Summer blockbusters we somehow missed

Summary

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Episode Summary: “Summer Blockbusters We Somehow Missed”

Date: August 13, 2026
Host: Glenn Weldon (NPR)
Guests/Panelists: Stephen Thompson, Ronald Young Jr., Liz Metzger

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Episode Overview

In this nostalgic and lively episode, the Pop Culture Happy Hour team confronts their personal pop culture “blind spots” by watching one iconic summer blockbuster each that—despite widespread popularity—they’d somehow never watched. Through roundtable discussion and witty banter, the panel explores how these blockbuster films feel when viewed outside their original cultural moment, analyzes their impact, and celebrates (or roasts) some cinematic classics. The movies covered are:

• Armageddon
• Beverly Hills Cop II (and I)
• Ghost
• The Fast and the Furious (the original)

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. What Defines a Summer Blockbuster? (00:32–03:00)

• Glenn Weldon opens by defining a summer blockbuster as a film that's “hugely popular and as a result, financially successful”—essentially, movies seen by masses.
• Stephen Thompson reflects that even the most avid pop culture fans can have major gaps in their blockbuster viewing history.

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2. Stephen Thompson Watches Armageddon for the First Time (03:19–09:26)

Quick Recap: Stephen admits he’d never seen 1998’s mega-hit Armageddon and finally corrects that oversight, leading to a damning—and hilarious—review.

Key Points:

• Stephen is amazed at how Armageddon feels both like a pre- and post-9/11 cultural artifact, referencing its destruction of the World Trade Center and Paris.
• He describes the plot as “ludicrous trash,” packed with illogical action and bad science, likening himself to “a little Neil deGrasse Tyson” nitpicking the film’s logic (04:50).
  • “It’s not so much like I don’t understand physics, but I do understand basic logic. And the way everything happens in space...nothing makes any sense at all.” (04:49)
• Highlights Ben Affleck's famously sardonic DVD commentary as more entertaining than the movie itself.
• Armageddon’s legacy: Ronald Young Jr. frames the film as a prototype for the Michael Bay blockbuster—a template many subsequent movies would follow.
• They note the massive cultural impact of the Aerosmith song “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” discussing its placement in the film and effectiveness.
  • Quote: “It is a very effective song. I dunk on Diane Warren a lot, but that song is doing work.” (08:39, Stephen Thompson)
• Liz Metzger and others riff on the film’s “bad science rules” and over-the-top approach: the gun in space, the size of the asteroid, and the demand to “never pay taxes again.” (09:13)
  • “It was very like, ‘We never want to pay taxes again. Am I right?’” (09:14, Liz Metzger)

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3. Ronald Young Jr. Watches Beverly Hills Cop II (and I) for the First Time (09:34–12:59)

Quick Recap: Ronald watched both Beverly Hills Cop films back-to-back, noting how the series set the tone for decades of buddy-cop and blockbuster action movies.

Key Points:

• Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) builds on the first film’s “fish out of water, buddy cop” formula—Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley in wealthy, white Beverly Hills.
• Ronald notes that while Cop I was an edgy, shaggier risk, Cop II is all streamlined blockbuster tropes: endless wisecracks, action set pieces, and a warehouse finale—typifying Hollywood’s fondness for repeated formulas (11:44).
  • “Once they figure that out in Act 3 of Beverly Hills Cop, Beverly Hills Cop II is all Act 3.” (11:44, Ronald Young Jr.)
• They openly discuss problematic content—specifically, Eddie Murphy’s “gay voice” bit—and how it has aged poorly (12:40).
  • “You see Eddie Murphy going to gay voice. Well, this could have been made in 1987.” (12:40, Ronald Young Jr.)
• However, the film’s depiction of a Black cop’s relationship with a police department still resonates today.
• The group recognizes the movie as a foundational blueprint for “modern buddy cop movies.”

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4. Liz Metzger Watches Ghost (13:07–17:38)

Quick Recap: Liz braves her childhood fears and finally watches Ghost (1990), discovering it’s more quirky than frightening—and sometimes unintentionally funny.

