Stocking Stuffers 11.5 A Keller Christmas Vacation with Jason Fozzie Nelson

What better way to spend the holidays than a full week trip with your adult family? Emily hops in the passenger seat of a German motorcar driven by the one and only Jason Fozzie Nelson to sail through the Hallmark Channel's A Keller Christmas Vacation, with plenty of detours to the Hallmark Peacoat Closet. 

Be sure to buy Jason's wonderful novel Always By My Side: https://www.amazon.com/Always-Side-Jason-Fozzie-Nelson/dp/B0C9FZVMCS

Remember to stream Emily's show through December 26th!
https://caveat.stellartickets.com/events/the-lost-hallmark-christmas-movie-live/occurrences/e11259f6-84cd-437a-b4d7-6c56bbd565b1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is about our family bonding and having a great
family Christmas.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
A Christmas cruise on the Danube.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
On Christmas Eve willgan to be an l street. You're
the Best might be the holiday gift they always wanted.
Let's do this, Hi Nie, and the unexpected surprise they
always needed. We've got a long and beautiful road ahead
of us. I know that this is one Keller family
adventure that I'll never forget.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
A Keller Christmas vacation. Welcome to another stocking stuffer of
the feminine critique. As you heard from the trailer, we
have a family Christmas movie, which means I can't talk
about this alone. I need to bring on to my
family My brother from another mother? Is that do they?
People still say that the.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Cool ones do?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, well, Cavin, that's right, us being the hippus you
would ever know. I one and only brother from another mother,
Jason Fozzy Nelson.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yo, bro, yeh bro, I love my bro. Yeah. It's
so good to hear from you and see you again.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, we miss you around these parts. And it isn't
Christmas without a visit from our favorite mustachioed Floridian.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, they'll they talk about me now.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Oh yeah, Oh you haven't. You're not in the ladies room.
You don't see what they ride.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
On the bathroom walls.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Oh no, there are pictures and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Did I ever tell you? You know? I worked at that
apartment complex for a while, and like I had this mustache,
my curly cue mustache there, and I was always collecting rent.
I felt so weird trying to go around. You must
pay the rent.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Did people try to pay you in other earth ways?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
But I didn't tie a couple of them to the
train tracks before they.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Take So today we are tackling twenty twenty five movie
hot off the presses, hot off of Hallmark Plus. I
think it aired on Hallmark. What they're doing this year
is like they air the movie once and then you
have to do Hamewark Plus in order to watch it again. OLLO.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so it's been frustrating a lot of people. But
you can get a free trial of Hallmark Plus if
you have Amazon Prime for seven days. I so I
did it. Now I have seen a reminder to myself
to cancel that. And here we are with a you
tell me the title of this movie becase I'm gonna
mess it up eight times.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
A Keller Christmas Vacation.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
A Keller Christmas My God, family isn't even in the title.
I kept saying, a Killer Christmas Family Vacation.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
No, the word family's not there. It's just a Keller
Christmas vacation should there. This is a.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Really hard title for a movie that is actually kind
of charm.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
And it's it's funny to say too. It's the hard
case it is.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
It's one of the rules. Rights and k's are the
words of comedy, right, That's all you need to do,
and then you're then you're Louis c k up there.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Right without the you know.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, suit yourself. That's the way I'm making my name
on this G rated episode of Mark Movie.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
When you get people on zoom to record these episodes,
do you just jerk off the whole time? And came
about the Luis c k of our generation leader? Yes?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yes, the girl one huh yeah. So d just so
let's start with this. Now, you have obviously been on
these episodes before. I know you rather enjoy these movies.
What drew you to A Killer Christmas Vacation for Families?

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Two things? First of all, I always want to do
either a gay movie or a Magic Movie, and yeah,
sometimes it's both, but this one had like the gay
brother and Jonathan Bennett from Mean Girls. But also it
had one of my heroes, Eden Cher, who played Sue

(03:51):
Heck on The Middle, which I did.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Not watch, and you still have not forgiven because you
would always tell me to watch it.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
It was the Sue Heck is one of the most charming,
delightful little characters in all of sitcom history. She was
so plucky. She was like a plucky geek of a girl,
and I just adored her for it. She was great,
and she had a gay boyfriend. It was just it
was the best early two thousands or I guess mid
mid twenty tens.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I loved that she has to be pretty young still.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I was surprised. I looked her up because she
was on an episode of Party Down years ago where
she played like a slutty teen and I'm like, they're
not going to let someone under eighteen play a slutty.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Teen uncleasan like, remember there's that age seriom that some
actresses have where they can play teenagers forever.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
But I looked it up and she actually is much
younger than I thought. I thought she and I were
about the same age, but no, she's a I think
she's late thirties, almost just about forty maybe even not.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Just seems not that that's old as far as time,
but no old woman. But like she's the youngest daughter
in this family movie, and she feels like she's supposed
to be like I mean, I thought she was supposed
to be like mid twenties.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, but I think she's thirty six, can play
mid twenty.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
She's taking care of herself and yeah, I mean there
are a lot of different ways to do that now,
so good for her.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, and she's she's a comedic genius in my opinion,
I love her.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yes, spoiler alert, I really enjoyed this movie.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Girl same, it's no.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
This is also the like the time in the season
where I start to crack a little yeah, right, because
this is now We're on episode five, so I and
the last one I watched was a dud. The episode
was great, recorded it with the dear friend Elwood, but
the movie was like a twenty fifteen Billy Baldwin Denise
Richards body swap. They didn't body swap Billy bald and
body swap my child, but like you'd think that'd be fun.

(05:39):
But it was like, well, and so this one, which
is very crisp, very like high budget for Hallmark because
they're filming on location, good like actors, you recognize multiple
Like there's actual writing going on here, there's there's story development.
Like I was like both like entertained and moved by
this one. Yeah, And I was, no, I wasn't surprised

(06:01):
because I had heard good things about it. There's a
few movies this year that people, especially on Hallmark, where
people have really kind of hyped. So this one I
knew was getting like kind of good reviews out there,
but I was sometimes that still doesn't work on me.
But I found this story charming.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, same. I loved that it was it was subtle,
like there was some of course over the top like
slapstick and whatever, but a lot of the humor was subtle.
They didn't go, you know, didn't have to shove it
down your throat like it's not the funniest movie. But
I thought that, Like the acting was decent, the storytelling
was solid, like the interactions between the characters.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
The chemistry was great. The family chemistry was good, the
sibling chemistry was there, Like it was Yeah, it was funny.
So this is directed by McLean Nelson or McLean Nelson.
I don't know where you can Embassis because he doesn't
have a thingy or anything. But yeah, I have not
seen any of his films, but I know he directed
The hall Out the Holly. I think there's at least

(06:55):
two of them. And that's another one of those movies
that I've always heard really good things about. Okay, and
the writer is Tracy Andreen, who has only written these movies.
She has like thirty of them to her.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
She has my dream job.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, so like definitely a team that knows the genre,
knows hall Mark. And I'm guessing, like again, I have
I don't know this for a fact. I have just
in my you know, sitting in my little hovel, have
come up with a lot of theories about how like
the Hallmark movies get made. And I always feel like
there is like just this ever moving like Christmas Tree

(07:31):
ladder of like who gets first pick? Like I always
think it as a draft, like Okay, Lacey, we have
eight scripts here, which one would you like to do?
And like, I that's how I imagine it goes. And
then she's like, I want this one and I want
this guy directing, and I want this one, and who
knows if it's like that, but that's always my theory.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
It's kind of like.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's a constant like battle for who's the who's the
queen of Hallmark and who's the like director, which I
guess would be what like the resputant or whatnot of
I don't know if the Royalty metaphor is working on
all cylinders, but you know, can get it.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
I was so lost for them, but I got it.
I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
But yeah, I mean this one. They're in Europe, like,
they're filming in places that are not the Hallmark Studio.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
I was too lazy to work this. Look this up.
But they did the cruise line possibly sponsor this movie.
Is that a real cruise line?

