Latest / Forever Hallmark Christmas Podcast / Winter Wonderlanes

Transcript

Winter Wonderlanes · Forever Hallmark Christmas Podcast

0:10
SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone and welcome to Forever Hallmark Christmas, where we review only Hallmark Christmas movies.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm joined to my name is Renee.
0:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm joined as always, as he likes to say, my Christmas cousin, Rich.
0:22
SPEAKER_01: How are you, Rich?
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Renee, I think you forgot after Mr.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: and Mrs.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Christmas last week.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to start calling me Mr.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Christmas, remember?
0:31
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm joined today by Mr.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: Christmas.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: How are you, Mr.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: Christmas?
0:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing great, Renee.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that wonderful introduction.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: I feel uh feel much better now with my Mr.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Christmas tag.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: No.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing good and ready to uh talk a little Winter Wonderlands today.
0:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm excited for it.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Just so you guys know, uh, we're gonna do talk about the movie, and there will be some spoilers, so you have been warned.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh this movie, Winter Wonderlands, as Rich introduced, is uh from this year, 2026.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: It came out Friday, October 23rd.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: So it's just hot off the presses, as they used to say.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh this one stars Ashley Newbrow as Audrey Bell.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: She's been in like 16 Hallmark movies, so she's been in a lot, including one I I'm pretty sure I saw.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if we reviewed it or not, but was uh she was in oh no, we probably didn't.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: And four of the Unwrapping Christmas ones.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: I guess that's a series.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: Also joined by Franco Lowe Presty as Jason Miller.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh he has a great head of hair, by the way.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: He's uh been in a small town Christmas with Ashley and Wes Brown and Unwrapping Christmas Lily's Destiny.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: Aside from I don't think I've seen him in anything else.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: We have a nice supporting cast with uh Nicole Amber Furuggia as Hadley Bell, Savannah Messlin as Natalie, Audrey's friend and realtor, and Michael Gordon Shore as Henry.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: Also Carlisle J.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: Williams as Beckett or Beck's.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: He was a nice character.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: This movie was directed by Max Mc Maguire.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: He's directed a lot of hallmarks, and I've seen a few I recall uh Christmas by Design and a few others.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh written by uh the teleplays by Barbara Kinlika, which she's we know she's great.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: It says original story by Alan Donahy.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh Barbara has written a ton.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: I've seen several, including A Cookie Cutter Christmas, which I think we might have reviewed.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: Correct me if I'm wrong on that one, Rich.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: No, I think it was Christmas Cookies that we reviewed.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: Dang it.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: I was told.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: But of her, but we did review of hers a couple that we both really liked: A Very Merry Mix Up and A Bride for Christmas.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: I think those were 2012, 2013.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: So uh quite a while back, but we reviewed both of those and uh we really like both.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: She kind of writes really fun kind of bonkers in a great way kind of scripts.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she does.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll get right into it.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: Our FHC long line is uh Audrey Bell, a traveling restaurateur, comes home for Thanksgiving and learns that her late grandfather's beloved bowling alley is being sold.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: She revives its annual youth bowling tournament and enlists a local reporter, Jason Miller, her high school sweetheart, to help promote it.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: The reunion rekindles old feelings and forces Audrey to choose between her traveling career and putting down roots back at home.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh there's no IMDB rating yet, but we'll take a look at this probably later on.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: I did come up with a I did find a fun fact, Rich, but I'm gonna check in with you before I uh maybe spill one that you might have come up with, if any.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: Did you have any fun facts?
3:22
SPEAKER_00: No, I uh you're you're gonna break all of the uh fun fact news today, so go for it.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: One fun fact I kept seeing this restaurant, the diner, called Brahmasol.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: And it is a real diner in Ottawa.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's a chain.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: There's a few of them.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: So I looked at the menu, solid diner food.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: I got hungry just looking at it.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: They had I didn't write down the main dish, but it was like home fries and toast or something like that.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: It looked fantastic.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to go check out that menu and have your mouth uh salivating like mine was last night when I was looking at the menu, uh, feel free to do so.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: Brahmasal Diner.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Rich, what are your overall thoughts on this movie?
