The Review Review
Hosts Ben and Paul welcome special guests from all walks of life to watch, rate, discuss, and RERATE the films close to their hearts. You'll laugh (hopefully), you'll cry (maybe), you'll reconsider everything you have ever known! Welcome, to "The Review Review"
The Review Review
HH 12 - A Christmas Story / Holiday Drip (Guest: Taylor Harris)
Guest Taylor Harris (Harris Talent Agency) rolls in for her pick, and our 24 hr marathon of "A Christmas Story" (d. Clark 1983). Starring: Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, and Peter Billingsly. Swears? Check. Mouth washing experiences? Check. BB Gun stories? Check. Holiday glow? Check. Bunnies in man suits? Check. Paul trauma dumping? Check Check (2x). 12/23!
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**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root
Did I bring the hard drive?
SPEAKER_03:I don't know, did you?
SPEAKER_04:Oh boy.
SPEAKER_03:We'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_04:I think I did.
SPEAKER_03:We're in this for the long haul, right?
SPEAKER_04:There you go. Uh hello everyone and welcome. It's the review review. My name is Paul. Ho ho ho.
SPEAKER_03:I'm Santa Ben.
SPEAKER_04:And now you have a sweatshirt to prove it.
SPEAKER_03:Ho ho. Ho.
SPEAKER_04:It's not that kind of podcast. We have a guest with us for this festive episode, Taylor Harris. Hello, Taylor.
SPEAKER_00:Hello.
SPEAKER_04:Taylor is a talent agent for all sorts of great folks of all sorts of ages. And Taylor is joining us for our program. It is a movie review podcast. Movies must be seven years old or older, not part of any major franchise question. Is this part of a franchise?
SPEAKER_03:I have seen the sequel, but we do we do permit first in franchises.
SPEAKER_04:We do sometimes. It's also a special occasion because it's for the holidays. True. It is a holiday helping. It is. And this Taylor, did you know that there's a sequel to this called My Summer Story?
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, I think Ralphie is the main character in that, right? Still, he's just much older.
SPEAKER_03:And it's Kieran Colkin. And there's another sequel called A Christmas Story Story.
SPEAKER_04:That I knew about.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:That one I did know about too.
SPEAKER_04:The Kieran Colkin thing was totally news to me.
SPEAKER_03:I had no idea until this moment, actually.
SPEAKER_04:Crazy. Well, Taylor. Still, we still we brought it in. It's less than two hours and 22 minutes. It's true. Yeah. Good to go. It's seasonal. It's ripe. It's ready.
SPEAKER_03:Taylor, thank you so much for being here. It's so nice to meet you.
SPEAKER_02:It's nice to meet you too. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_03:Taylor. Yeah, Taylor.
SPEAKER_04:Would you like to talk a little bit about you and what you do for a moment?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that'd be great. So I am an Oregon native. Worked for a couple different talent agencies across Oregon for almost 20 years. And I opened my own agency a couple years ago. Uh represent kids anywhere from six months all the way up to senior retirement. So I get a pretty broad range of different kinds of jobs and a lot of different film work. And I think, you know, this movie in particular is a good kind of showcases kids to senior retirement and how funny and different and um natural they can be, especially when they're kids.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Intergenerational friendships are important.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, I agree.
SPEAKER_04:Intergeneration, the the father and the mother, and the sons and oh the father and the mother. Yeah. They have friends and they have two friends. It's good though.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it is good. Well, here we are for the holidays all together talking about a Christmas story, which Taylor brought to us. If they hadn't figured that out yet.
SPEAKER_04:Did they shoot their eye out?
SPEAKER_03:You gotta shoot your eye out, maybe.
SPEAKER_04:It might be more difficult if you shot your eye out.
SPEAKER_03:You might want to shoot your ears out if you're keep listening to us. Uh, so what you've been doing, huh? Me? I don't know. I'm gonna go with Taylor first because I just met Taylor and I want to know what you've been doing.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, sure. So Thanksgiving just happened, right? So I just made three different pies in a very small apartment.
SPEAKER_00:Um yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Bangor, yeah, homemade full-size pie and hand pies. So I decided to not go easy on myself and tried to, you know, do the unspeakable in the tiny apartment kitchens and it happened and I made it work.
SPEAKER_03:What are what are hand pies? Oh, you know, like stoner pies.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I'm sure they'd be delicious if you're a high, but uh little little hand pies, like Pop Tarts.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, yeah. When I was in high school, we called those stoner pies. Am I wrong? Like the ones you buy at safe or you know, at a grocery store, they were like postess, cream filled, yeah, or lemon curd or yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, putting their yogurt in them. What what flavors? What did you did you do a pumpkin? Did you do fruit? Did you do what'd you do?
SPEAKER_02:I decided to do a side hustle and worked at a bakery for two years. And did and they did a lot of those stoner pies that you're talking about. They did ones with lemon curd in them, and so I kind of replicated one that I made at that pie bakery, and it was blueberry hand pie with maple bacon on the top.
SPEAKER_03:That sounds good. I could go for one right now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's got the savory and the sweet.
SPEAKER_03:This this episode is actually brought to you by Stoner Pies. So thank goodness. So Paul's gonna get his pill.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I like to make a bacon-laced cinnamon roll for Christmas. Oh, yeah. Same. You're yeah, first time that's ever happened. Lisa, will you say some less?
SPEAKER_03:No, I want you to speak more now. Savory and sweet though, Taylor. We're on the same page with that. Get that little hit of salt. Did you make a turkey?
SPEAKER_02:I didn't personally, that's never my task. I'm in charge of the sweets, and I feel like if I have something salty, then I need something sweet. So combining them kind of completes the package.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, that's a lot of pie. Did you have a lot of individuals to feed pie, or did you just have a lot of leftover pie?
SPEAKER_02:Both.
SPEAKER_04:They don't have to be mutually exclusive. That's true.
SPEAKER_02:No, they don't have to be one or the other. It's definitely a lot.
SPEAKER_03:That's true.
SPEAKER_04:I love pie. So oh Sam, are we all pie people over cake? Because I this is an argument. 3.14159, baby. Pie day.
SPEAKER_02:I like both.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, I like my, I like both too.
SPEAKER_04:Is it delicious free sugar? Are you handing it to me? Is it a sounds good? Confectory that I will enjoy. Not a problem. Yeah. Well, that sounds excellent. Yeah. My dad makes the best pecan pie I've ever had in my life.
SPEAKER_03:You were telling us that, and your mom makes pumpkin pie. Did I make that up?
SPEAKER_04:You made that up.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay. She can't make much of anything. Oh, okay. I made that up. I had candy.
SPEAKER_02:You might have to cut that out.
SPEAKER_03:Only she was. Well, this has become therapy. Stoner pies brought to you by therapy. Or therapy brought to you by stoner pies. I don't know. Something to think about. Sounds like a good form of therapy. Ben. Oh me. What have you been doing? I I did some cooking as well for over the holidays. We get into more holidays, but what I really have been doing is I've been writing a lot. Writing, uh, I'm in the final couple weeks of my course, my this semester of I'm in grad school. So this semester of grad school is coming to a conclusion. So I'm working on that final, and I've also been working on my next adaptation, my next the next uh play that I'm writing.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, very cool.
SPEAKER_03:Um, and that's kind of taken a lot of my free time suddenly, and I'm I'm very good at productive procrastination. That's really what I've been doing. When I've been should be doing other things that are more important, I'm writing. But I also am one of those people that feels like if you're if you feel the bug and it's biting, you have to write because it doesn't bite often. And so fe when you feel it, it's just like go. Otherwise, you might you might lose it. So I've been back into the saddle and I've really been enjoying it and feeling I feel really it's fun. It's like in a it's a it's a stage of writing right now where it's just fun, and I think that's always a great place. I know once I get through a draft, it'll become pain. But right now, newprint, it's fun, little yellow, that's me.
SPEAKER_04:That's awesome. Yeah, it's very exciting, Paul. Okay. Well, me and Special K, the beat out, we got the tree up. Looks great. Guys ready up there, and Jason and Michael Myers, and all the boys up there on the tree. Make sure it's as festive as possible. Of course. And I also went and played golf pretty recently with composer for this show and guest Matthew Foskett. We went over to Roosevelt here locally in the Los Angeles area, and just so happened. And I hope someone, I mean, there have been a few people where I'm like, yeah, I golfed with John Hawks. Oh, yeah. And I was like, I'm a big admirer of his work. Yeah. And so he was the nicest guy. And I didn't, I wasn't like, can I get some acting tips? Like, what's it? He gave me free golf tips and they were great. I almost said a hole in one and a par three. That's awesome. Yeah, he gave me some excellent golf tips. It was just random, he was there. Yeah, yeah. He was talking about how he would love if he could just be out there five or six days a week golfing and learning how to golf uh a little bit when he was younger with his dad. I don't want to tell John Hawks' story. I'm sure that he'd tell it much better than I would.
SPEAKER_03:But ladies and gentlemen, John Hawks wearing all his golf attire. He's got some stony pies for us. Thanks, John.
SPEAKER_04:Gotta go. Full circle.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Full circle moment. But it was really, really cool. I had not only like kind of redemption on the last like four holes or so, but he was just a lovely, lovely guy, somebody that like I really admire his work and just a really nice response with him.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. The Hollywood hustle can sometimes bump you into some cool people.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was great.
SPEAKER_02:Especially if in your in LA, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah. I I was at a show last night and it was like Felicia Day was there. And I was like, Oh, look at that, Felicia Day.
SPEAKER_04:You know, it's just normal here. I made sure to say to Matt as we were leaving, and I go, you know what this means? You've golfed with two of the like 25 or 30 maybe greatest living actors. And he was like, Oh shit. Really? And I was like, Yeah. And I was like, John Hawks, and he's like, and me.
SPEAKER_05:I was waiting for it.
SPEAKER_03:Well, on that note, Taylor, what have you been watching?
unknown:What am I watching?
SPEAKER_02:You know, I didn't mentally prepare myself for that question. Um, because it is well, yeah, you know, it's the holidays, and I'm one of those that like really good and obscure movies, but I also like the really bad ones.
SPEAKER_03:Like hallmarks?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Jess likes that stuff too. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:It's enjoyable, and especially when you're trying to do other things like email and bake and you know. Exactly. Have something on in the background, and and their voices are usually pretty monotone, so you don't get distracted too bad.
SPEAKER_03:And you're describing this podcast?
SPEAKER_02:No, not at all.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, I've been re-watching a lot of classics actually, since it's uh the month of uh December. So I watched Meet Me in St. Louis just two days ago, and I watch that every year. I love that movie.
SPEAKER_03:Classic.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so mostly stick into those.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I've never seen it. Oh, really? Will it help me bring up the aura, the vibes, the Christmas spirit? Yeah, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:I think so. You know, every year I listen or I watch it differently, listen to it differently because there is some musical aspects to it, and I don't know if you're into musicals.
SPEAKER_04:I like the idea of that, you know. We just Rachel Foskett and I did an episode for The Shop Around the Corner, a movie I've never seen, and it really got the spirit alive.
SPEAKER_03:But the movie has like no music, and the movie is based on a Russian play, which then we talked about this. Which then became uh oh, party foul. I'll fill this water. I spill my water.
SPEAKER_04:I know this happens all the time, which is part of the experience.
SPEAKER_02:That's your sign of it's time to take a break, is your water spelt.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Moving on.
SPEAKER_04:We'll move on for now.
SPEAKER_03:Ben, me, what have you been watching? I've been watching a lot. I do enjoy a dual screen, especially when I'm writing sometimes. So I'll put on some trash in the background for me. Uh, like is it cake is a fun, trashy show that I'll put on in the background. I've been going hard on a couple Netflix movies.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, I'm just checking if I was cake.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. You have to bite me to find out. That is dangerous.
SPEAKER_02:Well, but the thing about that show is aren't they all cake?
