Stats
- Episodes featuring their films
- 2
- Movies in this archive
- 2
Rewatchables episodes featuring Eva Mendes’s films
Mentioned in discussions
Apex Mountain
Jennifer Garner as an actress; Vienna
In the discussion (12)
- Jennifer Garner is a yes: on Alias, the movie nearly makes $100 million, and she starts dating Ben Affleck; the other agrees as an actress. — Bill Simmons
- She is more famous and richer now, as the Capital One spokesperson who took Once Upon a Farm public, so money-making Garner may not have peaked here. — Bill Simmons
- A participant interviewed her for a Felicity project; she did 20th-anniversary press with Judy Greer for Vogue and is called a beloved Hollywood lady. — Bill Simmons
- Mark Ruffalo's entry is only "mark ruffalo now" (ASR), so no clear judgment is recorded. — Bill Simmons
- Razzles: this is probably the most prominent Razzles appearance, unless the 80s. — Juliet Litman
- For 2000s fake fashion-magazine plots, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is the bigger magazine rom-com and would be the apex; Eva Mendes in Hitch and Kate Hudson are the biggest such roles. — Juliet Litman
- Madonna's Crazy for You: the answer is no, since it was already big from Vision Quest; Thriller is obviously mid-80s. — Juliet Litman
- Sam Ball, who played Alex Carlson, has multiple IMDb names, a red flag; "I hope to never see him again." — Juliet Litman
- Post-9/11 feel-good New York movies: this is in the running, but Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 (and 25th Hour) are up there. — Juliet Litman
- Judy Greer: no; Descendants is a better performance, and she is a reliable second banana. — Bill Simmons
- Rom-com characters cruelly breaking up a wedding: My Best Friend's Wedding, A Lot Like Love or this; it has to be Julia Roberts. — Juliet Litman
- Vienna reached Apex Mountain here, completely rejuvenated and finally getting its acclaim after 27 years; agreed. — Juliet Litman
Picking Nits
Albert’s coordination; repaired shirt; Sara attending the wedding; the newspaper staff; whipped cream.
In the discussion (12)
- Albert being both clumsy and physically coordinated is questioned. — Bill Simmons
- Kevin James’s real athleticism is distinguished from Albert’s intended clumsiness. — Bill Simmons
- Sara returning Hitch’s badly torn shirt fully repaired is questioned. — Bill Simmons
- Drinking Benadryl like a cocktail is questioned. — Bill Simmons
- Allegra inviting Sara after the gossip story nearly ruins her relationship is questioned.
- Allegra understanding that Hitch did not manufacture Albert’s appeal is offered as a defense.
- Eva Mendes’s character complimenting Allegra’s bag is jokingly offered as sufficient reconciliation. — Van Lathan
- The gossip editor caring about Sara’s personal life and work-life balance is criticized as implausibly benevolent. — Van Lathan
- The large newspaper staff’s unclear jobs are questioned. — Mina Kimes
- The newspaper friend’s actual job or beat is questioned. — Mina Kimes
- Sara eating whipped cream from a can is criticized as a male-written cliché. — Mina Kimes
- A daughter doing it as a teenager is offered as a counterexample before the behavior is reframed as childlike.
Apex Mountain
Eva Mendes, Kevin James, and Amber Valletta: yes
In the discussion (9)
- Will Smith is placed below his late-1990s apex. — Bill Simmons
- Eva Mendes is placed at or near her apex.
- Kevin James is placed at his breakthrough apex.
- Benadryl is debated and rejected. — Van Lathan
- Jet skis are rejected in favor of Eastbound & Down and Miami.
- Amber Valletta is selected.
- Hair waxing is rejected because The 40-Year-Old Virgin did it better the same year.
- Ellis Island is rejected. — Bill Simmons
- Post-9/11 New York comeback movies are proposed, with Spider-Man as competition.
Half-Assed Internet Research
Ellis Island ancestry; Smith’s inability to swim; Eva Mendes in Miami; soundtrack; proposed Jets stadium.
In the discussion (5)
- Will Smith reportedly resisted Ellis Island because Black Americans generally did not enter there; his producing partner’s family record changed his mind. — Bill Simmons
- Smith reportedly could not swim and wore a large life vest for the jet-ski work. — Bill Simmons
- Eva Mendes appearing in the Miami music video and Smith not remembering her are reported. — Bill Simmons
- The soundtrack’s Amerie and Beyoncé comparison is discussed as music lore. — Van Lathan
- Albert’s reference to the proposed West Side Jets stadium is retained as period research. — Bill Simmons
The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award
Hitch is Will Smith’s fourth-best film; it may be his purest star performance; Eva Mendes should have remained in Fast & Furious.
