The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Bam Adebayo’s 83 Point Game, LeBron + Luka Doesn’t Work, Bears Win Total, Best American Actor?

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Colin’s joined by Danny Parkins, host of “First Things First” on FS1. Colin kicks it off by explaining that his best indicator for the health of the economy is how full airline flights and how expensive the seats are, and Danny counters that if groceries or rent feel overly expensive that it’s a pretty sure sign of a rougher economy (2:30). They pivot to Bam Adebayo’s historical 83 point game for the Heat, and Colin argues that the fan blowback wouldn’t be nearly as pronounced if he was more of a flashy type of star player, but Danny argues HOW Bam got the record matters and how he got it didn’t sit right because the game stopped becoming basketball to get him extra chances (13:15).  They dive into how LeBron has been typecast as the guy that makes everything work regardless of his teammates… until now that he’s playing with Luka Doncic and they don’t gel (26:00). They discuss the Bears 9.5 win total and whether taking the over is easy money (32:00).  Finally, they recap watching the movie “One Battle After Another” and Colin argues that Sean Penn is the best American actor and Danny counters with Leonardo DiCaprio (34:00).  (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, Danny Parkins. You know them, you love him. I want to start because I'm making my summer vacation plans and stuff, you know. Good for you. And, you know, because both of us, we can't take any time off during the football season. So you've got to take all your vacation time in the summer, which is harder because that's when most people take time off. So it's harder to find good flights. So you know how I always talk about this like with my wife, you know, there's always this debate.

Is the economy good? Is it bad? What's the indicators? Is it inflation? Is it the stock market? Is it the housing market? And I've always kind of, I remember years and years ago when I would come to Chicago, somebody at ESPN gave me a driver, gave me a number for a driver. It was Bernie Mac, the late comedians driver. So he used to tell me just hilarious Bernie Mac stories, who I love Bernie Mac. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah, he was just, he just told, because I loved Bernie and Ocean's 11 at the time had come out. And I couldn't get enough Bernie Mac stories.

And I remember talking to him one time and I said, how are things in Chicago? And he said, well, the traffic's getting bad again. That means the economy is good. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah. in Chicago, he goes, I can tell you what the economy is. When the traffic's lousy, people are going and coming home from work, right? And so I thought, oh, so I have always thought about that, and I tend to use airlines. If the airlines are full, I don't care what the economic indicators tell me,

or people are flying, and there's kids on the plane, that means you're like literally talking your wife into, let's fly the kids down to see grandma. That's expensive. That costs a lot of money. So I'm making some travel plans this summer. And so I want to take my son is doing some schooling in he every year he goes in the summer or late spring. He goes to Europe and does a couple of weeks of, you know, classes through his school. So he's in Madrid. And I said, hey, why don't I?

Why don't we go a week early and you and I can hang out and then I'll leave and you just stay and do your classes for a couple of weeks? So you have a long Spanish, you know, summer. or just dad will just hop on early and we'll hang out together. And so I'm booking because he's going to go with me. He's going to fly into Chicago and go with me. And here's my test of the economy. So I said, let's go, yeah, let's do business class.

One way, just to Madrid, because I'm going to get my own way home. He's going to come home with this class. Late night, sleeping most of it, business class. One way, two people, $17,000. And I went, I went, okay, the economy's good. So I said, Jack, I'm going to buy some gummies. We're going to sit in economy and get stoned or something, but we're going to sleep and we're going to sit in the back of the plane because dad's not going to spend $17,000. Economies like $2,300.

Business is $17,000. And I said, I like sleep. I don't like it $15,000 worth for seven and a half hours to Madrid. So as I'm doing this, I'm thinking to myself, and there were only two seats left in business class. Who are these people? It's a huge plane. There's 60 business seats. They're all full.

The first class are double that. They're all full. And I'm like, this is just one flight out of Chicago to Madrid. And so at night. And so my takeaway is, how do you judge the economy? I just, I said to my son, I said, and we would laugh about it. I'm like, you can't tell me the economy's not rolling for somebody because the whole damn plane. So if that flight's full, how many of New York, Philly, Boston are full?

