Mac. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? What's that?
Hello Fresh has put out a box that allows you to have the Elf
experience. Oh boy, the ultimate Elf meal of all the sugars and maple
syrups that you want to go with your cook spaghetti. Okay, all right?
Do you want some? I don't personally, no, I don't think
that's gonna work for me. Did you get your outfit from that Elf box?
Yes? The Hello Fresh head overalls in a sweater. I know that
you said you didn't want any, but go ahead and check under your seat.
That's a joke. We don't have the budget for that. But we
are here at the Alamo Draft House, joined by the community Marketing Manager East
Coast, Alex Sheebar. You guys are showing Elf constantly right now, the
anniversary. It's Elf season for us, you know, every day all day.
That's not actually true, but lots of screenings. We love Elf here
at Almadraft House. But I also have found that there are some other Elf
products. You have Elf syrup, fla favored goldfish which that doesn't sound bad
in your Hello Fresh box. No stop, get over the Hello Fresh all
right? Also, if I wanted to make pasta with all this sugar.
I could just make that myself. Yeah, there's a lot of people that
throw a ton of sugar in their red sauce. Really, that's a thing.
Yeah, that's a thing. My nona would not like that. I
bet she puts sugar in her red sauce, just not much. I've never
referred to my grandmother as my nonah, So I apologize to both you guys.
I'm being disingenuous across the board. I'm nervous to be in this beautiful,
beautiful theater. Yes. I was just opened up down the seaport.
Yes, And I have been so excited to come here because you guys did
work with WBZ News Radio over the summer. We did free Friday flicks,
and every week it was just we're gonna open soon, We're gonna open soon,
and finally, finally we are here. I don't understand it's still February,
right. We opened exactly when we said we would see no problems.
One good three Yeah, job three. King of Queen MARYL. Street Entertainment,
I'm good and we are the Mac and Goo program. We bring you
friendship, and today we're adding a third to our friendship. Yes, once
again, Alex shee Bar of the Alamo Draft House. I agreed to know
friendship. I don't understand where this is coming. When you agree to my
email, it says at the bottom, very very fine print, you need
to incorporate friendship in This movie is all about friendship. Actually, you know
what? Family? Family, That's what it really is. Actually, the
writer of the movie, David Berumbach, says, it's about a father son
relationship at its core, which I thought about afterwards. I'm like, you
know what it really is, father son. So it's his father and him,
and then his father I believe passed away and now it's him and his
sons. And as someone who watches this movie every single year with his mother
and now sharing the movie with my three year old son, who absolutely loves
it, I fully understand that. Yeah, that's that's an experience I haven't
had yet. So it's interesting to think about. You know, when you
first watched this in two thousand and three, yeah, what fourteen fifteen maybe,
and you have a different experience with that movie then, and now that
you're a father, I'm sure you're having a different speaking as a father,
you mind if I take the floor and speak as a father real quick like
this is a movie, and not to compare it to other ones, but
say, if you have this and you have home alone, I'm not showing
my son home alone. Well, I think he'd have fun with it.
He also might try and kill me, whereas this it's him. You know,
he loves when Buddy throws up in the trash can or gets attacked by
the raccoon. You know, silly things like that, not putting Christmas orn
in on the floor for me to then step on. How many tarantulists do
you have in your house? It's any more than zero, probably don't show.
Oh that would be if he became obsessed with spiders all of a sudden,
that would be real bad news for that'd be great for there wrote and
filled area that I live in. So today we are talking about Elf.
Elf came out on November seventh, two thousand and three. This movie was
made on a budget of thirty three million dollars and it doesn't feel like that
at all. Well, I think the budget actually helps it in the fact
that it's so well paced. And it's well paced because they had to get
all of their shots in there not waste any time with anything else. Yeah,
for sure. And it ended up grossing a total of two hundred twenty
million worldwide, one hundred and seventy three domestic. That's a gold mine for
a studio right there. That's I mean, we've seen with John Favro,
since you make a movie like that that makes that much money, you can
kind of do whatever you want. You've also seen since this movie, and
it was really in the ten years after where there were the the push for
the live action Let's try and make another Elf movie, Let's try and make
another Christmas classic. And while you know I have a soft spot say for
Fred Klaus, it's not the same movie. It's not as good. Big
Vince Vaughn fan, is that what you're? Big? Vince von day all
day? It's Vince Vaughan all day, every day. And I think Vince
Vaughn did he have a hand in Favreau getting this job? He did.
Yeah. One of the Alex I don't know if you've seen the Movies That
Made Us series on Netflix. I've seen parts of it. One of the
episodes is Elf and they talk about how they get John Favreau to sign onto
the movie. It was they had Will Ferrell signed up to be the star
and he was working on Old School at the time, and Vince Vaughn said,
hey, how about this guy for the director? Obviously he him and
Favreau made swingers. So that's how they made that connection, which is pretty
much that. It's interesting. Can we talk about Favreau just for a hot
second, because what can't that man do? He's like, Oh, I'm
gonna reinvent Christmas, I'll reinvent Disney, I'll reinvent Star Wars, I'll reinvent
Marvel. Just across the board that he builds foundations of incredible films. I
mean truly amazing when you look back on directors that have changed cinema. I
don't think he gets enough credit, right, And going into this one,
he had just been he had just directed made and that's it. So this
was his second movie starring Vince Vaughn, right, and then off the back
of this that's when he did take off. And like, I think we've
talked about this in the past, but like we've done like the Dork Hall
of Fame. Yeah, he is a first ballot Hall of Famer. Sure,
yeah, just for what he has put into these characters. For sure.
