What the corpus says about Mamma Mia! (2008)

The 48 lines php artisan corpus:ask hands a model, in the order it gets them, and nothing else. The model writes a clerk's answer from these and only these.

What was said about it (24)

  1. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:13:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Shrek · programming · Reflecting on their movie swaps, Sean ties Shrek, the earlier one-way swap, to Bobby Wagner's last episode. · "Bob's last episode was like a one-way movie swap, which was Shrek."
  2. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:35:44 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ⇒ Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (the host's read) · lineage · The sequel is both prequel and sequel, with Lily James as young Donna in Donna and the Dynamos. · "can I tell you it's both a prequel and a sequel?"
  3. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:02:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Strangers ↔ Mamma Mia! · theme · Amanda argues the two 2008 films share a theme of knowing thyself and what can't be known; later both end by withholding the answer. · "And I would, I'll argue, has some things in common with Mama Mia."
  4. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:22:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Rocky Horror Picture Show · theme · The older characters' drag-like performances make Mamma Mia like Rocky Horror for people who go to full-service resorts. · "it's like rocky horror picture show for people who like to go to, like, Cabo to all, like, to, you know, um, full service resorts"
  5. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:29:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Strangers · theme · Mamma Mia, by never confirming the father, honors not-knowing the way The Strangers does, which Amanda says gives it more nerve. · "This movie understands that the greatest fear and the greatest power lies in not knowing."
  6. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:11:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Bergman Island · craft · Bergman Island also uses The Winner Takes It All, which Sean ranks as the second-greatest use of the song. · "I told you at the time, the 2nd greatest use of the winner takes it all ever."
  7. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:17:19 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] West Side Story ⇒ Mamma Mia! (the host's read) · craft · In Dancing Queen, Baranski and Streep's chiffon skirts allow one Jerome Robbins-style moment that echoes West Side Story. · "they do like one Jerome Robbins, like, uh, sachet moment."
  8. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:57:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Strangers · contrast · Sean sets the loose, wander-around-and-pour-wine viewing of Mamma Mia against the locked-in, what-will-happen-to-them viewing of The Strangers. · "I contrast that with the strangers where I was like sitting in a movie again for 79 minutes, like what is going to happen to these people?"
  9. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:04:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] West Side Story ↔ Mamma Mia! · contrast · Spielberg's West Side Story is a modern movie musical that works because it adapts an older musical, unlike the modern-musical style Sean dislikes. · "West Side Story, Spielberg's film. I think that's one of the best movie musicals of the last 50 years."
  10. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:16:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Wicked · contrast · Mamma Mia's loose ABBA karaoke feel contrasts with modern stage-derived musicals like Wicked, whose songs and performative choreography Sean dislikes. · "Like wicked, there were a lot of people posing in the background and it just took me out every single time."
  11. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:26:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Michael · contrast · The upcoming Michael biopic is expected to lack the humor of Mamma Mia's lighter use of music. · "Michael is gonna be, it's not gonna have any of the sense of humor."
  12. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:16:51 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Les Misérables · career · Mamma Mia and Les Mis are Seyfried's core work that Sean had not seen. · "And you have just not seen any of her core work, including, but Mama Mia and Les Misera."
  13. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:55:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again · people · Director Lloyd was replaced on the sequel by Ol Parker, which the speaker thinks was for a reason. · "Which is an important thing because she very clearly was replaced for a reason."
  14. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:59:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Strangers ↔ Mamma Mia! · people · Both are 2008 films framed around a wedding and a daughter or couple at a wedding crossroads, and the hosts tie both to the marriage-skepticism joke. · "Are you, and again, this gets back to like our, should we be getting married?"
  15. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:17:15 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Sense and Sensibility · verdict · Mamma Mia is not as important to Amanda as Sense and Sensibility or Four Weddings, but is pop-culturally significant. · "Is it as important to me as Sense and Sensibility or for weddings in a funeral or the, you know, any of those. No."
  16. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:25:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again ↔ Mamma Mia! · verdict · Letterboxd consensus says the first film stinks but the sequel is like crack, with Fernando used breathtakingly. · "Everybody on Letterbox was like, this movie actually stinks, but 2 is like crack, like it's so good."
  17. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:08:09 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Wicked · industry · Excluding Disney animation and adaptations, Mamma Mia is the third highest-grossing movie musical behind Wicked and Wonka. · "this is the 3rd highest grossing movie musical and the history of movies behind Wicked and Wonka, which only just came out in the last 2 years."
  18. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:09:09 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Dark Knight · industry · In 2008, a year dominated by The Dark Knight and Iron Man, Mamma Mia still became a global phenomenon. · "it was the Dark Knight and Iron Man year"
  19. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:26:44 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Bohemian Rhapsody · industry · Both succeed because audiences want to hear beloved band songs in a theater, but Mamma Mia has a sense of humor a biopic lacks. · "Bohemian Rhapsody was so successful because of the songs and because of this, you know, portrayal of this band who we have a big relationship to."
  20. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:09:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Twilight · what-if · Adding vampires to Mamma Mia would have gotten Sean to see it in theaters, and could solve Mamma Mia 3's casting issues. · "You know what would have gotten me to go see Mama Me in theaters, putting vampires in it."
  21. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:52:57 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] ABBA ⇒ Mamma Mia! (the host's read) · lineage · The film is aesthetically and spiritually in tune with ABBA's incandescent, inescapable and stupid songs. · "It is a film that is very, like aesthetically and spiritually in tune with its source material, being the, like, incandescent, inescapable, wonderful, and also really stupid songs of ABBA."
  22. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:54:46 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Phyllida Lloyd · craft · A celebrated theater director made poor camera choices; the speaker says it is some of the worst direction they've seen. · "The actual direction of the film is some of the worst I've ever seen."
  23. [Blank Check · Ricki and the Flash · 0:20:45 · unknown (0.40)] Meryl Streep ↔ Mamma Mia! · career · Ricki is the end of Streep's run as a lead in studio comedies, which began with Mamma Mia and the Devil Wears Prada. · "this is also kind of the end of the Merrill leading lady studio comedy run"
  24. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:07:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Pierce Brosnan · people · Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard are icons in Ireland, England and Sweden, which the speaker offers as one reason the film was so huge in the UK. · "you've got an Irish, English and Swedish, like kind of icon."

