Loves Marvel's cosmic, ragtag-team side and the animated Rocket/Groot heart; affectionate about the sillier comic characters. Dislikes humorless gray franchise filmmaking and bad needle drops. A sucker for a ragtag group, a Trek-style space comedy, and a Han Solo type inside an ensemble. Speaker attribution in this transcript is uncertain.
Stances
Gunn is a real filmmaker who won his arguments with Marvel
Quill is the best Han Solo since Han Solo
Rocket and Groot are one of the best big/small duos
Humor: Talks in self-aware bits (the countdown clock, chronic lateness) and makes dirty-minded pile-ons with the room.
In their words
“I just don't get how, like, people saw this movie who had not seen every Marvel movie for sure.” (0:24:45)
“That's the other big thing is that gun was a troma guy.” (0:36:18)
Marvel completist who loves the series' smaller character beats (Agent Carter, Peggy, Falcon, Sam Jackson's Fury) and defends Infinity War. Loves action built from hand-to-hand fights and movie-star dialogue scenes. Allergic to bad-faith villain motives and to the cheap CGI leaps. Suckers for old tech, spy-bureaucracy aesthetic and New Hollywood stars.
Stances
Winter Soldier is great until the final Helicarrier act
Prefers small-scale hand-to-hand action to CGI set pieces
Loves Agent Carter and wants it back
Mild on Bucky/Winter Soldier himself
Humor: Rapid riffs, character voices, self-deprecating anecdotes and overlong running bits that derail the commentary.
In their words
“I just love this sequence” (0:08:33)
“I think this movie's basically terrific until the final seppies” (0:12:41)
Loves lore-heavy, dorky, earnest sci-fi fantasy with real sets, tactile design and a spaceship in it; likes the Thor mythos and Sif. Dislikes things that mock their own source material (Ragnarok) and thinks the first Thor is too clean. A sucker for spectacle that dumps lore on a simple hero's journey.
Stances
Dark World is the most underappreciated Marvel film
Ragnarok disrespects the mythos
Practical, tactile design beats cartoony CGI
Humor: Rapid riffing wordplay and long running bits (Tony Lip as pizza), eagerly undercutting his own sincerity.
In their words
“I'm defenseless before any dizzyingly silly sci-fi epic that downloads gigabytes of lore into the viewer's brain by means of a simple hero's journey narrative.” (1:38:17)
Loves Iron Man 3 as his favorite MCU film for its character study and how it turns superhero loneliness into anxiety and panic. Collects $20 off-the-shelf action figures and Hot Toys Robocop, and cherishes buddy-cop 80s action and well-built set pieces. Dislikes suits that are just mush CGI and wet-cement final fights.
Stances
Iron Man 3 is a masterpiece and anyone who dislikes it is wrong
Tony should be out of the suit; the film works because he is not Iron Man for most of it
Marvel should have let the Rebecca Hall villain stand
Loves Whedon-era dialogue, Buffy and Firefly, Kenneth Lonergan, and character-driven ensemble action; sucker for actors having fun and clever setups paid off. Dislikes homogenized Marvel visuals, rock-song tags, and Grindelwald's Crimes. Allergic to a Christmas tree and moose.
Stances
Whedon's script is the star; the film is not visually distinguished
Ruffalo is the movie's best performance
Costume detail (neckcloth) bothers him
Grindelwald should be as fun as Loki
Humor: Spends bits on celebrity impressions (Downey, Timberlake, Tom Waits) and mock-pompous asides.
In their words
“I'm still like a big Buffy fan, a big old-fashioned Wii. I love Firefly, right?” (0:04:21)
“This is what I want Grindewald to be like...” (0:40:51)
He loves heightened-but-not-kitschy design, period movies, Peggy Carter, and actors who underplay. He is a sucker for old-fashioned adventure and a Fantastic Four fan. He doesn't like the reasonable-Nazi Zola or the digital-video look of early-2010s effects.
Stances
The film feels like it ends in the middle
Bucky does not work as an emotional anchor
Actors' behavior in food scenes reveals pros from novices
Humor: Self-deprecating personal stories, about being 90 pounds and eating four cheeseburgers at his Disney store job.
In their words
“I was so grossly underweight and I felt like it was a hindrance to my career because I looked skeleton.” (0:18:15)
A Masters of the Universe devotee who reaches for He-Man as the template for Thor, loves the hammer payoff, and is a sucker for Cat Dennings and Sif. Dislikes the desaturated palette and the cheap-looking Jotunheim. Has the clearest pop-culture and actor-career recall, with skits and personal anecdotes.
