Midweek Mention... Nutcrackers

Nutcrakcers

Sidey: This

is the beginning of a festive week. Although the festiveness in this particular movie, which is Nutcrackers, 2024, Ben Stiller joint, is kind of

Reegs: It's more background. It's not necessarily a holiday movie, but

Sidey: It could take place at

Reegs: Christmas is happening in the run up to Christmas and then the Nutcracker, which is sort of synonymous that that ballet is sort of synonymous with Christmas does feature in the emotional

Dan: this is 100 percent a Christmas film.

Reegs: Yeah, it's just a bit more naturalistic and subtle than the fucking Christmas Club that we watched for the main feature.

You'll have to guess how we felt about that.

Dan: for the main feature and you'll have to guess how we felt about that. Well to the side here and I quite like him in these serious roles I think he's quite a good actor and and in this story he is Well, actually we open up with kids

Sidey: getting Yeah. Kids, kids getting up some rambunctious

Reegs: Sneaking into a fairground, trespassing past a a sort of sleeping guard, turning on a Wurlitzer or something, and, you know,

Sidey: high jinks. Yeah,

Dan: Hijinks indeed, and also, like, the worst ever security guard. He's got one job, he's just to guard

Sidey: that's an absolute job.

Dan: Yeah, he's just a guard

Sidey: And he's asleep,

Dan: and he's asleep and how you cannot see the lights and hear it all come on He doesn't hear it until explosions start and the kids start running

Sidey: He may

Dan: He may be drunk and we've all been there once or twice I

guess

Reegs: there once or twice,

Dan: know who you are and they all run

Reegs: guess.

Yeah, I

Dan: Yeah, I

was expecting something worse to happen but That was all that happened. It was just the kids, hijinks, ran off planned the escape, but it gives you an idea in a sense that, well, these are a little gang of ruffians here.

Sidey: yeah,

yeah, they're doing like kid stuff, but we don't know exactly what their story is until we meet michael maxwell. Yeah, who is ben stiller and he is coming back to town.

I mean you could have played bingo on this one he's coming back from his big city job to his

Reegs: Yes.

Sidey: Because his sister and brother in law have been killed in some terrible

Reegs: accident

A car accident. Yeah.

Sidey: And these four children are his

Reegs: Yes.

Sidey: And he is going back to, in his mind, sign some documentation, sort out the estate, kind of stuff, but mainly sort the kids out, get them moved on to a foster home.

Reegs: Well, he's certainly under the impression that they're going to be adopted or moved on, very, he's going to

Sidey: He's taking calls about

Reegs: He's got an important presentation.

He

Sidey: has to be back after this weekend,

Dan: There's absolutely no way that he can take these kids on, and we know that's not going to happen.

Reegs: these kids on, and we know that's not gonna happen. He steps in the one pile of dog shit within

Dan: He steps in the one pile of dog shit within about 500 meters of his car parking. He's perfect. He's just got that straight away. But yeah that Just gives you the sense of shit that he stepped in and continues to step in throughout this film it's as you say all downhill from there because

Reegs: Well, first Julia comes out, which, was she an old love interest? I don't know. There's an awkward interaction. They knew

Dan: They met at the wedding of his sister and She has been there a month, we learn later, looking after these kids in the aftermath of their parents dying and everything. And she has two hours to catch a flight, she's probably not going to catch. He was running late and needed to relieve her but she couldn't go until, so that's why that interaction happened.

She was, just gave me that

Reegs: She looks pretty frazzled after a month of these kids. And then she goes pretty quickly.

She's late for a flight. And then Gretchen, a sort of social worker turns up. And she breaks the news to him. Oh, the foster family didn't pass the background checks. So basically it's on you to watch these guys until the until another family is found. Sorry about that.

Sidey: She's played by linda cardellini who I really fancy.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah, she's really cool. And a policeman comes out and Just gives him a further sense of how difficult and you Playful, should we say

Sidey: Well, they're homeschooled, aren't they? They're homeschooled and the home is just upside down.

There's pigs in the house. You know, there's a snake in the toilet. They just climb on the roof. They're throwing stuff around constantly. They're eating.

