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Girlfriendship · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

0:10
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a bonus episode
0:13
Speaker 1: of Long Story Short the podcast. I'm Megan, I'm Wendy,
0:18
Speaker 1: and on these bonus episodes, we like to dig into
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Speaker 1: the latest offerings from Hallmark movies. I'm the lifelong Hallmark
0:26
Speaker 1: fan and Wendy is the reluctant movie watcher these days,
0:31
Speaker 1: old days, reluctant movie watcher. You get excited to watch
0:35
Speaker 1: a Hallmark movie. Pretty hyped for that count down there,
0:38
Speaker 1: I am too, I am too. Outside of the podcast,
0:42
Speaker 1: you can always find us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
0:44
Speaker 1: We are at Megan and Wendy in all of those places.
0:49
Speaker 1: You can always email us to like your thoughts about
0:52
Speaker 1: these podcasts, or your own reviews of the movie whatever.
0:58
Speaker 1: Megan and Wendy at gmail dot com. Speaking of email,
1:02
Speaker 1: last week we put out our Countdown to Christmas preview
1:05
Speaker 1: episode where we went through each of the forty movies
1:08
Speaker 1: and weighed in on our thoughts. And that was a
1:11
Speaker 1: very fun episode to record and we got some feedback.
1:13
Speaker 1: I'm anxious to hear it. This is from Rina. Thank
1:17
Speaker 1: you so much for your detailed email. I got very
1:20
Speaker 1: nervous when I opened up the email, and it was long.
1:22
Speaker 1: I thought, oh, what did we do? But it was lovely.
1:24
Speaker 1: It's lovely. But there's some feedback. Okay, Hi very much
1:28
Speaker 1: enjoyed the episode, but wanted to send you a few
1:30
Speaker 1: thoughts notes as it died in the wool Hallmark fan
1:33
Speaker 1: and because I am a deck the Hallmark double Decker
1:35
Speaker 1: as it were. I am part of a weekly Hallmark
1:38
Speaker 1: watch group through their private Facebook page, so I watch
1:40
Speaker 1: a lot of Hallmark movies. I'm also recovering from cancer surgery,
1:44
Speaker 1: so I have a bunch of time on my hands,
1:45
Speaker 1: although heading back to work virtually today. Yay. I think
1:49
Speaker 1: I mentioned previously that I work with Broadway shows, so exciting.
1:53
Speaker 1: That's so exciting. Corey Sevier his last name is pronounced
1:59
Speaker 1: the French way sev A. Yeah, I think I think
2:02
Speaker 1: I well, I know for sure, I butchered it in
2:05
Speaker 1: that episode. I think I called him Siever. And I
2:08
Speaker 1: know this because I saw a commercial with him in
2:11
Speaker 1: it last night and they said it the proper way.
2:15
Speaker 1: So sorry. He's also doing a gaff movie this year,
2:20
Speaker 1: which somewhat put me off him, but I'll watch the
2:23
Speaker 1: movie in any case. And a note for the listeners
2:27
Speaker 1: gaff used to be Ghak Great American Family, also known
2:31
Speaker 1: as the Non Woke Movie Channel. Yes, Patti Mirran is
2:35
Speaker 1: actually a Broadway star. She was Princess Anna for the
2:38
Speaker 1: entire run of Frozen on Broadway. She's also married to
2:41
Speaker 1: Colin Donnell and they were in a Hallmark movie together
2:43
Speaker 1: called To Catch a Spy. She was also in Holiday
2:46
Speaker 1: for Heroes. The Joni's Wheaton movie has a backstory. It
2:50
Speaker 1: was originally called What Christmas under Wraps? Okay two? Part two?
2:57
Speaker 1: Christmas under Wraps was a Candice Cameron Beret movie from
3:01
Speaker 1: many years ago. It out Some people look at it
3:05
Speaker 1: as a cult classic because of how weird the storyline is. Okay,
3:09
Speaker 1: go ahead, Some of the main characters in the CCB
3:12
Speaker 1: movie move over to this movie, including the main love interest.
3:17
Speaker 1: Some of us are very curious as to how they
3:20
Speaker 1: explaining this. Okay, so, but they changed the title of it, right. Indeed,
3:25
Speaker 1: that's definitely one of the movies I will be watching.
3:28
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for Jodie sween and I think it's
3:31
Speaker 1: so funny. Like you think that was on purpose? Well,
3:37
Speaker 1: I don't think it wasn't on purpose. Oh so, the
3:40
Speaker 1: backstory drama diin't to hear that movie is on our
3:44
Speaker 1: list of movies two review this year. Ellen Travolta is
3:47
Speaker 1: John's sister. Oh hey, hey, thank you. She has a
3:50
Speaker 1: small part in Greece, but it's done a lot of
3:52
Speaker 1: character work in her life. Also, I can't believe you
3:55
Speaker 1: haven't seen Victor Webster. He's done a number of Hallmark
3:58
Speaker 1: Christmins movies, including five star Chris Smith. And he is very,
4:01
Speaker 1: very hot. I looked at Victor Webster looking at my poll. Non,
4:04
Speaker 1: go ahead. He played a absolute jackass on the TV
4:08
Speaker 1: show Working Moms. Oh, excuse me, Working Moms Work? Oh
4:13
Speaker 1: he did? He is very hot, he is yea, yea, yeah,
4:15
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. So I apologize because I actually I have
4:20
Speaker 1: seen him. He has made an impression. It looks like
4:23
Speaker 1: he was also on Days. Oh who did he play
4:27
Speaker 1: on Days? Nicholas Alamine? Oh, I don't know who that is.
