Drive to Vegas; blackjack and big-winner stretch; par-three golf; NHL video-game scene; Heather Graham swing dance; late-night diner; Nikki answering-machine calls

In the discussion (19)

Approx. transcript time · 00:34:19Read transcript

The drive to Vegas is a pick: he is talked into going, puts on a suit while the other holds the wheel, they scream Vegas, then the next cut is them driving sadly down the highway.
The whole blackjack scene is a pick, ending with the devastated Mike and Trent insisting he is the big winner.
That roughly 11-minute stretch runs into breakfast, with the pancakes, the age of enlightenment, and "I'm going to pull a Fredo", humming for 15 solid minutes.
Details praised: counting the money before handing it over, an amateur move; the three black chips back; the double down loss you could see coming; the look on Favreau's face.
Is it Mike's first Vegas trip? They seem secretly losers; Trent, supposedly worldly, cannot gamble, and doubling down on 11 is his only move.
The Los Feliz par-three scene is a pick: not mentioning her like not talking to a pitcher mid no-hitter, and "get there" on a putt six feet short, still funny 150 times later.
The par three looks exactly the same, down to the booth attendant, and captures struggling actors with nothing to do; opening a round there with an eight or nine is relatable.
Ron Livingston is good delivering the no-hitter line.
The NHL video-game scene is called perhaps the greatest video-game scene in movie history; The Wizard is raised, but this is the first to integrate guys playing a sports game so seamlessly.
Picking Roenick was essential because he was a god in that game; Vaughn is said to be a huge Blackhawks fan.
"The Kings are a finesse team", making Gretzky's head bleed, and messing with Mikey over the delivery guy are all called lights out.
A participant who was an only child identifies with Sue: undefeated against the computer, then blaming the controller when friends beat him.
Per the Grantland oral history as told on air, they could not make Gretzky's head bleed and had Vaughn come over during editing to keep trying until they captured it.
The Heather Graham scene is a pick: he finally uses Trent's lessons, they swing dance, and cutaways show a crying, happy Trent and Sue; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are said to have been asked on a whim and later played a Super Bowl halftime show.
The late-night diner scene is a pick, with "our little boy's all grown up" and Trent jumping on the table, said to be ad-libbed.
The whole Nikki run, from the bar and the number to calling her machine repeatedly, is painful but amazingly well done.
Watching with a daughter who had never seen it, attention on the TV was about 80-20 versus the usual 50-50 with her phone; she was confused by the answering-machine calls.
Maybe the party-to-party bouncing, from the Dresden to Marty and Elaine and the talk of not getting a pilot, felt like a window into an unknown world.
The whole movie is rewatchable; for one participant the video-game scene is the favorite.

Opening credits; Vaughn and Favreau careers; This Place Is Dead Anyway guy; Vegas baby Vegas; Mikey-as-loser jokes; PG-13 line; Marty and Elaine; party-to-party convoys; diner hangouts; music; Vaughn-Favreau dynamic; Doug Liman; Ron Livingston and Heather Graham casting

In the discussion (15)

Approx. transcript time · 00:46:06Read transcript

The opening credits and their pictures of LA.
The careers of Vaughn and Favreau, which in 2003 might have seemed stuck after a grand slam out of the gate.
The "this place is dead anyway" guy, played by Alex Desert, says it twice when the place is not dead; nobody is paying attention to them.
"Vegas baby Vegas" was first heard here and reused liberally in columns.
The film establishes Mikey as a loser: Lisa is a Dorothy at the MGM Grand, the "not in Kansas anymore" line gets dead silence, and the comedian is the least funny guy.
The PG-13 movie line.
Marty and Elaine look exactly the same at the Dresden years later; one host saw them play midweek last fall and jokes they may be alien life forms.
Everyone driving in their own car in a convoy from party to party, as LA was until about 2014-15.
Hanging out in diners, a top-five hangout location; late coffee and pancakes are missed.
A college diner near Holy Cross called the Heritage, where a friend always ordered the Heritage; the 101 diner near the office is the diner in the movie; diners are a lifestyle on Long Island.
The hosts say diners have taken a big hit with COVID and many in LA have gone down.
The music has aged nicely.
The Vaughn-Favreau dynamic and 25-year careers, seen at an early stage here.
Doug Liman is called one of the 10 or 12 most successful directors of the last 30 years, a risk-taker good with actors, discussed on the Edge of Tomorrow podcast.
Ron Livingston and Heather Graham were caught right before fame; Livingston is likable and almost the moral conscience; Graham made this and Boogie Nights within about six months.

