The Press Box - Ep. 224: Inaugural Sports Movie Hall of Fame: 'Jerry Maguire'

Episode Date: December 22, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman for the inaugural Sports Movie Hall of Fame induction ceremony to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of 'Jerry Maguire.' Topics include: Rod Tidwell spin-offs (6:00), Cruise Oscar snubs (12:00), the opening montage (16:00), Jonathan Lipnicki's pinnacle (22:00), "show me the money" (28:00), the best Cruise movies (35:00), the birth of the modern sports movie (40:00), and Cruise's romantic-lead chops (45:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. Today's episode of the Sports Movies Hall of Fame is presented to you by Miller Light. Miller Light changed the game by brewing a light beer with more taste and half the carbs back in 1975. And they've stuck to that playbook ever since. Miller Light spelled different because it's brewed different. Welcome. This is a new Channel 33 podcast that is called the Sports Movie Hall of Fame. I'm here with Chris Ryan. We are celebrating the 20th anniversary.

of Jerry McGuire and we thought, well, why not create a whole podcast series around this? What we're going to do is we're going to concentrate initially, I think, on movies from the last 20 years, which is why it's so good and smart to start with Jerry McGuire. So this is the world and there are almost 6 billion people

on it. When I was a kid, there were three. It's hard to keep up. There, that's better. That's America. See, America still sets the tone for the world. This was the modern era of sports movies basically starts here. We're going to cover that in Moneyball, which is the second room we're doing.

But there's a clear line in the sand between everything that happened before 1996 and everything after. And this was the first sports movie of its kind that wasn't just the traditional rocky script. Yeah. There are other ones that weren't exactly the traditional rocky script. This is like a movie that is set. in sports, but isn't a sports movie? Yeah, you don't get, you get some movies like Slapshot and the years before that, you know, the decades before that, that are about lesser, less popular sports or the

things outside of sports. But nothing like this where you get into the minutia of how the sports business works like this, right? Yeah, and it's, I made a case, we did a big thing on Grantland two years ago about sports, I wrote a, we did a sport, was it a rom-com week? Yeah. And I did a whole piece about sports. movie or rom-com.

And Jerry McGuire, to me, it's probably a rom-com if you had to put, if you had to- classify it. It's definitely two different movies. Like, when you re-watch it now, there's some overlap between the two storylines, but it's really a romantic comedy, a romance movie, and then there's just like all this sports stuff, like that book ends it. But the sports stuff is so great. That's what makes it feel like a sports movie.

And that's why we're sneaking into the sports movie all-a-fam. But really, it's probably close to a rom-com. And if you made the exact same movie, And you said it, same thing with an agency only instead of a wide receiver, Rod Tidwell, was a rapper or an actor. Yeah. It's probably the same movie. Yes. I don't know how different it would have been.

The sports didn't affect what the start to finish story. But it still plays by sports movie rules. There's still a fall from grace and there is still a big play at the end that changes everything. And a chill scene. Yeah. I think the thing that really separates it over everything else for me is the Rod Tidwell character. Yeah. Which I still think is art.

arguably it's on the short, short, short list of the all-time great sports movie characters, which is an interesting list in itself. Yeah, for sure. I think Apollo Creed is up there. Apollo Creed is basically a Muhammad Ali rip-off, you know? Yeah. It's like unabashedly trying to be Muhammad Ali. But at the same time, a really good character and complex and was a villain, but you didn't,

he wasn't a bad person. Right. But I think he would be up there for me. I think that, I think Newman and Slapshot. Yes. Paul Crewe in the longest yard played by Bert Reynolds going way back I still like Crash Davis a lot

Crash Davis was fantastic Roy McAvoy Yeah All the like a lot of the Costner protagonist I think a lot of the times What you look for in a sports Character like that is somebody Where are they doing a lot with

With what they have right So Cuba Gooding Jr. does That there's a version of this movie Where none of the stuff in the shower None of this stuff on the airplane None of the stuff that makes this takes this movie to another level often happens. It's just like a straight performance and then get out of Tom Cruise's way.

But you're looking at a guy going head to head with one of the most charismatic movie stars in the last 30 years over and over again in that movie. And sometimes that kind of like face off and that kind of that heavyweight fight that happens in a movie. You're like this is kind of distracting. Guys are just kind of chewing scenery a little bit. But in that movie, it just electrifies the whole film. It's such a great character.

In fact, I think I've written about this before. I don't know why they didn't spin off either Jerry McGuire as a TV series or spinoff Rod Tidwell as just the Tidwells, I think, would have been a great show. I don't know, you could have gone like the WV version of the Tidwells. You could have gone Netflix. You could have also had a Netflix show with a rise and fall of Bob Sugar. That's true. Bob Sugar's in jail, man.

I mean, basically we had that. Who is the Lee Steinberg, was the one he was based on McGuire. Oh, yeah. They followed Lee Steinberg around, and then Lee Steinberg ended up having all these personal problems. But Tidwell, there's so many reasons I love him as a character. He's just so different than anybody who had been in a movie up to that point. Sports movies were basically mostly white heroes and diving into white athlete characters. And it just never, there was not really a lot of Rod Tidwell's.

My favorite thing about the Tidwell-Maguire stuff, too, is that, uh, it's at once it's two great characters but then there's also this like amazing dialogue about the difference between playing sports and watching sports you know what i mean like all the stuff about you know you have to show people that you love the game and try and get in touch with that person you were when you were a kid and turn down that attitude what's called the quine yeah well there's the quang but he's like i'm an athlete i'm not an entertainer you know like all that stuff is stuff that we were all talking about in the late 90s and the early 2000s especially you know around like as sports radio really started to blow up and everybody starts to have a voice and then

people really start voicing the like that's where like kind of like the hot takes kind of come out of that era of like after iverson of people being like you're not playing the right way you know i don't like the way this guy like does this or that and i'm sure it happened before them but this was like almost like right at the cusp of that and it was really articulated a lot of the stuff that you think like a lot of older guys were feeling about younger athletes were like oh he doesn't respect the game doesn't do this right hip hop culture coming into that too and the whole thing Tidwell had, he had a great, the wife character is great, played by Regina King. Oh, she's great, yeah.

Got the resentful brother. I forget what his name is. It's like, CJ, whatever, but that guy's got, I think that was played by Ari Spears, the guy from Mad, Mad TV. But that's a good character, too. He's on his side, but at the same time, he's resentful, he's lobbing shot. She attacks him at one point. And I don't know, it's just good. So we can talk a lot about what Cameron Crow wound up doing after this, but when you, if anybody's ever like, why, why did Caliard?

Cameron Crow have such a hallowed reputation in terms of like also especially being a screenwriter the amount that he's able to do with these like really really small characters bob sugar's in the movie for like eight minutes titwell's brother has got like three scenes and you just know it's got four you know exactly who that person is he does such a great job of like Kelly Preston is a perfect example where it's like you're like oh man I know this person even though she's only in the movie for three scenes I know exactly what I'm dealing with here best looking blonde from the 80s in movies never really found the right role Wow that's quite a shout for you to say that

really to me it's like Larry Bird David Letterman Kelly Preston Bruce Springsteen Kelly Preston was so far if we did stats for just just bringing it to the table from a look standpoint in different errors her war would be so high

in the mid-80s look if she's competing against she's destroying everybody and never really found the right movie and then got travolta and disappeared and was so good and so good looking and sexy in this movie that it launched a second career for her. Yeah. Like she ended up getting for love of the game and all these other things.

But I'm with you on Crow. And I think this movie and singles. Or say anything? Almost famous. Yeah. Say anything in singles kind of laid the groundwork for it. But this movie and then almost famous four years later, his ability to take little characters who weren't in the movie for that long and give them moments.

and distinguish them in some way when they really shouldn't be that distinguishable. Yeah, I mean, we talk all the time about runs and the 89 to 2000 run for Crow, which is say anything Jerry McGuire and almost famous and then Vanilla Sky comes along. So we're going to save the love story part of this for when Juliet Lippman joins us.

So I wrote down some notes that are really fascinating about this movie. I have 11 peaks. 11 people peaked really in this movie 11 I think this is Pete Crow okay it's one almost famous I almost that's his life story

I think it's a little bit easier to write your life story and to take all the pieces of your life and put them in a movie this one it's like this is all just starts from scratch he's creating something he had an idea for an agent and just writes the shit out of it I think this is Pete Cruz I got to say I think this is

Cruz's best movie this is the entire cruise experience wrapped into a movie the scene just an unbelievable scene after Show me the money in the agency when he's like, all right, who's with me? He's like, I bet you're asking me to freak out! That five minutes is amazing.

No other actor could be Cruz. I think this is the peak cruise era. I think if you go... You think Few Good Men is Peak Cruz? Well, 88, 89, that's Rain and Man born on the Fourth of July. So he's still coming in, right? Few Good Men, 92, Firm 93. Interview with the Vampire 924.

Mission Impossible. I think he's amazing in 19. McGuire 96. Can we call 96 the peak Cruz year? That's Mission Impossible and during the same year. Yeah, it's his career year. Yeah. So, Pete Cruz, Pete Kelly Preston, peak Renee Zelliger.

Yeah. Peak Cuban-Gutting, obviously. Peak, peak lip Nikki. It's not fair. I don't think Jay Lips ever been better. Peak Bonnie Hunt. Yeah. Peak Jay Moore?

Probably. Yeah. After this movie, people thought Jay Moore is a star. Didn't you do a show about an agent after this that was on Fox? That was kind of like, what was it called? I can't remember that what's called. Peak Glen Fry. I was going to ask you about this.

I'm so glad you. I have it over the Eagles. Okay, so peak. Peak movie star, Glenn Fry. Okay, so you like this better than Miami Vice. Oh, that's tough. All right, I'm going to cross that off. He was better in Miami Vice.

Peak Roy Firestone. Yeah. Yeah. Really like that this is the end of the road for Roy Firestone. I think that this interviewing Cuba Gooding, as Ratonwell, was never the same for up close. Is it Pete O'Connell? Peak O'Connell. More than Stand By Me?

Yep. Okay. Jerry O'Connell didn't want to be the fat kid in Stand By Me. No, he wanted to be Cush. Yeah. And then finally, Peak Springsteen soundtrack. I have this over Philadelphia. Yes.

The Secret Garden scene. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I will say that the Philadelphia, Tom Hags coming out of the lawyer's office, nobody will take his case, the beard. He's just hit rock bottom when the Springsteen song comes in is pretty great. And that was a string of, there was a couple of videos in that era. that they were doing this with were Springsteen sings the song live in the video.

So that's just that one tracking shot of him walking in Philadelphia and singing the song. Yeah. So that's 11 peaks, unless you say 10, that Glenn Frey's peak was in my advice. That's a lot of peaks for the movie. Yeah, I'm not going to let you have Glenn Fry. Okay, don't let me have Glenn Frye. So Cruz does not win the Oscar for this movie. Right.

He loses to Jeffrey Rush and Shine. Right. I would say this was his best chance to win the Oscar. And it doesn't seem like he's interested in trying anymore. No. And getting an Oscar. No, this was it. This was his Jeffrey Rush and Shine.

Shine's not on cable anymore. Most people would say that he probably, like, the best chance at winning would be born on the Fourth of July. I think you could make an argument that he should have been in the conversation for... I still felt like born in the Fourth of July is Tom Cruise in a wheelchair. Yeah. But that's, but you win Oscars for stuff like that. I'm not thinking it's a great performance.

I mean, I think he was better in Magnolia. I think he's incredible. She won a few good men. Should have won a Meggola. Yeah. And a few good men, it's like movie star crew is out of control. Yeah, it's, I have the same rule for this as I do with the NBA MVP. Like, who else is in this movie where it's this good?

Yeah, right. Who'd name anybody from the last 25 years who could have played Jerry McGuire and brought all the layers to it and just, and you watch like the first 15 minutes, right? He's at the top of his top of the mountain. It's in first class talking to this hot blonde lady about how he got engaged that secretly kind of hitting on her. She's producing the Coke. commercials for the Super Bowl.

Right. Well dressed. He's just on top of the world. He can be that cruise, but then he can also be the I've hit Rock Bottom Cruz. So that's what I want to talk to you about. I'm running through the airport cruise. Do you buy Rock Bottom Cruise? Do you buy Cruz when he's seeing there and sitting there and he's like, do you see this

jacket? I don't need to wear it because I'm cloaked in failure. Right. Does he, but like when I'm watching Tom Cruise do that, it's like, you know that it's not real. Like it's just, it's like it's so, he's pushing so. hard. It's like when Kobe would pass. You know what I mean? It was like, it's just against his better.

I like Clokin failure of Tom Cruise. I love it. So do you, can I ask you another question? Because I think Tom Cruise secretly has a lot of demons and it allows him to. Do you think Tom Cruise has ever been drunk? Well, obviously not. As we saw him from few good men. And this movie. He basically just does Nicholson when he gets drunk. Yeah. You and I would play a better drug than Tom Cruise. I think so.

He's, oh my God. Yeah, I have Tom Cruise. vampire was the last one so he did firm he did the firm in 93 and few good men in 92 then did this weird vampire turn and was gone for three years but it was a long three years it felt like a while he was the biggest star in the world and then came back just big time with mcguire which is a little bit like what brad pitt did in moneyball where you just have i'm just going to be myself i'm to be a movie star in this movie do you think brad pitt could have played jerry mcguer uh i mean i it's a totally different movie.

But it's a totally different movie. I'm trying to think of like who, how much slicker? Could Costner have played Jerry Maguire? No, because I think Costner's too wholesome ultimately. Yeah. It's like, there's not a like Downey Jr. Junior could have done it. And Downey Jr. would have been really good Jerry McGuire, but the turn, he would have

been too good at the first 20 minutes of the movie and not good enough at the end. So like if you see Downie Jr. movies that require him to actually be a wholesome. Like the judge. Yeah. But even that he was dark. Right. It was a little bit dark.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you think Tate Frazier could play Jerry McIrower? I'm not sure. I think Jake's Tate Frazier could play Cush. Cush, totally. I mean, even a great Cush. Yeah.

Cush was another one. Great character. Yeah. Really good. I'm so tired of myself, I got Cush Lash. Let's play Cush Lash. There's a couple. Peak late career Boe Bridges.

That's another peak. It's good Bo Bridges. My word is Oak. My favorite part about like that opening 20 minutes, especially the opening. montage when they're showing all the athletes that he's that he's like you know this is the 16 year old yeah the 13 year old kid in indiana who's scores 100 points and he's like this is the best point guard in the country and they show him on a outdoor playground with nobody there playing

basketball in jeans right it was like a real like Cameron crow's like he check about how much he knows about sports it was like somebody could have just been like hey Cameron we we got to throw this kid in shorts or track pants or something there's some other mistakes Cameron crow made in this movie, which you're going to get to. The concussion protocol with Rod Pidwell, which didn't exist at the time. I was waiting for this. But I haven't written down somewhere. It bookends the movie because it starts, the movie starts with the hockey player with the

concussion and the kid being like, this is his fourth concussion. So somebody asked me, I had a mailbag question a while ago from Lyle Morgan, way back in the day when I did mailbags. By the way, if you want to send me a mailbag question, the mailbag at the ringer.com. You know where it's just, is just, it's just, you know, I'm going to start doing mailbag. Like your Santa Claus and you're sending to the North Pole. The mailbag's coming back.

Okay. So the sequel to Jerry McGuire, Cameron Crowe, this would be a great career comeback for him, is Rod Tidwell with dementia from concussions. That's not a great one. Trump fighting the NFL. It's now a drama. Jerry McGuire kind of let him go because he'd been acting so radically lost his family. Because concussion lit up the box office.

Yeah. Great point. Maybe it's a Netflix series. But where do you? you think Rod Tidwell is now because my answer when I answered this question a while ago is that he was divorced bankrupt living with his loser brother and ducking and outside. Oh, I think he's on Sunday countdown. What are you talking about? He's next to Dilfer. They're talking about thermostats and thermometers. They're talking about. I think he's on outside the lines are real sports talking about

how the Cardinals never did we ever find out where Tidwell went to, oh he he's from Arizona, right? He's a local boy. So he's like a sun devil or something. Right. Okay. I was hoping that he had gone to like the You. Here's a Cush question for you. Okay. The deal breaker for Jerry McGuire keeping Cush was that he had a deal for San Diego to get the number one overall pick. Right. And Bo Bridges, Cush's dad.

What's Denver? What really wanted Denver. Right. So they're filming this. This movie comes out in 96. So this is the 96 draft, April 96th, leading into the 96 season. John Elway is still in his post-career prime for the Broncos. And yet for the Chargers, you had Stan Humphrey.

whose career was falling apart. Right. Why would you want your son to play for the Broncos and be John Elway's backup for three years? I continue to think Cush's dad with some terrible judgments by him. There's definitely Shades of Marinovich's dad there in some ways. Did he think he was going to take John Elway's job?

Because I can tell you right now, he wasn't. Didn't Elway himself like demand to go to Denver? He did. But at the timing of this movie, John Elway, going into the 96, 97, 98 seasons, they won two of those three Super Bowls, Cush, you're not playing in Denver. Well, also,

wasn't this part of the 20-year run where the Arizona Cardinals were like the worst team in football? So why would he be like, you got to stay in Arizona? Right. I would be like, you gotta get this guy on the Cowboys. What are you talking about here?

Oh, the Rod Tidwai. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Begging Glenn Fry to re-sign him for. Also, I know inflation, but that doesn't, the deal he asks for in the beginning is not that much. Four years, 10 million?

Right, so this is another, question I got way back when that I'm going to redo here. So he's walking Tidwell across in the draft, the 96th draft, and he's bragging about how Tidwell had 1550 yards and 110 catches in 95. So the question is, why wasn't this guy like one of the giant receivers in the league? He does not mention how many touchdowns he had. Okay. So he might have just had four touchdowns. So I looked up. I can't remember. Is it that he does or doesn't go over the middle? He doesn't want to get hit. He doesn't want to go over the middle,

which doesn't make sense if he has 110 catches. He's also short. He's short, so he should be a slot receiver. He's a slot receiver. He's a slot receiver. He's like, you don't like go over the middle, but he got 110 catches. This is 110 ounce that he was running.

So Jerry Rice led in 95 was the big wide receiver boom, which is kind of ironic because Crow had been working on this movie for years. Jerry Rice, 1848 yards, 15 TDs, 122 catches. Isaac Bruce, Herman Moore, Michael Irvin, all over 1600 yards. They also mentioned Andre Reid and Chris Carter in the movie. So it's definitely happy. Andre Reid is out by then. Yeah.

But he mentions he's like, Andre Reid gets paid this much. And he's like, those guys are marquee guys. Right. So then Robert Brooks, Brett Paraman, Chris Carter, Tim Brown, Carl Pickens are the rest of your top nine. All of them have between 13 and 17 catches between 1,500 and 1,200 yards. Tidwell, 1550 yards, 110 catches, puts him right between Michael Irvin and Robert Brooks, fifth place for that year. Yeah. So the question is, why didn't this guy get a contract?

I think Jerry McGuire might have been a terrible agent. He's got the fifth best receiver in the league. Come on, Jerry McGuire. He's got this house. He's got a waterbed deal. That's his only commercial. He's doing water beds. And he's got a house that has ants.

And he's got seven people in this house. could imagine? Terrible. Lipnicki. This is also Clinton-era economics, so you definitely would have been able to get a better house than that. Lipnicki. Hit me with it.

Oh, I forgot another peak. I didn't mention it only because it wasn't a peak because they never peaked, but it's Peak Michael's Deerdorf and Gifford. That's a threesome. It's the highlight of that threesome was this movie. We'd love to see some movement from Tidwell here. It's like, the guy might be dead.

Gifford looking concerned. Yeah. Not a lot of highlights for those three, but this was way up there. All right, so. You know who it's also Peak? Wayne Fonts. Oh, good Wayne Fons.

Yeah, in the lobby. Nice Wayne Fonds. Lipnicki. Phenomenal. Yeah. Really great. Like my kids, we watch Jerry McGuire on AMC,

which I allow AMC because, like the Kelly Preston sex scene, for instance, got cut. Right. But they just love the, every time Lipnicki is in the movie, they're just on pins and needles waiting for the next.

So you think that kid has this big of a role in the script or do you think they get Lipnicki and they're like we gotta write up there. They're like, as much Lipnicky as we can stand. Yeah, they're in the airport with Lipnicki and he probably just climbs on the conveyor belt himself

and starts going in the circle. He's like the Nate Robinson of this movie. We fit jackpot here. So at the end though, here's yet another Cameron Crow sports flaw. I don't mean to pick on Cameron Crow because this is a great movie. But Lip Nicky at the end, he gets the ball.

The ball rolls over to him. After everybody's happy, they're in the park. And he's like, hey, kid, throw it. and he throws it like his, it's like he's having a seizure. It doesn't throw it. It's like his whole body convulses. His arm is 100% straight and like slings it like he's in the Olympics.

And McGuire's like, whoa. Might have to, it's like the inference is like, whoa, what an athlete. We might have to sign this kid up. Everybody's like, no, you don't, right? But it's the worst throw ever. But then I realized like Tom Cruise thought it was a good throw because we saw him throw and war the world's 10 years later. He doesn't know how anyone throws a ball.

Yeah. Like he probably did think that was a good throw. Like great throw. Yeah. And also, you did it, I would allow that maybe Lipnicki is doing, because you ever see those,

the 60 minutes about the guy in Texas who teaches, like, pictures who have suffered Tommy John surgeries, how to throw and they, like, do like that weird shot put? So maybe Lipnicki was just ahead of the curve on like biomechanics and stuff like that, you know?

I just don't think so. No, okay. Have you seen Lipnicki now? I have seen some good pictures of him on the internet. Like he's very ripped. He like does MMA and stuff. He's ripped.

He took a couple, too many jokes. Can I say that I'm a little suspicious of late in life MMA adoption as like a hobby? Yeah, it does seem like something, something a little strange. I know some people who are just like all of a sudden and they're just like, you, I'm really into Muay Thai. And you're just like, what's this about? It's like getting, it's like a different version of getting a convertible. Yeah, like a fantasy got into MMA like next year. Yeah, I would be like, we got to talk to fantasy. Why is it, why is fantasy of a black eye? Yeah. And all these new

tattoos. Jerry hugging the kid. kid, Lipnicki, goes back to the little Cameron Crow thing. Cameron Crow writes these moments in these movies. And there's that moment when Jerry comes over for the date. And he's like, oh, Ray, all right, Ray, I'll see you later. And he leans down and gives him the hug. And he cuts to Renee Zellwiger for her Oscar moment where she's like trying not to cry and keep it together.

And the Springsteen music comes in. It's a good scene. There's a lot of those, like just good scenes like that. A ton of crying in this movie. A ton of almost crying. A lot of Tom. Cruz on the verge of tears. Yeah.

Tom Cruise on the verge of tears in the hallway outside the locker room after the last Cardinals game. Yeah. They're pointing at each other. You know, and he's just like, they're like, I still don't understand why he caught a pass for a touchdown, celebrated. But why are they celebrating like he just won the Super Bowl? Because they know he's going to get his contract next.

It's a good question. I think they beat the Cowboys to get in the playoffs. Like if Devante Adams, the converter to third down, got a touchdown and they won a regular like the packers like sure he jumped up he spun he did it was a great catch but it's like on sports center if they were like and now this wide receiver is hugging his agent in the hallway wouldn't you just be like why am i watching this they make it seem like it's like the moon landing you know yeah it is a movie yeah yeah sure so just poking holes just asking questions but how many so how many different celebration penalties would write to know god

Yeah, I think it would have been, I think they actually lose the game because they're penalized 75 yards. Yeah, you guys have to kick off from your locker room because it's out of the sports. He does a whole dance. That's 15 yards. He does a Lambo leap that's like 30 feet up in the air. Yeah. He's like hanging off the lower tier. Yeah.

And had a concussion the whole time. I know. Well, that explains all of it. Now he's in the concussion protocol. And if he celebrated, they're kicking off from the locker room. I agree. Not peak Regina King. Yeah.

Do you think she's been better in other stuff, but she's great. Yeah. What do you think peak Yon Wunner? I like the almost famous Yon winner. Okay. Wasn't he, didn't he have lines in perfect with John Travolta and Jim Carthus? Yeah, he's not, but he doesn't get any lines in this, does he? He's just like seen in the meeting that they do.

It's the same thing. He's either reading a paper or he's like nodding his head disgustedly. You had me at Hello and show me the money. This movie, now it's been 20 years. Like, Liz, who works for us at The Ringer, who's, I think, 23 years old, has not seen Jerry McGuire. And does she have any, like, she heard any mythology about it? She wasn't embarrassed about it.

It's hard to explain to anybody who kind of wasn't around in the moment. Like, you had me at Hello and Show Me the Money were, like, iconic lines. Oh, yeah. This is the thing is that, like, iconic. Show Me the Money was, like, iconic for five years. I was thinking about this just the other day where even with the best movies of the year, There's like one or two that none of them have like iconic lines. I was thinking about what's the last like very quotable movie that we've had.

Most of it is like thrown to television now. When you think about it had one, Moonlight did have one. Yes. But what I'm saying like when you. No, Moonlight didn't have one. I wanted to see if you were played that one then. Oh, moonlight.

Oh, Moonlight. Oh, Moonlight. No, I haven't seen the moonlight had one. No, all right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're talking about like I was like, yeah,

I guess Bruce Willis and Civil Shepherd had some great lines. Moonlight, I'm sure has them But like, when you think about like What are the things that you say to each other Like in common conversation It's all like madmen, right? It's like yeah It's like that's what the money is for and stuff like that

But you don't it's movies don't have those anymore Because the set pieces are really what we To show me the money scene's incredible I can't tell you how much my kids loved it Yeah, it's for all ages It's all ages enjoy there's the whole thing With the Kwan And in time it was like

I love black people That whole scene is so funny Yeah, it's so good. This is what you gonna do for me? You listen. Yeah, what can I do for you, Rod? You just tell me what can I do for you. It's a very personal, very important thing.

Hell, it's a family model. Are you ready, James? I'm ready. I just want to make sure you ready, brother. Here it is. Show me the money. Go! Go!

Hey! Hey! Money! Jerry! Show you the money. Oh no, no, no, you can do better than that, Jerry. I want you to say it what you would mean, brother. Hey, say it.

No, no, no, no, no. Show you, show me the money. Show me the money. Yeah! Show me the money! That's it, brother, but you got to yell that shit. Show me the money! I need to feel you, Jerry!

Show me the money! Jerry, you better yell. Show me the money! You're the man! I'm not the black man! Black man! You're my motherfucker, Jerry. You my motherfucker!

What you're going to do, Jerry? Congratulations. She's still my agent. And then that you had me at Hello, which I forgot until I rewatched a movie. It actually starts when they're riding in the elevator after Dorothy Boyd's the only one who goes with him. And they're in the elevator going down. Yeah. And there's somebody signs, there's a couple in there and they kiss and they sign whatever.

And that's where I think you had me at Hello comes from. I thought it was you complete me. Oh, you complete me. That's what it is. Which is crazy. It's you complete me in any other movie would be the biggest line. It leads to you had me at hello. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You complete me at me at the whole thing. We live in a cynical world. A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors. You complete me. I just had... Shut up. Just shut up.

You had me at hello. You had me at hello. All right, this is the most important thing we're going to talk about the whole movie. Tidwell's breakout game is on Monday Night Football. I love this. I love when you get, you get like crazy Snopes about this. Let's do it. Monday Night Football started at 9 o'clock Eastern Time.

Mountain Time we're in Arizona, so that's 7 o'clock. Okay. Who are they playing? I forget. Arizona, Dallas, there's commercials. Game's going to end around 10.15. Post-game interviews. And he's there the whole time.

Change, she's doing, there's a huddle. I'm going to, I'm going to say there's another 45 minutes for that. Jerry and Tidwell, they do the thing, they hug, why don't you do that with me, the whole, the whole thing. And then he realizes, I have to go tell Dorothy Boyd that I love her. In Los Angeles. It's now 11, it's now 11 o'clock mountain time. Yeah. 10 o'clock Los Angeles time.

He sprints out of the football stadium under the rule that all Tom Cruise movies has to have. Let me ask you a question. Isn't Arizona's football stadium notoriously far away from the airport? So I don't think this was Glendale. I think this was when they played in Phoenix. But I've been to Phoenix a bunch of times. And that airport is not like right there. So he sprints out to the stadium under the Tom Cruise sprinting rule, drives to the airport, purchases a ticket.

Yeah, didn't have one already. Pre-9-11, didn't have to check a bet. Could have brought a gun on the plane. Nobody would have cared. I have him, I have that flight being about 1245 a.m. Okay. Mountain time. Right.

Which would be 1145 West Coast time. I think 1145 is generous. It's a 150 minute flight, but you gain a time zone. Best case scenario, Jerry lands at 115 in the morning. At LAX.

At LAX at 115 in the morning. Where does Dorothy live? Do we know? Palisades? No, I would say she probably lives in like West Hollywood, maybe, or maybe Culver City. Okay. Let's go with Culver.

Lands at L.A.X. you got to get to your car. That takes 20 minutes. Okay. Or unless you took a cab. Let's say he took a cab. Let's say he just runs out. He's in a cab.

And the cab is like, I know exactly where you're going because no GPS. So they have to know where you're going. The earliest, a 25 minute cab ride, the earliest he gets at that house is 1.45 in the morning. And somehow there's still a divorced woman's group. Everybody's awake. Everybody's awake. It's like, hey, guys have anywhere to go? It's 1.45.

No, no. No, no. I want to be talking about my ex-husband. I have one more story. Can you make some more coffee? It's 1.45 in the morning. It's insane. There's nine divorced women. Yeah.

I think Lipnicki is asleep. And they don't seem like they're not partying. It's not tired. Nobody's asleep. There's not one person asleep in the thing. It is a problem. Yeah. It's really a problem.

I don't know how they didn't figure that out. Also, I'm sort of surprised that they don't, I mean, I know that you need to have the divorce, the book club there. But you could have the, they could have done it at dawn. You know what I mean? If they push it, you get the magic hour of the sun coming up over the Pacific Coast. Just the thought. Just the thought they ever made it.

How about this do a 4 o'clock game? When they make the concussion version of this with the Tidwells, I hope that they have a more accurate time representation. But just do a 4 o'clock, 4 o'clock PM. Right, the late Sunday game. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

The national game on Sunday. It's a big problem. Let's take a quick break to talk about Buffalo. Wild Wings, no team goes into the season without a game plan. And if they did, game day highlights would be nothing more than a football Follies compilation. I miss those, by the way. While Follies are hilarious, Buffalo Wild Wings knows fans prefer the taste of glory on game day. The kind of glory that comes with having 21 signature sauces and seasonings to choose from.

Or a great lineup of cold and refreshing beers on tap. Or a collection of wall-to-wall flat screens so big it would make your head spin. We cover all these details at Buffalo Wild Wings, so they add up to the kind of game day experience fans can appreciate. I use we like I work for Buffalo Wild Wings. We do it because we appreciate fans. So win or lose, if you're a fan, you still win and having the best game day atmosphere there is Buffalo Wild Wings.

Wings, beers, and sports. Wings beer in sports. One wing, multiple beers in sports. wings, beers, and a sport. Whatever you want to do, whatever S you want to add, Buffalo Wild Wings, we do it for you. I'm saying we, we do it for you because you're a football fan. All right, back to the podcast.

Breathe. Breathe, Jerry. I am out here for you. You don't know what it's like to be me out here for you. It is an up at dawn pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about, okay? Help me. Help me. Help you.

Help me. Help me. Help you. Here's our next topic. Is this the best Tom Cruise movie? No. Okay. No.

What do you have? How would you rank them? I would have... I think I do too. My favorite Tom Cruise movie is a little bit controversial, is color of money. Really? Yeah. It's my...

Wow. Not because of his performance per se, but it is the movie of his that he is in that I have watch the most and I like the most. It's certainly his most charismatic performance from start to finish. Yeah. And it's just like one of my secret favorite Scorsese movies. I think Paul Newman is like, it's one of the best Paul Newman performances. I love Richard Price. He wrote the screenplay. I know it doesn't like it's not a very good sports movie because it's just, it's just very murky what's happening. But it's it's just one of my favorite like movies just to have on and listen to them talking that. It does want to, it does something at the end that I've always hated when

you have the climactic moment, but only we don't. It's just over. It's like, fuck you. You're not getting a climax. Exactly. You'll have to think the rest of your life about who won this game. And then I think I put a few good men, especially over this, in terms of Pete Cruz. It's a tough one.

I have to admit. I don't, I don't know if there's a right answer. I don't know if there's a right answer or not. And I will be very interested to hear what Juliet Lim and has to say about this. But Tom Cruise is a romantic lead. does not, doesn't do it for me. Let's just put it down.

I think it doesn't do it for a lot of people. Yeah. I think this is the best he's ever been as a romantic. Yes, I agree with you. I agree with you. Although I'm pretty into eyes wide shut. That's pretty great. Anytime you want to do an eyes wide shut podcast.

My last podcast, yeah. I'm ready for the Eyes Wide Shut, Ice Storm combo podcast. Sure. Yeah. All right, here's what I have. I would argue that the three Tom Cruise-yest Tom Cruise movies are actually the four. If you're going to pick four, it'd be like, let's say, let's say Liz. Let's say Liz has never seen a Tom Cruise movie. Okay.

So what would you tell if somebody you'd never seen Tom Cruise? Like, all right, Liz. Liz says I have eight hours to watch four Tom Cruise movies. Which four should I watch that would give me the best feel of the Tom Cruise experience? Okay. Few Good Men, Jerry McGuire, Top Gun, and Cocktail. I think that would be my four. So this is always going to be generational because I don't rate cocktail as high as you.

It's just all cruise. It's just cruise being cruise for two hours. I would throw in either edge of tomorrow or War with Worlds in there. Oh, no. Come on. I think he's, if you want to throw in late period. Mission impossible at least. Mission impossible, yeah.

