December 18, 2023 • 45 mins
It’s almost Christmas! Movie Mike and Kelsey get into spirit with their Ultimate Christmas Movie Watch Guide. From timeless classics to hidden gems, they curated a must-watch list that will have you covered for the entire holiday season. In the Movie Review, Mike talks about Poor Things starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. In the movie, her character is brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist and then runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across continents. Mike talks about the bizarre story, amazing visuals /costume design and its very hard R-Rating. In the Trailer Park, we have another end of the world movie to look forward to called Civil War coming out in Spring 2024. A24 released the trailer for its new movie starring Kirsten Dunst stars as a war journalist, and Nick Offerman as the President. The film's plot revolves around a war journalist trying to enter Washington D.C. during a civil war in the United States.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
your host Movie Mike, joined this week by my wife
and cost Kelsey. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm great. It's Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Ready to talk about Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Always ready to talk Christmas movies.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We're gonna give you our Christmas watching guide list. We'll
talk about poor things in the movie review, and then
we have another endo world type movie in the trailer park,
a movie called Civil War. Do you think they're trying
to hint us off about something with all the end
of the world type movies coming out?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I don't know, because we did just see the Tesla
recall today. Yes, and there is a part. I don't
really feel like it's a spoiler because I think it's in
the trailer, but there's some issues and leave the world
behind with the self driving Tesla's I'm a little scared.
Those Five days later, they were like, we're gonna.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Recall those and here's another end of world movies. So
we'll talk about that trailer. Thank you for being subscribed.
We're so close to Christmas, so we had to get
this episode in and now let's talk movies in.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
A world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to info the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
A walking IMTV with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Network, this is Movie Mike's Movie podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
All right, it's time to reveal our Christmas watching guide
that we have developed in the last few years. My
history with Christmas movies, I wasn't the biggest watcher of them,
but you love Christmas and love Christmas movies, so now
we kind of have the ones we have to watch
every year, and that's what we're gonna go through. Do
you think it's weird that there are certain movies I
(01:38):
don't want to watch until, like, very close to Christmas,
because we'll get to those now.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I get it. Some that are more like, oh, this
is like when you start to go home and you're
with your family and it feels like closer.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I feel like when I'm still working actively, I can't
watch the really cozy movies that make me feel like, oh,
this is where I just want to focus on this
movie and not think about anything else. But as far
as Christmas movies, we start about three weeks out from
Christmas and what we kicked it off with this year,
and I feel like this is the new tradition. I
feel like that's a good precedent going into the Christmas
watching season from two thousand and eight. Four Christmases And
(02:12):
this was a movie I hadn't watched until you came around.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I forgot about it.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I hadn't watched it. It was the thing that we're
gonna see in this list. There were so many movies
in the two thousands that are actually really great Christmas movies,
and that was a time that I did not care
about Christmas movies. So a lot of these on this
list I had not seen, but now have become staples
in this household.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, because my family loves for Christmases.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So this is the movie with Reese Witherspoon and Vince
Vaughn that every year they just avoid their families and
they go on a really nice vacation and this year
they go and there's a big snowstorm and they can't
go to Feature Fox.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
They're in San Francisco. The fog rolls in.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And no flights can go out, so they end up
having to go to all of their families Christmases. They
both have divorced parents. So it's for Christmases. And I
don't know what it is about this movie, but it
just puts me in a good mood.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's so funny because it's kind of what we did
for Thanksgiving this year. We weren't trying to escape our families.
We just it's a lot to try to go home
like twice four weeks apart, and you spend the money
on flights in a rental car. And also neither one
of us can eat a bunch of Thanksgiving food. You're vegan,
I can't have flut in your dairy. Really takes all
the good items off the table.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, and also, I mean, we just never experienced New
York City around Thanksgiving Christmas time, and I think at
the point we are in our lize right now, it
was kind of like, this is something we should do
now where.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
We don't have kids.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I think kids probably enjoy it more on screen because
they're just all so tiny. You can't see anything, Like
we couldn't even see that much.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
And we enjoyed it, but after about what an hour,
a little over an hour, we're like, okay, we're good. Yeah,
we move on with this. I would still recommend it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh, I would absolutely recommend it. The city is so
much fun. Aer on the home.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
If you've never done it, I think it's fun to
do at least once. But yes, we did pull a
full four Christmases this year, except we did it during Thanksgiving.
But I mean you have Vince vn Reese, Witherspoon, Tim McGraw.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Kristin Schenowith, Mary Stein, Virgin.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Robert Duval, Dwight Yoakum. I mean Jon Favre's in this movie.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, and he's also in Elf, which we'll talk about
a minute.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And what would be your favorite quote from Four Christmases.
It's a highly quotable movie, which is also a mark
of a good Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It's absolutely the scene where they're playing taboo. The taboo
is so funny. I helped you come up with this
when you came home from bar the other night. In
Alibi the only man I'm ever allowed to cheat on
you with John Grisham.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I think the first scene that I laughed out loud
with was probably Swaddle that baby.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Swattle, Swaddle that baby. There's just so many, so many
parts when they're doing Christmas with his dad, and there's
the ten dollar cap.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That's my other favorite one. How did you get this
for ten dollars?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Uh? Bre Bret, there was a ten dollars cap.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
There's also just a lot of f physical comedy in
this movie, like when he's there wrestling, also when she
hits the baby in that. But that is a great
one and that I feel like it's a good kickoff
too the Christmas season. Next up on our Christmas list
you must see every single year is Elf. Theog from
two thousand and three been out twenty years now. Shocking
(05:19):
and it's weird that this movie is a classic. I
know we talk about this a lot, but the fact
that it came out relatively not that long ago, twenty
years but it's a movie that I feel like so
many people watch, and one that really wasn't meant to
be a classic. Like when it came out Will Ferrell,
was it the Will Ferrell that we know him as now.
It was kind of a risk to put him in
a leading role like that. But now the movie is
(05:42):
so highly influential and has become just a movie that
I couldn't see the Holiday season without it, you know,
being around and existing so much so that there's been
talks of making a sequel, like no, Will Ferrell will
offer twenty nine million dollars to do a sequel to
this movie and he turned it down.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Don't do it.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
But this is a movie that you really can't touch.
There's nothing else you could expand on here, Like I
don't really care to see how Buddy is doing now,
or like how their baby grows up. The movie is
so perfect that if you ever did a sequel, it
would just ruin it.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It's like Bridesmaids, and I've said that before. It's my
favorite movie. I love it, but like I love it
as it is, don't ruin it.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, there's very few Christmas. Well, yeah, that's why they
do with Home Alone? See what I have? A Home Alone?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Did they make like four?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah? They lot, They made one fairly recently on Disney
Plus that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I forgot about that. But yes, Elf a classic. We
have like three ELF pillows on our bed.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
The LF fandom goes hard in this house, does go
hard in this house, and then after that, I feel like,
you stick with that comedy. But I don't want to
go wholesome. I want to go R rated Christmas. I
love an R rated Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
So we're talking Office Christmas Party.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
From twenty sixteen. It very much represents that time too.
The epic Party movie kind of a tray in the
twenty tens. But also every single song that came out
in the twenty tens was like, let's party tonight because
we might not have tomorrow. We're gonna die, so let's dance.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Twenty sixteen takes me back to the simpler time. The
Chain Smokers. Yes, every song by the Chain Smokers could
have just been the soundtrack to that movie.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And that, Yeah, that's exactly what this movie is. You
have Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, TJ. Miller, it's a very
twenty sixteen cast, Kate McKinnon, Olivia Vanessa Bayer and.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
What date McKinnon was almost giving Weird Barbie in this movie.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I thought the same thing we watching it. I was like, oh,
like that was like the incarnation of that character.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
She's so good at rolls like that, she.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Does it so per So what Office Christmas Party is about?
I don't really remember watching this movie when it came out.
I think when we were doing the one year where
we were like, we're gonna watch every single Christmas movie. Man. Yes,
twenty twenty. We watched so many Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
We watched some bad ones too. One you won't find
on this list that we watched there with Christmas with
the Cranks.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh yeah, that was awful. One of the worst Christmas
movies of all time.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
But it was just one of the worst movies of
all time.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
This was one that we were like, oh, I guess
we haven't seen this one, and we loved it. It's
about Jason Bateman and TJ Miller work at this like
tech company in Chicago, and he's TJ Miller like runs
the company and he's trying to keep it afloat, keep
it from closing around Christmas time.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It's a family company, so he's a NAPO job.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, and Jennifer Aniston plays the villain. She's trying to
get his branch closed and have she's his sister too,
and take over it. And he's trying to give his
employees a great Christmas like his dad used to do.
So he throws this giant office Christmas party where all
this debauchery happens. Basically, but it's one of those movies
(08:42):
that you watch and it's so ridiculous that it's hilarious,
and I feel like you can't go into this movie
thinking that it's gonna have like switty or clever humor.
It's very dumb, very vulgar, very r raty Christmas. But
I feel like it just has become one of my
favorite go to movie that I didn't think a comedy
like this would be for me, because sometimes you watch
(09:04):
a comedy over and over again it's not that funny.
But I think having that Christmas element just gives it
that tradition watch for me, then now I want to
see it every Christmas.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Jason Bateman is one of just like the best comedy
stars in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And like, unassumingly, I'm.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Sitting here thinking about not I want to go re
watch Game Night, not a Christmas movie, but I love
Game Night.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's funny though, because I don't think of him as
just being a funny person.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
No, I feel like people think of like Ozark.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, Like he's not like a like a stand up
comedian or anything like that, but he has such great
timing and he's such a great actor that he can
do comedy so well, and a movie like this is
just like perfect. He just has like that energy too.
That draws you in, that charisma of a movie star,
So him in this movie is perfect. I almost feel
like he's overqualified for office Christmas Party. But that is
(09:51):
a great one if you haven't watched it and you
enjoy it already a Christmas movie. So now we're at
about the two week out mark on our list, and
this is where we're throw in the og my favorite
Christmas movie as a kid from nineteen ninety Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And I know people are gonna be thinking, why are
you watching that two weeks out? Why aren't you watching
that like the day before Christmas? Because Home Alone, to
me feels more like a holiday movie, not a specifically
Christmas movie. It's like a holiday break the kids are
getting out of school type movie.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I could. That's an interesting way to put it, because
normally people argue if it's a Christmas movie or not.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
No, I think it's a Christmas movie, but I think
overarchingly it's a holiday movie.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That you don't necessarily have to watch it on Christmas.
