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 501–600 of 854 claims.
people (people):
Sam Mendes → Roger Deakins.
Mendes shoots Silva's entrance with Deakins right behind Bond's shoulder.
“But the fact that he shoots it, the Mendy shoots it the way it is with Deacons, where it's just right behind Bon's shoulder”
contrast (contrast):
Reservoir Dogs → Do the Right Thing.
Chris argues Do the Right Thing is a 1989 film that feels like a 1990s one from its influence.
“the influence that movie had for everything that happened in the 1990s makes it feel like it was a 1990s movie”
contrast (contrast):
Reservoir Dogs → Guardians of the Galaxy.
The soundtrack was a cultural moment of the kind Marvel and Guardians of the Galaxy are for kids today.
“They may feel that way about Guardians of the Galaxy”
industry (industry):
Reservoir Dogs → Video Archives.
Tarantino distilled the video-store aesthetic into the film; he programmed shelves like a film festival.
“he talks about how he used to program shelves at the video story worked at as if it was like a film festival.”
lineage (lineage):
Reservoir Dogs → The Farewell.
The slow-motion group walk in The Farewell echoes the Reservoir Dogs shot, which remains influential.
theme (theme):
Reservoir Dogs → Top Gun.
Tarantino's Sleep With Me riff on Top Gun mirrors the pop-theory talk that opens Reservoir Dogs; Tony Scott's Top Gun and artist intent come up again with Madonna.
“Yeah, nobody cares what Tony Scott thinks Top Gun is about.”
career (career):
Tom Sizemore → Natural Born Killers.
Sizemore plays Jack Scagnetti there, called one of the most fucked-up characters in movie history.
“characters in movie history is Sizemore's character in natural board killers.”
contrast (contrast):
Singles → Reality Bites.
Reality Bites is the aggressive real-time generational movie; Singles only reads Gen X through its soundtrack.
“it seemed like a much more aggressive attempt to be generational.”
verdict (verdict):
Ethan Hawke → Before Sunrise.
Hawke owned a more likable variation of Troy in Before Sunrise, which is why Ryder 'won' Reality Bites.
“play a variation of the, a much more likable version of somebody who's in the sphere of this character and kind of own that movie.”
lineage (character origin):
Will Ferrell → Old School.
Frank the Tank is an extension of his SNL Dodge Stratus guy, the suburban insanity of domesticity.
“Frank the Tank is kind of the Dodge Stratus extension.”
contrast (era contrast):
Old School → Adam Sandler.
Old School has a maturity and more ideas than the earlier silly Sandler/Carrey era, despite being juvenile.
“Old school has like a maturity to it, even though it's really juvenile”
career (career obsession):
Todd Phillips → Project X.
Phillips' recurring subject is how young men, and later aging men, mess up, running from Frat House through Project X to The Hangover.
“he has an obsession with young, how young men fuck up”
lineage (remake trend):
Starsky & Hutch → The Dukes of Hazzard.
TV remakes started well with Brady Bunch and Addams Family but failed as pure comedies later.
“Those movies didn't work as well because they were trying to just make them pure comedies”
contrast (role contrast):
Juliet Lewis → Natural Born Killers.
Lewis was previously known as a killer in Natural Born Killers; Old School is her first real comedy.
verdict (career apex):
Vince Vaughn → Wedding Crashers.
Chris argues Vaughn's apex is Wedding Crashers, a year after Old School, when he is clearly a star not a fluke.
career (career run):
Luke Wilson → Legally Blonde.
Old School is part of Wilson's mainstream bankable run from Legally Blonde through Charlie's Angels.
“it's like legally blonde to Charlie's Angels, this.”
what-if (career what-if):
Luke Wilson → Harrison Ford.
Chris says Wilson had an action-lead path like Ford if he had stayed in game shape; the others mock it.
“I think if Luke Wilson had stayed in game shape. I think there's a there is like an action movie path for him.”
career (career comparison):
Elisha Cuthbert → The Girl Next Door.
Cuthbert's best film work, with a cast Chris wanted more from; Cuthbert's movie career stalled after rom-coms died.
