Stocking Stuffers 8.11 Holiday Harmony (2022) with Liza Poor, Mike Pielocik, and Branan Whitehead

Who I'm back on the road. It's just one long rehearsal for opening iHeartRadio's Christmas Eve special. Let's be real for a second. I was homeless, and how am I making my debut on national TV? Thanks to you guys.

You are the real deal. Gail drapers so much. If it doesn't happen, someone somewhere will give you the chance you deserve. So what can be he? Okay?

Are you I just killed Alama? It's now he's up. Welcome to Harmony Springs, Oklahoma. I have to report to LA by the twenty fourth. We're so important La. iHeartRadio.

Fancy how much is this gonna cost? Twenty hundred bucks? Show our new guests here some hospitality give a phonic a barrow? Has anyone in this town ever heard of a smartphone? Are used for Fasty're on here?

Clearly I have to get a job while you fix the bus. When you're done, I'll have too grand and be on my way. That's what you got into town like this. I'm middle school. You'd better start talking everyone.

I'd like you to meet our new music teacher. I think you are all mistaken. The performance for the Christmas Goals in two weeks. You prep these kids and I'll couple the bus repairs. You.

Um, I have to write my very own song for my heart radio, and I'm having our time. Sometimes when things aren't working, you unplugged for a bit. I haven't been this unplugs since I was eight. Wish I'll tell you what, unplug a whole lot better. I do too, because you make good and place your hands over your heart.

This is where you sing from your head or your lungs, your heart. He's come up for air for the first time in years, and the only thing of the shape is years or old. Used to hear that voicage. You can't do that from hearing chrisma. I always hope that my singing would bring me to a home of my own home and welcome back to yet another stocking stuff where we are rounding the edge of the holiday season.

But we are trying to cover all of our bases. So as you heard this one, we are going to a different cable site. We're going to HBO Max. And when you go HBO Max, you can't just wander into that on your own. It is a dangerous place.

I need a team. So on today's episode, it is very special. I am not alone. I don't have one guest. I have three guests, three incredibly special guest stars.

And let me introduce them first. From across state lines, I have New Jersey's own Lizapoor and Mike Pelosic of David Deathmatch. Please say hello, helloo. Yeah, thank you so much for putting yourselves through an hour and fifty minutes worth of a Christmas movie. Now, I did mention one other person, and there is one other person, not just on the line, but in the room next to me.

Beside me. I have my partner in crime, the person who has had to deal with the what would you call it, the debris of me watching all of these movies and taking furious notes and occasionally screaming and walking in and saying what's wrong and be saying I got to rewind this, and you have to watch it. It is the one and only my love, my husband, Brandon Whitehead. Hello, everyone, you are you are a trooper, you are a soldier. Um, this has been your eighth year of being with me.

I think when I've done these, only the second time that I have joined you on the podcast. So yeah, this is only the second time I've had to actually watch the entire movie. Would you like to remind do you watch a lot of them or is it do you have? You know, I filter in and out of the room as as my lovely wife is watching them, so it's hard not to, you know, absorb a little bit of it. If you were asking me what the last film was that I participated on this podcast, I don't know the episode number.

I'm sorry. I know some people who have podcasts like to tell everyone the episode number when they talked about something that anyone on this podcast would do such a thing. But the Latin the show was Christmas at Dollywood, which sounds like it would be amazing. Yeah, it does sound like that, And it wasn't. It wasn't.

It wasn't. It wasn't Dolly's at Dolly's In one scene. Yeah, she doesn't sing, she doesn't, doesn't. I don't even think they played Dolly part in music in the whole thing. They play her doing hard candy Christmas, and that's the only Dolly song we get.

She's in one scene. The leads have no chemistry. It is. It was not the worst punishment of a career woman I've seen in these films. It was out there, but it wasn't here too.

Maybe. Um, it definitely was probably the biggest test our marriage has ever undergone. I would not agree at Oh we're on different pages on what challenge. We're on different pages exactly what that is? We can talk about that later, right exactly.

Yeah, maybe it's like, could be a great movie Christmas at Dollywood. Yeah, could think and wasn't perked up and then no, no, no, perk perk right down if you want, if you want Dolly and Christmas, Um, Netflix, say, is Christmas on the Square Dolly, which is a pure one hundred percent musical with Christine Baranski. Uh that is I think that was two years ago. Um, it is rather bananas. It is everything you want and a career woman gets punished severely, so I highly recommend it.

But it's singing the entire time. So there there is good. There's hope out in the world. Um, some marriages, Uh, you know survive podcasting like yours now tell us quickly about DVD Deathmatchuh So basically during the pandemic, we started a podcast just like everyone else. And what motivated us to do that is the fact that we have one thousand three hundred and twenty one DVDs, which is far, far too many, far too many more DVDs than anyone should ever have.

Really. Um So the promises of our podcasts. We picked two of them at random every week and we picked that, we watched them, we picked them against each other, We chat about them, and then we decide which one we can get rid of. I always say, like in our twenties, we didn't like do drugs or party party or a lot of traveling. Uh, we just spent money on DVDs.

Like you're like, you walked into a Blockbuster it was four for twenty, right exactly. You're like, yeah, I'll pick up Michael Clayton and the unrated version of Michael Clayton and you know, whatever it is, and right, bring it on in it to win it, bring it on movies on one DVD what, right exactly. So like that's what we did with our money. Very cool, you know in that period where you're like, I have to build my library and so we just have so many DVDs and it is the time of maybe culling some physical media but also bringing some you know, holding on to what you care about and all that stuff. So that's what our podcast is about.

We picked two movies, we put them against each other. We talk about movies. It's very fun, it's it is a delight. We are both listeners and we enjoy it partly guests having gas. I don't have the episode now we're in front of me, but I mean you're fired.

So yes, we talked about Halloween, the rob zombie version, and the remake of Night Right Help Street. I am I swear I do like you, guys, I really do, and yet I just keep arranging podcasts that subject both of you and my husband as well, um to maybe listen to ideal circumstances or maybe not. I do not know how you felt about Holiday Harmony. Whatever, Well, well let's see it because maybe you're going to add that DVD to your collection and then you'll have to do another episode on it down the line. Right, So, before we dive into Holiday Harmony, I was just like a little background on where you too stand on kind of now.

Holiday Harmony is a little bit It is a pure cozy Cargan and Christmas movie, but it's a little bit outside the realm because it's HBO, it's got a budget, it's got lighting, as you mentioned. Um, but the whole idea of that, the Hallmark movies, the Lifetime movies in general. What is your experience with these? I have strangely very little experienced from that because I like it just never uh, they never really hit with me. I don't know.

I love like, I love the concept of them. I find it very interesting. Was kind of like, how quickly can we pump out this holiday film in the middle of July and like force these actors to just dance on the edge of heat stroke and like and but wearing scarves right exactly and and and how many ridiculous like I love. I love the trend on TikTok where people like you do the thing where they're like every you know, Hallmark Christmas movie and they talk about all the stereotypes. I love that, But I have not seen many, although I did watch the Netflix Lidsy Lovehan One.

