine all three of those categories into one point.

[22:02] J.J.: Yeah, that's Armageddon.

[22:03] Olaf: Yeah.

[22:04] J.J.: So Armageddon takes it. So they're pulling ahead again.

[22:07] Olaf: Oh, yeah. Now we get to the tempo of the movies.

[22:11] J.J.: We've already kind of talked about this. For the tempo, Armageddon gets straight to it.

[22:17] Olaf: We get a brief little narration, and then the movie starts.

[22:22] J.J.: Things start exploding everywhere.

[22:24] Olaf: We're already getting hit by meteors, and New York is getting ravaged.

[22:29] J.J.: And the tempo just goes and goes from there. It doesn't really let up.

[22:34] Olaf: No.

[22:34] J.J.: Deep Impact, the best way I can explain the tempo would be that of a sloth.

[22:42] Olaf: It opens on a class astronomy club that sees a thing.

[22:47] J.J.: Someone else looks it up.

[22:49] Olaf: And the most exciting thing that happens in the next, what? In that half hour is a car crash.

[22:55] J.J.: A car crash at the beginning.

[22:56] Olaf: That comically just explodes the minute it goes off the road.

[23:01] J.J.: Right. Well, what surprised me, too, is obviously the Charles Martin Smith character, the cameo of the movie, discovers it. He saves it onto a floppy disk, puts it in an envelope.

[23:13] Olaf: And then as he's crashing, the envelope flies out the window.

[23:18] J.J.: I guess.

[23:19] Olaf: Because the car explodes. But then it time jumps a year.

[23:23] J.J.: And then all of a sudden, it's like, hey, everybody, they have his information. And there's no explanation.

[23:28] Olaf: Whereas Armageddon, like you said, they get the narration from Charlton Essin, which I totally forgotten about.

[23:33] J.J.: And then if you don't mind, segue into the tone element of the film, because I feel like the tempo has a lot to do with the tone.

[23:41] Olaf: OK, we'll combine them. Armageddon already out of the gate because, you know, it's Michael Bay, too.

[23:47] J.J.: Yeah, you go.

[23:47] Olaf: You're going into it. Well, at that time, you don't know Michael Bay that well. But, you know, bad boys and, you know, Jerry Bruckheimer.

[23:54] J.J.: But you also know that some directors can do different things.

[23:57] Olaf: Yeah.

[23:57] J.J.: But if you see the trailer, we learn that Michael Bay can't.

[24:00] Olaf: But right.

[24:02] J.J.: We will soon learn that he can't do that.

[24:05] Olaf: But he's very good at what he does.

[24:07] J.J.: Yeah.

[24:08] Olaf: Yeah.

[24:08] J.J.: It's action. It's comedy with Eddie Griffin, with Mark, with all the cameos I mentioned earlier. They're giving you this in the midst of New York getting ravaged, as you said.

[24:19] Olaf: It still feels very light.

[24:21] J.J.: Yeah. There's a lot of laughing. So where a car explodes in Deep Impact, we're like, ooh, heavy.

[24:27] Olaf: A whole city is getting nuked.

[24:29] J.J.: But we're laughing because the bulldog lives.

[24:32] Olaf: And he's hanging off a leash in the middle of a hole.

[24:34] J.J.: Yeah. The tone of Deep Impact is so dour, so serious.

[24:42] Olaf: Yeah.

[24:42] J.J.: It's depressing.

[24:45] Olaf: It's the whole movie.

[24:47] J.J.: The whole movie. It's like, wow.

[24:50] Olaf: There's rarely a moment of levity.

[24:53] J.J.: That's yeah.

[24:54] Olaf: Everyone's just depressed all the time.

[24:57] J.J.: Right.

[24:58] Olaf: And you're like, well, nobody's winning here.

[25:01] J.J.: I mean, we're winning, but we're not going to succeed at saving the whole planet.

[25:07] Olaf: Yeah. So to be fair to both these movies, to decide on who gets the point, are we going to go off of who executed the tone and tempo the best of what they were going for?

[25:16] J.J.: Because it's not like they were both told, you need to make this specific movie in tone, and then who did it better. It's objective. Like what their clear objectives were to do this and this.

