Sure; the obvious role is Billy Bear but you cannot cut Sonny Landham, so young Danny Trejo could be a convict on the opening chain gang or a cop in the precinct, or Jonathan Banks's partner who gets killed; the answer settles on Kehoe, voiced twice, since Trejo could then go evil in Another 48 Hours; it is always a favorite category because no movie has been found that Trejo would not have improved.
Eddie Murphy: one host says yes, ahead of Beverly Hills Cop; the other thinks Cop was his Apex Mountain as a better overall performance carried alone, answered with the forty-and-twenty-five box score he puts up here; after Cop, without Nolte or Dan Aykroyd beside him, he and Michael Jackson were the two biggest stars in the world, and both films rank above Trading Places.
Nick Nolte: no; Blue Chips and Prince of Tides are floated, Prince of Tides for success, North Dallas 40 as probably his best performance since you believe he played in the NFL, plus Rich Man, Poor Man watched by fifty million, Cape Fear and Who Will Stop the Rain; a lot of really good work but nothing definitively incredible, so no apex.
Walter Hill: The Long Riders, his Western about the James gang from around the same time, is raised first, but this film is called very high and 'this one' is the answer given; San Francisco is a great movie character rarely maximized like this, with Mrs. Doubtfire, Pacific Heights, Dirty Harry and Bullitt as other San Francisco movies, and the film captures the city's old cow-town backwater quality.
Sonny Landham: no, Predator is his apex, cutting his chest with a knife and waiting for the predator, on the same bill as Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Ventura, his political mentor; James Remar: one hundred percent yes, though one host's wife wanted Sex and the City named instead.
Remar is also great in The Warriors, and Gans has an ignominious ending, roughing up the female cop for no reason, which flips the audience from liking a badass to recoiling; he works constantly, turning up in What Lies Beneath at two in the morning; Olivia Brown's apex was Miami Vice; Frank McRae topped out here.
Not since the Heat episode have there been this many nominees: James Remar as Gans; Sonny Landham as Billy Bear, whose box score is likened to Ben Wallace in 2006, seventeen rebounds and five blocks in nine minutes, plus forty; and Jonathan Banks as the cop who gets shot, with the plea not to give Gans the gun.
Brian James as Kehoe (transcribed 'Keough') is hated because he becomes the bad guy in Another 48 Hours; Olivia Brown, future Miami Vice star, plays the girl who falls for Reggie Hammond in a minute.
One host names James Remar the winner; the other disputes it and goes with Frank McRae as Captain Hayden, quoting his suspension-and-review-board tirade; a tangent on great angry captains includes Cobb in Beverly Hills Cop; McRae is a great eighties cop captain who played the cop in about five movies and surprisingly never demands Jack's gun and badge here.
The Remar pick stands and the choice is respected as what makes the category great; the objection is that Gans is so evil, though believably and never-not evil, killing something like nine cops over five hundred thousand dollars because he likes it.
James Remar skipped sleep before shooting to look psychotic; Jack Cates inspired Sonny Crockett; two deleted scenes; Reggie Hammond was originally named Willie Biggs; the 1964 Cadillac is now owned by Vanilla Ice; Larry Gross's on-set diaries; Sonny Landham's career from adult films to Kentucky politics
James Remar often went without sleep before shooting to give Gans a more psychotic look, which the hosts believe, joking that it came from hanging out with Nick Nolte; one host lived in Remar's LA neighborhood in the early 2000s, saw him having coffee with his dog and always expected him to start shooting people; Jack Cates was apparently the inspiration for Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice, which now makes sense.
Two deleted scenes are mentioned, one with Cates and his girlfriend and an extended Roman's scene with Eddie Murphy dancing, possibly a third Busboys song; Reggie's bit confronting a man whispering to his 'wife' is quoted, and the Roman's bartender's 'come here often, Holmes' greeting is loved.
Reggie Hammond was initially named Willie Biggs until Eddie thought it too cliche and borderline racist and got it changed; the 1964 blue Cadillac has been restored, painted silver and is now owned by Vanilla Ice, which stuns the hosts; screenwriter Larry Gross kept diaries during the shoot that went online about ten years ago with many set stories.
The diaries stop after about five entries but reveal Sonny Landham as a maniac who had to be bailed out of jail, alongside crazy Nick Nolte stories; a Sonny Landham research subcategory follows: he plays Billy Bear, was a former pornographic film actor and moved to mainstream films via Walter Hill.
Landham's filmography is recited: a cop in The Warriors, then the really underrated Southern Comfort, then Poltergeist and 48 Hours in 1982, followed by Predator, Action Jackson and Lockup (as transcribed).
The Southern Comfort recommendation, telling anyone who has not seen it to check it out, is directed at the listeners. — Chris Ryan
He is good in Lockup; his character names are enjoyed, Hunter in Southern Comfort, Billy Soul in Predator (as transcribed), Billy Bear here, Mr. Quick in Action Jackson, and of his Lockup character name, a slur, the remark as transcribed is 'So that one still aged well', tone unresolved; he later ran for office in Kentucky several times, once for governor and once against Mitch McConnell as a libertarian Senate candidate, and died this year.
