Round four in Patrick and Andrea's festive tournament features cynics and grinches finding the holiday spirit in some unlikely places. The films up this time are:
Round four in Patrick and Andrea's festive tournament features cynics and grinches finding the holiday spirit in some unlikely places. The films up this time are:
Andrea: hello, friends and welcome to let it stream. I'm Andrea.
Patrick: And I'm Patrick,
Andrea: And together we are pitting 16 holiday romance films against each other in a festive tournament to determine which straight to TV release reigns Supreme.
Patrick: our fourth episode, our final category. We'll find out whether a bunch of world weary, cynics and grinches can grow their hearts a few sizes and find love around the holidays. The last four films in our tournament are the nine lives of Christmas holidays, holiday in the wild and operation Christmas drop.
Andrea: Fantastic. Alright, shall we kick it off with the cat movie?
Patrick: Let's do it.
Andrea: I am delighted to introduce, the cat movie. The nine lives of Christmas, which is a 2014 hallmark film. and the I M D B description says after a stray cat adopts Zachary, he meets Mary Lee and realizes the single life is not [00:01:00] as fulfilling as he thought it was. I just, I want a sidebar about that particular sentence. Because it can be read and I would submit to you should perhaps be read as if the he antecedent is stray cat and not Zachary. and I'm, I'm really charmed by the fact that Ambrose the cat met Mary Lee and realize that the single life is not as fulfilling as you thought it was.
The, I am DB keywords for this film. The top five are, um, Christmas romance, orange Tabby cat house flipping, no pets allowed and commitment phobia. Which I think pretty well cover the span of this film.
Patrick: spot on.
Andrea: alright, so, this film, here's what happens. Zachary Is a hot bachelor firefighter who poses for hot bachelor firefighter calendars. And can't be tied down because he is such a hot bachelor firefighter. He also flips houses [00:02:00] on the side until one day a cat wanders into his house and the cat's name is Ambrose. and the dude's like, okay, I guess this is my cat. Now he makes, uh, an effort to find the cat's owner after a period of time that I found somewhat disturbing, only to discover that she was an old lady who died. So it's his cat now. but his awful girlfriend, Blair, hates the cat and keeps trying to like trick him into giving it away or whatever. , and then the girl plot is, with Meryl Lee. Who is a veterinary student who works at the pet supply store, and lives in an apartment where no pets are allowed, but she does have a cat named Queenie. Which that I ju I don't know. I think someone, I hated when I was a child had a cat named Queenie. And like, it is the most deep East, Texas, easy, like quiet. [00:03:00] Like, it's just like, I hear that when I hear the name anyway. So, merely in Queenie live in an apartment where Queenie is not allowed. So Maryles always having to hide her cat from the land lady.
Zachary. Isn't an Both shopping separately in the grocery store and Zachary is trying to pick out pet food and Maryles like, hi. Hello. Uh, here's some advice about pet food so. They keep meeting each other random. She sort of fakes that she's dating him with her sister. I mean, she fakes to her
Patrick: she absolutely does that.
Andrea: She's you're right.
Patrick: She goes all in on the, on the
Andrea: She makes us, she doesn't know his name. So she calls him Brown eyes, which is so cheesy. And, but our sisters always nagging her and trying to set her up and she doesn't want to be set up. So she makes up that she's dating Zachary. And then it turns out that merrily gets caught by her land lady with Queenie. And so she gets kicked out and she doesn't have anywhere to live. Luckily enough at [00:04:00] that point, she's good enough friends with Zach that she gets to go live in the house that he's flipping with him, but in a separate apartment, they make it very clear that it's a separate apartment with a separate entrance. Because these people cannot be boning
Patrick: Not until they're married.
Andrea: until they're married, not in the hallmark universe. so they live together and then she invites him to the mayor's Christmas party. But he says he can't go, he has to work, but it turns out they were actually both going to the mayor's Christmas parties separately, but she didn't specify originally that it was the mayor's Christmas party anyway, but he had to go because he's a fireman. And so he was like promoting the hot bachelor firemen holiday calendar. and she like sees him flirting with a lady at the party. And she's like, Oh no, we've just kissed last night. , so she tries to move out the next day. Oh, This is exhausting. and then they get back together.
Jumped [00:05:00] together in the end and their cats are like also in a weird. Hetero forced. Sex people, relationship thing.
