Bill Simmons

51 sketches, 1,295 claims, and 677 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

Showing 41–51 of 51 sketches.

The Rewatchables: ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ Live From Sundance With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan (host)

Loves charisma performances, movie stars at their peak, and trivia from Tarantino's circle. Champions Brad Pitt as the winner. Can't stand awards mistakes like The Artist winning, and he warns about the 'Oscars should wait five years' view. A sucker for 1960s details, driving scenes, and Boogie Nights real estate.

Stances

  • Brad Pitt won the movie
  • Oscars should be awarded five years later
  • Focus is underrated

Humor: Runs bits on movies he almost bought, fake research, and sports-style comparisons.

In their words

  • “I think Pitt won the movie.” (1:17:58)
  • “I think I'm the only one that likes focus.” (0:32:43)

The Rewatchables: ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ With Bill Simmons, Wesley Morris, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan (host)

Loves the mid-80s Eddie Murphy and the movie's cultural phenomenon, and has a clear soft spot for Lisa Eilbacher. Is a sucker for Hollywood-excess anecdotes (Simpson, cocaine, Rourke, Stallone) and for sports analogies. Has little patience for plot logic holes but loves list games and categories.

Stances

  • Eddie Murphy in 1984 was the biggest star in the world after Michael Jackson
  • Lisa Eilbacher is the Apex Mountain and the film's winner
  • The Eddie-Murphy-as-star what-if game (Top Gun) is a worthwhile question

Humor: Rapid-fire sports analogies (WAR, LeBron, Dion Waiters, Shawn Michaels) and mock-indignant asides.

In their words

  • “Eddie Murphy was my guy.” (0:02:07)
  • “Dion Waiters Award” (1:05:34)
  • “Lisa Elbacher, 100,000%.” (1:09:44)

The Rewatchables: ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan (host)

Loves the lore of how a movie got made, the lists (casting what-ifs, recasting), and the 'unanswerable questions' category. Has little patience for Lawrence Tierney's acting or for Ebert missing on Tarantino. He remembers the 1992 Boston era of a movie that mattered and is a sucker for a heist.

Stances

  • Tarantino won the movie
  • Lawrence Tierney is bad (the 'Mike Francesa' bit)
  • Does not want new Reservoir Dogs content
  • Wants to see the heist, plays devil's advocate

Humor: Throws sports analogies, invents award names, and runs recurring bits like Roger Ebert and Felony Land.

In their words

  • “I love bank ice scenes.” (1:23:55)
  • “It's Tarantino, and I think all of those actors robbing a bank.” (1:23:22)
  • “Can I make the case for seeing the heist?” (1:23:18)

The Rewatchables: ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins (host)

Loves ensemble casts and film-lineage framing, sports analogies (Dwight Gooden, Penny Hardaway), and the show's recurring awards. Wants a better soundtrack, and cannot stand the ending speech. Is a sucker for his wife and kids' opinions of the film.

Stances

  • Mean Girls is the best Lorne Michaels movie
  • Lohan's decline is like an athlete's lost career
  • Soundtrack and ending speech are weak

Humor: Dry, sports-and-family riffs, often teased by his co-hosts.

In their words

  • “that was like Dwight Gooden in 1985 on the Mets.” (0:27:59)
  • “I think this is the best Lauren Michaels movie.” (0:16:22)

The Rewatchables: ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin (host)

Bill loves old-school sports myth-making, baseball nostalgia, the Natural's chill scene, and stat-nerd rabbit holes like reconstructing Roy Hobbs's season. He is picky about throwing motions and lineup logic, and is a sucker for the dugout-emptying slow-motion shot. He ranks Bull Durham/Hoosiers/Rocky near the top and finds slow hospital stretches in sports movies unbearable.

Stances

  • The Natural used to be the greatest sports movie but is now slower than he remembers
  • Every great sports movie needs a chill scene
  • Dislikes bad throwing motions on screen
  • Hospital detours in sports movies should be cut short
  • Roy Hobbs was a Bonds-level statistical machine, or worse

Humor: Dry, list-making sports-nerd riffs and reaching pop-culture asides (Bachelor, Harry Potter) delivered as if serious.

In their words

  • “My move with sports movies is like, get me out of the hospital as fast as possible.” (1:00:37)
  • “nothing drives me crazier than when somebody can't throw in a baseball movie.” (0:56:43)

The Rewatchables: ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan (host)

Loves Gen X touchstones and basketball analogies; sticks up for Winona Ryder and Friends season one; mocks Troy-type guys and over-talky English majors. A sucker for half-assed internet research and awards-bit tradition.

Stances

  • Winona Ryder won the movie
  • Singles is a flawed but beloved sibling
  • Ben Stiller deserves credit

Humor: Rolls NBA references and mock-feuds into everything.

In their words

  • “I do look at her in a way, like, uh, like I look at some NBA players.” (0:32:14)
  • “I'm still sticking with Bunona.” (1:30:09)

The Rewatchables: ‘Old School’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey (host)

Loves sports-adjacent silliness, big broad comedy and quotable lines, and wedding toast chaos. Can't stand being wrong about movie trivia he has already litigated. A sucker for his own running categories and bits (Ebert, Joey Pants, Dion Waiters).

Stances

  • Roger Ebert is never to be trusted on comedies
  • Comedies of the era were a nice 6-7 year run
  • Open your movie with a wedding theory
  • Luke Wilson is not Harrison Ford

Humor: Deadpan rapid-fire teasing of co-hosts and mock-outrage, plus sports references.

In their words

  • “never to be trusted on comedies.” (0:15:17)
  • “This movie also nicely slots into my open your movie with a wedding theory.” (1:01:05)

The Rewatchables: ‘Tombstone’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan (host)

Loves sports analogies, Kurt Russell and Pacino's Cruising, defends 90s movies like Fletch. Dislikes dated romance interludes like the picnic. A sucker for mustaches and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson.

Stances

  • Val Kilmer wins the movie
  • Wyatt Earp is the rival, Tombstone is more entertaining
  • Cruising is incredible
  • Cut the 12-minute theater scene

Humor: Rapid-fire sports comparisons and teasing his cohosts.

In their words

  • “I think this movie is the perfect microcosm of both of their careers.” (0:12:28)
  • “I just don't come to Tombstone for picnics” (0:29:44)

The Rewatchables: 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano (host)

Loves old-school and 5 o'clocker action, Seagal, Stallone, Nick Cage, and movies that know exactly what they are. Can't stand over-explained worldbuilding or sequels that give the hero a known villain. A sucker for the Neeson comeback and for ranking things by era.

Stances

  • Taken is the perfect 5 o'clocker
  • Taken 2 is not better than the first
  • Neeson is the Apex Mountain of the movie
  • The first Taken works because there is no main villain

Humor: Deadpan nitpicking, escalating sports analogies, and long self-deprecating dad stories.

