‘Ghostbusters’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan

21:48And I think that that hurt. And they have Sean Connery in the movie. They actually cast somebody to be equally yoked to Harrison Ford in it. So it was a movie star vehicle, big summer event. But there's stuff about Ghostbusters in the making of it that does kind of like project onto like even today where they're like, they have a release date before they have a script. You know, like they have, you know, There are certain parameters around this movie. I think they knew.

22:15Bill Simmons:Murray was not knowing until the last minute that he was doing it. I don't know. I miss it. I miss not knowing a lot about a movie. All we knew from this movie were a couple commercials. We didn't have that whole infrastructure in place, but the stories about anything. I know we all approach this differently. I try not to know anything about a movie when it's coming out. like even when we went and saw Sinners like I don't think I 100 % knew there were vampires or I knew something was going on or that it was going back to 1930 something I didn't know about it because I had been so steadfast of avoiding everything but these in 1984 this would just pop out we knew Prince was making a movie sure knew that the video would come out kind of before the movie and that was the first taste of it other than that you didn't know anything and it was kind of the audience would decide and that's how So when?

23:09Now you have to know everything to get people to go to the theater.

23:12Bill Simmons:Like Project Kale Mary, you think that was the case? Yeah, I mean, they certainly reveal... It was Gosling. You knew certain... You knew he was going to see... The trailer gives away that he meets an alien out there. A lot of movies tease the twist in the trailer now because they just need to sell as much as they can to get you off your ass to go into the theater. So they have to tell you basically what the whole story is. Because they're premise heavy because we don't have the same crop of stars that we used to have. And Spielberg is doing the opposite with his current movie where he's not showing anything from the third act in the trailer.

23:40And it's a risk because that's why the trailer is not that sexy right now. I think that if you were watching three months of Ghostbusters trailer, if Ghostbusters was coming out now, you would have seen 65 % of the good Bill Murray lines in trailers. So you would have seen this chick is toast already. Right. I also think that like at that point, and I don't have any memory of Ghostbusters when it came out. I don't remember a time when I didn't know Ghostbusters. Like, my relationship to Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live was me going back and grabbing stuff. Backwards through Ghostbusters, me too.

24:14Backwards through Ghostbusters. For whatever, backwards through, like, whatever the fucking film is. Like, me going, oh my God, where did this guy get his start? And really, like, the Eddie Murphy, for me, the Eddie Murphy Saturday Night Live VHS was just a big part of my ability to, like, appreciate Saturday Night Live. Huh?

24:34Bill Simmons:So I had Murray with the SNL reruns because they used to show him in primetime. Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Tootsie. And he would pop on Letterman every once in a while. But it was like, if that guy's in a comedy, I'm going. Yeah. You see his face and you go, come on, have a good time. This is the Piquez. It's crazy. I didn't really fully realize this until we did the research. This movie was so big. Murray didn't do another movie for four years. Yeah. He got freaked out by how powerful and enormous this became. And it made him rethink everything. And Aykroyd wasn't really the same either.

25:11He did Razor's Edge before Ghostbusters. Right. That was supposed to be his, like, here's my serious acting. I'm a serious actor as well.

25:19Bill Simmons:Aykroyd did Spies Like Us in 85 and Dragdown in 87. Pretty rocky after that. Reitman and Ramis, it worked out better for those guys. But it's pretty... You see this sometimes where something's so big Like, the people don't almost know what to do. Like, Leo did Titanic. And what did he make? One movie in the next five years? Yeah. Did the beach. Did the beach and that was it. So they're like, oh, shit. Post-Belouch Brothers, Ackroyd was fascinated by the supernatural and quantum physics and parapsychology, all this stuff. And he wanted to trap ghosts and do a movie with him and Belouchy trapping ghosts.

25:56Bill Simmons:This was 1981. And he was inspired. I never saw these movies. Sean probably has them on 4K. Abner and Costello hold that ghost. Bob Hope, the ghost breakers. The Bowery Boys, ghost chasers. So he wanted to do a comedy ghost movie, but have it rooted in actual research for how this stuff would work. Writing the Belushi scenes for the movie the day Belushi died. Like he tells that story in the Bob Woodward book. And then had to audible, didn't know what he was going to do. It was originally called Ghost Smashers. So he has this whole thing, shows it to Reitman. Reitman's like, this would cost a kajillion dollars.

26:32It was set in the future. Yeah, it was like,

26:34Bill Simmons:he's like, can you put this in Earth? So they get Ramis, and they pitch it. So this is why I get dubious with some of the casting what-ifs, because Reitman says he goes in, pitches this movie. It's going to be the three of us. We're going to rewrite it. They're going to be the three Ghostbusters, Murray and Ramis, and Ackroyd, and we're off. Then there's like 100 casting what-ifs. So I don't, we're going to go to it later. I don't know what to believe. So they rewrite the movie. They decide Ramis is going to be the brains. Ackroyd's the heart Murray's basically the wise ass and they set it in New York City and we're good to go Van done do it and it's by the way in the Horlbeck scale hour 45 right there great I don't even know what I would cut I think it's kind of perfect yeah I think anything in the hour 40 is fine just to go back to something Van was saying a little bit there's something different about this than Stripes and Beverly Hills Cop to me where Stripes and Belly Hills Cop feels like 1970s scripts that they were like, this has been kicking around or like we have an idea based on something that has already been done.

27:41Bill Simmons:Yeah. What if Eddie Murphy was the cop? What if Bill Murray was the soldier? And what would we do with that? This feels new. This feels like something that's like, like this and Back to the Future feel like movies that I'm like, I don't think they could have done this in 1976. It's good to bring those together because those Back to the Future is the next year. Yeah. Those are the two where it's like, I'm sure when they were working on this, they were probably like, is this going to work? Yeah. Is this going to work? But also like, this might be massive. Yeah. Cause you have a feeling cause you're catching light in the bottle with some of the stars.

28:12Bill Simmons:But yeah, it's a, it's a good point. But they both have like iconography where you're like the skateboard and, and you know, the inventing skateboarding basically. Yeah. Or like, you know, the, the Ecto one and the jumpsuits in this where you're like, man, I just feel like these guys just, they got six or seven new things. and six or seven things that are just 100 years old and solid. And they put them together to make something nobody had seen before. And the movie is very 80s. Like, I thought about things this time. She's a concert violinist. Yeah, cellist, right? Like, cellist. Like, she's a concert cellist.

28:46Bill Simmons:And not really addressed or shown at all. Not really addressed or shown. There's no rehearsal? But she is an artist. She is a woman about her times. Living in Central Park West. Living in Central Park West. Like, he walks into it. there's a lot of space in here. She's a successful lady. Her entire independence is upended by the fact that she has an uninvited guest that she can't kick out, which is the ghost. So like, it's almost... Zool, a meta commentary on like the 80s woman. Like, all of the stuff that's happening in the movies, the movies is very 80s, it's very 80s because there's a cultural explosion that's happening around that time that the movie takes advantage of.

29:23Bill Simmons:Murray is on an all-time run that we mentioned. 79-84, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Tootsie, Ghostbusters. I mean, Jesus. He's been living off that for 42 years. The guy can do no wrong. Aykroyd had Blues Brothers. He did Neighbors and Dr. Detroit between Trading Places. And Trading Places, which if we're talking about all these, and we've done a lot of them on rewatchables, Trading Places is just a kick-ass conventional movie. Yes. With major stars. this movie is a kick ass movie that had the chance to grow in a different way well you talk about the casting what ifs like trading places there's 10 versions of the two guys in trading places and none of them don't work Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro or something like that you know like you could pick pairs and make a lot of those movies work you could pick pairs and make 48 hours work maybe not on the level it does Beverly Hills Cop you could find a Detroit cop going to Beverly Hills I don't know.

30:26You look at the casting what ifs, even if you just do a fake fantasy draft of like who would you want as the four Ghostbusters, there's no way to top this. This is the Beatles. How many digestible science fiction blockbusters have we had before this? Obviously, Star Wars was a gigantic thing.

30:44Bill Simmons:Because like Alien wasn't a blockbuster. Right. I'm talking about... Aliens was a blockbuster, I think, in 86. movies that deal in like paranormal there's ghost stuff this film has to play in middle America like but it's a it's a science fiction Poltergeist Close Encounters like those movies are like big films I'm talking about like in this way like for a comedy for them to kind of do this version of it it's failed a hundred times right yeah it usually doesn't work and honestly I'm not sure how this movie worked I think this movie works because like when you go back through it there are like a hundred lines where I'm like, oh, that is actually now just something I say and I forgot it came from Ghostbusters.

31:29Do you know what I mean? Like an aside that you make routinely.

31:33Bill Simmons:Don't cross the streams actually became like pop culture. I was going to ask if that's, did that come from this movie? Yeah. Like peeing, crossing streams? Don't cross the streams. This entire movie is a piece of pop. Like the fact that Mythbusters, something that's called Ghostbusters. Yeah, anything like, Like anything Busters is like this entire movie is just. Yeah. There's a bunch of those. Yeah. Sigourney Weaver. Oh, let's actually, we'll take a break and then I got to talk about Sigourney Weaver. This episode is brought to you by McDonald's right now. McDonald's. You can get great deals all day with McValue.

32:12Bill Simmons:That's right. Jumpstart your day with the under$3 menu featuring a sausage McMuffin for just$1.50 or grab the perfect lunch with the McDouble for, just$2.50. Honestly, nothing pairs with a movie marathon like a McDouble in hand. Gotta love the McDoubles. Get even more value with McValue only at McDonald's. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba. Limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery. Sigourney Weaver fought for the part. Smart. They were like, you're a dramatic actress. You went to Yale. We're intimidated by it. You're six feet tall. She's like, I'm really funny. You got to try me out.

32:54Bill Simmons:She does from a 10-year span, 79 to 89, Alien, Ghostbusters, Aliens, and Working Girl, which are four of the biggest movies of that stretch. She was also an eyewitness, You're Living Dangerously, Deal with the Century Girls in the Mist, and Ghostbusters 2. Stealth case for winning the 80s? Yeah. For female actresses? I don't know. Who else is in there? I'd have to see Meryl Streep's 80s. Yeah, Meryl Streep. I don't think she had. Sally Field? I don't know. But not blockbusters. Yeah, not blockbusters. Yeah. I think Melanie Griffiths probably in there. Melanie Griffiths is new. But I think Sigourney has the best mix of like blockbuster with like credibility.

33:32Bill Simmons:She has versatility. She has blockbusters. Meryl Streep has the gold. She has rom-com. She has blockbusters. Sci-fi stuff. She has a... It's pretty good. Can I hear Diane Keaton's 80s? Oh. Diane Keaton's 80s? That has... It's like Baby Boom. I don't think she had it because some of it's from the 70s. Okay. Yeah, it's tough. Well, we already figured out that Rene Russo won the 90s a few podcasts ago. Congratulations. Just convincingly, too. Just destroyed everybody. What's her NBA comp? What's the really devastatingly effective championship-winning NBA player that nobody remembers how good they were when they were on top of their game?

