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Mistletoe: Four Christmases vs. Fred Claus
129 Plays2 years ago
It’s the holiday season so Rock & Rob thought it would be a terrific idea to spike the eggnog and decide whether Four Christmases (2008) or Fred Claus (2007) wins the Vince Vaughn Christmas movie showdown. Hop aboard the sleigh (or bounce into the jump jump) as they debate these movies through seven rounds of questions such as ‘better cast’, ‘bigger plot holes’ and ‘which movie used Christmas music the best.’
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Transcript
Introduction to Rock and Rob
00:00:00
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? Brothers don't shake hands. Brothers gotta hug. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. I don't want your life. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. Okay, a simple wrong would have done just fine.
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody, to the movie showdown with Rock and Rob.
Santa Movies and Their Realism
00:00:30
Speaker
My name is Rob Mansfield, and with me, he is also a big fan of Connecticut. It's Alex Rockline. How's it going, Rob? Good. You get it, because Abby's from Connecticut. I do. No, I appreciate that. And it's a nice little tie-in to one of the films that we will be discussing today.
00:00:46
Speaker
Well, we have arisen from our Thanksgiving hangover and we are back and better than ever. I don't know if I am, to be honest with you, I'm still digesting some smoked turkey. That's how we do it down here in Texas. Oh, man, that's awesome. I do love some smoked turkey, so I'm jealous.
00:01:01
Speaker
Well, Rock, we are fully in the Christmas season. And with that brings one of my favorite things, Christmas movies. My question to
Categorizing Christmas Movies
00:01:10
Speaker
you is, which Santa movie do you think is most realistic to what could possibly be true? This is such a good question because Christmas movies, they don't need to be just about Santa.
00:01:22
Speaker
But the ones that do feature Santa that do stand out to me the most, and they're like completely different. 50 years apart, we got the Santa Claus and Miracle on 34th street. I think Santa Claus and those two movies, if you were to mash them up, kind of roll them together, I feel like that would be the ideal Santa. And I'll tell you why Miracle on 34th street is from 1947. We're talking a long time ago.
00:01:45
Speaker
The whole movie takes place in New York. So you're really just talking about the spirit of Santa and what he
Vince Vaughn's Christmas Movie Ambitions
00:01:50
Speaker
represents and who he is. And I think the character in that movie is great. But then when I think about the Santa Claus and the first time I saw that movie and, you know, Tim Allen becomes Santa and he goes up to the North Pole and like, you know, the toy shop and everything. And then he gains the weight and the beard comes out like that. I love when I think of him in that role. I'm like, that's a Santa Claus.
00:02:10
Speaker
When I think of the lore of Christmas as to what could rationally make sense, the Santa Claus is what stands out to me. So I'm glad that you pointed that one out. It just seems they have the most logical answers to all of the questions that you would have.
00:02:27
Speaker
And they've gone on. They've got two sequels. They have a
Speed Draft: Vince Vaughn Movies
00:02:30
Speaker
TV show that's on its second season. My family watches that. I'm not ashamed to say it. It's pretty good. And I think the Santa Claus you can see as an inspiration for some of the movies that came out afterwards and you know how they portray the North.
00:02:42
Speaker
poll and the whole operation up there. And I think it's fun to see other movies kind of take cues from that and just how they represent the North Pole. What does it look like for them? How does the operation work up there? I love those kind of movies. And there's so many different ways that you see them in films and TV shows and all that. How many different types of Christmas movies are there? We had mentioned Santa movies, so movies like the Santa Claus Miracle on 34th Street, Elf,
00:03:08
Speaker
I think we've got Christmas family movies, which would include rom-coms, romantic movies like Christmas Vacation, Love Actually. Then you've got Christmas animated movies like The Grinch and the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Then you've got movies that take place during the Christmas season. So this would be like the Christmas Carol. And then you have Christmas horror movies, which should be illegal. I don't even want to talk about that. Krampus.
00:03:34
Speaker
It's the one that stood out to me and I was like, I don't even want to dignify it. No disrespect to horror movie
Connections to 'Seinfeld' and 'Friends'
00:03:40
Speaker
fans. That's fine, but I like my Christmas movies with a smile. Can you think of any other categories? Yeah, you think of a movie like Home Alone, which obviously takes place at Christmas time, but that movie could have taken place at any time.
00:03:52
Speaker
It could. And that's an interesting question that you bring up. The movies like Home Alone, Die Hard, even like Iron Man 3. Those are movies that are set during Christmas, but probably could be set during any time period. And it's always been a thought of mine. What makes a movie constitute as a Christmas movie?
00:04:12
Speaker
I think that's something that you and I should explore a little deeper in our next episode. So there's a little tease for you guys. Next episode, we're going to try to break down the rules of what makes a movie a Christmas movie, specifically why I truly believe Home Alone, Die Hard, are Christmas movies. Sounds like we got some homework, but good homework. You know, this is homework I want to do.
00:04:32
Speaker
Anyway, Rock and I wanted to kick off this holiday season with two different types of Christmas movies with one very similar component, Vince Vaughn. In the late 2000s, Vaughn kind of decided he was going to make a run at being the Christmas movie king and came out with two of them in consecutive years.
Comparing Vince Vaughn's Christmas Movies
00:04:50
Speaker
So in this week's showdown, I will be representing four Christmases and Alex will be fighting for Fred Claus. What can you tell me about Fred Claus? Quick summary on Fred Claus. Santa has a brother who is way cooler than Santa and saves Christmas because Santa eats too many cookies and can't move.
00:05:07
Speaker
This movie was released on November 9th, 2007, directed by David Dobkin. You might know him for his work with Vince Vaughn on Wedding Crashers. Initially he was going to direct, I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry, but drop that to work on this movie. Written by Dan Fogelman.
00:05:24
Speaker
He's got quite the range of work you might recognize. Cars, animated movie. Crazy Stupid Love. And he also created the television show This Is Us. The guys got range. Also written by Jesse Nelson. This movie had a budget of $100 million. Box Office brought in $97.8 million. Fred Claus has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 21% and a Google audience score of 78%. That box office is kind of
Christmas Music and Cultural Critiques
00:05:50
Speaker
surprising given the cast that's in this movie.
00:05:53
Speaker
That budget is surprising, too. That is a really high budget. That's a high budget. Yeah, no, it is. It is surprising. I feel like Christmas movies generally do pretty well around Christmas time. So that is a little surprising to me, too. I'm also surprised, too, considering Dodgeball and Wedding Crashers came out before Fred Claus and, you know, Vince Vaughn, he was right at the top for comedic actors in these kind of goofy, goofyish movies. Hmm.
00:06:20
Speaker
I don't know. Well, Four Christmases, right off the bat, Alex, this is a top three Christmas movie for me. I love it. The summary of Four Christmases. A couple that does everything in their power to avoid their families must visit all four homes when, you know what, who are we kidding? This movie is just a vehicle for Vince Vaughn and a bunch of other famous people to do some hilarious family humor like calling your divorced wife nothing but a common street whore.
