Blunt’s career run leads to approval of her casting, with early-2000s Kate Winslet imagined; credibility as an agent is separated from concerns about the character’s later moral reasoning. — Bill Simmons
Recasting discussion rejects Hathaway and Adams, considers the Blunt/Johansson Black Widow counterfactual, and credits Edge of Tomorrow for Blunt’s credible physicality. — Bill Simmons
Early-2000s Kate Winslet is the preferred hypothetical recast, qualified by Kate’s younger age. — Bill Simmons
Philadelphia replacing Juárez is a joking recasting-city suggestion tied to sports.
DiCaprio is a yes because he became the biggest star in the world; 2006, with Blood Diamond and The Departed, is the alternative. — Bill Simmons
The counterargument is that people do not associate DiCaprio primarily with Titanic, and The Departed era is offered as his better Apex. — Bill Simmons
Winslet is probably not, because of her mid-2000s run culminating in the 2008 Oscar for The Reader. — Bill Simmons
Cameron is a yes even though he later beat it, because the film was a critical and financial peak comparable to Gone with the Wind. — Bill Simmons
Billy Zane is a yes; for the name Fabrizio, the Godfather character who blew up Apollonia's car is preferred. — Bill Simmons
Expensive bad-buzz movies peak here, beating The Godfather; heroes from Wisconsin (Jack), icebergs, and disaster movies are yes, Picasso probably not. — Bill Simmons
Some people believe the spitting was improvised and that Billy Zane did not know it was coming. — Van Lathan
Jack and Rose are fictional, most supporting characters are accurate, and the wreck footage is real from Cameron's 12 dives; a J. Dawson gravestone was discovered after filming. — Bill Simmons
Captain Smith's death is disputed; there is basically no evidence third-class passengers were barricaded below deck; the band played ragtime rather than solemn music near the end. — Bill Simmons
The on-ship runtime of two hours 40 minutes matches the time from the iceberg to the sinking, intentionally. — Bill Simmons
The film omits the nearby SS Californian, which had its radio off, prompting the complaint that 20 seconds could have been spared for it. — Bill Simmons
The staircase flooding had to be filmed in one take; Cameron drew Jack's sketches; worn-out prints required replacement reels. — Bill Simmons
Crew disliked Cameron's alter ego, nicknamed Midge, Jim backward, and put on shirts; the ship and tank cost $150 million; a planned 138-day shoot ran to 160 days; the code name was Planet Ice. — Bill Simmons
Winslet skipped a wetsuit, got pneumonia and a kidney infection, and almost quit; many cast and crew were miserable. — Bill Simmons
Cameron gave backstories to around 150 extras, and a necklace used in the film was reportedly auctioned for $2.2 million for Princess Diana's charity. — Bill Simmons
Johnny Depp reportedly turned down Jack over the script; Jared Leto was reportedly favored but would not audition, and the actress transcribed as Claire Daines was supposedly wanted for Rose. — Bill Simmons
Jeremy Sisto auditioned multiple times and is lamented as never finding the right part; Billy Crudup was considered but was committed to Without Limits. — Bill Simmons
Robert De Niro was reportedly offered Captain Smith but declined due to a gastrointestinal infection; he would have been fun in the role. — Bill Simmons
Leo and Kate; James Cameron; the score; the band; the mother reading to her children; the Celine Dion song; Cal's evil line; Andrews and Smith sports comparisons; Bill Paxton; shipwreck-search TV; the Rose YouTube video
Leo and Kate, given their subsequent careers, are the number one answer, with James Cameron added. — Bill Simmons
The score and its variations of the song are praised, and the film is likened to a first-class dinner where every detail was considered. — Bill Simmons
Cameron reportedly sketched how people would behave facing death; the band playing to the end is another aged-best pick. — Bill Simmons
The mother reading to her children below deck, reportedly played by the actress from Terminator 2, is recalled as emotionally brutal. — Van Lathan
The Celine Dion song is one of the most identifiable songs ever attached to a movie; Winslet's nude scene is also cited as a generational milestone. — Bill Simmons
Cal's line when Rose breaks away the second time is called a great evil-guy line. — Bill Simmons
Mr. Andrews and Captain Smith are compared to the executive realizing the Westbrook trade failed and to Frank Vogel. — Bill Simmons
Bill Paxton is fondly remembered, and the salvage crew's work now resembles History Channel shipwreck and search programs, called Titanic spin-off content. — Van Lathan
The hosts' YouTube video about Rose is jokingly expected to age well, with a call for Rachel Lindsay's take on Higher Learning. — Bill Simmons
The movie is perfectly cast and none of the top eight would be recast; names are offered for the Olivia Diabo role. — Bill Simmons
Heather Graham is rejected, with a joke that her in this, Boogie Nights and Swingers would have meant moving to LA. — Andy Greenwald
Kate Winslet is interesting and could probably have made it work at 20, but as a stage-style actor she might have performed the quirks and made it a different movie. — Andy Greenwald
Diabo's gawky, flawed performance, with the retainer and the country-western dance, is imperfectly perfect for him to lose himself over.
