Clooney is the most disappointing Batman, saddled with the worst film; he might have been good with a better director. — Sean Fennessey
More comparisons follow: Val Kilmer as Hakeem Olajuwon, Affleck as Karl Malone or Kawhi Leonard, Zoe Kravitz as the Steph Curry, Adam West as Paul Arizin, and Cesar Romero as George Mikan.
Julie Newmar’s Catwoman and Burgess Meredith’s Penguin are remembered from the TV show, and the 1966 movie featured all the villains. — Bill Simmons
Rachel's sister should be recast because she does not look like she could be Whitney Houston's sister, but finding a candidate is hard. — Bill Simmons
Victoria Dillard from Deep Cover and Spin City is proposed; the objection is that Whitney had to be more beautiful than the sister. — Van Lathan
Ricky's mom from Boys in the Hood, also in White Men Can't Jump, is proposed as better for the drunken confession, without a settled answer. — Bill Simmons
Spending on Val Kilmer as the assassin is proposed because he may have looked better than Costner then, making the park scene make sense; it is agreed that works. — Bill Simmons
Desert drug scenes are asked about as an Apex; the reply muses that the movie cemented the desert as the place for hallucinogenics, with no yes given. — Chuck Klosterman
Frank Whaley's Apex is put at Pulp Fiction or Career Opportunities; debate over whether Apex means peak or most juice; this movie was not a success. — Bill Simmons
The band opposed the film and wanted to be in it, like Queen with its movie; the Courson family wanted Pam portrayed as an angel. — Bill Simmons
A memo told someone not to make eye contact with Val Kilmer during filming. — Bill Simmons
A participant who profiled Kilmer around 2005-06 interviewed Stone, who said Kilmer's biggest issue was wearing the same black leather pants every day. — Chuck Klosterman
Stone invented or took liberties with the closet fire, Thanksgiving and Morrison's anger over Light My Fire. — Bill Simmons
A 1991 Manzarek quote says the film was about "Jimbo Morrison, the drunk," not the sensitive poet and funny guy he knew. — Bill Simmons
The reporter was a composite character, not a real person. — Bill Simmons
The desert scenes were shot in the East Mojave Preserve, drawing a fine; Billy Idol's role shrank after his motorcycle accident, so he is seated or framed around it. — Bill Simmons
The bar Morrison frequents is Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood, where he pisses in the film. — Bill Simmons
Glover's Warhol would be fine without the weird tongue business that sexualizes the scene; other screen Warhols of the time, including David Bowie's, are mentioned. — Chuck Klosterman
Selling-out concern; Oliver Stone's film-professor cameo; Top Gun connection; Break On Through performance; death theme; closing credits; Doors music; Frank Whaley's guitar playing
The concept of selling out with commercials, a big concern in 1991 (Michael Stipe would never have allowed it), tells more about 1991 than the 60s; Morrison's reaction resembles what one would expect of Cobain. — Chuck Klosterman
Stone's cameo as a film professor holds up for the thick, fake-looking goatee and a workshop that pisses on Morrison's film. — Chris Ryan
The Top Gun connection: Iceman and Goose's wife as the leads. — Bill Simmons
Jim turning around and the Break On Through performance. — Bill Simmons
The theme of death, with the bald man moving closer to Jim through the film, is well done; he looks like Jeff Bezos. — Bill Simmons
The closing credits bring in L.A. Woman, missing from the film, with the credits ending on "and Val Kilmer is Jim Morrison." — Bill Simmons
The Doors music sounds good, though this speaker never had a Doors period and came to it through Apocalypse Now; Frank Whaley convincingly plays guitar and is called the second-best person in the movie, with agreement. — Chris Ryan
Kevin Dillon looks like he is drumming; it is unclear whether McLaughlin (as spoken) can play organ, as he always plays the top and bottom keyboards at once.
Light My Fire rehearsal through the everything's-taking-off montage and Ed Sullivan; the early fan-mania scene; the Miami sequence from backstage to performance
The opening is liked but left out; the film-school scene is enjoyed; the first scene with Jim and Ray on the beach is picked, from "great fucking lyrics" to "people want to fight or fuck," setting up the 60s in three sentences, called a great four minutes. — Bill Simmons
Kilmer is not singing well yet on the beach, and later works out a raspier drunk-Jim voice. — Bill Simmons
The likely pick is the first band rehearsal where Light My Fire comes together in about two minutes. — Chuck Klosterman
A good detail is Morrison walking through the rough chord changes; the speed seems crazy, but it shows how a band turns one member's rough version into a song. — Chuck Klosterman
The organ intro gets worked out during a five-minute break; the path-to-a-hit device is loved here and in That Thing You Do and the NWA movie. — Bill Simmons
The first live performance of The End at the Whiskey is incredible and hilarious, along with the short scene where he will not face the crowd and then turns around. — Bill Simmons
The crowd at that show is unrealistically attractive compared with real rock shows like a Poison concert. — Bill Simmons
Stone captures the band's early mania in a news-camera style; on the plane each member states name and occupation (Manzarek, Densmore as percussionist, Krieger), the girlfriend is introduced as an ornament and Morrison just says "Jim," which drew theater laughter. — Chuck Klosterman
It is hard to recall what he knew about the Doors at 19, including whether he read No One Here Gets Out Alive before or after the movie. — Chuck Klosterman
The everything's-taking-off montage and the character reset are loved, compared with a favorite Boogie Nights deleted scene; it leads into Ed Sullivan. — Chuck Klosterman
The New Haven 1968 concert used 4,000 extras over five days, which seemed new for a concert scene; the announcer sounds like Mike Francesa; The Blues Brothers' concert was probably about 1,000 people, and films like the first two Rockies cheated with extras. — Bill Simmons
The Thanksgiving dinner where Pam meets Patricia over a duck is very funny, with the knife and the quoted confrontation.
