Speaker 1: We all want to stay in the know, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to our money. With the US Bank Smartly Suite,
Speaker 1: you take control and make confident money moves while staying
Speaker 1: connected to your finances. The US Bank Smartley Suite lets
Speaker 1: you bundle your checking, savings, and credit card in one place,
Speaker 1: working together to give you more. As part of the
Speaker 1: US Bank Smartley Suite, you'll unlock tailored rates and rewards
Speaker 1: just by bundling your accounts. Switch today and get financial
Speaker 1: tools built to grow with you. When our Bank Smartly
Speaker 1: solutions meet your financial goals, we are stronger together. That's
Speaker 1: the power of US member fdic Hey.
Speaker 2: Film Spotters Josh and Adam. Here. Wednesdays are when we
Speaker 2: usually share a show from the Film Spotting Archive, but
Speaker 2: this week we're going to do something a little different.
Speaker 2: We're going to share just a little bit of our
Speaker 2: October Bonus Show. Of course, bonus shows we do these
Speaker 2: monthly for Film Spotting family members. This one was a
Speaker 2: Tom Cruise draft with you and me, Adam, producer Sam
Speaker 2: and listener Zach Cook, who actually chose the topic.
Speaker 3: Yes he did. We always do a draft in October.
Speaker 3: The Bonus show is always a listener proposed draft. We
Speaker 3: choose a Film Spotting family member at random, and they
Speaker 3: usually suggest two options. We discuss internally which one of
Speaker 3: those two we want to do. And it was Zach's
Speaker 3: first choice the Tom Cruise draft that one out. I
Speaker 3: don't know how much as we're recording this, I don't
Speaker 3: know how much of the draft exactly that producer Sam
Speaker 3: is going to offer you. You're probably going to hear, though, listener,
Speaker 3: Zach Cook break Josh's heart with his first pick. You
Speaker 3: might also hear Josh break my heart with his second pick,
Speaker 3: or maybe not. You might have to actually be a
Speaker 3: family member and listen to the entire draft to get
Speaker 3: all that.
Speaker 2: What I'm pretty sure you won't hear, probably because he'll
Speaker 2: edit it out, is Sam with his last pick or two,
Speaker 2: just going absolutely into Looney Tune's territory. So, you know,
Speaker 2: Film Spotting family members they get that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. Though honestly, I don't mind Sam's fifth
Speaker 3: choice so much. It's his fourth choice, and I'll tease
Speaker 3: it a little bit and give a hint and say
Speaker 3: that it's it's his choice of the best of a
Speaker 3: certain franchise Tom Cruise that I think I think would
Speaker 3: surprise he might surprise a lot of listeners. That's the
Speaker 3: one that befuddled me. And you could find out what
Speaker 3: we're talking about if you get to hear that entire draft.
Speaker 3: So you can hear that full draft all twenty picks
Speaker 3: by becoming a member of the Film Spotting Family at
Speaker 3: Filmspotting Family dot com. But we're gonna give you some
Speaker 3: of those picks right now. What kind of a show
Speaker 3: you guys putting on here today?
Speaker 4: You're not interested in armed Now, Look, we're going to
Speaker 4: do this thing. We're going to have a conversation.
Speaker 3: Everyone to Film Spotting Family Bonus content. October twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: It is draft time we have with us. Josh Larson
Speaker 3: coming to us from Scotland. How are you today, Josh.
Speaker 2: I'm living the dream. It's it's mid day for this recording,
Speaker 2: rather than you know, end of the night, which is
Speaker 2: what we've been doing lately. So unfortunately you guys are
Speaker 2: taking the hit though, you early birds.
Speaker 3: I haven't even had my coffee yet. The earliest recording,
Speaker 3: I think, in Film Spotting history, I was going to
Speaker 3: ask twenty plus years Sam, no show has been recorded
Speaker 3: this early in the morning. How are you doing.
