Blank Check — Patreon: Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free)

Published 2016-07-22; 2:07:43 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free)”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims, Ben Hosley. Guests: Richard Lawson.

Subject films: Vanilla Sky (2001).

On the transcript: Auto-transcribed, no speaker labels, many Cruise/Cruz and title errors; speaker attributions are mostly low-confidence inferences from context. The Ben Hosley and Griffin attributions are firmest.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Wrote the Vanilla Sky year only because the hosts say 2001; film years for others are included only when said or in the transcript.
Name normalizations (Amenabar, Sigur Ros, Tykwer, Almodovar, Kubrick, Ridley Scott, Chyler Leigh) are guesses from transcriber garble, not stated.

Films that came up

Claims (65)

industry (industry): Tom Cruise → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). Cruise optioned the Spanish film as soon as it reached America after Sundance.
“He optioned the film instantly when it came out in America.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:08:26 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Alejandro Amenabar → The Others. Amenabar followed the Spanish thriller with The Others, which was a huge hit.
“He made the others, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:08:45 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Nicole Kidman → The Others. Kidman had a big 2001 with The Others and Moulin Rouge and won the next year.
“2001 is the others and Moulin Rouge, and then 2002, she wins for the album.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:09:18 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Tom Cruise → Edge of Tomorrow. A foreign actress can't volley the ball back; Emily Blunt does in Edge of Tomorrow, so Cruise's chemistry works.
“Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:14:09 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
industry (industry): All the Pretty Horses → Harvey Weinstein. All the Pretty Horses was meant as an Oscar movie, then Harvey cut it down from a four-hour cut.
“and then Harvey cut it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:15:37 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Captain Corelli's Mandolin → John Madden. Corelli was Madden's follow-up to Shakespeare in Love.
“Captain Carelli also was John Madden's follow-up to Shakespeare and Love, I believe.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:15:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Penelope Cruz → Cameron Crowe. Cruz's picks track directors coming off Oscars: Crowe after Maguire and Almost Famous, Madden after Shakespeare in Love, Thornton after Sling Blade.
“That is crazy that she does like the crow after like Maguire slash almost famous.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:16:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Captain Corelli's Mandolin → Vanilla Sky. Corelli is the closest analog because Penelope Cruz has no chemistry with the star and it sinks the movie.
“she has no chemistry with the star.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:16:26 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Captain Corelli's Mandolin → Vanilla Sky. Cruise is at least well cast as a hot shot, whereas Cage was an Italian Christ figure.
“Whereas Nick Nicholas Cage was playing an Italian, like Christ figure.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:16:44 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Jerry Maguire. Jerry Maguire's leads are well written with an unconventional romance, so there is real material in each scene.
“those 2 characters are so well written and their relationship is so unconventional and how it plays out”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:17:18 · Richard Lawson (0.45 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Almost Famous → Vanilla Sky. Almost Famous is the bridge: already more precious and less realistic than Jerry Maguire, before it tips over here.
“it's a definite bridge because, yes, it is more precious than Jerry Maguire.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:18:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Penelope Cruz → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). Cruz plays a similar pixie-dream-girl role in the original and is charming and fully effective in it.
“She's extremely charming in it and it totally works.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:18:57 · David Sims (0.55 sure it was them)
people (people): Tom Cruise → Eyes Wide Shut. The Cruise-Kidman breakup came soon after the movie they made about their sex life.
“This is coming pretty shortly after the movie they made about their sex life.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:20:57 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Fur → Birth. Fur is compared with Birth, which the speaker loves, as the Kidman film they wish had more of it.
“Fur is kind of like, you wish fur was birth.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:21:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (personal): Hulk → Vanilla Sky. The strongest example of defending a movie against dismissive friends in the speaker's adolescence was Ang Lee's Hulk, like defending Vanilla Sky.
“Drew the line was Anglies Hulk.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:24:25 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). Vanilla Sky is nearly the same story as the Spanish original, except the hero is a magazine magnate friends with Spielberg.
“So the film is actually pretty much exactly the same as Abri Lozojos, except for the main character of that movie is not a magazine magnate who's friends with Steven Spielberg.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:26:51 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Cameron Diaz → Being John Malkovich. Diaz should have gotten the Oscar nomination that Catherine Keener got for Malkovich.
“I still contend that she should have gotten the Oscar nomination that Catherine Keener got for Malkovich.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:28:17 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). The Spanish film has the same beats, and the protagonist's face looks even worse in it.
“But it's like the movie's beats are exactly the same down to the, you know, crucial moment of him like lying in the gut.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:31:50 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → The Phantom of the Opera. The disfigurement is genuinely upsetting rather than a small shitty patch like Gerard Butler's Phantom.
