Gazzara is initially proposed, with Swayze dragging Jimmy and shouting Wesley as another choice; the discussion settles on Lynch's 'Who's gonna save them from you?' confrontation. — Kyle Brandt
Kelly Lynch's implausibly glamorous, single small-town emergency doctor wins the rarely used Elisabeth Shue scientist award. Her past with Wesley is ambiguous rather than clearly a relationship. — Bill Simmons
Marshall Teague; movie bouncers and coolers; Jeff Healey; white blues guitarists’ era; Kelly Lynch’s period; throat-rip kills; prison-sex threats; outdoor tai chi; 1989 action movies.
Drambuie is proposed as an Apex because of the conspicuous quantities at the Double Deuce. — Chris Ryan
Marshall Teague's career peak is affirmed despite his continued later work. — Kyle Brandt
Swayze's Apex is placed later around Ghost, Point Break and Road House's rental growth. Elliott alternatives include Mask and 1883; Terry Funk's is assigned to early-eighties wrestling.
Movie bouncers and coolers, Jeff Healey, the era of white blues guitarists, and Kelly Lynch around this period receive affirmative support.
Gazzara is only tentatively considered a belated Apex through recognition; Elliott's pubic-hair suggestion becomes a joke about a future 1883 appearance. — Kyle Brandt
Throat-rip kills, prison-sex threats and outdoor tai chi are affirmed. Action-star names and mullets are discussed with competing examples rather than a settled unique winner. — Bill Simmons
Death-deciding coin tosses are proposed but compared with No Country for Old Men; persevering with a repeatedly damaged car is another suggestion without a clear final endorsement. — Chris Ryan
1989 action movies receive an explicit Apex claim because established stars and a new generation overlap. — Kyle Brandt
The hosts say that during filming Cruise was with Mimi Rogers, who was getting him into Scientology, and call this the movie that officially made him a Scientologist. — Bill Simmons
The hosts estimate the brandy bottle from the $500 bet at about $3,600 in 2020. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say plastic bottles were apparently given to Cruise because things kept breaking. — Bill Simmons
The hosts say the trailer shows part of an extended, darker final yacht meeting that has Doug claiming a move on Jordan; it was cut, which may explain Brian's revenge with Kelly Lynch. — Bill Simmons
Coughlin giving Flanagan tips; Addicted to Love bottle flipping; late-night Coughlin's laws stair fall; Cell Block barman poet; Jamaica bar reunion with Coughlin; first Bonnie scene; last Flanagan-Coughlin scene; showdown with Jordan's dad
The first entry lumps together Coughlin giving Flanagan tips, and possibly Uncle Pat giving Flanagan advice before he starts bartending.
Uncle Pat is a very familiar figure; Monty's father in 25th Hour is compared as another Uncle Pat who runs a New York bar and is cheap. — Sean Fennessey
Uncle Pat being cheap is the opposite of how to run a bar, answered by the point that he only has six people in his bar.
Coughlin's law "Anything else is always something better" is followed by Flanagan's first good night clicking with the waitresses, which is when the movie starts cooking. — Bill Simmons
A movie set entirely at TGI Fridays is floated; that stretch is called the best part, but a whole movie of it would be a good YouTube video rather than a movie. — Chris Ryan
TGI Fridays is praised as a realistic New York bar compared with movie bars like Cell Block; bartending there suggests Coughlin is not a life winner. — Bill Simmons
Coughlin may have just served time or been in a money-laundering scheme and is trying to regroup; "Coughlin's Law" is joked about as a prison movie. — Bill Simmons
Cruise bartending to Addicted to Love is called one of the five most 80s moments captured on film. — Bill Simmons
Cruise looks like he is hearing Addicted to Love, or music, for the first time, cheering it like a game; Robert Palmer's reaction is imagined. — Bill Simmons
The late night where Coughlin falls down the steps while streaming Coughlin laws and they do the Hippy Hippy Shake is really funny; Coughlin writes the laws around his own behavior. — Bill Simmons
Cell Block is called the greatest bar set ever built, a three-story prison cell like the set of Oz; Rembrandt reacted to it in real time on a Grantland video. — Bill Simmons
Cell Block is compared to the multi-level Terminal 5 concert venue in New York. — Bill Simmons
Nobody at Cell Block drinks; they wait for poems, and Flanagan delivers the world's last barman poet speech ending with the bar being open. — Bill Simmons
Gina Gershon ordering an orgasm and the Coughlin-Flanagan routine to All Shook Up complete an unassailable five minutes; the Cell Block scene is called hysterical. — Bill Simmons
The barman poet may have invented Steve Austin's "that's the bottom line" gimmick. — Chris Ryan
In Jamaica, Cruise keeps giving Shue the Rock Bottom by throwing her into the ocean. — Sean Fennessey
Cruise's two romantic interactions, the ocean throws and tickle-attacking Gina Gershon among feathers, suggest he had never done these things before. — Sean Fennessey
The Jamaica bar scene with Shue, Eckhouse hovering and Coughlin showing up is magic, ending with the success-manual bet and the revelation that he married a rich girl. — Bill Simmons
Whether Coughlin sought out where Flanagan was is questioned; maybe he guessed from Flanagan talking about Jamaica and the poster. — Bill Simmons
Coughlin convincing Flanagan to open a bar should have been in the list too. — Bill Simmons
The Jamaica bar is a bummer full of lonely regulars rather than sunburned tourists. — Bill Simmons
Coughlin's "there's my wife" cuts to Kelly Lynch clearly shot in another location, which is very funny. — Chris Ryan
The first Bonnie scene is great, and Flanagan then screws up things with Shue because he is a dirtbag. — Bill Simmons
The last Flanagan-Coughlin scene is the final pick, since the first half is much better than the second. — Bill Simmons
A self-described first-half guy calls Brian's showdown with Elizabeth's dad the funniest scene in the movie by far; another voice adds that the showdowns with the dad and with the sculptor are both excellent. — Chris Ryan
Another personal pick is the entire Cell Block scene, plus the electrifying Addicted to Love sequence.