Joey Lauren Adams would have felt cliche; Gwyneth Paltrow, not yet famous and the right age, is called the best alternative, though her star charisma might not fit the "you didn't notice me" line. — Bill Simmons
Could Amanda be a stepmom? Would she move to England and stay? Does Graham travel with his glasses? Would Iris really let Jack Black pick something from her eyelash? Were two suitcases enough for Amanda's wardrobe? Did she buy the outfit she wore to Graham's house?
Cameron Diaz's character Amanda as a stepmom: nobody can imagine it; she would dress the girls in cute clothes and try hard, but it would be tough; perhaps she moves to England, wonders what she did, and works through it rather than flying home to her beautiful house and high-profile career, since she was unhappy there and already came back once.
Does Jude Law leave his glasses at his sister's house or travel with them for any big night out? He is assumed to be a low-grade, on-off glasses wearer, a dad around 40, with them in his suit pocket, and he looks so hot in them.
Would anyone let a stranger who just drove through the door in, or let Jack Black, in the Santa Ana winds, lean right in breathing on Kate Winslet's face to pick something from her eyelash? The hosts would recoil.
Were Cameron Diaz's two suitcases enough for five jackets, bulky shoes and boots, even allowing for compact light cashmere layers?
Did she buy the outfit she wore to his house, a long pencil skirt with a thick rhinestone belt and a beautiful top, since she expected no men there? She only dresses in pajamas or structured formal clothes, and maybe she packed everything she owns with weird expectations of England.
A Telegraph wedding reporter owning that cottage; nobody has family at Christmas; Christmas Day and Boxing Day skipped; no vetting for the home swap; the bad-at-sex plot line; 'great' as Amanda's only adjective; Jude Law's daughters having cell phones; Jude Law too tan and too available; Iris's frumpy tan wardrobe; no rain, only snow; Santa Anas in December; the red bikini; the airport drive on the PCH; the driver who stops short of the cottage; everyone dropping their jobs
A wedding reporter for the Telegraph owning a picturesque cottage on par with the Brentwood mansion is a forever rom-com trope; the 40-minute commute is appreciated but not bought, unless it is family money.
Where are these people's families? Everyone just goes away for Christmas with no parents, siblings or obligations; Jude Law did not even know Kate Winslet was gone, though she made the plan the night before and tried to tell him; even Eli Wallach has no grandkids or nieces around.
For a movie called The Holiday with Christmas music and a Christmas Eve scene where Jack Black finds his girlfriend with someone else, Christmas Day is fast-forwarded through, Boxing Day is never mentioned, and there are no Christmas trees except at Jude Law's house; a Hanukkah dinner and the British sense of holiday as vacation may explain the broader appeal, but why skip Christmas Day.
There is no vetting process for the home swap: they are just IMing like AOL in 1999, a sweet meet cute reminiscent of You've Got Mail, with no key exchange, house cleaning or preparation, and an assumption that neither will rip the other's house apart.
Cameron Diaz's sex life as a plot line is baffling: her long-term boyfriend called her bad at sex and they stayed together, so why is she surprised he cheated; Jude Law then affirms her several times as a rebuke to the other guy; they had not had sex in a year, so what does he know.
Giving a competent character 'I'm really bad at sex' as her relatable flaw, like making rom-com women fall down, is called sexist and super weird; she raises it just before sex with a man she never expects to see again, and a solutions-oriented L.A. woman would have taken classes and done reading.
'Great' is the only adjective Cameron Diaz's character knows, from the magical tent to the day; it is called bad writing, or a sign she lacks words for happiness and has not been around children, but the movie does not lean into her being a vapid L.A. person.
In 2006 Jude Law's daughters, both under five, have their own cell phones to call him; a mother on the panel says her kids got phones around 11 when they started club sports, and iPads would be more plausible when cell phones had been mainstream for only five years.
Jude Law randomly stays out all night at Cameron Diaz's while his kids are home, with grandparents mentioned but never seen; he is logistically too available; the phones are probably a basic error needed so the names on the phone make the Sophie and Olivia reveal work.
Craig pointed out that Jude Law is very tan for a man in England in mid-December, blamed on Talented Mr. Ripley eight years before; Kate Winslet's wardrobe is too many tans, whites and creams, Diane Keaton's Something's Gotta Give clothes made frumpy, even though she looks like old Hollywood glamour in the pool one-piece, which reads as bad studio notes about making her relatable.