Key Points:

• Liz recaps the Ghost plot: Patrick Swayze’s murdered lover haunts/becomes involved with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg’s medium.
• She confesses childhood terror after walking in on her parents watching it, citing ominous music, dusty rooms, and the infamous pottery scene as “terrifying.” (14:24)
  • “I can't believe I was scared of this movie for years. Years.” (14:24, Liz Metzger)
• Now, as an adult, she finds the film overly long but gives high praise to Whoopi Goldberg’s comic relief (“not in it enough”).
  • “What’s good is fun. What’s not good is long.” (14:24, Liz Metzger)
• Ronald recalls the trauma of the movie’s hell-dragging demons as a child growing up in a Pentecostal Christian home, having only heard the audio (15:05).
  • “Can you imagine being a 7 year old child hearing this in the other room? And you’re like, where’s Jesus?” (15:31, Ronald Young Jr.)
• Stephen notes the infamously “janky” special effects of the hell scenes but calls it a moving film, especially praising Demi Moore’s performance (16:28).
• Glenn Weldon shares seeing Ghost while homesick in Europe, expecting comedy from Zucker (of Airplane! fame), but finding only Whoopi’s “funny” turn and Schiavelli’s “big swing” as the subway ghost memorable.
• Discussion of the “pottery scene” with “Unchained Melody” and how the music became iconic, if overwrought.

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5. Glenn Weldon Watches The Fast and the Furious (the Original, 2001) (17:59–23:05)

Quick Recap: Glenn admits to deliberately avoiding the Fast & Furious phenomenon for years but finally watches the original film, finding little to connect with.

Key Points:

• Glenn initially “missed” the franchise but then actively became someone who’d “never seen any” of them—a personal badge of honor.
• After watching the first film, he remains unmoved, describing it as “posturing and preening and tiresome kind of adolescent performance of masculinity.” (20:22)
  • “I don’t get this movie.” (20:17, Glenn Weldon)
  • “Vin Diesel at the time of this. You were in your 30s. What are you doing?” (20:25, Glenn Weldon)
• Stephen dubs Diesel’s appeal as “lunk charisma.” (21:11)
• Panelists agree that while the series is “reprehensible” (21:13, Ronald Young Jr.), the sheer spectacle can be fun.
• Ronald, a fan, insists that “4, 5, 6 are good action movies,” but concedes later entries become absurd: “The Rock is pushing a missile with his bare hands on the ice.” (21:25)
• Glenn enjoys certain stunts, actor discoveries, and practical effects but finds “adolescent masculinity” a barrier.
• Liz relates it to the “first Magic Mike”—a movie taking itself and its “underbelly” theme overly seriously, but, she argues, sometimes you just need mindless fun and “sick practical effect stunt[s].” (22:35)
• Stephen takes a final shot: “But spare me the talk of family.” (23:12)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This movie is such ludicrous trash.” (04:59, Stephen Thompson on Armageddon)
• “What camp is to gay men, Fast and Furious films are to straight people.” (19:07, Glenn Weldon)
• “If you want 500 shots from the asteroid’s point of view, this is the movie for you.” (06:24, Stephen Thompson)
• “Beverly Hills Cop II is all Act 3.” (11:44, Ronald Young Jr.)
• “You see Eddie Murphy going to gay voice. Well, this could have been made in 1987.” (12:40, Ronald Young Jr.)
• “I can't believe I was scared of this movie for years.” (14:24, Liz Metzger on Ghost)
• “Vin Diesel at the time of this. You were in your 30s. What are you doing?” (20:25, Glenn Weldon)
• “He has lunk charisma.” (21:11, Stephen Thompson on Vin Diesel)
• “Spare me the talk of family.” (23:12, Stephen Thompson, on Fast & Furious)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Definition of Summer Blockbusters: 00:32–03:00
• Stephen on Armageddon: 03:19–09:26
• Ronald on Beverly Hills Cop II: 09:34–12:59
• Liz on Ghost: 13:07–17:38
• Glenn on The Fast and the Furious: 17:59–23:05

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Episode Takeaways

• Blockbusters shape pop culture—but can seem bizarrely dated or illogical when seen outside their original moment.
• Many so-called “bad” blockbusters have enduring elements, whether it’s an iconic song, a template for an entire genre, or simply spectacular stunts.
• These panelists prove it’s never too late to revisit or fill in your blockbuster blind spots—sometimes for fun, sometimes for mockery, always for pop culture insight.
• Listener Invitation: The show ends by inviting audience feedback about their own blockbuster blind spots and which classics they may need to catch up on.