I did it without me. It was delights. Now your marriage faces its biggest especially, But but I feel like I should watch more because they really seem like up my alley, Like I love terrible things Cameron, Candice Bird or whatever. Ye do not support them for her in this house? Um, I don't have any experience with them.

The fact that you said this one has a budget is hilarious to me, terrifying to you, but it absolutely is true of them. This is one of the higher production value ones saying cool cool, I don't have a ton of experience with them. Um No, I don't think I've ever like I have the same thing where I know of them. I know, and she's a career woman and she goes to her hometown and there's like the gingerbread festival or whatever it is pretty much, and there's the mayor, and you know, like I know all that, but I've never really ever sat down on watch this is the closest of And this is an interesting one then as your sort of ease into the genre, because it is so the movie starts and after first we see that it's an hour fifty minutes and I was about to scream.

I literally that was the first thing. No, that is a crime. That is one hundred percent illegal. I don't know how they This is not gonna last an it QO Max is gonna pull this tomorrow with what they're doing now because they have broken law of cozy Cardigan Christ and not do that. There was that I tell you.

Then the movie starts and we're watching it, and like again, there's a lighting, there's music that isn't pure public domain. There is like an Instagram filter look to the whole thing. And I kind of start like, oh no, kind of start like, um, you know, shaking my hand a little bit, thinking fuck, did I pick a real movie? Yea, almost fools you, it does, and it gets I mean maybe we were what twenty minutes in when finally we're like, oh no, okay, okay, we're good. We're good.

It's just stupid Christmas gone. We're okay, We're okay. But I was I was concerned. Um now, having said that, it's also like two other movies. Um now, there's probably like many other movies, but were there are two distinct movies, both of them which you haven't seen, but one of which you know of.

One, let's say, was a big Awards winner at Oscar Ceremony a couple of years ago. And the other one, Okay, this movie is no bad Land as a Christmas movie. Yes, plus yes, I wrote it down down straight. It's like it's like cute nomad Land. Exactly what she said with a dose of a movie from the room.

Yes, yeah, it is School of Rock means nomad Land swathed in a plastic snowball. Right. I also wrote down Doc Hollywood, but I don't know if that's that. I don't know if anybody has ever thought about the movie Doc Hollywood in thirty years. So Doc Hollywood in the theater on my first ever date.

Oh so, how much of the movie did you see? If? If you catch my drift? Whole thing? So holiday harmony like Instagram filter version Mason Jar filter version of nomad Land is very about.

This is directed by Sean Paul Pick Pitch. You mean to know, how do you say that name? It's a very Italian name with a lot of syllables. He was a stunt man turned director. So that's interesting and it kind of makes you wonder why there aren't more stones because that could have been fun.

One of the writers is we will talk about shortly because she is in the movie as well. Uh and if we were to walk through the plot, Um, Liza, Mike, can you kind of walk us through a little bit of what you thought this movie was about? You got her lead character, Gail. Tell me about Gail? Gail?

Literally know what is named Gail? But apparently this woman is uh and she is a singer, but not a songwriter because she's got some some trauma, you guys. It's like the reverse of that way, right, yes, yes, um. And she's trying to make it big um. And she lives in her beat up van and she yes and she um is all up on the socials, you know, big city girl with her phone.

And then she's an unhoused person slash influencer, yes, slash song we all know. Yes sorry um and she h. She her big shot happens to happen. She gets to be in the I can't remember what was the company they never said it forgetting Yeah, yeah, I Heeart Radio, which they say about a thousand times. Um.

So she goes like I Heart Radio, the biggest company that we all love like and I get it. They do control a lot of radio stations, like they are a big company, but like it was so over it was a lot um and uh. So she's driving across the country to get to her big I Heart Radio gig and uh oh she almost hits an alpaca as uh in the small town of Holiday Harmony Springs that was like Harmony Springs, Oklahoma, where no one has a Southern accent. Actually one or two people might if they choose to. And uh, you know, she she learns to love love right because she meets Yeah she the alpaca belongs to Brookshields Um who play is a woman named Van Yes, which is very confusing, right, who owns a van repair ship car repair shop.

Her van son is Peter Pan Jeremy Sumpter, all grown up and he's like like perpetually uh five o'clock chat out of perpetually top button undone on his flannel shirt. He's a mechanic. He's got very clean hands, but yeah, clean hands for a mechanic. Yeah, very very clean boy. And he um uh yeah that she falls in love with him, he falls in love with her.

Then she also, like this is what you were saying earlier, also gets hired to teach at the school. And then there's a bunch of kind of misfit kids that she whips into shape to do the big festival, the big what is it like, galla of some kind? Yeah, galla. They kept calling it a gallat. I was like, but it was also a competition, yeah, it also glee Like it was just extremely wonderful and Christmas Eve, and um, yeah, we'll get into that.

Oh, don't worry, we'll talk about that. But and then so and then they kind of have some misunderstandings. They delve into each other's trauma because they both have trauma. And then they fall in love and everything's fine and she oh, and then she kind of um leaves Harmony to go to the iHeartRadio Festival, where she learns that Hollywood is bad and having as bad. They want to straighten her hair, which, right, come on, it's a bad wig.

It's a bad wig. Upset me, actually very much upset me. I said to you. I was like, how much of this is she going to spend in this wig? It's not just like bad in the way it's supposed to be bad.

It's also like tough to look at because it just like looks like a bad wig. Um. And then and then she eventually comes back to Harmony because that's where authenticity lives. Yeah, and then I think your favorite part was the happier part of that ending, right, because she she doesn't just come back to Harmony in order to teach the kids. Although she gets to do that, she also still gets some kind of contract.

Well because the secretly, they secretly film her singing at the gala, which live streams on I Heart Radio, and we don't really and millions of people watch it obviously, and apparently that gets her a top forty hit. But right, that's really all we find out though, because we just see that framed and hanging on the wall. But we get a one year later and it looks as though my interpretation was she is living in Harmony with Peter Pan and she is teaching, but she also has a recording studio and is recording in Harmony. Do you get that? Didn't like she had like a it looked like a studio, didn't it.

Yeah, But I mean I didn't get they didn't talk about her still having a music career in the Dead Brothers studio. So yeah, like a studio, Right, I can I can perform from here and never have to leave this town that because it's kind of like it's like that book X we read, where like you really can't leave the town. That's another thing about a lot of these movies is, um, you know the towns that hold you there. I'm like, as if it's good things, you never want to leave, it's great. But if I wish.

There's also something deeply disturbing about never leaving the town. So I figured she like she physically can't leave that town after she spends a certain kind of time there. That's what I do. But that's just happy, you know, it's all good. Yeah, Christmas, it's room show or something.

