Knowing Malone will die removes the original shock on repeat viewings. — Bill Simmons
Connery’s accent and the slow opening are criticized; the child’s bombing death redundantly establishes Capone’s evil after the opening introduction. — Bill Simmons
Capone’s teamwork speech is jokingly faulted for outdated baseball analysis, with VORP and win shares proposed instead. — Bill Simmons
Prohibition is an amusingly productive setting for stories; hidden liquor compartments in old Los Angeles homes illustrate the era. — Bill Simmons
Capone is a great villain, and De Niro’s opulent public performance is compared with Trump. — Chris Ryan
Connery’s conspicuously non-Irish accent has become enjoyable comedy, despite also being an aged-worst choice. — Bill Simmons
The Armani wardrobe credit, period clothes and hats, and young Costner’s hair are admired. — Bill Simmons
Billy Drago has an ideal villain’s face, prompting curiosity about his later character-actor career. — Bill Simmons
The dead-man-talking line and limited meetings between Ness and Capone are compared with Heat, inspiring a hypothetical diner conversation. — Bill Simmons
Building a trusted crew outside the usual system prompts a joke about founding The Ringer. — Bill Simmons
Real Chicago locations, accessible Mamet dialogue, and both the opening and romantic Morricone themes are admired. — Chris Ryan
Real Rockheads love the morgue-scene lines about the feet and "that's the most awful thing I've ever seen"; Cage's subtle readings like "FBI, freeze, sucker" and introducing himself as Stanley Goodspeed are favorites, and the Rocket Man quote is the stupidest but still funny. — Mina Kimes
Nerve gas rockets, not nuclear, mark the peak moment for nerve gas; the film is said to have been a source of misinformation for British intelligence ahead of the Iraq invasion, and fear of nerve gas persists. — Mina Kimes
Alcatraz movies: The Rock is judged better than the slow Escape from Alcatraz, which was filmed during tours and was being shot during a 1980 family visit. — Bill Simmons
Naked guitar playing is absolutely Apex Mountain. — Bill Simmons
Movie mutinies go to Crimson Tide, with this and Mutiny on the Bounty possibly a Mount Rushmore. — Bill Simmons
Vanessa Marseille, after 90210 and dating Brian Austin Green, peaks as the lead female in an action movie; she gets it. — Bill Simmons
Christ poses go to The Last Temptation of Christ, then Platoon; needles in the heart stay with Pulp Fiction.
It is called the best action movie of 1996, better than Independence Day, Twister, Mission Impossible and Eraser, which all made more money; agreement follows. — Mina Kimes
With Armageddon raised as Bay's earnings peak, asked whether creatively this was the apex, the answer is "a hundred percent": the only Bay movie that rises to excellent, with Bad Boys 2 and the original Transformers merely okay. — Mina Kimes
Another view likes many Bay movies, even recent ones, but calls the Transformers films an anvil on his career. — Chris Ryan
A research tidbit delivered early: Cage showed Bay and Bruckheimer Richard Dreyfus scenes from Jaws, wanting to channel them in the bomb-dismantling scene. — Bill Simmons
So many writers worked on the script that it went to Writers Guild arbitration: Aaron Sorkin and Quentin Tarantino involved, David Weisberg and Douglas Cook on the story, Mark Rosner granted credit, Bay backing Jonathan Hensley, and two British screenwriters Connery brought in who were fired; about nine writers. — Bill Simmons
Cage's idea that his character would never swear produced lines like "gee whiz"; some Navy SEALs were real SEALs; Don Simpson created Hummel from a 60 Minutes piece on the government not acknowledging soldiers who died on covert missions. — Bill Simmons
Per Bay, the car chase was inserted after early screenings revealed a big flat hole, to appease younger filmgoers. — Bill Simmons
On Cage playing guitar naked: Bay thought Cage wanted to show off his body, while Cage wanted to show his character's comfort at home; the takeaway is how hairy he is. — Bill Simmons
Connery's contract had his coverage filmed first, then he left for his cabin on Alcatraz. — Bill Simmons
The balcony scene was shot on location at the Fairmont, and people called about a person dangling from the balcony. — Bill Simmons
Bay's unmade sequel idea: Goodspeed has the microfilm, nowhere to turn, and enlists Mason in a role reversal, likened to National Treasure. — Bill Simmons
An internet theory holds that Mason was James Bond, but his answer of Army rather than Navy blew the wink. — Bill Simmons
Everyone is on a heat check; Anthony Clark tries to win it but it goes badly.
