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  hello everyone and welcome to movie goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed welcome everyone to the show i wish it was under better circumstances but uh i'm glad that you are here nonetheless today is a somber episode i really don't like doing these episodes you know like this but i was compelled to do it because this actor, I don't think, got the flowers he deserved. I don't think he got the respect that he rightfully deserved. He did in the circles of Hollywood and whatnot and all the work that he had contributed to, but I mean it like in the mainstream. He hasn't been or wasn't considered an aidless actor in a lot of circles, Good. he was a list to me he's one of those guys that i just adored him in every single film that he was in i don't care if it was a bit part uh uh supporting role or even in the lead uh occasionally when he did get the lead he was just one of those guys that you would gravitate to in case you don't No, on July the... 13th the early morning of july the 13th it was announced that the great sam neill passed away at the age of 78 years old and sam neill has a filmography like no other you you can go down his filmography and it's like none of the none of those movies are one in the same you know he He did not just stick in one job. he was all over the place i don't care if it was a drama uh an adventure film a comedy uh action adventure film uh horror films uh he he excelled in them all and i think that's what made him special to me i think that's why he just stuck out to me because if he was in something it wasn't like you went into it like oh this is going to be just like he he was in jurassic park no or this just this is going to be like he was in the hunt for red october no he would he would constantly reinvent himself he would constantly challenge himself and he excelled everywhere he went i i can't think of a performance he gave where he melded in even in the small role that he had in Thor Ragnarok. where he played olden uh a actor portraying olden in that film he was good in that you know and it was only for one scene but it just added something to the film i don't it's just something about him that i'm going to miss and he is he is highly decorated you know i say he didn't get his flowers he's a decorated actor no Academy Awards but He was truly recognized all over the film industry as one of the greats, and I think he needs to be remembered as such. Sir Nigel John Dermott Sam Neill. That was his name. And I often wondered, because when he was knighted, I think that was in the 90s when he was knighted. He, they said his name and I'm like, well, where does Sam come from? I don't know. I guess that was a nickname or something like that. But he had, that was his name. And he was from New Zealand, born and raised from New Zealand. Aside from being an actor, he was also a businessman as well. But he was a leading man in film and television. He did get nominated for. three primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards. And as I mentioned before, he was appointed as an officer of the Order of British Empire in 1991 by the Queen for his services as an actor. So he was recognized, but I just wish he was recognized more, you know, as just one of those go-to actors. because you can... You can rely on him to come and give you his all. Now, the boobies. Not all the movies were great. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and say, oh man, he was in just some bangers, you know, five-star classics. He was in a few. But, you know, not all of them were great, but he was great. And today, instead of just going over his life and what all he accomplished in his life, I decided to do a short little show today and count... down my top five sam neill films or his performances in those films now this top five is not to say that these were the just greatest films in his filmography but these are my favorite performances by him and it was tough to narrow it down because i left off some that i felt were superior films, but I... I enjoyed his performance in X film rather than Y film. So I just, it was, it, I made it tough on myself. I'm just going to tell you like that. I made it hard on myself for no reason whatsoever. I could have just gave my list of my favorite Sam near films, which is basically what this list is, but they're my favorites because of the performance that he gave. But I will go through his whole filmography. This was his whole filmography, and it goes all the way back. I wasn't even thought of in 1975. Landfall, Ash in 1977, Sleeping Dogs in 1979. Just reach out the journalist, my brilliant career in 1981. the omen three the final conflict possession from a far country in 1982 attack force z uh in 1984 the blood of others the country girls in 1985 robbery under arms and plenty uh in 1986 for love above in 1987 the umbrella woman in 1988 leap of faith Also in 1988, Evil Angels. In 1989, Dead Calm. In 1990, The Hunt for Red October. Shadow of China. In 1991, Death Brunrich Until the End of the World. In 1992, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage. In 1993, The Piano, Jurassic. park and sirens in 1994 country life the jungle book in the mouth of madness in 1995 restoration in 1996 children of the revolution and victory in 1997 event horizon snow white a tale of terror uh i've never seen that one i gotta check that one out uh in 1998 8 the horse whisperer and sweet revenge in 1999 bicentennial man in the year 2000 my mother frank the dish the magic pudding in 2001 jurassic park 3 the zookeeper in 2002 dirty deeds in 2003 perfect strangers in 2004 or Yes, and Wembley in 2005, Little Fish in 2006, Irresistible in 2007, Angel in 2008, Dean Spankley and Skin in 2009, In Her Skin, Iron Road, Under the Mountain, Daybreakers. and 2010 Legend of the Guardians. owls of gahu in 2011 the dragon pearl the hunter in 2012 the vow in 2013 escape plan the adventurer the curse of the minus box in 2014 united passions and a long