#193 Crossing The Streams Holiday Special (Bonus Ep43) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin 0:30

Hey, oh, it is it. Jeff Dwoskin, your host of classic conversations and your guide through this bonus episode of crossing the streams. What is crossing the streams? Glad you asked. crossing the streams answers the universal question. I just finished binge watching something and I got to binge watch something else. What should I binge watch? Well, you've come to the right place. We've got your back on our YouTube channel, we have over 100 hours 100 episodes of crossing the streams for you to enjoy. But you're in luck because this podcast feed sends segments from that live show right to your ears. You don't have to leave anywhere. I'm enjoying the podcast, boom, TV binge watching suggestions. And this is our Christmas episode. We have GreenBook Guardians of the Galaxy holiday edition and falling for Christmas. We're gonna kick things off with green book, Bob Phillips favorite Christmas movie, take it away, Bob. Now if you know Bob Phillips, then you know that he believes Green Book is the greatest Christmas movie of all time. And I am looking forward to him talking about it. I've you know,

Bob Phillips 1:35

I saw this movie back in 18. And I don't know if you knew this, but this one best picture in 2019 Do you remember that and I and I went back and rewatched it and had forgotten all about that. And I remember the they took a lot the academy took a lot of heat because they thought that it was sort of a formulaic kind of movie and that was you know, they they played a little loose with, you know, some of the darker racist undertones that were going on during that time. But it's a movie and it's it had a lot of great stuff going on in it. I mean, it's a true story. Viggo Mortensen plays Frank vallelonga actually a Tony lip he calls himself and Mahershala Ali plays Don Shirley, a world class pianist who is going in literally into the deep south during November and December to do a tour. You know, the whole thing is, it's fraught with these these sort of dichotomies, where he's being asked to come down there and play because this, the white society wants to see him but he's not allowed to use the bathroom, or eat with them in their country club right now that that gets its title from an actual book. It was called the Green Book, the guy's last name was green. And he wrote it for like three decades, and it was for African Americans to navigate the south to figure out where they could eat, where it would be safe, where they could watch motels and hotels would have them right. So Frank is, is an enforcer. He's a he's a bouncer at, literally, at the Copacabana in the Bronx. And he gets asked to accompany Don Shirley into the deepest, most dangerous parts of the south to help him along this tour and be his his driver and his protector. Well as you would guess there's all kinds of comedy that goes on between Don Shirley who's very repressed and very talented and very, I don't know what else the word would be here a kind of uptight. And here's Tony lit the smoking. He's eating doughnuts while he's driving. And you know, he says Viggo Mortensen Yeah, you know, and it's so so there's a lot of that going on. And then there's the real stuff where they have to go and find a place to stay. And they don't know it's not in the green book or that you know, they're told they can't stay. They you know, there's moments where they were surely has to go to this country club. He's not allowed to eat there. So Tony lip says, Well, you're not going to stay Come with me. And they go to another joint down the street. Have a great time. Don surely starts playing boogie woogie piano and you know, kind of finding himself again, there's all kinds of stuff going on little side stories where they help each other, you know, become better men. And that's, that's a that's a great part of the movie. Now, why is it a Christmas movie? Because it ends on Christmas Eve. That's why and the whole point to the, you know, the second half of this movie is to do what he has to do. And Tony has to protect him while he's doing what he has to do. And they got to get home by Christmas Eve. So there are a number of very uncomfortable, very awful things that happened to Don Shirley. He gets arrested, actually, and has the phone number to Bobby Kennedy to get him out of jail. This was an actual thing that happened and he didn't do anything wrong. He He, Don Shirley was gay and he met a man and they, you know, decided to hang out somebody saw them call the cops got thrown in jail all that horridness. So the I'm not going to give too much of the movie away. Because there's like I said, there's a lot of little subplots, one of the things is that Tony lips wife is she loves him she does but she doesn't expect a lot from him in terms of romance and subtlety. Well, Don surely helps Tony write letters back home to her that you know that are romantic, and it gets her swooning. And she figures out early on. It's not him writing the letters. He's getting help, but she loves the fact that this is going on so that the Christmas part I won't tell you how it ends it but it ends beautifully. It ends beautifully, despite the fact that Sebastian manis Galco is overreacting and chewing the scenery like a goat but it's it's a beautiful depiction. It's kind of a scary depiction sometimes in this movie of what happened. People who are just trying to get something to eat just find a place to stay for the night. So I don't know. I will. How do I how do I wrap this up?

