Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Four Christmases: A Review with Meredith Wardy
133 Plays1 year ago
Graeme sits down with Meredith Wardy to dive into the masterpiece "Four Christmases". The duo is somewhat aligned on this being a Christmas classic, but fervently agree it is a very funny movie. With a little help from "The Rewatchables" categories, Graeme and Meredith try to capture what makes the movie, and the holiday season, so magical. ENNNNNT, can't say magical!!!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:36
Speaker
And welcome to the Crawling Around My Brain podcast. I'm your host, Graham Brown. Pleasure to be with you at T minus three days to Christmas here in the year of 2023. And I thought, what better Christmas present can I give to my loyal listeners, listeners from coast to coast in Australia and now even in India.
00:00:59
Speaker
then a discussion about one of my favorite Christmas movies. But before we get to that title, I want to first introduce my guest, who is also one of my favorite people, and that is my wife, Meredith Wardy. Meredith, welcome to the program. Oh, I'm so happy to be here.
00:01:19
Speaker
Meredith, it's a real pleasure. I know that you have been just so anxious to get on this podcast, just chomping at the bit, trying to find a way to get on to the Crawling Around My Brain podcast. Would you say that's accurate? Well, I do think that it's a long time coming to have a woman voice speaking on this
Discussion: Is 'Four Christmases' a Classic?
00:01:39
Speaker
podcast. I'm not sure that I'm the best woman to do it the first time, but I'm happy to be here. Yes. So you are speaking for all women now on this podcast.
00:01:49
Speaker
And you are here today for a very special presentation of the Crawling Around My Brain podcast as we discuss the classic Christmas movie, Four Christmases. Yes. Would you consider it a classic? Let's just start there. No, I don't think so. I think there are a lot of good things.
00:02:14
Speaker
Hmm, I've tripped you up with this one right off the bat. This does not portend to go well for 90 minutes as I've booked you out here. But okay, so I consider this one of my favorite Christmas movies. I will acknowledge that it might not make everyone's top five list or maybe even top 10 list.
Analyzing 'Four Christmases' with Rewatchables Categories
00:02:38
Speaker
But when you hear Christmas classics, what are some of the movies that come to mind for you?
00:02:43
Speaker
Oh, thank you for asking. Okay, I was thinking about this. To me, this is in no particular order. Okay. I would say a Christmas story. Great movie. Great movie.
00:02:55
Speaker
I'm embarrassed a little bit to say this, but I think if I'm speaking for all the people, which I obviously am. No, you're just speaking for all the women we've decided. I'm sorry. Not for all the people. Okay. Well then, I would like to say that probably Love Actually should be in the top five Christmas movies. Great movie. Okay, A Wonderful Life. Classic. Classic. Christmas Vacation. Classic. And Home Alone. Yeah, totally great. I think that's a really solid top five.
00:03:24
Speaker
I like your list. I can see why this one doesn't make your list. Now, I've never seen it's a wonderful life. That's really honest. So I would just swap that out, although some people consider it one of the best Christmas reviews of all time. Okay. For poor Christmases, I think I'll consider that a fair and equitable swap. Oh, wrong. I think we should agree on that. But this one is definitely, it has a lot of
00:03:47
Speaker
what I want to see in a Christmas movie. It's funny, it's lighthearted, it has a happy ending, it feels very festive, so I'm with you. It can be a number six. Okay, and now for the folks at home, this is a little bit of an homage to the rewatchables podcast hosted by Bill Simmons on the Ringer Network, in that we're going to use the categories from the rewatchables to frame up this conversation.
00:04:13
Speaker
I think that that's important because as we've been discussing this movie, it can feel like we're just taking it from the start of the movie and going to the end, which to the listener doesn't seem the most interesting or creative way to dissect this instant classic. Are you prepared to go in that flow? Yes, I'm happy to.
00:04:34
Speaker
Are you prepared to hear me trip up over my words like I just did for the remainder of this podcast? Okay, now I would just like to say before we get too deep into the categories here that this movie actually has a 5.7 out of 10 on IMDB and only a 25% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Plot Summary and Spoilers Alert
00:04:59
Speaker
Does that surprise you?
00:05:04
Speaker
Uh, maybe it's a little bit low. A little bit low. That is 25% is really some, I don't even know. I'd say a steam territory. I mean, that's terrible. Yeah, I don't think that round tomatoes is most reliable anyway, but yeah. Well, that's in a whole nother podcast, but let's just go and start here. For those who have seen the movie, congratulations, you know, you've seen the classic in Epic. For those that have not, we're going to
00:05:33
Speaker
have a lot of spoilers on this podcast. So if you'd prefer not to listen to this, well, you know, shame on you. However, I totally understand it. We'll go watch the movie, come back, and then listen to the podcast.
