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

Episode Date: November 9, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Van Lathan double the reward to $4 million after rewatching Ron Howard’s 1996 box office hit ‘Ransom,’ starring Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, and Gary Sinise. Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You can check out my podcast as well. You can check out Van Lathen on Higher Learning and on the Ringerverse. So there you go. Coming up, do you want to do it or you want me to do it? You go for it. All right, I'll do it. Give me back, my son! Ransom is next.

He is getting your boy back. Ransom. And he went after them with a vengeance. I don't get my son back. I'm going to dedicate my life to tracking you down. Mel Gibson, a film by Ron Howard. Everybody, hold your fire. You kill him.

You kill my son. Ransom. Rated R. Starts Friday, November 8th. All right, Van Lathen is here. Ransom came out 25 years ago today. We're taping this November 8. 25 years ago.

Wow. Mel Gibson was at his absolute peak and perfectly capable of making movies that he was the main star of that would make $300 million and up. Let's just do it now and get it over with that. We did this already when we did Lethal Weptu, too. Can you just say, come on, do your come on, Mel thing? Just let's get that.

No, why? I watch this movie so, I watched this movie so many times. I enjoyed it when I watched it again. Why do I have to think? about racism and anti-Semitism when I watch Ransom. Mel, why did you do it? That's it. The only time I'll do it this podcast.

Why, Mel? Mel, why? Why? You're so good in this movie. We loved having you in movies like this. Why? Why did this have to happen? All right.

Kidnap movies. And then we'll get into Mel. Kidnap movies. There's not quite enough of them to have their own cable chain. They would be part of some sort of stars, action movie, you know, some sort of block they would have, maybe a Monday nights. I'm going to give you my four favorite kidnapping movies ever. And then three on the bubble, including ransom. But here are my favorites.

Man on Fire. That's a good one. Taken. That's a good one. Misery, which I think counts as a kidnap movie. People don't think of it as a kidnap movie, but it is. I'm going to sneak that in. and proof of life,

which we've already done the rewatchables, me and Chris Ryan. We've not done me and I fired. Shea Serrano and I did take it, and we haven't done misery. The next three, Ransom, I think Fargo is considered a kidnap movie.

I think it can be stuck in. And then there was this movie called Without a Trace that came out in like 1982, Kate Nelligan, her son gets taken. Judge Hirsch is the cop that has to find him, and they end up finding him in the end. Spoiler alert.

It's a 40-year-old movie. I don't mind spoiling it. Those are the top seven. Give me your top four. What's your Mount Rushmore? Well, okay, so Taken is number one for me. Taken is number one. Man on Fire is great.

But then the last two are just movies that are from my youth that I love, that are comedies. Okay. Who's Harry Crum? Wow. Who's Harry Crum with, with John Candy, which is a movie that I just couldn't get enough as a kid.

Harry Crum trying to solve the whole kidnapping situation. And then I don't know why I didn't write it down, but the name escapes me. It is I wanted to not look it up. I'll know what it is. I'll figure it out. It is with,

so Luther Vandross has a song on the soundtrack. It is with Judge Ryan Hold. Danny DeVito, I think, is in it. Oh, it's a comedy. It's a comedy, yeah. I like kidnapping comedies.

I know that movie. What is the name of that movie? That was like during the height of the Judge Reinhold era. Yeah, the Judge Reinhold era. Danny DeVito. Which we haven't really discussed. Ruth's people. That movie's really good.

Ruth's people. Ruthless people. Yeah, Ruthless people. Those, because I like a little levity around the kidnapping, too. Because of these kidnapping movies, they can get a little grim. They can get a little grim. This one gets about as grim as it gets. You know, it's funny.

A couple years ago I was on, my daughter had a soccer game. We had to go to Palm Springs. We stayed there. We needed a, you know, a hotel pay-per-view movie. And we got, I think it was called Kidnap with Hallie Berry. And the whole plot was basically, oh, oh, you'll like this one. Hallie Bear is at the park. Somebody snatches her kid, but she sees the car driving away with the kid.

and it turns into a fast and furious movie for like 30 minutes. She just won't let the car go and she basically won't be denied trying to get the kid back. And it's good. And it made me think like kidnap movies for the most part, they always work. It's great for the bad guys. You really hate the bad guys because anyone who kidnaps a kid that's like about in the running for lowest form of people. There's a plot of how to get the person back. There's like strategy.

and then there's a hero. And he usually works. And that's the premise of ransom. What's interesting about ransom, especially 25 years later, I mentioned this when I saw you yesterday. It's built around the premise of the billionaire,

white, good guy, trying to get his kid back. Unironically, I think in 2021, this is a completely different movie how they'd have to approach it, right? Yeah. So the beginning of the movie,

the beginning of ransom, they build up the virtue of Mel Gibson's character, right? They tell you, because it's essentially the way he built his company is why he's such a good guy. Yep. And those things... From the ground up.

From the ground up. Working man. Working man. They lay out all of these things about him. It's actually pretty clever writing that establish why he's a good, regular dude even though he's got all this money. Okay, so he's a war veteran.

that started off with one plane and built it up. He didn't inherit his money. He built it. He says, we're not going to be the biggest, but we're going to be the best. And now this is the guy. He cares about family.

You see him going back and forth to his son as like he's being worshipped on the commercial or whatever. And now that's not really the way that people would, like nobody thinks about Jeff Bezos as being a fantastic guy. because of the way that he built Amazon. Like nobody, right? No, that's not part of the virtue. Or Zuckerberg, anything.

Or Zuckerberg or any of those guys. That's something that's kind of fallen by the wayside now. Or Elon Musk. Elon Musk is a really good example, right? He comes up with his own car. Right. It becomes really successful with it. The whole nine.

So I think now we're past the point of how you made the money. And we want to know what you being a billionaire, the effect of that on society. And so it doesn't really matter if Jeff Bezos took out a loan from all of these people and then built this whole thing. Yeah, great. That's amazing. Whatever. Now we want to know, is Jeff Bezos, like, is he contributing to homelessness just by the fact that he exists?

Are these guys more trouble than they're worth? And I think that's the question now. And it just wasn't then. I think that was during the time. Remember, when Donald Trump was cool. So that was during the time where if you had that much money and you were that type of an American success story, then like people looked at that as you being really one of the good guys. Like the billionaires were worshiped. Yeah.

It was aspirational. Yeah. And I was thinking about this movie is near the tail end of when that was a movie character that could be the hero of a movie, right? You think about like Wall Street, which is 1987, I think, where it's Michael Douglas is Gordon Gecko. who's a bad guy, but not really in the movie. Like, you're kind of, you're enchanted by him the whole time. It's a really charismatic performance. Tony Montana and Scarface, same thing.

It's the exact same thing. The 80s are about how, you know, what's out there, how can you grab it, how can you try to become rich? And that kind of trickled into the 90s. It's interesting in this movie, they never call him a billionaire. Right. They was call him a multi-millionaire. Multi-millionaire.

And even in when you read the stuff about the movie, it's like multi- millionaire, Tom Mullins. It's like, this guy's a billionaire. He owns his own fucking airline. Yeah, the multi-millionaires of the 90s, they basically were the billionaires. They were less billionaires than... There was less billionaire. You're right.

Yeah, so if you had, you know, $600,000, million, you basically were a billionaire. But there's another movie that around the same time is basically the same premise with a virtuous billionaire who saves the day, The Edge. Oh yeah I like the edge Oh my God Good bear movie I don't love the Like look man

Bear say the word Say the word for the edge I'm in for the rewatchables I love that movie We gotta kill the bear We gotta kill the motherfucker Um But but so in the edge

It is And it's funny because that's the movie Where Alec Baldwin keeps calling it out Over and over and over again He keeps saying Oh the rich guys are better than us, aren't you? He's almost making fun of it.

But in that movie, Anthony Hopkins is seen as so cool, so in control, so worldly, so cultured, that if you put him in a situation, like, he'll be able to figure it out. It's almost as if the fact that he has gained so much knowledge and he has so much power is his superpower in that movie. And you just wouldn't see that today. It would be the photographer in this situation or the fox. or the photographer's assistant played by Harold Perrinu in this situation

that would save the day. But they definitely wouldn't give you any type of slurping of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. The cultural wars are just raging at too too high a point right now for that to happen now. Yeah, and you think like succession

is how a way that we would treat gigantic wealth like that on pop culture, TV or movies. Yeah. Where it's like a black comedy where you're basically making fun of all of these people. Right. You're making fun of all of them.