4:01
SPEAKER_00: So, this for me was a tale of two movies.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: There were definitely parts about this movie that I really liked, I thought were really original, especially for the Hallmark channel.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And there's another part of the movie that uh a big part that I really didn't care for at all.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: So for me, there was definitely parts of the storyline that I thought were great, very original, and another part of the storyline that just didn't work for me at all.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So I'll be talking about those during my likes and also what we fix in a rewrite.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: So in the end, I found it to be an easy watch, kind of a fun watch, but I do think there's a lot of ways that the film could have been improved.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I like the setting, as I'm in a bowling league myself, as I may have mentioned before.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: I thought that I thought the scenery was nice in the movie.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh the uh this movie had some slow moments for me, but overall I thought it was kind of a cute movie.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh I definitely will get into our likes and our rewrites and get more into it.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: But I, you know, it's a cute movie.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: So let's get into our things we really liked.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And Renee, I shot you a text yesterday.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, this is a Hallmark movie with a lot of bowling in it.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: And you being in a bowling league, I am going to be leaning on your bowling expertise uh to tell us what was real and what was not so real about the bowling scenes in this movie.
5:22
SPEAKER_01: I am here as the official Forever Hallmark bowling expert.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: That being said, the first thing I did like is it's a movie about bowling, which is something very different for Hallmark.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't just make it a little tiny bit about bowling.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: I'd say what 60-70% of this movie was kind of shot in the bowling alley.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: So they really made that bowling alley and bowling part of this movie in a big way.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: And I really like that.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: It's something different that I had never seen before on the Hallmark.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh Audrey's dad, I love the relationship between the two of them, and I love that he tells her every night before she goes to bed that he loves her because I have two daughters, and the last thing I'll do before I go to bed and I just tell them I love them as well.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: So that was very cute.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Candy clean mochacinos.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: I want one, Renee.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh same thing with the same thing with the cranberry grilled cheese sandwich.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: Those both look great.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: And when both daughters are home for Christmas break this year, I definitely want them to make me a mochuccino as well as a cranberry grilled cheese.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, please invite me over for that morning.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: The jingle bowl, the jingle bowl bowling tournament, great name.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh well done, Barbara Kimblickka.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: She came up with some great names for different things uh in this movie, as well as a bowling ball called the Candy Cane Crusher.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: So very classic.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, those are just a few things, but I I I really enjoyed the bowling alley scenes and that so much of it was shot in the bowling alley.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: Love the decorations in there.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: It really made it feel like a kind of a Christmas style bowling alley.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was a really they did a good job with the bowling alley for sure.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: And that's not a set.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's I don't think you can build a bowling alley for a set without having all that functioning going on.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: So that was a real bowling alley.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you it and you kind of had the whites and blues in there, kind of giving you that winter feel.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Then of course he added in all the green Christmas trees and the garland.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was really well done.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: I look when I was watching this, I liked how um at first it alluded to something happening on that night between Ashley and Jason.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: Like they kind of allude to it, but they don't say what happened.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: So I go, oh, okay.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: They're like teasing me along, like, what's gonna happen?
7:24
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
7:25
SPEAKER_01: And I kept asking myself, well, what's going on?
7:28
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
7:29
SPEAKER_01: And it took like there was another scene where they hint at it as well and and they talk about it, but again, they didn't tell me what happened.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: So they didn't make me wait too long.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: They did finally tell us, probably within 30 minutes or so of the movie, that she had beat him in a bowling tournament and that he had bailed.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: But there are some spoilers here, so we find out later on why he really bailed, and we if we think it's just because she beat him at bowling, and it turns out that that's not exactly the case.
7:57
SPEAKER_01: So that was a nice little twist towards the end.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about more.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: Um the town had lovely shots, lots of snow everywhere.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: It felt like a Christmas town, but not an overly done Christmas town.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh I thought the Christmas tree lot was amazing.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: Those Christmas trees were huge and beautiful and so well organized and uh planted in rows.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: That was really a nice Christmas tree lot, but it didn't seem to be one for like uh you know, to bring your kids along or stuff like that.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: It just seemed to be a down-to-business Christmas tree lot.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, I like the great scene with the two of them are alone at the bowling alley in their PJs after a fun little bowling PJ in your PJs uh game day.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: And uh you know, she told him what his running out did to her and how it affected her uh as a person.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: I thought that was really really solid writing.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: And you know me, I like to hear that sort of deeper uh writing.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: And the last thing that I that I that I really liked was when she was reading the card from the grandfather that her grandmother brought her and said, Here, you know, if your grandpa wanted me to give this to you if you ever had some doubts or things like that.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: It's a lovely letter.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: But I also found that I don't know if I put this in my, you know, uh are we sure?
