Cheadle is offered, then hedged as maybe in it too much. — Ryen Russillo
Guzman qualifies because he plays about eight minutes; his arrest and his prison-boyfriend thread are praised; "to me, it's Guzman." — Bill Simmons
A case is made for Catherine Keener's two scenes, crazy outfits and cigarette clamshell, but that speaker concludes 'I'm with you. I think it's Guzman'; Isaiah Washington gets a shout-out. — Bill Simmons
The opening bank robbery, 1990s Detroit with the Cronk Jim and Emmanuel Stewart, and the color changes have aged well. — Bill Simmons
Clooney's strategy of robbing banks without a gun is admired. — Bill Simmons
The Dennis Farina and Lopez scenes: as her father he adds color without cliche, is too important for the Joey Pants award, and immediately knew she was into the guy. — Bill Simmons
Great nicknames: Dick the Ripper for Albert Brooks's character and Snoopy the boxer, who hates the name. — Bill Simmons
Catherine Caner is great in a couple of scenes, part of a 1998-99 run of Out of Sight, Your Friends and Neighbors, 8mm and Being John Malkovich. — Bill Simmons
Ving Rhames's 93-98 run (Dave, Pulp Fiction, ER, Kiss of Death, Mission Impossible, Rosewood, Conair, Out of Sight) is called automatic and compared to Ray Allen; his later commercial voice work now takes one speaker out of some line readings.
Rhames can be really scary yet also Clooney's believable loyal best friend. — Bill Simmons
A speaker's father repeated the 'get medieval' line for about a year. — Ryen Russillo
The DJ David Holmes score is really good. — Bill Simmons
Clooney's line asking whether anyone has done one last big score and gone on to live the good life holds up; only Fast and Furious pulled that off. — Bill Simmons
Agreeing on the last-score line: even on the big score the crew is dumb, one robbing steaks and White Boy Bob tripping and shooting himself; Cheddar Bob is joked to be his younger brother. — Bill Lawrence
Steve Carell, definitely: the movie becomes a smash hit and he has The Office, the pinnacle of anyone's comedy career. — Bill Simmons
Apatow is a no, to be litigated later; one could argue Knocked Up. — Bill Simmons
Catherine Keener: after a decade as a respected indie actress peaking in 8mm, a smash hit makes this as good as it gets; she was also in Capote that year as Harper Lee, which is called a good call. — Bill Simmons
Virgins in general prompt jokes about Last American Virgin, a Virgin Week with Last Temptation of Christ and A Midnight Clear, and making Craig watch with Liz; that movie ends with James Ingram. — Bill Simmons
The Six Million Dollar Man action figures are definitely at Apex Mountain. — Sean Fennessey
Paul Rudd is first a no, but he gets praise: Brian Fantana in Anchorman, carrying stretches of this movie, his SmartTech meltdown and his souls-connected poker speech; one voice says you could make the case this is his Apex. — Sean Fennessey
Counter: Ant Man, from about 2014 or 2015, was great and a huge hit; the other host just doesn't like comic book movies and is teased about Munich. — Bill Simmons
Malco: 'Yeah. Has to be.'
Tech stores like Best Buy are raised as an Apex for that era; the reply calls it one of the speaker's unanswerable questions, with SmartTech badly run like a Boston chain and Circuit City, stores run by jackasses, as with Vince Vaughn's character in Old School. — Bill Simmons
Asia's ironic phase: not the band's Apex, since the speaker says they won four or five Grammys one year, but the move into ironic 'Heat of the Moment' appreciation 20 years later; the hosts joke they are already in their own ironic phase. — Bill Simmons
Lionel Richie 'Hello' scene; eBay-store collectibles novelty; dead tech such as VHS porn collections, VCRs, recordable CDs and the VHS DVD dual player; the 'you know how I know you're gay' running bit
The Lionel Richie 'Hello' scene is put in both aged best and aged worst. — Bill Simmons
A personal pick: Get Out ruined Catherine Keener, whose tea-stirring character makes her creepy in all her earlier films; the speaker admits it is personal and unfair. — Bill Simmons
Pushback: Keener is amazing and oddball enough that she and Andy work, with her weird eBay store. — Bill Simmons
The eBay store and collectibles trend felt new in 2005; the speaker recalls a column around 2000 about finding a vintage Patriots jersey and hunting cards and uncut sheets, before 20 years of nerd collector culture. — Bill Simmons
So much dead tech makes it a full period piece: a big box of porn tapes, buying a VCR, recordable CDs and the VHS DVD dual player.