In their words

  • “I just like watching movies that know exactly what they are.” (0:32:10)
  • “I don't think it's a John Wick 2 situation where John Wick 2 is actually somehow better than John Wick one, or we could at least have the debate.” (0:42:12)

The Rewatchables: ‘The Departed’ With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan (host)

Loves big star-driven movies and sets the show's categories; adores the Wahlberg and Baldwin scenes, Boston flavor and the crazy cast what-ifs. Can't stand Nicholson's performance here, implausible plot points and the rat. A sucker for 'that guy' actors, Goodfellas and Boston details.

Stances

  • The Departed is a Hall of Famer because it is flawed and fun
  • Leo won the movie, Nicholson loses it
  • Costello should have been Pacino
  • Damon's Boston accent beats Wahlberg's
  • Scorsese's Stones fetish is funny

Humor: Deadpan nitpicking, jokes about plot holes and trivia, rapid mock-outrage.

In their words

  • “This is a perfect rewatchable because it is a great bad movie.” (0:12:23)
  • “Nicholson's entire performance.” (0:21:25)

The Big Picture: Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57) (guest)

Calls Spielberg the greatest director ever but is skeptical of his late period and Munich. Loves Jaws, Raiders, and E.T. through his kids, and measures movies by whether kids can stay with them. Distrusts the calculating, career-minded side of Spielberg and Spielberg's DreamWorks hedging.

Stances

  • Spielberg's first 15 years are the greatest career stretch ever
  • His recent work is solid but not special
  • Spielberg is 'calculating' where Mann or Coppola are obsessive
  • Judges movies by whether his kids can watch them

Humor: Wry and teasing; leans on sports analogies (LeBron, Popovich) and bits like 'hit by a car in 1986'.

In their words

  • “if you just got hit by a car at the peak of your career, how would people remember you?” (0:51:08)
  • “I judge everything by my kids who have, you know, 21st century ADD with pop culture.” (1:00:09)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Big Picture

The Rewatchables

Their claims

Showing 1,101–1,200 of 1,295 claims.