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Like it's kind of a guilt trip to see that card, I think.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: Like, how could she sell it after she reads that card?
9:17
SPEAKER_01: But that it was still a very lovely moment.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: And again, I think I'll talk about that in my in uh our rewrites, which uh you could tell us about now.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so my biggest fault with this movie was the relationship between Audrey and Jason.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: I just could not get into these two as a couple.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: I I wasn't getting any chemistry really between the two of them.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: There's obviously a little friction that goes with their backstory that really didn't come across on screen as they were kind of cozy up, getting pretty friendly pretty early with one another.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: The backstory to me was really kind of weak.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, he did lose the bowling term.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: We find out later on that he was really he really disappointed his father.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: But what the how old were they, Renee?
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe 19 years old when this whole thing went down?
10:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they because they were high school sweethearts for three years before it all ended, so I'm guessing that maybe the Christmas after they graduated high school, so they would have been what, 18, 19 years old?
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And she's like 40 now, so we're trying to think for the last 20 years, this guy that ran out on her after a bowling tournament crushed her for the next 20 years.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: It just didn't quite work for me.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned Franco Lepresti's hair.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: I I thought it was a wig at first, either that or the hair and makeup people on set were trying to pump the guy.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: It was you said he had great hair.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was awful hair, and I don't really look at hair and makeup very closely as a lot of my wife will kind of start picking that stuff out a little bit more, but I thought it was a wig at first.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: It just looked terrible.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: And uh, Renee, I'm just gonna put it out there.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure Franco Lopresti is a Hallmark leading man.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: I know this was his first Christmas movie.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Everybody has their first one they have to do.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he didn't work for me as a Hallmark leading man.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe I need to see him again uh next year and see what I think.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: But that was probably my biggest weakness of the movie, is and it's a big one, is because you need to buy into this couple, and I just wasn't buying into these two.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I I think he would do well in like in the like a Dick Tracy kind of movie where he plays like a gangster or something because he's got that jawline and that look.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, 100%.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: He would be yeah, he would be great.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: Like a if um Hallmark did like something like that would be kind of cool, Christmas, you know, a noir thing or something.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: My first one's a little on my rewrite.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: As I always say, don't take off the Santa Beers in public.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: That's now like the third movie in a row for me.
11:39
SPEAKER_01: Um and you mentioned their their their relationship with each other.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: I thought the same thing.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: So I w I went into I want the big rewrite for me is when the grandmother came into the bedroom and Audrey's sitting in the bed and she brought up asking Audrey about the bowling alley so abruptly, right?
11:56
SPEAKER_01: They were just sitting there.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: I think I would have liked to have seen that question come about a little bit more organic organically.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: It felt so rushed, and that scene seemed to me like they just needed to get that scene in there.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: I think I I don't know how I would have re-rented.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: I think maybe you know, they're hanging out, talking about how's it going, talking about her feelings with Jason, you know, all that stuff.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: I think then the conversation could have flowed into that a little bit more naturally.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was aside from like the the Jason and Audrey, like still after 20 years, like still holding the flame for each other.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: I had a hard time with that as well.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: But did you have a favorite moment?
12:34
SPEAKER_00: I did, and sometimes when I think about a favorite moment, I ask myself, would I like to be doing what they're doing in a scene in a movie?
12:41
SPEAKER_00: And for me, it was it was the pajama bowling party.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: I think that would be so much fun getting your favorite Christmas pajamas, go bowling for a night with all your friends and family, have a good time, food, drink.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: That was a really, really fun scene, and that is something that I would absolutely do myself if I had the opportunity.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, everyone was just having a blast, so I'm going with the pajama bowling party as my favorite scene of the movie.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that scene was really cute.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: I really liked that.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: For me, it was when she had the whole family there at the bowling alley and told them that she's not selling Wonderlands, she's gonna keep it.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: Everyone was so excited, everyone was jumping up and down and just celebrating.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: And to me, that's that's the real happy ending of this movie.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: I've and that's what got me the most in this.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: I was like, ah, that's that's nice.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: That's what I wanted to see.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: The happy ending.
