What the corpus says about Flesh and Blood (1985)

The 47 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 (20)

[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:25:59 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Back to the Future · programming · Flesh+Blood opened Labor Day weekend 1985 when Back to the Future was number one. · "Back to the future?"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:23 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Willow · lineage · The painted poster looks like fantasy-adventure posters of the era. · "it has this poster that looks like, you know, the poster for Willow or Legend"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:27:54 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ The Loveless · theme · Both take a romanticized genre and show how gross it really was. · "Which is where I think this movie shares a similarity with the Loveless."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:05:02 · Griffin Newman (0.45)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Strange Days · theme · Like Strange Days, the film treats sexual assault as psychological aftermath rather than a plot device. · "In the Strange Days episode, we talked about the sexual assault scene in that movie, right?"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:10 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ A Bug's Life · theme · Steven's crazy siege inventions are compared to Flick's. · "He's like flick from a bug's life where he's coming up with these crazy inventions"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:18 · David Sims (0.45)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Monty Python and the Holy Grail · craft · The film's muddy, grimy medieval look is likened to Holy Grail. · "The movie that this is aesthetically most similar to weirdly is Monty Python, the Holy Grail."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Excalibur · craft · The siege-tower set piece is presented like a grand medieval epic. · "Is it's presenting it to you like you're watching."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:19:12 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ RoboCop · contrast · Unlike Flesh+Blood, RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct have an arc and some resolution. · "Whereas in Robocop, in total recall, in basic instinct, even, like, right, he's, you know, these are movies with more of an arc for a character."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves · contrast · The heroic uplifting score sounds like a Robin Hood epic, then cuts straight to depravity. · "the score sounds like it could fit on fucking Robin Hood Prince of Thieves."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:45:11 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Lincoln · contrast · Flesh+Blood's opening is a swooping tracking shot, unlike Lincoln's quick-cut mud-fight opening. · "you compare this to the opening of Lincoln, which is like, here are these men in the mud and you see them stomping each other"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:49:45 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ The Texas Chain Saw Massacre · contrast · Speaker says the movie is like Texas Chainsaw in having no one to root for, though someone corrects that you root for someone there. · "it's like the fucking Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:04:11 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Straw Dogs · contrast · Unlike Straw Dogs, the assault scene implies the woman is taking power, not enjoying it. · "Something like Straw Dogs, where you're seeing an assault, and then he is sort of inferring that she's enjoying it, is very different than something like this"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:34:00 · David Sims (0.40)] Sixteen Candles ↔ Flesh and Blood · contrast · Sixteen Candles is as gross as Flesh+Blood but thinks it's a whimsical teen comedy. · "that movie doesn't think it's a whimsical comedy for teenagers."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:49:14 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read) · career · Flesh+Blood is the failure that led Verhoeven to Hollywood and RoboCop, where he built entertainment around his interests. · "from this film on, he figures out how to take everything he's interested in and put it into the body of a conventionally entertaining Hollywood movie"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:08:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ The Lost World: Jurassic Park · industry · Flesh+Blood is a tweener or bridge between two phases of the director's career, as Lost World was for Spielberg. · "It's sort of a tweener."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:37 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Piranha II: The Spawning · industry · Verhoeven's 80s patchwork-financed film is seen as like a director testing before gaining control in Hollywood. · "I wasn't sure if this was going to feel like a piranha 2 where it's like a guy testing it out before he figures out how to gain control in Hollywood."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:02 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Hieronymus Bosch · craft · The film's opening is said to look like a Bosch painting. · "Like, now we're in a bosh painting."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:37:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Paul Verhoeven · career · Flesh+Blood is called the Rosetta Stone for his career. · "it's kind of the Rosetta Stone for one man's career."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:18 · Griffin Newman (0.55)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Paul Verhoeven · verdict · Verhoeven himself called it a failure and a lesson never to compromise the main storyline. · "the failure of flesh and bud was a lesson to me, never compromised the main storyline of a script."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:28:36 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Orion Pictures · industry · Orion financed most of the film and demanded a female character, cutting the rape scene; it kept Verhoeven afterward for RoboCop. · "Orion demanded there'd be a female character"

Films put beside it more than once (1)

[pairs] Flesh and Blood ↔ RoboCop · said 2 times in 1 episode

Fun items about it (6)

[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:31:03 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh+Blood · fun · Verhoeven wanted the film to stink; Hauer wanted to be a hero; Orion demanded a female lead. · "He wanted to make a movie that was, quote, stinking."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:09 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh+Blood · fun · Movie wasn't released wide and went quickly to HBO, where it became cult. · "It became like a somewhat well-known cult movie."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:45:02 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh+Blood · fun · The opening is the maximalist first 20 seconds: a tracking shot of mercenaries and a nine-months pregnant beer server. · "It's the most maximalist 1st 20 seconds of a film I have ever seen."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:58:40 · Griffin Newman (0.35)] Flesh+Blood · fun · The handmaiden is Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, who does a Bartman bit in the field. · "One of her rare live action film roles."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:02:41 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh+Blood · fun · Jennifer Jason Leigh was upset Orion cut the rape scene; she argued cutting was more offensive. · "it is more offensive to cut that scene down than to fully engage with that scene"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:08:41 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh+Blood · fun · The film sets a dog-meat plague scene and a flaming halo shot. · "I mean, there's also that incredible shot of later in the movie where he's got the burning wheel behind his head."