First, so first of all, can we do gummies together? I didn't know that was on the table. And how? So that opens up a whole new world of possibilities for Danny and Uncle Colin. Second of all, it would be hilarious for anyone to see Colin Cowherd in 31C all zonked out on 10 milligrams. Like, so they're going to be like, is that Colin Coward? He's riding in coach? Yeah, you know, he saw it was a sign of the economy.

So that's phenomenal. And Madrid's great and Spain's great. You guys will have an amazing time. How do I judge the economy? Well, I will say, like, I don't think it's the stock market. That's not a good indicator because, you know, there's the Fortune 500 companies, but then there's like the Big Seven and like are the Big Seven carrying everything else and the AI boom and like all these stocks just go up, up, up, up, up. So it's not, to me it's not the stock market.

Um, groceries feeling expensive is something for me that like if I'm noticing that our grocery bill feels expensive and we definitely, you know, it's not all organic, but we shop at a nicer grocery store, try to eat healthy. We have what fruit do you want today for the kids? They have multiple options in the house. You know what I mean? So if I feel like grocery. are not something, I'm very fortunate, not something that I have to budget for, but if I am noticing that it's like, that we spent how much on groceries this week, if it doesn't, even if I'm noticing it, I'm thinking that someone who is significantly less privileged than me must be hurting from it. And so like, so like, when people say the economy's ripping, I'm not positive that

Like, because if you're going to fly to Europe, it's flying overnight. It's not a bad way to do it because you can sleep on the plane, not have jet lag and go. And between two major hubs and business class, it's like company travel. It's business travel. So, you know, I do get the sense that like inflation is hurting people who make normal money. Like if you're, if you're the breadwinner of your home and you're making $60,000, life is hard right now. And expensive. I think that there is just a spread between, you know, the wealth gap is the number of billionaires is growing. And so like wealth inequality is growing. And so in terms

of like a single indicator, I don't think that there are the, I think you have to go a little smaller than business class to Europe. Because I just think that like there's a lot of people. I know someone who just got, she makes pretty good money, not. not six, but she's in her mid-20s, lives in New York, and makes nearly six figures, we'll say. So, you know, a salary that a lot of people would be happy to make it 26 years old, but when you're in the most expensive city in the world, she just won what they call the housing lottery out here,

where she gets to, they have every building that comes up, and I don't know all the details of it, but every building that comes up, every place where you, They have to have a certain number of like rent controlled apartments. And she gets to move into a one bedroom for $2,300, but like in an amenities building, in a building that has a pool and a gym and an elevator. And so, and she is talking about it, about it like it's like winning the actual lottery because of the relief of she will be spending less money on a nicer place than she spends

on her current studio apartment to grind it out making whatever 90 grand a year in New York. So I think that the economy being like doing well, I think you just have to, I think you have to scale it down a little bit more in terms of like the thing that you look at on whether or not people are spending the money on things like that. I have my stepson and his fiancee are moving to Brooklyn. They're at our house tonight. And then tomorrow they drive the rest of the way. they've moved from L.A. to Brooklyn.

And they're paying 4,600 for a two-bedroom in Brooklyn. It's a beautiful, cool building with a beautiful gym, like a real gym and a rooftop like bar for young P. It's very young, hipster place. And I actually told him, I said, for the quality here, you're not going to get anything in California that nice. And like they can, it's Brooklyn. So they, next to a park. and walk everywhere. And I'm like, God, I said, I economically, I'm maybe in a bubble, but God, that feels reasonable to me. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, Brooklyn is super popular.

And I wait, it's the thing that I need to, like, explore more in New York. I'm in the northern, I'm in the birds north of New York. So I never get down there. But like, all of the people, like, the foodies here and the restaurant scene, everyone says, like, all the best spots are, are opening up in Brooklyn. And yeah, it's, it's obviously all relative. Sometimes we're, you're detached from my level of earning i'm detached from some other levels of earning oh yeah yeah i i i know i'm living in a bubble i i so i live through my kids i ask my kids all the time what's i look at them what's rent i you know ask my studies in college how's the money situation he's like i'm getting by he likes to cook that helps so he you know that helps him out and but it's um i just when i heard

that business class i was just like and they're like and there's like four flights a day and I'm like, well, I'm going on the least desirable one, and that's the price. I was just floored by it. Yeah, no. Listen, I mean, Nick's in Japan right now. And I was like, so you fly in first class? It's a long flight. He's like, not for 30K.

