Stocking Stuffer 10.6 A '90s Christmas with Elizabeth Katheryn Gray

Break out those cargo pants with the extra pockets! We’re here to Christmas party like it’s 1999, the Hallmark way. Emily is joined by friend of the pod and Head Hauntress Elizabeth Katheryn Gray to dive choker first into A ‘90s Christmas. Get ready for dial-up internet jokes and maybe, just maybe, some touching moments? We’ll see. Be sure to follow Elizabeth’s many ventures on Facebook and catch the finale of her show! https://www.blogtalkradio.com/archivistsbetonsexywitches

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
So I do know nine. Now what why don't you
just enjoy your time here Christmas party like it's nineteen
ninety nine.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
You were sent back to redo that kiss and have.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
A second chance. Yes, a nineties Christmas only on Hallmark Channel?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Was up?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
What? That's right? What's up?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
You know it's the nineties because we just said was up.
I'm Emily, and I cannot do I mean, the nineties
was a long decade. It was ten years. In fact,
a lot happened, some of which I remember, some of
which this movie kind of remember, some of which maybe
it misinterprets, but that's okay. The point is I can't
do such a thing alone. So with me today. You

(00:51):
know her, you love her. You have heard her join
me almost once a year for the last few years.
She has brought us such great movies before, in such
great conversation. It is the one, the only Elizabeth Catherine Gray,
the head Hauntress herself.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Hello, Hyes, Emily, I love it. We talk at least
once a year during Christmas time. This always makes my season.
And I know I'm in the middle of Christmas when
I'm doing this recording, so that's true.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yes, and it's very kind of you to, you know,
go take the phone off the wall and hold it
to your ear the whole time, like we had to
do in the nineties.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, you know, yeah, I also had to do dial
up too. I actually had a computer.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Oh yeah, did you have a colorful iMac like our
characters have in this movie.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
No, no, I had a makeshift custom I believe it
was still a Commodore sixty four.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Oh wow, I was.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
In a Commodore self in ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Very nice.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
I was living in Richmond at the time, and I
was making my own shit, yeah, or or getting it
from the thrift store.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Nice. So you were already like an older decade above
because you.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Were Yeah, I'm a little bit older. I'm in college
in the nineties. I came of age. Ninety two was
the best year ever for me. That was when I
really realized I was an adult. And of course Tarantino
started doing movies, and the rest is history is you know, okay,
So you know, it was a good year year for

(02:18):
music too, which wasn't really prevalent in the late nineties
right before. Well, The Late isn't really a nineties movie.
It's a nineteen ninety nine movie.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I think that is the smartest thing this movie did.
So we're obviously talking about a nineties Christmas and they
punctuated it correctly. Thank you. As soon as it started,
I was like on, you know, high alert, because I'm thinking,
I am the daughter of Jim and Travia and I
was raised if you remember it, so you probably were
also were you watching The Wonder years back in the

(02:51):
late eighties early nineties for you? Were you watching? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
What not?

Speaker 1 (02:55):
It was a big like family show in my house
and we'd all sit down and watch it. And my
dad loved watching it that he could constantly look at
us and say that car isn't from that year. That's
a mistake, that's a mistake, that's too early. And I
grew up with that in my head and I can't
not do it the same way. So I was ready.
I'm like, oh, a nineties movie probably starring most actors
who were not born in the nineties. I am thinking,

(03:17):
I'm like, oh, this is going to be obnoxious. But
the first thing they do, I'm like, damn it out.
They they smarted themselves through this. They set it in
nineteen ninety nine, and not just ninety nine, right, they
said it in December of nineteen ninety nine, so it's like, yeah,
well that's the nineties. If it happened in the nineties,
it's fair game for this movie because they're they're starting
it at the very end of the year of the decade.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Where were you in ninety nine?

Speaker 1 (03:42):
So I was in Long Island. I can remember exactly
where I was on Y two K, which this movie is,
you know, almost set during. So I was seventeen in
nineteen ninety nine. I was it was my last year.
I was going into my last year of high school
on the class of two thousand and nineties. So I
was hanging out with friends for New Year's Eve. We

(04:05):
went to Greenport, which is like this beach town where
you can walk around, and we drank on the boardwalk
and we were like not near a TV. So we're like, ooh,
if the world ends, we're not going to know. And
the world didn't end, and that was that was my experience.
Was your wife K experience?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
My Way two K experience. I was living in Northern
Virginia and working in Washington, d C. For the National
Park Service at the time. We went to the big
Millennial show where they were you know, Muhammad Ali was there.
Everyone was broadcast big thing. We actually made it in

(04:41):
enough to see everything. The end of it, though, right
before I alterned to make this quick, but it's awesome story.
Right at the end of it, they suddenly stopped the
whole thing and just cleared everybody out. Turned out the
President decided to go home early. Ah, So because he
decided to go home early, this secret server shut everything down.

(05:02):
That said, at home, no fireworks, nothing. Midnight came and went.
So so we're walking back to our car, which is
in Georgetown, which is quite a long walk from the mall,
and I had to go to the bathroom. So I
jumped into one of the fancy hotels and go to
the bathroom. I'd go and wash my head. Comes out,
turned around, standing in the lobby Elizabeth Taylor. Officers dressed

(05:25):
to the fusing officer's nine, and she was wearing this
red ax sequence gown.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Could you smell Was she wearing white diamonds? And could
you smell it? Could you smell her perfume?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh? She glistened like she was the shiniest person I
had ever seen. She went upstairs. These guys were escorting
her tour room and I it was just a kiss.
If I just hadn't have jumped into that, I would
have never had that. And I saw friggin Elizabeth Taylor.
My with my own eyes.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Your Y two K was Elizabeth Taylor. You ended a millennium,
a century, a decade, but a millennium with Elizabeth hit
with the Star of the Millennium.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
And then a little lenniapp right after that, right she
went up the elevator and I was like, oh my god,
what did ice to see that? I turned around, There's
like this beautiful you know, window river. They did the fireworks. Ah,
they did them be an hour later.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Everybody wins. Everybody wins.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
What a nice I got the fireworks too, There was
like awesome. So that was what I was doing in
Y two K. Now, two thousand and itself was kind
of a problem. I was unemployed. There were family health issues.
We won't go into those, but well, you know, and
then I got the job with the park Service and
everything was good.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
So so did along the way did a waitress and
then a ride share driver start playing Twelve Days of Christmas,
And then that brought you back to the day that
you met Elizabeth Taylor. And then you changed things and
changed your future. Did that happen?

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I wish I could have done that. I would definitely
I would have definitely done Thanks. Maybe maybe maybe I
missed my moment.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Maybe it could be. I mean, it's all because you
resisted the call of the Twelve Days of Christmas, which
is a very annoying Christmas song. In my opinion, it
was very good.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
I was about to like have an absolute heart attack
looking at Lizabeth Taylor, and I catched it. It attacker
because I'm sure those soldiers would have punched me.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, that's what they're to do.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, there's a job costs. It was amazing. It was like,
but there were huge soldiers when they had metal, they
had bald all they were just dead.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Nice, she had bookends. Let's just quit that way.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Oh god, I mean I wouldn't expect nothing less of her.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
So yeah, so no, now, this this chick is living. Okay,
So we'll have to go into the plot. That's a
lot about There's.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
A lot, there's a lot to go through. So this
is yes, a nineties Christmas twenty twenty four movie Hallmark Channel.
I don't this is not their first time travel movie
by any means this is not even their first time
travel movie where Chandler Matthew plays the love interest. He
was in Next Stop Christmas a few years ago, where
it's a very similar thing, where it's a character who

(08:08):
like goes back in time and has to make different
decisions and there he is. So apparently this is like
his Lane is doing the time travel movie. This is
directed by Marnie Banneck, who has made a few of these,
but none that I recognized, and written by Ryan Peck
and Paw. I don't think he is in a relation
to Sam Peck and Pall, but boy would be funny
if he was. And let's talk about the plot of

(08:32):
this movie. Please Elizabeth tell us what happens in a
nineties Christmas.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Also, Ryan Peck and Paul worked on a movie called Cheryl,
this independent film that I reviewed this year Buried Alive.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Very nice.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I actually was really surprised to see that crossovers in
my research.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Okay, interesting, was that movie any good? Well?

