The Rewatchables - 'Step Brothers' With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey

Episode Date: July 13, 2018

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey just became best friends and are off to the Catalina Wine Mixer to rewatch 2008’s hilarious comedy ‘Step Brothers,’ starring Will Ferr...ell and John C. Reilly and directed by Adam McKay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 We started out this podcast on three bunk beds. And now here it comes, the rewatchables. When their parents got married, Dale and Brennan became stepbrothers. Hey, you're guts. You don't say that. From the guys who brought you Talidae Goodnight. If you were a chick, who's the one guy you would sleep with. John Stamos.
Starting point is 00:00:17 Did we just become best friends? Yep. Step brothers made it all. All right, you guys voted for it. Step brothers. I'm shocked. I was shocked how the poll went. This podcast is a fucking prison.
Starting point is 00:00:32 We opened it up on Twitter on my account. Gave you two choices. Stepbrothers or Tom Cruise movie TBD. Thought Cruz was going to win in a walk. What we learned is Step Brothers is really, really popular. Sounds like somebody's getting used to the idea that Twitter and democracy don't always go hand in hand. I don't like it. I don't like it.
Starting point is 00:00:56 I feel like part of the problem there is that you guys already did the two most rewatchable Tom Cruise movies. You already did Jerry McGuire. You already did a few. you good men. True. You know what we're going to do? Much to your chagrin? Collateral. Collateral is happening. I'm out. Every 20 episodes, Chris and I get to do a movie that only we really care about the most. Just launch a subscription-only Patreon for a Michael Man podcast. That's a good side hustle for you. I might do that. Why not? Maybe. Maybe. Every 100 episodes, we go deeper and deeper into the man catalog. And then we, the biggest one is a four-hour extravagance on Black Hat.
Starting point is 00:01:32 Well, that's what maybe we'll donate the proceeds to a four-hour director's kind of blackout. You won't be able to do that because that will be the day when we shudder the ringer. Stepbrothers, we did an oral history on it on Tuesday on the ringer. And a lot of anecdotes to be gleaned from that. Will Ferrell and I talked about Stepbrothers for a while on my podcast last summer. We're going to put that at the tail end of this after we're done. He talked about it for 10, 12 minutes. I think one of the surprising things with this movie is the belated kind of brilliance of it.
Starting point is 00:02:08 It took people two years to get going. And I think there's some factors for it. I theorized with Will Ferrell when we did the podcast last year that I think part of it was he just had so many good movies. There was almost a little Will Ferrell fatigue. Adam McKay agrees with this theory, by the way, where it was almost like a LeBron type situation where he's good every year. And then there's that year where you just vote LeBron like fifth for MVP. It's stupid. And I think that was part of it.
Starting point is 00:02:35 But as Adam pointing out, the other part is, once it's on cable. And it was just one of those movies. I watched it again last night. And I think I laughed harder last night than I did the other times. It just gets funnier. There's not a lot of movies like that that gains steam that are comedies. I think almost every scene in this movie is funny, too. There's not like down, there's not like valleys like Dora would like say like there's like, my
Starting point is 00:03:02 favorite Bill Murray movies all have. like 20 minute stretches where it's like Stripes is an action movie now for like a little while. Yeah, that's tough. There's nothing like that in this movie. Every single scene, you're like, I can't believe I'm watching this. And they take every single, it's like, oh, they have to get from like in the car
Starting point is 00:03:17 to the house or they have to drive from this to this. And they use every single moment as an opportunity to make these guys seem more and more certifiable. Yeah, I think it's also the last truly canonical Will Ferrell movie. Yeah. He's made a lot of really funny movies since this movie, but this is the last one where if you're doing the Hall of Fame plaque,
Starting point is 00:03:37 like it's on the plaque. You have to say stepbrothers goes in. And it comes off this incredible run of movies that he and McKay did consecutively. So Farrell from 2001 to 2008, Zoolander, old school, elf, anchorman, kicking and screaming, bewitched, tall dega nights, blades of glory, semi-pro, stepbrothers. It's not LeBron making eight straight finals, but it's close. Yeah, it's close. There's like five finals.
Starting point is 00:04:02 There's funny stuff in all. A couple of championships in those. When are we doing the Bewitched rewatchables? I had forgotten that happened until I saw it on the IMDB. Who was the female in that? Nicole Kidman. That was a big movie. That was a big movie with a big budget.
Starting point is 00:04:15 Yeah. And it was a big failure. Was it bad or were people just tired of Will Ferrell? It was really high concept and I think pretty confusing. It was about like a movie star who was starring in the remake of Bewitched, but she also had the same powers as the character in Bewitched. It was very, very odd film. So that's an eight.
Starting point is 00:04:33 year run I just banged out. To put it in perspective, Jim Carrey 94 to 2000. Ace Ventura of the Mass, dumb and dumber, Ace 2, cable guy, liar, liar. Me, myself and Irene. Adam Sandler, 95 to 99. Billy Madison, happy Gilmore.
Starting point is 00:04:49 Bulletproof. Do you ride for Bulletproof? Underrated. Sure. I ride for a tiny bit. Wedding singer, Waterboy, Big Daddy. The comedians. Should the gleam in Sean's eye.
Starting point is 00:05:01 Big Daddy? I was really coming of age during that. just really is a Sandler guy. Big Day. I like Sandler. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was a bandchild at that time.
Starting point is 00:05:10 Big Daddy is flat out a good movie still to this day. I ride for Big Daddy. Yeah, it's good. It's fine. My point is... Good John Stewart performance. It's really hard to get eight straight years. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:19 We've seen four. We've seen five. We've seen six. I think comedians have a shelf life with leading a movie probably four to five years, I would say. And that goes back to the Bill Murray era where you have, you know, you have... meatballs, caddyshack, stripes, all the way through Ghostbusters, and then comedians either,
Starting point is 00:05:40 you kind of figure them out like a pitcher or they want to get more dramatic. Yeah, we've seen it over and over again. Eddie Murphy, I wrote about Mike Myers earlier this year, a very similar situation. Eddie Murphy's the gold standard. He was 82 to 88, but even that was seven years, not eight.
Starting point is 00:05:54 Yeah, and it doesn't mean that your career is over after that. You can still have the nutty professor 12 years later, but it's just not that run that we always talk about. And what's funny is, he's on S&L. He's an immediate star. And the movie's success didn't translate right away for whatever reason. We're talking about Will or Eddie?
Starting point is 00:06:12 Will Ferrell. 96. Actually, it was 95. It was October 95, starts with SNL. Made a couple movies. He was a Night of the Roxbury, which I actually enjoy.
Starting point is 00:06:26 But it was until 01 that he kind of took off. And then you saw over the course of that decade, there was the McKay-Farrell combo and that whole school of people and then you had the Vince Vaughn and the Wilson brothers and that's all happening and just really great run of comedies
Starting point is 00:06:47 and now I don't know where we are with comedies I was just trying to wonder who's Will Ferrell today is it Kevin Hart? I mean, is it Tiffany Haddish? Like who's basically the comedian that you think cannot only open a movie? Tiffany Addish has made one and a half movies. I know.
Starting point is 00:07:01 I mean, like, I mean, we're basically, like, betting on future performance there. But, like, I was trying to imagine, like, who, I think commercially it's probably Hart. But is there, like, an exciting film comedian right now? Chris, what about Bateman, your boy? Bateman. He's 70 all his talents for the intrigue of the Ozarks, man. That's right. I think Haddish is a good one to tip for the future.
