Prizes practical blockbuster filmmaking, big star performances and Scorsese-era craft; an unabashed defender of late-period Ridley Scott. Dislikes messy modern blockbuster scripts and over-reliance on CGI. A sucker for Denzel and for horror and sci-fi legacy sequels.
Stances
Was entertained but rates Gladiator II well below the original
Denzel Washington is the reason to rewatch it
The film wanted the original's pyramid structure without doing something different
Wanted Gladiator II to have the guts of Before Midnight
Humor: Mock-aggrieved nitpicking and tangents about food, friends and money.
In their words
“I was entertained.” (0:13:17)
“I'm mostly in the bag for everything he does.” (1:12:12)
The most openly critical voice on Babylon: admires the virtuosity but says the opening party rings hollow, and that the film holds together less well than he remembered. Relates to P.J. Byrne's character. Fan of scene-level filmmaking, Brad Pitt's persona work, golf and public courses, and menswear (J. Crew, Uniqlo). Sucker for bits like Trump impressions and Zyn.
Stances
Babylon is a collection of great scenes that does not quite congeal
Hive-adjacent, not in the hive
Seeing movies in theaters with a crowd adds to the experience
Humor: Slow-burn self-deprecation and bit commitment (the Zyn pouch, Trump voice, the J. Crew detour).
In their words
“and it rings hollow to me, which is perhaps the point” (0:26:34)
“The scenes the individual scenes are popping, but the actual movie is maybe not holding together as well as it did in the theater that I remember.” (2:12:00)
Heat is his number one and Manhunter his yearly rewatch; likes messy reclamation projects like Miami Vice. Loves Ferrari and thinks Mann went out on a high note. Big on the 'fusion' of classical and digital Mann.
Stances
Ferrari is a deeply satisfying film in his top five of the year
Miami Vice's mess is the point
Mann's themes are men and their obsessions
Humor: Grand and self-mocking, with extended comic metaphors.
In their words
“I'll never give birth, but it's the closest. It's what I imagine it's like.” (0:03:50)
Loves being manipulated by filmmakers and Fincher's subjective craft; adores the Smiths-as-joke and the sound design. Reads the film as the ultimate control-freak movie and Swinton's character as the life the killer could not have. Dislikes nothing here and calls it possibly his favorite movie of the year.
Stances
Fassbender's killer is an unreliable narrator lying to himself
The film is about the fallacy of control
The killer kills Swinton because she has a normal life
Humor: Excitable and self-aware, jokes about shaking in his chair and fashion and food habits.
In their words
“I love being manipulated by filmmakers.” (0:05:42)
“I think he killed her because no loose ends.” (0:44:38)
Loves big-screen Hollywood entertainment and communal theatrical experiences, with a horror streak (Barbarian, Speak No Evil). Loves Cate Blanchett, Martin McDonagh and Top Gun: Maverick as his number one. Admits being a little embarrassed by how populist his list is.
Stances
Hollywood theatrical experiences fired him up this year
Speak No Evil is the most effective horror film of the year
Top Gun: Maverick delivered after two years of hype and is better than the original
Humor: Boisterous and profane; fond of analogies like Stairway to Heaven and quoting Boogie Nights.
In their words
“I'm almost like at once defiantly excited about my list, but a little bit embarrassed by it.” (0:23:50)
“And it still fucking rocks.” (1:26:04)
“it's probably the most effective horror movie I've seen this year.” (0:48:20)
Loves The Firm, Collateral, Edge of Tomorrow and a Hollywood ensemble movie; thinks Born is Cruise's best performance and Jerry Maguire his most appealing.
Stances
Pushes for The Firm
Cruise now treats himself as the Rock
Fallout is exceptional
Humor: Big physical impressions and dad-style tangents; keeps asking about the rules.
In their words
“I am going to say the firm just because I also think that that is in a lot of ways, like among the best casts he's ever been a part of.” (0:40:33)
He loves cheap, anxiety-heavy genre pieces, B-minus horror movies and anything that makes him squeeze the popcorn box. He picked events that freaked him out over big hits, leaving Get Out and the Blumhouse hits off his top five. He can't stand Black Swan-style foot-breaking discomfort and doubts that Cabin in the Woods is scary at all.
Stances
Horror should dominate the audience
Genre lines (thriller, horror, terror) matter
Directors drift away from horror naturally
The B-minus horror movie is the best B movie
Humor: Cheerful self-deprecation and tangents, such as confessing to spoiling Cabin in the Woods in an NBA post.