Tony Berardo 6:11

If I could if I can interject saying I agree. It's a fantastic movie. I love the like the way you think. I love the evolution of both characters, how they they're they totally hate each other resent each other so much anger and frustration and like, they're ignoring how each side like, I love Tony and his whole character in the beginning where he's like, it's not going to be that bad. We're just going to drive we're gonna stop someplace. We're gonna do some things, whatever. Yeah. And then he realizes throughout the whole movies like, oh, shit, this is rough. Like, yeah. And he starts getting more on his side. And then the other actor gets more on his side. It's a very beautiful coming of age as gang and Yang were totally separate. They come together in the end, it's, it's a great movie. I thought it was

Bob Phillips 6:50

too and I thought it deserved the Academy Award that one of the criticisms leveled against it was that it? It kind of sugar coated things, but I don't think it did at all. I think that they were trying to maintain a certain tone to the movie. And you know that it was, it was such a simplistic ending. Well, that's what happened. That's what happened in real life. So sometimes we can get so jaded. I think that even when they're showing real things that actually happened, we're like, no way. Did that happen. Yeah, but it ends on ours missing. Are

Tony Berardo 7:18

you gonna watch that on on Christmas? Or is that like, mid 18th?

Bob Phillips 7:23

Yeah, no, it's, I've watched it many times. I could watch it on Christmas. I like,

Jeff Dwoskin 7:30

cool. It has a 77% Rotten Tomatoes, but a 91% audience score.

Tony Berardo 7:37

So you gotta look. You gotta listen to Rotten Tomatoes. They're never wrong.

Bob Phillips 7:41

Well, jaded critics.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:42

It's a movie like green book. He could probably be kind of Yeah, it doesn't have any fan base. Very cool. All right. All right, that was green book from Live episode 98. Thank you, Bob Phillips of the cell and Bob Show. And now we're going to turn our attention to Episode 97 of crossing the streams talk about Guardians of the Galaxy the holiday special make Manhattan in the scene snobs is going to back me up on this one. Take it away guys. Move out. Let's keep with the holiday theme. I'll go next. We'll do the Guardians of the Galaxy. Holidays special magic. Have you seen this? Oh, yeah. Okay, cool. Cool. Cool. So the Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special is just a little reminder first, that James Gunn makes the Greatest Comic Book, anything that you can watch, and that we should all watch this and think, wow, we should we are thankful that we get one more Guardians movie and then be happy for DC that they're going to probably within three years be doing better than Marvel making some of the greatest movies ever. Under the under the guidance of James Gunn. I'm just a big fan of the Guardians movie. The very first one is by far I think one of my favorite Marvel movies. However, it reminded me a lot of kind of Indiana Jones and that and this the characters I love that because I didn't know the characters either. And it was just I find the humor of this band of characters to be really really great guardians too wasn't my favorite movie. It's not the worst movie ever. I don't think it lived up to my expectations of the first one. But the first one is you know I Chris I became all in on Chris Pratt. I was I'm not as into Chris Pratt as I used to be into Chris Pratt. But at the time he was given he gave me like the Harrison Ford vibes of when you were younger and we would watch like Indiana Jones or Han Solo like Like to me like that was that was Chris Pratt and Guardians of the Galaxy. So Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special also kind of harkens back I think to another time when there used to be holiday specials.