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Panelists: Glenn Weldon, Stephen Thompson, Ronald Young Jr., Liz Metzger
Production Team: Hafsa Fathoma, Lennon Sherburn (Producers); Mike Katsif (Editor); Jessica Reedy (Supervising Producer)

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Useful for: Anyone curious about the appeal, impact, and sometimes unintentional hilarity of classic summer blockbusters—whether you're catching up for the first time or reliving old cinematic memories.

Transcript

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[Glenn Weldon]

Vin Diesel says smoke him. And you know, they smoke him. He gets smoked. And that's the whole sequence. That's the point of it. And I was sitting there going like Vin Diesel at the time of this. You were in your 30s. What are you doing?

[Ronald Young Jr.]

What are you doing?

[Glenn Weldon]

Everyone knows what a summer blockbuster is. It's a film that's hugely popular and as a result, financially successful. By definition, it's a movie seen by lots and lots of people.

[Stephen Thompson]

But there have been a lot of summer blockbusters over the years, and not everyone has seen every last one of them. So with summer blockbuster season coming to a close, we decided to revisit our conversation about our own personal blockbuster gaps and finally see a movie that absolutely everyone saw except for us. I'm Stephen Thompson.

[Glenn Weldon]

And I'm Glenn Weldon. And today on this encore episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're talking about summer blockbusters we've never seen until now.

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[Glenn Weldon]

Joining us today is Ronald Young, Jr. He's the host of the Film and Television Review podcast leaving the theater. Hey, Ronald.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Hello, Glenn.

[Liz Metzger]

Hey.

[Glenn Weldon]

And also joining us is one of our producers here on Pop Culture Happy Hour, Liz Metzger. Hey, Liz.

[Liz Metzger]

Hello.

[Glenn Weldon]

Hello. So we asked everyone to bring in one summer blockbuster that they recently watched for the first time. Let's get started. Steven, this is gonna be an exercise, I think, in feeling cut off from the mainstream. What big summer blockbuster missed you that you have finally watched and why?

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, I'll get to that in a second. It's absolutely wild to admit that I have never seen the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

You should be ashamed of your.

[Liz Metzger]

Okay.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

How dare you, Steven.

[Stephen Thompson]

Now, for those who've never seen Armageddon, we're gonna do a quick NPR style. The Batman is a crime fighter. Armageddon is the Michael Bay movie where Bruce Willis is like the world's greatest oil driller and he leads a ragtag group of misfits on a mission to blow up a killer asteroid that is hurtling toward Earth. Said asteroid is the size of Texas, we are told. Armageddon. Not to be confused with Deep Impact, which was the other killer asteroid movie in the summer of 1998. I think I never actually saw it because everyone I worked with said it was terrible and that was that. I never really had a reason to revisit it until we inexplicably decided to embark on this particular project. And it is so fascinating to revisit this movie more than 25 years after it came out because it feels like Both a pre September 11th relic, complete with the destruction of one of the World Trade center buildings. And it also feels like a post September 11th relic, complete with the inexplicable destruction of Paris. This movie is such ludicrous trash. I, renowned non astrophysicist that I am, I sat there with my arms folded like a little Neil DeGrasse Tyson, just like. It's not so much like I don't understand physics, but I do understand basic logic. And the way everything happens in space, the way everything hurdles against each other. Nothing makes any sense at all. Every explosion. And there are so many explosions. It's like whatever object is exploding is just inexplicably covered in jet fuel at the time. The asteroid isn't just like 5 miles wide or whatever like a giant asteroid would be. It's the size of Texas. Entire cities in this film are leveled as like scene setting. At one point they blow up Paris just For funsies, there are these long, pointless digressions. Liv Tyler is shot so glamorously.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

There's a gun in space. Don't forget that.

