Dark Holiday Cold Open

Craig 0:03

You're listening to Basket Traffic.

Susie 0:14

Some new sounds.

Shawn 0:15

It's a Charlie Brown Christmas.

Susie 0:17

That's exactly what I was gonna say. It's a little bit um downbeat, Charlie Brown.

Shawn 0:25

Charlie Brown commits suicide. Charlie downbeat. He's just hanging, hanging by the doghouse in the wind. Well, you know, Lucy taking that football away all the time would just push you over the edge.

Susie 0:45

Snoopy's just sleeping on the doghouse, not noticing.

Shawn 0:49

He's been euthanized, Snoopy, so.

Susie 0:53

Also dead.

Shawn 0:54

Yeah, they're looking for a new dog. Man, did I get thrown under the bus last week for coughing. You know, and you know, and I don't bring up your uh irritable bowel syndrome or your erect your erectile dysfunction during the show, but you threw me under the bus. I did not for having a virus.

Craig 1:25

I did not.

Shawn 1:26

It's okay, it'll never happen again.

Craig 1:27

Yeah, it was it was a difficult uh thing to do to edit that last episode.

Shawn 1:32

I'm glad. Good. You felt my pain. It's the most wonderful time of the year. So we're here. It's the holidays. Actually, Craig wanted to record this podcast. He's like, how's the 24th for you? I'm like, how's the night of the 24th? I'm like, yeah, that's cra that's Christmas Eve, so it's probably not gonna be Okay, how about the 25th? If we can do it the 24th, then I can edit all day on the 25th. I'm like, that's Christmas. You might, I don't know if that's uh. So okay okay, let's do it on the 31st then. Okay, the 31st. Uh that's today. We're here today. This is the 31st. Yeah, that's that's New Year's Eve. Oh shit. Right, okay. So, but we're here anyways. We are. Yeah. I'm like, put your brakes on Ebenezer. All right.

Susie 2:20

Thank you for reininging that in. Yeah.

Shawn 2:23

I can't help but I'm this glaring shirt just smashing me in the face over here. Is that your authentic shirt from Jamaica that you the people of the land made for you that you met and they were so nice?

Craig 2:35

I watched them make it.

Shawn 2:36

Yeah.

Craig 2:37

Where did we buy this?

Susie 2:38

We bought it in there on the resort.

Craig 2:40

We did, we did.

Susie 2:41

We didn't leave the resort except to go to the airport. But the people were great.

Dracula Land And A Romanian Gift

Shawn 2:47

God, the people of Jamaica. I'm like, yeah, those were the resort people. Anyways, that was a whole other show. Yeah. Speaking of other shows, before we go forward, did you guys know we did a show uh about Dracula way back at another holiday? And did you know? Did you see this? They're building a $1 billion Dracula land in uh Romania, like outside of Bucharest.

Craig 3:10

Oh, hey, Susie, just go get the uh little gift from our Romanian neighbor.

Shawn 3:16

Uh so I'll read this real quick. It's a massive one billion Dracula theme resort called Dracula land, real original name, Dracula Land. Uh planned to open around 2027. Featured six themed zones. So you got Transylvania, Dracula's Castle, London Town, etc. etc. Over 40 attractions, hotels, aquapark. All of this crap. I mean, but I just thought it was pretty wild because we talked about Dracula and how the marketing of like it's gone on and on forever, that story. That's right. And it's one of the biggest, you know, IPs, right? And now they're building this massive theme park.

Craig 3:55

So our Romanian neighbor, they went back to Romania. He comes back and he gives me this for a Christmas gift.

Shawn 4:01

And sorry, what does it say on the bottle? It's a bottle. For those at home can't see this. So he's just here, look at this. Isn't this great? Let's explain it a bit. What is it?

Craig 4:10

Uh it's a it's a pear spirit. Yeah, it's called the Power of Dracula.

Shawn 4:14

It looks like an airplane, a bottle you get on an airplane, folks.

Craig 4:17

So yeah, exactly. A little shot glass, but it's got to carry on like a little bottle uh of bat wings on it.

Shawn 4:25

It's cool. I like that. It is it's got Dracula wings, and very cute.

Craig 4:29

So the buttons funny that you bring that up because he had told me quite literally yesterday that he says everything is Dracula in in Romania. Like it's become its its image, its identity.

Shawn 4:40

Everything.

Craig 4:41

Yeah. So the fact that they're making a theme park.

Shawn 4:44

Wow. One billion dollars. I mean, this is uh they're not messing around.

Craig 4:48

Is this backed by Disney?

What Counts As A Christmas Movie

Shawn 4:49

I have I don't believe so because Disney would be all over that. I mean, branding-wise. So I I didn't see I don't think Disney's uh going into the Dracula business. No. Uh if it if they were, they would have written a beautiful musical song too. So that's right. But, anyways, um, yeah, I just thought that was wild. And but it is not Halloween, it's Christmas, and we're here and happy Christmas, as they say in England, and Merry Christmas to you guys. And to you. Yeah. Did you um do you guys watch what what what happens during Christmas? Are you Christmas movie people?

Susie 5:22

Uh, not this year, we didn't. We did last year. Uh no, two years ago we did.

Craig 5:27

Um Well, it depends on what you mean by that, right?

Susie 5:29

Well, we well, yours was a bit of a diversion. You put on a Christmas movie.

Shawn 5:33

Here's a good question. Get a little template here, a little take a temperature. It's never been asked before this question, I'm sure, ever. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie in this house?