34:05Bill Simmons:Sigourney Weaver? No, I'm talking about Rene Russo. Oh, Rene Russo. Rene Russo was a problem? Highlight reel? Yeah. Hey, look at Rene Russo's back. She's got like nine bangers. Nine bangers. Yeah. Not missing. I think she's the second most rewatchables library actress. She might be. I think it's Meg Ryan and then her, something like that. Yeah, so Sigourney. And then Dave was the only other comedy she did, which ironically was with Ivan Rehn. Yeah. But she had good timing. I don't know. She's so tall. Like, if there's other actors that could have been in this that I think it would have been bad.

34:44Bill Simmons:I mean, just her... Mur is like a relatively tall guy. Her three interactions with Moranis are like... they're just funny to look at together. Yeah. It's just like, as soon as he comes out of his apartment, you're like, you gotta be fucking kidding. Yeah, it looks like Wemby with like, like, Stephen Castle. Ray Parker's theme song. Do you have any Sigourney Weaver or do you want to save it for later? Oh, I'll save it for later. I love it. Okay. I love it. I figured. Yeah. Ray Parker's theme song, number one for three weeks. The video is number one on MTV. Directed by Reitman. Featured Chevy Chase, John Candy, George Wendt, Danny DeVito, Carly Simon, a million people, and everyone's dancing down the streets of New York City.

35:24Bill Simmons:And they closed Times Square, which they kind of stopped doing after the 80s. And I think Vanilla Sky was like the last anything that got them to close Times Square. Yeah, it's like you have to do it now at dawn, but they were probably like 3.45 p.m. We're just going to shoot Ghostbusters. So then it turned into this whole scandal with the Huey Lewis song. Yeah. I want a new drug. Yeah. Which is what's aged the worst for this movie because... There's a lot of research on this. They wanted Huey Lewis to do the song. They put I Want a New Drug as the temp song in some of the early scenes. And then Ray Parker had a week to write the song.

36:01Bill Simmons:It really does sound like the same thing. So there's some mystery lawsuit that we've never heard the details of. I think Huey Lewis financially did okay. I think he did okay. Because he bounced back the next year he did the whole Back to the Future joint thing. And he had two albums that sold 20 million records. He was the man at that point. You know what? I'm glad we have them both. Yeah. It's like having Heather Thomas and Heather Locklear. We're all winners. That's right. Two really good songs. There's an incredible what if with this movie that we mentioned earlier about Eddie Murphy. And there's...

36:32A lot of competing journalism.

36:34Bill Simmons:Competing narratives about this. Aykroyd seems to be adamant that it was for Ghostbusters and Winston was going to be Eddie Murphy. And that one adds up to me more because they had just done Trading Places together. as he's writing Ghostbusters. Also, why wouldn't you want Eddie Murphy in this movie? But Reitman was like, that wasn't the case, right? Reitman said, no, no, it was never a serious thing, but I almost felt like he was trying to be nice to Ernie Hudson. Right. I'm going to believe that they went hard after Eddie Murphy, and I don't know why they wouldn't have. Of course. And I think it adds up because he had relationships with Murray and Aykroyd.

37:12Bill Simmons:It's almost a new category, Craig. The Eddie Murphy in Ghostbusters Award for Biggest What If. Because if he's in this movie from the beginning, it breaks my brain. So you think it doesn't work? It does not work. Absolutely not, in no way, shape, or form. First of all, like, I don't... Can we talk this out? There's not enough screen for those guys all to be on screen together doing... Like, this movie works because the other guys revolve around Murray. Right. If you have Murphy in there, and they're like, let's give Murphy, like, three scenes where there's no script, and he's just allowed to, like, cook.

37:48I just think it starts to blot out the sun a little bit. Like, I'm sure we would have clips that we were like, that's the fucking funniest thing I've ever seen. But you can't just, like, let Eddie Murphy cook from the Winston position. So it's just like A.J.

38:01Bill Simmons:Brown and Jalen Hurts? Or A.J. Brown and Drake May. Wow. Yeah, it's... When Ernie comes into the movie, he does exactly what he's supposed to. Exactly. He steadies the whole deal. He's a little bit of skepticism. A little bit of skepticism. a little bit of realness. He's the everyman. He's an everyman. Everybody else is all into this absurdist comedy, and he's the one like, I need my own lawyer. Perfect. Eddie, you got to let him win scenes. Or if you don't let him win, he's going to win them. So it just doesn't work. It's like that weird Lakers team where they had Nash and Howard and Gasol and all of those guys.

38:39There's not enough basketball, and you got a bad back.

38:41Bill Simmons:You're the same person who thinks Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown can't play together. That's not what I said. said they played better. Browns would lead the team. I'm zagging. I think they could have figured it out. I actually think the upside of the movie is higher and the downside is lower. I'm fine with where we landed because this became an iconic, awesome movie. It's really hard for me to believe that Eddie Murphy in 1984 wouldn't have improved the movie. I don't think it wouldn't have. Improving is a weird thing. I just think it wouldn't be what it is. and I think there would be like three scenes where you're like holy shit like I can't believe we didn't get more Eddie Murphy Eddie Murphy talking to ghosts you're telling me I'm not enjoying that in a movie theater but okay where's Eddie at in his career at this point like Eddie Eddie has done 48 hours trading places and he's doing Beverly Hills Cop that comes out the same year you stuff a baby in the corner you're not gonna it's not gonna work so he did a movie called Deal of the Century ironically where he's in they basically filmed his scene it didn't work it wasn't a good movie And he's in it.

39:45Bill Simmons:He kind of pops in and out. So he's like a star, but he's not a star. And I wonder if they did that for this, where he's in basically half the movie as they're bringing the firepower in. I mean, it would be really funny if Eddie Murphy played Walter Peck. Oh, just for like... Richard Peck or Walter Peck? No, it was Walter Peck. Walter Peck. He just had two scenes. Two scenes. Well, it's a what if because he could have gone 48 hours trading places, Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters in three years. That would have shut it down. Yeah. too much. That also would have been pretty funny to watch Eddie Murphy in Ghostbusters 2.

40:18Bill Simmons:Oh, he would have done it. Yeah. He would have been available. Wow, I'm surprised you guys weren't more receptive to this. You're really protective of the four Ghostbusters. Well, to me, this is a perfect film. Like, I just think that, like, you start to mess with the notation of the music and it changes the tune a little bit. Craig, would you have wanted Eddie Murphy in this? I get what they're saying. I think it would have worked if maybe he had, like, a guest spot type role where he just came in and, like, Dion Waiters to two big scenes and then got out. I don't know if he could have been in the whole movie.

40:47Another thing, to me, the movie is oriented around the comedic tone and stylings of Bill Murray. And Eddie Murphy does his comedy in a different way.

40:58Bill Simmons:Also, I always thought the Winston character didn't make any sense. That felt like they were four. I feel like he didn't have a ton to do. To be honest, it felt like a token casting. Wow. Interesting. You don't think so? being one of those we can't bus ghosts put him in the beginning of the movie then yeah oh so now you've gone the other way oh my bad I'm like what are we we just jammed him in there he didn't have a ton to do I got some stuff to say about that I have more in this later this is way more work than we thought it was gonna be it just felt like they bailed on that storyline I think it's a really nice like we gotta bring somebody off the bench I guess in the middle of the movie I think the reason why could have been Eddie Murphy alright the funniest person alive in 1984 yeah but I just feel like we could go through like these movies that were just like, you know what would be good is if Tom Cruise showed up.

41:44Why can't Tom Cruise be the vampire? But in this case,

41:47Bill Simmons:he really was supposed to be the fourth Ghostbuster. Sure. And I think that like Ernie Hudson's sometimes acrimonious relationship to this movie like at various points where he's been like, well, the script like is a much bigger part in the script that I read. I wonder if that was for Eddie. I wonder if they wrote it thinking we might get Eddie. All kinds of research on that with whether it was a much bigger part that got cut down once they realized Is there any Hudson was in it? Or what was going on? This movie was nominated for two Oscars. Best song. Best visual effects. Elmer Bernstein's score not nominated.

42:24Bill Simmons:Very good, though. We were... What's the Horlbeck scale? 100 minutes? Yeah. So we're plus five. Yeah, that's fine, though. It's amazing. If it's in the hour 40s range, it's fine. Okay. $30 million budget made$298 million. In 1984. So adjusted, that's like a bill. right? Second biggest film of 84. Biggest comedy ever at the time, which lasted only a few weeks and then Beverly Hills Cop took that. Number one for seven straight weeks. Kicked off the number one list by a little movie called Purple Rain. Hmm. We used to know how to make things in America. We sure did. We fucking knew what we were doing in 1984.

43:01Bill Simmons:Trueify yourself. It's like, sorry Ghostbusters, Prince is here. I'm sure you're going to get to Raj in a second. I had a quote from just reading up about this that I thought really summed it up. Judd Apatow said, it really is a perfect comedy. It was all those people at the height of their powers. They had mastered their craft and made the film we dreamed they'd make. Movies like Ghostbusters made us want to make movies. No notes. Raj went three and a half stars. See? He docked it a half star for reasons. Because nobody Murphy. he said rarely has a movie this expensive provided so many quotable lines and he said Ghostbusters is one of those rare movies where the original fragile comic vision has survived a multi-million dollar production yeah good way to put it want to go to the scenes?

43:55Bill Simmons:let's go to the scenes most rewatchable is going to be interesting most rewatchable scene Venkman working ESP with the two kids and favoring the blind is so fucking funny studying the effect of negative reinforcement on ESP. We're paying you, aren't you? For five bucks. Do you know what movie that the guy was in in that scene? Uh-uh. You didn't recognize him? I didn't. You might be the only one who's seen this movie. What? Actually, CR might have. Christine. Oh, yeah. He was one of the two bad guys. Oh, yeah, he sure was. He and that other guy, Buddy. And Jennifer Runyon is the woman? Jennifer Runyon.

44:35Bill Simmons:Yeah. beautiful here I think Christine one of the 10 worst movies I've seen the most it's really awful yeah it's hard for me I think I've seen it at least 20 times I've seen a bunch too it's hard for me to view it as bad but it's those Stephen King movies back there then were kind of gamey I liked all of them I mean Maximum Overdrive is still my dream even Stephen King didn't like the Stephen King movies and I'm like sign me up Cujo did you see me trapped in a car for 45 minutes have you ever seen Maximum Overdrive it's Stephen King directed it while high on cocaine Yeah, say no more Stars Emilio Estevez And it's about machines taking over the world Yeah, wait a minute It's batshit crazy I did see this Yeah, and it's set at a truck stop in North Carolina Yeah, I did see this It's like, oh no, I'm thinking of Repo, man I don't want to do Cocaine Month for the Rewatchables I want to do Cocaine Year Just 52 movies where everybody was out of their mind It's 2028 leading into the presidential election It's Cocaine Year Cocaine Year Sponsored by State Farm

45:37Bill Simmons:next we watch we'll see the fellas go to the library and get spooked my uncle thought he was Saint Jerome this a couple movies have done a really good job of nailing how creepy libraries are the wrong kind of time of day of a big sprawling library you just feel like something awful could happen any place where there are a lot of people in it but you were supposed to be quiet feels odd. Yeah. Good point. Sigourney with the groceries, AKA Dana. We get the Ghostbusters commercial on TV at this point. We are ready to believe you. We're ready to believe you. Really good special effects with the eggs.