Speaker 2 (08:52):
This actually was the best feature we yes, yes it was.
Didn't make it the festival unfortunately, but it was very good.
So mister pack and Pop, thumbs up you and your crew.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
He's another one of His credits is Script and Continuity
Department for Dogs exclamation Point the musical. I don't know
what that is, but I am looking forward to it
in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
So and h. And the director does something about puppies.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah that often, you know, typically any of these directors.
Their resumes include other movies with Christmas in the title,
with puppies in the in the title, with Nanny often
in the title, because it's either usually lifetime thrillers or.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
A lot of scene television. Yeah, I think television. He
can write for it, apparently.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, and there's some degrassi on the director's resume because
this is definitely Canadian. So oh yeah, all makes sense,
all right, So let's get into.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
It, all right. So there's a stick. Her name is
Lucy Clark, all right. She is our our hard business woman,
the typical one you get in these movies. She doesn't
have time for no time from Dr Jones, and no
time for Christmas. They got stuff to do, you know,

(10:05):
things to people to see. But she's not doesn't hate
Christmas like a lot of these women are. Just like,
I hate Christmas. This doesn't celebrate Christmas. It brings up
bad memories. You know, and and she's very focused in
her career. So her sassy sidekicks. I guess he assistant
right Spencer, Spencer. Spencer comes in and they talk and

(10:28):
and then her other sassy side sick. So she's not
really that saxy saxy sassy saxy, I don't know what
saxy is. Her sister Alexa follows her and said, did
you get the box? But right before she got the box,
Spencer tells her she got the promotion. She's gonna be
partnered in her law firm. But she's a divorce lawyer

(10:50):
and a very good one and a very epathetic one.
She was very good with the prison.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, they didn't make her. It would have been easy
to make her into like the hard nos divorce attorney.
But like the first clas she has is very like,
she's very sympathetic to her, trying to cheer her up
and say like, yeah, you know, this will be good
for you in the in the long run, it's not
just about the bottom line. So it's you know, yeah,
she's not irredeemable from the start. She just clearly, like

(11:14):
many a lead in these movies, wants to make partner
and and she does so cool.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
You know. So she goes to her Christmas party for
about five minutes, meets people at pool. Wrong career choice.
She should have been at pool shark or something because
she just cleans everyone's sassy side kids. But Alexa gave
her a box and then nutbox, and there's a picture
of her family and a bunch of other things, and

(11:41):
she's trying to get her to come home for Christmas
in Milwaukee. She's in Chicago. Very important. We got to
talk about this. Milwaukee is only two hours from Chicago.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, it's not far.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, it's not far at all. I've done that drive.
I know that drive. It's not that far. So, you know,
I don't know why she's not going home for Christmas,
but she doesn't go home.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's more an emotional decision, right, Yeah, she does not
like to go home and celebrate because it reminds her
of when her dad died.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, dead parents all over this right, Okay, So, and
she also has in a strange friend named Nadine who
needs help monetarily, like she's broke and having a bad patch.
So you know, all this stuff is happening. But she
decides to go celebrate her partnership by herself and have
some pancakes, and then she meets her ex next door neighbor.

(12:29):
Act Matt is the Blandland interest. Matt is the same
age as her. Matt was an actor in New York
and failed miserably and now he's an insurance salesman. And
they have a conversation and he like judges her from
her job even obviously, yeah, you know, he hates his
So why are you judging her for making partner? Oh

(12:51):
you're a divorce lawyer?

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Who else you're evil because people shouldn't get divorced anyway.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah, no, he got he got kind of judge agree,
you know. And then so she like tells him to
go away. He goes away, He does some coffee cup acting,
which was pretty good, and then he goes out. She
goes outside. Well, first there's a waitress just down and
starts like grilling her over the stuff. Right, So, who's
this girl? I mean this a lot of coffle in it.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Man, we're in the first five minutes.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, this is all the first five minutes. So she
like talks to this chick and the chick's like saying
things about her, like blah blah blah blah, blah blah,
and then she sees her again outside driving an uber
what they called what would they call it?

Speaker 1 (13:33):
It was not ride chair, right, they just don't just
say ride share the entire movie.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, So she does the ride share thing, and then
the ride share takes her two hours to Milwaukee, moves
her back in time to nineteen ninety nine. So she
she falls asleep and misses all of this, leaves her laptop,
her glasses, and her smartphone in the chat in the uber. Uh,
so that goes away, and then because the lady deliber

(14:00):
drove off with it and left her at her mom's
And then now she's at her mom's and oh god,
there's mom. Every mom is grieving his dad had only
died a year before. She would been nineteen at the time.
They see her as nineteen. We see her as the
adult kind I guess.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
I mean, because by all, this actress should be forty
three forty four in this movie, and this actress is
not forty four.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
No, No, she's a thirty year old playing a forty
year old and.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
A nineteen year olds. Yes, yeah, that kind of makes
sense in its own way.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, and someone did say in the review, Well, in
the nineties, that would have been a thing. So and
they're not. That is true. I mean, look a look
at Saved by the Bells nineties, right, sure, yeah, to
look at them, they were all like fifty Elizabond Berkeley
was at least twenty five twenty six, did I mean anyway?

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I digress?

Speaker 2 (14:46):
So yeah, all right, so we got the whole uh,
you know, re reconnecting with the fam. And her sister,
who's by the way, is gay also, like both her
Sasey side takes are gay, but she's still in the closet.
She hasn't out, and Mom is still grieving, but she's
she's using baking therapy to keep herself going, cleaning the

(15:08):
house and baking, and she's trying to make a perfect Christmas,
of course, because you know, mom's over compensated and trying
to make it better for everybody else, even though she's
the one that really needs to help because she lost
her husband. And it doesn't even sound like it was
a full year like they hint at it was like
relatively real.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Well, it seems like it's the first Christmas without him.
It's unclear when, if it was January or if it
was November, but it is definitely the first Christmas without him.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
They kind of insinuated though it was actually it was
sudden and not too too long ago. You know, it
could have been January, but I bet you.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
It was like the spring time or something. You know,
it's like something.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
It just it just that's how it felt to me.
And and and grandparents are coming over, you know, they're
coming over. So she has to go and solve the mystery.
Why is she there? She reached next with Nadine. A
dean says, well, you're gonna fall in love with Matt
because you and Matt, who lives next door to her
by the way. You know you're supposed to because they

(16:04):
were supposed to get together and they never did, and
she ran away. And when they play some hockey, mm
naturally yeah, as ey one does, as one does in Canada. Yes, yeah,
in reindeer games. They call it the Reindeer Games and
it includes hockey and three legged races and lots of baking.

