Griffin Newman

96 sketches, 1,162 claims, and 605 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

Showing 41–60 of 96 sketches.

Blank Check — Patreon: Zodiac with Leslye Headland (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves Zodiac as a masterpiece and the Fincher dossier details; the show's box-office fixer. Gets weirdly delighted by obsessive production detail (flashlight museum, typewriters). Has no patience for the studio logic of dumping films.

Stances

  • Zodiac is Fincher's best film and the best of a loaded 2007
  • Studios act irrationally against their own interests
  • Fincher is often called cold and later vindicated

Humor: Dry, deadpan banter and a running bit about reading the room as a podcast host.

In their words

  • “Okay, I'm going to read a thing while David's still in there.” (2:25:37)
  • “Leslie, I get some satisfaction out of the fact that I think people who listen to this show sometimes think that I'm like on my devices during this.” (2:20:30)

Blank Check — Patreon: David Fincher Music Videos (host)

Loves music videos tied to movie soundtracks and the weirdly sincere Springfield video. Grew up on Disney cassettes, Hanson, and Celebrity Death Match era pop culture. Appreciates a sprawling, nonsensical video that sets up multiple characters.

Stances

  • Praises the Springfield Dance This World Away video as a favorite, then sours on it
  • Defends movie tie-in videos that interact with the film
  • Mocks Fincher's autopilot work on rock videos

Humor: Escalating bits and character voices, from the Beavis and Butt-Head shirt assignments to the fake Reddit thread.

In their words

  • “I think all 3 of these guys are me, but it's an ed ego super ego thing.” (0:22:01)
  • “I was in, uh, anything goes?” (1:15:38)
  • “Uh, no, Hanson Hanson was my favorite band at this point in time.” (2:08:42)

Blank Check — Patreon: Panic Room with Eva Anderson (Ad-Free) (host)

Obsessive movie nerd who tracked every upcoming film as a 13-year-old and has a soft spot for Kristen Stewart. Loves craft and box office lore, recoils from suspense that stresses him out.

Stances

  • Panic Room was built around Jodie Foster and defies logic otherwise
  • Fincher scaled back after the Fight Club flop

Humor: Runs bits on tangents like Studio 60, razor scooters, and Jared Leto.

In their words

  • “obsessively read every fucking dork website I could and thought I was ahead of the curve and knew every movie that was in the pipeline.” (0:26:32)

Blank Check — Patreon: Fight Club with Alex Ross Perry (Ad-Free) (host)

Is a movie-tie-in collector who grew up in Britain, did not see Fight Club until later, and was never the target of it. Loves a deep tie-in and a rights-clearing bit. Thinks the film is fine but not his formative one.

Stances

  • Not the film for him, but happy to talk about it
  • DVD and collector culture matters
  • Anti-ads bit as the through-line

Humor: Runs bits (no-ads fake-outs, Deadpool-cover Photoshops) and narrates posters.

In their words

  • “The reason I have to tap out of this is I grew up in Britain.” (0:15:19)
  • “I was such a fan of tie-in games.” (3:00:35)
  • “I just did not have that masculine.” (0:33:16)

Blank Check — Patreon: The Game with Brendan Hines (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves 90s thrillers, character actors, and Fincher at his bleakest; the show's box-office quizzer. Leans toward Se7en over The Game and wishes the movie really gamed him. Bit-hungry about names, keys, and found trivia.

Stances

  • Admires Se7en more than The Game
  • Never feels gamed by the movie
  • Likes The Player and the Criterion disc

Humor: Fast, absurd riffing and gags built on the movie's props.

In their words

  • “I would argue that I, my beef with this movie is that I never feel like I am being gamed.” (0:45:08)
  • “I don't hate the game.” (1:05:19)
  • “I love the player.” (1:05:18)

Blank Check — Patreon: Se7en with Mike Mitchell & Nick Wiger (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves grim, well-made thrillers and obsessive craft detail; reads the dossier and revels in production lore. Teases guests about their bits. Has a Tisch background and some gun-safety training from a film shoot.

Stances

  • Se7en is great and Fincher's control of a never-named city is the key choice
  • Fincher is a blank-check director
  • Pitt's need to prove himself is the performance

Humor: Driven by running bits, exact trivia, and deadpan fake interview impressions.

In their words

  • “You know what has happened?” (1:36:38)
  • “I did when I did gun safety training for Tomorrow War.” (2:08:57)

Blank Check — Patreon: Alien³ with Matt Singer (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves a sequel that spits in the studio's eye, and the Alien 3 behind-the-scenes extras. Enjoys box-office-weekend trivia, poster taglines, and Fincher's DVD-era thoroughness. Speaker attribution in this transcript is mostly inferred, so these are low-confidence reads.

Stances

  • Alien 3 is a crowd-displeaser by design
  • On the assembly cut versus theatrical: leans theatrical, as a cleaner movie (low confidence on which host says it)

Humor: Running bits (the Santa Claus line, the wood planet, poster minutiae).

In their words

  • “Okay. I think the assembly cut is better while not being perfect.” (0:14:24)
  • “I really do have a preference here, and it is the dog” (1:21:48)

Blank Check — Patreon: The Nightmare Before Christmas with Michael Rianda (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves Tim Burton's early work and defends late-period Burton, theme-park lore, box-office minutiae and Pixar-style craft. Can't stand studio condescension toward children and celebrity-casting logic. A sucker for sweaty, overworked names, bones, and unfashionable Disney touchstones.

Stances

  • Nightmare Before Christmas is a perfect movie that outlasts its ubiquity
  • Jack is an analog for artists trying to make commercial art
  • Studios underestimate children
  • Mrs. Doubtfire's box-office run deserves celebration

Humor: Sweaty-pun builds and deadpan escalation, riffing on bones and box-office numbers.