Debating Most Rewatchable Scenes
00:05:45
Speaker
So that's only going to commit yourself to about two hours and 15 minutes of Four Christmases here at the end of the year. But anyway, to summarize the plot, as I saw it on one website,
00:05:57
Speaker
It is summarized as a young couple tries to spend a family Christmas, but both their parents are divorced. So the young couple would have to organize at least four separate lunches. That was the reason. Is that what you understood? Okay. So how would you describe what the plot of this movie is?
00:06:20
Speaker
Okay, we have a young couple, that's fine. They try to get away with not seeing their families over Christmas. And they dream up these lies about where they're going to do some good for people. And actually, they go on these like elaborate, tropical vacations. And this year in particular, they can't go they get
00:06:43
Speaker
Stuck at the airport, it's televised and they, because everyone knows they're home, they have to go and they see all their family and all these adventures and soon, right? Wow. If I was a studio executive and that was the pitch.
00:07:03
Speaker
You would have lost me about seven minutes ago. But yes, okay, it's basically about this couple who both are from divorced families, and they wind up having to spend Christmas with them, which they'd rather not. So they wind up having to go to four Christmases, the dad and mom on each side, and all wackiness and sues. I would say that's basically it. Okay, now...
00:07:23
Speaker
Are you ready to dive into our categories here with us today? So again, we're going to use the rewatchable categories. We're going to pepper in a little bit of our own stuff, our own flair. And I've asked you to remain quiet so we don't pick up any background noise here while we're doing the recording. I just want everyone to be aware of that. I'm just kidding. Okay. All right. The first category in the rewatchables is what is the most rewatchable scene in the movie?
00:07:53
Speaker
Go ahead. No, please. Okay, you want to go first? Who do you want to take it first? When you said go ahead, I should have just said okay. That's right. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, so there's a lot of great scenes in this movie. I could really pick any of them. I would pick the taboo scene.
00:08:10
Speaker
So this is the scene where you have Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn's characters going to Vince Vaughn's mom's house. And what are the character names? We should probably, we should probably catch that at some point during this, but I'm just gonna call him Vincent Reese because that's, you know, they're like friends to me. Vince is a very good friend. So anyway, we're now at Vince's mom's house and he is already dealing with a lot. He's got his UFC loving brother, Jon Favreau's there. He's very funny.
00:08:36
Speaker
We've also got his mother who's now dating one of his friends from home. There's some very funny interchanges around like, hey kids, can I get your gas money? And he's like, I make much more money than you. That's very funny. That's all very funny. And then they play taboo. And I feel like they do an amazing job of capturing just how frustrating
00:08:57
Speaker
playing that game specifically but any game where you're playing with your girlfriend or spouse uh or partner and it's it's not working okay a couple things okay good first brad and kate so that's good to know that's correct also just for your wider audience this also happens in our life so do you want to say what what they do in the game
00:09:24
Speaker
After press a buzzer, there's a timer. Yeah, yeah. For those who haven't played Taboo, that was going to be another follow-up pod where we did what is Taboo, the board game. But basically... That doesn't sound like a good one. You have five. You have five words, I think. There are hidden behind a classic thing. You have to try to get your partner to guess what the overall word is without using any of those five keywords. Right. And in this scene,
00:09:52
Speaker
Brad, Vince Vaughn, gets upset with his mother and two things happen that is often repeated in our home. One, she's buzzing and she's saying, mm, can't say that, mm, can't say that. In our lives, I'm often saying, mm, can't say that if someone says something incorrect. And also, which is very good, Graham, would you say that you on occasion act like Brad acts in this scene where he melts down?
00:10:21
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't say that that's a bad thing, though. I think that in this movie, he actually says something specifically where he says, I don't have an attitude. I've shut down. And he's more than justified after listening to his girlfriend tell a lengthy story about going to spring break, which has nothing to do with the actual
00:10:46
Speaker
card and he knows that this is not going to be a very fun game for him. So anyway, I think that's my favorite scene just because I feel his pain in that moment.
