Cam Bert

Well one thing was the the bit about being lost and trying hare krishna I'm sure would have been lost of most kids. Not necessarily adult as blue in nature but just a topic or a reference that was slightly lost on a younger you. A lot of the cameos while funny scenes are enhanced with knowledge who the people are like Orson Wells or Bob Hope.

So I just watched this for the first time and I noticed much like other good "children's" movies there are lots of jokes just for the grownups watching. So my question is this, was there a joke/line/reference that you got on this rewatching that was over your on your first watch through?

A maybe con for Miles is that being from New York and a hockey player he probably is a Rangers fan. If he's not, that's a definite pro.

I just watched this movie and:

Did anyone other than Peter David ever write a good Multiple Man? I sometimes feel that way about Quicksilver too.

I too am very excited for The Disaster Artist but unfortunately have no idea when that will make it's way over here. If it wasn't for the fact James Franco is involved I don't know if it would ever come over to a wide release anyway. Hopefully it'll get some Academy awards attention and that way I don't have to wait a year or more.

Sadly the video is not available. I have his Christmas Island CD but not SeaSon(still groaning over that) The titular track.

Curious who the 1/4 was. As a big Beatles fan and therefore a Paul McCartney fan what is is your stance on Wonderful Christmas Time?

Okay, awful Christmas songs that may just do it for you! I'll just do two for now. First off, remember Aqua? No? Remember that song "Barbie Girl"? Well, that's Aqua! They release a Christmas song which is very... 90s European. I think this song won me over with really weird jabs at Cocacola for making Santa red not green, and Wham! for Last Christmas. Bon Jovi in the early 80s covered Clarence Carter's " " which is exactly what you think it's about. However, that wasn't his first Christmas song. He did the main vocals for a song I'll make no apologizes for enjoying, R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas:

!! Are we talking about awful Christmas songs we love? I have a whole playlist devoted to this.

Thanks SaraK I was looking for new Christmas movies to watch this year!

First off, yes bearded Neil Diamond was the best look he had in the film and maybe ever. He rocks the beard now in his later years and that's a smart choice. Second, I wouldn't say I was offended no. I'm very much in line with what my fellow Cameron said. In the end I think if they wanted to do an homage like they claimed it was that it could have been done in many different ways. Narrative wise it really doesn't add anything and so if you wanted to do a winking reference there are other things you could have chosen. They changed so much about the story why choose that one thing as your homage. Even for the time in which it was made it just seems like a dumb decision. I would say I was baffled more than anything else.

I am fully with you and my fellow Cameron. I'm not saying Muppet Christmas Carol is a bad movie. It isn't by any means. It is fun, funny and highly enjoyable. I even had it on VHS growing up. For me though it is not my go to version of a Christmas Carol. My mother would watch the old Alastair Sim version of Scrooge many times in December so growing up I too saw that version many times. So to me, that will always be the classic version of the Christmas Carol story. However, if I did want to see a take on it or a more fun version I would go with Scrooged too.

If covers are okay so should duets right?

Fozzie would be a close second. It now concerns me that my favourite two were the ones that made awful puns.

That's the one that got me too

Full confession time, I have never seen the original Muppet movie. I saw all their movies from the 90s on, and watched the original TV show, Muppets Tonight, Muppet Babies and the new ABC show but I have no memories of actually seeing the movie. I think I may be the only one here to not have seen it. As far as favourite Muppet goes and maybe and odd choice but it's Rowlf. I liked his music as a kid.

As I pictured your story in my I couldn't help but see it as Will Ferrell's Neil Diamond.

I just want to add my favourite bit of Neil Diamond trivia. Neil Diamon, Burt Bacharach and his wife Carole Bayer Sager went and saw the movie E.T. Diamond so moved by the film that the three of them collaborated and came up with a song about E.T. They were not contracted or asked to do this, and in fact despite the song not mentioning and characters by name still had to pay $25,000 to MCA. They release the song "Heartlight" a reference to E.T's glowing chest at the end of the film in 1982 and it would be his last song to hit #1 on the charts and top 30 on the hot 100.

We were all so distracted by Neil Diamond in blackface we failed to see what was really going on in the club scene. The guys brought Jess over and told him they needed him to join them because they had an agent coming in and the agent was told they were a quartet and not a trio. If they couldn't tell the agent the truth couldn't they just lie and say the forth member fell ill or something? The agent might understand and come to another one of their gigs. If they thought that wouldn't happen and this was their only chance how did they expect the agent to react when they meet again and their lead singer suddenly changes to a different person with a different voice? Probably not great, so why not just explain the situation? Or if they needed Jess there because none of them could play guitar or sing lead vocals without throwing off the harmony why not just tell him that? Jess is a musician he'd understand. Why the lying and deception?

When Jess performs in blackface at a black club he wears his Star of David necklace, and yet when he's performing in Texan bars he does not. Read into that what you will.

I think I hear my cue... There was talk about the confusing timeline but it is actually pretty straight forward. So when Neil Diamond leaves New York he's initially headed to LA for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks he gets a call for a gig which is week away, and that gig gets him the opening act which is another week away. So when his wife shows up he has been gone almost exactly a month. They break up that night, and the next day goes and confesses his love to Molly. They start dating and making an album. After three dates, four recording sessions, and a weird dinner they become sexually active. When his father arrives he states that he's been gone three months, which means that Jess and Molly were only dating for two months and sexual active for a month and a half in which she got pregnant. Seemingly the next day he storms off and runs away. After he returns Molly goes to carjack the producer again at which time the producer states Jess's record went gold "a year ago." Clearly they couldn't record anything new after Jess left so mixing, printing, release and sales, say one month after he storms out. That means he was on the road for about 13 months. If we further assume the baby was delivered as expected, by the time he returned that baby would be between 5 1/2 to 7 months old. So you were dead on!

If you're curious in what other ways the original differs, I'll just summarize the entirety of the original. In New York city a young son of a cantor loves to sing jazz songs. His father the cantor finds out and beats him, and the young boy runs away. Cut to years later he's now a grownup and in Chicago singing songs. He meets a dancer and starts touring with her and her show. She gets scouted and goes to Broadway. He sings some more. Eventually, he's given a chance to go be on Broadway and moves back to New York. He goes back home on his father's birthday to try to make amends, but his father doubles down on how he has no son and he's dead to him. Al Jolson for the second time leaves vowing never to return. His dancer friend gets him an audition, and he's now going to be headlining a show on Broadway. His dad falls ill, and a friendly neighbour urges him to come talk to him. Al Jolson refuses. Now it's the night of atonement and also the opening night of the show, his father is in his last moments and Al Jolson's mother and neighbour go to the show to urge him to come back and sing and make amends. Between the dress and opening he goes home and sees his dying father. His mother and neighbour urge him to stay and sing while the dancer and director urge him to come back to the show. He stays and sings. Show is cancelled but reopens the next season and he's a star.

I just watched the original as well and the one thing I feel it does much better than this version is the conflict about singing at the end. Like Chris Gethard pointed out the Neil Diamond one is so low stakes. He hasn't talked to his dad who has a minor medical problem that prevents him from singing, but he also has the day off from his show so he has nothing but time. While in the original Al Jolson version this is the emotional climax of the movie. He already tried to patch things up with his father once before which didn't work out well. Now his father is on his death bed and his mom is begging him to come sing for his father for Yom Kippur but it also happens to be the opening night of his first Broadway show. Now, it is melodramatic but there are at least stakes. He can reconcile with his father before he passes and honor his religion or he can live his dream and be who he is meant to be.

Don't worry I got it. Happy Turkey Day to all my American friends here!