[Stephen Thompson]

There's also a gun in space. And it's just sitting there like, oh, something's gonna happen there. Chekhov's asteroid. The action in this movie, especially once they're all pantsing around on this asteroid, the action set pieces make no sense at all. I will say, watching this film, it did make me think about how much I miss DVD commentary tracks. Because, like, Ben Affleck, like, very famously, his DVD commentary track for this movie is considered one of the great just shade throwing exercises in the history of commentary tracks. It's such a doofy movie. If you want 500 shots from the asteroid's point of view, this is the movie for you.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

But there's something about this. Like, that is a bit of an origin story for Michael Bay and his direction to come. Because Armageddon is his third movie. His first two were bad Boys, then the Rock. His third movie was Armageddon. He follows that up with Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys 2, the island, and then straight in the Transformers.

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh, yeah.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

And if you look at all of those movies they could have, there's a lot of ways in which, from the cinematography, from the way the people. People interact with each other. He is setting the standard for what a blockbuster is going to be in the future. And there's people who make blockbusters that are borrowing elements from this, including, I think at least one we're gonna talk about later that are borrowing elements from this film, which is he has a good sense of what the masses go to the theaters for, which I don't think necessarily is a good thing for us that, like, wanna see a good movie and also wanna be entertained. They've just slide directly just into entertainment. Which means that every sing. Steven is exactly right. But I guess people just don't care when they're looking at it on a giant screen, you know?

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, it's the difference between being entertained and being pandered to. Yes, this movie is doing a lot of pandering. People went to the hell out of this movie as, like, objectively bad as I thought this film was. By the end, like, the music has been pummeling you for two and a half hours. You do have a certain.

[Glenn Weldon]

Like, can I ask you about that music, Steven? Like, I don't want to Miss a Thing. The Aerosmith song.

[Stephen Thompson]

Did that play I Don't Want to Close My Eyes.

[Glenn Weldon]

Did that play during the movie or Just over the credits.

[Stephen Thompson]

So basically, there is a scene that invokes the song where it kind of comes up. It's a scene. It was sung by Steven Tyler, and it is a love scene with his daughter, Liv Tyler. It's invoked. It kind of comes up almost as a teaser about halfway through the movie during kind of a moment of respite. And then it just, like, booms through the closing credits.

[Glenn Weldon]

I don't wanna close my eyes I don't wanna fall asleep.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Cause I miss you, baby And I

[Glenn Weldon]

don't wanna miss a thing.

[Stephen Thompson]

It is a very effective song. I dunk on Diane Warren a lot, but that song is doing work.

[Glenn Weldon]

Liz, do you have any Armageddon thoughts? Have you seen this film?

[Liz Metzger]

I was but a wee lass when this movie came out. I would not have been allowed in the theater except on baby day. I mean, I think bad sci fi movies, specifically bad science. Sci fi movies are good because they have bad science rules. But does this movie have bad science rules? Or do you feel like it's just like we're glossing over? Because I.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Both.

[Liz Metzger]

It has both. And it was very like, we never want to pay taxes again. Am I right?

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

I mean, it's a good demand if you think about it.

[Liz Metzger]

It's a good demand. It's honestly what you should be asking.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

100%.

[Glenn Weldon]

Yeah. Okay. Well, that is Armageddon. Thank you very much. Stephen Thompson, Ronald Young, Jr. What's your pick and why'd you miss it?

[Ronald Young Jr.]

My pick was Beverly Hills Cop 2. Oh, boy. Beverly Hills Cop. The original. Again, it's a fish out of water story starring Detroit cop Axel Foley as portrayed by Eddie Murphy. It is a fish out of water buddy cop movie in which this black detective from Detroit is solving a crime in the hoity toity and largely white Beverly Hills. This plot, that is the plot of Beverly Hills Cop. That is also the plot of Beverly Hills Cop 2, which came out in 1987. I was born in 1984. That's when Beverly Hills Cop came out. Beverly Hills Cop 2 came out in 1987. So it was not of the Eddie Murphy era that I know. The Eddie Murphy era that I know involves the professor. It involves life. So this wasn't my era is the thing. But I will say, watching this for the first time, I realized that this is kind of, in a lot of ways, the prototype for the modern buddy cop movie. Sure, I enjoyed the movie. There's a lot of Eddie Murphy. I'm getting a lot of the origin of what he's doing. We're still finding out what his personality is. Watching this movie. He had already done 48 hours. So it just feels like as he's moving forward his career, this is an inflection point. But it's also specifically so many bigger things happening in the second one versus the first one. For instance, there's a cement mixer, armored truck, car chase, which is just something that you would only put into a blockbuster. But so many blockbuster beats in this film for it to be a sequel. And we complain about IPs and sequels now. And this is something that just has been a fact of Hollywood for decades.