Yeah. Well, so let's talk about the nuts and bolt of this
movie. Yeah. Elf is a PG adventure comedy, family fantasy romance,
and I think one of the best Yeah, I think one of the best
things about the movie is it's not one thing. It's not just a comedy,
and actually it's not just an adventure horror wise. This was New Line
Cinema, which of course was known for horror. Yeah, and they didn't
really know what to do with something like this. They also weren't a great
place in two thousand and two, two thousand and three, so that's why
a big reason why they took a chance on this movie. Elf is a
run time of ninety seven minutes. Again, a huge strength to this movie
is it's pacing and the fact that it's an hour and a half. Yeah,
short and sweet on Rotten Tomatoes, roddy t's eighty six percent from the
critics only seventy nine percent from the audience. I don't understand that at all.
Who is pulling that? Who is who is looking at this film and
being like, not for me? It makes no sense. I just can't
look at that face anymore. So would the would the people be giving the
review say after Will Ferrell had like not at the time, but say in
like twenty ten, where people had kind of not soured on him, but
they were getting a little sick of them, and they're like, oh,
you know what, I don't really care for this one because at the time,
like Farrell wasn't a movie start, He'd done almost nothing. Yeah,
it was SNL night at the Roxbury. He Austin Powers Old How dare you
neglect his Austin Powers cameo Old School had just come out. Yeah, so
this was when he was fresh. This was his first starring role, and
I think he knocks it out of the park, oh one thousand percent.
And we'll talk about it in a couple of minutes. But I don't know
if you ever could have found anyone to do Buddy the Elf the way that
Will Ferrell does it, which is what makes the movie. We mentioned him
at the top. This movie's written by David Berenbaum, who moved to Hollywood
in the early nineties and this was his first ever you know IMDb writing credit,
first thing that actually sold, and since then he really hasn't found much
success. He wrote the Haunted Mansion movie, which I came on. I
think a year after this one. I was gonna say which one, because
he wrote that Tim Allen Zoom movie, which is horrible. It's a terrible
movie. Tim Tim Allen is like a superhero in charge of younger superheroes.
It's pretty bad. Was like ages on that one two and five that I
have never heard of, And that's something that people, if it was any
good, would speak highly of, like, oh, you know what was
ahead of its time was this Tim Allen superhero movie. So I've never heard
that sky High Yeah, that sky High Rocket or one of those ones.
Jim. And since this movie, he really hasn't found any success. That's
really those two titles are the only two titles I thought you guys might know.
Uh. He is doing the upcoming Frost of the Snowman movie, so
I don't know if they're going to do that live action, if they're remaking
it with stop motion. That remains to be seen. But the interesting thing
about Baron Baum is he grew up Jewish, so obviously didn't celebrate Christmas,
but he grew up loving Christmas movies, and he lost his father young around
the holiday season, so Christmas meant so much to him that this sort of
became his pet project, his baby. So uh and speaking to what Goose
said earlier, you know, he wrote this movie as a son, you
know, so in his eyes when he wrote this, it meant one thing.
And now he's a father and gets to show it to his kids,
and it means means something completely different to him now, which is great.
Obviously, this movie is directed by John Favreaux, which we just talked about.
After this, he did zeph Thura, which didn't do much, so
a little bit of a gap there. But then obviously the Man of Break
You're unofficial Jumanji wonderful as it was. Then we get Ironman, Iron Man
Two Cowboys and Aliens, which obviously didn't do well. The movie Chef,
which actually, other than the Ironman movies, well, I guess this is
up there too. Chef is one of the most underrated movies that's come out
in the last decade. I love that movie. Uh. He did the
Jungle Book remake and the Lion King remake, which I don't know. I
didn't love either of those movies, but Jun facing the Lion King, I
would say, but they kicked off Disney Live Action. It was a gigantic
change in Disney's strategy for sure, and I wonder he's just kind of I
think he can do whatever he wants at Disney, obviously talking about The Mandalorian
the Book of Boba Fett, which he was the writer or the creator on
both of those shows. He had a love growing up for the Christmas classics
by Ranking Bass, and so when he got hired for this movie, his
big thing was wanting this movie to feel timeless and feel like those Rank and
Bass original stop motion movies. It's great and I feel like over time that
has just proven itself even more where I do think this movie has gotten better
with each year and since then, since twenty oh three, I don't think
don't you dare laugh? I hate when you do that. I don't think
that we have had a Christmas well. I think we've had one Christmas classic
sense and excited to know what you think. Klouse, I was gonna talk
Klaus close is I think Klause. Although it does get a little silly at
points, I think is the best Christmas movie that we've gotten since ol and
maybe the only Oh it's wonderful it is it'll hearts an yeah, and it's
a sportsman. Jake Case Simmons. It's a cool animation too. Yeah,
it's almost like old school hand drawn but with with sort of a modern field,
so it doesn't feel it feels, you know, like a storybook come
to life, and it's this great story about a postman and you're just like,
this is what I'm watching, you know, Scandinavian Town about a postman
and a toymaker, and it is so good start to finish. I'm gonna
have to put that Norm McDonald also in there. I really yeah love that
as a fisherman or a sailor. I'm not sure what he's what he's up
