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Holidays on the Lens: A Christmas Carol (dir by Edwin L. Marin)
It’s not Christmas without the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his visit with three ghosts. There have been numerous film versions of this story. The one below comes to us from 1938 and stars Reginald Owen in the role of Scrooge.
This version is surprisingly good, considering that it was apparently shot in a hurry. (The movie hit theaters just a few weeks after filming stopped.) Originally, Lionel Barrymore was going to play Scrooge but he had to drop out due to ill-health. Reginald Owen stepped in and gave a good performance as the famous miser.
(Barrymore himself would more or less play Scrooge a little less than ten years later in Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life.)
Song of the Day: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas by Dean Martin
Sing us into the holidays, Dean!
Holidays On The Lens: Christmas Twister (dir by Peter Sullivan)
The 2012 film Christmas Twister tells the story of what happens when several twisters hit North Texas on Christmas Day. For a film taking place in the DFW area (a region that is called the flatlands for a reason), there’s a surprisingly large amount of mountains around.
I mean check out the road leading to Fort Worth:
Check out the town of Gransbury!
Guess which movie was definitely not filmed in Texas!
That said, Casper Van Dien manfully drives across the city, saving his children from the tornado and encouraging folks to stay inside. Plus, the film features a perfect shot that shows that the filmmakers did understand at least one thing about Texas:
Hell yeah! The flag of Texas and some other country!
Enjoy Christmas Twister:
Song of the Day: Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum
Apparently, when Norman Greenbaum wrote today’s song of the day, he wasn’t quite writing a parody but, at the same time, he wasn’t being totally serious either. Greenbaum wrote the song after watching a gospel performance on television and thinking, “Yeah, I could do that.” By his own recollection, it took him 15 minutes to come up with the lyrics for Spirit In The Sky.
Originally, he was going to perform the song with a jug band. (Yikes!) He also tried to do a folk version. (Double yikes!) Fortunately, he ultimately went for the hard rock sound that made the song a legend.
Brad reviews THE COWBOY WAY (1994), starring Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland!
Happy 59th birthday, Kiefer Sutherland!
Sutherland portrayed my favorite TV character of all time, when he spent 8 seasons playing Jack Bauer in my favorite TV series of all time, 24. Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) gave him a solid run for his money when I got around to watching the JUSTIFIED series a few years back, but I still believe Bauer edges him out. Another of my favorite shows when I was growing up was CHEERS. And a big reason for that is Woody Harrelson. CHEERS ran from 1982-1993, so when it started I was nine and when it ended I was twenty. I literally grew up on the show. I thought Harrelson’s portrayal of the dim-witted, but lovable and sweet character, Woody Boyd, was so funny. I remember being happy when he started making movies and had some solid success. I’ve always enjoyed THE COWBOY WAY, the film that teamed up Harrelson and Sutherland, so I decided to revisit the 1994 action-comedy on Kiefer’s special day.
IN THE COWBOY WAY, Woody Harrelson plays the somewhat dim-witted and overwhelmingly carefree Pepper Lewis, while Kiefer Sutherland plays the more responsible and extremely serious Sonny Gilstrap, two lifelong friends and rodeo champions from New Mexico. The story kicks off when their long-time friend Nacho Salazar (Joaquin Martinez) disappears after going to New York City to pick up his daughter Teresa (Cara Buono), who has been smuggled into the U.S. from Cuba. Pepper and Sonny decide to head to the big city themselves to track down Nacho, and soon find themselves taking on the murderous human trafficker, John Stark (Dylan McDermott), who murdered Nacho and is forcing his daughter to work in a sweatshop. With only their country boy common sense (well at least Sonny’s), their exceptional rodeo skills, and the help of an empathetic NY cop ((Ernie Hudson), Pepper and Sonny will do whatever it takes to find out what happened to Nacho and save his daughter from a life of modern day slavery.
THE COWBOY WAY is silly and unrealistic at times, with shifts in tone that will make your head spin, but I still love it anyway. This type of action-comedy was commonplace in the 80’s and 90’s, but you don’t see movies like this much anymore. I’ll admit that my personal nostalgia, as well as my lifelong appreciation of Sutherland and Harrelson, plays into my enjoyment of the film. It’s a movie that leans into the once popular formula of outsiders from the country being looked down upon by city slickers, and then proving themselves to be more than capable. Think CROCODILE DUNDEE, but without the romance. This is the kind of movie that is trying its best to give us a good time for our box office dollars. Many in Hollywood have forgotten how to entertain, and it’s such a breath of fresh air to watch movies that exist solely for that purpose, even when they’re not perfect.
As is often the case for me, the cast of THE COWBOY WAY plays a big factor in my enjoyment of the movie. Woody Harrelson is certainly over the top as the irresponsible New Mexico cowboy, but he’s also funny at times and more than capable of handling the action scenes. Kiefer Sutherland’s cowboy is the exact opposite, he’s serious, extremely responsible, and very capable. If nothing else, he needs Harrelson’s character in his life to help him remove the stick from his ass at times! Ultimately, it’s their relationship and banter that carries the film for me. Dylan McDermott is good as the sleazy villain, but if you’ve seen many 80’s and 90’s action movies, he’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect. As a fan of spaghetti westerns, I also enjoyed seeing the genre stalwart Tomas Milian pop up as McDermott’s soon-to-be ex-boss. It’s not a big role but this movie buff appreciated it. Finally, Ernie Hudson is just so likable as the kind-hearted and helpful horse-mounted cop. I like to think that he and Kiefer’s character kept a John McClane / Sgt. Al Powell type relationship going after the events of the movie.
