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Home Hard - Lost in Nakitomi Plaza · Large Nerdron Collider

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Speaker 1: The Large Nerdron Collider Podcast is a production of I
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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey everybody, welcome to The Large Nerdron Collider Podcast,
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Speaker 1: the podcast that's all about the geeky stuff happening in
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Speaker 1: the world around us and how excited we are about it.
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Speaker 1: I am Ariel casting and with me as always is
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Speaker 1: my co host, Holly Jolly Jonathan Strickland. Yep, Um, got
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Speaker 1: a belly leca a bowl full of jelly. That's what
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Speaker 1: That's what lockdown does to me. Hey, Harriel, I got
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Speaker 1: a question for you. So here's your question. To start
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Speaker 1: off this episode. Let us say that, for some cruel
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Speaker 1: twist of fate, you are limited to only being able
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Speaker 1: to watch one holiday special or film each year. What
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Speaker 1: would you have picked for this year? Oh golly, oh
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Speaker 1: that's such a hard one, Jonathan, I know, way to go. Um. Now,
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Speaker 1: keep in mind next year you would be able to
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Speaker 1: choose a different one, but you can only have one
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Speaker 1: this year. I'm gonna say Scrooged, Scrooged, the Bill Murray Classic. Okay,
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Speaker 1: that's a that's a decent answer. That's a decent answer.
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Speaker 1: It's one that that's actually very divisive to I know
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Speaker 1: people who have very strong feelings about that one, because
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Speaker 1: it is they feel a bit too mean spirited. But
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Speaker 1: I think the anarchic nature of that plus the really
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Speaker 1: weird meta fourth wall breaking ending is kind of interesting.
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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean, just to keep it fresh. Like,
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Speaker 1: that's one that I haven't watched that much recently because
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Speaker 1: like you said, it's it's a little bit divisive, So
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Speaker 1: I've watched a lot more, you know, Charlie Brown Christmas
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Speaker 1: and things like that. So just it's a clean change
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Speaker 1: of pace for a year. Got it? What holiday movie
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Speaker 1: would you watch for this year as your only holiday movie? Ariel,
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Speaker 1: I'm so glad you asked me that question. I really
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Speaker 1: I've been agonizing over this since I asked you about
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Speaker 1: three minutes ago. I would pick immittt Otters jug Band Christmas,
2:36
Speaker 1: but it would absolutely have to be the version that
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Speaker 1: originally aired on HBO back in the eighties that has
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Speaker 1: all the stuff in it, including all the interstitial moments
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Speaker 1: with Kermit the Frog, because if you've only seen him
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Speaker 1: at Hotter Post the HBO special, then you may not
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Speaker 1: even know that Kermit was in it. Because that to
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Speaker 1: the Henson Company split off, like the the Immitt Auto
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Speaker 1: property split away. From the Muppet part, and then you
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Speaker 1: had this complicated rights issue. And unfortunately it also meant
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Speaker 1: that typically the version of emmett Utter that you can
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Speaker 1: find these days, whether it's on DVD or streaming or whatever,
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Speaker 1: cuts out some of the jokes, and I don't understand why. Like,
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Speaker 1: there's typically one song that gets cut at least, and
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Speaker 1: there's one there's one joke that literally without the joke,
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Speaker 1: the scene doesn't make sense. No, I'm aware of this.
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Speaker 1: I can't remember the joke, but I remember thinking that
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Speaker 1: was incongruous. And then we've had this conversation before. Because
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Speaker 1: I feel like you would pick emmett Utter every year
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Speaker 1: for your soul holiday movie, and probably for your only
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Speaker 1: movie for the entire year. I might occasionally swap it
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Speaker 1: out for the Scrooge the musical with the thank you
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Speaker 1: very much, Thank you very much that's song. I love
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Speaker 1: that song, and I love that version of Christmas Carol.
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Speaker 1: There are lots of different great versions. Yeah, that musical
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Speaker 1: one is a lot of fun, I mean hot take,
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Speaker 1: And people who know me know that I have this opinion.
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Speaker 1: I am not a fan of the Muppet Christmas Carol,
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Speaker 1: even though I love the Muppets me neither neither. I'm
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Speaker 1: more of a traditionalist m it well, and I mean
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Speaker 1: I don't I don't even mind like the jokes and stuff,
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Speaker 1: and I do appreciate the fact that they they incorporate
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Speaker 1: Charles Dickens into that version of Christmas Caroll, so you
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Speaker 1: get to hear more lines that you normally wouldn't hear
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Speaker 1: because no one would. It's it's descriptions that no one
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Speaker 1: would ever speak in dialogue, right. That is cool. However,
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Speaker 1: I just feel like the Muppets aren't muppety enough in that, like,
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Speaker 1: like they don't go far enough in the Muppets thing
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Speaker 1: for it to feel like a real Muppet movie, not
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Speaker 1: like Muppet Treasure Island, I feel is way more more
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Speaker 1: liberal of the Muppets. But my favorite Muppet movie is
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Speaker 1: Muppet Treasure Island. And see that's the thing the same
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Speaker 1: same here, I really, I mean, my favorite is still
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Speaker 1: the original Muppet movie, but Muppet Treasure Island I feel
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Speaker 1: they got it right right that I feel like they
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Speaker 1: didn't go hard enough with Christmas Carroll. Also, I mean,
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Speaker 1: I know people who absolutely love his performance, but Mike
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Speaker 1: Cocaine was not my favorite Scrooge by a long shot.
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Speaker 1: I don't like picking favorite Scrooges. Um, it's like picking
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Speaker 1: a favorite child. I think there are plenty of old
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Speaker 1: men who are very curmudgeed le and play the role
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Speaker 1: quite well, and a few women too. There have been
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Speaker 1: a few versions of Christmas Carol with a female Scrooge,
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Speaker 1: and those are Yeah. And also there are plenty of
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Speaker 1: curmudging lee older people who play Scrooge very well. And
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Speaker 1: you've you've been in productions of Christmas Carroll, so you
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Speaker 1: also have that that perspective. Yeah, I've played uh, Mrs Fezziwig,
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Speaker 1: I've played Mrs Cratchett, I've played to Go to Christmas Future,
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Speaker 1: I've played the Charwoman. Yeah, Concertina street caroller. So you've
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Speaker 1: got you've got you've got practice of of ominously pointing
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Speaker 1: in the distance downpat Yeah, so I'm a little bit Well.
6:17
Speaker 1: They weren't real stilts. They were like plywood stilts that
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Speaker 1: then got caught under the like the long black robe.
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Speaker 1: It was a wonderful experience. I never fell over personally. Um,
6:30
Speaker 1: this is also crazy, guys, because most of you probably
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Speaker 1: don't know this, but Ariel is approximately seven ft tall already,
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Speaker 1: so I'm only five. Um, but so I'm a little biased.
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Speaker 1: But you know, you ask what movie I'd watch every year,
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Speaker 1: I feel like it's kind of an unfair question because
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Speaker 1: we've gotten a whole lot of new holiday movies this year,
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Speaker 1: and not just the Hallmark Lifetime Slew that we normally get. No,
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Speaker 1: but the Hallmark Lifetime Slew does account for a out
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Speaker 1: of all holiday movies every year, but that's just by volume. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but I mean sometimes if you want something uplifting, you
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Speaker 1: just want some uplifting background, that's great because you're guaranteed
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Speaker 1: to get that with a Hallmarker Lifetime movie. That's true.
