The 2000 Movie Mega-Draft

Summary

The Big Picture: The 2000 Movie Mega-Draft
Hosted by Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins | Released June 4, 2025

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Introduction to the 2000 Movie Mega-Draft

In this episode of The Big Picture, hosted by Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins of The Ringer, the team, along with special guests Rob Mahoney, Joanna Robinson, Mallory Rubin, Van Lathan, and others, embark on a comprehensive movie draft focused on the year 2000. The session involves categorizing and selecting standout films from various genres, reflecting on personal connections and the cultural impact of these movies.

Setting the Draft Order

The draft begins with Sean Fennessey introducing the participants and setting up the draft order with the help of producer Bobby Wagner.

Sean Fennessey (02:19):
"Selecting first overall will be Mallory Rubin."

Rob Mahoney follows as the second pick, with the order proceeding from there until Amanda Dobbins secures the final pick.

Category Descriptions and Rules Discussion

Sean outlines the seven categories for the draft:

1. Classics
2. Drama
3. Comedy
4. Action/Horror Thriller
5. Oscar Nominee
6. Original
7. Blockbuster
8. Wild Card

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the "Original" category, debating whether movies based on true events or adapted from other media should qualify.

Rob Mahoney (25:00):
"If it is a historical adaptation, if it is based on a book, if it is based on a play... we're saying that being based on real figures is the same as being an adaptation of a book, which to me is ludicrous."

After a lively debate, an allowance is made for "Billy Elliot" to be considered an original, despite its adaptations from a play.

Draft Selections and Rationale

Rob Mahoney: Gladiator as Oscar Nominee

Rob selects Gladiator for the Oscar Nominee category, highlighting its critical acclaim and lasting impact.

Rob Mahoney (31:08):
"I will be taking Gladiator, which I think is the closest in Oscar nominee."

Despite some mockery of Sean's slight whisper campaign against the film, Rob remains confident in his choice.

Mallory Rubin: Almost Famous as Comedy

Mallory chooses Almost Famous for the Comedy category, emphasizing its nostalgic value and personal significance.

Mallory Rubin (34:07):
"It's an undeniably charming, undeniable movie. It's so hard not to get swept away in it."

Joanna Robinson: O Brother, Where Art Thou? as Original

Joanna selects O Brother, Where Art Thou? for the Original category, praising its unique storytelling and cultural resonance.

Joanna Robinson (55:38):
"This is an incredibly important movie to me. It's the origin story of Joanna and a perfect movie."

Sean Fennessey: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as Blockbuster

Sean picks Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the Blockbuster category, appreciating its cinematic beauty and martial arts choreography.

Sean Fennessey (37:15):
"It's a gorgeous wuxia film... incredible wire work. This movie made like $130 million."

Chris Ryan: Can You Count on Me as Original

Chris selects Can You Count on Me for the Original category, valuing its heartfelt narrative and authentic performances.

Chris Ryan (40:14):
"It's one of the most amazing portraits of family love that I've ever seen."

Van Lathan: Bamboozled as Original

Van chooses Bamboozled for the Original category, commending Spike Lee's audacity and the film's cultural critique.

Van Lathan (46:06):
"It completely reorients the way you look at yourself and the entertainment industry."

Amanda Dobbins: Virgin Suicides as Drama & Bring It On as Comedy

Amanda opts for The Virgin Suicides in Drama, citing its emotional depth, and Bring It On for Comedy, highlighting its cultural impact and memorable performances.

Amanda Dobbins (50:05):
"Great teen comedy with an incredible Kirsten Dunst performance."

Notable Debates and Insights

Defining the "Original" Category

A recurring theme is the challenge of categorizing films, particularly what qualifies as "Original." The group grapples with whether films based on true stories or adapted from existing works should be included.

Mallory Rubin (26:25):
"What if the figures are public domain but not directly based on someone's life?"

After deliberation, Billy Elliot is accepted as an Original, despite its adaptations.

Sequels and Franchises

The team discusses the scarcity of sequels in the 2000 draft, contrasting it with the trend of sequelization in the decades prior.

Sean Fennessey (23:46):
"There are only two sequels in the top 21 movies from this year."

Honorable Mentions

Several critically acclaimed films like Requiem for a Dream and Snatch are discussed, with some being selected in their respective categories and others passing unnoticed.

Conclusion: Wrap-Up of the Draft

As the draft concludes, each participant reviews their selections, reflecting on the diversity and personal significance of their choices. The hosts commend the participants for their engaging and passionate selections, setting the stage for future episodes where they delve deeper into these films.

Sean Fennessey (127:30):
"Thank you, guys. Nice job, everybody. Really nice job."

Amanda hints at upcoming discussions, promising to explore Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme.

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Notable Quotes

• Sean Fennessey (23:48):
  "They have to make original movies. This was the year they did it."

• Rob Mahoney (33:14):
  "I've watched 'Gladiator' and 'Snatch' numerous times, and they hold up remarkably well."

• Mallory Rubin (34:05):
  "I'm thrilled to take 'Almost Famous' as my comedy pick. It changed my life."

• Joanna Robinson (42:20):
  "The soundtrack of 'Billy Elliot' has snippets of dialogue that I have memorized."

• Amanda Dobbins (50:06):
  "I preferred 'Bring It On' to 'Ant-Man' because of its authentic cheerleading representation."

Final Thoughts

The 2000 Movie Mega-Draft episode showcases the hosts and guests' deep connections to the films from that year, blending personal anecdotes with critical analysis. Their passionate discussions highlight the enduring legacy of these movies and their impact on both individual lives and broader culture.

Transcript

[Amanda Dobbins]

Hello, Big Picture listeners. In case you didn't hear, we're headed to Chicago for a live show at the Steppenwolf theater on Monday, July 21. We couldn't be more excited. If you'd like to join us, this is a friendly reminder that tickets go on sale tomorrow, Wednesday, June 4, at 12:00pm Central Time. We hope to see you there.

[Sponsor]

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[Sean Fennessy]

I'm Sean Fennessy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm Amanda Dobbins.

[Sean Fennessy]

And this is the Big Picture. A conversation show about 2000. Or as Conan O' Brien would say, in the year 2000. CR is here. We are drafting again, though. Who would say? I don't know. Who says that in the year 2000?

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's what they do, right? Yeah. Come on.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You wanted to bring energy to this podcast. Bring it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, so I'm relying on our special friends to bring the energy on this podcast. Today we have reconvened a septet. What's seven people? The High Council of Cinema Septet. This is one year later. One year ago. We did the 1999 movie. Draft was a year ago.

[Rob Mahoney]

That was a year ago.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Was it a year ago in June?

[Sean Fennessy]

It is June.

[Joanna Robinson]

Do I know?

[Amanda Dobbins]

But was it last June?

[Rob Mahoney]

We're off to a. I believe it was June.

[Sean Fennessy]

Was it not June in. In the erstwhile Bill Simmons studio? Why are you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What?

[Chris Ryan]

I just didn't know what was happening? You're good. You're good.

[Sean Fennessy]

Rob Mahoney is here. Joanna Robinson is here. Mallory Rubin is here. Van Lathan is here. Amanda dobbins is here. CR is here. I'm here. We're talking about 2000, 1999. Who won that draft?

[Chris Ryan]

I thought I did.

[Sean Fennessy]

Joanna won. Says who?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

According to which was there the voting ballot system?

[Chris Ryan]

Did we have a vote?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, I won. Van got second. Maller got third.

[Van Lathan]

Whoa.

[Joanna Robinson]

The ringer verse crew ran the board.

[Mallory Rubin]

I don't know about that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. That's been held over our head ever since, so.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, I think you've won the last 19 house of our hyped drafts.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Turnabout.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's probably true.

[Chris Ryan]

And we thought maybe I won Tom Cruise.

[Joanna Robinson]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

We didn't think that.

[Rob Mahoney]

No way.

[Sean Fennessy]

You looked at the subreddit dedicated to you came to that conclusion.

[Joanna Robinson]

That's how it happened.

[Chris Ryan]

I just thought I got a vibe from people.

[Van Lathan]

Everybody was like, who did win that Bill?

[Chris Ryan]

Chris crushed.

[Sean Fennessy]

We didn't have. We did vote, but we didn't get results. I think the scuttlebutt was Bill.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I think, you know, Bill was kind of putting that out into the universe. So it did come back.

[Sean Fennessy]

But he did have the turn, which he thought was actually good. We did give him a couple of breaks. Who will win today? I don't know.

[Rob Mahoney]

Not me. I'll be finishing last.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

I've been hearing from people prerecord that this is very much a Vibes draft for a lot of people.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Is that because we don't like the movies? Let's have that conversation.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's do it.

[Sean Fennessy]

2000.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

It's not as good as 99.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's definitely not. 99 needed seven people because it was such a powerful movie year 2000. A little bit of a hangover.

[Rob Mahoney]

And yet you've added a category. So we will be selecting more movies.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, maybe I'll remove a category while we're. While we're doing this, but we'll see.

[Van Lathan]

Hell no.

[Sean Fennessy]

No. You want to do all seven.

[Van Lathan]

We must forge ahead.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Now, it was actually sobering to see the amount of movies that I was just kind of like, huh? It's a very TNT on a Sunday afternoon movies.

[Mallory Rubin]

That's the vibe.

[Chris Ryan]

It is before the basketball game cinema.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

99 was. Was easy because in addition to there being, you know, whatever, fans, 15 out now classics, the next 30 movies were also a lot of fun, a lot of personal favorites. I think there's a pretty strong upper tier in 2000, definitely. Once we get into the B tier, it'll be interesting. It's a little outside the general Amanda zone. I would say some of the all.

[Rob Mahoney]

Time classes, but I think Dobbins is going to thrive in the later rounds.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Listen, I. Please don't put anything out there. Okay. You know, I do have a strategy. I said to Chris before we started, I did some prep, but we might be winging it a little bit. I'm trying.

[Chris Ryan]

We?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Me? Yeah, yeah. The royal.

[Sean Fennessy]

The royal.

[Rob Mahoney]

We.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, sure. But, you know, I don't know if I think the top tier is as strong as other years. And then the rest of it is weird. So you have to go searching for value.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Rob, I'd like to start with you. The year 2000, who were you? What was your relationship to movies?

[Mallory Rubin]

I was 11 years old. Very important year for me. It was the year I got really into Green Day.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Mallory Rubin]

And so I would say it was the year that, like, my taste as a person started to develop outside of my family for the first time.

[Chris Ryan]

Is that morning. What is. What was that? American Idiot.

[Mallory Rubin]

I got really into Nimrod.

[Sean Fennessy]

Nimrod was the album.

[Mallory Rubin]

I don't even know if that was the newest one, but I went camping and a dude was playing Time of your life on an acoustic guitar. And I was like, you're set.

[Chris Ryan]

That's.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's what I want.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, you're set.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is that Hitchin a ride? What was he. What else?

[Mallory Rubin]

Hitchin a Ride. What else is on that album?

[Chris Ryan]

Green Day Draft.

[Sean Fennessy]

Nimrod's kind of. When I jumped in, Nice guys finished.

[Mallory Rubin]

Last, I think is on that one. It's look a banger of an album, but I would say it applies just as much to movies. This is me finding some stuff that I'm into that my parents aren't into, that my friends aren't necessarily into, that my brother's not handing off to me. I'm trying to find my stuff at this time.

[Sean Fennessy]

Jo.

[Joanna Robinson]

I was in college. I was working at a movie theater this year. This is the one. Only year I worked at a movie theater. Learned how to clean the butter machine. Among.

[Van Lathan]

That's an Amazon show.

[Joanna Robinson]

The one and only year I worked.

[Amanda Dobbins]

At a movie theater. You really are at your creative peak right now. Yeah, it's gonna be everywhere.

[Van Lathan]

That's a great little summer thing there. I like that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Were you seeing a new movie every day?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah. And a lot of them. I've seen the end of a lot of these movies so many times because you just walk in with your, like, your broom and your bucket waiting to clear up the people's popcorn. And you watch the end of almost famous 900 times.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, but did you see the beginning as well or no?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So sorry. Raising my hand. What is the. I'm channeling 2,000, Amanda.

[Sean Fennessy]

What is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What is the etiquette? And, like, how many movies do you get to see a day? Like, in full when you're working at a movie theater? How are you scheduling if you're on shift?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, you don't see any in full while you're on shift.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

But you can see unlimited when you're not working.

[Chris Ryan]

But is that kind of like a lifeguard doesn't want to go swimming after a shift? Like, did you want to get out of the movie theater?

[Joanna Robinson]

No.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. So would you go early or would you stay late?

[Joanna Robinson]

I had the closing shift a lot. Cause I was also in school, and so I had the closing shift a lot. But on my days off, I would just go to the movies all the time.

[Van Lathan]

This is the show.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay? I told you.

[Van Lathan]

It's a love story.

[Joanna Robinson]

Sure. Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Between you and cinema and cinema and a young cinephile, every time you go into the Clean the movies up at the end, there is a young black.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

It'S our story.

[Van Lathan]

A young black kid who's sitting there. He's watching all of these movies because he's running away from a fraught home life.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay?

[Van Lathan]

He's explaining the movies to you because you can't afford and don't have the time to see them at any other time. You guys love blossoms over film. And that's the entire film.

[Sean Fennessy]

Jungle Fever meets Cinema Paradiso.

[Van Lathan]

Jungle Fever. Cinema Paradiso.

[Mallory Rubin]

A little Adventureland in there.

[Van Lathan]

I feel like a little bit.

[Chris Ryan]

Who's the black?

[Mallory Rubin]

Kristen Stewart. You know, like. Like who?

[Sean Fennessy]

How are we.

[Mallory Rubin]

How are we doing this thing?

[Joanna Robinson]

Here's. Here's a key, key factor. In order to win my heart, this person needs to not just leave their trash all over the ground.

[Sean Fennessy]

He helps you clean up. What's the vibe on that in general these days? Do you guys pick up your stuff?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, of course.

[Chris Ryan]

Why are you trash.

[Sean Fennessy]

Why are you asking at it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Take your shopping cart back to the little shopping cart holder. It's a gift in the parking lot.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, I know you guys have heard the Code 50 story, right?

[Sean Fennessy]

If you pivoted away from movie theaters pretty quickly with that.

[Van Lathan]

If you do one thing, help the code 50 at wherever you are by taking your shopping cart back. It is a grueling Job in the summer. I was a Walmart. Code 50 for an entire summer.

[Chris Ryan]

You go around the parking lot, you grab the carts.

[Van Lathan]

On a Saturday in Baton Rouge, it's 95 degrees and you get all the cards. They're lined up like little ducks in a row. And all of a sudden, five minutes later, they're all over the place. A never ending.

[Sean Fennessy]

What if, let's just say, hypothetically, a person has an insane screaming toddler and you need to get them out of the cart and into the car and get out of the parking lot as quickly as possible. Is there an allowance for not returning the cart to the space where they belong?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I've been there. It is tough. I think you gotta keep the toddler in the cart, park the cart, and then carry the toddler back.

[Mallory Rubin]

Are y' all looking for permission or forgiveness?

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm just speaking hypothetically and not from any person.

[Chris Ryan]

He wants to know when he witnesses behavior like this, how he should respond.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Another thing that you could do is that if you are parking your car and you see someone having the issue that Sean or I may hypothetically be having, you take the cart your way.

[Chris Ryan]

Can I make another suggestion?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sure.

[Chris Ryan]

Live a more continental lifestyle and only buy food for the meal. That's next. Like, kind of like the Italian or French style. Stopping by the market on the way home from.

[Sean Fennessy]

Chris does not shop.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And then why don't you just bring it on over to my house when you're done shopping for yourself?

[Rob Mahoney]

I don't have children and I don't cook, so I can't comment.

[Joanna Robinson]

Can I put one more button on this movie theater thing, which is that it's not on our list, but I believe my memory serves. There was an Exorcist re release this year and it made people very ill in the cinema. That is something that we had to do. Oh, no.

[Chris Ryan]

That sucks.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, whoa. Yeah. You were mopping. Did you hold a mop?

[Rob Mahoney]

That's terrible.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's cool. Mallory in 2000, did you hold a mop?

[Rob Mahoney]

It's possible that at some point my. My mother set some chores and said, you know, Swiffer, that fucking floor. Fold the laundry, iron it. It's entirely possible.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Does that explain your fastidiousness? To this day?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think my husband has some feedback recently on the tidiness level in our home, so Chris can ask him about that, as Adam texts him every day with new 4k links and they discuss their passion for physical media. It's beautiful. The brotherhood just grows for you guys. Adam is at 2000, as Sean knows DVDs for years, just waiting for other people to talk to him about this. So he's delighted. Um, in the year 2000, I was, let's see, eighth grade into ninth grade, so end of middle school into the beginning of high school. So it's an interesting stretch in my movie history where, like, this was a big time for middle school, early high school movies. Right. I don't know, 800 sleepovers where we watched Center Stage, for example. Right. Like, there were some movies that just feel inextricable from thinking back to those years. I was also still seeing movies with my parents. Like, I definitely saw Meet the Parents with my parents not together because they split when I was 2. But that's for another.

[Chris Ryan]

What'd you guys say?

[Sean Fennessy]

Like American Psycho.

[Rob Mahoney]

Right. And then that's kind of the third bucket of like, I'm an adult and I am becoming my own person and I will engage with mature cinema.

[Chris Ryan]

Wait, how old were you again?

[Rob Mahoney]

Thirteen.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. Because you're like, I was an adult, but I'm having sleepovers and watching.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, you know, Love a Sleepover. And some of these movies that I discovered later in high school. You know, some of these movies were a big part of my life later in high school or even in college. So the formative years, I mean, very similar in that sense to 99, man 2000.