Speaker 5: I'm doing I'm doing great. This is probably ideal for
Speaker 5: me too. I'm never so sharp as I am at
Speaker 5: seven am. I have definitely had my coffee, I've walked
Speaker 5: the dog. I was, I've been up since five thirty,
Speaker 5: so we're good. Let's do this. Oh my god, No,
Speaker 5: I'm I don't know how it's going to go. I'm
Speaker 5: feeling very cruise. I'm up early. I didn't I didn't
Speaker 5: couldn't do any push ups.
Speaker 3: You're very wired. Yeah, I don't know how I'm going
Speaker 3: to do. Of course, I of course didn't have all
Speaker 3: my notes prepared, so not for the draft for our show,
Speaker 3: which which we're recording after. I have no notes for
Speaker 3: the Cruise draft. And that means that I went to
Speaker 3: bed on edge. I had to wake up extra early
Speaker 3: to get prepared for the show, and that means that
Speaker 3: it was just like when you have to catch an
Speaker 3: early morning flight. I woke up around twice every hour. Yes,
Speaker 3: I did not get any sleep. So you're collateral.
Speaker 2: Cruise mode is what we're gonna am.
Speaker 5: That's exactly, but you exactly get You get to pick first,
Speaker 5: so you shouldn't be that grouchy.
Speaker 3: I do. I do well let's let's welcome in our guests. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we we do have with us. Zach Cook. Are you
Speaker 3: are you in Chicago or Chicago Land, Zach?
Speaker 4: I am in Chicago.
Speaker 3: Wonderful, Okay, Okay, great, Zach. We are pleased, Zachah, We're
Speaker 3: pleased to have you with us. Give family members a
Speaker 3: little bit of background. How long have you been listening
Speaker 3: to the show, maybe, how you got into the show,
Speaker 3: and how long have you been a family member?
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 6: I was introduced to the show by my wife back
Speaker 6: in two thousand and eleven Medie Ballgame era, and I
Speaker 6: have basically listened faithfully ever since.
Speaker 7: Amateur, very amateur film critic, but love the show. I've
Speaker 7: been a proud Film Spotting Family plus member since.
Speaker 4: Twenty twenty three.
Speaker 7: It did occur to me like, when I was thinking
Speaker 7: about this draft, I need something that I could actually
Speaker 7: draft with you guys.
Speaker 4: Maybe wouldn't take that much advance preparation.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I thought you might appreciate that draft, Tom Cruise.
Speaker 5: We've all seen a lot of crew well, yeah, love it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You were randomly chosen from all the family members
Speaker 3: who raised their hand and said, hey, I'd love to
Speaker 3: be part of a draft and here you are. We
Speaker 3: always go to our quiz master, Thomas Todd to decide
Speaker 3: the draft order. I'm not sure I've ever won on
Speaker 3: this before me once, but I'm not sure I've ever
Speaker 3: picked first, and lo and behold this time. The question
Speaker 3: was great, great Christian question question Thomas, of course cruise related.
Speaker 3: The question was the box contained, Oh, I'm sorry. The
Speaker 3: question was I don't have the question in front of me,
Speaker 3: I have the answer in front of me. The question
Speaker 3: was essentially how many toothpicks fell on the floor in
Speaker 3: rain Man? How many toothpicks did did Raymond identify? Did
Speaker 3: he count? Of course, without counting, he just knew how
Speaker 3: many toothpicks were on the floor. He immediately calculated the
Speaker 3: right number. We had to, of course, without looking it up.
Speaker 3: We had to remember from our many viewings of rain Man.
Speaker 3: We had to identify that number. And Zach, you said,
Speaker 3: eighty seven. You will be picking fourth, Zach.
Speaker 4: Zach, yes, I have, but not in a while.
Speaker 3: It's been a little while. Songs, I'm sure, Yeah, Sam,
Speaker 3: a little closer one hundred and eighty two, Josh, way closer,
Speaker 3: two hundred and twenty five. You'll be picking second, Yeah, Sam, third,
Speaker 3: and I said two sixty two the correct answer. The
Speaker 3: box contained two hundred and fifty tooth picks. There were
Speaker 3: two hundred and forty six on the floor, four left
Speaker 3: in the box. So Josh, we were we were off
Speaker 3: by five. You were you were minus twenty one. I
Speaker 3: was plus sixteen. Very narrow margin there.
