The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
Embracing Holiday Cheer with "Elf
Remember the magic of Buddy the Elf? Join us as we wrap up February with a heartwarming tribute to the Christmas classic "Elf." I'm thrilled to welcome back my former podcast partner, Katy, for this special episode where we reminisce about our podcast beginnings and share behind-the-scenes trivia about the film. From Will Ferrell's debut leading role to Jon Favreau's playful nods to "Lord of the Rings," our discussion is filled with admiration for the film's lasting humor and charm. We share a laugh over Zooey Deschanel's unforgettable performance and celebrate the film’s ability to uncover new jokes with every watch, even two decades later.
But that's not all! We ponder the quirky origins of "What in the Sam Hill?" and delve into the balanced portrayal of Santa in holiday films, with "Elf" receiving a perfect five out of five for its festive spirit. With standout performances by Will Ferrell, Peter Dinklage, and James Caan, we highlight the film's heartwarming moments that capture the essence of Christmas. As we prepare to transition from audio to video, Katy and I also drop a tantalizing teaser for our next review, giving listeners a memorable quote to guess our upcoming feature. Tune in for a lighthearted, passionate celebration of cinema as we emphasize that movies are more than just entertainment—they're a way of life. Stay connected for our next visual installment on The Couch Critic!
On the couch. We're laughing, crying, feeling it all, Breaking down the big screen, the hits and the flaws. Grab your seat, press play, let's take the pic. Lights, camera action, it's the Couch Critic.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of the Couch Critic. I'm your host, nathan, and I am really excited about this last episode in February. There's many reasons I'm excited. Number one it's the last episode in february. That means my son's birthday is this week. He'll be three years old. Also, if you have been following us on social media or you listened to the last episode, then you'll know that we are going strictly video. That's right. Go to our youtube channel. Just search the couch critic, slash the curtain and the cross, because it's also the home of my other podcast, the curtain and the cross, and so you can listen to it there and watch the couch critic there as well. But another reason I'm super excited about this episode is that I'm joined by my former podcast partner in crime, katie. Hi, katie.
Speaker 3:How are you? I'm not well. I wasn't ready for that introduction. Your former podcast host, that's tough.
Speaker 2:I said former podcast partner in crime.
Speaker 3:That's fine. Now I'm just your partner, not in crime. Now we don't do crime. I'm glad to be here. I'm excited about the movie we're going to review and, yes, I'm excited about your YouTube channel and I'm excited about all the excitement with Curtain and the Cross. I can't speak to that because I have never done much work with curtains, but I'm excited to listen and watch.
Speaker 2:I'm going to ignore that. You said that and we're just going to go straight to the Christmas movie that we're talking about. This episode, and that is Elf. Elf stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, James Caan as Walter Hobbs, Bob Newhart as Papa Elf and Zooey Deschanel as Jovi. So, Katie, have you ever seen this movie before?
Speaker 3:I have definitely seen this movie and I was thrilled to get to watch it again. Very much so.
Speaker 2:This was Will Ferrell before I got annoyed with will ferrell so would you say you're a big enough fan that you would know like trivia about this movie at all. No, your silence no, no, no absolutely not so what I going to do is I'm going to give you some little tidbits just in case you ever go to a trivia night at a bar or somewhere, because I know you like to frequent those places. So did you know that this movie was actually Will Ferrell's first leading role?
Speaker 3:Wow, Was that early on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he had not starred in a movie before this, because he was already known for Saturday Night Live and this was his first big, because I don't wait. Was it before? Was it before?
Speaker 3:Night of the Roxbury. I don't know. I mean, maybe he wasn't the lead role.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to stick with what that said. And yes, it was. And then also, apparently, john favreau, who is known for directing iron man. He directed this movie and he wrote the throne of lies line, apparently as a reference to Lord of the Rings. Hmm, he made the. He also made the park Rangers look like ring Wraiths from Lord of the Rings. So if you watch, that scene.
Speaker 3:They actually really, they actually are very scary, Like at the movies, like kind of lighthearted, and then you're like wait, this is very intense. All of a sudden at the end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was very much inspired by Lord of the Rings. So there is your little bits of trivia. I'm assuming the Will Ferrell first leading role is correct that checks out.
