Want to hear us talk about how hot Mark Ruffalo is for two hours? Oooh boy, do we have a treat for you! Wikipedia-cited In The Cut stan Jourdain Searles joins us to unpack Jane Campions unjustly maligned erotic thriller. What happens to actresses once they turn 40? Would this movie have fared better with audiences if - instead of Americas Sweetheart Meg Ryan - it starred an edgier Nicole Kidman as originally planned? Do you remember the SCANDAL when Meg Ryan cheated on Dennis Quaid with Russell ...
Feb 20, 2022•2 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is it nobler to try to pee on camera and fail than it is to not try at all? Does Harvey Keitels performance in this film only work when he puts on a dress? What the hell is going on in this movie?! Davids Fest Friend Forever Kyle Buchanan (author of the forthcoming Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road) joins us to answer those questions and more as we discuss Jane Campions bugnuts exploration of power dynamics - 1999s Holy Smoke! Come for the Winslet career breakd...
Feb 13, 2022•2 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast This lady might not be on fire but she IS wearing a 19 inch corset! Social media maven Marie Bardi joins the boys to dissect Campions tepidly received follow-up to The Piano - the emotionally claustrophobic 1996 Henry James adaptation The Portrait of a Lady. If The Piano gave Jane her Blank Check, this film is a big swing and (in our opinion) a slight miss. Topics discussed include: John Malkovichs clothing line for the modern dandy; the unfortunate plastic surgery-shaming of actress Barbara Her...
Feb 06, 2022•2 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just imagineits 1993. Bill Clinton is in the White House, Seinfeld is on TV, and America has PIANO FEVER! Newly-minted member of the Five Timers Club Esther Zuckerman joins us to unpack Campions Oscar-Winning erotic drama (possibly the first prestige pic to feature mild butt play). Were asking all the tough questions: is The Kings Daughter the new Margaret? Should Harvey Keitel play Wolverine? Did Sam Neill tell Anna Paquin that he was going to work with actual dinosaurs after their shoot? Does ...
Jan 30, 2022•3 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dana Stevens (Slate.com / Her new Buster Keaton biography Cameraman) returns to the pod to *literally* wax poetic about the literary coming-of-age story An Angel At My Table. The film is an intimate, often heartbreaking saga of a woman discovering her own creative voiceand yes, the woman just happens to look like Little Orphan Annie. The gang discusses the film within the context of other films that show age progression through the casting of multiple actors; the context of films that depict men...
Jan 23, 2022•2 hr 52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Weve climbed up in our childhood treehouse and were not coming down! Sarah Violet Bliss (Search Party) joins us to talk about Sweetie - Jane Campions off-kilter meditation on suburbia and sibling rivalry. Revelations within the episode include the fact that David was part of the Neighbours Society at Uni (a group of students in favor of airing the Aussie soap in common areas twice daily); that one of the IMDB tags for this movie is Rides A Man Like A Horse; that Producer Ben has *definitely* kno...
Jan 16, 2022•2 hr 59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Were kicking off our Jane Campion miniseries with her feature-length debut, auspiciously titled Two Friends - perhaps she has a competitive advantage? The backwards-structured script (the OG temporal pincer movement) leads the crew to reflect on their own adolescencedid you know David was already six feet tall at the age of twelve? And Ben was rocking size twelve shoes in middle school? Griffin may get a singular chest hair in 2022? Come for our Campion-filmography table setting, stay for a surp...
Jan 09, 2022•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Happy New Year! Were going back to the Matrix - which we last covered in 2016 (!!) - and were feeling pretty good about it! Seraph was a login screen, surebut is Tiffany a .TIFF? Is Agent Smith just a virus? Are we taking crazy pills for liking this movie so much? Jack in and lets fly, Blankies. Opening clip is from Howl's Moving Castle with David Ehrlich Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,FacebookandX! Buy some real nerdy...
Jan 02, 2022•3 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast They said it couldnt be done. Remaking possibly the most revered movie musical of all time?! A fools errand! But folks, weve learned a very important lessonNEVER DOUBT STEVEN SPIELBERG. Especially when hes teaming up with Tony Dank Kushner! David pinpoints the exact moments he wept during his multiple viewings of this most recent iteration of West Side Story; Ben praises all the dust and hot people; Griffin thinks that he probably needs to see it again. Grab your dancing shoes and meet us at the...
Dec 19, 2021•3 hr 38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alert the horny police, because were taking ourselves to a nunnery with the Dirty Dutch Daddy himself - Paul Verhoeven! The gang goes bonkers for Benedetta'', and Producer Ben-edetta reveals that he has an almost-saint in his family - one more miracle, and Ben gets to go to the Vatican! We discuss the connections between Benedetta and Verhoevens previous films (Sister Benedetta is a bit of a Catherine Trammell, and not just because she likes the ladies), do a smelly deep dive into the history of...