SPEAKER_03:No. There's two aspects to the show. There's the first like scene, which Mikey Day is like in, and only parts of that is cake. And the and the contestants have to stand a certain distance and try to guess what in the room is cake. So there's that part, and then each contestant, each baker gets to choose an item to make a cake version of. And then they present in front of judges one that's a cake they made, and then like three or two or three uh real ones that are all slightly different. They're called decoys. And then the judges are a little bit distance back, and they have to figure and they have just by looking, they have to figure out which one they think is cake.
SPEAKER_02:So the trailer did not catch me on that. Sure. It all just seemed like they were cake.
SPEAKER_03:Um, it is interesting. I f I find their like craftsmanship of creating something that actually why it is we've been obsessed with making things out of cake.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. Yeah, just food that looks like objects from life. Yeah, like in general. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know. Hat. A hat. Microphone. Yeah. Uh yeah. Stoner pie. A stoner pie that looks like cake.
SPEAKER_04:Computer. What else had you been watching? You were gonna say something else.
SPEAKER_03:John Hawkes as cake. I I'll watch. You'll eat.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, would you eat? You're fucking out.
SPEAKER_03:Get out of here, Kenny. I was I I mean, I'm just asking. If they made a cake made of your own father, would you eat it?
SPEAKER_04:It's John Hawks playing my fault.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know, is he? Your dad makes a good pecan pie. John Hawks, might maybe he does too. Uh this is unhinged. Um holy. I was gonna talk about something very serious. I saw I watched Train Dreams.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, which is a movie that was shot in Spokane. And also, you're off camera now, Paul. You're completely off camera. He doesn't believe you exist. There you go.
SPEAKER_04:There he is.
SPEAKER_03:I have a friend in that movie, which was exciting to see. And I helped a few friends audition for that movie. I didn't get it.
SPEAKER_02:Very small cast.
SPEAKER_03:Very small cast, yeah. Beautiful movie. Oh I I went into it like I'm going to watch this movie because it was shot in Spokane and I want to like give it some attention. Gorgeous. Honestly, one of the more gorgeous shot films I think I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:And I'm that I I don't feel like I'm being hyperbolic. I think it is going to be showered with awards.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. I saw it at Sundance on its premiere day. And I went in seeing it uh because I sent my actors in to audition for it, and it was incredibly small cast, and they were trying to keep it local. But uh yeah, I cried like four times. I just re-watched it and I cried four more times. It's such a moving movie. It's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_03:It really is. And Joel Edgerton, I feel like gives such a stellar performance in that. Um I said in my letterbox review, I don't think a movie has ever captured, has ever made Spokane look this beautiful. And I feel like that's a double, that's a double-edged sword because Spokane is Spokane is uh a little rough? Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and anything William H. Macy has done.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god, he was incredible.
SPEAKER_02:He had such a small part and it was memorable.
SPEAKER_03:And what my friend Eric Ray Anderson plays the foreman of or the foreman of the um loggers. He told me he got he got to hang out with he calls him Bill Macy and play ukulele's together. It was it was so nice to see him show up on screen in this beautiful movie. I highly recommend it. And if you can see it in the theater, I know they're doing a limited release. I I think I would I wish I could see it in the theater because I watched it here, but it was beautiful.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Interesting. The Netflix movies that get these limited.
SPEAKER_03:The Egyptian plays all of them, they just don't do it for very long.
SPEAKER_04:I've no landmark around here, does it? Taylor, do you know it they don't send stuff up that way really, do they? Netflix for theatrical.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's like really only Netflix is at Sundance and they picked it up real quick there, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:There you have it. That's me. Okay. I recently re-watched a couple different movies. Well, was the Sandlot? Was that a good idea or a bad idea if I had known that this was coming up? Right. Because I feel like they exist in a similar nostalgia. Yeah. Exact word I was gonna use. And uh special K and I, K Dog, the B Dog. We went to the Eagle Theater of Idiots, and so something's gotta give with the divine keeping R. I'm Jack Nicholson.
SPEAKER_03:There you go.
SPEAKER_04:Keanu Reeves, Divine Mr. K. Okay. Yeah, Amanda Pete, who's always great and like effervescent and princess like such a cast, and the viewing experience there is always great, but as we were talking about you know, you've got male and the Nora, Nancy, Mary, the the the universe of rom-coms and everything. It was just the way that that movie has aged for me has been almost kind of like fine wine. Oh, to a degree that I think I've like gotten a little older and just kind of understood the who gives a shit kind of attitude that the movie kind of has. Okay at times total. Yeah, that yeah, the attitude and uh it was just such a great viewing experience. Jack Nicholson's Jack Nicholson, but also like Keanu Reeves at his absolute dreamiest problem. And I know some Keanu Reeves.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think he's just getting better and better.
SPEAKER_03:Does he age like a fine wine?
SPEAKER_04:Holy s he is an FBI agent. We did point break Taylor early in the year, and that's like a five star movie for me.
SPEAKER_03:I am uh give me two Utah, give me two I do love me, some Keanu. Two stoner pies. Do you want two stoner pies? One for you, one for John.
SPEAKER_04:I'll have three. For me, myself, and I. Thank you very much. But I think now that we've talked about what we've been doing and what we've been watching, we gotta get to the facts.
SPEAKER_03:The festive facts. They are add some jingle bells. Do it. You had the jingle bells. Okay. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
SPEAKER_04:Archaeology is the search for facts.
SPEAKER_03:Give me the facts. Okay. We watched a Christmas story. It is MGM, Christmas Tree Films. Was that a company made for this movie?
SPEAKER_04:Like an LLC, probably. Probably.
SPEAKER_03:It is rated PG, that is parental guidance for one pervert lamp. Probably. One pervert lamp.
SPEAKER_02:One pervert lamp.
SPEAKER_03:Uh a one hour. I got it. It was a mosquito.
SPEAKER_02:And potentially the groping of the pervert lamp.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Children. Buy children. A porn lamp for kids. Basically. It is an hour and 33 minutes. And the budget was 3.3 million estimate. Adjusted as 10.7. Who's that? There's a little Christmas elf just ran by. It depends on.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, is it a little Christmas mobile?
SPEAKER_03:Is it a little bit? Oh, it might be. But when she ran bike, she couldn't put her arms down. Oh, Ralphie. Looks cozy though, I will say. Opening weekend, November 20th, 1983. It made 2 million, adjusted 6.5. Final gross North America, 20.7 million. That is 67.5 million adjusted. Final gross worldwide, same, same, same, same, same.
SPEAKER_04:That's a shitload of money. For only a$3.3 million movie. Yeah. That is a crit that's a crazy return. And what what did you spend on marketing in those days? Like it wasn't like you paused a football game and then a screen came in and was like, a Christmas story.
SPEAKER_03:Other releases this weekend. A night in heaven. Yeti. Nope. It was Yentel.
SPEAKER_02:I saw it that time. Whatever is flying in front of you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Ooh, that's a good camera, as we've discussed. Uh oh, it's not Yeti, it's Yentel. It's Yentel. I didn't even fuck it up. I fucked it up. You fuck. How'd you fuck that up? I'm in winter spirits. The Yeti is a is a is a is a spirit of Santa Claus.
SPEAKER_04:Personal enemy of mine-ish. It depends on what cryptids you believe in. Ben, sorry.
SPEAKER_03:Cross country. Amneteville 3D, Nate and Hayes. I haven't seen a single one of those movies.
SPEAKER_04:No.
SPEAKER_03:I've never seen Yentl.
SPEAKER_04:I don't think I have either. I don't think I've seen any.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, weekend top five, Amneteville 3D, The Big Chill. This movie, Never Say Never Again, which is a fake James Bond. Right. Yeah. Not official. A Night in Heaven. Other films from 1983, All the Right Moves, Sudden Impact, Star 80, Mr. Mom, Risky Business, The Outsiders, Valley Girl, Christine, DC Cab, Corky Park, and Kroll. Gorky Park. What did I say? Corky Park. I like Corky Park better. Both. Taylor, did you see any of those movies? Have you seen Mr.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah. I mean Yeah. The Outsiders, Valley Girl. Valley Girl is a recent one for me.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Little cage match, huh?
SPEAKER_02:You know, he kind of freaks me out. So what why?
SPEAKER_03:I think that's I think that's uh par for the course. I think that's his goal, actually.
SPEAKER_02:I think so too.
SPEAKER_03:The impression. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But several of those, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Letterbox average is a four. I'm on Letterboxd. You can follow me at Run BMC to see all of the festive movies I'm gonna watch for next month. Shifting the super.
SPEAKER_04:You can follow me if you like at Paul ActsBadly. Taylor, if you don't have one, we're gonna try to talk you into it.
SPEAKER_02:You know, somebody has talked me into it, it exists, but I forget to add things to it.
SPEAKER_03:That's fair.
SPEAKER_02:So Train Dreams is on there, and I actually reviewed it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:So when there's a big movie that really sticks with me, I usually hop on and do the work.
SPEAKER_03:But okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'm uh freak with it. I use it a lot. Cisco Niebert, two thumbs up, Rotten Tomatoes 89, 89 popcorn, Metacritic 77, 7.8 user. Major award wins and noms. It's a national film registry for 2021. Paul. Talk about people.
SPEAKER_04:Well, the director of this film was Bob Clark, R.I.P. Dead of Night, aka Death Dream, Black Christmas from 1974, and Rhinestone. Writers V Brown, R.I.P. My Summer Story, Bob Clark, Loose Cannons, Gene Shepherd, R.I.P., the novel in God We Trust, all others pay cash. Music was Carl Zittrer, Porkies, and Paul Zaza, baby geniuses. A movie I keep wanting to talk about. We're waiting. I I think technically a franchise. Okay. Is this another one of those? Yeah. How? Why? Cinematography was the quest for more money. Gremlin Dollar Sign. Yes. Cinematography was Reginald Morris, R.I.P. Porky's 2 the next day. Phobia and Tribute. Producers Bob Clark. Bob Clark. Breaking Point and Renee Dupont. The uncanny. Melinda Dylan, R.I.P. played mother. I never realized that they didn't have names, I think, till this viewing, which is very fucking shocking to me, as we'll get to. Did anybody reach over that? I totally forgot. Taylor shaking her head, like, no problem. I'm with you, Paul.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm here.
SPEAKER_04:I'm with you. Yay. So Melinda Dillon was in Mornolis, Slapshot, and Harry and the Hendersons, another cryptid that I've had issues with. Darren McGavin, R.I.P. was the old man. Billy Madison, R-O-C-K, Dead Heat, and Captain America from 1990, if you can find it. Gene Shepard was the narrator. Shadows, tiki tiki, babe Ruth. Peter Billingsley was Ralphie. Elf the breakup arcade. Ian Petrella was Randy. Crimes of Passion, a Christmas story, Christmas, as we've discussed. So that's what it's called. And Quarterbin, Scott Schwartz, Flick, The Toy, Unseen Evil 2, a movie called Scissors, and this is the guy that is at like a it's a true urban legend that he ended up doing adult films. Which one is Flick?
SPEAKER_03:Is he the one that gets his tongue stuck? Yeah. Okay. Well, he got his tongue stuck elsewhere elsewhere, too.
SPEAKER_02:I was waiting for someone to say something.
SPEAKER_03:All of our brains were like, how do we make this a joke?
unknown:Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:I just took the cheapest one.
SPEAKER_04:RD Rob Schwartz, Matilda from 98. The movie fucking rules. The Brady Bunch movie, Falling Sky, Teddy Moore, Miss Shields, Gotti from 96, and Murder by Decree. Zach Ward was Scott Farkas. Scott Farkas. It's just the dumbest cat Fuck us. It's rough. Almost famous Freddie versus Jason and the first, and they transform. Like that.
SPEAKER_03:It's a jingle bell transformer. Scott Pete.
SPEAKER_02:That's a new genre right there.
SPEAKER_03:Jingle bell transfer. Hey, that's that's a moneymaker right there.
SPEAKER_04:They should do like holiday exclusive only.
