The Rewatchables - ‘Proof of Life’ With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: January 29, 2019

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan head down to the South American jungle to rewatch the 2000 action thriller ‘Proof of Life,’ starring Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, and David Morse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up guys? It's Liz Kelly and welcome to The Ringer Podcast Network. Before you get to the show, make sure you check out The Ringer.com for our extensive NFL coverage leading up to the Super Bowl. We also just published our 2019 NFL draft guide where you can find all things draft related leading up to the first round on April 25th. It includes prospect rankings, scouting reports, mock drafts, and much more. We'll be updating it regularly with new analysis that takes all the latest developments into account. Once again, you can check that out on the ringer.com. Who's the man? You are. Stuff for Legends.

Proof for Life. Coming up next. People take hostages all over the world. Sometimes it's purely terror. Other times are simply about money. We wait for a contact, then make a demand. We start negotiating.

This is what we do. We do it the world over, and we're very good at it. You pull this off, suddenly it's a fairy tale ending. It doesn't work that way, and you know it. All right, Bill Simpson is here.

Chris Ryan is here. We started the rewatchables. We didn't even know it was called the Relatchables. We decided the first year of the ringer, well before we even had a website. December 2015, I was gone from Grantland, I would say, seven, eight months. We decided to work together again. We were planning the new site. We had started my podcast.

We had started the watch. That was basically the Ringer podcast network heading into the holidays 2015. And you and I, we kept going into these website planning meetings, and we would just do quotes from heat. And then finally somebody said you should just do a whole podcast about Heat. Yeah, I think we said that. Actually, I think I said that to you. So we did Heat.

We did a whole podcast about how much we loved Heat, which basically became the rewatchers. So now we've done like 55 of these. People seem to like it. Every once in a while, we got to do one for us. Yeah. This is like... It's 15 for them, one for us.

That's right. That's right. And I think that this may not be the highest rated rewatchables we've ever not. But for me, this is like, we're going to talk about Proe of Life, the 2000 thriller set in South America,

starring Russell Crow and Meg Ryan. And it's like the Velvet Underground. It's like they didn't sell a lot of records, but everybody who heard them started their own band. Not a lot of people are going to listen to Proof of Life, but everybody who does is going to want to start their own Proof of Life podcast.

You think it'll just start them up? Yeah. My goal for this podcast is even if you've never seen Proof of Life or you've only seen it once, we're going to make it fun for you anyway. Because we have Russell Crow stuff to talk about. We have one of the most famous romances that actually bled into the real movie that has ever happened. Yeah.

Certainly for this century. There's a Russell Crow, Meg Ryan, career arc, Apex, Conversation to Have, and most important to me and Chris, the whole Kidnap Ransom movie genre. Yes, which is really, really central to our origin myth. And there's one other piece that we won't mention yet. But you and I both love ransom and kidnap movies. why? Because it's extreme drama. It puts so many characters in such extreme situations and it makes them react in ways that they wouldn't in any other kind of scenario. So you've got parental anxiety or husband-wife anxiety and then you've got these people who are not used to action and not used to

being around guns and money getting treated. And then there's always like three or four twists, but we're a vowed man on fire fans. Yeah. We love ransom, high and low. Like there's just, you know, so many. I have, so I separated into ransom movies and kidnapping movies. Okay. Ransom movies where you get kidnapped, but you get kidnapped for a purpose. I would say the Mount Rushmore is made on fire, proof of life, ransom, and Fargo. Yeah, that's a great call. If I missed one, I can't think of it. Yeah. Just for the actual. I think that's, that's Rushmore for sure. Here's the price. Are you going to pay this or not? We can go on all the dynamics says, then there's kidnapping movies. So like taken.

Misery. Pain and Gain. Gone baby, gone. Pain and Gain. Pain and Gain. Pain and Gain. Kidnapping movie. Gone, baby, gone. Hardcore.

Kidnap with Hallie Berry. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So those are different. Would you put Silence of the Lambs in the kidnapping genre? There's a whiff of it. Yeah, you can grandfather it in. It's a cousin.

Yeah. It's a cousin. The senator's daughter. Yeah. And I even, I like kidnapping stuff so much that I even watched. There was an NBC show. with Jeremy Sisto. Timothy Hutton.

Yeah. Yeah. Which I can't remember the name of it, but I want to say it was called like kidnapping or taken. It had some one of those type of titles. And Sisto was the guy they hired to see what happened. And it's usually, if it's done correctly, there's at least two, three really good twists.

Yeah. Man on Fire, which is the other, to me, man out fire and proof of life for the two best ones. Yeah. And I think that it's primarily because both of those movies have, they're set, you know, a man of fire set in Mexico, and proof of life is set in a fictional

South American country, but they both have that ex-military layer of like jargon and also that confusion of like, these are guys who used to be special forces who have now been hired by insurance companies or whoever else to be security or K&R in the case of Proof-Life.

And you just get such as like a crazy deep, you know, shadow world out of that. And there's, you have, I love movies where I have to put myself in this situation. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So in proof of life, Meg Ryan's husband gets taken, played by David Morris.

The kidnappers are demanding a price. And then it's like, oh, could you cobb together $6.50? And Meg Ryan and her sister-in-law played by Pamela Reed are like, can you do $6.50 after mortgage. Yeah, yeah. There's some point where you just kind of have to look at each other and go, eh, I'll remarry. Well, especially if you've got Russell Crow batting his baby blues at you. Yeah, let's let him go. Well, that's the great part of us.

Let's play a hardball. Like, there is a certain number where they don't have the money. Literally. They just don't have it. Yeah. And I love that part of this movie where Janice has to go back to Denver to put the money together. Like, she's building it. Because, like, now you get this sense that you'd just be like click, click, click, and call your financial advisor. I mean, to say nothing of, like, how much money you'd be able to get.

But it just seems so much easier. But back then, you used to hear more. or I got to move some things around to make this work. And when you're buying a car, he was like, well, I got to move some things around if I'm going to buy this car. But now it's not like that. Back then, you had to go back to Denver. South America, great location.

South America, Mexico. There's something about because there's been a couple kidnapping movies and then you read the stories. Like it does feel much more realistic for some reason. Yeah. But the scene when he gets kidnapped in this movie, it feels realistic. It's like there's a parade.

he's got to go, he's got to take a different route and all of a sudden he's in... Yeah, so this movie is set in the fictional country of Takala, right? Yeah, I actually, I wanted a vacation there but that's how I found out it was fictional. Right, but they do a really good job of making, giving you a sense of

place, like when David Morris's character, Peter gets kidnapped, he can see this, like, where he was supposed to be right off, it's like the last thing he sees before they put him in the truck. So you definitely have like this sense of how precarious life is there, yeah.

Yeah, and like these roads where if you take a right, you go flying off the cliff and all this stuff. So good scene for a thing. This actually was directed by Taylor Hackford, who did Blood in Blood and Blood Out, Chase Serrano's favorite movie, Officer and a Gentleman, has had some successful ones, has had some less successful ones, written by Tony Gilroy. Yeah, who... Want to talk about that a lot. Yeah, who is one of the best news screenwriters the last 25, 30 years, inspired by a Vanity Fair magazine article called Adventures of the Ransom Trade and a book called The Long March to Freedom. It came out. It did not do that well. Yeah. 10 million opening weekend. International box office of 62 million. Not great.

5.3 Rotten Tomatoes. Mixed reviews. Roger Ebert said, I was interested all through the movie. Interested but not riveted. I cared, but not quite enough. That's another loss for Roger Ebert. He's having a really terrible 2019. So do you think that... I'm trying to put myself back in 2000. I can't remember seeing this in theaters per se, but I remember caring a lot about it.