[Glenn Weldon]

Had you not seen Beverly Hills cup one also? Or had you seen that and just not seen this? Why'd you pick this one?

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Glen Weldon. I watched both movies in about a three and a half hour span, back to back. Sorry, go ahead.

[Glenn Weldon]

Then you'll be able to answer my question because my memory is that Beverly Hills COP1 was a much shaggier gamble where they were kind of betting on the charisma of one Mr. Eddie Murphy. And Beverly Hills Cop 2 seemed like all the edges had been sanded down. It had been engineered to be a blockbuster down to the big final scene in a warehouse at a time when every action movie ended in a warehouse. Is that true?

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Yes. But I will say the first two acts of Beverly Hills Cop are exactly what you're saying. That shaggy mess that you're talking about by Act 3 of Beverly Hills Cop, they've dialed it in. Once they figure that out in Act 3 of Beverly Hills Cop, Beverly Hills Cop 2 is all Act 3. It's all wisecracking, Eddie Murphy firing guns and the two other police detectives that he's working with, all working together to solve this crime against the crotchety lieutenant or police chief. We're gonna do it no matter what. We don't care what this GU guy says. We don't go buy the book yet. Exactly. All of that, like happens. That's the entire movie. And again, that's setting the tone for every buddy cop movie that comes after it. In terms of, like the modernity of these films. They know what works.

[Stephen Thompson]

How does it age? I mean, I remember one thing I remember about Beverly Hills Cop is there's this long kind of awful aside where it's just like Eddie Murphy doing gay voice.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

That does not age well. Obviously. What does age well is black folks interaction with the police department. There's ways of there where I was like, well, this could have been made last week. And then you see Eddie Murphy going to gay voice. And you're like, well, this could have been made in 1987. Completely different.

[Glenn Weldon]

All right, well, that is Beverly Hills Cop 2 and also theoretically Beverly Hills Cop 1. Thank you very much. Ronald Young Jr. Liz Metzger. What's your pick?

[Liz Metzger]

I picked 1990 Ghost, the thriller romance.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Good choice.

[Liz Metzger]

Well, okay, we'll get into it.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Oh, Liz, you in danger, girl?

[Glenn Weldon]

Oh, boy. Nicely done.

[Stephen Thompson]

I see what you did there.

[Liz Metzger]

Patrick Swayze is in this. He is in a beautiful relationship with Demi. More. They are this gorgeous couple. They've moved in together. She does pottery. But tragically, he dies and becomes the said ghost. But the only way they can really communicate is thankfully Whoopi Goldberg, who is playing this sort of fortune teller medium. And they're able to communicate. This also stars Tony Goldwyn, who looks like a zoomer. Everything is actually very zoomer coded in this film. And it is a story about a love that lasts and that even if you die, you can come back, you can bother Whoopi Goldberg and also try to figure out who killed him. This is a film that I haven't watched for, like, specifically the reason that it terrified me as a child. Like, I walked in on my parents watching this film. And it begins with very ominous thriller music. Scary. There's dusty rooms. Scary. There's sexy pottery. Terrifying.

[Stephen Thompson]

Did I say there's pottery?

[Liz Metzger]

And then soon after, someone gets shot. Very terrifying. And then there's a home invasion. And that's when I walked out of the room. So sitting this down, I was like, that's a movie. That's a movie. It got five Academy Award nominations. And what's good is fun. What's not good is long. It's very long. It's over two hours. And I think Whoopi Goldberg is the best part. She's not in it enough. And Demi, she's so beautiful when she's crying and she's so confused. I don't know. It was a movie. I can't believe I was scared of this movie for years. Years.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

I grew up with my parents watching that in the other room. And for me, like, especially being raised in a Pentecostal Christian household, I had conflicts with my preacher dad and missionary mom watching this movie where the demons are dragging people to hell. And I didn't even see it. I could only hear it in the other room. Can you imagine being a 7 year old child hearing this in the other room? And you're like, I don't. Why are you watching this? Where's Jesus?

