J.K. Simmons is the primary heat-check choice for the mustache, chewing and manager mannerisms. — Mallory Rubin
Jena Malone is a heat-check runner-up for the direct question about sleeping with her mother; her performance's promise is praised, while the final vote remains Simmons. — Mallory Rubin
Against the Wind is an aged-best choice. — Bill Simmons
The old Yankee Stadium is an aged-best choice. — Bill Simmons
Vin Scully is credited with elevating the baseball from ordinary to exceptional; a reported interview suggests freedom to alter dialogue, and his real perfect-game experience adds authority. — Mallory Rubin
Costner as a baseball player and in various states of undress are praised, particularly the locker-room changing and sensual handling of his glove. — Mallory Rubin
Jane's restrained sexual presentation is criticized in contrast to Costner's, while a defense argues it differentiates her from his usual partners; her museum appearance is praised. — Mallory Rubin
The relationship with Birch, nicknamed Scarecrow, is praised for handling friendship and a player's move for family and money without excessive emphasis. — Bill Simmons
Signing autographs during the couple's argument is praised as realistic for 1999, but also considered dated because phone cameras would now expose the conversation. — Bill Simmons
Gus’s reassurance speech is an aged-best candidate. — Bill Simmons
Obnoxious Yankees fans are an aged-best candidate; the caricatured hecklers remain amusing. — Mallory Rubin
Gus's .184 batting average inspires a joking theory that the Tigers valued pitch framing before its wider recognition. — Mallory Rubin
The catching footage is thought to rely on a double for Reilly, which is considered understandable given the fastballs. — Mallory Rubin
The initial sexual arrangement is praised for honesty about Chapel’s behavior. — Mallory Rubin
The flashback structure is preferred to conventional narration despite the weak romance. — Mallory Rubin
Final aged-best choices split between Clear the mechanism and Costner as a baseball player, with Scully acknowledged as a tempting alternative. — Bill Simmons
The first-inning sequence is nominated, from insisting on Gus as catcher through the confrontation with Sam Tuttle; the manager exchange and J.K. Simmons are praised.
Access to Chapel's thought process makes the pitching duel compelling, contrasting the hostile Tuttle at-bat with his affection for Birch and comparing the mental approach to Bull Durham. — Mallory Rubin
Talking aloud on the mound and the dialogue itself are considered devices that should fail but work because they feel convincing. — Bill Simmons
The apparent full crowd and grandeur of the old Yankee Stadium are praised, with preference expressed over its replacement. — Mallory Rubin
The mound dialogue supplies welcome baseball history missing from the romance flashbacks, but the brief moving-out scene leaves the bond with Birch underexplored. — Mallory Rubin
The masseuse sequence is nominated by both speakers: the suggestive massage, Jane's surprise arrival, his greeting and the masseuse appearing upstairs make the comic situation work. — Mallory Rubin
The established relationship with the masseuse and immediate response to Jane declining the invitation are considered believable behavior for a professional athlete; the massage timing inspires a happy-beginning joke. — Mallory Rubin
Chapel discovering the perfect game and Gus's reassurance are nominated; the speech is praised as Reilly's standout scene despite reservations about the rest of his performance. — Bill Simmons
A veteran pitcher failing to recognize a perfect game is challenged, especially given teammates avoiding him; the distraction is nevertheless accepted as useful for the scene. — Mallory Rubin
The manager warming relievers and insisting he needs the game is considered less believable given the team's losing record and the perfect game in progress. — Bill Simmons
The attempt to replace Gus before what might be Chapel's final Tigers start is criticized as an implausible prioritization of the backup catcher's at-bats. — Mallory Rubin
Mickey Hart saving the perfect game is nominated and praised for its payoff, cap acknowledgment and the manager's reaction; the actual catch is criticized as insufficiently athletic. — Bill Simmons
Mickey's earlier ball-off-the-head error recalls Jose Canseco, but the depicted Fenway wall is challenged as nonexistent. — Mallory Rubin
Chapel discouraging Mickey from becoming a media joke is praised as valuable evidence of his generosity as a teammate and as material that should have formed more of the movie. — Mallory Rubin
Mickey's failed-prospect setup leaves open the possibility that the catch could turn his career around. — Mallory Rubin
Signing the retirement message on the baseball before the ninth is nominated; the delayed reveal, owner's reaction, manager's exclamation and Scully transition are praised. — Bill Simmons
The ninth inning is nominated, but the increasingly spectacular defensive outs culminate in an implausible diving shortstop play against an apparently quick runner. — Mallory Rubin
A strikeout is proposed as the more fitting final out for the story's individual achievement theme. — Mallory Rubin
An alternative ending in which the runner is safe and Chapel loses the perfect game is welcomed as interesting, while the filmed achievement remains emotionally effective. — Mallory Rubin
Scully's climactic commentary is praised, with relief that Steve Lyons recedes from the broadcast late in the game. — Mallory Rubin
The first dinner is nominated for engrossing badness: the notebook and lip-gloss exchange, awkward kissing question and later yes note create unintentional comedy, while Costner's appeal partly sells the moment. — Mallory Rubin