Because of the relationship, I remember of being like on the tabloids. I think I was in New York right around then and it was like on the post... In the New York Post that they had gotten together on this movie. And... Early internet, not pre-internet,

but still the internet, this happens now. It's a much bigger deal. Yeah, but it's so strange to go back and why. watch it now because it, whatever was wrong what people thought was wrong with it back in 2000, it's like everything that could possibly be right with a movie now. Yeah. And it's everything that movies don't do now where it's like, oh, this, this couple's going to have like a 10-minute

fight so that it completely explains all the behavior afterwards. You know what I mean? Like, you get these psychological insights into people and they really take their time with it, but it doesn't feel like a two-hour and 15-minute movie. I mean, after a while, I could probably do with like 8 to 10% less David Morse foot injuries. But like that's pretty much only thing I would cut out of this thing. That's always a good kidnapping subplot. Right. And there's something wrong physically with the person.

Yeah. Like it's like a hip or cuts on the feet or something's got something's gone wrong physically. Something's infected. Yeah. Something's infected. Like Castaway has that too where he's like he's got the tooth issue. Yeah. It's always put some sort of human eye to it.

I had only just recovered as a young man from just finally getting over Bruce Willis his feet and diehard. Oh, yeah, that's another good one. This is tough for me to watch. Yeah. So that romance ruined the movie. You think so? It ruined the success of it.

Yeah. And we'll talk about that in a second. But Meg Ryan was paid $15 million. Crow is paid $7.5. So the rare case of the woman getting twice as much as the man. Now, really interesting point in both of their careers. So Meg Ryan, her 10-year run, 89 to 98, When Harry Met Sally is 89.

Now you go through. She becomes basically the rom-com queen is in a bunch of good stuff. Did really good work and courage under fire. Yeah. Which was an excellent movie. I also liked her a lot in flesh and bone. Yeah.

You got mail as 1998. This movie is 2000. So it's at the tail end. It's really hard, I think, as a lead actress to kind of keep that lead because there's always that next one. You're almost like a running back. They're always going to bounce you for the next young running back.

It's like an unintentional passing of the torch. Yeah. Right here. Ryan and Crow. Not necessarily the same kinds of movies, obviously, and not even like the same levels of success. But in terms of like 10-year runs, it's literally like he takes our life force in this movie

and then goes on to have like one of the best eight-year runs that we've seen in a long time. So he's coming in 97-03. And he had been one of those guys. He was kind of the hot next guy. Best guy in a bad movie. For years. I remember when he was in virtuosity.

Yep. And it was like, this is, Russell and Denzel, this is going to be a thing. And he does LA Confidential. So that's when it starts. 9703, LA Confidential. Mystery Alaska, which is a really flawed movie, he's really good in it.

Yeah. And I actually give that movie a belated thumbs up because I think there's a lot of good stuff going on in there. Our friend Colmini, he ruins that one too from Conair. We've made fun of him before. So Mr. Alaska, then the insider. He does the gain weight thing.

When do we do an insider? Maybe this year. Yeah. Great in that. Gaines the weight. Gladiator. That's when he blows up. He becomes... Is he the biggest star in the world after Gladiator?

I think he takes over the Mel Gibson-Harrison Ford spot. Yes, fair. Because Leo is three years after Titanic, probably the most famous. Yeah, so you got the Harrison Ford. Who was the other one you said? Mel Gibson. That role... So he takes the Gibson spot.

Yeah. Because I think 10 years earlier, proof of life is a... Mel Gibson movie. Harrison Ford and Gibson were both up for this. Yeah. Yeah. So he goes, LA Confidential Mystery Alaska, The Insider, Gladiator, Proof of Life, a Beautiful Mind. And then he just basically runs the Oscars.

Master and Commander. Which I love. So he does, he makes seven movies, five of which were nominated for Best Picture, and Gladiator actually won. So I read this online. It must be true. Really hard to do that. the last person who had done that before him

was William Hurt who had five and six years now made it for Best Picture but that's just a high Hollinger, the Crow P.R. is off the charts. But then after that, follows it up with

Cinderella Man, a good year, 310 to Yuma, American gangster body of lies, state of play. None of which got there. You like 310 to Yuma more than I did. I like 310 to Yuma. I also, I still like American

gangster. And I think Body of Lies is really underrated. But this feels a lot like the second half of a 10-year contract you give to a 28-year-old baseball player. Yeah. You know what I mean? Where he's like, whoa, he's crushing it with everything we, every penny was worth it.

And then you're like, uh, 22 homers and hamstring injury every year. You're losing in the first round each year. Yeah. But he's working with, he gets to work with Ron Howard. He gets to do like his weird wine movie. He gets to work with Denzel. He gets to work with Leo. He does Ben Affleck.

So he's. They're all movies that made sense. And when I heard of them, I thought all of them were going to do well. Oh, yeah. And none of them really hammered home. Still, 97-09. Incredible run. It got me thinking, like, I like what you said about Gibson.

Who was the one? Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford. So who took the torch from Russell Crow in, like, the late 2000s? So is this, this is, to play into my idea of, like, you know, you see these people and they get, they do a movie together. And then that one person takes it from another person. Yeah. So you could kind of make the argument that Meg Ryan is a huge star.

Russell Crow does proof of life. He's also on Gladiator that year. So it's not quite right. And he's already been in that. It's almost like it follows. It's the IMD. It follows. And then he bounces from that.

Yeah. And then that Leo really takes it from him in Body of Lies. Because in Body of Lies, he inexplicably goes back to his insider weight. And he's kind of this guy who's just like on his cell phone. And he's like on a Bluetooth speaker. I don't know if it was inexplicably. I think he might have just gained the way. Yeah.

But like. And then Leo, Leo becomes kind of like, I mean, he's already a really bankable Oscar guy. I don't feel like it's Leo because two years before in 06 was the departed and Blood Diamond. That's true. So he'd kind of taken it by that point. But I feel like Leo's in his own category. There's this other category of like, and this is why Mel Gibson and Russell Crow, it's funny, they're both, they're both Australian, right? Is Mel Gibson was Australian?

They were both Australian. Yeah. Russell Crow was Australian or New Zealand? Yeah. Yeah. Those guys that, and this is why I think proof of life, as crazy as sounds, is probably the best Russell Crow part. I don't think it's his best part. But I think it's the part that uses the most pieces of Russell Crow because it's like, cool guy.

I'd want to hang out with him. Way better hang than Maximus. Way better than Maximus. Like the scenes with Caruso and like, oh, here's our team. Like it just feels like he's a guy's guy. You can see him as the dad who's kind of bummed out. at one scene when you go see his kid with the rugby. I'm the dad. I mean well, but the job overwhelms me sometimes.

Then it's like, it's a good-looking guy. You don't want to leave him alone with your wife when you've been kidnapped. He's going to pull that off. But also like a dutiful guy where it's like, you're married. I'm not going to steal you from your kidnapped husband. Like there's some sense of honor. He juggled all of these things, and I think it's really hard for an actor to do that. And that's why I like the Mel Gibson call you made.

Because I think Mel Gibson was like that until he fucking lost his barbels. Yeah. But was Mel Gibson was this guy, like the lethal weapon character is like, great guy. I'm in on that guy. He's fucking crazy.

But then he could play somebody else a different thing. And it's really hard. Like, I think Affleck has tried to be the Russell Crow type forever, but just could never put all the pieces of the meal together. Yeah. No, I think the Mel Gibson call is really right.

Because he brings a degree of authenticity and wild-eyed, you know, real, like, instability almost to that lethal weapon part. Yeah. And there's a degree of, like, warmth. To be able to juggle, like, being warm and then also being dangerous is really tough. And that's what Crow does in proof of life. This movie made me Miss Russell Crow. Oh, yeah.