In their words

  • “I defend late period Burton” (0:18:59)
  • “I'm going to riot until they do.” (0:56:56)

Blank Check — Patreon: Eyes Wide Shut with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) (host)

Obsessed with this film and calls it his favorite of the Kubrick set alongside Barry Lyndon. Loves box-office trivia and where he saw things. A sucker for the small perfect line readings and the Christmas-lights look.

Stances

  • Eyes Wide Shut is a masterpiece
  • Reputation has risen and it will climb the Sight and Sound list
  • Bill's journey is about the impossibility of not knowing

Humor: Escalating riffs and bits, from alternate podcast lines to sequel fantasies.

In their words

  • “I don't need to know what grows for you every time when you watch that scene.” (0:01:19)
  • “Let's play the box office.” (2:42:11)

Blank Check — Patreon: Doctor Sleep (host)

Loves Doctor Sleep and the director's cut, and the idea that the sequel deepens The Shining. Treats Flanagan's patient, emotional horror as a plus and dislikes jump scares. A sucker for Rose the Hat as a villain and for the box office game.

Stances

  • Doctor Sleep is a great movie and rewatchable
  • jump scares are fake tension
  • legacy sequels usually just suck the steam from the original

Humor: Riffs and runs long on bits, such as the Rose the Hat biography and the Hunk Shoe sleep-train jokes.

In their words

  • “Now, I have to assume this is all conjecture on my part, okay?” (0:14:58)
  • “I give it 10 hunk shoes.” (1:33:23)

Blank Check — Patreon: Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves Kubrick's dark, mordant comedy and the Barry Lyndon, Shining and Eyes Wide Shut run, and tracks the casting and production legends behind Full Metal Jacket. Reads the dossier closely, likes award-season trivia and box office games.

Stances

  • Kubrick's humor works best when earnest performances sit at the center
  • Ermey was a surprising Oscar snub
  • ranks Strangelove low among Kubrick's funny films

Humor: Deadpan, quotes the film back at itself and lets the guests run riffs.

In their words

  • “I, I, I rank Strange Love lower in the pack of movies I find funny by him.” (1:36:54)
  • “Now, which your answer is do it to children.” (0:15:10)

Blank Check — Patreon: The Shining with Timothy Simons (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves Kubrick trivia, research-dossier detail, and the show's long-running bits; fascinated by how Altman's company shaped Shelley Duvall. Sensitive to anyone mishandling his catchphrases. A sucker for a Draft Day story and the box office game.

Stances

  • Stephen King's objections were a reaction to being shown himself
  • Kubrick's many takes need to be separated from cruelty
  • Would rather talk about the movie than its cultural weight

Humor: Pedantic riffs and teasing, usually at David's or Tim's expense.

In their words

  • “Wait, what is it called?” (0:13:43)
  • “I'm checking my notes here.” (2:47:46)

Blank Check — Patreon: Barry Lyndon with Karina Longworth (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves Barry Lyndon as one of his favorite movies and finds the humor in Kubrick more than the austerity. Sentimental about the film's warmth and its devastating last act, especially as a parent. A sucker for the film's absurd rules (duels, class) and for production lore.

Stances

  • Barry Lyndon is a comedy and Kubrick's warmest film
  • O'Neal is perfect in the part
  • Barry stays mysterious without an inner monologue

Humor: Plays it dry and jokey, leaning into modern analogies and bits.

In their words

  • “I feel like this was the epitome of when the critical community was like, yeah, Kubrick makes like coffee table books.” (0:07:58)

Blank Check — Patreon: 2010: The Year We Make Contact (host)

Likes genre craft and unvarnished big swings; enjoys box-office-game trivia and Kubrick lore. Dislikes pretension without payoff. Hosts wallow in sequel-hubris jokes.

Stances

  • 2010 is respectable and watchable, not a masterpiece
  • Hyams not aping Kubrick was the smart move

Humor: Riffs on fake headlines and extended bits, with a dry, deflating tone.

In their words

  • “Good pull griff.” (1:12:13)

Blank Check — Patreon: A Clockwork Orange with Alex Ross Perry (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves Kubrick's looseness and humor and wants to demolish the cold-genius myth. Resents the mythology built around him and the attitude of Kubrick guys. Is a sucker for comedy bits, Simpsons-grade jokes, and cinema trivia like the box-office game.

Stances

  • Kubrick is not a humorless perfectionist; he was elastic with actors and loved improvisation
  • The mythology around Kubrick makes the films less interesting
  • Held the line that the bits should continue

Humor: Runs long, escalating bits and puns, and pins running gags like hip hop Sims for later payoff.

In their words

  • “the more people try to put Kubrick in this, like, alien box, the less interesting I find him.” (0:36:11)
  • “I don't think of myself as a Kubert guy, is because of how much I resent the mythology that's built around him” (0:43:58)

Blank Check — Patreon: 2001: A Space Odyssey with Jordan Hoffman (Ad-Free) (host)

A Kubrick-series host who rewatched the films in order and found the 2001 rewatch surprisingly brisk. Loves the slow-sci-fi tradition including Star Trek The Motion Picture, and is moved by the ending's dread. A sucker for production lore from the dossier.

Stances

  • Reevaluating Kubrick as funny
  • 2001 is a brisk watch despite the slowness
  • Likes slow sci-fi like Star Trek TMP
  • AI rights may never be granted

Humor: Shifts between bits and earnest observations; lands jokes about the guest and podcast logistics.

