What the corpus says about A Few Good Men (1992)

The 60 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 (26)

[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:15:13 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Misery ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Misery sits in Reiner's incredible trio, all now Rewatchables. · "But when Harry Met Ali, Misery, Few Good Men, is really the best of all of these different great actors, right?"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ Network · programming · It is in the conversation for most rewatched movie of a lifetime, next to Network, Oz, Godfather, Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction. · "and a few good men is right there with it."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:11:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Pelican Brief ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Disqualified: legal thriller, not courtroom drama, operating outside the courtroom. · "operates almost entirely outside of the courtroom"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:12:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] 12 Angry Men ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · 12 Angry Men is a technicality: a morality play in a side room, not a courtroom drama. · "It's a morality play inside of a side room related to a courtroom"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:14:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] To Kill a Mockingbird ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Left off the list as more homework than pleasurable; the list favors twisty, speechifying, overacting movies. · "pleasurability factor of a lot of these movies"
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:36:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Heat 2 · lineage · A hypothetical Sorkin A Few Good Men sequel is compared to Heat 2 as a legacy-sequel recast by its original creator. · "it's not Fincher doing the legacyquel with an entirely different cast, but it is Sorkin making his own legacy."
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:37:25 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ NCIS · lineage · A Few Good Men's JAG lawyer role is linked to the JAG/NCIS rights tangle as the joke legacy sequel. · "As we all know, NCIS is based on JAG. is a spinoff. technically a spinoff of the TV show, Jack."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:07:27 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Verdict ⇒ A Few Good Men (the host's read) · lineage · You cannot have A Few Good Men without The Verdict; everything on the courtroom checklist comes from it. · "you really, really cannot have a few good men without having the verdict"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:28:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] A Few Good Men ⇒ A Time to Kill (the host's read) · lineage · A Time to Kill blends every earlier trope: country lawyer, big-shot prosecutor, cranky judge. · "puts them in a blender and it gives you every single thing"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Both are courtroom dramas of principled argument; Cruise's charisma is key and Chicago 7 needs scene-chewers too. · "You have to have people that want to gnaw on the scenery, that want to yell, that want to be in the center of the frame."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Unlike A Few Good Men, Chicago 7 is full of obvious themes to dissect. · "There's all of these obvious themes"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:37:20 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] A Few Good Men ↔ Miracle on 34th Street · theme · Wanting to believe the law upholds good is a theme across the list that doesn't always pay off, but does here. · "wanting to believe in the law and the ability of the court to uphold the side of good"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:26:29 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The West Wing (TV series) ↔ A Few Good Men · craft · Cruise and Nicholson are the best single Sorkin performances, but the West Wing ensemble is best because Sorkin could write for them. · "Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson are the best single Sorkin performances"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:21:02 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] My Cousin Vinny ↔ A Few Good Men · craft · Vinny is a parody and a loving endorsement of all the pleasures of courtroom movies. · "a parody of these types of movies and a parody of the legal system"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:41:52 · Bill Simmons (0.65)] A Few Good Men ↔ Misery · contrast · A Few Good Men can be rolled into anywhere; Misery cannot be started midway. · "You could just kind of roll into a few good men, wherever it's it's a perfect rewatchable, right?"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ The Caine Mutiny · contrast · It is a conventional military courtroom drama like The Caine Mutiny, yet has special energy due to Sorkin. · "some very good movies like the King Mutiny, some very mediocre movies like Rules of Engagement."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:36:42 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Miracle on 34th Street ↔ A Few Good Men · contrast · Miracle is the starter kit: a fantasy kids courtroom drama, unlike the others, which are incomprehensible or inappropriate for children. · "Miracle on 34th Street is like, is kind of the starter kit"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:09:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Verdict ↔ A Few Good Men · contrast · Verdict's results hinge on integrity and decency, a counterpoint to being right or wrong. · "a lot of these movies which are about the vagaries of being right and wrong"
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:38:18 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] A Few Good Men ↔ Mission: Impossible · career · Few Good Men shows the possibility and edge of Cruise that fades as he moves to Ethan Hunt. · "the edge of Tom Cruise characters kind of goes away as he moves towards Ethan Hunt."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:31:01 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ The Firm · career · Tom Cruise's Firm period was important to Amanda; she ranks it the best Grisham movie. · "the firm is like the quote best movie"
[The Rewatchables · ‘The Departed’ · 0:50:13 · Chris Ryan (0.60)] The Departed ↔ A Few Good Men · people · Nicholson nailed every line of Sorkin's watertight script in A Few Good Men but is all over the place in The Departed. · "he nails every line of Sorkin dialogue. It's like watertight script."
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 1:05:25 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] A Few Good Men ↔ The Firm · verdict · The hosts treat them as the two lawyer movies and only one can survive the final Hall of Fame cut; A Few Good Men wins. · "I didn't realize that this was a one lawyer only hall of fame."
[Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:06:13 · unknown (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Aaron Sorkin · programming · A Few Good Men and The American President get folded into a Sorkin series, not a Reiner one. · "Few good men in American president."
[Blank Check — Patreon · In the Cut · 0:59:38 · Griffin or David (unclear) (0.35)] Kevin Bacon ↔ A Few Good Men · career · Bacon chose to be a character actor, wanting a part like A Few Good Men over the Tom Cruise role. · "I want like, I want the fucking part in a few good men rather than being turned down for the Tom Cruise role."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:21:16 · Amanda Dobbins (0.65)] A Few Good Men ↔ Tom Cruise · people · Cruise does Sorkin's rhythms well and the film is not iconic without Cruise and Nicholson. · "I don't know that a few good men is, you know, as iconic as it is without Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:26:36 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] A Few Good Men ↔ Aaron Sorkin · people · Sorkin's difficult lines; Cruise commands them. · "total command of the Sorkin lines"

