Episode 86 - Christmas Special Year Two (Christmas Vacation) - Middle Age Movie Reviews Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Electronic Media Collective podcast network. Yeah,
it's a mouthful. For more great shows like the one
you're about to enjoy, visit Electronic Media Collective dot com
and now our feature presentation.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello, welcome to the Elates Movies Podcast. Poor guys saying,
where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving, nobody's walking
out of this funnel fashion family Christmas.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, No, we're all in this together. This is a
full blown four alarm out emergency here. We're gonna press
on it. We're gonna have a happiest Christmas. Is Big
Crosby tap Dance with Daddy Fucking.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
K and we're Santa Squeezes is fat Ass down the
Jimmy to night. He's gonna find the jolliest bunch of
assholes this side of the nuthouse. My name is Tim,
and my podcasting partners who are staying.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Are Mary, Matt, Joey and Dungeon Master Rick.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
All Right, Joey, why don't you tell us what Christmas Blackbuster.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
We're watching tonight?

Speaker 4 (01:07):
Tonight we are watching the nineteen eighty nine movie National
Lampoons Christmas Vacation, a movie that is tragically missing from
the Book of one thousand and one Movies You Should
Watch Before You Die, written by John Hughes, directed by
Jeremiah s Checchik and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly DiAngelo, Juliette Lewis,

(01:28):
Jonathan Galecki, and Rendy Quaid. Maybe I was supposed to
say Johnny Gillecky Was he Johnny back then?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Before the Big Bang? He's always been Johnny.

Speaker 5 (01:39):
Yeah, ever since his days of Roseanne and.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Before I thought it was Jonathan all right, huh, not
to be confused with Johnny Rico. When the fuck are
we going to review Starship Troopers? Woo, That's what I wand.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
We determined it was tragically removed from the Book of
a thousand.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
It's coming up next, man, I think that should be
the first of the year.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Joey, thanks for that wonderful intro and that wonderful sidetrack. So, guys,
I'm looking forward to diving into the splendid eggnog that
is Christmas Vacation. But first, I would like to know
when our youngest partner, Rick first saw this third film
of the Vacation series.

Speaker 6 (02:20):
I think I probably saw this when I was in
my teens. I just like many movies of this age bracket,
I seen them watching cable TV and I ended up
watching I watched a lot of movies on cable TV
and like USA and TNT and later when Spike came

(02:42):
out and stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
So probably this was a USA one, and I've seen
it a bunch of times.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
It's before we started recording, I was saying that this
is one of my wife's favorite It is certainly my
wife's favorite Christmas movie.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Awesome.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
Yeah, I gotta say this is definitely a classic and
wonder why it's not in the book.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
But before I.

Speaker 5 (03:03):
Get into my thoughts on that, Tim, when you weren't
watching Seinfeld, when did you first watch with Christmas Vacation.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Man.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
I want to say I went to the movies to
see this, but I'm almost positive I didn't.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
This had to be a blockbuster night.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
I'm pretty sure I probably caught this the following year
on a VHS rental.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
Ever since then, I have watched this movie religiously.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
This is one of my all time favorite Christmas and
probably the best of the Vacation series. I mean, don't
get me wrong, there's some really great moments in some
of those, but it's nothing tops this form.

Speaker 5 (03:35):
You know what, Hand to God, Tim, I am the
same way. I had to say that it's up there
as like probably like my top five favorite Christmas films.
What about you, Joey, when was the first time you
hopped in that RV when the Shitter was Full and
watched this film?

Speaker 4 (03:49):
I think I saw it at the theaters, but I
would have been very young, and it wasn't like nineteen
to eighty nine Batman, where like I begged people to
take me to see it and I saw it six
times at the theater. It wasn't anything like that. I
think I have a very vague memory of seeing it
at the theater, but I mostly remember seeing it on
home video, like over and over again. I think we

(04:10):
eventually had an official VHS, but I think we had
a boot leg from the Kid down the Street taping
off cable first. It just like it's quoted at the
dinner table, like every time we get together and someone
asks to say Grace, they go.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Grace, she died thirty years ago.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
It's you know, the shitter's full, and it's to the
point where, like I'm annoyed when people bring it up
because it's almost like they're doing a disservice to it
because the movie is so good.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
It's not my favorite Christmas movie.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
My favorite Christmas movie because it's one of my favorite
movies is It's a Wonderful Life. But I have to
say that this is very very close, like I'm really
torn like between like this and a Christmas story. It's
hard to say I'm a huge fan of this. I
remember my sister's friend worked at the movie theater and

(04:57):
she got us like some things that were like promotionals
stuff like it was almost almost all of it was
posters except for a cardboard cutout a Clark Griswold, like
it's a drawing, a representation something it doesn't happen in
the movie. But he's got kind of like it's all
his arms are like in, legs are out kind of
like an X. Let's say he's getting kind of electrocuted
by some Christmas lights. I just bought a magnet at

(05:20):
five below that has this movie poster art on it,
but it was just to cut out of him from
the poster. His arms were already folded over when we
got it, like like she couldn't fit in her car
or something like that.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Even know, I'm that big. I remember he felt folded
at the middle and eventually his arms were folded, so
he wasn't worth anything, but he was in our basement
for the longest time. And if you have.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
One of those mint conditions now, it's it's rather expensive.
I think the only other thing that's more expensive related
to this movie is the Tasmanian Davil mug that he
has from the Warner Brothers store, because they around the
time the movie came out, that was when they're starting
to stop sell it, and so like, it's really hard
to find. And that Tasmanian Devil cup it might have

(06:00):
been from pause. I'm not sure they made all kinds
of mugs and collectibles back then.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Got it Okay?

Speaker 5 (06:08):
Well, so I have to go with the same format
as Joey. I definitely seen this first on VHS. I
have to say that it was probably a year after
it came out in the theaters because I remember my parents
renting it because my mom was a bit of a
Chevy Chase fan, and we wound up watching it several

(06:28):
times and it became a regular feature in our Christmas
viewing throughout Christmas, even Christmas Day. So yeah, I think
the first time I watched this was on VHS. Hecky
tim Well as our resident director of food additives. What
are you going to request for a synopsis tonight?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
All right, Matthew, Tonight I'm going to give you Christmas gifts.
I'm gonna let you off the hook. I think tonight
I'm going to make Joey read this because I feel
like it might be in his wheelhouse. So, Joey, if
you would be so kind as to provide this Christmas
present from me to Matthew, I would like you to
read the synopsis as Clark Griswold as he angrily declares

(07:08):
what would make a great last minute gift for him.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
So many view are looking for any last minute gift
ideas for me, I have one. Since planning this big
family Christmas get together for everyone, I have busted my
butt to find the perfect Christmas tree, only to be
taunted by the neighbors, have it catch on fire, did
have my house invaded by tree dwelling rats.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
I tried to.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Brighten holidays with a dazzling twenty five thousand light display,
which caused me to fall down ladders the roof and
then discover they will not lie.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
I am surrounded by family members who do nothing but argue, complain.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
And take advantage of my hospitality. And to that unwelcome dog,
cat and motor home that has scorched my carpet, destroyed
my furniture, and caused an explosion in the sewer in
front of my house. But the final straw that broke the.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Nativity camel's back is my company is not driving any
Christmas poonuses this year. So if you want to get
me something this year, I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss,
right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy
holiday slumber over.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
There on Melody Lay with all the other rich people,
and I want him brought right here with a big
ribbon on his head, and I want to look him
straight in the eye.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
I don't want to tell him what a cheap buying,
no good, rotten for fashion, low life snake living dart
eating in bread, over stuffed, ignorant, blood sucking, dog kissing, brainless, dicklous, hopeless, heartless, fatass,
bug eyed, stiffy, spotty look word headed sack of monkey shit.
He is Halleujah, holy shit. Where's the Tland home? Maggie

(08:55):
Chris Matthew Allay.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
And the Academy Award for Most Dramatic Scene goes.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
That was fantastic, man, Yeah, it was. Well.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
If you wonder why I didn't trip up at the end,
it's because I've seen that part so many.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
I got that one. I'm not going to compare the
Cadence because I didn't. I didn't get to practice.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
So no, no, no, no, that was that was pretty
good man.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I'm that epicy. You took it.

Speaker 5 (09:35):
You made it your own, and you get I mean
the way you gave those pauses and everything that's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
That would chef's kiss awesome.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
I'm hoping that I directed away from the microphone when
I was really yelling and hoping that I didn't get
too hot. No, no, you didn't actually okay, cool, And
then I tried to get close when I was lowering
my voice.

Speaker 5 (09:56):
Yeah, you did a great job there, Joey. I am impressed,
so impressed. I'm willing to give over the synopsis reins.

Speaker 7 (10:05):
For a year to you if you want. You're done
as long as I get to rewrite him. Sometimes i'll
need twenty four hours.

Speaker 5 (10:17):
Speaking of scripts, I noticed that this movie is is
written by John Hughes, although not directed by him. And
I gotta say, walk going into this, it feels a
little bit like a John Hughes film.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
What did you guys think?

Speaker 5 (10:30):
I mean, it's it's it is set in Chicago, so.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
It's got everything except John Candy as a cameo.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, I mean, it's totally John Hughes film. You can
you can just feel it. I don't think you realize
that a first, but once you realize that he wrote it,
you're like, oh, oh oh yeah that makes total sense,
Like that's why.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
This feels so comfortable.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yeah about how about you, Rick, did you feel any
of that John Hughes glow, that that teen angst?

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (10:56):
I am not too familiar with John Hughes as a person,
but I'm looking through the things that he has made
and this is this is like right up the alley man,
all this stuff Uncle Buck and Ferris Bueler's Day Off
and all that, and yeah, it has this setting quite right.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
How were you in the eighties? Ready? And man, we
gonna talk about that.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I guess that explains it, because man, if you're an
eighties kid, totally can relate every one of those movies
is just yeah, yeah, we grew up with every one
of them, Ferris Bueler's Day Off, sixteen Cans, Breakfast Club,
all that.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, I seen all of.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Those and even later after that, you know Uncle Buck
Plain Streams and Aumobiles and me, oh, I just just
has that John Hughes cadence to it.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
This is set in Chicago, and it just it misses
the Shechrmer High School and I think it would fit
into the John Hughes universe.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
I don't know much about the director, are you guys familiar,
because this first time I've ever even heard of that guy,
But man, did he do this movie Justice?

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:59):
I almost thought that maybe his name was like a
palindrome or a.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Pseudent is a.

Speaker 5 (12:06):
Pseudonym, So yeah, I didn't do it very much digging
on him. But yeah, it feels like a classic National Lampoons.
I mean, I would almost like think that it was
Harold Ramus directing it. The way that things were kind
of laid out, much like European Vacation or National Lampoon
on Vacation.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean it, I
mean it definitely feels like with a vacation films. He
definitely did well with that, you know, and it's probably
easy to direct these. I mean, we all know chevy
Chase is notorious for being horrible actor to deal with.
I just, you know, a horrible person in general, not
a very easy person to get along with. So to
pull that kind of forests out of him, you you
really got to bring your a game, I think, because

(12:46):
there are several directors that turn this down strictly because
they didn't want to work with chevy Chase.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
Yeah, you know what the irony is because he's built
such a bad rep for himself, even in his senior years,
as being difficult on community. He presents this movie on
a road tour and then does a Q and A afterward.
Those are those are his steady gigs I'd see.

