Paltrow, Swank and Zellweger were reportedly backups if Garner couldn't do it; neither participant thinks they work, though mid-90s Zellweger might. — Juliet Litman
Young Jenna looks like Hilary Swank; Paltrow and Ruffalo later made a flight attendant movie that was not good. — Juliet Litman
The guests dying in rapid succession after the apocalypse begins is proposed. — Bill Simmons
Jonah playing with the gun and the Milky Way argument are proposed. — Bill Simmons
Danny McBride's breakfast entrance is proposed as the point when the film rises to another level. — Bill Simmons
The homemade Pineapple Express 2: Blood Red is proposed. — Bill Simmons
The group's conversation about Emma Watson and her armed departure is proposed, with the scene's sexual-threat humor acknowledged as potentially harder to stage later. — Bill Simmons
Heigl is an emphatic yes, compared with Vincent Chase’s Aquaman peak; naming the category after that fictional example is floated for future workshopping. — Bill Simmons
Rogen is rejected because his career continued rising, though carrying this unconventional leading role, producing with Goldberg and releasing Superbad made 2007 remarkable. — Bill Simmons
Apatow is a strong qualified yes for his leverage across Knocked Up and Superbad’s nearby release. — Bill Simmons
Segel, Hill, Rudd and Baruchel are rejected; Mann prompts admiration but This Is 40 is preferred for leading a major movie. — Bill Simmons
Matsui is an arguable yes and fantasy sports in movies may peak here; The League is television, while baseball’s historical primacy is debated against football’s mid-2000 s rise. — Bill Simmons
Unplanned-pregnancy movies receive an affirmative belated nomination, with She’s Having a Baby considered and Juno dismissed as a personal dislike. — Bill Simmons
The Sprint Treo close-up and Liddell/Couture poster date the film;132 minutes is too long, with excess Rudd/Mann material and drawn-out improvised scenes.
More montages could clarify relationships and compress repetitive scenes, beyond Ben’s eventual growing-up montage. — Juliet Litman
Using the actors’ real first names now intrudes as those performers became famous; Charlyne Yi and Rogen are inconsistent exceptions. — Juliet Litman
Heigl’s flowing tops and low wide jeans, along with the men’s oversized shirts and backward caps, are unflattering period fashion. — Juliet Litman
The fake pregnancy bump and Debbie’s anti-vaccination position age badly. — Juliet Litman
Repeatedly calling their project a webpage rather than a website sounds implausibly unfamiliar with 2007 internet usage. — Bill Simmons
Jeong’s hostile doctor is belatedly added as making the experience of giving birth look particularly unpleasant.
An ideal 100-to 105-minute cut would shorten labor and remove the draft detour; cutting the earthquake is proposed but resisted because Segel’s cigarette-and-nudity gag is too funny. — Bill Simmons
The running jokes about Martin’s beard and Dirty Man competition are celebrated as endlessly funny male-friend banter, with Lennon, Scorsese, Cat Stevens, Richard Reid and Robin Williams-knuckle comparisons. — Bill Simmons
Wiig’s euphemistic weight-loss meeting is praised as an early display of her screen persona and perhaps her second-best movie work. — Bill Simmons
The nightclub’s beer-buying, teasing and dice-dance routine are a personal favorite; Mann and Heigl also excel and the bouncer setup pays off later. — Bill Simmons
Segel flirting with Mann is admired as an underrated supporting turn; supporting players can stay weird without the lead’s growth arc. — Craig Horlbeck
The obscene background gestures during Alison’s phone call and the sex-offender website argument are additional comic highlights. — Bill Simmons
The double date’s time-machine exchange showcases Rogen and Rudd’s chemistry and greater affection for each other than their partners. — Bill Simmons
The Vegas mushroom trip and intercut nightclub rejection by Robinson form a favored eight-minute stretch. — Bill Simmons
The fantasy baseball draft reveal feels painfully plausible, with the Matsui announcement especially funny. — Craig Horlbeck
Alison’s first visit to the messy house and Hill awkwardly watching Wild Things effectively show the gulf between young men’s and women’s maturity. — Juliet Litman