[Van Lathan]

I was in the wilderness film wise, because this was a banner year for me. I had left Louisiana Tech and transferred to Southern University.

[Chris Ryan]

You hit the portal.

[Van Lathan]

I did. And when we got on the yard, me and my friend Ryan Davenport, my very best friend, known him since the first grade when we.

[Rob Mahoney]

When we got his best friend.

[Joanna Robinson]

I thought so too.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, I'm sorry about that. When we got on the yard, the Southern's campus, hbcu, Baton Rouge, we couldn't concentrate on anything else other than what was going on in the yard.

[Sean Fennessy]

What was going on?

[Van Lathan]

Female foliage.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yep.

[Rob Mahoney]

Mm.

[Van Lathan]

Concentrate. Like I'm looking at this and.

[Joanna Robinson]

Did you say it like that? Just like that?

[Van Lathan]

Female. Yeah, we actually didn't say it. That's actually the PC version.

[Sean Fennessy]

Did you see any films that year?

[Van Lathan]

I saw films like, I saw films, but so many of these movies were DVD rentals.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, I see all of us hanging.

[Sean Fennessy]

Out so many of these films and.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You'Re like, let's play.

[Joanna Robinson]

Dude, where's my car?

[Sean Fennessy]

Again, DVD rentals. You know what I mean?

[Van Lathan]

Like, I'm looking at some of these movies and I wasn't different kind of bachelors that year. Yeah. As Much as I was before because at tech I was going to the movies all the time because there was less to do. But when we was on the yard.

[Sean Fennessy]

What do you mean by less to do?

[Van Lathan]

Tech was, you know, it was up there in Rustin, so I was going to the movies a lot. But man, on the yard, it was a Kappa party. It was a perfect 10 party. You know what I mean? We had Harambe. We had all different types of.

[Chris Ryan]

What did you say Harambe.

[Van Lathan]

Okay, so Harambe is not just the name of an ill fated primate.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, well, he. Yeah, he's one of the defining characters of Amanda's wedding to me.

[Van Lathan]

Harambe, she got married the weekend is also the name.

[Sean Fennessy]

Soon as I heard that word that that's where we were going. Look at.

[Chris Ryan]

Read each other's Salon.com headlines.

[Joanna Robinson]

About when you celebrate your wedding anniversary. Do you pour one out for Harambe?

[Chris Ryan]

I do.

[Sean Fennessy]

You visit his grave site.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And the. And what was the Thunder team that night?

[Chris Ryan]

That was the Klay Thompson game six.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Crazy, crazy wedding.

[Sean Fennessy]

A lot of people watching basketball on their phones.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Admittedly before they all stood up on chairs and started throwing things around to.

[Sean Fennessy]

Wait, who's the other Harambe?

[Van Lathan]

Harambe is a multicol cultural festival that happens between LSU and Southern where everybody comes out and there's a step show. So I was just. I was locked in. So. But I saw all of these movies at different times. But a lot of this stuff is in bedroom. In living room. Viewing later on in bedroom.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, I noticed as well.

[Van Lathan]

Or.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Or why not try other rooms?

[Joanna Robinson]

Females.

[Van Lathan]

Females.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Amanda, a.k.a.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, hard to follow that one, especially with where I was. I was thinking on the way in and in many ways maybe 2000 was like peak performance. Amanda. Like, I turned 16, got my driver's license.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, wow.

[Amanda Dobbins]

State champion cross country. I mean, I was not number one, but the team was absolutely smashing those aps, you know, fives only.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So it was like. It was like, is this an intimidation tactic? Have I gotten. I tricked the SATs that went, okay, like we need a score.

[Van Lathan]

On the table if you're gonna talk your. Talk your.

[Amanda Dobbins]

All right. And so I just. I have gotten back to that, you know, like that was it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Would you describe yourself as like a cool.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, like literally nothing I said was just cool. Right. Like double check, seven hundreds, high seven hundreds and AP glasses. You know. But like in terms of what I was built to do.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Like maybe that was it and the rest has just been.

[Joanna Robinson]

You peaked in ap probably.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

I mean that's true. But thank you so much.

[Rob Mahoney]

AP Psych. Ap.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No. AP Psych. That is your favorite. AP Music Theory, AP French Lit, AP Chem.

[Sean Fennessy]

AP French Lit.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, Translated.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Exactly.

[Joanna Robinson]

Translated what I'm saying.

[Sean Fennessy]

I went to public school.

[Joanna Robinson]

I took. I think it'd be Spanish lit. It's a thing that people say.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Really? Just reading Flaubert and writing essays about it.

[Mallory Rubin]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, in French. Do I remember anything? No. Yeah. World history.

[Joanna Robinson]

Did you ever cheat in AP French lit and secretly buy the books in English? Because that's what we did in AP Spanish Lit.

[Van Lathan]

Wow.

[Rob Mahoney]

Boy, lot coming to light just outing yourself.

[Chris Ryan]

We wonder why higher education is crumbling now.

[Joanna Robinson]

I mean, we had to write our essays in Spanish.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Maybe. Maybe we did with Camus. Yeah, maybe. I read the Stranger.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, there's like, some of them. You're just like, marques, I need some help.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, but I mean, you know, you had to write the thing. Thing in French. I doubt my essay was very good. Blue Books, remember it.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, I do remember the Blue Books.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Children.

[Sean Fennessy]

Chris, tell us about your APs. In 2000.

[Chris Ryan]

I was 22. Turning 23 in 2000. This is the 2000 AD, but 3 BSF before Sean Fennesee in my life.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's right.

[Chris Ryan]

I just moved to New York City one more time.

[Sean Fennessy]

Too. Adorable.

[Rob Mahoney]

Really touching.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I moved from Boston to New York in 2000, and I was writing about music. And I would describe my relationships to film as an activity rather than a passion. I think the cinema of the time kind of like, it kind of gave into that kind of behavior because it was like a fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon before I went out at night or like, if I had time to kill or whatever. If I was walking by a theater, I was like, oh, I checked it out and it was playing, but it wasn't like I was making lists. And I'm make. I'm thinking about it and I'm reading a lot of criticism and I'm trying to figure out, like, what are the hot movies? It was just kind of like, oh, is this a movie about stealing cars? I'll go watch it. You know, and so that was my. That was my kind of movie vibe back then. But, like, were you. You were still in college, Were you.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, you haven't talked about your relationship to females in that year and.

[Joanna Robinson]

Also your AP school daddy.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, no, I was out of college.

[Joanna Robinson]

I know.

[Chris Ryan]

So I was just taking AP tests for fun.

[Sean Fennessy]

Really?

[Rob Mahoney]

Boston, it's New York. So this was the big strawberry Strawberry Ale era. And this is when you were getting tatted up, if memory serves, Boston, I.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. I moved on from Strawberry Ale. Now, those were, like, the freshman year beers.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I was at Newberry street the other day, and I thought of you.

[Chris Ryan]

What's that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I was on Newberry street the other day.

[Chris Ryan]

That's where I was.

[Van Lathan]

Did you leave Boston because of the racism?

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

I was like, I became too much to bear. I just can't take this.

[Joanna Robinson]

And the Strawberry Ale memories.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

I moved to New York with the girlfriend at the time, and. But she then left and went to London to be in a au pair.

[Van Lathan]

Another show.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wow.

[Van Lathan]

Another show.

[Joanna Robinson]

Well, that's Emily in Paris, but.

[Van Lathan]

It's Emily in Paris.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah. Chris in Brooklyn.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah. Now, what was your girlfriend?

[Chris Ryan]

It's like girls, but it's a guy.

[Joanna Robinson]

What was your au pair girlfriend's name?

[Chris Ryan]

I don't want to talk about it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sorry. She was from Canada and she was a very nice girl.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Did she, like, leave you with the least?

[Chris Ryan]

She was Juliet Binoche.

[Joanna Robinson]

Liz Hurley. All right, got it. Got it.

[Sean Fennessy]

In 2000, I graduated from high school and started my freshman year of college. And we just thought we were so fucking cool that we were graduating high school in the year 2000, and it didn't mean anything, and it is meaningless. But at that time, I was pretty much the same as I am now. Obsessed with movies, kind of straddling the line between tremendous loser and normal person and trying.

[Rob Mahoney]

Were you wearing the Grey Goose vodka hat with the fish hook?

[Sean Fennessy]

That was in college. That was in college. There has not been talk of that in some time.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's always on my mind.

[Sean Fennessy]

Have you. Have you ever seen it?

[Rob Mahoney]

I actually believe I might have emailed Eileen once and asked for a photo, but did not receive one.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, I did wear a Grey Goose vodka hat with a fish hook on it for many years. Do you feel like fish hook? Yes.

[Mallory Rubin]

What's the actual hook?

[Rob Mahoney]

Through the bill?

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. For like a fishing hook. But why? Sending out a message to the world. This is really what I'm about. Careful, you may be coming scared.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's my favorite fact about it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Here's. Here's a.

[Joanna Robinson]

Here's a really important question. In the 99 draft last year, we learned canonically that 99 was the year you became the Nuzzler.

[Mallory Rubin]

Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, sure.

[Joanna Robinson]

What was. Was this the year of the Nuzzler?

[Sean Fennessy]

Two more Nuzzler, also an Amazon series?

[Joanna Robinson]

No, that's.

[Sean Fennessy]

Eileen and I got together in 99 and stayed together, and we are together today.

[Joanna Robinson]

So the Nuzzler 2 still nuzzling. In 2000, it was really more like.

[Sean Fennessy]

An exc extended series rather than individual films. It's kind of my one lone dip into television. Otherwise, it's been all movies for me.

[Joanna Robinson]

Got it, got it.

[Sean Fennessy]

So 2000, you know, I saw a lot of movies in 2000, a ton of movies. I think 99 also supercharged a Native Interest and it was just like. So are we just getting like the Matrix and the Sixth Sense every year? Like, is this what movies are now?

[Chris Ryan]

We did not.

[Sean Fennessy]

Isn't actually what happened. So this is a pretty fascinating year. Very memorable. Academy Awards because of the dominance of, I would say, two figures, Maximus and Steven Soderbergh. Those to me, are the critical.

[Van Lathan]

This is the Steven Soderbergh MVP season.

[Sean Fennessy]

I agree.

[Van Lathan]

As he's working his way through the bench with like out of Sight and he's having a fantastic rookie year with sex, lies and videotape and all of that stuff. This is the MVP season. This is finally when he grabs the thing. I'm the guy.

[Sean Fennessy]

I have a take that both of these movies are now underrated because they came out in the same year.

[Chris Ryan]

I agree.

[Rob Mahoney]

Definitely.

[Sean Fennessy]

Even by me. I've made a lot of podcasts about Steven Soderbergh over the years.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. One, yes.

[Chris Ryan]

I think the classics from this year had like a long period of time. Soderbergh's and also I would say some of the other more well regarded movies from this year had a period of like out in the wilderness. Like nobody's really talking about them. They're not being revived at all. And then they've had a nice little run recently.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like what?

[Chris Ryan]

I think I've definitely come to love Traffic, for instance. Gladiator, I think got a bump from the sequel and from just the sequel not being as good as Gladiator. Bill Simmons single handedly has kept Cast Away in the public consciousness for the last 15 years. So there's a lot of stuff going on.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Having just recently revisited Castaway after not caring about it for a very long period of time. Bill was right.

[Rob Mahoney]

Pretty good movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Pretty amazing.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know if it's the single film that I would dedicate my life to thinking of.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, I wouldn't either. I do.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, it's a perfect Bill in a way.

[Rob Mahoney]

I have a sense.

[Sean Fennessy]

I do want to frame this conversation very specifically because my thinking about it dictated some of the category decisions that we made here today. So the thing that jumped out to me when I put together the list of all the movies that qualify for the Box office category is that there are only two sequels in the top 21. No, 22 movies from this year.

[Van Lathan]

Originals.

[Sean Fennessy]

That is crazy. When you look at the history of movies and obviously in the last 25 years, we've talked a lot about sequelization franchises, but if you go back to the 80s, there's usually 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 sequels. So the thing that we always drone on about on the show, which is like, make original movies. This was the year like they did it. And we have to ask ourselves, is this actually what we want? Because in some cases, it doesn't always turn out right because it's a risk to do an original.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay, so original storytelling bad. Actually didn't say that. Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

But I sounded like you. Fodder for discussion.

[Joanna Robinson]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessy]

And so with that in mind, we have changed a category. I'll go through the seven categories we'll be drafting from today. So most of the classics, drama, comedy, action, horror, thriller, Oscar nominee. That means any movie that was nominated for an Oscar released in this year. And then in lieu of sequel, we will do original. So that means we will pick an original movie not based on any IP whatsoever. Because there are so many options to choose from now, we can have a little bit of a spirited debate about what qualifies and what does not in a moment. And then Wild Card is our last category. No, excuse me, blockbuster, $100 million threshold. And then wild card. So seven categories, seven drafters.

[Chris Ryan]

49 films.

[Sean Fennessy]

49 films. This is a lot we gotta make. We gotta be succinct in our picks.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

The original question now I got a late text message and a post 10pm text message from Mallory. It was former president Barack Obama. And he said, I heard the 2000 draft is coming. I'll have you know I was a junior senator from Illinois at that time. Was he a junior? He wasn't a junior. Junior.

[Van Lathan]

He wasn't.

[Sean Fennessy]

Wow. What was he doing? Was he.

[Van Lathan]

He was in. He was still a con.

[Sean Fennessy]

Local government.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

He was a state senator.

[Chris Ryan]

He's just watching NC tape.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. So Mal texted me and I won't say the title of the film, but it is a film that is based on true events but fictionalized. And she said, does this movie qualify for original? And it's. I don't. I don't have a strong feeling. I think it's worth.

[Rob Mahoney]

I was following up on what I realized some 8 to 12 hours later in the day was a note from you that I had not absorbed or understood in full, which was like real life. Figures Count as in this exercise. Ip, that would make a movie, not an original movie. So if it is a historical adaptation, if it is based on a book, if it is based on a play, if it is based on an older version of the movie, we're saying that it being based on real figures is the same as being an adaptation of a book, which to me is ludicrous.

[Joanna Robinson]

I agree. That's insane.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Absolutely absurd.

[Rob Mahoney]

It makes the category almost impossible. But it's your draft.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is it?

[Van Lathan]

Jesus.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Let's. Let's be legal about it. Is something being opt. It's like if it's. If it's a book, if it's a biography, if it's a. I don't want to give anything away but a piece of journalism, you know, then that is ip, if it's just, you know, life rights.

[Rob Mahoney]

Right. And what if the figures are. If it's public domain, but it's not a direct one to one based on this person's life.

[Van Lathan]

You guys are legitimately making Shawn uncomfortable right now.

[Chris Ryan]

No, I think. I think we should. I think we should do the.

[Mallory Rubin]

I think he wants to.

[Chris Ryan]

I think we'll know it when we see it.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay, so, people, I'm fine with that. Make the pick. Try to pick it in that category if you want. And then the group can say no.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Rob Mahoney]

And you adjust.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. That's right.

[Van Lathan]

Original.

[Sean Fennessy]

I made a list of potential originals and came up with quite a few.

[Van Lathan]

It's a lot.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think there's a lot here that even if you remove the docudrama element, there's a rich tapestry of picks to choose from. Now, are they exactly the movies that you want on your draft board? Probably not. It's going to be hard to get all the movies you want with seven drafters in seven categories.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

We just went through this with Tom Cruise. You know, some not so great movies were drafted.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Some absolutely brutal stuff.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Take Interview with the Vampire.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You had the honor to.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, that movie sucks.

[Sean Fennessy]

It was only. That was only funny because you.

[Van Lathan]

The show. I know you didn't watch the show. We gotta talk. We gotta do the interview with the vampire. The show.

[Joanna Robinson]

We talked about this last time we podcast about the show.

[Van Lathan]

Just riddled and degraded the movie to me. I can't do the movie anymore. The show's gone.

[Joanna Robinson]

The movie's not nearly as good as the show, but it's still.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Before we draft, we need to set the draft order for the very last time. Bobby Wagner will be helping us set the draft order, Bob. Hell yeah. Bob. Bob, do you want to weigh in on this original debate?

[Mallory Rubin]

Nope.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Mallory Rubin]

Not my job anymore.

[Sean Fennessy]

You guys figure that out over there. I'm just here to set the order.

[Van Lathan]

Get to it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Selecting first overall will be Mallory Rubin.

[Rob Mahoney]

I didn't want that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Honestly, nobody ever wants where I pick them. Like, what do you guys.

[Mallory Rubin]

You get first, you get last.

[Sean Fennessy]

Everyone's mad all the time.

[Rob Mahoney]

Pick in the draft.

[Sean Fennessy]

This was the burden that you carried for many years. Yeah. Now it's not my responsibility anymore. Second overall, Rob Mahoney.

[Mallory Rubin]

This is a lot of tiles to.

[Sean Fennessy]

Pick out without Sean even vamping. Sean, third.

[Chris Ryan]

Sean.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sean, third.

[Rob Mahoney]

Wait, who was second? Sorry, Rob.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, Rob. So you have, like, a hierarchy of picks. You're like, this is my personal relationship.

[Chris Ryan]

I talked about this before. I go through the list of films released in the year I write down everyone that I know I saw.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You're fourth? Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Fourth is Chris.

[Chris Ryan]

And then I do, like, basically a power ranking of them.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

But then I put them into their appropriate genre categories or their appropriate categories.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. And you order them by preference.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

But then I. At the moment when we walk in here.

