Unanswerable questions ask how Bond leaves partners between films, with ghosting and interpretations of his male chemistry discussed as speculation. — Chris Ryan
The physical plausibility of Xenia’s lethal squeeze is debated without verification. — Bill Simmons
Joe Don Baker’s memorable name prompts proposed Don middle names and speculation about his name’s origin, followed by Wings Hauser.
Xenia’s lethal leg squeeze, overt sexual performance, Russian villains and Joe Don Baker’s later-career presence age best; his prior Bond role and Felix’s injury prompt uncertain recollections.
Organic product placement, Minnie Driver’s cameo and the poster are aged-best choices.
Brosnan’s balanced Bond is praised through NBA-center analogies; future Bond casting and Dua Lipa involvement remain speculation, with Elba, Kaluuya and Patel alternatives discussed.
Brosnan’s fit is contrasted with Hugh Grant; Liam Neeson is imagined as a tougher alternative. An oldest-Bond claim is also made, without independent verification.
Elaborate villain speeches instead of simply killing Bond are enjoyed despite implausibility, with the pen scene criticized; Bond’s post-explosion victory lap is admired.
Prison exit, leaving already-read books and walking into the camera praised; Max stealing Sam’s keys also liked. — Bill Simmons
Second Max / Sam meeting reveals Cady learned to read, undermining the lawyer’s confidence that his betrayal is concealed. — Bill Simmons
Front-lawn wife confrontation: attraction and revenge interpretations versus being more confrontational than her husband.
Cady’s upside-down phone call to Danielle admired as strange Scorsese staging. — Bill Simmons
Playhouse encounter reportedly motivated Scorsese to direct. Lewis reportedly enjoyed the work afterward; hosts call it most riveting and scarier than explicit violence because of predatory suspense. — Bill Simmons
Bike-chain fight against three attackers prompted episode selection and is one speaker’s final favorite; taunts, candle-wax display, hot-water reaction and boat crash also recalled.
Night waiting for Cady with teddy bear, maid disguise and Joe Don Baker death added; marital conversation valued.
Outside-diner confrontation between Baker and Cady praised for aggressive performance and refusal to back down. — Sean Fennessey
Larry 'Flash' Jenkins as Gummy is tied to season three of The White Shadow, when the wheels came off, like Tobias Harris for the Process. — Bill Simmons
The Jim Varney lookalike and M. Emmet Walsh as the physician are named; Walsh is an all-time great that guy and the speaker would go with him. — Sean Fennessey
Kenneth Mars as Stan Boyd, from 70s Bogdanovich movies and TV like Murder, She Wrote, is on the list too. — Sean Fennessey
Other that guys are offered: whether Gina Davis counts is floated, and Allison Laplaca as the airline desk clerk is added. — Chris Ryan
The Gina Davis suggestion is waved off ('No, stop it'), with a note that she is coming up later. — Chris Ryan
Joe Don Baker counts to the hosts; only a single-digit share of listeners could identify him; Walking Tall and the Mystery Science Theater episode Mitchell, which mocks him, are recalled. — Bill Simmons
There is no rewatchable scene for about 20 minutes until the physical exam, which starts a run of them ('Moon River', 'You ever served time?', 'using the whole fist, Doc?').
A son's stone-faced reaction to the exam scene is joked about as grounds for a DNA test. — Bill Simmons
The short Lakers dream sequence with Kareem and the sports footage is so enjoyable. — Bill Simmons
Fletch as the buck-toothed airplane mechanic ('It's all ball bearings nowadays') is picked; the other mechanic looks like Jim Varney but is not him. — Bill Simmons
The second tennis club visit runs about five minutes: caviar ordered twice and charged to the Underhills, borrowing Gail Stanwyk's towel because his car hit a water buffalo, Mr. Underhill's 'Jesus H. Christ' at the bill, and Gail unbothered to hear her husband is a fraud. — Bill Simmons
The smog-patrol bit with the kid and escaping the police, oddly with no helicopter or local news coverage. — Bill Simmons
Crashing Fred Dorfman's lunch is probably Chase's best 90 seconds: working the crowd, giving a speech, getting them to sing God Bless America, and the syphilis line. — Bill Simmons
The ending with Gail on an empty beach, charging the whole vacation to Mr. Underhill's American Express card, is very satisfying. — Bill Simmons
Another breakdown runs through Mr. Babar, Dr. Rosen, John Cocktholeson, Mr. Poon and Igor Stravinsky, and the autopsy ('you never get used to the smell', 'You're not going to make this guy any sicker') has to be included. — Chris Ryan
The Mr. Poon scene with Mr. Boyd in his face and the Utah motel bits with different voices ('It's Igor Stravinsky') are also chosen. — Chris Ryan
The interrogation with Chief Carlin, ending 'I like to be manhandled' and a wink at Joe Don Baker, is an incredible moment. — Sean Fennessey
The single favorite is the second tennis club visit, a perfect six minutes ('Why did you order lunch here?').