“you didn't like do the Gerard Butler Phantom of the Opera thing”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:32:26 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Cameron Crowe → Elvis Presley. Crowe was obsessed with Elvis's line about being the loneliest person in a room where everyone knows you.
“he said he was really obsessed with the quote that Elvis presently had about feeling like the loneliest person in a room where everyone knows who you are.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:39:50 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → 28 Days Later. The empty-Times-Square shoot is likened to emptying London for 28 Days Later.
“like in 28 days later when they like, you know, did Limpty London.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:40:58 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Cameron Crowe → Elizabethtown. Elizabethtown is Crowe doubling down on pure Cameron Crowe after this film failed to expand him.
“Elizabethtown is him being like, I'm going to write the most Cameron Crowe movie”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:42:01 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → School of Rock. School of Rock is the commercial film that did well and still fit Linklater's work.
“I'd say School of Rock kind of functions in that way.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:42:42 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Popeye. Most idiosyncratic directors who try genre end up like Altman's Popeye.
“it's like Altman's Popeye, you know?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:42:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Jerry Maguire. Vanilla Sky is likened to Jerry Maguire escaping a Frankenstein experiment before it was finished.
“this movie is like Jerry Maguire, like, got out of some sort of like Frankenstein monster experiment before he was finished”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:43:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Jerry Maguire. A deformed Jerry Maguire.
“Well, it's like a deformed Jerry Maguire.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:43:19 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Toys. Toys is the other example of an idiosyncratic director forced into a bigger genre structure and ending as a disaster.
“It's either like a disaster like that or like Barry Levinson's toys, which we talked about a lot.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:43:52 · unknown (0.45 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Big Eyes. The opposite case: a studio-style film where the director's voice is lost, like Tim Burton's Big Eyes.
“Tim Burton's big eyes.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:44:23 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Edge of Tomorrow → Vanilla Sky. Edge of Tomorrow almost threads the needle of an idiosyncratic filmmaker doing a big genre movie.
“almost threads the needle of what we're talking about.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:45:26 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Doug Liman → Edge of Tomorrow. Doug Liman's career is baffling: Go, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Bourne, Jumper, Edge of Tomorrow.
“His career is insane.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:45:45 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → Eyes Wide Shut. Cruise in masks again, soon after Eyes Wide Shut.
“right after eyes wide shut too.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:46:45 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Kurt Russell → Nobody's Fool. Action actors in non-action roles, like Bruce Willis in Nobody's Fool.
“Like, like Bruce Willis and nobody's fool or something.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:47:38 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Kurt Russell → To Kill a Mockingbird. Kurt Russell's character is written to evoke Atticus Finch.
“you're a character who's supposed to be evocative of Atticus Finch, of Gregory Peck, into Kill a Mockingbird.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:47:49 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Kurt Russell → Kate Hudson. Crowe had just worked with Kate Hudson, who asked him to hire her dad.
“So yeah, he had Crowe had just finished work with Kate Hudson.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:48:49 · unknown (0.45 sure it was them)
career (career): Kurt Russell → John Carpenter. With Carpenter failing, Russell had no one to prop him up in the late 90s.
“Carpenter is fucking wiping out, so he can't be there to prop him up anymore.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:49:22 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Vanilla Sky → Stargate. Running joke: Ben's favorite movie Stargate was the first film with a website.
“The 1st movie, the 1st website was for Ben Hosley's favorite movie, Stargate.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:51:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Tom Cruise → Magnolia. Magnolia, MI2 and Vanilla Sky are three consecutive long-haired movies.
“Magnolia, Mission Impossible 2, and this are all long hair, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:54:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Vanilla Sky → Minority Report. After this film everything Cruise does is haunted.
“And everything that he does after this is haunted, you know”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:55:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Vanilla Sky → Mission: Impossible III. Even in Mission Impossible 3 he's the hero but dark and crying a lot.
“even something like Mission Impossible 3, where he's the hero, his character is dark and like crying a lot”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:55:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Vanilla Sky → Collateral. After this Cruise plays men who have failed and are trying to overcome it.
“after this, all the collateral just become a guy who has failed and is trying to overcome it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:55:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Vanilla Sky → War of the Worlds. War of the Worlds is where Cruise's maniacal self-selling publicity arc implodes.
“and then War of the Worlds is where it all really implodes.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:56:06 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Kurt Russell → Stargate. Stargate was probably his last big action epic.
“That was probably his last big action epic that hit.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:57:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Jason Lee → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). Jason Lee's best-friend character is the same character with the same mechanic as in the Spanish film.
