In the hustle and bustle of giving and getting, it's so easy to overlook the true meaning of Christmas.

But this year, let's come home to the heart of what Christmas is all about.

Come in and.

Know me better, man.

Wow, what's this?

This is North Pole.

No it's not.

Yes it is.

No it's not.

Yes it is.

No it isn't.

Yes it is.

No it isn't.

No it's not.

Worth to sell isn't.

It a little big.

Not big, just full.

Yeah.

That's not.

Yard not going in our yard, Russ.

It's going in our living room.

May this be a blessed Christmas for you.

Is Jesus Christ in your heart and life?

Merry Christmas and welcome to the Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies.

I am your host, Eli Price, and we are here on episode 120 of the podcast.

We are obviously in a bit of a slump, a bit of a break right now.

Finished a long, arduous series going through the filmography of Steven Spielberg.

And yeah, I've kind of been on a hiatus.

Life has been busy.

I've had a lot going on.

I wanted to do some other fun special episodes to kind of end the year, and I just haven't been able to get to that.

So sorry to listeners out there who may have been wondering where we've been.

I haven't really been active on social media either.

Yeah, it's just been a crazy, crazy season.

Busy season, but I do plan on keeping the podcast going.

Might just be a little bit more sporadic for a bit until I can get a new kind of solid schedule going.

But we are back for a special Christmas episode.

If you couldn't tell, I am here in my living room in front of our Christmas tree.

If you're watching on Spotify or on YouTube and yeah, I, if you, I guess like this is my promo part.

If you didn't know, you can support the podcast to keep it going.

There's a lot of costs involved with being an independent podcaster website, having a recording studio, a virtual recording studio to to kind of record these episodes and edit them, buying the Blu rays with special features so that we can watch those and get more details into the movies that we cover in our main series.

There's a there's a lot of costs that that kind of go into maintaining and keeping it going.

And so I would love for you to support the podcast if you can.

You can go to establishingshotpod.com and you can find in the menu there where to donate in different tiers with different perks.

One of the perks leads us to the episode for today, which is that if you support the podcast, you get to choose a movie each year that I will review.

And so I had a few people that support the podcast that had not sent me a movie all year.

So I reached out and said, hey, send me a Christmas movie that you want me to cover and I'll do kind of a special end of the year episode where I review a few Christmas movies picked by some of my supporters.

So that's what we are doing today.

I have three movies chosen by three different supporters of the podcast.

And yeah, it'll be fun.

I kind of have three different very different movies in a in a way to cover today.

So that's that's kind of my promo.

Support the podcast if you can.

You'll get to pick episodes, movies for me to review on special episodes like this.

I have not announced my next series, and that's the next bit of news to cover.

I have not announced that yet.

I have a good idea of who I want to do for my next director series, but I'm not announcing it yet because, like I said, life has been crazy.

I don't want to get too ahead of myself as far as that goes, but you should be hearing about it maybe in the new year.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

But the Go rate review, the podcast on Apple and Spotify especially, but wherever you listen would be a huge help.

It helps the visibility of the podcast, helps new people find it.

Share stuff on social media for the podcast.

Share it with your friend.

A word of mouth is a great way to share podcasts.

I would greatly appreciate it to give the gift of a new podcast to your friends and family this Christmas season.

But with all that aside and no further delay, let's get into our movies that we're going to cover.

So I am here in my living room with my cup of hot chocolate that I'm going to take a sip of.

Now.

Got a good slurp in there for the audio listeners, but we are going to cover a few movies picked by supporters.

The first movie that we're going to cover is the animated movie The Star that came out in 2017.

And now this is directed by Timothy Reckert is how I'm going to pronounce his last name.

Doesn't have a whole lot of directing on his resume, a little bit of visual effects stuff.

But yeah, this this is an interesting movie.

It is very So it is basically a nativity movie.

It is a movie that kind of like fictionalizes a story around the nativity story of the story of the birth of Jesus.

