Connery is a reported Frank possibility. — Chris Ryan
De Niro reportedly was offered Mitch after Eastwood joined but was making A Bronx Tale; the discussion imagines overlap with his other sinister roles. — Bill Simmons
A separate revised scale puts Powers Boothe at one, the Passenger 57 villain at two and the Toy Soldiers villain at three, reversing an earlier preference between Boothe and Toy Soldiers. — Bill Simmons
The villain scale initially puts the Toy Soldiers villain at one, criticizing his intimidation speech despite strong entrance, pivot and final-fight stages; a later utterance calls him two. — Bill Simmons
An alternate opinion places Jones at nine and would rank Lithgow and Hopper higher; Toy Soldiers is again called the worst while Boothe is another participant’s least favorite. — Bill Simmons
Booth’s villain is disputed: initially called fine, then criticized as insufficiently charismatic and lacking the comic timing needed for sarcastic threats. — Bill Simmons
Rickman in Die Hard receives 10 out of 10. — Bill Simmons
Passenger 57 villain receives 2 out of 10. — Kyle Brandt
The Toy Soldiers villain’s performance is mocked despite affection for the film; zero is floated after the initial one-out-of-ten score. — Bill Simmons
Toy Soldiers villain receives 1 out of 10. — Bill Simmons
Oldman in Air Force One receives 7 out of 10. — Bill Simmons
The five-out-of-ten slot remains unfilled. — Bill Simmons
Don Johnson is admired as a plausible Ness, reportedly recommended by Armani and constrained by Miami Vice; the hosts imagine his version smoking. — Bill Simmons
Mickey Rourke reportedly turned down Ness, but his temperament is considered wrong for the film compared with Angel Heart. — Bill Simmons
Bob Hoskins reportedly lost Capone when De Niro accepted; the payment is corrected from $250,000 to $200,000, followed by the joke about other films he could be paid not to appear in. — Bill Simmons
Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones are considered more credible Ness possibilities than a broad Gibson/Keaton list; a Brando Capone offer is mentioned tentatively. The hosts distinguish contemporary reporting from unreliable internet casting lists. — Bill Simmons
The framing of Vicki Vale is flagged as weird and reserved for this category. — Bill Simmons
Some special effects, like the bat plane flight, feel very 1989. — Bill Simmons
The film is too dark and literally hard to see in places; The Batman is said to be darker still. — Bill Simmons
The Keaton-Basinger scenes feel rough; a defense says they convey chemistry and that the Joker is crude and after her. — Sean Fennessey
Keaton’s Bruce is an odd, untraumatized weirdo, so the romance raises the question of why she likes him beyond his money; he is compared to a tech billionaire with a Steve Jobs look, though he had great chemistry with Michelle Pfeiffer in the sequel. — Sean Fennessey
The uproar over casting Keaton, with a reported 50,000 protest letters, is hard to explain today and is contrasted with modern tweet-based hate. — Chris Ryan
The Prince soundtrack is named, while Trust and Party Man are defended as good songs.
The importance of the Gotham Globe newspaper has dated; the setting feels like both 1989 and 1948, and Gotham is a composite of many cities.
Robert Wuhl as Knox is the worst part: he is in too many scenes after Bull Durham, which is called the most unfortunate part of the movie. — Bill Simmons
Stone hired a lead researcher, named as Jane Riscone (as transcribed); Stone read two dozen assassination books and the researcher 100 to 200, a range mocked as imprecise. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say Stone's source for X was Colonel Leroy-Fletcher Prouty (as transcribed), who once worked in the Pentagon, but that his stories have a lot of holes. — Bill Simmons
The real Garrison appears in the film as Earl Warren. — Bill Simmons
Tommy Lee Jones deciding to paint himself gold is the favorite research item; another participant had not come across it.
Gary Oldman as Oswald; Seinfeld spoof; Pesci-Tommy Lee Jones wig battle; Kevin Bacon's career revival; Oliver Stone's Dave cameo; Tommy Lee Jones in gold paint; Dealey Plaza recreation; John Williams score; New Orleans setting; specter of JFK; character actors in tiny roles
Offered as number one: Oldman as Oswald is creepy, great, and looks like Oswald.