00:06:42
Speaker
Released November 26, 2008, directed by Seth Gordon, Four Christmases had a budget of $80 million and
Plot Holes and Cringey Moments
00:06:50
Speaker
a box office of $163.7 million. Rotten Tomatoes score of 25% for Four Christmases and a Google Audience score of 67%, which is criminal, should be much, much higher.
00:07:04
Speaker
All right, these are two Vince Vaughn movies. Alex, Speeddraft, Vince Vaughn movies. As a Christmas gift to you, I'm going to allow you the first pick. Wow. Wow. What a guy. Ready? Speed Snakedraft, Vince Vaughn movies, four or five word explanation, why you took it. Go. Number one pick for me has to be Dodgeball. I read that once in a book.
00:07:29
Speaker
Okay, I'm going wedding crashers. Ma, let me loaf. That was gonna be my line. Next pick, old school. You're my boy, Lou. Okay, I'm going Anchorman. Dorothy Mantoof is a saint. Milk was a bad choice. There's too many choices on some of these movies. And then my next pick, Couples Retreat. I just love that movie.
Final Ratings and Discussion
00:07:50
Speaker
That's all I got. I'm sorry, I just love that. It's a great movie.
00:07:52
Speaker
I am going to go with Rudy because if it's there, I'll always take it. I knew you were going to take Rudy. Lastly, I'm going with, you know what? I don't even care. I'm going with The Lost World, Jurassic Park. Man. Shout out to my Jurassic Park poster. I am one of the biggest Jurassic Park fans out there. And even though The Lost World isn't that great, it's still a freaking dinosaur movie. I should have traded it up to get that movie.
00:08:18
Speaker
I, you know, I think out of the Jurassic Park, it's my least favorite, but it's still a Jurassic Park movie. My least favorite is Fallen Kingdom. Man. All right. Last pick. I guess I'll take Anchorman 2. The Legend continues. So bummed. I actually had fighting with my family ahead of the Lost World. I think it's as high as rated in Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, it is. It's really, really good, but I could not take it.
00:08:44
Speaker
Hey, I don't blame you. We left a lot of movies on the table there. Swingers, Freaky, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Smith is guilty pleasure of mine. I like that movie. The Breakup, The Internship. He cameoed in Zoolander. I didn't put that one on my list just because that's less of a Vince Vaughn movie, but still, it was available. All right. Ready to get into it? Let's get into this. Round one, best cast or performance?
00:09:11
Speaker
So we are talking Vince Vaughn, so we don't need to really go into any of his accolades at this point, but let me just tell you who else was in Fred Kloss. This movie actually has three Oscar winners, Kevin Spacey, Rachel Weisz, and Kathy Bates, and also two Oscar nominees, Paul Giamatti and Miranda Richardson. There's a lot of big names in this movie.
00:09:29
Speaker
It's kind of crazy because you have like Kathy Bates, who has four lines in the movie. She is totally underutilized because every time she's in a scene, she's fantastic. So as I mentioned, Paul Giamatti, he plays Nick, so Nicholas, Santa Claus. How did you feel about his portrayal of Santa?
00:09:46
Speaker
I like Paul Giamatti. He didn't give me Santa vibes, though. To me, he was like too grungy, too salt of the earth folklorish. Yeah, I also am a big fan of Paul Giamatti. I feel like he and Vince Vaughn had great chemistry. Yes. But I feel like his adult character just didn't really match up with who he was supposed to be when he's first introduced as a kid. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like he like.
00:10:11
Speaker
he basically invents Christmas and the whole idea of a Santa Claus. And when he's older, he's just kind of like a doof, leads too many cookies. Well, and he's also when he was a kid, coming to be nice to everybody and give everybody everything. And then he has like a top naughty list. Yeah. Like that just doesn't seem like something Santa would do. I totally agree.
00:10:29
Speaker
Also appearing, John Michael Higgins, he plays Willie the Elf. Did you recognize him? He does a bunch of stuff. He's at least been in one other Vince Vaughn movie, The Breakup. I'm going to give you a comp real quick. He reminds me a lot of Thomas Lennon in that. Yes. He's in everything. He's that one guy that's just going to be there and be funny no matter what he does, but he'll never be like the guy. Yeah. He does host a game show. It's called America Says, which we used to watch all the time when I lived with my parents briefly. Nice.
00:10:56
Speaker
big game show house over there. We also have Elizabeth Banks. She plays Charlene. Elizabeth Banks was a very interesting choice for this movie. Cause she has such a minor part, but she's such a big name. They just used her kind of as just like the pretty blonde. I feel like that storyline just didn't get enough love. It was a good storyline, but I needed more. This movie was already pretty long, but I wonder how much they left on the cutting room floor. Yeah, I do too. Cause a lot of stuff was more implied. Yeah.
00:11:24
Speaker
Alright, some more names to hit you with. Ludacris makes an appearance as the DJ. Love me some Luda. I love Luda. You have Jeremy Swift. You may know him as Higgins from Ted Lasso. He plays one of the elves. He's great in Ted Lasso. I love him in Ted Lasso.
00:11:39
Speaker
Great show. Jeffrey Dean Morgan has a very random, quick moment when he's looking in the crystal ball to see what Wanda is up to in Chicago. And you may know him as Negan from The Walking Dead. I thought it was really funny, and I don't know if this was intentional or not, but Vince Vaughn, when he's talking about Wanda meeting this guy, and he keeps calling him this old man with liver-spotted hands. It's like Jeffrey Dean Morgan's not that old.
00:12:07
Speaker
He's actually, I think he's like what, four years older than Vince Vaughn? Yeah. Yeah. And he's, he's a good looking guy too. Maybe a little insecure. Yeah. That was funny. Uh, you also have a young Bobby J Thompson. He plays slam. He's one of the kids in role models. I love role models. Paul Rudd. Paul Rudd.
00:12:25
Speaker
We also have some interesting cameos in this movie. These cameos include Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton, and Stephen Baldwin. That was good. The siblings anonymous scene. That was pretty funny. I feel like it could have been better. Yes. There was definitely more meat on the bone. They spent a lot of time letting Roger Clinton speak. Yes.
00:12:44
Speaker
And Frank Stallone looks like Sylvester Stallone. So you knew like, at first I was like, is that just him in makeup? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But Roger Clinton, I was like, you could have told me that was anybody's brother. I've been like, okay. I didn't even know Clinton had a brother. I didn't either. I would have loved to have seen this as like a reoccurring scene every so often, you know, like this group that would have been good. It was so random just to have it near the end.
00:13:06
Speaker
Well, I also think there's definitely funnier brother options too. You could have had Oliver Hudson, who's the brother of Kate Hudson. Especially at that time, he wasn't even close to the Oliver Hudson that he is now. You could have had one of the Wahlberg brothers. You could have had Casey Affleck. Especially during that time, this was pre-Manchester by the Sea. I actually think the best choice though would have been if they would have gotten Kieran Culkin. Oh, absolutely.
