Send Help

Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Blank Check with Griffin & David
Episode: Send Help (February 1, 2026)

This episode sees Griffin Newman, David Sims, Ben Hosley, and Marie Barty (“the woman of Blank Check”) reviewing Sam Raimi’s new film Send Help—a darkly comic survival thriller starring Rachel McAdams as a beleaguered corporate strategist whose fate takes a wild turn when a company plane crashes on a remote island. The hosts celebrate Raimi’s return to genre filmmaking, analyze the movie’s blend of office satire and gross-out horror, and have lively side discussions about everything from Rachel McAdams’s career to Survivor superfans and the state of the January movie slate.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Opening Banter: Show Dynamics & Roles (00:01–03:00)

• The hosts riff on their collaborative process and office hierarchy, with recurring bits about Marie’s role as "the woman," Ben’s creative input, and Griffin’s dad’s social media habits.
• Marie voices the “imbalance” of being both a creative collaborator and an employee [01:09–01:24].

  “If you want to talk about us as creative collaborators, cool. But I think something needs to be acknowledged… you guys are, you’re my boss.” —Marie (01:17)

Sam Raimi’s Career/Legacy Context (11:15–14:08)

• Send Help marks Raimi’s return after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and years of sporadic output.
• The hosts recall their affection for Raimi’s 2022 miniseries and his career-long ability to return to “rootsy, gnarly” filmmaking after blockbusters.

  “It’s thrilling... the fact that [Send Help] is such a kind of pure blast of peak Raimi return to form.” —Griffin (14:11)

About Send Help (Film Synopsis & Themes)

Set-Up and Structure (47:00–62:00)

• Linda (Rachel McAdams): A vital but overlooked strategist at a generic, soul-crushing company, undervalued despite being the “glue” holding everything together.

  “She’s this intangible glue person. Everyone's like, 'I know she seems silly, but she knows everything.'” —David (61:26)

• The Crash: A company retreat to Thailand goes awry, leading to a violent, Raimi-styled plane crash. Linda and fratty new boss Bradley (Dylan O’Brien) end up the only survivors on a remote island.
• Survival Satire: Linda’s obsessive Survivor-watching and practical skills make her the island’s alpha; corporate hierarchies invert.

Thematic Analysis (95:19–100:16)

• The film skewers “girlboss” tropes, toxic masculinity, and late-stage corporate nonsense, revealing how power replicates itself even in isolation.
• The “Survivor” hook is discussed as ingenious shorthand for Linda’s skillset and social outsider status.

  “This movie is kind of asking, what do men even do anymore?” —Griffin (95:25) “She wants some sense of permanent acknowledgment of having value—but doesn’t want to play those games.” —Griffin (140:40)

Rachel McAdams Discussion (44:17–49:18)

• The hosts lament Hollywood’s underuse of McAdams, tracing her post-Notebook career slowdown. They praise her for conveying both realness and movie-star quality.

  “You would have to be a fucking idiot to not know that [McAdams is] an incredibly versatile and talented actor... and yet Hollywood treats her with mild disrespect.” —David (44:17)

• The film’s casting of her as a “woman over 40” is interpreted as a commentary about how long-ingrained perceptions of desirability and value persist in culture and business.

Dylan O’Brien & Masculinity (65:40–73:08)

• O’Brien’s casting is celebrated as a “modern take on the finance/tech bro,” leveraging his “softness” and post-injury persona.
• The character is written as both contemptible and surprisingly vulnerable—a product of generational privilege and abuse cycles.

Sam Raimi’s Directorial Touches (18:31–22:38, 103:17–104:48)

• The hosts heap praise on Raimi’s ability to “return to small-scale genre” after blockbusters, comparing favorably to contemporaries who lose touch with scrappy roots after big budgets.
• Specific Raimi set pieces are highlighted—the boar sequence, his “blood recipe,” and comic-horror tension that escalates to slapstick gore.

  “He’s still boots on the ground that way... mixing bloods in my, you know, water bottles or whatever.” —David (92:42)

Notable Scenes & Spoiler Deep-Dive

Plane Crash Sequence (~90:00–91:40)

• Detailed breakdown of the visceral, slapstick violence when Linda stabs a coworker with a fork and watches him get sucked out mid-flight.

  “She stabs his hand with a fork...his tie is lodged...he’s being choked by it, outside the window.” —Griffin (91:21)

• The audience is invited to root for her as “the nastiness feels triumphant.”

The Big Twist—Linda’s Agency & Morality (105:09–128:21)

• Linda’s “refusal” of rescue—a deliberate sabotage of her own rescue and the killing of would-be saviors—is unpacked as both monstrous and understandable within the film’s metaphorical logic.
• The group's reactions acknowledge the film’s courage in not offering easy moral clarity at the end.

Climax: Office Satire, Violence, and Vindication (138:19–140:28)

• Final confrontation: Linda outsmarts Bradley with a classic “strategy planning” gambit, and the notorious “VP who can golf” callback.

  “She kills his ass with a golf club.” —Ben (138:46)

• Epilogue: Linda emerges as a media darling with a bestselling “send help” self-help book, riding off with her bird, Sweetie, in a convertible.

  “You love to see someone like Linda have everything work out.... It put a damn smile on my face.” —Ben (139:41)

Survivor Fandom & Outsiderness (54:00–56:00)

• The hosts discuss how Linda’s Survivor obsession marks her as a “co-worker type,” not one of the cool kids—a microcosm for her social isolation.

  “After I stopped watching Survivor in... season four, I forgot about it until I got a normal person day job. And then I’m like, oh, this is co-worker shit, this movie.” —Marie (55:40)

Gender, Power, and "Girlboss" Disillusionment (130:40–132:29)

• The film’s thesis: Success for outsiders (or women) must frequently involve adopting the ruthlessness of the system; true virtue is impossible in both business and the wilderness.

  “The hell of the last decade of the girl boss era... is there was this feeling of, is progress letting women be as awful as the men who used to run companies?” —Griffin (130:53)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Are you getting mad? Watch.” —Ben (63:01), on the indignities of women’s invisible labor.
• “[He] sees a projection of his fiance coming to him in the water to save him. And then she starts puking on him...she is performing CPR... and every 20 seconds, she, like, Exorcist style projectile vomits right into his face again.” —Griffin (116:54–117:05)
• “The movie’s asking, what do men even do anymore?” —Griffin (95:25)
• “It's so sleazy. I don't believe him for a second.” —Ben (137:46), on Bradley’s tearful “reconciliation” at the end.
• “She kills his ass with a golf club.” —Ben (138:46)
• “You can't wait for someone else to help you. You got to help yourself.” —Rachel McAdams’s final line as Linda (139:51)
• “In the end... you love to see someone like Linda have everything work out.” —Ben (139:57)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:01–03:00 — Opening banter: show dynamic, creative roles, recurring room bits.
• 11:15–14:08 — Sam Raimi miniseries recap, excitement for new release.
• 44:17–49:18 — Rachel McAdams’s career, Hollywood’s treatment of middle-aged women.
• 54:00–56:00 — Survivor superfans, office isolation, and co-worker archetypes.
• 61:00–63:00 — Linda’s invisible labor at the company; corporate hierarchy set-up.
• 91:21–92:06 — Plane crash violence; style/favor of Raimi's gore-comedy.
• 103:30–104:48 — The boar attack; gross-out humor and 4DX effects.
• 116:48–117:22 — Vomiting CPR scene; audience reaction.
• 128:21–140:28 — Third act twist, finale, Linda’s transformation, and ending.
• 152:07–152:49 — Raimi rankings; where Send Help fits in the director's canon.

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Tone & Style

The episode is characteristically lively, irreverent, and self-aware—the hosts joking about their own “lack of focus,” veering into personal anecdotes, and flinging pop-culture references (from Blink-182 to Dropout, Melania popcorn buckets, and obscure British ciders). The show’s signature blend of granular analysis and punchy banter remains intact. The language is casual and affectionate, but sharp and passionate when discussing overlooked talent and systemic industry problems.

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Final Thoughts

“Send Help” is branded a “pure blast of peak Raimi,” a January surprise that’s equal parts dark Office Space, gross-out cartoon, and parable about the virtues, and perils, of being underestimated. The hosts urge listeners to see it on opening weekend, support small-scale genre filmmakers, and enjoy the first major crowd-pleaser of the year.

Closing Takeaway:
“You can't wait for someone else to help you. You got to help yourself.” — Linda (Rachel McAdams, 139:51)

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For more:

• Listen to the full episode for incomparable tangents, deep-cut filmography rankings, and a vivid sense of how Send Help refracts modern anxieties through classic Raimi spectacle.
• Blank Check’s signature running gags and digressions about workplace dynamics, reality TV, and pop culture ephemera make this a must-listen for longtime fans.

Transcript

[A]

Blank check with Griffin and David.

[B]

Blank check with Griffin and David. Don't know what to say or to expect.

[A]

All you need to know is that.

[B]

The name of the shadow is Blackjack. Meet Linda Little. She's from strategy and podcasting.

[A]

See, that's what he wanted to do, guys. That's all that was his passions right there. David has been hearing his voice.

[B]

A war on the opening of this show.

[A]

No, I have been trying to make this show open. This is what happens.

[B]

I'm not saying today.

[A]

The line.

[B]

I'm not saying today's.

[A]

I'm talking in general.

[B]

This is a multi month war because you take too long to try to get it right.

[A]

Everyone's with me. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone. Who is this everyone?

[B]

Is this everyone in the room with you right now?

[A]

Ben Hosley. He's taking a drink to avoid being on Mike. Marie Barty. She swore a vow of silence.

[B]

Maria. Marie was saying, what about this line? What about this? It's collaborative project.

[C]

We're all creative collaborators.

[B]

Creative collaborators. This is a space for art above all else.

[D]

I just want to say, if you want to talk about us as creative collaborators, cool. But I think something needs to be acknowledged.

[A]

What's that?

[D]

Like David and Griffin, you guys are. You're my boss.

[A]

Sure.

[D]

Bosses.

[A]

That's true.

[D]

So that's kind of an imbalanced dynamic.

[B]

Well, and also, my dad did promise you that you were next in line for VP at bcp. He does not have the power to promise such a thing. In fact, he has no relationship to this business whatsoever. But I do know that's hanging over this episode.

[A]

It does sound like the kind of thing your dad might do offhandedly. Unfortunately, I think you're next in line just kind of like making conversation for vp.

[D]

I mean, I feel like. I feel like Peter and I, we have a good relationship on social media.

[B]

Absolutely.

[D]

I'm always getting those, you know, raise the roof emojis.

[B]

He likes the hands raised.

[D]

He likes the hands raised up.

[A]

Getting the hand raises from him. What's up, Pistol Pete? Because I think I stopped favoring every single hand raise. Maybe he took the hand.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[D]

Which means that I'm next in line.

[A]

For hands. Yeah.

[D]

Well, no, for. For running all of this.

[A]

He.

[B]

I feel like it was Father's Day last year. You did a happy Father's Day to Peter Newman, the most supportive Instagrammer. And you did a collage of all the times my father. For people who don't pay attention.

[A]

He loves to hit people with.

[D]

And he loves the roof post.

[B]

Almost Anyone on Instagram.

[A]

Prayer hands.

[B]

The top comment is 17 raised prayer hands. Right. With no tax.

[C]

It's a great bit.

[B]

It's a great bit. And you posted that? And I showed it to him and he immediately went, what is this making fun of me? Oh, he got very defensive and paranoid. And I was like, we're celebrating you. And he was like, okay, but I don't. Where. Where do those come from? And I was like, you posted them? She just.

[A]

Does he have like a sort of virus in his phone that's just doing.

[B]

I don't know. And then he went like, well, okay, if you promise me. It was meant as. As a term of endearment. I think Marie should be next in line for vp.

[D]

Yes. And it was meant as a term of endearment.

[A]

Oh, your dad's not really a Bruce Campbell, though I will say. No, no, not really. Not really the guy who would play your dad.

[B]

No. My dad's got fake Shemp vibes. It's a deep Raimi joke.

[A]

Marie.

[D]

I did the. The Leo point at the screen meme.

[A]

When you saw the portrait.

[B]

I did as well.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, a nice touch.

[B]

I saw this movie with friends of the podcast Ben David Grabinski, soon to be returning guest, and Mal Smith, and I did just, just. I didn't do it frantically. I very calmly extended my hand because I wanted to watch them notice it, you know?

[A]

And you were in 40x and I.

[B]

Just saw their eyes scan and then land on it and we all just started laughing. Got the 40x in this movie. Are you. Would you be surprised to hear that a Sam Raimi movie in 40x feels like the closest we've gotten to William Castle in my lifetime?

[A]

Sure.

[D]

That doesn't surprise me at all.

[A]

He is right. He's a showman of another era. It's true.

[B]

And I've been digging into this, but it's seems like the Raimi team might have been a little more hands on in the 4 dx than a lot of filmmakers.

[A]

You've been digging in?

[B]

I've been trying to get answers.

[A]

Tom Cruise over here.

[B]

But even if we got a Digger.

[D]

Folks.

[A]

Ben doesn't get it.

[B]

What's the song in the trailer again? Is it Spoon or something?

[A]

I don't know.

[D]

I. Then I don't know.

[B]

What's the song in the Digger trailer?

[A]

It is Green World by gorillas.

[D]

Do you know about Digger?

[C]

I know it's the Tom Cruise comedy movie.

[A]

Yes, ostensibly. It's funny. What we've been told.

[D]

He plays a. He plays a digger.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Who has to save the shovel man.

[D]

A shovel.

[B]

He's a shovel man.

[A]

Which we do like. We like that.

[D]

Apparently he's in full prosthetics.

[A]

He's in makeup.

[B]

He's in. Look at his silhouette. There's facial transformations.

[D]

What if he. What if he. What if this is like a stealth Ben Hosley biopic?

[B]

And the makeup, you're saying he's.

[A]

I mean, the pro tour I would be on. Imagine. I just don't know how long.

[C]

Like, I don't dig that much that you can make a whole feature out of that.

[D]

But digging. Digging could be a metaphor, you know?

[B]

Right. Life's the whole. Dig it. That's one of your favorite metaphors.

[A]

It is.

[B]

You say that all the time. Just dirt.

[A]

You know, third build in that movie in Digger.

[B]

Well, John Goodman is second.

[A]

No, it's Goodman. Sandra Hler is second build. But Goodman. Could we get. Could we dig up a nom for Goodman this year? Maybe.

[B]

Would you remember.

[D]

Yeah. We were going to. We were trying to get Goodman for our King Ralph show, and he was like, sorry, you know.

[A]

Right. I'm. I'm deep in. In. In the.

[B]

Well. No, but also his is significant enough. Yes. That he broke his knee while filming and they shut down all of production for like a month.

[A]

You do a cruise movie, you're. You're gonna hurt a limb somehow.

[B]

But I'm saying, yeah, John Goodman was the guy behind the desk giving him the mission in three scenes.

[D]

He wouldn't have broken a knee.

[B]

And also they would have gone like, great. We'll shoot around you for the next month until you're better. Filming shut down.

[A]

Because it is Goodman's first on screen appearance in a film since Captive State.

[B]

Yep.

[D]

What is Captive State?

[A]

It's. It's a bit of a forgotten movie. Not. Not a terrible one. 2019, sci fi action, sort of low budget. Yeah. 2019.

[B]

It's Rer Wyatt and it's the guy.

[A]

Who made Rise, one of the ape guys.

[B]

Why am I blanking on his name for Moonlight? Ashton Sanders.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

Ashton Sanders.

[B]

Kind of the lead in it.

[A]

Yes. Goodman's sort of. Sort of a villain. Sort of. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

As. As the sort of bureaucrat. And then who's the female lead of that movie?

[A]

Vera Farmiga is in it.

[B]

Right, Right.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Jonathan Major.

[B]

It's a. It's. It's.

[A]

And Machine Gun Kelly, Pete Davidson's first guest on his hit new podcast, which is so good that we're going to pack it up today. So this is the last episode David.

[D]

Walked into the studio today. Just be like, guys, that Pete Davidson video podcast, that non union talk show is. It's incredible.

[B]

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

[D]

What does his garage look like?

[A]

It looks like an empty room with like some soundproofing set up and a couple.

[D]

So it doesn't really look like a garage.

[A]

It's not like the Marin vibe of like, there's a billion things on the wall and like. No, it's just like an empty room.

[B]

Do you buy that it's his actual garage or do you think they built a set or rented.

[A]

I think it's his actual garage and I think part of the reason it's being filmed there is they smoked like 4 billion cigarettes over 36 minutes. So like what LC Hewitt or whoever Pete's, you know, partner is, is probably like, take that out of the house.

[B]

Got a newborn child.

[A]

Exactly. Come on, man. Yeah.

[B]

John Goodman, since 2019, was going back and forth, ping ponging between the Connors and the Righteous Gemstones.

[A]

Right. Doing the TV shows he's doing. It's not like he's been absent from.

[B]

Connors would do like a gentleman's 20 plus episodes a season. Righteous Gemstones was doing 10.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

He was doing like 30 episodes of television a year as the patriarch hunters.

[A]

Did seven whole seasons.

[B]

Yeah, it did, brother. Yeah, I was there, front row, mixing it up with that crazy crew. But it is wild.

[A]

Season seven was just six episodes long, so I guess it was a real. It was a little. A little shake.

[B]

Can I share a story that I think is endearing that I heard, because it's a. It's a done matter now that after season six, they wanted to end the Conners. They were just like, we think we've, like the.

[A]

We've had the moments passed, right?

[B]

Oh, just have we told all the stories we can tell, whatever. And they broke the news to John Goodman and he broke down crying and was like, I just love working on the show so much that I miss these people. And they were so affected by John Goodman's emotion, like a child that you're like, trying to get out of the house. They were like, john, what about, what, six more? How about we just do six more? That sounds good, right? Does that make you happy that they basically Renewed it for a miniseries because they felt so guilty about making John Goodman.

[A]

I mean, good for them.

[B]

Great for them.

[A]

Good for good. Good for John.

[B]

Good for John. But, yes, he has been, after decades of being one of our warmest and most welcome screen presences at the movie theater.

[A]

At the movie theater.

[B]

Seven years without a Goodman.

[A]

What's this podcast?

[B]

This podcast?

[D]

This codpast.

[B]

This codpast is called which last year was a lot about John Goodman.

[A]

Yeah, we had a little. Because he had the Cohen.

[B]

This year so far, zero Goodman on the spreadsheet.

[A]

Disaster. Terrible news.

[B]

It's a cod past about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their career and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion products they want. And sometimes those checks clear. And sometimes they bounce, baby. I forgot the opening line. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin.

[A]

I'm David.

[D]

That's Ben. I'm woman.

[C]

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

[B]

Oh, good.

[D]

Oh, really?

[B]

Was it? So that's what I'm referencing.

[A]

Pretty sure. Pretty sure.

[C]

So I was checking on that, but yes. Hey, it's Ben Hosley.

[B]

What's up? Oh, hey, it's Marie, AKA woman, AKA Mayor.

[C]

I don't like the. We gotta drop the woman.

[D]

No, I love the woman.

[A]

You love the woman.

[D]

Reese Feldman texted me yesterday listening to the no Other Choice episode Love the woman bit, and I was like, you're the king of TikTok. I'm the woman of blank check.

[B]

Yeah, Ben, it's not a great look that you're publicly.

[D]

Why do you hate women?

[B]

Let's get rid of women.

[C]

No, I don't like that you're being, like, reduced. The woman. But fine, we'll.

[D]

You know what?

[C]

We'll keep going with it.

[D]

No, I, I, you know, thank you. I, I agree. Much more than just woman. However, I do think my identity as woman is important.

[B]

It's very important.

