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12,078 claims and 5,127 fun items from 206 episodes, about 7,690 films and 5,411 people, with 657 personality sketches. Search reads claims and fun items (SQLite full-text search).

40 lines

Showing 1–40 of 40 lines.

  1. career (career): Pierre Morel → Taken. After Berg dropped out, the Dune script went to Pierre Morel, the Taken director.
    “and the script was taken to Pierre Morel, who is the guy who made taken.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Dune with John Hodgman · 1:26:38 · John Hodgman (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. people (same director): Pierre Morel → Taken. Morel made the first Taken, From Paris with Love, and Peppermint.
    “Pierre Morell, who made the 1st taken and then like from Paris with Love and Peppermint.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer with Marie Bardi (Ad-Free) · 2:03:46 · unknown (host) (0.30 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Taken → Liam Neeson. Taken is offered as another late-career 'I still got it' peak, with John Wick for Keanu Reeves.
    “Liam Neeson and Taken would be a good one for you.”
    The Rewatchables · A CR Month Mailbag! · 0:41:55 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Taken: Simmons's dad, a school superintendent near Boston, called action movies a 5 o'clocker: the 5 o'clock showing he caught on the way home to turn his brain off. Taken is called the quintessential 5 o'clocker.
    “I would say taken is the quintessential 5 o'clocker.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:03:32 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. unmapped (same type): John Wick → Taken. John Wick is called an elaborate 5 o'clocker with more moving pieces than Taken.
    “Uh, is an elaborate 5 o'clock or. There's actually some moving pieces in that, and you can't totally shut your brain off.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:04:59 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  6. lineage (genre descendant): Taken → The Equalizer. Taken's box office started a subgenre of an older star beating up younger bad guys, and The Equalizer is the first example.
    “There's a whole subgenre of movies after taking exploded at the box office where everybody's like, oh, shoot, we just have to get an old person and let them fight young people”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:07:29 · Shea Serrano (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. lineage (genre descendant): Taken → John Wick. John Wick may belong to the subgenre Taken started, though Wick is a more elaborate 5 o'clocker.
    “Probably even John Wick, maybe.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:07:45 · Shea Serrano (0.60 sure it was them)
  8. theme (genre revival): Taken → Commando. Taken returned to the basic Schwarzenegger/Stallone template, but with a real actor selling the lines.
    “We're still going to have him do all of the same stuff that a Schwarzenegger or Stallone would do in commando or cobra, but now we've got a guy who, when he says things into the camera, when he gives the phone speech, you feel it.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:10:08 · Shea Serrano (0.70 sure it was them)
  9. people (casting against type): Taken → First Blood. Both worked because the actor had not done this kind of role before, so it felt like a genuine surprise.
    “I think with Liam Neeson, it's the same thing. Where it's just like, he's, this was a guy who was in like Woody Allen movies.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:11:43 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Taken: Simmons remembers the trailer, which was nearly the whole phone speech, airing between the second and third quarter of a Texans-Pats game. He asked: what is this, where can I see this.
    “you're like what? What is this? Where can I see this?”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:13:45 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  11. theme (five-word plot): The Grey → Taken. Neeson's later action films each fit the five-words-or-less 5 o'clocker test: The Grey, Non-Stop, The Commuter.
    “Liam Neeson wilderness wolves.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:14:44 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Taken: The perfect 5 o'clocker can be described in five words or less: Liam Neeson, daughter gets taken. Neeson's later films do the same: wilderness wolves, airplane, train conspiracy.
    “I love action movies where you can describe the plot in 5 words or less.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:14:55 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  13. contrast (realism contrast): Taken → Kidnap. Halle Berry's frantic-parent chase is more realistic than Neeson taking out 35 Albanians.
    “I think that's a more realistic look for me than taking out 35 Albanians.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:18:35 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  14. lineage (genre descendant): Taken → Kidnap. Kidnap is another of the movies stemming from Taken.
    “Kidnap is another one of the stemmed off of taken movies, so it's funny that you mentioned it.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:18:47 · Shea Serrano (0.60 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Taken: Hiding under the bed has a success rate of zero in movies. Simmons's only winning case: his youngest grabbed him by the ankle from under a low IKEA bed during hide and seek.
    “it just seems like going under the bed has a success rate of zero.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:26:17 · Shea Serrano (0.50 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Taken: Rewatchable scene list: Kimmy gets taken, the phone call, the apartment of bad guys, the underpaid bad guy, dinner at Jean-Claude's, the ending. Serrano's pick flipped over time from the phone call to dinner.
    “It is Brian shows up to Jean-Claude's house for dinner, is not only my favorite scene in this movie, but is one of the greatest cable scenes of all time.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:28:38 · Shea Serrano (0.70 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Taken: At dinner Neeson shoots Jean-Claude's wife in the arm because Jean-Claude forgot the weight of a gun (it is empty), then says relax, it's a flesh wound.
    “Relax, it's a flesh wound.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:30:02 · Shea Serrano (0.70 sure it was them)
  18. unmapped (surprising detail): Taken → Beverly Hills Cop. Taken's line about forgetting the weight of a gun is the kind of never-seen-before detail, like Beverly Hills Cop's gum wrapper trick.
    “Remember in Beverly Hills cop when they break in the house and he uses the gum wrapper to like disarm the center on the window.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:31:03 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Taken: The movie's biggest lesson, per the hosts: don't let your daughter go to Europe unless you're there, and don't sit behind a desk or you'll forget the weight of a gun.
    “And the biggest lesson of this movie is you get soft behind a desk.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:34:14 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about Taken: What's aged the best: Simmons names the speech; Serrano counters that it was 100 out of 100 right away so it could not age better. Answer instead: Neeson, whose entire IMDb got retrofit.
    “That speech was 100 out of a 100 right away.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:36:13 · Shea Serrano (0.50 sure it was them)