Craig 5:41

You know what? Not in this household, but I have a lot of friends who have that.

Shawn 5:44

Right, yeah, me too. And most people go, well, you must you think that it is for me. And I'm like, it is absolutely not a Christmas movie for me. And I'll tell you why. Here's my definition of why it is not, is because you could take Die Hard, the the the movie, and you could have that on any day. It could happen. That's right. And it wouldn't change the story at all. No. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, yes, they are there for a Christmas party, but it could be flag day, it could be whatever it is. Fourth of July, but it's it's not imperative to the actual story. Whereas, you know, Home Alone is like a Christmas movie because it it's actually Christmas is very important because they're all going away for Christmas. They're all you know what I mean? Like those ones tie in well. But I always wonder that when people because it always comes up at this time of the year, diehard question.

Craig 6:29

Our choices don't make any sense because we're watching Game of Thrones.

Shawn 6:33

Game of Thrones over again.

Craig 6:34

And before that it was Lord of the Rings.

Shawn 6:36

But a lot of people watch like the fantasy stuff at Christmas.

Craig 6:40

Well, I don't know, it's all over the epic element to it that's really lovely.

Shawn 6:43

Every Christmas day or Boxing Day or New Year's, they run in Star Wars marathons, they're running all of those type of movies. So those are obviously that's you know, yeah.

Susie 6:52

So we we're about halfway through. We started right at the beginning at the first day of the holidays, and uh we're about halfway through Game of Thrones.

Shawn 7:00

For for the what, third, fourth time?

Susie 7:03

Third for me.

Shawn 7:04

Well, there's nothing like a medieval orgy on Christmas to uh really get the spirit going.

Craig 7:10

Today we want to do a little bit more, you know, lighthearted stuff.

Shawn 7:13

Well, it's funny you say that too, because you know, we were really going off about Disney and Marvel and but you know and I think I justifiably so yeah, and I'm glad we and I'm glad we did it, but I'm just kind of kind of tired of that. Well, I just was gonna say, like, there are a lot of great movies that came out that I looked at and went, oh, there's some really great artists like making stuff right now. So there were some great movies in 2025 that were not from Disney and Marvel that we liked.

Best 2025 Movies Worth Hunting Down

Craig 7:41

Well, so so what I'd like to do today is I'd like to talk about kind of just the year of 2025 and in film, and I'd like to see and hear what you have to say. Uh, but also two kind of events that took place that are kind of symbolic and significant. And uh so let's get started. Let's start off with uh the movie that you uh any notables, anything that came to mind?

Shawn 8:01

Well, I've got one that that we actually kind of touched on. Um what did I like? I liked a couple foreign films that I don't know that people have seen. I'm just gonna throw them out there. I'm not gonna get into it, I'm not gonna be all artsy and but there's um a Korean film called No Other Choice, haven't seen it, which is uh really good. Um it's directed by Hark Chan Wu, who did Snowpiercer and The Handmaid and Old Boy and all that. Some people are kind of of course making the comparison to Parasite. That that always happens. It's a Korean film, so but it's very good. It's sort of about the workplace and taking out your competition in the workplace, so it's quite funny and dark. And so that's that's one I liked. Um, there's an Iranian film called It Was Just an Accident, which is also really, really good. Um Train Dreams. Have you guys heard of Train Dreams? It's on Netflix right now. No. Uh just stay with me here if you if you can. Um feeling decidedly. You have to hold this. So we haven't seen it. Train Dreams with his uh Joel Egerton is in that. It's directed by Clint Bentley, and it's the most beautiful looking film of the year, I think. So that's great. Might be too boring for a lot of people. It's really slow, but it's really cool. It's all about the the railroads being built and and across the Pacific Northwest and this guy's story, but but it's um cinematography unbelievable. Yeah, like you are there in the middle of the Pacific Northwest lush forest and that. Like we are cool. We're very lucky. Yeah, yeah. Uh other sort of ones that I really enjoyed that are a little lighter. I loved uh Weapons, which is a horror movie. Yeah. You're looking, you haven't seen that either. Okay. Can I get somebody in here? Um are the girls outside? Do they have they ever watched anything that came out this year?

Craig 9:45

Um not big horror guys.

Shawn 9:47

Weapons was I I don't even want to call it a horror movie, but it was really cool. That had um Josh Brolin in it.

Craig 9:53

And okay.

Shawn 9:54

It was really, I mean, it's dark, man, and twisted and scary. And so I don't know, Suze, but Craig, I think you'd like it. Um Sinners, vampire movie. Seen it. Sinners. I thought it was a really original, cool take on a vampire story. Haven't seen that done before. So that was really cool. That's Michael B. Jordan, and he was great. It's one of the things I've seen that I really liked him in. And I haven't seen something in a long time with him that I've liked lately, like all these creed movies and all that. I really liked him in that. And I I loved F1 with Brad Pitt. That was a great summer blockbuster, and it got me like felt feeling I was watching Top Gun again or sleep.

Susie 10:35

Yeah, exactly.

Shawn 10:36

Han Zimmer did that score, the music just pounding and the racetrack, and the and you know, no surprises, no, but what a great fun, just like popcorn movie.

Susie 10:45

Exactly. Funny.