Speaker 5 (13:07):
I think I've seen something on YouTube about him, you know,
presenting this movie a couple of years ago, when you know,
Randy Quid kind of fell off the grid and went
to Canada and got all kookie and crazy, and Quaid
showed up to one of the Q and as and
you could see on chevy Chase's face he was not happy.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah, which is kind of weird. I didn't know about that.
I'll have to look that up.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, Randy Quaid is really uh, he's gotten stranger than
his character in this film combined and the other National
Lampoons movies.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
This is not his only one that he's in.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
And if you combined it with his character from Independence
Day who was violated by the aliens, you.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Know, sexually he is.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
He's become stranger than both of those characters combined. And
that's a real feat.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
I think he's dialed it down a little bit lately.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
And his brother, Dennis Quaid, seems like a real straight shooter.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
He seems like an alright guy, and he does.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
He can play a weird character too. Watch the Substance. Yeah,
it's over the top. He does a great job, but
I got worried for him.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Speaking of Randy Quaid, let's head over to nineteen eighty
nine in Chicago. You know, Resident Clark Griswold intends to
have a great Christmas with his entire family. He drives
his wife Ellen and children Audrey and Rusty, out to
the country to find a tree, ultimately choosing the largest
one they can find, realizing too late that they did

(14:38):
not bring any tools to cut down the tree, they
are forced to uproot it. Instead, Clark's holiday plans inadvertently
cause steadily escalating chaos for the family's yuppie neighbors, Todd
and Margot Chester. So I want to first start off
by Mitt talking about our kids in the movie Audrey
and Rusty. So this is the third time that we've

(14:58):
had Audrey and Rusty as characters who are now being
portrayed by completely different actors. The first movie had Michael
Anthony Hall and some other girl who I can't remember,
and then the second movie two completely different actors, and
now here we are again with Juliette Lewis as an
outstanding career and Johnny Gilecki. I mean, he's basically a

(15:19):
household name now thanks to movies or TV shows like
Roseanne and.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
The Big Bang Theory. Well, what did you guys think
about our new Audrey and Rusty?

Speaker 2 (15:28):
They're probably the best Audrey and rustics down. I mean, yeah,
I just I don't know why I think that, but
I just do. And it's weird because you see.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
Anthony Michael Hall's excellent too. Yeah, he's not bad, you right,
This is definitely the best Audrey. Yes, you look at
I think part of it.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
You see Johnny Galecki and you're like, I can't believe
that's him. You're just we're so used to seeing him
as Leonard that it's hard to see him and anything else,
especially as a kid. So it's just it almost throws
you off, and you just keep looking at him, going, Wow,
that really is him.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
And it was weird seeing him in Roseanne because his
voice had changed by then, right, right, yeah. And then
Juliet lewis uh.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I don't know, like I like her, and I've seen
her a lot of stuff, but I always feel like
she's kind of a white trash actress.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
I don't know why I think that, how dear you, sir,
how darious. This is actually one of her least white
trash performers.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I know, I know, but maybe that's what this. She's
always kind of playing that roller or something. But she
still seems kind of cleaning and cute in this one.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
You know, Yeah, she looks respectable. Another one she was
like that too.

Speaker 8 (16:34):
I can't remember California, uh uh uh Ship the movie
the TV show that just came out with the honey
Bees or whatever the hell, the Yellow Jackets, White trash
and that she's white trash in uh, natural born killers
from dust till down.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Oh oh dustle dot.

Speaker 6 (16:51):
She wasn't white trash dustle down though, That's that's the
one she wasn't.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
That's true. Who was everything else? That was?

Speaker 4 (16:58):
California's probably the most trashy and that is spelled with
a K, and that's really saying something considering how trashy
she is a natural born killer.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
And then of course, not only do we have two
new actors.

Speaker 5 (17:10):
There, but we have a another couple of stars that
that kind of have a walk on rolls. And that's
of course, you know, the neighbors Todd and Margo with
the now infamous Juliette Julie Louise Dreyfus. Just before you know,
Seinfeld takes off. Here she is in Christmas vacation, and.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
I gotta know what fucking happened to Todd? Yeah, what happened?
I look to hi him Todd.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
Oddly enough, that's his name is Nicholas Guest, and you
might know his older brother, famous for marrying uh uh
crap wid her dame fought on my head. She just
won the one won an Academy award last year. Uh
Jamie Lee Curtis. Todd's brother is Christopher Guests.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
I mean, is that dude?

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Though he's he's such a yuppiness film matter you just
want to punch him in the face.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yes, I mean he is, Yeah, quintessential eighties yuppies. Man.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
You were never gonna capture it in any other film
as good as they do in this one. And I
had to look it up to see when Seinfeld started,
which happened, you know, the same year as this did.
So yeah, she hasn't quite hit her stride on that yet,
but she just played such a good, bitchy yuppie in this.
It was really really good. But him, yeah, he's the worst.

(18:26):
You just want to punch him in the damn face.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
So are you sure?

Speaker 4 (18:29):
Nicholas Guest is the brother of Christopher Guest, who's British.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Christopher Guest is not British.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
There's another Christopher Guest, Christopher Hayden Guest fifth Baron Hayden
guests as Christopher an American and British actor, comedian, screenwriter.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
You gotta stop to seventy seven years old.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure that Mary. Yeah, he
married Jamie Lee Curtis. Now, let's look at Nicholas Guest.
He's seventy four, so the ages match up been most
of the voice actor since two thousand Animaniacs, Justice League,
Sleepy Hollow.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
Here's the thing that I actually want to see if
if Rick, Yeah, he's.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
An actually poo's cristifacation. That was a British guy for
pretending to sound American. Unless he's like fucking is the
younger brother and he came over here and like grew
up in America.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
I don't know, but I do know that he does
show up in a Star Trek movie.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Rick, do you know which one that is?

Speaker 6 (19:31):
Are we talking about the brother Chris Nicholas Nicholas Guest, uh, Nemesis?

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Now you know?

Speaker 3 (19:40):
I see the thing like, I don't know, I don't know.
He was a man. I see that. I see the picture.

Speaker 6 (19:48):
He's wearing the uniform and it looks like one of
the old school movie ones.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
With super defined buttchin. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (19:57):
So Christopher Guest late as the six Fingered Man, the
six fingered man from Princess Bride.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
All right, we went down a todd hole? Yeah, yes,
yes we did.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Oh I'm gonna say again it is gonna reiterate punch
him right in the face.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
So yeah, so you know, to to head back into
our movie. So we we also get the recurring station wagon,
but it's it's a little bit of an update.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
You know.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
It's not the road Ranger, road King, Christmas Vaca Family Vacation,
uh station wagon. It's an actual Ford station wagon. And
I thought it was kind of clever, just a stunt
actor being able to drive that vehicle underneath the blumber truck.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
The lumber truck. Yeah, that was such a cool freaking scene. Man.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
It's just like, oh my god, I'm to start the
movie off like that. Just you know, you're you know,
you're in for a heck of a ride. I mean,
it's just gonna be a fun movie.

Speaker 6 (20:56):
What about that the intro with the with the cartoon,
I thought that was cool.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Man, even the song on this even though it's not
a hit, this song, you know's excellent.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
The cartoon's really good. Yeah, it was just it was
a great intro. I mean.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
The thing about this film, just to even take it
out of the film context, is that I think what
makes this a classic, Like if you go back to
Joey's Fair film, you talk about that that you know
it's set in the fifties, it captures the fifties really well. Sure,
there's no doubt about it. This movie captures the eighties
and it captures the modern day family. I think people

(21:34):
love this movie because so much of it that feels
like some family Christmas that you've been to. The family
members picking on each other, making those little digs.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
You know, everybody's complaining.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, it's just the family members that show up that
you really don't want to be at your house kind
of thing.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Old people talking about medical stuff like oh yeah, the
word a fluid to drink from my back and.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
The pinching of the cheeks and I'll give you a
core when you know a corner, don't mean squat no
more kind of thing like I'll give you a whole
quarter and its just the dad losing it and shit,
the mo I'm trying.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
To show, you know, the upper cheek and keep everybody happy.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
It's just you know all that, it's we've all experienced
it at some level, and I think that's what makes
this film so freaking relatable. And then we just take
that base that we're also comfortable with and add on
all this lunacy.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
This like over the top bullshit, like going.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Underneath the truck with the you know, with the car
and stuff, and it just takes it to all of
the level.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
And I think that's the magic of this film. I'm
just gonna say it right at the beginning here. It's
just it's such a great film.

Speaker 4 (22:35):
Everybody probably does have a like some kind of family
story where something nutty happens.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Oh yeah, but this movie basically takes.

Speaker 4 (22:43):
It all these stories and puts them together in a
couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah. That's the other thing that I financial about.

Speaker 5 (22:48):
This movie is depending on when you watch it at
your stages of life, it has different, different context, different meaning,
different different humor. Because remember watching this as a kid,
I kind of related more with like, you know, Russy
and Audrey and seeing their parents just kind of like
flipping out and going crazy. And now that I'm a parent,
I can kind of see Clark's point of view of everything.

(23:11):
He wants to be like a perfect family Christmas. And
I'm expecting that as I get older, once I get
to like my dad's age, when I'm the old person
in the room taking naps while watching the Macy's Day
Parade or you know, complaining, Hey.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Does this? Does this?

Speaker 5 (23:25):
Does this look right on my on my neck? You know,
I can see that point of view coming around almost
you missed. You missed the stage in there, the one
stage you missed that.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
We're all pretty much on the customer relating to is
I had a lot of help from Jack Daniels. Yes,
I think that's where we're almost all at at this point.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
How the fucking dad do this? He did have a
lot of help from Jack Daniels. I'm positivebut that.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
You know, as as we start diving into this film,
I can't help but wonder is this movie also a
humorous cautionary tale on a more psychological level of Hey,
don't worry the small stuff, don't worry about everything failing,
Just enjoy the people that you're with.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Or am I looking too in depth into this? Dude?

Speaker 2 (24:11):
I don't know how you can say the small stuff.
I mean, all the stuff that happens this guy. There
is nothing small about it. Everything is some kind of
epics snap foo for sure. Yeah, it's medium, large, extra
large and fucking shoot me in the.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Face, supersize me. That's everything that happens during this movie.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
To your point, Matt probably makes you appreciate the little
things that happen to you that you feel are so monumental.
Once you're watch it, you're like, Okay, maybe mine wasn't
quite so bad, you know. Maybe it puts things in
perspective a little bit, you know, right, and it allows
you to maybe step back and laugh at some of
the stuff that you've had to deal with but at
the time seemed overwhelming and completely infuriating.

Speaker 6 (24:51):
Yeah, I could definitely buy that one for a dollar, Tim,
I because this whole movie is filled with cringe.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
Man, I don't know. I don't know that.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah, but it's the nice thing is it's cringe, but
it's not this modern day cringe where it's so cringey
that you're absolutely uncomfortable. It's cringe, but funny cringe, you know,
I don't know how else to describe it.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Then that's not Tim Robinson. I think you should leave
the chair company cringe at all.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah, sometimes they make it so unbearable that you almost
just don't even want to watch the film, where here
it's cringey, but it's acceptably funny cringey.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Maybe when she has to sleep.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
With her brother and then the old man staring up
at the swimsuit gal and the ceiling.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
But see that that's happened.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Everyone has that that whole sleeping with your you know,
brother sister thing. That's no different than the sitting in
the car and like he's over the line, he's on
my side.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
Are we there yet?