4:30
Speaker 1: I'd have to ask my husband, who's the resident Days
4:33
Speaker 1: fan in this house? Did you know Days migrated to Peacock?
4:36
Speaker 1: They're not even on NBC anymore. Oh I didn't. My
4:39
Speaker 1: husband's real salty about it. Do you guys have Peacock?
4:42
Speaker 1: We do now, but that you still have to watch commercials.
4:47
Speaker 1: I've watch commercials on my peacock with that, so he's
4:50
Speaker 1: like his concession. One of my very good friends works
4:53
Speaker 1: for days and so he told him I will watch
4:57
Speaker 1: this show, but in concession for having to watch commercials,
5:01
Speaker 1: I will now fast forward through more of the parts
5:03
Speaker 1: that I don't like. Oh so he's not giving up
5:06
Speaker 1: more of his time, but I will say, wrap this up. Peacock.
5:09
Speaker 1: Commercial breaks are quite short. They're only sixty seconds. Sixty seconds, yes, yeah,
5:13
Speaker 1: they show the countdowns they do, so they do. I
5:16
Speaker 1: can deal. I can deal, all right? What else? What
5:18
Speaker 1: else we've gotten? Hurt email? That is it? Thank you
5:21
Speaker 1: so much for that feedback. That was very helpful. I
5:23
Speaker 1: love it. Love it more emails. Please email us, guys.
5:26
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't claim to know all the Hallmark
5:31
Speaker 1: ins and outs, and we love it when our listeners do.
5:34
Speaker 1: So email us to quote and fellow podcasters. We're not experts.
5:39
Speaker 1: We're just two friends who like to talk about Hamewark
5:41
Speaker 1: movie es. Yeah, exactly. Can we do homework news? Yes?
5:44
Speaker 1: You have news too, right I do. I just want
5:47
Speaker 1: to give you an update. And I can't remember where
5:50
Speaker 1: I even started talking about this. I'm all in on
5:54
Speaker 1: Chesapeake Shores. Oh you talked about it on this week's
5:58
Speaker 1: Pop Culture Club episode. Okay, Well, for our Hallmark listeners,
6:02
Speaker 1: I did go back and start with season one, and
6:06
Speaker 1: I love it. It's really good. You know, it's like
6:10
Speaker 1: family drama, like brothers and sisters. I don't know why
6:14
Speaker 1: I just pulled out Wow years ago, but you know,
6:16
Speaker 1: like a thirty something more timely references about parenthood. Yeah
6:24
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, like an ensemble family drama exactly. And
6:27
Speaker 1: it's a good cast. And I will say in the
6:30
Speaker 1: first season, I mean, we're getting to like them some
6:34
Speaker 1: meat in the story now. So I am looking forward
6:36
Speaker 1: to season two. I only have an episode and a
6:38
Speaker 1: half left of season one, so I will be thirty
6:41
Speaker 1: season two soon. And I will say, last night, while
6:45
Speaker 1: I was watching Girlfriendship, there was a commercial four Chesapeake
6:49
Speaker 1: Shores that said something like about this is the end.
6:52
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh no, like I know, it
6:54
Speaker 1: went away, and then like the fans wanted to get back,
6:57
Speaker 1: and now I'm freaking now that it's gonna go away.
6:59
Speaker 1: I'm going to be so sad when it's over. I
7:01
Speaker 1: believe this is the actual end, this is the final,
7:04
Speaker 1: final season. I don't know. I'm just I'm really flying
7:07
Speaker 1: out how I am. I really like the actors in it.
7:10
Speaker 1: It's really good and it's so esthetically pleasing to look
7:14
Speaker 1: at that. I googled is Chesapeake Shores a real place
7:18
Speaker 1: in Maryland? It is not, but they just live on
7:20
Speaker 1: this like lake or I don't know, something on a shore.
7:24
Speaker 1: It's beautiful. Well, Wendy is watching. She purchased the first season,
7:28
Speaker 1: but we did a little research. It is available on
7:30
Speaker 1: the Friendly app all sixth season. Yes, it is, which
7:34
Speaker 1: I think now I feel compelled to want. Well, I'll say,
7:37
Speaker 1: like on the Friendly App, I'm gonna have to watch
7:38
Speaker 1: commercials because it's on demand. Yes, but on I watch
7:43
Speaker 1: on Prime Now Amazon, and it just skips right through
7:46
Speaker 1: those commercials. So I just really enjoy it. So shout
7:49
Speaker 1: out to all the people who said you need to
7:51
Speaker 1: watch it, because they were right. They were right. Next up,
7:55
Speaker 1: the movie Brose came out this past weekend, starring our
7:58
Speaker 1: beloved Luke McFarlane and Billy Eichner. Also, we have plans
8:04
Speaker 1: to see this movie in the theater. I have been
8:06
Speaker 1: looking forward to this movie. I kind of wish it
8:08
Speaker 1: was streaming, just because I'm lazy. It will be in
8:11
Speaker 1: like four weeks. I think that quickly. Yeah, I will say.