Ultimately, in my opinion, THE COWBOY WAY may not be a great movie by critical standards, but it is a fun movie. If you’re in the mood for 90’s era action-comedy, featuring a great cast, fun stunts (e.g. men on horseback taking on New York City traffic), and a little Travis Tritt on the soundtrack, then you’ll probably have a good time with this one.
Holidays On The Lens: Santa Who? (dir by William Dear)
Oh no! Santa Claus has amnesia!
That’s the premise behind this 2000 Christmas movie, which features Leslie Nielsen as the amnesiac Santa. Having fallen out of his sleigh, Santa finds himself in Los Angeles. When a reporter (Steven Eckholdt) comes across Santa, he does a story about him. Santa becomes a mini-celebrity and gets a job as a department store version of himself. While his elves search for him, Santa struggles to recover his memory.
It’s a cute little made-for-TV movie. Leslie Nielsen as Santa? Who could resist that?
Song of the Day: I Dreamed I Saw Jack Nance Last Night by Dumb Numbers
Eraserhead (1977, dir by David Lynch)
Today would have been the 82nd birthday of Jack Nance, the talented but troubled actor who was a favorite of David Lynch’s and who died under mysterious circumstances in 1996. Born in Massachusetts but raised in Texas, Nance first won acclaim as a star of the stage show, Tom Paine. The director of Tom Paine later received a fellowship to the American Film Institute where he met a young director named David Lynch and recommended that Lynch cast Nance as the lead character in his film, Eraserhead. Lynch and Nance were kindred spirits, two all-American eccentrics with their own unique view of the world. Lynch went to use Nance in almost every film that he made up until Nance’s death. Nance would also appear in small roles in films from other directors, usually cast as quirky and obsessive characters. Outside of his role in Eraserhead, Nance is probably best known for playing Pete Martell on Twin Peaks. Pete’s discovery of Laura Palmer’s body launched the entire saga.
Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch)
In honor of Jack’s talent and legacy, here is today’s song of the day!
Music Video of the Day: Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses (1981)
This is apparently not the official video for The Waitress’s Christmas Wrapping. Instead, it’s a video that someone else put together using other clips of the band. I haven’t been able to find an official version so there might not be one. Or, at the very least, if there is one, it does not appear to be on YouTube. (If I’m wrong, let me know.)
Anyway, I like the song and tis the season. Interestingly enough, it’s often missed that the song is more about the chaos of the season than the joy of it.
Enjoy!
Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 12/14/25 — 12/20/25
Flight of the Conchords (HBOMax)
Murray books Bret and Jermaine for a concert at “Central Park,” but he insists that they tour first to prepare for it. Bret continually causes havoc that Murray blames on Jermaine. In the end, it turns out that the concert is at a central park not The Central Park. Jeff and I watched that classic episode on Wednesday. It made me cry a little.
Frasier (Prime)
Jeff and I watched three episodes of the original 90s version of Frasier on Tuesday. The first episode featured Frasier getting into a war of words with a columnist who wrote a column about why hated Frasier’s radio show. It almost led to an actual physical fight before the police intervened on the behest of Martin Crane. (John Mahoney was a treasure!)
The second episode was “The Candidate,” in which Frasier endorses Phil Patterson for Congress, just to discover that Phil Patterson is convinced that he was abducted by aliens and taken into outer space. The scene where a stunned Frasier attempted to record a commercial for Patteson (“the sane choice”) made me laugh so much that I almost fell off the couch.
Finally, we ended with a Christmas episode! Frasier wants to get his young son a Christmas gift that will make him think. Martin argues that Frasier should get him a gift that he’ll have fun with. Frasier and Niles have to go to a mall. The closing scene, with Martin revealing that he had purchased the gift that Frasier’s son actually wanted, made me cry.
What a great cast this show had! Watching these three episodes, I was reminded why the revival didn’t work. As good as a job as Kelsey Grammer did in the revival, no one wants to think of Frasier moving back to Boston and no longer having anything to do with his family in Seattle.
The Office (Peacock)
On Tuesday, Jeff and I watched several classic episodes of The Office. We started with season 2’s Christmas Party. Then, we watched Season 4’s Did I Stutter, followed by Season 6’s Scott’s Tots, and we followed it all up with Season 3’s The Convict and A Benihana Christmas. I know I’ve been pretty critical of the direction that The Office eventually ended up going. But the first three seasons were about as good as any sitcom that has ever aired and seasons 4-6, while uneven overall, still produced some classic episodes. I will always enjoy the Christmas episodes, no matter how much that annoying actress from A Benihana Christmas whines about it.
Saved By The Bell: The Next Class (Prime)
Saved By The Bell: The Next Class continues to be my preferred background noise for when I’m struggling to get some sleep.
Seinfeld (Netflix)
On Tuesday, Jeff and I watched two Christmas episodes of this classic 90s sitcom. We started with the episode where Elain was dating a communist and Kramer got fired from his department store Santa job because he was spreading propaganda. Meanwhile, Jerry’s high school rival resurfaced and demanded a rematch on a race that Jerry won after getting a head start. I loved this episode! Everything from Jerry and George pretending to randomly run into each other at the coffee shop to the race at the end to the little kid yelling, “Hey, this guy’s a commie!”
We followed that episode with the Festivus episode. I love the scene where Jerry Stiller (as George’s father) casually talks about seeing someone else grab the doll that he was planning to buy for his dolls. “As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be a better way!” Also, I totally would have wanted to be Submarine Captain too. Free sub? Give me my ticket!
Through the Shattered Lens 