Reegs: Well his first interaction with them is like It's like a horror movie one of them stood on the roof with sort of rabbit

Sidey: on his head. He follows

Reegs: he follows them into a barn and these are like, you know, it's that comedy situation Of course, he's like uniquely you know Under qualified to look after these basically feral kids and they're like going for him straight away But it's all done quite naturalistic type style.

When he talks to them, he says, oh, you know who I am I'm uncle michael They don't respond to him. They all play silent for ages, don't they? So, he goes into the house to start working and they start throwing things at him while he's doing it

Dan: Yeah, the house is a little bit like kurt russell in overboard.

Remember that movie where It's just

Reegs: Was apparently an inspiration for this film.

Dan: Oh, really? Yeah. Well, there's you know animals living in the house with them.

Sidey: It's eccentric, for sure. Yeah.

Reegs: he has no bond with them. Like when he introduces him, he says, Oh, it's been a while. So you understand that they don't know each other. And the four nephews are Justice, Junior, Samuel and Simon played by four real

Sidey: bros. Their real names are amazing.

Homer,

Reegs: Ulysses, Atlas, and Arlo. Why

Dan: all the same

Reegs: all the same?

Yeah. So there's he has this like, there's a dinner where they, he has kind of like an awkward one way conversation with himself where he explains a little bit about where he's from. I live two floors above Chaka Khan. He says, they just look at him. And what his job is. Isn't that brave with skyrocketing interest rates?

Well, yes it is,

Sidey: is, and it's very

Reegs: But the kids are just telling fart jokes. And then when he walks away, one of the kids says, it's true what mum says about you, you're incapable of love, which kind of stops him in his tracks. And, and is is the start of his kind of emotional journey,

Sidey: emotional journey. Yeah, he's so he's a corporate high flyer. He's working on

Dan: six years. Yeah

Sidey: something thing. He's arguing about him doing the proposal, not some other guy that he doesn't like. Whereas his sister was running a dance

Nice little parallel to our next film and his brother in law was an ice cream maker and was sort of an entrepreneur trying to get this this fledgling frozen yogurt slash ice cream van thing going.

So they're polar opposites. And it's, you know, this cool classic little fish out of water, you know, taken out of his city environment, chucked into this. And you can see, you know, it's not, it's not the complicated stuff. It's, it's, you can see the direction of travel like from day one.

Reegs: Yes.

Dan: not, it's not the complicated stuff, it's the direction of travel, like, from day one. kind of lost contact a bit they'd had an argument over a loan that he'd given to the husband and then not told her about and she didn't like that and it was it strained the relationship

Reegs: Life had got complicated by those money issues and, and

Dan: so he had lost contact and and so then had lost contact with the boys which is why he'd said it'd been a while

Sidey: Yeah. So yeah, the, the race is on in his mind to find them somewhere. And the difficulty is finding a family who will take all four of these kids and they're kind of re renowned in town for being fairly difficult.

Mm-hmm . So there's, there's one opportunity I think, where someone's willing to take two of the kids and then that kind of falls through.

Dan: Kick lighter is their surname, isn't it? So those kick lighter kids, they're they're trouble

Sidey: He takes them shopping because they they run out of grub and he sees this swanky 67 Corvette, whatever it is out of 58.

I

Reegs: Yeah, he googles it, doesn't he, and then he

Sidey: then he and they said, oh, that's like the richest guy in town. That's his guy and he's like, oh, this is perfect. Like, maybe he'll take them. So, he introduces himself, has this sort of awkward.

But in the end, the fella invites around having this big party, you know, everyone's coming around.

You should bring the kids. It'll be really good. is, oh, this is my in. So he does, he does take it around and he's giving them the big, you know, pep talk like you've got to be on your best behavior. This one, this is like a real good opportunity. And they're keen. I think, you know, if you're going to live anywhere, this would be

Reegs: Yeah, they're up for it. Also Justice, is it?