  1. what-if (what-if): Robert Forster → Reservoir Dogs. Forster auditioned for Joe Cabot, then played Jackie Brown; Bill thinks he would have beaten Tierney.
    “I never thought Robert Foster was that great, but he would have been better than Lawrence Kierney.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:04:50 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. what-if (what-if): Reservoir Dogs → True Romance. Tony Scott wanted to direct Reservoir Dogs; Tarantino gave him True Romance instead.
    “Tarantino said, you can have true romance.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:05:33 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  3. what-if (what-if): Reservoir Dogs → Hans Zimmer. Imagining Tony Scott's version, a host wonders if it would have had a Hans Zimmer score in place of the 70s songs.
    “Would it have been like a Hans Zimmer score instead of the 70s songs?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:05:48 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. theme (theme): Mr. White → Alabama. Mr. White says he used to work with Alabama, an echo of True Romance.
    “White, Mr. White says he used to work with Alabama.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:06:14 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  5. industry (industry): Reservoir Dogs → Wes Craven. Wes Craven and Rick Baker walked out of a screening.
    “Wes Craven walked out of my movie, the guy who did last house on the left, walked out of my movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:10:03 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  6. craft (craft): Reservoir Dogs → Stealers Wheel. A host reports Tarantino said the whole soundtrack budget went to securing 'Stuck in the Middle with You'.
    “Tarantino said in 14 that the entire soundtrack budget was spent on securing, stuck in the middle with you.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:11:05 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. lineage (lineage): Reservoir Dogs → Pulp Fiction. Vic Vega and Vincent Vega are brothers; Tarantino wanted a prequel before Madsen and Travolta aged out.
    “Vic Vega and Vincent Vega from Pulp Fictions were brothers.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:12:00 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  8. programming (programming): Reservoir Dogs → Inglourious Basterds. The Inglourious Basterds spelling is a Tarantino flourish; Reservoir Dogs' title is also odd.
    “It's my flourish.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:13:11 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  9. what-if (what-if): Caruso → Reservoir Dogs. Bill's recast: Caruso as Mr. Orange, because of the hair.
    “Could Caruso have been the Tim Roth character?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:16:17 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  10. what-if (what-if): William Petersen → Reservoir Dogs. Recast as Mr. Blonde.
    “Would you do like William Peterson as Mr. Blonde?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:17:21 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  11. what-if (what-if): Daniel Day-Lewis → Reservoir Dogs. A joke recast as Joe Cabot, gaining 70 pounds and shaving his head.
    “What about Daniel Day-Lewis as Joe Cabot?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reservoir Dogs’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:17:38 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  12. lineage (lineage): Mean Girls → Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Simmons proposes a championship-belt lineage of smart teen movies starting with Fast Times and running through Mean Girls.
    “I feel like Fast Times at Ridgemont High was the 1st one.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:02:07 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  13. theme (genre commentary): Mean Girls → Cruel Intentions. Cruel Intentions is argued to be a smart teen movie because it comments on the genre; Simmons says it is an adult movie using teens, coming on Rewatchables 99.
    “That's actually an adult movie that's using teens, which is what makes it so weird and uncomfortable.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:04:15 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  14. unmapped (overqualified lead): Mean Girls → Easy A. Emma Stone in Easy A is the other candidate for an actress overqualified for a teen movie, alongside Lohan.
    “Emma Stone would be the other candidate for just, Completely overqualified to be in one of these movies.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:07:52 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  15. people (performance): Lindsay Lohan → The Parent Trap. Lohan is jarringly awesome playing two characters in The Parent Trap, which Simmons' daughter watched for a year.
    “she's like jarringly awesome in that movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:08:50 · Bill Simmons (0.90 sure it was them)
  16. career (career projection): Lindsay Lohan → Jodie Foster. After Freaky Friday, Ebert's comparison made it seem Lohan would be the next Jodie Foster, doing teen movies then winning Oscars.
    “So at this point, we're like, this is the next Jody Foster.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:09:20 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  17. career (career run): Mean Girls → Freaky Friday. Freaky Friday made $92 million; Lohan's run went Freaky Friday, Confessions, Mean Girls, then the wheels came off.
    “Uh, did confessions of a teenage drama queen, then it goes well on that mean girls.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:09:26 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  18. what-if (what-if career): Lindsay Lohan → River Phoenix. Another talented actor whose career is a what-if; Simmons compares to athletes lost to injury or drugs.
    “River Phoenix, who I think is another one where it's, there's a lot of what ifs that go with him”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:13:54 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  19. people (same producer): Mean Girls → Wayne's World. Wayne's World, Mean Girls and Tommy Boy are the nominees for best Lorne Michaels movie; Mean Girls wins as he lets talent paint the canvas.
    “Wayne's World, Mean Girls and Tommy Boy.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:16:16 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  20. people (same producer): Mean Girls → Tommy Boy. Tommy Boy is the third Lorne Michaels nominee, whose stars also did not peak as expected.
    “All 3 of those, I feel like the stars didn't really hit the peak you thought they were going to.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:16:45 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  21. unmapped (sad arc): Lindsay Lohan → Chris Farley. Farley is another Lorne Michaels star whose end got sad.
    “Farley's another one like this.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:16:50 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  22. unmapped (rare teen star): Lindsay Lohan → Alicia Silverstone. No teen star like Lohan or Silverstone has appeared since; both show how hard young-woman fame is.
    “I feel the same way about Alicia Silverstone.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:17:12 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  23. theme (trope): Secret Admirer → Mean Girls. The trope that the guy does not notice his hot friend until late recurs in Secret Admirer and Dawson's Creek.
    “Secret admirer has Lori Laughlin, C. Thomas Howes, in love with Kelly Preston”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:20:17 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  24. career (career run): Rachel McAdams → The Notebook. 2004 brought Mean Girls then The Notebook then Wedding Crashers, the 'trilogy' that gave McAdams career power.
    “2004 is Mean Girls and then the notebook.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:26:46 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  25. theme (sports analogy): Lindsay Lohan → Dwight Gooden. Simmons likens 2004 Lohan to 1985 Dwight Gooden, a young phenom who cratered with cocaine.
    “that was like Dwight Gooden in 1985 on the Mets.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:27:59 · Bill Simmons (0.90 sure it was them)
  26. craft (soundtrack/dating): Lindsay Lohan → Samantha Ronson. The soundtrack song 'Built This Way' is by Samantha Ronson, whom Lohan later dated, which throws a viewer off.
    “Katie starts dating the person who did the song a year later.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:40:07 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  27. industry (awards crossover): Mean Girls → Pretty Woman. The Vivian Award for best clothes started at the Pretty Woman rewatchables; here it is reversed for worst clothes.
    “We had the Vivian Award for best clothes in a movie that we started during the Pretty Women rewatchables”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:45:24 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  28. what-if (casting what-if): Lindsay Lohan → Pretty Woman. Asked whether Lohan could have starred in Pretty Woman at 23; they say no, her power was suburban edge, not hard exterior and soft center.
    “Could she have done Pretty Woman if Pretty Woman was 20 years later?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:48:41 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  29. what-if (role swap what-if): Lindsay Lohan → Rachel McAdams. They were originally cast in opposite roles; McAdams would have been too old to be believable as homeschooled Cady.
    “Originally an edition for the opposite roles.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:50:51 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  30. people (casting context): Mean Girls → Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Lohan said she had just played Confessions and Freaky Friday, not the cool girl, which is why she wanted Regina.
    “I just played in Confessions of a teenager drama queen in Freaky Friday, not the cool girl in school.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:51:17 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  31. what-if (casting what-if): Elisha Cuthbert → Mean Girls. Cuthbert lost the part of Regina George.
    “Somebody who lost the part of Regina George.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:52:53 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  32. people (pitch/producer): Tina Fey → Lorne Michaels. Fey pitched a movie about relational aggression; Michaels asked for cool cars and clothes too.
    “He was like, okay, but could they also have cool cars and cool clothes?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:58:22 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  33. unmapped (on-set mentor): Lacey Chabert → Amanda Seyfried. Seyfried says Chabert took her in, listening to Dido in her trailer.