to. Lock that in for me. I'll watch that this week. Might
be on Netflix. Okay, that's good to know. It's a good recommendation
for the folks. Elf. Let's get to the synopsis. Raised as an
oversized ELF buddy travels from the North Pole in New York City to meet his
biological father, who doesn't know he exists and is in desperate need of some
Christmas spirit simple fish. Yeah, yeah, it works, it works really
really well. And I think speaking of that rank and bass stuff, that
first like twenty minutes, fifteen minuts, he's on the North Pole. I
love the look of that because he's so gigantic, and Favreaux also didn't want
they use CGI, So it's a lot of practical effects with the stop motion
and they used what's the technique force perspective they use in there, which works
so so well. Yeah. Also, I believe they had a lot of
red flags from the studio because they're like, are you borrowing this or are
you stealing because the costume is the same costume that the elf manager wears in
Rudolph. Yes, all right, this movie stars. We'll talk about the
stars, and then we'll talk about the supporting cast looking through this honestly,
one of the greatest supporting casts there's ever been in a holiday movie like this,
especially a lower budget with all the names you see here. You will
Ferrell obviously as Buddy the Elf, James Kahn as Walter Hobbs, who plays
this so straight. Yeah, and that's honestly what makes that relationship work so
well. There's a scene with con because he was instructed never to break,
he wanted to be grumpy the entire time. But when Buddy's getting his blood
test done in screaming, you can see him covering his mouth and moving because
he couldn't keep it together. So that's the only scene where you'll see him
going. You know, he loses the stone face. He turns away from
the camera because he just lost it. But beyond that, he's perfect as
this sour need of Christmas cheer figure. That was also the scene where I
was like, you know what, Buddy the Elf is my three year old
son. I now like this has now hit me because he was just eating
the cotton balls and wouldn't listen to simple instruction to the point of like,
oh, now I fully understand a father's son. And also I think it
also plays a bit like how Michael Kine is and I'm up at Christmas Carol,
where it's the stoic actor who is playing it as if he is in
a Shakespearean play. It doesn't matter what's going on around him, it doesn't
matter if he's acting with puppets. He is going to act it a certain
way. And James Khn does that here. And as much as you're rooting
for Buddy the Elf, you're almost rooting more for the switch in Walter Hobbes.
It really gives you something more to root for in this movie. Zoey
Deschanella is Jovi, and this was really her first big role. She was
in almost famous, but more of a big player there. But she was
not the first choice for the studio. The studio wanted Katie Holmes because she
was a star. I'm trying to see if I can see it. She
don't think I can. No, I don't think it's the right choice.
I don't know if she could have given off the uh, the charm that
Zoe Deschanel has in this movie, because she's almost too well known at that
point to play that role. Also, the studio wanted that character to be
a prostitute. Oh why a lady of the night? Yes, and the
and the writers were like, you know that we're trying to make a family
friendly movie. I feel like this might play with that. You know that
one guy in the back was just like, how about we make her a
prostitute? Hey, guys, I don't know if you've thought about this yet.
Maybe pipe down, save that for another one. Bob Newhart's Papa Elf
fantastic, he's so good. And Asner is Santa also, Macda is back.
Yes, I want you a lot of far go. I feel like
you just hit the Minnesota accident, Santa Clause, Mary Steinberg and as Emily
Hobbes is great as the foil for Walter Hobbs. Uh. Faison love as
the Gimbals manager. And there's a great tidbit about this casting. In that
Netflix show, they wanted Wanda Sykes super bad in that role that I see,
and knowing that she would have been great. However, Faison was great.
But if you notice, if you rewatch it again, his name tag
even says Wanda on pretty good right there. Peter Dinklage is Miles Finch,
also phenomenal. Amy Sedaris is deb He's she's Walter's secretary. She's great.
Uh, Michael Lerner is Fulton. You might not know who Michael Lerner is,
but when you see his face, you'll recognize who he is. Andy
Richter is Morris, Kyle Gass is Eugene of course of Tenac's d Fame.
Artie Lang is Gimbal. Santa is unbelievable. Yeah, And actually there's a
funny joke in the Honest trailer for this of Andy Richter, Kyle Gas Ardie
Lange just says, sidekicks, you've just assembled basically if character actor from the
two thousand film, it's like, oh, yeah, I know that person
from something. Yes, that's the entire list right there. There's also a
nice little uh casting of the kid from a Christmas Story. He plays one
of the elves buds on the north bowle there. So good. We have
talked about this movie a couple times here, so Alex. We used to
do because we've sort of run out of years and movies to do. We
need to stop this vault series. What the crowd keeps saying to I just
get there screaming outside. It's a lot. We used to go back to
a certain year and then talk about the best movies and worst movies of the
year, and at the end nominate four, have people vote on it on
Twitter or x now. And this was one of the one of our This
was one of our final four for the two thousand and three vault. The
other three where Old School, Lord of the Rings, Return of the King,
and Finding Nemo. This came in second to Old School, which as
much you know, old School might define two thousand and three more, but
this is way more timeless than all timeless. Yes, question, I mean
thinking back to two thousand and three, that's all anybody voted for Yeah,
probably until the forty year old Virgin. Actually know, until Anchorman came out.
