Gary Sinise’s reported audition and recommendation of Petersen inform recasting alternatives: Sinise, Andy Garcia and John Malkovich, with Garcia considered too handsome and Pankow’s chase acting defended. — Bill Simmons
A revisionist documentary could portray Peck as a loving father and relationship fixer, recutting Garcia as the villain.
A sequel follows Peck's grown children terrorizing Los Angeles in the late 2000s, blaming their father and perhaps sharing an influencer house. — Bill Simmons
Gere is affirmed for the 1990 combination with Pretty Woman, and Garcia for the same year's Godfather Part III combination.
Billy Baldwin is rejected in favor of Backdraft or the film described as Thief of Hearts in the transcript.
The Valley receives a suggested case for looking cool and wild, contrasted with Boogie Nights and Magnolia.
Dirty Los Angeles cops is debated against Colors, The Onion Field and L.A. Confidential. Internal affairs and cops moonlighting as hitmen are floated without a clear final declaration.
Nancy Travis loses to So I Married an Axe Murderer; Metcalf and Sciorra are rejected; Faye Grant gets only a probable yes. — Bill Simmons
Imagining one's wife with another man loses to Indecent Proposal after comparisons with The Best Man, The Big Picture and Unfaithful. — Van Lathan
Cops sleeping with partners' wives and slapping in movies receive affirmative answers.
Gere is tentatively proposed as the apex of an attractive villain, without a firm conclusion.
The unusual sexual slang root, made ironic by Peck's affair with Van's wife.
Unfinished suburban developments as crime-film locations and suspiciously expensive houses revealing corruption.
Faye Grant's performance and the tense Garcia–Travis marriage, with her sexual frustration and his fixation on work. — Bill Simmons
Peck's unconventional co-parenting and the dirty-cop excuse that a woman is his informant.
Replacing the convoluted original ending, with a threatened assault, shooting, window fall and apparent drowning, after hostile test reactions. — Bill Simmons
Xander Berkeley as Rudy and cops forced to work second jobs as mall security.
The cuckolding theme is much more widely recognized in contemporary culture.
Costner and Garcia are rejected; The Sting is preferred for Prohibition, despite its less central use of the subject. — Bill Simmons
Marriage is floated jokingly, with Kramer vs. Kramer as an incongruous comparison, without a settled affirmative answer. — Bill Simmons
This is preferred for Capone over the secret-vault television event and Stephen Graham’s Boardwalk Empire portrayal. — Chris Ryan
De Palma is rejected: Mission: Impossible is the large-budget alternative, while the period around Dressed to Kill and Blow Out better represents maximum career leverage. De Niro is also rejected. — Bill Simmons
Older Connery prompts The Rock and Finding Forrester comparisons, with The Hunt for Red October preferred. — Bill Simmons
The Chicago-movie comparison lists Running Scared, About Last Night, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Above the Law, Adventures in Babysitting, Midnight Run, The Big Town and The Untouchables; Ferris Bueller is preferred for use of the city. — Bill Simmons
Capone’s opening interview, overhead framing and shaving nick establish both theatrical charm and danger. — Craig Horlbeck
Malone joining Ness and the church conversation deliver the Chicago-way bargain, blood oath and memorable Mamet rhythms. — Bill Simmons
Garcia’s recruitment is enjoyed for the combative exchange and physical back pat; the ethnic casting reversal and hotheaded persona prompt discussion. — Bill Simmons
Capone’s teamwork speech and baseball-bat killing are memorable; the single impact and others’ reactions are considered sufficient violence. — Bill Simmons
The Canada raid is enjoyable but called clumsy in one assessment; Malone’s fake execution of an already-dead man is particularly admired, while the charge fulfills the Western conception. — Bill Simmons
The elevator revelation and blood-written accusation are admired as a single-shot death reveal. — Bill Simmons
Malone’s assassination is powerful but lengthy, with questions about blood loss and diminished surprise on later viewings. — Bill Simmons
The train-station shootout is called a masterpiece, with the Battleship Potemkin homage and slow motion praised; budget restrictions reportedly replaced an expensive train action sequence. — Bill Simmons
Garcia’s slide, gun toss, baby-carriage stop and precise aim remain indelible. — Bill Simmons
The roof confrontation is enjoyable, though simply shooting Nitti seems legally defensible before the eventual fall. — Bill Simmons
Ness and Malone’s first bridge encounter is an additional favorite, including the joke about claiming to be a treasury officer. — Chris Ryan
The final courtroom confrontation and jury switch are also enjoyed; the train-station sequence remains the shared obvious choice. — Chris Ryan
Did Paul deserve to die? A case: he was a dick when Gere came to the door, opened the snow-globe bit, and could have looked sheepish; but did he have to die? No, it was a dumb reason to die. — Bill Simmons
The missing movie: a bad sex life, an affair that enlivens her, a husband who murders the lover, and a couple who hide it and use it to make their marriage kinkier, like two psychos in a John Waters movie. — Wesley Morris
Is Richard Gere a good actor? He is called a conditional good actor who takes many shots with low points per game, good with Julia Roberts, Winger and Andy Garcia, but hard to cast opposite, as with Foster in Summersby. — Wesley Morris
Where would you dump a body? The better move was to say he confronted the man and hit him in self-defense; claiming self-defense is relayed as a suggestion from Craig. — Bill Simmons
One participant would never kill anyone and does not want to be in that position. — Wesley Morris
The junkyard would not be the final choice; with that big house, the body could have been stashed under it. — Bill Simmons
What happens to the Sumners next? They are guessed to divorce within a couple of years because the marriage cannot survive; views differ on whether he turns himself in, and DNA means they would be caught anyway. — Bill Simmons
Andy Garcia is quoted from a 2020 radio appearance: he said the script did not need a love interest, played the arc anyway, it was cut as unnecessary, and he still cashed the check. — Bill Simmons
Garcia's cut role appears on lists of famous actors cut from movies, notable because he was famous then. — Bill Simmons
Asked who won the movie, one answer is Pacino and another, asked whether he is going Garcia, also says Pacino; the point that only one of them got an Oscar nomination is waved off as not the be-all and end-all.