    “I don't know what I would have done without Lacey Shea Bear.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:00:24 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  34. verdict (Apex Mountain comparison): Mean Girls → Wedding Crashers. Debating McAdams' Apex Mountain, they weigh Wedding Crashers as the third of her trilogy with career power.
    “So at the end, by the end of the trilogy of this notebook wedding crashers, she has so much career power at that point”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:04:16 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  35. industry (MTV Movie Awards moment): Rachel McAdams → Ryan Gosling. The Notebook pair's MTV Movie Awards stage appearance was a landmark for college women.
    “Very important to generation of women.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:05:04 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  36. theme (generational comparison): Lindsay Lohan → Elizabeth Taylor. People thought Lohan was this generation's Elizabeth Taylor, then the bad parts happened without the good.
    “that's Elizabeth Taylor for this generation.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:18:22 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  37. people (people): Julia Roberts → Danny Moder. Roberts married a regular guy who works as a camera guy, offered as the path Lohan might have taken.
    “He's a camera guy. camera guy? Just married a regular dude and she was good.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:18:55 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  38. what-if (alternate arc): Lindsay Lohan → Julia Roberts. Roberts married a regular guy and stayed fine; maybe Lohan could have had that path.
    “Just married a regular dude and she was good.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:18:57 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  39. unmapped (timeless): Mean Girls → The Princess Bride. Simmons says the film will live on like The Princess Bride, a short list.
    “Princess Bride, I think, is like that.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Mean Girls’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:20:20 · Bill Simmons (0.75 sure it was them)
  40. craft (craft): Tim Robbins → Bull Durham. Tim Robbins's throwing motion is called insurmountable for a phenom pitcher; Mallory counters that it is part of the lore.
    “You can't have the greatest baseball movie of all time when you have this phenom pitcher, and he throws like he has a broken arm.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:04:05 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  41. theme (theme): The Natural → Field of Dreams. Both belong to the pre-steroids era when fans believed in baseball heroes, fathers and sons.
    “they belong to this era of baseball that was basically ruined by steroids”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:05:41 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  42. theme (theme): The Natural → Field of Dreams. The movie's father-and-son angle is the easy baseball move that Field of Dreams is also about.
    “That's basically what field of dreams is about to.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:10:09 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  43. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Field of Dreams. The Natural's ending, a catch with your son, echoes the wheat-field catch in Field of Dreams.
    “And the concept of when I have a son someday will have a catch and then we'll be playing in the backyard.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:10:12 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  44. what-if (what-if): The Natural → Field of Dreams. A 2015 remake would stay faithful to the dark book, since we now expect the worst of baseball heroes.
    “if we made this movie in like 2015, I actually think they would have stayed faithful to the book”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:10:47 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  45. what-if (what-if): The Natural → Miles Teller. Casting a dark 2019 Roy Hobbs: Miles Teller is floated and rejected as too young.
    “Is it Miles Teller?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:12:35 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  46. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Bernard Malamud. The film is adapted from his 1952 novel, but its ending is very different.
    “Written in 1952 by Bernard Malamud.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:13:28 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  47. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Eddie Waitkus. The novel borrowed from the 1949 shooting of Eddie Waitkus of the Phillies.
    “Borrowed from this bizarre shooting of Eddie Waitkiss in 1949 in the Phillies”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:13:33 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  48. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Shoeless Joe Jackson. The book's ending, with a boy saying it ain't true, Roy, is a clear Shoeless Joe Jackson rip-off.
    “which is a clear shoeless Joe Jackson, rip off thing.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:14:00 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  49. lineage (lineage): The Natural → The Odyssey (Homer). The movie maps onto Homer: Roy is Odysseus, Harriet and Memo play siren/Calypso figures, Iris is Penelope.
    “So basically it's Roy Hobbs is Odysseus.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:14:21 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  50. programming (programming): Moneyball → The Rewatchables (series). Moneyball was one of the first Rewatchables ever done, now seen as underrated.
    “that was one of the 1st rewatchables we ever did, was Moneyball”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:25:04 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  51. theme (theme): The Natural → Moneyball. The best baseball movies each represent whatever their era was; Moneyball is the modern one.
    “goes back to the point of how the best baseball movies kind of represent whatever the era was.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:25:11 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  52. industry (industry): The Bad News Bears → Bad News Bears (remake). The 70s original was politically incorrect like the era; the remake had to be made politically correct, which defeated the purpose.
    “When they rebate it, it was a disaster because they had to make a political correct version of it”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:25:31 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  53. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Major League. The 80s baseball movies (The Natural, Field of Dreams, Major League) follow the old-school rags-to-riches arc, Rocky as a baseball team.
    “the natural field of dreams, major league with the old school kind of start to finish, rags to riches, rocky as a baseball team”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:25:37 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  54. lineage (lineage): Bull Durham → Rocky. Bull Durham took the Rocky motto a level further in how a sports movie is written.
    “how can we take that rocky motto and actually go the next level with how we write a movie”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:25:51 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  55. career (career): Ron Shelton → Bull Durham. Writing Bull Durham is called Ron Shelton's biggest legacy.
    “That's his biggest legacy.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:26:00 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  56. industry (industry): For Love of the Game → Moneyball. Baseball movies progressed from straight sports to merging genres (For Love of the Game) to a movement story that happens to be about baseball (Moneyball).
    “now it's like this is about a movement that happened in a sport and it just happens to be about baseball”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:26:20 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  57. programming (programming): The Sandlot → The Rewatchables (series). Bill wants to do a Rewatchables on The Sandlot.
    “We have to do rewatchables on the sandlot.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:27:11 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  58. contrast (contrast): The Natural → The Sandlot. For Bill's young son, the Natural is way too slow, while Sandlot, Major League and Bad News Bears work.
    “But like the natural, way too slow.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:27:40 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  59. craft (craft): Robert Redford → Ted Williams. Redford's swing was modeled on Ted Williams, per a New Yorker piece.
    “Great swing by Redford.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:33:48 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  60. people (people): Robert Redford → Kevin Costner. It was crucial that Redford and Costner both looked like baseball players.
    “So crucial that him and Costner both really looked like baseball players.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:33:54 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  61. craft (craft): The Natural → Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The Natural's 1984 lightning effects beat the 2001 Quidditch effects.
    “The lightning, the lightning scene is more realistic and has better, more state of the art special effects than a scene where everyone's flying around in 2001.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:41:06 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  62. verdict (verdict): The Natural → Rocky. The Natural's walk-off homer is the greatest chill scene of any sports movie, except maybe Rocky going down and getting up in the 14th round.
    “Except for maybe Rocky getting knocked down in the 14th round of Rocky one”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:42:32 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  63. craft (craft): The Natural → Randy Newman. The Randy Newman score is iconic, Oscar-nominated, and still used on sports montages.
    “It comes back in on sports montages.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:48:23 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  64. what-if (what-if): The Natural → Zach Cram. Roy's modern value would be a three-true-outcomes player, like Zach Cram, with only homers, strikeouts and walks.
    “He only Homer strikes outer walks.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:50:52 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  65. what-if (what-if): Barry Bonds → The Natural. Roy Hobbs is basically a 2003 Barry Bonds: homers and walks.
    “Well, what he is, is he's 2003 bonds.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:51:25 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  66. craft (craft): Tim Robbins → Bull Durham. Robbins's odd throw is half excused because he hurt his arm early in filming.
