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 1–100 of 854 claims.
industry (super-packaging precedent):
Michael Ovitz → Ghostbusters.
Ovitz's famous packaging example: assembling the cast, director and effects on paper and forcing studios to bid, as with Ghostbusters.
“His famous example of this is that he puts together like Ghostbusters and goes to all of the studios and is like, like, it's on everyone's table, you know, like, start bidding.”
career (career-arc analogue):
The Color of Money → 1941.
Spielberg's lean style forged by 1941 failure is compared with Scorsese compressing his shoot to regain trust.
“That's always been a famous, uh, Spielberg thing, that he's so forged in the failure of 1941 that he adopts that style for Raiders”
craft (craft):
Robbie Robertson → The Color of Money.
Robertson's early dub-style music work on the film is singled out as the fun part of the Werewolves of London sequence.
“Early Robbie Robertson, like, dubmaster stuff going on here where... The Robbie stuff in this is so fun.”
unmapped (song choice):
Warren Zevon → The Color of Money.
Werewolves of London plays in the pool hall scene; Chris prefers Zevon's self-titled second album as the best rock album of the 70s.
“His 2nd album, Warren Zvon, is the greatest rock album of the 70s.”
lineage (inspiration):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Night of the Living Dead.
Hooper saw the line down the block for Night of the Living Dead and decided to make a horror film with his own ideas about Vietnam-era America.
“Toby Hooper, who directed Chainsaw Massacre, went and saw Night of the Living Dead.”
unmapped (template):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Friday the 13th.
The imposing masked killer and the final girl in Chainsaw became the slasher template Friday the 13th and Halloween used.
“We have that, that ends up in Halloween, Friday the 13th, everything else.”
unmapped (horror boom):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Resident Evil.
Horror is Hollywood's new singles and doubles; Backrooms, Resident Evil and Obsession are the year's successes.
“The new singles and doubles of Hollywood is horror.”
unmapped (final girl prototype):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Friday the 13th.
Sally is the ground-zero prototype final girl later ripped off in every Friday the 13th and most Halloween movies.
“she's the prototype ground 0 final girl that then gets ripped off.”
unmapped (no backstory):
Gunnar Hansen → Halloween.
Leatherface is favored over Myers and Jason because he gets no origin story and is at once realistic and inexplicable.
“he's at once the most realistic and human, but is also the least explicable”
unmapped (70s realism):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Jaws.
Like Jaws, the 70s films feel true to life because of location shooting and actors who look like real locals.
“All those people in Jaws, you're just like, you are, you do live in in this town.”
lineage (real-life source):
Ed Gein → The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
The film was a little influenced by Ed Gein, whose skin masks and grave digging fascinated Hollywood.
“it was a little influenced by the great Ed Geen.”
theme (final girl comparison):
Marilyn Burns → Jamie Lee Curtis.
What Burns endured is thousands of times worse than what Curtis went through at the end of Halloween.
contrast (contrast):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → In Cold Blood.
Ebert contrasted the film with true-crime In Cold Blood, which studied the killers' compulsions; Chainsaw has no motivation or background, just terror.
“A true crime movie like Richard Brooks is in cold blood, which studies the personalities and compulsions of the 2 killers”
craft (craft):
Daniel Pearl → The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Pearl's cinematography is called the best aspect of the film, looking far better than the shoestring budget should allow.
“I think Daniel Pearl cinematography is like, easily the best aspect of this movie.”
lineage (visual precursor):
Daniel Pearl → Paris, Texas.
Pearl's Southwest vistas feel like a precursor to Paris, Texas, mixed with handheld documentary style.
“part of it feels like, um, a precursor to like Paris, Texas”
people (cast profit parallel):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Obsession.
The cast not sharing in the profits recalls the Obsession set designer's complaint as that film took off.
“Kind of reminds me of what happened with obsession.”
lineage (sequel):
Tobe Hooper → The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
Hooper directed Part 2, which is completely different, more graphic and fun, with Sally in a coma and her uncle played by Dennis Hopper.
“It's completely different, but Toby Hooper directed it.”
career (career payoff):
Tobe Hooper → Poltergeist.
Hooper won the movie: after Chainsaw he was a Hollywood hot shot at Universal with Spielberg and directed Poltergeist.
unmapped (lesson):
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Paranormal Activity.
Chainsaw shows that with no budget and no actors, good taste and a good eye is enough, as with Blair Witch and Paranormal.
“if the director and probably the editor just have good taste. If they just have a good eye, anything can work.”
career (career):
Vince Vaughn → Swingers.
Six years after Swingers made him a star, Vaughn was chasing serious thrillers, Domestic Disturbance among them.
“Clay pigeon, psycho, the cell, domestic disturbance and made.”
career (career):
Domestic Disturbance → Old School.
After Domestic Disturbance and Made, nothing in 2002, then Old School in 2003 turned him into a comedy lead.
career (career):
Vince Vaughn → True Detective (season two).
He stayed with comedy until True Detective season two, then pivoted back to hard-edged thrillers.
“He basically does that until True Detective season two.”
theme (theme):
Domestic Disturbance → Domestic Disturbance.
The movie is mashed from TV-movie formulas: an ABC after school special about a first dad and his son.
“It's basically an ABC after school special of like the 1st dad trying to keep his relationship with his son.”
craft (craft):
Peter Weir → Dead Poets Society.
Weir prepped actors with deep backstory: Dead Poets actors wrote biographies; on Truman he wanted backstories for everyone.
“we had us do our own biographies for every character.”
craft (craft):
The Truman Show → T. Rex.
The film's sock-hop band number is T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" reworked as 1950s jam, read as a way to keep Truman in a frozen culture.
“I had them doing T-Rex, 20th century boy, as like a 1950s sock hop jam”
theme (theme):
Species → Congo.
Species belongs to a 90s subgenre the speaker calls scientist fiction, alongside Congo, Outbreak, Sneakers, Sphere and Mimic.
“Um, so it's a little bit sci-fi, a little bit adventury, but Congo, outbreak, sneakers, sphere, species, mimic.”
contrast (contrast):
Michael Madsen → Tom Sizemore.
The panel splits on Madsen versus Sizemore; Madsen can do everything Sizemore can, plus be the leading man.
“I think Madson can do everything that Sizemore can do.”
verdict (verdict):
Species → Roger Ebert.
Ebert's two-star review complained that Hollywood fears intelligent characters; the panel waves it off with Have some fun.
“Mainstream Hollywood is so terrified of intelligent human characters that it's no wonder they don't want aliens who are even smarter than the humans.”
what-if (what-if):
Species → Moby.
The speakers say the Id club needed a bigger early-EDM needle drop like early Moby (instead of the Crystal Method), but the production would not have paid for it.
“Yeah, like early, early Moby, somebody like that”
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.”