The Thanksgiving scene and the closet-fire scene are both made up; odd details like the burnt duck make it seem real, a Stone trick also used in JFK, and the invented closet fire effectively casts Morrison as a murderer. — Chuck Klosterman
The scene reflects a type of man who invites both women to extend his power over them; the real Pam and Patricia were reportedly cordial. — Chuck Klosterman
Pam's family was involved in the movie and there is a rumor she bought the heroin; in the scene she only wants him to wait on the acid, so she was not advocating sobriety. — Chuck Klosterman
Drunk Jim recording Touch Me might be the single best scene, followed by his outburst over the Light My Fire commercial ($75,000; Feliciano had sold 2 million). — Bill Simmons
The short plane scene with Madsen before Miami ("what are you going to do for act three") and Morrison asking for heroin on the plane are liked. — Chuck Klosterman
In Miami, drunk Jim insults everyone, then police and the Native American figure appear and he glides through the crowd; called one of the coolest two-minute scenes of the era and the film's peak.
The real Miami concert audio is on YouTube, but the Kilmer version is called better. — Chris Ryan
The Miami backstage stretch is a favorite: everyone voicing their feelings, peyote with Krieger, and a journalist dictating that The Soft Parade was disappointing while Densmore listens. — Chris Ryan
Kevin Dillon's "we took drugs to expand our minds, not to escape" is something no drug user says; Stone co-wrote with Randall Johnson (as spoken).
Stone oddly emphasizes Morrison's impotence (coke, blood); the Wiccan blood marriage could be cut from a two-hour-20-minute movie. — Chuck Klosterman
Stone handles the transgressive background (Ed Sullivan, decency laws, Manson) in a minute or two while lingering on rants, Wiccan ceremonies, shamanism and the desert. — Chuck Klosterman
The Ed Sullivan scene is dramatized: the Stones visibly protested their lyric change, but in the actual Doors performance they just play the song and he does not change the lyric; the scene contrasts wholesome acts with the band. — Chuck Klosterman
A short book about the band by Grill Marcus (as spoken) is cited: people were not shocked by The End at the Whiskey; the lyrics signaled a different way to live, which the movie does not convey except in the on-the-nose beach scene. — Chuck Klosterman
The last scene of the band together, which first seemed like heaven, is enjoyed. — Bill Simmons
Favorite rewatchable scene: Light My Fire all the way through the everything's-taking-off montage and Ed Sullivan. — Bill Simmons
Favorite scene is the "first time they're present" (as transcribed), for the mania, with a woman kissing him and the girlfriend hitting him with a purse; the live performances run a bit long. — Chuck Klosterman
Picks the whole Miami sequence, from backstage to the performance. — Chris Ryan
First nominee: Kelly's first scene, workshopping "Timing Is Everything" with the sponsor; A Star Is Born may have borrowed the device of two people workshopping a song. — Bill Simmons
Asterisk on the sponsor: he is technically the janitor at the rehab facility, which raises HIPAA and rehab questions. — Amanda Dobbins
That scene establishes that Kelly is damaged but really talented, with a real connection to Bo, before Tim McGraw walks in with a suspicious look. — Bill Simmons
Nominee: Bo saves Chiles from bombing on stage by coming in with a guitar; he sounds great though not miked, but it is unclear whether he likes her. — Bill Simmons
Scenes where performers bomb on stage and nobody saves them are excruciating, and singing is awkward unless done really well, so the rescue is welcome. — Amanda Dobbins
Songs are played at length, making "Friends in Low Places" a sing-along and one of the movie's only happy moments.
Nominee: the on-stage duet between Bo and Chiles; every rewatchable scene involves a song, so the movie can be watched like a concert video, with songs better than usual for movies.
Not a single Star Is Born song comes to mind, while the Country Strong songs are still remembered after ten years; "Shallow" is offered as the famous one. — Liz Kelly
Actually singing rather than lip-syncing is a huge advantage; the Oscar for the Queen movie is criticized because its lead lip-synced, and a case for Val Kilmer in The Doors is disputed. — Bill Simmons
Nominee: Kelly's charity visit where she sings the new song "Travis"; called her Oscar scene, the scene that shows it is not a bad movie, with the cut to Tim McGraw showing she will never recover from losing the baby.
The Travis scene makes the speaker cry every time and is called a favorite; the child playing Travis is praised and it is the best expression of that plot line. — Amanda Dobbins
Nominee: backstage at the Dallas concert Kelly gives Chiles a list of advice, including never wearing satin on stage, avoiding laxatives and carbonated drinks on show days, wearing high heels, not worrying about writing her own songs, and never hiding anything from fans. — Bill Simmons
The advice scene is one of the only real interactions between the two women; it pays off their drunk van conversation where the younger singer asks if they are friends, and the reply from Kelly is no. — Liz Kelly
Nominee: Kelly's Dallas concert, framed as an older alcoholic Taylor Swift comeback; she says the title and raises her arm over her head like Taylor Swift's concert dancing. — Amanda Dobbins
Kelly's final-concert ponytail and curls look genuinely like Taylor Swift; Taylor was invited on the podcast and did not respond.
Nominee: the ending, when Bo brings Chiles on stage for a duet.
Final pick: Kelly finally on stage in Dallas doing the three-song set and saying "Country Strong," for its pure star power.
Final pick: the Travis scene, one of the few moments of joy in a very dark movie. — Liz Kelly
Final pick: the Travis scene as well; the speaker's wife, who watches the movie often, likes the near-end slow dance between Gwyneth and Tim McGraw among sick kids, where she drops Travis quickly. — Bill Simmons
