The Rewatchables - ‘Hardball’ With Bill Simmons and Van Lathan

Episode Date: August 31, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Van Lathan are just looking for the Bulls to cover the spread as they rewatch the 2001 sports drama ‘Hardball’ starring Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane, and John Hawkes. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fantasy football is back, and you don't want your team to suck. My favorite fantasy football punishment I've ever heard is the last place guy had to spend 24 hours in a waffle house, and every waffle he ate was one hour off of his count. I want numbers. How many did he end up eating? 12 waffles and 12 hours. I'm Danny Hyattitz. I'm Danny Kelly. And I'm Craig Horlebeck.

We host the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on the Ringer Podcast Network. To avoid eating 12 waffles in a Waffle house, follow the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on Spotify. This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation. Built for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast, because the asks aren't getting smaller, and the timelines? Ooh, yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Learn more at Adobe.com slash Firefly.

This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business to keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 US-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. The rewatchables is brought to you by Fandall's sportsbook at the ringer and the ringer.com. You can listen to Van Lathen on the Higher Learning podcast, an excellent podcast with Rachel Lindsay. You can also hear him on the ringerverse, the Midnight Boys, and you can hear him here sometimes as well. Producer Craig Horleback, you can hear him on the ringer fantasy football show, which is kicking ass.

And we are getting, Van, are you in a fantasy draft? Yes, I am. You should listen to their podcast. They actually have good information. and good tips. It's good. You should listen to it. I don't need their help.

I had a friend of my life, Lewis K was like, hey, I listened to the Rear Fantasy one. Good podcast. I'm getting good guys from it. I once won $1,000 from my fantasy league by simultaneously scoring the least amount of points in the league. Oh, you were that guy?

I was what literally, I caught a stretch. It's so weird. Nobody believes me. I caught a stretch where I was literally winning games like 22 to 17 every single week. And then by the time the playoffs came, there was this halfback for Tampa Bay. I can't remember his name,

but he carried me all the way into the championship. I'm going to if I remember, remember his name at some point in this podcast. Well, obviously he didn't affect your life that much. But all of the podcasts we just mentioned, Ken, coming up, one of the most important things of life is showing up. Hardball is next.

They're the worst team in the league. You guys stink. But they're about to. get a little help from the last person they've ever expected. You guys will never be a team until you see it played right. Those kids trust you, and they don't trust anybody. Got it. Keanu Reeves.

What, he was ahead, Jamal? Hardball. You're not really trying to get Miss Wilkes, are you? No, what? Good, because I already tried, and she ain't having it. Ready PG-13 starts Friday in theaters everywhere. All right. We are nearing the 20th anniversary.

of a seemingly harmless baseball movie from Keanu Reeves in 2001 called Hardball, came and went, didn't make that much money. What has lived on was the most shocking movie death, probably of all time. We litigated this a few weeks ago on the rewatchables. I always said it was Fredo. I guess Fredo wasn't that shocking. We went through a whole bunch of possible deaths. And then Van said, no, no, it was G, baby.

And I couldn't even come up with the response. It was G-Baby. It still is G-baby. We're 20 years on September 14th. Wow. From the anniversary of losing G-baby. And I got to say, Van, it still hurts. I still don't know why they did it.

I don't know why it wasn't just a bullet wound in the arm. And I can't believe they did it. And it's still emotional. It's one of the most emotional deaths in the history of the movies. Am I right? You definitely are. By the way, the name of that halfback was Ernest Graham for everybody who's going to remember writing.

Ernest Graham to a championship. But you're definitely right. It came out of nowhere because Harbaugh the movie was kind of positioned as like an updated version of the bad news bears. You know, it was the bad news bears.

He was going to come in there. The kids were going to rally around each other and it was going to make this guy care about something in his life. This was, G. Baby was like the mascot of the team. The one kid you wanted to root for. The most charismatic of

the kids and they had a really charismatic bunch to be honest with you and he was cool as like he wasn't even really acting he was just kind of doing this thing and then I remember being in the theater with my mom who we went to see this because

my little cousin wanted to see it. Me and my mom and my little cousin and G baby gets shot and my mother goes now you know what God damn it and I look back over at her and she crying, like crying her eyes out.

Everybody was like, no one could believe it. It's like a weirdly hard-hitting cinematic moment and what otherwise was a kid's baseball movie. I saw it with my college roommate Jacko, who's been on my podcast many times. It was a couple days after 9-11. We had had this whole college trip of our friends

were going to go, and obviously that got canceled because nobody was going to fly anywhere. everyone's depressed and Jacko and I are like comes up anyway, comes up to Boston, we're hanging let's go to the movies, go to the movies, we think we're going to go see this Keanu Reeves, bad news bears, meets dangerous minds, meets the white shadow.

We know exactly what we're getting with this movie. Right. And then in the last 25 minutes, it turns into a combination of Brian's song, terms of endearment, like every sad movie I've ever seen in my life. We're like fully not, people are sobbing in the theater. Yeah.

We're emotional sitting next to each other, kind of like doing the two guys. I didn't realize we were going to have an intimate moment together thing. And it brought out some of the best acting of Keanu's career, which is hilarious because he's a very polarizing actor, which we'll get into later. He crushes the funeral scene. He fucking crushes it. Nails it. And it's just super emotional.

And then it's lived on and on on cable, which is why we're doing it as a rewatchable because it's hard not to get sucked in when this movie's on, especially if it's the second half of the movie. Everybody knows, G. Baby's death is notorious. Everybody knows what a wallet to the chest it was. I couldn't get my mother to watch the movie

ever again. We used to have this long, we had like this library. I think I've talked about it before of like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of VHS tapes, hundreds of them. And I went out and when it came out, I bought Hardball and I was like,

it's going to show it to my dad, rest and peace. And because it's baseball. movie, my father loved baseball. My mom is like, no, I'm not looking at that. I'm not looking, they're killing kids in that movie. And my father was like, they're killing kids. What you mean? They're killing kids? I'm like, they don't kill any kids.

I'm like, well, technically they do kill a kid, but that's not what it's about. You just got to watch it. They definitely kill a kid. They definitely kill a kid in the movie, yeah. So I share, my good friend Mike Tolan was one of the producers on this movie. Him, Tolan Robbins, they made

a bunch of sports movies during this stretch. It made Coach Carter. They made varsity blues. So I actually called him this week to see if there was inside info for the movie. And a couple things. This was supposed to be a rated R movie. They had made varsity blues a couple years ago and it made a lot of money. And they wanted to make this like kind of a raw R-rated bad news bears set in Chicago, a whole thing. And at the last second, the studio is like, no, no, no, this has to be PG-13. And either you make the edits or we will. So they make the edits. They take out a couple swear words. They make it happen. But what they didn't realize now that it's PG-13 kids and parents are going to it and none of those parents know

what's going to happen to G-baby. Wow. And it was like one of those. So they're getting letters from people and that, you know, it became kind of a thing. Like, how could you do this? How could how could you actually kill G-baby? I still kind of feel that way 20 years later. I still, like, did they have to actually kill G-baby?

Couldn't have just been, couldn't you just been in the hospital? Well, the movie, the book is based on a movie. The movie is based on a book, shall I say. Right, by Daniel Coyle. Right, and I'm not familiar with the book. But if this is somebody's real life experience, then perhaps, unfortunately, there was a G-baby in his life because we know that in every single situation around the country where they are deprived and underprivileged and violent communities, that there unfortunately are G-babies, kids that are just walking to school,

riding their bikes, doing their things. Men and women, too. They get caught up in the crossfire, all of this foolishness that goes on. So maybe they were trying to keep it true to the book, but the movie was, it was like a weird tweener.

Because, like, it also had like a big, so-so-deaf soundtrack. It had like a, it was being positioned as, hey, one of those movies, go out to, like, we go to see Harbaugh, like, I'm telling you, my little cousin. and he really wanted to go see it.

And after G-Baby dies, it's so sad that they can't get the movie back. Like, they really can't get the movie back. You know how in movies like this where a character dies, sometimes it's in the middle of the second act, sometimes it's at the top of the third act, but then they got to go do something

and they can snatch the movie back. You know what I mean? They couldn't get this one back. It ends and you're still sad, even though... I actually think, But I think that's an okay thing because up until the last 40 minutes, this is not a great movie. This is a bizarre.

