Blank Check with Griffin & David: Flesh+Blood

Published 2018-01-07; 1:35:02 by the feed.

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

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David” and the episode “Flesh+Blood”.

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

Subject films: Flesh+Blood (1985).

On the transcript: No speaker labels and heavy bit-banter; the transcript contains later-inserted ads (Audible, Mubi) with anachronistic details unrelated to 2018. Some speaker attributions are guesses.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Corrected spellings of names the transcript garbled (Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gerard Soeteman, Monique van de Ven, Susan Tyrrell, Basil Poledouris, Michael Dudikoff, Nicholas Meyer, Roel Reine, Keetje Tippel) come from memory, not the transcript.
Role labels like composer for Poledouris and Gerard Soeteman as co-writer follow what speakers said; the spelling fixes are mine.

Films that came up

Claims (53)

craft (craft): David Chase → The Sopranos. Chase insisted on casting real guys with real mob history, which made production tell actors with arrest warrants not to show up.
“David Chase was like so into like getting these real guys who had the real history.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:02:13 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Flesh and Blood → The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Flesh+Blood is a tweener or bridge between two phases of the director's career, as Lost World was for Spielberg.
“It's sort of a tweener.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:08:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Paul Verhoeven → Hieronymus Bosch. Verhoeven says a Bosch painting with a man defecating in the background formed his artistic ideal.
“these are the kind of films I want to make.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:16:22 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Hieronymus Bosch → Paul Verhoeven. Bosch's paintings are the classical-art version of Verhoeven's maximalist cinema.
“they kind of are the like classical art version of what Verhoeven is doing in cinema.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:16:25 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Paul Verhoeven → Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Verhoeven screened Life of Brian then gave an academic talk on Jesus.
“he screened life of Brian and then did this whole, like, academic talk afterwards”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:18:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Flesh and Blood → RoboCop. Unlike Flesh+Blood, RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct have an arc and some resolution.
“Whereas in Robocop, in total recall, in basic instinct, even, like, right, he's, you know, these are movies with more of an arc for a character.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:19:12 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): RoboCop → Total Recall. RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct let him have cake and eat it: deconstructions that also work as straight entertainment.
“What I've called before, movies where he gets to have his cake needed too.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:19:25 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
career (career): RoboCop → Starship Troopers. Starship Troopers is the most extreme form of the deconstruction-as-entertainment approach.
“Starship Troopers is sort of the most extreme version of it where they're like, we won.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:19:38 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Paul Verhoeven → Rutger Hauer. Hauer was his constant leading man in Dutch films and has not worked with him since.
“who is his constant collaborator in the Dutch movies, and not since.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:23:42 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Spetters → The Loveless. Spetters is like his Loveless, about aimless bikers.
“It's kind of his loveless.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:24:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): The Fourth Man → Paul Verhoeven. The Fourth Man was his last Dutch movie.
“That was his last Dutch movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:25:45 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Flesh and Blood → The Loveless. Both take a romanticized genre and show how gross it really was.
“Which is where I think this movie shares a similarity with the Loveless.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:27:54 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Flesh and Blood → Orion Pictures. Orion financed most of the film and demanded a female character, cutting the rape scene; it kept Verhoeven afterward for RoboCop.
“Orion demanded there'd be a female character”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:28:36 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Flesh and Blood → Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven himself called it a failure and a lesson never to compromise the main storyline.
“the failure of flesh and bud was a lesson to me, never compromised the main storyline of a script.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:18 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Flesh and Blood → Piranha II: The Spawning. Verhoeven's 80s patchwork-financed film is seen as like a director testing before gaining control in Hollywood.