[25:33] J.J.: Who did it who succeeded at their specific objective now as far as Armageddon goes I would say Michael Bay succeeded in giving us a very Michael Bay movie with the tone that he has in all of his movies and yeah I'd say he nailed that. I know Mimi did she go in saying I want to be depressed I want to depress everybody and I want to really slow burn this to really get a lot of the character out of everybody having not done a deep dive into like her thoughts on the movie you know you sometimes you can read well the director years later came out and said I really wasn't happy with the cut of the film I don't know if she was happy with this cut or not I'm assuming she was so it's that one this one's hard because I feel like if Mimi wants to tell the story that she wanted to tell and this is it then she did a really good job of bumming people out all the way to the up until the last speech by Morgan Freeman at the end because oh man it I mean I think if you watch that movie and you think about what they're doing and what they're trying to say I would say she went in to make an investigative serious drama and I'd say that she nailed it.

[26:47] Olaf: I agree because the characters certain characters do have arcs sort of I mean Taylor only being the maybe the main one I suppose but not much not much whereas in Armageddon it's a popcorn movie it's a popcorn movie with characters that are cardboard cut out right they're not having these life-changing yeah nobody has any real depth the most depth you get is Bruce Willis's character maybe the captain of the colonel on the spaceship yeah William Fickner yeah yeah other than that it's so everybody knows what they're doing so I mean if we're gonna give if you want to I don't have a problem giving the edge to Mimi because hers is a harder task in the sense that this is a summer blockbuster but you ain't gonna feel good about it even at the end mission accomplished.

[27:41] J.J.: Yeah all right I'd say that's fair it's it's that one's a hard one to define that is hard they both accomplish I think what they went out to set out to do yeah the tone the tempo could have been better I would okay so if you want to put it this way the tempo Armageddon's tempo is better okay so we're going to separate the tempo and the tone I mean it's a better just like we talked about the pacing of the the run time that goes to tempo I would say all right so the tempo goes on me but the tone and execution we'll give that one I'll give it to me I'll give it to Deep Impact.

[28:18] Olaf: Okay there we go impacts scrapped another point another buster beat another we really had to go back to the tape all right so this next one I'm not so sure about but here we go executive producer uh Armageddon when I look this up the executive producer is no one anyone's ever heard of but the producers the two main producers you had Jerry Bruckheimer right everybody knows and Gail Ann Hurd who has been on like everything Deep Impact you have as executive producer which might I point out at times is merely just a title right where they probably did nothing right uh Steven Spielberg right and the reason Spielberg is because it's DreamWorks and this was like right at the beginning of DreamWorks as a production company they had I think only been around for like a year before a year or two before so and at the time the CGI of that tsunami is a big deal yeah that no that's a that's a big effect um I'm giving I'm edging it to Bruckheimer just because you're going against Spielberg I'm gonna go against Spielberg only because like like you said we feel like it's in name only where I feel Bruckheimer was involved heavily in this this is a very Bruckheimer film he was on set all over the place yeah so that's why I would give it the edge I feel like Spielberg saw the dailies every once in a while and was like sweet I'm making Saving Private Ryan right now like I'm shooting Saving Private Ryan right now so he was a little busy.

[30:02] J.J.: Okay so at the end of the day executive producer point goes to Armageddon yeah so that brings us uh into a little bit more of the movie uh the movies and we're going to talk about time to contact how long does each movie have before the asteroid kills everybody right and this is where it gets comical and this is where it really separates what you're going to watch what movie am I sitting in the theater enjoying watching whatever because now personally for this category I think I have a winner already but okay and I'm interested to see what you have to yeah so let's just go with the numbers first because Deep Impact they do a slow burn here from the time the asteroid comet is discovered to the time of contact is like almost a year and a half they discover it a year passes and then it's another what 10 months before 10 10 months right so it gives the astronauts time to prep and to figure out what they're doing and it's their actual professional astronauts in the movie that are trying to successfully complete this mission of saving the planet by digging into the asteroid and setting off a nuke where I find an issue is that there's too many time jumps for the sake of time I suppose it's like oh yeah well because we have two years we're just going to conveniently jump another five months and just sort of continue with the story here here and there as opposed to Armageddon from the time the asteroid hits New York City the meteors the meteors excuse me yeah the the debris or whatever yeah 10 minutes into the movie I believe the actor who runs into the uh meeting I believe is Jenna Elfman's husband I don't know if they're still married he runs in frantically yelling 18 days it's gonna be here in 18 in less than three weeks so all of a sudden the stakes are higher oh yeah 18 days huge stakes very exciting right 10 months not exciting lots of time but as far as realism goes I gotta give this to Deep Impact because Armageddon throws out time it throws it out it's a construct the amount of stuff that they do and accomplish in different parts of the country yes before they even go to the asteroid is insane.

