The daytime wedding, boat ride and football game all on the same day; the family inviting two strangers to an intimate gathering with no vetting or Secret Service; the best man showing up late to the wedding; Rachel McAdams's character dating the obviously awful Sack
Timeline: the first rich-family wedding is during the day, then they take a boat to the house and play football the same day, which has always bothered one host because the crashers' rules are built for accelerating at night; listeners are asked to email the mailbag with the time continuity.
Randomly inviting two dudes to a pretty intimate family gathering without more questions is weird; a government official, the Secretary of the Treasury, would run their names and have a Secret Service person, and the hosts picture Steve Mnuchin in the Walken role.
One host hates nitpicking dumb comedies but has problems with the best man showing up late to the wedding, Owen Wilson being Vince Vaughn's only best man; the biggest movie bullshit is why Rachel McAdams' character is dating Sack, so obviously a prick that it is not credible, though it is tough to nitpick a comedy.
Owen Wilson is first met with a no and the question of what his apex is; a self-described controversial opinion offers Marley and Me, and Life Aquatic is floated and called ludicrous.
The case for yes: Wilson has never been more famous or had more movie options than after this, probably his biggest movie even against Zoolander, in the middle of the rated-R comedy boom and setting up Cars in 2006; the doubter concedes it is his apex.
Vince Vaughn's apex is not this film: Swingers is one answer, The Breakup another, a big hit while he was dating Aniston and in Us Weekly every week, playing basically himself, with the tweak that filming The Breakup was the apex.
Rachel McAdams is a yes after Mean Girls, The Notebook and this, never more famous; Red Eye with Killian Murphy (as transcribed) and The Family Stone followed an amazing first five movies, though she wound up on True Detective, where movie stars are now.
Nobody else is worthy, not Walken, unless David Dobkin, who has had a successful career but for whom this is the biggest hit.
Later, closing Who Won the Movie, this performance is called Vaughn's Apex Mountain slash best movie, at odds with the earlier placement of his apex at The Breakup.
The first wedding crash montage, which crosses a couple of lines, took a week to shoot, and the hosts are not surprised: they went all in, with the two singing Shout at 17 different weddings, and the first 20 minutes leave one host feeling ecstatic.
The touch football scene is unbelievable and could have gone on three or four more minutes with more button hooks from Rachel McAdams; the hot route call is a joke one host will take to the grave from playing Madden with friends, the Kennedy-compound-style house in Delaware is a real estate highlight, and Cooper's rugby shirt is fantastic.
The dinner-table scene in which Vaughn's character is groped under the table is flat-out funny and one of the better Vince Vaughn three minutes, though more explicit than remembered; the unrated version is just longer versions of the same scenes, and the hosts marvel at scrolling over the running time and finding 51 minutes still left.
Other nominations are the Will Ferrell cameo, the motorboating exchange right after the Jane Seymour scene, which one host would watch on YouTube every day, and the Dwight Yoakam and Rebecca DeMornay mediation scene that throws the fastest pitch first; Vaughn's speech from it is played.
Asked for a favorite, the opening montage is picked as the best and the signature moment of the movie.
Dobkin wanted to shoot the montage for two weeks and had it in his head to start the movie on that note; one host remembers wanting to stand up and applaud in the theater when it finally ended.
Meryl Streep as the only choice for Miranda; Rachel McAdams turning down Andy; Juliet Lewis and Claire Danes auditioning for Andy; Thomas Lennon turning down Nigel
Meryl Streep was the only person they went to for Miranda; they needed her or it was maybe not worth doing. — Bill Simmons
A Variety quote has Streep calling the offer not reflective of her actual value to the project; it was doubled, to a reported $4 million. — Amanda Dobbins
The panel thinks she was worth far more, noting 'Cruz' (as transcribed) would have gotten 20 in 2006. — Amanda Dobbins
Juliet Lewis (as transcribed) and Claire Danes auditioned for Andy and are called not right. — Amanda Dobbins
Hathaway went aggressive for the role, dressing like the character and writing 'hire me' in a casting person's Zen sand garden, which is why she fit and Rachel McAdams did not. — Bill Simmons
Kate Winslet was approached for Mal before the part went to Marion Cotillard; the hosts think Cotillard, who often plays a stormy femme fatale, is a very different actress, and that a French rather than English woman is what the crazed dream wife needed, since Winslet would not have been as frightening.
Nolan's films are said to keep returning to a dead woman who lets the leading man discover his emotional vulnerability; the casting is seen as letting him pretend something more complex was going on with the character, and a joke in a producer voice notes that Kate with Leo would have added twenty million.
For Ariadne the considered names were Evan Rachel Wood, Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Emma Roberts, Jesse Schramm (as transcribed), Taylor Swift and Terry Mulligan (as transcribed), to disbelief around the table; Ellen Page is judged perfect for combining intense intelligence with wide-eyed vulnerability, something clinical and nurse-like, where Evan Rachel Wood would be too tall, beautiful and imperious.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur was also offered to James Franco, who turned it down over scheduling; JGL's blankness and deadpan are liked for the part.
Don Johnson was considered for Peter Browning, the part Tom Berenger took; Johnson's ruined-man quality might have worked, Berenger was a shock to recognize, and Browning is not an essential character so Johnson would have been fine.