[A]

I think you're so important.

[B]

And. And we could argue today's movie is about that.

[D]

It's about. It's about underestimating woman.

[B]

It is. It is.

[D]

It is.

[B]

In 2021, normal year, we covered the films of Sam raimi.

[D]

That was 2021.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Right? Or was it 22?

[D]

Because I started working on the podcast in 2021.

[B]

Okay, so then it was two.

[A]

Yeah. So podcast me to hell. Our Sam Raimi series was. Yeah. March 2020. 2 to June 2022, we covered his films, talked about Spider man and, you know, fucking. Yeah, Evil Deads and Simple Plans.

[B]

One of my favorite filmmakers.

[A]

It was kind of a like, yeah, we love.

[B]

I mean, yeah, he was a classic. When he finally makes a new movie, we gotta cover him. And they announced that he's doing Doctor Strange in the multiverse of Madness. A normal movie that came out in a normal way, normal amount of time, and was released in 2022. And we did a miniseries to commemorate it. And it had been a long gap. He had slowed way down. Post in the 2050s, when you make.

[A]

Something as Quibi, he did have a quibby.

[D]

He had the Quibi thing.

[A]

When you make something as good as Haas the Great and Powerful, you can't just rush into your next project.

[D]

I forgot. I was thinking, you know, I was thinking about the Raimi series and like I did. I wasn't super familiar with his work outside of Evil Dead and Spider Man. So it was like.

[A]

You enjoyed the Simple Plans and the smaller stuff.

[D]

Yeah, I really like. I hadn't seen the Quick and the Dead was great. Hadn't seen Drag Me to Hell because I think, you know, I've only maybe within the past 10 years, gotten less squeamish.

[B]

Used to hide in your coat.

[D]

I did. I did used to hide in my coat and didn't no longer do that.

[B]

Such as Woman.

[D]

But I will say I was remembering Ben shaking his head. I was remembering how I could not finish For Love of the Game. And now I'm just remembering. I also could not finish Oz the Great and Powerful.

[A]

I would say those are two flawed films for the Love of the Game. Honestly, I mean, a movie that's not very good also you can watch an hour and be kind of like, I got it.

[D]

All I remember about that movie is that he fixes a tire.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. So that's their meet Cute.

[A]

I basically remembered. I like the baseball stuff more than the romance.

[B]

Baseball stuff is so beautifully shot. But Oz the Great and Powerful is dire. And it also powerful is just sucks that you zoom out and you're like, we got one Sam Raimi movie in the whole decade, the whole decade. And we've. We've gotten two in the 2000 and twenties, which already means we're way ahead. And the fact that one of them is such a kind of like pure blast of peak Raimi return to form, in my opinion is thrilling. Today we're talking about send help, the new 20th Studios. I always forget what the new name is.

[D]

20Th Century Studio.

[B]

20Th Century Studio.

[A]

2020 Century Studios.

[B]

Send help. A Sam Raimi film that it is my great pleasure to announce to our listeners. Fucking rules.

[A]

You were very, you're very happy about this movie.

[B]

You know who else was?

[D]

Oh, I mean, fucking love this shit.

[B]

Bing bong.

[A]

Bing bong. Ben sent. Really? Our producer, Ben.

[B]

Let's just.

[A]

Who we love.

[B]

Let Ben say it. Because I.

[A]

A great text, Marie.

[B]

Ben and I all see it at separate showings at separate theaters.

[A]

Sure, you guys. We all scattered to the wind, but.

[B]

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

[C]

Yes. So I text I love Linda, our main character. And then I in all caps and everything works out.

[D]

It is the rare movie where Ben wouldn't have done anything better.

[C]

No, I, I, I was, I, I.

[A]

Was with Linda the whole time. Not a couple decisions she makes where you're like, okay, Linda. Okay, okay, okay. Perfect. Cross.

[C]

I might have talked the, the fiance, like, out of, you know, searching the island. Send her off maybe.

[B]

Now this is a reference.

[A]

Other ways to handle that, I suppose.

[C]

Versus murdering her and her accomplice.

[B]

Any movie.

[A]

That poor guy. I know, he did not deserve to think I had fruit on the boat.

[B]

I know we're going to get deep into spoilers here. Any movie. Yeah, any movie where something goes horribly awry after people make like a big move, right? A big play. Ben always defaults to. If it had been me, this would have ended with me owning an island. It all would have worked out.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Do we remember on which episode that bit originated?

[A]

Simple plan.

[C]

Right?

[B]

Simple plan. It's full fucking circle.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If I had found that bag of money, the movie would have ended with me owning an island. No fucking moral struggles, no inner searching of. Who am I?

[C]

Well thought out.

[B]

Disillusion of marriage.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. Wait, what is, what is her department, Linda?

[B]

Strategies and planning.

[C]

That's what I'm all about, baby. Strategy and planning. And it would have. Yeah, it would have worked out for me.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

David, you saw this, like two weeks ago.

[A]

I started. Yeah. It was a, it was screened for me at the Disney headquarters.

[B]

Very nice.

[A]

They have a new screening room in their new. They have like a building.

[D]

I feel like Ella McKay would do well in a send help scenario.

[A]

Ella McKay would do very well. She's got, yeah, she's an Alpha. Like, I mean, a secret Alpha.

[B]

You know what I mean, also, Ella McKay gets everything done in, like, three days, for better or worse. So, like, maybe her tenure as senator was short. Well, also, like, get off the island in, like, 72 hours.

[A]

Ella's big problem is, like, she's not a great people for, like, she struggles in with the interpersonal. But, like, once you're on the island, that's all that's done with. Like, now it's, like, now it's time to just get things done.

[B]

As long as she was wearing the sex scarf when the plane went down, she would have been great. You saw this, like, two weeks ago, and you were like, it's good.

[A]

Yes. I didn't want to color any opinions.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I said, send help. Fun. Good.

[B]

Because the three of us walked out hooting.

[A]

And I don't like to. I truly do not like to overhype people, like, or to. I. I get very, very concerned. It's a trauma going all the way back to my teenage years. I'm sure you have it, too.

[B]

Let's unpack.

[A]

Of saying to your friends, like, oh, this movie rocks. You know, some movie. I. And then they're like, not that good.

[B]

That's my only Hulk experience.

[A]

That's you with Hulk. You, Tron. You have that experience with Tron?

[B]

Sure.

[A]

You talk to school. You've told me that. Talk a class.

[B]

That's a more complicated, nuanced story. But sure.

[A]

Oh, yes, of course. Much like Tron.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So complicated and nuanced.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I kind of felt that way with my most recent Ben's choice about the pizza pie man.

[D]

Yeah. I love you to death.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

No, I think we all were thrilled by that choice, David.

[D]

I mean, at least that movie's interesting. Like, there's so many people. It's weird.

[C]

We got to talk about Tracy Ullman.

[B]

We had a great time.

[C]

Who has a great legacy. There's no problems there.

[B]

No mistakes have been made. David, are we hotter on this movie than you are, or were you just playing it close to the vest?

[A]

I'm a big fan of this movie. I had a great time. I don't know. You are very hot in it. Yeah, I don't know that I could be hotter.

[B]

I had an unbelievable time, and part of it is just, like, I think a thing that makes Sam Raimi unique. And I believe I said this at the time, but, like, drag Me to Hell feels like one of the only movies where a filmmaker who had just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, scaled down and went to their starting point, and it didn't feel like they were forcing themselves to fight with an arm behind their back. Right? Like, the frustration for us so often is with guys like Peter Jackson, right?

[A]

Jackson's a good example.

[B]

Ang Lee has fallen into a similar thing where I'm like, my God, you can't just, like, make a character drama again.

[A]

I was trying to think about this for my review because, I mean, I thought about Tarantino first and foremost, but who's. You know, everyone's always talking about him. So I felt almost stupid invoking him. But you cannot deny that. Like, it's impossible to imagine Tarantino being like, you know what? I'm gonna make, like, kind of like a little gritty movie. You know what? I can do that. I used to do it. Like, it's like, no, he's done doing.

[B]

Stuff for the listener at home. David literally rolled up his sleeves. He was locked in a performance.

[D]

And then he's also doing the weird arm.

[B]

Now he's doing that. Which, of course, QT can do as well. I'm double drinking. But, you know, if he leaves, my final film is five guys with guns in a warehouse. People be like, the. Are you talking about?

[A]

They. It would. People would maybe be excited. But I just, you know, he's probably not going to do that. And I was trying to think of other, like, because I'm like, raimi actually is happy. It seems to be like, well, hey, just made Multiverse of Madness. That doesn't mean that I require another gigantic scale movie to follow it up. I am happy to slum it with a silly script. I'm happy to have it come out in January. Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Sam Raimi is miserable about this, but I'm not getting that vibe. He seems like he's having a good time.

[B]

And I also think, Drag Me to Hell is the previous time he's done this. He's done it twice.

[A]

He's shaken off, like, the dust a little bit from a blockbuster, you know, which is, like, a completely different kind of thing to make.

[D]

I think there was. I saw a thing somewhere where they were like, Sam Raimi is, like, the only guy who, like, wants to keep making superhero movies and doesn't get to.

[A]

On Reddit. Someone asked him, like, what's your biggest regret about superhero movies? And he replied that I can't. I'm not getting offered more of them. Like, he is like, let me add him.

[D]

I love superheroes, but he's definitely the opposite of what we expect, where it's like, oh, you're slumming at doing those kinds of. You want to be making.

[A]

I've done all I can. What else could I say? He's like, no, I have more to say. Let's leave.

[B]

There's also another aspect, which is like, there's the part you're talking about psychologically that guys don't know how to go scale back down or don't want to anymore. Right. I also think there's a thing that, like, when people get $200 million budgets, it sometimes seems to break their brain in a way that's equivalent to, like going to the moon and then not knowing how to exist on Earth anymore.

[A]

Right? Yeah, totally.

[B]

You feel sometimes people going like, hey, maybe strategically I should make a smaller one. Maybe I should go back to my roots.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And you're like, they can't relocate the thing anymore.

[A]

To me. That's Zemeckis making here.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Where he's like, I'll make an intimate, tiny movie. And I'm like, but this is like the most complicated way for you to do that.

[B]

Zemeckis doesn't know how to uncomplicate things anymore.

[A]

I think so.

[B]

I mean, like the later movies, he doesn't know how to, like, his ally.

[A]

Does a similar thing where he's like, no, no, I can make like. And I'm like, right. But it's like a really expensive one, like in a really, like, like, tough to mount one.

[B]

And Raimi is a guy where you're like, you'd watch this movie and could easily believe this was directed by a 35 year old with the biggest budget they've ever been.

[A]

Exactly. Right. They're like, I finally, I'm gonna cut loose, get a little, you know, more CGI with it, blah, blah, blah.

[B]

Like, yes.

[A]

Right.

[B]

When they announce Drag Me to Hell after Spider Man 3, and it was like, his next move is he wants to go back and he's going to re team with his brothers and he's going to make a nasty little horror movie at a lower budget that was really exciting. But many people fall into that trap. And it's more depressing to see these guys not being able to locate their kind of core self anymore. But that was the thing he birthed from the ground up. This is like just a script. It's a script that he took on.

[A]

Mark Swift and Damien Shannon, who I. I say this with all due respect because I enjoyed this movie mostly. Right. Dogship. Just utter dog shit.

[B]

Give me the other credits.

[A]

Freddy versus Jason, which I enjoy, but I assume they were, you know, they were not probably the only people. They're the only credited writers on it, but I assume many passed.

[B]

Got a pretty pure vision.

[A]

Unfiltered Shark Tale, which I think they are one of many credited people on.

[B]

Yeah. A film I do not like.

[A]

No. Not very good.

[D]

You know, I've never seen it.

[B]

All respect to Scott Aukerman.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Is that his favorite movie?

[A]

He worked on it.

[B]

He worked on it.

[D]

Wait, what did he do on it?

[B]

A lot of writing. Uncredited.

[D]

Oh, okay.

[A]

The Friday the 13th remake. Which means, I suppose they wrote the line, your tits are just fucking. Just so juicy, dude.

[B]

Yes. They wrote your favorite line of dialogue.

[A]

My favorite line reading, there's an insane sex scene in Friday the 13th. The remake, which is like a pretty solid. It's sort of like a forgettable but okay remake.

[D]

I don't even know. Like, I forgot that. Like, I know that they did one for Elm street street with Jackie Earl Haley.

[A]

It was. It was. It was in that vein. It was. It was before Platinum Dunes. They did a Texas Chainsaw. They did a 13th.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So who's in Friday the 13th?

[A]

Kind of nobody.

[B]

I mean, again, Juliana Gill, the woman with.

[D]

Don't know who that is. She's got the juiciest tits. Okay, cool.

[A]

Jared Padalecki and Danielle Panabaker and Amanda Raiheady. You know, it's a lot of, like, CW actors.

[D]

Wow. Okay.

[B]

But it was before Nightmare on Elm street, and it's a movie that has the. They released an actual Friday the 13th.

[A]

They did, I think, which was. It seemed to be like 50% or more of the reason for doing it.

[B]

Marie. It is one of those movies as a box office nerd that I'm obsessed with because it made, like, 50% of its final gross on opening day.

[A]

It was an open pick and, you know, it actually did fine.

[B]

But it was the thing where it was like, opening day was like 20. Opening weekend was like 40. Final total was like 60 or under.

[A]

Sounds about right. Anyway, there is a sex scene in which the character who's having the. The boy says, your tits are just so juicy, dude.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

To. Oh, a nude woman who says, you really know how to give a compliment. Which is funny, but I have just never forgotten it. And I assume they wrote that line or maybe it was improv. Who knows?

[B]

Just like, so juicy, dude.

[A]

Just. And then just to finish their credits. Baywatch.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not great.

[B]

Not great, Bob. Not great.

[A]

These are not movies where I'm like, can't wait to see what those guys are cooking up next. Now I know when you Judge a writing team like this. They're called Mark Swift and Damien Chan. You know, buy their credits.

[D]

They probably listen to this podcast.

[A]

These are all movies that. These are all movies that had a million people work on them. They ended up with the credit. That's great.

[B]

And the inverse of this. And it's a thing we can't talk about because these things aren't known or when they're known, you're not supposed to say them is like very often the things someone is credited with, the lion's share of work was done by someone else. And the movies in which they did the most positive work they didn't get credit on. That's the case with a lot of like top level studio working screenwriters. It's why, like the fucking Christina Hodgson conversation is meaningless.

[A]

Of course everyone's mad at her now. There's the Flash or whatever.

[B]

And she was announced as the new writer of Batman, the Brave and the Bold. A movie that is absolutely going to happen en route.

[A]

A movie that is speeding towards us now.

[B]

I'm. I'm pinging this for a specific reason.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

Sam Raimi says, I wish they offered me more superhero movies. James Gunn is like, andy Machete is a little busy right now. I don't know if he's still making our Batman movie. That's definitely happening. Post it. Welcome to Derry. He's got a lot of offers, right? It feels like Gunn is laying the track for. In other interviews Remy has done where they're asking him, well, what other superheroes would you want to do? He immediately says, batman. I wanted to make Batman in the 80s.

[A]

Wow. I mean, he made Dark, which is.

[B]

Sort of like Dark man. Is him not getting to make Batman and not getting to make the Shadow and all the sort of pulp early 90s movies he wanted to make and couldn't get approved of. If I'm James Gunn and I hear Sam Raimi say that in an interview and there's potentially an opening directors chair and you're looking for a way to make the next Batman movie distinct in an era where Batman's been rebooted too many times and we already have the Matt Reeves universe over here.

[D]

Ask about that. I still don't understand.

[A]

Nobody does.

[D]

Okay?

[A]

No one, no one understands the strategy here and no one will admit to knowing the strategy.

[B]

My belief I predicted in another episode that I think will come out in some weeks is that they will just be super fucking molasses slow with development on this other Batman movie. Wait until the Matt Reeves like saga is over to then have a script that's ready to go that they can film within a year, but they will let that resolve itself.

[D]

Okay, that's my prediction.

[A]

It's a fine prediction. I mean, I. Lord knows I was just thinking about this. This is a horrible. You know, I. Sometimes I wake up at night because one of my kids makes a noise. You know, this happened to me last night.

[B]

Well, they're trying to get on Dropout. Right. I think they have a game show called Make Some Noise.

[A]

I can't say I watched Dropout. I'm sorry. And I had this horrible thought where I was like, the James Gunn DC experiment, not experiment project can go well and do, like 10 years of movies. Right?

[B]

Right.

[A]

And kind of, you know, come to an end as these things seem to do. Right. And then it's going to happen. Someone's going to be like, it's time to bring Zack Snyder back, Ben Affleck back, and do the Dark Knight Returns. Like Frank Miller's the Dark Knight, Affleck will be old enough and the drumbeat will begin. I predict this.

[D]

Now, Affleck was already old enough before, and that's why they cast him.

[A]

He'll be older and like. And they kind of hint at it, like the design of him is a little inspired by it and all that. But now they will fully. People will start to demand this.

[B]

Dark Knight Returns, which is the big title, Marie, and the one that Snyder was always kind of pulling from, but never directly adapting in that Batman is like Unforgiven. Clint Eastwood.

[A]

He's supposed to be Clint Eastwood, essentially.

[B]

And. And him cast Guy Affleck and having him be a little more beaten down and a little more chunky, was trying to, like, bridge the gap for that. But the thing you could do. And by the way, even if James Gunn stays, I think that's a very smart observation. I think even if James Gunn stays in charge for 10 plus years, maybe.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It would not be a bad decision to just go, hey, guys, Zack Snyder, elseworlds Dark Knight Returns one off.

[A]

I mean, this is all silly because of course, what's actually gonna happen in 10 years is Zack Snyder will be President of America.

[B]

He'll be President of America, and they'll be fine and everyone will be calm. But you say, marie, I don't get what's going on there. Can you explain this to me? If they announce tomorrow Sam Raimi is directing a Batman movie with Robin in it, as a movie person, your brain immediately goes, I understand how that would be different from what Matt Reeves and Pattinson are doing.

[A]

Right. Very different Bigoteur with a totally different.

[B]

Energy and different from what the last 15, 20 years of liveaction Batman have been.

[A]

Immediately, I love it. I mean, I have no idea what I love, but I can tell you that in 2021. Oh, no. 2019. This is crazy. This project was announced in 2019 with Raimi. Yes. Sam Raimi is going on an island getaway. The director is re teaming with his Spider man studio, Columbia Pictures. So I don't know how it fucking moved from Columbia to Disney to Fox, you know, But Michael Swift, Mark Swift, and Damien Shannon, who wrote the reboot, is Friday the 13th. Interesting. The Hollywood Reporter says in brackets, you know, the movie where they say juicy Tits. That's interesting. Will pen the script based on their original idea. So this is pro less than. Less them being told like, hey, can you do a Friday the 13th? Hey, can you work on the Baywatch movie? This is like them being like, no, no, no. We have a, you know, an actual little cute script we want to do. And Raimi took a liking to it, the idea.

[B]

Right. But they will pen. It's like they pitched the idea to him as a producer and he says, that sounds good. Write it. I want to make this.

[A]

Now I'm trying to figure out Ghost.

[B]

House, the name of his shingle at Sony. He had his production company because this was another thing in the 2000s and 2010s. When he slows down, he's producing like a lot of dump uary.

[A]

It just says Raimi Productions.

[B]

I'm not sure there was a. A Raimy Tapper production company that did like the Messengers and things like that where he was pumping out a lot of screens.

[A]

Yeah, sure. No, he's definitely produced a surprising amount of stuff over the years.

[B]

Yeah. And. And it Wasn't like the 2010s were Raimi coming down with a case of the attaches because he just kind of wasn't making anything.

