How could they go on for an hour and twenty minutes about Christmas Vacation, and absolutely NO mention of Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis?! Just an absolute disservice.
Batman Returns, Lethal Weapon, Eyes Wide Shut, Trading Places, Gremlins, Money Train, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Friday After Next, In Bruges, Why Him, Iron Man 3, The Family Man. All Christmas Movies!!!!
Yep. Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Ref and Bad Santa always make my Christmas movie watch list --- Oh...plus The Ice Harvest. Critics hated it, but I rather like it (big Billy Bob Thornton and Oliver Platt fan)
My son (3-1/2 at the time) made me replay the turkey scene over and over. Even he recognized the comedy in the modern day. Christmas Vacation is a forever classic. Every beat is solid.
There is another chapter in the Griswolds Vacation lore which I highly recommend. It is an original story and a musical to boot ~ The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation. The family goes to NYC to see the hottest show on Broadway but Clark falls victim to a fake ticket scam. Ellen gets a great story as well ~ the most popular Times Square character is obsessed with her and leads an entire army of Times Square characters to win her heart. The show had a World Premiere in Seattle in 2022 with the hope of moving to Broadway. Great songs, funny script and more heart than you would expect from the Vacation-verse. Still waiting for the show to make it to Broadway...
THE most rewatchable movies of my childhood watching HBO in the 80s: Ferris, Goonies, Rocky IV, Delta Force, Back to the Future, Revenge of the Nerds, WIldcats, Karate Kid, Empire, Jedi, Doc Hollywood, My Girl, Better Off Dad, Breakfast Club, Mask, Strange Brew, Bad News Bears Back in Training, The Toy, Midnight Madness, and the action documentary The Legend of Billie Jean. Let's keep "The Feed" turning 'em out. Shout out to Dream On, First and Ten, Tales from the Crypt, and even Herman's Head. Halcyon times.
What with the "BTTFIII" disrespect? It's a warm, wonderful conclusion to the greatest trilogy. "LOTR" arguably stopped being a trilogy when Peter Jackson made it a six-part series.
Jason Sudeikis is a pretty good “everything’s going to shits, trying to save it all” actor, I think. Just for a more modern example of a Chevy chase comp.
**If Christmas (as a plot devise) is removed from the film, does the inciting incident/conflict/action, around which the story revolves, still occur?** That is how you determine if X movie is indeed a Christmas movie. If not for the Nakatomi Corp. Christmas party, John McCain is fighting crime in the streets of NY. If you were to remove all-things Christmas related, the film would no longer work. As such, Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie.
Griswolds was close to having a Simpsons live action. Any weekend update anchor could play Clark and recast the kids everytime and you could keep making Vacation movies.
I've been making a ritual on Christmas Eve and Day to play the top christmas movies, and I've never seen A Wonderful Life all the way through, so its now in the rotation. Streaming has a big advantage there.
Putting the uprooted Christmas tree mystery to rest here... It was a deleted scene Clark goes to a gentleman sitting in a lawn chair next to a sign that says bring your own chainsaw or something like that of course clock didn't bring the chainsaw so he rents him a shovel and he has to dig it out himself... There's actually a still photograph of the scene
1. Clark's boss is played by Brian-Doyle-Murry (Bill Murry's brother) calls him greaseball and various names before he get's it right at the end. 2. GOOF: The lights outside the attic window don't match the pattern with the rest of the house. 3. My favorite part is when Ellen pulls the chain on the trap door. 🤣🤣 4. Mae Questel played Aunt Bethany. She was the original Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, This was her last gig.😇 5. In the big rant scene the other actors had Chevy's lines written on placards so he wouldn't get his lines out of order. 6. Living next door to them must be kind of like living next door to the Bundys. 7. Fun fact; Chase actually hurt his hand karate chopping the reindeer. 8. Clark's boss is Brian-Doyle-Murphy (Bill Murry's brother) calls him greaseball when he drops off his gift.🤣 He doesn't get his name right until the end. 9. Ellen is played by Beverly DeAngelo. She also played in "Every Which way but Loose" with Clint Eastwood and in "Hair". EWWBL would be a great first-time share but "Hair" would give you copywrite issues. Finally, she has a couple of kids with Al Pacino. I like her better than the sales girl.😍😋🥰 10. This IS my Christmas movie every year 11. Fun fact: This is the only Vacation where Audrey is older than Rusty. 12. Clark is going to need that 20% bonus to repair the house.🥺 13. My picks in order: Christmas, Vacation, European and finally Last Wages
I was a little kid when Home Alone came out, so i have a soft spot for it. As i got older, i lean more toward Christmas Vacation and maybe even The Ref
I always love the 'Die Hard' Christmas movie debate, for all those that dont class it as one yet hold up 'Its a Wonderful Life' as the greatest Christmas movie of all time. First of all I fucking love both movies but aside from the opening and very end 'Its a Wonderful Life' is not a Christmas movie aside from those bookends whereas Die Hard does take place on Christmas Eve, ends with a classic Christmas song...Any thoughts?
My favorite Christmas movie by far- the ending was too over the top with the police etc, . When will there be a re-listenable? Review past albums? I'm available if you need a host Bill ??
21:13 there's no argument Bill. One guy won every final and 2 3peats, never taken to a game 7 in a finals series. The other is a hack that's jumped around stacking teams and still have lost finals and even been swept!
My top 10 Xmas movies: 10. Home Alone 2 9. Carol 8. The Holdovers 7. Rudolf (claymation version) 6. Home Alone 5. Die Hard 4. Bad Santa 3. Eyes Wide Shut (yeah, it's a Xmas movie. It's Kubrick's version of Its A Wonderful Life) 2. A Christmas Story 1. Christmas Vacation (the DEF of rewatchable) PS oh yeah, Elf is garbage
Toy story 3 , Rocky 3, Indian Jones and the Last Crusade , And you can kinda count the good, the bad , and the ugly are all better than Christmas vacation has trilogy movies.
It's great because it's not just jokes - it's really about something, a dad screwing up because he really wants to do something great for his family. And then, of course, all old/black and white movies are "shit" - the usual incisive Bill Simmons "nothing existed before 1975" analysis.
That's not true. Bill is a Celtics fan. If nothing before 1975 existed, then the Celtics would only have like 5 rings. Then they would be even further behind the lakers than they actually are...