Stances
Thor is a remake of Masters of the Universe
The movie looks ugly and desaturated
Hemsworth's performance and chemistry work
Not yet sold on Thor as a character until Avengers and Dark World
Humor: Escalating bits that run for minutes, like the Skarsgard-nudity search and buried jeans.
In their words
“It's mostly just a remake of the live action masters of the universe movie.” (0:03:54)
“I'm searching Stellen Starsgard full frontal nudity.” (1:12:14)
Loves comic-book lore (Crimson Dynamo, Demon in a Bottle) and Iron Man 3, Galaxy Quest, Garry Shandling. Cannot stand a movie that pads out its middle with self-impressed banter. A sucker for Tartakovsky action.
Stances
Iron Man 3 is the great Iron Man movie
Iron Man 2 mistakes riffing for story
Dark World is a joke best American film
Humor: Riffs and impressions, pumps up bits like the Expo is an element.
In their words
“Iron Man 3 is the greatest movie ever made.” (0:25:19)
“I love Larry Sanders too, but it's Gary Shandling show is like my favorite.” (1:30:55)
Loves Ang Lee's Hulk and is quick to defend Iron Man 2's ambitions; hates bad CGI faces and generic action presets; a sucker for chain restaurants, pizza and Marvel lore.
Stances
Ang Lee's Hulk is good and this one is a corrective with no point
Edward Norton is miscast and unengaged
Iron Man 2 fails more interestingly
Humor: Absurdist riffing, sung bits, and escalating food and chain-restaurant tangents.
Loves Marvel comics deeply (Ultimate line, Ms. Marvel, Franklin Richards), actor-driven performances, and looseness; hates a studio-polished formula and a reporter sleeping with the subject trope. A sucker for comic-book film process scenes, the Comic-Con trailer era, and the Tick.
Stances
Iron Man is solid but not beloved; the post-credits Fury scene blew his mind
Prefers Iron Man's visible machinery to nanobite suits
Thinks Infinity War is a triumph, others disagree
Humor: Riffs and bits about his own history (Times Square apartment, 99-cent pizza, Avatar audition).
In their words
“I remember liking this movie. I didn't love it, but I remember feeling... Oh, I fucking loved this movie.” (1:13:42)
Obsessive about National Treasure and the minutiae of movie culture, and a Nancy Meyers admirer who frames her as a souffle filmmaker. Cares about Oscar-season lore and montages. Likes that Nicholson is vulnerable and unvain in this film.
Stances
Nancy Meyers is a souffle filmmaker whose perfectionism serves a fantasy for the audience (attributed at moderate confidence)
The film is a deconstruction of Nicholson's persona and aged better than It's Complicated (speaker uncertain)
Humor: Fast riffing and bits (Keanu impression, Transformers totems), plus running gags about Brenton Thwaites and National Treasure 3.
In their words
“Interesting bringing that up because I'm going to actually draw a big national treasure parallel in this episode to something that's got to give.” (0:11:12)
“And I feel like Nancy is like a souffle filmmaker” (1:33:22)
Loves high-concept, big-swing filmmaking and sees deep emotion in the fights of CTHD; adores sword-and-flight spectacle, dumb-sweet characters like Inspector Tsai, and Lady Bird comparisons. Can't stand Brett Ratner and tired-looking Marvel fights; a sucker for bit-heavy tangents.
Stances
CTHD's fights carry story and character
US action movies are bad because they lack talent and time
Disliked CTHD at 11, later realized it is great
Humor: Escalating riffs and callbacks, crude and silly puns, voices.
In their words
“I was so literal minded where I was like, but they don't explain why they can fly.” (0:17:40)
“11 year old Griffin was laughing and like 29 year old Griffin was crying.” (1:00:34)
Loves The Ice Storm and defends Hulk-era Ang Lee; treats it as a sad Fantastic Four movie. Hates the see-the-ending-first structure in general. A sucker for Elliott Gould and comic-book metaphors.
Stances
Ice Storm is a masterpiece and the best Lee film not starring a Marvel hero
Fantastic Four deserves a sad, isolated, family movie
Dislikes in-media-res openings but accepts this one
Humor: Dry riffing, running bits, and confessional anecdotes about his own near-misses.
In their words
“He put his hand on my shoulder and he went, you're family.” (0:29:17)
“this movie does make me wish that he gotten the chance to make a sad, fantastic four movie.” (1:34:30)
Loves Bigelow's tension and iconography, and Curtis's grounded, empathetic underplaying. Dislikes Mother!'s lack of an anchor. A sucker for character actors and the way a movie's scenes hold the whole thing in micro.