It's like how I'll watch some vintage Tim Duncan from 03 of like, oh, man, I fucking miss watching Tim Duncan. Yeah. It's a good analogy. It's a good, like, it's like quiet. It's like one of those great basketball players. You see the old YouTube clip. like, oh, man, Jason Kidd run

in the fast break. You're like, ah, it's the best, man, Jason Kidd on the fast break. Also, like, him as like a movie star and not like, oh, I'm really going to go for this, like, the basically like the Oscar bait, this is it. This and Gladiator, like, my wife and I were watching this last night, and she

was like, Russell Crowe's like, really attractive. Fucking, yeah, handsome dude. And she had never really, like, all she knows him from is the sort of more bloated stuff and like, gladiator. And she was like, God. But that's the thing. It's like, you have the guy that guys would want to hang out with and girls would want to make out with is pretty much the hardest thing to pull off as an actor.

And even somebody like Leo, like we couldn't imagine hanging out with Leo. No. I feel like Russell Crowe would do a podcast. Like, all right, mate, we're going to go have a beer. What do you drink around here at the ring? He'd bring his own bar. He'd probably would. Yeah.

Like he had, when he was at the height of his fame, he also started that weird music band. Yeah, like 40 odd grunts of whatever like that. Yeah, and they'd play in Australia. and they would sell out like 15,000, 20,000 thing arena. So I just, he was a unique dude. So anyway, they fall in love. Word gets out.

So she's married to Dennis Quaid, who is at that point still really famous. This has happened a couple times in history, famously. 1963, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Cleopatra. They fall in love. All the, whatever, us weeklies and stuff of that era, just going nuts about it. And then people feel like it actually hurt the movie.

1962, Allie McGraw, Steve McQueen. The getaway, right? Steve McQueen steals it from Rabbit Evans. She's the best pair of legs I ever had. And that actually helped the movie. Yeah. We'll give you like an air of romance that's not really there. Yeah.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which is after this, Brad paid Angelina Jolie. That's the peak. Did it, who knows? So it could go either way. And in this case, definitely hurt the movie. Taylor Hackford gave an interview after, which I found. I dug up where he said, he had a press conference, and they asked him about, did the affair really help your film?

And he said, no, it actually heard it. And Russell Crow was so mad he never talked to him again. So how did it hurt it? Because people were like, we feel bad for Dennis Quaid, so we're not rooting for this couple? Yeah, I think what happened was Meg Ryan was America's sweetheart for the entire 1990s. Yeah.

And then all of a sudden, she's basically dumping her older husband for handsome as hell Russell Crow. Yeah, and I guess also the problem, I guess it plays into who she plays in this movie versus like it's not a Meg Ryan part. But that's what's so great about this movie. I know. I know.

The plot is paralleling the real life. And I do feel like there are real sparks where you can kind of see where something's changing. Oh, yeah. But it bleeds into the movie in all the right ways, which is what makes it so. Cool. It's such a complicated love triangle.

Yeah. Because when you add in the kidnapping part, there's so much guilt in there because they have so much guilt even for just like interacting. Yeah. And then he's like, there's that point where they basically think that David Morse's character is dead. And he's like, no, I'm not basing it on instinct.

I'm not going to do it until I see a body. And she's just like, let me grieve. You know, like let me go. Yeah. Yeah. Let me grieve. It's a really nuanced and complicated thing. Janice is gone.

We can do it. It does make you think, like, well, we'll get to that because I have some thoughts on that. Dennis Quaid told Megan Kelly on Today Show, actually a year ago, that what really ruined their doom showbiz marriage was his own anger over stepping out to people cheering Meg, Meg, Meg, she became more famous than them. Yeah. Once again, proving the Bill Simmons theory, which is one of my favorite theories. Which is? It's basically based on Ryan Philippe and Reese Withersman. When people start out of eating.

equally, celebrity actors. Uh-huh. It's doomed. But one passes the other. One ascends higher than the other one does. You can't last. But wasn't he bigger and then she came up through Interspace? They met on Interspace and they were pretty equal at that point.

And then she had already been in Top Gun. I think they started out equal when Harry met Sally. She goes higher and then it's over. Yeah. Maybe I guess Big Easy. Maybe he was a little. That's not that big of a movie though. I mean, like what's the biggest Desquade movie?

Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Filippe is the best one because they're on cruel intentions. They're dead equal. And then she becomes Reese Spillerspoon. It's like, that's not lasting. Right. So it'll be, you know. Who is that of today?

Who is that of today? I don't know. Who is it today? Well, it's probably like... Chris Pratt and a Ferris. Oh, that's another good one. Producer Craig. Craig.

Off the bench. Oh, my God. That's great. Great job, man. Chris Pratt kind of passed Dana Farris. Yeah. She's successful. Great career.

Yeah. Much envied. Chris Pratt's and A-lister. But Chris Pratt's a good example of this Russell Crow thing. We always talk about the Chris Wars and all the Chris's and you've all these leading actors now. None of them kind of combine all of the stuff Russell Crow has in this movie. No. There's like some baggage with him that he brings to each movie in a way that you can't even define.

He didn't have to play superheroes that everybody already had a preconceived notion about what they should be. The hardest thing he had to do or the most baggage he had to deal with was playing what most people would be like, oh, that's like Spartacus, right? You know, and like you're not Kirk Douglas. That's about as much of you know, these guys have to serve so many masters when they're doing like these

superhero movies and then they also wind up having to make nine of them. So their prime years are spent making these movies. And very few of them actually wind up parlaying that into like, well now I'm going to go do this like on the side. I'm going to do this Kenneth Lonergan movie just to like kind

like to feed my artistic soul. They get so busy doing this crap that they don't wind up doing that much stuff outside of Captain America or Iron Man or whatever. I mean, we were talking about this on the watch I think a couple of days ago about like what the heck with Downey and given the fact that Downey could have probably

like Greenlit anything he wanted over the last 10 years outside of Iron Man but all he does is make Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes movies. I mean, he's probably like one of the richest men in the state of California. Right. But he could have made like four or five

really great movies on the side there. The point you made, I'm going to add to it, this was probably the last normal career before superhero movies ruined. So if Russell Crowe comes along 10 years later, they probably pick him to be like Superman in 1998. Yeah. You know, if we have all the comic book shit we have then, Gladiator is basically a superhero movie, but it's not. It's this expertly crafted, awesome Ridley Scott movie that now these days, gladiator would have like superpowers, right? Yeah. Or it would be like 300 and it would be like he's in hell or he's like, you know, I mean, there's like flying elephants or whatever.

It's too bad. The one other thing I was going to mention about proof of life before we get into awards if that's where we're going next. But it's really interesting to look at this on the kind of timeline of thrillers through the 2000s because this is pretty much like the last pre-9-11 thriller. Because all the stuff that happens after that, even if it had been in development before 9-11, I think sort of takes on much more surveillance state stuff. War on Terror stuff, or like a lot of post or during Iraq stuff. And so a lot of the thrillers, like basically it goes from proof of life, which is essentially a romance with an action movie around it, to the Bourne movies.

And even though the Bourne movies have some really like good interpersonal dynamics, like especially that first one, it winds up being mostly about like the surveillance date and the ability to like zero in on someone's face from a satellite and capture them. Whereas this is very much like they don't find this guy until the priest gets out of the jungle and tells them about where they are. And everything after that is like this digitized, very, like, related to the way warfare became in the 2000s after 9-11. So it's kind of like a weird last movie before that.

And it also has an amazing premise of a movie. Guys hired to find this wife's husband, falls in love with the wife. Doesn't totally have to save the husband if he doesn't want to. Yeah. Could go save the husband. You could have an accident. I could have an accident. Grenade could hit him at the wrong time.

We didn't talk about Caruso yet. There's another piece of this movie. It's a great kidnapping movie. It's Russell Crowe at his apex. It's a very strange Meg Ryan performance. That's weirdly likable, but we'll get into the pros and cons. It's got a really good plot. I love the South American.

The scenery, everything. It's just like you really feel like you're there. And the shoot, which we'll get into, was a nightmare. And then Caruso. Unbelievable. Do we rename the Dion Waiters Award for him? I kind of feel like we should think about doing that. Or should we change it to the Dino Waders Award? What was his name in the movie?