[Sean Fennessy]

Joanna, fifth.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, Joanna's five.

[Sean Fennessy]

How did you do it with Seabiscuit? Since you haven't seen.

[Chris Ryan]

That was more about my relationship to horses in general.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And World War II.

[Joanna Robinson]

Sure.

[Chris Ryan]

Bond raising.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, he was not racing during World War II. Van is going six, which makes Amanda seventh. Yes. You have the turn.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I have the turn.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Fifth. Second.

[Mallory Rubin]

Second.

[Sean Fennessy]

First.

[Rob Mahoney]

Did not want the first pick in this draft.

[Sean Fennessy]

Mallory, you have the clock. Bobby. Thank you, Bobby. You did it, bud. Thank you very much, Bob. Farewell to Top. For the Top Gun hat. Good luck, everyone.

[Rob Mahoney]

Aw, thank you, Bobby. Let's go, Mets.

[Sean Fennessy]

Let's go. Mal is more appropriate.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's your turn.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I saw them lose recently.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes, I know. You got to see Dobbins pitch.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I did. And then walk off in the 10th. For the Sox.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah. Not for the Oranges.

[Chris Ryan]

Wasn't there a Norse?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I sat through it in the first inning, but we made it.

[Joanna Robinson]

All right.

[Rob Mahoney]

I didn't want the number one pick because in a draft this size, it's just so long to wait for the second pick. And I think that's going to be a challenge.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So take your time up now.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, but. And I kind of, like, knew what I wanted to do in the 2 through 7 range. But I do feel like I know what I want to pick, and I'm curious to see if you guys agree and think there was a consensus or if this could have gone a number of different ways, I will be selecting something that has been on all of our minds recently because of a sequel that was not as good and made us appreciate this film more. What we do in movie drafts echoes in Eternity. I will be taking Gladiator, which I think is the closest in Oscar nominee. I will be taking Gladiator and Oscar nominee. I think this is the closest to, like, yeah, this might have been number one on most people's boards, but I won't be surprised if that's not the case.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, it was. And then I feel like Sean did a whisper campaign about how Gladiator's not that good. Did he. Did you.

[Sean Fennessy]

Did I do a whisper campaign?

[Chris Ryan]

Have you been. Have you been kind of like, this movie's not.

[Rob Mahoney]

Actually, I feel like we all saw the second one and thought, you know what? That first one was even better than we realized.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, I think both things can be true. I think it can be not my favorite Ridley Scott movie. And I can also acknowledge that it has greatness in it. It's just not.

[Van Lathan]

It's interesting because, like, Gladiator is an original movie, but I think there's a through line with the original movies that we have in this year is that they're all super familiar concepts. You got your sword and sandal movie, you got your big time comedy where you're actually meeting. There's all things you can glom onto. So Gladiator feels like a movie that you've seen before. And, like, it takes you a while to realize that you're watching something that has historical figures and it's the whole nine. That's like a throwback, Spartacus type film. So people knew what to expect when they.

[Sean Fennessy]

It also does feature real life figures. Marcus Aurelius of the world. And then also the inspiration for that movie is based on a book about coliseum fighting. But then nothing is really taken from that book other than the idea of Colosseum fighting being the platform, the stage for the movie. So if it were to go into the original conversation, I think that would have been the most interesting debate that we could have had.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is that what you're asking about?

[Joanna Robinson]

There were.

[Rob Mahoney]

It actually wasn't the one I texted him about, but it was the thing we had discussed during the day yesterday that then I was reflecting on later, and I was like, wait, now I have a question about another movie. I feel good about this pick. This is a solid movie to have on my board.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm like, it's a great pick. I think it's the consistent one nit.

[Mallory Rubin]

On the gladiatorial front. Every time I watch this movie, I want more time in the minors. Like Gladiator AAA is my favorite part, right?

[Chris Ryan]

The trinity, like you got to prove.

[Mallory Rubin]

You can do it in Rochester before get to Rome. And I feel like we fast forward through that stuff way, way too fast.

[Joanna Robinson]

I have a stars show for you called Spartacus.

[Rob Mahoney]

And guess what? Guess what? I loved every second of Spartacus. A lot of dicks in that show.

[Joanna Robinson]

A lot of blood and sand.

[Sean Fennessy]

A lot of dicks.

[Rob Mahoney]

And so we've again, a lot of dicks.

[Sean Fennessy]

Gladiator 2 had the same problem where it was like Paul Mescal was a warrior and then a slave and then a. And then he won one fight and they were like, you are now entering the Roman column.

[Chris Ryan]

But he also. But he had familial kind of claim to the truth.

[Joanna Robinson]

So he was really bad at speeches. You know, he had a lot going for him.

[Van Lathan]

Lariat 2 is fucking unwatchable.

[Rob Mahoney]

First Gladiator rules.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Think it was unwatchable.

[Van Lathan]

I watched it. I try to watch it again and I watched it. Gladiator 2 sucks.

[Sean Fennessy]

What about. I thought Denzel was very entertaining.

[Joanna Robinson]

I thought Denzel was great. I thought the syphilitic emperors were great.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I saw it. What about myself?

[Van Lathan]

The first time I saw it, I was like, hey, you know, this is. Is kind of cool. The second time I watch it, it's a mess.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, I've only seen it once, so maybe I don't ever have to answer that question. All right, Rob. Rob Mahoney has the number two pick.

[Mallory Rubin]

I feel like this is pretty easy. I'm going to take Almost Famous.

[Rob Mahoney]

That was the other one I considered at 1.

[Van Lathan]

That would have been my number.

[Joanna Robinson]

That's really tough. It's really tough.

[Mallory Rubin]

Pretty undeniable.

[Rob Mahoney]

I didn't get why I thought that was.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah. Mallory cannot betray me.

[Mallory Rubin]

I. I kind of figured it'd go at once. I'm thrilled to have it at 2. Watching it at the time, I'm very much like goner for Penny Lane watching this movie. Now I watch it and I realize.

[Sean Fennessy]

No comment.

[Mallory Rubin]

Now I watch it and I'm like really identifying with Frances McDormand. So, you know, we have crested him.

[Amanda Dobbins]

To a different stage of life.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, I'm feeling that deeply.

[Mallory Rubin]

She's making a lot of great points. Maybe not like full on record confiscation points, but other than that, incredibly charming, undeniable movies. It's so hard not to get swept Away in it. It's a classic. I'm gonna pull up this one scene, and I end up watching the back.

[Rob Mahoney]

I don't know.

[Sean Fennessy]

Hour and a half of this movie.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's the best. What category?

[Mallory Rubin]

I'm gonna take it. So can I make the argument for comedy? Is Almost Famous enough of a dramedy to be a comedy?

[Joanna Robinson]

I think so.

[Chris Ryan]

That feels, like, hesitant. I think it's in. I bet in Wikipedia it describes it as a romantic comedy.

[Sean Fennessy]

I find that fascinating. Cause I feel like this is actually a great year for comedy. So I'll allow it just in that very specific respect.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is what I texted Sean about last, by the way.

[Mallory Rubin]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes.

[Mallory Rubin]

In terms of where famous was the.

[Sean Fennessy]

Question as to this, would this be considered? Because neither William Miller nor the band he is profiling are real people.

[Joanna Robinson]

You know what I mean? Ben Fong Torres is here.

[Sean Fennessy]

Ben Fong Torres, of course, Lester Bangs. Of course. We've got real people. But by changing. What was it? Was it the Eagles or the Doobie Brothers? What was the band that he was sort of, like, loosely basing his experience? The Doobie Brothers.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

So I was, like, obsessed with music magazines when this movie came out. And my life's goal was to work at a music magazine when this movie came out. And I was obviously already a huge fan of Cameron Crowe. Folks have heard me talk about Jerry Maguire many times on the show. I was like, is this really happening when this movie came out? Like, I was electrified by this movie and didn't maybe totally even understand what Cameron Crowe's life was. And the fact that he was like, yeah, I'm 16. I'm on the road with a band. It's like, what the fuck? I find it still has the magic.

[Chris Ryan]

That's how I feel. Like, Task.

[Joanna Robinson]

Mark Ruffalo.

[Sean Fennessy]

For me, this is like a. You guys can weigh in on this, too, please. If they didn't score that to Guns N Roses as Patience, would that be a good trailer?

[Amanda Dobbins]

They did.

[Mallory Rubin]

It's a good trailer.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what I mean?

[Sean Fennessy]

Because Guns N Roses, Patience, like, that's over here. That's a five out of five. You can't get better.

[Chris Ryan]

That is music aesthetics. That's like, this is what we're going for.

[Mallory Rubin]

That's on the mood board.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's interesting that you're holding your arm up to say, that's over here, because it does. Allow me to say that, Joe. Joanna Robinson, who's with us today, has an almost famous tattoo on her wrist. And yet Rob Mahoney took this Movie before she could.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, you know what?

[Rob Mahoney]

Not a thing that I did to her.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think that we have learned over time that Rob Mahoney takes no prisoners.

[Joanna Robinson]

I made my piece of this. I was like, if I'm not a number one or two drafter, I'm not getting it. But this is a movie that changed my life. It's the reason I got into journalism. It's a perfect movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, you know what? We sit in that rock. All right, well, I'm in the complicated position of number three.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, I think I'm going to take a blockbuster, and I think I'm going to take one of the most exciting blockbusters of this year. And the fact that it was a blockbuster is a remarkable thing that happened. Taking Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, angley masterpiece, this movie. It's hard to communicate. What a phenomenon. This movie was released by Sony Pictures Classics by a filmmaker who never made action cinema like this, who really did not indicate that this was like, I guess, pushing hands. Maybe one of his first movies showed that he had an interest in martial arts. But extraordinary movie. Michelle Yeoh, I think for many people, the first time they saw her, and now we have a huge relationship with her in the last 10 years. Movies, just a gorgeous wuxia film. I think Wen Yu Peng, who did the choreography for the Matrix, also worked on this movie. And so you have that, like, incredible wire work. And this movie made like $130 million.

[Van Lathan]

You could make an argument at number one.

[Sean Fennessy]

Absolutely.

[Van Lathan]

You could make an argument at Number One. It was a phenomenon. It was like everybody was talking about the martial arts. But then also when you saw the movie, you got swept up in this beautiful story. That's gorgeous. Beautiful stories. Great.

[Rob Mahoney]

I can't see the screen.

[Sean Fennessy]

You see that? You see the sequel to this movie?

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't.

[Sean Fennessy]

Crouching Tiger 2.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't. When did that come out?

[Sean Fennessy]

2016, something like that.

[Rob Mahoney]

Haven't seen the sequel. Popped in the 4k if this puppy over the weekend.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it looks beautiful.

[Chris Ryan]

This was a movie that had maybe the highest approval rating of people coming out of the theater in this year. Just anecdotally, like I remember seeing Walking Out Festooned. Did you like it?

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Okay. Number four.

[Chris Ryan]

That's me.

[Sean Fennessy]

By the way, Crouching Tiger would have applied to like, six of these categories.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Which category did you take it in?

[Sean Fennessy]

I took it in Blockbuster.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Blockbuster.

[Rob Mahoney]

Kind of.

[Sean Fennessy]

Kind of a weird.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what I'm doing? I'm going to do something a little funny here in original. I'm going to do. You can count on me.

[Rob Mahoney]

Wow, that's a great pick.

[Joanna Robinson]

Just because you're thinking about Mark Ruffalo. Always.

[Chris Ryan]

I am always thinking about Mark Ruffalo, Kenneth Lonergan's directorial debut.

[Joanna Robinson]

So good.

[Chris Ryan]

Really, like the first time I had ever really seen Ruffalo. I think this is his first big role and probably like Laura Linney's breakout. I would say one of the most amazing portraits of family love that I've ever seen and what happens to families over the course of. Of of their lives as their parents get older. And it's like everything happens and is tender and funny and heartbreaking and is probably the movie that I like, take with me the most from this year. And, you know, with all the legalese surrounding original films this year, I thought I'd grab one.

[Rob Mahoney]

Smart.

[Chris Ryan]

And I'm also happy to walk away with it. So that's good.

[Joanna Robinson]

That's a good one. Really good.

[Sean Fennessy]

One perfect movie. Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is a rare. If memory serves, four and a half stars for the Sean Fantasy letterbox.

[Sean Fennessy]

Did I put you in four and a half stars?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think you did.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Don't be doing this. Don't give.

[Rob Mahoney]

He sent us the letterbox list, and there are a number of four stars, but I only saw one. Four and a half.

[Chris Ryan]

One of the greatest last scenes in a film, too.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't know.

[Rob Mahoney]

He knows.

[Joanna Robinson]

Incredible cello score.

[Sean Fennessy]

It does. It's a very good movie if you have a sibling. That's what I'll say. If you've ever had relationships. I still like it. No offense to all the onlys, but this movie gets something very right about having siblings. I have an only in my family, so I. No shots. To the only.

[Mallory Rubin]

This is my movie. I was dumb enough to think was gonna be there in, like, round three or four.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Mallory Rubin]

So I'm heartbroken that you took it.

[Chris Ryan]

But there's a lot of stuff in a lot of other categories that I just. I'm like a little.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You gotta do what you want. Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Same.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is it now.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's Joanna. Jack made a helpful little rubric.

[Sean Fennessy]

Joanna. That'll be very helpful to look at. Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

Joe, I think you're right that we have to, like, dig into original while we have it.

[Rob Mahoney]

Shit.

[Sean Fennessy]

Fuck.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I kind of feel like I'm gonna throw up right now. Just say it.

[Joanna Robinson]

Wow. I'm inspired by Chris. Since my number one is off the board, I'm kind of spiraling, so I will just go with my heart and I'll say, actually, one of the most important movies to me. Also in this year is Billy Elliot.

[Sean Fennessy]

Wow.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay, awesome picture.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm deleting it. I don't have to throw up.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is my prediction, of course. Then turned into a stage musical, which gave us Tom Holland, among other things in our lives. But I have watched this movie one million times. Incredible young Jamie Bell performance. Great movie if you've got dad issues. Great movie if you love. If you have anger and frustration and use art to get through it. Great movie if you love regional dialects in the uk. And this is one of those. You know, those. The soundtracks that had snippets of dialogue on the. On the CD or on the, you know, tape, like little scenelets. And then you listen to that soundtrack so many times, you have all of those little moments of dialogue, like in Pulp Fiction memorized. This is true of the Billy Elliot soundtrack for me. I listened to. It's got all these great T. Rex tracks and then all these great scenes from Billy Elliot. And I cry every time I watch this movie.

[Mallory Rubin]

Joe, you're taking this in original.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Mallory Rubin]

What is the verdict on? This is based on his own play that then he adapts into the movie, but then he adapts into a different play.

[Joanna Robinson]

Rob, did you take almost anything from me, and now you're trying to take away Billy Elliot. Take Billy Elliot.

[Mallory Rubin]

I would love nothing more than.

[Sean Fennessy]

The.

[Chris Ryan]

Person adapting all this stuff. Same person, same guy.

[Mallory Rubin]

Wait, the whiplash theorem.

[Rob Mahoney]

But. But if it's based on their own life, it's not original?

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't say that.

[Mallory Rubin]

Well, I think that we're still negotiating.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, well, we can still negotiate that.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay. All right. Feels like we're leading for allowing.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was a very beautiful tribute.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, it's really.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm slightly concerned that from a rules perspective, it does have. That would be.

[Mallory Rubin]

You can take in a different category.

[Sean Fennessy]

I actually. So I don't know enough about this.

[Van Lathan]

I'm on Joe's side.

[Sean Fennessy]

Re. Explain what transpired here. So, Lee, Hal, again, you'll have to make, like, several hundred hours of podcast with Joanna for the next 12 months.

[Chris Ryan]

This guy, and he is a fucking absolute animal.

[Van Lathan]

He's not nice. Every time you get to the core of who Rob is, he's a sociopath.

[Mallory Rubin]

I'm calling HR Lee hall wrote a play called Dancer. That play gets adapted into the movie Billy Elliot that gets adapted into the play Billy Elliott.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It premiered as a rehearsed reading in 1998 at the live theater. So it wasn't even a full production.

[Van Lathan]

Leave Joe alone.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think that that's.

[Van Lathan]

I don't like this.

[Sean Fennessy]

If this hasn't been staged, then I think that that is a loophole. Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

Thanks, Amanda.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Rehearsed reading. I mean, I'm just reading box office.

[Joanna Robinson]

Really through for me.

[Mallory Rubin]

So if you're a person in Newcastle.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Upon Tyne also, so you know, like.

[Mallory Rubin]

To Billy Elliot, then Joe's draft is invalidated.

[Sean Fennessy]

This is really dicey territory because like every movie is kind of based on an idea that someone had at any given time that when then went into a series of development. These are the pitfalls of this category. I'll make an allowance for Billy Elliot.

[Van Lathan]

Sure. Oh, wow.

[Chris Ryan]

That's really big of you.

[Sean Fennessy]

How does that sound?

[Chris Ryan]

I'm team Joe here.

[Joanna Robinson]

So generous. Thank you.

[Sean Fennessy]

You got to talk to him.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, there are plenty of rehearsed readings for all sorts of original.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, they rehearsed Hateful Eight.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, they certainly did. That was also.

[Joanna Robinson]

So you thought I would do Almost Famous first, Billy Elliot second. Yeah, Mallory knows my Heart. It's really sweet.

[Rob Mahoney]

I had a theory because I just the the love of the musical and the dance.

[Joanna Robinson]

The end when he's in Matthew Bourne Swan Lake and his dad cries and gasps when he makes the leap. Oh my God.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. Okay, Van, you're up.

