The 1988 Movie Draft

13:42Bill Simmons:Nobody knows what mine is. Well, you're full of surprises. There are a few big Bill movies on this list. You were a big Last Temptation of Christ guy.

13:50Sean Fennessey:Good soundtrack. Well, you guys certainly share on in this year. But I thought this would be a really fun one for the four of us specifically because, like you say, there's these like talismans, these idols that really matter to us.

14:02Bill Simmons:I mean, the bummer was the sequels were really bad. Bad. So I was curious about this, Sean. Couldn't believe it. You elected sequels. He texted me this morning being like, is sequels really happening? Was this on purpose? For some reason, I had made my list. I had kind of sort of lightly organized it. And then I was like, did I miss five movies? and I was like, no, I think this is just a challenge. And then also your box office slider very interestingly went to 75.

14:30Sean Fennessey:Well, I'll tell you my thinking on both. One, I think these drafts, I mean, we've now done, I don't even know how many overall, almost 100 probably. Oh my God. You've done 100 drafts. Life is slow and fast at the same time. Let me say you've done like 60. You might be right. We've been doing them since 2020 once a month. So how many months is that? Yeah, like 60, 65. So, yeah. So that's 60. Plus a couple. Yeah. Plus 5. Yeah, okay. So every time we do it, it should definitely be movies that you love. Movies that represent what was going on in the space at that time. Movies that aged better. That people have a warmer feeling for.

15:09Sean Fennessey:I think it's nice to get a snapshot of the state of the art. The sequel thing gives you that snapshot to some extent. The box office, here's why I did this this way. We did 1989 last year and we had the same threshold. And there were 17 movies eligible with$75 million threshold. In 1988, there were only nine. There also was a$350 million movie in 1989. No movie cracked$200 million in the U.S. in 1988. So what happened? What was that about? Because we think of this as a great year, but the returns don't reveal a great year in moviegoing.

15:43Bill Simmons:I'm trying to remember. I just think, first of all, there were so many movies back then, and maybe it feels like people just grabbed oxygen from other movies.

15:52Sean Fennessey:It might have been way more$60 million movies, and we're not seeing that when we look at the top end.

15:57Bill Simmons:There wasn't that one massive, giant thing that was coming out. And there also wasn't really the phenomenon either. Because two years later, I think, is Pretty Woman. And Ghost was two or three years later. But these movies that kind of came out of nowhere and then everybody went. and I didn't, when I was looking at the box office mojo for this, like there's not, like coming to America was Eddie Murphy. Of course we're going to that. Good Morning Vietnam was Robin Williams trying to be funny and Big had the best buzz of anything. Big was like, we all love Tom Hanks that whole decade and it's like, this is Penny Marshall.

16:33Bill Simmons:The studio loves it. They think it's going to be, and everybody went and then everybody loved it. I don't know how to even compare it to now because so much of now is also pocket watching with like, well, it actually costs$250 million. So I'll see in three months and we'll see if it's in the black. But when you look at, say, that April of 1988 that I was referring to earlier, you've got one outlier big earner at the top. And then everything else is like bunched together, but between 10 and$16 million for that month, which is just steady. It's just doubles, you know? And I think that's what they really excelled at.

17:08And it's a completely different model where it's just like, no we want people coming to the weekend to come into the movies twice a week five times a month and so we got to give them a lot of stuff to choose from and to your point about movie stars i think there was like a wider variety of people it was like i don't really know much about you know this cast but i like neil simon and i like matthew broderick so i'll check it out you

17:31Bill Simmons:know or i saw that in the theater i didn't really like it so biloxi blues in the theater we were like well there was nothing else we'd seen everything else all right fine matthew broderick He was Ferris Bueller two years ago. Let's go. There's also, 1988 starts a lot of franchises or, you know, it's interesting to have a sequel category here where there are a lot of firsts.

17:50Sean Fennessey:There's only one sequel in the top 10 at the box office. And so, but, you know, it's a starting point and maybe even a little bit of a change going into the 90s. So, you know, the first movie doesn't rack up as much money. I think also Rain Man was number one this year at the box office. The reason why is because it had that long tail that you were describing where it was an awards movie. And it was in theaters forever. So it got to play for a long period of time. Like Hamnet's not in movie theaters anymore. You know, One Battle is not in movie theaters anymore. It operates way differently now than it used to.

18:21Bill Simmons:But Cruise was the biggest star we had coming out of 88. This is like his MVP season. Yeah. Cocktail has no business being where to finish. The ninth biggest movie. Like that's insane. Cocktails. I love cocktail. Right, yeah. It's unbelievable that it made$78 million, but people were just in on cruise. That's because you planned to see it at 2.30 before you drove into the city. Might have been$50 million, might have been mine. There was also, they were using their leverage because they essentially controlled the two ways you could see movies between home video and theaters. So they would control those windows where they were like, if you don't see it now, you have to wait a year before it hits video shelves.

18:58So people were a little bit more motivated to be like, okay, this has been out for four months, but I want to see it because I don't want to have to wait till like next summer to see this.

19:07Bill Simmons:I do remember in the moment, the next summer, like thinking something might be heading the wrong way. And even like having, cause there were so many sequels and specifically the Indiana Jones movie, which we were excited to see and we all liked, but it just felt familiar. Yeah. When I was looking at the 88 list, it's a lot of like original stuff that just caught people, caught actors in the right time in their career were really good ideas. Are movies that couldn't be a sequel. You couldn't have big two unless it was probably like a really dark thriller. Every single... She's still obsessed with them 20 years later.

19:40Sean Fennessey:Every single movie in the top seven in 89 either was a sequel or kicked off a franchise. Yeah. And that is just one year later where the, you know, almost the opposite is true for these movies, which is really interesting. You know, two Tom Cruise movies, two Mike Nichols movies in this year, to your point about Biloxi Blues. A lot of heavyweight filmmakers made movies this year. Two Harrison Ford movies. Right? Two Harrison Ford movies. I don't usually do this, but Scorsese, Coppola, Tim Burton, Lawrence Kasdan, Ron Howard, Woody Allen, Vim Vendors, Clint Eastwood, Robert Zemeckis, Jonathan Demme.

20:10Sean Fennessey:You can go on down the line. All of the major horror guys had movies. Wes Craven, John Carpenter, George Romero. You know, you had your Gary and Penny Marshall had a movie this year. Frank Oz had a movie this year. Like a lot of the like well-known Hollywood professionals were making a lot of movies at this time. It was very active. Ivan Reitman had a movie this year. So it's interesting that like it's a mixed bag. Like almost none of them made their best movie this year. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Bruce Willis. Well, yeah. And then there's that too. And then that's a movie that kind of changed movies forever in a way as well.

20:45Bill Simmons:The star power is incredible. It's name a star from the 80s and 90s. They had a movie this year and it was probably a good movie. Some people, like Hanks was in two movies. Michelle Pfeiffer was in three, four. We haven't said Michelle Pfeiffer yet. The Queen. I know. I know. But this is another thing. Julia Roberts has her kind of throwing the fishing line out. Like, I'm here, guys. Just looking at some pizza. But I do always feel, like, because of my age, that I'm a little bit behind some of the 80s stars. Like, I missed Demi Moore at the Heights. Like Kathleen Turner. I missed Michelle Pfeiffer.

21:17You know, by the time that we were conscious, Michelle Pfeiffer was doing, what's the movie where she, you know, teaches the... Dangerous Minds. Dangerous Minds. Yeah, you know, it's not...

21:26Sean Fennessey:Different from Dangerous Liaisons from this year. Right, from this year. But this is Pfeiffer at the absolute peak of her powers. I don't think I told you this. I did talk about it on the 89 pod. I saw Fabulous Baker Boys for the first time last year, and I was just blown away by it.

21:42Bill Simmons:It's a grand slam. It is. The other thing about, there were some people in here in the 80s we had less to talk about. There were some people you always liked. It was like the old, I'm buying stock in blank joke. There were some people like, I like that guy, or I like that lady and you're hoping it would happen yeah and it really happened for a bunch of people like even Hanks Hanks was not Hanks until Big we knew who he was the whole decade he had big movies Splash was a hit but he was kind of bouncing around and you're like is this gonna happen for this guy and then he did Big it's two this year Willis was on Moonlighting it's like that guy's a movie star and then he has Die Hard but it was there's like eight or nine of those in there even like De Niro doing comedy was a huge deal like he didn't even know he could do that it's also an interesting year in the relationship between mainstream and independent cinema because I don't even know if you would say this is the slacker era yet.

22:34No, we're almost there though. She's got to have it to come out, do the right things the next year. Sex, Lies, and Videotape is the next year. Jarmusch puts a movie out in 89. There are underground filmmakers who are emerging, but there's not that indie cinema Sundance moment yet.

22:50Bill Simmons:Kenan's was the one I remember from this year. Yeah. I'm going to get you suckered. I don't think he spent a lot of money on it. And it was kind of a groundswell movie. But it felt like that started either in 89 or 90, I think.

23:02Sean Fennessey:Yeah, I mean, Spike had a movie. He had School Days this year, but it wasn't the big, massive breakthrough. You're right. The independent movement had not been subsumed into Hollywood. Spike was famous in 1988. And this is Premiere Max, too. It's like, we're still in a moment where they haven't created a new movies for awards. like there are award movies but I don't even know if you would even be able to define what they were at the time you were referring earlier about certain guys in the government who got well known for never raising their voices but starting wars and there are a lot of film directors this year that are kind of similar like 58 year old men who are just very assured hands who are very good at making movies but they're not a part of like a cool young class yeah and maybe this is like a I don't know I'd say every episode is a transitional moment but it feels like it right

23:50Bill Simmons:yeah the other thing that change we're basically done with the 80s teen comedies and you see we've moved we're moved into this license to drive they're just not as good 87 was like the last year where you had Can't Buy Me Love and like really good movies that still hold up these the teen movies from this era just I hadn't seen any of them until not great prepping for this

24:11Sean Fennessey:any other stray thoughts before we determine our draft order just also like this kind of mass volume Hollywood output also like really mixes up genres so that there's a lot of like, you could put it in drama, you could put it in action, you could put it in a variety of places. We're going to need to talk about that. So there's seven categories.

24:32Bill Simmons:You cut out comedy in the dot. Comedy is one of them. Oh, comedy is one of them. Yeah, yeah.

24:35Sean Fennessey:I don't know why that is in here. Sorry, guys. I just assumed you missed it. Yes, comedy is in this. Oh, okay. Well, I can totally miss that. I can think of one. The comedy list is so long. Yes. My apologies. I did cut it out. Seven categories. those categories are drama, comedy, action horror, thriller, Oscar nominee, sequel, blockbuster, the threshold is$75 million and wild card.

24:59Bill Simmons:And we all have to have an Oscar nominee and it can only be one of the five movies. Nope.

25:03Sean Fennessey:It can be any movie that got an Oscar nomination that year. Oh, you're right.

25:07Bill Simmons:Any category.

25:08Sean Fennessey:So you have a, you can get a long list for that Oscar nominee.

25:11Bill Simmons:Cocktail, no nominations. I think it did get a music nomination. I think so. Let me, I was looking at it. Oh, Brian Brown got Best Supporting Actor. Coglin's Law.

25:24Sean Fennessey:So the challenge, as Chris pointed out, I'm wrong. It didn't. I'm sorry, Bill. I'm not shocked to hear this. So the challenge here is that there are only nine movies eligible for Blockbuster. So there will probably be a run on that category. Yeah. There are a lot of sequels, but I would not describe too many of them as beloved. That's for heads. Yeah. So you had to go and do your research on that one. I assume you guys did. You knew that comedy was coming? You feel good about it? I knew comedy was coming. Sequel, I realized I would say today's Wednesday, so Monday afternoon. Okay. With enough time.

25:58So I budgeted some things out. We'll see. The comedy thing actually helps a little bit here. Loosens me up. Okay, good.

26:06Sean Fennessey:I mean, this might be the best lineup of comedies ever in the history of movie drafts, in my opinion. There is, I think it's 20 movies deep. movies that have held up yeah um I think that's it Jack are you ready to determine the order

26:22Bill Simmons:and you hate Funny Farm so that's not even one of your 20s not on my board yeah not on my board you hate Funny Farm yeah he hates Funny Farm it's one of the weirdest Sean opinions

26:29Sean Fennessey:when did we talk about this it was on a rewatch it was recently

26:32Bill Simmons:you were like dismissive and you were mad pulling the full Sean on it you were big mad

26:36Sean Fennessey:that movie's bad that movie's bad I don't think it's that funny I'm sorry your beloved George Roy Hill wasn't there a guy wasn't there a guy the Anna de Armas Chris Evans movie had like a tribute to Funny Farm that was cut out. Remember that story? Ghosted? Yeah. Dexter Fletcher was like, I had a whole opening that was a homage to Funny Farm. That's very weird. Did you see Ghosted? No. I can't recommend it. Okay, let's do the draft order. Jack Sanders. Very briefly, one thing we didn't mention, this year is also infamously known as one of the worst Academy Awards of all time with Rob Lowe and Snow White doing the opening number.

27:12Great point. And I was recently reading Michael Schulman's Oscar Wars and he talks at great length about how both the Academy felt the industry was stale and the award show was stale. That's why they hired Alan Carr. That's why they took a big swing.

27:25Sean Fennessey:They fell on their face and it was embarrassing, but I feel like it definitely was a turning point. Yeah, they did such a great job the next year by giving the best Oscar to Driving Miss Daisy. Does anybody want the first pick? Yes.

27:38Bill Simmons:Oh, okay. No, we gotta do it. Wow, manifesting it. CR. Oh, okay. The month goes on. Okay.

27:46Sean Fennessey:This will be your final appearance on this show, NCR Month. Drafting second, Bill Simmons. Okay. Guests first, I guess. Feeling good. Such kindness from Jack Sanders.

28:03Sean Fennessey:Third will be Sean. You're fine. Amanda Dobbins. I hope so. You'll be fine. You're going to get what you need. I think so. If everyone, you know, did you come with love? Love in your heart or did you come to be a, you know, a spreadsheet man? How many in the history of your career as a podcaster, how many times have you come to an episode with love in your heart? I think once or twice. I think so marriage story episode. Yeah, good episode. And I think, I don't know, what's the other one where we started crying? Children of men. Children of men. That was a surprise. That wasn't love though. You were just like, what if something bad happens to me?

28:41Well, not to me, to children. But that's two to answer your question. And I did give you one battle after another in a movie draft once, in a movie auction once. That was good. So that's three times. That was nice. There we go.