Dino. The Dino Waders Award? All right, time. That's amazing. I have never in my life, how many have we done? We've done like 55. There's never been a better Dian Waders'Waters performance. Oh, absolutely.

It is the all-time. It's the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. It is Bill Walton going 21 for 22 in the UCLA championship game. It's Don Larson's perfect game. Yeah. It's Brady in the second half of the Atlanta Super Bowl. Caruso definitely thinks that proof of life is about his character. He tackles it under the impression.

This is a David Caruso movie that Russell Crow and Meg Ryan are also in. Yes. I have more scenes. They just haven't given me the script yet. He speaks three languages in this movie. completely unnecessarily. He dows it up to levels that I didn't know were possible.

And so just recently, a couple days ago, because I was talking about David Milch with somebody else and I was, so I rewatched one of my favorite pieces of television you'll ever see, which is the Dinner for Five episode of John Favreau, Timothy Oliphant, Jay Moore, Michael Rappaport, and David Milch. And they're talking about Caruso.

And there's a bunch of different funny anecdotes in there, but there's one thing that I think I think Jay Moore mentions that Caruso never looks at the person he's acting with that he's like never looks them in the eyes. Oh yeah, he does. And if you watch, after you hear that, you will never watch anything with Caruso the same again

because you're like, he's not even looking at Russell Crow's in the face when he's sitting as close to Russell Crow as I and you. It is so wild. It is such a choice. Tell the other David Milt's story from that. Oh, man. there's this incredible story where Caruso and Milch are working on NYPD Blue and

Milch has had a pretty like hard living life and Caruso is probably on like on the ascendancy with his stardom so he's starting to be like what what is this crap you're writing so every day when they're shooting he's making milch like explain every line of dialogue and challenging him on everything and he brings him to the set one day and he's got milch there and milch and him are going back and forth through every single line of dialogue and Milcher's on dinner for five telling the story. And he's like, midway through this argument, I realize I'm having a heart attack. And he realizes he's having a heart attack. But he won't let Caruso know because he doesn't want Caruso to win the argument. So he finishes the argument. And then he turns to the guy who's

like the special consultant on NYPD Blune is like, take me to the hospital. I'm dying. It's an incredible episode of TV. That is pure hatred when you're like, I can't have a heart attack This guy, he'll think he won. Let him find out later. So he was an officer and a gentleman in 1982. Yeah. And he's really good in it. He's a good actor.

And then it's like he was kind of the red-headed guy from officer and gentleman, but was in this great movie called Thief of Hearts. Okay. 1984, the star was Manny from Scarface, Stephen Bauer. Oh, yeah, okay. And it's David Caruso. and it's some lady that I don't know I don't remember what her name was

or whether she'll be servicing again but they're these burglars and Stephen Bauer steals her diaries as part of the burglary and starts reading them and then realizes like what she likes and wants and uses the diaries as a way to seduce her

and they have an affair and it is incredible and I have no idea why it's not on television You know it's like some of the some of the 80s plots were the best I just saw a trailer for this movie the other day because my wife and I were looking around at romantic comedies

and I actually loved this movie when I saw it but when I was going back to think about it it's that movie it's called Only You and it's Marissa Tomey and Robert Downey Jr. And it's entirely premised on the fact that Marissa Tome when she's a kid gets a name from a Ouija board of who's going to be her true love and then like 20 years later Robert Downey Jr

tells her he's that guy but he's lying and they go on like a trip to Venice together and fall in love. It's like what is this movie but those are like a dime a dozen? back then. So then he drifts through the 80s, basically, gets to the 90s, and he's in Mad Dog and Glory.

He's really good. And he's really good in it. Yeah. And I think that got him, the NYPD Blue part. That was my dad and I, I was living in Boston by that time after college. And we watched all the NYPD Blues together. The first six, I think is one of the great six episode stretches. And I just remember being like, this guy's one of the greatest actors of my

entire lifetime. He was just beaten down guy and I remember my dad had just gotten the superintendent job for the school system, Easton, where he worked. And he would come home and we would watch NYPD Blue and he'd be like, you know why I like this show? Because he's the only guy who has a worst day than me

every week. Swimmer was on it and he was incredible on it, but then there started to be these reports that he was a dick. Oh yeah. And then he leaves after year one. This is like the hottest cop show I would say in a decade. Yeah. And he's leaves and everybody's like, what are you doing?

Why are you doing this? Like, what's your plan here? And he goes and makes kiss of death, which I will stand by and fight for her for the death with Nick Cage. But then he makes Jade. I love that movie. And then Jade and it falls apart. Yeah.

And then it goes through basically the rest of the 90s. He's back on TV by the end of the decade. He does Michael Hayes, which was the CSI, Miami. Doesn't work. His career is stalled. It is now a disaster. It's now six years after NYPD Blue. And then he shows up as Dino.

And people are like, like, oh yeah, Caruso's fucking James Cagney. It's like if Fredo and Sonny are the same guy in this movie. It's unbelievable. He just, he gets dunked on like five times, but he's also like the hothead and he saves the day. And it's just like, I don't, I don't, I think Gilroy's script is impeccable in this movie. It's really great.

I don't know. I would love to know if Caruso went off book because there are parts where I'm like, Don't you fucking die on me? Yeah. And he's like, what's my name? Asshole. He's okay. Like, it's like there's so many moments like where I'm like, did they improv this?

Did Caruso just decide to do this? Because there's actually like scenes where they emotionally don't make any sense. Like you can't tell what Dino wants. Right. What the outcome Dino wants. Like that Russell Crosey he mentioned before. Yeah. He's trying to talk to him into doing the raid.

And it's like, wait, Caruso suggested the raid. But now he doesn't want to do it, but he actually does. The final raid that they do to get David Morris out of the jungle, David Caruso's character, Dino, essentially like Sean McVease it. And then he's just like, I need this. Like I need to cash out, start my own shop. And if we do this, we'll be legends. Yeah.

And then he's like, and I've gone over this in every single way. And it's fucked. And Russell Crow is like, so you're in. And he's like, absolutely. And he changes his mind like four times. And meanwhile, he's got like three guys from Panama with him. And he's like, via condios, let's go. I love when, first of all.

anybody who says this is my Panama crew. Yeah, this is my Panama crew. I might call Craig in the podcast producers my Panama crew. Like, hold on, I'm gonna get Craig from my Panama crew. Yeah, really dependable guys. It's like, I don't know what happened in Panama,

but I know it was good. Caruso, so this leads us to the 2000 best supporting actor nominations. I think Caruso and David Moore should have been nominated for this movie. Like, it's basically like the favorite But we didn't even talk about David Morris But he is like

Incredible in this movie And he was a guy He made a movie called Inside Moves If Daniel DeLewis does this movie They're still talking about this performance Oh my God They're like jeez his feet How do you do it?

It starts out he's an engineer And then at the end he's like He looks like Moses and he's got bloody feet Yeah Inside Moves 1979 He plays this bartender who's crippled Who has a crippled knee

Who was going to be an NBA player it doesn't happen. Now he's got these band of cripples. Yeah. And they all band together and they buy him a knee surgery and he ends up making the Golden State Warriors. And there's scenes with Robert Parrish

and like he's actually, I swear to God, John Savage. So he was in that and he was in St. Elsewhere. Yeah. And he played the doctor who got raped on Sun Elsewhere. It was like the first rape in the history of television. But he had like a key part on St. Elsewhere and he's traumatized by the rape, all that stuff.

And then he became of that guy. Yeah. And he was like, that guy, the guy from the guy from inside moves. He had that show on CBS where he's a cab driver, hack. Remember that?

Oh, I made a lot of hack jokes in my day. Hack. This week, kind of hack. But then this is his best movie. So anyway, Best Supporting Actor that year, 2000. Benicio del Toro won for traffic. Okay.