[32:31] Olaf: Well yes because and they try to explain it because Deep Impact they're like in space for months before they reach the comet uh as opposed to Deep Impact where Billy Bob Thornton has a two space shuttle he's like so you're gonna launch and you're gonna slingshot and then in an hour you're gonna be at the space station to fuel up yeah and then you're gonna go to the moon slingshot around the moon on the moon and you're gonna do all this in like 10 hours and then you have about six to drill and get out yeah wow time doesn't mean much doesn't mean much so in movies when they give you a time limit or a deadline when movies actually show you that amount of time from when they say it to when it actually happens and you can time it and go wow that was the exact amount of time that they said right I love that because that's a lot of thought that goes into it because you got a plan and you got to edit all around that to be accurate right this what they were like we're not gonna worry about it nah no because and that's that that goes to the type of movie that they want the objectives of what they're trying to do as filmmakers as storytellers even this thing where Bruce Willis is like I want my men to be off base for 10 hours before they yeah have to go to space and then they conveniently are able to like Will Patton's able to go see his wife and or his estranged wife yeah they're traveling to places does she live in the same city yeah we don't know it doesn't sure doesn't look like it it doesn't as like and so Owen Wilson's on a ranch somewhere riding a horse yeah time is doesn't mean anything with Armageddon yeah however it makes the movie more enjoyable because because we're we're accepting the fact that time doesn't right doesn't matter as long as as long as they get up there and beat the asteroid right before it kills the earth time doesn't matter.

[34:26] J.J.: Here's what I also found interesting is that in Armageddon I mean in Deep Impact excuse me in Deep Impact Morgan Freeman specifically makes this speech a year before contact hey you know we're still gonna you know maintain order in the country no looting no rioting yada yada yada and apparently everybody seemed to sort of do that well because there was martial law and right in Armageddon they don't tell anybody it's happening until about until right before the mission because another uh disaster happens in India or something I think it was in China yeah I think you're right you're right you're right excuse me even when it looks like the mission may not succeed in Armageddon they still show cutaways of people around the world just sort of going about good yeah going about their day and running around or coming together yeah not trying to get maybe because they know they can't go anywhere at least in Deep Impact they were very specific about if you can get here then maybe you'll be safe but in Armageddon it was like it doesn't matter so maybe people were just like it doesn't matter we're just yeah uh so who are you picking for this category?

[35:38] Olaf: Well for sheer entertainment and sheer like absurdity I love the Armageddon vote because I mean if we're just going for absurdity yeah Armageddon but I mean if you're looking at realism I mean there's still some unrealistic things about the Deep Impact timeline basically maybe and that's because of how they chose to edit the film and cut it all of a sudden it's like oh it's been five months uh oh okay so you're gonna penalize them because they would time I almost feel like this is a push like is this a tie or are you gonna break the tie?

[36:06] J.J.: I'm gonna break the tie I'm gonna give it to Deep Impact okay is it more exciting no it is it is the boring vote but is it more realistic yes there's no way yeah you can digest Armageddon was going to accomplish what they did in 18 days if it was real no even when Deep Impact had a much better shot and even when they're on the uh the asteroid in in Armageddon how Ben Affleck and Michael Clarke Duncan and Peter Stormare have to get to the other team it within the amount of time no I agree all right we've gone through a lot of categories here let's talk about not necessarily for points but let's just talk about what both these movies share okay because again they came out roughly at the same time they're both about giant asteroids that are going to hit the earth both movies have a scene at an observatory uh we've got Deep Impact with was it Professor Wolf oh yeah I don't know but he's listening to classical music eating pizza eating pizza and very well together yeah clearly he's he's being shown to be quite smart.

[37:18] J.J.: Are you sure we don't want to vote on compare these two because the the the guy in Armageddon is awesome but so in Armageddon we have an observatory and uh it's it apparently he lives there he and his wife with his wife and who's the who's who's Susan's mom from Seinfeld and she's later in um oh I can't remember what if it was leftovers or another series she's great the best way I could describe them would be almost like hillbillies yes I mean sort of they're yelling at each other it's a lot of screaming I love it it's so but there there it is it's the levity element of it that we talked about earlier that Armageddon clearly leans into that Deep Impact is very more cerebral very more like other side of the tracks the the fancy you know we're gonna get the job done and then sacrifice our lives to do it it's such a contrast between the two it just it makes me laugh.

