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The Rewatchables ·

Friday

year 1995decade 90sdirector F. Gary Graygenre Drama
host Donnie Kwakhost Hannah Giorgishost Justin Charity
All 14 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 22:05

Red getting his chain snatched by Deebo

Picking one scene is called difficult because the first hour is basically a rewatchable hour; Craig getting high is nominated first, since you wait the whole movie for him to finally take a puff, and Smokey's angel dust flashback is noted as funny but a little problematic.

Red getting his chain snatched by Deebo is nominated as the classic bully scene: when Deebo approaches, Smokey rips his own chain off and puts it in his back pocket, while Red only tucks his in and says so, which is not thorough at all; the Bernie Mac pastor scene and Bye Felicia are also nominated.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 53:36

"You ain't got to lie, Craig"

Rather than read fifteen minutes of quotes, each host gives a favorite; the first is 'you ain't got to lie, Craig', said by Joy when she accuses Craig of infidelity, funnier on an adult rewatch because she has a man in bed with her while saying it, making her a hypocrite.

The film

Friday (1995)

Directed by F. Gary Gray · Drama

91 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Ice Cube Craig Jones
Chris Tucker "Smokey"
Nia Long Debbie
Anna Maria Horsford Betty Jones
Regina King Dana Jones
John Witherspoon William "Willie" Jones
Bernie Mac Pastor Clever
Angela Means Felisha
Faizon Love "Big Worm"
Lawanda Page Jehovah's Witness
DJ Pooh "Red"
Tony Cox Mr. Parker
Kathleen Bradley Mrs. Parker
Reynaldo Rey Red's Father
Ronn Riser Stanley
Meagan Good Kid #2
F. Gary Gray Store Employee
James Bose Smith Chris "Lil Chris"
WC Drive-By Shooter
Michael Clarke Duncan Craps Player (uncredited)

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

22:05

Most Rewatchable Scene

Red getting his chain snatched by Deebo

Red getting his chain snatched by Deebo

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:05Read transcript
  • Picking one scene is called difficult because the first hour is basically a rewatchable hour; Craig getting high is nominated first, since you wait the whole movie for him to finally take a puff, and Smokey's angel dust flashback is noted as funny but a little problematic.
  • Red getting his chain snatched by Deebo is nominated as the classic bully scene: when Deebo approaches, Smokey rips his own chain off and puts it in his back pocket, while Red only tucks his in and says so, which is not thorough at all; the Bernie Mac pastor scene and Bye Felicia are also nominated.
  • The first hour is a procession of immaculate character bits that happen on the stoop over one day rather than discrete scenes, so a line like 'you ain't got to lie, Craig' is a memorable quote, a fifteen-second bit, not a rewatchable scene.
  • Craig getting high works because Cube underplays it: body language shifts, chuckling, offering to make Kool-Aid, weird non sequiturs rather than Smokey-style running in front of a car; it is a progression over fifteen minutes rather than a scene, and a vulnerable, goofy Cube is striking after years of scowling, with the Cypress Hill cue a little on the nose.
  • One vote goes to Red getting his chain snatched by Deebo because it has a lot of moving parts: Deebo, Red's cameo, and Cube and Smokey reacting to Deebo; another vote goes to the Craig scene, not for Craig but for Smokey's Michael Jackson-style dancing, possibly the start of Chris Tucker moonwalking in every appearance, which got him into a Michael Jackson video.
  • A second vote joins the Red pick in a garbled exchange that addresses Charity and pairs the name with 'Craig getting that', so which pick Charity proposed is unclear; the Craig-scene voter stands alone; the Red scene's moving parts are the core of the movie and set up its end game, and Deebo is loved.
  • Tiny Lister was known as a wrestler in the WWE and appeared in the Hulk Hogan movie No Holds Barred, so he was one of the more famous people in the film after Ice Cube; Deebo is indelible, Lister in interviews is just Deebo, though behind the scenes he is reportedly gentle and sweet and gets joked on, a huge man blind in one eye who lumbers through the movie creating havoc.
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28:10

What’s Aged the Best?

Nia Long

Nia Long

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:10Read transcript
  • Nominees: F. Gary Gray's career, which went on to Set It Off, The Negotiator, The Italian Job, Straight Out of Compton (as transcribed) and The Fate of the Furious with big box office; and the clothing, Craig's timeless flannel, khakis, chucks and clean t-shirt, since the nineties are big again.
  • Nia Long's athletic gear ages very well, an Ivy Park collection in 1995; Nia Long herself, and Regina King, are nominated, with the challenge to compare a 1995 picture of Long to a 2017 one and believe 22 years separate them; she lights up the screen the moment she appears, and Nia Long is agreed as the pick.
  • The film sets Debbie up with a slow-motion shot of her running while Craig and Smokey stare, and a worse movie would have left her stuck there for catcalling, but she gets her own moment against Deebo at one point.
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29:51

What’s Aged the Worst?

The body-shaming blind-date scene (tentative pick); analog phones, beepers and star 69; Felicia asking to use the VCR...

