The Rewatchables - ‘Legally Blonde’ With Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Juliet Litman, and Amanda Dobbins are totally comfortable using legal jargon after rewatching the 2001 classic ‘Legally Blonde’ starring Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, and Luke Wilson. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's good, everybody. I'm John G. Stremski, host to New York, New York with JJ. The first podcast on The Ringer in Spotify, dedicated to you, the New York Sports fan. We've got episode three nights a week, plus bonus episodes whenever news breaks. So make sure you follow the 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. Build for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and again. 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. I sold my car in Carvana last night. Well, that's cool. No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong. So what's the problem? That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes to smoothie. I'm waiting for the catch. Maybe there's no catch. That's exactly what a catch would want me to think. Wow, you need to relax. I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood? Is this tablewood? I think it's laminated. Okay, yeah, that's good. That's close enough. Car selling without a catch. So your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. We're also brought to you by the ringer.com as well as the Ringer podcast network. We're

heading toward 200 movies. I think this is number 192 or 193. We're getting close. The 200th movie happen before the end of the summer, which raises the question, are we going to do the re-reheat, me and Chris Ryan? Heat, the movie that started this podcast, we redid it after we did 100 movies. Are we going to redo it again after we do 200? Should we do another gimmick? We might actually open this up to the audience. Do you want us to hear Heat for a third time? Should we bring in a third person? Should we bring in a third and a fourth person? Should we try to get Michael Mann to join us for the pod. I don't know, but it's suddenly lingering. It's getting close. The 203 Watchables episode. As always, if you want to hear all the ones we've done, just go to the Spotify archives. They're all

on there. We even have an action movie playlist where you can find all the action movies we've done, and we're going to have more playlist coming out. But all of the movies that we've done are on the Spotify archives. And we've done over four years worth at this point. I think this podcast started in the summer of 2017. So there you go. at least a four-year anniversary of the rewatchables. I don't know when it was, but we're getting close. 200 movies coming up. I'm taking the dog.

Legally blonde is next. I'm going to make an amazing lawyer. Welcome to Harvard. Beauty and brains. I have a 4.0. Why? There ought to be a law. You got into Harvard the law?

What, like it's hard? This Friday. I object. Nice drive. America goes. Blonde. habeas corpus. Warm.

Evidentiary support. Come again. Don't ask. Now you're thinking like a lawyer. No biggie. Legally blonde with PG-13. Starts Friday at theaters everywhere. All right.

20th anniversary of Legally Blonde. Juliet Lemon is here. Amanda Davins is here. Amanda, this is your wheelhouse. Reese Witherspoon. Your icon. Your hero. Your life career princess.

This is where she moved into movie stardom adulthood. There was young Reese for years and years and years and the question was like, all right, where does this go? And then we know where it goes from here. It goes into A plus Listum. What do you think of legally blonde? What's the first thing that pops to mind? I remember seeing it, and I believe I was 17 years old, and I saw it with two blonde friends in high school. And since this is not a visual medium, should let everybody know I'm not a blonde, have never been a blonde.

And so this was really opening up that experience to me. And I think it was also probably when I first felt my connection to the princess of my life, as you said, Reese Witherspoon, which is just 100% true. That's accurate. Bill Simmons understands me and understands Reese Witherspoon. But, you know, I think I don't know if I had seen election, which would be kind of her most, like, known or respected performance up until now. But, you know, obviously like an indie movie.

And so this is both when Reese Wether's. Spoon goes mainstream to the world and also mainstream to me. And it's been a beautiful relationship ever since. Is it wrong to say I watched this and was nostalgic for just how freaking adorable and unique Reese was way back when? I mean, now she's, she's almost my age now. But like, there's this whole, there's this whole like, I don't know, position she holds that I think a lot of other people have tried to claim young Reese I'm talking about. Sure. I think she did the best, Juliet. I think she is the best version of whatever this is, the young adult, being able to manipulate surroundings, being able to basically get guys to do what she wants, whatever it is.

Like, she was the best at this. Yeah. And I think that also, first of all, this is an amazing role. I mean, it's just a great movie. She's given a lot to work with. But I also think that the way that she's positioned in this movie, like, physically and also, like, intellectually, makes her incredibly relatable. and it's sort of a miracle how relatable she is as this like privileged initially ditsy blonde

from Southern California who like decides on a whim to go to law school or not on a whim, but you know, we all know the plot. And I think it's that. Like it's sort of like, it's just shocking how you're like, oh yeah, she seems like she could be your friend and she's really pretty, but like you also feel like you could look like her. I don't know. It just really worked. Who else is in this, who else is in this conversation?

Like who else could have been L. Woods? ultimately. Well, this is the thing. Not to step on recasting couch, but it's really hard. It's a pretty singular performance to balance, as Juliet said, that kind of,

she's obviously like very beautiful and bubbly and funny, but also needs to be relatable and you need to believe that she can kind of like pull off these ridiculous, totally unbelievable, like legal flourishes or whatever.

But balancing between bubbly and silly and poking a little bit of fun at the character just a little bit, right? But like everyone's in on the joke and you feel okay. The closest that I got, which doesn't match generationally anymore

or hair color wise, is Emma Stone. That's fair. Yeah, Reese just feels overqualified to be in this movie, right? And I think that's why it's so good because it's a part that goes wrong in the wrong hands. And there was, when it came out, there was a little bit of a clueless and vocal chord that you could feel.

That first scene with the song playing really felt very, what is this? Like a noxema commercial or something? But yeah, I felt like that. And then her house, when we're with her parents and it's like, oh, they're kind of not ripping it off, but they're basically, they're swimming in the same pool. But then it doesn't really feel like clueless at all. And I think, so I went through Reese's IMDB. Because I would, what was that movie, Man in the Moon when she was like, what was? She's like 12, 13, and she's great in that movie.

And that was one of those. Wow, who's this? She might be something. And what's the roller coaster one? Fear. Fear? Yeah, fear, thank you. Amanda.

I'm sorry. Come on, Amanda. I remember the important part. Sorry. The Bergwaldberg parts. Well, she, in 96, she makes Freeway and Fear. There we go. And Freeway is this really crazy movie that is kind of like weirdly ahead of its time.

It's kind of a movie that is more likely to be made now, but Kiefer Sutheran is basically a homicidal maniac. I forget the plot. She's like a street, some sort of street person. She might be a young prostitute or a budding person. I forget what it was, but they end up in this face off. And she's just really good in it. And then Fear was her first mainstream one. She was in Twilight. She was in overnight delivery, which has aged kind of nicely. It's got Paul Rudd and a very strange plot. Then Pleasantville was supposed to be her big break. Oh, right. That was her and Toby McGuire. And it's like, these are big stars. And it was a year after Titanic.

But it wasn't until the cruel intention's election election combo in 99 that it's like, oh, this is a real career now. These are two really different parts. Cruel intention is a borderline iconic late 90s pop culture movie. We did it on the rewatchables

99 feet. But then it kind of dies after that a little bit. She ended up, she was Rachel's friend, sister on friends. Very good. And she was in Little Nikki, she had a cameo and there's just like a two-year where it kind of cools off, which happens sometimes

when somebody's making that transition to now we have to consider them as like, you know, somebody in their mid-20s playing adult parts. And then this sets it off. And after this, we're off and four years later, she wins the Oscar. But this also in the right, we've seen this go in the wrong way, too, with some of this stuff. When somebody kind of graduates out of the younger roles and they got nowhere to go, I think Emma Stone is navigating that really well. I think that's another good example. But I can't think. I can't think. of a lot of examples. Like, for every one of those two, you have like 10 Jennifer Love Hewitts, right? Yeah. I assume we'll talk about this a little bit later. The Times had a big piece on

Legally Blonde and mentioned that Christina Applegate said that she turned down the role of Elle. And I feel like she was someone who I think... It's another good one. Yeah, she would have been really good. But I think that, like, what really makes Christina Applegate different from Reese Wetherspoon is Christina Applegate just, like, never got that level of fame and celebrity. Like, she's an awesome actress. I love Dead to mean. She's really fun, and I think she would have been good in this role. But what's so impressive about Reese's run and someone like Emma Stone is just how famous they are. Like, it's really hard to manage that when you're also like, you know, married to Ryan Philippi and like a teen star

and also like a tabloid star and also an amazing actress. The Christina Applegates a good what if. I mean, it was going to come up later. We might as well talk it now. But you're right. That was and then she kind of Anchorman gets her going again and then she has this second career. But it took, what, four years, five years more than it should have. And she married the guy from that thing you do. Maybe that was a problem. Who knows? Jonathan Sheik.