So of course you have Mary and Joseph, you have some animals that talk.

That's that's kind of the IT it's kind of like the point of view of the animals, I guess is kind of like the gimmick of the movie, the kind of, I guess thing that makes it, you know, you a unique story.

I guess you have a little bit of like an extra plot going on with Herod and this kind of hit man that he's Roman soldier hit man that he sent out with these dogs to hunt down Mary and Joseph and kill this new king that's supposed to be born.

And so, yeah, it's it's interesting.

So you have some big names attached to this.

Steven yen plays the main character.

Oh, who is a donkey.

And you have, I mean, you have Zachary Levi voicing Joseph Keegan, Michael Key, Kelly Clarkson, Kris Kristofferson, Dean Grimes, Gabriel Iglesias popping up, Christopher Plummer, Tyler Perry, Tracy Morgan, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey.

I mean, you have a lot of big names voicing characters in this.

And so you know, it, it's I believe it was made by Sony Animation.

And I guess that that's, that's where I'll start.

The voice acting, you know, it's fine.

It's just a lot of good voice actors and celebrities and the voice acting, you know, is, is fine.

The animation, I, I don't know how I felt about it.

It was kind of like it, it was, I don't know.

I don't know if I liked it or not.

It was a little off putting at times.

There's just something about the animation style.

It's like this, it's like this realism, but with like very care, like very expressive character faces.

And I don't know, there were there were times where like this is 2017, so it's kind of before the AI craze, but there was like some serious like AI vibes at certain points.

Yeah.

I don't know if I like this animation style.

I'm not sure what other movies might similar.

I'm I'm kind of pulling up the yeah, I mean, not, not really any of the other Sony animation movie.

I mean, Spider Verse was such revolutionary as far as its animation goes.

K Pop Demon Hunters is very different from this.

The Mitchells versus the Machines has a little bit of a different feel as far as the animation goes.

I guess the closest thing might be Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs as far as stuff that Sony animation has done or maybe Hotel Transylvania.

As far as the animation style, it's just not my favorite.

I just it's it's it just looks weird to me.

So that was one thing that was hard for me to like get past is just I don't I don't enjoy this animation style a whole lot.

So that was hard for me to get past.

And then I don't know, like I know my aunt, my aunt is the one one of my aunts is the one that picked this movie.

Apparently it is one of my cousins favorite Christmas movies and I, I hate to break it to them, but I just, I didn't go for this movie.

It was a bit boring.

It was a bit of a slog.

There was like, I don't know, there wasn't enough happening at any given moment to really like move the plot along.

The IT has a lot of jokes that kind of, I don't know, they're like kind of like elbow your neighbor, like, haha, kind of like jokes like referencing maybe stuff in the Bible, like, I mean the donkey in the lamb he runs into or named a bow and Boaz Bo for sure.

And Ruth, it's kind of like, Oh yeah, hey, Ruth and Boaz.

And then like it just some like goofy.

There's some goofy slapstick stuff that's like, you know, it's fine.

I don't know.

And then like there was a whole lot of, I don't know, like the the reveal of Mary revealing to Joseph that she was pregnant was a bit like anticlimactic and awkward.

And I mean, it would be awkward in real life, but not in this way.

It was, it was the way like, I don't know, it was just weird.

There's a lot of weird stuff like that through the movie.

And I think just overall, like I just couldn't get into what they did with the story.

Like I wasn't buying any of it.

It was.

And then again, like I said, it just really didn't move.

Like it was it was like you were on a journey to Bethlehem going through the movie.

And so, you know, it's it's fine.

Like it's got it's like, you know, magical Christmas moments.

I guess when, you know, everyone comes together at the end and the baby Jesus is born and all the animals are there and everyone's happy.

Like, I mean, like you feel happy that, you know, the big bad Roman soldier didn't get Mary and Joseph, but but I don't know.