8:16
Speaker 1: I looked up the Rotten Tomato score for this movie
8:18
Speaker 1: and both the critic and the audience score are over
8:21
Speaker 1: ninety percent, which is good when they're the same, because
8:25
Speaker 1: I feel like you can trust it, like sometimes they're
8:27
Speaker 1: way off one way or the other. However, there was
8:31
Speaker 1: a New York Times article by a man named Brooks
8:33
Speaker 1: Barnes about the fact that the movie didn't do well
8:38
Speaker 1: in ticket sales, sold about four million dollars, which they
8:41
Speaker 1: said is forty percent under what they have projected. And
8:44
Speaker 1: I think this line is worth reading. Brooks Barnes says,
8:48
Speaker 1: there's no easy way to say it. When the reviews
8:50
Speaker 1: are this sensational, the marketing support is this substance, this substantive,
8:55
Speaker 1: and the theatrical footprint is this wide and ticket this
9:00
Speaker 1: and ticket sales are nonetheless this low. It suggests out
9:05
Speaker 1: right marketplace rejection. People don't want to see a gay
9:09
Speaker 1: rom com. They've decided that that's not it for them.
9:12
Speaker 1: I'm here for it me too. It isn't it. It
9:16
Speaker 1: does not even matter to me that there it features
9:19
Speaker 1: the same sex couple. I just want to see It's
9:22
Speaker 1: a funny movie, right, That's that's all I care about.
9:25
Speaker 1: I want to have entertainment that's going to make me laugh. Yes,
9:29
Speaker 1: so we're gonna go see it. We're gonna add to
9:30
Speaker 1: those four million dollars something sales. Oh well, you know.
9:33
Speaker 1: It's so it's so weird because like movere theater going
9:39
Speaker 1: is still not to what it used to be, right.
9:43
Speaker 1: And I was just saying to my daughter, like, oh,
9:45
Speaker 1: you and your friendship go see a movie, and there
9:47
Speaker 1: she's like, like what, nesting's out because everything either comes
9:51
Speaker 1: to streaming like right away, or it's out and it's
9:55
Speaker 1: out for like two weeks and then it's gone. That's
9:57
Speaker 1: why I'm like a little bit of afraid. If we
9:59
Speaker 1: don't goes he Bros. This week, we're not gonna see
10:02
Speaker 1: it at all. Right, So I just feel like, you know,
10:05
Speaker 1: not everybody's back in a movie theater yet. Well, And
10:08
Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting how they decide what movies
10:11
Speaker 1: go to theaters and what I was really surprised to
10:13
Speaker 1: see that Disney chose not to release hocus Pocus Too
10:15
Speaker 1: in theaters and it went straight to streaming. Because when
10:19
Speaker 1: that movie originally came out, it did not do well
10:21
Speaker 1: in theaters, and then I was reading an article and
10:23
Speaker 1: it found its footing when it started airing on TV
10:25
Speaker 1: and developed this kind of cult following. Hocus Pocus is
10:28
Speaker 1: not a good movie. Nobody is arguing that Focus is
10:30
Speaker 1: a good movie, but there's something real campy about it.
10:35
Speaker 1: It's just a cult classic. I don't watch this movie thinking, wow,
10:38
Speaker 1: this was great movie making. I just we enjoy it
10:41
Speaker 1: in my family and we will watch hocus Pocus too
10:44
Speaker 1: and back tonight. But I think with that cult following
10:48
Speaker 1: that it has, it could have done really well in
10:50
Speaker 1: the theaters, and they decided not to risk it because
10:53
Speaker 1: I think theater going so people are like, if it's
10:55
Speaker 1: not big budget superhero movie or top guy Maverick movie, yes,
11:01
Speaker 1: or you've got Julia Roberts and George Clooney in a
11:04
Speaker 1: rom com. I totally want to see that as well.
11:06
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch the hell out of that movie me too,
11:09
Speaker 1: So go see it, guys, go see it. I want
11:13
Speaker 1: to support Luke McFarlane. I do too. I want him
11:16
Speaker 1: to do well. I hope we see a lot more
11:19
Speaker 1: of him me too. Are you ready for news and
11:22
Speaker 1: notes about girlfriendship. Sure, do I need to read the
11:25
Speaker 1: synopsis first? Please? Okay? After a booking mix up, Samara's
11:31
Speaker 1: birthday getaway turns into a week long journey where three
11:35
Speaker 1: friends rediscover passion, purpose, and romance. This movie originally aired Saturday,
11:41
Speaker 1: October first on the Hallmark Channel and some categorization confusion. Sure. Yeah.
11:52
Speaker 1: When you read an article that referred to this as
11:54
Speaker 1: a movie from the Mahogany line, it even said that
11:56
Speaker 1: Tamara Mawory Housley had referred to this as a movie
11:59
Speaker 1: from the Mahogany collection. As far as we can tell,
12:02
Speaker 1: that isn't actually the case, right, Hallmark doesn't list it
12:05
Speaker 1: as a Mahogany movie. They listed and fall into Love?
12:09
Speaker 1: Is that what the series have fallen to? Thank you? Yeah?
12:11
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that it matters, except that we don't
12:13
Speaker 1: We want to correctly classify these movies, and I don't
12:17
Speaker 1: want to fall into the trap of oh, it has
12:20
Speaker 1: this huge cast that is all women of color, therefore
12:23
Speaker 1: it must be a Mahogany movie. That's a real dangerous
12:27
Speaker 1: road to trip down. Also, so it's a fall into
12:30
Speaker 1: love movie as far as we can tell, I agree
12:33
Speaker 1: with some Mahogany tie ins that we'll get to later. Yeah,
12:37
Speaker 1: it's not not a Mahogany movie for what it's worth. Yeah, totally.
12:41
Speaker 1: Let's talk more about this movie. Tell me some things.