Yeah, um so, oh no, oh no. I was going to say, well, we can use this to kind of lead into the tropes of these holiday movies and the first thing we typically have most of the time, it's a female and it's our lead in need of a lesson. So Gail Traverse. We know her name because the movie says it old they do that thing where it's Gail Travers, Gail Travers, Gail Travers for most of the time, anybody says her name, Um, you know this Annalise Saparo. Saparo Yeah, not somebody I was familiar with, but I guess she was in Westside Story.

Yeah. Definitely a singer. Yeah, um so she sounds great like her voice great? Oh yeah, clearly a singer, very pretty. What did you think of Gail as a character.

Did she have a lesson she needed to learn? Did she learn that lesson? Can I address that please. Um, this is something that that really struck me is because I know that I've listened to enough of your shows that I know that you always talked about the lead in need of a lesson. I actually did not feel that Gail had any lessons she needed to learn.

From the beginning. Gail seemed to me to to know our own mind, as my mother would say, Um, she seemed to know exactly what she wanted out of life and exactly what she wanted to get and how she was going to get it. And I didn't really see much need for a lesson don't to be learned there. She didn't seem miserable or unhappy, but of course she didn't have a scruffy man to date. Yea out right exactly.

And and I think it's uh, you know susually mildly problematic to be like, oh, here's this here's this girl, and she you know, her trauma is that she's a faster kid. He's never really found home. So I guess you could sort of say that the lesson she could learn is like to find at home, but like she was doing fine and and chasing her dreams. And it's a weird uh moral or lesson to put on the end of this this movie to be like, well, don't chase your dreams, just like find a cute boy in a small town. Don't chase them all the way to California, right, like, chase them, but at some point stop, right, because you're still gonna get them anyway.

Right. So she gets every thing, everything anything. She also doesn't it's time like maybe I can't have it all, Like it's not like the thing where it's like, oh, I figured out how to have everything and like not dedicate my entire life to like social media and this career, but have everything, Like we don't explore that either. It's a weird it's a weird it's a weird one. Yeah, there's a version of this movie like if it wasn't this kind of movie where maybe it is about her deciding, wait, I don't want to be famous.

I like I like music, I like performing. I'm just as happy to perform in a bar and get tips as I would be. But like, but to me and maybe I've maybe we read I mean we read the ending differently. I took it as the fact that that song still goes viral. Um that no, no, no, she gets everything that she gets, you know, jet flown back to Oklahoma, but her song is streamed, it's a huge hit, like oh no, no, but because she could have then just said that's nice.

But I'm not that Gail. I'm miss miss Travel is the music teaching of Gail? So now is there like a plot thread dangling? Now? Do I not know how this movie ended?

Yeah? I think it's I think it felt very That ending felt very like, oh and it all worked out, and you're like, like the fact that she's still teaching in the town and that there was just a framed photo or a poster on the wall that's a top forty hit or whatever, which is like like you couldn't. I've never heard of a teacher like Lady Gaga isn't also teaching? Or is she how do you know she spends afternoon or like wait, let me think of someone who's more current than Lady Gaga Normani? Is that someone?

I mean no, dojd okay okay, now don't remember that was a Jeopardy answer the other day. Thank you, there we go. Ok I'm very old. Um, So yeah, I think like it just felt all tossed in, like oh, she had to get it all. Yeah, and it's it's felt like they wanted to make a movie where she learned a lesson about how Hollywood is bad and small towns are great, but then she still got it all.

But not everyone in Hollywood is bad. The iHeartRadio hosts are delighted. They're wonder they're wonderful people. They really are wonderful. Because definitely the villains didn't work directly for I Heart Radio like they were brought in I'm sure contract.

Yeah yeah, they were ten on the night like all the way. Yeah. Yeah, So No Number two kind of plays with both of those because we have our setting, which is usually either a big bad city, a charming small town, or a magical win to Wonderland, and here we get a tasted two or the three, do we not? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get we'd definitely get a bad city and charming small town kind of jeffs. I was hoping for a little bit more magic Win to Wonderland personally in this one in May.

Yeah, yeah, I would kind of like to address a couple of things about that, um, one of which is the I actually wrote down a laughing I wrote down at point is it cold or not? Because I mean, I am. I am used to these films where clearly it is July in Atlanta and they're only pretending to be cold. But in this film, there were people in the same same scene who did not seem to be in the same climate. Like there were a couple of lines about her being cold or it's cold tonight.

They even played a song that said it's cold outside, and I said, no, it's not because why brook Shield's husband wearing Because Brookshields and Magnum and Magnum dad her husband are sitting there outside of their trailer. The trailer which is never explained by the way they're building. He's building on the house, but why do they live in a trailer because he's building them a house. Because he's building them a house, so they live in a trailer. Make some pancakes.

Pancakes, Oh my god. It was like I was like, I was, I was like, they also live in a trail, Like I was anyway, yeah, I um, yeah, so I was. I was a little puzzled by the fact that even in the same scene people didn't seem to be in the same climate. Um. I also actually started a list that I thought was going to get longer um and I headed the list things that aren't possible in twenty twenty two, even in small towns.

The first is no cell phone store. Okay, I grant you you would not have probably wouldn't have every carrier, but you're going to have a place you can buy a cell phone. Not in the Army Springs, but apparently not in this town. There is no such thing as a fill in sheriff. Sheriff is an elected position.

You might hire deputies, but no, you can't fill in a sheriff. You cannot simply walk into a school as a stranger and walk around right children, question or be hired with no interview, no background check. Well, like she was on Instagram all the time, it's pretty easy to experience no nothing. Yeah that was actually where that ended, or maybe I just gave up. But he's the lady in the van who sings pretty what more background do you need?

More background she has like thirty thousand followers. Leave alone in a room with our children. Right the last time with this kid, I worked with kids in a school setting. I granted it was not in a small town, but this was, you know, a decade ago, and I had to get like FBI clearance. So I mean we'll get to when we talk about the Cline children, But like, do you think anybody cares as somebody kid nawns these kids?

Right? Right? Yeah? All right? So now number three is our bland love interest, which is usually, depending on the type of lead we have, is either going to be a poor little rich boy who needs to learn a lesson or now here's a twist on it, usually he's a widowed dad who does some kind of job working with his hands.

Now, Peter pan Um is not a widowed dad, but he is a widowed brother of Yeah, he's a britto end, a mechanic and also a standard jeiff and a music teacher and a person capable of building an entire house, was builder by himself? Yeah? Yes? Um so now this was Jeremy Sumter makes his skin crawl? Oh my god, I wrote that line down too, Yes, yes, like just the mention of a city, how a small town this guy is?

Um? So, what were your your thoughts on him? Is he an eligible bachelor? Do you think if you were trapped in this town would you have made eyes on him? I mean, listen, as someone whose life was changed by Peter pan obviously if I saw a small town I would be charmed.

But the character's pretty boring. Characters not anything. No, that actor like fine, he was fine in this. It was fine. There were those two lead actors I would say were better than the material.