And then, I don't know, I just it was, it was hard for me to really get into this movie.

So sorry, I didn't like this a whole lot to the people that suggested it, but and maybe others that enjoy this movie.

I just, I just couldn't get into it.

It's just not for me.

I don't mind trying to do something creative with a nativity story, but this just didn't do it for me.

And so yeah, that's that is the star from 2017.

That is the first movie that I'm covering.

I've got two more.

So the second movie that I'm going to talk about was suggested by my other aunt, another aunt that supports the podcast.

So shout out to y'all.

Yeah, this movie is from 2003.

It is Eloise at Christmas Time, directed by Kevin Lima of Enchanted and Tarzan and A Goofy Movie fame.

Even 102 Dalmatians with Glenn Close as Cruella Deville directed that, you know, he's got some, some good stuff under his belt.

I don't, I don't remember 102 Dalmatians a whole lot, but I know I watched it my childhood.

But the other 3 great movies, you know, Enchanted, Tarzan Goofy movie, great movies.

And this really like I think, I think this movie kind of captured the feel of that era of movies really well.

Eloise at Christmas time was I believe it was ATV movie release in 2003.

I think Eloise at the Plaza.

These are based on a a book series Eloise book series, but I believe Eloise at the Plaza was also ATV movie release that same year in 2003.

But this Eloise at Christmas time I felt like I was like going back in time to my childhood watching this movie.

It felt very like the movie that I kept like thinking of that I watched over and over in my childhood was Dunstan checks in with the boy in the hotel and the monk, his monkey friend that he makes and named Dunston.

But that it was reminding me of like it was giving me Dunston checks in Richie Rich blank check kind of vibes.

And that's like super nostalgic for me.

Those were like the the movies that like we had on VHS and watched over and over in my childhood.

So just that alone, it had that going for it.

But then just like Sophia, let me see this last name.

Sophia Vasileva, who plays Eloise, who is Eloise is AI think she's like 8 in the movie.

The character is and yeah, she this Sophia girl like plays her so good.

There's a lot of like winking at the camera.

It's kind of this plot where like Eloise kind of like the 8 year old runs this hotel behind the scenes sort of thing.

It's got that vibe.

And you know, she's involved in all the affairs of all the various workers throughout the hotel.

She's trying to figure out what she's getting for Christmas from her mom and if her mom's going to be home in time for Christmas.

And then there's this, the hotel manager, like the head guy at the hotel, his daughter is going to get married to this guy and she's suspicious of it.

And there's this past love with one of her best friends at the hotel who's like a waiter at the hotel and she's trying to like hook them up.

The manager's daughter hooked back up with the old love instead of this guy that's she's suspicious of.

And so you've got that sort of plot going on.

There's like a will they won't they and Eloise meddling and trying to hook them up.

And and you've got a Julie Andrews playing the nanny of Eloise.

And she Julie Andrews is always lovely.

So it was fun to see her.

And I just, I enjoy like this.

It's not like this was the best Christmas movie ever or anything, but I mean, it's New York in at the Plaza at Christmas time.

And so you've got the Christmas vibes going strong.

And then on top of that you have the the kind of 90s, early 2000s nostalgia for me, which is, you know, my childhood.

And so it's got that going for it.

And so it's just the best way I could describe it in my millennial language is that it just has really great vibes, great Christmas vibes, great nostalgic vibes.

You know, I, I like a good like kid winking at the camera when it's done well, which I feel like it is here.

And this is just, you know, it's, oh, it's saying she's six years old.

OK, So she's the same age as my, my son.

I thought she was 8, but 6 sure.

I don't know.

It's just, it's kind of like a lovely little movie, like a charming little movie that I enjoyed.

I would recommend checking this out.

I think it's streaming on Amazon Prime, of which the star, by the way, I think is streaming on Netflix.

If you want to check that out and see if you like it more than I did, which you very well might.

