A 2006 sequel script, Old School Dos (transcribed 'Dose'), by Scott Armstrong was turned down by Ferrell and Vaughn; Luke Wilson said in 2016 he would do it; Todd Phillips plays the man at the door; Ferrell streaked for real near a 24-hour gym and shot it in two parts; Patrick Cranshaw (transcribed 'Crenshaw') acted for fifty years, played the sheriff in the Air Bud films and died about four years later; the frat house is a real Pasadena house on Bushnell Avenue used in Back to the Future, Back to the Future 2 and Teen Wolf
In 2006 Scott Armstrong wrote a sequel, Old School Dose (as transcribed), about the aging fraternity going to spring break, turned down by Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn; Ferrell's 2008 explanation was that it had funny set pieces but felt like repeating the fraternity setting; one host would still have seen it, another does not need it after The Hangover 2 and 3.
Of the era's comedies, Old School 2 is the sequel one host would most want; great comedy sequels are rare, Austin Powers aside, Caddyshack 2 was a tragedy, Wayne's World 2 is defended as genius after it came up with McKay, Anchorman 2 will have a life once off Epix, and both Anchorman films have hours of alternate footage.
Luke Wilson was ready in 2016, saying he would do it at the drop of a hat; Todd Phillips plays the man in the curly wig who knocks on Luke Wilson's door for the gangbang, a role he reprises in most of his films including The Hangover.
Will Ferrell ran naked for real, horrifying locals at a 24-hour gym; the streak was filmed in two parts, the second in front of everyone during the Snoop Dogg performance, and he needed to get a little drunk first.
Patrick Crenshaw (as transcribed), who played Blue, had acted in films for fifty years before this role made him famous, played the sheriff in all the Air Bud films, and died about four years after the film.
The fraternity house is a real residential house in Pasadena on Bushnell Avenue, obviously LA, used in three Michael J. Fox films; the hosts guess Doc Hollywood and The Secret of My Success before landing on Back to the Future, Back to the Future 2 and Teen Wolf, and joke about Redfinning it as more attainable than the Boogie Nights house, though it may be a two-block stretch rather than one house.
There is nothing to report: little information exists, the part was written for Vaughn, and despite the oral-history boom there is no Old School oral history because there was no drama, just everyone in the right place at the right time; a sequel script was written but Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell did not want to do it, and it would have been a spring-break film.
Earlier: Scott Armstrong and Todd Phillips, the writing partners, wrote the part of Bernard (as transcribed) with Vince Vaughn in mind, a comeback for him seven years after Swingers.
Luke Wilson disrobing when frisked at the airport, about a year and a half after 9-11, was the first time anyone had fun with TSA, set to Ryan Adams's To Be Young, called one of the best songs of all time; Ellen Pompeo, about to become one of the most bankable TV stars of forty years, is a baby here with an under-written part; Perry Reeves looks the same as in Entourage and Kicking and Screaming and should have had a bigger career.
Earmuffs will probably win the category; the Dan Band swearing through the wedding song is great, especially the cut to Vince Vaughn with his hand up and the freeze-frame reactions of Will Ferrell and Perry Reeves when the first 'fucking' drops.
The Dan Band are in The Hangover and other Todd Phillips films, were LA legends who played bigger bars and Jimmy's show, a host's wife went to five or six shows, and Dan the leader co-wrote a song in the Netflix film Dumplin'.
Snoop Dogg is caught at a great moment with Cocaine and Warren G as DJ and Don Magic Wand (as transcribed) at his side, reportedly doing the music to get into Starsky and Hutch; a four-minute performance in the film is odd, and Melissa McCarthy's Life of the Party lifts the structure with a Christina Aguilera performance.
Craig Kilborn is fun to see, maybe the first person to appear in both aged best and aged worst: a memorable shitheel character in two scenes and the credits, yet he reads lines the way he read The Daily Show and cannot act next to professionals, which is presumably why he has not kept acting; as stunt casting it worked.
The closing credits have aged the best for one host: Kilborn crashes while smoking, goes over a bridge and kills a fly-fishing Jeremy Piven, two and a half minutes of credits story; Porky's and Cannonball Run bloopers are recalled, and The Hangover's Polaroid credits are called the best ever.