In the discussion (6)
- Hitch is ranked as Will Smith’s fourth-best movie behind Men in Black, Independence Day, and Bad Boys.
- Focus is ranked above Hitch by another participant.
- Hitch is proposed as Will Smith’s best or most representative pure movie-star performance.
- Eva Mendes leaving the Fast & Furious series after 2 Fast 2 Furious is called its biggest mistake. — Bill Simmons
- Replacing Michelle Rodriguez with Mendes from the first film is proposed and disputed. — Bill Simmons
- Keeping both women in the franchise is offered as the preferred alternative. — Bill Simmons
The Butch’s Girlfriend Award for the Weakest Link in the Film
Will Smith and Eva Mendes’s chemistry; the extended kiss lesson.
In the discussion (6)
- Will Smith and Eva Mendes’s romantic chemistry is criticized as merely adequate. — Van Lathan
- Their chemistry is compared unfavorably with Smith and Margot Robbie and with Mendes and Ryan Gosling. — Van Lathan
- Will Smith and Kevin James are judged to have the movie’s strongest chemistry.
- The extended kissing lesson is criticized as overlong.
- The kissing lesson is defended as iconic and not bothersome.
- Another view says there are no weak links because the core actors are solid.
Most Rewatchable Scene
Dance lessons and first date; Albert attacking Hitch; opening principles; bar; jet skis; wedding.
In the discussion (26)
- The opening montage of Hitch’s principles is proposed.
- The broom metaphor is accepted as fine. — Bill Simmons
- The claim that communication is 30 percent tone and 60 percent body language is doubted. — Bill Simmons
- The rule that a woman’s best friend must approve is endorsed and debated through personal examples.
- The bar conversation and flashback are proposed. — Bill Simmons
- Michael Rapaport’s single-scene role and unclear brother-in-law connection are separate observations about the bar sequence.
- The Paula Patton bar appearance and her star potential receive extended praise.
- Albert quitting in the boardroom while Hitch coaches from behind a door is proposed.
- Hitch rescuing Eva Mendes’s character from Chip is proposed as a classic smooth entrance.
- The walkie-talkie invitation is proposed. — Van Lathan
- The Sunday timing is praised as a calculated way around Friday and Saturday refusal. — Van Lathan
- Hitch is said to use the walkie-talkie partly because Sara’s coworkers will hear and react. — Van Lathan
- The Hudson River jet-ski portion of the date is proposed. — Mina Kimes
- The Ellis Island reveal is proposed for its surprising butcher joke and Hitch’s planning failure.
- The early dance montage is proposed. — Bill Simmons
- The allergy scene is proposed; later, the food-allergy material is said not to work. — Bill Simmons
- Albert’s Knicks date and attempted kiss are proposed. — Bill Simmons
- The apartment food fight is proposed. — Van Lathan
- The food fight is separately criticized as aggression that would not play the same way now. — Van Lathan
- Speed dating is proposed.
- A reported post-pandemic speed-dating resurgence undercuts the idea that the activity is purely a 2005 relic.
- Will Smith and Eva Mendes are compared to two hot aliens placed among the speed-dating losers. — Mina Kimes
- Hitch pleading for Albert on Allegra’s boat is proposed.
- The wedding and end-credit dancing are proposed.
