The Rewatchables - ‘Den of Thieves’ With Bill Simmons, Shea Serrano, and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: October 15, 2019

Bill Simmons, Shea Serrano, and Chris Ryan really don’t appreciate you poppin’ off as they rewatch the 2018 action crime drama, ‘Den of Thieves,’ starring Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Dave Chang Show. Hey, Google, pause podcast. Yeah, that's how easy it is. A little help, hands free. Just say, hey, Google. Google to get started. Hey, Bill, you just threw a donut in the hot zone. This is the Den of Thieves, rewatchables.

The Federal Reserve. The bank has never been robbed. That's why we're going to rob it. Gang bangs, these are not. They're addicted to heist. Sooner or later, they don't need their fix. You're not the bad guys. We are.

Friday, make sure he knows it's all. I'm going to let you know now. Better wear your best. Anybody moves you shoot. Do we look like cops will arrest you? He just shoot you. Thieves. Chris Ryan, Bill Simmons,

Sheesh-Slerato. What's up, Shea? You. He eats the donut. He sure does. The one with the sprinkles. It's a crime scene. There's dead bodies everywhere.

It's definitely a crime scene. We can grab a donut. I'm hungry. I don't think he follows proper procedure. No, Big Nick does what Big Nick wants to do. We are here to talk about Den of Deves. They say we do, some of them we do for them. Some of them we do for us.

I think we're doing this for everybody. This is on cable. All the time. This one goes out to Pover Shriver to 50 cents. This is as perfect a rewatchable movie as y'all have ever chosen. If it's on Showtime every night for two straight years, then people are watching it. That's my take. You want to like it is when you're potting with a chip on your shoulder.

Nobody believes in us. We're going to make this one good because this is a movie that we share. This is a very special film, the three of us. They have the intelligence and the data on who's watching their networks when they show different things. They know what's going on. Den of Thieves and the town and social network and all these movies are just on all the time and cast away. With all due respect to. That means people are watching them.

Perhaps like a different. Listen. Those are all equal level. I'm just saying. Every single one. Certain movies are rewatchable and they know this and they keep putting them on television. Why? Because people keep watching.

So let's talk a bit a little bit about why Dead of These are so rewatchable. This is a movie written and directed by Kristen Gutigast. It came out in January 2018 to, I think, Middle East. reviews. I think 41% Rotten Tomatoes. It's a slow burn. Yeah, slow burn. I mean, 15 million it's open weekend, which is very respectable. That January slot is where they put a lot of genre movies. That's like the gray. You know, it's where they, a lot of crime films, a lot of genre movies tend to come out. Did it say 50 or 15? 15. Okay. On its way to a $44 million domestic

haul, but since then, as we have alluded to it, has taken on a second life on cable. It is constantly on Showtime. And I feel like, I feel like it had a bump. Like, right when it came out on Apple on iTunes. You would see it like in the top rentals. Like people were really checking. You think Eddie K bought some Den of Thieves stock? Just told them. Tim Apple is just sitting there.

Top left placement. Tim Apple when he gets done doing his Brazilian jihitsu and just lifting in his garage throws on Den of Thieves. Look, this is a movie that's fully aware of the movies that it's indebted to. So much so that I would say... That's a kind way of putting it. The first scene of Den of Thieves is essentially the first robbery from Heat and the climactic bank robbery scene from Heat in one scene.

But here's my opinion about that, Shea. You tell me if I'm wrong. She's a bad judge of this. No, I'm the best judge of this. It's not like they stop making King Lear. It's not, they're not ripping off. It's, they know they're ripping off, which makes it an homage. That's exactly what I'm going to say.

They keep making Hamlet. Yeah. They keep making King Lear. They can keep making heat. Is there any world in which if I'm like, hey, it's a lot like heat, you're like, I'm going to watch it then. I wish they were making heat again right now. Just keep making this.

That's what I'm saying. There's no, if you're going to copy a movie, can the copy of the fucking, the best one that's ever been done? Go for it. But you were late to heat. I was late. We had to like really hammering you on this. This is a real hole.

You're writing a movie's book and you hadn't really dove in the heat correctly. I was super late. Yeah, now I get it. Maybe like two or three years ago, I got tired of y'all making fun of me. I sat down and watched it. It was like, everybody get out of the house. Yeah. I'm going to just, I put on a gray suit.

like De Niro and the pictures that I've seen and I just sat there and stared at it. It was really good. It was one of the movies you're watching and you go like, oh, this is the best heist movie. Did you then turn to your brood and say, I am not lonely, I am alone? Yeah, as soon as they came home.

Shea told his wife, I gotta get it on, man. I gotta get it on. I'm on your corner. Yeah, there's a lot of movie references in this. Obviously, you have a little bit of heat to live and die in L.A. I'd say that the fact that the FBI agent

literally calls Nick Bad Lieutenant would be an indication that they've seen the movie Bad Lieutenant before but to me the reason why this movie is so rewatchable and we can get into this

is that it is at once a crime film and a heist movie which is different those are different things a crime movie is interested in the culture around crime a heist movie

is interested in the mechanics of a heist right this movie is both both this movie has the whole movie that's like Pablo Shriver's character and Nick

and they used to play football and used to be in the military and now they're chasing each other throughout the city and then it has the Donnie plot, which is essentially the Italian job, which is essentially like a heist movie. So in my mathematics here,

I'm saying like the town is a crime movie because it's mostly about guys in Boston who robbed banks and like where they grew up and what they do and how they want to get out of there. But the Italian job is just about driving minis through Rome and escaping with a lot of money. You know what I mean? Do you agree with that?

Yes. Okay. That's a correct assertion. Well, the town knows that every 25 to 30 minutes we're going to need somebody to get robbed again. Yes. This movie, the reason I didn't love it initially is it starts with a heist and it ends with a heist and then it's just an hour, 50 minutes.

Chess? Yeah. Gerard Butler just really going for it. Yeah. I remember you texted me two years ago and you're like, have you watched it yet? I was like, now. And you're like, Gerard Bartler, man, he just goes for it. And I'm like, what is that mean?

He's like, he's just going for it. I'm like, okay. And then I watched it. I understood what you meant. It's clear that he's drinking in real life as he's filming the movie. He's just so there's no way somebody could act this like beaten up. Yeah. Like his complexion of his face is fucked up.

He's got drunk cheeks. Yeah, it looks like they might have had to. Oh, yeah. It looks like they might have had to like be like, hey, man, we're canceling filming for today. Gerard has bronchitis. He said he never wanted the filming to end. That it was one of the best jobs he's ever had. It seemed like so much fun to work on.

So they shot this in Atlanta, even though it's very much set in L.A. That comes up a little bit more. Is that true? Yeah. And it happens, I think it affects the movie more in the second half. We can get into it. But I think that, like, in the beginning, you're really into the whole, like, oh, this is like, this is Gardena. This is Torrance.

This is Hawthor. And this is all these, like, kind of satellite towns outside of Los Angeles. But then there's a couple of moments in the second half in the movie, like, when he picks up his kid, it is very obviously, like, the East Coast in the fall. Yeah. Because there just never looks like Los Angeles here. Yeah. But that's an interesting point to go forward with. So what do you guys?

I mean, what other reasons why do you find this movie so rewatchable? I find it so rewatchable for a couple of different reasons. Number one, it is fun. It's just a fun movie. The parts where they are like, all right, we're shooting up everything now. They, like, really start shooting up everything. We got assault rifles and I'm going to shoot this cop car 100 times without stopping. It's like a jolt.

and they go from that to just being like, we're not going to do anything except stare at each other now. And that was one of my favorite parts of the movie. Like, we're going to talk about heat a lot here, but like the best part of heat, the most interesting part of heat, is when Pacino and De Niro finally sat down. Yeah.

And they had that moment. And this was a thing that they had been building toward for like 20 or 30 years in movies. Like, we're finally going to get this scene. Den of thieves figured out a way to do that in like 10 minutes. And also, they did it five times. in the movie. They're like, we've got Big Nick, we've got Merriman, we need to remember

in heat when this happened. Like, let's do that a lot of times. I would argue there may be one too many times. No, I would argue, I would argue 10, too few times. I'm not sure he needed to show up in the house after the night with the stripper. So there's a lot of suspension. I love it. There's a lot of suspension. I love it. I love it. I love it. Which is essentially because of the Donnie plot. And I like the Donnie plot a lot. And when you rewatch it, the cool thing about it is,

I think the first time through, you're not really like even thinking about it that much. But the first, after rewatching it, you realize that it's a little bit of a spy movie inside of it because it's also retelling this stuff from Donnie's perspective. And once you know what the ending is, you can rewatch the movie and be like, oh, watch Donnie do this, watch Donnie do that, knowing that he is basically the Kaiser-Sosei of the entire.

But that's why it's re-watchable. Because you pick up something new every time you watch it. I just watched it this morning. I got up at 6 in the morning. Had some coffee, watched 10 of thieves. That's how to start every day. The first thing you heard this morning was just like unlimited assault rifle firing. My son came down and watched 15 minutes.

There might have been a strip joint scene that was a little awkward. He was like, what's this, dad? Like someday, son. No, it's just, it's dense. There's a lot of stuff going on. And the first time you watch it, it's such a blatant heat ripoff that it's disarming. And there's so much time between the two heists. But the chess match becomes what makes it so rewatchable.

the, like, the Benihana scene's incredible. And it shouldn't work. It shouldn't work because it's just, like, what is happening? It's so stupid. Why, like, why is that? We're going to get to that in the most rewatchable scene. We can see it. Yeah, but it's just like, like, stuff like that.

I can watch that scene. Like, right now, again, I just watched it. Yeah, I mean, I would watch any scenes set in Ziggy's Hofbrow. Any, any scene set in that bar. I want to, I have a thousand questions about that bar. I think the reason why this movie is really, like, it survives from repeat viewings, too, is because, because of how connected it is to,

like the characters are very connected to the place that the movie is set. Even though it doesn't necessarily always look like L.A., I really, really like the fact that they outline how Merriman and Leroux, like, come from, or Laveau, come from this part of L.A. They played football together at Long Beach Polly. They both served and were at 29 Palms out in the Mojave. That's where they were serving.

This is what they trained in when they were serving. And now they're back and they did 10 years in the joint. and now they're out again and these kinds of high-end, really technically difficult crimes are back on the board. I think that sometimes you always hear about actors being like,

well, I wanted to know everything about my character. You know everything about this character. It's laid out for you. I also drove by, on my way to work today, I drove by the bank in the neighborhood I live.

