Blank Check with Griffin & David - Send Help

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

Almost four years ago, Producer Ben Hosley watched Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan" and proclaimed that if he'd been in that scenario, everything would have worked out perfectly. With the gleefully satisfying "Send Help," Raimi gives Ben the ending he's always wanted. Join Ben, Griffin, David, and Marie as they chat about the endless likability of Rachel McAdams, the heel turn of Dylan O'Brien, and how the various employees of Blank Check Productions would fare on a deserted island. Read "Dylan O’Brien Is Ready to Talk About That Accident" Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meet Linda Little. She's from strategy and podcasting. See, that's what he wanted to do, guys. That's all. That was his passions right there. David has been waging a war on the opening of this show. No, I have been trying to make this show open. This is what happens.

I'm like, say the line. I'm not saying today's episode. I'm talking in general. This is a multi-month war. Yes, because you take too long. To try to get it right. Everyone's with me. Everyone, everyone, everyone's list.

Everyone is. Is this everyone in the room with you right now? Ben Hosley. He's taking a drink to avoid being on mic. Marie Bardi. She swore a vow of silence. Marie was saying, what about this line?

What about this? It's a collaborative project. We're all creative collaborators. We're all creative collaborators. This is a space for art, above all else. I just want to say, if you want to talk about us as creative collaborators, cool. But I think something needs to be acknowledged. What's that?

Like, David and Griffin, you guys are. You're my boss. Sure. That's true. So that's kind of an imbalance dynamic. Well, and also my dad did promise you that you were next in line for VP at BCP. He does not have the power to promise such a thing. In fact, he has no relationship to this business whatsoever, but I do know that's hanging over this episode.

It does not like the kind of thing your dad might do offhandedly. Unfortunately. I think you're next in line. It's just kind of like making conversation. For VP. I mean, I feel like Peter and I, we have a good relationship on social. media. Absolutely. I'm always getting those, you know, raise the roof emojis. He likes the hands raised. He likes the hands raised. You know, I stopped getting the hand raises from him. What's up,

Bistel Pete? Wow. Because I'm next. I think I stopped faving every single hand raise. Maybe he took the hand. Yeah. Yeah, which means that I'm next in line. For hands. Yeah. Well, no, for running all of this. He, I feel like it was for Father's Day last year, you did a happy father. say to Peter Newman, the most supportive Instagrammer, and you did a collage of all the times. My father, for people who don't pay attention. He loves to hit people with them. He loves to raise the roof.

Almost anyone on Instagram, if you look, the top comment is 17 raised prayer hands. Right? With no text. It's a great bit. It's a great bit. And you posted that and I showed it to him and he immediately went, what is this making fun of me?

Aw. Pestal. He got very defensive and paranoid. And I was like, we're celebrating you. And he was like, okay, but where do those come from? And I was like, you posted them. She just saved them. Does he have like a sort of virus in his phone that's just doing it?

I don't know. And then he went like, well, okay, if you promise me it was meant as a term of endearment, I think Marie should be next in line for VP. Yes, and it was meant as a term of endearment. Oh, your dad's not really a Bruce Campbell, though, I will say. No. No, not really the guy who would play your dad. No, my dad's got fake shemp vibes.

It's a deep ramy joke. Marie? I did the Leo point at the screen meme when I saw the Bruce Campbell. I did as well. Yeah, I mean, a nice touch. I saw this movie with Friends of the podcast, Ben David Grabinski, soon to be returning guests and Mal Smith.

And I did just, I didn't do it frantically. I very calmly extended my hand because I wanted to watch them notice it, you know? And I just saw their eyes scan and then land on it. And we all just started laughing. God, the 40X in this movie. Would you be surprised to hear

that a Sam Ramey movie in 40X feels like the closest we've gotten to William Castle in my lifetime? Sure. That doesn't surprise me at all. He is, right, he's a showman of another era. It's true. And I've been digging into this,

but it seems like the Ramey team might have been a little more hands-on in the 4DX than a lot of filmmakers. You've been digging in. I've been trying to get answers. Tom Cruise over here. But even if... We got a digger, folks.

Ben doesn't get it. What's the song in the trailer again? Is it Spoon or something? I don't know. I don't know. What's the song in the Digger trailer? It is O'Green World by Gorillas. Do you know about Digger?

I know it's the Tom Cruise comedy movie. Yes, ostensibly it's funny what we've been told. He plays a Digger. Right. Who has to save the world? A shovel man. A shovel man. Which we do like.

I like that. Apparently he's in full prosthetics or something. He's in making. If you look at his silhouette, in the trailer, there's facial transformations. What if he, what if he, what if this is like a stealth Ben Hosley biopic and we don't know about it? You're saying he's using that guy. I mean, the pro-doer, I would be on. I just don't know how long, like, I don't dig that much that you can make a whole feature out of it.

But digging, digging could be a metaphor, you know. Right, life's the whole, dig it. That's one of your favorite. metaphors. It is. You say that all the time. All the time. You know who's third build in that movie? In Digger?

Well, John Goodman is second build. It's Sandra Heller. No, it's Goodman. Sandra Hewler is second built. But Goodman. Could we dig up a nom for Goodman this year, maybe? Would you remember? Yeah, we were trying to get Goodman for our King Ralph show. And he was like, sorry, you know. Right. I'm deep in the hole.

No, but also his heart is significant enough. Yes, that he broke his knee while filming. and they shut down all of production for like a month. You do a cruise movie. You're going to hurt a limb somehow. But I'm saying, if John Goodman was the guy behind the desk, giving him the mission in three scenes across the movie.

He wouldn't have broken a knee. And also they would have gone like, great, we'll shoot around you for the next month until you're better. Filming shut down because... It is Goodman's first on-screen appearance in a film since Captive State. Yep. What is Captive State? It's a bit of a forgotten movie.

Not a terrible one. It's a sci-fi action, sort of low-budgety, yeah, 2019. It's Rupert Wyatt. The guy who made a rise. Yeah, and one of the ape guys. Why am I blanking on his name for Moonlight? Ashton Sanders. Okay.

Ashton Sanders. Was kind of the lead in it? Yes, Goodman's sort of a villain, sort of a... Goodman's first built. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As the sort of bureaucrat. And then who's the female lead of that movie? Vera Formiga's in it?

Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And John Langer. It's like a machine gun. Kelly, Pete Davidson's first guest on his hit new podcast, which is so good that we're going to pack it up today. So this is the last episode. David walked into the studio today, just be like, guys,

that Pete Davidson video podcast, that non-union talk show is, it's incredible. What is this non-union talk show? Marie, they've clearly communicated it's a podcast. It's a podcast that is 36 minutes long, only exists on the Netflix streaming service is video and has no audio feed whatsoever. They figured. it out. We've been doing it all wrong this whole time. We look so foolish. What does his garage look like? It looks like an empty

room with like some soundproofing shit set up and a couple chairs. So it doesn't really look like a garage. It's not like the Marin vibe of like, oh, there's a billion things on the wall and like, no, it's just like an empty room. Do you buy that it's his actual garage or do you think they built a set or rented a house room? I think it's his actual garage and I think part of the reason it's being fucking filmed

there is they smoked like four billion cigarettes over 36 minutes. So like, Elsie, Hugh, or whoever Pete's, you know, partner is, who's probably, like, take that shit out of the house. He's got a newborn child. Exactly. Come on, man.

Yeah, I don't know. John Goodman, since 2019, was going back and forth, ping-ponging between the Conners and the Right, doing the TV shows he's doing. It's not like he's been absent from our screens. But Connors would do, like, a gentleman's 20-plus episodes a season.

A Righteous Gemstones was doing 10. Sure. He was doing, like, 30 episodes of television a year as the Patriots. Triarch. Conners did seven whole seasons. Yeah, it did, brother. I was there. Front row. Mixing it up with that crazy crew. Crazy Conners. But it is wild...

Season seven was just six episodes long, so I guess it was a real... It was a little shake. Can I share a story that I think is endearing that I heard? Because it's a done matter now. That after season six, they wanted to end the Connors. They were just like, we think we've like... We've hit the end of the end of the moment's past, right?

Yeah. No, just have we told all the stories we can tell? whatever. And they broke the news to John Goodman and he broke down crying and was like, I just love working on the show so much and I miss these people. And they were so affected by John Goodman's emotion. I would be. A child

that you're like trying to get out of the house. They were like, John, Judge, what about six more? How about we just do six more? That sounds good, right? Does that make you happy? That they basically renewed it for a miniseries because they felt so guilty about making John Goodman. I mean, good for them.

Great for them. Good for goodness. Good for John. Good for John. But yes, he has been, after decades of being one of our warmest and most welcome screen presences at the movie theater. At the movie theater? Seven years without a Goodman.

What's this podcast? This podcast. This cod past. This cod past. Which last year was a lot about John Goodman. Yeah, we had a little because he had the Coins. This year, so far, zero Goodman on the spreadsheet. Disaster.

Terrible news. It's a cod pass. about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in the career and have given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion products

they want and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby. I forgot the opening line. This is blank check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. That's Ben.

I'm woman. Oh, sorry. I was looking up, I'm pretty sure that one of the fake sponsors I came up with on a past March Madness was cod past.

Oh, good. Oh, really? Was it? So that's what I'm referencing. Sure. Pretty sure. So I was checking on that. But yes, hey, it's Ben Hosley.

What's up? Yeah, hey, it's Marie. A.k.a. woman, aka mayor. I don't like the... We got to drop the woman nickname. No, I love the woman thing. You love the woman?

Reese Feldman texted me yesterday. Listening to the no other choice episode, love the woman bit. And I was like, you're the king of TikTok. I'm the woman of blank check. Yeah, Ben, it's not a great look that you're publicly... Why do you hate women? I don't like the woman.

No, I don't like that you're being... like reduced to just the woman. But fine. We'll keep going with it. No, I, you know, thank you. I agree. I'm much more than just woman. However, I do think my identity as

woman is important. It's very important. I think you're so important. And we could argue today's movie is about that. It's about, it's about underestimating woman. It is. It is. It is.

In 2021, normal year, we covered the films of Sam Ramey. That was 2021? That was 201. Wow. Right?

Or was it 22? No. Because I started working on the podcast in 2020. Okay. So then it was two. Yeah. So podcast Me to Hell. Our Sam Ramey series was, yeah, March

2022 to June 2020. We covered his films. Talked about Spider-Man and, you know, fucking, yeah, evil deads and simple plans. One of my favorite filmmakers.

It was kind of like, yeah, we love, I mean, yeah. He was a classic when he finally makes a new movie, we got to cover him. And they announced that he's doing Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a normal movie that came out in a normal way, a normal amount of time. And was released in 2022. And we did a miniseries to commemorate it. And it had been a long gap. He had slowed way down post in the 20s. They had the quibby.

He did have a quibby. He had the quibby thing. When you make something as good as Haas the Great and Powerful, you can't just rush into your next project. I forgot. I was thinking, you know, I was thinking about the Ramey series. And, like, I did, I wasn't super familiar with his work outside of Evil Dead and Spider-Man. So it was, like, like, I enjoyed the simple plans and the smaller stuff. Yeah, I really like, I hadn't seen, the Quicken the Dead was great, hadn't seen dragged me to hell because I think, you know, I've only, you know, I've only,

maybe within the past 10 years gotten less squeamish. Used to hide in your coat. I did. I did used to hide in my coat and no longer do that. Such as a woman. But I will say I was remembering Ben shaking his head.

I was remembering how I could not finish for love of the game. And now I'm just remembering I also could not finish Oz the Great Powerful. I would say those are two flawed films. For the love of the game, honestly, I mean, a movie that's not very good.

Also, you can watch an hour. Yeah. Kind of like, I got it. It's got magic moments in it. Yeah. All I remember about that movie is that he fixes a tire. Yeah, absolutely. So that's their me cute.

I basically remember I like the baseball stuff more than the romance stuff. The baseball stuff is so beautifully shot. But Oz the Grand Powerful is dire. And it also sucks that you zoom out and you're like, we got one Sam Raymond movie. In the whole decade. The whole decade. And we've gotten two in the 2020s, which already means we're way ahead. And the fact that one of them is such a kind of like pure blast of peak Ramey return to form, in my opinion, is thrilling.

Today we're talking about send help the new 20th studios. I always forget what the new name is. 20th Century Studios. 20th Century Studios. 20th Century Studios. Send help a Sam Ramee film that it is my great pleasure to announce. to our listeners. Fucking rules.

You're very, you're very happy about this movie. You know who else was? Oh, I mean, fucking love this shit. Bing-mong, Bing-Mung. Ben sent, really,

our producer Ben, who we love. Let's just, let Ben say it. It's a great text. Marie, Ben, and I all see it at separate showings, at separate theaters. That's true, you guys.

We all scattered to the wind. But around the same time, so we get out of the theater and we're all kind of sharing notes in the text. And before I even turn my phone on, I had the thought that then is greeted by Ben already having gotten there a couple minutes earlier. Yes.

So I text, I love Linda, our main character. And then I, in all caps, and everything works out. It is the rare movie where Ben wouldn't have done anything better. No, I was with Linda the whole time. You're not a couple decisions she makes for you're like, okay, Linda, maybe. Oh, okay, okay, perfect across the book. I might have talked the fiancé. like out of, you know,

searching the island, send her off maybe. Sure. Other ways to handle that, I suppose. Versus murdering her and her accomplice. Any movie. That poor guy. I know. He did not deserve to take a head.

He did not. He's just fruit on the boat. I know. We're going to get deep into spoilers here. Any movie, yeah. Any movie where something goes horribly awry

after people make like a big move, right? a big play. Ben always defaults to. If it had been me, this would have ended with me owning an island. It all would have worked out.

Do we remember on which episode that bit originated? Simple plan, right? Simple plan. It's full fucking circle. Yeah. If I had found that bag of money,

the movie would have ended with me owning an island. No fucking moral struggles. No inner searching of who am I. Well thought out. Disillusion of marriage. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, what is her department, Linda? Strategies and planning. That's what I'm all about, baby. Strategy and planning. And it would have, yeah, it would have worked out for me. Absolutely.

David, you saw this like two weeks ago. I saw it, yeah, it was a, it was screening for me at the Disney headquarters. So where you saw Ella McKay? Yes. They have a new screening room in their new, they have like a building. I feel like Ella McKay would do well in a Scent Helps scenario. Elma K would do very well. She's got, yeah, she's an alpha. Like, I mean, a secret alpha. Yeah, she's a secret alpha.

Also, Elmike gets everything done in, like, three days for better or worse. So, like, maybe her tenure as senator was short. Well, also, like, Ella's- But she'd get off the island in, like, 72 hours. Ella's big problem is, like, she's not a great people. Like, she struggles with the interpersonal. But, like, once you're on the island, that's all that's done with. Like, now it's, like, now it's time to just get things done.

As long as she was wearing the sex scarf when the plane went down. she would have been great. You saw this like two weeks ago and you were like, it's good. Yes, I didn't want to call her any opinions. Okay. I said send help fun good. Because the three of us walked out hooting and...

But I don't like to... I truly do not like to overhite people. Like, or two... I get very, very concerned. It's a trauma going all the way back to my teenage years, and I'm sure you have it too. Let's unpack that.

I'm saying to your friends like, oh, this movie rocks, you know, some movie I... And then they're like, not that good. Well, that's my only... Hulk. You were Tron. You have that experience with Tron. Sure. You talk to school. You've told me that. Talk to class. That's a more complicated, nuanced story, but sure. Oh, yes, of course. Much like Tron. Yes.

It's so complicated and nuanced. Yeah. I kind of felt that way with my most recent Ben's choice about the pizza pie, man. Yeah, I love you to death. Yeah. No, I think we all were thrilled by that choice. David. I mean, at least that movie's interesting. Like, there are so many people. It's weird. We got to talk about Tracy Ollman. We had a great time. Who has a great legacy. There's no problems there. No mistakes have been made.

David, are we hotter on this movie than you are? Or were you just playing it close to the vest? I'm big fan of this movie. I had a great time. I don't know. You are very hot in it. Yeah. I don't know that I could be hotter.

I had an unbelievable time. And part of it is just like, I think a thing that makes Sam Ramey unique. And I believe I said this at the time. but like drag me to hell feels like one of the only movies where a filmmaker who had just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger scaled down and went to their starting point and it didn't feel like they were forcing themselves to fight with an arm behind their back.

Right, like the frustration for us so often is with guys like Peter Jackson. Right, Jackson's a good example. Angli has fallen into a similar thing where I'm like, my God, you can't just like make a character drama again? I was trying to think about this for my review because I mean, I thought about Tarantino first and foremost, who's, you know, everyone's always talking about him. So I felt almost stupid invoking him.