[A]

But I think it's how he would get it in the mix with, like, these younger screenwriters.

[B]

You would see their stuff and like once a year there would be a Raimius circling. And then it just come to fruition. It just felt like he couldn't get stuff off the ground. He was producing a lot of things for younger filmmakers. But that's interesting that he. Right.

[D]

Remember this coming up in our series at all?

[A]

No, but I don't remember jack shit about that time in my life. Sorry, I don't. I can tell you that in Deadline has it on 2024. So five years later that he has closed a deal to direct and produce send help for 20th Century Studio. So it took that long for this thing to kind of, you know, bubble.

[B]

After the over there, major success of Dr.

[A]

Strange in the multiverse of madness, which made almost a billion dollars.

[B]

And I mean, Oz, the grand powerful ends up at 700 worldwide.

[A]

They made a lot of money, although quite a long time ago.

[B]

Yes, but it is like, it's interesting that he made a movie that was completely a financial success and yet feels like such a failure as an experiment that he's back on ice for, like a decade before Disney lets him make another giant budget movie. And that one makes a ton of money.

[A]

The other thing is that, of course, Raimi has constantly been attached to a remake of the ventriloquist dummy movie. Magic, we kept hearing, which is also being written by these guys.

[B]

Oh, interesting.

[A]

So clearly he's, you know, into these guys. Yeah.

[B]

But I feel like when we were doing the Raimi series, we were hearing from multiple people.

[A]

That was what he was most happening.

[B]

Like, it's really happening and it's happening soon.

[A]

But maybe they were just talking about magic.

[B]

Like, in the world, something magical is happening. Fairies are going to be. Disclosure day is coming, and it's not about aliens. It's about fairies.

[D]

That would be so crazy if fairies were real. No, if that was just if it's like, guess what, guys, it's not aliens. It's fairies.

[B]

The whole time it's been fairies.

[A]

Well, it would also be so crazy. I think the ultimate stunt would be Disclosure day comes out with the simultaneous actual acknowledgement from governments that aliens exist. And Spielberg is like, thank you for, like, you know, like the corporate sin.

[B]

Perfect tie in.

[A]

Right. Do you agree, Bem?

[C]

Well, didn't they already kind of do that?

[B]

The.

[A]

The funniest shit they ever did. They just dropped some videos being like, by the way, here's some, like, UFOs. We don't really know what's going on with them. Everyone was like, that is the crazy.

[C]

Thing to me is that everyone really did just be like, okay.

[A]

I think everyone just were like, call me when it's a saucer landing and a guy. Yeah. I mean, everyone's just kind of like, okay. It's like a blob.

[B]

I don't know.

[D]

Do we think that Tom DeLonge was, like, consulted. Yeah. On this. On the Spielberg movie.

[A]

Oh, because he said aliens.

[B]

I thought you were asking if the government.

[A]

Society.

[B]

Yes. No, I. The government. I was gonna say 100% Spielberg. 0%.

[D]

Hey, I don't know. I mean, when I think of like, disclosure as it relates to aliens, like, he's the number one guy I think of.

[B]

You're forgetting that Steven Spielberg has a much closer and older friend who's been banging that drum for longer than Tom Delange. If Spielberg's asking anyone, it's Dan Aykroyd.

[D]

Wait, I didn't know that Dan Aykroyd's an alien guy.

[B]

Dan Aykroyd.

[A]

Dan Akroid is like the ultimate.

[B]

There's a 10 hour DVD series of him just straight into camera, chain smoking cigarettes, explaining aliens.

[A]

Wow.

[D]

Yeah. This is the kind of stuff I miss out on by, like, not ever.

[A]

Being, like, a person who has, like, sex and normal human relationships with people.

[B]

Marie, it sounds like it's time for you to crack a skull.

[D]

I know about his vodka. Yeah, I do know about the vodka.

[B]

Why do you think it's in a crystal skull? Because totem provided to us by the UFOs many millennia ago. Wow. Yeah. No, Dan Aykroyd is absolutely. If Spielberg was like, who's the craziest alien person I know?

[D]

But, like, I don't think Dan Aykroyd has an in with, like, current military people. Tom DeLonge has been building those relationships recently.

[A]

I'm sorry, why? Why has he been doing that?

[D]

I don't know. This is like his. Oh, I'm not in Blink182 anymore. I'm just gonna go all in to aliens.

[A]

Do you guys like Blink182?

[C]

Yeah, of course.

[B]

Talk about classic. I don't remember anything that happened on the show before. Blink182 is like my biggest band for years. We've definitely talked about that.

[A]

I'm sure we have. I don't.

[B]

Yeah, that was. Take off your pants and jacket was.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

A motto for you.

[A]

I'm not saying that in Walmart or anything though. Okay. Remember, they had to call it take off your jacket and pants in certain places.

[B]

Enema of the state. Even the title is saucy. I remember pointing out the CD to my dad and saying, I want that. And him looking and going, you're not. You're not getting that.

[A]

I mean, it does have a nurse, a sexy nurse lady going, Speaking of.

[C]

That'S about the time speaker.

[B]

Great for me. Nobody likes you when you're 23.

[D]

What the hell is ADD, my friends?

[B]

What's my age again? What's my age again?

[C]

40 psi.

[A]

40 in two months.

[B]

Ghost House.

[D]

You're turning 40 this year. Oh, David, don't be super. I just turned 37. You're turning 37 soon.

[B]

Well, our birthdays are very close together. We're very close.

[D]

We're very close.

[B]

We're very close.

[D]

But, like, yeah, 37 felt way worse to me than other years in my 30s.

[A]

That's interesting to me.

[B]

I don't really.

[A]

That's not one that really registered with me.

[D]

37 feels firmly late 30s. I mean, whereas otherwise I can just be like, oh, I'm mid-30s. I'm early 30.

[B]

No, that's fine.

[D]

37.

[A]

Me 40, baby. Early 40s.

[C]

Can I tell you what it's like?

[A]

Yeah, sucks. Fuck. Fuck.

[B]

For your birthday this year, I assume you're just gonna do Edward 40 hands.

[D]

David is perfect object mimicking Edward 40.

[B]

Is being duct taped to his hand.

[A]

I definitely Pilot, definitely did that. Like, back when I.

[B]

The great pilot pilot all the time would. Would do Edward 40.

[A]

That was like a thing where it'd be like, what are you doing tonight? Well, someone's doing every 40 hands. Like, if you want to come by, be it me or one of my friends.

[B]

Do you want to watch?

[A]

Yeah, kind of. Yeah. That was sort of the. That was sort of the vibe, if you were gonna, you know, ask pilot. Oh, what are the. What are the Friday plans?

[D]

I never got into 40s.

[A]

No, they.

[D]

Because they really. They tasted different from regular beer. I was like, this is worse.

[B]

And there's more liquor.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. No, thank you.

[C]

I have news. I, of course, was really into 40s in high school.

[B]

We had.

[A]

In England, that stuff doesn't exist. We had cider, we had White Lightning.

[B]

We have it here in the office.

[A]

The.

[B]

The porches 40. Yeah, the customized Porches look.

[C]

Of all time.

[A]

Shout out to my UK listeners if y' all ever drank White Lightning.

[C]

Respect.

[A]

I used to drink White Lightning in the park.

[B]

Wow. Would they call it a 40 because it was a different unit of measurement? What would the number be? I don't know. We'd been something random.

[A]

Like we call it white light 52.2pence toppings, I think is like.

[B]

No, I was saying 2 pence. It was a different term.

[C]

Big fan, though, of drinking down to the label, throwing in some oj. Brass monkey, baby.

[A]

That sounds just. Jesus Christ.

[B]

That's a good way to puke.

[C]

It's kind of like a take on a mimosa.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Yeah, Like a sort of take on a mimosa by someone who's been, like, stunned as a child.

[D]

Had you heard of toilet?

[C]

I heard it on, you know, the.

[B]

Beastie Boys, that funky monkey.

[D]

Had you heard of toilet wine before this movie?

[A]

Yeah, of course. It's like prison movie.

[B]

This was new to you.

[D]

Toilet wine was new to me.

[B]

Wow. You clearly have never seen let's Go to Prison.

[D]

I've never seen let's Go to Prison. Although recently, just speaking about, like, prison stuff, I was like, should I watch Oz? You know, what if I got really.

[A]

Into Oz, another sign of, Are you depressed, Marie? How are we doing playing the Sims, watching Oz? Because that's also regressing to, like, the year 2000 in a very specific sort of a way.

[B]

Feel like, miss them, wish I was back.

[A]

I mean, Oz is one of those shows. I've not seen it in a long time where I think you're kind of like, this is interesting. I'm seeing the germs of, like, a new kind of television. Yeah, but you're not like, this is an unseen masterpiece.

[D]

You're like, all I know about Oz was that there were, like, white supremacists and butt. That's like, all I know about Rita Moreno. Rita Moreno was in there.

[B]

Rita Moreno was on.

[A]

It has. Yes. Because it was back in the day when, like, it was the only interesting TV show. You know what I mean? Like, it was the only challenging TV show that existed. Because it's a couple years before, like, the HBO revolution really begins.

[B]

David.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

This episode is brought to you by mubi, the global film company that champions great cinema. It champions it, unlike the others. No, they cry it barbarian it. From iconic directors to emerging auteurs, there is always something new to discover. With mubi, each and every film is hand selected so you can explore the best of cinema.

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[D]

What?

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There's a movie star movie now streaming on MUBI in the us Covered on Blank Check soon.

[B]

I think that's the headline.

[A]

Yeah. Die, My Love.

[B]

Yes. You're gonna need to watch it if you want to keep up with the show.

[A]

True, true. I mean, I guess, you know, do what you want. You don't have to. But we recommend viewing the film. Please view the film Die, My Lovely. Ramsey's film.

[B]

Great.

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Came out last year. It was a canon that came out last fall in 2025. It's a visual and uncompromising portrait of a woman engulfed by love and madness. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, who was nominated for a Golden Globe, Robert Pattinson. It's kind of mostly those two, so very heavy on the Two of them.

[B]

Yeah. Some. Some top shelf Nolte. I was gonna say some seasoning of Nolte and Spacek, but this is dry.

[A]

Age, let me tell you. Oh, yeah, you've got them in there, but yeah, it's a lot. It's a big showstopper movie for J Law and rpats. Yeah. Our Pat's nose, he's playing sack and fiddle. Sure. But then there's busting out the cello.

[B]

A lemon pepper dry rub of Nick Nolte.

[A]

I love lemon pepper, guys. I love Nick Nolte. I love lick Nolte too. Look at Lynn Ramsey making her eagerly awaited filmmaking return. Obviously, that's why we're covering her podcast. We've been waiting for her.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

To make another movie. And it was on the shortlist for cinematography of the 90th Academy Awards. I didn't even know that. That's awesome. It's a passionate, complicated, destructive love story between two major stars in Lawrence and Pattinson who'd never been together on screen before.

[B]

I know.

[A]

I guess that's not that surprising. But they are quite a pair.

[B]

The Bat and the Cat. K A T N I S S oh, Katniss.

[A]

Yeah, the Bat and the Steek Nistique. That is.

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Oh, sure.

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Yeah. It's an awesome movie.

[B]

It's a stink. And the freaks. I mean, is that something. He's played a lot of freaks. Sure, sure.

[A]

The spoiler alert for the episode. But I was a big fan of the film. I know you were, Ben.

[B]

Have you seen it yet?

[C]

I haven't seen it yet.

[B]

You're gonna like it a lot.

[A]

It's also based on a book by Ariana Horwitz.

[B]

Mm. Anyway, there's so much good stuff to watch on movie.

[A]

There's also awesome other good.

[B]

If you're not a member. This is a perfect month to sign up in order to keep up with the show. To stream the best of cinema, you could try MUBI free for 30 [e-mail] blankcheck. That's M U B I.com blank check for a whole month of great cinema for free.

[A]

All right, so send help. Send is a film directed by Sam Raimi, written by those guys we talked.

[D]

About who probably this podcast.

[A]

Sure. It start.

[B]

You know what?

[A]

Great job, guys. Like, I really enjoy. Um, Rachel McAdams is the star, of course. She worked with Sam on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He spoke very highly of her.

[B]

Took to her immediately, was like, you're a perfect actor. Actor for me. I gotta find something where we can do more together.

[A]

I saw some interview where he was like. He was like, you know, I'm describing, like, a stunt to her. Like, you're gonna get pulled back. You're gonna, like, you know, whatever, right? You know, for an action scene for Dr. Strange. And she was like. Rather than being like, okay, Jesus. She was like, what angle do you want my head to be at when I hit? And he was like, you and I are friends forever.

[B]

He knows when he finds his people. Look, Raimi's a very technical filmmaker. He designs movies, like fucking EC Comics. And he needs actors to hit very specific marks, but also, like, high emotions, comedic instincts. When he finds someone who works, it makes sense that he just grabs on.

[A]

The other thing with Rachel McAdams is you would have to be a fucking idiot to not know that she's, like, an incredibly versatile and talented actor. Everyone knows that. Right. And yet Hollywood treats her with mild disrespect.

[D]

I mean, this. This is also a movie about how Rachel McAdams is a little bit. A little bit unconscious.

[A]

She's been with us for 20 years. She's always good. She's done a million kinds of tones and stuff. Like, she's nailed them all. She is, let me just say it, a fox.

[B]

And, you know, this movie plays with that in an interesting way, really clever ways.

[D]

Okay, we can get into it.

[A]

You think Rachel McAdams is busted?

[D]

No, I think she's too. I think the movie would have been. I think she's wonderful, and she's really good in the movie, but I think the movie. It would have been a little more interesting if she was less attractive.

[B]

I think the movie is very pointedly presenting an actress over 40 and saying, remember, this person was presented as Julia Roberts. And the industry is now telling you that this person is undesirable. That. That she has crossed a line, and.

[D]

Now she is telling us that she's undesirable. Rachel McAdams.

[A]

You want me to run through her recent credits?

[D]

I mean, she's in our. She plays a mom, and. Are you there, God? That's me, Margaret. But she's not, like, an unattractive. She's, like, pretty. Pretty attractive in that movie.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

So, yeah, honestly, her Recent credits are 20, 25. Zero movies. 20, 24. Zero movies. 20, 23. Are you there, God? 22. Dr. Strange, which is like, God bless. I love that she was in it, but she's not a central.

[B]

And I do love that Sam Raimi was sort of, like, handed all these pieces of contractual obligations, actors left over from other Marvel movies and the threads from the first Doctor Strange and was immediately like, I gotta build something better for you. Our relationship shouldn't just be you being like, oh, Steven.

[A]

20, 21, 0 movies, 2020. Eurovision, which she rocks in.

[D]

Oh, she's great.

[A]

2019, 0 movies, 2018. Is she.

[D]

She's incredible in Game Night. Is she doing tv?

[A]

That's the whole thing. You're like, oh, well, she must not have.

[D]

Well, she did, like, one TV show, Fruit Detective. Right.

[A]

2015.

[D]

Well, what the hell is she doing?

[A]

The only thing she's done that I'm not mentioning is she did theater. She did Mary Jane on Broadway. Jane on Broadway, which she, you know, got a Tony nomination for and got very good reviews for. But look, maybe Rachel McAdams isn't working much because she doesn't want to, like, I don't know. Like, I don't know what's up with Rachel McAdams. And if she wants to tell me, she can call me. And My number is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. But, like, yeah, yeah, but, like, to me, it feels like Hollywood's just like, oh, yeah, well, we know you're over there and you're always good.

[B]

It is an assumption on my part that she is probably turning down a tremendous amount of stuff.

[A]

Crappy. That is dumb stuff.

[B]

Like, disrespectful.

[A]

Like, the last movie she was presented to us, I think is like. Like a really, like, you know, you know, a hot person that you want to write. Like, when's the last time the vow. Yes.

[B]

You're saying, like, the last time she was presented as.

[A]

I mean, I guess about time, but obviously, that's like a sweet movie.

[D]

I don't know. Maybe I just have. Because I'm woman. I have, like, different perspective on this, but, like, I don't. I'm always like, oh, yeah, Rachel McAdams, she's hot, and I love her.

[B]

Whenever we all agree with that.

[A]

But when I. In Aloha, it's like, don't you want to be rid of Rachel McAdams so you can get with that hot Asian Emma Stone?

[B]

You're reading of Aloha's wrong. I.

[A]

No, but she's less. Less of the object of desire in Aloha. Right. It's been a while since I saw.

[B]

Yeah, you got to rewatch a lot.

[A]

I know the number.

[B]

I'd say that's not the benefit.

[A]

Let's relax. Let's relax about. I've got.

[B]

It's time for you to take another lap. Go to the beach, lie down and bathe in Aloha. No, Aloha is. Was mismarketed as a love triangle movie is instead him trying to process what he got wrong in his previous most important relationship to figure out how to be a better man. But there is actually no less, really, tension within the movie about them getting back together. But that's.

[A]

But nonetheless, she is not the romantic lead of that film.

[B]

It's that she was.

[A]

And then, like, disobedience. Sure, she's hot stuff. They're all spitting in each other's mouths. You know, they're all, you know, religious.

[B]

The point to me, Marie, is that. And how old is she now?

[A]

47.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

She's all, wow, because she's started late.

[A]

Mean girls. She was 24.

[B]

I thought she was even older in Mean Girls.

[A]

Well, do the math. 25. Like, I mean, it was.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Mean Girls is 23 years ago.

[B]

That's the whole thing. Because Lindsay's actually like 17 in that movie and she's 25. Yeah. Had been just doing work in Canada up until that point. But 2004 is the. Is 2004 mean girls in the Notebook. And then 2005 is wedding crashers, Red Eye and Family Stone.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

And those.

[D]

What a run.

[A]

The run.

[B]

Two years. Hollywood goes, we've done it. We found the next Truly.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

It was truly like, we're for the alternative energy source. She has done five movies across two years in every genre. She's played supporting, she's played romantically, she's done comedy. It's here. And she basically. And she's talked about in the last couple of years, got really freaked out by the pressure that was placed on her. And just like, I'm not thinking of.

[A]

Especially the Notebook thing, the Ryan Gosling.

[B]

Thing, you know, Remember when they recreated.

[D]

That kiss on stage at the MTV.

[B]

Wearing the Darfur shirt?

[D]

Oh, my God. God, talk about 2020.

[A]

I was about to say talk about, like.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Just a moment.

[B]

Nothing is more 2004. Yeah, but she was just like, I like acting. I don't. This presidential star thing, presidential campaign level of. You're running for a list. Queen of Hollywood. Shit freaked her out. And the machinery, she slows way down. Her next two movies are the Lucky Ones and Married Life.

[A]

Yeah, but I think.

[D]

Those aren't. I'm not.

[B]

Those aren't registering.

[A]

Married life is 07. The lucky ones is 08. Neither of those, you know, they were not seen. And then in 09, she has the sort of comeback year, but it's state of Play where she's kind of the third lead. Sherlock Holmes, where she's like kind of the third lead. Obviously, Sherlock Holmes is the main character of that one, just FYI. And then Time Traveler's Wife, which was, like, much delayed, but that, I think wasn't funny.

[D]

In Time Traveler's Wife and About Time.

[A]

She could. In Time Travelers.

[B]

It's a bad movie because there's also Midnight in Paris. She's Three movies where she falls in.

[A]

Love with a guy who is time traveling.

[B]

Who's time traveling.

[A]

Yeah. And she's like, what's up?

[B]

Men will literally time travel to avoid staying engaged in their relationship.

[D]

When are we going to put Rachel McAdams time traveling wife trilogy on Patreon?

[B]

I'd love nothing.

[A]

That's. Yeah. And hey, what. What the world needs now is us talking Midnight in Paris.

