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
Humor: Riffs and character bits on the Willem de ___ names and ongoing running gags.
In their words
“I find the ending so incredibly movie.” (0:19:45)
Loves quirky or deep-cut cinema and playful franchise lore (Muppets, Species, Pink Panther sequels), and enjoys the abjectly stressful pool-hall world. Is a sucker for movie-star mannerisms and for fan trivia. Cannot stand Cars 2 or Zemeckis's Pinocchio.
Stances
Color of Money is a stabilizer, not a pure paycheck gig
Cars is bad and indefensible; Cars 2 is worse
Wants Lorraine Bracco redeemed via a Goodfellas episode
Adds stabilizer to the Blank Check lexicon
Humor: Rapid pop-culture riffing and running bits, playing unpredictably with franchise absurdities and mock-serious proposals.
In their words
“But stabilizer is a term we haven't used before. And you're right. Let's add it to the lexicon” (0:19:50)
“Cars is Doc Hollywood basically beat for beat.” (0:07:08)
Treats After Hours as a personal vibe movie and loves oddball details, Scorsese lore and downtown New York. Fond of Pee-wee and Griffin Dunn, plays bits about being named after Dunn. Cannot stand wasteful nostalgia and hates auto-flush toilets.
Stances
After Hours is a downtown, very Griffin movie
Modern remakes fail because phones and piled-up incident ruin it
Wicked 2 killed Wicked
Humor: Deadpan bits that run on, mock outrage, and wordplay about the Griffin theme.
In their words
“This movie also, let's just say, is very much reflective of my temperament.” (0:07:22)
A film completist who loves the weird 1980 corners of the box office and the Scorsese-De Niro dynamic. Cannot stand Jimmy Doyle as a date and worries about Hollywood executives. A sucker for obscure titles and good trivia and for Casavetes.
Stances
Raging Bull is a funny tragedy
Studio decisions based on metrics are ruining movies
Scorsese uses comedy to implicate the audience
Humor: Playful, riffing, bit-prone, with running gags like Hollywood 3.0.
In their words
“We've coined Hollywood 3.0 today for to describe just like the fucking nonsense that goes on day to day.” (0:13:41)
“The problem is those people who make the decisions now are like, it's like saber metrics.” (1:35:40)
He came to the film bored at 14 (no monsters or puppets) and now respects it without it being his kind of movie; he adores Peter Weir's craft, Pirates of the Caribbean-era trivia and Oscar and career-arc analysis. He is a sucker for genre-bending Weir details and franchise history.
Stances
Revisited the film and understands its value though it is not innately his kind
Pirates of the Caribbean hurt this movie
Insists on playing the box office game
Weir is a patient director
Humor: Self-deprecating, quick riffs, bits about his own childhood tastes.
In their words
“It is innately not my kind of film, but I was not disengaged from it in the way I was as a 14 year old.” (0:36:16)
Loves physical media, 4K steelbooks, and calling unlikely films masterpieces. Prone to over-planning and lateness. An anxious flyer who relies on Klonopin and researches crashes. Has a blind spot for studio comedies he has not seen.
Stances
Fearless is excellent but not a three-hour oil-drilling episode
movies are great again
Small Soldiers and Sliver defended as masterpieces by friends
Humor: Rapid-fire riffs, self-roasts, and elaborate hypothetical bits.
In their words
“They announce they announce small soldiers 4K steel book. and I go, obviously, inarguable masterpiece.” (1:00:59)
A heavy researcher who comes with a 'dossier' of production history, interview quotes and box-office data, and loves Coens details, McDormand and Macy's performances, and deep-cut trivia. He is a sucker for the Mike Yanagita scene and the film's tonal balance, and delights in the weekly box-office game.
Stances
Fargo is the best encapsulation of the Coens, the way Blue Velvet is of Lynch
Macy should have been nominated for lead
Searches for essays-worthy meaning in the editing choices
Defends Jurassic Park III
Humor: Dry, bit-driven, and loves a running gag about podcast mechanics and Ben.
