The Jonas Brothers surprised Kerry and Collin with their charming holiday offering this past season that they decided to devote an entire episode to "A Very Jonas Christmas Movie." Please know that the hosts have little to no knowledge of the Brothers Jonas and their back-catalog, so be patient with the little that they do know. What exactly is figgy pudding (Andrea Martin wanted to know, so the question is being asked on her behalf)? Is Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Santa beard real or fake? Finally, ...
Jan 20, 2026•1 hr 23 min
As always, Kerry and Collin begin the year taking a look at a Nutcracker movie. This one celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, so the festivities for it starts now! "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture" was a theatrically-released performance film with an added touch of storybook-like innovation and imagination from the one and only Maurice Sendak (author of Where the Wild Things Are ). Does it successfully work as a piece of storytelling and staged performance? How does it compare to the simila...
Jan 05, 2026•1 hr 23 min
Though beloved in England, the 1985 Salkind Production "Santa Claus: The Movie" never met its high expectations, either critically or at the box office. Film critic Peter Sobczynski returns to the show to break down why the movie doesn't really work, even though it's well cast and the production design is (mostly) quiet good. What went wrong? Just how much strategic product placement went into this? Is this a more or less dignified role for Dudley Moore than "Six Weeks"? How has Peter been traum...
Dec 20, 2025•1 hr 39 min
Kerry and Collin have been keeping track of several new Christmas films and TV episodes that have been dropping over the last several weeks and give brief thoughts on each of them. This includes "A Very Jonas Christmas," "Jingle Bell Heist," "A Paw Patrol Christmas," "The Merchants of Joy," "Oh. What. Fun." and "Christmas Karma." They also have quick thoughts on the new "Silent Night, Deadly Night" remake, which will be talked about more in-depth in October of next year, per SNDN tradition. Kerr...
Dec 12, 2025•1 hr 38 min
"Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" is often considered the Granddaddy of all bad Christmas films. A cheaply made kiddie flick from 1964, it is perhaps most well known for being the screen debut of a young Pia Zadora. Film critic Dave Canfield returns to the show to dissect the film's notoriety, the filmmakers' misguided intentions and what makes this public domain favorite so special. They also discuss a lesser-known yuletide oddity for kids along the same lines, "The Christmas Martian." A Cana...
Dec 05, 2025•1 hr 30 min
Last year, film critic Nick Digilio came onto the show to talk about the crime comedy "The Ref." This year, he returns to talk about a film that feels like a close cousin to that film, Harold Ramis' "The Ice Harvest," starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen and Oliver Platt. Like "The Ref," it is an underseen gem about criminals trying to get out of town on Christmas Eve, with too many obstacles--including family, cops and other criminals--getting in the way. What was it like to...
Nov 30, 2025•1 hr 45 min
Every year, Netflix kicks off the Christmas movie season with a little trifle of a rom-com that stars an actress whose name used to be commonly above the title in past decades. This year, it's Alicia Silverstone's turn in the formulaic "A Merry Little Ex-Mas," a tension-less comedy in which a married couple call it quits on their marriage, but decide to stay together, more or less, through the holidays. Does the script give Silverstone anything to do? Should we all have two Christmas trees up in...
Nov 20, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Author Ed Daly ( The Christmas Book ) returns to talk about easily one of the most celebrated holiday movies ever, John Hughes' Thanksgiving classic "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." This movie was the career-changer for the late, great John Candy and this episode gets into the hows and whys of that turning point, as well as how the movie was ultimately saved in the editing (as many films often are, but here especially). Would you consider yourself more of a Neal or a Del? What is the most impor...
Nov 05, 2025•1 hr 45 min
With all the Silent Night, Deadly Night films complete (or are they?), Kerry, Collin and their frequent guest at this time of year, Patick Ripoll, take a look at another slasher film from the same era, the less controversial, but just as violent Don't Open Till Christmas , directed by (kind-of) and starring Edward Purdom. There's not a whole lot that makes sense here, but that's what makes it so fun to dissect. Why is one character hanging up random strands of garland in random places in her apa...
Oct 20, 2025•1 hr 40 min
Collin and Kerry correct a mistake from last year by focusing on a movie that actually does take place during Halloween. Christine Sellin returns to talk about "Monster House," a subversive and hilarious animated from from 2006 that sneaks up on the viewer with a poignant story of love that durns dark and foreboding when you look back on it. Is this the best of the motion-capture animated films of this era? How does the animation hold up today? What was trick-or-treating like when you were a kid...