Speaker 2 (08:24):
God damn it. I am the irresponsible host who did
not look that up either.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's fine, It seems like they did, didn't it, because
you know that one hand?

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, On the other hand, like because yes, I mean,
you take this cruise and your family will rebond with
each other and maybe I'll get engaged, and maybe you
will decide a career path and everything's great. But also
if you miss the boat back, like you will have
to sleep on the streets of a little German country, sire.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
But I mean that is true with cruises. It's like
they say that if you if you're not there for
a port time, then you have to get your way
to the next location. If you don't, you can't get
back on. Like they have to do that because of
like port laws. Some don't know if that would be
a deal breaker, but like everything was so gorgeous. The
staff was so helpful and kind on this boat. They
did everything for these people, and like I think everything,

(09:18):
but I do think that it might be a real
cruise line and they like put some money behind this movie.
It's possible, Yeah, definitely. We watched a lot of BBC
like crime dramas, cozy crime dramas, and the BBC the
app they will show like ads for that cruise line
that it's something like this. It's like the Rhone deferred,

(09:41):
you know something, yeah, something European. But it's like a
cruise line that looked exactly like this, and I wonder
if it was the same thing, but again too lazy
to look it up. So do that, viewers.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
I did look at the what you called the Hallmark
listing for it, and I always think the Hallmark website
is going to be better than it is, because you
would think, again, like these movies could so easily have
like buy the soundtrack, or buy the song used in
the movie, or where the sweater that the character has?

(10:14):
Like do you want a recipe for the hot for
the mistletoe martini? Like all of these things, and they
don't do any of that.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Partnership with QVC, with this crowd, and.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
It makes perfect cbously made their own Christmas movie last
year and it was.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Very good, nice, so much.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's homework movie. River Cruising, there's New Home. I'm trying
to see. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
I'm still not gonna look it up. I just living,
but I assume I'm just gonna start right now. That's well, why.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Don't you also give since you're an expert, Now, why
don't you give us aynopsis of the movie so that
everybody knows what we're gonna get on the same page
with the what the movie is about. And then we'll
go into the Ten Troops and we will do spoilers.
Not that there is anything that shocking to be found here,
but just in case, everyone again, you can watch it
on homework plus, so tell me, tell me j Yeah,

(11:07):
so there is a Keller Christmas family vacation.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Nope, not family, but Keller Christmas vacation.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
There I read it right now.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
There are three siblings in their probably twenties thirties, and
their family goes on a Christmas vacation that it's a
cruise every single year in Germany. Because I assume they're German,
you know how Keller is Keller such a traditionally German name,
so they are German by descent, so they go on

(11:34):
this cruise. I don't know if they do it every year.
It felt like they like they haven't done.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
It in what they've done these kinds of vacations before.
They had not done this one, and they haven't done
one in a while. I definitely got okay, because it's
like it's important that the family does it this year.
The parents are insistent.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Okay, got it. So they haven't done this for a while.
They're they're all working that that's the first part the
slapsticky comedy of them all trying to get to the boat.
Well it's not really only Eden share Sue. Heck, she
has some slapstick there, but the other two have their
own issues. Brandon Ralph, who plays col his it was
a little confusing, but he and his wife got divorced, yes,

(12:13):
and after that there was a woman in his office
in his life somehow who he liked and she liked him,
but they never made a move because he didn't know
if it was enough time since the divorce, I think,
and she ended up getting with somebody else and moving away. Right,
It's a really.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Weird how much exposition they cram in those first like
two minutes, because it is like it's setting up each child,
and so the youngest daughter quickly, it's like, oh, she's
I guess she wants to a photographer and she's unhappy
with life. And then it's okay. And then here's Brandon Ralph.
Here he's gonna give all of his exposition to his
friend about how he's just got divorced and yeah, like

(12:53):
exactly what you're saying, Like, oh, yeah, there's this girl
named Lauren that he's that always has liked him and
everybody knew it, but he didn't know it. And so
now does he go and ruin her plans to move
with her boyfriend and it's just like and then you think, like, oh,
is it is she going to come back in the
movie and no.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, And like you know how I I'm so easily
distracted watching movies. I try my best, but so for
the longest time, I wasn't sure if Lauren was his
ex wife, Like I missed some of it, Like at
first I thought it was just a girl in his office.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
To know that many women in these movies, that are true,
because then you start thinking about what pea coats they're wearing,
and that's a lot of pea coats at that point.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, and like, let's let's say that every woman in
these movies looks alike. They always get Yeah, that was
cast some thin, blonde woman. And so it's very challenging.
I didn't totally understand the story at first, but I
caught on and then we'll even chaer sue. Heck. Her
issue she gets fired right before she has to go
on this trip. She's like, a what is she doing?
She's looking for a men. Oh yeah, data like analysts

(13:52):
or some bullshit, but she always wants to be a photographer.
But she gets fired right before the trip and doesn't
want her parents to know because she wants them to
think that she's doing fine and she's an adult and
she can handle things, so that's her drama. And then
Jonathan Bennett from Mean Girls is Dylan, which.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Is very upsetting because when I think of Brandon Routh,
when I don't think of Superman, I think of Dylan
Dog Dead of Night. So now I am gonna prefer
to Jonathan Bennet's character as Dylan, not Dog Dead of Night.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Okay, here here are two fourth Yes, his thing he
is going to propose to.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
His fucking boyfriend, right, what what?

Speaker 1 (14:37):
How you know? I've talked to several people about this
quick side note, like people don't understand the heyday of
Jonathan Sheck and how like we were all remember Jonathan
Sheck from How to Make an American Quilt?