Oldman must have shot much of his material separately with Stone; a 'Gary Oldman cut' as a standalone Oswald movie is wished for. — Chris Ryan
Deleted-scene story: Oldman asked Stone to point the camera at him late at night for an elegiac Oswald monologue; Stone shot him in a casket and planned to end the film with it before making a different call; it can be found on YouTube. — Brian Koppelman
The 1992 Seinfeld spoof 'The Boyfriend' features Wayne Knight and Keith Hernandez; Hernandez is praised and then jabbed as possibly a QAnon guy.
'The Boyfriend' is remembered as the episode that showed Seinfeld would be the biggest show, with the spitter bit called lights out. — Bill Simmons
Bacon is said to call the film a turning point that reignited his career, leading to A Few Good Men. — Bill Simmons
Stone's self-deprecating cameo in Dave two years later has aged best for one participant. — Bill Simmons
Tommy Lee in gold paint getting slapped by Pesci in a Dangerous Liaisons outfit is praised as the good version of a wild idea, unlike a cut Nicholson idea in The Departed; Tommy Lee doing it is what makes it great. — Bill Simmons
Objection: the same scene bumps against what's aged worst, the film's attitude about homosexuality, called retrograde and unacceptable; the counterpoint is that it was part of Garrison's case against Shaw and that era's judgment. — Brian Koppelman
Stone recreated the assassination in Dealey Plaza, spending $4 million to restore it to 1963 conditions and reroute traffic; Sutherland and Costner memorized their monologues. — Bill Simmons
Debate on whether acting is mostly memory: one participant says no, the camera reveals compelling people like Sutherland and memorizing matters more in theater; it is jokingly settled at 70% memory. — Brian Koppelman
John Williams's score and New Orleans as a setting are named.
The specter of JFK himself: the speech that opens Stone's documentary, the Caesar-like shot in the X speech and the still photograph of Kennedy.
McQuarrie is picked because the film is now watched with different eyes, the script is a favorite, and he has gone on to great work. — Chris Ryan
Asked who it would have been in 2000 or 2015, the answer is probably Spacey. — Chris Ryan
For 20 years it was Spacey, whose 1995 with Seven and the Oscar was a Tommy Lee Jones moment, but now it is McQuarrie. — Bill Simmons
The other host agrees ("I think you're right") that it is McQuarrie; "Stephen Baldwin, in my heart" is added. — Bill Simmons
Baldwin is compared to the Starship Troopers lead who played it completely straight, carrying himself like the star though not one of the five biggest. — Bill Simmons
Baldwin was the second choice for McManus; the first choice, Michael Biehn, reportedly turned it down and later called it a huge mistake. — Bill Simmons
With Biehn it would be a less funny movie, though one host has always loved him. — Chris Ryan
The script went to everybody in town; Palminteri's role was offered to Chris Walken and Bob De Niro, and Walken is imagined as Kobayashi or Redfoot. — Bill Simmons
Singer and McQuarrie sent Spacey the script without saying which role was his; he assumed Palminteri's or Byrne's part, but it was written with him in mind for Verbal. — Bill Simmons
Byrne, dealing with personal problems, backed out for 24 hours until the filmmakers agreed to shoot in LA, where he lived, in five weeks. — Bill Simmons
A joke proposes making Redfoot the Voight character from Heat to connect the universes. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say Simpson and Bruckheimer offered Val Kilmer a headlining role, which he declined and later regretted; the role was never specified. — Bill Simmons
Guesses for the Kilmer role are Viggo's part or Hunter, possibly turned down for not being big enough; he could have played every part except Hackman's. — Bill Simmons
Al Pacino was originally offered Captain Ramsey and would have dialed it up to 90 in his Vincent Hanna zone. — Bill Simmons
Warren Beatty was courted, another case of Beatty flirting with a part for a year before declining, as with the Burt Reynolds part in Boogie Nights, which is called the bigger miss; he would not have fit this movie. — Bill Simmons
Per a Don Simpson interview at Santa Anita, Pitt and Tom Cruise were considered for Denzel's part; Cruise was the first call for such parts for a decade, but it worked out perfectly. — Bill Simmons