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

[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:11:50 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Darren Aronofsky ↔ RoboCop · programming · Aronofsky was first choice, stayed three years, then left because MGM could not fund the film, the start of his flirtations with franchises. · "Yes, Darren Aronovsky is the 1st choice."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:26:31 · David Sims (0.40)] Back to the Future ↔ Teen Wolf · programming · Michael J. Fox held the top two spots at the box office in 1985. · "He's number one and 2 at the box office."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:25:32 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90)] Jaws ↔ Lincoln · theme · The slaps in Jaws and Lincoln show the shift from identifying with the slapped child to the anxious parent. · "So it's very much like almost like the humiliation of a little boy who's been slapped."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Edge of Tomorrow · 1:05:18 · Ben Hosley (0.40)] Edge of Tomorrow ↔ RoboCop · programming · The hosts recorded a RoboCop commentary in the slot where Edge was originally scheduled, and the opening news montage reminds them of RoboCop's. · "I mean, we just saw it with like Robocop."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Old School’ · 0:45:01 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Old School ↔ Back to the Future · theme · The house used as the frat house in Pasadena also appeared in Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part II, and Teen Wolf. · "It's been used for 3 Michael J. Fox movies."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:45:35 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] Amistad ↔ Lincoln · theme · Bilge says Spielberg's serious films, from Empire to Schindler, Amistad, Lincoln and Ryan, all turn on people as items on a ledger. · "they all they all become about sort of people as items on a ledger, even saving Private Ryan."
[Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 1:04:32 · unknown (0.40)] RoboCop ↔ Psycho · programming · Robocop has one good covered movie and three bad; Psycho offers more to discuss. · "it is one good movie we have covered and 3 bad, whereas Psycho, it's like, there's a lot of interesting shit there."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Zodiac · 0:04:09 · Leslye Headland (0.90)] Zodiac ↔ Back to the Future · theme · Both are on Leslye's four-film Mount Rushmore. · "It's Zodiac, the Shining, back to the future, the apartment."
[The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:16:11 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] Tár ↔ Lincoln · theme · Chris contrasts Blanchett's level of performance with a Lincoln-style historically resonant part, as a box-office draw for older audiences. · "I guess it's not Lincoln where she's like doing this historically like sort of resonant part, but it's in that kind of level of performance"
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:38:34 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Avatar ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read) · lineage · The robot-waking sequence is beat for beat the first act of Avatar, down to testing the new body's powers. · "It is crazy actually how much this sequence is like beat for beat, the Avatar, right?"
[The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:42:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Catch Me If You Can ↔ Lincoln · theme · Both movies are built around one hugely charismatic person wriggling in and out of trouble. · "The movie is built around this one deeply charismatic person and their ability to wriggle in and out of trouble."
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:47:48 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Batman Begins ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read) · lineage · The remake is part of the grounded-and-serious wave that followed Nolan; the speakers say this film marks the end of it. · "The Batman begins effect."
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:47:57 · David Sims (0.50)] RoboCop ↔ Terminator Salvation · lineage · Non-Nolan grim-and-grounded reboots like this one end up self-serious but made by a dumb person and noted to death. · "you get Terminator salvation, you get these movies that are just like self-serious but made by a dumb person"
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:48:47 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] RoboCop ↔ Casino Royale · lineage · Filmmakers sell the remake as the Casino Royale or Batman Begins of RoboCop while the Easter eggs sneer at the original. · "It's like the Casino Royale."
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 1:43:43 · David Sims (0.40)] RoboCop ↔ Total Recall · lineage · The Wiseman remake of Total Recall is cited as an equally boring office-building finale, a remake sibling to this film. · "This is so similar to the Wiseman Total Recall."

Who said it, by their latest sketch (2)

[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
[speaker] David Sims · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Prepares history: novel, casting, budgets, box office. Reveres the film and thinks it reads as a normal ground-level story. A sucker for Hollywood deal backstory and box office game. · stances: Praises Keitel and Dafoe casting; Respects Scorsese's persistence and Corman discipline; The film is now well regarded though not 'canonical Marty'

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 Flesh and Blood (1985) 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 Flesh and Blood (1985) 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.