This movie, the history of it, it was a 2001 novel written by Amanda Brown who wrote about her experiences as a bond attending Stanford Law School being obsessed with fashion and beauty clashing with their peers. And somebody's like, hey, that's a movie. and this happened fast, like within a year.

Reese is in it to have some Australian director who'd never made a real movie. And they're off, but I think what struck me watching it all these years later, I watched it with my daughter on Friday night, who loves this movie, who's seen it a million times. It's just really satisfying. It moves fast.

There's only like one or two bad scenes. You're kind of sad when it's over. I like spending time with all these people, even the loser boyfriend, who's terrible, who will get to later. but it's just a satisfying, what is it, like an hour 40, flash by. Totally moves. Just good. Nothing wasted.

I can see why they made the sequel, which wasn't nearly as good. But they must have thought, wow, this is repical. We can do this 10 times. Yeah. We get Regina Kang in. You're like, sure, we're good to go. Well, who was in legally, was a recent legally blonde too? I've only seen that one once.

Yeah. She goes to D.C. Yeah. And she's like, there's some political. It's red, white, blonde. Yeah. Boy, you guys have really disowned legally blonde. too. I had no idea. I saw it once, but it doesn't have this

same power that the first one does. In part because it's so zippy. This one, it's just pleasant, great one-liners, and then you're out. And this movie is surprising. It catches you off guard with all that it's like able to accomplish. And I, it's just really good. And it's like a great, you know, that it's like been positioned in the 20 years since as like a feminist movie. And it definitely is. But I think it's like one of the most successful things about it is, um, it's just really fun. Like you said, like your saddement, it's over. And it just, it does a lot.

It's very impressive. I was actually like, wow, I didn't appreciate this movie enough when I first saw it 20 years ago. And now I'm like, this is phenomenal. But it's like as good as clueless, I think. Is this a rom-com? No. No. I don't think it is.

No, because ultimately it's about Elle figuring out who she is. And then as a bonus, she gets the guy. And I think in some of the pieces that were done for the 20th anniversary, they talk about how this was not the ending for that reason. I think the original ending involved her like kissing Luke Wilson on the steps or something. Is that right? Yeah, it's bad. And then and then they said that audiences were like, no, no, no, this is not what the story is about. The story is about her figuring out, you know, how to be the world's greatest lawyer and also be respected or, you know, be a blonde or whatever. So I think by the definition of rom-com, I'm, Juliette and I are strict rom-coms.

It must start with two people who hate each other at the beginning. And then at the end, they're together, and that's what the thing is about. Or somebody who's a complete mess who gets their shit together because they found the person that they didn't realize in the first hour of the movie was the person they should have ended up with. That's the other lane for this. Yeah. But it's got to be about the couple primarily. This is like more a coming of age story than anything else.

It's like a early 20s coming of age story, which I think is cool. You don't get a lot of those these days. Yeah, I haven't seen it in a while. And I was expecting much more. rom-com stuff. And it's just like Luke Wilson is kind of there. I'm not positive why he's there. It's a typical Luke Wilson performance where it's like, wow, why was he in this many

movies? I can't really identify much here. I would take a bullet for Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson, but I'm not really sure why. Like I love them. But again, like I'm just like why. I don't know because you're right. Like Luke Wilson, he's just sort of like there in so many movies. We have no idea why he likes her.

There's not one scene that explains any sort of attraction or like they have no moment. There's no connection. Nothing. We have no idea why he's there except for like the two sentence introduction that Victor Garber gives as he walks into that one room. And it's so obviously like exposition dialogue of like he is on campus researching for me that they make a joke about it in the moment. He's like not a character.

But I kind of like that. I really like it when very handsome, like pretty famous male movies. stars show up in like mostly female films in order to just be the romantic interest and like not do much. And they're just kind of like, I'm here. My job is to look handsome. Like it's cool. I'll do that. And then we'll get on with our lives. So I respect Luke Wilson's performance in this. There's no scene where they go to like get ice cream. And he's just like, you know, when my dad died, that was when I realized I had to carry his name on. And she's like kind of, you know, kind of connecting. with them. They just, they're no connect at all. I have no idea where they're together.

Yeah. There's no, there's no explanation. But hey, it's great to have him. I feel like in, what Amanda just described is now, like, to me, the Chris, the Chris Hemsworth, that's just like you to show up because you're hot and available. That would be great. Well, one thing there was this, this was a weird romcom era, which we've discussed in this pod previously of, it's about, I don't know, 12 to 14 years of the career professional who's a disaster in their own personal life. And they just keep making the same movie over and over and over again with different gimmicks.

And it kind of starts dying out around the mid-2000s. And they're like, we've got to come up with some new wrinkles. And then Amanda's other hero, Nancy Meyer, comes in. Right. Then women later in life get to have love. And that's a whole new genre fresh. They start innovating it a little bit more. But there's just 12 years here of like picture perfect, my best friend's wedding.

and there's a bunch of those. By the way, movies we like. The proposal. While you were sleeping. It's just it goes on and on. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Let's take while you were sleeping out of this mix. That's a great movie from the 90s.

Sandra Bullock crushes it. I don't want to malign that movie. It's a really good one. It's a good movie. It's so strange. It's the strangest great rom-com that we've ever had. Yeah, have we done that one on the rewatches? Yes, Juliet had an idea.

Oh, that's right. Oh, Quarthe. Yeah. It was an early quarantine and we had a great time because it's a great movie. So what are the OGs that we haven't done? Because I feel like we've hit most of them from that era. Because we did my best friend's wedding early. We haven't done sleepless in Seattle.

Yeah, we haven't done sleepless. Did we do you get mail yet? We sure did. I'd love to do it again. Yes. We're available anytime. By the way, for people wondering, people listening going, how does Simmons not remember they did this?

For A, we've done 200 movies. B, I routinely call my son Ben Zoe and vice versa. My brain is going. So don't hold that this against me. You weren't on you. You've got mail with us. So if you'd like to redo it, Bill, we're ready to go. I have been looking at the list of the almost 200 now and thinking like we could redo a couple of these.

Van and I have been talking about Titanic. Yeah. Titanic would be really good to redo. I have a lot of thoughts on Rose, like a lot. I have some strong Rose takes. Really strong. I really feel like maybe not the heroin of that movie. I mean, I could cover that one.

Speaking of undeveloped characters, but anyway. This movie, this movie Legally Bond had an $18 million budget, it made $141 million, which is a lot. Amazing. It was a top 20 movie of 2002, 2001. It was nominated for two Golden Globes. Okay. Deserved it.

Great. Should have gotten more. It started the massive career of Robert Lukatik. Are you in the Lukatik hive, Amanda? I don't know. Am I? I don't know. I forgot to Google this before we started.

That's one of those. There's some movies from this era who directed this. Robert Lukatik, who the fuck is that? And then you go and they usually do like four more after this. But this was really successful. Another piece, and this came out in the 20th anniversary story, is about, and who knows, this is Reese Witherspoon.

She's known to say some strange things from time to time. So I 98% believe this. But she says people at least once a week come up to her and say this movie inspired me to go to law school. Amanda, do you believe that or no? I got upset when I read that. I want more for everyone in their lives than to watch this movie and have the takeaway be like,

now I need to be a lawyer. That's not the point of the movie. But also, it's a strange world. So maybe if people are getting that empowerment, sure, I guess. Julia, you believe once a week? Once a month. No, no. Once a week.

So 52 times a year, somebody comes up to Reese Witherspoon and says, I'm now a high-powered attorney here in Kansas City, Missouri, and it's because of legally blood. That's what did it. I don't believe that Reese Willerspoon talks to strangers enough for that. So there's that, first of all. Second of all, she's kind of in the inspiration business now. Like, she's trying to sort of be like a, you know, with like her book club and like with her Instagram. She's, you know, she's still acting, but she's also really focused on like her kind of like lifestyle business. And so I feel like it's like good for her brand to position herself as like someone inspirational.

And so I feel like it's not true, but it's just part of like the hello sunshine phase of Reese Witherspoon. I have a Reese Witherspoon story that I've never told Amanda and I've specifically been saving it for a podcast. This is my lucky day. You know what? It's so good. We're going to take a break and I'm going to come back.

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save at Whole Foods Market. All right, here's my Reese Witherspoon story. I don't know if I've even told Juliet this story. So went to a party with my wife once in L.A. That a person who should be nameless had that had a bunch of stars in it. And this person was known for giving these crazy parties. And this particular party, he decided was going to have a safari theme.

