Sitting in the back of an armored truck is described as the worst assignment because of the danger. — Chris Ryan
The hosts ask what a moderately bad armored-truck shift would look like, between routine work and a disastrous robbery.
The hosts wonder why guards risk death protecting money instead of surrendering it. — Van Lathan
The hosts ask whether Ray Merrimen's name honors football player Shawne Merriman. — Bill Simmons
Improvises an excuse for Nick’s misdirected text: Borracho borrowed the phone, followed by turning the accusation back on his wife. — Van Lathan
The outdoor barbecue setting resembles the Boogie Nights house, but the hosts say their location research places this film in Atlanta instead. — Chris Ryan
Part of what makes the movie rewatchable is that everyone plays their part; Bosco, Gus and Borracho never go over the top to steal scenes.
The suggestion is the big Hawaiian guy who talks, Marcus, a low-usage-rate player who asks why they cannot just cut loose and is intimidating in the garage scene when he starts speaking another language.
Details noticed only after many viewings: two small children are in the garage scene, one postured up like he is ready to fight, and the major crimes office has a bench press in the back, which Russo would appreciate.
Bosco's femoral-artery moment at the opening crime scene is liked; what the cops did with the dead robber is recalled as the start of connecting the 2005 and 2006 robberies, the ten-year bids and the new wave.
The one nominee and winner is Bosco, Evan Jones, the little guy with the weird face in Merriman's crew.
Other candidates are Borracho and Murph, who is Brian Van Holt from Cougar Town, Breaking Bad and Big Evil in End of Watch; the movie has thirty that guys.
The security guard who eyeballs O'Shea on both deliveries, with no lines but constant tension that he might reach for his gun, is a preemptive that guy.
The new category, from a listener, is to recast one part; two would recast nothing because the movie is perfect, one would put Dave Chappelle in the Mo McCray part, with Kate McKinnon as a joke; asked which part they would play, the answers are Borracho and Murph, and Jamie Foxx is rejected as too old.
The film missed spots to stunt cast: the disgruntled wife could have been someone more famous like a 2019 Catherine Keener or Jessica Alba, and Gus could have been funnier with Chappelle, a take the other two vote down.
Gus could have been dialed up with Dave Chappelle or Jamie Foxx for three jokes, but the others say the film cannot have humor because it is built as Big Nick versus Ray Merriman, two alpha gorillas on a collision course, signaled by the on-screen names and matching back-shot introductions.
Mo McCray's best moment, pulling Big Nick away from the women at Benihana while giving them a salacious look, shows the crew is as dirty as Nick; the Chappelle wish is compared to Laker fans preferring Derek Fisher to Chris Paul.
For 50 Cent's part, Ray Lewis or Ed Reed are imagined as stunt casting, Idris Elba is too famous and old, and swapping Mo McCray and 50 would make a worse movie because the cop needs to be the slimy, skinnier one.
The script floated around for a long time with little record of who nearly played whom; Sylvester Stallone was attached at one point, twenty-five years too late, and on the Skyscraper set The Rock told Pablo Schreiber he was supposed to do the movie ten years earlier, when he would have been a lead rather than the 50 Cent part, since villain Rock still does not exist.
The film had a long, circuitous development of ten or fifteen years, at one point at Relativity, with various names attached; it benefits from not being the Heat setup of two famous stars, since Schreiber and Butler let you lose yourself in the movie.
The shooting range standoff; Pablo Schreiber's performance; Gerard Butler's performance; the cop names Borracho, Murph, Tony Z and Gus; the name Merriman; O'Shea Jackson's arrival; 50 Cent's performance; Pablo Schreiber's chin; the double-date dinner scene
The shooting range, where Merriman unleashes forty bullets in a row and Butler shoots back looking impressed, is their version of the Heat diner scene without any talking.
Schreiber carries his body like an ex-athlete and ex-military man; he was in The Wire season two and Emmy-nominated for Orange Is the New Black yet reads as three different people with the same face, his six-foot-five height may hold him back next to five-foot-eight stars, and the training from 13 Hours shows here.
If Vin Diesel never existed, the first backup pick for Dom Toretto would be Pablo Schreiber, who could do the backyard familia scenes The Rock cannot; four inches shorter he would be Henry Cavill, and he should be the bad guy who joins the gang in a later Fast and Furious.
Butler based the performance heavily on Gene Hackman in French Connection; it is unlike anything else in his career, and he is compared to Devin Booker, a talent who never quite became the top-tier lister the rom-coms sold him as, never getting a Gladiator or Beautiful Mind, though he has the Has Fallen franchise and this is his LA Confidential.
The cop names Borracho, Murph, Tony Z and Gus are great; Merriman is a great name because he is the worst hang of all time, and the host keeps thinking of the football player Sean Merriman.
O'Shea Jackson's arrival as someone who will be in movies for a long time has aged well.
50 Cent is very good at playing the one guy with the volume turned down, giving everything gravity, and never seems to mourn his wife and daughter before the highway shootout; the pushback is that Val Kilmer does more with the same quiet-partner role in Heat, and Ray Lewis or Ed Reed are imagined as stunt casting, while Idris Elba is too famous and flipping Mo McCray with 50 would be worse because of body types.
Pablo's chin is a neat trick: a street fighter either tucks the chin or puts it out daring you to hit it, and Merriman is the guy who always puts it out, which fits his all-in ending.
The double-date dinner scene unapologetically rips off Pacino taking his TV back in Heat and is ludicrous, with no clear motivation for Nick going there or for the wife dating so fast.