Aging Elements and Noteworthy Performances
00:10:54
Speaker
Okay. What is your favorite scene? My rewatchable scene is when they visit his father's house, the first house that they visit and they are attempting to install the satellite on the roof. Yes, Robert Duvall. You have Robert Duvall inside the house shouting instructions to the brothers who are up on the roof and then in this
00:11:14
Speaker
you know, climactic moment of the sea. Vince Vaughn holding the satellite falls, pulls the cord from I guess these staples that are around the perimeter of the room and destroys the room and falls off the roof.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, there are also some amazing lines that Robert Duvall is saying in there about how he's not going to let the satellite provider installer come over. And there's some things I'm not going to say on this. It's a family podcast. But yeah, that that is a great scene. And you know, it's funny that you mentioned that similarity between a Christmas vacation is that feels like physical comedy outside of like
00:11:53
Speaker
maybe Will Ferrell nowadays. You just don't see it in a lot of movies. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's maybe why I love that one. It's really funny. It's a lot of physical comedy. You have the UFC brothers who are just like body slamming him and really like wailing on him. And then you have, which one of them is Tim McGraw, which is funny, and then you have Fabro. And then you have the kids who are beating them up, and then he's falling off the roof with the satellites. There's a lot of physical comedy there. That's a good one. Very funny. Okay.
00:12:20
Speaker
Any other scenes you wanted to call out here? That's my choice. Okay. The second one is, what is the Neil McCauley Book About Metals Award for best line from the movie? So what is your favorite line from the movie? What do you have to say? I can go if you'd like me to go first.
00:12:44
Speaker
Okay, you go first. Okay. The silence is just tough, I have to say. We can ask producer Lucas to edit some out, but any deep thought, just try to fill it with some words. I would say when Vince is at the airport and they're trying to get away in the weather in San Francisco, which by the way, very accurate representation of the weather in San Francisco, it is awful having lived there for three months.
00:13:08
Speaker
A nice place, or apparently used to be a nice place, but the weather has always been awful. Three months. I always thought you had lived there longer than three months. We're learning a lot of things. Three months felt like an eternity. It seems every time you talk about it, like it was a long time ago. Could it rain in a place and be foggier than it is in San Francisco?
00:13:27
Speaker
Anyway, so there's a line where he's talking and the gate agent who's played by Ralphie from A Christmas Story, Peter Billingsley, who's friends with Vince, which we might get to a little bit later, but he says, I'm sorry, sir, I'm just dealing with the weather here. I don't make the weather, I'm just dealing with it. We can put you up at the Radisson and Vince Vaughn says something like,
00:13:52
Speaker
Oh, wow. Would it also be possible to take us out to Sizzler and get us McDonald's for dessert? You know what? I'm going to start missing flights more often now that I know this type of red carpet service is available. That seems that's to me like that's probably one of the funniest lines. OK, great choice. Thank you. My choice is much later in the movie when they are
00:14:12
Speaker
at the church that Kate's mother goes to and there's like a sort of a strange relationship between, or maybe they're dating and it's not strange enough, between Kate's mother and the pastor. Anyway, Kate and Brad get selected to be Mary and Joseph and they are on stage and Kate is having a meltdown and Brad
00:14:35
Speaker
is saying, swaddle this baby. And then after he does himself, he says very loudly, this baby is a blessing to us all. And that really is such a funny part of the movie. So that's my choice.
00:14:52
Speaker
That is funny. You omitted the part before where he says, like, unfit mother swaddled this baby, which I thought was also very, very good. That's a good choice. I think I think we can go with that one. Okay. What's aged the best from this movie? I think what's aged the best from this movie is that there's some movies you watch and they're older movies.
00:15:14
Speaker
And unless they're iconic, like for instance, like a Christmas story where it's taking place in like the 1940s, the fact that there's no like technology, the believability is totally out the window. So for instance, I've seen a lot of memes about home alone being like nowadays it'd be like Kevin just texts his mom, says mommy left me at home and they're like, no problem, we'll turn around and get you or whatever. Like if the problem is easily resolved through the fact that we now have the technology and this movie,
00:15:42
Speaker
There's enough of that. It feels like it was released in 2008, right? So it's a pretty old movie at this point, but it doesn't feel dated. So actually what I would say has aged the best is just that the movie itself was made in such a way that there's nothing that makes it appear like old, you know? So I don't know if that counts. You said that last time we watched the movie. I agree with that. I think I would say
00:16:10
Speaker
what I think makes the movie last is the comedy of it and one of the things that you and I both said when we recently watched it was that this kind of movie with these jokes would probably not be made today and so I don't know if I'm answering your question by actually not answering it because I think that's what makes the movie funny and last is that it
00:16:36
Speaker
is genuinely funny and maybe a little more esoteric than people would be really excited about in 2023.