28:53Bill Simmons:I was excited for CR to just get weird with this entire draft and just do Last Temptation, Mississippi Burning, The Cues. I'm listening. It could still happen. Now I'm a little bit like, I'm like, I wish I was third. Why? Because I feel a pressure to take the thing that's probably the best for the board versus the thing that's closest to my heart.

29:13Sean Fennessey:I'm so fascinated to hear you say that really haven't we learned also that you should always take the thing closest to your heart that's what I've learned but you know this you could also do what did he pick in New York Die Hard DHV DH with a V DH with a V yeah you can listen DH with a V Iron Man 3 live your truth buddy

29:33Bill Simmons:so you said there was one movie you think all of us like really want I there is a movie that I associate with each of you in each sort of Each person has a movie that she associates with us. Is it Accidental Tourist? I can't wait to talk to you about Accidental Tourist. It's not on my board. Baffling movie. It's the second time Big Bill Hurt's come up today. Not on my board. No. I would like to talk about Bill Hurt. Sure. It's the end of the run right here. Yeah. I've never gotten it. I just, I don't. Not even in broadcast news. I mean, he's playing, he's well-suited for that character, who you're supposed to kind of get.

30:11You know why you don't get it? in front of him.

30:13Bill Simmons:You know why you don't get it? Tell me. It was easier back then. Nobody had a cushier existence than us. Zach says it because I don't really like ballplayers. I'm doing a big show over here. That's what Zach said. He's tall. Well, we were talking about body heat, which obviously is still really good. But even there, I'm kind of like, you're kind of just like a sack of a man who doesn't know what to do with all this sweat. And Zach said, because you've never been a ball player person. Anyway, I won't be choosing. Accidental Tourist is not my passion pick. Not a great one.

30:47Sean Fennessey:Bill Hurt? Weird Oscar nomination. Bill Hurt was good. I mean, he seemed like a complicated guy and had some ugly stuff about him. What are we doing? But he's a great actor. Love Bill Hurt. End of Violence? That's a great, remember that scene at the end? He's blind in that one, right? No, he's the brother. Sierra, make a pick. Until the end of the world, he's blind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to take Die Hard and Blockbuster. Okay, thank you. Okay. Jeez Louise. Had me worried for a second.

31:11that had ever been born. The funniest guy. The guy who could bring down a ring of of Germanic terrorists. And now you think

31:19Sean Fennessey:it's Chris Long. They steal our bearer bonds. Bearer bonds apparently Bill I don't know you're doing research but I've been told reliably that bearer bonds are way over represented in heist movies and that they're actually not a very popular way of transferring wealth. Who told us this? I did that on my mailbag a couple weeks. Well I did a different version of what you just said. I got a DM about it. Maybe this guy was just hitting us from all angles. But anyway.

31:45Bill Simmons:It's anti-barabance. I'm taking Die Hard. This was, I did see this in movie theaters and this was like my identity for the year 1988. Aside from being a passionate Dukakis booster.

31:58Sean Fennessey:Well, one of those didn't really work out very well. The other worked out great. Would you trade, if you could have had a Michael Dukakis presidency, would you trade it for Die Hard ever of having existed? I was six. So what does that mean? I'm not really sure ultimately like what did we gain or lose during HW when you went away in Bill could be flying back to the Michael Dukakis airport in Boston right now good point

32:24Bill Simmons:always like that guy H-dubs the Duke

32:30Sean Fennessey:oh the Duke he was a Massachusetts guy HW you know that was his VP was it Mondale yeah yeah no mondial ferraro was 84 right it was it was oh stockdale yes admiral stockdale yeah you guys were it was it stockdale who who who ran with uh dukakis yeah yeah and he was a stiff yeah was 88 your first presidential election that you voted in i could have voted i don't think i did wait you didn't vote for the massachusetts guy i don't think i made it i think i was probably

33:05Bill Simmons:seen one of these movies. Jesus. I might have voted. I don't remember. That's okay. 92, I was all in on My Guy Bubba. Okay. Well, sure. Yeah. He liked McDonald's and the saxophone. I identified him early in 91. I'm like, this guy. I think if I... Town called Hope. Just being... I'm not even going to admit that. Before being really honest, I think I forgot to vote for Carrie and I realized it. I was just like, everybody's like, did you vote? And I was like, yeah, totally.

33:32Sean Fennessey:And was that in Florida you were living at the time? I know you're in New York a lot of stuff going on the Strokes route

33:41Bill Simmons:you were busy you think the Strokes voted for Carrie? they definitely did not so you took Die Hard and Blockbuster I did John McClane what about him? kind of annoying I would be annoyed if he were my husband that was what I thought of my rewatch he's trying to save you the whole time he does save me but it's just you gotta support my career and my career mobility. Also, it's Christmas Eve. Where is their child? Why is no one spending Christmas? She's with the maid, right? Yeah, that's fine. It's not a Christmas movie. It's a divorce movie. And I think that Bonnie Medelia had some points. Should we have had it in divorce month?

34:18I think she was really trolling him by changing to Gennaro on the computer screen. Let's not change fucked up family month.

34:25Sean Fennessey:It's me in Gennaro. To divorce month. It wasn't divorce month. It was fucked up family month. Yeah. Good point. Yeah, well, I just, you know. Good point. I disagree. that hard to so I know how it turns out. First of all, yes. They reunite. I understand. Second of all, that was wonderful childcare that the McLean family had. It is Christmas Eve. Also, who was throwing an office party on Christmas? Whatever. The Nakatomi Corporation.

34:48Bill Simmons:It's really good and I do this drive all the time to go see movies. I'm going to take Rain Man in the Oscar nominee category. Fascinating. The reason is I don't love the Oscar nominee category. This checks a lot of boxes. this was an awesome movie uh i think it was incredibly impactful maybe the first movie i think of when i think of 1988 um our guy dusty he got got a got a trophy he did uh barry levinson i've always liked his work um this is probably the most successful thing he did is that fair well i think without question his biggest movie but it was really for cruise this was the tom Tom Cruise is now here in my life for the next 30 years movie.

35:33Bill Simmons:Right. Yeah. Top Gun. It's like, all right, cocky guy. Like, this is good. Like, what else do you got for us, Tom Cruise? And then this, the Charlie Babbitt character becomes Tom Cruise for the next eight years. Basically, he's just playing this over and over again. It's a really good, it's a good date movie. It's a good watch with the family movie. When he tilts his head and they touch heads in the end, if you don't get choked up on that you you don't have a heart even sean gets choked up i like rain man um the music's great and the vegas scene is an all-timer and became one of those cultural things that when you went to vegas and you saw the escalators you thought of it it's become running there's a bunch of jokes that came out of this um walker we got we got cultural stuff out of this it's just it's a home

36:18Sean Fennessey:run movie i think it's a legitimately great cruise performance we talked about it when we did it on the pod but we were saying he should have won together he's the one harder part yeah much harder part. What's his job in Rain Man? He's like a car salesman. He sells high-end cars, right? Like really nice sports cars.

36:33Bill Simmons:It's also a good, like, for about 20 minutes becomes an awesome LA movie. Yeah. He's living in some, I mean, somewhere in the hills somewhere. But yeah, I love this movie. Is it? An Italian lady. I can't remember her name.

36:46Sean Fennessey:It's Valeria Galino? Yeah.

36:48Bill Simmons:Valeria Galino. Yeah. Who, one of the many Benicio Del Toro girlfriends. Oh, good for him. I heard. Legendary stick man. That guy. Benicio. All right, so that's my Oscar pick, so that's off the board. I don't have to worry about that category now.

37:02Sean Fennessey:You don't. That also is the highest grossing movie of the year, so that takes, so that we've lost two of the nine box office grocers. Sheesh.

37:13Bill Simmons:Yeah, it's part of my plan.

37:16Sean Fennessey:I think it's a good plan. I'm going to, I'm not going to stick it to you, but I am going to make a strategic move. Oh, boy. Don't do it. Don't do it. No, I'm not going to. I'm not going to. You know what? Actually, just do it if you're going to do it. I'm not going to. I'm not going to do it. Do it with your whole heart. I'm not. You don't. And both balls and like stand up and be cattered. You have no idea what I'm going to do. To be a personal attack. You have no clue. If you did this, it's a personal attack. First of all, I don't work that way. I don't live that way. I'm not that kind of man.

37:46Don't do it. But you advocate. You like seeing it. You like seeing it in the wild when it happens. Yeah.

37:51Sean Fennessey:I like to get my rocks off by watching other people. When Rob Mahoney comes in this house, he takes something from Amanda. I like it. I enjoy it. I give it a heart. I fave it. I send it up to the cloud. I say thank you. Add it to your story. That's not what I do. So what are you going to be picking? I'm going to take Big and I'm going to take it in Blockbuster. Okay. Everybody's... Well, we're all friends. That's fine. That's good. I mean, I was actually going to do that with one of my two picks. I assumed it would be on the turn. That is very smart. So there you go. I love Big. Who doesn't like Big?

38:21Sean Fennessey:Who doesn't love Big? Big is great. It's a great film. Really sincere. What do you mean? You guys just like. I love Big. Thelma and Louise did. And you're like right at the second. That's why people tune in. I think Big is like it's a shocking that Big works. On paper, Big sounds terrible. And it's totally Tom Hanks who carries the movie on his shoulders the entire time and makes you truly believe that he is a 10-year-old boy. And it was probably a movie, probably one of the first grown-up movies that I ever saw because it was on cable nonstop one year after it came out. Almost certainly the first time I saw Hanks.

38:57Sean Fennessey:And an easy movie for a then seven or eight-year-old to get really into and learn about the world of being an adult. And Jeff Chow was just showing us that his family is in New York today and that they were at FAO Schwartz dancing on the keys. And it's like that is something in the culture that still exists. and your boy Robert Loge is in that scene. I was just going to say Loge. I just watched him with the scene where Josh is like, well, this robot doesn't do anything. It just turns into a building. He's like, no, say more, Josh. What do you got for me? All these suits. He hates John Hurd so much in that movie.

39:32Sean Fennessey:It's incredible. I think this is a beautiful movie and very funny and very sincere and also quite weird. It's like he transforms into an adult because of a Zoltar. That's just very strange, but I love it. So that's my pick for Blockbuster.

39:45Bill Simmons:It's a classic. It's a timeless movie. And it's a movie that as soon as, how old's your oldest kid? Four. So I can, I start to see a little bit of it now. It could be like about, no, but you maybe like, maybe age six, you can actually watch that movie with your kids and feel good about it. Yeah. But I just meant imagining him being lost in an adult world. Yeah. And so I think he was like, poor Knox, what do I do now? But it's, you can really.

40:07Sean Fennessey:Mom, what do I do with Elizabeth Montgomery?

40:09Bill Simmons:I would say it's. Elizabeth Perkins. Different, wrong 80s. I would say it's in the running for best parent kid movie. like for parents to watch with kids. Oh, nice. It's way up there. Okay. Up there with Exorcist. And I think it's really timeless and there's an incredible amount of comedy in it that's developed over the years. It's very funny. She's like, call me in five years, whatever she said. It gets like super creepy there for a second. It's really funny on the rewatches. Great movie. And I don't think she ever dated again. That woman. Yeah. I don't think you bounce back. Years and years of therapy, but you still don't really come back from that one.

40:44Sean Fennessey:But do you think she, was that like the love of her life? Like she held a candle for 35-year-old Josh?

40:53Bill Simmons:I think that part of that, and then I think it's, am I a bad person? What did that say about me? And then it's all of her friends being like, so wait, what happened? And I just think it's spirals. She's like taking him to the Zoltar machine. Like, no, no, you try it. It's crazy. She shows up at his high school graduation in after I scored her out. I think it goes really bad for her.

41:15Sean Fennessey:And Mary Kay Letourneau May-December situation, right? Yeah. Maybe she swooped in. I think it goes dark. Okay. That's unfortunate. Good luck to her.

41:21Bill Simmons:All right. Well, we know what Amanda's going to take. Yes. I have two picks. The first, in comedy, I will take my passion pick, Working Girl, directed by Mike Nichols, starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Cusack. Bill and I got to do a whole rewatchable about this, which was one of the great days of my professional life. Yep. This is probably top five rom-coms for me. All time? I think so. Okay. You know, the list changes. It's a living document, much like myself. And it's also not a traditional romantic comedy in the sense that it's as much about her professional pursuits as it is about Harrison Ford.

42:03And it does the nice thing where it's, number one, the hottest Harrison Ford has ever been. And number two, he just shows up to be like a charming hunk of meat. And I really like it when people as famous as Harrison Ford, men specifically, just show up to, you know, be shirtless in the one scene changing their shirt in the office. Just an amazing movie. And I'm not going to sing the Carly Simon song, but, you know, one of the great credit sequences and great Oscar wins. Really, really important stuff. So I have another one. And this is where another pick I was going to do big in box office. I probably should strategically do box office because that is getting thin.

42:48And. OK, so I will do coming to America in box office, which is, you know, also eligible in comedy. And I think maybe an Oscar nominee below the line. Best costumes. So I needed to get it off the board. Yeah. So I think that I didn't see Coming to America in theaters in 1988. I was too small. But I think I just saw all the Eddie Murphy movies like in a in a month stretch when I was maybe 10 or 11 or something. I just sat down one weekend or one month and was like, oh, this is Eddie Murphy. This is what I have been hearing about. or you know like seeing and like not commercials but just kind of pop culture like he was a figure but I'd never seen any of the stuff he's very funny I mean this movie is very funny I think

43:44Sean Fennessey:you're not going to agree with this but I think his best movie end to end for me obviously

43:50Bill Simmons:it's a take his corners back movie after Golden Child which was kind of a mess I still like it because it was Eddie Murphy but he kind of needed this one And it was like, this is going to be a big movie. Nobody knew who Arsenio was. He had an accent. There were a lot of red flags. And then it ended up being what it was. It's got like five or six. Cry out loud. It's like, you know. And I think the movie still has legs and exists. It does. I rewatched it before Coming to America 2, which was not as funny. We don't acknowledge Coming to America 2. But it is still really funny. And I had the experience prepping for this.