12:43
Speaker 1: It was shot in the same location where the storyline
12:46
Speaker 1: takes place, which is so interesting to me. Yeah, a
12:51
Speaker 1: Diisto island off a South Carolina coast, a disto. I
12:55
Speaker 1: think it's a disto. Okay, sevi A have you ever
12:59
Speaker 1: been there. I've been near there. I've into Hilton Head,
13:03
Speaker 1: uh huh. Which there's some contention because the Gulageechee people
13:10
Speaker 1: that Ariela, she is a descendant in this movie, and
13:14
Speaker 1: that's an actual group of people that live on a
13:17
Speaker 1: Disto island, and they are the descendants of West Africans
13:21
Speaker 1: that were brought there as slaves. They were brought there
13:25
Speaker 1: because they were expert rice growers, and then they were
13:27
Speaker 1: sent to work on rice plantations, and to this day
13:31
Speaker 1: people still live there. However, I did read an article
13:34
Speaker 1: that there's been a lot of development that is kind
13:36
Speaker 1: of forcing them out. It's been very gentrified. So I
13:40
Speaker 1: think like Hiltonhead, which is like classic resort nearby, is
13:45
Speaker 1: not necessarily looked upon very kindly from the residents of
13:48
Speaker 1: a Disto Island got it. Well, that's super interesting. Also,
13:54
Speaker 1: the Notebook was filmed there in two thousand and five.
13:56
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. One of my favorite movies ever.
13:59
Speaker 1: It was also when they go shopping that is the
14:03
Speaker 1: Black Octopus Mercantile in North Charleston. That's funny you mentioned that,
14:07
Speaker 1: because while that scene was on, I had noticed the
14:10
Speaker 1: logo and the window, and so I looked them up
14:13
Speaker 1: on Instagram last night, and I was like, kind of
14:16
Speaker 1: hoping for some you know, behind the scenes stuff or
14:19
Speaker 1: whatever their stories. None of it reflected that. So, like
14:22
Speaker 1: I responded on one of their like recent pictures, which
14:25
Speaker 1: was like from earlier in the days anyway, I was like,
14:27
Speaker 1: did I just see your storefront in a Hallmark movie?
14:30
Speaker 1: And they responded back and said like yes, and the
14:33
Speaker 1: interior too when they were shopping. Oh nice. So what
14:37
Speaker 1: is funny, though, is the store fronts look totally different,
14:41
Speaker 1: Like I don't know if like Hallmark production came in
14:45
Speaker 1: and gussied it up. They must have, because their front
14:48
Speaker 1: door on their Instagram has all these like stickers and
14:51
Speaker 1: stuff on it. There were no stickers. I went back
14:54
Speaker 1: and looked, I don't know, and there's a little plot
14:57
Speaker 1: next to the store on instagram netw like empty, but
15:01
Speaker 1: in the movie they had like vendors they are selling
15:04
Speaker 1: and whatever. So I mean, I don't know if that's
15:08
Speaker 1: what it typically looks like, if they typically have vendors there,
15:12
Speaker 1: or what it looks like. But anyway, it was interesting.
15:14
Speaker 1: I've never ever, I don't think, really seen like a
15:17
Speaker 1: name of a real store in a movie. Definitely not
15:22
Speaker 1: something that's common, I would agree, Yeah, I mean, and
15:24
Speaker 1: it wasn't like totally obviously either. They had like a
15:27
Speaker 1: rack of clothes in front of it and you could
15:28
Speaker 1: see it was an octopus and it said like black octopus.
15:31
Speaker 1: I didn't see mercantile. I ended upgrading it. I only
15:34
Speaker 1: noticed because I had seen ahead of time that oh
15:37
Speaker 1: really that that was where this was filmed. Got it? Well,
15:40
Speaker 1: I will say now I won't put this in the
15:44
Speaker 1: did you see It? But at the end of the
15:45
Speaker 1: movie where they revisit the hair salon, the exterior is
15:50
Speaker 1: like the same exterior. It's just you can't see the
15:54
Speaker 1: black octopus. It's not that weird. Oh they use that
15:57
Speaker 1: exterior shot. That's so funny. Anyway, all right, so this
16:02
Speaker 1: movie was directed by one Kisha Knight Pelium, Miss Rudy
16:07
Speaker 1: Huxtable herself. I gasped out loud too. I was like,
16:11
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't even notice it, Like when
16:13
Speaker 1: they show the you know, credits or whatever, I don't know.
16:16
Speaker 1: I didn't either. One I never read the credits. Two
16:20
Speaker 1: I already knew that by the time we got to
16:22
Speaker 1: the credits, so I wasn't looking for it. She was
16:24
Speaker 1: in one hundred and seventy seven episodes of The Cosby Show.
16:27
Speaker 1: She has acted since then. This is her first directing role.
16:30
Speaker 1: But I'm about to blow your mind with a little
16:33
Speaker 1: bit of an additional news and note about Miss Kisha
16:37
Speaker 1: Knight Pelium and this movie. Tell me she is married
16:40
Speaker 1: to Brad James, who plays Kareem in this movie. Oh no,
16:46
Speaker 1: Wendy has some comments about his character. But I'm sure
16:48
Speaker 1: he's a lovely man. He's very very nice, smile. I
16:53
Speaker 1: really like the way you dressed too. I do have
16:55
Speaker 1: some thoughts about his character Kareem. Well. They were married
16:58
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. Cute, I love it. The movie
17:01
Speaker 1: was originally called Girlfriend's Summer Getaway, and it was originally
17:05
Speaker 1: expected to premiere in July it feels like a summer man,
17:09
Speaker 1: it feels like a summer movie, right, I agree. I
17:12
Speaker 1: wonder why they moved it to Fall. Maybe they're like,
17:15
Speaker 1: we got Christmas in July. Bounce Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe
17:21
Speaker 1: are you ready for first impressions of Girlfriendship? Sure, let's
17:25
Speaker 1: hear it. I feel like it was very meadow watching
17:28
Speaker 1: a Hallmark movie where the star works for a homework brand.
