You know what that sound means? That sound means
it's time for Game for a Movie, where we ask,
are you game for a movie? I am your host, Mike
Butek. I am joined by... Andre. Jill. Mitchell.
Nice. Welcome, everybody. It is episode 26. It's
crazy we've made it this far. It's true. It's
great. It's good to be here with you. Yes. It
took us 26 episodes, but we launched a Twitter.
actually um and if you'd like to follow us at
game for a movie p1 on twitter um there's lots
of great podcasts that we're tweeting about as
well as our own of course um special shout out
to the insanely dangerous retro pod show they're
awesome They talk about 80s stuff. They have
been one of our number one fans because they've
listened to our show about Killer Sofa and then
decided to watch Killer Sofa. They did? Yes.
Oh, I have to listen and follow up on that. Yes,
so they are fantastic. Also, special shout out
to my boy Adam. You guys know Adam. Do I know
Adam? You don't know Adam. Oh, I know Adam, yeah.
You know Adam. I do. So Adam was texting me and
he was saying thank you guys for the podcast.
I was like, Wait, what? He goes, yeah, I was
doing stuff around the house, and I listened
to five episodes straight. Damn. That's a lot
of our voice in a row. I could not imagine listening
to five episodes of ours in a row. So shout out
to Adam when you hear this. What are we drinking?
Ooh, right. All right, so should we just go around
the table? I have the Double Dry Hopped Fort
Point Pale Ale from Trillium Brewing. Oh, nice.
Yeah. What's it called? Fort Point? Fort Point.
Okay, Fort Point. Yes. Nice. I am drinking This
Is Mrs. Ridiculous, a sour ale brewed with grapes
and aged in French oak barrels from Dogfish Head.
I love Dogfish Head. Mitchell, what do you got
over there? You know, because I am refusing to
believe that it is winter and that it was actually
snowing outside when I ran today, I wanted to
get something that reminded me of summer, so
I pulled out a little something hazy by Lagunitas.
It is one of my favorite summertime beers. It
was still available even during December. There
you go. All right. And I got a Three Floyds Barbarian
Haze IPA from Three Floyds. They are the best
brewery, in my opinion. Literally one of the
best. They are in Indiana, and they are delicious.
So that will bring us to the actual meat of the
program. Okay. Christmas meat. Christmas ham.
Christmas ham. Okay. Yeah. We're going to get
to the Christmas movies later. But, Andre, start
us off with what you watched. I guess when you
watched it. Yeah. Okay. So, all right. Some preamble
on this for the reasoning, right? So nothing
says Christmas. like cyberpunk right and there's
this big huge ass game that came out called cyberpunk
2077 and uh it came out it came out pretty hot
i know just in case you've been living under
a rock uh yeah this game was supposed to be very
it was very hyped uh it came out and it's definitely
not finished doesn't run on ps4 xbox one so uh
that's bad but this isn't a video game podcast
this is a movie podcast uh so uh i was left with
a giant cyberpunk shaped hole in my heart and
so i turned to joe and i was like joe I need
to watch a cyberpunk movie. And we kind of went
down the list of like, okay, we could watch Blade
Runner. We could watch Akira. We could watch
Ghost in the Shell. We could watch The Matrix.
We could watch The Matrix. And I mean, this is
the one we landed on because like, you know,
yeah, I don't know. I just, I felt like watching
some good old, good old fashioned. cyberpunk
anime so i'm gonna i'm gonna throw a challenge
flag is matrix cyberpunk so it's tough right
i would not say i would not call that it's cyberpunk
because because it's so the parts that are in
the future are all that's like that's just post
-apocalyptic you know what i mean like it's not
it's not dudes walking around with enhanced cyber
limbs or whatever what about the i mean i agree
like the world within the world so not the actual
reality in which so you're saying the matrix
the inside the matrix specifically it's it's
too it's too modern day you know what i mean
like in in in um in the matrix the the the ruse
is supposed to be that's supposed to be 1999
new york city you know what i mean like it's
not people aren't walking around the future it's
not 2050 or whatever you know i will say that
now having watched the film we've watched i really
want to watch the matrix again yes right so it's
no it's no secret so this is so we're talking
about ghost of shell the 1995 ova original video
animation This movie is a classic. It's one of
the first five movies. Whenever somebody's getting
into anime, that's one of the first five names
you rattle off along with Akira. Neon Genesis
even. Neon Genesis, yeah. It's in that level
of classic anime. And this kind of provided the
blueprint for... most like near future cyberpunk
stories uh most notably even though it's not
cyberpunk the wachowski siblings they watched
this movie and they were kind of they they used
them they used that movie kind of as a blueprint
for the matrix you can see a lot of similarity
so if you're a big fan of the matrix highly recommend
watching this movie just as kind of like seeing
the progenesis of it you'll also notice that
carrie ann moss looks shockingly that's true
like the main character the major yes yeah so
i guess high level plot synopsis is that this
is uh this is this movie takes place in a near
future tokyo uh where technology has advanced
to the point where we've kind of cracked the
code in terms of like cybernetic enhancements
um we can also transfer consciousness like human
consciousness called ghosts in this world uh
to other bodies hence ghost in the shell so our
main character she is a police force major she
has a cybernetic body um so like she just has
basically this whole entire like the opening
scene is her jumping from a tower and using active
camo and doing like a political assassination
on somebody. Oh. So, this movie is... You know,
as you do. Right. So, you know, I went into this
movie, I watched this, like, probably maybe 15
-ish years ago because I was getting into anime
and I was like, oh, man, I'll watch this, like,
thinking, oh, it's gonna be action -packed, like,
you know, yeah, like, robot sci -fi action. This
movie is very much a slow burn and it's oddly
paced, I would say. Okay. Because it's based
directly off of a manga, which definitely, like,
that's not... doesn't translate directly to,
like, a normal five -act structure for a film.
Okay. Um... All it is to say is that this movie,
the main things that are going for it is the
visuals. It's absolutely beautiful. What's up?
It's typically a three -act structure. A lot
of anime and Japanese story structure is defined
as four, typically. But anyway, you could definitely
split it up into five, but a lot of people like
to say three in American storytelling. Okay.
Let's watch the whole thing on different story
structure. whiplash and the and black swan yeah
i'll share that link to that there's nothing
lessons from the screenplay class a great great
youtube channel check out he's he's awesome anyways
um where was i oh yeah so i mean yeah the the
biggest thing about this movie is that's visually
extremely striking um the animation still looks
great i think i was reading up on a little bit
it's not all 2d hand animation it did a combination
of digital animation with cel shading. Yeah,
I need to look into it more. But anyways, you
can obviously tell that they spent a lot of time
on the mechanical designs of all of these cybernetic
limbs, all of these automated machines. This
world just immediately draws you in. I would
say that if you watch anything from this movie,
it's either watch the opening credits scene.
You can definitely see how it definitely reminds
me a lot of Westworld specifically. Westworld
definitely took a lot. I said that last night.
Yes, right. You immediately feel like it feels
like Westworld. Yeah. Um, and there's also one
of my favorite, uh, sections of this movie is
just in the middle of it where we just, no, no
plot happens. It's just a long drawn out, uh,
like different cuts of. I don't think it's called
Neo -Tokyo, but this new version of Tokyo, which
they model after Hong Kong. It's this futuristic
city, but it looks grungy. It's overcrowded.
You can see a lot of classism going on with all
of these idyllic buildings and shopping centers
right above all these slums. Just a clash of
cultures. It helped further codify the cyberpunk
look that Blade Runner defined. almost you know
gotcha yeah um Yeah, I don't know. It's hard
not to just talk in circles with this movie because
it is very much, I would say, it's up its own
ass a little bit. With talking about a lot of
cyberpunk fiction, it'll talk about a lot of
the themes have to do with transhumanism and
what exactly constitutes the meaning of life.
How do you define your own existence if we've
gone to the point where humanity no longer needs
its actual flesh and blood? We can transfer it
to all these machines and new... At what point
does life start and end? Okay. So there's a lot
of questions about that. I would say that, like,
narratively, this film is a lot of, like, I don't
know. You could go for it, Jill. Yeah, so first
of all, these are the lyrics that are being the
IMDb note about the lyrics, I am building a cyborg
or making a cyborg. Now that I've thought about
it, this film, it is not the same. This is not
the same. These two movies are the same at all.
If you've ever seen Only Lovers Left Alive, the
slow, slow burn sequences of no dialogue, just
very ambient, atmospheric music. just letting
you you know you're you're uh marinating in the
atmosphere of this world yeah that's where i'm
seeing the similarity i went into this movie
not knowing much about it besides the opening
tower jump scene which i would say if you are
into anime or have a passing interest you know
what i'm talking about but i was expecting more
gunfights robot on robot action and there is
some of that but this is a very heady think piece
um It is, I guess, like, almost like an episode
of Black Mirror. Yes. But, like, a more slow
-paced one. Like, I could see, and I'm sure maybe
they have even done this, them adapting the story
that is discussed in... Ghost in the Shell. And
while we were watching it, at first I was thinking,
oh, it's slow burn like the way that Metropolis
is slow burn, but Metropolis has a bombastic
ending. The last 20 minutes of Metropolis, everything
reaches their crescendo and it ignites. Ghost
in the Shell... Very much just ends. It ends,
not with a gunfight or a blaze of glory, but
with a very deep... humanist conversation about
what is life, what does it mean to be human,
and what is the next chapter for some characters.
Yeah, and I'm making it sound like this movie
is pretty pretentious, but I don't know. It's
not, though. This is not a pretentious film.
No, I'm not going to bring up Satoshi Kon into
this. I'm not saying Perfect Blue is pretentious
either, since a millennium actress is kind of
pretentious, and it's the whole story about this
actress's career, and the painter is the greatest
thing ever. This is a very humble story with
larger themes. one is not pretentious while the
second and third matrix are yes i guess that's
what i'm trying to delineate is that it does
not fall into just narrative like narrative garbage.
These are not gods looking down upon man. These
are individuals who want to be equal with man.
I think the Matrix, the second and third Matrix
films are the Wachowskis trying to get to that
level of headiness, but not sticking a landing.
The first thing I thought of when you were talking
about narrative, that kind of stuff, was Matrix
2. The end of Matrix 2 is just exposition vomit.
And it's not... The big explosions or whatever.