44:26Some other comedies that I rewatched. And I remember like weeping, laughing. and I just I didn't laugh once and so not all comedy ages as we've learned not in the like you know politically correct sense but just in the does it make you laugh

44:39Bill Simmons:coming to America still makes you laugh yeah and like a gentle just happy hang yes

44:43Sean Fennessey:there's something about the innocence of the prince and everything in Zamunda is so funny so specific yeah it's like kind of a miraculous movie like I for you I know 48 Hours is one of your faves in Beverly Hills Cop where does this one sit

45:01Bill Simmons:I think Cops is best probably his best performance in a movie because he just carries it Trading Places I still feel like is his best movie and Coming to America is probably the one that's going to last the longest because it just keeps going and going 48 Hours is like the punk rock debut where you're like I can't believe this is happening watch this and then another 48 Hours is maybe like hey he can still play guitar which is not well the other thing John Amos being in this movie was a big deal in 1988 that like there's stuff that hasn't held up because he was the dad from Good Times that was a huge huge show and it was like hey it's John like it just they felt like they stacked the deck a little bit with how they did it and it was completely satisfying I was worried that they might F it up if they did not I think I think we watched in my like neighborhood we would just get the tape and watch the barbershop scene over and over and over again that's the other thing that was the first time he really did that in a movie.

46:00Bill Simmons:The multiple characters. We didn't, it's not like we had like a ton of info about these movies. So it was like, isn't that, wasn't Eddie in that's like in every, like we just, you didn't know in the same way.

46:09Sean Fennessey:He talked about it in the Netflix doc that he did where he was like, he would just show up on set and just trick people. Like they just didn't even know. Like when's Eddie arriving? And he was like, I don't know where he is. Right. Okay. Big pick for you. Yeah. I mean, look, obviously I really want to take Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I don't really feel like you guys give a shit about it so it doesn't really make a ton of sense but that's the thing

46:32Bill Simmons:is that like I will absolutely spite pick it if you don't take it would you really well now he's tricked you into doing it

46:37Sean Fennessey:why would you do that oh no he's gonna don't think he can save it for later fucking kill me here that's not very nice I invite you here I invite you in my house no I'm not gonna take it next there's two huge huge movies for me this year yeah and I haven't taken them either one of them yet and I'll I will just take Who Framed Roger Rabbit and I'll risk it. Okay. Because it feels like the most emotionally correct thing for me to do. Good. That's beautiful. We just. I'm going to fucking kill you. Good. I'm happy for you. And if you don't make it any further, that's okay. That's okay too. I heard that.

47:15Sean Fennessey:Someone texted me and was like, do not listen to the mailbag. They'll be watchable. So I was like, why? And they were like, well, some notes for you in there.

47:22Bill Simmons:Oh, it was all out of love. Yeah, sure. Sure it was. It was great.

47:26Sean Fennessey:Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Saw it in 1988, cooked my noodle, just changed my absolute brain for what I thought a movie could be and what it should be. I didn't know any of the reference points to 40s detective movies. I didn't really understand the idea of blending these two worlds. I knew everything about all the cartoon characters in the movies. Certainly never seen Bob Hoskins before. I think Bill's point about Jessica Rabbit is probably true, that she imprinted on me a cartoon babe with red hair. Yeah.

47:52Bill Simmons:That's how I felt about all of Charlie's Angels and the Bionic Woman. That stuff is real. and Linda Carter except those were actual human beings and now they're drawing I had to figure out who I guess mine was Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing and Ghost and I was just like oh something interesting is here same for me yeah

48:10Sean Fennessey:and you know who framed Roger Rabbit like an insane technical achievement nominated for six Academy Awards it won a bunch of Oscars it was a huge hit it would have been the biggest hit of the year if Rain Man didn't win Best Picture it's Zemeckis in the absolute center of his greatness like right after Back to the Future movies and like it is a little bit of a cynical thing where it was like what if we put Donald Duck and Daffy Duck in a movie together but the movie doesn't feel that way it feels like pretty sharp and smart it's kind of like a soft Chinatown remake it's just we talked about LA Confidential on the rewatchables coming up next week there's a lot in common with it there when you go back to the actual like serious adult movies I like there's a lot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit stuff that probably was seeded originally there so What category, Sean?

48:58Sean Fennessey:Let's do it. In Oscar nominee.

49:07Bill Simmons:Interesting. Okay. Well, CR thought he might get one of these two movies coming down the pike. And I have two words for you. Shut the fuck up. Because I'm taking Midnight Run. Okay. Yeah. As a comedy. That was... Taking off the board. That was a direct... it had to be on my team sure I mean I this is what I was worried about is I was either have to take it first or I wasn't gonna get it yeah

49:34Sean Fennessey:I'm surprised it lasted this long

49:36Bill Simmons:given the company excited and delighted it's probably gonna cost me at least two other movies I really like but this is my favorite De Niro movie and performance ever this movie was an absolute delight in the theater it crushed it's like among the hardest I've seen people laugh in a theater it holds up iconic Rodan more lines than I think any adult comedy ever just every scene has lines it's still hilarious a couple emotional scenes he goes to see the wife brings the duke back to his car make sure he doesn't close the door on his coat the money belt it's just the soundtrack is great there's stuff I pulled out of it for my own life where it's like I've come too far I've come too fucking far what he said the skipper yeah too far I just I just love this movie one of the great Joey Pants roles it's all these that guys I better go get some donuts that guy and and I think it's it's weird because Die Hard is like starts this whole genre right that people just ripped off and I think Midnight Run is probably the movie people have tried to make and fail the most and they fail every time I don't think anyone's ever really pulled it up.

50:53Bill Simmons:That's what we were talking about with Nice Guys, about how hard it is to do something like this. Yeah, the Nice Guys is probably one of the ones that got the closest. But like, how do we just have like smart, funny, good structure, great lines back and forth, like genuinely funny stuff, and everybody fucks it up. Two lovable characters who just motherfuck each other for an hour and 58 minutes, and then like look at each other in the eye and like, I love you at the end. It is just like a perfect recipe. De Niro is so good in this movie. He's, yeah. he's like when he's sitting in the bus and he's like why do you he's killing him on the smoking and he's just killing him and De Niro's like I just can you like you just see the life leaving his body why don't you pop you over the Chicago Police Department and he's just like fucking killing him it's great I realized I'm old because when I rewatched part of it for this I was like oh De Niro looks really good in this he does still like and that's because now I'm in the same age bracket and I'm just like wow De Niro still got it it's honestly like watching a basketball player or play football or something.

51:50Bill Simmons:It doesn't make sense that he's this good at comedy. He's doing stuff and this is like Tom Cruise. It totally changed his career.

51:55Sean Fennessey:It totally opened up a whole new lane of movie that he could be in and he spent more time making those movies in the last 25 years than he did making the movies he got known for.

52:01Bill Simmons:So that was part of the fun was going to the theater and be like, De Niro's in, this seems like it's like a comedy. With De Niro's in it? And then he was great. This movie's great. Do you own the 4K? Of course. Oh boy. I do. It's great. Now, what's happened to me with the 4Ks as you predicted. It's getting out of control. You've gone nuts. Well, it's like Groove's having a 50 % off sale. I'm like, ah, fuck. I don't even know if I'll ever watch this, but I can't believe that's only$13.99. What's the storage and display strategy right now? It's one giant tower that I'm about to have to get a second one.

52:36Okay.

52:37Bill Simmons:Just for cruising, though. I have a hundred copies of cruising. That's good. Unopened, though. Unopened. I just, I like to collect them. You get one that's really open. I'm trying to short the market on cruising so nobody else can have it. And then they'll all be worth more. Has anyone tried that yet? How's your collection going? Well, I have that Bring It On 4K that you gave me. Yeah. That for my birthday. Doesn't have a 4K player. Listen, I just, I'm, no, you're right, I don't. I just have a Blu-ray. Here's where it really, not to just cater to Sean here. Okay. Sure. With the 70s and 80s movies, it really does make a difference.

53:11Bill Simmons:It does. No, I totally believe it. Like, I'm actually surprised. like I think with more modern movies maybe not as much but when you're going back like when we did To Live and Die in LA like what it did to that movie where I could was able to see William Peterson's genitalia yeah that was exciting yeah it was just like I just was never able to really see it before that's why film preservation matters that's right yeah for dong shots for hanging dog this is the angle that you missed for two decades VHS obscured this man now I'm paying attention you might want to look into that because those 70s 80s movies a lot of times

53:42Sean Fennessey:they're filmed dark I mean you could only watched To Live and Die in LA and Pan and Scan on TV for years. There was no other way to see it.

53:48Bill Simmons:It's such an important point. So yeah, I'm glad you've fully come around.

53:53Sean Fennessey:You got two picks here, bud. It's really, I know what I'm going to pick. It's just about categories. Have you taken a mortal wound by losing Midnight Run? It's more of a heart shot, you know? Okay, but you will live. That hurts. But I'm going to live. You'll be like Darkman.

54:05Bill Simmons:I thought you were going to take it first. That was the one that you lived, and that was in my head. I thought that was his passion project. You're still a mystery. We don't know what yours is.

54:13Sean Fennessey:I was thinking Die Hard all the way. You've always been a Die Hard boy to me. I think this is the first pick problem. And I also am not enamored with our blockbusters, particularly. So in comedy, I'm going to take Bull Durham. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Which is one of my most viewed movies, most rewatched movies probably in my life. Happy opening day week to everybody who observes. Oh, yeah. Yes. The church of baseball is open. Can we just do just win total predictions for our teams right now? Right now for Amanda? Just right now. Well, Amanda, also an avid baseball fan. Yeah, and now a T-ball mom. A bit of a turncoat and a T-ball mom.

54:57Sean Fennessey:T-ball mom. T-ball gets dark. Phil's coming wins. 89. Okay. Okay. Now, are you predicting Braves or Dodgers? I have renounced the Braves. I have said this on the Big Picture podcast many times. You said you're a Guardians fan? Now, the Braves. Okay. Tigers? I live with a Phillies fan. I work with a Mets fan. It's now worth it to me. Okay? I was there in the 90s. Okay. I experienced the glory, and they left Fulton County, and so did I. So I say goodbye. As always, fuck the Braves. Fuck them. Yeah. Tomahawk chop. Would you say you're a Dodgers fan, kind of? I do like, I would like to go to Dodgers Stadium this year.

55:37So would I? It's fun. I would like to take my son. I like watching games. but I have I'm like I've cozied up to the Phillies.

55:44Sean Fennessey:Thank you. Yeah. So no prediction from you. Yeah. Socks. 89 for the Red Sox. Oh 89. 73. It's a tough division and 89. It's a tough division for you. I'm going 91 for the Mets this year. I'm feeling pretty good. Jack is that too high? I think their line is 89 and a half so that seems about right. Is it really? I think we've swapped places though. Well a little bit went over. Went over. Yeah. I didn't say my prediction is 89 and a half. Do you think that it will be an emotionally stable season for you? It never is. Yeah. Where are we right now? Like just on the green to red meter. He's full of hope and dreams right now.

56:20Sean Fennessey:We're crushing right now. One battle, best picture. Movies are back. I didn't mean your emotional state. I just meant the Mets. And the Mets. That's all I can take on right now. Almost no injuries, give or take a Mike Tauchman. We're doing great. Alright. Am I wrong? We've swapped places. I'm protecting myself. Do you still have a pitcher, last name Dobbins, on the Red Sox? He was traded.

56:41Bill Simmons:He was traded? Yeah, sorry. Where did they trade? My first game at Fenway. I got a Dobbins game. I think he went somewhere in the American League. Who did you guys trade for in the offseason? St. Louis Cardinals seen outplay. It was a great offseason. You guys got one of our guys. You got Ranger. Yeah, we got Ranger Suarez. Ranger Suarez and Contreras. I'm not telling my grandkids about the offseason. Roman coming straight off. It was more like guys coming. Young guys. Didn't Roman get struck out to lose the WBC? He did. Yeah, he did.

57:10Sean Fennessey:I blame Aaron Judge. And our guy gave up the winning run. No, he hit a huge home run. He hit a game-tying home run in the final. You were talking a big game about how he did nothing. He had done nothing up until that point. But he, as I've said many times, the scariest person in Major League Baseball is Bryce Harper. And in the biggest spot imaginable, hit a fucking tank to tie the game. Also him, like, the whole Dombrowski says he's not elite. Now he's like, I will fucking destroy you is like the best motivation. I don't want to know who he voted for, but otherwise. great. I think he voted for Raw Milk.

57:42He voted for Dukakis. He's like, Dukakis is still running, right? Wait, Bull Durham thought? An absolutely no perfect movie that still plays. It's almost like the second half of it or like the last third of it, I say, is a drama with Crash wandering around North Carolina bar rooms. But it's so fucking funny when Nuke is on the team and they're on the bus and they're doing all the stuff with the rain delays and talking about the show and really like a very like formative like relationship movie where I watched and I was like is that what adult relationships are like? Do you eat Wheaties in a woman's Komodo?

58:23Can I look forward to that? How did it shake out? Never happened. But I always thought it would be hot if I could do that. It's not too late. Yeah.

58:31Bill Simmons:Important costume movie too where like what I said earlier about some people like cementing that I'm here now and I feel like even though he had other hits this was the one. That's Beach. This is the one where it's like this guy's now one of the biggest stars in Iron Man and his boxers. This is a ball player I accept by the way.

58:48Sean Fennessey:Did he have a movie

58:49Bill Simmons:in 89 before Dances of the Bulls? Revenge was around there somewhere. But then No Way Out was 87. Untouchables. Field of Dreams is 89. That's what it is. Baseball, baseball. That's what it is. In Oscar That's an insane run. nominations. Nominees. I'll take Married to the Mob. Damn it. So Dean Stockwell nominated for Best Supporting Role. This is a blow. He's Tony, right? God damn it. Michelle Pfeiffer is fucking throwing 101 in this movie. You mean in 2026 in The Madison? That's great. How's that going? You've been watching The Madison? What is The Madison? What are you talking about? Of course I'm watching.

59:28Bill Simmons:I saw this on a review. I support all Pfeiffer content. Is The Madison like a boutique hotel? Is it a ranch? What is it? No, she moves to Montana. Yeah. Idaho? Montana? Idaho, I think. Idaho? Oh, Madison County? She's in the, has a ranch. She's in the Bridges of? There's a family tragedy. It has that vibe. But is... Amanda, you would love it. She just has, she just is sad and drinking like, like the biggest glasses of wine you've ever seen. I do like that. With her mean daughters. I'm mixed. Even my wife was like, that pour is really large. Did you create the show? Yeah. Well, you know me in the American West.

1:00:04Like when I went to Montana, I was a little freaked out by the landscape. She is too. I don't know where to hide. But then she goes back to New York and she's like, this isn't my home anymore. Oh.