The body-shaming blind-date scene (tentative pick); analog phones, beepers and star 69; Felicia asking to use the VCR to dub a tape; the Mexican-accent jokes in the angel dust flashback; how thin the bags of weed look

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:29:51Read transcript
  • Obvious analog touches: phones, beepers, Craig's mom knowing who called because she hit star 69, which one host has to confirm the others understand; the giant boom box is judged to have aged pretty well; Felicia asking to use the VCR to dub a tape got a laugh on a rewatch.
  • The one mean-spirited scene is the worst thing: Debbie sets Smokey up with a friend who says she looks like Janet Jackson, and when she arrives heavier than expected Smokey pulls her hair out and insults her appearance to her face, which the film did not need.
  • The Mexican accents in the angel dust scene are called unnecessary, easy, low-hanging jokes that cut against a movie about complicating how people in the hood are depicted.
  • How thin the weed looks has aged badly: when Smokey sells to Hector and his friend in the car, the twenty-sacks look like thimbles or empty plastic bags.
  • The body-shaming scene is tentatively the worst-aged choice; the Janet Jackson, Freddie Jackson line is still funny to one host but gave pause in 2017, and the joke does not scan because the woman is not unattractive; the hosts then promise research, heat check, Apex Mountain and Who Won after the break.
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39:05

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Deebo (Tiny Lister)

Deebo (Tiny Lister)

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:05Read transcript
  • The field is wide: Tiny Lister as Deebo, John Witherspoon, Bernie Mac, Faison Love (as transcribed), Paula J. Park (as transcribed) as Joy, Regina King, Stanley, little Chris and Smokey's mom, who is only in a couple of scenes asking Smokey to buy cigarettes and talking on the phone; Craig and Smokey are excluded as principals.
  • One host would have said Joy for her iconic scene but after rewatching lands on John Witherspoon for the gun speech, that a gun does not make you a man and you fist fight, win or lose, and stay alive, which plays a little after-school but he goes for it; a John Witherspoon impression by Charity is teased.
  • Red is argued for as the most thankless role, getting beaten up and clowned the whole movie, played well, with the touching scene of him sobbing at his car and pulling off.
  • Witherspoon and DJ Pooh's Red are called great, but Deebo gets it: he has his own music, his name persists as a word for a bully, and he is so iconic that Tiny Lister throwing the detonator off the ship in The Dark Knight reads as Deebo moved to Gotham, arrested and folded into the Joker's plot.
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41:55

Apex Mountain

John Witherspoon

John Witherspoon

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:55Read transcript
  • Cube: no, but close; the film is a memento of the best of Cube, who went on to Three Kings, Barbershop and several Kevin Hart movies yet has made no better movie than Friday, so it might be his apex as an actor, though Three Kings has him in a supporting role and this is Cube's movie only in a constitutional sense since it plays as a Chris Tucker vehicle.
  • Barbershop is defended as low-key really good; Friday is not Cube's commercial or stardom peak but the peak of him balancing the realistic gangster figure and the softer comedy type, the crux and pivot point of every angle of his career, the one movie that holds all his multitudes.
  • Chris Tucker: the question is whether he is better here than in Rush Hour or The Fifth Element, with the caveat that calling anyone's apex their early twenties is cruel; Rush Hour 2 Tucker is judged better, leading the movie and hamming it up ten degrees higher, with the outtakes credits and the gefilte fish rant as peak, which is allowed.
  • John Witherspoon is proposed since the others stalled; he has been in a ton of movies, was the dad on The Wayans Brothers and granddad on The Boondocks, but this is still called peak Witherspoon (transcribed 'Pete Witherspoon'), with the bathroom scene, the food scene and the gun speech cited; one voice says it feels comfortable with that while reserving the right to reset later, and nobody objects.
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53:09

Is This Movie Better With…?

No

No

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:09Read transcript
  • Danny Trejo (transcribed 'Danny Trail') is a late addition to the categories; he could have been Hector, and the obvious slot would be Deebo, but you cannot take out Tiny Lister and Trejo is not big enough, so the answer is no, with agreement.
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56:23

Who Won the Movie?

Chris Tucker

Chris Tucker

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:23Read transcript
  • Chris Tucker is named immediately, the name coming twice in quick succession with 'come on, man' agreement that it is obvious; one host says it pains them that his career is not in the shape it should be.
  • Next Friday and Friday After Next starred Mike Epps, and a Last Friday has been hoped for for years; original cast members say Tucker is why it has not happened, his pay scale rose, and in his defense he probably does not want to play a weed-smoking delinquent at forty, though the character could be evolved.
  • A gritty reboot and 'Christopher Nolan's Friday' are joked about; the hosts watched Next Friday but not Friday After Next, and barely the animated series; Tucker has cryptically suggested interest in recent interviews now that his pay scale is down.
  • Rush Hour 4 is also in the works with Tucker on the fence and Jackie Chan as the Ice Cube trying to get him there; the hosts would take Rush Hour 4 over Last Friday a thousand percent, since Chan and Tucker could reprise older versions, while Friday is quintessentially youthful and would be weird with 45-year-olds on the porch.
  • Questions a sequel would raise, kids, still smoking, or flipping Smokey straight and Craig into the pothead, are floated, but what people want from sequels is an extension of the original, which would have to change too much to work, so leave Friday be; Rush Hour 4 should just avoid the mistakes of Lethal Weapon 4.
  • At the top of the show, with no spoilers on who won, Tucker is said to dominate everyone's attention as soon as he appears on screen.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Chris Tucker
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