Shawn 10:46

So that's on my list. And sentimental value with Stellan Skarsgard. That's Norwegian. That you guys will love that movie. It's about a director reconnecting with his kids, and it's so it's sort of Hollywood, but not, but so that's a really good one. But but what I really, really enjoyed was uh one battle after another, which Craig told me yesterday he turned off in the first half an hour, which I've talked to many people that didn't didn't turn it on and turned it right off, or my father, who will not even go near that movie. Yeah. And and so there's a political edge to this, obviously. Uh and I rewatched it again and I watched the first half an hour because I wanted to be in your head. And I'm like, the first hour is really silly and ridiculous and totally unbelievable and kind of stupid and not good. But the second act between DiCaprio and his daughter, that's where the movie really gets going. And and it's it's Paul Thomas Anderson bringing all of his other movies into all the stuff he's learned and all as a cameraman and as a and and it really clicks for me. And and it's quite quite a great film. So, anyways, I'll let you take it from there.

Craig 12:00

He is a very good director-producer, you know. Boogie Knights was and writer. Yeah, he writes all that stuff. That you can tell that you can tell that there's a whole cohesiveness to the whole thing, which is kind of not at all what we felt with the as we talked about the Marvel and Disney movies, where you felt like he's telling a story like it's him. Yeah, it's a singular thing. Yeah, his cinematography, his lighting choices are just his just framing of things is really well done.

Shawn 12:28

You didn't watch the end, right?

Craig 12:29

I didn't.

Shawn 12:30

Yeah. There's some stuff that he does visually with the chase on the road that I've never seen in a movie before. And I can't quite describe it. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. But the way he shoots the highway, and it's just it just it's insane, and your heart rate starts going up, and you're like in this chase, and like, anyways.

Craig 12:49

I end up spending more time watching reviews about the movie than the movie itself. And there's this one YouTuber that I think is his name's Eric Ross. I really appreciated his take on this, his kind of his essay on this movie. Uh and what he basically was saying that what PTA was doing was referencing the years of Obama and the disappointment that people had. It's a very left-leaning movie, and you can see that he's injected a lot of his own kind of life experiences, interpretations, and his ideological leanings into this movie.

Shawn 13:25

Well, you have this Black Panther kind of a group, you know, just walking into this like ICE facility or whatever it is. Yeah, they're revolutionaries, yeah. And it's it's really kind of over the top and silly, and you're going, well, there's no way they'd be able to do that. Like it so right away you have to uh shut that down in your head and go, okay, I'm just gonna go along with this and and see where it heads, and that's where I what I did. But I can if I wasn't in the right mind space, I could see uh why people turned it off. Turning on it I can a hundred I can get I get it.

Craig 13:54

It just was like, I don't need this, I'm not in the mood for this kind of like messaging. And that's and I think that's you know, on the heels of what we were just talking about with Marvel and Disney and the messaging that's been so strong from this kind of postmodernist thinking. I just I'm so tired of it. I'm I and it's just so um singular-minded, it's not nuanced. The messaging that, according to this essay, this YouTube essay, was Obama was supposed to be this, you know, change. I mean, hope and change were his words. And when he came in, he didn't do any of that. And of course, you had the mortgage financial crisis and then the bailing out of the banks, and of course, you had the whole occupy Wall Street kind of movement. And everyone had high hopes that Obama would fundamentally change and really redirect America into a left perspective, and he didn't. In many ways, Obama didn't stand up to Wall Street, and he didn't stand up to the corporations and any of that, which is why he got lambasted.

Shawn 14:53

The messaging off the top is is huge and there and in your face, but it kind of goes away and you get into the characters as it's a long movie. Yeah, you get into the character and you get into the the Leo daughter dynamic because she grows up to be a teenager.

Susie 15:07

Yeah, so we turned we turned it off as he drove away with her in the basket.

Shawn 15:12

Okay, that's when it gets good, yeah. That's when it gets great, and you get loop you get linked into the characters, and I'll tell you the performances, Leo and Sean Penn, man. I mean, these these performances, and the girl, his daughter is unbelievable. She is gonna be a star of that girl, man. She is like, she just pops right out of the screen. Honestly, I'm such a Paul Thomas Anderson nerd that I have to see his movies. Right. I have to watch them. Doesn't matter if I hate them, I gotta watch them. It's like it's like film school, 101. It's like these are required reading.

Craig 15:43

Yeah, you know, and I I think that's a very good assessment.

Shawn 15:47

Um, there's a bunch of movies that I just want to throw in I haven't seen that. I'm trying to go see right now. This I want to cover everything. Marty Supreme, that's with Timothy Chalamet, that's supposed to be amazing. Hamnet, which is uh supposed to be amazing as well. It's about Shakespeare.

Susie 16:01

Yeah.

Shawn 16:02

Secret Agent, uh Black Bag and Nuremberg, which I'm sure Craig is getting um a heart on right now after I just said that, all the history in there. And then there's um a lot of docs that came out. There's a George Orwell documentary, two plus two equals five, that is supposed to be incredible.

Susie 16:18

Oh.

Shawn 16:18

And then uh I just saw Ben Stiller's uh documentary as well with about his parents. About his parents. That are it's so great because it's about his marriage. It crosses over to all these different yeah, it's not your typical documentary. So it's really if you want to see you like documentaries, that's a great one. And I also want to see Will Arnett in his movie, Is This Thing On? I am Will Arnett, Is This Thing On? That's where he's the stand-up comedian directed by Bradley Cooper. Oh, and uh, that is out right now in theaters. And I really want to see that, and then I'm gonna go buy a GMC truck after that. Uh probably uh go get one of those.

Craig 16:57

So, what you're saying, there's a lot of good movies.