I'm like, $30,000 to fly to Japan. It's crazy. You could buy my car. Like, what are you talking about? So I defended Bam out of Bayou in Miami. And here's what my two things is, first of all, if John Morant scored 83, far less of a player than Bam out of bayou, not even the same stratosphere. Bam's just bigger, more mature, more reliable, two-time Olympian, five-time all-defense.

but if John Morant scored 83, people would celebrate it because he's cool. Aesthetically, he's appealing. It would look cool. There'd be at least like four unbelievable spinning plays. Bam scores 83 and it's like, what, my neighbor in waste management has a nicer house than I do. I don't like this at all. Be one thing if it was Ben Affleck. It's like, you know, I tend to think in the NBA style matters.

And I think it's off-putting for BAM to shoot 43 free throws when he averages five. And, I mean, Kobe Bryant stayed in a game against an awful Raptors team and scored in the last four and a half minutes, 11 points in a route. He was in the 70s. He was high 60s, 70s, and he just kept going. And people celebrated it. There was no pushback. I mean, in the fourth quarter, he's one of the one of the only Lakers that took a a shot. He was like, he shot like 14 to the 17 shot. And nobody batted an eye. But Bam does it.

And I think, I just don't think stylistically, we feel like he's the guy that should do it. So that's why, that's why I defended it. But not disagree more. Um, I don't personally think it has much to do with Bam or his style. I definitely think it has some to do with Kobe. But you brought up Kobe. Let's just go back to the 81. It, it became a blowout. But I just pulled it up so I have it exactly correct. They were down seven after the first. They were down 14 at half. And they were up six going into the fourth quarter.

That game, that game was a real game. Now, was Kobe going for the record? Yes. Did Kobe take all of the shots late? No doubt about it. But Kobe did that all the time. Kobe could be a bit of a ball. I mean, that was literally at one point in the fourth quarter, six-point game.

I think that Bam is a great story, a very, very, very good player, All-Star, Olympian. He worshipped Kobe Bryant. He clearly has friends in the league, respect in the league. I mean, Durant came out and supported him immediately. Janice, LeBron. He's a well-liked pros, pro, who's one of the best defensive players of his era. I thought it was cool that Asia Wilson was there. I have a group chat of people who really care about the NBA. And Bam having 43 at halftime hit the group chat. My wife was out to dinner.

I was watching Wembe against the Celtics. So when Bam has 43 at halftime, I'm like, oh, that's interesting. I'll throw it on the second TV on the league pass. Then Bam has over 60 through three. And I'm like, okay, something's clearly happening here. what's main TV with volume. Jalen Brown had been ejected by this point from the Celtics. Let's flip the screen situation.

And I'm going to lock in on this. So I did not watch like highlights of it or box score it. I watched the second half of that basketball game. Sometimes the story is the record. And I know it's not the right. Wilts is the record. But it's the modern scoring record. Sometimes the story is the record.

Other times the story is how you got the record. How Michael Strayhan got the single-season sack record, it became more about how we got it than the record. Doesn't mean he wasn't a great player. Doesn't mean it wasn't a great season. But getting the last one against Fav when Favre laid down, you're like, eh, that doesn't sit right, doesn't look right, don't love it. When David Robinson won the scoring title over Shaq, the Clippers sat all the starters after five minutes, he was clearly gunning for it, he got 71, we don't talk about it as a lot of, an all-time great scoring accomplishment. We talk about it as kind of game the system a little bit, but okay, he's the scoring champion.

The last six or seven minutes of that basketball game last night, it was just not basketball. They are intentionally fouling to maximize possessions up 25 in the fourth quarter against the Wizards. Spolster. Spolster is challenging offensive fouls on BAM on a charge with four minutes left in a 20-point game to try to get him extra free throws. His teammates are intentionally missing free throws to try to get him extra possessions. Like, I have, it was a great game.