“This the same character with the same mechanic where he's kind of like...”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:58:50 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Jason Lee → Almost Famous. Jason Lee is great in Almost Famous and okay in this one.
“I actually like Jason Lee in this, and I like him a lot and almost famous.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:59:10 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Jason Lee → A Guy Thing. His first leading-man vehicle, A Guy Thing, bombed.
“Jason Lee's 1st like leading man vehicle, which is a guy thing, which bombs”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:59:59 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Jason Lee → Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith cast him in Mallrats to be his friend.
“I hired him because I wanted him to be my friend.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:01:37 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Cameron Crowe → Wes Anderson. Crowe was the music guy until Wes Anderson took the crown.
“And then Wes Anderson came and took that crown away from her.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:05:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (echo): Vanilla Sky → Hologram for the King. The 'This is not my beautiful house' singing recurs in Hologram for the King.
“Do you know that Tom Hanks sings that song in hologram for the king?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:06:36 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → To the Wonder. The loft scene feels like Malick's improvised movement, twirling and trust falls, as in To the Wonder.
“Terrence Malik tells his actors to just sort of improvise movement.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:08:16 · unknown (0.45 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Edge of Tomorrow → Vanilla Sky. Edge of Tomorrow is a better, later film because we know Cruise now wants us to like him.
“because we know that Cruz desperately wants us to like him again.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:17:32 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Vanilla Sky → Mission: Impossible III. This is the ultimate Cruise performance: first the charm cashed in, then the thing underneath.
“I agree that this movie's kind of like the ultimate Tom Cruise performance.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:17:40 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Almost Famous → Garden State. Almost Famous, more than Vanilla Sky, gave birth to the Garden State style.
“Well, probably almost famous gave birth to garden state more than this did.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:18:36 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). The Spanish original keeps the ending ambiguous, while this version spells out what the dream state is.
“And Abri Lo Sojos does not have this problem so much, is that I think the ending is supposed to be ambiguous”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:24:18 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (echo): Vanilla Sky → Deep Impact. The Ellie/LE name confusion happened three years earlier in a far superior film, Deep Impact.
“I should also mention that all these hints that an Ellie confusion had happened 3 years prior in a far superior film called Deep Impact.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:26:27 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Vanilla Sky → Christopher Nolan. Christopher Nolan would have done a good job with this movie.
“You know who would have done a good job with this movie?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:27:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Vanilla Sky → The Dark Knight Rises. Nolan did a better version of this movie, and Dark Knight Rises shares a disfigured billionaire heir plot.
“I just realized Dark Diet Rises is also about a disfigured billionaire air who falls in love with a woman who tries to kill him.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:28:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). The ending follows the original beat for beat, down to the jump and the 'open your eyes' last line.
“Yeah, again, it's how Abri Lo Sojos works to a T down to him jumping and open your eyes, like being on last lines.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:38:09 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). Crowe pushes more ideas onto the plate than the original, which distracts from the film.
“Crow's putting a lot more on the plate, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:38:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Behind Enemy Lines → Stealth. Stealth was essentially a remake of Behind Enemy Lines with Jessica Biel.
“Remember when they remade that as Stealth and Jessica Beal played the Behind Enemy Lions part?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:43:51 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Behind Enemy Lines → Gene Hackman. Gene Hackman was hired for the Behind Enemy Lines lead first, right after The Royal Tenenbaums; Owen Wilson got it instead.
“They hired Gene Hackman for that first.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:44:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (programming): The Royal Tenenbaums → Vanilla Sky. Tenenbaums opened the same week as Vanilla Sky in 5 theaters and averaged $55,000.
“Tenenbaums comes out that very week on 5 theaters and it grosses $276,000”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:45:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (echo): Vanilla Sky → Gothica. Gothica has the same identity swap between Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz as the Sophia/Julie switch here.
“It's like the Sophia, Julia Switch, in Vanilla Sky that happens between Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:46:33 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Sahara → Clive Cussler. Cussler sued, insulted that McConaughey was cast as his semi-autobiographical hero.
“he thought it was insulting for them to cast McConaughey.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:47:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Penelope Cruz → Zoolander 2. Cruz played the same sexy cat-suit spy role in Zoolander 2 and Grimsby within a month.
“she did 2 like spy comedies where she played like the sexy cat suit lady”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:49:42 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Sacha Baron Cohen → Bruno. Bruno is the one where he gets comic value from exposing others' prejudices.
“I think that is the one where he gets comedic value out of exposing other people's prejudices the most.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:51:12 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (32)