[Stephen Thompson]

The thing is, if you're only hearing the sound of someone being dragged to hell. You are being spared some of the jankest special effects there is that. There's one where you basically make out an outline of the scary beastie dragging the person to hell. And it is so cheap looking.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Yes.

[Stephen Thompson]

I loved this movie when it came out. This movie came out the summer I turned 18 and I saw it at least once in the theater and cried all. It is on balance still a movie I would recommend. And I agree that Whoopi Goldberg is very funny in it. I mean, it's of an era where the comic relief performance was very likely to get you a best supporting actor or actress Oscar. And I think Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore are. They're very wet eyed performances. I found them very compelling. I think Demi Moore in particular is very compelling in this movie.

[Glenn Weldon]

I'm gonna tell the story of when I saw this movie in the theater. Even though it's a romance and I wouldn't normally see a romance, I'm gonn that story because it begins. So I was backpacking through Europe and I was a little homesick, I now realize, because there's no other explanation for why I would go see this movie. I had not experienced any kind of mass media in months. Exactly. So I turned this corner and there's this theater playing this big American movie with stars whose names I recognized. And it was like, why not? And I had never heard of the movie, but then I looked on the poster and I saw that it was directed by Jerry Zucker. And I was like, oh, right. Airplane. Top secret Police squad. This is gonna be great. It's not what I was expect. And I sat down in the theater and the only thing I remember is that Whoopi was funny and Vincent Schiavelli as the subway ghost. What a big swing. What a fun performance.

[Liz Metzger]

Ghost rules. Ghost Sensei. Right there. Very be a leaf.

[Glenn Weldon]

And those shadows dragging Tony Goldwyn to hell. Yes, it looks janky. But in my sleep derived low blood sugar state that was more profoundly unsettled than I was prepared to be at that time.

[Liz Metzger]

The music cues are quite ominous.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Yeah.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Nah, I can't do it.

[Stephen Thompson]

But the visual effects looks like somebody cut ghosts out of black Construction.

[Glenn Weldon]

This also had Unchained Melody, right?

[Liz Metzger]

It does. The pottery scene.

[Glenn Weldon]

Yes.

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

my.

Song

[Ronald Young Jr.]

of hunger.

[Glenn Weldon]

Hunger. There was a big kind of era for Unchained Melody, I think.

[Stephen Thompson]

Yeah.

[Glenn Weldon]

All right. Thank you very much, Liz. Ghost. That's a pick. Okay, so when I look down this list of top sellers, I was like, well, I've seen all these movies. I must be a special snowflake. Look at me. I'm such an aesthete. And then I realized, no, the definition of blockbuster is that lots of people seen it. It's not a thing that you've seen all these movies, Glenn. There was one franchise that I had not seen anything from. And I started off not seeing it because, you know, just it missed me. Right? I mean, like, it wasn't a deliberate choice or anything. I just thought, well, that's probably not for me. Then about the fifth or sixth sequel, this franchise started achieving a kind of cultural currency. Everyone was talking about them. That's when it became a deliberate choice on my part. I decided I would be the guy who has never seen any of these movies. You know, a small but still measurable percentage of my personality would be that I've never seen any films in the Fast and the Furious franchise. Look, in life, sometimes, you know that some things are not for you, that's fine. These films don't need me. They have their fans. A discerning critic like Linda Holmes loves these movies. We talk about them all the time. She finds them ridiculous in a satisfying way. And I'm told by other people, oh, they're wild, they're over the top. And they use language that suggests to me that what camp is to gay men, Fast and Furious films are to straight people.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Correct.

[Glenn Weldon]

So I've had friends who try to sell me on these movies, saying, oh, you gotta start with five five's when it gets fun.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

No, you start with four, not five. Okay, sorry. I have an opinion on this. Go ahead.