(16:26):
I'm now kind of losing the plummet. She every time
she makes a change, her acceptance letter starts disappearing right,
and then she realizes that if she makes these new choices,
she's gonna lose her partnership and everything she worked for.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
So she's changing the future by trying to not even correct,
Like it's just she's been brought back to this very
emotional December, and what she should do, I guess, by
the rules of time travel in these movies, is like,
do exactly what you did twenty five years ago and
just follow every beat and don't change a thing, which

(16:59):
of course is possible. And also like, now, she's a
forty four year old woman who knows, oh, I know
my sister is gay, and it would be probably be
nice if she heard me tell her it's it's okay
and it's gonna be fine. But technically I didn't tell
her that. Then I told her that probably ten years
later or so.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Here's the thing. She's like a forty year old woman
in nineteen year old body, with the experiences that she's
had since she's moved on to Chicago. Sure it'd be
a completely different person. And then that was nineteen who
had just lost her father, was just out of high
school and took a year off from a college that
she was supposed to get to.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
You know, this uber driver, I'm sorry, this ride, this
ride chair driver that's not uber has put her in
a very rude position. And do we ever find out
exactly why did I miss that? Like they never explain
where this Christmas magic.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
They say it's a gift. She says this, it's a gift. Okay,
who's giving this gift?

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Right? Because it's like it's you know, she opens the
box from her sister. But it's not like that was
sprinkled with anything magical. Like it's just one of those
I don't know. This waitress likes to fuck with people
every year, I guess, and this is the one that
you pay.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
It's yeah, so you know things. So I did like
the trope of the Twelve Days of Christmas would start
playing in different spots right in the song when she
made a change, and.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
That's what would tell her that, you know, she's changing
the future.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah yeah, and actually that kind of worked. I liked
how it built up to the you know, the final
twelve Days of Christmas, and I actually like I like
the song, but that's just me. I'm weird.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
It's just so repetitive. It goes on it's the same thing,
and then they do another verse and then you have
to go back to the first Verson's it just seems
like a lot well, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
It's a my mother made me learn it. My mother
made me learn a lot of I have like a
whole library of Christmas carols in my head that they're
just hard wired, even though I don't sing them very often.
You know, it's like they're there, like I including It'll
come all you Faithful and Latin isn't there?

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Well you WA's definitely.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, my mother was hardcore Christmas. But yeah, she would
have loved movies like this. She never got to really
see movies like this, so, but she would have liked
these movies. She likes the fantasy. Time travel was her.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
So and this is a nice in that it has
obviously a very strong fantasy element, but it also, you know,
it's it's done quickly and cheaply, so there's no real effects,
there's no I am actually gonna say I was impressed
with how and I was looking up the costume designer
because I was curious. I'm like, clearly they were alive

(19:34):
in the nineties, because it could have been very easy
to make very obvious choices or and make the wrong choices.
But like there were little things the characters were wearing
and small props that were like oh, yeah, no, that
that's nineties, like so you know, there's this wasn't as
quick as this was probably made. There's a little bit
of care in the production of like, oh no, we're

(19:57):
gonna be kind of period appropriate where we.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Can when it keeps to their dress, they were keeping
it kind of neutral. I'm justice, definitely I noticed. But
there were the splashes of color that you would see,
like that purple that would pop up occasionally. Yeah, so
they would give you hints of some nineties flair.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, you had cargo pants. You had chokers, which.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
These are these are white people's suburb which is which
was me in the nineties.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
I was a white person in the suburbs. So I
wore a choker because I thought I was convinced chokers
maybe look skinnier, that like, oh this thing like choking
my neck will will make it look like I have
a neck. There was a lip gloss, there was oh
hemp like Hemp jewelry, have bracelets, and the hair never
quite got to nineties, but I but they clearly tried

(20:44):
to give the love interest, like the the mushroom fluf
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Yeah. Well, I'm not gonna give away the ending, but
you know, these are these Christmas movies. To guess they've
probably is a happy anymore likely everyone gets what they want.
But I you know, I'm not sure what this story
was about, to be honest with you. Ultimately, like she
didn't really need to learn a lesson. Well, let's get

(21:09):
to the tropes. We should talk about that, because I
don't actually think she needed a lord a lesson.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
I this is good, this is weird. Okay, God, I've
been doing this too long, because like, I think I
might have liked this moran you shd and I actually
found some of the emotional beats. I can't believe I'm
saying this out loud. Some of the emotional beats really
worked for me.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I think you've been watching too many of these.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
I think I have. Then, I think this is like
I always happens. I know, I hit that point in
the cycle where suddenly I'm like, you know, it was
really nice when she opened up box and her Twelve
Days of Christmas again and decided it was okay. Yeah,
it happens every now and then, but I think there's okay,
a clear reason on this one. One of them is

(21:54):
this movie. Whoever, whether it was the writer or directors,
clearly also loves Peggy Sue Got Married, which is one
of my favorite time travel movies. It is wonderful. It's
Francis Corcopola, it's Kathleen Turner, and they're One of like
the nicest moments of that movie is when Peggy Sue,

(22:16):
who also gets transported back to her high school years,
only in this case it's made in the eighties and
it's the fifties, and she's kind of like trying to navigate.
She's like, this is crazy. I don't know what's going on.
But then she sees her grandparents and it's like, oh,
the emotional like because immediately it's like you're dead, You're
like and I see you again and I get to

(22:38):
tell you how much I love you. Like that beat
really works in Peggy su and I thought that was
played well in this When she first sees her grandparents,
you could see that everything come up in her of like,
oh my god, I get to see I forgot that,
I get to see you now. And I thought that was.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Then and.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Leida needed a lesson, you know.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Lucy is a very likable character. It's like she's pleasant
on the eyes, like the beautiful hair, well dress as well.
She plays she knows how to ice skate, she plays hockey.
You know, she's she's kind of cool. You know, she's
also a lawyer and she's good at her job and
you know, so she's a very likable character. I didn't

(23:23):
have any issues with her as I don't think she
necessarily leaves a lesson because.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
She no, she's not a bad person. I think the
lesson the movie is bringing up that she needed to
learn or not needed to learn. In the beginning, it
is very clear she does not go home anymore, and
that seems to be a very I mean again, it's
it's her choice to do that, it's her right to

(23:47):
do that, but it seems like it is very much
because she does not want to go and be reminded
of her father, be reminded of like, oh, I go
home and I'm unhappy because my mom is sad and
I'm not that close with my sister anymore. And then
there's my best friend who lives across the street, who
I stopped talking to, Like it's a lot of I've
moved on with my life and I don't like to
go back to them. And now again, you're right having

(24:10):
said that out loud, I hear it, and it's like, well,
then fine, move on with your life. You don't owe
anything to these people. But I think the movie, what
the movie is trying to say is that, like, but
she does love her mother, she does love her sister,
she wishes she was still friends with Nadine. I guess
that's where it is. But also like, I think part
of it is because I don't like the romance in
this at all. I can be swung back to your side.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Oh guy, no, no, but we we got to talk
about let's go there.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah number two our bland love interest.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, okay. In next Door, first of all, he's not
a rich boy, right, and he's not and he's not rugged,
you know, or or single father.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Oh, he's this like third type movies do where it's
kind of like he's like it. I think in theory,
it's supposed to be like, oh, he's the nice guy,
best friend who was there the whole time, and usually
there's something very kind of like toxic about that, and
it's kind of how I feel here. I don't I've
liked this. This actor was in he's been in a