Have I told you this story? No. So he has like, the big thing is he had a, tiger there and he had a couple other animals he had like a couple of monkeys things that but he had this tiger in a cage in a cage

that was like outside the party and people could go and like pet the tiger I show up at the party with my wife so I have a witness for this and as we showed up it's dead quiet in the party and Reese Witherspoon is basically

berating everyone at the party that there's this animal here and how terrible it is and blah, blah, blah. And this whole lecture about, you know, these animals, they aren't meant to be, does this whole thing. Then the music goes back on and people are like, all right. Arnold Schwarzenegger is at this party.

So after this calms down and it's just record. That's incredible. That's incredible. And like 10 minutes later, Arnold goes, I wanted to go see the tagga. And goes, it goes off to see the table. Tiger. But it made me think like, first of all, I mean, we know this because we're Hollywood people are fucking lunatics. And you think like Reese, child actor, right? And we've,

we've been on some twisted turns over there. We had the Ryan-Filipe relationship. We had, what was the DUI stop when she did the, you don't know who I am routine? Yeah, I was in Georgia. Great times. It was in Atlanta. Yeah, five years ago. We had the divorce, but then she's happily remarried now. Then we've had this crazy career turn where she's one of like the best production companies at Hollywood. And now she's one of the most, I think powerful females probably in Hollywood, right? I think that she also completely drives the book industry. Like when Reese picks your book as like a Reese Woodrow from a book club, first of all, it's getting optioned. And second of all, it sells like millions of copies. Like her power over all culture is really significant.

And you know what else she drives? People from having tigers at a party because you just shouldn't do that apparently. Listen, I think her production company before Hello Sunshine was type A productions. Okay? So I appreciate that she had self-awareness and understanding

it's right there in the title. But she's, that is who Reese is. And I love her for it. So what part do you think in any movie that she's played is the most like Reese? Tracy Flick? Well, so that would be the, that would be

that man, I hope she's not the girl from election. I think it's Sweet Home Alabama. I'd like to think it's El Woods because I do think that there are moments in this where you can see the Tracy Flick jumping out just a little bit. There's even like when she finally gets the, when she gets the internship, you know, and looks at the list and then marches back out and she's like, me! And that is like a straight up Tracy Flick face. But that it's like softened and slightly more palatable and slightly more mainstream and a little more fun. I still think Reese is a little fun, despite. the tiger anecdote, which is incredible.

You know, she can be bubbly. So I'm going, L. I want to go see the tiger. Well, then she became big little lies, Reese. Yeah. And there's a lot of standing on the deck, holding a glass of pina grigio, looking sadly out, wondering what happened to her marriage.

That was, but then audible and in the morning show, the most polarizing thing in me and Amanda's relationship, You and I love it. Everyone else is like, what's going on? I kind of hate watch Love It, though. I really only felt like there was one good episode out of the 11, but the one good episode was really good. Listen, I mean, we don't think that it's madmen, but it was, like, incredible.

It was all you and I could talk about for the entire time that it was on. Julie, where did you stand on the morning show? I kept falling asleep. I was like, I really want to get into this, but every episode put me to sleep. Too long, but, you know, crude up, he looked great. always have a stock spot for Russell Hammond, obviously. I liked it. It's one of the legendary miscastings where you have Reese as this up-and-comer,

but she's in her mid-40s of real life. But supposedly playing somebody who's like looking for her first break in television, it's illogical. And having a viral video meltdown. Yeah, it's illogical. I loved it. It's bizarre. And the reason we really love this show is Billy Crudip.

Yeah. He's wonderful. He's the best. Who... And it looks in the trailer, they've leaned into Crudup in season two. They were like, we have a real asset here. I think he won an Emmy for that. What?

I think so. He definitely won a Stack Award, but I think he also literally won an Emmy for that performance. So you got to lean it to it. Can't wait for season two. Legally blonde, Roger Ebert, three stars. Oh. He said, quote, the film is impossible to dislike.

Quote, Witherspoon, effortlessly animated this material with sunshine and quick wit. Wow. That's how I feel. Yeah. Totally agree. Sunshine and quick wit. Maybe that's Reese. That's Reese in a nutshell right there.

She's great. She's also married to Ryan Philippe at this time. Ryan Felipe. How do you say? It's Philippi. I call him Ryan Filippe. It's kind of like Los Fulas. It's Philippi.

Yeah, I'm always going to screw it up. And I think this is the movie where they're basically dead. even career-wise heading into this movie. And then this is when the ascent starts. And this is when I started predicting. There's no way it can last. You can't, we're going to see this with Krasinski and Emily Blunt. They've managed to stay pretty even.

But at some point, there's going to be a reckoning. Somebody's going to pass somebody. And then we'll see if my theory continues to come true. But you have these A-list actor-actress combos. They have to stay in the same level or else troubles ahead. It's my theory. Krasinski is pivoting to directing, right? I feel like he's trying to take himself out of the competition.

He can't keep up as an actor. It's like a forfeit. Yeah. He can't. He's, he's like, he's like, artistic and he'll make movies for her.

And she can be Mary Poppins and Sicario. But he's like, it's cool. I'm like, I'm like former actor, turn director, Brown guy. And it's probably a good move.

Well, he's got the Jack Ryan stuff too. Oh, right. And Jack Ryan, yeah. I forgot about that. Minted money on that one.

But yeah, I think his passion is like his quiet place stuff. So. Well, Ryan, Felipe is going to come up in this podcast a little bit later in a way you're not going to expect. But let's go to the categories. That's exciting.

Most rewatchable scene. The breakup scene's great. I love a good breakup scene in a rom-com or a rom-com adjacent movie, but the I got to marry a Jackie, not a Maryland. She's great stuff all the way around. Blindsided. They set it up beautifully with the sorority sisters. I thought you were proposing. Proposing.

Oh. If I'm going to be a senator, well, I need to marry a Jackie. Not a Mary. Ellen. So you're breaking up with me because I'm too blonde? No, that's not entirely true. Then what? My boobs are too big? You boobs are fine. So when you said that you would always love me, you were just dicking around?

I do love you. Is that, Juliet, that's seen as everything. Oh, it's fantastic. It also really, like, sets the great tone for the movie of defying your expectations. it's great. I mean, also, you know, you really get to see Warner in a nutshell. They really present that character very tidily up top. It's great. I mean, who doesn't like that scene? But definitely not my most rewatchable scene, but yes, it is very rewatchable. No, that's our first candidate. Second one, I love the Harvard admissions montage. Absolutely.

Hi, my name is Elle Woods. And from my admissions essay, I'm going to tell all of you at Harvard why I'm going to make an amazing lawyer. As president of my sorority, I'm skilled at commanding the attention of a room and discussing very important issues. It has come to my attention that the maintenance staff is switching our toilet paper

from Charmin to generic. All those opposed to chafing, please say aye. So good. I could have watched two, three more minutes of it. It's so good. I like the video. I like the lead up to her finding out her else at.

She gets the 170. gets carried around the sorority, though. It's a really great seven minutes. The one-woman costume party. I really enjoy. Which that's where it's like, all right, that was 179 on the LSAT smart, but she just seems to be missing like a people smart piece of,

why would you trust Vivian on this one? Right. But don't you know people like that? I mean, people have different types of intelligence, different strengths. And also she's like supposed to be. the open-hearted, like, positive one in a sea of... So open-hearted, she believes is true.

Exactly. Amanda, a question for you. Yeah. Who did the bunny costume first? Was it this movie or was it Bridget Jones? This, I think this movie probably, right? Although I suppose the bunny costume is in the book of Bridget Jones. Right, because I was wondering if that was like a nod to that.

Because there's a lot of like sly references in this movie. So I was just curious. Yeah, I guess you're right. The book came first. But I think the movies were like, I think Brida Jones was 2002, right? So the movies were... No, it's 2001 as well. Oh, so they're like right.

Same year, yeah. Yeah, but I mean, it's going back to the 80s. You had the Halloween costumes where there was like the bunny, the sexy devil, catwoman. There was like the four ones that you knew somebody in your class. They were just like, oh, I guarantee she's going to wear one of those four and it would happen. So the sexy bunny was floating out there for a while. Sure. But Bridget Jones shows up to a party where she's the only one in that dressed up.

So it's the same. And she's dressed up as a bunny. Yeah. Craig, can you figure out which one of those movies came out first? Because we've got to solve this once and for all. Who gets the bunny title? Also, great line here. Whenever I try to dress up like a frigid bitch, I try not to look so constipated.