“She pretty much never made another comedy after the girl next door.”
industry (industry):
George P. Cosmatos → Sylvester Stallone.
Russell says he got the ghost director through Stallone, who had done the same on Rambo II.
craft (craft):
Tombstone → The Godfather.
The Oriental faro takeover shows the Godfather-like business side Russell wanted.
“You could see the godfather thing that Russell's talking about when he moves into Tombstone and immediately takes over the Faro game at the Oriental.”
unmapped (TV-to-film precedent):
Mission: Impossible → The Fugitive.
The Fugitive proved a classic TV property could be a big-screen box-office hit, which opened the door for Mission: Impossible.
“the fugitive proved that there was box office potential and television IP on the big screen.”
career (career context):
Brian De Palma → The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Paramount hired De Palma despite his having just burned a pile of money on Bonfire of the Vanities.
unmapped (promo tour):
Tom Cruise → Knight and Day.
After MI, Cruise's brand turned on stunts, such as riding a motorcycle across Europe for Knight and Day.
“when he like rode a motorcycle across Europe for night and days promo tour”
unmapped (market timing):
Mission: Impossible → GoldenEye.
Cruise and Wagner picked MI because Bond was reaching an expiration and a new cool spy was needed.
“it's around the time of Golden Eye and Brosnan, who had some success as Bond, but Bond was sort of reaching an expiration, and we needed a cool new spy character.”
unmapped (IP attempt):
Tom Cruise → War of the Worlds.
Cruise's other IP efforts, War of the Worlds and The Mummy, are fine but will not make his Hall of Fame plaque; MI will.
“Those movies are fine. They're never going to go on his Hall of Fame plaque. The Mission Impossible movies do.”
fun, about
Mission: Impossible:
The 32-minute Prague opening act ends with a fade to black after Cruise jumps through the aquarium and escapes Kittridge.
“that is presented as a 32 minute opening act, it even has a fade to black after Tom Cruise jumps through Aquarium”
fun, about
Mission: Impossible:
Casting what-ifs: Juliette Binoche turned down Claire so as not to be known for blockbusters; Peter Graves and Martin Landau passed after reading the script. Early drafts had sex scenes cut and a kiss in the trailer that is not in the film.
“There's actually a kiss in the trailer that they don't ever have.”
fun, about
Mission: Impossible:
Early Huyck/Katz draft opened with the original IMF team, including Peter Graves, killed on a mission, leaving Cruise to solve who did it.
“They were all to be killed, and that would leave Cruz behind to solve the, you know, who the mystery of who killed his his original team.”
fun, about
Jon Voight:
Looks fitter than ever on the train in the parachute suit; hosts debate whether it is a stunt double. Jim Phelps shooting Claire first makes no sense.
“I just didn't quite understand why Jim had to shoot Claire.”
fun, about
Brian De Palma:
Apex Mountain for De Palma goes to The Untouchables; for Ving Rhames it is not MI. Nobody gets MI as their apex; Czerny's is Clear and Present Danger.
fun, about
Mission: Impossible:
It marked the start of the Cruise/Wagner producing partnership (which later ended after taking over United Artists) and the end of Voight's good-movie run.
“It is the beginning of the Wagner cruise producing partnership, which is very powerful for a time and then ends quite badly when they take over United artists.”
fun, about
Martin Scorsese:
Scorsese won Best Picture and Director for it as a perceived make-up Oscar in a weak year; Wahlberg was the only cast member nominated.
“It was just a really, really, really, really bad movie year.”
fun, about
Jack Nicholson:
Nicholson reportedly wanted a prostitute scene with a dildo, was talked out of it, but kept the prop and ad-libbed it into the movie theater scene.
“he had some crazy hooker scene with dildos that he wanted to shoot and they talked him out of it”
fun, about
Ray Winstone:
The cranberry juice scene: Leo smashes a glass on a guy's head, then Winstone steps in and declares who you can and can't hit. Called a perfect movie scene.
fun, about
The Departed:
Ryan's overarching theory: Leo and Damon are two ways of living in America, compartmentalized ambition vs vulnerability, and America destroys both while guys like Dignam survive.