In their words

  • “I found it a surprisingly brisk watch.” (0:36:31)
  • “I love the slowness of motion picture.” (0:44:04)
  • “My question is, do we ever grant them rights?” (0:48:01)

Blank Check — Patreon: Dr. Strangelove... with Sean Fennessey (Ad-Free) (host)

Loves Strangelove's dry delivery and Peter Sellers' underplayed Mandrake, and watched it as a comedy-obsessed kid through the AFI 100 Laughs list. Skeptical of Adam McKay's recent satire and of Don't Look Up's tag. A sucker for movie lists, titles and bits like podcast series names.

Stances

  • Mandrake may be the funniest of the three Sellers roles
  • The film's seriousness is what makes every joke funnier
  • Don't Look Up's ending works but its tag undercuts it
  • Podswide Cast was first pitch, best pitch

Humor: Escalates a bit with mock-grandiose confidence and wounded-pride deadpan.

In their words

  • “Podswide cast, it was like 1st pitch, best pitch, I just said we're fucking going with this.” (0:07:42)
  • “Mandrake talking about being captured by the Japanese is the funniest part of this whole movie.” (0:11:32)
  • “I watched this because AFI in the year 2000 did their 100 years, 100 laughs” (0:28:13)

Blank Check — Patreon: Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) (host)

Reread the book and finds it brilliantly written; an enthusiast of Kubrick on a big screen and of Sellers in Strangelove. Compares movies to a wide pop-culture range (Nope, Hail, Caesar!, The Lobster). Believes the Lolita poster beats the film.

Stances

  • The poster and tagline are better than the movie
  • The film's tone is wildly inconsistent but absorbing
  • Kubrick's films are best seen in a theater

Humor: Rapid-fire riffs, mock-pomposity and long tangents.

In their words

  • “I stand by it.” (1:38:12)
  • “Poster eats this movie's lunch.” (1:33:57)
  • “I hate watching his Kubrick movies at home.” (0:45:39)

Blank Check — Patreon: Spartacus with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) (host)

Leans on the dossier and the Kubrick-era history; loves tidy business-and-career stories and the Blank Check 'guarantor' framing. Likes bits about stars and their careers. (Speaker attribution within the transcript is inferred; confidence is moderate.)

Stances

  • Spartacus is Kubrick's guarantor: the hit that gave him the blank check
  • Kubrick was a pain but the work stands out

Humor: Rapid riffs and impressions on the episode's running bits.

In their words

  • “Today we are covering Spartacus, which is what we like to call a guarantor.” (0:26:58)
  • “This is the film that gives them the blank check that they run off of for the rest of their career.” (0:27:03)

Blank Check — Patreon: Paths of Glory with Sarah Marshall (Ad-Free) (host)

Admires well-made war films but finds them panic-inducing; prefers Full Metal Jacket to David. Likes the Coens (Hudsucker Proxy) and the box-office game ritual inherited from his father. Responds to Kirk Douglas as a star who used clout for challenging pictures.

Stances

  • War movies stress him out even when they are good
  • Paths of Glory is short in a way that is a blessing
  • Won't rewatch Saving Private Ryan despite loving it

Humor: Gallows-humor riffs and running bits that escalate the absurd (e.g. trench humor, reenactments as a Patreon goal).

In their words

  • “I get very stressed out watching war films even when I think they're good.” (0:02:01)
  • “I like full metal jacket more than you, David” (0:55:08)
  • “I buy it on fucking steel book.” (1:19:43)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Big Picture

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Their claims

Showing 301–400 of 1,162 claims.