Correct I will still say, is it is a Christmas movie.
I've had the director Chris Columbus on this podcast and
we talked about it, and he had intentionally put like
red and green things throughout the entire movie, like in
the house, if you look at the wallpaper, it's all
red and green. The crazy thing about this movie is
(10:50):
that McCaulay colchin was paid only one hundred thousand dollars
for this as a kid actor, but to go on
to make the sequel, he made four point five million dollars. Wow,
which he had been acting since he was four. I
think his first ever movie was Uncle Buck, which he
got forty grand for. And there's a funny clip on
TikTok that was posted of him as a kid being
(11:10):
interviewed and they were talking about he was asked about
his favorite phrases, and the sad part was that they
all revolved around work ending.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I have five favorite were five favorite phrases.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Our launch, it's a wrap. She next Monday, She next week.
It's been nice working with you. It just feels like
he was so overworked as a kid. That's sad that
his most enjoyment that he got out of the acting
process was being done with it.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
That's sad.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
All right, We're still at the two week out of Christmas,
Mark and next up on our list is nothing like
the Holidays from two thousand and eight. Like I said,
two thousands had some great Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Another one you hadn't seen before I came into your life.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And I love this movie. It's about it's just about
a family getting together on Christmas, but all the chaos
that ensues when your family gets together for Christmas and
everybody has issues. I think the thing I love about
this movie is that everybody in the family is older,
and I feel like it's fairly representative of what it's
like when a lot of older siblings get together, because
(12:12):
you have all these separate lives that are coming together,
and it's supposed to feel like when you are all
kids and young, but so many things have changed. If
your parents are going through something, if one of your
siblings is going through something, there's going to be chaos
when you get together at Christmas. But the message of
the movie is that you all love each other and
would do anything to spend the holidays together.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I think this one is also a little bit more
representative of like your family, of like everyone being older
and grown, because I still have two brothers that are
in high school, so I haven't even experienced that. Yeah,
that's yet to come. When like you all come home
and have your spouses and you have your jobs. Like
we go to my house now, and I'm like, what'd
you do in like second period this year? So I
(12:58):
like this movie because it gives me I'm like excited
for when my siblings are older and.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
They're also I thought you're gonna say, because they're Puerto
Rican in this movie, my family's Mexicans.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
There's also that element.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I wasn't throw the race.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
They're also they have our last name in this movie.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Oh yeah, they do.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And I guess the other thing I love about this
movie is there isn't just one plot line that you're
following along with. It's all the storylines of all the
different siblings. The parents. They start out with saying they're
gonna get divorced, and then it's all the siblings struggling
with that because they're gonna get rid of the house.
Then where where they go home for Christmas? And then
(13:36):
it's kind of following all their individual lives. And it's
also a pretty good representation representation of what life was
like in two thousand and eight, which you when you
go back and watch these movies and you see them
on cell phones, or you see them watching like big
flat screens, You're like, oh man, we have come a
long way since then.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Oh yeah, And they make fun of Deborah Messing for
like always her character for always being on her BlackBerry. Yeah,
like wow, the ton of time.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That is a really easy way to date a movie
is putting yourself, putting any kind of cell phone in there.
You're like, oh man, if I were a director making
a movie, I would feel clear of making technology a
part of it because it's gonna completely date your movie.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The top three phones that could date a movie a BlackBerry,
a sidekick, or a razor or if.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You go way back, the Nokia that was like a
giant brick that could withstand everything.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, but I was thinking more along the lines of
like they still kind of look like today's phones a
little yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Or there's even that in between period where some people
had iPhones and movies and like another character has a BlackBerry.
You're like, oh, it was that weird in between time.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And I used to think a sidekick was so cool.
Flip the screen. Yeah, the full keyboard.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I never had one, but I would see kids with
those and listening to music on them. That's going it
can be three player on your phone.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I had a different version, but you like slid the
screen up and like the keyboard, but it wasn't like
a flip screen like a sidekick. Anyways, Sorry for the
cool the.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Coolest phone I had. I saved up and I bought
a ref herbished razor on eBay. Man.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I never had a razor. I had a prepaid cell phone.
That's a fun fact about me. I had a prepaid
cell phone until the tenth grade in which was a
track phone. And I had to buy minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Oh buy minutes at Walmart.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
With gift cards for Christmas, and I could buy like
twenty dollars and each text costs money. Now, granted I
remember that it was a little bit of a loser
and didn't have any friends to texts, So those minutes last, and.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
We're getting on the internet on an old school phone
costs a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, you would accidentally open oh my gosh, close out,
you'd get on the like music store.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah. But back to the movie. It also takes place
in Chicago, which there's no better setting for a Christmas
movie than Chicago. I think that is the best city
for a Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Over New York over New York.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Okay, Chicago has just that feeling of like it's not
a small town, but in comparison to New York, it
has a more wholesome feeling to it, like we're going home,
going to Chicago.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
It's also definitely colder there because you're by the lakes.
You know, it's always gonna be cold in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I think just Cago Christmas time looks better on camera.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Next up, still in the two week out mark is
a movie that you love, Serendipity.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I love this movie.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I think this one can go either way. This one
can go two weeks out before Christmas, or this one
can go two weeks out after Christmas.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Because it takes place around the holidays.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And this is a good one to put here, because, yeah,
it does take place around the holidays. It's more of
a rom com than a full on Christmas movie. But
I feel like sometimes you need that palate cleanser of
a movie still inside of that feeling, but a little
bit outside of the genre.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And again, another one you hadn't seen until twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
And what is the entire plot a serendipity?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So they meet. She gives him her phone number, but
he loses it.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I believe, and it's in a book, right, yes, and
if he finds that book, he essentially finds her number
again and then can contact her.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yes. But it's like going through all these things and
it's just like one like they were in almost the
same place at the same time time. Just kind of
one of those like, well, if it's meant to be,
it'll happen. It's cute and fun.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I wonder if that has ever worked out for somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
If it has, seriously email in and let us because
I wanted, if it's.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Meant to be, we will find each other again. So
now we are one week out of Christmas, leading up
to Christmas, and the movie we have next is another
movie from the two thousands this Christmas. This is a
fun Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I love this movie so much.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And a great cast as well. Eatris Elba in this
movie is probably my favorite character movie. Also good there
is Chris Brown, so but it's kind of along the
same lines and nothing like the Holidays. It's a family
later in life getting together and coming to my siblings
and there's just something about that dynamic that I think
I like and then something that you don't really have
(17:48):
that much in movies anymore, is like the big fun
outro scene and in this one, it's all them dancing
on the line, where movies don't do this anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I could watch that scene on a loop. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This is something we need to bring back, an actual
like scene that role during the credits. I feel like
I was more popular in the late nineties early two thousands,
where you have a reason to stay to watch all
the credits, and this is a perfect example of that.
Don't give me a post credit scene, give me an
actual scene with the credits, and throw in some bloopers
in there too, because we don't do that anymore either.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Man, blooper reels, those are good, that's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
They don't even post them on like put them on
YouTube or something. People don't want to show their imperfections anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
When we used to have to buy a DVD and
the blooper reels.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
On there, great stuff, it's good. That is Another thing
we don't have is like the commentary. I would watch
movies with commentary on the DVD. I feel like if
I were a movie studio now, I would do that
same version but release it in podcast form.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I know I've told this story before, and people who've
listened for years are gonna roll their eyes and be
like Kell. So we know this. But when I moved
in the eighth grade, I moved in the middle of
the year between semesters, but the school I was moving
to their finals yet in the school I came from
finished finals, so I finished on like a December nineteenth,
per usual, But then I wasn't starting my new school
(19:09):
until like January eighteenth, so I had like a full
month off we moved. I watched Step Up every single day,
but I alternated it and every other day I would
watch the version of the commentary for a month straight.
I don't know why I could watch that movie, but
I literally every day would start it and it would
either be the day with commentary or without.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Now they need to make a Step Up Christmas so
you can have another one to watch. No Step Up Christmas.
Start my songs, No towerk in the Deck the Halls.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Channing Tatamarty did magic mic.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
We don't need I need a Christmas magic mic. Then,
and now we're getting super close to Christmas. Your favorite
Christmas movie of all time that you and your Mom Bondover.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Is Family Stone.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I saw that this was rated the number one Christmas
movie that people hate. I don't know why it is.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I just kind of hate.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
It's not my favorite Christmas movie. I love it so
because you love it so much. But I think it's
a good movie. Like, I don't know why people hate
on this movie.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Sarah Juska Parker's character is but I define its obnoxious.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Just because you find a character obnoxious, you can't hold
it against the movie. If she is supposed to be
playing an obnoxious character, she is doing her part. So therefore,
like that's part of the movie. I'm fine with it.
I stand by this movie.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I love this movie. The cast again, Wilson's ensemble cast,
Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, Dermot mulroney, Clear Danes. It's just
so good.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I enjoy it. And this one feels like, oh, we're
getting close to Christmas to me when we decide to
watch this one. And I think it's also you having
that memory with your mom. I feel like those movies
are really like that's the special part of Christmas movies,
not so much the movies themselves, because I feel like
on their own they're not the greatest piece of like
this is cinematic gold, but it's the memories we associate
(20:59):
with them, the piece we watched them with is what
makes them great. That's why next to this one, I
would put Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, which came out
in nineteen seventy eight. And I don't know why this
became my families like go to Christmas movie. I just
think because maybe we didn't watch a whole lot of
Christmas movies, but we all loved Sesame Street that this
(21:21):
is the one that we would put on every single
year when we would unwrap presents on Christmas Morning. Of
course that happened like later in life, we would always
go to Mexico every single year, so we didn't really
have traditional Christmas on Christmas Day. But later, like in
my teenage and early twenties years, we got on eBay
found a Blu ray up or I think it was
just a regular DVD of this movie, and would just
(21:42):
put it on on a loop every day Christmas morning.