Patrick: And you called that early on, you were like, they're going to have these cats in a relationship too, and it's going to be really weird and dumb
Andrea: And it was.
Patrick: and low.
Andrea: Um, okay. So they end up together in the end and is fine. Patrick, what did this movie teach you about the holidays?
Patrick: yeah, it taught me that, especially around the holidays, if you're going somewhere, take your cat with you. Cause they take their cats everywhere and they're just like in their arms, like loaves of bread and it's great. Like the cats love it. People love it.
Andrea: Yeah. well, I think we were, it was just the last episode that we were talking about how the writers of these shows have just forgotten animal behavior and tip and like animal person relationships. Like it's just, so it's all so awkward. The handling of these animals. And this in particular like, I am a cat lady [00:06:00] and I've had cats my whole life. I've had a bit Julian cats. I know a lot about cats. I would say. Short of getting a veterinary degree. I know more about cats than most fucking people. and, it was so scary and hard to watch these characters. Just like. One arm carry their cats like through parking lots across streets. Throwing them in and out of cars, handing them to other people. , these cat actors were very good. Or well-trained or whatever,
Patrick: what did it teach you about the holidays?
Andrea: it taught me that, I should be clear. About whether the guy who I like is attending holiday functions in his professional capacity or his personal capacity. Because then I can determine whether he is flirting because he's on the clock or whether he's flirting because he's on a [00:07:00] date with somebody else.
Patrick: Man, some work personal boundaries in this movie and all of them. It's just what a gift that would be
Andrea: Indeed. Yes. Patrick, did you think this is a good movie?
Patrick: no, I didn't, uh, it was like this, the cats didn't stress me out nearly as much as it sounds like they did you. So I enjoyed having the cats there and there was a lot to recommend here. The characters, were even written pretty well, but, to me there just wasn't enough.
Good to, to outweigh, the tacked on fake conflict that they had to put in here and just feeling like I was getting played for the last, you know, half hour of the movie.
Andrea: Yeah, I agree. I, I sort of went back and forth because I do think that like, compared to some of the other. Especially like the hallmark ones that are like lower budget. I think this one was pretty good. Having the cats. There was very cute and I found it made me enjoy the film and find it charming in a way that I would, would not have and have not otherwise found [00:08:00] these sorts of films to be charming. but it's still weirdly paste. It's still like pretty facile, like the, the way the characters relate to each other. Kind of weird, there was at least, I think that I liked that there was truly a villain in this film, like, like the mean ex girlfriend, getting Mary Lee fired. Like that's. A legit mean and bad thing to do to somebody. and I really appreciated that they went all in on that, but, the cats being in the love at the end, I think is what I was like, no, like it could have been just sort of cute. And then they went in on the now, now Ambrose and Queenie are together forever also. And I was like, no, that's , that is, What ten-year-old Andrea would have wanted that movie to end with and I cannot. Abide that in a movie for adults. Yeah, it was not a good movie, I think, because of that. , did you enjoy the movie, Patrick?
[00:09:00] Patrick: Yes, I did enjoy it and it has a lot to do, do it, the cats and it not just because it's fun having, you know, animals in the movie doing stuff, but , some of the realist moments in this where we're not about the people falling in love with one another, but like living their lives with their cats and like, you know, just giving them a relationship that seems very real. . I liked the bunch of goofballs at the firehouse. Um, that seemed like a very idealized, unlikely sort of firehouse culture, but it was nice. What about you to do enjoy this?
Andrea: Yeah, I did enjoy it I loved seeing a know it all cat lady reflected back to me, and I did really appreciate the healthy male relationships on display at the firehouse. and also agree with you that. Much like other things that are idealized in this film is probably not the case in real life. Just based on what I have read and reported on with regard to firehouse culture, So that's too bad, but these guys [00:10:00] were really great and Zack's boss really liked cats a lot and was always like, cats are great, man. You should keep that kick ass cat. Like it's always also like a thing in movies that Men and like tough men. Don't like cats and they're like not cat people. So to just have like all the dudes at the firehouse be like, we are 100% love this cute fucking cat. It was pretty great. , I did enjoy it, but I wouldn't say it was perfect. And so I turned it over to you for our next film.