Like, sure, they've achieved a lot, but they're so personally flawed that it makes you ask the question if you would want to be them. Like the Roy family, I was just watching that last night. I'm like, you know, they got a lot of bread.

They fly around on helicopters everywhere they go, planes everywhere they go. They know the president. But I wouldn't want this to be my family. So I think it's a little different in the way it's portrayed now, for sure. You wouldn't want the Wright family to be your family?

That's your expert opinion? Well, I mean, yeah, that's the expert opinion. I will say this, though. I mean, Shivroy can join the family. She can marry it. Yeah, she's Roy. So that part's crazy. Then we have Gibson, really at the tail end of his last A-plus list run where it's, he's in Maverick.

This is from 94 to 97. Maverick, Braveheart, Ransom. And then I forgot about this one. Conspiracy theory. I remember that one, yeah. Which I think I need to rewatch again because I think that may lay the entire groundwork for QNON and everything else.

That's basically he's a QNon guy before we had the internet. But remember even then though, there was a different way that we looked at those people. Like even movies like The Net and conspiracy theory, all of those people that enemy of the state, all of those distrusting government, I live in a bunker people,

like they were cool then, but that totally changed. They were like cool weirdos. Yeah, you're right. So Gibson's at the peak of his powers, and we've discussed him in previous pods, but you could make a case other than Cruz, he was the biggest A-plus Lister in the world in the mid-90s, I think. If he's in a movie, you had to take it seriously. People were going to go see it, and it was going to make a lot of money as long as the plot was decent and the poster was good, and that was that. Yeah, and he was different from Cruz in that his movies, because Cruz didn't with the, with the, with the, uh,

maybe the exception of Magnolia, there might be another one in there. Mel's movies were going to do big box office and then have a certain critical weight that Tom kind of didn't get to. Tom had your Raymans in there, but Tom was a very

days of thunder, you know, Mission Impossible type of situation. And then Jerry McGuire was one, but it seemed like Mel Gibson was more of a serious filmmaker, filmmaker, and that might

happened because he got the best director Academy Award with Braveheart. He's a little more agro. He's a little more testosterone. I don't feel like they were swimming in the... They weren't swimming in the same pool. No, they weren't. And neither was Will Smith and Denzel and that you had like... I don't know, whoever else was in there. But the hierarchy,

there wasn't a lot of overlap. Yeah, well, there's... Like, Tom Cruise was a movie star that gave you a dramatic performance every now and again. Mel Gibson was an actor that gave you just a fun movie every now and again. And they both did it.

It kind of like, it was a differing level types of things. Like it's almost like, I'm not comparing them to his, but it's almost like Leo now. Every movie that Leo is in is a big, huge movie. And a choice. And a choice. But because it's Leo, like it's, we go out to the movie because it's Leo, not because there's anything in the movie for you to eat your popcorn too. And Tom Hanks was levitating above everybody at this point.

He got first choice of all the movies. he was making specific decisions. Right. He was a, like, that's, that's an anomaly. He's like, you know, that's like almost like you don't even count that. He was just doing something different. He got first choice of any drama. He got first choice of any rom-com.

But he could do whatever he wanted. Like, he could, it doesn't matter what movie. Like, he took, he pop in in a league of their own, like, from earlier on. Yeah. And really be as big of a star as there is, but just be a part of a movie that's really not even about him. But it still became like. Like Tom Hanks could do whatever he want. He broke the mold of movie star at that point.

Nobody's reached that level since, by the way. Yeah. Well, it's interesting. Gibson, I don't remember when his moon shadows meltdown was, but I think it was the next decade. But he did hit a point where Ransom, I think, was the most Mel Gibsonie movie he made. And I remember the way it was marketed at the time and had that trailer. And it had, you know, the scene when he goes to the TV station.

That was basically the trailer. And he would go in and he'd be like, I'm up in the ransom to $4 million. And he does the whole scene. And you're just in the theater going, when's this coming out? This sounds great. I am in.

Mel Gibson's trying to find his son. Tell me when. I'm there. Friday? What day? I'm in. And it's kind of the perfect movie for him. I think you have to one more time,

yell at Mel. Just one more time and they'll move on. Just yell at him one more time. Mel! Why? Like, it's So it's just all kinds of great stuff that he had, man. Like, we, I wanted to show, I just really quick, I wanted to show my little brother because he loves, my little brother loves Mad Max Fury Road, right?

But he wasn't even aware of the other Mad Max movies. He had no clue that they existed. And I was like, hey, you know what? Cool, man. Come over to the crib and I'll show you because these are, there's some that are, they really set the groundwork you'll see. And then I was like, no, we can't do that. We can't take a Saturday evening and just watch Mel Gibson movies. It feels icky.

Why? Why, Mel? You know who else is asking that? Renee Russo, who had a real magical thing with Mel, lethal weapon three, and they just have the chemistry. They run it back with ransom. You rarely see the movie couples who, they actually switch movies, switch roles, and they run it back. She has a run that you go to IMD. I'm just going to list every one of them.

Starting with Lethal Weapon 3. Leithy Weapon 3-93. In the line of fire. Cameo on Major League 2. Outbreak, get Shorty, Tin Cup, Ransom, some movie called Buddy, Lethal Weapon 4, Thomas Crown Affair.

Since six years. Yeah. This is usually with like the A-list actresses. They might get the three-year run. They might have the four movies in a row. She was kind of the It, you know, co-star with whoever the leading actor was literally for six years. That's the thing. She never got the Renee Rousseau movie.

She never got... That had to be the actor with her. Right. She never got my best friend's wedding. She never got the net or Miss Congeniality or she never got the Renee Rousseau movie. She was the Renee Rousseau movie away from actually reaching that because she was in some of the biggest, most entertaining films. Get Shorty, a movie that I love. You just know that when you put in the movie. She's going to be sexy. She's going to bring a high quality of acting to it. And she was just a star. She was a star. She could do it all. But she never got that role for her. And she was picking big-ass movies. Like there's no rom-com in there, right? There's no while you were sleeping. Right. Any of that. But actually, that would have been a really smart move for her to being

you got male. Yeah. Instead of Meg Ryan. Just one movie like that where it's just a way lighter movie that you would rewatch a million times. All those movies I just mentioned with the possible exception, well, Amanda's favorite movie ever is the Thomas Crown Affair. But Tin Cups, probably the most rewatchable, but weirdly she doesn't

have the crazy rewatchable movie. Like she doesn't have the My Breast Friend's Wedding or the Sleepless in Seattle, any of those, where she would just kind of live on eternally. It's all kind of action drama stuff. Tin Cups probably the closest, and she's really good in that movie. Yeah, Tin Coup would be the closest. She has a

of Van Lathen rewatchables, though. Like, Outbreak. Like, I rewatch Outbreak all the time. I rewatch Get Shorty is one of my favorite movies. You know, Get Shorty is really one of the movies that made me want to come out here more than anything. Because I felt like Chili Palmer. Like, you come out here, like, seeing them.

It's just sucked because by the time I got out here, all the cool places that they went to weren't cool anymore. So, like, the fucking Ivy and all of that. Shout out to the Ivy. Right. It's not like a big deal no more. But no, but she was, she's in a lot of movies that I dare just be loved. But, you know, she was going for a different type of thing.

She was going for a different deal. Well, ironically, Major League is probably the most rewatchable movie she made. Yeah. I mean, she's Beringer's lady in that one. Yeah, Major League is, and we should just say this, Major League is highly, highly, highly, highly rewatchable. That's a very watchable movie. We've already done it.

It was like in one of the first 50 we did on this pod. Yeah, it's highly rewatchable. She had a great one. I don't know who Renee Russo is now. Good question. Because one of the things that was kind of unique about her as a leading actress and a co-hors, she felt very adult. She felt like an adult woman. You could see her, like she was almost overqualified to be the lead detective in NYPD Blue.

She had to be a movie star. But it also, she wasn't. one of those movie stars that she was very distinct when she was on the screen. She couldn't have just been like the wife in Apollo 13 that barely had any lines. Like she's present in every movie she's in. And I don't know who that is now.

Yeah, she was always a challenge to her male co-co star. She always challenged him. Fisty. She challenged Tom Barringer. She certainly challenged Riggs and Lethal Weapon 3. She always challenged them.