[38:19] J.J. Gonzalez: A team of astronauts that fly to space and land on the asteroid itself to drill and detonate a bomb that's supposed to—

[38:27] Olaf Adsit: And where Armageddon succeeds is that they actually got people that know how to drill.

[38:30] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah.

[38:34] Olaf Adsit: Because that's what saved them.

[38:37] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, exactly. Because they had trouble drilling, the astronauts in Deep Impact. And then once they did, didn't do anything.

[38:43] Olaf Adsit: Didn't do anything. Yeah. You know why? Because they didn't have NASA bombs. Armageddon had NASA bombs.

[38:50] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, that's true.

[38:51] Olaf Adsit: I'm not sure who Deep Impact had.

[38:54] J.J. Gonzalez: I will say that both asteroids look very similar.

[38:58] Olaf Adsit: Yeah. For whatever reason, Armageddon's was a little more unstable. It took out—

[39:04] J.J. Gonzalez: A little more unstable.

[39:05] Olaf Adsit: They were able to land—Robert Duvall is a better pilot. He landed their aircraft, no problem.

[39:09] J.J. Gonzalez: And quite quickly, by the way.

[39:11] Olaf Adsit: Yeah.

[39:13] J.J. Gonzalez: The movie that was trying to be a little more realistic with time had very little issues landing on that thing. Where honestly, I would say the landing scene in Armageddon was a little more believable.

[39:22] Olaf Adsit: Yeah.

[39:24] J.J. Gonzalez: It was far more chaotic.

[39:26] Olaf Adsit: Oh, absolutely. They lost the ship. They had two ships. They lost one.

[39:30] J.J. Gonzalez: They both had problems drilling. And both movies have scenes where the astronauts talk to loved ones via radio.

[39:34] Olaf Adsit: This is where Deep Impact edges it out for me on this one.

[39:40] J.J. Gonzalez: Really?

[39:41] Olaf Adsit: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'll tell you why. Let's start with Armageddon. Obviously, the Liv Tyler, Bruce Willis exchange is great.

[39:49] J.J. Gonzalez: Oh, it's amazing.

[39:51] Olaf Adsit: Liv Tyler is acting her tail off.

[39:54] J.J. Gonzalez: I cry when I watch that.

[39:55] Olaf Adsit: Right. What makes that one, what reinforces that scene for me though, is the fact that they use it in the music video. And it's Steve and Tyler that they put on the screen. And it's basically Liv crying to her own dad.

[40:08] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah.

[40:10] Olaf Adsit: But this is where Deep Impact gets the edge for me because there's two...

[40:14] J.J. Gonzalez: When you penalize something, I love how you do it because you penalize it with something that had nothing to do with it. It's like when you penalize a movie that you've ranked on your list and you're like, well, this would be higher if it wasn't for the sequels that had nothing to do with—

[40:27] Olaf Adsit: I'm not—

[40:34] J.J. Gonzalez: That cracks me up. Armageddon loses this one because of a music video.

[40:40] Olaf Adsit: Look, Deep Impact had more of an impact in this particular category when the Mary McCormick's husband comes up and it's the father and the little girl who's like three and you know this is it. Like that little girl's not going to see, not only is that little girl not going to see her mom, but they're not going to make it either because they're probably not going to make it. They're going to die too.

[41:04] J.J. Gonzalez: We don't know.

[41:06] Olaf Adsit: And then you get Ron Eldred's wife running in with the baby boy who the dad doesn't ever get to see because the baby wasn't born yet when he left and now he's blind and they're both crying.

[41:20] J.J. Gonzalez: Now, I've got a daughter, obviously, so you cry during the Liv Tyler, Bruce Willis scene. I'm crying through the Deep Impact scene because I'm like, man, like these people, this is it for everybody, at least with Armageddon, Liv's going to live and the only one who's dying here is Bruce Willis.

[41:36] Olaf Adsit: So that's me. That's where I'm at.

[41:40] J.J. Gonzalez: The scene in Deep Impact hits me harder.

[41:44] Olaf Adsit: Not to take away from Liv and her amazing performance in front of the television screens. Wow.

[42:01] J.J. Gonzalez: Another thing that both movies share is New York just gets totaled.

[42:05] Olaf Adsit: Well, New York gets obliterated off the map in Deep Impact.

[42:09] J.J. Gonzalez: True.

[42:10] Olaf Adsit: I mean, the city's still standing in Armageddon.

[42:12] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, but it gets pretty torn up.

[42:15] Olaf Adsit: Midtown gets hit pretty hard.

[42:16] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah.