And the story is simple. Big Bird is trying to
figure out how Sanna gets down the chimney, and it's
like so wholesome and so seventies and all the songs
on this soundtrack are like amazing, And it's also like
a time capsule to like a real wholesome time as
far as like, I mean, the seventies were what they were,
(22:04):
but like Sesame Street during that time was like groundbreaking
of the things they taught kids.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I love Sesame Street. It is one of I think
the greatest things to happen to kids in America. It's
where I learned so much. I had like books after
my dad passed away when I was little. There were
like several Sesame Street books about like grief, Like there
was one called I think It's either We'll miss you
(22:31):
mister Hooper mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Oh, mister Hooper when he passed away, Yeah he's in.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
And it was like that truly. They taught kids so
many things, like just life issues and putting it on
like a child level. And I love Sesame Street. And
our future children will watch Sesame Street and if they
don't like it, they will learn to like it. I
will put them in front of the TV and I
will be like screen time until you like this Big
Yellow bird.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And what I love about this is what it teaches
you about gift giving. Burt and Ernie are trying to
find gifts for each other, and Bert sells his prize
possession in order to buy Ernie a gift, and Ernie
sells his prize possession in order to get Bert a gift. Obviously,
Ernie's favorite thing is his rubber ducky, and Bert wants
to buy him a soap dish to put his rubber ducky,
(23:15):
but Ernie sells his rubber ducky so he could get
a cigar box for Bert's prize paper clip collection. So
then there they are without their own thing that they
had bought the other person for. And then mister Hooper
comes in and gives them the thing that he sold
for them to be able to buy the gift, my
paper clips. Oh mister Hooper, thank you Clipbert. How did
(23:40):
mister Hooper get your paper clip collection? Never mind, Ernie,
just open your present. Yeah, yeah, let's see what Let's
see what you have. Let's you that's it. Oh that's
not that's rubber ducky.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
So cute wholesome?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Is that? Sorry? I spoiled it for you. But the
movie came out in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
The movie is forty five years old at this point. Sorry,
I haven't seen it, you might be missing out.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
And then the one we usually say for Christmas Day
is how the Grinch Stole Christmas and a movie, I
feel like this has the best representation of what Christmas
is supposed to be about, like including everybody, the true
meaning of Christmas, even when you take away all the presents.
It's just about being around the people that you love
and care about. And that's what the Grinch learns in
(24:27):
this movie. That's why his heart grows. But also just aesthetically,
this movie just looks so good and so wholesome like Christmas.
It looks like it was literally ripped out of the
pages of a Doctor Seus's book and put onto the screen.
So I know the movie went through so much to
do that. Jim Carrey went through literally torture to get
(24:47):
into that Grinch makeup. So the amount of work that
they put in to make this movie great will help
it stand the test of time. We'll go on to
watch this one forever.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I can't imagine having to sit there for that makeup
every day.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, it was hours and hours that he had to
go through CIA training of how to deal with torture
because it was so bad. I can't do anything with
anything around my eyes.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I don't even put on makeup every day, and mine
is not because it takes like fifteen minutes and I'm like, nope,
not today.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Now we'll get to some honorable mentions in the R
rated category. I love Bad Sana. One of my favorite
memories is watching it with your gray parents.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I was just about to say you and Pee Pauw
love Bad Sanna.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
As soon as I knew that he loved this movie too,
I was like, Oh, we're gonna be good. This is
gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And my grandfather is not one of many words. He's
quiet man, doesn't really say much. You don't really know
what he's thinking. But when he watches Bad Sana, he
laughs and he has this like wheeze laugh when you
think something's so funny. So it's just like you cackling
and him wheezing, and it just brings me joy.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
It's a great movie, except they made a sequel to
it in twenty sixteen, and we don't talk about that one.
It's not good at all.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
We don't don't talk about that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Also on the R rated side is bad how do
you say it?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Bad?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Bad?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Mom's Christmas?
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Bad?
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Mom's Christmas.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I freaking love that movie.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
There's just something to an R rated runjie Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I Yeah, I think it's it's so good. I also
am sitting here thinking, like, I feel like we just
watched these movies. But I'm like, that was a year ago. Yeah,
that was truly a year ago. But yeah, that one's great.
It's just like the chaos of getting ready for Christmas
and things go wrong and all their moms come into
town and their moms are I mean, Cheryl Hines, Susan Sarandon,
(26:31):
and Christine Burnsky. It's so funny.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
It's funny. One that I might add into my repertoire
of R rated Christmas movie is Violet Night, which came
out last year with David Harbor, where he plays Santa
Claus that rescues this family who gets held hostage by
these people who are trying to rob them. They're very wealthy,
and it's like an action style R rated Christmas movie,
(26:56):
which I ended up enjoying it a lot. It's a
lot more wholesome than you would expect.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I'm gonna take myself out of the running to watch
that one.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I'll watch that one on my own.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Another honorable mention for me that you don't watch with
me because I made you watch it once and you
fall asleep is The Holiday.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Oh, I fell asleep again.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I love The Holiday. Such a good movie. I don't
know how you could fall asleep during that.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, well, is there a better movie on yet?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Wow? Okay, Well that's my honorable mention because.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I love it. And there's also a category of movies
that feel Christmas y even though they're not Christmas movies,
and that's where I put Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,
which Christmas is a part of that movie, but I
guess something about watching Harry Potter just has like that
warm feeling also because it I don't know, takes place
in the Gold Dime.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Christmas was a big part of each book, and it
was my favorite part of each book, and I'm still
to this day mad that it didn't get a bigger
part in the movies.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I still feel like those Christian Yeah, I guess they
are pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
They're very short, they're longer in the book.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
So I add that movie into the Christmas ye category.
And along those same lines, the final one I would
put in as Batman Returns, which also takes place around
Christmas time, and you got the big Christmas tree in there.
So that's another movie that I feel like people argue like,
it's it a Christmas movie. It's not a Christmas It's
not a Christmas movie. Dieheart is not a Christmas movie.
You can put in Christmas elements in a movie, but
(28:26):
it doesn't make them Christmas. But hey, watch what you
want around the holidays.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That is our Christmas movie watching guide. We had a
lot of movies to watch.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, let's get to it. Let's go, let's get into
it now. A spoiler free movie review of Poor Things
starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe. Going into this movie,
I just wanted to watch something weird, and that is
exactly what I got while watching Poor Things. I would
say even weirder than I expected, because if you just
(28:54):
watched the trailer alone, you really don't know what to
expect from this movie. They don't reveal a whole lot
about the plot, which I ended up enjoying. So in
this review, I also don't want to tell you every
single thing that happens in the movie, because I think
this is one of the films that you really enjoy
more not knowing a whole lot about going into it,
and I love those type of films. So if you
(29:15):
end up thinking this movie might be for you, I
still want you to enjoy all those elements like I did.
There are some warnings I have to give because of
some of the subject matter, and I'll get into just
the plot points they discuss in the trailer and maybe
the overarching themes of what this movie is supposed to
leave you with. But all the details that come out
throughout this movie and the journey that you go on
(29:37):
is quite interesting, so I can see why they didn't
reveal a whole lot in the trailer. Also, given the
fact that this movie ended up being a lot more
R rated than I was expecting, even in the trailer
you get a little glimpse of some of the R
rated stuff. I didn't know that that was going to
be a major plot point in this entire movie. So
what this movie is about. You have Emma Stone's character
who was brought back to life by this really weird
(29:58):
scientist played by Willi Dafoe, and in the trailer you
hear him talk about her not really being all there,
but she is rapidly getting smarter and becoming more like
a normal human. But she gets sick of living at
home with him and feeling trapped that she decides to
run away with the lawyer played by Mark Ruffalo, who
is a great character in this movie, and it's all
(30:19):
the adventures they go on together and really just her
journey on trying to be liberated and win her independence back.
So I want to get into first the look of
this movie, which was probably my favorite thing. Next to
the acting. This movie looks like you were to go
inside my brain and rip apart one of my dreams
that I had. That is what I loved about this movie.
(30:40):
It not only felt like but also look like nothing
I had ever seen before. And that's what made this
movie so enticing to watch, because throughout the entire movie,
Emma Stone's character is traveling to different cities, to different countries,
and each one has this own unique palette that makes
the entire movie just so interesting to watch. But you
also have a lot of great cinematography and the use
(31:02):
of this fish eye lens that has this really great
effect when they're pushing in on characters and having this
really kind of skewed look. It really kind of attributes
to the entire weirdness of this movie, going back to
Willem Dafoe as a scientist and creates all these weird
hybrid animals. Pair of that with the look of this lens,
it just looks incredible. It goes back and forth between
(31:23):
black and white, which gives it a really old school,
almost monster movie type vibe, to a really bright and
vivid color palette, which you know, I love, and the
blues in this movie are so blue that I just
want to dive into them, sleep in them, wrap myself
in them. Like the color palette on this movie is
everything that I look for. And then you pair it
with Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, who have great outstanding
(31:46):
chemistry in this movie, both just incredible actors. Emma Stone
proves why she has won an Academy Award. Mark Ruffalo
proves that he is not just the incredible Hulk. I
was just watching Zodiac with Mark Ruffle and I was
just reminded of all the different types of characters that
he can play and in this one where and really
all the actors in this movie horror flexing this stage
(32:09):
actor type quality to their characters. Because this movie very
much plays out like a play, but in a good way.
Like all of the scenes and all of the dialogue
has a very fluid vibe to it that feels like
it was so relwahearsed and all just happened in one take,
even though probably not the case whatsoever, But it had
that off Broadway vibe to me, which also made me
(32:31):
enjoy it even more so. Emma Stone crushed it. Mark
Ruffalo was great, But Willem Dafoe is a modern Marvel.
He can do it all, who has also dipped his
toes in the MCU playing the Green Goblin. He just
does weird so well and has these really just big
facial expressions that have been the key to him as
an actor. But I feel like this is a role
(32:52):
that he was just made to play, of this really
weird scientist and doing all of these crazy things and
looking just completely almost unrecognizable. But he has a voice
that just above all things, you could take away his mannerisms.