Speaker 3:It came out, nathan, in 2003. So we are now over 20 years old and Anchorman came out in 2004. Over 20 years old and Anchorman came out in 2004. That was the first one I could think of that. He was like the lead role in Ron Burgundy. This is not a fun fact per se, but I am obsessed with Zooey Deschanel. I absolutely love her singing voice. I loved her in New Girl Incredible. And it's just so funny because New Girl became so popular. You know, almost a decade after that came out Like my brain, almost like it took whiplash to realize that was the same person, because seeing her blonde with little blue eyeshadow, I'm like it barely looks like her. It is like shocking to think that's the same person. He was like the dark haired, red lipped Zoe Deschanel, jessica day from new girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was probably one of her earlier movies as well. And I actually looked up while you were talking. I looked up and night of the roxbury came out in 1998, but he was not technically a leading role because it's like a duo movie. So I still am probably correct that elf is his first leading role. So let's get to the good old days. Uh, when katie and I did this podcast, we went to our likes and dislikes, which I still do. And so, katie, what did you like about the movie Elf?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm going to borrow from my son, my four-year-old son, and say everything okay, that's a pretty everything I like everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I liked everything, um, and then normally we have to press them on that. Okay, name one thing. Uh, I really did like everything. The humor still hit. Sometimes you're nervous when something is so funny and you loved it and then you watch it so much later you you're like, will those still be funny? Still funny. And then, 20 years later, watching it, it's also new funny things, jokes that maybe I hadn't gotten before or just didn't pick up on, or maybe even, like you're saying, pop culture references that I wouldn't have picked up on.
Speaker 3:It is so cute, it's so clever, it's so heartwarming Absolutely love it. It's creative, clever. It's so heartwarming, absolutely love it. It's creative, it's iconic and I think that that's why it has continued on for so long as being such a classic christmas movie where you know people dress up as that right like buddy the elf. People wear the buddy the elf costume. People know who buddy the elf is. Maybe elf on the shelf has kind of taken this place, but he is just so cute and I feel like I forget how many lines I say from this movie on a daily basis yeah, I, I'm a big fan of movies.
Speaker 2:That it's. They're silly, but the people in it the what makes it funny is how serious the actors take it. It's like the movie Airplane All this silly, ridiculous stuff is going on around them, but they play it so straight laced. That that's what makes it funny, and I think this movie has a lot of that in it, and mostly it's because of James Kahn, who plays a buddy's biological father. He he's, he has to play off of Will Ferrell this whole time and apparently a little. Another little, I guess trivia behind the scenes thing is that James Kahn actually did not like Will Ferrell's performance when they were doing this movie and then he went to go see it and he actually was like okay, nevermind, that was, that was brilliant. And so you could tell that he like when he would get frustrated with buddy. I don't know if part of that was because he was actually getting frustrated with how ridiculous Will Ferrell was being in the movie, but I actually appreciated that. And he's not listed in the starring credits because I think this might have been one of his uh, first big things. Uh, no pun intended about who I'm about to say.
Speaker 2:Peter dinklage is in this movie and he plays the famed children's author Miles Finch and who Buddy calls an evil elf and a South Pole elf, and so I thought that was hilarious and he played it really straight-laced and very serious and that was obviously a very over-the-top silly scene and I really liked the soundtrack very over the top silly scene and I really liked the soundtrack. It really like rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, uh, jack frost frost, you know all those classic christmas cartoons and claymation and they. They do that a lot in the movie too and so I really enjoyed the music. It was like really really feel good Christmasy.
Speaker 3:So was there anything?
Speaker 2:else that you liked.
Speaker 3:Well, I think back to your point about Will Ferrell's performance. Like I said, this was before I got a little overdone with Will Ferrell, but he is over the top. But I have to say as I was watching it, I have to say as I was watching it, he does, he toes the line so well, in my opinion, of being ridiculous and childish without being poking fun at that. Very dimwitted.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly Like it was in borderline, sometimes like it was an endearing, more childish. I think that that could have been done so poorly, like an adult man acting childish and pretending to be a kid. Somehow it worked and maybe it was the outfit and maybe it's like will ferrell's stature. It just looks silly to be so dressed up that way, especially compared to the dad, like I think it was really a good height, you know, to have those two actors like to have him towering over his dad, um, and, and most people, but I just thought his performance was absolutely incredible, so I just have to do another random uh cameo shout out.