(25:07):
few things I've seen. Last year, he was in Mystic
Christmas and he was fine in that. I thought he
was very likable in that, and he played off the
lead very well. In this one, it's not so much
the actor. I don't.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
I think this guy is terrible, and he's absolutely terrible.
Let's just go ahead and spoil it. He goes and goes.
You have he got a he's an actor the way, Yeah, sure, okay, yeah,
we get to see so exacting in the movie.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
He does a worst British accent than I do.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
I was, oh my god, that that was That was
Oh my god. Okay, and he got it. He's got
a gig, I guess, some kind of like you know,
like inside Actress Studio or something like that in New York,
a position that he's going.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
To go do.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
And that's cool, right, And then she got she has
a choice between a full ride to Northwestern and the
best law school in the Midwest and one of the
best in the country, or Columbia, which is a good,
solid school. She also got into that, but she has
to pay for it, and so he's like pressuring her
to not take the Northwestern and you know, honestly, the

(26:12):
two that's the better, Like take the Northwestern and keep
her in Chicago. Here, just why I don't understand keep
her nearby so she can go visit her family, Like
I don't understand why she wasn't going. I mean, clearly
she was talking to her her sister on the phone,
so she didn't completely put them But like why would
he even Like first of all, why is he pressuring.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Her when they're not a couple, Like they are a.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Couple, and it's not like he couldn't go to Chicago
and get the same experiences. There is plenty of theater
and acting troops. So I might have missed that television.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
For you know, in the or not grownlings with second City,
Second City, Second City, and second in the alternate future
a spoiler alert, of course, I get together and they
have an alternate future in that did she go to
New York or did she go to Chicago? She went
to New York. So now this bitch is in debt

(27:17):
and she ended up being like a good lawyer and
not a divorce attorney. So she and the like it
takes are longer to pay it.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Off, like that higher which she could put like down,
like like that could have been their.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Next It is expensive New York. And worst of all,
this means that they're that couple that go to New
York and she's at Columbia and and she's that girl
in your dorm. You know, you've had this roommate where
it's like, oh, hey, you want to go out tonight.
I can't. My boyfriend's coming over. By the way, I'm
going to have to put the the the you know,
the sock on the door, and can you sleep somewhere

(27:55):
else tonight? You know, they're that couple. They're that obnoxious
couple that stays together in college.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Okay, here's my question, and there's nothing wrong with this,
but I think Matt is gay.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
I didn't. It's funny. This came up on I think
two episodes ago when we did the Santa stake out
of this constant Like, these movies have fucked with my
gaitar completely. I can never tell anything. Uh in this one,
I did not get I didn't get gave ups again.
I've seen this actor do a lot of these movies.
He has always I mean again, he is not like

(28:32):
your big He will never play like the lumberjack. He
is much you know, more kind of metrosexual or whatever
the term we say now is. But I didn't. I
didn't get gay. I just got kind of jerk.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Here's there's gay coding. This is I'm not saying, it's
actually the actor that's getting projecting that he's gay or straight.
He's just playing himself. Basically, Matt is mad as Matt.
But the the clues in like his his bedroom and there,
you know, there was things that there were like like
he was wearing, there was like lines he was given

(29:10):
to say. And I was like, you know, I remember
the nineties and a lot of my friends were still closeted.
And he reminded me one of my friends from the
nineties closeted gay because the other we had the two
openly gay characters, one that's coming out, one that's out right.
But you were like, I grew up in San Francisco

(29:31):
and I lived outside.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
New York, so you know, I took it more as
theater boy. He is definitely a theater you know, he's
he was very theater kid and often, and again I
mean I was around a lot of theater people. Basically,
when it came to men, it was a very simple
split of like, yeah, seventy five percent of men in
theater that I knew through college were gay. The other

(29:54):
twenty five percent were like the guys that could have
sex with every woman because their pool was so small.
So I took him more of that side. But the
like he was like the bottom of the barrel of
like the last one you'd want to have sex with.
But like sometimes he's the only.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
One left even if he's not, why why not being
with this girl ruined his life? Like like he still
had the job.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Or the gig in New York without her. I don't know, Yeah,
I know I wasn't him.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
And it's New York in the nineties was very was
a rough, but it was very loving to comedians and
actors at that time period. Uh you know we had Carolina's,
you know with Rest in Peace, miss that club, Uh
you know Carolyn's on Times Square for comedy. He had
all these like troops and off Broadway, and he had
a job.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
But he wouldn't have made it anywhere. Can you imagine
this guy is showing up to audition for your improv group.
They're not taking him in. No, they're not much. He
had one line that I appreciated, which was when like
she comes back to do the like I got to
tell everybody everything, you know, and she she knocks in
his door. She's like please, like I have to talk

(31:05):
to you, and he says stories like, hey, it's Christmas Eve.
Can we do this tomorrow? I appreciate that because you
know what, like, yeah, if somebody knocked out my door
maniacally on Christmas Eve and I was like making chest
outs with my family, I'd probably be like, hey, you
want to come back like after So that's not something
you see off.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, all right, so we beat on Matt.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
We don't like him. Yes, we both on that. Now
let's talk about Milwaukee.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Oh Milwaukee.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
It really can't tell it's Milwaukee or Toronto.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, it's definitely Canada.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
I don't know which Canada, but one of the Canada's.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
And Canada is right next door to each other. Is
there a close I think so, I don't. I mean,
I've been to Milwaukee's definitely been. I'm not gone down Milwaukee.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, it's it's another case where they did the thing
of like we're gonna make it really clear that we're
in this city and we're gonna say it a few times.
But there is no reason for it to be Milwaukee, right,
There is no like there. Clearly didn't film there. There
is no like oh, and then we're gonna go have
a brew or do anything that's like Milwaukee in right.

(32:20):
So it's very funny of like, why why did we
choose this city?

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Oh? I guess so they could do the establishing shots
in Chicago and have it in a town that's close
to Chicago. We're not that close. That's the only thing
I can think about Milwaukee because yeah, but I do
think it kind of counts as a small town. It'd yeah, yeah,
like you talk about that trophe, you know, that's what
you know. It really is the small town in this case,

(32:46):
because Chicago is a big, beautiful city. And I lived
in Chicago for a while, so I can say it's
a beautiful city. Well, this is more like the suburb
of Milwaukee probably, Yeah, So, which is weird because Chicago
has miles and miles of suburbs and you know, anyway,
I so, but you know, in milwaukee's.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Walking too much, but it's being treated like the small
town here. It's quaint it's treated very quaintly. Yes, let's
talk about number four our dead parents.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Oh, yeah, oh my god.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
So let me ask you a question. At what point
in the movie were did you know for sure that
it was a dead dad? Because they say, really are
early on it's our first Chrystmas without Dad, and then
for like another hour twenty minutes, they just keep saying, well,
Dad's gone, Dad's not here anymore, and I'm like, and

(33:42):
maybe it's because it's like I just watched like two
movies in a row that I had like a deadbeat
dad that I was still waiting for them to, like,
can they confirm he's dead or did he just leave them?
I did not know for sure, And then they finally
kind of say, yeah, he's dead.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
I think about the time that mom was fixing the
ribbon outside. Maybe is when I got that's probably about
where I figured, Okay, I think that's it. I would
I honestly didn't make the mark where you figured it
out it was dead. I disassumed Dad was dead.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
It seemed like it, but they were being really coy
about it, where it was like two scenes in a
row where a character blatantly said, well, Dad's not here anymore,
And then I actually did clock it was an hour
and five minutes in when one of the characters said
he passed away, and I was like, okay, thank you,
Like I just wasn't sure. And it was really bugging
me because it's a very different nature of a film

(34:31):
if Dad walked out on them versus, you know, Dad
got hit by a truck.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
I disassumed Dad was it was a dead Dad. And
and also we have a de facto not dead yet.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Grunted yet Grandpa.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
You're right very much yea, because they mentioned his time.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Is coming, Angel of death Lucy.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yep, she knows he's coming. I know that too, you know.
And yeah, and I do honestly like that moment where
he's a grand Yeah, that was a generally like affection
of yeah, and you could tell I had a suspicion.
And then they confirmed it later that one of gonna
we're gonna pass it or grandparents.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
I don't know how much longer Grandma was gonna hold on.
She seem pretty old.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, there's a dog. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Oh, that's the thing that always gets me because like
for me, dog yeah, that would be the reason to
go back in time. It's like, what do you want
to do? Do you want to go see? Like I
just want to go like pet my dog again. I
just want to go like hold my cat like and
that my entire life. Those have been like the hardest
dreams I've ever had, where like I'll have a dream that, oh,

(35:40):
there's my cat who died five years ago, and like
it's just an in the dream. I always know they're
gonna die. It's oh, it's never like oh I'm just
back in a scenario with my dog. It's always like
me in the dream? Is me now? It's Lucy two
point zero where you know like, oh, I know I
don't belong here. I know that you're no longer alive
because it's been twenty years in year and your lifespan

(36:01):
can only be so long. But like, oh, I'm gonna
cherish this so that that definitely got me too.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yes, and not enough dog?