His voice alone is just so great. I wish he
did more voice acting and talking about the weirdness. This
(33:13):
leads me to the biggest warning I have to give
about poor things, because I know some people feel different
about sexual things in a movie, and I, for one,
don't have an issue with it, but even I found
myself thinking, why are they putting all of these sex
scenes in this movie? And I don't want to reveal
too much about the plot, but in the description it
(33:34):
says that Emma Stone's character is trying to be liberated,
and a lot of the plot points have to do
with her expressing herself sexually and finding things out about
her body, even very early on when she's still in
this weird developmental stage, but also later when she runs
away with the lawyer and then gets a job later
that there is a lot of sex in this movie.
(33:57):
So even me where I feel comfortable with it, I
had to question why the director decided to put so
much of it in this movie, and also just Emma Stone,
who would agree to do a movie like this? I
feel like there had to be a very specific reason,
and by the end of the movie, I do think
I found it now. When put into a movie correctly,
(34:17):
it has an effect that leads on to a big message.
Earlier this year, I was given the assignment of watching
a movie called Showgirls from the nineties that just had
a bunch of nudity and hooking up, but there was
no real reason for it. It was just there for
the sake of making an NC seventeen movie. But in
Poor Things, it had a reason to it, and it
(34:39):
had to do with the development of Emma Stone's character
of becoming this liberated person. So I think it had
a bit of a shock value, but it very much
showed a purpose, and it very much showed how her
character was reacting to be and suppress her entire life,
and the movie ended up having this message of equality
(35:02):
and liberation and it really kind of had to put
that in there to get that point across. So all
of the hooking up in this movie does survey purpose,
but warning there is a lot of it. If there's
a case where you see it in the trailer, it's
probably a pretty good indication that the rest of the
movie is going to have a lot of it. So
(35:22):
I'm quite honestly surprised that it only has an R rating.
I guess due to the fact that it was mostly
done more comedic and to serve a purpose and also
for shock value. It didn't really feel like they were
putting it in for the sake of it being risky
or for the sake of it being scandalous. So this
is a movie I went into with pretty high expectations,
giving the director, giving the cast, and just giving the
(35:44):
initial reaction from the trailer. And it's also one I
didn't research a whole lot going into it, because, like
I said, I felt like it was one and was
proven right that I didn't want to know a whole
lot about going into it, And hopefully I didn't reveal
too much about the plot in this review. Keep it
spoiler free here. I like to keep that element of surprise,
and I really ended up enjoying this movie, the visuals,
(36:05):
the acting, how the score alone gave this movie its
own identity, and I really think that this movie will
go on to be nominated for a lot of Oscars.
I think Emma Stone will probably be looking at another
nomination for Best Actress. I don't think she'll win that
award because this Oscar season is going to be pretty
heavy going on, and given the subject matter here, I
(36:27):
don't think there was enough to qualify her for another win,
but she'll definitely be nominated. And the movie didn't disappoint
as being one of the weirdest movies I've seen all year,
so for poor things. I give it four out of
five science experiments.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's time to head down to movie Mike Traylor Park.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Everybody's freaking out, man, because the new A twenty four
trailer called The Civil War. People in the comments are
convinced that they are trying to warn us about something.
I don't think that's the case. I think this is
all because Hollywood tends to make the same type of movie.
They get fixated on a topic, and I can show
(37:10):
you some examples that just happened. But anyway, before I
get into that, before I assure you that we're all
gonna be fine, hopefully, I'm gonna tell you about a
movie called Civil War that stars Kirsten Duntz and her
husband Jesse Plemons. She plays a war journalist who is
traveling across the United States during a civil war. Nick
Offerman plays the President and her husband Jesse Plemons plays
(37:33):
a guy that does not see eye to eye with her,
so it's kind of cool to see them playing opposite
of each other. But the entire story revolves around her
trying to get into Washington, d c. During the Civil
War in the United States. The movie is set to
come out on April twenty six, twenty twenty four, and
it looks amazing. There are a lot of implications surrounding
this film. We'll get into why this is an important
(37:54):
and much different film from a twenty four and whether
or not this is indication that we're gonna go into
a civil war. So a lot of things to cover here.
But before I get into that, here is just a
little bit of the civil war trailer.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Nineteen states have succeeded in the United States Army and
rams of activity.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
White House issued warnings to the Western forces as well
as the Florida allion.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
He doesn't wear it. There's like a pretty huge civil
war going on all across America. We just try to
stay out with what we see on the news. Seems
like it's for the boss. I thought I was spending
a warning house, don't hear that?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Here we are. There's some kind of misunderstanding here right,
Well you're American? Okay, okay, what kind of American are you?
That is a great line from Jesse Plemmons there at
the end. So he is playing somebody who looks like
he's about to take out Kirsten Dunn's and the people
that she is traveling with also In that trailer you
(38:49):
have the guy who played Pablo Escobar and nauticals, so
the movie has a great cast and a great premise.
In that trailer is exactly how you do it. You
evoke e motion in the comment. You get people sharing
this movie because it is based on something that could
probably but probably won't happen in the United States, and
you get this idea out there, and you're gonna have
(39:09):
a lot of theories going building buzz around this movie.
But really they are just making a movie for the
sake of entertainment and for the sake of starting a conversation.
And the reason I think this is happening now, it's
not because they are trying to warn us of something.
You really think they would put that in a movie
if they were trying to warn us in something, No,
they would not do that. It is because Hollywood tends
(39:29):
to have a fascination with the same kind of topic,
usually around the same time. Just last week, what did
I do in the movie review Leave the World Behind,
which was about the world ending with political implications. Now,
just a week after that movie was released, this trailer
dropped the same way that a couple of weeks I
(39:50):
reviewed Godzilla minus one, and less than a week after that,
we had the trailer for Godzilla and calng teaming up
against each other. So I really think it's because Hollywood
tends to strike while the iron is hot, and if
some topic is popular, they're gonna release their trailer to
get more people onto the next thing. We've seen this
happen throughout the entire history of cinema. Think back to
(40:13):
the late two thousand early twenty tens, when Hollywood was
again obsessed with the end of the world. Instead of
it being a political thing, it was more like the
world was gonna implode on itself or a natural disaster.
I think the movie is like twenty twelve. All those
type of movies came out around then. We're still here,
so rest assured. It is really just a cycle. In
(40:34):
writing of Hollywood. Is to the reason that why all
of these movies are coming out right now, and also
the timing just kind of adds up. Look at what
happened in the United States in twenty twenty and early
twenty twenty one, you give it a couple of years
after that. Given the timeline and the strike, right now
is about the time that movies pertaining to that civil
kind of unrest would start to come out. So I
(40:56):
really think it is a timing thing. But if you
go in the comments of the last review I did
for Leave the World Behind on Instagram and TikTok, you'd
be convinced otherwise because there are a lot of conspiracy
theorists on there saying they're trying to warn us. And
what I have to say regarding to that is, if
the world is gonna end, I'm good with it. I'm
tired of paying bills. The only thing that would bum
me out is I'm gonna miss out on a lot
(41:17):
of Marvel movies that have been pushed to twenty twenty
five and GTA six. I gotta be here for GTA six.
The other interesting thing about this trailer is that A
twenty four, the studio who is putting this out, is
trying to get into more action movies and big property movies.
A twenty four is known for being the little indie
darlings that put out movies like Uncut Gems, Ladybird, Hereditary, Moonlight,
(41:41):
The Witch Midsma one of my favorite movies that I
like but don't recommend, but do recommend, And they put
out a lot of movies that tend to lose money.
Just this year alone, they lost so much money on
the Joaquin Phoenix movie bo Is Afraid and Past Lives,
even though I love that movie will probably make one
of my top movies of the year, didn't really generate
(42:02):
a lot of revenue. So as a whole, the studio
has a lot of critical acclaim but not a lot
of capital to put back into their studio. So what
they're trying to do now is make more movies like this,
more movies like Civil War that are still in their brand,
because if you look at this trailer, it doesn't feel
like a full on action movie. It still has that
(42:23):
horror element that you go to expect for a twenty
four film, but this movie has the potential to reach
a wider audience given the subject matter. So I think
this is a really great step for them to have
movies that come out that still feel like them, but
can also make them some more money, so they can
make movies like First Cow, which is a movie essentially
about a cow, because those are the two extremes you
(42:45):
work with inside of a twenty four. You have the
big movies like Everything Everywhere all at once, and you
literally have movies like First Cow and Lamb that are
so niche, and you have to watch those movies and
they're quite often boring sometimes and then you don't even
understand them at the So I think this is a
move in the right direction for them in order for
them to be sustainable as a movie studio, which we
(43:07):
all need A twenty four in our lives because they've
really made some of the most impactful movies of the
last five years. The other interesting thing that coincides with
this is they just announced that A twenty four is
making a movie starring The Rock. He's gonna play a
MMA fighter in a movie called The Smashing Machine from
filmmaker Ben Safti, who is part of the Saftie Brothers,
(43:28):
who also worked on movies like Good Time and Uncut Gems.
So I think that's a really interesting pairing. I think
The Rock maybe saw Batista getting all this praise for
doing movies outside of his comfort zone and really not
being known as a WWE wrestler anymore. I just see
Dave Batista as an actor now because the Guardians of
the Galaxy and Knock at the Cabin, this is The
(43:50):
Rock trying to prove to us that hey, I can
do movies like that too, So I'm really interested to
see that of him showing his actual acting abilities and
not playing the same character over and over again. So
I'm pretty high for that. I also love the Safti
brothers as directors, so hopefully if anybody can do it,
it would be Ben Safti to get a great performance
out of the rock. So with movies like that, with
(44:12):
movies like Civil War, I think I'm really interested to
see where A twenty four is going over the next
few years. But again, this movie is coming out on
April twenty sixth, twenty twenty four, and I don't think
I hope we don't have to worry about an actual
civil war breaking out in between.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Then if that for was this week's edition of Movie Line.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Framer Park and that is going to do it for
another episode here of the podcast. But before I go,
I gotta get my listeners shout out of the week,
and last week we had an interview with the director
of The Fugitive. So last week the secret emoji to
comment with or dm me with was the Kapamoji. So
this week's listener shout out goes out to Gloria and Morono.