00:13:35
Speaker
pre succession Kieran Colkin, but it would have been a perfect tie in because he was in the Home Alone movies. Yes, with his older brother Bacalli, they could have gotten so much gold out of that. I totally agree. It makes me even more mad now.
00:13:50
Speaker
Man, they had so much with that. That could have been a focal point of the movie. Why are you going out of your way to get Roger Clinton? Pick up the phone called Kieran Culkin and just be like, hey, man, we got one day of filming. We'll pay you this amount of money, but it's going to be hilarious. Man, missed opportunity.
00:14:05
Speaker
Well, we also have some other casting rumors. Just want to hit you with a few. The pods favorite Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger, Naomi Watts, Nicole Kidman to play a net claws. Santa's wife. Very interesting choices. I don't know if that part was like big enough for some of those people. Agreed. It's why they're rumors. Who knows? Who knows? Maybe they were considered, but never actually contacted. We never know.
00:14:27
Speaker
And also Jamie Lee Curtis was considered to play Santa Claus's mother. I don't even really think it matters who played mother Claus. She had very little to do with the overall plot other than not liking Fred. Exactly. All right. For Christmas is this cast includes two country singers that would be Tim McGraw and Dwight Yoakum and three people who won Oscars for playing country singers. Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line, Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies and Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter. All
00:14:57
Speaker
Four cast members portraying the parents in this film are Oscar winners. So you've got Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, John Voight, and Mary Steenburgen. That is a lot of Oscar winners in this movie. We've said it, though. Reese Witherspoon is back. We love her on the pod. She plays Kate. Obviously, Vince Vaughn plays Brad, a.k.a. Orlando.
00:15:20
Speaker
We've got a nice little cameo from Ralphie from Christmas Story. That's Peter Billingsley. He plays the airport ticket agent. That was fun to see him pop up in another Christmas movie. Another favorite on the pod. We have got a jacked Johnny Faves. John Favreau can do no wrong.
00:15:38
Speaker
Every time he comes back, I'm like, dang, I love this guy. He's so good. And he could do everything. I don't know which one I like more. I don't know if I like jacked favs more, if I like chef favs more. I think in the future, we're going to have to do a Jon Favreau draft character. You have to pick a character. Oh.
00:15:56
Speaker
a Jon Favreau character draft. That's good. We're gonna have to do it. Bookmark that. This film reunites frequent collaborators, Vaughn Favreau, with their Swingers co-star Patrick Van Horn. Patrick Van Horn plays Daryl, Vince Vaughn's mom's boyfriend, and that scene when we're first introduced to him, I freaking love it. And always great to see you, big guy. Hey, how is traffic getting out here, huh?
00:16:23
Speaker
You know what? Can I get your gas money? I'd really like to get your gas money. You know, actually, I don't need you to get my gas money. Thank you. I actually make a lot more than you do. So I'm not trying to be your father. You already have one of those. I'm just hoping for a chance to be your friend. You were my friend, Earl. You were my best friend. But now you're sleeping with my mom and it's a little bit weird for me. Can you appreciate that? I never had a sexual thought about your mom until I was 30.
00:16:47
Speaker
Can you leave it alone? You can't be my friend anymore. So good. But it's such a clever scene to even like take that twist. Some casting what ifs for the part of Brad's father, Dustin Hoffman, Brian Cox, and Robert De Niro were considered. Cate Blanchett was considered for the role of Courtney. That's Cate's sister.
00:17:10
Speaker
George Lopez, Faison Love, and Jordan Peele were all considered for the role of Dallas. That's one of Vince Vaughn's brothers in the movie. Melissa McCarthy was considered for the role of Kate. I think she could have done it. I think it would have been funny. Oh, she's hilarious. I love Melissa McCarthy. And this one got me. Will Smith was considered for the role of Brad. Wow. Okay. That could have been interesting. Very happy Vince Vaughn was in this movie, but
00:17:36
Speaker
I think Will Smith could have done something good with this. I think he could have too. He might have slapped somebody, but it's okay. Sure.
00:17:43
Speaker
Too soon? No. No, not too soon. Okay, Alex, what kind of Seinfeld or Friends connections do we have? We got a bunch of overlap since we've already talked about some of these actors in previous episodes. So actually just from Fred Claus, we got John Michael Higgins is in an episode of Seinfeld. And then for Christmases, you got Jon Favreau and Reese Witherspoon appear in Friends, and then Jon Voight and Carol Kane appear in Seinfeld. Pretty late this time around. Jon Favreau's overlap with
00:18:10
Speaker
Four Christmases and Friends was interesting to me in terms of his desired career. Yeah. So in Friends, you might remember that he plays Monica's millionaire boyfriend, Pete, but they broke up because he wanted to become an ultimate cage fighter. And in Four Christmases, he became an ultimate cage fighter. Well, if by ultimate, you mean they fall in the backyards of people's houses and then uploaded it to YouTube. Yes, that's what I mean. Yeah.
00:18:39
Speaker
The ultimate fighting kind of stuff was really funny here when Favreau takes him down and puts him the figure four to the head and he's flexing on him and he's like, he's such a boy, he's such a boy. And then he gets up and throws the dollar at him. I love that. That's the best. That's so funny. And then when those kids jump in, they tag in and start beating up Vince Vaughn. Before I had kids, I was like, oh, this is ridiculous. No kid would ever do that. Or you have to be seriously deranged.
00:19:07
Speaker
And now I have three boys and every time I just try to like lay on the ground to stretch my back out, they think that it's just open season. I'm getting shooting star presses off the top rope onto me, elbow drops, choke holds. It's a war zone over here, Alex. You just got to be ready to cover up the important parts.
00:19:26
Speaker
All right, so best cast. I mean, both have really talented casts. Both are pretty deep. I think the cast in Four Christmases was kind of allowed to be a little funnier. Fred Claus had some good acting. Kevin Spacey, terrible human being, but really good actor in his shows in this. So it's kind of a toss up. I lean Four Christmases because I found them to be more enjoyable. What about you?
00:19:49
Speaker
I will say I leaned for Christmases because I feel like the actors were utilized better. Where I feel like Fred Claus just a lot was left on the table. Like they didn't get necessarily the best out of what they had. Yeah. No, that's good. That's a good point. Okay. For Christmases is going to take round one, heading into round two, best line or moment.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, so Fred Claus, we get a mix. We got some serious moments in this movie. We got obviously a lot of funny moments. Now, a lot of this movie did feel like, especially with the interactions between Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti, felt a lot of improvised moments. I think this is something too we've talked about with Vince Vaughn. It just seems like they write him a script, but not exactly what to say, just like
00:20:33
Speaker
ramble about this because you know Vince Vaughn like he talked about he's got that way of just speaking and he talks fast and he or terrific a lot and you know it just like very Vince Vaughn yeah I just feel like you just say like do your thing in like one of those scenes he gets invited to dinner and then
00:20:50
Speaker
You're looking at a man who can fly around the world in a single knife. You amaze me. I think it's absolutely amazing. I mean, to think that he can fly around to a million houses in one night, breaking and entering. Steal all the food, eat the little kids' cookies and stuff like that. And I get Jack just talking about it. Don't you guys feel it? It's so funny. It's great because when you break it down like that, you're like, oh, yeah, that is true. Because even like sometimes Evelyn will be like, how does he get in our house? That's a little creepy. And I'm like, just look past it.