In their words
“The B minus version of a horror movie is my favorite kind of B minus movie.” (0:34:47)
“I like that, I like feeling things.” (0:52:03)
“I spoiled Cabin in the Woods in like an NBA blog post for like 1000s of people.” (0:41:38)
A TV-first critic who came to Disney through Marvel and Star Wars rather than the legacy titles, and who loves teen entertainment and character actors such as Mark Maron. Dislikes late revival movies and fan-service compression; a sucker for crowd-roar moments like the Endgame hammer.
Stances
Will send his streaming money elsewhere than Disney+
Skeptical of Eternals and of revival movies
Counterprogramming may be dead
Moviegoing is about circumstances and shared reactions
Humor: Wry and conversational, setting up riffs such as the 1992 podcast called Smells Like Teen Spirit.
In their words
“And I will be sending my streaming money elsewhere.” (0:02:08)
“I think he takes his craft really seriously.” (0:19:29)
Reveres Spielberg's craft (lighting, camera movement, editing, music) and calls him a film school; picks Empire of the Sun as a personal favorite. Loves rewatchable, tightly made movies like Jaws, Raiders, and Jurassic Park and likes Munich, A.I., and Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds. Cold on Spielberg's explicit kids' movies.
Stances
Spielberg is his film school
Jaws is the perfect movie
Spielberg's kid-targeted films (Tintin, BFG) don't work
Munich's opening is the best
Humor: Warm, enthusiastic riffing and impressions; walks the line between sincere and goofy.
In their words
“It's my film school.” (0:03:04)
“Jaws is a perfect movie.” (0:35:06)
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.
The Rewatchables
Apex Mountain: The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits.
Who Won the Movie: The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off.
The Ebert review: Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show.
Casting what-ifs: Who was almost cast, or who should have been.
Most rewatchable scene: The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels.
Aged best / aged worst: What holds up and what does not.
Picking Nits: The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits.
Double feature: The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick.
Their claims
Showing 101–200 of 854 claims.
what-if (what-if):
Species → The Sopranos.
As a 1995 HBO one-hour drama, Species would have predated The Sopranos (99) and Oz (97).
what-if (what-if):
Arnold Schwarzenegger → Species.
Schwarzenegger was briefly interested, but the budget could not afford him; the panel imagines him as Press Lennox or the empath.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger was briefly interested in the script, but the budget wouldn't allow him.”
contrast (contrast):
Rocky → The Godfather.
Structurally Rocky is like Godfather if it were all Michael and Kay's dates and the Don dies only in the last minutes; boxing barely appears until the last 13 minutes.
“imagine if Godfather was entirely about Kate and Michael not in New York City.”
theme (theme):
Rocky → Top Gun.
Rocky's urban portrait of American life gave way in the Karate Kid, Hughes and Top Gun era to safer, cleaner suburban stories.
“It's just a much different portrait of like American life because this is so urban.”
what-if (what-if):
Sylvester Stallone → Good Will Hunting.
Asked whether Damon and Affleck's Good Will Hunting is the same make-your-own-movie story; the difference is they'd been in movies already.
“Would Good Wolf Hunting be in the same mode of a movie where the guys just went, fuck it, we're going to make our own movie and explodes?”
career (career):
Sylvester Stallone → On the Waterfront.
Stallone may have wished to make more movies like On the Waterfront than the franchises that became golden handcuffs.
“I would have liked to have made more movies that are like on the waterfront or whatever”
career (career):
Sylvester Stallone → Rocky III.
Stallone's best A-list run came with Rocky 3 and First Blood in the same year, a roughly six-year run.
“He has one of the best, probably 6 year A-list movie star runs ever.”
career (career):
Sylvester Stallone → Nighthawks.
After Rocky he tried to separate from the character: beard in Nighthawks, big weight loss in Victory.
“You know, like he's in Nighthawks, he grew a beard.”
lineage (lineage):
Rocky → Cinderella Man.
Rocky set up the idea that a victory transforms the supporting cast too, as in Cinderella Man where he fights for Giamatti.
“by the time you get to like Cinderella man, you realize that he's not just fighting for him, he's fighting for Giamatti.”
verdict (verdict):
Rocky → Network.
Network is also called really great in the 1976 best-picture relitigation; one host thinks Holden is better than Finch in it.
lineage (lineage):
Twister → Jurassic Park.
Twister is aesthetically closer to Jurassic Park than to superhero movies, prizing intelligence over strength and wonder over fixing things.