Yea, even though they were not like I don't know, they were fine. Yeah they were yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Um. He was also on Friday Night Lights. He was he was a dick on Friday Night Lights.

Yeah. I was like he came on the screen. I was like, oh, it was JD. McCoy from Friday Night Lights. I was like, why do I remember that name?

Great headlights had great names, that's why, right, right, yeah, I mean all the Yeah, it really acts like you remember their first like Gail Travers, right, you remember their first head last name. So that's good writing, right there, Yeah, Lila Garty All right. Uh. Number four is the montage. Now Here's the thing about montages is that usually a lot of these kinds of movies use them because they're you know, as the song in Team Americas says, it's a easy way to show message of time, and it's a good way to fill up time.

A lot of these movies are straining to make the ninety minute mark. Now this one was not, and yet we still have like seven montages, truly, truly and that one. What's funny is that I know they were a bunch of montages. I can't think of a single one. So they weren't good.

No, no, and they didn't involve Christmas songs, which is why you usually do in this movie kind of movies. I'm far yeah, yeah, I'm very I thought this to me. I was like, are you gonna have you Christmas? Yeah? And it feels like and this is what I had said about falling for Christmas is the problem with Christmas movies that are made with a budget is like they have this need to show off.

And one of the ways they do that is they have like real songs in their movies. Yeah, as opposed to the stock like public domain bargain basket of tracks of Oh look, here's a Silent Night done polk a style. Great, use that one. Here's a Silent Night on Acapella, Okay, use that one. Instead.

These movies are like, oh, hey, we have the original recording of Have Yourself Mary, Little Christmas? Can we play it? You know? And I want to say, like, fuck you for these movies because it feels like it's like rubbing it in your face, and this one doesn't do it with like Christmas songs. It's just like music that clearly somebody wrote, like, uh, what's the band she's obsessed with?

Everyone? Really, I don't know who that is? Something I don't know. I don't know. It's felt like I fel like iHeartRadio wanted to plug ever because they were there was all that stuff, but yeah, it did.

The music didn't hit like it did feel very disconnected from Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. And even the montages were her driving like you know, cross country, which I really wanted them to have her drive by map but they did not. Uh.

There was the like songwriting and teaching the kids. There's um like when she's actually doing the doing the recording and we see all the different people that she's connected with watching and then the final montage that none of us seem to understand. So right there was just like, Okay, I guess everything worked out. I don't know sure or how it's a positive montage. Yeah.

So No. Number five is the dead parents or dead wife? Um a common trope in this movie. Now, I guess we give credit because we we don't know if we have dead parents. Right, she's a ya the goodest dead dead brother guy who gave her the box, who moved to Canada, who was her foster father, right, which was such a weirdly specific What was the box?

It was her tip box? Right? Box? Yeah. Every time they said it, I was like, is that a thing?

Her box? Yeah? Well this TVPG TVPG, they can go there. She had a foster father who gave her a tip box that she she loved him, but then he had a job opportunity and he moved to Canada. Uh, it's just weirdly, weirdly specific because apparently foster kids, you can't take him out of the country, right, So we all learned something that's true.

I guess that's true. Yeah, but yeah, it was very so that was that was kind of instead of a dead parent, right, But then we get a lot of dead brother talk so much. Yeah. Yeah, and he was a music teacher, right he was, Well, wasn't it. I thought he was a musician.

He was a musician who was also the music teacher, right, who also had seven jobs. Right, That's what happens in this time. So basically, Peter Pan is like doing his brother in a girl form, right, Like it's very much like you remind me so much of my brother. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. That's the kind of thing that my wife will come up with.

Yeah. I've read a lot of it's it's there. I can't help it now. Number six is our a sassy sidekick, which is often my favorite of the ten um. I think we have two.

Anybody have a favorite? Okay, I don't know if I have a favorite. Although I loved what the woman from Harmony Springs was doing. I loved everything that she was waitress. Yeah yeah, is she the waitress?

Yeah, like Barrachel. She was also the mom of the twins. Yeah yeah. Carli Jimnez is that actress. This is her second appearance this season on My show.

She was also the sassy sidekick in a movie called Steppin Into the Holiday with Mario Lopez, where she also played the kind of you know, sassy, brassy woman who was mother to a child who I declared the most annoying child I'd ever seen in a movie, and that child was a dancer. In this case, she is child. She is mother to child rappers who we will get to. But I am just fascinated now that this woman is going to keep following me everywhere and always have a terrible She was making choices, she was making choice, big choices, big choices. Bless her.

Appreciate that. The other one, the friend. I was like, we're watching the Beginnest movie and I was like, this blonde girl wants to fuck her friend so bad? Oh yeah, did I not say that? Oh yeah, no, no argument here.

It was so obvious that at that actress had an idea. She had an idea. Okay, like, you're so talented. Oh my god, let me know. You have to believe in yourself.

You have to believe in yourself because I believe in Yeah that actress. Yeah, that actress made the decision. She made the decision, uh that I want to have sex with her, and that's how I'm going to play this role. Yeah. You want to know what else that actress did write the movie?

Yeah? Oh damn uh huh. Lauren Swickards one of the screen credited screenwriters. So that's Cannon. It's completely completely that's Cannon.

Yeah, yeah, totally into it. I'm there for it. Let's see now number seven, which is exciting because we don't always get it. It's like a lot of these movies, especially this year, have gotten like really soft, so they've kind of moved away from having having a villain. Now.

A villain is usually either an evil male boss or it is some kind of evil woman. Sometimes she's corporate, times she's the romantic rival. I don't know, did you spot an evil woman in this movie? Yeah? It was Scarlet right, yeah, right exactly, even her name, and she was just like the whole whole time, a sourpuss.

Yeah about and in the bar like where are you going? He's like, well, I gotta go. She needs somewhere to stay, and like all that stuff. I mean, I love, I love a villain, and she was not. She was not villain, you know what I mean.

And like and then she does a really dickish thing. Yeah you're like, oh, okay, so are you like you really are, like you're really mean. But then she's like, if he's gonna be mean, like have her corilla to villain, you know, right right exactly, and it's just like, yeah, she the whole the whole thing is very like halfway there, and it's like we want we're supposed to feel bad for her, like, oh, I just always thought we'd end up together. And I was like what Because she first shows up and it's like halfway through the scene, you kind of understand that maybe she is she likes this guy or thinks that this guy is her territory, but like, I don't know, it just wasn't enough, right, And then she convinces Gail Travers to decorate the room that she's staying in, yeah, the brother's own room with a bunch of the brothers things.

So that then Peter Pan comes in and he's like he's upset, he's upset, and he says, why would you do this, old brother? And for some reason Gail doesn't say because Scarlett told me too, right. Yeah. It was one of those misunderstandings where like the people don't just say the thing, yeah exactly, Yeah, yeah yeah. I just I just prefer my my movie Evil Women to be like parent Trap live parent Trap levels, you know what I mean.