Films put beside it more than once (5)

[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ The Firm · said 2 times in 2 episodes
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ The Verdict · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ Misery · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ Miracle on 34th Street · said 2 times in 1 episode

Fun items about it (6)

[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:38:42 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] A Few Good Men · fun · Chris points out that Cruise whispers his questions to Jessup in a courtroom where a jury would never hear, which only makes sense because it is a movie, though the script was written for the stage. · "there's multiple moments where he just starts whispering questions at him."
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:39:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] A Few Good Men · fun · Cruise goes quiet-loud-quiet-loud against Nicholson, like Smells Like Teen Spirit, priming Jessup to explode. · "It's like listening, it smells like teen spirit."
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:43:33 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] A Few Good Men · fun · Amanda notes a tiny scene of timing where Kaffee says sit down to people already sitting and pauses for a second before moving on, without Sorkin-ing it. · "He doesn't oversell it."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:41:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] A Few Good Men · fun · As a kid Amanda or Sean practiced Jessup's speech on a park basketball court shooting free throws. · "The Jack Nicholson speech from a few good men out loud while shooting free throws"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men · fun · Among the most rewatched movies of a lifetime, alongside Network, Oz, Godfather, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction. · "It's in the conversation for the most rewatched movie of my lifetime."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:23:22 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] A Few Good Men · fun · Kids in Atlanta quoted 'you can't handle the truth' as an elementary school joke. · "I remember like you can't handle the truth being like an elementary school joke"

One hop out: what recommends the films most often joined to it (15)