I think everyone only just quoted Old School. Yeah, So I'm okay
with that because old School is definitely more that era. But I would rather
watch Elf ten times more than well. Now, yeah, we also talked
about this. We did a Christmas movie though, talked about all the Christmas
movies. Our final four for that were Elf, Home Alone, Them Up
at Christmas, Carol, and The Night Before Christmas. Now that was more
our night Christmas. Yeah, the Nightmare before Christmas. Sorry, that was
more our taste playing into it. It's a wonderful life. Probably should have
been nominated. People would mention Diehard. I argue, it's not a Christmas
movie where you stand on there, it's obviously a Christmas said it a Christmas
party. It really said it at a Christmas party. Can't anymoreus bad Santa?
I think is in a discussion a Christmas Carol and a discussion as well.
But Elf actually won that vote over Home Alone, which is my favorite.
Two favorites come Christmas time, and some of like the online rankings you
go and look at. I just had to bring this up because it bothered
Me. Vulture ranked Elf the twenty eighth best Christmas movie of all time,
Pure insanity. I think you could you could argue four or five, six
or seven movies over it. I'm not even sure I can name twenty seven.
I don't. I have no idea how you justify it was at least
twenty seven Rudolph movies. Shiny New Year, The July One, the one
where he meets Shiny New Year, two, Miser Cold Meser, One Year
Without a Santa Claus. Just about every other publication has a top five,
and I think most people you would speak to would have it in their top
four or five. Yeah. I mean, if you want to argue the
older stuff, which I understand, I think the pacing on the older stuff
doesn't help it out. This is the one I like this Home Alone and
while Home Alone two doesn't have that same feel as Home Alone one, the
murder House at the end might be my favorite Christmas thing. It does have
one hundred percent more Donald Trump. So you go right ahead, gud This
is a point you brought up that I think is interesting to talk about.
In consideration, I think the original person they wanted for this role was Chris
Farley, and obviously it's of the era of Jim Carrey too. Would this
movie have been better or worse with those two castings? So with Farley it's
a completely different movie. And I feel like, and obviously we don't know
because we've never seen a cut with it, but we've also seen some of
the stuff of Farley playing Shrek, and that's completely different than what Mike Myers
is. Yes, to the point of like, I don't know if he
could have had the childlike wonderment and the sincerity that Will Ferrell had here.
So although it would have been maybe a movie that we remember, I don't
think it would have been a timeless classic. You've hit the right word there,
which is the wonder because it's easy to see why they would have picked
Farley or Jim Carrey because they're looking for adult children. I'm looking for people
who can, you know, throw a tantrum or you know, feel larger
than life at the same time as like a three year old feels larger than
life because it's so much energy and power. But neither of them has the
innocence or the wonder or the sweetness that Will Ferrell brings. The word I
keep coming back to is like this wholesomeness beautiful, which I don't think the
other two have, and Will Farrow has to the max. Well, I
think Farley kind of had it, but you needed a sidekick with him,
like a Chris, like a David Chris Baide, like David Spade, who
can like poke at him and like get him to that point. I'm not
sure because when Farley was off on his own, those movies didn't really have
that same feel. Plus, did you know I don't know if you know
this fact. This is not Will Ferrell's first adventure with Christmas. Before he
was famous. He was a mall Santa and his elf was Chris Catant.
They were both coming up in the ranks. And that's so funny. They've
told many stories about it andredible, that's awesome. So the rumor with Jim
Carrey not doing it, and I've only seen that one online because the Chris
Farley stuff is in the Netflix special. But the stuff with Jim Carrey is
that he was doing the Grinch and he didn't want to do back to back
Christmas things. You know, that's a classic Christmas movie, But that one's
insane, but that no one's insane. And that one's a bit more crass.
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it worked out from
that movie did well too. After the success of Old School, which I
think was in the early part of two thousand and three, Yes New Line
looked at this movie and was like, oh boy, we got to capitalize
on the Frank the Tank and didn't want the wholesome Will Ferrell. They wanted
Frank the Tank. So they had actually taken the movie away from Favreaux and
re edited it and tried to make that PG thirteen slash R rated comedy and
they couldn't do it. The footage wasn't there. So they're like, we
didn't shoot that movie. You can't. You can try, you can't edit
something that isn't there, setting it swear beliefs and random times they're like,
look out, look at his mouth. They were actually adding in footage from
Old School, just putting it in there digitally edited Santa Hat just like on
him running through the streets, like look, it's elf. We nailed it.
Didn't know Luke Wilson was in this movie, Jeremy Pevin. So after
they cast Farrell, their next role was Walter that they wanted to cast Originally
they wanted Gary Sandley, which would have been interesting because I don't know,
he could have been as mean but not as serious as Conn plays it.