[B]

Everyone wants to hear my. Yeah, she just. It was an interesting kind of swerve from her, and it feels like she reemerged and, like, Sherlock Holmes was the real. Like, I guess I gotta pay a mortgage and make a movie where my face is on a billboard. But what's the strategic one that feels like it'll be the most fun and is the least weight on my shoulders? There's a lot of stuff she infamously turned down, like Batman Begins and Rachel.

[A]

I think it was Christopher Nolan trying to hire her. Rachel.

[B]

I believe there was the holy trinity of Batman Begins, Iron man, and Superman Returns that she all turned down.

[A]

She obviously. I mean, the way Kate Bosworth is, like, styled in Superman Returns is basically like, oh, yeah, they died.

[D]

They dyed her hair.

[A]

Iron Man. What? She would have been Pepper Pot. She would have been good at that, too.

[B]

But Paltrow crushes that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The other two are miscast. And you see how if McAdams had been in them, both movies would have, like, yeah. Really benefited.

[A]

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

[B]

Beyond even jerk off motion boring. I think she was like, I don't want more attention right now.

[A]

Yeah. Maybe she just wasn't into it.

[B]

Has just, like, had a very interesting career of feeling like she works when she wants to work, and she can always, every couple years, be like romantic drama, romantic comedy, this or that. You know, when Morning Glory comes out, people were sort of like, this is the one we've been waiting for. It took her like, you know, eight years past the moment where we anointed her for her to, like, find her working girl. Her Julia movie. And that movie didn't really go, but it was like, this is the vehicle we wanted and the audience isn't here for us. I think it. What I think is interesting about this movie is it is less that, like they're taking Rachel McAdams and making her Selina Kyle at the beginning of Batman Returns. A performance I love, but one where Michelle Pfeiffer is going like, big with how small and broken and sad and maladjusted the character is. This is more about, like, to a guy like Dylan O', Brien, Rachel McAdams has no value that he's looking at one of still the most luminous actresses we have working in Hollywood and going like, who's this 46 year old eating tuna fish sandwich?

[A]

Right? She's swagless. You know, she's got lipstick on her teeth. She's eating too. Absolutely.

[C]

Got a bad necklace.

[A]

She obsessed with survival. Survivor, which is a red flag I love.

[D]

So the Survivor thing, really, because, like.

[A]

It'S, it's a good option. Obviously it's crucial to the movie.

[D]

I mean, David, you and I both have like, co workers.

[A]

We sure do.

[D]

Like, I don't consider you guys.

[A]

I mean, I'm talking about you guys co workers.

[D]

No, we're talking about, like. But we're also friends and we all the same interest.

[B]

Well, Marie, remember, I'm your boss.

[D]

That's true. You are my boss.

[A]

You're in trouble.

[B]

Ben's your boss. David's your boss.

[D]

You guys are all my boss.

[A]

Oh, Jesus.

[B]

You're in line for vp but like.

[D]

You know, like, like a desk job. Like a desk job where you have co workers. All you have in common with them is that you go to the same job sitting at a desk.

[B]

And I show up here all the time.

[A]

You guys are really derailing Marie's point right now. What is your point, Marie?

[D]

Well, I have normal people, coworkers who are obsessed with Survivor.

[A]

You're like, okay, Survivor. Huge 50th season this year, I believe.

[B]

Correct?

[A]

Yes.

[D]

I like, didn't I Survivor.

[A]

I've never seen one minute of it.

[D]

Oh, really? I watched the first three seasons.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

You know, they were very big. My whole family watched them together.

[B]

Same.

[D]

Do you remember, like, you know, there's a snake and the rat.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, God, Sue.

[D]

Sue. She was like a truck driver.

[B]

Yes, she was. I think so.

[C]

Wasn't there that naked guy?

[B]

Richard.

[A]

He was. I remember. I remember hearing about that snake.

[D]

And Kelly was the rat.

[B]

Yes.

[D]

Oh, God. I mean, talk about just iconic moments. Old man Rudy, Colleen Haskell, America's sweetheart. She was so pretty.

[B]

Rachel McAdams of her time there was.

[D]

Like, Gervais, like, the cool black guy they play. So at the. At the Nighthawk pre show, they played like, scenes from Survivor Borneo.

[A]

Oh, that's clever.

[D]

Which was fun. But anyway, Survivor, like, after I stopped watching Survivor in, like, season four, like, I didn't, like, I. I forgot about it until I got a, like, normal person day job. And then I'm like, oh, this is co worker shit, this movie.

[B]

Yes. It. It lets. Rachel McAdams.

[A]

I have no problem with Survivor. My whole thing with. With reality TV is just like, I don't have time for that. So I don't know what's going on. So I don't have that as a touch point.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, that was the last time I was engaged in a reality TV phenomenon and I got off the train.

[A]

Now I know they're on an island and they have to survive and all that.

[B]

Yeah. Which is, I mean, just a very smart hook for this movie. The. The point I'm trying to make about Rachel McAdams, I guess, is I appreciated how much. Yes. She's got lipstick on her teeth. She. She doesn't know she's got tuna fish on the side of her mouth.

[A]

Right. She does. To have the tuna.

[B]

There's. There's stuff like that. It's not like the movie is not making any efforts to have the character embarrass herself, but it just feels more like this woman is a little bit, like, uncalibrated to the workplace environment.

[A]

She just doesn't give a shit. She's good at her job, and she doesn't care about, you know, playing the game.

[B]

And she's still objectively beautiful at the beginning of the movie. And for this guy to be like, this woman actually grosses me out. Says a lot about the core dynamics of the film and also lays the track for her to have this glow up across the movie, which what I love about it is the globe is like 90% performance. The girl is not that much about a physical transformation, and in fact, her physical transformation just feels like her getting kind of, like, settled and earthier.

[D]

Well, yeah, she comes into her own on the island. Can I ask a question about Survivor real quick? Before we move on.

[B]

Sure. This is maybe our least focused episode in a long time.

[D]

This is. My husband and I had this conversation as we exited the theater. Yes. I am married to a man named David. Which of us. The four of us would do? Like, how would it shake out?

[A]

The four of us? So we're on the island.

[D]

So my nothing but our wits. Griffin and I die immediately.

[B]

Yeah. The answer is Ben.

[D]

Ben does well. David thinks he's gonna do well, but ultimately dies. And then Ben is the one that.

[A]

You Guys, guys, I'm. I'm very capable in some ways. I'm not a capable nature guy. I would not be, like, rolling up my sleeves being like, these berries are the right berries. I think I would be very conservative. I would die. I do. I don't think I would do well.

[B]

I think. I think you and I die. I think David's voted off first, and I think Ben wins.

[A]

What's now. Now there's voting. Are we doing Senate Helpers?

[B]

Now there's voting. It's been the whole thing the whole time.

[D]

I mean, it was less about, like, Survivor of the show, more about, like, we're. We're in this real life scenario.

[B]

Oh, then all three of us die in. Ben also still wins Survivor.

[A]

I just. I mean, are you not. You're not outdoorsy at all, Marie? That's not really a Marie thing. No, no, no. Right.

[D]

No, I'm, like, giving you a blank stare.

[A]

Of course.

[C]

Right. Famously. I asked on this podcast, have you two ever dug a hole before? And I think David was like, maybe.

[A]

Yeah, I. I am more in the maybe category.

[C]

Murray, have you ever dug a hole?

[D]

Yes.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

I love that. See, at least you're somewhat outdoorsy if you've done that.

[D]

Like, I wasn't like, I'm not like.

[C]

You'Re talking about a trowel. I'm talking about a shovel.

[D]

I'm like. I'm, like, digging stuff. Seed in there.

[B]

Not like, you know, almost anything where you could pose the question, griffin, have you ever even done that? The answer is yes, one time only on camera.

[A]

Oh, sure, sure. Right. You did it pretend for.

[B]

Right.

[A]

No, I did it for real.

[B]

But I have dug a hole on camera one time.

[A]

When? In what project?

[B]

It was a short film.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah, we'll never find it.

[D]

Yeah, I. I have, like, that. I'm, like, really allergic to mosquito bites. Sometimes they call it Skeeter syndrome, where they, like, have a very strong reaction. They blow up real big, and they're worse than they are for.

[A]

Right. You're actually Responding to the anesthetic they inject you with. With.

[D]

Yeah. So, I mean, first the bugs would get me. So I don't know if that would be my cause of death.

[A]

I don't think it would kill you, but it. It wears you down. I would not be happy about whatever Thai bugs are getting me in that island. That is for sure. I'm a strong swimmer. I'm a very strong swimmer.

[D]

Swim again.

[B]

Dying.

[A]

Marie, you're definitely in trouble. I. I definitely don't any private flights over the Gulf of Thailand anytime soon.

[C]

Or just wear your floaties.

[D]

Yeah, well, I will wear. Hey, I always pay attention to the. The flight attendant safety briefing at the beginning of every flight.

[A]

Oh yeah, because I'm stay buckled in.

[D]

I'm getting out of there.

[B]

Yeah. It's important to pay attention because they change it a lot.

[D]

Every plane's different. This is. Every country has different regulations.

[B]

Anyway, can we talk about the movie Send Help, A film that I love.

[A]

So we haven't talked about. Well, so, okay. The setup of Send Help is Linda's this, you know, slightly dorky employee at a company.

[D]

She does like a consultant, does all the work, gets no the none of the credit.

[A]

It's a scenario we can understand in five minutes. Or you know, Dylan o', Brien, she's.

[B]

In a cubicle bank with the secretaries. They put her in the same area of the office with the secretary.

[A]

She's near the CEO. But you're right, she's right. She doesn't really have any special treatment.

[B]

I almost kind of took it that she was perhaps the CEO's secretary for a long time.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And proved her worth.

[B]

Got a kind of mini promotion to a title that, you know, isn't really.

[A]

This is the whole problem. She's like this intangible glue person where everyone's like, I know she seems silly, but like she knows everything. She knows how to fucking fix, you know, contracts and documents.

[B]

You know. Is Bruce Campbell depicted in a painting. Dennis Haysbert, kind of his right hand man who's now ushering in the transition.

[A]

Just brings in one bucket of gravel, shovels it out. He's doing a great job. Just a little bit of gravel.

[B]

Perfect. And Dylan o' Brien is like frat boy evil Nepos.

[D]

He wears loafers without like those kind of. Not even loafers. They're like those like little slipper things like Ferragamo. Yeah, yeah. No socks.

[C]

Who is this guy?

[B]

This guy's sucks.

[D]

Well, the movie does at least really good job spenders. The other guy has suspenders which is another like immediate flag.

[A]

He's kind of like styled like what Dylan o' Brien would be styled like if this movie were the 90s.

[D]

Right.

[A]

You know what I mean?

[B]

He's dressed like Patrick, baby.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But yes, Rachel McCaffrey had been promised for a long time that she was next in line for a VP promotion.

[A]

You're gonna get like, promotion.

[B]

She got promoted from being a secretary, but got stuck like one step above it for a very long time. And as you said, it's like, here's the woman who actually holds all the guys together, right?

[A]

Invisible work.

[B]

But she's also kind of take it for granted because she'll put up with it.

[C]

Like she puts together all this documentation for like a quarterly report.

[A]

She figured this out.

[C]

Spender ass guy basically just takes it from her and claims credit.

[B]

Right. And, and, and Are you getting mad?

[A]

Are you getting mad? Watch.

[C]

Okay, that's that. I'm so glad when he gets his comeuppance.

[A]

He's a samuel.

[B]

Who was the villain in Twilight Eclipse.

[A]

Yeah, he's Riley.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I can't say I remember him.

[B]

So he's an Australian pretty boy.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But yes. No, right off the bat, I mean, it's just like, it's, it's Raimi, where it's just like. I. I brought up EC comics earlier, but I had this thought a lot watching this movie of like, he does have the language of like pre code horror comics in his DNA. Not just in how hyper visual he is, but you would read these. Like there was a code imposed on the comic books industry that comics were perverting the youth of America. And horror comics got like kicked out of society basically. And that led to the creation of Mad magazine and superhero comics basically to fill the void of how does the comics industry stay afloat without touching on seen as objectionable material. And you look at those horror comics, they're the types of things that inspired Tales from the Crypt, two Fisted Heroes and all this sort of stuff. War comics, they're like very bold, expressionistic, really like broad strokes storytelling. You leaf through the pages and you're like, oh my God, this fucking imagery. Every single panel has an entire story of emotion in it. And then you try to read it from front to back and it is almost incomprehensible. They're all like slop expressed in the most vibrant way with so much feeling. And I was even talking to like Fantagraphics has been putting out a lot of these easy comics things. You see them at a store, these hardcover reproductions you're like, holy, I should buy this. You bring it home two pages in, you're like, oh, this is gobbledygook.

[A]

A lot of tiny little print, you know, and it's just kind of like every panel, really.

[B]

Kind of like bland melodrama, you know, or the same kind of, like, horror gimmicks repeated over and over again. Sometimes there's a kernel of a good idea not expressed well. Feels like Raimi's visual language is very tied to that, but figuring out how to actually tell good, coherent stories within that. And he just is like, what's the quickest way to communicate this? Within three minutes, you kind of know everything about the setup of this movie.

[C]

Even down to her having a bird. There's something about that that says so much for the bird.

[B]

But, like, the power structure of all 10 characters and how they see everything and how everything feels. So, yes, she's sort of on the outside looking in. Dylan o' Brien comes in on his first day and immediately just hates her.

[A]

Should we talk about Dylan o' Brien at all? The performer who plays the character called Bradley Preston.

[B]

I think this is an impressively contemptible performance.

[D]

I think he is a good young actor.

[A]

So I said in my review, you know, like, that I consider him a somewhat untapped resource. Right. Like, I'm like, it's a good showcase for this guy who, like, Hollywood has never quite used well enough. And my editor, like, I was like, agree with you, but, like, examples, please. And so, you know, like, obviously he's best known for the Maze Runners and the Teen Wolf show. Right? Like, that was where he came out of.

[B]

He was the best friend character on Teen Wolf, which is kind of the.

[A]

Fun character, I assume. I never really watch styles.

[B]

I believe the fuck is Maze Run.

[A]

There were three Maze Runner movies. Ben. First we ran the maze. Then we endured the Scorch trials. Then we found the death cure.

[D]

It was like a hunger. It was like a Hunger Game, Divergent.

[B]

Maze Runner, Hunger Games.

[D]

But the most important thing about the. The. The Maze Runner movies was that he got serious. Was he the one that got seriously injured? He had a. He got seriously injured on set where, like, they had to, like, reconstruct his face.

[B]

There was.

[D]

Which you can't tell because he looked.

[B]

You know, there was like a. He was. You know, he was a teen actor, right? He was in a lot of stuff. He was more kind of comedy skewing.

[A]

It was kind of fun.

[B]

There was a period of time in the late 2000s, early 2010s when I was auditioning a lot, where very often it would come down to me, Dylan o' Brien and Will Poulter.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

Three good actors.

[B]

And those two guys really were kind of starting comedy forward. Oh, these guys can improvise.

[D]

Yeah. Because Will Poulter was in we're the Millers or whatever. Right? Yeah.

[B]

And had come from Son of Rambo.

[D]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And Dylan o' Brien had done a lot of comedy stuff and was like.

[A]

Or at least like Teen Wolf. I never really watched it, but, like, Teen Wolf had a lot of comedy in it. Right. Like, it's like. It was fun. It was mtv.

[B]

But there's like, he's in. What's still in. O' Brien in. He's in the.

[A]

He's in the internship. I can't say that I saw that one.

[B]

There was a movie that Matt Walsh directed that I want to say he was the lead in that was improv based. High Road. It was his first.

[A]

I remember High Road the first time.

[B]

Which is the other Kasdan son, Jonathan Kas, who co wrote Solo. That's kind of like a scene. When Harry Met Sally, who was his longtime girlfriend. They met on that and were together for, like 10 years.

[A]

He was in Deepwater Horizon. He got oil all over him just like everyone else he was in. Then he had the. The sort of. The accident on Death Cure set him back, it seemed, and he was sort of gone for a minute. He was in that thing, loving Monsters, which. That was like a movie Joey, my brother texted me about, because Joey fucking loves Dillard. Brian being like, that one's pretty good. And I was like, yeah, cool story, bro. Don't care. He was in Infinite, which I did see.

[B]

Never seen.

[D]

Not.

[A]

Not a movie that popped for me huge. And so it started to be like, you know what. What did we do here? Like, this guy was pretty good. Like, we kind of lost the track here.

[B]

But, like, no need to get pops.

[A]

A little bit in the outfit. I know. Yes. There's some personal stuff with him.

[B]

No, no. All I just want to say, just because Ben didn't know this, right. The Maze Runner incident was, like, insane. It was one of those things where, like, it goes up as a deadline story, and it was like, is this guy about to die? It was like a. A car scene gone wrong, and he's, like, dragged. And there was this whole thing of, like, the physical scale of this is insane. Everyone's waiting to hear if he's in stable condition. Once he was in stable condition, it was like, what's he going to look like. Even when they were like miracle. We think there's been a successful facial reconstruction. People were like is this guy ever going to.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean appear in public again?

[D]

It's like the Montgomery Clift thing where like he comes back from facial reconstruction.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like all but beyond that the trauma of the incident like how extreme it was. There was a lot of reporting of like he's backed away. Like he. He might not be able to get through this. Right. And so there was this kind of like slow reemergence. They finally finished Death Cure. But that was like is that his final movie? Those movies all made kind of like Automatic Hundred million dollars, 200 worldwide. So it felt like he was on that Runway to is this guy kind of like a steady studio hand to be the lead of mid budget movies. And it's like a slow reemergence. American Assassin. A movie you weirdly bring up a lot for. How much? It's socks.

[A]

That's the one we.

[B]

The Michael Keaton one. He's the guy that training.

[C]

Oh my God, that movie is insane.

[B]

And that was his big.

[C]

Forgot about that.

[B]

That's his big post injury like reintroduction.

[A]

Movie before Death Cure. Because Death Cure took so long to finish.

[C]

I will point out because that movie is so just about like hurt me is the vibe.

[B]

There is a really interesting article. I will see if I can find it. We can post it in the episode description about his process of deciding he wants to return to set and acting and how he connected to that material as like a guy who needs to rebuild himself and like what he was going through while he was making that movie. But he's been in an odd place and he's like swinging between a lot of things. He's bizarrely good as the aforementioned Dan Aykroyd in Saturday Night. I think is contemptible and I think.

[A]

He'S good in it does the the.

[B]

Best of all the original cast members.

[D]

No, Chevy's the best.

[B]

I'm sorry. There are three that I think are good. It's. It's him. It's Lamour. Morris is on fire.

[D]

He's really good.

[A]

But I just remember Dylan Dan kind of the most thankless of those parts. Just doing like good yeoman's work in.

[B]

That the one where he has to do the most of an impression and that character has no arc versus Chevy.

[A]

And G impression is a little harder for a modern audience anyway. Like that's not a guy that young Aykroyd people remember as well and all that.

[B]

I Was kind of astonished he got right in that performance is the weird swing between Ackroyd seeming like the coolest guy in the room and the lamest, right?

[A]

Yeah. No, I mean, look, the thing people loved him in was Twinless last year. My favorite movie of 2025, Marie's laughing at me.

[D]

Because you, You. You. You really didn't like that movie.

[A]

No, I didn't.

[D]

In a way that I think is interesting.

[A]

I posted a disapp dismissive review of it on Litter Box and people were not happy with me because a lot of people liked that movie.

[D]

I think he is really good in that movie.

[A]

I think he gave an excellent performance in that movie. There was another actor in the movie I had a little more trouble with. I mean, it's. It's a kind of movie I really struggle with, which is the movie where you know the lie very early, but the lie is not revealed until very late. And so you're just sitting with a movie that is spinning its wheels and.