Oct 05, 2025•1 hr 42 min
Unfortunately, our episode on "The Apartment" has to be postponed until next year. Our apologioes for that. Fortunately, author John Zukowski was able to step in at the last minute and introduce a new Christmas gem to us, "Remember The Night," a film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray that pretty much set the template for many Christmas romances to come. The first (but certainly not the last) of its kind, "Remember The Night" fits in perfectly with our last two episodes that touched on...
Sep 20, 2025•1 hr 26 min
The director and stars of the wonderful comedy "The Baltimorons" (currently/soon in theaters) join the show briefly to discuss the film's evolution and its purpose as a Christmas movie. Before that, though, Kerry and Collin discuss the film after seeing it a second time. What other movies come to mind with this kind of premise? Can anyone do improv? What are the favorite Christmas movies of the guests featured? Tune in to find out. Also, new blu-rays, a couple of which tie into some very recent ...
Sep 05, 2025•1 hr 25 min
Kerry and Collin didn't plan on 2025 being a John Cusack-a-thon, but that's what ended up happening. After talking about "Serendipity" back in February and with "The Ice Harvest" coming up in December, the hosts decided to do a Cusack double-header of Christmas-adjacent films that came out 40 years ago. "The Sure Thing" was Cusack's first starring role in the teenage take on "It Happened One Night" while "Better Off Dead" took on a much weirder tone and ended up being a cult favorite, much to Cu...
Aug 20, 2025•1 hr 27 min
It's so hot out there! What better way to defeat the August heat than to watch Santa Claus stuck in his sleigh on a sizzling Florida beach? Who will help him get back to the North Pole? A rag-tag group of homeless minors who have no experience working with animals. Also, the Ice Cream Bunny, whatever that is. FIlm critic Pat McDonald join Collin and Kerry to break down "Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny," one of the absolute weirdest holiday concoctions of all time with a just-barely-stitched-togeth...
Aug 05, 2025•1 hr 37 min
Kerry and Collin are joined by their good friend Jim Peebles, who also guested on the "A Very Brady Christmas" episode. "The Love Boat" is certainly cut from the same cloth, but this "Christmas Cruise" remains a mystery. Is it a movie? Is it two episodes seamlessly jammed together? Why no separate listing for it on Letterbox'd or IMDb? Currently availabel on Paramount+, this movie-sode is chock full of mysteries. Where did the kid chorus come from? How are people able to buy massive amounts of f...
Jul 20, 2025•1 hr 44 min
We're releasing this a day early, the 4th of July, because why not? After all, the film has "U.S.A." in the title. Kerry and Collin are joined by frequent guest, Erik Childress (host of Movie Madness) to talk about one of the dumbest films to come out of 1985, from Cannon Studios, one of the most notorious movie studios of its era. Who did Chuck Norris originally want to be his co-star and how would that person's career have been altered if it had happened? Why are the terrorists in the film inv...
Jul 04, 2025•1 hr 41 min
Kerry and Collin are joined by Jeff Broitman (formerly of the podcast Fresh Perspective) to talk about one of Collin's all-time favorite films, Terry Gilliam's 1985 masterpiece "Brazil." It also happens to be one of Jeff's favorite movies as well. While the film certainly belongs in the "Christmas adjacent" category of Christmas movies, there is nevertheless a richness to it that warrants a long discussion on the film's artistic merit, its place in film history and the role it played in complete...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 57 min
Based on the encouragement of a GQ article from 2016, Kerry and Collin took a look back at "Bridget Jones's Diary" to see if the writer of said article had been onto something. That led them to go back and rewatch all of the "Bridget Jones" movies including the latest, which just came out on blu-ray. What/who is the Bridget Jones of today? How would we rank the boyfriends/fiancees in the entire series? Did "Bridget Jones's Diary" kickstart the "ugly sweater" craze that started in the early 2000s...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 43 min
Kerry and Collin plowed through this comedy starring Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito as two feuding neighbors at Christmastime. The experience of watching the film caused one of them to ponder, "why are we doing this podcast?" There are so many other questions, though. What makes the old, white iMacs so special? How long would it actually take to make an elaborate Christmas light trail, cook an even more elaborate dinner and then cover your entire house with Christmas lights? What did DeVito ...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Kerry and Collin, while trying desperately to recall facts about part 2, finally round out the Tim Allen "Santa Clause" trilogy with should be the best of the bunch, considering the casting of Martin Short. Did it meet the expectation? Maybe. If nothing else, he gives the viewer someone to root for. Is this really "the greatest Santa Claus story ever"? Why couldn't the elves put together a suitable hospital room somewhere in the North Pole where Mrs. Claus can give birth to her child? How does A...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 25 min
A listener requested this title quite some time ago and it finally happened! Film critic Nell Minow joins Kerry and Collin to talk about this relatively obscure, but wonderful movie that might just be the first ever in the sub-genre of holiday films where the family returns home for the holiday festivities and slowly start airing their grievances and secrets. Do clergymen really enjoy doing the Christmas sermons? Is there a moment in "Love Actually" that is a tribute to this movie? How does dire...