But I think that Shandling actually could have pulled off the supporting role. He
could have not as not as important as the main role as Buddy the Elf,
And I think that Shandling could have had, like could have had that
hatred and anger towards Buddy. But altoately, when I was young and I
saw this film, like con scared me so like, I mean, you
know, maybe flashbacks to my own father, which you're not getting into this
podcast, but like that's actually why you're here, great, wonderful. I
had no idea, but like I remember being like, I don't know if
Gary Shanling if I looked at it ever looked at that man and been like,
well, the cast and crew was also very afraid of James con sure,
James, God, I would be afraid of him. We also a
couple of years ago, two three years ago, we did a top ten
Will Ferrell characters. Okay, we had Buddy the Elf ranked number two behind
Ron Burgundy, which I think that's that's an absolute fair ranking. Uh So,
getting back to your point, gu has there been a Christmas class since
this movie? So they tried with Violent Night. And while I appreciate Violent
Night, I think that's a fun movie, I don't even consider it a
Christmas movie. No, I mean, after you know, Bad Santa is
maybe the only thing I can think of that sort of bridge that gap of
like adult Christmas movie, Like let's take out all the sweetness and wonder and
childhood fun and we'll just make it like crass and violent and angry. And
there have been ones that have enjoyed, but they're not classics. They're just
kind of there for the moment to be like, oh, this is crampis
a movie about Crampus, and they're like, great, that was the tag
on the movie. Nailed it in one. Yeah. So, and Bad
Santa even works only because of Billy Bob Thort. Anyone else you'd be like,
what are we watching here? So I don't have a class, was
my answer. You asked me this question earlier, That's the one I was
bringing. You stole it from me. Thanks, that's great. Sorry,
I that was a movie. I think my son was like one at the
time, and like, oh an animated movie. Let me put this on
for you, and then I'm sitting there watching like this is fantastic. It
truly is two thousand and three. By the way, you get Bad Santa
as well and also love. Actually, yeah, great year for for a
Christmas movie special there. I have heard that the new Paul Giamatta movie The
Holdovers is almost an instant Christmas class Now that's interesting, but obviously for an
older crowd. It is said at Christmas, it's one So you've seen it.
I've seen it. We haven't seen it. It's fantastic. You know,
Giomani is best. Geomony is one of these actors that like everything you
see him in he's fantastic, and then you forget him out immediately. He's
like, why are you not in more movies? What are you doing?
Paul Giamonni like, yes, it's very sad and very it's it's it's kind
of like got that dead Poet's thing going for that, where like it's inspirational
and it's all about obviously a prep school and uh there's connections made and people
grow as characters, etcetera, etcetera. But it's not like a super cheerful,
fun movie. I wouldn't throw it on with like a hot coco and
be like, this is not my entertainment for the So there's not a ton
of like rewatchability to it. I guess that is what you're saying. Do
you like? How much? Do you want to like be sad like it?
I love it? Then, yeah, you'll you'll enjoy it very much.
It is. It is a fantastic film. I'm just not sure I'll
watch it again next year. Okay, that's fair. I have heard it's
one of the best movies of the year, so I can win that.
I've been putting together my list and it's it's definitely top ten. I have
to figure out where it's gonna go. Here's a good question for you.
So we go back and forth on this. Our top two right now is
Oppenheimer and across the Spider Verse. Okay, I don't know where you stand
on those two. Absolutely those are big top five. Yeah, all right,
there's there's I haven't seen Killers of the Flower Moon yet. I think
it just hits streaming, so that's my next It's really really good. I
have it just a smidge below, say Oppenheimer. Okay, that's interesting.
I did Barbenheimer when that actually came out into the whole five hours back to
back again. Oh no, you do Oppenheimer. Then, Barbie, it's
dinner than dessert. There is no other option. I will hear no.
I yield the rest of my time. I will hear no. Rebuddal that's
true. Imagine having coming off the high of Barbie going into Oppenheimer. I
would just crush your soul. Barbie. But like Barbie Barbers, Yeah,
that's true. That's the main difference. I liked Barbie a lot more than
him. The emotional stuff hit for me, it didn't really hit for him.
Okay, I saw with my mom, so then I was kind of
overwhelmed with my mom sobbing and I was like, well now I'm crying,
thanks mom. All Right, so we talked about Christmas classics. Now let's
talk about like two thousands classics comedies. Okay, obviously I wouldn't say this
is as funny as barrat Stepbrother's Anchorman, But because it's so good, I
think you could argue it's in that top tier. Now. I made two
tiers, so there might be eight tiers, five tiers, however you want
to do it. But I have a tier one of like two thousands classic
comedies, and you tell me what I'm missing or what shouldn't be in there.
I have Stepbrothers, Borat Anchorman, super Bad, and Mean Girls.
I think that five sort of defines that, you know, eight to ten
year period, and I would have this just a tier below with like forty
year Old Virgin, Wedding Crash. There is Jackass, I Love You man
in Old School. I think I have those just a step below that the
top five. So number one Jackass two is better than Jackass one, fair
enough. Also, I think forty year Old Virgin is in the tier one.
I think that kicked off the R rated comedy decade, which was just
Gangbusters. And that's the only thing I'll say about that is the last thirty
minutes. It's a little long. Yeah, yes, it goes a little
long. But that's what an appata movie is. Yeah, that's true and
also true. I mean think back to you know hockey, like in the
locker room, what was the movie that we quoted the most. No,
for sure that it was the forty year Old Virgin. Yeah, I like
the ones who just named you're just basically reading Will Ferrell's holography. That is
that's a huge point too. You just dartboard at his sort of IMBB page.
