The trilogy may be the best franchise from a PR standpoint: three successful movies, none bad, each adding something, and no fourth.
John Wick will tail off with more sequels and spinoffs; Fast and Furious and Star Wars have weak entries; Mission Impossible is getting better, though 2 is rough. — Bill Simmons
Rocky would qualify if it ended after four; Peter Jackson could have stopped after Lord of the Rings instead of making three dull Hobbit films. — Bill Simmons
The take is compared to Jim Brown retiring at the top; Goldmember is the least funny of the three and The Love Guru goes too far. — Bill Simmons
A take that the Jaws films qualify fails on Jaws 3D; Jaws 2 is proposed for a summer episode. — Bill Simmons
Tim Matheson plays the villain Alan Stanwyk, which mirrors Animal House: Otter was written for Chase, so Matheson did a Chevy impression there and now plays the lookalike who wants Fletch dead. — Bill Simmons
Mr. Underhill's two scenes hold up: shredding the waiter over a gratuity and exploding at the bill; he is like Judge Smales crossed with Hitler. — Bill Simmons
Kareem's IMDb page (Game of Death, Airplane, Fletch, 21 Jump Street, D2, Diff'rent Strokes, Saved by the Bell) makes him arguably the most successful athlete-actor. — Bill Simmons
The claim is about how the IMDb page looks at a glance, not actual acting success. — Bill Simmons
Rival athlete-actor contenders: Jim Brown (Mars Attacks, Any Given Sunday, The Running Man, The Dirty Dozen) and O.J. Simpson (Towering Inferno, Naked Gun).
The secretary exchange ('I'm Frida's boss.' 'Who's Frida?' 'My secretary.') is another pick. — Bill Simmons
The list of pseudonyms is read out, including Dr. Rosen, John Cocktoe Stone, Mr. Poon, Igor Stravinsky, Gordon Liddy, Don Corleone and Harry S. Truman. — Bill Simmons
Harold Faltermeyer's score is amazing 80s music with a Thomas Dolby influence, alongside his Beverly Hills Cop work; the Alpha Romeo chase song gets an honorable mention and Stephanie Mills sings the theme. — Bill Simmons
Siskel's point: once Beverly Hills Cop hit, action sequences and Faltermeyer music could turn a wry comedy into an easier-to-sell action comedy. — Sean Fennessey
Fletch's apartment, with the life-size Magic and Bird poster and the hoop on the wall, is the perfect bachelor pad for a guy who only cares about the paper and the Lakers. — Chris Ryan
His faded purple Lakers jersey is praised, but the 1985 Lakers-Celtics Finals prompt a joking 'I recant my statement' and talk of cancelling the pod. — Bill Simmons
Michael Ritchie is called the best sports-movie director ever, with a run including Downhill Racer, The Bad News Bears, Semi-Tough, Fletch and Wildcats; he only produced Bad News Bears Go to Japan, did not direct Shampoo, made the messy Golden Child, and The Candidate is recommended. — Sean Fennessey
Soderbergh considered shooting in black and white; the code names (Boski, Jim Brown, Miss Daisy, two Jethros, Leon Spinks, Ella Fitzgerald) all appear in the movie; Clooney sent Julia Roberts the script with a $20 bill; Don Cheadle is unbilled after a billing dispute, resolved in 12 and 13
Soderbergh considered shooting the film in black and white; one host would have liked that, but it would lose pops of color like her jacket at the boxing match, would not have been as mainstream successful since it is a popcorn flick, and would change the commentary on celebrity and make it more moody.
The code names in the we're-going-to-need speech are all represented in the movie: a Boski (as transcribed), after the Wall Street fraudster, is Reiner's con man Saul; the Jim Brown is the Bernie Mac bit; Miss Daisy is the getaway vehicle; the two Jethro's are the Molloy's (as transcribed); Leon Spinks refers to doing something during a boxing match; the Ella Fitzgerald is the videotaped robbery, after her 1970s Memorex commercial with the tagline is it live or is it Memorex; credit to Ted Griffin.
Roberts, coming off Aaron Brogovich (as transcribed), was probably the biggest movie star in the world making $20 million a movie; when Clooney sent her the script he attached a note reading I hear you're getting 20 a picture now, with a $20 bill inside, and of course he called it a picture.
Not much drama surrounds the movie, but Don Cheadle was not psyched about his placement and billing; he has said he would have done it for free but is glad he did not; he is famously unbilled, his name absent from the credits, which was resolved in 12 and 13 by placing him alongside Damon, Clooney and Pitt; as one of two black actors in the film, his fight for recognizability is interesting.