Bob Phillips 9:54

I mean, Halloween special, the chief among them.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:58

Yeah. And they and you know, there's is an infamous Star Wars one which goes on spoke. But by that, I mean there was a time where holiday specials were a thing. And so I think this kind of harkens back this is canon. It is in line with everything. It's only 42 minutes. And it's just 42 minutes of really goodness. I think it's got most of the main cast. It's got all your favorites. You got to obviously Gamora is not enough because in the in the timeline, she's not not there right now, but it's got Star Lord Drax, rocket, mantas and group groups kind of in a what is it? What would you say high school ish age?

Mick Manhattan 10:36

I'd say yeah, the adolescence probably

Jeff Dwoskin 10:39

Yeah, so I think the main plot of this is that the Guardians of the Galaxy, a purchase nowhere from the collector and then Cosmo the space dog is he made? It was in Guardians movies. He's, he's now a little side character here and Christmas is approaching. Now obviously, this is not earth. So they don't celebrate Christmas. But Chris Pratt, Star Lord is from Earth, right. So he was adopted nine ish, you know, so he Christmas is a thing for him and a memory from him. And so Cracklin is telling the story, and it's it was really clever how they did the story. They did the story in a flashback, and the flashback was a cartoon. And so they actually were then able to bring Michael Rooker back in as his character Biondo and so the end and it was like, oh, you know, Christmas is ruined. So the legend is that a ruined Christmas for a young, young star Lord, young Peter, and so Mantis and Drax and they want to make a really good Christmas for Peter. Yeah, so it's just got that normal way let's save Christmas. Let's let's give her let's put his you know, in his heart Christmas was ruined and let's make it something that he can and there's a funny song that they're singing because they don't really know what Christmas is. You know, I mean, that kind of thing. And, and so

Sal Demilio 12:03

when the music and got ran over by a reindeer or something, no, no,

Jeff Dwoskin 12:07

but close. Probably a good new version of that, but I really liked. So mantas and Drax very sad every so by the way, I think goes down as one of only three wrestlers that I can think of that I can watch anytime there on screen. Peter, what's his name? Peacemaker. Oh, well, John Cena of John Cena. That's what I got wrong. John Cena. Dwayne Johnson and him. Either the peacemaker. Yeah. And Dave, Batista is hilarious. I find the Drax character really funny. He plays it so well. Anyway, so him and Mantis go down to earth. And they're going to retrieve quills childhood hero, Kevin Bacon, who has a you know, from the original movies, all he talked about was Kevin Bacon, because he was a child and, and that imprinted on him. And so they kidnapped Kevin Bacon. I mean, I can't even imagine how happy Kevin Bacon must have got been the day that call came in? Would you like to be and Guardians of the Galaxy? And, and so they kidnap him on Earth. And it's just it's so funny. And then they bring him back. And you know, he wants to escape. And then he realizes that he's going to help. There's that that just that that always, you know, that scene where he's like, Honey, I'm going to be a little late, you know, because he realizes he has to fulfill the Christmas destiny that has been placed upon him. And so yeah, I mean, so there's, I don't know what else to say. I don't give the rest of it away. There's a couple reveals, I think for the MCU that they do in it, which I won't give away. But it's only like 40 to 4344 minutes, something like that. It's really short. It goes quick. It didn't feel like any of it was wasted. It was just like real punchy, real fun, humorous. There's like this running joke about actors being assholes or something. And, and so all the characters are great. And you know, they do a couple of things where I've seen some chatter online some of the little things that they do I won't even you have to go watch it you'll know with with rocket and stuff like that. But it was really fun. I say definitely check this out. This is on Disney plus, and it's well worth the investment of time, especially if you like the Guardians. It totally is in line totally with the feel for that show and everything about it. So what did you think? I

Mick Manhattan 14:45

loved it. I thought they did a great job but Guardians is never missed. In my opinion. They I think they're, they were I think the most they've ever missed was the Thor love and thunder. I was just kind of like it just seems a little different because it wasn't James Caan but they I mean for all the special it's fun. It's got every Do you need and you know it's a cool little Christmas tale to watch every year. Totally.