In their words
“I'm going to open the dossier now” (0:40:11)
“directing is about tone management.” (0:32:35)
“Okay, now I need to sidebar here for a 2nd because David and I are both Jurassic Park 3 defenders” (1:19:12)
Loves puppet-baby and in-utero comedy, rewatching movies on Letterboxd, and weird Blu-ray ephemera. He is a Shelley Long Cheers loyalist who was cool on Kirstie Alley until this movie, and has a parent's eye on infant safety. He prefers movies that feel made by one person.
Stances
The in-utero Mikey is peak comedy and the infant middle is lazy
Authorship is the show's central criterion for a director
Rebecca-era Cheers was a shadow of the show
Humor: Escalating riffs and tangents (Rugrats connections, Renaissance prequel pitch) delivered in dry mock-formal register.
In their words
“I think this is both such a good movie star performance from him and such a great example of what I would call a movie star movie” (0:37:06)
“everything about this feels like it was made by one person.” (1:49:39)
Passionate about Spielberg's autobiographical psychology and Oscar-race history; loves Lincoln, Catch Me If You Can, ensemble casts, and Malkovich as a flavor. Cannot stand Always and Spielberg's pure comedies; a sucker for deep-dive trivia and dossier research.
Stances
Empire is a very good movie where Spielberg starts subverting his own style
Fabelmans explains Spielberg's trauma
1941 and Always are weak spots
Spielberg suffers from being compared to his own canon
Humor: Self-aware riffs, callbacks, and long absurd comparisons (sun-dried tomatoes on a sandwich), plus bits about Ben's resolutions.
In their words
“I think this movie's excellent.” (0:38:38)
“He's sun dried tomatoes on a sandwich.” (0:01:21)
“I do not have a single happy memory of my childhood.” (1:52:20)
Came to Indiana Jones late, via box sets before Crystal Skull, and prefers Last Crusade for its silent-comedy streak, with reservations about Temple of Doom. Fascinated by how movies were made and by fandom history; a sucker for Spielberg staging, action craft and comics-era nostalgia.
Stances
Raiders is a lightning-in-a-bottle movie the sequels cannot recapture
Modern action imitators reverse-engineer surface elements
Treats Crystal Skull as half working
Humor: Does self-aware impressions and cranky-David riffs, mixes film nerd rigor with asides.
In their words
“Whereas I think, you know, David and I always felt like weird kids were we were paying attention to this at a time when like people were not.” (0:17:08)
He is the first-time Return viewer on this episode, so his taste shows in reactions: he loves Lynch's plainness, simple low-tech tricks and the sense that reality is ripping apart. He wants spoiler-free viewing, the proper Criterion/box-set version, and cannot stand being told to read recaps. A sucker for bits and for a gift-worthy game of ratings guessing.
Stances
Wants to be unspoiled and refuses to read recaps or the behind-the-scenes documentary yet
Treats Part 8 as hypnotic and nearly unsummarizable until the others explain it
Believes in extended bits (Wonka 2, Gethard cut) over discussion
Humor: He builds long running bits and follows riffs to absurd conclusions, sometimes holding straight faces.
In their words
“I'm going to ask dumb questions because you guys have been thinking on these things for years, if not decades, and I'm new to all of this, right?” (1:09:38)
“I felt like I, as a viewer, had like lost control of my point of view watching.” (0:52:12)
Reads the show's research dossier aloud and loves film-history trivia, particularly how directors get hired and what the studios did to them. Identified from lines addressed to him and dossier reads; many individual attributions with David are uncertain. Enjoys the Dune film as a design and sound object.
Stances
Dune '84 is fascinating as the one bounce that redirected Lynch's career
Respects the dossier's production details over speculation
Humor: Dry riffing and callbacks, running bits with Ben and the dossier-researcher JJ.
In their words
“So in the dossier, David.” (1:05:21)
“JJ, while we were recording, texted David and I hope the Dune dossier still made sense once you reach the deeper pages, LOL.” (2:29:32)
Loves plot-driven noir, weird procedural details (chain mail gloves, pockets, eyedrops) and Park's stranger visual gags. He prepares the director-biography research and box-office game. Is a sucker for bits that run for minutes, like the sand-beach and Wheel of Fortune riffs.
