The podcast corpus

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).

56 lines

Showing 1–56 of 56 lines.

  1. lineage (remake): Vanilla Sky → Open Your Eyes. Cruise adapted Abre los Ojos into Vanilla Sky, a bold move he does not make today.
    “adapted Aubrey Los Ojos into Vanilla Sky”
    The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 1:09:45 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. people (collaboration): Vanilla Sky → Cameron Crowe. They wish Cruise and Cameron Crowe had continued to work together.
    “It's disappointing that he and Cameron Crowe did not continue to work together.”
    The Big Picture · The Tom Cruise Hall of Fame · 1:10:04 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. career (career turn): Eyes Wide Shut → Vanilla Sky. Vanilla Sky is the outlier in Cruise's run after Eyes Wide Shut, seen as a bid for commercial work.
    “It's just fascinating the vanilla sky.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Eyes Wide Shut with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:48:00 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  4. theme (theme): Iron Man 3 → Vanilla Sky. The Elvis idea behind Vanilla Sky, lonely in a room where everyone knows who you are, is the Tony Stark thing Iron Man 3 digs into.
    “There's the Elvis quote that Cameron Crowe loves, which he said he based Vanilla Sky around, which is the feeling of being lonely in a room where everyone knows who you are.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man 3 · 0:18:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The official tagline is the list of words run together with no spaces: love, hate, dreams, life, work, play, friendship, sex.
    “The official tagline is love hate, dreams, life, work, play, friendship, sex with no spaces.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:00:29 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The ad campaign was just Cruise's face filling the poster and nothing else, and it still made $100 million.
    “All you need to advertise the movie was Tom Cruise's name, his face taking up the entire dimensions of the poster and a color palette, you know?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:11:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. contrast (contrast): Captain Corelli's Mandolin → Vanilla Sky. Corelli is the closest analog because Penelope Cruz has no chemistry with the star and it sinks the movie.
    “she has no chemistry with the star.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:16:26 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  8. contrast (contrast): Captain Corelli's Mandolin → Vanilla Sky. Cruise is at least well cast as a hot shot, whereas Cage was an Italian Christ figure.
    “Whereas Nick Nicholas Cage was playing an Italian, like Christ figure.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:16:44 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  9. contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Jerry Maguire. Jerry Maguire's leads are well written with an unconventional romance, so there is real material in each scene.
    “those 2 characters are so well written and their relationship is so unconventional and how it plays out”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:17:18 · Richard Lawson (0.45 sure it was them)
  10. lineage (lineage): Almost Famous → Vanilla Sky. Almost Famous is the bridge: already more precious and less realistic than Jerry Maguire, before it tips over here.
    “it's a definite bridge because, yes, it is more precious than Jerry Maguire.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:18:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  11. theme (personal): Hulk → Vanilla Sky. The strongest example of defending a movie against dismissive friends in the speaker's adolescence was Ang Lee's Hulk, like defending Vanilla Sky.
    “Drew the line was Anglies Hulk.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:24:25 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
  12. lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). Vanilla Sky is nearly the same story as the Spanish original, except the hero is a magazine magnate friends with Spielberg.
    “So the film is actually pretty much exactly the same as Abri Lozojos, except for the main character of that movie is not a magazine magnate who's friends with Steven Spielberg.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:26:51 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Vanilla Sky: Ben saw it at a drive-in in the back seat, making out, and absorbed very little.
    “So I saw this at a drive-through.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:29:03 · Ben Hosley (0.70 sure it was them)
  14. lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). The Spanish film has the same beats, and the protagonist's face looks even worse in it.
    “But it's like the movie's beats are exactly the same down to the, you know, crucial moment of him like lying in the gut.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:31:50 · David Sims (0.45 sure it was them)
  15. contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → The Phantom of the Opera. The disfigurement is genuinely upsetting rather than a small shitty patch like Gerard Butler's Phantom.
    “you didn't like do the Gerard Butler Phantom of the Opera thing”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:32:26 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The speakers play a game of naming Vanilla Sky cast members until someone runs dry; the cameo list includes Spielberg.
    “The game is, let's go around a circle until one of us can't name another Casmer from Vanilla Sky”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:37:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Vanilla Sky: Spielberg cameos as himself, running up to Cruise with 'you son of a bitch' at the party.