And I did think for three seconds how I could take it down, which is when you know you've seen this movie too many times, I'm like, I can do it. Probably go around 10.30. That's when it's the quietest.

I would pull the move. I'd have two people and do the... We're not here for your money. We're here for the big money. Your money's insured. You guys are fine. Don't do anything to screw this up. But it is like you see these movies

and you really start thinking like, well, how would I do this? Which is really fucked up because this is a really serious crime. And they did a lot of research on that. They apparently worked a lot with people about like, okay, it's impossible to rob the Fed. But if you were going to do it,

what is the one thing you could rob? And, you know, for guys who are so forward on the muscles and they usually go in pretty hot and heavy, the Fed heist is incredibly difficult and technically like we're demanding in terms of like they need an EMP. They're going to get the money at this exact moment

before it gets shredded. And then when they get the money out, it has to go into this kind of truck. And the way that they set that all up with what they're stealing and how he's like, yeah, we know, when Marcus is basically like, why don't we walk away with this money right now? this is a nice hall.

And he's like, we can walk away with that money and look over our shoulder for the rest of our lives. Or we can steal 30 and get away clean, which, you know, famous last words. You're really like, oh, my God, what is this guy planning? What is this guy plotting? That's a good little segue into another part of what makes it so enjoyable. As you see that part, and the first time you watch it, the first time you hear you want three and a half bills or whatever. But you still stole the $3 million. Like, they're still going to be looking forward.

that $3 million and you don't realize until you get to the end, oh, they're giving them that money back when they're doing it. And this is why they took the empty truck. Like a bunch, they just do a bunch of stuff like that without explaining anything. And then you get to the end and they're like, yeah, I hope you figured out why we did all this stuff. And usually you don't until you go back and you rewatch it. You're like, oh, make every single time, every time I've watched this movie. This is probably my most watched movie. Of the last five years. Of the last few years. Yeah, just because it's on so much. I have this movie recorded like on my, DVR like four times.

I see it and automatically I'm like record I need to I need to watch it. It's a bank robbery movie made for bank robbery movie fans. Because there's just these little details like microwaving the money or like when they throw the packs of money in the sink to make the die pack explode

and you're like I always wondered how they would do that. Like all these little little wrinkles you're like oh yeah see I've watched 100 bank robbery movies so this is actually pretty useful and fun for me. It's also got some some kind of comically bad stuff there, which is another reason I love it.

Yeah. Butler's, as we said, really going for it. Yeah. I'm not 100% sure he's good at this movie. I just know that I love his performance in this movie. So that means he's good in it. It's an early 2000s Nick Cage. Yeah.

It's a Brian Brown and cocktail. It's just over the top. I think he's. It's a little like mid-2000s Russell Crow. After like the wheels are starting to come off. It's Russell Crow with a little Caruso. It's like, what if you took both parts of proof of life and put them together? Right.

It's Caruso and, and, Kiss of Death and Proof of Life. It's just him reading the script and being like, I'm gonna fucking own this. I'm really, really gonna be Big Nick. I'm gonna go to strip joints for three months to prepare. I'm putting on 20 pounds. I'm gonna eat donuts at 7th the morning.

I'm gonna try all kinds of liquor. I will be Big Nick. This is the second best character he's ever played. The first one is Leonidas from 300. And then it's this guy. And then it's Clyde Shelton and Law Abiding Citizen. He's so good. and the movies where we're like,

we're going to get a little bit silly, but I need you to take this 100% serious. Yeah. He was probably trying to arrest people in real life when he was filming this movie. I bet. He was just, like if you put an awesome actor in this part,

I don't think the movie works as well. He is an awesome actor. I think he is the perfect actor for this role, though. So, I mean, this movie is... But I'm saying it's like Brad Pitt's in this role. It just doesn't feel right, you know? No, he doesn't have the right energy. If he commits to like the full-on neck beard,

not shaving, looks like he's been in a fight. He's not hoping enough. He's not... He's not... This guy, I really believe, has been a cop for 25 years and fucks around on his wife and his life is falling apart.

He looks exactly what you need this guy to look like. They show him with his shirt off. And he's like, you used to have muscles, I can tell, but it's kind of like going away from you. He's like in tight jeans and no shirt when he walks out of the bathroom. You're like, that's exactly what a big Nick would look like.

I think what, you know, this movie went through a very long and circuitous development process where it was part of like relativity was going to make it.

It had been around for about 10 or 15 years as the script had been floating around. And various names were attached to it which you can get into the casting what ifs.

But I think it actually benefits from not having like, I mean, Joe Butler's a movie star. He opens action movies routinely. But I'm really glad that it wasn't the heat set up of like two famous actors

coming down to this level. I thought it was good that it was sharp. and Butler, because you really lose yourself in the movie. I'll also say that this movie, outstanding fucking crew movie, really good crews in this movie. Like, heat...

You get two crews this time. They just upped everything. The heat crew, it's like mostly about the bank robbers. Like, you get a little Ted Levine and West Studi and stuff like that for the cops. Oh, man, Ted Levine. But the cops and the bank robbers in this movie both get a lot of, like, time.

I wanted to ask you guys really briefly if we could power rank the cops, Powering Nick's crew. Go ahead. Baracho. Number one for me. Murf. Tony Z.

Or Gus? Is Gus the black guy? Yes, is the black guy. He's number two for me. I have him last. What? Why? Because I think that's,

I was going to do this in nitpicks. I think that's the part they could have dialed up and had like Dave Chappelle or Jamie Fox. No, no, no. You don't want him being funny. I needed like a star.

No. My biggest nitpick with this movie is there's spot. where it could have been funny and it chooses not to be. No, you can't have any humor in this movie at all. I disagree. It's no good. It's no good.

One person to kind of be like, just make fun of Big Nick like three times. No, because if you do that, the whole movie is set up, especially the first time you watch it, but maybe more so afterward, the whole movie is set up so that it's Big Nick versus Ray Merriman. And that's all you should be focused on is these two incredibly alpha male guerrillas. are just going to battle it out. And they do so many little things to let you know it's going to happen.

When we get introduced to Merriman, we see his name on the screen. That only happens twice. It happens with him and it happens with Big Nick. And they're like, these are the two guys. They do the same shot

with Pablo when he's walking out of the prison and we get the back shot of him and you just see his wide shoulders going. That's how we get introduced to the Big Nick character as well. He comes walking in the scene and you're like, oh shit.

Like these are the two guys. You can't have somebody pulling away from now. We just, we need to be head. toward that collision. I said, My heart wants what my heart wants.

You can make great cases. Mo McCray. Dave Chappelle making like three jokes. This is going to help this movie. Here's Moe McCray's best moment in the movie. And it's an essential part. This is Gus. Because, yeah, this is Gus.

To let you know that Big Nick's crew is like Big Nick. When they're at Benny Hanna and they show up and Big Nick is sort of doing his whole show and he's being very disrespectful to the women at the table. And Gus comes walking over and he's like pulling them away. But in the middle of pulling him away, he gives like a very clear, disrespectful look, like sort of salacious

at the women at the table. So like, I'm pulling him away and I'm protecting y'all but like really I'm not. Really, I'm a dirty scumbag just like big naked. And he does it.

Perfect. It's his best moment in the movie. Dave Chappelle can't do that. This is the same case Laker fans make when they argue they would have rather had Derek Fisher than Chris Paul. Derrick Fisher made some big shots.

He knew his place. Didn't take away from Kobe. But he's right. He won five championships with Derek Rishol. He was nuts. Yeah, I agree with you. That's funny. Momokra is perfect.

He's the Derek Fisher in this movie. Baracho is the number one draft. Baracho's amazing for me. I love Brachow. What else has Barucho been in? Tons of stuff. So he's actually... He's like one of those guys.

Yeah, he's in practically everything. He's in Mayans right now. He was in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Like, he's in everything. When are we going to address the biggest question I have in the podcast about how Shea feels about... That's Maurice Comte, by the way, Baracho. A lead character named Pablo, not being played by a Latino actor. Oh, you want to get this off your chest?

Do you want to do this later or now? Wait, but his real name is Pablo. His movie name is Ray. That's fine. He's just saying. I mean, his name's Pablo and it makes you think he's Latino, but he's Canadian American. No, we claimed him. You claimed him?

You drafted him? Early on. Just because his name was Pablo? We were like, Pablo, he's 6'5. He's got a beard, and we'll take him. First pick. your guy could have been in this role though which guy oh Pena

no he couldn't have been he couldn't have done this one I don't think so Does it not alpha enough Can you put it on 20 pounds? No you kind of like he's a little bit more cerebral Like if you watch Narcos Mexico Pena's like a lot more like I don't mean he couldn't do this like actor wise

I mean physically Yeah Pablo is 5 He's yoked And in the movie And they do this a lot on purpose You could tell They shoot up at him

A lot all the time So that he's just sort of towering Over everybody Even when him and Butler come nose to nose. Like, you can't have Michael Piny on that scene. Butler's 6-2. You need a guy bigger than him to sort of look down.

I didn't realize you drafted Pablo. You looked at the tape, man. This is like the Jonathan Givney of action. I haven't seen this just so many times. I know Shea has claimed some people over the years. I didn't realize. Pablo is one of the ones that we claim. Anything else before we get into the categories?

No, I think we have to do most of this in the categories because it's just so much meat. All right. We're going to take a quick break. But we'll be back with the categories in just a second. Hey, we're taking a break to talk about Shay's book. which by the time you hear this podcast would have been out for a week, it is called movies and other things. It is the second in the and other things, whatever trilogy, quadrilogy, however it ends up me.

It's a trilogy right now. You have a bank heist chapter in this book. That is correct. Explain the chapter. The chapter is we're going to build a perfect movie heist crew using characters from movie heist. So we're talking about den of thieves right now. The way we set the chapter up, there has to be like a person chasing your crew. and of course I went with Big Nick from Den of Thieves.

Of course you did. I need a guy like that. I need a guy who's going to beat you up and then take you into a hotel room and illegally interrogate you. And eat a donut at a crime scene. And eat a donut at a crime scene and wear jeans and no shirt or a leather jacket. I need that guy. I need Big Nick. We've talked about what roles we would play and I really want to be the driver.

