Gary Sinise’s reported audition and recommendation of Petersen inform recasting alternatives: Sinise, Andy Garcia and John Malkovich, with Garcia considered too handsome and Pankow’s chase acting defended. — Bill Simmons
Adolescent fascination with older siblings’ friends is praised as recognizable, with a cologne anecdote illustrating it. — Bill Simmons
Outdoor lockers and a beach prom are envied, although a real beach prom and the absence of supervising adults are questioned. — Kyle Brandt
The sex comedy is considered more soulful and less uncomfortable than several male-directed contemporaries; female direction is offered as a reason.
Parents absent for the whole movie are praised as a familiar 1980s plot device. — Joanna Robinson
Modern cameras and constant contact would undermine the absent-parent premise; the lack of a huge house party is also surprising.
The rich heroine’s clothing purchase and move between schools support a reading of the story as personal growth beyond a privileged life and poor boyfriend.
The obnoxious older college boyfriend with a convertible is enjoyed as a recurring period archetype. — Joanna Robinson
Sexual nicknames, the virginity line and eccentric insults are praised, particularly the avoidance of a common homophobic slur. — Joanna Robinson
The bluntly tailored title songs are enjoyed as an era-specific soundtrack device.
Hyser reportedly had a no-nudity contract and was persuaded by the director to reconsider.
Rosanna Arquette reportedly advised that the scene would permanently draw attention to her breasts, including in old age. — Bill Simmons
Interview recollections describe surprise at freeze-frame notoriety and later regret about avoiding other nude scenes.
Dunne and Arquette’s 1985 receive emphatic yeses. — Bill Simmons
Fiorentino’s later Last Seduction and Men in Black compete as peaks; television-first release reportedly barred her Oscar eligibility for the former. — Bill Simmons
Henry Miller is placed nearer Tropic of Cancer; Heard nearer Home Alone or Cutter’s Way; Cheech and Chong nearer Up in Smoke. — Bill Simmons
After Hours is initially the best late-night NYC movie, then The Warriors takes first for geographical range, with After Hours close behind. — Sean Fennessey
Unranked additional late-night NYC candidates include Taxi Driver, 25th Hour, Saturday Night Fever, Cruising, Ghostbusters, American Psycho, Good Time, Uncut Gems and Bright Lights Big City; Go is discussed as an influence inheritor rather than a NYC candidate. — Sean Fennessey
Plaster receives a yes. Garr’s Tootsie era is preferred for her; Soho alternatives are the last fifteen years or the earlier period when Basquiat was painting masterpieces. — Bill Simmons
O’Hara and Heard appearing together foreshadow their Home Alone parents, again searching for someone. — Bill Simmons
The cab driver, subway worker and two diner workers embody distinctive New York characters. — Bill Simmons
The candle-carrying vigilante mob is enjoyable. — Bill Simmons
Using plausible non-555 phone numbers. — Bill Simmons
The frantic cab ride captures a remembered shift toward reckless drivers, supported by a recounted Fran Lebowitz Blu-ray conversation. — Sean Fennessey
Witnessing a shooting and immediately fearing blame creates a funny unexplained nightmare moment. — Sean Fennessey
The Surrender Dorothy story remains hilarious. — Bill Simmons
Cheech and Chong bring their own comic world inside the Scorsese movie. — Bill Simmons
Worley taunting Foley from the boat is questioned as inconsistent with everyone's supposed fear of him. — Bill Simmons
The motel clerk not warning Mayo about Sid swallowing a ring is questioned, with a counterargument that clerks routinely ignore strange behavior.
The late timeline is criticized as confusing: a few days apart play like a long breakup, while earlier training weeks pass rapidly. — Chris Ryan
One more developed trainee or rival is proposed to strengthen the graduation payoff, but an objection notes that this would turn the romantic drama into Top Gun.
The small size of the training class is questioned, with the short course duration offered as a possible explanation.
