The Rewatchables - ‘Jerry Maguire’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Juliet Litman

Episode Date: August 7, 2017

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

Welcome to the rewatchables. We're brought to you by SeaGeek, our presenting sponsor for the Bill Simmons podcast, as well as the easiest way to shop for the best tickets, thanks to their revolutionary grading system. Download the Seekek app today or go right to seekheek.com. This is a podcast that Chris Ryan and I did for the Sports Movie Hall of Fame. It's a sports movie Hall of Fame or no question, Jerry McGuire. But also, it's a rewatchables Hall of Fame or two.

When we did the voting, we were surprised by how many, How many votes Jerry McGuire got by our crack staff? So this is the first sports movie Hall of Famer that we did that also cracks. The rewatchable Hall of Fame, we have thrown that into this rewatchable's feed that we are relaunching. So here we go. Me and Chris Ryan talking about Jerry Maguire. So this is the world and there are almost six billion people on it. When I was a kid, there were three.

It's hard to keep up. There, that's better. That's America. See, America still sets the tone for the world. We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Jerry McGuire, and we thought there's a clear line in the sand between everything that happened before 1996 and everything after.

And this was the first sports movie of its kind that wasn't just the traditional rocky script. Yeah. When we saw, there are other ones that weren't exactly the traditional rocky script. This is like a movie that is set in sports. but isn't a sports movie? Yeah, you get some movies like Slapshot

and the years before that, you know, the decades before that are about lesser, less popular sports or the things outside of sports, but nothing like this where you get into the minutia of how the sports business works like this, right? Yeah, and it's, I made a case, we did a big thing on Grantland two years ago about sports, I wrote a Pete, we did a sport,

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

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

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

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

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

Roy McAvoy. Yeah. Like a lot of the Kossner protagonist, I think a lot of the times what you look for in a sports character like that is somebody where they're doing a lot with what they have. So Cuba Gooding Jr. does. There's a version of this movie where none of this stuff in the shower, none of this stuff on the airplane, none of this stuff that takes this movie to another level often happens. It's just like a straight performance and then get out of Tom Cruise's way.

But you're looking at a guy going head to head with one of the most charismatic movie stars of the last 30 years over and over again in that movie. And sometimes that kind of like face off and that kind of that heavyweight fight that happens in a movie. You're like, this is kind of distracting.

Guys are kind of chewing scenery a little bit. But in that movie, it just electrifies the whole film. It's such a great character. In fact, I think I've written about this before. I don't know why they didn't spin off either Jerry McGuire as a TV series or spin off Rod Tidwell as just the Tidwells, I think, would have been a great show. I don't know. You could have gone like the WV version of the Tidwells. You could have gone Netflix. You could have also had a Netflix show, The Rise and Fall of Bob Sugar.

That's true. Bob Sugar's in jail now. I mean, basically we had that. Who was the Lee Steinberg? It was the one he was based on McGuire. They followed Lee Steinberg around. Then Lee Steinberg ended up having all this personal problems. But Tidwell, there's so many reasons I love him as a character. He's just so different than anybody who had been in a movie up to that point. Sports movies were basically mostly white heroes and diving into white athlete characters. And it just never, there was not really a lot of Rod Tidwell's. My favorite thing about the Tidwell-Maguire stuff, too, is that it's at once the two great

characters. But then there's also this like amazing dialogue about the difference between playing sports and watching sports. You know what I mean? Like all the stuff about, you know, you have to show people that you love the game and try and get in touch with that person you were when you were a kid and turn down the attitude. What's called the Kwan? Yeah, well, there's the Kwan, but he's like, I'm an athlete. I'm not an entertainer. You know, like all that stuff is stuff that we were all talking about in the late 90s and the early 2000s, especially, you know, around like, as sports radio really started to blow up and everybody starts to have a voice. And then these, people, People really start voicing the like, that's where like kind of like the hot takes kind of come out of that era of like after Iverson of people being like you're not playing the right way.

You know, I don't like the way this guy like does this or that. And I'm sure it happened before them. But this was like almost like right at the cusp of that. And it was really articulated a lot of the stuff that you think like a lot of older guys were feeling about younger athletes were like, oh, he doesn't respect the game. He doesn't do this right. And the hip hop culture. Yeah, of that too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. He had a great. The wife character is great. Played by Regina King. Oh, she's great. Yeah. Got the resentful.

brother. I forget what his name is. It's like CJ, whatever, but that guy's guy, I think that was played by Ari Spears, the guy from Mad, Mad TV. But that's a good character, too. He's on his side, but at the same time, he's resentful. He's lobbing shot. She attacks him at one point. And I don't know. It's just good. So we can talk a lot about what Cameron Crow wound up doing after this, but when you, if anybody's ever like, why did Cameron Crow have such a hallowed reputation in terms of like also, especially being a screenwriter, the amount that he's able to do with these like really, really small characters. Bob Sugar's in the movie for like eight minutes.

Tidwell's brother has got like three scenes. And you just know. You know exactly who that person is. He does such a great job of like, Kelly Preston is a perfect example where it's like, you're like, oh man, I know this person. Even though she's only in the movie for three scenes, I know exactly what I'm dealing with here. Best looking blonde from the 80s in movies.

Never really found the right role. Wow. It's quite a shout for you to say that. Really? To me, it's like Larry Bird, David Letterman, Kelly Prest. Bruce Springsteen. Kelly Preston was so far, if we did stats for just bringing it to the table from a look standpoint in different errors, her war would be so high in the mid-80s.

Look who she's competing against. She's destroying everybody and never really found the right movie and then got revolted and disappeared and was so good and so good looking and sexy in this movie that it launched a second career for her. Yeah. Like she ended up getting for a little bit. love of the game and all these other things. But I'm with you on Crow. And I think this movie and Singles.

Or say anything? Almost famous. Say anything in singles kind of laid the groundwork for it. But this movie and then almost famous four years later, his ability to take little characters who weren't in the movie for that long and give them moments. Yeah. And make that and distinguish them in some way when they really shouldn't be that distinguishable.