Keanu Reeves has a gambling problem and is mean to little kids movie. And then all of a sudden, the movie finds some sort of, I don't know, tragedy brings, Keanu's character actually kind of rounds it in a shape and becomes somewhat likable and his journey becomes realistic or a little more realistic. They win the game. And all of a sudden, the movie's doing things. I wasn't prepared for it because this just seemed like a cliche upon cliche upon cliche. They're stealing stuff from, especially the white shadow.

They still a bunch of stuff from the white shadow. But it's, you kind of know what it is heading into it. And I think that's what made the curveball so interesting with G, baby. It's definitely the most interesting choice anyone's made in just a generic sports movie that was clearly with the one star on the poster. And we're just going to put this out. We'll have the one hit song. there'd be a couple kids,

maybe one of them would become famous someday. But I don't think they had a lot of ambition with this movie. But weirdly, it's the one that endured. I have the whole list of sports movies that came out. I'll read to you now.

Because there was a sports movie Renaissance here, right? And we did the program, which was, I think, 95. Then there's this flip where there's some high quality sports movies that come from 96 to 2002, where you have Jerry McGuire, he got game,

tin cup, the rookie varsity blues the water boy any given sunday for love of the game loving basketball the replacements mystery alaska finding forester the replacements summer catch and coach carter i saw all these movies saw him too and they either like they tried to get super ambitious like he got game and any given sunday did or they tried to be funny or you wanted somebody for the poster so the rookie has it's dennis quaid um hardball keanu rey for love of the game, Costner. You go, and Toland told this to me on the phone.

It was like they weren't going to make Coach Carter of Sam Jackson said, no. They weren't making hardball of Keanu said, no, there's no casting what-ifs for this. It's like if Keanu says, no, we have no movie. But do you feel nostalgic for this era? Because I just listed off 16 movies that I still like when they come on.

I feel nostalgic for the era because I think the era is gone. Me too. So, like, I had an idea for a great sports movie and they and people were like it was like right up the it's that same thing and people were like well why don't you just pick one that you like from back in the day and just redo it and I don't want to do that there are more sports stories and different sports stories for us and different stories for us to tell I think that kind of it's run out on that and I think that the world of sport now is actually more

interesting than it was now there are some sports movies out there that's still pretty good you know you had high flying bird a couple of years ago um and there was very ambitious project by Steven Soderberg. But to have all of those movies together, and then for them to be so varied in tone, for some of them to be kind of like kids' movies, like Ten Cup is essentially a romantic comedy. You have, he got game,

which is a very heavy drama about fathers and sons, the carceral system, what it means to make mistakes and redemption. Any given Sunday is the first real indictment of NFL culture that we've seen sort of in a film which is something that would be gone to see people do that

in popular culture all over the place talk about how destructive the NFL lifestyle is and what they're doing to people and stuff so for that sort of like palette of films you definitely won't see it anymore and also you're not going to see these sports movies anymore really unless you got big huge stars connected to them or they're connected to some sort of piece of IP

And when I say big huge stars, I mean big huge sports stars. You know what I mean? You might be able to get this movie made right now if Tim Anderson was the coach. Maybe not even Tim Anderson because nobody really even knows who Tim Anderson is. Shout out to Tim Anderson. You know, people don't know baseball players anymore. Otani's the coach. Otani's the biggest thing going right now.

Otani is a gambling problem. He lives in Anaheim. Right. Like, you could do that whole thing. Otani's Anaheim gambling problem. You know, he knows. He's the Japanese Mafias after him. Right.

Yeah. I remember I wrote a lot about when I had my column back when my fingers wrote. But in ESPN, I would always write about sports movies. I would always try to review them. I reviewed this one way back when. And you could feel it's starting to shift. I remember the specific movie was Grid Iron Gang with The Rock. And this was 06.

And that tried to follow that same blueprint, right? It's like, we have the Rock. That's the guy for our poster. We have this idea. It's going to be basically hardball with, you know, high school kids. well, though. Yeah, and it was true story. And these were like high school kids that, I forget what it was.

They were, they were. They weren't in jail, but they were in like, they were like a juvenile type of situation. Juvenile, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, and that movie didn't do that well. It wasn't very good. And you could just kind of feel the era dying. And I think over the last 12 years, sports movies shifted again.

They became a lot more focused, a lot more niche stuff. It was stuff like Damn United and Warrior and Moneyball. and they kind of became movies that also happen to be about sports. This is the last era of like... Yeah, blindside. This is the last era of like where it would be like summer catch.

We're just going to the Cape. Some kids are playing baseball. Somebody's going to fall in love and we have Freddie Prince for the poster. And that's it. Now, what's interesting, heading into the 2020s here, I think sports movies are going to come back again

because I think the streamers are all making these. Like they're doing like, they're either doing them as TV, you know, blown out TV shows or just remakes of movies. But I think because they see, because the streamers get all the data, they know that Van Lathen is going to be watching

Remember the Titans when it's on Netflix, they notice from your little Van Lathan algorithm, it's like, oh, he watched Remember the Titans twice in two months. Maybe we should make a football movie geared around some sort. So I think it's going to come,

I guess is my point. I think we have a whole bunch of sports movies coming for us. Can't give you a take? This is a take. I don't know if society is fun enough to enjoy sports movies anymore. You mean right now or just forever? Right now.

So think about white man can't jump, right? So, and white men can't jump. You're watching them talk about who they are as characters. Woody Harrelson says to Wesley Snipes, black guys would rather look good and look good and lose than look bad and win. I'm a white player. I rather look bad and win than look good and lose. When the snipes comes back, gives his shit back to Woody, right?

And that push-pull, that dynamic between those two guys, the fact that they're both so intractable in what they believe about the other person and about the way the game should be played, it leads to good basketball. You find out that on the basketball court in a two-on-two game, each guy is what the other guy needs because of their differences, right? Yeah. We don't celebrate our differences anymore. And so many times in these sports films, that's what it's about.

Like, it's about like people, oh, I'm going to take a rag-tag group of this and put them together and blah, blah, blah, blah. You're going to have the one guy that's from down home or whatever. I think people are too uptight, even for Remember the Titans, to be honest with you, I think people are going to look, oh, that other coach was problematic and look what they got to do, the black guy and all that. Even though it's a historical story,

and I'm not saying that any of these people are wrong. I just think we're too tense to go to the movies and just have some fun sometimes doing some of the stuff that happens in the world of sports. A sports locker room is a very, like, you know, it's a unique place. If you play for the 49ers, you know, you might be a pro-black pan-Africanist, and then you got to share a locker room with Joey Bosa.

But you still got to go out on the field and make the game happen. And it's just going to be more difficult to reflect that in people who think sports are less important and who also aren't really into having this the same way. Like in all of these movies that we're talking about, you can look at so many of the things about them and somebody's going to say, oh, it's a problem back, it's this, it's that. And in the world, sports, it used to be the one place that you could escape all of those narratives. And I don't think that it, I think that right now,

like, if white man can't jump came out right now, I think there'd be think pieces about Woody's character. Well, think about if G. Baby got killed in 2021. If G. Baby got killed. That would cause a riot on there. How many dumb think pieces would that produce over the course of 10 days? But you couldn't make this movie in today anyway

because it's a white savior film, right? Right. I was going to say that later. Keanu is 100% not way in this movie. Yeah, yeah. It's Michael B. Jordan, ironically, even though he's in this movie. Who comes back to do it, right? And you can't make that film.

You can't make this film anyway right now because it's a white saving film. Even though apparently, if you look by the book, this might have actually happened in real life. But you couldn't make the film because a lot of people, to a lot of people, that would be offensive. And just to be honest with you, we have had too much of that. Like we've had too many films that delve in that. So I do understand people being a little sick of it. I'm just saying the sports movie will come back when people just want to go and watch movies and have fun again. And not every single movie has to be a ministry about every single social topic that we're discussing on Twitter.