The airplane mechanic is the favorite character he plays and is called 'my most rewatchable'; the roller-skating scene with George Carlin hair also gets praise.
The favorite is Dr. Dolan's exam with the 'Babar, one B' exchange, plus the subtle bit where every doctor in the directory is Dr. Rosen. — Sean Fennessey
Bald know-it-all Denzel; Ethan Suplee and T.J. Miller as the screwups; railroad executives on the golf course; the wage-and-retirement conflict; authentic dialogue between the leads; nuanced family characterizations; Denzel's one rule; the mission-control structure; Tony Scott's mastery
Bald Denzel as a slightly condescending know-it-all works because only Denzel can pull it off. — Bill Simmons
Dewey and T.J. Miller's character are great as the screwups; Miller is unrecognizable without his long hair and mustache. — Bill Simmons
The evil executives seen briefly on a golf course are a highlight. — Bill Simmons
The labor politics have aged best: the company wants to retire expensive veterans and replace them with cheaply paid rookies, which hits harder now; a Saturday Night Live trailer parody mocked the expected old-versus-young cliche.
The reveal that Frank has already been pushed out is handled without a corny countdown scene, letting the wage dynamic emerge mid-movie.
Character-bonding scenes usually fail in action movies, but every line between the leads feels authentic, including "Ask your wife what she thinks".
Compared with the dialogue-driven Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, none of whose versions has a working ending, the dialogue here is functional and good, and the train jargon sells it.
Characterizations are nuanced: Denzel's daughters just work at Hooters through college rather than resenting him, and Pine's marriage is complicated. — Chris Ryan
Denzel's one rule speech to his conductor is cited as not the worst rule in the world. — Chris Ryan
It is a mission-control movie in the vein of Apollo 13, Armageddon, The Hunt for Red October and War Games, with Rosario Dawson's scenes a favorite; the Tony Scott version is looser, letting Kevin Corrigan's outsider interject. — Chris Ryan
Tony Scott's mastery, an answer the speaker also gave for Dunkirk, gets better on every viewing; it being his last movie adds weight.
Great last movies are rare; examples include Phil Carlson's Framed with Joe Don Baker and a director's final Japanese-set film that he narrates himself.
Christopher Nolan reportedly screened Unstoppable while planning Dunkirk, and Tony Scott appears to have drawn on Apocalypse Now's rule that helicopters must fly through every shot to keep the energy alive.
The same idea was applied to the ranch scenes in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, keeping dogs crossing in the background of every shot; the scene was not the hardest to shoot.
Basinger is in the final eight of a most-beautiful-woman-in-a-movie bracket, and her constant lip licking raises whether it is deliberate or just her essence; Diane Lane in Unfaithful is a similar case.
Brimley and Farnsworth as Pop and Red are perfect and some of the best stuff in the movie; it is sobering that Brimley was the same age as one host is now yet seems 78, and only about two years older than Redford in real life.
Hobbs played semi-pro ball for the Hebrew Oilers, prompting a hunt for t-shirts on Cafe Press or Redbubble; the Randy Newman score was Oscar-nominated, is instantly associated with the film, and gets yanked for NBA and World Series montages.
Basinger is named again, with a nod to Alec Baldwin and their handsome couple; Max Mercy, who never played sports but makes it more fun to watch, is a model for sports media, and the hosts imagine him resisting digital media at the New York Daily News, still drawing cartoons, before being wooed by Sirius for Mad Dog Radio or a podcast.
John Rhodes, the Pittsburgh lefty who is a Roy Hobbs spitting image with a good throwing motion, is great casting, and the slow-motion shot of the guys flying out of the dugout after the homer is an all-time favorite.
Roy Hobbs is a three-true-outcomes player for the modern era, homering, striking out or walking, like 2003 Bonds or a nine-WAR player with a 184 wRC+, though his defensive value would be poor since he is slow and unwieldy and his side hurts every time he reaches for a ball.
The old-school baseball fashion and aesthetics, especially the Cubs uniforms, have aged wonderfully, even though the heavy fire-retardant uniforms look as warm as wildling furs.
Iris as an independent spirit and trailblazing feminist: Roy gets her pregnant in the barn, proposes romantic bullshit and never returns, and she raises the boy alone in Chicago with a nice apartment, a job and a drugstore where they know her name, can get an usher to deliver a note, and still gets the guy at the end.
The final pick is Red and Pop, with a wish for 30 minutes of deleted dugout ad-libs or a mic'd-up game, or else the iconic score.