Films put beside it more than once (4)

  1. [pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Strangers · said 4 times in 1 episode
  2. [pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again · said 3 times in 1 episode
  3. [pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ West Side Story · said 2 times in 1 episode
  4. [pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ Wicked · said 2 times in 1 episode

Fun items about it (6)

  1. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:56:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Mamma Mia! · fun · Sean watched Mamma Mia with Eileen and Alice in a 4:30-to-6:18 window between Lincoln and moderating a One Battle After Another event at Warner Brothers. · "I can watch Mamma Mia from 430 to 618, and then I got to drive to Warner Brothers to go to moderate a conversation for one battle after another."
  2. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:01:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! · fun · It squeezes 23 songs into a 1 hour 42 minute movie. · "23 songs, they squeeze into this one hour and 42 minutes movie."
  3. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:03:12 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! · fun · The cast treated it like a vacation in Greece, slightly sunburnt and unglamorous, which Sean finds charming. · "everybody's a little sunburnt, and it does kind of feel like they've had a couple of glasses of wine while performing"
  4. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:07:15 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! · fun · It made $610 million worldwide, $144 million domestic, and was huge in the UK. · "this movie has made $610 million worldwide at the box office."
  5. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:10:27 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] Mamma Mia! · fun · Meryl Streep singing The Winner Takes It All at Pierce Brosnan on a cliff is a favorite scene, with Brosnan looking confused. · "Pierce Brosan just stands there looking confused."
  6. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:24:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! · fun · Sean notes the end credits, with the cast in full 70s disco gear singing Waterloo, may be the film's high point. · "arguably the highest point of the movie is the credit sequence when they've stripped away all pretense of trying to tell a story."

