Happy Holidays from Stereo Geeks! In the first of a two-part holiday special episode, Ron and Mon share the holidays films and shows from the past few years that will get you into the holiday spirit (and some that will turn you into a grinch). Join us for holiday recommendations, find out why we're enjoying holiday movies, and get some tips on which movies to avoid.

Check out Mon's reviews for Hotel for the Holidays and a few other holiday films. And, if you scroll long enough, here's Mon's short review of Love Hard on Collider.com.

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

Hello and welcome to a Holiday Special from Stereo Geeks.

I'm Mon.

And I'm Ron.

This is going to be a two-part episode because we've watched so many Christmas and holiday films over the last few years, we can't contain it in one episode.

We've mentioned before that holiday films weren't really on our radar when we were younger, mostly because they didn't show a lot of stuff.

Hallmark Channel was not a thing.

But I have to say, you and I have got caught up in the North American holiday craze.

And we have kind of enjoyed watching holiday films.

Not saying they're all good, but it's kind of fun.

I have to admit, ever since we moved to Canada, we've been enjoying watching holiday movies.

We don't really have any traditions since we moved here.

So watching holiday movies kind of helps us get into the spirit of all the Christmas trees and lights and fun.

I totally agree with you.

I have to say that the films, after a while, you start seeing patterns and formulas.

But from time to time, some of them will surprise you.

And yeah, some of them are good, some of them are bad, some of them are memorable.

Most of them are pretty run-of-the-mill.

The first time we did holiday special episodes, I think we were going in completely blind.

We had no idea what we wanted from these movies.

I think we were a bit harsh because we were expecting plot and character growth.

And what we actually ended up getting was very twee, very rural focused stories.

Don't go to the big bad city.

I feel like that's a theme that is prevalent in Hallmark movies.

But you and I were completely unprepared for that.

That is so true.

But it's funny because a lot of the films still maintain that kind of same formula and that same essential plot line.

Look, if it's a comfort watch for people, go ahead, let it be a comfort watch.

We're just watching this stuff for fun.

And we have some thoughts and we wanted to share them.

Exactly.

So what kind of movies have you been catching up with over the last couple of years?

Well, I can't attest to whether they're from Hallmark channel or not, because I watched them on different apps in Canada.

But I watched a movie last year called The Royal Nanny.

And yeah, it's as silly as you can imagine.

I watched it because Rachel Skarston is in it.

Apparently she's in a few of these from time to time.

Not that I'm going to catch all of them, but I really liked her in Batwoman as Alice.

And I guess I was missing the show a lot.

So when this popped up, I thought to watch it, because we also watched another movie which had another Batwoman actor.

We'll get to that in a minute.

The Royal Nanny, I kind of liked it because the central character is an MI5 agent.

And the main plot is that she has to go undercover as the nanny for these royal children.

And you know, there's a romance, blah, blah, blah, all that bit is silly.

But they have a subplot of trying to get the bad guys and it's so badly made.

But it was different from the other ones that I've seen.

So it sort of broke the monotony of what you would expect from the formula.

And it was really sweet and kind of cute.

Skarsden is a really interesting actress in the sense that she doesn't try too hard, but she has these quirks which made her version of Alice very appealing.

So I quite like that about her performance in this movie as well.

So yeah, if you like royalty, British accents, a little bit of action, if you could call it that, this is a really fun movie to catch.

Okay, not what I expected.

Sticking to the Batwoman theme, we watched Something from Tiffany's, where Javicia Leslie, who played Batwoman, has a very, very small role.

I actually literally put that movie on just because I knew that she was in it and was a little bit disappointed at how small her role was.

But she and another actor brought in the queer chemistry there, which is really sweet.

This movie was so stressful to watch.

It really was, there is very little Christmas spirit to this film because it's so stressful.

There's so many twists and turns and it's all about a MacGuffin that needs to get in the right hands at the right time.

It's so low stakes and yet we were at the edge of our seats, sweating bullets because you just didn't know what obstacle would come in the way to prevent the MacGuffin from reaching the right place.

