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The Rewatchables ·

Midnight Run

year 1988decade 80sdirector Martin Brestgenre Actiongenre Comedygenre Crime
host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryan
All 14 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 23:45

The boxcar scene

Every scene is called rewatchable, so a few are thrown out: the counterfeit-twenties con in the bar (the 'litmus configuration' test), Jack visiting his daughter, the coffee-shop scene with the chorizo and the 53-cent coffee where the Duke needles Jack about Serrano, the boxcar scene, and the late chase where Jack loses the Duke, stops the car under the helicopters and says he has come too far.

The boxcar is the pick for both: it is where the two finally break down and become real friends, a cathartic release after the car chase through the desert, apparently mostly improvised, and a lived-in, funny, genuine scene between two great actors; any scene with Farina or Pantoliano is a rewind, but the boxcar is the rewatchable one.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:04:10

"Here come two words for you. Shut the fuck up"

The whole movie is quotable, but the one iconic quote is the exchange where the Duke tells Jack he is a grown man with control over his own words and gets two words back; it is hilarious and timeless and the one said most often.

The film

Midnight Run (1988)

Directed by Martin Brest · Action

126 minutes

IMDb
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Robert De Niro Jack Walsh
Robert De Niro Jack Walsh
Charles Grodin Jonathan Mardukas
Charles Grodin Jonathan Mardukas
Yaphet Kotto Alonzo Mosely
Yaphet Kotto Alonzo Mosely
John Ashton Marvin Dorfler
John Ashton Marvin Dorfler
Dennis Farina Jimmy Serrano
Dennis Farina Jimmy Serrano
Joe Pantoliano Eddie Moscone
Joe Pantoliano Eddie Moscone
Richard Foronjy Tony Darvo
Richard Foronjy Tony Darvo
Jack Kehoe Jerry Geisler
Jack Kehoe Jerry Geisler
Tracey Walter Diner counter man
Tracey Walter Diner counter man

Everything from the episode

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

23:45

Most Rewatchable Scene

The boxcar scene

The boxcar scene

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:45Read transcript
  • Every scene is called rewatchable, so a few are thrown out: the counterfeit-twenties con in the bar (the 'litmus configuration' test), Jack visiting his daughter, the coffee-shop scene with the chorizo and the 53-cent coffee where the Duke needles Jack about Serrano, the boxcar scene, and the late chase where Jack loses the Duke, stops the car under the helicopters and says he has come too far.
  • The boxcar is the pick for both: it is where the two finally break down and become real friends, a cathartic release after the car chase through the desert, apparently mostly improvised, and a lived-in, funny, genuine scene between two great actors; any scene with Farina or Pantoliano is a rewind, but the boxcar is the rewatchable one.
  • The setup as recounted: the Duke slips into a boxcar thinking he has escaped, Jack comes around the other side and, furious, announces he is not talking for the rest of the trip; the director then told Grodin to loosen De Niro up, De Niro was too wound up to crack, and Grodin finally landed it with a crude teasing question about the farm animals on the reservation, which leads to the exchange about the watch; the clip is played and it is called the best scene in the movie.
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27:27

What’s Aged the Best?

