What the corpus says about Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

What was said about it (13)

1. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:26:04 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope · programming · After the Fox acquisition it felt like Disney would alternate Star Wars and Avatar releases. · "oh, they'll alternate every other year between a Star Wars movie and an Avatar movie."
2. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:27:41 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania · programming · Disney's next big release after Avatar 2 is Ant-Man in late February, giving it about two months of runway. · "No, it's Ant-man in like late February, maybe."
3. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:37:26 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever · programming · Both sequels arrive within a month of each other. · "Now, both getting sequels within a month of each other."
4. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:38:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Napoleon · programming · Apple may release Napoleon on Christmas Day because the landscape is soft. · "Apple is seriously considering releasing Ridley Scott's Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix on Christmas Day because they're looking at the landscape and they're like, it's soft out here."
5. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:44:26 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Terminator 2: Judgment Day · lineage · Cameron's pitches for sequels sounded off beforehand and then worked, as with T2. · "Before Terminator 2 was like, you want more Terminator?"
6. [The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:32:59 · Chris Ryan (0.75)] Babylon ↔ Avatar: The Way of Water · craft · Chris thinks it cheap that Babylon's montage of cinema moments includes Avatar, which Sean defends as part of cinema's evolution. · "It feels cheap that he would put that movie in the like montage of the greatest film moments ever"
7. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:45:08 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Titanic · contrast · Titanic's pitch was a famous ship; Avatar's was Looney Tunes by comparison. · "the pitch for Avatar is Looney Tunes, like compared to like him being like, I know it's going to cost a fortune for me to build a boat and sink it, but it's the Titanic."
8. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:47:13 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Top Gun: Maverick · verdict · The way into the sequel should be just sit and watch, as with Top Gun: Maverick. · "I kind of imagine it will be a little bit like Top Gun Maverick in that way where it's like the entry point for this movie is this movie."
9. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:23:28 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Divergent · industry · A planned multi-film series that never made its fourth film is the cautionary tale for committing to four Avatar sequels. · "This is kind of like divergent."
10. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:30:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Tár · industry · Way of Water's one vague teaser is compared to Tár's teaser campaign. · "This movie has the same marketing campaign as Tar."
11. [The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:09:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Avatar: The Way of Water · industry · Black Panther 2 is among the most anticipated films, along with Avatar 2, and its long wait is compared to the Avatar gap. · "Black Panther 2 in particular, though, struck me as weird because it might be after the rise of Skywalker, maybe Avatar 2, the most anticipated movie that exists"
12. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:47:06 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Avatar: The Way of Water · CGI standard · Amanda guesses the upcoming Avatar will look a thousand times better than the sequel's underwater CGI. · "I guarantee you we're going to see Avatar in a couple weeks and it's going to look a 1000 times better."
13. [The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:09:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ James Cameron · industry · Doubters were wrong about Cameron with Titanic and Avatar, so don't count him out. · "But underestimate James Cameron at your peril, because this is what happened with Titanic, and this is what happened with Avatar."

Films put beside it more than once (1)

1. [pairs] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever · said 3 times in 3 episodes

Fun items about it (2)

1. [The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:51:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Avatar: The Way of Water · fun · Sean's tears over Jake Sully and the whale are teased as the closest he's come to crying on the podcast. · "that was just him crying about a whale."
2. [The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:43:37 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water · fun · Sigourney Weaver is back playing the daughter. · "It's like, no, she's going to play their daughter."