[B]

I'm like, the Twilight Zone, probably, sure, right.

[A]

But I thought he was good in it. And again, had that feeling of like, you know, what happened here? Like, you know, why. Why is there not more Dylan? Like, you know, like Hollywood, like, take a look.

[B]

He's interesting.

[A]

And I know people love him, like, because people responded to Twin list with being like, we love Dylan. Like, you know, I think he's.

[D]

I think he's aging. Like, he's in more stuff. He's in more adult stuff. I think he's aging. Yeah, I almost, like, I think. I think I see good, good things.

[A]

This is the kind of thing he's really good, really good at.

[B]

David.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I am so excited about this episode sponsor.

[A]

Yes, me too.

[B]

Might truly be the most excited I've ever had for anything to sponsor this podcast.

[A]

Today's episode, sponsors that tell you how to, like, help your finances.

[C]

Hey, easy.

[A]

Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

[B]

Easy. Today's episode of Blank Check is brought to you by Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie.

[D]

Woo.

[A]

Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Marie's here too, because everyone's so excited.

[D]

Yeah. I love this movie. I mean, I love this band, this show, this movie.

[B]

Yes. Important correction. This film is finally coming to theaters. February 13th is the start of the theatrical rollout.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

From our friends at Neon.

[A]

Neon's bringing it out.

[B]

We have been waiting impatiently almost a year to see this film. We saw this at south by Southwest.

[D]

One of the best screenings of my life.

[B]

Truly, truly. It was an unbelievable experience. Ben, you were there.

[C]

Had A blast. And I had never seen or engaged in the show previously.

[B]

Most of the group don't really need it.

[C]

It was like 7 of the context to enjoy.

[B]

Absolutely. It's a big thing.

[D]

I think you need to know like.

[B]

What Toronto is cuz you knew nothing other than us hyping you up for.

[A]

Well, this was the problem.

[C]

Say city in Canada.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

I went in. You guys had just been like it's the best thing ever. And not just you, other people. I can't believe how good. And I was like this is so overhyped.

[B]

And here's the great thing about dating.

[A]

I'm. I'm walking in like I felt mad about it where it's just like they've, they've primed it too much.

[B]

I like that you acknowledge this because sometimes if we tell you something's good, I see you go like put your fists up.

[A]

Well, I'm just like relax because I need to. I can't go in with too much hype because that's not good for my critical experience of a movie then. And then I thought it was better than the hype.

[B]

This is the thing. This movie is truly a miracle. I think it is the funniest movie of the last 10 years easily. And listeners of the show know I am often bemoaning the state of the theatrical electrical comedy. And this is a movie that provides the thing I've been longing for, which is you go see this with a crowd, it is just electric. Every five seconds, rolling laughter. And the movie just builds and builds and builds. This is a movie from Matt Johnson. Yes, Director BlackBerry. One of my favorite movies the last couple of years. Him and Jay McCarroll started as a web series, became a TV series and now is a movie. But you don't need to know any of that. This works as a clean entry point. It's a movie about two friends who are obsessed with their band playing at one venue.

[A]

They want to play at the Rivoli.

[D]

They want to play at the Riverley.

[B]

All you need to know about these guys. Before the lights went down at the south by Southwest screening, I believe you turned to me and said, what do I need to know? And I said, all you need to know is they want to play the Riv.

[A]

They gotta play the Rivoli. I've, you know, I've been to Toronto many times. I've stayed.

[D]

Have you been to the Rivoli?

[A]

Never. I've stayed on Queen west though and I've certainly walked by the River Rivoli many times. And I Was like, oh yeah, the Riv there.

[B]

It's not Carnegie Hall.

[A]

No, it's a bar.

[B]

You never see these guys. What do you mean?

[D]

It's the most important music venue in Canada.

[B]

You never see these guys practice their music. But all you know is that every episode starts with, here's the plan, here's how we play the Rivoli, right? We got to play the Rivoli. And this movie starts from there and explodes in unbelievable ways. I think this movie is truly like a magic trick beyond just how far funny it is and for how much. It's caked in the deep lore of this Nirvana the Band the show universe that's existed for 15 years. You can just go in knowing nothing and be blown away. And for a movie that seems kind of slapdash and roughly made from the start, it starts to pull off genuine like cinematic magic tricks where you cannot believe how this thing was made.

[A]

What? That. What was my letterbox review? Griff, did you see it?

[B]

No. Please tell me.

[A]

Lol. How did they make this? Truly, that was how I.

[D]

How did this get made?

[A]

You know, I was also just like, how did they make this? I don't get it.

[B]

You don't understand how they're getting away with it legally. You don't understand how it was cleared for release. And there. There is a melding of scripted and non scripted them engaging with real people on the street where the line between what is planned and what is not boggles your brain. It was my favorite thing I saw.

[A]

All of 2025 and now it's coming out in 2026. Now listen, I do have to do some talking points.

[B]

Okay, okay, Some talking points.

[A]

Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie is in theaters February 13th. Get tickets now. We must say this. Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie. They're very clear that we have to say the title of this.

[B]

Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie. Why? It's a really simple, easy title.

[A]

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

[B]

If you trust our opinion at all. Take this recommendation. Yes. Don't look it up. Go in and I. I really, really doubt there is any chance you will be disappointed.

[C]

In theaters February 13th get your tickets now.

[A]

Nirvana the man the show the Movie.

[B]

Hey.

[A]

Ding dong.

[D]

Ding dong.

[A]

Oh my God. Hello, Creek.

[B]

Hey, how's it going?

[A]

And who are you?

[B]

Mac Black.

[A]

And what's that?

[B]

That's my name. You asked who am I? And that's my name.

[C]

What are you doing?

[B]

My name is.

[C]

What do you. What do you want?

[B]

I'm a construction worker, obviously, as you can tell from my general demeanor, temperament, and this hard hat here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm sure you've noticed the interruption, the sound. Yeah, I guess. Cameras, Some construction in the building, but I've been struggling. Yes, this construction project's not going well.

[A]

I have no idea what's going on.

[B]

I explained to you, my name is Mac Black. I'm a construction worker.

[A]

Been.

[B]

I've been working in the building.

[C]

He's winding up. He's winding up.

[A]

Literally.

[B]

I don't know what's going on in your life. I knocked on the door. I open, I'm interrupting. I don't know what's going on in your life.

[C]

You're struggling. What's going on?

[B]

This construction project's not going well.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Been trying to build a better wardrobe.

[C]

There it is.

[A]

Yeah. And so what you're referring to, of course, is the. The sort of. The furniture, the physical thing.

[B]

Incorrect. That's a weird assumption for you to make. I'm talking about pieces that work together and hold up over time.

[C]

Well, Mac, we've got news for you. Come on in. Take a seat.

[B]

I have a pair of pants, and I've been jackhammering them for months, and nothing's coming together.

[A]

We have ad copy people can't see with prompts that are a little esoteric. And one of the people who works for our show responds to those prompts in interesting ways, but nobody knows what like. It's like going to an improv show where you didn't hear what someone yelled out.

[B]

David explained. Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt. Mac doesn't know any of that. He's living his own life.

[A]

You're right. Mac is such a. He's such a thoughtfully realized character.

[B]

Thank you. I'm a construction worker, surly demeanor, hard hat, and I've been taking the jackhammer.

[C]

Short for Macintosh.

[B]

Absolutely. Macintosh. Black intosh.

[A]

That's pretty funny now.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Quince has the everyday essentials. You got to go to Quince to get a good word.

[B]

Well, that's the recommendation I've been waiting for. What took you so long?

[A]

I shut your fast. Turn his mic off. Quints has the everyday essentials I love with quality. The last Organic cotton sweaters, Polos for every occasion, lighter jackets to keep you warm in the Changing changing seasons list goes on. I love quints. I've got a nice quarter zip that I've been sporting around.

[B]

Well, well, well. You're looking pretty smart if I dare say so myself.

[A]

You know, they got obviously very, very cheap and comfortable cashmere stuff, merino stuff. A lot of good.

[C]

I got myself a cashmere scarf from Quince. It's cold in New York City. You need to bundle.

[B]

Now I'm a little bit wary. Quince sounds good, but is this one of those companies that works with bottom factories and cuts in the middlemen?

[A]

No, they're. They're top only top factories. Cutting out the middlemen. Oh, that's very clear. Yes.

[B]

That's what I was worried about.

[A]

You're not paying for brand markup. It's just quality clothing. Everything's built to hold up to daily wear and look good season after season. Okay. And let's not forget that of course, every night I sleep under a Quint comforter and Quint sheets.

[C]

So it's not just your wardrobe.

[A]

Everything. Everyday life.

[B]

Ben, can I say how much I appreciate that? I feel like you're making the effort to communicate with me. You're making eye contact, you're giving me recommendations. Can I say, unlike silver spoon Sims.

[A]

Over here, refresh your wardrobe with quint. Go to quint.com check for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U I N C E.com check. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quint.com check.

[B]

That's great news, cuz. I live in London, Ontario.

[C]

Mac, See you later, man. By the way, big fan of the.

[B]

Pot, But I just want to catch myself in saying, like, sometimes I do this. What happened? Where did this person go? And as time's gone on, I've like reflected on a little bit of like, well, I'm a person who just at a certain point went like, I don't know if I want to fucking act anymore. I wasn't walking away from a career at the level that Dylan o' Brien had, but I become like a lot more reticent to do anything. And I get now more why certain people are like my one foot in and one foot out.

[D]

Rachel McAdams and 2024.

[B]

Sure, my experience is closer to that without having anywhere near any level of success, but Dylan o' Brien has this like, huge traumatic incident and it's always felt like, is he gonna lean into it or is he gonna try to work past it or whatever this weirdly to me, feels like the one movie that kind of harnesses the innate darkness of the. The near death experience in a weird way. Not a metatextual way. I feel like he's activating something in this performance that feels like it is coming from the darkest experiences in his soul. I also think this movie is like using both his comedic and dramatic instincts in an interesting way because there's nothing Remy loves more than a self aware, handsome guy who's willing to play the idiot. The right. The cad, the blow hard. And this is going. This is a modern type of that guy that Raimi has not really had the chance to tackle yet.

[A]

Well, this is a good. So he's good at the. Obviously, you know, he's had great blowhards in the past. It's funny because. Right. Because Rachel is almost the Toby. Right? Like the kind of the sweet. Well, actually she's not sweet though, because she's. She doesn't. These are the rubies, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

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

[A]

Right, right, right.

[B]

That the movie around him treats him.

[A]

Like anytime he shows up, people are like, oh, hi Peter. Like you're here too.

[B]

And I think Raimi likes two different types of protagonists. There's Guy who the universe is treating like because he kind of deserves it.

[A]

Is Ash that. Yeah, Because Ash is kind of like a bit of an arrogant.

[B]

I think Evil Dead one Ash.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is closer to Peter Parker.

[A]

And then two and three, it's a little bit more like this. It's fun taking this guy down a peg or. Yeah, it's fun how high on himself he is. Right.

[B]

And we throw some and bring me movies usually feel like. I think I said this during our series, but like these movies about these almost biblical tests of like, don't open the book, don't open the bag. A person makes one decision that they can't undo and their life just like descends into chaos. You know, you take a bite of the apple. But then the other kind of character he likes is someone where it's sort of like they. They are the nerd getting kicked in the face with sand at the beach and the universe won't give him respect and they're fighting to try to get a little bit of respect. And sometimes that can be someone like Peter Parker who is like as close as I Think Raimi can come to portraying what he thinks is the empirical good of the universe.

[A]

That's why he was so suited to that movie.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And why I sort of. I guess the Batman take would be something completely different.

[B]

Yeah. Which he has in him.

[A]

He's got everything in him. He's got so much in him. I mean, he found a sweetness to Dr. Strange. A guy I wasn't, you know, like.

[B]

Expecting that from, like, is quality health care, good bedside manner. Literally. I. I just think the modern kind of tech bro. Finance bro. Cad is something. Because Raimi's output has slowed way down over the last 20 years. He has not yet gotten to tackle this guy. Not being 6 foot 5, you know, this guy being a little soft. There's something about Dylan o'. Brien. He's. He's a built guy, but he's also this era of leading man who they all feel kind of like perpetual 15 year olds.

[D]

He's a little Twinkie.

[A]

He's a little Twinkie. Yeah. And I think we'll always be a little boyish, which is. Which is great. Like it's. It's all. He's owning his lane very well and he works here because it just adds to his kind of like, shit kicker arrogance thing where you're just like, who do you think you are, buddy? But he thinks he's like, you know, risen to the top on merit alone or what? I don't know. Whatever.

[D]

Linda finds out she's not getting the.

[B]

Promotion, she has this bad encounter trying to make a first impression on him.

[D]

Or a second impression, and he's like, we need to like, re. We need to relocate her or replace her within the company.

[B]

A, I already promised this position to my frat buddy, Mr. Suspenders. B, she disgusts me.

[A]

Yeah. It's even if. Right. Even if he didn't have the buddy.

[B]

She smells bad. She's gross. She dresses pork and cruel.

[A]

Yeah, he plays it really well. Like, I really felt his discomfort being even near her. But then I like the little moments, like when she barges into his office to be insane. Like, you know, before the plane crash.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Where she just barges in.

[B]

I think he plays that genuine.

[A]

They both play that really well. Because her doing that, you're like, well, that's not going to work. You know, like you do. And that's that we're getting a little hint on how, you know, this woman is actually a little over the edge sometimes.

[B]

He's impressed and then he's kind of.

[A]

Like, I can't believe you did that. Right. I Guess you get to ride on the plane now, because that was something.

[B]

I might have underestimated.

[A]

You know, he's going to fuck her over. But they have her.

[D]

They have her on this business trip where she's the only one, like, doing the work for them for this big meeting they're going to have in Thailand or whatever.

[B]

And we have the scene in between where she's talking to her bird at home while prepping her lunch. And we see bookshelves just full of survival books, which at first I was like, look, if Raimi just wants to do shorthand and get us there, whatever, for whatever reason, this woman is a survival, like, prepper. But then you get to the Survivor reveal, where I was like, this is such an ingenious premise. This is the perfect way to win. Like, two images and two lines of dialogue make the audience understand there's a reason this woman's gonna survive on this island that is completely believable. As you said, someone you work with in an office who just watches this show, reads these books and is like, if I landed there, I could probably win it.

[A]

Also, it's perfect because it explains everything, as you just said. And it's a great, pathetic thing that they can make fun of her. For the final character Button of Cruelty, where they're all laughing at the video.

[D]

Audition video for Survivor, and they're laughing on.

[A]

And it means, like, when the plane crashes, you're like, tear these people apart. I want them to die.

[B]

It's the Raimi thing I love, where you're just like, he makes you eager for blood.

[C]

Yeah, it's.

[B]

It's just.

[C]

And I want to pop up really quickly in that I just. I find the way that he's captured the privilege of this type of guy.

[B]

Give me your seat.

[C]

And they're like. They're like. Since they went to private school, to college, to the workplace, they've always been told they're going to be on top, and they're not even good at their jobs. And it is actually the way that the world works. And it drives me fucking crazy.

[B]

Like, here's what happens very, very concisely within this scene. I'm not being concise in my description. The scene is concise, right? She's doing all of the fucking work, literally typing it up. She sees that they are in the corner laughing at her audition tape. Dylan o', Brien, when all the guys are preparing to sit around him to watch the tape. It was like, you're gonna use seatbelt. You, like, makes it into a masculinity. Alpha contest, right? Oh, what, you're worried the plane's gonna go down? Of course. He buckles his seatbelt. And they don't, right? She sees they're laughing. She presses, don't save on the document. Fine. You guys are fucking on your own. You see in her the kind of resolution of like, fuck it, let them fire me. I quit. Whatever. I don't want to be with these people anymore. Then the plane hits turbulence. Immediately. We're in Sam Raimi plane crash.

[A]

We are. I mean, and we've all been. I feel like we've all been rubbing our hands, being like, what are the, like, three things Sam can think of, right? That'll cause, like, we've all seen playing. We're like, he's going to have a couple cool little ideas.

[B]

He's going to have new twists on.

[A]

The, you know, carnage.

[B]

He's not gonna do his Amecus plane crash, where what strikes you is the realism of, oh. Bit by bit, like, it's gonna be. Plane is now crashing. Crazy happens. Xavier Samuels is, like, crawling towards her, demanding she give him her seat. It's not a please. It's not a save me. It is a I am above you in the totem pole. Give me your seat. She has the wherewithal to see all the silverware sliding down the aisle of the plane. Yes, yes. He's choking her for the sea. To try to kill her so he can buckle himself in. She stabs his hand with a fork. He goes flying out the side of the plane, which is now ripped open. You see his tie is still hanging, like, on the shred of jagged metal. And you assume, oh, that's the one remnant of this guy. And then the camera pans over and you're like, no, he's being choked by the tie, which is lodged into the jagged metal. He's right outside his her window, dying.

[C]

And she puts the shade down and.

[A]

It plays for laughs.

[C]

And it's like.

[A]

But it's triumphant.

[C]

And it's also so nasty.

[A]

It's what he's so good at. I mean, and he's just so good at that, like, extra detail. And he. Of course, the bore later on is when you feel it again where you're like, I thought we were done. And he's like, I have, like, one more dessert for you in this, like, kill or whatever. And you're like, whoa, right? Like, that's what he wants to get out of everyone. And he delights in it. And you got it.

[B]

Did you see the tip your cap off the cap. Did you see one of his interviews for this movie? Someone asked him about the best recipe for fake blood.

[A]

Yes, I did see that. And he immediately had a formula.

[B]

He listed it off as if it was asking Gordon Ramsay, how would you recommend I make a burger?

[A]

A good suck. A good thick mix of. Jesus, Come on.

[B]

But it was very calm. He was like, yeah, absolutely. Here you go.

[A]

Come on. A good thick mix of caramel syrup, red food coloring, a little blue to give it that unerated look, and a bit of coffee to make it dark. I don't mean to brag, but. Hello, I'm here. I know how to throw blood.

[D]

I know how to throw blood.

[B]

He knows how to throw blood.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

There you go.

[D]

That rules.

[B]

And I love that he's still like, boots on the ground in that way.

[A]

Yes. Well, you know, he was like, I was on the Evil Dead set with my friends making this movie. Right. You know, like, I've been doing this from the beginning. Mixing. Mixing bloods in my, you know, water bottles or whatever.

[B]

I'm sure we shared this story at the time, but Ben and I ran into someone who worked on the crew of Spider Man 3 at a bar when we were doing that series. And he told us about a scene where they needed smoke effects and Sam Raimi had a giant, like, tube and a grip standing at the other end of it, chain smoking and blowing the cigarettes into the tube. I remember that was the highest budgeted film in history at time of release.

[D]

And Sam Raimi violation.

[B]

But he's also like, just have a guy smoke cigarettes into a tube. That's what we need.

[A]

So the plane crashes. They land on a remote island in the Gulf of Thailand somewhere.

[C]

How did that go for you?

[A]

Oh, I don't mind it. It's fake.

[B]

This is. This couldn't be more fake.

[C]

It felt really heightened.

[A]

Yeah, that doesn't bother me because it's not a jumbo jet. I'm not going to be on a private plane.

[C]

Pj.

[A]

What was that?

[C]

Never gonna. Pj.

[A]

I don't think so.

[B]

So I'm allowed to sign out the BCPJ this weekend?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. I'm. I mean, like, I'm just. And also, it's very fake. Like, in a totally fine way.

[D]

Don't crash from turbulence.

[A]

Right. Well, I mean, like, that's. I also. I appreciate that. But, like, they're like, I don't know. There's a storm. Don't worry about it. The plane crashed.