00:16:44
Speaker
I agree. I think that's what makes it funny to me. But the next category is what's aged the worst. I think there's a couple lines throughout the movie that I genuinely laugh at that are funny, but that just probably wouldn't sit well with an audience today, particularly Robert Duvall describing his ex-wife in one moment.
00:17:08
Speaker
There's a couple others that are just like, they're just a little bit on the border now that I don't know would play as well today. So I'd say that that's probably aged the worst. Okay, I agree.
00:17:18
Speaker
All right. Excellent. Okay. Uh, the next category is the Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance. This is for those that don't follow back. So this is about, uh, maybe a person who has a scene or a part in this movie that really like owns that scene and kind of steals the scene to do like a heat check. Um, or someone, yeah, or someone who's maybe like over the top, basically. So go for it. Okay.
Recasting and Original Cast Effectiveness
00:17:44
Speaker
I think in the scene where Vince Vaughn visits his mother,
00:17:48
Speaker
The husband, the mother's husband steals it. He is so good. And he is, spoiler, whatever, but he is Vince Vaughn's childhood friend. He is perfection. He acts perfectly. I love it. He steals it. I think I totally agree. So you're talking about Patrick Van Horn, who plays Daryl in the movie, and that's Vince's childhood friend and now dating the mom.
00:18:14
Speaker
acting like this father figure offering, as you said, to get his gas money, saying, oh, it's so nice to see you kids. I mean, he just does it perfectly. I agree. I feel like he owns he owns the scene. And that's a funny one, too, because it's a little bit of a wink and a nod because he was in Swingers with Vince and Jon Favreau. And he is this is probably the first time I've seen him since that movie was made.
00:18:40
Speaker
So to see him back there in this position and he just nails it. He's only on screen for like five minutes, right? It's so memorable. But he steals it. I would also say that Katie Mixon, who plays Susan, John Favreau's wife, but she's probably into much of it.
00:18:57
Speaker
to get the Dion Waiters Award, but I mean, she's hilarious. I think so. She's hilarious with the appetizers at the dad's house with the baby, you know, with the eating of the wings and playing taboo her repartee or with their rapport with Jon Favreau. Very funny. Yeah. But I agree. Let's give it to Patrick Van Horn. I think you're right. I think the husband because he's in it for less time and he really has a big impact. Yeah, totally agree. Okay.
00:19:24
Speaker
The Joey Pants That Guy Award. So there's someone in the movie who you're like, oh, it's that guy that he's in like a bunch of movies or you see him around where you're never quite sure. Like, you know, he's not maybe the star, but he's in a lot of different things. I would say for me that this is the gentleman from The Office.
00:19:47
Speaker
Who is in the movie now he's not really that guy because he got a lot more famous you know than he was probably obviously probably prior to the office but you have
00:19:59
Speaker
What's his name? Brian Baumgartner, I believe. Oh, yes. He is the co-worker, one of Vince's co-workers. Oh, yes. And they're standing there talking about what they're going to do over the holidays. Yeah, he plays Eric in the movie. So his name is Brian Baumgartner. And he is in the movie very briefly. But to me, he's a that guy.
00:20:24
Speaker
Well, then mine, it doesn't qualify probably. I was going to say Tim McGraw. Oh, interesting. Because at first, at least for me, he's a little bit hard to place because, you know, he's wearing this bandana over his head and he's acting so unlike you would think that Tim McGraw would act. And so it's a little bit jarring. And then you realize it's him. And then it's like such a thrill to see him acting in this funny way. So that's my that guy.
00:20:53
Speaker
So which one is better yours probably even though you just know I don't know I think Tim McGraw because I'm sure a lot of people watch the movie and don't necessarily understand or like they're like I know who that is but I don't know why I know who that is right so I'd actually say Tim McGraw probably because I actually think that Brian Baumgartner is probably much too famous now that people wouldn't be like oh that's just a random guy they would definitely know him from the office so I don't think it's that guy
00:21:22
Speaker
Okay, who gets the Ruffalo Hanna Rubenick Partridge overacting award? Was there any overacting or like, you know, just really going for it?
00:21:34
Speaker
Oh, I took over acting with a negative connotation. Yeah, I believe that's the intent. Oh, okay. Oh, well, the person who I don't care for is actually the little girl. I don't like Kate's niece. I don't have that name here, but I can look for it. It's a small role. Yeah, a very small role. Yeah, I think that it's over-acted.