Apr 20, 2025•1 hr 19 min
Kerry and Collin are joined by Catherine Mary Stewart, star of the 1984 cult classic "Night of the Comet," an apocalyptic sci-fi film where the world ends at Christmastime, which is the best time to go shopping. They are also joined by returning guest Marya E. Gates, author of the new book "Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words." The four of them talk in-depth about "Night of the Comet" while Stewart tells some great production stories from working on the film, while also...
Apr 05, 2025•2 hr 21 min
Wayne Wang's "Smoke" doesn't look like a Christmas movie, sound like a Christmas movie or ever feel like a Christmas movie. It really isn't, but the final fifteen minutes of this terrific ensemble film features a moving and poetic Christmas story that makes it worthy of inclusion on this show (hey, it has more Chrsitmas in it than Disney's "Babes In Toyland"). The film stars Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Forrest Whitaker, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, Giancarlo Esposito, Harold Perrineau and Ja...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Kerry and Collin look at the often maligned 2004 comedy "Surviving Christmas," starring Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate and Catherine O'Hara and find it's not quite as terrible as critics (Collin included) made it out to be twenty years ago. Is it the two decades of distance from the Bennifer annoyance of that time period? How much money would it take for you to bring in a character like Affleck's into your home for two weeks? What about those lyrics they sing for "O Christmas...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 26 min
Kerry and Collin showed up late for their discussion of the 2001 rom-com starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, "Serendipity." Does the movie take its concepts about fate and destiny to absurd heights? How many movies accurately depict the lives of obituary writers? Should the filmmakers have left in the twin towers when the film came out in the fall of 2001? Also, Kerry and Collin reveal their own Top 5 John Cusack movies. Plus, a 1995 classic, some Kurasawa, Tom & Jerry and Richard Pryo...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 40 min
The co-host of Friendship Dilemma, Morgan Gire, returns to the show to talk about Martin McDonagh's great, Oscar-nominated black comedy, "In Bruges," starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. While the film does take place during the holiday season, it's the bleak morality play and violence that take center stage. What actually happens to Farrell's character at the very end of the film? Do actors in movies really know how to use guns with blanks? What bird is the symbol for the ...
Jan 20, 2025•1 hr 38 min
Kerry and Collin continue the tradition of starting the new year off with a look at a Nutcracker movie. Although, this Hulu offering is not a Nutcracker-based movie, the ballet does figure into the plot eventually, as Ben Stiller has to housesit his four recently orphaned nephews, who happen to have some talent in that artform. Can he really put on a production in a matter of weeks? Do people really write checks as payment at an ice cream truck? Is this David Gordon Green's best comedy in over a...
Jan 05, 2025•1 hr 35 min
The perennial classic starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen turns 70 years-old this year. Kerry and Collin are celebrating the occasion by having on one of the film's biggest fans, film critic Pat McDonald. Is Michael Curtiz's much-celebrated film more of a post-WWII nostalgia piece than it is a Christmas movie? What other Danny Kaye movies should people check out? Was Bing Crosby actually not wearing any underwear in that train scene? All these questions, plus Pat ta...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 28 min
Kerry and Collin are joined by first-time guest, longtime friend, film critic Nick Digilio, who claims "The Ref"--starring Dennis Leary, Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis--is his favorite Christmas film of all time. Collin has similar feelings and wanted to wait until the movie had an anniversary, so it could be featured prominently in the December line-up, when the movie would hopefully get more attention than it did back in the day. Why did the studio botch its release? Do people still make fruitcak...
Dec 12, 2024•1 hr 37 min
Kerry and Collin are joined by Erik Childress to talk about the enduring--and maybe not so enduring--legacy of Robert Zemeckis' "The Polar Express." Based on the beloved picture book by Chris Van Allsburg, this film pushed the boundaries of motion-capture animation at the time. How does that technology hold up today? What does the bell symbolize? Which character should've gotten the bell at the end? Plus, Erik's choice for a Christmas TV special/episode is the holiday episode of the '80s sci-fi ...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 34 min