Are we okay? Yeah, I'm fine with that. I'm okay with that. Jeff Bridges did not win for the contender, but he got nominated. I thought he was amazing in the contender. Yeah. Joaquin Phoenix Gladiator

2000 is like a low-key pretty good fucking movie here I mean those are like all three of those could win in other years Albert Finney and Eric Brockovich Eh That was a weird

I think that was like a Thanks for playing Like for your entire life Kind of was an old guy And then Willem Defoe And Shadow of a Vampire People love dominating Willem Defoe for things

That no one's ever seen Yeah it's like Oh Win Defoe's in a weird movie So here's who didn't get nominated Caruso David Morris. Okay, I don't even know if there was a four-year

consideration campaign for them, so... I wish we had known each other. Can we start one? Caruso... Should we retroactively start an FYC for Caruso Can Curruso get, like...

Is there or not? What is the thing when you get the career achievement? Yeah, like lifetime achievement. Yeah, lifetime achievement. Mark Ruffalo, you can count on me. Oh, my God. He didn't get nominated?

Bad one. And then, I didn't even think of this one until I was researching. Almost Famous came out the year. Billy Crudup and Phillips. Hoffman. It's pretty rare that you could do an entire other group of

nominees. That's what I was saying. I just gave you by alternate five nominees for that category. This is like a Team USA lineup where it's like the bench five could beat the starting five. Hoffman not getting nominated for Lester Bangs is kind of incredible. And what a run for him right then. That's like right after Ripley.

So I was really upset about No Caruso and Morris and then I saw the first three nominees. I was like, oh, all right. Yeah. I mean, Jesus. Del Toro Bridges and Phoenix. Those are like iconic roles for all three. Phoenix was amazing and gladiated. Yeah. And then that led me the realization that Crow had

gladiator and proof of life same year. I know. It's just astonishing. I love the double movie here. That's like winning points and assist. Did Westbrook do that? No, he was first and one and second and the other. Yeah. Tiny Archibald did do it. No.

He might end up doing it this year. All right, let's take a break and then we're going to get to the categories. All right, as predicted, this has already gone way too long. the categories. We'll go quick through these in case you haven't seen this movie because there's a couple other things

I want to hit us. What a podcast for you if you haven't seen this movie. Oh my God. Craig, do you think this movie sounds good based on how we're talking about it? Yeah, I can't wait to watch it. There you go.

We got Craig. We got the Proof of Life fan. Most watchable scene. Peter abducted by the guerrilla rebels. And I love that Volkswagen cabriole has too. When you see that, so he kind of

he crouches in the car and he's trying to make call. But I was trying to think, like, is there a scary moment than you're in your convertible Jeep or whatever he's driving? And all of a sudden, there's somebody gets shot. And then you just see dudes with masks coming out of the fucking hell. That scene is so good because it's so confusing what's going on with those two guys on

the motorcycle and the cop. And then all those guys repelling down the running forward. You see guys in mass repelling? It's like, I'm fucked. Yeah. There's no way out of this. I'm in trouble. Second one.

The crow comes back. They get rid of them. One, two, three guys with guns. Table full of money. Arturo. Snapping assholes. Arturo, the person, after you told them, they're going to suggest a local,

don't trust this person. He leaves because his insurance company screws it up. And then Meg Ryan is forced to turn to Arturo and the ransom nappers, as I have named them. Yeah. Crow comes back in. Caruso. Caruso from behind, yeah.

And they foil it. And it's great. Arturo. I thought you were going legit. Hawaii, Routuro. And then Meg Ryan's sister-in-law, as you point out, one of the fun things with kidnapping movies is when normal people are in kidnapping situations.

And the sister-in-law does a good job of just freaking out. She freaks out. There's money, there's guns. They're just having a strip. When they leave, she's like, oh, my God. Caruso convincing Russell Crow to go get the hostages. We just talked about that scene. I threw this in just because I love it.

Russell Crowe finds out who Marco is the person negotiating with them. With the woman who works in the house, right? Yeah. And they go, he confronts him at the parade. It's just a really good scene. Awesome scene. I got a good game going here, man. The wife thinks you're out with the card buddies, card buddies,

think you're off with the mistress. And there you are on the radio every Wednesday night. Battering human life. He's like, I got the tape right here. Yeah, that's great. Caruso confronting Crowe about being in love with Meg Ryan. Oh, yeah, you think you're going to run off with her? Are you in love with this woman?

Yeah. Are you in love with this woman? I don't know what you're holding out hope for. That you're going to save this lady's husband. She's going to see the light and run off with you. It doesn't work that way. You know that. So good.

The hostage rescue great action scene. I mean, I would put that, nine, ten minutes against anything. See, so I... This is why we're doing this as a rewatchable because we don't understand why this isn't considered to be an all-time classic.

That 10-minute rescue scene is all-time. So, and here's the thing about this movie. Is you get to that. And there's a couple of parts in this movie and I do this a lot with movies like this from like, oh, man, I wish Michael Mann had directed this or I wish this had looked at.

But Hackford's pretty good, man. He is. And when they get to the end of this, all the choices that they've made that you... As my wife said last night, I could do with like 35% more flirting and 35% less jungle. But when you get to the end, you are really invested in David Morse getting out of there. Because you've been with him through every step of his captivity.

Yeah. And it's like, it's pretty crucial. And at the end, you're just like, oh no, you got to watch out for Waco. You know, like, yeah. Fogun Waco. They set up the Waco. Waco is the evil hostage holder. Yeah.

What's his evil gorilla, I guess, you would come. And then I'm going to make this its own scene. The very end. Oh, that was Van Morrison. Van Morrison and Russell Crowe watching the car drive away. Incredible. I've got to say, that's the best man in a Russell Crow's career. And he smiles and then he's sad and he like kind of smirks again.

He makes seven different facial expressions. And it really feels like he's now left the set and he's like, how are we going to tell Dennis Quaid about this? You can see it racing out through his. Fuck, how are you going to promote this movie? I'm in love with this woman. Great music choice. One of the best ending songs. Yeah.

Every time I hear it, I'm like, oh shit. What was the name of that? They didn't have to go listen to the whole thing. I don't know how they got the rights to it, Van Morris and such a weirdo and stuff like that. Probably the best song they could have picked for that moment. One of the best closing credit songs ever. Then they come away from Russell Crow with the helicopter shot. And they just zoomed through.

It's so fucking great. Yeah. Oh my God. And he is like, I honestly think he's one of the most talented actors we've ever had for male actors. For movie stars, yeah. For sure.

I think he's like top five or six, like how we talk about basketball players or football players, like who had all the tools, who could do the most things. Like, he's up there. He's amazing. So what was your most rewatchable scene? I just want to put a special shout out to when Terry first goes to

Alice and Janice and is like, I'm Terry, like, here's what's happening. And they do the montage of him. It's like him explaining who the rebel guerrillas are and what they're being like they used to just be Marxists. And then they were kidnappers and now they're cocaine dealers. And they have they like basically run drugs in this country and they kidnap for like to keep the profits coming in. And like as they're doing that, they cut back and forth between the rebel camps and him explaining it. That seems awesome.

I also really like the extended fight between David Morris and Meg Ryan in the beginning. At the very beginning. Because it's also like that great like, what would you do situation where you're like, you know that the entire movie, she's like the last things that we said to each other were so hurtful. You know what I mean? Like there's such. That's a good point. And it's such a great setup for the movie because not only does it set it up where she's feeling like, man, I got to come up with that extra $50,000.

But like also like you can kind of see the cracks. She's going to that fuck that guy mode. The cracks of their relationship where he might be coming in and like she's like this romantic ex-hipy and she might be drawn to. some independent spirit like that because things are kind of falling apart with their husband. If you don't have that scene, people really turn on the Meg Ryan character, I think.

Yeah, it's true. So what's age the best? I mean, I'm sorry, the most rewatchable. I'm going to go, the kidnapping scene is incredible. That's just like, over the hostage rescue. I'm going to go just get kidnapped.