17:32
Speaker 1: It's so weird, I ues, I, Okay, I originally had
17:38
Speaker 1: this on. I did to see that, but I feel
17:39
Speaker 1: like I need to say it because I had a no, Megan,
17:42
Speaker 1: you actually didn't see that moment because as we all know,
17:45
Speaker 1: I have a bit of a short attention span. When
17:47
Speaker 1: he's struggling with her hair's a girl who's always touching out.
17:54
Speaker 1: We all know that I have a short attention span,
17:56
Speaker 1: and sometimes I'm not watching this with the egleist device.
17:59
Speaker 1: But opening meeting where Samara, all I really noticed was like, oh,
18:07
Speaker 1: she's a numbers lady, like she's a finance lady. I
18:09
Speaker 1: wasn't really paying attention. And then like I didn't see
18:13
Speaker 1: her walk by the huge mahogany. No, I didn't, And
18:16
Speaker 1: then they like mentioned mahogany in the meeting, but I
18:19
Speaker 1: didn't notice any of that. I was just like, this
18:22
Speaker 1: is a meeting. Who cares? And later on she's sitting
18:27
Speaker 1: at the table with her friend Eva, and Eva's talking
18:30
Speaker 1: about how important it is to bring black women to
18:33
Speaker 1: the table and celebrate their culture. And I wrote down
18:36
Speaker 1: in my notes, is this a promo for Mahogany. And
18:42
Speaker 1: then at the end of the movie, well, they discussed
18:45
Speaker 1: Mahogany at the end. After I watched it, I went
18:47
Speaker 1: back to the beginning and they very clearly referenced Mahogany
18:51
Speaker 1: in that opening scene. So that was a that was
18:53
Speaker 1: a me moment. But I really was like, wow, Eagle
18:56
Speaker 1: Eye Mayan, like, look at the Mahogany tiant. I mean,
18:58
Speaker 1: it was not subtle, It was not the secret. You
19:01
Speaker 1: did not see anything there, Megan, You're like, is this
19:07
Speaker 1: look at me? Find me already? So anyway, my first
19:15
Speaker 1: impression of this movie is it confusing that Tamara plays
19:19
Speaker 1: a character named Samara? Yeah, it totally is. Why did
19:24
Speaker 1: they do that? Oh? Or like, I mean they named
19:27
Speaker 1: the character obviously before they cast the movie. But do
19:32
Speaker 1: you think I mean they changed the titles of these
19:34
Speaker 1: movies like on a whim they could have easily changed
19:37
Speaker 1: her name. They're like, we're gonna hire Tamara, so let's
19:41
Speaker 1: just change it to Samara. That's so funny. I just feel, yeah,
19:45
Speaker 1: maybe they're like or they just didn't want to find
19:47
Speaker 1: and replace in their script and I don't know. And
19:51
Speaker 1: it's so funny you mentioned that, because when I heard
19:53
Speaker 1: her character's name, I was like, wait, is her name
19:56
Speaker 1: Tamara in the movie? And then like then I heard its.
20:00
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what we liked about this movie. Okay,
20:03
Speaker 1: I have I have mine? Can I tell you please?
20:06
Speaker 1: I thought this story had a lot of depth, Okay.
20:10
Speaker 1: I cared about the three lead characters a lot in
20:13
Speaker 1: their lives, and I thought there were pieces from each
20:16
Speaker 1: of their lives that I found super relatable. Okay, I
20:22
Speaker 1: have a lot. Okay, won the clothes, Oh my gosh,
20:26
Speaker 1: the costume designer, the wardrobe, whoever it is, they did
20:30
Speaker 1: it again like such. I felt like the wardrobe was
20:34
Speaker 1: so stunning and aspirational in this movie. Agree though, I
20:38
Speaker 1: have a note and I'm gonna put it here, and
20:41
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who to blame for this one, and
20:43
Speaker 1: I think it's wardrobe. But Kareem's daughter, I thought she
20:47
Speaker 1: was a child. At first I thought she was twelve.
20:49
Speaker 1: I'm like, who dressed this girl? And then I find
20:51
Speaker 1: out she's eighteen, and I'm like, what my brain is
20:53
Speaker 1: not working? Like agree, she'd looked too young. I thought
20:58
Speaker 1: they dressed her too young. But to ask for the ladies, yeah, gorgeous,
21:03
Speaker 1: it looked amazing. Yes, yes, okay. There's a scene in
21:06
Speaker 1: the movie where they do a burn it, bless it,
21:09
Speaker 1: bestow it ceremony and I'm not gonna lie. I feel like,
21:13
Speaker 1: as a woman in her forties, I felt like I
21:16
Speaker 1: could really relate to that moment. That's way too wooey.
21:20
Speaker 1: I know, that's normally not me. That's normally me, I know.
