The White House scenes reportedly reused an existing set. — Bill Simmons
The Air Force One set reportedly cost $250,000 to build. — Bill Simmons
Bush and Clinton campaign footage reportedly was digitally altered for the fictional reelection campaign. — Bill Simmons
The filmmakers reportedly decided against using Clinton’s endorsement in marketing. — Bill Simmons
Malkovich reportedly isolated himself for over a month to prepare, but was sociable and professional on set. — Bill Simmons
The digital effects reportedly cost $4 million. — Bill Simmons
An early trailer reportedly drew laughter at Eastwood’s final line and had to be remade; the trailer was not located during preparation. — Bill Simmons
A credit and contribution dispute reportedly led Castle Rock to leave Columbia the next year. — Bill Simmons
Canon in D as a wedding song; Sutherland's Best Actor snub; Mary Tyler Moore shock value; Good Will Hunting borrowing; odd dialogue; unwrapped candy apples
The Canon, the theme of one of the most dysfunctional family movies, is now the standard wedding song. — Bill Simmons
Sutherland's Best Actor snub has aged the worst. — Bill Simmons
The shock of Mary Tyler Moore as the evil mom has faded; there is no current equivalent, perhaps Aniston in the mid-2000s. — Bill Simmons
Good Will Hunting borrowing from this film bugs one host a tiny bit, prompting a joke to get Matt and Ben back on the show. — Bill Simmons
A spouse noticed odd lines that could fuel a sketch, like Sutherland's remark about the leaves at the end; the counterpoint is that he is incoherent because Beth left. — Bill Simmons
In a 2013 Esquire profile Redford claimed Kael turned on him after he refused her offer of tips; one host distrusts Redford, citing how Redford treated William Goldman, a friend of the host's, over All the President's Men. — Bill Simmons
In reply, Kael was tempted by figures like Warren Beatty to develop movies, so an exchange with Redford is believable, though no one can be trusted on what happened. — Sean Fennessey
Kael also feuded with Clint Eastwood, and in the last Dirty Harry movie a critic resembling her is murdered. — Bill Simmons
Handing out unwrapped candy apples for Halloween could not happen now. — Bill Simmons
Clint likely would not break the Irish goalie's arm; better if Hatch stays as trainer and backup goalie and the arm is broken in the match by Balman. — Bill Simmons
Damon's weight loss, piano, running and body makeup; Damon singing My Funny Valentine; Jude Law's saxophone, weight gain and broken rib; The Room joke; Hadrian bust; location shooting in sequence
Damon allegedly lost 30 pounds, learned piano, ran six miles a day and was covered in body makeup to look pasty and pale, prompting a joke about a pale co-host wearing an undercoat. — Bill Simmons
The research says Damon actually sang My Funny Valentine and Jude Law learned the saxophone, leading to a question about Chet Baker. — Bill Simmons
The research says Jude Law gained weight to seem more substantial and broke a rib falling backward while filming the boat murder. — Bill Simmons
A joke item says a viewer named Tommy was so moved he vowed to make an equally compelling film and four years later made The Room; the hosts riff on the two being similar. — Bill Simmons
Tom kills Freddie with a bust of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who the research says had a gay lover who was killed, called a little on the nose. — Bill Simmons
A classics major explains that Hadrian built a long wall, partly in the UK, had a gay lover, and resembles the bust in the movie.
The research says the production shot in seaside towns, Rome, Sicily and Naples, sometimes hundreds of miles apart, and reportedly shot in sequence; a joke says Clint Eastwood would have banged out all the Sicily scenes in a day. — Bill Simmons
The plot is summed up as truck heists that Paul Walker's undercover cop first pins on Dom's crew, then on Johnny Tran's, with a twenty-second fake-out on Hector's crew, before circling back to Dom once he has shared a Corona with Vin Diesel; the movie is described as centered on rewatchable scenes with recovery stretches between them.
Nominees: the first big street race; Dom's quarter-mile-at-a-time speech about his background, with special recognition owed to whoever wrote real dramatic acting for Vin Diesel; his flipping out at the street race when Johnny Tran accuses him of selling him out, with the line 'I never knocked on nobody'; the aborted truck hijacking with Vince dangling from the car; and the last ten minutes.
One host's most-rewound scene, after ten to fifteen viewings now that it is on Netflix, is the speech after the first race rather than the one in the garage: Dom putting on a show for the crowd, arms out, jibbing and jabbing at Brian to learn what he is made of while letting him know who runs things, the most we see of what Vin Diesel can do as an actor; the clip with 'Granny shifting, not double-clutching like you should' and 'Winning's winning' is played and becomes the sixth nominee.
