The King of the Uncanny Valley - our boy Bob Zemeckis - is back with his spin on perhaps the most iconic un-real boy in cinemaits Pinocchio, baby! Our friends from Podcast: The Ride - two Disney daddies and one small wooden boy - join us to chat about Disneys latest live-action remake, and were mostly just confused. How many days did Tom Hanks spend on set? Why are so many people in Hollywood eager to make their own Pinocchio adaptations? Did Leslie Zemeckis do mo-cap work for the sexy goldfish?...
Sep 18, 2022•2 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast George Miller returns with a sweeping romantic fantasy and if we had a djinn, wed wish that more people went to see this movie in theaters! Plus - Ben wishes for infinite sandwiches, and the two friends go long on Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,FacebookandX! Buy some real nerdy merch. Connect with other Blankies on ourRedditorDiscord For anything else, check outBlankCheckPod.com Learn more...
Sep 11, 2022•2 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast How did they ever make a podcast of LOLITA? Lets just say that it wasnt easy, but thankfully our guest Fran Hoepfner is in her brave era and was more than up for the task! If our SPARTACUS episode was full of Tony Curtis impressions, were classing up the joint this week with plenty of James Mason bits. In this episode, Ben learns about the Hays Code, Griffin learns how to pronounce Nabokov, Fran learns that it is very difficult to eat a giant lollipop, and David learns what everyone thought of h...
Sep 04, 2022•2 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast I am Spartacus! I am Spartacus! Heck, were *all* Spartacus today as we talk about the sword-and-sandals epic that solidified Stanley Kubricks hit-making potentialand soured him on Hollywood forever. Vanity Fairs Richard Lawson returns to the pod and were covering all the major topics: How did a young Kubrick manage all the different stars on set - many of whom were accomplished directors in their own right? Was Kirk Douglas chin cleft real? Did Dalton Trumbo write the script for this in a bathtu...
Aug 28, 2022•3 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Perhaps the most humanistic of Kubricks films, PATHS OF GLORY is a blistering study of injustice, middle-management, and anti-war sentiment. Were down in the trenches this week with Sarah Marshall (Youre Wrong About and You Are Good), and were asking the big questions. Like - what crazy scheme did Timothy Carey pull during production that caused him to be fired as soon as all his closeups were filmed? Did Kirk Douglas take his hefty salary (a third of the total budget!) to pay for tennis lessons...
Aug 21, 2022•2 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast If Stanley Kubricks previous two films were exercises in learning on the job, THE KILLING is where we start to see him put that knowledge into action. A thrilling noir, it allowed Kubrick to connect his passion for chess to a story about the best laid plans of a too ambitious crook. We couldnt be more thrilled to welcome dream guest Patton Oswalt as we swap insane Timothy Carey stories, debate whether or not Rodney Dangerfield appears in the background of a scene, and suggest that Sterling Hayde...
Aug 14, 2022•2 hr 44 min•Transcript available on Metacast He dominated the field in this years 20th Century March Madness competition, and now were celebrating with a parade and a big brass bandits time for our series on the films of Stanley Kubrick - Pods Wide Cast! Join us as we fill in the background strokes of Kubricks early career - his childhood in the Bronx, his photography apprenticeship with Look Magazine - and as we discuss his first two features - 1953s FEAR AND DESIRE and 1955s KILLERS KISS. Some burning questions we end up asking: how much...
Aug 07, 2022•2 hr 46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Oof - this is a tough one. Incredibly divisive, is STAR 80 a darkly cynical triumph about the perils of Hollywood and the failings of men? Or is it a too-sympathetic Portrait of An Incel as a who cares?! per our guest Julie Klausner? Join us for a very spirited discussion about Fosses difficult last film, where we touch upon the dangers of the true crime genre, the tendency for male creatives to prioritize the male perspective, and the ways in which this film complicates the fascinating legacy o...
Jul 31, 2022•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its SHOWTIME, folks - and boy, are we jazzed about this episode! Broadway icon and actual Blank Check listener Lin-Manuel Miranda joins us to talk about what many consider to be Bob Fosses masterpiece, 1979s All That Jazz. LMM surprises Griffin and David by bringing along an original copy of the films script, which offers some fascinating insights into Fosses blurring of the lines between memoir and fiction. We discuss the parallels between All That Jazz and LMMs recent screen adaptation of Jona...
Jul 24, 2022•2 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sure, Bob Fosses Lenny has beautiful cinematography, but does it effectively communicate that Lenny Bruce was funny? Is the narrative of stand-ups as tortured truth tellers overdone? We have THOUGHTS! Comedian and stand-up historian Colin Quinn joins us to talk about the legacy of Lenny Bruce, and what Fosse gets right (the milieu of the clubs, Valerie Perrines wonderful performance as Honey Bruce), and what he gets wrong (the actual humor). Plus - we entertain the idea of a miniseries structure...
Jul 17, 2022•2 hr 50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Wilkommen and Bienvenue to our Cabaret episode! Literal Disney Princess and musical theater superstar Rachel Zegler joins us to gush over Fosses 1972 film - a game-changer for the musical genre, and an Oscar-winning guarantor for Fosses cinematic blank check after the failure of Sweet Charity. Topics discussed include: the differences between the screen version and the stage show; Joel Greys Emcee being nearly cut out of the film; Liza Minnelli crafting her own unique look for Sally Bowles; Whet...
Jul 10, 2022•2 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The minute you walked in the jointI could see you were a man of distinction, A REAL PODCASTER! Pod That Jazzcast - our series on the films of Bob Fosse - kicks off with a real humdinger of an episode, as the boys discuss 1969s swinging technicolor musical Sweet Charity. For folks unfamiliar with Fosse, we give an overview of his life and career in dance and theater leading up to his film directorial debut, and attempt to decipher his creative obsessions (women, fear of balding, isolated body mov...
Jul 03, 2022•2 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our Sam Raimi series concludes with his most recent film - not to mention the first MCU film weve covered on the main feed - its time for Doctor Strange 2! Patrick Willems joins us to address the important questions: What was Raimi *doing* for the nine years between this and Oz? Does Kevin Feige and his Marvel Machine overpower Raimis creative voice? Should Wandavision have been released after this movie? Is Schnippers on 8th Ave the ideal place to debrief after seeing a movie in Times Square? S...
Jun 26, 2022•2 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ah, yes - weve arrived at the reason why we held off on covering Sam Raimi for so longbecause we didnt want to end our series on such a dismal note! Oz the Great and Powerful - Raimis last feature until the recent Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - features James Franco in a performance that guest Dana Schwartz (Noble Blood) characterizes as having the energy of a hot boy in a school play whos laughing with his friends in the front row. It doesnt have the tactile, zippy cinematic lang...
Jun 19, 2022•2 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast After the massive box office success of his Spider-Man movies, Sam Raimi went back to basics - returning to the gnarly demonic possession genre that he put his stamp on back in the Evil Dead days. This time, instead of the chin-god Bruce Campbell, weve got a particularly cherubic Alison Lohman in the starring role! The Bechdel Casts Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus join the #TwoFriends to chat about the goofy gross-out scares and economic recession relevance of 2009s Drag Me To Hell, plus, we at...
Jun 12, 2022•2 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast If Spider-Man 2 had the reputation of being the greatest superhero movie of all time, Spider-Man 3 had the inverse - a bloated mess with too many villains, and a very goofy Peter Parker going to the darkside, if by darkside you mean a trip to Mens Warehouse and Hot Topic. But is that reputation justified? Were gonna air on the side ofnot REALLY. Notable Spidey 3 defender Jamelle Bouie (The New York Times, his podcast Clear and Present Danger) returns to Blank Check to praise this films focus on ...
Jun 05, 2022•3 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast For a while, Spider-Man 2 was considered the high water mark for superhero movies - but does it hold up 14 years deep into the MCU? Weve got two words for you - ALFRED MOLINA. Self-professed Blank Check rabble rouser Chris Gethard returns to the pod (and apologizes to the Blankie Community) as we trace the history and legacy of this iconic Spidey sequel. We love this movie so much, David doesnt even care that the subway sequence isnt accurate to New York! Other topics covered - why Aunt May shou...
May 29, 2022•3 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Upside down kissing, Bonesaw McGraw, and a soundtrack featuring not just one, but TWO of Avril Lavignes ex-husbandsits SPIDER-MAN! Screen Crushs Matt Singer (who literally wrote a book about Spider-Man) joins us as we take a look back to a much different Hollywood landscape; a time when Marvel was a struggling comics company, when both Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire were considered odd choices for a superhero adaptation, and when no film had yet to open to $100M at the US Box Office. Is the hyphen ...
May 22, 2022•3 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Katie Holmes in a lazy southern accent asks, Whats the matter? See somethin bad? and we are immediately transported back to the year 2000 when the trailers for this movie were EVERYWHERE. Writer and podcasting icon Starlee Kine joins us to talk about Sam Raimis The Gift - a film with an incredibly stacked cast of actors who were eager to sink their teeth into a Southern Gothic Billy Bob Thornton creation. Do we buy Keanu as a wife-beating redneck? Is Cate Blanchett actually a terrible psychic? H...
May 15, 2022•2 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is this not America? Is baseball not Americas favorite pastime? Is For Love of the Game a Sam Raimi movie? Technically speaking, sure! Its about a guy whos trying not to lose both his hand and his lady - some very Raimi-esque themes. Gawkers Olivia Craighead returns to the pod to talk about Kevin Straight Outta Compton Costner, and we go long on crackerjacks, Vin Scullys screenplay notes, and the cinematic pleasures of baseball. The crack of the bat, baby! Plus - the boys open up about their lit...