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Speaker 1: I mean, like there might not be a whole lot
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Speaker 1: of of meat on the bone there, but you can
7:21
Speaker 1: be pretty certain you know what the emotional beats of
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Speaker 1: those films are gonna be. They're kind of like the
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Speaker 1: holiday equivalent to romance novels, where they all follow a
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Speaker 1: pretty similar pattern and you know how they're going to
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Speaker 1: turn out. Now. Granted, some of the holiday movies that
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Speaker 1: are also uh popular on streaming this year, because that's
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Speaker 1: that's how that's how we're all enjoying these days. Um,
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Speaker 1: some of them, some of them go a little dark.
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Speaker 1: There are a couple that are are either emotionally really
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Speaker 1: going to to tear at you, or in one case,
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Speaker 1: you've got a Santa Claus who's it was. It was
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Speaker 1: an action movie star kicking butt, which you know, a
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Speaker 1: lot of years I might go for this year, I know,
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Speaker 1: I said Scrooge, I'm kind of feeling uplifting. I'm willing
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Speaker 1: to let one of these new movies kind of take
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Speaker 1: Scrooges place, yeah, to kind of kind of sum things.
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Speaker 1: I think soothing is something that we could all use.
8:18
Speaker 1: This year. It's been a it's been a I don't
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Speaker 1: know if you guys out there have noticed, it's been
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Speaker 1: a weird year, y'all. M it really has. So we
8:28
Speaker 1: are we are recording this a little bit before it
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Speaker 1: airs because we want to spend time with our families
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Speaker 1: for Christmas as well, you know, whatever form that takes.
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Speaker 1: But um, we we wanted to talk about some of
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Speaker 1: the holiday movies coming out. UM one of which is
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Speaker 1: actually a TV special event it will have aired by
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Speaker 1: the time that this episode airs, which is The Grinch
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Speaker 1: Musical event with Matthew Morrison as the Grinch. They showed
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Speaker 1: a commercial for it if you watch the Macy's Day
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Speaker 1: Parade this year on television, they showed a commercial for it.
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Speaker 1: It got some mixed reviews, and you know, I'm I'm
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Speaker 1: a little mixed on my opinion about it as well.
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Speaker 1: I haven't seen it yet. Might might have by the
9:16
Speaker 1: time you listen to this, but um, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: I love the Grunch and I think that the actions
9:24
Speaker 1: and I think that the music translates very well to stage.
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Speaker 1: But any time I've seen an exception of one person
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Speaker 1: who plays the Granch amazingly, which is a mutual acquaintance
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Speaker 1: of Jonathan and I Judah, he plays an amazing Granch.
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Speaker 1: But otherwise, anytime I see a live action version of
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Speaker 1: the Granch, it feels fake to me. Yeah, well it's
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Speaker 1: a person in a large, green, fuzzy muppet suit. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I I'm I don't have any desire to see live
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Speaker 1: action versions of the Grunch. I'm fine with the rich cartoon. Um.
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Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a classic. I'm not
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Speaker 1: saying that no one should ever adapt it for other forms.
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Speaker 1: I don't believe that. It's just I don't have any
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Speaker 1: interest in it. It doesn't like when Jim Carey's films
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Speaker 1: came out. I didn't really have any interest in seeing
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Speaker 1: that when the musical first a stage, even with people
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Speaker 1: like Patrick Page, who is a phenomenal actor. Um, he
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Speaker 1: plays Hades in Hades Town. He was the Grinch. Like
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Speaker 1: I watched. Yeah, I watched a clip from the Macy's
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Speaker 1: Parade from two thousand fifteen, and they did the who
10:41
Speaker 1: Celebrates Christmas or who Loves Christmas song and it's the
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Speaker 1: Who's by the way in case you were wondering, um,
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Speaker 1: And and at the end of it they also did
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Speaker 1: a little bit of your I mean one Mr Grench
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Speaker 1: and Patrick Page was playing the Grinch. That version of
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Speaker 1: the makeup and costume I thought looked pretty terrible. Uh.
11:01
Speaker 1: But then again, also the video I was watching was
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Speaker 1: really bad quality. It was on YouTube. It was some
11:06
Speaker 1: someone who just captured it off their TV or whatever. Um,
11:09
Speaker 1: it was not great. And uh, I was just blown
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Speaker 1: away that Patrick Page had played that part because I
11:15
Speaker 1: that somehow escaped my attention when it was happening. Um.
11:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, I have nothing against Matthew Morrison. I think
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Speaker 1: he's a very good performer, and I don't have anything
11:25
Speaker 1: against um, the other folks who were in it. I mean,
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Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this areal. One of
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Speaker 1: the other cast members of this production is Dennis O'Hare,
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Speaker 1: who was one of two actors playing the dog and
11:41
Speaker 1: Dennis No. The other actor is also a human being.
11:46
Speaker 1: Uh Dennis so here for those who don't know well.
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Speaker 1: First of all, he was in American Horror Story the
11:50
Speaker 1: first season as a supporting character. But I think of
11:54
Speaker 1: him as Charles J. Guteaux from Assassin's the same production
12:00
Speaker 1: that Neil Patrick Harris was in, and he did a
12:03
Speaker 1: great job in that. I look at him and I
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Speaker 1: go he would play a good Grunch For as as
12:08
Speaker 1: much as I like a stage of the I will
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Speaker 1: admit that I did not see the Macy Stay Parade
12:14
Speaker 1: version of the Grunch musical. I've only seen the granch
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Speaker 1: on stage in adaptations of suskal Um. But I think
12:21
Speaker 1: it's just some uncanny Valley costume stuff for me. Maybe
12:25
Speaker 1: maybe it's just never been the right costume design. I agree.
12:29
Speaker 1: I will probably watch it. I'm just gonna say I
12:32
Speaker 1: will probably watch it because I like encouraging them to
12:36
Speaker 1: make musicals for television. Sometimes they nearly completely hit the
12:40
Speaker 1: mark and one day they will Yeah. Yeah, I like
12:44
Speaker 1: the idea of more live theater, having greater exposure, especially
12:49
Speaker 1: in a world where one you can't really go see
12:52
Speaker 1: live theater right now, not if you're being responsible and too.
12:57
Speaker 1: Even when you can, it's not the most pessible art form,
13:01
Speaker 1: especially if you're looking at stuff like Broadway. I mean,
13:03
Speaker 1: that's that's that's for profit theater, and it is very
13:08
Speaker 1: exclusive and very expensive. So having that increased accessibility I
13:13
Speaker 1: think is great. And if it if it inspires more
13:15
Speaker 1: people to get into theater, that's great. If it inspires
13:19
Speaker 1: people to support theater, I love that as well. So
13:22
Speaker 1: I'm fully on board with supporting it. I just don't
13:25
Speaker 1: think i'll be watching it. Yeah. Yeah. So there are
13:30
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of Christmas movies that follow
13:32
Speaker 1: into the general Christmas story genre, but I think that
13:37
Speaker 1: we should focus on a couple of ones that are
13:40
Speaker 1: much more geeky, because that's that's what we're about, right.