The oldest one. There's a little love interest. He's been talking to Michael or Mike, is it? That's the constant battle. Is he Michael or is he Mike? And yeah, there's a little love interest. He's been asking for advice and she's at the party as well. And they have a really strange kiss where it's his first kiss and upside down

Sidey: Spider Man

Reegs: And she farts during it.

Sidey: she farts

Reegs: And, and he says, did you fart? And she's like, yeah.

I don't know, it really tickled me because it was just so real.

Sidey: me because it's just so real.

Ben Stiller and Linda Cardellini are going to get

Reegs: and Linda Lively

Sidey: He's going to take over the ice cream business and he's going to, you know, sack off his job and do that.

And he's going to foster, you know,

Dan: We're almost doing a Hallmark bingo

Sidey: that's really like what genuinely what I thought was going to happen. And so at this party, you know, that the guy's not going to take him, but he does have the conversation and he just like, pretty much like

half an hour into this party, he says, Well, I was wondering if you might be interested in taking the kids and he's like, yeah, okay

Reegs: Alright, yeah, so it looks like

Sidey: Zero convincing at

Reegs: Yeah, yeah. Cause they've got empty nest syndrome, they've already talked about that, And his wife's very keen and all that. But then suddenly

Sidey: seemed to be drunk or heavily medicated all the time

Reegs: Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, there's a calamitous accident with a golf cart

Sidey: They put a brick on the accelerator

Reegs: yeah. So that puts pay to that pretty quickly.

Dan: Yeah,

they suddenly stopped becoming the

favorites

Sidey: becoming their, their favourites.

Reegs: She came on to him really strongly, very keen about the kids

Sidey: so he goes round

Dan: And and so he goes around for a visit doesn't he to this lady's house and she's got other kids and it all seems better than He could ever wish for their kids are all very well behaved. The house is is kind of neat and tidy and it won't. And she there's some flags there. There's some little worry about the way she behaves that it doesn't quite

Sidey: he, he wa he observes that,

Dan: Yeah, well, she gets up. He looks for a creak in the door and she's almost threatening one of the kids. Now you behave. Don't move it from here. One little peep and there's

Sidey: your brothers running round,

Dan: There's gonna be no yogurt for a week and she's also gives away. Oh, I get eight hundred dollars

Sidey: He says to her don't, isn't another four children going to be too much for you? She goes, no, I get 800

per kids. Plus if they've got learning difficulties, then it's more money.

And he's like, fuck you. So you can see.

Reegs: the thing actually that is the straw that breaks his back in that interaction is when she says, oh, I'd have to cut their hair. And even a dipshit like him knows, because they've, we haven't described it, but they've got very long

Sidey: hair. I didn't realize they're all brothers, to be honest at

Reegs: Oh, right. Okay.

Sidey: Well, yeah, the middle one I thought was a

girl.

Reegs: Yeah, they've all got really long hair and it is part of their sort of free spirit.

Cause we haven't really described these kids. They're really good

Dan: Yeah. I mean, that's it. They're all dressed in, in kind of clothes that look like they need a bit of a wash, but they've all got long hair that looks like it needs a bit of a cut, but they're all happy as Larry.

They're all, they're eating. I mean, they're plucking their own chickens

Reegs: What they're coping amazingly in the wake of the death of their parents, right? And they are to a degree running this shambolic farm with still a sort of the designated adult and then the love interaction or the buildup of the cutesiness, although it is a bit obvious or Ovi

is,

if you heard that, well, that's my daughter says that

Sidey: ovi.

Oh,

Reegs: Ovi even though it is, but it comes in sort of fits and starts.

And because. You know, still is so good at being a shitbag. It doesn't feel as

Sidey: But you're absolutely right in that one. He does say, he's like, well, no, you don't, you know, he doesn't say it, but that's the one where he's like, no, you don't get to decide how they look and all that sort of stuff.

He's like, no,

Reegs: Even he realizes that. And there's a moment earlier on where the Gretchen actually comes to him and says, Actually, you could, this couple, Jennifer and Brandian, I think they were called.