The accountant-looking guy at the bar who owns the hottest spot in New York raises the question of why he is at a TGI Fridays. — Chris Ryan
Stepping on Recasting Couch early: Bishop is a part for an older, 2001-style Harvey Keitel; Russo is wished for if he had not played Jimmy Jump, but the role should be older; Ricardo Montobahn, a Tony Lobionco or a Cliff Gordon (as heard) are floated.
Annabelle Seora (as heard) is floated; Julian does not work, but the idea of an out-of-place girl does.
Kelly Lynch is suggested, tying to the Chimino connection as the lawyer in Desperate Hours; a second voice says 'That's perfect. That's who it should be.'
Kelly Lynch is a little California, and a New England type unused to rough New York might be better, but she is still called a good suggestion.
Is this the best surfing movie ever?; Is it a surf movie or a bank robbery movie?; Why did Utah quit the FBI?; Why does Bodhi hit the vault at the end?; What would it take to jump out of a plane without a parachute?; Is that the craziest thing anyone has done in an action movie?; Did Bodhi die?; How good was Johnny Utah at Ohio State?; Why don't movies carry characters across films?; Why do we love bank robbery movies?; What is the best bank robbery scene of all time?; Would a Netflix series have beaten the remake?; Did Bodhi take a bigger cut?
Is this the best surfing movie ever? Alternatives come up, the one about the girl with one arm, Blue Crush, Endless Summer and Chasing Mavericks with Gerard Butler; a movie cannot only be a surfer movie, and this one is a bank robbery surfing movie, which is why it stands alone.
Why did Utah quit the FBI at the end? He had internalized Bodhi's dead-souls-on-the-freeway philosophy, which he had been looking for all along, and wanted to surf; he may also have realized he is a terrible cop who went undercover without changing his famous name and wore no mask on the stakeout, things The Fast and the Furious did better.
Why does Bodhi hit the vault at the end and betray his philosophy? Perhaps he had started to truly hate himself and was self-destructive, trying to die for the last ten minutes after ordering Rosie to kill a woman.
What chain of events would it take to jump out of an airplane without a parachute? Zero; asked about twin boys pushed out of the plane, the answer jokes about having another kid. It is called the single craziest believable thing in an action movie, more plausible than Dom diving off a crashing car to catch Letty, because Utah's fearless character is built to make it believable.
Did Bodhi actually die at the end? Yes. A host points out that the film opens alternating between Utah in a rainy FBI field test and Bodhi surfing and ends with both in the same situation, Bodhi surfing until he died and Utah in the FBI until he was not; the host who called it a bad movie is said to have walked that back.
How good was Johnny Utah at Ohio State? He was all-conference and wore number nine; Johnny Utah jerseys are seen around the Columbus campus; in the early era of athletic quarterbacks like Randall Cunningham he might have been a second-round pick rather than an Elway or Andrew Luck, and probably the greatest Ohio State quarterback to that point, with Troy Smith's Heisman noted.
Why don't movies carry characters over? Keanu in The Replacements could have been Johnny Utah instead of Shane Falco, a former FBI agent, and Bodhi could have been Dalton, who lost his mind after Kelly Lynch left him.
Why do we love bank robbery movies so much? Free money, the excitement of imagining it even in Baby Driver, and ripping off a building rather than hurting people, taking down the man and the system.
What is the best bank robbery scene of all time? The bank robbery that goes bad in Heat and leads to the shootout, recalled from the Heat Rewatchables as feeling like people were shooting in the theater; another host leans toward the opening of Dark Knight, with the robbers killing each other and the bus escape.
Raised late as a forgotten unanswerable question: would a Netflix series about bank-robbing surfers and an infiltrating FBI agent have been better than the remake? Way better, with episodes for Lori Petty, the football backstory and the gang partying and surfing in Thailand, Australia and Goa.
Did Swayze get a bigger cut than everybody? He was democratic and they all got the same, whereas LeBron as a bank robber would take 35 percent.