Really good. Nice outfit. Oh, I like your outfit, too, except when I dress up as a frigid bitch. I try not to look so constipated. Really proud. out of Elle how she handed herself. I like that she stayed in costume for the rest of the night. Totally.

She goes to the computer store. Yeah. Vivian and Elle finally bond. I like when the villain, the person I think is going to be the villain, the whole movie might actually have a good side to them. They navigate and then she turns back the other way. The I have new representation when Elle comes in the courtroom.

Oh, yeah. And all of a sudden she's now a lawyer. Oh, yeah. And the actual murder confession is pretty fine. funny. What else do you have for most rewatchable? There's some fashion stuff that my daughter loves that is not as rewatchable for me. I love when she nails the evidentiary hearing stuff. I love when she finally puts it together and she has that moment where she's like, yes, I'm learning stuff. I found that really gratifying and exciting. I mean, do we talk about Bend and Snap now? Do we

talk about that later? I haven't in what's age the worst. The Bend and Snap scene feels like so important, but also from a different movie. So I'm like, is this really rewatchable or not? I would put it in what's aged both the best and the worst. But I agree that it's not my favorite rewatchable scene, even though it's probably been rewatched the most. Yeah. My daughter, my favorite person, Zoe Simmons,

who loves everything, who loves all movies, who sees the good in all movies, movie scenes, movie plots, who never has a bad thing to say during a movie, during the bend and snap scene was like, what is happening, Dad? Why did they do this? Why is this in the movie?

And I'm like, I just don't know. I have a theory. I feel like the bend and snap scene is the fulcrum on which the idea to make a musical of this began. Like, I feel like without, because, you know, there is the musical that I believe your daughter and wife saw Bill.

I recall when they went to see it in New York. Oh, they 100% saw the musical. Yeah, I remember. I feel like that was the most sort of campy scene and sort of like for the musical life of of this franchise is directly tied to bend and snap. So it's kind of interesting. And I have not seen that musical. I listen to the music. It's pretty good. But just like I feel like it's just a different vibe. It's funny. It's not a campy movie at all. I agree. And I do also think that it's serving the role of like the dance scene that is in all of the 80s and 90s movies geared toward women.

And at some point, everyone's got to learn some choreography and all, like, break down together. And I actually do like a lot of those scenes. So it's kind of serving the bridge that way as well. But it definitely sticks out. All rom-com movies and rom-com movie-adjacent movies have to have had the one scene for 20 years. You know what movies started it, I think, was Footloose. Because Footloose has a scene where Kevin Bacon teaches Chris Penn to dance. And it's got, I forget what song, but that song became a top five song.

And he's like, he's teaching rhythm and it's clumsy. And it kind of broke up the movie. And then after that, it seems like every movie shoehorned one of those in. That's interesting. The weirdest one was the My Breast Friends Wedding one. Oh, we're a good. The D.R. Roebuck song, yeah. Yeah.

And they're like doing the lobster bits, like back and forth. Yeah, it's like this amazing musical performance involving 25 people who had no idea they were going to sing the song. And it's just perfectly orchestrated. But it made sense of the context of what happened in all of those movies. Right. There's been a lot of them. There's like a piano in the seafood restaurant for some reason. But it's like great.

It's like Robert Everett's here for one week. What can we do with him? Let's have him sing. But it's great. 27 dresses. What do they do when they're standing on the bar when they get drunk? They've seen that song. There's a song.

I've never seen that movie. Really? What? Yeah. Too close to home, guys. 27 dresses. Oh, come on. No.

That's something of Zoe Simmons Pantheon. I don't know. I just never saw it. Highgill doesn't do it for me as someone who's been to so many fucking weddings. I just, I don't know. I've only seen it a couple times.

It's like slightly after my and Juliet's generation of these. Or like I think we were old enough to maybe relate to it a little bit too much. But it's pretty charming. Okay. Maybe I'll watch it. Good setup. It's a Zoe favorite. I got to say Heigel was throwing 98 miles an hour for like three years there.

And then it just went sideways. I've never been a Hegel. John surgery. Well, because you're Gray's, you're not rational about Greas and Adam. I mean, you know, she had an ugly demise in Grazed Anatomy and you hold it against her. That's why you're not a Hegel fan. Yeah, her character sucks.

And then she left in a weird way. I don't know. I'm just not into Hegel. Also, knocked up. Not, don't like her in that. Who wants to spend time with Catherine Heigle? No. That's another reason why this movie is great.

You're like, I'd love to spend time with El Woods. Like, Elwood should have a podcast, you know? She seems like a great hang. Any other most rewatchable for you? My favorite scene is the, I really like the Harvard admissions montage. And I really like when she becomes the long. lawyer because I love when movies take ridiculous sleep like that. Here's this first year law student who's now going to be handling a murder trial.

It's great. They make it seem like it's totally reasonable. What do you have, Amanda? I'm going with the Harvard video essay. I mean, the ending when she finally figures out like the rules of the perm is obviously iconic. And I feel like comedies like this often don't land the endings of the movie in the way that that courtroom scene does.

So I want to give it credit. but like the Harvard video montage has everything. It's really funny. Great one-liners kind of summarizes the movie in three minutes. And also, you know, we don't give enough credit to montages. I think the three of us give like plenty of credit to montages. Always the best part of a romantic comedy. But, you know, like the films do not give enough credit to montages.

So I'm going Harvard Video Essay. I'm a as big of a montage guy as you're going to find. I'm right there with you, Bill. So useful. So great. my favorite movie of the last 25 years other than maybe almost famous was boogie nights and boogie nights has like three unbelievable montage scenes that are just like it just some people just get me uh would say what do you have for most rewatchable juliet i think you guys are right but i just really i like

the sort of almost montage where she's like learning to become a serious person and i feel like it really takes off when she nails the evidentiary hearing piece and so i like that scene the most julia what was your montage for when you finally became a serious person? Is that like Grantland quarterly number nine? Like what was it? What year? I was going to say, Bill, this is our 10 year anniversary this month. So perhaps you should tell me, when did I become a serious person? I think it's when we rented the Taft House at the beginning of the ringer. Oh, that's a good one. Thanks. Yeah. I feel like the first three months of the ringer was my montage of growing up. And so it's like, were there rats in the trees back there? Like there were a feral cat. There were a feral cat from the back. There was like bad internet. There

was like, you know, getting like our Google account set up, all that kind of stuff. Right, right, right. Scary people across street. With all of the names for the ringer. That's a good montage. Getting a smart TV that we could like cast to so we could like look at stuff together. You do love to Chromecast. That's so true. And getting the whiteboard to brainstorm names. For me, my coming of age was in the Taftas. That's a great one. Getting suits from Whole Foods. It's really beautiful. What's age the best? Great title. Great title. Yeah. Love a good title here in the rewatchables. Legally Blonde, just great.

Really explains the movie. The perfect day, the song, the intro. Zoe called that actually when we were watching. She's like, just a great, I just love when there's a great song to start the movie. The Devil Wars Prada has that too. What's that song? Suddenly I see. Yeah.

Katie Tonsol. Where I want to be. Just like that happy. It just kind of puts you in the mood. There are both songs also that I don't think I've ever heard outside of the context. movies. You would never put it on your on your Spotify playlist. Instantly, I'm like, oh, beginning of legally blonde.

Yes. Suddenly I see it was in Gray's Anatomy, no big deal. Okay. Sorry. The Hills, what was the Hills theme song? Natasha Benningfield, Unwritten. Right. Staring at the blank.

Feel the rate on your skin. Yeah. 2000s. It's just great, great theme songs in the 2000s. They did a really nice job. They really stepped up their game. Absolutely. I want to throw out the sparkly bikinis that she wears that are clearly not waterproof that she wears all the time.

I feel like those are really back. I feel like that's like real festival wear. Like, you know, when people go back to Coachella, they'll be wearing that. I was just like, that was a good call and it really worked. It was like, it has like a signature piece for her. I want to expand it to all of the extremely garish early 2000s fashion that is captured in this film. It really was that bad. Like it actually was.

2000, 2001, you go to the mall, you're seeing a lot of stuff that I hope never comes back, but probably will. And this is both a cautionary tale, but also just a great time capsule. They really make it work. And the way they use all of the pink and the sparkles, it is extremely over the top and extremely funny. So as we watch this movie, my daughter and I, I asked her to write down any outfit that she actually liked, that she feel like somebody would wear it now. I'm very nervous.