46:16Bill Simmons:And I think we should have mentioned this at the top. For 1984, some of the special effects were excellent. Like really good. Like we have eggs frying on a counter. And in 1984 going, wow, how are they doing that? Yeah. Now it'd be like, you know, they could do anything. One of the biggest picking nits of the entire movie, to me still is a woman like Dana buying a giant bag of marshmallows. Interesting. You think she was going to make Rice Krispie Treats or something? Like for her orchestra or something? I don't know. Maybe she was getting down. Are we getting marshmallows? Sexual food item?

46:53He's appealing directly to you.

46:56Bill Simmons:Trying to sense Vance value sometimes. I think she would have cleaned the eggs up. Yes. Thanks were on the counter for like two days. Well, she didn't want to clean them because she was going to go get the Ghostbusters to come back and check the mountains. That's true. Venkman gets slimed in the banquet room. That's great. Actual physical contact. Save me some. This is where we get the don't cross the streams. This is where we get the we came, we saw, we conquered. He veers into Nick the Lounge Singer and Carl from Caddyshack a little bit. A little bit. This is my favorite scene My most rewatchable Right after that The most 80s movie montage You could possibly have So good Ray Parker's song kicks in QB Lewis' lawyers immediately go to work We get Roger Grimsley The Live at Five anchor in New York City Yeah, yeah Roger Grimsby We get early Larry King We get a USA Today Ghost Fever grips New York.

47:58Bill Simmons:We get Time Magazine, Omni, and The Atlantic. We get the soothing sounds of Casey Kasem. Yeah. We get the Joe Franklin show. Yeah. We get the Globe with a Princess Di expecting again. And this is clearly the Kid Cudi Pursuit of Happiness. Best needle drop. But it just makes me so happy to watch this. Yeah. This is like the serotonin hit. This is like legal ecstasy. Yeah. If you watch this, you're like, God damn. Yeah. It was just the best. The only thing missing is Pacino and cruising, just dancing. Just dancing with a jacket. Did you get chloroform it? Yeah. Maybe when we do the social clip, we could run the montage, but then work in Pacino in the leather outfit.

48:40Bill Simmons:Rick Moranis' party. Love it. Supposedly, mostly ad-libbed. He introduces people by their financial situations. They come in the door. Has the blonde who, I mean, I know he's pining over Sigourney Weaver and Sigourney Weaver looks better You like Gene Kasem the bun? I like that Casey's girlfriend Casey Kasem's wife Miranda's coming out and going Hey this is real smoked salmon from Nova Scotia, Canada $24.95 a pound Only cost me$14.12 after tax though I'm giving this whole thing as a promotional expense That's why I invited clients instead of friends You having a good time Mark? How you doing? Why don't you have some brie?

49:20It's at room temperature He's like fucking going. Yeah, I was just like, he scores a hat trick in the first period. What were his guys, Bob and Dave? Bob and Elaine, yeah. They have, like, wait, the one where they come in and they're like, no, the SCTV that he did.

49:35Bill Simmons:Oh, yeah. The characters. The fucking brothers. The brothers. The McKenzie brothers. The McKenzie brothers, yeah. He's doing a combo of that, but there's a little Garth from Wainsworld in there too where he's kind of like talking on the side of his mouth. We didn't talk about Beranus. What's your relationship with him? obviously this limited by the fact that he doesn't do a ton after Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, right? He like basically disappears. Now he kind of disappeared. But this is a performance worthy of considering renaming the Dion Waiters Award after him. Going nuts. Going nuts. Just absolute, like he plays like two different characters in this and they are both among the funniest things I've ever seen in my life.

50:12Him as Vince Clortho, him as Louis Tully, and then Sneaky, him as Louis Tully again at the end. Yeah. Who does your taxes? Lovable and hilarious. Like, I don't know, man. So, Spaceballs. Wanna come in and get a mineral water? Like, you see him at first. He's gotta be in the scene when you see him. He's gotta be a little bit of a pest.

50:36Bill Simmons:Yeah. But he's gotta be lovable enough to where later on in the movie you're gonna feel like a sense of danger because he's been possessed. You're gonna have to be happy. Well, it seems like he dies when he goes against the window. It seems like that's it for him and then he comes back. And did they just give him a scene where it's just like, we have Rick Moranis in this movie. You know Rick Moranis. Let us show you how funny he is. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was a massive movie. Do you know the premise of that, Craig? Oh, I loved it as a kid. Yeah. He was a major star. That's my introduction to Moranis.

51:03He does Little Giants. Little Giants is the last time

51:05Bill Simmons:I remember him. Great kid movie. Yeah, I loved Little Giants. Didn't want it. He plays a straight man in that one a little bit. Reminds me a little Joe Anderson. Didn't totally want it. just liked his life oh my god didn't want to move to LA jeez wanted to stay there just wanted to stay in Maryland yeah liked his life raised the roof Rick Moranis just liked his life I thought he got out of acting because his wife got sick or something I don't I mean I'm just saying like he doesn't have like a million parts like my relationship with Moranis is like you made six great movies is that right though I believe so something he wanted to raise his kids and like all that just you know next scene are you the key master Sigourney mmhmm You want to do this now?

51:45Bill Simmons:Yeah. Okay. Absolute. Listen. Okay. So. I'm going to have a glass of water. All right. So look. What are we doing? We're just. We're asking. We're asking the question. Oh, yeah. That's Catherine Trammell. Right. Okay. We're asking the question, though. We're asking the question. You knock on the door. She asks you to key master. You come in. Vance's like, I am. Yeah, that's what he is, right? I am the key master, actually. And then you watch him go through that scene, and he's a perfect gentleman. Venkman is a good guy. Because he comes off like a sleazebag in every other scene, but he knows that it's not her.

52:24He is a pre-to-consent master. It's what he is. Venkman is. Venkman goes, because he actually is playing it out himself. He says, oh, maybe, why not? Why not? But he can't do it. This has been a question in my family for a long time, whether or not... you take a shot at possessed Dana. You take a shot at possessed Dana right there. Because you don't know. Do you take a shot at it? But you also don't know if your sexual sacrifice spares everybody this whole occult Gozer the Gozerian situation in the first place.

52:56Bill Simmons:You also don't know what the sex is going to be like. I mean, that would be the big stickler for me. That gets into species territory. That could... Yeah. Yeah, you're going into Natasha Hentridge in the hotel room level. Can I do my flex now? Because it's related. let's do it the Mallory and this wasn't even in the doc because you didn't think anybody would bring this up the Mallory Rubin Award for did this movie need a better sex scene it's not Weaver and Murray it's Weaver and Moranis we needed a Natasha Henstridge style on the roof yeah because he's the actual key master he is and we see him after I think it's implied that they did oh for sure we see him kind of in the afterglow I wanted to I mean it can be like clothes on that's fine you can no nudity but I wanted to see her just like because like just the physical difference between the two of them I think that would have taken their relationship to the next level if we actually got to see her on top of him just tearing him down wow it would have been amazing R rated Ghostbusters no no yeah see Craig I'm into that he's got it in there yeah it went the way it should have gone though you can't do it she's possessed can't do it she's possessed can't do it there is no Dana only Zul he pumps her full of Thorazine next scene the spirits get loose in New York City thanks to that asshole Walter Peck just fucking unleashes everybody classic politician yeah

54:25Bill Simmons:I set you up for a follow up joke I don't know what you mean classic politicians stuff I thought yeah I thought you were sorry I thought you were there you go it's fine it's fine the big ending I don't even know what to make of where do these stairs go they go up yeah the choices made I love this plan I'm excited to be a part of it did you make a choice the blown out building balcony which I mentioned makes me anxious and then the whole Stay Puft Marshmallowian thing just should not have worked yeah and it's amazing Aykroyd is great in that scene when they're like did you and he's just like fuck the thing that I laughed at this time was they go Think about who you're, whatever it is, who's going to bring up.

55:13And then they go, the decision has been made, like, right away. Because he's thinking about the state of Marshmallow Man. The comic timing of him not being able to clear his mind, just hysterical. And then he right away knows that he's fucked up and he checks out.

55:26Bill Simmons:If it had been Van and it would have just been, like, a 100-foot Lisa Bonet from Angel Heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just walking through the streets of New York City. He was working on twerking down buildings. That was definitely Van's fault. Yeah. What the fuck? Oh, God. that also has they finally decide they should cross the streams. Yes. Great idea. And then I mentioned the closing credits were just immense amount of fun. What do you have for most rewatchable? I have two you had mentioned. Okay. One, the first time Peter goes to Dana's apartment with the turkey baster. Yep. And he's just like playing the piano.

55:58He's like, loves to torture him. It's Dr. Venkman, boys! Like, that, and then the jail, the jail scene where all the prisoners gather around going into the mayor's office. with Peck.

56:13Bill Simmons:I felt like that was the Trading Places jail. I loved it. They just shot it in the same... Just all the guys. With the same guys. Whoa! Somebody's coming! But yeah, I mean, like, the whole thing when Peck and Venkman are squaring off in front of the mayor. But the real rewatchable scene is the fame montage. So the open to me. The first thing you see are the ghosts. The movie sets up, like, what the actual star of the movie is. The first thing you see are the ghosts. Before you get to Venkman, it shows the library and you get the actual haunting because it's got to put you in the world. So I think that's very important.

56:51But you know what I've always loved? The first call. The first call they ever get, which is actually filmed in the Biltmore downtown LA.

56:59Bill Simmons:Yeah. Yeah. But the first call they get where they're in there and it's Slimer, to me, that's my favorite scene of the movie. When she's like, we got one? Yeah. We got one. They go there and they're like actually using their equipment for the first time. It's like almost the Ghostbusters origin story scene. God bless you. That's my favorite scene in the movie. We should probably go to the Biltmore and do like a whole video shoot. I feel like the Biltmore's come up in 12 rewatchables movies. Yeah. Didn't it just come up in To Live and Die in LA or am I crazy? I think the Biltmore is where they do the guy jumping off the roof in To Live and Die in LA.

57:34Was that where they did the elevator? That's in the line of fire. that is the elevator. When you go there, it's awesome because they obviously have all of those movies up there so you can see

57:45Bill Simmons:that they were shot there. What's the most 1984 thing about this movie? I think the winner of this is the Ghostbusters montage, but I think we should talk about some other ones. Larry King taking radio calls while smoking? Yeah. Larry King, definitely. This is actually where people ask, like, Chris, what's your ambition? And I'm like, I want Bill to give me a drive time call-in radio show that I could smoke during. There you go. Done. You're live on Drive Time with CR. Hey, AJ Brown. What's up with that guy? Chris, what's going on with the streetlights? I hate it. I love it.

58:25These fotholes, what are they going to do about it? Thanks for leaving my call.

58:28Bill Simmons:What are they doing with all this copper, CR? I have for 1984, runners-up, Aykroyd's video camera. Oh, that's been 1984. see the Twin Towers a couple times in this, which is tough. Gene Kasem. Yeah. It's just, this was like her moment between this and Cheers and being married to Casey. So what was the deal here? Like, they wanted to use Casey Kasem's voice and Gene Kasem as part of it. He's probably like, I'll do your movie if you put my wife in the movie. Yeah. Not that she can't act. I'm just asking. My favorite runner-up for this, though, is calling someone a pencil neck. Oh. I feel like that's been gone for 38 years.