The breakfast conversation with Maude is explicitly chosen, with the meal setting laying out the film’s concerns. — Juliet Litman
Two closing preferences favor the nightclub after the breakfast choice. — Bill Simmons
One participant gives Annie and the cop about two weeks, not seeing the chemistry. — Mallory Rubin
A follow-on scenario has them relaunching Cockbaby before Annie realizes she does not need anyone, wins a James Beard Award and ignores Ted in another Porsche. — Mallory Rubin
A twist adds she gets canceled five years later when shower video surfaces. — Bill Simmons
If it were Paul Rudd they would be together forever, making the cop the biggest miscasting in the movie. — Bill Simmons
It is unclear whether Doug was cut as superfluous. — Bill Simmons
The cop is the recast: it is clearly a Paul Rudd part; Jason Sudeikis and Bill Hader are other options, and this participant would personally go with Paul Rudd, never having felt O'Dowd was the good guy. — Bill Simmons
Steve Carell, definitely: the movie becomes a smash hit and he has The Office, the pinnacle of anyone's comedy career. — Bill Simmons
Apatow is a no, to be litigated later; one could argue Knocked Up. — Bill Simmons
Catherine Keener: after a decade as a respected indie actress peaking in 8mm, a smash hit makes this as good as it gets; she was also in Capote that year as Harper Lee, which is called a good call. — Bill Simmons
Virgins in general prompt jokes about Last American Virgin, a Virgin Week with Last Temptation of Christ and A Midnight Clear, and making Craig watch with Liz; that movie ends with James Ingram. — Bill Simmons
The Six Million Dollar Man action figures are definitely at Apex Mountain. — Sean Fennessey
Paul Rudd is first a no, but he gets praise: Brian Fantana in Anchorman, carrying stretches of this movie, his SmartTech meltdown and his souls-connected poker speech; one voice says you could make the case this is his Apex. — Sean Fennessey
Counter: Ant Man, from about 2014 or 2015, was great and a huge hit; the other host just doesn't like comic book movies and is teased about Munich. — Bill Simmons
Malco: 'Yeah. Has to be.'
Tech stores like Best Buy are raised as an Apex for that era; the reply calls it one of the speaker's unanswerable questions, with SmartTech badly run like a Boston chain and Circuit City, stores run by jackasses, as with Vince Vaughn's character in Old School. — Bill Simmons
Asia's ironic phase: not the band's Apex, since the speaker says they won four or five Grammys one year, but the move into ironic 'Heat of the Moment' appreciation 20 years later; the hosts joke they are already in their own ironic phase. — Bill Simmons
Lionel Richie 'Hello' scene; eBay-store collectibles novelty; dead tech such as VHS porn collections, VCRs, recordable CDs and the VHS DVD dual player; the 'you know how I know you're gay' running bit
The Lionel Richie 'Hello' scene is put in both aged best and aged worst. — Bill Simmons
A personal pick: Get Out ruined Catherine Keener, whose tea-stirring character makes her creepy in all her earlier films; the speaker admits it is personal and unfair. — Bill Simmons
Pushback: Keener is amazing and oddball enough that she and Andy work, with her weird eBay store. — Bill Simmons
The eBay store and collectibles trend felt new in 2005; the speaker recalls a column around 2000 about finding a vintage Patriots jersey and hunting cards and uncut sheets, before 20 years of nerd collector culture. — Bill Simmons
So much dead tech makes it a full period piece: a big box of porn tapes, buying a VCR, recordable CDs and the VHS DVD dual player.
Porn collections on VHS and everything VHS; you can't even buy a VHS player now except on eBay. — Bill Simmons
The running 'you know how I know you're gay' theme would not play in 2020, though it is essential to how the characters interact. — Bill Simmons
The gay panic joke has not aged well; per a DVD commentary, the scene was supposed to be Rudd's character describing ways he would kill himself before an improvised pivot, so a well-known scene was never in the script. — Sean Fennessey
Rudd's character's obsession with his ex, played by Mindy Kaling, at the dating event makes him a stalker and a dirtbag.