Reese wears what, 40 plus outfits in this movie? So she only had four. Whoa. She said that she gets into law school scene, the bright pink blast with the low-rise jeans. She said that would be worn now. Low-rise jeans.

Tough for us, but yeah. First internship, the black dress with the polka dot neck ruffles. It's wonderful. All of her internship clothing is beautiful. Yeah, she was like that, somebody would wear that down and nobody would go sideways. I just have here the taining outfit.

Some outfits she wore to go taining. I don't really. It was a pink something that she liked. And then she liked the I have new representation outfit, which was like a pink dress suit type thing. She thought that was doable potentially. But other than that, she was like, nobody would wear any of this stuff. This is insane.

Dad, did people dress like this? No, they did. Not really. But in movies they did. A lot of halter tops. Come on, Julia. What were they selling at Express in 2000? It's true.

Haltor tops, bad sequins. like bad fake leopard print in like purple and pink colors. Her best outfit, I think, was the beginning of law school where she's wearing the long green sweater that's belted. That was also very of the time, like a kind of like a tunic style. Like the smoking jacket? It wasn't a, I think it was like a sweater. Was it? Okay.

It was a knit. Yeah. I just think a lot of that would be like very costuming, though. I just feel like it's not like regular clothes, but it's like festival wear. I feel like she was ahead of that. Right. It looks like she's going to premiere her work at an art gallery or she's going to sing in a concert in some weird 80s retro band.

Morewood's age the best. I like evil salespeople. I think this is a great rom-com-adjacent movie gimmick of the snooty salesperson who tries to fuck with our character in some way and then gets a comeuppance. Always enjoy those. They don't have those enough in my mom. mind. Pretty woman did it the best. Obviously, like as Juliet said, this does have homages to classic movies and this is the pretty woman for sure. Have either of you had to deal

with like a legitimately snooty salesperson that was out of a movie? Because I don't think those people actually exist. Why would they? They're on commission. I try not to interact with people at stores. So I get pretty stressed out. So I'm sure that maybe some of them exist. But it's like Maybe my lesson from Pretty Woman was like, if I don't engage, then they can't be snooty to me, you know? I like that. Okay. You have your guard up. Morewood's age the best.

I like law school is for people who are ugly, boring, and serious. I just thought was funny. Who did indictment of law school? I like one of the people in a law school group who has the joke about, I started the march for lesbians against drunk driving. Like, this movie's trying to make fun of some sort of culture that all of a sudden has. I don't know. I just don't feel like they would make that joke

20 years from now, but there's like a... They kind of push the envelope in 2001 in this movie in a way that I just feel like they didn't take seriously, but now everybody would take it seriously. I think the tone is very difficult

and has aged really well because it's making fun of pretty much all the right things. Like, obviously, L is the hero and it's like some sort of justice for blondes or whatever, but like they're kind of like making fun of

of blondes in a way that is not mean, it feels safe, right? There's no blonde shaming. Exactly. No. And then they're making fun of Harvard. They're making fun of, you know, classists like Vanderbilt Kennedys on the cape. They're making fun of, not making fun of, but like the other villains are sexual harassment and sexism and not taking people seriously.

And like for the most part, all the jokes land in the right place. And it's a little bit. but you know that everyone that, like, is protected, you know, you just, like, don't feel uncomfortable. And I feel like most comedies that we do on the rewatchables or, you know, talk about 20 years later, like, the tone has often shifted and you feel a little squirly. And for the most part, you still feel okay watching this one. Also, um, I agree. There's a lot of, like, really nice friendship in this movie. Like, Elle's friends support her. And then obviously she supports Jennifer Coolidge. Like, this is, like, a really nice, like, friend movie, which,

I think is another reason why it's not a rom-com in a good way is because it's like the most important relationships are like these supportive friendships. Yeah, that's a good what's age of best. Another one, I just like what she causes the car accident when she's looking for the nail salon and it's not addressed. It's just funny. And the way she parks, just like not at all. Like just barely pulled in.

Oh, that's funny. Yeah, it's good. Dogs growling at villains is one of my favorite. I just like that in any movie where only the dog realizes how bad something. but he is. And then I just have, you know, this is a good helicopter shot of Boston movie. Yeah, I was going to ask, where does this rank for you as a Boston movie? It's not really. I don't think they filmed a lot there. I think they did a lot of stuff at USC, but they have a couple good, you know, nostalgic early 2000s helicopter shots, which I'm sure Affleck decided to rip off in the town, which is most of the town is just helicopter shots

of Boston interspers. One of the reasons we love them. Yes. Any other what's age the best for you? This movie is a courtroom drama or a courtroom movie. I just personally have really been underestimating it. And we've like done a lot of courtroom movie content on the big picture. And that's like a genre I'm very interested in. And when I rewatched it, I was like, this is a great, very funny snapshot of the legal world.

And I think that it should be up there with a few good men and Allie McBeal and in terms of lightly making fun of. But I mean, it's obviously completely preposterous. My cousin Vinnie. Yeah, my cousin Vinnie. Yeah, I was like thinking, I was thinking Marissa Tomey's character so much. And I was wondering if that was an intentional reference or, I mean, how could it not be? I mean, that's such like an important character. But yeah, I mean, I was thinking my cousin Vinny much more than I did when I first saw the movie.

And I was like, oh, okay. But that's like, you know, another wonderful movie with a wonderful heroine. Amanda and I both love courtroom dramas and movies. And one of the first rewatchable was we ever did was a few good men, where I think we argued about Joe Galloway for a good 10 minutes. Yeah. Listen. You're still pro Joe Galloway,

which is one of your worst takes ever. She made a mistake, but I just, I made a list for you. She took her job seriously. She did. Amanda made a defensive Joe Galloway list. That's not,

that sounds like the eight free watchables ever. She had great, quiet relationships, okay? Aunt Jenny trusted her. Aunt Jenny did not trust Tom Cruise. I don't know what to say. Storming home in the rain. Drunk Tom Cruise goes to pick her up.

I'm going to put Jess upon the stand. I was trying to do that again. I'm actually object. Who's going to regard to you? You, Lieutenant Weidberg. What a classic. What's age the worst? Oh, actually, let's take a break and then we'll do what's age the worst.

All right, what's age the worst? So 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2, Red, White, and Blonde, which I don't think anyone loved. There was a directed DVD 2009 spinoff, Legally Blonde's, and then Legally Blonde the musical. And apparently, Legally Blonde 3 is coming out next year. Apparently. And apparently, Reese is a little involved, and then Mindy Kaling is also involved. And Arnold Schwarzenegger and a tiger. That's all we know.

We'll see. That feels like a mistake. And I don't know who that movie is for. Like, I don't think my daughter would care about Legally Blonde 3. So if it's not for her, I don't know who the movie's for. I will say the only, I in general, do not enjoy Mindy Kaling's work. However. I'm right there with you.

I do think Never Have I Ever is very charming. and if it's channel some of that energy, maybe it could be good. More, what stage is the worst? The bend and snap nail salon scene we discussed. The only thing I have to say in that defense is like, I think not for the three people on this podcast, but the world at large, like bend and snap is its own phenomenon. I get it. Which is why I was in What's Age the best, too.

It's just a really bad scene. It's hard for me to believe it became a phenomenon. I don't get it. It's not what we like about the movie, but a lot of, lot of, it definitely lives on in the public consciousness, like has its own, you know, exists outside of the movie almost. So I think we have to give it some credit. The funny thing about the bend and snap is there's nothing appealing about the bed and snap. It's not hot. It's not sexy. It's not like an eye catcher. It's just a weird concept. It's really weird.

And it seems like they threw it together pretty last minute when they were making the movie that they felt like they needed a scene like that and they just kind of audited it. More woods age the worst. So I think Reese was a legit attractive in 2001. Nobody hits on her this whole movie other than Luke Wilson kind of and then her letcherous law professor. And it's like she loses her potential fiance and there's no suitors for her for a year. Doesn't really add up. I just feel like she's getting asked out at Harvard. There's dates left and right coming at her. Yeah, a lot of like the nerds who are like filling themselves. She's like a goddess in that in that freshman law school. There's no way

she's not getting asked out all the time. They make it seem like she's over on the side with no love prospects except for maybe this ex-boyfriend and it's a little ridiculous. It's a stretch. She's just focused. It's a stretch. Especially in Boston, she's getting asked out all the

time. Horny law professor guy is just a what's age that just would never, if they made this movie in 2021, I don't think this happens. But just in general, you could see that coming for 90 minutes. It's like, We know where this is going, but that was another trope from that era. The pool boy and all the gay stuff is the one that this movie's been dinged on the most.