I just want full on, like you want campy, yeah, because they do like try to make the maker at some point a little sympathetic of like, because I mean the actress I think is kind of playing it very straight, like she's playing it as if I really love this guy and this woman showed up out of nowhere and clearly is he is has entranced him. And I'm just sad over here because I really loved him, and here I'm gonna pie to his mom because I really want to do it, like it's really it's like desperate and sad. And there's also like, look, did we see any other men in this town? And we know you can't leave. So on one hand, I kind of get it, like, yeah, I put your stake in that territory because there's not much else there, right, But there's like the dead and the kids, and then that's it.

There's the one mechanic exactly. You gotta wait for those kids to grow up. And I'm not confident about that exactly. All right, So now number eight is slapstick, which is often an easy way to you know, charm the audience. In this movie, not much of it, but there's a few moments anything catch your fancy.

Yeah, I can't remember remember, I mean other than the sassy friend from the town who was like her kind of face was slapsticks, yes, and the kids were a little slapsticky, but not like, yeah, I don't know what are we what are we not remembering? No, I mean the only ones iclocked was like the fact that the whole plot instigates on almost hitting a llama, yeah or an I'll pack of sayah who. Then they cut to her and she like watches it get up again, like because it plays dead ye, and then cut to gale drivers Gale drivers drivers and they and then she just does a reaction shout of watching it get up. And then they cut back and the lama's up because they were through like, look, it's gonna be another eight hundred bucks to get long the same, so we're not spending the money.

But she liked but she they talk to her and looking at it getting up, and she's looking at a giraffe and then the alpaca walks over to her and it's the same height as she is. It's so weird. Yeah, she does look all the way up. She's like, uh right, um, yeah. That was that was That was also I think the moment where I was like, oh, I mean I didn't have the same concern obviously that you had, where you were like was this one of these bad movies that or was this a real movie?

But the alpaca scene was definitely a part where I was like, oh, this is pretty bobo, like they got an a pack up, but they didn't really really get It's also right where like we kind of thought were like this could also go Texas. Chains on Massa are really quickly at the time, right, like, oh yeah, the alpaca just likes to lure people into this town, like right to do what with them? Yeah, the same set up? Yeah, exactly, I'll see. Now number nine is our stage old person.

Um. Now there's there's only sage iHeart radio hosts in this movie. Yeah, like, did you know who Amy is? Amy Brown a thing? Like I guess do people know Amy Brown was a thing?

You mean? Sissony and Amy the two iHeart radio hosts that we love in this house? No, we did not yet I don't know who they are, but clearly someone does because they were credit in the credits. It was as herself. No, it wasn't.

Here's a funny, It wasn't as herself. It was Amy Brown. Amy Brown has sometimes like they do herself in this case, they did not, which I found very clear. That was what I meant. No, but but but it's not what they meant.

Okay, right, that's what I'm saying Amy Brown is playing Amy Brown, is the character every day when she goes to work. Yeah, I mean I would argue there's another sage elder in this movie. Yeah, yeah, I wrote down, Oh god, is this meant to be Brooke? Yeah? I guess.

I mean her skin is better than mine, and she's a good twenty years older, but still it's right. I'd like to I would like to say something about brook Shields in this film. Um. I actually thought brook Shields did a good job with what she was given. Um.

This is something that I noticed about this film pretty much from the beginning, was this is what well it was? I noticed, you've got money, There is a budget behind this. It looks great. They were able to afford to hire a lead who can not only sing but can also play the guitar. Yeah, um, and you got you got brook Shields.

But what they did is they were they had enough money to hire actors and actresses who were good enough that they could take bad dialogue and not great scenes and not well fleshed out characters and make it almost watchable. Yeah, totally. Like the the production of value was enough to fool you into thinking, is this a real movie? Yeah, of the scenes totally. That's exactly right.

It's exactly like a weird kind of uncanny Valley feeling of watching it and being like, this feels like all the pieces are there of a movie and yet and yeah, yes, yeah, ye I put my head in my hands a lot. The one I remember there was a part where we had to get food or something or something like, had to go to the bathroom and pause it. And then it was like I said to you, I was like, how much of this movie do you think is left? Oh? No, I never do that more.

Yeah, it's over thirty minutes. Yeah, yeah, we did. We did on two nights, um and it wasn't intended. We had planned to do it all in one and part of it was like sitting down and realizing how or fifteen minutes. But also I'm so glad we didn't do this in one siting because I don't know that I could have made it.

It's just not meant to be consumed that way. It should have been a I don't know, a limited series perhaps now say number ten is Santa Clause, which sadly we do not get any real real Santa Claus magic in this Christmas in your Christmas very little Christmas. Well, but now that moves us into the bonus round. And the first one is the music, which is usually you know, kind of pulling all of the like how many different versions of Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells and Silent Night did they play? And in this case very few, because again, we have money or HBO, we can pay for music.

We can pay for police Navi Dad, that's not right. But then but then pay for like some more Christmas music, y'all like yer there? Well, but that's the thing. So there is original music in this movie, and including like the big song that is you know, the top forty song this is Christmas or hashtag this is now this does There's two things about the song that I think are very exciting to me. One is a basically is the thing that um a lot of these movies, a lot of the cheap movies, when they do use a original music, there's like this bucket of cheap music that somebody, a couple of songwriters must be told every couple of years, Oh, hey, if you write a song about Christmas, it's a really easy sell.

Great, Yeah, what does it have to be about? I don't know, Christmas? Candy canes, ice the goals, ice, skating, reindeer, And that's usually what the songs are. It's just listing things about Christmas. This one basically does that.

But do you know who one of the songwriters was. I guarantee you you don't, because I didn't until she told her. Okay, so you either know or you don't know about this very this Oscar winning actress who a couple of years ago had surgery and after her surgery suddenly like could write, was obsessed with music and couldn't stop hearing music in her head and became a songwriter. I think she was actually nominated. I think one of her songs was nominated for either Golden Glober Oscar a couple of years ago.

She has a famous husband, her famous ex husband. Even she's very tall. Um trying to give other I just say it again, would you like? Who'd you? No?

No, you're wrong about that? Okay. Uh. The one of the songwriters on hashtag this is is none other than missus Ted Danson Mary Steambergin. What really you have to look this up?

I'll share the article with you. Yeah, she had surgery a couple of years ago and suddenly like had songs in her head and just became a songwriter. And she has written like dozens of songs since then, including like a lot that have been in movies. Yeah, I what did Mary Steamburgin winn an Askar for. That's something in like nineteen eighty something that I have not seen she has as winner, but from a year back I was on a round, So that's incredible.

I had no idea about that. Yeah, that's crazy. Learned our daughter a couple of years ago got really into the American Girl website americangirl dot com where they have all these like little games related to American Girl and stuff like that, and one of them was like, oh, listen to like Tenzi or whatever her name is, help her write a song. Was essentially like a computer based version of Guitar Hero for these little country songs that like one of the dolls sings, and they sounded the songs in this reminded me of like American Girl original countries on the computer. Yeah.