I have no problem with them going for the record. I have no problem. But when you are manipulating possessions in order to do it, and Kobe's, yes, he shot all the shots, but it was at least a competitive game minutes into the fourth quarter, it became a blowout because of his dominance. I just, I didn't like how he got the record.

It doesn't mean it wasn't an all-time great performance. When Clay Thompson scored 62 on 29 minutes, he sat the fourth. When Kobe had 65, I think, against the Mavericks and they were blowing him out, he sat the fourth. There's just like, there was something about it that just didn't sit right if you were watching it. because he didn't get it by playing real basketball. If he just scored, he had 62 at the end of three,

if he just ended with 71 and they didn't do that. You're saying if he just scored 68 and didn't do that, it sits much better. Yeah, of course. Booker, Lillard, Luca, they all have 70-point games. Like, it's, scoring is going up. Teams are tanking. Teams are bad.

Like all of those. When David Robinson did it, it hadn't happened since David Thompson, and there were three guys ever to do it. Then after David Robinson did it, there was a long gap until Kobe did it. Then there's, it's happening more regularly. Like, I was going back and forth on sound. Tariko and Reggie during the Celtics game are talking about what Bam did. And Reggie's like openly opining that someone's going to get 100. And he's, I mean, he's, he's right.

If what happened last night is immediately. celebrated when it's not basketball. Like, someone's going to get hot. A team is going to decide to game it and go for it. And that guy will be hot from three. I mean, bam, took a bunch of threes. He only hit like seven of them. He shot less than 50% from the floor.

So, like, and I know people have been in my mentions and comments all day. Like, all you do, all you guys do is you just want to complain about basketball. Like, I promise I love basketball. I was watching two games by myself on a weeknight in the regular season. I love the sport. I just don't like how he got it. And here's a take or a theory that I haven't said publicly. I wanted to save it for you.

I think, because Kobe was his favorite player. I think if he would have tied him at 81, no complaints. I think if he would have done it as a. tribute to Kobe, it would have been like, oh my God, how cool. And like, yeah, the Wizards and yeah, they were gunning for it. But there is something about Kobe's 81 in the flow of a game and BAMs 83 when he is being triple teamed and his teammates are passing up layups and they're intentionally fouling guys and challenging calls and missing free throws.

It wasn't basketball. I have no other way to describe it other than it wasn't basketball. And so I just, I don't want it to take away from Bam because it was cool, but I can't sit here and celebrate it in the same way as Kobe Bryant's. I can't do it. Reasonable minds can disagree. Today's show brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet, Florida's Sportsbook. So it's March, baby, college basketball center stage.

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Here's another take I had. I said, through LeBron's career, you know, it's almost like, I use the example of David Schwimmer on Friends. he could be a mobster in his next 10 roles. To me, he's Ross on Friends. He's been typecast. Yeah, baby. Kind of the whiny, kind of. He was such a strong character on Friends,

and he played it for so long. That's what and who he is. And so similarly, LeBron has been typecast, is that LeBron makes everything work. He and Dwayne Wade were not a perfect fit. neither was really a great catch and shoot guy. The team had no center or no true point, but they worked because of sheer athleticism.

He and Kyrie Irving shouldn't have worked. Kyrie needs the ball. Kyrie plays no defense. And yet LeBron made that work. LeBron made Ilgunis-Ogoskas work in Cleveland, got him to a finals. He made him suddenly we talked about this guy is this energy guy without much touch.

It's just unbelievable. Anthony Davis had a label as a soft player, didn't fight through injuries, not in great shape. Nope, he wins with him too and it's perfect. So Matthew Delavidoba, J.R. Smith was a broken player. Everything for 20 years, LeBron had been tight cast. It just works. So then when he plays with Luca, it's like, well, of course, this is the easy one. And it's the one that doesn't.

because neither wants to be off ball. Luca's so much better at this point than LeBron is. So LeBron has to play off ball. He's having a bad jump shooting season. And if you play with Luca, you have to be good defensively to cover up his flaws. That's why the one time he went to the finals with Dallas, big, athletic, they acquire that trade deadline, PJ Washington, rim protectors, suddenly are like, oh, Luca stinks on defense. It doesn't matter. He just pushes people to this, then takes off, pushes people, runs them off the three-point line.

