Just What is Apex Mountain: Rewatchables discussion thread

Leather

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The whole movie is incredibly dark and sad. It was a weird listen in general, where all three of them just seemed to think it was a fun and funny movie until the New Year's party. Chris eventually suggested that maaaaybee Jack and Amber were actually predators? I was shocked that they didn't see this movie for what it really is, given that Chris and Sean do serious movie criticism. My theory is that they didn't want to ruin the experience for Bill.

It's a fascinating movie, I like it for a bunch of reasons, but it's not all that funny or even rewatchable.
Hard, hard, disagree.

There's a ton of humor in that movie, and the first half is full of joyous, carefree, fun. Yes, there's a darkness underneath it all that gets hinted at and bubbles up here and there (Dirk's mom, Amber's kid calling, Bill's wife, the Colonel's perversions), and the second half is when the booze, and drugs, and parties, and money are no longer enough to cover it up and it comes bursting into all of their lives and swallows them up.
 

Marciano490

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Boogie Nights is both hilarious and highly rewatchable. But it’s also dark and filled with somewhat shitty people. I don’t think that’s a surprise. Colonel is a pedophile. Dirk comes from a terrible home. Roller girl seemed to as well. Amber is an atrocious mom.

Still, it’s not Requiem for a Dream.
 

luckiestman

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My theory is that they didn't want to ruin the experience for Bill.
One thing I really like about Bill, maybe even in a character study sense, is that his entire life seems totally untouched by even a hint of darkness.
 

luckiestman

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Boogie Nights is both hilarious and highly rewatchable. But it’s also dark and filled with somewhat shitty people. I don’t think that’s a surprise. Colonel is a pedophile. Dirk comes from a terrible home. Roller girl seemed to as well. Amber is an atrocious mom.

Still, it’s not Requiem for a Dream.
You just picked the perfect movie for someone to do a spoof Rewatchables pod of. I’m laughing just thinking of some of the categories.
 

Ralphwiggum

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John C. Reilly is hysterical in every scene he’s in in Boogie Nights. Yes it turns dark but saying it’s not funny and not rewatchable is a take I guess. It’s the movie I’ve probably rewatched the most over the last 30 years other than maybe Goodfellas or Heat.
 

luckiestman

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John C. Reilly is hysterical in every scene he’s in in Boogie Nights. Yes it turns dark but saying it’s not funny and not rewatchable is a take I guess. It’s the movie I’ve probably rewatched the most over the last 30 years other than maybe Goodfellas or Heat.
Let me ask you this, do you turn Goodfellas off when you get to the helicopter stuff or do you watch to the end?
 

luckiestman

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Outside of the whole Red Sox fandom thing.
That’s almost a perfect way to describe it. The darkest thing in the guys life was that the baseball team he roots for was almost always pretty good but didn’t win a championship that he saw until he was 40.
 

Ralphwiggum

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Hes a child of divorce that got shipped back and forth on a train between his parents’ houses. I’m divorced myself with kids so it’s not the end of the world but it’s also not easy on kids, and I’d imagine even harder on only children. My daughter wrote her college essay on overcoming the anxiety disorder she had that was largely spawned by being a child of divorce.
 

Leather

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You just picked the perfect movie for someone to do a spoof Rewatchables pod of. I’m laughing just thinking of some of the categories.
“OK, guys…Apex Mountain for double ended dildoes?”
 

Shelterdog

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Hard, hard, disagree.

There's a ton of humor in that movie, and the first half is full of joyous, carefree, fun. Yes, there's a darkness underneath it all that gets hinted at and bubbles up here and there (Dirk's mom, Amber's kid calling, Bill's wife, the Colonel's perversions), and the second half is when the booze, and drugs, and parties, and money are no longer enough to cover it up and it comes bursting into all of their lives and swallows them up.
And then they become a happy family again. It’s a strange movie that way and not hard to think that it’s written from the standpoint of a uh individual endowed with massive talent trying to figure out his path in an often cruel world. (To be clear I’m saying PTA sees himself as Dirk)
 

Leather

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Sure, rubber dildos were huge in the 2000s, but I think it’d really modernize the scene to use a glass one. Adds an element of danger too.
“Things that aged the worst…They’d, like, steal the mom’s iPad now, right? Maybe her phone?”
 

johnmd20

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And then they become a happy family again. It’s a strange movie that way and not hard to think that it’s written from the standpoint of a uh individual endowed with massive talent trying to figure out his path in an often cruel world. (To be clear I’m saying PTA sees himself as Dirk)
So then Licorice Pizza is the roller skate stomp?
 