[B]

This movie has a very consistent tone and reality from the beginning. Like, Raimi is better than anyone at just being like, here is the exact pitch this movie exists at. I'm going to introduce it to you. And I'm establishing it at a place that will allow me to execute all of the moves I want in this film without straining, you know, credibility.

[A]

Totally. And it works.

[B]

Dylan o' Brien, leg fucked up.

[A]

Right. He is essentially in beach traction.

[B]

Rachel McCowns actively saves him. Could have left him for dead.

[A]

True.

[B]

The other guys are like DOA before the plane even hits water.

[A]

Yeah. And I appreciate it. Doesn't really come up. Again, we're seeing a little sign of her ruthlessness. Her like secret ruthlessness. But it's not like she admits later, like, oh, by the way, I, you know, kind of was every man for myself. Yeah.

[B]

And yeah. He wakes up and now he. He. They're not in the office anymore.

[A]

It's Triangle of Sadness. I mean, it's like thinking about. Of course, you know, it's like, okay, now, sure, it's a completely different thing, but you know, like the same idea of like. Right. Like all of our capitalist, like, ladder shit is gone.

[D]

The hierarchy has. Has changed. And then what is it? What's the line from black.

[A]

In the. In the Sentel.

[B]

If black Adam was on this island would have gone down differently. I think this movie is kind of asking, what do men even do anymore?

[A]

Totally.

[B]

And I think it's part of like the Dylan o' Brien character being a little bit Twinkie. Right. Is that it's like, you're not having this movie be. And it could have been Chris Hemsworth as a finance bro who crashes on this island. And you got a guy who's built like an obvious.

[D]

I would see Chris Hemsworth and be like, he knows what to do.

[B]

Exactly. Exactly.

[C]

At least wants to prove his masculinity.

[A]

Older o' Brien reads like a young.

[B]

It helps that he is young.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That he is younger than her and he reads even younger than he is. And it also helps that this movie starts and you're like, I don't think this guy's ever done his own laundry. This guy does nothing. And like the world of business has become such that the actual skill any of these people have is like beyond obfuscated. You're like, could any of these guys explain to me what the business they run is? We're constantly being introduced to these like fucking 35 year old CEOs.

[C]

They're good in a room who have whatever the fuck that is.

[B]

$800 million. And then these exposes come out and they're like they didn't know what the technology was. It never existed. Or someone else made it and they could never explain it. You know. And it's like, these guys are truly just good at performing the role of being disruptors.

[D]

There was like, leaders. A really fun throwaway line maybe when he's in the office with Dennis Haysbert where it's like, we hired a consulting firm to tell us what to do. But they're a consulting firm.

[B]

Yes.

[D]

So it's like, hey, man.

[B]

It's just all.

[A]

We're all in the eternal cycle.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I. I make this joke all the time that my continued existence is proof that we have evolved past survival of the fittest. Right.

[A]

And then the minute push comes to shove, you're out.

[B]

That we've created a world coddled enough that I. I'm making it to 37. Right. When I should have been eaten by a saber tooth tiger on day two. Right. And like evolved past all these things. And then this is an extreme. Like. Like here is a guy who is an alpha male who has been the lead. The action star of other movies who you just immediately. Like, this guy doesn't know. And he's still trying to use the psychological warfare of like the. The workplace on her that he thinks while his leg is up, while he. While he is unable to stand up, he can insult her to her face. She has saved his life. He is dependent on her. And he's like, fuck you.

[A]

But here is where the movie made it. The one choice that I was. I initially was sort of bumping on, which is he's mean to her. She up and leaves. Right.

[B]

And. And he's also disgusted. I can't believe I'm here. I'm here with you. Next to your sheep.

[A]

And leaves.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Right. And. And you're like. Right. Here we go. The parodynamic has shifted. And she's being intense about it. She's gone.

[B]

She leaves him alone for like five days to teach him a lesson.

[A]

But that doesn't happen. That's a fantasy sequence.

[B]

That's a fantasy. What's.

[D]

No.

[B]

Because he gets totally sunburned.

[A]

But I. I did not.

[C]

No, I. I don't think it's five days. I think it's just one day.

[A]

Not long.

[B]

She leaves him there, though.

[D]

She does leave him.

[A]

Yeah. Does she? You see, that's what I couldn't track.

[B]

She does. She does you.

[A]

Because there's a. But there's a hard cut to her coming back.

[C]

I think he wakes up the next day, basically.

[A]

Yeah. It's like Okay, I need to rewatch.

[C]

It because of the day. It's like, it's sunsets, it's dark.

[A]

I know, I understand what happens. But then the way they hard cut to her coming back, it felt like 20 minutes had passed. And the joke was he was obsessing.

[B]

No.

[A]

So bad.

[B]

He gets immensely sunburnt. And when he wakes up in that hard cut, he is still that.

[D]

He's got like crusty stuff on his lips.

[A]

Yes. He's like, I need to watch it again, clearly. Because that was where I was just like, okay, how much am I to trust reality versus fantasy?

[B]

The joke might be that it felt like it was five days to him and it was five hours to him, but she has left him there and she has proven her point. And he begrudgingly is kind of like, I get it, I can't do this without you.

[A]

Because then, of course, right, She's. She's in charge, everything's nice. Like, no one's being mean to each other at this point.

[B]

But he still feels a little bit.

[A]

He's a little grouchy and, and he.

[B]

He hates that he's in this situation, obviously. And it feels like the most generous he will be is kind of like a concession of, I guess when we're rescued, I have to give her a promotion. Right? Like there's this kind of like, I guess I got it. Like he's still thinking about the office. Well, he.

[A]

And he has this mindset of like, this is an irritating thing that is happening to me. But we will, I assume, be picked up soon.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Right. Like a kind of like, by the way, shouldn't you just like make a bonfire or sign or something so we can get picked up fast to note.

[B]

Her on what she should be doing?

[C]

And yet she's. Mommy, she's feeding him fish and he's like, that's like such a funny moment of him, like truly like becoming like a seven year old boy again who doesn't want to eat his vegetables.

[B]

We should also mention he has a like statuesque fiance with this giant sparkling diamond engagement ring. I saw this movie in 40x. The 3D is fucking awesome. Especially for those Raimi special shots.

[A]

But like, I mean, there were shots I noticed. Yeah, because there's like a moment where she kind of like flicks her finger at the screen too. Like there were things I noticed where.

[B]

I was like, this feels like the whole boar fight.

[A]

Right?

[B]

This is a movie that even though I. I'm trying to get confirmation on. This was not shot in 3D, but was intended for 3D from the beginning by Raimi.

[A]

Is anything shot in 3D anymore, apart from Avatar? Like, does anything else use really process anymore?

[B]

I don't know. But it feels intentionally designed and was like, unbelievably well executed.

[A]

Totally.

[B]

And. And anytime the ring shows up, it's like the most 3D can push out of the screen. Like, he knows what he's doing. But this character is basically just defined by the shorthand of if you see the sparkle, the glint of the light off of her ring. But yes, he's stuck here with her. And there's this sort of like initial power dynamic imbalance thing of like, he'll kind of concede to her, then she'll do something that pushes him a step too far.

[A]

And then he'll be like, you know what? I'll make my own camp. And then you watch him fail at that. Right. You know, and as she's just sort of like.

[B]

Or he'll make a kind of barbed comment and she'll sort of call out like, you don't have the status to do that anymore.

[C]

And then each time he breaks off, he comes back and she's like, made a hat or made a backpack.

[A]

She starts.

[C]

Continued to like, thrive.

[B]

She's like, made her own moisturizer. She has like a bamboo.

[A]

What are your favorite McAdams accessory? Like nature accessories? Cuz. Yes, the. The cup with the. With her.

[D]

With Linda written on it is very.

[B]

That's the mug, but she also has the big one with the straw.

[D]

That does feel like.

[A]

Like it's like analogy.

[B]

That is. I. I want that as like movie promo swag. Like, I wish Disney had been sending those out to people. That's my favorite. The hat is really, really good.

[D]

I like that. The hat, like, it's kind of. It's just like a vi. Like it's a full visor where it's missing like the crown of the head.

[B]

Right. Like deeply woven leaves. Her backpack is great.

[D]

I love that every time they. They like make a point of serving a meal, it's like on one of those like, sushi boat things.

[B]

It's plated. It's beautifully plated seaweed. Right. Like, she starts living the kind of like bespoke luxury island resort life.

[A]

And well, obviously, you know, the twist is incoming on that front. I don't. We kind of know when she makes that discovery. Right. Because it's. It's coupled with her seeing the boat. Right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

In the flashbacks puts that those two.

[B]

Events when he's still immobile, he. She Goes off. She finds, like, a spring where she takes a show.

[A]

This is the way. Has the boar happened already? So the boar is the first moment, right, where you're like, linda's a little. Little freaky.

[B]

Yeah. She says, I think there's a boar. I'm going to go hunt. I'm going to go hunt.

[A]

She makes a spear. She hunts the board. The boar is scary and large.

[B]

The boar is.

[A]

Is more than she can handle.

[B]

It's like a full cgi, stylized, like the horror. It's like a trauma bore.

[A]

Right? It's an absurdly large.

[D]

Not dying.

[B]

No.

[A]

And. And spraying and 4 DX.

[B]

We're getting, like, snot, spittle, blood. Like they're squirting water at you to represent every single fluid. As I said to you guys, it was like William Castle. But yes, she's in this intense fight with the boar that goes on so much longer than you think. As you said, David, she, like, spears the boar, like, through its neck, and you're like, that's the end of that sequence. The boar's alive for another two minutes.

[A]

That's what I just. Right where you're. The audience is like, we're done. We're not done. Like, you know, that's. That's good Remy stuff and the eye gouging out and, you know, all that. So. And then the cut to her covered in blood, dropping the head at his, you know, feet, being like, I'm. You know, I kind of dug that.

[B]

And dropping the head viscera side facing.

[A]

Him, all over him.

[B]

It's like he's just seeing the guts of us. Of a boar neck.

[A]

But then that. You know what looked good?

[B]

What?

[A]

That bore me.

[B]

It did.

[D]

It did look good.

[B]

And he says, this is literally the best meat I've ever had. Yeah, pretty good. So, yeah. She goes to take the shower, sees a rescue boat off in the distance, and you see the panic in her eyes of, am I ready to go back yet?

[A]

This is where the movie went from a thing I was enjoying to something a little juicier. You know what I mean? Like, where I was like, good, because the whole time I'm watching the movie now, I'm basically like, all right, but what's your ending like? Is it just them getting rescued? Is it them killing each other? Is it them, like, what. You know, where I'm like, I don't love any of these endings that I'm, you know, these kind of boring endings I'm imagining.

[B]

Well, and I. I was in on the premise of the movie, but the trailer Made me think, is this movie gonna kind of be like Island Misery? Does it dissolve into which it has some of that.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But I was like, at a certain point, does the movie just become her torturing her? Which I'm not saying I.

[A]

Him to her being like, we're not. You're not allowed to leave, and I'm in charge of you.

[B]

Right. Which I probably would enjoy watching. And again, it has Raimi.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But that's not the bigger story he's telling here.

[A]

Right. So she sees a boat, you know, with, like, a Thai flag. Like a rescue boat, essentially. A potential rescue boat. I mean, that's not what it is.

[D]

But like a boat with other humans on it.

[B]

We hard cut away.

[A]

She almost goes, help you see her? And then she goes, not yet.

[D]

She goes, I'm not ready.

[B]

Yes. And we. We cut back. And all you know is that clearly she didn't get them to rescue her.

[A]

Right. And then not long after, she has a knife, like, a really nice knife, and she's like, that washed up on the shore.

[D]

And it's like, she.

[B]

You'll never. You wouldn't believe the kind of stuff that washes.

[A]

Yeah. I will say I immediately was like, all right, this is Triangle of Sadness. That there is enough. There's a.

[B]

Right.

[D]

Like, I thought there's gonna be a hotel.

[A]

Yeah. I think there's something civilized on the island.

[C]

I didn't think that at all.

[A]

I really believed it. The combo of that and then her saying to him, like, oh, and don't go to.

[D]

Don't go over there.

[A]

And we don't see.

[C]

I assumed that that was just where the boat was.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Seen.

[A]

But I was like, now she. She found.

[B]

There's the big rock X. It looks like a matte painting from Disney's Peter Pan. Like, I love all the cliff stuff. How kind of beautifully artificial it is. You know, a lot of this movie was shot in a real island. Where did they shoot this? Do we know?

[A]

Oh, good question. I think they shot it in Thailand. I will find out.

[C]

I read Thailand and Australia.

[B]

Okay. Because there are a fair deal of Australian Sydney and Thailand.

[A]

So, yes, I can.

[B]

But when they go to this cliffside, it's always like. It looks like a Johnny Wertmuller Tarzan set. And the background is, like, beautifully digital. Like, stylized, painterly. Of course not. And there's this big rock formation X that she's like, don't go past there's. She takes him on a wall.

[A]

Horny. You'll get hurt.

[B]

Leg is strong enough. And you kind of pre establish, like, this is the tough spot where someone could slip. This is. You don't go past that point. The knife definitely did raise for me. Something is up and I'm curious to see how it's going to manifest. And I'm not eager to try to guess.

[A]

I wasn't trying to guess too hard, but I certainly was like, okay. Like, there are twists built in here.

[B]

At the very least, she has a stockpile of modern devices.

[A]

Right, right. That she's sort of building up.

[D]

Yeah, they keep. So their. Their relationship continues to evolve. She kind of.

[A]

Well, she makes. The next thing is she makes the. The booze and they have the. The drunken bonfire dinner.

[B]

Well, the scene where he's. She has the full sushi spread and he basically comes to her begging, gets on his knees. You know, she's treating him like he. He's entered her corner office asking for a promotion.

[D]

And then she's like. He's like, I will do anything. And she's like, well, yeah, you're gonna have to do some favors. And he starts to like, undress himself.

[B]

Hammer pans down to his belt. He lifts his shirt up, he starts undoing it. And she goes like, please, I'm not like you. Like the immediate call out of. I don't. I would never.

[A]

I wouldn't say immediate. She's playing with him a little bit. She lets him do it for a second.

[B]

But it's part of the tension of this movie because she has the scene at the beginning where she's talking to the bird and she's like, he's coming in. And I actually met him at the holiday party.

[D]

Flirted with me.

[B]

He was pretty handsome and he flirted with me. There's a feeling of, does she want this guy to desire her?

[A]

That's a big tension in the movie.

[B]

I would say, how much is that? Her.

[D]

She looks primary. Amazing. When they're on the island, she's in her, like, her bra and underwear.

[A]

They. They each have bra, underwear.

[B]

One outfit in this movie that they are reworking in different layers and combinations.

[A]

But if I'm an actor making this movie, I would be every day putting on the same fucking clothes. I would get so annoyed that.

[B]

That. What are they called? Dying and weathering the thing you aging.

[D]

At Department of aging and Dying.

[B]

Aging and dying that you learned about at the Mission Impossible exhibit. This is like a prime example of that movie where you're like, okay, so each character has basically one outfit for 90% of the running time. And there need to be like 100.

[A]

Variations we have to be like, this is exactly 100 days, but also like.

[B]

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

[A]

Oh, it is, yeah. She's not like a, you know, mega babe at any point. She's very, like, utilitarian, and she loses.

[C]

A little bit of weight noticeably, but not like, in a crazy way.

[B]

I think a lot of it is how she's holding.

[C]

But I think her face, she gets straight.

[D]

She gets an eye island glow.

[B]

She does, she does.

[A]

She's got that little tan. She's got that.

[D]

I love that she figured out she's using those, like, coconuts for moisture. She's so moisturized.

[B]

Look. Rachel McAdams looks great. She was able to play beach waves, a teenager at 26, because she has always looked young for her age. She does not look 46 or 47 now, but she is a rare actress who you can put her on screen. And I go, that looks like a real person. At her level of career, she is extraordinarily beautiful. But I'm not watching her face move and go.

[A]

Said in my review, I mean, it's the thing with her in Spotlight where.

[D]

You'Re like, they put her in khakis, but she still looks good.

[A]

She looks good, but she doesn't look like, you know, Sydney Sweeney in Spotlight. Being like, I'm just a regular reporter from Boston where you're like, no, you're not. Like, I don't buy it.

[B]

It doesn't look like her pores have been lasered off. It doesn't look like her face has been like Brazil stretched in a thousand different directions. And it's just like a thing I miss of like, yeah, movies always star beautiful people. That's why we fucking go to the movies.

[A]

Is it not good to just see a big face?

[B]

But increasingly beautiful people are like, so you want me to not look human anymore? And it limits how many types of roles you can be believable in. And I just think she is someone who is, like, maintained throughout her career looking like a person while also being, as we have admitted, a goddamn fox.

[D]

So at this toilet wine bonfire, they.

[A]

Well, acted scene by both of them.

[B]

Yes.

[D]

She talks about the fact that she was married previously. She did not get divorced. She is a widow.

[B]

She.

[D]

She wasn't very nice to her he was not.

[B]

There's a great performance moment where she was like, I was divorced. I bet you didn't know that. Ten years.

[D]

And she said, I was married.

[A]

Not.

[B]

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

[D]

And he's like, oh, I'm so sorry. It's okay. He was. He wasn't nice to me.

[A]

I mean, you know what else she said? Had a great line reading about somebody dying.

[B]

What? Oh, no.

[A]

Oh, no, he died. It remains one of the funniest things ever committed to film. But her, oh, no, he died.

[B]

Her line is something like, I think he actually wasn't capable of love.

[A]

Yeah. No. Is she really. This monologue that she does, she would hide the key is unbelievable.

[D]

That night he. She didn't hide the keys, right?

[A]

She took the keys out of her. Out of her fucking purse when he was being insane. Just being like, you know what? Drive off. Let's see what happens.

[C]

Alludes to some kind of sexual abuse.

[A]

I think, just bad. Something bad.

[C]

Like he crossed the line, right?

[B]

He did something even worse than he's. Than he already had been up until that point.

[D]

It just.

[B]

It is. I think it is a deceptively complex scene, both in terms of performance and in writing. It communicates a lot of complicated, murky ideas and sort of like contrasts. And it eludes things in an interesting way where you're coming out of that scene feeling like Dylan o', Brien, not sure what to make of this woman anymore. You know, Are you impressed that she's got more grit in her than you thought? Are you a little scared? Because this feels like the soft pedaling story of something that she did that was perhaps even more right.

[A]

You are trying to parse, like, is she almost right?

[B]

Does it make her more tragic? Like, what is the. Yeah.

[C]

She hasn't ever said it to anyone before. She's been holding it in.

[A]

She's on an island baby.

[C]

All of a sudden, like some new part of her is coming out. And.

[B]

And he admits that he was physically assaulted. Abused ritually as a child by his mother who had anger issues.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Who had a bad father. You know, don't feel bad for me. It's a cycle of abuse thing. And he says this, she says this. You know, monsters aren't born. They're made. And he starts laughing of like, I am a monster. You fucking kind of got me there. It feels like the first moment that this guy is completely surrendering his, like, young master of the universe act and being like, yeah, that. That whole fucking Persona sucks, right? I guess I am kind of like a psychopath. And this moment of true bonding for them.

[A]

Yes. Yeah, for sure. It's their nice moment. But then he follows it up, of course, by being like, okay, well, let me make you dinner. And then, like. And I do think it's really funny, you know, he poisons her. She starts collapsing, and he goes, fuck you, Linda. And gets this shitty raft out.

[D]

Oh, God.

[A]

And tries to flee.

[B]

He also says that their camp washed away and they'd have to build a new camp together. And she's like, I guess it was stupid of me to put it so close to the water.

