Nothing from the first 21 minutes qualifies; the rescue at the stern and Jack nearly being blamed is offered, with an audio clip.
The dinner party, with Jack's borrowed tuxedo from Kathy Bates, is called the best scene before the sinking. — Bill Simmons
In the dinner scene, Jack's speech that life is a gift, played as a clip, is called DiCaprio's best scene and the Oscar clip he should have had. — Bill Simmons
A list of candidates includes the embrace at the bow, the drawing scene (reportedly the first scene the leads filmed), the chase, and the car scene with the hand on the window. — Bill Simmons
The iceberg collision is praised with a clip, and the ship passing the iceberg prompts discussion of practical effects versus visible CGI and a brutal shoot. — Van Lathan
Rose breaking away from Cal, his drawing jab, and her spitting in his face are recalled; the line is remembered paralyzing a Baton Rouge theater. — Bill Simmons
The axe scene, the ship breaking and turning into a horror movie, and Captain Smith's final scene with 120 tons of water are also listed. — Bill Simmons
The final return to the restored ship and reunion on the staircase is called breathtaking despite the earlier criticism of Rose. — Bill Simmons
One final choice is the dinner party plus the ship sinking and tipping over. — Bill Simmons
The other side adds Cal turning gunman, likened to O.J. Simpson, and the steerage party showing Rose can live in Jack's world. — Van Lathan
The second final choice is Jack and Rose together at the bow, clarified as not the earlier king-of-the-world line.
Troubled production; O.J. Simpson and Al Cowlings as football experts; a Lethal Weapon deleted scene; a near riot of extras; the body count; the original script
The assistant director attributed on-set tension to an overabundance of alpha males; Joel Silver told the New Yorker it was one of the three worst experiences of his life. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black was forced to keep rewriting; the studio wanted a Die Hard-style Bruce Willis follow-up, and the save-the-wife plot was changed because it repeated Die Hard. — Bill Simmons
The two football technical experts were O.J. Simpson and A.C. Cowlinks, per a Taylor Nagrond interview; it is called possibly the best research item ever. — Bill Simmons
The $650 pants conversation was a deleted Lethal Weapon scene Shane Black repurposed. — Bill Simmons
During filming at the Los Angeles Coliseum, extras who were told to go home after a canceled recall nearly rioted. — Bill Simmons
Shane Black's original script had a different second half: bigger roles for Milo and Shelley Marcombe, Milo directing snuff films and killing a family, a boat chase, two more shootouts, and Joe's wife killing Milo. — Bill Simmons
Script scenes like Jimmy throwing a football at a player abusing a woman build character, and the shooting script is worth reading or maybe making as a Netflix series. — Chris Ryan
117-minute runtime; John Amos's once-major presence; Darryl bragging about St. John's tickets; the name Semmi; John Landis's next films; missing hit soundtrack
At 117 minutes it is too long; about 105 would be ideal, cutting the first 20 minutes to get to New York. — Bill Simmons
John Amos being in the movie was a big deal in 1988 that is hard to explain 33 years later, like other TV dads such as Robert Reed. — Bill Simmons
Darryl being excited and bragging about four tickets to a St. John's game has aged poorly. — Bill Simmons
Arsenio's character is named Semmi, like a Celtic (ASR "shemiochile") blamed for the team being 13-13 as they tape. — Bill Simmons
Soul Glo hurt Eric LaSalle's career until ER; a counterpoint says he made good there, and Shari Headley didn't get enough work afterward.
LaSalle is outrageously handsome even under the curl, unlike Eddie, whose stardom never relied on looks. — Wesley Morris
The bearded O.J. Simpson in Buffalo around 1975 as the most handsome man who ever lived is reaffirmed. — Bill Simmons
John Landis's next films after this: Oscar, Innocent Blood and Beverly Hills Cop 3, which is called terrible.
Beverly Hills Cop 3 was the first movie one participant ever walked out of. — Van Lathan
Eddie doing a third Beverly Hills Cop felt sad; it became almost a Disney film.
Rewatching Cop 3 on cable confirmed it was bad; after it Landis made The Stupids, Blues Brothers 2000 and Susan's Plan. — Bill Simmons
The System's end-credits theme song is called aged worst; others object, calling it a jam played on BET. — Bill Simmons
The song wasn't a hit because it wasn't that good. — Bill Simmons
The soundtrack is a missed opportunity: the only song heard in full is The Greatest Love of All, with no Janet Jackson or Paula Abdul, while other movies had big soundtracks like the Pointer Sisters.
Nile Rodgers did the music and Michael Jackson, his friend, is nowhere on it; "It's a miss."
Tim Matheson plays the villain Alan Stanwyk, which mirrors Animal House: Otter was written for Chase, so Matheson did a Chevy impression there and now plays the lookalike who wants Fletch dead. — Bill Simmons
Mr. Underhill's two scenes hold up: shredding the waiter over a gratuity and exploding at the bill; he is like Judge Smales crossed with Hitler. — Bill Simmons
Kareem's IMDb page (Game of Death, Airplane, Fletch, 21 Jump Street, D2, Diff'rent Strokes, Saved by the Bell) makes him arguably the most successful athlete-actor. — Bill Simmons
The claim is about how the IMDb page looks at a glance, not actual acting success. — Bill Simmons
Rival athlete-actor contenders: Jim Brown (Mars Attacks, Any Given Sunday, The Running Man, The Dirty Dozen) and O.J. Simpson (Towering Inferno, Naked Gun).