Starting point is 00:07:24 She has night school coming out later this year with Kevin Hart. They're obviously trying to, you know, shift some of his energy onto her energy to make her a big movie star, whether that works, I don't know, we'll see. I don't think we really have a center of the comedy universe right now with the movies, though. It's a weird time. We were coming out of the Rogan period, I guess, right? Yeah, Tovian takeover. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:46 And then I guess kind of there is that game night. And Rogan was never like, he made good movies, but I never felt like he was on like that Will Ferrell level. Yeah, I feel like a bunch of people are trying to make Will Ferrell-esque movies now without Will Ferrell. So even Will Ferrell is making what was bringing down the house and then there's tag this year in Game Night.
Starting point is 00:08:08 These sort of like high concept really loose improv-heavy movies. For this decade, it's pretty wide open. I mean, Melissa McCarthy might be in the conversation. But she made a couple and I really like the heat. I thought it was funny. She has had a lot of big hits. It's the funniest performance
Starting point is 00:08:23 anyone's had the movie this year or this decade other than Tiffany Haddish and Girls Trip. It's one or the other. I don't think there's been a minute. performance this decade that was as funny as either of those. I'll agree with that.
Starting point is 00:08:35 I think one of the things that has happened, too, is that one of the quote-unquote funniest movies of the year is Deadpool 2. And now, like, what a comedy is, has kind of moved into other kinds of movies. It's super funny like that, yeah. It doesn't, we don't just have as many standalone comedies.
Starting point is 00:08:48 You know, we have Game Night, we have blockers. Like, Ant Man and the Wasp is as much a comedy as anything that's out right now. I think one of the things that failed was the SNL feeder system. Kate McKinnon has a movie coming out this summer.
Starting point is 00:09:00 With Milakunis, right? Yeah, the spy who dumped me. It is supposed to be really funny. And we've talked about her a couple of times over the last few years about whether she could make a leap. I don't know. I really like her. She's obviously really talented.
Starting point is 00:09:13 Whether she is going to be an atmospheric star, I don't know. I wonder if it could have been Bill Hader if he wasn't so smart and creative. I think Bill Hater could have ripped off like a version of Jim Carrey's run. Maybe, yeah. I mean, I mean, nominated now. I suspect he's happy with what he's doing. Oh, I think he's super happy. But I don't think he ever wanted that.
Starting point is 00:09:33 Like, I think he could have had his version of whatever Ace Ventura was, and it just wasn't going to happen. Yeah, the SNL feeder system broke down this decade. I think it delivered some female stars, but they did not like the Will Farrell-Sandler kind of translatable. But I think crucially, like, what happens with Farrell in the, you know, in that 07, that anchorman, Talladega and stepbrothers thing is like they had like a very concerned. inserted thing that they were trying to do of like we're going to take this like american idiot character and put in a couple of different a couple of different environments and like play around with these different these different settings and there was like a level of care about building the world that this character was going to be in that sometimes is lacking from like mainstream
Starting point is 00:10:17 comedies i think uh samberg had he chosen to keep making movies could have had a run that we would have looked back on really nicely and instead he he you know he did he did the team TV show and he did some other things. And he really didn't make, I thought Hot Rod was really funny. I like Hot Rod. So Hot Rod and Pop Star both have. Pop Stars age nicely. Huge cult followings. But those movies were actually very unsuccessful at the box office, which is interesting because I don't know if he would be able to get a shot at a $30 million comedy right now. You probably just do it for TV. But his pretty much everything he does is funny. Yeah. So maybe that it kind of explains it. It's just a lot harder to become a guy doing it by herself. Also, this is really notable for
Starting point is 00:10:58 stepbrothers. Will Ferrell almost never does. it by himself. He's always got Vince Vaughn or he's always got Amy Poehler or he's always got John C. Riley or John Heater. He always has like a partner, a number two. And that's a very smart move that he has made over the years. Well, the other smart move is aligning himself with Adam McKay, who was the big winner of the oral history we did, just person after person talking about what a genius he is, which we know he was really good at what he did. Now you look at the way his career has gone in the last few years. And it seems like this is the best comedy director we have.
Starting point is 00:11:33 It's basically the Harold Ramos for this generation, but now no longer does comedies. He's kind of graduated, which is a bummer if you look at. Although I would argue that there are funnier things in succession than any other comedy I've seen this year. And the same for Big Short. Big Short has a lot of really funny scenes. And his new movie is about Dick Cheney backseat coming out later this year.
Starting point is 00:11:52 I suspect there will be some funny shit in that. I don't think it's going to be the hardest of hard biopics. It's a really nice team. team. It's a rarity to see two people align like that 20 years ago and just put out all kinds of creative stuff. Everybody loves working with them. I think they have probably the highest approval rating of just about anybody in L.A. other than Mike Scher. I mean, it's a handful of people where you never hear anything bad about them. Ever. Those guys are cool and they're good and they make good stuff. Yeah. People just like being in their orbit and they also find a lot of talent and they seem to
Starting point is 00:12:27 bring the best out of people that you know, like Catherine Hahn, who's unbelievable in this movie, is they just kind of look at her and go, hey, she's good. Let's figure, let's unleash her.
Starting point is 00:12:44 Same thing for Adam Scott. I mean, Adam Scott doesn't tell me you love me. Adam Scott seemed like, like the prosthetic penis. Third guy and a drama, like, you know, just was going to be a kind of a background player. And now between this and East
Starting point is 00:12:57 kind of has like a second life as a comedic actor. Had never done comedy before. And, you know, it's the same thing with Anchorman. Steve Carell and Paul Rudd were not brand names at that point in time. They had done stuff, but he made those guys really famous. Apatatat is another one that people just seem to love working with. Yeah. And it seems to be a recurring theme in the comedy in the comedy circles.
Starting point is 00:13:19 You hear the same thing about both of those guys too, which is that on set, they're like, let's just blow it up if it's not working. And they're always yelling at their actors to say funny shit. They're always coming up with lines on the spot. And this movie, in particular, Step Brothers, it's not really a movie. Like, there's not really a story that you care about. No. You are, as Chris was saying, like, you're waiting in every scene for something really wild to happen
Starting point is 00:13:39 because you can feel that there's some exciting creative tension on the set. Well, McKay said in the oral history that the whole genesis for this movie is, McKay said, I would love to see a movie where bunk beds collapse. And that was how Step Brothers was created. And then they started saying stuff like, I want to see a movie where little kids beat the shit out of grown men. And then he said, I remembered a story from when I grew up where a kid on a block threatened a grown-up.
Starting point is 00:14:07 So they just took these seeds of things they thought were funny. They thought SeaWorld was funny. They did a whole thing at SeaWorld that got cut out that then they used for Anchorman too. But they just started with these like just idea blocks. And then, all right, how does that work? And they landed on just, well, what if? Will Ferro and John C. Riley were just these grownups who lived at home. This is the one they should have broken the mold after this.
Starting point is 00:14:34 I think one of the problems with a lot of comedies, especially in the after stepbrothers and after this block of movies, is they just feel so heavily improvised that you're like, you guys didn't have a script, right? Like you guys had an idea that was like, what if we're frat people? Like, what if we have to go back to school? And then like they just improvised the entire movie. but at some point someone is like you have to have some part of a movie in here.
