The opening minivan chaos, with children piling out, a small naked boy wearing a holster and a daughter throwing up, is nominated as capturing life with young kids. — Bill Simmons
Larry’s dinner pitch for hydroponics is nominated as the kind of sales pitch one host loves in movies. — Bill Simmons
The principal telling Gil and his wife that Kevin needs a special school is praised as well written, though not the most rewatchable. — Bill Simmons
The birthday party sequence is favored for Cowboy Gil, the boy banging his pail-covered head into the wall, the grandmother on helium, and the stripper mix-up at the lodge.
Helen discovering Garry’s tape, Keanu Reeves’s character explaining Garry’s masturbation, and the grandmother asking what channel it is are nominated. — Bill Simmons
Gil and his wife searching the garbage for a retainer, with Gil reflecting that children are perfect until they grow up to be like him, is a smaller nomination. — Bill Simmons
Robards’s father character seeking Gil’s advice with the no-end-zone speech leads into the Little League game; that stretch is declared a winner and favorite part of the movie.
The Little League dance is called perhaps the best moment of Steve Martin’s career for his physical comedy; he first taunts Clint Howard’s character, and his wife’s perspective contrasts his intensity.
The grandmother’s roller-coaster speech works because it is corny and the characters are dismissive before its meaning lands. — Bill Simmons
The closing hospital montage is called heartwarming despite a risk of corniness. — Bill Simmons
The first choice is Dianne Wiest reviewing the photographs Julie and her boyfriend took, balancing concern, fury and admiration, with favorite lines about the vibrator and Garry. — Van Lathan
Two more choices follow: Larry’s confrontation with his father, where their father favors Larry because Larry absorbed his philosophy while Gil rejected it, and the vibrator scene. — Van Lathan
Given the choice between the photographs and the Little League game, the second baseball game is chosen because of Robards and Martin. — Chris Ryan
Another participant says the second baseball game is also their choice. — Bill Simmons
The changing roster, uniforms, substitutions and trophy shot make the team’s player count inconsistent. — Bill Simmons
The nice Catholic school teacher being single is treated as implausible. — Bill Simmons
Trading tickets to weak Bulls basketball for a $46 pizza bill is disputed; the trip itself and Dallas stars could justify it. — Bill Simmons
A Craig observation says there is too little actual coaching by Keanu; Bad News Bears in Breaking Training is the comparison, and the children seem skilled without instruction. — Bill Simmons
An online nitpick questions the apparent handgun-like wound versus a shotgun on screen; limited firearms knowledge is explicit and alternative explanations remain possible. — Bill Simmons
Connor’s age makes never having heard Big Papa or the Notorious B.I.G. implausible, prompting a shared familiarity argument. — Van Lathan
The baseball sequence uses Tiger Stadium rather than an ivy-walled Wrigley setting; a White Sox home interleague game is offered as an alternative interpretation. — Bill Simmons
The Sluggers setting is said to use a different bar location, with a real Sluggers elsewhere. — Bill Simmons
CBA footage is alleged to stand in for the Bulls–Heat game. — Bill Simmons
Uncut Gems is used to describe a claimed way to use unchanged real-game footage in a story; the claim is reported discussion, not verified legal guidance. — Bill Simmons
Brian Robbins is quoted describing the children’s excitement at working with the Matrix star. — Bill Simmons
Meeting the children efficiently establishes personalities, including the asthma, distrust, comic-relief and talented-player roles.
The classroom book report reveals that the child read the book and connects a father returning with his own world; more classroom scenes are wanted.
The child carrying pizza and afraid to enter his home is deeply affecting, prompting reflection on Black boys in danger and unequal life circumstances. — Van Lathan
A random gunshot that makes the children freeze is another effective detail; the film is compared with season four of The Wire. — Bill Simmons
The pizza scene is hard to watch but nominated, alongside Miles pitching with headphones like peak Pedro Martinez. — Bill Simmons
The all-or-nothing bet unexpectedly succeeds, and the frantic performance with John Hawks commentary is a favorite comic scene. — Bill Simmons
G baby getting his jersey and the crowd singing Big Papa are additional highlights. — Bill Simmons
The funeral performance is praised, as is the corny but effective showing-up message at the end.
The trophy scene is painful because G baby is absent; a producer account says the studio required it after the original field-running ending, and one child was missing. — Bill Simmons
The final personal preferences are the Keanu speech and the hard-hitting pizza scene. — Bill Simmons
Bad rip-offs; Randy Quaid's real-life weirdness; the sequel without Will Smith; Super Bowl blockbuster ads; the Miguel character; the Quaid kids subplot
Bad Independence Day rip-offs such as Volcano, and its influence on culture has probably not been positive; care is urged because Shea likes these movies, down to Lake Placid and Anaconda. — Bill Simmons
A run of blow-up movies followed, including Godzilla. — Bill Simmons
Independence Day 2 without Will Smith has no acceptable explanation; they recast Pullman's daughter instead of using the original actress and should have waited Smith out after his $50 million ask and conflicts with Suicide Squad and After Earth.
The sequel is compared to a Duncan-era Spurs sequel without Duncan. — Bill Simmons
The movie is blamed for the trend of Super Bowl blockbuster ads, starting with a $1.3 million spot in Super Bowl 30, part of a $30 million campaign with product placement, toys, an Apple deal, strong trailers and an early limited release. — Bill Simmons
Miguel, played by James Duval, is a bad Keanu Reeves rip-off; the Randy Quaid kid material, such as the car-sick scene and the disappearing daughter, would be cut, keeping only the scene where he is mocked. — Bill Simmons
Better Miguels exist, including in Kobra Kai. — Bill Simmons
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
Apex Mountain is defined, with Craig asked to correct it, as the point of most objective power in a career, not a personal favorite, given the context of the movie and the movie itself; all four stars and Nancy Meyers are to be assessed.
Cameron Diaz is a firm no: 2006 is the very beginning of her slowing down, her peak being the plateau from There's Something About Mary in 1998 through Charlie's Angels and Shrek in 2001, before Vanilla Sky and Gangs of New York; on this press tour she described going movie to movie without stopping, and she has since retired from acting.
Jack Black is argued as the one yes: this follows School of Rock in 2003, King Kong and Tenacious D, and he peters off afterward into voice work and the Goosebumps movies; another host says his apex is School of Rock, the one movie associated with him, and the panel settles on the 2002 to 2006 run as peak Jack Black.
Kate Winslet is on the rise rather than at her apex: she has had many peaks, Titanic catapulted her, nobody thinks The Holiday is her best work, and she won her Oscar in 2008, after this, for The Reader, called a terrible movie, the same year as Revolutionary Road.
Jude Law's apex of hotness is debated between this movie, as rich, handsome, jazz-loving dad Graham Simpkins, and The Talented Mr. Ripley in a rowboat in Italy wearing linens; his career apex is Ripley, with an Oscar nomination, after which it was a gradual decline through Closer, Cold Mountain and I Heart Huckabees without ever carrying a movie, Alfie being a non-hit during the Sienna Miller scandal.
An argument that Jude Law is in his apex now, doing whatever he wants in The Young Pope, the Harry Potter spinoff and Marvel movies, is heard, but for actual power and hotness it is Talented Mr. Ripley, which should get its own episode at 20 years old this December.
Nancy Meyers's apex is not this but likely Something's Gotta Give, a critical breakthrough with Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves in 2003 when studio comedies still made money, plus Frances McDormand and Jon Favreau in a really good cast; Home Again is her daughter's movie that she produced; so the only possible apex here, and probably not even, is Jack Black.