    “because he actually threw out his arm early in the filming and that's why he throws that way”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:56:57 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  67. craft (craft): The Natural → Field of Dreams. Roy Hobbs's son and the Field of Dreams catcher are the worst throwing motions; the speaker names Tim Robbins's Bull Durham motion as worse-but-excused.
    “I just can't excuse the Field of Dreams catcher.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:57:08 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  68. industry (industry): The Natural → Fred Lynn. Bump Bailey's wall death recalls the Fenway wall padding added after Fred Lynn hit the wall in 1975.
    “Fred Lynn ran into the wall in 75 in the World Series and was down for 5 minutes”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:58:24 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  69. craft (craft): The Natural → Rocky II. Hospital-bound pacing in The Natural echoes the biggest flaw of Rocky II.
    “This is the biggest flaw on Rocky 2.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:00:41 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  70. career (career): Darren McGavin → The Natural. McGavin went uncredited; his IMDb is mostly 1978 Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Rockford Files.
    “It's like 1978. Love boat.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:05:38 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  71. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Bama Rowell. The scoreboard-clock home run was inspired by Bama Rowell breaking a clock at Ebbets Field in 1946.
    “inspired by Bammer Roell of the Boston Braves doing it to Ebbitt's Field.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:06:06 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  72. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Roy Campanella. Roy's line about a lot of little boy in you was actually a Campanella quote.
    “It was actually a quote by Ray Campanella.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:07:50 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  73. people (people): The Natural → Ted Williams. Hobbs was loosely modeled after Ted Williams.
    “Hobbs was loosely modeled after Ted Williams, lefty number nine”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:11:12 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  74. lineage (lineage): Bret Hart → The Natural. Bret Hart took his catchphrase from this movie.
    “Took his catchphrase from this.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:11:47 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  75. lineage (lineage): The Natural → Ruth Ann Steinhagen. A real person, Ruth Ann Steinhagen, inspired Harriet.
    “a real person, Ruth Ann Steinhagen inspired Harriet”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:12:40 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  76. career (career): Robert Redford → All the President's Men. Redford's apex mountain was All the President's Men, when he had the juice to make and produce it.
    “We did the other President's Men rewatchables and decided that actually was his Apex Mountain”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:16:59 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  77. verdict (verdict): Kramer vs. Kramer → The Squid and the Whale. Kramer vs. Kramer is the best divorce movie; the Squid and the Whale answer is fighting words.
    “Anyone who says squid and the whale for best divorce movie, I just want to fight.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:17:36 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  78. what-if (what-if): The Natural → Hypothetical basketball series. As a 10-episode series it would be better as basketball, set in the 60s, to keep the identity mystery plausible.
    “I definitely my answer is no for baseball.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:29:14 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  79. verdict (verdict): The Natural → Escape to Victory (Victory). Greatest sports movie game to attend: Victory still wins over the Natural's walk-off.
    “I am still going with the end of victory with Slice Stallone.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:35:36 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  80. theme (theme): The Natural → Lou Gehrig. Roy Hobbs and Lou Gehrig, whose last season it was, never play again after the pennant.
    “Roy Hobbs and Lou Gehrig.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:38:43 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  81. verdict (verdict): Barry Bonds → The Natural. After redoing the math, Bonds was better than Roy Hobbs.
    “Barry Bonds was better than Roy Hobbs is my conclusion of this.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:43:15 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  82. programming (programming): The Natural → Major League. Major League and Field of Dreams are the next two Rewatchables.
    “we're going to be doing Major League and Field of Dreams over the next couple weeks.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:46:33 · Bill Simmons (0.90 sure it was them)
  83. programming (programming): The Natural → Bull Durham. Bull Durham is being saved for a magical time (heard as Boulder).
    “Boulder, we're saving for when it's a really magical time.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:46:38 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  84. lineage (lineage): Reality Bites → Singles. Simmons builds a four-movie Gen X Mount Rushmore.
    “For movies, I would go singles, reality bites before sunrise and kicking and screaming.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:03:13 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  85. lineage (lineage): Reality Bites → Before Sunrise. Part of the same four-film Gen X set.
    “Kind of like, if you were going to explain Generation X in 4 movies, I would pick those for, which one would you knock out singles?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:03:30 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  86. craft (craft): Pearl Jam → Singles. Pearl Jam appear as a band in Singles, part of the music that made it feel Gen X.
    “especially you have, you have Pearl Jam playing another band”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:05:25 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  87. career (career): Winona Ryder → The Godfather Part III. Ryder's run of odd choices included falling out of Godfather 3, leading to the Sofia Coppola casting.
    “And then from that point, she falls out of Godfather 3.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:06:05 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  88. career (career): Ethan Hawke → Dead Poets Society. Pre-Reality Bites Hawke was known as the Dead Poets guy, not a counterculture hero.
    “The dead poets guy?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:06:30 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  89. career (career): Ben Stiller → The Cable Guy. After Reality Bites, Stiller's career took off and he became the biggest star of the five.
    “Then he ended up, I think he did cable guy, and then his own career took off, and he ended up becoming the biggest star of the 5 of them.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:32:01 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)
  90. theme (theme): Winona Ryder → Penny Hardaway. Simmons compares Ryder's lost peak to Penny Hardaway's NBA career.
    “I do look at her in a way, like, uh, like I look at some NBA players.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:32:14 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  91. people (people): Janeane Garofalo → Say Anything.... Garofalo's character feels like an extension of Lili Taylor's in Say Anything.
    “kind of an extension of Lily Taylor from say anything a little bit.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:33:27 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  92. industry (industry): Reality Bites → Friends (TV). Friends season one captured the mid-90s roommate money tension that Reality Bites does.
    “That's why I defend season one of Friends, because I thought it did a nice job of, in these weird ways of, uh, what it was like to have a roommate in the mid 90s.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:43:31 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  93. industry (industry): Reality Bites → Melrose Place (TV). The Melrose Place AIDS scene lampoons the TV treatment of the issue while the film makes AIDS a character.
    “this movie, out of any movie I've seen from this era, does the best job of just kind of making that a character.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:44:36 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  94. what-if (what-if): Ethan Hawke → James Franco. A modern actor like James Franco could not pull off Hawke's band performance.
    “Like, think about if this is 10 years later, it's James Franco.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:47:05 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  95. career (career): Ethan Hawke → Lisa Loeb. Hawke directed the video for Loeb's 'Stay', the soundtrack song.
    “And then Ethan Hawke directed the video, right?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:49:28 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  96. what-if (what-if): Ethan Hawke → A Midnight Clear. Ryder demanded Hawke after seeing him in A Midnight Clear.
    “She saw him in a midnight clear and demanded that he played short.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:55:37 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  97. what-if (what-if): Parker Posey → Janeane Garofalo. Posey auditioned for Vickie and is the only person who might have matched Garofalo.
    “Parker Posey is the only person that I feel like could have done that.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:55:54 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  98. people (people): David Caruso → Proof of Life. The Dino Waiters Award is named for David Caruso's small role in Proof of Life.
    “based on David Caruso's character and proof of life.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:56:58 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  99. career (career): Renee Zellweger → Empire Records. Zellweger turns up in slacker Gen X movies: Reality Bites, Dazed and Confused, Empire Records.
    “she's like around a lot in this kind of slacker Gen X movies.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:58:54 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  100. what-if (what-if): Reality Bites → Pulp Fiction. Tarantino wanted My Sharona for Pulp Fiction but Reality Bites got the rights first.
    “Quentin Tarantino, was supposed to use my Sharona.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:59:17 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 101–200 of 677 fun items.