59:10Bill Simmons:Get out of here, yeah. Yeah, that was like, that peaked in the 80s. Haven't heard pencil neck in a long time. I got a couple. One, they're Ghostbusters and they immediately are asked about Elvis. No one has any clue in the mid-80s how big of a fucking deal Elvis' death and potentially being alive still was. Everyone's talking about it all the time on the front of every National Enquirer. Somebody saw Elvis in West Virginia with a honky-tonk band. It's like all the deaths from the last 15 years that were massive just combined into one death. Sure. That was Elvis. Tribeca being fucked up. Ooh. That's a really good one.

59:47That downtown being all fucked up. Goes into there and goes, he says, the neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone. Yeah. Like Tommy Alter has a bar that he likes to go to that legitimately is right across the street from this Ghostbusters. On Varric? Yeah. Like right there. You can see the thing. It's right there. Area is fucking beautiful. What? We go there. when I'm in New York, me and Tommy and other people. We have a friend who lives there.

1:00:10Bill Simmons:I was going to do my Tommy impersonation. I don't know if I should do that on the Rewatchables. What is it? What's the name of the bar? I can't remember the name of the bar. I really can't. Maybe it's Walker's? Is it called Walker's? Walker's, yeah. It's Walker's. I was at Walker's last night with Cooper Hoffman. He does the pause because he says the first name but then remembers that you probably don't know who it is. So it's like, I was doing Rewatchables with Chris Ryan. Right. It's my Tommy Alter impersonation. Ben's on his way. Stiller. Stiller. Tommy. We're going to run into Jalen Brunson later.

1:00:43Yeah. And the last one, 1984, the EPA in this movie are the bad guys. That's come back around. I guess. I guess, actually. I guess.

1:00:54Bill Simmons:Let's take one more break and then we'll do what's age the best.

1:01:22Bill Simmons:Actions apply. Service is not available in all areas. All right. What's age the best? We mentioned Don't Cross the Streams, which is 42 years and counting.

1:01:35Bill Simmons:Phenomenal New York City movie. We did New York City Month last year, and we didn't do Ghostbusters because I wanted to do it this year for some reason. But I just love how they use every aspect of the city. Yeah. And even like that high shot when you can look down at Central Park and you see all the trees and just like, it's just great. I love the, even seeing people like Joe Franklin in there. And I just, when State Puffs is walking around and all the cabs and shit are getting into car accidents, I think that's Columbus Circle. But I'm just like, this is great. How the fuck did they do this?

1:02:12Like,

1:02:12Bill Simmons:sunny every day. There's never, it's just a happy sunny movie. There's no weather. But like the, even in Ghostbusters 2, like, New York, how can I say this? Like, the ethos of New York is a character in the movie. It seems like a story that can only take place in New York. Yeah. What do you have for what's age the best? You know, I actually, this is, what's age the best is kind of funny because sometimes I'm just like, these lines, but this is a couple of these. The logo, the firehouse, the ectomobile, the marshmallow man. These are 40 plus years. Like, if you see that, you're like, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters instantly.

1:02:50And they are indelible pop culture symbols still. And the uniforms. So, kids are still doing this for Halloween. It got brought back during Stranger Things, I think. It's just like a couple of really, really, really durable pop culture icons from this movie. The proton packs I have. Because they are so signature to the Ghostbusters proton packs. Also, the brands. In this movie, they got Cheez-It, Coca-Cola, Perrier, all of this shit is still around. He's eating Cheez-Its. She's got Perrier in there. Yeah. Coca-Cola, I mean, obviously Coca-Cola's going to be around forever.

1:03:27Bill Simmons:The Cheez-Its maybe want Cheez-Its. Maybe want Cheez-Its. These guys drinking canned Budweiser, maybe want a canned Budweiser. Yeah. Like all of the stuff that they're snacking on. Do you think that was paid or not? I don't know. That's what I was trying to think. They didn't really, that was a big deal, obviously, in the 80s. It still is, but they didn't linger on it. Because by the end of the 80s, they were doing it. all the time. I also had the a nice element to this movie. It's like got very little backstory. Don't really you don't know where Venkman comes from. You don't really like none of like their past kind of like childhood trauma or anything like that.

1:03:56But their financial peril is like very acute in the first half of this movie when Ackroyd takes out the loan and Bill Murray goes you're not going to lose the house. Everybody has three mortgages he stays. He's like yeah but at 19 % 19 %

1:04:13Bill Simmons:that's another thing that's age the best high interest rates 19 % that would have been good for the 1984 section I forgot to put that in yes it's true the man has no dick it's still fucking funny all these years later it's like one of the what's our line delivery one the Jesse Eisenberg that's in the running for best line delivery I mean that's like the entire performance yeah the original SNL generation popping in movies with each other, which is basically Blues Brothers, Caddyshack, Trading Places, Ghostbusters, Spies Like Us, or probably the big ones. When did that stop? I was just having a conversation at Sycamore about Coneheads and about all of the movies that were made around.

1:04:56Some of the bad ones. Because there are some bad ones, right? And there are some ones that are underrated.

1:05:00Bill Simmons:A lot of drugs back then. But when did the era of SNL people... In Sandler's world, it hasn't ended. Well, yeah. Sandler was the next one to do it, and then Apatow who learned from both generations blew it out and just was like that's what Craig grew up with no but it's the Apatow generation of these are my extended crew we're all gonna be in movies with each other and yeah it's like late 90s early aughts with like Austin Powers and the Happy Gowar I think it goes up to Bridesmaids yeah I was saying with SNL oh I guess Bridesmaids yeah SNL yeah speaking of Apatow this movie's pretty legendary for all the improv and all the ad-libbing and stuff so this is another thing that I saw a lot of debate about like how much how much is written versus how much is improv.

1:05:41So go ahead. Yeah.

1:05:42Bill Simmons:Well, I think it did influence comedies because I think everything was pretty rigid with there's the script, say your lines, here's the written jokes. In Caddyshack, they ad-libbed a lot, but it was mostly because they didn't have a script. But I think in this one, he was encouraging, Reitman was encouraging the people to explore the studio space with different scenes. And then I think in the 2000s, that really took off. Well, it's also these guys' idea. Yeah. So being that it's their idea. Yeah, their writers. And they know who Murray is. They know what to do with it. There was like a quote. Ackroyd had some quote where he was like, the script is mostly structure and exposition.

1:06:18And a lot of the dialogue is like Murray cooking. But then the shooting script is all the lines. But I guess there are like a lot of alts where like Murray's throwing out like three or four different options.

1:06:29Bill Simmons:So it's kind of, what do you believe? 55 Central Park West. I think Wednesday Amanda Dobbins were for best piece of real estate. Just a great looking building. the real Ghostbusters cartoon I have as of age the best that was like a real thing there for four years it was a big deal and honestly kept the whole thing in the consciousness between the two movies to make the sequel happen whether you liked the sequel or not and it was this was the the Ghostbusters thing is the first time as a child that I ever experienced confusion in the marketplace confusion in the marketplace is something that I would go on to like experience in my adult life like which thing is the real thing there was another Ghostbusters cartoon and this Ghostbusters cartoon featured them going through time with a fucking gorilla or some shit like that.

1:07:14And so like, the reason why the real one is called the real Ghostbusters is because it was like, hey, these are the Ghostbusters that you know. But I watched the other Ghostbusters for like four shows. And it was different dudes, right? It was different dudes like waiting for them to become the Ghostbusters from the movie. Right. And then the real Ghostbusters comes out. It's completely different. It's the first time I realized that as a kid.

1:07:34Bill Simmons:I had the green slimer as a withage the best because Aykroyd and Ramos really wanted the green Slimer to be like Belushi. So they were really pushing the guy to be like, can you make this Belushi-esque and make him like a party animal, slobby, and they spent a lot of money on it. And it's like really important to Aykroyd. It's like they feel like that's how they got Belushi in the movie with this green Slimer. That's really cool. Yeah. I think Slime, period, has aged really well. 80s and 90s, big Slime. Nickelodeon took it over. Nickelodeon, all that stuff. Good point. The promo stuff, this is what I forgot to mention.

1:08:06Bill Simmons:the top they had a theatrical trailer with the toll-free telephone number and a message with murray and akroyd and everyone called it and it was for some reason worked really well with the marketing um you mentioned the busters thing so the ghostbusters phenomenon you had uh budget busters crop busters nuke busters litter busters price busters was pan american airlines so busters just took off and eventually became Mythbusters and stuff we have now. The No Ghost logo was modified to protest Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale, Mickey Mouse, Union stuff. That kept going. And then Murray, when he says, this chick is toast, they think it's the first time somebody ever said toast as like a slang term and then it took off.

1:08:54Bill Simmons:No shit. Oh, really? Wow. They don't think it existed before this. Interesting. Yeah. Great shot. quarter award most cinematic shot i don't have a specific shot but this movie shot by lazlo kovacs kovacs who's like a hungarian cinematographer did stuff for bogdanovich and then winds up shooting a bunch of stuff in the 80s a lot of new york that makes that basically that that 80s new york vibe of movies that moves on from like the super gritty to the more like hey yeah people can live here now and it's wall street and like people have advertising executive jobs and that look is very distinctive and he did like legal eagles and um he did ghostbusters obviously and say anything so he shot mask he's just like a really good cinematographer but all of the new york stuff that he shoots the crowd scenes and stuff are just great i have a great shot gordo since you didn't have one when they're going up the stairs at the end oh yeah and they have that one shot where it just seems like it's a hundred floors of stairs above them.

1:10:00Bill Simmons:When we get to 20, let me know. I'm going to puke. Yeah, it's just really, it's a really cool shot. Chess Rock World Brocklanders Award for Best Character Name. Is it Dr. Peter Venkman? No. I think it's G-Gon Spangler. It's Gozer the Gozerian. Oh, Gozer the Gozerian. Gozer the Gozerian. Denethy's Benny Hanna Award. Would you go Dana's apartment, the library, or something else? I had the Firehouse. Firehouse is fantastic. Do you know what I like that we don't see on film that much. Tavern on the Green. When they're outside and he's running through, that's in trading places. I just love the way the outside looks.

1:10:35It's always like all these people that are eating in there and not noticing what's happening outside. They did that a couple times. I love that.

1:10:40Bill Simmons:I snuck a category and I didn't tell you. What is it? It's going to get acrimonious. The Rose from Titanic Award for character who's sneaky sucks. Egon. Oh. Harold Ramis made a choice to never smile as Egon in this entire movie because he didn't think he thought he wanted the character to be super serious. molds, and fungus. Yeah. Spores. He's fine. I think him and Andy Potts. Like you said there, the Beatles, it's like, he's fine. Yeah, well, you need a Ringo. He's fine. What's your problem? He's fine. But like what, he's the brain of the operation. First of all, crack a smile, maybe get two jokes in there or something.

1:11:22Bill Simmons:He delivers funny lines. Stripes, he's really good. When he's like Ray, the interest rate alone after five years is$95 ,000. That is funny. Craig? I'm closer to that. He serves the right purpose. He's a role player. Okay. He's just setting picks. He's fine. What do you have for Flex category? The Dorfler's Door Award for how much of that hurt is when Vinkman gets slimed. Oh. Recovers really quickly for having a physical contact with a ghost. And is it like, what do you think? It's like super thick, gooey stuff? What's going on? Oh, Jesus Christ. So yeah, I had... Bill caught himself. Bill was like, isn't it thick?