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, that's like Christine's big crush because we've we've He's
done a bunch of the Masters of Four episodes and
even random things, and he and Brandon Routh isn't if
You're at Self episode and Jonathan he's in your Self episode.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
So yes, they get around.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
What does Jonathan Schack have to do? Okay, take me
on the show.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, so if you will, we nailed it. Thanks for
tuning in everybody. So Jonathan Sheck when he was at
his height, Like when I went and saw how to
make an American quill, I was like, people can look
like that, Jesus Christ, because there was a and I

(15:33):
saw behind the scenes thing and you know how handsome
Dylan Dylan McDermott, the one that was in my family
stone is that Dylan McDermott.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I've never seen a helly stone and you.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
See whatever that both of them are very handsome, yes,
the one that was then how to make an American
quill and Jonathan Sack were sitting next to each other.
The guy the other guy Dermott muldoondy. He looked like
amunculous sitting to German check like he looked disgusting. It's
just these people who have perfect skin, perfect eyes, perfect

(16:08):
Yeah yeah, like maybe no sex appeal, but Jesus Christ,
how do you look that good? You just wake up
looking like that? Damn. So anyway, and he's a neurosurgeon
and he's like the perfect man.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
He's got he's got an accent and it's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yes, like oh no, everything about him is perfect. So
except he has a secret. Jonathan Bennett wants to propose
to him, but he can tell that his boyfriend has
a secret and he won't tell him, and he's like,
until you can be honest with me, we cannot move
forward with this proposal. So they decide to take a break,
and the boyfriend doesn't come on this trip with him,

(16:43):
so he's hiding that that they're on a break. So
everybody is hiding something from their parents when they when
they meet up, and their parents are probably hiding something
as well. And that's what this whole trip is about.
So that's the general story.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, and so lots of Hyjenson suit, the siblings all
crew closer as they go on this trip. Sue Stack,
Sue Heck, Sue Heck ends up getting with the cruise director.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yep. Well, because the wouldn't you know it, the photographer
for the cruise just happened to cancel right before. Who
really was.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Killed the photographer though? The parents or right he was
like the best friend who's like, oh, I can't pay
you for these headshots. I'll pay you another way.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah. Yeah, Oh do you think the cruise director did it? Wait?
Did this really happen? What are we talking about? No,
I'm just.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Assuming I'm just kidding, really convenient, right, So she gets
with the cruise director and decides she's gonna and like
change her life a little bit.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Okay. So the cal who is Dylan dog Dead of
Night ends up getting with another cruise passenger who we
will talk about.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
In a granddaughter.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Of a poor old man who wants played quickly. Uh.
And Jonathan Bennett, not Dylan Dogged Out of Night, His Will,
his his boyfriend shows up on the cruise or just
in time for the parents to reveal their secret, which
is now.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Will is a neurologist, and it turns out that the
father had sought advice from him because he was recently
diagnosed with Michael J. Fox disease.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Better known as Michael J. Fox disease.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Yeah, what is it called? Yes, Parkinson's and he's just
starting to exhibit symptoms. There is a scene where he's
like pouring wine or something in his handshakes a bit.
So there were some clues leading up to it. But
that's why Will was so cagey because he had promised
the parents to keep the secret, and the parents then

(18:52):
when they found out that Will, it caused problems between
Will and Dylan. They were very apologetic, but they just
wanted to talk to a friend someone they knew about
this issue, so that stories everything worked out.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Everything's all tight up and in tight little bow of gingerbread.
It's very very sweet and yet not that cloying, like
I was okay with it being very sweet.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, absolutely, there was nothing. That's what I was talking about.
The subtlety. Like so many times they have to like
beat you over the head with like oh I'm single
and I can't get a man, and like, you know,
they just say it all the time. This one had
had a little bit of subtlety, like just just handshaking
that one time. Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, and I think they also do some of that
like this, you know, this isn't I don't know, like
orson Wells Dialogue are hidden, but I think the cast
is just so charming. Yeah, and clearly they all got
like I mean, who knows, they might have hit each other,
but like they worked really well together, yep, and so
they bounce off of each other so well.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, and they're not the best actors. I mean that
they're better than most Hallmark. So in the least side note,
I have take a pause here. You so Emily's can't
got a new camera quickly storage. And it zooms every
once in a while for no reason reason. Every time
it does, I feel like you're gonna say something really

(20:13):
important just about this.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Just ignore that. It's the wine of its own. It's
directing me. I don't know why this camera like things.
It's got an angle of me doing something, and then
it will just zoom out and turn. I don't know
why you have to let it go.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
I'm sorry. Every time it zooms in, I'm like, oh,
is this a reveal?

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Very close up? It just moved like straight to my
face and I'm not even inframe. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's freaking my mind, man. Anyway, Sorry, back to the story. Yeah,
so that's Jonathan Bennett and Will Brandon Ralph. Let's talk
about Brandon Routh a little bit.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, so let's when we go into because this like
it's not quite the typical formula because obviously, like it's
an ensemble cast, right, there's no lead. We have really
three leads, but well we'll use that to kind of
guide us. So your three leads, right, so you've got
oldest son calm hm. It was Brandon Mouth. Yeah, and
I guess let's talk about the lessons they all need

(21:17):
to learn. Right, Okay, that's the point of the movie,
is right, they all need to learn something. What do
you think he needs to learn?

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Gosh, I would say to open himself up to love again,
but he's not really right he. I mean, he still
has feelings for Lauren who went away, but he's very
adamant that he does not want to like have anything
romantic on this cruise. He's shut himself off and he
just wants to be there for his family. And then
within what like, Okay, this good work, a granddaughter.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
You live. I don't know what two hundred miles away
from me we could make.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
This could be a thing. Yeah, you know, not to
give too much away, but I do have to say
before I forget that. I like how like all of
the endings weren't some big thing. They were just like, Hey,
maybe I'll come visit you, or yeah, yeah, hell if close,
maybe we can get together and see what happens. It's
just like on the it's not like somebody left their high.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
It wasn't hurting their entire life immediately for something. It
was like, hey, here's a change I'm going to make,
and I think this can keep us in the same
picture together.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, and I love that subtlety. Yeah yeah, So what
do you think his lesson was that he needed to learn?

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, I guess that same thing. Yeah, he acknowledge his
feelings right her inner self there.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
I guess maybe it's like act before you lose something.
He had to because that's what he what happened before
with Lauren. He didn't say something soon enough. Yeah, and
he needs to. If he has these feelings, he should
say something for better or for worse. Just get it
out in the open and win or lose.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Like a real superman.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
True, all right, So now not Dylan not dogged out
of night Jonathan Bennett. It was kind of he's the
middle child, right, he seems kind of the like most uptight.
He's a career guy.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
He is high up in his job of something real
estate development.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah that's yeah. In real estate development, we've had this
yere Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
That does so work at my previous job. That does
make sense, Like there are companies that will just buy
properties and be like, Okay, what are we going to
do with this, what do we need? What could we market?
Blah blah blah. So that was legitimate. I know people
who do exactly kind of what he does. So there
wasn't just some weird made up job for a Christmas movie.
That's a real thing.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Uh yeah, And I guess what do you think his
journey is? What does he have to learn here?

Speaker 1 (23:41):
God, I don't know. It wasn't really a lesson. Like
I would be upset too if I knew my boay
from his line. He's like, there's something I can't tell you, Like, bitch,
I want to get engaged the entire.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Time of Washington. I'm like, well, he's not pregnant, Like
what is what is the thing that he's not going
to tell him? Because yeah, my brain would be everywhere.
And then I would also be rightfully angry at my
parents for putting that on my partner and therefore on me.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah. Yeah, So I don't think he had to learn anything.
I think that was just a classic misunderstanding, I would agree, Yeah, yeah,
Arry Ropers, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
And then how about your little sue?