[42:17] Olaf Adsit: All right. Well, so those are things that both movies share. Did you want to talk a little bit about each movie individually before we make our deciding?

[42:24] J.J. Gonzalez: Sure. It's interesting, too, because I can remember when obviously when both of these movies came out, I saw both of them in the theater. Armageddon is the MTV version of this story.

[42:35] Olaf Adsit: I mean, they unapologetically are all music video, video game. We're going to appeal to that audience and it works.

[42:44] J.J. Gonzalez: It's great. Every character, even the Owen Wilson.

[42:47] Olaf Adsit: I forgot how great Owen Wilson is in this movie because you see like his character in this movie is just typical Owen Wilson, but at the time, unless you had seen Bottle Rocket, you didn't know who he was, right?

[42:59] J.J. Gonzalez: And so I loved Armageddon. I watched Deep Impact again because we were going to talk about it. I can't watch that movie again.

[43:05] Olaf Adsit: I can't.

[43:07] J.J. Gonzalez: I probably won't. It's just because it's too much and it drags and it's like I can appreciate it for some of the good things that it accomplished. We've mentioned some of those things, but no, at the end of the day, it's a hard one.

[43:22] Olaf Adsit: You mentioned here the tech feels pretty dated.

[43:25] J.J. Gonzalez: It feels more dated in Deep Impact.

[43:26] Olaf Adsit: Yes, it does.

[43:28] J.J. Gonzalez: You don't really notice the tech in Armageddon that much. It kind of just blends in. It doesn't feel all that dated, but Deep Impact.

[43:36] Olaf Adsit: Oh, my gosh. Even at the beginning when they're trying to like he's puts the floppy disk in the computer. It feels very dated.

[43:45] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, I would have to say, I mean, it's I think based on just the points, there's a clear winner here.

[43:51] Olaf Adsit: And that was Armageddon.

[43:52] J.J. Gonzalez: Armageddon wins just on points for these categories that we covered. And then as far as how I feel, yeah, Armageddon is so fun. Action packed. It has emotion. It has drama. It has the tension, but it's exciting and you can laugh and it's a thrill ride where Deep Impact is just the slow moving character study that is just brings you down.

[44:21] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, I mean, Armageddon does a really great job of balancing out the humor with Shibu Shami, with Michael Clark Duncan, with all of them. I mean, they all have funny moments, but at the end of the day, you still care about these characters. You still you don't want Bruce Willis to die, obviously.

[44:40] J.J. Gonzalez: Something that I connect with and I think most audiences connect with is the ability to find levity in horrible situations. I think most people, no matter how bad it gets, will find some levity somewhere to feel a little bit better or to try to lighten the mood.

[45:01] Olaf Adsit: And Deep Impact just doesn't do that.

[45:03] J.J. Gonzalez: They don't do that at all.

[45:04] Olaf Adsit: They don't make any effort to and it's you're just punished almost by it.

[45:09] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, you are.

[45:10] Olaf Adsit: You are. Deep Impact wins the president casting. Morgan Freeman is fantastic.

[45:15] J.J. Gonzalez: I don't know if he would have been as great in Armageddon.

[45:18] Olaf Adsit: He wouldn't have had much to do.

[45:20] J.J. Gonzalez: But even the speech he gives at the end of Deep Impact, you're like, I don't know. I don't want to watch this movie.

[45:26] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, we'll get to it.

[45:29] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, I just can't. But as far as our competition today goes on our first episode of Versus, we have a clear winner.

[45:37] Olaf Adsit: We do.

[45:39] J.J. Gonzalez: Armageddon. I've always been Team Armageddon. There are certain instances in this episode where we've given a nod to Deep Impact, rightly so, because it's not a terrible movie. Deep Impact earned the points that it got.

[45:49] Olaf Adsit: We weren't just sympathy.

[45:52] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, we're not just giving out sympathy wins here. But overall, I could sit down and watch Armageddon again.

[46:00] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, I just rewatched both a few days ago. I would probably watch Armageddon again.

[46:03] J.J. Gonzalez: Before we go, though, I do want to take a moment to compare a couple quotes from each movie. I watched both movies again. I was struck by some dialogue and Armageddon has a lot of great dialogue.

[46:22] Olaf Adsit: The best quote from the movies could be like a bonus point, participation trophy. I don't know. Something positive to leave.

[46:27] J.J. Gonzalez: So Armageddon, they have so many great lines in that movie that it was really hard to figure out what might be the best line in the movie. And I actually came down with two. One of them was, get off the nuclear warhead.