It's really, really like weirdly stereotypical and just kind of odd. And it was the flaw. By the way, it was the flaw in this movie 20 years ago. It was just kind of like a bad veer to the right for some reason. Yeah. And it goes away in three minutes. It's just not good. That's the one that sticks out for me too.

And it's like on every other topic that they're trying to address, they nail the tone. And this one, as you said, is just kind of so stereotypical and it sticks out. It's out of like 1983. Yeah. It's just weird that in 2001 even where it was like, wow, this is, this is, it just felt easy. Also, it's not funny. Has that age well. Yeah, it wasn't funny.

The guy, the actor wasn't good. Like, all of it's pretty bad. And then the new ending, which you mentioned, they had to refilm the ending. Mm-hmm. it's pretty bad. Like there's a speech and then there's close up and then there's a long close up. And then we get the here's what they're doing now with the graphics of like, I love that.

I know. But it's just like. I love an epilogue. It felt like something that they made nine months after they finished film in the movie. Reese is obviously wearing a wig. And then the movie ends with just this, it just zooms into her face for like 15 seconds with she's got this craze smile. and then it kind of fades to black.

It's just very, very poorly done. It was almost like the director had kind of handed it off to somebody. Yeah. Are you just like, I'm already making another movie. I don't have time to fix this. People are leaving already. It's fine. It's bad.

You honestly could have just ended the movie after the murder trial. Yeah. And just said like. And do the epilogue. Just ended there into that epilogue. Yeah. Elle graduated, valedictorian, blah, blah, blah. They just could have banged it up.

Any other what's age worse for you too? No, I think that was pretty comprehensive. Okay. Casting what ifs, you mentioned the Applegate, Reese. That's a good one. Really good. I think this movie's good with Applegate. I really do. I don't know if it's an A-plus like it is with Reese, but for what it's trying to be. But it's close. I think it's just a question of. Manda doesn't like this. Look at Lou. Look at him in his face. She's furious right now. I was like when Bill suggested moving when Harry met Sally to Los Angeles. And I had to melt down on the podcast. I'm just honestly, like, sinking through it and you watch me just get really uncomfortable. But that's, like, retroactive, right?

Because Reese is so much a part of this movie and also of what it does to Reese Witherspoon's career. I just don't have, like, the same relationship with Christina Applegate that, you know, that I do with Reese Witherspoon. And that's because, in part, Reese Witherspoon was in this movie and Christina Applegate wasn't. But I just, like, can't really imagine it. That's what that face was, Bill. me just trying to understand. If Wesley was here, I would ask him if Reese, Marker corrected Christina Applegate.

I don't think she did. No, I think she just had, she ended up having a different career. But I think a big question about this movie is like, Reese did an amazing job. But the writing is so strong. So like, could, with this incredible Australian director and this wonderful script,

does anyone end up as a star? Yeah. But, yeah, I think, you know, But it's the character is so aligned with Reese, whether or not she's actually getting stopped once a week. Who knows? But like, it's just so defining for her that it's hard to imagine someone else. But I think it's a testament to the writing in large part. Reese almost didn't get this movie because they, Tracy Flick was such a shadow over her career.

The studio heads were having trouble buying it. She's talked about this. She said she was passed over some other post-election roles and had to do several auditions to, win the people over for this part. They just weren't re-believers like us. It worked out for her. Vivian, Chloe Seveny. That would be awesome.

That would be awesome. That's pretty good. That's catching her at a nice point in her career, too. So there you go. Best that guy. Oh, my God. There's so many. AKA the Joey Pants Award.

Who's one of the people in her circle who then the two girls are being mean to him and she pretends they were dating? I don't even know what that guy's name is, but that's a good, that guy. I feel like he's been in other stuff. There's, the one that Amanda and I were discussing before is the guy who's saying Stephen Hawking's, like, stole his idea was the bad boyfriend and bring it on. He plays Aaron and bring it on. That's a big one for me. And then one of her friends is also in the Brady movie as in like, and is in love with Marsha Brady. I loved that movie. So that was a big one for me.

The janitor from Breakfast Club is Jennifer Coolidge's ex-boyfriend in the trailer, like that guy. Amazing. And then this one's really for the five other people who watched all of the 902 and 0 seasons. But Valerie's Letcherous Stepdad is the UPS guy in this movie. Yes. Yeah. Really? Oh, yeah.

Wow. I didn't know the UPS guy had that kind of history. Yeah. So that's why I'm giving him the award because I just always knew him as Valer's Lesterous stepdad. That's a great one. It's really good. Twice we've used the word letcherous in this podcast. The Vincent Hanna, give me all you got.

a word for overacting. A lot of candidates here. I feel like Selma Blair. I just never got Selma Blair. I never understood it. I feel like she's the same in every movie. And there's some, I'm trying to be villain moments from here that I just wasn't that impressed with.

Do you think it's acceptable that Ms. Woods is not prepared? No, I don't. Would you support my decision to ask her to, leave class and to return only when she is prepared? Absolutely. She would be my nominee. Who do you have? I think that that's a good one.

This one was hard for me because everyone's overacting. Like it's the point of the movie. Right. I don't know, Juliet, who do you have? Well, I think there's a lot of character actors to discuss here. Oh, I almost want to say Jennifer Coolidge. It's just sort of like, it's really defining for her as well, but it's sort of, you of like some of the way she delivers the lines is like a little bit much.

I don't know. There's a lot of ticks and. Yeah. But she's basically, she's the same. This is the great Jennifer Coolidge run of Best and Show in American Pie. And then this movie where she's just crushes three parts, basically. Yeah. It works the best and best in show for sure.

Yeah. Best in show, she's amazing. I mean, that's a perfect movie. But I, for her, that just like to suck out a little bit for me. Also because she's part of the bend and snap situation. so much. It's sort of, it's a cloud over her performance. But I think the Selma Blair thing is interesting, Bill, just because I'm just sort of like Selma Blair is like frequently on TMZ. Like, now it's because she has a mess, right? But like, I'm just sort of like, why is this? What is she

most famous for? Cruel Intentions, being married to a Zappa, like, because she's on the CW. Selma Blair just sort of is famous and I don't know why. And I think that sort of contributes to what you're saying. Yeah, pretty much. That's also how I feel. What if we just gave this to the bend and snap scene. Yeah. Like, are we allowed to do that to everyone who I actually had the Bend and Snap scene for the Jed Nelson Award for actor who seems like they're in a different movie.

I think that scene is in a different movie. Right. Okay. Because I couldn't think of an actual actor that felt like they were in different movie. Although I guess the pool boy feels like he's in, I don't know, some saved by the Bell episode of 1989 or something. It's bizarre. But for a scene, I think that could go.

Dian Waiters is a tough one. like Coolidge is the heavy favorite. Really good Bruiser the dog performance. You know, I mentioned that. And I think he has to be in the mix here for, he's used properly every time for comedic effect. And he's just kind of, he's not in it too much. I just enjoy all the bruiser.

I like the fact that his name's Bruiser. Gemini Vegetarians. Counterpoint. I want to go with Bruiser being part of what's age the worst. I should have mentioned it before. Chihuahuas are very turn of the century. Oh, Chihuahuas. I like it.

That's a good one. I'm just like, okay, Taco Bell, we get it. I accept that. So, I don't know. We'll revisit Bruiser in Apex Mountain. What do you have for Deion Waders? I'd like to nominate Luke Wilson for Deon Waiters. As previously discussed, he has absolutely nothing to do in this movie.

Literally no character, nothing at all. And he's very charming. And at the end, I'm happy when they end up together. Wow. I appreciate that he shows up. I'm going Allie Larder. awesome Allie Larder performance and you know coming off of

varsity blues it's like how do you move on from the whipped cream bikini but here we are she's awesome in this movie the liposuction reveal was great she's a great great chemistry with Reese she's in the movie with like a very short period of time but she leaves a big mark I love this alley larder performance

huh liposuction oh god I know I'm a fraud it's not like normal women can have this ass if my fans knew that I bought it I would lose everything. I've already lost my husband.