Dec 12, 2021•2 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Weve spent four months in the Mouth of Madness with the Horror Master, and weve reached the end point of Carpenters directorial career...for now. A man who has *actually collaborated with John Carpenter* - Drew McWeeny (writer of Carpenters installments in the Masters of Horror series) - joins us to recontextualize our journey through Carpenters filmography with some exclusive behind-the-scenes tidbits. The Two Friends also discuss the strange career trajectory of Amber Heard (starting with the ...
Dec 05, 2021•2 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Contrary to popular belief (and Wikipedia), this film was NOT supposed to be another installment in the Snake Plissken series - John Carpenter just thought it would be cool to make a movie about Mars because its red. Galaxy Brains Dave Schilling and Jonah Ray join us to dissect Carpenters take on that dusty red planet, his obsession with crossfades, and his lackluster deployment of Pam Grier. Why *is* Mars a matriarchal society in this movie? We thought Mars needed moms Join our Patreon for fran...
Nov 28, 2021•2 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Theyre not just Vampires, theyre John Carpenters Vampires! Closer in patina to a classic Howard Hawks western than anything Carpenters ever done, this film is nasty, gruesome, and devoid of any of the teenyboppers and romanticism that had become hallmarks of the slasher and vampire genres, respectively. David Ehrlich (Indiewire) joins us as we go deep into the woods - James Woods, that is - and come out with the least memorable Baldwin brother. Strada Chocolata! Join our Patreon for franchise co...
Nov 21, 2021•2 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Less of a sequel and more of a next gen video game re-skin, Snake Plissken is back in Escape from LA and this time hes got a surfboard! The Gourley and Rust guys join us to ponder whether or not a big budget is actually *bad* for John Carpenter. On the one hand, we get a Carp, Kurt, and Debra Hill reunion! On the otherthose submarine sequences. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,FacebookandX! Buy some real nerdy merch. Con...
Nov 14, 2021•3 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its not Children of the Damned nor Children of the Corn nor Corn of the Damned - its John Carpenters Village of the Damned, goddamnit! Creepy blonde kids with laser eyes! Our guest Amy Nicholsons (Unspooled) boyfriend thinks she looks like one of them. Griffin thinks Davids baby has Village of the Damned eyes, too. But is this movie actually scary enough? Needs more menace! per Ben. Topics covered include the Razzies, formative cinematic crushes, Christopher Reeves star persona, and a Chuck Norr...
Nov 07, 2021•2 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just in time for Halloween - its the conclusion of Carpenters Apocalypse Trilogy and one of the best Lovecraftian horrors ever to grace the silver screen! Vultures Angelica Jade Bastin joins us to chat In the Mouth of Madness, and we wonder - is Sam Neill a dang ass freak? Should this movie take place in a more airport paperback environment, like a beach town? What would you do if you saw the head of production at New Line gettinguh serviced in public at an Oscar party? Grab your Sutter Cane boo...
Oct 31, 2021•2 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast In which we try to find the John Carpenter in what is overwhelmingly a Chevy Chase vanity project. The legendary Alan Sepinwall (Rolling Stone) joins us to make sense of this befuddling genre mishmash. What are the invisibility rules of this movie? Who is the silver-voiced British man named Richard and is that his real voice? Is Chevy Chase good at acting? Does it matter? In this movieyeah, it kind of does! Were sad to see the Carpenter hot streak end with this movie, but thats what Blank Check ...
Oct 24, 2021•2 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dont adjust your sunglasses - its another epic crossover podcast! The Doughboys join #TheTwoFriends to tackle Carpenters still-relevant anti-capitalist alien action classic. Is Rowdy Roddy Piper the greatest wrestler-turned-actor? Who actually wrote the iconic bubblegum line? Which hard seltzer is the best and why is it White Claw Surge? And yes, of course we have to talk about that iconic fight scene. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onIns...
Oct 17, 2021•2 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every filmmaker gets one Satan in a jar in a basement movie and this is John Carpenters! Keith Phipps (The Next Picture Podcast) joins us to chat the anti-God, fictional British scientist Bernard Quatermass, and young David Sims humble beginnings as an Its Always Sunny recapper at the AVClub. The boys also establish that Ben loves wet evil and that the special effects makeup artist on PRINCE OF DARKNESS also worked with Griffin on DRAFT DAY! Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus ...