The first inanimate-object nomination in Rewatchables history: VX gas, with very small screen time, looking great, and as bad as imagined when stuffed in a mouth, "a literal heat check"; the nomination is welcomed. — Chris Ryan
A vote for William Forsyth as the FBI man: an early asshole who is kind when Cage pukes (a Cage improvisation), then lets it slide that Mason is alive; with Raising Arizona history, quietly very good; he gets it if a person must win. — Mina Kimes
There are arguably three movies (the military-government thriller, Connery's and Cage's), but by the Judd Nelson standard Ed Harris is in a completely different movie because he takes it so seriously. — Chris Ryan
Pushback that the core three were praised all along draws the reply that Harris is liked, just in a different movie, unlike Gene Hackman's quirks in Crimson Tide.
Counterpoint: an obvious villain would make a different film; the story rests on the bluff, which Connery reads ("he's a soldier, he's not a madman"). — Mina Kimes
The core three are rated more like Westbrook, Beale and Bertons, with a Chris Bosch comparison retracted, while Harris is called amazing. — Mina Kimes
Alcatraz; San Francisco car chases; Simpson-Bruckheimer logo card; characters who don't exist; former That Guys; Claire Forlani what-if; Connery's Alcatraz cabin; the film's politics
Alcatraz: no movie using it has failed to be cool. — Bill Simmons
San Francisco car chases are one speaker's pick, over the others' disagreement. — Bill Simmons
The "losers always whine about their best; winners go home and fuck the prom queen" line is raised: it seemed the coolest thing at 13 but now reads as bizarre and very 90s. — Bill Simmons
The Simpson-Bruckheimer logo card, and RIP to Don Simpson, whose last film this was; a 1996 EW piece quoted Connery that Simpson did not look right on set, and his legendary appetite for cocaine is noted.
Action-movie characters who "don't exist" because their records were wiped clean are a winner every time. — Bill Simmons
Claire Forlani's what-if: after Mallrats it seemed she would happen until Meet Joe Black; the belief that it still could happen has aged best. — Bill Simmons
Too good for half-assed internet research: Connery made the producers build him a cabin on Alcatraz rather than travel to the mainland, compared with Arnold's private-plane demands on T2.
The politics have aged well, unusually for Bay: a nuanced view of government and patriotism in the Hummel-Mason conversation, where Connery cites Oscar Wilde; the bluff ending, where Hummel refuses to kill a million people, keeps the film resting on whether he would do it. — Mina Kimes
Picked early: would the rope break or rip off Connery's arm pulling the 180-pound John Spencer, and how does a 20-foot rope come from a shower curtain; nitpicking a Bay movie is like criticizing a child's drawing.
Moved up from Picking Nits: why is there a Disneyland world of mine carts, burners and storage under a prison on an island, and was it filmed separately; an attempt to research it is mentioned. — Bill Simmons
Flagged as a nit: characters supposedly wiped from the record, yet Cage's friend finds Jade Angelou and her address in 30 seconds, though the scene establishes trust. — Mina Kimes
Carla is questioned as a character: she is told the underwater strategy in the situation room with top officials; the part feels shoehorned, possibly from notes to include Vanessa Mercell and Claire Forlani so it was not all dudes.
Connery has not driven for 35 years yet zooms a Hummer around San Francisco and knows the streets.
Did the hostages ever eat or go to the bathroom over about three days? Die Hard accounts for it; this film does not address it. — Bill Simmons
Recapped nits: the Secret Service at the balcony haircut, the working boilers (which even Bay admitted was ridiculous), and Connery remembering the basement 30-plus years later. — Bill Simmons
There is no reason for Cage to take the green egg into a fight in his chest pocket; he lands on it and it stays intact, and shoving it in a mouth should fail, though it is still enjoyed. — Bill Simmons
Major nit: Cage's resistance to atropine; its listed side effects (light sensitivity, blurred vision, dry mouth, constipation and more) are mild compared with VX gas, so taking five shots would make sense. — Chris Ryan
The government should just pay the $83 million, roughly what Barry Bond signed for in 1996, rather than put San Francisco at risk. — Mina Kimes
Leaving the one man who can stop the mission alone in a cell, unguarded despite 30 men and stray Marines around Alcatraz, is illogical. — Mina Kimes
Connery would miss some of his rope-and-hook throws to pull the doors; he would win an Olympic event for it. — Bill Simmons