Starting point is 00:14:59 Like Blockers is really funny but there is like a whole part of Blockers where like and now you guys have to like go to the hotel to stop them now for real and this never has that. It never has like the Catalina Wine Mixer all the stuff that's like this stupid movie stuff is still just as funny as any of the funny sequences.
Starting point is 00:15:19 They also had this happen on Anchorman where Anchorman came out and it did reasonably well and then just gained steam. And I think I wrote about, I did the movie quotes gimmick with Anchorman, probably in 2009. And it still hadn't really,
Starting point is 00:15:35 maybe Twitter wasn't around really at that point yet, but I was surprised by the emails I got. Like, wow, I love that movie too. I can't, I've watched that 20 times and it just seemed like, and now it's like Anchorman. It's blown up into something totally different.
Starting point is 00:15:50 With Stepbrothers, I don't know what year that happened with this movie, but it was, I would say, at least five or six years after. Fantasy definitely started saying this is a house of learned doctors to me. Like within two years?
Starting point is 00:16:04 Pretty early on. Sean was a big Dale guy. The thing is, there's something really genius about stupid people insisting that they're smart. And Dale and Brennan think they're so smart. And they're obviously complete morons. And if they're not morons, there's something wrong with them.
Starting point is 00:16:21 And I don't know. It's just an ingenious thing. And also, John C. Riley was not an untapped resource. He's literally one of the greatest character actors who's ever lived. But to just be like, it's now time for you to be in a big, broad Hollywood comedy with the funniest movie actor in the world and go toe to toe with him. And to win sometimes was just amazing. This is also with Anchorman. It doesn't sound like there was any stress or people were like upset or having breakdowns or anything.
Starting point is 00:16:49 But they shot like two full movies for Anchorman. Like there's basically two anchored man's. And they had a four-hour cut of this or they could have had a four-hour cut of Stepbrothers. And they said they shot like a million feet of film. Yeah. It's like, it is like Apocalypse now. It's like they just like went to the jungle and just kept shooting.
Starting point is 00:17:08 And I kind of just, I mean, I don't know if there's another version of Step Brothers that's four hours long, but I would certainly honestly just watch it on a loop. There's 20-minute scenes that they cut out of the movie. I'm torn on it because like I watched all the anchor-man. in deleted scenes. And I almost wish I hadn't seen them because it messed with the movie that I'm used to in my head
Starting point is 00:17:30 and then there's these things over here. I've only been happy a couple of times with deleted scenes. Boogie Nights is my favorite deleted scene. Those are good ones. McKay has a really good sense of when to cut it. I mean, the original cut of this movie is only 95 minutes.
Starting point is 00:17:45 It's pretty short. And it needs to be short because there's no point. There's no story. There's no plot. There are no stakes to anything that's happening. It's just like, be funny for 95 minutes. Yeah, well, we can get to some of the nipicks. There's nipicks and strict stuff.
Starting point is 00:17:59 A couple small ones. Roger Ebert trashed this movie, which Will Ferrell McKay, they loved, and Will Ferrell talked about that on the podcast that did with him. An iconic review. Iconic. Near the end, like, he's really crusty old guy at this point. It's like an existential crisis for him. He literally writes, I think, what are we doing here?
Starting point is 00:18:17 Yeah. Sometimes I think I am living in a nightmare. All about me, standards are collapsing. manners are evaporating. People show no respect for themselves. I am not a moralistic nut. I'm proud of the X-rated movie I once wrote. I like vulgarity if it's funny or serves a purpose.
Starting point is 00:18:35 But what is going on here? Roger Ebert's retirement letter, basically. That's amazing. I love Roger Ebert, and I always have. But I can sense that after 50 years of reviewing movies, you get something like this and you're like, what am I supposed to do? How do I critically analyze something like?
Starting point is 00:18:53 this. I just picture him in a screening as Will Ferro's putting his balls on the drum set going, oh no. Oh, God, those are his testicles and having a heart attack. So it came out, it did well. It didn't do unbelievably well, but it did well. Yeah. And then it came out during the absolute height of the DVD Blu-ray era. It sold four million DVDs in Blu-ray. Which is an insane, insane number. What's that? Four million times, let's say, not. Average of $17 of DVD Blu-ray. So we made another like $70 million. And at the time none of us knew that we were going to be throwing out all of our DVDs and Blu-Rays except for a select through.
Starting point is 00:19:35 Not me. How many have now? More than a thousand. You haven't thrown any of them out? No, I love them. I kept 50. 50? Yeah, I kept like 50.
Starting point is 00:19:47 This is actually a good standalone pod is Bill's 50 Blu-Rays. It's an unassailable crew of the. DVDs and Blu-rays, including multiple Halloween's. Halloween just kept releasing him. Let's hit the categories, but first, let's take a break. Hey, if you love to score amazing deals in incredible hotels, you'll love Hotel Tonight. Hotel Tonight partners with hotels to help them sell their unsold rooms, helping you find sweet deals at cool Top Rader hotels.
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Starting point is 00:21:24 have our new music podcast. Oh yeah. Micah Peters, on shuffle. That's been on fire. Every week we've had some sort of music, something happening. So that was a great two months, great way to start the feed. If you love music, I would highly recommend that one. And not to mention Channel 33, which has some of our high-level conversations, the press box, jam session, damage control, the big picture with Sean Fantasy. So check all of those out. Just go to the ringer.com slash podcast. And if you haven't sampled any of those, it's summer. There's no sports going on. Give it all a world. We might bring the recapables back to very soon. Stay tuned for that as well. Anyway, the ringer.com slash podcast. Check it out. Back to the rewatchables. All right, we're back.
Starting point is 00:22:14 You guys wanted this. Step Brothers rewatchables. Step Space Brothers, by the way. Common mistake on Twitter is to do the Step Brothers. Common mistake you make. I made it this. week. And it got corrected. Did you? Yeah, I got correct. It's tough. Hey, man.
Starting point is 00:22:31 It's step brothers. Wow. All of Chris's burner accounts. I know. All my bots. Chris's heads. Still ball in 33. All my Derek bots.
Starting point is 00:22:42 Most rewatchable scene. You know, we do these a lot. This is tough. This was tough some of these categories for this movie. Throw some out. I had some, I had four nominees. Feel free to add. The first dinner scene.
Starting point is 00:22:55 when the whole family's together for the first time just start to finish really great and John C. Riley makes Will Ferrell cry. Just start to finish great. You mean not the one with Derek before that? No, the before of them. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:10 The one where they're crying. Yeah. Harts his feelings. And then it ends with Will Ferrell going to shake Richard Jenkins' his hand and keeps just pulling it away slowly and walks away. The drum scene is a masterpiece that ends with the fight in the yard.
Starting point is 00:23:28 It just keeps going and going. And then Mary Steenberg says, what the fucking fuck is going on? Whatever she says. The bunk bed's breaking is just like you can say it 100 times and it's still funny each time. And then the boat video. I have those as the big four.
Starting point is 00:23:45 You could also throw in the Catalina mixer, the song and just that whole moment. anything else? Anything else you would add? Would you include them being grounded after the fact, after the, what is it, after the drum set scene when they're grounded and he's just like, this is on, we live on plain up bullshit? Yeah. That whole speech between, that whole interaction between Jenkins and Steenbergin and Riley
Starting point is 00:24:13 and Farrell is like, it's just mind-blowing, seeing those two sitting on the couch. Because you can tell that they're just like throwing lines out. But yeah. Every time I laugh at a different one harder. I would say Adam Scott, Derek popping his head up into the tree house is one of my favorite scenes. Getting punched in the face. I haven't had a carb since 2004 is one of my favorite lines in the whole movie. The very obvious body double for the abs.