The unexpectedly poignant moments and Danny Elfman's score

The unexpectedly poignant moments and Danny Elfman's score

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:27Read transcript
  • The chemistry between De Niro and Grodin has aged best, even though De Niro reportedly did not like Grodin much, stayed in character through take after take, and Grodin, probably playing close to himself, kept trying to annoy him; that kind of two-guy chemistry is rarer than you would think.
  • A list of best two-guy movie chemistry: Travolta and Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction, Gibson and Danny Glover, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, Redford and Newman in The Sting and Butch, Eddie Murphy and Nolte in 48 Hours, with The Rock and Kevin Hart, Farrell and Riley in Step Brothers, Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock, and Bill Murray and Harold Ramis added; it gets rarer this century because movies are usually driven by one person.
  • There are 119 f-bombs in the movie though it feels like 280, especially in the last call to Eddie; the phone call where Farina has Moron Number One put Moron Number Two on while the other guy shadow-boxes the one on the phone is too short to be a rewatchable scene but slays.
  • McCarran Airport, the saddest place on earth when everyone is leaving Vegas, has not changed since 1988 and makes you want to shout that Serrano has the discs; Grand Central Market in downtown LA still looks much the same, though you could not take a payphone call from a restaurant there now.
  • Danny Elfman's score (transcribed once as 'Danny Offen's') is like the Bus Boys from 48 Hours doing a soundtrack, one of the best ever despite some people disliking it: it slows down and kicks back in at the right places and sounds like Steely Dan's backing band vamping before Becker and Fagan (as transcribed) walk on; anyone anti-soundtrack is called a moron.
  • 'Looks like I'm walking' is one of the better last lines of any movie covered, especially since walking out of LAX is no fun; the visit to the daughter is one of the favorite De Niro scenes: awkward, he has nothing to ask her beyond what grade she is in, she offers him money as he leaves and he cannot take it, and then he holds the door of his wife's station wagon so Grodin's coat does not get caught, every beat graded A plus.
  • The weird sentimental moments may be what has aged best, with several unexpectedly poignant beats including the ending; a tangent on the greatest De Niro scenes names the Godfather 2 killing, moments in Cape Fear, the Goodfellas slow-motion smoking shot at the bar, nearly every scene in Heat including the diner, and many in Deer Hunter and Taxi Driver, while Raging Bull is now a tough, one-and-out watch.
  • Asked at the end what was said for what aged best, the recap is the poignant moments and Danny Elfman's music; the chemistry, the last line, the unchanged settings and the profanity were raised along the way.
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34:55

What’s Aged the Worst?

The eight knockouts with no concussion awareness

The eight knockouts with no concussion awareness

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:34:55Read transcript
  • De Niro bringing a gun onto an airplane is jarring; the movie could be released now except for that, the payphones, the lack of cell phones and no internet.
  • The constant smoking: Jack smokes everywhere, Grodin gets pissy about it on the bus and you side with the smoker; Jack puts a cigarette out on the hallway carpet before picking a lock in a beaten-down downtown LA apartment building; even in the nineties you could be stuck next to a smoker on a plane, and now everyone would be vaping; chain-smoking Marlboro Reds through Brest's endless takes must have meant five packs a day, and De Niro, a method actor, was surely not smoking fakes.
  • Cable airings with bleeps have aged worst of all for one host; the movie is not meant to be watched bleeped, since the art of the f-bomb is on full display.
  • The number one pick: eight guys get knocked out with no concussion awareness and nobody ever bleeds; Marvin, the rival bounty hunter played by John Ashton, goes down four times in a 100-minute movie, the Duke twice, and Moron Number One and Two once each, often by pistol-whip or shotgun butt; a 2013 joke that the movie was directed by Roger Goodell is recalled, no alternative is offered, and Marvin is imagined in a dark room on an E60 piece with Jeremy Schaap (transcribed 'Schapp'), unable to remember his wife's name.
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39:20

Casting What-Ifs

Paramount lined up Harrison Ford as Jack Walsh and Chevy Chase as the Duke; Chase had a conflict and Ford dropped out...

Paramount lined up Harrison Ford as Jack Walsh and Chevy Chase as the Duke; Chase had a conflict and Ford dropped out; De Niro came aboard only after being turned down for Big; Albert Brooks turned down the Duke; Paramount wanted Cher, then Robin Williams, as the Duke; Brest insisted on Grodin and Paramount sold the film to Universal; Ron Perlman, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta and Alec Baldwin were considered for Serrano