“I think it's more aesthetically closer to like Jurassic Park.”
people (people):
Twister → Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg executive produced and Amblin is a production company, giving the film a wide-eyed wonder-and-fear Spielberg feel.
industry (industry):
Twister → Industrial Light & Magic.
The movie was built out of an ILM proof-of-concept clip of a pickup truck driving toward a tornado.
“It was a proof of concept clip from Industrial Light Magic”
career (career):
Bill Paxton → Trespass.
Trespass, with Ice-T and Ice Cube, is cited as a high-concept treasure-hunt movie that feels important and is probably on Tubi.
what-if (what-if):
Bill Paxton → George Clooney.
Chris argues Paxton could have led Out of Sight instead of Clooney; Van counters that Paxton lacks the movie-star magnetism for the trunk scene with J.Lo.
“I think he could have been the lead guy and out of sight instead of Clooney and out of sight.”
career (career):
Helen Hunt → As Good as It Gets.
Helen Hunt's run from Kiss of Death and Twister to winning an Oscar for As Good as It Gets was an unexpected shoot to the A-list.
“And then she wins an Oscar for as good as it gets.”
career (career):
Philip Seymour Hoffman → The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Hoffman's trajectory: Scent of a Woman, then Boogie Nights, then Ripley as the exclamation point that confirmed a real actor.
people (people):
Twister → Jan de Bont.
De Bont is introduced as Chris's guy: DP on Die Hard, director of Speed, a hard-charging efficient director the crew hated.
people (people):
Jack Green → Jan de Bont.
Green, the replacement DP, was injured two days from the end and de Bont, the director, had to take over the photography himself.
theme (theme):
Twister → The Amityville Horror.
Going back for the dog in the opening scene echoes Amityville Horror, which Bill says has the best version of the leave-the-dog trope.
craft (craft):
Twister → Goo Goo Dolls.
The soundtrack was built from songs people were asked to make for the movie; the Goo Goo Dolls track is judged the better song than Tori Amos's contribution.
“Long way down by Goo Goo Dolls is the better song.”
theme (theme):
Twister → Sleepless in Seattle.
Dr. Melissa is the stable fiance archetype that rom-coms usually give to the guy, like Bill Pullman in Sleepless in Seattle and Greg Kinnear in You've Got Mail.
“It's like Bill Palman in Seattle and Greg Canair and you got mail.”
lineage (lineage):
Twister → The Poseidon Adventure.
Disaster movies had two golden runs, the 70s (Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno) and the 90s, and Twister belongs to the second.
“The 70s, we had this awesome run, Poseidon adventure and all those movies.”
what-if (what-if):
Twister → War of the Worlds.
A Tom Cruise Twister would be the grounded 90s movie he never made, until War of the Worlds years later.
“It's the movie Cruise never made in the 90s that he should have made.”
industry (industry):
Twister → Jurassic Park.
Marketing a disaster around unknown leads follows Jurassic Park, where Sam Neill and Laura Dern were known but not famous.
“coming off of Jurassic Park where it was like Sam Neil and Laura Dern were like well-known, but not famous.”
lineage (lineage):
Internal Affairs → The French Connection.
Dirty-cop movies trace back to the 70s classics, the French Connection and Serpico among them.
lineage (lineage):
Internal Affairs → Live and Die in L.A..
Bill places Internal Affairs alongside Live and Die in L.A. as a cool pre-Heat L.A. conflict movie.
“it's up there with like live and die in LA of like a really cool preheat LA conflict.”
contrast (contrast):
Training Day → Internal Affairs.
Training Day knows it is a different prism on dirty cops, while Internal Affairs treats a dirty cop as fun to watch.
“Yeah, training day is in a completely different prism and it knows that this movie is kind of like, ah, it's fun to watch Richard Gere be a dirty cop.”
contrast (contrast):
Internal Affairs → Bad Lieutenant.
Bad Lieutenant is the dirtiest cop ever but tries too hard to be deranged; Internal Affairs is deranged without trying.
“This movie is deranged, but it doesn't try too hard.”
career (career):
Mike Figgis → Neil Jordan.
Figgis is described as a provocative director working genre movies inside the system, like maybe Neil Jordan.
“There's not a lot of guys like him, like maybe Neil Jordan or somebody like that.”
lineage (lineage):
Internal Affairs → Bad Influence.
Bad Influence came out the same year and is similarly unhinged, part of an 89 to 91 run of dark sex-tinged movies.