[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:25:59 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Back to the Future · programming · Flesh+Blood opened Labor Day weekend 1985 when Back to the Future was number one. · "Back to the future?"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:23 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Willow · lineage · The painted poster looks like fantasy-adventure posters of the era. · "it has this poster that looks like, you know, the poster for Willow or Legend"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:27:54 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ The Loveless · theme · Both take a romanticized genre and show how gross it really was. · "Which is where I think this movie shares a similarity with the Loveless."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:05:02 · Griffin Newman (0.45)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Strange Days · theme · Like Strange Days, the film treats sexual assault as psychological aftermath rather than a plot device. · "In the Strange Days episode, we talked about the sexual assault scene in that movie, right?"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:10 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ A Bug's Life · theme · Steven's crazy siege inventions are compared to Flick's. · "He's like flick from a bug's life where he's coming up with these crazy inventions"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:18 · David Sims (0.45)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Monty Python and the Holy Grail · craft · The film's muddy, grimy medieval look is likened to Holy Grail. · "The movie that this is aesthetically most similar to weirdly is Monty Python, the Holy Grail."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Excalibur · craft · The siege-tower set piece is presented like a grand medieval epic. · "Is it's presenting it to you like you're watching."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:19:12 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ RoboCop · contrast · Unlike Flesh+Blood, RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct have an arc and some resolution. · "Whereas in Robocop, in total recall, in basic instinct, even, like, right, he's, you know, these are movies with more of an arc for a character."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves · contrast · The heroic uplifting score sounds like a Robin Hood epic, then cuts straight to depravity. · "the score sounds like it could fit on fucking Robin Hood Prince of Thieves."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:45:11 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Lincoln · contrast · Flesh+Blood's opening is a swooping tracking shot, unlike Lincoln's quick-cut mud-fight opening. · "you compare this to the opening of Lincoln, which is like, here are these men in the mud and you see them stomping each other"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:49:45 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ The Texas Chain Saw Massacre · contrast · Speaker says the movie is like Texas Chainsaw in having no one to root for, though someone corrects that you root for someone there. · "it's like the fucking Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:04:11 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Straw Dogs · contrast · Unlike Straw Dogs, the assault scene implies the woman is taking power, not enjoying it. · "Something like Straw Dogs, where you're seeing an assault, and then he is sort of inferring that she's enjoying it, is very different than something like this"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:34:00 · David Sims (0.40)] Sixteen Candles ↔ Flesh and Blood · contrast · Sixteen Candles is as gross as Flesh+Blood but thinks it's a whimsical teen comedy. · "that movie doesn't think it's a whimsical comedy for teenagers."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:49:14 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read) · career · Flesh+Blood is the failure that led Verhoeven to Hollywood and RoboCop, where he built entertainment around his interests. · "from this film on, he figures out how to take everything he's interested in and put it into the body of a conventionally entertaining Hollywood movie"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:08:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ The Lost World: Jurassic Park · industry · Flesh+Blood is a tweener or bridge between two phases of the director's career, as Lost World was for Spielberg. · "It's sort of a tweener."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:37 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Piranha II: The Spawning · industry · Verhoeven's 80s patchwork-financed film is seen as like a director testing before gaining control in Hollywood. · "I wasn't sure if this was going to feel like a piranha 2 where it's like a guy testing it out before he figures out how to gain control in Hollywood."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:02 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Hieronymus Bosch · craft · The film's opening is said to look like a Bosch painting. · "Like, now we're in a bosh painting."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:37:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Paul Verhoeven · career · Flesh+Blood is called the Rosetta Stone for his career. · "it's kind of the Rosetta Stone for one man's career."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:18 · Griffin Newman (0.55)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Paul Verhoeven · verdict · Verhoeven himself called it a failure and a lesson never to compromise the main storyline. · "the failure of flesh and bud was a lesson to me, never compromised the main storyline of a script."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:28:36 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh and Blood ↔ Orion Pictures · industry · Orion financed most of the film and demanded a female character, cutting the rape scene; it kept Verhoeven afterward for RoboCop. · "Orion demanded there'd be a female character"
[pairs] Flesh and Blood ↔ RoboCop · said 2 times in 1 episode