fun, about Vanilla Sky: The official tagline is the list of words run together with no spaces: love, hate, dreams, life, work, play, friendship, sex.
“The official tagline is love hate, dreams, life, work, play, friendship, sex with no spaces.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:00:29 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The ad campaign was just Cruise's face filling the poster and nothing else, and it still made $100 million.
“All you need to advertise the movie was Tom Cruise's name, his face taking up the entire dimensions of the poster and a color palette, you know?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:11:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Penelope Cruz: The lack of chemistry between Cruise and Cruz is so strong it's as if a third character keeps them apart.
“It's like there's a 3rd character, like keeping them apart.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:13:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Penelope Cruz: Learning Crowe's dialogue phonetically in a second language is hard, so she looks nervous whenever she has to talk.
“imagine trying to learn Cameron code dialogue phonetically.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:20:04 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: Ben saw it at a drive-in in the back seat, making out, and absorbed very little.
“So I saw this at a drive-through.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:29:03 · Ben Hosley (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Timothy Spall: Told that he'd won an award, Spall said his reaction was 'that's my name', which the speakers joke about as blue-collar modesty.
“I'm such a blue collar guy.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:36:40 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The speakers play a game of naming Vanilla Sky cast members until someone runs dry; the cameo list includes Spielberg.
“The game is, let's go around a circle until one of us can't name another Casmer from Vanilla Sky”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:37:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: Spielberg cameos as himself, running up to Cruise with 'you son of a bitch' at the party.
“there's a party scene where Steven Spielberg runs up Tom Cruise and goes, you son of a bitch”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:38:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: Cruise shut down Times Square to shoot the empty-city opening, which was legendary at the time.
“like Tom Cruise shut down Times Square.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:41:26 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien Resurrection: The only good scene is Ripley finding the room of failed clone experiments, used as an analogy for deformed Jerry Maguire.
“It's the only good scene in Alien Resurrection where Sigourney Weaver finds the room with all the abortion.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:43:21 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Kurt Russell: Playing against type, he's gentle and fatherly without doing an impression, and for the speaker it's one of their favorite Russell performances.
“I think it's my favorite performance in the movie, and I think it's one of my favorite Kurt Russell performances.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:47:28 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Kurt Russell: Kate Hudson told Crowe her dad needed work, so Kurt Russell was added to the cast.
“And she said, and my dad needs some work.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:48:55 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Tom Cruise: His hair is the best it has ever looked in a movie, and the long-hair era runs from Magnolia through MI2 to this film.
“Yeah, 99 to 2001 is long-haired TC.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:54:11 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Jason Lee: Kevin Smith hired him for Mallrats because he couldn't act but Smith wanted him as a friend.
“I hired him because I wanted him to be my friend.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:01:37 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: Cameron Diaz's character delivers the 'your body makes a promise' monologue, which becomes the episode's running catchphrase.
“Like the craziest monologue in the world.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:03:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The hat is compared to the New Radicals singer's, tied to 'the dreamer's disease' of the movie.
“Is that hat a conscious reference to new radicals because this is a movie about Tom Cruise having the dreamer's disease?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:04:52 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Hologram for the King: The cold open has Tom Hanks singing 'This Is Not My Beautiful House'.
“Do you know that Tom Hanks sings that song in hologram for the king?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:06:36 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The speakers get hung up on 'Citizen Dildo', the nickname the board has for Cruise, which is close to Singles' Citizen Dick.
“which A is very close to citizen dick from singles.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:21:21 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The bucket hat Cruise wears appears out of nowhere and never comes off, even in the sex scene.