    “there's a party scene where Steven Spielberg runs up Tom Cruise and goes, you son of a bitch”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:38:05 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  18. craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → 28 Days Later. The empty-Times-Square shoot is likened to emptying London for 28 Days Later.
    “like in 28 days later when they like, you know, did Limpty London.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:40:58 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about Vanilla Sky: Cruise shut down Times Square to shoot the empty-city opening, which was legendary at the time.
    “like Tom Cruise shut down Times Square.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:41:26 · unknown (0.50 sure it was them)
  20. contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → School of Rock. School of Rock is the commercial film that did well and still fit Linklater's work.
    “I'd say School of Rock kind of functions in that way.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:42:42 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  21. contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Popeye. Most idiosyncratic directors who try genre end up like Altman's Popeye.
    “it's like Altman's Popeye, you know?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:42:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  22. lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Jerry Maguire. Vanilla Sky is likened to Jerry Maguire escaping a Frankenstein experiment before it was finished.
    “this movie is like Jerry Maguire, like, got out of some sort of like Frankenstein monster experiment before he was finished”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:43:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  23. lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Jerry Maguire. A deformed Jerry Maguire.
    “Well, it's like a deformed Jerry Maguire.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:43:19 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
  24. contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Toys. Toys is the other example of an idiosyncratic director forced into a bigger genre structure and ending as a disaster.
    “It's either like a disaster like that or like Barry Levinson's toys, which we talked about a lot.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:43:52 · unknown (0.45 sure it was them)
  25. contrast (contrast): Vanilla Sky → Big Eyes. The opposite case: a studio-style film where the director's voice is lost, like Tim Burton's Big Eyes.
    “Tim Burton's big eyes.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:44:23 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  26. craft (craft): Edge of Tomorrow → Vanilla Sky. Edge of Tomorrow almost threads the needle of an idiosyncratic filmmaker doing a big genre movie.
    “almost threads the needle of what we're talking about.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:45:26 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  27. craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → Eyes Wide Shut. Cruise in masks again, soon after Eyes Wide Shut.
    “right after eyes wide shut too.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:46:45 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  28. programming (programming): Vanilla Sky → Stargate. Running joke: Ben's favorite movie Stargate was the first film with a website.
    “The 1st movie, the 1st website was for Ben Hosley's favorite movie, Stargate.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:51:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  29. career (career): Vanilla Sky → Minority Report. After this film everything Cruise does is haunted.
    “And everything that he does after this is haunted, you know”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:55:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  30. career (career): Vanilla Sky → Mission: Impossible III. Even in Mission Impossible 3 he's the hero but dark and crying a lot.
    “even something like Mission Impossible 3, where he's the hero, his character is dark and like crying a lot”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:55:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  31. career (career): Vanilla Sky → Collateral. After this Cruise plays men who have failed and are trying to overcome it.
    “after this, all the collateral just become a guy who has failed and is trying to overcome it.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:55:54 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  32. career (career): Vanilla Sky → War of the Worlds. War of the Worlds is where Cruise's maniacal self-selling publicity arc implodes.
    “and then War of the Worlds is where it all really implodes.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:56:06 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  33. fun, about Vanilla Sky: Cameron Diaz's character delivers the 'your body makes a promise' monologue, which becomes the episode's running catchphrase.
    “Like the craziest monologue in the world.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:03:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  34. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The hat is compared to the New Radicals singer's, tied to 'the dreamer's disease' of the movie.
    “Is that hat a conscious reference to new radicals because this is a movie about Tom Cruise having the dreamer's disease?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:04:52 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  35. theme (echo): Vanilla Sky → Hologram for the King. The 'This is not my beautiful house' singing recurs in Hologram for the King.
    “Do you know that Tom Hanks sings that song in hologram for the king?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:06:36 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  36. craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → To the Wonder. The loft scene feels like Malick's improvised movement, twirling and trust falls, as in To the Wonder.
    “Terrence Malik tells his actors to just sort of improvise movement.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:08:16 · unknown (0.45 sure it was them)
  37. contrast (contrast): Edge of Tomorrow → Vanilla Sky. Edge of Tomorrow is a better, later film because we know Cruise now wants us to like him.
    “because we know that Cruz desperately wants us to like him again.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:17:32 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  38. verdict (verdict): Vanilla Sky → Mission: Impossible III. This is the ultimate Cruise performance: first the charm cashed in, then the thing underneath.