Starting point is 00:24:39 The abs is incredible. And everything that leads up to that too when they're looking at the porno mags where it's like, it's like I'm masturbating in a time machine. You know, all that stuff. Everything happening in the treehouse is incredible. There's a lot. I think of these almost like, not like scenes, but micro moments. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:59 It's really a lot, a movie of lines and dialogue and all these little tiny things. Yeah, like the job interview. Yes. The job interviews. I could have put that in there. Yeah. There's this great two chain song. Pan.
Starting point is 00:25:13 Pan. Can you spell that? Yeah, so that's exactly what I was going to bring up. There's this great two chain song called Trat Back. This is weird as not an EP. It's not a big song. But it's just two chains rapping.
Starting point is 00:25:23 And then in the middle of the song, it just stops. And then it just plays the audio of the pan scene for a minute and a half and ends with, get out of my office. It's the funniest thing in the world.
Starting point is 00:25:34 And it's just, it was a recognition that two chains also knows that Stead Brothers is unbelievable and you can just put dialogue from the movie into a song and people will love it. That scene is perfect.
Starting point is 00:25:41 Will Farrell, weirdly influential on that period of rap music because of, he basically invents watch the throne. Yes, Kanye loves, loves, loves Will Ferrell. And famously quoted, you can't, don't lose your dinosaur. You know, he gave that in an interview four or five years ago to our friend, Zach Barron.
Starting point is 00:25:57 The drum scene is the winner. I know you touched my drum set, and I want to hear that dirty little mouth admit it. You get out of my face, where I'm going to roundhouse your ass. You swear in your mom's life that you didn't touch it then. I don't have to swear to shit. That's because he fucking touched my drum set because I know cops doesn't start until four. Where are you going? I'm going upstairs.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Because I'm going to put my nut set on your drum set. You like the drum scene the best. For me, it's the winner. Including all the way up through the fight. Everything. The just, I'm putting my balls on your drum set. There's a, I would say,
Starting point is 00:26:37 I don't know how you think of that? There's probably a more than significant amount of time devoted in Alan Siegel's oral history to how they designed and created the fake testicles. And that's like his favorite memento from a movie set, right? So they said it was a few thousand dollars. And then in my half-ass internet research, which I'll step on here, they claimed it was $20,000.
Starting point is 00:26:58 So it's somewhere between a few thousand and $20,000. But was clearly at some point, the designer dude was said to McKay like, hey, man, if we want to make a really nice set of these, it's going to cost you. And McKay's like, go blank checkbook, do what you need to do. And did such a good job Farrell asked to keep them and brings them out for dinner parties. and things like that because he's Will Ferrell. I'm definitely, I'm going with the treehouse. I'm just going to read one very important line.
Starting point is 00:27:28 Okay. What is your problem, man? This is Dale talking to Derek. Derek says, my problem? I don't know. I don't have a problem, Dale. Actually, I have the opposite of a problem. I made over 550K last year.
Starting point is 00:27:43 Adam Scott is an amazing dickhead. What do you have? I'm going with the scene after they, when they get grounded. Okay. What's age the worst? Not a lot. This was the tail end of the era before gaislers and comedies and stuff. Yes.
Starting point is 00:28:04 This one is like, oh, we can't have those anymore. Yeah. And it does stand out in this. It's kind of like, this is, the hangover is way more guilty of it than this movie, but it's in this movie. Yeah. It's in a lot. It's in, it's in Super Bad too. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:28:19 But all of a sudden, like, around, once Twitter started, and then people started to mobilize and that was it. It's about 2010 when you can't make that joke anymore. Casting what ifs, not a lot. They started this movie with John C. Riley and Will Farrell and then went and found actors. They're like, the only one was the Adam Scott character, Derek, which they auditioned John Hamm and Thomas Lennon for,
Starting point is 00:28:44 and they saw something in Adam Scott in his audition that they'd just like. Was this before badman? No, during. During, yeah. John Ham is Derek. John Ham as Derek is one of the better what-ifs we've had. He would have been more intimidating and he would have been funny, but there's something evil about Adam Scott.
Starting point is 00:29:05 You know, there's something like Adam Scott, it should be punched, you know? Yeah. It'd be like scary to punch John Hamm. It wouldn't be scary to punch Adam Scott. What did he say in the oral history that he modeled his character? He studied people on the internet who seemed dushy, who had money. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:22 he read the Rob Report. You read the Rob Report and just looked at pictures of people in the Rob Report. It seemed like I should be a guy who reads a magazine with a speedboat on the cover. They do a nice job when he's name-dropping people at the first dinner and later, it's all people who also seem dushy. He calls Mark Cuban the Cubs. Chad Michael Murray, Bobby Flay, Seal. And then he says, we have 20 minutes till the Dane Cook pay-per-view starts.
Starting point is 00:29:50 It's just like, if, put it this way, if Derek name drops you in this movie, it's a tough one for the year ago. Tough beat. Tough beat for seal. Yes, poor seal. Yeah, we're throwing seal. Seals like, what did I do? So that was it for casting what ifs. Well, I've never been happier to do the Deanne Waiters Award until we do Boogie Nights, which is going to happen at some point.
Starting point is 00:30:13 This is the Dean Waiters Award. There's just a lot of heat checks in this movie. Yeah, yeah. There's the stats. basketball box score wise would be really crazy. I don't know if anyone's had a bench like this of just the second unit coming in.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Yeah, it's a lot of Rondos. It's a lot of like nine assists, seven boards, four steals. Everybody's just filling it up. Yeah. I have Rob Riggle. Yep. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:37 This is like really the first time I think I saw Rob Riggle. He's in hangover, right? He plays the cop. Yeah. Andrew Savage. You have the little kid, the bully.
Starting point is 00:30:47 You have Derek's son. singing. Derekson singing. But is Han in this? Yeah, there's only one way there. Well, I mean, Horatio Sands. Horatio, Sands.
Starting point is 00:31:00 As the Billy Joel 80s, Billy Joel cover band singer. It's amazing. But Catherine Hahn not only wins, but I would argue one of the great heat checks that we've ever discussed in the rewatchables. She's in, how many scenes? Five? She's in like seven minutes in this movie. One of the funniest movie performances ever.
Starting point is 00:31:19 McKay said the first scene when she, She's when she gets turned on because John C. Riley punched Derek. And she's basically just kind of mounting him. And he said that was not only the funniest performance scene, but the greatest acting performance he's ever witnessed. She really commits. That's why it makes this work. I want to put you in a ball and put you inside my vagina.
Starting point is 00:31:46 She's just a lunatic. She's so good. I actually, I don't understand why. I know she had kids and stuff, and sometimes with actors, they don't do as many roles as maybe they would have if they were a man. I don't understand why she's not a bigger star. She's one of my favorite actresses. She's never bad. She's phenomenal and bad moms.
Starting point is 00:32:06 I was going to say, Carrie Simmons's favorite movies, which was a huge hit. So she's had a really good career. I mean, she made a couple of streaming shows. Never was able to lead like a really successful TV show or movie, which I think is a failure. Not on her. Yeah, she's really great. She stars in afternoon delight. She's incredible in that.