SPEAKER_02:Always the dollar.
SPEAKER_03:If we're going off brand, we can call it like Transmorters or something.
SPEAKER_05:Always the fucking.
SPEAKER_02:But it's not a what you call it double screen. You have to actually focus on that one or it'll pick you out of your serious movie.
SPEAKER_04:They turn into different bongs and pipes and different things.
SPEAKER_03:How many different sponsors are you gonna put into this ad?
SPEAKER_04:Taylor, please save me with some fun facts if you don't mind.
SPEAKER_02:So Darren McGavin improvised the rants fighting with the furnace, which I was actually curious of. Almost sounded Russian. Uh, it was mostly gibberish. He did this in the order to ensure a PG rating and keep this a family-friendly friendly film. The nonsensical curses that Ralphie exclaims while beating up Scut, however, were scripted word for word.
SPEAKER_03:Which is nuts that we want this kid to go hard.
SPEAKER_04:What? Some of it's just some of it's just like grunting noises, though, too. Yeah, it's like word for word, like how do you spell that? I don't know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I rewound it a few times, really trying to understand what they were saying.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, sure.
SPEAKER_02:Nothing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Due to this film's popularity, the Daisy Rifle Company started producing Red Rider BB guns for sale during the Christmas season. It has become one of Daisy's best-selling rifles.
SPEAKER_04:Wow. As you'd assume. Yeah. It's a good ad. Yeah, good free advertisement. Could I put a transformer in here?
SPEAKER_02:It seemed like there were a lot of ads in that window display, too.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like Line the Lionel terrain, which I actually was gifted this year, which seems odd timing to have seen something in a movie and then to be gifted one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. A movie from over 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_02:I know.
SPEAKER_03:Weird.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. According to the director Bob Clark, Jack Nicholson was given the script and was very interested in the role of the old man. Clark didn't learn of this until production had begun, and that the studio was unwilling to pay Nicholson's rate. Clark says he would have cast Darren McAvan anyway.
SPEAKER_03:See, but Jack Nicholson feels more appropriate age-wise at that time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, Darren McGavin seems like he's like in his mid-50s, like approaching 60-ish. Is that about right?
SPEAKER_02:But it felt right to me because he's an old grumpy man, right? And so he looks a little more worn.
SPEAKER_03:But Jack Nicholson has always been an old grumpy man.
SPEAKER_02:That's true.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I could see Nicholson in this part. It would change it, but I could see it.
SPEAKER_04:I can definitely see it too. There's there's some sort of we'll get to this when we're talking about the movie. There's like a warmth that I think Darren McGavin kind of has at moments and like kind of a very light goofiness. But there's this huge age gap between. That's what I mean. And also to have two very young boys. That was also a lot more common at that point. My grandparents were 17, 16 years apart. Yeah. Something like that. And I guess that was fairly common, right?
SPEAKER_02:So 12-year-old Peter Billingsley was given real chewing tobacco for the big chief scene. He was horribly sick for hours, and from there, raisins were used to create the thick brown spit that comes from chop.
SPEAKER_03:The chop. That makes me think of that.
SPEAKER_04:Tequila. Also, the raisins obviously worked. Yeah. Why didn't you go with that the first? I don't know. Did he get triple dog dare? I think that's right.
SPEAKER_03:Dog Darry. Also, I'll never forget Scott Farkas's face. It just is when he pops out. Him and what's the little dude's name? Toad. Toad, yeah. They're just dogs. I could cast those two people as like dogs. You could see it in their face and the way they they perform. You know, alley dogs. It's well cast.
SPEAKER_04:What happens to Toad if he gets struck by lightning?
SPEAKER_03:Same thing that happens to everything else. So go back to the club. That's a great line. Write it down. Okay. Yeah, no problem. We're gonna make money in 1999 or 2000.
SPEAKER_04:Fries to fry.
SPEAKER_03:Uh well, they probably wrote it in 99. Um, Taylor, we're going off on weird tangents here. Um I'm so sorry. Let's bring it back to the to the log line of this movie.
SPEAKER_02:All right. In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus, that a Red Rider Range 200 shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.
SPEAKER_03:That does seem to be the only driving thing in this movie, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_04:I mean how often and how strongly and whatnot will be up for discussion, I think. Let me, I'm gonna have a snack and you'll talk. You gonna have a stoner pie? You talk! Give me two. We'll be back after this message from our sponsor, and we're gonna play a round of Cinephile. And the rules are made up and the points don't matter, so it's a hundred percent true. Welcome back, everyone. We hope you enjoyed that advertisement for Stoner Prize. We are going to play a round of Cinephile. Taylor will name an actor, we'll go round Robin until someone can't name that actor, and oh my goodness, the horrific result will be the quote unquote loser has to tell the story of the first time that they were inundated with this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. We'll see. All right, Taylor. Uh, I'm gonna flip this deck. You let me know when to stop.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Okay, stop.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's a good one. All right, I'm gonna show it to the camera.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, I got it.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, go ahead. Say it.
SPEAKER_01:Robin Williams?
SPEAKER_03:Okay. What's the movie?
SPEAKER_01:The Bird Cage.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Is it me first or you? Go ahead. Aladdin. Moscow on the Hudson.
SPEAKER_01:No. Jack.
SPEAKER_03:Great. I'm gonna go with um Atlanta. Or sorry, Alana. Aladdin Prince of Thieves? Oh, is that? I'm not gonna challenge it. He does. He comes back for that one. It's it's Castlin that on the second one.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, I'm just gonna say one hour photo.
SPEAKER_02:I might be out. I can't.
SPEAKER_03:It's okay. It happens to everyone. I got, I was like, I was stuck in the Aladdin world, and I know Ron Williams so well. And I'm like, why am I stuck in Aladdin?
SPEAKER_04:You did the third animated one, right? Is that the one? That's the third one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he doesn't do return to Far, that's Castle Hands.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Yeah, that's Homer. That's right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Taylor, would you like to tell us about your first experience with the movie A Christmas Story?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, yeah. I've been watching it since I was a child. We play it on uh back to back on Christmas Eve at my father's house.
SPEAKER_03:Back to back.
SPEAKER_02:Back to back. Because it's on TV 24-7.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um, and and so I've been watching it for years. I don't even know when that started. So before before my memory kicked in.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah. So was it a family heirloom like they watched it and they just passed it on to you? Yeah, tradition there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. This was probably the first time I've actually sat down and watched it distraction-free.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There were a lot of things that I picked up that I didn't uh remember before. I'll also say I have a Christmas story leg lamp tattooed on my leg.
SPEAKER_05:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:With my sister. My sister has matching tattoos from it because it's this family heirloom, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's just, yeah. So it goes way back.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Great. Uh so out of five, uh, what is your uh I guess what would your like OG rating be? And also what is your current rating? You just watched this movie out of five.
SPEAKER_02:So I started at a three.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And then I think I bumped it up to a four and a half.
SPEAKER_03:Whoa. The moment I said that our brains just exploded all over our heads.
SPEAKER_04:I gotta say, the image of that leg lamp though is so fucking iconic. It is like burned in my mind. Yes. And so I was a little surprised that you said three, but also like it makes sense just because of the family tradition piece, as well as the just like that image. It's a there's an alternative poster that's essentially just that lamp.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, just the pervert lamp.
SPEAKER_04:Just the pervert lamp.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's got a little, it's a little cheeky. There's a definite butt cheek. Yeah, there's a butt cheek there for sure, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And fishnets, actual fish nets, not like plastic molded, or like it had a fishnet on it. Yeah, it went full Rocky Hore all the way, Frank and Fur.
SPEAKER_02:And like the the vintage yellow, and it's you know, just the perfect classy perverted lamp.
SPEAKER_04:And the glow of it, it's got a really nice fucking hue, yeah. It does, yeah, yeah. Uh like a Steven Soderberghy hue.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's got a nice warm tone. Yeah, yeah. I didn't see this movie as a child. I didn't see this movie until I think junior high, which is still technically a child, but it was kind of past the point of being like nostalgic for it. It was either late junior high or high school, it's it was later. I remember renting it. My movies, my Christmas movies as a family growing up, as we know, Muppet Christmas Carol is the is the one that is on rotation. Masterpiece. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation was another one that we watched a lot. Uh, It's Wonderful Life. And um, I got really miscrooged at a certain point. But but this one missed that for me. And so when I came to it, I remember liking it, but not feeling the obsession, I suppose. Because it seemed like everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people uh in our generation, I felt like it was a big it was a big deal for late millennials and uh Gen X. It seemed like this was the movie for Christmas. You'd hear lines from it. Yeah, Double Dog Dare You, you know, yeah. So I thought I I think at that time I probably would have given it a three or or maybe a three and a half because I enjoyed it, but I rented it and and I didn't really watch it more than that. That was like one Christmas year, and I can't tell you the last time I saw this movie, it's just not something that I regularly watch. Uh I watched the sequel though, and not the Karen Colkin one.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um Billingsley. Billingsley back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, maybe I don't know, hold those out.
SPEAKER_03:So yeah, I would have given it three or three and a half back then. I rewatched this movie, and like you, Taylor, I feel like especially with Christmas movies now, it's more it's usually a background movie for me. Like Home Alone, I love Home Alone, background movie, Home Alone 2 Classics, but I had just You know, I put it on while I'm making cookies or eating stoner pies or wrapping presents or eating stoner pie presents. Um you're welcome, by the way. Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna have to send you guys some of those. Oh, please. The first bake codes we'll receive that we'll actually feel safe to eat.
SPEAKER_03:Can we eat them on can I eat them on the no, you may not.
SPEAKER_01:You might be able to. They're not super messy.
SPEAKER_04:Taylor says I can. Stop it.
SPEAKER_03:It's an ASML podcast. It's an SMR podcast now. So anyway, um re-watching this movie, giving it my full attention. I I had a harder time watching it this time for me. And I think because for me, it felt like it dragged a little bit and that it didn't drive as much as I guess I look for in a movie now. Um and I think the nostalgia of it, and it was interesting because I had seen Paul's podcast, Paul's pocket, Paul's letterbox, I had seen Paul's letterbox and got that. I had seen Paul's letterbox where he watched Sandlot. And I remember thinking that while I was watching this and thinking, oh, uh oh, yeah, because for me, for me, that's like it does a lot of the same things in terms of like the voiceover and the nostalgia and talking about this time. And this to me feels like it feels like a memory play, or you know, like just a slice of life memory moment, which is fine. And I and I think that for that, for that, it's actually like delightful and like a cool little slice of life. But I'm I'm sitting at, and I was gonna go with pervert lamps for my rating system, but we've all been talking about pervert lamps, so I'm gonna skip that. And I'm gonna go with two and a half dad crash-outs. Because you know when a dad just like fully just goes, can I fucking hit my life in this goddamn goddamn shit fucking house? Like this goddamn house's goddamn fucking kids.
unknown:You're my time.
SPEAKER_04:We all almost went with pervert lamps and uh diverted. Uh I did to I went with ticks about to pop. He looks like a chick about to pop. So I mentioned on this podcast I have some trouble with movies with narration sometimes. And that was the thing that I remember about this movie specifically because I was so inundated with it, and it wasn't Taylor, it wasn't like with you, or it was like it was this great engaging family thing. I would show up at whoever's uh winter solstice or Christmas or Hanukkah, and that movie was on, and it was a different part of it. I don't know the first part first time that I saw it, but TBS and TNT kind of killed this movie for me. I can see that, and I have more of a nostalgia toward fucking diehard that became a a thing between my dad and I when I was a a preteen back in the 50s, 60s before it even came out. So that nostalgia doesn't exist in this, it's more of like a negative, like uh it made me angry that it was just like I couldn't escape it. And I think there is a level of like, yeah, can't can't fucking escape the season either. How and this movie really sitting and watching it, I was like, okay, I'm at two and a half tips about the pop, being very generous. We're sitting the same. And re-watching this today, coming in at that two and a half, I'm feeling some of the the narration stuff and the driver of the movie really be. I've had people comment to me, like, I fucking hate the the big Lebowski. Who wins the bowling tournament? And I'm like, who gives a shit? I don't care, but in this movie, I just want it to get to the BB gun. Yeah, the movie is not called Kid Gets the Red Rider BB gun, it's called a Christmas story. We're gonna hear about this whole thing, yeah. Whether I like it or not, or where the story kind of ends for me, because I agree, Ben. After the kid gets the spoiler alert, gets the BB gun right in the buns. Yeah, it was a BB, is what it was, everybody.