  1. fun, about Philadelphia: Bill's hot take: without Rocky, Philadelphia would be Delaware with more attitude and a nicer art museum.
    “If this movie didn't exist, Philadelphia would basically be Delaware with more attitude, a nicer art museum, and a couple pro sports.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:17:48 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Gazzo's driver: Best that guy award goes to Gazzo's driver, who also gets the 'take her to the zoo' line; Bill and his dad used the license plate joke for 20 years.
    “Hey, Rock, did you get the number?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:23:12 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Rocky: The Gonna Fly Now moment is when a sleepy boxing movie jumps up a notch, about 90 minutes in.
    “when the movie jumps up a notches when gonna fly now, drops like 90 minutes in”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:27:51 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Adrian: Apex Mountain for a woman taking her glasses off and getting hotter: Adrian is the most famous example.
    “Is this apex mountain for a woman taking her glasses off and getting that much hotter?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:28:26 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Rocky: Women weaken legs: the hosts say HBO / science found no proof.
    “there's no scientific proof to it.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:41:29 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Rocky: Who won the movie: Stallone, as a writer and star from nowhere to A-list, beats Tarantino.
    “Have we ever had somebody win a movie harder than this?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:45:39 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): Halftime speech was improvised the night before.
    “And he does his big speech, which apparently was improvised the night before.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:44:38 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): The most 2004 thing is the football hits, which look like borderline beheadings now.
    “There's like 45 borderline beheadings.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:51:32 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Lee Jackson: The actor who played Preacher has only the one IMDb credit.
    “Only IMDB credit ever.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:56:49 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Connie Britton: Berg called her film part the shittiest job an actress could have before talking her into the TV series.
    “Connie Britton's role in the movie was sort of pretty wife clapping in the stands, which is about the shittiest job an actress could have.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:02:11 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): Coach Gaines lying that Boobie will be fine, never getting an MRI: the hottest take is that he is a bad coach.
    “Coach Gaines, maybe just a bad coach.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:04:26 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Billy Bob Thornton: Bill as Billy Bob's career strategist: the TV show would have served him better than the post-2004 run.
    “I am speaking sure, uh, purely as Billy Bob's career strategist”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:17:52 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about James Hetfield: Berg's secret casting what-if: the Metallica frontman for Don's dad; Bill texted Berg to get a fresh nugget.
    “So I texted Peter Berg and I was like, can you give me one casting what if from the movie that nobody knows?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:19:13 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): Real Boobie Miles plays an assistant coach in the film.
    “The real Booby Miles plays a permanent assistant.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:23:27 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): Charlie Billingsley's loss in the finals in 1968 means the ring he throws is a number 2 ring.
    “Don Billingsley's father, Charlie, lost the finals in 1968.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:23:44 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Brian Chavez: Played by Jay Hernandez; the real Chavez went to Harvard, moved back to Odessa, and later had a felony and license trouble.
    “And then there's a kind of a bummer of a story about Brian Chavez because he went to Harvard”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:24:49 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Friday Night Lights (TV series): Bill nearly missed the show: he stopped watching, then caught up on Japanese DVDs one summer.
    “a friend of mine got me these Japanese DVDs that I watched that summer, caught up”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:26:31 · Bill Simmons (0.90 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about Tom Hanks: Craig breaks the Cruise/Hanks tie and the running tally goes to 21-16, Hanks.
    “So if Hanks wins, it's 21 to 16, Hanks.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:31:36 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): Coin toss at an undisclosed truck stop, with Coach Gaines flipping a 1969 Buffalo nickel.
    “1969 Buffalo nickel.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:32:59 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): Odds: with Boobie, near +350; in the title game Carter is a huge favorite.
    “Dallas Carter, probably like 16 and half point underdogs.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:41:47 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about Friday Night Lights (2004 film): Best life lesson pick: keep your helmet handy.
    “I'm going with always keep your helmet handy.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:44:20 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about Royale with Cheese scene: Called the most ripped-off four and a half minutes of screenwriting of the last 30 years.
    “I would argue this is the most ripped off four and a half minutes of screenwriting in the past 30 years.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:06:07 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Pulp Fiction (set date): The movie is set in 1992: Butch's fight date is a 1992 date.
    “I think it's 92 because Butch's fight was Thursday, July 16th, which was a 1992 date.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 2:35:42 · Bill Simmons (0.45 sure it was them)
  24. fun, about Twister script: Many writers worked on the script while shooting, including Crichton, Zaillian and Whedon, yet the film feels seamless.
    “There were people writing the scripts still like while this movie shooting.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:28:22 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  25. fun, about Joe's dad (the opening scene): The panel invents a new category blaming Joe's dad: a cheap lock on the storm shelter door, and he should have just let go.
    “Terrible job by that guy.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:33:21 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  26. fun, about Twister (most 1996 thing): A one-off category inspired by the 1999 episode: options include no internet, the Dodge Ram, no Oklahoma City Thunder references, and Helen Hunt's hair.
    “What was the most 1996 thing about this movie?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:49:37 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  27. fun, about Aunt Meg's kitchen scene: Chris's favorite scene: steak and eggs, gravy and Aunt Meg, setting her up so the crew later saves her; Bill singles out the gravy and 8 coffees to go.
    “The gravy looked really good.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:01:14 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  28. fun, about Jan de Bont: He missed filming an oil tanker explosion and reportedly paid about 500,000 dollars to do it again.
    “missed the explosion of an oil tanker that wasn't caught on film and they had to do it again for a rumored $500,000.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:07:51 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  29. fun, about Philip Seymour Hoffman: In an early lawn-chair scene Hoffman lifts his leg laughing and a split second of exposure was edited from later DVD and VHS releases.
    “you can see his genitals for a split 2nd that they had to edit out of future DH DVD and VHS releases.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:08:20 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  30. fun, about Tom Hanks: Hanks read for Bill Harding, got wardrobe, then passed and recommended Paxton.
    “Tom Hanks read for the part of Bill.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:16:53 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  31. fun, about Twister (impact): Meteorology majors rose about 10 percent after the movie, and the University of Oklahoma program doubled.
    “increased by about 10% after this movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:24:01 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  32. fun, about Wakita, Oklahoma: The real town was used; houses were bought and demolished; there is a Twister Museum there that Paxton helped stock with memorabilia.
    “The real town of Wakita was used during filming”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:24:09 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  33. fun, about Twister: On May 24, 1996 a tornado destroyed a screen at an Ontario drive-in scheduled to show Twister that night.
    “A tornado destroyed screen number 3 in Ontario at a drive-in theater.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:26:04 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  34. fun, about Jan de Bont: A vegetarian who hated the meat scene and a huge Tori Amos fan who personally appealed to her to be on the soundtrack.
    “He was a staunch vegetarian and hated the mag scene.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Twister’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:26:48 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  35. fun, about Mike Myers: Wrote Austin Powers in three weeks after joking in an English accent to his wife in the car about whether she swung.
    “then he wrote the movie in 3 weeks”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ With Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey · 0:13:29 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  36. fun, about Rob Lowe: Got Number Two through a Robert Wagner impression while golfing with Myers.
    “he did a Robert Wagner impersonation for Mike Myers one day when they were golfing”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ With Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey · 0:39:58 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  37. fun, about Basic Instinct: The Rewatchables Basic Instinct episode did surprisingly well on YouTube.