Downtown one, this is downtown three. I just don't think I've ever seen anything like that kidnapping scene where it's like that traffic jam and the way that he goes up and there's like a procession so he can't take his usual street. It's great.

and he's calling Texas and the mobile phone's not working. And the Jack Crawford, not Jack Crawford, but the guy from Science and the Lambs is on the phone with him. We're going to get to that guy. I'm going hostage. Driske. What's age the best? The last hour of this movie is one of the best hours of any movie for me.

Yeah. From the moment, and I marked it exactly when it is, when the sister leaves to go get the money. It's at like the 113 mark. If you just watch from that point on, it is the best hour. And this is kind of a buzz kill. Because, like, she doesn't even like the fact that Meg Ryan's smoking so much, which I love. Meg Ryan is, like, out of her gordon.

She always has to sick. Yeah. As soon as Janice leaves, it jumps up a notch. Because now it's like, now they're stuck together. Now it's just the movie gets going. The last hour is great. Russell Crowe leading me in. We talked about it.

I don't know if we talked about this. Every Caruso scene is age the best. I fucking love that guy. The lessons. of hostage negotiation. We learn about that in this. Three lessons, according to Russell Grow, rely on nobody local, trust nobody.

Don't offer a number too fast or they'll demand a new one. Right, because it'll just be a down payment. It'll be like, thank you for the down payment. Now we're going to renegotiate a new fee. Be patient. So if anyone ever takes producer Craig, I'm going to stick by all those three things. The Crow Ryan's sexual attention, it's real and it's spectacular.

Yeah. It's really like you really feel like they're going to start fucking the moment the camera the guy says all right cut let's go to the trailer and go like she's

and there's a specific point when it flips and I think it's right around when the sister leaves when every time she's looking at him she's just sizing them up and I don't feel like it's fully acting

and if I'm Dennis Quaid and I'm watched that movie I'm just bummed out by about the halfway point I'm like ah fuck I know I know that look oh man

what do we say this place was called I wrote Takate down that's a beer Takala? Takate. They're in the land of Takate. Yeah, Takala. Takala.

Yeah, not Takate. Amazing scenery. Yeah. Waka, the stone bad guy. He's aged wonderfully. Yeah. You sleep at the pigs. It's the whole relationship with like Waka and then also Linda, who's like nice to him for a while.

But then when he tries to get her to let him out, she's just like, fuck you. Like, I'm not going to do that. And then trying to figure out when they started fucking in real life. I think it's right. when the sister was leaving the airport, I think they'd at least made out in Russell Crow's trailer at their point. There's a photo I just saw today.

I don't know if it was like where it was from, but from the making of the movie. And Russell Crow's wearing this rugby shirt and Meg Ryan is like two centimeters from him. And Taylor Hackford's like standing with them but like is not paying attention on my and Taylor Hackford's claim that he didn't know about it

until like the very end of the shoot. And I'm like, come on, man. Come on, Taylor. I forgot. Caruso had a quote. They asked him if he knew it was going on. And Cruso said, and it would be much funnier to have Caruso read this over me,

but what I was aware of was two people digging into the material and allowing the chemistry to happen. There you go. What stage is the best for me? Just Caruso is incredible. I don't think anything's ever aged better than Caruso in this movie. I want his wardrobe so bad from this movie. It's so generic.

It's just like a black leather jacket. Yeah. And dad jeans and like a blue shirt. Spend no money on poor crusoe. What's age the worst? You could dump the opening scene in my mind. I don't need it. About Chesha?

Yeah, don't need it. Might even actually be... I mean, it does make you think like this guy's really crafty and good in a war zone. Don't need it. Yeah. I actually was thinking,

we don't see Crow until the 25 minute mark. I think that might be the... I mean, I'm sorry, we don't see Crow with Meg Ryan. Until... Yeah. They're like, this is our guy from K&R. It's Russell Crow.

that might be the first time we should see him. I don't know if I need to see him with his son in England. You used to take more chances of stuff like that. What do you mean? They used to just like, you know, Jack Nicholson shows up midway through a few good men. They just like take more chances with, they don't need to see this guy at first. And that's another what's aged of worst.

This movie's a little too long and I think you could have cut out nine minutes, 10 minutes, really. You cut out the opening scene. You cut out a couple other crow scenes. Now we're at two hours, which is a lot more manageable. Another what's age of the worst. This was the first movie where Meg Ryan definitely dipped into the magic of Botox or whatever was going on, where she was America's sweetheart.

Look, it happens. All the actors do this, but it seems somehow different for her to do it. I think I was more distracted by how I forgot how, like, nervy she was in this. And, like, she's like a really unhappy character. It just seemed like she was at a different point in her career and her life almost with this. She's, as you said, like jittery. Yeah. She's got, she had like a little nose thing or a Botox thing or she's a little work done.

Yeah. It was not my one hair, Matt Sally, Meg Ryan, but they cut out the Crow Ryan sex scene in this. So they had filmed one. They filmed one. Hackford said they tried it with the screening audiences both ways. And the movie worked better, not with the sex scene. Okay. In my opinion, this is the biggest flaw of the movie.

I think you need this sex scene I would have the sex scene Because it makes the end more poignant Yeah well for two reasons One he kisses her out of nowhere Right that is That's fucking weird Last night I got to the kiss

And then I was like wait Did I miss the first kiss Because this seems like a really familiar kiss Yeah it just it doesn't feel right Yeah And I think if you have this sex scene in there We don't have to I don't need to like a basic instinct

Like camera on the ceiling showing him riding her riding them for 10 minutes. But could they see, we see, you know, that they got it on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that buys us more currency with what happens Lex. Like, oh, they're fucking. Yeah.

Now he's going to rescue the husband. And my guess is one of two things. Either the research audiences were like, I don't like her. Or they must have been so afraid of this controversy about them dating in real life. Well, this is like a real, like, you know, this in Castaway, you really like to think about the politics of what you do

when the person's away, right? Like how long... It's great. Yeah. It's one of my favorite things. So, do you think that the character that Meg Ryan plays is in the wrong for falling for the character?

I don't... In this case, no, because she thinks her husband's probably dead and he said that mean thing about their baby in Africa. Right. She's probably still holding on to that. She's a little mad.

Maybe they drifted apart a tiny bit. But Helen Hunt, you're like... Helen Hunt. I mean, she got married than a year and a half. They hadn't even found in plain wreckage. She was already at her next wedding. That was inexcusable. The last, what age is the worst for me.

This is ironic. This goes into what we were just talking about. And I really think they needed the sex scene. It's one of those deleted scenes that they never have deleted sex scenes. It's not fair to the actress. So they rescue David Morris. Pull him in. helicopter land.

She's crying. She's like, oh, your feet. He's sitting in the car. Oh, my God. Well, she takes a little bit of time to warm up to him. It's just hugging. He has to smell like holy hell. That's the thing.

So this is my... Can you imagine how bad he smelled? This is not even a picking knit. It's just like a... Maybe this is an unanswerable question. I don't want to get ahead of it. Okay. Save it.

Okay. Sitting there and it's like, we got to get you, you know, basically, we got to get you to the hospital. You're dehydrated. Yeah. your feet are unmangled, you've been shot. Hold on, I just have to say goodbye to Russell Crow. I just need one minute. To get teary-eyed to talk to this guy.

I just need one minute. You stay here and watch us from afar. This isn't going to be weird at all. Yeah. And she goes off and she thanks Russell Crowe. And it's longer than a minute. She comes back crying. If I'm David Morris, I'm like, what the fuck just happened?

Are you fucking that guy? It's my first man. I'm not even thinking about Ben Phelan. Did you fuck that guy? There's no question that, and he kind of sees it, and there's like this knowing kind of look on his face. It's a great, great last few minutes, because everything goes unsaid. So I think they break up within two months. The Russell Crow, Alice and Peter break up.

