The hosts say Robert De Niro almost played Harry and that Lovitz was also up for the role. — Chris Ryan
The hosts say the role of Uncle Frank was written for Kelsey Grammer and that many kids were seen for Kevin, but the team had already worked with Culkin on Uncle Buck. — Chris Ryan
Katarina Witt wins in one host's heart, but he does not want to give her the honor and leans to Frankenheimer instead. — Chris Ryan
An unattributed voice hedges 'either Frankenheimer or Mamet'; De Niro is called really good but not great, showing up and doing his job in an era of four movies a year rather than giving a Neil McCauley-level performance. — Bill Simmons
The second voice agrees it is Frankenheimer: arguably his best movie, inconceivable in the mid-90s, closer to Grand Prix than The Manchurian Candidate, showing his range and reliable genre filmmaking. — Chris Ryan
McElhone and Janssen could each have taken the other's roles in Rounders, X-Men, Taken or Californication; a third actress on that corner is described but not named, and Eva Green and Olga Kurylenko are ruled out. — Bill Simmons
The hosts wonder whether McElhone and Janssen like each other, and call it a good Ringer piece. — Bill Simmons
When has De Niro convincingly thrown anything? Raging Bull is set aside, Godfather 2, Midnight Run, Cape Fear and Goodfellas are debated, and The Irishman's beating scene is the funniest. — Bill Simmons
Keanu and Swayze look like real football players in Point Break, unlike De Niro; he gets chased down by Pacino at the end, and The Fan is another example. — Bill Simmons
What was in the briefcase? Best guess is nuclear codes or plutonium, with the Russians wanting it at the fringe of the Cold War and Seamus able to blow up the peace process. — Bill Simmons
"What's the color of the boathouse at Hereford?"; "Either you're part of the problem or you're part of the solution or you're just part of the landscape"; "You ever kill anybody?" "I hurt somebody's feelings once"; "Lady, I never walk into a place I don't know how to walk out of"; "If you don't mind, I'm going to pass out"; "I ambush you with a cup of coffee"; "A man and a woman going for a walk, and all that that entails"
The boathouse-at-Hereford exchange is called the greatest line of the movie. — Chris Ryan
The part-of-the-problem, part-of-the-solution, part-of-the-landscape line would be a good senior yearbook quote, alongside the hurt-somebody's-feelings exchange. — Bill Simmons
'Lady, I never walk into a place I don't know how to walk out of' is called right out of Heat. — Bill Simmons
The pass-out line after the bullet removal is liked. — Bill Simmons
'I ambush you with a cup of coffee' is repeated as a favorite. — Chris Ryan
The man-and-a-woman-going-for-a-walk line is recommended for use with one's wife; De Niro's characters never seem to understand marriage. — Chris Ryan
Why De Niro and Deirdre suddenly become attracted is questioned again. — Bill Simmons
Witt should have played herself, since assassinating the real Katarina Witt would be a bigger international incident. — Bill Simmons
The skating performance runs impossibly long while the heroes get through security, joked as a 25-minute routine to Free Bird or Hotel California with the sniper growing impatient. — Bill Simmons
French law enforcement barely reacts to a countrywide crime spree, ravaged bistros and car chases; after the wrong-way highway chase and crash there are no cops. — Chris Ryan
Stellan Skarsgård is at Apex, with this and Good Will Hunting in the same year and Deep Blue Sea the next; this is called peak Stellan and a great call. — Chris Ryan
McElhone's apex is suggested as Californication. — Bill Simmons
Whether this is Apex Mountain for mysterious-switched-suitcase movies gets 'might be', then 'Yeah, I think it is', and ends at 'I think it's in the mix'. — Bill Simmons
It is 'absolutely' Apex for late-1990s France movies, and Apex Mountain for Nice. — Bill Simmons
80 cars destroyed; practical chases with race drivers; actor driving school; Teflon-coated bullet; two alternate endings; added peace-process radio report
The hosts report that 80 cars were destroyed, that Frankenheimer avoided special effects in the chases, storyboarding them and mounting cameras as in Grand Prix, with actors driven at up to 100 mph by Formula One and high-performance drivers. — Chris Ryan
The actors reportedly attended a high-performance driving school, which De Niro is joked to have failed; fender-mounted point-of-view cameras are compared with French Connection. — Bill Simmons
The bullet removed from Sam is said to have been Teflon-coated to pierce his vest, the kind of cop-killer bullet later taken off the market. — Bill Simmons
Two alternate endings are described, the IRA abduction and a version where she just walks to her car, dropped as too Hollywood; a radio report on the Irish peace process was added, implying Sam saves it by getting Seamus. — Bill Simmons
Bean's short run is recounted: walking the team into an ambush, wild machine-gun fire, the 'bit of raspberry jam' line, throwing up, and De Niro's cup-of-coffee ambush leading to the boathouse-at-Hereford exchange. — Chris Ryan
Bean could change the award's name, and winning both awards is compared to winning MVP and Rookie of the Year. — Chris Ryan
De Niro should simply have been Neil McCauley, with Frankenheimer calling Michael Mann for permission. — Bill Simmons