Stances
Blue Steel is top-tier Bigelow and a rediscovery candidate
The movie is about gender and tension, and every scene plays differently if she were a man
Humor: Riffs on nicknames and bits, running gags like 'David and I' variations.
In their words
“My father's a professor at NYU, and he needed guest speakers, and so we talked about podcasting to his class.” (0:26:44)
Loves the film's loneliness and the hardcore Crowe-ness; he's a defender of this movie after rewatching, gives it A minus or B plus. Can't stand the way Cruz is shoved into a romance with no chemistry. A sucker for Kurt Russell, Jason Lee and a good bit.
Stances
Vanilla Sky is the loneliest movie ever made
Defends the movie after first seeing it two years ago on Netflix
Is going through a breakup and keeps working it into the episode
Humor: Self-lacerating, prop comedy and long running bits (sunglasses, catchphrases).
In their words
“It's the loneliest movie ever made.” (0:34:00)
“I'm going through a psychological free fall.” (0:00:55)
Attribution to Griffin versus David is low-confidence (no labels). One host loves Muppets and puppetry and rewatched this on video as a child; the same side loses patience over CGI special-edition changes and the Marcia Lucas theory. Likes conclusions and wrapped-up stories; can't stand Lucas's digital embellishments.
Stances
Special-edition CGI additions hurt Jedi most
Puppets and practical creatures are the movie's strength
Lucas is a sympathetic, wounded figure
Humor: Escalating comic fury, bits about the Empire as a workplace comedy and Santa-hat table dressing.
In their words
“I fucking love Muppets, as you know.” (0:09:53)
“I think the puppetry's so good.” (0:57:07)
Their shows' recurring bits
Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.
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.
Blank Check with Griffin & David
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.
Their claims
Showing 101–200 of 1,162 claims.
lineage (origin of project):
David Lean → Empire of the Sun.
Lean asked Spielberg to check on the rights, then lost interest and handed the novel to him.
“He asks Spielberg to check in on the rights for him.”
unmapped (screenwriting):
Tom Stoppard → Empire of the Sun.
Stoppard became the sole credited writer and said it taught him where dialogue is unnecessary.
“I learned a lot working on that in terms of like where you don't need dialogue.”
unmapped (scene reference):
Empire of the Sun → Gone with the Wind.
Jim stands before the Gone with the Wind poster, echoing Spielberg's remark to Alice Walker that it is one of his favorites.
“I mean, you have that moment where he's standing in front of the giant gone with the wind poster, right?”
lineage (inspiration):
Empire of the Sun → Tropic Thunder.
Ben Stiller, on the Empire set as a young actor, was inspired by actors playing at suffering to make Tropic Thunder two decades later.
“Which, of course, this is one of this movie's greatest, like, lasting legacies is that this, this is what inspires Tropic Thunder.”
unmapped (psychology key):
Empire of the Sun → The Fabelmans.
Griffin reads Empire through The Fabelmans: Spielberg's core trauma was being pulled into the adult world, like Jim in the camp.
“I mean, here's here's my big post-fableman's take on this movie.”
unmapped (dark twin):
Empire of the Sun → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Griffin pairs E.T. and Empire as two stabs at the same childhood material at the front and back of the 80s.
“I do think they're like him sort of like at the front and end of the 80s taking 2 stabs at a similar thing.”
people (performance):
Miranda Richardson → Kansas City.
Griffin saw the Altman film at a repertory screening where the audience was blown away by Richardson.
“holy shit, the Miranda Richardson performance in this.”
“They fail to make the, um, the plot, the sort of like Indiana Jones-S McGuffin of what they're up against directly relate to Wallace and Gromit's relationship.”
unmapped (stylistic shift):
Saving Private Ryan → Minority Report.
Saving Private Ryan was the biggest shift in Spielberg's signature style, letting him change languages for films like Minority Report and Munich.
“Saving Private Ryan is, in my opinion, the single biggest shift in his signature style up until that point”
unmapped (historical context):
Come See the Paradise → Empire of the Sun.
A reminder that America had its own internment camps, as in Alan Parker's film.
industry (industry):
Raiders of the Lost Ark → Spider-Man.
The big 2002 superhero films were limited by effects budgets in action; Raiders felt like it exceeded what was possible.
“this is more movie than you thought was previously possible.”
unmapped (experience):
Raiders of the Lost Ark → Spider-Man 2.
Seeing Spider-Man 2's subway chase felt to him like watching Raiders' escalating set pieces in 1981.
“I imagine this is what it would have felt like to watch Raiders in the theater at the time, but seeing Spider-Man 2 opening nights”
unmapped (weirdest-ever):
Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 8 → Twin Peaks season 2 finale.
