We’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and the return of spring with a special podcast episode. We discuss Leprechaun’s Christmas Gold (1981) and briefly compare and contrast it to the Leprechaun horror series. Also: telling your friends to “go,” backing into parking spots, and allowing your kids to get hit in the head with flying vegetables.
The background music includes songs from Altan’s The Red Crow, Bing Crosby, Dennis Day, and the Rankin Bass film. We’ll be back for Leon Day!
We recently found a list of Christmas movies scheduled to be released this year and decided to guess what each film would be about before going to IMDb to read the actual plot descriptions. Below are our guesses, followed by the IMDb summaries. As always, ours sound way better.
A Boy Called Christmas (2021)
Rusty: A couple loves Christmas so much that they give the name of the holiday to their son. As the boy grows up, because of kids making fun of his name, he comes to resent the entire season. When Christmas becomes an adult, he begins the process of legally changing his name. But when both his parents die in a car crash on Christmas Eve, he begins to wonder whether his name was a curse… or a gift. Featuring Rob Lowe as the voice of the angel.
Mike: When Ron and Paula Gift welcome their first and only child into the world on December 25th, they decide to name him after their favorite holiday and the day on which he was born. Unfortunately, the couple could not imagine the amount of bullying a kid would endure by going through life known as Christmas Gift. By the time he reaches 8th grade, a teenage Christmas has had enough of the attacks and vows to get revenge on his classmates who have ridiculed him over the years. Using his favorite film, Home Alone, as inspiration, Christmas uses paint cans, blowtorches, and BB guns, among other methods, to make sure his peers all give up and are absolutely not thirsty for more.
IMDb: This is the story of Father Christmas, the tale of a young boy named Nikolas (Henry Lawfull) as he goes on his adventures. This is a Christmas movie based on a book of the same title by Matt Haig and will include snow, elves, kidnapping, more snow, and Dame Maggie Smith. What more could you want in a holiday movie?
A Tiny House Christmas (2021)
Rusty: When Jim, his wife, and their four kids gets invited to spend a magical Christmas in Oregon with his brother Seth, he was not informed that Seth was now living in a 400 square foot “tiny house” in the middle of nowhere. But while there may not be room for basic necessities, there is plenty of room for love, and Jim begins to wonder whether this tiny house Christmas vacation was a curse… or a gift. Features a cameo by John Krasinski as the “Good News Neighbor.”
Mike: Using the minimal resources available to him, filmmaker Jake Stone attempts to document what it was like to celebrate Christmas for those living alone during the 2020 pandemic. Although it seems like an interesting concept, it soon becomes apparent that the subject doesn’t warrant a feature length running time. Stone shows the viewer around the tiny house that he occupies with his cat, he watches Christmas movies on a tiny screen, and he trims a tiny tree. By the time Stone heats up his frozen holiday meal in his microwave, the audience realizes that the remaining hour could be quite boring. In fact, an 18-minute Zoom session between the filmmaker and his parents actually feels like an editing mistake and may just be filler.
IMDb: A restless young woman finds herself working a seasonal job as an elf – and moving into a tiny house fit for one. When she unwraps a coworker’s greatest secret, she must come up with a plan as big as Christmas.
Nightmare on 34th Street (2021)
Rusty: After a childhood of not believing in Santa Claus, twenty-year-old Natalie Johnson becomes convinced of his existence when the Man in the Red Suit begins leaving her letters (“Are you naughty or nice?”), calling her on the phone to say he knows everything about her, and watching her when she’s sleeping. But when she invites her friends to stay with her on Christmas Eve for protection, Old Nick will have to dig through his bag of tricks in order to eliminate the bodies one by one. Will he bring her a gift… or a special appearance by Robert Englund as the abandoned mall Santa?
Mike: Well, you guys wanted the Nightmare Before Christmas sequel, and now you got it. Dummies. Tim Burton’s brother Daniel makes his directorial debut in this live-action musical, as Jack and Sally Skellington (played by Zac Efron and Lady Gaga) find themselves in New York City by mistake and attempt to spread Halloween cheer to the interesting characters that they meet. Eventually they’re arrested and accused of being insane, and a judge threatens to have the couple locked up. Susan Walker, now an adult and a lawyer, is the Skellingtons’ only hope. Look, it sounds kinda fun, but it’s not. Danny Elfman wanted nothing to do with this, so Lady Gaga wrote the music, and it’s just weird. Mara Wilson returns as Susan, and she really doesn’t have a great singing voice, as you’ll clearly hear in the tune “A Manhattan Christmas in the Courthouse on Halloween.”
IMDb: A mysterious Santa arrives on 34th Street, to recall three interconnected horror stories which will leave you never looking at Christmas the same way again.
Christmas in July (2021)
Rusty: It’s a curse! It’s a gift! It’s Phil Bardowell from the 1997-2000 Beach Boys touring band starring in the story of a man who only cares about surf, sun, and girls until the ghost of baseball great Leon Day appears to him in the middle of July to convince him to make a charity record to end racism, to be released at Christmas: “One to rival Band Aid!” It’s a musical extravaganza as Bardowell is joined by hit artists Chas Newby of the Quarrymen and Darryl Jones of the Stone Raiders. After seeing this film, you will declare that Christmas comes but twice a year!
Mike: Steve Carell plays Tank Winslow, a man who loves Christmas so much that he decides he will celebrate the holiday twice each year: once during the traditional season and then a “Half Christmas” in the summer. He plans a large gathering for the 25th of July, but as the big day approaches, Tank realizes that his math is terrible, and the 25th of June is actually the halfway point to Christmas. Why do people even celebrate Christmas in July, anyway? After no one comes to Tank’s party, he goes online and learns about Leon Day (not the baseball player), which is cool but does not really provide a very exciting third act. Look for the sequel, Christmas in June, in 2022.
IMDb: It’s smack dab in the middle of summer and the nefarious Count Dracula sees the off-season as the perfect time to take over everyone’s favorite holiday, Christmas. Can Santa and his pals save Christmas for us all? Ho, ho, ho, there’s only one way to know. Join the holiday superhero as he tackles the baddest baddie of all to save the holidays. It’s Christmas In July.
Snow in Southtown Christmas Podcast 