[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:14:44 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] Stand by Me ↔ Misery · programming · Reiner's run: Stand By Me leads to When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men. · "It leads to, um, stand by me."
[The Rewatchables · A CR Month Mailbag! · 0:31:49 · unknown (0.40)] Tom Cruise ↔ The Firm · lineage · Cruise's 90s run (The Firm, A Few Good Men) is about the innocent learning the world is not what it seems. · "The guy learning the world, it's not quite what it appears to be."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:35:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Moonlight · programming · Moonlight is the model of a film that was right for its moment, against which Chicago 7's timeliness is weighed. · "I always felt like Moonlight was a movie for its time in a very sentimental way"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:08:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Verdict ⇒ The Firm (the host's read) · lineage · The Verdict is foundational for the Grisham underdog stories. · "foundational for a lot of the Grisham stories"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:51:47 · Bill Simmons (0.65)] Misery ↔ The Silence of the Lambs · programming · Annie Wilkes and Hannibal Lecter came back to back, two great thriller characters in 12 months. · "Annie Wilkes and Hannibal Lecter, back to back ears."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:08:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Verdict ⇒ The Firm (the host's read) · lineage · The Verdict is foundational for the Grisham underdog stories. · "foundational for a lot of the Grisham stories"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:54:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Mank · programming · Chicago 7 is a big fat fastball for the Oscars alongside Mank, Nomadland and Hillbilly Elegy. · "this is a big fat, fastball right down the middle."
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:47:47 · unknown (0.30)] The Color of Money ↔ The Verdict · craft · Both are ranked on the podium of burnished-wood movies. · "I call that the greatest burnished wood movie of all time. This one has a, but this is in on the podium with that."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:57:17 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Forgetting Sarah Marshall ⇒ Misery (the host's read) · programming · Dracula the Musical award is borrowed from Sarah Marshall; given to the Misery books. · "We relate, so in, in, uh, forgetting Sarah Marshall."
[Blank Check — Patreon · In the Cut · 1:49:34 · Griffin or David (unclear) (0.35)] Runaway Jury ↔ The Firm · lineage · Runaway Jury is the end of the Grisham thriller run that began with The Firm and The Pelican Brief. · "That like the Grisham run is, the firm, the Pelican brief, the client, a time to kill."
[The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 2:09:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Aaron Sorkin ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · programming · Next episode: Aaron Sorkin and The Trial of the Chicago 7. · "examining one of our stars, one of our beloveds, a great and complicated Aaron Sorkin"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:59:07 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Pulp Fiction ⇒ Misery (the host's read) · programming · Butch's Girlfriend Award for weak link of the film is borrowed from Pulp Fiction. · "The Butch's girlfriend Award, Butch's girlfriend from Pulp Fiction."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Medium Cool · lineage · The Chicago trial and DNC events were told before in Haskell Wexler's part-documentary Medium Cool. · "Medium cool, Haskell Wexler's part documentary, part narrative feature in 1969 kind of reflects on the events at the DNC that year."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 1:19:39 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Misery ↔ Stand by Me · programming · Simmons' double feature is Stand By Me and Misery. · "I would do standby me in misery."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ⇒ Punishment Park (the host's read) · lineage · Punishment Park is recommended as a very loose take on this trial. · "There's this great movie called Punishment Park that I would recommend to anybody that is very loosely based on this trial."

Who said it, by their latest sketch (5)

[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
[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] Bill Simmons · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · Loves the Friday series as a communal, rental-era memory and tells childhood stories about the ads and theaters. Likes casting what-ifs and sports analogies for everything. Skeptical of horror at Christmas and of anything that wastes the premise. · stances: Friday the 13th is not the best entry but the origin story had to be told; Friday 2 is a leap over the original
[speaker] Chris Ryan · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · A franchise and genre scholar who likes Jason, the early sequels, and Manhattan; attention to trivia, tropes and critic reception. Treats slashers as a canon with tiers. · stances: Parts 1, 2, 4 and Manhattan are the good ones; The series finds its legs at 4
[speaker] Griffin Newman · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness. · stances: Hot take: Last Temptation structurally mirrors New York, New York as a better version; Outrage over the film is stupid; it is respectful to Jesus; Scorsese's smaller 80s work beats his later baroque phases

The shows' running bits (3)

[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)
[bits] The Rewatchables: Apex Mountain (The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits); Who Won the Movie (The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off); The Ebert review (Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show); Casting what-ifs (Who was almost cast, or who should have been); Most rewatchable scene (The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels); Aged best / aged worst (What holds up and what does not); Picking Nits (The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits); Double feature (The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick)