21:24
Speaker 1: And when Eva had her old ratty sweater that she
21:28
Speaker 1: like held on to for comfort and her friends were like,
21:30
Speaker 1: you need to move away from what's comfortable. I was
21:35
Speaker 1: really feeling it in that moment. Were you? I thought
21:38
Speaker 1: it was a really beautiful moment in the movie. It was.
21:40
Speaker 1: I agree too. I don't really know how to say
21:43
Speaker 1: this next part, and please call me out if I'm
21:45
Speaker 1: being an asshole, but what I think is important in
21:49
Speaker 1: these Hallmark movies is that not only are we casting
21:53
Speaker 1: a diverse array of characters, but we also represent what
21:56
Speaker 1: their lives actually look like. And I feel like unthinkably
22:01
Speaker 1: good things did that. And we talked about this in
22:04
Speaker 1: the episode where one of the characters was like, as
22:08
Speaker 1: a black woman, these are the things I need to
22:09
Speaker 1: consider in my career, and they made a point of
22:11
Speaker 1: having that discussion from that perspective. Right. This movie does
22:15
Speaker 1: that in big and small ways too. But one really
22:17
Speaker 1: small way that I thought was it struck me was
22:21
Speaker 1: Renee is doing the hair of Kaream's daughter, Kareem's daughter,
22:25
Speaker 1: and she says, Eva, can you get me my edge
22:28
Speaker 1: control from my bag? I got hurt. Yes, yeah, and
22:31
Speaker 1: I was like, that's such like a It made sense
22:35
Speaker 1: in the moments, but this is important. This makes sense
22:39
Speaker 1: for these women. We're not just taking people of color
22:43
Speaker 1: and dropping them into the pre existing stories. We're making
22:46
Speaker 1: the stories work as they should exist. I agree, yes,
22:51
Speaker 1: and I think that that's a really small way to
22:55
Speaker 1: do it, but it really worked for me. I agree.
22:58
Speaker 1: I thought it was notable and good way. I agree.
23:01
Speaker 1: Another thing I liked I wrote whoop whoop, a conversation
23:05
Speaker 1: that went straight to the point. Okay, oh Mara is
23:10
Speaker 1: mad at Kareem, and instead of stomping out and ignoring him,
23:14
Speaker 1: she says, are you in a relationship? M that's the
23:17
Speaker 1: first thing she says, yeah, And I thought, thank you. Well,
23:20
Speaker 1: you know what I think it was like right before that,
23:22
Speaker 1: when she was talking to her friend, she said something
23:26
Speaker 1: like I can like run away from it, or I
23:28
Speaker 1: can be a woman and talk to him about it.
23:30
Speaker 1: And she's like, and I'm a woman, And I was like,
23:33
Speaker 1: I love it, Yes, I love it. Yes, my last
23:36
Speaker 1: like is a distal island is gorgeous, but it's not
23:40
Speaker 1: fall at all? Y'all. Well, now we know it wasn't
23:43
Speaker 1: supposed to be fine ov. I don't know what fall
23:46
Speaker 1: in South Carolina is like, do you. I'm gonna assume
23:50
Speaker 1: it's hurricane ish right right now? Yeah, recent weather. There
23:54
Speaker 1: were a lot of funny lines throughout this movie. One
23:57
Speaker 1: was when they were talking about taking this trip and
24:00
Speaker 1: there was the difference between what was the name of
24:02
Speaker 1: these trips, the re rewilding and wilding out. Yes, and
24:08
Speaker 1: she goes one sounds like woo woo and one sounds
24:10
Speaker 1: like woooo. And I was like, that is so funny.
24:14
Speaker 1: I thought it was so funny. Yes, that was very funny.
24:17
Speaker 1: I laughed out. I did too. The other thing I
24:20
Speaker 1: really liked this movie. It was the side storyline of
24:23
Speaker 1: Samara's mom. Oh yes, I love to see a whole
24:27
Speaker 1: movie about an only child who is a caretaker to
24:30
Speaker 1: a parent with memory loss. And I'm sure Hallmark has
24:33
Speaker 1: done this movie. I just haven't seen it since twenty twenty. Yeah. Well,
24:37
Speaker 1: I think I believe we are getting not necessarily the
24:40
Speaker 1: only child angle, but we're getting a parent with memory
24:42
Speaker 1: loss in countdown to Christmas? Oh are we? I can't recall.
24:46
Speaker 1: There's forty movies, guys, I can't remember in my index. Yes,
24:50
Speaker 1: maybe it's just relatable to me because I'm just at
24:53
Speaker 1: that age in life, Yeah, where you have aging parents.
24:59
Speaker 1: You know. I just want to see stuff like that
25:02
Speaker 1: on my TV. Right anyway, it's time for what we
25:06
Speaker 1: wished for. Mm hmmm. I thought they spent too much
25:09
Speaker 1: time trying to get out of the vacation once they
25:13
Speaker 1: realized they had made a mistake. I felt like there
25:16
Speaker 1: was too much attention given to how can we get
25:18
Speaker 1: out of here? How can we get out of here?
25:19
Speaker 1: How can we get out of here? And that got
25:22
Speaker 1: old to me. Hygien Ce to you, yeah, and like
25:25
Speaker 1: you're there, what are you going to do? Like, you've
25:27
Speaker 1: spent this money on this week vacation. Is it realistic?
25:30
Speaker 1: We're just gonna burn the however much money we spent
25:34
Speaker 1: on this and we can hop flights the next day.
25:36
Speaker 1: That felt unrealistic? All right, You're like, just go for it, right,
25:39
Speaker 1: just lean in? Yeah? Did you see at the end though,
25:42
Speaker 1: when Samara comes back, I'm three ladies obviously booked the
25:48
Speaker 1: wrong trip of the bobo girlfriends. Yeah, Oh it's so funny.
25:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about cream here for a second. Okay.
25:55
Speaker 1: I don't think he was cool at all, especially when
26:01
Speaker 1: Samara is talking to his daughter and is encouraging her
26:04
Speaker 1: about her art and her passion for art, and he
26:08
Speaker 1: flips out and he's like, it's time to take you
26:11
Speaker 1: back to wherever and he storms out and she goes
26:13
Speaker 1: out after him, and he's like, I needed you to
26:16
Speaker 1: back me up in there, and I'm like, excuse me, sir,
26:19
Speaker 1: Like this is a parenting conversation. Like she's not a
26:22
Speaker 1: co parent, she's someone you met four days ago. She
26:26
Speaker 1: was simply encouraging your daughter based on what she's walked
26:30
Speaker 1: into and saw and he was like, so out of line,
26:35
Speaker 1: I thought, I agree with you, So that made me
26:40
Speaker 1: not like him. My other wish was why does Kareem
26:44
Speaker 1: support Samara's art dream but not his daughter? Well, he
26:48
Speaker 1: talked about and this is maybe goes into a little
26:52
Speaker 1: bit what you talked about at the top of the show,
26:56
Speaker 1: was that he was like, she is needed here, hmm.
27:00
Speaker 1: And I was wondering if that is some sort of
27:04
Speaker 1: tie in to the gentrification of the island, and maybe
27:08
Speaker 1: we're just as viewers didn't know kind of like that
27:11
Speaker 1: backstory there, like why was she needed on the island?
27:16
Speaker 1: I don't think that was a story that was well
27:20
Speaker 1: told other than I mean, clearly this was a small
27:24
Speaker 1: community that he was in. He felt like he was
27:26
Speaker 1: needed on the island. He wasn't branching out. And I
27:30
Speaker 1: wondered if his not being willing to let go of
27:32
Speaker 1: her had to do with him not saying it out loud,
27:36
Speaker 1: but feeling stuck, feeling like he couldn't pursue his dream.
27:39
Speaker 1: So if he wasn't gonna do it, then nobody was
27:41
Speaker 1: going to do it. And it felt like, look, she's
27:44
Speaker 1: eighteen and some point she's just gonna leave with or
27:47
Speaker 1: without your blessing. I mean, didn't she get a full
27:51
Speaker 1: ride scholarship to college? She didn't have to listen to
27:54
Speaker 1: what he said. No, I'm telling you back to the
27:58
Speaker 1: wardrobe thing. I thought she was twelve. And when that
28:01
Speaker 1: the hairdresser lady tell me her name again, Renee, when
28:04
Speaker 1: she was talking about adopting children, and I'm like, oh,
28:06
Speaker 1: she's going to adopt this girl, Like I thought she
28:08
Speaker 1: was a child. Still, I thought she was a child
28:11
Speaker 1: until she said are you going to college? And she
28:13
Speaker 1: said apparently not? Oh okay, what yeah? Yeah, yeah, So anyway, Cream,
28:21
Speaker 1: and he just disappointed me a little bit. Something else
28:27
Speaker 1: I wished for here is that I was hoping that
28:30
Speaker 1: Samara would have realized that Cream was like not made
28:36
Speaker 1: as a romantic partner, but like as a friend who
28:40
Speaker 1: encouraged her to pursue her passions. You know. I just
28:44
Speaker 1: like she bounced off the island and it was good,
28:46
Speaker 1: and they could have left it there for me. Yeah
28:48
Speaker 1: I didn't. I don't need the end kiss thing like,
28:51
Speaker 1: I just don't. And they could have still had that scene. Look,
28:54
Speaker 1: I've this is my cafe. I'm very excited about it,
28:58
Speaker 1: and they can support each other's and like, I'd love
29:01
Speaker 1: to be your first patron, right, I don't need to
29:04
Speaker 1: be your girlfriend? Yeah, exactly, Like, how's that gonna work?
29:07
Speaker 1: The dude lives on an island and she now has
29:09
Speaker 1: a new illustrator job for Mahogany, So now they're gonna
29:13
Speaker 1: have a long distance relationship. What what's happening here? I
29:17
Speaker 1: felt like this movie had a lot going on and
29:21
Speaker 1: didn't fully flesh out a lot of what was going on.
29:24
Speaker 1: I felt very confused by Samara's job. I feel like
29:29
Speaker 1: if I was a casual Hallmark watcher, I wouldn't have
29:32
Speaker 1: known that she worked for a company that makes cards.
29:35
Speaker 1: I was like, kwed rewatching scenes trying to see if
29:39
Speaker 1: they made that clear, and I didn't think they did
29:42
Speaker 1: make it. And they're like she's talking about travel and
29:45
Speaker 1: she's talking about planning events and what is this company?