You are this week's listener shout out of the week
(44:54):
and to everybody listening. Hope you have a great rest
of your week. Hope you have a great merry Christmas,
be Holidays. No matter what you are doing this week,
I hope you have fun, have some time off, but
most importantly, oh go out and watch good movies. And
until next time, I will talk to you later
Hello, Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am
your host Movie Mike, joined this week by my wife
and cost Kelsey. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm great. It's Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Ready to talk about Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Always ready to talk Christmas movies.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We're gonna give you our Christmas watching guide list. We'll
talk about poor things in the movie review, and then
we have another endo world type movie in the trailer park,
a movie called Civil War. Do you think they're trying
to hint us off about something with all the end
of the world type movies coming out?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I don't know, because we did just see the Tesla
recall today. Yes, and there is a part. I don't
really feel like it's a spoiler because I think it's in
the trailer, but there's some issues and leave the world
behind with the self driving Tesla's I'm a little scared.
Those Five days later, they were like, we're gonna.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Recall those and here's another end of world movies. So
we'll talk about that trailer. Thank you for being subscribed.
We're so close to Christmas, so we had to get
this episode in and now let's talk movies in.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
A world where everyone and their mother has a podcast,
one man stands to info the ears of listeners like
never before in a movie podcast. A man with so
much movie knowledge, he's basically like.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
A walking IMTV with glasses. From the Nashville Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Network, this is Movie Mike's Movie podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
All right, it's time to reveal our Christmas watching guide
that we have developed in the last few years. My
history with Christmas movies, I wasn't the biggest watcher of them,
but you love Christmas and love Christmas movies, so now
we kind of have the ones we have to watch
every year, and that's what we're gonna go through. Do
you think it's weird that there are certain movies I
(01:38):
don't want to watch until, like, very close to Christmas,
because we'll get to those now.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I get it. Some that are more like, oh, this
is like when you start to go home and you're
with your family and it feels like closer.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I feel like when I'm still working actively, I can't
watch the really cozy movies that make me feel like, oh,
this is where I just want to focus on this
movie and not think about anything else. But as far
as Christmas movies, we start about three weeks out from
Christmas and what we kicked it off with this year,
and I feel like this is the new tradition. I
feel like that's a good precedent going into the Christmas
watching season from two thousand and eight. Four Christmases And
(02:12):
this was a movie I hadn't watched until you came around.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I forgot about it.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I hadn't watched it. It was the thing that we're
gonna see in this list. There were so many movies
in the two thousands that are actually really great Christmas movies,
and that was a time that I did not care
about Christmas movies. So a lot of these on this
list I had not seen, but now have become staples
in this household.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, because my family loves for Christmases.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So this is the movie with Reese Witherspoon and Vince
Vaughn that every year they just avoid their families and
they go on a really nice vacation and this year
they go and there's a big snowstorm and they can't
go to Feature Fox.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
They're in San Francisco. The fog rolls in.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And no flights can go out, so they end up
having to go to all of their families Christmases. They
both have divorced parents. So it's for Christmases. And I
don't know what it is about this movie, but it
just puts me in a good mood.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's so funny because it's kind of what we did
for Thanksgiving this year. We weren't trying to escape our families.
We just it's a lot to try to go home
like twice four weeks apart, and you spend the money
on flights in a rental car. And also neither one
of us can eat a bunch of Thanksgiving food. You're vegan,
I can't have flut in your dairy. Really takes all
the good items off the table.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, and also, I mean, we just never experienced New
York City around Thanksgiving Christmas time, and I think at
the point we are in our lize right now, it
was kind of like, this is something we should do
now where.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
We don't have kids.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I think kids probably enjoy it more on screen because
they're just all so tiny. You can't see anything, Like
we couldn't even see that much.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
And we enjoyed it, but after about what an hour,
a little over an hour, we're like, okay, we're good. Yeah,
we move on with this. I would still recommend it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh, I would absolutely recommend it. The city is so
much fun. Aer on the home.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
If you've never done it, I think it's fun to
do at least once. But yes, we did pull a
full four Christmases this year, except we did it during Thanksgiving.
But I mean you have Vince vn Reese, Witherspoon, Tim McGraw.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Kristin Schenowith, Mary Stein, Virgin.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Robert Duval, Dwight Yoakum. I mean Jon Favre's in this movie.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, and he's also in Elf, which we'll talk about
a minute.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And what would be your favorite quote from Four Christmases.
It's a highly quotable movie, which is also a mark
of a good Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It's absolutely the scene where they're playing taboo. The taboo
is so funny. I helped you come up with this
when you came home from bar the other night. In
Alibi the only man I'm ever allowed to cheat on
you with John Grisham.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I think the first scene that I laughed out loud
with was probably Swaddle that baby.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Swattle, Swaddle that baby. There's just so many, so many
parts when they're doing Christmas with his dad, and there's
the ten dollar cap.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That's my other favorite one. How did you get this
for ten dollars?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Uh? Bre Bret, there was a ten dollars cap.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
There's also just a lot of f physical comedy in
this movie, like when he's there wrestling, also when she
hits the baby in that. But that is a great
one and that I feel like it's a good kickoff
too the Christmas season. Next up on our Christmas list
you must see every single year is Elf. Theog from
two thousand and three been out twenty years now. Shocking
(05:19):
and it's weird that this movie is a classic. I
know we talk about this a lot, but the fact
that it came out relatively not that long ago, twenty
years but it's a movie that I feel like so
many people watch, and one that really wasn't meant to
be a classic. Like when it came out Will Ferrell,
was it the Will Ferrell that we know him as now.
It was kind of a risk to put him in
a leading role like that. But now the movie is
(05:42):
so highly influential and has become just a movie that
I couldn't see the Holiday season without it, you know,
being around and existing so much so that there's been
talks of making a sequel, like no, Will Ferrell will
offer twenty nine million dollars to do a sequel to
this movie and he turned it down.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Don't do it.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
But this is a movie that you really can't touch.
There's nothing else you could expand on here, Like I
don't really care to see how Buddy is doing now,
or like how their baby grows up. The movie is
so perfect that if you ever did a sequel, it
would just ruin it.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
It's like Bridesmaids, and I've said that before. It's my
favorite movie. I love it, but like I love it
as it is, don't ruin it.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, there's very few Christmas. Well, yeah, that's why they
do with Home Alone? See what I have? A Home Alone?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Did they make like four?
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah? They lot, They made one fairly recently on Disney
Plus that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
I forgot about that. But yes, Elf a classic. We
have like three ELF pillows on our bed.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
The LF fandom goes hard in this house, does go
hard in this house, and then after that, I feel like,
you stick with that comedy. But I don't want to
go wholesome. I want to go R rated Christmas. I
love an R rated Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
So we're talking Office Christmas Party.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
From twenty sixteen. It very much represents that time too.
The epic Party movie kind of a tray in the
twenty tens. But also every single song that came out
in the twenty tens was like, let's party tonight because
we might not have tomorrow. We're gonna die, so let's dance.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Twenty sixteen takes me back to the simpler time. The
Chain Smokers. Yes, every song by the Chain Smokers could
have just been the soundtrack to that movie.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And that, Yeah, that's exactly what this movie is. You
have Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, TJ. Miller, it's a very
twenty sixteen cast, Kate McKinnon, Olivia Vanessa Bayer and.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
What date McKinnon was almost giving Weird Barbie in this movie.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I thought the same thing we watching it. I was like, oh,
like that was like the incarnation of that character.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
She's so good at rolls like that, she.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Does it so per So what Office Christmas Party is about?
I don't really remember watching this movie when it came out.
I think when we were doing the one year where
we were like, we're gonna watch every single Christmas movie. Man. Yes,
twenty twenty. We watched so many Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
We watched some bad ones too. One you won't find
on this list that we watched there with Christmas with
the Cranks.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh yeah, that was awful. One of the worst Christmas
movies of all time.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
But it was just one of the worst movies of
all time.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
This was one that we were like, oh, I guess
we haven't seen this one, and we loved it. It's
about Jason Bateman and TJ Miller work at this like
tech company in Chicago, and he's TJ Miller like runs
the company and he's trying to keep it afloat, keep
it from closing around Christmas time.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It's a family company, so he's a NAPO job.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, and Jennifer Aniston plays the villain. She's trying to
get his branch closed and have she's his sister too,
and take over it. And he's trying to give his
employees a great Christmas like his dad used to do.
So he throws this giant office Christmas party where all
this debauchery happens. Basically, but it's one of those movies
(08:42):
that you watch and it's so ridiculous that it's hilarious,
and I feel like you can't go into this movie
thinking that it's gonna have like switty or clever humor.
It's very dumb, very vulgar, very r raty Christmas. But
I feel like it just has become one of my
favorite go to movie that I didn't think a comedy
like this would be for me, because sometimes you watch
(09:04):
a comedy over and over again it's not that funny.
But I think having that Christmas element just gives it
that tradition watch for me, then now I want to
see it every Christmas.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Jason Bateman is one of just like the best comedy
stars in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And like, unassumingly, I'm.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Sitting here thinking about not I want to go re
watch Game Night, not a Christmas movie, but I love
Game Night.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's funny though, because I don't think of him as
just being a funny person.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
No, I feel like people think of like Ozark.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah, Like he's not like a like a stand up
comedian or anything like that, but he has such great
timing and he's such a great actor that he can
do comedy so well, and a movie like this is
just like perfect. He just has like that energy too.
That draws you in, that charisma of a movie star,
So him in this movie is perfect. I almost feel
like he's overqualified for office Christmas Party. But that is
(09:51):
a great one if you haven't watched it and you
enjoy it already a Christmas movie. So now we're at
about the two week out mark on our list, and
this is where we're throw in the og my favorite
Christmas movie as a kid from nineteen ninety Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And I know people are gonna be thinking, why are
you watching that two weeks out? Why aren't you watching
that like the day before Christmas? Because Home Alone, to
me feels more like a holiday movie, not a specifically
Christmas movie. It's like a holiday break the kids are
getting out of school type movie.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I could. That's an interesting way to put it, because
normally people argue if it's a Christmas movie or not.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
No, I think it's a Christmas movie, but I think
overarchingly it's a holiday movie.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That you don't necessarily have to watch it on Christmas.