Shawn 16:58

There's a lot, and so we were we were going off about you know last week, which is relevant. All the things we said are relevant, but there are some great movies out there. Now, like I said, a lot of these films you gotta go find. They're not gonna be at the Cineplax.

Craig 17:12

Yeah, which was your point last week.

Shawn 17:13

Yeah, you gotta go to Fifth Avenue Cinemas, which is our little cinema on Barard or wherever it is, and like you've got to seek them out.

Susie 17:20

Yes. And they're not there for very long. No, yeah.

Shawn 17:24

Because they're showing Avatar in eight theaters across the street here.

Susie 17:27

Yeah.

Shawn 17:28

And you know.

Susie 17:30

And are and the girls couldn't get a ticket.

Shawn 17:32

Well, there see, well, there you go.

Susie 17:35

They were maybe being a bit more specific time.

Shawn 17:38

Avatar and wicked are the like they're take literally taking up all the theaters.

Susie 17:48

So they didn't see it yet.

Craig 17:50

Yeah, I was reviewing the year of 2025 and it just made me laugh. It's amazing how quick we forget about things. You know, like the fires in California.

Shawn 17:59

We do that on purpose.

Craig 18:01

We do. We have to.

Shawn 18:02

Otherwise, we go crazy.

Craig 18:03

We did exactly just because we kept getting bombarded with more and more tomorrow, a year ago, uh, which was the New Orleans terrorist attack. That feels like old old news because you know, it's almost bookended with the one that had up in Bondi Beach. You know, we had Donald Trump got elected in 2025, and so did Mark Kearney in Canada. Um, you know, ushering in again another new interesting era, you know, depending on your political outlook on things. And of course, we've had ICE doing its thing. You know, when we think of ICE, we think of Trump, but Obama was, you know, speaking of Obama, very much was part of that ICE world of deportations. So it's not just a Trump thing. Something that surprised me. Beyonce. Beyonce.

Shawn 18:50

I respect because you're gonna get the beehive going here. Exactly. Very careful with your next words.

Craig 18:57

I don't know. I'm I'm not a huge Beyoncé fan. I respect. Here we go. I respect a lot of what she does. Uh but Beyonce extended her record as the most awarded artist in Grammy history, bringing home her first ever album of the year award for Cowboy Carter. And she became the first black woman to win the country album of the year, which we listened to.

Susie 19:19

We reviewed it last night. Yeah. And not country. Yeah, not really country. Not really country.

Shawn 19:27

Okay, I'm gonna just just get under the table.

Susie 19:29

Okay, you can't just have Dolly Parton. You can't have Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus join you to make it sound country to really be country. There was a couple of country, more country-esque songs, right? But on the whole, I I don't know how that and I think we are not alone and not knowing why she won.

Craig 19:53

Well, that's a thing. That's where you feel like the Emmys are rigged these days. Grammys. Or sorry, Grammys are rigged.

Shawn 19:58

If you want an Emmy for that, then we're in real trouble. Um, you know, speaking of divas, too, uh, I was so happy this year because uh Mariah Carey got dethroned finally at Christmas by George Michael's Last Christmas. Oh so Last Christmas beat out all I want, whatever her song is, that every year she's I'm a queen of Christmas. They gotta they gotta fucking pick her up with a forklift and put her into that dress and tie her in there, and then they push her out on stage.

Susie 20:30

Michael Buble's gotta be up there.

Shawn 20:32

Not not like George Michael and her. They're always she's always number one, right? She jumps and she's got like she's been number one for like 30 years at Christmas.

Craig 20:42

I don't know why. It's not my music.

Shawn 20:44

So it's like what it's like this costage thing, man, where you're just like that that Stockholm um syndrome, right? Yes, we love this song. Play it again, please. Uh but George Michael, let's Christmas took it over this year. I think people finally were just like, enough, we need a new one.

Ozempic Shock And Celebrity Weight Loss

Craig 21:02

Justified, man. Yeah. What else happened in 2025? Well, Ozempic. That was a big deal.

Shawn 21:09

I I I have people in my life that are I'm seeing the the effects of Ozempic.

Craig 21:15

Is that right? Yeah.

Shawn 21:15

Yeah, it's quite startling.

Susie 21:17

Yeah.

Shawn 21:18

Like how quickly it it works.

Susie 21:20

Yeah.

Craig 21:21

Five scientists who developed the weight loss drugs, Ozempic and Weigovi, were awarded the three million dollar U.S. Breakthrough Prize in 2025.

Susie 21:30

And what I didn't realize this It's from the savings on the met on the healthcare system that they oh maybe, yeah.

Craig 21:36

Yeah.

Susie 21:36

That's where the thing came from.

Shawn 21:39

The B CD rate dropped.

Craig 21:40

Yeah. The drugs originally created to treat diabetes were used by nearly 12% of Americans. That, wow. Yeah.

Susie 21:48

That's all that's impressive. I mean, I know it's been available in Canada, but it's now widely available.

Shawn 21:54

Well, every every overweight celebrity, you know, had a drastic weight loss. You were like, holy cow! Look at Kelly Clarkson. Look at Oprah.

Susie 22:02

Look at Melissa. Melissa. Melissa McCarthy.

Shawn 22:05

Look at everybody. It was wild.

Susie 22:08

Oh, Amy Schumer.

Shawn 22:09

Amy Schumer. You could go on and on. There's so many of them. So is Melissa McCarthy still funny as a thin person?

Craig 22:17

Good question.