Stances
Park's best scenes are the quietly bizarre ones, ten per film
Decision to Leave works because the hero cannot see her directly
Likes long-running meta bits more than the ad-reads
Humor: Absurdist escalation and puns, running a single detail (chain mail, sand beach) into the ground.
In their words
“Okay, so yeah, let's talk about the plot of the movie. Guy falls off a mountain.” (0:54:04)
“Oh, can I just Shout out to she, young Kim.” (1:34:01)
Treats Sherlock Jr. as a perfect film and loves seeing silent comedy in a theater, where he says it transformed him at CalArts. Prefers Chaplin's One A.M. to his features, and is a sucker for meta jokes about film language and for Cabin Boy-style references. He sours on The Navigator's cannibal-island finale for its racism.
Stances
Sherlock Jr. is one of the best movies ever made and a contender for best film covered on the show
Certain films must be seen in a theater with an audience
Short runtimes of 40 to 50 minutes suit these comedies best
The Navigator is Keaton in play-the-hits mode and the racist finale kills it
Humor: Riffs on running bits and pop-culture parallels, then happily trips himself up in his own jokes.
In their words
“which, for my money, is still the best thing Chaplain ever did, over his features.” (0:58:42)
“you can watch rear window at home and appreciate it.” (1:00:20)
“Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick's cabin boy is such a Buster Keaton setup.” (1:51:04)
Loves Selick's visual inventiveness and thinks Wendell & Wild eventually satisfies despite its density; steeped in film-business history and trivia. Defends big sci-fi blockbusters with heavy exposition like Inception and Avatar. Rankings: Nightmare 1, Coraline 2, Peach 3, Wendell & Wild 4, Monkeybone 5.
Stances
Wendell & Wild works in spite of itself
Netflix botched the release
Nightmare edges Coraline on the ranking
Monkeybone is an odd, likable bad object
Humor: Riffs on streaming-era absurdity and takes self-aware swipes at the show's own running gags.
In their words
“I do think it is cohesive by the end of the movie.” (1:54:06)
“I would say it works in spite of itself.” (1:53:03)
Respects the craft of Fosse and defends Star 80 as powerful and aware of its own evil, while admitting it nearly unbearable. Loves the structural play of Fosse's films and Alan Ladd-era filmmaker faith. Cannot endorse or recommend Star 80, hates the soundtrack and dwells on true-crime and victim culture.
Stances
Star 80 is great but almost unwatchable and not recommendable
Fosse is underrated as a filmmaker
Fosse hates himself and does not seek forgiveness
Ranks Cabaret first with All That Jazz a close second
Humor: Self-deprecating, dark and quick, with pop-culture riffs and jokes about his own podcast.
In their words
“I think this movie is like staring into the sun.” (0:04:19)
“He, I do think, is incredibly underrated as a as a filmmaker.” (0:05:55)
Loves the film's elusive, memory-like childhood section and its refusal to explain itself; is invested in Campion's research quotes and festival lore. Can't stand the bedsheet-to-armpits sex scene and heavy-handed biopic cliches. A sucker for oddball 90s trivia like FX2 and Brian Bosworth.
Stances
The film should be a movie, not a three-part TV series
Likes biopics that focus on one slice of life
Wants to protect young Janet and root for her
Collects odd details and quotes from Campion interviews
Humor: Self-deprecating and digressive, jokes about his own obsessions and failures.
In their words
“I was so like moonlight pilled watching this movie” (0:20:22)
“I just wanted to protect her in this sort of 1st half of the movie.” (0:51:46)
Loves classic-Hollywood trivia, obsessive research dossiers, practical effects and the unfussy craft of Bridges' performance. Worships Dean Cundy and wishes he had shot Starman. Cannot stand overstuffed jukebox movies like the Amazon Cinderella. A sucker for Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet and Oscar-clip nostalgia.
Stances
Starman is a good dorky movie; the poster and home-video art are bad
Cundy would have made it better
Carpenter's unsentimental filmmaking helped it age well
Coppola should make Megalopolis now
Humor: Riffs on voices, absurd imagined scenes and dad jokes, then goes deep on obscure Hollywood trivia.