    “For some reason, did really well on YouTube, that episode.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:07:53 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  38. fun, about The War of the Roses: The chandelier crash is the Great Shack order award for most cinematic shot.
    “which I would give the Great Shack order award for most cinematic shot as the things coming down.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:33:39 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  39. fun, about The War of the Roses: The nitpick that this is a roughly 20-foot drop, not a 100-foot one.
    “It feels like it's like a 100 foot drop.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:33:52 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  40. fun, about The War of the Roses: The famous line 'never apologize for being multi-orgasmic' wins most memorable quote.
    “Probably never apologized for being multi-orgasmic, pretty hilarious.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:56:45 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  41. fun, about Luke Wilson: Craig's hot take from a prior episode, that Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford, now has the hottest-take award renamed after him.
    “So the CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford, hottest take award.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 0:56:50 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  42. fun, about The War of the Roses: Test audiences were so horrified by the dog-pate idea that they added a shot of the dog.
    “the test audiences were so horrified that she killed the dog and made dog pate that they cut in the shot of the dog.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:03:41 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  43. fun, about The War of the Roses: Deleted scenes on YouTube include the indoor garden before he saws off her heels, and a heater scene explaining why everyone is sweaty.
    “So 20 minutes of deleted scenes are on YouTube.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:11:02 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  44. fun, about The War of the Roses: A real-life man was inspired by the movie and got a seven-year prison sentence.
    “There's a real life guy who got inspired by this movie and it gets super dark.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:12:12 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  45. fun, about The War of the Roses: A new category: could Cruise or Hanks have played the lead; the vote splits and ends 2-to-1 Cruise.
    “Cruise or Hanks?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:15:43 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  46. fun, about The War of the Roses: A race horse named The Bald Avenger would be hilarious.
    “Race horse name, the Bald Avenger, would be the funniest fucking race horse.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The War of the Roses’ With Bill Simmons, Mallory Rubin, and Amanda Dobbins · 1:19:47 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  47. fun, about Internal Affairs: Watching it feels like a genre of its own: you look behind you to see whether anyone is watching you watch it.
    “is anybody watching me watch this movie?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:03:18 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  48. fun, about Dennis Peck: Wikipedia's one-sentence plot: Peck runs a web of corruption, deals with pimps, and moonlights as a hitman.
    “He also moonlights as a hitman.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:05:58 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  49. fun, about Richard Gere: Gere's best performance, with An Officer and a Gentleman; he is shown as a villain who is still charismatic enough to root for.
    “I think this is his best performance in a movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:09:09 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  50. fun, about Billy Baldwin: The comeback-to-flop arc is told with an NFL analogy: Hollywood gave him a four-year window like Kenny Pickett on the Steelers.
    “Little like Kenny Pickett on the Steelers.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:18:52 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  51. fun, about Henry Bean / Mike Figgis: The film was written by Henry Bean and directed by Mike Figgis, who later made Leaving Las Vegas.
    “This movie was written by Henry Bean and directed by Mike Figgis.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:22:13 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  52. fun, about Roger Ebert: The running Ebert bit: no review found, but At the Movies with Siskel, where both loved it and Ebert called it a movie about personalities.
    “So, Ebert, I couldn't find a review.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:25:05 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  53. fun, about Richard Gere: The taco-stand scene wins the new Rick Dalton Award for best acting; the line is 'I'm married, you're married, we're married.'
    “I would like to introduce a new award to the rewatchables.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:31:33 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  54. fun, about Billy Baldwin: The camera pans back and Van Stretch's wife is on top of Dennis Peck while Van is on the phone; the theater audience gasped.
    “And the camera pan's back and she's riding Dennis Peck.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:39:09 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  55. fun, about Bill Simmons: Bill's Ron Silver story: at the Ali junket in 2001 he opened with Silent Rage and Silver answered 'the guy who wouldn't die.'
    “I interviewed Ron Silver at the Ali Junket in 2001.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:51:48 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  56. fun, about Daryl Gates: The LAPD chief of the day condemned the movie.
    “Daryl Gates condemned this movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:14:56 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  57. fun, about Faye Grant: Faye Grant was married to Stephen Collins, whose abuse accusations ended his acting career.
    “Faye Grant was married to Stephen Collins, the actor.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:15:14 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  58. fun, about Tova Arocus: A hot take: Tova, the wife, is the real villain because she prompts the killing of her husband's parents, sleeps with Peck, then pays Peck to kill her husband.
    “Tova is the real villain of this movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:22:54 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  59. fun, about Dennis Peck: His kids: eight kids with a ninth on the way, joked as Nick Cannon-style repopulating of L.A.
    “Peck has 8 kids 9 on the way, which we've covered.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:22:59 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  60. fun, about Dennis Peck: Recasting as a Patriots docuseries or Dennis Peck as the real hero trying to get a couple back together.
    “Dennis Peck is actually trying to get these 2 crazy kids back together.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Internal Affairs’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:25:31 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  61. fun, about Al Pacino: Pacino's hair in this movie is blown dry to perfection, like a White Snake video.
    “he's right off the set of a white snake video, I think.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:03:49 · Bill Simmons (0.35 sure it was them)
  62. fun, about Al Pacino: Pacino is in three late-90s dances with over-the-top; his Any Given Sunday inch-by-inch speech is called all time in a terrible movie, carrying it like LeBron.
    “The Inch's speech is all time for me and that movie's terrible and he's carrying it like LeBron carried the 2007 caps.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:09:36 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  63. fun, about Michael Mann: Gulf scene: Wigand staring at the water; joke that Joe Roth asked Mann to lose five minutes of golf and Mann refused.
    “You think maybe we could just lose like 5 minutes of golf?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:36:42 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  64. fun, about The Insider: The golf range scene: a henchman stares Wigand down after each swing until he grabs the 5 iron; the hosts rate the henchman a 9.5 swinger and Crowe a 4.
    “Crow's like a four.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:40:27 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  65. fun, about Bruce McGill: Bruce McGill's courtroom outburst, 'Wipe that smirk off your face,' wins the Dion Waiters award and is a triple-crown candidate.
    “This is not North Carolina, not South Carolina, nor Kentucky.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:41:19 · Bill Simmons (0.30 sure it was them)
  66. fun, about Christopher Plummer: Plummer sips from a CBS Sports mug as a detail in the Wallace scene.
    “he just like sits back and takes a sip out of a CBS sports mug.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:47:33 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  67. fun, about Al Pacino: Pacino was not nominated for The Insider, which the hosts call outrageous.
    “Pacino, not nominated at all.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:49:23 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  68. fun, about Christopher Plummer: Plummer was born in 1929, nearly 70 in this movie, and won his Oscar at about 83 for Beginners.
    “Christopher Plummer, never nominated for an Oscar before 2010.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:51:01 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  69. fun, about Michael Mann: Mann's slow-motion ending with Pacino walking down the street strikes Bill as tacky.
    “The slow motion, Pacino leaving the going down the street and it slows down, like all of a sudden we're making a movie in 1981.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:51:16 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  70. fun, about The Insider: Title brainstorm: a better title might have been The Whistleblower or Cigarette Burns; Thank You for Smoking is cited as a title that tells you the subject.
    “It just needed to have an element of danger to it.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:02:26 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  71. fun, about Gina Gershon: Gina Gershon cast as a corporate lawyer: some found it counterintuitive casting, others could not buy it.