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Well obviously, yeah, well, I mean they can't. They have
to fill these things very quickly. Oh he did, I know,
I know he did? Was crazy dog.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
That makes me sad though, I was like, oh, no,
dead dog, So that's almost as bad as good parents.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Right, well true, but let's I mean, yeah, yes, yes,
it most definitely is. Let us cheer ourselves up with
I counted three sassy sidekicks three.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Okay, I have Spencer and Alexa and.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
Right, so, okay, so we have Spencer, who is the
gay assistant and who is just like the perfect gay
assistant that these movies every movie should have, where he's
just there.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Wants that gay assistants and.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
He's so well too. Yeah, there's there is the sister
and Nadine, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Exactly is more still seen than Alexa. So you know,
Alexa's kind of reserved folky girl playing her guitar, listening
it go girls.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
You know, and Nadine is the sci fi nerd who
helps fill in some of the gaps. Basically again, I
know you had mentioned how like, oh a lot of
like horror movies have done this lately. This is very
totally killer in terms of the relationships. Right.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
There's also a Christmas horror movie called It's a Wonderful Knife, Yes,
and it's exactly like this very much.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
And then there was a film that came out this year,
a horror film, straight up horror film called Time Cut,
which goes back to I think twenty two thousand and three. Okay,
and it's getting mixed reviews, but I'm gonna watch it
because it's getting enough buzz both ways that it's parked
my interest. Yeah, so, but so yeah, I know this
has been a very busy trope lately, like that's going

(37:56):
back in time and fixing things.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yes, And it's always helpful to have that one character
that can have some kind of knowledge of like oh, yeah,
I'm a sci fi nerd, or I'm a science nerd,
or I'm a time machine developer who can fill in
the gaps and help that along.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
An action film should be the tech geek girl exactly
sexy with the glasses. In this case, it's a cute neighbor.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
The Princess Leabn's and you know, chist I will say
something about the sister because very early on in the
movie again we get gay characters like thrown at us
left and right, which is great and awesome. I think
this might be I know, for me, this is the
first time I have seen a character actually come out
in a in a Hallmark movie. Although I'm saying that,

(38:44):
I guess maybe she doesn't come out because she starts like,
we don't see the scene where she comes out.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
We see the scene before they cut away go to commercial, right,
and they come back right.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
I guess we see the scene. I'm thinking of the
scene where Lucy says to the sister like, oh, hey,
I know, and it's gonna be okay when you when
you decide to tell everybody, you know that it's gonna
be okay.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
They they implied that she came out to her mom
after that, yes, you know, and came out early because
she already had a girlfriend, right, you know, so she
clearly knew who she was and she looks to be
pretty young, and mom does Mom actually does lay some
like like Advicely, it's gonna be tough for her because
she already knows who she is. I actually liked that

(39:27):
line a lot, you know, but you can get through it,
you know. Yeah, nice, it was. It was nice.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Let's talk about our villain. We don't really have one.
There's one character kind of thrown in to sort of
add a little tension, but it is Yeah, Matt's co
star in the Christmas Carol.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Okay, we ask you about these ginger cookies, do you did?
I keep getting the suspicion I watched it twice now
that mom was just being polite about the ginger cookies
and she really doesn't like me. Hmm, Well, you know
her mom because if you watch the two scenes they mentioned,
she's like, oh, great, like ginger cookies.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, and you know it too, because the mom is
clearly like a really good baker because in the again
in the New Future, the mom even opens up her
own bake catering company. So I would guess that's definitely
one of those things where it's like like I know
for me, like I'm at the point where I cook
so much that I eat anybody else's cooking. I'm like,
that's cute, and I bet that's the mom. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
I just thought that was funny. Yeah, yeah, just but
the scene really doesn't do much and just we get
to meet Matt's parents and Matt's parents are having a
border disputed on Christmas Eve? Why would he yet having
branches and Christmas Eve? That's not what you do.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
And this is now she's married into this family, Like
that's just.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Very yeah, Like seriously, there's berries. Were those trees that
had any berries or leaves of any kind? I don't
think they did, but I don't know.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
It did not seem again and like now like they
have to spend holidays together. The mom, this poor mother
widowed mom had a hard Christmas. Now has to deal
every Chris, you know, because they live right next to
each other. So it's never gonna be like, let's just
have an old fashioned Christmas just with us. She can't
do that, no matter what. It's like, I guess we
have to tell the the scourges to come on over

(41:20):
for Christmas because they know we're home because our lights
are on and the cars are in the parking lot,
and they know because they live next door and they're
also married to my daughter. Like that sucks, man, man, Yeah,
let's talk about the montages.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Maybe that's the real villain at all is a suburb?

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yeah, I suppose I counted two montages.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
How about you hike, there's at least two. There's the
Reindeer Games one and then the big montage at the
end where the future is changed.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yes, the very like is it? It's not Zales? What's
the other? Uh uh? Like I'm in engagement ring commercials
that you used to always play that would do that
thing where it's like quick montage of your entire life
starts with engagement ring. That's kind of what it felt like.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah, no, I know it was a gift. What I
can hear the song in my head. I can't remember
the name right right, but everyone can. But yeah, no,
but I thought that was one like around them eating
or something. But maybe everyone about that.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, I could have missed one, but thore the ones
I caught.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, and they're both needed, so, you know, except for
I'm not really sure what the reindeer years like. Why
is hockey part.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Of again Canada? It's because Canada, that's your answer.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Yeah, it would be that a pro wrestling well too, right, sore,
that'd be more fun.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Oh my gosh, now give me that. Movie Number eight
is Slapstick. There's really little things.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
I mean a little thing during the reindeer game, definitely, yeah,
three legged race. She doesn't fall her ass or anything.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
You know, there's skating and there's nobody falling, and that
feels like a missed opportunity.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
And there's a lot of ice skating, and I know
you love ice skating in the movie look good dose
of ice skating my fire kind of ice skating hockey
and they had that, so I was happy with that.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
But I would have preferred some axles and some space.
But it's okay.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
That locks himself out of the house at one point.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah, I have there's a moment.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
I don't think he was telling the truth when he
said that. Well, I think he was.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
Waiting for probably desperate weirdo. There's a moment where like
somehow he gets like snow where she like gets snow
all over his face or something. But yeah, the more
I think about it, the more like I'm like, oh,
he plotted all of this to get her to him.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
That's right. He was snow and space. Oh my god.
Ye yeah, but that's really no, there's flapstick, not much.
Maybe it would have improved maybe with some slapstick.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Let's talk about our sage old people.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
We got a lot of them. We got that mom,
we got parents, and we got the even I'll even
give a pass to the family next door because they're
going through a lot too. And he had to come
out of the closet about his acting because he's been
keeping it.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
That's true. He was doing secret.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Community theater like he does.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
That a pamphlet, like he's sight in the show It's
mine without the marquet? How did they not know? Do
they not know? Yeah? But I am picturing like his
parents being like somebody slipping it underneath their door. And
they come and they pick up the pamphlet and it's like,
so your son is secretly doing community theater. And then