In their words
“I love a road trip movie.” (1:33:30)
“I'm trying to do Jeff Bridges in this movie” (0:04:43)
Loves a good character-driven film with specificity and is a sucker for franchise action (Mission: Impossible) and spirited bad-movie obsessions. Can't stand Joy and Jason Reitman's tone-deaf fan-service sequels, and gets wary when a movie loses its human focus.
Stances
Ricki and the Flash is a good premise executed poorly
Defends Tully until its twist
Blames some Demme decisions for Ricki's flatness
Humor: Quick pop-culture riffs, fake-announcer bits and absurd puns, often at his own expense.
In their words
“Jason Reitman has given Ghostbusters back to the fans.” (0:02:48)
“I was like, we need to ban children from films forever.” (0:05:16)
Loves practical movie-making and visible seams, and gets emotionally floored by sincere pictures like The Farewell and Spirited Away. Cannot stand dense plotting without a map, gun fetishism, and 'Western catharsis'. A sucker for John Wick, Keanu Reeves, heroic dogs, and a perfect sandwich.
Stances
Nausicaä is busy and he would like it better in sequence after Lupin, Cagliostro and Sky
John Wick: Chapter 3 is the best Wick and one of the year's best
Practical animation cheats are charming, not a flaw
Dubs are fine and he regrets not using the dub for the plot
Humor: Self-deprecating, tangential, and bit-driven, he tends to run an absurd joke (the Disney Store greeter, Galactus-sized puppeteer) until the others stop him.
In their words
“I love practical shit. I love the seams of movie making, you know?” (0:55:15)
“this movie doesn't understand that this is fucked up now.” (1:37:12)
“I think it's maybe the best work of Keanu's entire career.” (1:50:14)
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 301–400 of 1,162 claims.
people (frequent director):
Diablo Cody → Jason Reitman.
Reitman has directed half of Cody's movies.
“Half her movies have been directed by Jason Reitman, who, uh, I, you know, will happily do on this podcast in the year 3000.”
lineage (origin-story parallel):
Jason Reitman → Darren Aronofsky.
Reitman's image-first story for Afterlife recalls Aronofsky's story of typing the title mother and the exclamation mark.
“that reminds me of the Darren Aronovsky story about writing the title for mother”
unmapped (joke equivalence):
Pixels → Ricki and the Flash.
A joke that Pixels was Adam Sandler coming back to a recovering suicidal daughter, i.e. Ricki.
“Became Adam Sandler coming back to a suicidal daughter's like recovery period.”
lineage (adaptation):
Toxic Crusaders → The Toxic Avenger.
A kid-friendly cartoon was spun off a transgressive Troma film, and a revival died because the contracts could not be found.
“Toxic Crusaders, which was the weird Saturday morning version of Toxic Avenger, uh, a movie that is super transgressive and the least child friendly thing in the world.”
unmapped (legal anecdote):
Donkey Kong → King Kong.
Nintendo escaped a Universal suit because nobody had registered King Kong, and Nintendo got the Donkey Kong trademark first.
theme (premise comparison):
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind → Starship Troopers.
Early in the film it reads as Miyazaki's people-versus-bugs movie, but its ending flips the Starship Troopers propaganda by having the heroine empathize with the bugs.
unmapped (cause of policy):
Warriors of the Wind → Hayao Miyazaki.
The butchered US version led Miyazaki to refuse any change to later American releases.
“this was so stupid that, uh, that's sort of, I think, the beginning of Miyazaki being like, I approve any, uh, American version.”
industry (creator vs studio):
Princess Mononoke → Taxi Driver.
The no-cuts sword story is paired with Scorsese's story of nearly holding Columbia hostage over a recut of Taxi Driver.
“Scorsese has that story about the night that he almost had a mental breakdown when Columbia wanted to recut taxi driver”
contrast (ethical contrast):
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind → The Lion King.
Nausicaä values insects as alive, whereas the photoreal Lion King has Timon and Pumbaa eating bugs that visibly flee in fear.
