Costner's 'ashamed to be an American' moment and his New Orleans walk with his investigators, pointing out the FBI, CIA, Secret Service and O&I buildings, are nominated; the editing is praised. — Bill Simmons
The New Orleans scenes make participants want to drink and smoke; New Orleans is called the only place one participant still smokes.
John Candy's big scene is quoted at length: the big enchilada, a mouse fighting a gorilla, Kennedy as dead as that crab meat, and 'Daddy-o'; his moving sunglasses are praised.
Asked when Candy died, the joking reply is that 'they killed him'. — Bill Simmons
The hosts want to work Candy's 'any idea what you're getting into, Daddy-o' line into NBA conversations, such as Lakers defense and Frank Vogel.
Kevin Bacon's prison scene is quoted; he 'hits a four-three from 30 feet', culminating in a crude line one participant can't believe was in the script, likened to Ashley Schaeffer from Eastbound & Down. — Chris Ryan
Pesci's last big scene ('a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma', 'the shooters don't even know') is called great, though Pesci is said to dial it up too much. — Chris Ryan
Pesci's wig is called out of control, and he never inhales while smoking, compared to Tom Cruise smoking.
The first Pesci interrogation and the way Costner comports himself in the Sunday detention scene are singled out as a movie-star sequence noticed in the theater. — Brian Koppelman
Setting the film in New Orleans lets the actors play Foghorn Leghorn, and Richardson's frames are packed with layers, such as the flambe in the restaurant scene. — Brian Koppelman
For the Mr. X scene, Dale Die (as transcribed) wearing aviator sunglasses indoors is praised, and Garrison appearing as Earl Warren is a moment one participant rewinds to watch.
Anecdote: after moving to Los Angeles to work for Grantland, one participant repeatedly made his wife and a friend's wife watch the Mr. X scene on Friday nights to show how the two friends talk; they never enjoyed it. — Sean Fennessey
The Mr. X scene is compared to the 35-minute Boogie Nights sequence at Jack Horner's house as a mega-sequence. — Bill Simmons
Two more nominations: Jim explaining the magic bullet theory, iconic once Seinfeld grabbed it, and 'back and to the left' leading to the big monologue. — Bill Simmons
'X is the answer' is stated over the John Candy scene, while another participant votes for the John Candy scene but says they understand.
Also praised: the Clay Shaw interrogation, Jack Lemmon at the horse track, and Ed Asner beating up Lemmon's character at the opening. — Brian Koppelman
Who masturbated on Rachel's bed: the blond locker-room guy, the assassin, or the sister staging it; the sister would not because it tightens security, so the locker-room guy is just a creepy bed masturbator. — Bill Simmons
Celebrity home invasions have aged well given people finding where Kylie Jenner lives. — Van Lathan
Why didn't the assassin quit after the sister died? She said she did not know him, and before he shoots she says she paid and he says "you're dead"; the point is conceded. — Bill Simmons
Mike Starr was a terrible bodyguard: beaten by Costner, mishandled the club, and poked in the eye by the camera rifle guy. — Bill Simmons
Rachel's next couple of years look like the wheels coming off; the airport run misled one viewer into thinking they end together, but the film obeys the song. — Bill Simmons
Most messed-up Oscars moment: Rachel's near-assassination is chosen over the La La Land-Moonlight mix-up, which is called hysterical and a great Kimmel moment. — Bill Simmons
Camera rifle past Oscars security; too few handlers around Rachel; Fletcher's absent dad; Rachel never learning of her sister's plot; Frank's morning-after exit; unacknowledged race angle at the Oscars; Rachel playing her own music
Getting a camera rifle into the Oscars is impossible; living near the Oscars in Hollywood brought a robot dog bomb check and underground sweeps at Oscars time. — Van Lathan
Working for Kimmel, Oscars-week shutdowns lasted about eight days; some of that is probably post-9/11. — Bill Simmons
Rachel should be more of a narcissist diva, never alone with just one assistant. — Bill Simmons
Costner pulling a gun on stage should get him shot, but the counterpoint that hysteria might let him get it out ends with "Okay. I don't know," leaving the nit unresolved. — Bill Simmons
Fletcher's dad is never mentioned or contacted, when the boy could have been sent to him or his grandparents; a Kevin Federline joke follows. — Van Lathan
We never learn if Rachel found out her sister tried to kill her; a scene of Costner and Bill Cobbs agreeing not to tell her is joked about. — Bill Simmons
Frank waking up and leaving after one night with Whitney Houston is fuck-boy behavior; he should have cut contact methodically, and anyone would ride it out for weeks. — Van Lathan