Seeing De Niro kiss someone is gross; he rarely puts himself in that position. — Bill Simmons
A Sea of Love tangent mocks Pacino's kissing style and recalls joking about its sex scenes with a best man. — Bill Simmons
The De Niro-Deirdre romance is shoehorned with no connection scene; a counterpoint says the making out is cover, but De Niro's other behavior suggests he would have killed or abandoned her, and the hosts cite an LA Times piece saying Mamet added the love interest. — Chris Ryan
The score is the most 1970s thing in the movie; a pulsing Heat-style or Prodigy-era score, as in The Saint or The Bourne Identity, would work. — Bill Simmons
Middle-aged actors are welcome, but the stunt doubles show: a young man with black hair stands through the sunroof with the bazooka, and gymnast-like doubles tumble in the amphitheater. — Chris Ryan
Katarina Witt; McElhone's accent and outfits; De Niro's case-photo setup; slow-building first 40 minutes; self-operation scene; wrong-people realization; the 'any doubt' lessons; gritty French locations; shifting stakes
Katarina Witt is the first pick: a host loved her and calls her the best-looking female athlete of his first 20 years, joking she could be a Bond villain. — Bill Simmons
Witt, an iconic gold-medal skater, turns up playing a gold-medal figure skater with barely a line. — Bill Simmons
McElhone's Irish accent is praised though she is from England, and her baggy-jeans outfits are back in style. — Chris Ryan
De Niro handing a stranger his camera to photograph the case, then studying the photos, is a favorite setup. — Bill Simmons
The first shootout into the first chase is only borderline, liked mainly for Sean Bean going for it, with Bean floated for the Dion Waiters or Vincent Hanna award and compared to a reality-show villain. — Chris Ryan
The first 40 minutes build and build. — Chris Ryan
The makeshift self-surgery to remove a bullet is a favorite action trope; other examples named are Heat, First Blood, Master and Commander (called the all-timer), Cast Away and John Wick, while The Fugitive does not count because he is a doctor. — Bill Simmons
The realization that only the Russians could have produced the second case, 'we're following the wrong people', is a nice swerve an hour in. — Bill Simmons
The lessons 'whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt', 'that's the second thing they teach you' and 'no questions, no answers' are praised; a host says he should have adopted the first for Grantland. — Bill Simmons
The grey, gritty, chilly south of France locations are praised. — Chris Ryan
The movie changes from a guys-on-a-mission film to international intrigue to a cat-and-mouse game with De Niro, Deirdre and Mickey. — Chris Ryan
Whether the MacGuffin aged well is left undecided, joked as a new 'what's aged the I don't know' category: it felt like a Pulp Fiction ripoff, but Sam's reveal that he was there for Seamus makes it work. — Chris Ryan
The first shootout is left off as merely fine; the list opens with De Niro turning on Sean Bean's character, demanding he draw the diagram again and asking the color of the boathouse, before Bean's character is paid off and dismissed. — Bill Simmons
The first big shootout and chase is shot on location; De Niro shooting evokes Neil McCauley, and a host suggests that had McCauley escaped LAX he would become this character, a thought saved for unanswerable questions. — Bill Simmons
Jean Reno's driving faces and cars crashing through an outdoor bistro, with people scrambling, make it a how-did-they-do-that scene. — Bill Simmons
The film is defined by how many innocent bystanders get killed, unlike action movies' usual invisible rules; the hosts approve, citing a Speed comparison and the motorcycle rider being wiped out. — Chris Ryan
Low car-mounted cameras, wide shots and narrow streets make the chase feel car-sick real; the first Bourne movie borrows it, and a host quotes Frankenheimer's DVD commentary that violence does not happen in slow motion. — Chris Ryan
The switched-case gimmick is a favorite action trope; Gregor is sneaky, De Niro spots the switch from paint on his jacket, and Focus is mentioned for its bag switching. — Bill Simmons
In the playground scene Gregor nearly shoots a child to make a point until the Russian moves his gun, and Sam's meeting with his handler ('Do I know you?') is also cool. — Bill Simmons
The amphitheater scene and the France footage in general are praised, including realistic tourist crowds at landmarks. — Bill Simmons
The second chase is called the more legendary one: McElhone's character drives, Gregor quietly putting on his seatbelt minutes in is the funniest moment, and the wrong-way highway driving looks real and storyboarded, not CGI; it is named as the favorite. — Bill Simmons
The Katarina Witt figure-skating countdown ends with her boyfriend and then her being shot, a tense scene. — Bill Simmons
The final coffee scene, De Niro in a sling, has a Midnight Run goodbye feel; the hosts say an alternate ending had the IRA grab McElhone's character, that test audiences hated it while Frankenheimer preferred it, and one host calls cutting it a mistake. — Bill Simmons
Asked for a favorite, the answer is the second chase, one of the best car chases ever filmed, with added praise for the warehouse banter ('labor or management'), the French tavern meeting, and the post-skating crowd chase and MacGuffin reveal. — Chris Ryan