SPEAKER_03:So and the casual racism.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, there's just some stuff about the movie, and I guess watching this movie, I can't help it. I compare shit to other shit. Having just watched The Sand La, and that movie has never hit me harder. The the jacket got knocked off the the cork of the the baseball. The last time I watched that movie, I was blown away at how well that movie I think has aged. The Goonies and Monster Squad and Jingle All the Way came after this.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know if people have seen Dasho Dance or Predator Fixing to Call of Cuban Donner Blitzen 8-bit Christmas.
SPEAKER_04:All these movies Oh, was that a Neil Patrick Harris? I think so. Yeah, all these movies borrow from Christmas story. Yeah. In ways that I I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I want you're giving me such a buildup right now. I'm so curious of what direction this is going in.
SPEAKER_04:There are visual things that are so satisfying in this movie. I love the music, I love the performances, especially of Peter Billingsley's really good in this movie. Little kid, great job. Yeah. The parents are so good. I'm at two ticks about to buy the movie. Does like there is a are we there yet?
SPEAKER_03:Kind of the I think this is a good place to start, Taylor, because I think the movie!
SPEAKER_05:Stock the movie, stock the movie. And now a feature presentation.
SPEAKER_03:When we start the movie here, you get this opportunity to to really talk up this movie in a way that I think and I and like for me, I'm still entertained by this movie. So like I'm already thinking about how there's aspects of this movie that bring me like I'm at two and a half, but it could honestly, I could go either way.
SPEAKER_04:So I I'm in a similar position.
SPEAKER_02:So I think we I understand it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I think I think you two are also maybe a little bit more professional than I am at creating a movie.
SPEAKER_03:Um have you seen the kind of shit this guy watches? Well, I have been told always.
SPEAKER_02:I have been told that I am not critical enough. So there's that too.
SPEAKER_03:But what is critical? You know, I mean, I think that's a silly, you know, because like you like what you like.
SPEAKER_04:It's like I gave Gremlins a five. I still give Gremlins a five. I love that movie with all my heart, and a lot of people dislike that movie a lot. Like, I will go to the fucking mat for it. Yeah, that became part of my tradition with friends and family, and so I'm I'm certain that I like that movie more because of that. It sets the scene real nice.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I think the opening shot of an ordinary day showing blue collar, showing snow, but not beautiful, but like a nice, a nice glow. I love those kinds of openings. I think they're the most realistic and you connect to them on a different way.
SPEAKER_04:There's a thing about like seeing the the Higbees and the Christmas hustle in it. The the movie is a gr does a great job of being a tone setter. Oh, yeah. Like I want to make sure I I give the movie all the credit in the world for setting tone really, really well.
SPEAKER_03:And also like really capturing, I assume, is the writer's life. Yeah. Yeah. I I assume that this is just like pretty autobiographical. And if it's not, it's very well done in creating these like weird nuances about this this little slice of family and their little. But I I assume that his dad and his mom and like his little brother, this is all pretty. I couldn't tell you, I didn't do my research. Could be making that up.
SPEAKER_02:But I'll say throughout the movie, it does give those little pictures of their life and how people connect and how people talk to each other. And maybe that might feel a little drawn out because it happens so often throughout the film.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I don't know what, yeah, I don't know. I mean, at the beginning, I'm not feeling the drag. I really like his when we get into like the what he wants for Christmas and then the daydreaming.
SPEAKER_04:He's so obsessed with the idea of this BB gun. Yeah. That's that's the big thing. Like you you mentioned the perfect word, I think, Ben. Like the driver for me all the time is the BB gun. Everything else is a distraction. When Poochie's not on the screen, we should be asking, where's Poochie? That's kind of what the movie kind of sets me up for. I very first thing at the breakfast table is the dads talking about sports and shit.
SPEAKER_03:And I love how big these newspapers are, they're enormous.
SPEAKER_02:It's with big pictures, giant photos, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And like the magazines, too. They're like, yeah, they're look, they're enormous magazines. There's just I mean, we didn't have the internet, spoiler. Uh uh, yeah, Al Gore hadn't been born yet. You did, yeah. Back in the 40s, yeah. Oh, 50s? When does this exist? What is the what year is this?
SPEAKER_01:It is this great year?
SPEAKER_03:No, yeah, great score! What year is what year is this what year is this movie set?
SPEAKER_04:Don't I think it's non-specific 40s. I don't think they ever say specifically, but it feels like the 40s.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 40s or 50s.
SPEAKER_04:40s or 50s, and the idea also of like this is a father is who's too old to fight or be drafted or whatever, and kids that are too young.
SPEAKER_02:In two separate beds. The parents sleep in two separate beds, and the mom has the look magazine under her mattress as if it's a nudie mag, which I thought at first it was.
SPEAKER_03:Me too. And I like that he puts he puts the ad for the for the rifle in there, like it's not obvious that someone's doing tear the page out. He sticks the whole fucking thing in there, and like the kid strategy. And here's a question for all of you was there ever a thing you really wanted for Christmas that you were like, how do I casually get my parents to get this for me?
SPEAKER_04:No, not not anything I was casual about, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. I mean, maybe I wasn't casual.
SPEAKER_02:I can't think of anything either.
SPEAKER_03:For me, the Nintendo 64 was a huge okay.
SPEAKER_04:Are we all gonna have Nintendo stories of some sort or computers? Like, are we gonna have I would love us all to tell a holiday game served that we got that that that we deserved? Did I say deserved?
unknown:You did.
SPEAKER_04:You were well see you were good, uh we were on the good list. Does anybody have a fun story about those things? Uh how they received these things, Taylor.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I don't know if it's necessarily fun, but I think it's every kid's dream that their father works at a like entertainment slash furniture store. And so therefore, that is your Christmas present every year is a game console or a computer or a TV.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, very cool, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. N64 was mine. I I mean, my brother and I, I just remember we screwed, you know, Nintendo Kid, is that what he's called? Where he like the like meme all rudd? I don't know. Well, anyway, it that was a huge one. And then getting Mario Kart and 007 came with it. Um, yeah, I'll never forget that Christmas for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, we're setting the scene. Okay. My stepmom, shouts Teresa, has chicken pox bad. Oh no, and she's in her like 20s, 30s at this point. Like, she gets chicken box leading life. I want a Nintendo 64 worse than anything in the world. Okay. And I have this incredible Christmas, one of the great Christmases, probably the greatest Christmas of my life or whatever, is I have my mom celebrates Solstice. My family is mostly non-denominational, like it's not always a huge deal. But my dad, my stepmom blew it out this year, and I got like a first down vest that I really wanted. If anyone remembers those knockoff North Face, but way more. Hey, they're back. Mr. Rags, bring them back, baby. They're reopening online only. And we left for a Christmas celebration thing, family gathering thing, and I was like, this is great. I got everything I wanted. There's no way I was gonna get a Nintendo 64. My one moment when I was that young age, that somehow decency and a cool head prevailed, and I was like, no, Nintendo 64, you shouldn't expect to get that anyway. You weren't this crazy vest.
SPEAKER_03:You weren't a farcus.
SPEAKER_04:I kind of my dad leaves in the middle of this family gathering. I have to go get ice cream, I forgot the ice cream comes back with the ice cream, we finish the family thing, we come home, and there's this huge box with this crazy wrapping, and I'm like, no, absolutely not. No way. Rip it open, it's the Nintendo 64, I'll never forget that. And right as winter break was ending, I was like, scratch, scratch. I ended up with chicken fox, and my winter break went extra long.
SPEAKER_03:You just played a lot of N64.
SPEAKER_04:I sure did. We went way off topic for a long time, but don't worry, Taylor and I kept extensive notes.
SPEAKER_03:We're back, we're back, and they're getting ready to go to school, which I love that whole situation. Getting what's his brother's name?
SPEAKER_04:Andy. Andy is the tick. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Getting Andy in that like giant snowsuit is very silly. Randy, Randy.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, Randy.
SPEAKER_03:Randy.
SPEAKER_04:Sorry, it's Randy. And the dad kind of they established really early, like the car breaks down and the furnace breaks, and he's just like, he's very the dad crashes out. Yeah, he doesn't love it, but he's like he's a capable like guy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he wouldn't have anyone else do it.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_02:It's only him. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:He's the only one who knows how, or and doesn't doesn't even really know how.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Clearly he does breaking. It keeps creating black smoke. That is not good. How radar is the spectrum killer. Yeah, no, they all have asbestos poisoning for sure.
SPEAKER_02:I'll say with that suit, too, like as an adult, that is my worst nightmare of not being able to lower my arms and to think about how hot he is in that suit.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_02:If I get over like five degrees warmer than my chosen temperature, I go in like blackout mode. Like, I need to take it off.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Pumpkin eyes. Cinderella.
SPEAKER_03:I live on the same fucking line. On the walk to school, same way. Just falls over and just is like a bug on the grower turtle, like with its oh Ralphie.
SPEAKER_04:That visual is really funny. Yeah. One of the things I was thinking about the visuals of this movie at points like really, really work. So sometimes when they're like in the house or it's daytime outside, not so much, but like some of the comedic stuff with the kid, and when they're outside at night, it is beautiful.
SPEAKER_03:I also love the um the daydreaming because I that I was a kid who this is something I learned actually recently is that not everybody visualizes things in their head, like actually visualizes them, right? Which was baffling to me because I've done that my whole life. And so like I was a huge daydreaming kid of just like thinking, and I still am creating these whole scenarios and worlds. And when you're an adult, it just becomes anxiety, right?
SPEAKER_02:But exactly that's it. I was about to ask, what do you think that is as an adult?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's true. When you're a kid, it's it's imagination. Yeah. I I I I love that whole sequence of him like seeing himself as like the Western hero and coming in and maybe kind of racist, blackbart, can't tell. I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_02:But he well, it's shooting them all in the butt. Why the butt?
SPEAKER_03:I do like I do like the actual practical X's on their eyes. That's kind of adorable.
SPEAKER_04:It's cute, yeah. There's a level of innocence that like carries over in that moment. There's a I mean, that was also the media at the time. I mean, we could have figured out what little if little orphan Amy was real, uh, the radio show we could have figured out when it was from, I guess. But it's this level of innocence that comes through in the movie really well, especially with his friends, despite like sometimes like the narration is a little too highfalutin. I feel like some of the words that like it's like the nuance of and I understand that part of that is probably done for comedic effect, but at some points it's just like that's what the sand law. I know it shouldn't be comparative. It's just it it speaks more simply from the narration. It just doesn't feel as much like someone talking at me, it feels like someone talking with me a little bit more. Uh Christmas story, the narration feels like someone talking at me sometimes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There are times though that I completely forget that it's happening. Like I'm I'm I'm in it and I'm not even thinking about there being a narrator. Yeah. But I think but I know what you mean. There it depends on the scene.
SPEAKER_03:I think, yeah, I think it starts a little rough just because it's so um counter, it feels. Did I do that? I spilled the water now.
SPEAKER_02:Paul's gone again.
SPEAKER_03:Probably in a moment here. Paul has to pick up the water.
SPEAKER_04:No, you're fine. Just let the water dry. It's water. Um pretty little this time, too, which is helpful. It would have been so helpful for Flick if anyone had even room temperature water, if it could last long. Because the tongue challenge thing, when he mentions it, he's like, no way, blah blah blah. They foreshadow it. Yeah, like where you know it's gonna kind of gonna happen. Like, you know that the poor little tick kid is like that's gonna become problematic for him where he's always like running behind or what have you. When they all wear the teeth, the kids are all in class, and they're gonna be like, Oh, yeah, they all like do sprang on the teacher, yeah. And they're wearing these false teeth, and she takes one and she opens the drawer, and it's like, how long have those fucking teeth been chattering?