You're like, well, that's a class. It's like Will Ferrell,
and then you start to get into like Paul Rudd stuff, and like that's
a whole fifteen year period. Well it's like Will Ferrell and then like all
of his friends. So it's like it's kind of sprinkling out. Yeah,
all right, let's get into the gauntlet goo fun. Fact? Does this
movie define fun? Is this the most fun movie ever? It is ninety
seven minutes of just fun. I don't think it is like I would say
fun factor wise, I would have it below say like a Back to the
Future, where I think that movie is just wall to wall. It's like
different fun, it's different kinds of fun. But this is just very simple.
Will Ferrell as perfect casting with the counter of his fuddy duddy daddy yep,
and with the small budget, and they had to only get so much
footage. It's quick, it's brisk. They change the scenes enough. It's
very very well done. You know why I will actually give you credit for
running the goonlet of fun that this is it is that this movie works at
any age. You were nine you were ninety, you will laugh, yeah,
laugh at different things, which I agreed. Back to the future,
I probably had more fun watching. But if I was like fourteen, I'd
be like, what am I watching here? Like I want to play with
swords. I guess that's what I did at fourteen. And you know what,
even like background so to that point in college, my college roommate was
from New York, just outside of New York City. His the hardest,
he laughs, is when Buddy gets hit by the cab, because he's like,
that's so realistic, you know, it's like that, just that little
touch is so good. That's how you know you're a New Yorker is when
you've been robbed, you need a bad celebrity, and you've been hit by
a cab. It's those three things you have officially become a New york Also,
the guy that Will Ferrell says, Santa two on the street, he
didn't even know him. That's awesome. Yep, is this a random guy
in the street. That's great. It's like Billy on the Street way before.
But you talked about quotability. This movie for being as maybe not on
that upper tier of comedy is insanely quotable. Almost every scene has as something
requotable from it. You talk about Cottonhead and Nitny Muggins when he gets scared
by the jack in the box. That kills me every time. The line
about the race pizza being the race pizza, that's an awesome line that you'd
never even would think to put it in there. You get it. Yeah,
you saying that you don't see Santa and you all aways go sat up.
Yeah, I know him. I can't not say it. It's hope
you find you're dead. That's John Fabre is it. Yeah, smiling is
my favorite. I'm singing. I'm singing. Every single interaction with Faison love
is absolutely gold amazing. You sit on a throne of lines. I think
I might quote that one the most. It's a great quote. Oh he's
an angry elf. I always Francisco, Francisco. That's fun to say out
of the elf. What's your favorite color? Like? It's the whole movie
from top to bottom is so cornable. Son of a Nutcracker. That's another
one that's great. You walk into an elevator and you just see all the
buttons and you just have that instinct to just like fingers all the way down,
it's like, all right. One of the funniest things that has been
that was originally pointed out I think in one of those like honest trailer type
videos is the guy that he drinks with in the mail room. It's supposed
to be like twenty six years old. That man looks like he's fifty five.
That's Hans Mallman. I'm thirty two. Alcohol has ruined my life?
Uh, satisfactor. How satisfying is this movie? To you? Guys?
It's wildly satisfying. But I will say that the end it is them trying
to find an ending almost and although I don't love it like I love I
think the ending of Home Alone is way more satisfying. Yeah, that's true,
but true this movie needed to end, and that is that's a good
Christmas spirit Christmas movie ending. Yeah, there's a family, there's a successful
business. James Gone is happy. What more do you want? Yeah?
The real satisfying thing, I guess is James Kahn. He starts singing,
he makes that switch and he finally like opens up his heart. But also,
why wasn't he singing like he just met Santa Claus. He's a curmudgeon.
I know, but he just met Santa Claus. It's not like you
know, he hadn't met him yet. Borahmer. If you were looking at
this as a meter of bor Alex, was there any ticking on the meter
at no point? It's ninety minutes of like insanity and wildness and manic craziness
for Christmas, like we be bored. We say this so often, is
that if you can get a movie to ninety minutes, we'll almost always accept
it. It's the perfect length right there. It is. That's how long
a dream is. Honestly, like, even if you don't love a movie
or borderline, if you borderline disliked a movie and it was eighty eight minutes,
you're like, I'm not even that upset. No, no, no,
I've watched TV shows that are longer than at this point, and that's
one of thirty. So let's dance Halloween. This is us misconstruing the words
ween and Wayne Alex. Has this movie waned over time to you? No?
In fact, it's gotten better yes by Christmas? Why you know?
Does it have something to do with Zoe deschanelisn't on TV anymore? So I
don't have to be annoyed by her constantly, and this is like a lovely
take. Yeah, maybe this is about the level I could take of that
woman. And there it is. Yeah, No, it's it's only gotten
better all time. Great rewatchability. Yes, this and Home Alone are the
only two that I watched multiple times during the Christmas season. Equator equator is
this? Is this movie better or worse or the same as twenty seventeen's Aquaman.
It's a tough call. Better. I know you guys show Aquaman every
December. Here in classic tradition, people come and float ees, It's wonder,
bring your trit as to the raft, No weapons in the pants,
tent city, Excite bike Mania. This is the PG way of saying,
did anything in this movie get you going? Really really stir you up?
No, to put it, That's totally fine. I'm not thrown by the
question. I'm more interested in your answers because if there's a yes coming,
this podcast is going to run a little longer. To keep it PG,
no, to give it to be honestly, to say. PG thirteen the
singing in the shower scene. All right, sure, all right, fair
a little bit cu Max credit Union. This is the segment of our program
where I give credit to someone that made the movie or in the movie.