But you cannot deny that like, it's impossible to imagine Tarantino being like, you know what? I'm going to make like kind of like a little gritty movie. You know what? I can do that. I used to do it. Like, it's like, no, he's done doing stuff like that.

For the listener at home, David literally rolled up his sleeves. He was locked in the performance. And then he's also doing the weird arm thing. Now he's doing the weird arm thing. Which, of course, QT can do as well. I'm double jointed. No, but you're right. If he was like, my final film is five guys with guns in a warehouse,

people would be like, the fuck are you talking about? People would maybe be excited, but I just, you know, he's probably not going to do that. And I was trying to think of other, like, because I'm like, Ramey actually is happy, it seems, to be like, well, I just made multiverse of madness. That doesn't mean that I require another gigantic scale movie to follow it up. I am happy to slum it with a silly script. I'm happy to have it come out in January. Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Sam Ramee is miserable about this, but I'm not getting that vibe.

He seems like he's having a good time. No, and I also think Drag Me to Hell's the previous time he's done this. He's done it twice. He's shaken off, like, the dust a little bit from a blockbuster, you know, which is like a completely different kind of thing to make. I think there was, I saw a thing somewhere where they were like, Sam Ramee is like the only guy who, like, wants to keep making superhero movies and doesn't get to. On Reddit, someone asked. him like, what's your biggest regret about superhero movies? Then he replied,

that I can't, then I'm not getting offered more of him. Like, he is like, let me add him. I love superheroes. But he's, like, definitely the opposite of what we expect where it's like, oh, you're slumming it doing those kinds of movies.

You want to be making the, I've done all I can. Yeah. What else could I say? He's like, no, I have more to say. Let's please. There's also another aspect, which is like, there's the part you're talking about psychologically

that guys don't know how to go scale back down or don't want to anymore, right? I also think there's a thing that, like, When people get $200 million budgets, it sometimes seems to break their brain in a way that's equivalent to like going to the moon and then not knowing how to exist on Earth anymore. Right. Yeah, totally. You feel sometimes people going like, hey, maybe strategically I should make a smaller one. Maybe I should go back to my roots. Yeah.

And you're like, they can't relocate the thing anymore. To me, that's Demeckis making here. Exactly. Where he's like, I'll make an intimate tiny movie. And I'm like, but this is like the most complicated way for you to do that. Demeckis doesn't know how to uncomplicate things anymore. I think so. Even if you like the later movies, he doesn't know how to...

Like, his allied is a similar thing where he's like, no, no, no, I can make like it. And I'm like, right, but it's like a really expensive one. Like in a really like, like, tough to mount one. And Ramey is a guy where you're like, you'd watch this movie and could easily believe this was directed by a 35-year-old with the biggest budget they've ever been handed. Exactly. They're like, finally I'm going to cut loose, get a little, you know, more CGI with it, blah, blah, blah. Like, yes, right. When they announced, Drag Me to Hell, after Spider-Man 3, and it was like, his next move is he wants to go back.

And he's going to re-team with his brothers, and he's going to make a nasty little horror movie at a lower budget. That was really exciting, but many people fall into that trap. And it's more depressing to see these guys not being able to locate their kind of core self anymore. But that was the thing he birthed from the ground up. This is like just a script that he took on. Mark Swift and Damien Shannon, who I say this with all due respect because I enjoyed this movie. Mostly write dogship. Just utter dogship.

Give me the other credits. Freddie versus Jason, which I enjoy, but I assume they were, you know, they were not probably the only people. They're the only credited writers on it, but I assume many passes. The movie's got a pretty pure vision. Unfiltered. Shark Tale, which I think they are one of many credited people on. Yeah, a film I do not like. No, not very good.

You know, I've never seen it. All respect to Scuddle. Walkerman. Is that his favorite movie? He worked on it. Wait, what did he do on it? A lot of writing. Uncredited.

Oh, okay. The Friday the 13th remake, which means I suppose they wrote the line, your tits are just fucking just so juicy dude. Yeah, so we heard it. They wrote your favorite line of dialogue ever. There's an insane sex scene in Friday the 13th, the remake, which is like a pretty solid,

it's sort of like a forgettable but okay remake. I don't even know. Like, I forgot that, like, I know that they did one for Elm Street with Jackie Earl Haley. It was, it was in that vein. It was the platinum dunes. It was Michael Bayes production company. They did a Friday to 13. Yeah.

So who's in Friday the 13th? Kind of nobody. I mean, again, I don't know. Juliana Gill, the woman with like, she's got the juiciest tits. She's got the juicest tits. Okay, cool. It's Jared Padalecki and Daniel, Panna Baker and Amanda Ryehedy. You know, it's a lot of like CW actors.

Wow. Okay. But it was before Nightmare and Elm Street. And it's a movie that has. They released it on an actual Friday of the 13th. They did. Which was, it seemed to be like 50% or more of the reason for doing it. Marie, it is one of those movies as a box office nerd that I'm obsessed with because it made like 50% of its final gross on opening day.

It was an open pig and, you know, it actually did fine. But it was the thing where it was like, opening day was like 20. Opening weekend was like 40. Final total was like 60 or under. Sounds about right. Anyway, there is a sex scene in which the character who's having, the boy says, your tits are fucking just so juicy dude. Wow.

To a nude woman who says you really know how to give a compliment, which is funny, but I have just never forgotten it. And I assume they wrote that line or maybe it was improv, who knows. Just like so juicy dude. And then just to finish their credits, Baywatch. Yeah. Not great. Not great.

Bob. Not great. These are not movies where I'm like, can't. wait to see what those guys are cooking up next. Now, I know when you judge a writing team like this, they're called Mark Swift and Davian, you know, by their credits, it's like... I feel like they probably listen to this podcast.

These are all movies that... These are all movies that had a million people work on them. They ended up with the credit. That's great. And the inverse of this, and it's the thing we can't talk about because these things aren't known or when they're known, you're not supposed to say them, is like, very often, the things someone is credited with,

the lion's share of work was done by someone else, and the movies in which they did the most positive work they didn't get credit on. That's the case with a lot of, like, top-level studio working screenwriters. It's why, like, the fucking Christina Hudson conversation is meaningless. Of course. Everyone's mad at her because she wrote The Flash or whatever. And she was announced as the new writer of Batman the Brave and the Bold, a movie that is absolutely going to happen. On route, a movie that is speeding towards us. Now, I'm pinging this for a specific reason.

Okay. Sam Ramey says, I wish they offered me more superhero movies. James Gunn is like, Andy Machetti is a little busy right now. I don't know if he's still making our Batman movie. That's definitely happening. Post it, welcome to Derry. He's got a lot of offers, right?

It feels like Gunn is laying the track four. In other interviews, Rami has done, where they're asking him, well, what other superheroes would you want to do? He immediately says, Batman. I wanted to make Batman in the 80s. Wow. I mean, he made Darkman,

which is sort of like, Darkman is him not getting to make Batman and not getting to make the shadow and all the sort of pulp early 90s movies. He wanted to make and couldn't get approved of. If I'm James Gunn and I hear Sam Ramey say that in an interview and there's potentially an opening director's chair and you're looking for a way to make the next Batman movie distinct in an era where Batman's been rebooted too many times and we already have the Matt Reeves universe over here. I was going to ask about that. I still don't understand. Nobody does. Okay.

No one understands the strategy here, and no one will admit to knowing the strategy is stupid. My belief I predicted in another episode that I think will come out in some weeks is that they will just be super fucking molasses slow with development on this other Batman movie, wait until the Matt Reeves, like saga is over to then have a script that's ready to go

that they can film within a year. But they will let that resolve itself. Okay. That's my prediction. It's a fine prediction. I mean, I, Lord, knows. I was just thinking about this. This is a horrible thing. Sometimes I wake up at night because

one of my kids makes some noise. This happened to me last night. Well, they're trying to get on Dropout, right? I think they have a game show called Make Some Noise. I can't say. I watched Dropout. I'm sorry. And I had this horrible thought where I was like, the James Gunn DC Experiment, not experiment, a project,

can go well and do like 10 years of movies, right? Right. And kind of, you know, come to an end as these things seem to do, right? And then it's going to happen. Someone's going to be like, it's time to bring Zach Snyder back, Ben Affleck back, and do the Dark Knight returns like Frank Miller's The Dark Night.

Affleck will be old enough, and the drumbeat will begin. I thought Affleck was already old enough before, and that's why they cast him. He'll be older. And like, and they kind of hint at it. Like, the design of him is a little inspired by it and all that. But now they will fully, they will, people will start to demand this. Dark Night Returns, which is the big title, Marie, and the one that Snyder was always kind of pulling from,

but never directly adapting. In that, Batman is like unforgiving Clint Eastwood. He's supposed to be Clint Eastwood, essentially. And him casting... A great-haired guy. Affleck and having him be a little more beaten down and a little more chunky was trying to, like, bridge the gap for that.

But the thing you could do... And by the way, even if James Gunn stays... I think that's a very smart observation. I think even if James Gunn stays in charge for 10-plus years... Maybe, right. That would be appealing. It would not be a bad decision to just go,

Hey, guys, Zach Snyder, L. Swirleds, Dark Night Returns, one off. I mean, this is all silly because, of course, what's actually going to happen in 10 years is Zach Snyder will be president of America.

He'll be president of America. And they'll be fine. And everyone will be calm. But you say, Marie, I don't get what's going on there. Can you explain this to me? If they announced tomorrow, Sam Ramey is directing

a Batman movie with Robin in it. As a movie person, your brain immediately goes, I understand how that would be different from what Matt Reeves and Pattinson are doing. Right. Very different. A big otter with a third.

totally different energy. And different from what the last 15, 20 years of live action Batman have been, immediately? I love it. I mean, I have no idea what I love, but I can tell you that in 2021, oh no, 2019, this is crazy.

This project was announced in 2019. With Ramia. Strange? Yes. Sam Ramey is going on an island getaway. The director is reteaming with his Spider-Man Studio Columbia pictures. So, I don't know how it fucking moved from Columbia to Disney, to Fox, you know, but

Michael Swift, Mark Swift and Damien Shannon who wrote the reboot of the Thursday the 13th interesting the Hollywood Reporter says in brackets the movie where they say juicy tits that's interesting will pen the script based on their original idea so this is less than less them being told like hey can you do a Friday

of the 13th hey can you work on the Baywatch movie this is like them being like no no no we have an actual little cute script we want to do and Ramey took a liking to it They pitched the idea right but they will pen it's like they pitched the idea to him as a producer, and he says, that sounds good,

right, that I want to make this happen. Now I'm trying to figure out. Was Ghost House the name of his shingle at Sony? He had his production company. Because this was another thing in the 2000s and 2010s when he slows down. He's producing like a lot of dump you wary. But just says Ramey Productions.

I'm not sure. There was a Ramey Tapper production company that did like the messengers and things like that, where he was pumping out a lot of screen gems. No, he's definitely produced a surprising amount of stuff over the years. Yeah, and it wasn't like the 2010s were Ramey coming down with a case of the Attachies because he just kind of wasn't making anything. But I think it's how he would get in the mix with like these younger screenwriters. He would see their stuff.

And like once a year there would be a Ramey is circling and then it just would never come to fruition. It just felt like he couldn't get stuff off the ground. He was producing a lot of things for younger filmmakers, but that's interesting that he, right. I don't remember this coming up in our series at all? No, but I don't remember Jack's shit about that time in my life.

Sorry. Like, I don't. I can tell you that in Deadline has it on 2024, so five years later, that he has closed a deal to direct and produce and help for 20th century studio. So it took that long

for this thing to kind of, you know, bubble over there. major success of Dr. Strange in the multiverse of madness, which made almost a billion dollars. And I mean, Oslo-Bron powerful ends up at 700 world-wide. They made a lot of money, although quite a long time ago. Yes, but it is, like, it's interesting that he made a movie that was completely a financial success and yet feels like such a failure as an experiment that he's back on ice for like a decade before Disney lets him make another giant budget movie, and that one makes a ton of money.

The other thing is that, of course, Ramey has constantly been attached to a, a remake of the ventriloquist dummy movie Magic. We kept hearing like that's happening. Which is also being written by these guys. Oh, interesting. So clearly he's, you know, into these guys. Yeah. But I feel like when we were doing the Ramey series,

we were hearing from multiple people. That was what he was most interested in. Magic's happening. Like, it's really happening and it's happening soon. But maybe they were just talking about magic like in the world. Something magical is happening. Fairies are going to be, disclosure day is coming. and it's not about aliens, it's about fairies.

That would be so crazy. If fairies were real? No, if that was just, if it's like, guess what, guys, it's not aliens, it's fairies. The whole time it's been fairies. Well, it would also be so crazy. I think the ultimate stunt

would be Disclosure Day comes out with the simultaneous actual acknowledgement from governments that aliens exist. And Spielberg is like, thank you for like, you know, like the corporate synergy.

Perfect tie, right. Do you agree, Ben? Well, then they are already kind of do that? The funniest shit they ever did. They just dropped some videos being like, by the way, here's some like UFOs. We don't really know what's going on with them.

Everyone was like, ooh! That is the crazy thing to me is that everyone really did just be like, okay. I think everyone just were like, call me when it's a saucer landing and a guy comes out. Everyone was just kind of like, okay, it's like a blob.

I don't know. Do we think that Tom DeLange was like consulted on the Spielberg movie? Oh, because he said aliens. I thought you were asking if the government consulted. No, the government, I was going to say 100%. Spielberg, zero percent.

Hey, I don't know. When I think of disclosure, as it relates to aliens, like he's the number one guy, I think of. You're forgetting that Steven Spielberg has a much closer and older friend who's been banging that drum for longer than Tom Delage. If Spielberg's asking anyone, it's Dan Aykroyd. Wait, I didn't know that Dan Aykroyd's an alien guy. Dan Aykroyd...

Dan Oker is like the ultimate. There's a 10-hour DVD series of him just straight into camera chain smoking cigarettes, explaining aliens. Wow. Yeah. This is the kind of stuff I miss out on

by like not ever being into Dan Aykroy. Like a person who has like sex and normal human relationships people. Marie, it sounds like it's time for you to crack a skull. I know about his vodka. Yeah. I do know about the Dan Aykroyd.

Why do you think it's in a crystal skull? Because it's a powerful totem provided to us by the U.S. UFOs many millennial ago. Wow. Yeah, no, Dan Aykroyd is absolutely, if Spielberg was like, who's the craziest alien person I know? But, like, I don't think Dan Aykroyd has an end with, like, current military people. Tom DeLange has been building those relationships recently.

I'm sorry, why has he been doing that? I don't know. This is like his, oh, I'm not in Blank 12 anymore. I'm just going to go all in to aliens. Do you guys like Plink 122? Yeah, of course. Talk about class. I don't remember anything that happened on this show before.

Blink 1A2 is like my biggest band for years. We've definitely talked about them. I'm sure we have a... Yeah. That was... Take off your pants and jacket was... A motto for you. Don't be saying that in Walmart or anything, though, okay?

Remember they had to call it, take off your jacket and pants in certain places. Enema of the state. Even the title is saucy. I remember pointing out the CD to my dad and saying, I want that and him looking at and going, you're not getting that. I mean, it does have a sexy nurse lady going like this. Yeah, putting her glove on. Speaking of, that's about the time they walk away for me.

Nobody likes you when you're 23. What the hell is ADD? My friends are track my age. What's my age again? What's my age again? 40. Sigh. 40 in two months.

Ghosthouse pictures. You're turning 40 this year? Mm-hmm. Oh, David. Don't be too bad. I just turned 37. You're turning 37 soon. Well, our birthdays are very close together.

We're very close. We're very close. We're very close. But, like, yeah, 37 felt way worse to me than other years in my 30s. That's interesting. To me, I don't really, that's not one that really registered with me. 37 feels firmly late 30s. I mean, whereas otherwise I can just be like, oh, I'm mid-30s.

I'm early 30. No, 37. That's why I'm excited to be 40, baby. early 40s. Can I tell you what it's like? Yeah. It sucks. Fuck.

For your birthday this year, I assume you're just going to do Edward 40 hands. David is... It's a perfect object for... He's mimicking Edward 40 hands. Forties being duct taped to his hand. I definitely... Pilot definitely did that back when I... The great pilot very way. I would pilot all the time.

Would do Edward 40 hands. That was like a thing where I'd be like, what are you doing tonight? Well, someone's doing Edward 40 hands. like if you want to come by. Be it me or one of my friends. Do you want to watch? Yeah, kind of. You know, that was sort of the vibe.