“I wasn't sure if this was going to feel like a piranha 2 where it's like a guy testing it out before he figures out how to gain control in Hollywood.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:37 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Paul Verhoeven → Rutger Hauer. Hauer wanted to play a hero but Verhoeven wanted a morally ambiguous villain.
“He also wanted Rucker Hower's character to be very morally ambiguous and villainous.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:31:23 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Paul Verhoeven → Von Trier. Auteur-and-star pairs like Verhoeven/Hauer, von Trier/Skarsgard and Almodovar/Banderas often split once both get big.
“Sure, but I think in a similar way to like Von Trier and Scarsgard.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:36:00 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Almodovar → Antonio Banderas. Another auteur-star pair that got big on different tracks.
“Almodovar and Fanderas.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:36:27 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): RoboCop → Jesus Christ. RoboCop is described as American Jesus, reflecting Verhoeven's Jesus fascination.
“like, RoboCops about American Jesus.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:36:39 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Rutger Hauer → Paul Verhoeven. Hauer and Verhoeven fought on Flesh+Blood because Hauer wanted to play a hero after Blade Runner and they never worked together again.
“Howard was so pissed off that Verhoeven wouldn't let him be like a fucking matinee idol hero because he was afraid of being typecast after Blade Runner”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:36:44 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Flesh and Blood → Paul Verhoeven. Flesh+Blood is called the Rosetta Stone for his career.
“it's kind of the Rosetta Stone for one man's career.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:37:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Rutger Hauer → The Hitcher. After the Verhoeven split Hauer leaned into villain roles like The Hitcher and Ladyhawke.
“He makes like the hitcher and Lady Hawk”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:37:39 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Bill Murray → Harold Ramis. Murray and Ramis did not speak for years after disagreeing over Groundhog Day's tone.
“Murray was like, I want Groundhog Day to be more dramatic.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:38:15 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Kinski → Herzog. Kinski and Herzog could bottle their tension, unlike Hauer and Verhoeven.
“Kinski and fucking Herzog were able to like bottle that that tension.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:38:37 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Rutger Hauer → Blade Runner. Hauer's Blade Runner villain made him fear typecasting.
“I love him in Blade Runner so much.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:39:09 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
career (career): The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power → Rutger Hauer. Hauer later played a king in Scorpion King 4.
“Because Rucker Howard is also placing playing a king.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:40:04 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Scorpion King → The Mummy Returns. The Scorpion King is a spinoff of The Mummy Returns.
“a spinoff of the Mummy Return.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:41:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Flesh and Blood → Willow. The painted poster looks like fantasy-adventure posters of the era.
“it has this poster that looks like, you know, the poster for Willow or Legend”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:23 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Flesh and Blood → Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The heroic uplifting score sounds like a Robin Hood epic, then cuts straight to depravity.
“the score sounds like it could fit on fucking Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Flesh and Blood → Hieronymus Bosch. The film's opening is said to look like a Bosch painting.
“Like, now we're in a bosh painting.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:02 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Flesh and Blood → Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The film's muddy, grimy medieval look is likened to Holy Grail.
“The movie that this is aesthetically most similar to weirdly is Monty Python, the Holy Grail.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:18 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Monty Python and the Holy Grail → Terry Gilliam. Gilliam wanted Holy Grail to look disgusting, like a Pasolini movie, which is the look Flesh+Blood shares.
“Terry Gilliam always talks about how he wanted Holy Grail to be the only comedy that looked like a Pasolini movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:39 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Flesh and Blood → Lincoln. Flesh+Blood's opening is a swooping tracking shot, unlike Lincoln's quick-cut mud-fight opening.
“you compare this to the opening of Lincoln, which is like, here are these men in the mud and you see them stomping each other”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:45:11 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Fat City → Susan Tyrrell. Tyrrell was Oscar-nominated in Fat City, playing a modern-day version of her Flesh+Blood role.
