The hosts say Keanu Reeves was originally set to play Chris and lost the part when Kilmer fit it around Batman Forever; one host would totally go for Keanu. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say Ted Levine was offered Waingro and turned it down to avoid typecasting after Buffalo Bill; one host can't fathom it, the other thinks he would like that movie more. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say Voight initially turned down Nate, saying others could do it better, until Mann insisted. — Bill Simmons
An internet claim that the actress later in Mann's Miami Vice refused Justine unless the script was translated into Mandarin is called half-fast and fishy. — Bill Simmons
The Thief star lamented on a 1998 Thief DVD commentary with Mann that he had no role in Heat; the hosts say he should have played Nate. — Bill Simmons
Offered the Thief star as Nate plus Keanu as Chris, one host would rather keep Kilmer, whose unpredictable performance he loves. — Bill Simmons
The real Dion Waiters is said to be struggling, suspended twice in Miami for conduct detrimental to the team. — Bill Simmons
Renaming it the Freddie Miles Award is floated, calling this one of the all-time heat checks on the podcast. — Bill Simmons
A plan is described: after the 100th episode, with the 101st a reheat with Chris Ryan, listeners would pick a new name from four choices on Twitter. — Bill Simmons
An objection says the name cannot change yet because Dion Waiters was on the Oklahoma City Thunder comparison team and Hoffman's character is kind of the Dion Waiters.
The new category, from a listener, is to recast one part; two would recast nothing because the movie is perfect, one would put Dave Chappelle in the Mo McCray part, with Kate McKinnon as a joke; asked which part they would play, the answers are Borracho and Murph, and Jamie Foxx is rejected as too old.
The film missed spots to stunt cast: the disgruntled wife could have been someone more famous like a 2019 Catherine Keener or Jessica Alba, and Gus could have been funnier with Chappelle, a take the other two vote down.
Gus could have been dialed up with Dave Chappelle or Jamie Foxx for three jokes, but the others say the film cannot have humor because it is built as Big Nick versus Ray Merriman, two alpha gorillas on a collision course, signaled by the on-screen names and matching back-shot introductions.
Mo McCray's best moment, pulling Big Nick away from the women at Benihana while giving them a salacious look, shows the crew is as dirty as Nick; the Chappelle wish is compared to Laker fans preferring Derek Fisher to Chris Paul.
For 50 Cent's part, Ray Lewis or Ed Reed are imagined as stunt casting, Idris Elba is too famous and old, and swapping Mo McCray and 50 would make a worse movie because the cop needs to be the slimy, skinnier one.
Before any nominees, the question is whether a scene without both Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams can even make a case, such as Joan Allen taking Allie to see the boyfriend that never was; the answer is no, that belongs in a different category, so this is a Noah and Allie podcast, young Noah and Allie, with old Noah and Allie saved for later.
The first nominee is the first date: they lie down in the empty street, almost get hit by a car, then dance while Gosling hums 'I'll be seeing you'; it is called one of the more romantic movie scenes of the 21st century, the insistence on dancing is sweet, he is a trained dancer from the Mickey Mouse Club, and the scene is the purest expression of the chemistry that animates the movie.
Asked whether the scene works because of their chemistry or because of Ryan Gosling, the answer is both: they are really magnetic with each other, and McAdams's reactions and the way she plays off him in that scene are really good. — Andrew Gruttadaro
Her guffawing when they almost get hit by a car seems not to fit her character but makes it whole; her charm jumps off the screen, the role is written as feisty and she is the aggressive one, both characters keep catching each other on the back foot, so you watch them discovering each other in real time and the credit cannot all go to Gosling.
Gosling looks so young, more like his Remember the Titans character than at any other point, which he was fresh off; the next nominee is the montage of them falling in love that culminates on the beach with 'if you're a bird, I'm a bird'.
Asked where the bird scene ranks among tearjerkers, the answer is that it is up there: the weird conversation about being birds takes you aback and then turns out to be beautiful. — Andrew Gruttadaro
The hosts remember having to explain 'if you're a bird, I'm a bird' to Chris Ryan; the movie got a second life on the Internet, like Mean Girls two months earlier, and the line became a meme, though for one host and her college roommates who watched it constantly it was already something they said to each other, and the movie became a thing partly because college kids who loved it then started using the internet.
Next nominee: Allie first arrives at the restored house, having come from Charleston, where both actors moved beforehand to get familiar with the city, which is read as very Canadian; she is awkward, he barely speaks, she tries to drive off and hits the fence and ends up staying; the clip is played, and this is the scene nominated, not the next-day scene.