You're the driver. So if you ever do this chapter again, but it's just media people, I would like to be the driver. That was what it was originally. Yeah, then you changed it and made a movie character. And then the publisher was like, nobody wants this. That was smart. That was a good idea. And it's also, we should mention the first book from the Ringer Books in print.

So we're proud to have you as our first author. What a better choice. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Thanks for doing that for us. And we're excited for the book. You can still buy it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. You can go to the bookstore and buy it.

You can hold it, look at it. Independent bookstores, everywhere. Yeah. You might do. Are you going to do any holiday signings? I'm sure I would do a holiday signing or two, yes. Yeah, and you can follow Shea on Twitter as well if you want updates on all this stuff

at Shea Serrano. Correct. So there you go. All right, back to the podcast. Boom. We're back. Most rewatchable scene. Wow. Tough fun. This is one of those. This is a movie centered around like five rewatchable scenes. Yeah, and I think that there's a lot of scenes that bleed into each other because there is some flashback stuff

and there is, you know, the last hour and 15 minutes is essentially one huge action set piece, but it's divided up into three. But let's start from the beginning. Okay. I like everything from the Hofbrow, like the first introduction at the Hoffbrow through Nick and the LASD click Bracing Donnie in the hotel room. Like that whole underworld.

So you're not going opening scene? Yeah. The opening scene's great. Yeah. I mean, like the opening robbery at the donut shop. Yeah, go ahead. I've lived in L.A. since 2002. There's a creepiness to L.A. late at night

in parts that aren't like, the, you know, Hollywood and whatever, like, once you go into the fringes and off the 10 and the five in these little side towns, right around three, four in the morning, it becomes one of those things like, I don't know what the fuck's going on. Like, you're driving through, where is a Hawthorne? Yeah. You're going through Hawthorne at three in the morning to get donuts. It's like...

Have you ever gone through Hawthorne at three in the morning to get donuts? I'm just saying, it's not something I'd want to do. I think like that's the thing is that the only people really getting donuts at three in the morning are armored truck drivers. But the thing about LA is there's so many people and there's so much traffic. And then when you go in the middle of the night, it's just empty. Yeah. And it's fucking eerie.

Yeah. And I think that opening scene, it's kind of like what eerie L.A. is like where you're like like like, I can be getting donuts and out of nowhere, these dudes could show up and start shooting everybody and heisting an armored truck. Yeah, they do take liberties where they wet down all the streets, which happens like six times a year in L.A. It's actually slick out there. I wish they did it every week. I know. But yeah, I just, I like the vibe of that scene. I just, I love when there's the poor guy in the car.

That's like the worst job. I would never, if I was the cop, I would never want to be the guy. The armored truck driver who's like, my job is to lock the door. Well, none of the guy in the back. Oh, yeah. That poor guy, he always gets blown up. He's not even guarding any. The driver is fine.

He should have drove away. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But then they leave the donut shop guy open, like all of it. It's, and. Because they know to shoot uniforms. The cops come, and there's always a moment in these movies where you go, all right, are these the kind of guys

that are going to kill cops or not? They go right for the cops. They're going right windshield. The guys are just, the first two cops are dead in two seconds. And it just establishes, all right, these guys are like,

even in heat, Wayne Grove snaps and kills the one guy, but they didn't really want to kill anybody. They don't actually fire back a cops really until. Not until the end. But they never, that's always the last resort for those guys. These guys are like,

this is part of our thing. We're going to kill some. And that sets the tone. I think it's important. Yeah. And to extend off of this, if we can make that scene a little bit longer, one of the things that they do here that we had not really seen too much in other movies is they have the shootout with the cops. And they're like, oh, cool, I get it. There's a hat tip to, like, heat is what's happening. And they go to their little facility, to their garage or whatever. Yeah. They have to do that. What the hell happened?

They do this whole thing. And we've seen this before. And then they lay it very bare. what the stakes of the movie are. They zoom in on Pablo as he's staring in the back of the empty truck. Yeah, this is really cool. And he's just like, we're cop killers now. Because he knows now that life has basically got a clock on it. And as soon as that happens, you're like, they're either going to make it out of the movie successful or they're going to die. You're going to be $30 million richer or you're going to be dead.

Those are the only two options from here on now. Now, I would have that scene. Immediately. And I would have Butler showing up because I fucking love that thing when he eats the donut. It's too early in the morning for your fucking. You just threw a donut in the hot zone. No, I did not. You did?

I did. That was fucking wrong. It was. I don't like you, Nick, or how you handle the police. Hey, hey, hey, what's up with that? I like you. He's got the badass guy, the pain in the ass guy that's in every movie, giving him shit. Yes.

And it's like, oh, so we're going to do this thing. That's donut in the hot zone. Yeah, you get to know both crews very, very well. But we know Butler's character already because he's been in 700 movies. It's like, oh, I get it. All right, he's this guy. And he's going to do all these things. And here's the guy who's going to give him shit.

Great little details in those scenes where it's like, you better drink the palm juice. We're getting piss test on Thursday. His crew is like, oh, God, big necks fucking. Here he goes. Okay, I have a question. And I thought about this when I watched it recently. So I had gone through this period where I was watching like every big heist movie

that had come. And during part of that, I watched a movie called Rafiifi from like the 50s or something. It's like French movie. And there's just a really cool moment in that movie when they're like drilling into a, from like the ceiling down into a space. And they drill a little hole. And this is all happening like as quiet as possible. I drill a little hole. And then they put an umbrella, a closed umbrella through the hole and then open it.

And then they start chipping away. And the umbrella catches all of the stuff that falls rather than hitting the ground. And I'm like, oh, that's a cool moment. So in the beginning of Den of Thieves, when they ripped that window out of the truck, They drill a hole in it. They put the thing in. They open it and then they yank it out. And when I saw that, I was wondering, clearly their hat tipping heat and then they also do like several other movies in there.

But I wonder, is that one specific moment put it in, open it, yank it out. Are they also doing Rafi Feefei-I guess? If so, then that's like- Because this is a movie that's obviously a lovely-love-lubber movie. Who wrote this movie? Christian Guggesse, who's the guy directed it too. So yeah, I think that the opening sequence, the introduction to both of those guys definitely in the rewatchable scenes. I just had Hoffbrow and Nick in the L-A-S-D click bracing Donnie because that's where the movie kind of like jumps up a level for me

because you start getting into like Donnie telling the story of meeting people and also despite the fact because that first scene you're like okay so Nick's a bad guy cop or whatever and these guys these guys are like dirty maybe a little bit dirty but then when they get Donnie when he tases Donnie after the Hoffbrow I'm just the driver I'm just the driver I don't give me no gun I don't do no one gangster shit. They asked me to drive, so that's what I do. That's it. Fuck. Why have Merriman

hijack an empty armor car? I don't know. All right, they keep me in the door for shit like this. If the cops come down on me, I can't tell them shit if I don't know shit. Now, y'all can hook me up to a lie to the fucking polygraph, whatever y'all got. I'm telling you what I know, and that's all you'll get. Please, just let me the fuck go. And they take him to that weird hotel room where apparently they're allowed to smoke cigarettes indoors. I love that smoking indoors is still allowed everywhere in L.A. in this movie. And they take Donnie to this hotel where they're also smoking and they also seem to have ladies of the night in there with them. And they're all drinking and eating chicken tenders.

And then they're like, yeah, we have Donnie. Usually getting Donnie would be midway through the movie. Like if they were going to play it differently, they would finally make contact with the other crew. But no, it's like this amazing scene in this hotel room where Nick is like, you see this. And he points it as his regulators. Regulators. And he's like, we're a click. We could say we're a gang.

And this means like we own you basically. And it's just like this amazing moment. I'm in on that scene too. So far up to three we watch the scenes. I also really like when Donnie is telling the story of meeting Merriman. And they do, honestly, the Donnie goes to the backyard barbecue. And Merrim is just like eating skirt steak with nothing else. Yeah.

And like we were talking before the pod story, but clearly this movie is sponsored by Desani. because all the guys are always drinking Desani throughout the movie. Well, that scene, two good details. One is when he asks them. They serve for breakfast on Friday.

Three silver dollar pancakes. O'Shea pauses a second. You're like, oh, fuck, is he talking out of his ass? And then he's like three silver dollar pancakes. The other thing, these movies, they always have the outdoor scene when people are eating unhappily. Yes. Where it's like, yeah, come to my barbecue.

or come to this guy's house for lunch. Let's be clear. And it's just like just people eating and being suspicious. At no point is Pablo Shriver's character ever eating happily. Like even if Benny Hottit's just like, we're just, they're just all like eating their food. Like if you were like, come to my house on Saturday having some people over and I got there and be like, hey, you've made it. Like whatever. Bank robbers are just like.

Nick's ex-wife's dinner party that he interrupts, they actually have a good time. That's like the only fun meal. Some more rewatchable scenes. God, you got to go 50 cent in the prom date. So this is what's up. For the past 16 years, my daughter's safety and protection has been my responsibility, my responsibility only. For the first time in her life, I see I got to hand you that responsibility.

Don't fuck up. Well, your mom will weep and she has to wheel your ass around every day the rest of your life. 50-sentence meeting the prom date, tucking his blood handkerchief in, and then having him come out into the back. And they play that scene really good because you think for a second he's just looking at the posters. when he goes into the garage. And then 50 brings him in and it's just like

the entire offensive line from Walton Beach, and Tava Shriver. And the guy's speaking, you know, Polynesian or whatever, you know, he speak,

the Samoan guy's there. What's that I mean? Okay. It's all right. That's all right. And, you know, it's just like, your mom is going to be wheeling you around.

So that's great. Let's talk about the Benny Hanes scene. Oh, God. Let's do it. This is my favorite scene in the movie. I think. Of course it is. How could it?

It's so amazing on somebody. I'm not exactly sure what the idea is here. So why does, it's not a coincidence, obviously, right? They've been trailing Donnie. What are they hoping to gain by introducing the fact that like, we're on to you, we're all at the same restaurant, we're being disrespectful. So the idea is they're basically trying to do the heat where Pacino and those guys or letting the other guys know that they're on to them.

Yeah. You apply the pressure and then hope they make a mistake. Yeah. And at some point, probably Gerard Butler's like, hey, man, what if we do it in a Benihana? And he's just like, I'm really going to, I'm going for it in this scene. Also, they definitely film different takes. Probably would like to go to Benihana.