She was never just there. I think the reason why they're not a lot of Renee Rousseau's is because I don't think there are a lot of those roles anymore. Because we don't, we just don't make movies even like Ransom anymore. Every movie is a commentary on something. And like every, very, very few movies are just self-contained stories told for a good time for us to like really get something out of. So there is. Who should be now?

Who? She'd be Shivroy. Yeah. I guess, yeah, I guess it would be Shivroy. No, for sure she would be, Shivroy is a Renee Russo type archetype. You know what I mean? You know, she's a new writer. Smart, reading,

reading whoever she's in the scene with. You feel like there's more there. Yeah. She's any guy she could probably get if she really put her mind to it. Right, right. She's kind of pulling the strings at all times. But there's a little smile on her face. Yeah, it's a little chivrower in her.

Shiveroy. I can't wait to watch Shivroy every Sunday with my chocolate. Not my chocolate. My strawberry milkshake comes on the screen. Strawberry milkshake. Thick and sweet. Thick and sweet. We got to get her on higher learning.

And then we have, then we have Gary Sinneyed, niece who's in his own little run here. He's in Forrest Gump. He's in The Quick of the Dead. He's in Apollo 13 as one of the astronauts because Hank's just, when sure, Hank's is guy, you're in. And then does Ransom. And then he's in Snake Guys. Nice little run culminating in the Green Mile, but had a nice little five-year run. He's creepy enough in this movie that I actually think I might have hurt him as, as an actor. I actually feel like he kind of became the guy. Like I would see him as the ransom guy.

It's which, you know, when we'll get to casting, what if some people turn down the part? Because nobody wants to be the bad guy in a movie where like a kid is actually getting fucked up. Yeah. Some people are like, I'm out. I'm not going there, but he didn't care. He didn't.

And he, I said something, we were talking about this before. I always thought as him of Garrison Nees as being sort of the heir apparent to Tommy Lee Jones. He would, yeah. He would come in and be the new, Tommy Lee Jones. I thought he was going to do that. Because Tommy Lee Jones got to be a point, it got to a point to where it was like, you know,

he was good enough chasing Harrison Ford in the fugitive to where you were like, huh, I know this is a Harrison Ford movie, but I wouldn't mind if that guy has his own movie. Right. That guy's fucking great. And both of these guys were highly accomplished, amazing actors. So I thought that he would go on to and take that. And he got his he broke out in a very important

supporting role in Forrest Gump. And then you had your Gary Sanis run. But for some reason Hollywood just ran out of Sanis. I know he had a role while I think he played Harry Truman or he played Yeah. And I know

but it just it never seemed like he got back to that really weighty role to where it would have like solidified him as one of the go-to big-time dramatic actors or character actors in Hollywood. Yeah, he had a run. It tailed off.

Rander Games, he was the bad guy. He was good bad guy in that. I kind of like Rander Games too, but that was probably the point where starts going down. Because I loved Rangier Games, right? People hate Rangier Games. It's one of those movies that I don't understand

why people hate it. I liked it. But at the point that you're taking that movie and that movie bombs, now you're in type. Well, the other thing is there's not a lot of prestige TV at that point. And I think that would have ultimately been his destiny, right? So then there's five, six years, and then he ends up the CSI, New York.

And he goes down that road. And now he's the lead in CSI, New York. I think if it's 20 years later when he's coming off that six, seven year runner movies that he had, he's definitely on one of these shows. He's on succession. He's on one of these as one of, like, the best guys. Or he's got his own breaking bad type of situation. Right, exactly.

There's a movie that's, oh, that's a show that's designed around him and his ability to carry scene and act. So, yeah, but, you know, it happens. And I feel there are a lot of actors, to be honest with you, and actresses that were in that mode in the late 90s, early 2000s, before television sort of took over pop culture. Yeah. $70 million budget made $3.9.5 million,

which is just like another year for Mel. is he's cranking him out. Roger Ebert, three stars, said it's a smarter than usual kidnapping thriller. I guess my issue with this movie, we'll wait until what's the age of the worst. Let's take a break. We'll come back and we'll do the categories.

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Accept it. Schedule pickup, and we'll come to you with a check in hand. Your car, your timeline, your terms. Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. All right, most rewatchable scene or ransom. This is a movie that I think you'll probably agree.

The second half of the movie I like more than the first half. First half is a lot of setup. Yeah. Second half. For the moment, we see Donnie Wahlberg die. The movie, I think, goes to another level. But first we watchable scenes, Sean getting kidnapped. Yeah.

Have you seen Sean? No. Kate, are you all right? Sean. Sean Mullen? Please come to the judges' tear. The balloon. Anytime the kids fly in the balloon or the plane or the drone and they're

looking up and the parents are like, where's Tommy? Oh, he's over there. Where's Bobby? Where's Sean? Oh, he's over there playing with the balloon. And then there's that moment where Sean's gone. And then the balloons just kind of drifting up with nobody running it. And it's just, it's a staple of a kidnapping movie.

I love it. Like, the kids playing with a toy car and all of a sudden they cut back to the toy car and it's flipped over. Right. There's nothing there. Yeah, the toy car has wrecked. His childhood has been wrecked by this event. Yeah, and the basketball slowly rolling across the court, but there's nobody playing anymore.

Nobody playing it anymore. And then it cuts to the parent who picks up the basketball. Michael. Michael? What? What? And then they toss the ball. Michael!

Yeah, or the swing set where the swing is still going by itself. Right. Oh, it's effective. Right. Always works. Yeah. So that scene is good for it. a couple of reasons. Number one is good

because it shows that the parents internalized guilt is going to be obvious after that scene. Yeah. They feel like they have a loving family. They feel like their parents' attention to each other, and they feel like they're paying attention to their son. But if

you notice what the scene is framed around, the scene is framed around the son being different already, because they say, hey, you can't compete in this science fair or whatever because your mom is one of the judges. Yeah. So, So he just wants to, he's made something that's pretty awesome. He just wants to be in a science fair like any other kid.

And he wants to compete in it, but he can't because his mom is one of the judges, right? He can't even play with his dad like a normal kid would be able to play with their dad because too many people want to talk to their dad. So in a sense, even in that scene, he's kind of like an alone kid. He's like by himself. And he's different in the fact that he's being preyed upon because of who his parents are. Yeah. So everything about him is atypical right there. and then the scene goes

goes ahead and pays it off by the fact that he is he is kidnapped when his parents aren't paying attention to him because they got too much going on and that's going to be a source of guilt for them a little bit later on and in the scene you could see how something like that would happen and one more thing I'll say

about the billionaires thing is because it was a different time they had no security with them right I was going to say so the question is how wealthy is he because if there's a level wealth where there's going to be security kind of following the kid around. Well, I don't think

they're quite there. Well, I don't know. Maybe there's a level of wealth where there'll be security following their kid around. Or maybe the fact that they're not getting a thousand threats a day on social media is a reason why they might not have security around

them at all times. They were not celebrities, right? They were just business magnus. So they could probably walk through the mall or go to places and really not have anybody know who they were. So when we remake Ransom with

who's Mel Gibson? It's Black Ransom. It's going to be a wealthy black family. Yeah, that's Black Ransom, who's in it? Black Ransom, Who's Mel Gibson in Black Ransom? Dinsel is a little too old. I would say

that you got to go. I think it's Michael B. No, man. It's that kind of age. inch? He'd have the nine-year-old kid? Is he too young? You don't buy him as dad just yet. You don't buy him. Craig says Idris Elba.

Idris Elba could do it. But see, that's the only thing about Idris Elba is like, and this is where like it, like the, we can't imagine Idris Elba not just like beating the total shit out of the kidnappers. You need a little vulnerability. Can we flip it?

What if it's a female billionaire with like a Stedman type husband? Okay, that works. Who you got? I don't know. Issa Ray. Too young. Too young. Okay, see, we're having

problem. Issa Ray's like my age. Like, we're having problems with this. It's a, but you know what this tells you? J-Lo. J-Lo works.

Oh, my God. J-Lo's perfect. How old is she 50? She's 50. But that, but she plays so much younger, though. Like J-Lo works.

J-Lo works. J-Lo or like Viola Davis. Yeah, like J-Lo. Oh, you know I love Viola Davis. She's a little too. old though, I think. Yeah, J-Lo works. J-Lo is actually perfect. Because maybe the flip is

instead of it being like somebody who did their own planes, maybe it's an actual like Kim Kardashian-type celebrity. Somebody who's famous by the TV shows they did and the apparel line they have and all that stuff and now somebody wants their kid. You know what the crazy thing is?