I don't know what that means. I feel like I do. Even though I did not play with the American Girl website, I think I had it. Yeah, They're just like songs that just like there's a whole culture, a whole subculture who like universe of music writing that you so rarely that you just encounter sometimes in your Christmas movies are on the American Girl website or whatever. Yeah.

I also love how the the other original song that was written they was the Kids Sing for Gala, and it was like like, Okay, we're gonna write this song, you know what. I feel like something matter whis Oklahoma doesn't have like a super famous song that's about it, so like we should we should come to that territory totally right? Why about this state? What did you guys learn is like the most important thing about Oklahoma based on this song? Yeah?

Yeah, it's like it's just pales like you're gonna be compared to the other songs, you know what I mean. It's like it's like writing a song like about that has the lyrics my Heart will go On or something like you're like, it's not that other my Heart will go On song. Like you think of all of like the different Dolly Parton songs of like Christmas in Tennessee, and like, oh, they're really specific, they're citing things. What I learned about Oklahoma from this song is that you can fry a lot of food. Oh my god, it's just a list of different foods that you can fry.

That was all someone who's never been to Oklahoma and who never like they have no and who has like a child's understanding of what Oklahoma is has essentially my understanding of what Oklahoma is. Like. It's there was no specific exactly what you said, like, it's just all right, So now you're just thinking about what else are gonna Friday night, baby? So on that note number two is our special secret family recipe aside from fried alpaca, uh, anything else food wise that seemed very specific to these characters in this place. You mentioned one earlier, your pancakes, which was a weird.

That was so weird, that seemed really I really bumped on him, like going into their trailer, which I was like, wait, they live in a trailer too, and then U and just making them pancakes in the morning, and he makes one stack of pancakes, so too. That bothered me. Yeah, he makes one stack and puts it on the plate and says, here are the pancakes for you. My two parents I know, say that little Maybe he just only had one plate because like it's like that whole tiny living thing, like you're downsizing, downsizing as little as you need, Like, oh, like they eat a different times. Maybe I let's say, No.

Number three is our small business in danger, which, um, I don't know that we really write nout a career. Maybe. No. You almost get there with the like the music class situation where it's like if they don't win. Honestly, I never quite understand what was happening.

It's like, if they don't win the gala, then you can't have music class next year. What so wait and at the gala, the check, the oversized check, it was for five thousand dollars. So is that what is that for? Is that? Does that go towards the salary of the teacher that has been allowed to to live?

There? Is that for? She needed it to get to the iHeart radio thing for a minute, but then it was like that wasn't going to go to you. Yeah, I don't. I was like, once the teaching thing happened, I was like, I have no idea.

Yes, let's see. No. Number four is product placement. No, I can't think of her video lots of it. Yeah, I mean they must have produced this or something like it.

Yeah, or they must maybe they're a Warner Media company or I don't know. I don't It was just like this is they're they're in the tank for iHeart Radio. Yeah, and Everley apparently and whatever that is, which may or may not actually exist right now. Number five Um a fan favorite, the Coin Child. A lot of these movies if they have children, A lot of them don't because again it's a little expensive to film with kids.

It means you have to be careful about your shooting time. But when they have kids, they are usually the most insufferable child actors you have ever met in your life. And I always try to say, like, not blame the child actors. It's the choosing of them and the writing of them in the direction of them. So don't feel bad about making about of kids.

We do it here all the time. Uh, there's there's kids in this spot. Yeah, as we said, it's doing a real like School of Rock thing, completely like almost verbatim to where I would have sued if I was Mike Waite, right exactly. Um, And like, I don't know, except somehow these kids have like zero charmed Like you've got the main girl who's like baby Tracy Flick. Yeah.

Yeah. The thing I will say about these children is that you've got the two girls can turn on those tears like they've been trained. Ye. I mean that little baby Tracy Flick, whose character name was Sarah Hughes, which is an Olympian figure skater. For some reason, Um, she I'm watching her, I'm like, she looks really familiar.

And I looked her up. I'm like, wow, she's been in she's like nine. Her IMDD credits are like longer than Mary steam Rgins. That kid is clearly like a child actor from the get type thing. Um.

I haven't seen anything else she was in, but she obviously like knew her Mark, knew her lightning, Like she is going to be like playing something with Reese Witherspoon in twenty year as. I say, right, yeah, well that and and that plot point of like that kid who is who becomes to such as the stage manager's exactly for baby's exactly exactly. Um yeah, I don't know to the to the twins who could wrap. I was like, I was so excited, Um because again when I watched Stepan into Holiday and this kid shows up, who's like the most insufferable little dancer boy. I remember I turned to you.

I'm like, this is the worst child I've ever seen one of these movies. I hope he is in every scene and this movie same thing. These kids showed up and what was like their line was like we're twins. We wrap. I paused it and I looked at Brandon.

It's like with the most eager puppy dog eyes of I mean, how would you describe my emotions versus your emotions at the introduction of those characters. You were absolutely thrilled. I at the end was just thankful. I was like, well, it wasn't as offensive as it could have been. I wish them long in storage careers.

There's also at the very end when when it's like the I think it was just like during the post credits montage or the credits montage, like because now, I guess the other thing was like, oh, now there's a bunch of kids in the music class, and it pans over and there's all the kids that we've met, and then there's that little girl who gives her an apple and right, yeah, the little the girl who lists teachers like like like Cindy full On, Cindy Brady directed list Yeah, if teachers were apples, we'd pick you. What's what's what it's like? What it wasn't like the first time came from nowhere too. This wasn't like it would have made sense if it was. I think Rosemary like the girl that like did kind of need a little bit of support from from another adult figure, but like, no, this is just like some little annoying blonde girl who somebody was like, oh, hey, like we need another kid.

Hey like you. You felt like she was like a crew member brought their kid to work that day, and the directors that were all, wait, she can't say her assay is perfect, I'll take her perfect. Yeah. Also relily about that scene where she where she gets pushed into becoming a music teacher. Like he doesn't even tell her what we're doing, what she's doing, just like here be the musica.

She's like what um? And then the kids are like, well, what can you do lady? And she's like, oh, I'm gonna show you my magic. And she sits down on that piano and she's like, I'm gonna play some Saints maybe what man? What why did you play?

When the Saints come mart What a weird joy it's public domain. But again, like so weird. That was one of those weird moments where you're like, so you decided to spend all this money on this other music, right, But then then you're essentially doing like Camptown races like at the yeah right, yeah exactly, Like why would you have like she's trying to impress these kids, why wouldn't you have her go like, what's your favorite song? Right? And then she plays it, you know, and sings it like that's what's your favorite song?

And we don't have to pay for Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. Let's see now. Number six is a character with a holiday theme name. A lot of times we have hollies and Eves and such, but I don't think there's any Christmas correlation to the name Gail or Gail as as they often say, is that is that a diphthong? Yeah, it's too do you say it?