(44:34):
they open there's a picture of him like a Scrooge,
and they realize they have to confront the truth.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Just weird, Okay, Like I said, I think like his
whole storyline was a metaphor. I mean, out of the
closet apparently do sure as an actor.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
I'm again I like the grandparents. I like she has
a cute conversation with Grandpa about like, do you regret
anything in life and all that, And.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
And her mom is very very smart one, Yes, Claire
that she's a very good person, very smart one, and
she's been even though she's been going through lot, she's
handling it actually pretty well.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yeah. I actually I like this actress. I thought she
also managed to make a very like real person out
of what was again obviously a very quick, cheap shoot.
I thought she came off well. So, yeah, now we
don't get a Santa Claus, but we do get a
perky ride share driver Angel of Chaos.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
There is one person in a Santa Claus suit in
the corporate party at the very beginning. Well, I made
a note of that Santa only one we have, but
we have a.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Weird magical Christmas angel rideeshair driver.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yes, yeah, in a British car. Remember the car.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah, yeah, she's parked on the other she's driving on
the other.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Side, and yeah, it's some kind of little European car.
And I tried to reckon the kind of car it was,
and I didn't recognize it. Needa did my boyfriend.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
So I don't know what it is, but I didn't
even think to clock it. It's also very like, oh
it's a little bit scrooged, right because they time graveled
back in the cab. That's kind of what I took
it out is. Yeah, me too, all right, so ready
for the bonus round?

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Oh boy, all right?

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Our public domain holiday songs very little, No, but well
you know why because they just could keep using twelve
days of Christmas over and over.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, I mean you had that. I mean there wasn't
The score didn't use a lot of like fake Christmas,
you know, Chris, Yeah, various jingle bells or deck dolls
what you hear during the month time. You didn't get
any of that.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
In the very beginning, it opens with deck the halls
in the diner. There's up on the house stop is playing.
But like, you're right, that's just about it. It's all
like frontloaded at the top. But instead they did something
wild and they paid for music because kiss me that's
not public domain.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Yeah no, that's what I was gonna say. But they
did hey for one ninety song. Yeah, I did pause
her the missed playlist, and it's the only real song
on that list. There's a fake Backstreet Boys song on there.
There's a fake song on there, which I thought was
funny because obviously the person who wrote it was referring

(47:18):
to actual nineties. Man. Yeah, but they couldn't. They didn't
have the right stand any of them. Only kiss Me.
I thought that was pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
So, oh, guys, we do give them a little bit
of bonus for also incorporating a Christmas carol, which is
also public domain, even although then I feel like we
should take that away because of the terrible accent. Uh.
And I love that the audience gives them a standing ovation.

(47:48):
It's like two scenes from the end. It's something even
the end of the movie that the play it's oh yes,
yes again. They filmed it quickly. I have to I
always there's always makes me think of watching the commentary
track to Saw, the First Saw, and I'll never forget
when it's you know, Leewell and James wand talking like

(48:10):
through the movie and they're talking, they keep talking. You
can make a drinking game out of how many times
they mention that they filmed it in like twenty one days.
And they get to a scene. It's the scene where
Carrie Elwis is like has a mistress where it's like
him and his like nurse are in a hotel together
and like they sit down on the bed and she
just starts like unbuttoning her shirt and he's like no, no, no, stop.
And that's when I when one of the director writers

(48:33):
says like they're like, look, it's not the actress's fault.
We had to we only had one shot at this,
one take. And that's when I think of a lot
when I when I watch something like this. So we'll
give them a little bit of leeway. They film very quickly.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
And also yeah, and you know, and a part was
my fault too for not knowing some of the earlier
like there was a lot of references in ninety stuff
that was for teenagers, and I wasn't like, what was
that the guy from Josne.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Oh, yeah, Joshua who you did not know was I
did not know that I had up. I did not
have a rush on him. He wasn't my type. But
every girl I knew did. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
But but I will say for music wise, it was
actually okay. I actually enjoyed this overall.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
So good. Let's talk about our secret family recipes.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Oh god, there's like at least two we got. The
neighbors have their ginger cookies that she had. She had
a secret recipe for the ham which was actually your husband, Rick.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, I wrote dead Dad's ham Blaze, which is the
name of my hand Dad's ham Blaze coming at you
with their ladies.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yea, So we had secret recipes quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Yep. Let's see small business in danger. No, we just
have like acting dreams and danger, I guess, yeah, just
dis aspiration, yeah, product placement.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
They were doing really hard not to show anything.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
They weren't really braths, I mean yeah, without probably getting
paid in any way they did do they they really
worked in their love the writer's love of friends.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Right, they met and they dont they mentioned things mentioned Pinterest? True?

Speaker 1 (50:15):
True?

Speaker 2 (50:15):
Yeah, yep, but you know, but there wasn't actually placement
where no, no, you.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Know, yeah, nobody was getting paid for what they did.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
They kind of dropped the ball with I mean some
cool pitch ads, you know, like when they're at their
reindeer games. That would have been cool, you know, at
the bar, so the diner. But you know, it's all right,
we'll forget.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
They've been wearing like umbro and trying to they were
like sporty brads.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Her room looked good, it looked like so, you know,
we'll give them a path.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Whereas I really want to know more about the production
design in Matt's room, because Matt's room is just a
bunch of posters of of like high school theater he's
presumably in. But it's like those who don't find like
somebody made those posters. They made a poster for There
was a Christmas Carol, there was oh man, no, I

(51:06):
can't remember. I didn't write any of them down, but
it's like real plays and the somebody like did a
very quick Okay, if I have to make a poster
for gentlemen to gentlemen of Rona, what can I do?

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah? No, I noticed that too. I was like that's
why I kept going. You know, his bedroom looks like
you know, it looks like a yes, yeah, like I'm serious,
and I don't mean that in a bad way. Means
you know, it was just like knave it, Matt.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
I'm not abandon So number five would be our clothing child,
which we don't have, but we do have an adorable dog.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
We have an adorable dog, and we have a really
cool teenage girl in the movie.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
So yeah, good point. Yeah, so let's see, uh finding
the perfect tree. I don't think there's anything. It's all
decorated before she gets there.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Yeah, I mean there is some like we need to
make this perfect kind of right answer, but nothing like No,
we didn't get a decorating one time.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
No, we did not know.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
We didn't get the sad moment where they pull out dads.

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Or lost opportunity, miss missed up. You know that trope
comes up Dad always put the star on the tree.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, we didn't get any of that, doesn't miss.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
All right. Number seven is our empty coffee cup acting.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Okay, I will give Matt one point. He actually handled
his coffee cups correctly. Well, they're okay, it wasn't I'm
not saying it was perfect, but I've seen.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Okay, now I'm bigging this through and now I'm kind
of mad about it because they are in a diner, right,
They are inside a diner. She's sitting down with a
pile of pancakes. He walks by with like a handful
of fries and a tray, like a cup holder tray
with three paper cups. Okay, why does he have paper

(52:57):
cups in the diner when he's got like he's gone,
want to sit down and eat? Why does the paper cups?
What kind of dinners so that they don't give you
mugs in the diner?