I'd rather go to jail than lose my reputation. Every single outfit that she wears during the trial is incredible. I'd really forgotten the attention to detail in the jewelry and the ridiculous suits. Allie Larder personifies, like, the years 1997 to 2003 for me more than any other actress. Like, I don't know. I just feel like this is a pitch-perfect Larder. I loved it, and she crushed it for me. I have a lot of larder stock from way back when

then Heroes came out and was able to cash in make a lot of money on it. But yeah, she, to me is like the, for that era, what Kelly Preston was in the 80s of like,

why aren't you a bigger star? Yeah. Why can't you get the right part? What's going on here? Because I actually think she's a good actress. Yeah. She's really pretty. And it's just like sometimes it just doesn't happen for people.

But I have Coolidge just because I think in the moment she became a big, piece of the story about this movie. It was like Jennifer Cool, she does it again. She's great. Love her so much, all that stuff. Uh, recasting couch. So I have two this time. Okay. Two big ones. And we haven't talked about one of them. Well, Selma Blair we talked about. Just give me Jennifer Garner in that spot. I don't know if Aalius has started yet. She's not really famous yet. She hasn't dated Affleck yet, but she's old enough that she could have been that spot. And I always thought she should have played more villains. I always thought she went to,

like, Aalias tapped into like there's a darker side to her and some of her stuff. And I think her as the villain, I think would have been good. I don't think Selma Blair is a very good actress. So I just think in general, they could have done better. But I thought that would have been a good one. But this is the big one. So what's first before I recast Warner? Yes, I'd want to recast Warner as well. So that guy is played by Matthew Davis, who has this movie. And then he's in Blue Crush, where He's actually good. He's really good in Blue Crush.

He's also so hot in Blue Crush. And he is not hot at all in this movie. And it's like he transforms from being like loser law school guy to like hot Tom Brady. I'm just like what is. And he's his chemistry. He's a football QB. Yeah. Yeah.

It's amazing. So my wife and daughter both love Blue Crush and they love him in Blue Crush. And I told Zoe it was the same guy in this movie. And she like couldn't believe it. I know. She was like, how is that possible? It's like a personality. transplant. It's like an aura

transplant. I don't get it. He's so much better in Blue Crush. So you, do you like Blue Crush Amanda? Of course. So that should, I've had that on the rewatchable say for a while, but I felt like I was the only one who loved that movie. That's a huge movie in the

Cittitts House. Let's go. I really like that movie. Me too. All right, so here's who I have for the recasting. Ryan Felipe. Oh, interesting. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we cross the beams. We bring in the real husband. Who would have been better as the Smarmy kind of looking down on Reese? And then we could have had some real life shit in there. And I don't know. I think that would have been really good. You just want them to break up. You just wanted to precipitate the breakup faster.

He would have been great in that role, though. Would he, like, can he play someone named Warner, whatever, the third? Yes. I don't know. He's not tall enough, honestly. He's good at playing rich guys. He did it and Igby goes down, too. And that's true.

I like when he plays rich guys. It's really important, but there's just something about, I don't know, you need actually someone a little like stoic and wooden and not. So like a Josh Dumas? Yeah, that's a good one. They could have been good. I don't know. Like also maybe like a square head and jaw a little bit more, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was thinking too. I was just doing like a mental inventory of all the WB stars. But I feel like Josh Dumel is a really good. one for this role. Can I give you one more recasting couch? Yes.

On top of this, another part, the Luke Wilson part. What if it's Juliet's hero, Patrick Dempsey, in there? Oh, interesting. I like that. I like that a lot. That's before Sweet Home Alabama and before Gray's, right? But obviously, after Can't Buy Me Love. Yeah, I guess then you lose them in Sweet Home Alabama, so you can't do that.

All right. I wouldn't have guessed that Patrick Dempsey would be the ultimate good guy for his acting career. But that's kind of what he's turned into. It's a tough movie for Matthew Davis. It's like, are you a dick? Are you not a dick? Or like, what are my feelings supposed to be about you?

Tell me. The most confusing part is that he's not hot because we know that he can be hot for Blue Crush. In Blue Crush. Right. But like for something about the sort of the waspiness they tried to just have him project is just so unappealing. There's just nothing I'm really into about that character. Have Fast Internet Research. research

the character by studying sorority girls in their campuses and did like some real recon and went to their spots and stuff like that because that's how she rolls. Childstar.

She doesn't know what's like to go to college. How many hairstyles do you think she's sported in the movie, Amanda? 32. Juliet? I was going to go with 12.

40. Wow. Yeah. I'm way off. Sure or false in her contract Reese had it that she was allowed to keep all of her costumes from the filming.

True. That one's true. I know that because she was on that organization show on Netflix last year and part of her closet was like the costumes that she had from Legally Blonde. Tough one. You're not breaking those out again.

USC and Stanford refused to allow the producers to use their college names. Then they wanted to sit the movie at University of Chicago and the school administrators declined because of the sexually-hurted. harassing professor. They were like, cool, we're not going to be in this. They're like, we have those already. We don't need to have a movie. Yeah. So they do Harvard. Then you mentioned the final scene where they have like a victory kiss and it fast forwards and she's a year later. She

starts the blonde legal defense club at law school and audiences are like, this sucks. So they did a new one. They filmed it in London. Reese was there filming the importance of being earnest and both her and Luke Wilson had to have wigs because he was filming some Wes Anderson movie and had a crew cut. Must have been Tannenbaum at the time. So there you go. The Chihuahua.

Chihuahua, I don't know if I said Chihuahua. Chihuahua, who played bruiser was named Mooney. She's not with us anymore. Sorry. He died in 2016 at the age of 18. Great run for Mooney. Okay.

Apex Mountain. Reese, though, because she won't an Oscar. It's got to be the Oscar. Matthew Davis, definitely not. It's Blue Crush. Blue Crush. Blue Crush for sure. IBM ThinkPad's. Did it ever get better for IBM ThinkPad?

There's two different law school scenes where everyone in class has an IBM ThinkPad. So many of them. A lot of them. I will say, I felt like the orange MacBook, the original MacBook really shined, though. So I don't know. I just feel like it stole its thunder. Was that the first time you ever saw a MacBook in anything? Andy had one on Dawson's Creek.

in season three, so that was before. The Selma, Blair, Reese Witherspoon together in a movie combo, I feel like it really peaked here and then we never got them in a movie together again because Reese is like, oh, wait, you're not a very good actress. Luke Wilson? They remain good friends, I believe. Oh, Luke Wilson? No, this is not his, no.

I mean, I love Luke Wilson, but. What is Luke Wilson? Is it old school? Yeah. Ten and Bounds is in there, too. I would have said ten and bounds, but I think old school, probably. Harvard, no. Jennifer Coolidge. What is Harvard's movie Apex Mountain?

Is it Goodwill Hunting? That's an important one. But Skylar goes to Harvard. No, I would say it's social network, isn't it? Oh, right. Yeah, Skyla. They do a lot of good social network stuff. Jennifer Coolidge, I think it was American Pie.

Pink-scented resumes, I think this was the Apex Mountain. Absolutely. Gives a little something extra. Also, I just want to say, everyone at home watching this movie, just a reminder, your resume is supposed to be one page. It's just like, I'll had it. Somehow, here in 2021, resumes are like ballooned to like two or three pages. Just because it's electronic doesn't mean it should be more than one page. So keep that of mind, people. Juliet looks at resumes.

Listen to her, people. All the time. Here's a question, though. What does this resume smell like? They don't specify in the movie. I've spent a lot of time wondering about that. Probably perfume, right? I was in saying baby powder.

What kind of perfume? Like, is it citrus? Is it floral? Is it woodsy? It's definitely lavender. You know, it's like pink floral. Okay. All right.

Allie Larder, no. I think it's probably Heroes. Heroes was one of the last big shows we've ever had. Absolutely not. It's a whipped cream bikini for Ali Larder. Yeah, come on. Versity Blues? Come on, Bill.

I thought that was for me, but no, Heroes was a phenomenon. I know, but Mila Man, she's a major star of Atta Heroes. That was a one season flame out. I mean, it went on for way too long. And I would say Hayden Panetteer and Milo Ventimilia overshadowed everyone else. Yeah. Chihuahuas? No.

Taco Bell commercials. But wasn't Taco Bell? Wasn't it taken off right around the same time? There's like a Chihuahua Renaissance. Any other Apex Mountains? The Australian director. Yeah, Australian director. Cukovic?