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Heck, you know, I think that one was the most
clearly drawn because she had worked at a job that
was just data analytics or whatever, and it was just like,
if I do this, this happens. If I do this
this happens. It was a plus B equal C for her.
That's how how she had grown up. And she was like,
if I don't have a steady job and I don't

(24:39):
have insurance, etcetera, etcetera. But it was like take some risks,
and I even liked that she said. She was like, no,
I'm not going to quit my job and try to
become a famous photographer, but I am going to get
another job and then I'm going to dedicate time to it,
to my passion on the weekends and evenings, and you know,
I'm going to try to make it work for you,
sue heck.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
And also I am going to make the first move
on this cruise director who clearly hasn't come for me.
Then I thought that was a cute little like her
being like I'm just gonna ask you out. Yeah, I
liked it.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
That was and he was everybody in this movie is
charming until.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Like, yeah, let's about the love interests. Right, So we've
got cruise director who is something of some nation.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
I think he's German, right, I think I guess so
Austrian maybe.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, one of those again charming a lot. Oftentimes that
type of character can come off as either creepy or
just like kind of dead in the water. But I
thought he was he was cute, like he was genuinely like,
oh yeah, if I was on a cruise and he
was my director, I would try to hook my friend
up with him.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, true, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
All right, so we've already talked about uh Dylan, not dog,
dead of Nights, hot neurosurgeon, boyfriend cybe or I'm sure
came wrong, but yeah, but good guy.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Also no surgeon, yeah, full backage, yeah, everything you could want.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yes. And then Cal's new love interest was that Felicity.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Felicity, Yeah, Felicity. Yeah, but she wasn't European. It turns
out she lived like she was from New Orland and
she lived yeah exactly, yep, and she's there with her grandfather. Yeah.
I didn't get much from her, but I do think
she was good for a love interest, you know that
you don't expect a lot of character growth from She

(26:31):
was more than just a pretty face. I thought she
had a little character and like.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
The two of them are gonna have very pretty babies, yeah,
because they kind of look the same, like, you know,
like that's gonna happen. And also I will say just
in terms of casting, like Brandon Routh and Jonathan Bennett.
I don't think I ever would have thought of the
two of them as like brothers, but they really look
like brothers in.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
This They look like it, and they definitely act like it.
Like there is such a like you had said, there
was such a sibling vibe between them, like it's a
little antagonistic, but it's all so like a loving and
appreciative Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
And they also something like I definitely felt in this movie,
like I am the youngest of four and I am
and I am the girl, and there is definitely that
like youngest daughter, little sister vibe that happens in families
where no matter what, you're always still like they look
at you and they always think you're twelve, even when
you're thirty three. And I like I bought that. I

(27:25):
thought that that like was there without them having to
say it, of just how they treated them and how
she and her name is them and how like she
would react to it, and you can tell like she didn't.
She just always felt that she had to prove herself.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
And you know get that, yeah, and like when she
does something really well, they were kind of shocked, like
when she was driving the.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
She's like, yes, I'm a grown up, I've done lived.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah she was great. The the parents. Let's talk about
these parents, because they they were fine, but in my head,
they should have been better people like not, I don't
know something to I mean, they are.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
One of our I'd say we have two sage or
three sage old people. Two of them get parents because
they do show up at one point to like say
like we just want you to be happy, right, they
do the whole sage thing, but also like yeah, almost
like fuck up your your middle child's relationship.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
There's that. But I mean when I say I want
them to be better, I want like Mary stein Burgon
in that.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Role like this that you can't get that and without
mine I know, But.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Like I kept thinking it, and I'm like, how much
better would this movie be? Like I think the parents
have to be the best actors and something like this,
Like you know that's the way it should be. Yeah,
they should have got at least somebody, you.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Know, somebody's a little more money on.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, exactly, get past Reba or I don't know, yack A,
you know somebody that could bring something to it. I
felt they were just very flat and lame.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
I got scre I think one of the things that
endeared me to them early and then it never really
played out, was I feel like they said that the
dad was a former Olympian. I was like, wait what.
Because they're like, oh, it's a speed skater, I'm like, oh, okay,
that's gotta be something that you're in and you know,
again like I'm an easy mark for things like that.
Of course if he was a figure skater, it would
have been like media yeah, but yeah, no, I'd agree

(29:17):
with that, I think. And they also just there. They
don't get that much. They don't get the same level
of personality as show.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Just glances. That's all they get between each other. Going
back to the boat a lot because he's tired. You know,
they don't get a lot to do. I'm not smirching
the actors. I just think that like A should have
given him more to do and be ca ast somebody
that's instantly recognizable that you like, even yeah, low budget,
lower tier somebody from two two seven. I don't care.

(29:44):
I just want to like kind of naturally be endeared
to this person.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
And I was not. So let's our let's say our
setting is typically a winter wonderland, and they that city
in this case, I mean it is because they just
keep landing in these charming European Germanic cities and they're
pretty montages of them.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
And they're doing markets every time they go. They're doing
the lighting of the tree or the oh this is
the dance of the clod hopper. Then like there's something's all, yeah,
something in every town, and every town is decorated beautifully
with millions of lights and twinkles and decorations. Yeah, this
is a Christmas wonderlane. This is like like Germany, like

(30:26):
is like where Santa started, right, am? I crazy? Is
that like the origin of Santa. I think it's a
German tradition and we've americanized it. So Christmas is big.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, I mean the Santa Claus of Santa Claus is
like the Coca Cola. Santa Claus is our Santa Claus, right,
like ye fat Santa the is. It's like Nordic, right
because you've also got se Nicholas and Chris Christofferson.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
All those.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Indeed. Yeah, well we'll just say it's the birth of
Santa was in Vienna. Why not?

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Why not? So so yeah. So, I mean it just
lends itself to being very christmasy in this area and
there's snow and it's beautiful. Yeah, it's all right.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
On that note, let's talk about the dead parents.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Uh did we?

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yeah, his the older man's wife girlfriends, we get dead grandma.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah yeah, oh, and then we get a little bit
of light because then she's like yeah because after we
have you know, dad with Parkinson's. When then uh, Dylan Dog,
Dead of Night's love interest, is talking about when he
tells her about his dad, and she's like, oh, I'm
so sorry. I I you know, I kind of understand
what that's like. My grandma died. And then a couple

(31:45):
of Christmas ago, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and
I'm like, oh, dead mom, But she's okay now, and
I'm like, oh, that's like even worse because these movies
are all like so you have so many dead parents
in the movies that you're like just expecting it now.
So then when you have someone who's like, yeah, she
got it, but she got better, then you're like, well,
fuck you, my mom didn't you know. So it's a

(32:07):
real devil sword right there.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Oh my mom had cancer, but she's totally fine and
everything's great forever endeavor.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Well, isn't that good for you? I'm sure it will
never come back because that doesn't happen, right spoiler Alerty
totally does.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
And again, why wasn't mom on the cruise?

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Is that his daughter?