“But there's like, because also bad influence with Rob Lowe and James Bader comes out this year.”
fun, about
Beverly Hills Cop II:
Best that guy winner: the gun club receptionist (Valerie Wildman), later Dylan McKay's father's fiancee on 90210, who turns out to be an FBI agent.
fun, about
Beverly Hills Cop II:
Apex Mountain: the cement truck shows up 12 seconds after Axel says go get us a car, which Ryan calls one of the worst edits in an Eddie Murphy movie.
fun, about
Beverly Hills Cop II:
Eddie's wearable memorabilia: Ryan picks the Detroit Lions jacket as the easy, era-defining choice; Simmons would take the Testarossa and Dean Stockwell's mustache.
fun, about
Die Hard 2:
Sadler did not realize the naked Tai Chi scene meant fully naked, asked to film it near the end of the shoot and trained for two months; the bureau is positioned to hide his package.
“He didn't realize he had to be naked, so the actor William Sadler was like, can we film this near the end?”
fun, about
Die Hard 2:
What aged best: airports at Christmas, with parkas, Jameson, chaos and misery; also what aged worst since nobody waits at the airport or smokes inside anymore.
“Everybody's just pounding away at Jameson's and waiting to get on the flight.”
fun, about
Panic Room:
The slow-mo phone scene: Whitaker talks in slow motion so you can't hear him but see the words mouthed while Foster searches the covers.
“You see the words being mouthed, which is amazing.”
fun, about
Panic Room:
Memorabilia: Chris and Sean pick the bearer bonds and the ski mask; the Blu-ray finally arrived on the 20th anniversary and Sean has the Superbit DVD.
fun, about
Jodie Foster:
Cherie Currie link: Foster costarred with her in Foxes (1980); Kristen Stewart later played Joan Jett to Currie in The Runaways.
fun, about
Forest Whitaker:
Winner of 'Best That Guy' / scene stealer: Whitaker as Amos takes over the movie for three minutes; Scorsese hands it to him.
“I need this guy to take over my movie for 3 minutes.”
fun, about
The Color of Money:
Streetlights pass Newman's windshield in time to Werewolves of London as he drives to Chalkey's; also no camera is visible in the final scene's room of mirrors.
“the fucking street lights go past in the windshield, like in time to the music.”
fun, about
Richard Price:
Chris's quick Price rundown: novelist of Lush Life and Clockers, writer of Sea of Love and Kiss of Death, Wire season 3, The Night Of. Bill says Kiss of Death would warrant raised ad rates.
fun, about
Child World:
Tangent: the hosts debate whether Child World was a real Toys R Us rival (it was, 1962 to 1992) and pitch a nine-part true crime podcast.
“We got to pitch our nine-part child world pod true crime.”
fun, about
Wes Anderson:
The cast's wrist bands and Margot costumes: after the movie every dude they knew started wearing wristbands; the movie shaped dress, music and eyeliner.
“every dude I knew started wearing wristbands after this movie.”
fun, about
The Royal Tenenbaums:
Production ran on scale pay: Paltrow gave three weeks, Stiller ten days; the line producer scheduled it to look like a family together.
“Is the MVP the line producer who scheduled this to make it seem like they were a family all at the same time.”
fun, about
The Royal Tenenbaums:
Most rewatchable scenes pick: opening character-intro montage over Hey Jude; Margot's play review; Royal meets grandkids at the Y; Eli on mescaline.
“The pre-credit character introductions that you mentioned is scored by, hey, Jude.”
fun, about
Kumar Pallana:
Dion Waiters Award pick: Pagoda, whose best moment is walking to the window during the intervention and saying 'there he goes'.
“Kumar just walks to the window and says, there he goes.”
fun, about
Gene Hackman:
Closing riff on Hackman's retirement: a posthumous 27-episode Jack Del Rio biopic, a one-man show at Santa Fe Rec called Del Rio Grande.
“It's called Jack of all trades. It's Del Rio Grande.”
fun, about
Fletch:
Rewatchable scene: Fletch as the buck-toothed airplane mechanic demanding a set of 30 weight ball bearings; Chris's favorite character.
fun, about
Fletch:
Chris notes the autopsy scene with the camera tight on the doctor's face, and the Rosen, Rosen, Rosen doctor gag; Sean loves Dr. Dolan and the Babar spelling bit.
fun, about
Fletch (what's aged worst):
Alan Stanwick's plan is ridiculous: scout a lookalike, have him shoot you, kill and burn him, with no DNA or dental checking.