What’s Aged the Worst?

The Club; answering machines; Reservoir Dogs and Goodfellas homages; talking answering machine; Lorraine-as-bunny flourish; $300 blackjack stakes; Vegas drive timing

In the discussion (7)

Approx. transcript time · 00:51:39Read transcript

The Club on cars had a ten-year run and is no longer seen; a host kept one on as an unlocked ornament on a Ford Tempo and his mom's Corolla; a daughter's confusion at it is mentioned.
Answering machines no longer exist.
The Reservoir Dogs homage and Goodfellas kitchen homage were funny in 1996-97, but viewers under 30 may not get the jokes now.
Two whimsical flourishes stick out in an otherwise intimate film: the answering machine talking back to Mike, and Lorraine briefly appearing as a bunny, tied to Trent's bear-and-bunny speech.
Having been broke gambling in Vegas, a $300-a-hand table is no way; you go to the table with the bearded guy and the old lady hitting on 17.
The drive to Vegas: leaving at night on a six-to-seven hour drive, promising midnight but arriving around one or two, meeting the girls at 6 a.m., and a 9 a.m. audition apparently blown off.
One host claims a 3:15 record from LA to Vegas at 105 the whole way and is told not to try it.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Deena Martin

In the discussion (3)

Approx. transcript time · 00:58:36Read transcript

One host says Patrick Van Horn as Sue was never in anything else again and feels Alex Desert has been in other things.
The vote goes to Dina Martin, also in Dazed and Confused: cute, a good actress, a likable vibe and great voice, and it is unclear why more did not happen for her in the 90s.
Alex Desert is liked a lot and called so money in PCU.

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

The guys Sue confronts in the parking lot

In the discussion (3)

Approx. transcript time · 00:59:37Read transcript

No one seemed to overact or dial it up.
The award goes to the guys Sue confronts in the parking lot, the House of Pain crew; Scully is named.
Scully is identified as Rio, son of Taylor Hackford, director of Proof of Life, who is married to Helen Mirren.

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Heather Graham

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:01:00Read transcript

Nominees: the this-place-is-dead guy, Marty and Elaine, Heather Graham with basically two scenes, Sue in about five scenes, and Scully of House of Pain.
The vote goes to Heather Graham, in the movie under 10 minutes and lights out; the follow-up answer is also Heather Graham.
Her closing phone call throws rapid Diane Keaton-style bits at Favreau.
Brooke Langton is called overlooked, from Melrose Place and The Replacements; she looks like a woman alone at a bar who would blow you out of the water.

Apex Mountain

Brooke Langton; Sue; early underground Vegas; hockey video games; The Derby; The Dresden

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 01:06:55Read transcript

A host says he gives the bear-and-bunny speech before every podcast; a Pacino tangent asks who Pacino would have played.
Doug Liman gets a no; his Apex is probably the first "Born" film, per the transcript.
Vaughn's Apex is Wedding Crashers, or Old School.
Favreau's Apex: we are living in it and he is in charge; Iron Man is named, since it became a monster and set up everything after.
Apex for Brooke Langton, on Melrose Place when this came out.
Apex definitely for Sue; absolutely for early underground Vegas before it became commercialized; yes for hockey video games.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's Apex is probably the Super Bowl halftime show; swing revival in general is probably at Apex here.
Yes for the Derby and the Dresden; Dina Martin is then named without a stated verdict.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Entourage as the existing sequel

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 01:10:34Read transcript

One reaction is "please, God, no"; another is less allergic but asks who could match Vaughn's irrepressible character.
They already made this show, Entourage, the logical sequel; that is accepted as a very good point that makes one host unhappy.

Who Won the Movie?

Jon Favreau; Vince Vaughn

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:17:19Read transcript

Favreau is picked; without this movie he might not have had a career, he made his own destiny by writing it and getting it made, and after The Mandalorian he is among the five most important people in Hollywood.
Vaughn is picked because he leaps off the screen at ten times the wattage of anyone else.
The question is split into who won the movie itself versus long-term success; long term is called easily Favreau, since Vaughn was too charismatic not to make it, while Favreau was 300 pounds in Rudy three years earlier with mixed acting results.
Co-winners have happened before; the framing is Vaughn as micro winner and Favreau as macro winner.

Podcast choices

Speaker not identified: Jon Favreau
Speaker not identified: Vince Vaughn