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Film credit

Bill Murray

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Episodes featuring their films
3
Movies in this archive
3

Mentioned in discussions

Stripes poster
Stripes

Casting What-Ifs

Stripes The Rewatchables

The project began as Cheech and Chong joining the Army; Columbia preferred Dennis Quaid to Harold Ramis, and Kim Basinger was offered the role ultimately played by the actress the transcript calls P. J. Souls.

This discussion recalls a choice from an earlier episode.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:20Read transcript
  • The initial concept was Cheech and Chong joining the Army, but their demand for creative control ended that version.
  • The characters were rewritten for Bill Murray and Harold Ramis.
  • Columbia preferred Dennis Quaid for Ramis’s role, and participation was made conditional on Ramis remaining in the cast.
  • Kim Basinger was offered the role ultimately played by the actress identified in the transcript as P. J. Souls; the offer fell through because Basinger’s agent requested what the panel calls a crazy amount of money.
  • The panel thinks Basinger’s star power and appearance would have overwhelmed the ensemble.
Stripes poster
Stripes

What’s Aged the Best?

Stripes The Rewatchables

The breakup setup, John Candy, Judge Reinhold, throwaway jokes, the women, poker running gag, score, deleted scene, Murray–Ramis friendship, and Warren Oates lead the praise.

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:05Read transcript
  • The wet-blanket girlfriend telling the likable loser he is going nowhere is treated as a comedy setup copied for decades.
  • The first training sequence, especially the log obstacle, is explicitly added as another thing that aged best.
  • John Candy’s first appearance, long hair, cigarette, and Eisenhower greeting still land immediately.
  • Judge Reinhold’s short role is praised as part of a strong early-career run.
  • Lines such as the furs answer, the drug answer, and Ramis’s strip-search head movement reward repeated viewing.
  • Sean Young and the other actress playing a military-police character are praised as charismatic women with agency; the latter’s strong late-1970s run is recalled.
  • Candy repeatedly exploiting the character Cruiser in poker remains an effective running gag.
  • Elmer Bernstein’s score is praised for shifting between jaunty and lower-register military themes.
  • A deleted South American subplot has LSD, an unauthorized paratrooper mission, guerrilla capture, and escape; cutting it is judged correct because it derailed the film.
  • The Harold Ramis and Bill Murray friendship is itself described as something that aged best.
  • Warren Oates and Sergeant Hulka also remain durable strengths.
Stripes poster
Stripes

Most Rewatchable Scene

Stripes The Rewatchables

The recruit introductions win, amid praise for the opening, apartment visit, general’s house, graduation, training, return headlines, Stillman introduction, and mud wrestling.

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:41Read transcript
  • The first twelve minutes establish John as a likable loser through the shoeshine, parking ticket, cab fare, repossession, upside-down pizza, and breakup.
  • The apartment visit is praised for indoor basketball, the five bishops, and the ease of the central friendship.
  • The recruit-introduction scene wins for Cruiser, Psycho, Ox, Francis, Lee Harvey, the big-toe speech, and Murray’s escalating improvisational energy.
  • A participant recounts memorizing the unusual-underwear speech and eventually reciting it directly to Bill Murray at Madison Square Garden.
  • The visit to General Barnicke’s house is praised for Murray’s late-night improvisation and rapport with his military-police scene partner.
  • The graduation ceremony and late arrival were a childhood favorite.
  • The first training sequence, including the log obstacle, is another preferred passage.
  • The return-to-America newspaper-headline montage is praised for extending each character’s outcome as a closing gag.
  • Captain Stillman’s first appearance and his shower-sponge line are singled out as a strong character introduction.
  • The mud-wrestling sequence is remembered as a major adolescent fantasy, though the raid and separation from the unit are questioned.
The Royal Tenenbaums poster
The Royal Tenenbaums

Half-Assed Internet Research

The Royal Tenenbaums The Rewatchables

The research covers locations, literary and film influences, announcer voices, cast scheduling, Hackman's behavior, Bill Murray, the real house, period products, and Margot's cigarettes.