That's a terrible movie. But both of us would watch it the first day. I'm going to see it. I'm going to see it. I'm like, I'm going to see because like she, because now you have to incorporate social media into all of it and all of that stuff. And it makes a little bit more sense.

And then like she, instead of going on television because you'd never go on television for that now, you make an Instagram video. And the Instagram video is, here's all the money or TikTok. You make a TikTok with the $4 million and it's cutting to the TikTok.

Guess what this is? Money that you're not going to get. Or you have that TikTok voice. I don't know if you know that TikTok voice where the woman goes, You ever seen that TikTok voice where they put text on the screen and the TikTok voice like reads it out? Have you seen that? No.

I'm not a huge TikTok person. That's also your domain. Yeah. So anyway, so they, and the TikTok voice goes, guess who's not getting the $400, $400 for the $4 million? And then it's you. You don't know what I'm talking about, but it's funny. I don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah.

Anyway, people know. J-Lo. Go young? Well, no, you can't really go under. You can't go like late 40s is like the cutoff, I think. You know why we're having trouble with this is because there are not a lot of these people out there now. Like who are in that perfect range, you're either going, think about it. In the 39, 40, 41 range.

It's Ryan Reynolds range. It's Ryan Reynolds range. Maybe it's a Chris Evans. You know, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I know who can play it. I know black guy who can play it. Perfect. Anthony Mackey. Anthony Mackey, that's a good one.

Anthony Mackey is this guy. He's the right age. right age. Anthony Mackey is this guy. You know what I mean? Anthony Mackey is this dude. He's about to be Captain America, so you want to see a more vulnerable side of him. Well, he is Captain America now. So Anthony Macke's your perfect guy right there. Give it to Mac.

Did he? Come on, man. Diddy's good in that Musters Ball. Did he's good at Marshall's Ball. I thought he was good in that movie. I think Diddy might be a decent actor. I just don't like the movies he picked. Did he, like, shout out to Puff, but like, we don't need no dancing in a movie.

You know what I mean? We don't need a hot soundtrack. You need a little bit more. Shout out to Puss, man. Affleck and J-Lo married as the rich couple? Playing an actor and a singer that it's like, we don't know what lines are blurring between real and fake. It's the only way that that works,

I'll tell you how you redo ransom. So if you have Affleck and J-Lo as the couple, I'm the most excited for that. This is the way you flip it. she is a big time star he is like more of a

of an unknown guy it's actually him that is kidnapped the kid he's Stedman well that's man on fire though now you've just done the plot of man on fire kind of Mark Anthony but we're complying the movies though we have to because like I'm not going to buy

Ben Affleck in the Renee Russo part you got to give him more to do How about Ben Affleck in the Stedbendman? That's what I'm saying. But if he's stepping for J-Lo, it's Ben Affleck, you got to give him more to do. You got to get it up. Yeah.

The Ransom remake is going to happen on Netflix or Apple or Amazon or whatever, and they'll completely screw up the casting and try to flip it in all these different ways. I can tell you who's not going to be producing it, us, because we just fumbled through that motherfucker. I love that. We could not find that. I like landing on J-Lo.

I thought that was good. More rewatchable scenes. Tom goes to deliver the money. I like the whole when you have to you have to go to a spot and then change clothes. You're in the weird locker room. You have to take the money out of one bag, put it in the other one.

And then he's on the phone with Senise. Like, why me? And Sanis is like, he's got the voice. I know you take that play off. I read about you and that union guy. You should have gone to jail for that. But I guess you're a pretty good liar, huh? I saw you on TV, Tom, telling everybody how innocent you were.

I looked at your eyes. You know what? You're a lion-ass dog, pal. I know you paid that guy off. You're a payer. You did it once. Now you're going to do it again. And doing that, so now it's like, oh, the plot.

So Tom's weakness was that he paid that other guy off. and laid the groundwork for the kidnappers now coming after him, all leading to Donnie Wahlberg's death scene. Donnie Wahlberg, the good kidnapper. Yeah, there's always one. There's always one. There's always the one that he's not totally positive

he should be doing this, and he's got a heart, and he'll sneak somebody a candy bar. The goonies. Yeah. Any prison movie, there's always the one good prison guard. Yeah, I'll sneak you one. Right.

I'll sneak you one. I won't call out everybody else or free you or actually be a good person or stop people from abusing you. But look, if you want a Snickers bar, I'm there for you. But I feel bad about this. I feel bad about this in some way,

but I'm still going to get my money at the end of the day. I didn't sign up to kill no kids. You know, I didn't sign up, hey, kidnapping a kid, traumatizing for the rest of the life, I'm on board. Killing him, it's a bitch too far for me. Next rewatchable scene, Tom realizing that they're probably going to kill his son.

And the switch goes off. My son is dead. But he's right. His instincts are right. He's going full street smarts on it. And he's like, oh, yeah. That when I was handing the money and I asked for the, you know, where are they going to drop the kid off? And the kid had, and the guy had no idea what I was talking about.

It's clear to me now they're going to murder my kid. And we have to have to audible our plan here. Good piece of riding there. Because when you go to the movie based upon a trailer where he goes, I'm just not going to pay it. you just think he goes straight up, I'm just not going to pay, which is unbelievable. But he has reason to suspect that they were going to kill his son, which we knew that they were anyway, because we're peeking into the bad guy's minds. And so the whole time, it's really him paying for his decision and whether or not he'll

have the boss to stick to doing what he knows is the right thing to do. Next scene. Tom goes on Channel 5, flips the ransom around. It's just fantastic. Let's, Craig's going to play that for us. Two million dollars and unmarked bills

just like you wanted. But this is as close as you'll ever get to it. You'll never see one dollar of this money. Because no ransom will ever be paid for my son. Not one dime, not one penny.

Instead, I'm offering this money as a reward on your head that are alive, it doesn't matter. So congratulations, you've just become a $2 million lottery ticket except the other are much, much better. Do you know anyone that wouldn't turn you in for two million dollars?

I don't think you do. I doubt it. So wherever you go and whatever you do, this money will be tracking you down for all time. And to ensure that it does, to keep interest alive, I'm running a full page ad in every major newspaper, every Sunday, for as long as it takes. But, and this is your last chance, you return my son, alive, on a full-page ad on any other day. alive, uninjured.

I'll withdraw the bounty. With any luck, you can simply disappear. Understand, you will never see this money. Not one dollar. So you still have a chance to do the right thing. If you don't, well then God be with you because nobody else on this earth will be. And then the looks of the people in the TV station, they're kind of horrified. They didn't like this.

No. Can't believe he went there. They don't know the backstory. He goes home. Rousseau is furious. And this is one of the many reasons we love Renee Rousseau. She can come with the full fire

of Mel, kind of break them down. Goes at him big time. And they have a really nice argument and a good moment. Pretty soon you realize if you don't return this kid in men condition as soon as possible you're going to be the most hunted man

on the face of the earth. And this maniac will never, ever quit until he's got you. Nobody pulls out on me. You know me. This is my show. I say when it's over. Take it back.

No. Tell him that you were wrong. Kate, no, I can't. No, Kate, there is no other way. He's my son too, and I want you to pay him. They will kill him. All we have is each other. Do you think any of them?

Do you think they give... It's just us. That's just a great stretch of the movie. Yeah, and shout out to Delroy Lindo. Yeah, Delroy. Delroy Lindo. Del Roy Lindo, who is having another moment now, but who already had a...

It's very... It's very rare that the actor gets two moments like Delroy Lindo is in now. After the Five Bloods and brilliant and amazing, I hope everyone gets a chance to see it the harder they fall. DeRoy Lindo is reminded people why audiences in the mid-90s loved him so much. And he's in a role that's pretty important as the good cop to Gary Seneas's bad cop. And so he's right there actually putting René Russo up to it going, hey, we need to pay, we need to pay, we need to pay.

I'm seven out of ten. I'm seven out of ten. Got back seven. Got back seven. So she's not only feeling that way because she's a mother, but she's feeling that way because she has like a law enforcement dude saying this is the right way to do and your husband's doing it wrong. Delroy runs it back.