One hop out: what recommends the films most often joined to it (10)

  1. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:20:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Strangers ↔ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre · programming · In 2008 horror favored slick remakes and torture porn, so a stripped-down original like The Strangers stood out. · "this was at a time when like Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was happening, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was happening, the last house on the left remake was happening"
  2. [Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita · 1:28:23 · unknown (0.30)] West Side Story ↔ Lolita · craft · West Side Story music was played on set to make Shelley Winters cry. · "And so they would play like West Side Story music to make Shelley Winters cry."
  3. [The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:37:13 · Chris Ryan (0.40)] Gladiator II ↔ Wicked · programming · Gladiator II's CGI baboons made it feel like being dumped into Wicked. · "I actually felt like we got dumped into Wicked or something, you know?"
  4. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:26:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Town That Dreaded Sundown ⇒ The Strangers (the host's read) · lineage · The tall stranger's sack mask calls back to The Town That Dreaded Sundown. · "wears a kind of sack mask that recalls like the town that dreaded sundown."
  5. [The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 1:09:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Moulin Rouge! ↔ Wicked · theme · Moulin Rouge plays for a huge number of people the way Wicked plays for the speaker. · "I'm aware that this plays like Wicked played to me for a huge number of people."
  6. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:33:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Manson family murders ⇒ The Strangers (the maker said so) · lineage · Bertino cited the Manson family murders as an inspiration, but the speaker finds that unsatisfying because Manson had intent while the Strangers act at random. · "Bertino says that the Manson family tape murders were a big inspiration for this."
  7. [The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:17:29 · Chris Ryan (0.90)] You're Next ↔ The Strangers · lineage · Chris pitches You're Next as The Strangers with the dial turned up. · "is basically the strangers on steroids"
  8. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:30:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Strangers ↔ The Strangers · theme · Critics read the film as a post-9/11 horror about random violence, set against the revenge-and-gore reading of torture porn. · "There are 2 ways of looking at horror in the aftermath of 911."
  9. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:40:21 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] The Strangers ↔ Nightmares · craft · Scott Speedman's late-night drive is a horror trope, like the woman in Nightmares who leaves for cigarettes while a killer is loose. · "she's like, I just fucking need cigarettes."
  10. [The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:47:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Merle Haggard ↔ The Strangers · craft · A Merle Haggard record the intruders put on supplies the film's closing haunting song, Mama Tried. · "Yeah, but, you know, mama tried as like the closing haunting jam, you know, is kind of that's a tough one."

Who said it, by their latest sketch (2)

  1. [speaker] Sean Fennessey · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Resident Evil’ Absolutely Rips! · Loves gory, funny, fast genre movies with craft and confidence, especially 87-minute films that never overstay. Can't stand ponderous elevated horror that fills out its runtime with introspection and sad family history. A sucker for the Carpenter-era lineage, Die Hard homages, and directors who break studio dogma. · stances: Resident Evil is one of the best films of the year; Horror movies have become a drag; fun genre experiences are needed; Short running times are a virtue; Video-game films work best when great filmmakers get creative license
  2. [speaker] Amanda Dobbins · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · Loves The Strangers' withholding craft and a good tense horror film without gore, but likes fun, communal movies like Mamma Mia. She dislikes supernatural or gory horror, which irritates her more than it scares her. She is a sucker for stars and for Googling a movie mid-recording. · stances: The Strangers is scary because of what it doesn't show or explain; Ending explanation weakens it; no answer would be better; Prefers 'withholding' filmmaking; Defends Mamma Mia as joyful and intentional

The shows' running bits (2)

  1. [bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
  2. [bits] Blank Check: 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)

The whole prompt

As the model gets it, from app/Ai/Prompts/CorpusAsk.md 
You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished Mamma Mia! (2008) and wants to know what to watch next.

Below is what people who love movies said on three podcasts (Blank Check, The Rewatchables, The Big Picture) about Mamma Mia! (2008) and the films around it, one line each. Every line starts with where it came from, in brackets: [show · episode · time · speaker (how sure we are it was them)]. A [pairs] line says how often two films were put side by side. A [speaker] line says what that person likes. A [bits] line lists a show's running bits: a format, not an opinion.