It has the ending like Blade Runner. Yes. The
doves in the rain. Yeah. Tears in the rain. Tears
in the rain scene. That's the lap of the finale.
Okay. I would say that the biggest thing going
against this movie is just the... Well, so we
watched it dubbed. A version of the dub. A version
of the dub. Well, yeah. So this was dubbed back
in 95. Standards for Japanese dubs were way,
way, way lower than they are now. A lot of the
voice acting is stiff, particularly around the
major, the main character. You could say that's
part of the point, but the line delivery is not
there for me. I would say if you are at all used
to watching films with subtitles, try watching
this with subtitles. The only thing is that my
logic was that if we watched a dub, we could
just focus on the animation, which is a huge
part of the appeal. But, I mean, the nice thing
about this movie is that when the animation is
gorgeous, it's usually during an action scene
when there's not much dialogue or the dialogue's
very simple. And when they're having these long,
expositive conversations, it's usually with stiller
shots. So I don't think you would lose a lot
by watching it with subtitles. Okay. Another
thing I gotta do a shout out for, I'll wrap this
up quickly, is that the sound is great. It's
not the usual cyberpunk synths you would think
of, like with Blade Runner. Not to say that Blade
Runner sounds bad, but it's, you know, it's drums,
it's a lot of classical Japanese instruments,
and the songs are few and far between, but that
means that when they show up, it feels very impactful.
Nice. Yeah, I don't know. This movie's a classic
for a reason. It still holds up. I would say
that it's not like a super fun action sci -fi
romp if you want. That kind of action -y thing,
I would say watch Akira first. That's more bombastic.
Now we both want to watch it. I know, we should
watch that. It's fine, I love Akira. And I will
say that if you enjoy all of Akira, but particularly
not the motorcycle chase scene itself, but when
you are being introduced to Neo Tokyo, and it's
just the music playing, and they're doing the
panning shots of the city. If you really like
that, then watch Ghost in the Shell. Because
Ghost in the Shell has multiple long, as Andre
was saying, long cuts with no dialogue. It's
just music, and you are marinating in this world.
Yeah, so anyways, I'd say highly recommend it,
especially if you're like me and looking for
some good cyberpunk media in this day and age.
Anyways, I give Ghost in the Shell 4 .25 ghost
hacks out of 5. 4 .25? 4 .25. Okay. Yep. Have
we done quarter points? Have we done quarter
points? I can round it up or down if you need
me to. No, you just broke the mold. All right.
We're breaking new ground. 3 .33333 repeating.
Repeating, of course. Yes. Okay. All right. 4
.25. Jill, what would you give it? Because you've
seen it too now. Yep. I would give it a solid
four. Okay. Four. That's good, though. Yeah.
Four out of five goes tax. Okay. All right. Same
metric. I like it. Yeah, it's a good metric.
Yeah, it's a good metric. I gotta say, it sounds
beautiful. I've never seen it, but it sounds
beautiful. Definitely watch it. Just be aware
of there is a lot of nudity in it. It's very
clinical. Can we just make an aside on that?
I don't know. Some people get turned off by it.
So all you know about Ghost in the Shell is like,
oh, it's that movie with that naked lady who
jumps off a tower. Yes, there is nudity. It is
not in a sexualized manner. It is not really
there to be titillating besides the fact that,
yes, this is a naked woman. It is there for a
reason and it is not offensive at all. Cool.
Sick. Fair. Dope. Fair. Goes to show. Good movie.
You can do nudity. Right. Yeah, definitely. Tasteful
nudity. It's just that anime has a reputation
for being pretty exploitative with that stuff.
Yeah, I get it. Throw it out there. Anyways.
Jill, we go to you and your movie. So, moving
away from adult animation but still staying in
that wheelhouse, I decided that I really wanted
to watch a nice... Fun animated Christmas movie.
And I looked around and I actually did watch
more than one animated Christmas movie. Special
mention to Rise of the Guardians. But there was
one in particular I really wanted to watch with
Andre, which is Klaus. This is a 2019 Netflix
original directed by, I just had his name in
front of me, Sergio Pablos. Pablos. Pablos. Pablos.
It came out last year and it did actually very
well. It was nominated for Best Animated Film
and unfortunately lost out to Toy Story 4, which
is a conversation for a different day. And it
stars Jason Schwartzman and Rashida Jones and
J .K. Simmons. And it is a Santa Claus origin
story. Interesting. Okay. But it takes a while
for our would -be Santa to show up. Right. And
you had me watch this blind. Like, you're like,
do you know anything about this movie? I'm like,
I know it's a Christmas movie and that's it.
So I had Andre go into it blind. So the story
set up is that it's maybe the 1800s, sometime
in the 1800s. They never drop a date. And it's
a story of a postman in training named Jesper.
He's the son of the grand postmaster. He is a
lazy slacker who is very entitled. And his dad
teaches his son a lesson. It is, okay, we're
going to graduate you right out of the academy.
And we're going to give you an assignment. You
have a one year to mail 6 ,000 letters. And if
you do that, you can come home and be with your
silk sheets. Okay. And you never have to work
again. Silk sheets. Okay. Jasper is very fond
of his silk sheets. Okay. It comes up multiple
times. So he is shipped off to, they're based
on a real spot in, I think, Greenland, Iceland?
Far up Iceland, somewhere in the far north. Middle
of bumfuck nowhere, Iceland. Bumfuck north. Oh,
yeah, Greenland, I think, yeah. Named Smirnsberg,
and it is... Is there ice or no ice? There's
lots of ice. So Greenland. It's Greenland, yes.
That's why I was like, yeah, it's Greenland,
yeah. It's probably Greenland. So it goes to
Smearinsburg. It is a torn apart town with their
own version of the Hatfields and McCoys. Okay.
And he's doomed. He's not going to mail 6 ,000
letters. There is no hope. These people don't
talk to each other. They fight with each other.
Yeah, okay. The local school teacher has turned
her school into a fish shop where she is hacking
and slashing up fish. She wants to get out. The
locals are creepy. There are some fun children
that are constantly shoving sharp things into...
not -so -sharp things, like the snowman and the
carrot. Oh, yeah. Okay. So Jesper's like, what
am I going to do? And then one day, shortly after
he arrives, a kid throws something out, a letter
out the window, a drawing falls out the window,
and he gets this brilliant idea that, you know,
the kid can have him mail the letter to the child,
so then he can start getting his letters going.
The kid's not quite getting it. Okay. And through
some circumstances, Jesper ends up in the middle
of the woods because he hasn't hit up one remaining
house. And he loses the kid's drawing. And a
couple days later, this woodsman, big burly guy,
shows up with a toy for the kid. So Jasper has
to do... Wonder who this could be. Yep, wonder
who this could be. Dude, and I will say they
make a good job making him seem intimidating
because he is literally the woodsman with an
axe. Like, it's like, oh, shit. Is this voiced
by J .K. Simmons? This is voiced by J .K. Simmons.
More so. I can put it... Okay. Yeah, so this
is J .K. Simmons. He shows up with a toy for
the kid and he's like... He doesn't say anything,
actually. His dialogue kicks in maybe 20 minutes
after he's introduced. Yeah, right. It's all
for him to say something. So he shows up and
Jasper's like, well, I guess this has to get
delivered. And thus the legend of Santa Claus
kind of starts to come together. The kid gets
a toy, tells his cousins, they're not friends,
his cousins, and suddenly all the kids realize
that if they give the mailman a letter, they'll
get a toy. And the mailman's like, aha, I'm going
to be like a drug dealer now. You want to send
a letter? You just need a stamp. First one's
free. And he goes back to the woodsman, whose
name is Klaus. And he's like, you know, we can
bring good to the world. You saw the smile on
this kid's face. And I will say the moment where
Klaus sees the first child playing with the toy
he's been given. It's a very powerful moment.
He doesn't say anything. He's just staring into
the window at the joy on this child's face. Nice.
And from there, Jesper starts working his way
towards the 6 ,000 letters. He's helping Klaus
get rid of all these toys that are filled in
his shed. We find out later why. And along the
way, he befriends a school teacher. They meet
a girl who's part of the Sami tribe. Okay. And
it's just a really nice, feel -good story. You
watch the bond between Klaus and Jesper grow
as they kind of go through this Ponzi scheme,
really, at the beginning. Yeah, effectively,
it is a Ponzi scheme. It's funny because in January,
I happen to be at GameCraft, and it is past closing,
and I'm having a conversation with the bartender
that back when we could actually do this kind
of stuff. Yep. And we were talking about, I mentioned
that I have a podcast that I do with my friends,
and we watch good movies, bad movies. She suggested
this movie. She also suggested another one, but
I still haven't gotten to it. Which one? Blue
Ruin. Don't look anything up about it, is what
I've been told. It's on Netflix. Don't look anything
up about it. Just watch it. Because the synopsis
apparently doesn't do a good job. But, yeah.
So it's funny that you bring this up, because
I'm just... now remembering, oh yeah, she suggested
this movie. It's written on a note that's in
my car. And it actually really is a great movie.
The weakest components are the Hatfield and McCoy
subplot, which really exists just to drive a
wedge. They're just the villains, right? The
token villains. Alone, the animation is just
gorgeous. It looks like a picture book. It's
a wonderful line between 2D and 3D. There is
some CGI components into it. Definitely. And
I like the way this movie looks a lot, but it
did just make me miss 2d hand animate like like
i would just love if this movie was like done
yes exactly but it looks great as is like in
a vacuum but looks great yeah it is beautiful
And J .K. Simmons, as Klaus, delivers an amazing
performance. J .K. Simmons? As the Legend of
Santa continues to grow and grow, he's coming
out of his shell more. You find out why he was
the old cranky woodsman in the woods. You find
out what the toys were. And you really see the
community coming together. So the children...
you know are getting all these presents and then
jesper who's the one who's actually been delivering
all this he sees a kid wants a toy but this kid
was mean to him so he leaves cole behind so that's
how the story of if you're naughty you're not
going to get anything you have to be nice so
the children start cleaning up the town and doing
good deeds and the boiling it all down it's like
one good one true at one act of true of kind
of selflessness will spark that in another and
then it's a domino effect and that's really the
thesis statement of this movie that if you just
do one good thing it'll have ramifications onward
and onward nice um the ending is very sad well
okay in a good way yeah yeah yeah it's it's it's
somber but in a it's a somber ending yeah okay
um you know it is the story of santa claus he's
a man not an elf or fairy or whatever the many
iterations of Santa Claus. Whatever he is, yeah.
Yeah, you know, I'm going off of the life and
times of Santa Claus, and I think he's, like,
sort of a demi -fairy god thing. I don't even
know, man. Anyway, the ending leaves you on a
bittersweet note, but it's a nice, you know,
it's like a good cry. Oh, okay. Okay. It's a
single tear, and you're, like, kind of nodding,
like, yeah. Yeah, okay. Oh, that's nice. You
get to, you know, and, you know. Are they tears,
or just? Rain drops. Two tears in the rain. Drops
in the rain. Drops in the rain. No, these are
real tears. You know, Jasper also changes for
the better. Everybody undergoes a nice change.
Yeah, it's very much a feel -good movie. Mm -hmm.
Okay. And, you know, it's not... I have to say,
Pat's often smoothier. There's not a single poop
or fart joke in it. That's true. That's a good
point. I would say that there's some licensed
music choices that were a little odd. Like, there's,
like, two song drops that are just very random
that kind of, like... Which ones? I forget, but,
um... No, no, but like, oh, I should go on. No,
well, it was just like, you know, like when he
was doing the montage of him trying to sell letters.
What was that song? Yeah, it was like, it was
just, you know, present day, like pop songs.
And I'm like, what? You've got How Do You Like
Me Now. How Do You Like Me Now was in there.
Yeah, How Do You Like Me Now shows up. Which
I love that song. It's a fun song. Great. But
also they just kind of put that in there and
this movie was very much like, it's, you know,
the whole vibe is it like taking place like in,
you know, early, mid -1800s. Yeah. So it's supposed
to be a period piece at that point or whatever,
you know? Yeah. So it's just like, oh, okay.
I guess we're just doing that. We can't call
this a movie out of time. per se, because they
put enough things in there to be like, I can
figure out when this probably existed. And the
thing is that Christmas actually is a thing in
this world, but there is no Legend of Santa.
So it's just like giving presents to kids. It's
Jesus' birthday, you know? They never dropped
the J word. They never dropped the J word. My
only complaint with this movie is the Sami tribe,
and it's not that they're handled without care.
It's they are, they kind of take on the role
of the elves. Right. It's a little weird. It's
a little weird. So there's this adorable Sami
girl who shows up and Jasper learns to communicate
with her to figure out what she wants. What she
wants is a toy, a toy boat. She can sail on the
ice with her father. And it's very touching because
it's the first present that he delivers with
just as, that he made it himself. And it was
not to get another letter sent. It was. to give
a gift to another person to bring them joy. Yeah.
So that was, like, a very cool moment. But then,
like, she brings her whole Sami tribe over to
Klaus's wooden house. And, like, they just, like,
Klaus just kind of semi -adopts them or something.
Like, they all just move in and then, like, that's
the explanation for, like, the elf workers. Right.
Interesting. And it's kind of a weird dynamic.
There's never a conversation where, like, the
head of the tribe and Klaus, like, look at each
other and shake hands and be like, yes, let's
do this together. No, like, they just show up
and they're just down to make toys. And it's,
like, kind of weird it's a found family you're
about to do labor good luck yeah right right
i mean claus is also a toy maker but yeah it's
still they're leaning into the found family but
it's just kind of silly it's a little glossed
over it's a little glossed over and as a result
feels a little weird a little weird fair anyways
but overall feel good movie love that it exists
i love that it's 2d fate like uh it looks 2d
yeah even though it's not fully 2d i highly recommend
it if you enjoy feel good christmas movies especially
ones that don't talk down to their audience this
is not a stupid dumb christmas film this film
is for all ages and it has a lot of heart nice
so what would you give it final rating then i
would give it 4 .5 out of 5 mailed letters with
a stamp bought for a penny Okay. Stamp out for
a penny. I would give it 3 .75. I'm going to
go with the 7 .5s. You're going with the quarter
points. I am going with the quarter points. Woodsman
Axes out of 5. That's my match. Not Birdhouses.
What's that? Not the Birdhouses. Not Birdhouses,
no. That's a good one, though, too. Yeah, Klaus.
Good Christmas flag. Mitchell, that brings us
to you over there. What did you watch, and how
did you feel about it? All right, so truth be
told, this has been a very long week for me.
We're in the middle of a long show, so I've been
very busy at work. And then yesterday I moved
Kelly from Brooklyn to, you know, middle of butt
fuck Connecticut. Still great news. Yay. Congrats
on that. Exciting stuff in the personal life
story. So truth be told, all I watched this week
was re -watching scenes of Mank, Instagram, and
TikTok. That is the three media consumptions
that I've been doing this week. Okay. So for
movies, I'm actually going all the way back to
August, where I watched one of the best movies
of all time. Just kidding. It's one of my favorite
documentaries of the year. It is All Boys State,
and it is an A24 movie that came out through
Apple TV over the summer. So not a lot of people
have seen it yet. Apple TV, I think, has quietly
curated quite a list of really, really, really
good content. At the end of the day... It's not
The Mandalorian. It's not anything like that.
So not a lot of people have it yet. But I would
recommend this movie in particular. So Boys State
is a documentary that took place back in 2018.
It premiered at Sundance this year. And I believe
it took the top prize for documentaries. Nice.
Yeah, I mean, it's a fantastic watch. It is about
a thing that happens every single summer in every
single state. This one in particular in Texas.
Now, Boys State as a program is an event where
thousands of people between their junior and
senior years of high school go to their state's
capital and basically conduct themselves for
one entire week as a mock government. They do
everything from drafting legislation. They have
a group of people who volunteer to be the political
reporters. And then at the very end of the week,
it builds up to the moment where everyone collectively
decides who gets to be governor. So you have
this huge election at the end of the week. It
happens in California. It happens all across
the US. But the reason why the documentary filmmakers
chose Texas, specifically in 2018, was because
the year before, The Texas Boys' State of 2017
made headlines because their group of thousands
of Texas boys decided for Texas to secede from
the union. And they decided, you know what? If
that is, in a way, a glimpse into the future
of politics in this country, let's go down there
and try to grab it for the entire week. and see
what we could find out. What's so interesting
about Boys State as an actual organization, there
are so many folks who have gone on to have outstanding
careers in politics or media otherwise who have
done this program. It's so crazy that I haven't
heard about it before. The guy who immediately
comes to mind is Cory Booker. Basically, the
documentary follows I think three different boys,
specifically, who identify with different politics.
Texas is a state that is slowly growing more
purple, and you can definitely see that in this
film. So they basically have a guy who is very
much a beet -red Republican, lists Ben Shapiro
and Ronald Reagan as his idols, and he is the
strategist on what would end up being the conservative
party. in this particular boy state and then
on the other side you have this amazingly charismatic
figure who figured i mean he's a kid but he comes
from you know his family immigrated to the u
.s relatively recently he is very much an obama
era democrat in terms of his world view and then
That side of the camp is built around him and
more so based on his charisma, which is crazy
to think about because, you know, this is a 16,
17 -year -old kid. How does his magnetism even
realize at that point? But somehow it really
is. And it feels very authentic, especially in
this whirlwind summer camp environment where
everyone becomes everyone's best friends in such
a short amount of time. So that is basically
your two pronged race. And then you have all
these great side characters who are building
towards this election for winning the governorship.
That's ultimately what it comes down to. It's
very competitive. You can feel the male testosterone
on both sides. Right. Also, you definitely get
an amazing glimpse at young people realizing.
how politics are actually played. So there's
this one kid who joins the party on what ends
up being the more liberal party. So basically,
they set up two camps. They're not Democrats
or Republicans. They have different names. And
then over the course of the week, they identify
what their politics are, what their platforms
are. There's one kid who is more of the customary
politician, I would say, like good -looking politician.
You know, he's a high school quarterback, gray
hair. He already has his boys around him. So
he has a group. And he was basically running
on platforms and ideas, not because he believed
in them, but because he thought that that would
tap into that particular party and that he would
get the nomination to run as governor. And over
time, you know, over the course of two days,
he realized, oh, wait, that's not that's not
true. Because the kid who was charismatic and
had this. authentic story ends up winning and
um winning the nomination i should say yeah and
um it is such a great look at a kid who's realizing
oh my goodness like uh there's only so much you
could placate there's only so much that you could
actually uh you know put out there as you know
that as real and when it's actually not yet you
have to give people more credit And a lot of
the confessional interviews that are done throughout
this documentary are just so eye -opening and
crazy. Anyway, so it all builds up to the election,
which is such an emotional moment for both the
kids who ran. And I absolutely loved it. I absolutely
loved it. Do I identify with any of the, you
know, or I should say half of the politics in
it? Absolutely not. I think some of the stuff
was... pretty sickening to say, like, oh, wow,
this is really what some people believe. But
over the course of the movie, you realize how
smart and talented all these kids are. All these
kids. You know, I don't want to spoil the ending
or anything, but basically the strategy of politics
ends up being the thing that wins the day. In
a very poignant moment, you realize, okay, this
is, in a very small microcosm, how politics plays
out in D .C. as well. And I guess that's kind
of the point in Boys State. So this is an airtight
movie, an hour 40 minutes. It's edited very well.
The documentarians, when they were doing their
pre -interviews to essentially cast who... of
the kids they wanted to follow in particular
did such a phenomenal job of not only picking
incredibly smart kids, also knowing that these
were kids who were going to end up playing a
huge role. Because again, there are thousands
of people who attend this thing. Who knows, yeah.
Yeah, you could easily just blend into the background
and just go through the motions of the experience
and put it on your high school resume for college.
But they chose kids that were going to do something.
And it was so much fun to watch. Nice. So it
is called Boy State. It is currently on Apple
TV. I'm not sure if there's another way to rent
it. And it is produced by, you know, A24. So
let me get my pretentious card in there. Always.
Yeah. And it is by far one of the best movies
that I've seen this year. Nice. Great. I'll have
to check it out. Yeah, that sounds awesome. I
looked up a synopsis before we started talking
about it because I had never heard of it. And
it really... Sounded interesting. It was an interesting
plot. So what would you give it then out of five?