13:42
Speaker 1: You didn't mean to go off on a whole diet
13:44
Speaker 1: tribe about theater, although that's certainly geeky. So let's start
13:47
Speaker 1: with the one that you alluded to early on, the
13:49
Speaker 1: darkest one on our list, which is fat Man. Yea
13:53
Speaker 1: fat man, No, not Batman. Fat Man starring Mel Gibson,
13:58
Speaker 1: which already at for some people including me, starts to
14:03
Speaker 1: raise red flags. But Mel Gibson is playing the role
14:07
Speaker 1: of Santa, who is kind of down on his luck. Santa,
14:11
Speaker 1: this is set in a very cynical world. Um And
14:15
Speaker 1: in fact, that's something that that really stood out to
14:18
Speaker 1: me is as I was reading the synopsis, that just
14:21
Speaker 1: screamed cynicism to me, where Santa's disillusioned because more kids
14:28
Speaker 1: are appearing on the Naughty List than the Nice List. Meanwhile,
14:31
Speaker 1: Santa's income is dependent upon him delivering more presents to children,
14:37
Speaker 1: like it's the number of presents he delivers relates back
14:41
Speaker 1: to how much money he gets out of a budget
14:44
Speaker 1: from the US government. And because there are fewer nice kids,
14:48
Speaker 1: he's supplementing his income by essentially renting out the North
14:51
Speaker 1: Pole and the elves to produce like military weapons and
14:57
Speaker 1: vehicles and there's like you know, apparently some action hero
15:00
Speaker 1: type stuff that happens. And it's just one of those
15:03
Speaker 1: things where I told Ariel before we started recording that
15:07
Speaker 1: you mentioned Scrooged at the beginning. It reminds me if
15:10
Speaker 1: you if you watch Scrooged, there's that segment where there's
15:14
Speaker 1: this fake action movie that they have a commercial for
15:17
Speaker 1: called The Night the Reindeer Died, where Santa Claus and
15:21
Speaker 1: um Uh the six Million Dollar Man are are fighting
15:25
Speaker 1: off various ninja and terrorists at the North Pole, and
15:29
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, it sounds to me like
15:32
Speaker 1: someone saw that and thought, let's make that for real,
15:36
Speaker 1: but do it with without without humor. Yes, seriously, now
15:41
Speaker 1: I do hear? You know, the reviews on this are
15:44
Speaker 1: pretty mixed. Like you said, not happy holiday movies tend
15:47
Speaker 1: to be a little bit more divisive. In The Assassin
15:51
Speaker 1: that the child who receives coal, there's a rich child
15:54
Speaker 1: who receives coal in this movie and hires a hit
15:56
Speaker 1: man on Santa And apparently there's some high jinks in there.
16:00
Speaker 1: Um played by played by Walter Goggins, And I like
16:03
Speaker 1: Walter Goggins as an actor, but yeah, that's he's playing
16:07
Speaker 1: a hit man coming after center and he apparently has
16:11
Speaker 1: his own his own acts to grind with the Jolly Man. Yeah,
16:16
Speaker 1: so so I guess if you don't, you know, I
16:20
Speaker 1: I wasn't. This one's kind of flown under the radar
16:22
Speaker 1: for me as a movie that's even happening. So if
16:25
Speaker 1: that's your kind of jam, and you just have watched
16:28
Speaker 1: so many Lifetime movies and Hallmark movies that you are
16:32
Speaker 1: two hyped up on the cotton candy substance of those movies,
16:35
Speaker 1: maybe this will bring you back down to earth. Um.
16:38
Speaker 1: I mean, and to be clear, like I like some
16:41
Speaker 1: dark holiday themed movies, there's some some Christmas themed horror
16:46
Speaker 1: movies that I really like, uh, you know, including things
16:50
Speaker 1: like cramp Us. We'll be talking later in this episode
16:53
Speaker 1: about movies that are not really Christmas movies, but they
16:56
Speaker 1: are set during the holiday season. But Grampus is one
17:00
Speaker 1: that really is dependent upon Christmas. It's just it's a
17:04
Speaker 1: Christmas themed horror movie that I think of kind of
17:08
Speaker 1: similar in a way to another film we'll talk about later, Gremlins.
17:12
Speaker 1: So there's you know, there are things out there that
17:15
Speaker 1: I gravitate toward that are not your traditional holiday feel
17:19
Speaker 1: good stuff. Uh. But yeah, I I feel like you.
17:23
Speaker 1: I don't really I don't feel a strong pull to
17:25
Speaker 1: this particular one. Have you seen or did you have? You?
17:30
Speaker 1: Have you watched yet the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special?
17:33
Speaker 1: I haven't. I have watched the original Star Wars Holiday
17:37
Speaker 1: Special with um it looks like the old quiz No mascots,
17:42
Speaker 1: where the novels were transposed on some poorly written cartoon characters,
17:46
Speaker 1: except for in this case, it's actually just wookies. So
17:50
Speaker 1: I've seen the original Star Wars Holiday Special. I first
17:54
Speaker 1: of all, I'm sorry, so you got to see be
17:57
Speaker 1: Arthur and and Harvey Corman and all the those people
18:00
Speaker 1: doing weird Star Wars sketches and things. I like. I
18:04
Speaker 1: like it for certain definitions of the word like, but
18:07
Speaker 1: I have to be prepared for it, and I just
18:08
Speaker 1: haven't been prepared for that. For the lego version. Well,
18:11
Speaker 1: the lego version is not it's not a recreation of
18:15
Speaker 1: the Star Wars Holiday Special. It is a news story.
18:18
Speaker 1: It's a new story, and it it focuses on Ray,
18:22
Speaker 1: not So which which clearly it had to be a
18:24
Speaker 1: new story because Ray was not a character when the
18:26
Speaker 1: original special two sisters Dough and Me. She does not.
18:30
Speaker 1: And uh also the Holiday Special it does reference the
18:36
Speaker 1: original special a little bit because Chewbacca does have a family,
18:40
Speaker 1: so you get to see you know, Stinky and everybody
18:42
Speaker 1: show up, but but they don't. Other than that, there's
18:47
Speaker 1: no real nod to the original Holiday special. It's more
18:51
Speaker 1: of a goofy comedy time travel story uh that has
18:56
Speaker 1: a lot of funny little moments in it, So I
18:59
Speaker 1: do recommend that one. I think that one if you
19:02
Speaker 1: need your your holiday geek itch scratched. I think that
19:07
Speaker 1: one does a decent job. I will definitely check it out.
19:12
Speaker 1: Another movie I'm going to check out, and it's actually
19:14
Speaker 1: I should have checked it out by now, it's already
19:16
Speaker 1: on Netflix is Jingle Jangle. I am so looking forward
19:19
Speaker 1: to seeing this too. I haven't made the time yet,
19:22
Speaker 1: but it's on my must watch list, so I don't
19:25
Speaker 1: let myself watch Christmas movies before Thanksgiving. So that's why
19:29
Speaker 1: I haven't watched a lot of these Christmas movies at
19:31
Speaker 1: the time. At the time we're recording this, but yes,
19:34
Speaker 1: I want you. Jingle Jangle is a new Christmas musical
19:38
Speaker 1: set in the Victorian era with a I'm not sure
19:41
Speaker 1: if it's all black or predominantly black cat predominantly black.