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 A Few Good Men (1992) 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 A Few Good Men (1992) 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 Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:15:13 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Misery ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Misery sits in Reiner's incredible trio, all now Rewatchables. · "But when Harry Met Ali, Misery, Few Good Men, is really the best of all of these different great actors, right?"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ Network · programming · It is in the conversation for most rewatched movie of a lifetime, next to Network, Oz, Godfather, Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction. · "and a few good men is right there with it."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:11:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Pelican Brief ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Disqualified: legal thriller, not courtroom drama, operating outside the courtroom. · "operates almost entirely outside of the courtroom"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:12:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] 12 Angry Men ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · 12 Angry Men is a technicality: a morality play in a side room, not a courtroom drama. · "It's a morality play inside of a side room related to a courtroom"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:14:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] To Kill a Mockingbird ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Left off the list as more homework than pleasurable; the list favors twisty, speechifying, overacting movies. · "pleasurability factor of a lot of these movies"
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:36:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Heat 2 · lineage · A hypothetical Sorkin A Few Good Men sequel is compared to Heat 2 as a legacy-sequel recast by its original creator. · "it's not Fincher doing the legacyquel with an entirely different cast, but it is Sorkin making his own legacy."
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:37:25 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ NCIS · lineage · A Few Good Men's JAG lawyer role is linked to the JAG/NCIS rights tangle as the joke legacy sequel. · "As we all know, NCIS is based on JAG. is a spinoff. technically a spinoff of the TV show, Jack."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:07:27 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Verdict ⇒ A Few Good Men (the host's read) · lineage · You cannot have A Few Good Men without The Verdict; everything on the courtroom checklist comes from it. · "you really, really cannot have a few good men without having the verdict"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:28:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] A Few Good Men ⇒ A Time to Kill (the host's read) · lineage · A Time to Kill blends every earlier trope: country lawyer, big-shot prosecutor, cranky judge. · "puts them in a blender and it gives you every single thing"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Both are courtroom dramas of principled argument; Cruise's charisma is key and Chicago 7 needs scene-chewers too. · "You have to have people that want to gnaw on the scenery, that want to yell, that want to be in the center of the frame."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Unlike A Few Good Men, Chicago 7 is full of obvious themes to dissect. · "There's all of these obvious themes"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:37:20 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] A Few Good Men ↔ Miracle on 34th Street · theme · Wanting to believe the law upholds good is a theme across the list that doesn't always pay off, but does here. · "wanting to believe in the law and the ability of the court to uphold the side of good"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:26:29 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The West Wing (TV series) ↔ A Few Good Men · craft · Cruise and Nicholson are the best single Sorkin performances, but the West Wing ensemble is best because Sorkin could write for them. · "Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson are the best single Sorkin performances"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:21:02 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] My Cousin Vinny ↔ A Few Good Men · craft · Vinny is a parody and a loving endorsement of all the pleasures of courtroom movies. · "a parody of these types of movies and a parody of the legal system"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:41:52 · Bill Simmons (0.65)] A Few Good Men ↔ Misery · contrast · A Few Good Men can be rolled into anywhere; Misery cannot be started midway. · "You could just kind of roll into a few good men, wherever it's it's a perfect rewatchable, right?"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ The Caine Mutiny · contrast · It is a conventional military courtroom drama like The Caine Mutiny, yet has special energy due to Sorkin. · "some very good movies like the King Mutiny, some very mediocre movies like Rules of Engagement."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:36:42 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Miracle on 34th Street ↔ A Few Good Men · contrast · Miracle is the starter kit: a fantasy kids courtroom drama, unlike the others, which are incomprehensible or inappropriate for children. · "Miracle on 34th Street is like, is kind of the starter kit"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:09:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Verdict ↔ A Few Good Men · contrast · Verdict's results hinge on integrity and decency, a counterpoint to being right or wrong. · "a lot of these movies which are about the vagaries of being right and wrong"