Yeah, I'm going to go four and a half out of
five governors for this one. Really, because
what it comes down to is this. I wish, because
I majored in poli -sci in college. At that era
for me, I would have been tripping over myself
to try and get to Boy State, California. But
then I... you know, continue to think about it.
And I'm like, these kids were so much smarter
than I am. Like, I couldn't hold myself in conversation
with any of these guys. Anyway, very impressed
by it. Also, there is a girl state for those
wondering. I would argue that boy state because
of how testosterone driven and how competitive
these dudes and honestly how dumb they end up
being in a lot of churches. Mixed for an entertaining
movie where I'm looking at my sisters who are
both very politically active despite not being
a voting age yet. They are so by the rules and
by quorum and stuff. I'm like, wow, that's how
Girl State would work out. It was just polite.
Orderly. There would be very minimal drama. They
would pass bills that actually probably could
get passed in real life. There would be drama.
You just wouldn't. see it it would be uh subterfuge
exactly they maybe wouldn't be so open with the
documentarians but um yeah four and a half out
of five governors highly recommend boy state
yeah i need to check this out yeah i want to
check that out it's kind of reassuring knowing
that at the end of it it was the pot like the
it was still the politician's game it wasn't
like you you can be a young upstart with no political
anything and ride in on your bandwagon with your
horns blasting yeah i don't know music you didn't
like i feel like there's also some senate in
the Sounds like there's also some cynicism to
that, you know what I mean? If you just play
the game, whether you believe in what you're
saying or not. Yeah, and I mean, that's politics.
Depending on the type of politician you are,
you're going to either say what you really feel,
or you're going to say what your party aligns
with, and throw in your own charisma, or hey,
if you don't have charisma, you can literally
be a hand puppet. Yeah, and I think the kids
gravitated towards authenticity, which is great,
but then what ends up winning the governorship,
it is a complete campaign game. You know, it's
never the best politics that wins. It's the best
campaign. And the kids of the party who realized
this early or early on were the ones who end
up winning, which I think is pretty telling and
very true to real life politics. Interesting.
OK. It's a very interesting movie. We're going
to go to a not -so -interesting movie. Bring
it back to Christmas. But I'm interested in hearing
about it. Yeah, we're bringing it back to Christmas.
The challenge was Yahtzee. I lost by three points.
Three points. Yeah, Mitchell, who technically
was not here, so we all took turns rolling for
you. We rolled in his absence, and he was...
You were just on... You were killing it, dude.
Yeah, yeah, I crushed it. I am so... You know,
I gotta... She didn't even roll for you. It was
us rotating each turn. It was shared. Literally,
so my turn. I've got to pick the collective Yahtzee
gods for Shining. That's true, yes. The Yahtzee
gods smiled upon you. Literally my turn when
I was trying for Yahtzee because that's one of
the few things I had left. I got close. I got
four out of five and was just like, okay, I'm
not going to get it. And then I rolled for you
because it was my turn to roll for you. And I'm
like, you're going to get Yahtzee. Second roll,
Yahtzee. Knew it was going to happen. for getting
Yahtzee, like, under three rolls? Is that a thing
or no? No. If not, I would have crushed that
because I got Yahtzee on my second roll. Yeah.
And it was fantastic. Because I feel like that's
a good thing. If you get Yahtzee on the first
roll, that should be, like... Automatically done.
You caught the snitch. That's the winner. Yeah,
exactly. You caught the snitch. I don't know.
But, alright, so we digress. So I lost. I had
to see a movie. We decided that we would pick
Christmas movies, so you guys voted. We put it
on our Twitter account, again, at GameForMovieP1.
Thanks for voting. Yes, exactly. We also put
it on our Instagram, at GameForMoviePodcast.
You can follow us wherever. All the platforms.
The choice that it really came down to was between
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Jack Frost.
And Jack Frost won. So we're going to talk about
Jack Frost. Yep. Which one is this? Is this the
family -friendly 1990s one? This is not the Michael
Keaton family -friendly one. That's what it is.
Oh, okay. This is not that. All right. It's sad
that I knew it was Michael Keaton even before.
I knew it was a Batman. I couldn't remember which
Batman it was. Oh, yeah. So it was Michael Keaton
for that one. Can you imagine Christian Bale
and Jack Frost? Can you imagine George Clooney?
Jesus. Anyway, sorry. This one is the horror
movie Jack Frost. Jack Frost is an infamous serial
killer that has been caught by the sheriff that
you learn later. And he is about to go get executed.
But the execution place is obviously far away.
And it is... What was the town name? Shoot, this
was... What state is the state place in? It's
in Canada. Do they have the death penalty there?
Is this factually correct? Maybe not. But it
was a pun on a famous Canada city that was snow
something. Snowdawa? Snowronto? Snowronto? No,
sorry, is that Lebronto? Sorry. Snowcouver? No,
I don't think, but I can't remember which town.
It might have been Snowtrial. Ew, that's the
worst one that we came up with. Shut up. No,
no, great stuff. Let's do like a big name of
the thing. Okay. So we start with Jack Frost
is in a prison transport. He has a guard watching
him in the back and then there's two driving.
And it's obviously snowing because it's snow
Toronto or whatever the town name was because
I can't remember. But it's snowing all the time.
The two guards are just like, is everything okay
back there? And Jack Frost literally is smoking
a cigarette, stomping on the neck of the guard.
Snowmanton. Snowmanton, that's it. It's Edmonton
with Snowmanton. Also, Canada does not have the
death penalty. Maybe he was being, it's a life
sentence then. I don't know. No, it says state
execution right here. I have the synopsis. Well,
so he's about to get executed. All of a sudden,
the vehicle crashes, and it runs into a truck
that starts shooting this goo at Jack Frost.
Goo? Yes, goo. Or, like, liquid or goo. Like,
what color goo? Like, extra Kool -Aid? Yeah,
right. It's, like, bright white goo. Oh, that's
the worst color you could have picked. That's
Christmas. Okay. Well, his body starts, like,
melting. I don't see a goo. But he becomes part
of the snow. Oh, it's like Sandman from Spider
-Man. Okay, got it. Yes. Oh, but there's more.
There's so, so much more. Um, so... Essentially,
the prison transport, the two cops now get murdered,
and they're just, like, investigating. And the
sheriff becomes the main character. You hadn't
met him yet. You didn't know what happened. He,
like, stumbled across him. He's definition, like,
bumbling sheriff. Oh, no. Because it's just a
small town. No murders ever happen here. But
it just so happened to have Jack Frost. Turny,
turny, turny. Exactly. he ended up catching him
by accident almost, like catching him mid -act
killing somebody. So they catch him, that's what
starts it, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Jack Frost
has sent him letters from his prison cell saying,
no matter what, I'm going to get you. And so
he's like having flashbacks and freaking out
because he doesn't know if his wife and kid are
going to be killed by Jack Frost. So he learns
that he never made it to execution. But he wasn't
around when the prison vehicle crashed, so they
just assume he's dead. All of a sudden, people
start dying in his town. The small town where
no one ever dies? The small town where no one
ever dies. And so they're just like, it's gotta
be Jack Frost. He's back. Not in Sleepy Snowminton.
The first body to show up is a guy that's sitting
in a rocking chair that's frozen to death. And
everybody's just like, well, he could have just
froze. It's like a commentary on life right there.
So wait, wait, wait. He kills people by freezing
them? No, he has different ways of killing different
people. Okay, got it. He's like a Swiss Army
knife. Multi -purpose Jack Frost. We'll get into
some of the fun ones. Okay, yes, I'm sure. Okay,
yeah, sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. There
better be puns. Are there puns in this? Oh! We
were in fucking Snowminton. I bet there's puns.
It's one pun. Okay. Every snowman Jack Frost
line. is a pun. So Arnold Schwarzenegger is Mr.
Freeze with slush. Yes. It's time to kick some
ice. It's ice to meet you. It sucks. There's
snow way out. Oh, it's bad. Yay. So my main problem
with this movie is the line delivery. I don't
care about Jack Frost's line delivery because
it's supposed to be like cheesy one -liners.
Fine. Don't care. Whatever. It's the rest of
the people because they have two moods. It's
either nonchalant or hysterical. And it's different
kinds of hysterical, but it's hysterical. So,
like, there's a part where they get stuck without
the keys to open the window because the window
is locked. And so the woman's just like, oh,
no, it's locked. And literally five seconds later,
where are your keys? And it's, like, over the
top. It's two lines back to back. Okay. And,
like, it's literally just nonchalant or hysterical.
That is the line delivery. So you're saying the
direction could have been a little bit stronger.
I need to make a gif of your... Yeah, right.
Arms flailing. So, like, the first one that happens,
obviously, the freeze guy. Jack Frost wants to
get revenge on the sheriff. He goes to the sheriff's
house and kills somebody else first before he
actually kills the sheriff. And he had so many
opportunities where they didn't know he was a
snowman. Where they could kill the sheriff, be
done, go on, move on. So the villain's name was
Jack Frost before? Yes. Okay. Yes, it was Jack
Frost before he became a snowman. And what does
he look like? Paint a picture with your words.
Of the human or the snowman? The snow -human
hybrid. No, it's a snowman. Like, it's 100 %
a snowman. And it doesn't have a face at first,
but the sheriff's kid puts on a carrot nose and
the black eyes and everything like that. Oh,
okay. Jolly. It's not... Yeah, it's not good.
So, literally, there's, like, parts where he
shoots icicles out of his hands. Ooh. But the
issue also with it is it is obviously a model.
Because it does not move. Okay. So, like, when
he shoots the icicles, they'll put this arm a
little forward. Oh, no. And this arm... So it's
like stop motion without the in -between frames,
basically? Exactly. Okay. Did they make a little
pew -pew? They did not. It was just like... But
there's that. He froze some girl that's in a
bathtub. Because... Water. Because murder. Okay.
Because murder. Okay. Yeah, right. So why is
Jack Frost, why is he murdering people? Because
he's a serial killer. That's it. That's it? He's
just an evil human being. Okay. Slash snowman.
Okay, got it. He gets his snowballs off. Yeah.