00:22:01
Speaker
Yeah. She wouldn't, she wouldn't come into the, or if she came into the bathroom, you wouldn't disobey your aunt like that. You wouldn't run into the bounce house with a marker thing and then rile your friends up to slam into her. That seems like that wouldn't really not happen. Yeah, I agree. I would say that, you know, what's weird is that I love, um, Favreau in this movie.
00:22:26
Speaker
you know he's got like this crazy tight t-shirt on and he's like the ufc guy it's he's really like teetering on the edge of going just too far with the character oh but i think that's over acting for the win yeah it works it works but in the wrong hands that that could have gone poorly but i think he has a good enough
00:22:45
Speaker
Katie Mixon because she's just, you know, his wife in the movie. She's just kind of always that over the top character in her performances. She's able to like make it seem believable, right? But I think otherwise I could have gone sideways.
00:23:01
Speaker
Anyway, all right, I think let's go with yours. I think that the the niece stuff to like bag on a little kid, you know, but that's fine. Well, we can do that. Why not? OK, let's do casting what ifs. So casting what ifs around this movie, I guess. Could this movie have a different? Well, let's merge this one with the recasting couch because I don't know that there was any other people that were supposed to be in these roles originally. So let's just do the recasting couch.
Career Peaks of the Cast
00:23:30
Speaker
Could this movie work with other people? Who would you put in the lead instead of Vince Vaughn? Does this work? It would have to be someone funny, right? So if this was Will Ferrell. Yeah, that's the first thing that came to my mind. Is it as funny? The problem, not the problem with Will Ferrell, I love Will Ferrell, but he's a funny guy. Right. Straight away, you think Will Ferrell, this is going to be hilarious. And Vince Vaughn, I don't think you think that. So that sort of makes
00:23:58
Speaker
the movie funnier rather than like having to expect that there's going to be humor. I don't know. Does that make sense? A hundred percent. Yeah. I think that Vince has a little bit of an edge to him and which, which works in this because ultimately when we get to this kind of this pivotal moment in the movie and he's like, I don't want that, you know, like this is what I said. And I'm like, you have to believe that he means it. And so he's not just goofy. We're going streaking guys.
00:24:23
Speaker
Exactly. So I think it does work. I'm trying to think of who else could do it. You know, Reese Witherspoon. Also, I think she could come off as kind of like uptight. And yet she's very funny as well. So like that's they pretty much nail those two. And again, I'm a little biased here. It doesn't make for super interesting content. If we just say they cast it, they cast it perfectly. Wow.
00:24:45
Speaker
Um, but in terms of those people, like I do, I do actually think the leads are right. I don't know if you put like Jennifer Aniston in that role, uh, cause she seems maybe a little too like Hollywoody or something. I don't know. I think you could really swap her. Okay. Yeah. Maybe, maybe someone like her. I don't know if like a Sandler could also do the lead for Christmases. No, I think you have the same Will Ferrell problem. Yeah. It has to be someone that's a little more, I don't know.
00:25:13
Speaker
like like a little bad boy a little bit like an edge yeah as we said okay all right um okay how about let's do apex mountain is this the apex mountain for any of the performers meaning like is this the best thing that any of these people have done no i think no however it's excellent across the board i think everyone plays their role so well that
00:25:43
Speaker
The movie is outstanding, but I'm not sure that I can say, you know what? I think this is someone's peak performance. Also, you know, I think to be fair, there are so many actors. It's not like, you know, the revenant where it's like one person and that's okay. Maybe that's a lifetime peak.
00:26:04
Speaker
So, okay, was that Sissy Spacek's best role? No, but she does a great job. Right, right. Yeah, yeah,
Critique: Family Dynamics and Plot Realism
00:26:12
Speaker
yeah. Good call out on Sissy Spacek, by the way. We haven't mentioned her. She's great at it. She is great at it. I would say it's not anyone's best work, but with like with what you're saying, it's like
00:26:23
Speaker
they're all throwing fastballs like there's they're all bringing their a-game which is what i think makes it work again which makes me so surprised that some of these reviews and ratings and even just general apathy when i mentioned this movie as a as one of my favorites it's shocking to me oh brain is so disappointed by this
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, I really don't understand. I think it's a huge miss. I think if you've watched it and you for some reason never rewatched it, come back to it because it's really funny and I think they're all performing well. I would say, okay, we're getting into picking knits now. So for picking knits, you have a big one. Why don't you hit us with it? I think it's a fair take.