Shawn 22:18

No, and I'm not trying to be a smart ass. I'm just like, like, there's a whole topic. Yeah. Like in society. And like, like, so if Chris Farley was alive and he lost a hundred pounds, would we still go to his movies or 300 or whatever? Yeah, probably. You're probably right. 300 pounds. Yeah.

Craig 22:37

I think it's an important question because his style of character or his style of comedy, physical characters.

Shawn 22:44

What if he came in and he was like totally buffed? He'd like worked out. He was like, just, oh my God, he looks like fucking the rock now.

Craig 22:51

I don't think it'd work.

Shawn 22:52

Yeah, probably not.

War Casualties AI Race And Korea

Craig 22:53

What else happened in 2025? We uh Russia-Ukraine war is which has been going on for a while, but 2025 saw the highest civilian casualties uh since the war broke out in 2022. I thought that was a kind of an interesting thing that needed to be talked about. The AI arms race, which is interesting, totally intensified in 2025 between you know the biggies like OpenAI and Google and Amazon and all these other guys are kind of trying to get a one up. Well, well, it's an arms race. Get a leg up, right?

Shawn 23:25

But you see what you did there.

Craig 23:29

Fictional K-pop group. Uh you talked about Korean uh culture and Korean uh movies. Movies. Uh yeah. I mean, really, you think about South Korea, it has become an interesting international force.

Shawn 23:42

You know, it just well, it wasn't the number one streaming show in the world for like months and months, K-pop demon hunters, which I haven't seen. I haven't seen any of that, but like I'm obsessed with seeing it now because I'm like, I have to see what the biggest streaming thing is. I haven't seen it.

Craig 23:55

So that's a lot of people are abandoning Disney or Pixar and and and going to K-pop. I mean, people are watching South Korean material.

Susie 24:03

Half my school, the girls and the guy the boys, 12 and under, came as K-pop demon characters for Halloween.

Shawn 24:12

I wouldn't have a clue. I would just think that was them dressed normally.

Susie 24:16

Yeah.

Shawn 24:16

Wow. So it's big.

Craig 24:18

It's pretty big. But also interestingly, I mean, talk about a country that uh after World War II was kind of like a dictatorship, it's turned into a full-blown democracy and also a a cultural phenomenon of the world, and also economically, you know, a powerhouse. It also I just learned this past year, it is one of the largest military exporters in the world. And I didn't know that.

Shawn 24:46

I had a great time in in Korea, uh, I guess a year or two years ago. And uh, it's a beautiful city. It's a lot like Vancouver, you know, with the mountains behind it and the buildings and it's a very cool place.

Craig 24:59

I was there many years ago and got a chance to actually go to Pan Man Jum and step my foot into North Korea, which is super cool.

Shawn 25:06

And then you took it right back. Yeah, right back. Stepped your little toe over the line.

Craig 25:11

Seoul is uh a very cool city. Yeah, that's where we're but it's changed so much. I saw some images like God, it just now compared to 25 years ago, it's almost unrecognizable. Goes to show you how much South Korea's changed. Also, the Louvre jewel heist. Ah, yes.

Susie 25:28

Oh, and now the Louvre flood. Yes, they just had a big flood and a whole bunch of books have been ruined, like historical book.

Shawn 25:35

The Louvre cannot catch a break.

Susie 25:38

They cannot keep their shit together.

Shawn 25:40

And now, so that whole Louvre heist sort of they're saying jump started the next oceans 14 or whatever it is, totally movie, and they're gonna play, there's gonna be some kind of mention of that in this movie, I hear.

Craig 25:53

So that was in October of 2025 where four masked thieves uh stole jewels worth more than a hundred million dollars. And uh they did it in the daytime, too.

Shawn 26:04

Yeah, they used one of those uh cherry pickers, right? They went right in through the window. Why didn't we think of that? Just going right through the bloody window, dude. Yeah, no, we work here.

Susie 26:12

Yeah, anyway, just doing some more work.

Craig 26:14

Uh what else happened in 2025? Ah, assassinations, Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and uh that's always an interesting thing, too, because he represented more of the right wing part of the the sphere, and yet he was assassinated by someone who presumably was on the left. I don't know. Uh but that was a huge, huge deal.

Shawn 26:38

I watched some of the footage of that and it still burned in my brain.

Craig 26:42

Well, actually, that's an interesting point.

Shawn 26:44

Because they put it out online, somebody and and then they cut it off. But I uh it was unfortunately I saw it. You didn't cut it off. Right. Well, I and because you know there's that part of you that just is kind of mesmerized by Yeah, well I hadn't seen it. My my daughter was gonna show it to me, but by that time they had it actually was like a good lesson for me that I don't need to see violet things like that, even though you you are sort of drawn to it.

The Famous Deaths That Hit Hard

Craig 27:07

That's the human nature of the horror flick, you know, yeah, interest in you, right? We lost some interesting people in 2025.

Shawn 27:14

I have my list too.

Craig 27:15

Oh, you do, yeah. Well, what does your list say?

Shawn 27:17

Well, I I don't want to be like I'm gonna just I picked out, I mean, which is horrible, but I picked out people that were like sort of important to me, right? Like so I did, of course, Diane Keaton uh and Robert Redford. Those two right away are just like those are iconic people for me. Um I did Val Kilmer. I mean, we said goodbye to Val Kilmer, who is uh the he's the 80s for me. Yeah. So that one really, really hurt. Um we say goodbye to Gene Hackman, uh, was such a great character actor and such a presence on screen for the last 50 years. We said goodbye to Ozzie Osborne, who is just, I mean, yeah, you know, I mean Ozzie is another guy that's larger than life, and and he's so ingrained and in his music is so ingrained and you know, coming out Sabbath. Oh god, Jesus. Both of them, the mom and the daughter are on that.

Susie 28:10

You know, and they're grieving, and I don't want to they're grieving and they're sitting at home not eating anything while they're on these weight loss drugs, and they look like fucking skeletons.

Shawn 28:18

She looks terrible. And if you watch the Osborne's from years ago, you see this this they don't even David Lynch, such a great film director, you know, Twin Peaks and all these uh blue velvet, I mean, iconic, iconic, iconic. Uh Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. If you're talking about music, you can't I mean we were talking about the Beatles earlier off off uh podcast, and um they were so influenced by Brian Wilson, the Beatles, right? Like they they they had a competition going back and forth with the Beach Boys, right? We gotta be better in this. And then when Pet Sounds came out, it blew the roof off of you know, they did things on Brian Wilson specifically, designed sounds and did things on that album that nobody had ever done before. And the Beatles like minds were blown. They're like, Oh, we're done, man. How are we gonna ever like compete with this guy? Yeah, of course he he uh he dealt with uh bipolar uh disorder and like anxiety, and like he's famously known for not yeah. I mean, he basically said, I'm not touring and I'm not doing live shows in his 20s. He said that he said, I'm gonna stay home. You guys are gonna take the band out on the road, and I'm gonna write all your music. Yeah, and like then you'll take it out. But I'm just the studio guy. That's how much his anxiety affected us.

Craig 29:32

Yeah, he died at 82.

Shawn 29:33

Uh, I have Malcolm Jamal Warner from the Cosby show, and I put him on there because it's so random. He drowned. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. He drowned like somewhere like in Bahamas or Jamaica or somewhere.

Susie 29:45

But he's our childhood, please. He's the Cosby.

Shawn 29:48

Yeah, he's yeah, so and TV in the 80s. So, and then I've got Jane Goodall. Yeah, of course. I mean, a huge, you know, environmental animal conservationist. Yeah. I mean, that's a big, big loss. And then I've got um Hulk Hogan. Hulk. You gotta put Hulk on the list, and I've got Giorgio Armani for fashion, yeah, right? I mean, I mean, Armani, man. Yeah, I mean, Craig's closet is just lined with that. That's me totally. Armani, Armani all the time. And then I don't know if you've heard, oh, and I also put a couple like for me that I mean Jimmy Cliff, reggae guy. You know, I love I remember meeting Jimmy because he did a show at the Peony. It's a long story, won't get into it when I was working there, but I just love Jimmy Cliff. I love his, he's my maybe my favorite reggae guy. I'm looking at your one love, of course. Bob Marley is yeah, is it. But Jimmy Cliff, you know, the harder they come. Yeah. Um, and I also put Loretta Swid on there from Mash. Oh lips, Hulahan. So if any 80s kids, 70s kids, mash, of course. And then I don't know if you've heard of this guy, uh, this little guy um named Pope Francis. He he passed away too. Are you guys familiar with him? That was really anything.

Susie 31:04

Well, I was also That was Craig's lead.

Shawn 31:06

Well, probably, right?

Craig 31:07

That's why I left him to last.

Rob Reiner’s Unmatched Film Run

Shawn 31:09

I was gonna talk about how we have a new Pope because of you know, but now and I have another one that I'd like to say, but I have something to kind of get into with the next one. So I don't know if you want, do you want me to say it? Of course we lost Rob and Michelle Reiner.

Craig 31:22

Yes, I was wondering if you're gonna bring that up.

Shawn 31:23

Yeah, you know, I you know, I that one hit me, and you know, I won't I don't want to get into the violence and the I don't want to get into that part.

Susie 31:30

And it's very fresh.

Shawn 31:31

It's like it's very fresh, it just happened and it's tragic. But what I want to I wanna say is They were at Conan's house this month, wasn't it?

Susie 31:39

Right before it happened.

Shawn 31:40

They were at the Christmas party, and I don't want to get into that. I mean, that doesn't have anything to do with what happened. It's it's that's ridiculous. That's all the media, you know, trying to burn stuff in. Does anybody have a more iconic, sort of diverse film run than this guy? And I'm gonna read these off to you, okay? So um Spinal Tap, 1981, okay? Like a rock monumentary. Okay, everybody knows that. That's my probably my number one goes to 11. That's my number one comedy, probably of all time. Um, then you go to Stand By Me. Yeah, okay. Uh, and I even left out The Sure Thing, which is actually a road movie that he did with John Cusack, which if you go back and watch the Sure Thing, it comes out right after Spinal Tap. It's a great film, but I'll leave that one out kind of Stand By Me, 1986. Yeah. One of my favorite movies of all time, written by Stephen King, directed by Rob Reiner. Yeah. All of the kids in that cast have kind of come on, you know, to be stars. And of course, we lost um River Phoenix, thank you. Um, but that movie I can watch anytime if it's on, I have to watch it.

Craig 32:43

It will transport you back as a kid. Instantly.

Shawn 32:46

Instantly. So iconic and diverse and different from from Spinal Tap, right? Then let's go to Princess Bride, 1987. Yeah. So now he goes from that to a like a fairy tale movie when you got some of the most iconic comedic lines of all time coming out of that film. So there's that one. Then let's jump to 1989 when Harry met Sally. Maybe the most iconic romantic comedy. And speaking of, it's New Year's tonight. That is the movie you watch on New Year's because if you remember, the last scene in that movie is him running to meet her before the ball drops and the it had to be you. Harry Connick singing, it had to be you. And Harry Connick, of course, his career blasted off because of that movie. Yeah. So so many strings through Rob with that. Yeah. Then Misery, another Stephen King movie.

Susie 33:37

Yeah, Kathy Bateman.

Shawn 33:38

She wins the Oscar for that. I mean, so there's another, you know, Rob Reiner touched that, and she goes, her career goes through the roof. That's another completely different movie.

Susie 33:48

He started out as Meathead in Robin.

Shawn 33:50

All in the family, probably the most important sitcom of the 70s. He also created the most important uh sitcom of the 90s, Seinfeld. Yeah. So, which would have gotten canceled if he hadn't gone to the office and begged them to keep it on and said, guys, you gotta keep this film, you gotta keep this, it's gonna get there. They were gonna cancel it. Oh, wow. Rob Reiner went in, they go, We better listen. It's Rob Reiner, so we better. They kept it on and became the biggest sitcom of all time.

Susie 34:16

Yeah.

Shawn 34:16

But we go from misery, we go to a few good men, which is the next one. Yeah. That's 1992. So let me just say that again. Spinal tap, stand by me, Princess Bride, when Harry met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men. Does anybody have that diverse, that iconic? Every one of those movies, I don't think another director has that. And I'm looking at Spielberg, I'm looking at, but you know, their movies are all kind of in the same vein. They're all very successful. But they're not like these are all completely different movies. Let's do a fairy tale, let's do a romantic comedy, let's do a uh a docomedy. That'd be cool. Let's do a horror movie. Let's do a you can't handle the truth. I mean, like every single one, I'll have what she's having. Yeah. Every single one. My name is Montana, or whatever the uh yeah, every single one, it goes to 11. It has that. So, anyways, that I was thinking about that. It his his touch and his reach as a as an artist, it nobody can touch that. No, that's a massive.

Craig 35:17

They become cult classics, don't they?

Shawn 35:19

Anyways, that's all I want to say about Rob Reiner. And that's so go ahead.

Craig 35:23

Yeah, no, I I'm just digesting. Get a towel off overhead. Exactly. That was lovely, dude. Yeah, yeah.

Susie 35:30

Your eulogy to Rob Reiner.

Shawn 35:33

We love you, Rob.

Susie 35:34

Yeah.

Craig 35:34

You know who also died is someone who in the science world uh would have would know this, Jim Lovell.

Shawn 35:42

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Craig 35:43

Apollo 13. Apollo 13, yeah, who died uh. Houston. We have a problem. That's right. He died 97 years old.

Shawn 35:50

Oh, wow. And of course they make that's a nice ripe old age. Yeah. And you didn't bite it up in space. So I mean, what a great life, dude.

Craig 35:58

That's the crazy part. I mean, they you know, the movie I don't who produced that one up.

Shawn 36:02

Well, it's directed by Ron Howard.

Craig 36:04

Yeah, okay.

Shawn 36:04

And Tom Hanks uh I think produced it, and Brian Grazer and Ron Howard would have produced it as well.

Craig 36:10

Yeah. And uh that was an interesting one because uh had something to do with the the compressed hydrogen and oxygen tanks that uh one of the oxygen tanks uh in the Apollo 10 mission got damaged or dropped. And so that led to the problem on the Apollo 13 mission, which turned into this kind of extraordinarily heroic effort to return these three, you know, astronauts back to America alive. I mean, what a crazy story.

Shawn 36:37

Do a whole podcast on that.

Craig 36:39

Yeah, yeah, we so we should.

Shawn 36:40

Don't waste your shit here.

Craig 36:41

Yeah, okay. I will not. We will do that, man. I think you're right. Bang on.

Shawn 36:45

No shit waste.

Craig 36:47

Yeah. Okay, well, let's just turn this one off then.

Shawn 36:50

Yeah, well, we're done.

Craig 36:53

Yeah, and actually, I've nailed everything that I wanted to talk about.

New Year Mood And Resolutions Skepticism

Shawn 36:56

Well, nailed is a pretty uh I you covered some things, okay? Let's not get cocky over here, right? Absolutely right. Yeah, no, I mean it was uh I'm always get to this night, and it literally is. Um, we're recording this on New Year's Eve. So uh you won't hear this for months because Craig's gonna be editing for months. But uh yeah, I always get to this day, and I'm like, you know, I mean, it never really hits me. I mean, but now that we're doing this, it kind of does. So it's like, yeah, we got through that year. It was a strange year.

Susie 37:27

Yeah, a lot of shit happened.

Craig 37:28

2025 feels like it's still a hangover from Does every year feel that way though? Well, I don't know. Maybe is it our age thing?

Susie 37:35

Hangover from what? Where's gonna say where are you going? Yeah.

Shawn 37:38

What what oh yeah, yeah. Your wife is a little uh perturbed over here.

Susie 37:42

Just want some clarification before I agree or disagree.

Shawn 37:45

I'm just weighed down by everything. It's just gonna turn into couples therapy again.

Craig 37:52

I'm gonna have to say how do you feel, Craig? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Use your words. COVID, you know, uh, not just COVID, but the whole that happened again in 2025? The woke element that just got so out of hand and crazy, crazy land, you know?

Susie 38:06

And uh it seems to be subsiding.

Craig 38:08

It does. Oh, it feels like it, but just it feels like 2025 was really just that place where people are going, okay, that will that went too far, but where do we go now? It just feels like tell you where we go.