He's killed like 30 people. You're really happy
with that one, aren't you? All right, cool. We
don't pun well, okay? No, it was great fun. He
killed like 30 people while a human. Okay, got
it. So he's just looking to add on to the body
count of his career. Okay, I guess that makes
sense. Sure. There's all these different people
that are a part of this. They have two agents
come from the FBI. They're not really FBI. One
of them is really a scientist who's excited because
his experiment worked. His experiment was transferring
the soul of someone to a different being. Wow,
so this is like Ghost in the Shell, bro. A little
bit, yeah. Whoa! It's funny you brought this
up. But he's like, oh my god, his soul lived
on. We were just trying to bring memories back.
But he remembers who he was, and now he's a snowman.
Because Olaf said, water has memory. Yes. Um,
he can melt himself on command and then reshape
himself so he can get through doors and stuff.
That's pretty cool. Um, the only thing that,
he can only be killed when he's in a snowman
form. Naturally. Okay. And, um... I think the
best part is they realize they can, like, melt
him. So they get him stuck in, like, a furnace.
Is there, like, a big revelation scene? Like,
oh, he's weak to fire because he's made of fucking
snow. Oh, yes. It's like this girl grabs a hairdryer
and shoots him with the hairdryer. And he starts,
like, melting. And they're like, oh, get him
in the furnace. And they, like, they blow hairdryers
at him that they just have on hand. That's genius.
Who would have thought? They burn him into the
furnace. Okay. So they're like, yes, day is saved.
Very hocus pocus, but I like it. But the FBI
agents are just like, I don't know, it doesn't
feel safe. And all of a sudden the furnace starts
leaking. And then Jack Frost is back and he kills
the agent. And then he, like the scientist, he
just like forces himself down the mouth of the
scientist. What? Oh. Like melted into the mouth
of the scientist. Yeah, yeah. So the scientist
walks out towards the sheriff and he's just like.
Oh, is it like a Men in Black kind of thing?
Like, where he's, like, the alien that's inhabiting
the bot farmer's body? Yeah, a little bit, but,
like, he's, like, got this growth in his neck,
and it's, like, obvious that there's something
wrong with him. And the sheriff's just like,
you okay? Oh, fuck it. And then he jumps out
of the body. The body falls over, and it's just,
it's Jack Frost! Oh, no! How does it end? Well,
it ends. A little bit, yes. It ends when... So
the sheriff's son gives him this trail mix. Because
he's like, dad's going to be hungry. Okay. And
the dad somehow grabs the trail mix and throws
it at him. And it starts to melt the snowman.
Because of the salt? No. The kid put antifreeze
in the... What? in the trail mix because he was
afraid his dad would get cold and so he didn't
want him to freeze. Oh my god, the kid could
have killed his dad. Yeah, his dad would have
fucking died. So then they realize though, because
his head's like half melted off. antifreeze that's
the answer that's literally how they come oh
maybe this movie's one big commercial for antifreeze
what no there's no way they would have said like
oh yeah let's have this movie depict a character
attempting to put antifreeze in food innocently
putting it in food that's no no it's not good
the sheriff has the store owner go to the store
to pick up all the antifreeze he can and fill
the truck bed okay it's weird that it took that
A series of events to realize that antifreeze
could also help. Did you not get the part where
they realize that heat can kill Snowman? Right,
that's what I'm saying. Like, I feel like, okay.
Remember, I told you, the main character, blundering
sheriff. Okay, fair enough. Like, probably barely
passed through police academy. This dude doesn't
play enough. This dude got the job because he
was just the right person at the right time.
This dude doesn't play enough Pokemon. I mean,
seriously. Everyone knows Firebeats. I think
he plays Pokemon. Yeah, I mean, this probably
takes place. This was made, like, what, 97 or
whatever? I don't know. Yeah, so before Pokemon.
So we'll come to a break. So the sheriffs are
like, all right, I'm going to distract him. You
get the antifreeze in the truck bed, and I'll
meet you back at this point in five minutes.
Yeah, that doesn't happen. It's six minutes,
so he's, like, freaking out. But Jack Frost,
like, pins him against the wall and has, like,
an icicle in his side. And, like, it's going
through him, and you're just like, oh, no. And
he goes, hey, Jack. take this and he like tackles
him through a window into the truck bed with
the antifreeze and it's just like sheriff on
top of jack frost like drowning him in oh jesus
okay and yeah weird question how bloody is this
movie so the icicle was in his side like was
it like it's not like like yeah but like you
know there's a lot of there's some gore this
is like a c horror film yeah there's some gore
um there's like one where he kills this woman
by making her a christmas tree So he, like, wraps
her in lights and garland, stabs the star in
her head, and then smashes her head against ornaments.
So, like, the ornaments are, like, stuck in her
face. Jesus. That's actually pretty brutal. Yeah,
it's brutal. It's a rated R movie. Creative fatality.
Okay, so it is rated R. Yeah, it is rated R.
I guarantee it just because of the amount of
times they say fuck. Right. But that being said,
like, there's gruesome murders, too. So they
save the day with antifreeze and then all of
a sudden they're like filling the antifreeze
back in bottles and you see like there's one
that's like a glass and so you see all of a sudden
something starts to like form into a snowball
and you're like oh no the end question mark.
But it's antifreeze how can it form? If we don't
know. Actually, we do know. There's a Jack Frost
2. No. Naturally, you need to complete the journey.
No, I do not. I do not at all. I'm so happy you
watched this movie. I've heard of it. I've never...
sat down to watch it the amount of time i laughed
at this movie versus like just actually listening
to what they're saying yeah there's a guy and
a girl that are like teenagers that are like
looking to get frisky and they decide to go into
the sheriff's house and that's why they get murdered
because jack frost is obviously at the sheriff's
house yep so yeah it's um it's terrible um Okay,
but honestly, the way you've described it, I
feel like I could get... Yeah, right. I feel
like I could get very drunk and watch this and
have a good time. I think you could watch it
drunk off your ass. Okay. Yeah, but you need
to be drunk off your ass. I was pretty sober.
Gotcha. And so it's just... You didn't feel that
extra warmth of joy that a little booze could
have brought to the party. Yeah. And, like, so
the scene where they're wondering about the keys,
they're in the jail cell, and they're, like,
they have aerosol cans going to try to make it
hot in there. And so, like, the sheriff realizes
his keys are left in the door on the other side
of the hallway that's leaking water. Obviously,
Jack Frost is coming in. They need to get to
the window on this side, so he has to go back
in. So he, like, puts the shirt over his face
and is like, uh -huh -huh, uh -huh -huh -huh.
And then he finally gets there and Jack Frost
grabs him through it, but he still gets the keys
somehow. It's rough. Are you happy that you watched
this and not some of the other options that were
possible? No, I think I would have had more fun
with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It's
definitely quite a title. At least that has a
fun little tidbit about it's the first media
to use Mrs. Claus. That's pretty cool. That would
have been fun. I give it half a snowman out of...
Five. Yeah. Sounds like it could have conveyed
its themes about the edges of definition of human
consciousness just a little bit better. Exactly.
But it brings me to the other bad media I watched
this week, which you guys don't know about. I
have a surprise little extra review, because
I watched two bad movies this week. I watched
the 15 -minute mini -movie A Recipe for Seduction.
Oh, God. It's the KFC Christmas movie. Damn it!
Oh, it was terrible. Damn it, Colonel Sanders.
If you don't know about this movie, it was a
15 minute mini movie on Lifetime that was about
Harlan Sanders getting it on. With his chicken.
No, no, with a woman. Oh my. Jesus. It was like
a melodramatic love story where this woman is
engaged to this guy and obviously he's a douchebag.
And Harlan Sanders just became the new chef at
their house. And it's played by Mario Lopez,
which is awful. Also, I don't know if his name
is Harlan or Harland because different characters
say it differently. D is either silent or not.
The fiance wants to, like, keep the woman, but
she's, like, falling in love with the cook. And
he's like, I've got this secret recipe that will
save our souls and blah, blah, blah. Like, I've
got this secret recipe that will pay for the
rest of our days. And it's obviously, like, store
-bought chicken on the table that's, like, KFC
chicken. But, like, the mom's planning against
her. It's terrible. It's awful. Zero out of five
chicken. What was the worst? Do you remember
any bad lines in particular? I think it's not
a bad line, but it's actually kind of funny.
The evil douche calls him a crouton. He's like,
don't call me a crouton. It's terrible. That
would make me laugh. crouton. I think I might
call somebody a crouton. Yeah, right. Yeah, I
feel like I'm just going to use that on somebody
at some point. You dried piece of bread, you.
Yeah, right. Exactly. Still call me a crouton.
But yeah, that got zero stars. A little bundle
of empty calories. Do you think there'll be a
sequel, like part two of the story? Dude, KFC's
fucking marketing. I think enough people watched
it. Yeah, I do. Especially because it's on the
internet for free. Their views are just going
up and up. God damn it. I'm just kind of upset
that this is working. Because Lou doesn't love
trash. Fifty Shades of Grey can attest to this.
Trash? No. This is kind of like back when Burger
King made those videos. xbox video games whatever
like sneaking or whatever you know like yeah
they were like breakfast king breakfast king
sneak yeah right what was the other king i forget
what it was but whatever there's a bunch of xbox
games that you got it was a free disc you got
if you ordered a meal there or something i will
say so at the end of the day It just took itself
way too seriously. That is not what I thought
I was hearing. I thought, especially with Mario,
no offense to Mario Lopez, he seems like a pretty
self -aware humor guy. If they had more lines
like the crouton line, it'd be fine. But the
thing is way too seriously. It's like, you can't
marry him, or you can't leave with the colonel.
He doesn't have money. He has money. He can prepare
you for life. And meanwhile, dude's having an
affair with the mom. Ew. Whoa. Yeah, it goes
way over the edge. No offense to women who go
be with younger men, but... Fine! Decorum. Don't
try to make them marry your daughter. Like, that's...
I don't care if you're having an affair with
a younger man. Is she rooting for the marriage
to work out, too? It's kind of strange. It's
very strange. It's weird. It's very weird. So,
finger -lickin' not good. Finger -lickin' not
good. Wow, nice one. Thank you. Got him. Yeah.
Yeah, it's... Amazing. Yeah. 15 minutes of your
life you will never get back. You're pulling
double duty on watching the two bad movies. Did
it make you want to go get KFC? No. You're talking
to the guy that saw Supersize Me and went to
McDonald's afterwards. He felt inspired by the
journey. Yeah, exactly. I've seen Supersize Me
and then went to McDonald's. I did not watch
this and say I wanted KFC. Mostly because there's
only one real instance of the chicken and it's
at the very beginning. The very beginning when
they announce he's the new chef, he's made a
chicken dinner. And then the rest of the way
is just, I've got a secret recipe for success.
That's it. And it's not like bringing up chicken.
But yeah. All right. We're going to go now, since
it's a special holiday edition of this episode.
Holiday news. That's right. We are going to do
our top five holiday movies. Okay. Each of us
will go around the room and we'll make fun of
the rest for what they choose. Well, damn. Well,
yeah. So, Andre, you're on the clock. Oh, shit.
It's me? All right, cool. I scrambled this together
at the last second because I only have a very
select few childhood movies that I super love,
so I'll just do these in no particular order.
Honestly, Rudolph the Red -Nosed Reindeer, the
classic. It's 45 minutes long, so I don't know
if it counts as a full. It counts. Yeah, I think
it counts. Yeah, I think it counts. Cool. All
right. Great. It's a movie. It's not like a TV
show. Right. It's not like a series, but very
fond of my childhood. This is not Rugrats Babies
in Toyland. It's true. Right. It's a great...
Rudolph the Red -Nosed Reindeer. Classic. Right?
Okay. Untouchable in my opinion. What order are
you going in? This is random. This is just random.
Except for one clear winner, and I'll say that
at the end, I guess. Everything else is at the
same level. How about that? Keep it going. How
the Grinch Stole Christmas. I mean, I know we
have this... Animated or live action? Animated.
What the fuck? You need to clarify. No, I love
Benedict Cumberbatch's performance so much. Okay,
but you still need to clarify. There's also Jim
Carrey. Oh, that's true. I mean, okay, I would
take Jim Carrey over Cumberbatch. I haven't seen
the Cumberbatch movie, actually. I can't really
say that. It's passable. But I mean, like, the
original animated, you know. My brain didn't
die while watching it, so it's passable. Come
on. Eyes rolled. Yeah. I think it's on other
people's lists. He was an outcast by his own
choice versus, like, the Grinch was actually,
like, hated. Yes, right. As an aside, better
to come. I'm a batch Grinch. Not a great movie.
However, it is way better than Minions. Oh, God.
Sidebar, I hate the Minions. I fucking hate Minions
so much. They suck. Me too. The Minions are not
for you guys. They are for children. Why do four
-year -old moms use them in Facebook memes? I
don't understand. There's a big valley. It comes
back again when you're in your 60s. I Banana.
I feel, I am the man -child watching kids' animated
movies in my late 20s. I feel like, well, whatever.
You're right. No, no, Mitchell's right. They're
not for me. Yeah, they're not for me either,
and yet I would much rather watch God knows how
many Land Before Time movies, including all the
ones I came after. Yeah, but those were more
for you. Not the ones after a certain point.
After a certain point, sure. Okay, I thought
we were talking about Christmas movies. I said
there's a Land Before Time Christmas special.
How? I bet there is. They're not going to call
it that. They're going to call it, like, the
white cold day. The day of life? No, the day
of cold air. Because that's what they call everything.
We have gone way off the rails. Anyways, so what
did I get through so far? I got Rudolph, How
the Grinch Stole Christmas, classics, and then
I'm going to be that guy and say Die Hard is
a Christmas movie, and it's a lot of fun. I mean,
like, whether you believe it or not, I've watched
it. Countless times during Christmas time. I
saw it in theaters at my local indie theater
from my hometown. That was a lot of fun. Nice.
An easy movie to watch. I can just watch countless
times. It's so good. And then probably my favorite
of, I would say, quote, unquote, modern Christmas
movie is Elf. And I know how some people in that
room feel about that. But honestly, like... Probably
one of the more recent movies. I feel like it
was early 2000, something like that. Mid -2000.
Between 2003 and 2006. I gotta tell you, when
I was in high school, so that was 2005 to 2009,
my senior year, right before winter finals, we
had a week of nothing in choir and whatever science
I took. There was a day... where everything was
done before we went to winter break and in six
of my eight classes we watched elf as far as
we could go whoa that's not good elf sucks so
like so you watch you watch it so hold on hold
on you watch this elf as far as you could go
as in you started it over from the beginning
again every time every single time i feel like
if you did that from for any movie you would
be terrible you've never had a substitute or
just like all right today we're gonna watch osmosis
jones the worst the worst the worst case of that
was uh I watched the beginning of Stand and Deliver
three times in one day. Sorry, I shouldn't laugh
at Stand and Deliver. Yeah, no, yes. I've watched
the beginning of that. I watched Elf six times
and stopped at the same spot. What spot did you
stop at, personally? It was probably... What,
23 minutes in or something? Well, 40 minutes,
whatever. No, 48 minutes. Yeah, it was 40 minutes
in, so that was probably the snowball fight,
maybe? Oh, Jesus. Okay. Yeah, maybe the snowball
fight. I've never watched Elf more than once
in a day, so maybe I can't comment on the quality
of partial repeat viewings. but I don't know
I would never it's so annoying yes holy shit
okay but the funny thing is like I'll quote like
uh bye Andre hope you find your dad yeah you
said that to me that's right I thought you would
be on my side directly because of that I literally
thought like oh Mike probably likes this movie
even though Jill hates it it's fine nope I hate
it can I like just make it clear I do not despise
Elf It's just, if someone's like, we're going
to watch a Christmas movie, this is going to
be a day where they get some boozy eggnog, pop
some popcorn, have some hot cocoa. Okay, okay,
okay. To be clear, that is not the movie that
I would suggest in that scenario. The movie I
would suggest is A Christmas Story. That is my...
favorite christmas movie and i have now seen
this movie far and away i've seen it the christmas
story is pretty phenomenal i i make a point to
watch it every christmas eve um i think that
is just to me i mean i grew up with it obviously
and to me it's just the perfect distillation
of the anticipation and excitement over getting
a specific present yeah for christmas and that
kind of childhood boyhood wonder about that okay
um yeah i can watch that movie over and over
and over and over again feels me joy every time
nice uh that brings us to jill all right so mine
is kind of a bit of a freestyle i know what my
top uh my number one is so i'm gonna start with
five but that but please be aware that Only the
last one is really like the best in my opinion.
So number five, The Family Man with Nicolas Cage.
This is a 2000 film. It is about a guy who gets
to see the life he could have had had he gone
a different direction in his life. It is a very
good performance from Nicolas Cage. You know,
you see him at the beginning as being this rich,
larger than life guy. He sings opera because
he can. And then he... Is it actually Nicolas
Cage singing? Yeah. I believe it. Okay. Cool.
Okay. I'm on board. Good for him. He was around
his very wealthy apartment in New York singing
opera and he's friends with all the rich people.
And then he stops off at, I think, a CVS. There's
a guy who's trying to rob the place and Nicolas
Cage offers him money instead. And the guy is
like, you know, I'm going to grant you a wish
of some kind. And the next morning, Nicolas Cage
wakes up in New Jersey married to, I cannot remember
her name. T. Leone's character. And they have
a four -year -old daughter, an infant son. Nicolas
Cage is not a wealthy stocks person. I can't
remember what it is. He is just a local family
guy. And he spends half the movie trying to get
his life back because he doesn't know how to
do it. And then halfway through, he starts to
realize the life that he could have had isn't
so bad. And it's just really... It's a nice progression
of the character. And Nicolas Cage is just wacky
enough that it really works where you feel those,
like, intense longing for the posh life, but
then when he's finally getting comfortable with
the life he is now living, he's really enjoying
it. Okay. And I like the way that it has a really
good ending. He does wake up in his normal life
again towards the end, and he has a chance encounter
with T. Leone's character. And they reminisce
about the life they could have had and they kind
of leave it on a, not ambiguous note, but they
meet up and the film ends with them talking.
So maybe the life that they had could happen.
Yeah. Number four is going to be White Christmas.
This is a kind of a me and my mom film. My mom
does not love anything Christmas related, but
she loves this movie. Bane Cosby, Danny Kaye.
George Clooney's Rosemary Clooney. There we go.
And then I can't remember the other lady but
she's a fantastic dancer. I love musicals from
the 40s into the early 50s and then I kind of
stopped loving them into the mid 60s and then
I really love them in the 70s. But this is just
a great musical. The dancing is absolutely fantastic.
Some of the songs are Absolutely memorable besides
White Christmas. And the story is just nice.
Bing Cosby and Danny Kaye are two former guys
from World War II who start a song and dance
act. They become rather famous. They find out
that their old general has a cabin up in Vermont.
So they decide to go see him, but he's kind of
falling on hard times. So they're like, let's
move the show from New York. and we'll put on
a benefit in a way for the general and we'll
invite all the guys from the old battalion and
it'll be great uh you know the general finds
out he misunderstands he's like i don't want
your pity so it's a show within a show going
on you've got rosemary clooney and her sister
also up there they're a vaudeville act and they
get roped into this and it's just it's really
nice and it's a fun little movie yeah it's a
fun little movie If you have parents or grandparents
who want to watch something, but you don't want
to show them something obnoxious like Elf. Oh
my god! It's a fun movie! Jesus, that dancing
craze! And yes, I know, I've invoked the ire
of the internet by saying I think Elf is obnoxious.
Number... That was four. Number three... Let
me look at my past thing. Number three is going
to be... Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Another
Rankin -Bass. Stop Motion Animation. Fred Astaire
as the singing postman and the narrator. It's
fantastic. You have Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus.
You've got catchy songs like One Foot in Front
of the Other. Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
It's great. Love it. Two, The Holiday. Gotta
have a holiday rom -com. I love this movie. You
know what? This is the only one on probably everyone's
list that hasn't mentioned a Hanukkah. Yeah,
that's true. Yep, there's some Hanukkah in there.
For those who are not familiar with it, it is
Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. These two women
have kind of had a rough time with love, so they
decide to trade homes, doing kind of an Airbnb
situation. So Kate Winslet goes to California
and lives in Cameron Diaz's house. She's a movie
trailer producer. Cameron Diaz goes to this quaint
little cottage in the outskirts of, I think,
Surrey is where they are. Takes over Kate Winslet's
life. And they both meet men and, you know, Cameron
Diaz falls for Kate Winslet's brother, played
by Jude Law. Kate Winslet strikes up a really
great, positive friendship with Jack Black's
character, Miles, who's a soundtrack composer.