Whether Mayo ever learned the required mathematics or relied entirely on Sid remains uncertain. — Chris Ryan
Kissing Paula while she operates machinery and coworkers abandoning their posts are joked about as workplace hazards. — Chris Ryan
The trainees' apparent ages and the small age gaps between actors playing parents and children are questioned; an explicit reference to Mayo nearing the eligibility cutoff is suggested. — Bill Simmons
The cast is largely considered untouchable; Sharon Stone and The performer transcribed as DeMorne (identity unresolved) are proposed for Lynette, with continued admiration for Lisa Blount. — Bill Simmons
A later-era Denzel Washington is proposed as an especially strong Foley, explicitly outside the original casting period. — Bill Simmons
Denzel's military filmography is recalled in support of the hypothetical Foley casting; A Soldier's Story and Adolph Caesar's sergeant are praised. — Bill Simmons
Orion executive Mike Medavoy proposed OJ Simpson as the Terminator and Arnold as Kyle Reese; Cameron rejected Simpson as too likable at the time and the pursuit image as racially wrong. — Bill Simmons
Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson reportedly declined the Terminator, while Tom Selleck was considered because the machine was originally imagined as an ordinary man able to blend in. — Bill Simmons
Sting is the one Kyle Reese alternative treated as credible and exciting, though Michael Biehn is defended. — Bill Simmons
The segment is announced as 'New category. The Joe Pantoliano Award' and named for Joe Pantoliano, which is why it is recorded under the existing Joey Pants that-guy family.
The award is for a then-that-guy who became a that guy or never did: Joe Pantoliano was Guido the Killer Pimp and the guy from the Cruisers movie for five years, then Running Scared, The Matrix and The Sopranos made him Joey Pants; the two nominees are Scott Glenn and Harris Ulan (as transcribed).
Harris Ulan (as transcribed) is a flat-out that guy: a hundred movies, almost always evil, usually the lieutenant or someone in the DA's or mayor's office, an amazing theater actor; the two performances burned in are the judge in Ghostbusters 2 and Mel Burstead (as transcribed) in Scarface, a role he has essentially played for 35 years, including a version of it here.
Scott Glenn's recognition of Hoyt as a strong safety from North Hollywood High is recited, and his one-shot character in the Apocalypse Now director's cut, painted and surrounded by Montagnard Indians at Brando's compound, is imagined coming back to the States to become an L.A. drug dealer who scouts high school defensive backs.
Why does Roger wear a black tank top tucked into jeans with a green bathrobe, drinking scotch at 10 in the morning, with a photographic memory for a player from 10 or 15 years earlier, before YouTube mixtapes, like the invention of Pro Football Focus; weird little flourishes like this elevate the movie.
Roger is understood as an ex-cop turned dealer, and there is a brand of cop really into local athletics who goes to high school games for no reason and asks about the quarterback, a provincial type who probably has a Letterman jacket from 1957.
The script had been banging around since the mid-90s and is based on the Rampart scandal, drawing on the Raphael Perez (as transcribed) case of cops stealing and selling drugs, with Alonzo modeled on Perez down to the beard and look.
Wesley Morris's 'there can only be one' market-correction game: Tommy Lee Jones market-corrected Scott Glenn; Glenn was the rival who sleeps with Debra Winger in Urban Cowboy, a weird film that has not aged well, while Jones was in The Executioner's Song with Rosanna Arquette, and they ran parallel through the 80s until The Fugitive and Under Siege made Jones a top-tier star and left Glenn to play Roger.
Glenn belongs to the early-80s generation of The Right Stuff, Silverado and Terms of Endearment whose careers were derailed by the mid-to-late-80s action boom; he took second-in-command roles in The Hunt for Red October, Silence of the Lambs as Jack Crawford, The Player, Backdraft and Absolute Power, grouped with Kline, Costner and Dennis Quaid.
Personal Best, Robert Towns's (as transcribed) directorial debut, is a weird film that has aged badly and incredibly well at once, with Glenn's character crazy and the two-athletes-falling-for-one-another premise interesting; it will never be on the show.
One voice thinks it has to go to Scott Glenn; another argues for Harris Ulan (as transcribed) because Glenn was already Scott Glenn, Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff, a known quantity 20 years earlier; Roger is called his best part, three great scenes, though the other would take Personal Best and The Right Stuff over it, and no single pick is settled.
Roger's football recall is riffed on: the game against Crenshaw, picking off two passes, going nickel in the third quarter, the safety blitz, all offered with scotch and a bathrobe.
Earlier, during the heat check, a nomination for Harris Ewan (as transcribed) was held for this new category.