13:27
SPEAKER_01: I knew of course she was gonna keep, you know, she's gonna keep the alley and she's gonna end up with Jason, but I was really the most excited for her keeping the alley.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: And uh I wonder if we're gonna pick the same person here, but who's your best supporting character who deserved more screen time?
13:42
SPEAKER_00: We might be picking the same person because we didn't mention this person in our likes, and I originally had one of my likes being the relationship and the flashbacks that we had between Audrey and her grandpa.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh, love those.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I think it really added to the whole bowling alley feel of it, all how important it was to both of them growing up.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: So, grandpa is my best supporting character.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have a few more flashbacks with him.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: We got a lot, we got a few, but he was just a really great character, those those few moments that we did have.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: And again, I really like that part of the movie, those flashbacks.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Again, something that started off in my list of likes.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: So I said, you know what?
14:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna move grandpa down to my favorite supporting character and talk about that relationship uh during this segment because I really did like him as a supporting character.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I didn't mention this in in my rewrites, but I would have liked to have seen Jason and the flashbacks.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: You know, to give me a little bit more of a background of how that relationship was.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: But uh my best supporting character was Sebastian, the cameraman.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh he's played by Gabriel Matka.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: I thought his character was so funny and cute and cool.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: And I just enjoyed his little scenes.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: And I'm did he get the best kiss in the movie?
14:54
SPEAKER_01: Like the mistletoe meter is gonna tell us right in in a little bit, but uh we'll see about that one.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: What are some of our are we sure is or logic checks, as you call them?
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've only got two, and for this first one, I am gonna rely on your bowling expertise here to help me with this uh with this one.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: But one of the first flashbacks they did with grandpa and Audrey as she is stepping up to the lane and bowling that ball.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me get to first of all.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: Renick, she steps up with perfect form, curves the ball in for a perfect strike.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she looked like a professional bowler that you'd see on TV.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: But grandpa is telling her things like okay, don't point your feet at the gutters.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Use the arrows, like the most basic kind of thing.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: So are we are we sure that Audrey, who again had perfect form, curved ball in for a perfect strike, would need those basic kind of uh lessons.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: No, I think that's something you tell to a five-year-old like in their first junior bowling lesson.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: So that's my first try.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Are we sure?
15:50
SPEAKER_00: You on board with that one being the bowling guru that you are?
15:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't I don't think that would happen on the first try at all.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was that was kind of funny.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: And my other are we sure is the five of them when grandpa's still there, they do a Christmas dinner at the bowling alley.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, full meal, like a turkey, glasses of wine.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Are we sure they would do that at the bowling alley and not in one of their homes?
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that was my other are we sure that you would drag all the food out there.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: No kitchen, probably.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Or actually, they probably do have a kitchen, but yeah, I just didn't think they would uh set up this full five-course meal with wine and beer and everything uh at the bowling alley for just the five of them.
16:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I had wrote quite a few things, a couple of the same same as you.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: Like the first one for me is like the entrance to the bowling alley was so small, I've never seen a front that small.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the building's like sideways in a weird way.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: I was like, whoa, that's a really weird entrance.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: And I also thought, like, would they be adding ribbons to the bowling pins?
16:43
SPEAKER_01: I I think that would affect how the pins break, but I'm not sure.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh little scenes, you know, we talked about this a little bit, but I get it's a part of the story that Jason would leave the bowling alley when he lost and later find out it had nothing to do with her.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: But he was his fear of uh disappointing his dad.
17:01
SPEAKER_01: But would he have ghosted her for 20 years?
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like I mean, if they were together for like three years, right, or something like that.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: So it's like you can't say, like, hey, I'm sorry I left, you know, I just like my dad.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: And maybe she would have known about that issue with the dad.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: So that was a like a logic check for me.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it was a bigger rewrite, but for sure a logic check, you know, it's like and are we sure did Audrey love Jason this whole time?
17:24
SPEAKER_01: Why would she be upset that he was moving out of the town?