[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:13:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Shrek · programming · Reflecting on their movie swaps, Sean ties Shrek, the earlier one-way swap, to Bobby Wagner's last episode. · "Bob's last episode was like a one-way movie swap, which was Shrek."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:35:44 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ⇒ Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (the host's read) · lineage · The sequel is both prequel and sequel, with Lily James as young Donna in Donna and the Dynamos. · "can I tell you it's both a prequel and a sequel?"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:02:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Strangers ↔ Mamma Mia! · theme · Amanda argues the two 2008 films share a theme of knowing thyself and what can't be known; later both end by withholding the answer. · "And I would, I'll argue, has some things in common with Mama Mia."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:22:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Rocky Horror Picture Show · theme · The older characters' drag-like performances make Mamma Mia like Rocky Horror for people who go to full-service resorts. · "it's like rocky horror picture show for people who like to go to, like, Cabo to all, like, to, you know, um, full service resorts"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:29:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Strangers · theme · Mamma Mia, by never confirming the father, honors not-knowing the way The Strangers does, which Amanda says gives it more nerve. · "This movie understands that the greatest fear and the greatest power lies in not knowing."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:11:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Bergman Island · craft · Bergman Island also uses The Winner Takes It All, which Sean ranks as the second-greatest use of the song. · "I told you at the time, the 2nd greatest use of the winner takes it all ever."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:17:19 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] West Side Story ⇒ Mamma Mia! (the host's read) · craft · In Dancing Queen, Baranski and Streep's chiffon skirts allow one Jerome Robbins-style moment that echoes West Side Story. · "they do like one Jerome Robbins, like, uh, sachet moment."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:57:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Strangers · contrast · Sean sets the loose, wander-around-and-pour-wine viewing of Mamma Mia against the locked-in, what-will-happen-to-them viewing of The Strangers. · "I contrast that with the strangers where I was like sitting in a movie again for 79 minutes, like what is going to happen to these people?"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:04:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] West Side Story ↔ Mamma Mia! · contrast · Spielberg's West Side Story is a modern movie musical that works because it adapts an older musical, unlike the modern-musical style Sean dislikes. · "West Side Story, Spielberg's film. I think that's one of the best movie musicals of the last 50 years."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:16:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Wicked · contrast · Mamma Mia's loose ABBA karaoke feel contrasts with modern stage-derived musicals like Wicked, whose songs and performative choreography Sean dislikes. · "Like wicked, there were a lot of people posing in the background and it just took me out every single time."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:26:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Michael · contrast · The upcoming Michael biopic is expected to lack the humor of Mamma Mia's lighter use of music. · "Michael is gonna be, it's not gonna have any of the sense of humor."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:16:51 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Les Misérables · career · Mamma Mia and Les Mis are Seyfried's core work that Sean had not seen. · "And you have just not seen any of her core work, including, but Mama Mia and Les Misera."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:55:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again · people · Director Lloyd was replaced on the sequel by Ol Parker, which the speaker thinks was for a reason. · "Which is an important thing because she very clearly was replaced for a reason."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:59:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Strangers ↔ Mamma Mia! · people · Both are 2008 films framed around a wedding and a daughter or couple at a wedding crossroads, and the hosts tie both to the marriage-skepticism joke. · "Are you, and again, this gets back to like our, should we be getting married?"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:17:15 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Sense and Sensibility · verdict · Mamma Mia is not as important to Amanda as Sense and Sensibility or Four Weddings, but is pop-culturally significant. · "Is it as important to me as Sense and Sensibility or for weddings in a funeral or the, you know, any of those. No."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:25:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again ↔ Mamma Mia! · verdict · Letterboxd consensus says the first film stinks but the sequel is like crack, with Fernando used breathtakingly. · "Everybody on Letterbox was like, this movie actually stinks, but 2 is like crack, like it's so good."