Obviously Will Ferrell is the obvious answer. But I would say this script is
pretty great. The writing is really good, the joke telling is great.
So I got to give David Berenbaum his credit because he never found success.
Again, I want to give Will Ferrell more credit because, like we already
talked about earlier, I don't think anyone else could have pulled off this wide
eyed, wholesome, silly character and made you want to watch it again.
Yeah. Yeah, because there's also a point of if someone else is doing
this, you're like, oh, that wasn't bad, but you're not going
to want to watch it again. He plays it so well, Yeah,
he really does. He also, obviously John Favreau has to get some credit
here. Yeah. I just read a book about the rise of MC of
Studios, which was phenomenal, and you learned how much he was just pushing
for this vision because you're dealing with suits, you're dealing with being character.
Yeah, the character, that's exactly right. And then the podcast, now,
yeah, we're good. You nailed it. You nailed it on a
terrible pun, and so I obviously I haven't looked into this, but I
imagine, especially if it's new line is putting this together, you need a
director who's like, I have this decision, I want this to come out
this way, and I know what's going to work. And he did.
Yeah. His number one thing was for this to be timeless, and he
nailed it and nailed it. Yeah. Success, all right, hot dogs,
hot dogs, Alex. I know this was briefly explained to love this.
We rate things on a forty hot dog rating stuff, and everyone,
I'm shocked to hear you even need to do you give something a forty.
It's the best movie roughly you've ever seen. I'll go first. If you
don't mind, you know what, I'll let you go first. That's fine.
So this Fish out of Water in New York City is perfectly executed by
Will Ferrell. His physical comedy in two thousand and three is peak. It's
peak Will Ferrell. Beyond Will Ferrell. The supporting cast is call it time
out real quick. Yeah, have you ever seen Old School? On mute?
I've not seen Old School. I cannot recommend that enough. Will Ferrell
is unbelievable. Just the facial expression is when he's doing the toiral stuff.
Okay, that's the best part. Actually, I would say the pool party,
the party stuff with him like it's it's so good, it's so good.
But I do that way more than i'd like time in Beyond fare,
the supporting cast in this movie is incredible. There's like twelve to fifteen great
characters in here. Some of them get thirty seconds, some of them get
three minutes, and they do a really good job of painting this pessimistic New
York City up against Buddy's glee. It's a really good they're really good foils
for each other. Yeah, And as funny as this movie is, it's
ultimately defined by its heart, which is why I think it makes for me
the best Christmas movie ever. The feel good moment during the conclusion when everyone's
singing like it's a bit corny, but it's Christmasy as well, and Christmas
is kind of corny obviously, it's hysterical as well. We talked about the
comedies. There's actually a decent little romance story in here too. It's not
a bad rom com between him and Jovie. But I think what takes this
from like being a great movie to all time great is the pacing. There's
no moment wasted in this movie from beginning to end. It's ninety seven minutes.
Whatever it is, it's perfect, perfectly paced. So while maybe it's
not a forty out of forty comedy or a forty out of forty family movie,
I think when you consider all the outside factors and the fact that it's
like clearly my number one Christmas movie, I had to give this forty hot
dogs and I very rarely I nitpick a lot. I think maybe you could
argue it to thirty nine, but for me, it's a forty hot dog
movie. Yeah. For me. First off, I want to give a
shout out to Michael for wearing a Wayne Krabet jersey that's perfectly of the time.
That might be the only thing that takes it out of being timeless,
because that was the first thing I looked at him, like, what was
he wearing? Eighty jets? Okay, But like we've already talked about a
million times, Will Ferrell is perfect in this. It captures the Christmas magic
that they're absolutely going for. And Favreau wanted he wanted that rankin bass.
He wanted that every year you can put it on, you can watch it
with your mom, you can watch it with your dad, you can watch
it with your kid of any age. This movie hits for everybody. It's
one of the most quotable Christmas movies of all time. You made the point
of making it, you know, quotable movies of the decade. And I
think as a Christmas movie, this is pretty perfect as a Christmas movie.
This is a forty hot dog Christmas movie. If you're talking about just a
movie in general, you might knock it down to like, you know,
thirty seven, thirty eight because you can't compare are it. No, yeah,
you can give me if you take it. We're not tell Chindler's List.
It's a tough comparition. I know it's tough to compare those movies,
but don't throw it up against the Christmas backdrop. If you had to evaluate
this in a vacuum as a movie, what's your score? Probably thirty seven
or thirty eight. Okay, all right, that's fair. But I also
you need to look at the context of what the movie is fair. I
know, and I'm just saying, like, like Christmas movie wise, I
don't think you can do better than what this is. Yeah, yeah,
well so don't you think that it being like a fifty out of forty Christmas
movie brings it up to forty. That's not how the skis. Well,
I'm not gonna argue it broke my brain. Thirty seven thirty eight is a
great score. Okay. So this movie obviously iconic for lots of reasons and
has sort of transcended the film itself. I mean, if you're going to
hire someone to be at your your Christmas party, you're gonna hire a Santa.