00:21:18
Speaker
It's funny because the mom is just building up Santa so much in that scene. And she's just like, oh, isn't he so amazing? And just to point out all the flip side negative of what's happening. Even when Mrs. Claus is like, he needs to lose a little weight, Kathy Bates is like, no, he's perfect. Oh, yeah, that's good.
00:21:37
Speaker
And then speaking of one of the more serious scenes, when Santa kind of figures out Kevin Spacey's motive behind, you know, kind of destroying the North Pole's operation, Christmas in general, realizing that as a kid, he was bullied and never got the cape he wanted, the Superman cape. And then you see him later in the movie, I just thought it was a great part near the end where
00:21:55
Speaker
No, he now works for the North Pole and he's making some rounds and you can see like his cape and then Santa tucks it back in. Yeah, that's great. It was a nice little moment there. I did find it funny that they were talking so much about Superman. Kevin Spacey actually played Lex Luthor in one of the Superman movies. That's great. I don't know if that really had anything to do with it, but I thought it was a fun little connection. That is fun. Did you also catch his character's name? Clyde Northcutt. Oh, OK. You think there's a little play on words like
00:22:24
Speaker
Cut down the north. Yeah, I'm sure that's some writers room little how this will be a funny joke That scene that you were talking about though the four-eyed Clyde scene when Santa figures out his motives That is such a well acted scene between two really talented actors. I wish there was more of that in this movie. I
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah, this movie did feel like it didn't know what it was. You know, like, was it a comedy? Was it serious? Was it, you know, were there romantic elements? Like, yeah, there was all of those. Was it a kid movie? Was it an adult movie? Yeah, exactly. I agree. I would have loved to see more of those kind of scenes. And I mean, even Vince Vaughn, he's not just a comedic actor. Like, he can act. Also, you know, if Kathy Bates, you have Elizabeth Banks. Like, you have so many actors at your disposal that you could have easily played off this.
00:23:17
Speaker
All right, go on. This is an interesting one. We kind of talked about this earlier. But how do you feel about how they portrayed the North Pole? That was one thing I thought this movie did really well. I like the look and feel of this North Pole. And it even started from the beginning of the movie, the WB intro.
00:23:35
Speaker
turned into like the christmas theme wb intro and i thought that looked really cool and the first time we see the north pole with the houses with santa's workshop which kind of looked and was shaped like the white house yep santa was kind of treated like the president he had his little elf security team i liked the look and feel of the north pole
00:23:55
Speaker
I liked, you know, they had Main Street, North Pole, which was great. It just felt like Christmas, which I love. I love that. Like do the lights, do everything, like go overboard. The toy shop wasn't hammer and, you know, whatever, you know, it was like high tech, which I like. The crystal ball to like check up on the kids. Like that was kind of an interesting take. Speaking of that, I like the attempt at the beginning, the opening scene where
00:24:17
Speaker
you know, you meet Fred, but then you meet Nick, he just gets born and they're trying to kind of explain like the origin of Santa. I liked that scene for the idea, but I just think it didn't hold throughout the movie. It was too, it felt disconnected. Like I loved the idea. I'm like, oh, that's great. Like you have like this legend and this character that like, where did he start from? And you know, they even had to mention like, oh, like everyone gets frozen in the H they are. But then like,
00:24:44
Speaker
I wish there was more. I think there were so many scenes. We've talked about a few like you had something and then it's gone. I'm so split on that scene, that opening scene when Santa's born and when they're young kids, because on the one hand, I like the background info that we get from it and establishing who these people are and why they are the way they are. On the other hand, I don't like thinking of Santa as a kid. Yeah. Like I said, I like the Santa Claus version where it's like an adult just become Santa like you have to earn it. You're not just
00:25:14
Speaker
You're not born into it or whatever. Although this one kind of like created it, but still, it was just weird. I also thought it was interesting. They market this movie all around Vince Vaughn. You go to the movie, you sit down in the first like five minutes of the movie. Vince Vaughn isn't in it. Yeah, they almost could have done that as a flashback scene. Sure. And like just establish like get us hooked first, then do some backstory explanation. Maybe even that ties in more of that like siblings anonymous stuff.
00:25:40
Speaker
Yeah, you can start with that and then be like, who are you? Oh, I'm Fred Claus, Santa's brother flashback, or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so some of my favorite parts from Four Christmases. I love every part of this movie, so I don't even know how I'm going to pick a few to just point out.
00:25:55
Speaker
I love when Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are at that work Christmas party, and they're talking to the one character about their Christmas plans, and the guy references his niece. My brother thinks his daughter, the four-year-old, is going to be the next Beyonce. She's bad, and she sucks. It's just imitation of that. It's so good. He's like, she's bad, and she sucks.
00:26:25
Speaker
I just love when people are honest about little kids. I love when they walk into Brad's father's house and his sister-in-law's there. Orduvra, instead of hors d'oeuvres, she says orduvra. I'll still say that anytime that word is supposed to be said. That whole scene, from the moment they pull into the driveway at his father's house till when he's lying on the ground after falling off the roof saying mistletoe, is so good.
00:26:53
Speaker
Specifically, though, when they're talking about setting up the satellite dish and Robert Duvall is like, why would I need a satellite? And that's why this is a satellite dish, not a satellite. And maybe it's because your TV right now is a radio.
00:27:06
Speaker
It's like that it pans over and it's like a TV from the 70s that has the dial turns. That Robert Duvall, who, how anybody kept a straight face when he said this, is beyond me. Dan, I think you're going to want a professional to handle this technology. If you think I'm going to allow a sex predator in a uniform to wander around my house and touch my underwear, you, you got another thank them. No, no, no, no.
00:27:33
Speaker
How do you say that with a straight face? He plays that perfect, like grumpy dad, you know, like it's it's fine. You know, everything's fine. Like, oh, yeah, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Love that. I love when they're at the church and they're doing the church reenactment scene, first when Brad is volunteered to go and be a part of it. And the pastor's like, Bum, Brad.
00:27:58
Speaker
I just, I love this scene. I think it's so funny. Maybe it's cause you and I grew up going to church and I've definitely been a part of some church services that were like this, very over the top, very, what are we really focusing on here? So maybe that's why it hit home to see people kind of throw a little, little spin on it, but it's still a really good scene when they're on the stage and just the way Vince Vaughn delivers his lines. We shall name him Jesus.
00:28:27
Speaker
Glory to God. We shall name him Jesus. Glory to God. His voice is just going all over the place. He's holding the swaddle and Reese Witherspoon can't find it. I mean, everything he says is so funny here. But then he's like, you unfit mother. And he wraps the baby. And he says, Forgive her son, for she knows not what she's done.