SPEAKER_02:Like, would you be going insane? But also, that could be a signal of when when the time period is, like those toys. Yeah, sure. Maybe that's a flash of okay, do you remember these things?
SPEAKER_04:I also thought as someone who stays there so long, that's why I feel like it's a it's a like you said, uh Ben, like a memory story of memory play, yeah. Memory play, nostalgia, a time capsule is for especially people that are nostalgic for it's weird, it covers like a 40-year period, like the 40s through the 80s. So he's over to now. I think that led into so many things.
SPEAKER_03:I think that's another struggle I just had this time was that it was nostalgic for a time that I care nothing about. I think if I had watched this at a young age, I would have had that connection more to Ralphie. And I think because I saw it past the age of Ralphie, it I didn't care as much at that time because I was a cool teenager. Uh, I was never cool. But I will say, as a someone who works in education now, when that teacher is collecting those teeth from Each kid fucking gross, gnarly.
SPEAKER_04:Pops it in the drawer, and then maybe that's it because this guy directed Black Christmas as well. So he's like, just making you look at these soiled teeth and all this shit in this drawer for so long, being like, remember this fucker?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but like, was that was that equivalent to now for us, like opening a drawer and showing like a Game Boy and like pogs and you know, like uh Tamagotchi?
SPEAKER_04:Like yeah, that's what kids play with. Now you work in education, you know.
SPEAKER_03:For us, like like for a nostalgia, like showing a like giving us a little pocket of nostalgia for the movie.
SPEAKER_04:Jack's Jackson Beans, Beans and Franks.
SPEAKER_03:You didn't play with pogs? You play with pogs?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, pogs.
SPEAKER_03:And the trading cards and Pokemon and Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh!
unknown:man.
SPEAKER_02:I just thought they were pretty, you know. It it wasn't necessarily I wasn't really partaking, I was just collecting.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, trade, beanie babies. Yeah, my sister had a huge beanie baby collection. Um yeah, massive. The rainbow one that was really big, the rainbow bear. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Hopefully, they had like no enjoyment with them and kept them in their original boxes and now can sell them for thousands of dollars, like some people are trying to do. Yeah, not so much.
SPEAKER_04:Ty created that market and then bottomed it out when it was convenient for them.
SPEAKER_03:It's wild. And now, what's the big thing? The big little stuffy thing that kids like?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Squish mollows. Uh no, not squishmallows. The like ugly little laboo-boos.
SPEAKER_02:My niece is obsessed with them.
SPEAKER_04:La boobos are big. How many things? How many laboos do you think she has? Six, seven?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, she's got so many. Probably more than that, I would imagine. Because there's one for everyone. Yeah, keychain, stuffed animals, got them in every form.
SPEAKER_03:The journey back from school after he's gotten his tongue removed, uh, which should be easier than bringing in the fire department, I think. All you need is water. Uh, but going, but but meeting Scott Farkas and Dumb and Dumber do that. You mean have a glass of water? Yeah. Jeff Daniels now. Harry. But I love that scene in the alley with the bullies, classic, classic bully scene. And yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it in backing up with the tongue throughout the classroom, when he walks back into the classroom, you see the snow on his tongue differently in each scene. And one of them, it looks like an icy or something, and then another one, it looks like cotton. Did you pick up on that?
SPEAKER_04:I thought it was a bandage. They put gauze on it. I thought it was a bandage. Yeah, it's been dressed at some point, but at some point it's like froze. The tongue thing works comedically for me because at some point it's like, why do they put a cotton bandage on a tongue?
SPEAKER_03:I don't know the line. I don't know actually how you would fix a tongue, but um I don't even know.
SPEAKER_02:Well, but also she just sends him straight to his seat.
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Go to the nursery, they're like potty, man. So it was the 40s. Who cares? Yeah. That joke doesn't like work super well for me outside of the like why did they cut part of the t-shirt off and use it as a band-aid for this kid's mouth. I like the music in the movie a lot. That does help it move along. Yeah, I like that scut and toad have like a theme. Oh, yeah. And oh, and the oh, sorry. The the villains of the movie though, it's like uh Willie get the gift, Scut and Toad, and the neighbor's dogs.
SPEAKER_03:Which oh those dogs. If if you're just looking at it from purely uh, and this is where you get like, do you do this with this movie? Where you look at it from purely like a story writing perspective, the antagonists aren't in the way of the protagonist's goal. No, they're not. You know, but again, I think like it makes no difference. Like when I think of like a memory play, if I think of like a memory play or like an like our town or these slice-of-life things, like that is kind of common where it's not following traditional like story structure, it's just like this is just a moment in time. Take a look.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and Ralphie almost gets in trouble several several times, right? And one of them is by beating on the Braddy Kid.
SPEAKER_03:True, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So it could have been, I don't know if that's intentional or if I'm looking too further into it.
SPEAKER_03:But no, I mean that's a good point because his mom, I mean, we're getting ahead, but his mom does keep it from his dad, and his dad is the one who gives him the gift, and maybe that would have I think because we're only seeing that storyline through Ralphie, and we're not actually seeing the parents part of that story, like, yeah, it's unclear as to what actually affects his his ability to get that or not. Like, is it bought immediately? Is it yeah?
SPEAKER_04:I think that Darren McGavin had a very special experience as a kid having this toy, yeah, and wanted to make sure his kid had that experienced eye eyes be damned. I had a BB gun. No shit. Yeah, I was not oh wow, wait. I didn't have no, I didn't have a BB gun. You had a gun gun. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_02:I did not. I did not have one.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I was not I did not have a BB gun. Okay. Did you have a rifle? Yeah, like a okay. Pump rifle, yeah. All right, are those around anymore? Probably not. They have pellet guns. Sure, yeah, with the plastic pellets, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, those are also dangerous.
SPEAKER_04:I can't imagine that you could get it was the jugs of or little cartons of copperhead BB guns. Oh, we had that, yeah. I'm sure those were just shake it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, my dad wanted me to shoot the Canadian geese when they would get on our lawn because they would poop. And he didn't kill it, it would just like hurt it, hurt it, and it would fly away.
SPEAKER_02:Which and probably die later because it's lodged in its wing or in its body.
SPEAKER_03:Gotta nuke something. I know.
SPEAKER_02:So now you know where I stand on BB's.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't want my dad, it was like, if you see him on the lawn, grab the BB gun and do it. You just did what you were told. Yeah. Again, they would just like fly away.
SPEAKER_04:Did you ever just fire it into the air?
SPEAKER_03:Uh scared mom. To be fair, most of the time I missed.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, good.
SPEAKER_03:Most of the time I would shoot accurate. No, you would watch the BB just go like you'd shoot it like this, and you'd watch it go like just one little gust of wind and it's gone. Shoot your eyes.
SPEAKER_04:A gust of wind happens, uh, a boon happens for Darren McGavin is he enters these contests by the mail, and he and he's gonna get a prize. He gets a telegram that he's gonna get a great prize. And a bowling alley.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, maybe a bowling alley, which well, but not tonight.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, another time, foreshadowing, but it's like dinner time, right? And the a big problem that they have with the younger brother that can't put his arms down in the getting him to eat is getting him to eat. I find it so disturbing that he does that, that he then like sticks his face in. I did that at a restaurant two nights ago, and people were upset, and I was asked to leave. I don't understand why he gets to do it to his mother's delight. What's this about?
SPEAKER_03:Were you having sloppy steaks?
SPEAKER_04:New Year's Eve, hair slicked back, yeah. Water all over that's why you got kicked out, right? Oh, that makes sense. They asked me not to do that. But does anybody else like I think it's enduring, I think it's cute. I don't like it.
SPEAKER_02:I do, and honestly, as somebody that wants children, and I found it clever. I'm like, you know what? You're at home in a safe place, and no one's gonna judge you. Your husband's not even watching the family that he's probably reading or doing something else. So, you know, how to get that kid to eat, make it fun.
SPEAKER_04:That I 100% agree with. There's a level of Ralphie, a couple points in the movie, and especially the little one, that the mom wants to keep them like little boys for as long as possible, which is fine, but also my mom doesn't listen to this.
SPEAKER_03:So wow. Again, stoner pies brought to you by therapy. Yeah, I mean, my my grandparents definitely did that to me, especially as jumping ahead, like in like the bunny uh yeah like shit, where you're like, I don't want to wear this kind of stuff anymore. I'm trying to grow up, and they're like, You're gonna be a baby forever.
SPEAKER_04:There's a level of that that's hard, like that's difficult.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it is. It's also kind of real, I guess.
SPEAKER_04:I wish when I was like seven years old, I could have said, have a seat, won't you? I need to tell you about my deep emotional thoughts, how this is affecting me.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know what's funny too is it seems like in a lot of these older stories, the mother's trying to keep the son a kid, but usually that doesn't go for the daughter. It's usually a little different. I and maybe it's just they want to keep their sons close because they fear they're gonna move on too fast.
SPEAKER_03:And also, I think what the thing does well, this movie does well too, is the dad isn't necessarily like a toxic male figure.
SPEAKER_04:They seem to have a healthy marriage.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and yeah, and and when she's doing that, like with the eating, like he looks at it and he's like, Oh, it's gross, but he's not acting, he's not being like, No, you be a man, son. You eat your food with a knife and fork. You know, he's not acting like an asshole because he sees how he's she's connecting to him and it's working.
SPEAKER_04:I think I'm overbothered by it. But shut it down.
SPEAKER_03:That's fair. That there you also both code violations. You also don't have a child.
SPEAKER_02:And it's in their home.
SPEAKER_03:You do have a child. I'm so sorry. It's Sam Cat.
SPEAKER_02:It's in their home. That's not necessarily perfectly clean either. And they make that very aware that oh, the production design is great of the house.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, production is really looks real, lived in.
SPEAKER_02:Paul's very confused right now.
SPEAKER_04:I find it it's done so sparsely, so specifically and purposely that it's very minimalist and it helps make that fucking leg lamp that he gets right here stand out. Because I I actually felt like I was maybe gonna get dunked on a little bit for being like, I like that the movie doesn't try to do too much with a with daily life, it makes the season feel more special that it's happening. It's really effective. But like the way he does the leg lamp and the fire that happens, like more specification, maybe because a little from this and him needing to see the leg lamp from the street.
SPEAKER_03:What's funny is like in watching it this time, he's like blinded by the fact that it's a pervert lamp, like it's not even about the fact that it's a woman's leg lamp. To me, to him, it's just a representation of like winning.
SPEAKER_04:He won. Yeah, and but the way that Ralphie, when they're outside, and and Darren McGavin's like, I won, it's a it's a major award. And the neighbors are all impressed, and people are stopping. Like, it's obviously doing its job. Like, you wish that you owned this place and it was like a bar and lounge or whatever, and Ralphie just keeps rubbing it. Then a genie like a genie's gonna pop up.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I think what stuck out the most to me in this scene was how many outlets were plugged in.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, because funny.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it to me it's crazy. I think I'm hypersensitive that in my own house. Like I turn I unplug everything before I leave on a vacation, or I make sure, you know, I unplug the extension cords, but so many people plug in 10 things in one place and it drives me crazy.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, talk about a fire hazard, shut it down. This place is either gonna burn down or you're gonna die of asbestos poisoning, health hazards, yeah, fire hazards. It's everywhere.
SPEAKER_04:Potential is this a CPS situation? Is she is that kid being forced to act like a pig? Is this a thing?
SPEAKER_03:Is this a thing? Is this a thing?