You're gonna hire a buddy the Elk. Yeah, they're like, that's
it, Like who else would you? I guess a missus Claus. So
you've got three options, maybe a weird dude in a reindeer suit with like
a glowing red news even that's like you hire him first. Yeah, that's
the first one obviously. And so I kind of agree with you that it's
hard to take this out of kind of the Christmas vacuum of like I wouldn't
watch this in like March see I would, Okay, And that's totally fair.
I have a colleague named Bridget who sets up all of our movie party.
So we're at the Almo draft House. We do elf with props and
you get like hats and snowballs, and it's really fun. This is the
bane of her existence because she has to do so many shout out Bridget and
so it's really funny to watch her. The only person I know who actually
actively hates this movie. And so I would give it thirty five syrup filled
hot dogs, the most sweet, disgusting odd dogs. But I'm giving the
extra five just to annoy Bridget. You get that four full forty? Yeah,
just fight, but probably thirty five your shortlist of greatest Christmas movies ever?
Get what's in the conversation with Elf for you? So I love Night
Member four Christmas that you brought up, But I think Night Member before Christmas
is a Christmas movie for people who love Halloween. Halloween movie for people love
Christmas. I think it's the opposite way there. That's the one I probably
watch more than anything else. I just think it's weird and wonderful and dark.
I do watch Diehard as a Christmas movie. I think that you know,
you've got violence and anger and Alan Rickman. What more would you want
for Christmas? That's a great movie. That's a great film. That's right.
So we we've this is seven years, six years of a standing argument
die Hard being a Christmas not being Christmas movie. I've gotten so deep in
that people think I don't like die Hard. I love Diehard. I just
draw that line in the sand I Christmas. I also refuse to have this
argument anymore. It's it's the hot dog is a sandwich argument for movies.
It really doesn't matter. It's at a Christmas party. Yeah, I mean
the second Fas line is him with the machine gun. Oh yeah, there's
the line. Yeah. I think those are like my mom really loves White
Christmas. She watches that a lot, and that one. That one's sweet
and wonderful. I love the old ranking baths stuff. I don't know if
you are you guys big TikTok people, and if you're not totally fun Okay,
So all the people doing the claymation like in live action to those songs,
it's incredible to see. I don't know why this year over any other
year, but they feel like they've been a ton of them and it's super
nostalgia. Like that's wonderful. I think, you know, obviously we just
talked about this movie for forty five minutes, but I think that's what ropes
you into this movie immediately. Is it feeling like those classics? From the
jump one minute in? It feels like those ranking and bestmentvies, which is
great. Yeah. I did update my Christmas list? Do you want to
do a top ten Christmas list? Oh? As a separate podcast because we
need content. We did the vault, but we didn't do the top ten
because we desperately need content. It's on my lap right now, see it.
I haven't made this list. I'm going to have to do that.
This is good. Yeah, yeah, So what is your top four on
that list? Right? Top four? I mean that kind of gives it
away. I mean already, but we've all I'll just give my top two
because we've talked about it a million times. I think you've mentioned it too,
Elfin Home Alone are just the ones that every single year, and Home
Alone is the other one now that people start to give, well it's Christmas.
No, that is there's a movie that you cannot tell unless it's Christmas.
The only so because they bring this up as a counter to the to
the Diehard argument is Diehard could happen any other number of times a year,
which I think I think there's like seven or eight other times during the year.
You could set diehard and it would work. Ye, Home Alone only
works during Christmas time or Thanksgiving. It has to be that draw. Maybe
it has to be the hectic travel. Which hectic travel, It's it only
like one two three times a year. That's why I think Home Alone is
more of a Christmas movie. But you could make the diehard argument against you
heard it there first, Home Alone a hectic travel time movie. All right,
so I guess that'll do it for this episode of MAC and do Alex,
would you like to plug yourself? Hello? Yes, all right,
let's do that. I'm Alex. I'm at Alex shebar s HG B A
r on on Instagram and at featuring Alex on on TikTok. I do a
movie fact every single day at ten second movie fact on TikTok every single day.
Awesome. So if you want, you know, nonsense, you can
do That's that's that's featuring Alex on TikTok. If the audience here loves nothing
else, it's nonsense. Yeah, there it is that well, I got
plenty of it for you. And of course, the Alamo Draft is now
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Now he's done. He's done this over eight and freaked down t bubook
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because I need Christmas dollars. Check us out at the beginning of next week
for a news dump and then we'll have some more Christmas fun or maybe what
have you been watching? Because we had seven more movies to do that and
if we both see God's Own minus one, that'll be worth talking about and
if you see us next wins it's rough. Don't give away anything, sorry,
I mean it was a mystery so much, and love him much,
but you know what, he has a show called Our Flag Meats Death,
which I'm absolutely loving. So you know ups and downs of Taiko this year.
I didn't want to give anything away, but it felt like someone wrote
the movie for him and then tried to put in taikas well. That's exactly
right. I felt like it was the Mighty Ducks with with him, but
neither one was done well, and you just like, what go one way
or the other, but you can't do just Fashbender helped the movie at all.
And this is the movie he like, hadn't a movie in like half
a decade because he's been racing and he came back to make this and then
you're just like, what disappointing? What are you doing? Brother? Yeah,
I'm gonna come away loving Italy. I hope you do. I really
honestly hope you do. I'm gonna apologize for it if you don't mind me,
all right, So check us out next week. Thank you to this
great studio audience. Bye bye bye. Please flip the cassette over to Side
B to continue the adventure.