1:12:05Well, I just had to remember her.

1:12:07Bill Simmons:I was sitting next to her. It's very true. And then I was going to try and do a book about medals for this movie, and it's the whole movie. Right. When he got slimed, did it paralyze him? That's what I'm asking. Yeah. It seems like he was like, I can't move. It seems like the slime took over him. the Sean Penn I brought my own pack award for excellence in on-screen smoking Ackroyd Ackroyd's dangling cigarette thing that he pulls off or I don't know how he kept it in his mouth and apparently no adhesives or anything he just knew how to do it there's a 59 second smoking super cut from this movie that I sent you guys I watched it could have been longer the Butch's Girlfriend Award for weak link of the film oh this was tough come on man this was tough I really could not think of a weak link and I'm not gonna give it to Ernie Hudson on this goddamn podcast.

1:12:58I really thought about this. I wanted to push myself to think about a weak link in the movie and I could not think of one. Every character that speaks sort of has... Are you saying this because you're like, you don't want LeBron to talk bad about Memphis? Like, you don't want to talk bad about Ernie Hudson? I mean, if you were gonna give a weak link, that would be the sore thumb, right? And I'm not, but even he is not a weak link. I think he... Well, don't do a drive-by at Annie Potts just because you don't want to speak the truth about Ernie Hudson. It's not Annie Potts, though. To me, it's not Annie Potts.

1:13:26Annie Potts is an important character, too. I don't think... I really don't think the movie has a weak link. I'm being for real. I agree with him. And I don't have any caveats.

1:13:34Bill Simmons:What the fuck? Here we go. I think it's Winston. See? Yeah. Let's do it. That's your podcast. Go ahead and do it. It's Ernie Hudson aside. It's not an Ernie Hudson thing to me. You can't do that. You fucking... It's not an Ernie Hudson thing. Yeah. I just don't really understand why he shows up halfway through the movie and I think the whole thing it's too much work for three ghostbusters I agree with everything Craig said but he just shows up so they just need, they would need ten more well that's what, I mean Andy Potts is saying like you promised me more health I get in theory they're like he's gonna be the everyman but I don't feel like they really nailed the character, it just all of a sudden he's just kinda there and he never really has his moment well guess what, I understood him I got exactly what he was putting down He's the one that talks about Believing in God Like do you believe in God He deepens the Ghostbusters I love Jesus' style I don't think they had a scene with him That explains like Why I'm supposed to have a connection with him I would compare it To in the NBA season During the trade deadline When it's like we need a shooter It's like we've got Karis LeVert Here's Karis LeVert now He's on the Pistons It's like that's a great idea Karis LeVert will get and then you never figure out how to use Karis LeVert.

1:14:47Bill Simmons:This is their trade deadline, middle of the movie pickup. But I don't think they totally figured out how to incorporate them. And I think he feels it too, which is why he seems to have a complicated relationship. I think his character is probably the person hurt most by its Craig Horlbach number of running time, where it's like, there's just not enough time. The obvious point is there's a moment in the mayor's office when he's like, Your Honor, I want to speak for myself. and you could see Venkman peel off and be like, oh my God, here we go. He's going to betray us. I just had more questions than answers, but like, does he like the other Ghostbusters?

1:15:21Well, he's there for a job. Yeah. Right. I mean, he even says...

1:15:24Bill Simmons:Does he like these guys? Does he believe in what they're doing? He's like, this is not worth another five grand a year. Right. I think they needed that character because the movie got increasingly fantastical as it went along. And it's overnight success. They do one job at the hotel and then they're at fucking like Studio 54 the next night. It's cool to have like a little bit of the like Hey I need a job and like I'll just do Whatever you guys say if the money is right And it's but you so you would say this Was perfectly executed because I would disagree I wouldn't say that it was perfectly executed I wouldn't say that it's not It's not pronounced enough to warrant Criticism I Understand why they did it I think it probably made sense in the room I don't think they executed well enough in the movie There you go He needed like either one more scene where I'm like oh man, he really needs this job.

1:16:11Bill Simmons:I didn't realize he had this hardship in his life. Or, oh, his wife just died. Or something where I'm like, oh, now I'm attached to this guy. You want to kill the man's wife to make him put him in the movie. Haven't we given enough? You want to kill the man's wife. In the prison scene, he seems angry. He seems like he's mad at the guys. I'm like, don't be mad at my guys. I like these guys. Why would you think that that guy in that situation would be mad because he met these guys and ended up in jail. I know. Like, what do you think could be... It's almost better if he leaves and he's like, you guys are fucking crazy.

1:16:47Bill Simmons:I don't know. He's also the one who's like, you can't just go to the mayor and be like, it's biblical end of times. Right. Yeah. So he's the one that's sort of tempering the movie because the movie becomes a full-on science fiction fantasy in the third act. Yeah. In the last 10, 15, 20 minutes, it's like that. This was fun, though. What are you going to do? I can't wait to hear your hottest take. Jesus Christ. That's your weak link. Jesus Christ. We need one less job in the town. That's what Bill said. I'm glad he's in the movie. I just thought there's like a scene missing. My weak link is Walter Peck.

1:17:23And it's not because I don't think William Atherton is basically the prick of the 80s and is an iconic asshole in these movies. Talk about it in a second. But I think he could have used either a little bit more juice, like a slightly more earlier appearance. Like maybe he just like, his whole thing is like two scenes and it's like everything that happens could have happened by accident without the EPA throwing off the containment. Yeah, that's a good point.

1:17:53Bill Simmons:What's age the worst? Ghostbusters 2, just a money grab. None of us feel great about it. The handling of the franchise in general has probably been a little... I have three more sequels. Also, shameless money grabs. Yeah. Across the board. And the all-female Ghostbusters is one of the worst movies in the 2010s. It's really bad. It's just bad. It's a bad movie. Well, I'll tell you what I thought. I thought it was a very important movie. I thought it was a movie that had to be made. I thought it was a movie for its time. I wanted to see a film where… Are you running for mayor? I'm fucking with you.

1:18:29It sucked. But like… Fuck, Lee's was terrible. And I remember trying to... He's just awful. I remember trying to woke myself into loving it. Like, I'm sitting down... There were really good people in that movie. Hey, hey, hey. The movie, it's... Everybody is dead-ass nice at what they do. The writer, the director, all of them together, it just didn't fucking work.

1:18:49Bill Simmons:Did you watch either of the Jason Reitman movies? After Female Ghostbusters, I was out. Okay. Yeah, I was like, you know what? I feel the same way about a lot of this stuff. if I remember correctly, the thing is weird about them is they are not without some charms. Carrie Coon's really good in it, but you're just kind of like, why is this a Ghostbusters movie? It's a full-on... It's not like it's... I mean, there's too much talent on screen for it to be totally whack, but the fucking shit didn't work. And the Ghostbusters that they made, the subsequent ones, the first one I actually kind of enjoyed.

1:19:20I actually thought it was pretty cool. What, the sequel? The first sequel that they made, I think, was called Afterlife. Yeah, with all the goo underneath the city and stuff. I actually enjoyed that.

1:19:29Bill Simmons:Okay. I had for what's age the worst really tough movie for cable for about 15 years because of the pan and scan and you can see it now on the wide TVs this was filmed like a wide movie and on the pan and scan you just miss a lot of stuff and everything feels really tight this is how they did it with the square TVs and it just was always like not the best watch and now it's a great watch again because the TVs got wider but I thought it I thought it suffered for a few years there's like a couple of visual gags here that I like I only noticed like this time around where when Dana first comes in to the firehouse and she goes up to Annie Potts and then Murray just like pops up in the back of the frame and runs over the over the half wall it's great we mentioned the I want a new drug controversy and then the only other one is William Atherton claims he became reviled after the movie well I mean then he was such a bad guy and then people would be like hey Dickless and just like we're really mad at him for a few years and then he's like fuck it and doubles down and does Die Hard I have to say this I know people think that I have no taste in movies I love Ghostbusters 2 didn't you just start with I thought it was okay and now you've gotten to I love it in just like 5 seconds if I was saying I thought it was okay I love Ghostbusters 2 it's hard for me to look at the movie is bad.

1:20:59I've got my nostalgia glasses on. The one thing that age poorly in this movie is some of the establishing shots look boarded. They look like... Oh, yeah. Yeah, like, that is always a thing that stamps a movie into town. Like, some of the establishing shots in the movie, they look sort of animated and rendered in a way. You know what I'm talking about? I think that there's a bunch of stuff at the end of the movie that's basically matte paintings and stuff like that. Yeah, and they use those as establishing shots and like, that stuff never age as well to me when they do stuff like that.

1:21:25Bill Simmons:You didn't have anything else, right? Just Peter Venkman using his position as a professor to extract sexual favors out of students and clients? I just thought that was part of the job. By the way, I have a question. When Venkman is in there with the girl. With the psychic? With the psychic girl, right? Hilarious scene. Wavy lines, the whole not. When he tells Ray to come back, right, in an hour and an hour and a half, does Venkman think that he's about to fuck? Yes. in the like well if that's the case that age tore terribly and by the way an hour and a half told you nine minutes that's the floor Ruffalo Hannah Rubenick Partridge overacting award the person playing Gozer yeah who was that that's a good question they said they wanted Grace Jones and she turned it down yeah I think it was person you get when you can't get Grace Jones so they made someone look exactly like Grace Jones in terms of the aesthetic Oh Van You have a flex category Flex category Another list Slotvia Jovan Okay Played Gozer I mean There's no picture of her Alright Van's flex category He's got a list Top 5 Dick actors of the 80's You see these guys You know that they're playing dicks Oh okay Oh Like actual dicks Like they're not actually dicks in real life I'm sure these guys are lovely men But these guys played the assholes of the 80's Okay Okay Number five, Thomas F.

1:22:54Wilson. Oh, Biff. Biff. Yeah. Back to the Future 1, Back to the Future 2. Now, he doesn't have the dick catalog of some of these other guys, but Biff is just all the time.

1:23:05Bill Simmons:Hall of Fame, first ballot dick. Yes. Not only that, Biff, psychopath. Yeah. Killer. Biff wants to kill, and he has killed. Bad person. Unethical gambler. Bad person. Unethical gambler. Hold it. Number four, Paul Gleason. Yeah. The Breakfast Club, Trading Places. Oh, yeah. He plays. I make$30 ,000 a year. These kids are going to respect me. The top three is where it really gets tight. Because the top three. Because you need Atherton in there. Yeah. Number three, William Zabka. Okay. Billy Z. Johnny Lawrence, Karate Kid. Just one of the guys. And Chaz. Back to school. Chaz. Right. Yeah, back to school.

1:23:52Top two? A dick diver. A dick diver. Top two, we basically got LeBron and Jordan. Yeah. It depends on what you want. And it's Atherton and who? Spader. Oh, yeah. Mm. Atherton, like, it depends on what you like. I mean, to me, Spader is playing at another level. Yeah. You think Spader is playing at another level? Yes. But when you think about Atherton, though, Spader's number two for me. Pretty in Pink, Baby Boom, whatever movie he was in. Because he could slide the other way too and be a decent guy. That's the problem with him. Atherton could only be a dick. Atherton, Ghostbusters, Die Hard. Don't forget, Real Genius.