May 08, 2022•2 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast $4.4 million, a murder of crows, and a cursed crashed planethe ingredients for a real nail-biter of a fable! Filmmaker Kevin Smith (yep, THAT Kevin Smith) joins us to talk about one of his favorite films - 1998s A Simple Plan - and to pay tribute to the late producer Jim Jacks, who shepherded several filmmakers (such as Raimi, the Coens, Richard Linklater, and Smith himself) as they made their transitions from scrappy indies to the big leagues. How successfully is Raimi able to meld his signatur...
May 01, 2022•3 hr 38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Considered a bit of a blank check for actress Sharon Stone (she used her clout to bring Sam Raimi, Russell Crowe, and a babyfaced Leonardo DiCaprio to the project), The Quick and The Dead may have been too quirky for mainstream audiences and too earnest for the post-Tarantino generation of cinephiles back in 1995. But boy, does it slap in 2022! Roman Mars - The golden-voiced host of 99% Invisible - joins us as David offers his definitive Russell Crowe performance ranking, and as we finally get a...
Apr 24, 2022•2 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast KLAATU BARADA NIKTO - did we get that right? Writer Eva Anderson (WeCrashed, Youre the Worst) joins us as we attempt to answer several questions related to the final entry in the Evil Dead trilogy - 1993s Army of Darkness. Why was this film not called MEDIEVAL DEAD? Did Embeth Davidtz and Liam Neeson talk about Sam Raimi on the set of Schindlers List? How does Ben feel about the concept of a town pit? And most importantly, we introduce a tantalizing Hollywood mystery - was there a falling out be...
Apr 17, 2022•3 hr 40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whos Darkman? A man of a thousand faces! A walking fleshwound who probably smells awful! A dude who probably would be into night eggs! Filmmaker Chris Weitz joins us to geek out over Sam Raimis homage to the Universal Monsters - a film that establishes the comic book style that Raimi would later perfect with his Spider-Man trilogy. We discuss the early 90s run of pulpy comic book films (Dick Tracy, The Shadow), the shock of seeing Frances McDormand in what she describes as a bimbo role, and the ...
Apr 10, 2022•2 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its the definitive Sam Raimi film - a symphony of silly with a bravura performance from Bruce Campbell, and a prevailing sense of, the more gore the merrier! John Hodgman - who, believe it or not, was Bruce Campbells literary agent! - joins us to chat about the magic of Evil Dead II and what puts it in the pantheon of sequels that improve upon the original installment. Also in this episode - we imagine the time when Sam Raimi, the Coens, Frances McDormand, and Holly Hunter were all roommates in ...
Apr 03, 2022•3 hr 56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Raimi directed a movie between The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II that was written by the Coen Brothers and no one ever talks about ituntil NOW! Actor Brendan Hines (The Tick, Locke and Key) joins us to make sense of this early career oddity - a tonal mishmash of slapstick and film noir that wed later see more successfully executed in films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and The Mask. Topics discussed include: the difficulties in scaling up the indie production model; Bruce Campbells evolving sta...
Mar 27, 2022•2 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its Sam Raimi time - groovy! Our new series PODCAST ME TO HELL kicks off with a banger - 1981s ultra-low-budget horror classic The Evil Dead. Well be taking you back to Royal Oak, Michigan, to explain how Raimi linked up with Bruce Campbell and the Coen Brothers, thus establishing a very consequential partnership. Well be dissecting exactly why this film (from a lean 14-page script!!) works so well. David will admit that he first learned about this movie from watching Donnie Darko. And then all ...
Mar 20, 2022•2 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its Hollywoods biggest night - thats right, its the Seventh Annual Blankies! This Had Oscar Buzz host Joe Reid joins us as always to celebrate our favorite films of 2021. Will Griffin award something weird this year? Is anyone going to stump for Being The Ricardos? What crazy categories will Ben come up with? Walk down the red carpet and find out! Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod onInstagram,Threads,FacebookandX! Buy some real nerdy merch. ...
Mar 13, 2022•3 hr 51 min•Transcript available on Metacast An unseen presence looming over the two friends, a man who has definitely ridden a dang horse, a larger than life character about whom many have speculatedare we talking about Bronco Hosley or Bronco Henry? Trolls impresario and Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson makes his tenth (!!) appearance on the pod to unpack Jane Campions The Power of the Dog. Did Campion figure out the best use of Benedict Cumberbatchs screen presence? Is anthrax the poison with the coolest name? Can you imagine Gerard De...
Mar 06, 2022•2 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast You may as well call this episode Ode to a Whishaw because we love that gentle gent! Fran Hoepfner joins us (and joins the Five-Timers Club!) to discuss Jane Campions 2006 John Keats biopic Bright Star, a movie that prompts Griffin to wonder if he, too, would die of tuberculosis if he took a long walk in the rain in 1820. Of course we talk about Hampstead Heath (David being canonically from London), of course we wonder what the hell happened to Paul Schneider (canonically incredible in this movi...
Feb 27, 2022•2 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