[Glenn Weldon]

But the thing is, Ronald, I looked it up. 4, 5, 7 and 8. And I'm calling them Fast and Furious 4, 5, 7 and 8. Because I refuse to engage with their actual names, which are too stupid for me to acknowledge. It's true. They all opened in April. And I couldn't square that with our brief here because April is not summer. I'm sorry. Words mean things. So I started with the OG I started with the Fast and the Furious, which premiered on June 22, 2001. Here's the plot. It stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker. Walker is a cop who is infiltrating the world of street racing to try to find a gang of elite drivers who are hijacking trucks. I would love to sit here and tell you guys, look, I was wrong. What a revelation. What a fun ride. No, I sincerely hope to sit here and go, I get it now. But 20 minutes in, my husband, who had Also never seen any of these films. Turned to me and he said to me what? I was seconds away from turning to him to say, which was, I don't get this movie. People love them. I understand. They get bigger and broader and sillier and more fun. That's a phrase people keep throwing at me.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Oh.

[Glenn Weldon]

Then they become spies, and I'm just gonna sit here and dump on this movie that people love. For the entire segment here, I'll just say that there is so much posturing and preening and tiresome kind of adolescent performance of masculinity that I just couldn't find a way in. I couldn't get a handle on it. There's like a moment where they pull up to a light, another car pulls up and it's some rich D bag, and they exchange words. And then Vin Diesel says, smoke him. And, you know, they smoke him. He gets smoked. And that's the whole sequence. That's the point of it. And I was sitting there going like, Vin Diesel at the time of this. You were in your 30s. What are you doing? What are you doing? We talked about Swayze, right? This guy had movie star charisma and Diesel. The kind of charisma he has is dirtbag doing donuts in the Wawa parking lot. Charisma, Right. It's not the same.

[Stephen Thompson]

He has lunk. Charisma.

[Liz Metzger]

Dirtbag.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

I will say this like everything you're saying is accurate. And I feel like this entire series is reprehensible. Even though I'm a big fan of it. It is also reprehensible.

[Stephen Thompson]

Reprehensible.

[Glenn Weldon]

Say more. Why reprehensible?

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Because everything you're saying is 100% true. Especially when you get from Fast and the Furious 2, Fast 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift. I have to tell you, I know you've heard this before. 4, 5 and 6 are good action movies. They're good. If you just sit down and have all the information you have about the first couple of movies and just watch 4, 5 and 6, it's good. In 7, 8, 9, it goes off the rails. Paul Walker dies. They decide that they can do anything they want. The Rock is pushing a missile with his bare hands on the ice. Like, it gets real, real, real bad. But there's a trilogy in the middle. It's actually just like Star wars if you think about it.

[Glenn Weldon]

Okay, you're not gonna convince me to keep going with this.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

No, I know I'm not.

[Glenn Weldon]

I liked when the car went under the truck. I liked the stunts. I liked being introduced to actor Rick Yoon, who plays the rival gang leader Johnny Tran. He is a strikingly high individual and I will be seeking out his body of work. I liked Ted Levine. He plays Paul Walker's weirdly sympathetic boss. But if you can spare me a few minutes on Wikipedia, what's to recommend these films?

[Liz Metzger]

Someone told me that the first Fast and Furious was a lot like watching the first Magic Mike because it takes itself really seriously and it has this filtered sepia tone where you're like, this is the underbelly. They're doing something not above the law. I think this is a movie that's silly. And I think sometimes you just gotta watch a movie that's silly. And also stunts. I will say maybe that's just me that like kind of a second screening it where you're like, I'm gonna look up. We're gonna watch a really sick practical effect stunt, more or less, right?

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Mm.

[Liz Metzger]

And then I'm gonna look down and then I'm gonna hear the sound. There's a race. I'm gonna look up and I'm gonna look back down.

[Stephen Thompson]

I appreciate the practical effects. I love a cool looking car going fast. But spare me the talk of family.

[Glenn Weldon]

We want to know what you think about our picks, and we also want to know what summer blockbusters you need to catch up on too. And now that I see it, I'm like, sometimes you don't need to. That brings us to the end of our show. Ronald Young Jr. Liz Metzger, Steven Thompson, thank you so much for being here.

[Ronald Young Jr.]

Thanks for having me.

[Liz Metzger]

Thank you.

[Stephen Thompson]

Thank you.

[Glenn Weldon]

This episode was produced by Hafsa Fathoma and Lennon Sherburn and edited by Mike Katsif. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy. And hello. Come in provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour. Welcome back to NPR from npr. I'm Glenn Weldon and we'll see you all next time.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

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