    “I liked it as counterintuitive casting.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:10:19 · Bill Simmons (0.30 sure it was them)
  72. fun, about The Insider: The Knicks 'semifinals' line in the car scene draws a long riff on how nobody says semifinals; conference finals, since the Knicks were in the NBA finals that year.
    “Nobody's ever said semi-finals.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:15:32 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  73. fun, about Pacino: They suggest a James Dolan biopic starring Al Pacino, who would play blues the whole time.
    “They should, there should really, there should be a James Dolan biopic starring Al Pacino.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:16:10 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  74. fun, about The Insider: Apex Mountain: the golfing henchman, Bruce McGill and Plummer; Plummer's is probably The Sound of Music; Mann's apex may be getting this movie made 34 years after Heat.
    “The golfing henchman guy, definitely.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Insider’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:20:53 · Bill Simmons (0.30 sure it was them)
  75. fun, about Bill Simmons: Bill's birthday movie each year; this year The Big Chill, previous years Boogie Nights and Shawshank.
    “Every year on my birthday, we do a movie that I love, and this year we're doing the big chill.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Big Chill’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:00:58 · Bill Simmons (0.90 sure it was them)
  76. fun, about The Big Chill: The Michigan football scenes come from a 1980 Michigan vs Michigan State game won 27-23.
    “The Michigan football scenes are from a 1980 game between Michigan and Michigan State that Michigan won 2723.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Big Chill’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:28:07 · Bill Simmons (0.30 sure it was them)
  77. fun, about The Big Chill: JoBeth Williams: for the Costner scene they rented a big house in Atlanta and installed bead curtains, rock posters, incense and 1968 Life magazines.
    “they rented a big house in Atlanta and installed bead curtains, rock posters, incense, and 1968 life magazines”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Big Chill’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:29:02 · Bill Simmons (0.30 sure it was them)
  78. fun, about A Bronx Tale / Lillo Brancato Jr.: The film's big line about wasted talent became Brancato's real life: found out of thousands of kids, he was doing drugs while shooting, later jailed after a robbery in which an off-duty cop died; the New York Post headline said 'wasted talent'.
    “And it says, wasted talent.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 0:30:12 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  79. fun, about A Bronx Tale / Chazz Palminteri: Palminteri refused to sell his one-man show unless he played Sonny, the Stallone-Rocky bet on himself. He was 40; De Niro offered to direct and play Lorenzo. He still tours the one-man show every year.
    “Yeah, this was also a famous Hollywood success story where Chaz Palmentari. There's a one-man show.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 0:32:13 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  80. fun, about A Bronx Tale: The door test: Sonny's rule that if a girl does not reach over and unlock your car door, dump her fast. It now fails because there are no pull-up knobs, and the hosts also debate the Mario test.
    “The door test is now defunct because we don't have buttons that you pull up and down?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 0:48:20 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  81. fun, about A Bronx Tale: Lessons from the movie, the show's rare lessons segment: better to be feared than loved (Machiavelli in prison), trouble is a cancer, nobody cares, a rat is the lowest thing, and three great women. 'Nobody cares' voted best.
    “I would say the best, greatest lesson from this movie is probably the nobody cares.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 0:54:57 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  82. fun, about Bill Simmons / TV channels: Simmons pitches a prison-movie channel called Bars (B-A-R-Z) running Shawshank, Escape from Alcatraz, Oz and Orange Is the New Black; a gambling-movie channel is also pitched for FanDuel TV.
    “I always wanted an all-jail movie channel called Bars, B-A-R-Z.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:05:05 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  83. fun, about A Bronx Tale: Best quote: 'The saddest thing in life is wasted talent', delivered by Coach Finstock-style line; it also resurfaces as the 'best quote' of the episode.
    “Best quote, saddest thing in life is wasted talent.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:18:46 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  84. fun, about A Bronx Tale casting: Casting what-ifs: Kathrine Narducci brought her nine-year-old to audition for Calogero; Frank Vincent was to play a boss but the scene was cut; Philip Garbarino lost the C role to Brancato and played Sonny's killer.
    “And he lost out to our guy Lola Broncado Jr. for the role.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:21:29 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  85. fun, about A Bronx Tale / Eddie Mush: They could not find anyone to play Eddie Mush, so they cast the real Eddie Mush, Eddie Montenero; on the first day it rained and they could not film. Mush is now gambling slang ('he's gonna mush me').
    “they ended up finding the real Eddie Mush, and his name is Eddie Montenero.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:24:57 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  86. fun, about A Bronx Tale / De Niro: Trivia: De Niro got a Class B commercial driver's license for the role; he tried in Boston and they would not let him. Hosts also note people think Rob Schneider is in the biker fight.
    “And then De Niro did get his commercial driver's license, Class B, and he tried to get it in Boston and they wouldn't let him.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:25:29 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  87. fun, about A Bronx Tale / Apex Mountain: Apex Mountain calls: crap scenes, bus drivers (this or Speed), racists burned alive (this or Django Unchained), Palminteri (this or Usual Suspects), Broncado yes, Pesci no, and Kathrine Narducci no.
    “Apex Mountain for bus drivers.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:27:14 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  88. fun, about A Bronx Tale / Satan's Messenger scene: Biker bar fight: would out-of-shape Italians really beat a biker gang? Ryan says gangsters have the fighting equivalent of dad strength; proposed sequel is Hell's Angels vs. the Mafia Battle Royale.
    “I feel like gangsters have the fighting equivalent of dad strength”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:29:43 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  89. fun, about A Bronx Tale: Is this movie better: Bill adds Frank Vincent to the candidates list (Wayne Jenkins, Danny Trejo, Catherine Keener, Steve Buscemi, Sam Jackson, J.T. Walsh, Philip Baker Hall).
    “I think it's time to add Frank Vincent.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘A Bronx Tale’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan · 1:35:30 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  90. fun, about My Cousin Vinny: Mamet told the director it's the best American comedy ever written.
    “David Mammoth told the director that it's the best American comedy ever written.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:10:02 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  91. fun, about My Cousin Vinny: Simmons had never seen the whole movie; he always caught the last half hour with the measuring tape scene.
    “I don't think I've seen this movie in its entirety.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:11:26 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  92. fun, about My Cousin Vinny: Film's famous breakdown: the real difference between Jack Palance and the frozen envelope conspiracies in Tomei's Oscar win.
    “I believe the David Stern thing, the frozen envelope way more than the Jack Palance.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:17:18 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  93. fun, about Bruce McGill: Says Vinny is rerun more than anything he's done besides Animal House, and he laughed at himself on a flight.
    “gets rerun more than anything I've done except maybe Animal House.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:43:45 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  94. fun, about Bill Belichick: During Deflategate he said he's not the Mona Lisa Vito of inflation; Simmons thinks he should have done this episode.
    “I don't claim to be the Mona Lisa Vito of inflation.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:44:03 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  95. fun, about Austin Pendleton: Said in 2022 he regrets playing the stuttering lawyer after letters from the stuttering community; hosts say the device was low.
    “He regrets being in it.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:54:09 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  96. fun, about Joe Pesci: Walked off the courtroom set telling Lynn he wasn't there to entertain him, per Bruce McGill.
    “what, do you think I'm here to entertain you”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:57:06 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  97. fun, about My Cousin Vinny: Best quote: there's nothing to worry about until there's something to worry about.
    “there's nothing to worry about until there's something to worry about.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 0:58:45 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  98. fun, about My Cousin Vinny: Dice Clay was removed from the list after saying something horrible to a studio VP dating his manager.
    “can we take him off the list?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 1:02:20 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  99. fun, about Will Smith: Auditioned for Stan Rothenstein; Wesley left the room when he heard it.
    “We auditioned Will Smith for Rothenstein.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 1:02:51 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  100. fun, about My Cousin Vinny: Screenwriter got the idea from a lawyer who passed the bar on the 13th attempt.
    “after hearing about a lawyer who finally passed the bar after the 13th attempt.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Wesley Morris · 1:07:15 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)