Speaker 1 (32:29):
If she's totally better, now, why wasn't she there to
take care of her dad? Yes? Yeah, oh my cancer
that enough something fierce.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Oh no I missed the cruise. Yeah, my cancer is
just cancering all over with the year. It always gets
really bad this time of year.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, that kind of that moment. I almost I expected
something bigger from her. Again, she turned out to just
be a love interest. But I expected, like a hate
from Gremlin's moment where she's gonna have this big heartfelt
story or confession about death and like living with someone
who has a disease and etcetera, etcetera. But no, she's

(33:10):
just like she got sick. But now she's totally.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Drama. Yeah. The sidekicks, which I thought we were gonna
have so many, because in the opening scene we get
one to reach yeah, and I'm like, okay, here we go,
here we go, here we go, and then they're all
gone for most of the movie after that. But you've
got so Brandon Routh has a football buddy who's there
to just be like, let's talk about your backstory, right, Yeah,

(33:42):
it never does like Brandon Routh say like, okay, well,
how's everything with you? No, we don't do that to sidekicks.
We don't need to know what Jonathan Bennon has a
nerdy assistant, and em has a friend who is again
there so that she can like completely go through stuff with.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, it would have been I didn't really, honestly, out
of sight, out of mind. I forgot every single one
of those people until this very moment. As soon as
they were off screen, there was nothing there.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
And then we do have a more colorful, sort of flirty,
potential sidekick love.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Interest, Hilda. I didn't she look familiar.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
I didn't looking at her now because she looks even
like her IMDb photo. I'm like, I've seen that IMDb
photo before, a lot of British stuff and a lot
of actually yeah, big big voice actress.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah, well she was great.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
She was really funny, really cute. Yeah, I liked again,
this is kind of funny, this.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Is like that is the character that would have been
played like ten years ago. That character would have been
played by like a chubby girl, you know, and it'd
be like.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
The character I'd play in this movie.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
So it would be very funny that this chubby girl
looks like a gap in her teeth and pigtails. Probably
isn't the this gay guy. They would have been more
of a joke. But actually I like that she's actually
very pretty and she's just like interested in this guy.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Why not? He's gay, right, he's a good looking guy.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeah, oh, I gotta say, oh, this sounds bad. But
Jonathan Bennett, I'm always worried about, like talking about actors
they're not. But I feel like I don't think he's
super talented. He's fine. He's a passable actor. But I
feel like he has picked up David from Shit's Creek mannerisms,

(35:35):
like maybe subconsciously or consciously but trying to be more
of a quirky gay, a quirky, funny gay.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
He's a fascinating he's a fascinating guy because of in
many ways I think he is, Like I'm not gonna
say he's single handedly responsible for like homosexualizing Hallmark a
little bit. He really was instrumental in it because he
was like a Hallmark actor for a while when he
was still in the closet, and I think he was

(36:08):
like kind of like when he came out, he sort
of also said like hey, I would love He was
very vocal of like I would love to do a
Hallmark romance, you know that I could that I could
play as a gay man. And because he had like
already such a fan base in that world, it did
help kind of bridget a bit like, yes, you had

(36:28):
people leave Hallmark because of it. You had I'm sure
you had viewers turn it off and go to like
Great American Family Network or whatever, But he did I think,
like help. It's that like old thing of like you
just need you know, how do you change somebody's mind,
Like they have to know somebody and then they can
see that it's okay and so on. I think he

(36:50):
did make a difference that way, and he's always been
since then, like very very out and very outspoken and
like probably did make a difference in people's lives.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, good for him. Yes, so I'm not I don't
want to say anything bad about you, Jonathan. If you're listening,
you were perfectly possible. But I saw a lot of David.
I saw a lot of David in his mannerisms, and
I feel like he doesn't. He's not a natural comedic actor.
I feel That's what I'm trying to say. He can
probably do dramas very well and like sell emotion. As

(37:21):
far as comedy, I didn't feel it from him. The
other two I thought were a lot better. He's trying
to emulate somebody.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
I can see that. I remember a couple of years
ago seeing him in a movie was where he was
the love interest and just thinking, I'm like, there is
something about you that like it felt like he was
trying really hard to be like goofy. And in that case,
like in hindsight, I had thought like, oh, it's probably
just because he's like, you know, playing heterosexual.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah, but I don't know that it was that.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
I think, I think you're right, Like I don't Again,
he is not like I don't know Denzel here, but
so it is that kind of like, yeah, he's playing
around and not always necessarily the the thespian of the group,
but charming. I found him charming in this scene.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, perfectly charming, perfectly good looking, et cetera, et cetera,
I just don't think he has a lot of comedy shops,
whereas Brendon Routh he has proved he has comedy shops
after for all these years, done a lot of it.
Like wasn't he in Muriel and Mamo make a Porno.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Man?

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we were talking about
him earlier.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
He's I mean, he's somebody that had such a fascinating
career because when he was cast to Superman, which is
going back almost twenty years now, that was two thousand
and six. Yeah, the I mean you you were around
in that era of entertainment Weekly and you know, like
he was posed as the new thing.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeahs too, like.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Celebrity culture was a little different, like it was much
more mono. It was like this is the guy. Yeah,
and the movie wasn't good and he's he's it's not
that he's bad in it, it's just like he's he's
not he's got nothing in it, Like he was cast.
It feels like he was cast for his looks. So
much about it with that by the movie was like
you look at Chrisopher Reef, so we're putting in this
movie and I'm sure like it was probably really hard

(39:04):
for him after that because he didn't like. The next
thing he did after that was an episode of Fear
Itself two years later. I think he had probably like
a while that was rough on that, and then he
comes back and he was never again, never like a
leading man. He is a lead in Dylan Dog Dead
of Night, as I will continue to say because it's

(39:26):
really fun to say that, but he's just like never
kind of rebounded as that leading man. But I think
he's become like kind of an interesting character actor in
some ways where if you know how to use him,
he's he's really good.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
If he's given the right thing on like a Parenthood
type show, he would you could yeah, yeah, he's good.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
In these Hallmark movies, he's in the not the one
with the Kitten, the Kittens, the Nine Lives of Christmas,
and then the sequel to it, which was I think
like the Nine Cats of Christmas or something, and again
like he's yes, he works in this world, and it
felt like in some ways it seems like, oh, it's
a little bit beneath you, like imagine being I don't know,

(40:08):
Chris Hemsworth. And then ten years later you're doing these
movies and I don't know enough about his personal life.
I hope he's happy, but he's he's good on these
and I hope they treat him well.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah yeah, and he's he has that thing that you
need where he's very handsome but very approachable. That's what
these movies like. You could see that guy living next
door to you being that handsome. He's not like Jonathan
Sheck handsome.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
But who is all right?

Speaker 1 (40:36):
So I did want to say I don't know why,
but I did want to say I watched a movie
the other night and they reminded me of this. This
was a weird horror sci fi movie and you should
check it out when you when you have time. It
was called It's What's Inside. I believe saw that?

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Is this the by swap?

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yes so.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
But the reason that made me think of this, like
that movie wasn't great and it was like you could tell, yeah,
I did too, I really liked it that you but
you could tell that the director was figuring some stuff out.
It's just I want to see more from that director.
That's what made me think of this because like this
movie did wasn't perfect, but it's really good and I
with a little tweaking I think this guy could be spectacular.