Bob Phillips 15:05

So the production values is it I mean is it keep up with the you know 100% 100%

Jeff Dwoskin 15:09

Special

Bob Phillips 15:10

Effect Everything okay under present all right so they're not they're not doing it for just a camp cheap little thing they they put some money and time into this is what you're saying?

Jeff Dwoskin 15:20

Yeah I think he put a lot of time into it. I think he came up with the idea when he was filming guardians to Okay, so it was definitely something that James Gunn wanted to do. It wasn't like something that they hired him to do and he had to contractually do it and everyone had to contractually do it. I think I will

Mick Manhattan 15:38

say to that though, it did feel like when they're walking around nowhere and like looking things up it it didn't feel like a set but it fit the Christmas like almost like the Star Wars special. Like you know, they're on a set that's not the same production values. Star Wars, but it felt more like it made it feel more like a Christmas special. Okay, but it looks great. Everything looked great. And

Jeff Dwoskin 16:00

yeah, you're like if you like guardians, you're like guardians especially like and Kevin Bacon. It's really fun. It's a lot a lot a lot of fun. All right, that was Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special from Episode 97 All right, we're gonna wrap things up the only way we know how we sailed Emilio and Christmas rom com falling for Christmas take it away south. So you're in

Howard Rosner 16:29

real quick I just want to say if you want to buy any of these long term I was just looking through iTunes bundles that are every once in a while a great value you know like by all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies for one special price on iTunes. They had a Hallmark Christmas eight movie bundle sale. You should check that Oh, nice. You can have them permanently.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:49

Oh, I'd have to do the following for Christmas the Lindsay Lohan. So Sue, you're in for a treat Sal. I don't I don't know why. I don't know how but he's this guy is into romcoms if you looked at him, I'm guessing you would have lost the bet but he digs on Enzo we're doing it South they're fun

Sal Demilio 17:10

to watch. i It's tough to review these movies because the plots are so similar and all of them. So it's tough to but you know what? I'm gonna say something about this one. This one cowboy is not bad. Lindsay Lohan actually does a really good job. I don't even know I think it might even be your first movie back from her hiatus or whatever little tidbit on this. She was proposed to buy her new husband on the set during filming. So luckily she said yes, or that movie might have been a disaster. But so that's a little little backstory on that. Basically, it's a Netflix Christmas rom com movie. One of my favorite people is in this movie Jack Wagner because he's a hell of a golfer. And he plays Lindsey whole low hands father, she is a a Harris to him. He's a millionaire hotel guy and he owns a ski resort outside of Utah called the Belmont and there's another kind of lower class resort down the down the street that another gentleman runs and in one of the opening scenes Lindsay Lohan is just getting pampered and she's eating caviar and they're just she's just an uppity kind of girl. This guy comes over to pitch his idea of of Jack Wagner's character investing in his resort. He kind of blows him off. And that's kind of an opening scene. Lindsay Lohan his love interest in this movie is played by George Young, his name is Ted. And he's kind of like the goofy boyfriend that you know, they're not going to end up together at the end of the movie kind of see a common right. They're just not compatible with each other. But he's rich. He's rich. And you know, that's how it goes. So one day they go to the ski resort, Lindsay Lohan and her boyfriend, they go skiing and she hits a she hits like a tree while they're skiing. And she just has amnesia. She has no idea who she is. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:06

I remind her she was in lovebug. Go ahead.

Sal Demilio 19:08

Yeah. Now he has amnesia, which is funny because this is like the small Utah town where like everybody knows each other. But all of a sudden, I saw a review of this movie and they said author that review said the same thing. All of a sudden she has amnesia, and nobody can tell her or say to her that you're, you're Jack Wagner's daughter. You know what I mean? It's like, for some reason, nobody else knows who she is. Now, she doesn't know who she is. But neither does nobody else, which is kind of obviously crazy. But anyway, for the movie, it was okay. Now meanwhile, they're there. They're in the mountains, skiing and her boyfriend gets kind of it's like a side. It's almost like a side movie to the movie. He gets a he's lost in the woods. So that's why he's not there to help figure out what happened to her. He's like in the in the woods with this guy. It'd be tough with this guy that's fishing and they're trying to get out of there and it's almost They reminded me of I don't know if you guys watch the sopranos but it almost reminded me of Michael Imperioli and and walnuts guy over there. Well not only one out there in the woods and they had to find

Unknown Speaker 20:11

the name of the episode Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:13

that's the best scene.