Yeah. Vukatech. We'll take one more break. Then we're going to pick some nits and I have a lot. Okay, pick a nits. I mentioned, I don't know how L isn't getting more dates first year. in law school. It's a flaw. Elle getting a 179

on her Lsats just seems high. That's like an amazing score. Yeah. It's like you have to be really, really, really smart. And the movie doesn't seem to totally establish what her intelligence, like, she's clearly smart, but I don't know if she was

179 smart. They couldn't they just said she got 171? She got like one over? I think also like the movie is a little confused about if Elle knows that she's smart. Because in that very first shopping scene when she's like, you know, talking about the fabric or whatever, you're like, oh, she's sharp

and she knows stuff. But then it goes to like, oh, she's a dits. She just wants to get married. So I feel like the movie gets a little bit confused about if Elle knows her worth. Perhaps the movie just has a really evolved stance on standardized testing, which is that it's gameable, okay? That should have been at what's age the best.

They just understand that if you just have enough money and you memorize enough, you can get that 179 too. Now they're picking it. Warner absolutely knows that Elle got into Harvard Law School. He's not blindsided by this on the first day of school. They go to the same college. They have all the same friends.

He just has no idea she got into Harvard Law for six months. I mean, he is really dumb. That's one of the things that they want to communicate to us is that he is not aware of what's going on. He got waitlisted. His dad had to make a call. The diversity of this movie, just as... of picking it. Like, they're at Harvard.

I'm positive. Harvard is a lot more diverse than the movie. This movie looks like Melrose Place, the Harvard Lawscience. It's just literally everybody's white. I thought that was weird. The murder confession came really fast from Linda Cardalini and her giant perm, who we, unfortunately, I didn't talk about Linda at all so far. I did not realize until this watch that was a tough haircut for her.

Yeah, I don't think anyone's looking good in that haircut, but all of a sudden she's just confessing. The name Chutney, I mean, that's just not fair. I mean, it's funny. I love chutney as a food. I just as a name for this character. I don't think so. Amanda, what did you think about the big, like,

did you understand what a perm was the first time you saw in this movie and why that was so revealing? I did not. I didn't really, but only because I am not a person who's ever had a perm. So I appreciate how Elle's reveal explains the science of the perm. I didn't know what was coming. But you would think that someone who's had, what, 30 perms in their life would realize where Elle is, like, navigating her much sooner than she does. Like, I don't think that in real life someone would admit to just washing their hair after having a perm. I think the person having the perm would know.

That was the most mercitomeish, that whole sequence of, yeah. This is a legitimate picking it. the video essay and the Harvard Law application was actually not possible. Okay. They only had written stuff when you applied to Harvard Law School. Okay, sure. So that was a stretch. Also, Woods had no authority to act as a lawyer under law in Massachusetts.

It's called unauthorized practice of law. It carries a fine and imprisonment that can last up to six months. Wait, my God. I read that the fine is like a hundred bucks. It's a hundred bucks. Worth it. It's totally worth it. Allie Larder can afford the hundred bucks.

It's no big deal. Imprisonment would suck. Yeah. And then you're not allowed to question a witness either if you're not an actual lawyer who's passed the bar. So they stretch that one too. The Allie Larder getting liposection. What is she like 25 in this movie?

That was a weird one to me. I felt like she was probably like 28 just because she's a few years older than Al, who we know is 22 or 23. Yeah, it was confusing. Although, I don't know, man. L.A. people start the plastic surgery really early. I appreciate the very light, you know, this body image, whatever. Yeah, that was funny.

It's good. It's funny. Any other pickinets? Well, I have some questions about how a 28-year-old L.A. fitness instructor who gets liposuction winds up married to at least a 60-something like Boston rich person. Yeah. How does she end up in Boston? Where are those two circles interacting?

A well-endowed 60-plus person. Exactly. Yes. I think it's the location more than anything. We certainly would believe a 28-year-old and a 6-year-old in Malibu. But how do they meet and why do they end up in Boston? That's the big question. I mean, maybe he was ban her in L.A.

and then they moved back. I don't know, Bill. I feel like this is something you could answer for us. I think they could have made him like the Celtics owner or something. They could have. Okay. And maybe she was like a dancer on the team. Yeah, or Bob Kraft.

She was a dancer on the team or they could have been, they could have gone one extra element with it to make it out up. Okay. could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show? My answer would be, don't give them any ideas because they've taken this IP and done everything they can with it already. They made a musical.

I'm pretty sure they would do it as a Netflix show. With that said, I asked my daughter if she would watch that show and she said yes. Well, they should have Reese play L at her current age and she runs a law firm and it's like a legal procedural show with case of the week, and it's great. I'm watching that.

Oh, so you're saying it's like the good wife. Yeah, that's the good wife. But like good wife blonde. That's funny. Yeah. So you wouldn't. That's a good show. You wouldn't recast it as like a 23 year old, whatever?

You wouldn't just do it, run it back? No. I would make it like she now is really successful and she's like a mentor and you discover some new young talent. And I think that's a good show. Well, of course you do. Case in the week. Give me a, always wins with me. Doesn't matter what the case is.

Legal and medical dramas, you're in every time. Of course. 100% of the time, I will give you a shot. What was that thinking? Asking, whether you thought that should be remade. Probably in answerable questions. I only have one. Did Bruiser invent dog television?

Because there are dogs, like, DirecTV actually has a channel that you can put on when you leave the house that just has dogs and dogs barking and dogs running in parks that it's supposedly calming for other dogs. I feel like Bruiser invented this. Interesting.

Call it Bruiser TV. Amanda's like flummox by this. No, I just, I was, again, I'm learning things. You're teaching me on the podcast. I had no idea that there was a direct TV channel where just like dogs run around and bark at each other. It's channel 562. Do your dogs like it?

I think Murph, our psychotic nine-month-old pain of our existence. It seems to calm them down a little bit. Okay. Yeah. Do you think he'd like bruiser? No, I think he would He would probably accidentally fall on bruiser and crush him

Okay. Be his move, yeah. All right, wow. Yeah, he doesn't like little dogs that much. Okay. I have no other in answerable questions last year, unless... No, it really ties things up nicely. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie?

Oh, wow. Um, I think that I would want the MacBook, the orange one, because it's so funny. That was my answer as well. It felt like a, like a, like a, a relic almost. Yeah, absolutely. I bet you could sell that for a lot. Why wouldn't they remake those as like the 20th anniversary, legally blonde MacBook? That's a funny idea. Or like the iPads could look like that. Like there's something like

that or get like a case for your iPad to make it look like that. I think that would be my top choice. She has some really good handbags that I also would like to to wade through. Yeah. What do you got, Amanda? I was thinking about this suit that Zoe identified all of the wardrobe from the internship phase. I mean, I don't have any way. to wear it in my life, but it's pretty nice. I'm also just going to point out that her car is pretty nice. It's a good one. It would be nice to drive that around.

Yeah. Reese wins the movie. We don't need to. Who wins the movie? Obviously. Doesn't really need to be debated. And then she ends up going on and doing a lot of other great stuff. Legally blonde.

So there's been a whole nostalgia. We had this on the books for a little while at least. There's been a whole nostalgia run with this. and we've seen how many pieces of code? The narrative times piece, when was that one? That was a couple of days ago. It was over the weekend, yeah. There's been a lot of, like, interesting pieces written.

Some of them are a little too serious for my liking, but I think just in general, I didn't realize how impactful this movie was, like that it's such like a touchstone for so many people. But then when I rewatched it, I was like, now I realize why, because it's awesome. This is a great movie, like, almost, the only scene that I think is, like, not necessary. It was, like, the five white guys,

like for their jaws agape being like, wow, and then like letting her in. That was the only scene where I was like, I didn't need this. But everything else is like is a really tight hour 40. Every scene works. Everyone is pretty good. It's a great movie. Yeah. I was really surprised by the shelf life when I went back and rewatched.

And to Juliet's point, it makes sense that so many people like it because it has aged very well. And I also hadn't realized how many times I had watched it, even though I hadn't seen it, you know, in 15 years, but it's kind of sneaky. It is definitely a reference point for a lot of people, and it's kind of warmed its way into our brains. Because I think it's just, it's really effective, and it has held up really well. Legally blonde, 20th the anniversary, and it also hits the comes out, DVDs are a thing at that point.

It's on the cable. It's on that whole run. It's on all the movie channels. Then it's on the T&T Comedy Central has that run. then it hits the streaming probably 10, 11 years later, and it has that run, and it's just not going to go away anytime soon. Amanda, Juliet, great to see you, as always. Great to see you, Bill. Thanks for having us. Thanks, Bell. That's it for the rewatchables. We'll be back next week. Thanks to our producer, Craig Horlebeck,

and I'll see you on this feed in the week.