way down in 2015 backtrack and the daughter in 2016 hunt of the wilder people and tommy's honor in 2017 mind gamers sweet country and thor ragnarok in 2018 the commuter and peter rabbit in 2019 palm beach blackbird ride like a girl and take home pay in 2020 rams in 2021 peter rabbit 2 the runaway Thank you. in 2022 jurassic world dominion and thor love and thunder uh in 2023 the portable door assassin club scary girl and brain him to me in 2025 the fox and we got two movies that he completed before his passing uh coming out next year in 2027 upcoming you have Godzilla vs. Khan, Supernova, and The Last Resort. Those were his final films he did. Like I said, very diverse filmography. He did everything from family films to just gore-out horror movies. He did every genre you can think of. But out of all of those films, I had to narrow that down to... five and believe it or not it was hard it was it was very hard to narrow down my favorite five performances from the great sam neill and so starting off at number five this comes in number five because of it was a small role for him you know he didn't have a big role but it was big nonetheless because he was the second in command on this submarine under sean connery and i loved how up to that point you know you didn't see sean connery being challenged like that because that was sean connery man this is james bond you know it he was the the the uh voice of reason on that submarine and that is of course the hunt for red october and He was the one that kind of brought Sean Connery's character down to earth. You know, this bombastic character, this larger than life figure, not only in the Russian military, but globally. Everybody revered this character and he was so powerful, you know, so well respected that nobody really messed with him. No one really challenged him. And Sam Neill in that role had to be the one to talk him down, to be the one to tell him, no, you're wrong. No, we can't do it like this. You know, you can't do this, Captain. He was the one. And I thought he bounced well off of him in that film. Perfectly cast. That was just an amazing movie altogether. And it was hard to put that at five. But the reason it's at five. Because it's not a bigger role than it is in the other four that I'm going to list here. But he is phenomenal in that role. Coming in at number four is, I don't know what you would, this is like the guiltiest of guilty pleasures for me. And the reason, let me give you a little backstory before I spill the beans on what it is. I worked at a movie theater. the year this came out so when i'm when i'm there and this movie comes out and i'm like what is this you know and i was an usher so we we would go in and uh that's how i got to see a lot of movies around that era uh i would it could be for nothing for free basically i was getting paid to watch it it was a beautiful thing but i stood in there and watched this movie and this was the scariest movie i've seen set in space and i'm i know aliens is probably everybody's premium horror space movie but for me event horizon was the movie that was like i've never seen a haunted spaceship movie you know you ever think about that it's a haunted spaceship movie the ship was haunted in space and you're drifting in space it uh sam neill's character is the uh scientist who virtually built this ship and it was to uh pass through different dimensions it was supposed to bend space and time to get across the galaxy quick quicker or on the other side of the universe quicker and whatever and what it did it tore the fabric of space so when the ship first left and it miraculously came back years later come to find out the ship went to hell and it came back and so when the rescue crew came and sam nils on there because he knows the ship that's his ship and he was a part of this team that goes on this ship hell was on the ship with him you know and it was the freak is still to this day my go-to horror movie like around halloween you know it's something about that movie that just appeals to me yeah it wasn't a big box office smash hit but it is a cult classic it is a movie that holds up still to this day because i watched it recently within the last two or three months i've seen it and it still holds up to me it still has that same flair and uh sam neill's character in here has the biggest arc even though he isn't the star lawrence fishburne is the star of the movie but Sam Neill's character has the biggest arc and not in a good way because he starts off as a good guy he's a decent guy and he's trying to he's just trying to figure out what happened on this ship this was his baby you know this was his life's work and he wasn't like uh one of those slimy type figures that like oh this is my ship you know this pompous guy that's not his approach to it you know. He was beholden to the captain who was a large fish burn in the crew and gave them the respect, gave them the lead because this is their mission. But he was still searching for answers and trying to find out where this has been, because at the end of the day, he is a scientist. You know, he wants to see if his experiment work. Where did the ship go? And everybody else is like, man, do you see what's going on around you? This ship has been somewhere. it shouldn't have went and then whatever wherever it went it brought it back with us you know so he he started off as a good guy and to ultimately end up as the villain the ultimate antagonist at the end and for him to make that turn was great i i love event horizon and i love sam neill in this movie and i had no business loving him in this movie like this i have no business loving this movie that much. hey it happened event horizon is number four on my list coming in at number three which i know is going to turn a lot of people's heads and and probably turn off this episode but i'm glad you joined me this far but coming in at number three is jurassic park yes it's at three it's at three it is not because the movie's bad i mean it's jurassic park like