“either way, even no matter which road you choose, America will destroy you.”
fun, about
Noah Baumbach:
Leaving Netflix after four features in eight years for Warner Bros.' Clockwork; Sean wants to see directors out of the Netflix cocoon.
“there is a Netflix cocoon around a group of directors”
fun, about
Austin Abrams:
Reacts to killing like a player in a video game, not like a traumatized man; Chris compares it to playing Max Payne with caffeine and cigarettes.
“I've had 4 coffees over the course of the day and now I've had 3 beers”
fun, about
Resident Evil:
Brian shoots the bitten girl who turns into a lizard-footed tentacle monster, rather than becoming Lone Wolf and Cub; Sean wanted to applaud as the father of a daughter.
fun, about
Resident Evil:
The rat sequence: a huge zombie explodes into hundreds of rats; Chris's rat fear traces to New York apartment mice, and he is grateful they did not form a rat king.
fun, about
Resident Evil:
The maternity ward with a glowing bubble that Sean compared to a rising sourdough loaf, and which bursts into a log flume of blood.
fun, about
Resident Evil:
The ending has no happy ending: Abrams becomes a tentacled monster waving as a National Guard helicopter closes in, then a cut to black.
“this guy waving his tentacles in the air screaming as the National Guard helicopter is bearing down on him.”
fun, about
Resident Evil:
Box office tracking is $80 million worldwide for the opening weekend, huge for horror; Chris thinks $300 million domestic is possible.
“can this movie like realistically make $300000000 in America, I think it can.”
fun, about
Top Gun: Maverick:
Chris says the last 30 minutes, until the final 10, are perfect cinema, from leaving the battleship through the coffin run.
“the last 30 minutes up until the last 10 minutes are perfect cinema”
fun, about
The Batman:
Chris picks it because his favorite meme of the century is Paul Dano losing his mind behind the Arkham cell; Dano as the Riddler is a gift.
fun, about
Ambulance:
First half is Michael Bay doing Heat; the second half is one of the best chase movies of the century, with great defibrillator work.
“the 2nd half of this movie is one of the best chase movies that you will see this century.”
fun, about
Goodfellas:
Chris's first overall pick; Amanda says she would have taken it too, and Chris admits he never saw it in the theater, just on video soon after.
fun, about
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover:
Chris glimpsed the Gambon-Mirren dinner-table scene as a kid and his dad told him to just watch Goodfellas again.
fun, about
Gladiator:
Joaquin Phoenix's rise, Crowe's peak and patching together Oliver Reed's performance after his death made it lightning in a bottle.
“Like, you know, being able to patch together the Oliver Reed performance, even though he passes away during production.”
fun, about
Gladiator II:
The CGI baboons, rhinoceros and sharks were the least successful set pieces; the intimate fights, like the emperor's party, worked best.
fun, about
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2:
Chris pitches Part 2 as a slapstick comedy with Dennis Hopper, to be watched back to back with the original.
“You should watch them both back to back, but start at midnight.”
fun, about
Before Midnight:
Chris loves it as a brutal punch in the gut about long relationships; the Before trilogy is among his three favorite trilogies.
“this is such a punch in the gut, and I love that.”
fun, about
Babylon:
Critic's view of the closing montage: you can feel Chazelle searching for the ending in real time and deciding to throw in The Matrix and Avatar.
“And then he's like, well, I guess I'm just gonna like put the Matrix and Avatar in here and really go big.”
fun, about
David Fincher:
The Q&A team (Klyce, Messerschmidt, Baxter) answered every question with 'that was David's idea.' Walker said Fincher walked him through the whole movie when pitching it.
“every time they got asked a question, they would be like, that's David.”
fun, about
The Killer:
Scene to look for: the first hit scored to How Soon Is Now. Sound design flips between full stereo song and the song in the killer's headphones, pulling it away right at the Johnny Marr crescendo, refusing the viewer the cool-song kill.