[Van Lathan]

All right, so for my first pick, it's going to be symbolic because I know I'm going to get the movie that I want after Amanda's two picks because it's coming right back to me.

[Sean Fennessy]

Interesting.

[Van Lathan]

So I'm going to pick Bamboozled in Original.

[Sean Fennessy]

Wow.

[Rob Mahoney]

Original is there's a run?

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to pick Bamboozled in Original. It is the movie, the single movie that I watched the most this year. Blown away at Spike's audacity. I think it was partly the audacity of the movie that makes it one of Spike's lesser lauded films. Because as far as him just writing a movie that, you know, has the same ending issue that many Spike Lee movies have, right? Where he kind of drifts into the supernatural slash, absurdist slash, whatever. And people go, you know, whatever you throw in the basketball and then having the guy catch it at the end, having Shuttlesworth catch it at the end if he got game. Or the Wake up from the End of School Days where people are like, it's more of an allegorical ending. This one kind of has the same thing. But what a kick in the nuts. If you are a 20 year old black man and you are endeavoring, wanting to endeavor into a career in entertainment, when you watch this movie, it completely reorients the way you look at yourself and the way you look at that entire industry, just like a sublime absurdist tragedy. Love the film.

[Sean Fennessy]

Your favorite character is Michael Rappaport.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, that was sort of peak Rappaport for me.

[Sean Fennessy]

More ways than one.

[Mallory Rubin]

The corporate PR satire stuff in this movie is, like, way too fucking applicable. Like, the playbook of just, like, name check Martin Luther King. Say the word community a lot. Where the kente cloth is like, oh, oh, Lord.

[Van Lathan]

He literally tries to do the one idea that he thinks is too far that will surely get him fired, and it's the one that makes him into who he was. It was just. I still watch. It's fantastic.

[Sean Fennessy]

To me, the one thing about this movie that was, at the time, kind of revolutionary and now is interesting to look back on is that it looks like it was shot with a potato. Right. Because it's that early DV that you get, like, with 28 days later. And there's a couple of movies that were shot with this really early DV style.

[Chris Ryan]

Oliver Stone. U turn. Did he do that? Kind of like, there's, like, parts of it that feel that way or maybe even more.

[Sean Fennessy]

Just different film stocks. Yeah. But actually just makes it feel like surveillance footage. Like a lot of handheld. And so you're. What? You're like in those boardrooms where Damon Wayans is explaining his ideas, and you're like, is this, like, a Candid Camera episode or something? That feeling of disorientation. It works really great for this movie.

[Van Lathan]

Fantastic Tommy Davidson performance as well.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Like, just. I love the movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, great pick. We're down to Amanda at the turn.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We cheer and we lead. You hate us because we're beautiful, but we don't like you either. We're cheerleaders. Yeah. Yeah. Cheerleados. Okay. I went to sleep last night and praying that I would get the turn so that I could do a Kiki double header. Obviously, everyone really being the best. Thank you so much, everyone. Number one pick in drama will be the Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola's directorial debut, which premiered at Cannes in 1999, but it was not eligible for the 1999 draft, as I made Rob Mahoney very aware of, because it did not premiere in the US until April 2000. This is an absolutely beautiful movie about being a teenager and not understanding things and deep sadness and the power of Josh Hartman 25 years ago, which remains today. I didn't get to go to big.

[Joanna Robinson]

Questions, but otherwise, yes.

[Mallory Rubin]

Trip Fontaine, how dare you?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, come on. First of all, when he's like walking down the hallway to Magic man, and then obviously, with the heart and she jumps into the car and they start making out. That is some powerful stuff. I didn't get to go to the Academy screening with Kiki and Sofia, which, like, it was okay with me. I don't like. I don't know if I want to be that close to greatness, but I did think Kiki looked great. Anyway, that's drama. Comedy.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Bring It On. Which, like, I honestly, I was a little nervous that Joanna was gonna take Bring it on for me at some point. This is, you know, I was. I turned 16 in 2000. One of the great teen comedies. An incredible Kirsten Dunst performance. Great. Gabrielle Union gave us Spirit Fingers. Gave us, you know, one of the great movie openings of all time, which I do have memorized in full. I just gave you guys a snippet there. You're welcome. The floor is yours.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, yeah, the floor is yours.

[Joanna Robinson]

Continue for the moves as well.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'll also take an AP class on the film. Bring it up.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, but do you know actually that, like, at a pep rally at my high school, the actual cheerleaders did perform that opening? I was not a cheerleader. No, no. I was on cross country.

[Mallory Rubin]

Were you a cultural appropriator, though?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Also not that, though I did live in Atlanta, so, you know, really, really funny, smart, teen movie. Great. I prefer this to Ant man, thanks to all of you. And I feel great about getting it.

[Mallory Rubin]

It's bonkers to me that Bring it on was not a blockbuster because speaking of movies, like did numbers on the Sleepover circuit. I. I don't understand how this wasn't a bigger theater hit.

[Sean Fennessy]

Were you bumping Bring It On?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Was it Sleepovers?

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, yeah.

[Mallory Rubin]

This movie was everywhere.

[Chris Ryan]

You could not avoid it.

[Sean Fennessy]

It was kind of an instant cult classic.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, it was now.

[Joanna Robinson]

Now a queer classic now queer classic as well.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, Van, we're back to you.

[Van Lathan]

It's the only time I'm torn.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, I feel like I know something.

[Chris Ryan]

I thought you were like, I'm turn, but.

[Van Lathan]

But now I'm thinking about another movie that I would really love to have, but I'm gonna go with My First Heart. I'm taking traffic off the board and I'll stop.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, interesting. That isn't what I thought you were gonna do.

[Van Lathan]

No, because there's another film that. That I wanted, but I got. I gotta take Traffic off the board.

[Chris Ryan]

For what category?

[Van Lathan]

Oscar. Oscar.

[Sean Fennessy]

Taking in an Oscar?

[Van Lathan]

Baton Rouge. The only time I'm gonna be get to draft Baton Rouge. Is this Steven Soderbergh Baton Rouge? But more so, like, you know, I love the movie from the moment that I saw it. Ensemble cast. It seemed like a very important film to watch at that time, that it was saying something really important and turning you on to something that you kind of didn't realize was going on. So first time, I was really thought of drug cartels as being Mexican and not, like, Colombian. You know what I mean? Like, the movie was saying something and, like, diving deep into a world and took me in the middle of the world. That made me uncomfortable. Particularly the Amanda Seyfried. Like, all of that stuff.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like Erica Christensen. Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Eric Christensen.

[Joanna Robinson]

Put some respect on Swim fan look too.

[Van Lathan]

Blonde from the same.

[Mallory Rubin]

Don't you hate that, though? Like, when you're promoted to drug czar, and then Topher Grace gets your daughter.

[Chris Ryan]

Hooked on crap, and then Topher Grace has the temerity to be like, whoa.

[Van Lathan]

Whoa, whoa, back up, man.

[Chris Ryan]

What would it be like if a hundred black guys went into a white neighborhood asking for drugs?

[Van Lathan]

I felt them. But. But even that portrayal, like, I'm telling.

[Sean Fennessy]

You, even this was mind blowing. If you were watching that 70s show, by the way, that he showed up in this form.

[Rob Mahoney]

And Ocean, he's like, I'd like to take a hit. Here's what I'd like to try. Let's have sex and take a hit.

[Joanna Robinson]

When we both.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

How did I know you were gonna quote that directly while looking me in the eyes on this podcast?

[Van Lathan]

The way this movie got sold to me. Cause the way this movie got sold to me is like, one of my homeboys was like, hey, yo, Chris Rock has been beaten. And I was like, what? It's like he not the number one crackhead no more. When you see the white girl in traffic, that's the number one crackhead ever. And I had to go see the number one crackhead.

[Chris Ryan]

Check it out.

[Van Lathan]

And so I went and saw the movie. Fantastic. A movie that holds up as good today as it was then.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's just shout out a couple of things in this Cliff Martinez score. He blacked out. It's amazing. It's just gorgeous. The fact that Silverberg's running Michael Douglas up and down these streets with, like, a handheld camera.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Clifton Collins is incredible in this. Benicio, obviously amazing.

[Van Lathan]

Don Cheadle.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Cheadle's amazing Phoenician scheme yet.

[Chris Ryan]

And this is my favorite. Catherine Zeta Jones.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, Catherine Zeta Jones.

[Van Lathan]

The peak of her career.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's disrespectful to Ocean's eleven. Benicio is amazing.

[Sean Fennessy]

And so when this movie came out, I had the same reaction as you. I was like, this movie is important. And I had that classic, like, Reddit conspiracy brain of, like, it is all connected. The Dr. It goes all the way to the top and then all the way down to, you know, when you're 16 and you're like, this has revealed something really profound. And then, you know, for the intervening 10 or 15 years, I was like, this movie's, like, a little overrated, and it feels very schematic. And I can feel the screenplay when I'm watching it. And then I would watch it again a few years ago, and I was like, actually, no, this is. He's right. Everything is all connected. The performances in the movie are incredible. Like, this is some of the best acting I think so ever gotten. So, yeah, great pick. Tougher. Cr.

[Chris Ryan]

Tough for cr.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, Joanna. Rough.

[Joanna Robinson]

Do you know what I'm picking next?

[Rob Mahoney]

I actually have a theory. I'll be honest about whether I'm right after you make the pick.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay. So for a long time, I would walk around talking about my top five. I knew it.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is my prediction for your draft is that it would be very musically inclined because there are a lot of great music movies. What am I.

[Joanna Robinson]

What am I thinking?

[Rob Mahoney]

You're picking high fidelity.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, I'm not picking high fidelity.

[Van Lathan]

Now. Somebody else is gonna grab it. By the way, that was the other movie. It was between Traffic and High Fidelity.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm shocked that that's not what you're picking. Okay.

[Joanna Robinson]

What other top five? I would talk about my top five favorite movies of all time. Two of them were from the year 2000. Almost famous in this other one that I'm gonna say. Another One was from 2001, and then it was a rotating other two. And I don't know if it's just because, like, I was working in a movie theater or whatever.

[Sean Fennessy]

Anyway, point being, Requiem for a Dream.

[Joanna Robinson]

It's O Brother, Art Thou.

[Sean Fennessy]

O Brother.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, it's O Brother, Art Thou.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's one of my dad's favorite movies.

[Joanna Robinson]

I'm taking an Oscar and great fucking pick. I love this movie with my whole entire heart. I think this is my favorite George Clooney. This is where I was introduced to one of my favorite people, Tim Blake Nelson.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is an incredible Coen Brothers joint. We're basing it off of Myth. We're changing everyone's relationship with bluegrass music, and it looks like a million bucks. And I love this movie.

[Rob Mahoney]

I did know that this Was a favorite of yours. It is also a favorite of Barry Rubin's, My beloved Father. You guys have a lot in common. As we frequently discuss.

[Joanna Robinson]

Barry and I are one of the best.

[Rob Mahoney]

It does still fit the. Joe is gonna pick movies with songs in them.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, it does.

[Sean Fennessy]

So.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Great pick. Love it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You're really psyched you out.

[Chris Ryan]

Because I had a vision of how this round was gonna go.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Van and Joe completely chopped. I'm like the knight in money.

[Joanna Robinson]

That's how I feel when you. This is how I feel every time I draft with ucr because you pick. You can count on me. And I was like, no one's gonna pick that. Yeah, I got that one easy. And then Sierra's like, I was gonna.

[Chris Ryan]

Get old brother in this round. So I'm gonna do a little bit of. And sure that I was right about something, which is that. Yeah, Perfect Storm was nominated for some Oscars.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Thank God. Thank God. I did not even put it on my list. Because if anyone but you got it.

[Joanna Robinson]

I was gonna be.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, do it. Come on.

[Chris Ryan]

I feel like I've now I've lost touch with the actual monologue where it's just about. It's Diane Lane's letter to Mark Wahlberg as he gets killed by the gigantic.

[Van Lathan]

Wave at the gigantic waver.

[Chris Ryan]

She's like, bobby, you and me, a fresh start. Two curtains up in this little pattern.

[Joanna Robinson]

The denim cut off shorts. As you're.

[Chris Ryan]

As you were saying that this movie rocks. Clooney, Wahlberg. What?

[Rob Mahoney]

Wait, you're picking this as your Oscar nominee?

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Sound editing.

[Sean Fennessy]

Diane Lane is probably your deepest bag. That's like. That is.

[Joanna Robinson]

I mean, nothing but respect.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

For that. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

She's also. She's up in the crow's nest just crushing PBRs and Narragansett Dream.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't think Narragansett was around the beer at that time.

[Chris Ryan]

Was it?

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't think so.

[Chris Ryan]

Narragansett wasn't like, don't they drink that in Jaws?

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't think so, but maybe they do.

[Chris Ryan]

I actually think that they probably do.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Like, invented Narragansett beer in, like, 2003.

[Chris Ryan]

You think? It's like.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're right.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It was found in 1890 in Cranston, Rhode Island.

[Joanna Robinson]

You think Diane lands his deepest bag and not the sea? Well, I think his life is love as lady might be the thing.

[Amanda Dobbins]

For best visual effects.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. So double Oscar nominee. Honestly, in terms of my heart, it could have got.

[Van Lathan]

I never understood this movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Why not?

[Van Lathan]

It is such a fucking bummer. Like, a ridiculous bummer. Of all bummers, when I seen this, I did not know that they were going to die.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

And then I got to watch his dumb ass be in the water at the end of the movie. Like. Like, just. Just. I'm like. So I'm wondering, like, what's going to happen. Right. Stupid ass is floating around in the water at the end of the movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Doing the whole thing. I'm like, oh. So they just. They. They drowned. They died.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

And I still can't make my peace with it. Like, why? Like, what was the point of me.

[Chris Ryan]

They had to get the good tuna.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, Yeah, I get it. I watched. I've tried. They had a black guy with them.

[Mallory Rubin]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

This got over for no reason. Like, you guys can laugh at that. It's okay.

[Chris Ryan]

They all signed up.

[Van Lathan]

I get it. But, like, that's the type of shit that you. That you watch that and you go, nah. If it's three white boys and me going out, I'm not going. I'm not going.

[Chris Ryan]

There was only one boat, though.

[Van Lathan]

I get it. But, like, I tried because they said. I remember somebody saying that this movie was like.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, it's based on a real story too, right.

[Van Lathan]

It was good, but it was gonna be like. It was epic, like Titanic or something like that. I went out to see.

[Chris Ryan]

It was Titanic for dudes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Okay, cool.

[Mallory Rubin]

Guys being dudes on it. Like, it's Glenberry Glen Ross on a boat.

[Rob Mahoney]

But Titanic's not Titanic for dudes.

[Chris Ryan]

I think Titanic's Titanic for everybody. But for dudes who love deep sea fishing, it's. This is Titanic.

[Mallory Rubin]

How do you think you would do on a swordboat?

[Chris Ryan]

Wouldn't. I'll never find out. I'm not, like, a big boat guy, honestly.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm gonna. I'm gonna draft the movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Good.

[Sean Fennessy]

Do you have anything else left to say about Perfect Storm?

[Chris Ryan]

I think I've said it all. I've drafted it, like, 15 times.

[Sean Fennessy]

In original. I'm taking Unbreakable, which is what I thought you were gonna take.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

And I guess there's an original run going here. And I rewatched this movie last night.

[Rob Mahoney]

I fucked on this category.

[Joanna Robinson]

It's really good.

[Sean Fennessy]

This movie is amazing. This movie looks amazing. Obviously, M. Night Shyamalan, immediately after the Sixth Sense, follows this up with an original story that has deep roots in comic book storytelling. I forgot about this whole.

[Rob Mahoney]

The structure.

[Sean Fennessy]

But, no, just the whole explanation. The title cards at the beginning of the movie about comic books and comic book collecting and storytelling but just a fascinating movie. Like one of Bruce Willis's best performances. Easily one of Sam Jackson's best performances. He's amazing as Glass. I'd forgotten how like chilling that opening sequence is when Glass is born and his mother is like holding him and Eamon Walker comes in. Was on Oz at the time and I was like, this is probably the next great American actor. I don't know what the hell happened to Eamon Walker. I don't even think he's American. Is he American?

[Chris Ryan]

But you mean Amy Walker was like your boy Holbrook stock.

[Sean Fennessy]

He was. I was like. I truly.

[Van Lathan]

If you haven't watched when you watch him in Oz, because he was the leader of the Muslims, right? Yeah. And he. He was powerful.

[Sean Fennessy]

Super powerful.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is my second ring.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't understand why. Why he's not a huge famous guy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I can't believe.

[Van Lathan]

On the ringer why we stay away from Oz. Oz is a very important television show.

[Sean Fennessy]

I loved it.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, Bill would start like a dedicated Oz.

[Joanna Robinson]

No, Bill and I were talking about a completely different show on Prestige yesterday and he's like, let's talk about Oz for a second.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think Oz might be one of the first things that Bill and I connected on because we had like a. I. I visited the set of US Oz when I was in high school as well. It was something that my uncle won.

[Joanna Robinson]

You did what?

[Van Lathan]

I'm so weird.

[Joanna Robinson]

You did what?

[Van Lathan]

You just go there? You see some guy on guy assault. We didn't.

[Sean Fennessy]

There was no way of brain anybody on the day I visited it. But it was like every other episode. Yeah, it was.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Emerald City. I'll never forget it. I saw it in person. Okay. That's my pick.

