Latimer's sexual assault scene; James Caan's performance; opening-game rainstorm; Joe Kane's age; cut road-lying scene; Kristy Swanson's tennis jorts; Ray the tailback's casting; Joe Kane's body double; no college overtime; Chris Berman's shtick; Ray Griffen's party sweater; Darnell licking his hands; quickly dropped assault charges; missed 1993 music
Latimer's sexual assault scene was rougher and more terrifying than remembered, deplorable for a liked character, yet realistic for late-80s and early-90s campuses.
A 2020 film would handle it differently; it recalled the Gandolfini and Alabama Worley scene. — Bill Simmons
The scene is accurate and terrifying, and the small cast heightens how scary it is. — Kyle Brandt
The scene is important because it shows Latimer as the worst character, which makes him conflicting and great; a comparison is drawn to a Vision Quest scene, and films have become more careful in the last 15 years. — Bill Simmons
James Kahn is not great here, like a coach who had a mild stroke; the "keep that index finger on the ball" line and the halftime speech lose the speaker.
Caan's best scenes are kicking a player off the team and the academic board hearing where he sells his soul to football. — Kyle Brandt
A research claim that Popovich adopted James Kahn's coaching personality is admitted to be made up, and another participant flags the habit of throwing in fake information. — Ryen Russillo
No NBA arena has ever hyped a crowd with the James Kahn scene. — Bill Simmons
The opening-game rainstorm looks like a monsoon. — Bill Simmons
A prediction game on the next item is won by the guess that Joe Kane is 32 years old; the deleted scene was next on the list.
The actor was actually 33, with a receding hairline, and Halle Berry at 27 with hair extensions seems like a teacher rather than a junior. — Bill Simmons
Craig Sheffer is the biggest flaw: not big enough to be a quarterback, never a big star, and too old, like an assistant coach.
Joe Kane is only a junior; Tim Weyman looks mid-40s; Halle Berry was making Boomerang at the same time. — Bill Simmons
The deleted scene of Joe lying in the road as cars swerve was cut after two young men were reportedly killed imitating it; it is missing from the VHS, later airings and Amazon but is on YouTube. — Bill Simmons
Sheffer's quote that he refused to do the scene until his agents were called is met with skepticism. — Ryen Russillo
The cut leaves a hole: pre-internet it was unobtainable, and without it Joe jumps from party quarterback to borderline suicidal, like cutting Maverick's MIG encounter. — Ryen Russillo
Cutting it while keeping the assault scene and the train-tracks stunt is inconsistent; the Cliffhanger comparison argues imitation risk does not justify it. — Bill Simmons
Further items: Christy Swanson playing tennis in jorts, Ray the tailback needing a better actor, Joe Kane's obvious heavier body double, the lack of college overtime, and Chris Berman doing the same shtick 27 years later, though that is countered as having come back around to respect. — Bill Simmons
Ray Griffin's party sweater (but not his khakis) has aged badly, as has Darnell licking his hands before the last kickoff; Newman gloves are fondly recalled. — Bill Simmons
The assault being resolved in seconds because the victim's booster father drops charges is not any real dad's reaction. — Bill Simmons
The film missed several chances to feel musically like 1993. — Bill Simmons
Steve Lattimer (Andrew Bryniarski); Darnell-Ray feud; Kane Is Able bumper sticker; 80,000-fans chemistry-experiment line; bow-tie academic; Darnell's dating theory; jock adrenaline factor; Latimer's injection scene; Chris Berman
Latimer's actor says not a day goes by without someone yelling "place at the table"; he is unrecognizable as a neo-Nazi in Higher Learning and later played Leatherface, but this was his best role. — Bill Simmons
Latimer belongs on a Mount Rushmore of football-movie characters and is a 1990s ogre in the Donald Gibb mold. — Kyle Brandt
Why he never became a lead in action movies is a great question: he can act, as in the scene telling Alvin not everybody has his ability, and he has the look. — Kyle Brandt
It is a tough lane (Jeff Speakman's The Perfect Weapon is cited); a theory holds that distractingly striking people struggle to carry vehicles, like a Peter Parker versus Spider-Man distinction. — Ryen Russillo
He could have been Dalton's younger brother in Road House; his credits include Necessary Roughness, Street Fighter, Higher Learning, Any Given Sunday, Rollerball and the Texas Chainsaw remake. — Bill Simmons
The Darnell versus Ray feud is distinct, with Ray modeled on the Beverly Hills Cop banana-in-the-tailpipe type and the pair likened to Carlton versus the Fresh Prince; everyone roots for Darnell though he is kind of a dick. — Bill Simmons
Halle Berry is called terrible in the film for breaking up with Ray at a party and following Darnell, with a joke about her Monster's Ball Oscar speech. — Ryen Russillo
The "Kane Is Able" bumper sticker is a great psych gag. — Bill Simmons
The spitting into each other's mouths was computer-generated after the fact according to both actors in the oral histories, a disappointment; don't spit in friends' mouths during COVID. — Bill Simmons
The line asking when 80,000 people last showed up to watch a kid do a chemistry experiment captures why football matters at colleges, and the bow-tie academic is a required stock character.
