Jolie is the substantive choice, praised for doing more than Pitt’s familiar charming persona and compared to Kathleen Turner in The War of the Roses. — Bill Simmons
Doug Liman is the off-label choice: betting the shoot could finish before Ocean’s Twelve reportedly added $26 million when Pitt had to leave. — Bill Simmons
Liman reportedly made the same scheduling mistake with Damon on The Bourne Identity before Ocean’s Eleven, making the repeated bet against Soderbergh especially absurd.
The criticism is qualified by praise for Liman’s enjoyable, visually exciting films despite stories of chaotic productions. — Chris Ryan
Opening credits; Vaughn and Favreau careers; This Place Is Dead Anyway guy; Vegas baby Vegas; Mikey-as-loser jokes; PG-13 line; Marty and Elaine; party-to-party convoys; diner hangouts; music; Vaughn-Favreau dynamic; Doug Liman; Ron Livingston and Heather Graham casting
The opening credits and their pictures of LA. — Bill Simmons
The careers of Vaughn and Favreau, which in 2003 might have seemed stuck after a grand slam out of the gate. — Bill Simmons
The "this place is dead anyway" guy, played by Alex Desert, says it twice when the place is not dead; nobody is paying attention to them. — Bill Simmons
"Vegas baby Vegas" was first heard here and reused liberally in columns. — Bill Simmons
The film establishes Mikey as a loser: Lisa is a Dorothy at the MGM Grand, the "not in Kansas anymore" line gets dead silence, and the comedian is the least funny guy. — Bill Simmons
Marty and Elaine look exactly the same at the Dresden years later; one host saw them play midweek last fall and jokes they may be alien life forms. — Bill Simmons
Everyone driving in their own car in a convoy from party to party, as LA was until about 2014-15. — Bill Simmons
Hanging out in diners, a top-five hangout location; late coffee and pancakes are missed. — Bill Simmons
A college diner near Holy Cross called the Heritage, where a friend always ordered the Heritage; the 101 diner near the office is the diner in the movie; diners are a lifestyle on Long Island. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say diners have taken a big hit with COVID and many in LA have gone down. — Bill Simmons
Doug Liman is called one of the 10 or 12 most successful directors of the last 30 years, a risk-taker good with actors, discussed on the Edge of Tomorrow podcast. — Sean Fennessey
Ron Livingston and Heather Graham were caught right before fame; Livingston is likable and almost the moral conscience; Graham made this and Boogie Nights within about six months. — Sean Fennessey
Blunt is raised first, then the question turns to whether Liman's apex is Bourne; the answer is "It's Bourne," because he still had some "kwan" back then. — Sean Fennessey
Liman never had a smooth ride: the hosts recount that Favreau did not speak to him for years over a side deal on Swingers, and that Bourne was a troubled shoot after which he was removed from the franchise. — Chris Ryan
Bourne would probably be his apex as the moment everyone thought he had figured out action movies; the pushback is that he did figure them out, but they are risky and difficult for him to make. — Sean Fennessey
Blunt had mostly thankless parts in big-budget movies after Devil Wears Prada (The Wolfman, The Adjustment Bureau, the Huntsman sequel); this movie or Sicario is probably her apex, with possible disagreement acknowledged. — Sean Fennessey
Rita watching Hendricks die 300 times is the baseline; applying Gladwell's 10,000 hours, Cage probably died close to a year's worth of deaths. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say the opening news montage includes Hillary Clinton, implying she is president in 2020, in a movie released in 2014 before the 2016 election; the question is whether the movie is responsible for the 2016 result. — Sean Fennessey
The joking answer: disaffected voters saw it and said not my president; others blame the Russians, Facebook disinformation or a heartland backlash, but it's Doug Liman's fault, and the other host agrees. — Sean Fennessey