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:38:18 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] A Few Good Men ↔ Mission: Impossible · career · Few Good Men shows the possibility and edge of Cruise that fades as he moves to Ethan Hunt. · "the edge of Tom Cruise characters kind of goes away as he moves towards Ethan Hunt."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:31:01 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ The Firm · career · Tom Cruise's Firm period was important to Amanda; she ranks it the best Grisham movie. · "the firm is like the quote best movie"
[The Rewatchables · ‘The Departed’ · 0:50:13 · Chris Ryan (0.60)] The Departed ↔ A Few Good Men · people · Nicholson nailed every line of Sorkin's watertight script in A Few Good Men but is all over the place in The Departed. · "he nails every line of Sorkin dialogue. It's like watertight script."
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 1:05:25 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] A Few Good Men ↔ The Firm · verdict · The hosts treat them as the two lawyer movies and only one can survive the final Hall of Fame cut; A Few Good Men wins. · "I didn't realize that this was a one lawyer only hall of fame."
[Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:06:13 · unknown (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Aaron Sorkin · programming · A Few Good Men and The American President get folded into a Sorkin series, not a Reiner one. · "Few good men in American president."
[Blank Check — Patreon · In the Cut · 0:59:38 · Griffin or David (unclear) (0.35)] Kevin Bacon ↔ A Few Good Men · career · Bacon chose to be a character actor, wanting a part like A Few Good Men over the Tom Cruise role. · "I want like, I want the fucking part in a few good men rather than being turned down for the Tom Cruise role."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:21:16 · Amanda Dobbins (0.65)] A Few Good Men ↔ Tom Cruise · people · Cruise does Sorkin's rhythms well and the film is not iconic without Cruise and Nicholson. · "I don't know that a few good men is, you know, as iconic as it is without Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:26:36 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] A Few Good Men ↔ Aaron Sorkin · people · Sorkin's difficult lines; Cruise commands them. · "total command of the Sorkin lines"
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ The Firm · said 2 times in 2 episodes
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ The Verdict · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ Misery · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] A Few Good Men ↔ Miracle on 34th Street · said 2 times in 1 episode
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:38:42 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] A Few Good Men · fun · Chris points out that Cruise whispers his questions to Jessup in a courtroom where a jury would never hear, which only makes sense because it is a movie, though the script was written for the stage. · "there's multiple moments where he just starts whispering questions at him."
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:39:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] A Few Good Men · fun · Cruise goes quiet-loud-quiet-loud against Nicholson, like Smells Like Teen Spirit, priming Jessup to explode. · "It's like listening, it smells like teen spirit."
[The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 0:43:33 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] A Few Good Men · fun · Amanda notes a tiny scene of timing where Kaffee says sit down to people already sitting and pauses for a second before moving on, without Sorkin-ing it. · "He doesn't oversell it."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:41:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] A Few Good Men · fun · As a kid Amanda or Sean practiced Jessup's speech on a park basketball court shooting free throws. · "The Jack Nicholson speech from a few good men out loud while shooting free throws"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men · fun · Among the most rewatched movies of a lifetime, alongside Network, Oz, Godfather, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction. · "It's in the conversation for the most rewatched movie of my lifetime."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:23:22 · Amanda Dobbins (0.70)] A Few Good Men · fun · Kids in Atlanta quoted 'you can't handle the truth' as an elementary school joke. · "I remember like you can't handle the truth being like an elementary school joke"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:14:44 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] Stand by Me ↔ Misery · programming · Reiner's run: Stand By Me leads to When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men. · "It leads to, um, stand by me."