19:44
Speaker 1: It's about a young girl named Journey who is sent
19:46
Speaker 1: to spend time with her curmudgeon le grandfather Um and
19:50
Speaker 1: they create toys. And the thing I love about this
19:52
Speaker 1: movie is that the gentleman who wrote it. David Talbert
19:58
Speaker 1: had been wanting to do it for a stage play
19:59
Speaker 1: and just couldn't quite make it work on stage and
20:02
Speaker 1: couldn't quite get the right tone. And it took him
20:06
Speaker 1: twenty years, and he had a kid, and then all
20:08
Speaker 1: of a sudden he was able to collaborate with his
20:10
Speaker 1: child on on this story. And then he went to
20:13
Speaker 1: Netflix because he previously had done l Camino Christmas, which
20:16
Speaker 1: is not a breaking bad movie, but it is a dark,
20:19
Speaker 1: a dark Christmas comedy, um and uh, Netflix said, hey,
20:26
Speaker 1: don't make this movie to budget, make the movie you
20:28
Speaker 1: want and will fund it so to have. And he
20:31
Speaker 1: wanted to make a movie that showed they're not a
20:34
Speaker 1: lot of Christmas movies that uh feature black casts, and
20:39
Speaker 1: he wanted to provide that representation and so on so
20:43
Speaker 1: many multiple levels, from the representation in the cast and
20:46
Speaker 1: in the costuming too. The fact that Netflix, who, as
20:50
Speaker 1: we've talked about before, they make stuff for a wide
20:55
Speaker 1: variety of people, and a lot of that is not
20:56
Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, they found a lot of different productions,
21:00
Speaker 1: some of which seem incredible just on the face of it,
21:04
Speaker 1: some of which you're like, I did they just have
21:07
Speaker 1: money left over in the budget that they absolutely had
21:09
Speaker 1: to spend and that's why they funded this. But but
21:12
Speaker 1: Jingle Jangle does look like like the preview I saw
21:16
Speaker 1: was so captivating, and the costumes look so amazing, the
21:21
Speaker 1: special effects like the whole plot behind it involves a
21:26
Speaker 1: former apprentice of the grandfather who has stolen the grandfather's
21:31
Speaker 1: designs and become wealthy using those designs while the grandfather
21:35
Speaker 1: is kind of toiled in in uh in in poverty.
21:40
Speaker 1: Really and um Keegan Michael Key plays the former apprentice, Gustafsson,
21:46
Speaker 1: and he has a costume that makes him look I
21:49
Speaker 1: don't know if they were specifically going for this, but
21:51
Speaker 1: to me, he looks like like the Wizard of Oz,
21:55
Speaker 1: Like he looks like he could have come out of
21:57
Speaker 1: the Emerald City. And I wonder if that was a
22:00
Speaker 1: a purposeful choice, but it was just the first thing
22:04
Speaker 1: I thought. Maybe it's just because his jacket is like
22:07
Speaker 1: Emerald green, but yeah, it's it's all the classic setup
22:13
Speaker 1: of your your classic Christmas tale of you know, an
22:17
Speaker 1: old disillusioned person rediscovering joy through the association with youth
22:24
Speaker 1: and overcoming great odds. And it's a musical and the
22:28
Speaker 1: dancing looks amazing and yeah, just it's that kind of
22:32
Speaker 1: thing that is hitting all the right switches for me
22:36
Speaker 1: for a feel good Christmas movie. Yeah. Another another one
22:41
Speaker 1: that I think flew under the radar for me but
22:43
Speaker 1: is hitting all the right switches is Dear Santa. There
22:46
Speaker 1: was a two thousand and eleven movie. Is this about
22:49
Speaker 1: Santa Claus? Who has Is this about Santa Claus? Who
22:52
Speaker 1: has antlers? And it's not it's not so it's not
22:55
Speaker 1: d e E R Santa. It's d e A R Santa.
22:59
Speaker 1: Although I would watch, I would watch d e E
23:03
Speaker 1: there might be one too many, ease, and there are
23:05
Speaker 1: Santa as well. Dear Santa. Um. Now this one is about, uh,
23:10
Speaker 1: this is a documentary about the Operation Santa program the
23:14
Speaker 1: United States Postal Service does with all of the letters
23:18
Speaker 1: they get from children who who write to Santa Claus.
23:21
Speaker 1: And it's it's a little bit more real life, uplifting
23:25
Speaker 1: and I very much look forward to watching it. Yeah,
23:29
Speaker 1: it's good to remind ourselves occasionally about the capacity we
23:33
Speaker 1: have to do nice things, because we often can forget
23:38
Speaker 1: about that with the the deluge of stressful, negative news
23:43
Speaker 1: that surrounds us all the time. Well, we have a
23:48
Speaker 1: full discussion to have coming up about movies that may
23:53
Speaker 1: or may not be Christmas movies, depending upon as Obi
23:56
Speaker 1: one Kennoby would say a certain point of view. But
23:59
Speaker 1: we will it to that after we take this quick break.
24:13
Speaker 1: So we didn't even really get to talk about all
24:15
Speaker 1: the movies we wanted to. But that's okay because we're
24:17
Speaker 1: going to go from the new to old. Like Jonathan said, so, um,
24:23
Speaker 1: these movies are a few of my favorite things. You
24:27
Speaker 1: went right for the reference of the one that drives
24:30
Speaker 1: me nuts the most and it's not even a movie. Well,
24:35
Speaker 1: I guess the movie is also considered a Christmas movie. Yes,
24:37
Speaker 1: some people do consider us. So we're talking about the
24:39
Speaker 1: sound of music, which uh, so arial when you think
24:43
Speaker 1: of that, do you think of just the musical or
24:45
Speaker 1: do you think of specifically the song? Uh my favorite things?
24:49
Speaker 1: So uh, I think when I think of sound of music,
24:53
Speaker 1: I think of the musical, and I specifically think of
24:55
Speaker 1: the movie musical. Uh And I go, well, maybe that's
24:58
Speaker 1: kind of Christmas Eve, but a few these are a
25:00
Speaker 1: few of my favorite things. Does play at the holiday
25:03
Speaker 1: season all the time, and so to me, yeah, it's
25:05
Speaker 1: it's about gifts. It's just a Christmas song. So even
25:08
Speaker 1: though it's not that one, that one drives me nuts
25:10
Speaker 1: that it comes on. Like when I listen to a
25:12
Speaker 1: holiday music station and that song comes on, I get
25:15
Speaker 1: irrationally angry because I think that is not a Christmas song.
25:19
Speaker 1: It mentions Christmas in passing in the song. It mentioned
25:24
Speaker 1: snow in passing in the song, but it is. There's
25:28
Speaker 1: literally singing about a few of their favorite things. It
25:32
Speaker 1: could be in the middle of July, it's still still
25:35
Speaker 1: one of your favorite things. Don't play that on my
25:37
Speaker 1: holiday station. I feel very strongly about this. Well, I
25:43
Speaker 1: guess it's got snowflakes on nose and eyelashes, which you're
25:46
Speaker 1: not normally gonna get. But any they're just they're just yeah,
25:50
Speaker 1: they're just telling about a few of their favorite things,
25:52
Speaker 1: which may only happen once in your lifetime. I mean,
25:56
Speaker 1: kittens usually have what happened what in the spring and summer? Yeah,
25:59
Speaker 1: you don't get a lot. Well, it's not really up
26:04
Speaker 1: to us, but typically we see that more in the spring. Okay,
26:09
Speaker 1: So there are some other movies and there I know
26:11
Speaker 1: that you feel very passionate about them that people think
26:14
Speaker 1: are Christmas movies. Um, the I think the most divisive
26:18
Speaker 1: one that I have ever talked with you about, Jonathan
26:20
Speaker 1: is die Hard. Yeah. Yeah, there's some people are like
26:23
Speaker 1: die Hard It's my favorite Christmas movie and I will
26:26
Speaker 1: die on this hill Hard. It is not a Christmas movie.
26:29
Speaker 1: It is a movie set during Christmas. It is not
26:34
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie. Is there a Christmas tree in it? Yes,
26:39
Speaker 1: there's a Christmas party. No, it is not. It is
26:42
Speaker 1: not a Christmas movie. It is not. Diehard is an actor.