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:08:09 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Wicked · industry · Excluding Disney animation and adaptations, Mamma Mia is the third highest-grossing movie musical behind Wicked and Wonka. · "this is the 3rd highest grossing movie musical and the history of movies behind Wicked and Wonka, which only just came out in the last 2 years."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:09:09 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Dark Knight · industry · In 2008, a year dominated by The Dark Knight and Iron Man, Mamma Mia still became a global phenomenon. · "it was the Dark Knight and Iron Man year"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:26:44 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Bohemian Rhapsody · industry · Both succeed because audiences want to hear beloved band songs in a theater, but Mamma Mia has a sense of humor a biopic lacks. · "Bohemian Rhapsody was so successful because of the songs and because of this, you know, portrayal of this band who we have a big relationship to."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:09:24 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Twilight · what-if · Adding vampires to Mamma Mia would have gotten Sean to see it in theaters, and could solve Mamma Mia 3's casting issues. · "You know what would have gotten me to go see Mama Me in theaters, putting vampires in it."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:52:57 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] ABBA ⇒ Mamma Mia! (the host's read) · lineage · The film is aesthetically and spiritually in tune with ABBA's incandescent, inescapable and stupid songs. · "It is a film that is very, like aesthetically and spiritually in tune with its source material, being the, like, incandescent, inescapable, wonderful, and also really stupid songs of ABBA."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:54:46 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Phyllida Lloyd · craft · A celebrated theater director made poor camera choices; the speaker says it is some of the worst direction they've seen. · "The actual direction of the film is some of the worst I've ever seen."
[Blank Check · Ricki and the Flash · 0:20:45 · unknown (0.40)] Meryl Streep ↔ Mamma Mia! · career · Ricki is the end of Streep's run as a lead in studio comedies, which began with Mamma Mia and the Devil Wears Prada. · "this is also kind of the end of the Merrill leading lady studio comedy run"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:07:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! ↔ Pierce Brosnan · people · Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard are icons in Ireland, England and Sweden, which the speaker offers as one reason the film was so huge in the UK. · "you've got an Irish, English and Swedish, like kind of icon."
[pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ The Strangers · said 4 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again · said 3 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ West Side Story · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Mamma Mia! ↔ Wicked · said 2 times in 1 episode
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:56:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Mamma Mia! · fun · Sean watched Mamma Mia with Eileen and Alice in a 4:30-to-6:18 window between Lincoln and moderating a One Battle After Another event at Warner Brothers. · "I can watch Mamma Mia from 430 to 618, and then I got to drive to Warner Brothers to go to moderate a conversation for one battle after another."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:01:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! · fun · It squeezes 23 songs into a 1 hour 42 minute movie. · "23 songs, they squeeze into this one hour and 42 minutes movie."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:03:12 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! · fun · The cast treated it like a vacation in Greece, slightly sunburnt and unglamorous, which Sean finds charming. · "everybody's a little sunburnt, and it does kind of feel like they've had a couple of glasses of wine while performing"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:07:15 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Mamma Mia! · fun · It made $610 million worldwide, $144 million domestic, and was huge in the UK. · "this movie has made $610 million worldwide at the box office."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:10:27 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] Mamma Mia! · fun · Meryl Streep singing The Winner Takes It All at Pierce Brosnan on a cliff is a favorite scene, with Brosnan looking confused. · "Pierce Brosan just stands there looking confused."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 1:24:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Mamma Mia! · fun · Sean notes the end credits, with the cast in full 70s disco gear singing Waterloo, may be the film's high point. · "arguably the highest point of the movie is the credit sequence when they've stripped away all pretense of trying to tell a story."