I mean, but for me it's, yeah, I think it's colorful. money a few good men, Jerry McGuire. And actually, you know what I still really like? Which plays really well as the firm. Yeah, it's a little long. It is a little long, but I still really like it. Weird soundtrack that I've just grown on me over time. The Dave Groo's in the piano.

Wilford Brimley's chasing him with an al-Bino. Wait, can we talk for a second about Wolframmley and the least scary villain of all time? Wilford Brimley chasing anybody is a race I want to be in. That was also... Oh, Wilford Brimley.

He's coming after me. Jerry McGuire is, you know, it has a couple of big people, but the firm is an example of when they're like, let's just hire 15 people to be in this movie, like Hal Holbrook's in it, Gary Busey's in it, Holly Hunter's in it, Gene Hackman's in it. David Strait, Straitheim. Yes, just Sturray, yeah. So whatever his name is. Yeah, they have.

Ed Harris is in it. That's right. Gene, you forgot Gene Hackman. Yeah. One take Gene. But yeah, I think the studio is like, this is the biggest movie we're making this year, Bunny's No Object. Well, what about this world?

We're thinking Gene Hackman. And this dude is like, fine. Just cut him a check. Isn't it funny, too, that like now everything is, you're like, oh, do you hear about that new vampire saga? It's going to be the new big thing or like the new game of throw. It's like, John Grisham was the biggest author in the world. And it was like, what's it about?

It's about a lawyer. And he finds out that his firm is doing some nasty stuff. And it's like, that's it. That's all it is. The first was a big deal. Because the book came out. Was that the first one? It was like, that book was like the body.

It was in every hotel room. It was like you couldn't avoid that book. It was the biggest book ever and they immediately made a movie. But what they didn't totally realize was that everybody had read the book. Right. So it wasn't big twist. Oh, I wonder what's going to happen. Also, when you find out, it's like all they're doing is like the mafia's taxes.

It's not like that big of a deal. They're just like, yeah, you're laundering money. Great chase scene though. Awesome chasing. Yeah. Really good chase scene. Good Jean Chirpohorn. Yeah.

She had a nice little tiny run there. and then I think got hit by a bus. I'm not sure what happened. And she popped back up on Big Love years later. Yeah. So you would say you wouldn't put Cocktown. I'm fine with Cockt. Even though it's a very cruisy performance.

Yeah. And actually I think I go risky business over Top Gun in terms of just, I love Top Gun as a movie, but I think Risky Business is actually, he's less like uptight in risky business. So I was going to bring up Risky Business. I think it's possible that Tom Cruise was replaced after Risky Business. What do you mean?

Like the Tom Cruise's, that's in risky business. Like the Scientology people replace Tom Cruise. Okay. Because the risky business, Tom Cruise, has no real relation. Yeah, that's still like,

any other Tom Cruise that came. That's like Taps, Tom Cruise. It's like outsiders, Tom Cruise. Yeah. And it's just, it's a much more nuanced performance. He actually seems like he really wants to bang

Rebecca DeBornay, the whole movie and there's a sexuality about him. He's older than Downey or he's younger? Is he the same age or is he older than Downey? I think those are all the same. group. Downey, Roblo, Cruz. Yeah, it's like, it's strange to look at how those guys all had like the separate career.

Tom Cruise just like locked in and was like, this is who I have to be and this is who I want to be. And Downey obviously had his demons or whatever, but just goes all over the place and like, you know, chaplain. What do you think Cruz would say his best movie is? That's a great question. I mean, I wonder if he would say something weird, like,

The Last Samurai or something. What do you think he would say his most entertaining movie is? You know what you would be like Days of Thunder. it's also some very good cruise i think that he would probably say i have to think he would say a few good men really i really wish yeah i mean like it i can't play sorken he also is a very good sorkin actor yeah uh and i wish that he had done like more of them like i don't know i mean if if they had in steve jobs with tom cruise that would have been pretty interesting well was interesting sorkin was he brought out cruz's sarcastic side yeah like like uh daniel kaffi is just

super duper Matthew Perry level sarcastic. All this stuff like playing the softball practice. And he's like, you know, he's like, I'm going to hang him by a yard arm and all that stuff. Yeah. But it's few good men. I almost feel like few good men is a sports movie, even though there's no sports scenes in it. Well, but that, that, it's structured like a sports movie. It's a courtroom drama structured like a sports movie.

I still, I still can't believe the drunk scene. Oh, God. I know. And it's like, he's hammered drunk. Every time Tom Cruise gets drunk. He drinks whiskey and he drinks whiskey in a way in which no one who's ever drunk whiskey, no, like, because in a few good men, he's drinking Jack Daniels out of the bottle, which is like what cowboys in the 1890s could do, but Tom Cruise could not.

And then he drives, doesn't he? I'm trying to think of one person in my life. Doesn't he drink, like a whole bottle of Jack Daniels and get into his Oldsmobile? He's stumbling drunk, it's raining. He's like, I'm going to go find Joe. Yeah. Kevin Park's like, oh, it's like, just lets him go. J.T. Walsh kills himself, right?

And he's just like, this guy got in full. No, no, no, this guy got a coldress. Like a nickel plate and nine millimeter in his mouth. Oh, man. Kevin Park does to try to stop him? Yeah. He's more interested in breaking him down psychologically. I never understood.

How did we get on a few good men? I was just waiting for Juliet, but I'm really, I'm really enjoyed this. The, uh, who's your favorite cameo, uh, slight cameo in few good men? Is it Noah Wiley for the one scene, Kiefer Sutherland as racist sergeant or Kevin Bacon as prosecutor who plays pickup basketball and is in tune seat, two scenes? I think Kevin Bacon's amazing in that movie. You're a lousy fucking softball there.

Kevin Bacon just leaving the pickup basketball game. Oh, that's amazing. It's the best moment in that movie. They're playing full court. They're like, come on, Jack. He's like, hold on, I'll be right back. Nobody does that. I got to go do a plea deal for this guy.

It's a good way to start a fight. So Cruz, he can't drink. Yeah. Have you ever seen him smoke? Has he ever smoked the sick? or done any kind of drugs in a movie. Does he do drugs? He doesn't do anything bad in Magnolia, right?

He just is high on his own sense memory. He doesn't smoke a cocktail. No, I think he has some sort of, uh, does he get drunk in risky business? He gets drunk. No, he gets high in risky business. That's how the car ends up going in. Maybe that's why maybe that scared him.

Right, right. He doesn't drink in color of money. No. Tituro does Coke in color of money, but he doesn't, yeah. There's an 18-minute sequence of him running on YouTube in different movies. I don't know if there's a crying Tom Cruise, but I would almost rather watch that than the running.

Which is I love the running. The crying, he's a really good, I'm about to cry guy. Tom Cruise and Top Gunn with Meg Ryan and she's saying, he loved flying with you. He just loved flying with you. And Tom Cruise is, he does this thing. He like turns his neck and his cheeks are going in different directions. And he's like bulges his eyes.

it's really effective. It's really good. He also recently has developed this need to be in really tough situations with planes. So the last Mission Impossible, he hangs on outside of a plane. And the mummy, the plane explodes while he's in it and crashes. Obviously, Top Gun, he's got some bad history. He's a 9-11 truther is what's happening, I think. Top Gun has some holes, by the way.

