Welcome back to a proper martial arts edition of Kung Fu February on Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Dion & Blake are back and taking on a cult classic, featuring the man, the myth, the legend, Steven Seagal, in his 1990 iconic film, Marked For Death!
The boys unpack the 3rd film in Steven Seagal‘s catalog, discussing his backstory and more importantly, they discuss the martial art he practices, Aikido and it’s history, and Dion‘s connection to it. They then take the way-back machine way down the alley to 1990, and analyse the movie/marital arts scene at the time, and how bad-ass Seagal was. They lay out the argument of why we need a director’s cut of this film, on this all new proper Aikido installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
EXTRAS!
Here, here and here is Dion back in 2010 when he met Seagal.
“They say Eddie Egan(aka Popeye Doyle) stepped on the gas and that SonnyGrosso would step on the brake- no… Back then, Eddie was the Doberman Pinscher and Sonny held the chain.” -Randy Jurgensen
Randy in the 1977 TV film, Contract on Cherry Street
Randy Jurgensen has lived an amazing life. The former NYPD Homicide Detective, Korean War veteran turned film consultant, producer,writer and actor worked on some of the biggest cases in New York City’s history and also some of the biggest and most important films of the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s.
With the passing of his lifelong friend and formerNYPD partner Sonny Grosso, Randy sat down exclusively with Dion Baia to discuss the loss of someone who was also able to seamlessly transition into the film industry, becoming a producer, actor and writer, and most memorably was played by Roy Scheider in the 1971 classic, The French Connection.Randy unpacks his friendship with the legendary detective and film icon, and discusses their intertwining careers that involved some of the most notorious cases in NYC‘s history. He talks about the memories he’s never disclosed publicly, and his recollections of some of the biggest films they worked on together. He chats about how Sonny got his nickname “Cloudy“, and how Eddie Egan got the nickname “Bullets” and “Popeye“. He also explains their singular contributions to the original Godfather film. Along with the amazing stories, Randy also relays the biggest regret Sonny had about TheFrench Connection movie. It’s an incredibly insightful, fascinating and exclusive interview that you’ll only find here, on Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