[Van Lathan]

Do I have. I have a super hot take that no one in the world agrees with about Unbreakable. Yeah. After all of these years, it's his best movie to me. Oh, it's okay. So no trap is. So it's his best movie. I'll tell you why. If you go back and you watch the Sixth Sense. The Sixth Sense is like.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's a diamond.

[Van Lathan]

It is at the same time, from start to finish. From start to finish. Unbreakable is a superior movie. It tells to me a more brooding. The script is tighter, the character development is more direct. And I think whereas the twist at the end of Sixth Sense is all time movie stuff. The twist at the end of Unbreakable just to me solidifies the entire mythology of the movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's operatic high drama.

[Amanda Dobbins]

When you watch it now, it's A really good take. I don't buy it.

[Rob Mahoney]

I don't agree, but I respect it.

[Mallory Rubin]

We've also heard you make this take about science. Like, I feel like you make the claim that a lot of Shyamalan movies are his best.

[Joanna Robinson]

Science is his best.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah. People are allowed to change.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you guys like the house? No.

[Joanna Robinson]

With the trees?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Tell you what, it's gotten better over the years. When I first saw it, I didn't get it, but I watched it maybe, like three or four months ago.

[Rob Mahoney]

I probably saw Unbreakable in the theater seven to eight times.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's extremely good.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, there was a craze, an absolute craze.

[Joanna Robinson]

Seven to eight times.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

What movie have you seen the most?

[Rob Mahoney]

Revenge of the Sith.

[Joanna Robinson]

How many times in the movie theater?

[Rob Mahoney]

No idea. Couldn't possibly tell you. Couldn't possibly tell you.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, Mallory, you can tell us your next pick.

[Joanna Robinson]

Nope.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Nope. Rob.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sorry, Rob.

[Rob Mahoney]

Don't take the movies that I want to take.

[Mallory Rubin]

The movie I'm going to take is Erin Brockovich. I'm going to get my inner girl boss on a little bit.

[Rob Mahoney]

You really have arrived with a very particular energy today.

[Chris Ryan]

She's not really a girl boss until the end of the.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They won't let her be a girl.

[Mallory Rubin]

Boss, but once she starts shouting down lawyers like, I think we've entered the zone category.

[Rob Mahoney]

Rob.

[Mallory Rubin]

I'm going to take it in Blockbuster, which feels a little flimsy to me at this point. I love how obsessed Soderbergh is with process, like we talked about with Traffic. What makes this movie great to me is the same thing that makes Ocean's Eleven great, which is deep process obsession with process, but also incredible charisma. Like, you are in the well with Julia Roberts pulling up dead frogs and shit. And it's like, who would you rather spend a movie with than that, in my opinion? So I. I feel great taking this off the board. I don't understand what's going on with biker babysitter, fairy godmother Aaron Eckhart in this movie.

[Joanna Robinson]

There's a lot of bandana work, but.

[Rob Mahoney]

I think it's all perfect.

[Chris Ryan]

If I go to Turkey and get a hair transplant, I'm coming back with the Eckhart from this movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

The bandana.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

No, no, we pull it off. Did we not think that Aaron Eckhart was going to be the biggest thing in the whole world?

[Rob Mahoney]

He is magnetic in this movie.

[Van Lathan]

He had a couple of starts and stops, though, because it was this. And then he's a little down for A while. And then what's the one where him.

[Chris Ryan]

And Swank go to the cores?

[Sean Fennessy]

I believe it's called the core in the Company of Men. You may recall it's in the company now he makes will come up again.

[Chris Ryan]

Three movies a month.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Which one is the in the Company of Men? Is that also Toby? Topher Grace?

[Sean Fennessy]

No, no, that's him.

[Van Lathan]

Company is a banger to me. I don't care which.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, that's okay. Your friends and Neighbors before it was a TV show, right?

[Chris Ryan]

Rob, you have another pick.

[Van Lathan]

Before we go, I want to shout out another environmental movie. Do you guys ever see 1998's A Civil Action with John?

[Joanna Robinson]

Of course.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's kind of the end of the super respectable John Travolta run. And then he goes off and makes like several insane movies in a row. I was only know about this cuz on a text Swordfish and Swordfish was when Travolta was like like fully deranged. And there's also a fully deranged Travolta movie in this year.

[Joanna Robinson]

There sure is.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't think it will come up in the draft. Now you can watch the best of Hulu on Disney like season two of nine Perfect Strangers with Hulu on Disney and Star Wars Andor Season 2 on Disney. All of these and more now streaming with Hulu on Disney for the bundle subscription available with bundle plans starting at $10.99 a month. Terms apply. Visit disneyplus.com hulu for details.

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[Sean Fennessy]

Whatever you want.

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[Rob Mahoney]

I know what I'm doing here. There are three movies that I would really like to be able to pick here. I can only pick two of them. I feel pretty confident Rob is gonna take the one I'm not picking. And I think Rob's draft is really good. So I'm a little bit bummed about that. But I have to follow my heart. I'm about to pick two and this is not hyperbole. Two of my 10 favorite movies I ever legitimately so I just.

[Sean Fennessy]

I have to Two of your ten Favorite movies ever.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

You got two of your ten favorite movies. In the end of this, when I.

[Rob Mahoney]

Say them, you guys are gonna be like, yeah, you've. I. I know that is true about you. You're not gonna be surprised by what I pick. You definitely won't be okay in original. So relieved to pick an original. This is really stressing me out. Okay. A lot of things were happening late in high school in young men's basements.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

What?

[Rob Mahoney]

A lot of things were happening in young men's basements in Maesterstown, Maryland.

[Chris Ryan]

Were you there?

[Rob Mahoney]

I was. You know, some. Okay, the parents are upstairs, but, like, sure. It's time for a blowjob.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And then watch and Snatch.

[Rob Mahoney]

Watch and Snatch. I am taking Snatch as my original when I think back.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So were these happening at the same time?

[Rob Mahoney]

Often sequenced? Yeah, often sequenced.

[Joanna Robinson]

I mean, which comes first? Phrasing, which comes first?

[Sean Fennessy]

I kind of want to explore what you're talking about, but also really do not.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, you know, it's a safe space today among friends, and I'm being sincere. When I think back to late high school, I think about watching Snatch in my high school boyfriend's basement and all the other things that we were doing down there. It's true. I will be taking him. I will. I will not be naming him either. I will be going with the Chris Ryan role and I will not be naming him.

[Joanna Robinson]

Are you not good about invoking this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And your dad's name in, like, pretty quick succession?

[Rob Mahoney]

Totally fine. Totally fine about it. Feels all the time.

[Van Lathan]

We got.

[Chris Ryan]

That's the thing is, like, we got.

[Rob Mahoney]

The picture without it.

[Joanna Robinson]

You know what I mean?

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, I bet. I. I love Snatch. I've seen this movie a thousand times. I think when we did that draft, like, I just.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I love.

[Joanna Robinson]

You're a guy, Richie girl.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah. I just love these movies. They're endlessly entertaining to me.

[Chris Ryan]

I love that you're going to try to talk about this movie now as if that's you.

[Rob Mahoney]

Like, you like thugs. This is, like, weirdly my favorite Brad Pitt performance ever. Not actually, maybe, but I just love it. This movie is sensational. Like the bullet tooth, Tony, you know, the fact that it says replica down the side of your gun and mine says Desert Eagle. Like, we were just walking around in high school quoting this movie to each other endlessly. It has, like, a real place in my heart. I rewatched it recently. Still holds up.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what, Mal? I really wanted this movie, but in.

[Rob Mahoney]

So many ways.

[Sean Fennessy]

100 out of 100% chance I was getting it and I.

[Rob Mahoney]

I thought for sure one of you was going to take it in this round. I thought. I didn't.

[Joanna Robinson]

I thought for sure I almost took it.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah. Okay, my next pick. And this is one that I don't think anyone will be. It's a great movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

You kind of ruined it forever for me, but I won't apologize.

[Joanna Robinson]

I'm sorry.

[Van Lathan]

That was funny.

[Rob Mahoney]

Thank you, darling.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're welcome.

[Rob Mahoney]

For my third pick here on the turn, I will be taking, as recently discussed on a memorable episode of Rewatchable, it's my favorite comedy ever. Best in show. I love this movie.

[Joanna Robinson]

This, I thought was gonna be your first.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's where I thought.

[Rob Mahoney]

I. I don't know why. My strategy kind of changed radically when I got the number one pick. If I had been, like, late in the first round, I probably would have taken.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

So the fact that I have the opportunity to take it here is a real delight to me. This movie. I have, like, a vivid memory of watching this with my dad for the first time. He still quotes Harlan Pepper to me all the time. Nothing makes me laugh. Nothing is like a sure bet to make me. Me crack up like rib agony laughter than watching Cookie try to walk after she twists her knee.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's just the best.

[Rob Mahoney]

I love Christopher Guest and this is my favorite Christopher Guest movie. So I'm thrilled taking that in comedy. I think it's going to be a debacle for me when we get to the rest of my picks, though.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, your first three picks are.

[Chris Ryan]

Bangers are bangers. And you certainly won the anecdotal.

[Joanna Robinson]

So the breakout is. The special. Breakout is set, I think.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. We have one hour to complete this draft. Can we do it with all of these picks? I believe that we can. Rob, you are the first person.

[Rob Mahoney]

Don't suppose we have time for a bathroom break?

[Chris Ryan]

No, I think people can get up and go and come back if they need to.

[Sean Fennessy]

Wow, that's actually quite fascinating. We've never done that before, but I actually would support it.

[Rob Mahoney]

I wouldn't dare.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I'm going to do it after.

[Sean Fennessy]

A pick, so it's kind of like getting up to the bathroom when you're seeing a movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

I also wouldn't.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, you mean while people are mid draft?

[Joanna Robinson]

Why'd you. I didn't have to clean the bathroom. Well, maybe I did.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, you said you had a mop when people vomited. You know, is it that much of a reach?

[Rob Mahoney]

Thanks for your support.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Rob, are you flummoxed by These last.

[Mallory Rubin]

Two picks, I'm a little flummoxed just by some of the relative scarcity in some of these categories. So whether to go with the movie I like more or the category I need more, I'm gonna go with American Psycho.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Mallory Rubin]

I'm gonna take it in drama.

[Joanna Robinson]

Wow. Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is that a drama?

[Chris Ryan]

Well, it's become a comedy.

[Sean Fennessy]

It definitely is a comedy and is a thriller. I'm not sure that you could qualify as a drama.

[Mallory Rubin]

I'll take it. That's a problem.

[Chris Ryan]

Is it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Any disagreement there?

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, I think it's a dark comedy. I'm okay if you wanted to take it there.

[Mallory Rubin]

It's a dramedy or it's a drama of the soul. You know, like, it's a man's one long night.

[Rob Mahoney]

I agree with Rob. I think it's cross category.

[Chris Ryan]

One of the greatest mean movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I actually don't think that it's very.

[Sean Fennessy]

Purposefully designed as a satire.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

So I would argue it's not a drama.

[Mallory Rubin]

Absolutely fair.

[Van Lathan]

The best. Bret Easton Ellis.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, adaptation.

[Van Lathan]

Adaptation.

[Sean Fennessy]

I enjoy Rules of Attraction.

[Van Lathan]

Rules of Attraction.

[Mallory Rubin]

This clears it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, this is.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think this is the best one. Yeah.

[Mallory Rubin]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Where did you take this?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Chris Ryan]

Is Luca gonna remake this?

[Sean Fennessy]

He says so, yeah. I don't know if that's necessary. This is really good. It's not exactly the book, but it's pretty. It gets a lot of what is so funny and so smart about the.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Book and, like, has lives on as a reference point and a life of its own.

[Sean Fennessy]

BAAL is unreal, I think.

[Mallory Rubin]

Riffs on the things in the, like, sands down some edges from the book, heightens some other things, takes, like, the rodents out of it. Like, there's some stuff that just needed to be out if you're gonna put this on screen.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. That's a good pick. That puts me in an interesting spot.

[Mallory Rubin]

Shout out to Hugo Lewis.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Mallory Rubin]

Shout out to Chainsaws.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I didn't sing the Terrier song from Best in Show, but, you know, this really is a musical draft.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Joanna Robinson]

The Terrier songs In the year 2000, we started.

[Rob Mahoney]

Sweet little winky. Sweet little winky.

[Sean Fennessy]

I will take a film that was referenced earlier, another movie that I was like, I can't believe this is happening. That maybe at a time seemed great, then maybe it was, like, a little problematic. But I think it circled back to being amazing, which is High Fidelity, which is an amazing Americanization of an English novel about what it's like to work in a record store and what it means to be Defined by your stuff. I'm sorry, Joanna. You're looking at me like I just killed something.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is the origin story of Joanna. The book was better. Robinson. Like, I remember when I read the Hornby book, and I was like, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't even disagree.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

The two most important Robs in the world, though. Rob Mahoney and this Rob.

[Mallory Rubin]

We gotta stick up for each other. He's kind of a douchebag sometimes, but.

[Sean Fennessy]

That'S also kind of the point.

[Mallory Rubin]

I think he has some redeemable qualities.

[Van Lathan]

That character is me.

[Sean Fennessy]

Van, you're kind of a douchebag sometimes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Don't do that to yourself.

[Van Lathan]

I swear, when I saw that movie, I was like, that for all of the flaw that character is, is me as a like, though, for the white boy deal. Like, I connected so much to that character and still, like, I make no apologies about it. Like, a lot of the stuff that he does in that movie, I would do.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't think I realized, though, like, how smart the movie is about what a dipshit Rob is. When I was a teenager, I just didn't really. I got it in the book and the movie, I think because they kind of, like, trick you with the Cusack casting, because Cusack is usually this person that you're like, I'm so emotionally with the say anything guy. Even if he's a little crazy, I'm with him. But he's so lost in the sauce.

[Van Lathan]

Misplaced righteous indignation. Thinks he knows everything, knows nothing, has everybody on his side, so they know the whole story.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yep. But him selling beta bands to people in store is insane. That is one of the great flexes. And, I mean, you worked in record stores.

[Chris Ryan]

I did.

[Sean Fennessy]

No love for this movie.

[Chris Ryan]

I love this film. I think I actually am more partial to the book.

[Sean Fennessy]

The book is better. The book is better.

[Chris Ryan]

But it was like, this was also, like, a very cool, like, late period 90s. Like, it almost had, like, a lot of its roots in the 90s. But to see a lot of the Chicago indie rock scene in this film is a real, real hoot.

[Joanna Robinson]

Would you reconsider your Rob rankings if I submitted?

[Mallory Rubin]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Zoe Kravitz's Rob from the great Hulu adaptation of Hypoden.

[Rob Mahoney]

You know how I feel about Zoe, my wife.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Season was so good.

[Van Lathan]

So good.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, wonderfully crazy. Connected to the movie.

[Joanna Robinson]

It's one of the most baffling cancels.

[Van Lathan]

I thought all the ch. The changes they made made sense. I thought it was, like, really Good. Blissfully contemporary in the way they went about it. All the performances were great. I don't know what happened.

[Joanna Robinson]

I do not know why they canceled that.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was like one of those Covid things.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I think so.

[Sean Fennessy]

Something got lost in it and it had her.

[Van Lathan]

Like, they had like a legitimate magnetic movie person star and they didn't continue to do the show. It was just an odd decision.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm taking comedy, by the way, Jack.

[Chris Ryan]

I really love that TV show.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, it was very good. Divine Joy Randolph dancing to Come On Eileen. Just beautiful stuff.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, cr.

[Chris Ryan]

You've got to pick in Blockbuster. I'll take Castaway. Had to do it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, at the time, I think I saw this and I was like, that was pretty cool. But this is one of the TNT ones for me where it's like, over the years, just be like, oh, cool. This 20 minute section. That 20 minute section. Incredible ending. The set pieces are amazing. And it's an incredible Hanks run here. And this is how many people could carry this film.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, I think it's the best plane crash sequence in the movie. Yeah, I think the pair of plane crashes. Wild.

[Rob Mahoney]

How about the most meaningful relationship we've ever seen between two figures on screen?

[Van Lathan]

Wilson. Him and Wilson.

[Rob Mahoney]

Correct.

[Joanna Robinson]

I.

[Rob Mahoney]

When Wilson.

[Sean Fennessy]

How many basements?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, I can't.

[Van Lathan]

I can't.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's very emotional watching Wilson bob away.

[Chris Ryan]

It was probably emotional for him, too.

[Van Lathan]

He had to let go of Wilson to be free, though. Man, Wilson was the last thing connected him to the island.

[Rob Mahoney]

Painful.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know what? The other scene that jumped out to me when I watched it last year was when he tries to swim out.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, I thought you were gonna say lancing the tooth with the.

[Joanna Robinson]

Was it all the FedEx?

[Sean Fennessy]

That didn't bother me. That didn't bother me at all. Okay, Joanna, gonna run it down.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is really tough because Blockbuster is getting quite spindly so, I think. I mean, I don't mean to be too on brand for our podcast, but I think I'll just take X Men off the board.

[Sean Fennessy]

Interesting.

[Joanna Robinson]

It is an incredibly important comic book movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It was Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

[Joanna Robinson]

The origin of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, a role he is still playing today.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is that right?

[Sean Fennessy]

Adamantium.

[Joanna Robinson]

Adamantium.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. Vibranium is what?

[Van Lathan]

Black Panther.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay, but which is stronger? Amanda, what do you think? Vibranium or Adamantium?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I have no idea. I can't get it.

[Joanna Robinson]

It's a debate for the ages. It's okay that you don't know the answer.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Hopefully we'll be able to talk about this for roughly the next 10 years on the podcast.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm very excited.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is where a young Kevin Feige who was working as an assistant for Lauren Schuler Donner got his start and his connection to the Marvel world. So this is the origin story of Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios. And it's. Marzin's a great. You know, the great cyclops.