  1. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Ricki and the Flash with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber · 0:00:56 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. 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”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Ricki and the Flash with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber · 0:04:16 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Ricki and the Flash with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber · 1:49:54 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  4. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 0:18:36 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  5. 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.
    “and they checked and they did not.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 0:19:45 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  6. 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.
    “Like this is his people versus Bugs movie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 0:38:03 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  7. people (casting): Natalie Portman → Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Portman was announced by Disney to voice Nausicaä and is cited as a woman culture has dumped its expectations on.
    “Natalie Portman, who almost played Nausicaa, was announced by Disney to play Nausicaa”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 0:47:31 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  8. unmapped (real-world analog): Lulu Wang → Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Griffin says Wang's press moment resembles Nausicaä's role as the one everyone looks to.
    “She is she is handling it, though, with the grace and valiant heroism of Nausaka.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 0:53:36 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  9. lineage (career origin): Hideaki Anno → Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The Neon Genesis Evangelion creator started on this film, animating the God Warrior waking.
    “one of the big guys from Neon Jellous, Neon Genesis Evangelian. Right, starts on this, right?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:11:15 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  10. industry (year-end rivalry): The Farewell → The Souvenir. Griffin flips between The Farewell and The Souvenir for movie of the year.
    “I keep flipping between it and the souvenir.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:15:15 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  11. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:24:41 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  12. 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”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:25:13 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  13. craft (craft criticism): Rob Marshall → Mary Poppins Returns. Marshall is a great choreographer who sabotages his own dance numbers by cutting away.
    “I don't understand how he, like, fucks his choreography so much.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:30:28 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  14. theme (image echo): Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind → WALL-E. Both end on the image of a single green sprout as proof that things can grow again.
    “This ends with the very Wally image, which is like the last frame in the end credits is the one... little sprout, the one little leak.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:33:25 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  15. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:37:17 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  16. 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?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:50:07 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  17. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with Lulu Wang · 1:50:14 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  18. industry (industry): Miami Vice → MTV. The show began as the legendary 'MTV cops' pitch from an NBC executive.
    “he wrote a brainstorming memo that read MTV cops.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Miami Vice - Pilot Episode · 0:13:46 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  19. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Planet of the Apes with Matt Singer · 0:17:07 · Griffin Newman (0.90 sure it was them)
  20. 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.
    “Because Lisa Marie is in this movie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Planet of the Apes with Matt Singer · 0:26:28 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  21. 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”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Planet of the Apes with Matt Singer · 0:51:03 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  22. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Planet of the Apes with Matt Singer · 1:18:41 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  23. theme (theme): Rogue One: A Star Wars Story → Admiral Raddus. A host's reading of Rogue One is that it is really about Raddus.
    “It was a vanity piece for General Radis.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · As Good as It Gets with Chris Gethard · 0:09:53 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
  24. 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.
    “It opened at number three.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · As Good as It Gets with Chris Gethard · 1:57:39 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  25. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:02:13 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  26. 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.
    “It's sort of a tweener.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:08:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  27. lineage (lineage): Paul Verhoeven → Hieronymus Bosch. Verhoeven says a Bosch painting with a man defecating in the background formed his artistic ideal.
    “these are the kind of films I want to make.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:16:22 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  28. theme (theme): Paul Verhoeven → Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Verhoeven screened Life of Brian then gave an academic talk on Jesus.
    “he screened life of Brian and then did this whole, like, academic talk afterwards”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:18:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  29. contrast (contrast): Flesh and Blood → RoboCop. 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 with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:19:12 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  30. career (career): RoboCop → Starship Troopers. Starship Troopers is the most extreme form of the deconstruction-as-entertainment approach.
    “Starship Troopers is sort of the most extreme version of it where they're like, we won.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:19:38 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  31. people (people): Paul Verhoeven → Rutger Hauer. Hauer was his constant leading man in Dutch films and has not worked with him since.
    “who is his constant collaborator in the Dutch movies, and not since.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:23:42 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  32. contrast (contrast): Spetters → The Loveless. Spetters is like his Loveless, about aimless bikers.
    “It's kind of his loveless.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:24:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  33. theme (theme): Flesh and Blood → The Loveless. 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 with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:27:54 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  34. 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.
    “Orion demanded there'd be a female character”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:28:36 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  35. verdict (verdict): Flesh and Blood → Paul Verhoeven. 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 with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:18 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  36. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:30:37 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  37. what-if (what-if): Paul Verhoeven → Rutger Hauer. Hauer wanted to play a hero but Verhoeven wanted a morally ambiguous villain.
    “He also wanted Rucker Hower's character to be very morally ambiguous and villainous.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:31:23 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  38. theme (theme): RoboCop → Jesus Christ. RoboCop is described as American Jesus, reflecting Verhoeven's Jesus fascination.
    “like, RoboCops about American Jesus.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:36:39 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  39. 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”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:36:44 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  40. career (career): Flesh and Blood → Paul Verhoeven. Flesh+Blood is called the Rosetta Stone for his career.
    “it's kind of the Rosetta Stone for one man's career.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:37:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  41. career (career): Rutger Hauer → The Hitcher. After the Verhoeven split Hauer leaned into villain roles like The Hitcher and Ladyhawke.
    “He makes like the hitcher and Lady Hawk”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:37:39 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  42. people (people): Bill Murray → Harold Ramis. Murray and Ramis did not speak for years after disagreeing over Groundhog Day's tone.
    “Murray was like, I want Groundhog Day to be more dramatic.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:38:15 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  43. lineage (lineage): The Scorpion King → The Mummy Returns. The Scorpion King is a spinoff of The Mummy Returns.
    “a spinoff of the Mummy Return.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:41:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  44. contrast (contrast): Flesh and Blood → Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. 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 with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:43:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  45. craft (craft): Flesh and Blood → Hieronymus Bosch. The film's opening is said to look like a Bosch painting.
    “Like, now we're in a bosh painting.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:02 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  46. craft (craft): Monty Python and the Holy Grail → Terry Gilliam. Gilliam wanted Holy Grail to look disgusting, like a Pasolini movie, which is the look Flesh+Blood shares.
    “Terry Gilliam always talks about how he wanted Holy Grail to be the only comedy that looked like a Pasolini movie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:44:39 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  47. 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”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:49:14 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  48. people (people): Nancy Cartwright → The Simpsons. The handmaiden is voiced Bart Simpson actress in a rare live-action role.
    “that's Nancy Cartwright who voices Bart Simpson.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 0:58:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  49. theme (theme): Flesh and Blood → Strange Days. 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 with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:05:02 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