“there's no such thing as DNA or dental evidence yet.”
fun, about
Val Kilmer / The Saint:
Bill's love of The Saint (budget 70M, grossed 169.4M, great Moby/Chemical Brothers soundtrack) becomes a running joke ending with power rankings of who cares.
fun, about
Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
The Cameron-destroys-the-Ferrari debate: Bill loves the car and sees no excuse; Chris in his 40s says Cam is getting executed by his dad; Sean sees it as angsty teen anger.
“Cam's gonna get a socket wrench to the eye if his dad is coming home, man.”
fun, about
Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
Hosts argue the film may be the best use of pop music in a movie: The Smiths-style museum cover, the English Beat chase, and the Yello opener.
“is this the best use of pop music in a movie ever?”
fun, about
Ben Stein:
Ben Stein ad-libbed the lecture off camera; the extras laughed so hard that the voodoo economics bit stayed in even though it was not in the script.
“the student extras were laughing so hard that they decided to actually just keep in the voodoo economics, that whole scene.”
fun, about
Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
Costume-change nitpick: nearly ten outfit changes in the first twenty minutes, Chris notes, which also strains the timeline.
fun, about
Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
Unanswerable question: Cameron in 2016 would have written first-person trauma essays and co-hosted Chapo; Ferris becomes a software billionaire in a hypothetical 2001 sequel.
fun, about
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood:
The Bruce Lee scene as unreliable narrator: the people around the fight vanish when the frame changes, signaling Cliff's false memory.
“you see that all of the people that were surrounding the fight have disappeared.”
fun, about
Boogie Nights house:
Chris tracked the Boogie Nights house price and its distance from The Ringer's office using Waze; it was 10 minutes too far.
fun, about
Lee Van Cleef:
Why there is a giant painting of Rick in his own driveway: Tarantino toured Lee Van Cleef's house, a museum with a huge painting of himself in the garage.
“this is fucking weird that this guy has a painting of himself in his garage.”
fun, about
Beverly Hills Cop:
Stunt doubles do not match: the truck driver has a mullet and the guy who jumps out has a bald spot, and Eddie going through plate glass is not Eddie.
fun, about
Victor Maitland:
Maitland's bodyguards: four huge guys carry Axel through the building while a fifth small guy just walks in front, apparently to open doors.
“One of those guys looks like a little mouse in the front.”
fun, about
Beverly Hills Cop:
Magazines stand in for mobile phones: Rosewood reads Time, Banks reads National Geographic, Maitland flips through one in the gallery.
“Jonathan Banks is reading National Geographic at one and it's just like, this is just what people did to pass time in 1984 was like, read a magazine.”
fun, about
Michael Madsen:
The ear scene cuts away to the 'watch your head' graffiti for about 10 seconds; the hosts like that Tarantino rarely shows violence.
“they pan and they just show the watch your head graffiti above the doorway for about 10 seconds.”
fun, about
Tim Roth:
The accent: dialect coach on set all movie, yet he sounds Dutch, Rhode Island or Minnesota: 'rare, bad accent, great performance.'
fun, about
Reservoir Dogs:
Most rewatchable scene pick: Roth's commode story, with its cut between the practiced script and the set; 'I didn't know you could do that with writing.'
“I was just like, I didn't know you could do that with writing.”
fun, about
Lawrence Tierney:
Bill's rewatch verdict: Tierney is bad and was reportedly fired after day three; you can see him blow a line during the naming scene.
“you can watch him in a take that's in the movie, miss the line.”
fun, about
The Dan Band:
Aged-the-best: the wedding band that swears its way through 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and 'Every now and then I get a little bit terrified', with Ferrell and Reeves' faces worth freeze-framing. LA bar legends in the 2000s.
“If you freeze frame the look on Will Ferrell and Perry Reeves face.”
fun, about
Old School:
Category winner for most iconic and aged-best bit: 'earmuffs'. The guys realized the word entered everyday speech from this movie and are sure they owe Vince Vaughn royalties; Bill says it's like Kleenex.
fun, about
Seann William Scott:
Nominee for Dion Waiters Award: he plays Peppers, the animal trainer, yanking a goat's chain and telling it to shut up; 'You just took one in the jugular, man' after the dart-gun party.
fun, about
Mission: Impossible:
The film started shooting without a finished script. Premiere's Tom Friend described 4 a.m. faxes begging Towne for revisions. De Palma hated Towne's boxcar-reveal ending and pushed for the top-of-the-train chase, which cost millions. Cruise sided with De Palma.
“There were 4 a.m. last minute faxes volleyballed to town kept to town again, begging for revisions, and all were mostly Depalma's doing.”