“Susan Terrell is fucking amazing in it playing like the modern day version of this character.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:46:09 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Flesh and Blood → RoboCop. Flesh+Blood is the failure that led Verhoeven to Hollywood and RoboCop, where he built entertainment around his interests.
“from this film on, he figures out how to take everything he's interested in and put it into the body of a conventionally entertaining Hollywood movie”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:49:14 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Flesh and Blood → The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Speaker says the movie is like Texas Chainsaw in having no one to root for, though someone corrects that you root for someone there.
“it's like the fucking Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:49:45 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Nancy Cartwright → The Simpsons. The handmaiden is voiced Bart Simpson actress in a rare live-action role.
“that's Nancy Cartwright who voices Bart Simpson.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:58:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Flesh and Blood → Straw Dogs. Unlike Straw Dogs, the assault scene implies the woman is taking power, not enjoying it.
“Something like Straw Dogs, where you're seeing an assault, and then he is sort of inferring that she's enjoying it, is very different than something like this”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:04:11 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Flesh and Blood → Strange Days. Like Strange Days, the film treats sexual assault as psychological aftermath rather than a plot device.
“In the Strange Days episode, we talked about the sexual assault scene in that movie, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:05:02 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
career (career): Jennifer Jason Leigh → Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In Flesh+Blood she feels like the Fast Times girl transposed to the medieval period.
“she kind of just feels like the Fast Times of Brisbane High Girl transposed into this time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:10:19 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Flesh and Blood → A Bug's Life. Steven's crazy siege inventions are compared to Flick's.
“He's like flick from a bug's life where he's coming up with these crazy inventions”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:10 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Flesh and Blood → Excalibur. The siege-tower set piece is presented like a grand medieval epic.
“Is it's presenting it to you like you're watching.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Paul Verhoeven → Starship Troopers. He pitched Starship Troopers with a VFX demo of a bug killing a cow.
“It was all VFX of like a bug killing a cow.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Marco Schnabel → Jay Roach. The Love Guru was directed by Jay Roach's own first assistant director rather than Roach.
“It was Jay Roach's 1st AD.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:14:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Showgirls → Paul Verhoeven. Showgirls cuts together, though one speaker disputes it.
“Oh, I love that movie, but I don't know if it cuts together.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:16:14 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Paul Verhoeven → Bill Hader. Verhoeven is like Bill Hader, not Rich Little: he learned American blockbuster craft to smuggle in his own content.
“If I can learn their language, then I can smuggle all the things I actually want to say into these conventional looking movies.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:18:22 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Flesh and Blood → Back to the Future. Flesh+Blood opened Labor Day weekend 1985 when Back to the Future was number one.
“Back to the future?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:25:59 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Back to the Future → Teen Wolf. Michael J. Fox held the top two spots at the box office in 1985.
“He's number one and 2 at the box office.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:26:31 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Volunteers → Tom Hanks. Volunteers pairs Hanks with John Candy; Hanks met Rita Wilson around then.
“He'd been in a movie with Hanks the year before.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:31:53 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): Uncle Buck → John Hughes. Uncle Buck is a John Hughes movie.
“That's a John Hughes movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:33:17 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Sixteen Candles → Flesh and Blood. Sixteen Candles is as gross as Flesh+Blood but thinks it's a whimsical teen comedy.
“that movie doesn't think it's a whimsical comedy for teenagers.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:34:00 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Planes, Trains and Automobiles → The Breakfast Club. Speaker defends Breakfast Club and calls Planes, Trains a masterpiece, while Sixteen Candles is too gross.
“But breakfast club I stand behind.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:34:09 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Planes, Trains and Automobiles → John Candy. Candy should have won best actor for it.
“talking about our man JC should have won best actor for them.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:34:44 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (26)