Yeah. I mean, we talk a really special quality. We talk all the time about runs and the 89. to 2000 run for Crow, which is to say anything Jerry McGuire and almost famous. And then Vanilla Sky comes along. So we're going to save the love story part of this for when Julia Lippman joins us. So I wrote down some notes that are really fascinating about this movie. I have 11 peaks.

11 people peaked in this movie. 11? I think this is Peak Crow. Okay. Almost famous. That's his life story. I think it's a little bit easy. to write your life story and to take all the pieces of your life and put them in a movie.

This one, it's like, this is all just starts from scratch. He's creating something. He had an idea for an agent and just writes the shit out of it. I think this is Pete Cruz. I got to say, I think this is Cruz's best movie. This is the entire cruise experience wrapped into a movie, the scene, just an unbelievable scene after Show Me the Money and the Agency when he's like, all right, who's with me? Man, it is really...

I'm going to ask me to freak out! Just, that five minutes is amazing. No other actor could be Cruz. I think this is the peak cruise era. I think if you go... You think few good men is Pete Cruz? Well, 88, 89. That's Brainy Man born on the 4th of July.

So he's still coming in, right? Few Good Men, 92, Firm 93, interview with the vampire 924, Mission Impossible. I think he's amazing in in 96. McGuire, 96. Can we call 96 the Pete Cruz year? That's Mission Impossible and Jerry Wier in the same year.

Yeah. This is career year. Yeah. So Pete Cruz, Pete Kelly Press. Preston. Peak Renee Zellweger. Yeah. Peak,

Cuba Gooding, obviously. Peak, peak lip Nikki. I don't think Jay Lips ever been better. Peak Bonnie Hunt. Yeah. Peak Jay Moore?

Probably. Yeah. After this movie, people thought Jay Moore didn't you do a show about an agent after this that was on Fox that was kind of like,

what was it called? I can't remember that it was called. Peak Glenn Fry. I had this over the Eagles. I have it over the Eagles. Okay, so peak. Peak movie. Star Gilling Fri.

Okay. So you like this better than Miami Vice. Then him in Miami Vice. Oh, that's tough. All right. I'm going to cross that off. He was better at Miami Vice. Peak Roy Firestone.

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

Okay. Jerry O'Connell didn't want to be the fat kid in Stand By Me. No, he wanted to be the Cush. Yeah. And then finally, Peaks. Springsteen soundtrack. I have this over Philadelphia. The secret card is scene.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will say that the Philadelphia, Tom Hanks coming out of the lawyer's office, nobody will take his case, the beard. He's just hit rock bottom when the Springsteen song comes in is pretty great. And that was a string of,

there was a couple of videos in that era that they were doing this with where Springsteen sings the song live in the video. So that's just that one tracking shot of him walking in Philadelphia and singing the song. Yeah. sets 11 peaks unless you say 10 that Glenn Free's peak Freight's peak was in my advice. That's a lot of peaks. Yeah, I'm not going to let you have Glenn Fry.

Okay, don't let me have Glenn Frye. So Cruz does not win the Oscar for this movie. Right. He loses to Jeffrey Rush and Shine. Right. I would say this was his best chance to win the Oscar. Easily. And it doesn't seem like he's interested in trying anymore.

No. In getting an Oscar. No, this was it. This was his Jeffrey Rush and Shine. Shine's not on cable anymore. Most people would say that he probably, like, the best chance at winning would be born on the Fourth of July. I think you could make an argument that he should have been in the conversation for...

I still felt like born in the Fourth of July is Tom Cruise in a wheelchair. Yeah, but that's, but do you win Oscars for stuff like that? I'm not saying it's a great performance. I mean, I think he was better in Magnolia. I think he's incredible. He's a one of Magnolea. And then if you had a few good men, it's like movie star crew is out of control. Yeah, it's...

I have the same role for this as I do with the NBA MVP. Like, who else is in this movie where it's this good? Yeah, right. Who'd name anybody from the last 25 years who could have played Jerry McGuire and brought all the layers to it and just, and you watch like the first 15 minutes, right? He's at the top of his top of the mountain. It's in first class talking to this hot blonde lady

about how he got engaged, but secretly kind of hitting on her. She's producing the Coke commercials for the Super Bowl. Right. It's well dressed. He's just on top of the world. He can be that cruise, but then he can also be the I've hit rock bottom cruise.

So that's what I want to talk to you about. through the airport cruise. Do you buy Rock Bottom Cruise? Do you buy Cruz when he's sitting there and he's like, do you see this jacket? I don't need to wear it because I'm cloaked in failure! Does he, but like when I'm watching Tom Cruise do that, it's like

you know that it's not real. Like it's just, it's like it's so, he's pushing so hard. It's like when Kobe would pass. You know what I mean? It was like it's just against his better. I like disagree. So do you, can I ask you another question? Because I think Tom Cruise secretly has a lot of demons and it allows him to... Do you think Tom Cruise has ever been drunk? Well, obviously not. As we saw from Few Good Men. And this movie. He basically just does Nicholson when he gets drunk. Yeah. You and I would play a better

drunk from Tom Cruise. I think so. He's, oh my God. Yeah, I have Tom Cruise. Vampire was the last one. So he did Firm. He did The Firm in 93 and Few Good Man in 92. then did this weird vampire turn and was gone for three years, but it was a long three years. It felt like a while he was the biggest star in the world. And then came back just big time with McGuire, which is a little bit like what Brad Pitt did in Moneyball,

where you just have, I'm just going to be myself. I'm going to be a movie star in this movie. Do you think Brad Pitt could have played Jerry McGuire? I mean, at that time, but it's a totally different movie. I'm trying to think of like who, how much slicker? Could Costner have played Jeremy McGuire?

No, because I think Costner's too wholesome, ultimately. Yeah. It's like, there's not like Downey Jr. Jr. could have done it. And Downey Jr. would have been a really good Jerry Maguire, but the turn, he would have been too good at the first 20 minutes of the movie and not good enough at the end. So like if you see Downey Jr. movies that require him to actually be a wholesome. Like the judge. Yeah.

But even that, he was dark. He was a little bit dark. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think T. Frazier could have played Jerry McGuire? I'm not sure. I think Jake Fraser can play Cush. Cush, totally.

I mean, you've been a great Cush. Yeah. Cush was another one. Great character. Yeah. Really good. I'm so tired of myself, I got Cush Lash. Let's play Cush Lash.

