The job interview where he does all the voices is enjoyed as a case of turning the cameras on and letting Robin Williams go, probably filmed for hours. — Bill Simmons
The fake calls Daniel makes to undermine other applicants for the maid job, using different voices, are also enjoyed. — Bill Simmons
Williams is called probably the best any-voice comedian of the last 40 years; the distinct Mrs. Doubtfire voice, saying 'dear' with an English accent, is like the best version ever of an SNL sketch. — Bill Simmons
The scene of Harvey Firestein creating Mrs. Doubtfire is praised; Harvey, also in Independence Day, is called an icon, and John Levitz used to do a Harvey impression on SNL. — Bill Simmons
The frosting scene with the apartment lady is floated as a possible pick; the icing melting off was reportedly caused by set heat, and the setup recalls Three's Company misunderstanding plots. — Bill Simmons
Sally Field's character telling Mrs. Doubtfire she is better without Daniel is an intense, well-written scene: the wife explains everything wrong with the marriage to her disguised husband. — Bill Simmons
The stated pick is the double duty at the dinner, an absurd scene that works, with bathroom costume changes and teeth falling into the wine glass (reportedly ad-libbed); it runs 12 or 13 minutes and nobody pays for the dinner. — Bill Simmons
Adds two: presenting catered food as a home-cooked dinner, which seemed the peak of luxury as a child, and the emotional final speech about love. — Amanda Dobbins
Asked for a pick, the run-by fruiting is offered and the pool scene is called the single best scene in the movie: it swerves expectations with the Brosnan character while making him more likable, with Daniel hiding behind the plant.
Picks the opening, with Daniel voicing cartoons in the booth at full Robin Williams and quitting over the smoking bird, showing he is a caring dad with morals; also likes the house party with a pony inside. — Shea Serrano
The party also features House of Pain and two three-year-olds jumping on the couch in a sugar coma.
Obviously yes: a younger, Heat-era Danny Trejo in his late thirties could have been Lieutenant Dan, which one host is fine with and the other disputes, or the drill sergeant in boot camp. Trejo as Sally Field's character would not work and the principal is rejected too; he belongs in the military scenes.
The nominees are basically Michael T. Williamson (as transcribed), Sally Field and Haley Joel Osment unless someone else comes up, since it has to be a heat check; the man who sleeps with Sally Field to get Forrest into public school is also floated.
Dick Cavett, the real Dick Cavett aging himself back twenty years in a wig, is called fantastic and told he wins the award if he is aging himself backwards.
The soundtrack's obviousness; the CGI, especially John Lennon's mouth; Forrest's mother sleeping with the principal; the three-and-a-half-year run; Bubba; Jenny's journey, defended; Sally Field being only ten years older than Hanks
The CGI was groundbreaking in 1994 but the Ringer office could do better now, and Jurassic Park a year earlier had much better CGI. John Lennon talking with his mouth moving to different words looks like the Ringer's social videos such as Bill Belichick as Scarface; the ping pong ball, by contrast, looks great.
Zemeckis and Hanks made a great deal of money from this film and Zemeckis also made Back to the Future, so the hosts ask him to spend 1.5 million on the CGI for a 25th anniversary home release; George Lucas did that with the original Star Wars trilogy and people flipped out, and Star Wars fans are called lunatics, with the producer asked to cut the remark and then told not to.
Forrest's mother sleeping with the school principal is a delightful scene that has probably aged badly in certain corners.
Forrest ran for three years, two months, fourteen days and sixteen hours, from July 5, 1976 to September 19, 1979.
Somebody running for three and a half years is absurd: who was getting his checks from the shrimp company, who ran the bank, who mowed his lawn; the defense is that he was a simple man who did not need possessions. The scene is called absolutely idiotic, nine months would have been fine, no decade exists where anyone would do that, and he does it in the same pair of Nike Cortez.
The movie is meant to be a parable, but the run is more than ridiculous, one of the few parts that should not make sense on screen. One thing to like is that he breaks out the Castaway beard as foreshadowing, though the makeup is not good; in Castaway it was real, and the lesson was learned.
Bubba has not aged well, too broad as a character, a second superhero with the same power; the counter is that two undereducated guys with sweethearts underscores the friendship of dumbass soulmates.
Jenny's journey is a tough thirty-year stretch of a rough home, bad men, coke and heroin, but the film showed many young people the effects of child abuse, an honest if not raw attempt; it is a little facile that everything in her life traces back to her childhood, and unfortunate that everything that happens to Forrest is great and everything that happens to Jenny is bad, yet Robin Wright is so empathetic that the character works and it has not aged poorly.
Sally Field is only ten years older than Tom Hanks and they co-starred in Punchline ten years earlier, which is obvious when Forrest comes home from Vietnam and she is aged up; it looks like someone twenty years old cancelled at the last second and they had to audible.
It was hard to come up with more than three candidates. The first is Forrest playing football, with a clip, and a tangent on Forrest as a kick returner against Devin Hester and Desmond Howard: he has no escapability, runs in a straight line and turns left like a car, so Alabama's blocking schemes deserve credit, and he is dubbed the best white kick returner ever.
There are only two football scenes and a host could have watched a hundred; Bear Bryant's reaction when Forrest breaks one is loved. One host did not know the coach was meant to be Bear Bryant on first viewing, the hat now gives it away; Alabama football was down when the film came out and is back, and the school was a smart choice because it carried Bear Bryant and the integration material.
A second favorite is the scene in which Forrest's first intimate moment with Jenny ends abruptly, which one host and his friends imitated at bars for the rest of the nineties; it is given a zero percent chance of being the pick.
The Vietnam rally crowd was built with about 1,500 extras who were filmed on one side, moved to the other side and composited so it looked like 35,000 people.
The rally is fantastic: the fake Abby Hoffman (as transcribed) saying 'Forrest' very sharply, then the two running through the pool to meet each other feels like an iconic movie moment, and one host calls it the best scene in the movie.
Forrest getting rich while Jenny comes back is a great four-minute montage, with the lawn mowing and the bought church. The running scene is called appalling but its music choices are incredible, Jackson Brown's (as transcribed) Running on Empty straight into Bob Seeger's (as transcribed) Against the Wind, very late seventies; Zemeckis loves the obvious musical cue, as with Joe Cocker's Feeling Alright in Flight when Denzel falls off the wagon, and only Scorsese is worse.
Forrest meeting his son, with the exchange about the boy being named after his daddy, is a great, touching scene; Haley Joel Osment is incredible at about two years old. The meeting, the wedding and Lieutenant Dan's arrival can be lumped together.
One host picks the Vietnam rally as the best scene; the other agrees, offers the hurricane with Lieutenant Dan going to war on top of the mast as a fun candidate he had forgotten, and goes with the rally too. The film has no knock-your-socks-off scenes like Shawshank's opera scene, but the rally is pretty good.
The football scene connects directly to the previous scene where Forrest learns to run, so it is less individuated than scenes in other movies. 'Run, Forrest, run' with little Jenny and the braces breaking off is a candidate but short; the principal sleeping with Sally Field so Forrest can stay in school is funny but was hesitated over, and the first-encounter scene is not getting any votes.