The hand-saw accident and hospital sequence are nominated for their excessive drama, especially Jane's outburst, not joining the helicopter and visibly aggrieved reaction. — Mallory Rubin
The makeup-smashing argument is nominated for unintentional comedy, particularly Chapel's solemn promise to hire a driver. — Mallory Rubin
Mickey Hart's catch is the final scene choice, with the first inning also strongly praised. — Bill Simmons
The ninth inning sealing the perfect game is the other final choice, chiefly for Scully's commentary on baseball history. — Mallory Rubin
Simmons receives an affirmative Apex choice. — Bill Simmons
Teller's ultimate Apex is considered still ahead, with Maverick provisionally his biggest moment and its Great Balls of Fire scene a personal favorite. — Bill Simmons
Jazz movies are debated without a clear Apex winner; Lady Sings the Blues, Bird and Paris Blues are alternatives, and Whiplash did not launch a new wave of jazz films. — Sean Fennessey
The crash is praised for a small-budget film but not established as the all-time car-accident Apex; a Final Destination scene is offered as stronger. — Sean Fennessey
Caravan receives an unqualified affirmative Apex choice. — Bill Simmons
De Niro as Moss or a younger Levene and Willis as Williamson or Blake are considered; the discussion’s Jimmy Conway reference leaves the final Blake alternative ambiguous. — Sean Fennessey
Modern franchise stars and British actors may lack the ordinary, badly dressed New York or Chicago quality needed for these roles. — Chris Ryan
J.K. Simmons's J. Jonah Jameson is one of two contenders, overacting but in the right movie after his brutal Oz role. — Van Lathan
The Green Goblin performance is called a runaway choice for snarling and giving every cell, making Jack Nicholson's Joker look subtle. — Van Lathan
Craig is reported to have messaged that the Goblin actor is going all out. — Van Lathan
A counterpoint: that Goblin performance has aged well, and Simmons may not be overacting since he embodied the comics' Jameson; overacting is not acting poorly. — Van Lathan
Favorite Jameson lines are quoted, including the slander-versus-libel joke. — Van Lathan
Young Gandolfini: he is basically auditioning for Tony Soprano, and this and his Get Shorty role (transcribed 'bare') are the two poles of that character, sweet, charming, evil, menacing and violent; the film was one of the first DVDs a host bought, so he was always the guy from this movie.
Floyd, who gives the directions down Beachwood to the Beverly Ambassador, was an A++ in the nineties and the DVD era, a spirit animal for anyone getting baked at two in the morning; the whole idea of Pineapple Express came from Judd Apatow and company loving Floyd and asking what would have happened if he chased the Italians.
Unlike Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder working to go viral, Pitt just lies on the couch with a couple of improv lines; the Floyd stuff is largely improvised, as are Hopper's eggplant and Walken's cantaloupe lines; Floyd is the most important character because he gets everyone together for the shootout, and 'don't condescend me' is a favorite line.
Brad Pitt has an alternate path as one of the great character actors, fifteen non-essential but memorable parts up through Burn After Reading, but he was so handsome he had to be a leading man; Seven is a character he put thought into before material started being created for him; the Tarantino relationship continues through Inglourious Bastards and the coming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Dennis Hopper is so likable that even the Speed villain was hard to root against; the Clarence-Clifford scene is economical writing, 'you're just like your mother', three years apart, a recovering alcoholic who only has a Seven Up, telling you why Clarence would throw it all away; two lines are lifted, 'you're just like your mother' from Hopper's own line in Rumblefish and the beer line from The Last Picture Show.
Pre-internet, movie quotes and pulling from the past mattered more; a host's column threw in movie lines because that is how he and his friends connected, and Twitter gifs have given it a renaissance.
Sizemore and Penn together are the twelve-episode Fox cop show we never got; the hosts saw a Reitman live read at the Ace Hotel with Slater and Arquette, the Duplass brothers as the cops, J.K. Simmons as the estranged father, Kevin Pollack as Walken's part, Jon Favreau as Gandolfini's, Keegan-Michael Key and Paul Scheer as Drexel and Elliot Blitzer, May Whitman in several parts and Jason Segel as Floyd.
Coming Home in a Body Bag is funny right on the heels of forty Vietnam movies; Saul Rubinek's Lee Donowitz as Joel Silver, Bronson Pinchot as his assistant, Boris the bodyguard who hates cops, and Dick Ritchie constantly asking whether the producer knows he is an actor; Donowitz is one of a host's favorite movie characters, saved for the Dion Waiters argument.
The Hans Zimmer score is distinct and gives the movie levity; according to a host it is based on a composition from the 1500s by Carl Orff that Terrence Malick used in Badlands, which Zimmer redoes as an homage, and Arquette's opening voiceover mimics the Badlands voiceover; the film pulls the best parts of other things.
Asked for a single best out of all of it, one goes with the way it looks, the peak of Tony Scott's neon vision of urban America; another is still responding to the dialogue, over the top and offensive on purpose because it is pulp; a third says Gandolfini, like watching Michael Jordan at North Carolina.