HolidatePatrick: Okay. Our next movie is holiday date, which is a Netflix movie from this year. And here's what I am DB says. The plot is fed up with being single on holidays. Two strangers agree to be each other's platonic plus ones all year long only to catch real feelings along the way.
And the top five keywords here are holiday Christmas, Halloween, wedding, and date. And you may be caught at least one of those that you're like, wait, this. That's a surprise and that's because this is a true holiday film. [00:11:00] Uh, and we start with Christmas, but we also get new year's Valentine's day St. Patrick's day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo mother's day, labor day, Halloween and Thanksgiving as well. so it's a real journey, and, it starts off, uh, we're meeting Sloan, , and her family Christmas. And she's having a terrible time because she's single and everyone is reminding her of it. And, Jackson is also at a separate Christmas and he's having a bad time because he's there on a date. , but it's not a very good one.
Um, and back at Sloan's family Christmas, her aunt, Susan, who is Kristin Chenoweth, is there with the mall Santa. And she introduces the idea of the holiday so she just brings basically Orlando to every holiday. And doesn't have to think about. Uh, talking about relationships or whatever, it's just sort of like a fun person to have around specifically for like the family holiday gatherings.
so Sloan's thinking about that and she goes to the mall to return some pajamas that she got for Christmas. [00:12:00] And Jackson's there in line ahead of her returning pants, , and they get to talk into the line and, um, start talking, and Sloan suggests the idea of the holidays. For new years too. Um, and so they are one another's holidays for new years and they keep it up for all of these holidays. There's like a whole year's worth of will they won't they, as they go to these holiday functions, but they, they grow closer. Of course, uh, all the while to made up tension between their holiday rules and just like allowing themselves to have feelings is building.
it comes to a head after Halloween. There's a hilarious, like gross out gag where Sloan like needs to rush home because, because her aunt Susan gave her a bunch of laxatives instead of antacids. and Jackson is there to help her out and spends the night and they sleep together in the morning.
And then she's thinking it's all too real. So they break it off at Thanksgiving and the grocery store. And then, after Thanksgiving they meet by chance in the mall and she makes a grand gesture. She jumps on stage, grabs the mic and was [00:13:00] acquired behind her. And she professes her commitment to Jackson.
And, uh, what did it teach you about the holidays?
Andrea: this taught me that, one great way to enjoy yourself on any festive occasion, I suppose, is to hang out with someone you are only lukewarm about and just. Do that I guess. And also that families are intense and that made up things around when you should get married or where you should have a date two or whatever is dumb. And pointless and arbitrary.
I mean, I know they had to do the holiday date thing for all the other hall holiday days for St. Patrick's day in St. Go to bio and shit. To make the movie work, but , have you ever been like single on Cinco de Mayo and then like, Oh no, here I have to go to another Cinco de Mayo party where they're going to ask me where my steady [00:14:00] girlfriend is. Is that happened to you ever.
Patrick: the premise is, is a bit of a stretch. Although I guess it's like, you know, I dunno, you're just getting together with your, apparently you're just going to the bar to get wasted with your family for all of these. So you're going, and then there, maybe that, and that situation, you want to avoid the questions about whether you're going to bring a date for this one or not?
Andrea: Yep. Need I remind you. She brought a date to mother's day brunch. She brought Jackson to lunch with her mom. Like that's not, you don't need a date for that one. Your mom is your date for that one.
Patrick: I wonder how many holidays they cut out of the movie that they filmed.
Andrea: , I think it's sorta wanted to have it all right. It wanted to be like, Oh, it's dumb to make people be in relationships when they're not ready to be, or they don't want to be. And you shouldn't Raz people for being single on Christmas and dah, dah, dah. But then in the end it was like, Oh yeah, no being single on the holidays does very suck and you should go get yourself. Uh, [00:15:00] Chris Hemsworth at the mall.
Patrick: I agree with that, that read of the movie,
Andrea: What did you learn about the holidays?
Patrick: I learned that it's fun to have, some randos at your family, Christmas,
Andrea: I says concerning me about whether I should be expecting someone to show up under your seat this year, or are you just going to introduce a rando into her?
Patrick: Okay. I think that entirely, we need to have a different conversation about many of these in the pandemic era.
Okay.
Was this movie good? Do you think.