00:28:56
Speaker
before she knows not what she's done. I love how he goes from like, I don't, I'm not doing this, to like, this is what I was born to do. Play this character. Then he just stands up, throws his hands up. Everybody starts cheering. And he just goes right into like, this like, hip shake dance. Oh, funny.
00:29:20
Speaker
Oh my gosh, this is so good. And my last favorite scene, and it's not even necessarily the scene. I think the scene's really good, but there's one part of the scene that I think is one of the best scenes, maybe in movie history. And that's when they're playing taboo with the family game. Yes. And goes around, the mom doesn't know how to play, gets to jacked Johnny Faves and his wife. He's eating the chicken wings. He just looks straight at Vince. He's like, flip the tube. Flip the tube.
00:29:50
Speaker
On your mark, get set, go. Capital of China. Hong Kong. Yes. Thing next to your bed on the nightstand. The sock? Yes. I helped you come up with this when you were drunk and you came home from the bar last Thursday. Alibi. Yes. The thing I'm not allowed to wear to Supercross. Miniskirt? Yes. Me and you dry humping on the beach. A screensaver. Yes, baby. This game is so easy.
00:30:13
Speaker
the only man that I'm allowed to cheat on you with. John Grisham. Yes. Mexican dude. Ricardo Montalba. Yes.
00:30:22
Speaker
Flip the tube. Capital of China, Hong Kong. And they just run the table. I love it. It's amazing because it shows that even though these people are super dumb, they do really know each other and they're connected. And it's just we don't have to get that deep about it. It's also just hilarious. It's a great turning point scene, I think, for Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon's characters to be like, do we actually know each other? Yeah. So funny. Just the whole like, you know, the mom not understanding some of the rules and like she keeps buzzing, keep saying like,
00:30:52
Speaker
She can't say that. It says shish. I lost it at that part. It's so funny. It does frustrate me a little bit how bad Kate is at that game. Do you think anybody in their right mind would try to play it the way that she was trying to play it? No, but she also has severe stage fright. I feel like she gets in her own head and she's like, Kate, she can't do it. Not a good partner.
00:31:16
Speaker
I did think it was a pretty accurate depiction of a family game night. 100%. Somebody always gets mad. Somebody's always trying to correct somebody. Somebody's really good and somebody's really bad. Really bad. Yes, absolutely. All right. I don't even know. I just think Four Christmases has to win this. Those are just some of the funniest scenes. It definitely had more scenes as a whole that really stole the show. I think Fred Claus has some really good one-liners for sure, but I think I would lean Four Christmases in this category as well.
00:31:46
Speaker
Okay, Four Christmases takes a two to nothing lead going into round three. Better title or soundtrack. I think the titles are both on pretty even playing field. I mean, Fred Claus, Four Christmases, kind of just says what the movies are right there. Nothing too deep to it. There is that scene when they're driving the car. We just got to survive these four Christmases. Yeah. Yeah. Fred Claus, I say all the time. So I don't know. Titles, I think it's a wash.
00:32:11
Speaker
I think how we can decide this is which movie had better Christmas music. What did you think of the music and Fred Claus? I mean, I love the part in the taxi when Jingle Bells is on, and he's like, yeah, could you change this? And he's like, sure. It's the dog version of Jingle Bells. Yeah. He changes it to the cat version.
00:32:29
Speaker
as hilarious. That made me laugh out loud. And then you got Here Comes Santa Claus playing on an infinite loop with Ludacris as the DJ. How many times would it take for you to hear Here Comes Santa Claus in a row before you snapped? Two? I don't know. Just two. Yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker
Have you ever heard that John Mulaney stand up when he's talking about how him and his friends used to go into a diner that had those jukebox things and they would put a ton of quarters in to pay and they would always play What's New Pussycat and they would play it like 17 times in a row just to see the reaction of people and then
00:33:05
Speaker
And then they would put in a random song and the people would cheer and then they'd go right back to what's new. That's like what it would be like to hear. Here comes Santa Claus all day on repeat. I don't know if you guys listen to Christmas music as much as we do, but you know, it will be like you'll hear a song.
00:33:23
Speaker
And then it will be the same exact song, but just a different version. And then the next one is the same exact song, just a different version. And you're like, all right, how many of these do I have to listen to before I can just skip them altogether? So I curated a Christmas playlist specifically a couple years ago to avoid that. And it's just filled with all of my favorite Christmas songs. That's smart.
00:33:41
Speaker
But there's like probably 40 or 50 songs on the list. So it's it's enough to give you a variety. That's what you need. And then just one note. So besides Christmas music, the composer for this film was Christophe Beck. You actually may know him for some of his films, Frozen 1 and 2. And he's worked on a bunch of stuff from the MCU, including some of the Ant-Man films and WandaVision. Oh, interesting. Yeah, very interesting. Frozen is the all time favorite in this household, as you can imagine.
00:34:08
Speaker
No, we never, as much as I try, my guys, my, my boys aren't like super Disney fans. They love Home Alone. They'll watch that. No, I'd prefer that.
00:34:18
Speaker
They like that kind of stuff. They like the Santa Claus. I don't know. I'm sure that'll change a little bit, but... Yeah. I did like in Fred Claus how Ludacris had his own song called Ludacrismis. That's good. Didn't love the creepy score in the middle when they were doing like the whole Kevin Spacey stuff. I don't love creepiness in my Christmas movies, but they did. They hit a lot of really good Christmas songs in it.
00:34:44
Speaker
In Four Christmases, you've got the White Christmas remix in the opening, which I think is really good. It's like the club version. Quick little story, Krista and I went to see this movie together. I didn't see spoilers for the movie, but I had read somewhere like in a review that that opening scene, they were role playing. They actually did know each other. And so we're sitting in the movie, that scene's going on, and I lean over to Krista and I say something along the lines of, oh, they're just role playing. They know each other.
00:35:12
Speaker
I don't know why I did it. She still gives me crap to this day about spoiling that for her. So I would just like to make a public apology to Krista for ruining that. I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me. Well, you got the platform now. Yeah.
00:35:27
Speaker
They had pretty traditional Christmas music. Baby, it's cold outside. Jingle Bell Rock. I'll be home for Christmas. All that kind of stuff. They were fine. They weren't really utilized that much. I felt like Fred Kalls utilized the Christmas music a little bit better than Four Christmases did. I do think I have to ding Four Christmases though. Let's hear it.
00:35:45
Speaker
For the third time on this podcast, Gary Glitter's rock and roll makes an appearance in one of the movies we're talking about. We don't need to go into it. You can Google it. Gary Glitter is an awful human being. There's a lot of people that are petitioning to get his songs out of movies and not to be played at stadiums anymore.