  21. people (writer blamed): Luc Besson → Taken. U2 as the band that two teenagers would lie for is blamed on the writers, Besson and someone else, who had no feel for kids.
    “It was written by Luke Bassan and somebody else, who clearly didn't have a feel for what little kids like.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:37:57 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about Taken: Aged worst: every non-American foreigner is a kidnapper, and two teenage girls lying to their parents to follow U2 around Europe in 2008, when the band was in their late 50s. Simmons's wife's counter: every young white woman loves U2.
    “every young white woman loves you too.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:39:26 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  23. fun, about Taken: Nitpick: every other kidnapped woman is a heroin zombie, but Kim is out of it only a little, then bounces back in two weeks, cheery, with no emotional distress, ready for a pop-star singing lesson.
    “Within 2 weeks, she's cheery as ever.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:41:39 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  24. lineage (sequel quality): Taken → Taken 3. Taken 3 is conceded as horrific.
    “let's concede that taken 3 was horrific”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:42:00 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  25. lineage (sequel quality): Taken → Taken 2. The first film works because there is no main villain and Neeson figures it out as we watch; Taken 2 gives him a known enemy.
    “I like Liam Neeson figuring it out. I don't like him being pitted in a spot where we know exactly what he has to do.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:43:16 · Shea Serrano (0.70 sure it was them)
  26. fun, about Taken: Dion Waiters Award nominees for biggest heat check include Marco, the good luck guy, and Marco's friends who all claim to be Marco and all from Tripoli. Bad guys playing cards is a staple; hosts wish for Monopoly.
    “When he says, which one of you is Marco in that one guy's like, we're all Marco.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:45:28 · Shea Serrano (0.50 sure it was them)
  27. theme (trope): Taken → Training Day. Bad guys playing cards at the hideout is a staple, as in Training Day, which was even more intense.
    “this happened in training day as well, and training day was even more intense”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:45:40 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  28. theme (toddler comparison): Furious 7 → Taken. Toddlers are like cars without brakes, as in Furious 7 with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.
    “in fact, in Furious seven. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in that car are jumping across buildings because there's no breaks in it.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:52:34 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  29. fun, about Taken: Body count debate: Brian kills 31 people, or 35. Apex Mountain goes to Neeson for becoming an action star in his mid-50s, and to Maggie Grace, for whom it never got better than this.
    “You became an action movie and your action movie star in your mid-50s.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:55:25 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  30. fun, about Taken: Wrong-day question: the pop-star assassin picked the one night Brian guarded her, but the sheik, who just bought the wrong daughter, had the worst luck of all.
    “Wrong day, sir.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:56:52 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  31. people (dream casting): Steve Buscemi → Taken. Both hosts independently put Buscemi as the manager of the sex trafficking auction.
    “I think Steve could have been the guy on charge of the in charge of the auction.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:57:06 · Shea Serrano (0.50 sure it was them)
  32. unmapped (overacting): Alive → Taken. Simmons's overacting category is nearly named after a guy in Alive, prompted by the sex club manager's performance in Taken.
    “there's an overacting guy in that, that was like the quintessential. I almost want to name the category after him.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:58:35 · Bill Simmons (0.80 sure it was them)
  33. fun, about Taken: Nitpicks: Jean-Claude carries an unwrapped baguette; the kidnappers left the destroyed phone behind but locked the door; Neeson recognizes Marco's voice from two words, good luck.
    “Can you really recognize a specific Albanian's voice just by having them repeat the words good luck?”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 0:59:32 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  34. fun, about Taken: Best quotes besides the speech: it's a flesh wound; now's not the time for dick measuring, Stuart; and the line about forgetting the weight in the hand of a gun. The stepdad Stuart did nothing but supply the jet.
    “Now's not the time for dick measuring, Stuart. Classic.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 1:02:04 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  35. unmapped (worldbuilding): Taken → John Wick. Both drop the viewer into a hidden criminal world with only hints, and it works because they do not over-explain.
    “they just dropped you into this world, and they give you little hints of other parts of it, so you know, or you assume that these things exist, but they don't ever go into explaining anything.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 1:04:53 · Shea Serrano (0.70 sure it was them)
  36. fun, about Taken: The elaborate auction with red buttons probably does not exist as portrayed; Simmons jokes about a sex-slave auction draft guide. Movie auctions are always downstairs, as in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's dinosaur auction.
    “It's always downstairs.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 1:06:07 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  37. theme (trope): Taken → Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Both stage the illicit auction downstairs while the party continues upstairs.
    “They do the same thing in the Fallen Kingdom, the New Jurassic World movie. There's like a dinosaur auction.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 1:06:08 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)
  38. industry (streaming 5 o'clocker): Taken → Braven. Braven is a solid modern 5 o'clocker, and streaming services may make many more Taken-style movies.
    “I feel like the 5 o'clocker is back.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 1:06:57 · Shea Serrano (0.60 sure it was them)
  39. fun, about Taken: Who won the movie: Neeson, and the 5 o'clocker itself, which streaming services will now make and own, producing many more Taken-style movies, like Braven.
    “That's that's way more of an insightful thing than I was expecting to happen on this taken podcast.”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 1:07:19 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  40. industry (streaming revival): Taken → To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Netflix revives mid-budget genres theaters stopped making, such as rom-coms, and could do the same for Taken-style action.
    “what if we get a string of taken style movies on Netflix?”
    The Rewatchables · 'Taken' With Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano · 1:07:43 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)