1:24:28Also, in Real Genius as the terrible professor. Oh, that's right. In Real Genius as well. That's three in terms of the movies I love. All-time heavyweight assholes. Do you consider Spader a dick in Sex, Lies, and Videotape? Kind of. Kind of, yeah. Kind of want to do that.

1:24:47Bill Simmons:kind of a romantic. I kind of want to do sexualizing video too. What do you mean kind of? It's on the list. It's my mom's favorite movie. Yeah. Your mom's favorite movie? Yes. Unfortunately. The fuck I'm talking about? Yeah. Yes, it is. That's a Baton Rouge classic. Would she do it with us? No. Okay. But she's asked repeatedly when we're doing it. Okay. She thinks it's the height of cinema. That and Annie Hall, she wants us to do that one too. That was great. She can't believe we haven't done a Woody Allen movie yet. Bill's mom month? Bill's mom month? Bill's mom month? Can we get that sponsor?

1:25:18Who would sponsor that? Hallmark. Hallmark? Yeah.

1:25:20Bill Simmons:Yeah, it would be alcohol. With alcohol sponsors. Josh Wines.

1:25:29So, Atherton, number one. I got Atherton number one. I feel like real genius put him over the top. Because when I was thinking about it, I like to think about this.

1:25:39Bill Simmons:Zavka did have the trilogy. I think there's also like a definitional thing, because you're going with like dramas and comedies here, and I wonder whether or not in the Schwarzenegger 80s action universe there's like like Robert Patrick but he couldn't have been in Dick's in there I thought about Gene Hackman who also tended in this decade the only one who feels like he's missing is Burt Young because he played Pauly the worst character of any movie ever but I guess you're making a distinction between Dick's and villain's yeah not villain's but Dick's because the guy who plays Cherry in another 48 hours he's the bad guy in Toy Soldiers oh yeah yeah oh but that's more of a villain Andrew Davoff yeah that's more of a Yeah.

1:26:15And Robert Davi is a big one for the 80s.

1:26:18Bill Simmons:Robert Davi was huge. That was the Goonies. William Forsyth could be in there too. Oh, yeah. I think you landed in the right spot. The CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford hottest take award. I'll go last because I think you guys are going to get up and leave. I think that Ghostbusters is the best movie to ever come out of Saturday Night Live. Ooh. And I will include not only movies based on sketches, which is how we probably usually think of SNL movies, but let's go Elf let's go Bridesmaids let's go Wayne's World Tommy Boy like I'll include a bunch now when you Austin Powers but when you get to you know is Inglourious Bastards a Saturday Night Live movie because Mike Myers is in it no it has to have like at least a couple of people from SNL and have like an SNL sensibility and it has to be like relatively close enough to when they were on the show yes can't be like 28 years later but I think this is the best movie to come out of Saturday Night Live I think it's clear.

1:27:14The question is what's two, actually? Because when I think about all the movies that we could compare it to, there's a huge, huge gap. I mean, Wayne's World and the rest of those movies were phenomenons, but there's a huge gap. Does trading places count? I think so, and I think there's a world in which Anchorman counts. I mean, that would be the competition.

1:27:33Bill Simmons:I would say it's clearly the most successful of any SNL movie ever. Anchorman, even if you were to count Anchorman, it's just like in no way, shape, or form fucking with Ghostbusters. It was almost like a slow burn, Anchorman. Yeah. That's pretty good, CR. What are we leaving out? I feel like… No, I mean, there's a bunch of the Feral movies have to be mentioned. Yeah, I mean, Step Brothers and Talladega, but a lot of those movies are like… There's a million Sandler movies. Like, Happy Gilmore has to be in there. Eddie Murphy movies? Yeah. Beverly Hills Cop? All the Eddie movies. But Eddie only may really…

1:28:07It's just Eddie in those movies. It's not like they come from like a creative nexus.

1:28:11Bill Simmons:Right, you need like at least two… people tie to SNL. It's also lasted the test of time better than any SNL movie by far. It's better than Blues Brothers. It's better than... Blues Brothers is more culturally expired. Ghostbusters is still super popular and famous. Huh. Yeah. Okay. Animal House, it's really only Belushi in that so that it doesn't go. What's your hottest take? What right do the Ghostbusters have to put ghosts in jail? I never thought about... Are the Ghostbusters the fucking police? I think to myself, like guess is my uncle Mark rest in peace right let's say that my uncle Mark who spent a lot of time at Gola State Penitentiary passed away wants to come back and visit me what right do the Ghostbusters have to incarcerate ghosts and put ghosts in jail if this was happening in 2026 we now know how you would be tweeting about Ghostbusters I would have to ask the question the reality I've never thought about this before in my life because I think my brain was regular before, and now it's warped.

1:29:14But like, I thought about it. You get to go and a police action against a ghost, tie the ghost up. The woman that was in the library, that was clearly her job. She was shushing people. She used to work there. Yeah, what was Slimer doing? Yeah, I'm just saying, like, he's hanging around. Look, if the ghosts are acting unruly, that's one thing. You talk to the ghost. Give the ghost therapy. Whatever you do. Well, this is where the EPA comes in. But what I'm saying, the EPA environment who what gives them the right to build a private prison and put the ghost in there we haven't really vetted what these guys are doing it's a private transaction between the person who calls the Ghostbusters and the Ghostbusters because the Ghostbusters are like when he's like I'm not going to pay for this they're like well we'll just let the ghost back out well yeah right so the Ghostbusters run a nuclear power private prison for ghosts and I don't know

1:30:05Bill Simmons:like was that a good use of city resources I don't think that's right yeah well you know my theory with ghosts. What? You gotta just talk to them and get to a good place with them. You don't become adversarial with the ghosts. All that's gonna do is make them want to fight you. You would be like more of a social outreach kind of ghostbuster. I would be like pro-ghost. Friendly ghost. Like how can we help you guys? Like what do we do? Now obviously there are some ghosts, you know, ghosts possessing people and all that stuff. You gotta bring Constantine in and like do all of that stuff. But like for the most part I don't know that they have the right to do what they was doing and it kind of pissed me off this time.

1:30:39Like get out of here. I have a second hot at stake real quick one. Dana's a fucking gold digger. What do you mean? Dana very clearly dissed Venkman when he first came to her apartment. Oh, that he wasn't in the stratosphere for her? Yeah, she very clearly did shit. Do you think she's dating the guy who's snorting afrin? She was dating him. But you know what changed? What changed is she saw Venkman on TV. He became a small business owner. Bateman became a small business owner. He became a celebrity. Yeah. And even when he comes up to her the next time, when she sees him, she smiles. Because now he's famous.

1:31:21Bill Simmons:You know what? I respect it. She's a classical violinist. She's tall and she's hot. And she's not going to date some discount. She's just making her way through the New York City 80s. She's got guys who run restaurants coming after her and hedge fund guys. She's got high-end high-end people. Gordon Gickle is at the goddamn orchestra. Bernard King made a run at her. She's got a lot of options. Lawrence Taylor has called her. Do you think she dated Bernard King, but then the knee injuries kind of took him out of the mix for her? Then she was out. Did she go for Dennis Peck? Yeah, Dennis Peck. So what's your hottest take?

1:31:56Bill Simmons:You guys aren't going to be happy. I think if Sigourney and Kathleen Turner switch movies in 1984, everyone wins. Romancing the Stones? Sigourney does Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile. And Kathleen Turner does Ghostbusters 1 and 2. And this movie goes to another level. And when she's possessed, I think I'm dead. I think in 1984, that's it. I have like a testicle explosion. I'm just dead.

1:32:30Bill Simmons:Possessed Kathleen Turner. It's like, what happened to your son? He died. It's a weird story. He exploded. What? What? What is leading you to want to, like, improve Ghostbusters by 5 %? What are you doing? This is the whole point of the hottest take award. This is a hot take. You forget which. I just think you switch Kathleen Turner and Sigourney. Do you want Kathleen Turner and Eddie Murphy in Ghostbusters? I think Sigourney would have been amazing in Romancing the Stone. Sure. It would have really worked. It would have really worked. I don't know how well Kathleen Turner works in this. So, Ronnie Weaver does War of the Roses?

1:33:01Like, does she take the Turner spot?

1:33:03Bill Simmons:She does War of the Roses. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what. We just do some switcheroos. Maybe Kathleen Turner's in Dave. You forget what type of time Kathleen Turner was. I didn't forget. That's why this was my hot stick. Damn. She was... Kathleen Turner in the mid-80s is, to me, all-time pantheon. She's a Mar-a-Lago superstar right here. Yeah, she just oozed sexuality in every moment of her life. Your testicle would explode. That's what you said? I said there would have been a testicular explosion. But why? Why? Why? But do you feel like a part of this... Do you feel like she was maybe too smoldering for this movie?

1:33:41Yeah, she's too hot for Ghostbusters.

1:33:43Bill Simmons:The thing is, she was miscast on a romance in the stone because she plays this mouncy romance novelist who gets unleashed by Michael Douglas, swashbuckling, misadventure. And it's like, that's a better Sigourney Reaver role. Kathleen Turner is like, I'm a hot classical violinist. And now I'm possessed by Zool. Are you just looking at pictures of Kathleen Turner for the rest of this podcast? Yeah, sorry. Van's gone. Yeah, man. We had to take one more break. I never really. Yeah. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued. Ask your doctor about ZepBound Terzepatite, the first and only FDA approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA and adults with obesity.

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1:35:44Bill Simmons:This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty limited time flavors. New Whole Foods Market Peach Apricot Rose Italian Soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch, as is their trending mango yuzu chantilly cake. But if you're on the go, new 365 strawberry pretzels make a great sweet snack. That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sale signs store-wide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. save at Whole Foods Market. All right, casting what ifs. There's a ton, including Chevy Chase claiming in 2018 that he turned down Venkman.

1:36:31Bill Simmons:Yeah. Again, all I have is the sniff test for these. So which one of these? That one didn't smell right to me. Let me ask you this. Do you believe Chevy Chase and Bill Murray have had a weird relationship for 50 years? I believe there was a phone call. And he's like, yeah, I could have done Ghostbusters. But I believe there's also like in the half-assed internet research for this, There is just a real, like, Bill Murray is not in your movie until he is in the first day of shooting. Do we have backup plans? Yes. Was there a phone call? Possibly. I'm going to read you the what-ifs that are listed on the internet for Venkman.

1:37:03Just give me the one that you think is the most interesting. Okay, cool. Michael Keaton, Chevy Chase, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams. I don't believe that one. Steve Guttenberg. No way. And Richard Pryor.

1:37:15Bill Simmons:No. Okay. So, I believe Keaton. I don't believe Hanks. Keaton was the one that I thought was the most interesting I think Keaton made a ton of sense and I think he would have been good in the movie and I'm pro Michael Keaton Keaton has played versions of this role oh yeah yeah like he's wisecracking he's basically this in Gung Ho Gung Ho yeah in Gung Ho as you know Billy Blaise Jowski I think is one of the funniest characters in the history of anything and I think he could have just been Billy Blaise Jowski from Night Shift from Night Shift from Night Shift yeah the one that I was most interested in was the Egon Rumors Christopher Walken John Lithgow Christopher Lloyd Jeff Goldblum Goldblum seems like he turned it Goldblum turned it down Did he?