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:20Read transcript
  • Called a pantheon casting what-if: Paramount obtained the script and lined up Harrison Ford as Jack Walsh and Chevy Chase as the Duke around 1986-87, post-Fletch, which would have been a pretty good backup movie, although Ford, basically in his Blade Runner outfit, might be too handsome and has rarely been heard cursing that much; Chase had a conflict with Funny Farm and another film, and Ford dropped out.
  • De Niro opted in only after being turned down for Big; Albert Brooks was then offered the Duke and turned it down, which would also have been incredible, since Brooks and Grodin could have swapped parts for fifteen years and Brooks probably wins head to head.
  • Paramount then decided Cher should play the Duke, which is unimaginable, during a brief three-year peak of Cher as a top-tier actress; the research came from a piece written five years earlier, with a shout-out to Alan Seppinwall (as transcribed) as one of the few listeners.
  • Paramount pushed for Robin Williams, who wanted to audition, the same year as Good Morning Vietnam; Brest refused and wanted Charles Grodin, so Paramount sold the rights to Universal with Grodin and De Niro attached, and Universal had a major success.
  • Better or worse with 1988 Robin Williams: a sliding-doors note that doing it before or after Good Morning Vietnam might have affected Dead Poets Society; one view is that Williams would have done bits throughout and turned it into a comedy, while Grodin's measured, deadpan complaining plays perfectly off De Niro; the counter is a mellow Garp or Dead Poets Williams could have done it, and the endless takes might have driven him to become Robin Williams anyway.
  • Williams is judged the better actor but Grodin played it better; Williams only grew into his body by Good Will Hunting and was still slight in the eighties, so nobody but Grodin can be pictured in the part, with Grodin the safer pick though Williams playing it correctly would have been great; a crude aside recalls an anatomical revelation from the HBO Williams documentary.
  • The only other what-if is Jimmy Serrano, played by the late Dennis Farina: Ron Perlman, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta and Alec Baldwin were all considered; late-eighties Baldwin would have been interesting, Liotta a little too young, and nobody could be better than Farina.
  • Earlier aside: De Niro wanted the lead in Big to show a lighter side, the studio said no and went to Tom Hanks, who was nominated, while De Niro settled for Midnight Run and was not; which was the better career choice is left open, but De Niro as Josh Baskin, a thirteen-year-old at the piano with Robert Loggia, would have been creepy, so the studio made the right move.
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46:22

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Joe Pantoliano or Dennis Farina

Joe Pantoliano or Dennis Farina

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:22Read transcript
  • There may never have been more candidates, with Heat the only comparison; the field is Dennis Farina as Serrano, John Ashton, Yafet Kodo (as transcribed), Joe Pantoliano and Philip Baker Hall as Farina's lawyer.
  • John Ashton, Marvin here and Rosewood's partner in Beverly Hills Cop, with Cop 2 one of the great heat checks, would win going away in any other movie; it is a mystery why he never had a bigger career or a Fox cop drama, since he could easily have been the Dennis Franz character in NYPD Blue.
  • Yafet Kodo (as transcribed), the FBI agent whose identity De Niro steals, is in maybe fifteen minutes yet hits seven threes on presence alone, and carried it over to network TV.
  • Joe Pantoliano, who has his own award on the show, was in the stretch where he stopped being that guy, after Risky Business, Running Scared and Eddie and the Cruisers, and became Joe Pantoliano here, dyed hair and all; by the strict letter of the Dion Waiters law one host gives it to Pantoliano for making the most of his opportunity.
  • The other host goes Farina, who is in about five scenes, all filmed in Vegas because he was doing Crime Story, and is completely over the top in a baggy gray-and-black sweater; they agree to disagree, and his threats about the pencil, the cream soda and burying the telephone in his lawyer Sydney's head are recited.
  • Farina's best work is argued over: his mob boss Lombard in the first Miami Vice season, which led to Crime Story and typecasting as cop or mob boss after eighteen real years as a Chicago cop; Manhunter as Will Petersen's boss (preferred over the Bronx Tale performance of the actor transcribed as 'Chaz Pimentary'); and Out of Sight as Jennifer Lopez's father.
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50:42

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Joe Pantoliano

Joe Pantoliano

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:42Read transcript
  • An all-time that-guy extravaganza, with some former that-guys now too well known: Moron Number One and Two, the dad from My So Called Life as an FBI agent, and Eddie Moscone's sidekick who dimes him out and keeps offering to get donuts (transcribed 'Eddie Moscon').
  • The award goes to Joey Pants because it is named after him.
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51:15

Half-Assed Internet Research

Grodin has permanent scars from the real handcuffs he wore; the boxcar scene was entirely improvised on set; De Niro ...