Vin Diesel, like The Rock, belongs to everybody because he checks every box; this was the first big-budget action movie where representation felt like a big part of it, with Ja Rule, the Johnny Tran gang and Hector, and that diversity, mirrored in the theater audience, is credited as a reason the franchise became so huge, even though nobody can pin down his background.
Dom is written with a core and a code rather than as an emotionless tough guy: you don't tell on people, you take care of your family and your car; the hosts run the action-lead lineage from Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson through Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Swayze and Nick Cage and note the leads were almost always white, with Wesley Snipes, Eddie Murphy and Carl Weathers the rare exceptions.
The eighties were the steroids era, with Stallone and Schwarzenegger making nineteen action movies between them, then Die Hard and Roadhouse moved to smaller guys with a philosophy degree; Vin in this role was the first big guy doing the philosophical stuff, able to give the speech about watching his dad die and also body slam The Rock, and his height remains amorphous, somewhere between 5'4 and 6'4.
Vin Diesel also has the unintentional comedy Schwarzenegger and Stallone had, where imitating the voice or the walk is funny; one host enjoys making fun of how he drank a Corona and calls the acting good but also terrible, which the other rejects outright.
The defense is that he is so committed he might believe the Fast and the Furious is real and Dominic Toretto's family is his; both enjoy his weird run with the arms held low, ranked with the girl in Taken among the weirdest runs in recent action movies, though he is reportedly very coordinated and a former background dancer.
Polled, one host goes with the post-race speech because it shows both Brian and Dom doing their stuff, Brian remarkably charming and peacocking with a little Dion Waiters irrational confidence; a clarification follows that Paul Walker is considered a good actor while Vin Diesel's acting is enjoyed without being called good.
The other host's favorite is the quarter-mile-at-a-time speech, remembered from the theater as unclear whether it was serious yet amazing; it is recited, called really touching, and the host always sticks around for it when it is on TV.
The painting; Coldplay's Sparks; Isla Fisher; Bradley Cooper as Sack Lodge; the Wilson and Vaughn banter; the soundtrack; the wealthy DC-area setting; Bradley Cooper shooting Vince Vaughn with birdshot months before Dick Cheney's hunting accident
The painting still really makes one host laugh, and Coldplay's Sparks might be the band's best song 15 years later and a perfect part of the movie; a host recalls hearing it in college and expecting a different kind of band, with Sparks here and Don't Panic in Garden State becoming part of those movies.
Isla Fisher has probably never been better; she did a karaoke version of this role in Tag this year, people thought she would be a huge movie star before she married Sasha Baron Cohen (as transcribed) and got sidetracked, and worst case she should have had a seven-year sitcom; the pronunciation of her first name is corrected.
Bradley Cooper as a preppy dick plays well against his later backstory: after Alias he worried about being typecast as a nice guy, and Sack Lodge is a Hall of Fame dick with no redeeming quality, talking about other women and sharing the private eye conversation with Trapster; if made in 2018 he would have a line about golfing with Don Jr.
It is hard to believe nobody knew Cooper would be a star; one host watched Alias religiously and found his best-friend role bland and one-note; he was only 30 here and graduated from Georgetown in 97, and unlike Vaughn and Wilson he took control of his career, from All About Steve, Valentine's Day and the A Team through Limitless, Place Beyond the Pines and Silver Linings, aiming to be Warren Beatty, Redford or Eastwood.
Limitless is when one host believed in Cooper, since a premise that stupid only works if you like the lead; he has withstood Aloha, Burnt, Joy and the barely released Serena, and a Burnt digression follows: one host's wife loves kitchen movies like Under the Tuscan Sun, Unfaithful and No Reservations, Cooper is good in Burnt even though the movie does not work, and Daniel Brühl is the maitre d'.
Cooper saved his career with voice acting: Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy without the green screen work Chris Pratt does, and the boyfriend's voice in 10 Cloverfield Lane; the Hangover sequels were his torn ACL, with Hangover 3 excruciating.
While researching A Star Is Born, a host read that Cooper talked to Clint Eastwood about directing while making Sniper and was told Clint did Play Misty for Me at 41; the hosts love the heat check of entering the Clint conversation, are all in on the directing career and the coming promo tour in a denim jacket, and note Clint is making The Mule.
Also aged well: the Wilson and Vaughn repartee; a pretty good soundtrack for a broad Hollywood comedy, with In the Summertime on the bicycles, Rod Stewart's Stay With Me and the Coldplay song as big set pieces; and the wealthy DC area in summertime, which was supposed to be Boston and Cape Cod around the Kennedy compound, though you cannot tell it was 130 degrees when they filmed.
A late addition: Bradley Cooper shooting Vince Vaughn in the backside with birdshot approximately eight months before Dick Cheney shot somebody in the face in a similar environment.