“Well, we should also say he's not taken off the hat for the entire whole movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:24:40 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: A bit about a commercial: scientists freeze a dog in ice and thaw it, hints that foreshadow the cryo twist.
“where some scientist is like, this dog was frozen in ice.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:26:14 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: Penelope Cruz runs her hands through a hologram of Louis Armstrong; the film's tech is a mix of the odd and the futuristic.
“where Penelope Cruz runs her hands through a hologram of Louis Armstrong.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:30:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: Griffin's casting story: a casting director warned him not to joke about 'can you hear me now?' when the Verizon actor wrote and directed a film.
“the writer and director of this film, who's going to be in the audition is the can you hear me now, guy?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:31:59 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The speaker discovered the film's ending by flipping channels and landing on Cruise peeling off the mask to 'Good Vibrations'.
“And then landed on him slowly handshaking, peeling the mask off as good vibrations flared”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:33:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The film's Dylan-cover and pop-culture death montage is what Crowe thinks his own death will look like.
“Yeah, that's what Cameron Crow thinks his death is going to be like.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:36:25 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The reading that makes the movie work: after a Crowe-perfect first half, the rest is a man trying to make his life a Cameron Crowe movie again.
“And then his life crumbles. And the rest of the movie is a guy trying to make his life like a Cameron Crowe movie again.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:38:49 · Richard Lawson (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The box office game: Vanilla Sky opened #1 on December 14, 2001 on a $68 million budget and grossed $203 million worldwide.
“Clean 203, a gentleman's... Budget was 68 million.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:41:30 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Stealth: One of the planes turns into a robot, and Jamie Foxx, sold as the lead, dies first.
“Stuff is the one where one of the planes just turns into a robot.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:44:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Behind Enemy Lines: Gene Hackman was the first choice for the lead, right after The Royal Tenenbaums; Owen Wilson ended up playing the rare straight action role.
“They hired Gene Hackman for that first.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:44:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Royal Tenenbaums: Opened that same weekend in five theaters and grossed $276,000, a $55,000 per-screen average.
“Tenenbaums comes out that very week on 5 theaters and it grosses $276,000, which is pretty good.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:45:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Sahara: Clive Cussler's lawsuit hinged on the character being semi-autobiographical and McConaughey being insulting casting.
“The linchpin of his lawsuit was that he considered the character to be semi-autobiographical and he thought it was insulting for them to cast McConaughey.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:47:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Roadies: A sad fan's assessment: Crowe fans either ignore bad entries or hope this is the one that gets him back.
“There's the contingent of Crow fans who almost ignore when things are bad.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:52:29 · Richard Lawson (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Vanilla Sky: The recording was spread over years because the hosts kept leaving the country, so references to a breakup will be five weeks stale on release.
“Having to re-listen to me make references to how sad I am right now 5 weeks from now when this episode's released.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:57:04 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves the film's loneliness and the hardcore Crowe-ness; he's a defender of this movie after rewatching, gives it A minus or B plus. Can't stand the way Cruz is shoved into a romance with no chemistry. A sucker for Kurt Russell, Jason Lee and a good bit.
David Sims (host): Went in with the Spanish original in his head and thinks Vanilla Sky is essentially a remake of it with American excess added. Likes the genre-inflected last act more than the first half but rates the whole C plus. Sucker for British film magazine nostalgia.
Richard Lawson (guest): Has a personal tie to the film from freshman year at a Catholic school, defended it to friends, and has since conceded they were right. Loves Kurt Russell's gentle turn and the last fifteen minutes with Sigur Ros. Can't stand the first-act chemistry and the dialogue about cats.
Ben Hosley (host): The producer in the room; he saw the film at a drive-in while making out, adores Stargate and sums up the film as the wish to relive a window of one's life. Quiet this episode and sad-sack in tone.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