Speaker 2: I'm somewhat shocked, and I want to ask, did you
Speaker 2: know this or have an instinct of where to go immediately?
Speaker 2: Did you sit and think about it for a while,
Speaker 2: because I can't explain this.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: It came three seconds after I saw Thomas's question. And
Speaker 2: I am not a rain man, like I think. I
Speaker 2: saw it when it came out, and maybe once a
Speaker 2: couple of years after that. So something mysterious was happening
Speaker 2: that I managed to even get this close.
Speaker 3: I I did the same thing where I had an
Speaker 3: immediate answer, like I could hear it in my head.
Speaker 3: Now it turns out I had the wrong number. It
Speaker 3: was what I should have been hearing was forty six.
Speaker 3: You know, I could hear Dustin Hoffman in toning it.
Speaker 3: What I was hearing was. What I was hearing was
Speaker 3: obviously more like sixty two and I think my first
Speaker 3: answer was five hundred and sixty two, and that's what
Speaker 3: I had in my head, and I was about to
Speaker 3: answer that, and then then I realized, wait, there's not
Speaker 3: going to be there's probably not going to be five
Speaker 3: hundred toothpicks in a box. That seems high, you know,
Speaker 3: And so I went, I went two hundred and sixty two,
Speaker 3: and I just I could hear that in my head.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: Of course again I was wrong, but I was close.
Speaker 3: Now when I looked it up after that, I got
Speaker 3: very nervous because I thought Josh is gonna have no clue.
Speaker 3: I thought Josh would just have no like, there's no
Speaker 3: way you would pull this from raining. You had no recollection,
Speaker 3: you'd have no starting point. And so what I thought
Speaker 3: you would do is is you would go back to
Speaker 3: the speed of a spotting. You'd say two thirty seven,
Speaker 3: and you'd be four off.
Speaker 2: Oh man, if only my brain worked that way. No,
Speaker 2: I just I had my own instantaneous rain Man moment.
Speaker 3: A question I can say, impressive. Okay, so the way
Speaker 3: we're going to do this, and we are, we're not
Speaker 3: gonna rush, but we're under a little bit of a
Speaker 3: time crunch because As we said, it's early in the morning.
Speaker 3: We all have things to do today, and we do
Speaker 3: have an entire show to record after this, myself and Josh,
Speaker 3: A big one. We're just gonna, yeah, a big one.
Speaker 3: We're just gonna draft straight. We're not doing any special categories.
Speaker 3: We've done some drafts in the past where we've we've
Speaker 3: aped the Ringer style where you had to pick a
Speaker 3: blockbuster and a comedy and a drama or things like that,
Speaker 3: maybe cruise decades or something. No, straight up cruise films.
Speaker 3: We're going through them. We're doing five rounds, four of us,
Speaker 3: so twenty cruise films total. La Serpentine. There you go, Serpentine.
Speaker 3: The only stipulation, even though it almost surely would have
Speaker 3: worked out this way anyway, is you can only pick
Speaker 3: one mission impossible film.
Speaker 4: Fair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean so we don't have the time to
Speaker 2: get into it. But I resent the restrictions. I don't
Speaker 2: know how Zach feels. What do you care if I
Speaker 2: want five impossible Zach.
Speaker 3: Zach is the one who suggested it, and Sam and
Speaker 3: I are on board. So you're out voted, Zach.
Speaker 2: Okay, Zach, you explain yourself then, why the rules just.
Speaker 7: We got to pick a broader range of Cruise films here.
Speaker 4: We can't here on Mission Impossibles.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you just you just wanted us to touch
Speaker 2: on all different areas of his career just for interest's sake, variety, Josh, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's fine. Maybe I won't pick any problem is get
Speaker 2: back at you.
Speaker 5: There's two great films and then it's a drop off
Speaker 5: to Mission Impossibles. So really, I I just don't know
Speaker 5: the best way to do this.
