Apex Mountain on The Rewatchables
49:32 – 57:55… the usual was like three? Yeah. Yeah. Who played Bill Gates? I don't know. No idea. It was a Bill Gates impersonator. Oh, Fincher. Fincher. What a wink wink. Apex Mountain. A lot of nominees for this one. Jesse Eisenberg? That is my vote. I'll just say it right now. I think he has had a good career. I think it will continue to be good. It's hard to imagine him having a more impactful role than this. And if he does, God bless him. This is a really iconic role. I would say Apex Mountain for him. Chris? Yes. Okay. David Fincher? No. I will also say no. Chris would quickly no. No. I think he might, we might still …
The whole segment, as transcribed
Didn't Paul Scheer just say the usual was like three? Yeah. Yeah. Who played Bill Gates? I don't know. No idea. It was a Bill Gates impersonator. Oh, Fincher. Fincher. What a wink wink. Apex Mountain. A lot of nominees for this one. Jesse Eisenberg? That is my vote. I'll just say it right now. I think he has had a good career. I think it will continue to be good. It's hard to imagine him having a more impactful role than this. And if he does, God bless him. This is a really iconic role. I would say Apex Mountain for him. Chris? Yes. Okay. David Fincher? No. I will also say no. Chris would quickly no. No. I think he might, we might still be getting his Apex Mountain. What's that going to be? I don't know. It was a Mindhunter. Mindhunter season two. It's not Mindhunter season two, but I think that there's something around the bend. I think I'd probably rather watch seven. This movie's not perverted enough to be David Fincher's Apex Mountain. Yeah. What is your favorite Fincher, Bill? I think this was his Apex for this reason. I think it has a chance to be a movie of the decade. I think he was the best person to direct it, and I really don't think anybody else would have even taken this above a B+. I think it could have gone wrong in a shitload of ways. The little Fincher touches he put on it, it's just kind of a peak of the powers kind of moment for him. And I don't know. Expectations were high. It wasn't like people were saying, oh, they're making this Facebook movie. I don't know. Who knows? It was like once we heard it was Fincher and Sorkin, it was like, yes, circle the calendar. When is this coming out? And it delivered, and it was great. And, you know, Seven was a movie. It was kind of like, what's this? Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt. I didn't really know Fincher that well. I didn't even, there was no pressure on him, I guess. I still see Zodiac as his masterpiece, but I appreciate what you're saying here. And I think in some ways, you know, Sorkin was initially going to do this. He was going to direct it. And his willingness to turn this over to Fincher and Fincher's stewardship of it and showing that he could make a quote-unquote Hollywood movie, which I think he's done, did again with Gone Girl a little bit, or at least tried. Gone Girl's great. I love Gone Girl. I love Gone Girl too. I mean, You can talk me into that being as Apex. It's almost tough to do Apex Mountain with Fincher because I don't really know like where the dip is. Yeah, Sean might be right. Apex. The game? Apex is in the movie. Like the game in Panic Room? Are those the dips? I think Benjamin Button is his most, the least rewatchable of the movies he's made. There's a great bit where Sorkin was talking about how Fincher like goes into a movie and he's like, you know, you have a line producer on the director's side and an in-house line producer and they're basically going over the script and deciding how much money it's going to cost and Fincher comes in and he's like, this movie is going to cost $41 million and the studio's like, great, how about $30 million? And he's like, it's going to cost $41 million and they're like, fantastic, how about $35 million? And then Sorkin says, Fincher then goes, you think this is a negotiation? This is not a $40.5 million movie. It's $41. And then they're like, sure, okay, $41 million. Amazing. Real boss. I love it. Sorkin, I'm going to say no, unless you guys disagree. Although he did win the Oscar. I just think West Wing is his... This is my favorite script by him. It's an excellent movie, great job by him, but I still think West Wing, what he was able to do with that show and what it meant, and I don't know how that's not his apex. I think it's the smartest pairing of him to a director, but I don't think it's his best thing. That's because you're going to say Molly's Game. I'm not going to say Molly's Game. I'm on the record about