i told you before this is not a list of the best movies you know this was this was my list of sam neill's best contribution to the film you go to jurassic park for the dinosaurs it wasn't because of sam neill and let's be honest a lot of people didn't know who sam neill was before jurassic park even though he was in a plethora of films and television shows you didn't know who sam neill was matter of fact this role wasn't even written for him. this was written for harrison ford but harrison ford turned it down and so they went to sam neill and for the first time and probably the only time i felt that was the best decision and not to say that uh harrison ford wouldn't have crushed it yeah he you know even though he was basically playing indiana jones again but uh sam neill was perfect for this role perfect for this role uh to be this archaeologist who hates children and gets stuck on this adventure with children you know and in charge of protecting these children from these dinosaurs you know and who better to protect these children from dinosaurs but an archaeologist who's been studying dinosaurs his entire life and you know I love his arc in this one. Hating kids. didn't want him around him didn't want him in the same want to be in the same car with him at the beginning of this movie but by the end when they're all leaving the island on a helicopter and he's hugging the kids and making sure they're safe and everything and it was a beautiful it was beautiful man i know we all were distracted by the pretty dinosaurs in it but it was a beautiful story with Sam Neill and his progression throughout this film to want to protect these children at all costs as opposed to the uh alan grant in the beginning of this film who probably would have fed the children to the dinosaurs if he had the chance but i i love the vid it and yes it comes in at number three and it comes in at number three because number one and number two are far superior performances not because of the movie but because of the performances it they're just my favorites and it's my list so i could do that and so jurassic park comes in at number three coming in at number two this was my first exposure to sam neill i didn't know who sam neill was uh when i saw this movie and it's still to this day one of the creepiest movies that i've seen in my life really i i really i'm if i was if i was to rank thrillers psychological thrillers this would probably be top 10 and it is dead calm from 1989 i remember watching this movie and this this stars not only sam neill but you have a young nicole kidman who plays his wife in his movie and Billy Zane. who this was my first time being exposed to him at that time and so you get these two i mean these three actors before they're big you know at least in my eyes you know uh because i was what 11 10 11 and you may want you was 10 and 11 years old watching dead calm look don't tell don't tell mom but yeah i did i was snuck and watched it this was amazing this was an amazing movie i love movies that are claustrophobic you know even though i am claustrophobic i guess that's why i'm drawn to movies like that because when you're in a confined space in a situation that you do not want to be a part of and you wish and you know when you when you sit back and watch movies and you're like man i'm glad that's not me You know you're in a good movie. They hooked you. They got you. And I'm glad that wasn't me. They're on a boat with this psychopath. And Sam Neill gets separated from his wife off this boat. He gets thrown off the boat. So his wife is stuck on this ship, on this yacht, I should say. Not even a yacht. It's just a boat. You know, a nice boat. And he... he being Sam Neill he manages to get to the other ship that this guy came from and come to find out that he he uh you know the psychopath killed everybody on that boat and it's sinking so the whole movie or at least a majority of the movie Sam Neill is trying to repair this boat now he's a I think he's in the Australian Navy or something like that or was in the Australian Navy that they did. Something of that nature. But he knows nautical stuff. So he's managing to get this ship functional enough to get back to that boat where his wife is stuck on with this psychopath. I love this movie. Everybody in this movie was great. But Sam Neill impressed me so much. And like I said, this is my. first time being exposed to him me being young at this time you know i was like man this dude need to be in more movies i just had to wait a couple of years and he would have been running from dinosaurs you know but he was amazing in this movie the movie in within itself is amazing and i would still sit down and watch it today i i haven't seen it in so long and this is one of the Movies that are immediately thought of when i read the news about uh Sam Neill's passing I was like man dead calm you know because everybody kept throwing up pictures of him as uh Alan Grant from Jurassic Park of course because that's his most popular successful film but my mind just immediately went to this you know because this is my first time seeing him on the screen and being impressed by his performance and his stillness you know as taking command of the screen like he did i i love this movie love it i i do plan to watch it in the very near future because i haven't seen it in such a such a while but uh yeah this comes in at number two dead calm coming in at number one is a movie that look once again is not about the quality of the move. we're just focusing on performance here and this is in my humble opinion my favorite not his not saying it's his best but this is my favorite sam neill performance and the reason this is my favorite sam neill performance is because he literally had to put this film on his back the entire movie. We follow him the entire... movie and he has to narrate or or navigate i should say the audience through this crazy hp love crab insanity of a movie and it is the 1994 john carpenter directed film in the mouth of madness this