00:36:02
Speaker
They play that song in the church scene, which makes it even worse. So I feel like I'm just going to concede this round to Fred Claus. I don't even need to concede it, though. I actually think Fred Claus utilized music better than Four Christmases. Yeah, I mean, just like Ludacris, him being the character of his song. Like, I think that was a great touch and I would agree. And it's just hard to find movies without that song in it, though.
00:36:25
Speaker
It really is. It really is. Okay. Fred Claus gets on the board. We are two to one going into round four. Plot holes, cringiness, or random questions.
00:36:37
Speaker
Let me bring up some stuff about Fred Claus. So this version of Santa invented all of the Christmas traditions, coming down the chimney, cutting down the trees, giving people presents. So that means he made all of the rules for Christmas. One of the biggest plot points towards the end of the movie is that Santa can't deliver the presents and nobody else can do it because only a Claus can drive the sleigh on Christmas to deliver the presents.
00:37:04
Speaker
But if Santa established all the rules, couldn't he just amend that so that one of the elves could do it? Yeah, you would think. And also like they, there's like this board and they mentioned the Tooth Fairy and they mentioned the Easter Bunny. So it's like, did Santa start this whole thing and like the amendment? That's what I'm talking about with this whole like origin story. It's like cool that they addressed it, but then yeah, there's all of these like, what about this? And what about that?
00:37:28
Speaker
It makes no sense that they have a board in the first place. Why? Like did they go public? Who is the board? I want to know how they operate. I want to know what their plan was though. So they were going to shut down Santa. So obviously they're not canceling Christmas because they would just be canceling Santa's presents from Christmas. It just doesn't add up. Like why? Because what? He wasn't super efficient. So you're just going to shut him down. I kind of just, I want a movie about the board.
00:37:55
Speaker
That's what I want. I want to know more about this board that runs all the holidays. I do too. That actually sounds like a pretty cool plot for a movie. There wasn't like too much overall cringiness in this movie. There were just two things that I want to point out. First off, when they were little kids and Fred made the customized journal for Santa and then Santa gives it away, that's just a douche move.
00:38:18
Speaker
That made me really, really angry, actually. And when Fred gets to the North Pole and he's bunking with Willie, his human body is just way too big for the elf bed. Elf had already made that joke a couple years before that. It happens a lot, recycled jokes, but you would think they would have just been a little more cognizant about that. Absolutely, especially since Elf was like
00:38:38
Speaker
game changing in this in this genre. Some random questions. The whole file shredding stuff seems security is a little off at the North Pole. So Santa has a security team, but they just leave this really important room unlocked for anybody to access. And then also why was Fred put in charge of that if it was so important? They knew he was a screw up. So why did Santa put him in charge of this really important area?
00:39:02
Speaker
And who was doing this before? Like, whose role was he filling? They're just like, oh, you can do this. It's only the most important thing. And no one was doing it. A logistical question. How did Wanda get to the North Pole for the intervention? And why was she not more shocked that Santa was real and she was in the North Pole? Yeah, that bugged me big time. And then she just leaves? How are you getting home? Yeah.
00:39:24
Speaker
And then same thing when Fred is in Chicago and then he gets back to the North Pole. He has to take like a plane and then the smaller plane and then slay dogs. That's like a two day journey. He's not getting back in like four hours. That's a hike. This was just like, I don't love it when movies do this. Santa says a clause has to deliver the presents and it's alluded that he wants Fred to do it. And Fred's like, I can't do it. I can't do it. And he's like, OK, I get it.
00:39:49
Speaker
And then immediately the next scene, he's suiting up to do it. Yeah. I have a question in that scene. Why was he wearing brown Santa boots? Oh, instead of black Santa boots. He put on brown in it. I was like, man, that doesn't look right. What color boots does Santa wear? That's the real question. Does he wear brown? Maybe I'm just maybe I've always missed it. It's definitely black. Yeah, it's black.
00:40:06
Speaker
And he's wearing a black belt. You got to match the belt to the shoes. I mean, come on. He only had 10 hours to deliver all those presents and they didn't like do any explanation of like, oh, we can stop time. They can do this for that. No, it's just like he has 10 hours to fly really fast. And they didn't really seem to take a very efficient route either. They were like, oh, we're in Australia now. We're in. Yeah, it's like.
00:40:26
Speaker
I don't know. And I know it's like, OK, it's a Santa movie. You got a logic. You got to take liberties. Yeah. But still, other Santa movies have done a really good job of trying to explain this stuff. How does he get back up the chimney? I feel like that would take 10 minutes per house. I always liked in the Santa Claus, how we went down the chimneys when you get like the skinny ones, you get like sucked down. There was magic around that whole thing.
00:40:47
Speaker
We're already talking about magic freezing you in the same type of body that you're you've been in. Yes. Also, do you think if you've been alive for hundreds and hundreds of years, I don't think you're living in an apartment. No. And but also like if you are the same, like in everyone else around you is aging. Like when people catch up, you'd have to like move a lot. You could not be dating that girl because then then like five years she's going to be like, yeah, well, something's up. I'm like, you haven't changed.
00:41:13
Speaker
Yeah, you got to go with like the Twilight logic where they had to keep moving because they looked the same. And so they would like age out of the schools. And yeah, they didn't think that went through. Other thing is I think Macaroni is a great puppy name. That's a great name. That's a good name. I really like that.
00:41:30
Speaker
Okay, what do you got for Four Christmases? I'm going to ask for your help with this one. Four Christmases, I think the biggest thing when you watch this movie in terms of plot holes is, is this day possible? From start to finish, can they make it to all these houses? Can they do all these things in that amount of time?
00:41:47
Speaker
I have thought a lot about this. Yes. I actually went as far as to mock out a schedule. Oh, I love it. So in four Christmases, this is the absolute fastest they could do everything. OK, let's hear it. So I looked it up on December 25th. The sunrise in San Francisco is 723 a.m. It's light out on Christmas morning when they're leaving to go to the airport, finishing packing up, getting ready to drive to the airport.
00:42:12
Speaker
So let's say it's 7.30 AM for argument's sake. From where they live, you saw the view of the city. The airport is on the other side of that. So we're looking at at least an hour to get to the airport, park, go to ticketing. So that's about 8.30 in the morning. Once they're at the airport, all the flights are canceled. They went home and got changed. So you got to add about another hour to that because we see them in different clothes, drop off their bags, all that kind of stuff.
00:42:38
Speaker
So we're looking at 9.30 in the morning. They're driving to Howard's house. There's a lot of open land around there. That's not near the city at all. That's at least a 45 minute drive from where they are. So now we're looking at 10, 15 a.m. They're at that first house for at least an hour and a half. They open presents, they eat hors d'oeuvres, they help make brunch or whatever it is they're making. They get the tools out to put the satellite dish on the roof. That leaves us at 11.45 a.m.
00:43:03
Speaker
Then they drive to Kate's mom's house. That's going to be at least a half hour away. That's more of a neighborhood setting. And there's just no way the parents live that close to each other. So that's 12, 15 p.m. At Kate's mom's house, they have their little circle time of what they want to do more of. Kate has to change her clothes from the spit up. They have the whole jump, jump scene. So they're there at least an hour. So that's one 15 p.m. Then they've got to drive to the church. That's about a 10 minute drive, one 25 p.m.
00:43:29
Speaker
We can assume that the church service starts at 1.30 p.m. because services either start on the hour or half hour. Yes. It's the Christmas service. It's at least going an hour. It's going to be an hour. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's going to go till 2.30 p.m. So then they have to change out of their costumes, bask in the praise of their performance, and then leave the church. I'm saying that's 20 minutes. So they're leaving the church at 2.50 p.m.
00:43:52
Speaker
Half hour minimum drive to Brad's mom's house. That's putting us at 3.20pm. They're definitely at Brad's mom's house for at least an hour. You know, they have the greetings. They're playing the game. Let's say they leave that house at 4.20pm. The drive to Kate's dad's house is at least an hour. We see them going down the coast, which seemed nowhere near where they were.
00:44:12
Speaker
So they're arriving at Kate's dad's house at the earliest 5.20 PM. She made it for dinner, but they've got young kids there. So I'm assuming dinner probably started at 5.30 PM. So I guess what I'm trying to say is if they moved as fast as humanly possible, didn't hit any sort of traffic and stayed at each house as short as they possibly could, they could do it. I find it highly unlikely.
00:44:37
Speaker
because I was kind of like just moving. Everything's going to take longer than what I'm saying, and California, San Francisco traffic is going to be way worse than that. Yeah, especially on a major holiday. It could work. It's a stretch. They have to be paced perfectly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it could work. I like that. I appreciate the effort that went into that. So I think we can probably dismiss that as a plot hole. Sure, sure. Okay, just some random questions for you then.
00:45:01
Speaker
How had he not met her mom or she met his mom or whatever in the three years of dating? These people really did not like their families. They just did anything they could to stay away from them. And they don't seem all that bad. No. This is like such a movie TV trope. The reporter who interviews him at the airport, they're all watching the news. It's Christmas morning. I don't think I've ever watched the news on Christmas in my life. No.
00:45:24
Speaker
I watch the news maybe like once or twice a year. Brad talking to one of his nephews about Santa didn't really make sense. No, no, no adults making that mistake. No, I mean, he clearly does not get children. He just doesn't get them. But come on, like, watch what you say.
00:45:41
Speaker
Um, at the end, they have a baby, but they didn't tell their family that they were pregnant. I know. So did they not learn anything? Like the whole point of, of this whole story and that right back. I just liked it as a scene though. It was funny. It was a nice little callback, but also you can't just like walk into someone's room.
00:45:57
Speaker
No, the newborn, like the news is not just busting in a newborn room. Yeah, there's some tight security there. The packing scene when they're packing, is that how you pack for a trip? They were like having fun. I hate packing. I have to travel a good amount for work, so I'm pretty efficient at packing. Like I never bring anything other than just a carry-on suitcase.
00:46:18
Speaker
So even I mean, Chris, then I did two weeks in Europe and both of us only brought carry ons. So I'm pretty efficient at packing. But no, I'm not like sitting there laughing, throwing the clothes around. No, no. It's like, here we go. How can I squeeze as much into this little thing as possible?
00:46:34
Speaker
Also, do you dress for your destination? Like they're they're wearing like that. Oh, no, me too. No, I don't. I dress for comfort on the planes. Yeah, same. And one last question. Do you call it a jump jump? No, no. Bouncing is the first time I've ever heard jump jump. Yeah. But I like it. It's fun. But Bouncing House is what. Yeah. I think since you dismiss the entire big plot hole of the timing for four Christmases, I think four Christmases has to win this. I think so, too. There's not much cringy stuff in the movie.
00:47:04
Speaker
No, you know and the the questions aren't like, you know, they're just they're whatever like there's anything there for me to fight back on on this one. All right. Wow. Three to one for Christmas is going into round five. Better Vince Vaughn quotes. We've already hit on a bunch of them, but out of the ones that we haven't spoken about, which movie has the better Vince Vaughn quotes? Alex will say one. I'll say one and we'll see where we're at.
00:47:30
Speaker
Yeah, so first scene, we meet Vince Vaughn's character. He's in the front yard and he's the repo man, so he's talking about the TV with a little girl. Yeah. And then he says, Hey, guy, you got a girl that kicks. Is that from you? Is that because you use the TV as a babysitter? Don't pay your bills again. Next time I'll come, I'll take your wife from you. To the husband, yeah. Yeah, that was funny.
00:47:54
Speaker
I love when they're calling their parents to say they weren't going to make it a Christmas, which probably should tell them before Christmas Day that you're not coming. But still. And then Vince Vaughn just goes, cry now, be home or whatever it is. Excuse my Burmese. And he's like, that's very Christmas in Burmese. That gets me every single time. Oh, man. When he's talking to slam and he's got the the milk and he's like two hands on the milk, please.
00:48:24
Speaker
That's a very, that's a very deadline.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah, that was a very accurate line as somebody that has to tell my young children that every single time. Two hands, please. Two hands. It's constant. I like when they're in the car at Brad's dad's house and they're talking about the mistletoe safe word to get out. And he says and going out would be. And then Reese Witherspoon says mistletoe. And he says, done. Let's get out of here. Yeah. Like he tricks her into saying it. I love that. Yeah, that's good. What a great what a great safe word for Christmas mistletoe.
00:48:56
Speaker
It really is, yeah. This is my favorite line. I don't know if it's improvised or what, but when Fred and Nick are chatting, and Vince Vaughn's character goes, how things been with you? Oh, fine, fine, you know, business is crazy, but we're swell, we're swell, how are you? That's great, that's great. I'm really happy for you, Nick, by the way. I think everything, the whole Christmas thing is taken off, and I think that's just awesome. Yeah, it's catching on, yeah. Yeah, it's catching on. Yeah, this is really good. That's really good.
00:49:22
Speaker
I like when the baby spits up and Vince Vaughn's just Vince Vaughn reaction to grow up and he's like, I'm going to do it too. And then the call back at the end when their own baby does it and he says the same thing. That is, I find that hilarious. Yeah.
00:49:39
Speaker
You know, I think you said this before. I do think Fred Claus has some better one liners. I think Four Christmases has better scenes. Some of the funniest parts of Four Christmases, though, is not Vince Vaughn saying it. I do think the funnier part in Fred Claus are some of the Vince Vaughn sayings and reactions. So I think Fred Claus probably gets this one. So we have got a three to two lead for Four Christmases going into round six. Better trivia.
00:50:08
Speaker
In trying to come up with a name for Santa's brother, writer Jesse Nelson, who came up with the idea for the film after her daughter asked if Santa has a family, which is pretty cool, she hit upon Fred as an option while watching The Godfather. The Fred is an homage to the character Frito, who everyone knows is like the screwup of the family.