One other thing hurts sports movies. And I remember I wrote about this 2009, 2010, somewhere around that. It was after we created 30 for 30 and we started showing them. I think sports documentaries really hurt sports movies because in a lot of ways, sports documentaries became the new sports movies, right? The last dance is basically a sports movie. We made, I don't know, 70, 30 for 30, 60, whatever it was when I was there,

and they're still making them now. But you kind of get the same rush sensation from watching like the Fab 5 documentary that you would from a Fab 5 movie. There's really a lot of times you're better off doing those as documentaries versus sports movies. And then I just think a lot of the ideas have been taken. It's really tough to do another slap shot.

It's really tough to do Rocky again. Like, they managed to reinvent Rocky with Creed, which is like almost impossible. But see, once I have a disagreement with you there, I think the sports landscape is more varied now. So I would never do another NBA sports movie. Not right now if you gave me NBA or even college basketball. What I would do the movie is the one that I pitched is at the Drew League.

You do a movie about, you do a movie that surrounds that culture because these, the world of sport is infinite now. You can make a living being a basketball player right now and you never have to play in the G League or the NBA or even overseas. You get sponsored by Ball's Life. You get sponsored about this. All kinds of ways to talk about it. all kinds of narratives.

But people don't want to explore them. They want you to remake Blue Chips. That would be pretty cool if they remade Blue Chips. They have to flip it, though. You're on board with me. Yeah, I mean, who's in Blue Chips? Can we talk it out? Who's the coach?

Can I get Ted Zell? The thing is, I think they're going to do a lot of gender flipping with some of this stuff, too. Like, I saw on Netflix this week. They had this apparently terrible movie called He's All That. I saw it. So they took She's All That. all that. They've made it. He's all that. So I wonder like... Yeah, I watched it.

So could there be, you know, they take a old basketball movie that we love, and they just flip it and now it's a woman's basketball movie and could victory the soccer movie we did recently on this one? Could that flip and become whatever? I wonder if that's going to happen. All right. Kianna Reeves,

the first scene of this movie, we see Kianu, and he goes to church and we're like, oh, I wonder who died. And he tells the priest, I'm looking for the bulls to cover the spread. we have that moment and we are off we're off with a Keanu experience we're ready to go he's playing

Connor O'Neill does anyone look less than like a Connor O'Neill than Keanu Reeves how is that his name he very rarely looks like the character that he's supposed to play he to me he's always miscast no matter what the part is

read the script for John Wick yeah and it's great script and read what John Wick was supposed to be John Wick was supposed to be like a 70-year-old guy. Oh, really? Yeah, that had been gone for a long, long time and stuff. It was coming back. Read the script for it.

He very rarely looks like the guy he's supposed to be playing. Well, he plays a ticket scalper who has a gambling problem and a drinking problem. And then when I wrote about this movie, I said he also has an acting problem. In that piece that I wrote 20 years ago, I talked about the difference between lively Keanu and wooden Keanu. And this is 2001. and this is after the Matrix,

Keanu has a pretty quiet 2000s after the Matrix movies and then comes back, John Wick reinvents him yet again. And you look back at his IMDB in his career now. And he's just made a lot of movies that I like. But there is this wooden Keanu versus lively Keanu. The wooden Keanu, like some of the movies are like Sweet November, Johnny Demonic, Dracula, Chain Reaction, where he's just on autopilot the whole time.

Unfortunately, you don't know until you're in the movie that you're getting winning Keanu. Lively Keanu, which is my favorite, where you have in Parenthood, you get him at speed, you get a devil's advocate,

you get him in point break, Johnny Utah, I am an FBI agent. Oh, I am an FBI agent. You get it a little bit in the replacements. That's the Keanu that I love, and that is the Keanu that we get in this movie.

He's smoking, he's drinking, he's gambling, he's making me laugh unintentionally multiple times including the scene when he wins all his money back which is one of my favorite thumbs he's ever

give us your Keanu your big picture Keanu take what he means to you so Keanu for me was like an older cousin that babysat you then you got cool with when you were an adult that's how that's kind of like who Keanu is for me

you know like your great aunts son or somebody like that, your big cousins, and they babysat you, and then y'all became tight when y'all are adults. I tell you why, because early on in Keanu, I loved parenthood. I was a kid. I loved parenthood. He was a big part of that movie. I love you.

Like the whole nine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, freaked out behind it. Freed out behind Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It's Keanu Reeves, right? And then as I get older, he changes a little bit, too, right? So I get a little bit older, and now he's in point break. Point break is another order of pizza movie chill when you're a kid. Now, I'm old enough to go to the movies on my own. Who am I going to see Keanu Reeves in Speed?

Classic. One of the first rewatchables we did. He's there in speed. Now I'm taking dates to the movies. Who am I going to see? Keanu Reeves and The Devil's Advocate. That was my first date movie. So think about it.

I had gone from being with this dude's, Since Bill and Ted's excellent adventure, Bill and Ted's bogus journey, which I watch with my sister infinite times, then I go to college in the summer, the Matrix comes. So every single, and now, even as an older dude, right, when I'm finally starting to hear my bones creek

and I'm not getting as many buckets on the basketball court in a pickup basketball games, John Whitcomes. And he's still kicking ass. It's the same guy. Now he's like my boy. Now we're almost in the same point of our life. he's 15, 16 years older than me. But I've been rocking with Keanu Reeves

maybe as long and as invested than any other actor. Like he has so many movies that I absolutely adore and even the ones in between there that people never talk about. I fucked with it when he was, when he tried the Dracula thing.

Obviously, I love my own private Idaho. Like a lot of movies when he tried to go Shakespearean for no reason. Didn't work. I was there with him. He took some bad swings. He took a, he's taken a couple of, he's taking a couple of bass swings.

I remember, because I didn't like Johnny Newmanic. I remember going to see Johnny Newmanic and being like, yo, this is the first movie of his that I've watched and I'm like,

I'm not really fucking with this one as much. And they made kind of a big deal about it on the old MTV movie thing. But anyway, so that's kind of my feeling about him. Kiano's an actor that's always been with me and like some of my favorite films

that I watch over and over and over and over again feature Keanu Reeves. Yeah, it's not like a LeBron type career, but if I was going to do like a basketball, basketball to movie comparison about what kind of stars, it's somebody with a lot of longevity. It's somebody that you look back in the career. It's like when Jason Kidd got to that point,

we're like, oh man, remember when he was on Dallas? I forgot about that. He'd just been in the week so long, and it had these different, he was in the finals, then he went, then he was relevant, then all of a sudden he's on Dallas, then all of a sudden he's actually winning the title. But he was just kind of,

kind of around for an unusually long time. And that's Keanu's now three plus decades. Around so long that you forgot he won a couple of titles. Yeah. You know what I mean? Around so long. Or made a couple finals. Or made a couple of finals.

Or made a couple of Olympic teams. They were like, oh shit, I forgot that. I forgot that too. You're talking about Jason Kidd and people would be like, yo, Jason Keele was really nice like that. I'd be like, man, Jason Kier did the next to the finals. Like he was an MVP candidate. Like Jason Kier was nice. And that's kind of the same thing, you know, with Kiana Reeves.

He's got some big, huge, fucking gigantic. movies. And it's not as on his IMDB, but it really should be. He basically creates the Paul Walker lane for Fast and Furious. Because Paul Walker in that first movie, he's just doing, that's a Keanu

part. He's just doing Keanu. It's a camera. It's a remake. That movie's a remake of Point Break. Yeah. I know you've talked about this. It's Point Break with Cars. It's the same movie. Yeah. And he's Keanu in the movie. And basically, Keanu easily could have been Brian O'Connor for nine Fast and Furious movies if you want to.

but so I feel like he gets a little bit for that. This movie was released three days after 9-11, September 14th, 32 million dollar budget made 44 million, not a lot. Roger Ebert, two and a half stars. Huh. He wrote, tells the story of a compulsive gambler whose life is turned around by a season of coaching an inner city baseball team. That sounds like a winning formula for a movie,

and it might be. If the story told us more about gambling, more about the inner city, and more about coaching baseball. I agree on the last two. I think there's actually enough gambling in this. And as I said, this is somebody who loves gambling.

I think the gambling probably, they go too hard on that and not hard enough on, I really like the kids. I wanted to spend more time with the kids. We'll get into that. We'll get into all the categories in one second.

We're going to take one break. This episode is brought to by the active cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it big or small.

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Enjoy free shipping on all U.S. orders over $75, plus free returns, exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. All right, most rewatchable scene. I mean, there's a couple no-brainers. I'll just, a couple that I liked. I like when he meets the kids. I think it's really hard, especially with little kids where we don't know who they are,

to kind of go around, in this case, the dugout and get a sense of like, oh, so that kid's going to be the kid who has asthma. And that's the kid who doesn't trust Keanu left. Oh, and that's the comic relief kid. And, oh, that's the Kelly Leak type kid. And they do a good job with that. I like it. Uh, Miles Penfield the second.

It's dude. What position does he play? He says he can pitch coach, Conner, but I might pitch too. What's your name? Jefferson, Albert, Tips. Mom says I can play anywhere. My eyes meant all. I should probably play first.

I got to keep my sugar up, too. You know, Mama said that some boys just plain big bones. Some boy's just plain fat ass. Hi. Um, Coffey doing that book report with Keanu in class. Yeah. Did you read the book? Yeah.

Tell me something about it. It was booty. Okay. I'm gonna call your mom tonight. That girl, Meg, is dumb. You think her father come back from wherever? That's stupid to believe in. That girl and our mom is both tripping.

because where I'm from do nobody father come back Not enough classroom scenes I could have used like three more Not enough classroom scenes at all You mean you're talking about the point Where he actually talks about the fact That Meg's dad and wrinkling time doesn't come back

Or comes back I'm a sucker for the The teacher didn't think the kid read the book And then there's that twist And the kid drops some intense knowledge about the book and the teacher does that. Oh, you did read the book. I always get that.

Anytime in a movie. I dug that. Yeah, that's a pretty rewatchable scene. See, some of the... So when you say rewatchable scenes, some of these scenes are rewatchable, but, like, I don't want to rewatch it. Well, I left those out.

Some of the tough ones, like the asthmatic kid, the practice is too late, and he's... He can't get home. He's holding the pizza. Yo, I would be honest with you, Bill. and you guys can say whatever you want about me. I watched this movie last night again,

even though I've seen it, I cried my eyes out. Like, when I tell you, I cried more for that scene than I did with the G-baby scene. I'm getting older. And the peril of black boys in crisis all over America in Jacksonville and Richmond and Gary and Chicago and South Bad Rouge in L.A.

It is wearing on me sometimes that I have like a great life and so many people that come from the neighborhood that I come from are not experiencing these same things and so many of these kids are getting traumatized and you know, you do as much as you can but you watch this kid who knows what's coming. Bro, that's where he lives. It's like, and I've seen that scene a million times

but I had to stop, like, get through. That's like where he lives. He's scared to go into where he lives. And that's people's reality. So, no, I'm not going to wax poxed by it too much, but that was really, really, like, for a movie that's kind of uneven, I was really good, hard-hitting, effective filmmaking right there. They have a couple, yeah.

They have a couple moments like that where you realize this movie actually could have been great in the right hands because there's that other one early on where MBJ is walking with somebody and there's this random gunshot and they both freeze, and then they just keep going. And it's like, oh, that's an interesting moment. All right. That sets the scene for where we are and there's touches and you know the classroom thing like

I actually really got invested in those kids this is how many years before Wire Season 4 like we're talking 5? 5, 6, something like that but you know there's some there's some wire season 4 bones in some of those scenes. I actually had the pizza scene as a rewatchable scene

even though it's tense it's really good. It's hard to watch yeah. Next one is when Miles when they let him pitch and he turns into Pedro Martinez circa 1999-2000 with the headphones on. I just like it.

It's great having Biggie Smalls in this movie. My favorite, I put this on Instagram. My favorite dumb scene in this movie is when Keanu wins his bet. He goes all in. And whenever they do this in a movie,

he's making one huge bet and it's like if I win this, I erase all my debt, and if I lose, I'm going to skip town. Anytime this happens in a movie, the guy loses the bet. This time he actually

wins the bet, which never happens. It's also one of the funniest Keanu scenes probably ever filmed. They're standing outside the bar, they're watching it. John Hawks is giving them the play-by-play and Keanu's like just throwing himself doing all Keanu stuff. It just fucking kills me.

Goal and foul. Don't foul. Don't foul. They filed them. Williams will shoot two. Oh God, Tickie. Never again. Never again. What's happening? Talk to me. What's happening?

Williams at the line. Williams makes it first. Shit. Shit. He makes a second. It's over. You're dead. William shoots 80%.

William shoots. It's in. Shit. Three more. Gee Baby gets his jersey right into the game and the Big Papa scene when the crowd's singing Big Papa. Because that is the, that's the one. I love shit.

I love corny. shit like that. I love the way you're coming big pop. That whole nine minutes is excellent. Keanu's speech after G. Baby dies when he turns into Keanu

Day Lewis. Watching him raise his arms in triumph as he ran the first base. I swear I was lifted in that moment to a better place. I swear

He lifted the world in that moment. Just unbelievable stuff. Right. And then I like the ending. I like the speech. It's corny as hell and it's a sports movie thing. But I thought it worked about showing up. He's like, life's about showing up.

You guys showed up. You guys should be really proud. It's like, all right, this is good. There's a good lesson here. No, I get it. I understand it. I just, the end of the movie gets tough for me. Like even watching it when they put in their trophies,

up. I'm like, man, G. Baby not around to see this. I can't believe they did it took G. Baby for me. Why do I keep watching this fucking movie 20 years later and hoping that there is going to somehow change? It's the same thing. It's going to happen. I remember I did a tweet like five years ago. I just ran

away at 1030 day. I was like, why the fuck did they kill G Baby? And then just everybody was relying underneath it. Everyone just got upset. Yeah, so Toulin told me the ending was just them running on the field. And then the studio really wanted to show that they won the game.

So they had to go back and film them with the trophies. And there's a kid missing. There's only eight kids in the scene. So you can see there's one of them missing. All right. So I got to say my most rewatchable is Keanu's speech. Yeah. That's pretty dumb.

That's for me. You have the pizza scene. I got the pizza scene. To me, the pizza scene is the hardest hitting scene of the whole movie. What's age the best? I have a lot for this. Michael B. Jordan. Pre-Wallis.

I have another thing about Michael B. Jordan. Go ahead, yeah. Pre-Wallis, with some really good acting, because it turns out he forged his birth certificate to be a little bit older so he could play. And the other coach is a dick. You can't play. So Keanu tells him, and he does this really good,

I just want to play and kind of goes to a place where it's like, oh, I can see there's possible Oscar nomination for this kid 12 years down the road. What was your MBJ thing? So number one, one thing I thought about last night is, what if that's actually Wallace? What if Wallace is from Chicago? If he had been named Wallace,

could they have just made it seem like he just moved to Baltimore? Right, he moved to Baltimore. He was still in the game. That sent him to the dope game. No, but two of my friends. Well, they call them Jamal. We don't never do what his last name is. So technically you could say his name was Jamal Wallace.

Jamal Wallace. So a friendship aged the best on this. My friend, shout out to my friend Sterling Brim. You might know him as Stilo Brim from ridiculousness. You ever see that ridiculousness show on MTV? What are you talking about? It's the only thing they show at MTV. It's the only thing they show.

Yeah, my man Sterling, who's on that show, his best friend in life right now is Michael B. Jordan. Sterling is in this movie. This is the movie where Sterling and Michael B. Jordan met. Sterling is the kid with the Afro. He doesn't have very many lines, but he's in the movie. he was one of the best, when he was a kid, he was one of the best

youth baseball players in Chicago. So he was supposed to go out there and apparently just be an extra on another team in the movie, but they wanted him to be on the actual team. He played Sterling. He met Michael B. Jordan, and they've been boys cool ever since.

They got a lot of stuff together they're doing out here in L.A. So shout out to them. Their friendship age the best. That's a good what's age the best. Another what's age the best. I'm reasonably sure that this movie created the

We Go Into the Ship Chant. I was trying to think if that existed before this movie. I don't think it did. And I Googled it and I looked and I think this movie created it. And I think it's where it came from. It's pretty good. I'm saying, to me that, yeah, it was like I was trying to think. It's like we going to the ship.

I'm thinking, had I heard that before then? Because we didn't say that. We went downstate. But we didn't talk about, hey, we're going to the ship. But yeah, nah, it's dope. John Hawks, who was Keanu's degenerate buddy in this movie and eventually became a really respected actor and got nominated for an Oscar for that Jennifer Lawrence movie,

I think it was called Winter's Bone. He's in Miami Vice, but he's been around. He's good in this movie. Another Wood's Age is the best, and this will also be a Woods Age worse later, but the baseball game, he takes kids to the baseball game, which is a fun scene. Sammy Sosa has a cameo.

Yes, he does. Peak Sammy Sosa. He's never been bigger and more famous. Tolan, this part of the story age, the best for me. That was a good Sammy Sosa person. They paid him 50,000. Sammy showed up in the limo, but then wouldn't get out until he got $10,000 in cash.

So they had to scramble. They had to scramble. They could only find five, which he then gave to his assistant, but also insisted on the $50K, they were also paying him. him. So it ended up paying him $55,000 to turn around, smile into the camera, and do the chest thing. Right. Now, if you had told me that story about Sammy Sosa, then I'd have been like, no, man.

But if you tell me that story about Sammy Sosa now, it seems pretty on brand. Another one would stage the best. I'm really proud of this one. So I saw this movie in the theater. Then it came out on pay-per-view. My wife didn't know G. Baby died. So I'm like, Like, let's watch hardball. This hard ball is really good. You'll like it. My wife's one of those. If anything like a G-baby death, my wife reacts, like, it's the biggest tragedy, basically

that's ever, she just loses her mind. So she's telling me, she sees what it is. It's about literally kids in Chicago. And she says, does anyone die in this movie? And I'm like, no. She's like, are you lying to me? I'm like, no, no, nobody dies. It's like, it's like a Disney movie.

You'll like it. All right. G-baby gets shot. Top four maddest she's ever been at me in our entire relationship. 23, we've been together 23 years. Yeah. Like, actually attacked me. Like, attacked me.

Like, hunch me multiple times. You're a jerk. But was crying. Sobbing, crying, and just throwing haymakers and hooks at me. You lied! You lied to me! It was worth it. We mentioned the too late practice ending past a certain time

and him not realizing that. I thought that was handled really well. That's a wood stage the best. The unintentional comedy of Keanu's overacting, Keanu's smoking and drinking. Now, apparently Keanu smokes in real life, or it did at some point, but still has that Tom Cruise issue

where when he smokes, it seems like an actor pretending to smoke. But then the Diane Lane, I don't know what's going on with that relationship in this movie. She's trying really hard. She's working hard. He's not really feeling it.

She's also making unfaithful at the same time, which she gets nominated for an Oscar for. So she's like the burgeoning sexuality. That's what happened. And it's just not there. It's a waste of Diane Lane. So this is what happens.

She really wanted Keanu and like it was like they had tension. And she's poured it all into her performance in Unfaithful, which is one of the most sensational films that has ever been made. We've done it on the rewatchfuls. I would have invited you. Yeah, well, guess what? I'm going to watch it on my own. Like, that's a great movie.

Shout out to Diane Lane in that movie. We all went as a crew. Think about that. Like, as a crew, me and the homeboys, we're like, oh. It was going down And unfaithful, bro And rest in peace, Olivier Because you had to get the snow glow, bro

You had to get the snow globe to the dome You did too much You know what I mean And now we know that He was a little too smarming A little too smarming A little too smarming I don't want to say he was asking for it

But he's kind of asking for it Now we know that in real life He would have took that snow globe From Richard Gear And beat the shit out of him Because remember how he fucked up Hallie Berry's right Yeah

Yeah anyway But yeah Just had to get a a nodding for unfaithful. Great work, Diane. Woo. We did, Chris Ryan and I did, well, I did unfaithful with Wesley

solely to just talk about Diane Lane for a half hour because she's one of my all-time favorites. She's ready to roll in this movie. She's got nothing to work with. She's playing a Catholic school teacher and Keanu is more interested in gambling on the Bulls. The idea of a Chicago bad news bears, I just have to say that's at what stage

that I easily would have to watch. as a TV show. We can talk about that later. I like when G-baby negotiates Kofi's return to the team is really good. We need that G-baby scene. We need a scene where I'm like,

oh, I like this kid. Like, that's beyond just him being little and cute, Big Papa. And then I think they had a really good crew of child actors. They did. I think that's a hard thing to pull up.

There wasn't one annoying child actor of the group. There's no inauthentic one or somebody that just was a turd in the punch bowl. I thought everybody worked. I will say this, Black kid child actors normally get it done.

You think about it. We hit for a high percentage as far as child actors are concerned. You think about the movies that we've been in where we're kids, you know? This would be a good Sloan conference paper for you to present at the next Sloan conference with advanced metrics. I'm with that. Like, because I guarantee you that in all of, like, we don't have like a, like, remember Anakin in Phantom Menace where he just fucking ruined a movie? Yeah. Like, we don't really have one of those.

I mean, we don't really get those roles, but we don't really have one of those where a black kid just ruins a movie. Think about it. Just like... I'm trying to... You know, no, no, we do have, though. We have Rudy, Raven Simone.

We have black kids getting it done. That's what we have, Bill. One of my talents in life is I could zag here and throw no, but what about this person? And I can't come up with anybody. You've actually stumped me. Yeah, no. Because...

This is pretty good. Because the cute black kid in the movie normally gets the job done. Yeah, that's a fair point. Any other would say the best for you? Unfortunately, the narrative surrounding gang violence in Chicago. This was actually the first movie where I

even realized that Chicago had gangs. And we know now that Chicago has a very deep and unfortunately rich gang history. And we've learned even more so about that, obviously throughout the 2010s with the music scene that popped off and some of the things, some of the headlines that we get now.

But Harbaal was one of the first time. obviously you know that it's rough living in south side of Chicago, but Harbaugh was one of the first movies that, like, showed that to me. I was like, oh, that's how it's going down out there. My mother was like, yeah, they got gangs out there in Chicago, but I remember it was one of the first times I saw it. So unfortunately, that narrative,

there hasn't really been very much done to address that in the city. But, you know, hopefully problem solvers solve problems. I had that in what stage the worst. If they made this movie now, I feel like that part of Chicago's having so many problems. that I almost feel like the movie would have to be different. You couldn't just try to be like, oh, we're going to make this baseball movie, and we're going to sprinkle in some real-life stuff.

I think the real-life stuff would overpower the movie. Keander does not have a gambling problem. They punt on all of that, and they go much deeper, I think, and in the kids and the world that they're in if they redo this movie. Well, to be honest with you, I think that's... That's probably a better movie.

Astood observation. Yeah, it's a better film because to be... Like, Keanu's problems really... be honest with you, don't even scratch the surface to what the kids in the, the, we don't care about Canada. Yeah, we're like, whatever. You have a gambling problem. Great.

Self-inflicted, you know what I mean? And they're living in a war zone. So, and that also was, to be honest with you, an indication of sort of the narrative space that we were in in that time. It's kind of the, we talked about the movie being a slightly a white savior movie. It was the time when we care more about the savior than the people getting saved. And now I think things have switched up a little bit. I wonder how much of that is economic, though, because like Tolan said, Keanu didn't make the movie.

We had no movie. You know, like, you basically only had so many movies or so many stars that you could get a movie made. Now, ironically, they made Coach Carter with Sam Jackson. He was one of the few black stars at that time where you could be like, we have Sam Jackson. Cool. The studio goes, here's the suitcase of cash to make the movie. There weren't that many of them. Like, you could do with Denzel back then, Will Smith, Sam Jackson.

I feel like there's more. But to me, it still comes down to star power. If it's a movie built around, we need one star for the poster. We have more choices now, obviously, than we did in 2000. Morewood's age the worst. They murder G-baby!