If you were going to, you know, ask pilot, oh, what are the Friday plans? I never got into 40s. No, they... Because they really, they tasted different from regular beer. I was like, this is worse. And there's more of it. Mall liquor, baby. Yeah. No, thank you.

I have news. I, of course, was really into 40s. Oh, what? And high school. We had England. That stuff doesn't exist. We had cider. We had white, like, We have it here in the office. The porches 40.

Yeah, it's true. The customized porches. Shut up. That is true. I got it. Shout out to my UK listeners. If y'all ever drank White Lightning, respect, I used to drink White Lightning in the park.

Would they call it a 40? Because it was a different unit of measurement. What would the number be? I don't know. Something random. We called it. 52. A two pence.

It would be tuppence, I think. No, I was saying two pence. It was a different term. Big fan, though, of drinking down the label, thrown in some OJ. Brass monkey baby. That sounds disgusting. So vile. Jesus Christ. That's a good way to

puke. It's kind of like a take on a mimosa. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like a sort of take on a mosa by someone who's been stunned as a child. Had you heard of toilet? I heard it on you know, the Beastie Boys.

Yeah. That funky monkey. Had you heard of toilet wine before this movie? Yeah. Of course. That's like prison movie. This was new to you? Toilet wine was new to me. Wow. You clearly have never seen Let's Go to Prison. I've never seen Let's Go to Prison. Although recently, just speaking about like prison stuff, I was like, should I watch Oz? You know, what if I got really into Oz? Another sign of Are You depressed, Marie? How are we doing?

Playing the Sims watching Oz. That's also regressing to like the year 2000 in a very specific sort of a way. Feel like shit. Miss them. Wish I was back. I mean, Oz is one of those. shows I have not... I have not seen it in a long time where I think you're kind of like, this is interesting,

I'm seeing the germs of like a new kind of television. Yeah. But you're not like, this is an unseen masterpiece. You're like, guys, all I know about Oz was that there were like white supremacists and butt fucking. That's like all I know about Oz.

Also, Rita Moreno was in there. Rita Moreno was on Oz? It has an unbelievable cast. Yes, yes. Because it was back in the day when like, it was the only interesting TV show, you know what I mean? Like, it was like the only challenging TV show that existed. Because it's a couple years before, like, the HBO Revolution really begins.

David? Yes. This episode is brought to you by Mooby, the global film company that champions great cinema. It champions it. Unlike the others. No, they... To cry it. Barbarian it.

From iconic directors to emerging otters, there is always something. new to discover with Mooby. Each and every film is hand selected so you can explore the best of cinema. You can log on to Mooby and check out all the movies they got. You know, Art House, you know, cool indie stuff, foreign stuff. Okay, this is awesome. What? There's a movie star movie now streaming on Mooby in the U.S.

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I mean, I guess, you know, do what you want. You don't have to. but we recommend viewing the film. Please view the film. Die my love, Lynn Ramsey's film. Great film. Came out last year. It was a canon.

It came out last fall in 2025. It's a visceral and uncompromising portrait of a woman engulfed by love and madness, starring Jennifer Lawrence, who was nominated for a Golden Globe, Robert Pattinson. It's kind of mostly those two. It's very heavy on the two of them. Yeah, some top shelf. Nolty? I was going to say, some seasoning of Nolte and Spacic.

Like, dry. I age, let me tell you. Oh. Yeah, you've got them in there. But yeah, it's a lot. It's a big showstopper movie for Jay Law. And R. Pats. Yeah.

And even R. Pats knows. He's playing Sack and Fiddle. Sure. But then there's like a... A lemon pepper dry rub of Nick Nolte. I love lemon pepper guys. I love Nick Nolty. I love Nick Nolty to look at Lynn Ramsey making her eagerly awaited filmmaking return.

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who'd never been together on screen before. I know. I guess that's not that surprising, but they are quite a pair. The bat and the cat. K-A-T-N-I-S-S. Oh, Cat-N-I-S. Yeah. The Bat and the Steak.

Mystique, that is. Oh, sure. Yeah, it's an awesome movie. The Steak and the Freak, is that something he's played a lot of freaks? Sure, sure. Spoiler alert for the episode, but I was a big fan of the film. I know you were, Ben. Have you seen it yet?

I haven't seen it yet. I think you're going to like it a lot. It's also based on a book by Ariana Harwit. Mm-hmm. Anyway, there's so much good stuff to watch on movie, but this is also awesome. Look, if you're not a member, this is a perfect month to sign up in order to keep up with the show. To stream the best of cinema, you could try a movie free for 30 days. at Mooby.com

slash Blank Check. That's M-U-B-I-com slash blank check for a whole month of great cinema for free. All right, so send help. Send help. It is a film directed by Sam Ramey, written by those guys we talked about.

Who probably listen to this podcast. Sure. You know what? Great job, guys. Like, I really enjoyed the movie. Rachel McAdams is the star. Of course, she worked with Sam on Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

He spoke very highly of her. Look to her immediately was like, you're a perfect actor for me. I got to find something where we can do more together. I saw some interview where he was like, he was like, you know, I'm describing like a stunt to her. Like you're going to get pulled back. You're going to like, you know, whatever, right? You know, for an action scene. If for Dr. Strange.

And she was like, rather than being like, okay, Jesus. She was like, what angle do you want my head to be at when I hit? And he was like, you and I are friends forever. He knows when he finds his people. Right. Look, Ramey's a very technical filmmaker. He designs movies. like fucking EC comics

and he needs actors to hit very specific marks but also like high emotions, comedic instincts when he finds someone who works, it makes sense that he just grabs on. The other thing with Rachel McAdams is you would have to be a fucking idiot to not know that she's like an incredibly versatile and talented

actor. Everyone knows that, right? And yet Hollywood treats her with mild disrespect, I mean, this is also a movie about how Rachel McAdams is a little bit. A little bit underestimated. It's like she's been with us for 20 years. she's always good she's done a million kinds of tones

and stuff like she's nailed them all she is let me just say it a fox and you know this movie plays with that in an interesting way really clever ways okay we can get into it you think Rachel McAdams is busted no I think she's too

I think the movie would have been I think she's wonderful and she's really good in the movie but I think the movie it would have been a little more interesting if she was less attractive I think the more movie is very pointedly presenting an actress over 40 and saying, remember this person was presented

as Julia Roberts and the industry is now telling you that this person is undesirable, that she has crossed a line and now she is disgusting. Are they telling us that she's undesirable, Rachel McAdams? You want me to run through her recent credits? I mean, she plays a mom and are you there, that's me, Margaret, but she's not like an unattractive. She's like pretty, pretty attractive in that movie. I agree. So I, yeah. Honestly, her recent credits are

2025, zero movies. 2024, zero movies. 2023, are you there, God? 22, Dr. Strange. Which is like, God bless. I love that she was in it, but she's not a central part of it. And I do love that Sam Ramey

was sort of like handed all these pieces of contractual obligations, actors left over from other Marvel movies, and the threads from the first Doctor Strange, and was immediately like, I could have built something better for you. Our relationship shouldn't just be you being like, oh, Stephen. 2021, zero movies. 2020,

Eurovision, which she rocks in. Oh, she's great. 2019, zero movies, 2018, Game Night. And is she rocks in. She's incredible in Game Night. Is she doing TV? That's the whole thing. You're like, oh, well, she must not have credits because she did a TV show. Well, she did like one season of True Detective, right? 2015. Well, what the hell is she doing? The only thing she's done that I'm not mentioning is she would did theater. She did Mary Jane on Broadway.

Which she, you know, got a Tony nomination for and got very good reviews for. But look, maybe Rachel McAdams isn't working much because she doesn't want to. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know what's up with Rachel McAdams. And if she wants to tell me, she can call me. And my number is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. But, uh, like... Ten, interesting.

Yeah, yeah. You got to buy that ten button. But, uh, like, to me, it feels like Hollywood's just like, oh, yeah, well, we know you're over there. And you're always good. It is an assumption on my part that she is probably turning down a tremendous amount of stuff that is...

Like, crappy, dumb stuff. Like, disrespectful. Like, the last movie she was presented to us, I think, is like, like a really, like, you know, you know,

a hot person that you want to... Right? Like, when's the last time? The vow. Yes. You're saying, like, the last time she was presented as sort of like...

I guess about time, but obviously that's like a sweet movie. I don't know. Maybe they just have a... because I'm woman, I have, like, different perspective on this. But, like, I don't, I'm always like, oh, yeah, Rachel McAdams. She's hot and I love her whenever she shows up. We all agree with that.

But in Aloha, it's like, don't you want to be rid of Rachel McAdams so you can get with that hot Asian Emma Stone? You're reading of Aloha's wrong. No, but she's less of the object of desire in Aloha, right? It's been a while since I saw Aloha. Yeah, you got to rewatch. I know the number. I'd say that's not the bend of Aloha. Let's relax. Let's relax about it got to.

Time for you to take another lap. Go to the beach, lie down, and bathe in Aloha. No, Aloha is, was mismarketed as a Love Triangle movie. It is instead him trying to process what he got wrong in his previous most important relationship to figure out how to be a better man. But there is actually not really tension within the movie about them getting back together. But nonetheless, she is not the romantic lead of that film.

It's that she was in. And then like disobedience, sure. She's hot stuff. They're all spitting in each other's mouths, but they're all dissinic. You know, they're all fucking, you know, religious. The point to me, Marie, is that, and how old is she now? 47.

Yeah. She's all, wow. Because the whole thing in mean girls. Mean girls, she was 24. I thought she was even older in Mean Girls. Well, do the math. 25. Like, I mean, it was,

Mean Girls is 23 years ago. That's the whole thing because Lindsay's actually like 17 in that movie, and she's 25. Yeah. Had been just doing. working Canada up until that point. But 2004 is the is 2004

No, excuse me and girls in the notebook. And then 2005 is Wedding Crashers, Red Eye, and Family Stump. Wow. And those... What a run. Those two years, Hollywood goes,

we've done it. We found the next Julia. Yep. It was truly like we've been searching for the alternative energy source. She has done five movies across two years in every genre. She's played supporting.

She's played romantically. She's done comedy. It's here. And she basically, and she's talked about in the last couple of years, got really freaked out by the pressure that was placed on her. And just like, I'm not thinking of this. Especially the notebook thing, the Ryan Gosling thing. She's in the middle of a big.

Remember when I recreated that kiss on stage at the MTV movie? We're wearing the Darfur shirt. Oh, my God. Talk about 20. I was about, like, right. Just a moment in time. I mean, 2004, not 2040. Nothing is more 2004.

Yeah. but she was just like, I like acting. I don't, this presidential fame, presidential campaign level of you're running for A-list Queen of Hollywood shit freaked her out and the machinery. She slows way down. Her next two movies are the lucky ones and married life?

Yeah, but I think those aren't, I'm not, those are registering. Married life is 07, the lucky ones is 08, neither of those, you know, they were not seen. And then in 09, yeah, she has the source. of comeback year, but it's state of play where she's, you know, kind of the third lead. Sherlock Holmes, where she's like kind of the third lead, obviously. Sherlock Holmes is the main character of that one, which is FYI.

And then Time Traveler's Wife, which was like much delayed. But that I think was a hit. It's funny that she's in Time Traveler's Wife and About Time. She's good in Time Travelers' Life. It's a bad movie. Because there's also Midnight in Paris. Oh, you're right. Three movies where she falls in love with a guy who is time traveling.

Who's Time Traveling. Yeah. And she's like, What's up? Men will literally time travel to avoid staying engaged in their relationship. When are we going to put Rachel McAdams' time traveling wife trilogy on Patreon? I love nothing more. I mean, that's, yeah.

And, hey, what the world needs out is us talking midnight in Paris. Everyone wants to hear my thing. Yeah. She just, it was an interesting kind of swerve from her, and it feels like she reemerged. And, like, Sherlock Holmes was the real, like, I guess I got to pay a mortgage and make a movie. where my face is on a billboard, but what's the strategic one that feels like it'll be the most fun

and is the least weight on my shoulders? There's a lot of stuff she infamously turned down like Batman Begins and... Rachel! I think it was... That was Christopher Nolan trying to hire her. Rachel! I believe there was the holy trinity

of Batman begins, Iron Man, and Superman Returns that she all turned down. She obviously, I mean, the way Kate Bosworth is like styled in Superman Returns is basically like, fuck, we planned on. They dyed her hair and everything. Ironman, what, she would have been Pepper Potts,

she would have been good at that too. But Paltrow crushes that. Yeah, Paltrow. The other two are miscast, and you see how, if McAdams had been in them, both movies would have, like, really benefited. Obviously, Rachel Dawes is the kind of character that if I'm Rachel McAdams,

and maybe I'm not, like, foreseeing a Christopher Nolan, you know, boom about to start. I'm kind of like, why do I want to be the fucking DA who talks to Batman? Like, boring. and Lois Lane is more exciting but you know it's a big old production maybe you don't want to do it

Beyond even jerk off motion boring I think she was like I don't want more attention right now maybe she just wasn't into it and has just like had a very interesting career of feeling like she works when she wants to work and she can always every couple of years be like romantic drama romantic comedy this or that you know when morning glory comes out

people were sort of like this is the one we've been waiting for it took her like you know eight years past the moment where we anointed her for her to find her working girl, her Julia movie, and that movie didn't really go,

but it was like, this is the vehicle we wanted and the audience isn't here for us. What I think is interesting about this movie is it is less that, like, they're taking Rachel McAdams and making her

Selena Kyle at the beginning of Batman returns. A performance I love, but one where Michelle Pfeiffer is going like big with how small and broken and sad and maladjusted the character is. This is more about, like, to a guy like Dylan O'Brien, Rachel McAdams has no value,

that he's looking at one of still the most luminous actresses we have working in Hollywood and going, like, who's this fucking 46-year-old eating tuna-fis sandwiches? Right, she's swagless, you know, she's got lipstick on her teeth. She's eating tuna. Absolutely. She's got a bad necklace. She's too obsessed with Survivor, which is a red flag.

I love... The Survivor thing really, because like... It's a good option. Obviously, it's crucial to the movie. I mean, David, you and I both have, like, coworkers. We sure do. Like, I don't consider you guys. I mean, I joked about you guys.

You guys are our co-workers. No, we're talking about, like, but we're also friends and we all have the same interests. Well, Marie, remember, I'm your boss. That's true. You are my boss. You're in trouble. Ben's your boss, David's your boss.

You guys are all my boss. Oh, Jesus. You're in line for VP. But, like, you know, like, a desk job... Yes. a desk job where you have co-workers who all you have in common with them is that you go to the same job

every year. I'm sitting at a desk. Ben and I show up here all the time. You guys are really derailing Marie's point right now. What is your point, Marie? Well, I have normal people, co-workers who are obsessed with Survivor. Yeah. You're like, okay. Survivor's still huge. 50th season this year, I believe. Yeah. Correct? Yes. Survival. I like didn't. Survivor.

I've never seen one minute of it. I watched the first three seasons. Yeah. You know, they were very big. My whole family watched them together. Same. Do you remember? Like, you're, yeah, there's a snake and the rat.

Yeah. Oh, God, Sue? Sue. Sue. She was like a truck driver, wasn't she? Yeah, she was. I think so. Wasn't there that naked guy?

Richard Hats. He won. He was, I remember hearing about that one. He was the snake and Kelly was the rat. Yes. Oh, God. I mean, talk about just iconic moments of television. Rudy.

Old man Rudy. Colleen Haskell. America's sweetheart. She was so pretty. The Rachel. Like Adams over time. There was like Jervase, like the cool black guy. Oh, Jervase.

They played. So at the Nighthawk pre-show, they played like scenes from Survivor Borneo. Oh, that's clever. Which was fun. But anyway, Survivor, like, after I stopped watching Survivor in like season four, like I didn't, like, I forgot about it until I got a like normal person day job. And then I'm like, oh, wow. This is co-worker shit.

This movie, yes. It lets Rachel McAdams... To be clear, I have no problem with Survivor. My whole thing with reality TV is just like, I don't have time for that, so I don't know what's going on. So I don't have that as a touch point with other fans. I mean, that was the last time I was engaged in a reality TV phenomenon, and I got off the train.

Now, I know they're on an island and they have to survive and all that. Yeah, which is, I mean, just a very smart hook for this movie. The point I'm trying to make about Rachel McAdams, I guess, is I appreciated how much, yes, she's got lipstick on her teeth. She doesn't know she's got tuna fish on the side of her mouth, right? does have the tuna. There's stuff like that. It's not like the movie is not making any efforts to have the character embarrass herself.