Yeah, this ended up being a really interesting film to watch and I feel like one of the reasons for that, apart from the fact that it was super stressful, was that the characters were not exactly the Hallmark types.

They were very flawed.

One of the guys was a out and out daughter.

No other way to describe it.

Well, this isn't a Hallmark film and you can see the difference because the production values are very polished, the acting is very, I wouldn't say high brow, but it is accomplished.

There's not much melodrama or histrionics and obviously there's no formula.

So that really works in this film's favor.

But yeah, wow, this is stressful.

Yeah, it had a really diverse cast like Zoey Deutch, Kendrick Sampson, Shay Mitchell.

So you got a real flavor of New York as it is right now, instead of the Hallmark, very very whitewashed versions of the US.

Yeah, I have to say, New York features a lot in these Christmas movies.

It was funny watching this film because I think we watched it soon after we watched Hotel for the Holidays.

I get the feeling both these films may be from Amazon.

I'm not sure.

But Hotel for the Holidays is very Hallmark-esque in its production values, the performances, the storyline, whereas something from Tiffany's is definitely not.

But both movies are like about the same five blocks of New York.

So you see the same facades and Christmas trees, etc.

And I get it.

New York is very picturesque and very beautiful, especially during Christmas.

But when we watched it back to back, it was very unnerving.

Hotel for the Holidays started off strong, but it kind of fell into all those tropes that we struggle with in the Hallmark movies where you have a person who is ambitious, wants a little bit more from her life, is very good at what she does right now, but doesn't want to keep doing it forever.

And literally everybody around her seems to be not interested in letting her move on from the role that she's in.

Yeah, that movie confused me.

It was not all that well made.

There were a lot of characters.

It was trying to be like Love Actually, but most of the characters didn't have any arc or storyline.

They were sort of all paired up for no reason.

Nobody had any chemistry.

It didn't make much sense.

Who are these people?

Why are they doing these things?

It didn't even have that sort of twee feel to it.

Yeah, it was kind of a waste.

I kind of liked the fact that there were so many different kind of characters there.

Some of them had very interesting storylines.

But the problem was that the main characters seemed to be doing really mean things to each other.

And I just feel like there's a line that a character crosses that just makes them unlikable.

And I feel like the two main characters in Hotel for the Holidays just kept crossing that line.

Yeah, not very likable, unfortunately.

But speaking of a cast of vast characters, let's talk about This is Christmas.

A very generic name, it actually was very difficult for us to track this movie down.

But this is a British Christmas movie, quite different from the Hallmark versions.

It ended up being very, very low stakes, not stressful at all.

After having got something from Tiffany's, this was exactly what we needed.

It was just a bunch of people trying to put a little Christmas party together.

And the reason why they want to do that is because they all take the same train every single morning, and they just kind of got to know each other.

There is a tiny bit in the middle where somebody does something and you're like, oh no, this is terrible.

But it all gets resolved in the end.

This movie was so soothing.

It's just as comfortable as sitting on the train with a quiet cabin and you're just watching the world go by.

It was so nice and peaceful.

And unlike most of the other films which we've watched, the main characters have a lot of chemistry, not just romantic chemistry, but chemistry with each other.

So you can believe that they want to hang out with each other or they're interested in hanging out with each other.

I think it helps that Alfred Enoch has a very calming persona, at least in the film.

And he really brought this sort of endearing enthusiasm for the main plot line.

I genuinely loved watching this film.

It was very sweet.

And you know what, I didn't feel like This Is Christmas was going too hard.

Like it was literally just a train, the train station and a couple of houses here and there and an office.

But a movie that I really struggled with was Spirited.

So tell me all because I haven't bothered to watch this one.

So I didn't watch it when it first came out.

I got it this year and it's just too slick.

I can't believe I'm saying this.

But what I would actually define this movie as is a kitchen sink movie.

It's basically got everything thrown at it.

And I think some movies just want to do that.

They want to have every single thing in it.

So you have a character who has to have an arc because he's not a very nice guy.

He needs to become a better guy.

Then you have another guy who's gone through it all.

He's seen things.

He was the bad guy and now he's a good guy.

You have the secondary characters who don't want to do what they're doing, but they've just got to do their jobs right.