1:00:12Bill Simmons:It's a home run. Okay. It's okay. You don't have to totally watch it as you're watching. It's one of those. You can do emails. That's how you know it's a home run. You can write emails while watching. Well, you can turn your brain off. I got to finish that story. I'm behind. And then. You're not missing much there. No, I mean, I know what happens. I was there for that. So I don't love this movie. Okay. So make the case for it. I think it's just got that incredible screwball almost classic screwball sensibility that still is updated for modern times. What don't you like about it? Either way I just haven't seen it in a while.

1:00:45Do you feel like it's kind of like My Blue Heaven where it's people pretending to be gangsters but you like watching real gangster movies? Because that sometimes is a feeling people have about if it's not a real Goodfellas mafia movie it's not that funny. Yeah, it's fine.

1:00:59Bill Simmons:I always support my lady, Michelle.

1:01:02Sean Fennessey:It gets to a lot of things before Goodfellas. There are a lot of aspects of this movie that it kind of precedes in a pretty specific way. One of the great Long Island movies, really one of the best representations. First 45 minutes all take place in Long Island and just like the kind of suburban paradise. Baldwin is unbelievable. So, so funny and very charming and handsome at that stage of his career. But like just there was always one family. And you're like, what does that guy's dad do for a living? Yeah, he's construction, huh? Yeah. And he's really slick and he's wearing a suit. Why is he wearing a black suit on a Wednesday and he doesn't go to an office?

1:01:39Sean Fennessey:And the movie's just bang on about that. And it's really funny when she moves into the city too and she goes to Chicken Lickin and Chicken Lickin, by the way, brought back into a battle after another. I think it's a great, great movie. I'll revisit. he does uh the run where he basically like does something wild this and and then silence is such a great and also really it's three wonderful female performances best and silence is the role we need to talk about also she's hilarious they're the three yeah it's an absolute cut up she a big fat person yeah it's only a comedy to you guys but it's very funny

1:02:14Bill Simmons:will you do your next pick Miggs wasn't the funniest character of 1990 he's up there okay He's up there. I'm up now? Yeah. I mean, I can't believe it came back to me. Cocktail. This is food a miracle. Huge. Blockbuster.

1:02:29Sean Fennessey:Do you think you convinced a generation of mostly men to love this film? Like a generation below you.

1:02:36Bill Simmons:You did the rewatchables with me because you love it too. That's my point. Yeah. I got into the movie because of you. To me, this is the most, this is a top five Bill movie. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I would not. Do you want to know the other four? Limitless number 16 but also number 2 Classic Devil Wears Prada now you and me and then what else do I that's everyone's movie though you don't have enough bad action in this list bad action? you gotta go and dip into the Seagal Stallone area for me you don't have a heist either yeah this year has the one good Seagal movie

1:03:15Sean Fennessey:in my opinion

1:03:15Bill Simmons:one of my favorite things in any movie is when somebody treats the movie like this is the most important movie of their life, but it's a movie like Cocktail. Cruise is all in. We talked about this when we did the rewatches about it. He's completely committed. He's treating this like he's doing Eyes Wide Shut with Kubrick in London for three years. He learns how to flip bottles. He learns how to shoot baskets. Every scene, he's just full tilt. He's crying. He's just doing pratfalls. he's trying to be sexy Cruz he's playing all the hits I said when we did the pod I think it's like watching an NBA player, an NBA star on a bad team just carry them to like 48 wins just literally by himself.

1:04:01Bill Simmons:This movie should not have worked it's a great hang it's still on the streamers all the time I feel like it hasn't died at all it's got a great Elizabeth Shue Brian Brown with the Coghlan's Law Kelly Lynch is in it Kelly Lynch string bikini you get to go to Jamaica just randomly halfway through the movie for 20 minutes that's really fun the showdown

1:04:21Sean Fennessey:at the beginning in the big bar with the overhead shots where they're doing the competition and it's like this is a sports movie this is like we're watching Hoosiers right now it's crazy stuff do you think anybody I think we talked about this on rewatchables but now that we're back from COVID does anybody do acrobatic bartending or is it all like I've put one leaf of basil it's more mustache guys yeah

1:04:41Bill Simmons:this is another movie that they've tried to kind of steal and make again. Like Coyote Ugly, like movies like that where they're like, let's make campy. And you can't do it. You can't pull it off. Yeah, you're Coyote Ugly. No, but I mean, there's been bartending. There's been fun movies. Like they, even like the Roadhouse remake with Gyllenhaal. They try to put like a giant star in a dumb movie, basically. It's really hard. Well, Cruise,

1:05:09Sean Fennessey:and this is the first movie of his, I think, where it feels like he's taking laughing gas before every take. You know, where I'm like, is he okay? It's an insane performance. It's such a weird performance. And it's almost like he's just trying to keep his energy up all the time. Yeah. But it's very entertaining. I really like it.

1:05:25Bill Simmons:By the way, the concept of the MVP for years, like this is Cruise's MVP season. And I have both Cruise movies. Okay. Cruise was the 1988 MVP. It's huge for you. Two huge blockbuster movies. Rain Man, Secret Force behind an Oscar movie. Cocktail carries it by himself. It's a huge star by the end of 88. I think it's either him or Willis, right? For MVP. Yeah, I mean, Willis has kind of come out of nowhere with this. And Cruz is like, it's happening. Cruz is like, get ready for two of these a year for the next 10 years. I'm just going to keep doing this.

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1:07:48Sean Fennessey:Well, my other beloved movie is still on the board. It's called Beetlejuice. I can't fucking believe this. Everything's coming up to me. I almost did it instead of coming to America. Beetlejuice, much like coming to America 2, we don't acknowledge Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, we just say the original Beetlejuice is a creative masterpiece. Geese, another movie that probably switched me on to horror. And I don't know if I would have been as a new it if I didn't see this on cable all the fucking time on HBO, just like my previous pick. Comedy? Definitely in comedy. And Tim Burton cooking, man. I don't, you know, it's been a rough 25 years for the Tim Burton heads.

1:08:23Sean Fennessey:But from 1985 through 2000, I don't know if there was a director I was more obsessed with, who I was more interested in, whatever he was going to do next. They weren't all hits. They didn't all work. No. But distinct style. Someone asked me the other day, and I didn't answer this question properly. I probably should have. They were like, when's the first time you're watching a movie you realized what a director was and what they did? If you look at a Tim Burton movie, you're like, well, only one person could have made this. Only one person has this sensibility. I think the movie is really funny.

1:08:49Sean Fennessey:Keaton absolutely ripping that character, going so crazy, and finding a part like that for him after he had had this period in the 80s, and he has another movie this year. It's a two Michael Keaton year as well. Clean and sober. Clean and sober. The exact opposite of Beetlejuice. solid it's not bad it's okay it's okay but Beetlejuice is like a match made in heaven the two of them are great together Burton and Keaton great supporting cast and the late Catherine O 'Hara is hilarious and Winona Ryder and Baldwin again Gina Davis two Gina Davis movies this year all the musical stuff all the creature stuff I fucking love Beetlejuice huge

1:09:27Bill Simmons:huge Keaton movie another one like Hanks with Big where it was like a lot of people had Keaton stock and he'd never been in like a monster hit other than Mr. Mom, maybe? I don't know. Night Shift wasn't a big hit. Yeah, but he hadn't been like the centerpiece of a huge hit. And then this leads to Batman. He's getting Batman because of this movie. Yes.

1:09:50Sean Fennessey:Pivotal movie. Movie I love. And you're thinking in comedy?

1:09:52Bill Simmons:In comedy, yes. I forgot to tell you, we did Nightmare Before Christmas at home together. We finally loved it. Locked in. Really? Yeah, which was fascinating. Not too scary at all. no because he woke up and was like I need some spookies in the middle of March anyway

1:10:08Sean Fennessey:Burton will change you yeah I was gonna I was gonna do that and because you took that then I gotta it's gonna affect a little bit my next two picks here could see Christ going right here yep how'd you know no I'm going to I definitely know my first pick which is in drama and it's running on empty the Sidney Lumet film starring River Phoenix and... Back in the news. Judd Hirsch and Christine Lottie. Sure, back in the news from After One Battle, which was a PTA, I think, stated as a major inspiration. I hadn't seen it since I'd seen One Battle. And the parallels are certainly there. But, I mean, this movie just knocked me out when I watched it last night again.

1:10:53And I think, Belda, the first time I saw it was when we did the Vietnam series with Brian Raftery. which I know that you were part of the genesis of that idea. But this is a movie about two former, basically Weather Underground, a couple who are in the Weather Underground or a similar underground army, and they're on the run and they're trying to raise their sons. And amazing River Phoenix performance. So good. Martha Plimpton's his girlfriend in this. Yeah. And it's an amazing double feature with one battle after another, but it is so pared down. compared to one battle after another, everyone is as they should be in a PTA movie, like going to 11 and it's archetypal and ridiculous and very funny.

1:11:40And this is, you know, as much about piano lessons and what the little kid, what kind of sandwich you're going to have for lunch. And really all the small moments are so observed. Anyway, amazing movie.

1:11:52Sean Fennessey:I think one of the best movies ever about baby boomers and the like fire and them singing, is it fire and rain? in the birthday party in their house when they know that they need to move locations. Really sad, but very simple. Such an awesome, awesome movie. Great pick. And then, so action horror thriller. I would say that the one side that everything is gone but one. So, you know, Bill has two Tom Cruise's and I'm going to have two Harrison Ford's. And I will take Frantic. Fuck yes! Polanski on the board Polanski on the board and I don't really have anything to say about that besides that this was directed by Roman Polanski and that's filmed in Paris because that's where he is allowed to film movies this is exactly right at this point was that the case or was he just like let's shoot this in Paris I don't know I'm not I believe so I believe he had fully reloaded he was like

1:12:52Bill Simmons:guys we gotta do this here yeah

1:12:54Sean Fennessey:it's Betty Buck oh no it's Polanski's I don't know if they were married yet. It's Emmanuel Sennier. It's Emmanuel Sennier. Yeah. This movie is awesome. This movie is so good and messed up. And Harrison Ford being a little grimier than he needs to be. A little cokey. In the role of man who's just trying to find his wife. Emmanuel Sennier is just dressed in the smallest dresses I've ever seen in my entire life throughout. And she looks awesome. Yeah. And I wish that they had picked a different hotel. It is a very like 88 hotel. It just looks like an airport lobby. But otherwise, you're just going through some very weird parts of Paris.

1:13:41Sean Fennessey:I feel like he practiced get off my plane with like, I'm looking for my wife. Like he has a couple of those line readings where he's just very angrily looking for something. The hair is an interesting length. He doesn't go back to that. It's sort of leftover from it's longer in Mosquito Coast, too. Right. but it's flopping in the front and I prefer it shorter. Anyway.

1:14:01Bill Simmons:Premise that's been ripped off a lot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Even with our beloved breakdown. Sure. Just what I've taken to. This is really short. This is vanishing, basically. This is what happened to the person I care about. Yeah. And even the scene where she disappears while he's in the shower is filmed from behind him in the shower and the sound is that. I mean, it's really good. It's messed up and really good.

1:14:25Sean Fennessey:You get to go to Paris. Yeah. it's a good one good pick thank you you have another pick right no that was it because I did Running on Empty oh Running on Empty that's right oh shoot okay damn Christ still here yeah I might fuck around and take the last if you don't I fuck around so don't worry about that I thought you liked Scorsese I do like Scorsese do I want to take it yeah perhaps not in thriller action horror I'll be taking They Live which is nice pick John Carpenter's portrait of a society that is enslaved by aliens who are being sent subliminal messages on a daily basis about obeyance in the face of their power but also is a movie about rowdy rowdy piper beating the shit out of people having one of the longest fights in alley that's ever been recorded in cinema some of the coolest keith david shit you'll ever see in your life um piper clutching a shotgun blowing Guys Away.

1:15:23Sean Fennessey:Similarly, a movie that saw it at the right time of my life, was very into Piper as you might imagine as a professional wrestler. We did this as a live rewatchable pretty much after a screening of this movie at the New Beverly and I would say that for 100 constipated guys there were a couple of guys there who were a little too keyed into the personal politics of this film and had no idea who we were. A lot of their stuff was in a white plastic bag and they were like, uh and what makes you an expert up here you know like

1:15:55Bill Simmons:you've only done that idea once

1:15:58Sean Fennessey:yeah it's a pretty hard movie you know it's themes are like you're a slave idiot you know like deal with it yeah amazing poster the sunglasses yes

1:16:10Bill Simmons:the shocking thing for me when we did this list was how many I know I remember seeing in the theater I was trying to think like how many times did I actually go to the movies it was at least twice a week you said 75 of 1988. You were in the middle of 1988. You were in the middle of 1988, didn't you? What's that? You were saying... I've seen 75 of these movies. Of these movies. And I can recall them. I thought you were saying... Even in college, we would just go on a Monday night. The same movie theater every time? Yeah. The one in Worcester. But you just do it. Now I don't... I bet people go...

1:16:37Bill Simmons:I think people went to see Project Hail Mary. My daughter saw it last night. But I don't know if people were just like, eh, let's go to the movies. It's not a weekly event. No. This is also a weird time to remember these movies. Because I think this is when my dad was being like, You can just come with me, and we would be seeing this stuff at random weird times. But a lot of these I remember from video.

1:16:55Sean Fennessey:Did you guys... What did you see together? Killer clowns from outer space? I remember it peaking with him getting to cut the line at the Batman premiere, and I was like, my dad is God for one day. That is awesome. That is pretty cool. Okay. That's my pick. Now it goes back to BS.

1:17:16Bill Simmons:I have to be strategic here. unfortunately it's the only time i'm going to do this because is it to block me or is it because you need to get that there's only one sequel i like out of all the sequels it won't be surprising which one it is but it's halloween four person michael um return sorry return michael had the poster and when we we finished the studio it was the poster that was between us for a while uh 10 years after the original one of my favorite movies of all time um started seeing the ads It was the second month I was in college. And my buddy Jeff, who we loved Halloween, were like on the phone, like when you go in, we should try to time it the same day so we can talk about it after.