“Whereas Nausaka is like the one person who's like, no, they're like alive.”
contrast (tone contrast):
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum → Thor.
Gun fetishism in Thor's ending bothers Griffin, but John Wick's cartoonish violence does not.
“Gun fetishy stuff, I just get really uncomfortable, right?”
career (career comeback):
Keanu Reeves → John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
Griffin argues the film is a masterpiece of survival that mirrors Keanu's own loss and repeated comebacks.
“it's maybe the best work of Keanu's entire career.”
unmapped (expectations):
Planet of the Apes → Toy Story 2.
Griffin was as excited for Apes as for Toy Story 2, which exceeded his expectations while Apes crushed them.
“And the only other movie I was ever this excited for was Toy Story 2, which became my favorite movie of all time.”
unmapped (Burton romance):
Lisa Marie → Helena Bonham Carter.
Burton met Helena Bonham Carter on Apes, and Lisa Marie, who appears in the film and has her last Burton role, was the Burton partner Griffin was invested in; paparazzi caught him with Bonham Carter in Paris.
theme (personal trilogy):
Tim Burton → Ed Wood.
One commenter argued Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns say everything Burton has to say; after that he took what was offered.
“Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, and Batman Returns, or like this perfect triptych of everything that guy sort of has to say in his heart”
theme (ending parallel):
Planet of the Apes → Planet of the Apes.
Alex Ross Perry texted that the original book ends in a way very similar to the 2001 film.
“the original book ends in a way that's very similar to this.”
programming (programming):
As Good as It Gets → Tomorrow Never Dies.
It opened at number three on Dec. 26, 1997 behind Titanic and Tomorrow Never Dies.
craft (craft):
David Chase → The Sopranos.
Chase insisted on casting real guys with real mob history, which made production tell actors with arrest warrants not to show up.
“David Chase was like so into like getting these real guys who had the real history.”
industry (industry):
Flesh and Blood → The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Flesh+Blood is a tweener or bridge between two phases of the director's career, as Lost World was for Spielberg.
lineage (lineage):
Paul Verhoeven → Hieronymus Bosch.
Verhoeven says a Bosch painting with a man defecating in the background formed his artistic ideal.
industry (industry):
Flesh and Blood → Orion Pictures.
Orion financed most of the film and demanded a female character, cutting the rape scene; it kept Verhoeven afterward for RoboCop.
industry (industry):
Flesh and Blood → Piranha II: The Spawning.
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.”
people (people):
Rutger Hauer → Paul Verhoeven.
Hauer and Verhoeven fought on Flesh+Blood because Hauer wanted to play a hero after Blade Runner and they never worked together again.
“Howard was so pissed off that Verhoeven wouldn't let him be like a fucking matinee idol hero because he was afraid of being typecast after Blade Runner”
career (career):
Flesh and Blood → RoboCop.
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”
contrast (contrast):
Paul Verhoeven → Bill Hader.
Verhoeven is like Bill Hader, not Rich Little: he learned American blockbuster craft to smuggle in his own content.
“If I can learn their language, then I can smuggle all the things I actually want to say into these conventional looking movies.”
craft (structural echo):
Lady in the Water → The Village.
The cast-intro structure, where each character gets one cartoonish trait up front, works like The Village, except The Village is involving.
“sort of in the same way that the village works, except the village is involving.”
“We talked about there was a phenomenon that would occur in that movie in those movies where like a stretch of dialogue is so much fucking nonsense information.”
theme (plot comparison):
Lady in the Water → The Lorax.
A creature living in a tree stump who kicks herself in the behind and flies to the sky is likened to the Lorax.
contrast (worldbuilding contrast):
Lady in the Water → Harry Potter (the films).
Proposes the invented terms would be easier if the story were a known fable, since J.K. Rowling's invented vocabulary was learned by audiences.
“Like, he was just like, oh, J.K. Rowling did it.”
unmapped (answering critics):
M. Night Shyamalan → The Village.
A scene where a character is outraged that the critic presumed to know his motives is read as Shyamalan reacting to critics of The Village.
“this is M. Night Shyaman being like, don't tell me what my motivations were for making the village.”
verdict (verdict):
Christopher Doyle → Lady in the Water.