Andrea: Tentative yes. On this. I mean, it's certainly better than most of the films we have watched. for a number of reasons. I think the script was pretty good. The budget was, you know, They could shoot inside a mall with a choir and all that sort of shit. They could cuss and smoke and fuck. and say, fuck, which was great. So it felt like a movie for adults that was written by adults, which is cool. [00:16:00] And, . I think that Sloan in Jackson had genuine chemistry. That was really nice to see like two actors who really played well off of each other rather than to actors who were just sort of put in the same movie. Like, I believe that people who look like those two people with the history is that they have would a hundred percent be banging in short order. so that all made quite a bit of sense to me. Yes, I think it was a good movie because you think it was a good movie.
Patrick: I agree with all of those notes. This movie was over a reminder of kind of what, what we're missing. If we're limiting our consumption too. To, to these other movies. It was like a little window into real movies, I guess. The chemistry that you talked about , , that was a big one for me. It was like, that was one of the biggest things I realized I'd been missing in just about every one of these other movies. Did you enjoy,
Andrea: Yes, I did. I thought that clearance [00:17:00] sale, Chris Hemsworth was great. I, thought that the family members were really funny. I even Kristen Chenowith who truly like, I don't, I'm not sure I, 100% understand the whole, uh, thing with her. But she was good and funny. I thought this movie was like a good updated. Sort of love actually take, right? Like you have all the different ensemble characters with their different weirdnesses and such, And Susan is sort of looking for holidays until she finds love. And then you have the brother and his wife who are getting married, even though they don't know each other. it seemed like a, like a cute little ensemble thing that worked without being like disgusting and foul. The way love actually is. So it's scratched that itch for. For a cute ensemble romcom for sure. So yeah, I did like the movie. I was looking up when we were watching it, that it only [00:18:00] gets 45% on rotten tomatoes, which I am very surprised about because, it's pretty good. And I think, Even in the, grand scheme of like mainstream romcoms, I think it's pretty good. So I didn't, I don't know why it gets such a low rating. That was sort of a mystery to me.
Patrick: I, I, I agree. It's weird. I think it's super suffers from the curve that it's being graded on probably. There's not like there aren't huge, huge stars in this one, but it feels, it feels more like the kind of movie you'd see in a theater than, than, you know, in the Netflix holiday universe. I enjoyed it too. for, for all these reasons, uh, I thought it was a lot of fun and, the gross out humor was just like, so refreshing. Um, for, as all these movies have been just so chaste and this one made up for that. And then some, I think, Okay. Well,
Andrea: I am ready to vote.
Patrick: I'm ready as well.
I have gotten my, my vote
locked in.
Andrea: Okay, ready? One, two, three.
[00:19:00] Patrick: Oh, we disagree.
Andrea: we do disagree. I okay. Here's what, hear me out. Hear me out. I have chosen the cat movie because I don't think holiday date. It fits into the category of holiday romance.
Patrick: Oh.
Andrea: They had so many holidays and they did have romance, but I don't think it's an example of this genre, in fact, and I think that it's unfair to judge a film like nine lines of Christmas against holiday, because they are not truly in the same sort of bracket to me.
Patrick: this feels a little bit like the RAF deciding the game at the clock runs out.
Andrea: But I I'm willing to be talked out of that. I absolutely believe that holiday is a better fucking movie. No question, , and deserves to advance in the bracket. Based on its quality. But I don't actually. I don't actually think it's playing the same game.
Patrick: and the more I think about it, it really does. To me feel like not one [00:20:00] of these movies, that's gonna deliberately air straight to TV. You know, like it probably would have gotten a better chance in the theaters and would not have even been part of this part of this thing. Because it doesn't even feel like it belongs here. So if we're open to calling it that way. then I don't think that I have any, I don't have any dispute here. I think that nine lives is more accurately, uh, straight to TV, holiday romance movie. And as such , it's the only qualified movie that we have to vote on here.
Andrea: I'm surprised. I thought you were going to fight a little harder on that. It's just that I've objectives. Right? So. Yeah. Alright. Congratulations tonight lives.
All right. Um, well, uh, let's take a break and then we'll come back for round two, huh?
MUSIC
And we're back. Thanks for joining us for the second half of our episode on, cynics in grinches. First let's talk about holiday in the wild, a [00:21:00] 2019 Netflix film. and the IMDV description is as such a jilted by her husband on the Eve of embarking upon an African Safari. A woman travels to the continent alone, where she meets an elephant conservationist. And the key words, there are Safari African Safari. Reference to Yoda. Female socialite and culture shock. What is the reference to Yoda?