He does a show called, I think it was called Kidnapped. It was an NBC show in the mid-2000s. Timothy Hutton is a rich guy. It's basically rips ransom off. they steal his kid and Del Roy is basically in the same job because I think he enjoyed being the good guy in the kidnapping

whatever's but Kidnapped was one of those there's a couple of things that come out in the mid-2000s pre-streaming that had they just waited five, six years would have been massive and I think that one of them I think Friday Night Lights was another one Friday Night Lights

was like five years too soon in some ways Friday Night Lights got big for a lot of people on streaming right yeah But initially it was like if you missed the first season, which I did, I had to go buy these Chinese DVDs on eBay that had subtitles underneath them. That was how I watched Friday Night Lights Season 1. Yeah. Right.

Because there was no way to watch it. I felt left out. I wanted to go back and watch it. That's what I had to do. It was the only way. Well, see, you met that wasn't the only way. You just didn't know. I used to, I had all of the wire seasons downloaded via Torrent site.

Yeah, I didn't know. I didn't know the whole Torrent game. That's my fault. That's not me. Right. I should have been better at Torrent. Three more rewatchable scenes. To give me back my son phone call.

Of course. Is out of control. You think he can threaten me, huh? Who do you think you're dealing with? Give me the money. No money. None. Let me tell you something.

You think you're suffering right now? Huh? You got no idea what suffering is. If I don't get the cash in one hour, this kid is dead. I don't get my son back. And I mean, real soon. You better kill yourself. Because when I catch up with you, I'm going to take my time.

By the time we're finished, you're going to wish you were. born. I'll have your hell. I'll kill him right now. I want to talk. You kill him. You kill yourself. Give me back my son. Hello. You want him?

Yes. You want him? It's so good. Mel's getting madder and matter. And that's where, I don't know what place Mel occupies in the hierarchy of different actors who can do certain things. But I'm not sure how many people, other people I would want in that scene. Like, is Damon, could Damon pull off that scene in the same way? where you're like, oh man, Mel's taking this to the limit now. Here we go with your whole Matt Damon thing.

Let's talk about it. Matt Damon. Matt Damon would be the logical guy if they're remaking ransom. Now, he would be the logical pick. If you're just running it back with no differences. And to be honest with you, I think he probably could. I think Matt, I think, because think about it, think about Matt Damon is essentially, and please, Matt,

don't go to moonshadows, bro. Like, Matt, please relax. Matt, just chill. Like, don't like, because don't, don't go to moonshadows. But Matt Damon is essentially that guy now because you need somebody. Because, remember, Mel Gibson at the beginning of this movie has to be movie star charming. Yep. You know, he has to do that whole, that whole thing.

And you have to, because maybe people, but he also has, he's got like a little swarmy side because he broke the law, the Jackie Brown situation, the whole nine. So Matt Damon probably is that guy now. I don't know. I'm trying to think of angry Matt Damon. Do we have a role that points to angry Matt Damon? I'm trying to think. He's had moments.

Like he did in Goodwell Hunting. He did some stuff. Oh, he was pretty angry. He can melt down, right? You know how fucking easy this is for me? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm crazy.

You little bastard. Why are you talking to these MIT guys like this? You know how fucking easy this is for me? This is a joke. And I'm sorry you can't do this. I'm sorry you can't do this. Yeah, that would be his vote for that. I'm like, I'm sorry you can't do this.

But you know how fucking easy this is like, I love that. Take it home with you. It's right. Trust me. Senes shoots the other kidnappers. You know somebody's shooting somebody. Once he keeps up in the bounty, which is the brilliant part of this movie. And then finally, they go at it. It's a really good shootout. It's well-constructed. You know where everybody is. He's turning around. It all works. And then the last one is just the Gibson versus Sinise when the kid peeing on himself. That's an all time. Gives and solely realizing it. That is an all-time, damn, movie moment for me. It's great.

That, like, the kid peeing on themselves, which they cut out. I had to watch this movie on T&T, on, like, Hulu on demand, which they take out. They took out the pee. Yeah, like, they should show the kid, whatever, but whatever, I couldn't get it on anywhere. That's why I had to re-watch it, and they took out the pee, which is interesting. I didn't think that there was anything particularly evolved on that. Yeah. That's an overreaction.

Yeah, that's really well done. My favorite scene, my most rewatchable scene, is the stretch from when he goes on to the TV station all the way through when he calls Sanis and give me back my son. And they really start playing chess at that point. So I'm going that. What do you got? So because that's the obvious rewatchable scene, that's the obvious one. I'm going to go, I'm going to give Gary Sanis a little love here.

The car driving to the ransom scene where he's talking about. the time machine and the Morlocks and all of that where we get if there's a reason that Garry St. Nice takes this role, it's that right there. Yeah. Because those are those are lines that any actor wants to give, you know, wants to talk about his commentary on the rich. Also, bad cop moment. We talk a lot about copaganda and its place in the culture in the 90s and the 80s. This one is a bad cop, which they didn't do very, very much around that time. And it was just starting to do a little bit more of it. But, you know, Yeah, so I really enjoy the tension in that scene to acting greats going against each other.

So you wanted more dirty cop in your mid-90s movies? Yes, I like a... But by the way, they started getting to it a little bit. You had Copeland, you had the Glass Shield. You had a lot of those movies that came around during that time and really first started to explore it, you know? I really liked the Glass Shield. I thought that was a good one. Glass Shield was good.

Yeah. I forgot to mention before we get to What Stage the Best, the Ron Howard run that he's a on right now where at some point he became anointed as one of the next great directors because he has all his movies in the 80s. He does night shift and splash and cocoon and gung-ho. Then he kind of moves into more dramatic, Ron Howard.

Parenthood, backdraft, far and away was a miss. The paper, which I still feel like had so much more potential than what they ended up with in that movie, but I still kind of like it. Apollo 13, I think, was his big swing. And then he starts getting a little weird. He does Ransom.

He does Ed TV, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and then a beautiful mind. And that's when it finally happens. He never quite gets there with any movie until a beautiful mind. So that's the interesting thing about Ron Howard for me. When I went back and watched this movie, I didn't remember that he directed it. Yeah. Like when I went back, the interesting thing about Ron Howard was that, like, far and away is still one of the oddest cinematic experiences I've had in my life. didn't. I still don't understand it.

I don't get far away. I don't know why anybody wanted to be in it. Why didn't Tom Cruise? Why was he like, I'm going to have an Irish accent? Because of the bare knuckles boxer. Because to our point, remember what I said earlier? That was Tom Cruise actually trying to get his epic, I can do this really, really weighty, dramatic chop saw situation. He thought that was going to be in. The movie is just odd. It's an odd movie. But Ron Howard was a guy that had made enough movies that I absolutely beloved. that in that stretch that, you know, kind of made it viable. But also he was kind of up and down a little bit.

Totally agree. And didn't really get to this is a creative, gold-minted A-plus director until a beautiful mind. And that was a little later, yeah. And then it tails off again and he's doing DaVinci Code. He's grabbing checks, let's be honest. DaVinci Code. People love those movies, though.

Frost Nixon. I think Frost Nixon is fantastic. And then in 2013 he made Rush, which is my favorite Ron Howard movie. Interesting. Never saw it. I love Rush. I think that's like a really brilliantly directed movie. And I think he did the best job with that out of anything other than beautiful money.

That's my Ron Howard take. The Cinderella Man is in there somewhere as well, right? Yeah, that one didn't work for me. You don't like the Cinderella Man. It's fine. Yeah. I wouldn't, if it was on tonight, I wouldn't watch it. Right.

All right, we'd take one more break. We'll do the rest of the categories. What's Age the Best? The Gibson-Ruso combo, I was trying to think of other actor-actress combos that have been in multiple movies where they played different characters

and they basically ran back together in another movie because they just had chemistry. It's a pretty rare thing. Like we saw Julia Roberts and Richard Gear did it, right? They were in Pretty Woman and then they were in the Runaway Bride and it doesn't happen that often where people go,

oh, I love seeing those two together. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. I was just about to say Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. They did it with You Got Mail. They came back. But even in that, it didn't quite work because people kept comparing the movie to Sleepers in Seattle. I love You Got Mail, though. I'm trying to think. Sana Lathan, Omar Epps.

Sinai Lathan and Omar Epps. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, correct? Oh, that's a good one. Craig suggested that one. That's it. Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling's a good one. It doesn't happen that often. They go from crazy stupid love, and then they come back in La La La Land.

