I love movies and I embraced the Ringer’s Rewatchables podcast before it was even on its own feed, listening to early “Hall of Fame” episodes covering “Jerry Maguire” and “Heat.” Bill Simmons and his Ringer colleagues get at the great scenes in the movies they choose, and unearth interesting trivia about the films, like casting choices that were made, especially if notable actors were turned down for parts or declined them.
What really makes me tune in over and over again to episodes of this show is the banter. In the most recent episode I listened to, covering “Caddyshack,” Simmons and colleague Sean Fennessey make semi-mocking, semi-admiring references to how much cocaine all involved in making this movie were doing at the time it was made. I’ve seen the movie more than once but I can’t remember how long ago I last watched it, probably at least several years. Now that I’ve listened to this episode, I don’t really need to go back and re-watch it, though, because Simmons and Fennessey made the funny scenes they describe really come alive, particularly Ted Knight’s performance. As they observed, it’s unclear whether Knight was really in on the jokes of the scenes but his tone as the heel of the movie worked perfectly.
The show has its own esoteric award categories that help bring out the hosts’ views of why the movie was rewatchable even if it’s not necessarily a great movie. These include an overacting award named alternately after Mark Ruffalo in “Spotlight” and Saul Rubinek in “True Romance,” a “heat check” award for the actor who appears briefly but makes the most impact in their short amount of screen time, most rewatchable scene, an “Apex Mountain” award for which person in the production (this can include the director, writer or even inanimate objects or themes in the movie – you’ll see – for whom this movie was the peak of their career or saw them at the peak of their powers in the entertainment business), and a “that guy” award for the cast member who is such a familiar face turning up in lots of movies without the public really knowing their name. The nature of these categories really make the discourse about the movies a lot of fun.
The show occasionally has notable guest panelists. Quentin Tarantino recorded three episodes with them in one fell swoop about a year ago, covering "Unstoppable," "Dunkirk" and "King of New York." Issa Rae joined in for the "Groundhog Day" episode some months ago.
I could go on and on about moments I have enjoyed from the Rewatchables but the simplest thing to do here is completely let my nerd flag fly, and give you a list of the episodes I’ve listened to, and bolding the ones that inspired me to actually go rewatch the movie that was covered, or in some cases, go watch it when I hadn’t seen it before (bold & italics). And now, the tale of the tape. I've listened to about 36 episodes, if I haven't forgotten any with this list. Of these, 10 of them inspired me to go rewatch the movie again in recent months. (Maybe this is a function of our long-running pandemic lockdown).
Caddyshack
Groundhog Day
Back To The Future
Boomerang
Say Anything
Basic Instinct
Total Recall
Pump Up The Volume
Usual Suspects
Seven
Rocky IV
The Exorcist
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Talented Mr. Ripley
Unstoppable
King of New York
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Edge of Tomorrow
Cast Away
Do The Right Thing
The Shining
Beverly Hills Cop
Dead Poets Society
Proof of Life
Dave
Taken
The Godfather
Jaws
Midnight Run
Michael Clayton
Heat & “Re-Heat” 2nd episode on same movie
The Departed
Zodiac
Jerry Maguire
Titanic
Yes, I had not ever seen "Jaws" until more recently. A big hole in my movie fandom, I know.
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