The film should have consulted a Black person on the Academy Awards angle: with Singleton's nomination and an earlier Black actor's win in the 60s but no Black actress winner, Rachel could have said she was making history; the Oscars felt like an afterthought. — Bill Simmons
Rachel sitting by her pool listening to her own music is questioned; a rapper friend does exactly that, and one host admits listening to The Rewatchables. — Van Lathan
Rachel's mansion is the Jack Walts (as transcribed) mansion from The Godfather, the Beverly House compound on North Beverly Drive, also Victor Maitland's house in Beverly Hills Cop. — Bill Simmons
Houston gave Costner singing lessons in return for acting lessons; she said he taught her to listen and communicate through her eyes. — Bill Simmons
Houston suffered a miscarriage during production, shutting it down for a couple of weeks. — Bill Simmons
Kasdan was a big fan of Akira Karasawa (as transcribed), explaining the samurai bodyguard motif and the film they see; Jaimbo (as transcribed) means bodyguard in Japanese. — Bill Simmons
Rachel's sister should be recast because she does not look like she could be Whitney Houston's sister, but finding a candidate is hard. — Bill Simmons
Victoria Dillard from Deep Cover and Spin City is proposed; the objection is that Whitney had to be more beautiful than the sister. — Van Lathan
Ricky's mom from Boys in the Hood, also in White Men Can't Jump, is proposed as better for the drunken confession, without a settled answer. — Bill Simmons
Spending on Val Kilmer as the assassin is proposed because he may have looked better than Costner then, making the park scene make sense; it is agreed that works. — Bill Simmons
Kasdan's script nearly got made in the 70s with Ryan O'Neill (as transcribed) and Diana Ross; Ross pulled out, supposedly after a relationship and breakup with him, flagged as internet hearsay. — Bill Simmons
O'Neill had the best 70s: Lee Majors asked his best friend O'Neill to look after Farrah Fawcett while he was away, and she and O'Neill fell in love and stayed together a long time, pitched as an impossible documentary. — Bill Simmons
Rachel's race is not written into the script, yet the 70s version was also an interracial pairing, likely because the goal was a gigantic star such as Streisand or Ross. — Van Lathan
Princess Diana and Costner reportedly had real dialogue about a sequel in which Frank protects a princess loosely based on her life, before she died; a video of her sprinting suggests she was competitive enough. — Bill Simmons
David Foster, after Fried Green Tomatoes took the planned song, got Kevin's suggestion of I Will Always Love You, bought the Linda Ronstadt version in Malibu, resisted the a cappella idea, and, standing beside Whitney's brother, was told "you're witnessing greatness." — Bill Simmons
Sister's confession and motive; working-class crazy-stalker trope; Frank and Rachel apart in the third section; Whitney smoking; cocky chauffeur line; Robert Wuhl as Oscars host; the bathroom scene with the assassin
The sister's confession and motive are the answer: paying a hitman she cannot call off and saying she never would have killed Fletcher is confusing, a surprising loophole from Kasdan. — Bill Simmons
The twist tries to come from someone unexpected; one participant was strangely attracted to the sister on the rewatch, the other was not. — Van Lathan
The film never shows Rachel mistreating her sister beyond a few stink faces, leaving a chasm between an entitled-star annoyance and a hit; the drunken confession is bad. — Van Lathan
Why hire a hitman when she could spike her sister's drink? — Van Lathan
The blond crazy guy reflects an 80s-90s tendency to make janitors and working-class people the crazies, a "minimum wage people bias," with Buffalo Bill as another example. — Van Lathan
In the film's third section Frank and Rachel go about 30 minutes without a scene together. — Bill Simmons
Seeing Whitney smoke on the balcony prompts worry about her voice. — Bill Simmons
Costner's line that the cocky Black chauffeur always dies is a little jarring. — Bill Simmons
The bathroom scene where the guy who ends up trying to kill her seems about to choke her makes little sense, and going back to the room to make Frank jealous feels contrived. — Van Lathan
Whitney and Costner at their peaks; bodyguard-romance premise; soundtrack; Dolly Parton connection; resentful-sister concept; 'permanent position' quote; widescreen; Costner's haircut; a cappella opening; song-swap story; Costner's eulogy; Secret Service guys
Whitney in her late prime and Costner at his peak head the list. — Van Lathan
Professional bodyguard romances are loved, including Ridley Scott's late-80s Someone to Watch Over Me with Mimi Rogers, which has a similar premise. — Bill Simmons