17:28
SPEAKER_01: Like, I just did not get it.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's yeah, there's I mean, once once she hit a certain age, I mean you're like I say, she's probably around 40 years old, and it's been over 20 years.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: I think you kind of grow up and yeah, I can't imagine something like that crushed her for all those years.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh again, this is something that happened probably when they were 18 or 19 years old.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, let's let's move on.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: Well, would this lead couple now last 12 months?
17:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so, Renee.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: As I said, as I said it before, I just didn't get the chemistry between that.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about the mistletoe meter here in a second.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I did have a big issue, and if that is really their big comeback kiss after 21 years, I'm really doubtful that they're gonna make it as a couple if that's a kiss you're gonna give me.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: So I do not think they're gonna make it, unfortunately.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: Love the bowling, uh, that they're getting back into bowling.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they can be partners in a bowling league, but as a as a couple that's gonna last, no way.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: I said yes, and I'll tell you why.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: She was pretty forgiving of him for doing what he did, and so she must really love him.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: That's what I think.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: Because otherwise, like I would not even have they were so friendly when she first saw him putting stuff up on the ladder.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: It's like she was really nice.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: I would not have been that nice.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't have been like unfriendly, but I just would have been a little bit colder.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
18:44
SPEAKER_01: Like, I hope Jason doesn't run away again.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: If he stays, I think they're good to go.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, as far as she goes.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: So I said yes, only because I think she sometimes, you know, one person loves the other more than the other.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: I definitely think she loves him more than he loves her.
18:59
SPEAKER_01: But we'll see.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: I guess we'll see.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I wish they I wish they did a uh like a you know, like the next year.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: How do these couples rate?
19:06
SPEAKER_01: Of course, at Hallmark, they're all gonna be together, but well, this this is a moment that I think is the shining moment for this episode.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Let's uh let's uh write the kiss on the missile to meter 8f.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, I watched the kiss the first time and in in and wrote my rating down, and then I watched it again this morning, fired up Hallmark Plus, watched it one last time to make sure that I kind of had right what I wanted to say.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, overall, I'm giving the kiss a C.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: It's getting an A for the length of a kiss.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was like 15 or more seconds, and again, like, you know, 10 seconds for Hallmark, that's a pretty good amount of time.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: When we get 15 seconds, it's like, wow, that was a really long kiss.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: And this was a really long kiss.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: But for the actual kiss itself, like the physical kiss, first of all, they just kind of mashed their faces together for the entire 15 seconds.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was no turning of the heads, no passion whatsoever.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: And then as I kind of started looking closer, Renee, it's one of those things where she was literally kissing him between his lips and his nose.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: Like they the two lips weren't even touching each other.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: So A for the length of a kiss, it's probably more like a C minus for the actual kiss itself.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm giving it a C plus overall.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Once again, uh I I think had their lips actually been touching, maybe I give it a little bit better, but it's kind of one of those weird, maybe it wasn't a camera angle, but definitely she wasn't hitting his lips the entire time for sure.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the fact that the duration of a bad kiss for me was like uh the kiss was not great.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: I did I did like that Audrey went in for it.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: That was good.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: It got a little better when they panned back like the second part of the kiss, but overall this kiss was yeah, like you said, she's kissing like under his nose.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: This is a C minus.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: I almost gave this a D plus, but I guess the duration helps, and that second little bit at the end um made it a little bit better.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: Um they had, you know, the final that wasn't even the that wasn't even the final kiss.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: That was like their first kiss after a long time.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: The final kiss, right?
21:06
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I'm cutting you off if you were gonna talk about it, but um the final kiss had potential, but it was far too short, and I get it, it was in front of everyone.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: So those two kisses for me combined, just a C minus overall.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: I didn't like them.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: Let me just go into this real quick.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: Hadley's kiss with Sebastian was better.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Take the context of the scene.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: I will give that one a B minus because it was cute and unexpected.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: I was so happy for Sebastian.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: I like that kiss the best out of the movie.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: I was happier for them getting together as a couple potentially.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you could tell that these were two very nervous.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know how old they are, 19, 20 year olds.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, you could tell that the nerves are gonna do it, but they were all it was like an excited kiss.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: So it was it was fun.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Super cute.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: So, did you have more to say about the final kiss, or you that was your full rating for the community?