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

1. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:17:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Black Panther · lineage · The first film's theme was isolation versus justice (Killmonger vs. T'Challa); the sequel has a real-world theme too, about allyship between Latinx and Black communities, but is not done as well. · "his movies always have a big dynamic real world theme in them in a way that I don't think many Marvel movies do."
2. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:53:26 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Snack Shack · programming · A pool-snacks tangent leads to a recommendation of Snack Shack, produced by Rian Johnson's T Street. · "Um, Basically being released independently is produced by Ryan Johnson's company, T Street, and it's a, here we see Margot Robbie losing her nerve and breaking down."
3. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:32:14 · Van Lathan (0.85)] Black Panther ⇒ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (the host's read) · theme · Van explains that in the first film T'Challa saw his father on the ancestral plane because he had questions for him, while Shuri saw Killmonger because she wanted revenge, the same motive Killmonger had. · "Shuri did not want to be the Black Panther to protect Wakanda."
4. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:30:05 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Road House · programming · After a crocodile-fear tangent triggered by Babylon's crocodile scene, a speaker pushes Roadhouse for its crocodile scene. · "I mean, they're just... pretty exciting crocodile scene."
5. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:37:09 · Van Lathan (0.85)] Captain America: Civil War ⇒ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (the host's read) · theme · Van says Black Panther was handled better in Civil War than in his own movie, and that Civil War served as his origin; Ironheart's introduction here does not land the same way. · "Black Panther, to me, was portrayed better in Civil War than he was in the original Black Panther movie."
6. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:13:47 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · A speaker calls the sound-stage scene a direct Singin' in the Rain homage, 'on steroids times a 1000'. · "Again, like a very, very direct homage."
7. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:37:22 · Van Lathan (0.80)] Iron Man 2 ⇒ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (the host's read) · theme · Van says the MCU has introduced characters inside other movies before, like Black Widow in Iron Man 2. · "Black Widow makes her a parent, her 1st appearance."
8. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:51:30 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · The speaker says Babylon is deliberately built around Singin' in the Rain, with specific scenes mirrored on purpose. · "But it is so intentionally built around singing in the rain that I do think the mirroring of the specific scenes are intentional."
9. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:38:18 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness · theme · Sean sees Riri Williams as the second recent puckish teen hero, after America Chavez, whom the audience has no prior relationship with. · "we just had this with America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the multiverse of Madness."
10. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 3:06:12 · unknown (0.30)] Zack Snyder's Justice League ⇒ Babylon (the maker said so: the hosts' own account of the show) · lineage · The Snyder Cut watch-along, born of a lost bet, started the show's watch-along concept that led to this one. · "The Snyder, the Snyder Cut thing was a bet that we lost, that Sean was like, if that, that's how the watch along concept started."
11. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:53:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] Ruth E. Carter ↔ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever · craft · Amanda says Carter's costume design and the production design are the electrifying part, even though she did not like the film, and that Carter should win another Oscar. · "I think Ruth Carter should win another Oscar, even though I didn't really like this movie."
12. [The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Pearl ↔ Babylon · theme · Amanda says Pearl completes a trilogy of 2022 films about the transition to silent film, with Babylon and Downton Abbey: A New Era. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
13. [The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:53:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Black Panther · craft · The first film lived in one coherent Wakanda look from Ruth Carter's costumes and the production design, while the sequel hops between many places and loses a single visual style. · "In this movie, we're in so many places, that ship at night, Riri's dorm room, Talakan, Everett Ross's jogging trip, his kitchen, the movie's just all over the place."
14. [The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Downton Abbey: A New Era ↔ Babylon · theme · Both 2022 films are about the silent-to-sound transition in movies. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
15. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:15:13 · unknown (0.30)] Brad Pitt ↔ Babylon · theme · Babylon is called a smart use of Brad Pitt's skills, with the movie-star persona built in. · "This is a very smart utilization of Brad Pitt's skills."

Who said it, by their latest sketch (3)

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
3. [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

The shows' running bits (1)

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)