Grodin has permanent scars from the real handcuffs he wore; the boxcar scene was entirely improvised on set; De Niro actually punched John Ashton during the train fight; the script originally had Marvin die when Serrano's thugs knocked him out, and he was shoehorned into the McCarran Airport climax

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:15Read transcript
  • Grodin has permanent scars from the real handcuffs he wore for much of the film across all those takes, which a hypothetical Grodin podcast would ask to see; the boxcar scene was entirely improvised; according to John Ashton, De Niro got so into the train fight that he actually punched him; the script had Marvin die when Serrano's thugs knocked him out, but the climax would have been less dramatic without him, so he was shoehorned into the McCarran Airport scene.
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53:32

Apex Mountain

Charles Grodin; Dennis Farina; Joe Pantoliano

Charles Grodin; Dennis Farina; Joe Pantoliano

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:32Read transcript
  • Grodin is a yes from both with no debate.
  • De Niro is complicated and this is not his apex but a high step toward it; candidates for his real apex are Taxi Driver, Raging Bull coming off Godfather 2, and Goodfellas, with a Marvin's Room joke; one host personally calls Midnight Run his favorite De Niro peak but then argues Goodfellas, where the anticipation of De Niro in a Scorsese mob movie as Jimmy Conway made the credibility the hook, as the arguable apex, so the lean does not stand as a pick.
  • Dennis Farina is a yes; John Ashton is not, since Beverly Hills Cop 2, where his divorce is a running joke for Judge Reinhold, beats Midnight Run.
  • Joey Pants is a yes: he is great in Memento and The Matrix, but this is the favorite and his apex because this is where he becomes Joey Pants, running to the restaurant or reporting that Marvin has the Duke.
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55:59

Is This Movie Better With…?

Steve Buscemi

Steve Buscemi

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:59Read transcript
  • Last week listeners were asked to tweak the Danny Trejo category (transcribed 'Danny trail'), since it had already been decided Trejo should be in every movie; a couple of people suggested variations of the adopted idea, so no one person gets credit: three actors, taken from a time machine in their primes, and the hosts decide which fits best.
  • Buscemi is the obvious pick for both: he could have played seven parts, Moron Number One or Two, the donuts guy, Joey Pants, an FBI agent, even the Duke on a budget; the game is called fun and the suggestions are thanked.
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57:00

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

No clear overactor; Joe Pantoliano as the nearest candidate

No clear overactor; Joe Pantoliano as the nearest candidate

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:00Read transcript
  • The award is now also named for Robert Shaw's Quint in Jaws, with a Quint impression; nobody really overacts in this movie, though Pantoliano never modulates his performance and dials it up in a good way, as in his line about everybody telling him to go fuck himself.
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57:46

Picking Nits

Three TV-movie sequels starting in 1994 with Christopher McDonald as Jack Walsh; the FBI backing Jack's plan to take ...

Three TV-movie sequels starting in 1994 with Christopher McDonald as Jack Walsh; the FBI backing Jack's plan to take down Serrano even though he impersonated Mosley for a week; Marvin consistently getting ahead of the westbound pair and remembering Jack's Amex card; how anyone reached each other by phone; the Duke never using his money belt; Jack refusing a bribe while impersonating a federal officer and stealing Marvin's car

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:46Read transcript
  • Beyond the eight knockouts already covered, the first nit is that three sequels exist: TV movies starting in 1994 with Christopher McDonald (also transcribed 'McDonnell') as Jack Walsh, called Another Midnight Run, Midnight Run Around and Midnight Run for Your Life; they are dismissed as something to pretend never happened, and the split-second Blockbuster-era thrill of spotting a Midnight Run sequel before realizing it was the Christopher McDonald one is recalled, with a nod to a Grantland Blockbuster piece.
  • The biggest nit is the ending: Jack, out of time after losing the Duke, is with Mosley of the FBI, whom he has impersonated for a week, a felony on top of everything else on the trip; on the plane he proposes handing Serrano the discs to nail him on racketeering charges, and the FBI agent played by Yafet Kodo (as transcribed) throws the full force of the federal government behind a bounty hunter's plan; the clip of the arrest is played, and it is called the flaw of the movie.
  • It is hard to believe someone with Marvin's mental acuity, after all that head trauma, keeps getting ahead of the Duke and Walsh heading west: from Pittsburgh he finds their exact train and car and catches up repeatedly, and he remembers Jack's Amex number to cancel it; more broadly, Eddie reaches Dorfler by phone in his hotel room and Tony Darvo can be reached through a matchbook, raising how anyone got in touch in 1988; the four concussions are joked about again.
  • Borderline nits from the ending: the Duke carries a money belt of about 500 grand yet never tries to use it, though he did offer Jack double what Eddie was paying at the start, and Jack refuses bribes while impersonating a federal officer, stealing Marvin's car and caving his head in four times; the Duke could at least have palmed a hundred and claimed to find it on the street, since he was hungry enough for chorizo and eggs.
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1:01:25

Probably Unanswerable Questions

How long does the Duke actually stay alive? Does Jack Walsh use the money to open the coffee shop, and where?