  50. craft (craft): Flesh and Blood → Excalibur. 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 with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  51. industry (industry): Paul Verhoeven → Starship Troopers. He pitched Starship Troopers with a VFX demo of a bug killing a cow.
    “It was all VFX of like a bug killing a cow.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:13:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  52. career (career): Marco Schnabel → Jay Roach. The Love Guru was directed by Jay Roach's own first assistant director rather than Roach.
    “It was Jay Roach's 1st AD.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:14:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  53. craft (craft): Showgirls → Paul Verhoeven. Showgirls cuts together, though one speaker disputes it.
    “Oh, I love that movie, but I don't know if it cuts together.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:16:14 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  54. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:18:22 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  55. programming (programming): Flesh and Blood → Back to the Future. Flesh+Blood opened Labor Day weekend 1985 when Back to the Future was number one.
    “Back to the future?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:25:59 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  56. people (people): Uncle Buck → John Hughes. Uncle Buck is a John Hughes movie.
    “That's a John Hughes movie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:33:17 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  57. verdict (verdict): Planes, Trains and Automobiles → The Breakfast Club. Speaker defends Breakfast Club and calls Planes, Trains a masterpiece, while Sixteen Candles is too gross.
    “But breakfast club I stand behind.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Flesh+Blood · 1:34:09 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  58. craft (craft): The Lost World: Jurassic Park → John Williams. A host credits Williams for holding back his main Jurassic Park theme in the score until the end credits.
    “Williams, to his credit, does not use his theme until the credits.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Lost World: Jurassic Park · 0:52:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  59. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:36:19 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  60. unmapped (exposition overload): Lady in the Water → Star Wars prequels / The Phantom Menace. Both have stretches of invented-terminology exposition that never sink in.
    “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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:38:49 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  61. career (career context): Bryce Dallas Howard → Spider-Man 3. Howard booked Spider-Man 3 before Lady in the Water came out.
    “I think she booked Spider-Man 3 before this came out.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 0:54:57 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  62. 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.
    “She was like, the Lorax.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:00:55 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  63. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:18:00 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  64. theme (joke comparison): Lady in the Water → The Revenant. Jokes that Hugh Glass in The Revenant was really attacked by a scrunt.
    “I didn't like the revenant because in real life, Hugh Glass was attacked by a scrunt.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:25:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  65. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:28:06 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  66. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:32:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  67. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:33:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  68. 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?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:36:26 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  69. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:41:12 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  70. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:47:07 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
  71. people (casting analogy): Marion Cotillard → M. Night Shyamalan. In the Inception-as-filmmaking read, Cotillard stands in for Shyamalan.
    “Marian Cotiard is M. Night Shyamalan.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Lady in the Water with Richard Lawson · 1:47:30 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  72. unmapped (family): Robert Downey Sr. → Pound. Downey Jr.'s first screen role was in his father's Pound at age four or five.
    “His 1st onscreen performance, I think, was in Robert Diney Sr.'s pound when he was like 4 or five.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:09:21 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  73. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:11:07 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  74. people (collaboration): Air America → Mel Gibson. Gibson and Downey had made Air America together, which is why Gibson went to bat for him.
    “They had done Air America together, and he said, no one else will hire you.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:17:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  75. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:17:49 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  76. 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.
    “Gothica's weirdly the turning point, okay?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:18:03 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  77. people (producer): Susan Downey → Gothika. Downey met his future wife Susan, then a producer on Gothika, on the set where he had a small part.
    “On that film, there was a woman. producing it whose last name I don't remember. Susan something.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:18:20 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  78. people (producer): Susan Downey → The Judge. Susan Downey, who became his wife, is a producer credit on The Judge.
    “She becomes Susan Downey, which is why we don't remember her last name. Susan Downey, PGA. She's in the credit to the judge.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:19:24 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  79. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:19:37 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  80. unmapped (champion): Jon Favreau → Iron Man. Favreau sold Marvel hard on Downey with about 20 screen tests; Marvel relented.
    “Favreau goes to bathroom, sells them really hard because this is the only guy, he does like 20 screen tests, and Marvel finally relents.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:22:42 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  81. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:22:49 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  82. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:23:52 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  83. career (career-pattern): Due Date → The Judge. After Iron Man the only non-franchise outliers Downey signed on to were Due Date and The Judge.
    “and the 2 exceptions, the outliers are due date and the judge.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:24:46 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  84. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:25:09 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  85. theme (comparison): The Judge → Men, Women & Children. Both were overly earnest star-driven dramas that flopped, though The Judge made far more.
    “I'm saying judge is a similar level of overly earnest big stars doing...”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:30:57 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  86. people (cinematographer): Janusz Kaminski → The Judge. Kaminski, Spielberg's regular, shot The Judge beautifully but too seriously for the tone.
    “It's shot by Yanush Kaminsky, who's a great director of photographer. Steven Spielberg's regular, has shot every Steven Spielberg.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:34:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  87. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:36:07 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  88. lineage (sequel): Shanghai Knights → Shanghai Noon. Dobkin directed Knights, a catastrophe next to the masterpiece Noon.
    “The sequel to Shanghai Nune, which is a masterpiece.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:36:35 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  89. people (director): Wedding Crashers → David Dobkin. Dobkin directed this monster hit, which they say is misogynistic and unfunny but well shot.
    “It is very well shot, though. I will say it looks nice.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:37:36 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  90. people (same-director-motif): The Change-Up → The Judge. Both Dobkin films open or turn on peeing, bodily-fluid humor leaking into the prestige drama.
    “Another movie about peeing, where Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds pee into a fountain and lightning hits it and they change bodies.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 0:38:31 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  91. people (director): Lucky You → Curtis Hanson. Lucky You is the Curtis Hanson poker movie, with Bana, Barrymore, Duvall, and Downey in a bit credit.
    “It's Eric Banner, Drew Barrymore, and Robert Duvall, and Diamond Jr.'s on credit.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:01:14 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  92. theme (comparison): The Judge → Meet the Fockers. The naked-together bathtub gay-panic beat in the shower scene feels like a Fockers-style gag.
    “Like it almost turns into like a fucking little fokker seat where like they're naked together in a bathtub”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:04:56 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  93. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:14:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  94. people (great-performance): Robert Duvall → Open Range. Cited as better recent Duvall work than The Judge.
    “You know what he's fantastic in his open range?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:17:16 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  95. career (career-comparison): Robert Duvall → Robert De Niro. Duvall phoning it in beats De Niro sleepwalking or Pacino just yelling.
    “De Niro, when he's phoning it in, really is sleepwalking. Chino, when he's phoning it in, is just yelling.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:18:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  96. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:18:26 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  97. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:20:04 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  98. unmapped (suggested-biopic): Robert Downey Jr. → Chaplin. He should do another physical biopic like Chaplin, such as sad old Buster Keaton.
    “Biopic, you know, like you did with Chaplin, something where you're really physically testing yourself as an actor.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:24:39 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  99. 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.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Judging The Judge · 1:27:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  100. lineage (origin): Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope → Masters of the Universe. He-Man (and the 80s toy boom) was a response to every company having passed on Star Wars merchandising.
    “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.”
    The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:23:25 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 401–500 of 605 fun items.