[Rob Mahoney]

The jawline.

[Sean Fennessy]

I was just talking to somebody about who the next cyclops should be. I do. I want to have.

[Rob Mahoney]

Well, Amanda's boy is like, firmly rumored. Bill Harris.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Which one?

[Mallory Rubin]

Elordi.

[Joanna Robinson]

Harris Dickinson.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, really? A lot of rumors.

[Sean Fennessy]

He was born to be Schwarzenegger's life.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Away to the Beatles. He can't do. But both.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think Harris the can do. I love this movie. When it came out, I was so happy. 10 years of reading wizard and Dream casting in my mind and them getting Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, I was like, this is crazy how good this is. And I didn't even really know who Hugh Jackman was and he obviously was fantastic.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Chris, X Men is off the board.

[Sean Fennessy]

So, Chris, sorry, you can't take another Bryan Singer film.

[Joanna Robinson]

I know. Devastating for you.

[Sean Fennessy]

Van, you're up.

[Chris Ryan]

You really peaked with Valkyrie.

[Van Lathan]

Anyway, so I was going to take. I was going to take X Men and Blockbuster. Is anything over 100 domestic, right?

[Chris Ryan]

Yep.

[Van Lathan]

Correct. So I'll take Remember the Titans.

[Joanna Robinson]

That's what I almost took. Remember to Titans to X Men.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Delete.

[Van Lathan]

Not too much to talk about. Very affecting movie. I was shamed outside of City Place Theater, Baton Rouge. Me and Geno went to see Meet the. To Meet the Parents. And when I left, we saw some of his friends, his frat brothers, and they was like, man, y' all didn't see Remember the Titans? And we was like, nah. We went to see Meet the Parents and they made us feel less black.

[Joanna Robinson]

And you were to be fair for.

[Van Lathan]

That night because we was like, damn. We was like, man, you know, can you deal with this? You know what I mean?

[Sean Fennessy]

Like the black eye in the perfect storms.

[Van Lathan]

Right. You know, that guy got drowned. But yeah, so remember the Titans. Not much to say about the movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Great movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Great movie.

[Van Lathan]

Great film.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Wonderful movie. So, yeah. Wow.

[Rob Mahoney]

Blockbuster run here.

[Joanna Robinson]

Incredible musical sequence with Ryan Gosling and. Yeah, yeah.

[Van Lathan]

A lot of young stars in it. A lot of young stars that we would hear for from years to come.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Blockbusters are flying fast. Amanda, you've got two picks here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do. It's not gonna be a perfect game for me, but I am gonna go 3 for 3 in original. I will be taking center stage.

[Rob Mahoney]

You are one of yourself today.

[Joanna Robinson]

Exactly.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Are you kidding? One of the great dance films had.

[Chris Ryan]

To say, I didn't know what was going to happen if any of these.

[Sean Fennessy]

Three went to someone else.

[Rob Mahoney]

Nobody would have dared that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, you mentioned center stage at a. I know. To get like a sleepover, right?

[Rob Mahoney]

You ever check on the room and.

[Joanna Robinson]

The temperature dropped and you were like, this is not.

[Van Lathan]

Not the. Okay, so there were two.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's not Julia Stiles that saved the last day.

[Van Lathan]

No, no, no, no, no. But there were two ballet movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

One was the Company, and then the other one was Center Stage. One was with Nev Campbell. That was the company, right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

No, he's going to.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, that's fine. Oh, great. Oh, congratulations, Amanda.

[Chris Ryan]

You've got another pick.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Thank you. Yeah, I do. So this one Oscar nominee is actually also getting pretty thin because so many of the Oscar nominees have gone in other categories. Rob took my number one pick, of course, because he's, you know, undefeated. Yeah. At ruining. I was going to take Aaron Brockovich, so I'm going to do Wonder Boys. Yeah, I think so. And you know, Michael Douglas, obviously, young Katie Holmes.

[Rob Mahoney]

Which cover. You said Oscar.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, Oscar nominee. And by the way, do you know what Oscar it won?

[Van Lathan]

Wonder Boys.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I'm pointing this right at you. It won original song written by Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan. Bobby D. Bobby D. Bobby D. Yeah. This, I. This is like a. I guess they still do make like, like, you know, east coast academic, you know, in trouble movies because they're making one Luca Guadamino coming in the fall. But, yeah, for now, those are great picks. But it seemed like I saw this at the right age, you know, like, if I saw this now.

[Rob Mahoney]

Had you read the book before?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No. It's a Michael Shayman book, right? Yeah. Yeah, I was impressed. Another, like, oh, I think I'm very grown up and I'm a grown up and I'm watching, like, grown up movies, matters of the heart and such, with real accuracy.

[Rob Mahoney]

This feels like pre. Like, do a digital highlight on your Kindle and, you know, still the analog, obviously, you know, turning over a lot of pages, like, these are profound thoughts that I need to remember. Now I'm too old and brain dead to actually recall, but there was a lot of those.

[Joanna Robinson]

In this tome, excellent robe goals in this movie. The fluffy pink robe that, come on, Michael Douglas wears for most of the movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, his life. It's not actually what I want. It gets a little messy, but does, you know, you like to. I was at the age where I was like, oh, is that, you know, what I can do with their lives? You know, if I. If. If I'm. If I ace all my AP classes. Exactly.

[Rob Mahoney]

Fives only.

[Joanna Robinson]

And then you did.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Bam.

[Chris Ryan]

We're going back to you now, man.

[Van Lathan]

So. Because I. I didn't get to go.

[Amanda Dobbins]

To the basement, but, you know, I.

[Van Lathan]

Should have seen it that night. And comedy is about to get very contracted.

[Sean Fennessy]

It.

[Van Lathan]

It's not that many comedies off the board. I'm gonna take Meet the Parents.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is a great movie.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, I'm gonna take Meet the Parents.

[Sean Fennessy]

I missed Wonder Boys.

[Rob Mahoney]

We had a great. We all had a great time.

[Sean Fennessy]

Just watched it yesterday. It's a wonderful.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's so good.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know what's a great idea for a movie? Sorry to interrupt you, Van. When it's just like, this guy's having a bad weekend. That's just a good idea for me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Exactly. And it's Michael Douglas.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. I'm sorry.

[Van Lathan]

I don't have much to. Else to say about it. I was unprepared for how hysterical the film was going to be.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

When I saw.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's really funny. Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

You know, it was a era of great comedies that were aimed right for my demo. Mel Nurse Falker, Robert De Niro. Career resurgence right there as a comedian coming off the heels of Analyze this. But no, I. I love the movie. So big deal. Meet the Parents. Easy.

[Sean Fennessy]

A lot of blockbuster getting super thin.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, that was comedy.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, that was. That was one of the big.

[Rob Mahoney]

I have not taken a blockbuster, so I am concerned.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, I'm gonna take a blockbuster that no one will care to take.

[Rob Mahoney]

It is what it is.

[Chris Ryan]

Didn't you already take.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, you already have a pick.

[Van Lathan]

Very true.

[Sean Fennessy]

You could still take another blockbuster. I'm gonna take another blockbuster if you.

[Joanna Robinson]

Did that to me.

[Van Lathan]

All right.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Joanna, you're up.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, okay. So this draft isn't going very well for me. So I'm just gonna be purely myself, do it and say in comedy. I would like state in Maine.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

If I couldn't get one Philip Sumer Hoffman movie this year, I'll take the other. So I love. I love this movie.

[Chris Ryan]

This movie's awesome.

[Joanna Robinson]

Really good movie.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's a great pick.

[Joanna Robinson]

Thank you.

[Chris Ryan]

This was mammoth. What had he done, like, right around this time? Like, is this the Winslow boy? Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But this is after. So Spanish Prisoner and stuff.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay, yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Talk about a good movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Spanish Prisoner. Yeah, yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

She lives a con language.

[Van Lathan]

I love con men movies. They don't make them enough. We've talked, We've talked. I've talked about this before.

[Sean Fennessy]

Let's talk to my guy, Nick Cage about this.

[Joanna Robinson]

What about. What about a con man who's having one bad weekend?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Now they just make them, like into Girlbots.

[Rob Mahoney]

Netflix.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, like, so you think they keep telling about the one on Apple a couple years ago.

[Chris Ryan]

Sharper.

[Van Lathan]

Sharper.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

That one was pretty good. Yeah, but, you know, you didn't like it. But what are you looking at?

[Rob Mahoney]

I think she's just concerned that I can.

[Joanna Robinson]

Now I can't see anything and it always.

[Rob Mahoney]

It always can't see anything.

[Joanna Robinson]

She was squinting. Mirror.

[Rob Mahoney]

I just haven't been to the eye doctor in like 14 years.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Oh, okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, but like, are you 13 months and haven't been to the eye.

[Joanna Robinson]

Ask about the dentist.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I support you on the.

[Joanna Robinson]

It's not green as you can brush it anyway.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Floss and you'll be fine.

[Joanna Robinson]

She's beautiful in the middle.

[Rob Mahoney]

I can make out like hues.

[Mallory Rubin]

Can we do a fake pod taping where we bring in an optometrist to meet Mallory?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

How do you watch the films? Not an issue.

[Rob Mahoney]

In the basement. There's passion and conviction.

[Chris Ryan]

Their TV is really big, two feet from the screen, sitting very close to our television.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Satan Maine, great pick. C.R. you're up.

[Chris Ryan]

I will take Scream 3 in Action Horror thriller, the one set in Hollywood and one of the more delightful, kind of like, I think, incisive entries into this fantastic franchise. One of my favorite franchises. You've got Patrick Dempsey playing a Hollywood cop. You've got Parker Posey doing her amazing lampooning of Scream Queens. Just an awesome movie. The whole, like Lance Henriksen backstory and stuff. Dirty 70s Hollywood everything. So Scream 3 is an easy pick for me here.

[Sean Fennessy]

All right. I'm missing a few key categories and Oscar nominees getting very thin. And so I'll take one of my very favorite movies from this year. The contender, political thriller and drama, written and directed by Rod Lurie. Sort of a reaction to the Lewinsky scandal about a woman who is put up for vice president that has or maybe doesn't have a salacious Joan Allen sexual basement, Snatch style history.

[Joanna Robinson]

I was gonna say if you didn't make the Snatch comment.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, incredibly memorable cast. Both Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges were nominated. Jeff Bridges, one of the all time great movie presidents. I think in many ways, Barack Obama watched this movie and watched how Jeff Bridges acted in this movie and absorbed some of those tendencies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

How does that take?

[Van Lathan]

So you're saying Obama got his swag from a white man. Look at you.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, I didn't say that.

[Van Lathan]

That is what you said.

[Sean Fennessy]

Those are words that you put in my. I said the phrase I used was absorb some of his tendencies so you can find out.

[Van Lathan]

However, Sandwich.

[Sean Fennessy]

I love this sandwich.

[Van Lathan]

Shark steak.

[Sean Fennessy]

This is a very smart and entertaining bit of ridiculousness. And if you accept it in that way and not as like, like an adequate representation of our politics, I think it's a lot more fun. Also, Gary Oldman, who really did not like this movie because of the way that it was changed in the editing process, who also produced it, is actually quite good in cooking as an awful Southern senator.

[Van Lathan]

Christian Slater is good in it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Very good.

[Rob Mahoney]

It's funny that he was so vocally unhappy about it given how amazing his performance is.

[Sean Fennessy]

He's so good. And obviously closely modeling on the Strom Thurman, Lindsey Graham style, Southern right leaning senator. Okay, Rob, you're up.

[Mallory Rubin]

You terrified me when you brought up Oscar nominee. There's really one Oscar nominee I want that's left on the board and that's Dancer in the Dark.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, holy shit.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wow.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay.

[Mallory Rubin]

Like I don't know that there's another human being who could have starred in this movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Some upbeat pics from you here.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, right.

[Chris Ryan]

You're in a cheerful movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Some real upbeats.

[Mallory Rubin]

But you know what? Half of this is a shiny musical. A real delightful time at the cinema. The rest of it, not so much.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, right.

[Mallory Rubin]

I, I kind of get why Bjork wasn't nominated for best actress for this movie because it's not very Academy coded. But this is just one of the best performances of the year. Unbelievable movie. And I'm especially glad to have it because I think the rest of the Oscar nominees are pretty bleak. Unless you want the Emperor's New Groove, which I support.

[Joanna Robinson]

Any of you who do, don't knock it.

[Van Lathan]

Wow.

[Mallory Rubin]

It might be the worst looking Disney.

[Sean Fennessy]

Movie I've ever seen.

[Joanna Robinson]

A lot of younger people vote on these drafts and they love.

[Sean Fennessy]

So you're just cracking votes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, do you think that's what my pandering to the younger demographic of a state and main Rob, Billy, you're going.

[Mallory Rubin]

Straight for the ballet crowd.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't know if Emperor's New Groove is going to get picked, but if anybody is interested in Disney history, the development and production of that movie is really interesting.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh. The way it was a completely different movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's completely changed from being like an Aztec inspired kind of mega epic and turned into a. A goofy comedy. Anyhow, Mallory, you've got two picks.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay. I'm like, afraid that there's like, that something's wrong with this movie and I don't know that. And that's why it's still here. So let me know.

[Joanna Robinson]

Did you watch it in lads basements? That's my question.

[Rob Mahoney]

Ah.

[Van Lathan]

That'S actually a good pod.

[Rob Mahoney]

In a fashion. In a fashion.

[Van Lathan]

That's a good pod basement.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, to be fair, that's most pods.

[Van Lathan]

You could raise the movies by duration.

[Rob Mahoney]

That's most pods.

[Joanna Robinson]

Enthusiasm.

[Van Lathan]

Enthusiasm.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yep. I thought this was going to go like, really high first two rounds. So I. I'm.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is a classic mile.

[Rob Mahoney]

Normally I'm like, oh, I thought it was going to go. I'm so elated to have it. And I am. But I'm also, like, concerned. What am I missing here? How is this still here? I will be selecting with joy in my heart and also terror in my heart. I will be picking my. A action horror thriller movie here. I'm taking Battle Royale.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

Why is that still here? What am I missing?

[Sean Fennessy]

Nothing.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Rob Mahoney]

I thought this was gonna go on the first.

[Van Lathan]

The reason why it's there is because I forgot.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Mahoney]

This movie's not only incredible and obviously deeply harrowing and stylistically inventive and memorable, haunting. It's so influential on the pop culture that came in its wake.

[Joanna Robinson]

Mallory, this is a great draft.

[Rob Mahoney]

Squid Game, Hunger Games. Like, we don't. We don't have a lot of these. Dystopian society has fallen.

[Van Lathan]

Forgot about it.

[Sean Fennessy]

So this movie was actually, as far as I know, never theatrically released in the United States. Rob and I did talk about this and a handful of others. And so anytime a film does have a US Distribution, we go with that date. If a movie doesn't come out in this country, we have to go with the year that it is released, which is 2000.

[Chris Ryan]

Probably didn't really make its way over to the States.

[Sean Fennessy]

It was also banned in.

[Rob Mahoney]

I mean, I saw this way later than 2000.

[Sean Fennessy]

This was considered like a really kind of a very Rare case of 21st century. This is too depraved for the public kind of outcry that you found a lot more in the 60s and 70s.

[Van Lathan]

So there was a point in my life where I was playing Marvel versus Capcom 2 competitively. That's a show. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

You were taking AP tests and we were playing.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay, all right, okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know what we're having here. So when you say you're playing it competitively, can you just set the scene for me?

[Van Lathan]

I was traveling around.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, but so, like, where are the tournaments held?

[Van Lathan]

There's Texas Showdown in Texas. There's no.

[Rob Mahoney]

No, no.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But like, you know, Houston Hotel Ballroom.

[Van Lathan]

In an arcade. It's at an arcade. It's an arcade game. So it's in the arcade. It's in arcades. Go down to New Orleans. Go to different places. I was watching. There's like all kinds of hierarchy in the video game world and all that. And after one of the. Somebody put on this fucking movie. Because this movie is very video game tournament coded. I watched it and I was fucking blown away by Battle Royale.

[Chris Ryan]

Cool.

[Mallory Rubin]

Was this before or after you were a professional pool player?

[Van Lathan]

Wasn't professional. Well, okay. But it actually leads right into that. The obsessions, they keep going. It's right after pool. Marvel vs. Capcom 2. It's playing competitively.

[Sean Fennessy]

You really are are Forrest Gump in so many ways. Mallory, you have another adhd.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay. I'm making a decision to kind of punt on Blockbuster, which I assume I will deeply regret later. But I just. I'm going. There's a movie here that I'm excited to get to take, so I'm taking my drama now. I know you love this movie. I feel sure a lot of us love this movie. Here are some things I love spending time with you guys. Love stories, sports stories of time. I'm taking love and basketball.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, yeah.

[Van Lathan]

I knew that you white weren't gonna take that movie. I was so sure that if I would have thought that there was any chance you won a fucking draft. If I would have thought that there's any chance that that movie would be a crazy draft.

[Chris Ryan]

Draft.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Like, yeah. If I would.

[Sean Fennessy]

Thought this was a lesson for me.

[Van Lathan]

Illegal.

[Joanna Robinson]

This is a really good dress.

[Van Lathan]

I would have took love of basketball.

[Joanna Robinson]

Sorry, I feel bad.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is like the thing I. I had two things that I was like, could I. Three things. Could I possibly do it to another person? Almost famous with you. Bring it on with you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Mahoney]

And love and basketball with Sean.