Jay Laugh and Bradley Cooper were in multiple movies together. that was more of a David O. Russell thing. Probably. Probably. I will say that if all of those, my favorite would be Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Because it feels like they could make another movie now that would be completely different. Oh, and I guess Winslet

and Leo, because they did Revolutionary Road and Titanic. Yeah. Yeah, you'd have to put them up there. I'm ready for them to do another one together. Yeah, but it better not be like Revolutionary Road. I'm not going through that again. Jesus Christ, man. Like Leo likes to make

movies I call one hit or quitters I mean don't get me wrong Wolf of Wall Street has very high rewatchability but I'll never watch the Revenue again and I'll never watch Revolutionary Road again Jesus Christ kick me in my nuts

The movie's very very hard To wrap your head around man I think the number one movie for that for me is a million dollar baby I haven't watched one moment of that since I saw in the theater I never want to go back You know what the crazy thing is

I rewatched watch it all the time, because it comes on, but I get out way before I know she's paralyzed. Oh, yeah. Because I still don't understand. I get it. But that really comes out of nowhere in that movie. It's a terrible choice. I don't get it.

It really is so stupid. I can't believe it. Fantasy and I talked about this once. The most disturbing movie you've actually rewatched when it's on. For me, it's United 93. I think that movie's really well done. I can't believe when it's on. I'm like, oh, cool.

They're about to charge the cockpit again. Like, why would anybody watch that a second time? Nid a half. So I remember I was going to see United 93. And I remember I read a review. I can't remember who made the review. And the guy said it in the review, he just goes, the interesting about that movie is, like, you know,

like what's going to happen. It's like, the minute they closed the door on the fuselage to the plane, like, everybody on the plane is, I was like, nah, fuck that. I can't, I can't do it. I've never seen it. Like, I was like, nah, I can't. It's, it's, it's, exceptionally well done.

It really is. He got nominated the director for an Oscar. Oh, no, it was a big, big, huge deal, but I just, I couldn't, I couldn't do it, man. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll one day I'll sit down. No, fuck it.

No, I'm not doing that. No, like, I'm not doing it, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't. I've never seen it. I think this is the most tangents you and I have ever gone on in the rewatchables. People were already up to four.

Morewood's age the best. I love the chess match aspect of Seneas and Gibson. Yeah. When it really, when they really start going. It does a good job of that. This movie's well-written.

It's well-constructed, well-written. It's a great script. It really is. I'm going to shout out. I never do this when I do the movies. Show a shout-out. The writer, a bunch of writers. Cyril Hume, Richard Malbom.

Richard Price wrote the screenplay. He's a real guy. Okay, Morwood's stage the best. Your kidnappers, if you're just going the blanket, dumbest way possible to remember them. Our kidnappers in this movie, are Lieutenant Dan, bald Californication buddy, new kid on the block number two,

HBO narrator guy, and Lily Taylor. Those are five. Bald Californication guy is one of those guys. I got to be honest with you. I'm watching the movie and I'm like, yo, why do I fucking know this guy? Yeah, he's bald Californication guy. He's bald Californication guy. Who would get it on on that show?

Yeah, like California cation, yeah, he was That show was like basically porn. Yeah, it was for sure. Great time. Great times for showtime. But yeah, and then Lily Taylor, Lily Taylor, who I dig as naturally.

She's pretty good. Yeah, she's good. She's had a lot of nice ones. Mention Donnie Wahlberg is the good kidnapper. I love, we did victory a few months ago, and Max von Saito was the good Nazi. I like when it's the most horrible job possible, but there's one person who's semi-redeemable,

and they always make a big plan to plan it up. And then early email. I was thinking, I think I got AOL in 1996. There's an actual email where Mel Gibson gets an email where email is used as a plot device. Like, oh, you got an email. This must be important before like email just became part of our lives. And it looked like they had an email machine. Yeah.

Because they're making this in 95. Right. And so, guys, I know people laugh and shit like this. Yeah. But I used to be so scared of stuff like that. people will be like one day electronic mail will replace actual mail and I'll be like, yo, what does that mean?

Does that mean the world's going to end if we don't have any mail? That's what happens in the postman. So like it But so like that for him to have you have an email for that to be that big of a deal in the theater we were like oh shit he must really be rich. Oh, we got an email. Yeah, he got an email. I wasn't getting emails then.

The hell. Yeah, I want to do maybe in 2022 we'll do a series of movies that tried to predict where technology was going, but did it horribly. Because the net is like number one for this. Yeah, then that's pretty bad with that. Disclosure is a close number two. And both of those movies are really fascinating

with their relationship with technology. Ransom just has a moment. But there's other movies from that era that they know something's coming, but nobody knows what it's going to look like or the shape of it. And it's kind of hilarious. In Disclosure, they think you put on gloves

and go in virtual rooms and grab emails. Like, they really thought this is what the world what's going to look like. I'll be honest with you, man. I have trouble with the plot of disclosure because it's tough. That wasn't, but that wasn't what disclosure was about for me. Disclosure

was about Demi Moore. She's... Jesus. I had to control in that movie. Yeah. She's... That's an idea. Like, that was...

Disclosure was... Like, disclosure was about Demi Moore to me. Like, she took over the whole aura of that. Another big actress that was just once again, that, like, René Ruse would be say Renee Russo never got her

Renee, but Dimmore did. Even though Disclosure she was Michael Douglas, she got strip T's and she got G.I. Jane and she got all those movies that made her a singular thing, you know? It's easily her most impressive performance. I don't think it's the best movie she made, but she is a dominant

alpha force in that movie. A complete force of nature in the film. Unusually charismatic. Any other with Sage the best for you? I think the crew was one of the ones that aged the best because I think the crew is like, it's such a consequential group, but this movie has a sneaky good cast. All good actors, yeah, you're right.

All good actors, yeah. So, and so I looked at those guys and they all played their positions. You know, casting Donnie Wahlberg was stunt casting in 96, and now that dude's gone on to, I mean, he's on season 17 of Blue Bloods. Right. He's been a lot of different stuff. He's been, I think, a successful actor, but at the time, I was like, Donnie Wahlberg's in this?

What the fuck? Yeah. Yeah. And he's good. Yeah, what's age the best to me is the narrative of the dirty cop I think is probably what age the best right there and the lead guy being a dirty cop.

So what's age the worst? The rich billionaire is the hero of an action movie. I think it's easy. It's just hilarious. Mel Gibson. Well, I'll tell you that's just the Mel Gibson, the Mel Gibson career.

So look, so you know what's interesting? Interesting. The rich billionaire as the hero of a movie has aged the worst unless let me throw a curveball at you here, Bill. You count Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne.

Oh, so can only be in comic books. It can only exist. The Marvel Universe. We're going to carve that out. It can only exist in comic books. But that goes back to what you said before. Those guys are using their wealth for good. For good. Right. For good. For good. Yeah.

So what's age the worst? Once again, I'm sorry, you say what now? Well, I had just Mel Gibson. Oh, yeah. This stuff, yeah. Come on, Mel. Jesus. A.J. Benza's cameo, his age just terribly?

Fucking horribly. It's, like, kind of unbelievable he's in this. At that point, though, he was like, the cool guy doing what he was. The cool gossip guy. And he had a whole moment. And then, like, really, five years from now, five years from then, I say, he's like having fist fights on the Howard Stern show. Yeah.

Like, he just completely lost whatever thing that. he had. He was almost Harvey before Harvey was. The kid torture stuff probably dials it up, I would say 25% too much. I'm not sure whether it had to be that mean to the kid. Interesting. I don't fully understand it. Obviously, that is aged poorly, but I gotta say, I felt that way at the time.

Oh, okay. Well, it was 20% a little too hardcore for me. Didn't jump out at me. They played loud music, put duct tape over his eyes and did stuff. Like, didn't jump out for me then. I still feel like he, you know, it's just like, that's what happens. You get to kidnap it's bad. Every time I see a kidnapping movie, I always wonder about the bathroom situation.

How do they deal with that? Yeah, you figure people go to the bathroom five times a day. There's probably one deuce in there. What do they do? One doze every day? I'm just saying at least one, one. You get in your fiber in, bro. I'm saying minimum one.

Could be some people are like three to four. Yeah, to be honest with you, I think that they also in these movies, that's the reason why I like this one. There was angst around how they actually care for the kid. It was a task that nobody really wanted to do. There was angsts around. They were annoyed by having to take care of a dog.