Speaker 2 (25:45):
It's just another angle of that whole brother sister siblings
strife that happens.

Speaker 5 (25:53):
Yeah, And I have to hit to say it's it's
got to do the writing because John Hughes definitely tapped
into some of that, you know, looking back at his
own life and dealing in all this stuff because I mean,
from what I understand, he had a pretty big family
as well, So a lot of the stuff that's happening
here is probably stuff from his own life. And I

(26:13):
think that he kind of really taps into that whole
sibling rivalry or sibling demarcation between their their spaces. I
think it's he gets kids.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, he's an adult that hasn't forgotten how to still
associate and understand the child slash teenage perspective. You know,
he hasn't lost that, where a lot of us, once
we start getting older, we lose that and we're just like,
stop your whining. You don't you don't even know what
a problem is yet, you know, we kind of get
into that mentality, and I think he still is able

(26:44):
to understand and sympathize with the plight of kids, even
though their shit really is in significant prayer to the
ship we got to deal with as adults. But he
still gets He's like, to them, it's it's a monumental
problem that they're doing, and he knows how to tap
into that.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
So Clark and Ellen's parents arrive for Christmas, they really
tap into that whole pickering and arguing that happens because
when both their parents show up at the exact same time,
you can see how calm the houses prior to their arriving,
and then all of a sudden, everyone's like snapped to it.
They're like, oh, no, the grandparents are here. Clark tries

(27:24):
to maintain like a positive attitude. He remains undeterred in
in his plans as he covers the house tired exterior
with thousands of lights, which temporarily cause city wide power
sortage once he gets them to work properly. And that's
that's the one thing that I kind of have to
relate with is putting up my own decorations every year,
I'm always reminded of the scene of Clark being out

(27:46):
there putting things together. Kim and Joy had both mentioned
a cringing moment. I think the cringiest moment for me
is seeing everybody out there in their pajamas, like doing
the drum roll just to play Kate to Clark's ego
and nothing happens. I completely relate to the kicking the Santa.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
But I can't tell you how many times I have
lost my shit.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
But I have for some things, sailing and grant like
you know, I've whipped tools, I've broken ballets, I've smashed
your boards. I've just yeah, I might have even deaded
a car once. I was so angry, you know. So
I totally relate with the just the losing of it.
You know, when stuff does not work because you just
you try, and you try and you try, and it's

(28:31):
just no matter how hard you try, the world is
conspiring against you.

Speaker 6 (28:36):
Yeah, that doesn't phaze me at all. But I agree though,
the the everyone doing the drum roll it doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Oh God, that's so sad.

Speaker 6 (28:45):
Man, that's so sad, especially because I get it. Man,
you put all the work into it and then for
some fucked up reason, it's not working the way that
you wanted to.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
Did you check every single bulb that'd be a house?

Speaker 2 (29:01):
I hope I had that. The other the other grandparent
in law was like, I hope your kids are watching this,
so you know what a class.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Of waste of this is. Yeah, I thought it.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
Was almost a dagger when the life was like Clark,
did you check to see if you plugged in the
extension course?

Speaker 4 (29:20):
Like, dude, it's got life lessons than it. It's like
you look for the simplest answer first. But it also
taught me that if in these old school lights that
are you know, incandescent, like if one went alcohol, fucking
thing could go out. And I just dealt with that
because my wife bought a pre lit tree, two of

(29:41):
the strings on it that connect together went out and
I had to cut an unwind all of these fucking
you know lights that were like permanently on this fucking tree.
And then we could put like some led ones on
there that looked better.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
But yeah, it was. It was very a Griswold moment
for me this year.

Speaker 6 (30:00):
Hey, you know, Matt, So the grandparents showed up, but
they did not show up before.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
There was a scene.

Speaker 6 (30:07):
Before that that I don't know, if possible, we could
take a real quick peek at you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (30:13):
Oh sure, sure, by all means you know, do you
mean to show you something or no?

Speaker 3 (30:17):
No, don't they sat down?

Speaker 5 (30:23):
You know, it's it's it's a little nipple out. I mean,
it's a little nippy out, yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
You know. But honestly, that part was really cool.

Speaker 6 (30:36):
It was the thing that I really want to talk about, though,
was it was a very brief minute. They showed Chicago
outside during wintertime, right before the holiday, during the holiday season,
and for anyone who had been to Chicago in the
nineties and eighties, even in the two thousands, you probably
remember some fantastic music being played and just about every

(31:01):
single street corner by just the local people bringing different instruments.
Sometimes they were just buckets, you know. And I don't
know about you guys, but I remember it being super
dupic cool. I loved that aspect of Chicago. Oh yeah,
and it's kind of changed. It's not like that anymore, unfortunately.

(31:22):
But they did.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Show a clip of it.

Speaker 5 (31:24):
Another thing that I kind of missed over is back
at Clark's office. You know, the big thing is he's
you know, he's looking forward to that Christmas bonus because
you know, he ended up putting money down on a
swimming pool to surprise his kids and his family get
an introduction to his boss, who was played by one
of my favorite.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
Murray actors, and of course that's Brian Doyle Murray.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
And I swear everything that he's in is just it
just it kicks up an extra notch. There's just something
about him that is just fantastic. Whether you're watching Caddie
Shack or the first vacation movie World, Yeah, Wayne's World,
or or my favorite TV show, Get A Life. It
was like right up there. I mean, he is a
great actor, as good as it gets.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Yep, it's like, oh where did you find him?

Speaker 4 (32:12):
He was in the basement eating diaper ship and it
was and then as the dog's licking his face, Greg
Kadeer's face, and then it turns around and like almost
on cue, like they but they both kind of look
at him. That's my favorite line from Brian Doyle Murray.
It's he was in the basement eating diaper ship.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
I'm sorry, what about you?

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Sim many any thoughts on h on Brian Doyle.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Murray after that? Where am I going to go with it?
I got done.

Speaker 5 (32:41):
We're kind of skipping around a little bit with the
with the actress and everything.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
But uh, I think.

Speaker 5 (32:45):
There's one other person that I want to I want
to talk about before we move on Scorsese.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (32:53):
Yeah, uh you know, she's she's basically our Oh who
is the girl in the in the Ferrari Vacation, Christy Brinkley,
Christy Brinkley, Yes, Christy Brinkley of this movie.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
The Uptown Girl, right? Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (33:07):
So yeah, so she's like the quote unquote love interests
or fantasy girl. Yes, fantasy girl, thank you? Talking about
cringe worthy stuff. So going back and watching it now,
I'm like, Okay, I can see where you know, this
is funny because Clark is just taken aback at character,
but it feels a little skeevy. And there's a few

(33:28):
points in this movie where like the skivee factor is
just kind of like an undertone, but this really like
it throws it out.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
I mean, when you got a salesgirl that's you know,
working the lingerie department, it's like I'm wearing these two
Look at this lift up stair Like, look, no lines.
I don't think she's got a problem with it. Man,
She's like, you know, she's in for that commission all
the way.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Yeah, see no lines? Rough.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
Yeah, I gotta say that he's a He seems like
he's a really fun father.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
He's a terrible fucking husband if you take anything away
from these series. As much as he loves his family,
he is just a lecherous, fucking terrible like, you know,
I can't wait to like, you know, cheat on my
wife type of guy. Do we feel like Clark's gonna
leave his family? No? But do we feel like he
wants to fuck somebody else? Yeah? Through every film, almost

(34:21):
in Vegas Vacation, is he chasing anybody? Uh No? But no, yeah,
no shows back. Yeah. Okay, yeah, well there you go.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
She's driving in the same Ferrari, but in the back
seat is a is a there's a baby in the
back seat.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Forgot about that.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Another notable thing about this one is this is the
only movie that doesn't have the song Holiday Road.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Right because they already have a really cool song.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
Oh and Christy Brinkley, she doesn't show up in the
the remake. Did she or the read the reboot and
I didn't see her?

Speaker 3 (34:52):
I don't think so. I don't think so either.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
There's a similar situation, but it's a completely different actress
with well.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
Oh, I was thinking, like the not the Scars guard
who plays thor Chris Hemsworth. Yeah, Chris Hemsworth is kind
of like the opposite where he's kind of like a
hunk that's enticing Rusty's wife. Oh right, So I think
they kind of flipped it a little bit on that.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
By the way, if you haven't seen Vacation the reboot,
it's good.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
Yeah, And I think the key to that movie is
the fact that it doesn't have the entire movie doesn't
have Chevy Chase in it.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
You know, you get Chevy Chase.

Speaker 5 (35:32):
For what I feel sometimes is the best bid is
like maybe fifteen minutes, because in my opinion, Chevy Chase
is hit or miss for me.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Honestly, this movie is a hit for me.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
I think this is really the last big blackbuster movie
he has for a while, you know, I mean, he's
just I think he's a hit or miss for everybody.
I just don't think he does that many good films
would you say, after this, it's been nothing but trouble. Yeah,
A hey man, I bet all around the world, but
it's the same. But I mean, really, I mean, after

(36:04):
this one, what's what is the next big one that week?
And I mean Vegas Vacation probably, but even I don't
remember that one being as big as these two. That
Fletch Fletch is the next big one. When you said,
I'd say so.

Speaker 5 (36:16):
This is another thing kind of throws me off. So
the heights of each child changes throughout the movie. So
like Rusty and Audrey in the first one, they're kind
of the same heights, so you kind of think that
they're they're closer in years. But then when you get
to European Vacation, Rusty is like a good like foot
and a half taller than Audrey, and I got the
impression that Rusty was the older brother and Audrey was younger,

(36:36):
And now here we are it's it's the reverse where
Rusty seems to be the younger brother to Audrey's older sister.
And then the next movie, again they're they're kind of close,
they look like they're closer in age, So it just
kind of throws me off. Every once in a while thinking, Okay,
who's the older sibling here?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
This is the only one where she's actually taller than Rusty. Okay,
all the rest she's shorter.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
Got it. I don't know, man, maybe expected too much
out of a movie like this true true.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
Maybe they all can't be you know, the Seventh Sign
or you know, Citizen Kane.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
I think you feel it feel more disjointed if this
was like a true trilogy or something that you're gonna
watch back to back to back. But I never, I mean,
I don't know about you, guys, but I never watched
these back to back. You watch Vacation, you go a
long time, then next thing you know, it's Christmas, so
you're pulling out Christmas Vacation.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
And then one day you're going through your DVDs.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Are you're looking on your plex or something like, oh,
I haven't looked at Vegas Vacation a long time. Let's
put that one back in and see what that's all
about again, you know kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
So there are occasional flicks for me.