26:46
Speaker 1: First of all, Diehard is is the perfect action film,
26:51
Speaker 1: and that is both a positive and a negative. It's
26:54
Speaker 1: a negative because die Hard created a new paradigm for
26:58
Speaker 1: action movies, right. Die Hard started a new trend that
27:02
Speaker 1: everyone was trying to copy, which is why for many
27:06
Speaker 1: years in the nineties and even into the early two thousand's,
27:10
Speaker 1: people would describe action movies as it's die Hard on
27:13
Speaker 1: a something something so like Speed was die Hard on
27:17
Speaker 1: a bus and then later die Hard on a boat
27:19
Speaker 1: because they speed to Um yeah yeah, so so both
27:25
Speaker 1: good and bad. But die Heart is a phenomenal film
27:28
Speaker 1: all in its own. It just isn't a Christmas movie.
27:32
Speaker 1: It does have some Christmas music in it, but it's
27:35
Speaker 1: not a Christmas movie. See, I might wager a different
27:41
Speaker 1: opinion because if if everyone had not been at the
27:47
Speaker 1: at the Nakami Plaza for the Christmas party, there would
27:51
Speaker 1: not have been nearly as many casualties. So Christmas in
27:54
Speaker 1: a way fuels everything that happens in that movie. But
27:58
Speaker 1: it could to me, even though it's and focus on
28:00
Speaker 1: the Christmas spirit, it is a Christmas movie because without
28:03
Speaker 1: the Christmas party, nobody would have been there too. It
28:07
Speaker 1: would have just been a basic corporate robbery. It could
28:09
Speaker 1: have also been a New Year's Eve party. There was
28:12
Speaker 1: no reason it had to be a Christmas party. It
28:14
Speaker 1: could literally have been a party for any reason. It
28:17
Speaker 1: could have been this is the anniversary of the founding
28:19
Speaker 1: of the company, and you would still have that same
28:22
Speaker 1: reason why people get together now. Granted, Christmas party is
28:25
Speaker 1: the kind of party where you typically have not just
28:27
Speaker 1: the employees, but often their families there too. Thankfully, I
28:32
Speaker 1: don't think we see any kids in Die Hard, which
28:35
Speaker 1: is a good thing considering one the people at the
28:37
Speaker 1: party are behaving in a way that is not appropriate
28:40
Speaker 1: for children, and too when when when stuff goes down,
28:45
Speaker 1: you don't want kids there. But but you see, you
28:49
Speaker 1: said it could be any time. It wasn't the writer Christmas.
28:54
Speaker 1: But but again, but again, if you had said that,
28:56
Speaker 1: there's if you had said it at any other time
28:59
Speaker 1: of the year or the rest of the story would
29:01
Speaker 1: still play out as it does. It is not dependent
29:04
Speaker 1: upon Christmas, so it is not a Christmas movie. It's
29:07
Speaker 1: not dependent on Christmas. But it does take place at Christmas,
29:10
Speaker 1: So I think it's a Christmas movie. I think we
29:12
Speaker 1: might disagree with this. Maybe I'll concede that it is
29:14
Speaker 1: a winter holiday movie. No, it's an action film, and
29:20
Speaker 1: that's it. It's an action movie. It's a great action movie.
29:24
Speaker 1: It's my favorite action movie, to the point where it
29:27
Speaker 1: actually kind of ruined action movies for me for a
29:29
Speaker 1: really long time. But it's not Let's move on to
29:32
Speaker 1: a different movie. Okay, sure, okay, So what do you
29:35
Speaker 1: think about grim Lets the Christmas movie? No, not a
29:38
Speaker 1: Christmas It's said it Christmas, and technically, Gizmo the Magua
29:43
Speaker 1: is is a Christmas present, but it again, the story
29:49
Speaker 1: does not revolve. There's some cool Christmas Ee stuff in it, like,
29:52
Speaker 1: there's some cool uses of Christmas in it, But unlike Crampus,
29:56
Speaker 1: for example, it is not it's not revolving around Christmas.
30:04
Speaker 1: I also Crampus argument well, because because I think Gremlins
30:09
Speaker 1: and Crampus are like they're like they're like sister movies there.
30:14
Speaker 1: They both have a similar tone. They both have a
30:16
Speaker 1: kind of mean spirited edge to the malicious nous in them.
30:21
Speaker 1: They both aren't so intense that, you know, like a
30:25
Speaker 1: younger viewer, someone who's maybe ten to twelve years old,
30:29
Speaker 1: could probably watch either of those and it would be
30:32
Speaker 1: it would be a lot, but they could probably handle it.
30:35
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw Gremlins when I was a kid,
30:37
Speaker 1: and I turned out mostly okay. But I think Crampus
30:41
Speaker 1: is around the same way. I didn't watch it until
30:44
Speaker 1: I was a little bit older. I've never watched Crampus.
30:46
Speaker 1: I think it would be too scary for me. I
30:48
Speaker 1: think Gremlins is much more a Christmas movie than die Hard,
30:51
Speaker 1: and I love die Harden. I like saying Diehard Christmas movie,
30:54
Speaker 1: not just to annoy you, Jonathan, but primarily to annoy me. Yeah,
30:59
Speaker 1: but I I I would say on Gremlins is a
31:01
Speaker 1: Christmas movie because if the entire story focuses around a
31:05
Speaker 1: Christmas present, I guess I guess I could be more
31:09
Speaker 1: convinced about Gremlins than die Hard. Um. And the one
31:13
Speaker 1: reason why I really could go with it is one
31:16
Speaker 1: of the worst parts of the Gremlins film, but one
31:19
Speaker 1: of the best parts of Gremlins too, which is when
31:22
Speaker 1: Phoebe Kates tells the story about why she hates Christmas,
31:27
Speaker 1: which is the most over the top awful story to
31:30
Speaker 1: ever have happened to anyone ever really in a in
31:33
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie. And then in Christmas Too, she they
31:37
Speaker 1: satirize that with her talking about uh President's Day. I think, yeah, yeah,
31:44
Speaker 1: her character. I have based RPG characters, Monster of the
31:47
Speaker 1: Week characters off of her. Um. Okay, what about Shazam
31:51
Speaker 1: not a Christimer, not a Christian Christmas though I would
31:56
Speaker 1: agree that that one. I'd agree it's not a Christmas
31:59
Speaker 1: movie to me either. Winter movie. Yes, Um, I know
32:02
Speaker 1: that the director really liked Christmas, but um, the holidays,
32:07
Speaker 1: which is why he said it at that time. But yeah,
32:09
Speaker 1: to me, it's not a It's not Christmas. Yeah. I
32:12
Speaker 1: saw that one pretty late, like it had already left
32:15
Speaker 1: theaters and I caught it on I think I caught
32:19
Speaker 1: it on a plane actually, And um, I was I
32:24
Speaker 1: had heard it was entertaining, but my expectations were fairly low,
32:27
Speaker 1: simply because I had been let down so frequently by
32:30
Speaker 1: DC superhero movies. Uh, they just weren't for me. I'm
32:34
Speaker 1: not saying that they were bad movies. I'm just saying
32:36
Speaker 1: they didn't appeal to me. I didn't like them, with
32:39
Speaker 1: the exception of Wonder Woman and um this one, I
32:42
Speaker 1: really liked it was I thought it was really entertaining.