The soundtrack is a murderers' row of weird music: Papered Up, Paid in Full, Dust in the Wind, Hungry Like the Wolf, Gonna Make You Sweat, The Sound of Silence, Total Clips of the Heart (as transcribed), Lady, Metallica, and Here I Go Again played about four times.
This and Tenenbaums are called the alpha and omega of Luke Wilson, a good everyman for a while; the fuller Luke Wilson conversation is saved for unanswerable questions.
The film launched Will Ferrell, who has made one host laugh more than anyone since 2000; earmuffs is settled on as what aged best because people still say it as ordinary conversation rather than a movie line, like Kleenex.
A late addition: You're My Boy Blue, along with earmuffs, is in the lexicon and deserved a shout-out, as does the running bit of repeatedly calling some random guy Spanish; the clip of Blue is played.
Four opening nominations: Frank the Tank at Mitchapalooza through the streaking and the women driving slowly beside him; the green-hat oral-sex class; the dart-gun birthday party, including the bread maker re-gifted a third time; and Blue dying during the KY wrestling match, which may run into Blue's funeral and Will Ferrell singing.
Another nomination is the first meeting in the kitchen at Luke Wilson's new place, with earmuffs and Frank walking around with a hockey stick destroying things, watched eight times that week; everybody knows the guy who picks up the hockey stick mid-conversation and makes you afraid something will break.
The first scene with Jeremy Piven's character is very funny and a weirdly good Piven performance, subverting his PCU character now that he is old enough to be the dean; it is pre-Entourage and before he found the right toupee.
The opening with Juliette Lewis and two people in the bathroom, with Todd Phillips at the door, is nominated as a great twist on the familiar scene of a man coming home to noises in the bedroom; it is a good Luke Wilson scene too, and probably her best grown-up performance for one host, who otherwise fears her Natural Born Killers mode.
Asked for the most rewatchable, the pick is the hockey stick scene. — Chris Ryan
Another host goes with Frank the Tank coming back to life, from the guys pressing Frank to have a drink through the 'nice little Saturday' Home Depot speech to 'we're going streaking', and plays the clip; whether the scene runs into his wife finding him and the Speaker City speech is debated.
Other candidates: Vince Vaughn mouthing along to his own commercial, Will Ferrell talking about the car's restrictor plate, the wedding with 'it takes a real man to give away an angel' and the under-the-breath 'this is such a mistake, you got to run' muttering in the church that kills Will Ferrell, and drunk Luke Wilson meeting Ellen Pompeo with 'Denver, the sunshine state'; the hard thing with comedies is whether something is a moment or a scene.
The third host goes earmuffs along with Chris, calling it the most iconic thing in the film aside from the streaking and the most repeated line in his life; the hosts realize earmuffs came from this film, wonder whether it was a Vince Vaughn ad lib or something heard around LA, admit owing him royalties for Ringer-office use, and play the clip.
David Dobkin directed two Tupac videos; Owen Wilson found the script corny and he, Vaughn and the writers rewrote most of it; John McCain and James Carville cameo in the first Cleary wedding and McCain gave his $700 to charity; the website sold fake Purple Hearts until the military intervened; The Real Wedding Crashers ran four episodes on NBC in 2007; Will Ferrell shot for one day; Dobkin, Vaughn and Wilson once came up with an idea for a sequel with Daniel Craig as a superior crasher; Isla Fisher announced a sequel in 2017, used a body double and talked producers down from five nude scenes to one; Vince Vaughn did not keep the painting
Burned early: David Dobkin directed two Tupac videos, I Get Around and Keep Your Head Up, two of his first jobs and two classics.
Per a 2005 Owen Wilson quote, the script was not comfortable on first read, a funny concept but partly corny, so Wilson, Vaughn and the writers changed most of the movie, including the arc of Jeremy's romance, and dropped a Graduate-like wedding scene; that prompts the Wayne's World 2 parody and a wish for a Mike Myers episode, with So I Married an Axe Murderer called his best.