21:56
SPEAKER_00: That's my full rating.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:58
SPEAKER_01: So who or what won the movie?
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, I had to think long and hard about this one.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: In the end, this is gonna I'm gonna do a what won the movie and very general, but it's bowling alleys at Christmas time because I think Hallmark saw this movie, and I think they're gonna maybe incorporate either similar, you know, we we see bowling every once in a while, but I think now that they've seen this, they can actually incorporate a lot of the Christmas into a bowling alley and make it festive.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about an entire bowling movie like this one.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: This might be the one and only that we get.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: But I think they can have a lot of fun and make bowling alleys look really festive.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And Renee, you know what?
22:31
SPEAKER_00: I'll bet there's bowling alley owners all over America that watch this movie and then are saying, hey, I got some great ideas how to spruce up my alley at Christmas.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: We can get families over here during Christmas break, make a little bit of money, let them have some fun.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Renee, I'll bet there will be bowling alley pajama parties somewhere in America this uh this Christmas season.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: So for me, the winner of this movie bowling alleys at Christmas time.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: I will definitely let you know if my bowling alley uh makes us wear pajamas to our parties here for Christmas real soon.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: That is it is a cute idea.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: For me, it was a what as well.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: The locations won, right?
23:08
SPEAKER_01: The bowling alley.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: I thought the location scouts and the set designers won this movie.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: The scenic shots of the town were so lovely.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: It made it feel like Christmas to me, but not overdone.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: All the interiors were done nicely, but not again, not overdone.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: The bowling alley, albeit is a little small by like our Orange County standards, was a lovely setting and they decorated it nicely.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: They put a lot of trees and decorations in there and a lot of effort into that.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I agree with you.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: The the what was uh the location and the bowling alley and stuff like that.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: So the big moment our overall movie rating of one to five.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: You said you might have guessed what my choice was gonna be for my you know, how many of what did this movie get?
23:50
SPEAKER_01: What do you got?
23:51
SPEAKER_00: I I think I I think I have guessed it indeed.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
23:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be how many candy cane crushers.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: You are so close.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Oh, very close.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: Because we didn't talk about this on the Are We Shirt, but how many double turkeys did this movie get?
24:10
SPEAKER_01: A double turkey is insane.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: That's six strikes in a row.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: I've I don't think I've ever gotten a turkey that's just telling everybody how bad I am at bowling.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: But I almost had a turkey last night.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: I went into practice, but uh three in a row is something, and six is crazy.
24:27
SPEAKER_01: So, how many double turkeys did this movie get for you?
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so I gave 3.25 double turkeys.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Again, there are a bunch of things about this movie that I really enjoyed.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: I thought it made it really fun.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Again, an entire Hallmark movie dedicated to bowling and the bowling alley was great.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: The flashbacks with grandpa, uh Audrey and her family time were all great.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the other part I really struggled with was that relationship between Audrey and Jason, and I just couldn't get into it.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: I think had we had a better leading man, had we kind of vetted out that relationship a little bit more, made it a little bit more of a reason for him leaving.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: I think this show upset him do a 375 or so, but I I can't ignore the fact that they just did not work together as a couple for me.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: So 3.25 double turkeys.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: I went with I was really close.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: I I was vacillating as well on this one.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: At times it was like 3.75, 3.25, 3.5.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: So I went in the middle, 3.5 double turkeys.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was not bowled over by this one, but if it was on the Hallmark Plus channel and or just on Hallmark, uh, I would definitely pick this up.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: Spare, I would pick this spare up.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: Darn it, I ruined the metaphor.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: If it came on Hallmark, I would pick this spare up.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, 3.5 double turkeys.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: So what is we don't know what our next movie is yet, right?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we don't know what our next movie is.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to get through as many as we can, but you can follow us on Instagram at Forever Hallmark Christmas.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be posting on there.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: I usually put up hosts every Monday as to what movies that week we will be reviewing.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: It's usually gonna be two, maybe three, if we can get to three.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: You and I are not full-time podcasters, as we've said before, so we get we're gonna get to as many as we can.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: But follow us on Instagram and we'll let you know exactly what movies we'll be reviewing for any given week.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate it.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna leave you with For the Love of Hallmark.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: For the Love of Hallmark.