Shelterdog

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So then Licorice Pizza is the roller skate stomp?
Not totally following but I suspect PTA puts an awful lot of himself in Gary, and Alana's realization that wunderkind "Gary" is just that special and talented and that she should end up with him certainly an important aspect of the film. Licorice Pizza obviously doesn't get as dark as the worst moments of BN.

EDIT: I think the roller skate stomp is Alana finding out that the Safdie brother politician is gay--her reaction is sadness not anger but that's kind of the realization that life is full of sadness (and that it's better to be hanging out in the cool club band of misfits with the PTA stand in)
 

Leather

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It’s kind of interesting that it takes Roller Girl curb stomping the guy to get her life back on track. edit: although she’s still living at Jack’s house right? So does she stay in the business?

Buck is really the only one that gets away with any semblance of real happiness. The rest are all in for some pretty shitty times, though maybe less chaotic.
 

shlincoln

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In the other Ringer thread someone recommended a recent Big Picture episode about Avatar that featured Sean Fennessy. I listened yesterday and it was enjoyable, but it wasn't nearly as fun as The Rewatchables. There was a lot of people talking over each other and bringing an almost frantic energy at times.
That's just Griffon Newman's natural energy (baybee)
 

chrisfont9

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Hard, hard, disagree.

There's a ton of humor in that movie, and the first half is full of joyous, carefree, fun. Yes, there's a darkness underneath it all that gets hinted at and bubbles up here and there (Dirk's mom, Amber's kid calling, Bill's wife, the Colonel's perversions), and the second half is when the booze, and drugs, and parties, and money are no longer enough to cover it up and it comes bursting into all of their lives and swallows them up.
:) We are practically saying the same thing, just from different viewpoints. Eddie getting kicked out of his house is a horror show. Rollergirl getting trolled in class and having to flee is something that a school would have an all-school assembly about now. Scotty J is closeted and tortured. Buck is lost in his identity crisis. Little Bill is working his way toward suicide. Jack and Amber give them a respite from their misery but not for long. Reed is about the only character who seems completely fine.

Obviously you are welcome to see the joke lines how you want, that's how art works, we all have our own experience. But I view this as a very serious film from end to end, and can't disconnect the fun early stuff from the horrible origin stories and the horrible outcomes at the end. IMO this is just a really great Hollywood story, almost like A Star is Born, only for porn, which itself is very dark, so of course its story is also almost entirely very dark. It has humor pieces, sure, obviously, but they are just slight distractions from the rest of the atmosphere.
 
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Marciano490

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It’s kind of interesting that it takes Roller Girl curb stomping the guy to get her life back on track. edit: although she’s still living at Jack’s house right? So does she stay in the business?

Buck is really the only one that gets away with any semblance of real happiness. The rest are all in for some pretty shitty times, though maybe less chaotic.
Isn't the stomp because she’s still in the business? They’re shooting a new kind of reality porn in the limo and the first guy they pickup is the dude from RG’s school. I imagine after Dirk left, Amber held tight to her other “child.”
 

The Filthy One

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Boogie Nights is certainly funny and rewatchable, but it's a rare rewatchable where the things that people enjoy revisiting are the things that make it less successful for me. I have a lot of trouble with art about stupid people where it feels like the characters are being laughed at by the artist. I need that kind of art to be unambiguously comedic (like Step Brothers) or it feels like the artist is fucking with me in some way, implicating me, and it starts to feel sadistic. But that stuff is fun and more "enjoyable" than watching people's lives fall apart.

I've been thinking a bit about what makes me want to revisit movies, and what I've hit on is that something about the initial viewing experience has to feel incomplete to me. The movie has to be good enough to want to watch it again, but it's better if it felt like there was something I didn't quite get the first time around. This happens most often for me with movies that are marketed as a genre movie but that are maybe playing on the edges of that genre or confounding it. A good example is A Most Violent Year. First time I watched that, I was expecting a mob movie, I guess, and so it was confounding and a little dull. But I suppose I'm enough of an Oscar Isaac head that I wanted to dive back in. I watched it a second time, and it started to make more sense to me. The most recent time I watched it, I was completely floored by it (mostly by the production design, which is otherworldly).
 