There's a couple of, peak late career Boe Bridges. That's another peak. My word is Oak. My favorite part about like that opening 20 minutes, especially the opening montage when they're showing all the athletes that he's like, you know, this is the 16-year-old. Yeah. A 13-year-old kid in Indiana who scores 100 points, and he's like, this is the best point guard in the country.

And they show him on an outdoor playground with nobody there playing basketball in jeans. It was like a real like Cameron Crow's like heat check about how much he knows about sports. It was like somebody could have just been like, hey Cameron, we got to throw this kid in shorts or track pants or something. There's some other mistakes Cameron Crow made in this movie, which we're going to get to. The concussion protocol with Rod Pidwell, which didn't exist. of the time. I was waiting for this. But I haven't written down somewhere.

It bookends the movie because it starts, the movie starts with the hockey player with the concussion and the kid being like, this is his fourth concussion. So somebody asked me, I had a mailbag question a while ago from Lyle Morgan way back in the day when I did mailbags. By the way, if you want to send me a mailbag at the ringer.com.

Were you going to answer the number to me? Yeah, I'm going to start doing mailbag. Like your Santa Claus. 2017, the mailbag's coming back. Okay. So the sequel to Jerry McGuire, Cameron Crowe, this would be a great career comeback for him, is Rod Tidwell with dementia from concussions. That's not a great one.

Trump fighting the NFL. It's now a drama. Jerry McGuire kind of let him go because he'd been acting so radically lost his family. Because concussion lit up the box office. Yeah. Great point. Maybe it's a Netflix series. But where do you think Rod Tidwell is now?

Because my answer when I answered this question a while ago is that he was, that he was divorced, bankrupt, living with his loser brother, and ducking an outside. Oh, I think he's on Sunday countdown. What are you talking about? He's next to Dilfer. They're talking about thermostats and thermometers.

They're talking about. I think he's on outside the lines of real sports talking about how the Cardinals never. Did we ever find out where Tidwell went to, oh, he's from Arizona, right? He's a local boy. So he's like a sun devil or something? Right. Okay.

I was hoping that he had gone to like the U. Here's a kush question for you. Okay. The deal breaker. for Jerry McGuire keeping Cush was that he had a deal for San Diego to get the number one overall pick. Right. And Bo Bridges,

Cush's dad. What's Denver? What really wanted Denver. Right. So this is... They were filming this. This movie comes out in 96. So this is the 96 draft. April 96th, leading into the 96 season. John Elway is still in his post-career prime

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

Because I can tell you right now, he wasn't. Didn't Elway himself, like, demand to go to Denver when he had to. But at the timing of this movie, John Elway, going into the 96, 97, 98 seasons, they won two of those three Super Bowls. Cush, you're not playing in Denver. Well, also, wasn't this part of the 20-year run where the Arizona Cardinals were like the worst team in football? So why would he be like, you got to stay in Arizona? Right.

I would be like, you got to get this guy on the Cowboys. Like, what is he told me? What are he talking about here? Oh, the Rod Tidwagway. Yeah, you're begging Glenn Fry to recite him for. Also, I know inflation, but that doesn't, the deal he asks for in the beginning is not that much. Four years, 10 million? Right.

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

I can't remember. Is it that he does or doesn't go over the middle? He doesn't want to get hit. He doesn't want to go over the middle, which doesn't make sense. if he has 110 catches. He's also short. He's short, so he should be a slot receiver. He's a slot receiver.

He's like, you don't like go over the middle, but you get 110 catches. This is 110 ounce that he was running. So the, Jerry Rice led in 95 was the big wide receiver boom, which is kind of ironic because Crow had been working on this movie for years. Right. Jerry Rice, 1848 yards, 15 TDs, 122 catches. Isaac Bruce, Herman Moore, Michael Irvin, all over 1600 yards. They also mentioned Andre Reed and Chris.

Carter in the movie. So it's definitely happy. Andre Reid is out by then. Yeah. But he mentions he's like, Andre Reid gets paid this much and he's like, those guys are marquee guys. Right.

So then Robert Brooks, Brett Paraman, Chris Carter, Tim Brown, Carl Pickens are the rest of your top nine. All of them have between 13 and 17 catches between 1,500 and 1,200 yards. Tidwell,

15, 50 yards, 110 catches, puts him right between Michael Irvin and Robert Brooks. Fifth place. for that year. Yeah. So the question is,

why didn't this guy get a contract? I think Jerry McGuire might have been a terrible agent. He's got the fifth best receiver in the league. Come on, Jerry McGuire. He's got this house.

He's got a waterbed deal that's his only commercial. He's doing water beds. Yeah. And he's got a house that has ants. And he's got seven people in this house. Can't get a mansion? Terrible.

Nicky. This is also Clinton-era economics. So you definitely would have been able to get a better house. house in that. Look, Nikki. Hit me with it. Oh, I forgot another peak.

I didn't mention it only because it wasn't a peak because they never peaked, but it's Peak Michael's Deerdorf and Gifford as a threesome. It's the highlight of that threesome was this movie. We'd love to see some movement from Tidwell here. It's like, the guy might be dead. Gifford looking concerned. Not a lot of highlights for those three, but this was way up there. All right.

So you know who it's also Peak? Wayne Fonts. Oh, good Wayne Fonts. Yeah. in the lobby. Nice way in parts. Yeah. Lipnicki.

Phenomenal. Yeah. Really great. Like my kids, we watch Jerry McGuire on AMC, which I allow AMC because like the Kelly Preston sex scene

for instance got cut. Right. But they just love every time lip nicky's in the movie, they're just on pins and needles waiting for the next humanhood. So you think that kid has as big of a role in the script,

or do you think they get lip nicky and they're like, we got to write up. Yeah, they're in the airport. As much lip nicky as we can stand. Yeah, They're in the airport with Lipnicki and he probably just climbs on the conveyor belt himself and starts going in the circle.

He's like the Nate Robinson of this movie. We fit jackpot here. So at the end though, here's yet another Cameron Crow sports flaw. I don't mean to pick on Cameron Crow because this is a great movie. But Lip Nick at the end, he gets the ball. The ball rolls over to him after everybody's happy. They're in the park. And he's like, hey, kid, throw it.