How long does the Duke actually stay alive? Does Jack Walsh use the money to open the coffee shop, and where?

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:25Read transcript
  • How long does the Duke stay alive: probably dead within six months, since even with Serrano in jail the word is going out through the bosses.
  • Does Jack open the coffee shop, and where in Los Angeles: a dream that it is the diner Neil McCauley uses in Heat, with the 'book about metals' exchange recited; one guess is Ojai, moving to the country to start over and smoke, the other Koreatown, where he got in early before it was destroyed in the riots, which is rejected as a sequel for not matching the movie's tone.
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1:02:49

Who Won the Movie?

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:49Read transcript
  • De Niro is the pick, as a favorite De Niro performance ever; his performances are ranked with Midnight Run as 1A and Jimmy Conway 1B, Godfather 2 third for building a character on what young Brando's interpretation would have been, Heat fourth and Raging Bull fifth; a recent Deer Hunter rewatch is called a tough hang but incredible, and John Kazal (as transcribed) only made the four best movies of all time.
  • De Niro wins, with honorable mention for Grodin (transcribed 'Gerdin'), all the that-guy performers, a case for Danny Elfman, and Martin Brest; the result is affirmed twice.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Robert De Niro
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1:04:10

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

"Here come two words for you. Shut the fuck up"

"Here come two words for you. Shut the fuck up"

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:10Read transcript
  • The whole movie is quotable, but the one iconic quote is the exchange where the Duke tells Jack he is a grown man with control over his own words and gets two words back; it is hilarious and timeless and the one said most often.
  • A special shout-out, less profane than the rest, to 'see you in the next life' and the astonishing ending: Jack hangs up on Eddie, lets the Duke go and starts walking off saying it would have been a nice coffee shop, the Duke presses the money on him as a gift rather than a payoff since Jack had already let him go, and the exchange about not knowing he had money follows; these two will never be friends, which is why there could never be a sequel, with the Duke bound for a tax haven and Jack staying a bounty hunter and probably not seeing his kid for years, unchanged but with a moment of recognition.
  • Earlier, during Apex Mountain, Eddie's phone rant about being told to go fuck himself, including telling himself to, is named a second-favorite quote in the movie.
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More from the conversation