The Filthy One

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Also, when they discussed the camera movement in Boogie Nights, I was reminded that this was a big thing among my classmates in film school in the early 2000s. Everyone was constantly trying to figure out how to hack steadycam or dolly shots, and everything was about these choreographed camera movements. And that came straight from Goodfellas and Boogie Nights. So of course, because I'm a dick, I went the other way and was like "Fuck that. I'm not moving the camera at all. My shit is going to be like a fucking Ozu movie." God, I was such an asshole.
 

Leather

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Isn't the stomp because she’s still in the business? They’re shooting a new kind of reality porn in the limo and the first guy they pickup is the dude from RG’s school. I imagine after Dirk left, Amber held tight to her other “child.”
But in the closing of the movie, while "God Only Knows" is playing (so post stomp), they show Roller Girl back in class. But I think AFTER that, and just before the, uh, "Big Reveal", they follow Jack around the house and he asks Roller Girl to clean up her room ("move one side of dirt to the other so one half is clean...") as she's listening to her walkman.

So it's ambiguous if she is still doing porn or if she's back at school and just living there.
 

Marciano490

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But in the closing of the movie, while "God Only Knows" is playing (so post stomp), they show Roller Girl back in class. But I think AFTER that, and just before the, uh, "Big Reveal", they follow Jack around the house and he asks Roller Girl to clean up her room ("move one side of dirt to the other so one half is clean...") as she's listening to her walkman.

So it's ambiguous if she is still doing porn or if she's back at school and just living there.
Yes, I always wondered the same. I guess if she’s not, it’s a bit of a condemnation of porn that doesn’t really fit with all the other misfits finding peace and family working together again in the industry.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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Horlbeck, Heifetz and Kelly from the Ringer Fantasy Football pod announced on today's show the three of them are doing "Pineapple Express" to be released this week.

I like their movie digressions in the Fantasy podcast a lot, and their chemistry is off the charts... but will be interesting to see how hard a job Rewatchables is, when you pull in two novices along with Producer Craig. I'm sure they had plenty of help, but still...
 

Remagellan

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But in the closing of the movie, while "God Only Knows" is playing (so post stomp), they show Roller Girl back in class. But I think AFTER that, and just before the, uh, "Big Reveal", they follow Jack around the house and he asks Roller Girl to clean up her room ("move one side of dirt to the other so one half is clean...") as she's listening to her walkman.

So it's ambiguous if she is still doing porn or if she's back at school and just living there.
She can be back in school and still doing porn. Or maybe she's just taking a break from work until she finishes her degree. That job will be waiting for her for at least another few years.
 

Marciano490

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Oh yeah, porn historically has a long life span for starlets. She can definitely come back like MJ.
 

Remagellan

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I know you're being snarky, but c'mon. If she's 17 or 18 and she takes a year or two to finish high school, it's not like she can't still make porn movies at 19 or 20. She's going for a high school diploma, not a freakin' doctorate. Amber Waves was well into her thirties and Becky Barnett was in her late twenties, and they were still making movies.
 
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johnmd20

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Pineapple Express was great. Just a fun movie handled by guys who don't take themselves too seriously.

I loved Craig's low key meta shot at Bill when he started the pod by asking Danny and Danny, "You still cranking that fantasy podcast 4 times a week?" (a podcast Craig is also on)

Bill for whatever reason always asks Chris Ryan that ("You still cranking it out" is the literal verbiage Bill uses) about The Watch podcast but he also always uses the wrong name for it, too. So it's something like, "You still cranking out the Hollywood Watch Pod". It's surprisingly insulting to Ryan for no reason.

Craig is truly awesome.
 

Remagellan

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Pineapple Express was great. Just a fun movie handled by guys who don't take themselves too seriously.

I loved Craig's low key meta shot at Bill when he started the pod by asking Danny and Danny, "You still cranking that fantasy podcast 4 times a week?" (a podcast Craig is also on)

Bill for whatever reason always asks Chris Ryan that ("You still cranking it out" is the literal verbiage Bill uses) about The Watch podcast but he also always uses the wrong name for it, too. So it's something like, "You still cranking out the Hollywood Watch Pod". It's surprisingly insulting to Ryan for no reason.