Top Gun? Yeah. We still don't know who we're fighting against at the end. The Russians. Where? They're in Migs. Where are there? Hey guys, sorry to interrupt the graduation.

I think it's over the Indian Ocean. I think it's over the Indian Ocean. There's a conflict right now. And Tom Cruise, even though you just almost left and you disappeared for seven weeks, we're going to need you in this battle. Also, they're like in Miramar and they're like scramble the jets. We got to get to India, which is like not a quick flight. Not a quick flight.

No. Yeah, they go back. Top Gun. It's not age well. Do you like Scarrett or Ironside and Top Gun more? Scared. Yeah. Scarrot's amazing.

Scarrard's incredible. It's great. Scare it. Teacher Scare it and then he like takes over. He's like, I'm here. I'm flying with you. That's another Tom Cruise thing is the surrogate dad. Yeah.

It's a big, big thing in all his movies. Jerry McGuire, I didn't have the surrogate dad. Dickie Fox is supposed to be it, though. Yeah. Who was supposed to play Dickie Fox? Billy Wilder, right? I think it was, I think it was supposed to be Billy Wilder, the great director, screenwriter.

And he was sort of Crow's mentor and they were going to have scenes with them in there. So do you give Jerry McGuire, Tim Kup was the same year? Do you think it's coincidence that all of a sudden that, then we moved into this era of the modern sports movie? I think just because I think those movies were more like Bull Durham showed people that those movies were very, and when does White Men Can't Jump come out? That was early 90s. Early 90s.

I'm going to say like 90 or 91. Really? I thought it was like later in when I was in high school. I was in college. 92. I think that just post Bull Durham and those Ron Shelton movies everybody sees, oh, okay. Like this is, there's a lot of stuff to do with sports here. Is White Man can't jump a Hall of Fame?

Does it get its own podcast? Unquestionably. Or does we team it with something else? White Man Can't Jump is the most underrated. I don't think it gets talked about enough as the best sports movie. Oh, that's the hottest take you've ever had. It's not. It's literally, like, there is not a single,

White Man Can't Jump is a lot like color of money in that it has, it does lack the thing that you want it to have because even after they win the big game. Like Wesley Snipes's ability to play basketball? He lacked that. He's pretty good in that movie. You don't think he's pretty good? No.

Woody Harrelson's better than him. I don't think he's good. Tate, you play basketball. Can we make, can you ever seen anybody dribble like Wesley Snipes in that movie? the high dribble like he's terrible what you talk about tim fraser on the pelicans dribbles like that now is juliet's mic on all right juliet limit's here we saved the last we saved all the rene's oh wigger rom-com stuff for you i'm so happy to be here we covered everything else i know this is one of your favorites we're talking about other tom cruise movies for about 20 minutes now so dorothy boyd dorothy yes

where does she rank in the all-time great rom-com slash whatever character. We think this is a sports movie and a rom-com. We've decided. Where does she rank in the Pantheon for you? I took me a long time to get here emotionally. Yeah. But I'm ready to say she's top five.

Wow. Do you have a top five that's like off the top of your head? Of the character or the actresses. Who's your favorite rom-com character ever? Probably Sally when Harry met Sally. Over Meg Ryan in. Sandra Bullock is. Meg and Sandra.

It's just like, I don't know. Sandra and what? The one. with um while you were sleeping yeah while we're sleeping sorry just didn't roll off the time but she's so good in that movie because i was thinking like they you know you need a lot of luck with movies like this and we saw with elizabeth town where he just had the wrong leads yeah i don't know if that who was supposed to be the lead in that it was i thought somebody backed out ashton kutcher back out or something like that or he fired him okay he fired ashton kutcher he hired or linda bloom i think

in retrospect maybe just keep kutcher but zell wager's so good he catches her at the perfect point of her career yeah and i honestly think like if you look at the lander landscape of actresses in the mid-90s, the only other person who could have played Dorothy Boyd, I have the answer. Who do you think it is? There's only one other person. I have a good answer. She may have been a tad too young. Who? Jennifer Love Hewitt. She was like, no way Jay-Love. Yeah. She could have done it. She would have. She would have done it. She would have done it. She would have. I think she would have. This is a very 90s answer. Yeah. I think she might have been a little old for this at this way, but probably Helen Hunt.

What about Elizabeth's true? No. Sandra Bullock? Yeah. Sandra Bullock would have killed, she would have killed Dorothy Boyd. She's amazing. I wonder if she has, I wonder if she was either it was offered to her or. She does speed right around that time though.

Yeah. She had speed in 94 and she had while you're sleeping in 95 and this is 96. This would have been the natural Sandy Bullock movie. It's a good point. It's not much of a role for her though. Like if she's in. See, I disagree. She's like a huge role in speed and a great role.

speed and a great role in while you're sleeping. I feel like, because did Zellweger do Bridget Jones after this? Yes. Yeah. This is my Dorothy Boyd's a great role, though. I think Dorothy Boyd's like one of the better roles. You know, you're not with me on that? I think she's, I think it's pretty good, but I don't, I don't think a movie star would have done.

She's got the, Julia Roberts wouldn't have done that role. She's got the, in the kitchen, I'm telling my sister how much I love this guy. I love him, Laurel. I love him for the man he wants to be and the man he almost is. Wow. That's my that's my degree roll. She has a lot of good speeches. She's like three great speeches.

First class. Yeah. She's watching them. The problem with, what did she say? The problem with life is, I don't know. The first class is the problem. That's not in the Bruce Springsteen song, so I don't remember it.

It used to be a better lunch. Now that's a better place to be. She gets to break up with him. Yeah. She gets to be proposed to. Yeah. She gets to like, she runs the gamut of emotions. She really does.

Every like emotional situation you could be in in a relationship, she covers in this movie. I just want to say. they're running oh that's another great scene the wedding scene when Cuba Gooding Jr. Marvin Gaye. Somehow they're watching the video that night, which isn't even one of the five most ridiculous things that happened in the movie. They're watching. It cuts to Jerry McGuire and he's got that deer in the headlights look on his face.

And Cuba Gooding's like, oh my God, he doesn't want to get married. I just want to point out everyone has that deer. Every man who gets married has the deer in the headlights look on his face. My wife did when we got married. Your wife did? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I remember my wife thinking. I was like very emotionally committed to that moment. And my wife was like, oh my God, there's no way out. Yeah. See, I think my wife thought I felt that way, but I was in the Old North Church in Boston. It was like 100 degrees wearing a tux. And I was just trying not to kill over. You got a great wife.

I'm sure you were excited. Thanks. She had me at hello, Julia. She had you at hello. Okay. So these are like, there's two really weird things related to Dorothy Boyd that couldn't be in the movie otherwise. Yeah. The divorce women's group, super weird.

