Original Gangstas (1996)

The LA Palms 🌴

Now whenever I hear Indiana I think of Hali doing the choke face and how its such a different vibe than Reggie's choke face.

Proud of Stanger for standing his ground re: this movie sucking.

Hell yeah

This movie feels like it’s direct to video or a made for TV movie. Surprisingly wack considering the cast.

Born and raised in Gary but haven’t lived there since I left for college. My family still lives in the Miller Beach area. Similar to Buffalo, NY, it was a boom town in the early 20th century with US Steel and Bethlehem Steel. In the late 60s, when Richard Hatch, the first black mayor was elected, there was massive (racist) white flight to the surrounding area. The steel industry then began to decline. There were tens of thousands of jobs in the city and by the mid-late 70s, it was down to a few thousand. Coupled with an antagonistic state government, it never stood a chance at recovering. Growing up, only Chicago local news and radio stations were available so you only followed Bulls, Bears, and Sox/Cubs. We didn’t have our own local news show like they showed in the movie and there’s no way WGN was trucking their ass down there. As a kid, I could tell you more about the scandals of Rod Blagojevich than I could tell you about what was happening down I-65.

ABZ summer of studs

I go to comedy shows in Chicago area and man, shitting on Indiana is kinda a go to for comedians both local and visiting.

I’m so confused what that tattoo could have been that it was so bad Rodgers couldn’t even describe it on the air. Even if it had the N word or something, he couldn’t just phrase it like that?

RIP Ozzy Osbourne

From metro Detroit but based in Chicago so pass through/by Gary quite a bit on the way back and forth. Unfortunately out of the big 3 cities fucked hardest by the auto industry cratering (Flint, Detroit, Gary) Gary doesn't seem to have ever crawled back at all. Still pretty much a ghost town w/ no people or business. Drove thru town last month and it was thoroughly depressing. That train station still stands tho.

Everybody should check out Primm's Hood Cinema where he roasts this movie. He described it as a boomer power fantasy that's essentially telling the kids to "pull your damn pants up!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzhibWJdj8

So you mean to tell me that the recommendations at the end of each episode are lies???? What!!!! I’m done….

"Pee nice" -Dalton

Happy Birthday Robin Williams. I love that this episode featured an impression of him ❤️

My parents gave me a pair of Air Jordans when they came out and I still have them and still wear them occasionally when I want extra swag 😀

Sure we all clocked Bushwick Bill, but what about that McGruff sticker in the window? eh?

Can confirm Gary is still pretty rough

The Utah Soakers

This movie got a lot of run on BET, so Cohen is technically correct. I don’t remember ever seeing it on HBO or Showtime though. Seems like a movie Starz would play a ton.

The received knowledge on the playground in the late 80s was that BK were a preferred brand of the LA Crips as they were “Blood Killers.”

Rec for the ABZ book club: After Dark, My Sweet by Jim Thompson, author of The Getaway and The Grifters. Theres a forgotten 90s adaptation with Jason Patric making some crazy movement choices.

I live in Chicago and work in Gary often. It’s pretty rough. Really the whole border area around Chicago and Indiana. And it’s all Bulls gear, rarely will I see Pacers. That brand really survives despite how bad the ownership is.

One of those times I really appreciate the podcast for introducing me to a movie I would have never known about

I drove through Gary on my way to Chicago in Summer 2019, due to a highway accident rerouting me, and it was BRUTAL. Seemed like 4 out of every 5 businesses with signs up were closed permanently and 3 out of 5 buildings were boarded up. The businesses that were open were typical for low income areas (laundry, barber/hair salon, pizza, metro/cricket cash 4 gold, etc). Can’t imagine anything improved since COVID. Also, I went to college in Indiana and the 5 kids I knew from Northwest Indiana (referred to as “The Region”) were fans of Chicago sports. I’d suspect there is a higher Chicago fandom vs Indiana fandom in that region for anyone born pre-2000.

I have no where else to say this and no one else would care but I saw a Tiktok this weekend where a guy saw William Sadler in Poughkeepsie and Sadler was just donating stuff to a second hand store. And Sadler was cool and looked awesome in some blue jeans and wearing suspenders. Good shit. Also related to the episode, one time I was in an elevator with Eddie George and his shoulders were so fucking broad. This was only a few years ago, well after his playing days. The idea of a guy trying to tackle him seems insane.

I gotta disagree with Bang, hate to do it. Hollywood Tinseltown LaLaLand Home-to-the-Stars-and-the-Motion-Pictures doesn't have an identity?

Captain podcast is back!

Also on the subject of Fred Williamson at cons, I met him at some horror one a few years ago, guy couldn't have looked less interested in being there and signing a bunch of From Dusk Till Dawn 8x10s. Someone asked him to do the pose Stanger mentioned and he did it while still sitting down. I went up to his table and paid whatever the fee was ($30 I think) and handed him my Vigilante VHS, thinking he would sign the front with the silver marker he had next to him. He stared at it for a second, turned it over, smiled and said "There he is" (looking at the photo of himself) then signed the back cover over the synopsis with a black sharpie. While he was handing it back to me he completely smeared the fresh marker. Best and worst $30 I've ever spent

Why can’t more trailers end with… “and Bushwick Bill”!

Coworker at my office job thought I was “cool enough” to show me a pic of his giant thigh tattoo of a woman w a giant dong cumming on her own tits

I don't want to get to political here but, it for sure should be run by. You can't drive anywhere near that pool tiki bar. You would only be able to run by in that area.

Here for the sucks discourse

also dink is a racial slur :(

This movie varied so wildly in tone and I thought it oddly benefited from it. Also a few scenes were straight up lifted for Pootie Tang. I really enjoyed watching it.

jim brown’s wiki gets a little rough!

“Hey Godfrey….it’s Ryan Stanger….from Sports Club LA…”

Thank you!

Please watch King Cohen: The Wild World Of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4151776/?ref_=ext_shr - Thank you for your attention to this matter

Totally unrelated but shout out to Ben for recommending the Happy Doll books a while back. I’m on book three and they fkn rip.