Starting point is 00:32:25 Yeah. She got in the Jill Salloway universe. She was on Transparent for a while. I love Dick. But she deserves her own movie. Yeah, she never went higher than that. Speaking of Dionne Writers Awards, is the scene where Robert Randy has a heart attack?
Starting point is 00:32:43 Is that in the final movie or is that just one of the unreleased scenes? I don't know. That's not in the final movie. When he dies for me. minute and he's like I saw my grandma. He's unconscious. Now I have to sell or lease 85 chocolates. You good?
Starting point is 00:33:03 Hey, Derek. Yeah. What are you doing here, man? Oh, I just walked in. Your heart stopped. You were dead for a second. No, no, no, no. Your heart, you don't have a heart.
Starting point is 00:33:12 It's just Randy. You see my Nana when you came in, D? Oh, no, you've seen your grandma again? Did you see her in her head? Yeah, no, no, no, she's not here, buddy. Because you were probably having an out-of-body experience because you died. Okay, this is the thing. the Catalina wine mixer, Brennan.
Starting point is 00:33:24 Boom. And then he comes back and Scott's just like, Are you okay, man? Catherine Hahn, there's not 10 seconds where she's not funny in this movie. Yeah, Han gets. It's really great.
Starting point is 00:33:39 The Joey Pants Award for Joe Panesliano where it's somebody you know from a movie and you're like, I like that person, but I don't know what their name is. Andrew Savage, I've always liked and she's one of those who's like,
Starting point is 00:33:54 oh, that's the one that ends up with warfare on stepbrothers and then you see them and something. She's in the house and she's really good. I actually like the house.
Starting point is 00:34:02 Oh, the house. I said bringing down the house. It's the house. The house is underrated. She's, and she's great in the house. And I remember watching the house and going,
Starting point is 00:34:11 A, who is this person? B, why didn't they do more stuff? And then go into research and she basically just had kids and was checked out for years. She has a show now, though. She's on a... She's back now.
Starting point is 00:34:22 She has a show on, TV call. I'm sorry. Right. Yeah. She's a friend of the watch. Yeah. She came on the throne show. So she in the oral history, it said she was in party down with
Starting point is 00:34:34 Adam Scott initially, but then got pregnant and had to leave the show. Lizzie Kaplan. Gladstone. She's really funny in this movie. She's a good Joey pants. Halfast internet research. John C. Riley really cried during the divorce scene. Actually, like, real tears, had a real
Starting point is 00:34:50 acting performance. Did you, as a as a COD as a child of divorce did you identify with that scene? 100%. 100%. When Kramer for Kramer versus Kramer and she's like, oh honey and Dan Scott's like, why are you calling money?
Starting point is 00:35:05 Boats and Hose was made by the controversial Dr. Luke. Yeah. Sangria nachos, lemon heads. My dad's boat. You won't go down because my dick can float. We sail around the world and go to court.
Starting point is 00:35:23 He took a downturn, we'll say. Yeah. You know, I suspect that was because Dr. Luke somewhat famously was the guitarist on Saturday Night Live for years. And so he had hooks with all these guys. And how older did the music. Exactly. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:37 And that's how Luke came in. But Luke was, I think it was the guitarist when McKay and Farrell were on the show. Will Farrell did his own singing and Riley did all the drumming at the Catalina Wine Mixer. That was all them doing it in the moment. The performance of Portevolare is like weirdly good by Will Ferrell? Is he a good singer? He's like crazy talented. He really is.
Starting point is 00:35:59 He's like one of the most talented people with that. That's not a pop song. That's opera. Yeah. He's really good. Adam Scott lip synced, sweet child of mine. Yeah. It was the one guy in the movie in the van derby.
Starting point is 00:36:10 Which I never noticed all the other times I watched this movie, but then when I had that tidbit, I did notice it this time. That's also one of the most rewatchable scenes. The a cappella rendition of Guns and Rose. Come on, honey. And then the dinosaur monologue has covered in the, the oral history, ad lib by Jenkins and McKay during one of those just throwing shit out, let's throw shit against a wall. They start doing it.
Starting point is 00:36:35 They only do two takes of it. McKay promises Jenkins he won't use it in the movie and then sees him before the screening. And he's like, do you fucking use that thing? He's like, yeah, I did. And that's how he found out the dinosaur scene was in there. And that's like an, and actually like an awesome scene, it arguably could have been in our best, most rewatchable scenes. It's a great model.
Starting point is 00:36:55 It's my favorite exchange of three characters talking because Jenkins says, so I thought I'll be a doctor for a little while and then go back to that. And then Brennan says, how is that even a skill? And then Dale says, you're a human. You could never be a dinosaur. They're so credulous in that moment. It's great. You got to find your dinosaur.
Starting point is 00:37:14 Richard Jenkins. We should let's do Jenkins for three minutes. Okay. So Jenkins, when character actor for a hundred years. He's trying to do the dishes. And Riley is like. what happens if she sees me coming out of the shower and sees, what does he call his chest hair
Starting point is 00:37:33 that goes to my ball fro? Here's a scenario for you, Don. Suppose Nancy sees me coming out of the shower and decides to come on to me. I'm looking good. I've got a luscious bee of hair going from my chest pubs down to my ball fro. She takes one look at me and she goes,
Starting point is 00:37:53 oh my God. I've had the old bull. Now I want the young calf. And she grasped me by the wince. Shut the fuck up. Jenkins finally is just like, shut the fuck up. This is a very funny movie. Very, very strange career.
Starting point is 00:38:19 Yes. He has, he's basically a character actor forever. He's like somebody else's husband, maybe the bad guy, maybe the lawyer. he's just kind of floating around outside providence absolute power he's really great in flirting with disaster you know me myself and irene he's always kind of in comedies but is the straight is straightish man in the comedy he was the assistant coach in eddie with whoope goldberg oh wow yeah he looks like an assistant coach when with year 19 of the rewatchables we're doing eddie because i have a lot
Starting point is 00:38:51 of thoughts eddie is actually a shockingly decent watchable but it took a while took a while took a while took a while took a while. He just was one of those guys. I never knew his name for really until the mid-2000s. 2008 is a wild year in his career because 2008 is burn after reading in which he's one of the stars working with the Cohen brothers. It's Step Brothers, which is the biggest hit of his career. And it's The Visitor, which was this independent movie written and directed by Tom McCarthy of Spotlight Fame, which we'll talk about later on this podcast. So that's how I, that came first.
Starting point is 00:39:27 The visitor. And that's how I was like, and all of a sudden he was, did he get nominated? He did. He was nominated for best actor. And that was when I was like, whoa,
Starting point is 00:39:34 Richard Jenkins, where did he come from? And the visitor is a really good movie. Yeah. And he's been now like a pretty persistent actor and prestige movies. He was in the shape of water last year. And it's just kind of always around now.
Starting point is 00:39:45 Yeah. He's great actor. He was. Oh, and he was, we forgot. He was from six feet under. Oh,
Starting point is 00:39:51 that's right. Yes. But he's really, really good in friends with benefits. which is not a good movie, but he's really good in. He plays Justin Timberlake's Alzheimer's father. That's right.
Starting point is 00:40:05 And the only reason I know this is because my wife and my daughter love friends with benefits, so I've just been in the room when it's been on. I'm a huge fan of his performance in killing them softly. He's really good in killing them softly, is the lawyer? Yeah. Yeah. He's really funny and really weird.