'Black Jack' / 'Right Jack' at 0:00:01 = Blank Check
'Abri Lozojos' / 'Aubrey Lo Soho' / 'Aubrey Los' / 'Abre Lo Soho' = Abre los ojos
'Aminabar' = Alejandro Amenabar; 'the C side' = The Sea Inside
'Jeremy Maguire' / 'Jim Maguire' / 'Jeremy McGuire' = Jerry Maguire
'Captain Carelli' / 'Captain Carly' = Captain Corelli's Mandolin; 'Guy Madden' joke
'Stanley Cooper' = Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut context)
'Cigaros' = Sigur Ros; 'Salisbury Hard/Hill' = Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel)
'Kondi Nest' = Conde Nast; 'Gertha Newman' = Griffin Newman
'Ray finds and Kristen Thomas' = likely Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas (the English Patient), not named as a film
'Tom Tickler' = Tom Tykwer; 'Serena Sowdery' = unknown, guess Sarita Choudhury
'Tilda Swins' / 'Tull Swinton' = Tilda Swinton; 'Mel Cruz' = Penelope Cruz
'Kerr Russell' / 'Kur Russell' = Kurt Russell; 'Ken Lung' = Ken Leung
'Chocolate ground', 'Villis Guy 2', 'Ghost of Watchmen' are jokes garbled by the transcriber
'Dark Diet Rises' = The Dark Knight Rises; 'Ocean's 11' fine; 'Kyler Lee' = Chyler Leigh
'go some girlfriends past' = Ghosts of Girlfriends Past; 'Maston Anonymous' = Masked and Anonymous
'the Flipper monologue' at 1:15:17 is unclear (possibly a garbled film title)
'Richard Lee Scott' = Ridley Scott; 'the motivar' = Almodovar; 'Mulan Rouge' = Moulin Rouge
'Bean John Malkovich' / 'Bingjonakovic' = Being John Malkovich; 'Cruz' for 'Cruise' in many lines

Blank Check — Patreon: Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free)

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

subject (1)

passing (77)

compared (22)

anecdote (19)

recommended (3)

dismissed (1)

Claims (65)

Fun items (32)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong