HH 6 - Scrooged / First Contract (Guest: Audrey Marlene)

Seasons Greetings from The Review Review, and our second of three new holiday episodes to close out 2024. Ghost of episodes past, and Christmas Sweater Queen, Audrey Marlene joins us with her pick, "Scrooged." (Dir. Richard Donner 1988) Starring: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, and Alfre Woodard. We go on a tonal journey through the years, and the tears that are abound in this modernized take on the classic Chucky Dick (Charles Dickens) story "A Christmas Carol." A stark reminder that in these uncertain times, it's always nice to know someone is there for you....SkyNet is there for you. SkyNet is always there for you...

**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root

Transcript

Boating accidents. Incontinence. Civil unrest. In these uncertain times, you need a podcast you can count on. Hello, And welcome to the review review.

A podcast that you must listen to. If you don't listen to this podcast, you and everyone you love will fucking die. Everybody, welcome. It's the review review. I am one of your co hosts.

My name is Paul Jamon. My name is Santa Ben. Boop boop boop boop boop. I'm Santa Ben today. Not a Santa hat or anything?

You you just kinda mimed it? They don't know. You kinda sold it. They're listening. We get to be plentiful.

We get to be thankful. It's a holiday season. And we had to bring back the queen of the fucking holidays as far as I'm concerned. And the returning champion, as far as I'm concerned of alien v alien dollar sign, is what anybody says. Audrey Marlene said.

Audrey, hi. Hi. Hi. So happy to have her. So happy.

I'm just so honored to be called the queen of Christmas. So As as you are a star on the top of the tree. My rightful title, seeing as how I am wearing my Christmas sweater. So Hell, yes. I was gonna say, as we're sitting here, is that a Christmas tree sweater?

It is. Yes. So it's got, like, the little balls and stuff on it. I love it. It's got, like, palms on it.

Yeah. Sorry, listeners. This is a view view only situation. An audio view. It's theater of the mind.

They they got it. Yeah. Paint the paint the picture. Imagination. Yeah.

Imagination. Radio play. Right? Like, you guys, we described it. They get it.

It's fine. It's fine. Yeah. Oh, on the note of that, the concept of this podcast, we take a film submitted normally by a guest. This is one of those situations.

That film is 7 years or older. It is 2 hours and 22 minutes or less, and it is typically not part of any major franchise. We're getting right in the thick of the season here with Audrey's pick, Scrooged, which abides by all the standard guidelines. I need to double check if it was on one of, Ben and I's special lists. But it does abide by the standard guidelines.

Wanna tell everybody also that on 12/24, Tuesday 12/24, we will be launching a you choose the review poll. You'll be able to choose between Bodyguard, When Harry Met Sally, The Firm, and Argo Fuck Yourself. So 12/24, we'll be posting that on our Instagram review x 2 podcast. Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. Right.

Go vote. Yeah. What would you vote for? Don't tell me. Not I I was about to tell you too.

That's a private that's a private matter. Yeah. That's woah, man. Yeah. But if you but if you do tell me, I'll I'll resent you.

But don't tell me. Yeah. But don't tell me. Yeah. Okay.

If it's something that I like, I'll cut you out of my life. But don't Right. That's fine. No. Not a problem.

Ashamed into doing the one you want. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Firstly.

Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Audrey, before we get too deep into things, is there anything that you've been working on that you wanna talk about? Anything you're excited about?

We we know from your previous, audio appearances on this podcast that you work in costumes. I do. I do. I do. So we all know things are kinda slow right now in LA, in the industry in general.

I feel very fortunate that I've had some some, like, cool commercials that I've styled. I did a indie horror movie recently. That was pretty fun. And then I've also been on, season 17 of It's Always Sunny. Oh, wow.

A dream. A fucking dream. Can't even begin to say. So I also did this really great music video for a group that I love, ended up loving the music, which was also like, what a joy. And it was just doing fun, silly art, which is something that I felt like I was missing.

And It's Always Sunny is kind of like that as well. It's been such a joy working on that show. No doubt. Like when I say that every single person working on there is just kind and fun and cool, and everybody there cares about life outside of the job as well. It's yeah.

I like I could rant and rave about that whole thing. I wish it was a whole year long job that continued on and on and on and on and didn't stop. But we're we're about to wrap. So Oh, okay. And it's and it's fast and furious because nobody shoots as fast as those guys.

It's unreal. So you do it and then you just you gotta forget about it, k? It's over. Yeah. For real.

Sounds awesome. I Yeah. That is a long running show. It really is. I think they were saying something, it might be the longest running kind of live action situate or may there's another Sick com.

Sitcom or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Simpsons is an Sick com or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Essentially, it's animated.

Certain amount of cams. Yeah. But like their show, I mean, the vast majority of those people have all been working together for the last 20 years on that show. Yeah. So, you know, you've got like crew members who you've been together, yeah, for 20 years and some of their newer people, it's like 10 years or something.

So yeah. And then you got ding dong me showing up, like, this is my 1st year doing it. So but it's it's yeah. It's just been such a such a joy, like, to work with everybody on there. Like, I'm actually gonna be really sad when it's over.

When you rap, are you gonna get everyone together and say, God bless us. No. That's very wise. Yeah. I'm doing full tiny Tim moment.

I think you should take over the production office with with a shotgun. I think that's what you should do. Absolutely. They'll never forget me now. True or false, Elliot Loudermilk ended up in prison too early after this movie was over.

It has it has to. I mean 100%. Shouldn't also Bill Murray go to prison? No. It's time to take out the trash.

Prison? No. Because he's rich and he runs a studio. Get you for those bedtime. Yeah.

But he sent him in there with a shotgun. I mean, he did, but He doesn't own the studio. He lost his job for sure. Right? He was joking.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, also, it's his word against Elliot's and, you know, Elliot is a lower loved one.

So Yeah. I feel like Mhmm. If anyone But he's a changed man now. That's true. He's a changed man.

He's gonna That's true. Take the moral high road of kissing random dancers. Sure. Woah. She kissed she kissed him.

She pulled him in. She grabbed him. I'm not saying she didn't consent. She grabbed him and like pulled him in. I that was a moment that I was looking out for because I remembered it.

I was like, oh, he kisses somebody here. Right? And she reaches out, like, grabs his jacket and pulls him in. It's Ty. Yeah.

First Ty. He grabs Ty. We're getting ahead of ourselves. We're getting ahead of ourselves. Yeah.

We are. I've been waiting for a horny movie. This movie's a little horny. And here it is. Ben.

For Christmas. I'm this century's Dennis the menace. Yes. What you've been doing? I was listening to that song and that's what I was doing.

A little, little Christmas jazz beneath. Oh. Yeah. Well, we're in full force holiday season. The holiday jazz.

Yeah. The holiday hits. The the the giving of thanks this year, we had a, a group of friends over, a small fellowship, if you will. And we watched all 3 Lord of the Rings that extended from 9 AM to about 9 about 10 PM to do take some breaks. Yeah.

That's beautiful. Complete with, Hobbit meals. So we started with second breakfast. We then had 11tys, and then we had lunch, and then we had afternoon tea. We had dinner, and we had supper, which let me tell you, Hobbits must be pooping all the time.

Baby pooping. Yeah. A lot of BMs. Yeah. It was definitely around 11sies where I was like, oh, is this actually more of a punishment than anything else?

It's a it's a lot of food. That's I mean, it is a lot of food. You you it sounds like, oh, it's paced throughout the day. And maybe if you made like a small kind of bit, you're not doing that. So when you're eating like cinnamon rolls and cheese, you know, it's like That sounds like heaven.

It actually was delicious. We didn't do a turkey, but we did, we roasted a chicken and we had, salmon. And it it was actually, like, as opposed to having one big meal, it was actually kinda nice to have it sort of spread across the day. And, you know, the movie was on and we would tune in, and then we would sort of, like, go back to conversation or hanging out. And it think it was a really fun day, and we took walks.

So, yeah, we called it our fellowship giving, and, it was really fun. That's a really cool idea. Yeah. What about you guys? Who's next?

Who wants to talk? Audrey. What you've been doing? You know, did the same did family thanksgiving, which was awesome. Ate a lot.

I really enjoy cooking. So that's always that's always really nice to kind of control the kitchen for a little bit. So In your element. Yeah. It was great.

And it was a full week off of work. So that was also like, that felt really nice because it was school time, like, when you had, like, proper holiday vacation kind of a thing. That was that was really fun. What about you, Paul? What'd you do?

Oh, boy. Me? I've been running a little bit again. Okay. Brag.

But A little bit. Yeah. See see how it's going. See how the back holds up with it. Mhmm.

That's doctor Leo Marvin. Different Bill Murray movie. Baby steps in the elevator. Was this our fur is this our first Bill Murray movie? I think so.

Is this our first Dick Downer movie? No. What Richard Donner did we do? Oh, yeah. Maybe it What Dick Donner did we do, dude?

I think maybe it is our first Dicky Donner. I think it is. I've been running, like, very short distances. It's just one of those things where I gotta feel out where the back is in terms of the physical activity and all that kind of jazz. Yeah.

So it it's little tiny incremental building it up, what have you, but hopes are high. Hopes are high. But also good for you for doing it. Yeah. Thanks.

And the other thing is there's an annual fright night in my little acting class I mentioned recently. And we've been instructed to do something we're afraid to do. And I kept circling around it, talking and thinking around it. And I'm gonna do a scene from my script. Oh.

That's one of the scariest things I can think of. Yeah. That's awesome. So wish me luck. Hopefully, I break both legs.

We'll see how it goes. And you know what scene you're doing? I do. Yeah. Like, a very intense scene from, like, the very end of the second act.

Intensity, vulnerability, stress Cool. Accuracy, efficiency, logistics, synergy. All of these. Business. Yes.

Right? Businessman, Jack Donaghy, Francis, whatever his last name was, Xavier Cross. Francis. Yeah. Frank Cross.

Frank Cross. Oh, yeah, baby. Okay. We know what we've all been doing. I need to know what people have been watching.

Oh, man. I've been so basic bitch about it, and I caught up on the newest season of Great British Baking Show. Oh, yeah. I did that recently as well. I mean, as you should.

Perfection. This season was like there was some there was more drama at the beginning. Right? Like Mhmm. Like Jeff walking away.

Mhmm. Hopefully, you guys are all caught up, and I'm not keeping my eyes for yours. I'm all caught up. Yeah. Yeah.

And and listeners, you know, get it together. Like, if I'm if I'm spoiling anything, you know, just go and watch it. Nelly Stan, motherfucker. Nelly Oh, yeah. What a gal.

I I was so surprised that what's his name? Blew it in the end. I was shocked by that. I think he's young. The performance at the end was Yeah.

Kind of a woah. I think, yeah, when you're when you're young and you let your nerves maybe get the best of you or something, kind of I think that was it. Like too much pressure. Because yeah, like 20, that's so young. So And I think he wanted it really bad.

Totally, totally. Like you could tell, he also like but also too, it's like dude, solid validation already being that young, and like in the final, like, and clearly very skills and all of that. And I thought it was cute that, you know, in the little, like, where are they now things? Like, he got a job at a restaurant. It's like, well, yeah.

No. Duh. It's like being on American Idol and you're obviously gonna get a record deal. So Michelin star Michelin star restaurant. Like, yeah.

Like, you know, kids kids doing things. Yeah. For sure. What a nice cozy watch too. I mean, truly.

I know. And I saw that the holiday one dropped today, so that's coming up. Can't wait. Fun fact. Not bad.

That's one of the shows that we put on for Rudy, the cat, when we leave. Oh, he's so cute. We'll just put on we'll just put on, like, a season, and he'll actually watch. Yeah. I can't believe it.

Who would have known that that was the programming that Preston was really looking for? You didn't really have to change. You didn't have to add these mice or add birds or Yeah. Just Great British Baking Show. Yeah.

Just like something that is just calming. Yeah. The animal will dial in. Absolutely. Yeah.

I mean, I assume that's why we're all dialed in too. So Sure. Yeah. So if you guys wanna start like a great British Baking Show podcast too, I'm interested. Oh.

I'm down to talk about all of that. Yeah. Yeah. Such a great show. Yeah.

My favorite holiday episode, I don't know if you guys watched it, was the one with the dairy girls cast. Oh, yeah. I saw that one. Yes. Per perfection.

It's really good. I don't think it's such a good episode of TV. I don't think we have good enough dialects to do a a podcast on Great British Bunny Bake Off. What are you talking about, man? Can't you each I can't even see temperature I really didn't mean to make this into another dialect episode.

That was a mistake on my part, and I apologize to all of our listeners. I am so sorry. You opened the door. Paul just, yes, Andy. There in March.

Yeah. We're doing it in March. You're Ireland. Yeah. Paul just wanna do some improvisational comedy.

In Hong Kong. Now. Get get some props out too, Paul. Why not? He's a big prop comedian.

You know that. A prop comic to calm down. Ben? Yes. What have I been watching?

Mhmm. Talk about talk about basic. I went to the theater and I saw Gladiator 2 and Wicked. Woo. I got Glickid.

Is that does that work? Yeah. Gladiator. Yeah. Not on the same day.

Gladiator. Two separate days, but they were back to back. And, yeah, I had a okay time, and then I had a pretty good time. Nice. Glad kid.

Glad kid. Which one did you like more? I haven't I haven't seen either. Oh, Wicked Wicked Farm. Or more.

Yeah. Okay. I would I would have assumed so, but I didn't wanna make that go. Yeah. I just rewatched Gladiator on the 4 k Steelbook and showed it to Jess for the first time.

And I really like that movie, and I really I think a big part of why I like that movie is I think nothing really, there's not a lot of people that can hold a stare like early 2000's Russell Crowe. And can Okay. And he just, he gives, he has so much, like, not even charisma is the word. I I, there's just so much magnetism about him. Gravitas.

And it's also before Joaquin Phoenix is, like, way too into himself. Like, he's doing he's doing a little like, the character is a little over the top, but it's not, like, it's not to the point where you're like, oh, he knows he's good at acting. Like, he does now. No. To a degree.

So yeah, I really like the first one. I think the second one is okay. Without spoilers, I think Denzel is fucking phenomenal. Nice. Because he is.

Yeah. I've heard he leaves no crumbs. Yeah. I mean, he he chews it up, but, like, if it weren't for him, I'm not sure if there's much of a movie. Mhmm.

Oh, I think the script leaves interesting stuff to be desired. But, yeah. And then Wicked, I just think, is worth everyone's time in the theater for sure. Oh, wow. Alright.

It's great. I mean, it's it's long. That's my biggest criticism against it is I think you could cut some stuff, but I I had just the best fucking time. And Okay. I'll probably see it again in the theater.

Woah. Cool. That is an endorsement. Yeah. Alright.

I watched the yacht rock dock on Max. Oh, cool. I really even know there was one. No. Yeah.

It kinda sailed pretty pretty low, pretty slow, past a lot of people's radar, I think. And I probably almost missed it and ended up, you know, couple people chitchatted about it with me. And I just had to watch it like right after it came out, and it's really really solid. It it goes into specifics about certain groups that are kind of like, hey this is the origin of the sound of this, kind of niche subgenre we've created that we now call yacht rock. And some of the artists that flowed into it, and it never gets into the super niche, like, unapproachable, like, the stuff that's for, like, a really small percentage of of people, which maybe to its detriment to a degree.

But overall, like, it's super approachable. It goes over, like, the Michael McDonald, Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Steely, Dan, Ambrosia, a bunch of the Christopher Cross, artists that you know for that kind of thing, but also how it floats into, like, Michael Jackson and so on and so on and so on. And it's pretty great. That's cool. Yeah.

I really, really had a great super great time. It's very light. It's funny. It's fun. It's pretty approachable.

And there's a really awesome phone call with the singer, songwriter, creator, you know, musical genius. One of them behind Steely Dan, Donald Fagan, who is pretty famously kind of like, standoffish, reclusive, prickly guy. And the phone call at the end of it is gold. It's amazing. Yeah.

That's me. Cool. Have you seen that, like, I think a guy on Instagram or TikTok or something. He does, like, their AI, like, generated, I assume, but he does, like, yacht rock covers of, like, rock songs. So he did, like, enter Sandman as a yacht rock song.

It's so rad. Really fucking funny. No. I haven't seen any of that. Yeah.

He did like a 9 inch nails one. I think he did closer. Like, there's a handful of them, but they're they actually sound pretty good. I was like, oh, I can I can get down with this? Sure.

Yeah. I, oh, shit. The what's the one that I've been seeing a lot? The Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like, an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, like, laid over, like, every song ever or whatever.

That's been what algorithms have been feeding me for whatever reason. And this is me on a screen here writing because What do you mean for whatever reason? That makes total sense to everybody else. Yeah. Absolutely.

I was like, of course, I was in your for your page. I didn't search it out, but it came to me for some reason. Okay? Some unbelievable reason. Because you've never said Arnold Schwarzenegger around your phone.

Yeah. No. Never. It wasn't almost the scorching Schwarzenegger summer. SkyNet at all.

SkyNet is listening to it. By SkyNet. Oh, no. It is brought to you by SkyNet. They are listening.

They are everywhere. They are here. Yeah. And you will get the entertainment you wanna need, or you and your family will die. This episode was brought to you by AI.

Great. Hey. We should probably talk about, this movie some. What do you say? I think it should.

Yeah. Yeah. Archaeology is the search for facts. I, I'll I'll tell you this for free. Is it me?

Yeah. I think it's you. Okay. I had my email primed and ready, and then I let it go. Amazon primed and ready?

I let it go. You can see, like, my laptop's reflection in my glass. Oh, yeah. Where did you go? Okay.

The movie that we all watched is a movie called Scrooged. Mirage Productions, Paramount Pictures are rated PG 13. It was in 1988. It is an hour and 41 minutes. The budget on this movie was 32,000,000.

That is 85,000,000 adjusted opening weekend. Wow. Yeah. I mean, that's crazy just because movies don't get made by that for that much anymore. 1 one assumes that outside of the effects that mostly went to Bill Murray.

Yeah. Outside of because this was like a Murray family reunion for a lot of the cast. Mhmm. For all of it. Opening weekend, November 27, 1988.

That would be right around Thanksgiving. 13,000,000 in the US, 34.6 adjusted. Final gross, North America, 60.32 328,000,000. That is a 160.900 is it point, or is it a comma here? It's a point.

It's a point. Okay. We're just going down to the 3rd decimal. 160.975,000,000 adjusted. It's rare that we do that.

Someone can't round. Can't round up. Yeah. No. Like, I just found it fascinating that the worldwide gross was, like, $1800 more than, like, the US gross.

Yeah. Final gross worldwide, 60.329,000,000, and that is adjusted a 160 point 1 or 670 so it must not have gotten much of a worldwide release, probably just, like, Canada then. Yeah. One assumes. Other releases to date, Cocoon, the return.

So there's no Wilford Brimley in that. No. There is, baby. I checked. Oh.

Don Ameche, everybody's back, baby. I don't know. Conan, all your favorites. I don't remember the I know I've seen it, but I don't remember much from that one. Oh, 0.

Me neither. Yeah. I just checked if it was in the Wilford Brimley resume. Always important. Always good to know.

Sure. Weekend top 5. This movie, A Land Before Time, Oliver and Company, Cocoon The Return, Geriatric Vengeance, Bloodwake, Ernest Saves Christmas. Nice. I love Oliver and Company.

That movie is so cute. It is it's really good. I love Ernest Saves Christmas. Come here, Vern. Come on, Vern.

We gotta be safe, Santa Vern. I love Cocoon the return, geriatric vengeance, Ludwig. Yeah. Jeez. Who picks these?

I wanna That's so aggressive. I don't know. It made it made some money. So, you know. Other films from 1988 coming to America.

Good Morning, Vietnam, Twins, Colors, Midnight Run, Child's Play, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Broadcast News, Above the Law. Good good releases. Letterbox average for this movie is 3.3. Follow us, please. I'm at run b m c.

I'm at paulactsbadly. Audrey, do you have a I am not on Letterboxd. Okay. Cisco and it's alright. Cisco and Ebert were split.

Cisco up, Ebert down. Rotten Tomatoes is 71%. Metacritic is at 38 major awards, wins, and nominations. It had an Oscar nom for best makeup. Ben, your reaction to the Metacritic v Rotten Tomatoes thing was similar to mine when I was doing the research.

That was just quite a stark deal. Yeah. Yeah. Murder to talk about people. Do it.

We're talking about people, people. The director was Richard Donner, r I p. The Lethal Weapon franchise, Superman the movie, Ben's favorite Michael Crichton adaptation timeline. Writers were Mitch Glaser, the recruit. Ben's shaking his head.

The recruit. I'm shaking as well. We love the recruit here on the review review. And that was written by Mitch Glaser. This was also written by Michael O'Donohue, RIP, who was one of the original writers on SNL and then writer on SNL for a very long time.

And Chuckie Dick, Charles Dickens, RIP. The novel A Christmas Carol. Chuck. Not Scrooged. Also wrote something called Great Expectations.

Director of photography, Michael Chapman, RIP. Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and You Bet, The Fugitive, baby. I don't care. No. Not again.

You do. You lie. I do care. The music is amazing and it is Danny Elfman. Milk, Red Dragon, and Flubber from 97.

Costume design was Wayne a Finkelman, r I p. The Golden Child, Overboard, and the 2 Jakes. Producers were Richard Donner, r I p. X men, Art Linson, fight club, Steve Roth, last action hero, and some various others. Bill Murray and all of his brothers were in the movie.

Bill Murray played Frank, Broken flowers, zombieland, the man who knew too little. One of my original crushes, Karen Allen Aw. As Claire. Yes. Raiders of the Lost Ark, X, a movie I recently rewatched, and The Sandlot.

RIP. RIP. RIP. John Forsythe. RIP.

Hayward. In Cold Blood Topaz Destination Tokyo. John Glover was Bryce. Gremlins 2. The new batch.

In the mouth of madness, RoboCop 2, Robert Mitcham, r I p, my birthday buddy, played with Preston, The Night of the Hunter, Tombstone, and Cape Fear directed by Scorsese. Fuck it, Goldthwait was Elliot What a note. Blow 1 crazy summer, hot to trot. Alfre Woodard was grace. Blue Chip, Star Trek First Contract, Primal Fear.

Carol Kane, the ghost of Christmas present, the Christmas. I can hear him purring. Aw. And it's driving me crazy. He's so mean.

So Is he? Look at him. Listen to that. Listen to that, man. What a guy.

Wow. Okay. Carol Kane was the ghost of Christmas present. The princess bride, Annie Hall, when a stranger calls from 1979. David Johansson AKA Buster Poindexter was the ghost of Christmas past.

200 cigarettes, mister nanny, and free Jack. I'm gonna read you guys my review of free Jack from letterbox. Give me a moment here. Hey, I finally watched free jack. Okay.

Nice. Audrey, it's fun fact time. Fun facts fun facts everybody. It's fun fact time. So, Richard Donner asked if the production could have Christmas day off, but Paramount Pictures' execs refused, insisting filming continue on Christmas day.

Typical. However right? Yeah. Like, yeah, that sounded about right. Donner outwitted them.

At the end of the day, on December 24th, he fired the entire cast and crew. And 2 days later, on December 26th, he rehired everyone. Rick allowed the cast and crew members to spend Christmas with their families. That's pretty cool. Legend move.

Yeah. The leader of the street musicians insulted by Bill Murray is Paul Shaffer from Late Show with David Letterman. And the other musicians are David Sanborn, who's a famous saxophonist session musician, Larry Carlton, who's a famous guitarist and session musician, and the Miles Davis. Who's Miles Davis? Who's Miles Davis?

Where you go? Enough said. Enough said. If you don't know who Miles Davis is, get out of here. In the closing credits SkyNet's fault.

Yes. Blame SkyNet. In the closing credits, Frank trying to get the audience in the movie theater to participate was entirely ad libbed by Bill Murray, which that tracks. That feels like a very Bill Murray ad libbed kind of moment. And Bill Murray turned down the lead roles in Rain Man, Big, and cocktail, all released in this year as well to make this film.

Imagine Bill Murray in fucking cocktail. No. Like, no. Or Rain Man or Big. Like, I don't know.

Was he Brian Brown in cocktail or Tom Cruise? Was he Elizabeth Shue? I don't know. What role? Good questions.

Good questions. Yeah. Skyman. Welcome to welcome to Ponders with Skyman. Will you tell me which role Bill Murray was up for in cocktail?

Skyman. Yeah. Is it Skynet, is it gonna snow on Christmas? It controls the weather. So oh, yeah.

Me too. Yeah. Skynet controls the weather. Obviously. And Elaine May, Mikey and Nikki did an uncredited rewrite on the script.

Bill Murray said this was done in 1 night. Wow. Yeah. It's impressive. Sling mounted General Electric m 134 minuteigun used by Lee Majors in the beginning is the same stage prop used by Jesse Ventura and Predator.

Listen to their predator episode, guys. Yeah. It's so good. You should listen to it. Did anyone else notice that I didn't remove the part where it says General Electric M134?

Like, who gives a shit? Just say minigun. I mean It's like copy and paste. It's very specific, and I assume that that's for people who needed to know exactly who manufactured the minigun. Yeah.

People are interested in these things. Yeah. We we have a voracious, pretty kind of insane listeners listeners It might not be General Electric. Maybe it was Sony. Maybe it was Magnapox.

Maybe it was Nestle. You don't know. I have to mention 2 things that It's Chipotle. I let pass. Mhmm.

First off, Paul, you said Star Trek first contract, which I thought sounded like a really boring, like, bureaucratic, story. Oh, really? He doesn't like it when I'm talking, so it makes sense. And also, how dare you say my favorite Michael Crichton adaptation is Richard Darling's timeline. I knew I would hang on to that shit.

Dare you. Skyline, scrub that from the episode. Skyline? Skyline wine. Scrub that from the episode.

We're back to we're back to Skyline wine. Skyline wine. Scrub it from my mind. Skynet wine. The best wine AI can give you.

Audrey, because you will probably still love me after I ask you, what is the log line to this movie? Oh, shit. Oh, look at Rudy. Okay. Stay focused.

He's he's, he's very handsome. So, like, a grumpy executive or grumpy TV executive, is about to learn the true meaning of Christmas, as he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, mirroring the show he's producing. That's pretty good. Yes. Before we before we go break, I have a question.

No. It's actually not bad. It's just, like, it's a little you elaborated slightly more. Too much. That I gave too many words.

A selfish? Executive is haunted by 3 spirits bearing lessons on Christmas Eve. Ayeow. So does anyone else find it interesting? That was not bad, Audrey.

It was not. I did okay. You did okay? It was good. It was good.

Yeah. Too verbose as always. Does does anyone else find it interesting that Bill Murray doesn't seem to realize that he's or does he realize that he's going through the Scrooge, the Dickens story? Like, he's producing it for TV, but does he ever realize that that's what's happening? Does he know something?

Does because Okay. Because there are times when he's on the set where he's like, I like, he thinks it's it's this, like, self aware thing. I I think he does. Okay. I think that's part of what messes with him, is why he keeps feeling like he's going crazy, is because he's popping in and out of doing the show and then having these because even when he comes across, like, like the actor playing the ghost of Christmas pass, and he's like freaking out and, you know, he's trying to like, get his head back in the game kind of a thing.

So later when he runs into him, he's like, oh, this is obviously from the show, that it kind of weaves in and out. And I think that that's part of what makes him sort of feel like he is maybe maybe it's stress. Maybe he's having a mental breakdown and not just that, you know, these things are actually happening to him. For me, it's the when he runs into the not ghost of Christmas future. Mhmm.

And I'm like, oh, okay. The yeah. This is it it becomes very clear at that moment for me. But it it takes a bit, especially someone who's seen this movie a lot. But but but but we're going to take a break brought to you by Skynet.

We're gonna come back. We're gonna play Cinephile, which if I don't win, it was because of Skynet. Thanks everyone. This episode of the review review is brought to you by Skynet. What is Skynet?

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It's also a super good way to search for porn. Okay. Well, if you're not that interested in porn, how about subscribing to this podcast, the Review Review podcast on Goodpods or anywhere you listen, following on Instagram at reviewx2podcast and checking your hosts out on letterboxed at run bmc or me at paulactsbadly or why not both? Let's do an and there. Now back to our episode for, Earth Girls Are Easy.

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The robots are not in control at all and we're ready to play a round of cinephiles. How does cinephile work? Well everyone, there is a card, there is a drawing of an actor, there is a movie that actor has been in indicated beneath their name. Audrey will get that freebie movie that that actor was in. It will then go to Ben and then to me, and we will go in that order thusly until someone is unable to say a movie that person was in, and then we will go in order from that person and explain our experiences and our ratings.

Ben. Yeah. Would you be so kind as to do the honors? K. Audrey, you tell me when to stop.

Stop. Here we go. Here we go. Vroom. Well, last time, Paul didn't do well.

So let's let's go for it. Go for it. Audrey, you start. Brokeback Mountain. What do you gotta say, the actor?

Jake Gyllenhaal. Oh, okay. Is it gonna be me? Yeah. I'm gonna say, Enemy.

Spider man no way home. Or Spider man far from home? Yeah. That's the one. Thank you.

We'll give it to you. Oh, judges? The AI judges? The robots who said it's okay. Donnie Darko.

Prisoners. Nightcrawler. Zodiac? That's a good one. I lost it.

What's that movie called? Is it called Warrior? I believe it is. Oh, it is? I believe it is.

No. But I don't know if he's in it. Isn't Warrior with Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy? Yeah. Yeah.

That's the one. Yeah. I lost, but what's in it? Like a fight an MMA fighter movie that I can't remember the title of. I cannot remember the title of it for my life.

Oh, I could've said Roadhouse. Bubble Boy. What's the one in the world? Shit. Shit.

Fucking bubble boy. So I lost. Indeed. So it's on me. We we're done.

Oh, yeah. Okay. What's the one that he was in with Catherine Painter? That was the one I was trying to remember. I heard Huckabees?

No. It was one where he worked. She's like they end up, like, getting together, and she's like this divorced woman or single mom. I can't remember. You're talking about.

Works at, like, a photo photo thing. Anyways, it doesn't matter. The good girl was the Jennifer Aniston one. I I know what you're talking about. The one with the character in your yeah.

I can't remember the title of it, though. It's not like love is it lovely and amazing? It could be for all I know. I don't know. I'll be honest.

Either way. Benjamin. Me. Your experiences with Scrooged Scrooged. Your original rating in current.

Go, sir. So I have a very vivid memory of the first time I watched this because I wanted to go to Blockbuster Video to rent and this is right before streaming. It was probably, like, 1998, I wanna say. And I wanted to rent, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I really wanted to watch it and it was Christmas Eve.

And you hadn't stolen either of these yet? In 1998? No. It was that was a few years later. Yeah.

We weren't we we weren't ripping things off of Limewire quite yet. Taking up all of your family's computer storage. Or the previously viewed DVD section. Yeah. Oh, you're talking about stealing from Hollywood video.

No. That No. Right. Right. Right.

I didn't work there yet. I was still on the moral path, all right? I wasn't a piece of shit like speaking of I have my I got my drink here, Frankie boy. Highball. Well, highball.

Take it easy on the Bacardi. So anyway, I went there for Christmas vacation and they had none left because it was Christmas Eve and, of course, they had none left. And I was so disappointed. And my dad, I was like, Just rent this one. And they had, like, 2 copies of Scrooge left, and I'd never seen it.

And I was like, okay. I was so disappointed. And then I, I took it home, my VHS, and, I I remember, like holy cow, I love this because my introduction to Christmas Carol was always Muppet Christmas Carol. It always like that's the first time I knew Christmas Carol. And so this was just a great sort of like, blending of sort of modern, I guess, at that point, I was only 10 years old, so modern comedy with, with a classic tale.

And Love Bill Murray, you know, it's one of those things where it's like as we've gotten to know more about how kind of a creep he is. It's kind of like, everything he does is kinda creepy, but it really works for this character. And, so I I would say back then, I would have given it oh, and I think Karen Allen in this movie because Karen Allen for me has always been, Marian Ravenwood. Mhmm. Mhmm.

But Karen Allen in this movie, I think, planted some sort of seed for me as the prototypical girl of my dreams. Like, her character in this and, like, I can actually, like, draw a line, I think, from her character in this movie to my current wife. Like, I think there is so many stories. Oh, man. That's so beautiful.

Wanting to, like, she's such such helpful, you know, wanting to save the world in so many ways and like so anyway, I would've given it 4, mice with staples in their heads. We have the same rating, Beth. Yes. I was wondering why I have the same one as okay I'm the odd man out here. My my other my backup was, was chop suey cats.

They're eating the cats. They're eating the dogs. I will say mine was I was gonna say dormice with Oh, yeah. Staple antlers. But that yeah.

100%. But I can mix mine out. So go ahead. You guys should have the same one. I love that.

I was really hoping we were gonna have matching ones this time. I'm golf balls. I almost did golf balls. Yes. Okay.

I we were close. So there is some triumvirates here. What a what a team. What a team. Rudy Rudy is on the golf ball train, I think.

Yeah. He's a little mouse. Yeah. Yeah. He's so funny anyways.

Alright. Ben, you just watched this recently. How do you feel about it now? 4 mice with, antlers sticking up my sticking up my rating. Okay.

Similar rating. Good experience. I've also watched this movie a lot. So I watched this a couple of nights ago, but I've watched I've watched this movie maybe, like, every other Christmas. Maybe not a regular Christmas, but pretty pretty often.

Okay. You know, so Ben and I have some crossover here in that I've seen this movie many times, and it's not an annual thing for me normally. But I've seen it many times and always watch it during the holiday season. I vaguely remember seeing this movie the first time. I have this weird thing because I was 40.

And it must have been the first movie I saw at the theaters, but at a talkie that was in color anyway. It's a wild fucking experience. In 1988? But I could swear that, like, the Carol Kane thing kicking Bill Murray in the nuts is, like, so I I could swear I saw that in a theater. I don't know why.

But I've seen this movie many, many times. I have rated it a 4 for a long time or what if if I could have had a rating system it would be a 4. I've always had a really good time watching this movie. I love not only the meta nature of this movie, I love the, like, kind of Groundhog Day alternate universe, dying homeless people make Bill Murray very sad kind of thing that happens in both of those movies. It's almost like Scrooge was like a trial run.

It's kind of wild. Mhmm. But, yeah, it's a movie that I hadn't sat down and watched and been like, I'm going to analyze this and plug it into Skynet and make decisions of what it is. It's a really high 3a half for me. Okay.

One of those kinda special 3a half's where we're gonna get into this. Part of it is, you know, Audrey's talked about, you know, a a director that, like, I get an echo of in this movie that, like, working with this person recently, Danny DeVito. Mhmm. Like, I get, like, a tiny splash of, like, Christopher Columbus. I get a splash of Spielberg.

I get a splash of Burton. I get a splash of I get a splash of I get a splash of All these different direct and it's kind of a miracle it is what it is, but it's also, like, I feel I really have to, like, dial into this movie and be on this kind of, like, wild tonal ride, which I'm really on board for. I don't know why I'm not saying for, but we're gonna find out why as we talk about this. Audrey. 3 and a half golf balls.

3 and a half golf balls. Golf balls. Okay. And please remind me again, we're we're out of 5 stars on this. Correct?

You bet. Okay. So I am 4.5 dormice with antlers stapled to their heads. Okay. All right.

My, I watched this movie a lot as a child. This was something, I think the first time I saw it was at my grandma's house in Florida, maybe. That feels like something that happened. And then also, Paul, I think you might be right about maybe seeing it in a theater because I think they may have re released it around the holidays. Like, it like, what was it, Dollar Theater or something?

It was like the Pepper Tree or something like that. Oh shit, I don't know. Sure. Okay. The one I think they like, because they would replay old movie, older movies, but not even that much older.

But I think it was because it was like around the holidays. It was one of those like, oh, it's at the dollar movie theater. It's the holidays. And then my mom probably took me to go see it again. So I've seen it a lot.

And then there was a sort of lull in time that was I didn't really watch it. And a few years ago, I was like, man, I haven't seen Scrooge in a really long time. Like, why haven't I seen Scrooge? I love that movie. And put it on, and now it's a every Christmas rewatch.

So And your your most recent viewing, 4a half. So you're, like, 4a half through and through. Yeah. And I rewatched it this morning. So that's when I rewatched it.

I I made some coffee. Yeah. I put my phone on work mode like Frank Cross would. Yeah. I really fucking dialed into this baby.

Mhmm. I had a little piece of leftover pie, sat down. Oh, yeah. Mhmm. A leftover pie.

Yeah. I finished my holiday, gathering family gathering leftovers today. You eat pork chop sandwiches? Or pork sandwiches? Pork chop sandwiches.

Get the fuck out of here. What are you doing? Get god. Pork chop sandwiches. God.

Those smell good. I'm really excited to talk about this movie. So I think we should start the movie. Start the movie. Start the movie.

And now our feature presentation. Life as a house. And and what an opening. So I have a question. We start in Santa's workshop, and so Emily Majors comes in.

So did the people who made red one, did they see this or were like, oh 100%. Yes. That. Yeah. That.

Because we evolved like, where is that movie? Where is the night that Javier died? But let me That title is so great. It's perfect. We haven't watched we haven't done a lot of Paramounts here.

It's I think The Phantom and Couples. But like I love the transition through like the mountain and going through the clouds. And you you'd swear the Santa's workshop thing with, like, you know, Lee Majors with a machine gun or whatever Yeah. Until you hear, like, the ominous voice of the the trailer telling us the night the reindeer died. He died so good.

It felt like the movie. The transition I mean the music is great. That in itself, that trailer alone was produced like its own feature. Like you can see, like the costumes, the set, all of it, like now I, like that's part of the reason this movie costs $32,000,000 because they did that trailer. I'm sure like Do do you know how much RedOne cost?

I said forget about it, could I? I'm sure. It's insane. Go go hey, listener. Go Google how much red one cost and how much it made on its opening night.

It's a lot of money. Google how much last action hero cost. Well, my That's how last action hero felt to me too, Audrey. Like that Yeah. Like these these things that you're saying, like, there's so much care in the in the detail and building, like, that world and the feel of it as you were saying.

Yeah. Like, it it all felt like like they could have just been making that movie in how Wow. Yeah. How well done it was just from the care and, like, all the sets and the action sequence of it and everything. It was impressive considering it's just supposed to be this trailer.

So That's a really good point. It does feel so specific and it's really well done and well shot. And the even like the filtering of it almost is different. Like it feels darker. The lighting is different.

Yeah. Like it maybe that's part of the reason why I'm like, oh, this feels like so many different directors is be like, from here it goes into all these various fake TV promos. Right? And, like, Scrooge looks fucking terrible. Like, this This winter on ICB.

Looks awful, and they did a great job of making it look kind of awful and boring and But it also looks like something that they would do. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very like masterpiece theater y kind of, like of the eighties, like But now we have special. And now we have all these Yeah.

Now we have all these live musicals that they do. It's like your secret musicals. You didn't know, but this one's a musical. It wouldn't it wouldn't it wouldn't yeah. This is our musical episode brought to you by AI.

We're all gonna be auto tuned throughout the studio. Oh no. I'm weird. But I think like watching them like, Oh yeah. I think of like the Peter Pan that we had or the Grease.

These are all things that like as a theater person, you're like, Yeah, but why? Because like, there's there's theater for that, you know, like Sure. So like slight cash grab, but then it's also people in the arts who are like, we we wanna make it too. Like, we wanna watch it. I also he ruins that production by the way.

He ruins it. Yeah. Oh, man. Absolutely ruins it. I actually think it's great this kind of like, media sensationalism kind of Oh, yeah.

The commentary is great. And this commentary on know, Reaganism and trickle down economics and all, like, it's a it's a complicated movie. I think it is trying to say a lot. We just did hard target on here. Another movie that is very much about class.

And this movie just like its source material is very much about that. And the, you know, Frank wanting to keep all the people below him, you know, scared and worried and the people that are consuming the product that he's putting out, like, oh my god. I'm going to fucking die if I don't watch this. The the shit that was they originally made, like, is is bunk as shit. It's it's boring.

It's lame. It looks like it's something for network TV. It's it's gorgeous for the movie. It's so perfect. It makes perfect sense.

But, like, his version, like, it it looks terrible. It looks awful, but I am way more interested to watch it even though it's more terrible. That's that's probably because where we all are as a society now. That's really fair. Like, we're not looking for the earnest thing.

We're like, oh, no. The thing about the freeway shooting. But, yeah. That was his, his, yeah his trailer was in the scene. Christmas Carol there was like scary.

It's dark. Yeah. It's scary. It's a scary story for sure. We did the play in elementary school and it is, it's like, it's one of those things that you're like, oh, this is spooky.

It's also, you know, it's very, very much like life lesson, like this man coming to terms with like his mortality and how he's living his life and, you know, his partner that came before him and what him and just the Bob Marley, Jacob Marley, not Bob Marley. In Christmas Carol, Muppet Christmas Carol, it is Robert and Jacob Marley. Jacob Marley. Yeah. Skynet told me it's Bob Marley.

Yeah. It it is. It is. It's Bob Marley. Yeah.

It's You're not gonna do a Jamaican dialect? Just chill. Hey, everybody. Chill. I'm not doing that.

We've all watched 30 Rock. Yeah. I I feel like Frank Cross is, like, the nightmare level Jack Donaghy. Like, they're both bad, but there's, you know, there's then they both have a guiding light, but they're both like there's even a, a Devon Banks, like a guy from the other coast that's, like, threatening him or whatever. I just I love that I felt these echoes of 30 rock, something that I really of.

But very early on, Frank fires Elliot, and Elliot comes comes apart super fast. We mean super crazy fast. He Bobcat Goldthwait just like no one does unhinged like him. Yes. I would you know, this is this is actually connected to you, Audrey.

I actually was watching this time going, oh, I think modern Bobcat Goldthwait is Charlie Day. Totally. Oh, woah. Like that's the like the archetypes that he plays. I'm like, I could see Charlie Day in this part for sure.

Oh, woah. Yeah. Absolutely. And he would he would kill it. You've been nailing it with the casting lately, I want to say, but you've really been fucking nailing it.

Thank you. I don't have a job. That's untrue. I know. So Frank is thrilled about firing Elliot.

And we go through Frank's Christmas list as it's very established very quickly. This is a wealthy and powerful and influential dude, and he's doing VCRs or TVs for people. And even for his own brother The towels. Everybody is getting fucking towels. And all of a sudden, you know, this is how generous this guy is.

Even his own brother a towel. He's not gonna give his secretary a bonus that he's Well, and that's what I mean. You missed Grace who I think is is so important because she's the Bob Cratchit. Mhmm. And Alfred Woodard in this, I think it's great.

I think she's great in almost everything. She's amazing in Star Trek First Contract. Yeah. It's a really boring boring episode of Star Trek. Yeah.

She was doing a lot of paperwork on it, but Fine print. Yeah. It's all good. So somebody like every 30 minutes being like, what does that one mean? I know the board very well and I know how to fight them.

Okay. So, yes. I'll tell you what it means. But the meeting with Robert Mitcham right here after the whole Grace thing, like, they they do a good job of of selling how obsessed he is with his job. Yeah.

Well, and and even with like that meeting and, you know, he's telling him they they need programming for dogs and cats. And They're eating the cats. Yeah, and he doesn't even have the wherewithal to look at his boss and be like, that's insane. We're not doing that. Nope.

That's ridiculous. But you had Elliot Loudermilk who stood up to him and got fired. So Exactly. That's the world where they're they're all operating in. So he's gotta sit there and smile and be like, yeah, totally.

We're gonna add some string. We're gonna add the dormice Yep. For the cats. We'll make it happen. We'll we'll put him a bird in here.

He makes grace work on Christmas Eve Yeah. Because he's terrified of losing his job. One of my one of one of the, like, I wrote down a handful of lines that are my favorite in it. And There's so many good ones. That one was one of them.

It was just like, if you're not working late, I'm not working late. If I'm not working late, I can't work late. Yeah. Dude, and then he goes into his brother who's like, you know, working on an exercise bike waiting for him. And yeah, that was that was great.

You really got her or whatever. And it's like he takes they make it very clear. He just like takes a lot of pleasure in just, like, being a heel. Mhmm. And he's and he's pretty fucking great at it.

And and even we meet this Bryce character, and I'm never I I never dislike Bryce as bro y and kinda douchey and handshaky as Bryce is. Bryce never feels like a bad guy to me. Do you think? Bryce is introduced as the West Coast Frank who's gonna come in and and help Frank out with the TV stuff. Do you think Cary Elwes wasn't available?

I like John Glover in this. Or like James Spader. That was another Oh. Yeah. You know?

Okay. You both did a good job casting this, but I like John Glover. I do too. I do too. No.

He's great. It's the blonde eighties bad guy. Yeah. Good luck. Big smile.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of energy. He's not, like, he doesn't really do anything villainous. He's just kind of, you know, I mean, he says it later.

He's like, a man in your position would be threatened by someone like me. And it's like, yeah, that's exactly who he is. He's just like He's James Spader in Wolf. Yeah. But I love the little run that Frank has after he meets him.

He runs back to his office. That little run, I just feel like is like, oh, we're seeing that this guy is actually like as powerful as he is in front of all of his like underlings. He's actually scared and we get this more later. It's like he's actually just a scared kid, you know like of losing Oh absolutely. What matters to him and he doesn't realize what that is yet.

That's the movie. So anyway, he thanks for being here folks, but he has to get visited by his old boss or the old the person who has job before him, right? After he comes back from the humanitarian award which was so great. Oh my god. I'm really gonna cherish this.

Leaves it in a cab. Leaves it in a cab like, so fun. It's just like It's not an Emmy. He doesn't give a shit. So much to give now.

Yeah. And that's just like another, like, little bit that he's just he's he's just such a dick and all of these people are, you know, fooled by it. Well, and and like a cab goes out of its way to, like, just douche Elliot Loudermilk. Like Yeah. The movie is just establishing how different, like, their lives are going.

If you just if you're just a prick and you care about no one and you yeah. Like, and you just let the boot crush you, it's better than not. But Frank is, like, back at work, and she needs to take her kid to the fucking doctor. He doesn't speak. Mhmm.

Yeah. It's his clearly, they think it's his choice. Right. But I love this They say later, like, it's he he saw his dad die. Yeah.

His dad. He's really he's really he's really he's trauma. But yeah. I like that that's his change from tiny Tim because obviously, like, you know, 1800 kid with whatever Tiny Tim has Polio or whatever. Yeah.

Whatever. Like, there's just, like, there's not really, like, you can't really, like, do that. You know, I I think the idea that it's a choice that he has to overcome something and feel empowered to tired. Yes. Inspired.

Yeah. To to solve. I think that's a better I'm saying it's an improvement on Charles Dickens. I I agree. I think it's it's really great.

Like, he's gotta feel the spirit. It's almost kind of like Elf does this in a different way where it's like we gotta get the sleigh off the ground and the spirit's gonna do it. Like, if we're gonna save this kid, the spirits gonna the belief the energy is gonna do it. Positivity. Yeah.

Positivity. So we meet our first ghost Lou the the voice of Charlie from Charlie's Angels and his makeup even high def and whatever and whatever dump overs and remasters and blah blah blah. It's so great. I agree with you Audrey. It's so good and I love, I love the wardrobe in this movie.

We don't always talk about wardrobe. Are fantastic in this movie. Like his is the first kind of character one that you notice. Yes. I agree.

And it's like and they have a whole handful of them. I mean, like, they bring up earlier when he's kind of going through the studio, like the dancers, and they have that moment with the sensor, and he's like, you can see your nipples, which is And these guys are looking really hard. And they're really looking. They're really looking. It's just like No.

They're really looking. I love Okay. Thanks, guys. Call me a nurse. Yeah.

Bobcats, bow tie also. Like, there there are some really good costume choices that that sing character. Yeah. Very thoughtfully done. And yeah.

But him just coming looking like a dead golfer and just the way everything's, like, aged and, like, the color and all it's 3 years tops. Yeah. And even when he when he grabs him and puts him out of the window Yeah. Whatever they're using for like the sinews and the arm and stuff Oh, it's so good. It just like I remember that as a kid.

It's like visceral. I was like, oh, god. Oh, same. Same. What is that?

The this is the one thing in this, it's like I love the window effect. I don't know if that's animation or early CG, like very early CG. That effect of him pushing him out and then it becoming a physical window and whatever, I love all of that. And the music the music here is so Danny Hoffman and so cool. But in such a cool way.

In such a cool way. Yeah. And maybe that's part of the Tim Burton y thing to me. But also it's like there's some other things where eyeballs and glasses and things like that that are. But the and golf balls coming out of Lou's head and all that.

The backdrops in this movie, like there's even a cut here with the window where it's like you see the top of the backdrop, I think. But like that's like the thing the cityscapes in this movie I think are the thing that I keep. I don't know why I keep noticing it because like I'm so into this movie but like it it pulls me. I don't know what it is. I what pulls you?

Well I was confused with you. This was a positive or a negative. Negative. Yeah. It pull it pulls me out a little bit where it's like I I'm noticing how clearly these backdrops are placed in these areas and stuff.

And it's weird that the movie is so effective and the effect there is so effective and everything. And I'm again, like I don't I don't know what it is about that. But I and I love the immediate thing that happens next when Bill Murray wakes up and drops the golf ball out of his mouth. Right. Which is funny.

Like there's a little Wes Craveny kind of things that are happening and yeah. Because this is I was gonna say it's because you were saying it, like, takes you out of it, like some of the cityscapes and all of it. Which is funny because I think part of the transitions of all of that is like they're taking bits and then they're transitioning them into like the flats of like the sets. Mhmm. And all of that.

So I almost feel like it's meant to look like you're not really sure where and when he is, but I could be bullshit, and like, you know No. You make it, I think you make a good point. Like that if they're, I think they're trying to place you in places where when he wakes up out of something, or when he is somewhere, or however it is that they're transitioning it, that you don't know. Like is he still in this place where a ghost is with him, or can be visited by, or is he in the real world, real world, and he just happens to be on set, and this other backdrop of a city or whatever it is. I I have a question about what you're saying, and it's kind of kinda trying to reinforce the point that I'm kinda trying to make.

And I don't I still don't know how I feel about that point, but that Wes Craven and or Nightmare in Elm Street does as well. Is this movie as effective in these transitions or, like, I I think the transitions of him waking up on the set suddenly are pretty good. Yeah. Me too. But I think, like, again, it's, like, I feel and it's not to the detriment of the movie.

That's the thing that's, like, confusing me to a degree. It's like, again, I feel 20 different directors, but it it all works. So who gives a shit? And also too, like, a lot of those things came after. Right.

Well, some. Yeah. Some. Some. Not all.

But For me, it's like, I don't I I hear what you're kinda saying with all these different directors, but I still feel like there's one common, theme and through line through this. Like, it never feels like one scene is a different movie than another scene. Like, it all still feels very tied together. When it's not intentional. Yeah.

Because it's intentional with, like, the lead majors thing in the beginning. Right? Sure. Yeah. Because that's all.

No. You make a good point. Yeah. So this is where I really feel the Richard Donner of this actually is when we go in with Grace's family. Like, I feel, like, the kind of, like, lethal weapon family moments, and those are moments that I really like in that franchise.

Lethal weapon 1, great Christmas movie by the way. The stuff with Grace's family and with the sun and and all that and we're starting to now figure out exactly how rough that is from kind of a an exact, like, a ground ground level view. But I think it also similarly to Christmas Carol, it is also establishing to us that, despite Grace's, salary or whatever, and that the fact that our son doesn't speak, that they are incredibly happy people. Yeah. And that they they have they they have very little, but they're very happy and they love, like, they love and that's the same thing with the Cratchits.

It's like, it's it's it has to be this strong juxtaposition of of someone who has everything they ever wanted, but is miserable and can't even, like, come to terms with the fact that they left the most beautiful woman alive behind. Let's be clear. Like, even when they're like, what about your bonus? And she's like, I'm drying my hair with it. With it.

And it's like it's heartbreaking. A laugh about it. Poor people get bored too. Yeah. And that's kind of the thing that you're seeing with the family.

It's, like, they just kind of were, like, oh, mom, like, that's okay. There's always next year, and let's, like, let's still laugh about it, and let's hug, and let's have our family time, and, like, whatever. He didn't get you the bonus. Like, we're not gonna sit there and be, like, oh, man. Fuck that guy.

Yeah. Exactly. Like, they just keep moving. Frank, like, is being he's alone by choice too to a degree because his brother's invited him. He's even said to his brother Yeah.

I love you. I like seeing you. Like Merry Christmas. As a moment of humanity. And so It's a great line.

The the poor censor as like a lot of directors like do their job, do their best like beat up on censors, through a lot of movies that we've done on this podcast. But the censor goes through all these set issues and Frank sees Claire again after he makes this desperate phone call with it after He doesn't even make it. He doesn't make it. He doesn't make it. The phone just starts dialing.

Soon as he's trying to Yeah. That's that's a beautiful thing. That's true. But he says, it's been a while. Like, when Claire shows up.

And this is one of those things too where you start to wonder even more so than Christmas Carol, you really start to wonder how much is happening in his head and how much is actually Yeah. Because I think there is a lot you could argue a lot that none of it actually happened different from Christmas Carol because in Christmas Carol, he's like, well, by himself, right, until he's like visited by the ghost. And like, when we first meet the ghost of Christmas Past, like, it's on the street. He's like picked up by a cab. Mhmm.

This is where I'm like, wait, how much of this is because then when he wakes up from that he's just like on the set. So you wonder is he just like stumbling around like Homer Yeah. It's just like fight club. Bad chilies in the desert, you know. It's just like fight club.

The insanity peppers of Quetzal Sota, Tanago. Yes. But Johnny Cashdog. This is straight up Tyler Durden moment. You know, like, that's Oh, did you say Tyler Durden moment?

I'm having, like, a Patrick Bateman moment because as he meets Karen Allen again, there's an insert with, like, totally different people's hands where he's looking at the business card she has and I'm pretty sure it's bone with red spot. And he's any the guy wants to he can't glue the antlers to the mice. I wouldn't hurt these little guys. To staple them and like they're Guys, would you stop the goddamn hammering, please? And it brings like a huge piece of the set down and they're really like this guy's falling apart slash he's just like, he's cruel.

He's a cruel person. Like nothing's really endearing you to him so far. And he has this lunch with Mitchum and Bryce. And I think this is one of the most beautiful things in the movie outside of when Bill Murray is leaving this after he sees the eyeball and the drink and everything. When he leaves and he falls, that is not a stunt.

That's not somebody else. That wasn't something that was planned. He fell. Sure. Well, he just dumped water all over that guy.

So Yeah. Which is great, but the the ghost of Christmas past, Buster Poindexter tells him it's like a rerun. It's like a rerun, Frankie. It's like a rerun. Niagara Falls, Frankie Angel.

So funny. Just like, that's what Attila the Hun said. Until he said I love I I love that he goes and I think there's something you said, Paula. Like, he is I think one of the things I might struggle with with this movie is there are and it's also one of those things where I don't know if I it's because it's from 1988, but there are things he does and says to other people that I'm like, I don't actually know if I can forgive this person. Interesting.

Just because sometimes he is like and and that's where I'm like my question would be like why would she like I get like they're no longer together, but I'm like why do you even why do you even try? So she she believes the the best in people and she saw, you know, a really great side of him for a time because he does use But no one calls him out in the moment, you know, like Yeah. That's where it's like, someone needs to be like, dude, what the fuck? I mean, like, think about assholes all the time that you like work with or you see or whatever. Nobody ever calls them out.

They're just dicks and they get to sail through life like that, which is horrendous. I never realized this is part of the thing with this movie. Ben, you're hitting so many things. Audrey, you're hitting so many things. Like I I unconsciously adapted so many things or was inspired by so many things in my full length feature screenplay.

Oh, okay. We're gonna switch. This is one of the this is one of the fucking things though. Yeah. It really 100% is and both of you are right and then it's like she is so fucking pure and there's a level of me that's like call him out call him out call him out call him out and I I try to not do the thing where it's like that's what I wanted to see but I did I really did want to see her like go after him and this is another moment though too where I I'm feeling like a zemeckis like I feel a Columbus like I feel a hughs like I feel so many of the, again, other directors where I'm like and it doesn't necessarily matter.

I don't know why I keep getting so thrown by this. And I I do love I just wanna jump right to it. Poor fucking mom and crying and she's pregnant and she's gonna go out. Yeah. And that's another reason you see he, like, how he shitty is, like, his dad is just this horrible man who gives a 4 year old veal.

Woah. Woah. That's milk raised veal. That's 40 or $50 at today's price. I love I love his rationalization of it later because he was just like, that's why I was crying.

Like, what a good man. And that I think it was alley cat chop suey. They're eating the cats. And then he's trying to like misremember his childhood based on things he saw on television. And even when he like Oh, yeah.

When they first show up to the house and he's like, Oh, I guess my dad didn't put the Christmas lights up yet. And he's like, yeah, right, dude. Like it's Christmas Eve. Like, what do you We know your dad sucks. Yeah, and he's like calling out the fact, like all of these things that he's clearly tried to repress or pretend didn't happen to him.

And it's one of the reasons why he hates Christmas. Like when he tells his brother earlier, like, I love you. I love spending time with you. I'll see you in the new year. Merry Christmas.

Kind of a thing that you get this sense that like, he probably enjoys seeing his brother and doesn't even understand why he doesn't wanna see him during the holidays. And it's because they were just sad for him. He had this shitty childhood that he was like neglected and left in front of a television set the whole time. And doesn't know how to love anybody because of it. I I I think there is a level of me that really needs to embrace that this is a mesh of so many different feels and that's really great.

And part of that also is like cable guy a little bit somehow seems inspired by this, which is a movie that I love. And it's something so it's such a specific take on this story. It's so so specific. And I think the thing that's been difficult for me too is like researching some of this and and knowing how the sausage is made. Apparently, Bill Murray doesn't love this movie and he and Richard Donner both said they didn't get along.

And there's a part of me that it's like are are you sure? Because it's Doesn't reflect in the movie to me. I I was Really. When I think about Christmas Carol, again, I think of The Muppet Christmas Carol a lot. But I feel like the past It's not your favorite version.

100%. It's not your favorite version. Yeah. It is the best version, Maurice Micklewhite. But the the past, I feel like pick up.

Is the most interesting part because I think it's the biggest window into understanding why he is the way he is. Mhmm. And I love I love the meet cute here. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And The way they cohabitate. Yeah. And then seeing them in a relationship and you're like, oh, this is somebody who was able to actually, like, access that part of him that he's unable to access by himself.

And he showed it off by choice. Like, it they show you when he's, like, a TV dog. They eating the dogs, and he can't he can't walk away from an opportunity where he's like, you you're so fucking selfish. This is about to make us rich. And like, you wanna go to dinner with our friends?

Fuck that. And suddenly we're back, on the set. This is one of the first ones of those, transitions that like really works super well for me when he ends up back on the set here. Well, because he's watching the screen in the audience and then he's watching the screen on set. Right?

Yeah. And so, like, it it really works for me too. I love the change. So, like, the ghost of Christmas pass in Christmas Carol is like this beautiful angelic, like, being. And I love that they speed up Kinda like hot hot hot They kinda change that out and for this like random New York cabbie.

He's Doobie from Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Yeah. But he's kind of demon esque. Like there's Yeah, they give him ears. Like the pointy like little demon ears that they get in the eyes.

Because then the angelic part is the grossest grossest Christmas present now. Mhmm. When we get to Carol Kane. But Yeah. Yeah.

But we get back to set. I love I love that transition too. This happens over the course of like 24 hours and Elliot is like destitute. Like, has no watch, has no wife, has no shoes, has no It's like a what what's his name from the Simpsons? The guy who's always trying to what's his name?

Lionel Hutz? No. Gil? Gil. Yeah.

Gil. Gil. Just get get some shoes for old Gil, On your way up. On your way up, Gil old Gil some shoes, Skynet. But like, when when all the homeless people at the soup kitchen that Claire works at that Frank ends up at think he's Richard Burton?

Come on, Nick. Come on. And he does. I die. I die.

So funny. Again, this is one of those times too where I'm like, oh, these these people are are literally homeless, and they're having a good time. Like me Will you be a package for me? Please, please. Please do it for Eva.

Yeah. Why you're not hiding in the home? Why you're not even here coming at me for I swear by day I forswear. Oh, it's not possible. Like, getting entertained by this guy.

Yeah. They have they have friendship and they have each other, you know. Something that I guess is really resonating with me at this point in the movie that it's hitting me now is I feel like I need to mention it. It's like we get Ma from the Goonies and we've seen the therapist from lethal weapon, and we see the captain from lethal weapon. And there are countless other people, that appear in other Richard Donner movies.

And he worked with the same people a lot in terms of, you know, actors and editors and so on. And I I guess maybe that's part of why the family thing feels so strong with this movie is I feel like these people all with the exception of, I guess, Bill Murray and the Murray brothers, which are 80% of the cast. Like I forgot to mention that. Everybody's like really getting along. Family.

Forgot to mention his brother plays his dad. And his brothers play his brothers as well. Like Yeah. But with and all I love when this is where I feel also the really self aware thing when Bill Murray can't get Claire to break away from doing her volunteer work or job helping to feed and clothe people and keep them warm and alive. And Frank says bah humbug to her as he walks away.

Like he says, you know you, yeah, you know wait your whole life until you see me again. Because if you're not willing to walk away from this right now right now. Did you say cast them off or shed them off? Scrape them off. Scrape them off.

Scrape them off. This is this is like the Groundhog Day self aware prequel. But I think there's something that's interesting in this that's different from Christmas Carol where he gets to actually, like, in between the spirits, he gets to do things. Like, he gets to interact with his life. Like, when he's like, I'm back.

And not just sit and reflect. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like a instantaneous thing. And I I know the book or the magazine book is different, from, like, the more common stories because I think that I cannot read, Benjamin.

Come on, man. I think the book takes place over the course of like 3 days. Because it's been a while since I've read it. It's been a while since I've read it. I know like the George C Scott one is the most like the closest to the book Mhmm.

And I know in that one it's like it's like takes place over 3 days and he goes to hell. Yeah. Yeah. Which is not in the Muppet version. Surprising.

So to me it's not canon. No. It's not. I will only talk you to have on with my honesty. And the academy award goes to Maurice Micklewhite.

Paul Paul Root as Maurice Micklewhite. As Steve Coogan as Maurice McElroy. Yeah. So Bryce took over on the Scrooge set by the time. Hey, pal.

We thought we didn't know what happened to you. I just thought I would oh, you wanna say something to everybody? Hey, Frank's got something to say. Yeah. He's we need to talk.

Oh, can't talk to you right now, bud. Gotta London gotta go see, Preston. Okay? We'll talk to you later. See you.

Yeah. John Glover is so good in this role. He's also so fucking good as Daniel Clamp in gremlins 2 the new batch. He's great in Smallville. He's a really fucking good guy.

Who is he in Smallville? Smallville. Yeah. He's Lex Luthor's father. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This movie is so chock full of I'm gonna hit this one more time. It's chock full of fantastic character actors doing really, really good work, especially good work in terms of I'm in character and throwing it away.

Throwing it away, throw keeping it moving snappy snappy snappy snappy. It's really really great. Well we're about to get one of the In that moment. About to get one of the goats because Carol Kane entered Carol Kane. My goodness.

Obsessed. This was, like, her in that dress Yeah. With those wings. And just the way she's kicking. Just kicks him right in the balls.

The voice. It's her voice, like everything. I just even as a kid I was like wow. Which apparently she hated. So cool.

Hated kicking his ass. Apparently she hated it. Apparently, she tore up his lip really bad or whatever, but no. You can't tell she hates it. Right?

Yeah. No. But I'm I'm sure as somebody who is very kind, she probably was like, I don't wanna hit him. Right. But man, she's so great in it.

Does such a good job of being like childlike, and very sweet, and saccharin with all of it. And then just being such a sadistic bitch at the same time, just like hitting him with the toaster oven, like, and all of this stuff. And she's just like, that is her giving him his actual like physical wake up call to him. Yes. And it's not dancing for him because it's full of ectoplasm.

Yeah. You're not listening and paying attention to anything that's happening, so I'm just gonna have to continue to beat you. He just saw Grace's Christmas and the adorable little thing where they apparently annually dress up the tiny Tim, avatar. I'm forgetting the kid's name. But, like, as the tree, which is adorable.

Oh, cute. Grandma's adorable. And you see the brother's Christmas with, you know, the his wife and the rest of the family. And their house is being remodeled? Yeah.

Like, oh, we're gonna have to do the sheet rock or like, and he makes a joke later. We should be taping this on the VCR and Yeah. Like, shouts to the Murray brothers because everybody turns in pretty good performances here. But as you were saying, Audrey like the wake up call of the again it's, it's not the dancing toaster from Ghostbusters 2. I don't it's not credited as that.

It's a different toaster. It's got a different name. Brave little toaster. Yeah. The toaster that hits him and knocks him into the slums and when Bill Murray pops up and says, what is this Trump tower?

I died. I fucking died laughing. And Yeah. When he and then he like encounters the dead Herman. Yeah.

From Herman. Herman from the Which Who loved Richard Burton. Just so sad, you know, and that's the part that gets him and it gets everybody because you're just seeing again, like like Ben had said earlier, like, you see a lot of class commentary in in all of this, in the actual Christmas Carol and in this. And just that juxtaposition of seeing somebody who's on the outskirts and how he's living and where he's living. He's living under a grate and it's freezing.

And he has this little Christmas tree that he had decorated his space with and he froze to death, You know? To get it? This movie And it's gut wrenching because people die like that in New York. And it's real. This movie this movie is more effective than Joker or the yet by me to be seen Joker that of that The musical?

People that have oh I'm sorry was that a musical? Yeah. Did you not know? Nobody told me. Skydance.

Skydance. Was that a musical? Oh shit. It's one of those things where Bill Murray's like shaking him and he's like why didn't you stay with Claire? She would have taken care of you and it's like bro this guy's fucking schizophrenic.

He thinks you're rich and poor. He needs help. He needs help. And and it's it's really effective. Bill Murray, this is the if you didn't already know, I think this is the big wake up call after he took a 4 year break from acting where it's like, no.

This this guy is really good at this. Yeah. The acting piece of it. And now we get, speaking of really good actors, Mitcham. We cut back to Mitcham with his 1,000,000 cats.

Yeah. Oh, I feel like Bill Murray must love cats because in the previously referenced Ghostbusters 2, Bill Murray picks up a hairless cat and waves it at the camera and says hairless pets. Crazy. He also plays Garfield. He does play Garfield.

Like one time, I know I had pulled pork sandwiches for Thanksgiving, but one time we had lasagna ravioli, and it's like, is this Thanksgiving for Garfield? Mhmm. Did you really? It's not a Monday. What it's Thursday.

Did you really have a bad me a lasagna ravioli? Yes, Ben. That happened to me. But for me, it was Tuesday. I'm telling you about my trauma.

Well Smile. Smile. Yeah. Niagara Falls, Frankie. But Mitcham with all the cats and they're they're checking everything out.

We meet Mitcham's wife real quick or whatever and and Bill Murray gets this gorgeous frame after he his brother got the vcr he wasn't supposed to get from Grace. Yeah. Mhmm. That his brother like carved. It's like I forget the name of the ancient Japanese carving technique with its things fit together just so.

But it almost looks like one of those. Like it's very it's beautiful. Yeah. And I think that like when Frank is when he's seen sort of like that his brother has friends and that they, like, play games that he would like to play Yep. That he's good at playing, you know, that these are things that, like, he has cast away because I think in this version, and I think it's a little different.

That's a different Robert Zemeckis movie. That's not this one. Oh, I'm sorry. Is this the one with the weird CG Hanks? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. David has pumpkins. Yeah. Skynet. Is that right?

Here. Right? Here. Yeah. Right here.

Okay. Here. Yeah. Forrest Gump. Here.

With Robin Wright. Her? So the What's that movie, the AI movie she's in? What is it again? The true the pred the transcendence, the the president's her and Danny Houston.

Robin Wright. Oh. The congress. The congress. The congress.

The the congress? Her? Her? Her? No.

But that he truly doesn't think he's worth these things, I think. Mhmm. Oh. Yeah. And I think, like, the worth having friends, worth having a relationship, And I think that's like it's a little different from Scrooge in a way where it's like Scrooge feels like he's just a curmudgeon.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's just a grumpy old man who just cares about money whereas Yeah. Yeah. Like this, you're seeing somebody who I I agree with that.

Like, he doesn't feel like he's deserving of it. It's like, you even see that a little in, the Christmas past one where they show the party that he's at and he's still working during it and his boss at one point is like, you do see this Christmas party that's going on around you, right? And the cute girl that's like giving everyone faxes of her butt, or like photocopies of it and everything. Not that one. Not that one.

Not that one. But When he skips that and meets Claire. So Yeah. But I mean like he he doesn't engage in this party because Yeah. You know, he he doesn't know how to join in and have fun with anybody.

No. It's true. It's it it's almost like the there's a you're hitting a really good point because there's a level of everyone's just it seems like I guess kind of waiting for him to break down that I didn't really I was like why isn't anyone like super disturbed or really worried about this and it's like Preston and Bryce and all these other people are just kinda waiting for this guy to fall apart a little bit. Like he's, you know, if I can't work if I can't work then I can't work late. And if I can't work late, I can't like.

Yeah. He's incredibly unqualified for the job he's in. I I don't know man. I'd still rather watch his Scrooge. I just think that like he he knows My fucking family's gonna die if you don't.

Okay. Maybe unqualified is not the right word. But like, in term he feels upwards. Right? Like he Yeah.

The only reason he gets to where he is is because he's willing to like shove his nose up someone's ass. Yeah. Yeah. Have a high ball at noon because his boss does. Yeah.

Mhmm. And take the things away from him that he actually cares about. And, like, that's the only way that he's actually able to climb the ladder is give time to these people that don't really deserve time and, like, again, leave the most beautiful woman in the world. And that's the most pure, the most wonderful lady. I didn't mean to talk over you, Audrey.

What what were you gonna say? That's why Oh, no. I was gonna say that's, like, 100%, like, corporate America, and exactly what it is. It's like any of us that have ever had any kind of corporate job. It's like, it's exactly what happens to all of these people that fail upward because they know exactly who to talk to and all the things that they sacrifice for the job.

And I mean, the same thing, not same thing, but there's a lot of that in the entertainment industry as well. 100%. You know, everything that you're willing to sort of sacrifice, like friends, family, your personal time, your body, your mind. I love it. This is something that this is something that you can cut, Paul.

Actually, you don't have to. Whatever. I got an audition yesterday, that was 24 hours from from, like it was an in person audition that was 24 hours away. Was it more than 4 pages? It was a commercial audition, but it was in person.

I was, like, well, I have work, and then I have to go to my theater meeting, and then I have to go to this. And, like, I was it was one of those things where I I'm, like, sure. There's gonna be people that are gonna do this. That they're gonna drop everything to to, like, do this. That's the industry that we live in.

But like Oh, yeah. I personally am like, I can't I it's literally my theater company. Like I can't just be like, sorry guys. I can't be at this meeting. Ben, if you can't work late, you can't work late.

And if you can't work late, then you can't work late. But my my agent was just like, what other day should I book you out? And I'm like Oh. Mhmm. And it was one more time.

I like I haven't had an audition in I don't know. Like, I don't plan to just be able to drop any everything at the you know? Yeah. That's not how fucking life works, you stooge. So the ghost of Christmas future shows up and has the head of a TV when we find out who the real one is.

Which is weird. As as we're all we're as we're all being killed by TV as Ben is mentioning for this commercial audition he's talking about. And I love that the the ghost of Christmas future that has the head of a TV which is like buy a second hand TV for $30 or whatever. And that's one of the great effects of the movie. I don't love the body with the puppets.

It's it's Oh, I love that. Oh, yeah. So the puppets are bad. It's just lit weird and what not. You were gonna say Audrey.

I was gonna scare the shit out of me when I was scared. Oh same when I was young for sure. The ghost of Christmas future the TV thing face and the cloaks really got me. And the way it burns the way it burns. Louder louder milk with a shotgun.

Oh, buddy. And and also, Frank is getting very drunk at this point. Like, he's been drinking by himself, stewing. Yeah. But but I do love come here, Rudy.

Come here. Yeah. Just that vodka with the, like, little splooshes of tab that he's, like, doing in his tab. The Stoli whom, went bank bankrupt recently. Rudy.

But I I just like the effects so far, I'm loving pretty much all of it. The jokes in this movie so far, like a lot of the one liners, I'm I'm loving pretty much all of it. Like when Frank sees Claire as his mirror, when he kind of sees himself in her after he finally like rubs off on her like you gotta scrape. Oh when she's got like the crazy like makeup and she's having lunch with the other rich ladies kind of situation. Yeah.

Yeah. He him seeing her and being disgusted by that, it is really effective for me. Especially as like we've talked about this. Like that being the thing where he's like I can't be the I can't do this to her. Yeah.

I can't do this. It's like Donnie Darko like I have to allow the engine to fall on me otherwise that girl's gonna die. Yeah. Well, and also him just, like, recognizing that, like, one of the things that he loves about her is exactly who she is. And that if she becomes, you know, this person that he thought for however many years she should be, like the reality of what that looks like, he hates her.

Yeah. And she's horrible, and he doesn't want that for her. He wants her to be caring and loving and altruistic and, you know. Everything that he aspires to be. Mhmm.

Like, which is, like, it's really great to see this written and executed this way, honestly. Sorry. Sorry. Don't apologize. That's gold.

Look at that kitty. But like the music here too on the note of beautiful noises. The the music as Frank is burning and he's watching himself burn alive. That's such a great I love that. It's so good.

It's way more, because like in the original, right, he just sees a grave with his name on it. Yeah. And I I love the like making it active. Putting him in the casket. Yes.

He's getting burnt alive. It's really good. The effects good. Like it's executed super well. And, Frank is inspired to take over the live feed of Scrooge on IBC.

And yeah, Samcat is like I will not fucking be denied. Like Rudy's on? Okay. Fine. Yeah.

No. But he And when he takes over and when he says into the camera, By the way, James to his brother. It was the s s minnow. The s s minnow. Which is an easy question, James.