SPEAKER_04:That's from Sue. Act like a monkey, Derek. This is where I get thrown, believe it or not. Peter Billingsley, uh, Ralphie is like obsessed with little orphananny. It it becomes a suddenly about like this decoder ring or whatever, and like not about the BB gun. And so, like, I'm kind of thrown by that, but then immediately thrown back into the like, oh, I have a chance to get this what BB gun, I'm gonna write this theme.
SPEAKER_03:I think for well, every every little side quest is ultimately a goal for the BB gun, I think, right? Like the Dakota ring is a goal, like ultimately, the ultimate goal of that is the the BB gun.
SPEAKER_02:I don't really know. I mean, the how I saw it is like kids get fixated on things, and now they're advertising all of these different toys from that time period, and determination. You see, his determination because he's doing everything for this.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, and that is kids do get fixated, and I was definitely one of those kids who got uber fixated on weird shit. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So I actually connected more in watching it this time to Ralphie than I think I did when I was a kid because of the nostalgia part of it.
SPEAKER_04:Well, isn't there a level of I don't know if you're a person, Taylor, that makes my pictures or has inner monologues or dialogues or any of these things, but when he Ralphie gets the assignment for the theme paper and he's back to the BB gun, yeah, and he goes into another daydream, and it's about the teacher being like, Ralphie, life was a shamble before you this theme paper, oh hey, plus plus plus. I love that I love it.
SPEAKER_03:She's giving she's writing pluses on the wall, like all the way, like chalkboard around him, and this the kids are all like celebrating, and that is definitely the kind of shit I did in my head where I'm like, I'm gonna get to school and I'm gonna show him this thing, and I'm gonna be the coolest kid in school.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the ultimate reward is is to be loved.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, oh yeah, and it never happened.
SPEAKER_04:He he requested it, he uh deserved it or whatever. Yeah, manifested it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and if if anything, that teacher was just annoyed by him every time he went into that classroom.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. That teacher needed to quit her job, I think. She seemed unhappy. Oh, maybe. Yeah. She's probably tenure though, probably. So probably those.
SPEAKER_02:She stuck it through.
SPEAKER_03:I do do you guys when you watch like classic movies like this, or you know, like when in the 40s or 50s, when people are dressed in suits and dresses, and do you miss that? Do you wish that that was still a thing?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. I think that's why I appreciate this movie so much, because I do wish there were a lot of these aspects still alive, like the toys instead of the cell phones. And you wear the same, you know, shirt, or you have two shirts. I don't know, minimalizing everything.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I'm with that. I think there's there's so much excess like involved with the season, like in general, and like this collection of objects and whatnot. And there was a level of even when you were going out to go Christmas tree shopping or whatever, there was a level of like decorum or like being part of the societal fabric. We live in a society, it's Gore Tex. It's taken seriously, like there's a level of like I may end up having uh an interaction with someone about negotiating for the price of a tree, and I don't want to look like a fucking schlum.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, well, and also like going to the department store was an event, right? And so, like going even and watching it this time when they leave the house, it's probably only like 4 30 p.m., but it's pitch black, just like we get here. And like now for me, for me, when it's that dark and I'm home, I'm like, oh, I don't want to go anywhere. Like right, the day is over. Shut it down, get in your pajamas, go to bed.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, bake up the stoner pot over. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:To get a whole family to get out of that house in the pitch black in the cold. I was like, oh, absolutely not. Stay home, but yeah, it's a whole event.
SPEAKER_02:They're going to get their tea and I'm I'm 100% here for it. Yeah, that's that's what I love too.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they're horribly singing jingle bells on the way home, they're all the way into this thing. They've got the deal on the tree and everything, and they get the flat. And this is the the two moments that I enjoy the most are the fantasizing moment about the teacher's reaction to a dialogue in that is so great. Her performance is so great. But when he the when Peter Billingsley says, Oh, phu about the flat deer, and he goes, 'But I didn't say that.' There's a conscious choice by the narrator to use certain language, keep that PG Raiden, baby. But like that he said, fuck, and that the dad, the way it hits him, and the did anybody else feel like there was a level of like at the very last quarter of a second that there's a level of pride on Darren McGavin's face, like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:I think so. I think for a kid to have the courage to say it in front of their father while they're changing attire.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, my dad, I feel like my I feel like if there was a word you asked me what my dad said the most, it's fuck. And I've heard like I've heard my dad say fuck so many times in my life since I was a child. So yeah, dad crash outs.
SPEAKER_04:I think that uh the dad sees himself in the sun in this moment that he's preparing the mom kind of giving him the like, all right, go and help. Kind of the unsung hero so far, at least for me, is uh the actress who plays the mom. Melinda Dylan does a great job. Darren McGavin.
SPEAKER_03:Holy shit. I think their relationship is well done too. Like, yeah, but I love because my dad used to tell me that his mom, my grandma, would wash his mouth out with soap. And I always thought he was joking or like being facetious. You had that?
SPEAKER_02:Taylor or how to or how how to do it. Yeah, I mean, I've I've gotten the threats, but I it never happened. And um, I've always been curious uh actually, how does one wash out a mouth with soap?
SPEAKER_03:Soap, you just stick a bar of soap in there, apparently.
SPEAKER_02:I it's not really washing it, it's just sticking soap in your mouth, you know?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I boy, how much do we share on this? Do we call CTS now? I don't know if it's just therapy. The best way to wash that taste out of your mouth is a stoner pie. But yeah, washed out with the soap and the wooden spoon and the like people saw this movie a lot and were like, that's what you do.
SPEAKER_03:But I think that was like I think in the 50s, 40, 50s, I think that's how people parented. Because my dad grew up in the 50s, and that this is literally what he told me. He's get a bar of soap in the mouth.
SPEAKER_04:I feel so bad for Schwartz, though, after Ralphie gets the bar of soap in the mouth, yeah, and mom asks him where'd you hear it from? And the narrator even says, Dad, dad says it 100 times a day. Yeah, and then he throws Schwartz under the bus, and maybe he did hear it from Schwartz at some point, and there's some honesty to it, but also like you're a fucking coward, you got that kid, he got his ass beat because. Because of you. Nitches gets me. Just say it was your fucking dad.
SPEAKER_02:And and the mom's um decibel of which she says what 10 times on the phone? Yeah. Like lives in my mind.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah. You can hear that.
SPEAKER_02:It was so perfect.
SPEAKER_04:Belted. Oh, I just feel so bad for him. I find the blind fantasy thing like not funny. He even says, they hit me hard enough to strike me blind. Yeah. And it's like played for laughs. And there's a level of this kid wearing glasses and like I'm blind. That's funny. But there's a level of the soap thing, and that some of this is just like, fuck, I'm so glad this is a bygone era.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, and the dad even says, I told you you shouldn't have given him so-and-so soap, which I meant to look that up because I I don't I don't know what soap they're referring to, but I imagine it has something in it that they like stopped making.
SPEAKER_03:Asbestos.
SPEAKER_04:And he gets soap poisoning, is part of it from this from that soap.
SPEAKER_03:I think that's the daydream that I block out or just forgot about. Because I think, yeah, there's just parts of the movie in the middle where I feel like we start to get bogged down in these little side quests. You're right. Yeah. It's like, but again, when you come back to it as a memory player, a slice of life.
SPEAKER_04:When I come back to it as a Christmas story, it's like we have to go through these, like the gifts for the teacher. And I get it in terms of this kid, like he has multiple obsessions. He likes a he likes different stuff and he's gonna fucking tell us about it, or the narrator's gonna tell us about what he thought he thought about it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and he's and he's gonna keep getting in trouble, and that might not get him his BB gun. All the kids in Springfield are. I think everybody tells him he's gonna shoot his eye out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:No, that's true.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, I think we it it is also hard now for me to not think of the movie and know that he gets it. Sure. It's like it's like I can't think of Star Wars and not think of Vader's Luke's dad. It's just like in what now? Star Wars? Who is who Paul's having a senior moment.
SPEAKER_02:But if you're watching it for the first time as a 10-year-old, you never know if he's gonna get that gun.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I think that like in the similar way to how bad what we all wanted some Christmas present at some point. My little sister famously wanted an easy bake oven one year. Sure. And we opened all of our presents, no easy bake oven, and she's just sitting there like, but I wanted an easy bake oven. Other kids in spring, then they're like, Well, look in the kitchen, and like they didn't wrap it because it was so big. And so she goes in the kitchen and just freaks out. So I think like when you think about it in the context of a 10-year-old kid who's I I see what you're saying, though. It is, it is, it is like story-wise, you you assume that it's gonna happen because if it doesn't happen, what the fuck is the point of this movie?
SPEAKER_04:That's kind of where I'm at, yeah, to a degree. Like, it's a little bit thick with the nostalgia and the happy and the sugar, and it, but it's part of the season, that's part of how it's ingrained itself in the culture, yeah. Is that it's such a perfect encapsulation of kind of the feeling of the season. And I want to mention this movie 8 Bit Christmas again. There you go. It's a newer movie, but it makes the viewer deal with the reality that not everybody fucking gets what they want, and that's okay, like that's hard, it can be difficult, or you don't always get what you want. But if you try to not everyone gets a prize either, you get what you need, yeah, hopefully, but not everybody gets that. And I like that aspect of that storytelling from that movie, and in terms of this movie, but you get that movie without this movie, no, and that's the thing, is I I want to try to give proper credit to this movie as much as I like tweets in in movies that uh have pepperings of this movie in it, I like a lot of the tweets that have been made in a lot of what I've seen. And I just find myself questioning in terms of this kid, it's like, you wanna you wanna be a punk fucking rabble rousing fucking little orphan annie foster kid decoder pen? Or do you want a BB gun? Like, what do you want? He's so jazzed about this, and the whole thing that he this decoder thing that has thrown me off the gun it ends up being an ad for Oval Teen. And the yeah, uh the tin is round, the mug is round, but have you ever just call it round teen?
SPEAKER_02:Have you ever been have you ever been fooled by it's interesting because as someone who works in education now, I feel like there's this level of connecting to kid logic a little bit, and like the kid logic of Ralphie is really actually well paced and like is feels real in terms of like how they create all these different yeah, he's he zigzags to random yeah things because he's got kid logic and he thinks it's gonna work out for him, but it's it's it is and it isn't, and everybody likes a surprise too, you know, especially kids like to be focused on something, you know, to solve this problem or to turn this thing in and you get this. Like, I I'm a soccer for that kind of stuff too.
SPEAKER_03:He doesn't want a football though.
SPEAKER_04:We know we know he doesn't want a football, yeah. But the one thing he really doesn't want, the thing that the dad wanted that was making him proudest through this movie and everything, though, gets the lamp, the the lamp gets broken in quotations. He thinks his wife is jealous, he's always been jealous.
SPEAKER_03:I think she just wants to get rid of it. I think she just broke it.
SPEAKER_02:It's well, yeah, she said she was just watering the plants and it just fell, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's like embarrassing, and he's trying to glue it together. And by the way, this is also what I think that uh how reliable is the memory? How reliable is the narrator? Did dad bury that fucking thing in the yard? Next to his garage. Divorce this man. This man is insane.
SPEAKER_03:I do love the practical of him gluing it back together and then trying to put the lamp back on top and it just crumbling. I was like, oh, I wonder how they got that to happen. That was like because it looks like it's like, oh, it looks like it's put together. It was good. Uh, but yeah, I I agree that some of it might be skewed from the kid's perspective.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Uh but we get rid of the lamp, and we're I I think at this point in the movie, no offense, but I was like, I just need to, I'm just trying to get to Christmas morning. I just feel like at this point, I'm just like, okay, we we're we just need to get there. And maybe that's part of what the movie is doing, is it wants you to feel the exhaustion of Christmas, of the holiday, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:The couple few days leading up to the day of when all this stuff goes down. And now, like all the bullying stuff with Scott and Toad is starting to get starting to come to a head as Flick gets bullied after he does what he's told. They're like, come here so we can fucking beat you up. Yeah. And they do. And this movie goes full, like wicked three with the wicked witch of the west shit when he gets the C plus and somehow everybody else's fault.