But it just feels more like this woman is a little bit like uncalibrated to the workplace environment. She just doesn't give a shit. She's good at her job and she doesn't care about, you know, playing the game. And she's still objectively beautiful at the beginning of the movie. And for this guy to be like, this fucking woman actually grosses me out, says a little. lot about the core dynamics of the film and also lays the track for her to have this glow up across the movie, which what I love about it is, the globe is like 90% performance. The globe is not that much about a physical transformation. And in fact, her physical transformation just feels like

her getting kind of like settled and earthier. Well, yeah, she comes into her own on the island. Yes. Can I ask a question about Survivor real quick before we move on? Sure. This is maybe our least focused episode in a lot of. long time. This is my husband and I had this conversation as we exited the theater. Yes, I am married to a man named David. Which of us,

the four of us, would do, like, how would it shake out? The four of us? So we're on the island. So my prediction, Griffin and I die immediately. Yeah, the answer is Ben. Ben does well. David thinks he's going to do

well, but ultimately dies. And then Ben is the one You guys, guys, I'm very capable in some ways. I'm not a capable nature guy. I would not be like rolling up my sleeves being like, these berries are the right berries. I think I would be very conservative. I would die.

I don't think I would do well. I think you and I die. I think David's voted off first and I think Ben wins. Now there's voting? Are we doing send help or survivor? Now there's voting. It's been the whole thing the whole time. I mean, it was less about like Survivor of the show,

more about like we're in this real life scenario. Oh, then all three of us die and Ben also still win Survivor. I just I mean, are you not, you're not outdoorsy at all, Marie?

That's not really a Marie thing now. No, no, no. Right? No. I'm like giving you a blank stare. I think about the sims, of course. Right? Famously, I asked on this podcast

have you two ever dug a hole before. And I think David was like, maybe. Yeah. I am more in the maybe category. Marie, have you ever dug a hole? Yes. Okay. I love that. See, at least you're somewhat outdoorsy if you've done that. It's funny that that's your gardening. Like, I wasn't like, I'm not like, like, you're talking about a trowel. I'm talking about a shovel, man. I'm like digging stuff to like put a seed in there, not like, you know. No, no, you ain't digging. Almost anything where you could pose the question, Griffin, have you ever

even done that, the answer is yes one time only on camera. Oh, sure, sure, right. You did it pretend for, right. No, I did it for real, but I have dug a hole on camera one time. In what project? It was a short film. Okay. Yeah. We'll never find it.

Yeah. I have like that, I'm like really allergic to mosquito bites. Sometimes they call it Skeeter syndrome where they like have a very strong reaction. They blow up real big and they're worse than they You're actually responding to the anesthetic they inject you with.

So, I mean, the bugs would get me. So I don't know if that would be my cause of death. I don't think it would kill you, but it wears you down. I would not be happy about whatever fucking Thai bugs are getting me in that island. That is for sure. I'm a strong swimmer. I'm a very strong swim. Can't swim.

Again, dying first. You're definitely in trouble. I definitely don't take any private flights over the Gulf of Thailand anytime. soon, man. Or just wear your floaties. Yeah, well, I will wear... Hey, I always pay attention to the flight attendant safety briefing at the beginning of every flight. Oh, yeah.

Gotta stay buckled at. I'm getting out of there. Yeah, it's important to pay attention because they change it a lot. Every plane's different. This is true. Every country has different regulations. Can we talk about the movie Send Help, a film that I love? So, we haven't talked about...

Well, so, okay, the setup of Send Help is Linda's this, you know, slightly door. employee at a company, whatever. She does all the word gets, no, none of the credit. It's a scenario we can understand in five minutes. Or, you know, Dylan O'Brien. She's in a cubicle bank with the secretaries. They put her in the same area of the office with the secretary. She's near the CEO, but you're right.

She's right. She doesn't really have any special treatment. I almost kind of took it that she was perhaps the CEO's secretary for a long time. Right. And then proved her worth. got a kind of mini promotion to a title that, you know, isn't really... This is the whole problem. She's like this intangible glue person where everyone's like, I know she seems silly,

but like she knows everything. She knows how to fucking fix, you know, contracts and documents. Dead CEO is Bruce Campbell depicted in a painting. Dennis Haysbert, kind of his right-hand man, who's now ushering in the transition. He just brings in one bucket of gravel and shovels it out. He's doing a great job. Just a little bit of gravel. Perfect.

And Dylan O'Brien is the, like, fucking frat-boy. Evil Nepo, son. He wears loafers without, like, those kind of, not even loafer. They're like those, like, little slipper things. Like Farragamo, yeah. Like, blue suede. Yeah, no socks. Who is this guy?

This guy sucks. Well, the movie doesn't, at least he doesn't have the suspenders. The other guy has suspenders, which is another, like, immediate flag that this guy is. He's kind of, like, he's kind of, like, what Dylan O'Brien would be styled, like, if this movie were the 90s, right? You know what I'm just going to say he's dressed like Gordon Gekyll. He's dressed like Patrick Bateman. Yeah. But yes, Rachel McAvast had been promised for a long time that she was next in line for a VP

promotion. You're going to get the big promotion. It feels like she got promoted from being a secretary but got stuck like one step above it for a very long time. And as you said, it's like here's the woman who actually holds all the guys together. Right. Right. Does the invisible work.

But she's also kind of take it for granted because she'll put up with it. Like she puts together all this documentation for, for like a quarterly report. She figures out. And this spender-ass guy basically just takes it from her and claims credit. Right.

And, and, and, and let her in the meeting. Are you getting mad watching this? Okay. That fucker, that I'm so glad when he gets his come-up. He's, Xavier Samuel.

It was the villain in Twilight Eclipse. Yeah, he's Riley. Yeah. I can't say. I remember him. He's an Australian pretty boy. Yeah. But yes, no, right off the bat.

I mean, it's just like, it's, it's, it's, shit where it's just like, I brought up E.C. Comics earlier, but I had this thought a lot watching this movie of like, he does have the language of like

pre-code horror comics in his DNA, not just in how hypervisual he is, but you would read these like, there was a code imposed on the comic books industry that comics were perverting the youth of America. And horror comics

got like kicked out of society basically, and that led to the creation of Mad Magazine and superhero comics basically to fill the void of how does the comics industry stay afloat without touching on seen as objectionable material. And you look at those horror comics. There are the types of things that inspired tales from the crypt, two-fisted heroes and all this sort of stuff, war comics. They're like very bold, expressionistic, really like broad strokes storytelling. You leaf through the pages and you're like, oh my God, this fucking imagery. Every single panel has an entire story of emotion in it.

and then you try to read it from front to back and it is almost incomprehensible. They're all like slop expressed in the most vibrant way with so much feeling. And I was even talking to like, Fantagraphics has been putting out a lot of these EC comics things.

You see them at a store these hardcover reproductions. You're like, holy shit, I should buy this. You bring it home two pages in. You're like, oh, this is gobbledygook. A lot of tiny little print, you know, and it's just kind of like,

really kind of like bland melodrama, you know, or the same kind of like horror gimmicks repeated over and over again. Sometimes there's a kernel of a good idea not expressed well. It feels like Ramey's visual language is very tied to that, but figuring out how to actually tell good coherent stories within that.

And he just is like, what's the quickest way to communicate this? Within three minutes, you kind of know everything about the setup of this movie. Even down to her having a bird. There's something about that that. Oh, yeah. That's so much about the character. But like the power structure of all 10 characters.

and how they see everything and how everything feels. So, yes, she's sort of on the outside looking in. Dylan O'Brien comes in on his first day and immediately just hates her. Should we talk about Dylan O'Brien at all, the performer who plays the character called Bradley Preston? I think this is an impressively contemptible performance. I think he is a good, young actor. So I said in my review, you know, like that I consider,

him a somewhat untapped resource, right? Like, I'm like, it's a good showcase for this guy who, like, Hollywood has never quite used well enough. And my editor, like, I agree with you, but, like, examples, please. And so, you know, like, obviously he's best known for the maze runners and the Teen Wolf show, right?

Like, that was where he came out of. Ben. He was the best friend character on Teen Wolf, which ran for many years. Kind of the fun character, I assume. I never really watched it. I believe. The fuck is Maze Runner. There were three Maze Runner movies, Ben? First, we ran the maze. Yeah. Then we endured the scorched trials.

Then we found the death cure. It was like a hunger. It was like a hunger game. It's a post-flage. Divergent maze runner hunger games. But the most important thing about the maze runner movies was that he got serious. Was he the one that got seriously injured? Yep.

He got seriously injured on set where they had to like reconstruct his face. There was. Which you can't tell because he looked, you know, he's a there was like a, you know, he was a teen actor. right? He was in a lot of stuff. He was more kind of comedy skewing. Sure. He was kind of fun. There was a period of time in the late 2000s, early 2010s when I was auditioning a lot where very often it would come down to me, Dylan O'Brien and Will Poulter. Wow. Three good actors? And those two guys really were kind of starting comedy forward. Oh, these guys can improvise. Yeah, because Will Poulter was in We're the Millers or whatever, right? And had come from Son of Rambo. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Dylan O'Brien had done a lot of comedy.

stuff. Or at least like Teen Wolf, I never really watched it, but like Teen Wolf had a lot of comedy in it, right? Like, it's like, it was fun. It was MTV. But there's like he's in, what's Dylan O'Brien? He's in the internship. He's in the internship. I can't say that I saw that one. There was a movie

that Matt Walsh directed that I want to say he was the lead in that was improv based. High Road. It was his first real movie. I remember High Road. The first time, which is the other Kazden son, Jonathan Kasden, who co-wrote solo. That's kind of like a teen when Life Unexpected.

Yes. Who was his longtime girlfriend? They met on that and were together for like 10 years. He was in Deepwater Horizon. He got oil all over him, just like everyone else. He was in... Then he had the sort of the accident on death cured. Set him back, it seemed, and he was sort of gone for a minute.

He was in that thing, loving monsters, which... That was like a movie, Joey. My brother texted me about because Joey fucking loves Dillard Pryan. being like, that one's pretty good. And I was like, yeah, cool story, bro, don't care. He was an infinite, which I did see. Never seen. Not a movie that popped for me huge.

And so it started to be like, you know, what did we do here? Like, this guy was pretty good. Like, we kind of lost the track here. But like, no need to get pops a little bit in the outfit. I know, yes, there's some personal stuff with him. No, no. All I just want to say just because Ben didn't know this, right? The maze runner incident was like insane.

It was one of those things where like it goes up as a deadline story and it was like, is this guy about to die? It was like a car scene gone wrong and he's like dragged. And there was this whole thing of like the physical scale of this is insane. Everyone's waiting to hear if he's in stable condition. Once he was in stable condition, it was like, what's he going to look like? Even when they were like miracle, we think there's been a successful facial reconstruction. people were like, is this guy ever going to appear in public again?

It's like the Montgomery Clift thing where like he comes back from facial reconstruction. But beyond that, the trauma of the incident, like how extreme it was, there was a lot of reporting of like he's backed away, like he might not be able to get through this, right? And so there was this kind of like slow reemergence. They finally finished death cure, but that was like, is that his final movie? those movies all made kind of like automatic $100 million, $200 worldwide. So it felt like he was on that runway to is this guy kind of like a steady studio hand to be the lead of mid-budget movies. And it's like a slow reemergence, American Assassin, a movie you weirdly bring up a lot for how much it sucks.

That's the one with the Michael Keaton one. He's the guy that Keaton's training. Oh my God, that movie is insane. And that was his big, that's his big post-injury like. reintroduction movie. That's so weird. Before Death Cure, because Death Cure took so long to finish,

I will point out. Because that movie is so just about like, hurt me is the vibe. There was a really interesting article. I will see if I can find it. We can post it in the episode description about his process of deciding he wants to return to set and acting

and how he connected to that material as like a guy who needs to rebuild himself. And like what he was going through while he was making that movie. But he's been in an odd place and he's like swinging between a lot of things. He's bizarrely good as the aforementioned Dan Aykroyd and Saturday night, a movie that I think is contemptible.

And I think he's good in it. Does the best of all the original cast members. No, Chevy's the best. I'm sorry, there's three that I think are good. It's him, it's, Lamor Morris is fucking on fire. Yeah, he's really good in it. I just remember Dylan, Dan Aykroy, kind of the most thankless of those parts. Just doing like good yeoman's work in that movie.

It's the one where he has to do the most of an impression and that character has no arc versus Chevy and Gary Morris. And like an Akroyd impression is a little harder for a modern audience anyway. Like that's not a guy that young Akroyd people remember as well and all that. The thing that I was kind of astonished he got right in that performance is the weird swing between Akroyd seeming like the coolest guy in the room and the lameest. Right. Yeah. No, I mean, look, the thing. people loved him and was Quinless last year, my favorite movie of

2025, Marie's laughing at me. Because you really didn't like that movie. No, I didn't. In a way that I think is interesting. I posted a dismissive review of it on Letterbox, and people were not happy with me because a lot of people liked that movie. I think he is

really good in that movie. I think he gave an excellent performance in that movie. There was another actor in the movie I had a little more trouble with. I mean, it's a kind of movie I really struggle with, which is movie where you know the lie very early, but the lie is not revealed until very late. And so you're just sitting with a movie that is spinning its wheels. And I'm like, the twilight's no problem.

Sure. Right. But I thought he was good in it. And again, had that feeling of like, you know, what happened here? Like, you know, why is there not more Dylan? Like, you know, like, Hollywood, like, take a look. He's an interesting case. And I know people love him. because people responded to Twinless with being like, we love Dylan. Like, you know. I think he's, I think he's aging. Like, he's in more stuff. He's in more adult stuff.

I think he's aging well. Yeah. You know? Like, I think, I think I see good, good things in his future. This is the kind of thing he's really good. Really good at. David. Yes.

I am so excited about this episode sponsor. Yes. Me too. Might truly be the most excited I've ever had for anything to sponsor this podcast. Today's episode. We're excited to, like, sponsors that tell you how to, like, help your finances. Hey, easy. Okay, okay.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Easy. Today's episode of Blank Check is brought to you by Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Woo! Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Marie's here, too, because everyone's so excited. Yeah. I love this movie.

I mean, I love this band, this show, this movie. Yes. Important correction. This film is finally coming to theaters. February 13th is the start of the theatrical rollout. Yeah. From our friends at Neon. Neons bringing it out.

We have been waiting impatiently for other people. see this film. We saw this at South by Southwest. One of the best screenings of my life. Truly. Truly, it was an unbelievable experience. Ben, you were there. Had a blast.

And I had never seen or engaged with this show previously. Neither. And you don't really need it. No. You don't need the context to enjoy. Absolutely. It's a big sign. I think you need to know like what Toronto is.

Because you knew nothing other than us hyping you up for you. Well, this was the problem. Almost. It's a city in Canada. Yes. I went in, you guys had just been like, it's the best thing ever. And not just you, other people. I can't believe how good.

And I was like, this is so overhyped. And here's a great thing about David. Like, I'm walking in. Like, I felt mad about it. Where it was just like, they've primed it too much for me. I like that you acknowledge this. Because sometimes if we tell you something's good, I see you go, like, put your fists up. Well, I'm just like, relax because I need to, I can't go in with too much hype because that's not good for my critical experience of a movie.

And then I thought it was better than the hype. This is the thing. This movie. He is truly a miracle. I think it is the funniest movie of the last 10 years easily. And listeners of the show, no, I am often bemoaning

the state of the theatrical comedy. And this is a movie that provides the thing I've been longing for, which is, you go see this with a crowd. It is just electric every five seconds, rolling laughter. And the movie just builds and builds and builds. This is a movie for Matt Johnson.

Yes. Director Blackberry, one of my favorite movies the last couple of years. Him and Jay McHarell, started as a web series, became a TV series, and now is a movie, but you don't need to know any of that. This works as a clean entry point.

It's a movie about two friends who are obsessed with their band playing at one venue. They want to play the Rivley. That's all you need to know about these guys. Before the lights went down at the South by Southwest screening, I believe you turned up and said, what do I need to know? And I said, all you need to know is they want to play the Rivoli.

They got to play the Rivoli. I've been to Toronto many times. Have you been to the Rivley? Never. I've stayed on Queen West. though, and I've certainly walked by the Rivley many times. And I've been like, oh, yeah, the Rivley. There it's not Carnegie Hall.

No, it's a fucking bar. You never see these guys. What do you mean? It's the most important music than you in Canada. You never see these guys practice their music, but all you know is that every episode starts with, here's the plan, here's how we play the Rivley, right? We got to play the Rivoli. And this movie starts from there and explodes in unbelievable ways.

I think this movie is truly like a magic trick beyond just how funny it is. And for how much it's caked in the movie. the deep lore of this Nirvana, the Bay in the Show universe that's existed for 15 years. You can just go in knowing nothing and be blown away. And for a movie that seems kind of slapdash and roughly made from the start, it starts to pull off genuine like cinematic magic tricks where you cannot believe how this thing was made. What was my letterbox review, Griff, did you see it? No, please tell me.

L.O.L. How did they make that? Truly. That was how I thought. How did this get made? No, but I was also just like, how did they make? this. I don't get it. You don't understand how they're getting away with it legally. You don't understand how it was cleared for release. And there is a melding of scripted and non-scripted, them engaging with real people on the street where the line between what is planned and what is not

boggles your brain. It was my favorite thing I saw all of 2025. And now it's coming out in 26. Now, listen, I do have to do some talking points. Do some talking points. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie is in theaters, February 13. get tickets now. We must say this. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. They're very clear that we have to say the title of this thing. The Band, the Show, the Movie.

Why, it's a really simple, easy title. Nirvana The Band, the Show, the Movie, it really is a kind of like going cold, expecting something fun. I don't think you need too much more than that. No. I know it sounds unwieldy or whatever, but just, like, I think you're going to have a pretty good time.

If you trust our opinion at all, take this recommendation. Yes. Don't look it up. Go in. And I really, really doubt there is any chance you will be disappointed. In theaters, February 13th, get your tickets now. Get your tickets now. Nirvana, the man, the show of the movie. David. Yes. Happy New Year. Yay. That was the little party horn.

Yeah. It's February, but it's still the new year. I mean, I liked it. I'm not going to call it out. But with the new year comes a kind of time for reflection, right? Uh-huh. You think about the past year. You think about your aspirations for the year to come. Yes. And you start to think about your finances.

It's true. But look, paying off debt, building an emergency fund, saving for something major, like buying a home or college or, you know, retirement, stuff like that. Plans to do all three of those in 2026. You're going to go back to school? Yeah. And retire. Dangerfield style.

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He was the little Kong baby. Suko. Succo. Succo. But I just want to catch myself in saying, like, sometimes I do this, what happened, where did this person go? And as time's gone on, I've, like, reflected on a little bit of like, Well, I'm a person who just at a certain point went like,

I don't know if I want to fucking act anymore. I wasn't walking away from a career at the level that Dylan O'Brien had, but I've become like a lot more reticent to do anything. And I get now more why certain people are like, my one foot in and one foot out, especially. Are you Rachel McAdams in 2024? Sure. My experience is closer to that without having anywhere near any level of success.

But Dylan O'Brien has this like huge traumatic incident, and it's always felt like, is he going to live? lean into it or is he going to try to work past it or whatever. This weirdly to me feels like the one movie that kind of harnesses the innate darkness of the near-death experience in a weird way, not a metatextual way. I feel like he's activating something in this performance that feels like it is coming from the darkest experiences in his soul. I also think this movie is like using both his comedic and dramatic instincts in an interesting

way because there's nothing Ramey loves more than a self-aware handsome guy who's willing to play the idiot, the asshole, right? The cad, the blowhard. And this is a modern type of that guy that Ramey has not really had the chance to tackle yet. Well, this is a good, so he's good at the, obviously, you know, he's had great blowhards in the past. It's funny because, right, because Rachel is almost the Toby, right, like the kind of the sweet, uh, well, actually, she's not sweet though because she does some crazy shit these are the roofies. You know, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's the line I love. I cite all the time about Ramey's approach to the Spider-Man movies where he said, in my mind, the joke of the Spider-Man movies is that no one else knows that Peter Parker is the star of the picture. Right, right, right, right.

That the movie around him treats him like shit. Anytime he shows up, people are like, oh, hi, Peter. Right. You're here too. And I think Ramey likes two different types of protagonists. There's guy who the universe is treating like shit, because he kind of deserves it. Is Ash that?

Yeah. Because Ash is kind of like a bit of an arrogant. I think Evil Dead One Ash is closer to Peter Parker. And then two and three, it's a little bit more like it's fun taking this guy down a peg

or it's fun how high in himself he is and then we throw something shit in him. And Ramee movies usually feel like, I think I said this during our series, but like these movies about these almost biblical tests of like, don't open the book, don't open the bag. A person makes one decision that they can't undo.

and their life just descends into chaos. You know, you take a bite of the apple. But then the other kind of character he likes is someone where it's sort of like, they are the nerd getting kicked in the face with sand at the beach and the universe won't give him respect and they're fighting to try to get a little bit of respect. And sometimes that can be someone like Peter Parker

who is like, as close as I think Ramey can come to portraying what he thinks is like the empirical good of the universe. That's why he was so suited to that. movie. Yeah. And why I sort of, I guess the Batman

take would be something completely different. Yeah, which he has in him. He's got everything in him. He's got so much

in him. I mean, he found a sweetness to Dr. Strange. A guy I wasn't, you know, like, expecting that from.

Well, no, what you're expecting is quality health care. Good bedside manner. Literally. I,

I just think the modern kind of tech bro finance, bro, CAD, is something because Ramey's output has slowed way down

over the last 20 years, he has not yet gotten to tackle. This guy not being 6'5, you know, this guy being a little soft. There's something about

Dylan O'Brien. He's a built guy, but he's also this era of leading man who, they all feel kind of like perpetual 15-year-olds. He's a little twinkie. He's a little twinkie.

Yeah, and I think we'll always be a little bit. boyish, which is great. Like, he's owning his lane very well, and he works here because it just adds to his kind of like shit kicker arrogance thing where you're just like, who do you think you are, buddy? But he thinks he's

like, you know, risen to the top on merit alone or I don't know, whatever. Linda finds out she's not getting the promotion. She has this bad encounter trying to make a first impression on him, or a second impression. And he's like, we need to like re- we need to relocate her or replace her within the company.

A, I already promise this position to my frat buddy, Mr. Suspenders. B, she disgust me. Yeah, it's even if, right, even if he didn't have the buddy. She smells bad, she's gross, she dresses poorly. He's so cruel. Yeah, he plays it really well.

Like, I really felt his discomfort being even near her. But then I like the little moments, like when she barges into his office to be insane, like, you know, before the plane crash, right? Where she just barges in. I think he plays that genuine.

They both played that really well because her doing that, you're like, well, that's not going to work. You know, like you do, and that's the, we're getting a little hint on how, you know, this woman is actually a little over the edge sometimes. But he's impressed that he has a little psycho. I can't believe you did that. Right. I guess you get to ride on the plane now because that was something. I might have underestimated you. You'd be wrong again.

You still know he's going to fuck her over, but. They have her on this business. trip where she's the only one, like, doing the work for them for this big meeting they're going to have in Thailand or whatever. And we have the scene in between where she's talking to her bird at home while prepping her lunch, and we see bookshelves just full of survival books. Which at first I was like, look, if Ramey just wants to do shorthand and get us there, whatever, for whatever reason, this woman is a survival like prepper. But then you get to the survivor reveal where I was like, this is such an ingenious premise. this is the perfect way to win like two images and two lines of dialogue

make the audience understand there's a reason this woman's going to survive on this island that is completely believable. As you said, someone you work with in an office who just watches this show reads these books and is like if I landed there I could probably win. It also, it's perfect because

it explains everything as you just said and it's a great pathetic thing that they can make fun of her for. It tells you everything about the character. Yeah. Button of cruelty where they're all They find her audition video for Survivor. They're laughing on the plane.

And it means like when the plane crashes, you're like, tear these people apart. I want them to die. It's the Ramey thing I love, where you're just like, he makes you eager for blood. Yeah. It's just,

and I want to pop up really quickly in that I just, I find the way that he's captured the privilege of this type of guy. Give me your seat. And they're like, since they went to private school, to college, to the workplace, they've always been told they're going to be on top. And they're not even good at their jobs.

And it is actually the way that the world works. And it drives me fucking crazy. Like here's what happens very, very concisely within this scene. I'm not being concise in my description. The scene is concise, right? She's doing all of the fucking work. Literally. Typing it up.

She sees that they are in the corner laughing. at her audition tape. Dylan O'Brien, when all the guys were preparing to sit around him to watch the tape, goes like, you're going to use

fucking seatbelt, you fucking pussy? Like, makes it into a masculinity contest, right? Oh, what? You're worried the plane's going to go down?

Of course, he buckles his seatbelt and they don't, right? She sees their laughing. She presses, don't save on the document. Fine, you guys are fucking on your own.

You see in her the kind of resolution of like, fuck it, let them fire. me. I quit. Whatever. I don't want to be with these people anymore. Then the plane hits turbulence. Immediately

we're in Sam Ramey plane crash. We are. I mean, and we've all been, I feel like we've all been rubbing our hands being like, what are the like three things Sam can think of? Right. Because like we've all seen playing, we're like, he's going to have a couple cool little ideas. He's going to have new twists on the, you know,

carnage. He's not going to do his Mekka's plane crash where what strikes you is the realism of, oh, bit by bit. Like, it's going to be, plane is now crashing. Crazy shit happens. Xavier Samuels is like crawling towards her, demanding she give him her seat. It's not a please.

It's not a save me. It is a I am above you in the totem pole. Give me your seat. She has the wherewithal to see all the silverware sliding down the aisle of the plane. Yes, yes. He's choking her for the seat to try to kill her so he can buckle himself in. She stabs his hand with a fork. He goes flying out the side of the side of the seat.

the plane, which is now ripped open, you see his tie is still hanging, like, on the shred of jagged metal, and you assume, oh, that's the one remnant of this guy. And then the camera pans over, and you're like, no, he's being choked by the tie, which is lodged into the jagged metal. He's right outside his, her window, dying. And she puts the shade down. And it plays for laughs. And it's like, but it's nasty. Triumphant and it's also so nasty. It's what he's so good at. I mean,

and he's just so good at that, like, extra detail. And he, of course, the bore later on is when you feel it again, where you're like, I thought we were done. And he's like, I have, like,

one more dessert for you in this, like, kill or whatever. And you're like, whoa, right? Like, that's what he wants to get out of everyone. And he delights in it. And you got it. Did you see the tip your cap to, off the cap.

Did you see, one of his interviews for this movie, someone asked him about the best recipe for fake blood? Yes, I did see that. He immediately had a formula. He listed it off as if it was asking Gordon Ramsey, how would you recommend I make a burger? A good thick

mix of... But it was very calm. He was like, yeah, absolutely. Here you go. Come on. A good thick mix of caramel syrup, red food coloring, a little blue to give it that unerated look. And a bit of coffee to make it dark. I don't mean to brag, but hello, I'm here.

I know how to throw blood. I know how to throw blood. He knows how to throw blood. Wow. There you go. That rules. And I love that he's still like boots on the ground in that way. Yes.

Well, you know, he was like, I was on the evil dead set with my friends making this movie, right? You know, like I've been doing this from the beginning. Mixing bloods in my, you know, water bottles or whatever. I'm sure we shared this story at the time. But Ben and I ran. into someone who worked on the crew of Spider-Man 3 at a bar when we were doing that series. And he told us about a scene where they needed smoke effects.

And Sam Ramey had a giant, like, tube and a grip standing at the other end of it chain smoking and blowing the cigarettes into the tube. I remember us. That was the highest budgeted film in history at time of release. That sounds like an OSHA violation. But he's also like, just have a guy smoke cigarettes into a tube. That's what we need.

So the plane crashes They land on a remote island In the Gulf of Thailand somewhere How did that go for you? Oh, I don't mind. It's fake. This couldn't be more fake. It felt really heightened, yeah. It wasn't pretty...

That shit doesn't bother me because it's not a jumbo jet. I'm not going to be on a private plane. You know, a PJ? What was that? Never going to PJ? I don't think so. I'm allowed to sign out the BC PJ this weekend. Yeah, I was about to say.

You guys take the lock keys. You guys take the lot keys. Yeah, I mean, like, I'm just, I mean, like, I'm just, I'm just a minute. And also, it's very fake. Like, in a totally fine way. Plains don't crash from turbulence. Right. Well, I mean, like, that's, I also, I appreciate that.

But, like, they're like, I don't know. There's a storm. Don't worry about it. Like, the plane crashes. This movie has a very consistent tone and reality from the beginning. Like, Ramey is better than anyone at just being like, here is the exact pitch this movie exists at. I'm going to introduce it to you.

And I'm establishing it at a place that will allow me. to execute all of the moves I want in this film without straining, you know, credibility. Totally. And it works. Dylan O'Brien, leg fucked up. Right. He is essentially in beach traction. Rachel McCamp's actively saves him,

could have left him for dead. The other guys are like DOA before the plane even hits water. Yeah, and I appreciate it doesn't really come up again. Again, we're seeing a little sign of her ruthlessness, her like secret ruthlessness. but it's not like she admits later like, oh, by the way, I fucking, you know, kind of was every man for myself.

Yeah. And yeah, he wakes up and now they're not in the office anymore. It's triangle of sadness. I mean, it's like the... Of course, you know, it's like, okay now, sure. It's a completely different thing.

But, you know, like, the same idea of like, right, like all of our capitalist, like ladder shit is gone. The hierarchy has changed. And what is it? What's the line from black? hierarchy of powers changed in the in the in the centel universe.

If black adam was on this island, shit would have gone down differently. I think this movie is kind of asking what do men even do anymore. Totally. And I think it's part of like the Delano Brian character being a little bit twinkie, right? Is that it's like you're not having this movie be and it could have been Chris Hemsworth as a finance bro who crashes on this island. and you got a guy who's built like an obvious action stars. I would see Chris Thamesworth and be like he knows what to do. Exactly.

Exactly. Or at least wants to prove his masculinity through strength. Brian reads like a young guy. It helps that he is young, that he is younger than her and he reads even younger than he is. And it also helps that this movie starts and you're like, I don't think this guy's ever done his own laundry. This guy does nothing. And like the world of business has become such that the actual. skill any of these people have

is beyond obfuscated. You're like, could any of these guys explain to me what the business they run is? We're constantly being introduced to these like fucking 35-year-old CEOs. They're good in a room. Who have raised $800 million. And then these exposés come out and they're like, they didn't know what the technology was.

It never existed. Or someone else made it and they could never explain it, you know? And it's like, these guys are truly just good at performing the role of being disruptors of leaders. There was like a really fun throwaway line. Maybe when he's in the office with Dennis Haysbert,

where it's like we hired a consulting firm to tell us what to do, but they're a consulting firm. Yes. So it's like... Hey, man. It's all. We're all in the fucking eternal cycle. Yeah.

I make this joke all the time that my continued existence is proof that we have evolved past survival of the fittest, right? Then then the minute push comes to shove, you're out. That we've created. the world coddled enough that I'm making it to 37, right? When I should have been eaten by a saber-tooth tiger on day two, right? And we've like evolved past all these things. And then this is an extreme, like, here is a guy who is an alpha male, who has been the lead,

the action star of other movies, who you just immediately like, this guy doesn't fucking know shit. And he's still trying to use the psychological warfare of like the work. on her, that he thinks while his leg is fucked up, while he's unable to stand up, he can insult her to her face. She has

saved his life. He is dependent on her, and he's like, fuck you. But here is where the movie made the one choice that I initially was sort of bumping on, which is, he's mean to her. She up and leaves, right? And he's also disgusted. I can't

believe I'm fucking here. I'm here with you. I'm next to your shoes. leaves, right? And you're like, right, here we go. The paradigmic is shifted and she's being intense about it. She's gone. She leaves him alone for like five days to teach him a lesson. But that doesn't happen.

That's a fantasy sequence. That's a fantasy sequence? No, because he gets totally sunburned. But I did not, no. I don't think it's five days. I think it's just one day. Maybe it's not long. She leaves him there, though.

She does leave him. Does she? You see him? That's what I couldn't track. She does. She does. Because there's a. But there's a hard cut to her coming back.

I think he wakes up the next day, basically. Yeah, it's like, okay, I need to rewatch it. Because it didn't track for me. It's like sunsets, it's dark. I know. I understand what happens. But then the way they hard cut to her coming back, it felt like 20 minutes had passed. And the joke was he was obsessing so bad.

He gets immensely sunburned. And when he wakes up in that hard cut, he is still that sunburn. He's got like crusty stuff on his lips. He's like, I need to watch it again clearly. Because that was where I was just like, okay, how much am I to trust reality versus fantasy here? The joke might be that it felt like it was five days to him and it was five hours to him. But she has left him there and she has proven her point and he begrudgingly is kind of like, I get it. I can't do this without you.

Because then, of course, right, she's in charge. Everything's nice. Like, no one's being mean to each other at this point. But he still feels a little bit. But he's a little grouchy. And he hates... That he's in this situation, obviously. And it feels like the most generous he will be is kind of like a concession of,

I guess when we're rescued, I have to give her a promotion. Right. Like, there's this kind of like, I guess I got it. Like, he's still thinking about the office. Well, he, and he has this mindset of like, this is an irritating thing that is happening to me, but we will, I assume, be picked up soon. Right. Right.

Like, I kind of like, by the way, shouldn't you just like make a fucking bonfire or a sign or something so we can get picked up faster. He's still trying to note her on what she should be doing. And yet she's mommy. She's feeding him fish. And he's like, that's like such a funny moment of him like truly like becoming like a seven-year-old boy again who doesn't want to eat his vegetables. We should also mention he has a like statuesque fiancee with this giant sparkling diamond engagement ring. I saw this movie in 40X. The 3D is fucking awesome. especially for those Ramey special shots. But like, the close-up...

I mean, there were shots I noticed. Yeah. Because there's like a moment where she kind of like flicks her finger at the screen to, like there were things I noticed where I was like, this feels like 3-D. The whole bore fight. Like, this is a movie that,

even though I'm trying to get confirmation on this, was not shot in 3-D, but was intended for 3-D from the beginning by Ramey. Is anything shot in 3-D anymore, apart from Avatar? Like, does anything else use that, like, process anymore? I don't know. But it feels intentionally designed

and was like unbelievably well executed. Totally. And anytime the ring shows up, it's like the most 3D can push out of the screen. Like he knows what he's doing. But this character is basically just defined by the short hand of if you see the sparkle, the glint of the light off of her ring.

But yes, he's stuck here with her. And there's this sort of like initial power dynamic imbalance thing of like he'll kind of can see to her, then she'll do something that pushes him a step too far. And then he'll be like, you know what, I'll make my own camp and then you watch him fail at that for the day. You know, and as she's just sort of like...

Or he'll make a kind of barbed comment and she'll sort of call out, like, you don't have the status to do that anymore. And then each time he breaks off, he comes back and she's like made a hat or made a backpack. She starts like... Continued to like heighten and thrive more and more.

She's like made her own moisturizer. She has like a bamboo, Stanley. What are your favorite McAdams accessory, like nature accessories? Because, yes, the cup with the straw. The cup with Linda written on it. It's very cute. That's the mug, but she also has the big one with the straw. Yeah, that does feel like a nail-in.

Like, it's like a Nalgae. That is, I want that as like movie promo swag. Like, I wish Disney had been sending those out to people. That's my favorite. The hat is really, really good. I like that the hat, like, it's kind of, it's just like a, like it's a full visor where it's missing like the crown of the head.

Right. Like deeply woven leaves. Her backpack is great. I love that every time they make a point of serving a meal, it's like on one of those like sushi boat things. It's plated. It's beautifully plated. Like a bed of seaweed. Right. Like she starts living the kind of like

bespoke luxury island resort life. and, well, obviously, you know, the twist is incoming on that front. I don't... We kind of know when she makes that discovery, right? Because it's coupled with her seeing the boat, right? Yes. In the flashbacks, it puts that... Those two events...

When he's still immobile, she goes off, she finds like a spring where she takes a shower. This is the moment... Wait, has the bore happened already? Yeah, the boar happens pretty early. So the bore is the first moment, right, where you're like, hmm, Landa's a little, little freaky. Yeah, she says,

I think there's a bore. I'm gonna go hunt the boar. I'm gonna go hunt it. She makes a spear. She hunts the boar. The boar is scary and large. The boar is more than she can handle. It's like a full CGI-styled,

like the horror. It's like a trauma bore. Right. It's an absurdly large. It's not dying. No. And spraying. And 4DX

we're getting like snot, spitle, blood. Like, they're squirting water at you to represent every single fluid. As I said, To you guys, it was like William Castle shit. But yes, she's in this intense fight with the boar that goes on so much longer than you think. As you said, David, she like spears the boar

like through its neck and you're like, that's the end of that sequence. The boar's alive for another two minutes. That's what I just didn't. Right, where the audience is like, we're done. We're not done! Like, you know, that's good, Ramey stuff and the eye gouging out and, you know, all that.

So, and then the cut to her covered in blood dropping the head at his, you know, feet being like, I'm, you know, I kind of dug that. And dropping the head visceral side facing him. Yes, all over him. It's like he's just seeing the guts of a bore neck. But then that, you know what, look good? What?

That bore me. It did. It did look good. And he says this is literally the best meat I've ever had. Yeah, pretty good. So, yeah, she goes to take the shower, sees a rescue boat off in the distance, and you see the panic in her eyes of, am I ready to go back yet? This is where the movie went from a thing I was enjoying to something a little juicier.

You know what I mean? Like where I was like, good. Because the whole time I'm watching the movie now, I'm basically like, all right, but what's your ending? Like, is it just them getting rescued? Is it them killing each other? Is it them fucking like what? You know, where I'm like, I don't love any of these endings that I'm, you know,

these kind of boring endings I'm imagining. Well, and I was in on the premise of the movie. Yeah, sure. But the trailer made me think, is this movie going to kind of be like island misery? Does it dissolve into? Which it has some of that. Right. But I was like, at a certain point does the movie just become her torturing her?

Which I'm not saying I. He did him. Yeah. her being like, you're not allowed to leave and I'm in charge of you. Right. Which I probably would enjoy watching. And again, it has some of that. Yes. But that's not the bigger story he's telling here. Right. So she sees a boat, you know, with like a Thai flag, like a rescue boat essentially, a potential rescue boat. I mean, that's not what it is.

But like, she could flag it down. A boat with other humans on it. We hard cut away. She almost goes, help. You see her. And then she goes, not yet. She goes, I'm not ready. Yes. Yes. And we. We cut back and all you know is that clearly she didn't get them to rescue her. And then not long after she has a knife, like a really nice knife and she's like... That washed up on the shore.

Right, washed up on the shore. You'll never... You wouldn't believe the kind of stuff that washes up on shore. I will say, I immediately was like, all right, this is triangle of sadness that there is enough. There's a fucking... I thought there's going to be a hotel. Yeah, I figured there's something civilized on the island she found.

I didn't think that at all. I really believed it. I didn't know. The combo of that and then her saying to him, him like, oh, and don't go to that party island. It's dangerous. See, I assume that that was just where the boat was seen. But I was like,

now, she found something. There's the big rock X. It looks like a fucking map painting for Disney's Peter Pan. Like, I love all the cliff stuff, how kind of beautifully artificial it is. You know, a lot of this movie was shot in a real island. Where did they shoot this? Do we know? Oh, good question. I think they shot it in Thailand.

I will find out. I read Thailand in Australia. Okay. Because there are a fair deal of Australian. Sydney and. Thailand, so yes. Got it. But when they go to this cliff side, it's always like, it looks like a Johnny Wirtmuller Tarzan set.

And the background is like beautifully digital, like stylized painterly, of course not. And there's this big rock formation X that she's like, don't go past there. She takes them on a wall. It's a thorny, you'll get hurt. Leg is strong enough. And you kind of pre-establish like, this is the tough spot where someone could slip. This is, you don't go past that point.

The knife definitely did raise for me. Something is up, but I'm curious to see how it's going to manifest and I'm not eager to try to guess ahead of the movie. I wasn't trying to guess too hard, but I certainly was like, okay. Like there are twists built in here. At the very least, she has a stockpile of modern devices. Right. Right.

She's sort of building up. They keep, so their relationship continues to evolve. She kind of... Well, she makes... The next thing is she makes the booze. and they have the drunken bonfire dinner. Well, the scene where he's, she has the full sushi spread,

and he basically comes to her begging, gets on his knees. You know, she's treating him like he's entered her corner office asking for a promotion. And then she's like, he's like, I will do anything.

And she's like, well, yeah, you're going to have to do some favors. And he starts to, like, undress himself. Camera pans down to his belt. He lifts his shirt up.

He starts undoing it. And she goes like, please, I'm not like you. Like the immediate call out of, I don't, I would never. I wouldn't say immediate. She's playing with him a little bit. She lets him do it for a second.

But it's part of the tension of this movie because she has the scene at the beginning where she's talking to the bird and she's like, he's coming in and I actually met him at the holiday party. And he flirted with me a bit. And he was pretty handsome and he flirted with me. There's a feeling of does she want this guy to desire her. That's a big tension in the movie, I would say. How much is that her?

She looks amazing when they're on the island. She's in her like her bra and underwear. They each have one noticeable bra and underwear. One outfit in this movie that they are reworking in different layers and combinations. If I'm an actor making this movie, I would be every day putting on the same fucking clothes. I would get so annoyed. What are they called? Dying and weathering.

The thing you learned about. Department of Aging and dying. Aging and dying. That you learned about the Mission Impossible exhibit. This is like a prime example of that movie where you're like, okay, so each character has basically one outfit for 90% of the running time and there need to be like 100 variation. Week one, week, two, post-storm.

But also like blood from bore fight, cleaned up post-blood fight, you know? And you can't have one of each stage. You need multiples in case things go wrong. Like this must have been, the costume department had work cut out for them. But I once again would like to argue that her glow-up is 90% performance.

Oh, it is. Yeah, she's not like a, you know, mega babe at any point. She's very like utilitarian. I think she loses a little bit of weight noticeably, but not like in a crazy way. I think a lot of it is how she's holding tension in her face and up straighter. She gets an island glow.

She does. She's got that little tan. You're right. I love that she figured out. She's using those like coconuts for moisture. She's so moisturized. Look, Rachel McAdams looks great. She was able to play a teenager at 26 because she has always looked young for her age. She does not look 46 or 47. now, but she is a rare actress who you can put her on screen. And I go, that looks like a real person.

At her level of career, she is extraordinarily beautiful, but I'm not watching her face move and going... What I said in my review. I mean, it's the thing with her in Spotlight, where you're like... They put her in khakis, but she still looks good. She looks good, but she doesn't look like, you know, Sidney Sweeney in Spotlight being like, I'm just already the reporter from Boston where you're like,

no, you're not. Like, I don't buy it. It doesn't look like her poor. have been lasered off. It doesn't look like her face has been like Brazil stretched in a thousand different directions. And it's just like a thing I miss

of like, yeah, movies always star beautiful people. That's why we fucking go to the movies. Is it not good to just see a big face? But increasingly beautiful people are like, so you want me to not look human anymore. And it limits how many types of roles you can be believable in. And I just think she is someone

who is like maintained throughout her career looking like a person. while also being, as we have admitted, a goddamn fox. So at this toilet wine bonfire, they... Well-acted scene by both of them here. Yes. She talks about the fact that she was married previously. She did not get divorced.

She is a widow. She wasn't very nice to her. He was not. There's a great performance moment where she was like, I was divorced. I bet you didn't know that 10 years. And... Well, she said, I was married, not divorced. Sorry, sorry.

I was married 10 years, but you didn't know that. And he goes, wow. And she goes, like, don't act so surprised. And he says something like, why did you guys split up? And she responds like, he died. Like, she doesn't take an emotional beat. It's stated very matter-effectly. And he's like, oh, I'm so sorry.

That's okay. He wasn't nice to me. I mean, you know when else she said a great line reading about somebody dying? What? Oh, no. Oh, no. He died. He died.

It remains one of the funniest things ever committed to film. But her... Yes. Oh, no, he died. Her line is something like, I think he actually wasn't capable of love. Yeah, no. Is she really... This monologue that she does...

She would hide the keys. It's unbelievable. That night, she didn't hide the keys. Right. She took the keys out of her fucking curse when he was being insane, just being like, you know what? Drive off. And she alludes to some kind of sexual... I think too.

It's just bad, something bad. Like, he crossed the line. Right. He did something even or he's worse than he's, than he already had been up until that point. It just, it is, I think it is a deceptively complex scene both in terms of performance and in writing. It communicates a lot of complicated, murky ideas and, and sort of like contrasts. And it eludes things in an interesting way where you're coming out of that scene filling like Dylan O'Brien, not sure what to make of this woman anymore.

You know, are you impressed that she's got more grit in her than you thought? Are you a little scared because this feels like the soft peddling story of something that she did that was perhaps even more? Right. You are trying to parse, like, is she almost, right? Does it make her more tragic? Like, what is the, yeah? She hasn't ever said it to anyone before she's been holding it in. She's on an island, baby.

All of a sudden, like, some new part of her is coming out and it is, really. And he admits that he was physically assaulted, abused richly as a child by his mother who had anger issues, who had a bad father, you know, don't feel bad for me. It's a cycle of abuse thing. And he says this, she says this, you know, monsters aren't born. They're made. And he starts laughing. I'm like, I am a monster. You fucking kind of got me there.

It feels like the first moment that this guy is completely surrendering his, like, young master of the universe act. And being like, yeah, that whole fucking persona sucks, right? I guess I am kind of like a psychopath and this moment of true bonding for them. Yes. Yeah. For sure. It's their nice moment. But then he follows it up, of course, by being like, okay, well, let me make you dinner. And then like,

and I do think it's really funny. You know, he poisons her. She starts collapsing. And he goes, fuck you, Linda. And gets this shitty raft out. Oh, God. That's a shitty little raft. He also says that their camp washed away, and they'd have to build a new camp together and she's like, I guess it was stupid

of me to put it so close to the water. There's that moment where they have to undress and hold each other for body heat. Yes. But their raft, his raft is made out of their camp. It includes her mug with her name on it. Like, he's taking things vindictively.

Stuff he doesn't need for the structure of the raft just to be like, fuck you, I left you there without your stupid mug. I just think fuck you, Linda is really funny. And he's just immediately hit by the biggest fucking wave. Of course, he can't make it over the bar. But it is, you know, it's, you think from her

perspective, she is like opening up to him and like does start to develop like a feelings for him and then you think that maybe he is too and then it's like she undresses at one point and she's like kind of oogling him

ogling him. Yeah, we see his butt and she's like, but this is the greatest moment, the greatest rainy moment. My goodness. It is the greatest ramy moment in the movie and it's the moment where I'm just like, oh God Sam, I've missed you so much. I am so happy you are back. He's drowning in the effects of this wave. She's been

poisoned. She's lying on the beach. I'm genuinely doing the math of how does he survive this? He sees a projection of his fiancee coming to him in the water to save him. And then she starts puking on him. And we cut to reality. And McAdams has like sort of like come to her senses just enough while poisoned to go into the water and rescue him. But she cannot stop vomiting and she is performing CPR on him trying to save his life and every 20 seconds she like exorcist

style projectile vomits right into his face again. This movie is really great to see it in a full theater because my theater was was shrieking. Going insane. Even my theater was shrieking. Yeah. No, they were loving it. They were so gross. They're like this fucking guy. It's also like she does it once

and he's still not awake and you're like it's going to keep happening. I know it's canonical that she is He's going to do it eight times. And he's coming to, and with half wherewithal, he's like, what's this on my face? And then she vomits again. He's still not conscious enough to be able to sit up. And you see him go like, fuck, she's going to keep vomiting. He gave her the poison berries. I mean, he was asking for it. And she just calls out, like, you idiot, that's not enough to, like, kill me. Right, right, right. It's such as childish, insane thing. Because also, he could just be like, I want to leave.

and she probably would have helped him build the raft properly. But a guy like this doesn't want to give someone like her any power over him. And that's conceding that he needs her, let alone that he respects her, is more power than he's willing to give. And he, once again, resents. I'm stuck on an island with a woman with shitty shoes. How is this my fucking life? They keep going back to the shoes.

You know, him waking up. She's wandering there. She's got her, like, trusty shoes. Orthopedic. Yeah, right. There's something about his giant Rolex. You keep seeing it. He never takes it off.

Yeah. Like it's like it matters. Yeah. The Rolex thing always gets to me because they're all like supposed to be for like deep sea diving. Right. Yeah. Right. They have all these features that these types of guys are never going to fucking activate.

It's crazy. Yeah. It's so funny. But he wakes up. He's like, we cut to him in the morning like crying to her in an apology. Yes, yes. He is, he's defeated at this point. I mean, he played his hand and he lost. Like, he came at the king and he missed.

You're tight on his face. And I thought, oh, Ramey's going to pull back and reveal that he's like tied up, right? Instead, he's free. He's just sitting on the beach and he's like a shell of a man. And she's very calmly like, fucking idiot. I can't believe you did this to me. You didn't even do it well enough. You know, I had to save your ass again. Just don't fucking do that again.