Porn collections on VHS and everything VHS; you can't even buy a VHS player now except on eBay. — Bill Simmons
The running 'you know how I know you're gay' theme would not play in 2020, though it is essential to how the characters interact. — Bill Simmons
The gay panic joke has not aged well; per a DVD commentary, the scene was supposed to be Rudd's character describing ways he would kill himself before an improvised pivot, so a well-known scene was never in the script. — Sean Fennessey
Rudd's character's obsession with his ex, played by Mindy Kaling, at the dating event makes him a stalker and a dirtbag.
The opening store scene does a lot, with Seth Rogen's story about a Tijuana show featuring a woman and a horse, which turned out not as cool as it sounds. — Bill Simmons
Paul Rudd accosting Jane Lynch over the Michael McDonald DVD, ending with the 'Yamo burn this place to the ground' line; the speaker's son got bored about 40 minutes in but watched that bit on YouTube over and over.
The same DVD played over and over in the store is very real to anyone who has worked retail. — Bill Simmons
The poker game feels like an SNL sketch; the line about a breast feeling like a bag of sand makes it the speaker's personal favorite scene. — Bill Simmons
The Leslie Mann scene is bonkers, the only unrealistically unhinged scene, but in a good way. — Bill Simmons
The body-waxing scene was like Caddyshack's Baby Ruth scene coming out of the theater.
The hosts say the waxing was done for real with five cameras and an actress as the waxer, so the nipple was not oiled and his right nipple was ravaged; it was really Carell's chest, and they had to keep waxing it for later shirtless scenes. — Bill Simmons
Paul Rudd bringing over a big box of porn and the Boner Jams '03 mix tape, followed by the Everybody Loves Raymond tape; Boner Jams '03 is called the favorite line in the movie.
The speed dating scene is really good, with Mo Collins's character flagged to come up later for the Dion Waiters category. — Bill Simmons
Andy's first date call to Catherine Keener while the others do 'you know how I know you're gay', which has not aged well in some ways but is Rudd and Rogen cooking. — Bill Simmons
The support group scene and Seth with his dad, who berates him about his little Jew fro. — Bill Simmons
The ending, where losing his virginity turns into a musical number with the whole cast, is called a really good choice and credited to Gary Shandling because they couldn't figure out the ending. — Bill Simmons
A special shout-out goes to the extended version of the Kevin Hart and Malco scene, compared to Clemens and Cecil Fielder going toe to toe; the lister agrees and had it in what's aged the best.
Andy following Rogen's character's tips in the bookstore: the just-ask-questions bit, the 'be David Caruso in Jade' advice, then the best line in the movie and the 90-second seduction by Elizabeth Banks. — Sean Fennessey
The David Caruso in Jade reference may have aged best or worst, since producer Craig would not know what Jade was. — Bill Simmons
Formal pick: the poker game, because it is perfectly written. — Bill Simmons
A second voice agrees the poker game is the most iconic now: the chest waxing was, but the bag-of-sand line is the one quoted back. — Sean Fennessey
It fits the movie because the other guys' sex talk makes sex seem gross and foreign, so Andy's choice to stay home with his electronic drum kit seems understandable. — Chris Ryan
The new category, from a listener, is to recast one part; two would recast nothing because the movie is perfect, one would put Dave Chappelle in the Mo McCray part, with Kate McKinnon as a joke; asked which part they would play, the answers are Borracho and Murph, and Jamie Foxx is rejected as too old.
The film missed spots to stunt cast: the disgruntled wife could have been someone more famous like a 2019 Catherine Keener or Jessica Alba, and Gus could have been funnier with Chappelle, a take the other two vote down.
Gus could have been dialed up with Dave Chappelle or Jamie Foxx for three jokes, but the others say the film cannot have humor because it is built as Big Nick versus Ray Merriman, two alpha gorillas on a collision course, signaled by the on-screen names and matching back-shot introductions.
Mo McCray's best moment, pulling Big Nick away from the women at Benihana while giving them a salacious look, shows the crew is as dirty as Nick; the Chappelle wish is compared to Laker fans preferring Derek Fisher to Chris Paul.
For 50 Cent's part, Ray Lewis or Ed Reed are imagined as stunt casting, Idris Elba is too famous and old, and swapping Mo McCray and 50 would make a worse movie because the cop needs to be the slimy, skinnier one.