00:27:04
Speaker
My picking this is that these people have a life together, right? They're sharing their home. They allude many times to these other Christmas vacations that they've gone on instead of visiting their families at Christmas on Christmas. And yet, when they drive on Christmas Day to their four families, meaning they are close enough to be driving distance away,
00:27:30
Speaker
They are meeting these people, the parents and the brothers, et cetera, for the first time. That is ridiculous. To me, that is such a big problem, to be such a fun, believable movie, and then also so unbelievable in that respect.
00:27:48
Speaker
My counter to this, I think it's a good take. My counter to this is that it's feasible, even if they only live 45 minutes away, let's say, that their interactions have been limited, or that, you know, the girlfriend stays at home when he goes and sees his family, or that... For four or five years? Yeah, it's okay. They've made life plans together, all this stuff, and they haven't driven 45 minutes for any holiday, for any birthday, for any health issue.
00:28:16
Speaker
I'm just saying, maybe they're at a group dinner and one person's sitting at one side of the table and one sitting at the other. No, no, they were meeting for the first time. That's a problem. That was an error.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah, all right. Okay, I will go with that. I think for my Picking Knits, it's a little different. Mine is more, when I think about the movie, really it's you take Vince, you take Reese, you drop them into these scenarios. And it's basically like each house is so, it's just obviously like set up to make the movie funny that, you know, if you aren't following along with the storyline and like invested into it, you're like,
00:28:53
Speaker
How could all these houses be so wacky, basically? Oh, but that's like life. I mean, I think, and that's what makes the movie. Yeah. It's Thunder seconds. What I'm saying is it's not subtle.
00:29:02
Speaker
It's a run-down house with a guy and he's got beer and the guys are wearing UFC shirts The next one's super religious with the sister with a super tan with the kids Like well, I mean, I just feel like it's they're all very very specific places That and like, you know, the mom is dating the high school friend They're all it's not there's not it's hitting you over the head with how out there each thing is So, I don't know. I don't that's a knit. I guess that's probably not the right category that I'm describing there
00:29:32
Speaker
Picking it's like a detail that would be like picking and it might be like they didn't make their flight to Fiji and so they could have just gone to like a four-star hotel and You know, but then the movie doesn't happen. That's what I'm saying. That's like a knit. It's like oh, they're forced to go to all four houses Why couldn't they just go to one?
00:29:53
Speaker
and say that you know i don't know yeah but come on you have to suspend your disbelief oh okay here's what it is i'm sorry we had to work my way through this okay obviously you can tell i did a lot of research before this
00:30:03
Speaker
Picking nits would be, the people would have to be on their couch watching the news for the three minutes that they're at the airport talking about the flights not leaving. They're just like, oh, we were on camera on CBS and one random lady interviewed us and now everyone in the world knows that we didn't go to Fiji. And they're getting the phone calls like 30 seconds later and there's only one news channel and everyone's watching it. Yeah, that's a tough one. That's a tough one. Okay, so I think I win
Comparing 'Four Christmases' to 'It's a Wonderful Life'
00:30:31
Speaker
that one.
00:30:31
Speaker
Okay. Well, it's called Calling Around My Brain with Graham Brown. So there you go. That Calling Around My Brain with Amira the 40. Okay. Is this movie better with Danny Trejo, Steve Buscemi, or Michael K. Williams? I don't know who any of those people are except for Steve Buscemi. So I'm going to say no, unless you swap Steve Buscemi for Robert Duvall. And even then, no. Probably not. Okay. I'm aligned.
00:30:56
Speaker
Now, I'm gonna switch into just some other discussion, but the last one we'll do here is the Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award. So like, what's your hottest take about this movie? Mine is that, as I already said, it would be in my top five before It's a Wonderful Life, because I've never seen It's a Wonderful Life. So that's my take. What is yours? Your hottest take. Maybe your hottest take is you're picking knit.
00:31:25
Speaker
I mean, that is a really hot take. I think that's definitely the hottest take. I haven't heard anyone else on our couch say that.