“I was waiting my entire life to see someone get killed to how soon is now.”
fun, about
The Killer:
Chris Ryan's guess: the killer's favorite Smiths record is Hatful of Hollow or compilation 'Louder Than Bombs', not The Queen Is Dead; favorite Sub Pop band Mudhoney, maybe Tad.
fun, about
The Killer:
Product placement is deployed so precisely (the Amazon lockers, McDonald's, WeWork) that the hosts laughed at every logo; the film also makes a clinic of consumer-culture satire.
“every time there was a logo in this movie. I laughed because they were deployed so well.”
fun, about
Barbarian:
Chris says seeing it was like going to the movies in the 90s, knowing nothing and having your mind blown; Amanda has not seen it and threatens to call it mid.
“going to see movies in the 90s where you just don't know anything about it.”
fun, about
The Banshees of Inisherin:
Chris calls it Martin McDonagh's treatise on friendship and a meaningful life; his wife was not convinced by the screener he brought upstairs.
“To me, it's like a Martin McDonough's treatise on friendship, and it's his treatise on what makes a meaningful life.”
fun, about
Tár:
Chris watched three times: frustrated by the ending first, a blast second, and by the third he called it one of the great ones. He notes it will make under five million dollars.
fun, about
Top Gun: Maverick:
Chris saw it twice in theaters, twice on planes, once with two ex-naval pilots doing YouTube commentary, plus clips, and says it still rocks. A guy in the audience shouted a line of praise to Jon Hamm at the end.
“I'm never going to forget like the screenings I saw this, especially the dude at the end of this movie who went, great job, John Hamm.”
fun, about
Top Gun: Maverick:
Chris says the Who training sequence is what the song is for, not car commercials, and that the film is the one-in-137 time Stairway to Heaven's second half hits.
fun, about
A Few Good Men:
Chris points out that Cruise whispers his questions to Jessup in a courtroom where a jury would never hear, which only makes sense because it is a movie, though the script was written for the stage.
“there's multiple moments where he just starts whispering questions at him.”
fun, about
Mission: Impossible III:
Watch the scene where Philip Seymour Hoffman counts down with a gun to Keri Russell's head while Cruise says tell me what you need.
“Watch the scene where Philip Seymour Hoffman counts down while putting having a gun to carry Russell's head.”
fun, about
Jack Reacher:
Cruise is 5'8 and Reacher in the book is 6'6; Reacher gets built up like the Predator and then it's Tom Cruise in a leather jacket.
“Tom Cruise is 5'8 and Jack Reacher in the book is like 6'6.”
fun, about
Midsommar:
Chris's summary: Aster stuffed him in a bear carcass and played Jonny Greenwood strings until his eardrums exploded (composer named as said).
“Ari Astor stuffed me in a fucking bear carcass and played Johnny Greenwood strings in my, until my eardrums explode.”
fun, about
Unfriended:
The whole film plays on a laptop screen; Chris says it exhausts you because your brain tracks four panes of information at once.
“your brain can process 4 quadrants of information and can actually like listen to people while also watching a mouse clicking over different apps”
fun, about
Chris Ryan's top five:
Chris counts down his five best (Unfriended, You're Next, The Invitation, It Follows, Green Room), picking events that freaked him out rather than a bulletproof list.
“I did really pick horror movies that I thought were events.”
fun, about
You're Next:
An arrow through the window ends the first victim at a family reunion, in a mumblegore cast of Ti West, Joe Swanberg and Amy Seimetz.
fun, about
Marvel / Eternals:
Spider-Man gets a joke as a mythology: it is based on puberty, which everyone experiences, unlike the space-alien mythologies.
“Spider-Man is based on puberty, a mythology that we all have to experience.”
fun, about
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark:
Chris campaigns for Austin Abrams, a teen-entertainment veteran who barely does interviews and takes his craft seriously, and will star in a Less Than Zero reboot.
fun, about
Godzilla: King of the Monsters:
A host was the King of the Monsters meme lord for two months and still never saw it; nobody they know did either.
fun, about
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope:
Lucas and Spielberg each thought the other's film would do better and bet back-end points; Spielberg owns a piece of Star Wars.
“now he owns a small piece of the Lucas Empire because he won that wager.”