32:45
Speaker 1: But even as I was watching it, like when you
32:48
Speaker 1: said when you put it on this list, I didn't
32:50
Speaker 1: even remember that there was anything about Christmas in that
32:53
Speaker 1: film at all. Like that, that doesn't even I don't
32:57
Speaker 1: associate the movie with Christmas, because that's not what I
33:01
Speaker 1: think of when I think. No grant, I've only seen
33:03
Speaker 1: the movie one time, but it's not what I think
33:05
Speaker 1: of when I think of the film, which again, is entertaining.
33:08
Speaker 1: I recommend it for people who haven't seen it. I
33:11
Speaker 1: did watch it for the first time last Christmas season. Um, Ariel, Ariel,
33:17
Speaker 1: you can't. You can't count something a Christmas movie just
33:19
Speaker 1: because you happen to watch it around Christmas. Well, if
33:23
Speaker 1: that were the only reason I was counting it as
33:25
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie. I wouldn't. Okay, here's here's one that
33:28
Speaker 1: a lot of people disagree on. What do you think
33:29
Speaker 1: about Love actually, not as a movie, about whether it's
33:32
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie? Uh, I have never seen Love Actually,
33:37
Speaker 1: I have never seen I've seen the clips, Like, is
33:40
Speaker 1: that the one that has the bit where the guy
33:43
Speaker 1: is at the door and he has the poster board
33:47
Speaker 1: cards with the words written on it, and he's essentially saying, Hey,
33:51
Speaker 1: you know, I totally dig you, but you're married, but
33:53
Speaker 1: I still dig you. So I'm going to totally leverage
33:56
Speaker 1: this awkward moment and ignore the fact that you are
34:00
Speaker 1: actually in a committed relationship. So you need to like
34:03
Speaker 1: totally mac on me because I'm I'm really a cool,
34:06
Speaker 1: handsome dude. I hate that, Like, I don't have any
34:08
Speaker 1: context for that scene, but it makes me so mad.
34:14
Speaker 1: It's um that movie. I enjoyed the movie. It just
34:17
Speaker 1: it's an anthology of relationships. So I like certain bits
34:20
Speaker 1: of that movie better than others. Next, Batman Returns not
34:26
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie. Said at Christmas, I love Batman Returns.
34:32
Speaker 1: I love it. It's it's got its faults. I don't
34:36
Speaker 1: think that the version of the Penguin is one that
34:39
Speaker 1: I particularly agree with. But I think Danny Defito was
34:43
Speaker 1: great in the movie, so I think I think it
34:45
Speaker 1: did a great job. I just didn't like that version
34:47
Speaker 1: of the penguin. Um. But penguins are all about Christmas, No,
34:51
Speaker 1: they're not. You know that. You know that when Christmas
34:55
Speaker 1: is over, penguin still exists, right, they don't. They don't
34:58
Speaker 1: just poff out of existence. Yes, year round. Yeah, I know.
35:02
Speaker 1: It's it's a shock to the system. Uh. Batman Returns
35:06
Speaker 1: is not a Christmas movie. Uh. It does, however, have
35:09
Speaker 1: an amazing performance by Christopher Walking in it. I. Um,
35:14
Speaker 1: I will agree with you on that one. I love
35:16
Speaker 1: that Man Returns. Um, I just want, I just wanted.
35:19
Speaker 1: I like my penguin argument. I know it doesn't hold water.
35:22
Speaker 1: Uh much like a penguin's wings don't fly. Um. Okay.
35:26
Speaker 1: Edwards scissor Hands also so Edward scissor Hands I think
35:29
Speaker 1: of as more of a fairy tale that happens to
35:32
Speaker 1: be said at Christmas. But it's it's it's this one's
35:36
Speaker 1: borderline for me because it has some of the magic
35:39
Speaker 1: that you associate with Christmas stories, right, Like there is
35:43
Speaker 1: a magical element to Edward scissor Hands, and it really
35:47
Speaker 1: is got that fairy tale field to it. It's one
35:50
Speaker 1: of the you know, Tim Burton stuff in general tends
35:53
Speaker 1: towards the fantastical. Um even his more realistic films still
35:57
Speaker 1: have elements of that in it, and Edward scissor Hands
36:00
Speaker 1: is pretty far into the fantastical. So I think of
36:04
Speaker 1: it more as a fairy tale that that is set
36:07
Speaker 1: in the winter. But I don't think of it as
36:09
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie. This one kind of ends at Christmas
36:12
Speaker 1: with the snow and it's snowing again. And to me,
36:14
Speaker 1: because it has that final note of you know, now
36:18
Speaker 1: it snows on Christmas, to me, that makes that that
36:21
Speaker 1: one note makes the entire thing a Christmas movie. I
36:23
Speaker 1: don't know a related note, then, what do you think
36:25
Speaker 1: about The Nightmare Before Christmas? Is that a Christmas movie?
36:29
Speaker 1: I have never seen that. You've never seen The Nightmare
36:32
Speaker 1: Before Christmas? You've got to see that. I think you
36:37
Speaker 1: would really dig it. It's it's a very sweet movie.
36:41
Speaker 1: I don't think of it as a Christmas movie. Um.
36:44
Speaker 1: I think of it as a Honestly, I think of
36:45
Speaker 1: it as a Thanksgiving movie because it's because it's because
36:50
Speaker 1: the action takes place between Halloween and Christmas. Now, granted
36:53
Speaker 1: it does end that spoiler alert, it does end at Christmas,
36:57
Speaker 1: but I don't. I think of it as sort of
36:59
Speaker 1: that bridging season between Halloween and Christmas. That's where that
37:03
Speaker 1: movie really lives. So I think the thing is that
37:06
Speaker 1: I don't like mixing my Hollywoodeen with Christmas. They're two
37:10
Speaker 1: completely different, like emotional genres for me in real life,
37:14
Speaker 1: and so it's just never appealed to me to watch
37:16
Speaker 1: it in movie form. That being said, plenty of people
37:19
Speaker 1: have told me I should watch it, including like you
37:21
Speaker 1: and my husband. Uh, just like plenty of people have
37:24
Speaker 1: told me I should watch Up. Um, I just haven't.
37:26
Speaker 1: I will probably watch Nightmare before Christmas before I watch UP. Well.
37:31
Speaker 1: Up is great. The first ten minutes will destroy you. Okay,
37:36
Speaker 1: Coming to America is Coming to America Christmas story. There's
37:40
Speaker 1: a dude in a whole lot of Santa suit. It
37:43
Speaker 1: is not. It is not. Listen, the the bath scene
37:49
Speaker 1: alone tells me it cannot be a Christmas movie. There
37:52
Speaker 1: is a line in that scene that will never belong
37:55
Speaker 1: to a Christmas movie. So no, it is not. Okay,
38:01
Speaker 1: I I don't really think that was a Christmas movie either.
38:04
Speaker 1: I want to argue you for comedy's sake, but we're
38:07
Speaker 1: already running along. So I've got one more Annie. I
38:12
Speaker 1: don't think of any as a Christmas movie either. Like
38:15
Speaker 1: it's It's interesting because when I looked at this list,
38:18
Speaker 1: some of them I do remember being set around Christmas,
38:20
Speaker 1: and others I think, and I'm like, I don't know,
38:23
Speaker 1: I don't have any I have no memory of that
38:26
Speaker 1: taking place around Christmas. Now. It has been a very
38:28
Speaker 1: long time since I've seen Annie, uh, And I don't
38:32
Speaker 1: associate with Christmas at all, because Annie is really getting
38:36
Speaker 1: pretty much like all the comforts that she could want
38:41
Speaker 1: because she's been adopted by a billionaire. Um so, so
38:46
Speaker 1: in that case, it's like Christmas almost seems like it's
38:49
Speaker 1: a overkill because she's already getting everything. But but I
38:55
Speaker 1: just don't remember it having anything to do with Christmas.