Speaker 2: But but Sam, we have to think about this in
Speaker 2: the context of Cruise in those films, which I'm sure
Speaker 2: will come up when impossible film.
Speaker 4: Are you picking it for the.
Speaker 2: Film or are you picking it because of Cruz's contribution particularly,
Speaker 2: And so I can't think that's the question.
Speaker 3: Well that is a great segue into my number one pick.
Speaker 3: And of course this is tough because I'm really bad
Speaker 3: at math. With the Serpentine, I don't pick until what
Speaker 3: pick eighth again, No, I think it's like pick eight
Speaker 3: and then I get two back to back. But I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna pick for a while. I don't think the
Speaker 3: film I'm inclined to go with. I don't think it's
Speaker 3: gonna get picked. I could be wrong. I don't know
Speaker 3: what Zach's feelings are about this moviees it's what this movie.
Speaker 3: I don't know what his feelings are about this movie.
Speaker 3: I should say that's always the wild card when you
Speaker 3: have guests on, but I can't imagine it would be
Speaker 3: here back at eight And anyway, I just want to
Speaker 3: go with my heart. I think there's a top tier
Speaker 3: of three cruise movies, and it really comes down to
Speaker 3: two for me that are my favorite, and those two
Speaker 3: I'll go ahead and say it. It's no surprise. Sam,
Speaker 3: you for sure could say it. I think Josh you
Speaker 3: could to. Those two are Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut. Yeah,
Speaker 3: those are my two favorite films that Tom Cruise stars in,
Speaker 3: and what I've decided, both nineteen ninety nine films. So
Speaker 3: this is a nineteen ninety nine cruise draft, Cruise Draft
Speaker 3: Crew two Pete Cruise, And if if I was just
Speaker 3: doing an incinerator pick between those two, I think I'd
Speaker 3: go Magnolia. But this is a Tom Cruise draft, and
Speaker 3: as good as I think Cruise is in Magnolia, Eyes
Speaker 3: Wide Shut is more the cruise vehicle. I think that
Speaker 3: he is obviously more essential to that Kubrick film than
Speaker 3: he is as part of the ensemble in Magnolia, and
Speaker 3: I think he is legitimately great as is Kidman in
Speaker 3: Eyes Wide Shut. I think that was a crucial film
Speaker 3: obviously for Cruz to cement himself as a legitimate I
Speaker 3: think a lot of us probably felt that he was
Speaker 3: he was a legitimate actor at that point, but we
Speaker 3: knew that he could deliver as a serious actor once
Speaker 3: we saw Eyes Wide Shut. And that is my number
Speaker 3: one pick.
Speaker 2: I love it Eyes Wide Shut. Off the board, Okay,
Speaker 2: I think this is going to work out well for
Speaker 2: me just because of the particular approach that I'm taking,
Speaker 2: which might be a little different we'll see from Adam
Speaker 2: and maybe for the other two of you. I think
Speaker 2: Cruise is a very good actor, quite a good actor.
Speaker 2: I think he's an all time entertainer. So for a
Speaker 2: list like this, I'm going with the performances that most
Speaker 2: entertained me, and part of that is to distinguish from
Speaker 2: the list we did Adam. I think this was twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: maybe twenty eighteen, our top five Tom Cruise performances, where
Speaker 2: I'll probably hopefully get one or two from that list,
Speaker 2: But I didn't want to mimic that, which was something
Speaker 2: exactly what it says. This is him at his best
Speaker 2: instead of best, however you might define that. I asked myself, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm watching a Tom Cruise movie right now, what is
Speaker 2: it going to be? Because I do think it's not
Speaker 2: just that approach for me or for Mood. I do
Speaker 2: think that's getting at sort of his essential quality as
Speaker 2: one of the great movie stars. Now I say all that,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to waffle a bit with my first pick.