You could, they could, and he's dressed as Beauty and the Beast. They would have him and he says, Oh, is it your recommendation? And she's like, well, no, it's not my recommendation. He wants her to say, if she said it, he'd go it. But he chooses to take on the

role

Dan: to take on the role of director. He also gets

Sidey: He wants to get out

Dan: where he's basically kicked off

Sidey: He is. He also gets another call where he's basically kicked off the project at work.

Reegs: at work So he's now

Sidey: Yeah. So he's now able to focus on this and he

He's just minding his own business in the house, and he sees them dancing, and he has a little idea. Why don't we put on a performance? You know, you're actually really fucking good dancers.

Dan: They

Reegs: idea.

Why don't we put on a performance? You know, you're actually really fucking good at dancing. For her family and then to run this dance studio. And they, when they went to the dance studio to clear it out, they found one of the kids had written the Much Better Nutcracker,

Dan: Nutcracker.

The Nutcracker's moustache. And yeah, it was a better take on the classic Christmas tale, The Nutcracker.

Reegs: this one had President Reagan in it and a guy with a gimpy eye, didn't

Dan: And a bit more shooting and Rambo.

yeah,

Sidey: Yeah, the Rambo's brilliant. But yeah, so he's like, why don't we put this on? And he doesn't overtly state it.

Thank you. But it comes out later on, you know, it gets his motivations a little bit muddled Anyway, now we get some sort of dance montages. They're clearing out the venue to do all that They're playing on the wall. Everyone's really coming together as a family

Reegs: Well, except for Justice, he initially refuses, he's like, oh, people think we're weird enough already, but then he gets Mia, the

Sidey: She turns

Dan: the love interest included in it, and suddenly Justice is back on

Sidey: Yeah. And so yeah, there's a, there's a sort of training montage if you like, and some decorating the stage and all the rest of it. And that's really good.

Dan: They've got a big theater they managed to secure in town which looks brilliant and they also advertise through the radio. I think he builds a website they, I mean he

Reegs: and his idea is to pimp the kids off the back of

Sidey: Yeah, he doesn't say it at first, but Gretchen turns up, she's all dolled up for the big performance and she's super excited about it. You can tell she's sort of like impressed with him and the job that he's done with the kids. And then he just says, Oh, well, you know, people will see this and then we'll be able to like fuck them off.

And she's like, she's crestfallen of like,

Reegs: well, and one of the kids hears him

Sidey: he says the kids are a pain in the ass. And one of the twins hears that and they're like, they're obviously devastated and she's just like, I can't believe it. And she says, you know, some people would be like, could never be as lucky as you are to have an opportunity to,

Dan: have four of these wonderful kids.

Sidey: And you just like fucked it. And so the kids do a runner and there's this sellout in the theater and he has to go on stage and say to everyone, look,

Reegs: look, the

Sidey: there's some technical difficulties. The show is canceled. And then we see the kids and they've What they've done is they've gone to this little memorial site where the accident happened where the photos and the flowers are placed at the scene and they say Justice the elder says if we're going to do this We're going to do it for mom and dad and they just do it in the street and people get wind of it and just Leave the theater as they're leaving they see it and they go over and watch it.

And

Dan: there's cars that are shining their lights on them and they're still all in their costumes, which look fantastic.

And they're doing the dancing and, and

Reegs: there's even a little moment. They had a conversation earlier. One of the youngest had been talking about how when you die, you know, you

Sidey: you become a father,

Reegs: and eventually you become a star and all that.

And just over justice's shoulder, there's like a little shooting star. The parents are mad. I was choked up at this point

Dan: up at this point now. He has his eyes open in every scene. Every location

Sidey: he has an epiphany doesn't he he he's eyes open in every scene Every location of where he's been throughout the movie.

He's there just stood and that's his Awakening yeah realization that fuck this is the life

Dan: This is what he does. And he's also had the news that the guy at work is absolutely fucked it in the ear, the plan.

And he, he's wanted back there. They want him back. He's, it's it's important. But suddenly this is What's important, and it ends with the boys getting a, a big hug around

Sidey: Well he, no, he's part of the show isn't he?

Reegs: he's part Yeah.