Casting what-ifs. Ron Howard turned down the offer to direct the chamber to direct this movie. The chamber, a grizzan movie that didn't totally work. Then he got involved in the casting. first choice for Jimmy Shaker was Alec Baldwin. Oh, damn, that sucks for Alex. Alec turned it down.

He said it was, he didn't like the sinister nature of the child. He didn't like how, or the character, didn't like how they endangered a child, so he was out. Then they go to Ray Leota. Wow. Ray Leota's like, I'm out. I don't like, I don't like how kids are treated in the script,

and Senes was third choice. Okay, well. Oh, so Alex Baldwin and Ray Leota were there for the Senise role? Yes. Not the Mel Gibson, bro. Okay, so see, that's different because I remember hearing Alec Baldwin say that he felt like

his movie career was a failure because he had never been the driving force behind the movie that was huge, huge box office-wise or huge, huge... Well, he fucked that up, though. He had Jack Ryan and he fucked it up. He fucked it up. Jack Ryan, he should have made seven Jack Ryan movies.

Right. He was a great Jack Ryan, by the way. Yeah, I can see a lot of guys pass him on that role. He's... There's on Amazon right now. There's a movie called Malice that he's in with Nicole Kidman. See it. And he's just really great in that movie.

He had a nice little run that. Yeah. Yeah. God complex? I am God. I am God. I have a degree from here, degree from there, blah, blah, blah, blah. I am God. Yeah.

So, yeah, he, uh... Anyone who watches that movie, which is shit, it's a sork and script. B.B. Nureworth is in that movie and has the worst Boston accent that anyone has ever recorded in a movie. It is an absolute train wreck of a Boston accent that is makes the movie rewatchable just in itself. I don't know what she's doing. Best that guy, aka the Joey Pants a word.

Dan Hadea, I feel like is Dan Hadea, I feel like is Dan. Hadea. He's in there as like Jackie Brown. But I think it's bald Californication guy. I still don't know what that guy's name is. I don't know what his name is either. He is in that movie. I also saw randomly

and I don't know why this jumps out of me. She's not big enough for that guy. But when they're cutting to people that they're talking to on camera, one of the ladies, she's an Asian lady, she's the driver from what about Bob? Remember what she says?

we have a baby schedule to keep. Yeah, this is one of my favorite lines in the movie. She goes, come on, Bob, we have a baby schedule to keep. She's not a that girl or that guy because she's too small a rope, but it just jumped out of me. I'd never seen her anything else and she's in this. But, yeah, it either be Dan Hadea. Who's Dan Hadea or Ball California? I think he's Dan Hadea.

Yeah. Bald Californication guys, great. Vince and Hannah, give me all you got a word for overacting. Mel Diles it to fuck up in this movie a couple of times. He's got to get it. The give me back my son is about as he's on 19 out of 10. I loved it. I'm not criticizing it, but he dials it up.

There's definitely male, a little bit honorable mention for Leah Friber just because he's so one note in everything. Can I tell you something? What? I think he's had some like kind of pretty subpar performance as movies. I think he's been good in some. There's some Leav Schreiber movies where you're just like, what's going to? going on here? Is this one of them? Yeah, I don't think he's good in this movie.

I should have put him in what stage or worse. Right. Right. I don't know what's going on with him. Are you upset that your brother just got shot? Like, are you mad at Gary Sinise? Like, I don't get his character, though. The DM Waiter's a word. It's a two-man race

between our guy, Donnie Wahlberg, and the guy I think should be the winner, Del Rey, Lindo, who I think is he's in just few enough scenes that I think he's eligible and I think he's good. I'm gonna tell you where he won it. He won it in the scene where

the phone rings and then he runs over and gets in his face as if he's like a corner man in a 12 round championship fight. Right. He's got to go out that champ. He's got to get him. He's getting tired. And he's like giving him all the shit

right before he has to pick up the phone. And I'm thinking there's no way this guy's gonna fucking remember all of this. He's in a crisis situation. But that's the scene where he got it for me. recasting couch ironically I had I was bumping Leav Schreiber in this spot right here let's throw a little Ben Affleck in here it's like pre-goodwill hunting couple scenes

say right before he got his teeth fixed he's a little skinny I think I could have seen him in here as the Leav Schreiber character yeah yeah a little more star power what do you use this again it's they made it it released in 96 they made it 95 so he's like oh he's there yeah he's right there he's in the middle he hasn't made Goodwell hunting yet but he's about

to make chasing Amy. Right. Chasing Amy, Mallrats era was here. This was a little after the Brendan Fraser movie. The other one I would have said was Jason Lee. A little Jason Lee, maybe. Jason Lee, it's, he's like, he's a little different.

It's going to be like a little funny. Maybe it gets a couple of wise-ass comments out. He's going to get some wise-ass comments. Maybe that's what this needed. It might have needed a couple of wise-ass comments. But that was the ballhead Californication guys rolled to be the wise-ass there. Didn't work. Didn't work.

It didn't work. hard to find good stuff on this. The biggest thing was that production was delayed because Mel Gibson needed an emergency appendectomy and it really screwed up the schedule of it. And it was supposed to come out in 95. They filmed all this in 95 and they had to push it to 96. Because the appendectomy screwed it up. The other thing is the kid is played by Broly Naltie, who is Nick Nalty's son. I did not even think about that until I looked at the the credits were rolling before, and I'm like, Noltee, it's got to be.

I've never had another Nolty before. Then I looked it up like that kid's Nick Nolte's kid. Did he just jump out of the game? I think he did a couple more, and that was it. He was out. He was like, I don't want to do this. Yeah, research. You would have thought he would have been a comeback, but no.

Apex Mountain. Mel Gibson, I think it's Braveheart the year before. Sure, of course. They're coming off that. Radee Russo made this movie in Tinkup in the same year. I would argue she never had more juice than 1996. Yeah. It's a pretty big combo of movies. And she's playing off Costner, who we didn't even mention earlier when we were talking about like the A-List actors at their peaks at this point. She's off Costner and Gibson in the same year. That's pretty good. Yeah. Apex Mountain for her. Apex Mountain for kidnapping movies? Made a lot of money. Made a lot of money and also was very overtly telling us that this was a kidnap movie. Yeah. Yeah, you might be right. Yeah. That's why I thought. Maybe the Apex Mountain, the most popular kidnapping movie ever.

Do Ray Lindo, it's not his Apex Mountain, but raises the question, what was his Apex Mountain? He's just been doing solidly good work for a long time. And I don't really know what it is. Well, had he been nominated for the Academy Award for the Five Bloods, it certainly would have been that. But he's older at that point. Like, it's near the end of his career, right? So you're saying, yeah, I guess so. I'm going

I'm going through the Quirkley Yeah There's this I was thinking There's this run From He's got Crooklyn

94 And then Clockers 95 Get Shorty He's in Broken Arrow But he's not like Carrying those movies Ransom Devil's Advocate He's like barely

The Devil's Advocate He's one of those guys That I'm not sure Had the Apex It was just he was just steady For If he had an APEC If he had an APEC

If he had an Apex, it had to have been Crooklyn. If he had an apex, it had to be Crooklyn. Crooklyn was maybe, because there was really no, never a Delroy Lindo device. They never really gave it to Delroy like that. He was just, uh... See the lead in Crooklin? It did set up a bunch of character actors.

It's him. Yeah, Alfred Woodward. Yeah, you're right. He was the lead. Yeah, you're probably right. So I would give, I would say it would be Crooklyn. Gary Sinise, I'd probably say Apollo 13, coming off Gump. the combo of that where it just seemed like he was going to be Tommy Lee Jones. I had a couple more.

You had kidnapping movies. We did that. The Gibson Rousseau combo, I think, was peeking right around now. And then I was thinking Jackie Brown as a movie character, we had this. And then the next year there's a Jackie Brown movie. This is the mid-nidious. Jackie Brown Heights. Right.

The apartment slash condo that Mel Gibson and Renee Rousseau have in this movie, is that the apex mountain for you for a rich guy New York apartments? That thing's fucking amazing. I actually could have watched a half hour scene of just where was it? What were they looking at? Just like a deleted scene of just where was this? Central Park? It was the first time that I can remember being in the movie

because I'm from a place where people don't do that, right? From Louisiana. So the first thing that you do when you get super paid is go buy a ridiculous plot of land and build a way too big house on it, right? with a pond and horses and all of that. So this was like one of the first times in the movie. I was like, they're a billionaire. Why are they living in an apartment? But I had no concept of a high-rise apartment.