John McCain and James Carville appear briefly in the first Cleary wedding; McCain donated his $700 salary to charity and got shit for the fake Purple Hearts the crashers use for free drinks; the movie website sold fake Purple Hearts until the military intervened, which the hosts mock as a 2005 way to spend 11 minutes online.
The creators made a reality show, The Real Wedding Crashers, which ran four episodes on NBC in 2007; a host wonders whether it would seem reprehensible now, and Kevin Clark's Ringer story on Jerry Rice as a real-life wedding crasher is recalled.
Will Ferrell's two scenes were shot in one day; according to David Dobkin, he, Vaughn and Wilson came up with a sequel in which John and Jeremy compete with a superior wedding crasher played by Daniel Craig; Isla Fisher announced on Andy Cohen's show in November 2017 that the sequel was a go, but nothing has been heard since the Me Too era.
Isla Fisher used a body double for her nude scene and told Entertainment Weekly she talked the producers down from five nude scenes to one; she watched Fatal Attraction and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle before her audition, and De Mornay is in the movie; it is not true that Vince Vaughn kept the painting Todd gave Jeremy.
Ferrell is really in two scenes, including the funeral, despite revisionist history calling it one; he is in the movie seven minutes and scores 22 points, so Bradley Cooper deserves special recognition but Ferrell is the technical winner, one of the all-time Waiters performances where every Chaz line is funny, catching him on a string of hits.
Dobkin lets scenes play out in real time, as when Owen Wilson shows up with nunchucks around his neck and Chaz lords over him for a second, like he just got a hit of smelling salts; the hang gliding imitation is one of the funniest things, and the hosts could almost rename the award the Chaz Award but love Deion Waiters too much.
Belatedly, Rebecca DeMornay and Dwight Yocum (as transcribed) are put in contention, with their scene among the most rewatchable; the hosts do not understand why DeMornay did not have an insane comedy career after this and wonder if it was a Kathleen Turner situation, noting John from Cincinnati went nowhere.
Keir O'Donnell won Todd, but Vince Vaughn really pushed for Justin Long, whose interpretation of the character was Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and who thought he had the job; the hosts call it a phenomenal what-if that would have made the character more acceptable by being so ridiculous, instead of a gay art school kid who is also a psycho and is mocked homophobically by his grandmother.
The black sheep character can be awesome, with Spalding in Caddyshack (as transcribed) the greatest example, and Christopher Walken himself played one as the brother in the Minnesota scene of Annie Hall.
Asked whether he would rather have had Raquel Welch, the answer is that it is hard to see anybody but Jane Seymour in the role now, and he loves her. — Chris Ryan
Seymour was great stunt casting after Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman; Nicolas Cage was the next call after Ferrell's no, which the hosts would like to see, though Cage reportedly gets called for parts like this and it never quite comes off, as in a Seth Rogen story, because he still thinks it is 1999 and must be the star, with tax liens against his Scottish castles.
The first wedding crash montage, which crosses a couple of lines, took a week to shoot, and the hosts are not surprised: they went all in, with the two singing Shout at 17 different weddings, and the first 20 minutes leave one host feeling ecstatic.
The touch football scene is unbelievable and could have gone on three or four more minutes with more button hooks from Rachel McAdams; the hot route call is a joke one host will take to the grave from playing Madden with friends, the Kennedy-compound-style house in Delaware is a real estate highlight, and Cooper's rugby shirt is fantastic.
The dinner-table scene in which Vaughn's character is groped under the table is flat-out funny and one of the better Vince Vaughn three minutes, though more explicit than remembered; the unrated version is just longer versions of the same scenes, and the hosts marvel at scrolling over the running time and finding 51 minutes still left.
Other nominations are the Will Ferrell cameo, the motorboating exchange right after the Jane Seymour scene, which one host would watch on YouTube every day, and the Dwight Yoakam and Rebecca DeMornay mediation scene that throws the fastest pitch first; Vaughn's speech from it is played.
Asked for a favorite, the opening montage is picked as the best and the signature moment of the movie.
Dobkin wanted to shoot the montage for two weeks and had it in his head to start the movie on that note; one host remembers wanting to stand up and applaud in the theater when it finally ended.