Part 8 is Lynch topping his own season 2 finale as the weirdest thing ever on prime time, building something weird in relation to the template of weirdness he already set.
“he's like, no, I need to make the thing that is weird and relation to the template of weirdness I have already set, much like the season 2 finale”
craft (structural echo):
Twin Peaks: The Return, Part 8 → 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The abstract atomic-origin sequence is likened to 2001 for television, and the speakers note 2001 also comes after two hours of conventional narrative.
“you're like, oh, we're watching something that is 2001, a Space Odyssey for television.”
lineage (lineage):
Tender Mercies → The Straight Story.
Tender Mercies was a quiet drama offered to Lynch, a sensibility that foreshadows The Straight Story.
“but somebody like the straight story speaks to him.”
craft (craft):
David Lynch → The Elephant Man.
Lynch planned to do the Elephant Man makeup effects himself, as he had on Eraserhead, until the production insisted on a professional.
“Like his plan was to do the makeup effects entirely himself because he was used to working that way on Elephant Man, or not Elephant Man, Eraserhead.”
“He got attached to a very famous blacklist script, a notorious blacklist script called The Brigands of Raffle Borg, which is written by S. Craig Zoller.”
career (career context):
Decision to Leave → The Little Drummer Girl.
The film was made after Park's English-language TV show, which left him homesick for a Korean film.
lineage (source song):
Decision to Leave → Mist (1967 Korean hit song).
Park loved the 1967 song The Mist since childhood and the movie is built around it and the lady-in-the-mist idea.
“A Korean 1967 hit song called The Miss. Yeah. which is about a protagonist who's trying to understand the world around them.”
career (career context):
Decision to Leave → Stoker.
Stoker was Park's only American film and he took someone else's script; Decision to Leave is the first fully original thing after a run of adaptations.
“This is the 1st time he's completely regenering something.”
lineage (source character):
Decision to Leave → Martin Beck novels (Swedish).
The anti-macho gentleman cop concept comes from Martin Beck, the Swedish police novels, falling for the lady from the mist.
“So basically, what if Martin Beck, this Swedish police officer character falls in love with, like the lady from the Mist, sort of, right?”
unmapped (writing partner):
Park Chan-wook → Chung Seo-kyung.
Chung is his frequent co-writer; she initially refused a melodrama about an abused woman and he talked her into it.
“I said no, I didn't want to write a melodrama about an abused woman.”
people (prior role):
Park Hae-il → The Host.
Park Hae-il is known from the Bong Joon-ho movie The Host and had never worked with Park Chan-wook before.
lineage (influence):
Decision to Leave → Brief Encounter.
Park cites David Lean's Brief Encounter as the romantic vibe he was thinking of instead of Vertigo.
“He says, brief encounter, the David Lean film. is more what he's thinking of in terms of vibe.”
craft (visual gag comparison):
Decision to Leave → RoboCop.
The husband's cartoon fall off the mountain is compared to the Dick Jones stop-motion fall at the end of Robocop.
“He does like a like a end of Robocop Dick Jones fall, basically.”
lineage (genre lineage):
Decision to Leave → Insomnia.
A sleepless cop is called part of the sleepy-cop canon, with Pacino's Insomnia as the reference.
“But this movie is in the detective dormer canon of sleepy cops who can't go to sleep.”
unmapped (fight realism):
Decision to Leave → Eastern Promises.
Eastern Promises has similarly clumsy, human fight sequences where skin is actually pierced, like the knife-and-chain-mail scene.
“That movie has some similarly, like, very, very human fight sequences”
craft (plot structure):
Decision to Leave → Strangers on a Train.
The pills and Slappy-kills-the-husband arrangement is called a Strangers on a Train swap by the detective and the hosts.
“I've seen my Hitchcock movies. This is some fucking strangers on a train ship.”
unmapped (borrowed magic bits):
Sherlock, Jr. → Houdini.
The dream sequence let Keaton use vaudeville and Houdini-style magic bits in a movie grounded in reality.
“there were magic bits that he knew from vaudeville, from Houdini and other magicians”
verdict (best work):
Charlie Chaplin → One A.M..
Griffin says Chaplin's one-man drunk-on-the-staircase short is the best thing Chaplin ever did, better than his features.
“which, for my money, is still the best thing Chaplain ever did, over his features.”
unmapped (theater-viewing):
Sherlock, Jr. → Rear Window.
A CalArts teacher argued certain films, like Sherlock Jr., should be seen in a theater while Rear Window can be appreciated at home.