Speaker 2:I just thought of it. Did you know that ralphie from a christmas story was in this movie? No he plays the head elf that checks on buddy when he's doing the uh exosketches.
Speaker 2:So that is that that is ralphie from a christmas story. So again they they did all these callbacks to classic christmas movies, with the music, with the cameos, just like little details here and there, and so that's what makes this, this movie, so heartwarming. But there were a few things that I did not like about it. Actually, one really big one is that, yes, it's nostalgic a little bit to the old school Christmas, but it is very cheesy Like sometimes it's overly cheesy, and I understand, like the concept of what they're doing, but to me I was like I mean, like you said it, for you it's a very much a rewatchable movie.
Speaker 3:to me it's not like I can watch it, but but I just, for some reason I just start getting annoyed with it and I don't know why I could see, I could see your point like as it maybe not being a every year thing, right, like it's not every single year we watch Elf?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not like the quintessential, like it's not Christmas until I watch fill in the blank, like for me it's not Christmasmas until I watch a charlie brown christmas and for some people it's not christmas until they watch national lampoon's christmas vacation, polar express. But I can go a christmas without watching elf. Now, my wife really likes elf. She thinks it's funny, she still, she still thinks it's endearing. And I'm not saying it's not because obviously I gave a longer list of likes than I did dislikes, but like you, like you said, it's not something that I'd be like.
Speaker 3:Oh, my christmas is ruined because I didn't watch elf right, and I think the other thing I like about it is it also goes along with my dislike a little bit. It spans a lot of ages. I think that there's enough like there's so much silly and then clever. I think you can make your grandma cry, your mom cry, you cry and your kid cry of laughter. I I do feel like like if my son's never watched this before, the pg aspect, like there's a moment where zoe de chanel's character, jovi, is in a shower, like no, you don't see nudity, but like the the it is showing, like that she's in the shower and she's not wearing clothes and then, like even them talking about it, he's like, oh, you're naked. Um, that was just is it was?
Speaker 2:she says was it because I was naked in the shower? And he says I didn't know you were naked in the shower. So it's like such a little kid response and so I think they cover the crassness that could be there with his response and it sounds just like a little kid. I didn't know you were naked in the shower, I was just well, I just wanted to sing with you and but, also, the delivery can kind of make it sound like he secretly did know, like I didn't know, you were naked, it's just weird.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there was another, I can't think of the other one. There was like a few moments where I was like, oh, this is like a little bit, maybe a little more adult than I'm ready for my four-year-old to quite get. Oh, like one of the parts is his dad tells him to take his tights off. Like he's like stop wearing those tights. And he goes you want me to take them off right now. And like pulls his pants down, like right there, a grown adult man pulling his pants down, and then like his mom which is not really his mom like walks in and sees him. So just some of that humor. It's not necessarily something I wouldn't let my kids watch eventually, but it just feels. Feels a little bit too much for his age. But again, that being said, I think that there's so much silliness that if he did watch it now he would laugh just as hard at the very physical humor comedy that's happening. But I thought it was so good. I love the singing. It's so heartwarming at the end. I absolutely love the I just watched it before we recorded and the end where the reporter is kind of not sure Santa's real. The kid reads out her Christmas wish and it's like you asked Santa for an engagement ring and for your boyfriend to stop dragging his feet and look at her face. I think it's just very cute.
Speaker 3:I like the references in New York too. I think it's just very it's very cute and I like the call and not callbacks, but I like the references in new york too. I think it's clever for that way, like I'm sure if you have been to new york or if you visited there during christmas time or if you live there, there's quite a lot of new york city built in. That's a little bit nostalgic. So for like for for a new yorker, I would imagine it's nice you get to see all those iconic places, um, and even like the scenes like picking the gum off of the subway and eating it like that's just hysterical and jumping on the crosswalks and I also noticed another callback to another classic christmas movie uh, a miracle on 34th street.