Correct I will still say, is it is a Christmas movie.
I've had the director Chris Columbus on this podcast and
we talked about it, and he had intentionally put like
red and green things throughout the entire movie, like in
the house, if you look at the wallpaper, it's all
red and green. The crazy thing about this movie is
(10:50):
that McCaulay colchin was paid only one hundred thousand dollars
for this as a kid actor, but to go on
to make the sequel, he made four point five million dollars. Wow,
which he had been acting since he was four. I
think his first ever movie was Uncle Buck, which he
got forty grand for. And there's a funny clip on
TikTok that was posted of him as a kid being
(11:10):
interviewed and they were talking about he was asked about
his favorite phrases, and the sad part was that they
all revolved around work ending.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I have five favorite were five favorite phrases.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Our launch, it's a wrap. She next Monday, She next week.
It's been nice working with you. It just feels like
he was so overworked as a kid. That's sad that
his most enjoyment that he got out of the acting
process was being done with it.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
That's sad.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
All right, We're still at the two week out of Christmas,
Mark and next up on our list is nothing like
the Holidays from two thousand and eight. Like I said,
two thousands had some great Christmas movies.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Another one you hadn't seen before I came into your life.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
And I love this movie. It's about it's just about
a family getting together on Christmas, but all the chaos
that ensues when your family gets together for Christmas and
everybody has issues. I think the thing I love about
this movie is that everybody in the family is older,
and I feel like it's fairly representative of what it's
like when a lot of older siblings get together, because
(12:12):
you have all these separate lives that are coming together,
and it's supposed to feel like when you are all
kids and young, but so many things have changed. If
your parents are going through something, if one of your
siblings is going through something, there's going to be chaos
when you get together at Christmas. But the message of
the movie is that you all love each other and
would do anything to spend the holidays together.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I think this one is also a little bit more
representative of like your family, of like everyone being older
and grown, because I still have two brothers that are
in high school, so I haven't even experienced that. Yeah,
that's yet to come. When like you all come home
and have your spouses and you have your jobs. Like
we go to my house now, and I'm like, what'd
you do in like second period this year? So I
(12:58):
like this movie because it gives me I'm like excited
for when my siblings are older and.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
They're also I thought you're gonna say, because they're Puerto
Rican in this movie, my family's Mexicans.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
There's also that element.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I wasn't throw the race.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
They're also they have our last name in this movie.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Oh yeah, they do.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And I guess the other thing I love about this
movie is there isn't just one plot line that you're
following along with. It's all the storylines of all the
different siblings. The parents. They start out with saying they're
gonna get divorced, and then it's all the siblings struggling
with that because they're gonna get rid of the house.
Then where where they go home for Christmas? And then
(13:36):
it's kind of following all their individual lives. And it's
also a pretty good representation representation of what life was
like in two thousand and eight, which you when you
go back and watch these movies and you see them
on cell phones, or you see them watching like big
flat screens, You're like, oh man, we have come a
long way since then.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Oh yeah, And they make fun of Deborah Messing for
like always her character for always being on her BlackBerry. Yeah,
like wow, the ton of time.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That is a really easy way to date a movie
is putting yourself, putting any kind of cell phone in there.
You're like, oh man, if I were a director making
a movie, I would feel clear of making technology a
part of it because it's gonna completely date your movie.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The top three phones that could date a movie a BlackBerry,
a sidekick, or a razor or if.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You go way back, the Nokia that was like a
giant brick that could withstand everything.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, but I was thinking more along the lines of
like they still kind of look like today's phones a
little yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Or there's even that in between period where some people
had iPhones and movies and like another character has a BlackBerry.
You're like, oh, it was that weird in between time.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And I used to think a sidekick was so cool.
Flip the screen. Yeah, the full keyboard.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I never had one, but I would see kids with
those and listening to music on them. That's going it
can be three player on your phone.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I had a different version, but you like slid the
screen up and like the keyboard, but it wasn't like
a flip screen like a sidekick. Anyways, Sorry for the
cool the.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Coolest phone I had. I saved up and I bought
a ref herbished razor on eBay. Man.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I never had a razor. I had a prepaid cell phone.
That's a fun fact about me. I had a prepaid
cell phone until the tenth grade in which was a
track phone. And I had to buy minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Oh buy minutes at Walmart.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
With gift cards for Christmas, and I could buy like
twenty dollars and each text costs money. Now, granted I
remember that it was a little bit of a loser
and didn't have any friends to texts, So those minutes last, and.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
We're getting on the internet on an old school phone
costs a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, you would accidentally open oh my gosh, close out,
you'd get on the like music store.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah. But back to the movie. It also takes place
in Chicago, which there's no better setting for a Christmas
movie than Chicago. I think that is the best city
for a Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Over New York over New York.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Okay, Chicago has just that feeling of like it's not
a small town, but in comparison to New York, it
has a more wholesome feeling to it, like we're going home,
going to Chicago.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
It's also definitely colder there because you're by the lakes.
You know, it's always gonna be cold in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I think just Cago Christmas time looks better on camera.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Next up, still in the two week out mark is
a movie that you love, Serendipity.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I love this movie.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I think this one can go either way. This one
can go two weeks out before Christmas, or this one
can go two weeks out after Christmas.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Because it takes place around the holidays.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And this is a good one to put here, because, yeah,
it does take place around the holidays. It's more of
a rom com than a full on Christmas movie. But
I feel like sometimes you need that palate cleanser of
a movie still inside of that feeling, but a little
bit outside of the genre.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And again, another one you hadn't seen until twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
And what is the entire plot a serendipity?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So they meet. She gives him her phone number, but
he loses it.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I believe, and it's in a book, right, yes, and
if he finds that book, he essentially finds her number
again and then can contact her.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yes. But it's like going through all these things and
it's just like one like they were in almost the
same place at the same time time. Just kind of
one of those like, well, if it's meant to be,
it'll happen. It's cute and fun.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I wonder if that has ever worked out for somebody.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
If it has, seriously email in and let us because
I wanted, if it's.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Meant to be, we will find each other again. So
now we are one week out of Christmas, leading up
to Christmas, and the movie we have next is another
movie from the two thousands this Christmas. This is a
fun Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I love this movie so much.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And a great cast as well. Eatris Elba in this
movie is probably my favorite character movie. Also good there
is Chris Brown, so but it's kind of along the
same lines and nothing like the Holidays. It's a family
later in life getting together and coming to my siblings
and there's just something about that dynamic that I think
I like and then something that you don't really have
(17:48):
that much in movies anymore, is like the big fun
outro scene and in this one, it's all them dancing
on the line, where movies don't do this anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I could watch that scene on a loop. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This is something we need to bring back, an actual
like scene that role during the credits. I feel like
I was more popular in the late nineties early two thousands,
where you have a reason to stay to watch all
the credits, and this is a perfect example of that.
Don't give me a post credit scene, give me an
actual scene with the credits, and throw in some bloopers
in there too, because we don't do that anymore either.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Man, blooper reels, those are good, that's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
They don't even post them on like put them on
YouTube or something. People don't want to show their imperfections anymore.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
When we used to have to buy a DVD and
the blooper reels.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
On there, great stuff, it's good. That is Another thing
we don't have is like the commentary. I would watch
movies with commentary on the DVD. I feel like if
I were a movie studio now, I would do that
same version but release it in podcast form.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I know I've told this story before, and people who've
listened for years are gonna roll their eyes and be
like Kell. So we know this. But when I moved
in the eighth grade, I moved in the middle of
the year between semesters, but the school I was moving
to their finals yet in the school I came from
finished finals, so I finished on like a December nineteenth,
per usual, But then I wasn't starting my new school
(19:09):
until like January eighteenth, so I had like a full
month off we moved. I watched Step Up every single day,
but I alternated it and every other day I would
watch the version of the commentary for a month straight.
I don't know why I could watch that movie, but
I literally every day would start it and it would
either be the day with commentary or without.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Now they need to make a Step Up Christmas so
you can have another one to watch. No Step Up Christmas.
Start my songs, No towerk in the Deck the Halls.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Channing Tatamarty did magic mic.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
We don't need I need a Christmas magic mic. Then,
and now we're getting super close to Christmas. Your favorite
Christmas movie of all time that you and your Mom Bondover.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Is Family Stone.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I saw that this was rated the number one Christmas
movie that people hate. I don't know why it is.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I just kind of hate.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
It's not my favorite Christmas movie. I love it so
because you love it so much. But I think it's
a good movie. Like, I don't know why people hate
on this movie.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Sarah Juska Parker's character is but I define its obnoxious.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Just because you find a character obnoxious, you can't hold
it against the movie. If she is supposed to be
playing an obnoxious character, she is doing her part. So therefore,
like that's part of the movie. I'm fine with it.
I stand by this movie.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I love this movie. The cast again, Wilson's ensemble cast,
Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, Dermot mulroney, Clear Danes. It's just
so good.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I enjoy it. And this one feels like, oh, we're
getting close to Christmas to me when we decide to
watch this one. And I think it's also you having
that memory with your mom. I feel like those movies
are really like that's the special part of Christmas movies,
not so much the movies themselves, because I feel like
on their own they're not the greatest piece of like
this is cinematic gold, but it's the memories we associate
(20:59):
with them, the piece we watched them with is what
makes them great. That's why next to this one, I
would put Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, which came out
in nineteen seventy eight. And I don't know why this
became my families like go to Christmas movie. I just
think because maybe we didn't watch a whole lot of
Christmas movies, but we all loved Sesame Street that this
(21:21):
is the one that we would put on every single
year when we would unwrap presents on Christmas Morning. Of
course that happened like later in life, we would always
go to Mexico every single year, so we didn't really
have traditional Christmas on Christmas Day. But later, like in
my teenage and early twenties years, we got on eBay
found a Blu ray up or I think it was
just a regular DVD of this movie, and would just
(21:42):
put it on on a loop every day Christmas morning.