fun, about Blank Check podcast: Hosts say some Dutch films cannot be easily seen; the next series is in doubt.
“Yeah, because we like people to listen to the show and have seen the movies and be able to watch the movies easily.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:05:15 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Verhoeven: Griffin paid $150 for the out-of-print Dutch Verhoeven box set; Amazon price $400.
“I spent 150.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:06:48 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Verhoeven: Griffin heard him do a Q and A at Lincoln Center and thinks he sounds like Goldmember.
“He does sound like gold member, right?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:13:41 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Verhoeven: Seeing a Bosch painting with a man taking a dump in the background made young Verhoeven say that was the art he wanted to make.
“there was a man leaning against a shed taking a shit.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:16:08 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Verhoeven: Raised in occupied Holland, near a rocket-filled German HQ in The Hague.
“the allies were always trying to bomb that.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:17:10 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Verhoeven: Studied math and physics at Leiden before film school.
“double major in math and physics.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:17:56 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Paul Verhoeven: Verhoeven is an expert on Jesus; wrote a book and says Jesus acted like a terrorist.
“He wrote a full book, a nonfiction book about Jesus”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:18:41 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Spetters: Searching for streaming led to Pornhub, which carries it in full.
“That movie is in full available on Pornhub.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:24:54 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: Verhoeven wanted the film to stink; Hauer wanted to be a hero; Orion demanded a female lead.
“He wanted to make a movie that was, quote, stinking.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:31:03 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power: Sprawling joke about casting white actors as Egyptian kings, including Rutger Hauer.
“Barry Bosswick is the waspiest actor of all time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:39:53 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior: Described as a prequel to a spinoff of a sequel of a remake.
“Rise of a Warrior, I believe, is the only film in history that is a prequel to a spinoff of a sequel of a remake.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:41:28 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: Movie wasn't released wide and went quickly to HBO, where it became cult.
“It became like a somewhat well-known cult movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:09 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: The opening is the maximalist first 20 seconds: a tracking shot of mercenaries and a nine-months pregnant beer server.
“It's the most maximalist 1st 20 seconds of a film I have ever seen.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:45:02 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Susan Tyrrell: Griffin did not know she was in the film, was glad.
“She's amazing in this movie.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:46:09 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: The handmaiden is Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, who does a Bartman bit in the field.
“One of her rare live action film roles.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:58:40 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: Jennifer Jason Leigh was upset Orion cut the rape scene; she argued cutting was more offensive.
“it is more offensive to cut that scene down than to fully engage with that scene”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:02:41 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: The film sets a dog-meat plague scene and a flaming halo shot.
“I mean, there's also that incredible shot of later in the movie where he's got the burning wheel behind his head.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:08:41 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: Ben was angry at the movie; Griffin calls it the worst since the Phantom Menace episode.
“This is this is the worst since the ninth episode about the Phantom Menace.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:11:14 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Flesh and Blood: Steve Martin joke: Martin and Steven fight over a woman neither cares about.
“Oh yeah, this movie's about Steve Martin.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:21:42 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Michael J. Fox: Fox owned 1985 box office with two films.
“This guy is fucking owning right now.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:26:44 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Bruno Kirby: A mousy character actor in the film, always in film history by being in five beloved movies.
“he's been in like 5 of the most beloved movies of all time.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:27:03 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Pee-wee's Big Adventure: Third place in 1985 box office; hosts wink about covering it eventually.
“Wink, wink”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:28:39 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about American Ninja: What if we took ninjas, but made them more American; $3.2M opening.
“Well, it made, what if we took ninjas, but made them more American?”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:29:55 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Volunteers: Tom Hanks and John Candy Peace Corps comedy; Hanks met Rita Wilson.
“The movie's called Volunteers.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:32:52 · Ben Hosley (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Blank Check podcast: Hosts promise the next episode is RoboCop, which Griffin calls his favorite film covered.
“this is my favorite film we have discussed up until this point.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:38:10 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Robert Altman: Griffin would do Altman 1970 to 1980, not Buffalo Bill and the Indians.
“My pitch would be 1970 to 1980.”
Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:39:16 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves Verhoeven and says RoboCop, Toy Story 2 and Rushmore rank among his favorites. Worries about the Weinstein-era toxicity in this film. Fascinated by effects-driven classicism and by the Hauer/Verhoeven split.
David Sims (host): Likes this movie more in the first half and gets bored by the plague second half. Defends John Hughes, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Breakfast Club. Fond of box office trivia and the 1985 weekend. Cannot stand rambling.
Ben Hosley (guest): Producer in the room, furious at the film's lack of heroes; resolves to be a fun Ben; Says everything is bullshit.

The show's recurring bits

The box office game: Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against.
The sung theme: "Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it.

Names the transcriber got wrong

Verhoven/Verhhoven → Verhoeven
Rucker Hower/Howard → Rutger Hauer
Katie Tipple → Keetje Tippel
Dudakov → Michael Dudikoff
Soteman → Gerard Soeteman
Malik van der Ven → Monique van de Ven
Jennifer Jason Lee → Jennifer Jason Leigh
Hawkwood/Harkwood → Hawkwood
Roland Joffi → Roel Reine (probably the Scorpion King 3 director)
Rathicon → Wrath of Khan
Fernando Hillbeck/Arnold Finney → unclear
Lassiter → likely Lasseter
Christopher McLeod → unclear Altman film

Blank Check with Griffin & David: Flesh+Blood

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

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

anecdote (13)

passing (43)

compared (16)

recommended (5)

subject (1)

dismissed (2)

Claims (53)

Fun items (26)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong