Blank Check with Griffin & David - The First Blank Check Mailbag

Episode Date: June 12, 2017

#thetwofriends use this episode to field questions from their listeners. Where do they get their bagels from? What did they think about Fate of the Furious? Does the voice actor who voices a Sith lord qualify as a full on Sith lord? What podcasts do they listen to? Is Griffin busy with filming The Tick? (Yes!) What nicknames would Ben give Griffin and David? Hear all the answers here and here alone.

Hello. Hi, this is your friendly neighborhood postal carrier. Let me just rifle through here for a second. Hold on one second. I'm just looking for the letters that are for you here in my mailbag. Podcasts. Hi, everybody. My name is Griffin Newman.

I'm David Sims. Did you like that I said podcast? I loved it. Good. This is Bl Griffin Newman. I'm David Sims. Did you like that I said podcast? I loved it. Good. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. And we have a very, very special episode for you today. Yes.

You know your miniseries. You know your palate cleansers. That's true. You know your one-offs. Your Ben's choices. Yes. Our DC extended universe check-ins. True. Yes. We kind of started doing those by mistake. Yes. Our DC extended universe check-ins. True.

We kind of started doing those by mistake. Yeah. You know our hey, sometimes Griffin and David saw a movie and decided they wanted to do an emergency episode. Jack Reacher, my friend. We almost did it with Sandy Wexler, but we realized it would come out too late. Yeah, we realized the Wex love would have dissipated. I don't know. I don't know. I think

Sandy Wexler's still going strong. Our next miniseries is Sandy Wexler, by the way. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I think Sandy Wexler's still going strong. Our next miniseries is Sandy Wexler, by the way. We're going to do one episode on each of his clients. Yes. One of whom is Adam Sandler's wife. Jackie Tatone? He cast his wife as a failing actress. I know.

It's a sweet performance. I thought she was pretty winning in it. She's great. Yeah. She was a waitress who Adam Sandler uses the kid to hit on in Big Daddy. That's how they met.

And then he didn't put her in any of his movies again. Even though he puts all his dumb shit friends in all his movies. Until Sandy Wexler. Except for, do you know the one exception? She is the voice of the lead female character in Eight Crazy Nights. Oh,

weird. But doesn't do the singing. Anyway. So we're done. Fun trivia for you. This is a bonus episode in which we just talk Jackie Titone. So we haven't recorded an episode in four months. Yes. You guys have been listening to our episodes, but we

were banking them. Right. We planned ahead. We were very smart, responsible boys. Yes, except for the fact that we did not totally bank every episode we needed to bank. We did have like three episodes that we still needed to do. Little gap. Yeah, little gap. Little gap to account for.

Griffin is in the middle of making the tick. I'm right about at the midway point right now. Maybe 60% in. Sure. It's going great. I don't know why anyone midway point right now. Maybe 60% in. Sure. It's going great. I don't know why anyone ever makes a TV show. Here's what I'll say. The show's going great.

I think people are going to love it. Right. I'm so proud of it. No more TV. Everyone get rid of TV. Too hard. It's the hardest thing. Look, I would watch it. It'd be great.

Five shows a year. Yeah. You know what? You know what? Twelve. One a month is fine. Yeah. I'd watch one TV show a month. That's fine know what? You know what? 12. One a month is fine. Yeah. I'd watch one TV show a month.

That's fine. I agree. Let's do that. Yeah, we're doing 12, which I think, I was like, what a good manageable number. Mm-hmm. And then now I'm like, too many. Let's do two episodes. What episode are you in right now?

Right now at the time of recording. Which is May 7th. May 7th. So this is a month behind of when you'll be listening to it, but not as bad as the, you know, what we've been getting episodes from. Yeah, you've been getting episodes from. We've been talking about, like, the phonograph and stuff. From the Bush administration.

The phonograph. Merchandise Spotlight. There's no phonograph. It's great. Merchandise Spotlight. The automobile. Yeah. You guys know that David and I are immortals, right?

We're in the middle of episode seven right now. Okay, you're making episode seven right now. Okay, cool. Who's directing that fucker? A guy named Tor Freudenthal. I hope I'm not mispronouncing his name. He directed the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, which I fucking love.

Yeah, it's spelled like Thor. It is spelled like Thor and I made that mistake. I called him Thor and he gave me a kind of side eye and I was like, oh, it's Thor. He also directed Percy Jackson's Sea of Monsters.

He did and Hotel for Dogs. Hotel for Dogs? That's one of Ben's favorite movies. It made me cry. Yeah. Because they really opened that hotel. I think he's a very good director

because my little sister, Romley, who I invoke a lot. He's also worked on a lot of the DC shows. He is now, for the last couple of years. He's in the DC, CW universe. Directed all of the DC shows. Arrowflash, Supergirl Legends. Yeah, I think he's a lovely guy. And his movies, I took Romley to see them when they came out.

Because she was in the right age range. And I remember always being like, this guy's a fucking. I was like, this one was well directed. And I'd look at the end range and I remember always being like this guy's a fucking like I was like this one was well directed and I'd look at the end credits and I'd see that name for Prudenthal sure

mispronouncing it in both directions but when I met him I was like hey I'm a big fan of your work and he was like come on like he thought I was just

like saying that like everyone says that and I was like no I've seen all your movies because I have a younger sister and he went oh god and I was like

no they're good and he was like are you rousing me I think he's a lovely guy and a really And he was like, are you ranting to me? I think he's a lovely guy and a really good director. Anyway, that's episode seven. Look forward to it at some point coming out. Good show.

No one should ever make TV ever again. I'm retired. All the dogs work at the hotel, too. Very true. So this is a mailbag episode. That's over. We've never done anything like it before. We've had an email account. In early days

I believe we have two email accounts I believe we do because we used to have Griffin David Presents Yeah And then we had And then The BlinkCheck email account And we would in early days invoke it and say send us questions And then we never

Ever checked it So then we again said send us some questions just to freshen up a little bit. But I said, you know what? Oh, he wants to take credit. Yes, because you were against the idea originally. Yeah, I was. Thank you. Thank you for being a big man and admitting that.

I'm honest. I said, it's been a while. It's been a while. Shout out to, of course, that is a reference to cereal the first podcast um i said it's it's been a while and we should just get back into it and have an episode where we can kind of catch up you know we haven't been commenting on present day goings on in pop culture which we often throw into whatever episodes are and we just want. And we just want to get back in and be friends again. Right. We do want to do that. The other thing is

we're recording this in May and it's going to post in mid-June. But anyway. But that's true. We're going to be more current than we have been. Right. Instead of talking about like James Mattis' Secretary of Defense confirmation hearings,

we can talk about like, you know. Seven history points. Yeah, the AHCA or whatever's happening in May. Oh yeah, huge shit. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to get back in the swing of things. I think it's going to be a real fun baby. And then at the end of this episode,

we're going to tell you about our plans for going forward. That's right, which we've been very mysterious about. And that's fine. And nobody has had any problems or ever suggested any future miniseries for us to do. No, 100%. And that mystery that we've been very mysterious about, and that's fine, and nobody has had any problems or ever suggested any future miniseries for us to do. No, 100%. And that mystery that we've been throwing out there has been part of a very carefully orchestrated master plan, and not us second-guessing ourselves seven ways to Sunday.

And telling like 400 people, we're probably going to do this, and then being like, eh, I don't think we're going to do that. Maybe even like kind of booking guests to specific episodes for a miniseries we thought we were going to do next until we became terrified by the response. Why can't we keep anything secret? I don't know. We're fucking idiots. Okay. First email in the mail bag.

That resonated strangely in my headphones. Alright, so we've got some tweets. We've got some emails. I think it's just going to spark some interesting conversations. I think so too. Answer some trivia the fans want to know about this podcast, which is crazy to me that anyone would want to know any trivia about this fucking thing. But some of these are also people they want, they've been curious. Hey, I wonder what your take is on this, you know?

Sure. Some of them are movie opinion questions, things that we might not get to in a given episode, and we're going to throw out some hot, hot takes. All right. So this is from Jeffrey Telesco. Okay. The great Jeffrey Telesco. By. The great Jeffrey Telesco. By email.

Hello, Fennell. My questions are all about bagels. Which, okay, first of all, great way to start an email. That's true. Have we introduced Ben? Who, Producer Ben? Yeah. Hey, guys.

Ben, Producer Ben. Okay. Don't do the question part. I hate that. The Haas. Yeah. Can you do them? Oh, geez.

Birthday Benny. Birthday Benny, the tiebreaker, Dirt Bike Benny The Fuckmaster, The Meat Lover The Fart Detective, Soaking Wet Benny Soaking Wet Benny, White Hot Benny God damn it The Peeper Yeah that's a good one

Mr. Positive Mr. Positive The Tiebreaker And then some certain titles Kylo Ben, Bruce Ben Kenobi I said the tiebreaker And then some certain titles I went to certain titles over the course of different ministers Such as Kylo Ben, Bruce Ben Kenobi I said it right that time You did

I was kind of amazed Thank you, I know you looked awestruck Ben Achamlon, Ben Seyb anything Ailey Ben's with a dollar sign And what's his new name? Warhaz Yeah, that's right, Warhaz Hey guys

The great Ben Hosley is here with us. Hello, hello. Ben's here. People across this nation, Ben, enjoying their set of limited edition collectors, Ben Hosley Buttons, made by past guest great friend Joe Garden, who's been sending them out pro bono. Yeah. What a weirdo. Awesome.

And show you glorious weirdo. Fucking weirdo. Living up in Socrates, New York, making buttons for our listeners. Imagine going weirdo. Awesome. And show you glorious weirdo. Fucking weirdo. Living up in Saugerties, New York, making buttons for our listeners. Imagine going to the post office. Just imagine. Maybe he has a stamps.com account. No, I'll say this. Who do not sponsor this?

I'll say this. I don't know about present day. Joe Garden, more than anyone I've ever known, loves going to the post office. I've been to the post office with Joe many times. He's a deeply sick person. Yes. Joe. All right.

You glorious monster. Jeffrey Telesco. Hello, Fennel. My questions are all about bagels. Already the best email I've ever Yes. Joe. All right. You glorious monster. Jeffrey Telesco. Hello, Fennel. My questions are all about bagels. Already the best email I've ever read. Question one. Where does Griffin get the bagels he eats on Mike and are they any good? Okay.

Okay. So we can plug. Yes. Yes, we can. All right. So there's two places. Yes. But go ahead.

Okay. The number one place, which is about- The usual. The usual is actually called, I believe, Best Bagels and Coffee. Correct. It is on West 36th Street? Yes. Yes, I believe, Best Bagels and Coffee. Correct. It is on West 36th Street? Yes. Between 7th and 8th Avenues.

Right. So the very name of that place should already answer your follow-up question. Are they any good? Good sir, they're the best. They're actually not, but they are pretty good. Right? Would you agree? They're pretty good.

They used to be this tiny place, and they expanded, and I think it got a little better when they expanded. They got more room now. Go there. There's another place. Jesus Christ, what's it called? It's called the Bagel Cafe or something that I go to sometimes as a backup on 32nd. But that was famously the place where I tweeted the picture of the everything bagel they gave me and there were six seeds on it.

And I said, excuse me, sir, I asked for an everything. And he pointed to the six seeds and said, what about this? And I went, come on. That's not good. On Sundays, like today, Best Bagel and Coffee is closed. For the Sabbath. So I go to Murray's, which is a very famous bagel place, on 8th Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets, and I city bike for my sins the 10 blocks up to the studio.

Right. Now, here's the thing with Murray's. Murray's refuses to toast. No. They used to. What? Now they toast the thing with Murray's. Murray's refuses to toast. No. They used to. Now they toast. What? Your bagel was toasted. See, this is why we need to do this episode, because we need to check in. Alright, so that's

that answer. Number two, we basically answered this. What kind of bagel are they usually? Are they toasted with cream cheese? Griffin always gets the same thing as does Ben. Everything bagel is scone and cream cheese. Sometimes if I'm feeling exorbitant, frisky, and I'm at a place that has this as an option,

I will sometimes go bacon scallion. Hey, I'll say this about Best Bagels. They have Taylor ham, which is a Jersey sort of weird spam-like pork product. It sounds pretty good. But it's the best. It's-like. Dirt bike Benny. You and your dirty Jersey ham. It sounds pretty good.

But it's the best. It's so good. I always get poppy, not toasted, with lox and cream cheese. I spend. I spend on those bagels. You spend, yes. Boy, do they cost a lot in Manhattan. All right.

Do David and Ben like bagels? All right. We already answered that. Get the fuck out of here. Come on. Four. Will Griffin ever share my bagel chronicle on the podcast? I think it's juicy gossip

that your listeners will want to hear. No, never. Burger reports only. Oh, I have a burger report. I know. We'll get to that later. Jeff. Jesus, I almost forgot. Jeff, I forgot that you sent me that. I will sneak it on David at some point, especially now that he told me that's not going to happen. I promise you it will happen. I'm pretty sure I've told Jeff multiple

times. No way. It will happen. Alright, here's another email question. Great. From neilpoonhandlerreddit at gmail.com. The great Neil Poonhandler. I don't know if that's actually his full email, but his name, I copy-pasted as neilpoonhandlerreddit is one word. Okay, he's the Poonhandler. All right, this is an important question, and it's topical, like you said.

Hey, look, better a Pon handler than a pussy grabber. Like our commander and... Not gonna really endorse either. Anyway. Our commander and chump? I don't know. Yeah, alright. Dom Trump's bad. My question for the mailbag episode. What did you guys think

of Fate of the Furious? Now, I think we were actually on the same page. But I'm not totally sure, because we've only sort of, we talked about it on my birthday for a couple minutes, talked about our dismay at this news that they're going to try maybe a Rock Statham spinoff, which to me just feels like you're diluting

the brand, you know, you're kind of playing into the feud between The Rock and Vin Diesel and like the sort of, you know, all the rumors we hear of Vin Diesel's kind of an asshole to work with. No comment. Mm-hmm. You know, so we didn't like that.

But what did you think of Fate of the Furious? I reviewed it for The Atlantic. Well, I'll say, and you're going to be upset about this. Okay. I'm going to do a follow-up. Go ahead. Episode with John Gaber, so I was on his High and Mighty podcast. Oh, sure.

We did an episode on the Fast and the Furious franchise, which a lot of the blankies listened to and liked a lot. Yeah, I didn't listen to it because fuck that. You've been on other podcasts. You were in Fighting in the War Room. I'm just kidding. I was on Little Gold Men recently. Yeah.

Anyway, you're going to do a follow-up about Fate. Yes. Oh, so you're saying you don't want to talk about it? I don't want to talk about it too in depth because we're going to probably do a half hour where I really dig in. I'll give you my generalized thoughts. I will depth because we're going to probably do a half hour where I really dig in. I'll give you my generalized thoughts. I will also say we're going to do that episode when Gabrus is in New York. And when that happens, also Gabrus is going to be on Blank Check.

We've got to get Gabrus on Blank Check, man. He's 100% down. He's going to do it. Intern Gino. Yeah. My favorite character in the history of comedy, Bang Bang. I love Intern Gino, but no, that's crazy. He's mine.

He might be top 10. Gino is so in my comments. But holy shit is Chief good. I know you've been talking Chief lately. I know you've been smoking that Chief. Oh my God. I'm sure. He's the best.

I love him so much. I love that intern Gino. Anyway. Guys want some water? Chief is actually a female character, I believe. Played by Carl Tartt. The great Carl Tartt. Yes.

Okay. General thoughts. My general thoughts. Doesn't break the franchise. No. Agreed. I'm always worried about one that will just completely irreparably damage. But I do think. general thoughts my general thoughts doesn't break the franchise no agreed I'm always worried about one that will just completely

irreparably damage but I do think or lower the standard of quality a little tension on the franchise I agree for the first time I'm seeing some wear and tear it makes me a little scared

about the franchise going forward yep you know if I were an executive watching Fate I would say hey let's find a new script to star

Statham and Dwayne Johnson because they're good together rather than spend them off because I think the strength of this franchise is the ensemble cast. I think the second you start removing cast members, and as much as I like it as an abstract story idea, removing Dom

from the rest of the group damages the movie a little bit. It unbalances a little bit. I agree. And I just think if they did it because Vin Diesel's tough to work with or something, fine. But- No comment. You did it.

You played that card. You can't do it again. Agreed. You know, that's it. Agreed. I think, you know, Mr. Little Nobody's not going to work. We need some new strong cast members in there. They need to get some new good people for the family.

Scott Eastwood is not going to work. Not going to work. In members in there. They need to get some new good people for the family. Scott Eastwood is not going to work. In any movie ever. Am I wrong? What about the Adventures of Young Clint Eastwood? Fine. He's handsome, I suppose. He's got a good face. In a sort of boring way. Probably a decent dick. Look. Decent. I didn't say great. Decent.

Okay. They needed, they used him as a honky. Yes. I tried to get that word in my review. I ran it by my editor, and she was like, yeah, no, I think we could do it. And then she read it, and she was like, no. But he is the movie's honky, right? They are making fun of him there. Everyone's like, I can't get a load of this jerk.

Yeah. But they can only, and you know he's going to come back in nine, and they'll be like, Familia, Scott Eastwood. Right. No, don't give me that. They're trying to backdoor pilot him into being the new Brian, which is there's only one Brian. Fuck that.

And also, we already got Roman as the fucking... We don't need it. Roman's the one you pick on. Roman's the one you make fun of. Agreed. So you're going to talk about more. I want to just briefly say... The Justice for Han thing, I agree with 100%.

100%. That's my biggest problem with the movie. You can do it. As I said, say he had a rage virus or something. I don't care what it is. Say the government brainwashed him into killing Han. I don't fucking care. Just give me an explosively stupid reason that he killed Han and can be friends with these guys.

What drives me crazy, yes, is that it's literally the difference of one scene of dialogue that would have allowed them to do everything they already do in the movie and would have made the movie better. It doesn't need to be plausible. It doesn't need to. And Michelle Rodriguez said in some interview that she brought it up with them and they said it doesn't matter. We want Statham on the team. Which is fine. I get it. But those things are not mutually exclusive. That's what drives me crazy. Exactly. And they never have been before. These movies have

always been good about the ridiculous you know internal universe and keeping it sort of making it make some weird sense also furiosa's your villain and you don't let her get behind i mean the wheel of a car charlie's is wasted one assumes she's gonna do more nine or at least be in nine don't know right maybe she'll join the team too for all we fucking know you know she killed uh uh jesus elena right um spoiler alert also spoilers I'm going to be in 9 Congrats

Fate was just the first time I watched it and I was like Maybe it's time to stop making these movies Maybe 9 or 10 should be Where we're starting to wrap things up guys Rather than just like make more of these I think it was our dear friend Emily Yoshida, mother of blankies Who in her review said

You realize with the absence of Paul Walker, who was never the best actor in the franchise, arguably the worst actor in the franchise objectively, but he had some sort of magic power and the history of that character and whatever it was. He was saying like, Brian and Mia were the blandest characters

on paper, but kind of were essential parts of the sandwich. And the thing's not really holding together without them. I think the absence of both of them is kind of... He parts of the sandwich. And the thing's not really holding together without them. I think the absence of both of them is kind of... He's a glue guy. Yes. And her too. I think both of them. Really grounded Dom especially. I don't know about her, but him for sure. Glue guy.

I also disagree with the idea that FF9 should be bigger. I think it should be smaller. I agree. I think it should be a really tight balls to the wall like heist thriller, escape thriller, kidnap thriller,

something, cars, just the characters, doing crazy stunts, that's it. Like, don't go to space, don't go to Azerbaijan,

don't go to the moon, I don't know, don't go to Antarctica again, like, whatever, just do a little movie. Yeah. This thing made

$200 million so far. it's not as good as 7 they're never going to have a movie gross as much as 7 again this one actually might be 7 worldwide domestically the franchise is going to peak at 7 we were talking about Nice Space Friends Part 2

right before we recorded this I call Gardens of the Galaxy nice space fans. Yeah. I think James Gunn is really, really smart and avoided all the sequel pitfalls. He did, I agree. By, instead of trying to go bigger,

going smaller and deeper. Yep. And even though it is a very big-scale movie. And just being like, people like these characters, so we'll just have the characters. Story-wise, he just burrowed into them deeper. And that's what Furious 9 should do. It can still be grand scale.

Agreed. But they need to focus on burrowing into the characters. Agreed. Yeah, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, when you rewatch one, you're like, oh, right, the reason this is impressive is it has so much to do and does it pretty breezily. Like, it has to introduce space, the concept of, the universe, all these people in it, 10 characters, the Kree, the concept of, the universe, all these people in it.

Ten characters. Yes. The Kree, the Nova Corps, all these fucking warring factions, all that shit. And do it while also being like, hey, 70s music, and we're a fun movie. And a lot of plot. A lot of plot. Second movie. Nice Space Friends Part 2.

They do the Empire Strikes Back thing. They split the team in half. And one half of the team is pretty stationary for most of the movie. Like one half of the movie is only having dialogue scenes until the last maybe 25 minutes. So you have one half of the movie is the action stuff you need. And the other half is really character stuff. Okay. All right.

Good movie. Nice Space Friends. I like them. Great. Here's another email from Amanda Hartle. Yondu though. Yondu though. Here's Amanda.

Thanks for making such a great podcast. Thank you, Amanda. Yondu though. Yondu though. Here's Amanda. Thanks for making such a great podcast. Thank you Amanda. I appreciate it. To be honest I haven't seen the majority of the films covered so

it's great to hear the two friends talk about them. Always weird when people say that. Like when people are like I don't really like movies

but I like your podcast. I'm realizing this isn't a question but I'm going to read it anyway. Never thought I'd laugh so much about

The Terminal. Feel like I should give a shout out to my mom from my mom who loves both We Bought a Zoo and your episode on it. Thank you Amanda's mom.

That's all. I appreciate it. And the answer to your question is yes. She does have three questions. Oh, okay. All right. Question one. We can do these quick.

Sneak attack, Amanda. Question one. What do you think of Sense8 season two? I read David's review. He seems more positive than you guys were on the show. I understand why you might not do another season on the pod, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Personally, I think it's better than season one. I agree 100%. I assume you have not do another season on the pod, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Personally, I think it's better than season one. I agree 100%.

I assume you have not seen it. I have not. I'm working 20 hours a day and sleeping four. Yeah, you're working hard. I will watch it. I just don't have time right now. I watched Sense8 season two for my job because I volunteered to review it because not a lot of people at The Atlantic had watched Sense8 season one. But I had.

Humble brag. watched Sense8 season one, but I had. Humble brag. And I think it's a lot better, actually, because they are now all linked, and they can do fun stuff all the time. I'm excited to watch it. It sounds like the show I want to see.

Rather than the very slow setting up of all of their storylines, and them resolving all their individual storylines without much help, now they can just do all this crazy flashy stuff with them all hanging out with each other in an art museum, and then they're in a you know secret lab and shit i still don't really know what the fuck the serialized story is like the whispers guy and all that i'm kind of like okay whatever but the soapy stuff just the the dazzling energy the whole wachowski's like we

are all connected thing good orgies well i mean, the Christmas special orgy is phenomenal. I still haven't watched the Christmas special. Which is really, the Christmas special is really just the first two episodes of season two. I mean, I'll give you my advance note, not having seen it yet. I hope I love the show, but Netflix shows are too long. They should take a hint from Amazon, a great TV company. Season two is only 10 episodes rather than 12. All right.

Oh, I like that. Number two, what films, we got a lot of questions there on this theme. What films do you really want to do an episode on that doesn't fit with the theme? Like a million films. Yeah, yeah. I guess the question there is like isolated films by directors that we would never cover. Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of examples of movies that we love.

By directors who maybe their career is not interesting enough or they didn't make enough movies or whatever. But I also think we're never going to do. Who the fuck directed Miracle Mile? Brad Silberling. No, no, no, no, no. That's Moonlight Mile. Oh, which one's Miracle Mile?

Miracle Mile is the crazy post-apocalyptic movie with Anthony Edwards that takes place like in a diner in L.A. Steve DeJarnat. We're never going to do a Steve DeJarnat movie series that's an interesting like we're never gonna do a John Borman miniseries

unless we do this for a hundred years right but like Excalibur would be an amazing blank check yeah see there are ones

like more my conflicts come in with like amazing blank check movies that I would want to do by directors who fully qualify as blank check movies that i would want to do by directors who fully qualify as blank check directors but made like 40 films you know oh sure yeah that's true like there are all the movies i would love to do but altman would be like are we ever going to do

altman and like even ridley scott which people keep saying we should do it's half a year i agree but it's like insane yeah um robert altman's rooster mcleod which is essentially we've talked about my favorite movie of all time first episode of this show right um is like the ultimate blank check movie and is my favorite film and i would love to do it and i've suggested doing as a one-off but i always kind of hold off because it's like what is it maybe do you do an altman in the 70s miniseries i mean i think you might do it one day doing some more of those hint hint like what we did with spielberg where we kind of find a way to put ellipses around a certain part of the filmography

because they're directors we want to cover and films we want to cover but like we don't want to have to become a Ridley Scott podcast for that long. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. But Bruce McCloud would be my if you want one answer out of me that would be my answer. Fine. I don't have just one answer. Three. And on Old Dogs obviously. Three. I just wanted

to throw out two. I mean I thought example that of someone who doesn't really fit in necessarily is like hal ashby because i love harold we could totally do it though ashby's a great blank check choice because he made like eight or nine movies many yeah well and then there's six or seven that no one talks about after the 70s right i don't think it's that many but here let me just run down ashby for you right now. Can I try to run down his whole career? Okay. First film is The Landlord. Correct. Which is incredible. Yep. One of my 10 favorite movies. Then he follows that up

with Harold Lamont. Correct. One of my favorite movies of all time. Okay. Then the next one after that is The Last of Tale. Correct. Then Bound for Glory. Nope. Shampoo. Yep. Which is a good movie. Yep. Then Bound for Glory. Which is okay. Have you seen bound for glory i saw it pretty recently fucking long i saw it pretty recently too it's not bad it's interesting

it's interesting it also so many uh of our modern music biopics are still cribbing from bound for glory it kind of set a lot of templates but it's boring which i think diminishes a little bit yeah there's some really good stuff and then then? Then he makes Being There. No. No, the one in between. Fuck, fuck, fuck. What's the other one? Oscar winner. Coming Home. Oh, which I love. Then Being There.

Then Being There. I just saw Being There for the first time and my fucking mind was blown. It's incredible. And then, you're right. It's like a piece of art. So good. Looking to get out. Six movies. Eight Million Ways to Die.

Looking to get out. Oh, no, sorry. Secondhand Hearts. Looking to get out. Let's Spend the Night Together. Solo Trans. What the hell is that? One of them's a Rolling Stones concert documentary. That's a Neil Young concert film. oh no, sorry. Secondhand Hearts, Looking to Get Out, Let's Spend the Night Together, Solo Trans. What the hell is that? One of them's a Rolling Stones concert documentary.

That's a concert film. That's a Neil Young concert film. Neil Young, sorry. Let's Spend the Night Together, that must be a Rolling Stones. I think, yeah. Okay, so it's actually, it's Secondhand Hearts, which is like Robert Blake and Barbara Harris or something. Makes the Slugger's Wife.

Looking to Get Out with Jon Voight, and then the Slugger's Wife with Rebecca De Mornay. Yeah. And Eight Million Ways to Die. Brid Die with Bridges and Patty Arquette. Yeah. And then he made a couple TV movies. Anyway, all right, that's enough. We have to move on. We'd maybe just do Ashby in the 70s because the 80s ones get kind of sad.

Maybe. Okay. But he's one of my top five favorite directors I'd love to do. Third question, big Broadway fans. As big Broadway fans, you guys have never covered a musical. Are there any movie musicals done by George hitters playing checks? Like, I'm sure there are. I mean, we've talked about Baz Luhrmann briefly, because he's an actually

perfect, not only just in terms of the amount of movies he's made, but you know, he fits our mode exactly. A lot of the camera team on Tick worked on The Get Down. Because, you know, New York production. Right. And they were saying there would be days where like they were ready

to shoot a scene and then Baz Luhrmann would be like there aren't enough apples and they'd hold up production for three hours so that someone could buy like 60 more apples if that's not a blank check I don't know what it is he's a real wacko alright anyway alright we're moving on not enough apples was a literal example

Ramar Wright a long time fan these are his questions from him Moving on. Not Enough Apples was a literal example. Remar Wright. Remar Wright. A longtime fan. These are his questions from him. Did you have something more you wanted to say? I'm trying to think of blank check musicals, but I don't know deep enough. Your brother would be a great answer for that. Pennies from Heaven would be an incredible blank check movie to cover.

Yeah. But like, you know, whatever. There's tons that I could think of probably. There are a lot of musicals I love. Remar Wright. Remar Wright. Okay. Hard name to say. Number one, at what bar did your now infamous trivia team compete?

Videology. Videology for the people. Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Bedford. Used to be a video rental place. When that sort of was going down, they became a video rental place slash bar slash screening room. It's a great place if you're in New York City, if you're visiting, if you live here, you should go there. It's a movie lover's haven. Trivia on Tuesdays, hosted by Maggie.

The great Maggie Ross. Maggie Ross is the best. The best. All right, number two is Peter Serafanowicz barred from listening to the podcast as a former Sith Lord. Very good question. Think about it. He voiced a Sith Lord. He did.

Darth Maul. He did. That is the one that he voiced. Now, he didn't play him exactly. No, he wasn't physically. Ray Park played him. Right. But he did voice him.ul. He did. That is the one that he voiced. Now, he didn't play him exactly. No, he wasn't physically. Ray Park played him. Right. But he did voice him.

He gave a voice. Was he a lord, though? I don't think so. I don't think a voice can be a lord. No, I agree. I think a whole person has to be a lord. Also, we want to get Peter on the podcast. A hundred percent.

I'll say two answers to this question, okay? One, I think because there was a separation between body and voice he is only half a sith lord which means he can listen to half of the podcast whether that means he can only listen to half of the catalog or half of each episode or only listen to the one one ear one pod in the other one out whatever he can choose to interpret that however he wants he can listen to half of the podcast the other half is forbidden okay second answer the question i know for a fact that peter's only listened to one podcast in his entire life. Oh, what is it?

He says he doesn't get it. Podcast in general is a form. What's it called? Pod Save America. Uh-huh. John Favreau. He does listen to that. He loves that.

That's the one he's, the only podcast he's ever listened to. I also listen to Pod Save America. Look, what can I say? I'm a disgusting, bougie Manhattanite. Good show. Brooklynite, whatever. Good show. I want to get Peter on the show.

Yeah. And John Lovett and, you know, John Favreau. And John Favreau, the director. Yeah, Johnny Tows. And, you know, Tommy Vito or all these guys. All these guys. Crooked media, baby. Number three, if Fast and the Furious crew ever goes to space and races the Guardians of the Galaxy, who wins?

I don't care. I don't know. The Guardians of the Galaxy win. They have spaceships. I don't mean to diss your question. Yeah. We've got a lot of Fast and Furious questions. Well, you know, you do fucking talk about it incessantly.

Do I? You also campaigned to be in the movie. Yeah, I'm going to be in nine, by the way. Okay. Yeah, congrats. Thank you. All right. Do you have any answer to that?

Guardians wins. They have spaceships. Fast and Furious guys have cars. No, if they have cars, then they win. You never let them get behind the wheel of cars. You're right. That's the thing. All right. They win Furious guys have cars. If they have cars then they win. You never let them get behind the wheel of cars. You're right. That's the thing.

Alright they win. Alright. Okay. Fred Campbell. Freddie Campbell. The great Fred Campbell. You should do that every time.

I used to do that on TCGS After Party. Do you remember that Ben? Yes. Of course. I forgot about that. Okay. Great TCGS After Party.

Very happy to hear the Chris Catherin show is coming back season three live on True TV. That is very exciting. Really exciting. I think this is going to be the season. Agreed.

Shout out to Chris and J.D. Amato and Murph and so many of the people from that show who appeared on this show. Great Bethany Hall. Great Shannon O'Neill. All right. Well, you know, we can spend all day. All right. Fred Campbell.

Yeah. I was wondering if you guys would consider doing can spend all day. All right. Fred Campbell. Yeah. I was wondering if you guys would consider doing a series on the Coen brothers. Why not? They're the best. I agree. They are the best. Yeah. The only problem with the Coen brothers is they don't really fit the blank check model

traditionally because they are more like well-known in Hollywood. It's like they get you a movie on time, under budget. They never spend too much money. It's very reliable. They make whatever movie they want to make because of those reasons. And obviously, they're critical favorites and they've won Oscars and stuff.

My counter-argument is... They're just very consistent. I think there's one movie of theirs that is totally a blank check. It is their overreach. It is the one where they got a huge budget. Which is? The Hudsucker is their overreach is the one where they got a huge budget which is the hud sucker proxy that is true the hud sucker proxy is their blank check because one it costs a ton of money two it kind of flopped and three it like sort of changed their like approach to movie make they make fargo after that as a rebound uh i true fucking love hud sucker

i know you do we both love it and we both love the Coen brothers. The only other problem would be we fucking love every movie and there's a lot of them. Let me see. I actually think I wrote it down. But Hudsucker is like I mean would be a dream blank check episode for me. Sure.

Is it the lady killers? Well I mean it's not a blank check but that is the bad one. Yeah that one's just rough. I mean, I'll throw this out as an advance answer to all these questions that we're probably going to keep getting. We've considered most directors. That's true. Like, it's very rare someone throws something at us.

We've considered them, right. Yeah, but we're always talking because, baby, we want to keep this train rolling for decades. Here's the one thing, though. We're not doing Zack Snyder. No. No. No. We're not.

And you've got to nip that in the bud, man, because they think we are. It's not kids, though. No, that would... All right, it doesn't matter. But here's one thing I'll say definitively. Why the fuck would we do Zack Snyder before Justice League comes out? People were so convinced that we were going to do Snyder next. Justice League is going to be the apex of something.

Probably. Right? One would imagine. Why would we do it now? I'm worried that Batman v. Superman was the apex. Justice League, he's going to be trying to reign it in and it'll be kind of more mediocre than it will be where you're just laughing like, what the hell

did he just try to do? Yeah, we'll see. I mean, Guardians of G'huul might be his apex. Anyway. People ask though, do we like any of his movies? I love Dawn of the Dead. That's the one I like. But I full stop love that movie. Dawn of the Dead. That's the one I like. But I full stop love that movie. Dawn of the Dead's great. We agree. Yeah.

Alright, Hannah Blackman, the great Hannah Blackman. What do you think is the best way to achieve blank check status? She says, you know, is it making a lot of money? Is it winning serious awards? What's the best way to do it? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I think it's making a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think it's making a lot of money.

Yeah. I mean, I think in the olden days, the Oscar win used to give you a bigger blank check. Let's think about our subjects. Like M. Night, obviously he gets the blank check because of the six cents. Right. And he got Oscar nominations. He did. That's true. But even if he

hadn't, I mean, the money the movie that made, that movie made, right? It was unheard of. Right. Matrix was money. Wachowskis, it's certainly the Matrix. Although they kind of got a blank check to make the Matrix, to their credit. Yeah. But it was a smaller check.

Sure. They didn't get a blank check. They just got money. Right. There's a difference. Right? There's a difference. Rather than, getting the Matrix is like, the studio's like, you know what?

We're going to do it. We're going to give you this budget. Yeah matrix reloaded or whatever cloud you know like that's them being like what do you guys want to do yes you know like which is sort of what we're thinking of cameron's a mix cameron was you know kind of oscar-fetted i mean he's more of an oscar or critical acclaim type yeah but he was an odd choice for us this is not like cameron crowe's ever gotten 100 million dollars to make a movie. No. And also, he did the thing where he hitched his ride to S.T.A.R.S.

I mean, S.T.A.R.S. wanted to work with him. Right. I mean, I think that's a big thing. If you can get A-list stars to want to work with you, that gives you a lot of latitude, right? Nowadays, you know, as there are all these panicked articles about the death of the movie star, there are still movie stars. If you know how to use them in the right genre, certain people at certain moments, you know?

A lot of it's timing. There are very few blank check stars where, like, this person will make $100 million in any movie regardless. But there's, of course, still, if I wanted to make a movie tomorrow and Brad Pitt said he wanted to be in it, it would get financed.

It'd get financed. Anyway. I think money is the best way. Money is the answer to everything. We live in a sick world. I think also, though, if you get some combination

of Oscar nominations and or a win and money, you're really cooking with fire. And I think the big thing that hits, you know, with Blank Check Filmmakers is if the movie has

some kind of cultural impact. If it taps into something that people are trying to capture. Zeitgeist movies. Because that's this inexplicable formula where people go, just give them money because they got to something that we don't understand. You know? I don't know how to quantify it.

Just give them money because they are on the way. I get it. We agree. Yeah, but money rules the world. And part two of her question is, is it possible for a director to essentially place themselves in a position for a blank check? I can answer this very easily. No way.

Like, some directors think they can, but they usually aren't directors who actually get one or, you know, kind of get famous. Yeah, and a lot of the blank check breakthrough movies kind of feel like accidents in one way or another, and a lot of them also have these kind of troubled production histories. The one that gives them the breakthrough, you know, kind of comes out of nowhere to some degree or another.

Matt DiCostanza. Yeah. The great Matt DiCostanza? He says a lot of stuff about how great our podcast is and how it's replaced. You talking you two to me is his favorite or part of his routine. I would say if there's any podcast that our podcast is sort of inadvertently modeled on, it is probably you talking you two to me is his favorite or part of his routine i would say if there's any podcast that our podcast is sort of inadvertently modeled on it is probably you talking you two to me that idea of like let's take a piece of pop culture and spin it into like all kinds of conversations

or whatever do you know i've never listened to it oh you really should i'm big into analyze fish and i've never listened through to talking you to me is the fucking best yeah but we're definitely i mean i i will say we're very indebted to the whole Earwolf aesthetic and Scotty Ox. I mean, we're both huge fans of him and the sort of style that he established. Very long question. Agreed. Totally agreed.

I'm obsessed with Scott Ackerman. And Mark Maron, of course. Lock the gates. He talks about Godzilla a lot. What's your favorite Godzilla movie? Essentially. I'm trying to boil like three paragraphs into a question here. I mean, the original.

Gojira. Yeah, Gojira. The Japanese cut I think is like a full stop masterpiece. So you're not like a Mothra guy? No, that's what I was going to say. Who are your guys? Who are my guys? King Ghidorah.

King Ghidorah. You know, I used to work the door at the comedy store. And I remember Rodan would come in every week, and he said, this week I'm just going to do a jazz set. Dumb, stupid, fuck you, Griff. Gojira's the best movie ever made starring Godzilla. That's a very cool movie. Yeah, I mean, that's a real substantial kind of haunted movie.

I always get the title wrong because it's really fucking long, but the all-out attack, it's from 2001 and it's called Godzilla vs. Mothra vs. whatever, Giant Monsters All Out Attack. It is called Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All Out Attack. I was pretty close on the title. Pretty good. Giant Monsters All Out Attack is my favorite one. Cool.

In terms of Godzilla awesomeness. I have two side questions based on this question. One, what did you think of Kong Skull Island? Note, it is bad. Okay, so here's my hot take. It is bad. Bad. Are you now worried about Godzilla King of Monsters?

Probably not, right? Because that has a good director. It has Michael Dougherty, who I like. I love Michael Dougherty. I thought his two little horror movies are really good. Krampus and Trick or Treat? Are those the two? Great. He sounds good. X2, X-Men Unite remains a

paragon of... Well, he wrote that. But a superhero screenwriting. Totally agree. As does Superman Returns. So it's like they're doing that, and then they're doing King Kong vs. Godzilla? Who's directing that? Unknown. Better not be that Jordan Who's directing that? Unknown. Better not be that Jordan Vogt Roberts.

Agreed. But I'll say this. Look, I mean, I thought Kong Skull Island was more like crap skull bullshit. Mm-hmm. But there's nothing in it that, like, is... They can just make a King Kong versus Godzilla movie and just have King Kong show up and be made by a good director with a good screenwriter and it'll be fine.

I don't think King Kong entering into the Godzilla franchise will carry any bullshit baggage with it. Especially since that movie is set 40 years before the Godzilla films are set. You know, because they're in present day. Yeah, I don't want to talk about this anymore. Just have a giant monkey show up and fight Godzilla. I love Godzilla.

I like King Kong a lot. I didn't like that movie. If they hire a good director, I'll be excited for the fight up. What'd you guys think of Power Rangers? I love Godzilla. I love Godzilla. I like King Kong a lot. I didn't like that movie. If they hire a good director, I'll be excited for the fight-up. What'd you guys think of Power Rangers? That was my second question. I beat you to it. All right.

Power Rangers. Did you see it? Still haven't seen it. You gotta see it. Yeah. Ben, did you see it? I didn't see it, but I heard really good things. I want to say on the record, I've said it on Twitter, Griffin was like, it's going to be good.

We watched the trailer together, to be fair, in this very studio. Correct. And I was like, it's going to be good. We watched the trailer together, to be fair, in this very studio. And I was like, this looks bad. And when we watched the trailer, you're like, all right, look, the trailer doesn't look great. You did sort of back down a little bit. But I said it looks goofy and fun. Right. And I was like, I don't think it does. I thought it looked more like they were just making.

Yeah. And the thing is, the first two minutes of the movie, it's like this gritty car chase. I mean, no, that's actually not true. The prologue is like naked Zordon fighting Rita Repulsa like 65 million years ago. That's great. And that's when I was like, oh, shit. And then there's like this gritty Friday Night Lights scene where like Jason crashes his car and it just like cuts to black. And then in the corner, it's like Power Rangers in like lower cases.

Oh, fuck that. And we were like, come on. No. And then the movie's great. Okay. Got to see it. Humble brag, I'm a professional superhero, and I've been behind on movies. Because of that, I will see it at some point.

I just am still proud that I was right about it being goofy fun, even though I'm the idiot who still hasn't seen it. James Harper. Oh, wait, hold on. One last. Guys see Colossal. Ooh, yes. That is good. Big fan.

Liked it a lot. I know, David, you were a little more mixed on it. A little more mixed. I did like it. Yeah, I liked it. I liked it because I like thinking of all these shitty men's rights type dudes seeing it and being like, what? This is a podcast of allies. There's no question that we are allies.

This is a safe space here. Yeah. I liked it. I liked it. I liked Godzilla. I thought it was a really smart take. The is a safe space here. Yeah. I liked it. I liked it. I like Godzilla. I thought it was a really smart take.

The metaphor mostly clicked for me. I had some problems with it. I don't want to go into it right now. That Sudeikis is a really good actor. We don't give enough credit. He's a good actor. He's a good actor. I think he's a real good actor.

One of my problems with the movie is him, I will say. Mostly because I just always think he's a creep. And so when the turn comes, which also the turn is real sharp. It's a sharp turn. I was kind of like, yeah, it didn't totally work for me.

But whatever. It's a pretty good movie. I liked it a lot. My favorite movie of the year is still a Lego Batman movie. Nothing's going to dethrone that movie. That can't be true. Please don't say that's true. I keep on going to movies and going, this feels pretty good.

This might dethrone Lego Batman. And then they're still, they're just hanging around the top. I barely remember the Lego Batman movie. Masterpiece. Okay. Did you see Lost City of Z? Yeah. That didn't beat the Lego Batman movie?

Oh, get the fuck out of here. I'm so mad at you. You found me, Batman, and I found you. You know that at the end when the little British boy sings the song? Thank you. I did see this movie. It's a great movie. William Taylor asks, one he asks if we've warmed up to Sense8.

I guess we really were negative about Sense8 because I remember us being kind of into it. Yeah, I mean we were a little crazy. We were very tired because we just binged it. I pulled an all-nighter watching that. I found it frustrating, but I feel like a lot of the things I took out on Sense8 were more here's a chance to

explain a lot of what I find frustrating about TV in general right now. Agreed. I think we both agree on that. Two, and please keep this very brief. Okay. You've made your stance on Walt Beaker's old dogs and road trip clear but how do you feel about the rest of becker's uber it's bad it is what are the other ones uh van wilder the first one correct bad movie uh wild hogs right old dogs right and alvin the chipmunks 4, The Road Ship. Yeah. I think he's made one other film maybe that I haven't seen. They're bad.

They're bad. I mean, I don't think he's very interesting. I think Old Dogs is really interesting because of just it got filtered through some weird communication device that warped into the most, like, weirdly transgressive children's children. He's shitty. He's shitty, and I don't think he has a very interesting brain. I think Old Dogs is kind of an accidental masterpiece in terms of it being so perverse. Generally, I think he's just kind of a crass, dumb— Yeah, he's a shithead.

Right, and he's a bro, and he's got sort of— He's a real bro. —weird backwards opinions and viewpoints on everything, and he's a shithead right and he's he's a bro and he's got he's a real bro weird backwards opinions and viewpoints on everything and he's he's gross sexually and he made these two kind of bro-y gay panic movies and van wilder and wild hogs and buying the cow which is the other one which is a real gay panic movie in which ryan reynolds's character like thinks he slept with a man but he didn't and so he spends the whole movie being like am I gay? So all jokes aside I find

Old Dog's really fascinating because it's throwing that level of weird comedy sensibility into the packaging of a Disney family movie and the juxtaposition is very very odd and jarring I was hopeful that Alvin the Chipmunk's 4 would have the same sort of weird

disconnect. It doesn't save for the John Waters cameo that Alvin and the Chipmunks 4 would have the same sort of weird disconnect. It doesn't, save for the John Waters cameo where Alvin references that they both like eating shit. Okay. Can I say, Chips looks very funny. No, it doesn't. I don't know if you know this, but it's so funny, that running bit, though, you know? I actually haven't even seen the trailer. Really?

Oh, jeez. Mostly because that was the reaction everyone had to the trailer. Okay, so you get to go to screenings and not have to see trailers all the time right i never see trailers well rarely i mean i'm gonna see some now because i'm just gonna see guardians um but i'm going to the alamo where i feel like they uh nice space friends nice space friends too uh where the alamo like curates even the fucking trailer they would never play a chips trailer uh i felt like i saw theips trailer before every movie for six months. And the Chips trailer literally has four different jokes that are like, how gross would it be if one man was next to another man and penises were involved in some way? Four different jokes.

It did well. I want to say, speaking of four, it'll have come out by now. King Arthur, Legend of the Sword, which is, we should probably do Guy Ritchie someday because boy oh boy, is that a movie at war with itself. Four times in that movie, four times is a woman, a nameless

woman murdered to advance the plot. It is shameless how many times this happens. Jude Law murders two of his family members. He does the same thing twice to turn into a magical skull beast. Two other women get their throats cut literally

in front of King Arthur so he can go like, ah! Anyway. Shameless. Can I say something about King Arthur Legend of the Sword very quickly? You should see it. I will. Of course I will. You have to encourage me to see King Arthur Legend of the Sword. I'm Griffin. I'll see that movie.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. First of all, that movie was the cover story on Entertainment Weekly's Hot Summer Preview in 2015. Weird. So that's how long that movie's been sitting around. Secondly, that movie was put in development after a seven-figure pitch by two screenwriters who came in. I know, to make five movies. I believe seven. I think it's five, but sure.

They said King Arthur Cinematic Universe, one movie for each of the Knights of the Round Table. Man, I can't wait for Gawain, The Legend of the Sword Continues. No, seriously, because Merlin, Gawain, Guinevere, a lot of the characters you might think of as Lancelot, like Arthurian characters not in this movie and they were they were saving them for separate movies

it is very obvious that they're gonna be like yeah next Lancelot shows up and he's played by fucking yeah cause I remember hearing that like Idris Elba

was gonna play Merlin I think to tease fuck everything fuck literally everything alright James Harper also there's a similar someone pitched a fucking

and sold a Robin Hood cinematic universe where there's a separate, someone pitched a fucking and sold a Robin Hood cinematic universe where there's a separate movie for each of the married men. The thing about all of this is just it's free because there's no rights

to those things. So it's easy to try and fool yourself into thinking this is a good idea. It's not a good idea. Okay. But basically,

if you want to make money in Hollywood, walk into a studio and go there's seven of them. Okay, I got a pitch. Yeah. Canterbury Tales. Yeah.

No, it's not going to happen. One movie for each tale. Yeah. All right, James Harper. Okay, I got a pitch. Yeah. Canterbury Tales. Yeah. No, it's not going to happen. One movie for each tale. Yeah. All right, James Harper. Okay, the great James Harper. The great James Harper. Why shouldn't I be watching Fargo? Answer, it's not good.

What? Counterpoint, it's the best. Next question. David, you're so wrong. No, I'm not. It's so good. Best show on television. He also says that I'm too mean to you

and it harms our brand as the two friends. That's not true. Okay, can I use this as a jumping off point for a second? Sure. I see on the internet a lot of people who go, God, I can't stay in this show anymore. I love it, but every time Griffin goes on one of his tangents, da-da-da-da-da.

And I also see a lot of people on the internet who go, I can't stay in this show anymore. David, shutting down Griffin's tangents, da-da-da-da-da. There are all these people who go, I love the show, but I hate one of the two friends. Guess what, baby? There are hashtag two friends on this show. And we are friends.

You take both or you take neither. Love it or leave it. Are you watching Fargo season three? Yes. I haven't started yet. What do you think, Ben? I mean, it's, I think, really, really strong. And it's continuing to not disappoint me.

Great. So happy for you. I know it's slow, and I think he's definitely now making it more and more have like... Weird quirky bullshit happen just because he doesn't know what to do? But at the same time, I love it. And it's still good storytelling and really good characters and great filmmaking. So I'm going to defend it, David. I think it's still fucking strong.

David's rolling his eyes. Here's my hot take. Great TV show. No. All right. John Paul Ruby. I really just think it's derivative and I don't like Donald Holly. It doesn't matter.

Okay. I think your butt is derivative. Come on. They start out in West Germany. Now they're in L.A. and she's finding out about old Hollywood stuff. It's cork, David. That's a big point. Come on. They start out in West Germany. Now they're in L.A. and she's finding out about old Hollywood stuff. It's good. David, that's a big point. Come on.

He's our finest film critic. It's a TV show. Jean-Paul Ruby. But are TV shows now like 13-hour movies? If you really think about it. Wouldn't everyone want to go see a 13-hour movie? I'll say it again. Cancel TV.

No more TV. Agreed. Jean-Paul Ruby. Question number one. The great John Paul Ruby? Yes. What is your greatest moment of professional embarrassment? I don't even know what the answer to that question is. I haven't been professionally embarrassed a lot.

Knock on wood. I feel like I can give you an answer. Please. That's why I asked. I figured you'd have one. There was a recent, I think last Thanksgiving or something, my family got into a spirited debate

over what the worst Griffin Newman movie was. And everyone in my family was arguing over what the worst thing I've been in was. What was the consensus pick? It was like a tie.

Like, each member had a different movie and was arguing strongly, like, no, but you haven't seen Naomi and Eli's Kiss List. That one's really bad. My mom was like, no, no, no,

but Free the Nipple. Free the Nipple is not great. It does have tits in it. Look, a lot of clunkers in the filmography. A one's really bad. My mom was like, no, no, no, but free the nipple. Like it was like a really. Free the nipple is not great. It does have tits in it. Look, a lot of clunkers in the filmography. A lot of knockers. Knockers. Yeah, a lot of knockers. That is a weird thing that I think about is like I've been in a fair amount of movies

where I'm in the frame next to female nudity. And it's like, oh, I'm on like blogs that people masturbate to. You're on Mr. Skin or whatever. I am. Right. Yeah, Fort Tilden. That's funny. I'm in blogs that people masturbate to. You're on Mr. Skin or whatever. I am. Right. Yeah, Fort Tilden, I'm in a 20-minute nude scene. There you go. Where I'm framed around.

Yeah. Yeah, but you're not nude yet. I'm not, but I'm saying I probably am the person that someone's putting their hand over while they jerk off. They have to put... Anyway, look. They don't want to look at me while they're- No, I understand. And you're doing a very great motion there.

Give yourself some credit. Maybe they're jerking off to you, too. They're putting their hand over the women. Yeah. All right. Okay,'re jerking off to you too. They're putting their hand over the women. Yeah. All right. Okay, that's the answer to my question. No, here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say.

I've been in a lot of movies I'm embarrassed by, but in terms of my own work, there's a French TV show. I know what mine is. There's a French TV show called Taxi Brooklyn. Of course. Okay. Damn right there is.

Which is? Which some of my friends reviewed. I know. Esther went way too easy on me in her review of the show. Taxi Brooklyn is a television series adaptation of Taxi, the French franchise of Luc Besson-produced action comedies, which were remade as an aborted franchise starter, which was set in New York. This is not a television series of Taxi, the Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, which was set in New York.

This is an adaptation of the French show, which is also set in New York, in Brooklyn. There was a part in that, that in the casting breakdown set, was written for a young Chris Rocker, Dave Chappelle. I got the email. I said, are you sure this isn't a mistake? They said, just go in. I went in and did it. I was like, that's the worst audition I've the email. I said, are you sure this isn't a mistake? They said, just go in. I went in and did it. I was like, that's the worst addition I've ever done. 12 hours later, they hired me.

So I was like, this is really offensive. How am I? They wrote this. This is a bit of a brag, though, because you got a job. I got a job, but I don't know why. Because they were dumb. I'm cutting you off unless you have any more. I tell you, I, to try to get around giving them the energy they wanted,

but not having to do a fucking back and black face. Can you show me how to get to Racism Street performance? Played my character like Bugs Bunny. And I think it's really fucking weird and I'm very embarrassed by it. That's great. That's my greatest professional. In my early days of the AV club and maybe some old school AV commenters probably remember this. I was reviewing It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

old school AV commenters probably remember this I was reviewing It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and I did not realize that Rowdy Rowdy Piper played like a broken down wrestler

in one episode you're talking about the great Rowdy Piper he really is great I mean I rewatched They Live recently we should do Carpenter someday

and I'd like I believe in the review I was like and whoever played that guy was great and the commenters were livid. I mean, the famously lovely AV Club commenters basically wanted me fired immediately for not being able to recognize him.

And this is the thing. You've got to watch the fucking episode and then write the recap in 20 minutes. It is a stressful period, and I was new to it. Oh, boy. I will never live that down. That was one of the worst mistakes I've ever made. Double RP. That was a big mistake.

Mine is when I was performing comedy and just sort of starting to work at SiriusXM, I had a crust punk mullet. Yeah, you did. And I'm so glad that there's not many pictures of me, but man did I look like an asshole. Question number two. What were your first date movies?

Mine were X2 and the Lizzie McGuire movie. Follow up how those dates go. My first date movie was 10 Things I Hate About You. Okay. They went great. My first date movie was Josie and the Pussycats. Oh, good movie. And it doomed my sixth grade relationship because she kept on saying my hands are so cold, trying to get me to hold

her hands, probably move on up to kissing. I was too into the movie. I went, oh, that's so weird. I feel warm. I wouldn't touch her the entire film because I was wrapped. Oh, boy. There's a third question about going to jail. That's my life in a microcosm by the way. Refusing to hold a girl's hand because Josie and the Pussycats had my attention. This guy has four questions. I'm not going to jail. That's my life in a microcosm by the way. Refusing to hold a girl's hand because Josie and the Pussycats had my attention.

This guy has four questions. I'm not going to... Fuck, Marry, Kill, Ray Reddy, Joey the Horse. Wait, wait, wait. I want to hear Ben's answer for that one actually. What was your first movie date? I know, I know, but this is a good one for Ben. Sorry, say the question again. First date movie.

First date movie. Fuck. I remember the Mel Gibson one, What Women Want. Yeah, Nancy Meyers movie. But I feel like I've gone to... He doesn't have an answer. Okay, great. I'm moving on.

Fuck, marry, kill. Ray Reddy, Joey the Horse, and Sayo Bibble. Now, my answers are very clear to this. One, fuck Sayo Bibble. Two, marry Joey the Horse. Three, kill Ray Reddy. Ray Reddy being M. Night Shyamalan's character in Signs, for people who have forgotten. I agree on all three counts. Agreed.

You want to hear something cool? Mel Gibson's wife in Signs plays my mom on the tick. Mel Gibson's wife in Signs. She has that amazing scene where she's pinned against the tree. What's her name? Don't ask me this on air. This is so embarrassing. Yeah, no, don't worry about it.

Her biggest professional embarrassment. Ben, double it. She's a lovely actress. She's amazing on the show. Okay, Kyle Wilson. Since I missed it in the theater, I waited until Split, came to streaming to listen to it, yada, yada, yada, and on the Split episode, apparently,

I was super dismissive of the first couple episodes of Legion, calling it terrible and awful. Griffin had not seen it. I watched it and loved it. Penultimate episode's one of my favorites ever. Wonder if David's opinion had changed or if Griffin watched it. My opinion, Legion's really bad. The first two episodes were fucking good compared to the shit that followed.

My God. And then at the end, they literally do an episode where someone just stands in front of a chalkboard and is like all right so let me explain the plot of legion uh you know and literally just sketches out what's been happening what do you think i'm gonna get a big rubber stamp so i can keep on answering all these questions with i've been busy haven't seen it you really have a problem with that showrunner uh no holly yeah no i do. And I do think he's part of a larger problem in quote unquote our tourist television where people are just not

being asked to sell me on a plot like within an episode. Like I really do think it's fine. I just watched the American Gods pilot which looks good and I like Brian Fuller but fuck that pilot.

It's 60 minutes nothing fucking happens. Get ready for a clean half hour tick series coming August 25th at Amazon Prime, baby. Thank you. Did you watch Legion, Ben? I have not. You'd probably dig it. Eric Spratling.

You'd probably would. It's like real psychedelic and weird. I think you'd like it. The great Eric Spratling. I'm not sure if you'd like it, but you might. I'm into it. I'm going to give it a try. I like dressed-down superhero stuff. Yeah. I'm not sure if you'd like it, but you might. I'm into it. I'm going to give it a try. I like dressed down superhero stuff.

Yeah. I mean, shit, I watched all that garbage fucking Iron Fist. You watch all that? I know. I know. Jesus, Joanna watched all that. I just like putting it on. It was like-

I mean, she hated it, too. It was great. It was just like sound that I could fall asleep to. Yeah, I think that's how Joanna treated it as well. I can't imagine watching those. Ben, if you like Dressed Down Superheroes, spoiler alert, I wear a poncho for an entire episode. Ooh. What color is the poncho?

Blue, baby. Ah, good choice. Good. Poncho. Okay, here we go. Eric Spratling. The great Eric Spratling. Apologies if I missed this on a previous ep, but how did you two and the Has meet each other and become so close?

Hashtag two friends origins. Yeah, I mean- We've talked about it. We met on Twitter. David and I met on Twitter. Alyssa Stanoa introduced us. The lovely, the great Alyssa Stanoa introduced us because we both tweeted about having a crush on Lydia Dietz from Beetlejuice.

Yeah, which now feels like super hacky, but whatever. Right, she was like, you guys should be friends. We went, we got drinks. We went and we got drinks. We saw Stories We Tell, the Sarah Polly film. Stories We Tell, not a bad movie. But we met with me entering late into the theater. You were already seated.

Correct. I sat down next to you at the end of the movie, went and got drinks. Had a nice time. Crime scene lounge, I think was the bar we went to. That's right, you cried about Melania a bunch. I think it had a nice time crime scene lounge I think was the bar we went to that's right you cried about millennia a bunch I think it had not no it had

it had happened okay they had passed on it at that point yeah I think they had passed on it but you had not the Fox stuff the Fox stuff hadn't happened yet

and then I saw you again maybe a while later you can figure it out from the release date you saw the bling ring yes after that my friend Pilot

who has been on this show texted texted me and said, come go to Movie Trivia. Yes. And me and you were like, yeah, fuck it. Why not? So we went to Movie Trivia in Williamsburg. At Videology. And we saw Bling Ring in Chelsea.

Correct. So we took a taxi. And I don't know if you remember this, but we went from Bling Ring in Chelsea to Walter's Bar in Chelsea, and there was a trivia night happening there. And it was bad. Right. And I was like, i was like i like it was like what's the capital of italy i was like i like bar trivia though no i know when i was into it too but then it was shitty but then when pilot texted us you were like movie trivia we went there we showed up it was a mob scene and pilot was like this sucks it's too hard like you know they were already kind of not into

it we walked into a guest round that was dis, and I suddenly knew the answer to every question. Everyone on the team was like, oh. And then we sort of took over the answer sheet and started answering everything. And Pilot had named the team Quiz Kid Donnie Smith, and so that was our first name. Right. And then Pilot kept coming with us for maybe two more weeks before she bowed out. We bowed out.

And then just became us as a two-person team. And then we slowly, Chase Mitchell, Rachel Lang. A lot of friends you know but anyway that's right me and Griffin started seeing each other every week at Trivia and that's when we became great friends. Griffin, Ben they were friends making the TCGS show. Yes Riley

Saller and I did a podcast called Talking TCGS for the Cave Comedy Radio Network and Ben was a new hire we'd been doing the show for a couple months and then he got hired on as a new producer and he came in and it was a new hire. We'd been doing the show for a couple months and then he got hired on as a new producer and he came in and it was love at first sight. Yeah. It was great, man.

This is the third podcast Ben and I have done together. It's been really, really fun work and getting to be good friends with you, Griffin. And then we got to bring David into this friendship and now we got three friends. Well, that's how you met David as well was when David was a guest host on Talking TCGS. That's right. And so you met him through that. And then you guys, we already have talked about this in the 100th episode,

pitched my boss a crazy, crazy idea and now here we are. What if we just talk about Phantom Menace? Okay, Christopher McRae. Okay, the great Christopher McRae. Hey guys, Chris here. Long time listener. Com check trip recipient. Oh that's cool. He says that he misses the

investigative angle like when the premise of Shyamalan was can you be a good filmmaker when most of your films are bad. He'd like it if we brought that back. But that's kind of what blank check is. Agreed. I think there's always an investigation. You know what happened. Why did they get the blank check. Who are they. Why did they connect. Why did they get the blank check? Who are they?

Why did they connect? Why did they stop connecting? The investigation angle is something that Ben suggested to us as a way of getting us to stop being such fucking idiots when we were pitching the show. We were being fucking idiots. Because we were like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. 35 episodes on The Phantom Menace. We got all the names.

Sci-o Bibble for an hour. We'll just figure out ways to talk about it. No, but I do think the investigative thing lands there because I think the show is, first and foremost, us trying to understand the psychology of these filmmakers. I mean, I think if the investigation is less focused on trying to get one answer, perhaps, but there still is an investigation there. I will say this. Michael Bay, who we thought we were going to do next, and then people sort of caught wind of that and got really upset. I think that was going to be more of an investigation.

I think that season was going to be more of what people are asking us to do. We'll do it at some point. But people go, I missed this thing, I missed this thing, and then we had an answer that fit all of it, and I think it was going to be different than what you blankies thought we were going to do. It was going to be five Transformers movies. Anyway, Emmanuel Macron just won the French election with 65% of the vote. God damn it. No, it's good.

Oh, okay. He's a left-wing guy. For sure. I mean, he's centrist, but you know. Le Pen, who's the leader of the far right, she lost. Do you know why I said God damn it? Why? Go ahead. Because I thought a macaroon had just been left in France. I don't even want to talk about this. I'm going to get a dessert. Go ahead. Because I thought a macaroon had just been elected president of France. I don't even want to talk about this. I elected a dessert.

We should elect a dessert. Oh, that would be great. Okay. I just want to. That delicious chocolate cake that Trump had. Christopher McRae. Christopher McRae. The great Christopher McRae.

Also gathered, he said, every time we've ever talked about doing episodes or shows. Okay. So here's a little list of things we've apparently discussed. Lucas, non-Star Wars. We do have to do that one day. Agreed. He says Howard the Duck should be included. Debatable.

Perhaps. Adam's Family Values. Love that movie so much. Just a one-off. But Sonnenfeld might be a fun, you know, there's a lot there. I would love to do Sonnenfeld. The only problem with Sonnenfeld is it's just not that his bad movies aren't interesting

but there are quite a few of them yes have you seen Nine Lives no but it's the kind of movie we might have some fun with

Sonnenfeld's a real fall from grace guy talking fanfare were we just talking about studio logos oh I would do that no question

we would have to mix in some production company you know like talk about some Morgan Creek, some Castle Rock. Orion is a good one. It's crazy now how you fucking like sit down front of any blockbuster movie and there's 14 logos. Like, you know, half the companies are Chinese or Indian or whatever. Like, you know, it's like it's going, it's getting big.

It is insane. Studio logo business. The next time we have an itch to do an episode like this, though, we should do Talkin' Fanfare. I'm 100% down to do that. Okay. Legend with J.D. Amato.

J.D.'s always pushed for that. It would be part, to me, of a Ridley Scott. Maybe we could curate a Ridley Scott. Something. We figure out some through line.

We don't have to do White Squall. White Squall isn't bad. Hulking the Hulk. Does he put that on there? Blank check. Looks like we cashed that one. We did. Adam Sandler.

It's true. We could have some fun with that. Dark Knight Trilogy. Stay tuned. Batman Forever. David. I once pitched. Go ahead.

Just doing the four. Essentially the. The Burton Batman Universe. Because Burton produced Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. And they're all linked. Right. Those are four movies. I would call them the Pat Hingle, Michael Go films.

Absolutely. Because they're the two actors who bridge the four. They do. So that, I do want to, because I think that's, I mean, there's no better blank check narrative than what happened with those movies. My counterpoint to that was do every Batman movie, and David balked at that. But we came very close to doing that. We thought about doing a little baby miniseries. He only wanted to do it because he wanted to do a Batman movie, and David balked at that. But we came very close to doing that. We thought about doing a little baby miniseries.

He only wanted to do it because he wanted to do a Batman movie. He wanted to do a Batman movie so well. It's a masterpiece. I'll also say, I mean, Hulk and the Hulk, which I know we promised for a while. We'll do Ang Lee someday. Yeah. We came very close to doing Ang Lee in plays of Spielberg. We, for a long time, were planning on doing Ang Lee right after James Cameron.

You're the one who's not into Ang Lee. I was into it. I don't remember. You're less into Ang Lee. That's just all that there is to it. I'm not even accusing. I think it's just true. You're just a little less excited about it.

I don't know about that. I would love to fucking I'm the dude who wants to talk about Hulk. Put your money where your mouth is. I dare you to do an Ang Lee miniseries. Samuel L. Jackson's glasses. Do not remember what the context on this one is. I don't either, but I thought we were going to do an Ang Lee miniseries. Samuel Jackson's glasses. Do not remember what the context on this one is. I don't either, but I thought we were going to do hair pieces.

Yeah. He's got some crazy hair pieces. Sounds like a really funny bit. On blank check. That we forget. CJ Thomas asks. Okay. Oh, this new question.

Yeah. What podcast do you guys listen to? Hollywood Handbook? We hate movies. You listen to Hollywood Handies? You listen to Hollywood Handbook. I listen to Hollywood Handbook. I love it. Love it, love it, love it. What else do I listen to? I'll tell you

what my top new episode comes out, I listen to it immediately, Rotation is, because, once again, been busy lately, slimmer media diet. A lot of the shows I usually listen to, I haven't been keeping up with. Crooked media? Carry on.

The three I really keep up with are Hollywood Handbook, Doughboys, and Harmontown. I fell off the Harmontown train. How is it these days? I love it. I think it's really great. It's definitely transitioned into something new. The cast has changed and the vibe has changed. It lost me when it got more political, honestly.

Oh boy. I still love it and then, of course, Black Man Can't Jump in Hollywood. I love. I endorse basically all of these. Although I've never listened to Doughboys, but I keep meaning to. I love Doughboys. It's my fucking favorite. I know you love Doughboys. That's like, even when I'm on set, if a new Doughboys comes out,

I'm listening to it five minutes at a time in between takes or whatever. Like, I love, love, love Doughboys. I listen to Blank Check with Griffin and David, which is a great podcast. Really good podcast. I listen to Fighting in the War Room. I listen to School of Anime, which is Emily's podcast. I listen to a lot of podcasts that people have been on this show. Pernick, Little Cold Men.

I listen to the canon. I've been a long time fan. I'm glad it's back. Mastery Cinema, I listened to. We're going to be on that soon, actually, I think. Yeah, I'm going to talk about that. Do you know I'm angling to be the most frequent guest they've had on the show? I have a very aggressive campaign.

I think I'm going to do the Cars 3 episode coming up soon. You should. And then I listened to a ton of basketball podcasts. I won't mention them all, but The Starters is the best. Great, because you're not allowed to mention them. Other shows I listen to, I like Film Spotting a lot, This American Life, Grandma's Virginity Podcast, Justin Roiland's podcast, which isn't happening anymore. I loved Reply All, Beautiful Anonymous, and I very recently just got into My Brother and

Me after people told me for years I should listen to it, and it's great. Yeah, totally. But Doughboy's Harmontown and whatchamacallit, Hollywood Handbook are like my holy trinity. Okay. Hey, hey, I got the answer. Ben?

I listen to way too many podcasts because I do it for a living, but I will say one show I do very much enjoy is called The Dollop. It's a great history comedy podcast. Also, gotta give a shout out, big shout out to my boy, Brian Leher. Love him.

Leher? Leher? Anyway. He's the best. He's the best. I listen to his daily show as a podcast because if I miss it in the morning, I got to get me some Brian. Love Brian. Okay, I got to keep us moving because we're taking too long, as always.

All right, Ben, do you have any good weed stories? Please don't answer that question. Yeah, no, no, no. Here's my answer. Yes, yes. Ben has good weed stories. Go get a drink with Ben sometime. Griffin, is Ray Romano a chill dude in real life?

Really chill. So chill. Really chill. I've also interviewed Ray Romano. chill dude in real life? Really chill. So chill. Really chill. I've also interviewed Ray Romano. He's very chill. We talked a lot about anxiety. Yeah,

he's good at talking about anxiety. He's got a little bottle of Vandavan or whatever it is. Yeah, he carries around a necklace. That's great, and he never opens it. Yeah, he's a great guy.

Really, really a great dude. David, do you still have anger towards The Following, which was the Fox serial killer drama starring Kevin Bacon that I reviewed for the AV Club?

And Valerie Curry, my on-screen sister. That's true. I keep plugging the tick. Did make fun of it a lot. I have no lingering anger towards the following. I mostly think of it with fondness. There's this one episode, you know the serial killer played by James Purifoy? Correct. Is that right? I always confuse him and another one.

He's writing a novel because he's a novelist and a serial killer. He loves Edgar Allan Poe and all his followers murder people in Edgar Allan Poe masks. And he just is like he's just writing and he just writes a bunch of question marks. One of the funniest things I've ever seen in a serious show. Kit Fisto or Gra Gra?

Gra Gra. Gra Gra. Yeah. Gethard's not here. Gethard was here. He could make his Fisto. He could make his Fisto. Look, Gethard thrown down the gauntlet. You want to argue for Fisto, come back on the show. Lucas Rutten. I know, this is a new question.

I know. I'm sorry. You mean the great Lucas Rutten? Correct. Okay. I know that David mentioned in the Chromanie series that Jerry Maguire

is the cinematic equivalent of comfort food for him. Movie you can just put on. You know what I mean by that. He wants to know what other movies you feel like that about. For him,

it's Clue and Like Mike. Weird. I saw another Clue Clue and Like Mike. Weird. I saw another Clue question today. Like Mike is, I believe, no. Which is the one that Jonathan Lipnicki and Lil Bow Wow are in? Like Mike. He is, right? That's Like Mike, yeah.

So two Jonathan Lipnicki movies have made cinematic comfort food. Yeah. Well, my answers are Little Vampires and Stuart Little 2. Good. I'm glad we both knew I was going to say Stuart Little 2. P.S. Do you eat any other food than bagels? Yeah.

You eat chicken tenders. I eat chicken tenders, pizza, and tacos. That's the end of my list. I'm a little boy. Tintin is obviously a comfort food movie for you. Yeah. I mean, the Toy Story ones are big ones for me, obviously. Oh, you like those?

Yeah, I like them a little bit. I'll tell you a weird comfort food movie for me. Everyone's always weirded out with this answer especially since most of my comfort food movies are children's films that are calm to watch. The Master is weirdly a comfort food movie for me. When I can't fall asleep I rewatch The Master. I find that movie very

as psychosexually upsetting as it is I find it very calming just the rhythms and the look of the movie. For me Master and Commander is like that. I was in the worst mood a few weeks ago. And Jordan was like, what are we going to do about you? And I put on Master and Commander and instantly I'm like, he's going to fight y'all now. Pay attention.

It immediately just settles me down. There will be blood. That's like, for me, I love to put that on and fall asleep to that, which is crazy. Yeah, I hear that. Silence of the Lambs 2. Oh, I love watching that movie. That is a great answer.

Fucking Demi. Oh, fucking Demi. That is a bummer. I wrote an obituary for him. I loved Jonathan Demi. He would be a perfectly wonderful Grand Check candidate. I mean, the fact that he remade

The Mentoring Candidate and it was good. And charade, which wasn't good is crazy Paula Reagan asks are there any almost made the big time directors

you haven't seen who haven't made a movie in years you'd like to see make a comeback such as Karen Kusama did with The Invitation it's a tough one

to answer off the top of the old dome but I'm sure there are people like that where you're like whatever happened to blah? Like you know like

who the fuck were the people who made American Splendor? Berman and Pucci. Yeah like what the hell happened to them? Yeah they're doing something new now.

I forget what it is. Not that I even like that movie but that just strikes me as like people who hit it big and then went away. Yeah there are definitely Puccini.

Puccini. This doesn't totally fit into it because Mississippi Grind was pretty recent, but I'm pretty excited to see Bowdoin and Fleck do Captain Marvel. Sugar is one of my favorite movies of the last ten years. Sugar's a good movie. Grind ain't bad. I think they're really interesting filmmakers. Yeah, I like Mississippi Grind a lot. Have Nelson ain't bad.

No, they're good. I'm gonna forget names here. I mean, Joe Cornish is an obvious answer. It sounds like he's finally making a new movie now, but Attack the Block is amazing. I've been waiting to see him do something. Shane Carruth, I know, has been threatening to make a new movie. Yeah, this is the thing.

There's a Carruth coming. Tamara Jenkins, who's a filmmaker, I've always been like, where's her movie? I think she's finally making a movie. She's shooting something now. I saw her shooting. I literally walked past her on the street behind a monitor the other day. So she is making a movie now.

You know, like Julie Dash, who just got like a bunch of, she got like a Lifetime Achievement Award for making Dogs of the Dust at like New York Film Critics last year. Like where's her next? I mean, you know, there's a lot of movies. Nicole Kressel who did The Woodsman, which I really love.

I like that movie. But a lot of people are doing TV now. Like I was like, why isn't Nicole Kressel making a movie? And then she ended up doing an episode of Vinyl. Like a lot of these people are, Carl Franklin is like all TV now.

There was an answer I was about to have. Oh, Dayton Ferris have a new movie coming out this fall. They do, that's right. Which is the Bobby Riggs.

The Bobby Riggs, Billie Jean King movie. What about the Fairley Brothers? What happened to those guys? I like them a lot. But it's been a while. Todd Vanderwerf really wants us to do

a Fairley Brothers miniseries. As does Joe Gardner I would love to do it. David will refuse. No I wouldn't refuse. Well their last movie was Dumb and Dumber 2. Yeah.

Darnell Martin that's another person I really want to see another movie from her. She made Cadillac Records which is great. Oh that movie's so good. Okay so we answered

that question. Matt Woodcock asks, if you had to do a series covering a director whose films are mostly comedies, who would you pick? Well, Fairly Brothers is one. Judd Apatow is obviously another one because that guy's a blank check filmmaker

through and through. Yeah, Judd Apatow would be a nice little small one to make. Dante, I would sort of qualify as mostly comedies and I really want to do Dante. He's just done a lot, but yeah, Dante would be good. Yeah. I'll say something quickly while... Jesus Christ, my brain is...

It's the same movie. ...out of my ears. Who was the other filmmaker you just said? Fairly, Dante. Oh, Judd Apatow. I've been re-watching Freaks and Geeks talk about comfort food when I can't fall asleep at night, and I've been watching the commentaries on the excellent Blu-ray set that shot back

early. The commentaries were recorded in 2004 and there's an amazing one where it's Apatow, Feig and Jason Siegel are the three on it. And all of them are talking about like, yeah, I just want to keep on rewatching these and reliving these to remember when I still had a career. I know it is crazy. It's all three of them right before. There was a long time, not even right before.

Well, 40-Year-Old Virgin's what, 2006, 2007? It comes out 2005. He starts shooting 40-Year-Old Virgin at the end of that year. Right. Feig started working on The Office like the year after that, which then became his regular job.

And Siegel started How I Met Your Mother, I think like two years after that, three years after that. But it was like all three of them being like, I can't get hired, which is crazy. Rosemary Wagner. Let's see. This is a long one.

Would we consider adding another character to the Blank Check Awards such as best bit or funniest performance? No. Sorry. We'd add that to an award show covering our podcast. Would we please do one ofoff episodes focusing on an actress career she loves like the bill murray recap we do with the man who do hook too little yeah that's what we do with tom cruise but that's just kind of part of the podcast like you know if there's a

movie star we find interesting we're gonna dig into him you know i'll say this like it has been suggested at certain points this idea i don't remember who it came from but that we would do like um a one-off episode where we pick an actor, someone like Colin Farrell, who we've talked about a lot, and the structure of the episode would be going through their IMDB and kind of like charting how weird the career is and giving hot takes on some of the movies. I think it's an interesting thing. We might try it sometime as an experiment. It might be an interesting diversion.

What do we think of John Cameron Mitchell as a writer-director? Did you see Rabbit Hole? What do you think? john cameron mitchell as a writer director did you see rabbit hole what do you think how to talk to girls at parties his new movie will be like uh i think hedwig in the angry inch is a great movie i think short bus is a pretty bad movie that is nonetheless pretty interesting fascinating uh i think rabbit hole is fine yeah i think it's a pretty boring play uh about how it would be sad if your kid died yeah thank you for elucidating you know illuminating that for me uh but like well acted i suppose like it's fine yeah weren't you almost in it yeah i i was like i just realized that yeah i i

was uh here's here's a very weird factoid that's pretty hard to imagine i was like the second or third choice to play the miles Teller role in Rabbit Hole. I got really, really close to that. My career would be very different. Yeah. Like, I mean, it would have framed to be an entirely different life. But I mean, like, this podcast wouldn't exist. Yeah, all these things.

If Mulaney got picked up, this podcast wouldn't exist. Agreed. And look, The Tick is my dream job in a thousand senses, and I'm now very retroactively happy about everything that happened in my life leading up to this moment to allow it to happen. But I got weirdly attached to that character. It's one of the like two or three times I'd say young Neil and Scott Pilgrim's another example where I got close to a part and really had a sense of longing for not getting the

chance to play it. I will say this. I had a series of auditions with John Cameron Mitchell where callbacks to work with him. He was far and away the best actor's director I'd ever worked with. Just in audition capacity

it was astounding. I know him a little bit. I run into him every once in a while. I think he's a great guy. I agree with your assessments of the movies but I think he's

a really interesting artist. I'm very excited for How to Talk to Girls at parties. It's a great cast. It's a great piece of source material. Yes.

I'm thrilled to see him come back. I know someone who's seen it. It's a great cast. It's a great piece of source material. Yes. I'm thrilled to see him come back. I know someone who's seen it. I'll leave it there. He's also a great actor. I wish he was on screen more. I know he's starting

to do it more and more now. All right. I'm cutting you off. I like him. We really need to keep moving. I can't believe I didn't see this coming

that we would go too long. That's weird. We're usually very brief about everything. Joe Norcross suggests Cassie Lemons. Casey? Cassie Lemons, director of Yves Bayou and other great movies.

Love Cassie Lemons. Not a blank check director by any means because she's had to really fight to make movies. What else has she made? The Caveman's Valentine? But I do like her. Good director. Yeah. Talk to Me is a great movie. Agree with that. Love that. Which is, I think, her third or fourth movie. Really good movie. And then she did Black Nativity which I did like her. Talk to Me is a great movie. Agree with that. Love that. Which is, I think, her third or fourth movie.

Really good movie. And then she did Black Nativity, which I did not see. Didn't you? Jane Campion, he also says. I love Jane Campion. Yeah. She'd be cool. Ben Harworth suggests all the Bond movies, which is an insane idea, but he sent a very

long email that was breaking down within each actor actor which is the blank check movie. Yeah, that's weird. Which was interesting, but there's no way I could read it all out. But I did want to acknowledge it, but no. I mean, if you want to listen to like, Matt Gourley has his James Bond podcast, right? James Bonding, yeah.

Yeah, with Matt Myra, am I right? I believe that's correct. So, no. Okay, Sarah Jan. The great Sarah Jan? Just listen to the episode on The Village. Now, this email might be from like fucking months ago. We never checked our email. Sorry, no. Okay. Sarah Jan. The great Sarah Jan? Just listen to the episode on The Village. Now, this email might be from like fucking months ago. We never checked our email.

Sorry, everyone. Sorry. She worked as a stand-in for Bryce Dallas Howard on The Village. She thought she'd share her thoughts. Please do. One. Bryce Howard was wearing a wig. I had to wear the wig, too, and was told it was extremely expensive.

Interesting, considering her hair is so crucial to the movie. And it's her natural hair color. It's a wig that has her same hair color. Sure. And a lot of actors wear wigs, right? Because you want to maintain continuity. Specific hairstyle, continuity, yeah. As background actors, we were not told the twist and we definitely did not figure it out on set.

Interesting. When I started doing stand-in work for Bright, which is not that surprising, I suppose, because all the twist stuff happens sort of off set. I still don't know who I'm playing in the tech. They keep that secret from me, so I can't spoil it. Yeah, good call. You're playing the Moff guy. When I started doing stand-in work for Bryce, I was told the twist.

Okay. Because I would be able to figure it out based on the scenes we were shooting, so I had to sign. I was never asked to sign a non-disclosure. I was just asked not to say anything. So there you go Simpler time Yeah simpler time It really is actually

She also says that the creature costume Which was rejected for the village Was reused in the Omen remake Oh weird I have to show it to you someday And finally Bryce Howard's very sweet and kind Very nice person That's lovely

I like to hear all that Yeah Okay this is someone called no this is a troll email read a little bit of it this is from a person called hermit man the great hermit subject your podcast ruined my life okay great so i was talking about to my boss about orlando bloom's penis and the subject of elizabethtown somehow came up having listened to your episode i naturally told him i thought the movie was terrible. He seemed offended it hurt and said he was a big fan of Kirsten Dunst. I've never

actually seen the movie, so I had to backtrack and was like, yeah, I guess it was alright, which made me seem like a wuss. Now I'm not going to get a good recommendation from him. I'm not going to give this job I'm up for. My career's going to be ruined. Thanks a lot, dickbags. You're welcome. Next question. Nathan Wagner. The great Nathan Wagner. Nathan Swagner. Oh, right. Now, I just saved this

because you need to talk to this person. This was sent last year. Last July. Okay, July 2016. Hey, guys. I was in an antique store and found an action figure of everyone's favorite, Dexter Jetster. What? I immediately bought it and was hoping to ship it to your way as a small fan donation.

So he wants uh a po box or something i can give my address yeah yeah so i'll give you his email off i got i have gotten a couple i don't think i recall it but i have gotten a couple like uh uh phantom ass trilogy toys from listeners i have like a wind-up wado and a um a bailer ghana uh that people have sent me which are really nice i always appreciate appreciate it. I'll always take toys. Can I use this as a tradition? A transition? You can, but I will actually ask the question you said you'd respond

to soon, so it's your call. Okay, so I'll wait for that. But wait a second. What's that in the distance? We should have a theme song. We should have a drop. Right? Shouldn't we? We should.

But in the meantime, David. Yeah. I believe for the last four months you've been sitting on a new Ergo Report. It's not been that long because it happened after I saw the movie Keddie, the cat movie. Seen it? You saw it? Yeah. What did you think?

Hot take. Don't like cats. You know what? I Don't like cats. You know what? I don't like cats either. Thought the movie was fine, but I'll admit at like 78 minutes or however long it was, I was getting a little sleepy in the end. Yeah. I saw Keddie at the Alamo Draft House.

Congratulations. Humblebrag. With Joanna. And then we went to have dinner at Building on Bond, which is a restaurant nearby. Yeah, we got some dinner on Bond Street and Dean or Pacific or wherever it is. And we were eating dinner and we realized there was a big party in the back. I can't smell a burger in the air. Building on Bond, good burger.

Okay. I mean, you know, they have other things. I'm so excited. It's not that good. We just haven't had one so long. A classic Brooklyn celeb. Put it haven't had a classic Brooklyn celeb. Put it that way. A real Brooklyn celeb.

You live in Brooklyn long enough, you'll run into this guy, not Spike Lee. That would have been great. And then so I realized people are coming in and out of this giant backspace that they have for like big parties. Yeah. A lot of kids, you know. Okay. A lot of kids. Much like one of my first burger report in which Michael Shannon was seemingly babysitting a table full of kids.

It was Michael Shannon's birthday party. And this party departs as I'm eating dinner. And this party was for the child of one Ethan Hawke. So that's my burger report. That's all I got. Older or younger show? I can't definitively say. I don't want this to end up on TMZ.

Okay. His kids are with Uma Thurman, right? Correct. Anyway, it was Ethan. Hey, look. Fantastic. What kind of burger? You know, they've only got the one burger.

It's a hamburger. Great. But made of beef, to be clear. Hamburger's probably my favorite type of burger. I think there were a lot of burgers going back there. That's amazing. I think the kids were. That's amazing.

God, what a thrill. Anyway, there we go. All right, here's some Twitter questions. Let's do these briefer. The burger report, yeah. You don't have any burger reports? I don't. Has craft services not done a burger

uh they haven't and i keep on trying to like sometimes i'll show up on set and i'll just like stand next to jackie or i'll haley and i'll be like oh my god i got all these extra hamburgers do you want one he's like no thanks uh sure all right so here's some questions from sai underscore right these are quick takes because do we make any money from the podcast absolutely not we lose money yes will you end if griff gets a role in the next fast and the furious From Cy underscore Ry. These are quick takes. Do we make any money from the podcast? Absolutely not. We lose money. Yes. Will you end if Griff gets a role in the next Fast and the Furious?

No. Absolutely not because I've already gotten the role. I'm in Fast 9 and we'll keep doing the podcast. Will Goss, the famed nice person on Twitter who is great, asks, have either of you spent a significant portion of your life living abroad? I grew up in England. Really? Yes.

I never heard that before. Carlos U asks, Will there be action figures of hashtag the two friends? Ooh, what an interesting question. Time for a merchandise spotlight. Okay. I have to be vague in this answer. Sure.

Because ink is still drying. I can confirm. There will be Griffin Newman toys available late this summer for the tech. I am going to be merchandise, baby. Very excited for you. But that's all you can say? Yeah, I don't think I can get into more details.

It's all been coming together. But I've been launching a big campaign, tweeting at a bunch of toy companies, harassing them, asking them to make toys of me. And then Amazon executive saw it and was like, oh, you didn't know that was happening? And I was like, what? And then I had a conversation with him and I believe there will be some stuff available pretty soon and hopefully more to come. But I'll have, you know,

stay tuned. Look at my, follow me on Instagram and maybe I'll be able to post a picture. Alright, that's enough Conradofalco asks can you talk about your favorites from 2007 I'm in a 10th anniversary mood lately

I can read you my list real fast yeah you have your 10th Zodiac number one There Will Be Blood Sunshine No Country For Old Men

Ratatouille yeah that's a bulletproof top 5 yeah any of those would be my favorite movie in a lot of years

yeah knocked up assassination of Jesse James yeah eastern promises death proof keep going I'll keep going Michael Clayton this movie is still good Sweeney Todd Juno we own the night

yeah we do gone baby gone yeah he is the born ultimatum sure it is atonement we should own the night yeah we do gone baby gone yeah he is I don't know if it was a bored girl the born ultimatum sure it is atonement we should tone I am legend yes he is Southland tales they sure were away from her yeah he

got away from her it was sad I'm not there he wasn't there Resident Evil Extinction they're all dead what number was Resident Evil Extinction? They're all dead. What number was Resident Evil Extinction? 23. Jeez.

It's a good movie. I don't have a list written out. I know in 2007, No Country was my top. I think with Time, Zodiac and Ratatouille have both grown for me. One of those two would be my number one. They're both really, really close. Jesse James, I love. Michael Clayton, I love.

Don't love that Eastern Promises? I do, but it'd be lower down. What, are you more of a Western Promises guy? Yeah, probably. Love Cronenberg, but it's not one of my favorites. Should we watch it? Yeah, I probably should. But I'd say Rat 2 or Zodiac,

probably my two favorites. I think those are two best movies. 2007, great year. Great, great year. Love, knocked up. Love, super year. Great, great year. Love knocked up. Love super bad. Love the first Transformers movie, which now we're not going to talk about. Number 35 on my list. Because you guys made a poopy pants fit about it.

In between Planet Terror and My Blueberry Nights. I ranked it above My Blueberry Nights. Yeah, I should probably go back and make an actual list. You know what year I was thinking back on was also really interesting? What? 2005. 2005. I think it make an actual list. You know what year I was thinking back on was also really interesting? What? 2005. Uh, 2005. I think it was an interesting year.

Let's see what I've got there. I'm just interested. My number one movie of 2005 is The New World. Mine was The New World as well. You got Caché. Sure. Hidden, also known as. 2046. Sure. History of Violence. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. History of Violence would have been my five. Also would have been my five. The Holy Girl, a movie I love.

Don't know that one that well. The Martel movie. Munich. Sure. Batman Began. I love Batman Began. Would have probably been my number two. I also love...

Broke Bark Martin. Yeah. I love a motion picture titled King Kong. No. Directed by Peter Jackson. I think that film's a masterpiece. Crunch Tonton. Also love The Weatherman.

No. Directed by Gore Verbinski, which would also be my top five. Crunch Tonton. Can you figure out what a masterpiece. Crunch Tintin. Also Love, The Weatherman, directed by Gore Verbinski, which would also be my top five. Crunch Tintin? Can you figure out what it is? Crunch Tintin? Constantine. Oh, Constantine. War Worlds? Yeah. Good Night, Good Luck? Old Boy? Hitch. Bubble? Hitch.

Three Burials of Melchizedek Strada? That's a good movie. It is. The Puppy Chair? Yeah. There are a lot of years We could talk about Years are good You know what else Rules

Movies Love movies Movies fucking rule Next question If you two were From Laugh Alone If we were gonna make A podcast about

Something that isn't Movies What would it be I don't know I don't know actually Comedy I don't know I really I really don't know

I'd probably make a toys podcast that no one would listen to I would not be on it Conrado also asks how do I feel about the end of Zodiac I feel like it's not ambiguous enough the end of Zodiac is perfect it's totally haunting because the whole idea is he thinks he got him

but he's not sure and that's the whole fucking thing that's driving that movie well it's not like splinter in your brain where you're like gotta figure this out and my favorite line in the movie is when they're running through all the evidence and ruffalo just goes all circumstantial yeah you know it's like that's the fucking thing like the thing i think is beautiful about that ending is it's like the most blue ballsy ending of all time because you have two characters, you know, one who you've seen at two and a half hours earlier in the movie played by a different actor and one who you're just meeting for the first time. Like James LeGrow entering the last 90 seconds of the film and suddenly they're now posing the question the last two and a half hours have been fighting over and they're given a conclusive answer. But still, it doesn't really mean anything.

Yeah, it's true. All right. It's unsolvable olivia haydar haydar yeah the great olivia will you ever do a richard kelly miniseries that's been floated a lot yeah uh be fun i've never seen southland tales you know that's nuts that movie is extremely good and very worth watching yeah uh just listen He was on our friend Todd VanderWoorst's podcast, I Think You're Interesting, and he's a real sweet guy and a good interview and very upfront about what he likes and what he doesn't like. He's only got three, right?

Only got three. It's really weird. We float around sometimes, especially if filming schedules become more of a thing and this and that, you might see some more shorter miniseries so that we can bank one quickly and stack it up. You might see some of those shorter filmographies coming up. Whatever. Ben Rosen

asked can we hear Griffin's Ang Lee Hulk theory? I don't know what that means. We'll talk about Ang Lee someday. Yeah it's a Sins of the Father movie. It's a movie about literally fighting your dad. Can I say this? I mean no spoilers. My hot take on Guardians of the Galaxy is that James Gunn found a way to make all the ideas in Ang Lee's Hulk accessible and enjoyable to an audience.

The end of the movie is very similar to Hulk. Angelo Catrances. Yes, you're right, actually. Nice pace, Rance. Asks, Wells or Hitchcock? What do I have to pick? Jeff Wells. Yeah, I choose Jeff Wells.

That's right. S-R-O. Yeah. Nick Laureano asked for our favorite decades in terms of fashion, world leaders, and music. Not going to answer that question. I like the 70s. Sure.

Great. Justin Falcone, whatever happened to the Catherine Bigelow series? I saw Strange Days years ago and I'm still trying to unpack it. Stay tuned. Andy Girmuga asks, who do you think was the first blank check director? I don't know. You know.

Cecil B. DeMille? No, no. D.W. Griffith. It's D.W. It's Griffith. It's 100%. It's 100%. 100% D.W. Griffith.

Because Intolerance is like the first blank check movie of all time. Where he's essentially just being like, I am not a racist. Right. And makes another racist movie. No, it of all time, yes. Where he's essentially just being like, I am not a racist, and makes another racist movie. No, it's actually Edison, guys. I was going to say, there's the argument from the Lumiere's. They do the train coming to the station.

People were like, yeah, give me another one. Show me two people kissing. Show me a horse in water. Jake McKay asks. People leaving the factory. Jake McKay asks. Let's shoot an elephant. This is an important question. Did PlayStation ever reactivate Griffin's account? Great question. Yes leaving the factory. Jake McKay asks, this is an important question. Did PlayStation ever reactivate Griffin's account?

Great question. Yes, they did. It was a really long, protracted battle. They thankfully did and it was one of those dumb things where they were like giving me so many answers as to why they wouldn't reactivate it and then when they did reactivate it they didn't tell me and I just found out because I turned my PlayStation on and I had service again. I would have taken that all the way up to Sony

though. I guarantee you if they hadn't taken care of it. Yes, I have. Hey, look, you know what? I'm playing PlayStation more these days. Fly, Brewster, Fly is my PlayStation handle if you want to add me as a friend on PSN. I will. What are you playing right now? Lego Worlds.

Great. Will Goss says, rank the Avatar sequels site on scene. Very easy. It's 5, 1, 2, 3, 4. Agreed. Scoop Reinhart asks, would you ever do a series on David O. Russell? I mean, he's not a bad choice.

Talk about a toxic male director. He's one of those guys for me where I wouldn't want to do it yet because I think it's still very much an evolving narrative in a way where he's made such a weird transition, but I think we've seen the end of one period of David O. Russell, and I would want to see what the next one was before we try to come in with our blazing hot takes.

Julian Axelrod. No, I'm not answering this question. We already answered it. Which actor's got the most... But let's acknowledge the great Julian Axelrod. Which actor's gotten

the most blank checks in their career? That's his second question. Tom Cruise. Yes. Stallone may be my second choice. Stallone was really

a blank check, ego-driven actor. He had some blank checks. Yeah. Vin Diesel got a few recently. He's sort of in that Stallone mode right now. I'd love to do a Vin Diesel miniseries. I pitched you that, right?

Mm-hmm. The Vin Diesel miniseries would be the three Riddicks, the three Triple Xs, and the eight Fast and Furious movies. Yeah, it'd take a while. Yeah. And you'd need to do The Last Witch Hunter.

You're not doing one without The Last Witch Hunter. That'd be the bonus. That's such a blank check. The only filmmaker to ever get a film greenlit based on his Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Hillbilly eulogy. Rank Malick movies, please. It's actually tough. It's very tough. What's your favorite Malick movie?

Here's where I'd go off the dome, okay? But it could change minute to minute. Much like the wind blowing through. Okay. Off the dome yeah i would go days of heaven then the new world then badlands yeah then i'd go thin red line then i would go night of cups then the new world not the new world i Night of Cups, then Tree of Life, I meant. Hot take. Hot take. Then I would go To the Wonder, and I have not seen Song to Song. Yeah, it's more of the same.

I think I liked it less than Night of Cups more than To the Wonder. Okay. So, yeah. My favorite Malcolm is for sure The Thin Red Line, then The New World, then Badlands, then Days of Heaven. I'm not as into Days of Heaven as you are, Ilands, then Days of Heaven. I'm not as into Days of Heaven as you are, I think. Love Days of Heaven. As some are.

Yeah. Then The Tree of Life. I'm not missing any major ones here, right? No. Right. And then Night of Cups. And To the Wonder. Song to Song. To the Wonder's at the bottom there.

That's a movie that just- Yeah, and to be fair, because I know people are going to get angry about my Tree of Life placement, I think all those films are great other than To the Wonder. If you could have any novel, Jason Pucky asks, if you could have any novel

made into a movie starring Griff Lightning, what would it be? I don't know. This is kind of a trick answer because it's a graphic novel, but I was thinking recently I would kind of kill to play Yorick

in Why the Last Man. Yeah, you'd actually be good at that. Right? I had that realization I could actually do that well. Yeah, you would do that well. That's a good answer. I mean, other dumb answers. I feel like 10 years ago I could have done Catcher in the Rye.

Not that I necessarily love that book. Sure. Okay. What do you think of— Oh, you know what? I love Franny and Zoe. I would actually kill to do like— That's not going to happen.

I don't like Catcher in the Rye, but I like The Glass Family. Oh, all right, all right, all right. All right, Joey Hamilton. But Why the Last Man is my real answer. I also love The Glass Family, and I'm excited because they're going to be releasing new Salinger books soon. Yeah. Yeah, I like those books too.

I just don't know if they're going to be good movies. Joey Hamilton asks, what do you think of the Steven Spielberg-produced animated shows and video games, a.k.a. Please Talk About Animaniacs, Animaniacs is great. Yeah, I'm more of a Tiny Toons man myself, I'll be honest with you. Listen to Tiny Toons. But the Spielberg animation wave, I mean, Freakazoid's inarguably the best of that wave. Max Scholl, my real friend, Max Scholl asks, how about... They're great, they're great.

My short answer is they're great. He did a good job. Good cartoons, love them. Max Scholl asks, how about the Ben's Choice miniseries? Chevy Chase, Steve Martin movies. He's pitching this. Look, if Christmas was every day, it wouldn't be Christmas. Totally agree.

Ben's Choice has to be a treat at the end of a miniseries. Here's another Ben question. Dessert. Andrea Streeter asks, if producer Ben gave you guys nicknames, what would they be? Great question. This is okay. From the great Andrea Streeter. All right, so I would introduce Griffin as Mr. Tangent.

You know, cut that out. Doctor, cut that out. What about me? And then David, I would call you, let's see, Professor Frustrated. Yeah. Or Professor Profuddled, maybe. At the moment that Ben said Professor Frustrated, I just want to say at the moment that Ben said Professor Frustrated,

David was hand over his forehead staring down at the table sighing loudly. All right. We got to wrap this up. There's a lot more questions. And I would call you the rap. I right, we've got to wrap this up. There's a lot more questions, and we really appreciate it. And I would call you the rap. I really appreciate you guys sending in all these questions. I'm going to start skipping some of them.

Real lightning round. I've never seen Clue, Adam, but we should watch it someday. He suggested that we do a miniseries where each episode's on one character. Great idea. We will never, ever do. Zach Heitzel, any directors you'd love to cover, but they might be too obscure? Yes, hundreds. So many.

Robin asks, what up-and-coming director would you give a blank check to? That's actually a decent question. Yeah. I feel like that's basically what happens now. I don't know. Yeah, but I mean, what I would want is a true blank check. As excited as I am to see Boden Fleck do Captain Marvel, I don't know. That's not a blank check.

I want to see someone get a Matrix-level blank check to make whatever the fuck they want. Look, the whole thing is we don't give the blank checks. The whole idea of a blank check is it's a poison chalice in a lot of ways and sometimes you can trip over your own ambition. So I'm not sure I'd want to give it to like Barry Jenkins or whatever. And I think it's true of what's happening in TV right now where sometimes

no restrictions on your creativity can be a bit of a problem. Sometimes it's good to have something to push against. Sure, but dumb answers off the top of the dome, yeah. I want to see Barry Jenkins do whatever the fuck he wants to do. Jennifer Kent would probably be my number one blank check. Yeah, you keep talking about her. I love her. Sean Baker, although he works so well on the micro-budget level.

I know. You know, James Gray is making a space movie next. Can't wait to see whatever the fuck that's going to be. Yeah, Joe Cornish, already mentioned. Katie Rich says, Zemeckis or bust? Not a question, Katie, but we would like to do Robert Zemeckis. Bobby Z, love him, baby. Josh Spiegel says, will you be recording a live episode of the show as you walk around Pandora, the world of Avatar and Disney World?

And if not, why not? 100% yes, it is happening. Okay, I want to add an addendum to this, which is I am happy to do that if every expense is covered for me. I'm not paying one cent to do that. Well, Amazon, if you're listening, please pick up the tick for six more seasons and I will do that. Robert Hargreaves says, you still pro-Smits? Yeah. What the fuck are you talking about?

Obviously. Robin says, have you ever worried about the day our finest film critic starts his own podcast and starts producing yours? Ben? Every day I worry about that. He doesn't need two fools like us. Ben, quickly. I don't think that's going to happen. Okay, great.

Thank God. Don't worry. Okay, Cody Winfrey says, would you ever consider doing a Coppola series? Would be interesting to hear talking about his 80s, which are crazy. Really interesting. Coppola series would be amazing. He's made a lot of movies. I'd almost rather just do Coppola in the 80s than the 70s, which are crazy. Really insane. Coppola series would be amazing. He's made a lot of movies. I'd almost rather just do Coppola in the 80s

than the 70s ones that everyone knows as the Fonsi Masters. The weird 2000s Coppola movies are interesting, too. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that's interesting about him. Sofia Coppola we've discussed a lot, too. I don't get the Godfather movies. What's so good about them? Well, the thing is that they're mobsters. That's true.

Yeah, no, I understand. It's like Italian people talking about their family. Yeah, yeah. Sounds good. John Shannon, favorite Disney animated feature in Pixar? No, not included. Jungle Book. No question.

Hands down. That's your favorite? I love the Jungle Book. Interesting. No way is it mine. Fantasia is definitely mine. But if you're excluding Fantasia because it is a plotless movie. Yeah. Then that's hard.

I've always related to movies about aliens or robots because I feel like a different species than everyone else I speak to. And The Jungle Book is a movie about a lonely boy in the middle of the jungle talking to talking animals. At the end he finds a pretty girl and he realizes that that's what he wants. If you remove them then it's

probably Bambi. Either that or The Little Mermaid and you remove them, then it's probably Bambi. Either that or The Little Mermaid and Aladdin and shit. But it's hard. It's a hard question. But Fantasia's my answer. I like the 70s ones. I like the Wolfgang Rutherford movies. Robin Hood would probably be my number two behind Jungle Book. Weird. We're very different on this. Pat Reynolds, will you tell us more about your favorite

famous sandwich adventure? He's talking to me. Don Pepe. It's on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn between 39th and 40th Street. I prefer, I can't even remember the number because there's like 40 sandwiches you can get there. But it's the one with chorizo and head cheese and a chicken cutlet and mole. Sorry, no, guac and bean spread and stuff. It's so good. Don Pepe, it's the best. You should go. Our famous sandwich critic, our finest sandwich critic, David Simpson. It's so good. Don Pepe, it's the best. You should go.

Our famous sandwich critic. Our finest sandwich critic, David Simpson. Thank you so much. John Shannon, follow up. I think John Lasseter got a blank check similar to Spielberg's thoughts. I guess so. He was always in charge of his studio though,

so it's a little different. I would agree. Pixar gets weird just because the first three Pixar movies in particular are all hands on deck-deck movies. Exactly. Lasseter's the director, but everyone was working on this. You have Stanton and Unkrich and Lasseter all having a lot of creative contribution.

I don't think the Pixar movies start getting really auteurist until Monsters, Inc. Yeah, that's probably true. What do you consider a Musker-Clements miniseries? Now, that's Ron Clements and John Musker, right? You know who they are. Yes. Who are the directors of They Directed Aladdin? I think they did Oliver and Yes. Who are the directors of... They directed Aladdin. I think they did Oliver

and Company. Beauty and the Beast, I believe they did. No, sorry. Great Mouse Detective, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet. Oh, they didn't do Beauty and the Beast. And then they did Moana? Princess and the Frog and Moana. Yeah. Decent run. The problem with any of those is they're Disney movies. You know, no matter who the director is, Disney is still the best.

I think Pixar is when American studio animation started having real auteurs behind them and that's Stanton and that's Doctor the Lasseter movies are a little hard to parse

even though I think there is a clear cinematic voice with Lasseter those first couple movies are much more collaborative and Cars 2 is a nightmare okay shut up Rye asks

do your parents listen to your podcast if so what do they think of it if not why don't they appreciate our work great question you go first, David.

My mom attended our live episode. Had never seen a Star Wars movie before. That was how she saw Revenge of the Sith. Yeah, her first Star Wars movie was Revenge of the Sith when I was talking over it. And she's listened to, she's told me she listened to the Blank Check Awards episode. She usually doesn't listen because she doesn't really usually know what the fuck we're talking about. But I think she enjoys that it exists. Yeah.

My dad never took it seriously. He doesn't understand what podcasts are. He was very impressed we made that Time Magazine list. That's good. Of the 100 best podcasts, which is... 50. 50 best podcasts, my friend. That's insane.

I agree. So he just started listening, which scares me a lot. Oh, shit. Are you serious? Yep. Griffin, I've never cut any of that out. Nope. Okay. Griffin, I've never cut any of that out. Nope. Okay.

Griffin, I've never cut any of that out. Ben, what are you talking about? No, I... No, the things where I told you to cut them out, though. You cut them out. You cut them out. It's fine. We're not going to...

No, no, no. I never did. Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben. He doesn't listen. It's fine. It's fine. All right. My dad started listening at Jupiter Ascending.

Okay. Because that was the one, I guess, the Time Magazine spotlighted. Yeah, I think you're right. And I believe Jupiter Ascending, on Jupiter Ascending, Okay. Because that was the one, I guess, that Time Magazine spotlighted. Yeah, I think you're right. And I believe Jupiter Ascending, on Jupiter Ascending, we laugh at the idea that anyone might start listening on that episode.

That's funny. He's listened to that one. I don't know if he's listened to others, but he kept on saying, Griff, can you show me how to download your show on the iPod? And you were like,

oh yeah, sure, sure, sure. And you gave him like the Brian Lehrer show. And then he fucking figured out how to do it on his own. Nice job. He's listened to that one. I don't know if he's listened to others. He liked it a lot. He said you were a very, very good broad, sure, sure, sure. And you gave him the Brian Lehrer show. And then he fucking figured out how to do it on his own. Nice job. He's listened to that one. I don't know if he's listened to others.

He liked it a lot. He said you were a very, very good broadcaster. Oh, thank you. He was like, both of you are very good on Mike. He recently followed me on Instagram and likes my posts all the time. The weird thing that happens is anytime I go on Instagram, every single person on my Instagram feed, their most recent like is my father. He follows everyone I'm friends with.

That's strange. But it's great. Ben Claflin asks, rewatch Grindhouse for the first time in 10 years this week. Is Death Proof the best 2000s QT movie? Well, I mean, you love Death Proof a lot more than I do. But I would not agree. I mean, Inglourious Bastards is the best 2000s QT movie. I think Inglourious Bastards is his best film, period.

So that's my answer, yeah. But I like Death Proof. I would like to watch it again. It's been a long time. MH Burston asks, what has more endings, Return of the King or The Average? If it was a blank check,

five comedy points. Yeah, great, great, great joke. Tucker Gilmore says, can we do a blank check run on the MCU? God, I'd love to hear that. We talked about doing Phase 2 at one point. It's a lot of movies at this point. Yeah, that's the thing.

I think we'd tackle- And it's been done to death. We would tackle a phase. I think we worry about things that are too chewed over i think phase two is the most interesting because it's the one where they kind of have the blank check kind of confidence of yeah because we have the audience three and throw the dark world and guardians the weird experimental movies yeah okay as experimental as those i agree matthew j asks but we probably i mean not probably wouldn't but you might see oneoffs of a couple of those at some point. Who knows? Matthew J. asks, what movie have you seen the most times?

I mean, it has to be Toy Story. Yeah, you've probably seen that a million times. Yeah. I actually don't know what the answer is for me. It used to be Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, which I watched every day for like a month. Which is weird. What Hot American Summer is way up there for me, too. Eaton Benkuya asks, I'm not sure how I'm saying his name,

what's the definitive ranking of all Marvel Universe movies? That's too much to get into now. We don't have the time. What's your number one? What's your number one? Because more and more I feel like it's Iron Man 3, which I know is the hottest take I have. It's not wrong, though. I mean, Iron Man 3, my number one is not wrong, though. I mean, so the Iron Man 3 is,

my number one is the Avengers on this list I made a while ago. I don't think I could make Iron Man 3 my number one just because it's sort of like a weird middle finger to a lot of Marvel stuff. That's the thing. More and more as we go deeper and deeper into the universe,

I respect Iron Man 3 being that individualistic and esoteric. I think my favorite's still the Avengers. Avengers is like the, I mean, the paradigm of what you want it to be. Agreed. And I just think that was a special moment where we weren't tired of these things and we weren't sick of what they were doing. It's kind of transcendent, but those would be my top two.

Doctor Strange. That's the Benny-est movie of all time. Ohazal Bulbasaur, who I love. Probably the best username on Twitter. Great username. Says do you guys feel any Stockholm Syndrome love towards

the Phantom Menace trilogy or do you just hate them even more now? This is the last question. Absolutely love the Phantom Menace.

Like I just sort of feel fondness for it. I feel very protective of it. Agreed. And it feels very personal to me weirdly for this movie.

Or it's like very pissy when people defend the prequels in general especially for it. But Phantom Menace I mean I definitely have this movie. Or it's like very pissy when people defend the prequels in general, especially Kree. Yeah, but Phantom Menace, I mean I definitely have this weird affinity for it. And when I see those characters, you know, there's been a lot of Watto Twitter lately. Have you noticed that? Yeah. Well, Ali Akarian, or how do you say

his last name actually? Do you know that guy? I don't know. Ali Arikan. Arikan. Sure. A Turkish film Twitter guy who's very funny and very great. Loves Watto. And he's been pushing out some Watto. A lot of Watto means Kurt Nixon.

I know he does some Watto stuff too. Yeah, I mean, I get excited whenever I see people repping Watto. I have this weird affinity, especially for our characters, you know? Someone, a friend of someone who works on the tick said, oh my God, Griffin Newman's on your show. I listened to his podcast. Can you tell him that I love Gra Gra and I bought a Gra Gra action figure just because of the show.

And that kind of stuff gets me really excited because I do, I feel this kind of those weird like latchkey characters that we became obsessed with in talking about those movies mean a lot to me strangely. I know. I agree.

And when other people get excited about them and I hear people go like now I love Gra Gra or Sepulver or Dexter Jetster or fucking whoever. Dexter Jetster's been

really big online too. There have been a lot of Dexter Jetster memes. He's funny. He's funny. I mean I love it that's the end of the question yeah

it's probably my favorite movie that I don't like yeah probably true alright so we're done with the mailbag what did we run there two hours Ben

yeah Jesus Christ fucking ridiculous we said this was gonna be an hour I know like on the nugget I know

well I hope you guys had fun well you can edit it if you want Ben I don't know it's your call I think there might be some split into five episodes for all I care. Yeah, look, cut it out.

Cut out the whole thing. We're tired. Yeah, cut it out. Double it. Just fold it backwards and put it in a sandwich. Okay, so we've been dancing around the subject, but we did a poll recently. Look, all right, so here's how it goes. It's not democracy, but we just want to lick our finger, hold up to the wind, see which

way things are going. We were thinking about doing Michael Bay. Very seriously. Griffin really wanted to do a director with some bad movies with a bad franchise, or at least a, how would you put it, difficult franchise. A difficult franchise, someone who has a really complicated psychology behind their films. Yes. And I also liked that doing five Transformers movies would put us back in a Phantom Mass

territory where we really dig into the strange, messy mythology of a franchise like that, which we haven't gotten to do in a while right here a couple things i want to say about that one the psychology driving michael bay is that of like terminal male like you know ego driven like annoying film bro douchebagginess counterpoint he is kind of the purest artist working in cinema today even if his psychology is so hyperbole but but hyperbole, but... But do you know what I'm saying? Yes, I know what you're saying. Especially on that scale and budget. I think Michael Bay is very interesting. Two, nobody cares about the Transformers mythology.

That's really my main point. But anyway, we were starting to notice... Grimlock, though. We were starting... Like, the fact that in the last night trailers, they're like... David's, like, holding my hand right now. They're, you know, they're like, Optimus versus Bumblebee. Like, he must sacrifice him to like and you're just like no one fucking cares but like in 2007 i was so on board it's crazy like toys yeah i do but this isn't a toy podcast my friend not yet

anyway we will do michael bay someday we will do Michael Bay someday. So get ready for that. But we did feel in the air a little trepidation. More than, a little. We put that poll out, interested just to see. I believe the four names were Michael Bay. Who the fuck else was on it? Paul Verhoeven, Catherine Bigelow, and Christopher Nolan. What a surprise. The internet likes Christopher Nolan.

Now, you sound depressed about it. I just felt like it was well-worn territory and a little bit obvious. But the more we've been talking about it. Yeah, it's going to be fun. There are interesting movies to talk about. We've decided we're going to do him next. And Dunkirk is coming out this summer, so I'll time out well. Please get more excited about it.

Christopher Nolan! I love him. I mean, I think he's a great filmmaker. It's just I wonder. Ben Hosley sent us a text that really turned the whole thing around that's all i want to say that's all i want to say get excited get ready for it i mean ben hosley sent a text okay that should be the first line of like any great novel david's response was ben this text has changed my life Ben came up with an angle for Christopher Nolan

that I think is so good that I'm excited about doing it now we'll be doing Christopher Nolan next what's coming after that fuck in let's plant the flag

in the ground right now we're gonna do the top two winners of this poll next Christopher Nolan followed directly by Catherine Bigelow

easy those are our next two miniseries so happy about it. We'll be doing Wonder Woman that will come out the week before this so you've already heard it.

Yep. So it's a good thing I told you that it's coming up. It's going to be great. But next week tune in for Following. Following?

Podcasting. That's what it's called. That's what it's called. That's what it's called. No, next week we're going to do Following. Yeah. The first Christopher Nolan movie. The first Christopher Nolan movie. The one hour and ten minute.

It's a short little picture. Put that in your pocket and smoke it. 1998, Neo Noir. I'll smoke it from my pocket, yeah. There's a lot to look forward to, guys. We might have some insiders as guests. Oh, yeah, we might. We might.

Let's see. Let's not do that thing I always do where I promise a guest and then... Yeah, there's a bunch of reasons we're going to do Christopher Nolan, guys. It's going to be good. It's going to be good. It's going to be good. I'm really excited about it, despite how I sounded at first. Yeah.

He just really wants to do Michael Bay. I really want to do Michael Bay. He really wants to talk about toys. The merchandise spotlights alone would be... No, no, no. I agree with Ben. Unbelievable. Yeah.

All right. So that's what we're planning. Do you realize when I get my Griffin action figure then I can like have Griffin hang out with like fucking Optimus Prime and Darth Vader and all my friends nice space friends too how old are you? 28 years old

it's crazy that you exist Griffin yeah I'm a fucking walking paradox ladies and gentlemen this has been the mailback let's never do this again it was fun Ladies and gentlemen This has been The Mailback Let's never do this again It was fun We'll do it again

In a year or two Yeah so Write in emails And we'll get to it In a year from now So try and keep Emails not topical Yeah please

Yeah What was I gonna say I don't know Oh you know We forgot to do But I forgot to suggest That we do this But we did do

The Burger Report We do the Burger Report. We did the Burger Report. We did the Merchandise Spotlight. We did everything. Great episode. Best podcast of all time. Of course. According to Time Magazine.

Correct. We never ranked our Spielbergs. But we can't rank old Spielberg. No, which makes it trickier. What would your top five? Let's just do top five. Thank you. Do you want to go first or should I go first?

I will go. What? You go first? I'll go first. Okay. AI. Mine too. Bridge of Spies.

The Adventures of Tintin. Oh, wait. No. Fuck me. Please. I'm sorry. My list would be AI, then Catch Me If You Can, then Bridge of Spies, then The Adventures of Tintin, and then my number five choice would be...

Munich, Lincoln, Minority Report. I think it's Minority Report. Yeah, I think I'm AI, number one. Minority Report. I think it's Minority Report. Yeah, I think I'm AI, number one. Minority Report, number two. Bridge of Spies, number three. Saving Private Ryan, number four. Catch Me If You Can, number five. Pretty sure that's my ranking.

It's tough, though, because I really do like Munich. Munich, though. Munich, though, exactly. I really do like War of the Worlds, although that's more of a, you know, I really like Tintin. I really like Lincoln. What about BFJ? You see, I haven't heard that in a while.

You guys just heard him doing that a bunch. For us, it's been half a year. Fucking hell. BFJ. And now he's got The Post. We didn't even acknowledge this because it wasn't even news when we recorded that thing. I know. And now it's fast-tracked.

It's going out this December. Oh, I guess I'll make this like Pentagon Papers movie with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. Yeah. Look, anytime anyone has played Ben Bradley or Ben Bradley Jr. on film, it's been an Oscar play. A big Oscar player. I think it could be a big deal. I don't know. It'll probably my guess is it's gonna be a movie very much in the bridge of spies sort of

you know mood that's the patina i like from him where some people are probably gonna be like oh it seems a little boring where it's like no no no and we got ready player one comes out like a year from now right no ready player one comes out in march 2018 not even a year now yeah a little under yeah um yeah but that's uh he's just actively in post on that one yeah and then he's got the Raid of the Flare 1 comes out in March 2018, not even a year now. A little under. Yeah. Yeah. But that's actively in post on that one. Yeah, and then he's got the other one, the Pope one, which I guess got pushed back a little. Yeah, that is now in, you know, that could end up in who knows territory. But is that the regular age Pope movie?

Not a young Pope. Well, no, it's about a little Pope who then becomes a big Pope. Oh. It starts out as a boy. It's a baby Pope. What? Yes. No, no, it's about a little pope who then becomes a big pope. Oh. It starts out as a boy. It's a baby pope. What? Yes. No, no.

It's about a famous case where a boy had to be taken away from the Vatican or something. Mark Rylance is playing the pope. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay. We're going to wrap it up.

Great. Hey, everybody. Wrap it up. Thank you. We're following. Next week, Christopher Nolan. Jesus Christ. Yeah, geez.

We're doing it. It's going to be fine. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. It week following. Next week, Christopher Nolan. Jesus Christ. Yeah, geez. We're doing it. It's going to be fine. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. It's going to be a little fucking The Batman movie. People are going to love it. Fucking Inception.

I like Christopher Nolan more than most people. But not only that, like Jesus, all those movies, like they're so crazy. I know. In our listenership,

it's probably going to go through the roof. Memento episode, I'm going to cut it all up. It's going to be all over the place. You're going to have to piece it together. Yeah, we're going to get

very conceptual with this miniseries. Just with Inception. We're not getting as conceptual with every episode. Memento. Well, we are going to cut it all up. It's going to be all over the place. You're going to have to piece it together. Yeah, we're going to get very conceptual with this miniseries. Just with Inception. We're not getting as conceptual with every episode. Memento. Well, we are going to record Interstellar inside of a black hole. Yeah. Yeah. And Prestige is going to be co-hosted by my identical twin.

Oh, God. You're going to bring your brother in? Yeah. What people forget is that Hugh Jackman also plays someone's double in that movie. Correct. Which is like a fucking great Hugh Jackman performance. What people forget is it's the best movie of all time because is like a fucking great Hugh Jackman performance. What people forget is it's the best movie of all time

because all movies should be about dueling magicians. Never has it been better put than that. All right. Hey, hey, some new things I'm going to institute

on this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Yep. And want to thank, as always

starting today yep lane montgomery for our theme song yep joe bowen and pat reynolds for doing our artwork yep uh ang for fucking rocking our social media angela faragudo yeah unbelievable let's see her last name right ben yeah angela faraguda faraguda uh thank you for killing it and uh podcast i mean our twitter feed every day unbelievable uh thank you for killing it and kick ass in our podcast I mean our twitter feed every day unbelievable

thank you to all the blankies and and as always very fun and

action coming this year motherfuckers this has been a UCB comedy production check out our other shows on the motherfuckers. This has been a UCB comedy production. Check out our other shows on the UCB comedy podcast network.