And the story is simple. Big Bird is trying to
figure out how Sanna gets down the chimney, and it's
like so wholesome and so seventies and all the songs
on this soundtrack are like amazing, And it's also like
a time capsule to like a real wholesome time as
far as like, I mean, the seventies were what they were,
(22:04):
but like Sesame Street during that time was like groundbreaking
of the things they taught kids.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I love Sesame Street. It is one of I think
the greatest things to happen to kids in America. It's
where I learned so much. I had like books after
my dad passed away when I was little. There were
like several Sesame Street books about like grief, Like there
was one called I think It's either We'll miss you
(22:31):
mister Hooper mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Oh, mister Hooper when he passed away, Yeah he's in.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
And it was like that truly. They taught kids so
many things, like just life issues and putting it on
like a child level. And I love Sesame Street. And
our future children will watch Sesame Street and if they
don't like it, they will learn to like it. I
will put them in front of the TV and I
will be like screen time until you like this Big
Yellow bird.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And what I love about this is what it teaches
you about gift giving. Burt and Ernie are trying to
find gifts for each other, and Bert sells his prize
possession in order to buy Ernie a gift, and Ernie
sells his prize possession in order to get Bert a gift. Obviously,
Ernie's favorite thing is his rubber ducky, and Bert wants
to buy him a soap dish to put his rubber ducky,
(23:15):
but Ernie sells his rubber ducky so he could get
a cigar box for Bert's prize paper clip collection. So
then there they are without their own thing that they
had bought the other person for. And then mister Hooper
comes in and gives them the thing that he sold
for them to be able to buy the gift, my
paper clips. Oh mister Hooper, thank you Clipbert. How did
(23:40):
mister Hooper get your paper clip collection? Never mind, Ernie,
just open your present. Yeah, yeah, let's see what Let's
see what you have. Let's you that's it. Oh that's
not that's rubber ducky.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
So cute wholesome?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Is that? Sorry? I spoiled it for you. But the
movie came out in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
The movie is forty five years old at this point. Sorry,
I haven't seen it, you might be missing out.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
And then the one we usually say for Christmas Day
is how the Grinch Stole Christmas and a movie, I
feel like this has the best representation of what Christmas
is supposed to be about, like including everybody, the true
meaning of Christmas, even when you take away all the presents.
It's just about being around the people that you love
and care about. And that's what the Grinch learns in
(24:27):
this movie. That's why his heart grows. But also just aesthetically,
this movie just looks so good and so wholesome like Christmas.
It looks like it was literally ripped out of the
pages of a Doctor Seus's book and put onto the screen.
So I know the movie went through so much to
do that. Jim Carrey went through literally torture to get
(24:47):
into that Grinch makeup. So the amount of work that
they put in to make this movie great will help
it stand the test of time. We'll go on to
watch this one forever.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I can't imagine having to sit there for that makeup
every day.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, it was hours and hours that he had to
go through CIA training of how to deal with torture
because it was so bad. I can't do anything with
anything around my eyes.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I don't even put on makeup every day, and mine
is not because it takes like fifteen minutes and I'm like, nope,
not today.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Now we'll get to some honorable mentions in the R
rated category. I love Bad Sana. One of my favorite
memories is watching it with your gray parents.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I was just about to say you and Pee Pauw
love Bad Sanna.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
As soon as I knew that he loved this movie too,
I was like, Oh, we're gonna be good. This is
gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And my grandfather is not one of many words. He's
quiet man, doesn't really say much. You don't really know
what he's thinking. But when he watches Bad Sana, he
laughs and he has this like wheeze laugh when you
think something's so funny. So it's just like you cackling
and him wheezing, and it just brings me joy.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
It's a great movie, except they made a sequel to
it in twenty sixteen, and we don't talk about that one.
It's not good at all.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
We don't don't talk about that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Also on the R rated side is bad how do
you say it?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Bad?
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Bad?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Mom's Christmas?
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Bad?
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Mom's Christmas.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I freaking love that movie.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
There's just something to an R rated runjie Christmas movie.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I Yeah, I think it's it's so good. I also
am sitting here thinking, like, I feel like we just
watched these movies. But I'm like, that was a year ago. Yeah,
that was truly a year ago. But yeah, that one's great.
It's just like the chaos of getting ready for Christmas
and things go wrong and all their moms come into
town and their moms are I mean, Cheryl Hines, Susan Sarandon,
(26:31):
and Christine Burnsky. It's so funny.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
It's funny. One that I might add into my repertoire
of R rated Christmas movie is Violet Night, which came
out last year with David Harbor, where he plays Santa
Claus that rescues this family who gets held hostage by
these people who are trying to rob them. They're very wealthy,
and it's like an action style R rated Christmas movie,
(26:56):
which I ended up enjoying it a lot. It's a
lot more wholesome than you would expect.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I'm gonna take myself out of the running to watch
that one.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I'll watch that one on my own.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Another honorable mention for me that you don't watch with
me because I made you watch it once and you
fall asleep is The Holiday.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Oh, I fell asleep again.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I love The Holiday. Such a good movie. I don't
know how you could fall asleep during that.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, well, is there a better movie on yet?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Wow? Okay, Well that's my honorable mention because.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I love it. And there's also a category of movies
that feel Christmas y even though they're not Christmas movies,
and that's where I put Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,
which Christmas is a part of that movie, but I
guess something about watching Harry Potter just has like that
warm feeling also because it I don't know, takes place
in the Gold Dime.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Christmas was a big part of each book, and it
was my favorite part of each book, and I'm still
to this day mad that it didn't get a bigger
part in the movies.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I still feel like those Christian Yeah, I guess they
are pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
They're very short, they're longer in the book.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
So I add that movie into the Christmas ye category.
And along those same lines, the final one I would
put in as Batman Returns, which also takes place around
Christmas time, and you got the big Christmas tree in there.
So that's another movie that I feel like people argue like,
it's it a Christmas movie. It's not a Christmas It's
not a Christmas movie. Dieheart is not a Christmas movie.
You can put in Christmas elements in a movie, but
(28:26):
it doesn't make them Christmas. But hey, watch what you
want around the holidays.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That is our Christmas movie watching guide. We had a
lot of movies to watch.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, let's get to it. Let's go, let's get into
it now. A spoiler free movie review of Poor Things
starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe. Going into this movie,
I just wanted to watch something weird, and that is
exactly what I got while watching Poor Things. I would
say even weirder than I expected, because if you just
(28:54):
watched the trailer alone, you really don't know what to
expect from this movie. They don't reveal a whole lot
about the plot, which I ended up enjoying. So in
this review, I also don't want to tell you every
single thing that happens in the movie, because I think
this is one of the films that you really enjoy
more not knowing a whole lot about going into it,
and I love those type of films. So if you
(29:15):
end up thinking this movie might be for you, I
still want you to enjoy all those elements like I did.
There are some warnings I have to give because of
some of the subject matter, and I'll get into just
the plot points they discuss in the trailer and maybe
the overarching themes of what this movie is supposed to
leave you with. But all the details that come out
throughout this movie and the journey that you go on
(29:37):
is quite interesting, so I can see why they didn't
reveal a whole lot in the trailer. Also, given the
fact that this movie ended up being a lot more
R rated than I was expecting, even in the trailer
you get a little glimpse of some of the R
rated stuff. I didn't know that that was going to
be a major plot point in this entire movie. So
what this movie is about. You have Emma Stone's character
who was brought back to life by this really weird
(29:58):
scientist played by Willi Dafoe, and in the trailer you
hear him talk about her not really being all there,
but she is rapidly getting smarter and becoming more like
a normal human. But she gets sick of living at
home with him and feeling trapped that she decides to
run away with the lawyer played by Mark Ruffalo, who
is a great character in this movie, and it's all
(30:19):
the adventures they go on together and really just her
journey on trying to be liberated and win her independence back.
So I want to get into first the look of
this movie, which was probably my favorite thing. Next to
the acting. This movie looks like you were to go
inside my brain and rip apart one of my dreams
that I had. That is what I loved about this movie.
(30:40):
It not only felt like but also look like nothing
I had ever seen before. And that's what made this
movie so enticing to watch, because throughout the entire movie,
Emma Stone's character is traveling to different cities, to different countries,
and each one has this own unique palette that makes
the entire movie just so interesting to watch. But you
also have a lot of great cinematography and the use
(31:02):
of this fish eye lens that has this really great
effect when they're pushing in on characters and having this
really kind of skewed look. It really kind of attributes
to the entire weirdness of this movie, going back to
Willem Dafoe as a scientist and creates all these weird
hybrid animals. Pair of that with the look of this lens,
it just looks incredible. It goes back and forth between
(31:23):
black and white, which gives it a really old school,
almost monster movie type vibe, to a really bright and
vivid color palette, which you know, I love, and the
blues in this movie are so blue that I just
want to dive into them, sleep in them, wrap myself
in them. Like the color palette on this movie is
everything that I look for. And then you pair it
with Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, who have great outstanding
(31:46):
chemistry in this movie, both just incredible actors. Emma Stone
proves why she has won an Academy Award. Mark Ruffalo
proves that he is not just the incredible Hulk. I
was just watching Zodiac with Mark Ruffle and I was
just reminded of all the different types of characters that
he can play and in this one where and really
all the actors in this movie horror flexing this stage
(32:09):
actor type quality to their characters. Because this movie very
much plays out like a play, but in a good way.
Like all of the scenes and all of the dialogue
has a very fluid vibe to it that feels like
it was so relwahearsed and all just happened in one take,
even though probably not the case whatsoever, But it had
that off Broadway vibe to me, which also made me
(32:31):
enjoy it even more so. Emma Stone crushed it. Mark
Ruffalo was great, But Willem Dafoe is a modern Marvel.
He can do it all, who has also dipped his
toes in the MCU playing the Green Goblin. He just
does weird so well and has these really just big
facial expressions that have been the key to him as
an actor. But I feel like this is a role
(32:52):
that he was just made to play, of this really
weird scientist and doing all of these crazy things and
looking just completely almost unrecognizable. But he has a voice
that just above all things, you could take away his mannerisms.
His voice alone is just so great. I wish he
did more voice acting and talking about the weirdness. This
(33:13):
leads me to the biggest warning I have to give
about poor things, because I know some people feel different
about sexual things in a movie, and I, for one,
don't have an issue with it, but even I found
myself thinking, why are they putting all of these sex
scenes in this movie? And I don't want to reveal
too much about the plot, but in the description it
(33:34):
says that Emma Stone's character is trying to be liberated,
and a lot of the plot points have to do
with her expressing herself sexually and finding things out about
her body, even very early on when she's still in
this weird developmental stage, but also later when she runs
away with the lawyer and then gets a job later
that there is a lot of sex in this movie.