Speaker 5 (37:36):
You know, I gotta say this one in Vacation, or
probably the two that I watched the most, I have
yet to sit down again and watch European Vacation since
probably like the late eighties.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah, I think I've watched Europeian Vacation maybe twice in
Vegas Vacation maybe only once actually even but I've seen
the original vacation in this this one.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
A lot, and this one way more than the first vacation. Hey,
I got a trivia question for you. European Vacation the
only national in vacation movie to have titties, specifically the nipple.
I would say yes, probably, Well, I know this one.
You get a little bit of side. I have no idea.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
Man, if you go frame by frame day the m
p a A couldn't pause it fast enough, I guess
on the VHS screen or they were watching there's nipple.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
I got that. This is This is Joey's takeaway this
fy Christmas movie.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Joey's takeaway is if you pause it just right on
the VHS tape, there's an.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
Yeah, preferably you would get the blow air of the
war game right, because we want to see it at all.
It's glory. Yes, you're just gonna get frustrated. You're gonna
ruin the VHS tape, which I did. Uh. If you
try to.

Speaker 6 (38:53):
Posit Joey, Joey, Joey, I have to call you fuck out, bro.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
You would just dog it on our Griswold, like with
his tongue on the fucking floor talking to the Nicolette
Scorsese's character at the at the store.

Speaker 6 (39:11):
And you're like, if you stop it one frame, you
will see the nipple.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Like when I got a I paused it frame by
frame with my wife in the room.

Speaker 5 (39:25):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
There's a couple that nipples together, stays together. What are
you doing? This is all academic, This is all academic.
There's a nipple movie.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
I can just see Joey's wife turning to go, You're
so stupid. That's exactly the words that provate came out
of her mouth. You're so stupid.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
No, are you fucking serious?

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (39:54):
Yeah, yeah, you know, you know, I gotta feel that
I have a sense that there might be a new
segment to our show, Joey's uh Joey's nipple Report.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Right, No, just like, how did you piss off your
wife this week? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Right, yeah, Okay, A thousand and one ways to piss
off your wife before you die.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
That's my book, So start writing it down. Oh no,
we've been capturing it for you right here. It's all
video logged. No, don't worry.

Speaker 5 (40:29):
Well if we uh, if we if we scroll back
and and unpause where we left off with with our stories.
So I believe we're at the point where Ellen's cousin,
cousin Catherine shows up because Clark is outside and just
finished going through all the lights and he's you know,
tried everything, and wouldn't you know it, it's his mom
that kind of lends him a hand by flipping a

(40:51):
switch to cause the lights to come on. We get this,
you know, beautiful sequence of him snapping because he can't
get it, get it to happen again. And I think
this is the point where Tim would, as you say,
sympathize with Clark kidding the kicking the reindeer and the
snowman and the Santa Claus and.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to anger management after this. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
And then of course we get a nice, you know,
like eighties action film seeing of Clark like slamming the
two plugs together and the lights marectly come on. And
what I love the best about this is when you
see that hand on the giant breaker at at the
nuclear power station going auxiliary nuclear power.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
That is pretty entertaining.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
I mean, I mean, how many lights do you have
to have in your house to make that happen. I
don't know if twenty five thousand is really enough, but
that's still gotta be.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
That's gotta be a massive draw. I mean, I'm betting
if you turned on that.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Many you would really see the spin on the meter
like we see in this film. I think this movie
inspired a lot of real people because just maybe ten
years after this, you start seeing these houses to go
all out.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
Oh yeah, so dancing lights, lights, time to music.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Yeah, tuned to this station and listen to it. They
call it Grizzwollen, don't they. I mean, that's really what
it is. You know, when you see somebody grizzwallen and
there is there is a grizzwold not too far in
from where I live.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
I'm not going to give exact locations, but they do
have it set up just like Christmas Vacation, where they
have a dummy dressed like cousin Eddie holding a hose
in front of the storm drain and he's he's got
his little fire hunter's cap on and he's got a
beer in his hand.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
I'm like, now that's decorating. Did they put some brown
around like the the the end of the nozzle or
did they go.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
All no, It's just it looks like a giant well
in r V hose, but you know, you don't see
anything coming out of it.

Speaker 6 (42:47):
So truth be told, if they wanted to go balls
to the wall, they have to have a little bit
of pyrotechnics coming out of the suit.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
You gotta have that green glow.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
They do have a green light on the corner.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
There a glow. Wow.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
So my my brother and sister, I'll live in Minnesota
and there's a guy that owns a business that he
actually does the entire steam pulls the motor, has a
motor home. He brings in the whole nine yards, got
the junk out there, got the dummy you know, you
know old the hose, the light, and the great old deal.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
So they completely re reenact that entire thing every year
and put it out in front of his business.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
There's some hardcore.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
People, I mean really, I mean, who would have ever
thought watching this film that this was going to become
Christmas decoration staple. And I'm not talking just the hardcore
people are doing like what we're talking about, but they
actually have inflatables of that motor home and it says, Mary, Xmas,
the shitter's full on.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
I mean, that's something you could physically go out and
buy a problem man something, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
So I mean, really, it's crazy that we've gone from
blow mold, Santa Is, snowmen and elves and things like
that to Merry Christmas the shitters full with these.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Blow up RV It's crazy, Tim.

Speaker 6 (44:01):
It's stuff like that where movies change culture. That usually
landed a spot in a book one thousand and one Movies,
and I think, quite honestly, after you had just put
that out there, I think that they probably didn't consider
that aspect of how this movie did change culture in
the United States in particular on that line, right.

Speaker 5 (44:23):
That's how a lot of movies got into the Library
of Congress, so they were voted for cultural significance.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
So you may have something there, Rick.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Well, And I'm wondered if it didn't make it into
this book, because this movie actually went direct to video
and a lot of countries. And when I read that,
I was astonished, But then I sat back and thought
about it. I'm like, this is such an Americana, you know,
holiday film that I could see other countries just not
getting it, you know, like it just didn't make sense

(44:52):
to them, So it didn't get theatrical releases and things
like that. And so maybe from the perspective of the book,
they were like, this doesn't really count because it never
was just kind of a little popular here, but it
never hit you know, huge blockbuster status, and it didn't
hit overseas. But over time this has become so culturally
significant here and it's a piece of Americana. I mean again,

(45:15):
it captures like it's a wonderful life in the fifties,
captures Christmas in the eighties, and it captures the modern
family dynamic. And I think that they just I think
exactly what Joey said, it's a tragedy that this was
overlooked and it's not in the book.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
I can't life and we.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Understand how this is not in the book and some
of the other stuff that we've seen then there is.
It just makes no sense to me whatsoever.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
You know, I have to agree with your opinion, and
if any listener out there also agrees with your opinion,
please write in Man Review Podcast at gmail dot com
and let us know what you think. Should this movie
be in the two thousand and one movie book or
just show them.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
By liking it subscribing.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Let's get those numbers though, either, Like, look, these guys
will write it should be the book and maybe it'll
end up in the next edition.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
I guarantee that the guy who wrote that book has
seen this movie more than once and watched partially watch
some of those artsy, fartsy fucking French films and stuff
like one time or not at all.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Well, well we find that out as we watched the film.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
But I mean, just there's things that are I'm like,
I have no desire to want to watch this, so
you know, when we do, gonna be all over Like again,
I can't believe this isn't the book and this and
this and this is not you know, like it just
makes no sense to me.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Maybe I'm maybe I'm just not that culture. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (46:30):
Well, let's uh, let's travel back to Chicago as as
we find that you know, Catherine and Catherine's cousin Ellen
and her husband Eddie show up as as I had
mentioned earlier, and they have showed up unannounced to surprise everybody,
and they have their two children, six year old Rocky
and seven year old Ruby Sue and I don't know

(46:52):
about you guys, but I never really thought that if
you fell down a well, your eyes would go cross,
but if you get kicked by a mule, they go back.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
That was a really good lie. Yeah, that was honestly.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
I am curious if, like a lot of a lot
of lines from Randy KOed were improv because there's a
few things that he says throughout the movie that kind
of make me feel a little icky. In particular, when
you know they're talking to Clark and Allan and Allen's parents.
You know, they to talk about, you know, staying and

(47:26):
the kids are going to stay in the house so
that Eddie and Ellen can have, you know, more quality
time together.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
I think the.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Thing with that character, Matt is that it's not a
character he developed. This is a guy he knew when
he was in Texas, and he's based on the character
off of that. And when you know somebody like that,
I think it brings so much more to the character
that you play later, because this is somebody realized just
what that person like. You cannot believe that, you can't

(47:56):
believe this guy that I know, like this dumbass, the
things that he does. He just bring all the weird,
quirky ship that they do to the scream like that
and to you know, a two hour film.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
You can just pack all.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
The n sense that you've seen over the years with
this person into that little two hours and it's just gold.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
And gold it is. But you know, I don't know
if you guys caught this line, but when he's telling Ellen,
you know, oh, grab their things and you know, let
him pack up and don't forget the rubber sheets in
the end the gerbil Oh.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
I did not hear that. I'm like, Okay, did I
just hear that? Right?

Speaker 6 (48:27):
I'm telling you, man, I don't know if Cater is
gold Icha as gross.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Dude. This dude is gross man, because he is gross.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
He is thick about it. I mean, this is this
is the cherry on the top character for me. I mean,
take cousin Eddie out, like from this entire film. This
film is really still gonna be great. It's gonna be awesome,
it's gonna be funny, but man, you throw this Eddie character, dude,
it is the cherry on top of this Sunday. It's
just like that one more thing that just kicks it
into overdrive that you're like, oh, oh my god.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Like it's just and it's not even in the things
he says.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Sometimes it's just as simple as him wearing that white see.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
The outline on and stuff. It's a crazy shit like that.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
It's like when they're going to this store and he's
doing nothing but loading up that cart full of dog
food every dog from going to math and and it's
and it's the things that you don't catch, like unless
you're pay attention. Where you see Clark put like white
bulbs in there and then he throws like three bags
and you know, dog from the top of it crushes
the light bulbs. Nobody ever says anything, but you just
like mitch Man's guy's totally not paying attention, you know.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
It's just it's all the little things to add up
for that character.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
That just yeah, it just for lack of a better saying,
it turns it up to eleven.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
I think he truly is the character that that breaks
uh Clark's metaphorical back, the the one liners that Clark
comes back with every time he's talking to Eddie about
different things.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
Like, you know how you doing, eddieah blah blah blah
blah blah.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
You know, would you like me to go leave me
out in the woods somewhere?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Well?

Speaker 2 (50:04):
And then I like the innocence of anywhere he's you know,
he's offered to buy the Christmas gifts and stuff. He goes,
you know what, Clark, I want you to get something
real nice you too from me. It's just yeah, I
don't know. I don't know why it strikes me so
much as it does.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
Man, can we talk about Ruby Sue for a minute.
Was anyone else under the false assumption that she was
the actor played the Faral kid in the Road War?

Speaker 3 (50:31):
No?