You know, like those cops probably like to eat at Benihana. They love Benihana. No, he doesn't, though, because he said the food sucks. That's just my ass. That's his whole life, though. Everything he loves sucks. I think they filmed 10 takes of him playing this relatively straight. Yeah.

And then at the tail on Butler's like, can we do one where I'm just completely insane? Just for me? And they're like, sure. And then they use that take. He comes, first of all, like, why does he want them to, why does he want to blow the whistle on Donnie? I don't understand his motivation. There's a lot going on where I like to rewatch the scene because of all the nipicks I have with it. Yes.

like Donnie is on the inside for him basically and he just blows his cover immediately. Let's just say something one day at the top. Based on everything we know about like real life and these kinds of movies, if this crew had killed four cops, the city would be locked down. It wouldn't be like, let's play this out and see if they go to Benny Hana. They would just arrest them. But they don't know that they killed the cops. I think they're pretty, by that point, they're pretty.

What evidence do they have? The thing is, the day after, even when they're in the crime scene, they send the guy back to take pictures. It's like, how do they not notice this guy? Right. And they also say some people, we're not the guys who arrest you. You know what I mean?

So it's like they're not really waiting to gather evidence and put together good warrants. So that is kind of weird that they're like, oh yeah, there's a much of cop killers hanging out to Benny Hanna. Let's just go. Again, they don't know. And also, like you're saying,

they don't want to arrest them. They want to kill them. Right. That's what's going on here. Is this the best Benihana scene of all time? So what are the other candidates? I don't know. It's got to be, right?

Benny Hana is a really underused location. Totally. Because everybody's sitting around the table. You got the action with the knives and stuff like that. Do you like Benihana? Nobody likes Benihana. No, kids like it. Yeah, but I do go to Benzana.

The move I want to see in a movie like this is where they sit with the people at the Benihana table. Because it's usually like 12 seats. Can you imagine if you're just there with Ben and Zoe? Butler sits down. You're in the middle. on one side, Pablo on one side, Gerard Butler on the other. Big Nick and Ben would probably like, he'd like the podcast.

How fast do you get up if Gerard Butter is like, we come here for the ass? You're like, all right, kids. I'm just feeling like there's another Benihanna's over. My son would be like, this guy's cool. Who is this? But yeah, I want to see that in the next heist movie when people rip off this movie in heat

and they just do another Benihana scene. Just sit at the table the next time. When I write a heist movie, it's all taking place in a Benihanna. It's the robbery of a Benihanna. Benihon. You also have the possibility of a fight and then somebody getting thrown on the grill and getting better. Yeah, I feel like that's happened before.

Yeah, that has absolutely happened. A Benihana fight? Somebody has been thrown on one of those flat top girls like that. My big question coming out of this, I don't want to wait to ask this. So, Donnie's like, hey, man, you spotted me at the gym. And they could do all the football stuff. The football stuff is amazing in the scene. You mean the concept of Gerard Butler, knowing everything there is to know about this obscure football table in L.A.

Because he played for South Torrance, and those guys play for Long Beach Polly. And he's like, we used to crush you guys when I was there. He went straight from high school to the LAPD. Guaranteed. Yeah, absolutely. But so they, he basically blows Donnie's cover a little bit. I want to know how, in between Benny Hanna and getting back to the garage, Pablo Schreiber is able to get them to set up an entire murder tent in the garage when they get back.

So, like, when they get back to the garage with Donnie, there's already. plastic on the ground, acid in a vat, they've got like the tenting going. It's like they're already ready to murder someone. This is the same thing I have with Jeff Chow at the ringer. What? Yeah.

I just text him tent and he gets it already in the spare office. With the leather apron. Just a code, four-letter code. I take you to Betty Hata and I'm like, Bill, it's been a great seven years, but I'm going somewhere else. And I text Jeff Tent. Yeah, okay. And then that's it.

Chris, we got to go back to the office and do a podcast. And this whole thing has become a... Yeah. Next scene is possibly the greatest scene in American cinema history. Did we spend enough time on Benihana? Let's keep going. If you have more Benny Hana points,

what do you think the order was? Did they eat after? Like, I feel like there needed to be more with Butler insulting the chef. No. No? Merriman's still eating. He's used to having like a plate of fried rice.

It's him and Merriman. We left out the part when Merriman's getting pissed. Yeah. And he does the stand-up? What does he say? Go. family here, bro. Don't really appreciate you popping off.

All right. Don't wait, man. I really appreciate you popping off. It's like, it's three strippers. It's like, we have family here, bro. It's like, we have candies. It's candy's night off from the strip house. That's family right there.

Yeah, man. I just, I love what he stands up. That part's great. He looks like he's 18 feet tall when he stands up. Oh, my God. That's what, yeah, they're making him seem super hero. It's like a comic book trick. It's great.

He has such a great chin that he has such a great chin that he just throws. out there the whole time. Just every time. His head is back, his chin is out. Also, really good at chest tats. Yeah. Like the tats across the chest are really good for him.

One of the great Latino actors. Yeah. Did you know he's Leif Schreiber's half-brother? Yeah. I never knew this. I didn't either until right now. He's Ray Donovan's half-brother. I guess, I guess we're going to take that.

We're taking him as well. NFL film. You get the hit Shriver, yeah. Hard-knocked. Yeah. We're bringing them in. Most rewatchable scene is probably my favorite scene in cinema history, which is the scene in the men's suit store.

When's this happening? Friday. Where? I don't know yet. All I can tell you is Friday. TGIF, I'm... You're protecting me on this. Brian.

We got your back, bro. Don't worry about a thing. What the fuck is happening? Why don't we hang out in suit stores more? I love the idea that these guys are so well known at this place, It seems to sell mostly leather jackets, cowboy boots, and remandered suits. No disrespect. But they have like a full, like, lounge area that the cops, like, clearly, like, are regulars at.

Yeah. And that Gerard Butler's big purchase is, like, this completely out of style leather jacket. Like, half blazer, half duster leather jacket. He's, his leather jackets in this movie are arguably, yeah, are in the conversation for who won the movie. It's established immediately. The guy makes a joke about it. Yeah, he's like, oh man, look at that stazzy leather jacket. Yeah, and he's like, I can't even do this with you, Nick.

The FBI agent won the movie. Just the vibe, the fact that Gerard Butler is drinking coffee out of like an actual porcelain coffee cup. Like, why are they serving him coffee like that? And then another one of those, like, if Donnie is under so much heat from both sides, how is you just like openly going to meet these guys in public? Like how does it? How is that happening? Well, that's why they met at this place.

It's still pretty in public. It's not, though. Like, when's the last time you went into a store like that? I don't know, but I want to say having a total meeting there. They had the emergency meeting at Hamburger Hamlet because nobody's going to be there. Maybe that was the thinking. Maybe Varyer and I should start having NBA meetings there and we just try on leather jackets. We're just like, ah, I think the thunder might be better than everything.

What do you think, man? I would go to that store right now. Yeah. I didn't even know. a store like that existed where I could sit and watch other people try on men's clothes. Didn't know that happened. You maybe get a few extra rings for yourself.

There's a lot of rings. Barracho seems to be enjoying himself. Murph seems really bored there. They've done this. I can't believe we're at the suit store again. They've done this like six times. Can't we go to the strip club? Yeah.

And then I really, this is where you get into, you have like the basically after the men's suit store. There's this interlude that involves a lot of personal life stuff. You know, for Gerard Butler's relationship to his ex-wife, his kids. A little too much. Yeah. Same problem with heat, by the way.

Yes. Although, I would say that the level of detail in the relationships in heat, the personal relationships in heat, make it so that it's not like a waste of time, whereas everything around the cruise is so detailed in Den of Thieves. And yet, like, the relationship with the wife is just kind of like, it's any other ex-wife relationship. Like, there's no actual, like, detail or personality to it.

Well, they weren't ex-old. They weren't ex-old. Well, he signs the divorce. papers at that guy's party. You could cut Natalie Portman pretty much out of heat and it's the same movie. We can have this debate. We have before. And the 100th.

100th episode. So the next rewatchable scene for me and this is kind of these four are all part of one sort of orchestral movement is the locked and loaded scene, which is in every action movie, guys going like, and you know, the conversation around firearms aside, like, this is a pretty high level locked and loaded scene. This is wonderful. This dude, Gus doing his, like, visualization techniques, everybody putting their vests on, and then Pablo Shriver giving, like, the lesson and the automatic rifle to Donnie.

Pay attention. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you're going to shoot somebody. If and when that happens, safety selector switch. One for semi, two for full auto. Mag release. Out with the old. In with the new. Tug it.

Make sure it's in that good. Slap the bolt home. You're ready for round two. Other than that, keep this thing pointed at the fucking floor. You understand? Yeah. It's just pretty high level. It's really good.

Is that all of the scenes that we're mentioning? No, we're mentioning a bunch more. How many bullets would you feel good about Day of the Heist? How many bullets would you want on you? Oh, you need several hundred. I think those guys are like thousands of points. So when, you know, we always talk about gun control in this country

rules we can make. It would seem like the guy who goes in to the gun store we're buying the bulk-proof vest and he's like, hey,

do you have any boat-proof vest that can hold 2,000 bullets? Maybe that's the guy we should flag? You see maybe armor-piercing rounds

in general? These guys have, I mean, there's pockets left right, behind, on the sides. So those guys,

and he still runs out. Yeah. He still runs out. At the end, he's like, fucking shot. And then you basically have the three,

final scenes are three discreet robbery scenes. The Pico Savings and Loan robbery, which is like the sort of fake the fake hostage situation. I wanted a tiny bit more from that scene. Well, because it's all setting up

the robbery of the Fed, which in itself is setting up to shoot out. I thought the Pico scene was kind of a mailing. Yeah, well, I think the Pico scene is basically... I wanted more from the bank manager. He wasn't scared enough. The Pico scene is past hors d'oeuvres. They're just like, hey, here's a bacon wrap Don't worry about it.

Try harder. Try harder. The Federal Reserve heist, which is very, very elaborate and very complicated. And it actually takes quite a while. That's long. Yeah. What do you think was wrong with the lady's order? What do you mean?

The lady, O'Shea, drops the food off. And the one lady's like, this is terrible. I'm getting my money back and chases by. What do you think was wrong with the food? It's just super old. Yeah. It's been sitting in the freaking ceiling for like a week and a half. Oh, that was probably it.