And you've got singing and dancing and you've got magic, politics.

And I'm just like, why are you doing so much in this movie?

Because you're not doing all of it justice.

That seems like a lot.

I understand what you mean by kitchen sink movie.

And the thing is, when I started watching it, I was like, it should be appealing.

It's got Ryan Reynolds in it.

He's very funny, right?

I feel like when Ryan Reynolds was an actor, it was fine.

But now that Ryan Reynolds is a brand, I just can't get into it.

Oh, that's terrible.

I kind of still like Ryan Reynolds, I think.

I don't know.

He's fine.

The problem is, now when he's in a movie, I don't see the character.

I'm seeing Ryan Reynolds.

That's fair.

And the other problem is Will Ferrell.

Look, nobody in our family likes Will Ferrell.

I don't know what the poor man did, but he is always Will Ferrell.

So he's playing this character who has quite a steep arc.

A lot happens.

And throughout, I'm just like, yeah, it'll get resolved, it's Will Ferrell.

All right, so there are high stakes, but it's also predictable.

Spirited is actually referencing the whole story of Scrooge.

So we already know this story, and the movie is counting on that fact.

But you've got to give us a bit more than, oh, we're referencing this, oh, look at us, we're dropping all these cool Easter eggs.

There's got to be more.

The production values out of this world.

They really went all out.

The set design is superb.

They have so many things happening.

On a big screen, it looks great.

The problem is, I'm not interested in these characters.

Honestly, I feel like with holiday films, unless you connect with the characters, the magic of Christmas doesn't quite come alive.

And maybe that's why, if we can segue to a movie where we did enjoy the characters, let's talk about a Hallmark movie called Holiday sitter.

We've just been talking about how holiday movies on Hallmark are very twee, but in all honesty, the Holiday sitter was a lot of fun to watch.

It was adorable.

So having queer characters in Hallmark movies is a new phenomenon.

If I'm not wrong, Jonathan Bennett was actually one of the first gay actors to play a gay character on a Hallmark movie.

And we have reviewed that.

This film, Holiday sitter, also stars Bennett, but this time he is the main character.

In the previous one, he was not.

Anyway, so he's this high-faluting New York-based person.

He's very career-oriented, and then he has to fly back home for the holidays.

It's very last minute.

He's house-sitting for his family, and he's clueless.

He's kind of saved by his family's neighbor, played by George Crissa.

The family's neighbor is called Jason.

And yeah, a really cute, adorable, romantic story happens.

I really enjoyed myself watching this movie.

It's sweet, it's funny, it's got a lot of heart.

It's everything you want in a Christmas movie.

Absolutely.

If we had to recommend a Hallmark movie, we'd definitely recommend this one.

But another queer movie that we watched last year didn't quite work out as well.

Are we talking about single all the way?

Unfortunately, we are.

Now, this was a Netflix film.

We were very excited about it, but it just wasn't as fun.

You know what it was missing?

Chemistry.

There was no chemistry between the main characters.

The one bright spark in that film was Luke McFarlane, who we only recently discovered apparently is in Hallmark movies all the time.

This was not a Hallmark movie.

As mentioned, this was a Netflix film.

And also he was playing a gay character.

He is a gay man.

Honestly, I just loved him in that film.

He was so sweet and nice.

But Michael Urie and his co-star and all his other co-stars who were playing his family, none of them had any chemistry.

It was so boring to watch.

There was also something really weird about there being just one black character, and he was made to do all the housework every time.

Oh yeah, it was so weird.

I know they were trying to play it up for laughs, a little bit like Happiest Season and the sister who's constantly like the tech support, but it came across wrong.

The optics were so wrong.

It didn't work at all.

And I was just like so disappointed because it should have been funny and fun and sweet.

And instead, it just felt kind of uncomfortable.

It was one of those movies which was trying to be like, okay, with the fact that it was a gay movie in a genre that's not usually gay, but at the same time, it was trying to do everything.

It sort of fell flat, which is a shame because Michael Urie is just very funny.

This one did not do him justice.

And here's another queer film that really rubbed us the wrong way, Under the Christmas Tree.