1:38:00Bill Simmons:That was in the research But then you read the Reitman story And it's like yeah it was our three guys But it does seem like Ramis eventually became Igor But Egon yeah Egon Who's Igor? The guy in the Nets? Igor Damon? He eventually became Igor Damon on the Nets Egon I love that those are the two things you've got in your brain But I wonder if there was a moment When he didn't think he was going to be in it Goldblum I think is really good Walken's interesting I think Walken chews up too much scenery Do you want Eddie Murphy to play Winston? I know But that's Eddie Murphy What version of Walken would you have wanted?

1:38:41Bill Simmons:Would you have wanted Deer Hunter? It's basically Andy Hall Walken Would you want Roulette?

1:38:51Guys, when the Deer Hunter will we do that? Have you seen Deer Hunter?

1:38:55Bill Simmons:No. Oh, my God. Oh, we talked about this. Yeah. Talk about a movie that obliterates the Horlbeck scale. I think it's four and a half flowers long. But it moves quick, though. Lots happening, every scene. Apparently, Daryl Hannah, Denise Crosby, Julia Roberts, and Kelly LeBrock auditioned for Dana. Julia Roberts? She was too young. In 1984? Yeah, she was... I don't know if I believe that. LeBrock's interesting. John Candy offered Lewis till he turned it down. Wanted to do Lewis with a German accent. They definitely went hard after John Candy. And he just didn't get it. And then Sandra Bernhard turned down Janine.

1:39:32Bill Simmons:I think we wound up in the right place with everything. Right. And then Paul Rubens was allegedly going to be Gozer for a second. I don't know if I believe that one. All of these, I just don't know if I believe. That's that guy. So is William Atherton of that guy? Or is he William Atherton? I think you can throw him in there. I think he's probably that guy. Is he that guy to you? He is a that guy to me. Yeah. Okay. But he's that guy from Die Hard or that guy from Ghostbusters. Correct. I think David Margulies who plays the mayor. Oh, he's a really good that guy. Jennifer Runyon was a stealth that guy.

1:40:05Bill Simmons:She was in Up the Creek, Charles in Charge, whole season. Key 90210 episode. And she played Cindy Brady in A Very Brady Christmas. All in like five years. Dion Waiter's award Moranis is in it too much No he's not He's in three scenes No He's in the whole last 20 minutes I got him or Andy Pox I got to talk to you for a second About Dion Dion He's in it too much Isn't about a screen time limit It's about what you do With your screen time He's like the sixth lead In the movie Uh Come on The movie has six characters Help me out here No he's clearly right He's in it for like 45 minutes He meets her outside of her apartment.

1:40:46He has his party.

1:40:47Bill Simmons:Yeah. Gets chased. Then he does Vince Corfo. He has the whole scene outside the apartment. He has the whole party scene. He has the whole chase scene. With the Vince Corfo scene, we didn't even talk about enough where he's just like, do you want some coffee? Yes, have some. Yes. And he's smelling the fucking landline. It's so funny. So is Ernie Hudson eligible? Yeah, but Ernie Hudson is not funnier than fucking Rick Moranis. He's trying to start shit. Okay. You want to double down? All right, if you want to make Moranis eligible, that's fine. What do you think, Craig? Is he eligible? I just looked it up.

1:41:13He's in, this is according to AI, eight to ten minutes of this movie. I can't be right. Eight to ten minutes, that's it? No, he's in roughly eight to ten minutes of screen time in this movie. If you take the pro version, can you get an actual run time? Claude or chat GPT. Would you have Annie Potts? No, I think I'd have Moranis.

1:41:32Bill Simmons:I just wanted to make sure he's in it. Do you like Annie Potts in this movie? I think she's lovely. Yeah, she's fine. She's good. She's good. I like Annie Potts. I like to read. Yeah. Her accent is crazy. Or acting as crazy. Out of control. Or hitting on Egon. All of that. Yeah, she's good. I love her. Recasting couch director of City. The John Candy one really stuck in my head. Okay. He ends up doing Splash, so he's represented in 1984 in a good way. But it's just a really interesting twist if he's that character. I don't know what's better, because I think Moranis is great. Craig did his flex half-assed internet research Columbia had Frank Price who ended up becoming a great teammate of Michael Eisner's and then died tragically in a plane crash when he was the number two guy at Disney he became the head of Universal after he bought the script and believed in the script so much he sold Columbia the title for$500 ,000 plus 1 % of the film profits there you go smart son of a bitch Frank Price smart dude yeah Yeah.

1:42:39Richard Edlin did all the special effects,

1:42:41Bill Simmons:used part of the budget to found Boss Film Studios because there were like no special effects studios back then. And they advanced$5 million and started this whole thing. The Marshmallow Man outfit designed by Bill Bryan, who modeled his walk after Godzilla, 18 foam suits cost almost$600 ,000. And he had to have a separate air supply because the whole thing was so toxic. Marshmallow was raining down the crowd with shaving cream. Yeah. Gave a lot of people rashes. But you know what? I was thinking like... 1984 was great. That would be so dope if it was actually Marshmallows and you were just like an extra on the set of Ghostbusters.

1:43:19Bill Simmons:Just picking Marshmallow out of your hair for five years. The original library ghost puppet was too scary and had to be given in the Fright Night movie. Oh. Interesting. I like Fright Night. You mentioned the Biltmore. There is a deleted scene where Rey has a sexual encounter with a female ghost they decided to cut. Sorry, man. Wait a minute. Ray does have a... He does have a sexual encounter from a female ghost that's in the movie. He gets his zipper. He gets his zipper taken off. But I think there's like... Oh, that's a runner? Like a running gag? I think it goes further. Oh, okay. And then the rooftop, the final confrontation was at a sound stage that required 50 ,000 amps of electricity to properly light it.

1:44:02Bill Simmons:And Columbia had to shut down all of their other stages while they did this because it was so much electricity. Ironic. Like almost a parallel to the movie. Apex Mountain. Oh, I had one more piece of internet research. From the Vanity Fair, kind of not an oral history, but it's like a making of Ghostbusters piece. When they're basically waiting to find out whether Murray's going to do this movie. And they're not sure until like the day of the movie. So Murray flies back to New York after the Razor's Edge shoot. This is from Vanity Fair. Ramis and Reitman picked him up at LaGuardia Airport to show him the reworked script.

1:44:35Quote, Bill flew in on a private plane an hour late, Ramis said in the 1985 interview. He came through the terminal with a stadium horn, one of those bullhorns that plays 80 different fight songs, and he was addressing everyone in sight with this thing. They had to drag him out and take him to a restaurant in Queens where they showed him the script and he had no input and just said, I trust you guys. He does the movie.

1:44:58Bill Simmons:That would have been good for the Steven Seagal category. Apex Mountain Murray, I think, yes. Okay Yeah Could make an argument For Groundhog Day But yeah Ackroyd I think Groundhog Day Is a good No he's after this It's like I mean he didn't work For four years Cause this movie is so huge Groundhog Day becomes like this Like gigantic Huge Ackroyd Probably Trading Places Well he wrote this though And he basically like Kind of is the custodian Of the Ghostbusters franchise So I think that in some ways This is his It's his apex I'm gonna go out on a limb And say that Groundhog Day to me is... For Bill Murray.

1:45:37For Bill Murray. But yeah.

1:45:39Bill Simmons:Sigourney Weaver? No. Nah, I don't know. Aliens. Aliens. 55 Central Park West? Yes. Ramis? Uh... Yes? I guess... Probably being a director. It would be this or Groundhog Day. Probably Groundhog Day. Stay Puft Marshmallows? Yes. Yes. Real Brand? Is it? Yeah. Is it? I thought it was. Didn't look it up. Ghost movies? I have that as to me I think it is this or ghosts this is the debate that I'm here for is it ghost or ghost busters for the number one ghost movie of all time for me it's busting did you do ghost with us when we did that and rewatched not that was you me and Amanda where you said that this is your idea of the afterlife yeah I thought that was I thought what happens in ghost is what happens in hell is that you skip at the end when they bring Willie Lopez they pull him down the shadows come out and pull him down in the ground right that's what happens oh wow okay I think they really figured it out in the real like what happened when you look at your dead self and then the fucking shadows come out and pull you down it was very sad scene which one is it I think it's Ghostbusters Ghostbusters or Ghost I think it's Ghostbusters boy I would have put Poltergeist in the running too Poltergeist is cool but Poltergeist is cool I think it's Ghostbusters but it is like it's razor thin to me Ghost is like such a big deal some other people might be like it's paranormal activity or it's it's it's conjuring or something like that paranormal activity is really good I like that movie New York City movies?

1:47:19Bill Simmons:no no Ernie Hudson? Oz? what else was he what's his biggest thing? well he plays the special needs gardener in Hand That Rocks the Cradle yeah he was in Oz for a couple years Oz he plays the warden that's right he's good at us I like Ernie Hudson yeah don't try to stay on that side yeah on the record it's like Ernie Hudson stay on that side I like it I don't think that part was Ernie Hudson's fault Ernie is the man but this is probably what he's best known for I think so he's one of the ghostbusters is he in the sequel? yes does he have a larger role? basically the same a little bit larger Rick Moranis?

1:47:57no no

1:47:58Bill Simmons:right? it's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids yeah New York City library scenes? might be yeah I think New York City Public Library probably the Cedric Hotel never heard of that before this movie anything else uh turning into dogs oh yeah could it could it be think about other I mean turning into dogs there's I mean there's Twilight where you turn into a wolf there's other stuff but it's just yeah I was gonna say this isn't it's hard to articulate what exactly is the apex mountain but one of the things that bums me out about modern architecture is you're just never going to get a story like the occult architect who built in like a special metal to make it a superconductor of paranormal stuff.

1:48:42Like it's like got five condos above a Trader Joe's. Like nothing's going to happen there. Ghost combat. Last one. Is this the apex of ghost combat? I'm asking. Because there's actually a ghost. Fighting with ghosts. Tussling with the ghosts. I would say Ice Cube and Ghost of Mars. this is pretty good ghost combat I think it is

1:49:03Bill Simmons:Cruiser Hanks I have Hanks Hanks Scorsese or Spielberg Spielberg this is tough no it's not you don't want to see Marty's version of this in New York City no no no no Travis Bickle becomes a ghost monster instead of marshmallows you guys are so fucking boring with this one the Van Lathan Award did this movie need more black people nah okay Picking Nets is Dana's apartment too nice feels like it is so that feels like an apartment that it's like Mimi Rogers' apartment and someone to watch over me isn't that like the single most coveted spot in New York City Central Park West has always been one of the great you know real estate like if I could pick any apartment location it might be that literal apartment but I think she's got a one bedroom like it's not like she's living in a penthouse apartment it is very nice I think she comes from money cause like I think oh she calls her mother that's why yeah that's why she doesn't like Venkman she doesn't like Venkman cause he doesn't have any bread She's a concert cellist or whatever She probably went to all the finest schools Fucking Sorbonne Wherever you go Wherever you go to do that I don't know where you go But she's with Juilliard Wherever you go Juilliard And so she went to all that And that's what she's doing That's why she's stuck up Goes to bring her back down to earth Well I had for her You got a little edge about Dana I didn't like that part man Like don't front on me When I come over there To help you with the ghost situation And then after I blow up You want to be down with me Don't front on me He's turkey basing her apartment And is like When can we go get Chinese food That's facts I had an ex-picking Why did Dana like Benkman?