(41:20):
Same with the I want this guy to direct more
of these Hallmark movies or keep directing them. I guess
he's directed a lot like he gets it. He whoever
directed this gets the tone doesn't go overboard. Even the
slapstick was there, but it wasn't outrageous. I admire and
I'll come back to this word again, the subtlety of
this film. So I thought he did a great job.

(41:42):
This is what I want out of these movies.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
What I was a really interesting kind of trajectory of
like these movies. It's kind of I always think of
it as like the equivalent of soap opera actors right
in the eighties, when you would have when you like,
young actors would get their on soap operas Julianne Moore,
Demi Moore, like they would all actors, not with the

(42:04):
last name more, they would all get their start on there,
and they would all talk about how like it was
great training, because yes, I knew it. The material wasn't great,
but it taught me. I had to learn how to
be on camera. I had to learn my lightning, I
had to learn my angles, I had to learn lines.
Really quickly, so I like developed a way to do
that and they all then like come out of it
and go on. And I think of that a little

(42:25):
bit on like the filmmaking of these movies, because it
is like a very tight window of Okay, here you go.
You have two weeks to film, and you have a
very small budget, and you can't do anything outside of
these sets and everything, and every now and then you
do see like you know, directors that move on from it.
The one I was thinking of was his name was

(42:47):
Justin g. Dike, who did probably best known for doing
Anything for Jackson, which was a really good horror movie
from a couple of years ago, so good, and you
look at his solography and it was like he's done
so many of these Christmas movies, including some that are
like that I'd seen, and I remember thinking like, oh,
that was actually good, like I could see how Yeah,

(43:09):
the material it wasn't great. It was still like a
predictable little Christmas for romance, but the actors were really
charming in that one. Or there were funny moments in it,
and there was like judges there. And I've read interviews
with him where he's basically said like yeah, like I
do these movies, Like I learned everything I knew about
camera work from doing these movies, and so there is
I think, like you can spot it sometimes of somebody

(43:31):
who knows has an ear for the dialogue, has away
with the actors. Yeah, and like hopefully this director will
I mean I again, I agree. I think he could
go on to be a jaun Chu or somebody, but
just might take time to get there. But it's fun
when you can spot it. And I feel like that's
something I liked about this movie a lot. Was like
you can tell there is skill behind the camera and

(43:54):
putting it all together.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yeah, I could see him directing like the next Family
Stone whatever that may be Christmas movie, which I can't
believe you haven't seen that. It's no good, no, no,
you can't see every movie. It's my annual Christmas movie.
So like Melissa and I are going to watch it soon.
We watch it every year. It's so good.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I told you we sud an issue with movies that
demonized women who put their hair back and then say
they're relaxed when they take it down. That's and I
remember when when that movie came out, every review was like,
well you know Sarah Jessica Parker is the uptight one
because she's got her air and a bun.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah so bear, But everything else is great. I agree
that that's stupid. Everything else about it is charming and
delightfulb I will report back, okay, perfect, So do we
go through our list?

Speaker 2 (44:39):
No? No, we did not move. The next one was
a villain, which we don't really have any kind of
villains in this movie. No, Parkinson's Secrets, yeah, number seven montage.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
Yeah several right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Like credit, it's our family photos, which is always fun
because it's always cute because you can tell like they
like asked the actors for their kid photos and then
they like put them together into things. There was a
gingerbread contest, yeah great. There was a Christmas market, the
Varian dance scene, which was really cute, a white elephant montage,

(45:17):
the family where everybody gets paired off, and then there's
an ice skating montage and you know, yeah, they always
make it look easy, like anybody could just ice skate,
and I'm like, you know what, I have Parkinsons and
he could do it. I could crtually do it.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
And then I reckon almost lost it at one point
you could tell that he had legitimately almost fell and
they had to they had to grab him.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
To go back and watch.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah, so plenty of montages I appreciates. There was only
an hour and twenty four minutes, so it was even
shorter than Hallmark.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
That's all I want.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, yeah, all right, slapstick. We definitely had some bike
running to the boats, gingerbread collapse, all sorts of things.
Oh and hyjenks. Definitely no Santa Claus. So now we
move on to the bonus round.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Well, there was that guy at at one of the
stores in one of the tiny little towns that looked
exactly like Santa Claus.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
And as we know, Santa was born in Germany's probably
was it might have been him. Yes, I would like
to talk about the music in this movie, of which
we had a good balance of both i'd say public
domain and word Solad Christmas.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Yeah, I loved the last song I was. I don't
remember it now, but I remember like humming that song afterward,
the one that laid over the credits.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Is it the one that Rudolph Okay, I wrote down
a lot of lyrics from these songs. Rudolph knows with
it oh no, no, no, I don't think this was it.
But this one had a line that was Rudolph knows
with his big red nose, he's keeping Santa company. See
how they rhymed the word nose and nose, which is
there were I assumed and I did watch through the credits,

(46:58):
but I don't know if all the songs were credited,
because there was like three or four words soulad Christmas
songs that all sounded like I wrote like a feisty singer,
but not as in like hey I'm feisty, as in
like feist the singer feist.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Oh interesting, Okay, I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Where was like that kind of like grabbing voice and
now I'm singing about things. It's not what I sound like,
but people out there. No, but there were a lot
of like like a pop star singer and she's got
a voice. It's kind of husky, okay, saying words like
guys are frozen in town, the stores are closing. When
I was a kid, all I wanted was stuff. Now
I just want to be close to the ones I love. Again,

(47:35):
those words don't rhyme, but they put a bet a
song together.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
So a little like Aruka from Buffy. Yeah totally that.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Not quite as hard rock, but yes, okay, yeah uh.
There was jingle Bells, a rock version of it during
the Snowmobile ride. German version of Silent Night when all
the singers are the chorus it's really pretty and then
everybody sings we was Shu Mark Christmas, which is not
less pretty. Yeah. Oh, there's a lot in the opening

(48:07):
credits which is, oh.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah, I remember that. You know that it's funny, you
know those memories that you'll just never lose. This has
been with me for over forty years. There was a
TV show called Probe back in the like eighties, you're
probably too young. It was Parker Stevenson. He was in it,
and in my head it was Roby from Friday's Virteins,

(48:29):
but it's not really, but she looked like that. But
there is a whole episode about people putting subliminal messages
in songs. And at the end of this, after they
figure out the mystery, because it was one of those
eighties shows where you know, they're always figuring out a mystery,
he had a detective agency. Well, they figured that out
that Blue Danube was playing and she started to come
on to him. Saying like how attractive he was, and