was during the era when john cop carpenter was making these weird low budget horror movies and for some strange reason it appealed to me those those movies like prince of darkness and they live and stuff like that i i love those john those john carpenter movies of course i love the thing and christine and halloween and all that other good stuff but there was then this small little window in the early 90s and really mid 80s to the early 90s with john carpenter was just spitting hot fire man he was doing some wacky crazy stuff and in the mouth of madness was probably the most insane john carpenter movie i he ever made um sam neill plays the lead in this movie and he's uh an insurance investigator and he goes to this small town to investigate the disappearance of this success successful art author of horror novels and then he begins to question his sanity throughout so because the the the lines between reality and fiction start to blur the deeper he digs into this author who turns out to be whatever he was you know satan or whatever. So he, he, you literally. watch him go insane as the movie goes on and you go insane following him the movie really really disturbed me i guess that's why it sticked out the most to me because sam neill's character really goes through the ringer in this movie mentally and physically in some sort i mean driven insane you And Sam Neill played it so well. I don't know if it's because it's John Carpenter or it's a horror movie and a lot of people frown upon those type of movies, you know, as far as awards and accolades are concerned. But his performance in In the Mouth of Madness was bananas, bananas. You hear stories about, like with Heath Ledger playing the Joker, how that played into his psyche, which led to his demise, which we find out that that wasn't 100% true. you know it going off the interviews for people like no that's not what happened you know they were like when when the director yeah cut he was back to being heath ledger he didn't really go full method as the joker but you hear stories about people uh diving into their roles really hard and really going insane because of the the material or not really going sane i'm embellishing But, you know... it affects them mentally they they gotta take a break you know because that's all this was heavy and you watch a movie like this and what sam neill went through during the course of this film was insane and of course it would drive him crazy because it was driving me crazy watching it and at the end just to see at the end that nothing was resolved you know that he really did go insane and sam neill just going full in on this man he he did not mail this in at all you know those those postage stamps stayed on his desk he really he dove head first into this role it's my favorite sam neill performance uh not my favorite sam neill film but my favorite performance from sam neill i i really enjoyed him in the mouth of madness but those are my top five sam neill performances uh like i said i just wanted to talk chat about him a little while because i i loved sam neill gonna miss sam neill he's he's an actor that you know i guess the reason it hit so hard. It's... he's one of those actors that you just didn't expect to go nowhere you know or one of those people you expect to be around forever you know because he he played such a big part of at least my life growing up dating all the way back to when i was a pre-teen you know i've been watching him on the screen and you know seeing him in low budget things seeing him in big budget things and seeing him pop up in the MCU and seeing him on. television and seeing him in a comedy and all that he's just been a part of my life and i he's one of those ones you i took for granted that it will be around forever and sadly forever ended today uh when he passed away at the age of 79 sam neill oddly enough just beat cancer as early as april this year when he reported that went to the doctor they found no traces of cancer in him he he was fighting this uh uh blood cancer this leukemia uh leukemia however you pronounce it uh for years he was diagnosed with that and he went through chemo and all that there and finally in april he after his chemotherapy Stopped working He went and did this New cell therapy In australia on a trial run and they found no cancer in his body and then here we are in july he passed away unexpectedly suddenly you know and it just goes to show you you never know you never know what it is you never you think that is one thing you've been dealing with for quite a while and it could be something else you know and that's why you constantly got to get checked up constantly got to take care of yourself and not to say that he wasn't uh we don't know what the at least the time of this recording we don't know what would what was the cause but uh you know you want to prolong your life as long as you can so make sure you're getting checked make sure you're going to your screenings make sure you're going to your doctor regularly and getting your checkups your blood work and all that good stuff so yeah, man, we lost a good one. Sam Neill, may he rest in peace. I would like to know what was your favorite Sam Neill film? Was it any of the ones I listed or was it another one? Another one. I mean, there's no wrong answers. I think all of his performances were great, but I would love to know your favorite Sam Neill performance. Let me know. You can subscribe to the KBRadioNetwork.com website where you can get notified of all new episodes that drop on that site. Also on YouTube, subscribe to the KBRadioNetwork channel and like this video if you don't mind. Don't forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever. You are currently listening to Movie Goodness here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody, thank you for joining me as we looked back and reminisced on the great Sam Neill. Rest in peace. I want you all to know that I love you. Continue to love everyone. And until we speak again, you all be blessed.