So there's a way to build around bad defensive players. Steph, Kyrie. Well, LeBron never was that. And so there's this belief that LeBron and Luca, it will eventually work. It's over a year in, the net rating, the defensive rating, it's atrocious when LeBron and Luca are together. In fact, when Luca and Austin are together, it's fantastic. And nobody wants to hear this. Luca and Austin are great. Luca without Austin and no LeBron's great. Austin, just take LeBron out of all the plus minuses. Everything works unless you put LeBron in it on the Lakers.

And nobody quite knows what to make of it because he's still a very good player. Yeah, LeBron is still a very good player. It's the Lakers fault in terms of the roster construction, because to your point, they were together last year, and we've watched LeBron and Luca long enough, we should know. But I think there's a time when LeBron and Luca could have worked, but not when LeBron's 41. Because, I mean, LeBron was first team all defense,

I think 2009 to 2013. Like he's not, he doesn't have as many. He doesn't have as many. He doesn't have as many as 40. Yeah, six times all in his 20s. But there are no great defensive players in the NBA in their mid 30s on. They're just not. And so that's the thing.

Like there was a point in time when LeBron and Luca obviously could have worked, but it is not when LeBron is in his 40s. And everybody should know that. So, you know, they haven't played a ton of minutes together this year, relatively speaking, but we want to make them a story because they're good for ratings. It's the Lakers. It's celebrity.

LeBron matters a lot to the league. It's a good offensive team. They're fine. Yeah, exactly right. And you, and you, like, when they walk onto the court. Feels big. Yeah, it feels big. And it's like, and I'll admit, like,

I'm like, damn, that's an impressive five. Like, you know, like, when you, like, when they walk out of the court, you're like, what any given night, it feels like they could score 125 points and just, and just outscore you. But the West is too good. And, like, the Thunder are too good defensively. And the Rockets are too good defensively. And the Spurs are way too good defensively.

And the wolves are too athletic. Like, they're drawing dead. They are, they are, they're, they are, they'll make the playoffs and they are drawing dead. but they have so much star power and brand power that people like us almost feel compelled, frankly, to talk about them because it's good for business. But I can't tell you how many times I've seen, like, Lakers, contender or pretender.

I've been on shows where the question is like, Lakers, they are not a contender. They're not a contender. Nope. It's very obvious. And like, they're worse with LeBron. Is that LeBron's fault? If he is still very good,

And he's 41. And he's like, well, you guys want me to be Scotty Pippen? Like, I'm not that anymore. Like, so I just, I guess it's a criticism of LeBron. But at 41 years old, I don't expect him to be a lockdown defensive player, given that that's never happened in the history of the sport. Bears nine and a half. Is that the easiest bet of the offseat?

Bears have added Kobe Bryant, Devin Bush, Bradley, the center. Caleb's going to get better second year. By the way, they play the NFC South and the AFC East. So you know they're beating the Dolphins and the Jets. Bears nine and a half. I love it. The regression case is simple. They had seven comeback wins.

They led the league in takeaways. And left guard, center, right guard, right tackle all played over 90% of your snaps. So you're going to have some offensive line injuries and obviously the Dalman injury, you've already lost your center out of that equation. So there's going to be, it's going to be a different offensive line. Even if they're bringing the other, you know, three pieces back, you know, that's the three prongs case for regression is what I just said. Offensive line won't be as healthy as it was. You won't lead the league in takeaways and you're not going to have seven fourth quarter comebacks. But Caleb is going to be better. He's just, he is

going to be better. And the deep. Well, Colston Loveland and Luther Burden at the end of the year were accelerating. They became like, like Colston Loveland became, is he like the second best tied in football? And I think, so yeah, I think the Bears have an