A two-host episode is framed as a passion project: some episodes are for the masses (Dark Knight, Jaws, Social Network), others, like Miami Vice and any Michael Mann film, are for the hosts, with Collateral and a two-part Blackhat joked about as the ultimate; this marks the film's 30th anniversary month.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:33Read transcript
Nephew Kyle, producing, has not seen the film, and an estimated 95 percent of Ringer staff have not; it is called the least dated eighties movie, releasable today apart from the lack of cell phones, tonally as fresh as in 1988 if a little slow in places, and probably the best action comedy of all time, a vibe everyone since has failed to recapture.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:17Read transcript
The plaque: Jack Walsh, a failed Chicago cop turned bounty hunter, must bring the Duke, an accountant who stole from a mobster and skipped bail, back to LA by a deadline; De Niro's funny side was a revelation after Godfather 2, Taxi Driver, Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, King of Comedy, Once Upon a Time in America, Angel Heart and The Untouchables; Grodin was a near-A-lister in the seventies (Heaven Can Wait, Seems Like Old Times); the film made over 80 million and was Gene Siskel's sixth best of 1988, and its legacy is thirty years of cable airings, often bleeped, that you can join at any point.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:05Read transcript
Midnight Run is one of the top two profanity movies of all time with Slap Shot, with 48 Hours in the mix: teenagers learned how and when to swear from it, and the way Pantoliano, De Niro and Farina scream at each other yet keep working together felt almost illicit.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:05Read transcript
De Niro's reputation at the time: The Untouchables, with the weight gain, the Capone speech and the baseball bat, felt like the end of serious mafioso De Niro, and Jack Walsh, the beaten-down, chain-smoking ex-cop who just wants a coffee shop, became an archetype alongside Jack Cates in 48 Hours and Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice, though far less racist than Cates.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:31Read transcript
The trailer confused a nineteen-year-old viewer about whether De Niro was trying to be funny; the eighties were a weird decade for him, with the Belushi death at the Chateau Marmont and a subpoena, after which he became very private and never a talk-show performer, unlike Denzel, who was a tough interview but seemed amused by the game; the Meet the Parents-era comedies never convinced one host he is funny, yet he is really funny here.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:43Read transcript
De Niro versus Pacino: a 2001 ESPN Page 2 mailbag on the question is recalled, and Midnight Run is the kind of movie Pacino never could have made, while Sea of Love is the closest to Pacino as a person and would have been creepy with De Niro; De Niro's run from The Untouchables through Goodfellas, Cape Fear, This Boy's Life, Casino and Heat, plus the forgotten Cop Land, Jackie Brown and Wag the Dog, builds to Heat as their NBA Finals, which Pacino was judged to have won with the more expressive part.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:34Read transcript
Martin Brest's career is hard to explain: big successes and catastrophic failures, legendary on-set unrest and overruns, shooting so many takes on Midnight Run that Yafet Kodo (as transcribed) was miserable, called him 'hair director' (as transcribed) and, in the transcript's words, 'he was like a Nazi'; compared with Colin Trevorrow and Josh Trank, and with a reporter who keeps blowing the budget and never delivering the story; only five movies in twenty years, with Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run and Scent of a Woman as three hits over nine years, then Meet Joe Black after six years and Gigli after five, never directing again.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:54Read transcript
Grodin's omission from the 1988 Best Supporting Actor nominees (Alec Guinness, Kevin Kline, Martin Lando, River Phoenix, Dean Stockwell, as transcribed) is called inexplicable and a travesty, and De Niro was likewise left out of a Best Actor field of Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Edward James Olmo, Gene Hackman and Max von Cito (as transcribed).
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:40Read transcript
48 Hours started the buddy-cop wave, Lethal Weapon and this pushed it over the top, and thirty years later the gimmick is nearly dead, surviving as homages like Rush Hour and Pineapple Express; the trick is keeping it funny while remaining a legitimately scary action movie, as when Farina's mobster seems about to kill the Duke, akin to early Cheers having stretches with no jokes; a remake today would star Tiffany Haddish and Kristen Wiig (transcribed 'Kirsten Wigg') and still be slapstick, with Keanu a rare recent film to straddle the line.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:44Read transcript
Like Die Hard, this is a one-outfit movie: Jack starts in a gray sweatshirt and leather jacket and five days later you can read everything he has been through in how disgusting the sweatshirt is, as with McClane's tank top covered in dirt and blood; the hosts wonder how many sweatshirts and leather jackets the costume department went through and how many cigarettes De Niro smoked.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:12Read transcript
A 2013 NBA free-agency piece built on Midnight Run quotes described Walsh as a beaten-down, sarcastic, volatile chain-smoking has-been with a heartbeat beneath every F-bomb; like Nolte's Jack Cates, he is not a good person and you end up loving him anyway, a kind of Stockholm syndrome that rarely works.
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:45Read transcript
The HBO Robin Williams documentary is judged uneven: it underplays and mismanages his transition into drama, jumping from Mork and Popeye to the comedies while skipping Garp and Moscow on the Hudson, and serious Williams was the all-time hit-or-miss actor, with What Dreams May Come called one of the worst movies ever made.
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:33Read transcript
Wrap-up: a four-movie listener vote for next week has Fury Road slightly ahead of Bad Boys 2, with the result on a host's Twitter feed; Die Hard follows, to be taped at a 30th-anniversary screening at the Nakatomi Plaza, and one host will miss next week's episode but be on Die Hard.
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:50Read transcript
Sign-off: the hosts trade 'see you in the next life' by name.
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:13Read transcript
Closing Freshly and Leesa ad reads, with a joke that John Ashton's four-concussion character needs a better memory, then plugs for The Watch and the Bill Simmons Podcast and a request to spread the word.
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:30Read transcript

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