Patrick: was going to ask you the same thing.
Andrea: I can't, I don't know what it was. I mean, elephants have big ears like Yoda does.
Patrick: That must be it. Somebody, somebody made a Yoda joke about the elephant. Let's go with that.
Andrea: okay. So, the plot of this film is as described, Kristen Davis, who you will all remember as Charlotte from sex in the city. Plays like alternate universe, Charlotte. in this film, she is living in a, you know, whatever classic six, whatever they call them upper at East West [00:22:00] side, New York city. Penthouse with her jackass husband and her very sweet child who is 18 years old and going to college. and the kid goes off to college and like no sooner has like the door shut behind him that the husband is like, cool. Bye.
Patrick: I did appreciate that. They didn't waste any time in New York there, they just give you like the two beats you need to get on the road.
Andrea: Yeah. so the husband leaves Charlotte, I'm just going to keep calling your Charlotte. I don't know what her name is in the film. So she has to go on this African Safari vacation that she had booked for both of them, by herself, the second honeymoon thing. which is also BT dubs, the plot of the first sex in the city film, where Carrie, in fact, in that film has to go on her own honeymoon and she brings that gals with her. And Charlotte gets the runs in a real way. it's pretty funny, actually. I don't know. It's anyway, I don't, I, I'm not going to endorse that and say, it's actually funny. I have not seen that movie in over a decade. anyway, so Charlotte goes to, um, Zambia where She, [00:23:00] runs into Rob Lowe, a tourist pilot slash. Elephant conservationist who works at an elephant orphanage, rescuing baby elephants. when their parent elephants have been killed for their ivory from poachers. and Charlotte who happens to be a veterinarian is like, hell yeah, I'm going to live Fs elephant orphanage for a long time. and fall in love with Rob Lowe. Very slowly. But , they do manage to actually fall in love by the end of the film. If we're going to assume it's a 90 minute film, I would say they spend 80 minutes. just enjoying elephants and then like the last 10 are like, Oh yeah, no, it's right. We wrote a romance film. We have to, we have to do the romance part of this, which is honestly refreshing. and it felt like, uh, in the end they get together officially and, get to work with the elephants together. And it feels like a very grownup decision and it makes a lot of sense. [00:24:00] Yeah, thumbs up.
Patrick: yeah. Agreed.
Andrea: Patrick, what did this movie teach you about the holidays?
Patrick: it taught me that it is warm in Zambia at Christmas.
Andrea: Huh.
Patrick: That was, that was one of the sort of big sweeping pronouncements about Africa or Zambia and Christmas but, it, it looked true. It looked like it was pretty toasty there.
Andrea: Yeah, I in in fact, so what I learned about the holidays from this film, is that I was inspired to look up some Zambian Christmas facts. so actually, yeah, the average temperature in Zambia on Christmas is 35 degrees Celsius, which is pretty fucking hot. That's like the high nineties, I think. and, this is all inspired by the fact that I was reading the IMDV page. And there's a comment from a user review. That's like, Oh, this movie is really cute or whatever, but I'm actually married to a Zambian. Guy and like, they don't do Christmas in Zambia, the way it's portrayed in this film. So I was like, curious about what actually is Ambien Christmases. Oh, for the listeners, BT dubs, like the only Christmas in this film is that [00:25:00] like 10 poorly, this journey happens to include the time period that is Christmas and they, have like a Christmas party. . But, okay, so Zambian Christmas. So it's hot, right? So they it's not like snow or slaves or anything they're not into Santa's. It's very, it's much more of a religious celebration. It sounds like, going to mass on Christmas Eve is a big deal. having a naitivity scene and like a naitivity pageant or play is a big deal, and eating food together with your extended friends and families is a really big deal. So, yeah, it sounds really nice actually. It's it's not super commercialized. Although I actually found an interesting article in the Zambia daily mail. With an interview with local, What city is it Lusaka? Yeah, Lusaka. So like local Lusaka wins, talking to, the reporters about their views on Christmas. , it's actually, like I would say there are many parallels to this in our American culture. there's a priest who has been interviewed, who talks about the commercialization [00:26:00] of Christmas and how it's becoming too much about buying presence. and that Christmas celebration could eventually lose its meaning. If people continue focusing on self gratification rather than community. But then they also talk about how like, I love this. I like this quote from Eric DACA, uh, who was another Lusaka resident. Tells the reporter. I think we all know that the 25th of December is not the actual day Christ was born. It's only a day pick to commemorate. His birth would know that Jesus is real, but it's 25th of December thing is made up. So let's just be honest about that. , It's weird to say that Christmas is more of a religious holiday. but it is apparently more of a religious holiday in Zambia than it is here in the U S.
