The reunion of the crew is nominated; Scott Khan (as transcribed) is called really good, and the 'it was one job that we did together' proprietary-stance exchange is quoted, with a take where a cast member cracks up kept in. — Chris Ryan
The breakdown of the Vanderwood heist is nominated for Damon objecting to calling someone a freak and invoking Emily Dickinson; it plays like an Altman scene of overlapping dialogue, and subtitles reveal Pitt muttering 'don't touch my food.' — Chris Ryan
The Matsui meeting with Robbie Coltrane is a five-minute scene in which no one knows what anyone is saying, capped by Damon reciting the lyrics to Kashmir. — Chris Ryan
The train-station banter about how old Rusty is ('How old do you think I am?') is nominated. — Chris Ryan
Rusty and Danny getting drunk on red wine and watching Happy Days dubbed in Italian is nominated, with praise for the Potsie dubbing. — Chris Ryan
Bruce Willis in the hotel, the whole Tess-comes-to-Rome stretch, the Faberge theft and the Night Fox's capoeira dance all feed the last 25 minutes before the final reveals. — Chris Ryan
The reintroduction of the crew is singled out, especially Danny in the bank at the start, which has Thomas Crown Affair energy; his choosing not to rob the bank pivots the film from a grittier American tale to an international extravaganza. — Sean Fennessey
The bank opening is also a nod to the start of Out of Sight; Rusty visiting Tover Grace (as transcribed) and the matador-suit stand-up routine are further nominees. — Sean Fennessey
The film's title cards and timelines do not add up, but it is a movie of flashing moments, such as the Night Fox's story about Lamarca and the American businessman played by producer Jerry Weintraub. — Sean Fennessey
Cherry Jones's moment with Damon in the truck ('You told Dad') is one of the funniest in the film, as is her chewing gum when she enters the jail cell.
Runners-up: the Matsui meeting as a distillation of these movies, with Clooney's deadpan stillness and Damon's Kashmir timing, and Pitt and Clooney watching Happy Days, which this participant's husband called a beautiful movie about male intimacy. — Amanda Dobbins
The Happy Days scene is inverted minutes later when Rusty bares his soul and a tired Danny pays him no attention. — Amanda Dobbins
The pick is the whole Tess-goes-to-Rome sequence; another voice says it would be their pick too, and the bit is described as a whiteboard idea the movie was built around.
The bit is a genuine risk, compared to Curb Your Enthusiasm casting real people as bad versions of themselves; the meta aspect is suggested as why Bill wanted this as a flawed rewatchable. — Sean Fennessey
Viewers either find it delightful or ask whether Danny looks just like George Clooney if Tess looks like Julia Roberts; the message-board reading is mocked.
The scene needs outside knowledge: Damon recounting The Sixth Sense to Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts's husband's real name being Danny, and the real name of Willis's daughter Tallulah. — Amanda Dobbins
Damon's and Roberts's reactions when Willis walks in make the scene; Roberts's face is called possibly some of the greatest American acting, and they reportedly tried 23 versions of the scene. — Chris Ryan
The Marcy publicist exchange is praised for its specificity about studio versus personal publicists on a European press tour.
Tess's accent coaching and the Cockney accent draw a Dick Van Dyke comparison.
The Julia Roberts hotel scene is declared the most rewatchable scene, with the whole Tess experience close behind. — Chris Ryan
Roberts is underused in the first film, but here she joins the crew as the 12th, as in the paint-mixing 'too much ox blood' moment.
The mustaches, all real and magnificent: an hour and a half in, one host wonders why nobody wears hats and mustaches now and says producer Craig should have one right now; another cannot grow one, Kurt Russell can grow incredible facial hair, and a Christmas challenge is set to grow a Tombstone mustache or goatee for the fans.
Powers Booth and Val Kilmer actually have a soul patch with a mustache rather than goatees; the challenged host is in, even though a mustache makes him look like a dirtbag cop from 1974, which is when the challenger feels most like his friend, like being friends with Gene Hackman.
The crazy loaded cast, already discussed, and Dana Delaney, whose good career felt like it could have been better; a China Beach fan likens her to Carla Gugino, first said as 'Carlo Gugino' and mocked as a Fellini actor and the Godfather toll-booth gunman, as a why-aren't-you-a-bigger-star actress, asking why Demi Moore was so much bigger.
Delaney had a bigger career than Gugino, whom everyone loves, but should have been an A list star; this was the one time a big movie made her the female lead, Exit to Eden being the joke about where it went wrong, and she remains one host's second-favorite actress in the film.
The 1880s Wild Wild West world-building: liquor, brothels, gambling, hats and mustaches; the Godfather tone Russell talked about shows in Wyatt moving in, taking over the faro game (transcribed 'Pharaoh') at the Oriental and winning the deeds to mines, a man who stands for law and order screwing people out of things because fame left the Earps with nothing to show for it.
The film is called the bridge from John Ford Westerns to Deadwood, one of the first Westerns full of people cursing each other out and then shooting somebody in the head; the blood in the Bill Paxton scene and Sam Elliott being told he will never use his arm again were new and intense for a Western.
The closing credits, four solid minutes of the cast walking in their outfits for no reason like a Vanity Fair photo shoot, are unintentionally funny but cool, compared to a Countdown segment one host once shot with Jalen.
That era of Val Kilmer, all the way through Heat, is savored like old Fab Five tapes from Michigan: it did not totally work out, but if you could bottle this there was something special, and he really should have been a bigger star.
Why the film is special: you can watch the other actors recognize what Kilmer is doing and change their performances to elevate his, making themselves more buttoned-down and austere, solid American oak, while he is free jazz, a coughing, sweating, feverish, green Byron or Shelley figure; the Kansas Earps versus Georgia Doc contrast is credited, with colleague Amanda Dobbins invoked as the poetic Georgian, and tuberculosis explaining the rest.
Kurt Russell's Wyatt is looking for a wife who gets him and stokes his soul, but the real partner is Holliday, from the first 'how the hell are you' line; the friendship is the love story at the center of the movie, an amazing portrayal of it.
Revisiting the 1993 Best Supporting Actor field (Tommy Lee Jones, DiCaprio, Ralph Fiennes, Malkovich, Pete Postlewaite), it is amazing Kilmer was not nominated, though the category was stacked; Malkovich is good in In the Line of Fire but not as memorable, and with the wished-for five-year Oscar delay Kilmer gets nominated.
The film was a modest hit that took on a new life: one host is not sure he saw it in theaters despite seeing everything then, another definitely did over Christmas break when movies were the only thing to do, and another watched it maybe 25 times in a friend's basement because it was always on TV.
The tuberculosis vaccine has aged best, in the sense that the film shows how much having tuberculosis sucked: Doc turns green, coughs blood, is insulted as a 'lunger' by everyone, and keeps smoking and drinking whiskey around the clock until the doctor orders no more whiskey, cigarettes, sex or gambling.
Joanna Pacula, whose name nobody can pronounce, is the last pick: she was around for a while as a why-not-bigger actress and then just never made it, her credits being Marked for Death (transcribed 'Mark for Death') with Steven Seagal, Tombstone and My Giant; while her credits are looked up, Kilmer's 'I have not even begun to defile myself' is performed, his accent likened to Yosemite Sam reading Oscar Wilde, ridiculous but perfect.
Asked again later, Billy Bob Thornton is one host's answer; another sticks with the mustaches.