  1. fun, about The Lego Batman Movie: Bar graph of Batman's happiness index versus days without crime goes straight down, an Adam West-style joke.
    “You saw that the bar graph that was Batman's happiness index versus days without crime.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:37:06 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about The Lego Batman Movie: Alfred rolls in on a spot labeled Kick Butler, a pure Adam West-style text joke.
    “the nameplate above it said Kick Butler.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:44:10 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  3. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:45:11 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Chris McKay: Dan Harmon wrote a Lego Batman 2 script (Lego Super Friends) that died when Universal bought the Lego rights.
    “Dan Harmon wrote the script for Lego Batman 2, which was Lego Super Friends.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:48:27 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  5. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:54:01 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  6. 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”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:56:09 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:59:05 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about The Lego Batman Movie: Lego Masters contestants strategized by talking about careers the way the hosts talk about directors.
    “the way they would strategize was talking about careers and the way we talk about directors”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 0:59:52 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  9. 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.
    “Sauron is just a talking tower.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 1:00:26 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  10. 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.
    “Everyone else is truly a cameo.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 1:09:48 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Deadpool: Robin's chimichanga comment ties to Deadpool's chimichanga bit, and Griffin finds chimichangas too heavy.
    “I just feel like chimichongas are, they're just very heavy.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 1:17:59 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  12. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 1:32:27 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about The Lego Batman Movie: The Phantom Zone guard, Ellie Kemper, is named Phyllis, which is also an Office character not played by Kemper.
    “which also has a character called Phyllis.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 1:37:40 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about The Lego Batman Movie: The hosts get blind Lego bags from Dave Colletta: General Zod, Blight, Apache Chief, dance-party Harley Quinn.
    “Oh, that's Apache Chief from the Super Friends.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 1:44:31 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: The episode's outro joke: they claim the runtime is 5 hours because they put on Secrets of Dumbledore.
    “So should I throw on Secrets of Dumbledore right now?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Lego Batman Movie · 1:48:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about James Gray: Maybelline commercials fund the uncompromising artist.
    “He does like fucking Maybelline commercials.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Marvel Nerdfest · 0:08:44 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about The Flash: Dad confused about which Batman is where.
    “I've tried to explain to him so many times”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Marvel Nerdfest · 0:12:19 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about X-Men '97: Disney Plus show continuing the 90s cartoon.
    “They are doing a show called X-Men 97”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Marvel Nerdfest · 0:24:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Eternals: Zhao's style could not be removed; still obligated Marvel beats.
    “The one movie that was shot so specifically that they could not take her style out of it.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Marvel Nerdfest · 0:30:42 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about Kevin Feige: Joke: did he jot down Hacker Witch five years ago.
    “Did he jot down Hacker Witch 5 years ago?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Marvel Nerdfest · 0:40:39 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about Old Dogs: Hosts note Becker's film is Disney live action, not Touchstone or Pixar: a Walt Disney picture by a Walt Becker.
    “It's a Walt Disney Walt Becker collab.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:10:52 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about Disney: Griffin's thesis: the flop ended an entire kind of Disney live-action film.
    “This movie like killed an entire, like, realm of possible films that Disney could make.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:12:13 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Seth Green: Seth Green's Star Wars Detours episodes were shelved while he was in Old Dogs.
    “He produced 39 episodes of Star Wars detours, was sat on a shelf.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:23:05 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  24. fun, about Walt Becker: His directing style, per Griffin: push every actor bigger on every take.
    “Waltbecker, his style is to tell every actor to just go bigger and bigger in every take.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:31:15 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  25. fun, about John Travolta: Charlie's magic hobby is set up by the fire trick and then dropped for the rest of the film.
    “He never once chose any affinity for magic over... the rest of the running time for the film.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:44:43 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  26. fun, about John Travolta: The fire-from-the-hands moment: Griffin insists Charlie can really conjure fire, since nothing disproves it.
    “Charlie has the ability to conjure fire with his bare hands.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:45:25 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  27. fun, about Walt Becker: Becker's commentary calls Travolta and Williams one of the great comedy duos, though they had never made a movie together.
    “He says, I think Travolta and Williams and this are one of the all time great onscreen comedy duos.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:52:41 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  28. fun, about Justin Long: Unbilled Long is the one actor who knows what movie he is in.
    “I think he is the only person who knows exactly what movie he is in.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 0:58:15 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  29. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:05:08 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  30. fun, about Old Dogs: The bereavement group scene: Lori Loughlin's beach house invite turns out to be a grief group.
    “Her grandmother died six months ago, she's been going to this bereavement group.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:09:16 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  31. fun, about Walt Becker: Alvin and the Chipmunks 4: Alvin sits next to John Waters on a plane, as Griffin's key Becker anecdote.
    “John Waters calls over a flight attendant, says, Excuse me.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:13:24 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  32. fun, about John Travolta: Travolta's Joker face after the mixed-up pills is a digital effect.
    “His Joker face is digital.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:14:49 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  33. fun, about Bernie Mac: Jimmy Lunchbox, Bernie Mac's role, is a master puppeteer with no puppets onstage.
    “Now, as I press play again, I want you to take note of, there being zero puppets on stage.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:18:04 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  34. fun, about Old Dogs: The motion-capture parenting suit has a sensor in an unfortunate spot.
    “His crotch is electrocuting because he has the sensor by his penis.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:22:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  35. fun, about Bernie Mac: Griffin warns the audience they are about to see Bernie Mac's last moments on screen.