Okay? Is? Let me ask you a question. This is a source of contention in our marriage, speaking of trouble in our marriage. Oh, g A, I L how many syllables is that name?

One? Gail Gil? Yeah, I guess it's one. I want it to be too. Yeah, Well, actually no, Gail, I would say with one syllable, my wife does not believe in dipthongs.

I don't believe in them. It's that I was raised without them, so she is not speaking them, or I have to over and to me. You can't say them without overenunciating. I grew up saying museum and run and apparently you're supposed to say museum and poem and ruin, And as I have tried to explain, you do not have to say museum and poem and ruin. You simply say ruin, museum and poem.

You mean ruin, museum poem. Speaking Gael, we this is not a therapy skype session, but you don't know is it actually is? Michael Laza are certified. I had been doing this for today. This is an intervention, Okay, yeah, uhca see because number seven is finding the perfect tree.

We didn't have a perfect tree, and said we had a perfect diphthong. So was there we didn't have a tree. There was a shot of three in the town somewhere. Oh, like one of those drone shots. Yeah yeah, but like again Christmas and I don't know, same with like usually there's like the elaborate holiday drinks for somebody's drinking, like hot chocolate with a gingerbread house on top, or like a cosmo that has a complete like candy cane castle in it.

Nothing nothing, nothing, nothing yeah. Um. And then my favorite is the empty coffee cup acting, which you see in a lot of these movies actors who just haven't done enough work in TV to know that. You know, if you're holding a cup, it's supposed to even if it doesn't have weight, you're supposed to pretend it has weight. Um.

But that was the problem. I feel like in this movie they actually filled their cups and gave it to them because unless everybody in this in the movie was that good an actor, I didn't see any of the empty cup well. I was like there was something wanted. The breakfast scene, the famous pancakes scene, yeah, and I was like yeah, and I was like, I think there's I think there's coffee and those stuffs water, like I don't know there was weight to it. Yeah, but there was empty bad empty box acting when her her best friend who's obsessed with her, is like holding a box talk relead on the phone, and like then she just puts her other arm down and was just holding it like with her foca exactly.

Yeah, well she's a writer, so she's not definite. Yeah, that's it. Let's see now. Actors trying very hard to not actually eat on camera a lot of times. You know, you might have very food themed movies, but you don't want to keep resetting the food.

Um right, nothing was tracked? Did me in this one? Yeah? There's only you can't right, remember that. I mean that's every movie though.

It is like watching actor actors like you know, who are obviously so many or so body conscious, like also doing a thousand of tapes. Yes, exactly, yes, of course, of course, but just like just trying to pretend. It's always fun to watch. Yeah, it really enhances your viewing of anything once you start to look for it, especially like on TV like Law and Order. Just spend the entire Launder episode seeing a character try to avoid eating, and then the actors like Brad Pitt who will make sure that they're eating in every scene, which is like really fun to watch, yes, because he's like, yeah, this is like my thing, this is my trip to make it look aftteral or whatever works.

I don't know. Yeah, you have an oscar and I don't so what can we say to that you and Mary stein Burdon, Yeah, maybe too one day. Let's see, now eleven is our canadianisms or signs that this was not filmed on location. I meant to look, I don't know where this was actually filmed. You looked and it didn't say right.

Uh. Then I looked at the actresses Instagram, um, and it went. I went back a little to see if there was any one because I was really curious where they filmed, and I was in California. I was in pedaloom in California. I think, um, or maybe that's just a different tag that you put on there or something.

But it looked like it was just filmed, like outside La somewhere. Actually, yeah, it you know it. It definitely didn't seem like I mean, as as you know your avid listeners of DVD Death Finish, I'm like obsessed with figuring out where stuff is shot, and like it's just so it's so it's just makes such a difference and you could just so tell when something's not shot in either the place where it is or like on stage or whatever, and and and you know, some the worse, but but with something like these movies, you know, they're so play space, They're so like the small town, right, and they keep fucking saying Oklahoma, and you're not even And again all they do is they fried the food or whatever. It just like was good to me, that's all.

There was definitely a shot of her like walking she starts to walk home back to her van early on in the small town and she's like walking down the street in the small town. I'm like, they're like palm trees there right, right exactly. And then last is our warm weather watch, which we did go over. We discussed and it is. It is definitely there just this this ideamic climates to get pretty cold in the winter, right.

We were asking, So Brandon's cousin lived in Oklahoma for a few years and she said it could be like it could be pretty intense swing. Yeah, she said it was pretty intense wings, but not within the same scene, like everyone, everyone sitting together would be experiencing the same temperature. But so Scarlett was the one wearing the winter coat, and Scarlett was very skinny and blond and sad, and I feel like those things make you more prone to being cold. Okay, Oh I'm cheery and Brunette and chubby, and I don't get hot very cold, very easily, so you know, like maybe that's a thing like a temperature. Sure, okay, so like so that's how they harmony tell me overall?

Do you recommend it? Do you think if this was on your DVD shelf would you would you give it away? Would you say no, we're gonna keep this and you show the kids? Where did you stand on it? In the end, I have a couple a couple more quick notes about specific things I'm bumped on.

If you will, Um, one, you wouldn't need a ring light on stage the first scene she gets up on the stage and the friend is gonna try and sneakily film her. You wouldn't. You wouldn't need to set up a ring. It's a stage. You're lit, so you don't need to Okay, great?

And then I wrote, man, the acoustics in the doorframe with this trailer in this parking lot area, I would like to report a podcast there, please right right right exactly. Um. Oh, so so there's a scene so they so they finally hook up in her trailer. They both sleep on her tiny bed and her trailer for some reason. Um.

And then the next morning. Uh. He finds her notebook and there's like a list of pros and cons about leaving her stage, says Ja so dreamy whatever, and he like smiles and he's like, oh my god me and I'm like, bruh, she just slept with you and she likes you. Had you not quite figured out, yeah, that she might be into you, Like, that's not a reveal y'all by allowing you to place your penis inside her. I mean, we don't the placement.

We don't like we're led to believe that they had sex. Phone. We don't know. Maybe they just cuddled. Maybe one of them just pleasured the other and the other one was like, thank you, I'm gonna go to sleep now.

We don't know the details. It's tv BG okay Sanders sure um. And then my last note is, uh, no way. She's playing with those nails, the part where she goes to you know, her dreams are coming true. They put a wig on her, they put her in a short dress, They put ridiculously long nails.

She gets up on a stage and plays the guitar, and I'm like, trouble playing the guitar with them? Wasn't that part of it? Like visually she was, but yeah it was great, but so it was flawless. I was like, no, no, um. But in conclusion, I'm gonna say no, I would not recommend to the film.

Yeah, Like, I know, we got off pretty easy with the production value of here, but I still didn't I was I was not. I didn't connect with it, but I will say I did like the lead actress, Yeah, great, she was great. Peter Fan was great. Even the kids were like fine, you know what I mean. Like, it feels like if they have gone in either direction of like fully camp fully adoptionis fully like like even think about how funny it would have been a fan like acknowledged some of the tropes, like like like one of them wearing a winter coat and being like does it get cold an Oklahoma?