SPEAKER_03:And oh yeah, there's a whole wicked story or whole Wizard of Oz storyline in this movie. MGM.
SPEAKER_02:And the mother's there too. The mother's in the classroom.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_02:In red.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. Into like a jester.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I was. I don't remember that character. I don't I don't remember that part of Wizard of us. And uh Harley Quinn situation.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, he kind of looks like her. Yeah, there's a line that I would have thought was from one of Flick's movies that's actually from Scott Farkas in this movie. Listen, Jerk, when I tell you to come, you better come. Jesus Christ. What? I don't think that's in this movie. No, Scott Farkas says that to Peter Billingsley. And then Peter Billingsley beats the shit out of him.
SPEAKER_03:I would beat someone up too if they said that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and I think the mother was a little bit proud too. Like there's a moment, there was a moment of when he says fuck, and then there's a moment of when he like sticks up for himself, and both parents are they're annoyed for sure, because they don't want that. I think part of them is is proud.
SPEAKER_03:I think, yeah, because he he seems a not like a pushover, but he does seem like he's maybe a wallflower kind of kid at the beginning, or you know, a mousey even. Yeah, and maybe like kind of what the movie's doing, and it's like he's coming into his own a little bit, and and that's why his father feels like he can be responsible enough to have a uh BB gun, which I think is another just to jump ahead, the fact that like he gets the BB gun for like five minutes and does almost shoot it out of his eye is a really funny resolution to this whole thing that everyone was right, and he does he ever play with it again? You know, it's like that thing you give a kid and they're like, This is great, and they play with it on Christmas, and then they're like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, that's true. I didn't even think of that, but you're totally right. But also, he wants to cover it up that it happened in the first place, so so he could try it again.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe, or is he scared? Yeah, I mean, he might try it again, but also like doesn't matter. He got it, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that was the yeah, that was the accomplishment is getting it.
SPEAKER_03:And then there's a whole storyline with the turkey, and the dad's obsessed with the turkey, and the dogs that eat the turkey. It's clearly a fake turkey at some point, and then it's a real turkey really quickly, and all the turkey's gone. How did the dogs get in? Did they leave the door open?
SPEAKER_02:They did, yeah, because Ralphie left it open up. He left it open. And I think where I laughed out loud the hardest is when the mother was yelling at the father and says, You're gonna get worms, stay out of the turkey. Yeah, because it's not done.
SPEAKER_03:That's so funny. Also, who takes a turkey out with an hour and a half left to cook and just sits it on a dining room table? I don't understand. I don't understand that. Shut it down, it needs foil on it. Like to get that brownish look on it, you gotta be coating that thing with butter, put that foil back on top, brine that sucker.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe turn the oven down a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but also who loves turkey?
SPEAKER_04:Like turkey is oh, I do too. I would have it more often if it were weren't such a huge pain to actually make another time.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe, maybe if I should have like a cooking podcast next.
SPEAKER_03:We've talked, we do talk about what we do. What have you been cooking?
SPEAKER_04:What have you been cooking?
SPEAKER_03:Sorry, I gear, I I like I I like put the car into like overdriving, got to got towards the end just because felt like we were getting bogged down by a few. But I but I want to go back to the department store real quick.
SPEAKER_04:The third act is feels really long to me. Quite long because it feels like it starts like after Peter Billings, they like beats up Scott and they go to the department store. It's like yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Were you ever afraid of Santa Claus? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know either, but I know I am now. Like they do freak me out just just like the Easter Bunny. I don't want any kids sitting on their laps.
SPEAKER_04:I have a question, Taylor. Does it who sits on the Easter bunny's lap? No, that I had my phone.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:They don't really malls don't necessarily exist anymore, but you know, have you seen those like terrifying Easter Bunny photos through time of like really bad Easter Bunny costumes? This movie made me want to watch Donnie Darko. Is that a thing? That movie, yeah. No, but like Santa Claus being cellar door. I I definitely remember as a kid waiting in line at the mall and seeing Santa Claus and being scared.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. The poop cue for Santa was untenable. You're breaking for the act, like, no way are you gonna make that line was even as quickly as they were moving through kids, that was insane.
SPEAKER_03:The kid with the goggles that's just like looking at him with a smile.
SPEAKER_04:I like Santa. I like the tin man.
SPEAKER_03:I like the tin man.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, great, Taylor. I have a question for you. Okay, will you play the Santa game later in life with your children?
SPEAKER_02:Have them sit on Santa's lap and get a photo. Will you or say Santa's coming?
SPEAKER_04:Will you say Santa? That's not a thing, actually. I'm Santa. Don't tell any other children that. I work really, really hard. So I'm Santa. No one else needs to know.
SPEAKER_02:Do you know? I don't think I'll plant the seed. Um, but I also don't want to be the cause of breaking other children's hearts when my kid goes, that's not real at school, you know? So I I haven't I haven't really gotten that far. But I do know that, you know, come Christmas, I don't want a thousand toys that take batteries and you know nearly break your feet.
SPEAKER_03:And they don't play with ever again.
SPEAKER_02:And they don't play with ever again. The exciting part is opening them. I want a savings account for that child.
SPEAKER_04:Always the function.
SPEAKER_02:Super boring. And obviously there will be some fun stuff, but socks. But the majority should be a savings account, you know.
SPEAKER_04:I just want socks and underwear now. I want socks and savings. That's what I want. I know. I want six packs, 12 packs of socks as the money that I didn't give a shit about. Or when I would receive money instead of it's like, you didn't shop for me. Yeah, but I'm like 17 and everything's fucking dumb. And you didn't shop for me.
SPEAKER_03:No, yeah. I'm at the point now where like people ask what I want for Christmas. I'm like, uh, it doesn't really matter. Just nothing. A nice card. Send a card. Yeah, is nice. That's fine.
SPEAKER_04:Some nice words, send a fucking email.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Just asking me is nice. Like, that's nice. You don't need to give me anything. So sweet of you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:This uh, by the way, is when the movie starts to really hit me with some of the style choices and lighting choices.
SPEAKER_03:The way that the shoot Santa when it goes in the first person, and it's like it's kind of got like a it's not even fisheye lens, but like his face looks kind of distorted. It's like big and like he does look scary. Like, oh, and the way that it's I think that this is a moment where it's definitely kid lens, where they're like the elf is like, you're holding up the line, kid, like he's acting very over the top, and I think that's definitely Ralphie's perspective of how it's actually going.
SPEAKER_02:That would be mine too.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. I don't think they were cranking through kids that quickly. Come on, kid. By the time you know Ralphie's forgetting what to say, it's like I know kids cry. We all have known that kids cry when they meet Santa now. I feel like when you hit a certain generation, it's just a thing that you're like, yeah, kids do this. Maybe in the 80s, when you saw this, it was like, oh yeah, kids do that. That's really funny. But now you watch that and you're like, yeah, everybody knows that all kids basically fall apart and they can't handle it because this is a bizarre stranger or you get gasping them.
SPEAKER_03:Bad Santa. And they just oh just pee on have you seen Bad Santa, Taylor?
SPEAKER_02:No, I haven't.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's another one that I like to go to back, go back to on Christmas.
SPEAKER_02:All the kids in Springfield are SOB.
SPEAKER_03:Speaking of kids sitting on laps and peeing on them.
SPEAKER_02:But I did book an actor on a um company event party uh for Christmas, and he was supposed to be Bad Santa.
SPEAKER_03:So he was Billy Bob Thornton.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he was he was walking around the party being inappropriate and funny, and so he was yeah, he was he was hired to be Bad Santa.
SPEAKER_03:I had a I had a pitch for anyone out there who has money. If you have the access to the IP of Bad Santa and think of a series like a HBO or Amazon series starring Walton Goggins, young Bad Santa, young as a younger Billy Bob Thor.
SPEAKER_02:That could land he's a fantastic choice, right? That could land, man.
SPEAKER_03:I think that's a thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think that could be a thing.
SPEAKER_03:I take five percent.
SPEAKER_04:That's it. That's like JJ Abrams. I mean, I mean, I'm giving this out for free right now. Yeah, it took him a while to get to you know that lost an alias money. Ralphie forgetting to say anything, and then uh Peter Billingsley like climbing up that slide and that iconic like angle of him and those crazy blue eyes and saying what he wants. Like this, like it's like his moment of heroism in the movie where he's now beat up Scott Farkas and then he's gonna take my what I have, I'm gonna get what I want, and then Santa pushing him in the face. You'll shoot your eye out, you'll shoot your eye out.
SPEAKER_03:He just sits there in the bottom of the slide.
SPEAKER_01:He kicks him down there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. This is a time too where the parents just are letting their kids wander around the store and then just go find them again.
SPEAKER_04:America's most wanted that wasn't on TV yet.
SPEAKER_02:We usually it was happening, it just wasn't on TV yet.
SPEAKER_04:It was it was happening, but people weren't like conscious. Sorry.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. The thing that I always think about Christmas, because for me as a child, my Christmases were a lot of moving around because my parents were divorced, so we had to have Christmas at both houses, and then my grandparents had a Christmas afternoon evening thing, and so we went from one parent's house to the next parent's house to the grandparents' house. Watching this, like thinking about like, oh, this family just like is just going to be together here and like have a dinner together.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I I don't know, it's it's wholesome. I like how slow their morning is.
SPEAKER_04:I have a question. Is there a moment of the movie before it actually happens, knowing whatever that he's gonna get the BB gun, that you feel like an actor has made a decision and or a writer has made a decision that this is gonna happen, that like you're getting a clue that he that this is happening for him?
SPEAKER_02:Um right before it happens, too, like before the dad says it says Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:When they're leaving the department store and he says, You tell Santa you've been a good boy, don't worry, he knows he always knows, kind of inferring almost to the mom that like me being Santa and that they've put the BB gun in the car, or he's put the BB gun in the car, or whatever at this point they've decided he's gonna come get it.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it it wasn't a they purchase either. Like the father makes it it known, and and the mother also like is surprised and doesn't fight it, wouldn't probably at that time you wouldn't argue with your husband, anyways.
SPEAKER_03:But oh sure, you know, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That was probably it, that was the moment.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I didn't really think about it actually, uh, until the morning was when I really thought about it. Oh, did you get everything you wanted? Oh yeah, oh good, yeah. You don't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, I must be on Broadway.
SPEAKER_04:You know, and there's a Nintendo 64. Whereby I got Christmas storied. But did you get one? Did you get worms? I got well, I got a pet store.
SPEAKER_03:It's called I Got Worms from a stoner specialized in worms. Is it a raw turkey stoner pie? You better believe it.
SPEAKER_04:You betcha. The the thing, it's almost like they redo it in Christmas vacation, like the issues with him overusing the power and having to he can change a fuse faster than whatever was the that was the back of the day where you had the giant fuse tubes and you had to like take them out and put in a new one. Yeah, so apparently he was somewhat capable of this kind of shit for around the house. I guess gonna Taylor, I need you to. Explain this to me when he wakes up on Christmas morning. I was like, Oh, this is like every other morning. It's always it's always sunny or sunny. Uh good show. In Philadelphia, it's always snowy in Indiana. Like it this whole movie has been snowy and icy.
SPEAKER_02:Is it there's a little bit more, it's fluffier because it's Christmas morning. You know, in in honestly, I kind of reminded me that I probably won't have another snowy Christmas because I'm back in Oregon and it doesn't usually snow here where it did in Utah every winter.
SPEAKER_04:It's rare in the northwest in the Portland area for Britain.
SPEAKER_03:My my dad, I think maybe we get a snowy Christmas every I'd say every six or seven years. Yeah, everyone. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:My name is Joni.
SPEAKER_03:In Portland proper on actual Christmas. It's I think. Oh, sure. But that's like a they're at water level. I was looking into a mirror. I sleep still. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:It's definitely lower than than Salt Lake City, Utah. But but I'll say like it's usually snows before Christmas in Salt Lake and after, but on Christmas morning, there's nothing like a nice powdery snow. And it does look different than before and after Christmas.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I get it. In Seattle, I feel like more often than not, Christmas is usually a crisp sunny day. I feel like more often than not. And there are rainy Christmases for sure.