Sidey: Justice stabs him, pretends to stab him with the sword and he's down on the

Reegs: It's played for a minute, just for half a second, like he might have been stabbed for real, isn't it?

Because he don't, they don't show the reaction, he's just

Sidey: you were never, never shown that in the montage, and so he's down there, and then they, yeah, they have the huddle and whatever.

He had said to Gretchen, I think in his defense, he said, I love these kids, but they're a pain in the ass. That's what he said. And the fucking kids are a

Dan: Yeah, yeah, and, and

Reegs: we haven't even described half of the shit that they've done to him, like with the,

Dan: And he's in New York on a completely different thing having no, you know, going leaving on a Friday thinking he's going to be back on first thing on Monday, if not Sunday night after signing some papers and he'll catch up with him at another time because he's got other things to do. But in fact, his entire life has just taken a complete turn and twist.

Why he never thought this might happen before,

Sidey: I don't know, he was a

Dan: But I guess that he, he's been told you know, the family has been found. They just need to sign the papers,

Sidey: Well, Justice whispers to him, doesn't he, at the culmination of the show there, he says when we wake up in the morning you're still going to be here, and he says, yeah, I'm not going to leave, and you're

Dan: not going anywhere.

Reegs: Mike. As he adopts his being Mike. He is Mike. Yeah. And then it's cuts to the lightning seeds and all the goodwill I had for this movie totally

Dan: I

Sidey: evaporated. Oh, I fucking love

Reegs: Do you?

Sidey: Do you? Oh, it's terrible!

Dan: It seemed a

Sidey: I thought, I was surprised at the choice, but I like the lightning seeds, this is a good song.

Reegs: no, no, that's

Sidey: I watched all the credits while it was playing just to hear the whole song.

Dan: Just to

Reegs: Well, there was some good credits actually, because you get a bit of post credit stuff

Sidey: There'd been an incident earlier where Justice had been joyriding his Porsche and was going to ride it over this wooden ramp onto a trampoline over a swimming pool and he's told him no and the mid credits bit is them doing it in a He

Dan: He

got out and kind of measured the ramp, didn't he? And then he was like looking at the car.

It was obvious it wasn't going

Sidey: looking at the car, which obviously wasn't This was,

Dan: this was it's always interesting when they try and put out a new Christmas movie because You're obviously looking for that classic that you're gonna re watch every year I don't see that being this movie that I would go. Oh, it's Christmas Let's put on the Nutcracker and watch it again this year, but I enjoyed this.

I thought this was a nice twist on a Christmasy kind of story it did have

You know, elements of different films that we've seen, such as overboard with the, the house

Sidey: It's like really cliches

stories that you've seen a hundred times

Dan: we did the hallmark quiz with the last movie and on the, on the main program, and this could have done the same thing.

You could have had a quiz, you know, all the cliches that you thought were going to happen at the beginning did happen.

Reegs: It's played with a little bit more realism

Dan: Yeah, there's a little more grit about

Reegs: and then the kids are so very good as well, and they're very funny and very sweet there's a great moment where they try and coerce him into killing a chicken.

Elizabeth, Delishabeth, they call it when they're eating it. There's just so many good, like, nice interactions. And it's a very thoughtful, emotional story, even though you say, you know, it is predictable and a little bit cliche, it still avoids being tropey. So, I this, although I concede, it's not.

necessarily a christmas movie this is one of the best christmas movies i think i've seen because i think it takes all that stuff that could be in a hallmark movie but makes it feel very real

Sidey: I really enjoyed it.

I really, really enjoyed it. And I don't know whether it's because it's the holidays or whatever that I'm just more forgiving of this stuff. I just really liked it. I thought it was really good. And then I was surprised when I was making my notes how fucking panned it's been. Yeah, the metrics were so bad.

People have really laid into it. Well, the

Reegs: Well, the director, David Gordon Green, he rebooted Halloween and everybody hated all those movies that he did as

Sidey: But I thought it was excellent. It's definitely worth 90

Dan: Yeah, well this is the time to watch

Sidey: Yeah. season.

Hmm. Strong recommend.