38:58
Speaker 1: In the stage musical, it's Chris Miss when uh, when
39:02
Speaker 1: Miss Hannigan and Ruster Lilier caught at the Warbucks mansion.
39:05
Speaker 1: So gotcha, I you know, I guess I can see
39:09
Speaker 1: what you're saying there. So really, really where it falls
39:12
Speaker 1: the line to me is if Christmas drives the plot.
39:17
Speaker 1: Even if it's not focused on the ideals of Christmas,
39:21
Speaker 1: it can count as a Christmas movie. To Jonathan, it
39:24
Speaker 1: seems like if it doesn't uphold the ideals of Christmas
39:27
Speaker 1: as a part of the movie, then it's not a
39:29
Speaker 1: Christmas movie. Yeah. No, if it's if it just happens
39:32
Speaker 1: to be set around Christmas time, that's not enough. You've
39:35
Speaker 1: got our try harder. Uh Like, it could still be
39:38
Speaker 1: a great movie, it's just not a Christmas movie. Might
39:41
Speaker 1: be a movie that you watch around Christmas doesn't make
39:43
Speaker 1: it a Christmas movie. Well what if we mashed up
39:47
Speaker 1: a Christmas movie with a not Christmas movie? Would that
39:50
Speaker 1: make it three quarters Christmas and enough to count for you?
39:53
Speaker 1: I guess we will find out after this short break,
40:13
Speaker 1: all right, Ariel, tell everybody what two movies you decided
40:15
Speaker 1: to mash up together? Because you picked these? I picked these,
40:20
Speaker 1: which I dug a real hole for myself, you guys,
40:22
Speaker 1: it was. It was a challenge, but when I gladly accepted.
40:25
Speaker 1: Originally it was going to be home Alone in Annie
40:28
Speaker 1: because I liked the dichotomy of uh, someone defending their house,
40:33
Speaker 1: whereasus someone who was an orphan Um. But then Jonathan
40:38
Speaker 1: actually pointed out that we've had so many musical mashups recently,
40:42
Speaker 1: so I changed it. So I really was just begging
40:45
Speaker 1: you to spare our audience from me singing again. Fair enough,
40:49
Speaker 1: So we're doing Home Alone, which I will fight tooth
40:52
Speaker 1: and nail. Is a Christmas movie. Um, and I don't
40:55
Speaker 1: think Jonathan would disagree on this. No, us not, I don't.
41:01
Speaker 1: I mean it takes it takes place at Christmas. He's
41:04
Speaker 1: left at home because his family leaves for Christmas. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah,
41:08
Speaker 1: I know. I know. He talks to Santa, he asked
41:10
Speaker 1: Santa for his family. It is a Christmas movie. And
41:14
Speaker 1: Die Hard, which is not a Christmas movie, as we
41:17
Speaker 1: have already established Christmas music. Uh, do you want to
41:25
Speaker 1: go first? Ye? You want me to go first? Um,
41:30
Speaker 1: I'll go ahead and go first. Okay, go first. I now,
41:33
Speaker 1: we have not shared these with each other, and we
41:36
Speaker 1: don't know how similar they're going to be. Probably fairly similar.
41:40
Speaker 1: But I want to hear your pitch. Okay. So this
41:43
Speaker 1: is Home Hard Lost naka Tomi Plaza. I love it
41:46
Speaker 1: already because if you if you putting like die Home,
41:53
Speaker 1: Die Alone is so grim. Yeah, there there die like
42:00
Speaker 1: it is just there weren't any good combinations. So Homehard lost,
42:03
Speaker 1: Nackatomi Plasa. So it's Christmas Eve and Kevin McClean aster's
42:08
Speaker 1: mom because Kevin McAllister is a character and home Alone,
42:12
Speaker 1: we didn't really deep dive into it. But I want
42:14
Speaker 1: to get right to the meat. So Kevin mccleanister's mom,
42:17
Speaker 1: refusing to leave him at home alone, has stuck him
42:20
Speaker 1: in the worst imaginable place, the kids play area at
42:23
Speaker 1: Nakatomi Plaza, while she and her new husband Kevin stepdad
42:29
Speaker 1: Argyle attend her company Christmas party. Our gyle is the
42:33
Speaker 1: driver in Die Hard, Okay, so just so people can
42:36
Speaker 1: realize my brilliance, okay. Staring wistfully out the will window
42:40
Speaker 1: of the kids play area, bemoaning the fact that he
42:43
Speaker 1: is a mature nine year old stuck in a room
42:46
Speaker 1: with a bunch of children, Kevin notices a suspicious yet
42:49
Speaker 1: all too too familiar van pull up to the office building.
42:52
Speaker 1: On the side of the van, it says Sticky Groober's
42:56
Speaker 1: uh key bandits were the second iteration of the wet
43:03
Speaker 1: bandits from Home Alone one and two, so they must
43:07
Speaker 1: have up to their game. After having been foiled by
43:09
Speaker 1: a latch key kid twice already um and moved to
43:13
Speaker 1: corporate crime, Kevin also realizes that if these sticky groupers
43:18
Speaker 1: ruined his mother's Christmas party, he will be blamed for it. Uh.
43:22
Speaker 1: You know it's kid logic, go with it, So he
43:25
Speaker 1: decides to stop them. He's done it twice before, it
43:27
Speaker 1: shouldn't be any different now. He scours the playroom looking
43:30
Speaker 1: for anything he can use to his advantage, but all
43:32
Speaker 1: he finds is a set of legos, a tarantula and
43:35
Speaker 1: a terrarium, and an empty nerf gun and a bag
43:37
Speaker 1: of marbles. I guess it's not only that's a that's
43:40
Speaker 1: a good arsenal for this kid. Uh. He just succeeds
43:43
Speaker 1: at gathering all these items up when the Sticky Groupers
43:46
Speaker 1: shoot the window and enter the building, causing enough of
43:49
Speaker 1: a distraction for Kevin to crawl into the duck system
43:51
Speaker 1: and out of the blay room. He exits the duck
43:54
Speaker 1: system at the top of the elevator. I don't know
43:57
Speaker 1: how duck systems work, but I'm assuming this is aunt.
44:00
Speaker 1: So he lands like on top of the elevator. In
44:02
Speaker 1: the elevator shaft. Just as the Sticky Groupers enter, he
44:05
Speaker 1: drops the direct tarantula through the little latch door at
44:09
Speaker 1: the top, causing them to hit half the buttons on
44:11
Speaker 1: the elevator. But he realizes all too quickly that they're
44:14
Speaker 1: gonna get really sick of stopping on every floor, so
44:16
Speaker 1: he also jams a bunch of legos into the into
44:19
Speaker 1: the elevator, works to stop it and get it stuck. Uh.
44:22
Speaker 1: This leaves him just enough time to load load the
44:24
Speaker 1: marbles into his NERF gun, aim at the groupers through
44:26
Speaker 1: the window and take through the little door at the
44:29
Speaker 1: top of the elevator. Elevator thank you, and take him out.