[Van Lathan]

I cannot believe my incredible. This was.

[Mallory Rubin]

This was going off the board next. If you didn't pick it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know it's a little disrespectful that it's the fifth round now.

[Van Lathan]

My draft is going to get really weird. I can't wait.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's a tough beat for me.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm sorry, buddy. Great movie. Great fucking movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Gina Prince, by the way. It's Amazing film.

[Mallory Rubin]

Okay, Rob, I'm gonna go with a drama. I'm gonna take the Taiwanese masterpiece E.

[Sean Fennessy]

Also next to my list.

[Rob Mahoney]

Damn, dude, that's a fascinating draft.

[Chris Ryan]

It's like, he's like a scanner. He's just, like, reading your Mockington blowing your brain up.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, that's two in a row that were like reading, right? That were. Anyway, well, if you know how to.

[Mallory Rubin]

Talk about this movie on a podcast, I encourage it. Because if I talk about what this movie is about, it seems very small. If I try to tell you how it makes you feel, I'm gonna sound like I'm trying to convert you to a cult. And I fucking am. Mostly, I want everyone to watch this movie. It is like. I just think it captures the enormity of everyday life in a way that basically nothing else does. And the idea of, like, what if we made a movie that made regular life feel like the most important thing in the world? Shouldn't be as revolutionary as it is. But then you watch this and you're like, holy shit, this is revolutionary.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's a wonderful pick.

[Rob Mahoney]

Great pick.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, I need drama, thriller, action, horror, and wild card. So in drama, I will take my friend James Gray's the Yards, starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burston, and James Caan.

[Rob Mahoney]

What a cast.

[Sean Fennessy]

This is a very clear homage to a certain kind of gritty, hard bitten, 70s crime thriller that is basically the defining notion of my personality. Extremely normal, this film co written with Matt Reeves, greatest friends. Now the arbiter of the Batman.

[Amanda Dobbins]

One of the Batman.

[Sean Fennessy]

One of the Batman. For now. See what happens. This is one of the great Wahlberg performances. Really focused and engaged. Wahlberg not manic. I'm half trying Wahlberg. And Joaquin is outrageously good as Willie Gutierrez. This is a beautiful film. The way that it's shot is absolutely amazing. Harris Habibi cinematography and got stuck in the Harvey Weinstein zone and was a big bomb and was a $25 million movie that made less than a million dollars. But if you've never seen this movie, highly encourage you. Check it out. It's excellent.

[Mallory Rubin]

Can I ask you a procedural question about it? The movie goes to shit when Joaquin is, like, at the yard and trying to bribe the security guy or whatever with knicks tickets. Presumably 2019 security guard's like, no, that's not good enough. There's a 2025 Knicks ticket for the playoffs.

[Rob Mahoney]

Avoid the whole movie.

[Joanna Robinson]

Wow.

[Sean Fennessy]

The tough thing about that, I mean, literally, the movie is that obviously they had Just gone to the NBA Finals.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, they went to the Finals.

[Sean Fennessy]

So, like, it actually isn't plausible, but when James was writing the movie, you had to be like, we were kind of low in 1997. We were not the same team that we were in 1994.

[Chris Ryan]

That's why it's really hard to make sports references and then have them stick.

[Sean Fennessy]

It really is in 2025. Yeah. I mean, you could. I think you could like buy Tesla for two front courtside tickets at this point, right? No. Okay, maybe a Tesla or all of them. The whole company.

[Chris Ryan]

I think in comedy, I am going to pick a movie that I think we should almost get an award sometimes. I. I've accidentally seen this 20 times. The Replacements. Keon Reeves, sports comedy with Gene Hackman.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Chris Ifan's incredible in this movie.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

This is a. Yeah, dude.

[Rob Mahoney]

Some great underwear action.

[Chris Ryan]

This is the. This is absolutely.

[Sean Fennessy]

Because you can't have love in basketball. You flip to.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, dude, I'm pissed.

[Chris Ryan]

But this is the. I'm sure one day I was walking down the street and it was too hot and I was like, you know, I'm just gonna go to the movies. What's playing? And I saw the Replacements that day. And then I have seen it like in some part, like countless other times on cable television. And it's a really, really solid sports comedy.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, Joanna, you're up.

[Joanna Robinson]

I'll just keep it brief and I'll say I'm picking a movie that I don't think is great, but I think was indelible of the year, which is the Cell, an action thriller.

[Chris Ryan]

No.

[Sean Fennessy]

Hell yeah. No, I should have known. Cause you're a fall head.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah. The Fallhead. Yeah. Tarsem Singh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Van Lathan]

I don't understand it.

[Joanna Robinson]

No, you don't have to understand it. You just have to let the like, the visuals.

[Van Lathan]

This was my all time JLO time, man.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Everything.

[Sean Fennessy]

I would say her performance leaves a little something.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, yeah. But makes up for it without JLO time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She was very powerful.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

In this. Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Really good pick. And you just kind of fucked up. What? I thought my board was going to be so well done by you. Van, you're up.

[Van Lathan]

I'm gonna take. Now I'm just drafting from the heart. The Patriot.

[Sean Fennessy]

Jesus Christ.

[Chris Ryan]

Mel Gibson.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

In what category?

[Van Lathan]

I'm taking it.

[Joanna Robinson]

Problematic face.

[Van Lathan]

No, problematic face.

[Rob Mahoney]

I can't remember what category you took American Beauty last draft.

[Van Lathan]

I love American Beauty. I don't understand you.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yes. Basie and Gibson.

[Sean Fennessy]

Hatred.

[Van Lathan]

I fucking love this Movie. Wait, is it. Is it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So it's Revolutionary War, right? Yes.

[Van Lathan]

No action. Action. I'm taking it in action.

[Sean Fennessy]

In action. Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

That's a great.

[Joanna Robinson]

It's a great Jason Isaacs performance.

[Van Lathan]

Great Jason Isaac's performance. I actually once talked to Jason Isaacs at the gym about it. He was at the gym.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know we're on a clock, but, like, is that what you lead with when you see Jason Isaacs at the gym?

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, he was, like, very nonplussed that I did that.

[Rob Mahoney]

But in the future it would be Tim Rattleff.

[Sean Fennessy]

But.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, but he.

[Sean Fennessy]

Tim Rattlett is 15 picks to make 25.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He just saw. He was talking to Jason. Guys, it's at the gym about the Patriot.

[Mallory Rubin]

That's journalism. You gotta ask one follower.

[Sean Fennessy]

Amanda, you have two.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do. And I'm doing exactly what I want. In action horror thriller, I will be taking the 2000 classic and Cameron Diaz's best recorded performance, Charlie's Angels.

[Joanna Robinson]

I the most Amanda board I've ever seen in my life.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm in awe.

[Rob Mahoney]

Right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is the funniest she's ever been. When she, like, hears the bird song and she's like, they're in Carmel. It was very important to me.

[Chris Ryan]

We let you make seven picks in a row, would you basically have this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I told you no. Because there are a couple. No. I wanted American Psycho in this and I wanted Charlie's Angels in Blockbuster. But it's okay because I have an amazing backup blockbuster, which is, of course, one of Sandra Bullock's greatest recorded performances. Miss Congeniality. Speaking of tnt, before baseball games, what were you guys like? I don't know what you were doing in 2000? I was at the cinema watching people be funny and also be undercover for the FBI. Candice Bergen, thank you for your service.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, excellent picks. Van, you have another pick.

[Rob Mahoney]

Just remarkable stuff.

[Van Lathan]

Boiler Room.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Fuck off, you.

[Rob Mahoney]

Great one.

[Sean Fennessy]

God damn it. What category? In Drama.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah, Drama. I'll take Boiler Room. Fucking A. Over the top.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm liquid.

[Van Lathan]

I'm liquid. Ben Affleck, but rivaling Alec Baldwin's one scene heater and Glengarry Glen Ross.

[Sean Fennessy]

Let's almost take the temperature down just a little bit.

[Van Lathan]

I'm just saying. Comes in, fucks, leaves into the basement out.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yep. All right. I like this movie against my own better judgment.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

So.

[Joanna Robinson]

All right, Joanna, for Drama, I'll take Ghost Dog.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, God damn.

[Mallory Rubin]

I was really bing on that.

[Van Lathan]

I got A.D. oh, Lord.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't know that. It came out in 2000.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Way in a samurai with man purse.

[Chris Ryan]

March 3rd.

[Mallory Rubin]

My life.

[Chris Ryan]

God.

[Sean Fennessy]

Very, very good picture. That's a vibe you just got. Double shank.

[Chris Ryan]

Like I'm an A. Chris, you're also.

[Sean Fennessy]

Missing a drama and a wild card. What are you going with?

[Chris Ryan]

I'm gonna take in drama. Christopher McQuarrie's the Way of the Gun.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sure. Gosh.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Sounds right.

[Van Lathan]

I forgot about that movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Drama. The film, like it's. And there's some comedy and then there is a lot of violence at the end. But if you thought his Reacher film was a grimy B movie.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, watch.

[Sean Fennessy]

Watch.

[Chris Ryan]

Ryan Philippe. Kill D. Have y' all considered garbage?

[Mallory Rubin]

Elmore Leonard? I feel like Way of the Gun.

[Chris Ryan]

Absolutely.

[Sean Fennessy]

That is something that we have completely lost to television these days too. You just don't have movies that are like that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You do really like Ryan Phillippe.

[Chris Ryan]

No, I.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, you know when you really think.

[Chris Ryan]

It through, when he. He's a big Birds fan.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think that's. That seems right.

[Chris Ryan]

And he was good in Cool Intentions.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Great courtside at the beginning. Me too. Are you gonna revoke his card?

[Chris Ryan]

No, I'm not getting into that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

He's a real doctor.

[Joanna Robinson]

How many pics do you have left?

[Sean Fennessy]

I didn't give you any. Any grief about that.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't give you any grief about anything. I've been sending you, like, really thoughtful texts. Talk to me about the postseason. That's not true.

[Sean Fennessy]

That never happened.

[Joanna Robinson]

Do you want to tell us more about Jason Isaac?

[Van Lathan]

I do want to tell my story. I'm saving for Midnight Boys.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm taking. I'm taking a pick. I need to take an action horror thriller. I'm running out of credible titles, but there is one credible title that I quite enjoy left. It's called Pitch Black.

[Joanna Robinson]

I love Pitch Black.

[Sean Fennessy]

This is a. I love this movie. I am a known Vin Diesel hater. Except in the instance of this movie and Boiler Room. So a little.

[Van Lathan]

If you want to make an argument for him in the original Fast and the Furious 2, this was when he was.

[Sean Fennessy]

I wouldn't make that argument. But Ryan, he's solid in Private Ryan.

[Van Lathan]

Pitch Black and Boiler Room. And this. He is on his wavelength.

[Sean Fennessy]

Pitch Black, Very cool kind of mid budget sci fi movie about a guy who's being transported to a prison that crash lands on like a dark planet and all the creatures that move in the dark.

[Chris Ryan]

Starring the great Rod of Mitchell.

[Sean Fennessy]

Rod of Mitchell. Cole Hauser.

[Joanna Robinson]

Great information about menstruation for people watching this movie.

[Van Lathan]

It's funny. So last night I was watching a Quiet Place. And I realized that a quiet place is a shadow reboot. It does pitch black with sound.

[Sean Fennessy]

It kind of inverts it.

[Joanna Robinson]

And also the creatures don't look wholly dissimilar.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is that sounds very good point.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, next pick is Rob.

[Mallory Rubin]

I'm gonna go straight to Wild Card and straight to Wild Card. Well, I mean, I only have two picks left.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What's the other category?

[Mallory Rubin]

Original's my last category. And I'm kind of like in a range of originals where it's like there's a couple things I'm okay with. There's one wild card I would really like.

[Chris Ryan]

I broke a sweat in this draft.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm scared.

[Mallory Rubin]

Some rounds. I am Malcolm Washington in the Criterion Closet and I want to talk about the ways that our great artists are in conversation with each other.

[Sean Fennessy]

And some rounds.

[Mallory Rubin]

I am John David Washington in the Criterion Closet. It going straight for that Jackie Chan box set. And I'm going to take Drunken Master 2, aka the Legend of the Drunken Master, as it was released in the US in the year 2000. Don't me. Maybe the best kung fu movie ever made.

[Sean Fennessy]

So wonderful pick. But you did not go Shanghai Noon here. Just so I'm going to skip past that.

[Mallory Rubin]

It's in the box set, but I'm probably not going to watch it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Understood. Drunken Master 2 is sick. All right, Mallory, you've got two picks to close out your draft. You are presently missing Wild card and block. Blockbuster and a wild card.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

And then we will have six. Congeniality.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I took Charlie's Angels and his congeniality away from you and Blockbuster.

[Rob Mahoney]

So you did. Blockbuster is thin.

[Amanda Dobbins]

There's. There's, there's one on the board that I could see working for you that was on my line.

[Rob Mahoney]

There are actually two on the board and it's underrated.

[Sean Fennessy]

Undrafted blockbusters. Let's just say it, since you're about to pick how the Grinch Stole Christmas, the number one movie of the year at 261 million. Beloved Jim Carrey Class, directed by Ron Howard. Mission Impossible 2, widely considered the worst of the Mission Impossible movies, at least on this podcast, what Women Want has gone undrafted thus far. Nancy Myers, semi classic and a huge hit. The fifth highest movie of the year.

[Joanna Robinson]

For Van who loves Mel Gibson.

[Sean Fennessy]

Then we go all the way down to what? No scary movie. What lies beneath Dinosaur. Where my dinosaur head's at. Disney fans. Not. Not a one of them here. And then, of course, Nutty professor to the clumps. I saw it in theaters and laughed. Big Mama's house. Chicken Run and gone in 60 seconds. So where are you going, Mal?

[Rob Mahoney]

I'll be taking my wild card. I'll be taking my wild card. I have two picks in a row and just as a matter of principle, based on the quality of the movies. Sean just read. I need that to be wild.

[Joanna Robinson]

Chicken Run is good, by the way.

[Rob Mahoney]

True, true. My Wild Card is a movie that, I would say, shook the Franklin Middle and Franklin High community.

[Chris Ryan]

Are you sure it was this movie that did that?

[Rob Mahoney]

Some other things as well.

[Joanna Robinson]

Not in lads basements.

[Rob Mahoney]

I am taking Requiem for a Dream as my wild card. This was a seminal thing to watch.

[Amanda Dobbins]

When you were a young person, pun intended.

[Sean Fennessy]

Did you recreate any of the sequences from the film in the basement in la? I'm.

[Rob Mahoney]

I have no comment.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Even I have a line.

[Rob Mahoney]

Even I have a line. So that's my wild card. I love that movie and saw it a lot when I was younger.

[Sean Fennessy]

Did you.

[Rob Mahoney]

What?

[Joanna Robinson]

What?

[Sean Fennessy]

Did you say it a lot?

[Rob Mahoney]

My favorite thing to do when I was, like, late in high school.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I have absolutely no idea the wild card one.

[Rob Mahoney]

So, okay, that's my. That's my wild card, my blockbuster, which is my final pick. I'm only actually considering two things here. I'm considering because of my deep and abiding love for Harrison Ford while I speak.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah, obviously.

[Rob Mahoney]

And I am considering Mission Impossible too, because while that is, I agree, easily the worst Mission Impossible movie, maybe the most.

[Mallory Rubin]

Mallory Code, also the one I have.

[Rob Mahoney]

Seen, without question, the most. I watch it all the time. It is immensely entertaining, albeit quite poor. And Anthony Hopkins saying, what? Take a man to bed and lie to him? She's a woman. She has all the training she needs. It's just very memorable to me.

[Chris Ryan]

I honestly, I don't think I've ever seen him say that.

[Joanna Robinson]

I was showing someone Fallout the other day and they're like, oh, Tom Cruise can't climb that cliff. I was like, canonically, he can climb.

[Rob Mahoney]

Cliffs, he can climb that cliff.

[Joanna Robinson]

Canonically.

[Rob Mahoney]

Oh, boy, this is tough. Do I. I kind of want to take Mission Impossible too. Should I take what lies being do?

[Joanna Robinson]

MI2?

[Rob Mahoney]

I do love Harrison Ford so much, but I don't like horror movies. Honestly, I don't.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They're not for me, really a horror movie.

[Chris Ryan]

It's more of a Hitchcock.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

Domestic.

[Chris Ryan]

I think you should take MI2 since you've seen it a lot and remember Anthony Hopkins line.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm gonna take Impossible too.

[Rob Mahoney]

I'm gonna do it. That's my blockbuster. Let's fucking go.

[Sean Fennessy]

Great representation for John Woo. I appreciate it. Rob, you've got another pick. You've got to take an original. An original film I'm gonna take.

[Mallory Rubin]

But I'm a cheerleader in original.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Van Lathan]

Damn, that was 2000.

[Sean Fennessy]

2000. Yeah, it is.

[Van Lathan]

I thought that was a little bit earlier.

[Chris Ryan]

Did he just get you again?

[Mallory Rubin]

You know, some movies, Dare to ask, isn't conversion therapy kind of gay? Yeah, and they really follow through on that. It is very weird seeing Natasha Leone play basic, like, normal everyday high school girl. Very, very startling. But funny, sweet. I love the, like, dollhouse y zine aesthetic of that movie. But I'm a cheerleader.

[Sean Fennessy]

Great pick. I've got to pick. I wouldn't say this has been my best draft, so I'm just gotta be really, really true to who I was at this time. And in Wild Card, I'll be selecting the 2000 documentary Backstage chronicling the 1999 hard knock life tour featuring Punch it In. Come on, Jay Z, Ken, Method man and Redman.