Speaker 2 (50:31):
No, But now that you said, I could totally see it.
It's that wig that they put on her. That's why
that wig that they put on her makes me look
like that. I thought that for decades. Wow, And thankfully
the Internet has corrected me. The Faral kid was not
played by a little girl. No, the long hair kind
of made you think that. Uh, that's a man named

(50:53):
Emil Minty. And there's modern pictures of both of them,
and they even as adults, they have some similar similar
faces or whatever.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
And it's just I really did think she played a
boy in The Road Warrior, but I was wrong.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
Well, isn't there also, like, you know, seven years difference
between the two movies.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
Yeah, she would have been older. She would have been
about that age.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
Yeah, But to me, like you know, from the Video
Store era, it's like I wasn't doing the math and everything,
and it just right. Yeah, it just seemed like a
couple of years. It's like, oh, it's a couple of
years older. It's her, you know, because she looked like
she was eleven or twelve year old. Twelve year old
girl maybe or five six or something like that. Seemed
like five or six years went past. But I was
completely wrong, And they're they're two different people.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
You bring up Ruby Sue, and I gotta say, I
think it's kind of funny how this actress is able
to talk like like she does, you know, as she's
she's she's talking to Clark about how she doesn't think
that Santa Claus is going to visit them, and Clark
he's trying to console her and everything, and she says, uh, yeah,
he was shitting bricks and Clark says, you shouldn't use

(51:57):
that word. Oh sorry, he was shitting wrong.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
That was a great mind is just so funny, and
she says it so innocently, like it's just it's the
delivery man. It's so innocent.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
It's I don't know it just the Rubi's character definitely
definitely adds like that that child innocence to the film
that I really like, you know it just it can
see that that warm glow like you would see in
like a classic John Hughes film. I do want to
also go back and mention something Tim talked about Clark
and Eddie shopping at the grocery store. Is it just

(52:32):
me or does it seem like Walmart is never going
to age? Yeah, this the outside sign changes or whatever.
But when they're walking through those aisles, you know it's
a Walmart. You can tell from just the signage, from
the color of the aisles, the lighting. I'm like, this
was made in eighty nine, and it feels like they're
walking through a Walmart in twenty twenty five. Anyone else

(52:52):
get that feeling?

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Dude, I was.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Working at a Walmart in nineteen eighty nine. Yeah, I
totally felt that. As soon as I seeing the Old Boy,
I'm like, they're at a Walmart. That's all some Walmart
brand and stuff. But the only differences is back then,
as an employee, we had to wear ties. If you
can believe that Walmart and have tie on but down
shirt tie, you're going there today and it's like, yeah,
it's like they rolled out of the pajamas and through

(53:14):
a vest on.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
It just went the world.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
I'll have to look at the background actors and see
if they're wearing ties.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
Yeah. I got sent home several times because I would
forget my tie. You gotta go get your tie man. Yeah,
they were hardcore about that.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
Maybe maybe the guy saying that about the TSA saying, hey,
you know, don't come to the airport and your jamas,
you know, dressed nice and you know you'll act people
will act better. Maybe that's something you need to do
with all the employees.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah, you gotta wear a fucking tie.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
They'll just quit. They will literally walk out, That's what
that will will. Finally they'll be able to successfully form
an union over the fucking turn of the ties.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
But how do you how do you not have Wally
World and a vacation film? Yeah, I mean it just
it goes right up with you know, Wally World that's
there you go because it's Walmart.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
Yeah, they sew a lot of They sew a lot
of National Lampood's products there here and there every year
around this time too. But uh yeah, well we didn't
even have a Walmart. I think when this movie came out.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
And I was working, I was working there.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yes, was it brand new, Yeah, they just built it
was brand new.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
I was. I was selling goods.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
I worked in the good in the good department, selling goods.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
Rednecks.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
Yeah, like that was so cool when we got a Walmart,
because I remember only seeing one when we like drove
the Iowa or something like that. They weren't ubiquitous, like
you know they like McDonald's.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
They weren't. They weren't in every town and you didn't
have Walmarts. Yeah, they opened up in nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
And I know that for a fact because every Sunday
we were right if they wouldn't let us out in time,
because they weren't twenty four hours yet, and we got
to go home early, like they closed it five or
six o'clock on a Sunday, six I think it was,
and everybody wanted to be home before the Simpsons came out.
And that was eighty nine, so I guarantee you that
it was Walmart in nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 5 (54:59):
Yeah, I do remember the Walmart opening up before the mall.
So I have to agree with Tim. Not to sound
like the agreer on the show, but yes, I do
have to agree with Tim. And of course, you know,
speaking of Walmart, we do get a look at their
their sign up front when Clark takes the kids sledding,
and I have to say, I think this was probably
some of this is probably one of my fun My

(55:21):
favorite scenes is watching him head down the hill on
that sled, because you can sell that there's some there's
some practical effects as well as some rear projection stuff.
You know, they kind of they did it up, kind
of neat for an eighties film.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
They did a really good job of it.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
People complain that this movie doesn't have a lot of
special features on any of the since the DVD era,
there's never been a lot of special features for this movie.
And if they could, if the guys are still alive,
you could do segments just on how did they do
the car under the log scene, how did they do

(55:57):
the sled scene? You know, like that flash powder when
we see that big flash, It's like, how did you
do that without computers? And it's just there's some really
good effects in here that I feel like, you know,
if you can't get all the casts to get together
and talk about it, let's let's talk to the guy.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Oh god, if they if there's behind the scenes footage
or shitty video VHS video of the of the effects
guys trying to like work behind the scenes, It's like,
I want to see that, Yeah, that would be cool.

Speaker 5 (56:26):
Along with the sled scene, I do like one other
little throwaway gag I want to say, and that's when
Eddie was out front intying out the RV tank and
he's he's standing next to the trash pile and he
picks up the sled and you can see that it's
like completely burned out where work Clark was sitting.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
It was a great gag.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
It was just so casual, you know, the way he
did it, But it was fantastic.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah, doesn't he hit the like the donation drop box
in front of the wa Yeah, makes a big gong.

Speaker 5 (56:56):
And I think it's was it was Eddie who goes
bingo for.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Me though it's him just whipping through all the snow drifts, Yeah,
because you think he's gonna hit him.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
And go over him and it just goes right on through.
How did they do that? Yeah, I don't know. They
obviously they weren't real snow drifts. It's like that had
to be Like how many takes did they have? Do
they do it at one? Did they did twelve fucking times?
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (57:20):
Speaking of the effects, I do know that this movie
was not shot None of the principal photography was shot
in Illinois. It was shot in like June. So a
lot of these scenes where they're you know, running through
the snow and stuff, I want to say that you
did it up in Colorado or they had to make
all that snow It was Colorado, okay? And the funny
parties who think about it when you're watching it. Clark

(57:40):
is early on putting the decorations on the tree and
he falls backwards. That's one tree with no branches on it,
because I think they had to cut all the branches
up so that you couldn't see the leaves. And if
most of the really wide exterior shots that you see
at night or are at night, because I think those
trees are all leafed out, so they're trying to.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Make it look like so you can't see or whatever.
You only see tide shots and lower down with trees
during the day. And you know another thing I noticed,
and that was when they're going to get the Christmas
tree at the beginning of the movie, after they got it,
and they're like driving back home out of that place.
You know, they're driving around some very hilly areas, you know,
far hillier than what I.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
Know of Illinois.

Speaker 5 (58:19):
I mean, even when you head further up north towards
like the Waukegan area, it's not as hilly as it
looks like in this movie.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
We don't have scenery that looks that beautiful when they're
out prancing around looking for that tree.

Speaker 5 (58:31):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I can suspend my belief for a
little bit. But this, yeah, I know Illinois's landscape. This
is not Illinois's landscape.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
Yeah, but if you're not from Illinois, you don't know
that that's true. I mean, name any other states somebody
can fill in and that you're gonna be like, that's
not that state. I mean, pass the mountains states or
something like that, you know what I'm saying. But I mean,
for the average day, if you pick it Louisiana. Can
I name anything in Louisiana You're gonna like, that's not Louisiana.
I don't know their landscape, but I don't know if
you do, but I don't.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
I know that they're better be Spanish moss on those trees.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Right or I'm turning off the DVD player and this
completely invades my suspension of disbelief.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
I could not watch this trash any further.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
There's one one of the one last thing I want
to I want to get your guys' thoughts on, and
that is Clark shows up at his boss's office to
present him a present, and you can kind of see
that he's kind of fishing to get that, to get
an idea if he's getting a Christmas bonus.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
Did you guys notice.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
That He says, Oh, my wife and I you know,
we got you a little something.

Speaker 3 (59:35):
We thought we saw this and thought of you.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
And he goes to set it down and his boss goes,
we'll just put it on that table over there, and
it's every present is the exact same shape. It's wrapped
up just like what Clark brought. So I'm thinking, either
a he's very typical, and everybody knows what he is,
what he is planning on getting, or somebody sent something
out to the company.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
I don't know. I guess I never really noticed.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
I think if you're gonn do that this was just
an alcohol bottles that would have made that standard box.
Oh got two little something. But yeah, I never really
noticed that. They're all kind of the same. I'm so
distracted with the long conference table's use it as a desk.
And then he's like, ah, I'm an important phone call here.
Uh you know, quick, get me somebody, anybody. Yeah, if

(01:00:20):
the boss just overrides anything else like wave, that had
to be an ad lived wine man, Like it's a
last min like give me somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
While I wait. But yeah, it was great man. I
just I love.

Speaker 6 (01:00:36):
That, you know, I have I have a feeling that
that's like a gag that you might only know if
you were an adult in the eighties when it was filmed,
Like maybe there was a really hot present that people
got for their boss or something because of the shape,
Like it seemed as though it seemed as though it

(01:00:57):
was something I don't know, i'mna look it up, man,
seem as though it was something that like people would
get otherwise, why would they have it look exactly the same, you.

Speaker 5 (01:01:05):
Know, like a dusk organizer or a yah, yeah, let
me look it up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
We would probably just look away too much into it
was probably just a really lazy prop. Guys like, look,
we need a bunch of presents. He's like, ah, there's
a bunch of boxes. I'll just wrap those. It's all
like the light bulbs or something from the studio, something
weird like that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
You know. Well, it's one of those little hidden gags,
you know.

Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
And I just I find it funny that it's just
something that everyone bought.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
The Boss.

Speaker 6 (01:01:30):
Yeah it was acrylic desk organizer, okay, And it'd.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
Been funny if you just had him all stacked up
on the desk.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
That would be like just say like the Boss and
kept opening up and there was like fifty up on
that giant ass desk.

Speaker 5 (01:01:42):
As we drive back into it, it's Christmas Eve. Clark's senile
Aunt Bethany and cantankerous Uncle Lewis arrived to celebrate that night.
I think Aunt Bethany steals like the scene for the
next you know, five to ten minutes, because she's got
all this this kind of quirkiness. She wraps her cat
as a Christmas present, she wraps the jello mold. I mean,

(01:02:06):
it's just it just I had a grandmother that was
a little bit like this in her later years. And
then of course you know Uncle Lewis. He's played by
a great character actor named William Hickey. Everything I've seen
him in he's always looked old.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
Now did you guys know this?

Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
But William Hickey died in nineteen ninety seven at the
age of sixty nine. When he made this movie, he
was sixty one. I swear it looks like he's in
his late eighties in this movie.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Yeah, there's like twenty years difference between them at that time.
I think between him and Bethany.

Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
Yeah, I think he might have smoked and for real
and lived a hard life or something. Yeah, he's a
he's a puppet master, I think.

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
Yes, in the first two puppet Masters.

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
Yeah, character like is immediately killed off. That's his legacy.
Is the Dolls?

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
Is Mouse his last movie? I think so? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Yeah, Well I think this is Bethanye's last or you
know Questal's last movie too, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Oh? Yeah, she had a very long career.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Yeah, yeah, I mean she was Betty Boop at olive oil.