(48:51):
it turns out he had putinal messages in the song,
and she's like, oh, dare you try to write me?
Very eighties? But like the Blue Danube gets hits that
I think of that song every time or that show
every time I hear the Blue Danube.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
I mean that's hoo. Yeah, not gonna lie. Second day
and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, my hands slipped on
the on the CD player. I guess we'll just have
to listen to this song The.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Blue Danube over and over on repeats.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
It works.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Brought back memories anyway.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Number two the secret family recipe or needlessly complicated holiday
cocktails or using hot chocolate to represent something sexual. Three
of them. We kind of get all three of them,
do we? Okay, so we get a lot of references
to like Christmas drinks. In the open they talk about
jingle juice, and there is a throwaway line to Eggnoga martinis, which.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
And then there's the later vice or whatever.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Oh there's the German wine.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah, I am more.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
I want to talk about the hot chocolate scene. Do
you remember the hot chocolate scene.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
With potential girlfriend and cal Yes? Okay, yes, Okay, yes,
I got it very well, refreshed my drink.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Okay, So this so hot chocolate in these movies because
obviously they're TVG and they have to be very chaste,
but also they're all about like romance and you know,
and so often like I don't know why, because I
don't when I drink hot chocolate, I don't feel like
having sex, right because it's like chocolate is heavy. Yeah,
like you kind of feel like anytime you've ever had

(50:32):
hot chocolate you regretted after.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah, like I just want to lay down and unbuttoned
my jeans.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Right, Like you want like a sip of it. You
want the marshmallow or like cream on top, and then
like if you keep going, by the time you're at
the bottom and then it's all like a chocolate is
like crunched, like thickened down. That last sip is always
the worst and you put it down. You're like, oh, no,
I shouldn't have done that.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
I shouldn't drank the slurry. Oh boy.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
These movies always use like hot chocolate as a way
of being like it's like this like secret sexual language. Yeah,
it's very much like, oh, what do you put in
your hot chocolate and when during this scene, like she
like gives him extra marshallows and he says to her,
how did you know? Come on? Come on?

Speaker 1 (51:13):
And then he's like, I'm gonna dip my ball with it.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Yeah, like that's the it's there right that he doesn't
about and say it it cuts to commercial, but like,
you know that's what.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
He did, exactly, So interesting. I forgot about that. But yeah,
it was hot chocolate. Since they can have it's kind
of like the vampire.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Movie, like the whole the analogy of yeah, turning into
a vampire completely exactly.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
You have to you can't actually show sex.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
And you have to imply perform ways around it.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
It's hot chocolate in these movies is the language of love.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
You're a genius. I don't know if I've ever told
you that, but that's so smart.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
I mean you can always tell me again. It's fine,
all right. So small business in Danger, we don't have any.
I mean we know jobs are being lost to a
but that's a different story. Product placement. We assume this
entire movie was an ad for a cruise line that
isn't named, but I'm with you on that.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Well, they kept showing the big sign that said like
these are our events happening today, and it said the
cruise line's name at the top. I kept needing to
google it and I missed it. Yeah, I missed it
every time. But it was like all the cool stuff
happening on this boat. And they even said the name
of the cruise line so many times. Like the mom
at one point said, oh Lufenstagen has always taken good
care of us. We love these cruises, right, yeah, I

(52:30):
really think the cruise lines here, thank you.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
All right. Number five is the cloying child. I don't
think there is a single child in this country or
any of the countries they go to. I never saw
somebody under five feet yep.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
Children are not allowed.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Not allowed in Germany. Yeah, or on this cruise, which
thank god, Yeah, you know it's everybody has a preference,
and it would be a very different cruise. They would
be very little hot chocolate because you can get about chocolate,
little kid sticking their hands in it, come on, right or.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
Anyway?

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Yeah. So Number six is finding the perfect tree, which
we don't really have because again on boats there's no tree.
Number seven is everybody's favorite, which is the empty coffee
cup acton.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Oh my god, it was there.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
The worst guys that mold wine, right, they talk about
how it's hot mold wine, like not spicy, it's hot
because it is flaming hot, and like Jonathan Bennett just.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Flinging it around, cleaning around.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
They're cheering it. Nothing's coming out. And then now the
other thing, so like camera zoomed in on me. And
in this one it's correct because I started talking about
this and then I was like, wait, no, I had
to save this for this moment. Okay, I am not
a continuity person in movies. I don't care. Take a

(53:51):
bite of the sandwich and then in the next thing
you have a perfectly new sandwich. That's fine, that cares
to do. But anybody watching this movie, I need you
to watch keep your close eye on Felicity's hot chocolate
mug during the hot chocolate scene because every you could
tell what the I forget what you call it. But
like with shots and then with shots because of course

(54:13):
it's her at one angle him and then hur at
one angle and him, and she goes from having and
this is like when I understood, like, oh, this is
why they don't actually put anything in their mugs during
these movies. Right, It's not just they can't afford to
spill something on you. It's because they really have no
way of keeping continuity. In this one scene of which
is taking is what probably what thirty seconds. She will

(54:36):
go back and forth. They cut to her and her
mug has like six pink marshmallows in there, and then
it's you see a different angle of him talking and
her mug is completely empty, and then it's back to
her and she's got six marshmallows in there, and then
it's back to him and it's completely empty, and then
it's got six marshmalows.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
And it's like, I think, marshals.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
It's gotta be like five times back and forth to
where even I wasn't intending on looking at it. I
look at the cops because I'm curious if they're getting
it any weight. But you can't ignore it. You cannot
ignore the poor continuity of the scene.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
I didn't notice it, but good, oh god, go back and.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
You will see it.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Just just go back. Oh yeah, wow, well done, thank you,
thank you.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
The next one was actors trying trying not to actually
eat on camera. Jonathan Bennett does take a bite out
of something at one point, but then there's a lot
of like don't touch my pretzel, but we don't see
your touching the pretzel.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Right, okay, all right?

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Canadianisms we did not have canadianisms because this was not
filmed in Canada. We have germanisms, a lot of germanisms, yes,
warm weather watch and there was a lot of like
cgi snow and there was definitely like, you know, if
it's supposed to be as cold as it is, they
probably would be curl. But it was not distracting.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Am I crazy? Was this filmed on on site like
in Germany?

Speaker 2 (55:58):
No, No, it was. It was definitely. I don't know
all the locations, but I watched the end and it
was like I'm trying to remember the different things that
came up in the credits. But the credits were like filmed,
like you could tell first of all from the cat
from the crew, right, all of the crew were like
Slavic names. They all yes, And there was I think
filmed in Salzburg, Like, it definitely was filmed. I don't

(56:21):
know if all of it was on location, but some
of it when they're in those town squares, I think
that was real.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Okay, got it. But I don't understand Germany. Is it
cold in Germany usually?

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Is it one of those It's kind of comparable to
spring for Hitler.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Never mind, I just remembered springtime for Hitler.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
That's key to understanding whether I think Germany is similar
to like here, where parts of it are more foresty
and mountainous and such and colder. But I think as
a whole, I believe Germany is kind of is four seasons.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Okay, gotcha?