SPEAKER_04:You know, you know it's fucking terrible. 91 degree Christmas in Los Angeles, California. Yeah, it's awful. Fucking awful. Ralphie gets socks. Winter. Great socks, too. Great, nice gray Argyle? Yeah. A bunny pajamas. They make him go S Darko. Like, nope, go put it on. Put it on.
SPEAKER_03:Make him do it. Oh, he look, he looks so cute. Yeah, well, but he's certainly warm. Yeah. I like I like the dad's are like, do you like wearing that? Is you happy wearing it? No, no, he's not. Like, I love that the dad's reaction to that.
SPEAKER_04:I this is where I think Darren McGavin's performance really like ascendant. Yeah. Where it almost like he puts the movie on his back though and like goes all the way. Where he is so great in terms of the bunny thing, and so great in terms of the you get everything you wanted, and the way he kind of explains away the BB gun thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I also like how they showed what the dad got for Christmas, but never the mother.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah. What?
SPEAKER_02:Oh she opened a present, but we never saw it. But then he yeah. He opened a can of something and then he got that blue bowling ball. Yeah. He says first he says a blue ball because she drops it on his crouch and then right, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, she does she kind of gets like pushed into the servant role a lot of the times when she's trying to sit down and eat and they keep asking for stuff.
SPEAKER_04:And yeah, but he yeah, I mean which Ralphie even points out is like I feel bad for my mother. I don't think she had a warm meal until like we left the house. Like there's a level of acknowledgement with that, and I think she her big that's the thing is the movie we talked about starts to like slow down, is after she's like, Yeah, Ralphie got in a fight, he's a real fucking G. Like that was kind of the that was kind of like the mountaintop for that character, and that was as far as it was gonna go. The Red Rider BB gum thing and the immediate shooting of the eye, like that's nice as an audience to not have to wait for that for a fucking moment. First thing he does, he goes outside and almost shoots his eye out, and his four eyes glasses save it.
SPEAKER_03:I I think like then this is where I think maybe my one of my problems is is like lie. Well, it's not even so much that it's that the movie is still going, and I think that like the main drive to me has been resolved, but now it's about the dinner, and then and that that gets destroyed, and then they go out to this pretty racist Asian restaurant. But the but I think that like had we gotten more of the like the the talking about like Christmas dinner, mom always looked forward to making that, like it was so important to her, like yeah, like this build up to that. Um, in a similar way, because Christmas uh vacation does that where they build up the dinner and like how important it is to impress everyone.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like I can relate to that on a personal level because when you were turkey or honestly, when you're cooking something that you've never cooked or you're cooking something elaborate, the biggest fear is that it's not gonna be good, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And in movies, it inevitably always something always happens.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, all of a sudden the bumpus' dogs are back. The movie does this a lot, like hey, remember this about toys, about the dogs, about the bullies, about hey, remember, hey, remember the fourth wall break that Ralphie does with in the movie in the bathroom after his glasses break, too. Oh, yeah. Like, you're you're kind of a little shit.
SPEAKER_05:I'm the centuries dentist.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, but he's a kid.
SPEAKER_03:I feel like he's not he's not a bad kid, not at all.
SPEAKER_04:He's just a kid. He's just kind of you're kind of a little shit, like you've got kind of a sweet life. Like, what do you have to worry about or whatnot? You beat that kid's ass now, it's all good. But they I like that they turkey's gone, but they go to bowling restaurants, Chinese, yeah, bowling chin. Chinese food, which is open on Christmas normally.
SPEAKER_02:I think they are too. I think that is a normal thing.
SPEAKER_04:And they end up at the bowling alley, is the dad foreshadow. My and they have a Christmas duck.
SPEAKER_03:My friend Joe, who is is Jewish, would always go out to Chinese food on Christmas. There you go, in his family.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, a lot of places, busiest day of the year.
SPEAKER_02:As we're gearing, that's what I'm doing this this Christmas.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, good for you. Where are you going?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm going back home down to Southern Oregon and I'm gonna spend Christmas with my grandmother.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, cool, very cool.
SPEAKER_02:And so we're gonna do Chinese and watch silly movies in our Christmas pajamas.
SPEAKER_03:That's delightful.
SPEAKER_02:I'm so excited for it.
SPEAKER_04:As well as you should be.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, but as we're at the end here, I just want to say guest of this program, Liz Ellis, has a very funny review of this movie. Okay. That is says the boomer wasp urge to emphasize the supposed universality of all your experiences.
SPEAKER_04:That's so good. That's really good. Yeah, I think that's really good. When did she rate it?
SPEAKER_03:You don't even know. You can you can figure it out. You can figure it out. Okay, so we're at the end, Taylor.
SPEAKER_02:So I need to figure out what they rated.
SPEAKER_04:Uh but the movie should have ended like right there at the Chinese restaurant, and they even have a moment, and it's like, but the movie just again, Christmas story, it doesn't end till Christmas is over. Yeah, and so it goes from the restaurant to the house, and there's more duration, and it just keeps going until he goes to bed with the gun. And then the movie's finally over. Sugar plum fairies.
SPEAKER_02:But not after he is going to sleep with the gun. It also shows his brother going to sleep with a blimp. Is that what that is? Oh, with the Zeppelin. Zeppelin.
SPEAKER_04:No ticket. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I yeah, I didn't know he wanted a blimp.
SPEAKER_04:I didn't need it. He he got it though, and he was thrilled. Yeah. Buy me bone storm or go to hell.
SPEAKER_03:We're at the end. Taylor has your rating. Actually, let's see. You choose who would you like to go first? Who would you like to share their rating first? Me, Paul, or you?
SPEAKER_02:Let's go you, Ben.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Here's the thing. I feel like I've done a lot of talking about the things I like about this movie. And I I do feel and agree with some of the things you're saying, Paul, as well, and the dragging of the narrative and some of the voiceovers rough. And I think ultimately, I think it's a three uh dad crash outs for me. It's a three dad crash outs because it is a perfectly fine slice of life movie that will go on for the rest of cinematic history. Uh and and has a big part that and carries a lot of nostalgia for a lot of people. And I think that it all comes down to the kid logic, this kid obsession. And I think that is a really is really strong in the movie. And there it's done better as time goes on, you know, in certain things, but you know, Night of the Living Dead was the first zombie movie, and there are movies that do it better than that, but that's still a cinematic masterpiece in some ways, right? It kind of like starts that. Um, so anyway, yeah, I'll go with three dad crash outs.
SPEAKER_02:So you bumped it up 0.5.
SPEAKER_03:I did, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Taylor, you or I. You I think a couple of the things that I had said just bother money, the two of you were kind of like, dude, chill the fuck out. Like this was some of it that made a a good amount of sense. I don't think it's the movie's fault or anybody else's fault, other than Ted Turner. I'm mad at you, Ted Turner, T V S and TNT, superstitions. I don't know, hold those. Yeah, shut down. Too much. I've had too much of this overall, and so I think it had me look at it from a slightly unfair stoner pie position. You can't have too much, right. I'm going to bump it up to a two and a half. I agree with a lot of Liz's very short and very accurate review. But I also think that I don't know, this movie has a lot to fucking offer. And I think that The Monster Squad and The Goonies and The Sandlot, which as a film is probably to me the perfect, perfect way to execute this type of story. But not getting too you know over the fence with that or whatnot. This is a movie that especially tailored like what you're saying, with people that are like, yeah, this is like ingrained in me, is it's kind of ingrained in the culture, and it kind of deserves to be there. Yeah, I think. I kept coming back to the like, yeah, everything about this just oozes the season. I don't know what the secret of it is, but it is secret of the season ooze. Right, it's very effective, and it pulled me in a few times, and a lot of the visuals are funny and really stunning at times, especially the I I've seen Black Christmas for those who haven't, and that was a movie that was made on a dollar in a dream as well. And this director has a really crazy filmography, yeah. That was crazy. He knows some fucking visuals, he knows the ooze of the season, he sure does. Taylor, you can't avoid it forever.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, no. I I was just curious because uh yours were much lower than I thought they would be. And I I assumed mine would be higher because of the history and because of my like own personal rating system. Um, I tend to be higher on most things. Um smoking. But I'm gonna stick true to four and a half and we'll call them seasonal oozes. Um you know, it the movie does it for me. A lot of that probably has to do with my childhood and even some of my adulthood because it's still on regularly. Um, but after watching it from beginning to end and remembering certain parts of it that, you know, my family connected on, or even just things that I I kind of wish I was raised in that time period, you know, to have more closeness than than what we have now, which is just a lot of distance. It's it's a movie that I'll keep going back to.
SPEAKER_03:And I think you should. Uh you bring up a lot of like the practicality of a time before screens. And even though the kid, you know, the the dad is like in his head in the newspaper, that still felt it still feels like, and I, you know, that's how I grew up too, is like my grandpa with a crossword, you know, there wasn't there wasn't a tablet, there wasn't a phone.
SPEAKER_04:And the dad wasn't super engaging, but he was engaged. He was present, yeah, with well, and the kids were present with each other. The kids were present, you know, like I just super agree with what Liz had said, and and one of the things that I had said where it's like for some of us, like whatever you're trying to get across here, that ain't it. That's not what like what it was for me. I can't relate to this, yeah. And and I think the movie relies on that at times, that it's not effective with me, and sometimes it relies on that. I get it, man. We get it all. You're a Grinch.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Did your but did your heart grow the joy in Stone or Pies? Did your heart grow a little bit today? It did, at least 0.5, right? Yeah. I I think everything is saying and feeling, and I said this to Rachel about shop around the corner as well, and we got into a deep conversation about it, where it's like it's really hard to be critical of my own feelings or anyone else's feelings about like holiday movies, like specifically.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, 100%. I mean, I still like the Santa Claus.
unknown:Huh?
SPEAKER_03:Talk about full CPS, yeah. Also, Scott Calvin, Scott Calvin, Scott Calvin, 38 years old. In case you weren't aware, it says it on his license plate. He is 38 years old. Taylor, thank you for bringing this movie to us for our holiday helping. I'm sorry we were lower in our ratings than you had expected, but I hope you enjoyed the conversation.
SPEAKER_02:I did, I did very much. And you guys also opened my eyes to some things, so yeah, it's mutually beneficial, I think.
SPEAKER_03:I talked to these two assholes who were critical about a Christmas story, they broke it down by story. What the fuck? What's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, but here's the thing. I I don't think you're you're the only ones. I think there's a lot of people that feel like certain scenes are not appropriate and well, uh, is there anything else you would like to say?
SPEAKER_03:Plug, do tell anyone of our elves before we uh get out of here?
SPEAKER_01:I don't think so.
SPEAKER_03:Great.
SPEAKER_01:Is there something I should say?
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_04:Uh just want to say you're the best and you make the best stoner pies.
SPEAKER_01:You shall see soon.
SPEAKER_04:I certainly hope so. Our bookend themes are Jamie Henwood, what you've been doing, and what are you watching are from Matthew Foskett. Fun facts is Chris Old and interstitials are by the gentleman to my uh to my right, uh Benjamin McFadden. Hey everybody, happy holidays, listeners, and also people that I'm here to you.
SPEAKER_03:Happy holidays to you.
SPEAKER_00:Happy holidays.
SPEAKER_04:Happy holidays.
SPEAKER_03:Ho ho ho.
SPEAKER_00:Hi everyone, this is JJ, the co-founder of Good Pods. If you haven't heard of it yet, Good Pods is like Goodreads or Instagram, but for podcasts. It's new, it's social, it's different, and it's growing really fast. There are more than two million podcasts, and we know that it is impossible to figure out what to listen to. On Good Pods, you follow your friends and podcasters to see what they like. That is the number one way to discover new shows and episodes. You can find Good Pods on the web or download the app. Happy listening.
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