The first picks split between Farrell (as transcribed) and Riley (as transcribed), the latter because Reilly got Walk Hard out of this movie; the case for Ferrell is that his influence on everybody in the movie is palpable, inviting them along on the journey.
A request to name Han and Scott together is refused as a procedural move; the counter is that Ferrell was going to be funny no matter what, so winning would require an extraordinary Ferrell performance, while Reilly matched him coming in from drama in a way Ferrell could not reverse opposite Daniel Day Lewis, so the degree of difficulty favors Reilly.
Since the two performances are dead even, McKay is raised and the oral history would argue it is him; the hosts settle on McKay as the non-controversial consensus pick, with a shout-out to John C. Reilly for stepping into comedies when he is not a comedian, or perhaps a comedian miscast his whole career, and a joke that he should not have been the catcher in For Love of the Game.
Did Will Ferrell's character really last with the therapist? Should they make Step Brothers 2? Is there a comedy whose sequel is better than the original?
Whether Will Ferrell's character really lasted with the therapist is waved off because it is a comedy, with a guarantee that Andrea Savage would be in any Step Brothers 2.
Asked whether they should make Step Brothers 2, two hosts say no, though one clarifies that does not mean not going; the challenge to name a comedy whose second film tops the first draws Godfather 2 as a joke, Another 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop 2 as nos, 'the clumps' (as transcribed) as a tease, and the observation that there was never a Stripes 2.
The Equalizer is named as a sequel better than its first film. — Bill Simmons
After the Equalizer tease, the defense is that it is really good, with Denzel Washington as a Lyft driver in Boston.
The brothers needed a couple more minutes of backstory on becoming employed and living on their own; the cops would be called to that house far more often; the Catalina Island scenes are visibly shot on the Malibu and Laguna Beach cliffs, which is called intentional rather than a nit
The only nit for one host is needing two more minutes of backstory on both brothers becoming successfully employed and living on their own; another liked those beats, basically Ferrell discovering mid-dump that he should buy Charmin; a further nit is that the cops would be called to that house more often given all the late-night noise.
A prequel hypothetical, Brennan and Dale at ages 21 to 35 before they met, finds no answer: no twenty-year-olds are funny like that, Michael Cera would just be different, and it would be better to see known dramatic actors like Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron try it; turning Stranger Things season 3 into a Step Brothers prequel is joked about, and a Cobra Kai style ten-years-later movie is preferred by one host.
Not counted as a nit because it is funny and intentional: having lived in Southern California, a host finds it hilarious that the Catalina Island material is clearly shot on the cliffs of Malibu and Laguna Beach, which look nothing like Catalina; another suspects they could not get a permit to shoot on Catalina.
Catherine Han is a yes, a hundred percent: this put her on the map in the greatest way possible in a movie people rewatch all the time.
Will Ferrell is a no: after a clarification that Apex Mountain means the greatest moment of a career rather than just comedic performances, a host still thinks Anchorman is it, he was in the middle of a great run, and he was still at the tail end of SNL, having played Bush for a couple of years.
Adam McKay gets a yes at first, the peak of his powers, making an iconic comedy out of nothing, with no plot, that let him do whatever he wants; then The Big Short, $140 million and a Best Director nomination, is raised and the same host changes his mind and goes Big Short, while another thinks McKay has not hit his apex yet and it is in front of him, citing the jittery Big Short camera work in Succession even though the show is mostly creator Jesse Armstrong's handiwork.
Adam Scott gets a hundred percent from one host; another would instead name Eastbound and Down, where his agent Pat Anderson is mind-blowing in two and a half scenes, with the black-credit-card exchange with John Hawkes recited up to its crude punchline; Will Ferrell's Ashley Schaefer BMW plums speech from the same show gets a shout-out, and without Step BrothersScott would not have been unleashed as a comedy dick in that role.
For Reilly, Boogie Nights and Magnolia are offered, with Days of Thunder and Talladega Nights in the conversation; one host calls him his least favorite part of Magnolia and would cut the whole character, Walk Hard is mentioned, and Boogie Nights is given as the answer for his exercise dance behind the glass during the Mark Wahlberg song before Feel the Heat.