Patrick: If I lived on Mars and had my only exposure to Christmas was what Netflix was beaming to my space station. I would not have guessed that Christmas originator does any kind of religious thing that's for sure.
Andrea: So yeah, so, Patrick, do you think that this is [00:27:00] a good movie?
Patrick: I, I it's it's as close to good as I think that we've gotten. Accepting the holidays. And my, my hangup here is that, uh, like elephants, hooray, like very, very, the elephants is well done. Like it w it didn't feel very slow. And I think that it had to do with like the elephant action and going on the road, doing the Safari stuff and all that was fun. And that part was great. , The, the romance with Rob Lowe was like believable and fine. but, the movie, it felt like I wanted to be about Kristen Davis is personal journey, Cause she goes home to New York at one point and then decides that she doesn't like it because she has to drug rich people's dogs. Instead of like helping animals. And so she, she moves back it just seemed like a missed opportunity to make it more of a character study and she doesn't really seem to change. Too much. But, maybe I'm quibbling with that, but I think that would've made it like, Oh, that's a good movie. I see how this character is. but I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with soft. No, on this. What about you?
Andrea: Yeah, I agree. I was, I was very on the [00:28:00] fence about whether this was a good movie or not, because it does come very close to being a good movie. I think, like the production value seems quite high with all the really pretty shots of Zambia and the elephants. And they're like clearly on an actual, like they're at an actual place. and that is all really cool at the acting is good. Kristin Davis is a good actress and Rob Lowe's a good actor. And, so that was fun. With all of these films, but I think especially with this one where you really see that, like it just needed a little bit more to make it like a, like a regular good movie. It's like the writers or at some point in the process, the dial gets turned down just a little bit, like just enough that it's not. Realistic enough or like there's just something that's like, it's not cool. Fair. And that one, that was definitely, the case with, with this one, I think.
Patrick: It features a lot of the [00:29:00] same problems that we've seen in other movies where the conflict, feels weird and, doesn't build to it and address it like as part of the plot and it just sort of tacked on.
Andrea: did you enjoy this movie, Patrick?
Patrick: Yeah, I did. The elephants were great. It would have been a very different movie without the elephants. Uh, and the scenery was great. Both of these, these last two movies that we watched, do a lot with the opportunities that they got with to shoot in the scenery. And I think they benefit from that quite a bit. Did you enjoy it?
Andrea: Yes, I enjoy the elephants way more than I thought I was going to enjoy the elephants. I am not, I don't think if I'm like not really an elephant person. Wildlife is not really like my animal preference overall. I'm much more into the domestic friends. but I love the elephants a whole bunch. They were so cute and the babies were so cute. I love that the elephant sanctuary is a real place, which we are 100% and going on vacation to now, this place is probably like all booked up with people quarantining at home, desperate to fucking leave, like just making [00:30:00] reservations three years in advance. We should look that up actually, make sure that we can get in at the elephant sanctuary.
Patrick: it is conveniently located. They, you know, I think Rob Lowe, maybe running some kind of racket here, like on his Bush plane, flying people from the city to the sanctuary when it's apparently like 45 minutes outside the cab.
Andrea: so yeah, so I did, I did like this movie, I thought it was fun.
Patrick: I'm never going to forget these elephants.
Andrea: And they will ever forget you cause they don't forget.
Patrick: they run that joke two or three times,
I
Andrea: yeah, they really juiced that one juice at goods.
Operation Christmas Drop
Patrick: Okay, nice. I'm gonna take the next movie, which is operation Christmas drop. And this segue, just kills me that having seen in the movie theaters in 1995, operation Dumbo drop, the Danny Glover movie, where, where , they have to airlift, uh, elephant into a village in Vietnam. We're going from an elephant movie.