“you can watch rear window at home and appreciate it.”
unmapped (coincidence gag):
Sherlock, Jr. → Pulp Fiction.
The wrong-man-walks-by coincidence in the pawn shop is compared to Ving Rhames walking by in Pulp Fiction.
“much like Ving Reims and Pulp Fiction, just happens to walk by at that moment.”
craft (effects analysis):
Sherlock, Jr. → Corridor Crew (YouTube channel).
A YouTube channel was stumped by three of the film's special-effects sequences, more than by modern movies.
“they were more stump trying to figure out the special effects of Sherlock Jr. than most modern movies.”
unmapped (cartoon logic):
Sherlock, Jr. → Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
Keaton riding the handlebars without noticing the driver is gone follows Wile E. Coyote logic.
unmapped (childlike innocence):
Sherlock, Jr. → Dumb and Dumber.
Keaton's baffled reaction to the sudden babies is compared to a childlike, non-sexual innocence like Dumb and Dumber.
“where he has a childlike innocence, so he is not drawn towards sexual situations, if I may be permitted in comparison.”
unmapped (same setup):
The Navigator → Cabin Boy.
A fancy lad must prove he is a tough man at sea, a setup that Cabin Boy repeats while looking like a Harryhausen movie.
“Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick's cabin boy is such a Buster Keaton setup.”
craft (craft):
Cabin Boy → Ray Harryhausen.
Cabin Boy is coded visually and tonally as a Ray Harryhausen movie, with stop motion and forced-perspective giants, even as its story is a Keaton setup.
“that movie is obviously so coded like visually and tonally as a Ray Harryhausen movie, but Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick's cabin boy is such a Buster Keaton setup”
craft (reaction style):
The Navigator → Harold Lloyd.
In the ghost-painting bit Keaton panics like a Harold Lloyd character instead of staying deadpan.
“He actually had kind of a Harold Lloyd reaction to this.”
craft (craft):
The Navigator → Victor Herbert.
A Navigator title card jokes about singing Kiss Me Again to the music of Alice, Where Art Thou; the speaker looked up that Kiss Me Again is by Victor Herbert.
“Kiss Me Again is an up-tempo, like, waltz. That I can imagine. I can basically picture what that's written by Victor Herbert”
unmapped (Rube Goldberg gag):
The Navigator → Pee-wee Herman.
The pulleys-and-ropes kitchen sequence is described as Pee-wee Herman and Rube Goldberg stuff.
lineage (remake):
Seven Chances → Chris O'Donnell.
Seven Chances is one of the rare Keaton films that was remade, with Chris O'Donnell as the Buster Keaton of our day.
“Yes, with the with the Buster Keaton of our day.”
industry (beat it at the Oscars):
Roddy McDowall → Citizen Kane.
Griffin says he used to think the Roddy McDowall film shouldn't have beaten Citizen Kane, then saw it and changed his mind.
“oh, that's the movie that shouldn't have beaten Season K.”
unmapped (shadow):
Henry Selick → Tim Burton.
A host says Burton's name overshadows Selick; people hear Nightmare Before Christmas and assume it is Burton's.
“It does really feel like the Burton thing is a shadow.”
contrast (documentary type contrast):
Claydream → The Sparks Brothers.
David assumed Claydream was a Sparks Brothers-style career overview but it is really about art within capitalism.
“I assumed it was maybe more of a Sparks Brothers type.”
unmapped (takeover fallout):
Will Vinton → Henry Selick.
After Vinton was pushed out of Will Vinton Studios by Nike's Knight, the company (Laika) went after Selick.
“They go after Henry Selleck, who's like the other giant stop motion, at least in America, right?”
unmapped (unfinished predecessor):
The Shadow King → Wendell and Wild.
The Shadow King combined stop motion with shadow animation; some of that is used in Wendell & Wild.
“And they use some of that in this film, Wendell and Wild.”
unmapped (protagonist note):
Monkeybone → Wendell and Wild.
Selick's pattern is to choose an adult / unconventional lead (retired pitchmen, a middle-aged nun) until a producer pushes for the kid.
“Anyway, with monkey bone, I wanted every character to be a 60s, you know, retired pitch man.”
fun, about
Vanilla Sky:
Griffin's casting story: a casting director warned him not to joke about 'can you hear me now?' when the Verizon actor wrote and directed a film.
“the writer and director of this film, who's going to be in the audition is the can you hear me now, guy?”
fun, about
Vanilla Sky:
The recording was spread over years because the hosts kept leaving the country, so references to a breakup will be five weeks stale on release.
“Having to re-listen to me make references to how sad I am right now 5 weeks from now when this episode's released.”