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:20:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Strangers ↔ The Texas Chainsaw Massacre · programming · In 2008 horror favored slick remakes and torture porn, so a stripped-down original like The Strangers stood out. · "this was at a time when like Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was happening, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was happening, the last house on the left remake was happening"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita · 1:28:23 · unknown (0.30)] West Side Story ↔ Lolita · craft · West Side Story music was played on set to make Shelley Winters cry. · "And so they would play like West Side Story music to make Shelley Winters cry."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:37:13 · Chris Ryan (0.40)] Gladiator II ↔ Wicked · programming · Gladiator II's CGI baboons made it feel like being dumped into Wicked. · "I actually felt like we got dumped into Wicked or something, you know?"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:26:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Town That Dreaded Sundown ⇒ The Strangers (the host's read) · lineage · The tall stranger's sack mask calls back to The Town That Dreaded Sundown. · "wears a kind of sack mask that recalls like the town that dreaded sundown."
[The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 1:09:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Moulin Rouge! ↔ Wicked · theme · Moulin Rouge plays for a huge number of people the way Wicked plays for the speaker. · "I'm aware that this plays like Wicked played to me for a huge number of people."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:33:41 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Manson family murders ⇒ The Strangers (the maker said so) · lineage · Bertino cited the Manson family murders as an inspiration, but the speaker finds that unsatisfying because Manson had intent while the Strangers act at random. · "Bertino says that the Manson family tape murders were a big inspiration for this."
[The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:17:29 · Chris Ryan (0.90)] You're Next ↔ The Strangers · lineage · Chris pitches You're Next as The Strangers with the dial turned up. · "is basically the strangers on steroids"
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:30:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Strangers ↔ The Strangers · theme · Critics read the film as a post-9/11 horror about random violence, set against the revenge-and-gore reading of torture porn. · "There are 2 ways of looking at horror in the aftermath of 911."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:40:21 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] The Strangers ↔ Nightmares · craft · Scott Speedman's late-night drive is a horror trope, like the woman in Nightmares who leaves for cigarettes while a killer is loose. · "she's like, I just fucking need cigarettes."
[The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · 0:47:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Merle Haggard ↔ The Strangers · craft · A Merle Haggard record the intruders put on supplies the film's closing haunting song, Mama Tried. · "Yeah, but, you know, mama tried as like the closing haunting jam, you know, is kind of that's a tough one."
[speaker] Sean Fennessey · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Resident Evil’ Absolutely Rips! · Loves gory, funny, fast genre movies with craft and confidence, especially 87-minute films that never overstay. Can't stand ponderous elevated horror that fills out its runtime with introspection and sad family history. A sucker for the Carpenter-era lineage, Die Hard homages, and directors who break studio dogma. · stances: Resident Evil is one of the best films of the year; Horror movies have become a drag; fun genre experiences are needed; Short running times are a virtue; Video-game films work best when great filmmakers get creative license
[speaker] Amanda Dobbins · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · Loves The Strangers' withholding craft and a good tense horror film without gore, but likes fun, communal movies like Mamma Mia. She dislikes supernatural or gory horror, which irritates her more than it scares her. She is a sucker for stars and for Googling a movie mid-recording. · stances: The Strangers is scary because of what it doesn't show or explain; Ending explanation weakens it; no answer would be better; Prefers 'withholding' filmmaking; Defends Mamma Mia as joyful and intentional
[bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
[bits] Blank Check: 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)

Recommend three to six films, and only films that appear in these lines. A series, a TV film, or a franchise counts too when a line recommends it or pairs it with Mamma Mia! (2008); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend Mamma Mia! (2008) itself. For each one, give one short reason in your own words and say whose reason it is: the show, named exactly as the brackets name it, and the speaker when the line names one (an "unknown" speaker is just the show). If the lines are thin, say so plainly rather than stretching them.

Keep a contrast a contrast. When a line sets two films apart, the reason is how they differ; never turn it into a way they're alike. A line with ⇒ puts the source first and what drew on it second, and one marked "the maker said so" is still the host reporting it: say who said it, and never state an influence as fact.

You know only what's on these lines. Add no fact they don't state: not who directed a film, not what kind of film it is, not when it came out, unless a line says so. Say nothing about the store or how anything rents here.

Talk the way a clerk talks to a customer at the counter: plain text, titles written plainly with no asterisks or other markup, no headings, no lists of more than six, no JSON.