And he throws it like his, it's like he's having a seizure. He doesn't throw it. It's like his whole body convulsives. His arm is 100% straight and like slings it like he's in the Olympics. And McGuire's like, whoa, might have to, it's like the inference is like, whoa, what an athlete. We might have to say this kid. He's like, no, you don't, right? But it's the worst throw ever.

But then I realized, like Tom Cruise thought it was a good throw because we saw him throw and war of the world's 10 years later. He doesn't know how anyone throws a ball. Yeah. Like, he probably did think that was a good throw. He was probably like great throw. Yeah. And also, you did it.

I would allow that maybe look Nikki is doing, because you ever see those the 60 minutes about the guy in Texas who teaches like pictures who have suffered Tommy John surgeries how to throw and they do like that weird shot put. So maybe Lipnicki was just ahead of the curve on like biomechanics and stuff like that, you know? I just don't think so. No, okay. Have you seen Lipnicki now?

I have seen some good pictures of him on the internet. Like he's very ripped. He like does MMA and stuff. He's ripped. You took a couple too many jokes. Can I say that I'm a little suspicious of late in life MMA adoption as like a hobby? Yeah, it does seem like something, something a little strange. There's a lot, I know some people who are just like all of a sudden and they're just like, you, I'm really into Muay.

And you're just like, what's this about? It's like getting, it's like a different version of getting a convertible. Yeah, like a fantasy got into MMA like next year. Yeah, I would be like, we got to talk to fantasy. Why is it? Why is fantasy of a black eye? Yeah. And all these new tattoos.

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

There's a lot of those like just good scenes like that. A ton of crying in this movie. A ton of almost crying. A lot of Tom Cruise on the verge of tears. Yeah. Tom Cruise on the verge of tears in the hallway outside the locker room after the last. Cardinals game, when they're pointing at each other, you know, and he's just like, they're like, I still don't understand why he caught a pass for a touchdown, celebrated, but why are they

celebrating like he just won the Super Bowl? Because they know he's going to get his contract next. It's a good question. I think they beat the Cowboys to get in the playoffs. Like if Devante Adams, the converter to third down, got a touchdown and they won a regular, like the Packers. Well, it's a great catch. Like, sure, it was awesome. He jumped up. He spun. He did. It was a great catch. They thought he was paralyzed. It's like on SportsCenter if they were like, and now this wide receiver is hugging his agent in the hallway.

Wouldn't you just be like, why am I watching this? They make it seem like it's like the moon landing, you know? Yeah. It is a movie. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'm just poking holes. Just asking questions.

But how many, how many different celebration penalties would write to know. Oh, God. Yeah, I think it would have been, I think they actually lose the game because they're penalized 75 yards. Yeah. You guys have to kick off. from your locker room because he does a whole dance

that's 15 yards he does something with the ball and then he jumps that's like 30 feet up in the air yeah he's like hanging off the lower tier

yeah and had a concussion the whole time I know well that explains all of it now he's just in the concussion protocol

and if he celebrated they're kicking off from the locker room I agree not peak Regina King yeah because she's been better and other stuff

but she's great to do yeah what you think peak yon winner I like the almost famous Jan winner. Okay. Wasn't he,

didn't he have lines in Perfect with John Travolta and Jim Billy Curtis? He's not, but he doesn't get any lines in this, does he? He's just like seen in the meeting that they do. It's the same thing. He's either reading a paper or he's like nodding his head disgustedly.

You had me at hello and show me the money. This movie, now it's been 20 years. Like Liz, who works for us at the ringer, who's I think 23 years old, has not seen Jerry McGuire. And does she have any, like she heard any mythology about it?

No, but it's hard to explain to anybody who kind of wasn't around in the moment. Like you had me at hello and show me the money were like iconic lines. Oh yeah. This is the thing is that like I'm iconic. Show me the money was like iconic for five years. I was thinking about this just the other day where even with the best movies of the year, there's like one or two that none of them have like iconic lines. I was thinking about what's the last like very quotable movie that we've had?

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

Oh, Moonlight. Oh, Moonlight. No, I haven't seen Moonlight. No, right. Yeah. Yeah. Moonlight doesn't have a lot of. I think we're talking about like I was like, yeah, I guess Bruce Willis and Civil

Shepherd had some great lines. Moonlight, I'm sure has them. But like, when you think about like, what are the things that you say to each other, like in common conversation, it's all like, Mad Men, right? It's like, yeah, it's like, that's what the money is for

and stuff like that. But you don't, it's, movies don't have those anymore because the set pieces are really what we like. To show me the money scene's incredible, I can't tell you how much my kids loved it.

Yeah. It's, it's for all ages. And it's all ages, and there's the whole thing with the, it's great, with the Kwan. And then I was like,

I love black people. Yeah, I have Mr. Black people. That whole scene is so funny. Yeah, it's so good. I have a family to support.

Hear me? I want to stay in Arizona. I want my new contract. But I like you. Yes, I like you, Jerry. My wife likes you. You're good to my wife. I will stay with you.

That's great, I'm very happy. Are you listening? Yes. That's what I'm going to do for you. God bless you, Jerry. But this is what you're going to do for me. You listen? Jerry.

Yeah, what can I do for you, Rod? You just tell me what can I do for you? It's a very personal, very important thing. Hell. is a family model. Are you ready, Jerry? I'm ready. I want to make sure you ready, brother.

Here it is. Show me the money. Oh! Go! I'm back to the spot for a clock. Hey! Hey! Jerry!

Does that make you real good just to say that? Show you the money. Oh, no, no, you can do better than that, Jerry. I want you to say it what you would mean him, brother. Hey, I got boxed sugar on the other line. I better hear you say it. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. the money. That doc so do.

Show me the money. Yeah. Slaughter. Show me the money. That's it, brother. But you got to yell that shit. Show me the money. I need to feel you, Jerry.

Show me the money. Jerry, you better yell. Show me the money. You love this black man. I love the black, Jerry. I love black people. I love black people. Who's your motherfucker, Jerry?

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

I thought it was you complete me. Oh, you complete me. That's what is. Which is crazy. It's you complete me in any other movie. You complete me. It leads to you at Hello. Yeah, yeah.

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

Just shut up. You had me at hello. At hello. All right. This is the most important thing we're going to talk about the whole movie. Tidwell's breakout game is on Monday Night Football. I love this. I love when you get, you get like crazy Snopes about this.

Let's do it. Monday Day football started at 9 o'clock Eastern Time. Mountain time we're in Arizona, so that's 7 o'clock. Okay. Who are they playing? I forget. Arizona, Dallas, there's commercials. Game's going to end around 10.15.

Post-game interviews. So Tidwell's got to go back. He's got to change. She's doing. There's a huddle. I'm going to say there's another 45 minutes for that. Jerry and Tidwell, they do the thing. they hug, why don't you do that with me, the whole, the whole thing.

And then he realizes, I have to go tell Dorothy Boyd that I love her. In Los Angeles. It's now 11 o'clock mountain time. Yeah. 10 o'clock Los Angeles time. He sprints out of the football stadium under the rule that all Tom Cruise movies has to have once in your friends. Isn't Arizona's football stadium notoriously far away from the airport?

So I don't think this was Glendale. I think this was when they played in Phoenix. But I've been to Phoenix a bunch of times, and that airport is not like right there. So he sprints out to the stadium under the Tom Cruise sprinting rule, drives to the airport, purchases a ticket. Yeah, didn't have one already. Pre-9-11, didn't have to check a bet. Could have brought a gun on the plane. Nobody would have cared.

I have him, I have that flight being about 1245 a.m. Okay. Mountain time, which would be 1145 West Coast time. I think 1145 is generous. it's a 150 minute flight, but you gain a time zone. Best case scenario, Jerry lands at 115 in the morning.

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

Let's go with Culver. LANDS at LAX, you got to get to your car. That takes 20 minutes. Okay. Or unless you took a cab. Let's say he took a cab Let's say he just runs out He's in a cab

And the cab is like I know exactly where you're going Because no GPS So they have to know where you're going The earliest A 25 minute cab ride The earliest he gets at that house Is 1.45 in the morning

And somehow they're still A divorced woman's group there Everybody's awake Everybody's awake It's like hey Can you have anywhere to go? It's 1.45 no no no Let's keep hanging out

My ex-husband I have one more story Yeah Can you make some more questions? coffee it's 145 in the morning walks in there's nine divorced women yeah was i think lip nicky is asleep and they don't seem like they're not partying they're just like hanging out nobody's asleep there's not one person asleep in the thing it is uh it's a problem yeah it's really a problem i don't know how they didn't figure that out also i'm sort of surprised that they don't i mean i know

that you need to have the divorce the the book club there but you could have the they could have done it at dawn. You know what I mean? If they push you, get the magic hour of the dawn, the sun coming up over the Pacific coast. Just the thought. Just the thought they ever make it. How about this? Do a four o'clock game? When they make the concussion version of this with the Tidwells, I hope that they, they, they do have a more accurate time representation. But just do a four o'clock, four o'clock PM? Right. The late Sunday game. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. The national game on Sunday. Yeah. It's a big problem. Breathe.

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

Help you. Here's our next topic. is this the best Tom Cruise movie? No. Okay. No. What do you have? I have,

if you had men higher. I think I do too. My favorite Tom Cruise movie is a little bit controversial is color of money. Really? Yeah. It's my, not because of his performance per se, but it is the movie of his that he is in that I have watched the most and I like the most.

It's certainly his most charismatic performance from start to finish. Yeah. And it's just like one of my secret favorite Scorsese movies. I think Paul Newman. is like it's one of the best Paul Newman performances. I love Richard Price. He wrote the screenplay. I know it doesn't like,

it's not a very good sports movie because it's just, it's just very murky what's happening. But it's just one of my favorite like movies just to have on and listen to them talking that. It does want to, it does something at the end that I've always hated when you have the climactic moment.

But only we don't. It's just over. It's like, fuck you. You're not getting a climax. Exactly. Exactly. You'll have to think the rest of your life about who won this game.

And then I think I think I, put a few good men especially over this in terms of Pete Cruz it's a tough one I have to admit I and I just I don't I don't know if there's a right answer I don't know if there's a right answer or not and I will be very interested to hear what Juliet Lemon has to say about this but Tom Cruise is a romantic lead is not doesn't do it for me let's just put it down I think it doesn't do it for a lot of people yeah I think this is the best he's ever been as a romantic yes I agree with you I agree with you. Although I'm pretty into eyes wide shut. That's pretty great.

Anytime you want to do an eyes wide shut podcast, I'm ready. My last podcast? Yeah. I'm ready for the eyes wide shut. Ice storm combo podcast. Yeah. All right. Here's what I have.

I would argue that the three Tom Cruise-yest Tom Cruise movies are actually the four. If you're in pick four, it'd be like, let's say, let's say, let's say, let's say Liz. Let's say Liz has never seen a Tom Cruise movie. Okay. So what would you tell if somebody would never seen Tom Cruise? Liz.

Liz says I have eight hours to watch four Tom Cruise movies. Which four should I watch? That would give me the best feel of the Tom Cruise experience. Okay. Few good men. Jerry McGuire.

Top Gun. Uh-huh. And cocktail. I think that would be my four. So this is always going to be generational because I don't rate cocktail as high as you. It's just all cruise.

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

I mean, but for me it's, yeah, I think it's color of money, a few good men, Jerry McGuire. And actually, you know what I still really like?

What? Plays really well as the firm. Yeah, it's a little long. It is a little long, but I still really like it. Weird soundtrack that I've just grown on me. over time.

Yeah, the weird piano. Wilford Brimley's chasing him in the al-Bino. They play jazz. Can we talk for a second of a Wolframie in the firm? The least scary villain of all time. Wilford Brimley chasing anybody is a race I want to be in. That was also... Oh, Wilford Brimley's coming after me.

Jerry McGuire is, you know, it has a couple of big people, but the firm is an example of when they're like, let's just hire 15 people to be in this movie, like Hal Holbrook's in it, Gary Busey's in it, Holly Hunter's in it. Gene Hackman's in it. David Strait High. Yes.

Straster, yeah. Whatever his name is. Yeah, they have... Ed Harris is in it. That's right. Gene hat you forgot Gene Hackman. Yeah. One take Gene.

But yeah, I think the studio is like, this is the biggest movie we're making this year, Bunny's No Object. Well, what about this world? We're thinking Gene Hackman. The studio's like, fine. Just cut him a check. Isn't it funny, too, that like now everything is, you're like, oh, do you hear about that new vampire saga?

It's going to be the new big thing. Or like, the new game with, It's like John Grisham was the biggest author in the world. And it was like, what's it about? It's about a lawyer. And he finds out that his firm is doing some nasty stuff. And it's like, that's it. That's all it is.

The first was a big deal. Because the book came out. Was that the first one? That book was like the Bible. It was in every hotel room. It was like you couldn't avoid that book. It was the biggest book ever and they immediately made a movie. But what they didn't totally realize was that everybody had read the book.

Right. So it wasn't big twist. I wonder what's going to happen in the movie. Also, when you find out, it's like, all they're doing is, like, the mafia's taxes. It's not like that big of a deal. They're just like, yeah, you're laundering money. Great chase scene, though. Awesome chasing.

Yeah. Really good chase scene. Good Gene Chirpohorn? Yeah. She had a nice little tiny run there and then I think got hit by a bus. I'm not sure what happened. And she popped back up on Big Love years later. Yeah.

So you would say you wouldn't put cockt down. I'm fine with caught. even though it's a very cruisy performance. Yeah. And actually I think I go risky business over Top Gun in terms of just, I love Top Gun as a movie, but I think Risky Business is actually, he's like less like uptight in risky business. So I was going to bring up risky business. I think it's possible that Tom Cruise was replaced after risky business.

What do you mean? Like the Tom Cruise that's in risky business. Like the Scientology people could replace Tom Cruise. Okay. Because the risky business, Tom Cruise has no real relation to any other. any other Tom Cruise that came. That's like Taps, Tom Cruise. It's like outsiders,

outsiders, Tom Cruise. And it's just, it's a much more nuanced performance. He actually seems like he really wants to bang Rebecca DeBorne the whole movie and there's a sexuality about him in the movie. He's older than Downey or he's younger? He's the same age or is he older than Downy? I think those are all the same group.

Downy, Roblo, Cruz. Yeah, it's like, it's strange to look at how those guys all had like the separate career. And Tom Cruise just like locked in and was like, this is who I have to be and this is who I want to be. And Downey obviously had his demons or whatever, but just goes all over the place and like, you know,

chaplain and what do you think Cruz would say his best movie is? That's a great question. I mean, I wonder if he would say something weird like the last samurai or something. What do you think he would say his most entertaining movie is? You know what you would be like Days of Thunder. That's also some very good cruise. I think that he would probably say, I have to think he would say a few good men.

Really? I really wish, yeah. I mean, like, I can't play, Sorkin. He also is a very good Sorkin actor. Yeah. And I wish that he had done, like, more of them. Like, I don't know. I mean, if they had done Steve Jobs with Tom Cruise,

that would have been pretty interesting. Well, it was interesting about Sorkin was he brought out Cruz's sarcastic side. Yes. Yeah. Like, like, Daniel Kaffey is just super duper Matthew Perry level sarcastic. All the stuff is like playing the softball practice. And he's like, you know, he's like, I'm going to hang him by a yard. arm and all that stuff.

Yeah. But it's few good men. I almost feel like few good men is a sports movie, even though there's no sports scenes in it. Well, but that, it's totally be watchedable like a sports movie. It's a courtroom drama structured like a sports movie.

I still, I still can't believe the drunk scene. Oh God. I know. And it's like he's hammered drunk. Every time Tom Cruise gets drunk. Debbie Moore. He drinks whiskey.

Yeah. He drinks whiskey in a way in which no one who's ever drunk whiskey. No. Like, because in a few good men, he's drinking Jack Daniels out of the bottle. which is like what Cowboys in the 1890s could do

but Tom Cruise could not And then he drives, doesn't he? I'm trying to think of one person in my life Does he drink like a whole bottle of Jack Daniels He got into his old mobile He's stumbling drunk, it's raining He's like I'm gonna go find Joe Yeah Kevin Park's like

Oh it's like JT Walsh kills himself right And he's just like This guy got in full dress No no no this guy got a gold blade A nine millimeter in his mouth Oh man Kevin Park does it try to stop him Yeah.

He's more interested in breaking him down psychologically. I never understood. How did we get on a few good men? I'm just waiting for Julie yet, but I'm really, I'm really enjoyed this. Who's your favorite cameo, slight cameo in few good men? Is it Noel Wiley for the one scene, Kiefer Sutherland as a racist sergeant or Kevin Bacon as prosecutor who plays pickup basketball and is in two scenes?

I think Kevin Bacon's amazing in that movie. You're a lousy fucking softball player. Kevin Bacon just leaving the pickup basketball game Oh, that's amazing. It's the best moment in that movie. They're playing full court. They're like, come on, Jack. Come on, Jack.

He's like, hold on, I'll be right back. Nobody does that. I gotta go do a plea deal for this guy. So Cruz, he can't drink. Yeah. Have you ever seen him smoke? Has he ever smoked a cigarette or done any kind of drugs in a movie? Does he do drugs?

He doesn't do anything bad in Magnolia, right? He just is like high on his own sense memory. He doesn't smoke a cocktail. No, I think he has some sort of, does he get drunk in risky business? He gets drunk. No,

he gets high in risky business. That's how the car ends up going. Maybe that's why maybe that scared him. Right, right. He doesn't drink in color of money. No. Terturo does Coke in color of money, but he doesn't, yeah.

There's an 18-minute sequence of him running on YouTube in different movies. I don't know if there's a crying Tom Cruise, but I would almost rather watch that than the running. So I love the running. The crying, he's a really good, I'm about to cry guy. To Tom Cruise and Top Gunn when Meg Ryan and she's saying, He loved flying with you.

He just love flying with you. And Tom Cruise is, he does this thing. He like turns his neck and his cheeks are going in different directions. And he's like bulges his eyes. It's really effective. It's really good. He also recently has developed this need to be in, really tough situations with planes.

So the last Mission Impossible, he hangs on outside of a plane. And the mummy, the plane explodes while he's in it and crashes. Obviously, Top Gun, he's got some bad history. He's a 9-11 truthers, what's happening, I think. Top Gun has some holes, by the way.

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

I think it's over the Indian Ocean. There's a conflict right now. And Tom Cruise, even though you just almost left and you disappeared for seven weeks, we're going to need you in this battle. Also, they're like in Miramar and they're like scramble the jets. We got to get to India, which is like not a quick flight. Not a quick flight. No.

Yeah, they go back. Top gun. It's not age well. Do you like scare it or Ironside and Top Gun more? Scared. Yeah. Scarret's amazing. It's incredible.

Great scarred. Teacher scar it and he like takes over. He's like, I'm here. I'm flying with you. That's another Tom Cruise thing is the surrogate. Dad. Yeah. It's a big, big thing in all his movies.

Jerry McGuire didn't have the surrogate dad. Dickie Fox is supposed to be it, though. Yeah. Popping up. Who was supposed to play Dickie Fox? Billy Wilder, right? I think it was supposed to be Billy Wilder, the great director, screenwriter. And he was sort of Crow's mentor.

And they were going to have scenes with them in there. So do you give Jerry McGuire, Tim Cup was the same year? Do you think it's coincidence that all of a sudden then we moved into this era of the modern sports movie? I think just because I think those movies were more like Boulderham showed people that those movies were very, and when does White Man Can't Jump come out? That was early 90s. Early 90s. I'm going to say like 90 or 91.

Really? I thought it was like later in when I was in high school. I was in college. 92, yeah. I think that just post-Bull Durham and those Ron Shelton movies, everybody sees, oh, okay, like this is, there's a lot of stuff to do with sports here. Is White Man Can't Jump a Hall of Fame? Does it get its own podcast?

Unquestionably. Or does it be team it with something else? White Man Can't Jump is the most under, I don't think it gets talked about enough as the best sports movie. Oh, that's the hot. take you've ever had. It's not. It's literally like there's not a single white man can't jump is a lot like color of money in that it has it does it does lack the thing that you want it to have because even after they win the big game. Wesley Snipes's ability to play basketball. He's pretty good in that movie. He's pretty good. You don't think he's pretty good. Woody Harrelson's better than him. I don't think he's good. Tate you play basketball. Can we make can we ever see anybody dribble like Wesley Snipes in that movie? The high dribble like he's terrible. What do you talk about Tim Fraser on the Pelicans dribbles like that now? is Juliet's mic on? All right, Juliet limits here.

Hey, guys. We saved all the Renee Zellwiger rom-com stuff for you. I'm so happy to be here. We covered everything else. I know this is one of your favorites. You're talking about other Tom Cruise movies for about 20 minutes now. So, Dorothy Boyd.

Dorothy, yes. Where does she rank in the all-time great rom-com slash whatever character? We think this is a sports movie and a rom-com. We've decided. Oh, yes. Where does she rank in the panes? on for you.

I took me a long time to get here emotionally. Yeah. But I'm ready to say she's top five. Wow. Do you have a top five that's like off the top of your head? Of the character or the actresses. Who's your favorite rom-com character ever? Probably Sally when Harry met Sally.

Over Meg Ryan in. Sandra Bullock is Meg and Sandra. I was just like, I don't know. Sandra in what? The one with, um, while you were sleeping. Yeah, while you were sleeping. Sorry, just didn't roll off the tongue, but she's so good in that movie. Because I was thinking, like, they, you know, you need a lot of luck with movies like this.

And we saw with Elizabeth Town where he just had the wrong leads. Yeah. I don't know if that movie would have been good anyway. It was, I thought somebody backed out. Ash and Cutcher back out or something like that. Or he fired him. Okay. He fired Ashton Cucci.

I think in retrospect, maybe you just keep Cutcher. But Zelliger is so good. He catches her at the perfect point of her career. Yeah. And I honestly think, like, if you look at the landscape of actresses in the mid-90s, the only other person who could have played Dorothy Boyd, I have the answer. Yeah. Who do you think it is?

There's only one other person. I have a good answer. She may have been a tad too young. Who? Jennifer Love Hewitt. Too young. No, she would, she would have, she, could have done it. She was like, the way J-Lew.

She would have. That's insane. What? What are talking about? Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, she could have. This is a very 90s answer.

Yeah. I think she might have been a little old for this at this point, but probably Helen Hunt. No. What about Elizabeth's true? No. Who is it? Oh, yeah. Sandra Bullock would have killed.

She would have killed Dorothy Boyd. She's amazing. I wonder if she has, I wonder if she was either it was offered to her or. She does speed right around that time, though. Yeah. She had speed in 94 and she had while you're sleeping in 95 and this is 96. This would have been the natural Sandy Bullock movie. It's a good point.

It's not much role for her though. Like if she's in. Dorothy Boy, see, I disagree. She's a huge role in speed and a great role in while you're sleeping. I feel like, because did Zellwerger or did Bridget Jones after this? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

This is my Dorothy Boyd's a great role, though. I think Dorothy Boyd's like one of the better roles. You know, you're not with me on that? I think she's, I think it's pretty good, but I don't, I don't think a movie star would have done it. She's got the secret garden, Tom Cruise's hugging my scene. Julia Roberts wouldn't have done that role. She's got the, in the kitchen, I'm telling my sister how much I love this guy. I love him, Laurel.

I love him for the man he wants to be and the man he almost is. Wow. This is why that's a great girl. She has a lot of good speeches. She's like three great speeches. First class. Yeah. She's watching him.

The problem with, what does she say? The problem with life is, I don't know. First class is the problem. That's not in the Bruce Springsteen song, so I don't remember it. He used to be a better lunch. Now it's a better place to be. She gets to breakup with him.

Yeah. She gets to be proposed to. Yeah. She gets to like, she runs the gamut of emotions. She really does. Every like emotional situation you could be in a relationship, she covers in this movie. I just want to say they're running. Oh, that's another great scene, the wedding scene when you were good at junior singer Marvin Gay.

So, God. Somehow they're watching the video that night, which isn't even one of the five most ridiculous things that happen in the movie. They're watching. It cuts to Jerry McGuire and he's got that deer in the headlights look on his face. And Cuba Gooding is like, oh my God, he doesn't want to get married. I just want to point out everyone has that deer. Every man who gets married has the deer in the headlights look on his face. How my wife did when we got married.

Your wife did? Yeah. Yeah. I remember my wife thinking. I was like very emotionally committed to that moment. And your wife was like, oh, my God, there's no way up. Yeah. See, I think my wife thought I felt that way, but I was in the Old North Church in Boston.

It was like 100 degrees wearing a tucks. I was just trying not to keel over. You got a great wife. Thanks. I'm sure you were excited. Thanks. She had me at hello, Julie. She had you at hello.

Okay. So these are like, there's two really weird things related to Dorothy Boyd that couldn't be in the movie otherwise. Yeah. The divorce women's group, super weird. We just did a really long breakdown of how there's no way the divorce women's group is still meeting at 1.45 a.m. And they're not either trashed. Cruz gets back at the end at 1.45 in the morning. They're definitely trashed.

Yeah, but they don't act trashed in that. See, should have to be drunk and passed out. And somebody should have attacked Tom Cruise. Yeah. Get out of here. Like, yeah.

He doesn't mean it. Don't take him back. So the divorce proposal. Oh, you complete me? Okay. Yeah. Whatever. Complete this,

Tom Cruise. What about the male nanny who loves jazz? The manny. The manny. Yeah. Who gives like the weird jazz monologue to Tom Cruise before they go on the date. That guy's in a bunch of like he's in a couple of John Cusack movies right around that time.

He was in high fidelity, right? Yeah. He's one of those guys. That doesn't, like the jazz part doesn't really belong in the movie. But like, I don't know, it worked. How do you feel about Tom Cruise as a romantic lead? Such a load of question. He's kind of like the Bruno Mars of rom-coms where he's like really talks a lot about like relationships,

often in a lot of like romantic situations, but is in no way threatening, like at all. Right. So like it's like there's there's there's rhetoric but there's no like feeling. So we were trying to recast that about like what like who would have who could have played Jerry McGuire and obviously you don't have the same movie but who maybe would have like a little bit more like going on in the romance department. But who would have been the worst Jerry McGuire? Mark Wahlberg. Oh my gosh.

Mark Wahlberg is Jerry McGuire. You just like get up Tedwell. Has he punched Rod Thidwell? Has he ever run run anywhere in a rush? Like I don't think Mark Wahlberg. Yeah. But is he ever feel harried? I don't think so.

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

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

He's like, really like a politician. Do you think cruise had been fired for the, for the mission statement? Yes. If I left that mission statement and everybody's desk at the ringer, do you think I would be fired? You would probably be, like, smoked out over, like, three weeks, I think. I don't think it would have been instant. But you would be made to feel uncomfortable until you left. That's probably true.

I have to take my fish with me. I really regret the nine mission statements I wrote the least. PM. Probably shouldn't have kept studying this. Did they take you like a weird restaurant? And the person who fired you was just like, think about me. I got to have this in my head the whole week. Damn it.

Maybe that's what I did wrong. Do you think the problem with Dorothy and Jerry's relationship is Tom Cruz or that it's just not a believable relationship? There is a chemistry missing. But isn't that the point though? I think they addressed the chemistry issue. I think they're like, this is crazy. It's a crazy time in our lives.

And this is happening so fast. But now we're retconning this to be in love with each other because we're, We're learning so much from each other. But that being said, there's like a little, they have to, those lines like, you complete me and you have me at hello and all those scenes have to make up for so much in the lack of actual like sparks between them. Yeah. They address it at the restaurant when the Tidwells are like making out.

And then Cruz, they look at each other and Cruz like puts his arm on her, which I'm sure he's done in real life over and over again. Definitely. On dates with. I find his relationship with Kelly Price. is a lot more believable. Way more believable. That's like a hot relationship.

She was like, I climbed El Capitan. I can make this happen. She looks great in the kitchen. That's true. Yeah. That's a lot of chemistry there. That's true. She's done a sex scene with Cruz and she was married at Trivolta.

Like they really brought in one of the experts. Well, it's a Scientology cabal. Oh, the cabal. Yeah. All three of them. So how do you remember this movie 20 years later? Do you think it could have been a TV series? No.

I don't. You wouldn't bring it back? As a TV show now? Yeah. would it be like they're like firmly together and they have an agency or be no it was sorry around some ideas and they were all not non non there are a lot of hot takes a lot of like a lot of like what if we did it rod did well broke and dealing with the effects of concussions what about this one you know how it ends with jonathan lip nicky potentially being a really good yeah yeah we covered that okay well

what if he has just broken an agent's heart and now it's like about how the reverse jerry kind of oh okay so lip nicky is kind of like hold on john john lick is on the front of He's in. He's like, I'm an MNA fighter. Have you seen him lately? Yeah, he's ripped. He ripped. It's ridiculous.

So, sports movie or romcom? I think rom-com, ultimately. Sports movie. Well, here's my case. Can it be both? I think it can be both. Sure. I'm fine with it being both.

Sure. I just think that the reason it gets pushed over to rom-com for me is because, like, my favorite Cuba Gooding Junior moments all also have to do with Virginia King. Oh, right. Like he's, you're marsy stuff. Yeah, he's never like just Rod Tidwell. he's like Rod Tidwell, the family man. And like, she's so good in that movie.

And even the, like, most emotional moments, like when he gets back up after the hard hit, like you're so happy because she's watching and it's so upsetting. Yeah. And just so happy for Marcy. Like, that's, like, that's essential. Also, what about when he counsels Jerry?

And he's like, if you love her, you've got to tell her. I mean, come on. These are all great points. I think it's a rom-com, but it's a rom-com between Cuberute engineer and Tom Cruise. I remember writing a column way back one about a spork flick, which is a combination of sports movie and a chick flick.

back when we were allowed to use the word chick flick, sport flick just combine them. To me, it's both. I think, and I think it's a worthy entrant. So we've decided that this is a hall of famer. Welcome to the hall. Chris Ryan, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Julia Limon, you had me in a hello. Thank you so much for having me.