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:31:03 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh+Blood · fun · Verhoeven wanted the film to stink; Hauer wanted to be a hero; Orion demanded a female lead. · "He wanted to make a movie that was, quote, stinking."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:09 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh+Blood · fun · Movie wasn't released wide and went quickly to HBO, where it became cult. · "It became like a somewhat well-known cult movie."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:45:02 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh+Blood · fun · The opening is the maximalist first 20 seconds: a tracking shot of mercenaries and a nine-months pregnant beer server. · "It's the most maximalist 1st 20 seconds of a film I have ever seen."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 0:58:40 · Griffin Newman (0.35)] Flesh+Blood · fun · The handmaiden is Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, who does a Bartman bit in the field. · "One of her rare live action film roles."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:02:41 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Flesh+Blood · fun · Jennifer Jason Leigh was upset Orion cut the rape scene; she argued cutting was more offensive. · "it is more offensive to cut that scene down than to fully engage with that scene"
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:08:41 · David Sims (0.40)] Flesh+Blood · fun · The film sets a dog-meat plague scene and a flaming halo shot. · "I mean, there's also that incredible shot of later in the movie where he's got the burning wheel behind his head."
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:11:50 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Darren Aronofsky ↔ RoboCop · programming · Aronofsky was first choice, stayed three years, then left because MGM could not fund the film, the start of his flirtations with franchises. · "Yes, Darren Aronovsky is the 1st choice."
[Blank Check · Flesh+Blood · 1:26:31 · David Sims (0.40)] Back to the Future ↔ Teen Wolf · programming · Michael J. Fox held the top two spots at the box office in 1985. · "He's number one and 2 at the box office."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 0:25:32 · Bilge Ebiri (0.90)] Jaws ↔ Lincoln · theme · The slaps in Jaws and Lincoln show the shift from identifying with the slapped child to the anxious parent. · "So it's very much like almost like the humiliation of a little boy who's been slapped."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Edge of Tomorrow · 1:05:18 · Ben Hosley (0.40)] Edge of Tomorrow ↔ RoboCop · programming · The hosts recorded a RoboCop commentary in the slot where Edge was originally scheduled, and the opening news montage reminds them of RoboCop's. · "I mean, we just saw it with like Robocop."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Old School’ · 0:45:01 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Old School ↔ Back to the Future · theme · The house used as the frat house in Pasadena also appeared in Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part II, and Teen Wolf. · "It's been used for 3 Michael J. Fox movies."
[Blank Check · Empire of the Sun · 1:45:35 · Bilge Ebiri (0.80)] Amistad ↔ Lincoln · theme · Bilge says Spielberg's serious films, from Empire to Schindler, Amistad, Lincoln and Ryan, all turn on people as items on a ledger. · "they all they all become about sort of people as items on a ledger, even saving Private Ryan."
[Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 1:04:32 · unknown (0.40)] RoboCop ↔ Psycho · programming · Robocop has one good covered movie and three bad; Psycho offers more to discuss. · "it is one good movie we have covered and 3 bad, whereas Psycho, it's like, there's a lot of interesting shit there."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Zodiac · 0:04:09 · Leslye Headland (0.90)] Zodiac ↔ Back to the Future · theme · Both are on Leslye's four-film Mount Rushmore. · "It's Zodiac, the Shining, back to the future, the apartment."
[The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 1:16:11 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] Tár ↔ Lincoln · theme · Chris contrasts Blanchett's level of performance with a Lincoln-style historically resonant part, as a box-office draw for older audiences. · "I guess it's not Lincoln where she's like doing this historically like sort of resonant part, but it's in that kind of level of performance"
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:38:34 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Avatar ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read) · lineage · The robot-waking sequence is beat for beat the first act of Avatar, down to testing the new body's powers. · "It is crazy actually how much this sequence is like beat for beat, the Avatar, right?"
[The Big Picture · Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies · 0:42:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Catch Me If You Can ↔ Lincoln · theme · Both movies are built around one hugely charismatic person wriggling in and out of trouble. · "The movie is built around this one deeply charismatic person and their ability to wriggle in and out of trouble."
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:47:48 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Batman Begins ⇒ RoboCop (the host's read) · lineage · The remake is part of the grounded-and-serious wave that followed Nolan; the speakers say this film marks the end of it. · "The Batman begins effect."
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:47:57 · David Sims (0.50)] RoboCop ↔ Terminator Salvation · lineage · Non-Nolan grim-and-grounded reboots like this one end up self-serious but made by a dumb person and noted to death. · "you get Terminator salvation, you get these movies that are just like self-serious but made by a dumb person"
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 0:48:47 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] RoboCop ↔ Casino Royale · lineage · Filmmakers sell the remake as the Casino Royale or Batman Begins of RoboCop while the Easter eggs sneer at the original. · "It's like the Casino Royale."
[Blank Check — Patreon · RoboCop (2014) · 1:43:43 · David Sims (0.40)] RoboCop ↔ Total Recall · lineage · The Wiseman remake of Total Recall is cited as an equally boring office-building finale, a remake sibling to this film. · "This is so similar to the Wiseman Total Recall."
[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
[speaker] David Sims · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Prepares history: novel, casting, budgets, box office. Reveres the film and thinks it reads as a normal ground-level story. A sucker for Hollywood deal backstory and box office game. · stances: Praises Keitel and Dafoe casting; Respects Scorsese's persistence and Corman discipline; The film is now well regarded though not 'canonical Marty'
[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 Flesh and Blood (1985); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend Flesh and Blood (1985) 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.