When I reminisce about hanging out with my friends in college and in NYC, I recall a lot of fun times. My favorites, though, were when we would sit around and shoot the shit about movies. We had so many debates, such as which movie was more quotable: Fletch or Caddyshack? What movie monologue was the best? I went with the Bull Durham “I believe” speech and my friend Steve went with Field of Dreams “Oh, they’ll come, Ray” piece.
We played the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, which later morphed into the Six Degrees of any actor game. We analyzed The Usual Suspects and outlined why The Godfather III didn’t work. All in all, we had fun talking about something we loved: movies.
Having fun talking about movies is exactly what happens on each episode of the great podcast The Rewatchables. This ‘cast is one of a host of podcasts produced by The Ringer, a sports and pop culture website and podcast network. The Ringer was created by Bill Simmons, formerly “The Sports Guy” on ESPN.com and Grantland, a ESPN related blog he ran before he left ESPN in 2015.
Each episode of The Rewatchables discusses a movie that has become a rewatchable pop culture staple since its release. Each movie is the type of movie that, if you came across it on TNT while channel surfing, you’d stop and watch until the movie ends. To date, the ‘cast has covered over 150 movies, including Fletch, Caddyshack, Heat, The Shawshank Redemption and The Game, which was the most recent episode as of the time of this writing.
Each movie is discussed through various, repeating categories; some, such as Most Rewatchable Scene, Picky Nits, Half-Assed Internet Research, and Recasting Couch, do not need any explanation. Others are unique. For instance, one category is the “The Joey Pants” Award, which goes to a character actor who is “one of those guys/girls” whose face you know, but (at the time of the movie) was not a household name.
The primary draw of this ‘cast is the unabashed love and enjoyment expressed by the commentators for the movies. They joke about the movie, both in their praise and their nit-picking. It’s the same type of love they show as they bust each others’ balls about each other’s movie and sports opinions.
In the end, The Rewatchables is great for those who love movies and, even more, who love to talk about movies. In fact, the only problem with the podcast is that you can’t actually take part in the discussion with the crew.
Making It Up As I Go 