The whole prompt

You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) 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 Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) 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 · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:26:04 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope · programming · After the Fox acquisition it felt like Disney would alternate Star Wars and Avatar releases. · "oh, they'll alternate every other year between a Star Wars movie and an Avatar movie."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:27:41 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania · programming · Disney's next big release after Avatar 2 is Ant-Man in late February, giving it about two months of runway. · "No, it's Ant-man in like late February, maybe."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:37:26 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever · programming · Both sequels arrive within a month of each other. · "Now, both getting sequels within a month of each other."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:38:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Napoleon · programming · Apple may release Napoleon on Christmas Day because the landscape is soft. · "Apple is seriously considering releasing Ridley Scott's Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix on Christmas Day because they're looking at the landscape and they're like, it's soft out here."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:44:26 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Terminator 2: Judgment Day · lineage · Cameron's pitches for sequels sounded off beforehand and then worked, as with T2. · "Before Terminator 2 was like, you want more Terminator?"
[The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:32:59 · Chris Ryan (0.75)] Babylon ↔ Avatar: The Way of Water · craft · Chris thinks it cheap that Babylon's montage of cinema moments includes Avatar, which Sean defends as part of cinema's evolution. · "It feels cheap that he would put that movie in the like montage of the greatest film moments ever"
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:45:08 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Titanic · contrast · Titanic's pitch was a famous ship; Avatar's was Looney Tunes by comparison. · "the pitch for Avatar is Looney Tunes, like compared to like him being like, I know it's going to cost a fortune for me to build a boat and sink it, but it's the Titanic."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:47:13 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Top Gun: Maverick · verdict · The way into the sequel should be just sit and watch, as with Top Gun: Maverick. · "I kind of imagine it will be a little bit like Top Gun Maverick in that way where it's like the entry point for this movie is this movie."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:23:28 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Divergent · industry · A planned multi-film series that never made its fourth film is the cautionary tale for committing to four Avatar sequels. · "This is kind of like divergent."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:30:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Tár · industry · Way of Water's one vague teaser is compared to Tár's teaser campaign. · "This movie has the same marketing campaign as Tar."
[The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:09:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Avatar: The Way of Water · industry · Black Panther 2 is among the most anticipated films, along with Avatar 2, and its long wait is compared to the Avatar gap. · "Black Panther 2 in particular, though, struck me as weird because it might be after the rise of Skywalker, maybe Avatar 2, the most anticipated movie that exists"
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:47:06 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Avatar: The Way of Water · CGI standard · Amanda guesses the upcoming Avatar will look a thousand times better than the sequel's underwater CGI. · "I guarantee you we're going to see Avatar in a couple weeks and it's going to look a 1000 times better."
[The Big Picture · The Future of ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel, Pixar, and Disney’s Movie Monopoly. Plus: Our Summer Movie Awards and Paul Downs Colaizzo on ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ | The Big Picture · 0:09:40 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ James Cameron · industry · Doubters were wrong about Cameron with Titanic and Avatar, so don't count him out. · "But underestimate James Cameron at your peril, because this is what happened with Titanic, and this is what happened with Avatar."
[pairs] Avatar: The Way of Water ↔ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever · said 3 times in 3 episodes
[The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:51:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Avatar: The Way of Water · fun · Sean's tears over Jake Sully and the whale are teased as the closest he's come to crying on the podcast. · "that was just him crying about a whale."
[The Big Picture · The Great ‘Avatar’ Debate · 1:43:37 · unknown (0.40)] Avatar: The Way of Water · fun · Sigourney Weaver is back playing the daughter. · "It's like, no, she's going to play their daughter."
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:17:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Black Panther · lineage · The first film's theme was isolation versus justice (Killmonger vs. T'Challa); the sequel has a real-world theme too, about allyship between Latinx and Black communities, but is not done as well. · "his movies always have a big dynamic real world theme in them in a way that I don't think many Marvel movies do."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:53:26 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Snack Shack · programming · A pool-snacks tangent leads to a recommendation of Snack Shack, produced by Rian Johnson's T Street. · "Um, Basically being released independently is produced by Ryan Johnson's company, T Street, and it's a, here we see Margot Robbie losing her nerve and breaking down."
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:32:14 · Van Lathan (0.85)] Black Panther ⇒ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (the host's read) · theme · Van explains that in the first film T'Challa saw his father on the ancestral plane because he had questions for him, while Shuri saw Killmonger because she wanted revenge, the same motive Killmonger had. · "Shuri did not want to be the Black Panther to protect Wakanda."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:30:05 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Road House · programming · After a crocodile-fear tangent triggered by Babylon's crocodile scene, a speaker pushes Roadhouse for its crocodile scene. · "I mean, they're just... pretty exciting crocodile scene."
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:37:09 · Van Lathan (0.85)] Captain America: Civil War ⇒ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (the host's read) · theme · Van says Black Panther was handled better in Civil War than in his own movie, and that Civil War served as his origin; Ironheart's introduction here does not land the same way. · "Black Panther, to me, was portrayed better in Civil War than he was in the original Black Panther movie."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:13:47 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · A speaker calls the sound-stage scene a direct Singin' in the Rain homage, 'on steroids times a 1000'. · "Again, like a very, very direct homage."
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:37:22 · Van Lathan (0.80)] Iron Man 2 ⇒ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (the host's read) · theme · Van says the MCU has introduced characters inside other movies before, like Black Widow in Iron Man 2. · "Black Widow makes her a parent, her 1st appearance."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:51:30 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · The speaker says Babylon is deliberately built around Singin' in the Rain, with specific scenes mirrored on purpose. · "But it is so intentionally built around singing in the rain that I do think the mirroring of the specific scenes are intentional."
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:38:18 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness · theme · Sean sees Riri Williams as the second recent puckish teen hero, after America Chavez, whom the audience has no prior relationship with. · "we just had this with America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the multiverse of Madness."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 3:06:12 · unknown (0.30)] Zack Snyder's Justice League ⇒ Babylon (the maker said so: the hosts' own account of the show) · lineage · The Snyder Cut watch-along, born of a lost bet, started the show's watch-along concept that led to this one. · "The Snyder, the Snyder Cut thing was a bet that we lost, that Sean was like, if that, that's how the watch along concept started."
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:53:03 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] Ruth E. Carter ↔ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever · craft · Amanda says Carter's costume design and the production design are the electrifying part, even though she did not like the film, and that Carter should win another Oscar. · "I think Ruth Carter should win another Oscar, even though I didn't really like this movie."
[The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Pearl ↔ Babylon · theme · Amanda says Pearl completes a trilogy of 2022 films about the transition to silent film, with Babylon and Downton Abbey: A New Era. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
[The Big Picture · ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Is Here! · 0:53:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ↔ Black Panther · craft · The first film lived in one coherent Wakanda look from Ruth Carter's costumes and the production design, while the sequel hops between many places and loses a single visual style. · "In this movie, we're in so many places, that ship at night, Riri's dorm room, Talakan, Everett Ross's jogging trip, his kitchen, the movie's just all over the place."
[The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Downton Abbey: A New Era ↔ Babylon · theme · Both 2022 films are about the silent-to-sound transition in movies. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:15:13 · unknown (0.30)] Brad Pitt ↔ Babylon · theme · Babylon is called a smart use of Brad Pitt's skills, with the movie-star persona built in. · "This is a very smart utilization of Brad Pitt's skills."
[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
[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
[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)

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 Avatar: The Way of Water (2022); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) 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.