But it's like a three-story apartment basically. There's a three-story apartment. I had no concept of it. I just thought everything was a loft like in big. I wish Juliet was here because Juliet would have an opinion on the best high-end real estate in New York in a movie. I think there's other candidates. Gecko is a good one too.

Pickinets. that TV station's calling Tom a multi-millionaire, I thought was weird. I think he's worth... There's some word between billionaire and multimillionaire that he... But I don't think we have the word. Just that the... Jimmy jumping the gun on getting the ransom and that whole thing felt sloppy to me.

That's my biggest nitpick in this movie. He... I guess he's thinking, I have three days before they make the connection with me in Lily Taylor's character. I got to make a move now. But just him showing up out-announced for his ransom? Well, where are Mel's security guards?

Like, we're led to believe he's pretty rich. Where's, like, his bodyguard that's just always there. Everything about it just feels off. So for me, they led you, they telegraph that by saying, hey, a lot of people believe the mastermind is still out there. They show a picture of the girl.

There's bound to be someone that connects him to the girl. And at that point, there's going to be no real. reason for him to have a connection to the girl so he was just in panic mode so I can get with that a little bit. I guess my thing is his relationship with her, I never was really sold on.

Like, even a beginning and then even now, like, when he hesitates and killing her after and he seems to be kind of haunted by her death, for some reason, they didn't do enough to sell me that they were really something for real to where it would bother him like

it did. And that was a big part the dynamic in the kidnappers' crew. So if I was picking it, I didn't buy them, yeah. I also needed the scene of Renee and Mel lying in bed at night really upset that their kid's gone. Even if it was like 30 seconds of just them both lying in bed looking at the ceiling. So there was like a connective scene with them that this movie didn't have. We had big splashy scenes. But you just, you've one kid.

The kid just got kidnapped. Yeah. I need to see some sort of like private intimate interaction that those. doesn't have 20 people around. And I also needed to see them with security when they're playing with the kid at the end of the movie, right? Yeah, they're just back on the horse. They're just back on the horse playing fucking soccer

in the middle of the thing. And, okay, we're not going to keep our eyes off of them. Nah, I think at this point. Also, that kid was just kidnapped. He doesn't want to go outside again. Play soccer. Like, yeah, I need to see something. Like, he, at this point, that's when you hired,

it's like five, Ukrainian soldiers that can like watch over a entire time. Andrew Galada. Andrew Galada is in that scene sitting right next to them with a gray suit on. And then he says shouldn't be a problem

like three times setting up when they're like, you have to put this right, you have to cash this story, shouldn't be a problem. And this movie really hinges on shouldn't be a problem being said enough times that it becomes a trigger for Mel Gibson. I just think the moment he

realizes that's the guy, he's just jumping across the table and fighting him. Yeah. And he's also, he's got his arm in a sling. He's got one arm. Mel Gibson, who later we see, he's just running through the streets of New York, jumping cars, throwing people through plate-ass windows. Pretty sure he could take the guy with one arm. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, maybe. Those are my nitpicks. The end of the movie, too, they do the whole, uh, so Tom, don't shoot him. Don't shoot him, Tom. Yeah. I'd never like to. don't shoot him.

Why do they do that? Let's retire that. Put the gun down. Tom, no. No, Tom. No, Tom. Put the, put the gun down. Not like this, Tom. Not like this.

Tom, let's be honest. If Tom pops that guy right there, he's not going to jail one day in his fucking life. So like, get off of it. The dude had a gun. They were fighting. Just, hey, Tom, we got him now. Why don't you just move in and take the guy? You know, Tom's not going to shoot you.

So, like, it's just, I don't. like when they do that. Also, the guy definitely has a second gun on his leg. We've all seen enough times. He's like, oh, he put his gun away. There's probably no other gun on his body. Could this be remade as a 10 episode Netflix show is our next category?

Absolutely. Yeah, as long as we don't do it. Because we had trouble nailing it down. Of course, they did ones like this. I actually think it's better as a... This is one of those things as much as I enjoy the movie and I think it's rewatchable. I actually think it works better as a season one.

We just dive in. We get to know the crew more and get a little more backstory and the Jackie Brown meeting guy. I get some prison stuff with him. Yeah, because the Jackie Brown stuff

is kind of stuff. It gets thrown in. It just kind of gets thrown in. If I was to go back picking nits or what age is the worst, is the whole Jackie Brown storyline. You kind of don't need it. Well, I think they use it as a red herring

to think that Jackie Brown is a good. To make everybody think that's a guy. Yeah. So it's a red herring thing, but it's like the Russian in the woods. It doesn't make a ton of sense. Probably an answerable questions.

who is Tom Mullen right now? Interesting. As a, like in real life? Yeah. Is it like Mark Andresen? Is it Chris Saka? I have no idea who those people are. I'm laughing because I don't know what the fuck is talking.

Is it the guy who owns Jit Blue? Is it somebody who has an internet presence in some way? Is it Mark Cuban? Is it Mark Cuban? Is he the owner of like a, NBA team. Is it one of the Shark Tank guys? Because Mark Cuban is it one of the Shark Tank guys.

Mark Cuban is among the more likable billionaires in the world. Chris Saka was on Shark Tank. Listen to this podcast. He's been on my podcast for it. I'm going to go to Chris Saka. Who is Chris Saka again? What does he do? He's a billionaire investor person.

What is he? But what is he done? Like what is he? A lot of investing. Invested in things. But like what, though? Like what is he? Some of the best stuff.

like Uber, all that shit. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah. But there's always one thing that I like to connect the billionaires to, except for Warren Buffett who like owns like everything, right? The holding, Bershaw-Harthaway is the holding company,

owns a bunch of shit. And makes friends with athletes, which I like how he does that. And rappers. Yeah. Warren Buffett just gets you to a point to where he goes, okay, you're successful enough. Come over here so you can drop me in some of your lyrics.

Right. You know? It's smart. Very smart. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? I'd like the apartment. That would be my apartment. piece of memorabilia. Can I just have that entire

apartment? If it's real, if it's real, I'll take the $4 million. How about that as some memorabilia? Just like, parked that over here. Oh, the bag of fake cash would be fun. I've always wanted a bag of fake cash. Fate cash. You can get to believe it. So go to the strip club, spend it. It's dark

in there. But no, actually, it's the phone. It's the phone that he used to disguise his voice. Yeah, the phone is kind of awesome. The phone disguiser. That was a fun air of phone disguising. There's a lot of phone I don't really think that works, and I think it took a while for people to realize don't put that stuff in movies because it's not actually a real thing that can work. There's also the reception is great in this movie for 1996.

Right. He's driving in cars. There's no dead spots. You would film this movie now and it'd be like, that's a little unrealistic. There are no dead spots. Yeah, they're driving around and it's like, you know, even with the walkie-talkies and stuff, like the walkie-talkies have crazy range and all of that. It's just, it's interesting.

Who on the movie? it's got to be Mel. Yeah. One last time. Give him one more just for the hell of it. Mel! Come on, man.

Why? I can't even watch the man without a face now, Mel. Jesus. Why? Jesus, Mel. Crazy. Mel's back, though.

Mel's back. Did you see that? Mel's back. They're putting Mel in the John Wick prequel movie. Yeah, people got mad about that. I thought it was interesting, how hard it was to find this movie, considering I literally have 15 different streamer

subscriptions at this point. And it's like between Hulu, HBO Max, Showtime, Stars, Peacock, Paramount Plus, Apple, let's go through all of them. You could not fucking find this movie. It was on the TNT app. I watched it on demand on spectrum through T&T. Right.

Couldn't find the movie. That's how I did it. Right. How is this not? Where are all these streamers? They're all looking for movies. I don't know. I wonder if he's been a little bit canceled

on the streaming side unless it's like lethal weapon. Well, I don't know. I don't stream very many Mel Gibson movies, but I did say when I was looking for the film, like Payback popped up. Some other movies popped up, which are I like Payback,

but that's kind of like down the road, Mel. I really like Payback. Payback's a good movie. Yeah, that's a good movie, yeah. Good old school, Mel. All right, Ransom. Van Lathan. A pleasure, as always.

Always, man. Appreciate you. As always, this podcast was produced by Craig Horlebeck. You can hear him on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. And you can hear this podcast a week from now. I think I know what movie we're doing. And I think I'm excited about it. I'll see you next week.