- Hitch pleading Albert’s case before Albert attacks him is selected as the funniest moment. — Van Lathan
- The dance lesson intercut with Albert’s first date is the consensus selection. — Mina Kimes
In the discussion (3)
- Ray Liotta is proposed for Dominic Cattano — Bill Simmons
- Ray Liotta as Trupo or Richie is preferred over casting him as the mob boss — Chris Ryan
- Eva Mendes is proposed as Frank’s wife
In the discussion (4)
- Anna needs a stronger survival presence; Rodriguez, Mendes and Berry are proposed. — Bill Simmons
- The casting discussion considers perceived restrictions on Smith’s romantic pairings and why Braga’s character lacks force. — Bill Simmons
- Rodriguez or Lathan would supply believable physical capability and sensitivity, with Love & Basketball as supporting context for Lathan. — Bill Simmons
- Regina King is another accepted replacement suggestion. — Van Lathan
Recasting Couch
Eva Mendes in the salary-cap expert role; Hoyer as Brian Drew
In the discussion (3)
- Eva Mendez replaces Jennifer Garner to dial up the role and make the closet scenes charged. — Bill Simmons
- The co-host has no nominee, accepts the incumbent's seriousness, and finds the movie hard to imagine with almost any role recast. — Mallory Rubin
- A real quarterback as Brian Drew is proposed: Ryan Tannahill is too young for 2014, so a fringe player like Trent Edwards, Fitzpatrick or Hoyer; "I like Hoyer," though it would be Tannahill now. — Bill Simmons
Apex Mountain
Antoine Fuqua; Denzel Washington (1 yes in room, 2 for Malcolm X; Shea splits acting vs cultural); Ethan Hawke (one yes, one switched to 2001, one for Before Sunset)
In the discussion (8)
- Ethan Hawke gets an initial no; the alternative apex offered is Before Sunset, the second one, which came after Training Day, with Before Midnight and Before Sunrise also liked, Reality Bites arguable as his movie-star apex, and Boyhood, where he is amazing but not on screen much.
- Whether who you are married to counts prompts the ruling, deferred to the person who invented the show and the category, that it is only about performance, not life; still, the case for 2001 is made, a hot celebrity couple and a respected actor newly proven in action, and one host switches their pick to 01 while another stays with Before Sunset.
- Hawke's turn in Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest, basically playing Alonzo, gets a shout-out as an idea hatched at 2:30 in the morning after eight beers.
- Antoine Fuqua is a yes: a good career, but how do you top directing Denzel at his peak performance, something to tell your grandkids; The Equalizer 2 is the most anticipated movie of the year for one host's father, Dr. Bill, who loves Denzel and The Equalizer and should have been on the episode, and of the four Denzel-Fuqua movies this is by far the best.
- Eva Mendes and the other supporting people are not at their peaks here; Scott Glenn's apex is The Right Stuff, when in the 80s he looked like a potential top-tier actor.
- Denzel gets a yes from one host; others answer Malcolm X, a movie about one man featuring three primary characters played by the same actor, a 19-year-old gangster, a 25-year-old militant and a 30-year-old spiritual leader; the Training Day case is that Denzel, already America's most beloved actor with a unanimous approval rating, lacked an Oscar and a Michael Jordan 1992 Finals moment and then played a part nobody else could in a movie that should not have worked; it is called neck and neck, a total coin flip.
- Favorite recent Denzel: Flight is growing on one host, the two Travolta movies are liked and Unstoppable is called better with a fun Chris Pine; Denzel inhabits characters for better and worse, probably smoking for three months here and drinking through Flight, and he struggles only when he tries something smaller that recesses from essential Denzel-ness, as with Roman J. Israel.
- On the phone, the acting apex is Malcolm X for a single performance, but the cultural apex, the Denzel moment, is Training Day for sure: everyone followed along waiting for the Oscar, Halle won the same year right before him, and his two-birds-with-one-stone comment played out perfectly.
In the discussion (7)
- Nominees are Snoop Dogg in a wheelchair, Eva Mendes in a rookie performance and Tom Berenger, with Smiley and Bone added as the other two heat check performances.
- Tom Berenger looks exactly like this host's father, which is disorienting, so Berenger from Training Day to Inception is like watching that father in a movie; Berenger also plays a narcotics cop here, which the father is. — Sean Fennessey
- Berenger was a massive star for about six years after The Big Chill and Platoon, shows up as the Marine recruiting Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July, and Someone to Watch Over Me, with Mimi Rogers, is slated for year seven of the show.
- Scott Glenn is ruled out as a Dion Waiters candidate because he is coming up in a different category and one host is not allowed to talk about him yet, though when asked for a heat check a voice still answers Scott Glenn.
- Snoop, by all accounts, should have been bad and Snoop in a wheelchair should have been one of the biggest movie disasters, but his crack-corner lines are recited admiringly as really good Snoop stuff; a nomination for Harris Ewan (as transcribed) is held for another new category.
- Bone was played by Klee Shahid Sloan (as transcribed), an activist and documentary director who worked to reform gang culture from inside the Athens Park Bloods, part of how much Fuqua worked within L.A. gang culture to make the movie authentic.
- One host gives it to Cliff Curtis for Smiley, now on Fear the Walking Dead and great in Danny Boyle's Sunshine: Smiley did not have to be so interesting, making you feel it will be okay with menace underneath and the tattoos; another concedes Smiley is great but gives it to Snoop Dogg because it was so unexpected.