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
I mean, that's how long she's been rolling.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
When they said this was her eighty first Christmas, it
really was her eighty first Christmas, right, Oh yeah, she
was old.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
I mean, what a way to go out, though.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
I mean, she played such a great character in this
you know, well, did you did you realize what she
does versus everything else everybody else when she does the
blessing and ends up doing the pledge, did you notice
something different about the way she did it versus everybody else. No,
when she says it, she everybody else says one nation
under God just says one nation indivisible. And that's because

(01:03:43):
she would have been so old. They didn't add the
under God part until nineteen fifty four, so they actually
got that right in this film. I mean that she,
you know, would not have said it that way because
that's not the way she would have learned it as
a little girl. So it's a quirky pickup, I understand,
But still I was like, that was a nice little
touch for anybody really paying attention.

Speaker 5 (01:04:02):
I did not know that, Thank you, I did, I
did catch that out of that. Eddie's the only guy
that like stands up and like puts his hand on
his on his chest.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Didn't like that, dude, he stands up with stand in
just and stuff. And then to add to this scene,
you know, we get to the end of it and
that turkey. Dude, that turkey just yeah, I don't know
how you make it so it does that mean it
looks like a perfectly crispy, you know, well cooked turkey.
He gets that with that, and I just you know,
just oh, there's just nothing but air comes out of

(01:04:32):
that thing. I love that air time. I don't know
how they pulled that off, but dude, it just great.

Speaker 5 (01:04:37):
I think, like Joey said, that'd be that would be
great to see us as a special feature. How they
made that effect?

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Any ideas, Joey him, it's kind of your your area.
I mean, you got any.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Idea how they might have done that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:47):
I mean, it's a it's a prop. I was more
impressed with the Cat in the Box because it was
either Chevy Chase doing some really great acting maybe a'll
wait in a box or something like that, or or
the prop department literally had something that like was they
could trigger it to like start fucking moving around. But
I think it was all Chevy and then they added

(01:05:09):
a sound effect. I mean just because like of the
way it moved. I think that maybe there was like
a heavy ball in there or something so he he
could get get some kind of English on it or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
Didn't they have.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Some kind of toy back in the eighties that or
something for cats, like a little ball with a tail
on it would chase it around. Maybe that had something
like that in there with an actual cat. No, I
don't think so too well, no, but I mean it
was an actual toy, like it was a round ball
that was almost like you know, the irb emok was motorized.
Well it was, yeah, motorizing remote control thing maybe that

(01:05:40):
you could maybe they had that in there or something.
It could have just been a couple of tennis pat
I think it was Chevy Chase. Yeah, I want to
say it was Chevy.

Speaker 5 (01:05:46):
I think he actually was doing it because I mean
the way he's he's holding the box at first, you know,
nothing's happened, and then after a couple of seconds he
kind of see them like move his on hand. So
I think it was it was Chevy just doing some
great acting. I did watch that pick up on that though.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
I was kind of fascinated because it's like, it really
does look like there's a damn cat in that box.

Speaker 3 (01:06:05):
I really was believable. He nailed it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
I mean it's a simple trick. I guess what you
think about it. We're all sitting here amazing. Oh, Chevy's
got a box with a string on. It makes it
look like yourself live. But I don't know. I mean
it just it really sold it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
How about you, Rick, what do you think of Chevy's
performance there with the box?

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
No, man, it's cool. I just really thought that what's
her name?

Speaker 6 (01:06:27):
It was really really cool, really funny, And I didn't
even realize that she had played Bebby, Betty Boop or
Olive Oil until this time that I watched it. Like
I said, I was watching my wife and she was like, boys,
where have I heard that voice before? And I was like,
you know what, you're right that that actually does sound familiar.
So I actually looked it up, and I mean we

(01:06:49):
were both kind of like, oh, yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah,
you know, so I thought that was kind of like
really really cool, especially this time around, because I hadn't
hadn't thought about that before.

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
I looked it up, guys, I found out what's in
the box.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
It's Gwyneth Paltrow's pretty head.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Going back to what you're saying, though, Rick, if you
think about the most interesting part about her being Betty
Boop is she actually got to play it one more
time a year before she did this film, because she
does the voice of Betty Boop and who framed Roger, right,
So she got to reprise the role one more time
before she passed away in nineteen eighty eight.

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Yeah. Nice.

Speaker 5 (01:07:32):
You know, we talked about ant Bethany, we talked about
her cat, but you know, I think the real prize
here is the dog in the dinner scene, because you know,
we hear more of an effect of the dog than
we actually see him, and I think that's against some
great acting on great voice acting, as well as just

(01:07:55):
the interaction between Eddie and Clark, because you know, Clark's
kind of like thrown down, like you know, maybe if
he didn't feed the dog at the dinner table, it
wouldn't this problem.

Speaker 10 (01:08:06):
Oh no, No, he's probably just nosing through the trash
or they cut to the kitchen where it's it's rummaged
to the trash and I'm like, oh yeah, I say,
if anybody who's had dogs in those through the trash
you're familiar with this scene.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
Well, I was almost gonna ask if that's what Turner
Hooch was almost based off this dog. But I think
those two movies came out almost around the same time,
so I very well doubt it. But man, it very
hoochesque the way this dog destroys this house.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
I don't know. I don't agree with you, Matthew.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
I think the squirrel steals the show.

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
Those three animals. That squirrels by far the best.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
If we wouldn't have gotten the squirrel if it hadn't
been for the storm drain emitting gas, and then of
course Uncle Lewis having to light his cigar.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
What are you looking at?

Speaker 5 (01:08:56):
I couldn't help but feel bad for Clark, but I
think he gets some justice because, you know, poor Uncle
Lewis is still on fire, gets to beat him down. Yeah,
he throws him down, rips the curtain off the rod,
and starts putting the fire out. If I'm Clark, I'm
throwing in a couple elbow jabs and stuff in there
because I'm gonna be hot mad about you know, losing

(01:09:18):
the Christmas tree.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
How about a Christmas tree just goes up so perfect
it's it's gone, you know, it's just gone. I burned
a lot of pine in my life, and I've never
seen me go up quite like that before.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
That was impressive.

Speaker 5 (01:09:29):
Let's look at what caused this fire, all right, So
we have apparently we have an open window, we have
the cigar, we have a strict match, and we have fuel,
which is the Christmas tree. But the Christmas tree technically
probably shouldn't have gone on fire because it was still
a relatively healthy pine. Oh but wait, the dog was
drinking the water from the pine.

Speaker 3 (01:09:51):
Tree, right.

Speaker 5 (01:09:51):
I was gonna say that air God cause it dry
to dry out. So if these factors didn't happen, if
Eddie wasn't there, there wouldn't have been sewer gas in
the storms to her drain, there wouldn't have been a
dog to drink the poor tree dry. And Uncle lewis
just lighting the match. He would have just thrown out
the window, no problems.

Speaker 6 (01:10:11):
Well, but it all comes full circle. Uncle, a crazy
Uncle Eddie has a hand to play before all said
and done, in which case I should say the ends
justify the.

Speaker 5 (01:10:23):
Means, okay, I'll give you that. But yeah, so you know,
poor Clark, you know, he's at his wits end. I mean,
the Christmas tree is burned down. It was a horrible dinner,
the turkey was just dry. You know, Clark's starting to snap,
and he decides that, you know, they gotta get a
Christmas tree back up, So he goes, takes his chains on,
he cuts down a tree on the on the Chester's

(01:10:44):
front yard.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
Not Chester the molester, but Todd and Margot Chester. Now
he might be a molester.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
He kind of looks like he might have some tendency maybe,
But when he sets it up in the living room,
that's when.

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
We get our tree dwelling rats.

Speaker 5 (01:10:56):
Every time I watch this movie, I always think that
it came from the first tree, but no, it's from.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
The second tree.

Speaker 5 (01:11:01):
And I don't know them running around the house and
then the dog chasing the squirrel.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
I think it's just hilarious.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
That's become like several popular ornaments. I think that was
so popular, like having the squirrel on his back ornament
with the audio from the movie that I felt weird
putting in another tree because it could just break, and
so like I just sold it for like eighty five dollars.
I think I paid like five bucks on clearance or

(01:11:27):
something like that. And it's one of those where it's like, well,
I sold it because it's like, you know, I'm afraid
I'm gonna break it, and it's worth money.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
But then I'm just like, ah, should have never fucking
got rid of that. It was great. I think I
kind of part of that with that scene.

Speaker 6 (01:11:41):
The thing that I liked the most about it was
how it crescendos. Yes, this whole entire time, the Griswold
family has been predominantly, through Clark's actions, have been inadvertently
messing with their yuppie neighbors, especially in that scene where

(01:12:02):
the where the ice shoots into their window and it
busts there. Was it a keyboard or what was that
that it busts radio and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:12):
The ice melts and they're like, what the hell happened?
Why is there water on the floor? You know? The
last straw was when they're.

Speaker 6 (01:12:23):
Looking they're like, where are we going to get a
Christmas tree here?

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
Now?

Speaker 6 (01:12:26):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
And then the bust through their window.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
Don't forget the bright lights and blind him stuff and
couldn't see anything Yeah, it's just the stuff that he
does to them invertly doesn't even know he's doing it
to him.

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
Yeah, it's just a nightmare neighbors scenario.

Speaker 6 (01:12:44):
Yeah, and I really really really like how it all
how it all ended, because uh, I want to call
her a Lane for some reason. That's like that's like
her her name and uh Seinfeld or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
But Margo, Margo.

Speaker 6 (01:13:01):
Is like basically, hey, I'm gonna put the pants on,
I'm gonna go walk over there, and I'm gonna tell.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
Them what's going on. Oh that was so great. That's
that's awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:13:11):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
That spir comes launching out at her, the dog follows,
that's yeah, at the time of that scene is fantastic.

Speaker 6 (01:13:23):
Yeah, I don't think it could have been I don't
think it could have been better. And it's so nice
that actually when he she actually gets back into her house,
she doesn't say anything, she doesn't do anything else. She
just walks right up to the dude, just clocks him, man,
and he goes.

Speaker 3 (01:13:38):
Right over the couch. Doesn't he what happened? It's like
a perfect punch. Yeah. I'm well, I don't know, man.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
At first, I was like, that guy's kind of he's
kind of a jerk for not going over there, you know,
confronting them or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
Yeah, but then i'm he's a post.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
That I'm thinking, this is the same one that may
let me take a header down a staircase.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
Was more worried about her carpet than she was me, Dad.
You know what, she got what she deserved?

Speaker 6 (01:14:06):
Well she, I mean he was. He was right by it.
Not necessarily going over there and confronting. There's a better
way to go about it. She didn't want to hear it.
So hey, you mess with the bull, you get the horns.
That's just what it is.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Was he gonna go out his roof and start launching
ice back at their house?

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
Sorry?

Speaker 5 (01:14:24):
Slope slow clapped to Rick for for referencing another eighties
John Hughes film.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
But can you name it?

Speaker 6 (01:14:31):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Oh Man, you didn't know you were doing the prep
book line.

Speaker 6 (01:14:37):
That's like that's like a that's like an old school
reference though that's not exclusive, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Yeah, it's old school because it happened in his school
in a John Hughes film.