Yeah. That's one of my nitpicks. That food would have been stanking. It would have been like, people would have been like, something died in the men's room. We got to check this out. Why is their bag of Chinese food in the ceiling? There's no way they would have gotten through that. I disagree.

Okay. Here's what you do. Because he knew he was doing that. You put it in a little ice chest in the bag. And even if they check it. He just had a plastic bag, though. He just shoves like a paper bag up there. He has a paper bag, but like you can put stuff inside of a paper bag.

Like, you get a little tiny. That would have popped on the screen when it goes through the first time. They would have been like, why do you have dry ice in here? No, not dry ice. You put like a regular ice chest in there. They're like, why do you have an ice chest? You're delivering food. Yeah, because I'm delivering food.

I'm going to keep it cold. She ordered sushi or whatever it is. This is going to be a nitpick. We can get into this. So Pico Savings alone, federal reserve heist, and then the highway shootout. Those are the last three. And they like, I like the Kaiser Sozzi scene where they reveal everything at the end. But it's not necessarily you don't need to rewatch it.

Like once you got it once you got it. So. I got to say I really like the tail end. And I like O'Shea Jackson going with the English accent kills me. You work across the street. Yeah. Diamond exchange That's fine

Beers on me I'm always in for that How can do that Governor How long you've been working Across the street Yeah I have a feeling that

I have a feeling that I wouldn't know this But I feel like the original script of this movie is The Merriman versus Nick thing And that the Donnie thing while part of that original script Was probably expanded

because that last two scenes is essentially like, let's make a sequel. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like Big Nick realizes Donnie was the guy all along, and then it's like Fast and Furious International. We're in Fort England now. Yeah. So I think that that was someone's tacked on.

It's the sequel as Big Nick realizes that Merriman is Canadian American. I just can't believe it. It's like, what? Is he from Quebec? I got to dive into this. Big Nick the Mountie? Yeah. I have two answers here for one we're picking most rewatchful.

So we just tell me what is. I mean, we have already listed 13 scenes. Yeah, we also just... This is not more scenes. This is like... You can put this in what saves the best, though. Okay. Sure.

Yeah. All right. Yeah, let's go to... What's the most we watch by? I go Benihana. I'm gonna go Benihana. Okay. And this is where I have two different answers

because if you're watching it the first time, different scenes jump out at you. The Benihana scene is like a huge one. Where cop killers now is a huge one. The donut in the hot zone is a huge one. But the shooting range standoff, which we didn't even... Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another huge one. Yeah. She's like, I love each one of these. But after you've seen this movie five or six times, for me, the most rewatchable scene is when they're interviewing Donnie in the hotel room. And you're realizing all of the, like, little traps that Donnie is setting for these guys. And also, not even that, but all the little traps that the director and the writer is setting for you as well. Like, they make a very clear point for Gerard Butler to be like, oh, that was pretty believable.

And you're like, ya, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you're like, oh shit, it really, like it was very believable because we all bought it. Nobody saw what was coming at the end. So I think it was the first time you watch it, shooting range is the fifth time. Give me the hotel scene. I just, I love watching and realizing in this moment. Donnie's playing these guys. Donnie is playing these guys.

And also that, but also realizing right now that O'Shea Jackson is like a fucking incredibly gifted actor. Right. And nobody saw this coming. He was in NWA, straight out of Compton. And you're like, he was really good. He was really, really good in this movie. but I wonder if he can do something else and then he does this.

Sounds like She's going to draft him. This guy's a movie star. He's a movie star. So we're going to do what stage. I still go with Benihana. If I'm flipping channels and that scene's about to come on, I'm watching. Yeah, you're like Benz.

For Woodsage is the best, though, shooting range, the part when they realize each other's there and Merriman just like starts unleashing what, like, 40 bullets in a row. And Butler's kind of shooting and he's kind of like impressed?

Yeah. They take turns. So Pablo goes. Yeah. Or Ray Merriman and then Butler goes. That moment when Butler has that look on his face, like, this guy's kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah.

They both have, they both are like shit diners. They just don't talk. It is. And they're like, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. So what's the best? I have, speaking of that, Paul Schreiber's performance. I think actually on multiple viewings, you're like really, I was really impressed by just how much he feels like he carries his body like an ex-athlet and ex-military.

And it's funny because, so he's in Wire Season 2, obviously. He's Sabacca's son, which I just had been re-watching. And it took me a while to realize they were the same guy, even though they look alike. Because Pablo in this movie is so different than he is in the Wire, but he's not really that different at all. I just have always liked that guy. I never watched a couple of the shows that he was in. Like, he got nominated for an Emmy for Orange's New Black.

I never watched that show. in that show. And he's totally different in that movie too. You've got the same face the whole time and you're three different people every single time.

Because the guy's obviously like a really gifted actor. I wonder if like he's so tall it actually holds him back. Like we did Tom Cruise movie because he looks like twice as tall. Like it's, it actually becomes kind of an albatross

because most of the stars are like five seven, five eight. The other thing I was going to say was that he had come off doing that Michael Bay movie 13 hours and done Den of Thieves. So he essentially had like a sustained period of training military training.

And you could kind of see, you could kind of see the results of that in this movie. I'm going to say something that really upset Shay right now. Okay. I'm just wanting to prepare him. Should I leave? You always do this every single time. You shouldn't leave, but I've just, I wanted to. Go ahead.

Fast and furious. We would never touch that. Okay. I know. Was it already a bad start? I know. Vin Diesel is untouchable. Mm-hmm.

even Hobbs and Shaw, not the same without Vin Diesel. Nobody else could play Dom Torretto, that's Vin Diesel. If Vin Diesel never existed, there was no Vin Diesel. We never had him in our labs. I'm so mad right now. We never had them. We never had them. We don't even have the option to have them.

And we have to settle for another actor to be Dom Torretto. My first pick would be Pablo Schreber. Oh, that's not bad. I thought we were going a different direction. That's fine. I'm a big Pablo guy. So, here's definitely like the best backup QB for that role. Wouldn't you have just cast

the rock originally then as John? No. Pablo Schreiber could absolutely have done the backyard Salumi Familia. Like he could have done all that stuff. The Rock can't do that. Yeah, the Rock can't do that. He can't do it. If Pablo Schreiber is four inches shorter, he's Henry Cavill. That's who he is. He's Superman. Well, how do we get him in a fast and furious movie? He's got to be in one. He can be

like in 11. Yeah. Can he be the bad guy? I would love him. What a fight scene is in the rock. They keep making the bad guys into the good guys in those movies, right? Yeah, but he could be like the bad guy who eventually just joins the gang. They overlook his seven murders of their crew. Come on in. Anyway. Shreiber's performance, Butler's performance.

Yeah. Based heavily off of Gene Hackman and French Connection, he said. He was really inspired by that. It's unlike anything else in Butler's career, I think. Butler's kind of like how we're going to feel about Devin Booker in 10 years, where it was like, that guy was talented. It's too bad. Where it should have gone better.

I think it's going great. But then Devin's going to be. Booker has the stuff like the 70 point game and things like that where you're like, wow, he did average 25 a game. He never played. Turned down a chance to represent his country in the world. It's like, I don't think, I don't think Gerard Butler we're going to be looking at his basketball reference and there's like 150 playoff games. But I think we'll remember him finally. Yeah.

He's got the has fallen series. Yeah. Like he's got a franchise. He's actually like a pretty big action story. But there was a moment when it seemed like he was going to be like an A plus lister. And it didn't happen, is my point. He never quite got there. Even when he was like in rom-coms,

like they were really trying to sell him as this could be like Brad Pitt for this decade. It never quite happened. Yeah, I think he was the Russell Crow. Like Russell Crow doesn't make movies like this anymore. Let's make it anywhere. But he never had like the Russell Crow beautiful mind. He never had Gladiator. He never had Gladiator.

He never had the best movie of all-time proof of life. Right. He has Zeta Thieves. He has a Theta Thieves. He has Law-Biding Citizens. This is his law LA confidential. Yeah.

He's going to have Vin of Thieves 2. He's not somebody's name who comes up at the Oscars. Right. Well, what else is the age the best? I have the cop names.

We talked about this. Baracho, Murph, Tony Z. and Gus. Those are just great names. What else is age the best thing? Merriman. Merriman.

I always call him Sean Merriman. Yeah, I call him Sean Merriman. Yeah. He played football. He's like, oh, yeah, Sean Merrin. No, it's Ray.

Because it's like Mary Man. It makes it seem like he's a happy guy. He's just a rough hang. Shea, what else is each the best? Say thing? Yeah, I've got a couple of other ones. And I started talking about this just a second ago, but I like O'Shea's arrival as like, I'm

going to be, I'm going to be a person in your lives for a long time. Let me in your movies. Yeah. Good call. We didn't talk about 50 cents performance, which is really, really good. It's really tricky to do what he does. He's sort of, he's the one guy in the movie, we're like, we're going to turn the volume down.

Really, really low on you. And it's easy when you do something like that in a movie like this for it to just become like a boring part. But it has the opposite effect with 50 cent. He's just so good at making everything feel like monumental. It has gravity to him when he's performing his way. It's not like unintentional comedy, but the moment at the end in the highway shootout right before it starts, where published drivers looks at him and he's just like, we're basically going to die. there's not like a single second where 50 seems to be like mourning the fact that he will ever see his wife and daughter.

No, he's ready to go. He's action. He's an action guy. Let's get into it. I'm going to nudge back a little on this one. Oh, no. I was worried about this because, you know, 50, if 50 declares beef on you, it's really, it's... He's really good. You don't think he's good in this?

I think he's fine. I think he's great. I would have... There's a reason they brought him back for part two. There's, this is the Val Kilmer and Heat scene. in Heat part, the kind of quiet guy who's attached to the lead guy and there's like clear affection and friendship, but he doesn't have a lot of lines.

And I just think if you're comparing it to Valcoma, Valcomer's just better in heat than 50 cent is than this movie. He does more, it's a, you got to do a lot with a little. He does somewhat a lot. I love the way that he plays. But I also don't know who else should have been in the role. I was trying to think of what stunt casting would have been great. And I kept thinking about Ray,

Lewis in this part? Yeah. Like Ray Lewis's first movie. You don't have a lot of lines, right? It's more like you have to be charisma and you have to be a big fucking dude. You have to be able to bump the garage scene. Ed Reed. Ed Reed would have been dope in this movie.