Molly's Game and it's many flaws. I think A Few Good Men might be just a more purely entertaining movie script. Yeah. It's too bad because if Fincher had directed Molly's Game, it might be in the running for movie of the decade. I would have loved to have seen that movie. God, maybe there's still time. Maybe just redo it. Andrew Garfield. He did become Spider-Man. This is by far the most interesting Andrew Garfield role. Yeah. I like this guy a lot. Like, just seems like a nice dude. He's good in the military movie, the Clint Eastwood movie. Oh, the Hacksaw Ridge? I liked Hacksaw Ridge. I thought that movie was good. I thought he was really good in it. Mel Gibson, not Clint Eastwood. I don't know if he's had, oh, Mel Gibson, sorry. I don't know if he's had his, sorry, Clint Eastwood. I don't know if he's had his apex yet. He's done some good stuff. I don't know, not many people saw Never Let Me Go, but he's very good in that movie. He is good. Carey Mulligan dugs on him though. She does. JT, his apex was 06, 07. His apex is Man of the Woods. Very good show and Man of the Woods. You're wearing a Man of the Woods shirt today. Thank you. I think it's the Rock Your Body video is the pinnacle of Justin Timberlake. When that happened, I was like, holy shit, this guy's Michael Jackson. I think Justin Timberlake's apex is Lonely Island, so. Okay, well, that says everything you need to know about Chris' relationship to pop music. JT's apex was when that album came out, like 06, and they did the second, when he did Man of the, Dick in the Box with Sandberg. Yeah, around, it's after Crimey River, right? That's the Timberlake that Evan loved the most. Evan was just nodding, very gamely during this whole thing, our producer. Mark Zuckerberg goes on SNL after, does the awkward SNL cameo where they take the real person and put him, and he was with Jesse Eisberg, and as usual, whenever SNL did that, it's just totally fucking awkward and weird, and then he's there in the closing credits, and at the same time, this was kind of, he's worth a lot of money, things are good, there's a purity to it, they made a movie, but he's okay, and now he's on SNL, and now he's the devil. Are you saying that this is Apex Mountain for Zuck? I think inventing Facebook is probably a bigger one. I think from a likability slash he's not our enemy standpoint. This is just a good question in general. I mean, I don't know, five years later, his company was not quite a moral quagmire and worth like literally three times as much money as it was. I think 15 was probably his Apex. Maybe, yeah, 15. As recently as 2016, people were like, he should consider running for president in 2024. Well, let's make sure that doesn't happen. This podcast is the first Army Hammer? This is the resistance? No, I think Call Me By Your Name is Army's Apex. I love the Lone Ranger. I'm just going to stand for the Lone Ranger. I don't give a shit. Shout out to Gore Verbinski, one of my favorites. Call Me By Your Name is okay. Yeah, I think, I agree with Chris. I think a movie about bike riding through Italy I think is definitely an Apex. Congratulations on that. Let's stop here. It's a nice view over here. We get some grapes. I love every single- Did they eat a single grape in that movie? I don't know. Hey, man. Come on, Bill. Hey, we're going to ride a bike. You want to come? All right. Would this movie have been better with Danny Trejo? I'm going to say no. This might be the first time I've ever said no for this answer. Yes, but only as Peter Thiel. Mark. Mark. I had to do it, brother. Do you? What if Danny Trejo had Dakota Johnson's role? Would this have been better? No. Did he show up? He could have played the cop, I guess, who busts. Sure. He could have been one of the security guards when Eduardo flips out at the end. The thing is, is that if Trejo plays Eduardo, the whole Mark scene goes, when he's like, I'm coming back for everything. You're like, holy shit, machete's going to kill this guy. I'm going to say no. Let's pick some nits. The major accuracy issues which we covered before, does this ultimately matter for movie of the decade purposes? I'm going to say no. It didn't matter for all the president's men. I think we should know when people make a movie that it's not their job to be factually accurate. But they're trying to, this movie is trying to say that there was like a native wound. There was something wrong with this guy because of a relationship and that caused all of this. And if you believe that and you believe this movie to be a really powerful
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