    “You're about to see the last seconds of Bernie Mac on screen.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:23:38 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  36. fun, about Old Dogs: The Friday the 13th joke pays off: the kids watch the film in the apartment, and the host notes it's part three.
    “But this is not parts one or two because Jason doesn't wear the mask till three.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:28:25 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  37. fun, about Seth Green: A cutaway implies the gorilla and Seth Green have a thing.
    “The movie is implying at this point that the gorilla has mated with Seth.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:48:16 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  38. fun, about The Princess and the Frog: Box office game: the Disney animated film opened that weekend on two screens.
    “Princess and the Frog opens this week, number 18.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:54:07 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  39. fun, about Robert Zemeckis: Box office game: Marie's guess the 2009 holiday answer is Polar Express is wrong, it is A Christmas Carol.
    “Zameck is a Christmas Carol.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 1:55:01 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  40. fun, about Old Dogs: Sign-off line, and the show's running Becker joke.
    “Walt Becker's a dang ass freak.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · OLD DOGS - Blank Check LIVE! at the Bell House (May 12, 2022) · 2:00:06 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  41. fun, about Batman (TV series, 1966-68): Batman premiered and the Munsters tanked within four months; the Munsters movies came out after cancellation.
    “Right, it was like within 4 months of Batman premiering.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 0:03:12 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  42. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 0:05:04 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  43. fun, about The Batman: The opening dedication sends up lovers of the ridiculous and apologizes to any sizable group of lovers it overlooked.
    “We've overlooked any sizable groups of lovers, we apologize.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 0:14:32 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  44. 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.
    “Too many bets. Too many bets.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 0:47:39 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  45. fun, about Ben Hosley: Ben has knocked out a wall in his apartment and is building a Batcave-style computer room.
    “Ben, to be clear, just knocked out a wall in his apartment.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 0:53:31 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  46. fun, about The Batman: The Riddler's lazy branding: binoculars with a single question mark.
    “I think it's a little lazy of him to just get a pair of binoculars and put one question mark on them”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 0:59:39 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  47. fun, about Nicolas Cage: Cage told a Reddit AMA his Kick-Ass performance was modeled on Adam West, who later teased him.
    “Adam West was like, I saw you try to channel me.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 1:00:57 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
  48. fun, about Burgess Meredith: Meredith was blacklisted and then, jokes Griffin, quack-listed for years for being the Penguin.
    “He was also, unfortunately, I must mention, placed on the quack list for being the penguin.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 1:21:57 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
  49. fun, about School Marm (hosts' villain pitch): Ben pitches a villain who assigns deadly science homework; Griffin names her The School Marm.
    “Here's the name.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 1:36:35 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
  50. fun, about Batman's belt: All the pouches on West's utility belt are upside down.
    “all the pouches on his belt are upside down.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 1:49:19 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  51. fun, about Khartoum: Worst decision: applying makeup to the wrong actor (Olivier as Muhammad Ahmed).
    “Worst decision to apply makeup to the wrong actor.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 2:09:41 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
  52. fun, about The Batman: The commentary ends with a tease for the next Not All Batman episode in 20 days.
    “same bat Patreon, same bat feed, RSS feed.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Batman (1966) · 2:11:42 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  53. fun, about Twilight series: Target canceled the host's Twilight steel book order the fifth time.
    “Target canceled my steel book order for the 5th time.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Eclipse · 0:10:57 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  54. fun, about Burger King tie-in: Ring with Cullen crest that takes up four knuckles and opens to a picture of Edward.
    “It is a ring that would take up all 4 knuckles in terms of real estate and it has a hinge.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Eclipse · 1:35:39 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  55. fun, about Burger King tie-in: Burger King Kids Club meal items: Bella's tote bag, 3 inches long, plus others.
    “Bella's tote bag is a tote bag, which is, I don't know, 3 inches long.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Eclipse · 1:36:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  56. fun, about Burger King tie-in: A hacky sack with the Cullen crest, called the Forks foot bag.
    “a hacky sack with the Cullen family crest, of course.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Eclipse · 1:36:37 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  57. fun, about Gigli: Griffin learns Ben Affleck's character is named Larry Gigli and is saving Gigli for a Brest win.
    “I literally just learned that Ben Affleck's character in Jeely is named Larry Jeely.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:07:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  58. fun, about Joe Dante: Dante has said he would appear on the show if covered.
    “I've communicated with Joe Dante himself and his team, and they had offered that he would come on the show”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:08:48 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  59. fun, about Robert Altman: Griffin's father drank with both Altman and Cassavetes on the same night, and thinks Altman would win a fight.
    “My father drank with both of them once.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:09:36 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  60. fun, about Wong Kar-wai: He is recolorizing his films for Criterion editions.
    “him doing all the special editions has like pushed him into the forefront”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:16:22 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  61. fun, about Mike Leigh: Fans petitioned outside the blank check sphere for Mike Leigh.
    “people are petitioning people outside of the blank check sphere”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:17:35 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  62. fun, about Danny Boyle: The Beatles-less world prompts a joke about a Yesterday episode.
    “what if the Beatles didn't exist?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:19:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  63. fun, about Ernest Dickerson: Directors needing an IMDb lookup tend to underperform in March Madness.
    “If they require, you have to go to IMDb”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:21:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  64. fun, about Penelope Spheeris: Spheeris's decline: Senseless flop, Weinstein fights, called too old.
    “I got pegged with being difficult”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:28:19 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
  65. fun, about Spike Jonze: Jonze ran Vice TV as artistic director, and later made a Beastie Boys documentary.
    “I'm the head programmer.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:31:57 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  66. fun, about Gore Verbinski: Lone Ranger described as one of the most cursed movies.
    “It's cursed as fuck.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:34:50 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  67. fun, about Jackie Chan: Jamel campaigned: hashtag Fund the Police Story.