Shawn 38:20

We go to Dracula Land. We just relax and we drink a little bit of blood and we just chill out and we have some good old-fashioned Romanian fun.

Craig 38:31

Well, I have to say, I uh might have to go to Romania now. It would be a great podcast. Yeah, we should go.

Shawn 38:36

Whatever let's look up how much your flights to Romania. Let's get on that. Somebody? Yeah, where's our assistant?

Craig 38:41

So, Sean, do you believe in New Year's resolutions?

Shawn 38:45

Oh, no, not at all. No, I no, I it's just a gimmick, it's a gag. It's like I'm gonna join a gym, right? That's what they count on. Um, yeah.

Susie 38:54

I might walk to work and home from work.

Top TV Picks From 2025

Shawn 38:56

Before we go, we didn't talk about um TV shows 2025. Okay. We did not. So let's go back a little bit here. Uh I'm just I'm gonna have to talk about them, but I'm just gonna are you leaving the room now to go watch TV? What?

Susie 39:10

Where are you on going?

Shawn 39:11

Oh, he's Craig is now opening the window.

Susie 39:14

That is and he is jumping, jumping out the window. That's unheard of. During filming, I mean recording.

Shawn 39:20

Well, hey, that's one of his resolutions to lighten up a bit. Um so I'm not gonna get into all these. I just we I feel like we need to uh just throw them out there. So uh Sean, television shows? Television shows. What did what did you stream? We were talking about you guys are watching Game of Thrones again. I mean, for the eighth time. So two things I didn't see, I'm just gonna put on the list, but I didn't see. I'm waiting, I'm watching Stranger Things, of course, and Welcome to Dairy. They just finished wrapping up, so I'm gonna, those would be on my list. Yeah, but I love Black Rabbit and Task. Very dark shows, very so after watching those, I'm like, fuck, I gotta watch like fucking Malcolm in the Middle or something, dude. I mean, Christ, I need to lighten up here. Yeah, but I love those. I mean, Jude Law and Jason Bateman. I mean, I'll watch those guys read the phone book. Right. Um, the studio was really fun. Speaking of Zany over the top, lampooning sort of slapsticky. That was Seth Rogan. Apple TV. I really enjoyed the studio. And it it won, it won a bunch of Emmys and stuff. So I'm happy for them. Yeah.

Craig 40:14

Sounds a little bit incestuous when you think about it.

Shawn 40:16

It does. It does. And I'm sure that did happen, but who cares? Seth, Seth's a Vancouver boy, so we're so happy for him.

Susie 40:22

Lighthearted, fun.

Shawn 40:23

Loved Mobland. Um, I actually just recently got Paramount Plus. Uh, so if Paramount Plus wants to um, you know, send me a free subscription for the year, I'm fine with that. But Mobland, Tom Hardy, um, um, and it's got Pierce Brosnan, and it's got uh Helen Miran, and it is Guy Richie produced. It is so good. Oh, it's your it's Mobland. It's it's it's uh all in their Irish mob, I guess, in England or something. Long story short, it's great, Mobland. So have fun with that. 10 episodes, only one season. Landman, of course, I love with Billy Bomb Thornton, another Paramount Plus one.

Susie 41:00

Right.

Shawn 41:01

Uh loved White Lotus season three. We we know that, we've talked about that. Yeah. Adolescence. Duh. Yeah, we spent a little time talking about it. Doesn't that feel like five years ago? That's why I'm like, that can't be 2025. That's right. But apparently it was 2025. Feel like we've been doing this podcast for 10 years now. Uh, and then the two that really jumped out for me this that were original and great was Pluribus, which I loved. Yes. And the number one one that I can't wait starts again in a couple weeks is The Pit. Oh, yeah. And it starts in there, it's gonna be 4th of July weekend. Oh over the 4th of July. That's the concept for the new one. That was a great show. I think the last one, what was the last one? Thanksgiving or or something, or I can't remember. Because it's it's over, it's over a period of 24 hours, right? Or 12 hours or something. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, those were my shows. I'm sure that people could add a hundred more shows to those, but I had to limit. Yeah. So those are just some of the ones that jumped out.

Craig 41:59

Big Tom Hardy fan, did not like Havoc.

Shawn 42:02

Oh, I haven't won't go near it. Yeah. Yeah. I I somebody said it was ridiculous. It's stupid. Over the top, silly. Love that guy. Watch Mobland. Watch Mobland. Trust me, that's back to Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I Helen Miran is the evilest grandmother you're ever going to see in a show. They're the evilest grandparents you're ever going to see. It's so tasty to watch. There it is. I changed it a little bit.

Susie 42:26

Of course he did.

Shawn 42:27

See if you can recognize that that drum used to go up, not down there. No. Is it just you singing in the middle of a chair?

Susie 42:34

Yeah, you just added in some slide trombone.

Shawn 42:37

No. Guitar. Oh, is that you? No, it's not you. No. Because it would have been playing ground control to Major Tom if it was you. Oh, it's sort of like that techno-y kind of like, yeah. I hate it.

Craig 42:52

Oh, you always say that until you listen to it again.

Shawn 42:55

New Year's resolution is to be nicer to Craig as well. Exactly. Craig, I think it's got potential. Okay. You'll take it.

Craig 43:04

I'll take that, man.

Shawn 43:07

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three.

Craig 43:16

Oh, this feels like a Pluribus ending.

Shawn 43:16

  Two, one. Happy New Year. Hey, move your basket.