[D]

There's that moment where they have to, like, undress and, like, hold each other for body.

[B]

He. But their raft. His raft is made out of their camp. It includes her mug with her name on it. Like, he's taking things vindictively. Stuff he doesn't need for the structure of the raft. Just to be like, you. I left you there without your stupid mug.

[A]

I just think you. Linda is really funny.

[B]

He's just immediately hit by the biggest wave.

[A]

Can't make it over the bar.

[D]

But it. It is. You know, it's. You think from her perspective, she is, like, opening up to him and, like, does. Does start to develop, like, a feelings for him. And then you think that maybe he is too.

[B]

And then it's like he undresses.

[C]

At one point, she's, like, kind of oogling him.

[D]

Yeah, we see his butt.

[B]

And she's like, but this is the greatest moment moment. The greatest moment. My goodness, it is the greatest Raimi moment in the movie. And it's. It's the moment where I'm just like, oh, God, Sam, I've missed you so much. I am so happy you are back. He's drowning in the effects of this wave. She's been poisoned. She's lying on the beach. I'm genuinely doing the math of how does he survive this? He sees a projection of his fiance coming to him in the water to save him. And then she starts puking on him. And we cut to reality, and McAdams has, like, sort of, like, come to her senses just enough while poisoned to go into the water and rescue him, but she cannot stop vomiting, and she is performing CPR on him, trying to save his life. And every 20 seconds, she, like, Exorcist style projectile vomits right into his face again.

[D]

This movie is really great to see in a full theater because my theater was shrieking. Yeah, Roaster.

[C]

Like this.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

It's also like. Like, she does it once and he's still not awake. And you're like, it's gonna keep happening. I know.

[A]

It's canonical that she is barfing every 20 seconds.

[B]

He's gonna do it eight times. And he's coming to, and with half wherewithal, he's like, what's this on my face? And then she vomits again. He's still not conscious to be able to sit up. And you see him go, like, she's gonna keep vomiting, isn't she?

[A]

He gave her the poison berries. I mean, he was asking for it.

[B]

And she just calls out like. Like, you idiot. That's not enough to, like, kill me.

[A]

Right, right, right.

[C]

It's such a childish, insane thing, because also he could just be like, I want to leave. And she probably would have helped him build the raft properly.

[B]

But a guy like this doesn't want to give someone like her any power over him. And that's conceding that he needs her, let alone that he respects her, is more power than he's willing to give. And he. And he once again resents. I'm stuck on an island with a woman with shitty shoes. How is this my fucking life? They keep going back to the shoes. You know, him waking up, he's wandering.

[A]

She's got her, like, trusty shoes or orthopedic.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[C]

There's something about his giant Rolex you keep. He never takes it off.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, it's like it matters.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

The Rolex thing always gets to me because they're all, like, supposed to be for, like, deep sea diving.

[B]

Right, Right. They have all these features that these types of guys are never gonna use it. It's crazy. Yeah, it's. It's so funny. But he wakes up, he's like, we. We cut to him in the morning, like, crying to her in an apology.

[A]

Yes, yes, he is. He's defeated at this point. I mean, he. He. He played his hand and he lost. Like, he came at the king and he missed.

[B]

You're tight on his face, I should say. And I thought, oh, Remy's gonna pull back and reveal that he's, like, tied up. Right. Instead, he's free. He's just sitting on the beach, and he's like a shell of a man. And she's very calmly, like, fucking Idiot. I can't believe you did this to me. You didn't even do it well enough. You know, I had to save your ass again. Just don't fucking do that again. We're not in the office anymore. This shit doesn't fucking matter, right? Like, just treating him like a dumb little baby, but, like, I'm not going to sink to your level. And then hands him a kebab of, like, little squid and vegetables. And you're like, oh. She's like, choosing to respond.

[A]

Oh. I was like, don't eat the squid.

[D]

I was like, oh, that looks really good.

[A]

Well, I do love a squid.

[D]

I love grilled.

[A]

In that moment, I would not be accepting food from her that I hadn't really inspected. You know what I mean?

[B]

It's part of this guy being such a fucking donkey.

[A]

I thought that he would eat the.

[D]

I would. I would have eaten the.

[B]

This.

[D]

I would have.

[B]

He takes the one by Dylan Brand, starts doing a lot of face acting. And she's like, yeah, there's like a toxin in there. It's a numbness. You're not gonna feel pain. You're incapacitated for the next, like, whatever minutes, which is good because you're not going to want to feel this. And she takes out her knife and promises to castrate him.

[A]

She's gonna.

[D]

I thought she was gonna do it.

[A]

Yeah, so you bought, like, when the blood spurted because she. She cuts a mouse rat's head off or whatever.

[B]

You think it's a psychological, like, just a mind trick thing. And then you hear the sound effects of the knife clearly cutting into flesh and gooey shit and blood spurting.

[C]

She's like, oh, we got a bleeder.

[D]

And then it cuts to his face and it's like tears are streaming. He, like, can't. He's contorting, but he can't. Really great moment show any reaction.

[B]

He's like Nikki and Paulo style frozen. And all he can communicate with is his eyes without flexing any muscles.

[A]

I do not say this to besmirch Sam Raimi, because I know Sam Raimi is a dang ass freak. I was like, no, we. There is no dick cutting allowed in this.

[D]

David Salinas husband also. Yeah. Was like.

[A]

Because I lose the audience and it's.

[D]

Worming in my seat. He's like, she's not gonna cut it.

[B]

I felt the same way, but I also was like, it feels like he's going there. I thought he was gonna bail out on this 30 seconds ago. I. I agree with you going this.

[A]

Far, but it was. It's the same to me as the. The classic thing from Misery of. In the book, she saws his legs off. And in the movie, obviously, she just breaks his legs with a hammer.

[B]

Yeah. Much nicer.

[A]

William Goldman wrote the script and wrote in the sawing. And Reiner, rest in peace. The great Rob Reiner was like, oh, she can't do that. And Goldman, it's in his book. It was like, you're fucking with this great book that I, you know, I'm adapting in this great script that I wrote. How dare you.

[B]

The audience won't.

[A]

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

[B]

Yes. McAdams lifts up a rat. She.

[A]

She beheaded a rat to freak him out.

[B]

Yeah, she, like, gutted it. I'm trying to remember the exact order of events, but then I feel like there's a section of the movie where it actually feels like they have both been leveled off. That for a brief section, it's like they're actually working together. And the, like, power games have maybe been wiped off the board.

[D]

And. And she takes a walk.

[B]

She takes a little walk. And what does she see off in the horizon?

[D]

She sees another. Well, she sees the glint of a large diamond ring.

[B]

It's my favorite shit in the world. If a movie can just establish a little bit of visual language so cleanly at the beginning that you can, like, communicate through a lens flare a plot point. An hour later, right. The audience sees Clint, and everyone knows what's happening.

[A]

You're right. He made that. That visual clear to us. Who plays the fiance?

[D]

She doesn't have a Wikipedia.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Adil Ismail is her name.

[D]

Yeah, she said that she's gorgeous.

[A]

She's Australian.

[D]

They'd called the search and rescue operation off, but she never lost hope. So she independently funded her own little boat.

[A]

Right. And she's got this kind of, like, Thai guide who's clearly helping her.

[D]

Are you on his Wikipedia right now?

[B]

His Wikipedia is incredible.

[A]

So his name is.

[D]

And I, you know, Hanneth Warakulnukro.

[B]

He's like, a Thai music legend.

[D]

He's a veteran. This is what Wikipedia says. He is a veteran Thai singer, songwriter, record producer, dj, and actor. He was also a founder and owner of Music Bugs Company, a record label through which many Thai bands, including Body Slam Big Ass La Banoon and Friday released their first album. Do we have to start getting into the Thai rock band Big Ass?

[B]

Ben does.

[C]

I'm interested.

[A]

I, I would, I, I would throw on a Big Ass record maybe. Why not? Let's see what some of their records are called. Not bad. XL My World. Yeah, let's do it.

[D]

Origins of the name. This is a section on their Wikipedia. The name of your band is. It's a direct quote from student weekly publication. The name of your band is A Bit naughty. How did you come up with the name Big Ass? Dax? The guy, the lead singer, I guess his name is Dax. Actually, when we were students, we used so many different names to book studio time that the owner would get confused if we were the same band. So we wanted to find a unique name to represent our band.

[A]

Thank you, Big Ass.

[D]

And we didn't want just a normal ass, so we named the band Big Ass.

[A]

Now did you guys think she was going to kill these people?

[B]

Yes, I thought immediately. Basically she has to. The movie has put her in a position where there's getting near the end.

[A]

Of the movie and I'm. I'm beginning to wonder. There's no other choice.

[D]

This is a really good companion with no other choice, by the way.

[A]

I mean, sort of corporate satires, different.

[B]

Flavors these movies are. There's. There's a lot of glib, kind of eat the rich cinema made by very wealthy people and big studios. Right. Very successful people that feels like it is trying to respond to a moment but doing so in a facile way. I think we've been a little plagued with that for the last like eight or nine years. Where I'm like, I agree with the sentiment, but it almost feels like a movie arguing, hey, I'm one of the good ones.

[C]

I'm cool.

[B]

Right? I get it. I hate the rich people too. I'm only worth $50 million, not 500 billion. These movies feel like no other choice. And Send Help are like actually kind of anthropologically pulling apart heart. What is the rot?

[A]

Right? Right. Yes.

[B]

Like how is the whole culture fed to this moment? And these empowered these people and all of that. Zurich just immediately clocks her. Like Linda remembers her name, obviously. I'm sure she's been hearing the news.

[A]

She's nice.

[B]

I'm so happy you made it.

[D]

Happy to see.

[B]

Right?

[A]

It's like because they don't automatically know who survived. I mean, maybe they've recovered bodies, but probably not if they.

[B]

Yeah, but that's what's so great about this moment. Is McAdams is like. Like, when she sees a boat, then she sees the glint. This is twice as bad.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Then Zuri's happy to see her. And McAdams is kind of going into like, oh, no, he died mode, where you see her doing the math on, I don't know if there's any way out of this other than to kill them.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And I don't want to have to do it. And the nicer they are, the worse it gets. And the. And Mr. Body Slam, Mr. Bugs. Music is like, why are you still picking up that fruit? We got tons of fruit on the boat. You don't need to do this. And she's like, well, I just. I like finishing a task. And he's like, like, leave your backpack there. Who gives a. You're being rescued. And she just immediately swings to, yeah, no, I'll take. He's actually. He's not here. He's this other way. It's a bit of a hike. I'll bring you over to him. And takes them over to the cliff where Dylan o' Brien almost fell to his death. And you basically.

[C]

She almost fell.

[B]

Oh, yes. And he saved her. Sorry.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But it takes him to the spot. Pretend she has to tie her shoe. Lets them sort of fall. You see her not saving them, and then it hard cuts to her just.

[A]

Walking back, but you kind of know, and she just.

[B]

They're not there.

[A]

Something up happens.

[D]

Yeah. She looks, like, so traumatized.

[A]

Well, she takes a day off, right?

[D]

She takes a sick day. I'm taking a sick day.

[A]

I'm done. Yeah.

[B]

Not doing this camp shit.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But at this point, like, everything is broken. Like, obviously the two of them can't trust each other anymore. She's a heartless murderer. And it's sort of like I am starting to feel. I'm like, what does Linda want? Right? Like, in this, like, you know, now what Linda achieves is everything. And I really liked that Ben's pointing because I was kind. I was sort of starting to be like, I don't. Like. I wonder how, like, she can even kind of get out of this.

[B]

It's actually the only way for this movie to end. And I applaud this film for the courage to run straight towards it.

[A]

And it's sort of the drag me to hell thing of, like, this is actually about all kinds of reprehension. Sensible people, because drag me to hell. You're like, well, my hero is Allison Lohman. And then as you watch the movie, you're like, but she also kind of deserves what's happening. She's not entirely sympathetic. That's interesting.

[B]

That's the whole brilliance of that movie to me.

[A]

And it's sort of the same with Linda where I'm like, Linda is sympathetic and I'm like, But she's also somewhat monstrous and she's in search of what, what does she want? Like, I understand that she wants to be the alpha with him, but what is her longer term goal when someone shows up to rescue her? You know what I mean?

[D]

She like has always wanted to go on Survivor. I feel like she's done that. She's really just enjoying island life.

[C]

I think she's thriving for maybe the first thing.

[A]

She just knows if I get on that boat, I, you know, it's all over than that.

[B]

Right.

[C]

I'm back to my Kathy ass life.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Worried about her bird, who's checking on her bird.

[B]

And the, the bird's called dog Sweetie. Right.

[A]

Because is someone feeding the bird? I did have the thought of like.

[C]

I hope someone she's taking care of Sweetie. I'm, I'm certain.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I think what she wants ultimately is to feel like she has value. I think Linda's character struggles is she cannot figure out the pathway to that feeling. Right. She certainly knows I do all this work at this company and I lived for years off of the kind of quiet acknowledgment of, hey, this whole place would fall apart if it wasn't for you. Linda, even if she's not paid, commiserate to that, even if she's not given the respect and the status within the office, she'll, she'll eat and survive off the crumbs that presumably Bruce Campbell gave her. And Survivor is, man, if I could be on camera showing people how pragmatic I am, I can do things, I can start a fire, I keep this together. She wants some sort of sense of like permanent acknowledgment of having value. But she also doesn't want to fucking play the games that everyone plays. She's not really those on her forte. She's down to do Survivor, which is literally a game. Right. But she doesn't want to play these games and dress up and do the things to try to like make the relationships. She wants to just believe you can keep your head down and you can do the thing and you can get there. And when Dylan o' Brien is handed the company, it forces her immediately basically to start to re examine like those actually aren't the rules of the universe anymore. The people who get power, right? They. They seize it in a hostile manner and they do anything they can to protect it. And I think without making too much of a political statement, a thing that I think this movie is getting at that I find interesting is like the. The hell of the last decade of, like, the girl boss era that went down in flames is there was this feeling of is progress letting women be as awful as the men who used to run companies. Right. That you had all these companies where it was like, here's the new CEO and she's cool and she does things differently, and it's a different workplace culture. And anytime one of these companies started getting applauded, you were like, T minus 18 months till expose of this person being a maniac. And you're like, there is a system set up.

[A]

Women can be maniac.

[B]

Totally. Where it was like, the way to succeed.

[D]

Nothing.

[B]

I'm sorry, Woman can be maniac. This system of is. Is success and power replicating the same broken shit that you used to be the victim of.

[D]

Sorry, this. I stopped thinking about women and I'm just thinking about Blank Check Productions, and I'm just thinking about, like, who would. I'm just imagining jj, like, getting revenge on you guys for firing him all the time.

[A]

He doesn't have the guts, and I encourage him to try.

[B]

I will say JJ's daughter has been promising to give us what for.

[A]

Oh, is that right?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So it's going to be like a Kill Build two scenario or whatever.

[B]

JJ has communicated to us three that his young daughter has caught wind of the frequent public firings her father is subjected to, and she feels the need to stand up for his honor.

[A]

I feel really bad.

[D]

Yeah, that's actually really sad.

[A]

That bums me out.

[D]

Does she really?

[A]

I'm canceling the JJ fired bit and canceling it. No. Bums me out in a bit way.

[B]

Like, hands on hips. Like, I'm gonna give these guys a piece.

[D]

Homeless. And like, I'm like.

[C]

And we're also. We're gonna be on his home turf.

[B]

This is the thing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Marie, Ben and I are going to visit it.

[D]

We're going to visit jj.

[A]

All right.

[B]

I'm just saying he's on guard. His daughter's gonna give us a little, I think, wag the finger.

[D]

Well, I'm gonna. I'm gonna let her, you know, I hope she knows that I. I am like, jj, we are both employees of Scary bosses promoting you. David, I've never been a girl boss.

[B]

The bosses suck.

[D]

Yeah, bosses suck. Sorry. I mean, I love you guys, I'm not a boss. You're my boss.

[A]

Jesus.

[D]

You signed my check.

[A]

I mean, I don't physically sign a check. That'd be very old fashioned. I approve a. I want everyone to.

[D]

Think that like every month you are.

[A]

Just handing me giant like Ed McMahon green visor. And I'm like, you know, balancing the books. What were those about the green visors?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I think it's because the lights were quite intense and overhead, you know. Sure. Yeah. I'm not. I'm not totally sure.

[B]

I will admit I think Linda is doing quick math that isn't just I can't go back to my previous life. It's also recognizing the guys who succeed and run the world back on mainland are the people who aren't afraid to do things like this. And very often it's not literally sending someone to their death. But also, all those guys on the plane were ready to let her die.

[A]

No, totally. I think, look what I was bumping on when I before I saw the ending movie. Because I am like, how's this gonna end? Is I was like, this better not be. She wants to be with him. Right?

[B]

Which the movie Wrong foots you.

[A]

Right, Right. That's the fear is that she's like, no, no, only I can sit. Because I'm like, if I'm her. I'm kind of like, honestly, Bradley is a pain in the ass.

[D]

I would have killed him right away.

[A]

Tried to poison me. He sucks. He's not very nice. Like, maybe it is time for at least him to get rescued. You know what I mean?

[B]

There's also a running bit in this movie as referenced in the tagline that he keeps calling her little Linda from accounting.

[A]

Yes. And she's like a strategy planning.

[B]

Right. You're the boss and you don't even know. You know, he. When he's trying to lay her off at the beginning of the movie or tell her that she's not going to get the promotion, he's like, look, I've just. I poured over your resume. I've looked at everything. We're just trying to find the redundancies and weaknesses in this company. And he reveals that he doesn't even know what she does now. Which is the ultimate.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Offense.

[A]

He does. Right? He's not thinking about anything except he doesn't want to deal with her anymore.

[B]

But like symphonic last 15 or 20 minutes of this movie, he. He takes a walk on her sick day.

[A]

When does she have the fantasy of the beach zombie? Because that rocks. Because like I do. Like she Is not a psycho. She is very guilty that she killed people.

[D]

It's during her sick day.

[A]

It's when she imagines like finding the corpse and then, you know the Raimi thing where you're like, oh, is it going to be a corpse? And he's like, no, it's not a corpse. And then she like pops up behind.

[D]

Heard, heard, like crawling out of the water a lot. And then it cuts to zombie.

[A]

Why did you kill me?

[D]

Guy sitting in front of me at the theater was like, oh, hell no.

[A]

Oh, hell no indeed.

[B]

Next day, Dylan o' Brien takes a walk. Sees the hand perfectly posed, coming out of the sand.

[D]

So fun.

[A]

Great image.

[B]

Diamond first, so funny.

[A]

No denying it. Now, like he can just put it all together.

[B]

It's all out on the table. And they basically start. Start a they live style fight.

[A]

Yep, yep. In like multiple locales. Yeah, right. You know, on the beach, then in the jungle, then at the revealed to.

[D]

Be luxury, not only does he discover his fiance's hand sticking out of sand, he discovers that there is a modernist mansion on the island.

[B]

No, doesn't that happen next?

[A]

It happens. Well, that happens during the fight. Yes, yes.

[B]

Well, right. I mean the first stage is just like knock down, drag out fight. Ripping pieces of her scalp out. He like sticks.

[D]

Oh, right. And then he. That was nasty when he took the scalp off.

[A]

Really impressive.

[B]

And he like tries to drown her in the mud.

[D]

You're right.

[B]

By the end of this sequence, her face is like half caked in mud. The other side of her face is like, has blood, tears. Like they've been like stabbing each other. Right. He took the knife when she was sleeping. You're sort of like, is this gonna end with one of them dying? Is this the final fight to prove who's the victor? And they both run off and he runs after her and finds the mansion that there's like an incredible tropical paradise. Like, no, it's more.