Speaker 2:So when buddy goes to try to visit his dad, the security guards throw him out of the building and say, yeah, try going to gimbals, which is clearly a call back to america on 34th street, because that was one of the stores that was kind of like competing with having the santa claus in that movie. So another nice callback. You could tell that Jon Favreau cares about Christmas movies just because of how much callback he did with the music and the puppets and the you know, mr Norwall, and that that just the randomness of it I thought was, is what makes it the most endearing. So any final thoughts before we give this movie a Christmas and general rating.
Speaker 3:I want to know who Sam Hill is. At one point Santa says something about Sam Hill like he says what in the name of Sam?
Speaker 2:Hill like who's Sam Hill well, now you make me want to look it up and also I think you can always.
Speaker 3:It's always dangerous to have a movie that features Santa, but that Santa's like a side role, because you don't want to be such a throwaway that like you don't really make an effort to make it a good santa, um, but at the same time it's not a key role. I thought they did a good job of the santa. He wasn't like over the top sassy. He wasn't over the top grinchy. He wasn't over the top like corny jovial. Uh, I thought they did a good job with the Santa pic. Okay, did you figure out why he says that?
Speaker 2:Apparently Sam Hill was a Michigan surveyor in the 1800s who allegedly used such foul language that his name became a euphemism for swear words. So he cussed like nobody's business, and another source says that it could be a euphemism for hell what in the sam hill. But I'm gonna go with sam hill, I'm gonna go with the michigan surveyor. I think that's the most uh interesting sounding reasoning I like it.
Speaker 3:I like it okay, oh so that was fun so you rate. You rate rate things based on Christmas and based on the movie.
Speaker 2:Well, I said last episode that the Christmas rating basically gets summed up with how important is Christmas to this movie. So, like a movie like die hard If you take Christmas out of it, it could still be an action film if you take Christmas out of it. It could still be an action film If you take Christmas out of Home Alone some people have argued this it could still be a movie about parents leaving their kids by themselves and having to protect their house. The Christmas doesn't necessarily need to be there for it to be a Christmas movie or a good movie. So Elf obviously needs Christmas. So I'm going to go ahead and tell you that I gave this movie a perfect five out of five for my Christmas rating because it is a Christmas movie. I mean, come on.
Speaker 3:Well, and the whole, the whole idea at the end of the movie. You know, the big plot point at the end is that santa cannot get his sleigh going without christmas spirit. So, like you know, again, it's just. I love that. It is encouraging to uh to say like you have to believe, like if you don't believe then santa can't get the job done. Um, I like that okay. So I gave it a five as well. How about from a movie standpoint? You know I like a good, entertaining movie. It made me laugh and cry.
Speaker 2:I'm mostly soulless, so it didn't make me laugh. I mean, it made me laugh a little bit, but it didn't really make me cry. It didn't make me cry. But what would you give it? General rating?
Speaker 3:Well, I would say heartwarming and funny and again old, nostalgic.
Speaker 2:Will Ferrell, I'm going to give it a 4.5 out of 5. See, I actually ranked it higher than you probably think I would. Just based on the fact that I said it's not rewatchable, I'm going to give it a 4 out of 5 because it is fun. It is classic. Will Ferrell before. Like you said before, he got super annoying. Peter Dinklage is in it. James Caan I think I think James Caan was my favorite person in the movie, just because of how straight Lacey played it. And if I was to cry it would be because he starts singing at the end and I just think that's like. That's like a perfect picture moment, like his arms up and the sleigh coming from behind him.
Speaker 3:That's just the perfect Christmas moment. That was a very beautiful scene. When he's belting it out and Santa goes right over his head, very, very funny.
Speaker 2:Well, folks, that is the last C critic episode of february. We, I can't believe this month is already over. So instead of letting you hear an ear clip, because the next episode is going to be video, I'm going to do a quote from the next movie I'm going to review, and if you want to try to guess, then you should go to our social medias and send me a message. So here is the quote. It's going to be very, very obvious, unless you don't know. Bah ram, you, bah ram, you. That's the quote. That's all I'm going to give you. I don't know what movie does that come from? Katie, don't guess, I don't know it also.
Speaker 3:If we're doing video, does that mean I can't record naked?
Speaker 2:I didn't know you weren't naked. Thanks for listening to the couch critic, where every movie gets its close-up it's's not just a movie, it's a way of life.
Speaker 1:We'll watch it together, day or night, so settle in close and don't miss a flick. This is the moment for the couch critic.