1:50:29Bill Simmons:What turned it? We already talked about this. We already know. You've lost up. Probably a little cash. My only other one is, I just think hundreds of people would have been killed by falling debris during the ending. I think all the people that were in the bottom of looking up, they're all dead. Just things are falling down and hitting them. What do you have, Ciar? For picking nits? Yeah. I really love your point about what gave them the right and would there be any oversight? Furthermore, more like the New York City being in a paranormal pandemonium I think would just be a much bigger deal. I know we see a brief moment of like the National Guard coming out but I just don't think they would leave it up to these four guys who got kicked out of NYU or Columbia.

1:51:11Bill Simmons:Yeah, this is a city that protested the premiere of the Warriors. I think that would have the paranormal activity would have been tough. Why are the Ghostbusters allowed to have a blueprint in jail? oh yeah dude why do they have they're in jail they're looking at a blueprint that was movie jail though where it's like a big it's almost like a big recess they take your stuff and they put it in the thing but they're letting them I think it's like a holding cell okay holding cell whatever they had other motherfuckers in there I don't even know if those dudes have gotten processed why are they allowed to have a blueprint in there to like look at a blueprint and stuff in there it's a good one sequel prequel prestige to be all black cast untouchable Sadly we got sequels This should have been an untouchable We should have been done Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins Fergie the florist, Ryan Rucco Gus Johnson, Zane Lowe What do you got, Ciara?

1:52:07I got Zane when Gozer shows up He's just like Zane Gozer the Gozerian It's great to see you man Or woman because you take many forms Just like your music Your music is undefinable And so are you but I have to say good evening and as a duly designated representative of the city, county and state of New York I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension and we'll be listening Zane was wordy yeah wordy Zane this time

1:52:54Bill Simmons:I wanted to introduce Shaquille O 'Neal Oh my god As the Inside the NBA Analyst Analyzing the Ghostbusters movie And just saying I thought the best Person movie was Gozer the Garzerian And then everybody Kind of goes Okay cool And then they go To commercial The others Just want to ask her Who gets it The song Bill Murray Bill Murray Venkman. Venkman for Best Actor? Yeah. The song that ripped off Huey Lewis gets Best Oscar? It was nominated. They didn't know at the time. But Venkman. I got Venkman. So you have Bill Murray winning the Oscar. Well, who won in 1980? What was that year? I'm going to look it up.

1:53:34Bill Simmons:Is it going to be like Raging Bull or something? It's about not in my nose. Gandhi? 84. Can I guess? Gandhi? No. Chariots of Fire? No. I just called to say I Love You from Woman in Red. Oh, that won the Oscar. No. F. Murray Abraham and Amadeus. It's fine. Jet Bridges and Starman. Albert Finney under the volcano. Tom Holtz. And Amadeus. Sam Watterston in the Killings Fields was really good. He's really good. I'm just saying I'm not as far off as you think. I like it, CR. I respect it. I think there could have been room for Albert Finney under the volcano. I don't know what the fuck was going on there.

1:54:15Bill Simmons:Yeah. Not a bad call. Thanks, bud. probably unanswerable questions.

1:54:24Bill Simmons:We just have to play out, is this movie better or worse with Belushi than Bill Murray? And the answer is it's worse. Yeah. I love Belushi. That was one of my guys. I do think he needed this in the Belushi IMDb if he hadn't lost his mind and died of a drug overdose. This was the kind of movie that I think would have been great for him. He just didn't have it. He didn't have a leading man... trying to be like dashing and just nothing like this. Which is probably why Bill Murray was writing it for him. He died on his climb. I mean, accurate. He was still on his climb when he passed away. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:54:57Bill Simmons:I think this would have been a huge one for him. Similar would you rather would be, would you rather if this movie come out five years later, six years later, slightly better special effects? Now, because I really feel like 84 was the quintessential year for this to come out. I think it's like perfect. timing of it The Floyd Gondali Butter in My Ass and Lollipops in My Mouth Award for something I just enjoy. The Keymaster. Just a great nickname. What are we doing? How is KD not the Keymaster? Oh, KD the Keymaster. Yeah. Well, if you do a Keymaster, you have to also have the Gatekeeper. So Jason Tatum could have been the Keymaster and Jalen Brown could have been the Gatekeeper?

1:55:46Bill Simmons:The Gatekeeper and the Keymaster. Yeah. But you have to have people that like each other. and you have to have people who know Ghostbusters so you can't have those maybe like yeah that could be Steph Castle and Victor Weminyama yeah you have to have teammates who would have been the key master Wemby's the gatekeeper he's closing the door at the back of the back of the play key master's really good yeah I think really feel like my Floyd is Bill Murray working a crowd so when they first get out of Ecto when they get up to Dana's apartment at the end and he's just like you know him you love him it's Ray Stance This guy has the city in the palm of his ear.

1:56:23This is crazy. Mine is the fireplace poles that you slide down. Oh, fuck. Oh, yeah. Good one. Let's go. Should I get that? I can put that way up there. I love that joint. Remember the old Batman show?

1:56:37Bill Simmons:Yeah. Where they would start off as Bruce Wayne and then slide down. What are we doing? Do any of these hype houses have fucking fire poles? I haven't seen any. You know what happened? The poles turned into used for strippers. we stopped thinking about them being conventional going from up here to down here and just thinking about women dancing women dancing I've seen some amazing things the secret handshake club memorabilia you'd want from this movie for me it's one of the proton packs there's got to be four total and we can't do Ecto-1 the car right? no but that car is pretty crazy it's also great when he pulls up and Murray's like, you can't park that here.

1:57:20You can't park that here. And the look, the look on Murray's face when he tells him how much he paid for the car.

1:57:26Bill Simmons:Yeah. They're in on him and he just like gives that look. It's like 4 ,800 bucks. He needs new shocks, new brakes, new brake pads. Yeah, how much, how much? 4 ,800 dollars and the look that he gives. That car's still out there. Yeah. They have it out there when you go see it. I always wanted one of the proton pads. I would do Ghostbusters jumpsuit. Hmm. Yeah. Coach Finstock, Mr. Miyagi, best worst life lesson ghosts are fucking real that's my lesson don't underestimate them Van I'm not you know I believe in it best double feature choice I have Big Trouble in Little China which I probably have picked before but has a similar comic sci-fi element to it I had the Blues Brothers stay in the side it's a long fucking night because Blues Brothers is a long movie I had Cop with Cisco 84 Beverly Hills Cop Ghostbusters the James Wood Beverly Hills Cop Because Cop would be amazing.

1:58:17Who won the movie? Murray. Peter Venkman won the movie, my friend. Bill Murray. There's a Reitman case. Yeah, for sure. Looks better than... It's very well directed. This is John Landis. Meatballs, stripes.

1:58:35Bill Simmons:He's now, with this movie, becomes not only the premier comedy director of that generation, but as a director and producer, just becomes a fucking juggernaut goes right to Arnold Schwarzenegger which is the kindergarten cop and has this crazy run from what 79 to 93 all the way through Dave 15 years and Ghostbusters is the NBA Finals MVP for him because you think about it I'm not slagging John Landis necessarily but like if John Landis is directing this movie there's like a 20 minute car crash scene in New York City you get like way more stay puff Marshmallow Man than you need. There's like, there's just a lot more action.

1:59:18And Reitman just seems to know exactly why people will respond to this film. Yeah. I had a bad joke.

1:59:24Bill Simmons:I would go Reitman, but you guys, who do you have for this? I would go Murray. Murray carries the hell out of this movie. Not that it's like, he's the only reason it's good, but he is cooking. If somebody was like, why do you think Bill Murray's funny? I'd show him Ghostbusters. Yeah. It also feels the most like he, like the lines were not written and he was coming up with them, which I think you also have to give him credit for. That's kind of my takeaway. way seeing this movie again because it had been a really long time it's crazy to me how movies like this that feel so like i don't want to say unfinished but movies that feel like to kind of make it up as they go where it's like the script wasn't really finished bill mary just showed up last second there was something i was reading about annie potts just like showed up the day she needed to shoot they had like no costume for she took like the hairdresser's glasses and put them on and then just wore those for the whole movie it's just it's so haphazard the way these things are thrown together and it's just and now those glasses are kind of like iconic they're very yeah yeah and it's just crazy how messy those these movies were of this era and how they worked and now that just wouldn't happen now everything would be so finished and glossy and purposeful and and safe and safe and i think ultimately what's aged the best from this movie is just friends being in movies together which is just like you don't really see because there's friends in movies that's a good call it is a good call let's make a movie we should let's do it what What would our movie be about?

2:00:41Bill Simmons:The four of us. Four of us? Trying to find a bar in San Francisco after a live show. That actually would be a really good start for a one crazy night movie. Having to walk six tenths of a block downhill and Mallory's dying and then something happens. No, it would be we record a podcast in a house from a famous movie and then something happens in the house. The Boogie Nights house. Yeah, we're in the Boogie Nights house. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Or we're in the Halloween house recording a rewatchable. I think it's a one crazy night yeah it's one crazy night and it's clearly San Francisco because San Francisco closes it's one of the five nights of the year that you're like we're drinking tonight hey yeah you know what the name of the movie is?

2:01:19Dan's ordering pizzas we order pizza to the bar the movie is called what was the cocktail that you kept getting? I can't remember it was a banana something banana something banana-rama? banana-rama banana-rama the name of the movie is Live Show and it's about

2:01:33Bill Simmons:live show it's about doing a live show in a place it's the big live show and everything goes wrong that's the name of the movie live show yeah we learned that night when Van says I shouldn't tell you this because I've had too much to drink that's a great bar though shout out that bar it's like fucking buckle up at that point Peacekeeper that was a good bar Peacekeeper bar Peacekeeper it's a great bar great bar one of the only bars in San Francisco open past 930 at night everywhere I've said that to a couple people who stared at me like I was out of my mind so obviously we were in the wrong we were probably in the wrong part of town but whatever they talking about they full of shit because we would go places they'd be like it's 915 get the fuck out and then we went and got coffee what was the name of that place coffee movement coffee movement waited on line for 10 minutes which violates everything I believe in it's close though literally everything and then they only had 10 ounce cups so you got two so I had to get two 10 ounce coffees it's really funny and guess what it was fucking delicious it was worth it I would wait on that line again I had a fun time man I rode the trolley we went to the game Chipsis was the best it was amazing when are we going back Crowd was great Crowd was great The theater was great Yeah great theater Peace maker ended up Being great Tony V making moves With the Giants Line up We were At that one place That was at the top Of the hotel Top of the Top of the Top of the mark Top of the mark Yeah Had drinks Beautiful We were starving Kicked out No food They looked at us Like we were the Fucking outsiders Just walked in Yeah It's definitely A secret handshake Club city And we didn't know The handshake For food and bars, but I still like San Francisco.

2:03:12Bill Simmons:The NCR, thank you. Craig Gahau, thank you. Thanks to Eduardo as well. Anybody else? Matt. Matt. Shout out. Alright, next month we're, it's gonna be a comedy month. Netflix is a joke. We're doing a bunch of comedies in May. So stay tuned. Thanks, guys. No problem.

2:03:40What's a wonderful thing, työ?