Ebert did not like the film and gave it one and a half stars, which the hosts call bonkers for a movie he seemingly should have liked.
He reportedly liked Cocktail more, called the film confusing and uninteresting, wrote that to the degree he understood it he did not care, and put it on his most-hated films list.
A host wonders whether Ebert had fatigue with Tarantino imitations full of guns and swearing and used this review to bury the genre.
The score surprises the hosts because Ebert normally likes well-structured characters and this is a very classical movie.

Declined first choice for McManus; Chris Walken or Bob De Niro in Palminteri's role; Al Pacino

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 00:50:57Read transcript

Baldwin was the second choice for McManus; the first choice, Michael Biehn, reportedly turned it down and later called it a huge mistake.
With Biehn it would be a less funny movie, though one host has always loved him.
The script went to everybody in town; Palminteri's role was offered to Chris Walken and Bob De Niro, and Walken is imagined as Kobayashi or Redfoot.
Al Pacino came in to read, which the hosts find suspicious.
Singer and McQuarrie sent Spacey the script without saying which role was his; he assumed Palminteri's or Byrne's part, but it was written with him in mind for Verbal.
The hosts say Redfoot was offered to a list including Walken, Tommy Lee Jones, Bridges, Charlie Sheen, Spader, Pacino and Johnny Cash before Peter Greene got it, adding "who knows if it's true".
Byrne, dealing with personal problems, backed out for 24 hours until the filmmakers agreed to shoot in LA, where he lived, in five weeks.
A joke proposes making Redfoot the Voight character from Heat to connect the universes.

No affirmative selection

In the discussion (2)

Approx. transcript time · 00:58:54Read transcript

One host has never been a Suzy Amis fan and thinks Blown Away would have been better with anyone else; the other likes her.
One host proposes Laura Linney in Suzy Amis's role; the other pushes back that it is a thankless three-scene part that would waste Linney; Linney is noted as being in smaller movies back then, and the proposer says he knew the other would not like the pick.

Folders handed out in death order; Baldwin-Pollak feud

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:59:38Read transcript

The folders Keaton hands out are distributed in the order the characters die.
A making-of documentary reveals a long-standing Baldwin-Pollak feud from the shoot; as the hosts relay it, by Pollak's account Baldwin stayed in character and bullied other actors, Byrne calls him a nut job on set but a fun one, and Baldwin admits trying to bully Pollak a little; neither will say what caused it.
Further searching found nothing more, and both hosts side with Pollak.
Pollak's 90s poker show with stand-up comics, his Dinner for Five appearances and podcasting are praised; aside from Spacey he may have had the cast's best 90s, with A Few Good Men, L.A. Story and Casino.

Detective missing Verbal; small-stakes crimes; beach body burial

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:06:57Read transcript

The detective fixates on Keaton and never finds it suspicious that the one cripple survived the boat explosion without a mark, likened to a bad-job moment.
Soze described like a tall Glenn Danzig does not match Spacey, who is not cool like that; the other host counters that the mythology is a shield, so this nit is disputed.
Kobayashi's list of Soze's crimes, such as truck parts and a van in Buffalo, seems small-stakes for a $91 million cocaine guy.
The beach scene burying Fenster's body in the sand by the water is a weird scene.

Pollak's missing stardom; the detective's next day; Soze remarrying; Soze vs Neil McCauley; the boat plan

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:12:58Read transcript

Why wasn't Kevin Pollak a bigger star? A bad job by his agent; he could have had a Caddyshack-type comedy.
The detective's next day at the office after blowing the case is imagined, including seeing his face at the fax and a reassignment to parking tickets.
Did Soze marry again? Probably not; he keeps no attachments.
Soze versus Neil McCauley is raised; a host built a greatest-teams chapter of his basketball book around the Soze mindset, and Marcus Smart is said to be in the Soze zone.
The boat plot is hard to follow; why not a simpler way to get the witness than a massive San Pedro gunfight? The reply is that it kills all his enemies at once, as a sociopath would.