Craig is truly awesome.
I'm going to listen to it even though I've never watched nor had any desire to watch Pineapple Express. (Not available on streaming for anyone looking for it.)

I cannot understand Bill's shots at Chris, unless they're born of jealousy since Chris is the guy everybody wants to guest host on their pods, and Bill is the guy who invites himself on people's pods whether he has anything to add to them or not. In The Office terms, Chris is Jim Halpert and Bill is Michael Scott.
 

Shelterdog

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I'm going to listen to it even though I've never watched nor had any desire to watch Pineapple Express. (Not available on streaming for anyone looking for it.)

I cannot understand Bill's shots at Chris, unless they're born of jealousy since Chris is the guy everybody wants to guest host on their pods, and Bill is the guy who invites himself on people's pods whether he has anything to add to them or not. In The Office terms, Chris is Jim Halpert and Bill is Michael Scott.
Frankly I think they’re more shots at Andy than at Chris (sometimes the comment is you still cranking that hollywood podcast with Andy or variants therefore). It really seems like Bill kind of--and understandably--can't stand Andy for being a pretentious film guy and culture snoot (for example I was recently listening to an old rewatchables and Bill said to Chris apropos of pretty much nothing you know how there’s that one guy whose takes you can’t stand like me and Andy?) and I'm pretty sure it's evident to Bill that Andy kind of looks down at him. (I think it's also pretty clear that Andy does think Bill is a troglodyte when it comes to culture and, like some of us, finds it absurd that a 52 year old man can be, while fun and funny on a lot of topics, have such a limited palate when it comes to culture.)
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I'm going to listen to it even though I've never watched nor had any desire to watch Pineapple Express. (Not available on streaming for anyone looking for it.)

I cannot understand Bill's shots at Chris, unless they're born of jealousy since Chris is the guy everybody wants to guest host on their pods, and Bill is the guy who invites himself on people's pods whether he has anything to add to them or not. In The Office terms, Chris is Jim Halpert and Bill is Michael Scott.
Pineapple Express is available on Netflix.
 

8slim

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1) It seems remarkably obvious that Bill, Chris and Sean are all very good friends. Bill is busting balls. Yeesh.

2) Pineapple Express stunk. Gonna pass on this one.
 

Remagellan

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Frankly I think they’re more shots at Andy than at Chris (sometimes the comment is you still cranking that hollywood podcast with Andy or variants therefore). It really seems like Bill kind of--and understandably--can't stand Andy for being a pretentious film guy and culture snoot (for example I was recently listening to an old rewatchables and Bill said to Chris apropos of pretty much nothing you know how there’s that one guy whose takes you can’t stand like me and Andy?) and I'm pretty sure it's evident to Bill that Andy kind of looks down at him. (I think it's also pretty clear that Andy does think Bill is a troglodyte when it comes to culture and, like some of us, finds it absurd that a 52 year old man can be, while fun and funny on a lot of topics, have such a limited palate when it comes to culture.)
That's a good point. I'm guessing it probably bothers Andy that Bill is not only dismissive of artsy films (I don't see him sitting in on Remains of the Day pod), but also is dismissive of certain genres of popular movies (MCU/DCU movies, Star Wars/sci-fi).
 

Bozo Texino

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I'm going to listen to it even though I've never watched nor had any desire to watch Pineapple Express. (Not available on streaming for anyone looking for it.)
2) Pineapple Express stunk. Gonna pass on this one.
What the hell? I mean, sure - to each his own. But I would've thought that the typical SoSHer would've enjoyed Pineapple Express.

I'm not a seasoned stoner, or anything - and I thought it was hilarious.
 

8slim

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What the hell? I mean, sure - to each his own. But I would've thought that the typical SoSHer would've enjoyed Pineapple Express.

I'm not a seasoned stoner, or anything - and I thought it was hilarious.
I tried. Just didn't do it for me. I don't know, I guess I stopped finding weed humor funny when I was a teenager. It's me.
 