Speaker 2 (53:05):
And I don't know who these coffees are for three
of them particularly are going somewhere. But yeah, no, the
fries are on a real plate.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Yeah, so like you don't bring in coffee from an
outside vendor into a diner. That's very rude.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
And you said he handled it.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Okay, Now I'm just mad. I feel like they they
worked in they they deliberately challenged me by presenting coffee
cups in paper cups when they did not, when that
doesn't even make sense.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
No, and now you think about it, I was like,
you're right, he sat down ate his.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
And he walked out like it's fun to be like, oh,
take the coffees to go, but like, wait, you're taking
fries to sit down and eat, and then you're carrying
your coffee out. Why would you get the coffee? Now
wait until the end when it's still gonna be hot.
You're sitting there, you're gonna eat fries. Takes five minutes
to eat fries. Your coffee is now gotten cold, and
now you're bringing it to two friends that you probably
don't have because you're a jerk.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
Why aren't if you have to get back with the
coffees quickly, what you take in your fries to go?

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Exactly exactly. It doesn't add up everything kind I said
about this movie back it's over. No, it's not, because
now we've got number nine Canadians. Yeah, oh yeah, look
I'm sorry, but this movie was definitely filmed in Canada.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Oh my god, so is okay?

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Yeah, we got a lot of stories the the both leads,
the actress and the actor are definitely Canadian. And again
we get ice hockey as like a plot point in
this movie. So yes, it is definitely like okay, yeah,
uh now our warm weather watch, what do you think
were they in Milwaukee in December? Is that what the

(54:51):
temperatures like there? Hey?

Speaker 2 (54:53):
There actually did an okay job kind of masking it,
like it did look warm, but it looked like kept
the artificial snow going for they spent.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Some time on that.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
I've seen worse, like a lot worse. I don't know
how you feel about it. I mean they didn't look comfortable.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Yeah, And I mean whenever they would walk outside without
coats on, they'd be like, oh, it's cold. So I
give them credit for that. I'm not gonna but well,
we'll let them go on that. Coffee cups with fries
on a plate. Number eleven are old people aggressively matchmaking.
I don't know that anybody wants these two characters together, right,

(55:35):
I mean I guess our little Angela.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah, Alexa is like, go and get together, and Nadine
thinks that they need to be together to break the
snake cnycle.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
But yeah, they're both wrong.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Yeah, no, they're so wrong.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
We were wrong, very very wrong, just like Lucy deserves
so much better, right, I actually agree.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
I mean, like I said, I was like, why are
you pressuring to pay for Columbia when she had a
free ride to Northwest. If you really loved her that much,
you'd follow her and get a job in frigin Chicago.
It's completely possible for you both to have a career there,
you know.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
And but anyway, I'm all right, Well, now we close
on the favorite question, which is your favorite fashion moment?
Lot of a lot of things going on here. What
were some of the outfits and choices in the costume
department that made you happy?

Speaker 2 (56:29):
I really liked Alexis Christmas Eve outfit. I thought that
was very elegant with the sheer No, that was the
sheer number. She had the matching slipe in her hair.
Oh yes, yes, okay, I really like that. And of
course Lucy rock the green full length pea coat like
that was.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Wait was it? Okay? So I have a like kind
of baby blue pea coat? Did she wear multiple pea coats?
I know she also had a red one? Was there
a third one? Or are you seeing blue?

Speaker 2 (56:56):
And I'm seeing green when she first walked in and
on the on the poster as well, it's green, very
very dark.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
I learned very recently that I I'm not gonna say
I'm colorblind, but I had a moment recently at work
where we were all supposed to wear pink, and I
was so excited because I came to work wearing the
only pink thing I owned, which was what I thought
was a pink shirt. And the first thing somebody said
to me when I walked in was, oh, you forgot
to wear a pink No, this is this is pink.

(57:28):
And then everybody, without like me prompting anyone, I would
go up to everybody in every side of the office
and said, Hey, what color d is my shirt? And
every one of them said purple. So I cannot be trusted,
is what I have learned that I if I say
no it was a blue coat, Okay, no, in this case,
we're good. I'm talking about a different coat. This green
coat is gorgeous. I do want this coat? What like that?

Speaker 2 (57:51):
She rocks it.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Yeah, that's a great coat.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
It's the best pink in the in the movie.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
She does at some point in the movie she has
like also a baby also full full length or like
down past the knees, and it's like a baby blue
pea coat and it's also very pretty.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Yeah. And she also had that cute miniskirt like teenage
outfit Kinny and only in her twenties, she still looked
amazing in it. Yeah, so you know, I couldn't get necessarily,
but she could.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
So that also means we have to point out that
she wore at least because I am constantly now waiting
to see if anybody can beat Lacey Scheber's record in
Very Scottish Christmas, where she wore nine pea coats. So
she's got three, which is pretty impressive for one movie.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, And like I like the Green One, so and
everyone was and there was a lot of red green
in this movie.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Almost everyone was.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Wearing red green. And you had splashes of the of
the electric purple you'd see in the nineties here and there,
which I thought was kind of nice to see, you know,
So you had that going on, not enough horror references
and there, Like I said, it was kind of eight nineties,
and it would have been a lot more like like
like I guess there was no Britney Spears posters to

(59:08):
be seen.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
And you know, no, I don't think she would have
I do not know.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
I don't Alex wouldn't have.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
But oh no, Alexa would have had an Avril Levine poster.
She would have had like the edgy Britney spears.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
In the Girls, and she would probably end up going
to Little as Fairy.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Yeah, I was trying to identify the posters in Alexa's room,
but I don't. I don't know bands well enough to
know who all those pictures were. And if any of
them were Intogo Girls, it would have been very funny
if they were, but.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
They might also they were kind of folky female.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
They were, but it was like that was kind of
code in the night, and like not to say, oh,
everybody that loved Indigo Girls was a lesbian, like not true,
but Indigo Girls liking in Togo Girl Girls was a
clear code of like if you said it really proudly
and publicly and meant like, oh oh really, what else?
Who else do you like? It was you know, a signifi.
But also you know there were great bands, so it

(01:00:02):
also didn't necessarily determined that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
And we know that Lucy had a thing for boy
bands because all of her posters, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Lucy probably had. I mean I think Lucy would have
been an in sync fan.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
I fake. One of the fake songs on the list
was a Backstreet Boys reference.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Well, and they make a Backstreet Boys reference at one
point they talk about go seeing Backstreet Boys.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
But I feel like.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Lucy, I don't know, she was a little older, like
in Sync. Even I liked in Sync because they were
they had catchy songs. Uh, but I don't I know Lucy.
Lucy would not have been a Britney Spears fan, maybe
like she would have danced to Britney Spears if they
went to a dance and that was playing. I don't
know who her, Maybe like a Lisa lobe More. I
don't know. I think Lucy had was a little bit

(01:00:48):
less poppy than More. Maybe like Alanis. You know, she
might have been an Alanis fan.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Yeah, I can see, I can hor that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Well, we'll never know for sure until we get next
year's a very hy two k ri semester or whatever
it might be. So overall, let's let's conclude with your
your overall thoughts. Do you recommend it? Were you happy
to watch it? How did this satisfy you?