[Van Lathan]

I didn't know we could do documentaries. I didn't know that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

In Wildcard.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

In Wild Card they're available.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Or in Oscar nominee.

[Sean Fennessy]

One could say this is a great drama. It is Backstage.

[Van Lathan]

Remember the. The Dame Kevin Lyle scene?

[Chris Ryan]

Dame and Kevin Lyle scene is incredible. It's like, very well. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

This was the number one thing I was interested in when this came out. And this being like, like right Post Volume three.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. If we got jackets, would they be Ringer jackets or Spotify jackets?

[Sean Fennessy]

They would be Rockefeller.

[Chris Ryan]

This is after Meth and Red Blackout record.

[Sean Fennessy]

This was a very good time in American music. Beanie Siegel on this tour. You know, if you guys don't know Ja Rule, when Ja Rule was okay.

[Van Lathan]

Ja Rule. Yeah. Dame Dash was pissed off because they got Def Jam jackets and they were supposed to get. He wanted them to get Rockefeller jackets.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

Crazy scene.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, okay, who's next?

[Chris Ryan]

CR Is that me?

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Last one. If you're just going Jedi, just blast shield down. I'm picking Road Trip.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Todd Phillips going pro.

[Chris Ryan]

Brecken Meyer.

[Joanna Robinson]

I want to give him that, please.

[Sean Fennessy]

What about Tom Green?

[Chris Ryan]

Tom Green was in this.

[Sean Fennessy]

Were you not a Tom Green guy?

[Chris Ryan]

I wasn't a huge Tom Green guy.

[Van Lathan]

But.

[Chris Ryan]

But who watched the two documentary Freddy Got Figured?

[Sean Fennessy]

No, he and Drew Bar. Yeah. They got married. They were in.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I didn't even say Drew Barry Moore's name when I interacted.

[Chris Ryan]

Charlie, can I just say it's a road trip.

[Sean Fennessy]

She is.

[Chris Ryan]

And you can tell Todd Phillips, like, has something, right? It's like. It's like. It's like that little bit better than what that movie could have been.

[Mallory Rubin]

I'm not even joking. It's his best movie, I think says.

[Sean Fennessy]

More about Todd Phillips than Road Triple is funnier, in my opinion.

[Mallory Rubin]

I'll take Road Trip.

[Sean Fennessy]

Road Trip came out in 2000 when I enrolled at it college. This film takes place at Ithaca, and everyone was very intent on recreating as much of this movie as they possibly could.

[Chris Ryan]

Also, Amy Smart is like my Diane Keaton kind of at this era, you know?

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Her run that she was on here outside Providence, culminating with Crank.

[Joanna Robinson]

Outside Providence.

[Van Lathan]

That crank scene is crazy.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah.

[Van Lathan]

That's Basement.

[Mallory Rubin]

When we're doing the Crank draft.

[Joanna Robinson]

That is. That is basement quality. That's Lads and Basement.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, Joanna, now that you've been stymied multiple times with your final pick, you are taking.

[Joanna Robinson]

I'm gonna take a film that I did. I like specifically did not see in 2000 because it caused a divorce between one of my favorite actors and his cherished director.

[Van Lathan]

Can't believe you didn't take this.

[Joanna Robinson]

And it is the beach wrong. Which I think has aged incredibly well. Like, I. I watched it last year and I actually think it was considered a big flop for Leo. A huge rift for Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle, but a great Alex Garland story. And Tilda Swinton is fantastic in it. And I think it actually really.

[Chris Ryan]

They don't come back together until trainspotting.

[Joanna Robinson]

T2 judgment day.

[Sean Fennessy]

McGregor. This kicks off Garland and Boyle. This is also a case, in my opinion, of Book is better than the movie. Yeah, I think the.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Absolutely.

[Van Lathan]

I think the beach confused people.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's that.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Crazy.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. I think for him and where he was at, his career, I think a lot of people went to the beach thinking it was going to be a different movie than.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, 100%. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. I agree. It's a movie that I always loved in theory and never loved as much watching it.

[Joanna Robinson]

But, yeah, watching it last. Last year, I was like this. Yeah. Really worked out. Free.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, Van, you have got a wild card pick ahead of. You can choose any film released in the year 2000 in the United States.

[Van Lathan]

Found Destination.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I can't believe it went this long.

[Joanna Robinson]

I almost picked it.

[Van Lathan]

Final Destination.

[Sean Fennessy]

The thing is, it's FD2, as Chris and I chronicled on this podcast.

[Van Lathan]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

FD is phenomenal. I'm not nagging your pick.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And then FD3 has.

[Mallory Rubin]

You're definitely negative.

[Van Lathan]

You're definitely negging it.

[Joanna Robinson]

But the original Final Destination Is the.

[Chris Ryan]

One with the airplane.

[Mallory Rubin]

Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

But not the logs in the truck.

[Van Lathan]

That's FD2.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's true.

[Joanna Robinson]

I support you, man.

[Van Lathan]

So this is my deal. So this is my deal. When I watched Final Destination, I realized that I would never see another Final Destination movie ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. I cannot watch a movie where Disney death is the villain. It's just. It's too. It fucks with me too much. Okay. I can't do it. I was in the theater, freaked out. The only other movie I thought about taking here was Proof of Life.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Another one.

[Chris Ryan]

I've said everything I have to say about that film. It's a masterpiece. Yeah. I just. I wanted to throw. Give flowers to some other filmmakers in this.

[Sean Fennessy]

Can you name the director of Final Destination?

[Chris Ryan]

Is it like Jim Levitt?

[Sean Fennessy]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

James. James Wong.

[Sean Fennessy]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh. Who was it?

[Sean Fennessy]

I think it is James Wong.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. James Wong.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Because he does one.

[Sean Fennessy]

Three.

[Chris Ryan]

Three. Who did two? John Ford.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yep.

[Joanna Robinson]

Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mallory Rubin]

I think that proves it's the best one.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Amanda, you've got one more pick. This draft has one more pick.

[Van Lathan]

Oh, just.

[Sean Fennessy]

Just so you know, you have to materially comment.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So this material to include rhymes version of the song from the hit film. Wow. Coyote.

[Joanna Robinson]

Coyote Ugly.

[Rob Mahoney]

This is.

[Chris Ryan]

This is going.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What else was I gonna do? Absolutely.

[Sean Fennessy]

Are you kidding?

[Van Lathan]

Just like I'm still there.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is being made in Coyote Ugly too. Okay. She's a songwriter. One of the worst movies I've ever seen.

[Rob Mahoney]

Colic is still here.

[Joanna Robinson]

To John Goodman.

[Rob Mahoney]

Still here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's disrespectful. To Maria Bello.

[Joanna Robinson]

Maria Bello. Innocent. Everything else.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Hosing people down, you know, we learned.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you ever go to Coyote Ugly?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I did, like in the middle of the afternoon.

[Sean Fennessy]

Were you working in ships or.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. No, I was not working there. I did not get up on the bar. But there was. I think that you all forgot what it was like to be 16 and going to the movies. And I did not. And I saw this in theaters and I had this on many running playlists for many years. Can't find the moonlight. Leann Rimes can sing.

[Van Lathan]

Yes. Yes.

[Joanna Robinson]

Boy, can Piper Parabosing.

[Sean Fennessy]

So know what women want for you? No.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Ultimately, no. I went with my heart. Ironic. It was funny.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. What women don't want.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What women don't want is when we rewatched it for the Nancy My Myers hall of Fame. I think you and I were both charmed by it.

[Sean Fennessy]

I enjoyed it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And it obviously its success allowed Nancy to do a lot of other things, including Something's gotta Give, which is a masterpiece. Why would I not take Coyote Ugly?

[Sean Fennessy]

Because it's a bad movie.

[Joanna Robinson]

It is a really.

[Sean Fennessy]

That'd be the number one scream.

[Amanda Dobbins]

John Goodman, he works at the toll booth and then he gets all the toll operators, you know, to make the tolls go at the same time. Because she's got it. She's nervous because she has stage frame.

[Sean Fennessy]

Right.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I will say the guy that she dates does not have the most charismatic potato talk about.

[Van Lathan]

The English guy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Australian.

[Van Lathan]

He's Australian.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's going this bad. Sorry. This guy's already watching podcasts. In the middle of this podcast, he's moved on.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, this has been exhaustive.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I thought we did a really good job today, man.

[Rob Mahoney]

That was fun.

[Sean Fennessy]

Declarative. I think some people have significantly better draft boards than others.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, that's.

[Rob Mahoney]

Do you want to say on the.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Record, in the eye of the bull?

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't want to say out loud what I think. I'm very impressed with Van's draft. Frequently busting out the Patriot in the fifth round. That was an interesting choice.

[Van Lathan]

Hey, fuck you guys. I'll tell you straight up right now. I love that movie. I gotta be able to pick the movies. I like, guys.

[Sean Fennessy]

You do.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What exercise was Jason Isaacs doing when you spoke to him at the time?

[Van Lathan]

He was on the basketball court. And he was over on the basketball court. And I walked over to him, I said, you were great in the patri. And he said, never forget. He goes, I kill a child within the first 10 minutes of the movie. It's not hard to be evil when you do that. That's. That's exactly what he said.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Honestly.

[Chris Ryan]

It's on the basketball court.

[Mallory Rubin]

Can we get a plane?

[Van Lathan]

He wasn't playing basketball. He was sitting on the bench. Maybe he had just played or something. I walked over, I told him that. He was like, I kill a kid in the first 10 minutes of the movie. So he's like, it's not hard to.

[Mallory Rubin]

So you don't have the scout on Jason Isaacs?

[Van Lathan]

No, no. It's far as this game. I tell you what though, the scouts on Englishmen on the basketball court, way down.

[Mallory Rubin]

I can imagine there's other people that.

[Van Lathan]

Have been out there. Terrible.

[Rob Mahoney]

What are you most surprised? Didn't get drafted.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, we can. Yeah, we can do a kind of quick honorable mentions. I mean, there's a handful of like really well liked critically films that didn't go like Chuck and Buck didn't go Mike White's and Miguel Arteta's movie Croupier, which is Clive Owen's breakthrough. Didn't go. Wait.

[Rob Mahoney]

I just looked.

[Joanna Robinson]

Okay. I looked that up while we were. Oh, okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is it not eligible? I think it is.

[Joanna Robinson]

I almost picked the Croupier, but then I double checked it. And then something I double checked said in 1998. But I guess that was maybe like.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think the US release 2000.

[Joanna Robinson]

Anyway, I would have picked Clive Owen.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's a very good film. Yeah. David Gordon Green's George Washington was this year. I like that movie quite a bit. Adam Sandler's A Little Nicky, a little different from George Washington.

[Rob Mahoney]

Talk about a classic, relevant film.

[Sean Fennessy]

Tarantino. Huge fan of that movie. Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars, undrafted.

[Joanna Robinson]

Mission Mars is Coyote Ugly level movie is how I feel about that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So you mean my take on it is.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. And also a great LeAnn Rimes theme song. A Mission of Mars as well. Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty, which before it came out, I was like, this will probably be the coolest movie of all time. And then it was not that. Do you remember?

[Van Lathan]

Weird. Yeah.

[Joanna Robinson]

But it was like a good move for a Zellweger.

[Sean Fennessy]

Huge hit. The whole nine yards. Didn't talk about that. I do love the whole.

[Joanna Robinson]

I was actually. You were gonna take you to death.

[Van Lathan]

That's a blind spot. Because I really do enjoy.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's a cool movie. Inaritu's Amores Peros was released in 2000. I think that's probably his best movie. U571. Awesome submarine movie.

[Rob Mahoney]

I thought Chris. I mean, seafaring scary movie.

[Van Lathan]

I was gonna pick it earlier, but I went with Meet the Fockers instead.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sam Raimi's the Gift, which, as I've noted, is one of the very few movies ever made about esp. You never.

[Amanda Dobbins]

When did you know that before?

[Joanna Robinson]

You've heard that before? Is that a thing?

[Sean Fennessy]

You like to know it on this podcast. At a certain point. Talking about Sam Raimi. Probably to you, but okay.

[Chris Ryan]

You remember saying that?

[Sean Fennessy]

I do, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Wow.

[Joanna Robinson]

Should we make more movies about esp?

[Sean Fennessy]

Everyone's so weird. The Last Basement Laura was born, what, about 13 days?

[Van Lathan]

Oh, yeah. I do like that.

[Chris Ryan]

I like that movie.

[Van Lathan]

Yeah. There's no Patreon, but yes, the Patriot is good. I don't give a fuck what y' all talking about. Y' all. When's the last time y' all seen the Patriot before?

[Chris Ryan]

It's been a minute.

[Sean Fennessy]

Bam.

[Mallory Rubin]

I genuinely do like the Patriots.

[Chris Ryan]

What about Billy Bob Thornton's cut Of all the Pretty Horses.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, that's unavailable to us, as you know. Maybe some of you gone in 60 seconds. Undrafted.

[Chris Ryan]

I can't believe it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Honestly.

[Van Lathan]

A movie that's more sty is cool.

[Chris Ryan]

Than it is good trailer for that movie. You're like, this is going to be the best movie all time. And then the movie and then it isn't quite poor.

[Joanna Robinson]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

The Family man starring Nicholas Cage was this year.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Vertical Limit with Chris o' Donnell and Bill Paxton.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yep.

[Mallory Rubin]

Apex Mountain of Apex Mountains.

[Van Lathan]

Chris o' Donnell. What happened?

[Mallory Rubin]

I think we know what happened.

[Sean Fennessy]

He can't act. Finding Forester.

[Chris Ryan]

Damn.

[Rob Mahoney]

That's right.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm sorry. Terrible actors.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is what it is.

[Sean Fennessy]

He was being shoved down our throat for eight years. And I was like, why is this guy in these movies?

[Amanda Dobbins]

He was Chris everywhere. And also he was on ED. So he. I think he used like his NCI. Whatever.

[Joanna Robinson]

What was the most line from the year 2000? Yeah. And was it Sean Connery saying, you're.

[Sean Fennessy]

The man now dog from man now.

[Joanna Robinson]

Dog from Fighting Forest.

[Sean Fennessy]

We all remember the soundtrack. Famously on the. Is it why a T M n D dot com. Does anybody remember this? If you just went to that. Yeah. Is that even available to us right now?

[Joanna Robinson]

You're the man now. Dog dot com.

[Van Lathan]

He was on that. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Dot com.

[Rob Mahoney]

One of the five best picture did not get selected.

[Chris Ryan]

Chocolate.

[Joanna Robinson]

Chocolate.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah. I've never seen it.

[Joanna Robinson]

Oh, I've seen. Actually, Book was better.

[Van Lathan]

Better.

[Joanna Robinson]

The book is really good.

[Chris Ryan]

Do we have to review our. Our.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. Let's very quickly read off our picks. So, Mallory, since you went first, you go first.

[Rob Mahoney]

Okay. In order from do whatever the round. Round one, I took Gladiator as my Oscar nominee. Round two, I took Snatch as my original. Round three, I took Best in Show as my comedy. Round four, I took Battle Royale as my action thriller horror. Round five, I took Love and Basketball as my drama. Round six, I took Requiem for a Dream as my wild card. And round seven, I took Mission Impossible.

[Mallory Rubin]

2 Rob in drama, I have EE in comedy. Almost Famous in Oscar nominee, Dancer in the Dark. In action or thriller, American Psycho in Blockbuster, Aaron Brockovich in Wild Card. But I'm a cheerleader. Sorry, in original, but I'm a cheerleader. In Wild card.

[Sean Fennessy]

Drunken Master 2 in Blockbuster, I've got Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In original, I've got Unbreakable. In comedy, I've got High Fidelity in Oscar Nominee, I've got the Contender. In drama, I've got the Yards in action Horror thriller, I've got Pitch Black. And in Wild Card, I've got Backstage Chris.

[Chris Ryan]

In original, I got yout Can Count on Me. In Oscar nominee, I have the Perfect Storm. In in blockbuster, I have Castaway action horror thriller, I have Scream 3. In comedy, I have the Replacements. In drama, I have the Way of the Gun. And in Wildcard, I took Road Trip Joanna.

[Joanna Robinson]

I love how all of our drafts ended this day, I've got Billy Elliot. Contentiously. In original, I've got oh Brother, Where Art Thou? In Oscar, I've got X Men. In blockbuster, I've got State and Main. In comedy, I've got the Cell in action horror thriller, I have Ghost Dog in drama and I've got the Beach. In Wild Card.

[Van Lathan]

In original, I have Bamboozled. In Oscar nominee, I have Traffic. In blockbuster, I have Remember the Titans. In comedy, I have Meet the Parents in action horror thriller, I have the incomparable the Patriot. In drama, I have Boiler Room. And in Wild Card, I have Final Destination Amanda.

[Amanda Dobbins]

In drama, I have the Virgin Suicides. In comedy, Bring it On in original Center Stage in Oscar nominee Wonder Boys in action horror thriller, Charlie's Angels. In blockbuster, Miss Congeniality. And in Wild Card, Coyote Ugly.

[Joanna Robinson]

I contend no one has ever been more themselves than Amanda is on this draft.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's another pretty classic draft for me.

[Rob Mahoney]

Yeah, this was fun.

[Sean Fennessy]

Thank you, guys. Nice job, everybody. Really nice job. Nice work. Thank you to our producer Jack Sanders for his work. So thanks to Bobby Wagner.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We love you, Bob.

[Sean Fennessy]

Later this week on the show, we're digging into Wes Anderson's the Phoenician Scheme and I talk to Wes Anderson. See you then.