(33:57):
So even me where I feel comfortable with it, I
had to question why the director decided to put so
much of it in this movie, and also just Emma Stone,
who would agree to do a movie like this? I
feel like there had to be a very specific reason,
and by the end of the movie, I do think
I found it now. When put into a movie correctly,
(34:17):
it has an effect that leads on to a big message.
Earlier this year, I was given the assignment of watching
a movie called Showgirls from the nineties that just had
a bunch of nudity and hooking up, but there was
no real reason for it. It was just there for
the sake of making an NC seventeen movie. But in
Poor Things, it had a reason to it, and it
(34:39):
had to do with the development of Emma Stone's character
of becoming this liberated person. So I think it had
a bit of a shock value, but it very much
showed a purpose, and it very much showed how her
character was reacting to be and suppress her entire life,
and the movie ended up having this message of equality
(35:02):
and liberation and it really kind of had to put
that in there to get that point across. So all
of the hooking up in this movie does survey purpose,
but warning there is a lot of it. If there's
a case where you see it in the trailer, it's
probably a pretty good indication that the rest of the
movie is going to have a lot of it. So
(35:22):
I'm quite honestly surprised that it only has an R rating.
I guess due to the fact that it was mostly
done more comedic and to serve a purpose and also
for shock value. It didn't really feel like they were
putting it in for the sake of it being risky
or for the sake of it being scandalous. So this
is a movie I went into with pretty high expectations,
giving the director, giving the cast, and just giving the
(35:44):
initial reaction from the trailer. And it's also one I
didn't research a whole lot going into it, because, like
I said, I felt like it was one and was
proven right that I didn't want to know a whole
lot about going into it, And hopefully I didn't reveal
too much about the plot in this review. Keep it
spoiler free here. I like to keep that element of surprise,
and I really ended up enjoying this movie, the visuals,
(36:05):
the acting, how the score alone gave this movie its
own identity, and I really think that this movie will
go on to be nominated for a lot of Oscars.
I think Emma Stone will probably be looking at another
nomination for Best Actress. I don't think she'll win that
award because this Oscar season is going to be pretty
heavy going on, and given the subject matter here, I
(36:27):
don't think there was enough to qualify her for another win,
but she'll definitely be nominated. And the movie didn't disappoint
as being one of the weirdest movies I've seen all year,
so for poor things. I give it four out of
five science experiments.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's time to head down to movie Mike Traylor Park.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Everybody's freaking out, man, because the new A twenty four
trailer called The Civil War. People in the comments are
convinced that they are trying to warn us about something.
I don't think that's the case. I think this is
all because Hollywood tends to make the same type of movie.
They get fixated on a topic, and I can show
(37:10):
you some examples that just happened. But anyway, before I
get into that, before I assure you that we're all
gonna be fine, hopefully, I'm gonna tell you about a
movie called Civil War that stars Kirsten Duntz and her
husband Jesse Plemons. She plays a war journalist who is
traveling across the United States during a civil war. Nick
Offerman plays the President and her husband Jesse Plemons plays
(37:33):
a guy that does not see eye to eye with her,
so it's kind of cool to see them playing opposite
of each other. But the entire story revolves around her
trying to get into Washington, d c. During the Civil
War in the United States. The movie is set to
come out on April twenty six, twenty twenty four, and
it looks amazing. There are a lot of implications surrounding
this film. We'll get into why this is an important
(37:54):
and much different film from a twenty four and whether
or not this is indication that we're gonna go into
a civil war. So a lot of things to cover here.
But before I get into that, here is just a
little bit of the civil war trailer.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Nineteen states have succeeded in the United States Army and
rams of activity.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
White House issued warnings to the Western forces as well
as the Florida allion.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
He doesn't wear it. There's like a pretty huge civil
war going on all across America. We just try to
stay out with what we see on the news. Seems
like it's for the boss. I thought I was spending
a warning house, don't hear that?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Here we are. There's some kind of misunderstanding here right,
Well you're American? Okay, okay, what kind of American are you?
That is a great line from Jesse Plemmons there at
the end. So he is playing somebody who looks like
he's about to take out Kirsten Dunn's and the people
that she is traveling with also In that trailer you
(38:49):
have the guy who played Pablo Escobar and nauticals, so
the movie has a great cast and a great premise.
In that trailer is exactly how you do it. You
evoke e motion in the comment. You get people sharing
this movie because it is based on something that could
probably but probably won't happen in the United States, and
you get this idea out there, and you're gonna have
(39:09):
a lot of theories going building buzz around this movie.
But really they are just making a movie for the
sake of entertainment and for the sake of starting a conversation.
And the reason I think this is happening now, it's
not because they are trying to warn us of something.
You really think they would put that in a movie
if they were trying to warn us in something, No,
they would not do that. It is because Hollywood tends
(39:29):
to have a fascination with the same kind of topic,
usually around the same time. Just last week, what did
I do in the movie review Leave the World Behind,
which was about the world ending with political implications. Now,
just a week after that movie was released, this trailer
dropped the same way that a couple of weeks I
(39:50):
reviewed Godzilla minus one, and less than a week after that,
we had the trailer for Godzilla and calng teaming up
against each other. So I really think it's because Hollywood
tends to strike while the iron is hot, and if
some topic is popular, they're gonna release their trailer to
get more people onto the next thing. We've seen this
happen throughout the entire history of cinema. Think back to
(40:13):
the late two thousand early twenty tens, when Hollywood was
again obsessed with the end of the world. Instead of
it being a political thing, it was more like the
world was gonna implode on itself or a natural disaster.
I think the movie is like twenty twelve. All those
type of movies came out around then. We're still here,
so rest assured. It is really just a cycle. In
(40:34):
writing of Hollywood. Is to the reason that why all
of these movies are coming out right now, and also
the timing just kind of adds up. Look at what
happened in the United States in twenty twenty and early
twenty twenty one, you give it a couple of years
after that. Given the timeline and the strike, right now
is about the time that movies pertaining to that civil
kind of unrest would start to come out. So I
(40:56):
really think it is a timing thing. But if you
go in the comments of the last review I did
for Leave the World Behind on Instagram and TikTok, you'd
be convinced otherwise because there are a lot of conspiracy
theorists on there saying they're trying to warn us. And
what I have to say regarding to that is, if
the world is gonna end, I'm good with it. I'm
tired of paying bills. The only thing that would bum
me out is I'm gonna miss out on a lot
(41:17):
of Marvel movies that have been pushed to twenty twenty
five and GTA six. I gotta be here for GTA six.
The other interesting thing about this trailer is that A
twenty four, the studio who is putting this out, is
trying to get into more action movies and big property movies.
A twenty four is known for being the little indie
darlings that put out movies like Uncut Gems, Ladybird, Hereditary, Moonlight,
(41:41):
The Witch Midsma one of my favorite movies that I
like but don't recommend, but do recommend, And they put
out a lot of movies that tend to lose money.
Just this year alone, they lost so much money on
the Joaquin Phoenix movie bo Is Afraid and Past Lives,
even though I love that movie will probably make one
of my top movies of the year, didn't really generate
(42:02):
a lot of revenue. So as a whole, the studio
has a lot of critical acclaim but not a lot
of capital to put back into their studio. So what
they're trying to do now is make more movies like this,
more movies like Civil War that are still in their brand,
because if you look at this trailer, it doesn't feel
like a full on action movie. It still has that
(42:23):
horror element that you go to expect for a twenty
four film, but this movie has the potential to reach
a wider audience given the subject matter. So I think
this is a really great step for them to have
movies that come out that still feel like them, but
can also make them some more money, so they can
make movies like First Cow, which is a movie essentially
about a cow, because those are the two extremes you
(42:45):
work with inside of a twenty four. You have the
big movies like Everything Everywhere all at once, and you
literally have movies like First Cow and Lamb that are
so niche, and you have to watch those movies and
they're quite often boring sometimes and then you don't even
understand them at the So I think this is a
move in the right direction for them in order for
them to be sustainable as a movie studio, which we
(43:07):
all need A twenty four in our lives because they've
really made some of the most impactful movies of the
last five years. The other interesting thing that coincides with
this is they just announced that A twenty four is
making a movie starring The Rock. He's gonna play a
MMA fighter in a movie called The Smashing Machine from
filmmaker Ben Safti, who is part of the Saftie Brothers,
(43:28):
who also worked on movies like Good Time and Uncut Gems.
So I think that's a really interesting pairing. I think
The Rock maybe saw Batista getting all this praise for
doing movies outside of his comfort zone and really not
being known as a WWE wrestler anymore. I just see
Dave Batista as an actor now because the Guardians of
the Galaxy and Knock at the Cabin, this is The
(43:50):
Rock trying to prove to us that hey, I can
do movies like that too, So I'm really interested to
see that of him showing his actual acting abilities and
not playing the same character over and over again. So
I'm pretty high for that. I also love the Safti
brothers as directors, so hopefully if anybody can do it,
it would be Ben Safti to get a great performance
out of the rock. So with movies like that, with
(44:12):
movies like Civil War, I think I'm really interested to
see where A twenty four is going over the next
few years. But again, this movie is coming out on
April twenty sixth, twenty twenty four, and I don't think
I hope we don't have to worry about an actual
civil war breaking out in between.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Then if that for was this week's edition of Movie Line.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Framer Park and that is going to do it for
another episode here of the podcast. But before I go,
I gotta get my listeners shout out of the week,
and last week we had an interview with the director
of The Fugitive. So last week the secret emoji to
comment with or dm me with was the Kapamoji. So
this week's listener shout out goes out to Gloria and Morono.
You are this week's listener shout out of the week
(44:54):
and to everybody listening. Hope you have a great rest
of your week. Hope you have a great merry Christmas,
be Holidays. No matter what you are doing this week,
I hope you have fun, have some time off, but
most importantly, oh go out and watch good movies. And
until next time, I will talk to you later
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