1:18:00Bill Simmons:It was a little disappointing, I can't lie. And then I've probably seen it 20 times since, maybe more. We did a rewatchables about this movie. We did a rewatchables. I think it holds up in a lot of ways. It was a fun rewatchables for sure. It has the incredible, incredible scene with, oh that's Halloween 2 when the kid gets hit with the car Halloween 4 has some good ones but it's probably the last solid Halloween until the Halloween H2O which is 10 years after that and it's the only sequel I liked so I had to take it sorry

1:18:34Sean Fennessey:no apologies necessary I don't share the same enthusiasm the sequel one is fun just because there's not like any particularly masterful sequels so it's like which ones do you like? There's a couple really cool ones but I don't know if there's like a crowd pleaser. Mine's quite bad but it's for me. Okay. So that's fine. You got one more, Bill? No. Oh no, you got two. You got two. Alright, so I have Blockbuster. I have Oscar nom. I'm still thinking about you sitting at home not voting for Dukakis. Do I need action? I think I might have I just don't remember.

1:19:13Bill Simmons:It's possible I did. It wasn't, like, exciting. You weren't, like, taking selfies at the ballot box. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, because we knew he was going to lose at that point. One of the debates just killed him. Yeah. And then the SNL imitation of the debate. The John Lovitz. It was done.

1:19:27Sean Fennessey:I'm losing to this guy?

1:19:27Bill Simmons:I'm losing to this guy? It was over when that happened. In drama, I'm going to take Last Imitation of Christ. All right. Entirely for Harvey Keitel's Judas. No. You would. This is an incredible snapshot of movie history. just in terms of the controversy surrounding this film. And when you actually see the movie for what it is, it's quite breathtaking. The music in it is incredible. The vision or take, which I think really comes together in the epilogue or the coda of the film where Christ is imagining his life as a normal man and then realizes he's been scammed, is just unbelievable. Defoe is fantastic in this.

1:20:10there's just some really weird like Bowie is Bowie's in this right?

1:20:16Bill Simmons:A lot of weird people are in this. Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene so there's just an amazing thing but like Scorsese was like essentially like on the most wanted list around the making of this film and

1:20:28Sean Fennessey:tried to get it made for years and couldn't get it off the ground.

1:20:32Bill Simmons:They kind of sidetracked his career to some degree.

1:20:34Sean Fennessey:He was going to make it in 82 he was going to make it in 84 and then he made Color of Money so he could get this made.

1:20:39Bill Simmons:Yes. Yeah. Incredible soundtrack, which I used to listen to all the time. Yeah. It was like, I put it on in the background if I'm trying to do work. Just really good instrumental. Peter Gabriel, at a good point in his career. Yeah. This movie's good. I don't, I'm not buying it for it. I do like it. You like this movie. I like this movie. Yeah. This would be a really interesting rewatchables. Zane Lowe weighing in on Glass Temptation. That would be good. Okay. So I have that in drama.

1:21:09Sean Fennessey:It's weird because like when you watch the movie and you think about it being the most controversial film of the 1980s, it seems a little silly. You know, it's like it's an alternative reading of the life of a person who like is a holy person. But it's like it's a movie. You know, why would this offend these sensibilities so much? But it speaks to kind of what the culture was like at that time that it was so controversial. Way more religious back then. And then for comedy, I'm going to take Naked Gun. Okay. I don't have a comedy, right? You don't have a comedy. You have to take it for Wildcard.

1:21:41Oh, I have a comedy? Because I have Bull Durham. I have Bull Durham as a comedy. Oh, okay. I'm going to take Naked Gun and throw that in Wildcard because I saw it so many times.

1:21:50Sean Fennessey:You're just missing action horror thriller. That's your empty category. Yeah. Holy shit. So there was no way really to... This is a movie that I think you watch over and over again and then the jokes become funnier and funnier and funnier because you're seeing something that's happening in the background because you're seeing the reaction of somebody to Leslie Nielsen. Did you guys do this for Rewatchables? I don't think I was on it. I don't think you were. No, but I... KB? It was Kyle? Oh, it was Kyle, right? I think it... Yeah, I think it was Kyle. It was a Kyle demand. In any case, like just a hysterical, hysterical film.

1:22:29Rico Palazzo.

1:22:30Bill Simmons:Yeah, I was saying in the theater, I think it's the hardest I've ever seen the theater laugh at any comedy I can remember going to. The baseball highlight scene. just a couple people just keeled over laughing. And this was a cool point because I think it was like my parents had introduced me to Blazing Saddles and we had watched some comedies but this is one that felt like it was my sensibility but they thought it was funny because like Roger Rabbit I think it's referencing a lot of stuff that I was like I don't really get some of these 70s TV cop jokes but it's still cracking me up so much. I came a few years after Airplane so people were used to like these kind of jokes the naked gun thing was very culty in the 80s for like not a lot of people saw the TV series but people pretended they did and then the jokes were just the corniest funniest jokes nice beaver thank you I just had it stuffed it's like a million things like that I don't feel like people do that this movie just doesn't get made anymore when they make it they fuck it up

1:23:29Sean Fennessey:well they did make the naked gun last year I was going to ask you about that with regard to 2025 comedies you weren't into it I liked it though I was pretty mixed on it. Oh, okay. Did you like it? I think it was more well-liked than we felt about it. Yeah. I mean, I chuckled. But it was interesting being even at the screening, there were people laughing louder in that screening than in any comedy screening that I've been in, you know, in the last 10 years. It did like solidly. It was not the major hit that they wanted it to be. But I was thinking about this the other day because there's so many crazy great comedies of this year.

1:24:03Sean Fennessey:And we talk about comedies on the Rewatchables all the time. but um one of the things that i think happened is for me as a kid watching movies like this to chris's point they kind of like taught me about adult things and made me feel older whereas now i feel like what we have is a lot of adult references in kids movies that parents acknowledge and there's been this like shift where instead of young kids trying to go to older adult comedies you have older people going to kid and they're like oh there's jokes for me inside of this animated utopia 2 there's a silence of the lambs joke and you're like well this is not for any five-year-old on earth.

1:24:34I think I was asleep during that part. It's okay, mama. Anyway,

1:24:38Sean Fennessey:it's a big shift because we do still get comedies they're just for little kids. Okay.

1:24:44Bill Simmons:BS. You got two more? I really played this perfectly. Sure. Really excited about it. Okay.

1:24:53Bill Simmons:I love this movie. I don't know if you guys realize I love this movie and it might have screwed up your boards but I do love this movie and I remember seeing it in the theater. Oh, no. And I've seen it a bunch of times since and i watched it recently and i fucking love it and it's on the rewatchables list at some point it's an absolute banger dangerous liaisons oh oh which i'm taking for drama yeah okay um academy award nominated the ending the last 10 minutes of this movie and glenn close and everything she does and her getting hissed at at the opera or wherever they are and then she comes home and she's just taking the makeup off and he finally got her in the end he had to of course die malkovich yeah malkovich is throwing 135 miles an hour yeah like it's like one of did he get nominated uh he actually might have actually let me see glenn close did no michelle pfeiffer did my queen michelle pfeiffer close and and picture i believe and picture malkovich didn't get nominated like that's fucking unbelievable he's so good in this movie um you have keanu Reeves as like a goofy, I guess, French guy.

1:26:01Bill Simmons:I don't even know what language she's supposed to be mastering in this.

1:26:05Sean Fennessey:And Uma too, right? Uma just out of nowhere. So beautiful. The real ones knew her from

1:26:09Bill Simmons:Johnny B. Goode. She came in that one throwing 99 with Anthony Michael Hall. I really signed on for season tickets with Jennifer Eight. That was later. That was after this. I'm saying that's when I joined it. But Johnny B. Goode on the map and then Dangerous Liaisons. We're all in love with her. You know, this movie got ripped off by Like Cruel Intentions. Well, my brainwad opinion is Cruel Intentions did it better. It's not ripped off. It's homage. It's team tribute. Well, that's fine. Do you like this movie? I love Cruel Intentions. I rewatched it for this and I was like, yeah, no, Cruel Intentions is better.

1:26:41I've seen Cruel Intentions 3 ,000 times. Cruel Intentions is the popular.

1:26:45Sean Fennessey:You're kind of a Stephen Frears fan too, aren't you? I am. And, you know, again, another movie filmed in Paris in old buildings with costumes and makeup and whatever. and I just, it's way better when it's Ryan Phillippe driving to Bittersweet Symphony. I'm sorry. Fair enough. You know?

1:27:01Bill Simmons:I support both. You know what? There's room in my house for each movie. It's a little close to the other one. I'm the Marsha fucking lady of the Upper East Side. Come on. This movie was a big deal when it came out. Yeah. And I felt like people went to see it and cared about it and talked about it and it was just cool and it had a lot of people that either were at a good point in their career or would eventually be. It's also like, it's pretty, you know, Bridgerton obviously is probably among the two or three most popular things on whatever we call TV now and it's like this is sort of people humping while wearing big costumes is like a very viable

1:27:35Sean Fennessey:structure. Eileen just buzzed through every season of Bridgerton in about 14 days. She all caught up. Yeah I think so. She's pretty in.

1:27:44Bill Simmons:Honestly you could say Dangerous Liaisons created that world too. That whole Bridgerton like people dressed up in the past being horny. yeah yeah

1:27:53Sean Fennessey:it's up there for sure I'm trying to think what is the first example of that you know Barry Lyndon there's a little bit of that in there yeah Tom Jones I do love Tom Jones this was to me I don't feel like

1:28:02Bill Simmons:you have to pick I'm sorry you don't you don't there's do you like one of your kids more than the other no or maybe this is where it goes wrong for Glenn Close and Oscars right because she should have this is the one so who'd she lose to Gina no Jodie Foster Jodie Foster was great in that movie but it's like this is probably the best shot was she nominated for Fatal Attraction Glenn Close I don't think she was that's also a mistake but well best supporting actor she was so 87 she misses out and then she misses out again for Dangerous Liaisons

1:28:45Sean Fennessey:Dangerous Liaisons is also her fifth nomination Yeah.

1:28:49Bill Simmons:But Malkovich not getting Best Supporting Actor is a fucking outrage. Really. I'm looking at it now just getting mad. Does he have any Oscar notes? Martin Landau and Tucker are the man in his dream. Get the fuck out of here. Honestly, good movie. Come on. Well, Alec Guinness for Little Dorit is pretty good. Little Dorit. Do you have Little Dorit on 4K yet, Sean?

1:29:04Sean Fennessey:No, I've never seen it. Ridiculous. Why do you, when you get mad about things like this, why are you mad at me? Like, what do you think I represent? No,

1:29:11Bill Simmons:I get mad at the Oscars and how stupid it was in the 80s and 90s. I just think they did so many dumb things I do like that

1:29:17Sean Fennessey:Dean Stockwell nomination though

1:29:18Bill Simmons:it's a pretty cool one and River Phoenix getting nominated was that was great he's amazing that was good yeah

1:29:25Sean Fennessey:weird Oscars definitely Malkovich got nominated for Places in the Heart and in the Line of Fire didn't win I actually thought

1:29:35Bill Simmons:what's the movie with the Killing Fields yeah thought he was awesome in that movie confronts what's the same Waterston in the bathroom I just

1:29:48Sean Fennessey:It's been a long time I did watch What's the Spaulding Gray movie Where he talks about his experience Making The Killing Fields Is Swimming to Cambodia The Jonathan Demme movie Which he probably made right before he made Married to the Mob What was the other one that I just rewatched That I wanted to tell you about That was so good In that era? Yeah Oh Empire of the Sun Malkovich is so good in Empire of the Sun Oh shit he's awesome in that I just rewatched it Him and Stiller the American soldiers.

1:30:15Bill Simmons:It's a good topic of like, was his career, like should he just have been a more famous actor basically? But he also had like a... Was he a better actor in his career?

1:30:24Sean Fennessey:But his reputation is gold. But that's what I mean. He's like an icon even though he was never a box office star. Because he's one of the original Steppenwolf people, right? And then he has being John Malkovich, like, you know, about him. It's coming back this year though because the new Martin McDonough movie, he's the star with Sam Rockwell. And I feel like for the first time in a long time he's going to be the star of a mainstream American movie. He won an Oscar that's a long-standing O. He was also quite good in Pete Berg's Mile 22. Is that a fact? Yeah. Who gave a better performance, him or Ronda Rousey in that film?

1:30:56Sean Fennessey:I'd have to check the tape. I like that movie. It's a good one. Solid movie. One of the more incoherent films of that year. Is it me? Yeah. Okay, I got drama, sequel, and wild card left. And in drama, I'm staying baseball. I'm going eight men out. John Sayles' wonderfully embittered portrait of the Black Sox scandal that I just revisited this week. I'm really glad I did. Starring our guy David Strathairn as Ed Seacott and D.B. Sweeney as Shoeless Joe Jackson. John Cusack. What's Cusack's character's name? Eddie. No, not Eddie. Buck Weaver. Buck Weaver. Oh, Buck Weaver, yeah. Yeah. Right there.

1:31:44He's always talking to these like, hey, tell him Buck sent you to the game, you know?

1:31:47Sean Fennessey:Yeah. Buck's such an interesting, he's the most interesting character in the movie and he was like the biggest star at the time and he's the one who didn't cheat, but who didn't squeal. And so he suffered the same fate. And I was reading about him after seeing the movie and he, you know, Weaver's family for years tried to get his name cleared in the scandal. And I don't think I totally realized this, but in 2021, his name was finally cleared by baseball and he was restored to good standing in the history of baseball. and his family was like not good enough. This was too late. They were just mad about it, which I found to be so interesting.

1:32:16Sean Fennessey:But yeah, Sales' movie is so good. All of his movies are about labor and power and who controls people. And this is an example of like the ballplayers, kind of the first player empowerment movie and doesn't turn out so well for the people who try to get power in that case. But pretty good representation of baseball at that time. I feel like most of the guys, the actors are pretty good. Michael Rooker, you know, like they're all pretty believable. as 1910s ballplayers. But that's only like a small part of the movie. A lot of the movie is courtroom drama and character drama. But really, really great film.

1:32:50Bill Simmons:What a crazy cast. I'm seething inside. I was saving it because I thought I'd be able to get it. I didn't think anyone would have that one. This is a weird drama here. I took this in another draft. I can't remember what. This movie's awesome. What it would have been. Chicago draft. Chicago draft. The ending's great. Fucking D.B. Sweeney playing in some minor league in Jersey and Buck Weaver can't play baseball just sitting he's like that's the best center fielder I ever saw yeah they're like is that Joe and he's like that's not him unbelievable ending I love that ending I like the hats and the outfits oh yeah this has been on the rewatchables list for like two years I love this movie who plays Comiskey Clifton James what's his name

1:33:29Sean Fennessey:I don't remember the actor's name I love the scene when they introduce Kennesaw Mountain Landis Clifton James and they like make him the commissioner of baseball and they're like he's like they're like two year contract and he's like, lifetime contract.