In the discussion (17)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:46Read transcript
  • The address 111 Archer is a real Harlem location near 144th Street.
  • Royal's unnamed hotel is represented by the Waldorf Astoria.
  • The film presents itself as an adaptation of a book that never existed, including visible page turns.
  • The discussion cites Louis Malle, the French New Wave, and Orson Wells among the film's influences; other names in the segment are sensitive to transcription errors.
  • The Magnificent Ambersons is identified as an especially strong influence on The Royal Tenenbaums.
  • Wes Anderson and Andrew Wilson voiced the announcers during Richie's tennis collapse.
  • An internet claim says Danny Glover, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson declined Ocean's Eleven roles to appear in this film; the speaker explicitly labels the claim uncertain.
  • The shoot was arranged around the cast's limited availability.
  • Gene Hackman was reportedly combative on set, with a possibly apocryphal story that Bill Murray confronted him.
  • Bill Murray's small performance is praised for understanding Anderson's tone and elevating limited screen time.
  • Murray is described as difficult to contact because he works without a conventional agent.
  • The production found the real house after foreclosure and rented it before the buyer renovated it.
  • The reported rent equaled what the buyer had paid for the house.
  • Recognizable New York places and real products remain visible even inside the film's carefully designed world.
  • Chas's office uses real iMacs, and Royal shoplifts gummy bears rather than genericized products.
  • Margot's cigarette brand is reported as an Irish brand discontinued in the late 1970s or 1980s.
  • The participants joke that Margot's brief smoking style anticipates vaping.
The Royal Tenenbaums poster
The Royal Tenenbaums

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

The Royal Tenenbaums The Rewatchables

Kumar Pallana as Pagoda wins over Bill Murray, Stephen Lea Sheppard as Dudley, and Larry Pine's Charlie Rose-like interviewer.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:47Read transcript
  • Bill Murray and Stephen Lee Shepard as Dudley are the first two candidates.
  • Owen Wilson is excluded because his role is too large for the category.
  • Larry Pine's brief turn as the Charlie Rose-like interviewer is an additional candidate.
  • Kumar Palana as Bogota is selected as the winner and called the participant's favorite of his Wes Anderson performances.
  • His walk to the window and quiet response during the drug intervention supply the decisive moment.
The Royal Tenenbaums poster
The Royal Tenenbaums

Most Rewatchable Scene

The Royal Tenenbaums The Rewatchables

The participants praise a large set of scenes, with Margot's background-file montage receiving the final stated choice from one participant.

In the discussion (17)
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:11Read transcript
  • The pre-credit character introductions establish the family through a stylized montage before the plot begins.
  • Royal's blunt response to Margot's childhood play is funny because he refuses to soften his criticism for a child.
  • Margot meeting Richie at the pier is elevated by Nico's version of These Days and the slow-motion entrance.
  • Royal's first secret meeting with Ari and Uzi is praised for his awkward introduction and inappropriate compliment about their mother.
  • Richie's tennis collapse uses the announcers and seventy-two unforced errors to make his emotional breakdown visible.
  • Every Eli Cash scene is considered rewatchable, including the mescaline introduction and his affected novelist persona.
  • The montage of Royal and his grandsons scrapping, yelling, and mixing it up is a principal repeat-watch choice.
  • Henry exposing Royal's fake cancer through tic tacks and cheeseburgers is singled out.
  • Richie confronting Royal outside the house leads to the exchange that Royal was never dying but is going to live.
  • Royal's confession to Etheline changes rapidly from a false death claim to a request for time, making the scene uncomfortably funny.
  • Hackman and Angelica Houston play the confession in a wide shot without relying on close-ups.
  • The Margot background-file montage is praised for combining exposition, visual detail, the private investigator, and Bill Murray's deadpan response.
  • Richie's suicide attempt is called the most affecting scene Wes Anderson had shot, even though one participant does not find it casually rewatchable.
  • Elliott Smith's Needle in the Hay makes the suicide sequence especially difficult and powerful.
  • Margot and Richie's tent conversation is selected as an exceptionally tender moment.
  • The opening montage is praised for introducing a large unfamiliar world without the drag associated with long television introductions.
  • Margot's background-file montage becomes one participant's final choice because of its effortless style, detail, exposition, and Ramones song.
The Game poster
The Game

Recasting Couch

The Game The Rewatchables

Diane Lane is preferred for Deborah Kara Unger’s role, while Denzel Washington is the leading alternate for Nicholas.

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:45Read transcript
  • Diane Lane is proposed over Deborah Kara Unger as a more involving version of the same role.
  • Denzel Washington is proposed as Nicholas because he can hold attention while playing a flawed or unlikeable man.
  • Bill Murray is the joking fallback because he had already played a Scrooge figure.
  • Robert De Niro’s Heat persona is imagined as another severe Nicholas alternative.
  • The De Niro version resumes with an imagined CRS interview.
  • Al Pacino is proposed for Conrad opposite the De Niro version.
Displaying discussions 13 - 19 of 19 in total

Films in the archive

Ghostbusters

1984

Stripes

1981

The Royal Tenenbaums

2001

Rewatchables episodes featuring their films

Ghostbusters poster

Ghostbusters

1984 film

Bill Simmons · Chris Ryan · Van Lathan

Aired April 28, 2026

Stripes poster

Stripes

1981 film

Bill Simmons · Brian Koppelman

Aired June 22, 2021

Displaying all 3 episodes