But yeah, I would actually recommend Eloise at Christmas time.

I had a good time with it.

Me and my wife watched it together and we loved watching Elouise Medal in the fairs of everyone in the hotel at Christmas time.

And you know, good happy ending and everything that you expect is going to happen based on the plot mechanisms does happen, as you should expect in a movie like this.

But there's something I guess comforting about just seeing what's coming and knowing it's going to happen and then it happening.

There's something like very like cozy and comforting about that.

That's perfect for a Christmas movie.

So, yeah, I definitely recommend Eloise at Christmas time.

Good recommendation there.

So they're the two ants in battle.

One wins.

She knows who she is.

I'm not going to say it, but, you know, you know, they'll battle again, I'm sure.

The last movie that I will be reviewing very different we're I mean, we're going to the other end of the spectrum here, the star and Eloise at Christmas time, kid friendly, very much like not really debatable that their Christmas movies.

Now we're going from rated GNPG to the other end of the spectrum to the R side and we're going to talk about John Mctiernan's Die Hard from 1988.

Is it a Christmas movie?

I think I don't really know why it's debate like it is a Christmas movie.

Like is it a action cop movie?

Also yes, but I don't understand why that keeps it from being Christmas.

Christmas is not a genre.

Christmas is a vibe, a theme, a setting.

And so I, I, I don't know that like Christmas, like you're not going to find a Christmas genre on IMDb or letterbox because it's not really a genre.

It's a category.

I mean, I think Diehard fits.

It's you have comedy Christmas movies, you have drama Christmas movies, you can have action Christmas movies.

I mean, Diehard has, it's got Santas.

It's got a Christmas party as the setting.

It's got Christmas music and the soundtrack.

You've got characters using Merry Christmas as, like, catch phrases.

Yeah, you've got, you know, a dead body sent down in the elevator that says ho, ho, ho on the note with dressed in the Santa costume to kind of intimidate the bad guys.

I don't really know what else you want to call this, a Christmas movie, because I think it is.

And then on top of that, like you've got Christmas themes, you've got coming home to see family in a broken family situation and hey, we got to figure this thing out.

Let's get back together at Christmas time and become a family again.

You've got those vibes going too.

So I don't really know what people want to What more could you ask for, for this to be a Christmas movie?

It's a Christmas movie, Die Hard.

I don't know why people will hate Bruce Willis and hate John Mctiernan so much that they want to take the Christmas movie away from him.

Now, I know, I know people are going to say that Bruce Willis said this is not a Christmas movie.

Well, guess what?

Actors don't get to decide what kind of movie a movie is.

They act in it.

They do their job.

Bruce Willis, you know, love the guy.

It's a Christmas movie.

He's wrong.

Sorry, actors can be wrong even if they're in the movie now, they might not have been like, oh, we're going to make a Christmas movie.

I don't think they were thinking that while they were making it, but that's what they ended up with.

I mean, it's a Christmas movie.

It's an action movie, but it's it's a Christmas movie.

But yeah, Die Hard is great.

Like I said, love all the love, all the like Christmas references kind of thrown in throughout the setting.

You've got just a fantastic protagonist and Bruce Willis's John McClain.

You've got a phenomenal antagonist and Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber.

You've got the great like bro, the great buddy with Reginald Val Johnson's Al Powell.

And then, oh man, I'm blanking on on her name.

Bonnie Bedelia.

Yeah, playing Holly Gennaro McClain.

She's really good in it.

I don't really know her from anything else, but she's she's really good in the movie.

And I don't know, I think Die hard is just it's just like a top notch, like top tier action movie.

And the the Christmas stuff is like the icing on top the, you know, Santa Claus hat on top, if you will.

And so I don't, I don't really know.

I don't I don't have a whole lot of like commentary to add to the die hard discussion.

I've made my argument.

I think it's I mean, it's a phenomenal movie.