Did we cover that? Oh, we covered that. Horrible, horrible Wikipedia page, IMDB page. It was so hard finding any information about this movie. which is just not treated like the classic that it is on the internet that I had to call Mike Tolan and get stories.

This is the end of the DB Sweeney era, I feel like. It's the end. Cutting edge, really eight men out, cutting edge. It really felt like we might have something with him. And then all these years later, he's just playing the kind of the dick villain coach, but they didn't really explore his character all. Like they didn't Bad News Bears where that guy is like the Antichrist in that movie. To me, I wonder why DB Swenney's,

D. B. Sweeney took the role. Do you not know that you're D.B. Sweeney? You're in Ate Man Out. That's a very serious movie. You're in the Memphis Bell. You're in all of these different movies. D.B. Sweeney was kind of like a thing, tow pick.

He's in the movie for three or five, like three or four scenes just being a straight dick to kids. It's like that's not a role that like a D.B. Sweeney would play. Come on, D. B. Another one stage the worst. The Sammy Sosa cameo. His career basically goes downhill from this moment on.

It's over. They ripped off some White Shadow stuff. That's my favorite TV show ever. It's also over four decades old. Nobody even remembers it. But G. Baby getting killed and then deciding to play the game anyway. Direct ripoff of Jackson getting killed in season two of the White Shadow. Spoiler alert.

And then then deciding to play the city championship. I keep trying to tell you, it was based on a real book. I get it. I get it. Same premise of the guys voting to play. I'm just telling you. Morewood's age the worst. look, this is what we do with sports movies.

It's weird when it's a youth sports movie, but there's two games where the kids are on SportsCenter with like the 10 greatest plays you've ever seen anybody make in the field. People robin home runs, short stops going deep into the hole on back hands and doing the Jeter stop, throw across the body. It's a little crazy. Not as crazy. But to that point, though, well, no, I would talk you to my what age the worst.

Not as crazy as when we have basketball movies where all the characters can dunk, but still a little crazy when we have baseball movies and every defensive play has... For Love of the Game has this too. Every play has to be the greatest play you've ever seen in your life.

It can't just be like, routine ground or short. Two more would stage the worst. The Diane Lane's character, the date she goes on with Keanu is so weird. He's such a dick. Such a jerk. No woman would ever talk to him again

after that date. And she comes back for more two days later. Right. And then the last one I have, I just don't like the ending song for the movie. The storm is over, but it's over now. I'm not criticizing the song. I just wanted a different song.

I didn't feel like that was the song for that moment of the movie. I don't know what the song is, but it wasn't that. Okay, so the song that plays over the credits is my number one was age the worst because my friends that is one Mr. Robert Kelly better known as

R. R. You're right. That's so double what's aged to words. Bad choice of song and R. Kelly. Triple. And it's a kids movie. Oh yeah. It's a triple terrible. I thought about that. I'm like, it's a kids movie

in Chicago where R. Kelly's fucking shit took place. Yeah. Yeah. That definitely aged the worst. great call casting what ifs don't really have any kianno was always the guy tolin said uh diane lane was kind of shoehorned in initially the movie didn't have a love interest it's in the air where the

studio's like hey can we work in a female in here somewhere and they figured out the dian lane thing best that guy aka the joey pance award there's a couple great that guys in there did you watch oz yes the mafia guy from oz antonio he's the guy that uh keanu gets 12K from. Craig. Yes. Yeah. Did you watch Oz?

No. Would Craig like Oz? Yes. I feel like Oz was one of like the ten most important TV shows of my life. Right. So there are a couple of different mafia guys. There was Shabeta. It's not Shabeta.

It's the guy who takes, because it's Nino Shibetta, and then his son takes over, then his guy takes over after both of the Shabettas are out. So yeah, he plays the fink in this movie. So, yeah. That guy is a that guy, but then our winner is that guy who was in the first two Ed Burns movies, is Ed Burns' brother. He plays the Wall Street guy who gives Keanu the job in this movie. His real name's Mike McClone, but everyone just knows him as the Ed Burns brother guy. Okay, I love that guy.

And I love that guy specifically because of his role and she's the one. You mean when he's juggling Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Edison? when he's juggling Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Anniston at the height of her hotness if you guys have never seen she's the one

Wait could this be a rewatchable because I'm dying to do it I think I wrote this once the best looking cast of females in any movie ever other than maybe boomerang maybe boomerang and like and so he's so

attracted just real quick he's so attracted to Cameron Diaz in the movie that he won't sleep with Jennifer Aniston. Aniston's like masturbating in the bathroom and he's like not even not into it. Not even like turning right to see it.

And it's funny because she keeps accusing him of being gay and he tells her one time at the end of the movie he goes, he goes, I'm not. He goes, I'm in love with somebody else. And then she goes, who is he? And he gets so pissed off. I love that movie. I'm going to watch that later.

I like that movie too. Yeah, I love that. I love that movie. I'm there. I need to do his text me and say you're ready to do that one. That's Anniston at like her all-time apex. The Vincent Hanna, give me all you got a word for overacting. Clearly, Keanu.

I mean, come on. Nobody else is coming close. The Judd Nelson Award for the person who seems like they're in a completely different movie. It's got to be Diane Lane. Yeah. I think they probably had her for five days. They probably didn't even tell her what the plot was. They're just like, you're going to be in some scenes with Keanu.

You might sit in the stand. stands for a baseball game and we'll try to get you out by the end of the week. It's just weird because it's a movie that she would have never even thought of doing like a year and a half after that because after unfaithful comes out. Yeah, she's turning this down. Dan Waiter's Award for Best Heat Check. Is Keanu's gambling buddy eligible, John Hawks? Or was he in the movie too much?

Probably. In the movie, probably a little bit too much. I think he's the winner He's in five scenes Yeah we have a thin cast here So we don't have very many And to be honest There's a lot less scenes with the kids

Than you think there are So it can't be any of them So no give it to him Yeah Our other winner could be MBJ When he turns into Wallace By the end of the movie He's only in like five scenes

He gets a good acting scene in It's Michael B. Jordan as a kid So that could be the other nomination. Very sad look at the end. Yeah, it's a bummer. Recasting Couch, this is where I had the, I wouldn't recast the movie.

I would recast Jamal and make his name Wallace. So we had the same thought. It's just, if his name's Wallace, this opens up the door for so many different things to come out of this. I like connecting these movies like the MCU Multiverse. Me too. Like all this, because like, it's an origin story for Wallace. I always thought you should be.

be able to acquire characters for movies the same way like you can trade for players and sports teams like I used to love Taggart and the other guy in Beverly Hills cop one and two the two cops Rosewood and Taggart yeah I just felt like they should have been available to another movie to just basically trade for them we'll give you 10 million dollars for Rosewood and Taggart for one movie you just get those characters and throw them into your cop drama all right we take a break then I have some half S in her research are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity,

or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. Zepbound contains terseptide and should not be used with other or Zepotide-containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious

allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia if you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepbound with a sulfonal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99-79 or visit Zepback This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list.

Not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to Carvana.com and to your license plate or VIN and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust. Like your offer? Accept it. Schedule pickup and we'll come to you with a check in hand.

Your car, your timeline, your terms. Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. Okay, half S internet research. Well, he takes the kids to a baseball game. That's not Wrigley Field, Van. Do the wide shot.

We see the outfield. We know Wrigley Field has fucking Ivy in the outfield. No, what they're showing us is Tiger Stadium. So they cheated. They filmed it in Tiger Stadium, which I'm fine with. I'm fine with cheating to save money. But don't give me the wide shot of the outfield wall that doesn't have Ivy on it. or cheat it and, you know, do a shot of the Ivy.

But I just don't understand why that happened. I do have maybe some explanation for this. If you go back and listen to the radio report for the game that was supposed to happen that night, it was supposed to be interleague play. So it was supposed to be Cubs versus. is White Sox? Is there a possibility that the Sox were at home?

Because the Sox are also on the South Side. It's possible. They filmed it at Detroit Stadium. So either way. Yeah. But I don't know if it was supposed to be Wrigley Field, is what I'm saying. I like that thought. Right.

If you're looking for authenticity, you can make believe that they're at a White Sox game and it's an interlink game. That's fair. the characters always talk about going to sluggers. They shot multiple scenes at Sluggers. It's on Clark and Addison. Not a real bar. There's a bar called the Cubby Bar.

Sluggers exist, but it's at a different location. So they do not have Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat footage from the games that our guy Connor is gambling on. What the shit? Like, yeah, that was so obvious. Like, why can't they? Because you have to ask the NBA. for that, right? Allegedly, they used the CBA game.

So that's why they cut the CBA footage, but they do it quick so you can't really see what's going on. What's interesting is so they made that uncut Gems movie. Uncut Gems is like, fuck it, we're just, we're fair

using the basketball footage, right? We're going to use this Celtic Sixers thing. They researched the legality of how to do that. And the rule is, as a long as you use the footage in a way that's in your story, but you don't change what happened in the game in any way. You just straightforward missionary position use the footage. You can do it. So they could have actually used a Chicago Miami game, and I'll give you a

couple candidates later, use the footage and made believe the spread was the spread and used it so that if it was a seven point inning, they could have done it. But they didn't know that back in 2001. Brian Robbins, the director, said The Matrix had just come out was a massive thing and all the kids were star-struck by Keanu and doing Matrix shit with him when they weren't filming and just were like,

this is the Matrix guy. And then MBJ said, Keanu took the whole cast out to dinner with him and Lawrence Fishburn. And he said, I still remember thinking of myself in astonishment. I guess this is what movie stars do. Take their cast out to dinner with other big actors.

It was such a cool moment with my heroes. And now he's a hero. Now he's Michael B. Jordan. He's the guy. Toulin said they premiered the movie on September 10th at Paramount. The night of September 10th. Do it. And then that was it. The world changed next day.

Apex Mountain. Kiana Reeves now. Kianna's acting. Apex Mountain? Has he ever done better than the funeral scene as an actor? In one scene? Probably not. in one scene probably not. I don't think he has either.

But there's some performances there that like he was pretty sound in but in one scene that's probably his best scene. One of my hottest takes is that I like his performance and devil's advocate. That's one of my hottest Keanu takes. I think he was good in that too. I think he's good at that. Well, I think people,

that movie's so over the top. I think some people are out on that movie. That movie is a fucking, like look, go to the fucking watch the movies and have fun. That movie is great. I love that movie. I like it as well. How about the scene when they're on the roof of the giant building

and Pacino's walking and it's like that weird... He's the devil. It seems like you could fall off either side. That scene's fucked up, man. By the way, for a 17-year-old Van Lathen for a first date movie, you can't beat it. That is the best first date movie. It's got a little of everything, you know.

It's like, whoo. You know, your blood's boiling when you leave there. Shout out to Paulette. I see you in that one. Shout out to Charlize. Diane Lane, no for Apex Mountain. NBJ, no. John Hawks, no, D.B. Sweeney, no.

Sammy Sosa, yes. Movie-wise? No, never gets better for Sammy Sosa. 2001, he's still, it's Bonds and Sosa, McGuire. The world hasn't turned on him yet. There's no steroid stuff with him yet. And he's in hardball, and he's telling them I'm not coming out unless you give me an extra 5K. Now, you know what they could do?

They could meet remake Hardball and Sammy Sosa could play the white guy. He could pay it. They could do remake Hardball with Sammy Sosa, and the white dude that goes back to the inner city hood could be Sammy Sosa. Sammy the ghost Sosa. He could do it.

Yeah. I was going to ask you this later for unanswerable questions, but who gets the Sammy Sosa cameo now? they do this movie in 2021. Would it be Aaron Judge? Would it be Otani? If you have to film it in Chicago? Is it Eli Jimenez?

No, it's Tim Anderson. I mean... Is he more famous than Eli Jimenez in Chicago? He's... I don't know if he's more famous than Eli Jimenez, but I think he's the player that those kids would probably most look up to. Yeah.

I don't think he would cost $50,000. I don't think so either. Apex Mountain for ticket scalpers I don't think it ever got better Now the online's coming in a couple years later They're prominently featured in movies They're scalping tickets in the movie Is there a ticket scalping movie

The only movie I could think that might be there Remember Money Talks with Chris Tucker? He was a ticket scalper in that movie And that movie might have been a bigger hit than this one Um, Apex Mountain for not obviously living Biggie Smalls, but post-death Biggie Smalls? Um, this is when his library was kicking. Very true. We haven't gotten to picking Nits yet, have we?

No, it's coming. Okay, yeah. Apex Mountain for Biggie Smalls, no. For, for the late Biggie Smalls. For he, he's already dead Biggie Smalls. No, because he died and then they put life after death out. And then life after death was, remember, it can't be. Dead Biggie Smalls

because Dead Biggie Smalls had his own movie about him notorious Yeah, that's fair. Okay. Apex Mountain for Big Papa, the song? Come on,

come on, Bill. 20 plus years in a movie on cable all over the place. When is this movie ever been played more or song? Okay.

Speaking of the case. How about the Tim Floyd era? Yes. Boy, I cannot, boy, shout out to Tim Floyd. put him in there, they thought he was going to be good.

Tim Floyd from Iowa State. Yeah. They never won 22 games with Tim Floyd. And didn't he get another chance? What do you go after that? He was so bad. I feel like he got another shot. He got another shot at the head job.

If he did, I don't remember it. Okay, picking nets. So there's a lot of chicanery with the amount of players on this team. First, we have eight, and then three guys who are. were never addressed. The eight originally are Andre, Jamal, Clarence, Jefferson, Miles, a couple others,

G-Babies in there at that point. Oh, no, he's not in there. They're bringing three more. They're bringing Ray, Ray, Cofi, and G-Baby. A couple kids disappear. Jamal gets cut. Now we're down to 10 somehow. But then G-Baby's still there.

Right. They only have 10 uniforms initially. Right. G-Babe, no uniform for G-Baby. one player on the bench G-baby hits but then after G-baby there's nine players

and then in the trophy celebration at the end we're down to eight they just hits all over the place we never know how many players are on this team another pick-and-dits Diane Lane the school teacher she's not single van

no that was mine she's never single for one moment of her life right I'm a smoking hot, super nice, high school Catholic. I work with disadvantaged kids. Right. She's the number, she's the number, she's number and overall draft pick.

She's Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. She's not single for four days. Yeah, I got the same hair too. So this is a good one. It takes the kids out to pizza. The bill's $46. Doesn't have the money.

Offers the guys behind the counter. Lodge tickets Low-level loge tickets for the upcoming Mavs Bulls game Again, this is the Tim Floyd era Right

He's offering them tickets To go see 18-year-old Tyson-Channler And I don't even know Who Marcus Pfizer Was that worth $46? I'm going to say no

I would be like No, fuck you Give me the cash They're Chicago people though They go into the game, man All right So if we're saying they, if this is the 2001 bowls, because this movie comes out in September.

So if we're saying this movie was made in 2001, so it's 2001 Bulls, that team was 15 and 67. Yeah, but it's still a trip to the United States. Fuck you. Take your tickets. Go stick them. I'm not going. It's still a trip to United Center though, man. Yeah, it is, it's early Newitzky Nash.

I think that should have been the reaction by the pizza guys. It's like, I have Mab's Bulls tickets. And I think one of them should be like, oh, Newitzky. I always wanted to see him. Steve Nash. Craig pointed this out. We don't see Keanu playing baseball enough in this movie.

He rips like one or two line drivers, but I really needed like bad news bears in breaking training, which is one of my favorite sports movies. William Devane has the scene when he's hitting everybody grounders and pop flies. And then Kelly Leek takes over the cigarette. He's like, put the cigarette out.

Kelly Leak gets mad. Devane's just hitting these hard grounders. You're like, this guy looks like a fucking baseball coach. Right. I didn't have that with Keanu in this movie. I really wanted it. I wanted to see him like working with Miles or just do baseball things. These kids inherently had baseball gifts because we never see them working at skills in any way.

Yeah. They just put them together and they just started playing. They jailed. This is a super nitpick, but I did see this online in a couple places. G. Baby's bullet hole seemed like it came from a handgun. But it was a shotgun being shot. It's a shotgun, like one of those big. Right.

shotgun things. So the question is, how did he get that bullet hole from what that shotgun was, that was being shot? I don't know enough about guns, but I just thought I would flag it. Somebody else had to,

maybe somebody, maybe the shotgun started the action. It's a piece of a bullet. Yeah, who knows? Yeah. Somber. Somber, somber, somber nitpick there.

What was that? What nitpick did you have? That this guy has never heard Big Papa before. That this guy has- Connor O'Neill? Connor O'Neill has... DeGenerate gambler?

The generic gambler, Connor O'Neill, has never heard Big Papa before. He's never heard Big Papa before. He's never heard of the notorious B.I.G. Come on. Like, it... He'd have to have been...

When you look at his age... Let's say that that guy was like a 55, 60-year-old guy. Maybe. But he looks like he's 35, 36, 37, at that point. I know Keanu was a little bit older, probably like 40, 41. There's no fucking way he never heard Big Papa. There's no fucking way he never heard of The notorious B-I-G. It's just, when I watched that last night, I was like, I love when it, who does it?

The notorious B-I-G, how's it go? You've not, you've heard that song. Let me ask you a question. You, at the same point in your life, had you heard the song? That's the single most insulting thing you've ever asked me. I can't believe you asked me that. How dare you question any of my 90s rap, anything? That's my point.

That's my point. There's no way good old Connor O'Neill had never heard Big Papa and didn't know who Biggie was. I would say that was one of the 20 biggest songs

of the 90s. Of course. For influence, for how successful it was, the whole thing. It was fucking everywhere, man. It really was. Yeah.

That's fair. All right, could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show is our next category? Certainly. I got to say pretty easily.

Yeah. I also would say we haven't opened our ringer sports movie sports TV show consultancy firm yet. I think you should run it by me in band. If you're really thinking about making this as a 10 episode Netflix show, I'm not saying you have to make us EPs. I'm not saying we have to be at the front and the credits, but you should come by, take us to lunch, and write us a check, and we'll give you some notes and just make sure you don't

fuck this up. Yeah, do it right. Do it right. We'll just tell you to do it right. We'll give you three suggestions and we'll be on our way. Think about the Sammy Sosa angle, though. That can make it hot. And Sammy Sosa is Connor O'Neill.

I'm bringing back best quote just for, because I like when Keanu says, no one can kick my ass better than I can and puts his head through a play class window. Shades of the fight club scene. Yeah. With Ed Norton. That would have been a good Apex Mountain. Was this the Apex Mountain for stars and movies abusing them, and fights.

You know what's crazy? Has to be. Obviously, wait, no, it's fight club. But it's fight club and then hardballs like 18 months later. So this is the era of self-injury. Is there another, every time I think about that, like, who's kicked their ass the best? And I know somebody's going to listen to this pod and they remember. There's another one that's good, too, but I can never remember it where a guy beat the shit out of this.

Well, me, myself and Irene has it. Me myself and Irene has it, too. But, like, there's another one, too. They don't do that anymore. back beating up yourself in movies. Couldn't agree more. Probably in answerable questions. Wouldn't it have been a way, way bigger deal, including camera crews outside the church

that poor little nine-year-old G-baby got killed in gang violence right after having the winning hit in a little league baseball game? I feel like there's at least three camera crews outside the church for the funeral. Probably. Don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. That's a story that's on the local news.

Yeah, of course. of course, in his baseball uniform, man, rest of peace, G, baby, man. God damn it, G. Baby. What classes do you think Keanu taught at the Chicago High School the following year? Oh, good question. Was there degenerate gambling 101? Yeah, how to smoke awkwardly at a bar? Odds.

Well, he was the PE guy. He was the PE teacher. How to wear a scraggly leather jacket for 25 scenes in a row? Probably taught the kids how to shoot dice. You know, that's because think about it. Oh, Presbyluski. Remember when Presbyluski couldn't get the kids to pay attention? And so he taught them awls with dice.

This movie has so many wire connections. He was the original Presbyluski in schools. That was my next time to answerable question. Speaking of the Wire. Is this movie like a third cousin of the Wire, a second cousin of the Wire, a half-brother, an uncle? What's the family relationship in your mind? it is a second cousin through marriage. Okay.

And I'll tell you, because the only reason why, no cops. No police involvement at all in this film. Last unanswerable question. I, of course, had to look this up because this is what I do. Did that Bulls Heat game actually exist? So I found two Bulls Heat games that both happened in March in 2001 and 2002. 2002, they wouldn't have known because the film movie was already out. So you have to target 2001.

March 31st in Chicago, Miami 97, Chicago 90. Miami wins by 7. We covered. Miami covered. In the movie, he's got Chicago plus six, and the guy hits the three at the buzzer. They lose by four. And he covers. I actually think they should have looked at the box score and tried to mirror the heat

9790 and said, you know, the bulls are down 10. And then it could have been like, hey, did that actually happen? look up in the box score and it actually happened. I thought they could have gotten more authentic. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie, Van? What piece of memorabilia would I want from the movie? Keanu's leather jacket. It's a great one.

I had that targeted as well. I'm going with there's in the last game we cut to the stands and all of a sudden full stands for the game. A bunch of people holding up signs. and there's one sign, it's like in a, it's, what is this, what is it called when something was like, like a diamond almost. And it says, do it for G-baby, exclamation point,

and I would take the sign. Yeah. I'd put that in my office, do it for G-baby. Fucking cry every single time, yeah, do it for G-baby. Who won the movie? I don't ever remember giving this category to a fictional character, but I think G-baby won the movie. I think G-baby won the movie.

He did, right? The G-baby is by far the most enduring. part of Harbault years and years and years later. It's the G-Baby movie. 100%. You can bring up G-Baby in any setting of between three to ten people,

and at least one of those people will get really upset and start going, why the fuck did they kill G-baby? I still can't believe they did that, and you'll have a whole five-minute conversation out of it. My cousin Rari was calling another one of my cousins, Emmett, who was saying that he was saying,

he was heartless, that he was too hard on girls. And he was like, bro, you got to stop treating these women like this. It was like, we're getting older and stuff like that. He goes, no, I'm telling you, bro, this dude is heartless. And everybody's kind of not paying attention. He goes, this is kind of dude that laughed when G. Baby got killed and we went nuts. Ooh. That's perfect.

We laughed so hard. We laughed so hard. But everybody caught the reference. Like, everybody caught the reference. It's like, that's a tough one. And then his face, his little face, good acting by G-baby, man. G-baby wins the movie. Before we go, producer Craig, come on with us for a second.

Yeah. You had not seen the movie. I told you not to Google it. You did not expect what was about to happen to happen. I just wanted to live through it vicariously with you for a second. How shocked, surprised, and appalled were you from 1 to 10 that G-Baby was actually dead? Well, listen, when he was like, when Keanu was like, hey, gee, baby, it's time to bat.

And you're like, oh, hell yeah. And then they just cut away. You're like, what? And it starts to show him go home. And you're like, oh, no, this is really bad. They escape the shooting. You think everything's fine. And it cuts to them.

They go down to his chest and he has a little bullet hole. I thought I was like, he's not going to die. He'll just like make it. He'll be like in the hospital. Like I remember the Titan situation when Bertier's in the hospital and he like watches them win. That's what I thought was going to happen. It was pretty devastating. I teared up pretty bad.

I'm happy Liz did not watch this movie because that would not have gone over well. I was so upset you didn't have Liz watch with you. I really wanted to see what would have happened. Yeah, that's weird. Like, you have to, that's part of the fun of the movies. Yeah, you have to watch Significant Other. It says you have to watch your significant other completely unravel when G-Baby goes. Well, G-Baby is gone.

Rest in peace, G-Baby. Your legacy lives on. This podcast was produced by Craig Horbeck. You can hear Van Lathan on Higher Learning as well as the ringerverse. And you'll see them on this on this pod. There's a couple more we have coming to. But that's it. We'll see you next week on The Rwatchful.