[The Rewatchables · A CR Month Mailbag! · 0:31:49 · unknown (0.40)] Tom Cruise ↔ The Firm · lineage · Cruise's 90s run (The Firm, A Few Good Men) is about the innocent learning the world is not what it seems. · "The guy learning the world, it's not quite what it appears to be."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:35:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Moonlight · programming · Moonlight is the model of a film that was right for its moment, against which Chicago 7's timeliness is weighed. · "I always felt like Moonlight was a movie for its time in a very sentimental way"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:08:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Verdict ⇒ The Firm (the host's read) · lineage · The Verdict is foundational for the Grisham underdog stories. · "foundational for a lot of the Grisham stories"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:51:47 · Bill Simmons (0.65)] Misery ↔ The Silence of the Lambs · programming · Annie Wilkes and Hannibal Lecter came back to back, two great thriller characters in 12 months. · "Annie Wilkes and Hannibal Lecter, back to back ears."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 1:08:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Verdict ⇒ The Firm (the host's read) · lineage · The Verdict is foundational for the Grisham underdog stories. · "foundational for a lot of the Grisham stories"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:54:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Mank · programming · Chicago 7 is a big fat fastball for the Oscars alongside Mank, Nomadland and Hillbilly Elegy. · "this is a big fat, fastball right down the middle."
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:47:47 · unknown (0.30)] The Color of Money ↔ The Verdict · craft · Both are ranked on the podium of burnished-wood movies. · "I call that the greatest burnished wood movie of all time. This one has a, but this is in on the podium with that."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:57:17 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Forgetting Sarah Marshall ⇒ Misery (the host's read) · programming · Dracula the Musical award is borrowed from Sarah Marshall; given to the Misery books. · "We relate, so in, in, uh, forgetting Sarah Marshall."
[Blank Check — Patreon · In the Cut · 1:49:34 · Griffin or David (unclear) (0.35)] Runaway Jury ↔ The Firm · lineage · Runaway Jury is the end of the Grisham thriller run that began with The Firm and The Pelican Brief. · "That like the Grisham run is, the firm, the Pelican brief, the client, a time to kill."
[The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 2:09:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Aaron Sorkin ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · programming · Next episode: Aaron Sorkin and The Trial of the Chicago 7. · "examining one of our stars, one of our beloveds, a great and complicated Aaron Sorkin"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:59:07 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Pulp Fiction ⇒ Misery (the host's read) · programming · Butch's Girlfriend Award for weak link of the film is borrowed from Pulp Fiction. · "The Butch's girlfriend Award, Butch's girlfriend from Pulp Fiction."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Medium Cool · lineage · The Chicago trial and DNC events were told before in Haskell Wexler's part-documentary Medium Cool. · "Medium cool, Haskell Wexler's part documentary, part narrative feature in 1969 kind of reflects on the events at the DNC that year."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 1:19:39 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Misery ↔ Stand by Me · programming · Simmons' double feature is Stand By Me and Misery. · "I would do standby me in misery."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ⇒ Punishment Park (the host's read) · lineage · Punishment Park is recommended as a very loose take on this trial. · "There's this great movie called Punishment Park that I would recommend to anybody that is very loosely based on this trial."
[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
[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] Bill Simmons · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · Loves the Friday series as a communal, rental-era memory and tells childhood stories about the ads and theaters. Likes casting what-ifs and sports analogies for everything. Skeptical of horror at Christmas and of anything that wastes the premise. · stances: Friday the 13th is not the best entry but the origin story had to be told; Friday 2 is a leap over the original
[speaker] Chris Ryan · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · A franchise and genre scholar who likes Jason, the early sequels, and Manhattan; attention to trivia, tropes and critic reception. Treats slashers as a canon with tiers. · stances: Parts 1, 2, 4 and Manhattan are the good ones; The series finds its legs at 4
[speaker] Griffin Newman · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness. · stances: Hot take: Last Temptation structurally mirrors New York, New York as a better version; Outrage over the film is stupid; it is respectful to Jesus; Scorsese's smaller 80s work beats his later baroque phases
[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)
[bits] The Rewatchables: Apex Mountain (The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits); Who Won the Movie (The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off); The Ebert review (Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show); Casting what-ifs (Who was almost cast, or who should have been); Most rewatchable scene (The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels); Aged best / aged worst (What holds up and what does not); Picking Nits (The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits); Double feature (The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick)

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 A Few Good Men (1992); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend A Few Good Men (1992) 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.