    “hashtag Fund, the police story”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:37:57 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  68. fun, about Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2's end credits praised as a favorite of the 2010s.
    “one of your favorite movies of the 2010s, of course, is the end credits to Twilight”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:42:26 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  69. fun, about Final Destination / Vacation: Death and Chevy Chase called spiritual embodiments of darkness.
    “Death and Chevy Chase.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:44:22 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  70. fun, about The Mummy: Mummy episode would cover the three Fraser films plus the Cruise one.
    “we would cover the 3 Frasers and the cruise.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:45:34 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  71. fun, about Cheech and Chong: Meme: Cheech and Chong as blank check during paternity leave.
    “Dave's not here.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:48:40 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  72. fun, about Saw / Rocky: Rocky waking in a meat freezer would punch the traps.
    “He's going to start punching the traps.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:51:17 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  73. 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?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:17:11 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  74. fun, about Alien: Covenant: Griffin's theater memory: texters in the row ahead; he let his guard down and missed the second Fassbender swap.
    “the people in the row in front of me would not stop texting.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:20:42 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
  75. 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.
    “McBride was pursuing a career as a filmmaker.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:32:23 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  76. 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”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:39:04 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  77. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:41:32 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  78. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:08:11 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  79. fun, about Alien Resurrection: The Fox logo at the start is clearly from the film print, grain and all, not an HD transfer.
    “clearly the logo from the film print from this movie.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:17:42 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  80. fun, about Brad Dourif: Dourif's perfect career: Alien, Lord of the Rings, Chucky, a secret Oscar nomination, unrecognized.
    “Brad Dorff, another example of a guy where I look at him and I go, that's a perfect career.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:21:00 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  81. fun, about Sigourney Weaver: Ripley 8's reptilian, T-Rex-armed performance is compared to Bowser.
    “Yes, she's doing like T-Rex arms.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:24:20 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  82. fun, about Alien Resurrection: Golden age of animatronics: the aliens can stay in bright close-ups for ten seconds without cutting away.
    “This is the peak of animatronic technology before the entire art form is largely thrown in the toilet.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:44:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  83. fun, about Ron Perlman: Perlman has a thermos canteen that turns into a gun; the more scars they add the better.
    “He's got a thermos gun.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:51:38 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  84. fun, about Brad Dourif: The pitch: killed early, only four weeks on set.
    “You only have to be on set for 4 weeks.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:54:22 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  85. fun, about Dan Hedaya: His shoulder hair is the subject of a long bit.
    “There are like Dungeons and Dragons adventures happening in his body hair, like as we speak.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 0:54:44 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  86. fun, about Dominique Pinon: The Santa Claus line reading, with the emphasis in the wrong place, is the movie's famous unnatural English line.
    “That's just such a clear, I don't understand the words I'm saying.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:07:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  87. fun, about Sigourney Weaver: Griffin met Weaver on Political Animals: she introduced herself at lunch and was impossibly tall and gracious.
    “Like she does look like a Greek god.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Resurrection · 1:23:53 · Griffin Newman (0.90 sure it was them)
  88. fun, about Tuba: Griffin's hot take that the tuba is the funniest of all instruments.
    “I think the tuba is the funniest of all instruments.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Alien 3 · 0:08:31 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  89. fun, about Scream (franchise): Griffin's Scream 4 audition: Wes Craven gave only silence and a shrug.
    “I auditioned like 5 times for screen four, including 4 Wes Craven”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation · 2:22:37 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  90. fun, about Greg Kinnear: Kinnear's pitch gave the restaurant breakup scene its soft ending.
    “Kinnear said, I'll do the movie if this is how my character line ends.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 0:32:47 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  91. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 0:46:53 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  92. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 0:58:04 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  93. fun, about You've Got Mail: The Zabar's scene was shot overnight from 10 PM to 5 AM; Hanks used the store PA to keep the extras happy.
    “So they filmed the entire thing from like 10 PM until 5 AM.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 1:12:45 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  94. fun, about Tom Hanks: Hanks's PA announcement at Zabar's, quoted by Ephron.
    “ladies and gentlemen, shoppers at Zabars, want to announce that Meg Ryan is appetizing.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 1:13:07 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  95. fun, about Nicolas Cage: Griffin's pitch: Cage and Travolta swap roles so Cage is Michael and Travolta is in City of Angels.
    “Nicholas Cage should have played Michael and John Travolta should have been in City of Angels with Meg Ryan.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 1:24:12 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
  96. fun, about Tom Hanks: Hanks called the Cafe Lalo scene, a 12-page, four-night shoot, the hardest of his career.
    “It was a 4 night shoot.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 1:39:22 · Griffin Newman (0.65 sure it was them)
  97. fun, about Nora Ephron: Ephron rehearsed her casts for weeks in a taped-out black-box theater with fake props.
    “tape out the sets and give them fake props and run every scene with full blocking weeks in advance”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 1:39:31 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)
  98. fun, about Tom Hanks: Hanks's own line on the Lalo scene.
    “I think it is the most sophisticated scene I have ever seen in a movie that is not supposed to be viewed as sophisticated.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 1:40:13 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  99. 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.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · You've Got Mail with Bobby Finger & Lindsey Weber (Ad-Free) · 1:42:15 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
  100. fun, about Hanging Up: IMDb carrot-costume quote: Maddie's demand to fight, answered by "fine" in unison.
    “Ever since I was 7 years old for Halloween, I dressed up as a carrot and you 2 snuck off without me.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Hanging Up with Sonia Sarayia · 0:02:59 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)