Resonance with Real-Life Experiences
00:31:35
Speaker
So as far as I'm concerned, it's a very hot take. I've never heard anyone else say it and I've only really discussed it with you. OK, now let's go through a couple other things I know about this movie and then we can we can take it from there. One thing I wanted to say about this movie that we haven't touched on is that it really does
00:31:55
Speaker
provide a glimpse into divorced life Christmases, right? Like a lot of people, in terms of most Christmas movies, a lot of traditional movies, right? And this one's kind of funny because really going from house to house as a kid when you have divorced parents can be wildly different things. And so as an adult, I could see if you're married into that and your partner also has a divorced family, like you really could get a lot of wackiness. And I think that this movie captures
00:32:22
Speaker
some of that range that you're going to get as a result. So as a kid who was in it, you know, from a divorced family, I really think that this movie does the best job of any of capturing that experience. So I just wanted to kind of give a shout out to that. The other one which we haven't really talked about is Vince's use of his friends in this movie. So like
00:32:46
Speaker
We already talked about it a little bit, but Peter Billingsley, his friend, is the gate agent, right? And that was Ralphie from A Christmas Story. He's in it. You have Favreau, who is in Swingers with him. You have your guy Patrick Van Horn. His dad is in the movie, in the church, sitting behind him. That's his friend. That's very fun. He's buddies with Dwight Yoakum, who plays the pastor. Right? So he's friends with him. So it's kind of, you know, pre Sandler. And Sandler does this in all his movies.
00:33:13
Speaker
It's kind of cool that Vince has this kind of crew. And this is before also, I think Favreau really just went behind the camera for directing. I don't know if, yeah, maybe he did chef after this, Bob, probably, if I have to look at the timeline. But like seeing him as an actor in front of the camera for someone who grew up as like a huge swingers and made fan was great. So I really liked that.
00:33:34
Speaker
I really like that. I think all the people work well. It doesn't even feel like they're shoehorned in there. No, no, they fit perfectly well. Yeah, they fit perfectly well. I like to know that too. I think that makes it even more kind of warm and fun.
00:33:49
Speaker
Again, we talked about there's a lot of one-liners and everything else. And something else I thought that was funny as we get to Christmas here, we're still kind of in real life working through these, is that people set rules for Christmas. So like in this one, when they go to the dad's house, there's a rule, I think it's a $5 spending limit, $5 or $10 spending limit. And he doesn't get that message. And like, I feel like everyone has an experience where there's like,
00:34:14
Speaker
There's rules. It's like, well, we weren't going to spend this much with these people, but then like, what do you get them? Right. Right. And like, then someone's mad because they got more or they didn't get enough. Right. Or a tire. This is actually a pajama party and you're dressed fancy or whatever. Right. Right. There's always a rule that you miss or someone misses. It's not always, you know, us missing it. Yeah, it can.
00:34:37
Speaker
Maybe that's unique to us, but it's just hard to keep up. You know what I mean? It feels like it's really hard to keep up with all the rules. Okay, the other thing that is worth mentioning is the bit about mistletoe as the exit strategy. You want to speak to that? Oh no, go ahead, please. I insist.
00:34:54
Speaker
Well, okay, so as they are pulling up to Brad's father's house, their first stop, he's saying, you know, we need like a safe word, right? So that if things go sideways, we can kind of discreetly say that it's time to head out.
00:35:14
Speaker
And so they come up with mistletoe and you and I were talking about how that's kind of a good policy. Like that's maybe a takeaway from the movie. That's a good policy to have. It doesn't have to be mistletoe, but to have some kind of word that, but it has to be a word, you know, it can't be like elephant unless you're regularly discussing elephants. It has to be a word that both will stand out to your partner as the safe word and also
00:35:40
Speaker
will not be used so much in normal conversation that it seems like you're always using the safe word. Right? I totally agree. I totally agree. It's like a social safe word. Yeah, whatever it is. It just indicates like we're going to go to this party and we both need to have the ability. And when we say like double cheers instead of just cheers. Right. It means that's a wrap. Totally agree. Because sometimes you're just on another side of the room and you're like, oh, it looks like they're having a good time. I'm having a good time. This guy wants me to. Yeah.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So we got to get, I agree. I think everyone should adopt that.
00:36:13
Speaker
Well, this is a small one that I wanted to point out, but something we had talked about before was how they're doing a lot of driving in what appears to be a Range Rover in this movie. And I want to just give credit here that it looks very real. It looks like they're actually driving a Range Rover and not just sitting in some green screen weather in a car. And I know that you were actually surprised. I am so upset by this. I have thought until today that that's what was going on.
00:36:39
Speaker
So you think they've just got like what? Like a... Like a mounted camera in a car. Like a mounted GoPro. Yeah. That they then transfer over. About a GoPro. Yeah, whatever kind of camera. And they're in it. I mean, yes. And driving around in the scenery is passing them by. Well, we'll have to be checking to some of the film production to see if they were actually like...