After calling the party scene illegible and boggling to follow, the speaker jokes that the cinematographer's own habits explain why the film is hard to follow.
“But in his defense, the reason's so hard to follow is because Christopher Doyle was having sex with a black woman and being arrested while they were.”
theme (ending comparison):
Lady in the Water → Signs.
Both end abruptly on one image after someone heals a body through prayer or love, with only a token time jump.
“Because signs does the same thing where it just ends.”
theme (recurring theme):
Lady in the Water → Signs.
Shyamalan films all center on men who neglect family for work and on crises of faith; here the man loses his family entirely.
“all in my trauma films are crisis of faith movies, right?”
people (falling out):
M. Night Shyamalan → Nina Jacobson.
Shyamalan left Disney reportedly because Jacobson did not read the script immediately and then did not like it.
“Disney's president of development, Nina Jacobson, took her son to a party instead of staying home to read the script for lady in the water.”
unmapped (film about filmmaking):
Lady in the Water → Inception.
Griffin reads Lady in the Water as Shyamalan's Inception, with the crew roles standing for the collaborative filmmaking process.
“I think he confirmed it, that Inception was Christopher Nolan's film about filmmaking.”
people (director-style):
Chaplin → Richard Attenborough.
Chaplin is called a bland, mediocre Attenborough-style biopic despite Downey's physical performance.
“Yeah, I mean, it's Richard Attenburg kind of, yeah. It's super bland.”
unmapped (backing):
Mel Gibson → Robert Downey Jr..
After Air America together, Gibson put up the insurance bond so Downey could be hired when no one else would insure him.
“Mel Gibson puts up the insurance bond because he believes this guy needs a chance, but the movie doesn't do very well.”
career (career-turning-point):
Gothika → Robert Downey Jr..
Gothika, though a bad film, was his first big-studio return on the straight and narrow, and led to Susan.
people (producer):
Joel Silver → Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Silver produced Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, written by his Lethal Weapon writer Shane Black, which became Downey's leading-man calling card.
“which was produced by Joel Silver, one of by Shane Black, who wrote some of Joel Silver's biggest hits.”
unmapped (salary-dispute):
Terrence Howard → Iron Man 2.
Howard earned triple Downey on the first film, and the raise-for-Downey dispute explains the recast.
“He gets paid less than any other actor in the film. Terrence Howard got 3 times as much as him.”
people (producer):
Sherlock Holmes → Susan Downey.
The Silver Company and Downey's wife built Sherlock Holmes as a franchise for him once he was a proven box-office star.
“The Silver Company and his wife, they said, now that you're a proven box office start, Let's make a franchise for you where we can benefit from it.”
people (director-experiment):
Due Date → Todd Phillips.
Phillips, fresh off The Hangover, wanted to test how far he could push Downey's prickliness and still be liked.
“I want to try to experiment with how far I can push Danny Jr. in a film and still have audiences like him.”
people (writer-link):
David Dobkin → Gran Torino.
Dobkin had the idea from his father's elder years and pitched it to the writer of Gran Torino, who wrote it.
“picture basically to the writer of Grand Torino.”
contrast (awards-contrast):
The Judge → The King's Speech.
King's Speech and A Beautiful Mind are the nearest recent mannered Oscar winners, but they are British or biopic.
“But that's the British Tony thing. You know? And Beautiful Mind is like biopic.”
people (great-performance):
Robert Duvall → The Godfather.
Duvall's restrained Tom Hagen is held up as proof Oscars do not simply nominate him for everything.
“Oh, Tom Hagen is one of my favorite characters ever.”
lineage (homage):
The Judge → Man of Steel.
The tornado father-son fight echoes the father-son tornado scene in Man of Steel, another Warner Bros. film.
“an homage to everyone's favorite father son scene from Man of Steel.”
people (suggested-collaboration):
Robert Downey Jr. → Paul Thomas Anderson.
To get an Oscar he needs a director who will push him out of his zone, such as PTA or Sam Raimi, not Dobkin.
“But someone like Paul Thomas Anderson. You know who's not going to let him close.”