Ed Reed is, that's a good pick. He seems like a good, noble, loyal friend. And then you could have one I'm hurt dog scene. Like you could give him one like real acting scene where he does like a speech or whatever, but otherwise you could just be quiet. Well, what happens if you flip MoMACray in 50 cents? Is it a better or worse movie? No, it's worse.

You sure? Yeah, the cop needs to be like kind of a slimy, skinnier guy. The criminal always needs to be a bigger, bulkier guy. Their body types are too different. I want to say, I was thinking about Idris Elba too, but he's like too kind of famous and probably too old. I think 50 is pretty perfect in this movie. 50 is great.

I have one more to add for what's age is the best. And I think this is a neat. I thought they should have played into club in the strip try, though, just to like a shot at that thing. No. You keep trying to... One more for what's age the best. This is a neat little trick that they do.

And we started to talk about a second ago is Pablo's chin in this movie. The way that they shoot it, the way that he puts it out there, there are two types of, like, fighters. If somebody's been in a lot of street fights, there are two types. You've got the guy who puts his chin out there and he's like, I'm fucking ready to go. I'm daring you to hit me right here. And this is my knockout button. Hit me here and it's over. Come and get it.

And then the other version is a guy who tucks it away and he's a little more disciplined and a little more measured and he's like he's going to make you earn it. You're going to have to get through the top of his head first. And that's really like a clever thing they do with Pablo, especially when you get to the end of the movie and you realize like this guy is just all in for everything. Of course he would be the guy who always puts the chin out there

when it's like when his go time. And he's like, if you make me fight, this is what's going to happen. This is, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is what you're getting. So Chris Rides. Yeah. and then Bill's like 10. Chris Ryan takes out the glasses.

I know. Hold on a second. I have to get my wrist. My carpal tunnel is acting up. Can somebody hold my glasses? And then the chin comes out. What's age the worst? Did you have a couple more what's age best?

Yeah, I had a couple more what's age the best. I love that you're going straight off the top here. You don't even need notes for this. I don't need notes. The dinner scene just unapologetically rips off heat. The Benny Hotties? No, no. When he crashes the double date.

Oh my God, yeah. It just unapologetically, unapologetically rips off the Pacino taking his TV back. Sit down! Sit down! And they don't care. And it's ludicrous. I have no idea why he goes there. I don't know what his motivation is.

I don't know why this lady's on a date so fast. I know. Her whole marriage has just fallen apart. She's like, I'm going to get a dressed up dinner date. Get babysitter for the kids. You're going to, don't you think maybe she's been ready for this marriage to be over for a while. Yeah, she knew.

And maybe she's like, this guy's texting strippers. I accidentally sending me texts to strippers. I also love when he comes home at 6 a.m. Yeah. And he's like, I was out of whatever. A stakeout.

And she's like, you texted me. Oh, that hurts. And he's just like. That hurts. I probably did do that. Do you know what he texts her? What is it? This is the message that he writes.

You a bad bitch. That was so hot. No punctuation. He capitalizes the so. So. S-O. That was so... And then he capitalizes the H and hot

for some reason. And that's a great tut. Like, that's how Big Nick would text. And the one right before that is she's asking him, they're having a conversation. She asked him to pick up

something from the store for one of their daughters. He's like, all right, I'm probably gonna be home late. And she asks what time. It's like 9 o'clock. What time? And he never texts back.

Except you a bad bitch. That's the next one at 5-something in the morning. Yeah, I think she's allowed to go on as many dates as she wants as fast as she wants. But the reason he shows up there is because he's just,

He sets fire to everything. Everything he touches just gone. It was good. I was going to say, what age is the worst is Nick's personal life? On repeat viewings, that's just kind of like, you get it.

You could kind of have maybe, like, he could even just get served papers. You don't really need the whole, like, him going to, you know, call his daughter pooky before you go.

Well, what's age the worst is like where his daughters are 11 years from now and they're probably dancing at the place big Nick is still going to. Oh, no.

And he's like, oh shit. I think the mom did a good enough job. I think they're going to be okay. I think those daughters are terrible. She got them out of there quick. She's like, all right, we're gone. Another what's aged the worst for me is, and this is, I guess, a nitpick, but I just feel

like they would have had a better plan at the end for wearing a ton of traffic and these cars aren't moving. Other than just, are they behind us? I mean, we could spend about it half an hour talking about this. I have an explanation for this. Yeah, I have an explanation for this. This is, this is why this happened. Should we say what's age the worst is the dynamics or like the physics of the last

shoot out? No. Let me tell you why it happens this way. I needed a watch. I understand it more. There's a reason it happens this way. And the reason that the actual heist for an hour that we're watching them do this is so, so smart. And then when they get to the end, it all just sort of falls apart. And that's because Donnie planned all of the heist. Donnie knew there would be construction in that spot? No, Donnie probably didn't know that part, but he knew they were going to have to get away whatever. He was going to be gone by that point because he doesn't go with them when they leave. Donnie knows he's going to get caught. He knows that they're watching him specifically. They're going to pick me up. I'm going to have to get out of handcuff. Whatever. But Donnie plans that whole heist for everything. That's why all of the pieces are exactly right. Pablo didn't plan any of that. Merriman didn't plan any of that. We don't ever see Pablo do anything smart. We just have Donnie telling us, oh, he's a real smart guy. And we're led to believe he planned this whole thing. But Donnie did all of that.

So he's given him the test answers. Boom, boom, boom, I can answer every question. Here's what we got to do. And then when Donnie is out of the picture and he's no longer giving them the directions for what needs to be done, everything falls apart. So let me ask you this. Does Donnie anticipate being picked up by the cops to take into that shootout situation? He anticipates being picked up for sure. And he probably assumes we're going to follow along to go get the rest.

But he knows they're going to get him the same as he knew. I just think common sense is like we got to get the fuck out of here. Like there's cars in front of us and behind us We're getting out of this We're ramming into these cars back and forth To have room We're going on the road and we're leaving Yeah

Versus like hey you know what might work Is just a shootout with 130 cars Come on Come on Merriman Even Big Nick probably is like This is really dangerous For the civilians around Well they tell it

There's another cool little details When you tell them to get behind the engine block Yes And you're like oh that's cool Yeah Oh I get it Because the bullets can't get through there Did we ever get an explanation

What stage the worst for me is. Why is he called Big Neck? He's Big Dick. He's big. He's big. He's six, too. He's Dick. What do you want him to be called? Yeah. Probably in college he was like Big Dick Nick.

And then he became a professional. I think they could have thrown in a little bit like just a nod. South Torrance. He was called Big Nick. Big Nick's like hung like a tripod. It's just like mentioned quickly. And it's like, oh, I get it. That's why he's big neck.

What else is age is the worst? I've mentioned this before. But there's some scenes where we were just like, that's Atlanta. This is like this. This is just all. This is only like an L.A. nerd thing. Because nobody who doesn't live in L.A. That now bothers me and I didn't even notice it.

Casting what ifs, this iteration. Wait, we're done with what stage is the worst? I have a lot of stuff that's more like nitpicks or unanswerable questions. Guess what I have for what age is the worst? Not a damn thing. Nothing. Nothing. I.

Greg doesn't even like this movie. And he's like, we're talking about the godfather here. I think they missed a couple spots to stuntcast. You've said so. I hate the stunt cast. I hate the stunt cast. I wanted the actress who plays his disgruntled wife to be a little more famous. Like Catherine Keener?

Whoever the 2019 Catherine Keener is. Somebody could have even been like Jessica Alba. Like somebody surprised me. Is married to Gerard Butler. No, thank you. Okay. Somebody that I know that I have a little history with versus like a blank slate. And I already mentioned, I would, what's the guy's name I didn't like?

I would put Chappelle. Gus. Oh, Gus? Mom McCray. Gus is like one of the best parts of the movie. I just wanted it more from Gus. I wanted him to be funnier. That's a terrible take.

Yeah. No, it's not. Yeah. Three jokes. You're outvoted. Three jokes. Tint. Casting what ifs, this movie was floating around for a really long time.

The iteration of the movie that we get, like, there's not a lot of information about, like, oh, this was about to be this person, but it wound up being this person. But since it had been floating around for a long time, at various points, Sylvester Stallone, it was attached. No, thanks. No, thank you. I mean, he's like 25 years too late for that. The Rock was attached to this movie for a while. On the set of skyscraper,

Pablo Schreiber said that the Rock, he told the Rock he was going to be doing a movie called Dead of Deves, and he was like, oh, I was supposed to do that movie 10 years ago. Well, ironically, if they did do the movie 10 years ago, he's the 50 Cent part. The Rock? Yeah. Yeah.

I guess 10 years ago, he was pretty famous. He probably would have been one of the leads. I don't think he takes that role. He's not going to be the bad guy. We still haven't gotten villain rock yet. Yeah, he went to. And Sam Worthington was also attached to this movie at various points. But I think they got the casting largely right,

except for obviously the Dave Chappelle part that, you know, was sadly missing. I just talked to Dave. He would have done it. There's not one single role in this movie that you need to change. Gerard Butler, perfect. Pablo, perfect. O'Shea, perfect.

50, perfect. Maurice County, perfect. Evan Jones. 50's fine. Perfect. MoMACray, perfect. Let's take a break to talk about Luminary. a podcast subscription service with some of the best content around.

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Would you guys like to know who else went to Long Beach Polly? What other football? Oh, here we go. Let's go, baby. This is great. This is really, it changes this a little bit. Deshawn Jackson.

Juju Smith's Shuster. Philly, Deshawn Jackson? Yeah. Went to Long Beach Polly. He could have played Momos Lerang's part. Jujer and Mercedes Lewis. And six other future NFL players all went to Long Beach Polly.

Nobody really that famous went to South Torrance. You know my take on Long Beach. Underrated? Most underrated. part of California. I have no idea why it's... Is it a completely separate fucking part of California?

I know, but I have no idea why it's not... But you might as well live in San Diego if you have to get out to Long Beach. Long Beach should just be way more expensive and people should be like clamoring to live there.

I don't get it. It's right on the water. It's no different than Orange County. It's no different than Manhattan Beach, any of these places. It's the same thing. But for some reason it hasn't caught on yet. I predict big things for Long Beach.