The next-day scene follows: the blue dress she then wears for most of the movie, the birds, the rain, 'why didn't you write me', 'I wrote you every day for 365 days', building to 'it wasn't over, it still isn't over' and the kiss and sex in the house, the most famous scene from the movie; he catches her on an inhalation when he kisses her.
The choreography of the sex scene is elaborate, with confusion about why he keeps his pants on to walk upstairs, emphasis on stripping down one stocking at a time, and heavy blocking from the dock to their falling asleep; the heart of the movie rests on their chemistry here and they hit the fiery tone, though one host is distracted by how easily he pulls the boat out of the water.
They won Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards and reenacted the kiss on stage, where she wore a strapless bustier-type top and looked incredible, very 2005; the appearance came two years after they filmed the movie.
Next nominee: after the outing with her mom she returns flustered, they have their last big fight and he says 'I want all of you'; it is called the most powerful Ryan Gosling moment, the source code for what he becomes, and the start of his habit of yelling random words of emphasis; he dominates the scene because she barely speaks, and the gregarious Noah of the opening never returns after the break, a thought parked for a later category.
Asked whether any nominee has been forgotten, the Ferris wheel is offered, and later it is confirmed as the only other one on the list. — Andrew Gruttadaro
The Ferris wheel is good but happens too early in the movie to have been seen multiple times on cable; one host realised she had never seen the first five minutes or the opening credits with the man rowing a boat, so the objection is a technicality; the scene is up there but the passion has not been established yet.
Asked for a number one, the pick is 'it still isn't over': the most famous scene, but if you turn the movie on within twenty or thirty minutes of it you have to keep watching until you see it. — Amanda Dobbins
Asked for a most rewatchable scene, the answer is agreement that it is hardly an argument. — Andrew Gruttadaro
A bad Alzheimer's joke compares the compulsion to keep watching with Allie's condition.
Another voice rides hard for the fight scene and has great affection for the first date, called the most romantic five minutes of cinema of the past two decades, but in terms of rewatchability it is 'it still isn't over'.
Keating retrieving belongings during class, Mrs. Perry missing the gunshot, limited blood, dog-treat evidence, Knox finding Chris, and the school controlling the suicide inquiry
Keating’s other classes and soccer role, his London relationship and age, the caller in Charlie’s God stunt, Chet’s fate, Knox and Chris’s relationship, and Keating’s next job
The overacting award goes to the woman at the PTA meeting, dubbed Eva Braun, Beulah, who is over the top, punching the air and sliding into lockers, though it works; it is explicitly not Amy Madigan, whose notes are held for nitpicks; Meg Ryan is floated as the only other possible casting for Amy Madigan's part, and Chris is teased for being sweet on Amy Madigan.
Redford, Glenn Close and Duval (as transcribed) are all no, and it might be no one; Darren McGavin might have been at his apex here if he had been credited.
A small case for Kim Basinger is rejected since LA Confidential, where she was nominated and the hosts are unsure whether she won, came at the tail end of her career, although this film moved her career to the next level.
A case is made for Brimley, which would stab Chris Ryan through the heart given The Firm; the hosts settle jokingly on his chest hair being an Apex Mountain.
Screenwriter Roger Towne is floated and met with 'didn't do much else', drawing only a 'sure, that was the best I could do'; Batboy Bobby is floated as a joke; Levinson's apex is Rain Man or Diner, and Redford's was judged All the President's Men in that earlier episode, though he won a directing Oscar for Ordinary People.
The title; Turtle Bay; Bill Hader; the celebrity-appendage boyfriend concept; the Do Something song and the Access Hollywood music video; Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime; Animal Instincts; the salary cap cast
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is an awesome title that explains the movie and is memorable; the film gets a lot under the wire that would ordinarily be noted to death, such as male nudity, how much he cries, whether he is likable and whether his music is good enough for a tortured genius, since nobody would ever see this musical outside a weird Los Feliz playhouse; it could easily have been called The Breakup or Inside of You.
Turtle Bay has aged well and drew a lot of questions; it is one of those movies that makes you want to go, another travel saver; Bill Hader has aged fantastically as an early Hader whose career has obviously changed.
The celebrity appendage boyfriend concept holds up; a favorite real example was Ellen Pompeo's husband, who the hosts mix up with the Jets and Jaguars running back Chris Ivory, the man always standing next to the celebrity in the Us Weekly photo, a cottage industry.