There's no redeeming those characters.

I am sorry.

That lady should never have got together with the other lady.

I'm not going to mention who got together with whom, but seriously, it was just so wrong.

I was so angry.

Now this was a lesbian Hallmark movie, which is exactly why you and I wanted to watch it.

But it's a movie about this person who is trying to steal another person's very beloved tree.

And as much as they tried to make it all cutesy-putsy with the little gingerbread competition and this and that, I'm sorry, but there was something foundationally wrong with this relationship and no gingerbread competition could help that.

It was just not happening.

I was not happy with this film at all.

You have one character talking about the importance of this Christmas tree and how old it is, and another character just straight up goes, yeah, I'm gonna cut it down.

How did they end up together?

I do not understand.

I don't wanna think about this movie anymore.

Let's move on from this movie.

So you've got a few that you've watched which I may not have caught up with.

So I watched a New York Christmas wedding a few years ago.

This is kind of a sad Christmas movie in a way because it's about this woman who's kind of trying to come to accept the best friend that she lost.

And then she gets a second chance.

She's transported to an alternate universe where her best friend didn't die and they actually end up getting together.

And it's very sweet.

The chemistry is very palpable between these two main characters.

There's a lot of distress because they aren't being accepted for who they are.

And you're kind of just rooting for these two people to be together and you're like, oh, but this is an alternate universe.

How is that going to get fixed?

So I like the gimmick, but I also really like the story.

Yes, I remember watching this a long time ago as well.

I also remember there's this overarching sense of melancholy that this film has, which is not something you'd expect from a Christmas or a holiday film.

But yeah, it was really nice.

Very simply made, even though the plot line is alternate dimensions, whatever.

But yeah, very interesting film for sure.

Speaking of science fiction gimmicks, I want to mention one of the films that I randomly caught this year.

This is a 2022 film.

It's called Christmas on Repeat.

It's basically about this lady who is repeating Christmas Day.

She's stuck in a time loop.

It's Groundhog Day.

And how can she get out of it?

What does she need to fix it?

The plot summary sounded interesting, which is why I clicked on it.

The performances are bad.

The production values are bad.

The writing is bad.

Nothing is good with this film.

But I watched it, so I'm telling you all about it.

Okay, definitely not on the recommendation list then.

I thought they were trying to do something different.

Then they weren't.

Then they threw in a plot twist, where things don't get wrapped up as easily as I thought.

And then they dragged it on forever and ever.

And I was like, when does this movie end?

So that was disappointing.

Moving on from this one.

Well, quite a few years ago, I caught a movie called Let It Snow.

I wasn't watching it for the Christmas vibes.

I was just watching it.

This is a really sweet movie.

It's basically a lot of young people.

It's not for older audiences.

But even then, I really enjoyed it.

It's about a whole bunch of people who get snowed in.

And there are lots of people who realize that they want to be with other people.

There's a cute little queer love story in there.

It's just very sweet and relaxing and kind of funny, kind of cringey as well at times, but not like the kind of cringe that makes you want to run away.

I don't remember it very well, but I do remember I recommended it to my cousin.

That's how much I enjoyed it.

So yes, definitely watch that one.

Oh man, sounds like I should go and watch this.

I think it's on Netflix if I'm not wrong.

I will go check it out.

Another movie which has a lot of characters, it's called A Christmas to Treasure.

It's also a 2022 film.

Slightly different from the usual, it has a group of friends at the center.

So they return to their hometown on a scavenger hunt set by a character who was a very huge part of their lives.

And yeah, there's like romance happening and people coming to terms with how their lives have changed, trying to figure out why they made the decisions that they did.

It was okay, a bit dull.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad.

Not the best acted film, unfortunately.

And at the end, the characters kept trying to ship these two other characters.

And I was like, leave them alone.

Let them just figure it out on their own.

It was pretty enjoyable, to be honest.

Production values are not so great, but you know, it's kind of cute.

A couple of movies I caught on Netflix.

Love Hard, did you see that one with Nina Dobrev?

There was this list on collider.com of romantic films or something.

And I contributed the review for this film.

So I obviously liked it.