29:49
Speaker 1: It wasn't clear to me. Yeah. I felt like there
29:53
Speaker 1: were a lot of stories that needed just a little
29:55
Speaker 1: bit more information. Yeah yeah, okay, now here is the
29:59
Speaker 1: part where I might sound like the asshole. Oh at
30:02
Speaker 1: the top, I said that this movie has a lot
30:03
Speaker 1: of depth to it. The story had a lot of
30:05
Speaker 1: depth to it, and with like unthinkably good things. Again,
30:10
Speaker 1: I know this is not a Mahogany movie under the banner,
30:14
Speaker 1: but I feel like some of these newer movies are
30:20
Speaker 1: showing women that have full lives, right, And on the
30:27
Speaker 1: flip side of that, their Homewark has movies where it's
30:31
Speaker 1: like white girl princess looking to get married. What makes
30:35
Speaker 1: me feel like an asshole is that women of color
30:39
Speaker 1: have been so unrepresented in entertainment for so long, and
30:45
Speaker 1: especially on Hallmark Channel. And I'm so happy that they're
30:48
Speaker 1: making these movies that are illustrating their lives. So I
30:55
Speaker 1: feel guilty, like for asking for a movie that has depth,
30:59
Speaker 1: for that shows someone like me, we get the like
31:04
Speaker 1: the fluffy stuff. I think Hallmark is walking a very
31:08
Speaker 1: fine line here, and I think if they were to
31:10
Speaker 1: make fluffy throwaway movies featuring women of color already have
31:15
Speaker 1: I'm sure. I mean, look like Holly Robinson. Pete is
31:18
Speaker 1: a regular Hallmark actress, she was in all those Evergreen movies.
31:21
Speaker 1: Nobody's gonna tell you that there's depth in Evergreen, right,
31:24
Speaker 1: that's real classic Hallmark holiday, which I'm not knocking. I'm
31:28
Speaker 1: just saying those are light, fluffy Hallmark fare. I think
31:31
Speaker 1: if you're gonna take a cast it's almost entirely people
31:34
Speaker 1: of color and throw garbage at them, then maybe that's
31:40
Speaker 1: not going to be as well received either. But I
31:44
Speaker 1: think it's this balance, right. It kind of comes into
31:46
Speaker 1: We talked about how Hallmark represents these movies on their
31:50
Speaker 1: Instagram account. Yes, do they receive the same level of
31:53
Speaker 1: promotion as you know, their top billing white actors. Not
32:00
Speaker 1: necessarily is Homark doing it perfectly? I think the answer
32:03
Speaker 1: is no. That doesn't mean I'm not happy that they're
32:07
Speaker 1: doing it right, but yeah, it is not perfect, right.
32:11
Speaker 1: And I was trying to think back to the Wedding
32:16
Speaker 1: Veil series. Yes, and you know that three part movie
32:22
Speaker 1: had some depth to it, but it was also about
32:24
Speaker 1: like these women who are getting married. Yeah, it was
32:27
Speaker 1: like three wedding stories. It's not like friendship and women
32:33
Speaker 1: of a certain age and dealing with life and health
32:36
Speaker 1: and parents who are sick and job changes and stuff like.
32:39
Speaker 1: That's what I want to see, right. A Christmas Sale,
32:44
Speaker 1: i think, is an example of where we got a
32:46
Speaker 1: little bit more depth. Okay, Well, when the ladies have
32:51
Speaker 1: dinner at Kareem's house, he cooks them a lovely meal
32:55
Speaker 1: and they're like cheers in and they're like, this was
32:57
Speaker 1: so good. There's so much uneaten food food on the table. Uh,
33:02
Speaker 1: bowls of green beans and rice and like. And then
33:05
Speaker 1: they had like food that was like sort of eaten
33:07
Speaker 1: on their plate and it just so's funny. That's all
33:10
Speaker 1: prop food. The first one. I'm in a toss. When
33:13
Speaker 1: you give someone a gift, if someone gives you a gift,
33:16
Speaker 1: you say what is it? No, you say thank you,
33:18
Speaker 1: and you open it. Yeah. In TV often you hand
33:22
Speaker 1: someone a gift and they say what is it? Open
33:24
Speaker 1: at you? Jackass kareem. Give Samara a gift and she says,
33:28
Speaker 1: what is it? Open it? Oh yeah, but it was
33:31
Speaker 1: obvious that was an easel. And then she opened it.
33:33
Speaker 1: She's like paints. Uh, there wasn't even ta s paper
33:37
Speaker 1: in the bag. Like look in he tell it you
33:39
Speaker 1: a gift, it's for you, you know. I like to
33:41
Speaker 1: dig into the tweets. There were not a ton of
33:42
Speaker 1: tweets about this movie. One tweet from one Kiss Means
33:46
Speaker 1: Forever says, so far, the most unbelievable part of the
33:49
Speaker 1: movie is that a mother of three young kids could
33:51
Speaker 1: just up and leave for a week. I will say,
33:54
Speaker 1: I agree with that. There was that part and Samara,
33:58
Speaker 1: who was like working, she gets a phone call like, hey,
34:01
Speaker 1: we're leaving tonight, like, don't you get to ask for
34:03
Speaker 1: time off? Seriously? Yeah, I'm gonna work remotely. You can
34:06
Speaker 1: just do that, and she kind of didn't. What did
34:09
Speaker 1: you rate this movie? I thought this was a good movie.
34:12
Speaker 1: I gave it three and a half start exactly what
34:14
Speaker 1: I gave it. No, say, all right, We will be
34:17
Speaker 1: back with next week. We have two more weeks of
34:20
Speaker 1: fall movies before we kick off countdown to Christmas. If
34:24
Speaker 1: you haven't listened to our preview episode, we encourage you
34:26
Speaker 1: top back. Take a listen here our thoughts on all
34:28
Speaker 1: of those. We'll be back next week with a brand
34:31
Speaker 1: new Girls Gone Hallmark review. Leave us a review of
34:34
Speaker 1: your own on your way out in the Apple podcast app.
34:38
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, and goodbye bye.