Oct 10, 2021•2 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast You know what ol Jack Burton would do on an episode like this? Bring back Jason Mantzoukas and Paul Scheer, of course! The HOW DID THIS GET MADE? guys make their triumphant return to Blank Check to discuss yet another Kurt Russell masterpiece, and lament the lack of Russell-esque stars in todays Hollywood landscape. Theres some John Landis slander and a shout-out to Kit Fisto - this episode TRULY has everything! Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankchec...
Oct 03, 2021•3 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Voyager II may be approaching the Termination Shock (Bens new favorite phrase), but were on earth cherishing the otherworldly romance of John Carpenters STARMAN! Vanity Fairs Katey Rich returns to discuss Jeff Bridges impressive performance, the illustrious career of Hollywood script doctor Dinky Dean Reisner, and the one sandwich thats actually supposed to have paprika on it (whatever deviled egg thing Karen Allen orders at the diner in this movie). Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries a...
Sep 26, 2021•3 hr 31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its the Blank Check / Kingcast crossover event youve all been waiting for! Scott Wampler and Eric Vespe join us to discuss John Carpenters Christine - the first Stephen King adaptation weve covered. What is more terrifying - a sexy vintage car that kills people? Or Barbra Streisands basement mall? A difficult question, we know. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,FacebookandX! Buy some real nerdy merch. Connect with other B...
Sep 19, 2021•2 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Heres the thing about THE THING - it might be the best movie weve ever covered? Emily St. James joins us (and joins the five-timers club!) to discuss Carpenters Arctic paranoia classic, which was unfairly maligned upon release. Topics covered include the Brimley COCOON Line, the film as a trans allegory, and dogs getting their faces peeled back like bananas. Checkout Emilys podcast What to Watch on the Vox Quick Hits feed or the scripted series Arden! Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries ...
Sep 12, 2021•3 hr 45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Grab your eyepatches - its Snake Plissken time! Karen Han joins the gang to chat Carpenters action classic ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK - which was actually filmed in St. Louis! Topics covered include NSFW tattoos, Lee Van Cleefs badass gravestone, the 90s documentary where Ernest Borgnine just drives a bus, and John Carpenters rather pedestrian taste in video games. Fallout 76??? Cmon, John! Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,Fac...
Sep 05, 2021•2 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast A film brave enough to ask the question - what if there was fog? Just kidding - this movie is ACTUALLY about vengeful pirate ghosts and a lady with a sexy radio voice. CANDYMANs Nia DaCosta returns to the pod to ask whether or not fog is scary if you arent driving through it. Producer Ben wonders if the titular fog should have had a voice. Plus, we explore the history of spooky lighthouse movies. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram...
Aug 29, 2021•2 hr 44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its our biggest episode EVER as Alex Ross Perry brings his own dossier of talking points to tackle 1978s iconic HALLOWEEN. We explore the history of American independent cinema as seen through the lens of the low-budget horror genre, and determine whod be included in the slasher villain Mount Rushmore (Chucky isnt carved into the rock; hed be working at the gift shop). Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,FacebookandX! Buy s...
Aug 22, 2021•3 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast John Carpenter puts his own spin on Howard Hawks iconic western RIO BRAVO and Griffin learns about The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills - its our ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 episode! Screenwriter and film critic April Wolfe (2019s BLACK CHRISTMAS) joins us as we discuss the most dramatic vanilla ice cream cone of all time. Is this one of Carpenters best musical scores? Gonna go ahead and say YES. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Thre...
Aug 15, 2021•2 hr 56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our long-awaited John Carpenter series kicks off with his ultra-low budget oddity debut DARK STAR. Ben goes Hollywood (actually, Hosleywood) to record with Emily Yoshida - the Mother of Blankies herself - *in person* in Los Angeles, and the gang debates possible names for the series. We landed on They Podcast - which is a departure from Griffins far sweatier suggestions. Join us as we set the table for Carpenters filmography, and go deep on this film, which could also just be called Space Dirtba...
Aug 08, 2021•2 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast What if there was a beach that made you old? Only the mischievous mind of M. Night Shyamalan could conjure such a place! The gang (including Shyamalan Superfan and Blank Check social media manager Marie Bardi) dives into M. Nights latest offering. Is it a Glassterpiece? Does Griffin even know what age he is anymore? Did Ben always have those wrinkles on his face? Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,FacebookandX! Buy some re...
Aug 01, 2021•2 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the slam, its time to jam - its our first in-person recording since the pandemic! Griffins brother James Newman returns to the pod to chat BASKETBALL, a topic that Griffin now knows slightly more about after watching The Last Dance. Is LeBron a bad actor? Does anyone really understand the complicated metaphysics of the Warner Bros Serververse? Join us as we discuss! Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,Facebookand...
Jul 25, 2021•3 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