It never rains in the movie, it only snows, which the director's commentary says never even sticks in England and had to be made to stick; London is paralyzed on the rare snow days, so give us the England rain, and Jude Law would still be hot wet.
Do the Santa Anas really last to December? Peak season is now, in November; they can happen but the film uses them because people do not know, and the commentary says they were added because Santa Anas blew during filming.
Jasper's line about the little red bikini that unties at the back makes no sense since all little bikinis tie at the back, unless she owns two red bikinis, one front-clasp and one tie-back.
The drive from the airport somehow ends up on the PCH heading south from Malibu, then Ocean onto San Vicente with a Sunset sign planted to make Santa Monica look like Bel Air; something was wrong there, but it is a great view.
The black-car driver refuses to drive down to the Cotswolds house, making her drag her suitcase a mile and a half in heels and nearly die, which never happens; Cameron Diaz reportedly called this her most physical film because of the running, and interviews fixated on her hitting her head on the beam.
How does Iris get up to her own home if the cab driver would not? She has Amanda's Mini since they exchange cars, but it does not track with the cab; the driver is not a five-star rating.
A late nitpick: they all have involved jobs and just drop everything, with Catherine Hahn, John Krasinski and the trailer people never heard from again; L.A. does shut down from mid-December to New Year's, but for a society reporter with Christmas Eve weddings and parties it is less believable.
During the scene discussion, Jude Law's daughters seemed too well adjusted for having lost their mother a year ago, flagged for the nitpick section.
During aged-best, pulling onto Sunset off the PCH from the airport with no cars around was flagged as a nitpick for later.
Dustin Hoffman wandered onto the Blockbuster shoot as a friend of Nancy Meyers; the chateau lunch interior is the Greystone Mansion; Iris's cottage was built in a field in Surrey with the interiors on soundstages; it snowed during the shoot; Amanda's house exterior is near the Huntington Gardens in San Marino; Iris is also the name of one of Jude Law's daughters
Dustin Hoffman was walking down the street, saw a movie shoot at a Blockbuster, and because Nancy Meyers is his friend they put him in the scene; it may have been in Larchmont, since there was a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf next door back then.
The beautiful chateau lunch scene was filmed inside the Greystone Mansion with a different home as exterior; Kate Winslet's England house was completely built in a field in Surrey, with soundstages for the interiors, which is where much of the $85 million went, and it snowed during the shoot, which is rare.
The exterior of Cameron Diaz's house is near the Huntington Gardens in San Marino by Pasadena; Iris, Kate Winslet's character, is also the name of one of Jude Law's daughters, which one website suggested was deliberate but could not be confirmed; Iris and Graham sound like siblings.
Apex Mountain is defined, with Craig asked to correct it, as the point of most objective power in a career, not a personal favorite, given the context of the movie and the movie itself; all four stars and Nancy Meyers are to be assessed.
Cameron Diaz is a firm no: 2006 is the very beginning of her slowing down, her peak being the plateau from There's Something About Mary in 1998 through Charlie's Angels and Shrek in 2001, before Vanilla Sky and Gangs of New York; on this press tour she described going movie to movie without stopping, and she has since retired from acting.
Jack Black is argued as the one yes: this follows School of Rock in 2003, King Kong and Tenacious D, and he peters off afterward into voice work and the Goosebumps movies; another host says his apex is School of Rock, the one movie associated with him, and the panel settles on the 2002 to 2006 run as peak Jack Black.
Kate Winslet is on the rise rather than at her apex: she has had many peaks, Titanic catapulted her, nobody thinks The Holiday is her best work, and she won her Oscar in 2008, after this, for The Reader, called a terrible movie, the same year as Revolutionary Road.
Jude Law's apex of hotness is debated between this movie, as rich, handsome, jazz-loving dad Graham Simpkins, and The Talented Mr. Ripley in a rowboat in Italy wearing linens; his career apex is Ripley, with an Oscar nomination, after which it was a gradual decline through Closer, Cold Mountain and I Heart Huckabees without ever carrying a movie, Alfie being a non-hit during the Sienna Miller scandal.
An argument that Jude Law is in his apex now, doing whatever he wants in The Young Pope, the Harry Potter spinoff and Marvel movies, is heard, but for actual power and hotness it is Talented Mr. Ripley, which should get its own episode at 20 years old this December.
Nancy Meyers's apex is not this but likely Something's Gotta Give, a critical breakthrough with Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves in 2003 when studio comedies still made money, plus Frances McDormand and Jon Favreau in a really good cast; Home Again is her daughter's movie that she produced; so the only possible apex here, and probably not even, is Jack Black.