It's funny because I don't actually remember this film often.

Even though it's on Netflix and it does show up in the holiday collection, that's weird.

But you know what?

Aside from the initial catfishing gimmick, we won't get into details that's spoiler territory.

Honestly, this is so sweet.

It's kind of like cozy and happy.

Yeah, I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this movie and how sweet it turned out to be.

I think it helps that all the supporting characters are really, really adorable.

So that just makes the initial catfishing storyline a little bit bearable.

There's also a level of earnestness, right?

Again, chemistry, earnestness, those are kind of the character traits that make these kind of films enduring, and it really works.

Also, Netflix production values are very nice.

Even if it's in the middle of nowhere in a suburban town that nobody's heard of, it just looks very clean and pretty and picturesque.

And a film that I really enjoyed, but apparently you didn't, was A Night Before Christmas, and this is Night with KNIGHT.

I watched this film on your recommendation, and it was so unmemorable, I can't remember anything about it.

So over to you, I guess.

Well, for one, it's got time travel in it.

I'm anyway so old.

I like movies about fish out of water.

That's probably why I like Captain America and MCU films.

We have a knight from Medieval Times get transported into present day, and he suddenly has to figure out how everything is so weird and why people are disconnected from each other.

It's sweet.

There's nothing else you want from it.

I think you have to actually be in a certain frame of mind to watch a lot of Christmas films, and sometimes I'm just not there, which is why my Christmas films get such bad reviews.

I'm not a Grinch.

I can assure you I am not a Grinch, but I guess I just have a different outlook when it comes to my entertainment.

And I'm not there yet when it comes to the Christmas stuff.

Maybe after a few more years of watching holiday movies and making this the new tradition, I will be there.

But it's funny you bring up Marvel, considering one of the Christmas specials that we watched was the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special.

We even made our parents watch it because it's Marvel, so we watch Marvel as a family when we're together.

All I can say is it's a wonder that they're still talking to us.

That movie was atrocious.

I think it was a sign of things to come and we went to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and disliked it completely.

The pacing was off.

The character dynamics were weird.

There was this huge plot twist about Mantis, which I was like, why would you mention this here?

Like, how many people are going to watch this?

It was just weird and annoying and I felt so bad for Kevin Bacon.

Poor man, I don't know who he owes a debt to that he had to actually make this film.

It was tedious.

It was unfunny.

Honestly, it was the same problem we had with Guardians of the Galaxy 2, right?

It was unfunny and dry too hard.

So I guess we'll wrap up with a slightly different kind of Christmas watching experience.

A Storm for Christmas, a limited series Norwegian Netflix show.

Wow, that sounds interesting.

Yeah, it was very unusual.

So we have this group of people who are trapped in the Norwegian airport because of a freak snowstorm.

It's the holiday season.

People are missing their families.

People don't want to go back to their families.

So a lot of very tension filled moments happen.

Lots of stuff about relationships and family.

It's a very diverse cast.

All these different accents and different languages.

I found it a very riveting show.

So much so that I actually just sat and watched it in one day.

I think the best way to describe this show would be, it's what Love actually wanted to be.

Please do explain.

This sounds very interesting.

Well, you remember how Love actually has this long thing about airports and how it's kind of this meeting place and place to say goodbye and stuff.

And it's just said over this montage.

And you're just like, what is the point of this?

This TV show is actually what that montage was supposed to be about.

These people in this airport are looking forward to things, terrified of what's going to come up ahead, looking back at things that have really gone wrong.

And it brings them together.

Some people, it tears them apart, and it helps people find each other as well.

I was really surprised at how engaging it was, how fascinating all the characters were.

And I have to say, I didn't expect some of the storylines to go the way they did.

If you are interested in a Norwegian TV show set during Christmas, this is a big recommendation for me.

Well, that is a nice way to wrap up Part 1 of our Holiday Special.

That's it for us for this episode.

We look forward to seeing you for Part 2 of our Holiday Special.

Thanks.

You can find us on Twitter at Stereo Geeks or send us an email at StereoGeeksPodcast at gmail.com We hope you enjoyed this episode and see you next week.

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