After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – The Wig Budget

Rob, Pax, and I talk about what we've been watching: TV series like Midnight Club, Andor, Stargirl, Wednesday, Mythic Quest, Willow, Perry Mason, Mare of Easttown, and A-Team “Christmas” episodes. Then there are movies like A Christmas Story Christmas, the Cannonball Run sequel Speed Zone, the Underworld series, The Shop Around the Corner, Ernest Saves Christmas, and a White Christmas live production. 

Finally, we're thinking about Christmas movies. Specifically: what makes a Christmas movie, favourite Christmas movie characters, and the future of Christmas movie discussions on After Lunch.

After Lunch | After Christmas Lounge – Bring on the Whamageddon

Rob, Pax, and I talk about annoying Christmas Songs, Christmas mysteries and ghost stories, Lindsey Stirling music, book forewords and introductions, Mount Westmore, X-Men: Inferno, Batman: Three Jokers, and other things we've been listening to and reading.

Hellbent for Letterbox | 3 Godfathers (1948)

In this special holiday episode, Pax and I watch John Ford's adaptation of Peter B Kyne's Christmas Western novel, The Three Godfathers. Starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey Jr.

Pax also watches a variety of Christmas episodes of TV Westerns and I catche up on a spooky Western, From Hell to the Wild West (2017), as well as Walter Hill's new film, Dead for a Dollar.

After Lunch | A Christmas Carol (1910) and Scrooge (1935)

Rob and I welcome Mike Westfall from the Advent Calendar House podcast to discuss a pair of the oldest adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. From 1910, it's the silent version from Thomas Edison's production company. And then we talk about the 1935 film starring Seymour Hicks.

And be sure to check out Mike, Rob, and my Advent Calendar House discussion from earlier this season about the 1971 cartoon that brought back Alastair Sim as the voice of Scrooge.

After Lunch | Christmas Movie Menus

In a completely original idea - Nerd Lunch definitely did not do this exact same topic on Episode 320 of their show - Rob and I welcome Evan Hanson, Paxton Holley, and Michael DiGiovanni to help a few restaurants create special menus inspired by Christmas movies.

Download here.

After Lunch | Die Hard (1988)

This is the final rerun of Tangential Christmas Movie discussions from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast and it seems appropriate to close with the poster child for these kind of movies. People love to argue about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, so if you haven't heard the episode yet, I wouldn’t dream of spoiling where Jeeg and I fall on that topic.

Download here.

After Lunch | The Ref (1994)

Today we’re wrapping up Week 2 rerunning discussions of Tangential Christmas movies from the Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast. We’re actually not quite done yet, because there’s one more on Monday and it’s a doozy. But first, Jeeg and I talk about the Denis Leary vehicle, The Ref, from 1994. 

And if you want to hear even more on The Ref on this very feed, check the old Nerd Lunch Extra Helping episode from December 2012 where Jeeg talks about it with Carlin Trammel.

The 2022 Episode

The 2012 Episode

After Lunch | It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Long before there was ever such a movie as Die Hard, the idea of Tangential Christmas movies was introduced by It’s a Wonderful Life. It gets played at Christmastime and has an important Christmas scene, but is it a Christmas movie? In this rerun from my old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, Carlin Trammel and I talk about that very question.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | Holiday Inn (1942)

We’re still doing reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast and on this episode I talk with Lizzie Twachtman about a Bing Crosby classic. With Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds, it’s 1942’s Holiday Inn.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | Remember the Night (1940)

Continuing our reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from my old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, this episode welcomes back Siskoid to talk about a movie that he mentioned in our discussion of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. From 1940 and starring the legendary team of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, it’s Remember the Night.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | The Thin Man (1934)

Kicking off our second week of reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast with a discussion I had with our friend Kay about the 1934 classic whodunnit, The Thin Man starring William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Wrapping up this first week of reruns about Tangential Christmas movies from the old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, Siskoid introduces me to an excellent French film, Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, starring Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo. If you’ve never seen it, we highly recommend it, but you don’t need to have seen it to enjoy the discussion.

Download or listen to the episode here.

Hellbent for Letterbox | The Great Silence (1968)

Since we're heading into winter, Pax picked a snowy Western with Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski. 

I also catch up with some Halloween Westerns - Wesley Snipes in Gallowwalkers and Danny Trejo in Dead in Tombstone - while Pax gets Christmas cheer from Roy Rogers in Trail of Robin Hood.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | Better Off Dead... (1985)

In our next Sleigh Bell Cinema rerun, I talk to Shawn Robare about Savage Steve Holland's Better Off Dead... (starring John Cusack, Diane Franklin, and Curtis Armstrong) and how much it actually has to do with Christmas.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | Gremlins (1984)

In another rerun from the former Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast, I talk with Nerd Lunch's Jeeg about the Joe Dante almost-Christmas classic, Gremlins.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | Shazam! (2019)

This Christmas season is all about Tangential Christmas Movies on After Lunch. After our discussion of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang last episode, we're going to spend the next couple of weeks re-running discussions of other Tangential Christmas Movies from my old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast. Starting with this one about Shazam! with my son, David May.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Officially kicking off the Christmas season on After Lunch, Rob and I welcome back Jacob Bean-Watson (The Movie Connection podcast) to discuss the tangential Christmas movie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Directed by Shane Black and starring Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan.

Download or listen to the episode here.

After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – Where'd Everybody Go?

Rob, Pax, and I finish this month's lounge discussion with what we've been watching and thinking about, including She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Mike Flanagan movies, Black Adam, The Sound of 007, Clerks 3 and the View Askewniverse, elderly action heroes, Jack Ryan, the recent Halloween trilogy, in-universe canons, and Twitter.

Download or listen to the episode here.