To a movie about, uh, the military dropping things out of planes. So, [00:31:00] how about that? This movie is a 20, 20 Netflix movie congressional aide. Erica. Foregoes a family Christmas to travel at her boss's behest at a beach side air force base. She clashes with captain Andrew Janse, who knows her assignment is finding reasons to defund the facility. , the keywords here are interracial love, military Christmas boss. And, uh, I think the tagline for, for this podcast, here we go. And we got to do this for the last movie. . It's bare chested mail. Well
Andrea: very tested mail. Let it stream bare
Patrick: Yeah,
Andrea: mail.
Patrick: he does deliver bare-chested mail. the two characters meet, uh, on the beach, of course, where Andrew is surfing.
Okay. So the story here, Eric, as an aid to a Congresswoman who's on the BRAC commission, the, the base realignment and closure commission and her, her grouchy, and Grinchy boss wants to close Anderson air force base in Guam because, the media is complaining about the government waste here, where we're just [00:32:00] like throwing, throwing all of our good American things. Out of our planes, to people on, on islands in the Pacific who aren't even voters in this congresswoman's district.
And so she wants to close the base. Erica doesn't want to go to Christmas at home anyway, because her mom has recently died. Dad has remarried and she isn't ready for family holidays. So instead she buries herself in work and flies to Guam to dig up some dirt on all the waste that's happening here at Anderson. And in Guam on the beach, he meets topless surfer, Andrew, who loves Christmas. his call sign is Claus. and he runs the annual operation Christmas drop. the slogan for that is love from above, which is a cute little play on the slogan. We all know from apocalypse now, which is death from above.
So
Andrea: Holy shit. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, I did not know that I've never seen apocalypse now. Maybe that'll be our palate cleanser movie,
Patrick: It's dark. The joke is that those dudes are always talking. I was at CNBC where that everything isn't a reference to apocalypse now. [00:33:00] So Andrew has to thread this needle here, where he is planning this very logistically complicated Christmas drop of all these donated goods that they're going to be packing up for people in the islands, but he has to make it out. Like it doesn't take any energy or resources at all.
And he has to drive Erica around on the base wherever she wants to go. So he's sort of like hiding the Christmas drop operation from her while taking her wherever she wants on the Island. so they drive all over. She starts off like, looking for waste in all of the thick notebooks of budget documents. Meanwhile, like they go snorkeling and they drive around beautiful islands , they take a helicopter to an Island where they, uh, they visit a tomorrow village and she gives her entire purse to some girls, um, who she hears don't have a lot of
Andrea: She gives them a fucking used hairbrush, which I just, I don't know that part. I was like, EEE.
Patrick: I'm good. It's all right. So they're driving, right? She's falling in love with the Island, and then there's a big fundraiser for the [00:34:00] Christmas drop. , they have a good time. I think they nearly kiss on the dance floor. Meanwhile, she misses a bunch of calls from work. And then her boss, the Congresswoman shows up, uh, which she would have known if she had answered her phone at the party, but she didn't. And the Congresswoman is very mad because she wants to call off the entire Christmas drop. And Erica says, no, this is good. And don't be such a Grinch and they get to go in the C1 thirties and they fly around and joined them the Christmas drop. When they land the Congresswoman her hair is all tussled and she's just like beaming and loves having been in the cool airplane and has changed her mind about closing the, the base. And I guess we'll just close the base in her own district. Anyway, is the upshot. , so everyone's happy. And then, uh, Erica has secretly flown Andrew's family and from the States to Guam
Andrea: We're told we
Patrick: We're told we never meet them, but like she gets to meet the family right away and they kiss in the street and that's the end of the movie.
So what did it teach you about the holidays?
Andrea: Um, that the U S military is [00:35:00] great and good stop asking questions. So it is actually about a holiday event, so that's more than we can say about many of these films. That operation Christmas drop is a real thing that definitely happens on or around Christmas. I don't think I learned anything about the holidays in. Particular
. What about you?
Patrick: I mean, it did teach me about operation Christmas drop, which has been going on since 1952 and does seem pretty cool. And like you said, this is one of the few movies where like the plot, the central thing of the plot is like the Christmas deed performed and not like raising money.
So other people can go give some toys to kids or
Andrea: Well, I mean, but it is though, also a lot of fundraising.
Patrick: Okay. You're right. They do that
Andrea: But the cer certainly it's more involved than a Christmas fashion show.