“so much of He-Man and the 80s for toys is a response to every major company passing on Star Wars that Star Wars is the whiff that no one can live down.”
fun, about
The Lego Batman Movie:
Robin has not figured out Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person: Bruce Wayne lives in Batman's attic, and Batman says Bruce told him it's okay to hang out.
“he has to be like, uh, Bruce told me it's okay for you to hang out with me.”
fun, about
The Lego Batman Movie:
Animators keep the Lego limits: arms rotate and swing but never bend, though shoulders may dislocate to cross the chest.
“but they'll let the entire arm sort of like remove from the body and turn inwards.”
fun, about
Lego (company):
Lego ruled the 90s by building its own mythologies each year, with Johnny Thunder as its Indiana Jones hero, before the 1999 Star Wars deal.
“There's Johnny Thunder, who is their attempt to create like an Indiana Jones style hero”
fun, about
The Lego Batman Movie:
A listener built Lego versions of the hosts; the builder, Dave Colletta, became a top contestant on Lego Masters, which Arnett hosts.
“And the guy who built the figures of us became like one of the best contestants on this fucking show.”
fun, about
The Lego Batman Movie:
Phantom Zone includes Sauron as a talking tower, Voldemort turning people to fish, the Wicked Witch, a Gremlin crew, and a Creature from the Black Lagoon.
fun, about
The Lego Batman Movie:
Griffin argues the movie is a flawed pick for David because the IP cameos are shallow; the villains get little screen time.
fun, about
Doctor Who:
Griffin explains a Dalek: it's a garbage can with a plunger because, per him, an arm went missing and a bathroom plunger replaced it.
“they were missing an arm and they took a plunger out of the bathroom.”
fun, about
Old Dogs:
After Justin Long's scout troop shoots a statue's head off, they burn it down and get kicked out.
“After shooting the head off the statue, they stayed there long enough for the sun to go down to light the whole thing on fire, and then they were kicked out.”
fun, about
Griffin Newman:
Griffin's Supergirl bit: Burt Ward and other legends in the opening credits made viewers think Crisis would tie in The Tick.
“For 5 seconds, I think people thought Crisis on Infinite Earth was gonna tie in the tick universe.”
fun, about
Adam West and Frank Gorshin:
The legend that West and Gorshin went to a Hollywood orgy in character and were expelled for doing too many bits.
fun, about
Alien: Covenant:
The Franco footage cooks him alive and Griffin says the 10-second prologue would have made the film's emotional start stronger.
“you kind of really benefit from seeing him for 10 seconds alive, you know?”
fun, about
Danny McBride:
McBride went to film school wanting to write and direct, was cast in friends' films, never auditioned, and said Covenant was what he always wanted to do.
fun, about
The Tick:
Griffin recounts his hardest technical acting scene: Dr. Karamazov shrunk, shot against tennis balls on sticks then redone from his own recorded dialogue.
“the single most challenging thing I've ever had to do as an actor on a technical level is”
fun, about
Alien: Covenant:
Merchandise for the movie showed an earlier, practical-looking xenomorph design before the creature was redone in CGI late in production.
“All of the merchandise for this movie had an incorrect xenomorph design.”
fun, about
Alien Quadrilogy:
The 2003 DVD box set that David calls a word hardly used outside that box; Resurrection got a special edition about seven minutes longer.
“Quadrilogy, a word that has rarely been used outside of that one box.”
fun, about
You've Got Mail:
The fall leaves in the movie are CGI because they shot in the summer, per the commentary track by Ephron and Schuler Donner.
“They're like, all of the fall stuff is CGI, baby.”
fun, about
Dave Chappelle:
Chappelle delivers the odd line 'she has the same coloring as' that was written for an older Eastern European actor in the original.
“if you look up the actor who played the best friend role and shop around the corner, it's like an older Eastern European man with a mustache.”
fun, about
Tom Hanks:
The script supervisor fixed Hanks's block on the Lalo scene: he stays because he is trying to build the courage to say it is him.
“Your motivation, this scene, is you think if you stay longer, you'll finally build the courage to say it.”