Darnell's theory for dating Halle Berry's character, going where white people go like skating and bowling, is called cutting edge.
The jock, adrenaline factor holds up: in 1993 the Pantera-loving jocks had Latimer as their guy, and rewatching felt like being back in the high school weight room. — Kyle Brandt
Latimer injecting himself in the backside is rough on nicer TVs; the speaker says he has never used, and nobody he knows went straight to curls after injecting, especially with dated dumbbells. — Ryen Russillo
An unanswerable Berman question: was Tim Weyman's name written so Berman could say he could "go all the Wayman"; Berman's nickname riffs, such as Jeff Conine the Barbarian, suggest he made it up on the spot.
A recent Berman story: a joke nickname "Jeremy double chin" made on a podcast four days earlier was used by Berman on Monday Night Football 18 hours later; Berman has aged both the best and the worst. — Bill Simmons
Reading Braille as foreplay is floated as an Apex first and mocked from a blind person's perspective, like offering a spin in a wheelchair. — Wesley Morris
Killing someone with a snow globe is floated as a first, though it feels like there have been snow-globe murders before. — Bill Simmons
Halle Berry in the Leoni part is an interesting world because her comedic side went untapped, as Wesley noted on the Boomerang episode, though brunette Leoni still works. — Bill Simmons
Berry's charisma would make Julie's mistakes forgivable, where the original Julie is just annoying. — Logan Murdock
Julie is also recast with Jennifer Aniston, citing her snide energy in She's the One; she would have been less grating, and 94 was the right time for her. — Van Lathan
Halle Berry was Reginald Hudlin’s preferred Angela and Eddie Murphy ended the search after her screen test; Paramount executives resisted Robin Givens, with Vanessa Williams held as the backup for Jacqueline.
Jacqueline’s investment in a random Knicks game is called an artificial way to make her seem like one of the guys. — Bill Simmons
Three friends moving together across identical gym machines feels staged and implausible. — Bill Simmons
The store clerk’s immediate cash warning is criticized as an abrupt, mechanically inserted racism beat, while another host defends its realism. — Bill Simmons
Tisha Campbell’s character is described as one-note and possibly present for one scene too many. — Bill Simmons
Repeated fade-to-black transitions expose a patched-together final act. — Bill Simmons
The hosts identify pervasive sexual harassment across nearly every relationship as the broadest dated element.
Halle Berry’s performance (final first choice), Jeffrey Holder’s ads, the Martin origin story, slang, Murphy’s reactions and clothes, role reversal, Strangé ads, Star Trek riff, Angela’s breakup, and the recovery arc
Robin Givens is said to outshine Halliberry because Givens is styled for a red carpet while Halliberry is initially hidden in a shapeless costume.
The response is disputed because Hallie Barry's comedy and later visual confidence are defended even while Robin Gibbons is said to sizzle whenever she appears.
Called a favorite casting what-if ever: one host says Denzel Washington turned down Mr. Nobody before Kurt Russell, per "the internet," even with a promised bigger Fast 8 part; the reply is stunned. — Bill Simmons
The hosts guess Denzel was in Oscar mode before Fences and would only do an action movie as its star, citing The Equalizer. — Bill Simmons
Taylor Lautner and "Hallie Berry" (as transcribed) are said to have also been considered; Mr. Nobody had to be older, though Lautner's old-guy face is joked about. — Shea Serrano
Kurt Russell is a great pick as a throwback to late-80s and early-90s action, with an internet theory that he is channeling his 1988 Tequila Sunrise character. — Bill Simmons
Statham is said to have been offered the Owen Shaw role in Fast Six but to have been making Parker and "Wildcard" (as transcribed); he is agreed to be better as the big brother. — Bill Simmons
Henchmen firing point blank and missing, including Aries's crew while Wick holds up his coat; Jordan Hoffman's Guardian 'gun pornography' review; nobody saying Wick never could have outfought Santino
Not a lot: the point-blank shooting at John Wick in the cave, and the scene where Ruby Rose's Aries (as transcribed) and five people shoot at him while he holds his coat up as if it will stop bullets, which it theoretically does since it is bulletproof, but the part is not great.
The other pick is Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian calling the film a shameful example of Hollywood gun pornography with a video-game aesthetic and only trace elements of a plot, wondering where the line of decency is; one voice agrees with everything except 'shameful', tells him to fuck right off, calls it a terrible take and the thing that has aged worst, and says not to go to John Wick 2 if you cannot handle violence.
In the run-up the hosts had talked about approaching the film cautiously given the state of the world, but it turned out to be really fun; it is the 2019 Predator or Rambo 2, and taking it seriously is your own problem.
One more small one: a missed opportunity for someone to say he never could have outfought Santino, since Santino dies undefeated; the lack of a love interest is fine because he is still mourning his wife with the Bridget Moynihan callback, Halle Berry may be something in three, and he pulls the knife out of Ruby Rose while leaving it in with Cassian.