44:34
Speaker 1: Just then the legos break, the elevator goes up to
44:36
Speaker 1: the next floor, the doors open, Kevin gets thrown on
44:39
Speaker 1: top of the Sticky Groupers, who are now passed out
44:41
Speaker 1: from being shot in the head with marbles from a
44:43
Speaker 1: NERF gun, and it opens on the Christmas party. When
44:47
Speaker 1: Kevin mccleanister's mom sees him, mccleanister's mom sees him, she
44:51
Speaker 1: blames him for escaping the play paid place, completely overlooking
44:54
Speaker 1: the fact that he foiled a dangerous corporate robbery, but
44:57
Speaker 1: because it's Christmas. She's so happy to see him, she
45:00
Speaker 1: doesn't ground him, and they go home and they live
45:02
Speaker 1: happily ever after. Okay, so I can tell you pot halfway.
45:06
Speaker 1: I can tell you that we totally did not go
45:08
Speaker 1: the same way. So you are you ready for my attempt?
45:14
Speaker 1: That was a masterpiece? Areal? That was a masterpiece. So
45:18
Speaker 1: thank you? I am so ready. Yours are always fantastic.
45:21
Speaker 1: Here we go. Kevin McAllister is returning home after being
45:25
Speaker 1: away all year, having recently graduated the police academy. He
45:29
Speaker 1: gets to the family home and discovers, to his shock
45:32
Speaker 1: that his family isn't there. They've left on a Christmas trip,
45:35
Speaker 1: completely forgetting that Kevin was on his way back home
45:38
Speaker 1: to visit them. How can the same thing happen to
45:41
Speaker 1: the same guy, like eight times, Kevin says. Kevin lets
45:46
Speaker 1: himself into the family home, having traveled all that way,
45:49
Speaker 1: and does his best to make merry. He watches old
45:52
Speaker 1: action movies, dances around, and generally tries to have a
45:55
Speaker 1: good time. We can see, though, that he is not
45:58
Speaker 1: having a good time. We see this with occasional glimpses
46:01
Speaker 1: of his face, which is sad, and the fact that
46:04
Speaker 1: he's making fists with his toes on the carpet, a
46:07
Speaker 1: sure sign that he's experiencing anxiety. Late in the night,
46:11
Speaker 1: a pair of apparent robbers or bandits if you prefer,
46:15
Speaker 1: break into the house just as Kevin is in the
46:17
Speaker 1: kitchen making some snacks. Kevin here's them, so he's able
46:20
Speaker 1: to be quiet and evade notice. But his service revolver
46:24
Speaker 1: is in his spare room where he had planned to sleep.
46:27
Speaker 1: He conceals himself and listens in, and soon it becomes
46:30
Speaker 1: a parent. The bandits are more than just your average
46:32
Speaker 1: house thieves. For one thing. They are soon joined by
46:35
Speaker 1: another thief, and another and another, like twenty guys show up.
46:40
Speaker 1: They're all vaguely European except for one guy who is
46:45
Speaker 1: clearly American, and he's a hacker because he wears glasses.
46:49
Speaker 1: These bandits have heard that Kevin's dad has a huge
46:53
Speaker 1: number of bonds hidden in a safe, which is in
46:56
Speaker 1: itself in a hidden part of the house and will
46:59
Speaker 1: require an enormous amount of time to break into, and
47:01
Speaker 1: so they get to work and before long they're using
47:04
Speaker 1: various tools to try and break through the safe. Kevin meanwhile,
47:08
Speaker 1: sneaks around the house quietly setting up various booby traps.
47:12
Speaker 1: He's without his gun after one thief while just doing
47:15
Speaker 1: a cursory search, happens across the revolver using tools like
47:20
Speaker 1: gardening implements, paint cans, ball bearings, crazy glue, hungry Hungry
47:26
Speaker 1: Hippo's board game, and some steak knives. Kevin McAllister takes
47:30
Speaker 1: out the bandits one by one, or sometimes one by two,
47:34
Speaker 1: because you know, he's kind of a badass. At the
47:36
Speaker 1: end of the movie, it's down to Kevin and the
47:39
Speaker 1: last two bandits, which are revealed to be his old nemesses,
47:43
Speaker 1: the Wet Bandits themselves, who are just desperately clinging to
47:47
Speaker 1: the idea of one last big heist so they can retire.
47:52
Speaker 1: So Kevin totally shoots them a whole bunch with his revolver,
47:55
Speaker 1: which I forgot to mention he managed to retrieve I
47:57
Speaker 1: don't know, like maybe three bandits ago. At the very
48:00
Speaker 1: end of the film, the phone rings and as Kevin
48:03
Speaker 1: stands in what is essentially a pile of corpses, he
48:06
Speaker 1: has a conversation on the phone that sounds like he's
48:09
Speaker 1: talking with his family. But then at the very end
48:11
Speaker 1: he says merry Christmas. Mr McClean boom. Kevin mccallister's teacher
48:16
Speaker 1: at the Police Academy was John McLean. Bet you didn't
48:19
Speaker 1: see that coming the end. Oh I love it. I
48:22
Speaker 1: love the twist. Oh my goodness, I thought you were
48:25
Speaker 1: going to swear for a second. It was a real
48:27
Speaker 1: roller custy. Yeah. No, there was no yippy kaya ying
48:29
Speaker 1: in that hot like please me, Mr Falcon, not not
48:35
Speaker 1: the the But was I loved it? Yeah? Yeah, see
48:40
Speaker 1: I was. I was trying to think of, like, it's
48:41
Speaker 1: cool because you actually went to the die hard setting
48:44
Speaker 1: whereas I went to the home alone setting, and as
48:47
Speaker 1: I said, like, we did not talk about this beforehand,
48:50
Speaker 1: so we had no idea what the other person was
48:52
Speaker 1: going to do before they did it. So that was
48:55
Speaker 1: kind of that was that was a fun experiment, and
48:58
Speaker 1: it was just lucky that we both went the opposite way.
49:02
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure there are other ways to go
49:04
Speaker 1: with it too. It's not one or the other. In fact,
49:08
Speaker 1: if if our listeners come up with ways that they
49:11
Speaker 1: would like to combine these two classics, one a Christmas
49:14
Speaker 1: classic and one totally not a Christmas classic, then they
49:18
Speaker 1: should do that and let us know about them. Yes,
49:22
Speaker 1: you can reach out to us on social media on
49:25
Speaker 1: Twitter where at l n C Underscore Podcast, and we're
49:29
Speaker 1: also on the facebooks and the instagrams. You can post
49:32
Speaker 1: a message or you can send us a d M.
49:34
Speaker 1: If we like your ideas and your mashups, will read
49:37
Speaker 1: them on an episode. And you can also tell Jonathan
49:40
Speaker 1: that die Hard is totally a Christmas movie. Actually I
49:44
Speaker 1: won't listen, he won't listen, let him have this this
49:48
Speaker 1: this holiday, but I'll listen, so you can tell me,
49:51
Speaker 1: um whatever you think either way, Well that I think
49:57
Speaker 1: that wraps this one up. I think it's time for
49:59
Speaker 1: us to wrapped this episode up and then maybe unwrapped
50:02
Speaker 1: some presents. I agree. So until next time, I'm Ariel
50:06
Speaker 1: cast In and I'm Jingland Strickland. Happy Holidays. M m
50:28
Speaker 1: m m M. The Large Nur John Collider is a
50:36
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and was created by Ariel
50:39
Speaker 1: cast In. Jonathan Strickland is the executive producer. This show
50:42
Speaker 1: is produced, edited and published by Tory Harrison. For more
50:46
Speaker 1: podcast on my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
50:49
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.