00:50:28
Speaker
I like it. According to reports, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn hated each other during filming for Christmases, though nobody knows why. During production, a number of stories leaked to the press about tension on set. Apparently Vince would roll onto the set in the morning looking like he just came from a night out and Reese would arrive early looking camera ready. Reese liked to rehearse their lines and block the scenes out where Vince was more of an improv type of guy.
00:50:55
Speaker
Apparently it got so bad that Witherspoon refused to film a steamy sex scene with Vaughn. Why is none of that surprising to me? Not a single aspect of that. All right, back to Fred Claus. So early in the film, Vince Vaughn's character Fred pretends to work for a charity called People Help the People.
00:51:11
Speaker
Now in Wedding Crashers, his character Jeremy Gray says people helping people while Owen Wilson's character John is explaining how their fake jobs are also charitable and David Dobkin directed both of those movies.
00:51:25
Speaker
Oh, I kind of like that callback. That's funny. Yeah, that's got to be. It's got to be intentional, right? Has to be. Has to be. Yeah. Director Seth Gordon was hired at Vince Vaughn's insistence, Vaughn being a fan of Gordon's acclaimed documentary, The King of Kong, A Fistful of Quarters. That ties into when Brad is introduced to Jim, who is Kate's brother-in-law. He's playing a video game, and the sounds of that game are the Donkey Kong game sounds.
00:51:53
Speaker
Yeah, Jim is played by Steve Wiebe, who was the subject of the director's documentary, The King of Kong, about his quest to get the all-time high score on Donkey Kong. So, nice little callback to one of his earlier movies. Also, not surprising that that guy didn't have any lines if he's not actually an actor. Oh, he was great. He was great, though, at his non-speaking, just like me. Isn't he such a great father?
00:52:18
Speaker
It's doing nothing. In Fred Claus, they show the house from Full House as they are riding in the sleigh. I do like that. That little row of houses in San Francisco. Yeah, everyone knows. Everyone knows that row of houses. Four Christmases started production during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which meant that there could be no changes made to the script during filming. So there was a ton of improv, which makes sense.
00:52:44
Speaker
It makes sense. We've talked about it. It makes a lot of sense. I kind of like the name Fred coming from Fredo Corleone and the wedding crashers tie in. Those were good in honor of Christmas spirit. I think I'm going to have to give you this round. Thanks. Yeah. And then a little more positive. The Reese Witherspoon Vince Funwell, it's not surprising. Yeah, that's a little sad. Yeah, I don't want to hear about that. I want to get along.
00:53:06
Speaker
Also just shows how good of actors they were. While none of it surprised me, they actually seemed like they had good chemistry. Oh, they had great chemistry. Yeah. So, all right, we're tied three to three going into round seven. Better story, better script, more fun.
00:53:22
Speaker
To me, I think Fred Claus is a little too long of a movie and the plot set up. It really slowly builds, slowly builds, slowly builds. And then they tried to like rush everything in at the end. We had mentioned it before, but it seemed like there's a lot that they left on the cutting room floor. It almost actually seems like it probably could have been better as like a six episode miniseries that came out nowadays.
00:53:45
Speaker
The story was kind of all over the place, and while it was funny and well-acted in certain parts, I don't know. It's a Santa movie, but it's not kid-friendly enough. I just felt a little off to me. Still a fun movie, but when I think of Four Christmases, I mean, that movie just cruises from start to finish. It flies by, and it's just hilarious. To me, Four Christmases, it's fun, it's funny, it's got some action. If you want to count the fake MMA, figure four to the head is action, and it's got heart.
00:54:13
Speaker
I don't know, my vote would be four Christmases for this, but what do you got to say? Yeah, I think just getting back to Fred Claus as being a little disjointed and kind of like a few different movies stuck taped together. Like, what is it? Like, I think your point of maybe it's not quite a kid's movie because there are some darker, deeper plot lines, but not really an adult movie either.
00:54:35
Speaker
No, there's no language in it. No, there's not even really adult like, there's like a kiss, you know, like that's about as far as it goes. Whereas, you know, for Christmas, the movie takes place in one day. So you're kind of with them their whole journey across one day, which is, it's fun. It's a fun ride to go along with for those of us who have large families or whatever kind of families and just, you know, seeing how they spent their holidays with them and just thinking, Oh yeah, man, like,
00:55:01
Speaker
Splitting holidays between families and you know traveling to multiple places in a day like done that before I could relate with it a little bit more and it just yeah It just grabs you from the beginning to the end. Yeah, I would watch for Christmases again this holiday season I don't think I'd watch Fred Claus again this year
00:55:19
Speaker
I think I would agree with you, and I think that's probably the ultimate test when it comes down to these two. Yeah. I mean, Christmas movies, yeah, of course you watch them around this time of year, but yeah, you should, you should want to pop it on again, you know, because it should have that heart and that moment of connection and warmth and, you know, the spirit of everything. Yeah. Which I feel like Four Christmases has more than Fred Claus. Okay, so it's settled. Four Christmases wins the Vince Vaughn Christmas Movie Showdown.
00:55:45
Speaker
You got any closing thoughts before we get into our rankings? Man, I know you love Christmas movies, but I do too. Maybe not as much as you, but it's just fun to dive into some of these. Cause I feel like out of any of the holidays, like Christmas is the best one for, for movies. I like anything that puts me in the mood for Christmas. So I love Christmas lights, Christmas decorations, Christmas music and Christmas movies.
00:56:09
Speaker
Alex, where you rank in these movies? I'm going to give Fred Claws a 64, and I'm going to give Four Christmases a 74. I like it. This might be the biggest discrepancy I've ever had. Ooh, let's hear it. Our listeners might not be able to take me serious after this.
00:56:27
Speaker
Are you having fun though? It's so fun. That's all that matters. I am going to give Fred Claus a 63% and I am going to give Four Christmases a 92%. Wow. I love this movie. I just can't. There's nothing wrong with that. It's like it was just made for me. It's my type of humor. I enjoy the actors in it and it's so fun. I love it. I love Four Christmases and that's all I have to say.
00:56:52
Speaker
You know, when you give your ratings, there's no wrong answer. No. If it were up to me, I would have given Tommy Boy a hundred. You should have. I should have. I might. I might retroactively. Our next episode will be released the week before Christmas. We are going to start to ease into a every other week to allow us some more time to do some social media content for some of these episodes.
00:57:13
Speaker
And Alex and I are gonna give each other a little bit of a Christmas gift, and we're actually gonna do two movies that are not under a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, but two of the most famous, well-known Christmas movies out there, and I'm looking forward to battling them out head to head. I was gonna watch them anyway, so this is just a better excuse to talk about them.
00:57:32
Speaker
This has been The Movie Showdown with Rock and Rob. Make sure to like, subscribe, rate, and review all that fun stuff. Seriously, please review. It really helps us get more listeners. And follow us on all the socials at Rock and Rob Show. Until next time, peace. I'm outta here. See ya! Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this. And totally redeem yourself! I'm not sure what to do with my hands.
00:58:05
Speaker
That's your home! Are you too good for your home? Answer me!