Speaker 2: I'm going to contradict myself here, but I think only
Speaker 2: a little bit, because Jerry maguire is an extremely exhilaratingly
Speaker 2: entertaining Tom Cruise movie. But also, and here's where I'm
Speaker 2: contradicting myself, the reason it was my number one Tom
Speaker 2: Cruise performance when we did that list is because I
Speaker 2: do think it's his best. So it's combining those two qualities,
Speaker 2: and this cocky sports agent that you know, it leans
Speaker 2: on his star persona incredibly punctures it just a bit.
Speaker 2: It's not a deconstruction entirely, but is doing something different
Speaker 2: than maybe those earlier star turns or some other star
Speaker 2: turns he would give later it's self aware, I would say,
Speaker 2: without being self sabotaging. And that's where the entertainment for
Speaker 2: me comes in. So I'm gonna grab Jerry Maguire here
Speaker 2: at the top.
Speaker 5: Love this, Love this. As soon as you went with
Speaker 5: eyes White Shot, Adam, I knew the door was open
Speaker 5: for Josh to make a massive blunder, and I just
Speaker 5: love it.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: I didn't think there was a chance I would get
Speaker 5: it Magnolia. But but but I'm going to But I
Speaker 5: will preface it by by saying that I wondered. This
Speaker 5: will be a strange phrasing, but I think it's answering
Speaker 5: maybe the question that that Josh just answered where it
Speaker 5: occurred to me last night. I was like, is there
Speaker 5: any good to great Cruise film where he's the best
Speaker 5: thing about it? And there are some I realize. My
Speaker 5: default was like, I'm not sure, because he's such a
Speaker 5: delivery device for entertainment. I have totally bought into the
Speaker 5: Cruise as last movie star narrative. I kind of love it,
Speaker 5: and it's helped that there's been this great run of
Speaker 5: Mission Impossible movies or good to great or good to
Speaker 5: very good. I loved Cruse's sincerity about his work. I
Speaker 5: love his work ethic. I love his emotional commitment, which
Speaker 5: is which is different sometimes than acting, I think. But
Speaker 5: I do think he's very good. He's very good at
Speaker 5: being Tom Cruise. I like him. I like watching him
Speaker 5: on screen almost every time.
Speaker 3: That's his best role. You're saying Tom Cruise, Yes, that's right,
Speaker 3: he's very good at.
Speaker 5: So I will say it's like Cruse is maybe my
Speaker 5: I don't know tenth favorite thing about Magnolia. He's very good,
Speaker 5: so you know, using Josh's criteria, it's a bit of
Speaker 5: a cheap, but it's like it's it's depending on the day,
Speaker 5: my favorite PTA or like my emotional response favorite PTA.
Speaker 5: I also wondered if I could maybe grab one battle
Speaker 5: after another. Here for Cruise being invoked by Ben cl
Speaker 5: del Toro as he tosses Leo out the window. But
Speaker 5: if that's not fair, Yeah, I'm going to take Magnolia, no,
Speaker 5: no doubt. I didn't think there was a chance I
Speaker 5: was going to get it. I'm thrilled. And I said
Speaker 5: it because.
Speaker 3: You thought I would take it, for sure.
Speaker 5: I thought you would take Josh.
Speaker 3: I didn't think Josh would take That's what I mean
Speaker 3: I knew it's not.
Speaker 5: I thought you were going to take Magnolia, Adam, and
Speaker 5: then I knew Josh would take Icewead shut. That's how
Speaker 5: I thought it would go. But as soon as you didn't,
Speaker 5: the door was open.
Speaker 3: So there were right Zach, all right number four.
Speaker 4: So I had a little advantage at least with Adam
Speaker 4: and Josh. You all have been somewhat on the.
Speaker 7: Record with some of your top five cruise performances, so
Speaker 7: I was able to do a little research there, and
Speaker 7: I agree these were the top three year oll. I
Speaker 7: figured I probably was not going to get any of these,
Speaker 7: but I'm actually happy drafting four and five because there's
Speaker 7: still some really good stuff here that.
Speaker 4: I can pair it.