Speaker 3 (01:14:49):
Yes, by by the assistant principle. Oh, Rick, we're gonna
have to make you watch it has fast. Don't you
don't you forget about me? I guess so, Rick, here's
what I need you to do.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
I need you to go back February of twenty twenty
five and listen to our Breakfast Club.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
Yeah, so, well you'll hear all about it. I've seen
the Breakfast Club bro a bunch of times. Now.

Speaker 5 (01:15:10):
We've talked a little bout Margot and Todd and how
they kind of end. You know, Clark's you know, you
cut down the Christmas tree, put a new Christmas tree up.
He on his way down, after putting on his Santa
Claus suit, he does fix the banister, which I thought
was hilarious.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
And it's kind of an homage to It's a Wonderful Life,
because remember George is always fussing with that banister.

Speaker 3 (01:15:31):
Too all the time. That's exactly what it's from. Yeah,
he sees that everyone's starting to leave.

Speaker 5 (01:15:35):
He's like, no, no, no, we are not leaving, and
get that wonderful which honestly, it's it's my wife's ring tone.
Clark just snapping like that. It's hilarious. I can't do
it justice. And then there's a there's a moment of
pause as you know, Clark reads the Night before Christmas,
and it's very touching and very heartwarming. That of course

(01:15:56):
leads to Clark finding out that he can get his
Christmas bonus.

Speaker 3 (01:16:00):
You got what, Joey, He got the Jelly of the
Month Club, the gift that keeps on giving.

Speaker 5 (01:16:05):
Yo, and that of course causes Clark to thoroughly completely snap.
And that's when he starts doing that wonderful soliloquy that
Joey gave us at the beginning of this episode, where
you know he wants his boss brought to him with
a bow on his head. Who's the one person that
winds up providing that, Yeah, cousin Eddie took it literally,

(01:16:28):
Yes he did. Eddie shows up later on with Frank
Shirley Toe.

Speaker 3 (01:16:34):
I think this is this.

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
Is where we truly go from a National Lampoon movie
to the Blues Brothers because the SWAT shows up.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
I said that too, man.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
I said that to my wife and said, oh my god,
this is so Blues Brothers and she's like, I'm not
seeing I'm like, how can you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
Not see this? Yes, the SWAT team breaks in.

Speaker 5 (01:16:52):
The Chicago Police Department breaks in and they tell everybody
to freeze, And I just got to ask you, guys,
did you see how Beverly de Angelou froze?

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
She freezes that way the first time. We're after the handshake.

Speaker 4 (01:17:02):
Yes, and then she puts her hand back after she
shakes the hand and goes right back to his junk.
They did folly on it so you can hear her grip.

Speaker 5 (01:17:12):
Maybe this is why you know Clark and Ellen are
together so well, because he's packing. Yeah, we get a resolution,
we get the Frank Shirley sees the air of his
ways and he decides that yes.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
He is going to give everybody a Christmas bonus.

Speaker 5 (01:17:26):
It doesn't it doesn't really hit how funny this whole
scene is until you hear the police chiefs say if
I had a rubber hose, that was a good one.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
I was like, that is such a Chicago gap things
to say.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
Yeah, they just cut him off. It's like I would
beat you.

Speaker 5 (01:17:44):
And then you know it all ends with Uncle Lewis.
Everyone's outside and they see the what they think is
the lights of the Aurora Borealist, but in actuality it's
the sewage treatment plant because there's gases everywhere from the
r V. Uncle Lewis decides to yet again light another
match and causes an explosion, and we see Santa Claus

(01:18:06):
and his reindeer flying in the sky and Aunt Bethany
starts singing the Star Spangled Banner For such a wonderful,
wholesome moment. Clark and Ellen share a Christmas kiss and
Clark is satisfied that he has provided a great Christmas
for his family.

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
I'm sorry, but man, I feel like that's the greatest
ending that there possibly could be. Is that flaming Santa
and Reindeers just shooting across the sky.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Like, how do you had a film like this? Like
it was a stroke of brilliance?

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:18:37):
Yeah, you know, I gotta say, growing up in the eighties,
I don't know how many times I seen those you know,
cheap plastic molded Santa Clauses and Reindeers.

Speaker 3 (01:18:47):
I'm like, yeah, this kind of fits.

Speaker 5 (01:18:49):
Just seeing that flaming plastic effigy to Santa Claus flying
in the sky, that was pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (01:18:55):
What I thought was cool was who misses Helen Shirley
actually played as in Star Trek. I don't know if
you guys recognize her, you.

Speaker 5 (01:19:05):
Know what, being a fellow Trekker on the Trekky, on
this Smooth, on this podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
I don't know who she was.

Speaker 6 (01:19:11):
She she played both in the Next Gen and DS
nine as Admiral and the Chev.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
Really yeap.

Speaker 6 (01:19:21):
I instantly recognized her. As soon as I saw her,
I was like, oh my god, wait, I know who
that is. And I looked it up and I was like, dang,
that's what. I couldn't remember her character name, but yeah,
Admiral Chev.

Speaker 5 (01:19:33):
You can recognize Admiral Nichev, but you can't recognize Todd
as crewman from Wrath.

Speaker 11 (01:19:38):
Of con Oh, she's got blonde hair, short blonde hair
as the Admiral, and then she's got this like this
longer black haircut.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:52):
I would only know putting the photos side by side
on the Internet. There's literally like a post saying I
was today years old when I learned the Admiral Nelson
the CEO's wife and Christmas vacation.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
Ye nice. Look at this movie.

Speaker 5 (01:20:04):
I do have to ask you, guys, who do you
think is the standout character for this film? Personally, I
think it's Randy Quaid. I think he did a great
job as cousin Eddie. Just his take on the character
is just above and beyond hilarious.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
I mean, it's kind of tough because this cast is
solid through and through. I mean it just almost every
one of them are just fantastic. But yeah, I guess
when it comes down to it, still it's Randy Quaid.
I mean, because I said it, dude, He's the cherry
on top of the Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
This would have been a great.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
Film without him, but it was a phenomenal film with him.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
He just again takes this and turns it from ten
to eleven.

Speaker 5 (01:20:43):
For Well, how about you, Rick, what's your thoughts? Who's
your favorite standout character in this whole movie?

Speaker 3 (01:20:49):
Yeah, I don't know. I could probably go with that.
I could go with Clark.

Speaker 6 (01:20:55):
I could even go with Bethany. Honestly, there was some
pretty good moment moments there.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like I think, I think.

Speaker 6 (01:21:05):
It was really well said. He said, there's a lot
of good characters here. And you know, there's a lot
of good characters, because how many times have we said, oh, yeah,
this person is in this thing, Like even even Russell,
there was a few things.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
There was more than a few things.

Speaker 6 (01:21:19):
That he did to add to the show or the
movie this in this case.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
But yeah, I don't know. It's a tough one. I
hesitate to say Randy Quaid, but it's pretty good. It
was definitely pretty good. One of us, one of us.
I can separate the art from the artist.

Speaker 4 (01:21:42):
This is not only Randy Quaid's best portrayal of cousin Eddie,
probably his most recognized role in any movie, definitely the
most quoted. So, I mean, this is why he's still
getting invited to cinn atographs. The people a part of
the asked and when they're doing a Christmas vacation event

(01:22:02):
because of cousin of Eddie in this movie and definitely
not sequel Christmas Vacation too.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
Do you guys feel like when you watch this and
then you watch Independence Day, it's just damn cousin Eddie
and Independence Day again.

Speaker 3 (01:22:15):
I mean, I really think it's almost the same damn character. Yeah,
I mean, I love it. Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:22:20):
I think this movie got him the role in Independence Day.

Speaker 3 (01:22:24):
Yeah, you know what, now I think about it.

Speaker 6 (01:22:26):
No, there is a standout character in this whole thing
that no one's really mentioned as such. When I say
the character, you guys, you have to agree that this
character stood out above all the rest in the particular
field of interest.

Speaker 3 (01:22:41):
Squirrel, No, Nicolette Scorsese bro stood out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
I mean I guess if we're gonna say most memorable
role ever, this is hers.

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
I mean, you know, she's a model.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
She gets a few bit roles, she gets this lands
it may, you know, basically kind of puts her on
the map. She plays one or two more roles like this,
and then she just gracefully falls into the ether of
time and she just disappears.

Speaker 3 (01:23:09):
But he probably had a kid and started looking like
a regular person.

Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
But everybody who's seen this, you know, because once a
year we all see Nicolette score Saty and we're like,
oh yeah, I've.

Speaker 5 (01:23:22):
Got our all right, guys, Well that brings us to
rating time. So is this worth taking an hour and
thirty seven minutes off your death clock?

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
Tim? Oh yeah, without a doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
I mean, I think I made that more of the
parrot again encapsulates modern American family. I think even almost
to this point, all had these Christmases. We've all known
these relatives, and we've all had something ridiculous happen at
some kind of fat family gathering. It might not have
been Christmas, but something along these blinds has happened that

(01:23:54):
these are the stories that you sit around and go,
remember that time Uncle Bobby did X, Y and Z
kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:23:59):
So we've all been there, and I think it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
Just it captures the modern family so well, and it's
what makes this so endearing as a Christmas film because
we just can relate.

Speaker 5 (01:24:10):
Yes, you know, and I can't agree with you more.
I am right there with you. I definitely think it's
worth taking time off your death clock. Rick, Do you
agree or disagree?

Speaker 3 (01:24:22):
Okay, so I'll say this. The movie is pretty good,
especially as a Christmas movie.

Speaker 6 (01:24:30):
It's good for the whole family. Pretty much everyone is
going to enjoy it. I think that it is something
that you probably should watch if you haven't seen it.
This is a slapstick and crim situation comedy, so you
definitely have to keep that in mind because not everyone
is into that kind of thing. That being said, my

(01:24:52):
wife on the other hand, said that if you haven't
seen this, you need to go get out from under
the rock that you're living under and go watch it.
But but on the other hand, it's not Elf starring Will Ferrell. Okay,
that is that me when you ask me, like, what's
a good Christmas movie? That's the Christmas movie that we're

(01:25:13):
willing to watch every single year. Unfortunately, National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation would not be the one that I'd be willing
to watch every single year.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
You guys, I think Rick might be the only outlier here.
I just say no, if you've never seen it, that's
I didn't say no. I didn't say no. I do
have the opposite opinion of Rick. I think it's worth
taking the time off your death clock every year, at
least once a year the rest of your life to
watch this every year? Is that good?

Speaker 2 (01:25:47):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
Yeah? Every year?

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
Like you go watch It's a Wonderful Wife and then
you watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Speaker 3 (01:25:54):
All right, So Joey's a yes, Rick is a technically
it's a yes. Technically, it's a yes.

Speaker 5 (01:26:00):
Technically, Okay, So I'll give you a technical yes, a
technical yes whatever that means honestly, right, I.

Speaker 6 (01:26:06):
Mean, if you've ever seen it before, yes, you should
go watch it.

Speaker 3 (01:26:09):
But I am not endorsing the annual watch. I am
not endorsing the Annual Watch. All right, I'll give you
that I'll give you that it's a one time. That's okay,
Rick's wife does. That's what's important.

Speaker 5 (01:26:26):
Well, I'll tell you what, folks, if you disagree with
Rick and you agree with us, or if you agree
with Rick and disagree with us, we'd love to hear
from you.