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
I often watch things multiple times for you, as you know,
so I could I watch it once all the way
through and don't take notes because I just want to
watch the movie, and then I go through and I
go through and take your.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Notes I should try doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
There was only one film I couldn't do that with,
and that was the film two years ago, which was
the one.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
With Mary Lopez one. Yeah, the Holiday Through one I
I did not deserve a second watch. Yeah, still had
the record for the most cloying child of all time
in these movies. Yeah, I go, no, that one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
But the Bruce Campbell went I watched three times because
Bruce Campbell, you know, both Bruce Campbell's I watched multiple times.
But so I watched this one twice all the way
through and had no issues watching it, So I didn't
hate it. I think it ends kind of abruptly. I
wish it had a better meat see.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
And you know, it's funny you say that because I'm
so used to these movies having such a quick ending
that the fact that this had like a forty five
second montage felt like substantial really.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Because it felt like it just like, you know, like
I'm back and then that's it, it was over. You know,
you know, I actually think it would have been cooler
if she went back to the point and tied it
the diner and had to fix everything in the present,
her present. I think that would have been kind of
a neat way to end it, like, well, now I
know all this stuff, I'm gonna go back and make amends,
like she actually mentions at one point doing that, I

(01:02:42):
think I would have been an interesting different twist on it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
So in other words, to have have like had like
for the time travel to have not been real, like
where there were no consequences and instead it's like you
you lived your life the way we already know you
lived your life, and now you have this added knowledge
of what it could have been like. So now you're
still a divorce attorney, but now you want to go

(01:03:09):
and like address the things that you might have done
differently back then.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
That's to mean in Chicago. She's working in Chicago, their
family is only two hours away. It could have been
there was no but but we got angels and time travel.
Yeah yeah, it kind of Christmas magic and all that.
But you know what, if you like these movies, you're
gonna like this one. Absolutely, you're gonna like this one.
I would say, it's probably I'm probably not gonna watch

(01:03:33):
it again anytime soon. Something really to it. It is
good junk food. And if you like these movies, if
if I was watching sometimes I put these movies on.
They have the marathon, and I'll leave the marathon going
while I'm doing stuff in the house and everything, and
if it came on, I wouldn't turn it off.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Yeah, I found this one. I think I went into
it like as soon as I saw the title, because
I was what I would do, is I pulled up
like the Hallmark website. I'm just going through each one
to see like if anything jumped out at me. And
as soon as I saw the title and saw like
the still they had on the website was the guy
with the flufy hair, and I was like, Okay, I
have to watch this because I know it's going to

(01:04:10):
be obnoxiously like remember the night, Remember how big our
cell phones were in the nineties. And I was really
surprised because I think it could have been that, and
it could have been a very easy like wedding singer esque,
let's just throw in like jokes about how silly it
was twenty five years ago, and I thought, A I
thought they restrained themselves with that and really didn't go

(01:04:33):
for too many easy jokes. And then I think they
actually took the time to tell like a time travel
story that had stakes. I liked the lead actress. I
liked a lot of supporting characters, last sporting performances. I
think they came at it with somehow in that again

(01:04:54):
that two week film time, they were able to add
a little bit more depth by having the grandparents, there
by having the mom be cast by like with this
good actress who could sell grief very well in her
two scenes. And I found myself like, yeah, this one
actually like And again this one did not break the

(01:05:16):
tear barrier the way they have in the past this
year and none have, h but this one did not.
But I found it more emotionally satisfying than I was expecting.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I didn't hate it.
And you know, I'm very very judgmental on these movies,
you know, and not Terrifier three. Well you know, you know,
but you know, for me sometimes it's more painful watching
these movies, you know. But you know, I would say
it was perfectly good. And there was there was one

(01:05:49):
very similar to it a few years ago where they
were doing it was the time travel was actually letters
like one time period and they were another and letters
kind of like like like House movie that Sounder Bulich did,
And so I've seen a lot of these time travel movies,
and this one actually handled it relatively well, and so,
you know, I still have questions about how like her

(01:06:10):
leaving ruined everybody's lives, but you know, you know, it
doesn't seem like it would have.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
But it didn't break the mold, and it wasn't I
think the most well thought out, and the romance at
the center of it really like I think, does hurt
a lot of the rest of the movie, but I
think there were other parts of it that added up
to be, you know, satisfying at least for me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
This movie does the number one thing to make it
a success. It knows its audience. Yeah, it does, and
I think and the script was even half bad. No, no, no,
there was some inside jokes like the one when Mambo
number five, which is a really cute joke when he
goes one. No know what you were seeing with their
Milks album she goes next album.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
I think this actually respected its audience more than I
would have audit did.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Yeah, that it knows its audience. And I didn't feel
insulted watching it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Which is good and I really thought I would.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Yeah, I'm like, what are you doing? You know? I
could even see her ending up with Matt even though that's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
Yeah, I mean, you know what, she It's not like
she's forgotten all of her skills from being a divorce attorney.
So if and when, and I do say and when
this marriage hits the skids, I feel like she's going
to emerge from it pretty pretty well.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
Oh yeah, well, you know the fact that she has
all the money, he's a lawyer, She's gonna just take
herself definitely.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
All right, Well that was a nineties Christmas h Now
before we leave, Elizabeth, please tell everybody where they can
find you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Well, I'm about to retire. I'm in my final season
of my podcast. Yeah, we're down to our last couple
of episodes, right, And I'm not saying I'm leaving the
podcasting scene, of course, you're not restructuring and decided. I've
been doing this pop culture podcast for ten years. Are
convis Bets on Sexy Witches, you know, geek Girls perspective.

(01:08:07):
We talk about everything from horror, science fiction, pro wrestling,
any any pop culture media conventions we cover those. We
always call San Diego con Con every year. But I've
been doing it for ten years and I kind of
want to do something else. I have decided yet, but
I do think it's going to be a YouTube channel,
kind of like a a more more traditional review kind

(01:08:29):
of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Oh fantastic, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
So I'll be that's trading morning on individual movies. You know.
So I'll let you know more when we develop it,
because I'm developing right now, but we haven't figured it out.
But we have one more show, I think it's next Wednesday,
and then we have one final show, which is well,
usually that would be our season premiere, but instead this
is going to be our final episode and it's gonna

(01:08:53):
be our final countdown of our favorite films of twenty
twenty four, So our very last top ten countdown. I'm
getting for clemped on that one.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
So you can find me on on Facebook Elizabeth Catherine
Gray is my personal profile is always the best way
to find me. Or you can find me at a
blog talk.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
On Arc dis Bets on sixty Witches, which is.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Live, and there's a lot of great reviews and stuff,
and I'm gonna pull those out and make them into
their own thing after I'm known with my podcast, so
I can my guest reviews are all including Emily. Yeah,
we'll have we'll have their own half hour segments that
you can go and find. And there's a lot of
great stuff with Sosca's sisters and there Emily's in there,
a lot of indie film directors, you know. So I

(01:09:39):
want to make sure that none of that gets lost.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
So I gonna make sure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
Yeah, so I'm gonna miss you, Emily.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
We will miss you, but we will not miss you
because you will be back.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
I will be back.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
You will be And if nothing else, we will find
a magic box maybe, or hop in a magical ride
shair if that's what happens, or eat mat French fries
that could also have been a thing. Uh. And with
all of that, we will go back to you a
time when we can make different decisions and you know,
change the world however we want well better.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Love it christ better changes.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Speaker 4 (01:10:25):
Listen, hello your banes, say count your best suit.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
We got a body like it's hunting now let's hit
the pavement. We're feeling brand new and make it working
like it's nights of far. The stars are out in Nice.
Let's make good jost to you and Nice.

Speaker 4 (01:10:48):
Oh happy days Are you ready for the best styles
in a way count Bade Gay in the race and
believe in Kelly Guy coming.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
You know the feelings, you see the signs and don't
deny you. Then it's ride it Fried, break through the
Seala se f from.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
The skies and no deny him. Minutes you and the
stars are rocks and n.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
It's make good sos to and not oh baby. The
style of God is honestly game.