The secretary exchange ('I'm Frida's boss.' 'Who's Frida?' 'My secretary.') is another pick. — Bill Simmons
The list of pseudonyms is read out, including Dr. Rosen, John Cocktoe Stone, Mr. Poon, Igor Stravinsky, Gordon Liddy, Don Corleone and Harry S. Truman. — Bill Simmons
Harold Faltermeyer's score is amazing 80s music with a Thomas Dolby influence, alongside his Beverly Hills Cop work; the Alpha Romeo chase song gets an honorable mention and Stephanie Mills sings the theme. — Bill Simmons
Siskel's point: once Beverly Hills Cop hit, action sequences and Faltermeyer music could turn a wry comedy into an easier-to-sell action comedy. — Sean Fennessey
Fletch's apartment, with the life-size Magic and Bird poster and the hoop on the wall, is the perfect bachelor pad for a guy who only cares about the paper and the Lakers. — Chris Ryan
His faded purple Lakers jersey is praised, but the 1985 Lakers-Celtics Finals prompt a joking 'I recant my statement' and talk of cancelling the pod. — Bill Simmons
Michael Ritchie is called the best sports-movie director ever, with a run including Downhill Racer, The Bad News Bears, Semi-Tough, Fletch and Wildcats; he only produced Bad News Bears Go to Japan, did not direct Shampoo, made the messy Golden Child, and The Candidate is recommended. — Sean Fennessey
Donald Gibb as Ogre; Janice Kent and the free press; the fight scenes; Chong Li's nose-blowing, steroid physique, 'I break you' line and celebrations; Van Damme's terrible acting; the arena; Stan Bush's 'Fight to Survive'; young Frank's Giants gear; the first underground walk to the Kumite; the name Kumite; the tournament structure; Chong Li overall
Donald Gibb as Ogre: his trilogy ran Revenge of the Nerds, First and Ten (the HBO football series with O.J. Simpson) and Bloodsport, a nice five-year run; he is the perfect sidekick with no turn coming, Jean-Claude's buddy through and through; the hosts joke the intro left out that Chong Li has done more steroids than everyone in Hong Kong combined.
Janice Kent and the importance of a free press: she hears whispers, goes undercover for the Atlantic, cracks a centuries-old event never written about, gets in the room, talks to five fighters, and pulls out her recorder in the front row where everyone will notice.
Chong Li details that aged beautifully and disgustingly: blowing boogers out of his nose about seven times, the late-eighties steroid body nobody has anymore with a chest like a love seat, 'break my record, now I break you' as a yearbook quote, and celebrations that one host finds creepy and dorky while another calls them the scariest thing possible since he cannot raise his arms over his head; his unreadable, smiling-but-furious savagery with a weird daintiness makes him scary, a riff imagines him at home with a wife and kids, glasses on, saying he got carried away and killed a guy again, which lands as both funny and unwanted since seeing him clothed in the reflection is odd, and Brock Lesnar stole the pec flexes from him.
Van Damme's terrible acting has aged best for one host because it is so bad; the director seemingly cared only about the fighting and treated dialogue as a hindrance, which the others concede was the smart play, and Van Damme was decent seven years later.
The arena is the perfect fight arena: a sandy floor you fall into, nothing to change, and alligators around the pit rejected as too far and too much upkeep.
Asked whether he would change the arena, it is called kind of perfect; the Kowloon walled city in Hong Kong, since knocked down, fascinates as a structure, and a secret fighting arena inside it is cool. — Jason Concepcion
The arena is the right size, maybe 400 seats, smaller than a middle-school gym with the crowd close; the hosts would pay $249 for a UFC or Bellator pay-per-view called Kumite with 400 fans, lots of cameras and a dirt floor.
Stan Bush, who wrote 'Fight to Survive', is the Joe Esposito of the late eighties; young Frank with his bad French accent wears a number 55 Giants football jersey and a San Francisco Giants hat, rooting for two Giants teams in two cities; a kid in the bullying flashback wears a Bartles and James (as transcribed) shirt, and the hosts wonder whether the boys knew they were going in for the sword.
Comparing the first underground walk to the Kumite with the Scorsese one-shot nightclub walk in Goodfellas, they are very close, 1A and 1B, with Scorsese edging it on camera work. — Jason Concepcion
The Goodfellas shot goes on continuously, but the Kumite walk brings you into a world you would never have access to; Kumite is called a great, incredible name, just the best.
The tournament-movie structure is added as aged best: any movie with a tournament and a board where names advance works because little needs explaining; this leads to a proposed Ringer MMA tournament where Rusillo is floated and Brian Curtis, with hands like football helmets, a Texan who has been in brawls, is called the secretly strongest man at the Ringer.
Tournament movies listed: Bloodsport, Undisputed, Karate Kid, Warrior, Best of the Best (a cumulative tournament), Enter the Dragon, Never Back Down, Mortal Kombat and The Quest, basically Bloodsport 2; the late-eighties video-game wave shaped them; the Best of the Best hero not finishing his opponent makes sense now because Daehan returns in Best of the Best 2.
Chong Li is the overall pick for aged best: 31 years later the hosts are still in awe of what they created, with every part of him interesting; his celebration, Tom Hardy's character leaving the ring immediately in Warrior, and Daniel LaRusso's confused look at his support group are called the three best post-fight celebrations.