Like could that be so funny addressing that? Or more money thrown at it so that you have the big insane Christmas number. Either direction would have been great, but we're stuck in this middle ground of kind of like mediocrity. Yeah, very uncanny valley to watch. I mean, I just don't have an I don't mean to be like I only watch good movies, but I I don't have a ton of exposure to this genre, so it felt very like this was a weird one kind of like I'd be curious.

I don't not that I'm gonna do this, but I'd be curious if you could recommend one Christmas movie, Palmarkee that just like isn't even the best one, but that exemplifies all the trope, Like, is like the perfect one to kind of uh symbolize the entire genre. What would you pick? So I would say I would almost want to go like three different routes, um, because the ones that jump to mind that perfectly represent the tropes verse the ones that are in this world that are absolutely pulling most of them, but that are actually good, right, So if you wanted the epitome of these movies, I would say, um, oh, it's the Candice Camera one where she goes to an Alaska and she's a doctor and Christmas Undercover.

I think that ten minutes later I figured it out. Christmas under Wraps not a good movie, but that is the title, Christmas under Reps. That's the one that like kind of started me on this in awaya because watching that movie was so fascinating to realize, like in the next scene she's going to find out that this guy's Santa Claus, right, and we find out it's like every beat of it was so fitting and kind of like shaped these tropes in many ways. So that's kind of the one that I would probably say like, and that's sort of the one that encompasses it. But the problem is that that's not a good one.

There's a few that I would recommend that are actually good movies. Naughty or Nice with Hilary Burton is just your Christmas movie, except she's really funny, it's got a sharp script, it doesn't just stick to these things, and Santa Claus is real, which is always an important thing to me. It makes it so much more entertaining when that's the case. Holly's Holiday is about a woman who a mannequin ends up coming to life and being her boyfriend. But then it's pure Christmas movie.

Christmas movie, but yet it's very funny and very weird. There is one that might even make you cry. There's one called The Twelve Dates of Christmas with Zach Morris whatever that actor's name is, Mark Pauls Yeah, and Amy Smart and it's a groundbug day thing. It's a She's waking up every day and reliving the same day. But along the way she falls in love with Mark Paul.

But it's actually again like it's hitting all these things. She's a career woman and then realizes, maybe I don't want to be a career woman. But yet within it, like sometimes with a real and a lot of times, what I've noticed it comes down to the actors. If you have the right actors that can still bring something, it can be a watchable, good movie. And in that case, these are two like real actors who have chemistry and it works.

And then I'll throw one more at you, which we covered this year for the other side of it, because I know, Mike, you were asking for more Christmas horror movies. There is one that came out last or two years ago. It came out in twenty twenty called Letters to Satan Clause Oh it is, and right now it's available via like the Sci Fi Channel, so if you have any form of cable app you can watch it and it's rentable on I think Fubo or one of those things. And it is completely it's a parody, but it just played completely in this and it is hysterical. I mean, you heard me laughing at it.

I think I like made you come in and watch some of it because it really like just takes all of the tropes and then just does it sideways. I love this letters to say clause I guarantee it's sadly it is not on DVD. Um. Several people and I have all been trying to find X or like I want to own this. I want to watch it every year, but it does not how a release so um.

Yeah, but if we find it, then you should add it to your DVD collection. That's great. Yeah, I mean I don't think. I don't. It was a weird one to watch.

And also, as we said at the beginning, so long, I feel like that, I feel like you're asking way too much. No, no, I am sorry, I am mad. When that run time came out, I was like, shit, is it too late to call them and say, like, guys, let's do a ninety minute one? Because that offended you. I was so I was sorry.

I mean asking much. I mean, like the filmmakers, it's like, yeah, and there's only so much you can you know, there's a reason why every one of these movies it is an hour thirty and it's not just because they're made for cable, because a lot of them aren't. Even the Netflix ones are ninety minutes. They understand this is not something I need to be on any longer now. Social attractive exactly, um so, And no for you guys, how about you my love?

No no no no no no, yeah, I would say I'll throw out I guess um. If you were curious to see the nomad Land version of a Christmas movie, this is it. Yeah strange, yeah yeah, and it is for me. It was interesting to see a Christmas movie like this as a real movie, um, but also incredibly disappointing because it it's like, more and more I find I like the cheaper ones. I don't even Hallmark isn't even fun anymore because there's something about them that's very polished.

And the scrappier ones are just more entertaining because you can feel like them cramming the filming in and this one felt sprawling but not in an interesting way. Yeah, yeah, totally that that's exactly like how it felt. It's like I want to see if I'm gonna watch one of these, I want to see like the real shit, like you know what I mean? I want people drinking fancy hot coco but not actually drinking it. Damn it.

Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly, like and I don't want this kind of like Mace and Jar version of it. I don't know. It was very good. Yeah, all right, So where can the people find DVD Deathmatch and your upcoming episode on the special edition Blue lou Ray release of Holiday Harmony. Well, listen, we'redud Deathmatch and all the places we got and we got to Twitter, we got a GMO, we got the world wide web.

Um, yeah, it's DVD Deathfinch. It's on Spotify, it's on Apple, and uh, it's fun. We just did an episode about Charlie Brown Christmas and Bookie Nights. No, we just did an episode about something else. It was bad Santa Chie, Charlie Christmas.

Um. And then our next episode is going to be the object of My affection versus uh In Bruge. So that'll be fun. Um, And it's it's really fun. It's a fun little thing.

And also you could just catch up from the beginning Whi's gonna go on for years now. It's very goofy. That was we just posted episode eighty seven, so it's a lot and I can personally testify that it is a delightful listen. Agreed, so sweet and every week. I know you are dear friends of mine and I love you both very much, but I still find your podcast.

Admittedly I am not an unbiased opinion, but I still I enjoy it deeply. It's a wonderful time. And again it's I always love because there's obviously like millions of movie podcasts out there, and it's you know, not just the hook of like, oh, different types of movies, but it's just a you know, you are two people who are doing a podcast who are different from a lot of other people doing podcasts, and I think having a married couple who are parents who have different views on some things just from that and are also cool, funny, interesting, smart people who talk about a variety of things in such a way that sometimes I won't know the movie and I'll listen anyway and have a good time. So I recommend that Pry that was so sweet.

Oh well, you know it's Christmas and all. If you can't be honest, then when can you be so On that note, I guess we'll all cram into which are we taking the van or are we taking the mobile home for our pancas. This hashtag van life. You're out of here, OL Home when the wind comes sweeping down the plane and the weaven wheat can cheer, smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain. Ol Home.

Every night, my honey Lama sit along and talk and watch the hawk making easy circles in the sky. Free the we belong to the land, and the land we eve belong to his brand. Where we see, we're only seeing. You're doing fun. Home Home Okay,