We're not in the office anymore. The shit doesn't fucking matter. Right? Like, just treating him like a dumb little baby. But, like, I'm not going to sink to your level. And then hands him a kebab of, like, little squid and vegetables. And you're like, oh, she's, like, choosing to respond. Oh, I was like, don't eat the squid.

Oh, of course. Oh, no, I was like, oh, that looks really good. Well, I do love a squid, but I love grilled squid. In that moment, I would not be accepting food from her that I hadn't really inspected. You know what I mean? It's part of this guy. being such a dumb fucking donkey. I bought that he would eat the...

I would have eaten this. I would have... He takes the one bite. Dylan Brand starts doing a lot of face acting and she's like, yeah, there's like a toxin in there. It's a numbness. You're not going to feel pain. You're incapacitated for the next like whatever minutes, which is good because you're not going to want to feel this.

And she takes out her knife and promises to castrate him. I thought she was going to do it. Yeah, so you bought, like when the blood spurted, because she cuts a mouse, the rat's head off. or whatever. You think it's a psychological, like just a fucking mind trick thing.

And then you hear the sound effects of the knife clearly cutting into flesh and gooey shit and blood spurning everywhere. She's like, oh, we got a bleeder. And then it cuts to his face and it's like tears are streaming. He like can't,

he's contorting, but he can't really... It's a great moment. Show any reaction. He's like Nikki and Paulo style frozen. And all he can communicate with is his eyes without flexing any muscles. I do not say this to besmirch Sam Ramee because I know Sam Ramee is

a dang ass freak. I was like, no, there is no dick cutting allowed in this movie. David Salinas' husband also was like, because I was like swarming in my seat. He's like, she's not going to cut his dick off. I felt the same way, but I also was like

it feels like he's going there. I thought he was going to bail out on this 30 seconds ago. I agree with you. How is it still going this far? But it's the same to me as the classic thing from misery of in the book she saws his legs off. and in the movie, obviously,

she just breaks his legs with a hammer. Yeah, much nicer. William Goldman wrote the script and wrote in the sawing, and Reiner, rest in peace, the great Rob Reiner, was like, oh, she can't do that.

And Goldman, it's in his book. It was like, you're fucking with this great book that I'm adapting in this great script that I wrote. How dare you? The audience won't recover. And Ryan was like,

no, if she saw his legs up, the audience will lose the movie. And then Goldman sees the movie. He's like, yeah, he's absolutely right. What am I being sane? Like, she can't just cut someone's legs off.

You can't see. see that. Yes. McAdams lifts up a rat. Yeah, she beheaded a rat to freak him out. Yeah. She like gutted it. I'm trying to remember the exact order of events.

But then I feel like there's a section of the movie where it actually feels like they have both been leveled off. That for a brief section, it's like they're actually working together and the like power games have maybe been wiped off the board. And then she takes a walk. She takes a little walk. What does she see off in the horizon? She sees another... What? She sees the glint of a large diamond ring.

It's my favorite shit in the world. If a movie can just establish a little bit of visual language so cleanly at the beginning that you can, like, communicate through a lens flare, a plot point an hour later, right? The audience sees plinth and everyone knows what's happening. You're right. He made that visual clear to us.

who plays the fiancée? She doesn't have a Wikipedia. Oh, yeah. Edil Ismail is her name. Yeah. She said that they... She's gorgeous. She's Australian. They called the search and rescue operation off, but she never lost hope. So she independently funded her own little boat. Right. And she's got this kind of like Thai, you know, guide who's clearly helping her out.

Are you on his Wikipedia right now then? Yeah, his Wikipedia is incredible. So his name is, and I... Taneath, Warr. Kulnukro. He's like a Thai music legend. He's a veteran. This is what Wikipedia says.

He is a veteran Thai singer, songwriter, record producer, DJ and actor. He was also a founder and owner of Music Bugs Company, a record label through which many Thai bands, including Body Slam, Big Ass, Labanoon, and Friday released their first albums. Do we have to start getting into the Thai rock band Big X? Ben does. I'm interested. I would throw on a big ass record maybe. Why not?

Let's see what some of their records are called. Not Bad. X-L. My World. Yeah, let's do it. Origins of the name. This is a section on their Wikipedia. The name of your band is a direct quote from Student Weekly publication.

The name of your band is a bit naughty. How did you come up with the name Big Ass? Dax. The guy, the lead singer, I guess, his name is Dax. Actually, when we were students, We used so many different names to book Studio Time that the owner would get confused if we were the same band. So we wanted to find a unique name to represent our band.

Thank you, Bigass. And we didn't want just a normal ass, so we named the band Big Ass. Now, did you guys think she was going to kill these people? Yes. I thought immediately basically she has to. The movie has put her in a position where there's... Because we're getting near the end of the movie

and I'm beginning to wonder, there's no other choice. This is a really good companion with no other choice, by the way. I mean... Sort of corporate satire. of different flavors. I think these movies are, there's a lot of glib kind of eat the rich cinema

made by very wealthy people and big studios, right? Very successful people that feels like it is trying to respond to a moment, but doing so in a facile way. I think we've been a little plagued with that for the last like eight or nine years

where I'm like, I agree with the sentiment, but it almost feels like a movie arguing, hey, I'm one of the good ones. I'm cool. Right, I get it. I hate the rich people, too. I'm only worth $50 million, not $500 billion.

These movies feel like no other choice and send help are like actually kind of anthropologically pulling apart. What is the rot? Right, right, right. Yes. Like, how is the whole culture fed to this moment and these, empowered these people and all of that? Zerich just immediately clocks her. Like, Linda remembers her name. Obviously, I'm sure she's been hearing the news reports.

You're right. She's nice. Linda. I'm so happy you made it. I'm so happy to see you. Right. It's like happy. Because they don't automatically know who survived.

I mean, maybe they've recovered bodies, but probably not if they, yeah. But that's what's so great about this moment is, like, fuck when she sees a boat. Then she sees the glint. Fuck, this is twice as bad. Right. Then Surrey's happy to see her. And McAdams is kind of going into like, oh, no, he died mode. Where you see her doing the math on.

I don't know if there's any way out of this other than to kill them. Yeah, yeah. And I don't want to have to do it, and the nicer they are, the worse it gets. And Mr. Body Slam, Mr. Bugs' music is like, why are you still picking up that fruit? We got tons of fruit on the boat. You don't need to do this. And she's like, well, I just, I like, I like finishing a task. And he's like, leave your backpack there.

Who gives a shit? You're being rescued. And she just immediately swings to, uh, yeah, no, I'll take. He's actually, he's not here. He's this other way. It's a bit of a hike. I'll bring you over to him. and takes them over to the cliff

where Dylan O'Brien almost fell to his death. And you basically... No, she almost fell to her. Oh, yes, and he saved her. Sorry. Yeah. But it takes them to the spot, pretend she has to tie her shoe,

lets them sort of fall. You see her not saving them, and then it hard cuts to her just walking back. But you kind of know. They're not there. Something fucked up happened. Yeah, she looks like so traumatized. Well, she takes a day off, right?

She takes a sick day. I'm not... I'm not doing this camp shit. Yeah. Yeah. But at this point, like, everything is broken. Like, obviously, the two of them can't trust each other anymore. She's a heartless murderer.

And it's sort of like, I am starting to feel, I'm like, what does Linda want? Right? Like, in this, like, you know, now what Linda achieves is everything. And I really liked that. Ben's pointing. Because I was kind of starting to be like, I don't, like, I wonder how, like, she can even kind of get out of this. It's actually the only way for this movie to end.

Right. And I applaud this one for having the courage to run straight towards it. And it's sort of the drag me to health thing of, like, this is actually about all kinds of reprehensible people because drag me to hell, you're like, well, my hero is Alison Loman. And then as you watch the movie, you're like, but she also kind of deserves what's happening.

You know, like, she's not entirely sympathetic. That's interesting. No, that's the whole brilliance of that movie to me. And it's sort of the same with Linda, where I'm like, Linda is sympathetic. And I'm like, but she's also somewhat monstrous. And she's in search of what? Like, what does she want?

Like, I understand that she wants to be the alpha with him. but what is her longer-term goal? When someone shows up to rescue her, you know what I mean? She, like, has always wanted to go on Survivor. I feel like she's just really... She's really just enjoying island life. I think she's thriving for maybe the first time in a long time. She just knows if I get on that boat, you know, it's all over.

I'm back to my Kathy-ass life. Right. Yes. Kathy-ass is a very good way to do. Is she not worried about her bird? Act! Who's checking on her bird? And the bird's called...

Sweetie. Right. Is someone feeding the bird? I did have the thought of like, I hope someone... She's taking care of sweetie. I'm certain. I think what she wants ultimately is to feel like she has value. I think Linda's character struggle is she cannot figure out the pathway to that feeling, right?

She certainly knows I do all this work at this company. and I lived for years off of the kind of quiet acknowledgement of, hey, this whole place would fall apart if it wasn't for you, Linda, even if she's not paid commiserate to that, even if she's not given the respect and the status within the office, she'll eat and survive off the crumbs that presumably Bruce Campbell gave her. And Survivor is, man, if I could be on camera showing people how pragmatic I am, I can do things, I can start a fire, I keep this together.

she wants some sort of sense of like permanent acknowledgement of having value. But she also doesn't want to fucking play the games that everyone plays. She's not good at those. In real life, she's down to do Survivor, which is literally a game, right? But she doesn't want to play these games and dress up and do the things to try to like make the relationships. She wants to just believe you can keep your head down and you can do the thing and you can get there. And when Dylan O'Brien is handed the company,

it forces her immediately, basically, to start to re-examine, like, those actually aren't the rules of the universe anymore. The people who get power... Right, they seize it in a hostile manner, and they do anything they can to protect it. And I think, without making too much of a political statement, a thing that I think this movie is getting at, that I find interesting is, like,

the hell of the last decade of, like, the girl boss era that went down in flames is there was this feeling of is progress letting women be as awful as the men who used to run companies, right? That you had all these companies where it was like, here's the new CEO and she's cool and she does things differently. And it's a different workplace culture. And anytime one of these companies started getting applauded, you were like T-minus 18 months till expose of this person being a maniac. And you're like, there is a system set up. Women can be maniac. Totally. Where it was like the way to succeed

what's seen as. Nothing. I'm sorry, woman can be maniac. The system of is success and power

replicating the same broken shit that you used to be the victim of. Sorry, I stopped thinking about

women, and I'm just thinking about blank check productions, and I'm just thinking about, like, who would, I'm just imagining

JJ, like getting revenge on you guys for firing him all the time. He doesn't have the guts, and I encourage him

to call. I will say JJ's daughter has been promising to give us what for Oh, is that right? Yeah. So it's going to be like

a kill-billed two scenario or whatever. JJ has communicated to us that his young daughter has caught wind of the frequent public firings her father is subjected to and she feels the need

to stand up for his honor. I feel really bad. Yeah, that's actually really sad. Does she really... No, no, I'm canceling the JJ fired bit and canceling it.

Bums me out. In a bit, way, like, hands on hips. Like, I'm going to give these guys a piece of my... No, it's not funny. And we're also... We're going to be on his home turf. This is the thing. Yeah.

Marie Ben and I are going to visit... We're going to visit JJ. All right. I'm just saying his daughter... His daughter's going to give us a little, I think, wag the finger. Well, I'm going to let her... You know, I hope she knows that I... I am like JJ.

We are both employees of scary bosses. Griffin, Ben, Ben, and David. I'm going to... never been a girl boss. The bosses suck. Yeah, bosses suck. Sorry, I mean, I love you guys. I'm not a boss. You're my boss.

You sign my check. I mean, I don't physically sign a check. That'd be very old-fashioned. I approve a sort of a transfer of money. I want everyone to think that like every month, you are just handing me a giant like Ed McMahon. My little green visor and I'm like, you know, balancing the books. What were those

about? The green visors? Yeah. I think it's because the lights, We're quite intense and overhead, you know? Sure. Yeah. I'm not totally sure, I will admit. I think Linda is doing quick math. It isn't just I can't go back to my previous life.

It's also recognizing the guys who succeed and run the world back on mainland are the people who aren't afraid to do things like this. And very often it's not literally sending someone to their death, but also all those guys on the plane were ready to let her die. No, totally. I think, look, what I was bumping on when I, before I saw the ending of the movie, because I am like, how's this going to end? I was like, this better not be she wants to be with him, right?

Which the movie wrong foots you. Right, right. That's the fear is that she's like, no, no, only I can sit. Because I'm like, if I'm her, I'm kind of like, honestly, Bradley is a pain of the ass. I would have killed him right away. Tried to poison me. He sucks. He's not very nice. Like, maybe it is time for

at least him to get rescued. You know what I mean? There's also a running bit in this movie as referenced in the tagline that he keeps calling her little Linda from accounting. Yes, and she's like, strategy and planning. Right, you're the fucking boss, and you don't even know.

You know, when he's trying to lay her off at the beginning of the movie or tell her that she's not going to get the promotion, he's like, look, I've poured over your resume, I've looked at everything, we're just trying to find the redundancies and weaknesses

in this company, and he reveals that he doesn't even fucking know what she does. Now, which is the ultimate offense to her. He does, right. He's not thinking about anything except he doesn't want to deal with her anymore. The, like, symphonic last 15 or 20 minutes

of this movie, he takes a walk up. her sichtick day. When does she have the fantasy of the beach zombie? Because that rocks. Because I do like that she is not a psycho. She is very guilty that she killed people. It's during her sicta.

It's when she's laying down. She imagines like finding the corpse and then, you know, the ramy thing where you're like, oh, is it going to be a corpse? And then he's like, no, it's not a corpse. And then she like pops up behind her. She imagines her like crawling out of the water alive. Right, right, right. And then it cuts to zombie.

Like, why did you kill me? Guys sitting in front of me at the theater was like, oh, hell no. All hell no, indeed. Next day, Delano Brian takes a walk. Seas the hand, perfectly posed, coming out of the sand. So funny.

Great image. Diamond first. So funny. No denying it now. Like, he can put it all together. It's all out on the table. And they basically start a they live style fight. Yep.

Yep. In like multiple locales. Yeah. Right? You know, on the beach, then in the jungle, then at the revealed to be luxury homes. Not only does he discover his fiancée's hand sticking out of sand,

he discovers that there is a modernist mansion on the island. No, doesn't that happen next? It happens, well, during the fight. Yes. Well, right. I mean, the first stage is just like knock down, drag out fight, ripping pieces of her scalp out. He like sticks.

Oh, right. And his mom so deep. That was nasty when he took the scalp off. It's insane. And he like tries to drown her in the mud. You're right. By the end of this sequence, her face is like half-caped in mud. The other side of her face is like, has blood tears.

Like they've been like stabbing each other, right? He took the knife when she was sleeping. You're sort of like, is this going to end with one of them dying? Is this the final fight to prove who's the victor? And they both run off. And he runs after her and finds the mansion. That there's like an incredible tropical paradise. Well, no, it's more he's running away from her.

towards the part of the island that she always warned him against. And then that's the reveal. He thinks he's like discovering something, gets in there. It's just empty, but it's like well maintained, looks through the cutlery. All the knives are missing. All the other cutlery has the same style as the knife she's been using the whole movie. There's all this incredible fruit that she's been preparing.

You immediately see like the pieces that she's been bringing back to base camp and using to be like, I'm just handy, I'm crafty. I know how to survive, right? And then you hear her voice over the intercom. She's been on top of this house for however long it's been that they've been here. Months. It's a little unclear, but a while. But like she's been showering.

This has been her paradise. She's rigged up the security system. She's been using a real toilet. She's been getting real sleep presumably at certain times in a real bed. Like all this fucking... Air fucking conditioning. Yeah. Right?

And now she's doing kind of mind games. Like, I have eyes in the sky. I can see you in all the security cameras. You can hear me, but you don't know where I am. And then finally comes down to this like face off in the study where he breaks down crying. And they have this like, it's been about love the entire time. Right? We had to fight this hard to get to.

It's so sleazy. I don't believe him for a second. I didn't either. I do think the movie wants you to maybe. fall for it for a second? I don't know. I think what the movie succeeds in doing is pushing this scene and a way Rami loves to do so far past the point that you expect that you start to go, am I wrong? Am I supposed to take this seriously? It's right. It's a minute longer and so you do start to get fooled. Whether or not I'm buying it does the movie want me to buy it? Is it actually,

is the movie failing to sell me on this? No, he just has his, he has the statue horn behind us back. Right, and she's been holding him at gunpoint with a shotgun the whole time. He used it to attack her, gets the shotgun. Is ready to shoot him in face? You're so fucking stupid. I can't think, I can't believe you ever thought this. Shotgun empty. I can't believe I was beaten by Linda the accountant, strategies and planning.