Starting point is 00:40:20 He's in Jack Reacher. He's in a million things. He's really great. He also has an uncredited appearance in Spotlight, Chris. Is it uncredited? He did voice work for Ruffalo during that scene. I don't know if you've seen spotlight, Chris. But yeah, it's a belated renaissance that does not happen often
Starting point is 00:40:41 where you see somebody past the age of 50 and then vault to a different level. Can I say my other favorite Jenkins performance is out of Cabin in the Woods? Oh, yeah. With Whitford. Yeah. Yeah, he's great in that. Apex Mountain. Catherine Hahn, yes.
Starting point is 00:41:04 100%. Just on the map in the greatest way possible in a movie that people rewatch all the time. Farrell, no. Are we talking Apex Mountain within the realm of their comedic performances? You always get confused by Apex Mountain.
Starting point is 00:41:17 I'm not confused. I just want a little clarity. It's not the same thing. The greatest moment of their career. Sure, okay. Farrell, no. I still think Anchorman is. I think he's in a lot.
Starting point is 00:41:28 the middle of a great run. There's also S&L moments that like, he's still on S&L. He's, he's at the talent of S&L. He's played Bush for a couple years. Can you guys, can we spend a little time
Starting point is 00:41:39 doing the hierarchy of Will Ferrell movies? Sure. Like, what is your, what are your top fives? This is one. This is one. Ahead of Anchorman. Yeah, at this point, yes.
Starting point is 00:41:50 Wow. This doesn't have parts, parts of Anchorman that I skip. This doesn't have any skippable parts. I agree with that. That's bold, though. Yeah, Anchorman definitely meant probably more to me at a time of my life where I was like, all I'm going to do is speak in Anchorman quotes,
Starting point is 00:42:05 much to the detriment of my sex life. Yeah. You know, like, I think that this is a better movie in some ways. Yeah. I go in Anchorman, Step Brothers, old school, Zoolander. I'd probably go this Anchorman, old school. Can I put Can I take wedding crashes as a Will Ferrell movie
Starting point is 00:42:31 Just for Mom I wants some meatflow That's one of the greatest He checks in the history of movies People want wedding crashes for the rewatchables by the way We'll get there Yeah Okay no love for Elf huh I'm not a big elf guy
Starting point is 00:42:44 If I don't shout out Elf my brother will kill me So shout out to Elf I think his Zoolander performance In that whole movie in general Slip through the cracks And the reason was it came out right after 9-11 And I remember seeing it in the theater And it was people were laughing
Starting point is 00:43:02 But they were unsure of it It was just like one of the worst time comedy releases we've had That movie is really funny And it had enough flags that it eventually led to Zoolander too But he's really good in that movie How do you guys feel about the other guys? I think it's a really genius idea That isn't executed as well as I wanted to be
Starting point is 00:43:20 Yeah It was like a little too much like a real cop movie Yeah but there's like really really high moments of it. I didn't like Wahlberg in it. And I like Wahlberg in general. I just, I didn't think, I never understood whether he was playing a parody of the actor or whether he was trying to be Mark Wahlberg.
Starting point is 00:43:38 I don't think he knew either. He didn't know. Yeah. I do think that without that movie, McKay wouldn't have been able to make the big short because it basically starts McKay taking things a little bit more seriously because that movie is more or less a satire of the financial crisis. Yeah. And it's like a indictment of big banking,
Starting point is 00:43:54 which is a weird thing to find in a cop movie, but that's what it is. Adam McKay, Pecks Mountain, yes. Unless you want to go Big Short. I would just go peak of his powers. He's now established himself in, he makes this iconic comedy movie
Starting point is 00:44:11 really had a nothing with no plot and Band-Aids and just relationships and this movie ends up being good enough that he can do whatever he wants in life. Or you can say Big Short. I mean, Big Short made $140 million and he was nominated for Best Director. Yeah, that's better. You're right.
Starting point is 00:44:30 I changed my mind. I'm going to Big Short. I think he's honestly not, has not hit his apex yet. I think it's in front of him. And other people have directed episodes of Succession, but you can see him taking a style and, like, being able to apply it to these other things. And I think Succession is actually way more like the creator, Jesse Armstrong's handiwork that it is like McKay. but that jittery, big short camera work is very much part of succession success. He's a good dude, too.
Starting point is 00:45:02 Adam Scott? 100%. His performance at Eastbound and Down, he's in two and a half scenes in Eastbound and Down, maybe, is so mind-blowing. And I know that it might just be my personal affinity for East Bed and Down. I would also say that I just need to shout out Ashley Schaefer BMW, Will Ferrell. from Eastbound and down. And one of the greatest ever deleted scenes is the,
Starting point is 00:45:30 or not even deleted scenes, but extended scenes is if you go on YouTube and see Will Ferrell's scene with Craig, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride where they, where they face off at the BMW dealership. And Will Ferrell does this long speech about his plums going to market. It's just like, it's eye-watering, man. It's so good. But I would say Adam Scott, I'm going to say eastbound is my.
Starting point is 00:45:54 So his character's name is. Pat Anderson, he plays an agent in Eastbound and Down. Yeah. And he has an exchange with Dustin Powers, John Hawks. And John Hawks says, you got some credentials there, pal? And Pat Anderson says, yeah, I got some credentials. And he reveals a black credit card. And he says, business account, of course.
Starting point is 00:46:09 And Dustin Power says, what's black? Is black better than gold? And Pat Anderson says, uh, yeah, gold might get you Jonas Brothers tickets. Black will have all three of them sucking your dick. Without, I think without stepbrothers, we don't get Adam Scott playing that role. He also, I think in that first appearance is a VP for the race. He's like a devil race,
Starting point is 00:46:30 Fightley Scout. That's his character. He's unleashed as a comedy dick. Mary Steenbergin, no. No. Good stuff from her, though. Great job. She's very funny.
Starting point is 00:46:41 Great looking. She's beautiful. She's like in her late 50s. 60 years old. Yeah. Richard Jenkins, no. John C. Riley, no. But let's talk about
Starting point is 00:46:50 John C. Riley for two minutes. I would go boogie nights for him. there's so many so many options I go Magnolia for him Days of Thunder he's my least favorite part of Magnolia does he?
Starting point is 00:47:06 Yeah I love John C. Riley you could have taken that whole character out I would have been happy I mean Talladega Knights is in the conversation He's fucking awesome in Taladaaga
Starting point is 00:47:15 He's he's good in everything John C. Riley is always good Boogie Knights He's good and walk hard Walk hard All right We're going to give you Boogie Nights, though. Him dancing in the behind the glass during the Mark Wahlberg song,
Starting point is 00:47:33 when Dirk Digger becomes a singer. Before Feel the Heat. Before Feel the Heat, he's doing that song. And you see Jonsie Riley doing like this exercise dance? He's just amazing in that movie. So, John C. Riley, one of the funniest comedy actors we've had over the last 25 years just from Boogie Nights and Step Brothers, Tal Daganites to a lesser degree.
Starting point is 00:47:59 Didn't really do a lot of comedies? He's basically not a comedy actor. Yeah. He's like just this trained great actor who figured out how to do comedy but isn't a comedian. That's it. Very, who else is like that?