incredibly high offensive ceiling this year. Like, I think they're going into the year thinking that they can be the best offense in football. Now, probably a third of the league believes that. Dallas believes it. The Rams believe it. The Jaguars believe it. The, you know, the Niners believe

it. So I'm not saying I'm picking them to be the number one offense in football, but like, they absolutely are going to go into the year thinking that they can be. The scheduled point that you made is a good one. And that's the, like, Caleb's improvement in year two under Ben Johnson, year three in the league. It's the year for the leap. And he got better every month during the season last year as he was learning the system. So I cannot even imagine how big of a leap he can take from year two to year three. So yeah, you're not going to hear me coming on here and being like, I think the bears are an eight-win team, no shot.

Okay, so I just watched one battle after another twice. I watched it, and then I flew back from Florida and I watched it again. I think it's an exceptional movie. I've only seen it once, but yeah, I thought in theaters. It was great. I just watched Marty Supreme the other night, but go ahead. How's that? Salome was incredible.

Incredible. But sorry, go ahead. So I watched that movie and after it was done, I said to my wife, I said, I think Christian Bale is the best European actor. Russell Crowe is the best actor in Australia. And I said, I think Sean Penn is our greatest domestic actor. I think he is our greatest, I think he's the greatest actor in our country. And I watched that movie. First of all, part of being a great actor is,

I cannot take my eyes off you when you enter a scene. It doesn't matter who else is in the scene. If you're in the scene, my eyes go right to you. The second thing I judge is if you don't talk a lot and you still have power, Anthony Hopkins in Silence with Lambs, he's only on screen 11 minutes. He has very little dialogue. literally dominates, dominates the movie.

It's one of the greatest performances in the history of acting. 11 minutes dominates. And also, that movie was released very early in the year. So, which is like not a recipe to win Oscars. Like you usually want it to be released

right before the Oscars. That was, came out long before. But I'm watching that movie. And Leonardo DiCaprio is obviously brilliant. And yet, Sean Penn when you juxtapose them, when you put them on the screen together, I'm like, no, Sean Pandorff, Leonardo DiCaprio. And I just came out of that movie and I'm like, I'm not sure. There's a lot of great actors. And I'm not, it's not a short list. It's a long list.

There's a Denzel argument. There's a Tom Hanks argument. There's a Leo argument. Sure. Yeah, there's this brilliant people everywhere. You know, in my lifetime, Merrill Streep, Dustin Hoffman, like there are people that, I mean, Merrill Street just doesn't make a bad movie. I can't get over the performance. God, in fact, before I won't, you know, I won't give too much away, but before the demise of Colonel Lockjaw, Sean Penn, even the last two scenes, you're like, I don't know how they did it. that's the greatest makeup artist in the history of the industry. I, I, and by the way,

I want my artists. I don't want them to look like John Hamm. I don't. I don't want my artist to look like Denzel. I want them to look like artists and be off and different and unique. And that's why I think it's so effective when you get like, you know, it's Robin Williams could play.

He just, he was just different. Robin's brain was functioning in a mill. He could do Mrs. Doubtfire. He could do Goodwill Hunting. He was just, he was a different human being, uh, from stand up to his humanity, to his, I mean, just this cavernous ability to do, uh, reservoir of different characters and voices. I think Sean Penn's the best actor in this country. Well, let you listen, it's a great, it's a great take. It's obviously super subjective. he's got a real good shot at winning best supporting actor

but like Benicio was incredible too in that movie also as a nominated best supporting actor he was funnier right I think Sean Penn's character stole so many scenes in that movie because I think it's the best movie I've seen I think it was my favorite movie I've seen

when I watched it a second time I liked it more I think it's my favorite movie I've probably seen in 12 months Yeah, I mean, listen, it's a really good year. Sinners was great. One battle after another, Marty Supreme. It's a fun best actor and a fun best picture race this year. And the odds seem to suggest that it's pretty wide open. I don't remember which one won it what, but I know that like sag after a Golden Globes, the BAFTAs.