The whole thing, she fucking, she was 87 steps ahead of him. Yeah, strategy and planning. She, that's how she beat him. And then she golf closes his ass to death. The thing that she doesn't do, he wants a VP. Who can golf. Who can golf. And she fucking kills his ass with a golf club.

Ben, what do we hard cut to? She's at a golf tournament. A celebrity golf tournament. Yes. And even the famous CEO her survived or whatever. It looks completely different. It looks so bright and cheery now. She's got an amazing voluminous ponytail.

Yep. Tight. Great pony. Golf like. As Craig Zoller would be jealous. And yes, she's on TV. He's a celebrity? Yep.

She's being interviewed. America loves her. Yeah. Yeah. She's the great story. It's been maybe a year. And then since that time, yeah, she's made the rounds going on daytime TV shows. She has a book out.

She's just like beloved now. And put a damn smile on my face. I remember what her final line is she says to this interviewer. Yeah. Well, she wants to start writing a send help book. Oh, yes. Right. You can't ask.

It's a self-help book. Yeah. You can't wait for someone else to help you. You got to help yourself. Yeah, you have to say, no one's going to come and save, you're going to have to save yourself. And even though she did some really fucked up shit, and at times I was like not necessarily on Linda's side. In the end, the people, the other characters in this world are so despicable. It's just a reminder of how unfair the world is.

You love to see someone like Linda have everything fucking work out. And then she drives off into the sunset and a fucking convertible with sweetie in the car, riding shotgun. Macadams do? Oh, she puts on like 80s. I forget what 80s. It's Bondi. It opens with Lonnie.

It ends with Lonnie. She stares. She's looking at the camera. She's smiling. And she's like, I did it. I did it. David? Yes.

Let me put this into a language that you'd understand because you don't wear glasses. No, I don't. No, sometimes a sunglass. Whatever. Never an eyeglass. Some big, strong, tall guy with perfect vision.

2015, baby. Listen. Some of us used to have to engage. stage an experience that was like the worst of slow cinema trying to pick out a new pair of glasses. It was an impossible tedious process that made you ask, is there a point to this? Yeah, it does sound quite irritating. But since I made the switch to Warby Parker, a big switch in my life that has changed the last decade of my life, I've become basically a Warby Parker absolutist.

And you probably lose a pair of glasses every other week. That's not true. That's actually not true. Okay, I'm so sorry. I usually find them. After a while. But the experience of picking out new glasses with Warby Parker is just like a quibby or two. Do you understand how I converted this to your language? Yeah, and it costs a micro black hat.

Oh, my God. Ella McKay actually might be the new black hat. Glasses shopping used to be, and Ben can back me up on this. Yes. So complicated and overpriced. Overcomplicated and overpriced. Dang. I'm trying to buy glasses.

I don't want to feel like I need a spreadsheet to understand what's going on. Spreadsheets are what we use for this podcast. Not glasses shopping. But at Warby Parker, they have their specialists there. It's so easy to try on pairs to browse the website, do virtual try-on, to see how they look on your face. Which I love. Love that. Right.

You take a little pick and then it shows you what it looks like on the face. Live time. Live tracking. It's like seeing the piece of. It's the furniture in your room. Right. Yes. And glasses are the furniture of the face.

They are. They are the windows of the face because the eyes are the windows. To the soul. That's right. To the soul. So that it's like, all right. Drapes on the window. What are you wearing right now?

What am I wearing right now? The toddy. Oh. Yes. Okay. And dare I say it. They're pretty. You're not supposed to take it out of my mouth.

I don't know. That was my line that I was teed it up. And then you stepped in front me with a rifle ball bat. Tortish. shall perhaps. I've never worn prescription Morby Parkers. I have worn many

a sunglass though and they do have nice sunglasses. I always get compliments. Well, well, well, they are always like, I'm not going to give you one now. You're not wearing them.

No, I would be a little obnoxious to wear sunglasses and doors. You can always tell they're really well made. They're solid. They don't just like fall apart on you. No. And they're also, these prescription classes start at $95.

So if they were to break a thing I have not experienced often, or you were to lose them a thing that doesn't happen to me that often. It doesn't feel like you're putting yourself into jeopardy. I also want to point out, every pair

that Warwick Parker sells, they also give a pair to someone in need. They've distributed over 20 million pairs of glasses to people in need through its bi-payer giver program. And they're on most eye insurance plans, so if you're eligible for that, they'll automatically apply the insurance plan to you. They have so many locations

and they're not just about glasses. They got contacts, they got online eye exams, in-person eye exams. Look, Warby Parker gives you quality and better-looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the going price. Our listeners get 15% plus free shipping when they buy two or more pairs of prescription glasses at Warbyparker.com. Slash-ch slash check. That's 15% off when you buy two pairs of glasses at W-A-R-B-Y Parker.com slash check. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them.

Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Please. She did do it. And I think audiences will walk out happy about that. There's another winter storm coming this weekend. However, the next two weekends are really bleak in the theatrical marketplace. I think the winter storm is coming this weekend looks like it's not going to actually be too bad. Okay.

It better not be. It's swerving out to see. Yes. So, yeah. They're projecting this around 15. I think the closer it gets to 20, the happier they are. If it's above 20, this movie's seen is like a total success. I also think our buddy.

That would be. Over 20 would be. be great. I think 15, they'll be fine. Hopefully it does not have the Bone Temple kind of under 15, which is annoying. A major bummer. Our buddy, Sean Fennessey, who, you know, has the burden of hosting a twice-weekly, topical

movie podcast, was spiraling out to us over text last night. What do I even talk about? Like, guys, help me. What do I build episodes around? The next two weeks are bad. I mean, they still have years left to draft from, don't they? I mean, they can start dipping into the 70s

and 60s or whatever. Some of those years we've called dibs on. I've earmarked one of those years. But I, you're marked more like this movie is in a position with good word of mouth to hang in there for a couple weeks. It's opening against Iron Lung, which is a very bizarre modern phenomenon and theatrical movie going, a self-financed, self-produced YouTuber adaptation of an independent video game that is now coming out on like 3,000 screens because of like a call-in campaign of people demanding, their local chains play it, and it already has $7 million in pre-sales?

I thought you were talking about Melania for a second, which I'm running a calling campaign for us. Right. Are you going to have to see it? No. Luckily, Sophie, my colleague drew that a little bit. But I did have to watch the Pete Davidson podcast,

okay, so we all have our burdens. Oh, they made you watch that? It was for work. I didn't watch it for fun. The important clarification, this whole time I've just thought I was working with a maniac. Oh, no, no. I thought you did that for fun.

No, I had the great experience, though, of firing it up, being like, gosh, I guess I have to wash it. And then seeing that it was 36 minutes and being like, well, at least I'll clear this quick. They had the Melania bucket at the Regal when I went last night. And I have to say, it is really? I thought that was a joke. No, there's really a Melania bucket. Is it like her hat or something? Like, what would it even be?

No, it's just a bucket with a picture of Melania on it. It's the worst bucket I've ever seen. It is a bucket that just on one side has her in the chair and the other side has, like, Melania, 20 days to history and filmed to Brett Ratner or whatever. But structurally, it is like, it has less physical integrity than a solo cup. It is the smallest bucket I have ever seen. Oh, so you like, you touched it. Yes.

It's flimsy. It's like a rip-off. It gives you less popcorn than a large bag would give you. Wow, that actually makes sense. Yeah, I was going to say, this all feels thematic. Yeah. Almost always the bucket is an upcharge from getting like the regal, you know, or whatever, a super-sized paper bucket

plus plastic bullshit. This gives you less popcorn than that. Anyway, yes. Melania, Iron Lung. I'm sorry to report that Iron Lung, I just looked up the synopsis, and it looks just fucking stupid enough that I actually might be really enjoy it. They're on a moon, but there's like a blood ocean.

A convict is on a moon and a blood ocean driving a submarine. I want to see Iron Lung. I'm curious. Here's my only thing I'm bumping on. Yeah. Runtime 120. 27 minutes. How long is Send Help?

It's about 110 minutes. It's under two hours. It's 113 minutes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, weird January. I mean, I'm just like,

send help and Bone Temple alone. I've seen, yeah, you're right. Is this the fucking best dump you were ever? It's a strong dumpuary. These aren't like great movies that a studio was afraid of. Nirvana of the band The Show. And a Gore-Vurbinski movie, you have Wuthering Heights, which I'm seeing next week and I... Yes.

Confess? I'm excited. I'm a little excited. Like, just for some fun? Against my better judgment, I'm a little excited. Just give me some fun. There's some good stuff happening. And Send Help and Bone Temple both are deeply January movies. Sean ignored me, but I was like, I think it's time for you to blow the whistle. He's got to blow the whistle.

There's a horror movie called Whistle about like, there's a whistle you shouldn't blow. I'm in. Now, I've heard that it's the worst horror movie ever made. or from a random tweet that I saw. But I'm just kind of like, I love the idea of like, what's that haunted whistle? What happens if you go out bad things?

It's like, I don't want to blow it. David? What? But this movie is also a rip-off of, I'm going to accuse it a plagiarism. We all remember that in the motion picture, Ghostbusters,

colon, Afterlife, our favorite character, podcast, has an Aztec death whistle that looks like a skull that he wears on his belt, that he says never to blow

because it would conjure spirits. We all know this. And of course, that movie, tight as a drum, obeying Chekhov's law, never has a character blow the whistle. That is the only time it is acknowledged. I must say,

I forgot about that. But it does feel like someone went, why wouldn't this movie blow the fucking whistle? Let's make a whole movie out of the whistle. Whistle. Whistle. I'm hoping this movie does well. I hope it does.

It holds well, but it's got a low bar to clear for success. My coworkers are all very interested. They asked me to report if it was like, you know, scary. And I was like, it's not scary. It's more, I think it's more of a comedy than it is. It's not scary, but it has jumps and gore. So if those are things you bump on, I suppose, you got to prepare for that.

Yeah, there's not, you're right. There's really just a couple small jump. It's not fun. It's a pleaser. You'll walk out feeling loosely silly. People, my audience clapped at the end. It's so good. And, you know, we were, David, you and I were doing a little,

Monday morning quarterbacking on the Bone Temple box office, and it really feels like it is just a statement about people not really liking 28 years later. Stupid people. I do think, right, it's a bit of a hangover from that movie confounding people a little bit. But the movie is so good and everyone who sees it likes it so much that I think there was the hope that the word of mouth would kind of help boost it past its underwhelming opening day, opening weekend. And it's just really like a complete two years from now, if not less, people are going to discover this on Netflix and go like, oh, this fucking rules.

And we're going to just be angry that everyone was late to the party at the time where they could have voted with their dollars. Send Help has less pressure on it. It's a lower budget. It's getting good reviews. I think it'll find an audience. I hope it finds an audience. More than anything, I want Ramey, like,

knocking one of these out every three years. That I really want to hear. I want to hear Sam Ramey say, And by the way, I've already got my next project going and it's this. And if it is Dr. Strange and the, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, man, if it's James Gun Batman, if there's another $200 million thing he wants to do, fine. But the thing I don't want is him spending 10 years stuck in development hell on shit that doesn't get off the runway. And if he just wants to start directing more of the type of movie he spent most of the 2000s producing, that's great to me. thumbs up.

I hope the microphone is picking up my thumb. Do you know where you would place this in your Rami rankings? I have it. I can tell you as I put it right there. I have it 10th. That sounds worse than you'd think. Ramies got a strong 10. You know, it's Spider-Man 2, Evil Dead 2, Simple Plan, Evil Dead, Dark Man,

Quick and the Dead, Spider-Man. So that's your 7 where I'm like, you know, hot, ha, ha, ha, ha. And then I have it in the sort of drag-me-to-hell army of darkness send help. Like, that's a sort of little range for me. I have it below Drag Me to Hell and Army of Darkness. Yeah. That's where I put it. Yeah.

I have it above Doctor Strange 2, The Gift, Spider-Man 3, you know, the much more flawed. It's firmly above all that stuff. Right. You know, Crime Wave, Love of the Games. Yeah. I'm trying to find my Ramee list now. Oh, wow. I actually did one.

You did a Ramee list? But I don't know where I'd put. I mean, my top five are Spider-Man 1. Simple plan. Spider-Man 2, drag me to hell. Evil Dead. I found mine. Evil Dead 2, number one, then Spider-Man, then a simple plan, then Evil Dead, then Spider-Man,

then Quick in the Dead, Drag Me to Hell, Army of Darkness, Dark Man. My question is just, where does send help go in that mix? It's definitely below Quick-in-the-Dead. I can't decide where it is... Quick-in-the-Dead rules. It owns. I can't decide where it goes amongst Drag Me to Hell, Army of Darkness, and Darkman. but those are three movies I love.

And Ramey has delivered another one of those. It also gives him like a kind of unimpeachable 10, in my opinion. Like I have very strong, sure. I had Spider-Man 3 in my number 10 position, and that's a flawed movie that I defend. Right, totally. With Send Help in the top 10, I'm like, there are 10 Sam Ramey movies where I just give two thumbs up.

I hope folks go out to see this movie. There's a lot going on right now. In the world. In the world. It's quite bad. It's quite bad. Everyone go out and have fun. And also, you know, resist the terrible things that are happening in the world in any way that you can.

Resist. Resist. Show kindness. Fuck ice. Fuck ice. Try to donate to any kind of cause to help out. Absolutely. All of the fucked up shit that's been going on specifically in Minnesota.

Look, it's often a sort of silver lining of the crazy. production schedule methods and scheduling we have employed on this podcast. Sure, we're rarely recording current-ish. You know, I get it. Like, I will listen to podcasts that are new release or podcasts that I know have been recorded the same week that I'm listening to them.

And sometimes, even though I'm looking for a podcast to just give me an escape from reality, the hellscape that we live in, it feels weird if they're not addressing the elephant in the room. And very often we don't have to confront this issue because you're listening to an episode that was recorded fucking five years ago. Get ready for April 2026,

a month on blank check that was recorded almost entirely in October 2020. That's true, but you know what? We predict everything perfect. No, I know. I feel like we are mostly talking about whatever the issues of that moment are. So talk to a, comes back.

A lot. Of course, Becker. A lot. You know. A good month of podcasting, to be clear. Yeah, no, great. Hopefully with no productions that make us look like idiots.

but we had to do some last minute rescheduling to account for a couple things and pull send help up to have this episode come out opening weekend. Hopefully maybe it incentivizes people who are not at risk either from government bullshit or the weather to be able to go out and see this movie opening weekend. But yeah, knowing that we're recording this in the same chunk of time that you're listening, it's tough out there. and things are bad. Love your neighbor. Guys, get out there. What if your neighbor's Mr. Wilson, though? Is that, who's that again?

Is that... From home improvement? Dennis the mess. Fucks with Mr. Wilson. See, like, I feel like, you know, there's too many Wilson's out there. Ben, you know what I was saying, right? No, I thought it was the neighbor from home improvement, too.

Yeah. What's his name? Okay, if your neighbor... Isn't his name also Wilson? Is Wilson first name from home improvement? Please show him kindness. Please take a sacrifice. Thank you all for listening.

and hopefully a fun silly Sam Ramey movie can be a bomb in these difficult times and thankfully next week we will give you a respite from the awful world we live in as we talk about we need to talk about Kevin. Why is David hiding his face in his hands? Easy movie, easy discussion. Oh boy.

And then at least things brighten up within the next two episodes. I'm like way easier stuff. Like I said on the Rat Catcher episode, get yourself some ice cream and have it at the ready after you watch the movie. Treat yourself. Two point two million dollars in previews for send help.

Sounds fine. Three point five for Iron Lung. Hey man. Look, if Iron Lung wants to help save cinemas, that's fine. If both of these movies open over $15 million, we're in a great position. And the lower Melania opens, the better the position is. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate review and subscribe.

As David said, love your neighbor. As Marie said, stay safe. safe, resist. And as always, please, please, please do not go see Malanya. And whatever you do, don't buy that fucking piece of shit bucket. Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas.

And our associate producer is A.J. McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by A.J. McKeon and Alan Smithy. Research by J.J. Burr. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to Blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit.

Join our Patreon, Blank Check special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. follow us on social at Blank CheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.