1:33:43Bill Simmons:One of the things about, right, one of the things about this movie is, this was one of the great sports books ever and in the 80s, it was considered like one of, basically one of the 10 best and when they made the movie about it, it was a big deal. It was like, oh, they're gonna try to do this. It kind of had the problem of coming out in the shadow of Bull Durham where it was like, well, Bull Durham's a lot more fun. It's not fun. It's not a fun movie. 1919, and it's about a scandal and, but Cusack being in it was a big deal. I didn't know who anyone else was. Straight Theron was like, I didn't know who that was.

1:34:14Bill Simmons:He is unbelievable. He was really great in this movie.

1:34:16Sean Fennessey:Yeah, to me, that's a real like, not nominated for an Oscar, not even acknowledged. I think he might've gotten, he's been nominated for like five Independent Spirit Awards, all for John Sayles movies. He might've won for this or maybe it was the movie before this, but. Did you say who the center fielder was?

1:34:30Bill Simmons:Who was the center fielder? Chaz Sheen. Oh, that's right. Oh, that's right. Really believable. Like all the actors, they made a big deal about like, we only have actors who are good baseball players and you can kind of feel it in the baseball scenes. The actors are, they all seem like they're actual baseball players. Sturman only has to throw like 41 miles per hour because this guy is throwing nine games in a row.

1:34:49Sean Fennessey:Well, that's kind of the point too is he's thrown like 382 innings.

1:34:56Bill Simmons:It's a really good movie. Okay, so Amanda has her last two? No, I have three left. Oh, three left. I have Oscar nominee, sequel, and wild card.

1:35:05Sean Fennessey:The trick of the seven. We don't always do seven. Yeah. So I know what I'm going to do here. an Oscar nominee. I'm going to take my first pick, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which is the Almodovar film. And I think it was many people's first Almodovar film and certainly mine, but not in 1988. And I was trying to remember, I think I might've been shown this in a classroom, but I can't remember having a teacher cool enough to be like, here, sit down and watch this. It was the US breakthrough for him for sure. Yeah. But anyway, this to me was like a real, in a Who Framed Jessica Rabbit sort of like, oh, movies can look like this.

1:35:46Obviously the color and even the actors are all so beautiful, but they have interesting non-Hollywood faces and they're framed in a certain way in the sense of humor. But I guess, you know, film as like actual museum art piece in addition to being really funny. so it's always stuck with me. Also, the clothes are just out of sight. They're very, they're very new Chanel, actually.

1:36:10Sean Fennessey:It won, right? It won international? No, I don't think so. No, it didn't win. What won international? Was it Pelly the Conqueror? Yes. Sheesh. Kind of a loaded international feature year this year. Salam Bombay, Mira Nair, one of her first films. Her son is now the mayor of New York, right? Max Mancidow for Pelly the Conqueror, yeah.

1:36:30Bill Simmons:Didn't get nominated. as the good Nazi in Victory, though? He did not.

1:36:36Sean Fennessey:He did not. He stood up for Pele's bicycle kit. When are we going to do the Seventh Seal on the rewatchables? Do you think we'll do that? Yeah. Oh, CR.

1:36:43Bill Simmons:Seventh Seal and Jacob's Ladder. Double Feach. Yeah. Jacob's Ladder freaks me out. Yeah. Actually, that's not a rewatchable for me. The movie makes me uncomfortable and unhappy. Very effective. Adrian Lyne. Seventh Seal is Demi, and he... That's this movie. This year, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. is it Satan? the movie did not do that well Satan right yeah it's too bad hang in there mama it happens hey listen you gotta love your kids okay I'm gonna go to wildcard okay just in case someone who gets to do wildcard before me takes this film which is Crossing Delancey yeah the Joan McLen Silver movie it's just it's really a romantic comedy set in New York in the late 1980s and is about a professional-ish woman.

1:37:37She works in books. It's one of these movies that illustrated what I thought New York was going to be like when I moved there, which is that I would work in books and have affairs with the evil doctor from The Fugitive. Did you imagine putting your sneakers on and putting your heels in your bag? I mean, that's also working, girls. You know, this is the this is the more, you know, she's less ambitious in Crossing Delance than Tess is in Working Girl. But it's the same two girls trying to make it work and find love with enterprising businessmen. In this case, ultimately a pickle guy. Yeah. Really, really very understanding pickle man.

1:38:17Kind of the inverse of John McClane. You know, he was about 25, 27 years early on pickles. Sure. But they came back. I like them, but they're not a part of my personality. He knows it in this movie.

1:38:31Bill Simmons:You have to excuse my friend Richard Kimball. He's very sick. He's like a dashing

1:38:40Sean Fennessey:author who pops in and out of her life. Richard! What are you doing here?

1:38:47Bill Simmons:I love that guy. You switched the samples! Prevassic! Can we just do a table reading of the fugitive? It's like have 20 people. All right. We switched the samples very close to

1:39:01Sean Fennessey:you moved the headstones but you didn't move the bodies. My other favorite line reading from that time. You moved the headstones but you didn't move the bodies. Craig T. Nelson from Poltergeist. Do you know that all your line readings were you just yelling? It's just my dad yelling at me but I'm watching him. That's why we love They Knew with Ruffalo. That's true. I love a yell actor. That's why I love Sierra's impressions. They're the great yellers.

1:39:21Bill Simmons:Sean, don't fuck me on this.

1:39:24Sean Fennessey:I don't know what I'm doing. So what do you have left? Action? No, I already did that. I'm good. Oh, you did They Live. So you have sequel and wildcard left. Sequel and wildcard. Is it better to do wildcard before sequel? It might be. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. In wildcard, I'm doing A Fish Call Wanda, which I don't think has the legacy that it did when I was a kid. I'm going to be honest. I rewatched it because I remembered absolutely losing my mind with laughter. Thinking it was funny. And then I just sat there on the couch. And you didn't think it was funny? I didn't. I turned it off.

1:39:58I was like, I give up. Well. And that's disrespectful.

1:40:00Sean Fennessey:Big Monty Python guy, obviously. So I like the idea of them, like, some of those figures doing something that wasn't in that world specifically with a little bit more seriousness. Kevin Kline won the Oscar this year, which is a very weird win. One of the only comedy wins in the history of the Academy Awards. Not nominated for Dave. Not nominated for Dave. I should have won for Dave. I always really like this movie. It's a pre-Oscar for Dave. directed by Charles Crichton who was like in his 70s who had made all those Ealing comedies in the 40s and 50s and I don't know John Cleese Jamie Lee Curtis I know smoking hot she looks amazing I think that the recent Jamie Lee Curtis like renaissance or the 8th essence they won't take 80s Jamie Lee Curtis from me you couldn't take her from like cold dead hands she's overexposed to me well now JLC is kind of it should have ended with the bear that first time she's just going viral now where she's just like every time she opens her mouth she says something that breaks news.

1:40:53She announced that the bear was ending. She's like, Jason Blum's a cheapskate. She's really speaking her truth. Amanda, are you going to tell

1:41:03Bill Simmons:these kids that they're going to lose a homeless shelter because we want to make people feel better about their cars? We've been talking a lot about power loaders on the big picture recently, I think because of Avatar. Because Edie Falco is in a power loader for a lot of Avatar 3.

1:41:18Sean Fennessey:Have you seen Avatar Fire and Ash? God, no. I only think about him as Dave. You know, I once caught a fish this big, which is immediately what I would do. That's a good one, yeah.

1:41:28Bill Simmons:I was thinking that the most amazing Dave remake of all time would be if they got Shane Gillis to replace Trump as Dave. But you can't do a real person. Yeah, I do think you're onto something very funny. Can you imagine that movie, though? It'll never happen, but just in your head, imagine it's a Shane Gillis movie. and then he comes in. Who's the Grodin? I don't know. If Shane Gillis just started doing Trump's press conferences, would you be surprised? Would you be like, this tracks for the way things are going? Yeah, I guess that's where the movie falls apart. I watched Dave last week, actually.

1:42:09Just on your own?

1:42:10Bill Simmons:You've made three references to it, so we can tell. It's just a phenomenal movie. The music's great. Every actor's great. Sigourney Weaver's great. Everybody's great. it's just great it's held up 100 % I had that VHS given you know how things are going lately what's happening what do you mean it's just a very optimistic mid 90s like I believe in stuff movie yeah I just really enjoyed it and it always gets me Bing Rames at the end incredible Langella performance in it

1:42:37Sean Fennessey:Dave I would have taken a bullet for you that's Bing yeah but Langella when he's like I can kill him he's barely a person it's not his office it's my office I mean

1:42:50Bill Simmons:the movie's amazing the bratwurst and saving the shelter it's beautiful it's in the mix again it's been on the channels and on the stream I feel like it's having a moment right now you're out on Dave I like Dave yeah I have a different view of the executive branch these days but yeah

1:43:07you think you could run for president yeah I don't know

1:43:10Bill Simmons:see our month a lot of momentum right now yeah it's true

1:43:12Sean Fennessey:you should announce get 11 ,000 votes but not Bill How would you do I think you would do well in this environment If you were on one of those stages With 15 other nominees in a debate

1:43:27Bill Simmons:You're cracking one liners And just trying to rise above them You're just picking your spots

1:43:32Sean Fennessey:Would you be like little Marco? Like little CR all the way on the over side The whole rhetorical thing that he would do On the debates Somebody would say something And Bill would go, you're missing a crucial point

1:43:44Bill Simmons:Yeah that's true That's your move I would be hard on the are you better off than you were four years ago? Look in the mirror, are you? Yeah. Are you? That usually works. Yeah. It's always good. The answer is always no and not. You're up. I didn't really like Fish Called Wanda. Just was never a fan. Saw it once in the theater. Didn't really do much for me and I've never seen it since. But other people I know really like it. Just never did it for me. It's very weird because I remember thinking it was the funniest and I love Monty Python too.

1:44:14Sean Fennessey:I did not rewatch it for this. It was... It's a movie that I remember my dad laughing at very hard. That's a very, because he didn't, he wasn't a huge comedy fan. And him loving that movie, I always thought was interesting. But maybe I should rewatch it and it sucks and it ruins my draft. We'll see.

1:44:29Bill Simmons:I saved some action movies, hoping one would be available for this stage of the draft. And of course, my favorite one was for action horror thriller. Bloodsport. Yeah. With a guy named Jean-Claude Van Damme. This was his breakthrough.

1:44:45Sean Fennessey:You just dropped a perfect pronunciation. I know. I've been working on it. That was incredible. This is. I feel like that was like Jimmy just went electric. You just nailed the pronunciation of Jean-Claude Van Damme. I'm working on Floyd Gondoli. I can't believe that just happened. I know.

1:45:01Bill Simmons:I nailed it. One of the great ideas ever for an action movie. Yep. The Kumite. Chong Li. One of the best villains we've ever had in a movie. It is good. He's, this movie has been on for 38 straight years. Yeah. I was in St. Bart's once in 2000 and watched it in another language in France. You watched it in what language? In like 2000, it was on in like French. And I watched, I watched like two thirds of it in another language. Was your wife like, what are you doing? You're in the Caribbean? My wife was literally like, what are you doing? I'm like, hold on. Le Kumite. Hold on. He's about to fight Charlie.

1:45:43Bill Simmons:and then the ending the best acting of Van Damme's career with Donald Gibb aka Ogre anytime

1:45:55Sean Fennessey:anyplace some of the more upsetting bone crunching fights in movie history where you're like did Chong Li actually just kill that guy? he might have it's like the fight version of Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie is this a real blood sport I'll give you a hundred dollars cash if you can name who directed this movie do you have it on you I thought you stopped carrying cash get it out a hundred dollars cash I really don't know this I don't know this either I don't know it my first reaction is Ted Kochif but I know it's not that's a really good guess it does feel like a Ted Kochif movie no? no his name is Newt Arnold didn't know that he is a legendary assistant director who was the assistant director on many Lumet films on The Godfather Part 2.

1:46:43Sean Fennessey:He did not direct many films himself. Do you think when he's in the Kumite do you think he's like man this is even better than

1:46:50Bill Simmons:Amanda Forrest Whitaker is in this. Is it future Oscar

1:46:55Sean Fennessey:with Forrest Whitaker? If we show Knox this movie it will change his fucking life. Aren't they remaking it? Oh yeah. Aren't they doing a remake? Michaela Cole is remaking it. Did you see this? Michaela Cole is remaking it.

1:47:05Bill Simmons:I'm against this. Nobody should touch Bloodsport. I just spent that whole time trying to remember the St. Bart's story reminded me of a time that I watched a movie starring Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy in Portuguese in Brazil on the hotel because it was like all that was on and I couldn't remember the name of it. It's called Evening. Anyone? Patrick Wilson. Mamie Gummer. Anyway, that. And then I watched that thing you do like 12 times on a cruise. Because they can't dub the songs. Well, no, this was in English, but on the cruise, it was like 96. so they had a movie on a loop so I watched that thing you do like 45 times

1:47:40Sean Fennessey:this goes back to my like we have way too many options for people now like once upon a time the reason why most of the movies I drafted I drafted is because I just saw them in my living room like 48 times

1:47:52Bill Simmons:you're not a blood sport guy Sierra I'm really surprised to hear this I like blood sport I do not revisit blood sport that many times and I think it might have been a mild like age difference thing at 11 JCVD might have been just a little outside of my interest range. Incredible unintentional comedy in this movie too. This movie is just perfect. It was on basic cable. It would be on local cable. It could really do anything you want it to do. I saw Cyborg in theater. I saw, is it Cyborg or Universal Soldier? Which one's he in? He's in Universal Soldier. And then I saw the John Woo movie. Hard to kill.

1:48:30Hard to kill. So yeah. Hard target? Hard target. Hard target. Hard target. Was Jean-Claude Van Damme on Friends? at some point?

1:48:37Bill Simmons:He did. He was in the big, it was, I'm going to say the Super Bowl episode. And someone is dating him? Or no, he just shows up. Yeah, somebody's working. It was a big deal that he was on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still like that JCVD movie. Did you ever see that? Yeah. Yeah, the meta one. I think his two best are Bloodsport and Sudden Death. So, but this.

1:49:00Sean Fennessey:Sudden Death's the hockey one. That one's good. Peter Himes. Yeah, that one's a good movie.