It's been kind of split. Like one person hasn't won all of the awards leading up to it. So there's a lot of debate on who's going to, you know, take home, take home the hardware at the Academy Awards. And what a spot for Conan. I know you and I've talked about Conan. But like, what a hosting spot for for Conan next week with the Rob Reiner tribute and trying to balance everything that's going on with like the industry and that. And that's just, I can't wait to see how he handles it. Because I, you know, it's more of my generation than you're, I think he's brilliant.

What I would say about DiCaprio's case that I like for the best actor, and I guess maybe it's more of a shock opinion than Sean Penn, is, has never done a franchise and has been crushing it since he was little. And, like, he won the best actor for the, for the Revenant. And I'm like, is that even one of his five best performances? He barely spoke. Yeah, yeah. Like, it was just, you know, like Gilbert Great, incredible. A scene stealer and a huge ensemble cast in The Departed, you know, going blow for blow with Jack Nicholson.

Obviously, you know, he's a very good. He plays a great strained human. Yeah, but it's just they're all, you know, they're all, you know, they're all, singular characters and they're, like they said, no franchises, a lot of original ideas, big movies, small movie. Like, he's just, he's spectacular. Hank's doing all of the biopic work that he can do is pretty incredible. Like, he actually plays people. You know what I mean?

And it's like, oh, wow, you're now Sully. Like, okay, yeah. I believe it. You know what I mean? I believe it. But I think Sean Penn, why he stole the scenes in that movie. it was like, it was like the most, it felt like he was the most unlike Sean Penn

because he was like such an evil, vile person. And he was such an inappropriate. That's what I'm saying. He was so vile. Every scene was inappropriate. Oh, Leonardo DiCaprio was kind of a weird stoner. Like, I buy it. Like, you know, like, how much, how much work did you do?

Like, what he told, he would tell the story. It's a great story of how he like prepped for the, Kuelud scene in Wolf of Wall Street. And he was like, I watched a video of a guy who was really messed up on YouTube. It's like, okay. Like, yeah, you've also done a lot of drugs. So you can get into the game. Like, yeah, that was a pretty incredible performance by Sean Penn.

And I, listen, I'm not like a death of Hollywood, like totally fatalistic person about it. But I see why every actor is like, I want to work with Paul Thomas Anderson. Because like that is such a, yes, there's a source material of. a book, but like, you've been working on it for decades. It's a huge epic piece. It's shot in all these different locations. It's like a totally original take. Like, I would just imagine all these actors that are getting like, oh, I could be the fourth

person to be the Hulk or the sixth person to be Batman or Spider-Man. Like, it's just like, you get a script like that. It has to just be so refreshing because, like, what a singular movie. Like, that might be a defining Sean. He didn't miss stick river. Like, he's done these unbelievable things. And it's like, oh, that's the defining thing for Sean Penn. It's pretty cool.

I thought it was fascinating. The road scene that lasted about 15 minutes at the end, you could write that down in a script, and it's not captivating. But when you watched it and the movie and the music they used under that, that intense music, that went like 12 minutes of watching cars drive up and down a desert road, could not take your eyes off it. The second time, I'm like, God, this is good. It was great.

And, like, you know, it's a longer movie, but it didn't feel long at all. Like, that is a great test of a movie. Like, did you think it should be shorter? If you thought it should be shorter, it's not a great movie. It can be a good movie. It could be a movie that you would like and recommend to somebody, but it's not a great movie. Like, if you have a long movie that you're like, it's great and I wouldn't cut a thing, It's like that's a great film because that movie was a it was an epic.

It was it was just like and there's not there's not that many anymore that like you were really I have to see it in the theater. I have to see it how the filmmaker intended. You know, the Tom Cruise movies are like that because of the special effects. Yeah, I want Christopher Nolan movies are like that because of the skull. You had to see Oppenheimer in a theater. I can't wait to see Odyssey in a theater. But yeah, Paul Thomas Anderson doing a movie with that cast. It was, I was happy to fork over the money for the popcorn.

Oh, my God. This is a great podcast. I was all over the matter. You were. You were. But it was fun. I like it. I like just bouncing around, hanging out of these hours, fly by, man.

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