[46:49] Olaf Adsit: Steve Buscemi's riding it like a horse.

[46:56] J.J. Gonzalez: It's so absurd. It just made me laugh. There was a later moment involving Steve Buscemi where he is apparently going crazy.

[47:06] Olaf Adsit: Yeah.

[47:07] J.J. Gonzalez: And he finds this sort of like this radio controlled gun thing. While Bruce Willis and the other diggers are trying to wrestle him to the ground, you have the astronauts just watching serious faces. Not quite believing what's happening. And one of them says he's got space dementia.

[47:27] Olaf Adsit: Oh, and it's a credit because both of these lines are delivered by William Fickner, who is the colonel.

[47:36] J.J. Gonzalez: It's just what a ridiculous quote. Both of them. It's so great in playing this no nonsense guy with a directive and a mission to have to deliver both of those lines.

[47:49] Olaf Adsit: And I like get off the nuclear warhead better than he's got space dementia. But when he said that, I was like, I have to add that to the list. Because he believes that that's a thing.

[48:02] J.J. Gonzalez: And Steve Buscemi's got it. And I got to tell the audience he's got space dementia.

[48:06] Olaf Adsit: And it's just so ridiculous. I love it. And then we have Deep Impact. There was only one line in this whole movie that stuck out to me.

[48:11] J.J. Gonzalez: And you would actually find it hard to believe that it came from this movie.

[48:15] Olaf Adsit: But it was, I don't know, a 13 year old.

[48:23] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah.

[48:24] Olaf Adsit: And it's the idea here is it's at a like a high school, high school assembly, a high school gymnasium assembly where Elijah Wood is saying, hey, everybody, I'm Biederman. I'm still alive. I'm on the cover of what Time magazine.

[48:38] J.J. Gonzalez: And so he's taking questions from the class, from the assembly.

[48:42] Olaf Adsit: The quote of the movie is famous people always get sex, Mr. Perry. That's the main reason it's good to be famous.

[48:51] J.J. Gonzalez: Delivered by random high school kid.

[48:54] Olaf Adsit: Number one. I heard that and I immediately wrote it down because of how ridiculous it was.

[49:00] J.J. Gonzalez: It is because it's the only real moment of levity or humor in this movie.

[49:05] Olaf Adsit: That's really it.

[49:07] J.J. Gonzalez: It comes out of nowhere and then it's gone just like that.

[49:11] Olaf Adsit: So there you have it, guys. That's our first episode of Versus. And we had a clear winner.

[49:15] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah, I got my Armageddon pen, Armageddon pen right here. I've had since since the release of the movie, seven, seven, one ninety eight heads up Armageddon. If you have any thoughts on our two combatants, Armageddon versus Deep Impact, please leave some comments and we'll get back to you on those.

[49:33] Olaf Adsit: Tell us what you thought. Were we accurate? Do you think we favored one more than the other? Let us know and stay tuned for more versus episodes later on, because we've got plenty of other movies that we can have compete.

[49:50] J.J. Gonzalez: Dante's Peak versus Volcano.

[49:53] Olaf Adsit: Why not?

[49:54] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah. Red Planet versus Mission to Mars.

[49:56] Olaf Adsit: They're out there.

[49:57] J.J. Gonzalez: Total Recall versus Total Recall.

[49:59] Olaf Adsit: RoboCop versus RoboCop.

[50:02] J.J. Gonzalez: Yeah. So we've got plenty of material for these episodes. And if you've got a pair of movies you think we may might want to talk about, let us know.

[50:13] Olaf Adsit: Yeah, absolutely. Well, guys, that does it for us today here in the theater. We hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to follow us on all our social media.

[50:20] J.J. Gonzalez: And remember, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts.

[50:23] Olaf Adsit: Until then.

[50:24] J.J. Gonzalez: To be continued.

[50:25] ♪ Musical number: "Theme Song" — performed by The Dimes ♪

[50:34] J.J. Gonzalez: Back to the movie theater is hosted by J.J. Gonzalez and Olaf Adsit.

[50:39] Olaf Adsit: Produced by me, Johnny Clay, J.J. Gonzalez and Olaf Adsit.

[50:42] J.J. Gonzalez: Theme song and incidental music by The Dimes.

[50:48] Olaf Adsit: Visit us at bttmtpodcast.com for trivia, play alongs, merch and more.

[50:52] J.J. Gonzalez: That's bttmtpodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok and find us on YouTube at Back to the Movie Theater with J.J. and Olaf.