[C]

He's running away from her towards the part of the island that she always warned him against. And then that's the reveal.

[B]

He thinks he's like discovering something gets in there. It's just empty, but it's like well maintained. Looks through the cutlery. All the knives are missing. All the other cutlery has the same style as the knife she's been using the whole movie. There's all this incredible fruit that she's been preparing. You immediately see like the pieces that she's been bringing back to base camp and using to be like, I'm just handy, I'm crafty. I know how to survive. Right? And then you hear her voice over the intercom. She's been on top of this house for however long it's been that. They've been here months.

[A]

It's a little unclear, but a while.

[B]

But, like, she's been showering. This has been her paradise. She's rigged up this toilet. She's been using a real toilet. She's been getting real sleep, presumably at certain times in a real bed.

[C]

Like all this fucking air, fucking conditioning.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right.

[B]

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

[C]

It's so sleazy. I don't believe him for a second.

[A]

I didn't either. I do think the movie wants you to. To maybe fall for it for a second.

[B]

I don't know. I. I think what the movie succeeds in doing is pushing the scene in a way Raimi loves to do so far past the point that you expect that you start to go, am I wrong? Am I supposed to take this serious?

[A]

It's right. It's a minute longer. And so you do start to get fooled.

[B]

Whether or not I'm buying it. Does the movie want me to buy it? Is it actually is the movie Failing to sell me on this.

[A]

He just has his. He has the. The statue horn behind his back.

[B]

Right? And she's been holding him at gunpoint with a shotgun the whole time. He used it to attack her. Gets the shotgun, is ready to shoot in her face. You're so fucking stupid. I can't think. I can't believe you ever thought this shotgun empty. I can't believe I was beaten by Linda the accountant. Strategies and planning the whole thing. She fucking. She was 87 steps ahead of him.

[D]

Strategy and planning.

[B]

She. That's how she beat him.

[C]

Then she golf clubs his ass to death.

[B]

The thing that she doesn't do, he wants to. Wants a VP who can golf. Who can golf. And she kills his ass with a golf club. Ben, what do we hard cut to?

[C]

She's at a golf tournament.

[B]

A celebrity golf tournament.

[A]

Yes. And even though the famous CEO her survived or whatever, it looks completely different.

[C]

It looks so bright and cheery now.

[D]

She's got an amazing voluminous ponytail.

[B]

Yep. Tight gray pony golf like as Craig Zoller would be jealous. And yes, she's on tv. She's a celebrity. Yep.

[C]

She's being interviewed.

[D]

America loves her.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. She's the great story.

[C]

It's been maybe a year and then since that time, yeah, she's made the rounds, going on daytime TV shows. She has a book out. She's just like beloved now and put a damn smile on my face.

[B]

I remember what her final line is. She says to this interviewer, yeah, well, she wants.

[D]

She's going to start writing a send help book.

[B]

Oh, yes, right. You can't ask self help book.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

You can't wait for someone else to help you. You got to help yourself.

[D]

Yeah. You have to say, no one's going to come and save. You're going to have to save yourself.

[C]

And even though she did some really fucked up shit and at times I was like, not necessarily on Linda's side in the end, the people, the other characters in this world are so despicable. It's just a reminder of how unfair the world is. You love to see someone like Linda have everything work out. And then she drives us into the sunset in a convertible with Sweetie in the car riding shotgun.

[B]

What does he do?

[C]

Oh, she puts on like 80s. I forget what it is one way or another.

[B]

It opens with the blondie.

[D]

It ends with, look. She's looking at the camera and she's.

[C]

Like, I did it.

[D]

I did it.

[B]

David.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Let me put this into a language that you'd understand because you don't wear glasses.

[A]

No, I don't. No. Sometimes a sunglass, never an eyeglass.

[B]

Some big, strong, tall guy with perfect vision. 2015, baby, listen. Some of us used to have to engage in experience that was like the worst of the slow cinema. Trying to pick out a new pair of glasses. It was an impossible, tedious process. That made you ask, Is there a point to this?

[A]

Yeah, it does sound quite irritating.

[B]

But since I made the switch to Warby Parker, a big switch in my life that has changed the last decade of my life, I've become basically a Warby Parker absolutist.

[A]

And you probably lose a pair of glasses every other week.

[B]

That's not true. That's actually not true.

[A]

Okay, I'm so sorry.

[B]

I usually find them after a while, but the experience. Yes. Of picking out new glasses with Warby Park. It's just like a quibi or two, it seems. Do you understand how I converted this to your language?

[A]

Yeah. And it costs a micro black hat. Oh, my God.

[B]

Ella McKay actually might be the new black hat. Glasses shopping. Used to be. And Ben can back me up on this. Yes. So complicated. Complicated and overpriced.

[A]

Over.

[B]

Complicated and overpriced. I'm trying to buy glasses. I don't want to feel like I need a spreadsheet to understand what's going on. Spreadsheets are what we use for this podcast, not glasses shopping. But at Warby Parker, they have their specialists there. It's so easy to try on pairs, to browse the website, do virtual try on to see how they look on your face, which I love.

[A]

Love that you take a little pic and then you. It shows you what it looks like on the face.

[B]

Live time, live tracking. It's like seeing the piece of furniture.

[A]

In your room, right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And glasses are the furniture of the face.

[B]

They are. They're the windows of the face. Because the eyes are the windows to the soul.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

Soul. So that's like. All right, drapes on the window.

[A]

What are you wearing right now?

[B]

What am I wearing right now? The toddy.

[A]

Oh, yes. Okay.

[B]

And dare I say it?

[A]

They're hot.

[B]

They're pretty. You're not supposed to take it out of my mouth. This is my. That was my line that I was teeing. I teed it up, and then you stepped in front of you, all bat tortoise shell. Perhaps.

[A]

I. I've never worn prescription Morby Parkers. I have worn many a sunglass, though, and they do have nice sunglasses. I always get compliments.

[B]

Well, well, well.

[A]

They are always.

[B]

I'm not gonna give you one now. You're not wearing them.

[D]

No.

[A]

I would be a little obnoxious to wear sunglasses indoors. You can always tell. They're really well made. They're solid. They don't just, like, fall apart on you.

[B]

No. And they're also. These prescription classes start at $95, so if they were to break a thing I have not experienced often, or you were to lose them, a thing that doesn't happen to me that often. It doesn't feel like you're putting yourself into jeopardy.

[A]

I also want to point out every pair of pair that Warby Parker sells, they also give a pair to someone in need. They've distributed over 20 million pairs of glasses to people in need through its Buyer give a pair program. And they're on most insurance plans, so if you're eligible for that, they'll automatically apply the insurance plan to you.

[B]

They have so many locations, and they're not just about glasses. They got contacts. They got online eye Exams in person. Eye exams. Look.

[A]

Warby Parker gives you quality and better looking prescription eyewear at a fraction of the going price. Our listeners get 15% plus free shipping when they buy two or more pairs of prescription glasses at warbyparker.com check. That's 15% off when you buy two pairs of glasses at w a r b y parker.com check. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Please. She did do it. And I think audiences will walk out happy about.

[B]

There's another winter storm coming this weekend. However, the next two weekends are really bleak in the theatrical marketplace.

[A]

I think the winter storm that's coming this weekend looks like it's not gonna actually be too bad. Okay.

[D]

It better not be.

[A]

I got scheduled. Yes.

[B]

So yeah, they're projecting this around 15. I think the closer it gets to 20, the happier they are. If it's above 20, this movie scene is like a total success. I also think our buddy over 20 would be great.

[A]

I think 15 they'll be. They'll be fine. Hopefully it does not have the bone temple kind of under 15, which is annoying.

[B]

A major bummer. Our buddy Sean Fantasy, who, you know, has the burden of hosting a twice weekly topical movie podcast, was spiraling out to us over what do I even talk about, guys, help me. What do I build episodes around? The next two weeks are bad.

[D]

I mean, they still have years left to draft from, don't they?

[A]

I mean, they could start dipping into the 70s and 60s or whatever.

[B]

Some of those years we've called dibs.

[A]

Marked one of those years, but I.

[B]

Year marked more like this movie is in a position with good word of mouth to hang in there for a couple weeks. It's opening against Iron Lung, which is a very bizarre modern phenomenon in theatrical movie going. A self financed, self produced YouTuber adaptation of an independent video game that is now coming out on like 3000 screens because of like a call in campaign of people demanding their local chains play it. And it already has $7 million in pre sales.

[A]

I thought you were talking about Melania for a second. Which I'm running a calling very similar story stories. Right.

[D]

Are you gonna have to see it?

[A]

No. Luckily Sophie, my colleague drew that, drew that a little. But I did have to watch the Pete Davidson podcast. Okay. So we all have our burden.

[B]

Oh, they made you watch that?

[A]

It was for work. I didn't watch it for fun.

[B]

The important clarification, this whole time I've just thought I was working With a maniac.

[A]

Oh, no, no. I, I, I thought you did that for fun. No, I had the great experience though of firing it up, being like, gosh, I guess I have to wash it. And then seeing that it was 36 minutes and being like, well, at least I'll clear this quick.

[B]

They had the Melania bucket at the Regal when I went last night and I have to say, wait, there's really.

[A]

I thought that was a joke.

[D]

No, there's really a Milania bucket.

[A]

Is it like her hat or something? Like, what would you.

[D]

It's just a bucket with a picture of Melania on it.

[B]

The worst bucket I've ever seen. It is a bucket that just on one side has her in the chair and the other side has like Melania 20 days to history. Unfilm to Brett Ratner or whatever. But structurally it is like, it has less physical integrity than a solo cup. It is the smallest bucket I have ever seen.

[D]

Oh, so you like, you touched it, you felt it.

[B]

It's flimsy. It's like a ripoff. It gives you less popcorn than a large bag would give you.

[D]

Wow, that actually makes sense because I.

[A]

Was going to say this all feels thematic.

[B]

Yeah. Almost always the bucket is an upcharge from getting like the Regal, you know, or whatever. Super sized paper bucket.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Plus plastic. This gives you less popcorn than that. Anyway. Yes, Melania, Iron lung.

[C]

I'm sorry to report that Iron lung. I just looked up the synopsis and it looks just fucking stupid enough that I actually might have to.

[D]

There's like they're on a moon, but there's like a blood ocean.

[C]

Convict is on a moon in a blood ocean, driving a submarine.

[A]

I want to see Iron Lung. Here's my only thing I'm bumping on.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Runtime, 127 minutes.

[B]

How long is send hell help?

[A]

It's about 110 minutes. Okay. Like, right. It's under two hours. It's 113 minutes.

[B]

Okay. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, weird, weird. January. I mean, I'm just like send help and Bone Temple alone.

[A]

I've, I've seen. Yeah, you're right.

[B]

Is this the best dump uary ever?

[A]

It's a strong dump uary.

[B]

These aren't like great movies that a studio was afraid of.

[A]

Nirvana, the Band, the Show, and February and a great Verbinski movie. You have Wuthering Heights, which I'm seeing next week. And I, yes, confess. I'm excited.

[B]

I'm a little excited. Like, just for my better judgment, I'm a little excited.

[A]

Just give Me some fun.

[B]

There's some good stuff happening. And Send Help and Bone Temple. Both are deeply January movies.

[A]

Sean ignored me, but I was like, I think it's time for you to blow the whistle.

[B]

He's got to blow the whistle.

[A]

There's a horror movie called Whistle about like, there's a whistle you shouldn't blow.

[C]

I'm in.

[A]

Now, I've heard that it's the worst horror movie ever made or from a random tweet that I saw, but I'm just kind of like. I love the idea of, like, what's that haunted whistle? What happens if you blow up bad things? It's like, kind of want to blow it.

[B]

David.

[A]

What?

[B]

But this movie is also a ripoff of. I'm going to accuse it of plagiarism. We all remember that in the motion picture Ghostbusters Colon, Afterlife, our favorite character podcast has an Aztec death whistle that looks like a skull that he wears on his belt that he says never to blow because it would conjure spirits.

[D]

We all know this.

[B]

And of course, that movie, Tight as a Drum Obeying Chekhov's law, never has a character blow the whistle. That is the only time it is acknowledged.

[A]

I must say, I forgot about that.

[B]

But it does feel like someone went, why wouldn't this movie blow the whistle? Let's make a whole movie out of the whistle.

[A]

Whistle.

[B]

Whistle. I'm hoping this movie does well.

[A]

I hope it does solid.

[B]

It holds well, but it's got a low bar to clear for success.

[D]

My co workers are all very interested. They asked. They asked me to report if it was, like, you know, scary. And I was like, I really. It's not scary. It's more. I think it's more of a comedy than it is.

[A]

It's not scary, but it has jumps and gore. So if those are things you bump, there's like one.

[D]

There's like one jump.

[A]

Yeah, there's not. Yeah, you're right.

[D]

There's really just a couple.

[B]

So much fun.

[A]

It's a lot of fun.

[B]

It's a pleaser.

[A]

You'll walk out feeling people.

[D]

My audience clapped at the end.

[B]

It's so good. And, you know, we were. David, you and I were doing a little Monday morning quarterbacking on the Bone Temple box office. And it really feels like it is just a statement about people not really liking 28 years later stupid people.

[A]

I do think, right, it's a bit of a hangover from that movie confounding people a little bit.

[B]

But the movie is so good and everyone who sees it likes it so much that I think there was the hope that the word of mouth would kind of help boost it past its underwhelming opening day, opening weekend. And it's just really like a complete two years from now, if not less. People are going to discover this on Netflix and go, like, oh, this fucking rules. And we're going to just be angry that everyone was late to the party at the time where they could have voted with their dollars. Send help has less pressure on it.

[D]

It's a lower budget, it's getting good reviews. I think. Think it'll find an audience. I hope it finds an audience.

[B]

More than anything, I want Raimi, like, knocking one of these out every three.

[A]

Years that I really want to hear. I want to hear Sam Raimi say, and by the way, I've already got my next project going, and it's this. And if it is Dr. Strange and the, you know, the. The Clea's adventures, then okay.

[B]

But if it is James Gunn, Batman, if there's another $200 million thing he wants to do, fine. But I. The thing I don't want is him spending 10 years just stuck in development hell on that doesn't get off the Runway. And if he just wants to start directing more of the type of movie he spent most of the 2000s producing, that's great to me. Thumbs up.

[A]

I hope the microphone is picking up my thumb.

[B]

Do you know where you would place this in your Raimi rankings?

[A]

I have it. I can tell you because I put it right there. I have it. 10th. That sounds worse than you'd think.

[B]

Raimi's got a strong 10.

[A]

He's got a very, you know, it's Spider Man 2, Evil Dead 2, Simple Plan, Evil Dead, Dark man, quick in the Dead, Spider man, like, you know, so that's your seven, where I'm like, you know, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. And then I have it in the sort of Drag Me to Hell, army of Darkness, send help. Like, I. That's a sort of little range for me. I have it below Drag Me to Hell and army of Darkness. Yeah, that's where I put it. Yeah. I have it above Dr. Strange 2, the Gift, Spider Man 3, you know, the much more flaw firmly above all that. Right. You know, crime wave, love of the game.

[B]

Yeah. I'm trying to find my ray list now.

[D]

Oh, wow. I actually did one.

[B]

You did a Raimi List, But I.

[D]

Don'T know where I'd put. I mean, my top five are Spider Man 1, Simple Plan, Spider Man 2, Drag Me to Hell, Evil Dead.

[B]

I found mine. Evil Dead 2 number one, then Spider Man 2, then a simple Plan, then Evil Dead, then Spider man, then Quicken the Dead, Drag Me to Hell, army of Darkness, Dark Man. My question is just where does Send Help go in that mix? It's definitely below Quick and the Dead. I can't decide where it is. Quick and the Dead rules. It owns. I can't decide where it goes amongst Drag Me to Hell, army of Darkness and Dark Man. But those are three movies I love and Raimi has delivered another one of those. It also gives him like a kind of unimpeachable 10 in my opinion. Like I have a very strong Sure, I had Spider Man 3 in my number 10 position and that's a flawed movie that I defend.

[A]

Right? Totally.

[B]

With Send Help in the top 10, I'm like, there are 10 Sam Raimi movies where I just give two thumbs up. I hope folks go out to see this movie.

[D]

There's a lot going on right now in the world. In the world.

[B]

It's quite bad.

[D]

It's quite bad.

[A]

Everyone go out and have fun. And also, you know, resist the terrible things that are happening in the world in any way that you can or help your neighbors resist.

[B]

Show kindness.

[D]

Your neighbors.

[C]

Try to donate to any kind of cause to help out.

[B]

Absolutely.

[C]

All of the up that's been going on specifically in Minnesota.

[B]

Look, it's often a sort of silver lining of the crazy production schedule, methods and scheduling we have employed on this podcast.

[A]

Sure, we're rarely recurred recording current ish.

[B]

I, I, you know, I get it. Like I will listen to podcasts that are new release or I podcasts that I know have been recorded the same week that I'm listening to them. And sometimes even though I'm looking for a podcast to just give me an escape from reality, the hellscape that we live in, it feels weird if they're not addressing the elephant in the room. And very often we don't have to confront this issue because you're listening to an episode that was recorded five years ago. Get ready for April 2026, a month on Blank Check that was recorded almost entirely in October 2025.

[A]

That's true. But you know what? We predict everything perfect.

[B]

We know.

[A]

I feel like we are mostly talking about whatever the issues of that movie are.

[D]

So Hawk to A comes back a lot, Becker.

[B]

A lot.

[A]

You know.

[B]

A good month of podcasting to be clear.

[A]

Yeah, no, great.

[B]

Hopefully with no productions that make us look like idiots. But we had to do some last minute rescheduling to account for a couple things and. And pull sent help help up to have this episode come out opening weekend. Hopefully. Maybe it incentivizes people who are not at risk either from government or the weather to be able to go out and see this movie opening weekend. But yeah, knowing that we're recording this in the same chunk of time that you're listening, it's. It's tough out there and things are bad.

[A]

Love your neighbor, guys. Get out there.

[B]

What if your neighbor's Mr. Wilson, though?

[A]

Is. Is that. Who's that again? That.

[D]

Is that from Home Improvement?

[B]

Dennis the menace with Mr. Wilson.

[A]

See, like, I feel like, you know, there's too many Wilsons and you knew.

[B]

What I was saying, right?

[C]

No, I thought it was the neighbor from home Proven.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

What's his name?

[B]

Okay, if your name also will is Wilson. First name from Home Improvement. Please show him kindness.

[A]

Please take a sacrifice.

[B]

Thank you all for listening. Hopefully a fun, silly Sam Raimi movie can be a bomb in these difficult times. And thankfully, next week we will give you a respite from the awful world we live in. As we talk about. We need to talk about Kevin. Why is David hiding his face in his hands? Easy movie, easy discussion.

[A]

Oh, boy. And then at least things brighten up with the next two episodes. I'm like, way easier stuff.

[C]

Like I said on the Rat Catcher episode, get yourself some ice cream and have it at the ready. After you watch it.

[B]

Treat yourself. $2.2 million in previews for send help. 3.5 for Iron Lung.

[A]

Hey, man, look, if Iron Lung wants to help save cinemas, that's fine.

[B]

If both of these movies open over $15 million, we're in a great position. And the lower Melania opens, the better the position is. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe. As David said, love your neighbor. As. As Marie said, stay safe, resist. And as always, please, please, please do not go see Melania. And whatever you do, don't buy that fucking piece of shit bucket.

[C]

Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hosley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas. And our Associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithee. Research by JJ Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery and the Great American Novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell, artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help.

[A]

Help.

[C]

Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon Blank Check special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on Social blankcheckpod Subscribe to our weekly newsletter Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.