Patrick: yes. Yeah. It's a very Christmassy movie, but it was also just an entire work of military propaganda, you know? And like both of these movies, it [00:36:00] seems pretty clear. So like, these are both MPCA. Brad. Krevoy like Netflix holiday movie universe things. And I think a few years ago you'd see like stock footage of castle, stock footage of New York, and then inside somebody's diners slash bakery slash bar slash whatever, like repurposed room.
And so, just on paper, it looks like they've managed to find a way to find some pretty sweet places to shoot their movies by like, uh, you know, let's get the nice elephant sanctuary in here and give them. Some good press or like, let's just like get to go on the planes for awhile and for free, probably like, so like there, there probably some budget reasons why it has the plot has to be like this to shoot in Guam.
I was thinking that during this movie, it is very pro military
Andrea: Yeah. I mean, I certainly didn't expect any of these to be like my perfect anarchists socialists Christmas, but, this one, perhaps more than others, I felt like. It was a, it was a charming little film to watch. But [00:37:00] so makes the combined trauma and oppression of colonization and the military industrial complex seam.
immutable. And good, right? It's not just like, Oh, okay. We're rich people throwing our little fashion show. Like that that's gross to me in some ways, too, as a holiday fundraiser, of course. Right. But like, I think it might actually be grocer to be like her Ray American military, like dropping food and medicine , as a benevolent Christmas gift. On people who like whose land has basically been terrorized for. I mean, I was looking at the history of Guam for like four or 500, 600 years. Like since Magellan fucking landed there in the 15th century. So I don't like that. It's just gross. Like it made me more uncomfortable about this whole like spirit of Christmas thing than any of the [00:38:00] other leg do gooder charity storylines that we have seen did.
But like, yes, certainly the American military base is a key part of the economy of this area. But it's so that, so that makes it easy to say, right? Well, what would they do without us? They should be great day right now, us. Right. We don't, we're not even like talking about these people, like they're Americans, which they are. But like yeah. What they would do without like, Western militaries is live their fucking lives on their fucking Island and unbothered by our nonsense. and I don't know, it was. That was depressing to think about during this pretty movie.
Patrick: would you think it was a good movie?
Andrea: No. don't think it was a good movie. I really liked this actress, Kat Graham, uh, she's in a cup at least one other Netflix holiday film that I sort of wish we had watched instead of this one.
Yeah, holiday calendar. Anyway, this lady is pretty cool. She does singing and dancing and acting. And she's in the vampire diaries. And again, it's great to [00:39:00] see like a cast that is diverse and a biracial woman as a lead. And like, all of that is very cool. I just the whole, the military premise is deeply uncomfortable for me. So what about you, Patrick?
Patrick: I had that going on, plus it was just very slow. The, the, but felt like it felt like the bulk of the movie was this funny drive around the Island and try to. Try to find some fraud and like this like cat and mouse thing that they're doing, where she like steals his Jeep and leaves him there to
Andrea: That was a good, that was a good one. That was a, that was my favorite part of the movie probably.
Patrick: But there were about 20 of those scenes, just like back to back to back and it sort of like we get it. Okay. Let's let's get the next thing going. So the slowness as well, um, I didn't didn't think at that, that could have tightened that up a little bit. Did you enjoy it?
Andrea: No, it's not good. And no, I didn't really enjoy it.
What about you?
Patrick: Yep. Nope. Okay. Well, are you ready to
Andrea: Yeah, let's vote.
Patrick: okay. Ready? One, [00:40:00] two,
Andrea: Yay. We
Patrick: yes.
Holiday in the wild. I nearly, I nearly typed a Dumbo drop there, but that's, Well, we have watched 16 of these movies and we've picked and we've narrowed it down to a field of eight. So I think what we're going to do next is we're going to have a good think about it. And when we come back, we're going to, pit them against each other and come up with a, with a champion here.
Andrea: It's going to happen.
Patrick: Okay, great. Tina, next time for the exciting playoff conclusion that we'll see you then.
Andrea: Okay, bye everybody.
Patrick: And one last production note to share before we go like many made for TV films. This podcast is scored by a composer, Kevin McCloud, who makes his music available for free under creative comments. So our theme is Christmas rap by Kevin MacLeod. And you can find details in our show notes. Thanks for listening.