The action is great, the the intensity is great, the thrilling aspects of of McClain and if is he going to get caught, the endurance of that character is fun to watch.

The banter with him and and the bad guys and then the banter with him and how are great as well.

And I just really think it's a fun movie and I don't know, like it always gets me to.

There's even there's a couple of like really touching parts where, you know, one in which John Mcclane and Al are kind of connecting over well, John being the father and Al Gun a father to be kind of connecting over that.

There's a there's a really touching part where John Mcclane is like coming to terms with like his own like faults and his own problems and, you know, taking the ownership of like messing up his marriage.

And so I you know, there and it's touching, like when when you watch it and you're into the movie, like it, it's pretty moving.

So I really appreciate that those aspects to like it's, it's a pure like full on action movie.

But it also like it has some emotion to it.

Like it has like the character building is really well done.

It's efficient.

And you like, there's not a moment where like you, you don't want John Mcclane to win.

You know, like, yeah, he's a bit of a jerk, but like he's so endearing and and you're behind him for the family aspects that so much so that like, you can really can like overlook how like much of a smart.

Yeah, he is a smart aleck.

I guess you could say.

I'm trying to keep the Christmas episode family friendly.

But yeah, you know, he what kind more could you ask for than to, you know, kill some bad guys in the name of of Christmas, get those bad guys out of there and save some people's lives.

Die hard, great movie.

I I think it's a Christmas movie.

I think it's undeniable.

I think it's a top tier action movie now, like, OK, so I have this Christmas list on letterboxed.

What kind of like I'll use Die hard as a springboard.

I have this Christmas movie ranking list on, on letterbox and it's like, it's not really a ranking list like based off of what I rate the movie because like I, I think die hard is like a 4 1/2 star out of five movie for me, 9 out of 10, if I'm remembering what I rate it correctly, but it's not like a top tier Christmas movie.

It's like a middle of the road Christmas movie.

And so it's like kind of somewhere like in the, in the like top middle of my Christmas rankings, Christmas movie rankings.

Because Christmas Christmas movies like when you think about what are the best ones, it is about like the vibe of the movie.

How Christmassy is it?

How strong are the Christmas themes?

How strong is like the Christmas magic and the Christmas spirit.

And you know, Die hard has the setting, it's got the music, it's got a little bit of the theme, but it's not like as strong as a lot of other movies.

And so there's plenty of movies that like I have like rated a good bit lower than Die Hard just as a movie in general, but have it ranked higher on my Christmas list.

So that kind of gives you an idea of like the way I think about Christmas movies and what makes a Christmas movie more or a better Christmas movie than others.

It's got to have a lot of Christmas magic.

It's got to have a lot of like Christmas theme in the family theme.

It's got to have a lot of it.

It's just the vibes that you feel from it, you know?

So those are my movies that I covered.

The star didn't go for a whole lot.

Eloise at Christmastime.

Nostalgic, charming, cozy.

And then, yeah, Die Hard, I mean, one of the best action movies of all time, probably.

And it's streaming like everywhere right now.

It's on Prime, it's on Hulu and Disney Plus, It's on Peacock Premium.

So you can kind of go wherever to watch Die Hard or buy it.

You know, I have the Blu-ray.

But I do hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, a happy holiday season.

Stay safe out there with with all the traveling, I know there's a lot of traveling around this time.

So yeah, stay safe out there, enjoy your family, enjoy your friends and get you a cup of hot chocolate like I have now or a cup of hot coffee.

It's nice.

So I'm not going to be drinking down in coffee right now, but but yeah, enjoy some Christmas movies.

So with your friends and family and have a good time.

And yeah, just enjoy some Christmas magic while you watch your Christmas movies this season.

But that's all I have for this episode.

I'm not sure when the next one will come out.

It will be in the new year for sure.

But I look forward to seeing you then.

That's all we have for this week.

I've been Eli Price and you've been listening to the Establishing Shot.

Merry Christmas and we will see you next time.