Starting point is 00:48:12 There's been a lot of people who've tried to be like that. You always get the reverse. Yeah. You get Steve Martin's serious movie, Jim Carrey's serious performance. You very rarely get the dramatic actor who's hilarious because frankly,
Starting point is 00:48:24 most actors are not funny. They're self-serious. Yeah, just see like Jeremy Runner and tag or whatever. And usually when... Well, he's not funny. Yeah. Or when Dustin Hoffman tries to do comedy. Even when De Niro was in Meet the Parents and he's funny in that,
Starting point is 00:48:39 it still felt like De Niro. He's trying. Yeah, he's trying to be... De Niro's like funny in Midnight Run because he thinks it's a drama. Right. He probably still thinks it. Yeah. And that's actually the reason...
Starting point is 00:48:51 That's the same reason John Se. Riley is successful. He committed. That's the reason this whole movie is successful is these guys, and that was the reason why Farrell was so amazing on Saturday Night Live, is that even if he broke or even if he made other people break, but especially in these movies when they were able to like shoot through it or whatever, his commitment to not only the like the character, but the emotional truth of the moment is like, it's as deep as as any like great actor we have like Joaquin Phoenix doing something, you know? My biggest, best example of that for Farrell of all time is the wake up and smile bit on how. SNL where he's the co-host of a morning show and the teleprompter goes down. David Allen Greer. And he and David Allen Greer. The weatherman is dead.
Starting point is 00:49:30 And Nancy Walls and he's holding up David Allen Greer's severed head. But that's it. I mean, those guys come. And McKay has this weird commitment to absurdity as documentary. Like, that's everything that he does. It makes works a way. Yeah, I have a Dodge Stratis is the way he goes to that like 13th level of madness is just. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:49 And the other one was the dog infomercial. whatever that one. Insulting your dog to train them. Those three personalities. Could Danny Treo have been in this movie? Sure. Yeah, why not? Yeah, okay.
Starting point is 00:50:06 The audience is ready to retire the Danny Trao category. Have they sort of given you? Kind of a couple emails about it. Should we kill it? We could kill it right now. Okay. Because the lesson is usually Danny Treo should be in every movie. Maybe we just need a new Danny Treo.
Starting point is 00:50:17 Yeah, because I can't think of a single movie where I'd be like, no, Danny Trejo can't be in this movie. Maybe not like call me by your name? I think that would be hilarious. If D. D.Dreyha rented those guys' bikes. He's like, you guys going to go on a bike ride? Maybe we're there.
Starting point is 00:50:32 Neil, you riding bikes today? Maybe they're riding the bikes and he cuts them off in a pickup truck. They had Anna, brother. Stay in your late, man. The mailbag at the ringer.com. Email us and you can decide who the next Danny Treo character is. This movie would this movie be better off with Blank, who's a little more polarized than dating trail? With Adam Scott?
Starting point is 00:51:00 I was going to say Catherine Hahn. Yeah. No, she made every movie. You've made to get her on a podcast. If Catherine Hahn listens to this for some reason, The Ringer loves you, come in and do podcasts with us. Mark Ruffalo. By the way, I saw her at a party once. I was at like one of those stupid Hollywood, like, the night before the award parties.
Starting point is 00:51:20 I don't remember what it was for, like Emmys. and she was there. And I never go up to celebrities ever. And I just bulldozed over to her. I'm just, I think you're great. I had like one of those stammering terrible conversations you're not supposed to have in LA, but I had to. Did she big time you?
Starting point is 00:51:35 Was she like, get away from me, Pian? She was super nice. Were she like, what do you think Danny's going to do with the Memphis pick? No. I was with my friend Daniel Kellison, who knows a lot of people. And he was friends of there. And I was like, I love her. I would go up to talk to her, but I don't want to break the code.
Starting point is 00:51:51 And he's like, no, we'll go over there. right now, buddy. Just brought me over and we bulldozed her for 10 minutes. Mark Ruffalo overacting. They knew. Richard Jenkins is in Portland. They knew a couple times. A couple times.
Starting point is 00:52:05 They knew. Gets really mad in the kitchen. Riggle overacts, right? Riggle, but that's Riggle's whole thing. It was the first time he did this bit, which I think now if you see him in like a commercial for a real estate company, you're like, all right, this is a Riggle thing. I know what this is. this time though
Starting point is 00:52:22 where he's like I'm going to eat it like Kobe Yoshi he's talking yeah it's still funny the pals are funny too yeah yeah
Starting point is 00:52:31 I like the pals pick a nits the only pick a knit I have is I needed a little more backstory on these guys both becoming successfully employed and living on their own you like two more minutes on that
Starting point is 00:52:43 I liked them it's basically Will Ferrell he's taking a dump and there's no toilet paper and then he realizes he should buy Charmin and then also cops get called more to that house.
Starting point is 00:52:52 There's a lot of late night noise at that house, and I just think that there's more disturbance calls. If you could do the prequel, Brennan and Dale ages 21 through 35, who's young Will Ferrell and young John C. Riley? But they're separate. They haven't met. Okay.
Starting point is 00:53:08 Are you saying we should pitch this to McKay? I mean, the stepbrothers prequel. It's out there. In the, in their, I would say they're like 20. 20, okay. Another nitpick.
Starting point is 00:53:19 I don't have an answer. by the way. I can't think. I don't think like, would Michael Sarah be funny? No. Like it's,
Starting point is 00:53:25 would not, it's, they're just different. There's no 20 year olds that are funny like that. I would like to see two, like known to be dramatic actors tried to do it,
Starting point is 00:53:32 like Robert Pattinson and somebody, you know? Zach Efron? That's a good bit. What if we just turn Stranger Thing season three into a stepbrother's prequel? Would that be good? Wow.
Starting point is 00:53:42 Think about it. I don't have to think about it. The time kind of lines up. It's starting to, yeah. If you could do the Cobra Kai 10 years later, here are the characters again movie.
Starting point is 00:53:51 I would rather see that. Okay. Do you want to go back to this? Do you, I feel like this movie is completely perfect. I don't want to see these guys either, you know, successful now or unsuccessful now. I really like the way it ends. I think they're too smart to not at least make a watchable entertaining movie out of it. And it would have to be.
Starting point is 00:54:10 Oh, yeah, I agree. I think they would have to be successful. I think the wrinkle would be. Did you like Anchorman too? It's complicated. It has great stuff. I love pieces of it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:21 I think it really derails for about 20 minutes that whole... When he's blind? When he's blind? I think it seemed hilarious to them, but it just should have been a deleted scene. Yeah. Need to be in the movie. You just got to accept them for what they do, though. Like, they just go for it every time.
Starting point is 00:54:39 He's like, he's going to be blind now. And he's blind for 20 minutes in the movie and you just have to accept it. But when we did the oral history on Stup Brothers, they had moments like that in that movie. And they were like, that's great, but that should come out. Yeah. And it's the one time they didn't realize it should come out. It really grinds it down. I think there's stretches in Ackerman, too, that are just lights out.
Starting point is 00:54:59 Agree. It's on epics all the time. I think I'm the only one with epics. You're the only one watching. Yeah, the only one who knows what channel epics is. It's in the late 500s. Picky Knits, this isn't a picking Nits because it's funny and they did it intentionally, but just having lived in Southern California,
Starting point is 00:55:17 it's hilarious that they do the Catalina Island, but then they shoot stuff that's clearly on like the cliffs of Malibu and Laguna Beach. Like Catalina Island doesn't look like that at all. But they do that intentionally to fuck with people. Yeah. I think it's possible they couldn't get the permit on Catalina too. You know, I'm not sure they let you shoot on Catalina. Best quote, too many to choose from.