I think Alice and Peter break up. I mean, we could talk about the possibilities of proof of life too for as long as you possibly can. That's coming later. Okay. All I know is this. If I'm kidnapped and I'm in a fucking jungle. Yeah. And I try to escape and I get wood ripping into my calf of my Achilles.

My feet are all fucked up. I've lost 40 pounds. I have this beard. I'm like near death. Then I escaped. You missed an entire Celtics postseason. I've missed. I don't know what's going on in sports.

I have to shoot Jacqueso. Yeah. Flying a helicopter. I got Caruso screaming. I'm so traumatized by all this. And I land. I want my wife. I want it to be us.

Yeah. You don't get a minute. Yeah. You don't get a minute's sake about to Russell Crowe. Guess what? Call him on the fucking phone. Yes. You know what you don't get is three minutes coming back with you more upset than when you rescued.

I got rescued. Now I'm like, what the fuck? Get out of here. Fuck you. Anyway. I'm a spiteful person. Casting what ifs. Harrison Ford originally offered the lead roll turned it down.

Yes. I'm so glad. Thank God. He would have ruined this movie. I love Harrison Ford. Harry would have been so much older. Like it would have just wouldn't have worked. No.

No way. Russell Crowe turned down the role of Logan slash Wolverine and X-Men because he did not want to play another similar role to Gladiator. Felt the characters were too similar. Wolf Wolverine did Proof of Life instead. I found this. This isn't really part of this movie, but I just had to tell you this.

I found this whole thing on IMDB where it's like a biography of the person has all these weird facts in there. Russell Crowe nearly finalized a deal to reunite with director Michaelman on collateral in 2004. Oh, really? But scheduling conflicts with eucalyptus, a doom film project, preventing him from taking the role, which later went to Tom Cruise. How does Tom Cruise gets the later?

What a what if? I mean, Holly, like our lives are completely different. Do you think Grantland starts if that happens? No. I think I'm living in Bristol. I think I'm with Rachel Nichols on the jump. If Russell Crow had been in collateral. If Russell Crow is in collateral, I'm on the jump right now, Rachel Nichols.

The butterfly effect, yeah. Also, he turned down the Matrix, which I never realized. Oh, did he? So Will Smith did, too. He said, I just didn't get it. I couldn't get past page 42. The world was just not interesting to me. So he was...

Something pretty crazy happens on like page 44 of that. scripts. So, um, he was that guy for like six years that is just getting offered every part. Yeah. I'm amazed he wasn't in The Departed. Oh,

yeah. Like he could have played the Alec Baldwin role, right? Absolutely. I guess he was too big for it. Dino Waiters Award. This is David Caruso. We could just congratulations. Although I would like to give an honorary shout out to Pamela Reed.

She was good. Janice. Arturo's pretty good, too. Yeah. If you did the box score for Caruso in this movie, it would be like one of those James Harden first halfs against Brooklyn. It would be like 20 minutes, 48 points.

Yeah. 10 for 11 from 3, 20 free throws. And when he, at the end, when he goes, we're going to Roma, Ariribadirchi! And he keeps yelling that at this guy? For no reason. It's so weird, they rescue this Italian banker. Yeah.

And for some reason, Caruso just keeps shouting, you want to go to Roma? Avrivederchi, Roma. while they're rescuing him from a hostage situation. He's like already in the soprano. He's like just crazed matri-d-d-d. Half-ass internet research. Hackford cut the love scene from the film.

As I said, he said it was completely my decision. I screen the film with or without the love scene. It had to go with the version that worked best for the audiences. I don't believe you. The shoot was brutal. Frequent hailstorms, mudslides. 23 members of the crew came down with a case of severe altitude sickness and 14,000 feet high.

Two volcanic around. eruptions, tier gas at one point wafted onto the set from a nearby riot, and very sadly, somebody died. Yeah, David Morris's body double. The stand in, Will Gaffney. He was killed in an onset accident. They have not talked about it. Morse said he lost 25 pounds.

And then he said on Taylor Hackford, there was one day when he lost it really badly. He lost it with me and he lost it at some of the girls who'd never acted before. He lost it with the crew. He lost it with everybody. Everything was going wrong. He was so out of control of the environment. because you just talk about how they would shoot these things. It would rain.

They'd have to cancel another day. Yeah. Sounds like a fun set. They filmed it mainly in Ecuador, by the way. This is a weird story. I almost don't believe this is true, but I think it is. So they filmed that rugby scene. One of the extras asked Russell Crowe for some acting advice.

After their conversation, Crow remembered the student's interest, sent him autographed posters and photos from his film gladiator, wrote him a letter. The letter said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The extra?

Do you know what it is? No. Henry Cavill. No. Yeah. No. Yeah. Really?

Crow played his dad in the Superband movie because they had stayed friends. Oh, wow. Yeah. Proof of life. How about that? During the scene

when Caruso says, these guys in my Panama crew, you could see a piece of cardboard on the wall behind with Just Cause written on it, Just Cause was the U.S. invasion of Panama to capture Noriega.

Okay. So you go there. I like that. And then, so this is what Russell Crow says. At the beginning of the movie, he jumps on the helicopter. In Chesney.

Russell Crow says, probably one of the stupidest things I ever did was in a movie called Proof of Life. So this is like years later. Right at the beginning of the film, there's a sequence where I run up to this helicopter and I jump onto it. And it takes off.

So I actually did that. I ran up and I grabbed the strap and then it takes off up to 100 feet. The only thing that stopped me from falling off was that I had a good grip on the strap. So he's saying that he did not have a safety harness on in that shot. Yeah, and I watched it. It didn't somebody goes 100 feet high.

It definitely did seem like he jumped on it, though. It's also, I mean, like, ever since then, it's like Tom Cruise has been like fine. I'm just going to, like, fly through the Himalayas then on a helicopter and teach myself how to fly. Russell Crowe. Apex Mountain. Really nobody except David Brue.

Morris. I don't even think Caruso, because Caruso, I'd say NYPD Blue. No, I would say he was still at base camp. He'd come down from the peak of NYPD Blue and was stopping on the way to the low... This character lives on Apex Mountain, but I don't think it is. Dino is the apex of all character actors?

I think David Morris definitely Apex Mountain for him. Because he's really good in this movie and he's in a movie holding his own with a lot of famous people. The Joey Pants Award given to the That Guy from the movie, there's only I mean, Hannibal Lecter's doctor.

I know. I never do what his name was, so I looked it up. It's Anthony healed. Yeah, and he plays like this slimy oil executive. He plays the guy he plays in Sonsal Lambs and an 8mmeter.

One of my other favorites. We're all out of miracles. Yeah. Treo, Bouchemier, Michael K. Williams. Trio. I'm kind of amazed he wasn't in this, actually. Absolutely.

Yeah. He would have been a good Waco. Sure. The Saul Rubeneck Award for the Overecting. Some good nominees. Arturo. really dials it up. Yeah.

Yeah. Waco dials it up, but the old crazy inmate. Oh, Kessler. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kessler really ratches in it up. Yeah, doing the whole like drawing in the Bible thing. Yeah, he goes. His act is great.

I think he wins. Picky Knits. The maid recognized Marco's voice, his mom works for her. That's really convenient. I don't even know if Russell Crowe's whole gamut where he's like, I have a tape of you, it's like, would anybody be like, oh, that's Fred? Yeah, that's what a crushing blow to Fred's reputation. Yeah, I don't think so.

We are in Kidnap Country. What did everybody get paid for the... Yeah, so if they only have $6.50, I guess they're supposed to be saying that the Italian guy is probably like the big fish of this whole rescue and that they can get... That should have been the movie. Peter back. Yeah. But it's just that like the Italian is the one that's going to pay for everything. But I still don't understand is David Crusoe working for another one.

one of those Lutheran insurance or risk companies. It's a little ambiguous. Yeah. I thought basically they have the media rights to this. That's what they negotiated. So if there's a movie. Right. So Dino gets to...