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Yeah, all right? And then old people aggressively matchmaking.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Oh sure, Grandpa, this grandpa like you know, he packed condoms? Yeahs, grandpa.
Gee oh, I'm gonna go for a walk. You two
just hang out, justng.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Out in my room where which conveniently has a mirror
on the ceiling in a video camera I talk somewhere
like all right. And last is the fashion of the movie.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Gosh. I thought Sue Heck looked great. She was a
very smart dresser.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
I just I cannot understand a white pea coat. I can't,
for the life of me understand white outerwear in any scenario.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Oh no, I'm so impractical. There's some people who can
do it, God bless them. I never could I.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Feel like Nicole Kidman can do it. Nobody else can.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know maybe Naomi Watts. If she's
standing next to Nicole Kiddon, I think she becomes more
Nicole Kidman when she's with Nicole.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
I can see that.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, I don't know if there's
any other fashion that was like, really, the.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Mom has a really nice green pea coat. Yes, it's
a very like deep deep green color.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
Did have big sleeves. There was something with really big
sleeves that I liked, like big bell sleeves. I think
that might have been on Sue at one point, but
I don't remember. Okay, maybe it was a different movie.
But yeah, nothing stood out.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Yeah, and we didn't get to like the ball I love.
I feel like they should have one or some kind
of like the gala at the end.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Oh yeah, that's okay. Yeah, that's my favorite thing. Like
any TV show, I love when they wear formal formal
wear to go to something like the episode of Angel
where they went to the ballet, the episode of Futurama
where they went the oscars.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
I just love it. I want my regular everyday characters
every now and then to get pre I agree.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Yeah, the prom episode of nine two one, Oh I
want I love it and Brenda's ugly like space dress
remember that the silver So.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
The are you so? The fling is when Kelly and
Brenda have the same dress, when they have the black
dress with the white top. No, not that one.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
It's I think it's legitimately prom. It was like, oh,
look like aluminum boiled.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
Yeah, Brenda Walsh's prom dress, Brenda Walsh.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
And it was short too, is like a mini skirt,
Like that's.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
Not what you were to and that I don't know.
In the nineties, I feel like a lot of them were,
oh my god, you're right, it was so bad. All
wore No, okay, Donna wears the really Donna wears a
gown because it's tight. And remember the whole thing is
that she has she doesn't eat all day to fit
into the dress, and then she has a sip of champagne,
and then she's drunk at the prom, and then then

(59:39):
it's Donna Martin graduates. That's acause an ugly dress. Kelly
and Brenda both had short dresses and they're both silver.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Yeah, yeah, bad move. I remember hating that dress. So
any other than that, I love seeing people in a
gown or yeah, I like gowns. Yeah, people in Texas
and gowns. I want to sparkle exactly. Yeah, that was
one of the cool things about the show. Wasn't great,
but Dollhouse, like we were talking about before we started recording,

(01:00:09):
is she would do something different, so you'd see this
one actress in all kinds of different Like one week
she was like LLL bean and the next week she
was a pop star and the next week. I like
seeing these characters in different clothes and different outfits, and.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Usually these movies can't afford many aside from the pea
coat bag. Again, I have never worked at a Hallmark.
I've never been to Hallmark. I can't say I actually
know anything about Hallmark, but I am very very confident
in my belief that there is a floor at Hallmark.
It's like, oh, the fifth and a half floor is

(01:00:44):
just a gigantic closet and I can't decide if it's
organized or not. I can't decide if it's like color, length, size, anything,
or if it's just like you open the door and
they all fall out and you're just like dive in.
It's like like you're just swimming through, and you're just
like maybe maybe every actress gets like five minutes in there,

(01:01:06):
and whenever they come out with like those are the
coat coats that they can wear that season because so
many peacoats, so many.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
I picture it like some young up and start actress
like this is her big break. She's so excited. She
told her mom and she shows up the first day
and she is like, ah, I'm married Beth Louise Hutchinson
and I'm supposed to be in a Hallmark movie. And
they're like, there's some guy smoking a cigar just says yeah,
go pick out something from the peacoat bucket.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
A sign which is more of a which is more
believable or which one I want to believe or is
it like like a sorting husk. You go in and
like it's like no, Like you think like you're already
you're expecting the peacock closet, but instead you walk in
and it's just like a severance hall, Like it's just
white everywhere and there's nothing, and you just stand there

(01:01:59):
and you're like, what where am I? And then like
now it's getting like Lynchian. Now like a small person
comes out and they just like look and maybe they
like fit you, or maybe they just like walk around
you and snap their fingers and then like a peacoat
descends upon you. Oh okay, you like you flinch and
then you're back in like on set in the peak.

(01:02:21):
Oh I like that. I like that one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
I also like the idea of uh like Edna mode.
There's somebody who gets the designs the exact white pea
coat for every person. Oka Like she looks at their
inner soul and says, you look like a green two
button peacoat person.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
I think it's like the same. It's like this this
person's now now we're going with with it being Yeah,
And she like stands there and she like looks in
your eyes for a really long time and then she
like touches your ear and then she smacks you across
the face and you whatever your reaction is, Like all
of these things are her trying to figure out what
is your essence as a pea coat?

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Hell yeah, it's it's I mean, it's an art and
of science, and it's with all these things.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
So if this show keeps going for years and years
and you get a big following and you get a budget,
let's go to the Hallmark factory, figure out what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Like, what if it's none of these things? But if
it's just a factory, it's just you know, like a room.
It's like, I don't know, we just we have like
a couple of pea coats and they just keep rotating.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Them and it's Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
You have to believe that's true.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
Believe in the pea coat in the mode.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Mode that'll I don't have a tattoo that might be
the one I get.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Yeah, overall, I really enjoyed this. I'm glad I watched it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Yeah, I'm glad you picked this one because I would
not have thought to watch it it. I think this
is I don't know that it's going to convert anybody
who's like, you can't tie this, But I think if
like this is a good one to have on at
the holidays, if you're with your family and they want
to put something on like this one, I think could
you could sit there and not realize that you're laughing
at it?

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
Yeah, well done, that's a very apt description. I think
that it's solid. Like I usually I know you usually
don't give ratings, but I would give this like of
these type of movies, I'd give this like an eight.
I think seven and a half eight.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Yeah, it's a solid B plus. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
Yeah, I've seen better ones, but I've seen a lot worse. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Yeah, this was an enjoyable way to pass the time.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Yeah. I recommend a lot to say for these Yeah. True,
some of them are ooh we tedious. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Now with that, I recommend you. So where can the
people find you if they so wish to and if
you so wish to let them?

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
You know, I'm not really anywhere. I don't do social
media much anymore. I'm not doing anything I'm I will say.
I am editing a book. I am trying to finish
it and redoing some rewrites. I haven't set a timeline,
but I'm hoping to get my next book out sometime
next year. That's my plan. I'm a very slow writer.
I'm like Jordan or Martin that way. So I bet

(01:05:04):
I'm working on it and I'm very excited. So I
am going to be insufferable for a little while.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Wonderful you should be. And if people have not bought
and read your first.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Book, he always by my side, available on Amazon. Yep,
the next one. I'm still fiddling with a with a
good title. I changed the title to something I don't
know yet that it should be coming next year. So
you're your next year, everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
That will be your your yours, stocking stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Yeah all right, don't find me. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas.
I love you. Jingle bells, jingle bells, clean.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
Morgan comtther jingle bells, jingle bells, sisty ice, palm, don.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Hair, buy on some.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Veni ventavindrvin, vendy targer snow flagging, venom, shrunkle against the
highness Friday boton peking Stead. Then the condition inside of
the year. That's a shoun Fred what dimensions? So fight
like Elson sing and fight on break.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Jingle belts, jingle belts cling stage.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
Sleep.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Where where

Speaker 4 (01:06:50):
M hm