And they both kind of... Rediscover their agency.
Discover love can be a good thing when it's reciprocated
and it's a positive, healthy relationship. There's
a really great sweet side plot with Kate Winslet
and a old school Hollywood movie director or
writer, movie writer. It's great. Soundtrack
is amazing. I think it's Hans Zimmer or James
Horner. It's Hans Zimmer. It's Hans Zimmer. I
was taking it back when Hans Zimmer's name showed
up at the beginning. It does not sound like a
Hans Zimmer. It's a Nancy Meyer. Special. So
go into it expecting impeccable kitchens and
homes that actually feel real. Okay. Great movie.
So that was three, right? Sure. Two. That was
two. Number one has to be Muppets Christmas Carol.
Muppets. Besides the fact that I just love my
Muppets. Michael Caine. Michael Caine. Really
brings it. He's great. Yes. I don't like when
people say that. Michael Caine. delivers an oscar
worthy and tony worthy performance as ebenezer
scrooge he's famously has been quoted telling
brian henson who directed the film i'm not going
to do anything muppety i'm going to play it straight
as if this is part of the shakespeare company
and he absolutely does the way that they tell
the story is one of the i've seen breakdowns
of like different you know, let's compare all
the Christmas Carol stories. It's actually considered
to be one of the more fateful interpretations
of it because of just having the medium to play
around with how the ghosts look. Like most of
the, all of the ghosts are Muppets. Gotta have
them in there. I love that. That's one of my
favorites. And of course they had to have Fozzie
be Fozziewig. Yes. Fozziewig. Couldn't pass that
one up. God, that's too perfect. Yep. And it's
a great story. There is a song that was cut out,
and I believe they're bringing it back. So if
you grew up with the VHS version, there is a
song, When Love Is Gone, that doesn't exist in
the Disney Plus version, I believe, if you have
the anniversary DVD like I do. There's a full
screen and a wide screen, and you only can see
the song in the full screen. Interesting. But
it's absolutely great. Jim Henson, unfortunately,
had already passed on when this film was created.
So Steve Whitmore, I believe, is the voice of
Kermit. He does a great job. And it just, it
fills me with joy every year. I can watch this
movie until the day I die. I will never be sick
of it. I probably could quote half the film at
this point. And it's just, you know, it is a
classic. I feel like everybody has their own
version of A Christmas Carol that they gravitate
towards. For me, it is The Muppets Christmas
Carol. Nice. Mitchell? Yeah, buddy. So with me,
I'll say this. Like, if Basic Bitch... had a
Christmas movies list, this would be it. I'm
not going to lie. Is the holiday on there? I
forgot your nickname was Basic Bitch. The holiday
is not on there, but I'll say this. I have four
that are pretty basic. I'm throwing a curveball
for the sake of the fact that I'm going third.
I want to lighten this up a little bit in terms
of conversation. What is defined as a movie?
What is defined as a movie? Just for this the
movies on there of the belief that we are living
in a world where streaming is going to be the
thing that defines how media is made and then
therefore movies as we know them today are going
to go away there's a whole conversation about
how technology has dictated the length of movies
and the in the ways that the film has been produced
and made for years that is a completely different
topic but for now here's my christmas list um
christmas vacation by far and away number one
okay Everything else can be in whatever order.
Christmas Vacation is my all -time favorite Christmas
movie. That's that National Lampoon's one, correct?
Yes. It is the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
It hurts me when you say that. I had to say it
for the audience. No, you didn't have to say
it for the audience. The audience has seen it.
You haven't. Oh, yeah, we should fix that. You're
right. It's true. I'll say this. This is, I think...
the best vacation movie. It might be the best
Chevy Chase movie. It might be the best Chevy
Chase project, even including his SNL days. Wow.
I'm going to say it. For someone who was born
in the 90s, and I didn't see this obviously in
theaters when it initially came out, but this
is the movie that I have seen probably the most
of any Christmas movie ever. I pop it in every
December and I probably end up watching it. At
least five times before Christmas is here. You
know, so it is very much my cup of cocoa, you
know, blanket kind of movie. Just enjoying it.
I have seen Animal House. That's my National
Lampoon property. That's a good one. But yes,
not a Christmas movie, but a great movie at that
for sure. And I'll say this as a caveat for the
rest of this list and how it's going to go. And
Christmas vacation definitely sets the tone here.
But for me, I went about this list choosing things
that I thought reminded me of Christmas and,
you know, movies that I legitimately watch during
the Christmas season and specifically watching
those movies when I was a kid, because ultimately.
my Christmas memories are all about when I was
a kid. You know, like, any time I was past maybe
16, there wasn't any memorable, oh my god, I
got that gift, or whatever. Kind of like what
we get in Christmas Story, right? With the, uh,
with the red, with the red. Yeah, BB action.
Yeah. I should know this whole thing, but yes,
the rifle. For me, that speaks a huge amount
as to how I remember and... take in christmas
as a feeling and as a holiday um so keep that
in mind as i'm going through the rest of this
list so christmas vacations number one uh number
again these are not in order the second thing
i'm going to mention is a christmas story just
like andre hell yeah you know i think it's tnt
or tbs uh they have it on repeat as soon as christmas
eve starts i believe and it's a 24 -hour christmas
story marathon this specifically ties into me
and my dad Me and him love this movie. We will
watch it nonstop. My stepmom, Kim, hates it.
And I get it. I get why you hate it. The rah
-rah -rah -rah -rah at the end pisses me off
to this day. But overall, Andre, I think you
nailed it when you said it kind of speaks to
the feeling of what it's like as a kid knowing
that Christmas is coming and there's that one
gift that you can't wait to unwrap. And that
is, you know, in a lot of ways... kind of brings
that warm feeling about the entire season together.
Then How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original.
He clarified. No shade to the Jim Carrey movie
because I actually think it's pretty good. I'm
not going to lie. It elaborates on the greater
Grinch story. I think it's pretty fun. I've never
seen the Benedict Cumberbatch one, so I can't
comment on that. And then another one, Jill's
favorite, Elf. It's one of those movies for me,
and I get it. It's not everyone's cup of tea,
especially when it comes to Christmas movies.
But I'll say this. I think this is the movie
where I was a kid and I had witnessed what would
end up being in the Christmas canon when it first
premiered. You know what I mean? Right. No, that's
like definitely like all of my, of my top five,
that's the only one that I watched in theaters
when it came out. Right. So. Exactly. And that's
the only one in this list for me as well, where
I had that experience and RIP to the movie going
experience, maybe. I definitely hold a special
spot for that in my heart as well. So Elf, I
absolutely love. Here's my curve ball. Okay.
Ready. I had gone through this list and. Granted,
I did this right before you put on the podcast.
I was going through lots of different websites
had like their top 50 Christmas movies just to
get some ideas. And I was scrolling past movies
that I legitimately love. And some I would even
put, you know, within my top 10 the year it came
out. So Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. One website categorized
Little Women. as a Christmas movie. No. Okay.
No. Yeah, Little Women as a movie was probably
number two to Parasite for me last year, maybe
number three. And I don't consider it a Christmas
movie. Like, I just don't engage with it in that
way. And same thing with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Same thing with Die Hard, even though it's set
during Christmas and all that. It doesn't make
me think of my childhood. It doesn't make me
think of Christmas in that way. Fair enough.
So, I... Everything has been movies at this point.
I'm breaking the rules here, and I am picking
Hey Arnold, Arnold's Christmas from season...
Oh my god, yeah. Alright, this is the 20th episode,
and granted, every episode, like, if you were
to watch Hey Arnold, there's two episodes per
viewing. Yeah. So this is really the 10th. Wow,
this is really... This is really only, like,
wow. Okay, I thought this was, like, a well -matured
Hey Arnold episode. Like, I figured it was, like,
third or fourth season. Wild. Okay, man. Yeah,
this is from the first season. This is their
first crack at a Christmas episode. That's crazy.
Okay. 1997. And for those who don't know, Arnold
lives in a boarding house with a variety of people
with all different backgrounds. And this particular
episode, and it may be the first one that centers
around Mr. Nguyen. I think it is. The Vietnamese
immigrant. And for the first time in this series,
we actually get a background as to how he got
to the boarding house and the life and the family
that he left behind in Vietnam. And what's crazy
is, in his background, he was actually in Vietnam
during the Vietnam War. And the point where he
had lived was being evacuated, and U .S. soldiers
were coming in, and Mr. Nguyen had a daughter.
Fearful for her life, he handed his daughter
to a U .S. soldier and helicoptered her away,
hopefully to a better life in America. That was
his hope. And ever since he immigrated to the
States, he had never seen her since. He had only
seen her as a kid. I'm talking like two years
old, maybe. And that is where the episode starts.
And just to put this in further context, in the
boarding house, they were doing a Secret Santa
in this episode, and Arnold drew Mr. Wynn. And
he wanted to actually get something sentimental
and very personal to him for this Christmas gift.
So he sat down, talked with him, not asking directly
what you want for Christmas, just basically trying
to learn more about him. his story, and he, Arnold,
and his best friend Gerald, who has the greatest
hairdo in all of cartoons, go out and try to
find Mr. Wynn's daughter. And then you get this
subplot about Helga and trying to get some really
high -end boots. Yeah, anyway, both of those
storylines come together at the end in a nice,
poignant way. That's all I'm going to leave.
I'm going to leave it at that. I'm not sure where
we can watch Hey Arnold these days, but I'm sure
it is somewhere. in this universe, if not on
Project Free TV. I have to say, Nickelodeon in
the late 90s, early 2000s, really went, whenever
they had their Christmas specials, they were
always really, really good. There was Olive the
Other Reindeer, which was based on a book that
I drew Barrymore as a dog who mishears Santa
when he says, like, Olive the Other Reindeer.