How good and terrible the Do Something song is has aged well, realistic enough to be a real song, with 'sodomy' among the words he has to change; the genius touch is Access Hollywood closing its show with a music video, exactly as it would.
Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime and Animal Instincts have aged the best for one host, who calls the Crime Scene material a favorite part of the movie and wishes there were a hundred rejected Billy Baldwin takes on YouTube to loop, with the Seinfeld bass line under the clear Caruso CSI Miami riff; the favorite line is the one about entering the pageant without a face.
They should have kept filming those bits; Billy Baldwin gets a shout-out for being so game; a low-key funniest moment is the engineer telling Peter he has Allman Brothers tickets and hopes he isn't getting paid for the session; Animal Instincts is just stupid and just realistic enough, since the CBS drama Zoo arrived about eight years later.
The salary cap cast is unreal: Jonah Hill in about four scenes, Jack McBrayer, and Kristen Wiig in a deleted scene as the yoga instructor, to be discussed later.
Four opening nominations: Frank the Tank at Mitchapalooza through the streaking and the women driving slowly beside him; the green-hat oral-sex class; the dart-gun birthday party, including the bread maker re-gifted a third time; and Blue dying during the KY wrestling match, which may run into Blue's funeral and Will Ferrell singing.
Another nomination is the first meeting in the kitchen at Luke Wilson's new place, with earmuffs and Frank walking around with a hockey stick destroying things, watched eight times that week; everybody knows the guy who picks up the hockey stick mid-conversation and makes you afraid something will break.
The first scene with Jeremy Piven's character is very funny and a weirdly good Piven performance, subverting his PCU character now that he is old enough to be the dean; it is pre-Entourage and before he found the right toupee.
The opening with Juliette Lewis and two people in the bathroom, with Todd Phillips at the door, is nominated as a great twist on the familiar scene of a man coming home to noises in the bedroom; it is a good Luke Wilson scene too, and probably her best grown-up performance for one host, who otherwise fears her Natural Born Killers mode.
Asked for the most rewatchable, the pick is the hockey stick scene. — Chris Ryan
Another host goes with Frank the Tank coming back to life, from the guys pressing Frank to have a drink through the 'nice little Saturday' Home Depot speech to 'we're going streaking', and plays the clip; whether the scene runs into his wife finding him and the Speaker City speech is debated.
Other candidates: Vince Vaughn mouthing along to his own commercial, Will Ferrell talking about the car's restrictor plate, the wedding with 'it takes a real man to give away an angel' and the under-the-breath 'this is such a mistake, you got to run' muttering in the church that kills Will Ferrell, and drunk Luke Wilson meeting Ellen Pompeo with 'Denver, the sunshine state'; the hard thing with comedies is whether something is a moment or a scene.
The third host goes earmuffs along with Chris, calling it the most iconic thing in the film aside from the streaking and the most repeated line in his life; the hosts realize earmuffs came from this film, wonder whether it was a Vince Vaughn ad lib or something heard around LA, admit owing him royalties for Ringer-office use, and play the clip.
An explicitly invited CR flex questions Pete’s recruiting and coaching despite two titles: household-object demonstrations, indignation about expected payments and a simplistic defensive adjustment are criticized. — Bill Simmons
The rigid offense fails to adapt to Hardaway’s gifts; pick-and-rolls and alley-oops are suggested instead of forcing players into the system. — Van Lathan
Poor conditioning compounds the lack of tactical sophistication. — Bill Simmons
The explicitly invited CR flex chooses either the hotel explosion and collapsing room or being hit by an Oldsmobile while shopping in the mall. — Chris Ryan
The mother framed in the doorway as the car approaches, followed by her collapse onto the porch, is a selected cinematic image. — Chris Ryan
The men walking across the field and heads appearing over the hill are offered as other striking compositions. — Chris Ryan
The wide shot of the men on the steps listening to the record player, apart from Hanks and Damon, is praised as poster-like. — Chris Ryan
A soldier surviving a shot that hits his helmet, removing it, and then being shot in the head is singled out as a brutal visual moment. — Sean Fennessey
The intricate handheld battle shots are praised for coordinating several moving actions within one shot. — Sean Fennessey
The tank crossing the opening in the final battle visually shows that the planned defense must change without explanatory dialogue. — Sean Fennessey
The underwater imagery during the landing is praised, including the realization that soldiers can be shot underwater. — Bill Simmons
Displaying flex picks 37 - 41 of 41 in total
From other episodes
Sourced picks from episodes not yet fully included in the archive.