Speaker 3 (01:26:34):
So please leave us some feedback.

Speaker 5 (01:26:36):
You can email our show at Man Review Podcast at
gmail dot com and you can have your email read
right here on the show, or leave a comment on
youtubeer Spotify and we'll discuss it here as well.

Speaker 6 (01:26:46):
Hey, how about this, we'll do one better. Put in
your favorite Christmas movie and who knows, maybe next year
that'll be the one that we talk about.

Speaker 3 (01:26:56):
I like it. I think that's what we do. Everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:26:58):
You've got twelve months. You tell us what you think.
Which Christmas movie is missing in this book, because there
are none. It was a wonderful life and edded there.
So if you think there is a Christmas movie that
belongs in this book, you know, send us an email,
let us know, put in the comments. We'll tally it
up and whatever one we get the most comments on,

(01:27:19):
that's the one we'll do next year for Christmas.

Speaker 3 (01:27:22):
All right? With one caveat not die Hard. Yeah, it
can't be die Hard though, you beka motherfucker. So it
has to be a.

Speaker 4 (01:27:33):
In the spirit of Christmas movie, not just a movie
that takes place on Christmas like correct Batman.

Speaker 2 (01:27:38):
Now, it must be a true Christmas film, not Gremlins.
Either true Christmas film, something like a Miracle on thirty
fourth Street or a Christmas story Christmas story Elf?

Speaker 5 (01:27:52):
Yeah, Hey, you know what, guys, you know, speaking of this,
having our right, having our listeners write in, I am curious.
Instead of a what are you watching, I'd like to
know what other Christmas movie would you recommend outside of
National Lampoon's Vacation. And I'll go to you first.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
Rick.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
I'm gonna guess you're probably gonna say something along the
lines of ELF, but I'll.

Speaker 3 (01:28:13):
Leave it to you. Yeah, for sure, Man, Elf, that's
that's my go too. Man.

Speaker 6 (01:28:17):
I could watch Off every year. Yep, it's funny. I
can't stop laughing at that one.

Speaker 3 (01:28:22):
All right, Well how about you, Joey.

Speaker 4 (01:28:24):
I just watched it past weekend for the first time
in a long time, and I forgot a lot about it.
A very brady Christmas. It was on me TV. It
was part of a house of Swenguli and they you know,
they called it out is that they're not not watching
a scary movie. And they pointed a lot of things
out that you know, we're real obvious if you pay attention.

(01:28:47):
It's like there's a ton of hooking up a very
Brady Christmas for the first time, they imply that Mike
and Carroll are going to get it on and then
they get it interrupted. They show, uh, they show doctor
Greg Brady making out with his nurse wife and they
get caught in his office and he says this to
this old lady. He's teaching her how to do mouth

(01:29:08):
to mouth.

Speaker 3 (01:29:08):
So it's okay.

Speaker 4 (01:29:09):
Peter making out with his boss at work, who happens
to be is is significant other what they but they
like lead up to that and that's weird. And then
jan is on the verge of divorce and is separating
from her professor husband. But they they get they don't
want to like ruin Christmas for Mom because Mom took

(01:29:31):
their vacation money instead of going to Greece or Japan
like they both thought, they decided.

Speaker 3 (01:29:37):
To fly all the kids home for a very Brady Christmas,
and so.

Speaker 4 (01:29:40):
They didn't want to ruin that for her the only outliers.
So they pretend that they're still together and they're they
they're sleeping in their dad's office where he does his
architects stuff. They get woke up by missus Brady and
then this weird like sudden, like you know, whirlwind, we
still love each other moment, and missus Brady says to them,
to Jan and her husband, it's fine if you guys

(01:30:01):
are late for breakfast, and then they attack each other
on the mattress and then they cut away, and so
it's like it's the weirdest amount of sex or excuse me,
implied sex in a Brady fucking, a very Brady Christmas,
which if you've watched the TV show.

Speaker 3 (01:30:18):
There's none of that. There's none of that.

Speaker 4 (01:30:21):
It's like laying in bed, like reading magazines and shit
and like you know, close mouth kisses.

Speaker 3 (01:30:27):
But with Mike and Greg.

Speaker 5 (01:30:28):
But Joey, you forgot the most important thing. A miracle
happened on thirty fifth Street.

Speaker 4 (01:30:36):
Yeah, like at the end, yeah, they all sing and
then it gives like Mike his bearings and he knows
where he's at and the crumbling building and he makes
it out and then you know, they pan up and
Castor says it's another miracle on thirty fourth Street. I
highly recommend A Very Brady Christmas. I can't recommendment it

(01:30:57):
to the gen Z crowd who didn't grow up with
the rerun of the TV show and watch, you know,
the hilarious movies. A Very Brady Christmas is fucking weird
and it's great. It's just fucking amazing.

Speaker 5 (01:31:12):
Tim, what would you say is another movie to recommend?

Speaker 3 (01:31:15):
I don't know. I have to listen to that. I
just I have no words. I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (01:31:21):
I don't understand how Joey could be Like my favorite
Christmas movie is this is a Wonderful Life. It's this wholesome,
like quit essential Christmas movie. And then you're like, what's
your second one? A very sexy Brady Christmas? It defies Yeah,
oh lot By. I went from the most wholesome thing
I could to the most almost quas bi sexual Christmas

(01:31:44):
experience you could have. It's wrong on so many levels.
I don't even want to begin.

Speaker 3 (01:31:50):
It's not that bad. It's not my favorite.

Speaker 4 (01:31:55):
I'll put it in my top fifteen for sure, and
I forgot how much I'll like.

Speaker 3 (01:31:58):
I know, I'll guys are Sully and Christmas for me.

Speaker 2 (01:32:04):
Stop it, I'm gonna I'm not even gonna go for
a movie now, damn it. You guys need to respect
the Christmas spirit. We're gonna take you back to your childhood.
If you really want to watch something that's gonna make
you feel like you're kid again at the Christmas spirit,
pull out those ranking Bass holiday specials and you know,
watch some Rudolph the Red, those Reindeers, some Santa Claus

(01:32:26):
is coming to town. The year without Santa Claus, Frosty
and snow Man. These are the things for my childhood
that make me feel young, make me feel good, and
makes the holidays seem right.

Speaker 3 (01:32:39):
I mean, and add to that the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
You know, it's just the the innocence of these are spectacular.
They they fill you with the Christmas spirit and they
just make you feel young again.

Speaker 3 (01:32:51):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:32:51):
They're not all glitz and glam. They're not about you know, movies.
They're just really well done holiday specials. That's where my
heart lies, and these kinds of things. So there you go.

Speaker 6 (01:33:04):
I don't know, man, after you started talking about all
that cartoon stuff, I started hearing wow.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
Wow, wow Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
That's because I didn't have I didn't have a title
that took.

Speaker 3 (01:33:16):
A whole book just to for now. You know, the
guy who normally.

Speaker 5 (01:33:23):
Has uh, you know, thirty freaking characters, long carts, pikes,
the smallest movie, yeah, the smallest movies.

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
Picked elf How I.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
Found my way through the dungeon while eating my friends
in the middle of a blizzard. Yeah, like sometidle like that,
And he's like, what's your favorite Christmas Elf three?

Speaker 3 (01:33:43):
ELF three? So there you go.

Speaker 5 (01:33:49):
I have to I'm gonna I'm gonna mirror Rick in
the fact that I have a very short title in
my my movie. Don't say No, No No, it's six letters.
It's the ref a Dennis Leary film with Kevin Spacey
and I want to say a Net Benning, but so

(01:34:13):
Kevin spacing and Net Benning is this like yuppie couple
who have a son in military school because they don't
know how to parent, and they're going to a marriage counselor,
and on their way home from the marriage councilor during Christmas,
they wind up getting hijacked by Dennis Leary, who's trying
to escape the police because he tried robbing a rich

(01:34:37):
home and it's Christmas Eve and he gets stuck at
this house with Kevin Spacing and Net Benning, who are
always fighting and bickering like any you know, late nineties
family couple. It just escalates throughout the whole thing. I mean,
he's trying to have these hostages, but they're they're having

(01:34:57):
a holiday meal where Kevin Spacey's moms showing up with
his brother and his wife and their kids, and it
is just if you like how much bad stuff happens
in a Christification, you'll love how much bad stuff happens
in the Ref. It is hilarious and it's Dennis Leary
for crying out loud, so you're gonna get moments of

(01:35:19):
him just going off on a rant.

Speaker 3 (01:35:21):
Left and Right is.

Speaker 4 (01:35:22):
Currently streaming on Hoopla, but always check on just Watch
dot com. And Ref has never had a Bluerry release.

Speaker 3 (01:35:30):
But you can buy it on dvd. Tim, what do
you see? You take us home?

Speaker 2 (01:35:34):
Thanks for listening to mid Late's Reviews podcast and our
review of National Lampoon's Christmas Occasion. We hope you've enjoyed it,
because well we'll tell Sandy you were bad if you
didn't but if you want to be on the nice list,
please like, subscribe, leave a comment, and share with your
friends as you sip eggnogner or a roasting fire. We'd
also like to take a moment during the season to
think all the people who have taken time out of
their busy schedule to help us on our podcasting journey.

Speaker 3 (01:35:57):
We'd like to thank Randal, Jesse and Melanie for.

Speaker 2 (01:35:59):
The podcast we join us from time to time and
continue to let us babble on their electronic media collective
podcast network.

Speaker 3 (01:36:07):
Man, it really is about full. Thanks to Jeffs.

Speaker 2 (01:36:10):
True knowledge ofself, cyber Andreas from the fcu's Bleeding Edge
Cybernetic Shark, and Andreas to pop Culture Guy Presents YouTube
channels who have been avid supporters of our channel since
the beginning and have taught us that yes, you can podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:36:23):
About movies even when drunk.

Speaker 2 (01:36:25):
Thanks to our Australian friends Whitey Damo Goo and our
number one fan Dan on the Land for allowing us
to continue talking movies with them even after we call
ban Max to the Road Warrior. Thanks to Courtney from
Classics with Courtney's YouTube channel bringing a little bit of
class to a truly classless podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:36:44):
Thanks to Josh from The Real Real Talk. We had
a monster of time discussing Halloween movies with you.

Speaker 2 (01:36:50):
Also a big thanks to Judgemaster's big brother Bobby for
helping us keep his little brother in line. And last,
but not least, we'd like to thank you are dedicated listeners.
Dually start this podcast to entertain ourselves, but it's been
great to see so many of you do pull up
a chair and listen to the conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:37:06):
Your support for this channel means so much.

Speaker 2 (01:37:08):
To us, so we hope you have a great holiday
and we'll see you all next year.

Speaker 5 (01:37:12):
Follow us on Facebook, ex Blue Scott and Instagram. Have
a comments or a suggestion, then emailis show It ma'am.
Review podcasts at gmail dot com.

Speaker 6 (01:37:21):
Thanks, stay cool and bye everyone I said this time
without baby.

Speaker 3 (01:37:26):
Have my happy.

Speaker 12 (01:37:27):
Holidays everyone, go elf yourself, san diego

Speaker 6 (01:38:01):
Al

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Episode 86 - Christmas Special Year Two (Christmas Vacation)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 86 - Christmas Special Year Two (Christmas Vacation)