She hears Olive. There's the Harold one. There's
multiple Rugrats, which stand out for me because
Tommy, his mom, Dee Dee, is Jewish. So there's
a Rugrats Christmas special, Rugrats Hanukkah
special, SpongeBob had a few really good Christmas
ones. I mean, so, funny enough, this, so, this
episode that Mitchell's talking about, like,
they came up, like, I think, like, the Nickelodeon's
Facebook page has been putting up old clips of
Payne Arnold, like, on this day in 96, like,
we found out, you know, like, like, we, we...
we handled did this or whatever and the clip
from that episode like especially the flashback
to the intro of like the Vietnam scenes like
I saw that and then it super cuts to the end
of the episode so I guess I won't spoil it but
I was like wow this show super emotional like
I did not know what I had when I was a little
like I was okay I guess I was probably three
when this episode came out so I watched it on
reruns but yeah like I was less than 10 you know
and it's like man like this very super touching
story so I think that's an excellent pick yeah
no Hats off to you. I would have, like, I should
have pressed you a bit more on, like, parameters
of movies. Rules are meant to be broken. They
are meant to be broken. And I will say that there
are a lot of good TV specials out there either
that are normal length episodes or maybe they're,
you know, a little extra. Can we go back to the
rules? I never have rules. Like, as much as we're
talking about it, like, I come up with an idea
and just say, hey. do I look like an idiot if
I suggest this? And then you guys are like, yeah,
let's do this. And then you go, okay, so what
are the rules? Fuck, I know. Literally, the rules
are meant to be broken. So I think that's a great
pick, Mitchell. I really do. What else you got?
You got one more, I think, right? No, so that
was it. So just to recap, I had Christmas Vacation,
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original,
Elf, A Christmas Story, and then Arnold's Christmas,
season one, episode 20. of the Hey Arnold TV
series. Still wild that that's the first season.
Crazy. Yeah. What a good show. I'm now like looking
up other Christmas ones because I think Tiny
Toons also had a really good Christmas. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. Tiny Toons was great. I was thinking
about picking was In Excelsis Deo from West Wing.
Ah, In Excelsis Deo. Oh, I watched that episode,
right? Yes, that's also a very good Christmas
TV episode. So we cannot talk about it because
Andre has not gotten there. My personal favorite
West Wing Christmas episode is Noel, which Noel's
brilliant as well. And special shout out to the
one with Toby's father in later seasons with
the whiff and poofs. Yeah, I will say having
watched Having watched In Excess Dio. In Excess
Dio. Yeah, great episode. Great episode of TV.
Another good like this is just the first season,
and wow. Dang it. Well, I have nothing poignant.
Mine's like all goofy. My top five, and I will
go in order from five to one, because one is
the most Christmas. Okay. Number five, I had
Polar Express. Oh, like the Zemeckis film? Yeah,
like the Zemeckis film. Okay. I actually really
enjoyed that one. I know. I enjoyed that one.
Okay. It made me feel reminiscent of childhood.
It's that nostalgic feeling. Sure. It's got Mandark
in it. It does have Mandark, yes. Okay, sorry.
Number four was Charlie Brown Christmas. Okay.
Who doesn't love it? Who doesn't? And then number
three is going to be a little bit of a spoiler
for the rest of my list, probably. Number three
is Die Hard 2. Yeah. What's so good about Die
Hard 2? Because it has the guy from NYPD Blue
and it's funny watching him and Bruce Willis
go after each other. What? It does. So I can't
believe... Go for it. I think I've ever envisioned
or had in my mind's eye the image of the guy
from NYPD Blue since I was maybe 10 years old.
So I really want to thank you for bringing back
the power of memory. I can actually... I know
exactly who you're talking about. He was the
guy for NYPD Blue. I never watched NYPD Blue.
If you saw a commercial for NYPD Blue, even if
you never watched the show, you watched a preview
of the next episode, you know the guy. He's Danny
DeVito before Danny DeVito. Oh, okay. So if I
type in NYPD... Danny DeVito pre -dates and post
-dates him. And what's this man's name, this
great man of NYPD? If you tell me, I'll remember
it. Is his first name NYPD? Yes, exactly. Is
it David Caruso? Dennis Brands. Dennis Brands
is, I think, the winner. Wow, he does look like
Danny DeVito. Holy shit. Yeah, click Dennis Brands.
I think that's him. Yeah, that's him. Okay, so
Die Hard 2. I love the fact that, yes, it's probably
spoiled that you have two Die Hards on this list.
Oh, 100%. So would you name secretly Jake Peralta?
I relate a lot to Jake Peralta. Number two is
Christmas Vacation. Okay. Chicago classic. Clark
Griswold is amazing. The best character, I think,
Chevy Chase. I'm with you on that. I think it's
the best character Chevy Chase has ever done
is Clark Griswold. And that goes for all the
vacation movies, but especially Christmas Vacation.
National Lampoon's Vacation is close to Christmas
Vacation, but Christmas Vacation takes a cake.
Okay. And Christmas Vacation 2 is a pile of shit.
I didn't even realize there was a second one.
Yeah, it's Randy Quaid is the main character.
Just to give you an idea of how... The drop of
quality. Yes, the drop of quality. And, like,
Randy Quaid is in Christmas Vacation 1 as Cousin
Eddie. And, yeah, sugar's full. If you know that
line, that is Cousin Eddie. That's, like, one
of the most quotable... each other. 100%. I do
the let there be light whenever I light the Christmas
tree. Let there be light. Is that where the cat
dying comes from? Yeah, because there's a cat.
He's not dead, but he's in a box. Yes. Supposed
to be presented as a Christmas gift. Yes. They
didn't put any holes in the box. And this is
a series that's known. In Christmas Vacation,
or in Regular Vacation, they killed the grandma.
It is dark humor. Dark humor. We should watch
it. So you haven't seen it? No. We should watch
it. Yeah. Randy Quaid, by the way. Randy Quaid,
yes. He is an Oscar nominee. For what? Oh, God.
Yeah, what did he get nominated? Back in 1974,
he earned a Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination
for The Last Detail. I had never seen it. I'd
never seen it. I'd never heard of it. But I looked
it up on IMDb, and oh, my God, he has an Oscar
nomination. Wow. Good for Randy. Good for him.
And that brings us to our final one, which I'm
guessing you guys all can guess. Say it with
me. Mall Cop. Mall Cop. Bart. Paul Blart Mall
Cop. Paul Blart Mall Cop. That guy. Does that
even take place during Christmas? Sorry, I didn't
accompany Myers. I think two is during Christmas.
Okay, great. So Paul Blart 2. Oh, there's Paul
Blart 2. Yes. I can't even remember his name.
Paul Blart Mall Cop. Paul Blart Mall Cop. Not
his favorite. Paul Mall Cop Blart. Die Hard.
Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It will always
be a Christmas movie. It is the Christmas movie
that gets me in the holiday spirit. Nothing better.
Nothing brings Christmas joy like watching Hans
Gruber fall off the Nagatomi Plaza. That's right.
Nothing. Nothing better. Do you have a good drinking
game for this? There is a drinking game out there.
I have not taken part, but I would be pretty
inborn. I was exposed to the Christmas story
last year with the Christmas story drinking game.
And it is deadly. No, it'll get you sloshed.
Die hard one that I know of. probably would do
some damage. I would say the reason why I'm particularly
fond of Die Hard as a Christmas movie is because,
and I think I mentioned it briefly, but I watched
it at the indie theater in my hometown for Christmas,
and that's, I don't know, that's probably why.
Seeing it in theaters, seeing Hans Gruber fall
off the Nakatomi Tower Plaza on the silver screen,
something to behold. Yeah. In Christmas time,
no less. It's phenomenal. It literally might
be one of my favorite movies ever, let alone
Christmas movie. But yeah, Die Hard. It's got
to take the spot. It just has to. Classic. If
it doesn't, then there's something seriously
wrong with me. If the Terminator calls and asks
what my favorite Christmas movie is and I say
anything besides Die Hard, I am dead. I think
we can all agree on an honorable mention to The
Nightmare Before Christmas. Yes. I wasn't sure
where to categorize that. Nope. It's hard for
me because I always see it as a Halloween movie.
It's not a both movie. It's a Halloween movie.
It's a Christmas and Halloween movie. To me,
I mean, again, it's because Kingdom Hearts, it's
all in Halloween Town, so I feel like Halloween.
Some of it. No, no, no, no, no, no. I know. Kingdom
Hearts 3, you go to Christmas Town. Thank you.
But KH1, it's all Halloween Town. All Halloween
Town. That's why it's cool. As a pod, how are
we... because I know this is something we put
out on Twitter. So we put it out on Twitter,
and there's two different polls out there. The
Twitter poll has both as the leader in the clubhouse.
The Instagram poll, because I could only put
two choices, I put Halloween or Christmas, and
Halloween took the cake. Oh, there you go. Wow.
Yeah, it's both according to if we give them
four choices, which is Halloween, Christmas,
both or neither. How about three choices, Christmas,
Halloween, both? No. It could be neither. There's
people that voted neither. It's just a movie.
But yeah, so... Listeners, if you have thoughts
and opinions on where the Nightmare Before Christmas
falls in the holiday calendar, please write,
comment, and subscribe while you're doing so.
We have a Linktree website. Linktree is, honestly,
this is the best thing. There's a free little
service. If you go to our Linktree, it gives
you every link available, so it's like... Apple
Podcasts, Spotify, Twitter, Facebook. Like, you
can find us. All of us. Everywhere you can find
us in one spot. Exactly. It's got CastBox, Luminary,
PodChasers. It's literally everything. And just
give us a listen. Give us a comment on our Facebook,
Twitter, whatever, Instagram. Yeah, you guys
have been phenomenal. We're really glad that
you've been listening, especially to this holiday
-themed episode, it seems like. Yeah, we have
some fun things planned for 2021. Because I think
that's the next time we're going to have an episode.
Most likely, yeah. Yeah, I mean, if we're hanging
out on New Year's and we get bored and we're
like, let's just watch a movie, I'm sure I can
dredge something up from this brain of bad things
to watch. Oh, we could definitely make something
happen. I've got plenty of options, too. Yeah,
we can make this happen. But I'll bring my recording
equipment just in case we decide to. But thank
you guys for listening. So that'll do it for
Game for a Movie, where we ask, are you game
for a movie? I've been your host, Mike. Andre.
Jill. Mitchell. Thank you guys very much for
listening. Are you game for a movie? Die Hard
is a Christmas movie, you bastard!