Bozo Texino

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I tried. Just didn't do it for me. I don't know, I guess I stopped finding weed humor funny when I was a teenager. It's me.
I completely understand. It's not so much the stoner stuff for me as it is just the way the characters' dialogue is written. There are a bunch of throwaway lines that kill me.
 

johnmd20

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Frankly I think they’re more shots at Andy than at Chris (sometimes the comment is you still cranking that hollywood podcast with Andy or variants therefore). It really seems like Bill kind of--and understandably--can't stand Andy for being a pretentious film guy and culture snoot (for example I was recently listening to an old rewatchables and Bill said to Chris apropos of pretty much nothing you know how there’s that one guy whose takes you can’t stand like me and Andy?) and I'm pretty sure it's evident to Bill that Andy kind of looks down at him. (I think it's also pretty clear that Andy does think Bill is a troglodyte when it comes to culture and, like some of us, finds it absurd that a 52 year old man can be, while fun and funny on a lot of topics, have such a limited palate when it comes to culture.)
To be fair, Andy is awful and someone you can't listen to anymore because he's such a pretentious douche.

He's a host on a television podcast and he hates television. He does top ten lists at the end of the year and is like, "Here's my number 2 pick, I still have 6 episodes this season to watch. But it's the 2nd best show of the year."
 

Remagellan

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To be fair, Andy is awful and someone you can't listen to anymore because he's such a pretentious douche.

He's a host on a television podcast and he hates television. He does top ten lists at the end of the year and is like, "Here's my number 2 pick, I still have 6 episodes this season to watch. But it's the 2nd best show of the year."
In general, I like Andy, but these shots are on point.
 

Shelterdog

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To be fair, Andy is awful and someone you can't listen to anymore because he's such a pretentious douche.

He's a host on a television podcast and he hates television. He does top ten lists at the end of the year and is like, "Here's my number 2 pick, I still have 6 episodes this season to watch. But it's the 2nd best show of the year."
Andy is a pretentious douche--but so am I so I like him. I totally get why people despise him, and also know from hard earned experience that if you don't respect your bosses (unless you're somewhat sociopathic) they figure it out and hate you--and Andy working for a guy he doesn't respect _at all_ is probably a problem.
 

johnmd20

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Andy is a pretentious douche--but so am I so I like him. I totally get why people despise him, and also know from hard earned experience that if you don't respect your bosses (unless you're somewhat sociopathic) they figure it out and hate you--and Andy working for a guy he doesn't respect _at all_ is probably a problem.
Andy also has the resentment. Bill sold the Ringer for 100 million bucks while Andy's show was a truly bad TV show from top to bottom, despite a stellar cast.

So Andy watches Simmons become as rich as Crassus while he failed miserably. That's gotta sting. Andy is the worst archetype, in my opinion. He's a guy who thinks he's very funny but he's not funny at all. SoSH has some of those.
 

Shelterdog

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Andy also has the resentment. Bill sold the Ringer for 100 million bucks while Andy's show was a truly bad TV show from top to bottom, despite a stellar cast.

So Andy watches Simmons become as rich as Crassus while he failed miserably. That's gotta sting. Andy is the worst archetype, in my opinion. He's a guy who thinks he's very funny but he's not funny at all. SoSH has some of those.
As to Greenwald's comedy value--opinions vary. I personally think he is pretty funny but can see how a lot of people don't. While i'm probably in the top ten percent of Andy fans certainly some of the bits he thinks are charming--for example the "i don't watch tv" bit you mentioned or Daddington island or his humblebragging about going to fancy restaurants--aren't.

Certainly the dynamic of the successful rich guy hating being condescended to by the less successful intellectual who can't understand how this f'ing guy is a success is pretty common in life and, yup, you nailed that's clearly at play here.
 

Eric1984

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Hes a child of divorce that got shipped back and forth on a train between his parents’ houses. I’m divorced myself with kids so it’s not the end of the world but it’s also not easy on kids, and I’d imagine even harder on only children. My daughter wrote her college essay on overcoming the anxiety disorder she had that was largely spawned by being a child of divorce.
No shit. My parents lived 2 or 3 miles from each other so I got shipped back and forth every other night starting at 3 until I was a teenager when my mom moved to another state, then it was more like Simmons, except planes every few weeks instead of trains. But at least I had a brother going through it with me. And we both have severe anxiety and neither of us really feel like we had a real childhood home. His seeming obliviousness to anything dark is most likely a defense mechanism.
 

JRedburn

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Haven't seen Pineapple Express in forever, but thoroughly enjoyed the episode. It's been said here before, but Craig is a real talent -- I find him a better host for a Rewatchables than Chris Ryan. CR is A+++ as the 2nd guy, but when he hosts he loses his magic and is way too focused on getting through the categories and kills any momentum before it gets a chance to build.