    “I agree that this movie's kind of like the ultimate Tom Cruise performance.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:17:40 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  39. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The speakers get hung up on 'Citizen Dildo', the nickname the board has for Cruise, which is close to Singles' Citizen Dick.
    “which A is very close to citizen dick from singles.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:21:21 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  40. theme (theme): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). The Spanish original keeps the ending ambiguous, while this version spells out what the dream state is.
    “And Abri Lo Sojos does not have this problem so much, is that I think the ending is supposed to be ambiguous”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:24:18 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
  41. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The bucket hat Cruise wears appears out of nowhere and never comes off, even in the sex scene.
    “Well, we should also say he's not taken off the hat for the entire whole movie.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:24:40 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  42. fun, about Vanilla Sky: A bit about a commercial: scientists freeze a dog in ice and thaw it, hints that foreshadow the cryo twist.
    “where some scientist is like, this dog was frozen in ice.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:26:14 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  43. theme (echo): Vanilla Sky → Deep Impact. The Ellie/LE name confusion happened three years earlier in a far superior film, Deep Impact.
    “I should also mention that all these hints that an Ellie confusion had happened 3 years prior in a far superior film called Deep Impact.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:26:27 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  44. what-if (what-if): Vanilla Sky → Christopher Nolan. Christopher Nolan would have done a good job with this movie.
    “You know who would have done a good job with this movie?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:27:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  45. what-if (what-if): Vanilla Sky → The Dark Knight Rises. Nolan did a better version of this movie, and Dark Knight Rises shares a disfigured billionaire heir plot.
    “I just realized Dark Diet Rises is also about a disfigured billionaire air who falls in love with a woman who tries to kill him.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:28:13 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  46. fun, about Vanilla Sky: Penelope Cruz runs her hands through a hologram of Louis Armstrong; the film's tech is a mix of the odd and the futuristic.
    “where Penelope Cruz runs her hands through a hologram of Louis Armstrong.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:30:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  47. fun, about Vanilla Sky: Griffin's casting story: a casting director warned him not to joke about 'can you hear me now?' when the Verizon actor wrote and directed a film.
    “the writer and director of this film, who's going to be in the audition is the can you hear me now, guy?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:31:59 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  48. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The speaker discovered the film's ending by flipping channels and landing on Cruise peeling off the mask to 'Good Vibrations'.
    “And then landed on him slowly handshaking, peeling the mask off as good vibrations flared”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:33:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  49. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The film's Dylan-cover and pop-culture death montage is what Crowe thinks his own death will look like.
    “Yeah, that's what Cameron Crow thinks his death is going to be like.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:36:25 · unknown (0.35 sure it was them)
  50. lineage (lineage): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). The ending follows the original beat for beat, down to the jump and the 'open your eyes' last line.
    “Yeah, again, it's how Abri Lo Sojos works to a T down to him jumping and open your eyes, like being on last lines.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:38:09 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
  51. craft (craft): Vanilla Sky → Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes). Crowe pushes more ideas onto the plate than the original, which distracts from the film.
    “Crow's putting a lot more on the plate, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:38:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  52. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The reading that makes the movie work: after a Crowe-perfect first half, the rest is a man trying to make his life a Cameron Crowe movie again.
    “And then his life crumbles. And the rest of the movie is a guy trying to make his life like a Cameron Crowe movie again.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:38:49 · Richard Lawson (0.70 sure it was them)
  53. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The box office game: Vanilla Sky opened #1 on December 14, 2001 on a $68 million budget and grossed $203 million worldwide.
    “Clean 203, a gentleman's... Budget was 68 million.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:41:30 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  54. programming (programming): The Royal Tenenbaums → Vanilla Sky. Tenenbaums opened the same week as Vanilla Sky in 5 theaters and averaged $55,000.
    “Tenenbaums comes out that very week on 5 theaters and it grosses $276,000”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:45:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  55. theme (echo): Vanilla Sky → Gothica. Gothica has the same identity swap between Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz as the Sophia/Julie switch here.
    “It's like the Sophia, Julia Switch, in Vanilla Sky that happens between Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:46:33 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  56. fun, about Vanilla Sky: The recording was spread over years because the hosts kept leaving the country, so references to a breakup will be five weeks stale on release.
    “Having to re-listen to me make references to how sad I am right now 5 weeks from now when this episode's released.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Vanilla Sky with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:57:04 · Griffin Newman (0.55 sure it was them)