A British terrorism series possibly called Bodyguard, with a Game of Thrones actor named Richard is liked. — Bill Simmons
Protectors crossing lines are compelling because the job is so intimate: a rigid, disciplined guy whose gooey center someone reaches. — Van Lathan
The Sentinel with Michael Douglas as a framed Secret Service agent is recommended as a rewatchable mid-2000s entry. — Bill Simmons
The soundtrack is loaded and called the best of all time; I Will Always Love You was a Dolly Parton song that finally found the right voice. — Bill Simmons
One participant learned only about four years earlier, from a Dolly Parton fan at TMZ, that the song was a cover, at 37 years old. — Van Lathan
The original singer owned and loved the cover, pulled over the first time she heard it, and showed no bitterness. — Bill Simmons
The resentful older sister-assistant concept is an untapped idea for movies and TV. — Bill Simmons
A favorite quote: "I'm no good in a permanent position, Monty, my feet go to sleep." — Bill Simmons
The widescreen framing was hard to follow on square TVs for 15 years and now plays better. — Bill Simmons
Costner's crew-cut, Steve McQueen-style hair became a thing that Clooney took further on ER and Jake tried on Melrose Place, sparking a Grant Show tangent. — Bill Simmons
Costner's idea to open I Will Always Love You a cappella was great. — Bill Simmons
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted was meant to be the cover until Fried Green Tomatoes used it to end that film in 1991. — Bill Simmons
A piece of Costner's eulogy is read: Whitney lacked confidence during filming, sang the whole song without a band, and was the only one who could have played Rachel at that time.
Costner's feelings for Houston deserve their own discussion; a Grantland party anecdote says Costner, brought by Kimmel five or six years earlier, still had it. — Bill Simmons
Secret Service guys have aged well: The Last Boy Scout is defended, later entries include the Channing Tatum White House movie and the Fallen films, and Ving Rhames in Dave is a shared favorite. — Van Lathan
The last 15 minutes are predicted to win before the runners-up are reviewed. — Bill Simmons
Frank meeting Rachel at the full-production video rehearsal at her house ("you don't look like a bodyguard" / "This is my disguise") establishes her fame and diva attitude within five minutes. — Bill Simmons
In the club sequence Rachel performs the dance song and Frank fights Mike Starr; the collapse into a mosh pit that endangers a famous star is called a little pushing it, but compelling. — Bill Simmons
The club scene is where she must surrender control after repeatedly refusing his intervention, reflecting the theme of protecting someone too proud to admit needing protection; he must find connection and she vulnerability, and they start to build trust. — Van Lathan
The club song is an unusual Whitney choice aimed at Janet Jackson territory; one participant likes it, the other never liked that Jody Watley/Janet Jackson era, citing Black Cat versus Miss You Much and liking Cold Hearted Snake. — Van Lathan
The roughly seven-minute date is picked over the ending: it sets up the dead-client confession cliche from Lethal Weapon 2 and bails out with the joke "She didn't love me anymore," and she calls I Will Always Love You depressing, setting up a later callback. — Van Lathan
The date ends back at the apartment with the samurai sword and the falling silk, showing her how dangerous he is; it is called one of the best date-connection scenes in movies, and agreed. — Van Lathan
The film should have had two or three more connection scenes like the date instead of Frank calling it a mistake the next morning. — Bill Simmons
The Run to You performance is mentioned; the film is way too long, and any re-edit would stay on Whitney singing rather than cutting to the banquet. — Bill Simmons
The last 15 minutes include Robert Will (as transcribed) hosting the Oscars, her presenting and winning, a voice double singing her song, Frank in slow motion, the camera rifle, and a random Debbie Reynolds appearance with no other famous people. — Bill Simmons
The ending, with Frank seeming about to die, the airport, her stopping the plane and the a cappella song that was reportedly Costner's suggestion, is one of the great endings and is named as a choice. — Bill Simmons
The other pick is the Frank-Rachel date, called adorable and very important to the plot and the connection between the characters. — Bill Simmons
Later, the kitchen fight between Frank and Mike Starr is flagged as missed in the scene discussion. — Van Lathan
A 2021 version could star an Iraq veteran in a small town, working as a short-order cook who snaps early and drifts town to town like Bruce Banner. — Bill Simmons