Dino gets to sell the movie. Dino's like, I'm directing this. Arriva Dernchy. My big nitpick. Meg Ryan's character, you never see her actually smoke. She holds a cigarette in seven different scenes. I know. She's just holding it.

I looked on I did a little research into this because one of my pet peeves as a former smoker is celebrities who can't smoke who don't know what they're doing and I was looking up whether or not Meg Ryan was a smoker.

She, there are you'd be surprised to know a lot of message board threads dedicated to whether or not a certain celebrity is smoking or not. Really? And apparently, is that a website?

Meg Ryan was, allegedly, a chain smoker who didn't want anyone to know she was a chain smoker. So I don't know why she would look so awkward holding the cigarette in this movie And when she lights it

It's like she's never lit a cigarette before But you're right She's never really taking drags So I read that online Before I watched the movie again And then I was like There's no way she didn't take a drag Never takes on

Pamela Reed looks like more of a comfortable smoker than she does Yeah Also found out Russell Crow was two three packs of that That's great What a legend And then he quit and he couldn't quit I'm not sure Russell's gonna be around

In your experience It's like Hollywood actors, more often than not, they're smokers, right? Yeah, because you're killing all this time on the set and you're going out. You're staying up late at night. It's a great life. Best quote, it's either, don't you die on me, man. Don't you fucking die on me, man? Don't you fucking die on me, man?

I do I tell you, I knew. They always does this shit, man. You're a pussy. It's a fucking pussy, man. Or a who's the man? You are. Stuff of Legends. Who's the man?

Stuff for legends. Stuff you are the man. Stuff of legends would have been a good name for the ringer. We should thought of that. Stuff of legends. Welcome to stuffful legends.com. I love both of those. I'm not picking between them.

No, it's anytime Dino opens his mouth is the best quote. Could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show is the next category? I say no, but I'm so disappointed they didn't have a sequel with Crow and Caruso spinning off. and doing another kidnap thing. And also... I would have green that in five seconds. Here's the easiest thing. God damn it.

She leaves Peter. She comes and finds Russell Crow in London. He's doing his business. And, you know, there's a little bit of spark. They have a little bit of a run. But then they find out really like their relationship was born out of chaos. Yeah. It's not like a stable thing.

Right. They go on a vacation to save the relationship and she gets kidnapped. Yes. And then he has to get Dino to get his girlfriend back. And that's what brings them back together. I mean, what are we doing here? I don't know. If we can't get that made.

And then if you're going to, so if you were going to cast it today, who would you cast it? Can I give you one more possible sequel? Oh, absolutely, Bill. This is no bad ideas in a brainstorm. I just think the next movie is, it's two years later. And Caruso, he's broken up with Meg Ryan. And Caruso and Russell Crow now have their, what did he call it, their shop? Their shop.

They have their shop. They're doing long lunches and consulting. But Russell Crowe, you know, his son's older. Yeah. Son's a big rugby player now. He's out. He doesn't, no more job for him. He just wants to watch his son's rugby games, yeah.

He's done his last job. But now there's a big job and Cruz has to pull him in for one last job. Okay. And Meg Ryan's just out of the picture. South Korea. Smoking somewhere in South Korea? Yeah, she's out. Okay.

We got right there. She's making in the cut or whatever that movie is. One of those should have worked. Here's what I want. Russell Crowe and David Crusoe saving somebody who's been kidnapped again. Just a show called K&R and it's Russell Crow and David Caruso. K&R.

Yeah. So if ABC was like Tuesdays at 10 o'clock, the premiere episode of K&R, I'd like, okay, great. Yeah. Josh Dumas? Okay. Yeah. Come on, let's dial it up.

Josh Dumas. Probably unanswerable questions. I got one of these. My only one was, how much is your spouse worth to you in a ransom situation? I think you have to finish this movie and really decide what the number is. for me it's like I'm paying whatever because I have kids right when you have two kids then but if you're just single you would let's actually have this conversation

if it's just you and the wife you would liquidate your entire just to get your wife back I probably shouldn't give my game plan away now no I guess not because now I'm going to give the kidnappers the tip it's like there is no ceiling for Bill Chris here's my number it's $4.50 I want to go a dime higher

Okay, so you have to answer that. My unanswerable question was much simpler. It was what did the guy who had the third seat in the plane row think of Meg Ryan and David Morris? Because they go straight to the airport. Oh my God. The whole thing is like, we have a flight to Dallas in an hour. So you're on the five o'clock out of Takala going back to Dallas. And he smells like a homeless person.

He's been in the jungle for like three months. Yeah. And she's crying and chain smoking because she's missing out on the fact that the love of her life is standing on the hill back into Kala. And this guy has a wicker basket wrapped around his infected leg. And they just get on a Pan Am flight to Dallas. He has multiple infections. Are you asking the flight attendant if there may be another seat available?

So do you think, you don't think they sprung for first class on that? With what money? They just had all the money. Didn't they just spend it on like paying for this K&R? One way to Dallas I'll do the aisle Yeah Are we

So that's my unanswerable question Vin Morrison Great job there Yeah I don't know what to tell you It does seem like they could have thrown in a shower for it Yeah Maybe they have one at the airport The Takata airport

Takala Yeah Ticala International Who won the movie? Crow. I know you're going to think Caruso a couple of times. I don't. I actually think it's unassailably crap.

It might be my favorite crow performance. It is my favorite crow performance. Gladiator was an incredible movie. I couldn't wait to buy it on DVD. I watched it a bunch of times. I had my column in 2000, 2001. I used Maximus Lines. I would throw them in there.

It's awesome. He's better in this movie. Yeah. He's really good in Gladiator. I think he's really good in Insider. I like confidential. Wouldn't put that top three. Yeah.

But he's really great. I think you're right. Mel Gibson probably is the only other one. And it's like almost impossible to like even think about it. It's like Crow really does own this role. Do you think Affleck could have been in this movie? I was just, you know what it's just thinking of myself? I do feel like Affleck has it in him.

You know what I've been cool, but probably too intense. tense is Daniel Day Lewis in this role. Because it was like, he never did a movie like this. Yeah. He always is like, I play a,

I'm playing like a one-footed guy or I'm a president or I'm, there will be blood. You know, the other one who this could have been is Denzel. Wow.

This is a classic Denzel movie. Yeah. But we never really talked about whether Meg Ryan was good enough in this movie. I think she's great. I think she's great. I feel like I,

I feel like she's like got like a real. I wish she was smoking more. I feel, but I just love the energy. And I think that like the whole thing, like they just kind of casually mention it, but that she's like this, she's an ex-hipy who's kind of like lost a little bit of our idealism. And she follows her husband on these projects. And then she gets into like charitable organizations and stuff. But they obviously have this bad past. And she's just like kind of cracking up a little bit.

And the relationship between her and Pamela Reid is really good. I think she's awesome in this movie. I like when Crow rescues David Morris finally in the jungle. David Morris is freaking out. He's like, Alice sent me. Your daughter. Alice sent me. Alice sent me.

Alice, your wife sent me. Alice, your wife, Alice. She told me about Marley, your daughter. How she died. In Africa. My daughter. Marley. Alice told me your wife.

So you would know, I'm here to get you home. That's good saying. Yeah. Great movie. Proof for Life. You can't really see this anywhere other than you can pay for it on iTunes. Yeah. On iTunes.

or voodoo. It's not on Amazon. Not on Netflix for some reason. It was, I think, for a while. Netflix should just release this and make it seem like it's a new movie, like how they did with you, The Lifetime Show. People freak out. It's a brand-new movie with Russell Crow.

It's called Proof-Lay. Why don't people do that more often? I doubt people even do this happen. Chris, the next 15 will be for them. This one is for us. What's the next one after this? Next one after this is The Warriors. Oh, great.

40-year anniversary. Okay. We were to tape that one. Warriors. That's next. Thanks as always for listening to Leone Latchez.