1:49:03Bill Simmons:That's with Powers Booth. I like that one. Powers. All right, CR. Okay, so for these next two, so I have action and sequel left, or action, horror, thriller, and sequel left. I'm going to pick movies that meant a lot to me in 1988. When you're young, when you're 11, you don't know any better. So to me, Young Guns was the best Western ever made. And it is probably the Western I may have seen the most in my life because of the amount of numbers I put up in the first two years. And frankly, Young Guns and Young Guns 2.

1:49:34Sean Fennessey:I rewatched it yesterday for the first time in probably more than 30 years. How is it? It was not good. But I'd like to hear you talk about it. I was learning about Young Guns 2. There is a surprise death in Young Guns that shocked me to my core as an 11-year-old. It also was like a rock and roll Western. But Bon Jovi becomes more involved, obviously, in Young Guns 2. But this felt kind of like a Brat Pack Western. and it's Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and Lou Diamond Phillips. Who's our guys? Yeah. And I was like, I was aware of these people. Dermot Mulroney. Yeah. Dermot Mulroney.

1:50:10Casey Schemasco. Yeah. Terrence Stamp is in this. Jack Palance. Yeah. Pretty city slickers. Lou Diamond was hot. He's coming off La Bamba here. It was a big deal

1:50:19Bill Simmons:that he was in the movie. Yeah. And I believe he plays a half Mexican, half Apache in this film. He does. I actually think he's kind of really good in Young Guns. He's awesome in Young Guns. I think he kind of wins the movie.

1:50:31Sean Fennessey:It has a really crazy scene where they all do ayahuasca. Do you remember this part? Yeah. And they change the vocal intonations of all the characters and he wears the white makeup in that scene. That's really weird. It's like 12 or 18 minutes. It goes on for a long time.

1:50:46Bill Simmons:And then Shane reenacted that for the next 30 years of his life. I mean, that might have been

1:50:48Sean Fennessey:where he discovered that. This movie also inverts the usual English guy's bad, Irish guy's good thing where Terrence Stamp is English and is being persecuted by the Catholic Irish cattle mob.

1:51:04Bill Simmons:I wish it was better. I really wanted to like Young Guns. Yeah. And really, but I think it's probably you saw it at the perfect time to see it. And I'll tell you something else. I'm trying to decide what to do with the sequel. I'm trying to decide between two, but I'll tell you the one that I saw more.

1:51:18Sean Fennessey:Can I tell you one last thing about Young Guns? You may not remember this, but there's one scene where Brian Keith shows up as an old man who's come to get the heads of the young guys. and he just rolls up in a wagon. He's like, Brian Key's like 65 years old in the movie and he's having a showdown with six 23-year-old gunslingers and he's just like talking to them and talking to them and then he goes, let's dance. And he just starts firing at everybody and then gets behind a shed. Doesn't he have like a big coat on and they're like, all right, old timer. Yeah, anyway, sorry to interrupt you. So one of the other things that's really funny is how like you'll see something and think that thing is really great until you see the thing it's been based on.

1:51:57and so that is why I'm picking what may be the lowest rated movie I've ever selected in a movie draft in terms of Rotten Tomatoes hanging out at about 4 % Wow Caddyshack 2 Oh wow Okay So this is

1:52:11Sean Fennessey:I know that Bill hates this movie but I also watched it a lot Because this is one of the first times I saw Chevy Chase and I was like that's the funniest person I've ever seen For Caddyshack Yes Okay This movie is reprehensible

1:52:23Bill Simmons:This is why I took Halloween 4 two rounds ago I didn't want to end up with Caddysh. It was either going to be this or Friday the 13th part. It was New Blood. I didn't even know what New Blood was. New Blood I don't like. There's a couple of low-key cool picks in the sequels.

1:52:40Sean Fennessey:I'm sure you're right. But in any case, I'm being honest about being 11 and really watching Jackie Mason act a lot in this film. This is definitely my introduction to his comedy. Does he play Jackie Hartoonian? I think that's right. he's just basically filling in the danger field role I think you having

1:52:58Bill Simmons:Last Temptation of Christ and Caddyshack 2 means the world might end

1:53:02Sean Fennessey:that's elite I respect it

1:53:04Bill Simmons:good job the roof's shaking this is another banger from Jonathan Silverman who really had a lot going on at this era sure in the 80s yeah we had Weekend at Bernie's and this right I think he had a lot going on in the sense that my friends and I were like what's up with this guy why does he keep showing up in movies but the reason I picked this is because Chevy Chase reprises his role as Ty Webb and to me I was like this guy's the funniest thing I've ever seen and then found out about Fletch and found out about first Caddyshack does he do the

1:53:32Sean Fennessey:look at my watch thing with no watch on in this movie he also just like sits on a guy's lap randomly he's having fun yeah Diane Cannon's in this film and for work yeah that's it

1:53:46Bill Simmons:wow I I don't understand why this is still on the board in wildcard yeah for me i have my wildcard left i had a plan for this i really feel bad i i feel bad i want to call carl weathers and apologize for not taking jackson sure that's what i was going to end up but yeah your guy but this is just the value here late round i feels a little brock purdy-ish um good morning of vietnam this late as a wildcard just won me the draft. Thanks, guys. Is this a movie that people love?

1:54:28Sean Fennessey:Action Jackson? No, Good Morning Vietnam. Good Morning Vietnam is 87. Good Morning Vietnam is 87. Oh, did I write that down wrong?

1:54:34Bill Simmons:Yeah, it's December 25th, 1987. Oh, I looked at the wrong thing. Well, maybe I didn't win the draft.

1:54:38Sean Fennessey:I think you might have been looking at the box office because it came out late in 87.

1:54:42Bill Simmons:I thought I didn't do that. God damn it. Okay, I don't have to apologize to Carl Weathers anymore. I do have to apologize to Julie Roberts and Annabelle Gish and Lily Taylor because I love Mystic Pizza and Matt Damon what about

1:54:57Sean Fennessey:Annabeth Gish

1:54:57Bill Simmons:and I want to apologize also to Annabelle Gish he put all of it on JCVT and he can't do Annabeth Gish Bloodsport is a knockout I'm so happy this worked out Action Jackson there should have been three of these maybe even four Carl Weathers It was the one time we gave him the car keys. He delivered. Sharon Stone is in this movie throwing a hundred. I don't even know. They couldn't measure it. The radar gun broke. Like the glass on the radar gun. It just shattered. It was this in King Solomon's minds. And I was like, I love her. I don't even know how to express it. How much I love her. For me, it was Casino.

1:55:37Bill Simmons:Honestly, I've talked to Van about this, obviously. It's inexplicable that this wasn't a franchise. I don't know what happened. I think this movie even did like pretty well

1:55:47Sean Fennessey:let's find out the box office right now this movie is insanely violent it has a ton of nudity right and who's the villain 1988 baby who is the villain in this made about 11 million dollars

1:55:57Bill Simmons:worldwide so well maybe that's one of the reasons not ideal Craig T. Nielsen oh that's right was the evil guy and then our guy Bill Dukes in it too but also forgot to mention my apologies to her as well Vanity that's right this movie has Sharon Stone and Vanity and I was 18 when it came out and Apollo Creed's in it trying to shed his rockiness. It's a great movie. Man, it's always so funny to check from like 85 to 2000 the people who like are the cinematographers of movies like this and it's always like Matthew F. Leonetti. It's like some guy shot like Places in the Heart and then five years later he's like all right Vanity, step out of the shower.

1:56:40The work is the work.

1:56:43Sean Fennessey:Okay. Well, you didn't take one away from me there, so that's good. I was not eyeing Action Jackson. I think. I got one more pick and sequel. And you did your homework, so. I did my homework. Yeah, blow my mind. Yeah. Well, The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2, The Metal Years, which is one of the best music documentaries of all time. Did you ever see this one? It's a good one. It's a really funny movie. I don't know if I really call this in the spirit of a sequel. It's got Part 2 right here. Sure. Was there a Part 1, though? There sure was. It's about punk rock.

1:57:13Bill Simmons:rock counts sorry okay good pick i mean come on no stop your cap come on show it to me on opening

1:57:20Sean Fennessey:day show show me the respect this movie ended up getting her wayne's world it certainly did yeah um the stuff with is it the lead singer of warrant in the pool where he's incredibly drunk and drinking vodka straight out of the bottle and his mom is living with him yeah it's some of the funniest and saddest shit I've ever seen in my life. Ozzy is incredible in this. Gene Simmons is incredible in this. All of the style and the testimonials is really, really great. This is one of the most watchable docs of all time. It's just an ingenious idea of very non-judgmentally just showing these guys and their element and talking about what their lives are like at that period.

1:58:00Bill Simmons:And then basically having no idea it was going to be filmed and consumed by other people.

1:58:05Sean Fennessey:Yes.

1:58:06Bill Simmons:Which is, this movie could never happen anymore. Nobody would. People would be self-conscious. Yeah, they would be suspicious.

1:58:12Sean Fennessey:No, it's like Anthropology. It's such a great movie. If people haven't seen it, they should check it out. Chris is smarting over that because he didn't think to pick that one. Well, no. I guess I didn't think about documentaries as franchises. Yeah. But hey. Congratulations. There was a part three as well. Wow. You want to tell us more about that? Well, I haven't seen that one. Okay. So are you done or you have one more? No, I have sequel, which is sort of, it's not the most exciting finale. Is this what you wanted for yourself to be picking sequel last well again i understand you know it's not the kicker that we want but i didn't want someone else to take crossing bilanci so i did that in the last round and you would have taken caddyshack too uh sure yeah um and i know that the the rambo that is dedicated to the people of afghanistan is still on the board but i'm not gonna be doing that one great call it is

1:59:04I'm going with a movie that none of you have even seen which is Appointment with Death which is the last time that Peter Usinoff played Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie it's not that good and I would say it's not that good as an Agatha Christie mystery because it uses a lot of clock shenanigans that she's used a million times before but I'm going to read you the cast and then I want you guys to tell me who you think did it Okay. Because that's... Great game. These adaptations are just a bunch of famous people. And then... I love it. I've never seen this one. So, Peter Ustinov is Eric Kuparo for the last time.

1:59:37He didn't do it. Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gildood, Piper Laurie, Haley Mills. And some other people, but...

1:59:44Bill Simmons:It's pretty good. It's a good cast. Jenny Seagrove and David Soule. Haley Mills. Haley Mills is in it. David Soule. Yeah. Hutch. What's this one called? Appointment with Death. Appointment with Death.

1:59:55Sean Fennessey:I'll guess Carrie Fisher Okay Christopher Bacall Bill Bacall It's Bacall Yeah of course it's Bacall Yeah Also the second Poirot That she did Because remember She's also in Murder On the Orient Express Yeah yeah yeah But she didn't do it On that one Different character They all Well Spoiler alert for Murder On the Orient Express But they all did Though I think that she Is she the mom So Yeah they all do it Anyway That's my pick That's a great sequel pick Thanks so much. There are a lot of sequels from this year. Okay. None of them are good, really. The only other cool one I thought about was Police Story 2, the Jackie Chan movie, which is a really cool Jackie Chan movie that he directed.

2:00:36Sean Fennessey:The Nightmare on Elm Street movie is four, The Dream Master. Three, I would have taken. Four, no one.

2:00:42Bill Simmons:The par sequels were bad except for Halloween 4.

2:00:44Sean Fennessey:Hellraiser 2 is okay.

2:00:45Bill Simmons:Yeah.

2:00:45Sean Fennessey:It's okay.

2:00:46Bill Simmons:I never was a Hellraiser guy. One of the biggest movies of this year, shockingly big, is Crocodile Dundee 2. Mm-hmm.

2:00:54Sean Fennessey:which...

2:00:54Bill Simmons:Never got it. Me neither. Just didn't get it. Didn't understand why people saw the first one and then they made a sequel and it's like, what's going on? They're making another one

2:01:03Sean Fennessey:and then people saw that too. It's the sixth highest grossing movie of the year. It made $109 million. Makes no sense. This is a real, like, you can pay three bucks to go see this guy go, that's not enough. I guess that's what we wanted back then. Can you do the update to 2026, Jack, for$109 million? how much is that adjusted for inflation because like it's a fucking Marvel movie for Crocodile Dundee 2 yeah

2:01:30Bill Simmons:I never got it you've been to Australia the girl is attractive it's Australia right Linda Kowalski whatever her name is yeah yeah she was great that was his wife in real life can I apologize to a couple movies that I wanted to pick of course

2:01:43Sean Fennessey:it's honorably mentioned some

2:01:46Bill Simmons:Right Legs, Big City, I'm sorry.

2:01:49Sean Fennessey:Kiefer's good in that. Just couldn't totally get there with it. I watched it for the first time last week, didn't like it. Yeah, it just didn't make it.

2:01:54Bill Simmons:I wanted it to be good.

2:01:55Sean Fennessey:James Bridges, too. I love James Bridges movies.

2:01:57Bill Simmons:Tequila Sunrise was another one. As much as I wanted to love it, it's just not a good movie. I wanted to ask you about a movie that I have a lot of affection for and I was wondering if you liked it. Talk Radio. Bogosian? No. Okay. I never liked Bogosian. As a fellow Mike guy. It's a great film. Colors was a backup drama for me in case there was a run on dramas and I didn't get it but I don't love that movie

2:02:20Sean Fennessey:you empathize with those cops

2:02:21Bill Simmons:I just don't I like that Duval and Sean Penn are in a cop movie together but it's that movie's problematic Above the Law Seagal's first movie it's probably the weakest Seagal which is why I stayed away

2:02:32Sean Fennessey:it's the best Seagal movie is that the Rossifarian?

2:02:34Bill Simmons:no Out for Justice is

2:02:35Sean Fennessey:oh no is Out for Justice the one

2:02:36Bill Simmons:Above the Law is the first one they hadn't really figured out Seagal yet what's the Andrew Davis one? that's above the law that's later

2:02:43Sean Fennessey:that's above the law No, Above the Law is in Andrew Davis. I think Above the Law is directed by Andrew Davis. Yeah, it is. It is, yeah. Really? Yeah, that's the best one. That's the one I'm thinking of. A martial arts expert and former CIA agent, Nico Toscani, is working as a Chicago cop when a relatively routine drug trafficking investigation leads to an international conspiracy. That one is legit good.

2:03:02Bill Simmons:The first four cigars are great. Maniac Cop, I thought somebody might take. Yeah, or Cop, for that matter.