Is Long Beach the same school that Jake went to in Training Day? that he play high school football there as well? Oh, man. So we have to talk about whether or not Jake. It would be funny of Long Beach, like their football team was just terrible, except for when your Deshaun Jackson was on it. Butler gained 20 to 30 pounds for the role.

Oh, we're happily. Like I said, Pablo Schreiber used some of his weapons training that he received. Butler kept eating the donut. There was no, like, fake donut. They did 20 days. You guys, if you need that again, I can go back and get another donut. He picked up smoking. The character of Big Nick is based on a guy named Jay Dobbins,

who worked as a sort of technical advisor on the set. He had a really good quote in a interview with Slashfilm where he said, from my experience, the reality of it, meaning police work is not sexy, not glamorous. It's nasty, dirty, grimy, bloody, vomit, covered scab of a life. When I went into it, I thought it was Miami Vice, but I realized quickly that it was nothing like that. Very, very few people who did that job with a Rolex and drove a fancy car.

I hate Don Johnson. So it was a true to life. Apparently, he was like, you know, a lot of what they were going for in this movie was to try and get the details right, even if the actual story was pretty fantastic. Best That Guy, aka the Joey Pants Award. That's it for Halfass Internet Research.

I fucking found out who went to Long Beach Pollard. Are you kidding me? I'm out how you're looking at football reference after a Vampire Weekend concert. I wanted more about like, do they really destroy money? I never knew that before the. this movie. They're just like,

we're good with this money. I think that part of it might be real, but I don't think you could, I don't think that there's ever a point where it's like, oh, we can just take the money right before it gets shredded. That's the thing they do in Logan Lucky, too.

Like, that's the whole. Oh, yeah. I need more info on this. Okay. Sorry. No, not from you.

Just in general. I want somebody to write like a giant feature about it. I want to understand it. For best that guy, I have one nominee and I think this guy's the winner. I think it's Bosco. Which one is that? Evan Jones.

Bosco. The little guy with a weird face. in the crew. Did you have anybody else who you think would be like the Joey pants that guy? The baracho.

Marf is Brian Van Holt from Cuckertown. Yeah. He's in Breaking Bad. End of Watch. Yeah. He's Big Evil and End of Watch. This movie has 30 that guys.

Yeah. I love. It's the tough to. The security guard who O'Shea has the two deliveries. Yeah. And he's just eyeballing him.

I feel like that's of that guy. He doesn't even any lines, but that guy. preemptive that guy. You just think he's going to reach for his gun each time and he just doesn't, but he's just total eyeball. Great job by him. Yeah, he does a really wonderful job, building some tension there.

Good eyeballing. The Saul Rubenek, they knew! Oh, God. Award for overacting. I mean, it's Gerard Butler's entire performance. It's fucking Gerard Butler. Start to finish. With a bag of donuts.

It is Gerard Butler, start to finish. I actually think the better question is, what is his peak Saul Rubinick moment in this movie? I would actually say it's his first scene with the agent when they're going back and forth and they're trying to have baneer. Big Nick, original gangstick cop in the flesh. Lobb and Bob. Huh?

How's that mean tennis game? Bop. Bop. Look at you, man. Where'd you pick that up? Nice suit. I'm not what you're shopping. I can't afford it.

I mean, how does a county house? Sheriff pay for such a beautiful piece of men's fashion. Can me this piece of shit? This is garbage. Look at you. This thing's dead. Must pull all kinds of a sport in that, no? He's just dialing it up immediately.

Yeah, he's on 10 immediately. He does a bunch of cool stuff right there. My favorite thing is when the guy's in the middle of talking, he's like, I really don't like you and blah, blah, blah. And as he's talking, he goes, hey, hey, hey, hey, what's up with that? I like you. It's a drive ball, I win, saw room neck. Dionne Wiener's Award.

If the implication here is that he was overacting and that means it was bad, then I just want to... It doesn't mean it's bad. For the record, I think he was down and up. I think he was perfect. Down and up. He's exactly what I wanted. The Deany's Award for the Heat Check. Ooh.

Doing the most of the least. You know, one of the things about this movie that I think makes it so good to rewatch is because everybody kind of plays their part and knows their role. And so you don't see Bosco or Gus or Baracho. Like, they don't go over the top and try and steal scenes. They're really like in the. the moment. I have a suggestion for this one.

Okay. I think it's the big Hawaiian guy. Which one? The one who talks? Yeah. Low usage rate. Not really a lot of lines. When Marcus is like, bro, why can't we just cut loose right now?

That guy? Yeah, not a lot of lines. He's good in the garage scene. He's intimidating. He starts speaking in a different language. I like that guy. I watched Den of Thieves 15, 20 times before I realized there are two children in that scene as well. They're like six-year-old, seven-year-old.

kids. Wait, in the prom scene? Yeah, in the garage. One of them sitting on the bench with a guy and another one is just standing there also postured up like he's going to do something. I never realized it.

One of my other favorite, like, details that I noticed after like 10 viewings of this movie, the cops and their major crimes unit office have a white bench in the back. A bench press. Can you imagine just being like, ah, guy, I just drank like

a fifth of Johnny Walker, probably did a little blow I'm gonna put some weights I'm gonna do some bench pressing in my office Get a couple of sets in I like when When Bosco

You think Rosco would probably appreciate it Oh Oh yeah I like when Bosco gets serious for a minute In the beginning And they ask like

Where do the guy gets shot He's like It's femoral artery He's a goner All right Relax Bosco Femoral artery Yeah

What happened to that guy The dead guy Didn't Did they were I think they're just like he's dead And then they identified. Did they ever try to... They did.

They tried to connect them. They get like, here's his, here's his, here's his, yeah, I don't remember that part. That's where they start to put together all the, like,

when they're going through this stuff. From 05 and 06, we had all these crazy robberies. Then these guys did 10-year bids and they come back and the robbery starting up. This is a new category. New category.

And we've kind of already stepped up on this a little bit. This is a Bill Simmons special. You can recast one part. It came from a listener, actually. It's from the listener? Yeah. You can recast one part.

what would you do? I wouldn't cast anything. It's perfect. Thank you. It's untouchable. Thank you. I don't understand. That's a great impression.

Great impression. Great impression. I would cast... Kate McKinnon over here. I would cast Dave Chappelle in the MoMA Craper. What a mistake. What a mistake? What part in this movie would you play?

Dave Chappelle. What part would you want to play in this movie? Oh, I want to be... I want to be baracho. I want to be that guy. Yeah. I want to be Murph. Who would you recast?

See? Nobody. It's really tough. Like, you made, I know you made a kind of compelling case about 50. But I don't know who I would recast it as. Nobody. Jamie Foxx. Nope.

No. Not big enough. It's too old. Too old. No, thanks. I love that you guys are both convinced that a movie that's 41% of Rotten Tomatoes is flawless. We did it. fucking 90 minute proof of life

podcast. I love this movie. I'm just saying. You're losing your It's not a diamond that we found in South Africa and brought back and hit my ass. We're almost done. Apex Mountain. I don't appreciate you popping off, Bill. Butler, 100%. Apex Mountain. If this isn't Butler's Apex Mountain, I'm leaving. I mean, you think it's, this is Apex Mountain.

Don't give me 300. No, fuck 300. This movie's going to live on for 100 years. I think that's the... They play 300 before Lakers games. Now, 300's already. People are. are done with 300. Yeah, that's the argument to make here. 300 was like a bigger, a bigger cultural moment. It was a thing.

But it's going to be gone. Yeah. Den of Thieves is going to be around forever. It's definitely not. It's going to be on Showtime for 100 years. It's not 50 cents. No. It's, no, it's not 50 cents.

What's 50 cents? Get Richard D. Yeah. It's the biggest star in the world. It's Pablo Shriver's Apex Mount. Absolutely. He's fucking awesome in this movie. Right now it is, yeah.

I think he's got a bigger career ahead of them. I just said that he could have been Dom Torreto and Shade and Punch Me. How is that not as Apex Mountain? Shriver Apex Mountain. He's really good. Who else? What about Hawthorne?

I mean, it's not really Hawthorne, so that would have been a step in the right direction. How about Long Beach Polly football? Nistagerie. Is it Long Beach Polly to have two guys get killed on a highway? Or is it Deshawn Jackson playing there? Yeah, maybe Deshawn. What about Benihana movie scenes, Apex Mountain? Apex for Benihana.

It's this. And then under that it was that scene. in the office when they go to Benny Highlands. What about heist movies that rip off heat? Apex Mountain. Okay. For sure. I would say Dark Night is the highest movie that rips off heat Apex Mountain.

Oh, here we go. More than this movie? Here we go. It was like two, like a couple, like it was like 10 years after heat. They were just like, let's just make heat. This movie ends with Gerard Butler basically doing the Buccino-Denara hand thing. It is the most indebted to heat. It's like, oh my God, you ended up to do that.

I just think that the most popular movie ever made to rip off heat was Dark Night. I like that they made it seem like Butler. and Shriver had any connection at all. It's just like, amen. It's like all these guys fucking hated each other. And their closest they ever came was a gun range where they shot next to each other. But they also kind of like each other.

Can I tell you a quick story? Yeah. This is like a cool thing that happened is the last time I was out in L.A., I was in the hotel, just minding my business. And my phone rang and it was a number I didn't recognize. And I answered it. And it was Goudegas, the writer and director of this movie.

Yeah. Are you saying this for like the 58th minute of the podcast? Yeah, yeah. He was like, oh, hey, what's up? I saw the thing. I wrote a thing about Den of Thieves on the ringer.com. I saw the thing you wrote. I really liked that.

I just want to reach out and, like, talk to you for a minute. And then we talked about Den of Thieves for like 30 minutes. And he was the nicest guy in the world. They're doing Den of Thieves, too. He was talking about that. He was asking, do you want me to tell you about Den of Thieves too? And I was like, absolutely not. Don't tell me one single thing.

I want to watch it in the theater. Are they filming that now? Yeah. When that trailer comes out? Oh, God. I don't know what's going to happen. You're flying in for the office. She's on a Concord.

They don't make the Concord anymore. He's flying it. Picking Nets. I've worked in a lot less secure places than the Federal Reserve Bank. I still had to go meet the delivery guy in the lobby. Like, they don't just let the delivery guys go up in offices. I don't know. They let them into my office building.