Sal Demilio 20:15

Yes. It kind of reminded me of that they had their little little movie outside of the movie and that was very funny. This George Young did a good job and the other actor I forgot his name but he did a good job and so that part when they went to those two guys was was very good. That's why I'm trying to say it was it was a very good movie Back to Lindsay Lohan now she gets found in the woods by that guy that I told you about earlier that oh, he's he was ugly, by the way CIT Chord Overstreet it's got a kind of a weird name. His name was Jake and he was he was in glee. That's his fame. This was his first rom com movie as well. By the way, he finds her in the woods now he's the owner of this kind of lower end resort. He takes her back to the resort again everybody in that resort knows who she is but for some reason they don't know she is which is crazy, but she stays there helps him run his resort while she's trying to figure out who she is and obviously love and Sue she falls in love with this guy you know obviously and there's some really good skiing scenes in it and stuff like that the production on this thing is amazing. I mean it was a lot of money it's a very well put together produce films who probably knows all about that Oh, and by the way I got a question for soup there's a scene in the car where Lindsay Lohan and this Jake guy they're screwing around with the radio and all out of love comes on by the air supply or supply yeah for about 12 seconds maybe 10 seconds if that did they pay big money for that Sue or oh they would have to okay you know even 10 seconds like that

Sue Kolinsky 21:50

yeah, I mean it's you know you it's more money the more that it's on on you know in the show or movie but even for 10 seconds you have to pay well maybe

Sal Demilio 22:00

that's why they didn't have the budget to play it more than all they did.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:04

Obviously God 10 seconds go.

Sal Demilio 22:07

So as you know, the ending you know, it's they have a big Christmas fundraiser for this resort. Jack Wagner's comes to this party obviously sees his daughter they've been looking there for four days this this whole movie happens in about five days. You know, everybody it's like one of those scenes where everybody almost like Christmas story or our Christmas vacation where everybody's in the scene at the end. There's this big party they're doing a big fundraiser Jack Wagner is there everybody's there notices Lindsay Lohan. It's just one of those feel good movies. I don't want to say the whole thing. I feel like I'm telling the whole movie but it was printed to live in three minutes. I know it for these rocket movies. It was very good. I swear to God, I will. It's number two on Netflix right now on the top 10 It's getting a lot of views. It's getting a lot of plays. Lindsay Lohan might have might have had a little comeback here. I mean, she's, she's very very good at it. I thought her acting was good. I thought she her self deprecating scenes were good. Obviously. She had some great crying scenes where she was good. She was automatic in it. She was funny in it. So anyway, I liked it. I mean, as far as these Christmas movies goes, I know they can get really really bland. They had some good characters in it and the editing was good and had good music in it. I give it a thumbs up and I get forced forward. Alright, so Sally, I have a question for you that I actually had no, I went through it so quickly. But anyway, here's

Jeff Dwoskin 23:29

here's my question. All right sounds Emelia bringing it on volume for Christmas on our YouTube channel. We have lots of rom com suggestions from salads Amelia just waiting for ya. This episode chock full of Christmas suggestions falling for Christmas greenbug. And of course the Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special delight for you to do you got the whole holiday week to do it. Grab your favorite spot in the couch, like the fire, grab the remote snuggle up by your tree, whatever your traditions are, do a mob cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 24:09

Thanks for listening to this special edition of crossing the streams. Visit us on YouTube for full episodes and catch us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time. Now turn this off and go watch some TV. And don't forget to tell your family yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

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