2:03:09Sean Fennessey:I watched Maniac Cop, and I really liked it. It would have been in my horror picks. Nicholas Wending Refn, remake it up. My favorite one that I just think is a banger.

2:03:18Bill Simmons:It's a 2B banger, Amanda. Okay. Masquerade with Rob Lowe. I don't know this one. It's an erotic thriller. Okay. It's set in somewhere ocean-y and nice to hang out with. Well, I'm Googling where now. It's pretty raunchy. Meg Tilly's in it. Kim Cattrall basically testing out her Sex and the City character. It's the Hamptons. The Hamptons. Okay. Wow. And Rob Lowe's great in it. And the movie's just good. It's like, somebody good directed it. Does it say who directed that? Oh, yeah. Sorry, but I was just reading the locations. Bob Swaim, written by Dick Wolf. Bob Swaim, written by Dick Wolf. Written by Dick Wolf.

2:03:57Bill Simmons:Bob Swaim, we did, he crossed paths with the rewatchables recently with something he did. But yeah, the only other one I had for a wild card was U2 Rattlin' Home.

2:04:07Sean Fennessey:Tried to acquire it on Blu-ray this week to get another look at it, running about 75 bucks on eBay. Not what you want. Masquerade is? No, U2 Rattling Hum. Oh, yeah. Phil Janot's concert film. What's your price limit right now? You know, unless there's a sale. For a movie I'm going to watch one time for prep for a pod, I would never spend$75. I would never want to advocate for this, but if there is a clip of, it doesn't make the actual final film, is of them playing with or without you in Tempe from this movie, it looks better than 98 % of movies made today. And it's the best version of Where They Were Without You.

2:04:44It would be an awesome 4K.

2:04:45Sean Fennessey:Isn't it Jeff Cronenweth? Yes. David Fincher's cinematographer shot this movie, I think.

2:04:49Bill Simmons:That's my favorite. Jacko and I used to do this scene all through college where The Edge is playing B.B. King, this thing they did. And he's like, do you like the lyrics, B.B.? And B.B.'s like, yeah, let's do some good lyrics. It's just like the most hilarious exchange. Spree painting rock and roll stops the traffic. We like that movie. Was there any, what are your big regrets? I mean, I'll say for my ones, I mean I like Dead Ringers a lot we didn't put in Willow nobody took Willow

2:05:17Sean Fennessey:yeah I had Willow on my list so nobody took Twins nobody took Twins yeah School Days not a great movie this is a sentimental pick because it was just like a 1988 VHS classic was Satisfaction with Justine Bateman oh yeah Liam Neeson's in that yeah and Serpent in the Rainbow which is Craven Craven yeah and School Days

2:05:37Bill Simmons:honestly I'm a little upset Amanda didn't take Mystic Pizza I thought I knew her better Kind of surprised. Yeah. That was on my list. Kept waiting for it. It was in the wild card spot, but I really, I do like Crossing Delancey. I feel like I've taken Mystic Pizza before in maybe not a draft, but like in a Julia Roberts Hall of Fame situation. So it wasn't there. The other honorable mention that I wanted to do was just a movie I had not seen until now, which is A Handful of Dust. There's an Evelyn Waugh adaptation starring Chris and Scott Thomas as like, and it's kind of one of her main breakthroughs.

2:06:10Alec Ennis also shows up and you know other people but

2:06:14Bill Simmons:Bigger for out possible 88 MVP yeah a little Dorit and a sample of dust Judi Dench is you know James Willoughby it's but it's you know a costume-ish drama that you would think I would know about and I did not pretty good okay

2:06:28Sean Fennessey:I got a lot more yeah there's a lot of I mean we never talked about Mr. Burning we didn't talk about Mr. Burning it was a huge movie that year big Oscar that was a scene

2:06:35Bill Simmons:in the theater movie

2:06:36Sean Fennessey:yeah plus Gene Hackman

2:06:38Bill Simmons:coming off Hoosiers now trying to

2:06:40Sean Fennessey:solve racism in the deep south first time i ever saw francis mcdormand is in that movie and she was nominated for that movie and she's got that heat with hackman but she's the wife of the racist legend yeah she's great uh dirty rotten scoundrels yeah never never really clicked with me oh interesting big movie from the time yeah um scrooged also a huge movie at the time not my fan of it either uh some smaller ones i really like miracle mile anthony edwards is it Mayor Winningham the Johnny's on Wilshire yes the old diner which is about LA like undergoing the big one I like that one I saw something for the first time I don't know if any of you guys have seen it this is one that I bought to watch because I really wanted to watch it I know you guys like Harold Becker I'd never seen this movie before The Boost with James Woods do you know about this movie?

2:07:28oh is that where he's doing drugs?

2:07:30Sean Fennessey:yes yeah so he's playing he's playing a salesman and he's having a hard time in his career he's married to Sean Young who looks fabulous in this movie. And he's having a really hard time catching on and making any money living in New York. And he goes in for a job interview and he bombs the job interview. But one of the guys who's interviewing him in the interview sees something in him. And he's like, I'm about to leave this company and start my own business and we're going to go out to LA and I want you to come with me and be my salesman.

2:07:58Bill Simmons:It's like what I saw in CR.

2:07:59Sean Fennessey:Same shit. James Woods goes out and he takes off like wildfire selling real estate in LA. and he gets he gets rich really fast then the government changes the tax laws like the loophole that he was using yes and all of a sudden he's addicted to cocaine and he is massively in debt and it's a real like yuppie nightmare spiral movie I thought it was really good

2:08:25Bill Simmons:watch now on MGM Tubi or Fubo wow oh sick I recently subscribed to MGM again I like MGM what's on there that you wanted to get into a movie for this I can't remember now but you know there had been a few of them I think MGM's strong yeah I mean I subscribe to everything because I mean me too I just have to yeah but you used the cable package stars no I do all the apps like what oh yeah I guess you get something through the cable historically you were like you watched all that

2:08:51Sean Fennessey:you had all the movie channels but I really like the MGM

2:08:52Bill Simmons:I think they have good movies yeah

2:08:54Sean Fennessey:uh James Woods Patty Hearst uh Paul Schrader's docudrama about the no not a fan okay I like it Vim Vendors Wings of Desire probably the best movie not drafted here we didn't do Punchline or The Accused which are just two big movies for big big Tom Hanks Jodie Foster people we like talking about

2:09:13Bill Simmons:Jodie Foster 1 for that I watched The Accused a couple years ago and it was really dated she's really good in it but it's very like feels very 80s do you like everybody's all American not really I don't I've never seen that it's like Kurt Russell and Robin Williams isn't Dennis Quaid no that's best of times

2:09:32Sean Fennessey:what you're talking about right

2:09:33Bill Simmons:Dennis Quaid's in Everybody's All-American with Kurt Russell. Right. They go back to LSU, right? Something like that. Stand and Deliver? Yeah, almost.

2:09:43Sean Fennessey:Speaking of Blue Diamond Phillips' peak, you know, he's playing like a cholo gangster and who is also really good at calculus. Yeah. Great movie idea. Edward James Olmos. Gorillas in the Mist? Sigourney Weaver? Yeah. I don't love that movie. I mean, I never got it either. yeah okay respect to sigourney weaver though she was also she was nominated both for that and working girl i vote working girl obviously okay uh we mentioned tucker the unbearable lightness of being ddl early ddl yeah that's a movie we didn't say beaches beaches that was a thing it sure was we were talking yesterday about the wind are you a beaches fan that i didn't draft it i guess not i think wind beneath my wings like i had to sing in elementary school at some point you know so that's kind of the the long tail of the beaches effect for me i mean honestly

2:10:37Bill Simmons:license to drive i guess was the best of all the 80s teen movies and i don't think that should have been drafted and the deadpool was probably the most disappointing because that was like clint

2:10:45Sean Fennessey:dirty harry's back and just sucked well because clint was putting all his energy into bird the

2:10:52Bill Simmons:movie he directed i hear about charlie parker yeah i thought you were gonna say he was putting his energy and the taking down babes when he's running carmel yeah well i don't think he was

2:11:04Sean Fennessey:mayor at that time not yet i think it was in the early 90s right post unforgiven i thought the sequels were incredibly disappointing it's a tough year like really like bad versions of

2:11:15Bill Simmons:movies that had peaked like three movies earlier basically better for the bond though no i know it's just like i was surprised there wasn't like oh that kind of don't mind that friday the 13th There was like none of those for me.

2:11:27Sean Fennessey:Didn't we have like a plethora of them in 89? I feel like we had a bunch to choose from. Yeah, because the top 10 was all either, was Batman and or, I think it's Ghostbusters 2 that year. Yeah, Ghostbusters 2. Last Crusade.

2:11:40Bill Simmons:Yeah, Last Crusade. Saddest thing was Arthur 2. On the rocks. Where they were like, is there anything left here?

2:11:47Sean Fennessey:Nope. What'd you think of the Arthur remake with Russell Brand? Did that happen? Isn't Greta Gerwig in that? She is. She's a female lead. Yeah. Did you like it? Oh, I forgot about that. Wow, I forgot that happened. Greta Gerwig's in that? She was like, it was like, she did that and then she was going to make the How I Met Your Mother sequel and didn't, but it wound up becoming a Greta auteur.

2:12:09Any closing thoughts? No. I mean, I'm trying to see if we missed anything. I think we talked about everything for the most part. Should we recap teams? Yeah.

2:12:20Sean Fennessey:Let's recap our teams. Okay, so Sierra had the first pick, so you go first, Chris. In drama, I had The Last Temptation of Christ, in comedy. I had Bull Durham. In action horror thriller, I took Young Guns. In Oscar nominee, Married to the Mob. In sequel, Caddyshack 2, 4%. In Blockbuster, Die Hard. And in Wild Card, Naked Gun.

2:12:40Bill Simmons:Okay, BS. Solid. Caddyshack 2 really hurt you. Yeah. Dangerous Liaisons for drama. Bloodsport, action. Rain Man, Oscar nominee. Midnight Run for comedy. Halloween 4 for sequel. Cocktail. for Blockbuster and Action Jackson for Wild Card. I'm feeling good about that. That's a good class, man. Solid. Feels very 1988-ish. Feels like me. You know what? It does. That has a little scent of me in that list.

2:13:08Sean Fennessey:Well, how would you describe that scent?

2:13:10Bill Simmons:It smells like the garden. Yeah.

2:13:13Sean Fennessey:Just like a...

2:13:14Bill Simmons:Smells like popcorn and happiness. Yeah.

2:13:15Sean Fennessey:A worn-in second baseman's glove. Speaking of, for my picks, drama, I had Eight Men Out. Comedy, I had Beetlejuice, action, horror, thriller. I have They Live, Oscar nominee. I have Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Sequel, The Decline of Western Civilization, Part 2, The Metal Years. That's a cheat. Blockbuster. You were with him in the moment, but now you're turning. Nah, it's just Sean cheated,

2:13:38Bill Simmons:but it's his pod. On your own pod, you can cheat. You did not cheat. He constructed the rules to name himself. Do we even post these for votes anymore? We do. We do.

2:13:47Sean Fennessey:Yeah, we post them on CR Heads. Blockbuster, I got big, and wildcard, I got a fish called Wanda. Okay.

2:13:54Bill Simmons:Interesting. I don't know who won this one. In drama. Everybody's got some weak spots. In drama, I have Running on Empty, in comedy, Working Girl, in action horror thriller, Frantic, in Oscar nominee, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, in sequel, Appointment with Death, in Blockbuster, Coming to America, and in Wildcard, Crossing Delancey. It's between these two. I think we picked with our hearts. I picked with my heart. And we did. You know. You did. Not a movie on here I don't like. We're fringy, you know? And you know, like the Kumite. It's just like sometimes you have to go. Yeah, sometimes you need to get out.

2:14:24Chess blown out by Chong D. This big BS.

2:14:30Bill Simmons:Bloodsport and Action Jackson? Come on, guys. What are we doing? Will you vote in this vote? Yeah, I'll vote for myself.

2:14:38Sean Fennessey:You wouldn't vote for Michael Dukakis, but you would vote for yourself. The thing is, like, you wanted to, but it's like, it was harder back then. I might have voted. I really might have. You might have voted for Kerry. I just can't remember.

2:14:47Bill Simmons:I don't remember doing Blood Diamond Rewatchables with CR, which was six years ago. I remember listening to that. I know exactly where I was when we started doing those accents.

2:14:56Sean Fennessey:Chris, in a meeting right before this pod, was just openly referring to Danny Archer as though he were like a very famous movie character that we all know and love. Danny Archer from Blood Diamond. Sure, yeah. Danny Atchie. T-I-A. Okay. Well, thanks very much to our producer, Jack Sanders, for his work on this episode. Thanks to Lucas Cavanaugh and Jacob Cornett for production support. Next week, we'll talk about the best movies of the year so far, at the end of the first three months and 10 movies that we missed during Oscar season. Movies came out this year. A lot of movies, actually. Have you been catching up?

2:15:29Yes. Do you feel ready? Well, I've learned a lot about Peaky Blinders and I can't wait to share it with you. I haven't watched that yet. Yes. I know who he is. Peaky Blinders? You in on that?

2:15:38Bill Simmons:No. Tommy Shelby? Yeah. Never got in. When is this running? On Friday? Nope. Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning. That's what I thought. Thursday morning. Check the spreadsheet. When is Crime 101 going to be on a streamer? It's not on Amazon already. It should be on Amazon pretty soon. I do need your thoughts I've been waiting and I just don't understand it One of my favorite occurrences is Van calls me and I'm like oh no what happened and he's just a crime 101 it could have been better he's like I won't take much of your time but crime 101 could have been better I agree but I didn't have a bad time I need to know

2:16:14Sean Fennessey:you're the tiebreaker I really need to know because you were a little colder on it than I expected to be and we didn't get a chance to talk about it It's like pretty good. It's not great. We did the pod together, man. Oh, that's great. But you were like, yeah, but you insulted a little bit. It's, I mean. I liked it. Is it better than Hamnet? In my opinion, yes. The first hour of Crime 101 blows the first hour of Hamnet out of the water. Do you feel that way? I don't think. The first hour of Hamnet, I hated. The tree, the roots of the tree. The second hour of Hamnet is phenomenal. There's a hawk.

2:16:47But it's just Hamlet.

2:16:49Sean Fennessey:well yeah that part's good i approve of that part all right bill simmons thank you so much for doing this cr thank you we'll see you soon

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