Don't you work in the door? Just like a rando place. Yeah, we don't have a lock or anything. My biggest nitpick is I think Shreber's crew either kills Donnie or. or cuts ties of them before the last. They definitely execute Donnie right after Pennyana. No, the reason that they don't do that is because they know that he's connected to them. And so they need for the, they need for Gerard Butler's team to be at the Pico Stings.

The fake location. And that's how they get the information. Because he tells them, make sure they're here on Friday. I still think they're killing Donnie at some point before. They're probably, the plan was probably to kill him afterward. We're not going to give him any money. We need him right now. So to get them to a spot.

50 cent cares so much more about intimidating his daughter's prom date than whether he lives weird? He cares about her. He cares about her more than him. That's another neat little thing that they do in the movie that I like is we get to see 50 Cent like very involved in his family life and they're happy. Clearly his wife loves him, his daughter loves him. He's there.

And then opposite of that, Gerard Butler, it's just a menace to everybody that's not a cop. Well, that's the whole thing, is that they put these two crews, like, they juxtapose them, and they're, like, basically, like, these bank robbers are essentially better family men, quote-unquote, than the cops are. I would have, I just can't believe they didn't try to drive out of the stall traffic at the end. It bothers me every time. I think there's a lot. Picking Knits is one way of putting it, but just, like, I think that the cops probably would have been, like,

we can't possibly do this. We're going to get 50 people killed if we do this. Right. Dr. Ball is just like, let's fucking go. Let's get these guys. and it's just like you've got 100 civilians sitting there. I'm sure they weren't expecting all of what happened to happen, though. Minor nitpick is just Gerard Butler.

He's been at the gun range with him. True. He's not going to get shot with a bow and arrow. Yeah, but he's thinking like handgun. He wouldn't expect him the big daddy gun. I guess, yeah. Minor nitpick, Gerard Butler, who we've just seen smoking, eating donuts, staying up until 6 a.m. every night.

Now he's in this athletic running scene. I think he goes like five feet before he's like. You just starts throwing up. Oh, my God. I think the adrenaline kicks in. I don't think that guy can run more than 50 feet. Yeah, I think the adrenaline. That is a rough life.

Any other picking nits? I had a knit. This movie's perfect. I have no nits to pick. See? You are nailing it right now. You are really so good. Why is he?

You're making him sound like Buffalo Bill. This movie's perfect. I had a, I had a, I had a knit to pick earlier. I wrote it down in my notes. I was confused about why the women were mad about the food being old and bad. And like, why, if they're in on that? You had a whole system of dry ice being waiting in the ceiling panel. I'm like, why are they calling to the front?

Why are they calling the restaurant to complain about it? And then that's when I realized Donnie knew that they were going to be hacking into all the phone calls out into the restaurant. And he needed for Pablo's team to fully believe everything. One more nitpick. It's perfect again. It's perfect. Butler goes to the bar a couple days later after everything goes down. To the Hoffbrow, yeah.

And it's like, hey, is Donnie been here? And they're like, now he gave notice two days ago. Like, was he, what was he expecting Donnie to be there? Yeah, Donnie's going to go back to work. He's escaped. Donnie breaks out of handcuffs after obviously being implicated in a robbery of the Federal Reserve. And he's like, I better check into work. I don't want to let Ziggy down on the night shift.

Want to make sure he wasn't in the Hofbrow. Yeah. I thought that was a little. The Hofbrow is an amazing bit. Just like a German soccer bar that's only populated by like federal employees, cops, and bank robbers. Please dial me in.

Any other picking nets? No. Best quote. None. Oh, best quote? Yeah. We're cop killers now. We're cop killers now.

I like, come on, give me a hug. We'll save a fortune on therapy. Come here, give me a hug. Come on. We'll save a fortune in therapy. he says that's his Gerard Bell has so many good lines his new boyfriend

so many good lines where are the bad guys I select bro we're with family we should mention that Bill just stood up to do that yeah that's not Craig's fault

bro we're with family we're with family don't appreciate you pop it off we're with candy delisha just because they're dancers doesn't mean

They can't enjoy a Benny Hanna meal without some fucking asshole middle linebacker cops. I agree. Dates might have worked better. That's family. Because I think 50's wife is there. She is? Boom. Gotcha. Get the tent.

Any other best quotes? No, that's the one for me. That's the one even now when I watch it, every time he says it, I'm like, oh. We're cop-coopers now. What does he say at the end right before he dies? Your guy Shriver? Oh, he's like, I told you. That's what he said.

Like, I told you I'm not going back inside. I'm like that. I love when the guy's bra. Like, he's literally about today. I was like, I fucking told you. I wasn't going back home. My lungs are filling with blood. He's like, yeah, you told me.

You're dead. Could this re-remade as a 10-episode Netflix show? Yes. About the follow-up, I would just say you've got to change when you reveal Donnie's. I think that the hotel room scene has to happen in like the second episode or the third episode. I actually think who's your guy who called you. What's his name? Goody gas.

I think Dan and Thieves, too, could have been a Netflix. He could have really gone for the big day day. 10 episode Netflix prequel. That was just... That's what I want. Laveau and Merriman, like, coming out of the military. I want to see them in the military.

I want to see... We can see... I mean, there's so many different versions here. You can see them in the military. You can see them when they get out because they do a couple of robberies beforehand. And he gets fucking caught because of a taillight that's out. Like, oh, that sucks.

Also, the Merriman in prison show. Merriman in prison is like my number one. I need to see... I need to see Pablo in prison all puffed out all the time. I could have spent a... an episode at the Benny Hana, try to find about the staff, a couple of the chefs, what else is going on there?

Probably unanswerable questions. I had one. We've hit almost every other one. When Nick goes to his, you know, the neighbor's house or wherever where the double date is happening with his wife, it's just so random, but Nick's the other guy,

not the guy who's with his wife, but the other guy, is Irish. Yeah. Nick, I was going to call you! Why is there just like an Irish guy here? one of Butler's friends, like in real life. It probably is. It's probably a Scottish guy. Yeah, like, put me in the movie.

It's probably a brother's homie. I got you. Any other unanswerable questions? It's like me putting Joe House and Denna Thieves too. I want to know what position Merriman play. He's got to be like outside linebacker, right? Inside linebacker. You think inside?

Number 55. Mike Singletary right there. All right. That's probably true. I want to know what Gerard Butler's next like five years are looking like for Big Nick after he solves. Oh, it's all downhill. This holiday.

It's all bad. Like, what does, like, two weeks later look like for him? I mean, a lot of family court, probably. Probably a lot of internal affairs reviews of his behavior since, like, probably 50 people died in the highway shootout. Do you like the scene after he sees his daughter and then goes in his car and cries? No. No. I like it.

That could have been what stage is where it pretty easily. I like it. I like him. Dan of Thieves, too. He's just in Superior Court in Pasadena, trying to get visitation rights. So are they not? I know I showed up in, you know, I started really aggressively hugging her new boyfriend. Are they not overseas for part two?

If we're guessing. Oh, the diamonds. It's got to be dentities too, right? And then how does Gerard get there? I mean, you just be like an independent. He's vacationing in London. Yeah, that's right. People always wanted to see Manchester City play.

He's down and thought he'd stop by London for a couple days. Yeah, I wonder if it's one of those ones where he's like, I know he went there. I'm going to be there. and then Donnie has to outsmart not only Butler, but like the local people as well. It starts, Denny Thieves 2 starts with Butler's on the plane

and he's being overserved and he's insulting whatever and an air marshal has to like get involved. And then he says to the air marshal, you and me, let's go get Donnie. I'm so excited for Den and Thieves too. Who won the movie?

I think it's Shriver. I'm going, I'm going to Pablo. It's between him and Butler. He keeps this movie like, this movie feels very real because of him. Yeah. Butler is incredible in this movie, but I'm going to give it to Shriver.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think Shriver is the too cool for school. Oh my God. Alternative pick. You know what? You get really testy when you're not hosting. Nah. It's like the cool thing.

He's been making fun of me. He's trying to win. It's a little testy. No, he's the best in the movie. All I know is when this movie happened, one of the two people sitting at this table and it wasn't you, text to me, you have to watch Denny Thieves.

Gerard Butler is really going for it. Was your text? Yeah. So how does Shriver? in the movie. Guess who wasn't in that text? Are you Giulianiing me now? No. Guess who wasn't in your first text to me about this movie to get me to watch this movie?

I know you. If I say, hey, Bill, there's this incredible Pablo Schreiber performance. You're probably going to be like, who's Pablo Schreiber, I don't remember. If I say Gerard Butler, who you see at Lakers games, who's like around in L.A., you'd be like, all I'd do a shot. He's great, but I could get five other actors

who could be... No, no, you can't. Who the fuck are you going to get to be six foot five? Let me finish. Who could be... between 60 and 90% as good as he is in this movie, I cannot replace Gerard Butler with anybody. Nobody else is going to look at this role

and do all the things he did with it. It's just not happening. There's no other actor in his age range who's like, I'm just going for it. Like Nick Cage, 10 years ago, maybe. But Nick Cage now, it's sailed. Russell Crow, it's sailed. Who has left?

Nobody's left. Nobody's going to go for it like this in that role. This isn't like Pablo was so much better than but this was like 98 and 97 they're close i just think but i will remember this as a gerard butler i i always believed in this guy and he finally came through for me movie oh no he had he had done that well before i'm not a law by citizen guy where were the other ones you listed law by citizen is incredible i'm not uh the white house is in trouble yeah you've been advocating for jamie fox like there's your jrard butler jami fox movie where they're going head to head and he gets out smart that's

this is davin booker age 34 he's on his third team and he's finally like in the Western Conference finals. And I'm like, I was, I was believed in this guy. It finally happened. This is, this is LeBron James. Pablo Schrever. This is LeBron James. Eastern Conference against Detroit.

His 48 special, 29 out of the last 30 points. That's right. This is Pablo like, here I am, motherfuckers. One of the great Latino actor moments of all time. All time. Bill Simmons, Shea Serrano. This has been dead of these. We watch those little listeners.

And don't forget movies and other things. The new book from Shea Serrano. The first one on The Ring of Books in print is available now. At every bookstore you could possibly go to, a lot of the places you could buy books online, help our brother out. Movies and other things. Get that book right now. We're going to be on a little bit of a break with the rewatchables for the next couple weeks as NBA season gets going. And then we'll be back.

We have some good ones coming up in November and December. So until then.