Starting point is 00:55:38 So many contenders. But I think the legacy quote from this movie is, is a fucking Catalina wine mixer, man. Like that whole thing. You can throw it. If anyone loves that movie, you can throw that out. throw that out wherever people get it. I think did we just become best friends? Do we?
Starting point is 00:55:54 Yeah. To pick a best quote is impossible. Yeah, it's a, like, I would say, this movie is all quotes. If I said, why do you have Randy Jackson's autograph on a martial arts weapon? Isn't that like as good as any quote in any movie? Everything Derek says is funny, though.
Starting point is 00:56:12 You know what gets my dick hard helping out my friends? Everything Derek says to Richard Jenkins when he's kissing his ass to help him sell his house also just so, oh, he's the best. I love Derek. I love his first name drop thing when he's like,
Starting point is 00:56:28 I was with Mark Cuban, the cubes, and then just starts listing all of these dushies celebrities from 2008. Dane Cook, pay-per-view, 20 minutes, let's go! Probably unanswerable questions. Did Will Ferrell really last with the therapist?
Starting point is 00:56:43 It's a comedy, so you can't argue with it. I guarantee you if they make Step Brothers two, Andrew Savage is going to be in it. You know, and like, it's still in the mix. Should they make Step. brothers too. We've danced around it. I say no. I say no too. So they make stepbrothers two, you're not going. I didn't say that. Name a comedy that the second one is better than the first one. Godfather, too. A comedy. I know. Like another 48 hours? No. Chris, you're a big fan of the clumps.
Starting point is 00:57:14 Beverly's cop two, no. I'll tell you what was better as it. They never made a stripes two. I'll tell you what's better as a two than a one. What? The equalizer. Nice tease. Nice one, Bill. No, it's really good. Guess what? He's a lift driver in Boston. Like, I wasn't going to like Denzel watched it as a lift driver in Boston.
Starting point is 00:57:34 Really good. Who won the movie? We have to pick. Okay. I'm going to say Farrell. I'm going to say Riley. Because I think Riley gets walk hard because of this movie. You can't, it's not a...
Starting point is 00:57:56 I think Farrell's influence on... Just inside the movie? Yeah, I think Farrell's influence on everybody in this movie is palpable. Like, he's like, come with me, go on this journey with me. Can I say Han and Scott together? No. God damn it. Why are you trying to do all these procedural moves against us?
Starting point is 00:58:16 I don't know, because I think Will Ferrell at this point, I was like, Will Ferrell is going to be funny no matter what. And so for him to win the movie, it has to be an extraordinary Will Ferrell performance. I think my vote is for John C. Bradley. because I think the performances are dead even but what he does coming into a comedy and being able to completely match Will Ferrell Will Ferrell would not be able to do the reverse
Starting point is 00:58:39 as a dramatic actor he wouldn't be able to walk in and just be like I'm with Daniel DeLewis going toe to toe to toe to go toe to toe to toe to with Will Ferrell on a comedy. So for the degree of difficulty I give it to John C. Raleigh. But is it McKay then?
Starting point is 00:58:56 You could argue it is. Since it's so dead even. The oral history would argue that it's McKay. Yeah. Because... Yeah, it does seem like it, yeah. So maybe that's our good non-controcial pick. McKay.
Starting point is 00:59:07 McKay. Yeah. But shout out to John C. Raleigh for fucking stepping into comedies when he's not a comedian. Or maybe he is a comedian who just was miscast this whole career. Possibly. I know he shouldn't have been a catcher for love of the game. I'm curious about you not liking his part in Magnolia. I just think that movie has to be chopped by 30 minutes somewhere.
Starting point is 00:59:28 and there's no way to do it without getting rid of one of the characters completely. That's my Magnolia take. I think Paul Thomas Anderson agrees. Really? Yeah. We did that pond with him. He's like,
Starting point is 00:59:41 it's way too long. I wish it was an hour shorter. So I think that's the character that probably had the worst arc in the movie. I love the Malora Walter's part of that story, though. Yeah, that's why I guess maybe I'm giving him a little bit of that. So if we do the rewatchable's magnolia, can my mom be in it?
Starting point is 00:59:57 you're the boss. It's her favorite movie. Is it really? Yeah, how about that? That makes me a little concerned for your mom. Her second favorite movie is Sex Lise a Videotape. What? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:08 My mom is insane. I don't know. Why do you think she's never been on a podcast? Her movie tastes, her favorite actor is Mickey Rourke. My mom's a lunatic. Like Angel Heart? She loves nine and a half weeks, Angel Heart. And, oh, and Richard Gear is her other favorite actor.
Starting point is 01:00:26 Really? Her favorite movie of the 21st century is the movie where Diane Lane cheats on Richard Gear with the French guy. Unfaithful. Unfaithful. She loves a damaged pretty boy. Oh, 100%. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:42 Yeah. Just like Chris Ryan. When we do unfaithful rewatchables. We should do a Diane Lane one at some point because Diane Lane is my favorite actress of the last 30 years who wasn't a bigger deal. You're ready for Under the Tuscan Sun? I love Diane Lane. Dian Lane's incredible in a perfect storm. That accent, one of the all-time.
Starting point is 01:01:03 It's a bad accent. Blindingly bad Boston accents. You and me, Tommy. The thing with Diane Lane, she reached this really hard to get to a place where all men are attracted to her and love her. And women aren't threatened by her and also agree that she's attractive and they love her. And that does not happen often with leading actresses. She's great. I've been with her since the outsiders.
Starting point is 01:01:28 I think we're the same age. You and Diane Lean? I remember even before that she made that French movie. What was that movie? She's in France. She meets a boy. That was like her breakout movie. She was in the cover of Time magazine.
Starting point is 01:01:41 I don't remember. If you and Daniel Kelson are at a party and you spot Diane Lane, and Daniel's like, I know Diane Lane. Let's go talk to her. Do you work up the gumption to do it? Not only do I work up the gumption to do it. It's the best 10 minutes of her life. Wow.
Starting point is 01:01:58 Her life. Wow. That's a strong call. No, I'd be like, hey, Diane Lane, you're great actress. I'm going to start doing that. I've really enjoyed your work over the years. People love direct address when they're called by their full name. Hey, Sean Fennessee.
Starting point is 01:02:17 You're a great editor. A little romance. That's the movie, 1979. Yeah. I think like Olivier's in that. Is that possible? Yes. Yes.
Starting point is 01:02:27 And it was directed by George Roy Hill, one of my favorite 70s directors. Yes. World Cardin de Garp. That's right. It's The Sting. The Sting? Yeah. All right.
Starting point is 01:02:35 Chris Ryan, Sean Fantasy. What are we doing next week? Is Midday Run? Night Run is on the schedule. Because it's 30th anniversary. It's our turn, Bill! I got two words for you, Chris Ryan. Shut the fuck up.
Starting point is 01:02:45 Next week, Midnight Run. There you go. All right, thanks again to Hotel Tonight. Don't forget, they partner with hotels to help sell their unsold rooms, helping you find sweet deals a cool, top-rated hotels. Not just for last-minute bookings. Perfect for planners and procrastinators.
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