Speaker 7: You know, probably from a pure acting perspective, the role
Speaker 7: I should be taking here would be ron Kovic born
Speaker 7: on the fourth of July. But I have not seen
Speaker 7: that movie in a long time. I have seen it,
Speaker 7: but I did not get a chance to catch up
Speaker 7: with the homework to watch.
Speaker 4: The full movie.
Speaker 7: And I know, Adam and Josh you just did your
Speaker 7: whole recollection. That feels like a movie that belongs to.
Speaker 4: One of you.
Speaker 7: Perhaps what I did get to do was from research
Speaker 7: for this process, which was really thrilling. I went back.
Speaker 7: I said, I'm going to go for iconic Cruise roles.
Speaker 7: If I'm not going to get the absolute best, I'm
Speaker 7: kind of competing with you, Josh. I'm going to get
Speaker 7: the roles that just scream Tom Cruise and everyone thinks
Speaker 7: Tom Cruise.
Speaker 4: That are also good performances. I love this movie, and
Speaker 4: I can't believe I hadn't seen it.
Speaker 7: This was my breakthrough for going on this draft. I
Speaker 7: finally sat down and I watched Risky Business, sad movie,
Speaker 7: and frighteningly still crushed timely, forty plus years later. I
Speaker 7: just blown away by how good this movie was and
Speaker 7: how good Cruise is in it too.
Speaker 4: It's a perfect vestial for him.
Speaker 7: So I'm taking Risky Business and then I'll, you know,
Speaker 7: speed things up here. I'm going to pair that with
Speaker 7: another iconic Cruise movie. I did a little market research
Speaker 7: privately with my Facebook friends. He's actually a little contained
Speaker 7: in that movie Risky Business, which is kind of great.
Speaker 7: So I want Unhinged Famous Cruise two. So I'm just
Speaker 7: taking it while it's here. I'll take a few good
Speaker 7: men as well to start rounding out my list. I'm
Speaker 7: looking for the Cruise roles that I do like and
Speaker 7: that are, as you say, just supremely entertaining. Maybe not
Speaker 7: as best acting performances, but what we think of when
Speaker 7: we think of Drews.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely going to Cruise.
Speaker 2: We are going to be rivals. Zach, I didn't A
Speaker 2: Few Good Men was lower on my board, but Risky
Speaker 2: Business was one I really wanted also for the period
Speaker 2: of his career. You know, just a movie where you
Speaker 2: can see him becoming Tom Cruise before your very eyes.
Speaker 2: It is like, whoa, this guy is going to be enormous.
Speaker 2: And as you said, I revisited it a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago, and the whole film is incredibly solid. It's
Speaker 2: not just like one of these breakouts where it's a
Speaker 2: breakout because of the star at the center. It's a
Speaker 2: really interesting movie doing provocative things that just happened to
Speaker 2: birth Tom Cruise as we would come to know him.
Speaker 3: Yep, h Sam, Josh. How about Zach's approach, He's like
Speaker 3: that pick feels like it belongs to one of you guys.
Speaker 3: That's not how drafts are supposed to work.
Speaker 2: No, too nice, Zach, too nice?
Speaker 3: Too nice? You're gonna lose. I finished, Josh, I gave it.
Speaker 4: Then I take that's true.
Speaker 3: That's true, you take risky business. He was crushed just
Speaker 3: so this could.
Speaker 2: Get dicey between the two of us as things proceed.
Speaker 3: Zach, you do get monthly bonus shows as one of
Speaker 3: the benefits of joining the film Spotting Family. That was
Speaker 3: a blast, Josh. We love those drafts with listeners, don't
Speaker 3: we for sure? Yeah. To hear that draft and to
Speaker 3: become a member learn more at film spotting Family dot com.
Speaker 3: Film Spotting is listeners supported. Join the film Spotting Family
Speaker 3: at film spotting family dot com and get access to
Speaker 3: ad free episodes, monthly bonus shows, our weekly newsletter, and,
Speaker 3: for the first time, all in one place, the entire
Speaker 3: film spotting archive going back to two thousand and five.
Speaker 3: That's a film spotting Family dot com panically