Apex Mountain and who won the movie are bundled because they are complicated; Tom Cruise, Brian De Palma and Ving Rhames all get no, with Baby Boy preferred to Pulp Fiction for Rhames.
Jon Voight is not close, with Anaconda as the joke; Kristen Scott Thomas is a no, joked to be Only God Forgives; Jean Reno is a no, so this is Apex Mountain for nobody.
Henry Zerny (as transcribed) is floated hesitantly as the one possible apex, immediately answered that he is better in Clear and Present Danger, with the two self-described only Henry Zerny experts in the world saluting each other.
Danny Elfman is a no, with Beetlejuice and Batman as his peak and a plug for the Midnight Run soundtrack; cinematographer Stephen Burham (as transcribed) has The Outsiders, Rumblefish, St. Elmo's Fire, Eight Million Ways to Die, The Untouchables and Hoffa, and The Untouchables is chosen as his peak instead.
De Niro is the pick, as a favorite De Niro performance ever; his performances are ranked with Midnight Run as 1A and Jimmy Conway 1B, Godfather 2 third for building a character on what young Brando's interpretation would have been, Heat fourth and Raging Bull fifth; a recent Deer Hunter rewatch is called a tough hang but incredible, and John Kazal (as transcribed) only made the four best movies of all time.
De Niro wins, with honorable mention for Grodin (transcribed 'Gerdin'), all the that-guy performers, a case for Danny Elfman, and Martin Brest; the result is affirmed twice.
The chemistry between De Niro and Grodin has aged best, even though De Niro reportedly did not like Grodin much, stayed in character through take after take, and Grodin, probably playing close to himself, kept trying to annoy him; that kind of two-guy chemistry is rarer than you would think.
There are 119 f-bombs in the movie though it feels like 280, especially in the last call to Eddie; the phone call where Farina has Moron Number One put Moron Number Two on while the other guy shadow-boxes the one on the phone is too short to be a rewatchable scene but slays.
McCarran Airport, the saddest place on earth when everyone is leaving Vegas, has not changed since 1988 and makes you want to shout that Serrano has the discs; Grand Central Market in downtown LA still looks much the same, though you could not take a payphone call from a restaurant there now.
Danny Elfman's score (transcribed once as 'Danny Offen's') is like the Bus Boys from 48 Hours doing a soundtrack, one of the best ever despite some people disliking it: it slows down and kicks back in at the right places and sounds like Steely Dan's backing band vamping before Becker and Fagan (as transcribed) walk on; anyone anti-soundtrack is called a moron.
'Looks like I'm walking' is one of the better last lines of any movie covered, especially since walking out of LAX is no fun; the visit to the daughter is one of the favorite De Niro scenes: awkward, he has nothing to ask her beyond what grade she is in, she offers him money as he leaves and he cannot take it, and then he holds the door of his wife's station wagon so Grodin's coat does not get caught, every beat graded A plus.
The weird sentimental moments may be what has aged best, with several unexpectedly poignant beats including the ending; a tangent on the greatest De Niro scenes names the Godfather 2 killing, moments in Cape Fear, the Goodfellas slow-motion smoking shot at the bar, nearly every scene in Heat including the diner, and many in Deer Hunter and Taxi Driver, while Raging Bull is now a tough, one-and-out watch.
Asked at the end what was said for what aged best, the recap is the poignant moments and Danny Elfman's music; the chemistry, the last line, the unchanged settings and the profanity were raised along the way.
The NSA courting a felon; cuttable scenes; Chucky and Cole Hauser would have beaten up Ponytail Guy before Will spoke; nobody in the MIT class could solve either equation; Chucky's earlier pick-ups when Will was simply out; Chucky enabling Will's fights while wishing he would leave; the Danny Elfman score; Sean as a fake Red Sox fan; Chucky bringing the coffee out of the car
The NSA soliloquy is a favorite scene, great filmmaking that flashes back into Sean's office and is delivered phenomenally, but why would the NSA bend over backwards to convince a felon arrested 15 times in two years to break codes; it is a vestige of the original script, incredibly illogical, feels like a different movie, and should have been pivoted to a private weapons firm.
There are three scenes you could cut and have the same movie, even the Chucky job-interview scene as comic relief; the biggest nitpick is that Chucky and Cole Hauser would immediately beat the shit out of Ponytail Guy, Damon has no dialogue in that scene, and in real life the guy ends with a broken jaw and a concussion; nobody in the MIT class could figure out either equation though these are the best people we have, with Lambeau asking Jack, was it you, Ganesh.
Were there other times Chucky came by for Will and he was not home, thought this was it, and he was just sleeping at somebody's house or getting coffee; this time he looks in and there is no furniture; it is also strange that Chucky enables all of Will's bad behavior while secretly wishing he would leave Boston with his lottery-ticket mind, so why drive around Southie getting into random gang fights with him.
The Elliot Smith music is good but the Danny Elfman score sucks and happens in a completely different movie. Pee-wee's Big Adventure is the comparison, the Castle Rock movie, all crane shots down on the campus and very 90s; Sean is a fake Red Sox fan who did not care about the team; and when Affleck arrives to collect Damon he brings the coffee to him instead of leaving it in the car, which is not happening.
Earlier nits during the scene discussion: nobody who loves the Red Sox gives up a Game Six ticket, the Fever Pitch comparison, and Affleck and Cole Hauser throwing down with Ponytail Guy before Will ever gets involved.