00:37:01
Speaker
But I, you're saying that this is what's going on in all. I'm saying that 99% of it. No, I mean, not all movies, but many times for car scenes, they're in front of a green screen and they're in a car. And so it looks very fake. The person's like, and I'm thinking, Oh, what car is this that these people are doing? They're never ever driving it. Right. They're like, hands aren't really looking away from that. Yeah, they're not. And it actually appears like he's driving.
00:37:26
Speaker
Okay, you know what I just thought of? Another nit to pick. Can I say it quickly? Yes, go ahead. The other thing that's bothered me, it's not going to trump my previous one, which is the winner. It's going to trump. Is that, see? It's going to trump. Yeah. Is that at the end, so they visited the four people, they've come to this, you know, kind of at the end, seems like they're going to be moving forward in a new direction for themselves as a couple.
00:37:52
Speaker
The movie ends, they're in a hospital one year later and they've had this baby. So we're supposed to believe that after all these visits
00:38:05
Speaker
There's no follow-up. We will not be seeing these people for a year. And in that year, by the way, it tastes like 10 months to have a baby. So right away they get pregnant after all this not getting pregnant stuff. Then they get pregnant and have this baby again without telling any of these people. And then again, I mean, of course that's part of the humor again is that it's televised and everything, but like, what? That, I don't know. Always at the end, I'm like, come on.
Balancing Humor with a Holiday Message
00:38:33
Speaker
So, hold on. So just to confirm, it's a year later to your point. They weren't even sure they wanted to be married. At one point, they were going to break up while they're in the movie. Now they're having a baby. It's only one year later. This has one year later? One year later. One year later. And now you're saying the camera crews come back in because it was a New Year's baby. Right. And none of the family is there.
00:39:01
Speaker
again trying to hide the fact that they haven't told anybody that she was pregnant so they're shocked and brad pit or brad pit this bond playing this person brad is so stunned because the camera is on him and he says oh we did it we did it and then the throwing up happens remember this guy now what about brad pit would you like to say about brad pit you could swap brad pit
00:39:27
Speaker
Take it easy.
Conclusion and Holiday Wishes
00:39:29
Speaker
Okay, I would like to say, first of all, thank you, because this was very enjoyable. But I also want to, before I get to my accolades for your fine work today, I would like to say that what I think I really like about this movie
00:39:43
Speaker
sincerely is that it's very funny but that there there is an underlying like sweetness to the movie which is that you know at the outset of this movie they're in some dance studio which only couples that are getting married go to right right before they're gonna get married and there's this young couple and they basically give this young couple like this whole speech about why they don't need the title how it means nothing and it causes all these problems and like there's like this association with their family that
00:40:10
Speaker
There's also just causes difficulties and everything else. And it's like, at that point in the movie, what's funny is that everything that comes after would seem to prove that point, right? Like, oh my God, what a hot mess. Everything that happens after. It's almost like, have they been right the whole time? But there's something that's sweet about the movie that's, while all that may actually be true, maybe not as crazy as their experience.
00:40:35
Speaker
They do, I believe, unless this pregnancy scene at the end nullifies what I'm saying, but they seem to come to the conclusion that while all the craziness
00:40:46
Speaker
is indeed crazy. It does make life have like a little more meaning and that you shouldn't just fly away to some island. I think that's why they have to have her mother's house with the father there and everyone feeling warm as the last family unit. Right. Yeah. Because that's when the realization is really happening.
00:41:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think and I think that that's you know, it's a sweet message and it's a good one around this time of the year as everyone who's listening to this I'm sure is stressed out maybe going to family where there's going to be something weird said or some gift that's probably not appropriate or you're going to get shortchanged or whatever the deal is. It's a nice reminder that even though it might not all be roses, you know, it's all part of what you consider a wonderful life.
00:41:41
Speaker
Oh, we saw what you did there, yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Now, I want to really thank you. Thank you for coming on and speaking about Four Christmases. I know you've been made to watch it. Quite a number of times. Several times. And I really think you brought a lot to the experience. Oh, wow. I do too. I appreciate that. Ladies and gentlemen, Meredith Wardy. Thank you very much. Thank you.
00:42:10
Speaker
And that'll do it for the podcast this week. Thanks for listening to Crawling Around My Brain. I hope you have a safe and happy holiday with your loved ones and an even better new year. We will be back in 2024 with some more episodes, great guests, and compelling interviews. Thanks again for the support this year. It's been a lot of fun for me to do it and hope you're enjoying it. Take care, everybody.