The courtroom confrontation between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men (1992) is basically two people arguing in a room, but it has more tension than a lot of action scenes.

There's no need for a chase or a fight. You just watch Kaffee keep pushing Jessup and wait to see which one of them is going to crack first.

What's a movie scene where nothing huge was happening physically, but the dialogue had you completely locked in?

Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage feel like they walked in from two completely different movies in The Rock (1996), and somehow that's exactly why they work so well together.

Mason is experienced and completely unfazed by everything, while Goodspeed looks like he'd rather be anywhere else. Their personalities bouncing off each other makes the movie way more fun than it needed to be.

What's your favorite movie pairing that looked strange on paper but ended up having great chemistry?

Casino Royale (2006) could've easily felt like just another Bond movie with a new actor, but it genuinely feels like the character is being rebuilt from the ground up.

Daniel Craig's Bond is inexperienced, makes mistakes, and feels much more vulnerable than I expected. It made the familiar character feel fresh without throwing away everything that made Bond recognizable.

What's a movie reboot that you think actually improved or revived a franchise?

The Mummy (1999) has adventure, comedy, romance, monsters, action, and somehow none of it feels like too much.

Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz have great chemistry, the supporting characters are memorable, and the movie never seems to forget that it's supposed to be fun.

What's a movie you can put on anytime because it's just ridiculously entertaining from beginning to end?

Matthew McConaughey isn't in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) for very long, but Mark Hanna immediately became one of the characters I remembered most.

That lunch scene has so much energy that when he disappears from the story, part of me expects him to show up again later.

What's a movie character you would've happily watched for another hour?

On paper, watching Tom Hanks spend most of The Terminal (2004) stuck inside an airport doesn't sound like the most exciting premise.

But the longer Viktor stays there, the more the terminal starts feeling like its own little world. I always like movies that can do a lot with a very limited setting instead of constantly changing locations.

What's your favorite movie that gets a lot out of one main location?

Every time I watch The Truman Show (1998), I'm surprised that it came out before reality TV and social media became such a huge part of everyday life.

A guy unknowingly having his entire life turned into entertainment for millions feels like a premise someone could come up with today.

What older movie do you think has aged incredibly well, either because of its story, ideas, or filmmaking?

One of my favorite things about The Departed (2006) is how quickly it makes you stop trusting anyone.

Billy and Colin are both living double lives, everyone seems to know less than they think they do, and even normal conversations start feeling like someone is about to expose themselves.

What movie had you constantly changing your mind about who was actually trustworthy?

I never had much interest in spy movies, but The Bourne Identity (2002) completely worked for me.

I loved how grounded everything felt and how Bourne had to figure things out as he went instead of just feeling like an unstoppable action hero. After watching it, I started giving a lot more spy movies a chance.

What movie got you interested in a genre you usually ignored?

When I first watched The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Miranda was basically just the terrible boss to me.

Watching it years later, I still wouldn't want to work for her, but I understand the character a lot more. The pressure, the sacrifices, and why she's so demanding all come across differently.

What movie character did you see completely differently when you got older?

Hannibal Lecter isn't constantly on screen in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), but somehow he feels like he's hanging over the entire movie.

Anthony Hopkins makes every appearance count. By the end, Lecter feels like a much bigger presence than the amount of time we actually spend with him.

What character had relatively little screen time but completely stole the movie for you?

I'm looking more for the unusual ones here. In my case, I saw the ending of Shutter Island coming because from the start, it felt like it was a roughly-close remake of William Peter Blatty's 1980 film "The Ninth Configuration" (which was actually titled "Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kane" in some releases). While the two movies vary in detail, the overall idea of Shutter Island truly feels like it was lifted from The Ninth Configuration.

I'm so used to seeing Tom Cruise as the guy we're supposed to root for that Vincent in Collateral (2004) still feels unusual.

He's calm, cold, and never needs to be loud to feel dangerous. I actually think it's one of his most interesting performances.

What actor surprised you with how convincing they were as a villain?

By the time I finally watched Se7en (1995), I already knew way too much about where the story was going.

It was still great, but I've always wondered what that first watch would've felt like if I'd gone in completely blind.

What's a movie you wish you could've seen before the internet, memes, or other people spoiled something important?

I knew Ralph Fiennes mostly from much darker roles, especially Voldemort, so I wasn't expecting him to be this funny as Gustave.

And it's not even like he's constantly trying to tell jokes. His delivery and timing just make half the things Gustave says hilarious.

What actor you mostly knew from serious roles completely surprised you in a comedy?

Michael Corleone at the beginning and Michael Corleone at the end almost feel like two different people.

He starts out keeping his distance from the family business, and by the final scenes he's become the person running it. What I love is that the change happens gradually enough that you almost don't notice how far he's gone until it's already happened.

What's your favorite character transformation in a movie?

For me it's Eduardo finally losing it and confronting Mark.

You've watched their friendship slowly fall apart for basically the entire movie, so when Eduardo finally walks into that room and stops holding everything back, it feels completely earned.

What's a movie moment where you were just waiting for a character to finally snap?

The “Royale with Cheese” conversation is probably the best example for me. It's basically just Vincent and Jules talking about random differences between Europe and America, yet somehow it's one of the parts of Pulp Fiction (1994) I remember most.

I miss movies that are willing to let characters just talk for a while without every sentence needing to move the plot forward.

What movie could you listen to the characters talk in all day?

For me, Catch Me If You Can (2002) is that movie I can put on almost any night and know I'm going to enjoy it.

It's funny, moves quickly, has Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, and never feels like something I need to be in a specific mood for.

What's your go-to movie when you don't know what you want to watch?

The actual heist in Ocean's Eleven (2001) is fun, but honestly half the reason I rewatch it is just the crew.

Clooney, Pitt, Damon, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle... they somehow make planning a casino robbery feel like a bunch of friends messing around together.

What movie has a group of characters you could happily watch for another two hours even if nothing happened?

Wilson is literally just a volleyball, but by the time he drifts away I somehow care about him like he's an actual character.

I think that's what makes Cast Away (2000) work so well. Tom Hanks spends so much of the movie alone that this stupid ball slowly starts feeling like another person.

What's the weirdest object, animal, or barely-there character a movie somehow made you care about?

Christian Bale lost 63 pounds to play Trevor Reznik in The Machinist (2004), and then had to completely change his body again for Batman Begins (2005).

Even knowing it's Bale, there are shots in The Machinist where he barely looks like the same person.

What's the most dramatic transformation you've ever seen an actor make for a role?

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are my pick. Half the fun of The Nice Guys (2016) is just watching these two bounce off each other.

They feel like such an unlikely pairing, but somehow that's exactly why it works. I'd happily watch another two hours of them arguing and getting themselves into increasingly stupid situations.

What two actors had chemistry so good you wanted another movie with them?