You idiot. Yes. It was an easy question. He's not wrong. So No.

He's not wrong. Especially with how much TV was definitely on. Not that I mean, he was the cable guy kid in the house. Yeah. I don't know if all of them were.

I will say, I do feel bad for some of these performers who didn't get to finish their play. Yeah. Sure. That is a that is a good point. And Yeah.

They're like, we were on the last scene, dude. You could have waited like 5 minutes. Yeah. Also, what a horrible casting. Buddy Hackett as Scrooge.

Buddy Hackett as Scrooge. Hey, that's the resident casting director. But that's, that also just like, that all feels so real. Like as you know what you were saying earlier, like all of the current ones that people do, like the casting is just like, it like the Mary Lou Retton as tiny Tim doing her back foot. Like that is hilarious.

Like it's so funny. Yeah. Like a Christmas Carol live on CBS starring Jojo Siwa as Yeah. Starring Travis Kelsey as the ghost of Christmas present. Yes.

You gotta catch the present man. Yeah. Get vaccinated. Yeah. Yeah.

So the mistletoe thing and the dancer, but she does kiss him. Like she grabs him. She pulls him in. I'm not saying he doesn't. I'm not saying that it's she consents to it.

It's still like Karen Allen's watching that. Right? The whole thing's well, and he says like, you're not the one I wanna kiss. He's like he's like, that was good, but it wasn't great. Yeah.

And Yeah. She gets hurt super fast. She must ride a dragon or something. Yeah. Yeah.

If anybody if anybody's assaulting no. I was gonna say if anybody's assaulting anybody, it's that sensor to, to Bryce. Yeah. After While he is tied up, she she like goes in and starts assaulting him. So And and Elliot has like fired many shots out of a shotgun because he lost his wife and his job and his everything, but now everything's gonna be okay.

But look, spoiler alert, end of this movie. He does end up in prison We assume. After the movie at some point. We assume. Yeah.

I did cry not only because I was pretty locked into the movie but because this is unlike a last action hero where it's like repeat viewings don't pay off. When that kid pulls on Bill Murray's arm and says, God bless us everyone. I'm like, oh jeez. Like a couple a couple Yeah. Got loose there.

Yeah. And Alfa Rudder's response to her little clap. Yeah. Just like the joy. She's amazing.

And especially since, you know, you just come off of seeing Christmas future with him in like a psych ward, because they still don't know what's wrong with him. And that's the only answer that they have for him. And when he's like walking away from it, I know the head of pediatrics at, you know, children's hospital, like blah blah blah or whatever. Yeah. NYU, yeah.

Yeah. He's like, this won't be, like, this is just something that could happen, right? Like it's not going to happen. And so you're coming off of that, and then seeing him have that that moment, it's so sweet. It's really It's very sweet.

Yeah. Yeah. The future is not set. There is no fate. Fuck you, Skynet.

There is no fate. We get him on the TV talking about, like, his brother and family, and they get, like, the heartwarmingness in that one. And then his reunion when she comes to the station Yeah. And he kind of pulls her on screen, and that's really sweet. And the singing.

The singing. All the singing. Is it is it, like, the exact same way that Elf ends? Yes. Exactly.

Yeah. It does have the same, like, like, Elf definitely, I think, probably maybe took a took a leaf out of this one Yeah. With all of it. And and you're still kind of, like, watching him be you can tell that all of those people there, like, we don't know. Like, is he crazy?

Has he gone insane? Like, or Well, he loses his job. Right? I'm gonna assume so. I assume he loses his job.

I I feel if it's If he if he doesn't lose it, that he's definitely leaving it. Yeah. But doesn't the the the the president of the company, like, says like you're gonna is like Yeah. When he's, like, when he's calling the station, because he was like, oh, I'm probably definitely losing my job. And he was like, you bet your ass.

Bet your ass you are. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But then like, you sort of see like the wife sort of soften him at some point. And like you almost see him start to kind of soften on the whole situation too as they're watching it because it's like that progresses as well.

Despite kicking the cat. Yeah, I am still assuming that he does lose his job or he walks away from the job. It's also midnight, right? When they're watching, because like isn't the Christmas Carol live running till midnight? Wasn't that the whole thing?

I think it was the The ratings are probably insane. Yeah. Yeah. You assume like part way through this people are calling people even in the eighties. Like it's like people are calling their brothers, sisters, neighbors, like whatever.

And put it back on. Yeah. Like put yeah. Put it back on. It's exactly correct.

Yeah. Put it back on. Like he's going crazy. Yeah. Well, we all love people going crazy.

Mhmm. It's fun to watch a breakdown. Did you know Skynet's real? That I can dodge. This is the I think we're at the end of the movie.

Yep. We are. We are. He sees he sees all of the the ghosts at the end. He sees Herman's Oh, Herman is the living.

I like that. Yeah. Herman's an angel and he's a character. I realize he can't care of Kane. He because I remember as a kid being confused by that because I'm like, but he changed.

I'm like, but no that was present. He can't change that. Yeah. He he already didn't give him the $2. Yeah.

Which probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. No. No. He True. Yeah.

He was he was gonna leave. He was gonna go back to his home kind of a thing. But it's, you know, it's lovely to think that he's a little angel and that he's hanging out with Carol Kane. Yeah. Like, he's he's got it better better where he is.

You know? Yeah. And we all have Christmas joy. Yeah. Okay.

Alright. Here we are. Ben. Yeah. We've talked about this movie pretty in a lot of detail, which I think is, like, necessary.

I think that's the the last thing I wanna say about this movie is it it does feel every bit its length. A term that I like to use on this podcast. It does feel every bit its length. It's interesting because Audrey's 4.5, you're 3.5, and I'm sitting right in the middle. And so it's like Audrey's little angel on my shoulder, and you're this you're this little demon demon cab driver.

Niagara Falls. I'm out of my town. I'm here in a Halloween costume for the 3 of us. I, you know, I think, I think I'm I feel pulled to go to 4.25. I feel pulled to go to 3.75.

You are not a guest. You can't do that. I know. And so I'm going to stay at I'm gonna stay at 4. I'm gonna stay at 4 mice with their antlers stapled on their heads.

I think I think there are things that are keeping me from going higher. A little bit of how kind of atrocious of a human he is at times, and I I do think it is a solid regular watch. So I'm gonna go with 4. Audrey? I who's who's gonna leave it in the most suspense?

I don't think Audrey's shifting. No. I'm not. I I'm staying at my 4.5 solid gold dancers. It's a good one.

Yeah. It just These guys are really looking. And these guys are really looking. These guys are really looking. It's like the 2 grips.

It's like, yeah, they sure are. It's So good. Like, that's definitely one of the lines, like, I had written down. I have a few more that I had written down on leaving in the next book. But, I'll tell them to you guys once we're done.

But, but, yeah, I I don't think I can waiver on it just because of how and it's so funny to me that the the scores, like, on things, how how low they are in some things. Yeah. I don't wanna be like, have you not seen this movie? Or are you just insane? Like I, it's so heartwarming, and it is such a, like, I think it effectively does what it wants to do, which is kind of pull at your heart a little bit about, you know, what are the things that really matter in your life?

And what is it that you're working towards? And, you know, to reflect on that, hopefully. And it also can be silly and make fun of that as well. And, you know, give you some laughs on top of looking really good. And especially for when it was made and all of it, and having all of these great character actors.

So, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna stick with my 4.5. 1st of all, I wanna thank Skynet for bringing us this movie. I think that's who brought us this movie with Skynet. Are we doing thank That's how I remember it. Yeah.

I did watch it on Amazon, so. Oh, I watched it on Paramount plus. By the way, they use like the new cover on Paramount plus and it's like, Scrooged. It's got like kooky font and like mistletoe and and it's like, no the one with the skeleton and lighting. Yeah.

Like come on. That's like that's a classic movie jacket. So Yeah. I think this movie is so good at not being too heavy handed outside of when it's like trying to be cynical or acerbic when it wants to do it about, like, class struggle. And I think, you both made some really great points not only about Households.

The effects and the intentionality of certain things in the effects and intentionality of, Audrey, you were talking about, like, the very beginning of this movie. How it's like everything feels so specific. There was a lot of care that went into it. Like, the details are so sweated over. And I think that really comes through.

I think I can't help but go to a 4. I got the fucking spirit. Yeah. I really do. I think I think Christmas miracle.

I I don't think this is gremlins or eyes wide shut because I'm a little pervert or whatever. Just like, this this is probably, I think, similar to you, Audrey, where it's like, you know, there was some sporadic kind of here and there with this. I think this maybe becomes a little more regular watch. Do I somehow end up watching the ref or something else a little bit less, maybe? Right.

I don't know. Or bad Santa or something. I don't know. But I I I like I've mentioned those 2 movies specifically because it's kind of like, you know, cynical, mean spirited characters with bad mouths on them and bad intentions. And I feel like I only want so much of that, but this is one of the really good ones.

I think Yeah. I think, Ben, I think you might have to turn this on again and see if Rudy will watch it if he can it like Right. Bringing a laptop or something. We watched it together actually. Bigger.

And how was he kind of attentive? He actually was watching it. Robert Mitchum, birthday buddy. I'm just saying. Like Cam Cam Paws watched some of it too.

So Oh my good gracious. Sandcot also tuned in. See, they did make they did make shows for cats to watch. Garfield Strikes Again. Did they say the commercial appeals over?

Nope. Jim Davis, timeless. Everybody, thank you for tuning into this first of 2 holiday episodes that we're gonna do for December this year. Maybe 3 ish, kind of. We'll see what I have time to do for y'all.

We really appreciate you tuning in. Audrey, I adore you. You're amazing. Thank you. Oh, my gosh.

Thanks for being here. You're the best. I hope I get to see you very very soon. Hope to see you soon as well. We're in similar gravity.

I want to thank Ben a 1000000 zillion times. I wanna thank Rudy for guest starring here a 1000000 zillion times. The Perry. We hear him throughout. You're gonna hear him throughout.

It's I'm excited to edit this for that reason among a couple others, I guess. Thank you so much, Chris Olds, for our fun facts. Thank you so much, Matthew Foskett, for our what are we doing and what are we watching. Ben, there's somebody else there. Right?

Jamie Henwood? Does our book ends. Thank you so much. Yeah. You can follow Ben on Letterboxd.

At rug bmc. You can follow me on Letterboxd at paulaxbadly. You can follow the podcast at reviewx2podcast. Please listen to us on Goodpods. Share this with your friends, family, everyone you know.

And if you don't, Skynet will fucking kill your grandma. Happy holidays. Happy happy happy. Bye. Bye, Audrey.

Bye. Hi, everyone. This is JJ, the cofounder of Goodpods. If you haven't heard of it yet, Goodpods is like Goodreads or Instagram, but for podcasts. It's new, it's social, it's different, and it's growing really fast.

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