We just did a really long breakdown of how there's no way the divorce women's group is still meeting at 1.45 a.m. We figured out. Cruz gets back at the end at 1.45 in the morning. They're definitely trashed. Yeah, but they don't act trashed in that. See, should not be drunk and passed out and somebody should have attacked Tom Cruise. Get out of here. He doesn't mean it.

Don't take him back. So the divorce group. Oh, you complete me? Okay. Yeah, whatever. Complete this, Tom Cruise. What about the male nanny who loves jazz? The manny.

The manny who gives like the weird jazz monologue to Tom Cruise before they go on the date. That guy's in a bunch of like he's in a couple of John Cusack movies right around that time. He was in high fidelity, right? Yeah, he's one of those guys. That doesn't, like the jazz part doesn't really belong in the movie. But like, I don't know, it worked. How do you feel about Tom Cruise as a romantic lead? Such a load of question.

He's kind of like the Bruno Mars of Rom-Com's where he's like really. talks a lot about like relationships often in a lot of like romantic situations but is in no way threatening like at all. Right. So like it's like there's there's rhetoric but there's no like feeling. So we were trying to recast that about like

what like who would have who could have played Jerry Maguire and obviously you don't have the same movie but who maybe would have like a little bit more like going on in the romance department? Who would have been the worst Jerry McGuire? Mark Wahlberg. Oh my gosh. Mark Wahlberg is Jerry McGuire. He would just be like, get up, Titwell!

Has he punched Rod Tidwell? Has he ever run anywhere in a rush? Like, I don't think Mark Wobar. Yeah, in the gambler. Mark Waldberg runs. But is he ever feel harried? I don't think so. I don't think Mark Wahlberg could get in touch with that.

I think Cruz gave two notes when he saw the script. He's like, Cameron, this is great. I love it. What if he was running through the airport? Yeah, what if he ran? I feel like because if he gets there to 220, they're not still meeting. I'm seeing a dark airport, and I just think he's running as fast as possible. And I'll get in shape for that.

I don't know what his other note would have been, but I think you definitely put that one in. Well, underrated thing that Cruz does as an agent is his handshakes are really good. He really makes good eye contact. Good charisma. He does like do a good like two-hand-hand-hand shake in with one kind of like bringing it over his left hand. Yeah. He's just, he's smiling the whole time.

Yeah. He's like really like a politician. Do you think Cruz should have been fired for the for the mission statement? Yes. If I left that mission statement and everybody's desk at the ringer, do you think I would be fired? You would probably be like smoked out over like three weeks, I think. I don't think it would have been instant. Yeah.

But you would be made. to feel uncomfortable until you left. That's probably true. I have to take my fish with me. I really regret the nine mission statements I wrote the ESPN. Probably shouldn't have kept saying this. Did they take you to like a weird restaurant? And it was the person who fired you was just like, think about me.

I've had to have this in my head the whole week. Damn it. Maybe that's what I did wrong. Do you think the problem with Dorothy and Jerry's relationship is Tom Cruise or that it's just not a believable relationship? There is a chemistry missing, but isn't that the point though? I think they address the chemistry issue. I think they're like this.

crazy it's a crazy time in our lives and this is happening so fast but now we're retconning this to be in love with each other because we're like learning from so much from each other but that being said there's like a little like they have to those lines like you complete me and you have me at hello and all those scenes have to make up for so much in the lack of actual like sparks between them yeah they address it at the restaurant when the tidwells are like making out and then cruises they look at each other and Cruz puts his arm on her, which I'm sure he's done in real life over and over again. Definitely.

On dates with, I find his relationship with Kelly Preston is a lot more believable. Way more believable. That's like a hot relationship. She's like, I can find El Capitan. I can make this happen. She looks great in the kitchen.

That's true. Yeah. That's a lot of chemistry there. That's true. She's done a sex scene with Cruz and she was married at Chavolta. Like they really brought in one of the experts. Well, it's a Scientology cabal. Oh, the cabal.

Yeah. All three of them. So how do you remember this movie, 20 years later. Do you think it could have been a TV series? No, I don't. You wouldn't bring it back? As a TV show now? Yeah. Would it be like they're like firmly together and they have an agency or No, Bill was throwing around some ideas and they were all non-designers. There are a lot of hot takes. A lot of like what if we did it? Rod Tidwell broke and dealing with the effects of concussions. What about this one? You know how it ends with Jonathan Lipnicki potentially being a really good

Yeah, we covered that. Okay. Well, what if he has just broken an agent's heart and now it's like about how the reverse Jerry kind of. Oh, okay. So Lipnicki is kind of like, hold that gentleman Lipkis on the phone. He's in. He's like, I'm an MNA fighter. Have you seen him lately?

Yeah, he's ripped. He ripped. It's ridiculous. So sports movie or romcom? I think romcom ultimately. Sports movie. Here's my case. Can it be both?

I think it can be both. I'm fine with it being both. Sure. I just think that the reason it gets pushed over to romcom for me is because like my favorite Cuba Gooding Jr. moments all also have to do with Regina King. Oh, right. They're Marcy stuff.

Yeah, he's never like just Rod Tidwell. He's like Rod Tidwell, the family man. And like she's so good in that movie. And even the like most emotional moments, like when he gets back up after the hard hit, like you're so happy because she's watching and it's so upsetting. Yeah. And just so happy for Marcy.

Like that's like, that's essential. Also, what about when he counsels Jerry? And he's like, if you love her, you've got to tell her. I mean, come on. These are all great points. I think it's a rom-com, but it's a rom-com between Cubeyote and Jr. and Tom Cruise. I remember writing a column way back one about a spork flick,

which was a combination of sports movie and a chick flick, back when we were allowed to use the word chick flick. Spork flick just combine them. To me, it's both. I think, and I think it's a worthy entrant as we wrap up the sports movie Hall of Fame. We're calling this a Sports Movie Hall of Fame, Juliet. Oh, cool.

So we've decided that this is a Hall of Famer. Welcome to the Hall. We're going to concentrate on the first, the last 20 years, The more modern movies. But apparently we're going to do white men can't jump because there's some hot disagreements about that. You have to talk me into that movie being an all-famer. Easily. Rosie Perez playing jeopardy.

Between Rosie Perez's voice and Wesley Snipes dribbling, I just can't take it. I really can't. The best trash talk of any basketball in a movie. It is good. You could argue that white men can't jump created the internet. Wow. Yeah. How about that?

You're just going to give that away? Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke at Chris Ryan. Can I ask, will you be covering Remember the Titans? Yes. Okay, just making sure. Yeah. Oh, we're covering it. Shea Serrano.

So anyway, we think this is going to be on Channel 33. At least this one is, and we'll figure out if people like it, we can create its own feed and then see what happens. Anyway, Chris Ryan, thank you. Thanks for having me. Julia Libman, you had me at hello. Thank you so much for having me. And check this space. We have another one coming next week.

I think it's going to be Moneyball. Until that.